Barmy Gith's page

Question on seedborne consumption:

p.14 says, "Furthermore, these survivors often have Charisma scores of 11 or lower, allowing them to avoid transformation into the seeded."
p.90 says, "“Seeded creature” is an inherited template that can be added to any corporeal, living creature with a Charisma score of 12 or higher."

I infer from this that PCs with Charisma scores of 11 or lower are immune to seedborne consumption.

So... are they still carriers, in spite of their immunity? This becomes extraordinarily important in the fight with Xhamen-Dor.

I've honestly struggled a bit with seedborne consumption. I've been probably making it more scary than it is by RAW, but that feels right for the story. By RAW, I think it is essentially a disease you can get in some strange ways, and the only ones immune are those immune to disease or mindless.

For my game, my players all know they have the disease at this point in the story. They know they are infected, though seemingly immune, it is not clear why, though it most assuredly has something to do with the what Lowls did to them. They know that sharing their knowledge will infect others, and they know they are carriers. Additionally (something I added) it has become clear that one of the vectors of infection is emotional attachment. People they share their hopes and dreams with get infected regardless of what they talk about.

Due to the psychic nature of the illness, memory altering cures have come into play. In one extreme case, one PC had to erase himself from his true loves mind in order for her illness to be forgotten.

Now in Neruzavin, close to the source, restorative magics are failing to hit the mark, and while memory altering magic may still work, depending on circumstances, only limited wish or more powerful magics are proving sufficient. Additionally, in Neruzavin, no one is immune to Seedborne Consumption, unless they are incorporeal or mindless. Also, I've been having any exposure in Neruzavin cause an immediate onset (time is strange in my Neruzavin), so one fortitude save to negate the cha drain upon any exposure.

In the end, especially in Neruzavin, I recommend tailoring the disease, infestation, psychic curse, however you think of it to keep it feeling like a threat that requires serious resources to keep at bay. It will help motivate a need to confront the Inmost Blot. Really enjoying this module and hope your group is too.

Question on seedborne consumption:

p.14 says, "Furthermore, these survivors often have Charisma scores of 11 or lower, allowing them to avoid transformation into the seeded."
p.90 says, "“Seeded creature” is an inherited template that can be added to any corporeal, living creature with a Charisma score of 12 or higher."

I infer from this that PCs with Charisma scores of 11 or lower are immune to seedborne consumption.

So... are they still carriers, in spite of their immunity? This becomes extraordinarily important in the fight with Xhamen-Dor.

So my party had WindWalk too and used it. They definitely by-passed a few encounters as written, but they opened up some new possibilities that I took advantage of. Consider that most aerial individuals can likely be seen for miles against a clear desert sky. I had them encounter a phoenix, which I made sort of the defacto guardian of the approach to Neruzavin. It ordered them to land, and declared it too dangerous for them to go on to Neruzavin. When the party insisted, the phoenix offered them a chance to prove their strength and sent them to go kill Obsidian.

I used Obsidian at full health and had it initially lunge at the party out of a sand dune creating an immense cloud of dust in the process that provided it concealment for a few rounds.

Returning to the Phoenix victorious I had the phoenix tell them about the Ash Giant traders that it tolerates and their leader Mother Moon and the girtablilu tribe that essentially acts as its stewards, keeping trespassers away from the forbidden city of Neruzavin.

Additionally, playing up the forbidden city angle, I put a mystical temporal barrier of sorts all around Neruzavin. On the initial approach what seems to be a heat mirage hides it from view and the entire area is under the influence of a non-detection spell. Additionally, the wards and the nature of the place cause the city itself to be slightly unhinged from time, which has some follow up effects. 1) All powers with a duration initiated on one side of the barrier immediately end when moving across the barrier, as essentially their duration time runs out instantly. 2) Teleportation across the barrier is ill-advised, as it is unlikely for the caster to be on target, and the wards might even have teleportation traps. Teleportation within the city limits works fine.

Hope some of that helps or stirs some new ideas.

One of my PCs is a bit of a pirate. She just bought her own boat, actually an ex-pirate lord's boat. Decked the ship out with an odd-ball crew, and gave the ship some character by making the brig haunted (someone or something continues to place tally marks on the walls) and making one of the storage compartment lockers nigh unopenable and heavily trapped (truth be told I don't even know what is inside it yet).

The party had a few encounters on the high seas (at this point I should probably mention that my AoW path is set in Ebberon which means ALhaster is an ocean port). They faced off against a Favored Spawn of Kyuss Kraken (can't recall which Dragon the template was in) and later a Lucent Worm (from the Fiend Folio, seemed a fitting foe). Of course they fought pirates, though these were led by a Seawitch (prestige class from Stormwrack) and his Succubus consort (she teleported to the PC's boat to offer them a chance to surrender before the Seawitch summoned a maelstrom to drag their ship under; though due to a fast and brutal attack by the PCs that event never came to pass). They also were given a chance to slay several sick whales, and were in fact implored by the crew to do so since whaling could be highly profitable. The PCs decided against it and in fact the druid and cleric set about curing and healing the whales. This encounter was a precursor to them meeting a Sea Dragon (Fined Folio again) who considered himself the protector fo the whales. Since the PCs did the best and nicest thing possible there was no fight and the Sea Dragon rewarded them, if they had slain the whales it would have been a different story.

Hope that sparked some ideas. My party is anxious to get out to sea again (not sure how long I can keep them in Alhaster). Definitely looking forward to getting some more ideas for encounters at sea out of this thread.

Dizzyk,

If you're still sending out conversion notes, I'd like to please request a copy from you. They sound great.

Thanks in advance

rgriggs@san.rr.com

Well Chuck,

Unfortunately it will be a bit tricky for me to answer that question. The game I ran was for 2 only players, so to make up for it we used the optional gestalt rules and one of the players also had a gestalt follower (slightly lower level, worse equipment, really just handy for finding traps and taking hits). So whether or not it exactly equalled a normal party is hard to say, furthermore these two friends of mine are very clever gamers and don't fall for clever DM tricks or tactics often. Consequently, if anything I would say they were slightly overpowered (oh, and I did allow leveling in the midst of the adventure, but only after a rest). Even so, one of the PCs died about 3 times and I believe his follower died a nearly equal amount (rolled a 1 on the bodak glare, terrible iron golem which nearly TKOed the party if not for the arcane caster teleporting out [leaving the others to their doom], and in a brawl at the chapel that I stacked a bit with some extra baddies that I didn't want them to miss out on since we were all leaving the next day [it was only about a 4 day game]).

Now, while I won't say no one will die, very dubious indeed. Smart PCs will likely teleport back and forth to safe camps outside the dungeon a few times, allowing them to restock on needed supplies and get healing and extra scrolls and one shot items that can be very helpful. Also, with enough wealth or the friendship of a very benevolent cleric they might be able to pull off a few true ressurection spells (no level loss).

In the end from what you describe, I think it might be wise to hold off on Maure till they have one extra level, though in the end what will matter far more is whether or not they clue into smart ideas about beating their enemies. Simple spells like detect invisibility, detect magic, their stealth ability, and knowledge checks or clues that key them into the weakness of an enemy will be key. By the way, just so you know (and I agree it is cheesy, and I don't know if it is legal, but it seemed reasonable) the wizard of the party eventually beat the terrible iron golem by using a polymorph scroll to become a rust monster. Golem failed its save, and that was that.

Hope that helps,
Good Gaming,
Barmy

I ran the adventure a few weeks ago for some friends in L.A. We played through the first two levels in their entirety and the group had an experience or two with the lower level denizens and rooms as well. Now before I go any further with advice, tips, or suggestions; I feel obliged to do this….

SPOILERS *** The following may contain spoilers, turn back now *** SPOILERS

The encounters in the dungeon run a large range of challenge. Some are quite easy for high level characters (like the Seeker Guards) while some will threaten to dispatch an entire party (like the Terrible Iron Golem). A party can easily become bored by too many easy encounters or cocky and rush into an encounter that is incredibly hard. Watch for either of those two events. You can avoid these events by mixing in a hard/interesting encounter to break up the easy ones, create better tactics for some of weaker opponents (The seeker guards definitely need to have some group tactics and clever use of feats going on, otherwise they become way too easy for 12th level PCs to obliterate. You may even want to change up there feats a bit to make them better group combatants), and by leaving hints and clues around about particularly dangerous areas.

Some stats may need a bit of expansion. For instance, many of the golems are special in some way or another, yet does that mean that when under SQ it says magic immunity that the golem is not affected even by spells that its lesser versions are affected by? I would say those few spells still work, though I suppose it is your call. Also, I didn’t notice this during the encounter (though it could have been mentioned somewhere and I simply missed it), but just so you know the “Accursed Carpet” is an animated object and a good description of how it attacks can be found in the MM. Also I think Reach is missing from a few of the stats, though that is generally pretty easy to figure out on the spot. Also, you may wish to check over some of the spell lists for the NPCs. Most are quite logical and good, my only shock really was concerning Eli. For a wizard that has special demonic hands that he appears to enjoy using in combat, he has a horrendous AC. Not only does he lack the normal array of AC buffing wizard items, he has few AC buffing spells, and a limited number of protective spells to cast during a time stop spell. I would consider altering Eli’s list or at least creating a second list that he switches to if he becomes aware of the PCs

There are lots of places to put your own stuff into this module. Do it, you’ll be happy and so will your PCs. If you don’t you may end up with a lot of empty/uninteresting rooms. Also, don’t just insert more monsters, traps, and treasure. Consider giving your role-playing friends some opportunities to shine. Those empty rooms are chances to meet allies or learn more about the history of the castle, and it is a very interesting one.

There are tons of magical auras due to traps, items, statues that are golems, and etc. Take a few notes down for each room, as you’ll likely be answering questions about auras a lot. Also, consider messing with your PCs a bit by making a few objects have Nystul’s Magic Aura. That should keep them on their toes.

Arley is cool. Use him well, he has a great history and the trading notes and lies and stories he can tell are all great ways to introduce bits about the castle and some misdirection. He makes a good spy too as he has can fly silently while invisible after the PCs just out of range of most dark vision (he has 90ft vs. 60 ft for most PC races).

Well there is likely more, but I think that is more than enough for now. Hope you enjoy the adventure, I know I did, even with al the bumps. In fact I’m planning on running it again soon. Happy Gaming.