Tomb of Horrors Jr. (The Whispering Cairn)


Age of Worms Adventure Path

Liberty's Edge

I swear WC is just as bad as ToH...either that or I'm just a mean DM. My group is fairly big (6-7 charcters at any time, next week 8!)and in three sessions 4 PC's have died, going through the adventure 'as is'. The Brown Mold, the Mad Slasher...and tonight it was beetle swarm #2 for the Paladin and The Albino Bartender for the party Half-Orc PC....lol...details:

They climb down into the servant quarters where the beetles are...get into a big fight...the cleric of Wee Jas flees and climbs up the rope, followed by the SECOND cleric of Wee Jas...the top one in her haste rolls a 4 on her climb check near the top of the 60' shaft and down she goes...the bottom cleric tries to grab her...both fall and splat, at mid negatives (I even did half damage for collision and fall impact). Meanwhile the Paladin gets swarmed and bit...all that's left is the +1 chainmail...they retreat to town...the Half Orc players is JONESING for a fight because he's 30 xp from level 2....he goes to the Feral Dog and tells the bartender "Your beer sucks!" The replacment paladin 'just happened' to be in the bar, and the two clerics of Wee-Jas and the Ninja come in right at the start of trouble (they didn't even rest after the arse-beating in the Cairn)...the albino grabs the pc half orc by the shirt collar "What did ya say 'bout me beer?" The party PC punches Kull in the chops for 7 subdual. Kullen's mage bud stands up and fires off a Enfeeblement ray for 6 str loss at the PC half-orc....the PC half orc (1st Barbarian) gets his blood up, runs around and attacks Kull with his Great Axe...

"Axes is it?" growls Kullen. The PC Paladin (rather that show much diplomacy, leaps up on the bar and takes a smack at the PC barbarian for subdual..he believes the PC orc is overduing it when he punches then tries to hack Kullen...true enough)but for his trouble the paladin gets an arrow in the back from the ranger in Kullens band. The cleric of Wee Jas fires off an arrow at Kullen's mage, the party ninja uses invsibility and LEAVES, the two clerics get color sprayed..one goes to sleep...I even let the evil mage tell the other cleric to get out or die...what does Wee Jas cleric 2 do? He attacks...and gets hit with a sleep spell...zzzzz....

The Paladin is now flanked by a berserk Kullen and his Glaive-weilding friend, since the PC halforc went down like a hooker after Kull smacked him for 19 damage...since the paladin never actually WOUNDED Kull or the Glaive man, he is spared but Kull takes the head off the sleeping half orc...the two clerics of Wee Jas are ransomed for a large amount of gold from the Cult of the Green Lady, who promptly tell the two PC they are no longer entitled to free healing or sleeping qrtrs until they repay the randsom gold and stop smearing the name of the order with stupid acts.

The paladin comes back and begs Kullen for his longsword back, but ends up trading a sunrod for it...and the PC half-rocs head is now on a deer antler over the bar...am I mean, is the module deadly or are my players just stupid?


Achilles wrote:

the Half Orc players is JONESING for a fight because he's 30 xp from level 2....he goes to the Feral Dog and tells the bartender "Your beer sucks!" The replacment paladin 'just happened' to be in the bar, and the two clerics of Wee-Jas and the Ninja come in right at the start of trouble (they didn't even rest after the arse-beating in the Cairn)

I don't think you're a mean GM - I think your players apparently have suicidal characters. :)

I've got a fairly explicit metagame agreement with my players. The main mission objectives will be more or less level-appropriate. Any random encounters along the way are just that. The dragon's lair doesn't turn into a kobold lemonade stand just because you're 2nd level, after all. And, if the characters go out of their way to look for trouble, it will probably find them.

I don't pull punches (although I will nudge a die here and there for purposes of drama) and I think the players appreciate their victories that much more because of it.

Contributor

I think you played it right. Your players sound like they needed some humbling. Chalk it up as a learning experience for them ;)

NPCs are people too. Every action has a reaction. Mess with the bull, you get the horns. ...I kind of ran out of cliche sayings. But you get the point.


Achilles wrote:
..went down like a hooker....

Your PC's sure die interesting deaths....LOL!!


Achilles wrote:
Meanwhile the Paladin gets swarmed and bit...all that's left is the +1 chainmail...they retreat to town...

Yes, the beetles are tough for any group of 1st-level characters. Whether there are any mad slashers around or not is really immaterial because swarms wreak havoc upon low-level characters who are ill-equiped without splash damage or a burning hands or two.

Achilles wrote:
the Half Orc players is JONESING for a fight because he's 30 xp from level 2....he goes to the Feral Dog and tells the bartender "Your beer sucks!"

Well that's just asking for trouble. 30 xp from leveling as actually the WORST time to go looking for a fight. Ignoring the fact that you're jinxing the whole thing, it's risky to get into uncalculated brawls without knowing the opponent.

Who were the other deaths? I only count the paladin and the half-orc.

Liberty's Edge

airwalkrr wrote:


Who were the other deaths? I only count the paladin and the half-orc.

In Session 2 They lost a druid to the Mad Slasher and the female monk ran around the pillar and right through a patch of Brown Mold while the party was going at it vs the lurking strangler...all they heard was her HOT lantern hit the floor....

Grand Lodge

Too funny, My vetern group had a run in with Kullin in the first session. It was a kind of meet and greet for them with a small amount of blood shed, nothing lethal though.

I am actually running two seperate groups through the adventure. One is a well seasoned group of 6 with probably 120+ years of D&D between them. I pull no punches with this group. They are smart enough to know when to run and what equipment to bring with them. They have made two seperate trips into the Cairn now and have not lost a single member. Not saying it has not come close, but they know enough not to push a bad position.

The other group is 4 rookies. They have a total of ~64 hours of D&D experience between them. I gave them a couple breaks of course and they have only had one death. One break was when I could tell it was going to be a TPK with the attack of the Beetle Swarm and Mad Slasher in the Sarcophagus room, I had the Mad Slasher flee to freedom of the great outdoors. Still had two deaths (one was an NPC) there and two unconscious characters.

Is it as tough as ToH, I don't think so. There is no instant deaths here, but it is close.

If your interested in checking it out. I am doing a blog on about the adventure as the vetern group progresses through it. It is so they can keep track of what is going on and refrsh their memories. My other group checks it out as a learning device. I keep it as up to date as possible without any spoilers for the novice group.

Keep in mind I do take some DM license as to how I run the adventure so some things are not done as they are laid out in the Dungeon Magazine. For instance, the novice group was stumped in the sarcophagus room so had the ghost in the machines thing happen (the yearly refresh with laterns replaced) well they watched. As for the vetern group, I had it happen well they were back in town. They were quite confused when they returned and found all the lanterns hanging there when they had taken them. It was a laugh. One actually suggested they set up a Lantern Shop in town and sell the things. Guess he figure it would be a daily occrurance.

http://aowa.blogspot.com/

If you post, please do not drop any spoilers.


Comparable to TOH? Not even close! The tomb is an absolute party-killer with illogical and inescapable instant death traps around every turn. Whispering Cairn is tough but neither illogical nor inescapable. Party separations and other poor choices are dangerous and this adventure has very little wiggle room for a poor choice. Knowing when to run (and not hesitating to do so) is imperative in this adventure path.
"30 xp from 2nd level" and therefore itching for a fight? Shame on both of you! That's metagaming pure and simple. The player deserved that death and you as the DM deserve the chaos you allowed by not nipping that scenario in the bud immediately.

Liberty's Edge

SirMarcus wrote:
The player deserved that death and you as the DM deserve the chaos you allowed by not nipping that scenario in the bud immediately.

On the contrairy, the chaos was most intresting...I won't stop the PC from making foolish choices if he's insistant on it, nor will I stop Kullian from acting as he was written.....i mean, come on, the PC punched him THEN tried to axe him...as for metagaming, what player wouldn't be a little ansy when so close...there shouldn't be any 'nip in the bud' by the DM for this...the player's choices are his own..


Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Adventure, Lost Omens Subscriber

Just a side note on the 30 XP short of a level bit.

Do any DMs out there just add an extra 30 XP to the character's total to avoid that? I have found it easier to do that than deal with the metagame possiblities.

I have found that even of no one mentions it or anything, the group seems to convienetly leave the dungeon or rests for the night shortly into the next session. Then I find an hour into the new session we lose a half an hour to an hour as I do XPs and everyone levels.

Thoughts?

As to the original thread I think there is no comparison to the two adventures in terms of intent. That being said I have not started to run Age of Worms yet (still running Shackled).

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Maps Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Dextro Highland wrote:

Just a side note on the 30 XP short of a level bit.

Do any DMs out there just add an extra 30 XP to the character's total to avoid that? I have found it easier to do that than deal with the metagame possiblities.

Usually I don't award XP until after the adventure session and the PCs don't know what I am going to award for the night - so they lose track. The "I just need a few more" issue does not arise.

In the Whispering Cairn, because it is so level dependent, I have had to award XP in session - not something I generally do.


Well, my parties have learned that they Never, Ever go hunting for "that last 30 xp we need to level" for I tend to send them against something about 3 to 4 CRs higher than them. That way, when they start craving xp for out of game reasons, and then act on it, they get punished...

Squid


Dextro Highland wrote:

Just a side note on the 30 XP short of a level bit.

Do any DMs out there just add an extra 30 XP to the character's total to avoid that? I have found it easier to do that than deal with the metagame possiblities.

Thoughts?

I give xp at the end to avoid the whole question. If someone is 28 xp away (like two months ago) that's where thay start the next game (infact that's how thay finish it until I do xp again). It saves time and is just plain simpler that way. I mean do you really want to deal with someone in the middle of a really tough fight running around a corner because they just hit 6th-level and need to figure out their new attack progression?

As for the TPK factor, all I have to say is that it's a first level adventure. One good hit with a longsword is all it takes to take half the party out. Ah, if only all the levels were like that. ;)

GGG


Dextro Highland wrote:

Just a side note on the 30 XP short of a level bit.

Do any DMs out there just add an extra 30 XP to the character's total to avoid that? I have found it easier to do that than deal with the metagame possiblities.

Thoughts?

Here some thoughts on the whole "short of XP" levelling issue:

Provoking a fight to "Orc" the last 30something XP for the next level is about the worst kind of roleplaying that can happen to a GM. It is incredibly bad metagaming. I as GM would never give XP in the first place for such stupid out of character actions. But I think, if you observe the XP totals carefully, you should in general be able to avoid things like that, by just adding enough XP, that a situation like that does not happen.

On a side note. In order to save time during a game session. I ask my players to prepare a character sheet with the level advancement prior to the game session. And should it be neccessary to level during a game night, they just need to roll HP and are ready to go with the new character sheet.

Liberty's Edge

Steel_Wind wrote:


In the Whispering Cairn, because it is so level dependent, I have had to award XP in session - not something I generally do.

Exactly. I'm also not wont to give out bonus xp to boost a player to the level just because he might go xp hunting when hes close. I think he learned a valuable lesson.


I agree with Deryl. It is poor role-playing for a player to influence the choices of the PC for a few more XP. Leveling up is not a conscious goal of the PC, so there is no motivation for them to go off after some quick fix to achieve levels or anything else. I'd remind my players of this and then withold any XP for bad role-playing. Do their characters get angry in game when they get a bad roll for hit points when leveling or when someone ate the last of the BBQ chips at the gaming table?

I also like Deryl's method of having a new level sheet for characters already available when the moment occurs, so there can be less delay in the game flow.

Just my 2 or 3 cents.

Regards,
Koramado

Sovereign Court

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. Some of the encounters that worry me:

- the Beetle Swarm/Mad Slasher in the False Tomb.
- the 2nd Beetle Swarm in the Workers' level
- the Water Elemental in the submerged room.
- the wounded Owlbear at the Land Farm
- the final encounter versus the Wind Warriors

The first two encounters worry me the most because the players will be level 1 and there is little they can do to prepare for it. I'm thinking of removing (or delaying) the Mad Slasher in the False Tomb, depending on how my players are doing. Careful PC's with darkvision and a decent Swim score should be able to handle the Water Elemental. If the PC's visit the Land Farmhouse before resting after the Whispering Cairn, I would expect 1 character death. As for the Wind Warriors, as the final encounter it should be tough. If they think to use the wand of Shatter against them, they should be okay.

As for the rest, the traps are deadly but careful or experienced PC's should be fine. Anyone getting hosed by Kullen's band was probably asking for it or they chose poor tactics. The Old Observatory encounters seem pretty straightforward for 2nd level PC's.

I expect this adventure will be a real wake-up call. This adventure, while lacking TPK potential, can easily kill 2-3 PC's throughout it. Has anyone tried running this for small groups? Any changes? Any deaths?

Liberty's Edge

My party found the bug encounters to be a cakewalk, simply because they came ready with flasks of oil, torches, and at least one vial of alchemist's fire, and because they thought very quickly when they heard the skittering of bugs approaching. By the time the bugs emerged from the pit, each PC was standing back with a flask of oil prepped with a lit fuse and a readied action to throw it as a grenade. The mad slasher did some damage to them, but the swarms barely touched them.

The initial encounter with the wolves, on the other hand, was nearly a TPK. The wolf pack caught the party's rogue offguard and took him down to negative hit points in a single crit during a surprise attack. (The first attack roll made in the new campaign, and it was a crit against a PC! Seemed like a bad omen to the players...) The mage was the next to go down, after firing off a single magic missile. The psion avoided combat for the most part, while the barbarian managed to kill all three wolves without much assistance. A lucky cleave helped end the combat just in time; I think the barbarian had 3 hp left at the end.


I'm wrapping up our current epic campaign before starting AoW, but I'm already thinking about WC.

My group will be told straight up: Buy alchemist fire. The players might not know to do it, but the characters should know. One of them should, at least, unless each player is running a wet-behind-the-ears novice who probably shouldn't be adventuring in the first place.

I also reserve the right to just remove encounters. If the group gets badly beaten by something, I'll remove the next encounter on the fly without thinking twice. TPKs are no fun, especially when the DM loves the characters each player creates.

I'm very interested in seeing how things go down. I hope to allow the party druid to calm the wolves (if that's possible), which could be very interesting. As soon as I read that section, I thought, "Man, that a nice touch. Give the party druids a chance at their first animal companion in game."

Honestly, I don't plan on killing off any PCs unless it will move the plot of the campaign in an interesting, compelling, and fun direction for all. It's annoying watching players go from PC to PC. I want these characters to grow and age through the campaign, not be the first kills in a long list of party turnovers.

Concerning XP, I wait until the party is in "down time" to award XP. They must be back in town or wherever they call home, in a controlled environment where they can train, practice, study, or meditate in relative safety for at least 24 hours. This isn't Baldur's Gate or Final Fantasy.

Concerning Kullen and his group, that should be very interesting. A few of my players like to fly into hostile mode whenever an NPC starts talking smack. I suspect the party half-orc ranger (the other half is elf) will get into something with Kullen. We'll see what happens with that. That could be time to humble the group (or perhaps gain a potential ally).

Liberty's Edge

Hagen wrote:


- the Beetle Swarm/Mad Slasher in the False Tomb.
- the 2nd Beetle Swarm in the Workers' level
- the Water Elemental in the submerged room.
- the wounded Owlbear at the Land Farm
- the final encounter versus the Wind Warriors

the first encounter cost my group two lives

the 2nd cost the paladin his life
the 3rd was a cake walk
they have not met the bear...but by then your players will probably be 2nd level and the bear is wounded
the last one, if played at potential, will be a 50/50 chance...thsoe warriors are TOUGH


Yup, those swarms are really tough for beginning characters unless they have invested on alchemist fire...we heard the swarm/slasher episode well beforehand and ran like hell to examine further away what was going to happen...but we ended up killing the swarm with shocking grasp (strictly speaking that is not the way spell works but DM liked the idea that our gnome wizard charges the swarm, makes couple of good saves and concentration rolls and *ZAP* so he ruled that the spell affects any part of the body or whole body if necessary :) )

The other stuff in the Whispering Cairn was also managed by careful studying far away so the toughest fight was actually a tie between Filge's lab and those wind warriors (which indeed are tough).


My group (just five characters) had one death in the false tomb to the swarm, but as the DM I didn't have a huge amount of sympathy since they weren't fully prepared (no area affect weapons like alchemmists' fire) and even after realizing their weapon strikes were futile just stood there making vain attacks rather than running away. The wolves (very first encounter) were a cakewalk to my group - completely shocking me after the horror stories I had read on these messageboards. The second swarm gave the group a little trouble but again only due to their own stupidity. I'm playing with veteran players who after restocking in town after the false tomb encounter, STILL didn't buy alchemist fire or even a bottle of lantern oil on the chance of encountering more swarms or anything similar. I confess I was almost wishing for a TPK just to teach them a lesson! The four original characters survived the hive room with only minor injuries but had an epic battle with the beetle and the animated statue in the sleeping quarters. Two characters fell asleep (one taking vicious damage in the following rounds from the statue) and one dropped to negative hit points from the beetle. The sole survivor had to duke it out with both the beetle and the statue while suffering fatigue. It was as close to a TPK as you can get! But I was pleased with the outcome because when it was all said and done no one was actually dead.
The submerged rooms nearly gave me ulcers worrying about TPK but successful swim checks really make all the difference.
This campaign is very challenging and I can see both the players and I will have a hard time preventing too much character turnover (translation: hideous death!).


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Hagen wrote:

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. Some of the encounters that worry me:

- the Beetle Swarm/Mad Slasher in the False Tomb.
- the 2nd Beetle Swarm in the Workers' level
- the Water Elemental in the submerged room.
- the wounded Owlbear at the Land Farm
- the final encounter versus the Wind Warriors

I've been running this with 4 PC's. Two of them are very experienced, having gamed with me for about 10 years. My wife has been playing about 4, and my friend's wife has been playing less than a year, so we've got some inexperience too. We've had character deaths - four - but everyone has loved it so far. They've taken a lot of time finding a place to rest up, and a lot of them are taking ranks in Heal to help each other out.

The first death was in the false tomb. While the rogue and barbarian (both experienced) were trying to take out the mad slasher, the swarm attacked the druid and sorcerer, killing the druid (my wife - my dice seem to hate her for some reason). Tough encounter, the first time my group has ever dealt with swarms. When they saw the second swarm, they were much more prepared and took care of it with only minor damage. The water elemental was not a problem either.

The rogue, Mumbles, died during the fight with the grick. It snuck up on him and got in some good hits. Luckily, he stabilized quickly.

My group had VERY little trouble dealing with the wounded owlbear. In fact, just the druid and the barbarian went to the farm while the other two poked around the city.

The bar fight, however, went VERY badly for the group. Mumbles started talking smack in the bar. The big half-orc (name escapes me at the moment) lifted him out of the chair and told him to stop talking if he knew what was good for him. Mumbles responded by knifing him in the gut. Half-orc then pulled out his greataxe, and got a crit for 42 points of damage. Then the barbarian died fighting the ranger. Hooooooo boy.

I give each of my player's one "Brownie Point" per campaign that they can use in a really bad situation to help them out. Needless to say, Mumbles burnt through his to stabilize at -9 hp instead of instant death. I don't mind using this system, because my PC's still know that death is a VERY viable option for all of them, and that I'm not going to hold back. It puts the proper sense of fear in them all. MWAHAHAHA!


No-one died when I ran it. (Pause for gasps of shock and horror). There were a couple of nasty moments, but the group did well.

Three Faces is looking a bit more challenging - how Martin didn't die last session, I don't know - but is entertaining.

Cheers,
Merric


My group of 4 (in the first session) didn't have any problems with the beetles. The noise scared them enough to back away from the elevator shaft, and they pretty quickly realised that (1) they could outrun the swarm, and (2) that something that big was just asking for a flask of oil or two...

The wolves were nastier. They caught the scout first, and nearly did her in before the cleric jumped in -- who promptly got hit by both wolves, knocking him down to -4 HP. Luckily the rest of the party got in a series of good hits and took the wolves out; the druid healed up the cleric, and everybody retreated back to town.

With the party up to 5 in later sessions they haven't had any real trouble, though it hasn't been a cakewalk either -- everyone's been banged up at one point or another. The wind trap in the false tomb nearly killed the scout (a lucky save meant she caught the lantern chain). The owlbear at the Land farm scraped up everyone. Filge himself went down fast, a victim of a bad initiative roll, 2 (!) consecutive critical hits, and a Produce Flame from the warmage, but the nasties in the glass tubes had everyone down to single digits by the end.

Next session they'll be headed back to the True Tomb. Hope they stock up on cure potions...


Dan Backslide wrote:

My group of 4 (in the first session) didn't have any problems with the beetles. The noise scared them enough to back away from the elevator shaft, and they pretty quickly realised that (1) they could outrun the swarm, and (2) that something that big was just asking for a flask of oil or two...

The wolves were nastier. They caught the scout first, and nearly did her in before the cleric jumped in -- who promptly got hit by both wolves, knocking him down to -4 HP. Luckily the rest of the party got in a series of good hits and took the wolves out; the druid healed up the cleric, and everybody retreated back to town.

Hope they stock up on cure potions...

This is the identical situation my group is in right now. The wolves took down two of the four before a couple crits saved the day. They're currently being chased out of the tomb by the swarm.


I've just starting running this, they haven't gotten past area 7 yet. The wolves seemed to do very little damage to the group. The worse thing that happened was the 2 weaker wolves attacked the rogue, one missed, the other managed to bite rogue and trip her. (she lost 5 hp out of 13 we are using Gestalt rules and she's playing a rogue/swashbuckler.) Before the wolves could ravage the rogue the rest of the group killed them. I even boosted the wolves slightly giving them a few extra hit points and making their attacks a little stronger, didn't seem to slow the group.


Dextro Highland wrote:

Just a side note on the 30 XP short of a level bit.

Do any DMs out there just add an extra 30 XP to the character's total to avoid that?

Since I award ad-hoc experience for good role-playing and for events that make a session particularly enjoyable, occassionally if a player is very close to leveling and I feel that they deserve it, I will give them a little extra, otherwise no.

Since I only do XP once per night, fishing for anything extra doesnt get a player anywhere. As for Achilles situation, I think he did a great job handling it, sometimes even experienced players need a reminder that all that glitters isn't gold.

Liberty's Edge

Arius wrote:


Do any DMs out there just add an extra 30 XP to the character's total to avoid that?
As for Achilles situation, I think he did a great job handling it, sometimes even experienced players need a reminder that all that glitters isn't gold.

Thanks for the support...but I think maybe I was a litle rough as last night's session cost 4 PC's their lives....I have 8 players and I decided to let the owlbear have full hit points since there were so many pc's...the paladin walks into the house alone leaving the other pc's at the door and rounds the corner into the owlbear...the paladin loses init....rip, shread, tear..the cleric of Wee Jas throws unlit oil on the beast, another uses alchenist fire....the ninja runs up to it with the mastwork quarterstaff...gets hugged by the flaming owlbear (rip shread tear BURN)....the 2nd cleric of Wee Jas goes to the Paladin to cure him, forgets to cast on the defense and the owlbear AoO's him...rip shred tear burn...the other pcs were shooting arrows and all painfuly missing AC 15 or 14...the last cleric of wee jas, for whatever reason I can't make out (greed, maybe), trys to grab the ninja's MW quarterstaff and flee...AoO rip shread tear...but the PC rolls an 18 to Bluff vs the owlbear's 1 to sense motive...arrows in its back make it drops the limp (playing dead) cleric and run after the Elf archer, human wizard, halfling thief...the cleric crawls away to safety and they regroup at the ferril dog, leaving 3 dead PC's in the owlbear lair.. Later on the 8th player joined with his barbarian...Filtch's zombie dinner party killed the Ninja player's new Ranger character....earlier I told him he saw a pile of small crap (hair, teeth, stones) in the tool shed...the ranger leans close to examine it and the Tomb Mote rolls a nat 20 ("It jumps right into your mouth and starts wriggling down your throat")...lol they had a hard time of it....but the more wise players (the wiz, rogue and archer) are doing good with little damage...the paladin and 1st cleric of Wee Jas players are now playing two dwarf bodyguards (variant fighter classes from the dragon mag with the women warrior and wizard on the cover)....I'm not a harsh DM, other than letting the dice fall where they may...so far the first adventure's claimed 8 lives and they just started going through Filtche's lair...very unforgiving adventure as written...

Liberty's Edge

Well, Smenk's monkeys had their way with a dwarven 'intruder' tonight...yet another body for the worms...The party accepted Geltch Tildgast's offer for 'murder for hire' when they decided to go after Smenk. the party had just finished off the Cairn and were coming back from a harrowing fight vs. the wind warriors when Filtch (having gotten off scott free from prison do to Smenk's contacts) and Kullen's band ambushed them (Kullen was a monster zombie when Filtch killed him in retaliation for telling the PC's where to find the skeletons). I still think Entangle is wildly powerful for a 1st level spell...but after Filtch bit the noogie, the remaining band, without Kullen as their spine, agreed to a cease fire. The party brought back Filtch and Kullen's head to Tildgast, who gave the party some of their fee. After juicing up and buying new toys, the party decided to pay Smenk a final visit to give him a little 'wall-to-wall' counciling...they easily ran off the three idiots at the front gate. They split up to enter the mansion from opposite doors, since the window shades were all drawn. The halfling thief failed to pick the backdoor lock (probably what saved his life)...the two dwarf fighters were trying to bash in the front door, making all sorts of noise. Finally the door gave in..out of the dark a huge hairy ape arm grabbed the closest dwarf, pulled him inside and proceeded to hit with all three attacks and rend...instant dwarf-head bowling ball....the party immediatly fled....god this dungeon kills peeps..we're up to nine deaths and they just completed adventure 1......


Hagen wrote:
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.

Liberty's Edge

meatwadsdad wrote:


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 don't think easy later will be a problem. For the wind-warriors, since they were lawful, I played them honorable and had them only use sonic attacks twice for 1 and 1 for the other. They even let the druid's wolverine regain its footing when it almost fell of the ledge. If I'd have merely let the warriors hang out 10' off the ground and sonic the party to death, it would easily have been a TPK. I mean, played legit, this dungeon just out-and-out kills players who make the slightest mistakes. I have an unusualy large playing group, and the only major alteration I've done was to give the owlbear max hp since it was facing 7 fresh characters...In hindsight I might have done well to have them thump a few bandits and clear out the mine office to get them up 1 level before letting them run....

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