S.Baldrick's page

My group is just finishing up "Thirteen Cages" and everyone is pushing 18th level. We have kept the same core of players together and nearly kept the same core of characters together. Of the 4 characters, 3 have been there from the beginning. The one that died was a druid that was killed in "Flood Season" and his body was never recovered. There have been a number of PC deaths since them but the party has always maintained a single goal: Keep the high level cleric of alive! She has raised or resurrected everyone at least twice now. Even she was killed once but she was resurrected by Jenya, the high priest of the Church of St. Cuthbert.

Here is our roster:
Geldas: 17th level male half human/half celestial Paladin
Raven: 17th level female half orc cleric of Kord
Aph: 9th level female human barbarian/8th level rogue
Dwar: 17th level male dwarf barbarian.

The Adventure path is deadly so either have backup characters or protect the cleric until they are high enough to cast raise dead.

Top Secret. Man, I loved that game.

For 3E +, I highly recommend the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer. It goes into great detail about the various nations, politics, personalities, and races that populate the World of Greyhawk and what are some of the possible game ideas for each of the nations. The Gazetteer also gives an excellent history of the World of Greyhawk from the time of the rain of colorless fire that destroyed the Suel Empire to the the years following the end of the Greyhawk Wars.

As for 2nd Edition, I would also recommend the From the Ashes box set and the City of Greyhawk boxed set. I think that both of them are available in pdf format now.

Me and my group watched it last night before we started our regular gaming session (one the players had TiVOed it.) Well, the vote was unanimous with group. The movie was kind of better than the first movie but it still sucked. That being said, we still had fun by turning it into our own version of MST3K. If I do watch it again, I will try and see how many whiskey sours it takes before it starts to look good.

The Desert of Desolation series was awesome. A great story line with a beginning, middle and an end.
I also have to site The Lost City and the 2 part The Sentinel and the Gauntlet modules as well.

1 in Flood Season

2 in Demonscar legacy
1 in Test of the Smoking Eye
1 in The Secret of the Soul Pillars

I am about to run Foundation of Flame so I am expecting a death or two.

I can actually update this. Foundation of Flame was pretty much a cake walk. Thirteen Cages, 3 deaths and we aren't even finished yet.

S.Baldrick wrote:

I am about to run Foundation of Flame so I am expecting a death or two.

Sorry, this goes with the previous post...

...I don't know who I am or where I live...

Your name is of no consequence, and you live in the pipe above the water closet...

Viva, Black Adder

LG

You forgot "I have a cunning plan my lord"

And, really, what kind of an archmage would want to set off an event that would be a major precursor to the Age of Worms? He'd have to be pretty manipulative to encourage such a thing! What sort of good archmage would be so meddlesome?

--Erik

That's a very good point. I'm going to try to point that out to my group when we play the Age of Worms after we complete the Shackled City.

Actually, your memory is just fine. Setting up the PCs to retrieve one of the Shackleborn (Zenith Spintershield) to turn him over to PC's enemies is exactly what she did. However, her motivations were to investigate the Cagewrights for her master, which is a good-aligned arch mage in the north.

That being said, those motivations were NEVER explained in the magazine version of the Adventure Path. Her true nature and goals were not explained until the hardbound book version of the Adventure Path (although one of the Dungeon magazine editors that posts here did reveal that her alignment was Chaotic Good).

Oh man yes - I can second that opinion. Paizo and the Dungeon team are doing a fantastic job. The scenarios in Dungeon are seriously good and chock full of juicy DM inspiring stuff. All the back up material they produce for free is just the icing on the cake.

Agreed. I have been buying Dungeon off and on since the early 90's. Now I am a subscriber. The people at Paizo are doing a great job.

I actually received my copy today and I live in Utah. Hopefully everyone else across the country has received theirs as well.
I have found Paizo's schedule inconsistant. I received 127 almost immediately but typically it takes around 2 weeks after the ship date to arrive. However, I can live with that.

For the area around the City of Greyhawk and Diamond lake, the area map from the 2nd Edition module "Doomgrinder" is very good. It shows the City of Greyhawk, Diamond Lake, Blackwall Keep and the Mist Marsh. The module also has a section on the town of Diamond Lake and the Cult of the Green Lady.

Torc, an Elf from the red box Tom Moldvay basic set (One of the finest gaming products ever published). Rolled him up, he survived the fist couple of caves in the Caves of Chaos but died in "In Search of the Unknown." I that would have been the summer of 1982.

Sorry, forgot to write something.

Have you ever had to compromise with your parents because they thought D&D was evil? What about your church? Has anyone ever judged you as an evil person for playing D&D?

Actually, yeah. My parents were pretty cool about. They were thinking better that I was out playing D&D when I was in high school (mid-80’s) instead out partying, drinking and doing drugs (I waited for college to do that). However, I did take some flak for playing D&D from SOME members of the religion I was raised in (Mormon). However, I was quick to point out to them that Tracy Hickman is a Mormon and he co-wrote The Dragon Lance novels and modules as well as the Desert of Desolation series. Sadly, that didn't do much to convince them that D&D wasn't inherently evil.

ok my PC's are all level 9 and they are about to take on Nabthataron...I forsee DOOm. He is a CR 14 Deomn with many very stron powers....how did you guys handle this encounter...how many of your pc;s died? How did you alter the encounter...

Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks!

Depending on the size of your party, this encounter can be deadly. I ran it with 4 PCs of the level recommended in the adventure. I also followed the tactics that were spelled out in the magazine version of the adventure. The end result: Nabthataron was driven off but not before Alek and the party’s barbarian/rogue were dead and the party’s paladin had been taken out by Nabthataron’s power word stun attack. Fortunately for my group, the party’s cleric survived and was able to use raise dead on the barbarian/rogue (they brought back Alek after they had completed the Test of the Smoking Eye.) so I was still able to make a smooth transition into the Test of the Smoking Eye. Without that, I would have introduced any new player characters after the party had transported to the Abyss. If you party is relatively small and you want to avoid party death, you could have Nabthataron teleport in, kill Alek, mockingly laugh at the party and then teleport out again. Be careful of your choice because your players may feel cheated by that. On the other hand, they may be relieved by it as well. I do know that when I was done running it, my players were relieved when Nabthataron finally teleported out.

I believe that it is roughly a year after the Shackled City Adventure Path. I remember reading that but I can't remember where. It may have been in the first issue featuring the Age of Worms Adventure path.

Takasi wrote:

IMO, it would be smarter for them to stop segmenting the market with so many "official" D&D setting books and instead focus on one or two settings (Eberron & FR). Paizo should follow their lead if this happens and drop Greyhawk too.

BLASPHEMY!!!

Amen brother! Amem!

I will be using Greyhawk.

'Secrets Of Bonehill'. Wow, i really loved the Lendore-isles adventures back then...

Do you know, if 'Death's Ride' (my favorite 1st ed. adventure) is part of the Greyhawk-canon? Heck, is it even located in Greyhawk?

Death's Ride was actually part of the Basic and Expert box sets lines. So I would assume that it was located in what became known as Mystra.

I got mine yesterday (8/1) as well. This was my second issue since subscriping. I guess I am still just learning what to expect when it comes to the issue arriving.

Sorry if I missed it in the mag, but how many fanatics are there in room 2 of the Dark Cathedral?

I'm glad I'm not the only one that was wondering how many fanatics were in room 2 of the Dark Cathedral.

1 in Flood Season
2 in Demonscar legacy
1 in Test of the Smoking Eye
1 in The Secret of the Soul Pillars

I am about to run Foundation of Flame so I am expecting a death or two.

In my campaign, the only return villain so far was the half dwarf/half troll slave trader from "Life's Bizarre." The slave trader managed to escape the party after playing possum and regenerating enough hit points to make his escape. He later returned and attempted to kill one of the party members but was slain by the Striders of Flaragan. (The party member in question was an attractive female that had developed a semi romantic relationship with both of the male half elf Striders.)

We just finished up the Lords of Oblivion and I am planning on having the party encounter Nabthatoron again since he survived his battle with the party and he certainly hasn’t forgotten (or forgiven) them.