Luna eladrin's page

Dear people at Paizo,

I have just received the above-mentioned order. However, instead of "Slumbering Tsar 9: The Hidden Citadel, Part 1-At the Feet of Orcus" I received "Splinters of faith 9".
Could you please let me know what the usual procedure is in this case?

After reading an article in Dragon Magazine about upgrading the Sea Wyvern, I decided to turn this into a side quest for the group. Basically they will find clues that a wizard years ago has been experimenting with magic items especially for ships (e.g. the dragon figurehead from Stormwrack and several items from Arms & Equipment guide), which are hidden somewhere in a hoard. This hoard is located in the Lost Citadel on the Isle of Dread. The PCs can find a key to the location in the wizard's tomb. With the key they can either enter the location or activate it (I was thinking of having it lie partly on another plane or trapped in another timeline.)
I use "deadly treasure" (from Dungeon 41) as the basis for this tomb, but I am thoroughly rewriting this adventure. Basically I want less combat and more puzzles. So far I have the following (some from the original module, others improvised):
- An ambush outside the tomb (some old enemies of the PCs); since this will already be a difficult fight, for which the PCs will not be prepared, as they will not expect it at all, this is the reason I want less combat inside the tomb.
- A trap where they have to navigate through a room full of water
- A room with no visibility at all, which they have to navigate while being attacked by an incorporeal monster
- A labyrinth with invisible stalkers
- A bag of holding trap (the corridor ends in a bag of holding and they have to crawl through it in the dark)
- A double teleport trap (with 2 locations which look identical)
- A trap with a force cage and lightning (ideally shot through the bars from the outside while the group are within)
- A logic puzzle where the group has to reason out the order of activating several handles on the basis of just enough clues

I can use some other puzzles, and perhaps riddles, but only very original ones (I have a player who instantly knows the answer to every riddle I throw at him). If an idea involves combat, it should not be just monsters attacking, but tricky tactical situations. I am also looking for a trick or trap involving the other planes.
As the wizard was not evil (he was actually good and was protecting his tomb because he was worried these powerful items would fall into the wrong hands), I have avoided undead and evil outsiders. So far, with all the changes I made, the dungeon has turned out elemental-themed.
Also, there is a silver dragon guarding the tomb. Ideally they should not fight the dragon, but it should have some kind of test or riddle for the PCs. Perhaps this should be linked to the dragon figurehead in some way (which is not in the tomb, but in the citadel).
Any ideas are very welcome. They can be Olman themed (the wizard was not an Olman, but was an Olman expert). Or something with time (time paradoxes, time standing still, etc.)
You cannot use teleport or passwall or dimension door inside the tomb. However, you can use plane shift, shadow walk and etherealness. This is not generally known. They will have to find out by experimenting with those spells.
They will be level 13 when they enter the tomb.

I remember reading somewhere on this forum that someone planned to let the PCs come out of Golismorga with a water spout. Did anyone use this? What were the results? When the Cerulean Curtain is destroyed, I imagine because of the high pressure the water comes rushing in very fast. I am thinking of a water spout high up in the air, making the group come out directly via the shaft in Thanaclan. It will be fun. But what damage does it do? Just 20D6? Or more? Is there a drowning risk? A pressure risk? And what will the results be for the rooms and corridors under Thanaclan? Will they be flooded? Will this be temporary? (I guess so.)

Today I received the above-mentioned order, but Pathfinder Adventure Path #43 Haunting of Harrowstone was not in the box. I had ordered it, and it is also mentioned on the order slip, which means I have already paid for it.
It was not in the second package either.
The other articles were all there.

Could you please send it to me in a separate package? Thank you in advance.

Because of 2 players leaving about 6 months ago, I have run some extra characters through the Freeport trilogy to get them to the right level for the end of Tides of Dread, so that my other 4 players can form an optimal group. (They had no wizard and no rogue anymore, and one of the players was not satisfied at all with her character.) Since I located Freeport near Sasserine, these new characters now have to make roughly the same sea voyage the Sea Wyvern has made. Of course I do not want to replay the whole sea voyage, but I would like to play 2 to 3 short encounters/incidents, to add to the atmosphere and to give them some extra XP, so that they will be strong enough for the battle at the end of Tides of dread. Of course I can just throw some sea monsters and pirates at them, but there should be more original possibilities. I am looking for sea encounters, encounters on the ship itself, city encounters or jungle encounters. What would be original suggestions for this?
I had several adventures in mind, but they are mostly too long and too specific, and I have already used Tammeraut's fate and will use Strike on the rabid dawn and The porphyry house horror later on in the campaign. They will be about level 10 in this part of the campaign.

Does anybody know a demon or other CE (or possibly NE) outsider with the geas spell-like ability? Preferably not a demon lord/prince, but a generic demon. I could always give a demon sorcerer levels, but I rather wish to avoid that if there is another possibility.

I apologize in advance for the long post, but I have to get this off my chest somehow.

About 3 years ago I started the STAP with a group of 6 players. We were aware that this was a large group, but nevertheless we agreed upon playing once every 2-3 weeks. At first my expectations of keeping this agreement were low, since with some of these players I had already experienced problems with attendance in a previous campaign. However, for the first two years it went well. Attendance was practically 100% and we played once every 2-3 weeks, except during the summer holidays.

However, about a year ago things began to change. One player went on a long holiday in November, so that we could not play for 5 weeks. I adapted the schedule to him, and inserted 2 play sessions with short adventures for the other players. However, when that player returned, he announced that he would again be away for about four weeks during the Christmas season. I adapted the schedule again.
We got some appointments in for January and February. The same player cancels an appointment in February, again because he is going on holiday. We agree to play one evening without him, since this evening had already been scheduled.

After the holiday this player is present again, but then another player announces that in April he will go to America on a business trip for 4 weeks, and afterwards to Hamburg for 3 weeks. I adapt the schedule again. This results in no playing sessions from April until the start of June.

We play 2 times in June, then the summer holidays arrive, and we play once more at the end of August. Then the same player announces that he will go on a long trip to America again in September, and afterwards to Hamburg again in November. So we cram 3 evenings of play in October, despite some protests of the other players that these are too soon after each other.

When we are making new appointments, the only possible dates turn out to be November 20 and January 7. At that moment I make a disappointed comment that I do not like to wait so long, and get an angry reaction from these two players, because they interpret my comment as a personal attack.

These two players who are causing all these problems, are the same players I have had problems with before. It is not that they do not have good reasons for their absence. It is more that they are refusing to admit they do not have time to play once every two to three weeks. My other players (4 players) and I want to play more often, but we cannot because of them.

The problem is also that the STAP is an adventure path, and I find it impossible to run this campaign when we only play once every 5-6 weeks. Because of their eagerness at first, I adapted the scenario heavily to the player characters and added story lines revolving around the characters. However, because we play so rarely, people tend to forget these storylines. This results in playing sessions where everybody is focusing on the rules only. Since we play once every 6-8 weeks, all playing sessions have become like this. From the past year I remember just 2 sessions where I amused myself. The others were all an exercise in frustration for me. And that is my other problem. The players still seem to like it, at least that is what they say, and I seem to be the only one who notices this trend.

Things I have tried the past year to keep this campaign running:

- I discussed with the players not to focus on the rules and not to have rules discussions during the game, in order to pick up the speed. Everybody agreed on this, and it worked - for two sessions. After that it was back to rules discussions again, which I had to cut short every time, which made me feel like a policeman instead of a DM.

- I made special handouts for the players to tide them over during the times when we could not play, in order to keep them informed of the story. Though the players reacted enthousiastically to this, it did not lead to any positive results during play.

- I speeded up the campaign by selling treasure outside of the playing sessions via email; this was no success, since some players promptly forgot to equip their characters with the new treasure

- I ran extra (unrelated) adventures for the 4 other players during the absence of one of the two players; that was nice, but the other players were eager to go back to Savage Tide

- I tried to keep up the pace during the playing sessions; this did not work, since my players wanted to elaborate on events, even though they noticed and commented that the campaign was slowing down

Despite all these attempts the following things happened:

- One player sleeping during part of a session (this is one of the two problem players; he was simply too tired to pay attention)

- One player having no idea what the plot was about, and negotiating with the wrong NPCs, thus almost endangering the rest of the group and the plot (same player)

- One player constantly attacking me because my monsters are too powerful, e.g. at one point he found a CR8 monster with blindsight too high a challenge for their level 10 group (same player again)

- Players discussing the rules all the time (most of the players)

- Players attacking other players because of their supposed ignorance of the rules (some of the players)

- Players forgetting even the most obvious rules (most of the players)

- Players accusing other players of metagaming when the other players have remembered details which these players have forgotten. This is a regular occurance, which frustrates one of my players who has taken notes of the plot and tries to use these during the game. This happens to be my husband. One of the two problem players seems to suggest that I give him extra information about the campaign, but actually I take great pains not to do it, and the other players should know this after all these years playing with us

- Combats moving sluggishly, which leads to bored players, despite all my efforts to keep up the pace

- People forgetting to level up and/or equip their characters (e.g. one of the problem players)

What I have done since the last session (which could have been very exciting, since they were attacking two of the infamous seven, but which turned out to be a very boring session), is temporarily stop the campaign. I let my players know that I expected them to consider whether they were able to play once every 2-3 weeks, and let me know what they have decided. I also told them why I wanted this. And I told them that I would only continue the campaign with players who were able to play regularly.

In the meantime I have received all their reactions. The four regular players all let me know by phone that they wanted to continue the campaign. The other two sent me an email with a long list of (personal) reasons why they could not play, but were still offended because I forced them to realize that there was no place for D&D in their lives anymore, a decision which I think they should have made on their own about a year ago. However, this still leaves me with a bad feeling that I had to force this decision on them. Now I have told them I am open to other suggestions, but so far this had led to nothing substantial.

These 2 players have played for a long time in my campaign, so I am not pleased to see them go, but I do not see any other solution to my dilemma. It is not a temporary problem either. If I were to continue the campaign as before, this would probably last for years and years, taking away my fun in this campaign.

But perhaps I am overlooking things. Perhaps some of you have other ideas how I can solve this. What I need is a new perspective on this.

For me it is not an option to stop with Savage Tide in order to play other (unrelated) adventures, as one of these 2 players suggested. The other 4 players and I are all very eager to continue the campaign. One player even said: "I want to finish this campaign no matter what."

I could add a second group with irregular, unconnected adventures, but I already have such a group. It is impossible to combine these two groups into one group because of conflicting schedules.

And then there is the fact that I do not yet know about one of these players whether he will still be welcome in my group. This is both a very good and a very bad player, depending on his mood, the amount of time he has for D&D, his personal life, etc. I have been having problems with him on and off, and have had several discussions with him about it. He is aware of his behavior and every time he promises to improve himself, but this is always temporarily. The problem is, that if he plays well, he plays very well.

The other player is basically welcome as far as I am concerned, but I also know that his problems will keep recurring as well. He is the one who will hardly have any time to play for the coming 3-4 years.

Both of these players have problems with their significant others not wanting them to play D&D, or (and I am not quite sure which) they feel guilty when they play once every two-three weeks and leave their significant others at home. I have suggested taking their partners along, as I know at least one of the women likes playing D&D, but "they want to keep their private lives separate from D&D", e.g. one of these players sees D&D as his "night out" without the wife. Which gives me a bad feeling, since it almost looks like he is cheating on his wife, and that his mistress is D&D.

I am curious to read what others would do in this situation.

The following has come up in my horror/steampunk campaign: the players have escaped from a haunted house where the ghost actually manipulated the whole house as if it was an animated object. Now they want to exorcise the house. One way is of course burning the house down, but I was thinking there should be another, more creative way. Some kind of ritual, removing an item or some such. What would be great ideas for exorcising the house?

The ghost is the ghost of an evil woman, but she became evil because of a lot of dramatic events having to do with lycanthropes. She was good once.

It might be that someday soon my PCs are going to hunt a criminal on the plane of shadow. I want to do some sort of chase scene. The problem is that the NPC has a plane shift, so he can get away easily. How can I still do a chase scene? What would be cool encounters during this chase scene? (I am thinking of 2 to 3 encounters and then the final confrontation.)
This short adventure is meant for a group between levels 12 and 15.

Something has come up in my Savage Tide campaign. One of the PCs is a chaotic evil character, who has by now sacrificed two clerics of Loviatar to Malcanthet. This is not the Loviatar from Forgotten Realms. I have based her on Loviatar from the 1st edition Deities and demigods. I am using my own campaign world. My Loviatar is LE and has pain and cold as domains.

The problem is when 2 of your clerics are sacrificed to the queen of succubi, you as a goddess take notice. Especially when one of the clerics was level 9 and was investigating the murder of the second cleric. Moreover, this level 9 cleric had done a commune about this murder. An extra problem Loviatar has, is that her faith is illegal at the moment and she is losing believers, so her power is not what it used to be.

Where would she fit in the Savage Tide? And what would she do against the offending CE character? Or against Malcanthet, for that matter?

I was thinking of using cold-themed undead (the Farshore graveyard has not been upgraded yet by casting hallow), but there I ran into problems. To begin with, the murdered victims cannot come back, as their souls belong to Malcanthet now. In the descriptions of most undead (e.g. the revenant) they have some kind of soul or spirit which cannot find eternal rest, and is therefore somehow still tied to the body. So these bodies cannot return as undead, since Malcanthet owns their souls. This also rules out any incorporeal undead, since they count as souls (e.g. as described in Book of Vile Darkness).
I was thinking along the lines of undead created by the pure malignancy of the deed, so not having a soul or spirit, but being malevolence incarnated. These undead exist, but these are usually not the type that have the body of a deceased (e.g. nightwings, etc.)

So I have the following problems/questions:

Does anyone know of an undead or a template which conforms to this above-mentioned description, namely having the body, but not the spirit of the deceased? Preferably cold- or pain-themed?

Otherwise, what would be a good explanation that these bodies can become undead when their souls are not present, preferably an explanation the players can discover during the game?

What would Loviatar's position be in the politics of the Savage Tide?

What would be other ways in which she can further her own agenda/take her revenge on the offending character?

Any suggestions are more than welcome. Thanks in advance for your time and ideas.

My Savage Tide group consists of 3 neutral and 3 evil characters. So far however they have been very civil in cities and villages, only demonstrating their evil when they were in the wilderness.

This changed last Friday evening.

They were really bothered by the election plotline in Farshore, especially when they discovered with gather information that Manthalay probably would win. They had not done anything so far that would help Lavinia in her campaign. I had played Manthalay as a very obnoxious character, even ignoring a PC's suggestions that he and Lavinia should work together, not against each other (do you still believe that this is an evil group?). They were also using Olman to upgrade Farshore's defenses, and at one point Manthalay was so obnoxious against the Olman that they went on strike and refused to work any longer. The group had to mediate again. They were totally fed up with Manthalay.

They still had about a month to go until the elections, and they had discovered that Manthalay had uncovered some juicy bits about the past of some of the PCs and was planning to use these in his campaign (claiming Lavinia was an innocent who was misused by a number of evil advisors, which was actually not that far from the truth).

So one of the players (who plays one of the neutral characters) suggested a coup. On a specific day at midnight they would silently kill Manthalay and some other enemy NPCs I had introduced in Farshore, all in the same night, so that they could blame one for killing the others. It took this player a week to convince the others (communicating via e-mail). Three of the players were against it, one would like to do it because his character was CE, but was afraid of the consequences, and only the final player (also a CE character) agreed to the plan at once. But finally they did it, since "now we are playing a N and E party, and we have never done this before, so this is a great chance to play something else for a change."
They planned things carefully. They had discovered an assassin, who was after one of the PCs, and managed to ambush and kill him. Then they forged evidence framing him for the murder of Manthalay and an ally of Manthalay, who frequently met in the evening to discuss the election campaign. They actually used the trap this assassin set up for the PC and modified it in order to trap Manthalay and this ally. It worked. With the following results:

The residents of Farshore were rudely awakened by an explosion. It was a warehouse near the bay where they stored oil and gunpowder. When they had doused the fire, they found the burned bodies of Manthalay and his ally. They also found letters in Manthalay's house, luring Manthalay and his ally to the warehouse. There was a trail to a room in the inn, which had been rented by the assassin.
Of course the PCs arrived, as if just out of bed, in their nightgowns. Of course nobody noticed one of them was a major image in order to hide the fact that one of them was still sneaking around in Farshore. The PCs rush to the inn, where the sixth member is hidden in the assassin's room, where he had deposited the assassin's body (which was hidden in a bag of holding). Of course the PCs take control, and warn everyone not to follow them to the room, since this assassin is very dangerous. They rush upstairs and stage a fight, making a lot of noise, pretending to defeat the assassin in order to explain the body. In the room they find more (forged) evidence.

They also added a lot of little details to make this story even more convincing. Needless to say, it worked!

So no elections, Manthalay gone, and Lavinia for lord major. Now they are writing speeches for the next playing session where they want to incite the crowd to appoint Lavinia as lord major. Of course they will tell the crowd that the assassin was after Lavinia, too.

It was a wonderful session again, with the players in constant fear that their ruse would be discovered. It was really nerve-wracking. This is such a great campaign with so many possibilities.

This "epic" moment from my savage tide campaign I really want to share, since it was so fantastic and so typical for the savage tide.

My party defeated the emerald anaconda from the temple of the jaguar with a charm monster. They had several ways to communicate with it, and had it tail along with the party in exchange for food (which it got, in the form of all the random monsters they defeated).

So Ani the anaconda (as they had named it) was taken along to Blackfen, where they decided to defeat Burbalarg. This was sort of a priority for the group, since I had included a plot line about two bullywug tribes being in a religious war, and they wanted to help one tribe by defeating Burbalarg, so that this tribe would help Farshore against the Crimson Fleet.

This fight ended in a wonderful grappling duel between Burbalarg and Ani, while Burbalarg was blinded and slowed by the PCs. It went on for rounds and was really spectacular. I think the greatest danger for the characters was Burbalarg falling down and crushing someone.

Of course the bullywugs who saw Burbalarg as a god, decided that if Ani could defeat Burbalarg, he must be a god, too. So now they worship Ani as their new god. The charm monster is over by now, so he will be starting to eat bullywugs soon!

My players have now finished most of the missions on the Isle of Dread which belong to TOD. Before salvaging the Sea Wyvern, they want to visit some other locations, e.g. Rivenskull Cave.

I have some ideas for Rivenskull Cave, but more ideas are welcome.

For the Olman cannibals I plan to use the neanderthals from Frostburn and adapt them to the tropical setting. I wanted to give them some tamed dinosaurs or terror birds to ride on. Before the group arrives at the cave, they meet patrols riding on terror birds.
The cannibals probably have captured a dinosaur in their caves (not a T-rex again, but e.g. a triceratops or another dino, which is very angry because of its captivity and mistreatment). It might be in a large bamboo cage.
I also wanted to add an idol with two heads in the village, vaguely resembling Demogorgon. Then the usual heads on stakes, etc.

What I need is battle tactics for the cannibals (which can be cunning, but not too complex, since they are savage and primitive) and some (primitive) traps. E.g. nets, pits, wooden stakes, etc. But preferably somewhat nastier.

They might have poisoned spears or darts as well, or use things such as wasp or hornet nests in their traps.

I wanted to share this incident with you, since it was so enormously funny.

I elaborated a bit on the 8th Olman village. I situated it near the location of an old Olman harbor from the times of Thanaclan. There had been a naval battle once and several enemy ships had been sunk by the Olman and rested on the bottom of the bay.

I made an encounter with monsters from Tome of Horrors: a ghost ship with a draug, brine zombies and lacedons. The draug is intelligent and can manipulate the ship, and even make it fly, and he can call up a storm.

At first the appearance of the ship and the storm really freaked out the players, and the PCs were intent on fleeing. Then they decided to give it a try. This led to an epic battle which lasted about half of the playing session. It ended in one of the PCs using his whip in order to haul himself up on the ship's ladder, and climbing on deck of the ghost ship. Since he was a rogue, I expected him to sneak up on the draug, who had to stay at the rudder to manipulate the ship, and attack and kill him.

But he did not. Actually he used a diplomacy check.

The check was so high that the group has now convinced the captain of the ghost ship to help them against the Crimson Fleet in exchange for a) a lot of victims and b) if he wishes, eternal rest.

So I have a flying ship to contend with in this battle. That is an ally I never expected.

(But of course the residents of Farshore will probably not like it.)

We are playing TOD at the moment and one of my players has made a "to-do"-list. Besides the logical steps to take (salvaging the sea wyvern, looking for the tar pits, etc.) they also plan to go to several locations not directly related to the adventures, so I was wondering whether anyone has done anything with one or more of the following locations:

The Valley of Madness (they want to use loco weed to drug enemies)

Badwall Isle (they want to capture wyverns and train them as mounts)

The aranea village (they are just curious about them)

The lizardfolk lair (they want to negotiate with them to gain them as allies)

Rivenskull Cave (they even want to negotiate with the cannibal tribes)

Griff Isle (they want to capture hyppogriffs and train them, just like the wyverns)

The Throne of Huhueteotl (they want to investigate it because they are curious)

The reefs (they want to dive for mashers and try to tame them with the aid of several druids)

Does anybody know whether a location was given for the 8th Olman village? I seem to remember reading somewhere that there were rumors of an 8th village, but I cannot seem to find the reference anymore. All I know is that it is not Mantru. It is a village belonging to the seven villages in the south.

I plan to use this village in connection with a prestige class one of my players wants to take, and want to use it as the location of a hermit who is the last member of the prestige class and can teach it to this PC.

Did anyone do anything with the phanaton village in TOD? I think there are interesting roleplaying opportunities there, more than just imitating ewoks.

In my campaign the atmosphere on the Sea Wyvern is getting tense and the PCs are adding to the tension. In the beginning the PC captain did her best to keep tension under control, but she has been neglecting that lately and gone complacent. She thinks she has everything firmly in hand. Also, PCs have been involved in a series of mysterious incidents where several NPCs have disappeared under questionable circumstances. The PCs have explained away all these incidents, with high bluff checks, but these explanations were even more worrisome than the events that they were meant to hide. The PCs have been telling stories about people disappearing in mysterious cursed tempels dedicated to ancient Olman gods, about attacks by demons and mysterious undead and about Olman plotting to murder innocent NPCs.
And one of the PCs together with Skald shot a (savage) albatross.
The crew is muttering and getting more and more superstitous after hearing all these stories. The final incident was that the captain accused an Olman passenger of killing one of the other passengers. The Olman confessed, but his behavior was strange and he was screaming about a curse (he was under the influence of a very subtle magical effect). The captain decided to let him walk the plank.
The named NPCs who are really getting worried, are Skald, Avner, Amella and Lirith. Amella notices from her earlier experiences aboard ships that something is brewing, and is worried that the captain cannot control the situation anymore. Avner is angry with two of the PCs, since one stole "his" girl, and the other is downright rude against him all the time. Lirith has allied herself with Avner, since he is rich and the PCs have been totally ignoring her so far, dismissing her as unimportant. And Skald has begun to worry that some of the PCs might be evil (though he does not have any hard evidence, and one of the PCs he does not suspect, is his friend). Then there are some nameless crew members who are simply superstitious, especially about the albatross.
There is another named NPC (of my own making) who knows for a fact the truth behind one of the incidents, because he was there. He knows the PCs murdered an NPC, and is even an accomplice to that murder. It was necessary, since it was a dangerous and evil NPC. However, this named NPC is getting worried, because he suspects that the other incidents on the ship also have to do with getting rid of undesireables, and fears that it will soon be his turn, because he knows too much about the PCs.
And then there is father Feres, who is emotionally manipulated by one of the PCs. She is seducing him for her own ends, and certainly not out of love. She does not do anything to hide it from the others, and people are beginning to notice. Moreover, the Olman who was forced to walk the plank, was a competitor of father Feres for her attentions, and is now conveniently gotten rid of.
Contacts with the Blue Nixie are also not very good at the moment, as there is friction between one of the PCs and three of the Jade Ravens (since the PC is flirting with Liamae).
For me as DM this feels like an explosive situation. The question is when and how I am going to let this explode.

Ideas would be very much appreciated, especially if someone has had a similar situation (a mutiny) on the Sea Wyvern. How did it go?

One of my PCs is lawful evil. She is a descendant of a previous PC in a previous campaign. This PC was lawful good and very noble, and has risen to saint/demigod status (as NPC of course). The current PC rebels against her family tradition of goodness by becoming evil. This saint now has to watch how his great-grandchild turns to evil, even to devil worship.
The LG PC was renowned for his conversions. He e.g. converted a notorious CE wizard by playing chess with him every week and trying to gain his friendship.
The LG saint wants to do something to convert his descendant, but of course he cannot intervene directly. So I have come up with the idea that he leaves symbolic messages. Now every time the LE PC performs an evil deed, she finds a black chess piece. When it is only a minor evil deed, she finds a pawn. When it is a very evil deed, she finds a bishop, a knight or even the queen or king.
I want to stage some momentous event when she has the black chess set complete. I have already come up with the idea that someone else gets the white chess set piece by piece, and that these two have to play a chess match, probably in a last-ditch attempt to save the evil character's soul.
But I still have no idea who the antagonist will be. I have toyed with the idea of an angel, or of a LG mirrored version of the PC, but these ideas do not strike me as very original. So I wonder whether anybody has suggestions how to go from here. The PC already has 7 chess pieces, so time is running out.

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?

Did anybody elaborate on the story of the hero Macutotnal and the nimbus bow? My players are really interested in Olman history and I want to add some details to the story of the bow. I am foreshadowing the bow by introducing some relic hunters who are after it and are in competition with the PCs.

Does anyone know whether the name "Macutotnal" means anything (like the nahuatl words in the original Tamoachan adventure), or is it just an invented name?

My group did something unexpected in our playing session yesterday evening. They fought Sutolore and when he was unconscious they bound him and tended his wounds. One of the characters speaks abyssal and another one has access to detect thoughts and zone of truth.

Has anyone else had the same problem? How did you deal with this?

Next year I will be starting a new campaign. It is set in my own campaign world and has a 19th century/Victorian feel and a classic horror/mystery theme (vampires, werewolves, mummy's, murders in the rue morgue, phantom of the opera, etc.). I have already selected some adventures for the campaign, but I am looking for ideas to create the 19th century atmosphere in the campaign. I am not after historical accuracy, but more after 19th century atmosphere. I have also decided that the 19th century elements, such as trains, telegraph, etc. should be based on a combination of magic and technology, e.g. the steam in the steam train will be heated by a captured fire elemental, etc.
What I am looking for is a number of gadgets which might fit in the setting, e.g. how would a photo camera work? How does the telegraph work (magic item based on message/sending combined with tapping in morse signals?), etc.
It is tempting to use the ideas from Terry Pratchett's novels, but I am looking for a somewhat more serious angle, since too many of these will probably undermine the horror/mystery atmosphere in the campaign.

The PCs will be working for an organization allied to a LG faith, specialized in fighting undead and other supernatural beings/phenomena. I am thinking about giving the PCs equipment they can use, e.g. stakes for defeating vampires, silver arrows and bullets against werewolves, etc. But I was also thinking about special gadgets ("James Bond" type, but with a 19th century flavor). These should be minor magic items, alchemical items or just mundane/masterwork items. They should not be too powerful, but they should add to the atmosphere.

And what would be a good prestige class for fighting undead or lycanthropes? Any ideas are very welcome. Thanks in advance.

Yesterday my PC group managed to find and capture the stowaway Rowyn on the Sea Wyvern. They let her live and decided to have her locked up on the Blue Nixie, and let her be guarded by the Jade Ravens, so "that they could make themselves useful". They probably want to hand her over to the authorities somewhere.

Now I wonder where to go from here, since I feel not everything has been said yet about Rowyn. One of my PCs has a love/hate relationship with Rowyn, which is nice to play out a little more, and I would like to explore the connection between Rowyn and Malcanthet.

I was thinking along the following lines, but I have not decided yet:

1) Use Rowyn to let the Jade Ravens fail once again. She could either escape from the Blue Nixie in one of the ports or perhaps in one of the Olman villages, or be killed by one of her enemies on board the Blue Nixie (leaving the PCs with a murder mystery on their hands).

2) Have Rowyn pretend she is a reformed girl, and let her off with a small punishment (if necessary aided by a bribe paid by Heldrath Kellani, of because of the fact that proof of her crimes has been embezzled). Then let Rowyn return later in the campaign as an agent of Malcanthet (e.g. als thrall of Malcanthet). But in what capacity could she return? What would she do for Malcanthet? And at which point in the campaign could she return?

Any ideas?

Did anybody add extra Olman ruins along the journey? I need an extra location with Olman ruins. It should preferably be small and have a small underground section. My PC's are planning an extra stop in SWW because they are planning to set up an ambush for one of the NPC's I added to the Sea Wyvern.

Or does anybody know of a small adventure I could use for this location? Preferably with 1 or 2 encounters. It will add to the fun if the ruins are not empty.

My players are preparing the voyage with the Sea wyvern, and one of my players has had some nice ideas. He wanted to add 2 ballista's to the ship and then attach two ballista missiles to each other with a chain, so that they can be fired at once. The intention is that they go spinning through the air and get stuck in the rigging of an enemy ship. I know that this was done in the past with cannon balls (which were fired two at once from one cannon), but I was wondering what rules to use in this case. Would it be possible with 2 ballista's? How can 2 ballista's fire at once? Would you have to link the trigger mechanism of the two ballista's? Is there an attack penalty? Or does it take a high strength and/or a high dexterity to fire them? Would you use a special feat for this? And what damage would this do to the rigging of an enemy ship? Is this permanent damage or is it a type of temporary damage such as non-lethal damage?

Another idea he had is to use his whip to coil it around a mast or rigging of an enemy ship so that he can swing across to the enemy deck. How could this be done within the rules? I was thinking of use rope, but there is nothing in the rules even remotely referring to this possibility. If I give him a normal melee attack with his whip, this would be far too easy, since a ship is an untended stationary object (according to the rules in Stormwrack) and thus has a very low AC. And there would be some sort of jump check involved, otherwise his swing would fail and he would get trapped in the space between the two ships. And what damage would that do if he gets crushed between the ships for example?

Has someone dealt with similar ideas or similar rules in this adventure? If not, does anyone have any suggestions how to deal with this? Any suggestions are much appreciated.

Hello. This is my first post in the messageboards. I have been reading them for quite a while and find them very useful for my campaign.

I am DM-ing Savage Tide and last week my players arrived at Kraken's cove and witnessed the carnage there. Now I have been wondering about the savage fever. Even if the PC's kill every infected creature in the Cove, there are bound to be some birds and fish that escape. This means the disease is still around.

I am toying with the idea of letting it evolve slowly into an epidemic. I think this has the advantages that the PC's will be more focused on the plot, that there will be more tension and danger, and that I can add savage creatures later in the campaign.

I want the plot of the epidemic to remain in the background as a constant threat, so nothing drastic like the total destruction of Sasserine. The PC's can stop the epidemic by removing Demogorgon's influence from the Isle of Dread (e.g. by defeating Khala).

Did anyone do anything like this? How did it work? What are the things to watch out for?

Does anyone have good suggestions for small adventures featuring a remote, secluded location infected with disease? I would like to add one or more of them during SWW.

Thanks for your reactions and suggestions.