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HI
So I'm planning to run Age of Worms. I have tried several times in the past but the game always fizzles out after a few sessions. I have also played it a couple times, but never past the first chapter. Everyone in the group has been present for at least one of these attempts to play AoW. I think it's a great module, but we just need to get past the first chapter. But I don't want to just pick up at chapter 2 either.
So I was wondering if anyone could summarize ch1 for me in such a way that I could run it, maybe as a one session dungeon crawl, skip almost everything and just include the most vital components. For example, do I really need to keep the ghost? It's an interesting encounter, but everyone in this group knows how it turns out. What else can be cut and what can be kept. I mostly ask because while I'm very familiar with the first chapter I've read 2 & 3 once or twice and skimmed the rest, if something is important or if there is some significant forshadowing I don't want to cut that out, I just want to get past the stuff everyone is familiar with and get on to the ch2 and beyond.
Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

PC's decided they didn't like Harliss, so they attacked her. She was about to beat them so I played it off like she was tired and just wanted to leave, tried to get them to back down. But they didn't They prety much tackled her and with lots of tipping and grappling they killed her.

So now what do I do with Serpents of Scuttle Cove? Another NPC? but Who?

PC's decided they didn't like Harliss, so they attacked her. She was about to beat them so I played it off like she was tired and just wanted to leave, tried to get them to back down. But they didn't They prety much tackled her and with lots of tipping and grappling they killed her.

So now what do I do with Serpents of Scuttle Cove? Another NPC? but Who?

Thanks,
I have a fairly large collection
They are ECL17, but level doesn't matter much since I'm only looking for ideas.

Thanks a lot! I will go through and read those later

My PCs will soon find themselves in a city in the underdark inhabited mostly by Dwarves and Gnomes. I wanted to find a side trek I could run there, just a little distraction.

I found "Rock and a Hard Place" from #91, I like that, but its too short, I'm looking for maybe some complications in town, or a nearby dungeon crawl they could do.

any suggestions?

Thank you! That's exactly what I needed!

Mr. West, I love your maps!

My PCs are going after an Eldritch Giant that commands a gang of Stone Giants. This just kind of came up on short notice. I was just wondering if anyone could point me towards a particular issue of Dungeon with a dungeon that would fit for this purpose.

I don't have time to write much up, I could improvise it, but I would rather have some published material for at least a map and some interesting ideas.

any suggestions?

So the short answer is no, there will never be a PDF version available of Dungeon 147.

I have a PDF issue of 147 and 148. I don't know where they came from, but they exist.

Now to find those last couple of issues...

Thank you! :D

I remember there being an adventure in an old Dungeon mag where there was this colossus. it was like a statue, 100ft tall, and hallow inside. It was a giant steam powered mechanical man. I don't remember the details of the adventure though. I just remember there was a cool pic of this huge construct with a smoke stack coming out of it's shoulder and then there was a floor plan for the inside.

Can anyone remember which issue this was in? I have them all, I just can't remember the issue.

ya, I don't know. I would like to have a better explanation. Maybe there is some way she could know they work for Lavinia, but how?

I am just reading this and preparing the adventure and it occurs to me that every single PC who was in the party at the time they met Harliss Javell has since died. Of course the players are still the same, but there is not a single original character left in the group.

So, logically she would search for the adventurers she knew and would learn that they were all dead, now what?

Anybody else ever have this problem?

I've been reading this module for a little over a year now, I started running it back in January. We just started the Tides of Dread.

I was once really into this campaign and the story, but now I just feel burned out on it. there is only one PC in the group who has survived from day one, he is also the only player in the group who has been there since day one. We had 6 players at one point, people dropped out for various reasons, now we are down to two players and myself.

The players have been so distracted by the events in the game that they don't even remember the story, they have asked me every session for the last 3 sessions "why are we going to this island again?".

I don't know what to do about this. Have any of you been burned out on this or another module? what did you do about it?

I'm thinking of gutting the whole thing and rewriting it.
I tried watching Pirates of the Caribbean for the millionth time, since thats the movie that originally made me want to run this campaign, but I'm pretty burnt out on those movies too.

what to do.....

so, my angry ranting is being posted but not my thoughtful new topic that I came here to post in the first place.

I'm just seething, frustrated beyond the use of screaming

here we go again...
I finally found the link to post a new thread, wrote the topic and submitted it, and now its gone. its not there at all.
I back up in the browser and the text box is empty (I though Firefox was supposed to be better than Safari? Safari would have kept my text)

lets see if THIS one will post

GRRR......

no I'm not blind, now I see it.
it didn't load at all.

man, I am just having a bad day, one thing after another is just pissing me right off, and its not even lunch time yet.

GRRR.....

I'm posting this here cause I started this topic and I don't want to hijack anyone's thread.

that said... WTF?!?!?!?!
Why can I not find the link to start a new thread?!?!?! Am I F**king blind!?!?!?!?!

This is really pissing me off, how can there not be a link to start a new thread in this forum?

he needs to make a concentration check (DC 27) to activate a spell like ability in a grapple. DC 20 +7 for "greater teleport"

Technically correct, except that he doesn't actually need to grapple. He just makes a melee touch attack, if it hits the target gets a will save, if he fails he is teleported along with the demon.

edit: I posted too quickly, there is more to be clarified.
The PHB P.141 tells us that touch attacks do not provoke AoOs.
Page 142 tells us that supernatural abilities, such as the Bar-Lgura's Abduction ability, do not require concentration checks, nor do they provoke AoOs.

I’m just reading Here there be Monsters in preparation for the next game session. One thing is bothering me though. Olangru’s tactics are a little, well… Lame.
He has an Int of 13, not a genius, but at least smart enough to know how to use his powers for the best effect. In his tactics section they just have him fighting melee until he dies. With his spell like abilities I think he could be a lot more dangerous to the party.

The party consists of a human ninja, an elf bard, a dwarf fighter, a human sorcerer and a human ranger.
The ninja will be hitting him flat footed, at a FF AC of 27 he should be pretty safe, though he will never be able to catch the ninja either.
The elf, the dwarf, the sorcerer and the ranger can all be disposed of easily with his abduction ability. He just grabs them, teleports out of his layer to the top of a high tree and leaves them there. The whole process takes 2 rounds.
I know that tactic wouldn’t be much fun for the players, but I really think that’s what he would do.
Also, I suppose he would be a melee fighter, but if an enemy was too threatening for melee (for example, when the ninja pulls some crazy sh*t I didn’t think of, something he does at least once per session) he would use his telekinesis. In fact I think that would be the best tactic for dealing with the ninja, pick him up from across the room and pin him to the wall.
any thoughts?

(I always plan for the ninja to do something unexpected)

As a DM in the middle of WoD looking back, the biggest change I would do is replace the Korpus.

I would make them a different non-aquatic race. In the Lightless Depths, flooding them out never seemed like a good plan and I felt a little silly pushing it as a good plan. Plus the attack by the Korpus scouts on palanquins was really lame. I had trouble building up their menace, the way they were written. There were so many kludges to have them even function in a dry environment (stashes of flying potions and decanters of endless water everywhere.)

Overall it has been an awesome path and lot of fun, with the exception of that I would not change anything else.

You've convinced me, I didn't like them much to begin with. I'm still in SWW and this thread is very helpful. I'm going to switch out the Kopru with something else, any suggestions?

I began running the campaign with only two players, it was pretty rough. We had a TPK at Kraken’s Cove. In hind sight I should have done something to keep them alive, like having two PCs each, or gestalt or a few extra levels or something. If you have a group of 4 or more don’t worry about it, but if you try to play with 3 or less be careful, this campaign is deadly.

In the scene when Rowyn made her offer the rogue of the party agreed and even crossed the room to back her up. He was able to bluff her out of a couple of healing potions. Then when it came to a fight the bard got a well placed critical with a light crossbow, the rogue then had to bluff his way out of that one, insisting that he wasn’t really going to betray them.
So they are still in the employ of Lavinia.
Since then, they have been acting more and more like criminal types. We are about half way through chapter 3 and the only original surviving party member is the bard. Every new PC that has been introduced has been either neutral or evil and I think the group is regretting the decision they made when they killed Rowyn.

So I am just trying to think of a way to sort of realign the game mid stream to reflect the current player attitudes. I thought about having Javell recruit them, but they didn’t make a very high diplomacy with her. Another thought was to have Lavinia turn dark, but frankly I don’t like that idea because Lavinia right now is like a shining light of goodness in a wicked world.

Any thoughts?

Ps. The group right now is:
Human Ninja Lv6,
Human Ranger Lv5,
Elf Bard Lv5,
Sea Cliff Dwarf Fighter Lv4,
Human Sorcerer Lv4,
Aventi Wizard Lv4

Whoa! Thats sweet!

My Maiden is ready. We're playing tomorrow night. I made a big box...

If you've done this already, how did you arrange the inside and who did you put in which cabin?

Can you please clarify? I don't understand. You're talking about the Sea Wyvern's Wake? Just skimming over it I don't see any reference to a Maiden of the High Seas and I am just curious what is it.

In my game, on the PCs advice, Lavinia hired a mundane healer, just an Expert with max ranks in Heal, Survival, K. Nature and other useful skills (actually I havent totally statted him out yet, just gave him a +5 for heal checks).

I like the Dirge Singer PRC, I think that was in Libris Mortis?
also, Dragon mag, I forget the issue, but they had an alternate bard who gave penalties to his enemies instead of bonuses to his friends. I can't remember the name of it now.
anyway, I had a villain a couple years ago that was a Vampire Nymph Bard Dirge Singer (this was a gestalt game), she was totally wicked, instead of trying to kill the party she would seduce them and make them her vampire slaves.
one of my all time favorite villains.

about the ship, be careful. if Harliss has already occuped it, it may end in a battle between her and the pc (sometimes players are obsesed with something), specially if Lavinia ask them to retrieve it. If it's what you want, great. if not, consider having a replacement ship for pc. (even a paty of 5-6 level characters could end dead confronting harliss and a pirate crew)

That could be a problem. I am hoping that they will come up with something clever to get the ship, but if they fail to do so I need a backup plan. Maybe Harliss gets hassled by the city watch or soemthing, but the PCs will end up with the boat anyway, I am really trying to create an illusion of a challenge more than an actual challenge.

It looks good to me someonelse, I think you are struggling to motivate the party to get into the LD hideout?

Actually I would prefer they didn't go back to the lair because I kind of want to keep them around. The LD are defeated and quietly rebuilding, they are taking only one chance at revenge and if it doesn't work they will cut their losses. If they did actually go back it would require me to draw out that whole map again for a hand ful of bad guys who are two levels behind the party in challenge rating. If anything I would fill the place with devious traps and have the actual thieves hiding out someplace else for a while.

Thank you all for your suggestions, I welcome any more! I have to figure out what I'm doing by sunday morning.

Late the other night I had a cool idea (partially inspired by some comments on this forum, so thank you for that) and wrote it all up. Now I read over it and I still like it, but it doesn’t quite make sense. So I was wondering if anyone could help me justify this whole situation.

So here’s the basics, even keeping it simple it gets kind of complicated. Keep in mind that this is a low magic game in an historic setting (exactly as Pirates of the Caribbean was).

I never got a chance to run the original thief ambush, they went straight to the taxidermist and from there is was a blood bath all the way to Rowyn's treasure chests, they left the rest of the guild unexplored.

Kersh Ruftun discovered the body of Rowyn Kellani, so he ordered two of the remaining thieves to leave her on the doorstep of the Kellani manor early in the morning, ring the bell and run like hell. The other bodies were dumped in the harbor.

The Kobold in the thieves guild had a mate, and that mate happens to be Kala, the leader of their little tribe. Kala is a Lv4 Kobold (2 rogue, 2 sorcerer). She wants revenge on who killed her mate. She hears the news of his demise a week later and comes to Sasserine with 10 of her best warriors (monster manual kobolds). They set about reinforcing the guild hall with new traps and defenses (I figured they helped set it up in the first place) and they send out a few of the remaining thieves to track down the people responsible.

Rowyn’s parents had connections with the temple of Wee Jas and paid a lot of coin to have her raised. (I originally decided this so that she could come back in chapter 3, but then it occurred to me that if she was brought back from the dead she would have a new lease on life, I think she would let it go (for now) and focus on rebuilding the thieves guild. She puts a generous price on the PC’s heads, knowing the greedy pirates and mercenaries will fall over each other trying to kill the PCs and then she puts them out of her mind.

We have just finished Bullywug Gambit and they have some down time, I have a brief side quest planned just for a change of pace, then they will return to Lavinia and get the plot hook for Sea Wyvern’s Wake, then they have a week to prepare.

We were one PC short of a TPK at Kraken’s Cove, they never met Harliss Javell. She fought her way out, took a boat from the Sea Wyvern and went to Sasserine to look for her first mate. She looks first at their favorite tavern in Shadowshore, no one has seen him. so she comes snooping around Lavinia’s place and finds no sign of any recent murder (it has been a few days by now, the PCs are out of the city at the moment and the house has been cleaned up, the frog men didn’t really show themselves publicly so the watch is trying to keep rumors of giant frogs to a minimum for the sake of public order and their own reputation as protectors). So she gives up after a few days of worry and begins to assemble a crew for the Sea Wyvern. This task takes another week, once she has gathered 3d4+3 sailor (giving her a minimum necessary to sail) she steals another row boat and they head out for the Kraken’s Cove.

So, good story so far, this is where I start having trouble. I feel like my tower of building blocks is about to collapse, if only I could balance it just right.

Before they can head out to get the Sea Wyvern they will be ambushed. Lead by the Kobold Kala, the thieves, accompanied by the Kobolds stage an attack in a narrow alley. One of the kobolds will throw a dagger at a PC, then run into the nearby ally. From there I will run the ambush as written from There is no Honor.

What I WANT to do is have the PCs put up a good fight but ultimately get hit hard, then have Harliss show up (out for a stroll perhaps? I don't know really why she is there) She helps them out of a bind, then they can talk. But why would she even help them? she seems more like the type to pull up a seat and just watch to see what happens.

I am really just trying to do 3 things,
1. Revive the thieves’ guild, even though the PCs don't know Rowyn is still alive. I have ideas for using this after the STAP. (and run the encounter I didn’t get to run before)
2. Have the conversation with Harliss they missed at Kraken’s Cove, and just introduce her to the party, since she shows up later.
3. inform the PCs that someone else has intentions on that boat. She will be good natured about it though, if they mention their intention of taking it she reminds them that according to the laws of the sea who ever finds it first has salvage rights, “And who ever gets there second gets to be a pirate!”

I am willing to admit defeat at this point, I don’t know if its gonna work out like this. Maybe I cant combine all those things in one encounter, I’m hoping someone has an idea how I could, or if not, what else could I do in the given situation to achieve the 3 points listed above?

Wow, over a year with no posts, then it comes back cause some one thinks its retarded. I love irony!

Anyhoo… After the last session when everyone was packing up I accidentally made an off hand remark about the possibility of romantic relationships in game, then, the LE Ninja in my group told me he was going to try to hook up with her and Liamae and Rowyn.

This should be interesting.

I have some general advice.
First of all, what's good for the goose is good for the gander. Give all your named NPCs action points and whatever other house rules you may be using.
I like to review named NPCs and sometimes I don’t like their builds, if I have time I may re-stat them. sounds like you are already doing this. If your players are optimizers you can be too. (I know a player who always plays wizards, he is great with them, so I pick his brain, ask him advice on spell selection and Metamagic feats and other things, over the course of a few months of gaming I got all kinds of great advice from him, I then used this advice to build a wizard villain that almost, but not quite, killed his wizard)

I know its kind of a cheap move, but you can also max out the hit points of the bad guys, they will never know.

A little off topic, but it may help: I find that doing secret rolls increases tension at the table. I keep track of certain things like spot, listen and sense motive (a few others as well), my players know that it is their responsibility to keep me updated on these scores and that failure to do so means they don't get to use their fancy new bonus next time I roll a check for them. Some times, in a dramatic moment, or in a situation where I need to think for a moment, I will roll the dice and stare at them meaningfully, I might nod and say “interesting” or a mischievous “Ooooh! Cool!” Even if the die rolls were meaningless, it gives me a moment to pause while everyone else is on the edge of their seats.

As for advice on the module itself? I just read it the other day myself so I don't have much advice on that front.
I find that encounters where they need to protect the weak can be very difficult. For example if some of the nameless NPCs were being threatened somehow, the PCs could just plow through without a scratch, but they would fail their objective. I don't have any specific ideas how that might work out though, its just an idea.

The PCs got back to Sasserine by taking a row boat off the Sea Wyvern, so what if Harliss did the same?
Might she also notice that another of the boats was missing?
She arrives in Sasserine the day after the PCs and begins looking for her first mate. She would probably come sniffing around Vanderboren Manor. I never really gave much thought to body disposal, but considering Lavinia’s status and the fact that she has been missing for a few days, I think she can get everything sorted out.
I think Harliss is savvy enough to know something is up. She heads back to Shadowshore and asks around, no one has seen her first mate. After a while she assumes the worst.
So she doesn’t know what has happened to her first mate, doesn’t know about what happened at the house (given the low magic setting, I think they would want to cover up the fact that frog monsters were able to invade the city, or at least keep it as quiet as possible).
Once she gives up all hope she will begin trying to put a new crew together. She will spend a week gathering up sailors from the Shadowshore district, perhaps putting out a rumor that the PCs might pick up. That the Crimson Fleet is in town and hiring.
Once she has at least 6 more sailors she acquires a second row boat and head for the Sea Wyvern. All together, I will say that from the day she arrives in town to the day she sets sail with the Sea Wyvern two weeks will pass. Lavinia is studying for a week and then comes to the PCs and informs them of Farshore, then they begin preparations for their voyage, which will take a week. So they will be heading for the ship at the same time and there is no way they will be able to defeat Harliss Javell in a sword fight, so they will have to outsmart her.

The ST Ap is hard enough to run with 4 characters, let alone 2 and a NPC Wizard.

I would recommend they go with Gestalt Characters or play 2 PC's each.
The PC's could always meet Harliss through other means such as she comes to Sasserine asking around about her First Mate, whom the PC's probably killed.
They could find out this women is asking about them and she could tell them about what happened at the cove as an example to keep the plot going.

that is a good idea, thanks

I forgot to mention how the bard (who took scribe scroll at 3rd level) had one scroll of cure light wounds, the ranger was down to one hit point and asked the bard if he had any magic healing, the bard lied and said no, 4 rounds later the ranger was dead.

Tto save you the time, in short what happened is that they only entered the first two rooms of Kraken’s Cove and almost had a TPK. They returned to Sasserine and I couldn’t very well just drop the whole adventure while they lick their wounds. So I ran the mod as written, they were able to free Lavinia and the ending went ok.
The problem is that they never went any deeper into Kraken’s Cove, they never met Harliss and they never got any of the info, XP or treasure they were meant to find.

Now, being reasonable, I think that they have missed their chance. The savages will tear each other apart and, if Harliss survives at all she will be long gone before the PCs return.

how badly did they screw themselves on this one in terms of the story? if its just XP and treasure it shouldn’t be a big deal, I would like them to meet Harliss though.
is there a reasonable way to keep Harliss around so they can meet her?

Here is a long winded version of what happened originally posted in the Savage Tide Obituaries

WTF!? Why isn't this working? ---> [sblock] I usually don’t write these, but after last night’s chaotic session I had to tell someone.
There are two players in the group, we had more but some dropped out, so last week they went into the thief’s guild with 5, the two players each had 2 PCs, one with a bard and a fighter, the other with a ranger and a rogue, and me with an NPC wizard. all of these characters were PCs at one time or another, but their players are gone and we still have the character sheets.

Anyway, they totally dominated the guild, so I told them they should be able to get along with just one PC and I will keep the wizard around for magic and such.
So we went to Kraken’s Cove. I ran the ranger as an NPC and the players had a rogue and a bard.
They came to shore north of Kraken’s Cove and walked through the forest, the ranger got everyone lost a few miles east of the cove, it actually took 3 days for them to find the place. They met a Grey Render in the forest, it was pretty friendly, helped them fight off a pack of hungry wolves, but it wouldn’t go close to the cove.
They took care of the monkeys easily enough (cause I forgot their damage reduction) then they headed down to the walkway. As soon as the three of them were on it, it started shaking so they all ran for it, then it collapsed. They all grabbed onto the rocks and the rogue made a great climb check to get over to the beach.
Now at this point they have already noticed the burning boat heading their way. The bard and ranger made terrible climb checks and fell into the water. They swam under the wreckage and made it to shore eventually.
Meanwhile, the rogue was on the beach so he started going through all the crates and such, where he found some savage pirates. He fought a little, but he doesn’t have a weapon that can beat that DR so he tumbled away and drank a potion of Invisibility. Then he began to explore some of the caves, making noises and attracting the attention of another 3 savage pirates and a savage dinosaur.
He returned to the beach to find the bard and ranger fighting the pirates. From there they fought their way into the caves, the rogue was playing with the dino, trying to ride it and capture it.
At one point there were some Savage Pirates in one room feasting on the corpses already there (they had made really bad listen checks) so the rogue made a bluff check to tell everyone to be quiet. The ranger had taken some intelligence damage, so I was just playing him in character with bad judgment when he (with one hit point left mind you) placed himself right in the intersection of the two caves near the beach exit and announced loudly that he would stay here and watch their backs as they explored the caves.
The two savage pirates looked up from their meal and charged. The ranger lasted a few more rounds, he made it to the beach, but eventually they got him and made a meal of him (L, he was my all time favorite Driz’zt clone…. But there shall be another).
Meanwhile, inside the rogue was now trying to hide form the dino, hoping to make the most of his sneak attack, they got through about half of it’s hit points. the rogue leaped from his hiding place and attacked, hoping to get sneak attack damage and what not. His missed, the dino then made a full attack and the rogue was disemboweled before he hit the ground.
The bard, after seeing the death of his ranger friend, went in search of the rogue. He got into the room and had to come pretty close to get a good look of the dino eating the rogue, he made a move silently check and the dino didn’t notice him, so he escaped, made it back to the Sea Wyvern where he met up with the NPC Wizard (who is also an Aventi).
That’s pretty much the bulk of the story, the player of the rogue then made a ninja who’s backstory is that he is an assassin hunting the rogue who just died. That story hook is working for now but I don't know what he plans to do if and when they actually find the rogue’s body.
They never even got to meet Captain Javell, the bard and wizard together went back to Sasserine and had to deal with the pollywogs by themselves, not having any idea what was going on either, in fact they were confused when I started drawing out a layout of the house, “we just wanted to go talk to her, we’re not attacking!”
I had the ninja join when they got in a fight with at the parade, he was pretty kickass in that fight.
(we play long sessions, I think this one was about 11 hours long, with breaks of course)
next they went about freeing Lavinia and the jade ravens and all the other NPCs that aren’t currently in use. the bard and wizard were in a bad way so they holed up in the library while the ninja went sneaking around the house.
He found the dogs and fed them the flesh of a dead badger he found in the atrium, then he put them on leashes and let them lead him through the house. They would sniff out some frog men, he would go invisible and let them do their thing, when he found a frog they couldn’t do much to he would step in with a katana. The whole scenario was pretty badass. he cleared out the first floor and went down to the basement, where he found a sorceress and some other bad guys. After taking care of them they rested for 8 hours and woke up at 2am. then they found the bard and wizard who were also done resting, and they went and cleared out the rest of the bad guys.

As much as this AP went way off track in this session, it actually kinda ended right where it should, except that now they haven’t met Harliss Javell and they haven’t collected all the XP and treasure that is laying around Kraken’s Cove, I suppose next week we shall see what happens there.
[/sblock]

I usually don’t write these, but after last night’s chaotic session I had to tell someone.
There are two players in the group, we had more but some dropped out, so last week they went into the thief’s guild with 5, the two players each had 2 PCs, one with a bard and a fighter, the other with a ranger and a rogue, and me with an NPC wizard. all of these characters were PCs at one time or another, but their players are gone and we still have the character sheets.

Anyway, they totally dominated the guild, so I told them they should be able to get along with just one PC and I will keep the wizard around for magic and such.
So we went to Kraken’s Cove. I ran the ranger as an NPC and the players had a rogue and a bard.
They came to shore north of Kraken’s Cove and walked through the forest, the ranger got everyone lost a few miles east of the cove, it actually took 3 days for them to find the place. They met a Grey Render in the forest, it was pretty friendly, helped them fight off a pack of hungry wolves, but it wouldn’t go close to the cove.
They took care of the monkeys easily enough (cause I forgot their damage reduction) then they headed down to the walkway. As soon as the three of them were on it, it started shaking so they all ran for it, then it collapsed. They all grabbed onto the rocks and the rogue made a great climb check to get over to the beach.
Now at this point they have already noticed the burning boat heading their way. The bard and ranger made terrible climb checks and fell into the water. They swam under the wreckage and made it to shore eventually.
Meanwhile, the rogue was on the beach so he started going through all the crates and such, where he found some savage pirates. He fought a little, but he doesn’t have a weapon that can beat that DR so he tumbled away and drank a potion of Invisibility. Then he began to explore some of the caves, making noises and attracting the attention of another 3 savage pirates and a savage dinosaur.
He returned to the beach to find the bard and ranger fighting the pirates. From there they fought their way into the caves, the rogue was playing with the dino, trying to ride it and capture it.
At one point there were some Savage Pirates in one room feasting on the corpses already there (they had made really bad listen checks) so the rogue made a bluff check to tell everyone to be quiet. The ranger had taken some intelligence damage, so I was just playing him in character with bad judgment when he (with one hit point left mind you) placed himself right in the intersection of the two caves near the beach exit and announced loudly that he would stay here and watch their backs as they explored the caves.
The two savage pirates looked up from their meal and charged. The ranger lasted a few more rounds, he made it to the beach, but eventually they got him and made a meal of him (L, he was my all time favorite Driz’zt clone…. But there shall be another).
Meanwhile, inside the rogue was now trying to hide form the dino, hoping to make the most of his sneak attack, they got through about half of it’s hit points. the rogue leaped from his hiding place and attacked, hoping to get sneak attack damage and what not. His missed, the dino then made a full attack and the rogue was disemboweled before he hit the ground.
The bard, after seeing the death of his ranger friend, went in search of the rogue. He got into the room and had to come pretty close to get a good look of the dino eating the rogue, he made a move silently check and the dino didn’t notice him, so he escaped, made it back to the Sea Wyvern where he met up with the NPC Wizard (who is also an Aventi).
That’s pretty much the bulk of the story, the player of the rogue then made a ninja who’s backstory is that he is an assassin hunting the rogue who just died. That story hook is working for now but I don't know what he plans to do if and when they actually find the rogue’s body.
They never even got to meet Captain Javell, the bard and wizard together went back to Sasserine and had to deal with the pollywogs by themselves, not having any idea what was going on either, in fact they were confused when I started drawing out a layout of the house, “we just wanted to go talk to her, we’re not attacking!”
I had the ninja join when they got in a fight with at the parade, he was pretty kickass in that fight.
(we play long sessions, I think this one was about 11 hours long, with breaks of course)
next they went about freeing Lavinia and the jade ravens and all the other NPCs that aren’t currently in use. the bard and wizard were in a bad way so they holed up in the library while the ninja went sneaking around the house.
He found the dogs and fed them the flesh of a dead badger he found in the atrium, then he put them on leashes and let them lead him through the house. They would sniff out some frog men, he would go invisible and let them do their thing, when he found a frog they couldn’t do much to he would step in with a katana. The whole scenario was pretty badass. he cleared out the first floor and went down to the basement, where he found a sorceress and some other bad guys. After taking care of them they rested for 8 hours and woke up at 2am. then they found the bard and wizard who were also done resting, and they went and cleared out the rest of the bad guys.

As much as this AP went way off track in this session, it actually kinda ended right where it should, except that now they haven’t met Harliss Javell and they haven’t collected all the XP and treasure that is laying around Kraken’s Cove, I suppose next week we shall see what happens there.

ok, I had another spontaneous burst of creativity and wrote this up. Just some backstory to explain a few things. Its kind of convoluted, only because it all came from a single brainstorm, I need to break it up and expand on every idea individually.
I’m sure this kind of thing has been done before, playing with the Romans and the Illuminati this way.
This is meant to explain 3 things, 1. why are there demons on earth in human form? 2. why is there such a stigma about magic in this culture? 3. How do wizards keep the magic alive?
Here goes:
• _ Two thousand years ago there was a great cataclysm.
• _ a cult of demon worshippers conquered the land and ruled most of Europe and Asia with an iron fist.
• _ they had been in charge for a thousand years, the ruler of the cult sought to bring the demon lords to earth and to replace them himself.
• _ His name was Lucifer
• _ He was successful, he became the Lord of Hell and the previous rulers of hell were deposed. they were sent to earth where they were incarnated into humanoid bodies, their memories erased.
• _ there were a few angels who were also effected by this (perhaps they were in battling demons in hell when it happened? Or perhaps his epic spell somehow reached beyond hell to bring many outsiders to earth?)
• _ they have lived many lives here on earth, with each life they made a little more progress towards regaining their previous might. Demogorgon has made the most progress, even though he does not remember his previous lives, in every life he has lived he has come to be the high priest in the cult of Demogorgon. This time he has discovered human sacrifice and is very close to regaining his previous demonic power.
• _ shortly after the disappearance of the Emperor his governors were scrambling for power. the empire was eventually broken up into factions that fought a devastating world war. after less than a century of war the empire was reformed under the name Rome and a new capitol was built on the Italian peninsula.
• _ the city of Rome was founded by twin brothers, they were lawful good, a paladin and a cleric, they had trust worthy friends who adventured with them, a wizard and a ranger. They attempted to found a new empire, this time of peace and freedom.
• _ the heroes truly did have good intentions, but now the people feared magic. when the good wizard tried to set himself up as Archmage an angry mob showed up at his tower with torches. When the cleric set up a grand church and set about healing people and providing other magical services the people accused him of being demonic.
• _ the heroes were driven out of the city and exiled to Africa and were never heard from again.
• _ meanwhile, the people elected a new government, soon a new emperor rose to power and the historic Roman Empire was born.
• _ they burned scrolls and spell books, they destroyed magic items when they could, or threw them into volcanoes or deep ocean trenches.
• _ the most powerful artifacts were hidden away by wizards who knew that this era of fear would pass and that magic would once again be embraced someday
• _ there is an ancient cabal of spell casters founded by Illumians who keep the tradition alive, a secret society calling themselves the Illuminati. (Alignment – Neutral Good)
• _ The Illuminati have two major enemies, one they are aware of and one they are not aware of.
• _ They know that there is a race of creatures called Illithids that live deep below the earth and that they have intentions on the surface world.
• _ What they don't know is that a small handful of their members are also members of another secret organization far older than the Illuminati or even the empire that once ruled the known world, they call themselves the Lords of Dust and every one of them is a Rakshasa.

I'm in a bit of a conundrum in my play-by-post Savage Tide game. The party has just washed ashore on the Isle of Dread at the beginning of "Here There Be Monsters," as per the script, and are preparing to head out for Farshore. One of the characters is a druid, and her player struck upon the idea of transforming into a winged creature and just flying all the way to Farshore within a day or two and having them send a boat back for the stranded party. I can't come up with a good reason to disallow this, but I don't want to skip over the entire adventure.

Advice? I know I could have them encounter Olangru and Fogmire during parts of the next adventure, but they'd miss out on the journey through the interior and the NPC interactions, not to mention the loot and XP.

the Isle of Dread is pretty dangerous for the party, it would be even harder alone. Sure the druid is flying, but there are plenty of flying monsters she would have to deal with.

as far as loot and XP, if your players don't earn it thats their problem as I see it.

To throw in my thoughts... This triad sounds depressingly similar to a group I briefly gamed with years ago. I'm betting they don't actually want to play D&D, they want to play this thing referred to as Power Trip Fantasy. Good luck getting them to go through any AP; my bet is that you'll find it nigh-impossible to even convince them to get through a single installment without doing something like butchering some NPCs, extorting people, or generally acting on the various impulses that are forbidden in the real world.

If you desperately want to keep playing, don't expect any kind of plot to work, nor anything aspirations on their part beyond the next spate of killing and looting.

I beg to differ. you can have a fun adventure for evil PCs, you just have to be aware of who you are dealing with and be prepared for it.

so, I need to write up or otherwise acquire info about the following places:
New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Havanna (and Cuba in general), Haiti, Jamaica, Arborea (I'm thinking this shoudl be somewhere in the south eastern Caribbean, perhaps in the Virgin Islands), The Bermuda Triangle (perhaps Gaping Maw is an island at the center of the triangle?)

Very nice overall, I quite like it.

I'd suggest going with your idea about Black Jack not knowing his true destiny--it will make it all the more startling to everyone when it happens. One of the weaknesses of D&D is that after a while everyone knows who everyone is--surprises are wonderful.

I'd suggest giving Malcanthet a french name--how about something like "Madame Delice"?

Thanks

I do need a good french name for Malcanthet, I need something that has a nice ring to it, something that rolls off the tongue easily and sensually. for the time being I am refering to her as Madame Canthette, if I don't come up with anything better by the time I need to drop that name thats what I will go with.

yes, Black Jack doesn't know his true nature. I'm thinking that maybe his ultimate goal is to acheive some kind of immortality or something.

Given that I am including some other demons and angels I'm wondering how far I should go. Should I make up a humanoid version of every demon or angel who could possibly get involved? I already wrote up a little something about Graz'zt being an Apache Warchief was was excommunicated from the tribe for being too violent.
I also considered making outsiders available as PCs, if I did that I would probably limit it to Ghaele and Astral Deva. I'm afraid that might remove some of the mystery though, if the PCs knwo that their friend here can do all these amazing things it wont be as mysterious when Black Jack does it. any thoughts?

I am still searching for infomation about New Orleans, I have read up on some of the history of the city, but I would love to find a third party source book that has some D20 related info about the city at that point in history.

I'm also wondering how much side quest material I should plan. I would like to stay on track with the story line, but I also want to explore some of these locations a little too, maybe I will extend chapter 11 into a longer quest, where they have to make a long voyage between each person on their list.

can anyone suggest a good resource of information for some of the locations I have mentioned? I have been using google and wikipedia but I would really like to get something that is more D20 oriented, or at least something that talks of myths and legends and 16th through 18th century history.

Olangru is a Bar-Igura demon on the Isle of dread with teleportation abilities and such. He is the villain of issue 142. Since he is an ape, maybe he was accidentally reincarnated in ape form.

As to the actual Savage tide, perhaps Demogorgon initiated the fall of the angels and demons by activating the Savage tide, but this time his plan will cause the gods to fall to hell and the demons to ascend to heaven?

For that I will probably just run it as written, its just a big fiendish ape afterall.

other than that the only issue that might come up is motives, once I have changed Demogorgon into Captain Black Jack Gordon will his motives and plot remain the same?
I was thinking that maybe Black Jack doesn't know his true nature, he finds the cult of Demogorgon and he feels strongly drawn to it. He quickly gains a level of priesthood in the cult and becomes the leader, he finds that making human sacrifices makes him stronger, so he does it as often as possible. This will explain why he is only a CR16 at Chapter 7 but a CR23 in Chapter 12, it takes a lot of human sacrifices to get him up to that level of power.

Thanks
I'm not sure who Olangru is, which issue is that from? Do you have any ideas?
I think I'm going to keep all the gods, we have been using the standard gods of the players handbook so far.
I'm planning to run the entire adventure as written until the end of chapter 7, when they will meet Black Jack in the ancient city instead of meeting the aspect of demogorgon, although I will use the same stats. Though I'm not sure exactly what his entire plot is and why he is on the island. I plan to have him teleport away at the end of the final fight, if they kill him he will morph into his beast form and come back to life, then teleport away. the next time they see him he will be a pirate again, and they will have been the first people to ever defeat him in a fight.

Wow! that sounds amazing and like a lot of fun!

Who's Olangru going to be represented by?

I'd simply set the IOD in South America. You may need to change the names of the gods depending upon your location, but otherwise that area is rich for IODish experiences.

Whoa, this is a big post, so I’ll thank you in advance for reading it. The topic is, changing Savage Tide so it takes place entirely on the planet Earth and never goes to the outer planes.

I began running Savage Tide after watching the Pirates of the Caribbean movies thinking it would be a good setting for a low magic game. I removed most of the magic items from the game and inserted a social stigma about spell casters, then I adjusted the gold and treasures to reflect the fact that you can’t just go to the local armory and buy a magic sword.
The second decision I made was to set the game in a sort of real world pseudo historical setting. I told everyone that I am making enough changes that I won’t be allowing any rules lawyering with a history book though, I’m mostly just using the map of the real world and what history I remember from high school right off the top of my head. I have out right refused to commit to a year, its just circa 16th to 18th century, its still a fantasy world after all.
So far, so good, everyone is having a blast with this game. We just finished chapter 1 and I have read up through chapter 3 in detail. I only recently read through the rest of the adventure, skimmed is more like it. I didn’t realize at first where the adventure path went at higher levels. Its actually a really cool module as far as planescape games are concerned, but I would like this game to remain on the planet earth.
So I need to do some rewrites. I figured Enemy of my Enemies would be a good one to begin with because it has the most diverse locations (I haven’t actually read Dungeon 150 yet, I need to get a copy). I wrote up some possible changes I can make, I would really love some help with this, does anyone has any suggestions as to how I could make it better, keep it in the real world while getting as much of the adventure’s flavor as possible?

Demogorgon is a demon in human form, there was a mysterious catastrophe (just a story device, I have no idea what might have caused this), many demons and angels have fallen to the earth where they were born into mortal bodies. Once they reached adulthood they found that they could do incredible things.
Rather than giving them class levels I am just going to stick with the stats given for them except change all of their sizes to medium and give them a human (appearing) form (the ranger with human as a fav enemy doesn’t get a bonus), then I just have to make alterations to some things, for example Demogorgon will be very similar to the Batman villain Two-Face, but he will have all the same abilities, just translated into human form.

In real world time I have a ways to go before they ever reach this point (a few months probably) so I have plenty of time to rework every one of these adventures. In Chapter 7 instead of meeting a horrific monster on the island, Demogorgon will be in his human form. Although I don't know exactly what he is doing there (cause I’ve only skimmed the mod and haven’t gotten into the details yet).
When they get to Scuttle Cove they will learn more about some of these locations, like New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Haiti, Jamaica and the Bermuda Triangle. I think I am going to replace the city of Cauldron with the city of Havana, but I actually don't know much about either city. What other locations on the planes am I going to need to recreate on earth? And do you have any suggestions as to where they might go?

I have some specific ideas for some specific characters. In general my plan is to have the demons in the campaign either be in human form, in which case there will be something mysterious and sinister about them, or I will present the demon as some sort of abominable monster to be destroyed. I am toying with the idea of letting them seeing glimpses of Black Jack’s demonic side.

Some of my notes so far;
Charon; he is the ghost of the Mississippi rather than an actual person, he is probably not changed much at all except for the river he traverses, he is only encountered at night. when ever the PCs enter the Mississippi looking for a ride he will arrive within 2d20 rounds. when he teleports he takes his whole boat, he uses this ability to traverse the entire river. The actual teleportation is slow and steady so they don't even notice it, but he could take you from New Orleans to Lake Michigan in less than an hour, the passengers on his boat would never notice.
He doesn't talk much, except to negotiate fare, if confronted violently he only uses enough force to protect himself and his boat, if he actually kills someone he walks over and waves a hand over them and they come back to life. he can be met in New Orleans and he will have information about the witches in Baton Rouge.

The Witch Queen lives on the outskirts of Baton Rouge, her house looks like a tiny little shack along the river banks, once inside however it is revealed to be a glorious mansion. The Arcanaloths are actually other witches, all old hags but using the same stats. Unlike her haggard covey she appears young and beautiful.

Malcanthet (she needs another name, I don't want the PCs to be able to figure out tat she’s a fiend from her name, even if it is meta game information); She is a powerful sorceress and the madam of the largest brothel and casino in New Orleans. Her establishment (needs a name) is a virtual paradise, every luxury money can buy is lavished on the high rollers, while the people with no money to spend are directed to the street. The place is right on the water and has its own dock where you can pull up your boat, the other side of the building is on the street, not far from the regular festivities of the city. The main floor is a casino with a large bar on one side and a dance floor with a stage on the other, sometimes there are bards performing here, sometimes they get Dixie land jazz bands to pack the place with dancers, but more often than not, burlesque shows are what bring in the patrons. Upstairs the finest prostitutes in the new world display their wares and each one has her own private room, these are the same girls who perform in the burlesque show downstairs.

Orcus is actually a mysterious necromancer. deep in the jungles of Haiti dwell a tribe of vile cannibals too wicked to speak of. they are led by a powerful brute named Orgonus, who is said to command the powers of death itself. this tribe can be found by traveling up river for many miles and searching the jungle. Orgonus appears as a 9ft tall Darfellan with solid black skin, he is cloaked in a robe that hides his features and he carries a massive staff carved from a single piece of drift wood, adorned with human skulls of various sizes and stained dark red with blood.

Morwel is an Elven queen who lives in the Caribbean. there is a community that live on an island chain in the Caribbean, under the lagoon there is a small town of aquatic creatures living together, Merfolk, Aventi, Aquatic Elves and halflings as well as a handful of aquatic fey. there is a big island to the south east and a lot of little islands curving around the lagoon. the largest island holds a small city of its own, most of the people here are elves, though there are a few halflings and a visible population of fey. The name of the island chain is Arborea, every location is technically part of the city, just different districts.
Up until now its been a human dominated world with some glimpse of a few elves and dwarves, when they come here they will be shocked to see Satyrs and Pixies walking around in an elven dominated community, every tree is a Treant and the most beautiful women on the island are actually Nymphs. It will be a fun session just playing out their character’s reactions to the place. They pretty much step out of Pirates of the Caribbean and discover Narnia, albeit on a tiny island chain, not more than 30 miles across altogether.

The Crimson Fleet has an outpost on a small island in the Bermuda Triangle where they have a hidden cove with a small cave that is full of traps (perhaps this is Gaping Maw?). the Bermuda triangle is full of bad weather and hungry sea serpents, the coral reefs are jagged and well hidden beneath the choppy waves. The fearless pirates take advantage of the cursed waters of the Bermuda Triangle to escape justice.

Demogorgon: (before anyone accuses me of ripping off Jack Sparrow I’d like to point out that Captain Jack was based on the same traditional iconic pirate that Black Jack is based on, the similar name is purely coincidental)

He truly is a fiend, his true name is Demogorgon, in his human form he is known as Captain Jonathan "Black Jack" Gordon, the Butcher of Bloody Britain, he is known to be two faced and unpredictable, his mind changes as often as the wind.
Black Jack stands about 6'5, a human, appearing to be roughly 40 to 50 years of age. he has a scruffy short grey beard and a greasy grey loose pony tail protruding from under his wide brimmed hat. He wears an eye patch over his left eye and there is a massive scar that dominates the left side of his face and turns up his lip in an eternal snarl. His other eye has a glassy cat like appearance highlighted with dark eye liner and a tear drop tattoo, he wears a single earring in his right ear.
The left side of his mouth appears to be damaged severely from what ever that scar is, when he speaks only the right side of his face moves, he has a refined British accent colored with pirate terminology and a hacking cough that always brings up a little flem. When he is not in a fight (which is actually quite rare) he often holds a long stem pipe in his teeth, puffing with the right side of his mouth.
He wears a leather coat over a dirty and tattered nobles outfit, the ruffles that stick out of the coat's sleeves are brown and tattered. He carries a cutlass at his hip and a dagger beside it, the pistol on his other hip is never more than a few inches from his right hand, he keeps his coat pulled back when in the presence of any but his most trusted commanders.
In battle he deftly fires his pistol with his right hand, it’s a magic pistol that never needs reloading, in his left hand he savagely swings a Keen Vorpal Cutlass. His left hand is always ready to do some violence, but his right hand prefers more refined and civilized actions.

Story has it, he grew up on the streets of London as a pick pocket, when he was a bit older he learned to use a sword and took up with a regular gang. At this point piracy was on the rise and there were posters all about town announcing that they wanted to hire swords to serve as marines to fight pirates.
He hired on for the great pay, but in the midst of his first battle with pirates, he turned on his fellow crew mates, some of whom had been in his gang. He then turned to the pirates, about to fight for his life, and they welcomed him into their ranks. He learned about sailing and a lot more about fighting. Together they sailed the eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean.
Finally, they returned to England, in pursuit of a ship that got away. The pirate captain really thought they could catch the ship and loot them before dawn. He was wrong, just as the sun came up they realized they were too close to the harbor, the navy came out to attack. The ship's mage aboard the navy vessel set the pirate ship's sails on fire, then a round of musket fire took out the helmsman.
The ship, now out of control and at full speed ahead, plowed into the rocks. Jack leapt from the boat along with several other pirates and swam to shore. they were sneaking quite successfully for a few minutes, but then they were found out by the city watch. A fight ensued and Jack killed every living thing that came in reach of his sword, his friends didn't last very long, a few of them were cut down by Jack in his fury.
Most of them were shot, but not Jack, he some how managed to dodge every bullet, some even seemed to hit him, but they must have been close misses because he never bled a single drop that day. Every single person he saw that day, he killed, this is where he got the name “Butcher of Bloody Britain”, this being a nick name given by his American pirate friends as a term of endearment.
He was later captured and locked away in a dark hole on an island far out in the Atlantic (ala Count of Monte Cristo). This is when he discovered his demonic side and developed his powers. By concentrating he discovered that he could teleport to places he knew well, he first went to his happy place, a beautiful island in the Mediterranean he had discovered in some of his early sea voyages.
He returned to the prison to take revenge of the prison warden who tortured him daily. Then he visited his home in London because he hadn't been there in a while, he stopped in to collect money from someone who owed, killed them and took all of it, then he went to the sea and sought out another pirate ship.
From there he worked his way up in the (dis)organization, only about 20 years ago he finally established himself as the pirate king after 30 years of treachery, what has really done a lot to help is his apparent ability to be in two places at once, everyone assumes that he either has the fastest ships in the world, or that a lot of people lie about having seen him.
When he is in a fight he seems to have some kind of supernatural powers, there are rumors about his demonic heritage, people speak in hushed tones about his blinding speed in battle and his ability to turn a man insane or command his absolute fealty with a single look.
Some rumors hold that he can infect people with disease with a touch, some say he can fly, some say he can breath underwater and all rumors agree that he can kill everyone in the room simply with his evil intentions alone.
Truly, the most frightening rumor of all is the idea that he can call forth demons from the great abyss to serve his nefarious desires. Of course, these are only the tales sailors tell after too much rum and they are not to be taken seriously.

This is all from one night’s work, I know I have a lot more to do. Mostly I’m just looking for answers to some of the questions mentioned above, and I’m looking for any suggestions and advice you may have for me.
Some more specific questions: What other characters, in what chapters, do I need to consider? And do you have any ideas for what I could do with them?
What other mysterious locations from that era and that part of the world could you suggest that I use?
I am already planning on having them go to New Orleans, are there any source books based on old new Orleans that you could recommend?
I was also thinking of having them sail down the coast to Brazil and explore the Amazon a little, though I don't know what part of the AP that would fit.

sounds like your players just arent into it. I would speak with them out og game. ask if they are actually interested in following the story line of the adventure path? if so have them make new characters that fit the story better. if not, then ignore the AP and just go with what they want to do.
I suggest planescape, its a great setting for evil characters and it can be connected to any game. maybe the next door they all step through leads to Sigil?

thank you for the long winded response, thats the best kind.
I'm a little more open to the idea now, though I do still hope they stay good guys.

I will soon be running the thieves guild from there is no honor. I am concerened about the idea of the PCs switchig sides. I was considering removing the option from the game just to make it easier on me. but I also want the game to be compelling and fun. I know that there is at least one person in my group who would probably join them and at least one who wouldnt. so it will cause an interestig discussion while they decide.

my concern is that, if they turn won't that make my job way more comlicated? I know they give a side bar in each issue, but how much could that contain? aren't there any points where the adventure needs a serious rewrite to be playable with the PCs going rogue?

I'm also concerned about motives, whats to stop them from taking over the whole guild and ignoring the AP in favor of takig control of Sasserine? (that thought only occurs to me because if I were a player in this campaign that is what I would do)
is the only motivation greed? or is there a dire threat to the fabric of the universe?

just to throw in my 2cp...

When I use arenas in my game the mages will summon the fighters into the arena, like a summon monster spell. they fight to the death and when one dies he just reappears outside of the arena, right where they were in the first place.

I once wrote a dragon crawl that would fit this campaign well. I intend to use it myself. I ran it about a year ago for another group, no one in my game right now has played it. If you would like, i can send you the original text, but the map was drawn on graph paper and I have no way of posting it.

the idea is that this was once a pirate base, but now its the lair of a black dragon. he has made some of the pirates into undead minions. this dragon could have connections with other pirate gangs as well.

its mostly just a dungeon crawl, there are a lot of traps, some built by the dragon and some by the pirates. there are plenty of undead pirates and a few other things in the mix as well.

I dont want to post a whole module in the forum uninvited, so let me know if you want to read it.