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Heartless or Bramble Heart might be appropriate.

I could think of a couple options with this storywise. Perhaps hearing of their plight one of the religious orders in the world would provide the spell with the understanding that they would be able to establish a church in the region. It could also be a reward to the PC's for having their religion as the primary faith of the region.

Perhaps an order of necromancers are seeking asylum and clandestinely approaches one of the PC's with offering to perform a ritual that will steal a soul from the bosom of Pharasma. It may require some rare components that the PC's would need to gather, a minor side quest to get back a beloved PC. No need for duplicity on the necromancer's part, they really want this to work so they can establish themselves somewhere where they won't be hunted.

Actually as a way to try out 5th edition I've been converting and running Red Hand of Doom. They just finished with the Ghostlord and are racing back to the city to join the main battle for this weekend. Its been a fun and fulfilling adventure to run.

Excellent mini-adventure redcelt! I love your Game of Thrones in Brevoy and it's a core part of the inspiration for this venture.
Reading through Birthright's Sword and Crown I may add another faction of rebels, separatist elves whom hide in Gronzi woods and the Icepeak mountains. Hoping that will add a bit of flavor outside of generic bandits.
I'm leaning toward the players being lesser nobles, knights and scions of the remaining Rogarvian minor houses or perhaps a mercenary group working for them. I imagine with the disappearance of the Rogarvian bloodline there have been a number of major land grabs and infighting between their remaining houses, add in pressure from the swordlords and Surtova along with wily elven rebels whom just want to watch it all burn, you have interesting times for the PC's.
That and a powderkeg that is ready to drop the entire country into a terrible civil war.

Do you have any paticular Birthright Adventure in mind?

I currently have Sword and Crown and Destiny of Kings, both of which are compelling but will need some revamping to fit the setting better.

I have a few old Birthright adventures and Game of Thrones Wedding Knight that I may do some modifications on to get me started.

I'm looking forward to having actions of one group lead to repercussions for the other and vice versa. :)

I'm having my players take a break from the main Kingmaker story to run another party in Brevoy, working for one of the noble houses or maybe as a mercenary group. The idea is to give the players a better appreciation for just what exactly is going on in the backdrop.

Has anyone else done anything like this that they'd like to share?

Heh, at this rate you should have your pc's go off on another adventure and when they come back they have some fey claiming to be them on the throne. Wouldn't even need to use much illusion if the party comes back looking completely different from reincarnating all the time. :)

While I can see merits on both sides of the subjugate the Nomen vs form a treaty with them, I personally fall more on the side of the forming a treaty and keeping them an allies rather than subjects.

The reason for this being that it provides a better roleplaying opportunity later, where the PC's are in the position that they must ASK the Nomen for aid rather than simply demanding/expecting it.

It moves the Nomen from being a side note in the history of the campaign to an ongoing and more dynamic relationship. Your players have invested a lot of time in these people and if they have been enjoying themselves thus far, it would behoove you to find ways to make them and interesting part of your campaign's future.

If you really want them to become a part of the Kingdom you can always have some disaster befall them that forces them to migrate to the kingdom as refugees. Their story doesn't have to end here, take the long view and the possibilities are endless!

Just my two copper pieces.

Perhaps you can do as DMFTodd said above and have Armarg attack "Lord I" and when/if the PC's successfully help "Lord I" have them invited to a victory celebration. Cue beginning of book 5.

My group has gotten through Chapter 1, but became bogged down with the kingdom building rules and we eventually moved on to a different campaign. The Kingdom rules are interesting but they are really far removed from the typical table top gaming that we know and love. We'll be restarting the game again at chapter 2 and I'm planning on making a much more streamlined kingdom building system, something like resource points from significant assets like those mines.

I've considered several of your ideas myself, the lower level pc's are especially compelling. I'd like to involve Brevoy a lot more in my game so a second set of characters that can leave the fledgling nation for an extended period of time would be a welcome thing.

I also love your idea of making the hexes larger. Makes everything a bit more epic, and I'll also be stealing the idea for a smattering of thorps throughout the Stolen lands. Makes for a more solid foundation of a kingdom.

Your idea for making the pc's hirelings to some petty lord to start the game is also very interesting. Far too late for my players but a good twist none the less.

For anyone who has been making use of RotFQ in Kingmaker, what (if any) connections did you make between the two BBEGs?

The take I'm doing for Numeria in my Kingmaker game is a bit less of the superscience side of things and more like the technology from The Brother's War era in MtG. I assume that the Technic League being primarily mages can't quite get a handle on the way that the more advanced technological stuff works and so try to fudge things using magic.

I was wanting to speed up exploration a bit so I opted for my players to find a very old downed ornihopter that an ex-technic league artificer wants rebuild with their backing.

I'm actually doing exactly this in my rendition of Kingmaker. Obviously it requires plenty of work for the DM but I believe it will work out very well. Right now my players are all 4th level and when I brought up the concept with them they were very much for it. 'Helping a farmer drive off a tatzlwurm is more fullfilling than fighting an evil god' was the general mindset. E6 would ground the players, keep them closer to the people they are building this kingdom for.

I'm not impressed by high level villians with stat blocks that take up two pages, Kyuss went down like a chump in a single round in Age of Worms, I cheated by doubled his HP
to make him last a bit longer. What a let down!

As I said this type of game requires a lot of extra work from the dm, I'm adding a few encounters from Tales of Old Margreve to add some flavor and give me time to change things around.

The higher level magics like the whole thing the BBEG is planning can be explained by including Incantations in your gameworld, ritualized magic that involves skills, special components and time to pull off.

We'll see how it goes, I'd highly encourage others to give it a try!

Pitch is a wonderful source of pranks; it's sticky, takes forever to get out of cloths etc. Put it on saddles, handles of weapons, pull a cruel variant of the shaving cream on the sleeping person's hand prank.

So far my players have experienced a couple of the above as well as a boot full of slugs, tinder that kept getting wet in a rain storm and a number of other annoyances.

Right now the fey are gradually upping their game trying to outdo each other. Should be quite fun!

Ok I gave it a week and then a little more, I'm afraid my #359 still isn't here.

It's been 21 days since my last Dragon issue was sent but it still hasn't arrived. Can you guys help me with this?

Thank you for your time.

Looking on My Subscriptions it says that you sent Issue #145 on 02/20/07. Then it says that you are shipping issue #149 on 06/19/07. usually it would tell me the last issue shipped and then when the next one will be sent. I haven't received any of these issues and I'm wondering why they never shipped to me? Is this a simple computer glitch? Did I miss something?

Thank you

Looking on My Subscriptions it says that you sent issue #354 on 03/06/07. Then it says that you are shipping issue #357 on 06/05/07. usually it would tell me the last issue shipped and then when the next one will be sent. I didn't receive those issues in between, why were they never shipped to me? Or is this a simple computer glitch?

Mr. Greer started a thread on these lovely boards detailing the Dungeon of Rust and Fire.

Could you post a link to that thread? I haven't been able to find it. Thanks!

As a rather selfish article request a 3.5 version of some of the player characters and unique items in Planescape Torment would be a very flavorful and interesting article.

Just my 2 cents.

I've been enjoying many of the new articles you've been doing especially the ones about the various gods and the Demonomicon stuff. They really flesh out parts of the world that I simply don't have the time and imagination for. I especially enjoyed the article on Malcanthet, lots of stuff in there that I will likely be using in my Savage Tide game that I'm DMing.

On a side note I loved the reference to Falls-From-Grace. Planescape Torment is still probably the best computer/video game I've every played and it made me a big fan of planescape. Glad to see the modrons making a return as well next issue.

Thank you guys for mixing up the old stuff with the new!

Cheapest way to make an epic weapon is to have a +1 Bane(vs whatever you need an epic weapon for) weapon. At this level if you have a spell caster that can cast greater magic weapon, bingo you have an epic weapon.

The Post office finally figured out what happened, apparently someone with the same last name as me was a neighbor and moved causing confusion and making my mail follow them. Hopefully it's all figured out now and I'll be getting my magazines without difficulty from here on out.
Thanks again!

thank you!

I don't know how it happened but my address has changed again and I'm not doing it. I believe it is the same address that it changed to before. Is there anyway to see who altered it and why? Once is a mistake, twice means something is up.

Although this may explain why I've been missing my last few issues of Dungeon and Dragon.

I don't know how it happened but my address has changed again and I'm not doing it. I believe it is the same address that it changed to before. Is there anyway to see who altered it and why? Once is a mistake, twice means something is up.

I would, and maybe someday will, buy SCAP but I'm just finishing up Age of Worms and gearing up to start Savage Tide. We kinda missed the whole shackled city bit. So here goes another year where I'm not going to be getting to play. But I must say that I enjoy DMing very much.

Well I can assume that if it was made by gnomes that the dungeon of Rust and Fire should contain plenty of mechanical hazards and illusions, with perhaps a hint of creepy.

Sounds like fun!

hmm... thank you that helps some for sure. Is there anymore information on Jzadirune or the Vanishing?

In Dragon magazine #349 they talk about nearby dungeons and possible side adventures. With the Dungeon of Rust and Fire they say that scholars believe it to be related to the ruined gnome enclave of Jzadirune below Cauldron. Can anyone tell me more about this gnomish enclave? I assume it is from the Shackled city adventure path.

Thanks much!

I e-mailed WoTC about this issue a month or two ago and here is the response they sent me. I'll present the actual question and the answer they gave me.

Me: I'm trying to figure out what type of Enchantment(compulsion) spells that Protection from evil helps against. It has to be ongoing control like dominate person. So I assume spells like Feeblemind that are instantaneous are not effected. How about Otto's Irresistible Dance? Just let me know about these two spells and I can use that to make a baseline for these sorts of DM judgement calls in the future. Thank you!

WoTC:Thank you for contacting us.
Correct in that it won't affect feeblemind (due to being an instantaneous effect). It would suppress the Otto's irresistable dance effect however for the duration of the protection from evil spell.

Not much but I hope it helps!

Mother Worm was easy for your party Hierophantasm? True my party didn't have too hard of a time with her but that was largely because I had made a technical ruling error. Turns out that her paralysing touch is an extraordinary ability and Freedom of movement wouldn't have prevented it. Freedom of Movement only technicly works on magic that prevents or impairs movement and grappling. I e-mailed WoTC about it and that's the ruling they gave me. No one in my party could possibly make that save to prevent paralysis.

You are right though that N'Vesh-N'Kar is rather weanie in the grand scheme of things. Most creatures in the last few adventures can barely even hit my PC's by anything short of a natural 20.

Well I'll just have to see what zanyness happens tonight. Thank you all for your suggestions.

Funny story related to both leadership and Age of worms. The original person who took leadership had all of his followers bet on their team during the arena matches, except for the last match where the player figured that if something was going to go wrong it would be then. Talk about metagaming.

I'm just about to run Dawn of a New Age with my PC's, and I must say this is going to be interesting. Three of the PC's have taken leadership, so they have a small army following them. I'm willing to bet that they will be taking them to Alhaster with them, especially since they can outfit them with a bunch of stuff from Dragotha's horde.

Any suggestions on how to play this if they try to bring their army in? I imagine that this will largely been in the background as most of the creatures they pc's are fighting would absolutly decimate these low level npcs. Perhaps the army can secure various parts of the city as the pc's mow thru everything else...

My players have just reached the final adventure and I'm very interested to see how they fair against Kyuss. Dragotha wasn't too tough with Balacarde's help and I'm hoping Kyuss gives them a better run for their money.

It may be helpful if people put down also how weakened Kyuss was when they fought him, and what (if any) artifacts they used.

My take on why there are so many druids in at least the early adventures has to do with the location. Sasserine is about as close to the edge of "modern" DnD civilization as you can be and because of that it is likely thought of as an ideal place to live for many druids.

At least that seems logical to me.

Can the wormdoors be opened by a Rogue emulating another faith, i.e. pretending to be a Kyuss worshipper with the Use Magic Device skill? Our rogue attempted to do so last night, though he rolled low enough (under 25) that it would have failed regardless. What would the DC be? Also, I'm assuming the worm 'backlash' that occurs with every strike happens from ranged attacks and spells also?

I actually e-mailed Wizards of the coast to get their ideas on this very issue, here is the specific question and their answer.

Me-Ok lets say there is a magical trap on a door that only allows those who worship a specific diety thru it without activating the trap. If the PC's figured this out or anticipated it, could they use the "use magic device" to bypass it. If so what would the DC be?

WoC-This is not covered in the rules as written, therefore if the DM wishes to allow it, they'll have to adjudicate a house rule for it.

end result-not much of use really. Personnally I think it wouldn't be a bad thing if you ruled that it could work. I'd say it would be much like emulating an alignment. Instead of thinking "evil thoughts" you are "Thinking Wormy Thoughts." This would make it's DC 30-35 if you allowed it.

Just my 2 cents worth

Actually one of my PC's has already gated in that Solar, and I must say it has been rather effective. Honestly I'm not a big fan of spells that summon up things that are more powerful than the pc's themselves. The cleric who has been summoning the solar feels rather pathetic because the solar is a better cleric than he is.

So that the solar didn't totally steal their spotlight I ruled that the Unhallowed halls ability of the the tabernacle also prevented the Solar from entering. (I know it says that good summoned and conjured creatures cannot enter, I figured that it wasn't too far of a stretch to say that called ones can't enter either.)

You know a paragon wind warrior wouldn't be a bad idea. A rather literal interpretation of what I wanted but one that fits rather well. It may need to be scaled back a little bit but that wouldn't be too hard. Honestly the +20 to AC won't make it any more impressive than the PC's currently are. They all have AC's in the high 30's to low 40's range. Most of the fights in this adventure have been easy since many things need a natural 20 to hit them. Everything in the Apostle caves hit them at the same time and they did pretty well. The fighter died in the first round but one revivify later and he was back on his feet next round.

Good idea Hierophantasm! If anyone else has some good ideas feel free to jump in!

yes I did check and you have the correct address now. That's why I can't figure out what's going on. I've only rarely had problems getting my Dragon issues but my Dungeon issues just aren't making it to me somehow.

So I have a few PC's running thru the Age of Worms campaign and they have reached the lofty hights of 19th level. The situation is thus:

One of the PC's is a Lawful-neutral wizard/eldrich knight Air Genasi of Vaati (Or Wind Duke if you prefer) lineage. He wants to start casting gate to summon things. Now I like to create new creatures or use obscure ones whenever possible to make my campaigns more interesting and I'm hoping the people on this board can help me come up with something interesting.

What I'm looking for is a Paragon of Law of CR 20-26. Common creatures with interesting templates or classes, old ones long forgotten from older editions of dungeons and dragons. Backstory is fantastic if you have one, if not I suppose I can make up my own.

with that, thanks much!

PS I've already used some of the recommended gated creatures in Dragon #343, I'm just looking for some more interesting creatures if anyone feels like helping.

My subscription says that you shipped it on 12/12/06 and it's now 1/17/07 and I still haven't recieved it. I'm not sure why my dungeon magazines never seem to make it to me. I didn't get #142 either and I finally just gave up and purchased it at the store.

thanks for your time.

I just got Dungeon 142 in the mail but still have yet to recieve Dungeon 141.

always a good thing to know, thanks much.

After seeing that issue #142 was sent yesterday, and I still havent recieved #141 should I be worried yet?

Well it's been over 3 weeks since 141 was sent off so yes I think you should likely be concerned. I fear I too have yet to receive issue #141 although I am happy to say I recieved Dragon #350 today and I'm loving it.

Just post on the Customer service boards that you still haven't recieved your magazine. They are very good about sending you a replacement as soon as possible. I haven't recieved mine yet either and since it's now past the 3 week mark I doubt that I'll be receiving it. I find the number of magazines that are not getting to me disconcerting to say the least.

We're in the midst of the feast at the moment, having to stop right after the Cocktrice battle. Yes my PC's are insisting on sneaking in as much stuff as possible but the only weapon that made it in was a masterwork dagger presented as part of a costume. The true seeing oinkment is, I assume itself easy to hide. He has just used it once as they were being shuffled through the maze of corridors to the "cock" fight. He's spotted Mahuudril but I don't know if he'll act on this information as no one has weapons and I'm not sure if the Blessed Angels particularly care if they are spotted or not. Personally I think they would simply note that the PC can see them and keep an eye on him.

As for Lashonna herself, well I guess it all depends on how well he rolles his Knowledge arcana check. He may know a bit about silver dragons but he may only know about them thru a certain age category. Her teeth may appear larger than normal but she could have the improved natural attack (bite)feat.
Also you must remember the other odd looking dragons they fought earlier. They had glowing green eyes that shed glowing mist, very odd indeed.

No, I think they will give up on their theory of Lashonna being the BBEG and likely believe her to be a red herring since they saw Mahuudril.

Mahuudril will likely be excusing herself from the party rather soon.

The whole feast has been a fantastic adventure thus far!

Thank ye much!

Hmm looking over her stat block I also noticed that they haven't put down her DR 10/silver and magic only leaving her draconic DR 15/magic.

I find it rather likely that my PC's party wizard will likely be using true seeing at the feast in TPoR; several times I'm sure as different people show up. Now I know he has knowledge arcana which would allow him to identify Lashonna as a silver dragon. However without ranks in knowledge religion he shouldn't be able to identify her as a vampiric dragon should he?

It's been 20 days since Dragon #349 was sent off and I'm afraid I still haven't recieved it. It was likely the result of that address change snaffoo that happened to me. Sorry for troubling you, I'm sure I've been a real pain in the rear these past few months.

thank you