ghettowedge's page

One of the worst names in a campaign i was in was a Dragonlance, Tinker-Gnome:

Sonofab#*chIhitmythumbwiththehammeragainandbyallthatisgoodandholyitreallyre allyfreakinhurtssobadIthinkIbettergoseethepartyclerictogetitfixedbeforeitsw ellsupsobadthatwehavetogoallthewaydowntoicewallglacierjusttogetitbackdownto normalsize...
there was more, but I'm already tired of typing it!
Needless to say, we just called him Sonof.

I like that one. Bad names, eh?

Frutiger Roman (a style of text)
A ranger named Ordik (We added a question mark)
Olidoc Dirtstar (I hope dirtstar isn't too R-rated for this)
Zigmund Feud
A male dwarf named Lori (claims he saw it in the LotR appendices)
An archer named Thok
Irky Timbers (actually he was the npc gnome in the Sunless Citadel I think, but we quickly started calling him Urkel)
The barbarian enchantress Boobsalicious (Don't ask how she casts daze)

Those are just the ones off the top of my head.

Just wondering how other FR DM's are altering the Overgod to reflect aspects of the Dead Three. My thoughts were to give it a skull-like head for Bhaal, and skeletal hands for Myrkul. Not sure what to do about Bane and the six arms. Any thoughts?

I'm not sure that you mean "Overgod". I think you are refering to the Ebon Aspect in 3FoE. If I'm wrong, correct me. I like the idea of changing its appearance to reflect the Faerun gods, but I don't know how much good it can do. Bhaal and Myrkul are both skeletal in appearance, and what to do for Bane? Black gauntlets? Just based on the two deities, players are likely to just assume it's some form of undead. I think that would take away from the intensity of the encounter. I plan to leave it as is, and just make certain the players garner the knowledge that it is an Aspect of the combined deities. I'm pretty sure the players won't be dissappointed that it doesn't resemble the deities closely.

hahaha. did the warmage survive?

Just barely. He had taken a feat that let him use his int or cha modifier for bonus hp's at 1st level, and the cleric was pretty quick with a wand of cure light wounds.

Each temple wing makes a great place to rest once they clear it out. The problem is clearing it out, but I think the fact this adventure is a meatgrinder is important; it makes the players think tactically against an intelligent opposing force, something they'll have to get used to. Plus, they're attacking an overwhelming force in a well-defended position with well-practiced tactics; it should be a meatgrinder! ;)

I completely agree. The party I'm running for attacked the temple of Hextor (well Bane, I'm using FR) first. Despite knowing that the temple was alerted to their presence, they kept pressing forward and were quickly funneled into the arena and promptly captured.

One of the players DM's a game I play in. He asked me about the EL of the encounter and what the author expected a party to do there. I explained that the temple was a well-organized, military installation, and I ran it as one. If the cultist's are alerted, they aren't going to sit around waiting to be smote one by one. If the party is trying to sneak in and strike down an evil cult and they're detected, rushing forward isn't going to help.
Eventually he conceded that the uber EL makes sense, and he would have run it the same way. Hopefully they won't underestimate their opponents next time.

Whispering Cairn

In a desperate attempt to slay the 2nd beetle swarm. The party waited until it was swarming the warmage (who thought he had to prepare spells like a wizard and therefore didn't use burning hands), then they threw flaming blankets on him.

I was amused and impressed by their impromptu tactics.

First was the differences in maps between Area 1 and the Temple of Hextor. In the first map, it depicts a 5' corridor leading to Area 2, but the second indicates a 10' corridor. This would not have been a big deal until the cultists (I used 9 of them for some odd reason) moved past Area 5 and released Beast. From its perspective, I figured Beast would move to the closest enemy (which just happened to be in that previously described 5' corridor). It had to squeeze to get there and that was a big mistake as the enlarged dwarven cleric/fighter made mince meat of it.

Yeah I noticed the map discrepency and made the corridor 5' wide. But in your example the dwarf would have been squeezing as well.

Finally, in the arena (Area 11) it talks of Kendra's tactics was to cast Silence on a spellcaster and then cast Sound Burst on that same person. My question, does Sound Burst work within the area of effect of a Silence spell? My players would have had a fit if I had tried it..

You read that part wrong. In her tactics it says "she uses her scroll of sound burst and her scroll of silence". There is no order listed. But, sonic effects don't work in an area of silence and sound burst and silence counter each other. Or since silence is dismissable she could just drop it after a round or two, when the party has accounted for it, and then sound burst them.

I just finished running a session where the party assaulted the temple to Bane (Hextor). The previous session was their first foray into it, and due to a PC death they stopped after slaying the skeletons and dire boar. Tonight they went back in, with a new character, after about an hour of time in-game. I ran the cultists as suggested, and lured the party into the arena. After 33 rounds of combat Theldrick and 2 tieflings beat the last standing PC into unconsciousness.

All four party members are alive, but in negatives. As for the cultists, Theldrick, Kendra, and 3 tieflings are conscious, one tiefling and Garras are in negatives. With her wand of cure light wounds, Kendra is the only person left with healing capabilities.

I'm trying to figure out how to set the stage for the party to escape. I have some ideas concerning Kendra making a move for power and setting up the party to take out Theldrick before he can pray for more spells. I'd like to hear some suggestions from you fine people first though.

About the follower of heironeus... Would a cleric of heironeus have a problem with sneaking into the mine? I guess it is illegal (trespassing?), but you could argue that it would be for the greater good...

It doesn't have to be tresspassing, my players spent half a session figuring out a way into the mine, and eventually got jobs as miners.

You previously stated that this player is playing a cleric just to prove a point, then you should show him the responsibility that comes with power. Hassle him about breaking laws and if he keeps doing it, take away a few spell slots. If he's asking the church to do something about an evil cult, have them reply that they are... they're sending him. He's a low ranking priest, so they should be sending him to substantiate these rumors. And if he's begging for help explain how he'd be failing in Heironeus' eyes.

PC: Den - Dwarf ftr/rog
Adventure - 3 Faces of Evil
Location - Just inside the Bane (Hextor) temple
Catalyst - Refusing to back off

The party smashed in the door to an already alert temple of Bane. The party cleric quickly dusted most of the skeletons and were hacking at the few that were unnaffected, when the dire boar was released. It charged straight at the dwarven ftr/rog and did max damage, 20 points! The other party members quickly surrounded it and took off more than half its hit points. Then Den went. Instead of moving away to be healed, he adjusted to flank the beast. His damage easily outdid any other character's so, the dire boar gored him again, dropping Den to -13.

The player thought that the damage on the first hit was due to charging and that the boar couldn't take much more. He didn't realize that dire boars fight until at -10 hp.

Name: Ollidoc Dirtstar, halfling rogue
Adventure: The Whispering Cairn
Location: Filch's lab
Catalyst: Poor tactics
Long Description: After impressive party tactics in the actual cairn I had high hopes for this group. These guys threw flaming bedrolls at swarms they were otherwise unprepared for. I thought they might escape the so-called Tomb of Horrors without a party death. I was wrong.
After forcing their way into the observatory and witnessing Filch's crimes against nature, I was a bit concerned he might end up as a 2 round npc. Alas, as they searched through the tower and set of the alarm, they allowed him to cast his power-up suite. And when he taunted down to them, they delayed just a bit longer.
To make a long story short, poor turning rolls, dropped pc's, and "we have a chance to escape, no we can fight" tactics eventually resulted in a knife fight between Filch and the party warmage (both out of spells) while the others fought the Trog zombies. When the poor rogue Olidoc finally fell into negatives, I thought little of it until I realzed noone had gone to his aid in 4 rounds and he was on the brink. Finally the ranger, Lucious, dashed to his side, narrowly dodging the 2 attacks of opportunity only to fail his Heal check.
The following round proceeded something like this:
The warmage, "I stab at Filch" -miss
Filch stabs at the warmage and misses
The cleric, "I bash a zombie" - miss
Doc make your stableization check - fails, Doc is dead.
The party eventually won and Doc's family will profit from his death.

I just finished running the Whispering Cairn in Faerun, with a group of 5. - Worcester, MA

Five characters, set in Faerun, starting at 2nd level:

Sir Lucius Alidore: A 42 y.o. LN "retired" ranger. A loyal devotee of Helm, he quit adventuring two decades ago due to moral qualms. Rumors of ominous doings have helped to settle his misgivings. He now intends to set off again with a renewed sense of "the greater good". He has posted a general call for like-minded individuals on a quest to cleanse the land of evil.

Chalren Reinhorn: LG cleric of Azuth. Part of a local cult that venerates Kelemvor, Mystra, and (in this version) Azuth, Chalren is a young man with a strong sense of duty. When he noticed a public posting in search of intrepid heroes to join a band dedicated to flushing out evil, Chalren immediately went to his superiors. Like most of the local youth he had heard rumors of a haunted cairn in the Forlorn Hills. This Sir Alidore, seemed to be speaking directly to Reinhorn.

Olidoc Dirtstar: NG Halfling rogue. Olidoc's very large family was swindled out of their mine holdings by Smenk and have recently resorted to menial labor to support the many Dirtstar children. Olidoc himself was sweeping floors at the Emporium, when tales of the financial possiblities from adventuring reached his ears. He took notice of Sir Alidore's posting and has offered what services he has.

Zigmund Feud: NG Warmage. The third son of a roadside innkeeper, Ziggy was picked to apprentice to Delfen "Yellowknife" at an early age. His training specialized in magic for the defense of Daggerford. And now with his apprenticeship about up, Ziggy had intended on a life as an adventurer. Sir Alidore's posting just happened to be the first such chance.

The fifth member of the group is an as yet unnamed halfling barbarian/druid. Associated with the Bronzewood Lodge of Silvanus, he is actually being sent by Nogwier to keep an eye on this group that plans on traipsiing through the Forlorn Hills in search of adventure, as well as to investigate the strange rumors coming out of the area.

The game starts next Saturday.

I am somewhat worried about running the Whispering Cairn. I expect to have four players (experienced) when I run it. As far as I'm aware, it was play-tested with eight players. Shouldn't the very first adventure be a little easier to finish? I would like my players to at least get to know their characters before killing them.

I'm a little worried about the difficulty also (I mean there's only like one EL 1 encounter in it). My solution is to start the PC's at second level. If this makes it too easy later on, I just plan to beef up some encounters.

I say let the PC keep the owlbear cub. It shouldn't grow into anything close to combat viable for a while. And if the player abuses your generosity make it a hassle for the character. It's weak and defenseless and can't be left home alone, the druid's animal companions won't go near it without special training, someone from the menagerie or the gladiatorial games tries to steal it...Or you can just have it go rabid at some unfortunate time, and it attacks the party. Even trained animals maul their handlers. Look at Sigfried, or was it Roy?

Yeah, I've been contemplating just dropping the academy part and saying the PC is just a more combat focused sorcerer. I was just checking to see what other GM's had done.

I'm starting the AoW in Forgotten Realms in two weeks and one of the players is playing a warmage from Complete Arcane. I'm wondering if anyone has suggestions on where to place an academy near Daggerford, but not in Waterdeep. (I want the characters to be "simple townies" when they get there.) I know the Pc will be working for Allustan, but I'm having difficulty deciding where he trained.

Thanks guys. Both bits were helpful. (And yet neither gave me what I was looking for.);)

I'm prepping to run AoW in the Realms soon, and while going through the conversion material I found mention of a City of Splendors web enhancement on the Wizards site. It's supposed to have info on the area around Daggerford, but I can't find this web enhancement. The only one there for Waterdeep is a list of the nobility. Can someone help me find this material?