Luna eladrin's page

A dark pixie or shadow fey sounds good. It fits right with the atmosphere I was looking for. Thank you.

I am looking for an intelligent monster that is linked to the plane of shadow, but is not evil. It has to be able to create illusions, e.g. so that shadows on walls, floors etc. can be changed (silent image or better). It has to be invisible in bright light, so that it only appears when there are shadows. It can be incorporeal, but this is not absolutely necessary. Preferably it should not be an undead. And preferably it should have a CR in-between 6 and 8. Does anybody know which monster fits this description?

That would be a nice solution :-) And unexpected. They think she is just a young and innocent girl. But she is Olman of course.

Well, I have played out the scene as described: the PC in question found the Olman girl in his bed. Avner first went to thank the PC captain because "she had still managed to buy the girl for him". The captain did not really react, but just smiled. Later the other PC warned the captain not to touch "his girl".

Now the PCs are on a mission near the isle of Ruja. The Sea Wyvern and the Blue Nixie are lying anchored near the isle. So there is no PC on board at the moment.

The PC who found the Olman girl in his bed, asked Amella to protect her against Avner while he was away. Moreover, this PC has a close friendship with Skald, who will also not allow anything to happen to the girl. Avner therefore will probably not dare an open confrontation. But neither will he do nothing. He will want to make use of the absence of the PCs somehow.

What would Avner do in such a situation?

I have been reading your blog. This was really awesome, especially the way Rowyn returned. I am curious how it works out.

This is really a nice idea. I am going to remember this one...

I do not think there are stats for the Hellfish, but I guess the people of Farshore claim this ship in order to use it for the defense of Farshore. Rat's end is deserted when the pirates leave it, so I assumed they have all their gear with them. Since this is just rabble, I guess they do not have much equipment besides what they have on them. I guess the Hellfish is a Caravel. If the group wants to sell it, where would they do that? In Farshore surely nobody is able to pay for the ship. And I guess people will not be pleased when the group wants to sell a ship which they can use to defend Farshore against the Crimson Fleet.

If you really want to add treasure to the Hellfish, then add a group of not so very nice people from Farshore who plundered the ship during the raid, making use of the confusion. Of course the colony leaders want them found, which means one extra mission for your group to earn victory points :-)

Welcome to the boards!

You could use Torrents of dread from Dungeon 114, if you have that adventure. The adventure is level 6, so you have to use "scaling the adventure". In the adventure the PCs have to help the Olman from the village of Mora, which is a nice way of securing their help and completing this diplomatic mission by defeating monsters.

You could also adapt some of the infamous seven to the PCs' level and add missions to defeat them.

You could let them scout for wood, plants for making medicine etc. on the island and add encounters with dinosaurs and other monsters while they are scouting.

You could add some extra pirates to Rat's end, who have to be defeated, so that the Crimson Fleet cannot use Rat's end as a base of operations.

And of course the druid can recruit dino's, which is quite dangerous, and the fighters are surely needed in such a mission.

Good luck with your campaign!

The only thing I can think of is that there might be survivors from shipwrecks on other parts of the island (e.g. the Gallivant). But that is the best I can come up with.

I used it mostly to add to the backstory of the PCs. One of the PCs was looking for his father. He found him in Tamoachan and we had some nice Indiana Jones scenes with father and son ("Let me disable that trap, junior!)
I also added some plot for 2 other PCs, so that Tamoachan became a series of mini adventures. It worked very well.

It was in one of the adventures, but I have no idea which one. I read them all more than a year ago.

It is about 80 days sailing from Sasserine to Farshore. I know because we are still playing SWW and I made a schedule for the journey. With the rest unfortunately I cannot help you.

I know that Manthaly was one of the members. Verik and Larissa were also members.

I live in Cuijk (in Brabant 15 kms beneath Nijmegen).

We could discuss in Dutch I guess. Nah, that is a bit antisocial.

See C1 in wyvern's wake. I have revived this thread.

Luke can mail a copy. I hope he is still on the forum...

I am reviving this thread, since someone wants a copy of the revised version of The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan. I have a version, but it is in Dutch and heavily adapted to my campaign.

Some time ago someone on this forum wrote about having a copy in 3.5. My version will not be of any use to you. To begin with, it is in Dutch. Secondly, I did some heavy adaptation to incorporate some of the PC's background stories.

I tried to find the 3.5 version on this forum, but could not. But I will keep looking...

Have you also noticed the nice parallel between the five council members and the adventuring party of 5 that Verik and Larissa originally were members of, and which founded Farshore? So perhaps the council of five is a historical thing as well. Just a thought.

Lucky me!

I had forgotten all about Escape to Meenlock Prison. That is a really nasty adventure :-)

I do not know a scenario where this happens. I know various prison break scenarios but they are rather high-level.

However, I did something similar with my players. Because they had been at all the locations where dead bodies were found, I introduced a fanatical police inspector who tried to construct a "case" against them. Every day he visited them (just before breakfast) and started to hound them with questions. The police inspector was partly based on Columbo, except that he never got his facts quite right (he had all kinds of interesting theories) and never found any real evidence. But it made the PCs very nervous. I even had him arrest one of the PCs who was seen at a murder scene, but he was released after a day because of lack of evidence (after having been threatened with torture if he did not confess).

When the inspector got on the trail of the Lotus Dragons, Rowyn managed to charm one of the PCs and "asked" if he would do a job for her, namely kill this nosy inspector. The PC had no problem with that at all (he would probably have done it even if he was not charmed) and he poisoned the policeman and dropped the dead body on Parrot Island. He also left a note on the body with the name Vanthus on it. Now the city guards think Vanthus has killed the police inspector (the other city guards are a lot less fanatical).

I hope this story can serve as inspiration. I am curious to hear how it worked out in the end.

Well it looks like the shipwreck becomes less of a railroad. I hope my players will see it as such...

That is a really nice touch. I always like it when it seems to the players that the whole 20 levels of a campaign are planned beforehand :-)

My players thought they had the situation with Avner nicely under control until the group reached Renkrue. The group was received kindly by the Olman and a feast was prepared. When everybody was sitting around the camp fire and eating, Avner suddenly asked whether he could buy a young girl from the village. One of the players at once defended her, and they managed to smoothe the situation. The girl then more or less attached herself to the character who defended her, and they sort of got romantically involved with each other.

We ended the session with the ships leaving Renkrue. I am now thinking about letting the girl swim to the Sea Wyvern, climb on board and hide herself in the bed of this PC. Not only will this give him a problem, but it will also make Avner furious. He will be offended that the girl that he was not allowed to have, is now "given" to someone else, and throw another tantrum again. And perhaps he will try to seduce the girl anyway. I am curious to see what they will do to solve this one...

Yesterday I played out the dream scene I have described earlier. It worked really great. It reminded the PCs of Sindbad stories in which Sindbad is cursed by an evil wizard. It created a nice sense of doom. And they were nicely reminded of Vanthus.

I got lucky and another thing came up which gave me the opportunity to foreshadow the events around the shipwreck. We had reached the point of the brotherhood blockade. So I let Lavinia suggest that they split up. However, the players did not want to do that, and came up with another plan: they would use illusions, disguises etc. to pretend the Sea Wyvern was a ghost ship chasing the Blue Nixie. For this they wanted to paint the Sea Wyvern black. I told them that there was no paint on board, but that there was tar which they could use. I also told them they could not repair leaks in the hull anymore when they used the tar.

They ultimately decided to use the tar anyway, since they could buy new tar in Fort Greenrock. Then I let the plan work (after a successfull bluff check). They saw Purity's Prow in the distance, but it did not approach. The pirates were very superstitious.

Later they discovered that Fort Greenrock was burned down, so they could not find any tar there. They inquired again in Renkrue, where they heard that tar was to be had in Tanaroa. They reacted as follows: "O, then it is OK!"

So if they want to repair the Sea Wyvern after the storm and they do not have any tar, they now have a good reason for travelling over land to Tanaroa. And they can only blame themselves for using up all the tar.

Perhaps Olangru kills him and he comes back as a revenant, or another nasty undead monster that wants revenge. E.g. a ghost haunting the PC.

Perhaps Olangru tortures him so long that he pleads to become evil and then is made into a Lemorian demon.

In The Bullywug's Gambit there is an attack with savage monkeys jumping out of a tree. It really spooked my PCs.

At high levels there are lots of reasons to have magical auras. Some dungeon complexes are wholly magical. What I am saying is that a magical aura need not be automatically a trap. If they assume every aura to be a trap, let one be a magical door, gateway or treasure chest. If they avoid it, confront them with it later. Let an NPC tell what they found there.

Moreover, if they try to disarm a magical trap, they waste resources. At best they waste spells. So you can use these traps to wear them down for the next fight.

What I am doing so far, is making the scheduled stops longer. So in SWW my players e.g. stayed longer in Fort Blackwell. I have also introduced an NPC who works for an international trading company and has special connections so that she can get hold of magic items (within limits).

I also accommodate the players in other ways. If they want something special for their characters which is not unreasonable, I add something to the adventure so that they can get it. E.g. when they want to join a prestige class, I introduce an NPC somewhere who is a member of the relevant organization.

There is an encounter in Stormwrack called The Sable Drake. It has tons of ideas how to make low-level pirates dangerous. E.g. throwing caltrops, attacking at night, using alchemist's fire, using oil to grease the deck of the enemy ship, attacking the rigging of a ship, etc.

These pirates have also rigged the deck of their own ship in some places (of course they know where the traps are). If they suffer too many losses, they order a fake retreat in order to lure the enemy onto their ship, especially to the spots on the deck where they have set traps.

You are right, of course. Cannot force them.

Good luck with the next adventure. And you can always use HTBM during one of the missions in Tides of dread.

Good idea. I will remember the storm surge for the moment my PCs will get there.

Now I am getting Von Däniken ideas: extraterrestial (or extraplanar) beings transporting pyramids all over the multiverse and leaving behind traces of their presence in all kinds of civilizations :-)

So perhaps I should include a hidden landing plateau for a spaceship somewhere on the Isle of Dread?

Perhaps you could let Urol conclude (with knowledge nature) that there is tar on the island, and that there probably will be a tar pit somewhere (e.g. he finds little bits of tar in the sand). Then the group could go and look for the tar (Urol does not know where it is on the island) and make some kind of hideout for the NPCs. You could even let them trace the tar residue to the tar pits.

Urol always thinks everything is easy for adventurers, so he probably thinks they will have found tar in 1-2 days.

Well, but if the Demogorgon temple where Olangru lives is not Olman, then I should come up with a good reason why the pyramids can still be used. The silver pyramids are definitely Olman, and my players associate them with Olman.

And if this temple is not Olman, did Demogorgon's followers build it? Or was it originally something else entirely? Perhaps built by the kopru?

And Troy, nice to hear that you consulted websites on Aztec culture. I did too. I also looked up a lot in an encyclopedia of mythology I own. I actually elaborated quite a bit on the Olman aspects of the campaign. E.g. I located a picture of a calendar stone on the internet and used it as a handout. With knowledge religion the players could get some information from the calendar stone, mostly some vague prophecies about what is to come. I also added a lot to the history of the Olman, making them fit in my own campaign world. So far this works nicely and the players like it a lot.

The one big problem with this is that players are very creative. What if for example they decide to take a closed wagon along with a rope trick inside? Or a huge box? Or even a tent? Or some construction providing shade such as a palanquin on top of a horse saddle?
When they are high enough level, rope trick will last a long time, and with two or three castings they could theoretically make an enormous bag of holding and take it along. So consider whether you want the rope trick moving. And consider what is still a space in which you can cast a rope trick and what isn't.

And that is just one of the things that comes to my mind when thinking of a moving rope trick. Usually players are even much more creative. I know my players will come up with something like that.

But if you find that acceptable, then go ahead. Just consider the rope trick will always be movable in your campaign, and players will probably make use of it.

In a new campaign (gothic steampunk horror) my husband is going to play a hellbred. The nice thing is that he has no memories of his past and I as DM get to figure out his background story. I am writing a nice darkly gothic origin story for him.

We added some extra details to the class. The character does not remember his first name. He is also going to wear a mask to hide his facial features. He wants to play a sorceror and will pretend the mask is part of some stage act. He has invented a stage name for the character: "Das Gesicht" (German for Face).

I also want to introduce the character by letting him appear in a whiff of sulphur when the other characters are getting to know each other. He has just been sent down from hell.

I am really looking forward to this.

I was thinking of making the silver pyramids a regularly used way of locking doors in Olman ruins. Perhaps the Olman developed some kind of system based on the pyramids in the heyday of their culture. That way someone with knowledge history could figure out what the pyramids are for.

The only thing I have to do to make this convincing is adding silver pyramids here and there :-)

Thanks!

It will take a while, though. My group is playing once every 2-3 weeks and it is a very roleplay-heavy game (so the pace is not so fast).

Do not forget to reward them in some way for the repairs already made to the ship. You should give them some kind of bonus for that when they reach TOD. Then they will probably feel less railroaded.

Good luck! I am curious how this will turn out. My campaign is approaching this dreaded moment soon.

[only half serious] So if a party of skinwalkers from the City of Broken Idols are supposed to be carrying out a surprise inspection on behalf of Khala, they're supposed to wait whilst the bar-lgura hide the naughty celestials playing cards, wipe the 'Demogorgon sucks' graffiti off the Lemorian Golem, and retrieve the tribute that they had been salting away elsewhere, so that they can be teleported into the complex?

:D [/only half serious]

lol!

But really, chaotics having surprise inspections? That sounds like they have some kind of hierarchy or structure. Actually I do not think the bar-lguras want Khala's minions snooping around at all.

But seriously, the idea needs some fleshing out of course. But I like the basic idea with the two pyramids inserted at the same time. Especially because my PCs really think the pyramids are important.

Perhaps the bar-lguras have their own pyramids. Or they have a password for bypassing the security system and do not need to bother with it.

The temple map will not really be a problem, since they can teleport anyway. The only thing you have to watch out for is whether the monsters will not be too tough for your PCs. You know your PCs best.

Of course if it turns out during the adventure that they are too tough, you can always split them into two groups.

Now I am reading this, I get a picture of pteranodons attacking people dangling on a rope while climbing into the rope trick...

The bar-lgura kan use their kidnap ability for that, surely?

Perhaps it was once an Olman temple safeguarding some sacred relic. When the Olman culture fell, the demons took over this temple and made it in a Demogorgon temple.

Perhaps there is some dimensional glitch because of the influence of Demogorgon and the abyss on the island, and rope tricks do not work as normal. You could do all kinds of things with this:

1) There is a planar bleed leeking into the extradimensional space and small demons keep coming through into the rope trick (just enough to keep the NPC's alive, but scare them, so that they do not want to stay in the rope trick anymore.

2) The rope trick works, but the exit does not remain where it is. It shifts to another location on the island, so that the NPC's when they come out of it, are in the middle of the jungle on the Isle of Dread and the PC's have to organize search parties.

3) The rope trick lasts longer or shorter than normal.

4) The planar bleed does not come from the abyss, but from the elemental plane of water and water is slowly leaking in. When the PCs open the rope trick, the NPCs are just with their heads above the water.

When using these ideas you have to consider whether your players will accept them, as they might be seen as railroading. That is up to you to decide, since you know your players best.

I like this idea!

I am definitely going to use it.

I also have 6 players, so 6 characters. Soon there will be 2 cohorts as well.

Mostly I add mooks or I make the encounter 1 or 2 EL's higher.

My PCs got their hands on 2 small silver pyramids (one of which is the one from Tamoachan), of which they think they are keys.

I am now thinking af adapting the shrine of duplicity, on the basis of these 2 keys. How could they fit into the picture? And especially, how could the riddle be made a little easier to solve with 2 silver pyramid keys?

Sure, but Rowyn has the chain system. She can position the Rhagodessa somewhere where it could reach the PCs, and she could remain (or tumble) just out of its reach. If you e.g. use the zombies, they could block the PCs.