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I might be inclined to see this if they finally include the Dinobots. I don't care if a robot disguising itself as a robotic dinosaur don't make any sense. Grimlock is King! I would definitely pay money to see Grimlock and his crew eat that useless, vapid, no-talent blonde tart from the third movie.
The party is about 740xp from level 9. We've had to postpone a couple weeks due to player illnesses and some ridiculous sports thingy but, once they finish the encounter with The Green Death, they'll have the XP they need to advance. It seems like everything is on track for them to be at about level 10 or 11 at the 50% complete mark.
I was in a group that went a bit further than this. The GM was late and we waited for him to show up for a couple hours before he finally walked through the door only to say he couldn't stay. From that point on, we decided he owed us an entire level for every session he called off. I think we gained three levels before he caught on. I thought it was 'trip over an imaginary dead turtle and pull your groin [bad rules here], foe is stunned 3 rounds laughing.' That could have been it too. I know ICE put out two or three Crit Fumble tables in different books and they all used something about a dead turtle. "Invisible Dead Turtle" just really sticks in my head as being the way I saw it written. Either way, that's what I called the award. I even made up a little print-out award to go with it using 8-bit sprites from Final Fantasy showing a Black Mage falling on his own dagger or blowing himself up. EDIT - Turns out, we're both right, kind of. Somebody actually posted the fumble table the turtle appears on (or doesn't appear on as the case may be.)
It's been awhile, but I used to hand out an "Invisible Dead Turtle Award" to the player who rolled the most or best critical fumbles. The name of the award came from the ICE Middle Earth Role Playing game's critical miss table. One of the entries indicated you'd tripped over "an invisible dead turtle" and impaled yourself with your own weapon.
The party usually has pretty decent equipment. Aside from what they find in the Dungeon, the commune has several members capable of crafting magic items. However, I keep track of what spells each NPC has and their levels so that somewhat limits what they can craft. I also enforce a spending limit on singular items equal to 15% of starting funds based on level. For instance, a level 8 character begins with 33,000gp. 15% of 33k is 4950gp so the craftsmen in the commune can't make anything costing more than 4950gp. That means, the party can purchase +2 Armors and Shields, +2 Belts and Headbands and useful items like Minor Rods of Extend Spell. I also allow items from the Magic Item Compendium so the party also has Healing Belts, Amulets of Elusive Action and Rings of the Darkhidden (invisibility to darkvision rocks!) I did this to illustrate how the prisoners in the Dungeon don't have ready access to materials the way they would outside. This lack of a Magic-Mart also means the treasure the party wins through adventuring is usually going to be much better than what they can buy at the store. The only time the party has been completely without equipment was right before the first encounter way back at level 1. That was my doing. The book for the adventure doesn't say it needs to be that way. Since then, I can only think of one occasion when the party was stripped of their equipment, and that was only recently when they failed to kill Siglinde. When that happened, I was left with the decision to either TPK the party or make it work for the story. It made sense the naga would want to take them alive so she locked them up and gave their gear to the drow for safekeeping. Over the last few sessions, there were given only small handfuls of their equipment at a time, but they've now earned back all their gear.
Currently, Core Races + Goblin
and anything the players are reincarnated as. I use "unlockables" in my campaigns. If the party meets requirement "X," they recieve bonus "Z." New playable races, traits, and equipment are all things the players can add to the campaign based on their actions. Goblins, Hobgoblins and Aasimar were not initial choices for race, but I added them after the party achieved certain tasks. I don't tell my players beforehand what the results will be from their actions so it doesn't turn into trophy-hunting, and I also stick to the One Wookie Rule where new races are concerned.
Are you a Dragonball fan, perchance? Given that optimized level 20 characters can already pull off cosmically ridiculous amounts of damage, why even go through the trouble of actually drafting these characters? I don't see why you'd need character sheets, dice or even rules to play this game at the point where you're considering level 90 characters. I mean, I'm not trying to poop all over your good time, but it seems like you could save yourself a whole lot of effort by just sitting down with the other players and then taking turns describing all the so-incredibly-stupidly-powerful-it's-gone-past-being-cool-and-now-it's-just -really-sad malarkey that your characters are doing. Who's going to bother to argue that a level 90 Half-Chromatic Dragon Half-Robocop Flumph Assassin/Paladin/Barbarian/Summoner/Ninja/Decepticon can't do 847-godzillian damage anyway? Oh right; gamers. Carry on, I guess.
I read somewhere that 2000AD are very reluctant to hand over the rights to any of their other properties - the first Dread Movie upset a lot of fans.... That makes sense. I'd rather see it done right if it's done at all. Rebellion Developments owns the 2000A.D. catalogue now. I don't know how much control they have over the actual characters, but maybe they'd be more open to it since they okayed this movie. They've made video games based on Rogue Trooper and Judge Dredd and published the Judge Dredd RPG through Mongoose afterall.
The college was already destroyed? So much for taking it over, I guess. You could still try hijacking his campaign in other ways. From the sound of it, I think your only options at this point are to bow out of the campaign gracefully, make a new character to see if the GM is equally averse to any other PC you make or stage a brilliant, if petty, revolution. Bowing out is probably the least damaging option if you plan to game with any of these people again, and I'd probably suggest this if I were in a less-confrontational mood. Fortunately, you caught me while I'm feeling froggy and vindictive. Making a new character would let you test to see if the GM just has it in for you. Maybe even play a class and race already represented and see if the GM treats your rolls or actions worse than the other player of the same class/race. If he does, that's just one more reason to leave the game or move on to option three. If other players are also having a bad time or are sympathetic to your cause, do the opposite of what the GM wants or tell him your character wants to take up some bizarre, random quest like locating the ruins of a famous crepe bakery because you suddenly have an urge for crepes to go with your tea.
Have you noticed NPC spellcasters having the same issues as you when casting spells? You said you helped a wizard college. Did they use zero-level magic without bleeding from the ears and collapsing to the floor or is it just you? If so, I say force the GM's hand. That's a wizard college. They've got wizard stuff, and they're using it without penalty. You want that for your character, so take it. Next session, gather the troops and tell your GM you are storming the wizard college to take their stuff and establish a stronghold where you can get a decent night's sleep because it seems pretty obvious they're hiding some knowledge or item that lets them do their wizardin'. I expect a couple things might happen. 1. You'll find the wizards in the college have no trouble whatsoever quelling your ill-advised raid using their wizard powers, and they will hammer you into paste. 2. You'll actually pull it off, but the GM will then come up with a hundred more reasons for why you can't sleep and why your magic is giving you cancer. Your character is probably going to die either way but, if you're lucky, the GM will never see this coming and you'll derail his train, taking his entire campaign down with you.
As cool as Dredd is, I'm more hopeful that this will do well enough for someone to develop movies or series out of some other 2000AD properties. This A.B.C. Warriors teaser was made a few years ago, but I guess nothing ever came of it. I'd love to see this or something based on Nemesis the Warlock.
So how do I go about making the angry inflated half-orc... I didn't see the image but, based on where I think this is going, Mikaze's reaction and Liz's de-linkification, you don't. You don't go about making the angry, inflated half-orc. ...and how would the rest of Golarion react to her new...skills? "Burn it with fire," seems an appropriate response.
I sometimes wonder the same thing, sunbeam, but I suspect Shi's conclusion may be the most accurate answer. In their defense, the party has had most of their equipment taken from them so they haven't had access to their healing supplies. That's all about to change though since Lorath is happy with the results of their bug-squashing mission. It's a good thing too, considering what lies, or should I say, "hangs," ahead! That villainous vine, The Green Death, makes its return in the newest chapter of our adventure... DAY 172-173 LITTLE DUNGEON OF HORRORS! featuring: The World's Largest Adventuring Party
Aside from the screams of the captured drow traitor, the siege hall remained quiet while the party recovered from their battle with the spider-eater and the driders’ scouting party. Once conscious, Shi did his best to get Roch and Riswan back into fighting form while Lecyt’hyn, and his warriors kept their captive separated from the adventurers, torturing the woman despite her willingness to divulge all she knew of the drider defenses “to be certain.” Armand kept busy examining a crate of crystal spheres the party had discovered while Cul’tharic made a stealthy trip back to the drow camp to the collect the party’s equipment for the battle ahead. The orbs, the sorcerer discovered, were two-way communication devices used by the driders to relay orders to drow patrols. According to Lecyt’hyn, the devices had been stolen from the drow city the driders had fled during their exodus. They were quite old now and their magic was diminishing, but they were still serviceable enough to see use for another few hundred years or so despite their flaws. The sorcerer took the largest of the spheres for himself and supplied Roch and Shi with a pair of the smaller devices. Two days later, the group was more or less ready to take on their next challenge: The Green Death. *** Roch and Armand steered The Death Trap to the tunnel that would lead them to The Green Death’s lair while Riswan, Cul’tharic and Shi walked behind the apparatus. The lantern archon, Idawalley, who had reformed half a day after being temporarily discorporated by the drider, floated overhead near the lizardman and Riswan. Leafy vines, moss and grass spread from The Green Death’s chamber far into the adjoining halls and Cul’tharic motioned to stop the group. Facing a patch of thick growth upon the near wall, the reptilian warrior made a strange gesture and hissed in a low whistle. “It says we are not welcome,” Cul’tharic spoke. “Something it calls ‘The Friend’ has fed it. It is healthy now and strong. It no longer rests. It will attack and feed and grow.” “It?” Roch asked. The theurge and the sorcerer had exited the vehicle. “You mean The Green Death?” The lizardman shook the small fetish bag around his neck. “Grampy Bone has made the creature’s thoughts known to me for a short time. We should know more about our prey before we hunt it, I think.” Through the lizardman’s magic, the party discovered a good deal more than they had known of The Green Death. As a seedling, the creature had burrowed into the dungeon through a crack caused by the great earthquake that had damaged the prison. For years, it grew, feeding on whatever light, moisture or meat its roots and tendrils could find until a fire nearly destroyed it, a fire it blamed on the crawling things that inhabited the tunnels outside its lair. The Green Death escaped the fire by pulling itself into a huge fissure in the ceiling of the chamber where it rested, slowly establishing new roots and seeking new sources of nourishment. In the wake of the conflagration, a powerful force of life had filled many parts of the region and The Green Death found an abundance of flesh to sate its appetite while the radiation of positive energy enhanced its growth, allowing it to spread its roots throughout the dungeon. Eventually, the crawling things returned and The Green Death was occasionally challenged and even defeated by them or other more terrible creatures but nothing had ever killed it. After its most recent battle, The Green Death had once again retreated into its cave to rest and to wait for a chance to return to its feeding. Then it met “The Friend.” The Friend, according to the plant, was a creature that came from the tunnels outside its lair. It was large and small. Sometimes it moved on few legs and sometimes on many, and sometimes it made familiar sounds and sometimes it was silent. What mattered most to The Green Death was that The Friend fed it the bodies of the crawling things, the crawling things that came with their loud scuttler to kill its seedlings. Thanks to The Friend, The Green Death was once again strong and it could return to feeding and growing, the only things it desired. “It seems less deserving of death than the drow, but it’s still an indiscriminate killer and a danger to anything traveling through the region,” Idawalley chimed. “It’s a bad weed that needs pulled.” “The archon is correct,” Armand spoke. “Based on its own testimony, The Green Death will continue to devour every living thing in the dungeon until it is too huge to stop unless we do something about it now. Destroying it is the most logical course of action.” Hearing no arguments, the sorcerer, along with Shi and Ida, prepared the party’s warriors with spells of elemental protection and prayers for divine guidance and strength. The party then split into two groups. Armand, Roch and Ida would take The Death Trap through the wider west entrance while Shi, Riswan and Cul’tharic attacked from a tunnel in the northwest wall. *** Armand shoved at the entrance to The Green Death’s lair pushing the double doors into the densely grown chamber while Roch and Ida waited behind him with the clanking, trundling Death Trap. The vines and undergrowth beyond the heavy doors were quiet and still. Nothing within the chamber stirred and Armand raised his arm to give the signal to advance as he took a nervous step toward the interior of the room. Suddenly, a thick root shot out of the maze of vines on the chamber floor and wrapped around the sorcerer’s leg, crushing his ankle and burning his flesh with acidic sap. The ceiling of The Green Death’s lair rumbled and shook as the foliage of the room bristled with rage. Using The Death Trap’s pincers, Roch attempted to free Armand of the roots grasp while Riswan, Cul’tharic and Shi made their way into the chamber. Just then, a second vine struck from the floor, grappling Riswan as a pair of leafy mounds suddenly rose up from the floor on writhing stalk-like limbs. The Deathspawn had returned! Freed from the root’s grip, Armand dashed into the chamber giving Roch room to maneuver The Death Trap into the chamber. Through the haze of the acidic smoke within the vehicle’s compartment, the theurge could just make out the approaching Deathspawn and, as it lashed at the machine with its tendrils, Roch fired a barrel’s worth of defoliant into what passed for the monster’s face. Acrid smoke rose from the melting, burning moss and vines clinging to the Deathspawn and the monster roared in pain. Meanwhile, Riswan wriggled free of the vine entangling his waist just in time to be confronted by the second Deathspawn. The halfling swung his axe into the shambling beast then gazed in horror as the wound quickly healed before his eyes. A moment later, Riswan was caught firmly within the grip of the monster, which lifted him toward its gaping maw as Shi fired bolts from his crossbow to try to wound the thing. Cul’tharic and Roch engaged the first spawn with trident and pincers when they caught sight of Riswan’s predicament. The lizardman plunged the tines of his weapon into the leafy monster once before breaking for the halfling, hoping Roch could finish the job. However, before he could reach his ally, the undergrowth suddenly writhed about his legs as a deafening boom was heard from the fissure in the ceiling of the room. Only Shi and Ida were outside the reach of the entangling mass of vines, roots and tendrils that rippled and contorted about the chamber as The Green Death emerged from its cave whipping a long, powerful stalk at Cul’tharic. The lizardman was struck hard and quickly wrapped in the thing’s crushing grasp as Armand once again came under attack by a pair of vines that burned him with their corrosive touch. Angered by the grappling vines, the sorcerer struggled to cast an explosive ball of fire that ripped through the chamber destroying the weakened Deathspawn, scorching The Green Death and wounding the offending tendrils along with Ida, Shi and Cul’tharic who were caught in the blast along with the sorcerer. A stream of powerful acid from The Death Trap’s cannon cut deep into The Green Death’s mossy hide and the monster howled with rage. With the fire-flinging sorcerer incapacitated and the lizardman, Cul’tharic, fighting to escape its belly, the verdant villain was now free to turn all its attention on the killer of its children, the loud scuttler of the crawling things, and this time it meant to destroy the mechanical beast once and for all. The Green Death heaved forward across the ceiling and flung its tendrils and teeth around The Death Trap. Within the machine, Roch could hear the groaning iron of the machine’s frame as the monster tried to crush it into scrap and he fired the final blast of defoliant from the contraption’s tank. The Green Death shrieked a hollow, reverberating shriek of rage and unleashed a flurry of hammering blows upon The Death Trap. Experience battling the machine in the past had taught The Green Death to repeatedly grapple and release the contraption while biting and beating at its iron hide, and it used this clinch-fighting technique to great effect against Roch who spent more time trying to pull the machine free of its hold than making any attacks. Meanwhile, Shi was desperately trying to keep Armand alive. The corrosive sap of the roots binding the sorcerer along with a pair of thunderous blows from The Green Death had worn Armand down, and the half-orc was dying. Unable to offer assistance to Riswan, Cul’tharic or Roch, Shi fought through the writhing vines and managed to heal the sorcerer’s wounds while Ida cut through the roots with beams of light. Just then, both Cul’tharic and Riswan burst forth from their mossy prisons into the swaying undergrowth. Owing to their impressive fortitudes, the warriors had managed to hack or chew their way free before the paralytic enzymes of the tendriculi could render them helpless. Rolling out onto his feet, Riswan tossed aside his axe and dug into his bag for a vial of alchemical fire that he promptly smashed against the Deathspawn as it reached out for him a second time. Having loosed his shield and trident while chewing his way out of The Green Death, Cul’tharic pulled the greatclub from his back and delivered a crushing blow to the beast while it grappled with The Death Trap. A moment later, an orb of fire soared past the mossy monster narrowly missing the creature and bursting against the far wall of the chamber. Thanks to Ida and Shi, Armand was back on his feet and the sorcerer had managed to drag himself free of the entangling vines and back into the hall outside the room. With The Green Death’s spawn laying in a burning pile at Riswan’s feet on the east edge of the chamber, the party now had the horticultural horror surrounded and they moved in for the kill. “All that armor and other stuff you is wearing looks heavy,” came a sudden rasping whisper from behind Riswan. “You be more comfortable if you take all that off.” The halfling stopped and thought about the voice’s words for a moment. “You know, you’re right,” he replied. “This stuff is really heavy, and I would be more comfortable if I took it off.” And with that, Riswan threw aside his bag and began to strip off his armor and clothing as the kobold sorcerer Klarihg’en flew into view. “Shoom et dok, Osib,” the kobold gently hissed in the language of the fey as the photosynthetic fiend quickly retreated into its cave. “Why you hurt Green Death, Armand?” Klarihg’en then asked as he quickly conjured up a shifting pattern of mirror images to protect himself from possible attack. “Green Death is friend. It kills drow, drider. Soon you and Klarihg’en will be free.” “It will kill us all as well,” Armand answered. “The Green Death must die for us to be safe. Now get out of the way, Klarihg’en.” “No,” the kobold replied. “Klarihg’en is tired of doing what others say all the time. Lizardman-Cul’tharic remembers serving machine-people with Klarihg’en, with Croo. Klarihg’en think Cul’tharic is tired of serving drow, serving adventurers who come with evil dwarf to kill his friends.” The kobold made a strange gesture and pointed at the reptilian warrior as he murmured a series of arcane syllables. “Klarihg’en is right, no?” Despite the danger of the situation, Cul’tharic’s will crumbled against the powerful charm of the fey-blooded kobold, and he suddenly felt as if he and Klarihg’en were the closest of friends. “My friend is right,” answered the lizardman. “We should not kill The Green Death.” Roch, in the meantime, had begun to steer The Death Trap toward the tunnel in the southeast corner of the room. Riswan, who was still busy stripping himself, had earlier stated the tunnel led to a cache of defoliant the theurge might use to refill the machine’s tank. As he drove the contraption toward the tunnel, he noticed the battle had drawn the attention of a gaggle of spindly-limbed, spider-like humanoids, which stood within the open tunnel to the south, some of them carrying the remains of dead drow warriors. “Do you see, Armand?” Klarihg’en hissed. “Even ettercaps help Klarihg’en! They feed Green Death to make it strong, to make it grow, so it will kill the driders and set them free!” “The ettercaps feed the Green Death because you asked them to do so and because it suits their needs,” Idawalley spoke. The lantern archon had studied her drider enemies long enough over the years to learn the strange ettercaps of the Dungeon were not unwilling slaves to the aberrant mutants. “They are simple creatures whose only loyalty is to their traps and their webs. They’ll serve any being that ensures they can work in peace. The ettercaps are not your friends, Klarihg’en. They can’t replace Croo or Vyk or anyone else you might once have considered an ally. They’re just cleaning up so they can get back to work.” “I think Ida is right, my friend,” Cul’tharic suddenly spoke. Ironically, Klarihg’ens charm spell was backfiring on him, and the lizardman was now speaking in what he thought was the best interest of the kobold. “I have spoken with The Green Death, and it isn’t your friend, Klarihg’en. You think it’s giving you what you want, but it’s using you just like the drow and Siglinde and the Inevitables. It calls you its friend now, but what do you think it will eat when you run out of drow and driders?” The writhing of the vines and tendrils within the room calmed and Klarihg’en took a moment to consider Cul’tharic’s words. He thought of how he might manage to feed Siglinde and the cloakers to the ravenous, ever-growing monster once the drow were wiped out, but what then? Grown large enough, The Green Death might easily devour all the flesh growing in the tunnels and there was no way to be certain more creatures would come from the regions south of the Halls of Flesh. He might feed the ettercaps to the thing to buy himself some time, but what if The Green Death became so large and powerful it no longer needed him? Would he serve at the beck and call of this chlorophyll curmudgeon until it finally decided to eat him? Klarihg’en hovered away from the entrance of The Green Death’s cave, hung his head and muttered, “Do it.” “Why am I naked?” Riswan asked as it dawned on him he was now standing nude amid a pile of his own equipment. “There’s a question I’ll never get tired of hearing,” Shi quipped. “Pick up your things, we’ll explain later.” Before the halfling could even pick up his pantaloons, however, the reinforced doors to the north were hurled open revealing a quartet of drow archers and their captain, the drow warrior Lorath. Drow scouts listening at the door had reported a sudden silence in the room and their leader had come to look personally upon the pulped corpse of The Green Death. “Hello Klarihg’en,” Lorath glared. “Bring him down!” A pair of the archers immediately fired at the kobold sorcerer while the other two aimed their shots. The first bolt flew through one of Klarihg’en’s mirror images, but the other struck him firmly in the shoulder and he yelped in pain as its poison coursed through his body causing him to fall unconscious from the air. Still under the effects of Klarihg’en’s charm, Cul’tharic rushed to the sorcerer’s side and scooped him up from the ground. “Harm him again and I’ll tear out your throats!” the lizardman growled. Ida and Armand quickly explained Cul’tharic had been charmed while fighting The Green Death and the sorcerer. “Klarihg’en had been feeding the drow and driders to The Green Death and we’d just convinced him to-“ Armand began before being cut off by the drow warrior. “He fed my people to that thing?!” Lorath hissed. “Oh, uh, right. I said that, didn’t I?” Armand stammered before composing himself. “Cat's out of the bag now, I guess. Things were well under control before you came in, Lorath. The Green Death was heavily damaged and retreated into its cave. We need only pursue it, and I’m certain we can finish it off.” ““I want that monster reduced to a fine green paste,” Lorath growled. “Do you need the lizardman?” “His savagery in battle would be most useful to us,” Armand answered. Speaking the lizardman’s tongue, Lorath turned to Cul’tharic. “Assist in the destruction of The Green Death and I shall be lenient in my judgment of your friend,” he spoke. “I do not trust you,” Cul’tharic retorted. Lorath’s patience was wearing thin but, before he could respond, a rumble came from the ceiling of the chamber and the powerful jaws of a botanical brigand shot forth to clamp down on the lizardman and his helpless charge. The Green Death had re-emerged, fully healed and furious.
I once let a player roll up a Neanderthal Barbarian and, let me tell you, nothing says "UGH!" like a Neanderthal Barbarian. *Buh-dump-bump!*
Diggin' this guy, though he does have a helmet in his other hand. Also, Scroll down to SB05 Dervish Avenger. He might be a little too big at 33mm, but he looks cool. Looks like he's wearing studded leather, maybe bringandine, under his cloak.
I had nothing better to do: Greater deities
Intermediate deities
Lesser deities
The World's Largest Dungeon is taking applications for two, maybe three, adventurers. Two of my players just moved away and another one is having scheduling issues due to living two hours from the game. Prospective players would be dropping into an ongoing Pathfinder campaign set in The WLD. * 25pt buy
Reply here if interested.
For sure. I was just adding to your already helpful post. I figure if people know where to find the minis they're looking for, they may not be as quick to turn to the boards every time. Afterall, if you build a man a fire, he's warm for the rest of the night; Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
And at the risk of sounding like a jerk and possibly costing Paizo a little business, searchers might also check out lesser known miniature lines. Here are a few sites I've scoured for minis that have been really useful for finding minis for myself and those who post here: Black Orc Games - They've got Roman Centurion Apes! Noble Knight - Carries a wide selection of minis including hard-to-find RAFM and Ral Partha minis from back in the day. Fantization Miniatures - Also offers minis from dozens of studios.
Is this very lightly armored enough for you? I guess at 90mm she might be a bit large. Maybe your monk is a giant?
Welcome back, folks! In the newest installment of our adventure, the party is reminded of how one random encounter and a few bad rolls can bring a day of adventuring to an abrupt halt...quite literally in a few cases actually. DAY 171 AMBUSHED! featuring: The World's Largest Adventuring Party
Roch lay motionless at the feet of his comrades, paralyzed by the toxin of the spider-eater and, judging from the wound in his back, dead to the untrained eye. Fortunately, Shi had seen enough of the dead and wounded during his training to tell the two apart and he quickly surmised the mystic had survived the attack of the arachnid. Cul’tharic lifted Roch from the ground and carried him to the chamber containing The Death Trap where he, Shi and Armand waited for the theurge to recover. Riswan, however, seemed more concerned with pressing on and quickly darted up the tunnel toward the spider-eater’s lair with Ida giving chase. “Shouldn’t we wait for the others?” she asked. “We’ll be fine,” Riswan curtly answered. Lorath had told Riswan the enchanted rapier he’d won in combat with the harpies had been given to a drow warrior who had gone missing during Anguish’s attack and, uncharacteristically, the halfling seemed more concerned with locating his weapon than with safety or the condition of his friend. “Besides, they aren’t that far behind,” Riswan and Ida entered the long, desolate chamber, Anguish’s former prison, and beheld a terrible sight. Among the debris of the once-grand hall, lay the victims of the spider-eater. Drow and drider corpses littered the north end of the chamber, some flattened and drained like empty Capri Sun pouches while others lay bloated and piled like fish in a larder. The armor on the bodies was mostly intact and a few weapons still rested in the sheaths upon the belts of the warriors, but there was no sign of Riswan’s blade. “A friend of mine lives close by,” Ida chimed. “He might be able to tell us what’s been going on around here.” “Fine,” Riswan spoke without really listening as he continued to search the bodies of the drow. It was then that Armand, Roch, Shi and Cul’tharic entered the chamber. The mystic was feeling much better after a few minutes' rest, and Ida informed the adventurers she was just about to flit off to consult with her old friend, Otyugh John, since Riswan seemed more interested in poking around the corpses. “A filth-eater!? Here!?” Armand retorted with a peculiar level of excitement. “We should bring him a gift! Someone grab a body!” Moments later, Roch, Riswan and Armand were standing at the edge of John’s stinking filth pit, rolling the body of a drow warrior into the thick slop below as Ida called out for her friend. Cul’tharic and Shi had opted to wait with The Death Trap, citing the smell of the chamber and individual reservations about the handling of the drow bodies. A burbling gurgle rose from the sludge at the bottom of the pit as the huge otyugh surfaced, filth rolling and sliding into his wide, smiling maw as he spoke. “Idawalley!” the otyugh bellowed with joy, spraying the adventurers in slime. “You are home! Where are new friends?!” Ida sadly informed John of Vyk’s death and the disappearance of the kobold, Klarihg’en, then introduced the otyugh to the assembled adventurers. The otyugh, for his part, relayed that the driders had stopped feeding him days ago and that he only occasionally heard the sounds of loud banging from the north. “The tunnels to the north of here lead into the drider-controlled areas of the dungeon,” Ida informed the party. “They may have barricaded the doors against the drow and the spider-eater.” “I think we should go after them,” Riswan announced. Roch and Armand stared at the halfling incredulously. “What’s gotten into you lately?” Roch asked. “You’ve been poisoned and nearly strangled by killer vines, Shi’s been showered in acid and I would have been eaten by a giant spider if Cul’tharic hadn’t jumped in and let the thing take several bites out of him. We’re in no condition to go hunting driders, right now. Honestly, Riswan. It’s almost like you’re another person!” “The lizard is right,” Armand agreed. “At least about the driders. I don’t know anything about you, Riswan, so I can’t speak to your personal foibles, but it would be unwise to pursue the driders at this juncture. We should return to Lorath, inform him of our success against the spider-eater and see about securing the rest of your gear. I don’t personally care if your things are returned to you, but I begin to suspect my well-being may soon be affected by your effectiveness in battle.” With that, the trio, along with Ida, bade farewell to John and returned to Cul’tharic and Shi. *** Four solid shadows slipped about the abandoned outpost rifling through the remains of fallen drow warriors and crushed barricades as their dark master scanned the far corners of the vast chamber. Suddenly, a rumbling trundle like the footfalls of a great machine could be heard echoing from a passage to the south. Anxious chelicerae twitched as silent orders were given and incantations were delivered. Moments later, three humanoids accompanied by a hovering sphere of light and a loud, clanking mechanical monstrosity entered the chamber through the south tunnel. The drider waited for just the right moment then gave the order to fire. The poisoned bolt of a crossbow suddenly flew out of the shadows striking Riswan! Still weakened by the toxic gas of the The Death Trap, the halfling fell to the floor, laid low by the envenomed shaft. A second pair of bolts struck Shi, but the cleric stood his ground as a fourth shot missed Cul’tharic. Four archers, two firing from the cover of a nearby alcove while the other two fired from the top of one of the small siege towers, had caught the party unaware. Cul’tharic and Ida rushed the archers in the tower while Shi charged at the pair in the alcove, blasting them with a burst of negative energy! Just then, a bolt of mystical lightning from above crashed into The Death Trap. Armand and Roch, who had swapped places at the controls with Cul’tharic after the warrior once again pointed out his discomfort with the machine and Roch’s limited combat abilities, received a small shock but were spared the bulk of the damage thanks to the crab’s sturdy construction. “Open the hatch!” Armand shouted. “I can’t target anything from in here!” Roch quickly popped the hatch on the rear of the contraption and turned the vehicle to face the archers in the tower. Meanwhile, Cul’tharic and Ida had reached the tower while Shi had cornered the two archers in the alcove. The lizardman blocked a blow from the poisoned longsword of one of the archers who had rushed downstairs to meet him, and then plunged his trident into the leg of his attacker. At this distance, he could clearly see the archers were drow warriors! The drow in the tower fired his crossbow at Ida, but the lantern archon’s natural defenses rendered the bolt useless. Having reloaded their crossbows, the pair of drow facing Shi fired again. This time, however, the cleric’s hardy constitution could not save him and he fell to the floor as the drow poison coursed through his veins. Armand slipped out of The Death Trap and searched for a target for his spells but the curse of the Ritual of Unmaking still blinded him. From the safety of the ceiling, the drider unleashed another arcane assault, this time trapping Armand and The Death Trap within a strong, thick web that easily held the sorcerer immobile. “They’ve got Shi!” Ida suddenly cried as she blasted the drow at the top of the tower with beams of light. Sure enough, the two drow in the alcove were using the drider’s diversion to grab Shi from the floor as they fled. Cul’tharic finished off the two drow in the tower while Ida rushed after Shi and Roch struggled to steer The Death Trap through the drider’s web. The strands were easy enough for the machine to tear through, but the smoke within the vehicle’s compartment made navigation difficult at best. Armand, meanwhile, struggled within the webbing, unable to cast his spells. “You’re not taking anyone on my watch!” the lantern archon yelled as she conjured up an invisible force, which slammed close the north doors. The drider, which had crawled quickly toward the exit after casting its web, hissed in anger and fired a volley of arcane missiles at the archon that nearly blasted her from the air. A moment later, a second barrage caused her to discorporate into a shower of sparks above Cul’tharic’s head as the lizardman wrestled through the drider’s web. Ida was gone but, like all Custodian Archons of the Dungeon, her return was inevitable. For now, the party still needed to rescue Shi. The fleeing drow reached the door to the chamber before Roch or Cul’tharic could reach them and gave it a strong shove, but it wouldn’t budge. Just before being shot to bits by the drider’s spell, Ida had just enough time to magically bar the portal and now it would take more time and strength than the drow or the drider had to spare to escape. Cursing, the drider scurried back up the wall seeking the exit to the east while the drow below turned to acts of desperation. “Doer biu veirs lu' uk elar!” hissed a male warrior as he snatched Roch from his compatriot and held a blade to the cleric’s throat. By now, he and the female next to him were completely blocked off by Cul’tharic and The Death Trap. The female warrior at his side threw down her sword and took a step toward the lizardman and the machine wringing her hands before her. “Qualla xuat elgg uns'aa!” she cried. “We are slaves to the driders! They would have killed us!” Roch climbed from the hatch of The Death Trap and addressed the woman. “Free our friend and we will let you live,” he spoke. The female turned to her ally and motioned for him to lower his blade when a bolt of lightning crashed down onto the warrior and Shi. “Ka'lith zhah whol l' yibin!” hissed the drider as his spider-like jaws shook with laughter. Shi’s smoking body slumped to the floor as the warrior released him and, seizing the opportunity, the female drow quickly leapt on him attempting to wrestle away his blade. The drider’s lightning, unfortunately, had failed to penetrate the warrior’s natural resistance to magic and he reacted to the female’s attack with a fluid slash across her chest that left her unconscious on the floor next to Shi. On the up side, the defensive blow left the drow open to Cul’tharic’s trident which promptly buried itself in his rib cage as Roch checked on Shi. By some miracle, the cleric was still alive. “Where is he?! Let me at him!” Armand shouted as he arrived from the webs. The sorcerer had finally managed to conjure up a bounding sphere of flame he’d used to burn himself free of the entangling threads, but it was too late for it to matter. The drider had escaped. The party gathered their prisoner and their poisoned comrades and planned their next move. *** “You’re fortunate to be useful to us,” spoke the drow warrior, Lecyt’hyn. “Lorath sent us to secure the area.” In the hours after the battle with the drider, Cul’tharic had run a solo, stealth mission to the drow camp as a result of another member of the party falling unconscious. Roch had been knocked cold by a powerful toxin released by a strange key Riswan had found while earlier searching the drow and drider bodies in the spider-eater’s lair. The key, a tiny drider sculpture similar to the one the party had found in the lair of the chokers, had suddenly sprung to life when the mystic placed it near a peculiar eight-holed lock securing a room behind the chamber's west tower. As its legs danced into and out of a seemingly random series of holes, Roch suddenly felt woozy and ill. Minutes later, full paralysis had set in and the theurge collapsed to the ground, unconscious but alive. Beyond the locked door was a storeroom, and Armand locked himself and the others inside while Cul’tharic went for help. Riswan, Shi and Roch were still unconscious when the lizardman returned with Lecyt’hyn and six other drow scouts, leaving Armand to speak with the warrior. “We were attacked by drow,” Armand spoke. “How do you explain this?” “Traitors,” bluntly replied Lecyt’hyn. “The driders promise power to any drow willing to serve them. The faithful earn the ‘privilege’ of joining their ranks. They know they don’t have time to breed. It’s faster and safer to turn us into them…you might be surprised by who takes them up on the offer.” “What about the woman we captured?” Armand asked. “She tried to help us before she was poisoned.” “Of course she did,” the warrior smirked. “Our women are more dangerous than our men. If it were up to me, we’d kill her now before she wakes up and causes any more trouble. She may have useful information about the driders though, so we’re to interrogate her before it comes to that.” As they spoke, Armand learned of a new obstacle on the road to the liberation of the drow. Evidence of new activity by The Green Death had been spotted within its chamber and Lorath wanted the thing destroyed once and for all. The party would receive all of its equipment (with the exception of Riswan’s missing sword) and the continued use of The Death Trap to use in the attack. Naturally, Lecyt’hyn and his scouts would ensure no driders made their way into The Green Death’s chamber to spoil the fight. “Welcome to the war,” Lecyt’hyn grinned.
Wait, so the monsters grapple his mount to get him off or they grapple him while he's mounted? I get kind of confused considering whether or not the creatures are small or medium? Whatever is easier, really. Provided they can reach him, creatures that successfully grapple the rider could attempt to move him to the ground with a second grapple check. Alternately, creatures that manage to grapple the mount can attempt to pin it to the ground the following round and then go for the rider. Here's an example: On round one, two goblins and an orc decide they want to pull the dragoon from his mount. Goblin 1 tries to wrestle the mount, hoping his buddies will be able to grab the gnome. He makes his CMB against the mount's CMD. If he succeeds, he can try to pin it the following round, making it that much easier to catch the gnome. Goblin 2 wants to go right for the gnome, hoping he can pull the gnome off in the next round. He makes his CMB roll against the gnome's CMD. If he succeeds, he can try to move the gnome off the mount in the following round with a +5 bonus (assuming the gnome fails to free himself.) The Orc doesn't have time to screw around. He wants the gnome off the mount right now so he uses the Drag maneuver and rolls CMB vs the gnome's CMD. If he succeeds, he grabs the gnome and jerks him to the ground as he takes a step back. If all of these plans fail, the goblins and their orc friend can use Aid Another next round to gang up on the gnome or the mount, whichever is more convenient. Keep in mind, the gnome isn't defenseless here. It's unlikely standard goblins and orcs are going to have Improved Grapple or Improved Drag so he and his mount get attacks of opportunity. Additionally, if the mount is grappled, the gnome can use Aid Another, giving the mount +2 to get free. You might also give the gnome a +2 Circumstance bonus to break free of a grapple if his mount is able to twist and turn while the gnome digs his feet into his stirrups or clings to its neck. Whatever you decide, follow the advice a lot of people have already given you and don't use these tactics in every fight. Every now and then, as a challenge, it can be fun but not every encounter needs to humble the players or point out their flaws. In fact, throw a few encounters at them that specifically point out their strengths once in awhile.
From what I've read here, it doesn't sound like he is completely doomed if your monsters get in close. Aside from the mount's attacks, remember that proficiency with martial weapons enables a character to make bash attacks with a shield. Whether or not this guy is the sort to remember that or sacrifice his shield AC to beat on some goblins, I don't know but, it's an option (albeit a low-damage option.) Besides that, he can always opt to let his mount attack and then 5-ft-step into an open square to poke the enemy with his lance unless he's surrounded an all sides. Grappling and Dragging would be pretty effective if you really want him off his mount. He'll take a penalty for not having both hands free if he tries to resist the grapple and doesn't loose his shield and lance. Also, don't forget to let your monsters use Aid Another if you figure they're smart enough to do so.
Paizo doesn't seem to stock them, but Fiery Dragon put out a tile set of all the Summon Monster and Nature's Ally critters. They're not minis per se, but I think they do the job. I made photo copies of them, clipped them out and keep them in a cigar box for easy transport.
Have you figured out what the butler is or are you stuck there too? This is just off the top of my head, but here's an idea: Butler-dude is directing the players through the city to what he claims is a series of tunnels used by smugglers to avoid the city watch, saying the tunnels lead to a large, open drain-pipe that exits into the wilderness outside the city walls. He eventually leads the party to a slick downward sloping tunnel that supposedly ends at the drain. It's a difficult enough descent, but nearly impossible to climb up without magic or a secure rope because of the filth. At the bottom of the tunnel, the party finds a wide, overflow chamber filled with the rotting remains of humanoids and missing pets. The pipe is quite secure, blocked off by a heavy mesh-iron gate, and Small monstrous centipedes scramble about the chamber feasting on the corpses. Butler-dude makes a joke about welcoming the party to his home and how he's happy to finally be away from the mansion/manor/whatever so he can take off his butler digs and change into something more comfortable. BAM! He's a Half-fiend or Fiendish Ogre Mage and the Centipedes (or singular Centipede if you're feeling nice) are his quasit servants. That might be a tough encounter, but I don't know how optimized/skilled/prepared your party will be. You could ditch the quasits altogether to get the CR back down to 9 or 10 depending on the template on the Ogre Mage. The quasits aren't tough, but they might be too big a distraction. I figure Ogre Mage works well because they can change shape into humanoids, meaning the dude could easily pose as the butler for a long time. They're also multi-taskers capaple of both decent melee and spellcasting. The Half-fiend and Fiend templates give him fire and spell resistance to further bolster his defenses and help his regeneration (the fire resistance will eat up any fire damage the party uses to stop it.) Alternately, a Half-fiend Aranea with some class levels might be good too. They've also got change shape so, once again, you've got an excuse for how it can maintain its butler form for so long. Anyway, that's one idea.
Because this isn't really a use described in the book, here's the impromptu GM ruling I'd probably make if this suddenly came up in my game. The disk floats 3 feet off the ground so the gnome is going to have to be pretty short to walk underneath it without ducking his head or scrunching down. Still, I don't think it would affect his movement unless he's tall for a gnome, in which case I might penalize him, like, 5 feet of movement for every 40 (still not bad and not enough to slow his progress to the door.) At three-feet wide, the gnome is reasonably well protected by the disc. I'd give him the standard soft cover bonus to AC from the thrown weapons, but I wouldn't say he's completely immune to the attacks. The only other factor to consider is the weight capacity of the disk. That's not likely to be an issue unless the monsters are throwing cows at the gnome but, if they do happen to hit the disk with something heavy enough to exceed its weight limit, I'd say it goes piff and the gnome gets squished. All-in-all, I'd say the gnome is free to make his way to the door under the cover of the disk with a +4 soft cover bonus to AC unless the wizard decides it would be hilarious to dispel the disk just as the cows and kitchen sinks and bowling pins are about to hit him.
I did the same thing once for a Rakshasa Sorcerer 2. I ruled her racial hit dice counted as Sorcerer levels for the purpose of bloodline abilities, bonus spells, etc., though that probably wasn't right according to this. Specifically: "If the creature possesses class features (such as spellcasting or sneak attack) for the class that is being added, these abilities stack." Meaning, the rakshasa would stack the spellcasting but not the bonus spells and bloodline abilities since those are not inherent to the monster. Also, As a general rule a creature's resistance should equal its CR + 11. Basically, you're left with a CR16 rakshasa with an SR27.
Following the Girallon to Dire Ape regression, how about Rock Baboons? They're only CR1/2, but a small group of them could threaten and frighten the goblins what with their whooping and poo-flinging, especially with an alpha baboon (i.e. a gorilla) leading them. They're ill-tempered, strong and big enough to be mistaken for monstrous humanoids of some type so the party might get confliciting information about what's causing the goblin attacks. It'd be a little like In the Shadow of Kilimanjaro.
Something else that might help, maybe. A DC10 Survival check is all that is required to feed yourself in the wild (+1 person fed for every 2 over DC10.) You can probably afford to cut back to three days' rations or less if you've got a competent survivalist in the party. If you don't mind sleeping above the sheets or on the grass, swapping your bedroll for a winter blanket will free up another 2lbs and, if you've got a cleric in the party with a Create Water prepared, trade out the waterskin for a mug. If none of that works, ask your GM to let you buy a Radio Flyer. Pulling a wagon would allow you to carry more and your weasel could ride on top of the load wearing a little cowboy hat.
I think it depends on the type of scolding. Here's a helpful guide: Finger-wagging and a, "You should know better." = Mom-ful Good A slap on the wrist and a, "Don't you do it again." = Mom-ful Neutral Taking off your shoe or pulling out a hairbrush and paddling the guard's tuckus red and then declaring, "You were a mistake." = Mom-ful Evil
Sorry I wasn't more clear. I was trying to provide an answer to both questions. The players don't have a physical map of the dungeon, though I do often draw out basic, temporary maps for them on the battle-mat so they can get their bearings and, on the rare occasion they actually find a complete map of a region, I actually just let them look at the map out of the book.
As an aside, I kind of randomly picked Dune Stalkers because I remembered them being weird, wicked and deadly but, if you use them, I'd definitely retool them for Pathfinder. That Kiss of Death ability of theirs might be too powerful considering the general nerfing of Save-or-Die effects. Off the top of my head, I'd maybe change the Kiss to 2d6 Sonic + some CON damage with a Fort Save to negate the CON damage. That way, it's still deadly, but not immediately lethal. Also, Alex the Rogue gave me the idea to maybe make the gates walls of force covered with a permeable reflective sheath. The monster in the reflection will look like it's standing just outside the room in a narrow passage or cell, but anyone touching the mirror containing the monster will feel a solid wall unless the gate is open in which case their hand goes through the mirror. When the force wall opens, it either simply vanishes or raises or lowers instead of swinging open. Alternately, have the reflection of the monster standing right in the middle of the room, trapped in an ethereal state like the reflection of an invisible hologram (mind=blown) so it can't be touched by the party until it's been released by their useless attack against the mirror. If anyone strikes the mirror, the sonic vibrations of the gong allows the monster to rephase and attack (though only its reflection is visible.) Once the monster is dead, the mirror containing the exit shatters like safety glass or tiny, cascading ice, allowing the party to pass through.
Thanks. My original design for the Apparatus was going to make it capable of actually crawling around, but the screw and spring legs I made were too heavy for the traction skids I built and the whole thing ended up looking rather clumsy. The wind-up motor still works so I just imagine the little kicking paddles are how the crab propels itself through water. This adventure has really made me take notice of all the no-brainer miniatures that you figure somebody would have put out by now. I can understand how a huge otyugh or a large grick might find limited use but, for real, a tendriculos and an Apparatus of the Crab would have made awesome minis for the DDM skirmish game. On the other hand, it's given me plenty of reasons to get creative with the modeling bits and paints I've got laying around. I can't give it away just yet, but I'm in the planning stages of a new homemade mini for this adventure. When it's done, I'm thinking of posting a small gallery of some of my homemade stuff in the Miniatures section of the messageboards. Mapping was a bigger issue in the lower levels when the party had less to worry about, though I never required the party to actually draw out a map. They just nominated a high-INT party member to keep track of where they'd been and that person would draw the maps when they camped. In most cases, as long as somebody could honestly say, "I have been drawing a map," that was good enough for me. The party's early maps were crude things scrawled onto scraps of canvas with ash from burnt sticks. At one point, they even found a pre-made map drawn onto a mesh of kobold scales. Ink-drawn maps on pages from spellbooks have become the norm and it's usually Roch who does the mapping. Most of the region's aren't so complicated that I feel the need to make the party roll to remember which way they went or how to get back to certain areas. I might ask for a Perception, Survival or INT check if a member gets lost or dragged off while blindfolded or something, but that's about it. The party does have some incentive to explore every corner of the Dungeon aside from the potential for treasure. For every labeled room they find and "clear" (whether they kill monsters, disable a trap or even just walk through an empty chamber,) I give them bonus XP. It isn't a whole lot per room, but there are 1635 labeled rooms in the dungeon so it'll add up over time.
Hmmm, what if a Glass Golem assembles itself from the mirror or it turns out the mirror (or part of it) is really a Quicksilver Ooze? Or howabout this: The party walks into the mirrored room and sees the font and the reflection of a gate (like an actual iron gate, not a magic gate) in one or multiple walls of the room, but there's no visible gate in the corresponding wall. They can only see its reflection. Next, you take a suitably evil monster, maybe one or four Dune Stalkers from Monster Manual 2, and you stick him behind the gate. The party can see him in the reflection, but he isn't doing anything. He's just standing there, behind the reflected gate, motionless, hardly even breathing. Now, they're nervous. They can't find any sign of a hidden door in the wall. They could try to do the safe thing with the tears and the font, but they might get froggy and smash the mirror to get to the gate and confront the beast within. Striking the mirror causes a gong-like sound to thunder across the chamber, but the mirror doesn't break. Instead, the gate (or gates in the case of multiple Dune Stalkers) reflected in the mirrors open up allowing the reflected monsters to exit into the room except the party doesn't see any monsters in the room with them. They can, however, see the reflected Dune Stalker approaching the closest member of the party menacingly and then prepare to strike. If they haven't figured it out by now, the monster attacks the guy flat-footed and they quickly realize the thing is invisible in all but its reflection. In order to fight it, they basically need to watch the mirror to see where it goes (i.e. avert their gaze the way they might fighting a medusa.) This gives the monster the appropriate concealment and other related bonuses. The situation might also screw with the players' perceptions of where the monster actually is so you might want them to make Perception checks to determine the correct square to attack. If the party wins the combat, you either let them off the hook and one of the mirrored walls slides into the floor to reveal the exit or go for round two and tell the party they see the gate is once again closed and another monster awaits them.
If you've got the 3.0 Fiend Folio, look up the Nerra. They're a race of neutral outsiders from The Plane of Mirrors who occasionally pop out of mirrors to kidnap people or gather intelligence for an upcoming invasion. They're not mirror-image doppelgangers so you don't have to worry about the cliche, and I doubt very many players know about them so your party shouldn't be have any preconcieved notions on how to deal with them. If you don't like the fluff for the race, you could just use their stat blocks to make them generic mirror monsters. The three types of Nerra range from CR1 to CR7 and they often take class levels. If you don't have a Fiend Folio and want to check them out, I might be able to post some statblocks.
Thanks to Roch, the party has won the approval of the drow leader, Lorath. Well, he hasn't decided to kill them all right away at any rate. Anyway, it looks like they've been conscripted into the rebellion but, before they can go after the driders, Lorath's got one more little favor to ask them... DAY 171 BUG HUNT featuring: The World's Largest Adventuring Party
The drow warrior, Lorath, unfurled a map across a stone table before the adventuring party and pointed to a section of tunnels to the west. “That’s where you’ll find it,” he began. “Kill the thing and we’ll have a safe route into the area held by the driders.” “Find what?” Roch asked. “What exactly are we after?” “A thing called a spider-eater,” Lorath answered. “The driders kept it as a lab animal. We think it got loose during Anguish’s attack. Now, it hunts drow and drider alike in the west tunnels.” “I’ve heard of this creature,” spoke the sorcerer Armand. The half-orc was being sent with the party to both assist and keep an eye on them. “A single spider-eater shouldn’t provide much of a challenge to your warriors.” “This one’s different,” spoke Lorath. “Whatever the driders did to it made it bigger, meaner too. They clipped its wings so it can no longer fly, but they grafted a second pair of claws to the stumps. The thing can climb now, and it’s fast for its size. It’s picked off some of our scouts. The survivors tell me it’s hunting in the tunnels near the cell we used for Anguish.” Roch looked over the map, pointing out a second tunnel connecting to where the driders were holed up. “Why not go around the spider-eater? What’s wrong with this tunnel?” “We call that tunnel The Gauntlet, and it ends at The Path of Worth, a wide, deep pit filled by a lava flow,” Lorath answered. “Heavy winds swing a disc hanging above the pit from thick chains, and the driders control the only other exit from the chamber. Even if we could make the leap to the disc, we’d have to somehow quickly unlock and open the door at a distance. Then, there’s Arioch.” “Who’s Arioch?” Roch asked. “A slave like the rest of us…once,” the drow answered after a moment. “The driders offered him a chance to become one of them and he took it. Something went wrong. Now he’s their champion, a six-armed giant bred for slaughter and completely loyal to their cause. He is the master of the pit and challenges anyone wishing to cross the disc though I suspect the driders may have secured the door and pulled him back to their position. If Arioch still stands on The Path of Worth, we have little hope of using it as an access point. He has only once known defeat…and that was long ago.” “What kind of support can we expect?” asked Roch. “Most of your weapons and armor will be returned to you, but we’ll be holding onto your other equipment. The less we have to recover from your corpses, the faster we can move,” Lorath grinned. “If you can get it working, you can use The Death Trap.” “Death Trap?” Roch asked warily. “A contraption built by the drider sorceress Padeema, to combat The Green Death,” Lorath answered. “We call it The Death Trap because the thing leaks some sort of smoke that kills anyone attempting to drive it. It rests within the sorceress’ workshop though she either destroyed or made off with its design notes. That is all the help you’ll get from us until you’ve destroyed the spider-eater. Now, if there’s nothing else, I have other matters to attend.” With that, the adventurers made for the west tunnels, stopping first within Padeema’s workshop to inspect The Death Trap. *** A lone, drow warrior sat behind an overturned workbench within Padeema’s workshop, carelessly toying with the drider’s abandoned tools while keeping an eye on the chamber’s south exit. If the surviving driders intended to make an attack on the rebels, the workshop would provide the fastest route to Lorath’s camp. Fortunately, the doors were heavily reinforced and bordered The Green Death’s lair. As far as anyone knew, the plant beast was still alive, having hidden from Anguish after retreating into its cave during the battle with Madness and, alive or no, the threat of the thing seemed enough to contain the driders for the time being. Riswan, Armand and Roch examined a strange apparatus in the corner of the chamber, a large barrel to which various hoses, tubes and boxes were bolted along with a great bellows attached to a nozzle. The barrel was turned on its side and rested on a set of mechanical legs behind a pair of articulated arms ending in powerful clamping claws. “What do you think it is?” Roch asked. “Well, obviously it’s a uh…thing…for...uhm,” Armand replied before turning to the drow watchman. “What is this thing?” “Ask him how you get in-, oh, nevermind, found it!” Riswan announced as he discovered a hatch allowing access to the interior of the machine. Pulling open the hatch revealed a space large enough for two human or halfling-sized occupants along with an acidic smell that stung the fighter’s nostrils. Ten, thick levers were spaced throughout the inside of the barrel as well and, despite the warnings of deadly gas, both the halfling and Armand crawled into the machine and began pulling at them. The half-orc sorcerer, who was still feeling oddly sluggish since his experience with The Ritual of Unmaking reached out to pull at one of the levers and found his fingers could not grasp the handle. Instead, they slid right off as if the bones of his fingers had been reduced to small spongy whips. Since the ritual, the sorcerer had been hiding the fact that he’d lost his sight and was instead relying on some strange, new ability to blindly perceive close surroundings. This, along with the fact none of the sorcerer’s rings or headbands seemed to fit anymore, caused Armand to suddenly realize the Ritual had “gifted” him with abilities similar to an ooze. His bones and flesh were now like liquid and, though strong enough to allow him to move about and cast most of his spells, he’d lost the ability to manipulate objects. However, when Riswan managed to activate the barrel a moment later, the sorcerer discovered another hidden benefit of his transformation. The halfling’s method of randomly pulling levers finally paid off when the pair of claws on the front of the machine extended and the tubes on top of the device flickered open revealing a pair of ensorcelled hooded lamps. The Death Trap began to hum and hiss as acrid, green smoke filled the compartment. The resilient fighter managed to stave off the effects of the poison for about a minute before suddenly feeling a painful burning on his skin and in his lungs. Riswan scrambled to escape the gas, while Armand, who was completely unharmed, observed with amused curiosity. It seemed his new, ooze-like qualities also protected him from the poisonous effects of the gas while Riswan, on the other hand, was now outside the apparatus coughing up blood and bits of lung tissue. “I’ve just had an idea!” Armand announced before sliding out of the machine. “Wait here, I’ll be right back!” And with that, the sorcerer was off for Lorath’s camp. *** “Help you?! Ha! Get bent, lumpy!” Beem shouted down at Armand as he pelted the sorcerer with fleshy chunks he’d carved from the body of the drider Ecthelon. Lorath had given Armand permission to enlist the aid of the homunculus, but the creature seemed in no mood to cooperate. “Here, I’m a king! Emperor Beem! Out there, I might as well be you!” “But you’d get to control an engine of destruction, Beem! Think of the carnage you could wreak!” The sorcerer had rightly deduced the tiny construct would be immune to the effects of the poisonous gas and hoped to convince him to drive The Death Trap. “You could extend your legacy of evil beyond the walls of these cells!” “With you calling the shots and farting up the passenger seat with your doughy ass?! I don’t think so!” Beem retorted as he cut a strip of the drider’s skin into paper dolls. “I’ll tell you what; let me drive the death doohickey alone and you’ve got a deal!” “No deal,” Armand countered. “I know you’ve been locked up in this cell for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, and I’d wager you’d like a chance to get out and cause some real trouble. You could really hurt the driders, maybe even find your master. If you want out, I’m riding with you.” “That’s a bet you’d lose,” Beem smiled as he stretched out his tiny platoon of puppets and danced them in front of the sorcerer. Each one of the figures was cut into the shape of a goblin-like creature extending its middle fingers. “Dance, my minions! Dance!” he laughed. There was no convincing the creature, and Armand couldn’t trust the little sociopath to operate the machine alone. The last thing the party needed was for Beem to go rogue at the controls of a heavily armored, acid-blasting automaton. Accepting defeat, the sorcerer sighed and left the homunculus to play with his toys. It was probably really for the best that he did. *** Armand returned to the workshop to find the adventurers had managed to turn The Death Trap off and discover a few things about its design using the crystal magnifying lens Cul’tharic had taken from Madness’ lair. The poisonous gas was apparently leaking into the driver’s compartment through interior seams near a tank attached the machine’s bellows. The acidic fumes were the product of about 120 liters of defoliant stored in the tank, which could be fired from the thing’s nozzle cannon. Unfortunately, this information came at the expense of 20 liters of the liquid, which sprayed Shi while Riswan was fiddling with the thing’s controls so The Death Trap now contained only 100 liters of the poison. Worse yet, there appeared to be no way to seal the gas leaks without deconstructing and then rebuilding the machine with replacement parts, a task none of the adventurers were trained to accomplish even if the parts were available. “I still think we should take it with us,” Riswan spoke with a voice hoarse from the poisonous fumes. “We can reload it with defoliant from one of the storerooms near Siglinde’s lab.” “And whom do you propose drives the thing?” Roch asked. “The sorcerer here might be immune to the gas, but he can’t pull the switches. Anyone else would probably be dead in minutes.” The halfling suggested Roch or Cul’tharic drive the machine due to their ability to hold their breath for an extended period of time, but the idea was shot down when Shi pointed out the acidic gas also worked on contact with skin. “I think I can help with that,” Armand announced. “If one of your reptilian companions is comfortable with piloting the craft, I can grant them protection from the corrosive properties of the smoke for more than an hour at a time. I can then ride inside with them and help navigate while maintaining their resistance.” Despite his expressed reservations about the strange, mechanical beast, it was decided Cul’tharic would pilot the apparatus based on his overall health and resistance to toxins, and the sorcerer cast a spell protecting the lizardman’s scales from the gas. Taking in a deep breath, the warrior climbed into the vehicle and threw it into gear as his companions prepared to depart for the spider-eater’s tunnels. *** Cul’tharic and Armand led the way through the lair of The Green Death, slowly trampling, snapping and threshing the undergrowth of the chamber with The Death Trap while Shi relaxed atop the contraption and Riswan, Roch and Ida followed behind. The smoke within the apparatus made seeing through its multiple portholes next to impossible, but the sorcerer’s oozy senses allowed the pair to navigate safely about the chamber until they heard a sudden thumping from the top of the vehicle. The adventurers had moved no more than forty feet around the perimeter of the chamber when the long grasses and vines of The Green Death’s lair suddenly lashed up around their knees and waists. Then, from the ceiling of the chamber, a thick, leafy vine shot down and wrapped itself around Shi’s throat as he reclined atop The Death Trap. The cleric, kicking the roof of the vehicle, struggled to free himself from the choking vine as Roch and Riswan fought to escape the entangling brush. Following Armand’s instructions, Cul’tharic swung The Death Trap’s arms up in a clumsy arc that narrowly missed Shi but managed to clip the vine as Ida fired blasts of light at the constricting growth at Roch’s feet. The battle with the assassin vine was short, but proved without a doubt The Green Death’s influence had not yet left the region, a point further illustrated by the drow and drider corpses the party soon discovered spread below the plant-thing’s cave like an offering. Riswan slowly approached the pile of bodies in order to examine them when Ida chimed behind him, “We didn’t leave those doors open.” The halfling looked up and spotted a pair of vine-draped double doors to the south that hung wide into the chamber. A visible trail led from the doors to the pile of corpses, indicating something had dragged the bodies into the room from the south tunnels. “Riswan, get over here! We’re going!” called Roch from where Cul’tharic and Armand had moved The Death Trap toward a door to the west. Still pondering the mysterious trail, the halfling turned to go and quickly found himself unable to move. Another patch of fronds and ivy exploded around Riswan’s legs, binding him in place as a thick vine struck him and began to crush his throat. “Riswan!” Ida yelled as beams of light erupted from her spherical body, searing into the plant. Shi and Roch fired their crossbows into the patch of hungry underbrush as the halfling wriggled free of the assassin vine and wrestled through the groping mass before being struck once again by the vicious tendril. Luckily, the halfling’s allies quickly dispatched the plant, but Riswan hadn’t yet recovered from the poisonous gas and was looking faint. “If you’re finished trying to get yourself killed, the rest of us want to get on with this bug hunt,” Shi chided as he saw to the halfling’s wounds. *** Passage through the tunnels west of The Green Death’s lair was slow, owing to the bulk of The Death Trap. Twice, the thing had to have its legs and claws withdrawn so the adventurers could manually shove and pull the thing through warped or narrow doorways or rubble-strewn halls but, eventually, the party managed to reach the entrance to the tunnels the spider-eater was said to inhabit. To the north, they could just make out the sound of wind roaring through The Path of Worth at the end of The Gauntlet but, after what Lorath had told them, none dared to venture that way. The way ahead was littered with the remains of a barricade shattered during Anguish’s attack. A few drow and drider bodies lay burned, crushed or torn asunder near the wall of debris and the adventurers quickly picked through their remains for any equipment of value, taking a few suits of studded leather armor and a pair of fine daggers, which they stored in the small space remaining within The Death Trap. Beyond the barricade, the party discovered what remained of the driders’ primary siege hall, a high-ceilinged, ancient chamber likely used by the celestials as a temple before the drow were forced to convert it for repelling attacks from the monsters to the south. The rotating siege towers within the long, wide chamber looked to be in fair condition, having likely been quickly abandoned during the drow exodus from the area, and the party cautiously approached the closest tower. Just then, Shi and Roch spotted a brief flash of light from the top tier of the structure. Quietly, the pair split around the edges of the tower after informing Riswan of the light. “Who’s up there!” Riswan shouted as Shi slapped his palm against his forehead. The priest’s hand was beginning to form a callous. Following the halfling’s shout, Roch heard the aggravated whisper of a drow warrior, “Tell that mal'ai to shut his wael mouth or we will shoot him through the leg.” “Don’t you think that will only cause him to scream louder?” the mystic replied. “I hope so,” the drow grinned as he emerged from the shadows of the lower tier. “Between his whining and a limp, the rest of us should have no trouble escaping while that phindar to the south feasts on his brain.” The two drow in the tower, it turned out, were all that remained of a scouting party sent to keep an eye on the tunnel. Their companions, they claimed, had been killed and dragged off through the southern passage along with any other creatures the monster managed to ambush. “You’re welcome to chase that thing into its lair to your deaths, but we won’t be joining you,” the drow replied when asked if the scouts would assist the party. “We’ll make for camp as soon as you head out.” Convinced the drow would offer no assistance, the adventurers turned toward the south tunnel, eventually coming to what appeared to have been a guard post before something huge and very strong had plowed through the chamber. Only the stone tables within the former guard shack remained intact while smashed wooden chairs and the crushed bodies of fire beetles lay scattered about the chamber. The door leading into the room hung open as if it had been left ajar by some fleeing creature and the exit in the west wall appeared to have been beaten in with tremendous force. “I remember this place,” Ida chimed. “The driders kept Anguish in a cell near here. It’s an immense chamber, once a dining hall for the Garrison. Maybe the spider-eater’s moved in?” “I think we should draw it out to us,” Riswan suggested. The west exit was too narrow for the Death Trap to squeeze through so the machine would need to remain in the guard post. “We can position the Death Trap in front of the door and then blast the thing when it comes at us. We just need some bait.” “I’ll do it,” Roch volunteered. Lacking his magic, the mystic determined he would have little else to contribute to the party’s task. “I’ll sneak in, get its attention and then race back here.” “I could go,” Ida offered, but Roch was determined. “It’s going to want fresh meat,” he asserted. “I’ll take a suit of the leather we found on the dead drow so my armor won’t slow me down, and then run back as soon as I hear it coming.” The theurge took only his hammer, the armor and one of the faintly glowing fire beetle lanterns, which had survived the spider-eater’s rampage, and did his best to creep silently toward the wide cell at the end of the tunnel. The tunnel on his right, Ida had informed him, would lead to the door Vyk had used during his mission while the passage to his left would lead to a second door, likely still sealed, leading into the cell. Roch checked the right tunnel first and saw that the door into the cell hung open as Ida had said it would. As quietly as he could manage, Roch then moved toward the sealed door down the left tunnel. If he could get the beast’s attention, he reasoned, he might be able to draw it into the open tunnel and then slip through the second entrance and run around to flank the thing with his companions. Roch was nearly to the end of the left tunnel when a sudden jet of fire erupted from the walls of the passage. The trap, meant to deter anything from escaping the cell, bathed the theurge in a fan of flames and he quickly twisted through the blast, surprisingly, with no injuries sustained. His good fortune he owed to the studded leather of the drow, which had been alchemically treated to resist heat. Unfortunately, his luck was about to run out. “It’s coming!” shouted Shi who suddenly caught a glimpse of something immense crawling quickly along the wall of the tunnel on the right. The spider-eater had heard Roch enter the passage and was coming to investigate. The cleric quickly hurled a lance of sonic force at the creature that tore into its hide, but failed to stop its advance. Cul’tharic and Armand, who had taken the opportunity to vacate the smoky interior of the Death Trap, were caught off guard and unable to reach its controls in time to fire its acid cannon as the hulking arachnid whipped around the corner in pursuit of its chosen prey, the trespasser Roch. Roch turned to retreat toward his companions when he saw the tunnel was now blocked off by what appeared to be a massive arthropod with two pairs of horrible clawed limbs jutting from its prosoma. Despite its great size, the thing seemed to have no trouble sprinting across the wall toward him and, rushing for the reinforced door, the theurge had just enough time to unlock and unbar the portal as the monster closed in. Before he could open to the door to flee, however, the spider-eater leapt at him, its bloated abdomen bearing a stinger like a barbed scimitar that easily penetrated Roch’s leather shirt and scales. The mystic felt the pain of the strike for only an instant before numbness filled his body. The spider-eater’s sting had paralyzed him, and the creature may have made off with the caster had his companions not been so close at hand. The adventurers closed in quickly as the now-cornered beast turned to face them. Shi rained divine vengeance upon the spider-eater while the Armand called forth the powers of his infernal heritage to unleash an explosive ball of flame that caught both the monster and Roch in its radius. The helpless theurge, who had created more than his share of friendly fire in the past, now took the full force of the explosion though his armor did take some of the bite out of the blast. Meanwhile Ida and Riswan loosed arrows and beams of cutting light into the arachnid’s belly as Cul’tharic closed in with his trident before the thing could finish off the defenseless spellcaster. Feeling its life draining quickly, the monster lashed out at the nearest threat, the lizardman Cul’tharic, with vigor. Its great mandibles, powerful pincers and wicked stinger slashed and tore at the reptilian warrior’s scales wounding him terribly. However, Cul’tharic stood his ground and managed to plunge his resin trident deep into the creature’s head as it buried its fangs into his shield arm. Having already been blasted by flame, thunder and the power of the gods, the spider-eater no longer had the strength to survive the lizardman’s assault and sank to the floor, its legs twitching as it chittered its last agonized cry. BONUS CONTENT!!
Velcro Zipper wrote...In essence this is entirely rewriting the entirety of the dungeon. I wouldn't go that far. I'm using all the monsters and plot hooks as written aside from converting some classed monsters to their Pathfinder equivalents. I've only made a few minor changes like adding a community of prisoners who trade with the adventurers since I'm running the dungeon as a massive "one way in, one way out" adventure. What I'm doing does still require a lot of work, but my players are happy so I think it's paying off. I probably wouldn't have as much work to do if my players would just kill everything in sight instead of trying to set up peaceful relations with the different monster communities within the dungeon. The intro for the dungeon doesn't require a DM to run the thing the way I am, and I totally agree that what I'm doing is not for every group. I did have one player drop out of the game because he didn't like dungeon crawls in general. Others have mentioned the dungeon might work better broken up into individual adventures, and some regions are better than others so that might be the way to go if you're into short term stuff or don't have the time or interest to get invested in the thing. Overall though, I still think there are some good things to glean from it even with its flaws.
First off, here are the rules for Spell Research from the SRD. You'll notice they mention this: "Watch for spells that break the implied limits of the game. Most arcane casters have poor healing abilities, and divine spells rarely excel at direct damage. With rare exception, spells shouldn’t duplicate existing class features or feats." Those are guidelines for GMs because, ultimately, it's your GM's decision to let your proposed spell fly or die. A GM might allow a little cross-pollination from one arcane list to another, one divine list to another or even divine to arcane, but there are some spells that they may feel are out of place on certain lists. If your wizard gets to successfully develop Cure magic, the GM's got to let any other wizard follow your precedent. Wizards might never be as good at healing as Clerics, but it might make a huge difference in the game world or even how players choose the class they're going to play. Basically, hash the given rules out with your GM and get his input on what they'll allow.
There's this guy if you can find one, but you might also consider finding two separate minis. The player can use the wolf mini to represent when he is mounted and both minis for when he dismounts. If money is an issue, maybe get a prepainted plastic wolf and then spend on the metal halfling. Alternately, I use a metal Reaper gnome mini for a cavalier I play and a homemade tile of a pony for her mount. That way, I can place my gnome's figure on top of the tile when she's mounted and then remove her when she dismounts.
He's still a standard mystic theurge using the standard method for casting spells. I'm actually talking about these rules from the Core Rulebook. All of Roch's slots are still available to him. However, aside from his zero-level spels, he can only fill them with spells he has personally researched and developed. Basically, Nethys wants him to make up for the loss of the Ritual of Unmaking by replacing the spell with some new magic nobody has ever seen before. Once Roch's created enough new magic, he'll regain access to his old spells.
I could fill five pages with what I have to say about the World's Largest Dungeon. In fact, I have. From my experience thus far, you'll probably get more out of it based on how much you put into it. I'm running the thing, basically, as written, but I spend several hours every week poring over rules and plotting out how to connect the regions to one another based on the party's interactions with the dungeon's inhabitants. I enjoy the research and modification involved in Pathfinder-izing the Dungeon and weaving a story out of it, but I don't know how much time, energy or interest you have in that sort of thing. My simple answer to all of the questions you posted: Yes.
I do this in my WLD campaign and the boons are typically a little less powerful than traits unless they require some real effort on behalf of the party. A few examples: Blessing of The Stoneshaper = Available to any adventurer recognized as a friend of the Stoneshaper goblins. Grants +2 Diplomacy when dealing with Stoneshaper goblins, +2 Intimidate when dealing with Stonespeaker goblins (a rival tribe) Celestial Garrison member = Good and Neutral party members who succeed at the three tests required to join the Garrison recieve a +2 to Will saves and the privilege of purchasing supplies from the Garrison's armory so long as they remain a member in good standing. Darvil's Journal = Anyone capable of reading Dwarf who studies the book for ten hours receives a +2 circumstance bonus to Craft mechanical traps, Knowledge Geography and Survival checks made within the dungeon and to Perception and Disable Device checks made to locate and disable mechanical traps for a number of days equal to their INT score. The book may be read multiple times but the bonus will not increase. Studying the book need not be done all at once.
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