Couple funny things happened last night when I was running this adventure. Some spoilers, but I'm sure you guys are well on your way through this AP!
1. Upon reaching the brown mold area, one PC decided the best idea was to make a new door in the thin wall. He quoted the scene from Robin Hood Prince of Thieves where Robin uses a statue to knock down a door. After watching the wind duke's head crack and crumble, they finally pounded a hole into the wall big enough to enter.
2. They found the trigger plate for the magic face trap but couldn't figure out what it did. So they tied 100 ft. of rope to a large sack of rubble positioned on the far side of the pressure plate. The barbarian held the rope in his hand while clinging to the chain down to the lantern room and pulled. The weight set off the trap, he became paralyzed, and just before he was blown away, he made his Will save and slid down the chain just as the sack of rubble was blown down behind him. They even drew a picture of the whole mechanism :)
3. Upon asking Alastor's ghost about his family, and discovering his dad's name was Anders. One player, his last name being Anderson, quickly replied "So that means you're Ander's son". We all had a good laugh at that, as he was on his fifth beer at the time and this kind remark was totally unexpected :)
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I was amused by my group's reaction to the Sphere Room. They were convinced that the room basically a giant Bingo Ball drum. They thought that if they went out too far onto the bridge that the door would slam shut and the entire room would rotate around the bridge axis, pummeling them with tens of thousands of very hard (ceramic in my campaign) balls. They must have spent a solid 15-20 minutes of real time pondering the room and what to do.
Fianlly, I had to use Alastor to taunt them into action; laughing at them and complaining that they weren't being very heroic. I had no idea this would generate such a furious reaction from them. It was great!
The first group I ran the Whispering Cairn for, all of the characters were dwarves. This meant they did things very slowly, and very carefully. So when it came time for them to explore the hallway leading up to the Wind Face trap, they were all on high alert. Noticing the dagger marks and the crushed skeleton, they built a "Dwarven Safety Net" over the mouth of the hall, using 100 feet of rope and about two dozen pitons.
They were also the party that, once they reached Filge's observatory and triggered the dinner party, decided to interrogate Filge on how to "reprogram" the zombies to sing and tour the countryside performing as the Tiki Zombie Jamboree. A little bit of OC talk about pitchfork-wielding mobs changed their opinion on that genius idea.
Noticing the dagger marks and the crushed skeleton, they built a "Dwarven Safety Net" over the mouth of the hall, using 100 feet of rope and about two dozen pitons.
Very clever!
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The first group I ran the Whispering Cairn for, all of the characters were dwarves. This meant they did things very slowly, and very carefully. So when it came time for them to explore the hallway leading up to the Wind Face trap, they were all on high alert. Noticing the dagger marks and the crushed skeleton, they built a "Dwarven Safety Net" over the mouth of the hall, using 100 feet of rope and about two dozen pitons.
They were also the party that, once they reached Filge's observatory and triggered the dinner party, decided to interrogate Filge on how to "reprogram" the zombies to sing and tour the countryside performing as the Tiki Zombie Jamboree. A little bit of OC talk about pitchfork-wielding mobs changed their opinion on that genius idea.
M'kay, your group ROCKS!
Funny moments in the Cairn for my players were few and far between. It was a perilous struggle all the way. The worst came when they were facing the second swarm, the one milling about in the goo in the Lair of the Laborers. They hit the thing with Orbs of Acid, flasks of flaming oil, a burning backpack... the whole works, seven different times, and caused a whopping 7 hp of damage to it. They finally took it out in comedic fashion. The swarm was pursuing a badly-injured hero who was fruitlessly fleeing back towards the entry shaft, and one of her companions tossed the final flask of oil horseshoe-style through the flames of the still-burining backpack at the swarm just beyond it. An "amazing" 2 hp of damage later, and the swarm finally dispersed.
Ah, fun with 2nd level...!
Well, my group is only a couple of sessions into The Whispering Cairn, but we (well, maybe only I) have had some good laughs.
After the party had discovered the dangers of the tunnel, caving in the broken elevator (playing with the "spinning sarcophagus"), and finding two working elevators "that were obviously traps", they decide to split the party. They convinced the dumb monk to go into the good elevator, to be followed by two others. Meanwhile, the other half of the party climbed down the hole in the floor. I spent the whole night running two simultaneous campaigns because they had convinced themselves that they would find each other if they "just kept going". One dead member, two unconscious members, 4 CLW potions, and no meeting with each other, they decided maybe they should go find the others.
And don't even get me started on the thief who tried not once...not twice...but three times to disable the face trap before dying...
I look forward to much more entertainment next Tuesday...
When the swarm came from the collapsed elevator shaft images of "The Mummy" flashed in players minds. The lead dwarf threw alchemist fire upon them. They caught fire but continued after the dwarf. So instead of just acid spewing beetles coming after him in the upper numbers of thousands they were also on fire and coming towards him. Nearly losing all his dignity he screamed and started back tracking already being the only party member hurt with fire from the sarcophagus. Luckly they died at his feet.
Two funny moments:
The Kobold Cleric decided to ride on the Warforged's shoulder. The Warforged has adamantium plating, and the kobold is a dragonwrought kobold, of the black variety. He sits on the Warforged's shoulder and then says aloud, "Lead on my Nubian Brother!"
The party ambushed Kullen's gang, the two characters out in the open were disguised. The color sprayed the whole group unconcious except for Kullen. While trying to soften up Kullen they accidently killed him with a critical. The rest of Kullen's gang awoke, they were interrogated and right before they were beat into unconciousness the masked fighters tell them, "This is what you get for exhuming the dead for foul deads, beware the Restful Watch!" The party then stripped them naked and left them on the side of the road.
My rogue was out "scouting" and pilfered a pearl from one of the rooms in the WC. (actually I think maybe the WC in WC - now that is kind of funny in itself) He sold it while he was out and about, without ever asking someone to cast detect magic. Of course it was a pearl of power.
I broke the news to him one night when we were all out having pints. Of course I was also keen to point out that greed never pays.
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My rogue was out "scouting" and pilfered a pearl from one of the rooms in the WC. (actually I think maybe the WC in WC - now that is kind of funny in itself) He sold it while he was out and about, without ever asking someone to cast detect magic. Of course it was a pearl of power.
I broke the news to him one night when we were all out having pints. Of course I was also keen to point out that greed never pays.
Hey, Yemaj, you aren't from Gainesville, Florida, are you?
I know a Yemaj there; just curious.
My rogue was out "scouting" and pilfered a pearl from one of the rooms in the WC. (actually I think maybe the WC in WC - now that is kind of funny in itself) He sold it while he was out and about, without ever asking someone to cast detect magic. Of course it was a pearl of power.
I broke the news to him one night when we were all out having pints. Of course I was also keen to point out that greed never pays.
Hey, Yemaj, you aren't from Gainesville, Florida, are you?
I know a Yemaj there; just curious.
The one and only ;-) It's like I always say... it sure is a small world wide web.
I love panic in the party.
THe party of 4 was in the room wiht the flase sarcophagas. They move the casket and the first elevator appears. THe halfling rogue goes in to investigate and poof it goes back into the floor.
THe rogue was nervous and waited a few rounds before stepping out of the elevator.
The rest of the party is up above and the rogue doesn't appear, so they decide that they need to turn the casket to the next position and back to bring the elevator back. They turn it 1 position and the groaning starts. They try to turn it counterclockwise and of course it doesn't move. The rogue has now stepped out of the elevator since she felt the rumblings of the broken elevator. She tries to go back up but the elevator stays there since the casket is pointed in the wrong direction. She decides to explore on her own.
The party up top realizes that it might go in only one direction, but they fail their stregth check and the beetles appear.
In the end the party spends the night seperated since the beetle swarm and mad slasher put down one of the fighters and the cleric into unconsciousness.
The other fun part is that one of the character's is Alustan's apprentice...