Here's a template I've seen people use. I'm not gonna finish filling in the skills or languages. That said, a good formatting practice is to gray out the Trained-Only skills except for people who have a rank in them, mark completely uninvested skill names with red text, and highlight the highest bonus of each skill in yellow.
Also, no, I'm not waiting on anyone. Like I said, I'll start the Gameplay thread tomorrow. I'm pretty swamped today.
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Sorry, busy doing some grading and getting ready for work next week. Gosh, you folks are even more chatty than I am! I feel I have a lot of catching up to do! :) But it’s lovely to see how detailed everyone’s characters are already.
So, first off:
She/her for me as the girl behind the screen (I should really fill out some sort of profile for my IRL alias on the messageboards perhaps soonish), and for Alaïs.
What looks like the emerging consensus seems fine to me. I think I’ll be able to work with the level of nastiness that baddies in this campaign might toss about, and if it starts hitting too close to home, I’ll mention it?
I don’t mind a bit of catharsis, and I understand that the setting is a world in decline, but I think I’d rather steer clear of too deep a dive into how difficult it is to change prejudices that have become widespread, whether various forms of sexism, racism, or others. Basically, a fantasy that the bad apples can be (enthusiastically, forcefully) discarded and the world gets better would be more comfortable with me, but if we want to go a bit more grim and gritty, we can see how it goes.
Fine with “lots of hey-nonny-nonny and blood all over the place,” less keen on really detailed descriptions of chunky gore that drift towards body horror (like just what, say, a demon torturer might get up to, for example).
If I accidentally brush up against anyone’s boundaries, please let me know so I can step back!
I imagine Alaïs has only been in town for a few days, and given her interests, she’s mostly gravitated towards Allustan. That said, since she’s one of those flighty elves, piques herself on muddling her way through enjoying herself in nature, and has a good if innocent heart, if Allustan’s told her about the rumblings coming out of Nogwier and the Bronzewood Lodge, she’s probably taking the concerns about zombies out in them thar hills more seriously than the wizard, and has probably spent some time rambling about at least figuring out where the cairns that might need a closer look are.
In her free time, she probably spends most of her time in Lazare’s House, if that’s a thing in our version of Diamond Lake. Since there might be stuff going on that calls for adventurers’ talents, she might brave the other establishments in town, even *shudders* the Feral Dog. There would be no question that Alaïs doesn’t actually fit in there, and has no interest in the brawling, but she’s not all fancy-dan elfsong, can hold her liquor, and her magic can patch up the worst of a mishap like Broccan’s, so.
In general, her idea of keeping a low profile is hopelessly skewed. This is her sense of roughing it, and while she can take a lot without complaining (too much), and isn’t all silks and jewels on this trip, she is definitely not going to fool anyone into thinking she’s an ordinary huntress going wandering.
As an aside that seems suspiciously related but actually is about something else, it might be good for someone in the party to put a point into Linguistics, or to have a way to comprehend written languages. Otherwise, you'll be dependent on getting NPC aid for a certain segment of the adventure. Allustan is the standard resource, since he's studying the Whispering Cairn anyways.
I was actually thinking of the Light on Your Feet campaign trait, which sounded like a hint, but I was afraid it might muddy the waters of how I want to play Alaïs’ rage powers and, vaguely, the inheritance in her backstory. Those involve much more ghosty/fey spirits, but I can imagine that way back the branch from which the tower she’s looking for descends had an important wizard very into elemental magic on it. (“My parents always did say my third cousin four times removed Sefentrionis was quite the mage in her day…”) So let’s go with that! I’ll swap out my campaign trait.
Broccan’s scheme for getting the band together sounds great. Alaïs hasn’t at all got a feel for Diamond Lake, so she’s unlikely to really know anyone, but she does stick out a like a sore thumb and her nose into anything vaguely magical/ominous like these cairns, so someone might just recognize her. From improbably dropping into the Feral Dog one night, or Rosella, while going worm hunting for Nogwier, might have crossed paths with her in the hills. Briar could run into Alaïs at Allustan’s, and/or, since Alaïs is an herbal sort of alchemist, she might have been pointed to Briar if she needed to either restock on inorganic reagents or had some herbs that she didn’t need but thought another alchemist could make use of.
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On an unrelated note, between their self-doubt, Neutral Good alignments, exact ages, party role and the first letters of their players' usernames, Broccan and Roselle have a lot of spooky similarities.
She’s definitely fine with letting enemies bleed out, and if there are healers on the other side, or unambiguous evidence of atrocious crimes against the rights and dignity of others and of magic, she’s also more than fine with delivering a coup de grace if the opportunity presents itself and there are no tactical options more pressing.
For the record, I consider letting enemies die, or executing enemies to keep them from reentering battle, to be more on the moral spectrum than the ethical one. Which is to say, letting an enemy bleed out isn't about Chaos vs. Law, it's about Evil vs. Good. That's not to say that letting it happen is an evil act. Generally speaking, it's a neutral-to-evil act, and one a paladin can get away with as long as they aren't overly comfortable with it. Sometimes there are bigger priorities.
Execution when there are other viable options, however, is always an evil act. That's purely my personal value system as a GM, and the most overtly political I'm going to get here. Like, call it my comfort level, if it helps. A PC who resorts to it with "just" cause (as in, "they did a bad thing and had it coming", not, "they were going for a knife so I acted in self-defense") will probably drift to a more morally neutral alignment over time, or even evil if it starts to define how they engage with enemies. I'm not gonna, like, push people around about it, but the reason I want to establish my alignment norms now is so we don't have alignment debates later on when we aren't ready for them.
Most of the enemies in this campaign will be undead or aberrations, or otherwise not mortal and beyond these standards. A lot of the mortals you'll fight will emerge in areas where killing them is probably the most practical option to avoid further loss of life. So it won't come up much, if at all, but it's still good to be clear.
Kata's not going to be much of a textbook, unfortunately. She'll be maxing out Know (religion) and Lore (undead). She has to put three ranks in perform every level (percussion for mechanical reasons, sing and oratory for fluff reasons), and points in disable device and perception. Right now, I've got her maxing UMD as well, to increase her utility and castery-ness, and need to max diplomacy and intimidate. That leaves two skill points/level to spread between the knowledges. I'd like to get a point here and there into climb, swim, and escape artist as well. (Sigh) Why can't bards get like 15 skill points/level?
Good to know. I'm still torn though. I don't actually have to pick up the archetype until 2 as it doesn't change anything until then, so I have some time to decide. There's good things to be said for either route, but I am leaning towards going unarchetyped atm. I much prefer the shadow mystery spells to the archetype ones as well.
Funnily enough, I have had a bard that was getting 14 skill points per level, and it would have been 15 if she hadn't traded away her human extra skill point. She was both the knowledge monkey and the trapfinder/disabler so I boosted her int instead of cha. She was an out-of-her-depth academic in Mummy's Mask a la Evey in The Mummy and a fave. The only AP I've done from beginning to end so far (though I'm working on that).
If it's alright, since the brothel Briar has been working at doesn't have a name, I'd like to suggest Sunshade House.
I could look up a name in the Dungeon magazine, if you like. Honestly, there used to be this huge beautiful Player's Guide someone made... and then the link died, so it doesn't exist anymore. That's why the intro post listed one (1) tavern/inn/brothel, about eight NPCs, a single neighboring town, et cetera. :P
All good! I can update her backstory without giving a specific name.
I've finally gotten around to making a bunch of my characters in Hero Forge to help visualize them so here's Briar in her standard clothes. They don't really have a riding habit option so I got as close as I could. You can't see from that angle, but I have her holding a dagger behind her back.
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If it's alright, since the brothel Briar has been working at doesn't have a name, I'd like to suggest Sunshade House.
If you want to jump into a spot in town that already exists, the other brothel in town, besides the Emporium, is called the Midnight Salute. It is run by an elvish woman who calls herself Purple Prose.
The Midnight Salute is not as lavish as the Emporium's Veiled Corridor, but it is also far less public. Miss Prose prides herself on discretion, and maintaining the privacy of her patrons. It is located up the main road, called The Vein, just Northwest of the main town square, next to a soldier's bar called The Spinning Giant.
Of course, there's no reason there can't be other brothels, if you want to create your own spot (as long as Dungeon Madam gives you the thumbs-up). I mean, it's Diamond Lake, after all!
Yeah, we probably won't do Midnight Salute, since it likely doesn't really fit Briar's vision of the owner. The Sunshade House is a lovely name and suits me fine. :)
Yeah the owner of Briar's place has Oh So Tragically passed away recently. Such a shame.
Rosella: Do you suppose that you would have been willing to teach him a thing or two about use of the shortbow?
Definitely. Under normal circumstances Rosella is rather self-conscious and insecure, but she knows her archery. She would have been thrilled at the chance to share something she's passionate about.
...
Most of the enemies in this campaign will be undead or aberrations, or otherwise not mortal and beyond these standards. A lot of the mortals you'll fight will emerge in areas where killing them is probably the most practical option to avoid further loss of life. So it won't come up much, if at all, but it's still good to be clear.
Oh, absolutely, that's the sort of situations I had in mind - undead, demons, and things that should not be, and maybe the odd mad necromancer holed up in Mirkwood the woods where the law doesn't reach but is beyond obviously building an undead horde.
Execution is very far from Alaïs' normal comfort zone, and would probably involve a perfect storm of actually seeing someone not stay down in a combat (the opposing cleric getting their wizard, say, back on their feet while the latter still has dangerous spells), bringing them down again before the baddies surrender, there being a good chance of them popping back up again, and it being the most useful thing she can do with her action. Hopefully, that would be a rare occurrence.
As for letting people die, I guess Alaïs and I may be alarmingly vindictive on that front (and in most games I’ve been characters seem disturbingly ready to take their lumps from a fireball to the face or a sword in their gut, which really messes with one's extradiegetic sense of lethality and its consequences), but I do imagine her as a good person, so if it looks like she's (getting) too callous, let me know and I'll dial it back for everyone's comfort.
I could look up a name in the Dungeon magazine, if you like. Honestly, there used to be this huge beautiful Player's Guide someone made... and then the link died, so it doesn't exist anymore. That's why the intro post listed one (1) tavern/inn/brothel, about eight NPCs, a single neighboring town, et cetera. :P
Oh, gosh, I’m old, and remember seeing a couple of the adventures in Dungeon back in the day, so it’s not a player’s guide, but I think the supplementary material from Paizo is still available? I imagine you’ve got that, but if not, I probably have the original PDF in the depths of my hard drive.
The info's all there, yeah. It's somewhere on the site. It's not the pdf, though - someone put that together themselves.
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On an unrelated note, between their self-doubt, Neutral Good alignments, exact ages, party role and the first letters of their players' usernames, Broccan and Roselle have a lot of spooky similarities.
I could see a funny situation where each one thinks the other has their act together, and wonders to themselves, Why can I be more like Broccan/Rosella?
Briar very much believes that every moral situation is unique and should be taken on its own terms. She has some hard and fast limits and rules, really just things none of us would do anyways, but she'll try to make the best choice she can in a given situation. It'll be interesting as she has committed premeditated murder, and she's been in street brawls before, but she's never been in anything like the typical adventurer fight-to-the-death. To put on my English major hat, she approaches killing people more like Hamlet than like Laertes: she wants to deliberate and discuss and consider as opposed to just reacting.
Also, I know I have part of Age of Worms in my ragtag selection of Dragon and Dungeon magazines languishing in my parents' garage. I think it had a dinner party or something alike? I remember the art and that I thought it looked fun, but I had no idea what was going on.
The info's all there, yeah. It's somewhere on the site. It's not the pdf, though - someone put that together themselves.
Ah, well, since you know I'm relying on my veil of ignorance from that time and my earlier experience of the start of the adventure path, would it be helpful for me to go through, say, pages 20-23 of the Dungeon supplement, strip out the mechanical stuff, put it up in a Google document for everyone, and you could make any adjustments necessary?
Just to make Diamond Lake and the surrounds a bit more real for everyone, and maybe help our Dungeon Madam out? I don't want to be officious, though, and it might be a day or so before I have the time to sort it out.
Sure, if you like!
Good to know. I'm still torn though. I don't actually have to pick up the archetype until 2 as it doesn't change anything until then, so I have some time to decide. There's good things to be said for either route, but I am leaning towards going unarchetyped atm. I much prefer the shadow mystery spells to the archetype ones as well.
Yeah, were I playing a shadow oracle, I'd avoid archetypes. Those revelations look like a lot of fun, and the spells are pretty great.
She was an out-of-her-depth academic in Mummy's Mask a la Evey in The Mummy and a fave. The only AP I've done from beginning to end so far (though I'm working on that).
Very nice! I've never completed a PBP AP. I've been in Kingmaker, Skull and Shackles, and Way of the Wicked that all got to book 2 before ending, and I'm in a Ruins of Azlant game in book 2 now. I'm towards the end of a Dead Suns game that is in book 5 or 6 and I think it will go the distance.
We moved about two years ago and were just getting the social game figured out when the pandemic hit, so I'm not playing any P&P tables right now. I think the last P&P long game I finished was the 3.5 one about hobgoblins and dragons, don't recall the name.
I've finally gotten around to making a bunch of my characters in Hero Forge to help visualize them so here's Briar in her standard clothes.
Um I did not know this was a thing and it is very cool. Thanks for sharing, I have to look into this more!
Oh the Mummy’s Mask was a face to face game. I havent finished a PbP campaign yet either :(
And I’m glad you like it! Hero Forge with the color options finally is so nice for working out a character’s look in more detail.
On a completely unrelated note, I just remembered that Oracle’s Burden is a spell, and oh boy is giving people my curse mean, especially since I can eventually poison them myself afterwards!
Your body is ravaged by a potent, slow-acting poison that resists all treatment. Whenever you must attempt a Fortitude save to resist a poison effect, roll twice and take the lowest result. Additionally, you need one more consecutive successful save to end an ongoing poison. You lose any immunity to poison you have upon receiving this curse, and you become immune to delay poison and neutralize poison, as well as other attempts to suppress or remove the poison from which you are suffering.
I don’t imagine her making a habit out of that combo, but it might be a nice one to hold onto, especially for some poetic justice against the Raven Men
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I looked over and my wife was watching this video. The Age of Worms has begun. (Head’s up for cursing)
And on that note, I'll aim to launch the Gameplay thread tomorrow morning!
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Oh, I can't remember if we've talked about it in this group yet, but I did just remember. I have a preference for respecting gameplay spoilers. Backstories and the sort are fine, but when the party splits up, I think it's more fun and immersive to keep to what you know in-character. :)
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It's a long post. It's a long long long post. I get paid by the word in my job and apparently I cannot kill these habits for the life of me.
The Gameplay thread is up! I am very sorry for all that reading. Things... got out of hand.
As an aside, I forgot the Garrison was quite so close. Don't concern yourselves too much with the Garrison's relationship to the Mistmarsh—Diamond Lake is still a few days away from the Mushfens, and so is the Garrison.
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This opener reminds me of a section from the Sword Art Online Abridged series. Because I am a nerd.
---------------------------------
"Who the hell are you?!"
"I'm sorry Caynz, I entangled him in our web of lies"
"WHYYYYYY!!!!!"
(Couple minutes pass, two more people appear.)
"Oh g@@##*nit who's this now?"
"I...kind of entangled her too."
"Christ Yolko, how big is this web?! You're catching schoolbuses in this thing!"
The idea of Varisia having a Jenny's Guild and "union hours" makes me really want to run a classic mob/union boss/Pinkertons-type gangster noir around Calistrians trying to deal with a union-busting governor. Maybe I'll break Hell's Rebels once I'm done breaking Age of Worms.
@Rosella we are all nerds here :D Thanks for sharing!
@KC Oh my god I would love that. I'm a dirty commie irl after all. I played up through the beginning of book 4 of Hell's Rebels and I'll always be sad I never got to finish it
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Haha, I started Hell's Rebels a few years ago. We hit a bit of a TPK during the first book, largely due to the limits of Pathfinder's action economy and the tragedies of a d20-based system. I took a long break from Pathfinder after that. It's part of the reason I never run without Action Points, Inspiration or a similar mechanic. That said, I did enjoy what parts we got to!
Speaking of which, I didn't get into it on the Recruitment thread, but Action Points do have two particular additional uses related to the viciousness of this AP:
Cheat Death: Whenever a blow would otherwise kill you, you can spend half your normal maximum in Action Points to instead stabilize at negatives equal to your Con -1—basically, on the brink of death but alive.
Final Stand: Whenever knocked unconscious but not killed (or already unconscious from damage), you can spend however many APs you have left to remain conscious and fully-functional for up to double that number in rounds, after which point you die no matter what ("wounds beyond anyone's ability to heal", barring a heal spell or similar). Alternatively, you can spend 1 AP at any time to become conscious but unable to take any actions beyond speaking, which doesn't come with the "inevitable death" clause.
I'm being a lot nicer than I was on my first playthrough, in part because I think the extreme fear of death my players there have developed has become a bit of a drag on the action at times.
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I'm in a Hell's Rebels game right now, playing an ever-so wicked Calistrian warpriest making trouble for Thrune for the greater glory of the goddess and the interests, vaguely defined, of Kyonin. A plausibly deniable secret agent of the secular arm. Like the CIA, if they were elves, and good guys. :/
One of her secondary goals is to reclaim the House of Satin Veils in Kintargo from those dirty, no-good capitalist Abadarans that were all too happy to cut a deal with Thrune to get a good deal on our temple.
Fairly early days yet, but our GM has been shocked into the realization of how much subterfuge we're willing to get up to. My character is trying very hard to be obvious trouble when she walks into various investigators' offices, as it were. :)
Which is not where I meant to head with this post. For a bit more background and so we can badger some NPCs without having to necessarily make up all their names, I extracted some data from the old Dungeon web supplement, with a loose veneer of Smolarion-izing. Our DM will vet or veto the details of course, since I just guessed at how to remap the geography. Anywhere, here's the link to the Google Doc.
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It took a moment for it to fully click why Broccan's reaction to Alais differed so drastically from his reaction to Briar (or, indeed, to Roselle or Kata). Then I remembered that Alais is basically the one character here who both dresses and carries herself like a noblewoman.
I also like that, for different reasons, both Broccan and Rosella have wound up red-faced at about the exact same time. Now watch as they start rolling the exact same numbers in combat and it starts getting creepy.
Also, the document looks good! The old Dungeon magazine info's not wholly accurate (the Mistmarsh is basically directly south of here), but it's accurate enough. Thanks so much, Qunnessaa!
EDIT: Oh, Broccan revised his post. Well, my second paragraph still applies!
Sorry about that! I got ninja'd by Kata, and then the post didn't make sense anymore, so I deleted it and started over.
I still tried to capture his embarrassment in the moment. He really wants to hide under a rock right now.
Where's grumpy old Edrukk to give him a sense of familiarity when you need him?
Haha, I started Hell's Rebels a few years ago. We hit a bit of a TPK during the first book, largely due to the limits of Pathfinder's action economy and the tragedies of a d20-based system. I took a long break from Pathfinder after that. It's part of the reason I never run without Action Points, Inspiration or a similar mechanic. That said, I did enjoy what parts we got to!
Book 3 is absolutely brilliant, one of the best AP volumes I've ever played and with one hell of a doozy of a final act.
DUNGEON MADAM: Out of curiosity, is this 'clubhouse' we're standing in front of the abandoned mine office that was mentioned in Dragon Magazine as a potential base of operations for the party while they were in Diamond Lake?
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Yes indeed!
Also, this is entirely a non sequitur, but I realized it's likely to come up in a few places in this AP. I'm disregarding about 80% of Golarion's drow lore. I'm posting it here in case anyone (especially Alais) thinks it might be important for them to know.
Of course, elves generally being Chaotic Good, they aren't generally inclined to try to "police" or otherwise investigate who is and isn't a dark elf, or who's on the Registry of Bad Persons. The best tell for if someone's a drow, short of hearing it from someone else, is if they're a jerk. If a surface elf is a jerk, they're a drow. If a drow is a nice person, clearly they're not much of a drow.
Elves don't really view "drow" as a race/ancestry, or even a caste, so much as an alignment, a way of thinking, or even a "vibe" you get off someone. You could compare it to, say, calling someone a "skinhead" or a "punk".
Not all dark elves are outright evil. Neutral and even Lawful Good elves can be declared "dark elves" depending on circumstances. That said, they do tend to take a lot less joy in the happiness of others. Evil elves tend to view the natural world as a weapon, which is why poisons appeal so well to them, and why the aesthetics of spiders have become so popular.
tl;dr KC has never liked drow lore in any setting and is taking it out on everyone else for some reason
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@Broccan: Edrukk's player was working around the house today instead of around the office and hadn't checked the gameplay thread yet. Off to catch up!
Sorry about that! I got ninja'd by Kata, and then the post didn't make sense anymore, so I deleted it and started over.
Sorry, Broccan :(
Alaïs, thank you so much for putting the Diamond Lake doc together! I look forward to looking it over.
Dungeon Madam, I like your take on Drow much more than cannon.
Dwarven legs are just so darn slow over great distances. Either that, or Golarion dwarves don't do Daylight Savings Time, so Edrukk's an hour behind everyone else. ;P
Slow and steady! Load up the mule, I'll carry him when he gets tired. But I'll still be there at the same time as if I went with no gear at all!
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Sorry about that! I got ninja'd by Kata, and then the post didn't make sense anymore, so I deleted it and started over.Sorry, Broccan :(
No worries! It happens.
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I remember being taught in one of my college lit classes way back in that day that every great piece of literature references a tree at some point in the story.
If that is so, we're off to a great start!
Has anyone here ever played through or run through Age of Worms? I think I've gathered that most of you have only skimmed it at most, but I could be misremembering. It's no worries if you have, I just think it'll be interesting. I'm making lots of changes and tweaks this time around. I really like thematic consistency in a campaign, and one of the reasons I love Age of Worms is that it's really easy to implement a lot of thematic consistency.
Which is my way of saying, it was very nice of Rosella to state one of the guiding theses of this AP on the first page of the thread. :)
"It's much easier to just ignore things you don't want to deal with."
Also, just so we're all aware: My default rules for Perception and Initiative are that I roll them for passive checks.
Initiative works on a "blocks" system: If Broccan rolls an 18, Edrukk rolls a 20, Rosella rolls a 15, Kobold Cleric rolls an 8 and Kobold Mooks roll a 17, the initiative looks like:
Edruk/Broccan
Kobold Mooks
Rosella
Kobold Cleric
That's the compromise I've gone with to ensure that initiative is still worth investing in and still has some complex encounters without slowing down a PbP too much.
If you want to set a default of "I Take 10 for passive Perception", or some understanding of when you spend APs on it, I'm totally happy to adjust. By default, this is how I go with it for simplicity's sake, but I don't mind making tweaks to make it more fair. Perception is, after all, basically the most important skill in the game. Sometimes I even make it free to invest ranks into. Not this time, though. :P
Oh! And Briar/Edrukk, could you do me a huge favor? It helps to put some key info in the Classes/Levels tab of a character bio, so it appears below the avatar for others' reference. In particular, Perception, Initiative, AC, current HP, and (optionally) active buffs are super handy for me.
Has anyone here ever played through or run through Age of Worms? I think I've gathered that most of you have only skimmed it at most, but I could be misremembering. It's no worries if you have, I just think it'll be interesting. I'm making lots of changes and tweaks this time around. I really like thematic consistency in a campaign, and one of the reasons I love Age of Worms is that it's really easy to implement a lot of thematic consistency.
I ran the entire AP for my face-to-face gaming group back when it was first being published in DUNGEON Magazine (early-mid 2000's). We were playing D&D 3.5 back then, and when I read the Whispering Cairn, and the supplementary material that came in DRAGON Magazine the same month, I was onboard. Instead of Greyhawk, though, I changed the setting to the Kingdoms of Kalamar, as the players didn't know much of anything about it, so it helped with the young, inexperienced adventurer vibe. We also added three new players to the group, one of whom had never played D&D before.
I also decided to use the Heroes of Horror rules, especially those pertaining to Taint of Madness and Taint of Corruption. One player said that she had trouble sleeping sometimes after the game session was over. She likened it to watching a horror movie alone at home in the dark.We made it all the way through the AP, though!
I know absolutely nothing about the Age of Worms adventure path other than what I found in a brief spoiler-free review.
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I tried using the taint rules, but the one time they came up, one of the players started making "taint" jokes, so I decided it probably wasn't worth the fuss. :P
Heroes of Horror is such a fantastic sourcebook, though!
I got hit with all the taint-jokes, but it didn't stop me from going all-in.
I used the Corruption and Madness rules, the points/levels, Madness/Corruption feats, abilities, and prestige classes, even inserted some of the monsters, including:
The Taint Elemental
The Tainted Reaver
The Tainted Minion
The Phantasmal Slayer
The Corruption Eater
If anyone had read the AP, and then joined my campaign, they would've had a heck of a time trying to meta-game.
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Yeah, I tinkered a lot with the AP in my first run. In fact, they're approaching some sequences right now in the ninth book that are basically entirely written up by me as consequences for earlier mistakes they made. I don't get a lot out of just running an AP as written.
We might consider the Corruption/Taint rules. I have specific ideas in mind where I've thought about using them, or even the Horror Adventures rules for the same. Probably not the standard "Madness" stuff, though. I don't think any d20 ruleset has found a way to handle that stuff too well yet.
I read some (or all?) of it when I was a kid and it was published in Dragon/Dungeon magazines. All I've retained are a general idea of the arc of the campaign and a I think good feeling for the feel of Diamond Lake, which I remember really finding evocative.
Which brings me to a somewhat related question: I'm going to make a post in gameplay today about Kata's experience in the Cairn. I made some assumptions in my application about the Cairn based off of the name and its nefarious reputation. Please feel free to ignore Kata's perspective if it doesn't mesh with what your envisioning. It all could have been a singular experience after all. Though Kata will attribute some commonalities of her experience to other childrens', this could just be overactive imaginations at work.
Oh, and Dungeon Madam, I have another question as well. How do handle traps? Kata will need to roll a lot of perception checks when dungeon delving, but I don't particularly want to bog things down stopping in each room. Is this a check you'd like to treat as passive and roll as needed?
Re: corruption/taint rules, I'd be down, and I promise not to crack any juvenile jokes.