Peruhain of Brithondy's page

Well, the whole region of the Isle of Dread is volcanic. Heck, you can have a volcano spring up on the island where Farshore is located, or have one pop up in the middle of the harbor during the battle and vent out firebats in the midst of the Crimson Fleet. That would be cool and dramatic!

Cool. Thanks Kyle. Glad you understand what I said, cause I sure as heck didn't.

So, since Downer took a bite out of the roasted Ulolok, does that mean he ascends to become God of the Game? Or is the sacrifice not consummated if you spit it out?

You could also set up some adventuring in Erelhei-Cinlu (last revisited in Dragon 298, with enough info on the city for extensive roleplaying). This would complete your 3.5 GDQ series. I think you'd have to bump up Demonweb Pits a bit to accomplish all this, but shouldn't be much harder to do than bumping down the others (oh, except for that pesky Delve format which claims to take the DM's work away from him but also makes adventures much less flexible).

Sebastian, are you telling me that I've been reading a Derridean gaming comic for two years and didn't even realize it? ;) Oh well, I'm an academic, I'm supposed to enjoy this sort of thing, and then tell you pompously that once you employ a post-colonial deconstructionist Lacanian framework to analyze the strip, that by creating a simulacrum of a simulacrum, Downer is actually a metaphor for suburban youth alienation in the age of ersatz satisfaction of consumer desire. ;)

Not sure I can explain it very well, having missed fifteen of the first sixteen episodes. My downer book is on the way as soon as it's printed, so maybe I can elucidate then. The cartoonist is art director here, so maybe he should give the synopsis, though.

(Remember me, Kyle? I rescued you by inventing a deity for your homebrew one day while I was supposed to be grading papers. I know there's probably all kinds of spoilers and stuff, but you might be able to give a succinct summary of what's going on for all of us who dig your cartoon but missed half of the plot.)

Only played 2 episodes of Shackled City, and my hardcover hasn't arrived yet, so I can't comment substantively on that one yet except to say that there are some cool urban roleplaying possibilities and encounters.

Age of Worms totally rocks--and Skech, I know you've done an extended campaign based around the Istivin arc--if you're a GH fan, this AP has all kinds of goodness to offer--it makes Greyhawk fresh and enjoyable again, with enough nostalgic goodness combined with considerable creativity. There are a couple of adventures that are a bit heavy on the dungeon crawl, but most of the crawling can be easily broken up. There are a few dungeon segments meant to be taken in one day's adventuring, and thus to stretch the party's resources to the utmost, but the biggest ones are easy to enter and exit at will (well, unless you get stuck in a trap), and can be broken up with sessions of roleplay as PCs sell loot, research the strange things they've found, etc. There are excellent backdrops on three major urban locations featured in the path, and it would be easy to use Sasserine or Cauldron from the other APs as jumping off points for the assault on the Spire of Long Shadows, as that dungeon is supposed to be not far away in the GH setting. This means there is plenty of roleplaying to be had with minimal creation necessary on the DM's part. I'd have to disagree with Hanexs on merging Greyhawk and Alhaster--the latter spot has its own special flavor that is really important to the plot as a whole, I think, and if you want players to be attached to Greyhawk, it's easy enough, since by the time they visit Alhaster they're 15th level and can teleport back and forth with ease. The campaign ends with the PCs (if successful) being in charge of a city-state in the Bandit Kingdoms, next door to Iuz's empire. My plan is to continue with a politics and alliances roleplaying campaign using the old epic PCs, while simultaneously running a new low-level campaign with PCs who are the old PCs' proteges doing the dirty work of fending off the threat from Iuz's minions.

I've only run the first adventure of Savage Tide, but have been thinking about how to continue the AP when I get a chance. It's also an excellent choice, but quite different in flavor from AoW. AoW has some edge to it, especially in Alhaster, but STAP has more, and is more suited to adapt for an anti-heroic party in certain ways. Both have plenty of evil to fight, but both have pitfalls for the straight-up zealot crusader type. STAP has one or two dungeon crawls, but much more varied types of adventuring, and both urban and wilderness adventures figure big. The final few adventures (not out yet) are supposed to be set mostly in extraplanar spots--lots of Abyssal locations, mostly, if the previews are still accurate. STAP has more of a swashbuckler feel to it--with pirates and tropical islands and a whole adventure dedicated to an ocean voyage. It is set south of the Flanaess, so it has less classic GH goodness in some ways, but it does feature a visit to Tamoachan and the central adventures take place on the Isle of Dread, so it's still got lots of nostalgia factor to it, and can be spiced up with some stuff from the Scarlet Brotherhood pdf, which details this part of Oerth.

Ge you suo chang--each has its own strengths, as they say in China.

You could also reboot with the Mad God's Key (#114), which is set in the nearby Free City. It gets you to level 3 if you harvest all possible XP. You could have the party somehow linked to Eligos--Allustan can ask Eligos to send a party of competent adventurers to investigate the disappearance of the original party, and you're off and running.

Asmodeus is undoubtedly enjoying the freedom of the middle-aged bachelor lifestyle, but will eventually decide that it would be better to settle down with a compatible hag--no stability otherwise, you know.

I think Sucros's points hold for most of the non-OGL extraplanars. It's cool to kick ideas around on the boards, but it shouldn't be about "how do we replace X?" It should be about "what kinds of cool ideas can we come up with for other planes and their denizens?"

Of course you could also just add in some challenges related to escaping the ship and rescuing additional crew, then give them bonus XP for beating those challenges. If you don't want to kill so many of the crew/passengers, you could have PCs rescue them, defend them from the T-Rex, set up a good hide out for them, then have the PCs head down the coast with Urol to contact Farshore and organize a rescue mission. Give them extra XP for this, boost them to 7th level, and then it's no problem playing hardball with them as they head down the coast.

Oooh! Ashenvale I saw some earlier map-work of yours and it was awesome. If you did this we'd all be wery wery grateful.

Recently looked through the Lost Caverns as part of my own research on Iggy, and found no info on Tsojcanth. Someone suggested on another thread related to this topic (some time back) that Tsojcanth was a lich of Flan origin, but I haven't seen anything to indicate that that idea is canonical.

I've been thinking how to work up a campaign focused on Iggwilv as the primary villain, using mostly Dungeon adventures. Since she ties to so many major figures in the Greyhawk world, it should be fun. Might even have to bring Drelzna back from the dead. (Well, back to the undead, anyway. Of course, being a presumed casualty of adventurers in S4, her spirit may be free to come back to a living body if someone decided to true res her. Hmmmmm!) So, I'm looking forward to seeing the Witch Queen on the pages of Dungeon.

Web = 2nd level spell

Levitate = 2nd level spell

If he can legitimately anchor the web against opposing surfaces where he cast it, I'd say make the flayer do his strength check to move through the web, just like anyone else. Of course, he might have a fire spell handy--with his energy resist, he could possibly even fireball himself (don't remember what he has on his spell list right now) to get free. But if not, and he's already snacked on at least one brain, I think it's probably time to let the players win the battle. They're going to have to spring for a resurrection due to the missing body part, or someone's going to have to roll a new character, so you've already been evil enough with Zyrxog. You know you have, Eltanin!

OK, not a huge FR guy, so I haven't seen this feat, but it sounds like a good way to encourage heresy to me ;)

Seriously, though, that's a better way to handle it than coming up with published heresies for every deity. If a player wants to have his own take on deity X, or play a cleric who deviates two steps from deity X's alignment, he comes up with a roleplaying reason for it, then has to suffer whatever consequences stem from it. If the DM wants to come up with a heretical sect, he can--and of course the APs will probably grow a couple of these over the course of the years--like Ebon Triad in the GH version of Age of Worms. But no need to set it all up in a formal fashion from the get go.

Thanks for the replies, guys.

HTBM makes note of the food supply situation at a few points, but doesn't go on to say what happens if there's no food, or not enough food.

Granted with Urol, there's a good chance that they'll have food, but I was curious as to what the pentaly would be for being 'starved'. Did I miss a rule in the DMG that talks about this?

Thanks again.

Rules for thirst and starvation are in the back of the DMG. Should be indexed.

As far as cutting out HTBM and not crashing the ship--besides missing out on Demogorgon foreshadowing, you miss out on the Victory Points that are available for salvaging the Wyvern. Those could be replaced by just saying another supply ship from Sasserine wrecked up there and needs salvaging, or by somehow inserting Olangru's lair into the next adventure and assigning VP for it. It might be good to do that anyway--it's easy to have Olangru stalk them and lure them into his inescapable corner of the jungle while they're getting tar from the pits or visiting the Rakasta ruins.

Heterodox (literally "different doctrine"). It's what the Ebon Triad in Age of Worms is with respect to the orthodox faiths of Hextor, Vecna, and Erythnul. I don't think every faith needs heterodoxy, but it's a useful occasional plot device. It should develop naturally as the setting evolves, and it gets old if every faith has one. I'm not sure I'd call what Eberron has heterodoxy--it's more like alignment isn't as closely tied to religion, so that you can be evil and still think you're devoted to a good god, kind of like the zealot Templar in Ivanhoe who does evil things to Jews and heretics. Given the relationship between deities and divine spells in the core mechanic, I don't think this works very well, although in individual cases it can be explained by delusion (i.e. it's actually an evil god giving you those spells) or something like that. So, the point is, don't get obsessed with having heterodoxy in every faith, but create exceptions to the normal rules for flavoring on an occasional basis.

Selfish and self-absorbed antiheroes, yes. Look at all those great old Bogie and Brando movies as examples, plus lots of my favorite westerns. Heck, look at the three musketeers, with the scheming Athos and the mercenary D'Artagnan who is a king's man only when the king has money to pay him. There are great fantasy antecedents for this too--Conan, for starters, on down to Mat Cauthon in the Wheel of Time or Jaime Lannister in GRR Martin's Westeros. Antiheroes make interesting characters.

Pathological murderers, no. As PCs, I mean. They make great villains, I suppose, as long as they have a few other interesting traits to keep them from being your garden-variety mass-murderer. But if your object is just to slaughter people, take their gold, and ravish their women, with no thoughts for anything else, well, sounds kind of dull to me.

Finally, the new cover. Vanthus with his latest template on. Can hardly wait to see the stat bloc inside. Now, about another week before the thing actually makes it to upstate NY! *drums fingers on desk and sighs*

Being marooned on a deserted shore isn't conducive to anything but thoughts of revenge. I'd say have her come back to haunt the PCs. She's not just an ordinary thug, she's a hardened criminal, former gang-mistress, scion of an evil and scheming family, and vengeful enough to stow away the PCs' ship to attempt to murder them and ruin the expedition. Marooning was a mild response--if she hasn't murdered at least one crew member, maybe it's appropriate. Otherwise, the captain of the ship ought to execute summary justice and hang her from the yardarm.

As for her return, I'd say have her use her bardic skills to find a place as an entertainer in Scuttlecove, perhaps even as proprietor of some place like the weird tavern where you can pay to torture the ogre mage. She can fake an interest in allying with the PCs, then sell them out to the Crimson Fleet.

Alternatively, have her be one of the Porphyry House's employees. An agent of the Crimson Fleet, unbeknownst to Tyralandi. If one of the PCs decides to visit Scuttlecove's most infamous house of ill-repute, he might be in for a surprise!

Too many juicy possibilities in this one to let Rowyn go reformed!

Thanks for the divination rhyme--that's really good. I love doing those things.

As for not knowing there's more dungeon, well, there are ample clues that the bar-lgura took Urol through here. Not to mention the traces of evil and chaos pointing to the dungeon's entrance. And if they're really stumped, let them do a knowledge arcana check to realize that mirrors are often enchanted to serve as portals. And detect magic reveals that the mirrors, candles, and thrones are all magical. They'll know something's up, and they'll just have to solve the Gygaxian puzzle. Gygaxian puzzles are fun as long as the DM is willing to drop a few hints in response to knowledge checks and divination spells so that the solving part doesn't waste too much time. And as long as they don't occur too frequently--once or twice per adventure. This adventure (at three) pushes the envelope a bit, but when averaged out over the entire AP, it works out OK.

Oh yeah. I forgot about poor old Drak. His soul has been imprisoned for quite some time!

On rereading HTBM, I find the description of the portal/trap in the "shrine of duplicity" (room 7 in the shrine of Demogorgon) to be a bit confusing. Let me see if I understand how it's supposed to be done:

1. Light north candle, sit in southern throne, touch north mirror, party must fight bestial image of character who does this unless the character makes his will save or is warded by protection from evil/chaos.

2. Light south candle, sit in northern throne, touch south mirror with similar result as above.

3. Once the south mirror is touched, party has 10 minutes to use mirrors as portals to room 8.

4. If south candle is lit first, the procedure fails. If both candles are lit before any throne is sat upon, the candles explode and then self-extinguish, resetting the trap so that the entire procedure must be started over.

5. Sitting in the north throne after lighting the north candle has no effect but does not reset the trap, so that subsequently sitting in the south throne will advance the process. And likewise for the sitting in the south throne after lighting the south candle.

Sorry for the weird title--couldn't resist, since the write-up says the mirrors have to be "touched appropriately"

The Delve Format is absolutely a space hog. That's the main reason we aren't going to be using it.

If by "Delve Format" you mean WotC's new format used in Demonweb Pits and Ravenloft, thank you very, very much. I don't like the looks of these new books, to be quite honest, and something similar to Dungeon's current format, but with chapters or inserts presenting the supplemental material would be just great.

I haven't tried running one of these adventures yet, but the format looks like it wastes a lot of space on encounter set up and forces a lot of confusing page-flipping. I can make up encounter set up on the spot with the aid of my dry-erase markers and tac-tiles, and I don't need every last little rule spelled out for me. Produce something that is fun to read, and I'll make it fun to play. I always read everything through twice and highlight or abstract stat blocs anyhow as part of my preparation.

On the subject of stat blocs, I like the new format, but I'm noticing in the new monster publications that some key things like a breakdown of AC bonuses and ECL are left out. These aren't necessary for the actual NPC stat blocs, but are useful for new monster writeups.

Wow. Does this mean "they lived happily ever after?"

There is a feat in the PH, practiced spellcaster IIRC, that allows a wizard to cast a limited number of spells without preparation. I'd use that feat, and if you make something more powerful, you've got balance issues. Familiars aren't that useful anyway, so giving them up shouldn't give you huge benefits. Another option for giving up familiars is in Dragon 338, an article that allows wizards to imbue a staff with special powers instead. Some of the feats listed there allow the wizard to cast a limited selection of spells from his staff as spell-like abilities, which also accomplishes roughly the thing you are trying to do with this feat.

Saern wrote:

I fail to see the issue at hand.

I think he might be referring to the fact that clerics, druids and other classes that have an unlimited number of spells know have a big advantage whenever new spells are published; they get extra options with no cost in terms of GP or limited spell slots.

This is a separate issue, and one that must be tackled by each DM. Here's how I handle it. The PH defines what is available to ordinary PCs. If you want to cast something out of the SC or another source, you have to follow the procedures in the DMG to research the spell. If successful, you can "learn" the spell and have it available to you in the normal fashion for your class. This allows me, the DM, to (a) prevent clerics and druids from being overpowered, and (b) to put the kaibosh on a spell from a supplement that I think is cheese whiz, or to alter the spell description, raise the spell level, or whatever if I don't like it as written.

If I start a campaign with characters above first level, I typically let them pick a limited number of spells from the SC or other sources, subject to DM approval--this represents their prior research and allows them to do a few special things, but keeps them from being too powerful.

There are certain spells I positively do not allow in my campaign, such as the various energy orb spells in the SC, which I think are significantly overpowered. Attempts to gain such spells by research always fail, or might result in a spell that is nerfed to adjust it to the right power level. It should also be noted that while I allow most Complete series classes, I don't allow warmages, because they have an overpowering array of offensive spells. (Not that they don't have some weaknesses, but I think on the whole they are overpowered and overspecialized, and none of the campaign worlds I use is such a high-magic world that I want units of warmages rampaging around on the battlefield, which is kind of what the class's background implies to be the situation).

Except for Saern, you're all conflating "spells known" with spells that are "on the class spell list."

A "spell known" is one that you are capable of preparing (for clerics, druids, wizards, rangers, paladins, etc.) or one that you are capable of casting on your own (for spontaneous casters like bards, sorcerers, favored souls, assassins, etc.) because it is on your chosen list of "spells known." If you're a wizard, any spell in your spellbook is "known." If you're a divine caster who prepares spells, it means any spell on the list in the player's handbook for your class and caster level, plus any additional spells from other sources that the DM allows you access to, or has allowed you to research. For spontaneous casters, it's limited by your selection of "spells known" as spelled out in the tables and rules governing those classes' "spells known."

On your "spell list" means that the spell can be cast by someone of your class. You don't have to "know it" or "have it written in your spell book," it just has to be listed as a spell that is available for your class. (For specialist wizards, spells from your prohibited schools are not on your spell list). So even if you find a scroll of an obscure spell from an obscure supplement book, if it's listed as being castable by your class (no matter what caster level), you have a chance to activate it. The exception would be that if the spell is listed on the spell lists both divine and arcane spellcasting classes, it still must be written as either a divine or arcane spell, and can only be cast by the appropriate spellcasting classes. For wands, staffs, and so forth, the arcane/divine distinction does not matter--so a bard can use any wand of cure light wounds, for example, because that spell is on his spell list, but a bard could not cast cure light wounds from a scroll authored by a divine spellcaster.

The passage quoted by Zero above quite clearly states that you can leave spell slots open for later preparation. I'd use the same time requirements as a wizard to fill them. Edit: The only thing you can't do is pray for spells to replace those you've already expended that day.

Yeah, I'm not that fond of the 3-D maps myself. The one from KoTR had some problems with it. I'd love to do a side-view diagram, and may try to, but I don't have access to a scanner, and if I do one it will be hand drawn. If I do one, I'll photocopy it and send one to you, James.

Suggestions for making the wreck of the Sea Wyvern feel more realistic:

As the storm kicks up, the ship begins to roll as huge swells buffet the ship's port side. The first time the captain succeeds in a profession (sailor) check to avoid rolling, it means he realizes the ship has no choice but to heave to and hope to ride out the storm without being blown onto the lee shore of the Isle of Dread. Heaving to means turning the ship's bow into the wind to minimize rolls. All the sails would be lowered except a small storm sail on the mizzen mast, and the ship's anchor would be lowered a couple of hundred feet into the water to provide drag to stabilize the ship and keep the bow pointed into the seas. Any failed profession (sailor) checks after this mean that the ship takes wash, rather than roll. Success means the sails and sea anchor are adjusted to prevent wash. However, whatever the captain does, the ship drifts inexorably toward the lee shore, which cannot be seen in the stormy conditions.

After sunset, have anyone stationed near the stern make a DC 15 listen check. Success means they hear breakers off the starboard quarter over the noise of the storm, and a DC 15 profession (sailor) check interprets the sound of breakers as evidence of a reef. Have the captain make a DC 25 prof (sailor) check. If he succeeds, he is able to alter the ship's course (by manipulating the sails and rudder) so it drifts to port slightly. In this case, the reef will strike the ship amidships on the starboard side, and can be freed as described in the adventure--a successful prof (sailor) DC 20 check indicates that the captain manipulates the sails to spin the ship to port and free it from the reef. If the initial check to alter course and avoid the reef is failed, the ship's stern strikes the reef, destroying the rudder. A DC 30 prof (sailor) check is now required to free the ship as above, and if this is failed by more than 10, the ship swings to starboard and broaches (turns sideways to the reef). In that event, the ship is grounded on the reef for 2d20 minutes, during which time it is vulnerable to the attacks of the mashers (as written). After that time, the tide rises and a huge swell drags the Wyvern right over the top of the reef. If the ship broaches, the DM should reduce the amount of cargo that can be salvaged from the wreck, reduce the number of surviving passengers, and increase the difficulty of repairing the ship later on in the adventure path.

In any event, once the ship is free of the reef, it is inside the dangerous barrier reef that protects the Isle's eastern shore. These waters are not well charted and not safe for a ship the size of a caravel due to numerous reefs and rocks. Although the seas are not as heavy inside the reef, the wind is still howling, and it is impossible to make any course east of due south or north of due west. Basically the ship is sinking, and it is trapped in the large bay on the northeastern coast, and the best hope for survival is to ground the ship on a soft and relatively protected beach. A DC 25 prof (sailor) check allows the captain to do this--if this check is failed, reduce salvageable cargo and surviving passengers and increase the difficulty of repair. However the PCs manage to survive the final stranding of the Wyvern, they wake up on the beach exhausted and battered from their ordeal.

Dire Weasel, don't forget:

"The DM limits cooperation as he/she sees fit for the given conditions." (PH 66). Some of the profession checks might be meaningfully assisted by others, some might not, or only by one or two others. For example, when trying to steer to avoid reefs, the DM might rule that only a lookout stationed in the bow of the ship can help the captain. So you could certainly limit some of the assist checks to +2 or +4 bonus total. Have them explain how each character is going to help in a given situation. Some of the helping also might require moving about on deck or in the rigging, thus putting the assisting character at risk of washing overboard. I wouldn't just automatically let the whole party or the whole crew make assist checks for every action.

Also, the key ability for Profession is wisdom, so your captain's intelligence bonus won't help him.

The maps really aren't comprehensible without reference to the text, and even then, you've got to read it carefully. Someone really needs to do a side-view from at least two different angles to help folks visualize this, and then post it to photobucket or someplace and link here. It is actually a wicked-cool setup, but I'm afraid at that level it will be nerfed by flying PCs. It would be a great site for about 6th level when a party is only likely to be able to get one person airborne.

Great update. I especially liked the carnivalesque fool's parade! How very Rabelaisian!

As an elf fan, I concur with many of Saern's recommendations, although I've done some slightly different things with elves in my own homebrew world.

As Saern says, elves need a distinctive culture. I think matriarchy is an awesome idea--many groups of elves in my homebrew are matriarchal and have various interesting ways of figuring out inheritance. And they should have a genuinely sylvan culture, except for perhaps the gray elves, who should live in isolated but architecturally fabulous cities and preserve ancient lore and ancient crafts no longer practiced by ordinary elves. Their society should reflect their chaotic nature by being split among numerous small principalities that are virtually independent of each other.

Another thing that would help elves have flavor, is by making them more isolated and more magical, with the magic focusing on enchantment and illusion (glamours, in the original sense of the word, not flashy stuff. An encounter with elves should be both memorable and perilous. Elves should be distrusted by most humans, and half-elves should be quite rare. Elves should mostly keep to themselves, and adventurer elves shouldn't encounter very many other elves when they are in human lands, to the point where people are either very suspicious or very awed by their presence. Reserve several corners of the world for elves. Or place communities of elves in every forest, and make forests places where human kings rarely dare to make territorial claims and commoners fear to tread, even if they need the timber and game that are plentiful there. You don't need to change the rules to make elves more magical--just make them more isolated and enchanting.

The Sunless Realms
The Dark Realms
The Netherdark
The Nether Realms
The Lands Below
The Black Hollows

Whatever. Underdark is almost as generic as underworld. Why don't they copyright the terms "longsword" and "sorcerer" while they're at it? Anybody remember what C.S. Lewis used in the "Silver Chair"?

Edit: answer: Underland

WotC's board main page wrote:

Members: 226,638, Active Members: 44,067

Active Member, I believe, is anybody who has logged in in the past 3 months.

OK, raise your hands. How many of you are like me, and became "active members" so they could post their objection to discontinuing the mags over there? (As if they're listening or anything). And how many of you, like me, also have at least one inactive "member account" that they've forgotten the password to and had to start a new one so they could complain. I'll wager WotC's "membership" has gone up by several thousand in the last week.

I will not pay $X a month to keep my half-elf Favored Soul online. He lives on a piece of paper I printed from a link found on these forums!

Besides, you can do it for free at Lilith's DM Tools site, or at Mythweavers (and you can run play by post with all kinds of great tools there), so why would you pay to do it at Wizards, which has about the clunkiest website in gaming.

The DC for the Wyvern to avoid foundering in a dire gale is 28, and must be made hourly. 7th or 8th level characters have max 11 ranks in profession (sailor), with assorted bonuses it's not likely to be higher than a +20 on the check. In three days of storm, they are bound to fail one. Heavy rolls and wash--likely means cargo breaks free and rolls around the hold, possibly holing the ship or putting a list on it and making it in danger of capsizing. It also means you're likely to have waves breaking over the bow or stern of the ship, with possible damage to the rudder or ship's wheel, masts, and so forth, not to mention carrying away sailors and ships boats.

In a really bad storm, you can only safely do two things: 1. Run directly downwind, with your sails reefed to minimize the chance of carrying away a mast; or 2. Heave to, drop a sea anchor, and place your bow into the wind. You have to keep a couple of storm sails up to keep your bow pointed into the wind. Once you've decided on your course, it is very dangerous to change--if you turn your beam (side) to the seas and are caught be a swell, you are very likely to capsize. And you certainly can't hold a course that puts your beam to the winds and seas for long, because then you are guaranteed to be hit repeatedly with swells, and sooner or later one will capsize the ship. So, given that you're throwing the mother of all hurricanes at them to begin with, it's not really "railroading" to have them hit a reef--they have no way to maneuver around it. If they heave to, it will take them longer to be blown into the reef, but they'll still hit it. This is called being blown onto a lee shore, and it is one of the great dangers of sailing.

Now, that being said, you should certainly give the PCs a chance to improve the outcome with their skills, both in swim and profession (sailor). If they make a good profession sailor check, for example, they know that lightening the ship might free it from the reef. They might be able to reduce damage to the ship and avoid or escape the mashers by throwing cargo overboard and floating the ship off the reef, then making a profession (sailor) check to plug the leak and pump out the water in the hold. In fact, you can emphasize how successful profession (sailor) checks earlier prevent the loss of a ship's mast or damage to its rudder, capsizing or loss of sailors overboard, etc., giving them the feeling that it would have been much worse if they hadn't made their checks.

Finally, you can give the storm a sort of divinely ordained inevitability. Have the lookout sight a mermaid as the ship pulls away from the continental shore for the last time. Mermaids, as every sailor knows, are an omen that the ship is doomed. Have the natives on the island off the south shore of the Amedio insist that a human sacrifice must be made to Xicholotl, god of the sea to ensure the ship's safety when making the crossing to the Isle of Dread. When the PCs refuse, have the shaman shake his head and say, OK, but don't blame me when your ship goes down. Have an aspect of Procan appear in the midst of the storm and give them a sign that he has singled them out for punishment. (He's a CN deity, so he doesn't need a particular reason). Have the ship's chaplain do a divination that hints at a shipwreck and gives the party tips on how to survive it. Giving omens is better than just saying up front I'm gonna wreck your ship, because (a) it gives an in-game flavor to the whole process while still handing out the hint, and (b) it doesn't take away from the emotional investment that the PCs have in the ship. It should suck to have your ship wreck, because that ship is your heart and soul and your sole means of survival. You want the players to have a little bit of the feeling of despair that a real shipwreck engenders.

On the issue of Lavinia's visits--she's the "admiral" of her little exploration fleet, and that's a good excuse to spend a fair amount of time "inspecting" the other ships besides her flagship. Of course if she makes her romantic ulterior motives obvious that's fine. And it was quite common in the days of sail for ships to anchor or heave to and have the captains visit each other to consult about various important matters. As long as the seas are not too rough, it's fairly easy to put a boat in the water and row back and forth. Using signal flags, or approaching closely enough to hail the other ship by voice, the Nixie can convey the "admiral's" intention to come for a visit.

The point is for the party to find the lair, and spend a couple of days getting beaten up by the nasty environment before they get there. Make the lair be two days travel into the Mistmarsh, however far that is for your characters. Have there be a kind of indistinct trail heading for the lair, maybe with some possibility of getting side-tracked and ending up at the lair of one of the beasties on the wandering monster chart or a rival tribe of lizardfolk, if they blow their survival checks.

Otherwise, tell them they can't follow the tracks at all unless they find a tracker, and see what answer they come up with to solve the problem.

probably the suggestions I posted above are way too much dice-rolling for what should be window dressing. But some people (like me) are pretty much immune to seasickness except in the worst seas when confined belowdecks. Others (like my dad) are just pukey dogs whenever they get in slightly choppy water--unless they wear what we used to refer to in the Navy as a p***y patch, they could be seasick for an entire trip across the ocean.

Why not simplify the whole business and have one catch-all term for good outsiders and one for evil outsiders. Angels and Daemons, or something along those lines. Then you can subdivide them into groupings based on their homes or their genesis or the "faction" they belong to, kind of like we do with Tanar'ri and Obyriths (but using different names and giving those names different significance).

Points taken about Time Stop--I just think there's a certain amount of ambiguity the way that spell is written. Making the amount of time it lasts an unknown helps--maximized or not, there's a range of possibilities, which means you may not get as many DBFs off as you wanted to, and they're more like a ticking time bomb than an immediate nuclear blast.

The other part of that strategy is, the top of the tower is a small space--is the entire party going to be flying at the beginning of the encounter? I don't have the module handy, but I seem to recall that the weird projections on the side of the tower made it hazardous to fly in some fashion. If you're not flying, you're probably in the area of effect of the DBFs, and that many going off at once is difficult to survive, except maybe for a rogue. Even energy resist 30 and protection from energy on the entire party might not do it.

If you're letting your players use Assay Spell Resistance from the SC, you might want to consider modifying Kyuss's stat block with some additional cheese from Libris Mortis or BoVD or whatever. Unholy toughness to give him a bundle of extra hit points, etc. That way it balances.

Or maybe change the whole encounter around so that it doesn't start as a big throw-down. Maybe Kyuss can whisper to evil characters (the assassin) and tempt them while they are in the area being affected by all of those other effects that the PCs are supposed to take down.

You could also consider nerfing the soul fragments or changing the scenario so that taking down the special effects affecting Alhaster merely makes it possible to take on the most powerful version of Kyuss, and that if they fail to do that he is so powerful that Kyuss mops the floor with them if they have the guts to face him directly.

Iggwilv, in anticipation. She is the greatest D&D villain of all time.

Lashonna.

Vanthus.

Balabar Smenk is the best low-level villain I've seen.

Zyrxog.

The drow priest in the Istivin arc--he was totally creepy and very memorable, though I can't remember his name now for some reason.

OOOOH! The Plane of Sloth. Now that's a cool idea. Planar traits--all non-natives act as if under the effect of a permanent slow spell, etc. etc.

The Plane of Chastity. All of the angels from there have perfect celestial bodies, but keep them completely covered.

Etc.

And then we get to the Plane of Lust. Ruh-roh Reorge!

The Complete Idiot

(Sorry, just surfing the WotC boards and I couldn't resist making this stupid joke).

Sorry, a 9th level spell can't qualify as "underestimated." You've spent 17 levels trying to learn how to do it. It's got to kick ass. Tell me a cool use for a low-level spell instead.

Trey strikes again. This was a much better pun than the last one. ROFLMAO

I would suggest you look at how the war campaign in Red Hand of Doom is organized, in detail, and use that as a model. You don't really need to know everything that's in the army, you just need to have a bunch of army related encounters to throw at PCs. One of Red Hand of Doom's strengths is that out of about 10 stat blocks it throws somewhere around 20 or 30 different encounter scenarios at the PCs, by varying the mix of troops involved in each encounter and the context/terrain/tactical situation. If you just have 800 orc 1st level scouts and 3000 hobgoblin warriors and 500 crossbowmen and whatever, it's boring. It's the encounter set up and how it fits into the story line that makes it fun.

My party of four made it through with a somewhat non-standard configuration (Clr/Rgr, Paladin, Bard/Swashbuckler, Transmuter), but they were 3rd level when they started, and had 3 near-TPKs--when they got locked in the battle-temple, when they split up while trying to deal with the grimlock archers on the ledge and inadvertently stumbled into chokers and a mad barbarian, and when the aspect emerged from the pool just after a grueling battle with TFO and his minions. What got them through alive was that 3 of 4 could use a CLW wand, and they started with a fully charged one and got a backup in the Hextor temple. I play one on one, though, and run two of the above as DMPCs, so YMMV.

The advice I'd give is

1) give them an opportunity to get to 3rd level before they start (side quest, DM fiat, have Kullen's gang provoke a fight, or whatever).

2) make sure they have lots of healing power. You can have Melinde from the garrison (stats in the AoW overload) accompany them if necessary. Make sure they have a CLW wand and plenty of cure potions if you have to give them away for free or have Allustan pack it in their lunchbox with their bologna sandwich.

3) if they are relative newbs, or even if they just don't have a lot of tactical acumen, don't be afraid to give them a few hints. This adventure contains numerous very interesting tactical challenges for an experienced group, but I think it's very tough for those who aren't solid tacticians.

4) nerf the BBEGs slightly, don't play them quite as tough, and/or cut down on the numbers of mooks to make the deadliest encounters a bit less challenging and avoid burning quite so many resources before the climactic encounter. The toughest part of this adventure (besides the terrain-related challenges) is just that each segment is built to stretch the PCs resources to the utmost. If the party isn't completely judicious in their use of resources, or if they have bad luck or a misstep that burns up more than expected, they are toast when they get to that sections BBEG. This is especially true if you run the final segment as written, where the party has time to heal up, grab the treasure from TFO and put a little of it to use, and then bang--in comes the aspect.

You can see my campaign log to get an idea of how my party handled these challenges.