catdragon's page

Okay, so i finally got to use a modified version of dwtempest's ziggerat this last weekend and thought i might leave some comments....

1) The puzzle was well done, though my players complained that it was fairly obtuse and you had to think about things in a certain way. I have no problem with that, 'cause that is what puzzles are supposed to do.

2) The serpentfolk at the start, in the main room of the lowest level of the ziggerat, seem odd. The lieutenant was large for example, but no explanation as to how he got large. I left it along though, and the players thought he might have been a different caste of serpentfolk. Which is cool, as I can not make different serpentfolk with all sorts of oddness in the future. A lot like y***-t* way back when they were first introduced to DnD.

3) The enchanter turned out to be a bit tougher than I thought he would be. However, at the end of the battle is a struggle of attrition -- protection from arrows proved it worth, especially when the person protected is using spider climb to stay away from the group.

4) Watch out for failed knowledge checks. My players failed their geography checks when presented with the ancient map of the Mwangi. So I actually had to *tell* them what they were seeing so they could figure out how to get from Tazion to Saventh-Yhi.

5) The encounters, at least when i ran it, all happened at the start of the exploration of the ziggerant. If you wish to make it a bit more combat oriented, i would add a few things. perhaps a few of the giant wasps attack anyone on top of the ziggerat for any period of time, or a mimic in one of the side rooms. The leech swarms were annoying all around, I would change that to some sort of nasty fish, perhaps modelling on the stats of a viper or turtle. if you want to be absolutely nasty and really screw with things, make it a larval form of an aboleth. :) But that is probably too much.

6) Three gems are found before the PC even get to the ziggerat by Isseth (the serpent folk enchanter). When running you may want to detail with the serpentfolk found the gems and what was there. I put secret panels/hiding places in the hall of Stars, Hall of the Sun, and the Void room (where the water is).

7) What happens to the various pieces of the puzzle after it is solved? Do the gems lose their power (the faint aura of divination on them)? What are they worth? Can they be taken from the ziggerat? What about the gold plaques in the step puzzle room? What are they worth each (I assigned an arbitrary value of 100 go each)? What happens if the gems are left in the hands of the idols and the PC do not take them with them? (Here i suggest that the gems must be presented to the door of the step puzzle room to get the door to open.)

Hope these comments are of help to someone. I really enjoyed the redo that dwtempest did. Thanks for sharing this with us!

Kudos to you! That was a great way to turn a failure of an encounter into something everyone would remember!