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Unfortunately, I won't be able to continue running the campaign due to four of the players moving away (including the DM). Since gaming time is at a premium with all the moving going on, I've regretfully decided to end the campaign prematurely. The party is finishing up Flood Season tonight, I hope, and I'd like some suggestions on a good way to end things. They've met the beholder, they've met Shebeleth, they've met the Stormblades, they met the Striders (albeit not as the Striders yet). They think that Terrem is the mayor's illegitimate son, which I might be able to work with. They killed Kazmojen, Orak, Drakthar and Tongueater, captured Triel and Keygan, and basically have the Flood Season adventure wrapped up.

My initial idea is that I could go with the illegitimate mayoral son idea, and have the beholder actually in the mayor's employ. That would lead the party to a knock-down drag out fight with the beholder, perhaps with Shebeleth's help (since the party doesn't suspect his true nature, I don't have to use it). Maybe the beholder assassinates Shebeleth, but it's weakened enough for the party to go after it themselves.

Any other ideas would be appreciated; I've got about two weeks to work something out.

LOL well wands can always be reduced in its effectiveness by making it minimum level for it, and/or greatly limiting the amount of charges it has.

Robert

Yeah...I'm thinking that now that he's used nearly twenty charges, there's going to be an element of 'randomness' introduced to the wand. After all, it DID come from a cleric of Adimarchus...

I am so going to make them want Shebeleth's head on a pole before too long...

Yeah, well just be careful when you add things. I gave the party some items as gifts from High Inquisitor Shebeleth, three of which were perfectly acceptable. Boots of Elvenkind, Large Steel Shield +1, Morning Star +1, Defender.

Then I gave the sorcerer a Wand of Scorching Ray.

BAD DM! BAD! Tongueater, the T-Rex skellie, the ogre zombies...all of them reduced to smoking ruin by that evil, evil wand.

Never give an eleven year old a Scorchy Wand.

I've had only the one party member die, and his replacement character is so unpopular that the party is trying to get the money to raise him ASAP. Of course, it's Shebeleth who they're going to be asking...and I've figured out how to make this work in game. See, I wanted the opportunity to use all the cool dreams that Delvesdeep and others have put together. So with Adimarchus' priest doing the raising, the half-orc paladin will now be infected with a touch of the madness, resulting in the dreams hitting him. And of course, the paladin already took the Scarred Soul trait, making him a Shackleborn, which is the reason Shebeleth is willing to raise him.

Still, when the party thief would rather pay to have the paladin raised then talk to the dwarf, you know that the dwarf is not well-liked.

Okay, here's one idea. Pick a building that can house the Alleybashers, and have Triel staying there under cover with her wands. Building floorplans are ridiculously easy to find in just about any Dungeon magazine. You can keep the Triel part of the Kopru ruins more or less intact, including having the PCs catch her in the bathtub if they're stealthy enough (not a concern for my group, what with the dwarf fighter and human cleric both wearing full plate armor).

My players have just hit a dead end.

The book give 2 methods that the player could find out about the Ruins, Artus or Toungeater. They have killed Toungeater and the party mage refused to meet with anyone at midnight, alone, in a dark place.

I have come up with a few ideas as to how they could find out by investigation. Food need to be bought so some merchent may have a clue. THats how I had Artus find out. also Weapons are needed for the allybashers so some badguy blacksmith may have a clue. The allybashers must know something. The players havent thought of any of these lines of questioning nor do any of them have a good gather info skill.

The players asked Shensen for help so she went off to get the Striders to look into the matter but I'd hate to just hand the info over for free.

Did anyone have any trouble getting the players to the Kopru Ruin?

We're not there yet, but the party is doing their investigations now. I'm going to get away from the whole 'yet another dungeon under the city' idea and have more of a scavenger hunt where the party searches around the city for the wands, following clues and miscellaneous trails until they track down Triel and her allies. I'll have to do something interesting with the undead gnoll to keep him in; the city would be a tough place for a slime-drooling gnoll to hide in.

In my campaign I used some extra adventures that pointed out the sharp rivalry between the different churches in town, which was enough to convince the players that none of the other faiths would raise the fallen highpriest.

Unfortunately that won't work; the Pelorians owe the Cuthbertians big time after Kristoff (the Pelorian high priest) contracted the Vanishing after the party handed him some items for safekeeping. Seizing the opportunity to introduce Shebeleth, I said that the Kord and Cuthbert temples were helping Kristoff resist (but not cure) the Vanishing until such time as the High Inquisitor could arrive. So I'm thinking that Sarcem will just refuse to be resurrected by a priest of Adimarchus, without explaining why.

Colin McKinney wrote:

I don't know about the Resurrection question, but bear in mind that if they spring for a Raise Dead for the paladin, he'll still be missing his tongue. Body parts missing when raised are still missing after raise dead.

If you want to get really technical, raise dead won't work if the target's body is incomplete. So a swallowed tongue means your paladin cannot be raised. However, if your party manages to track down tongue eater fast enough and remove the tongue from his stomache before it is digested, I think your paladin may stand a chance :)

Oh, they tracked him down, alright; they killed him in the same round that he took down the Paladin. But they're trying to see if they can convince Shebeleth to resurrect Sarcem; they don't trust Embril for some reason. I have no doubt that they're going to have a more difficult time convincing Shebeleth as well, and I'm thinking that even if they do, Sarcem won't want a priest of Adimarchus to be the one bringing him back.

Definitely some more involvement from the Last Laugh. My players are convinced that the Last Laugh is one of the key players in the overall arch; the very first encounter is with Last Laugh thugs, and I changed the second adventure's set-up so that Orak Stonehaven was a Last Laugh fencer/smuggler and willing accomplice to the importing of Soulcage materials. One of the players took the Urban Ranger variant from Unearthed Arcana and took the Last Laugh thieves guild as his favored enemy.

Needless to say, I'm going to bring Jil in very soon (they haven't met her yet), and the Last Laugh is going to get a bit busier (especially now that the Alleybashers have been bashed pretty good by the PCs).

Ooh! Brainstorm!

The PCs should meet Jil out of her makeup at some point, whether they've met her in jesterface or not. Make her a businesswoman in town, perhaps the party will need to do business of some sort. I was thinking that she could be selling alchemical items, but then I saw Weer's Elixirs in the map key. Of course, she could very well be Weer's niece, working in the shop to help her crotchety uncle, who likes her even though she has no magical talent whatsoever...

Jil is one of the few Last Laugh members with any detail whatsoever in the entire hardcover, so she deserves some more development, especially if, as with my players, the party didn't make a DC 30 Spot check to see her sitting on the wall.

Okay, so the party has returned from the Lucky Monkey...with Sarcem's body and that of their half-orc paladin companion (who got chopped and munched by Tongueater). There are only two priests in town powerful enough to do something about it: Embril Aloustani, and High Inquisitor Shebeleth (thanks, Delvesdeep!!!) of the Church of Pelor.

So, would Sarcem accept a Resurrection from either of them, considering he knows who they both really are? On the one hand, he's not going to want Adimarchus' help. On the other hand, he might want to come back to stop their plans.

Of course, that's assuming that anyone can afford the 10 Gs it would take to get one of them back in the first place. Which I doubt, even for the Cuthbertians; they've been stretched out a bit lately.

As for the fight with Tongueater...I really made a mistake giving my son's character that Wand of Scorching Ray. They actually fought Tongueater twice. I used the feralized version from the message boards, and he took the rogue-ranger down to about eight hit points in the first round. So far, so good, and the party has the fear of DM in them. Of course he's got the DR to keep them from getting serious hits on him...but it doesn't work on a Scorching Ray. And of course, my son rolls a 20 on his second attempt (first shot missed) and confirms a critical. So after getting a couple of hits from the party, Tongueater suddenly found himself in negative HP in the second round of the fight.

The party finishes off the baboons, but I wanted them to have a more memorable battle that 'fry him with a scorchy,' which will, I sense, become a recurring theme in the campaign now.

NEVER give a sorcerer a Wand of Scorching Ray.

Anyway, after they finish the baboons, I took advantage of DM fiat and Tongueater's Fast Healing ability and ruled that enough time had passed for him to get to 1 HP. I know, I cheated. Sue me. Anyway, as the rogue is ready to do some professional appraisal of the piles of loot, Tongueater jumps through the back door and escapes, trailing blood. The party lets him run off into the jungle, being abused enough that they don't want to mess with him so soon.

So they head down to the basement and rescue Shensen, then return to the kitchen to pack up Sarcem's body and head back to Cauldron. The rogue looks out the back door and hears the baboons in the jungle, chittering angrily at the two dinosaurs chomping on the body pile in the back. Shensen rolls a good Animal Empathy check, and the dinos end up going for some fresh meat in the jungle instead. As they're heading off into the trees, Tongueater returns, this time with his trusty falchion sword. The battle was on again. He knocked the cleric down to single digits in the first round, who backed out and healed himself. The paladin stepped forward and took a swing, which (typically) ended up embedded in the door frame (this player's dice are loaded to roll 1s, it seems). Tongueater took advantage and on a natural 20 (confirmed crit), killed him with a single blow (he was already wounded). I misread the critical hit description and thought that only the weapon damage was doubled, which took him to -3 hp, and the bite damage only did 5 points, keeping him alive. The cleric pointed out that everything except additional damage dice is doubled, which meant that the paladin was, in fact, dead, and the bite attack was Tongueater ripping out and swallowing the paladin's tongue.

Then my son rolled yet ANOTHER frickin' natural 20 and critted him again, putting him in single digits. Shensen hit him with a Stunning Fist, and the cleric did a two-handed slam with his morning star right on his pointy head, staving in his skull. This time they chose to forego any looting until after they'd made sure Tongueater was very dead. Very, very dead. They cut out his heart, decapitated him, stabbed the body another dozen or so times with the silver spear and silver dagger, then burned it to a char broil.

NEVER give a sorcerer a wand of scorching ray.

An interesting idea, and one that I might be able to use if some ideas are forthcoming in the next week or so. The party has just entered the Lucky Monkey, and I expect them to have their hands full with a certain feralized werebaboon this Friday. Ironically, the thief in the party took the Urban Ranger variant as his 4th level, with the idea being to focus on the Last Laugh (his favored enemy). I like the idea of using the city as an alternate location, both to give the ranger something different to do and to get out of yet another dungeon.

The only concern is that Triel is a wanted criminal in Cauldron; unless she's got points in Disguise, it might not be the best idea for her to hang out in the city itself.

An alternate idea to use the urban ranger's skills would be to have HIM be the one to track down the Ebon Triad's hideout instead of using Artus Shemwick, or at least have the ranger be the one that finds Artus; maybe he's a contact of some sort.

Do you find it hard when it comes to creatures/NPCs attacking your son considering his age?

I'm just thinking with my own son (albeit he is only just coming up to 4 years old) how I would react as a DM while playing NPCs. Monsters wouldn't care and probably target him even more as an easy target but human NPCs may struggle.

Anyway this is off the point. I'm glad to hear your game is up and running again.

So am I. It was frustrating with the player wanting to be around, but stuck in the boonies several hours away with no ride home. We were at the point where one of the other players or I was ready to go get him ourselves.

Anyway, as to your opening question, most NPCs are going to be hesitant about fighting an 11-year old...right up until he shoves a couple of magic missiles or acid arrows up their nose. Todd Vanderboren is a special case; considering his alignment, personality, and obvious conflict with his PC brother (the priest), and the need to get some combat into the game anyway, it was pretty easy to justify his actions in starting the bar brawl. Incidentally, my son's character now has an enemy for life; after Todd slapped him, he replied by announcing his was going to kick him where it counts...and he rolled a 20. Confirmed crit to the 'nads, and Todd is not the type to forgive or forget. For good measure he kicked Todd twice more, and Todd ended up drawing his rapier. A Hold Person from his brother ended that pretty quickly, but it was an interesting moment, to say the least.

As for the monsters...most of them aren't going to care about how old my son's character is; they're either more likely to target him because he looks like an easy meal, or they'll ignore him and go after 'meatier' fare, like the burly half-orc (several meals worth if you freeze the leftovers).

I'm going to keep stealing your ideas, BTW. Just FYI.

My party has decided to stay away from Jzadirune until they can deal with the curse themselves; they don't like going to the temple of Wee Jas for curing (the only priests strong enough to cast Break Enchantment, and Jenya's Remove Curse isn't strong enough to do it), since they charge quite a pretty penny for the privilege. Now that Shebeleth the Pelorian Inquisitor has arrived, of course, they're thinking that it might not be such a bad idea to head down and clear out what's left. After all, a highly-ranked priest of Pelor can certainly cast the necessary spells, can't he?

We finally resumed our campaign after a hiatus while the Pelorian priest's player was away. We played through Drakthar's Way without him, but I didn't want to go on with the campaign while he wasn't available.

So after killing the bugbear and recovering a crate of strange metallic alloy, the party just began the Flood Festival. The Stormblades interrupted a birthday party (my son's character ages as he does, and it's his birthday this weekend). Despite their attempts to prevent a brawl, the kid (a sorcerer) had enough of their taunting and cast Flare at Zachary, then at Todd. Todd slapped him in return, and it was on.

Anyway, the next day (day three of the Festival), Ulf the priest of Pelor had a big moment as the wandering Inquisitor, Shebeleth, arrived in Cauldron to investigate the problems the Shrine of Pelor has been facing over the past few months.

I forgot what magic items Delvesdeep suggested he gift them, so I went a bit higher level; a Wand of Scorching Ray for the sorcerer, Boots of Elvenkind for the rogue, a Shield +1 for the paladin, and a Morningstar +1, Defending, for the cleric. They certainly appreciated the gifts; maybe it was a bit much, but there's no question that they know he's on their side now.

They've just arrived at the Lucky Monkey; Shebeleth will be busy during their absence...

We need an evil smilie on this board.

I know I have spoken to this topic before many months (or even years?) a go but I intend to have my parties wizard use this item rather than a fighter/monk type. My modifications are fairly simple and suit my party so please don't feel pressured to use them.

My version of Alakast
- Ignores all evil outsiders Spell Resistance
- Glows when within 100 feet of an evil outsider
- Gives a +5 bonus to any save verus an evil outsider ability
- Can cast any cantrip as a standard action
- Gains the ability to improve spells using the Silent Spell or Still Spell feats as if they possessed the ability

Just my take :)

Delvesdeep

I've always had a problem with the 'glows when hated enemy is nearby' ability on magic weapons. Maybe some weapons might want to attract the attention of the favored enemy (it's easier to track them down when they can see you coming), but why not allow some variations of the glowing ability? How about the weapon chills the user's hands when the enemy is close? Or vibrates, or mentally nudges, or whatever? I found Sting to be the stupidest concept in Lord of the Rings. As Bilbo says, when orcs are near, that's when you have to be extra careful. So why shine a beacon letting them know you're there?

Anyway, I'd like to thank Delvesdeep for providing me with this opportunity to rant off-topic. ;)

Other than the glowing thing, I like this idea and will probably use it. Of course, the party's spellcaster is an 11-year old sorcerer...

Get to know Cauldron and its movers and shakers as well as you can; get a feel for their motivations and potential reactions to PC actions. Consider personalizing them.

Oh, and read everything that Delvesdeep posts. :)

That's pretty much how I envisioned it as well, without the disguise kit. I figured Magic Fang could provide the cosmetic appearance of nasty, sharp, pointy teeth if it's needed.

One possibility around the problem of the party prepping for a vampire is this: instead of buying the weapons, they might get them on loan from one of the Temples. I especially like the idea of using the temple of Wee Jas for this; they agree to supply the party with the silver weapons, just this once. Embril and Ike know that Drathkar's not really a vampire, so it's not going to make any difference in the battle, but if the party doesn't know any better, then after the battle they can return them and be none the wiser.

Any of the temples would work for this, really, but using Wee Jas makes it that much better. Their rationale could be that Drathkar is stepping out of bounds, and they're not going to cry about his loss; goblins are, after all, easily replaced, especially with more tractable leaders than a bugbear druid with delusions of undeath.

I agree that it might not solve the problem with players stocking up on silver. The other idea I had (that literally just popped into my mind) is to make Drathkar a sort of eco-terrorist, using the goblins to attack certain businesses or industries in the city.

As for beefing up Tongueater, I'm definitely going to be bringing in the 'feralized' version someone posted on another thread a few eons ago. I fully intend for the players to have nightmares about this guy, regardless of what I do with Drathkar.

And here's my revised Drathkar. I'll write up his animal companion later on; it'll probably be a wolf, but I'll have to sleep on it. Note that the spells he's got will allow him to simulate vampiric traits, with a few surprises thrown in. I'll leave it to others to decide if a 5th-level druid is a match for an underpowered vampire.

Drathkar CR 6
Bugbear druid 5
NE Medium humanoid (goblinoid)
Init +8; Senses Darkvision, Listen +7, Spot +7
Languages Common, Goblin

AC 18, touch 12, flat-footed 16
hp 52 (8 HD)
Resist +4 against spell-like abilities of fey
Fort +5, Ref +4, Will +5

Speed 30 feet (6 squares)
Melee club +4 (1d6/x2) or
Ranged dart +2 (1d4/x2)
Base Atk +5 Grp +5
Atk Options
Special Actions wild shape (1/day)
Combat Gear leather armor, light wooden shield, club, 10 darts, potion of spider climb, potion of gaseous form
Spells Prepared 3rd-level: Meld Into Stone, Summon Nature’s Ally III.
2nd-level: Bull’s Strength, Fog Cloud, Summon Swarm.
1st-level: Faerie Fire, Jump, Magic Fang, Shillelagh.
0-level: Cure Minor Wounds, Detect Magic, Flare, Know Direction, Resistance.

Abilities Str 17, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 16, Cha 12
SQ animal companion, link to companion, wild empathy, woodland stride, trackless step
Feats Alertness, Improved Initiative, Weapon Focus (club)
Skills Concentration +6, Knowledge (nature) +4, Listen +7, Move Silently +10, Spot +7, Survival +7
Possessions Combat gear

Again, feel free to correct any obvious errors, especially with the skills; I assumed that as he started off as a humanoid, he doesn't get the x4 skill point bonus for being a 1st-level character, since he already started with 12 points just for being a bugbear. If this is incorrect, please let me know.

Here's Orak, revised. He's got a lot more skills, but he's not much of a combat monster. His base abilities are unchanged from the original.

Orak Stonehaven CR 4
Dwarf Fighter 1/Rogue 3
LE Medium Humanoid
Init +1; Senses Listen +5, Spot +5
Languages Common, Dwarf, Goblin

AC 11, touch 11, flat-footed 10
hp 36 (1d10+3d6+12)
Resist Evasion
Fort +6, Ref +4, Will +2

Speed 20 (4 squares)
Melee handaxe +5 (1d6+1/x3) or
Ranged handaxe +5 (1d6+1/x3)
Base Atk +3 Grp +4
Atk Options Combat Reflexes, sneak attack +2d6
Combat Gear handaxe

Abilities Str 14, Dex 13, Con 17, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 6
SQ Trapfinding, Trap sense +1
Feats Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Weapon Focus (handaxe)
Skills Appraise +4, Forgery +4, Gather Information +2, Intimidate +2, Knowledge (local) +4, Listen +5, Sense Motive +5, Spot +5, Speak Language (goblin)
Possessions handaxe, eyepatch with ruby worth 200 gp

Any corrections are more than welcome. I'm not going to get to this part of the campaign for at least one more session, so I've got time to make revisions.

Okay, so there have been a few threads dealing with the problems people have with Drathkar's Way. The specific problems that I see are:

a) the setup is too similar to Life's Bazaar; the initial NPC contact is coerced into helping the villains.
b) the main villain's weaknesses are too similar to those of one of the Adventure Path's classic encounters, Tongueater, making the second encounter easy if the PCs have weapons to deal with Drathkar.
c) the premise of the adventure seems weak; smuggling mercenaries into the city when they have a perfectly legitimate invitation to march through the gates in a later chapter.

So let's fix these problems and give the adventure a more meaningful point, tying it more tightly into the campaign setting and giving the PCs a different challenge to overcome. I'll be borrowing some ideas from other threads, specifically the one about 'Skipping Drathkar's Way.'

Okay, so let's fix the first problem. Instead of Orak being dominated and coerced into helping, why can't he be a willing participant? Let's make him a fence/smuggler working with the Last Laugh guild. He built the bathhouse overtop of the natural caves he discovered years ago while he was working out of the Malachite Fortress before it was abandoned. Being exceptionally greedy even for a dwarf, he set himself up as a legitimate businessman, working with the thieves' guild as a smuggler and fence, and working with the goblins in the caves to ensure safe passage of the goods.

Now for the third problem. Instead of smuggling in mercenaries, Chef's Slaad, on the other thread, suggested that the Cagewrights could be smuggling in materials for the Tree of Shackled Souls. The PCs could intervene and intercept the final shipment. They wouldn't know what the purpose of the materials is, but when they find the Soulcage in the Temple of Wee Jas in chapter 7, they just might put together a few interesting clues.

Now for Drathkar himself. The idea of a bugbear vampire is quite cool, and should be used elsewhere. It doesn't work here because the odds are that once they figure out what Drathkar is and destroy him, the PCs are likely to be loaded with silver and magic weapons, which makes Tongueater a pansy. This Must Not Be.

So let's change Drathkar. My initial suggestion on the other thread was to make Drathkar an enchanter or a sorcerer with a focus on enchantment spells, but once I changed Orak's focus from coerced victim to willing participant, there was no need for charm spells to be prominent in the adventure.

So what to do with the erstwhile proto-vampire bugbear? We could just make him a leader of the goblin tribe, perhaps even a partner of Orak's. Or we could take him in an entirely different direction, one that still gives us much of the atmosphere of the original adventure. Let's see...he summons swarms of animals, hunts as a wolf, uses fog, is very dangerous in melee combat, and is very much at home in the dark caverns below Cauldron. Can anyone think of a character class that would fit these traits?

Yep. Let's make him a druid. So there are two options; in the first option, he becomes a 3rd-level druid (keeping his CR at 4). In the second, his level is increased to 5th, giving him access to 3rd-level druid spells and the Wild Shape ability (and bumping his CR to 6). I'm going to use the second option for my campaign.

The only thing I'm still working out is how to connect Drathkar to the smuggling operation. Why would a pack of goblins let a bugbear druid be in charge? Well, the easiest answer is that they believe that Drathkar really IS a vampire. After all, he does all those vampiric things, like summon fog, changes into a wolf, summons hordes of animals...if Drathkar is careful to maintain the ruse (not to mention using magic fang to impress them once in a while), the goblins could easily be fooled into thinking that the bugbear is undead. Of course, the problem with that is that the players might think the same thing, causing them to load up on silver and magic weapons...Alas, no plan is perfect.

I'll post revised stat blocks for Orak and Drathkar in a little bit, once I've figured out how to alter them. Any comments are welcomed.

So far I'm really enjoying the Shackled City; I've read over the Age of Worms and as a straight read it hasn't grabbed me the way Cauldron has. Playing it, of course, might be a different story. As for STAP, I've only seen the first three adventures plus the Savage Tidings in Dragon magazine; the fourth one hasn't arrived at my local store yet due to severely unpleasant weather last week.

It really depends on what style of campaign suits you; an Shackled City is very much a location-focused campaign, with most of the action taking place in a very small geographical area. Age of Worms is an undead-fest that travels quite a bit, with lots of hooks to old-school AD&D references. And the Savage Tide gives us a swashbuckling, sea-borne campaign with a strongly cinematic feel.

Personally, I really enjoy a small geographical area that the DM can customize and personalize to his players, reinforcing the 'reality' of the setting and really bringing it to life.

Of course, that might change once I get to run the other AP storylines. It's good to be fickle. :)

Drakthar's way wasn't part of the original SCAP published in Dungeon, so you're pretty safe skipping it. I personally inserted it in because of the XP and because I wanted to foreshadow the Blue Duke and Gau Kleeoch, one of the cagewrights.

The mercenaries being smuggled in is a bit unnecessary. I changed it to materials being smuggled in for the cagewrights. Although the players never learned the material involved, I decided it was arcane materials needed to construct the tree of shackeled souls.

That's a better idea than the mercenaries, definitely. Perhaps the party can intercept the 'final' shipment and learn just what it is that was being brought in. Of course, the question becomes, 'what is this junk for, anyway?' Long-term investigations might prove handy, if the players have the foresight to do this, and it just might give them a few valuable clues later on.

I'm definitely going to have to change Drathkar from a vampire to something else. Defeating him makes Tongueater a pansy, which just won't work.

What about making him a half-orc instead of a bugbear? That could tie in with the Blue Duke as well, since he might have some connection to the mercenary bands. Or he could still be some form of undead, just not a proto-vampire. Or even more interesting, make him a sorcerer or wizard, which would give an excuse to keep the animated throne. I like the idea of a half-orc or bugbear enchanter for some reason; it's just warped enough to make the players go, "Um, the hell?"

Making him an enchanter would allow the DM to keep the majority of the plot; the goblins and Orak are still under his control, with some heavy-duty reinforcement on Orak to keep him from breaking free.

Hmm...I just might keep this adventure after all.

Okay, so during the fight with Kazmojen, Pyllrak does the 'You can't see me' trick and leaves. As written, he returns to his room, gathers his things and leaves the fortress while the players are dancing with the slaver.

Here's the thing: in our last session, the PCs went into Pyllrak's room, killed the two lemures, and left three freed prisoners there (the ones from the smithy), leaving them some weapons to protect themselves.

My thought is that Pyllrak is going to walk in, find them there instead of his lemures, and kill them. Either that or he'll enslave them and make them carry his treasure chest.

Any other suggestions? I think that killing the slaves would be the most dramatic action, enforcing for the players that sometimes even the best plans have tragic consequences.

Okay...so after the fight with the ogre, the party searched his room, which bore a strong resemblance to the bedroom of a typical teenager, except it was slightly cleaner and smelled a bit better. Inside this filthy pesthole they found a large iron chest, which was conveniently opened by one of the keys they looted from the body. Inside they found enough copper and silver to keep even the rogue happy for a while.

Since there were no more obvious exits, they looked for the inobvious ones, and found one at the opposite end of the hall. Stepping through, they encountered a majestic statue of a dwarven warrior standing guard, draped with chains. They stayed away from the statue, instead investigating the barred doors to the northwest. This proved unfruitful, as there was nothing but a bridge and some mysteriously black water beneath.

So they headed down to the southeastern doors instead, where they entered another hallway. This one was occupied by hobgoblins, who shouted a warning and started shooting arrows. They were fairly quickly dispatched, but not before one of them pulled a lever, opening a trap beneath the half-orc. Again his god protected him, as he avoided the nasty spikes at the bottom and merely took light falling damage. More hobgoblins appeared during this time, but a sleep spell from Julian put them out of the fight. As the party was pulling the paladin out of the pit, yet another pair of hobgoblins came at them, but once again Julian saved the day with a dazzling flare spell in the face of one, who promptly tripped and knocked his partner down, where they were easily dispatched by the rest of the party.

Tracking back the last pair of hobgoblins, the party found a forge, where three prisoners toiled away under the guard of four hobgoblins and three goblins. The battle was hardly worth describing, as the paladin and sorcerer merely stood guard while the other three dismantled the enemy in a few short rounds. Only one of the prisoners seemed lively enough to attempt to aid them, a halfling named Maple who borrowed a pick from the rogue and picked her own manacles open. With the party feeling a sense of urgency, and not having a ready way to get the prisoners to the safety of the surface, they searched out a place to keep them hidden until they had accomplished their mission. Opening a door in the hall they had previously been in, they found a bedroom guarded by two nasty-looking fleshy creatures. The battle was likewise brief, although the party found that their weapons had little effect on the horrible creatures. Still, after the battle they gave Maple a couple of weapons and left her to guard the other two prisoners while they continued on their way.

Passing through the forge and into a dining room, they saw an open door where noises could be made out. Jack snuck to the door and looked in, where he saw a very large dwarf speaking with a smaller, pointy-eared dwarf. The larger one held the chain of one of the missing children, whom Julian was able to identify as Terrem. The other children were likewise present, and it was all the party could do to stop Julian from charging in.

The party planned their assault carefully, consuming most of their remaining healing magic to give themselves as much of a chance as possible. Jack snuck in, unnoticed by the arguing pair of dwarves. He threw a couple of thunderstones into their midst, deafening them both as well as the children and the bizarre creature that looked like a cross between a dog and a porcupine. This creature began howling like a banshee, while the party stormed in ready to fight. The smaller dwarf disappeared even as Ulf enlarged the town guardsman. The battle was on!

Jester was met by the charging dog-upine, while Jack used his crossbow to surprising effect on the huge dwarf. The paladin rushed in, while Julian tried to blind him with another flare. It was unsuccessful, and the paladin found himself on the business end of a dwarven urgrosh, nearly taking him right out of the battle in its opening moments. The battle raged, but the party's lack of magic was severely hampering them. Jester went down from a thrown handaxe that got him in a vulnerable spot, Jack was alreaedy wounded, Ulf took a blow from the urgrosh, and the paladin was barely on his feet.

Suddenly, help arrived as two half-elves ran into the room with drawn bows. One arrow felled the dog-upine, while the other struck the dwarf. With renewed hope, the party fought on. One of the half-elves healed Jester back into the fight, while the other kept shooting arrows. Ulf and Rusk closed for melee again, and without the help of his pet, the dwarf was finally no match for the party, despite healing some of his wounds almost as fast as they were inflicted. With a blow from his sword, Rusk drove the villain to his knees, and Ulf finished him with a crushing blow from his morning star.

Exhausted, the party turned to inquire about their unexpected allies, but before they could do anything, a group of hobgoblins burst into the room with drawn weapons, ready to avenge their fallen master. Wounded, drained of their magic, the party grimly prepared themselves for the final battle.

Then the beholder appeared.

To be continued...

Here we go again. The party had just finished brushing pottery shards of the paladin, and elected to head north through the foresty room. Up the stairs they encountered an empty room, but before they could search it they head the clanking and hissing of something unseen. Suddenly a metallic appendage swung out and smacked the rogue, staggering him backwards. An automaton appeared out of thin air, and the party went into action. Unfortunately they found their weapons were largely ineffective against the mechanical monstrosity before them. Then it let out a piercing scream that stunned the cleric and the gnome locksmith. The town guardsman went to flank the thing, and disappeared himself. He was still there, however, just invisible. He struck a mighty blow with his greatsword that nearly rent the creature's arm off. The damage seemed to affect the thing's mechanisms, and it did a couple of stutters and stops, until the cleric finally found a weak point and smashed a hole in its body, breaking some important parts and causing it to shut down entirely.

After a search of the room, the party found that there was nothing of value, except for the gem and 'A' key inside the monster. They bandaged their wounded and continued on, determined to find the key they needed to reach the Malachite Fortress.

They came to a room filled with broken shards of glass and the like, with furniture arranged haphazardly around. Seeing a door with an 'A' on it, they went to it, but not before the rogue noticed a secret door in the corner behind a table. Ignoring the secret door for the moment, the party opened the gear door and found a dusty office. Searching, the rogue found yet another key, this one with the 'R' they had been searching for! A brief celebration ensued, and Julian insisted that they immediately head down the elevator. Surprisingly, Ulf agreed, since they had no idea how much time they had before the 'not for long' in the divination was up.

But first, they went to the secret door. Jack, the rogue, started to look for a catch, but he was interrupted by the short sword that sprouted from his spleen. Only Julian had any time to react to the tall, shadowy creature that had very nearly killed Jack (-9 hp on the sneak attack). Ulf immediately cast a curing spell to stabilize him, while the rest of the party went on the attack. Julian's magic proved only slightly effective against the creature, while the rest of the party found the cloaking darkness a frustrating challenge. Jester, the town guardsman, got a good hit in, but it was returned with interest, and he went down as well. As Ulf stepped forward to the attack (Rusk was using his crossbow due to his reduced strength from the spider poison in the last session), two more creatures, shorter versions of their current opponent, came in and beelined for the cleric. At this point a TPK was imminent, as the rogue and fighter were down, the paladin managed to break the crossbow (natural 1, his third of the session already), and Julian was nearly out of magic. The tall creature took advantage of an opportunity and attacked the boy, striking him with his blade. Julian avoided the deathblow, but cried out in pain from the thrust.

Then, to everyone's surprise, Keygan showed his own magical talent, summoning a celestial dog to assist. He barked a command (no pun intended), and the dog went straight for the tall figure's throat. One natural 20 later, the creature went down with the dog's teeth firmly clamped on its neck. This evened the odds somewhat, and the paladin and cleric were able to defeat the two smaller creatures with the able assistance of Keygan's dog.

Using the last of his healing magic, Ulf brought the guardsman back to a modicum of health, but he was forced to force-feed Jack his Cuthbertian potion. This brought the rogue back to full health, and he eagerly assisted in looting the bodies. They found still another key, this one with a 'D', around the creature's neck, along with a fair amount of coin and a couple of unknown potions.

Now they went back to the secret door and found the latch. Opening it, they found what appeared to be unguarded treasure. Suspecting a trap, they elected to leave it for the moment, and headed back to the surface for a chance to rest up. Keygan was returned to the guardhouse, while Jester accompanied Jack and Ulf to the Shrine of Pelor. Rusk and Julian were in charge of Keygan, then after reporting to Terseon they went to the Church of St. Cuthbert. There Julian was given a sleeping draught and healed of his injuries, as was Rusk. Jester, being a town guardsman, had his healing subsidized by the town (no wonder taxes keep going up), whereas Jack paid 50 gp to have Ulf healed up to full health.

After resting, the party met up again that night at Keygan's, this time without the cantankerous gnome. Jester was still with them, however, assigned to find the missing children with them. They went straight to the mimic's room, and opened the 'R' door with the key. To their dismay, there was another door behind that one, but fortunately they had the 'D' key required.

Opening the door, they were surprised to see two hobgoblins standing in the octagonal room. The battle was brief, however, as the hobgoblins were no match for the eager adventurers. They descended in the elevator to the Malachite Fortress, ready for whatever awaited them. Except, of course, for the total lack of a lever to raise the elevator...

They moved on, hoping to find either the lever or another way out. Entering the first hallway, they approached the strange statue in the center of the room. To the surprise of none, it attacked them, sliding across the floor and striking them with its crystal growths. The paladin took a hard blow but withstood it, and the battle seemed to be in their favor. That's when the southern door slammed open and the gangly ogre appeared. With an evil leer and a welcoming 'More carrion for my larder!' it attacked with its filthy falchion.

Julian popped it with a bolt of magic, but the ogre shrugged off the blow. Jester dropped his bow and drew his greatsword, charging to the fight. His blow narrowly missed, but the ogre replied with a horrifying slash that nearly eviscerated the brave guardsman (dropping him from his full 20 hp to -8).

While Ulf worked to save the guardsman's life, Rusk and Jack fought to keep the statue and the ogre at bay. The statue fell to Rusk's sword, while Jack nimbly dodged the ogre's wild slashes with the falchion. Ulf took a page from Keygan's book and summoned a dog of his own. The dog lasted only a very short time, as the ogre struck it down with a single blow. As the dog vanished back into the ether, Rusk, Jack and Julian hammered away, trying desperately to kill the snarling giant.

Finally, Jack got in behind it and stabbed the ogre in the back, dropping it to its knees. Rusk finished it off, beheading the beast.

I have to head out, but I'll continue the recap when I return; there's still lots more fun stuff to describe.

Pretty straight forward question. I seem to recall reading somewhere that it's eight feet in diameter, and sixteen in the last chapter. Is that right? Not that he needs to be big; the looks on the player's faces when I told them what had just appeared before them was worth the wait. They were so pleased with themselves for taking out Kazmojen that they were ready to rip into the reinforcements summoned by Prickles' howling. Then the beholder shows up and we ended the session with the players in various states of shock and disbelief (literally; my son thinks it's an illusion).

Sounds like I'll give this one a pass as well, then. The party just took down Kazmojen in a hard fight, and are just about to throw down with his reinforcements (the 7 hobgoblins the party hadn't fought yet), but as a cliffhanger I had a certain round critter show up just before they rolled their initiative dice. :)

They plan to clean up Jzadirune and the Malachite Fortress, so they should be alright to handle Flood Season without the extra 'fun' of Drathkar. Besides...they took down Kazmojen entirely too easily (albeit they had some amazing rolls from the crossbow-wielding rogue, not to mention help from a couple of half-elves who showed up in the nick of time). I want them to remember Tongueater with shivers of fear.

I would too. But what's to keep the fellas with the savage template from eating their way out of the dinosaur before they could breach the wall?

Have then in some sort of suspended animation until the zombiesaur reaches the wall (which triggers their awakening).

I'm now kicking myself for not setting the Shackled City in Mystara. I suppose I could retrofit it since we're still only partway through the first adventure, but I'd have to think pretty carefully about where to set it. I prefer the Known World to Davania as a starting location anyway, so I'd probably stick Cauldron in the Altan Tepes mountains and replace Sasserine with Specularum.

Ah, well...I'll probably set the Age of Worms into Mystara instead, assuming we ever get done the Shackled City.

I just might have an opportunity to bring Shebeleth into the picture a wee bit earlier than anticipated. See, the party has no idea what actually causes the Vanishing. They're speculating on dust right now. So they brought a wand they found up to the surface, touched by the rogue and sorcerer (only the latter made his save). They also brought a bag of tricks, but the paladin made his save. They gave the wand to Kristof for safekeeping until they have time to identify it themselves...

Now they've found a couple of scrolls and the paladin didn't make his save this time. So naturally they'll be heading back up within the next day or so. Imagine their icky feeling when they find out Kristof also contracted the disease, and refuses to seek help from the Wee Jas temple. If the Kordian priest can't help (and Jenya already tried and failed to cure it), and if the party can't find a way to save him, this might leave the party cleric as the only Pelorian cleric in the city. Naturally he isn't going to be able to handle things himself, forcing him to request assistance from Sasserine. And one of his instructors, the head of the Order of Pure Light, shall answer the call...

Of course, this will give them a pretty big clue as to what actually causes the Vanishing...but you can't win them all.

So...back for more. After a single week's hiatus due to DM commitments, the group reconvened for a second excursion into Jzadirune. When last we met...

Well, you can read the first post for that part. So after the half-orc was pulled out of the pit, and before the enlarge person spell wore off, he carted everyone across the tilt-a-pit, which had been jammed open. The rogue then began examining the two gear doors at the end of the corridor, while young Julian saw something odd about the wall. The map showed no wall, but there was a wall. "Maybe it's an illusion!' he said, and stuck his hand through it. Sure enough... So the party fond two more gear doors in the map room, both trapped, of course. Jack tried the eastern door, but although he knew there was a trap he found himself unable to disarm it. So instead he tried to disarm the western door, and was rewarded with jets of flame singing him. So he tried again, and learned that one of Jzadirune's charms is that the trapped doors always reset. After a second singing, he decided that discretion was the better part of survival.

Returning to the hallway, they tried the eastern door. This one dropped rats on them when he tried to open it, but the party was able to swiftly dispose of them. Finally Jack found some success with the western door, disarming the trap but finding the lock beyond his abilities.

Over Julian's objections, the party decided to return to the surface for two reasons: to rest up and regroup, and to try to figure out the runes on the doors. They also decided that they needed the help of the one person in Cauldron who might be able to help them figure out those locks: Keygan Ghelve. The problem now was the gaping pit, which afforded only a narrow walkway on either side for ten feet. Julian's first attempt to cross nearly saw him fall into the pit, catching himself on the pit's edge at the last second. So Jack crossed with a rope and tied it to one of the doors, while Rusk did the same at the other side. Using the rope as a guide, the party crossed safely and returned to the surface.

The party split up; Ulf and Jack went to the Pelorian temple to get the rogue fully healed, while Rusk and Julian went to Skie's Treasury, the only other gnome they knew of in Cauldron. Skie welcomed them and told them it was a simple alphabetical script, translating the runes they had and noting that all the letters in 'Jazdirune' were present except 'U,' which the party had not yet come across.

After relating the story to Skie, the paladin and his ward went to the town hall barracks to speak with Terseon Skellerang and try to convince him to release Keygan Ghelve into their custody. Despite Julian's heartfelt pleas for the sake of his sister, and Rusk's solemn word as a paladin, Terseon would not release the gnome without a condition: one of the city guards would accompany them, responsible for the safe return of Keygan Ghelve.

[OOC: This was an opportunity to introduce a new PC, as a new player was joining up.]

Over the strenuous objections of Keygan, the party, with the addition of Private Jester Reed, gathered again at Ghelve's Locks. Keygan was permitted to study his spellbook, the better to help ensure his survival. Now six strong, the group descended back into the gnome enclave. Keygan's first attempt was the door that Jack had successfully disarmed, which after much grumbling and muttering he was able to open. Entering the now-empty room, they saw two more of the new tunnels in the walls. They also found a secret door, which led to a long-abandoned and dust-filled closet. After an unfruitful search, the party elected to risk the tunnels. They took the northern tunnel, ending up in a short corridor ending in two more gear doors. Jack tried the western one, which nearly froze him as no fewer than six rays of frost shot out. He then let Keygan try to unlock the door, and once again everyone was informed that the Jzadirune traps reset. Keygan escaped harm, but both Rusk and Jester were struck by cold rays. Keygan then announced that Jack was a lousy trapfinder and wanted no more to do with any of the doors.

Meanwhile, Ulf had located a secret door in the northern wall, which led to a chamber with a tunnel and some chests. Searching the chests, they found a strange gray bag which Rusk took. Inside he found a small fuzzy ball, which, when thrown, turned into a rat. This impressed him enough that he kept the bag.

The party proceeded down the next tunnel, which led them to a room with an unfinished metal construct. As they approached, a strange creature that appeared to be a mummy ran off to the tunnel in the north wall. Jack got a crossbow bolt off, but no one else reacted quickly enough to stop the creature. They elected not to risk the tunnel in chasing it, and explored the room instead. Without any treasure to be found, they returned to the room with the three chests and tried the other tunnel there.

This tunnel took them far to the south, where they eventually came out in a gnomish theater. When the stage erupted into an illusionary show (which again Julian identified as illusory before anyone else did), Rusk began detecting evil, just in case. He was rewarded with the revelation of something evil underneath the stage. Forewarned, the party prepared for a fight. Rusk opened the trapdoor on the stage, and immediately had to fend off a very long arm that attempted to strangle him. Julian was quickest off the mark, firing a magic missile at the thing, forcing it back down. Jack threw a thunderstone into the crawlspace, then went down with his dagger drawn, enhanced by Ulf's magical prayer. The creature didn't hear him coming, and Jack killed it with a precise strike before it was aware of him.

Searching beneath the stage, Jack found some treasure, the first treasure the group had discovered so far. Keeping the cloak for himself, he returned with a locked book, a wand, and what appeared to be a key for some of the gear doors. Keygan confirmed that the book was a spellbook, and Jack claimed it for himself. Keygan also identified the wand as magical, and it was given to Julian for safekeeping, in hopes of finding its command word.

The party continued on, entering a hall with floating lights near the ceiling. They also found two more of the nearly-invisible kidnapping creatures, and after a brief battle slew them both, but not before Rusk took a nasty stab from a rapier.

Avoiding the gear doors (none of them matched the rune they had), they entered a tunnel to the north. This one led to the room with the open-gear door they had first encountered the day before. It also led to another part of the complex, where the tunnel suddenly turned straight up. Rusk climbed out first, but was met with yet another rapier. He suffered two blows before getting out, drew his sword and attacked. Julian followed, clambering up atop Jack's shoulders and pulling himself out of the whole. Spotting the creature despite its camouflage, he fired another bolt of magic into it. Jack stood on Jester's shoulders and fired a crossbow bolt right into the creature's skull, ending the battle.

While Ulf attended to Rusk's wounds, Jack found the catch to open the not-so-secret door on the eastern wall. Opening it, they found a chest with a cage on top of it containing a rat. Both the rat and Keygan became overly excited, and it was only Rusk's stern warning of silence that kept Keygan from shouting with joy as he was reunited with his companion. But then the chest suddenly grew a toothy grin and spoke to them. Keygan was fortunately able to translate, and the party learned that the creatures they had fought were called 'skulks.' They also learned that their goal was behind the door on the other side of the room: the elevator to the Malachite Fortress.

Unfortunately, it was a gear door, and they did not have the correct key. Jack recognized the door as the kind that summoned rats, and Keygan refused to try it without the proper key. At an impasse, the party decided to rest for the night. Using the key they had found, the entered the barracks room through the door in the mask room. Keygan wanted to return to the surface immediately now that he had Starbrow back, but the rest of the party refused, especially Julian.

In the morning, they awoke to a shock: Jack was somewhat transparent. Keygan went ballistic, screaming about the Vanishing. Plans to continue their explorations were abruptly altered, and they headed back up to the Church of St. Cuthbert. Jester took Keygan back to the town barracks, where Terseon ordered him to continue working with the adventurers, with Keygan in tow, until the children were safely returned and the kidnappers identified.

At the Church, Jenya was unfortunately unable to cure Jack of his condition, her power simply not strong enough to overcome the strange disease. She agreed to cover the expense of receiving treatment from the Cathedral of Wee Jas, with the money deducted from the promised reward. Jack agreed, and the party went to the Cathedral.

Here they met the high priestess Embril and her underling, Ike Iverson. Embril gravely assessed Jack's condition, and calling upon her divinely-granted powers, successfully removed the taint of the Vanishing. With a stern reminder that he owed his life to the Lady, she wished them the blessings of her deity in finding the missing children.

The group then went to Skie's once again, hoping to identify the items they had procured. Realizing that the items were from Jzadirune, Skie told them in no uncertain terms that she wanted nothing to do with them, especially after finding that Jack had contracted the Vanishing. Rusk attempted to demonstrate the bag's ability to summon a rat, but she ordered the entire party out, saying only that the bag was obviously a 'bag of tricks,' and that if they wanted any more information they could seek it elsewhere. So they took the wand to the Shrien of Pelor, leaving it in Kristof's hands to identify for them.

The party returned to Jzadirune, again with Keygan in tow (with Starbrow safely upstairs). They returned to the room with the dancing lights, then took the stairs. They found what appeared to be a bathing pool. Again Julian declared it to be an illusion. They saw a webbed husk on the ceiling, and in an attempt to cut it down they were attacked by a huge spider that was in the (illusory) water. After Rusk was poisoned, the spider was quickly killed by Jester and Jack. Then Jester attempted to cut down the webbed corpse, only to be attacked by two more spiders. Thinking quickly, Ulf threw a flask of oil at the webs, and Julian sent a spark of flame into them, frying the spiders and clearing the webs entirely.

The body was that of a skulk drained by the spiders. They found a bag of gems, which Rusk kept with him. The gear door in this room was opened by the key they had found, and they entered a long hallway with even more doors and a couple of archways. Through the southern archway they found still more doors. Jack disarmed one of them successfully, and with much prodding Keygan was able to open it.

Inside they discovered a long-dead carrion crawler and some discarded armor and shields. While the rest of the party left the stench-filled room, Rusk took it upon himself to search the rotting corpse, and was rewarded with two filth-encrusted wooden coffers. He took them out, and inside the party found a great deal of coin and some other treasures, including a pair of scrolls in a copper tube.

Heading north through the hallway again, they came to a room that was very outdoorsy, filled with trees and singing birds, etc. Julian sagely advised them that it was yet another illusion, to which Keygan replied, 'DUH!' Eschewing the northern staircase in favor of another tunnel, the party emerged in an abandoned kitchen. Here they fought two halfling-sized creatures that Keygan identified as the 'other' kidnappers. After the brief but intense battle, Rusk inspected the cabinet, which promptly fell on him. Amid the broken pottery within, they discovered a second key to the doors of Jzadirune.

At this point the session ended, ready to resume next Friday.

One thing that's different from the magazine and the hardcover occurs in Life's Bazaar. Originally, Keygan could not speak Undercommon, and the skulks couldn't speak Common. I played this up in the initial encounter with Keygan, only to find out in the last session that Keygan DOES speak Undercommon, which makes sense (otherwise how could he have spoken with the critters to do what they said), but also made the mimic meeting rather anticlimactic, since Keygan, who had been brought along (with a town guard as a new PC) to open the locks (party rogue's max OL was 29), was the only member who could speak Undercommon.

I've got two problems with this adventure. First, the setup is too similar to Life's Bazaar; there's a secret entrance to the dungeon under someone's house, someone who is being controlled by the bad guys into doing what they want. The second issue is that the means needed to take down a vampire are too similar to what will be needed to take down Tongueater in Flood Season, meaning that a battle that has taken on legendary proportions on this board becomes a cakewalk since most if not all the party has the ability to slice through Tongueater's defenses thanks to taking down Drathkar.

I'm wondering about options to either heavily modify Drathkar's Way to avoid these issues, or just outright replace it with either a homebrew adventure or another Dungeon adventure. Any suggestions?

I'm using Delvesdeep's most excellent foreshadowing of Shebeleth, having him pose as an Inquisitor in the Church of Pelor who will come to Cauldron to 'help' investigate the deaths of the three Pelorian priests pre-campaign. Now I'd like to give the other players some background ideas to get them more involved in the backdrop. I'm also halving the XP from combat encounters to allow for more RP opportunities at various stages of the campaign and to throw in some side-quests and such.

What are some good ideas to foreshadow other members of the Cagewrights? I like Alurad being a known party-killer, but I'd like to introduce some of the others somehow. The party paladin took the Scarred Soul trait, which makes him a Shackleborn, and I'd like to have a member of the Cagewrights take notice of him. Thirifane will probably notice the birthmark at the end of Life's Bazaar when she's standing there invisibly while Vhalantru makes them wet themselves. Perhaps her master can take a personal interest in this 14th Shackleborn 'just in case.'

I've got the party rogue interested in developing some connection with the Last Laugh. I was thinking of having him have some kind of involvement with Jil, since they totally missed her in the alley in the opening scene. This would give me an opportunity to introduce her and personalize the Last Laugh. He's already said he's a freelancer, a wanderer, etc. Maybe he's been wandering so much because the Last Laugh isn't happy that they aren't getting their cut of his take.

Then there's the 10-year old sorcerer, who took the Wyrm Blooded feat. I figure it's easy enough to make Dhorlot his great-great-grandfather or something, and have the Dragon-father recognize him as being his descendant when they meat in the kuo-toa hangout.

Any other suggestions?

Had another idea on how to tie in the party priest with Shebeleth. Since he (of his own volition) chose to be a member of the Vanderboren family, offering oodles of RP opportunity with Todd, I can easily tie that in with Sasserine and the other half of the Vanderboren family. I'll have to bounce this idea off the player, of course, but he could easily have been receiving his training in Sasserine while staying with his relatives (including Vanthus, who rivals Todd for nastiness), at the Church of Pelor there and at least somewhat under the tutelage of the head of the Order of Pure Light, a recent faction within the Church strongly dedicated to the stomping of evil. Of course, the Order of Pure Light would be Shebeleth's idea, tying into his plan to weaken the faith of Cauldron's citizens. He might even have sent the party cleric back to Cauldron slightly ahead of his scheduled time due to the emergency, with orders to report on anything suspicious. After Ulf (the cleric) reports either to Kristof or directly to Shebeleth, then Shebeleth can make his grand entrance in Chapter 3 (right at the beginning, with assurances that Sarcem was returning shortly with the wands...), and things can proceed from there.

Please, please, PLEASE let the player be amenable to this. His background is mostly undefined at this point, since he had to write up the character sheet at the last moment due to having lost the original version. He just picked the Vanderborens because of their connection to the Orphanage. Little did he know...

Thanks for your appreciation Borealis, it's always god to hear people actual read your work and think they may use it themselves.

I'm sure the Church of Pelor would work just as well as the Church of St Cuthbert.

The only downside I can see is the organisation and stuctures of each faith. St Cuthbert is a Lawful faith with a rigid heirarchy, strict regulations and focus on laws and punishment. By its nature Shebeleth arrival into this structure would be less questioned and more blindly minupulated by those within the church.

Pelor is a faith that is far less rigid in its dogma and organisation. The Leadership and structure of the church would be far more open and relaxed. As a result an unfamiliar figure would be viewed with more likely to be questioned and viewed with suspicion.

Conversely though...

Cauldron's Shrine of Pelor is a relatively minor faith in the city and has recently lost its two highest ranking 'officals'. Kristof is inexperienced and unsure of himself and his new role. I'm sure that under these conditions, the Shrine would be crying out for direction and leadership and Kristof would be far more willing to bow to outside help than any other church in the city at the moment.

This can even tie in with the deaths of the Pelorian priests pre-campaign; they were killed in order to provide Shebelth the opportunity to step in and further weaken Cauldron prior to the Cagewrights' plans being fulfilled.

Ah, the joys of networking creativity. Maybe I should prepare a handout to announce his impending arrival.

OOH! Really EVIL thought. I wonder if there's a way to manipulate the party's cleric to come up with the idea of inviting the Inquisitor to Cauldron himself. Maybe let him find hints that there was something sinister behind the deaths of the priests (he already has some suspicions after the first ten minutes of play anyway). Then have him discuss it with Kristof, who drops the idea, which the cleric can then pick up and promote himself.

Would Shebeleth have come from Sasserine or somewhere else?

You could look to the Stronghold Builder's Guide for suggestions about building costs. As for fixing the volcano itself...it's not so much money as intense magical application that would be required. I'm not sure where you're going to get building materials to reconstruct a volcano.

The other advantage of doing the half-XP thing is that more time passes within the game, so the characters don't go from 1st to 20th in about a year. This is especially important in my campaign, since my son is playing a character his own age, i.e. 10 years old. Imagine an 11 or 12-year old taking on Adimarchus and throwing Meteor Swarms. The Cauldron Children's Aid Society would be a more dangerous enemy to the party.

With extra side treks and adventures in the Cauldron area, it gives the group an opportunity to explore the community and get that much more deeply involved in the setting, as well as give them lots of down-time for crafting and training.

I think I'll talk to the group about this as well. It also gives me an opportunity to throw my own adventure ideas in, AND increase opportunities for foreshadowing the Cagewrights.

Now I see why the name 'Delvesdeep' commands such awe and respect on this board...

Dear sweet flippin' Lord, I LOVE the Shebeleth idea. I'm not sure about the whole reworking the Cagewrights, but the Shebeleth plot is locked in. There's a cleric of Pelor in the party, so this will fit perfectly. As for the Alurad scenario...workable, but I'll have to modify it if nobody in the party joins the Striders (and so far I see no character with the disposition or inclination in that direction). Of course, the party haven't met Ferio and Fellian yet, seeing as how they've just entered Jzadirune (and our second session is this weekend).

I also want to keep the yuan-ti sorcerer in the Shatterhorn ruins, because I just went through my copy of Dragon 330 and saw all those nifty snake-motif spells from the Volume Venificus (spells inscribed by Merrshaulk on living snakes). Gotta use them when the party gets there.

Even if I use all the Cagewrights, there's no real need to foreshadow all of them; they're going to meet a few of them anyway, especially with the delicious Shebeleth idea. Did I mention I really, REALLY like the Shebeleth idea?

Embril, Shebeleth, Alurad...I'm sure I can work in foreshadowing for the others as well as needed.

I suppose I could put Shelebeth in with the Cuthbertian church instead of Pelor. Let's see some pros and cons:

St. Cuthbert:
Pros:
* Inquisitor idea fits nicely in Cuthbertian attitude.
* Party's half-orc Cuthbertian paladin would have to make some serious decisions about who's in the right: Jenya or Shebeleth.

Cons:
* Cuthbert's church is one of the strongest in the campaign, with a highly competent and prominent NPC leader in Jenya, which risks putting too much focus on these two NPCs interacting rather than on the players where it belongs.
* Half-orc has ample RP opportunities from racial tensions and the mercenaries coming into town.

Pelor:
Pros:
* Weakest church would benefit (albeit temporarily and only in a twisted way) from such a personage, with a weaker leader in Kristoff than Jenya is.
* Party's Pelorian priest would have to make serious decisions about Shebeleth's actions before he reveals himself to be the prime scumball.

Cons:
* Priest has ample role-playing opportunities in dealing with his older (adopted) brother, Todd Vanderboren and the Stormblades.
* Paladin might be more inclined to do some evil-detecting on a member of another Church who is acting out-of-sorts.

Weighing them, it seems that the Pelor option would be the best from a story point of view, while either option works from a role-playing point of view. What do you people think?

P.H. Dungeon wrote:

I teach in Canada...

So, I have a question I've wanted answered for a while now and maybe you can do so. Here goes...

Do Canadians really hate Americans for stealing Wayne Gretsky?

No. We got even with you already when we shipped Celine Dion express-post to Las Vegas.

My first campaign in a long, long time began last night with a four-person party in Cauldron. The PCs are:

Ulf Vanderboren, NG human priest of Pelor,
Rusk, LG half-orc paladin of St. Cuthbert,
Jack Michelats, N Human rogue,
Julian Radavec, 10-year old CG human sorcerer, played by my 10-year old son in his first-ever non-computerized D&D game.

I'm sure most people here are familiar with the Shackled City campaign, so I won't go into details of the set-up for the first adventure. The more perceptive (and ridiculously detail-oriented) readers will recognize the name Radavec as being one of the kidnap victims; Julian's little sister, Evelyn. So, Ruphus Laro was returning to the Cuthbertian Church with Julian in tow, to see Jenya. Ulf, whose family owns and operates the Lantern Street Orphanage, was doing his rounds in the area; Rusk was patrolling, unaware of his priestly superior nearby; Jack was 'window shopping' in the neighbourhood. They all heard the scuffle in the alley and rushed in. Only Ulf spotted the young boy huddling in a doorway while the three muggers did a number on Rufus. Rusk immediately charged to the rescue, but Jack, recognizing the Last Laugh (and not being on particularly good terms with them), went for the backstab on the nearest thug.

To the group's surprise, however, the first blow of the battle came from that huddling boy, who fired off a magical blast at the man holding Ruphus. The party made short work of the three, and agreed to accompany Ruphus and the boy to the church. They turned the muggers over to the first patrol they saw, led by Corporal Skylar Krewis, then went on their way.

The meeting with Jenya went pretty much by the book; Ulf and Jack agreed to help find the missing children (Jack being interested in the 2500 gp reward), while Rusk's participation was expected and ordered. Julian had no intention of being left behind, but his objections were overruled by the rest of the group. They then returned Julian to the Orphanage and spoke with Gretchen, who was pleased to see his safe return. Interestingly, three of the characters were connected with the orphanage: Julian, who lived there; Rusk, who used to live there (and was friends with Patch), and Ulf, whose family owned it. That necessitated a few changes in the setup of the encounter, but there was little difficulty with that.

The next morning the group reconvened at the Orphanage, and once again Julian insisted on coming along. Finally, he simply stated that he was going to find his sister; the others could help HIM if they chose. Not wanting a precocious 10-year old with arcane power running around the city on his own, the others reluctantly agreed to let him accompany them, on condition that he was to return home if things got too dangerous.

Their investigations led them to Keygan Ghelve, who did his best to answer their questions about his locks and deflect any suspicions they might have. Unfortunately for him, the party was very intrigued by the combination of 'locks' and 'curtain' in his shop, and a distraction from the adults allowed Julian to become a ninja and slip in unnoticed (natural 20 on a Move Silently roll) behind the curtain. He started going toward the second floor, but was surprised by a sudden thumping noise beside him. His cry of surprise got the rest of the group's attention, and his scream of pain after being stabbed by a rapier had them all running. Rusk grabbed Keygan by the scruff of his neck while Jack vaulted the counter and Ulf ran around and through the curtain. Ulf saw Julian backing away, the glow of magic around his hands as he called upon his power to defend himself. Seeing the rapier (but barely seeing the wielder), he swung his morning star and smashed the creature with a single blow, sending it flying into the wall.

Keygan now spilled his guts (not literally, despite Jack's suggestion) and told them everything he knew about the kidnappers and why he had been forced to help them. He produced the map of Jzadirune and showed them the secret entrance. They turned him over to the city guard where he confessed his complicity in the crimes. Ulf suggested leniency, but Rusk was more inclined to stern punishment because of the missing children. They then returned to the locksmith's shop and went through the secret door and down the stairs.

Being wary of the 'doors with teeth,' the party investigated the wedged door, with Jack taking the lead. He was rewarded with a rapier in the side as the two nearly-invisible inhabitants struck. One of them was killed in retaliation, but the second fled through the tunnels. After a quick assessment of his wounds, Ulf healed the rogue and they left, taking the glowing sunrod and some thunderstones with them.

Leaving the entrance chamber, they explored the corridor to the north, noting the runes on all the doors, then headed south and found more rune doors. They also found the tilt-a-pit trap. Jack's spider-sense went off, and his Reflex save of 27 ensured his safety. Rusk was not so fortunate, and found that being a 6'9", 200+ pound half-orc with armor on has its disadvantages as he plunged into the pit. The door then slammed shut and he found himself impaled on one of the wooden spikes.

While Julian kept an eye out, Ulf and Jack tried to free the half-orc. When the pit righted itself after tilting, they shoved the door open and used the sunrod to jam the gears, buying time for Ulf to cast Enlarge Person on Rusk, allowing him to climb out. They took note of the body that was in the pit, noticing its resemblance to the creatures they had fought (although this one was much easier to see, being very dead), and the session ended at that point.

All in all, a very successful and eventful first session with a group of players who don't know each other very well as of yet. The role-playing chemistry is there, and even my son (winner of Barrie's Shyest Child award for the past few years running) got into the spirit with some gentle prodding from the rest of the group. He had a great time, and can't wait to play again. We'll be meeting again in two weeks time, since the DM has company coming next weekend which definitely takes priority.

Okay...first session is in the books. Not a bad session, either; everyone enjoyed themselves, especially my son, who's eagerly awaiting the next installment. They've managed to get into Jzadirune, through the precociousness of a 10-year old and the GM's favorite spell, 'Advance Plot.' Oh, and the half-orc paladin just discovered the wonderful joys of the tilt-a-pit trap. Too bad they managed to stop it after the first tilt; he only got impaled by one spike. But, still...

I'd like to post some sort of 'journal/recap' of the story, on the off-chance that anyone would care. Is this a good place to do so, or is there another site that is better suited?

Borealis wrote:

I'm not familiar with Delvesdeep on this board, though; I've been a lurker, and don't pay much attention to the posters themselves. I think some of his stuff is already on the other site, isn't it?

Yes it does (like the Sasserine & demonskar ball docs)but more draft thoughts are also on the board - like the current thread about the New Cagewrights.

I'll take a look around, then.

Borealis wrote:

Not even to a French-Canadian? It's my first language. I'm rusty as hell, but I'm sure I could work my way through it.

Ok my dear...

I can propose to you two docs about some of the cults members in Cauldron. St Cuthbert one is indeed in english because coming from an old thread - sorry I can't remember the authors. The second one is in french and from me.
I can also propose you a document I wrote to prepare a special role play event around the Trial of Keygan ghelve. This is a pure role play game aid and it features ten of the personalities of Cauldron (from Valanthru to Lady Knowlern)
If your are interesting in please just tell me and I will forward you the files (0.8 meg total)

Sounds great to me. My e-mail address was mentioned above.

I have also a full story line of my two groups in SCAP. First has finished Life Bazaar and Drakthar's Way (75 pages in french - perhaps a challenge for you B.) and the second only Life Bazaar (50 more pages ...). I can certainly compile them for you in a not too big file. Just tell me if you are ok or not.

Have fun

A challenge? Bring it. I never refuse a challenge. Besides, my mother's been nagging at me to get back to French.

I wrote up something like that for my SC game- if you wish I could e-mail it to you.

Please do. My e-mail address is sprigg8992 at rogers dot com.

One other thing: I'm thinking of using a handout that describes the landmarks and important buildings of Cauldron, without giving away secrets like the lava tunnel entrance and other important stuff. Is there such a 'player's guide' to Cauldron available, or should I just start typing?

Welcome Borealis. I agree with Oliver, you can use one or both of the Half-Elves. You can even manage other NPC to join the party (Rufus Laro, Skylar Krevis and even Keygan Ghelve). This will allow you to remove them very easily after your players will be more experienced or if one or two more join the party in the future.

I thought about using Rufus, but there's already a cleric in the party, so I'm going to leave him as an NPC. Skylar...I'm not sure about using a guard, although I'll definitely try to give him a bigger role. Keygan? No. Aside from the fact that the party is short on fighters, I'd rather not have an NPC gnome running around in Jzadirune, since he would know enough (speaking Gnome, if nothing else) to help the party get past a few of the obstacles, such as the automatons. Besides, the party's sorcerer has a rat familiar as well. :)

I do like the idea of using the Striders more; I should have thought of that myself, actually. So much for the dwarf, then. I'll try to keep the half-elves' involvement limited as much as possible, but they'll definitely be a helping hand when needed.

Incidentally, since it's my son's first game, I figured I'd let him play a character his own age (10). I've downgraded his stats (-4 Str/Con, -2 to the rest), and I'm going to make him the brother of one of the kidnap victims, but I'm not sure how to keep him in the party. A rogue would have been easier; kid rogues are practically a cliche, but he likes Harry Potter anyway. After Life's Bazaar, how do I justify his being part of the party? 10-year olds, even in a medieval world, aren't going to be welcome in a lot of places, and most adults will shy away from endangering a child like that.

He's got phenomenal luck with the dice; his very first set of ability rolls (4d6, drop lowest) was: 17, 12, 17, 17, 9, 18. Even downgraded he ends up with a better-than-elite array. Hopefully he doesn't lose that luck with his dice.

Don't forget to visit www.therpgenius.com (thank you Koramado) and also check for the Delvesdeep messages / threads on this board. Both are essential contributors which will boost your game as you cannot imagine.

I've been to Koramado's site and downloaded tons of stuff already. I'm not familiar with Delvesdeep on this board, though; I've been a lurker, and don't pay much attention to the posters themselves. I think some of his stuff is already on the other site, isn't it?

I made myself some stuff but because I'm french native almost all is in this language and so that not very attractive I'm afraid.

Not even to a French-Canadian? It's my first language. I'm rusty as hell, but I'm sure I could work my way through it.

Again good luck ! (I've also my eleven years old son who is a party member of one of my players'group I DM. For his first time in RPG... after 6 months of play it's a true hit)

Yeah, my son's eager to get started. Hopefully he'll find some kids his own age to game with soon; not that I don't want him to play with me, but there's nothing quite like a peer group for gaming.

Yes, I'm actually starting a new campaign, the Shackled City. I haven't played in a couple of years since I left the last group I was in (the DM made his own PC the star of the show, and I got tired of being a cheerleader). I'm also a newcomer to 3rd edition, having gotten interested in it thanks to Neverwinter Nights. This will be my first 3rd edition game, but I've DMed enough that I can handle the game.

I've only got four players right now, with a fifth coming in at the end of the month (maybe), so I'm running a character for extra muscle myself. I'll be careful not to make him the focus of any adventures.

So far, the party consists of:

Half-Orc paladin (Scarred Soul trait)
Human rogue
Human cleric of Pelor
Human sorcerer (Wyrm-Blooded trait), played by my 10-year old son in his first-ever D&D game.
Dwarf Fighter (my DM-PC)

The new player coming in will be another player's brother, and it will be his first game as well (he's 19), so I have no idea what kind of character he'll play. All in all, it looks like it should be a fun game. I was impressed that the first player to sign up for the game picked the cleric.

We start Friday night...another Cauldron shall face its darkest hour.

Chris Manos wrote:

the grey card used as a bookmark in Vanderbored Manor. Not a Mystara egg, but a general egg....from Expedition to the Barrier Peaks.

For Mystara that could be used as an easter egg from the Wrath of Immortals campaign module about the Beagle. You just have to change "deep under the Barrier Peaks" to "deep under Glantri City" and it would work.

--Ray.

I can't believe I forgot about the Beagle...good catch.

Well, the second adventure has phanatons (albeit horribly twisted and nasty) appearing, which is a cool nod to the world's greatest fantasy world. That's the only one I've seen so far (and it's pretty obvious), but a more detailed examination of the adventure might be more fruitful.