Urthblade's page

For Life's Bazaar, I thought it would be neat for the PCs to find coins in Jzaridune minted by the gnomes, shaped like the gear doors!

I'm thinking that he gets taken during the Flood Festival. It's all-too-common for children to be abducted during a carnival of some sorts, since there's plenty to distract both adults and kids.

Also, it would make for interesting character development to see how the PCs react when they realize that a child was stolen while they were having a good time at the fair. It will illustrate that they truly can't be everywhere nor can they save everyone.

There, I sent the file to both of you! Let me know if it went through ok or not?

I am talking about the Local Hero Traits offered in the SCHC book. (i.e. Scion of Surabar, Demonscarred Dreams, Child of Jzadirune, Haunted, Long Shadowed, Mark of the Beast, Nobility, Scarred Soul, Touched in the Head, Wyrm Blooded. ) I don't have my copy of SCHC yet so if any could lend any knowledge about the above traits that would be great.

I have the whole thing typed out as a handout to my players, so would you prefer I post it here or just email you the file?

And if anybody else would like the Character Traits, just let me know!

Sean Mahoney wrote:

My group would certainly concure about the grell (not at Kazmojen yet) but would add a healthy fear of the Raggomoffyn.

It's amazing what low level characters are scared of, huh? ;-)

Is it just me, or does anyone else have an issue with a CR 3 monster with 11 attacks, capable of flight, that may induce paralysis?

This site has been an absolute godsend for me:

http://therpgenius.com/Default.aspx?alias=therpgenius.com/shackledcity

I hope this helps!

I was thinking of using Devil Box from Dungeon #109 and pieces of the published adventure Speaker In Dreams as part of the Flood Festival.

By doing this, I'm hoping to throw my players off the scent of the whole "Shackled City" idea (ie, marriage shackles instead of slavery shackles). I'm thinking of explaining the mad cultists in the Speaker In Dreams as being influenced by the insanity of Adimarchus.

Not to mention that the entire adventure takes place in a city during a festival. It sounds like a(n almost) perfect match!

I always wondered what happened to the retired heros from old campaigns. Now I know- they end up as glorified lawn gnomes. Morrow

Lawn gnomes! Imagine having a petrified Gnomish Wizard with a pointy hat in Vhalantru's garden!

Does anyone else use a side quest or two with SCAP?

At the start of the campaign, I used The Legend of Garthulga adventure from Dungeon #91 and placed it in the Lucky Monkey on their journey to Cauldon.

Now, after they've made friends with the owner, it's going to really matter when they walk in during Flood Season and find their former friend murdered. I can't wait for the party to take their vengeance on Tongueater!

Any other ideas for tie-ins adventures?

Has anyone else wondered about this? I'm not sure how having higher prices would help him stay afloat. Do your parties patronize him at all? What kind of changes has anyone else made to make things make more sense? I can see the Lathenmire smithies undercutting Gurnezan to drive him out of business, but I don't see why he'd charge more than standard prices.

Yeah, I basically just ignored that part of the text and made it a standard smithy. However, he does make a good mentor for the PCs with Craft (blacksmithing/armor making/weapon making).

I am running the SCAP in three weeks and I was curious how others used foreshadowing of events and certain NPCs in the first couple of adventures? What NPCs did your PCs first meet in Life's Bazaar and then before Drakthar's Way? What information did they learn in this time that foreshadowed chapters down the line. Thanks.

I thought it would be neat for the PCs to attend the trial of the thugs that attacked Rufus in the first scene. The next case on the docket was Keygan Ghelve, for whom they also testified. The last case that day was a charge of murder and bribery... Triel Eldurast!

As a member of the town guard, she was the go-between for the thugs and the Last Laugh, and she is now a convicted murderer as well. So as the weeks/months go by, eventually they'll hear of her escape, and so on and so forth.

I do wish I'd thought to have Skylar Krewis as the arresting officer, though.

Oh yes, the 3-member tribunal deciding the cases consisted of Jenya, Skellerang, and, you guessed it, Vhalantru! The PCs got suspicious when he voted for leniency for Triel and voted for harsh punishment for Keygan. The party Paladin cast detect evil and really got suspicious of Vhalantru when he couldn't detect anything due to the ring of mind shielding he wears.

They group is already fearing corruption throughout all levels of the government, it's great. I can't wait for the riot in Chapter Five!

The good news is that even if the PCs do get a raw deal, they didn't pay for the doors in the first place, so it's 100% profit!

In one game I ran, the characters entered a room with runes engraved on the walls, with traces of mithral for decoration. They spent more time digging out a couple ounces of mithral than they spent on searching the rest of the dungeon.

Hooray for the avaricious nature of adventurers! I'm sorry, I mean the entrepreneurial spirit...

Those are totally awesome ideas! Thank you so much Sean!

Vedic, check this out: My dwarven PC is now trying to woo Sondor, playing on the angle of "Your husband may have been sold into bondage and probably enslaved for the rest of his natural life by the Duergar or Drow... but I'm here for you!"

I'm considering having Lorthan show up sometime later in the campaign, rescued by the Stormblades (just to twist the knife a little).

My players went to town hall to research the kidnap victims and blew all the guards away with massive Diplomacy checks, they wanted to acquire an entire list of all people missing from Cauldron in the last year, and find them.

Fool that I am, I gave them the complete list of kidnap victims (conveniently located on pg 34) as a sort of "inventory list" in Kazmojen's bedroom. Hoping to rein them in. Like so many things, it had the exact opposite effect.

Now the PCs are bound and determined to delve into the Underdark and rescue every single one of them.

Thoughts? I'm still debating whether I cater to them and create an entirely new campaign or let them find a mass grave...

Wow, that sounds like a veritable goldmine for any PCs with the Leadership feat!
Or for anyone who has his or her character die and needs a quick excuse for a new character to join with the party...

I'm curious what good it would do them to try and salvage Adamantine? It can't exactly be melted down and reforged, can it? I thought that once it cooled the first time that was that. And being nigh-invulnerable, you couldn't even cut a slab of it into any usable form.

But I could be wrong.

I had a great time inflicting the Ragamoffyn(s) on my players. Here's how the encounter started:

1. Wizard inspects pile of rags... fails grapple check. Fails Will save.
2. Newly Captured Wizard leads party to second Ragamoffyn
3. Entire party fails their Sense Motive checks.

Thankfully, the Paladin managed to successfully grapple the second one (who tossed aside the captured Skulk like a dirty towel). In addition, our befuddled party managed to survive the spells of their hapless ally.

Yay for Control Host!