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My group kinda fudged this encounter. They didn't even go to the Land farmhouse when they saw the 5 sets of footprints, and only 4 sets running back.

The rogue/fighter in my group asked around town to see if anybody had been up to the farm lately and found out that Kullen's gang had been seen heading that way. So that was enough to convince them to proceed to the Feral Dog.

They walked in, saw Kullen and his group sulking in the corner toasting their fallen comrade, then walked back out to discuss their plan of attack. Then they all walked in again :P Of course at this point Kullen's group had noticed them and knew something was going on. The barbarian of the group tried to speak with them but was answered with insults and curses. So he picked up their table and smashed it against the wall. Blades were drawn, and Rastophan and Merrovin fell in pools of their own blood. Kullen and Todrik survived and were thrown into jail with the PC's. There were some harsh words exchanged, but eventually Kullen was intimidated enough to reveal Filge's involvement. So it all worked out in the end, and with a pretty good barfight to boot.

This AP will fit nicely into my Conan campaign :) I can't wait!

Couple funny things happened last night when I was running this adventure. Some spoilers, but I'm sure you guys are well on your way through this AP!

1. Upon reaching the brown mold area, one PC decided the best idea was to make a new door in the thin wall. He quoted the scene from Robin Hood Prince of Thieves where Robin uses a statue to knock down a door. After watching the wind duke's head crack and crumble, they finally pounded a hole into the wall big enough to enter.

2. They found the trigger plate for the magic face trap but couldn't figure out what it did. So they tied 100 ft. of rope to a large sack of rubble positioned on the far side of the pressure plate. The barbarian held the rope in his hand while clinging to the chain down to the lantern room and pulled. The weight set off the trap, he became paralyzed, and just before he was blown away, he made his Will save and slid down the chain just as the sack of rubble was blown down behind him. They even drew a picture of the whole mechanism :)

3. Upon asking Alastor's ghost about his family, and discovering his dad's name was Anders. One player, his last name being Anderson, quickly replied "So that means you're Ander's son". We all had a good laugh at that, as he was on his fifth beer at the time and this kind remark was totally unexpected :)

Hahahaha, that's awesome! I can't wait to run this adventure for my group.

I noticed this too, but I'm not really concerned as I have access to an overhead projector and can zoom in and out as it suits us :)

But if you're not that lucky, then I would suggest drawing out the maps beforehand (maybe just the encounter areas) or redoing them in Dundjinni or similar software, and printing out a copy.

I think the important thing is that we get a good map to start with, then there are numerous ways to drill it down.

So far the only map I have any qualms about are the ones from issue 133, that are at an angle instead of an overhead view. I'm gonna have to redo all these with Dundjinni for my projector, but they are mostly square rooms in a keep so it shouldn't be too hard.

My group is resonable close to finishing the The Whispering Cairn. This Tuesday will be our 5th session.

Hehe, I just started running my group through Whispering Cairn. They just figured out the sarcophagus/elevator room at the end of session number 1. I expect 2 more sessions before they get their first sidetrack adventure, then its off to 3FoE.

So we finally started our Conan AoW campaign last night. The group of 5 are all 2nd level and are very combat oriented, except for the scholar is is their lone spellcaster. Even he uses a bow though.

They entered the Cairn and made it all the way down to the sarcophagus room, disposing of the wolves, beetle swarm, and mad slasher. The thief of the group actually found the trap on the sarcophagus lid too. They took some bruises and cuts, but not one of them has come close to dying yet. So far so good, but we'll see how they fair when they explore the lower levels of the cairn!

I’ve Got Reach wrote:

I have been thinking about meshing AP3 with Iron Heroes, if I'm the one in our group who has to run it....

About iron heroes, I have no idea how my players will react when i tell them about it. I mean, they all would love to be highly skilled archers, berserker or harrier but the problem is: THERE ARE NO OTHER RACES IN IRON HEROES!!... Iron Heroes is cool and all but the majority of my players like picking a race instead of a human...I seriously don't know what to do....However, we are just starting AOW so I still have a lot of time to think about it....Can anyone give me a hand??

Conan is very similar to Iron Heroes is that regard. No elves or gnomes running around. Everyone is human. My suggestion is to make a few subraces of human with different racial features. I think the IH book had all starting heroes picking one or two of them? But in addition, add a quick blurb about the race's culture and physical description. Are they asian? Indian? European? Depending on how mature your gamers are, they make choose culture/style over base mechanics. I know most of mine do :)

I also have an overhead projector and will be dealing with this in a similar fashion, using photoshop and having the PC's, in order of initiative start exploring.

I'm running this using a low magic campaign, so it will be entertaining to see how remembers their torch and who gets left in the dark :)

I'd be worried that the adventure path would rely too much on magic to fit a low-magic setting. I doubt I'd even try and run it in Iron Heroes.

Well, I'm starting Whispering Cairn next week with 4-5 2nd level PC's. One is a sorcerer (scholar in Conan) so we finally have SOME magic in the group.

I'll see how it goes, but I doubt the group will make it past the first level of the cairn anyways.

Maybe the churches are looking to gain a better reputation in Diamond Lake, or maybe they just wanna find some new divine goodies. They could send the PC's as relic hunters to bring more attention to their religion.

Especially if the PC's donate their treasure to their church, or it gets used to better the town somehow.

Many of the monsters can only be harmed by magical weapons or certain types of spells, and so would have to be reworked. I'm not sure it's worth the headache unless you have a lot of free time. The Age of Worms is difficult enough as it is with normal rules; removing magic for the players would make it a nightmare.

Contrary to popular belief, there is actually more magic in Conan than Iron Heroes. It is still nowhere near D&D, but its there if needed. I believe if I can throw in one or two magic swords, staves, or mysterious artifacts that should suffice. Another good thing about Conan is they don't use the DR/magic special quality anymore. Usually demons and the like only require silver weapons to hit, which is much easier to acquire than magic ones.

Make no mistake, I fully anticipate the campaign to be brutal and tough, but I have run a couple of the initial AoW modules before, using D&D rules, and know where the problem areas are and hopefully how to fix em.

They only down side to running the AOW with Conan would be the high mortality rate. If your players can deal with that, then it could work. AOW certainly fits in with the ancient horrors form beyond (Kyuss) themes that were prevalent in Robert E. Howard's work. It certainly would require a lot of conversation work though.

I agree, from what I have read here the AoW is quite deadly, and some major tweaking is mandatory. Basically, I only have the first 3 adventures so far which are fairly simple to convert at first glance. The main areas I'm focussing on are as follows:

- most conan adventures involve mostly animal or human foes. Obviously, more of these will have to be plugged in where possible.
- monsters, undead, and any other unnatural encounters will either be removed if not necessary for the plot, or replaced/tweaked (blackwall keep lizardmen get replaced by picts for instance)
- use the maps and traps as is, unless they require some supernatural means of detection or removal. Can't rely on D&D spells anymore to help bypass them.
- big bad NPC's, like Dragotha or Lashonna will be replaced with more Conan-esque creatures. I'm toying with a regular vampire for Lashonna, and an ancient Mummy sorcerer for Dragotha, possibly from the same race or nation.

I'm also planning on running the group through each adventure only when they are 1 or 2 levels higher than the adventure's recommended level. My group will all be 2nd level when starting Whispering Cairn for example.

I'm hoping this will be sufficient, but if you're interested, will let you know my progress. Thanks for the heads up guys!

I love the new Conan RPG by Mongoose Publishing and I also love the AoW campaign arc. But has anybody used these adventures in a Conan setting? I'm extremely tempted to do so, but I'd like to get some feedback from GM's here who may have tried this already.

Obviously, significant conversions and substitutions would be required.

I have two questions for DMs out there :

1. Do you allow characters to take multiple prestige classes?

Yup, but I require a good reason from the PC. If they are doing it only to powergame, then no. If its for style or story, then definately yes.

2. Do you assess multiclassing XP penalties when a non-human combines a non-favored class with a prestige class and the class levels aren't close?

The DMG 3.0 had the rule about prestige classes not counting against multiclassers. It was left out of the DMG 3.5 for some reason, but it did clearly state that prestige class levels never count when figuring out multiclassing penalties.

Wow! I never saw these adventures before, as I tend to focus more on the newer issues, but these adventures look perfect for my Conan d20 campaign!

Good find guys!

Did anyone else hear about the movie Slither? It has something to do with killer worms that get into your brain and turn people into zombies. It looks bad, but I just had to point out the similarites between it and the Age of Worms.

Actually, I remember a really old movie, "Night of the Creeps" that had these black alien slugs that shot into your mouth and took over your brain, turning you into a zombie. Then they laid eggs in there and heads began bursting with more slugs. Pretty good for such an oldie.

What I want to see? Dark Sun, the Prism Pentad. Probably my favourite D&D setting.

What I think would be feasible or generate the most revenue? Probably Forgotten Realms or Dragonlance, as they have been around the longest. The Crystal Shard trilogy of FR would be really good, and the Chronicles trilogy from Dragonlance is an obvious choice.

It's amazing how different encounters work out for different groups. My guys went through the Hextor (Bane) temple like crap through a goose, but got the snot kicked out of them by Filge earlier. I guess having your single 'big-stick' fighter go down early makes all the difference. That and a cure light wounds wand.

My group had some small problems with Filge, but mainly because they set off his alarm spell on the severed head and he had a few rounds to prepare. Beast was a fantastic encounter to run though. I found a great picture for his token which really set the mood. I actually had a cultist riding on his back too with a longspear that was taunting the PC's. He took an arrow in the chest ala Chronicles of Narnia and fell off the side of Beast with a short yelp. That was the only moment of laughter as Beast then proceeded to tear apart the group.

PC: TPK, Vas Cleric 3/Wizard 2, Lusnava Paladin 5, Dash Rogue 5
Adventure: Three Faces of Evil
Location: Temple of Hextor, just outside Beast's room.
COD: Poor strategy

Description: All was well until the temple was infiltrated. The party took out the tieflings guards outside in the dark cathedral before they could pound on the door. One died AT the door though, close! Group enters Hextor temple, skeletons animate, bells ring, cultists and more tieflings enter the fray in 3 rounds. Tieflings are killed, skeletons are destroyed or turned, remaining cultists begin to pull back towards room 11. One opens Beast's den. 4 cultists still alive at this point that take off into rooms 11 and 6. Beast arrives and skewers NPC hireling, almost killing her. Misses rogue in following round due to bad roll. Kills rogue in round 3 with a solid hit. Kills NPC hireling next round, kills paladin after that, and then cleric/wizard in the round following that.

What's your source? I'm no expert on octopus but I find that a bit hard to swallow without some authoritative source on the matter.

My friend's wife is a marine biologist and my brother is a scuba instructor, who has seen these things in action :)

Spoilers

Also, a drain hole big enough for a giant octopus to squeeze through is probably big enough for a halfling to get through, and maybe a human--octopi are squishy mollusks and probably deserve a +8 racial bonus on their escape artist check, but the monster manual lists them as large creatures, so I'm guessing it would take at least a 2-3 foot wide hole for them to squeeze through. If the party wants to pursue it into the drain tank and finish...

You'd be surprised how small a hole a regular octopus can fit through. I have heard that a normal sized octopus can fit down the drain of your sink! Double the size for a large one, and I'd say that a drain/tube about 6-10 inches across would be sufficient for a large one.

I had a PC attempt to grapple the Ebon Aspect last night and looked at its grapple check modifier of +22 and said huh? After adding its BAB of +10, Strength modifier of +5, and size modifier of +4 (being large) I only came up with +19.

Does this thing have a racial bonus or something that I am missing or a bonus for multiple arms?

Although my group is slightly different (ie. one of the PC's is king of the country Diamond Lake is in) I managed to pull off Smenk as an ultimate badass. The party actually contacted him about 4 days after finishing WC and he was none too pleased to see them. They waltzed in all high and mighty, expecting to confront Smenk with his own guilt, only to find out that he actually had the dirt on them! Not only did they sneak into Filge's residence and murder him, but they also broke into Kullen's house, beat him, tied him up and abducted him to get information. Hardly a kingly thing to do. The paladin received a warning that such behaviour would result in him losing his paladinhood as well, so he has since smartened up. The group left to grudgingly accept the mission into Dourstone mine, with a few threats thrown at Smenk, to which he again retaliated with the insinuation that if anything were to happen to him, certain powerful people would receive a rather informative letter about the PC's.

The best part was after the group left his house, the paladin turns to the rest of the party and says "He's right you know. We did all those things, and he's got us by the short and curlies." I love blackmail :)

My group didn't fare so well, or should I say, didn't do what I expected. They followed Kullen home after he left the Feral Dog and found out where Filge was. They entered the observatory the next morning via the front door, killing everything along the way except the zombie dinner guests. I was so disappointed when they didn't activate that scene. The cleric tried to grab the platinum piece on the tongue of the severed head and set off the alarm. Melee ensued and spells and undead went a flying. Filge was brought low by the paladin's blade (I was impressed how long he lasted against a melee PC) and was brought to -4. The party began to fight the undead at this point and killed them all while Filge bled out and died. So once again, I didn't get a chance to use any of Filge's info except the letter they found from Smenk. However, I am planning on blackmailing them like crazy with Smenk. Mwahahaha.

I just thought I would post some interesting tidbits of information here in regards to my rather unique WC sessions. I have a group of 3, 4th level PC's but they have 2 1st level NPC's that travel with them as well (bodyguards). We are playing in the Birthright campaign setting, so I had to do some serious work to fit this adventure path in.

Anyways, most of my players commented that this adventure would be absolute death for a 1st level party. I disagree for a number of reasons, but mainly because my group seems to approach every single room/encounter in the worst possible way. For one thing, they don't have the rogue go first to search for traps. The shooting iron balls trap, sprung by the paladin, the wind tunnel trap sprung by the cleric, the poison gas trap, also sprung by the cleric. 2 of the 3 players are accomplished D&D veterans, yet they still seem to bumble into every monster lair and trap in the place.

Luckily, the monsters seem to be rather weak against the party as I didn't beef them up too much due to their trap problems :) The grick was dead in 2 rounds, the strangler didn't do a single point of damage before it was sliced in half, the medium water elemental was dead in 2 rounds. The worst monster the group faced were those acid beetle swarms, and that was because they had no area of effect spells and NONE of them had torches :P

They do manage to roleplay relatively well though, and figured out how to find the Land family bodies, Kullen, and Filge's hideout all without ever encountering the owlbear or the severed arm.

The Tomb Mote encounter was absolutely hilarious though, the party didn't know whether to attack the thing or throw a leash on it :) I can't wait until they enter the observatory and encounter Filge and his minions. That fight will be one to remember. I am anticipating the undead will be of little use against a paladin and a cleric, but the necromancer is gonna get some serious beats in before he is killed.

I've been running a group through this dungeon using the Birthright campaign as a backdrop actually. Its turned out great so far with little to no adjustments needed. The group is as follows:

Human cleric 3/wizard 1 (regent/king)
Elven rogue 4
Human paladin 4
plus two 1st level NPC followers

They have not faced the wind tunnel, wind warriors, owlbear, ghost, kullen's gang, or filge yet but I am getting worried. The beetle swarms have been absolutely devastating to them thus far and they've had to rest twice already.

Its a challenging adventure, even for higher level PC's, so I think its great! They are having a blast and are salivating at what's to come in the following weeks.

Ah, lots of good feedback while I was gone! Yeah, I went the same route as VedicCold, I ruled it was more of an illusion like a Light spell than an actual flame. Hence, no dispelling. As for the water elemental, that is a good point about its size in regards to the damage and other vortex abilities. Its kind of a moot point now since my group killed the thing already, but it makes sense.

The underwater room was a little confusing as well. From the description it said the water came halfway up the stairs, which are 10 feet according to the scale grid. Hence the water in my session was only 5 feet deep. So all my players were neck deep in water and suffered penalties as if they were fighting underwater. They didn't need to worry about drowning unless knocked unconcious, which one of them was :) Kinda reminded me of the previews from that "Cave" movie. Creepy but fun.

That was another thing I wanted to ask about. The "Quench" ability that it had. Our paladin was carrying the everburning torch from the green lantern, and the elemental tried to put it out with a touch attack as well. It hit, but then when I read both continual flame, and the Quench ability I couldn't decide if an illusory flame would have been put out or not. In the end I said it wouldn't be dispelled as it wasn't actual fire (or even magical fire).

I am a bit behind in this adventure path at the moment with my group (we only play about 3 hours a week) and they ran across the insane small water elemental in the whispering cairn last night. I had a question about its vortex ability, as I found something rather weird in the description. The vortex of any elemental apparently only affects creatures at least one size category smaller than it (according to its v3.5 writeup). Most PC's are Small size or larger, at least in my group, and thus would not be affected by the vortex. So this battle turned into a simple trading of blows until the elemental was destroyed. Am I reading the vortex ability incorrectly? Or was this a goof in the adventure?