Allen Billings 11's page

I've reached the point where my party is ready to leave Sandpoint and head out to a bigger city. I'm gonna try and keep them in Sandpoint to handle the Chopper's Isle sidetrek, before having the Mayor ask them to take Nualia to Magnimar.

What I'd like to do, is take this thread and turn it into a list for DM's who'd like some ideas on what happens in Magnimar. For example:

1. Thieves War. The Gargoyles and Night Scales gangs arrive at a nobles house one night, each going after the same item. With both gangs getting into a battle over who has what turf in town. Will the PC's join one side or the other, or stay out of the war entirely?

2. Missing runner. Since Magnimar is quite large, a quick package / delivery system comes into service, that transports small items about the city within hours. This delivery service, called Fleetfoot, has become disrupted when several of it's runners don't return on certain runs. Can the PC's find out what happened, and where's the packages they were to deliver?

3. Rummage sale. Stolen from an old Dungeon magazine. A known mage in town is retiring, due to old age. Most of his magical items have been given away or sold to private buyers, but some minor stuff remains. What is up for auction?

Same with the copies please. Right now my group is just about ready to finish Burnt Offerings, then I'm going to run the mini-adventure Chopper's Island.
I'd figured that with six players, I'll add in Kill Bargle from one of the last Dungeon magazines, along with Beast of Burden Hill, from Goodman Games DCC #29's The Adventure Begins.
That would give my players enough XP to tackle not only Skinman, but also finish the module at high enough level to actually be survivable against the Boss Monster. :)

abillings at kc dot rr dot com

After reading all the previous excellent suggestions on rewards for going out and adventuring, why not something different?

How about a poster from Hannah Valerrin, placing a reward for people to gather herbs from the local wildlands? In return, she would offer up a couple of thumbpots of an medicinal salve, which could be used to assist a healer's kit. Say, four applications per pot, which help recover an additional 1-3 hp per day when used by someone with the Heal skill, that works alongside the normal healing rate?

In this case, I'd allow her to offer one thumbpot for every two PC's.

Sort of a low grade non-magical version of the Keoghtom's ointment.

Afterwards, for future reference, you can place the price of the thumbpots at 15sp each. So it's not out of the reach of a normal worker.

I would add the following to the above listing.

Toss a mcmuffin about needing a map to someplace the PC's have a need to reach. Said map was last seen inside of a pyramid deep in the Osirin wastes, and was sealed in with the pharoah which held said map.

To get into the pyramid, the PC's have to travel several days through a wide expanse of desert. Don't forget to add the problems with being in a heated environment, as well as the possible encounters of snakes, scorpions, and other vermin that might live in said desert wastes. A blue dragon could also swing by, looking for a quick snack. :)

Upon reaching the pyramid, the PC's have to find a way inside. Discovering such an entrance, however you want them to do so, like digging down several feet to expose a set of doors might be easily done. Provided they pick the right side of the pyramid face to try digging on.

Inside, they discover quite a few minor rooms, with murals painted on the walls, leading to the discovery that the pharoah was a harsh ruler. He turned his political enemies into undead servants, like zombies, in order to serve as his personal guard. This will no doubt cause your clerics and paladins to look nervously about for any sort of undead.

Going down via long stairs or ramps, lead the PC's to a region about mid-way, where they find a medium sized room. The room has more murals, but no mummies or other undead. By now, the PC's will be very nervous at seeing no sort of monster to fight, and be fidgeting for something to happen.

Another passage leads lower yet, this time to an area where small sections of the floor is covered only lightly in water. This part of the pyramid is actually at or just under the water table, dozens of feet below the sands above them.

While looking about, have the party discover one room which is about 40' square. Each corner has the typical mummy coffin in it, and in the middle of the room, a section of stone rises just an inch short of the water level. Atop the stone section can be seen a small multitude of lizards, tiny ones, laying down as if asleep. A set of stone steps lead down to the water's edge, and down yet more til a player must walk across the room in two feet of water.

The surprise?

The lizards are actually shocker lizards, sleeping under a spell that preserves them until they are awakened. If the party walked into the room, the increased water rise will cause the shocker lizards to awaken. They will unleash their lightning attacks, damaging every person within reach, due to the conductivity of the water.

As an added bonus, after two rounds of combat, each of the coffins will swing open, revealing what appear to be zombies who march forth with great swords. The PC's will expend their turn undead attempts, only to realize with renewed horror, the 'undead' are actually flesh golems who recover hit points from the shocking lizard's lighting attacks.

To finish out the pyramid, allow a passage past this point to reach the royal crypt. Maybe up a short series of steps. There they discover the jackpot. The actual Pharoah's tomb. But if the PC's leave him alone, they discover the map is actually a huge painting, which covers one wall of the tomb. If they make a copy and leave, let them know they succeeded in their quest.

However, we all know someone's GOT to open that coffin, right?

As a last surprise, three rounds after the coffin is opened, and the players are looking over the body for what magic or other valuable items the pharoah was buried with, they hear a creaking nose from the mural. As it falls into the actual tomb, imagine their horror as they realize the whole Royal guard are on the other side, moving forward to deal with the intruders and desecrators of their master. I's say four or five dozen zombies would do just about nicely for a finishing touch. :)

Asks for the updated addition to the AP, please.
Would anyone mind sending them to me at abillings@kc.rr.com? Thanks!

Thanks everyone for your suggestions

My campaign got derailed so it never got started, but lately, events have calmed down enough in my life I'm trying to get it going again.

Hopefully I can link up with enough people to get some sort of group together.

That's perfect. A nice little side adventure that the party can handle, and also get them to realize that this sleepy seaside town has more of a darker side than they'd imagined. :)

Hummm. Yes. I had been considering using something with one of the other goblin tribes in the area. The PC's will have to wait until the sheriff returns, but that'll be after the Glassworks problem is over with.

Thanks, DmRrostarr. Consider this idea stolen.

Sorry for the bit of confusion.

The deceased is another traveller, that nobody in town knows. He was staying at one of the other inns, after arriving in Sandpoint a day or so after the goblin attack.

If the PC's check about the town, they'll discover that the victim's friends had left a day or so earlier, before his body is discovered.

I had considered him being a con-man, who's latest attempt at a con got him murdered when it backfired on him.

I'm just about ready to start up Burnt Offerings here soon, and while reading over the other people's posts, I wondered what might be usable as a mini-side trek for the group.

Once the sheriff in town departs, and the group remains to keep the citizens calm, I got to thinking that might be the time to run a small side adventure in town. Perhaps a small group of traveling Varisian's arrives to visit Risa at her tavern, only to have one of them become accused of murder.

The party has to discover who was killed, as well as who really murdered the deceased, and why.

But that's as far as I've gotten on my own. Any further ideas from my fellow DM's?

Please?
I joined the message forum too late myself, and the file has been removed from the storage site.

Either that, or email it to me at abillings at kc dot rr dot com.

Raises up a hand in requesting the added story background.

Me too?

abillings@kc.rr.com

So when I picked up the Mieville Dragon issue and saw them statted out I filed that away in my head. I ended up replacing the gargoyles in HTBM with a few Anophelli. Much more exotic (gargoyles are a little plain for the Isle of Dread) and after the party had come across a few frightening blood-drained carcasses they were on guard.

In addition, there's lots of the other material that could be pulled from the novel.

Would you happen to remember just what issue of Dragon this was in?

Raises his hand.

Mind if I have a copy of the maps too?

Shot them to me at abillings at kc dot rr dot com

Thanks!

Why not? Could it be that if you insert an ioun stone into a wayfinder compass under a Demon Moon, you gain the abilities of a medium grade demon?

Of course, if you allow that as the DM, there's always a chance of mis-firing, and having the PC actually 'become' a full fledged demon. LOL.

Just another way to drive your characters up the wall.

Anyone have any ideas on what music would do best in the Shackled City?

I've a few good pieces of music from various movies that will work, but I'm looking to expand my library to include some new tunes.

I've a few Celtic CD's that go great for traveling and for during the Flood Season festival, so that's covered.

Any other ideas for certain points in the story?

I have several of the Midnight Syndicate CD's but not the one they created for D&D.

Any help would be appreciated.

Just went looking for the mix of songs on iTunes, and I must have messed up somehow. Couldn't find the entry for iDragon on the site. :(

This isn't as impossible to handle as you might think. After all, if Ike ends up sending a message to Jill first, she can either use disguise to alter her appearance, or she can use a magical alteration to change herself. This way, she can talk with the player, and leave them not knowing that the NPC was really the person who had taunted them from the beginning. :)

My advice, let Jill accept such a mission, then start in passing some information back thru the player to the party. Heck, if done right, she could mis-lead the party to take out a few of the Alleybashers in town for the LL.

That's perfectly acceptable to catch Drakthar in the midst of removing his coffin. But consider this for a nasty surprise for the party.

What if he's local? In short, the rules on a vampire is that he needs to sleep in the dirt of his homeland. What if Drakthar was created locally, and provided he can hide from the sun during the day, an entire region of land (say about five by five miles around Cauldron) would do quite well for him to use as a place to rest in? It's unfortunete that the Lucky Monkey is so far from the town, because that would be a good place to hide a spare coffin for Drakthar.

Course, if he does have his goblins removing a coffin, who's to say that in a hidden room along the tunnel, isn't a 'real' coffin for him, and this is just a dummy he made up to make the party 'believe' he's trying to get away? In short, he lets them think he's dead, then returns when they don't expect him to show up, and get the advantage by surprise onto the party.

Instead of mounting an assault on the PCs while they're resting at an inn (which seems unlikely and ill-considered IMO), why not have Drakthar scout them out in rat form? He could sneak into the room while they are resting and steal or sabotage some of their equipment. Imagine their surprise when they find the holy water has been spilled, the garlic scattered, and the silver dagger gone.

If that stretches credibility, just use a little psychological warfare. A decapitated crow is found on the windowsill when the PCs awake. A swarm of bats attacks one of the PCs when he's walking down a moonlit street. Just enough to let the PCs know that they are being watched. Remember, summoned monsters don't give XP.

Using some scouting, Drakthar should know any obvious plans that the PCs have, and will certainly know if they have any silver weapons.

Then, set up an ambush in the caverns. Have Drakthar sneaking behind the party in bat or rat form, with some goblins hiding at a good defensive point. The goblins should have some explicit instructions, such as "swarm the cleric (or most dangerous PC) at all costs," or "steal the (silver weapon) and take it to the throne room, at all costs." The goblins are there to make Drakthar more dangerous, not necessarily to kill the PCs themselves. Drakthar should then attack when the party is fully engaged with the goblins.

With some preparation, you should have a memorable encounter that pushes the PCs to their limits.

While I don't think a vampire could stand getting close to the garlic for long, there's nothing saying Drakthar couldn't drop into the room with the party's rogue, and 'charm' him/her into damaging the various items for him.

And an ambush would be perfect to assault the party with. Perhaps Drakthar could allow his goblins to have two or three tanglefoot bags, and throw them into the charging party. With luck, at least one of the party won't be able to move, and that's the one Drakthar can drop in on, charm, then fog out while taunting the others before going after either the party mage or the cleric by surprise.

Use hit and run tactics. Just don't have him or the other goblins stand around waiting to be hit. A few well placed deadfalls can do wonders in slowing up the party during combat. For example, if they look into a room, spot some goblins, rush headlong into the room, only to loose two of the front attackers when a log drops down from over the entranceway, that's totally fair from the goblins point of view. :)

Why does he have to be in a dire wolf form? Vampires can also assume rat form. :)

Imagine their surprise, when a small rat runs into their room, then changes back into Drakthar who strikes without warning.

Total panic ensues.

And don't forget the mercanaries who could track down the PC's for Drakthar. What if he decides to 'offer' a reward for the merc's to attack the PC's for him, while he attempts to set up some new traps to slow down the party for the next return he's sure they'll attempt on him.

That'd be quite simple enough to do. :)

During the encounter with the mummy lord in the Cathedral of Feathers, simply add in a thick book on the table before the mummy. If the PC's reach for the book, the mummy will simply shake his head in warnind.

'Fools. Mortal minds cannot comprehend the power that resides within this book.'

That's when the PC who opens the book discovers that it has been trapped with your thousand voices screaming trick.

As for what the book contains, how about simply making it a diary of Adimarchus from before the fall of what once was Occipitus from Celestial. That would give them some ideas of what he was like before the great fall, and his slide into evil.

We should revive this. :)

Chuckles.

Count me in as well. The first overall story arch sounded good to me.

abillings@kc.rr.com

I'd love to join in the mix.

I too am using a Dungeon Crawl Classic module to begin my version of the Shackled City campaign. It's the DCC #0: Legends are Made, not Born module.

In it, the main villian is a low level mage, who is currently suffering from a magical based disease. If the PC's look hard thru his library, they'll discover the mage's father was part of the Cagewrights, and had led several expeditions into the Yaunti City.

In the diary, his father writes about a group of doors that he couldn't open. These required a group of special keys, which he describes. The PC's won't find them in the villian's hideout, but during the examination of the treasury in the Malachite Hold, the party finds the demon keys, which eventually if they keep the keys, will open said doors in the Shatterhorn.

There are a few notes in the diary that talks about a few of the lower members of the Cagewrights, but only the top two remain as the current rulers of the organization currently. Which the only way to confirm, is if the PC's take the information in to the Striders or with one of the other higher beings in the area, like Nidrama.

As for the disease that the mage is suffering from, if the PC's look thru his diary, they'll discover he caught it while trying to find the doors at Shatterhorn, only to find the area filled with traps. One of which got him sick, but only enough to keep him from using all of his magics.

I've been curious ever since the magazine edition came out about this area near Cauldron. Has anybody ever set up anything in the Haunted Village area?

When I first ran the campaign, I slipped in an image of the village by using a map from the wizards site. Namely this one: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/mapofweek/city803.jpg

Then, I grabbed Dungeon #84 for the 'Dungeon of the Fire Opal', which was from 1st to 5th lvl. This was the dungeon under the ruins, and allowed me to play the part of Skazzyg, the Tiefling mage who was studying the dungeon. She made a deal with the party. They help her clean it out, and she would leave the area once she'd finished her research.

After reading the SCAP book, I'm changing all of that, to include the updated region information. Namely, that the village ruins are now being under the control of the Necrocants. So, here's my idea on what's going on.

The Necrocants have learned that the reason that Kozomagon was able to raise the undead in an attempt to assist in helping Redgorge against the demon army, was from a very powerful magical staff. The staff of skulls, as it was called, would allow the mage to cast summon undead 4th, grant the user mage armor at will, and could also allow the user to release a blast wave of negative energy in a fifty foot radius around the user. Any undead that were damaged previously, while within the negative blast, would be healed instantly of 3d8+10 points of damage, while all living beings must make a Fort SV 18 to avoid the effect as well.

Unfortunetly, any other powers or abilities have been lost to time, yet the Necrocants believe that they can find the staff.

Since the Cagewrights are interested in Cauldron, it's possible that they may decide to lure the PC's off track and to delay them from interfering in their operatins. This could be done by having Vhalantru send them out to investigate the Necrocant's activities near the Haunted Village, or maybe drop the information upon the party by other means that I'm sure you other DM's could easily come up with.

The trick, as I see it, would be to use it right after Flood Season, which would allow the PC's to gain enough experience to go up at least one level. This way, once they get thru Zenith, they'll have enough XP to reach 8th lvl, the minimum for the Demonskar Legacy.

So, any ideas my fellow DM's?

Ah, yes. The troll/dwarf hybrid.

I remember when I had a group of PC's running thru the magazine edition of the Malachite Fortress. The best fighter in the group was a paladin centaur, who was absolutely amazing for his good luck.

When the party showed up and saw the pair of hobgoblins at the entrance to the main hall, he sprinted towards the pair, and spotted the floor pit trap. One quick jump, and he was past the trapdoors, fighting the pair of hobgoblins until Kazhojen showed up. The two backed up down the hall, while the rest of the party fired arrows into the remaining hobgoblin, dropping the guard.

Kazmojen and the centaur were slugging it out, when the party rogue made a jump check, got past the now opened pit and ran for the lever. As he ran past, Kazmojen spotted the thief, and tried an attack of oppertunity. He failed, allowing the paladin the chance to do a grabble. With a success, he turned, then threw Kazmojen into the spiked pit, just before the lever could be pulled. This trapped Kazmojen in the pit, yet still alive on the spikes. To make sure, one of the other party members had the rogue open up the pit once more, and two bags of oil plus one lit torch were thrown in, before the doors were closed.

I guess they thought they could kill him by smoke, but since none of the oil hit Kazmojen, I ruled that his troll regen ability, albet slowly, would keep him alive.

So, when the party entered the main hall, the three kids still left were babbling about this big eyeball that had come in and taken Terrem away. The party became so distracted, they never noticed the hall doors open, then close as Pyllrak (invisible) walked back outside. While the doors were closed, he opened up the pit, helped Kazmojen to escape the spikes, then close the doors once more and left the hallway, leaving the chance for Kazmojen the oppertunity to return at a later date. Which pretty much was guaranteed, considering the paladin still had Kazmojen's urgosh, which he wanted back.

Another quick fix would be to find a short in town adventure from a prior issue of Dungeon to fit into the xp shortfall slot. Say, something that would add about 5k to 6k worth for the 8th lvl characters?

Either that, or when the party arrive at Redgorge, have them learn of another problem area nearby, that's unrelated to the SC story arch, yet needs to be solved for allowing Redgorge the chance to survive the later demon attack that's been listed here on the message boards some time ago. Say, a short quest to the Haunted village, where they discover the necromancer group? That ought to at least test their abilities at whatever level they are, to bring down the Haunted village necromancer group, along with their mercanary fighters.

I created Guildport. It was my first-ever city map. :)

In which case, I guess I must appologize for not knowing that. :)

okay, here's a thought. if you were to design an adventure path with 12 maps using only those by C. West, which ones would they be?

here's mine, in no particular order:

1. cryomancer's icicle tower
2. dungeon's Delve parts 1 and 2
3. Pirate caves
4. Vault of the Deathlord
5. Pirate outpost
6. The Forsaken Rift
7. Cinderforge
8. Drakeborn Sanctum
9. the underdark Caverns
10. Ancient Catacombs
11. Hall of the Elestial Eye
12. Red Dragon's Lair

Anyone else?

Well, for one, I'd have added two more maps to that list, making it fourteen in total. The addons are as follows.

All these ideas sound good, but what about one of the oldest game settings of all?

The known world, which was changed to become Mystria. There is a whole lot of material for that campaign that just goes begging for use since everyone left it years ago.

I remember the idea of the Black Baron on the border, hiding his chaotic forces and preparing to attack Keramikos, as well as snatching the local villagers to place into his private dungeons for entertainment against monsters in his hire. That'd do for a starting dungeon. :)

Once the PC's get high enough, they capture the Black Baron, and learn he's really a (doppelganger/rakshasa/spell casting illusionist). The real baron was killed yaars ago, and replaced per orders via another villian, who desires chaos in the occupied lands. Which could lead up to a war with one or another of the other surrounding nations, only to find out that they're being manipulated as well into the fight.

Can the PC's discover who's behind all this?

That would be something to consider. We could add in forests, druids and dryads, as well as anything other of the ideas that have sprung up, all covering into a large scale war setting.