After reading this post, I'm thankful my group's paladin has turned to the path of evil and the ways of the Black Guard, although I do wish I'd run a game one day with characters who can stay good.
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PC: Dathaniel the investigator (Rogue 10th)
Returning to the Ulurstasta chamber the morning of thier last fight, the band of Sir Gabriel set out to rid the world of the vile creature. After disrupting and dispelling it's containment sphere, the tentacles of the creature lashed out while it proceeded to break through the ceiling. The party followed the fleeing evil into its empty chamber. As his fellow comrades prepared spells and ropes to ascend to the arena floor, Dathaniel used his skills to scale the walls, arriving first upon the grisly scene of the Ulgurstasta devouring whole an unlucky arena janitor. Undetered by the carnage, the ill fated rogue hurled his dagger in defience to the terriable danger before him. Although the dagger had minor magical properties and was able to inflict a small flesh wound, it was not the unholy dagger found within the museum of Zyrxog. Had it been the unholy dagger, the gods above may not have rolled a 20, followed by a 19, for the first bite attack of the Apostle of Kyuss. Sufice it to say, all that was left of Dathaniel when Sir Gabriel and the party rose above the floor of the arena was a pair of boots and the bloody stumps that were once the legs of an investigator who thought he was a fighter.
IMC, the players confronted Kullen and his gang after they got off duty at the Feral Dog. They got the drop on the mage with an animated rope, and his pals fled from some dire intimidation. The paladin and druid followed Kullen and his gang, while the group's mage stayed behind and transported the mage upon a floating disk. Kullen ran and broke into a nearby house in which the players followed. The paladin was able to force Kullen into submission after charging him for conspiracy, not breaking and entering, since Kullen's girlfriend vouched for him. Kullen was turned over to the garrison and later hanged after the 3FOE adventure. The mage was totured by the CN mage, Dak. His fingers were broken beyond repair. And then he was released. So far in the champaign, two of the three remaining gang members have come back looking for revenge. Todrik ambushed the party as they were traveling by wagon to free city. His clever drive-by attack by chariot was more flash then success. This endever was financed by Smenk. Bask, the horriably scared torture victom, dedicated his life to ending the mage's life. He trained himself as a wand mage and studied still spells. His first attempt at Dak was by incapacitating a man Dak was meeting at night in regards to some dark things and taking his place. Although gaining init., Basks devastating attack against Dak still allowed him to escape. Bask then fell back upon his secondary plan, working with Pitch Blade and facing Dak and freinds in the arena. Although a tough fight, ultimatly, Bask's preoccupation with ending Dak's life was his doom.
Here's how I've handled some over-powered items over the years: non-permanent enchantment. After a certain amount of time (1 week, 1 month, etc.) has passed, the magic within an item seeps out into the weave, losing some or all magical properties. To balance it out, not all items do this (set percentage chance for all) but if an item has been munchkined, well, then it just so happens to roll that percentage.
here's another way to spin Thedrick into the HoHR. If in your campaing Thedrick has ties through out free city, after Raknian contacts the mind-flayer, he contacts Thedrick to dispatch the PC's. Thedrick has an already established connection with the doppligangers, and he becomes the middle man. Has an added connection, when the mind flayer investigates the party in the doppliganger head quarters, Thedrick is there also.
I think that an interesting twist might be that Smenk is an agent of the Thieves Guild located in "Free City." This would allow for Smenk to be a plant in Diamond Lake, carrying out smuggling or other activities for the Thieves Guild. It would also give Smenk backing that amkes him a little more powerful and a bit more "untouchable" as the Thieves Guild might not like Smenk being messed with if he remains valuable to them. Just a thought. In MOC, Smenk turned to the Ebon Triad for protection after he fled from diamond lake. Kullan's three associates who escaped with him are now harrassing the PCs. The mage, who the PC's "questioned" by breaking his fingers, just lured the group's mage into a trap in free city. Un-able to cast spells with somatic gestures, he's become a fighter/sorcerer with duel wands. Although severly wounding the mage, the PC escaped with some clever spell use. Smenk mean while is advancing the Ebon Triad's plans with various schemes, and the PC's occasional use divination to check up on this great reaccouring character.
Just finish the HoHR and here's the original three: Sir Gabriel, Human Paladin of Heironious 9th level
A fourth joined them mid-way through HOHR:
Other party goers from time to time:
A female appentice to Dak, who was killed and transformed into a worm zombie when the group left her and Otto behind at the keep to confront the lizardmen. Gar Blitzhame (from dragon 335) joined the party as fighter back-up for the first part of the 3FoE. He has been placed in charge of the dourstone mines in recognition of his service in reveiling the scheme of Dourstone and the collapsing of his own mine tunnels. Crate and Barrel, Mimics from the HoHR. After incinrating the first mimic in 2.5 seconds, the other two thought is was prudent to work out a new agreement with the party. They now gaurd the party's rooms in the Crooked house. Gortek, 7th level fighter/barbarian slayer. He was released from the Drow food pen. A one shot character for a visiting friend, he sought to find a noble death at the hands of a powerful foe, but alas he lived.
If the group has a contact within Free City and a few clues, the contact could provide the party with information of an entrenched doppelganger that the party could go after.
Here's an idea based on the backstory for my group's paladin, Sir Gabriel. The group's ultimate goal will be to find out what happened to the missing Paladin of Heironious. Just weave a few hints here and there throuhg out the campaign to keep in play, but the real quest will turn out to be the AOW. As for a start to kick it off. Have the group be assembled by their repective leaders to investigate the rumours of "Unkillable" undead. One of the first places to look into would be the cairns dotting the hill side. An ancient map of the cairns' locations, which would include the WC location, could then be obtained by the group.
Name: Sir Gabriel
Slowly, the band of five descended the stairs into the laboratory. Sir Gabriel, valient warrior of Heironious, and Gorte'k, dwarven slayer, stopped their descent at the bottom stair and scanned the room, finding nothing stirring about. Dathanial, investigotor of Benston, strolled by the warriors, his insatiable thirst to discover unknown information driving him towards the large, murky tank. Having just recently joined the band, he had not been exposed to the horrors of Filge's lab. But Dak had, and with a shout of warning, he stopped the rogue dead in his tracks, stopped his finger from tapping the glass. "What?" said Dathanial, pulling back his hand and turning towards the group. He never saw the two claws shoot from the top of the tank and descend upon him. Both ripping into the frail human. With gore exploding from his wounds, the claws tore huges masses of tissue from the helpless soul. He dropped to the floor, life blood pumping from the mortal wound he suffered. Reacting with amazing speed, Sir Gabriel rushed to his companion's aid, shield held high in defense. With nimble fingers he uncorked a silver potion, all the while warding off the vial tentacles. But, when he turned to administer the potion, the creature sneaked an attack through. The damage, though a mere scratch to the fully healed paladin, would be his down fall. Dathanial regained consinous in time to see his savior rendered into a bloody mess. Both tentacles lashed and connected upon the holy man. Each siezing one side, they pulled and twisted the valient knight. Though brutal and damaging, Sir Gab could have survived it, but alas he had already lost to much blood from that first lucky hit.
Just ran the group through last night and they had a blast. Here's a few things I learned while prepping/playing through the encounter. Planeshift - Zyrxog doens't flee the battle. He fights to the death protecting his tadpoles and years of work. (Found this in the mag) Spell Resistence and Mindblast - Since the PCs faced Zyrog once, they should realize what they are about to face. With a city like Free City, info on Mindflyers could be easily found. If they take the time to do research, this would allow Magic users to memorize buffs (such as owl's wisdom) and defensive magic. If they don't think of this, have them pass by a store that contains dungeonering supplies and adventure's journals in which they would find this info. The low down on our encounter:
Concerning Ilthane's desire to fight to the death, she has a great need for vengence. The PC's destroyed her plans of creating an undead army for Dargotha, thus carving herself a place within the decayed world. The PCs are not stopping minor politcal take overs of small villagers. These are world shaping plans the PCs are foiling, and if the end of the plans are near, then a evil-doer will, in movie style fasion atleast, try to take out at PC with him. I just looked over the overload, and they initially planned to have the show down in the city. I've modified the plans to try to increase the impact the encounter with Ilthane will have on the PCs. What I plan on doing is first, foreshadow the show down by increasing the agents of Ilthane's attacks against the party. They've fought two already. Second, the destruction of Ilthane will be in two parts. First she stands and fights them within Diamond lake. Whole buildings being destroyed in the process. The PCs will be targeted by the local's anger after Ilthane's attack. She will then try to finish them off at the Cairn's entrance, after stopping at a cache of healing potions. The PCs will notice during or after the battle that Allustan was not fighting and will be informed of the mage's location by one of the villagers. Allustan will be in the tomb during the whole encounter. He'll have a few hiringlings with him initially, but by the time the Pcs find him, most will be killed off.
Great soothsaying. Sir Gab got a kick out of encountering him the first time, but this... This is priceless. It'll freak him out more then the nightmares he's been having. Thanks Laeknir
Interesting point. If the outbreak was contained by the garrison, but not wiped out, that would work in Raknian's favor. The games could go on, even better, he insures they must go on to keep the commoners distracted from the plight. After the Apostle of Kyruss is revealed, ultimitly, Free City will be destroyed. Wether by wights or worms, I'd think Kyruss would be happy either way. As for Raknian, I'm not sure if he's in on the whole Kyruss deal. Raknian just wants to recieve inmortallity. I don't think it would be wise for Zahol to let him know the full scope of the Age of Worms, just enough for him to follow the god and work with the apostle scrolls. Like Ten Penny said "A little truth here, a little truth there"
. There are so many "cool" moments in the Adventure Path getting the Spawn to infest the Free City (cue Course of Empire "Infested") is premature to the potential undead bliss at the end of Champion's Belt. But what if both events happened almost days apart? That would be really rememberable, if Free City not only fell to wights, but was also being over run by the worms. The PC's would then know the begining of the Age of Worms was upon them and the fate of the world is in their hands.
Here's the set up. After stopping the chimera, the druid handed the rogue a healing potion to cure an unlucky commoner. Unbeknownest, the potion was infected with a slow worm. The commoner was sent off after being healed, a ticking time bomb. Fellow Dm's, what would you do if given this priceless oppurtunity to soy ruin and destruction within Free City?
At my highshcool, the steps where EXTREMELY steep, and only a few inches wide. My whole group eaisly pictured this scene. They also came up with getting a mine pump to pump out the water which really made the ghoul encounter a cinch. The unconcious evil water elemental is now growing weeds in the pcs garden though. They ran the pipe to the mages herb garden for irrigation.
AoW is extremely challenging, and like Hangfire, my group is loving it. All experianced, the three main players have found greater depth in this champaign then in any other. With the encounters, they've come up with extremely creative ways to handle problems, like retreating. Yes, this is the first time my group has every retreated. Besides that, they've pumped out the water in the flooded room in WC, manipulated tensor's floating disk to remove the brown mold, and used charm spells to parley themselves a magic cloak from a party of trolls, avoiding combat. What became apparent during HoHR is that playing style really can affect the deadliness and challenge of Aow. One of our friends who has been away from collage joined the group right before Zyrog's lair, as a rogue which the party badly needed. He never knew what hit him. His first surprise was the parade encounter, where he found not only the paladin (which has been succesfully role-played, as well has having a moral challenge (both firsts)) and himself trying to rescue and save commoners. He was used to kill now, ask for directions to the next hoard later, style of play. Then the three drow assasians took him down a notch. (This encounter replaced the dopplaganer bar fight due to plot line considerations). When he burst trough his bed room door and charged the unknown intruder, he never expected a quitly drawn x-bow to palalyze him for the whole encounter. The assasins know the group included two elves as well as the human paladin and took precautions. The real kicker was the naga encounter. After creativly taking out the three drow ambushers with stealth and planning, the rogue boldly walked into the pool room, intreaged by the green glow. He was kind enough to hold back the pladin and elves for his new found friend, the charming naga. No blows were exchanged, but it gave Fassash time to buff and slither along the far wall. After being blasted from a fireball from his new found friend, he ran head long around the rocks to find revenge. What he found instead was an attack of oppurtuity. Poor Dethaniel, he didn't stand a chance. The poison raced through him faster then water off a waterfall. The pain and suffering was ended when he hit -28. When the naga lay dead, the effects of Dethaniels hack and slash playing on the rest of the group was apparent. Sir Gabriel calmly said, "We'll pitch camp here, I need to rest up and see to our wounds", standing over the pair of corpses, near the spirit pool, in front of the Drow Enclave, were a group of eight drow calmly watched him draw out his beroll. If a group can think ahead and the DM gives them enough foreshadowing to provided clues into what to prepare for, the party will come out battered, beaten, blooded, but alive (at least most of them). If they make stupid mistakes, they will be punished, harshly, by AoW.
We have a doom sayer in my group too... IF it wasn't for a group's doomsayer, I'd think we'd all be DMing Kender look alikes (act alikes... whatever...)
Check out wormfood from Dragon issue 334. Some great NPCs to work with. After introducing a few potential NPCs, I hinted to the players that they may want extra man power on the 3FoE section and they went out and hired Gar, even though I was expecting the chief scout to be sought after.
What is all this talk about trials, whatever happened to lynch mobs? IMC the evidence against Dourstone (Thedrick's journal) was brought to light before the PC's left the mine. An NPC, Gar Blitzhame from Dragon's Wormfood, was with them during the Hextor section. After clearing out that area he was sent above when the fourth player showed up (a goblin rogue) and with him went the evidence. When the Faceless one was destroyed (atleast his clone hehehe :) ) I gave the paladin the knowledge that alot of the evil in the temple was flowing towards the black pool. So, they decided to rest. This caused the Ebon Aspect to split into two entities and destroy all of the lift and all of the pillars. After defeating the two, the timily arrival of the garrison's chief scout descended down the mine shaft. What had happened above while they were adventuring was the mobilization of the garrison to ensure the destruction of the temples. The Pcs had to forfeit all of the mundane weapons and armor they were planning on taking with them to sell (a pet peive of mine) to the new owners, the Greysmere Covenant. As they left the mines, they witnessed the arresting of Dourstone by dwarves of Greysmere. You see, Dourstone was not guilty of any crimes in regards to the three faiths dwelling on his property. Unfortunilty for him though, Thedrick had gathered and recorded evidence of his previous crimes within his Greysmere mines. In order to blackmail Dourstone, Thedrick had to have known about the intential collapsing of the previous dourstone mines. Do to this evidence, possesion of the mines was transferred to the Greysmere Dwarves. When the party returns from the Mistmarsh, rumour will be that Gar will be handed control of the mine. As for Smenk and his gang, well Smenk skipped town at the first wind that the temples were discovered fearing a lynch mob. Sheriff Cubbin was not interested in following him do to his preoccupation with discovering the killers of his deputy (the PC's mage and druid are the culprits, but the rival adventuring group is the current main suspition). Kullen, who was in jail prior to the 3FoE adventure, was to be hanged. It was to be a grand afair with an awards ceramony for Sir Gabriel the Paladin afterwards, but the festive atmosphere was squalished when the mage used mage hand to pull the lever at the first count of the final count down. Instead of grand speeches, Sir Gabriel was just tossed the cheap, silver metel (which was so cheap that the last letter was not even engraved on it) and Mayor Neff went off to find ale. Smenk's mine is currently in propate and will be auctioned latter in the month. And, just as a side note after this extra long post, I hit the PCs with a treasure tax when they returned. They're fearless, calm, and collected against any monster, but the tax really threw them for a loop and got under their skin... he he he I love being the DM
The Paladin in my party just hired a squire, while the mage found an apprentice. One of these two (Which ever one is still alive at the time) will fall prey to the doppleganger. Saves me a great deal of headache to run it this way.
For my group, I have already laid the ground work for any side quest they may want to pursue. Here are some suggestions that may help you fellow DMs: 1. The group's Druid is interested in a magical collar, once owned by Smenk, who used it to train his apes. Properties include: Increasing the ability to train an animal like an owlbear while speeding up its aging. 2. The followers of Vecna have been raiding pearl shipments looking for black pearls to create Tiara's of Shadow Binding (Dragon #333) - ties into Dungeon #120 "The Forsaken Arch" 3. An earthquake is reported near the desert far south-west of Diamond Lake (Home brew campaign based) when the ebon aspect is destroyed. The PC's go on a ghost chase following rumours that the black obelisk that appeared in the desert is a place of evil centered around Ethyrnal (Dungeon #120 - "The obsidian Eye") 4. Hints that the Ebon Triad of Hextor, along with the orthodox clergy, are searching for an evil artifact called "The fiend's Embrace" lead the PC's to an obandoned keep in the middle of the mist marsh (Run Dungeon #121 "Fiend's Embrace") 5. The PC's can also follow rumours heard in Diamond lake of unsolved murders in the city of Styles by the Lantern man, which is just north of the Free City (Run Dungeon #121 - "The Syles")
The head of Vecna :) ... Funniest thing I've ever heard. Which makes me wonder, has anyone ever come up with a D&D funniest stories website?
Group:
This has been the best campaign we have ran. Everyone is really getting it to the NPC interaction and slothing.
The brown mold was collected with a modified tensors floating disk, and it is now being used to cool their refrigerator. The water elemental was nocked unconcious and disipated into the water. It was then sucked up by the water pump the group used to drain the water before attacking the undead monster (Paladin and their blasted detect evil). The water was being used to water their garden, and know weeds continue to grow at the rate of 6" inches a day. The paladin rescued an escaped goblin slave from a group of orcs, and he's now tring to convert him. The earth elemetal was laying dorment while the transmuter examined it. He turned his back for a second and the goblin picked it up, activating it and almost getting killed. The paladin fell in the first attack by the wounded owl bear. And the final battle with filge was a tramendous battle. The transmuter was knocked out of play and down the stairs. The paladin was at the verge of collapse when the goblin sprang out of the ghoul touch paralysis (the only spell Filge was able to land). With energy saved from the first round of combat when he got paralyzed, he was able to fell Filge with a magical short attack to the back.
Just a little point I want to bring up for you all to think over. In my game atleast, players are allowed to recruit NPCs. With four players, each could hire one NPC to go with them on a trek (henchmen, bodygaurds, scouts, etc.). When this happens, for the most part, the exp balence pays off. Just something to think about.
I like that (snicker, snicker) and I think I'll use it. In tonights game, we start off with the Sir Gabriel and the Druid confronting the gang of thugs, after chasing them into Kullen's girlfirend's house. The location is important because Kullen can't be taken in for B&A. Instead, the paladin threw me a loop by accusing them of conspiracy. That's were we left off, with the accusation. Depending on what happens, if the gang survives, they'll make their ambush, either on the way there, or back.
I've just modified Dungeon #121 adventure "Fiend's Embrace" into a side trek for my players within the AoW campaign. I've added it so I can reduce the amount of exp the PCs need to get from the gladitorial part of the campaign. I was curous as to what other adventures people are adding to their AoW campaigns. Here's the set-up I've used to work "Fiend's Embrace" into the campaign. The orthadox followers of Hextor have a sect called the Red Hand, who have been searching for the evil magical item, the Fiend's Embrace. They have finally tracked it down in the Mistmarsh. The Ebon Triad's Hextor followers have found out about it and are planning on attacking the Red Hand after they retrieve the cloak and to use it for their villinous schemes. Unfortunitly for them, the PCs will attack their temple before they act against the Red Hand. The Paladin will surely want to follow up the leads concerning the Fiend's embrace that will be found within the Hextor end of the Ebon Tirad's compound.
With a little foreshadowing in the "Three Faces of Evil" adventure, I've added a a very interesting side quest for my players when they reach the swamp - "Fiend's Embrace" from Dungeon 121. The orthadox Hextor church has a small sect, which they call the Red Hand, that has finally tracked down the Fiend's Embrace to the swamp. The Ebon Triad's Hextor followers have gotten wind of this and are drawing up plans to overrun the Red Hand after they retrieve Fiend's Embrace. Unfortunitly, the PCs attack the Ebon Triad before they act. The group's Paladin will feel obligated to prevent the vile item from being used against the forces of good.
Dak, the elvish transmuter, has been under the employee of Moonmeadow. During standard administrative tasks, he came across the deed to the house, now owned by Moonmeadow from some dept repayment program. Upon investigating further into the deed of the house, the cairn was discovered to be located on the propery of the mine itself, a short walk from the mine office. Brother Gabriel, Paladin, was a squire with the church, sent with the placement high priest. He along, with Van-ro, an elven druid of the Lodge, were of the small handful of people Dak would even consider conversing with in Diamond Lake. The campagin started with them meeting at the house to discuss going with the cairn. Gabriel is investigating undead sightings, and wants to ensure the souls of the cairn are resting peacefully. A chance encouter with a small group of orcs is when they picked up the newest member, Marg, a goblin with a grudge against Orcs. He was an ecscaped slave, and had been captured to be returned to his master for punishment. Gabriel and the others dispatched the orcs and Gabriel spared his life. He is now trieng to convert the goblin to his relegion.
I've started the AoW a few weeks ago, and our group is loving. I have to say the team at Paizo is doing a great job. The group has been very creative with the encounters. I'll give you a brief over view so you can understand what has happened with the water elemental and mold. The group consists of:
The story behind the brown mold is easy. I allow creative manipulation of spells in my campaign with a succesful spellcraft checks. Dak was abble to shape Tensor's floating disk to have an edge and spout. This allowed him to scoop up the Brown mold in the Cairn and place it within a metal container. They are now using it to cool their cold storage section of their new basement within the old manager's offive. Marq has been busy burrowing new chambers for the group on his off time, and one of these has be come thier freezer. Can Brown Mold be stored in Metal Containers, and for how long?
As for the Water Elemental. When they encountered it, they were succesful at defeating it. But unknown to them, the creature had been reduced to 0 hps and was disapated within the water. Brother Gabriel was able to detect the undead future within the complex, so the group decided to pump out the chamber before going into combat. After some very lucky rolls, they were able to acquire a foot action, mine pump from Dak's employer, Ellival Moonmeadow. They also aquired a large amout of piping and paided a pretty penny. And so they sucked out the water, draining the room over the course of a day or so, to the point where the ghoul attacked them. During the time they were pumping, the elemental regained concesious and was sucked through the tube. The Paladin detected it at the last second. The Druid was the only one that had a chance at stopping it, but a poor roll let it slip by. Here's the kicker, in my campaign, the cairn is only a short walk from town, 10 or so minutes, its also fairly close to the house. The PC's aquired enough tubing to run the hose from the cairn to thier garben at the mine manager's office. They wanted to jump start Dak's herb garden. The garden is now permeated with the essence of the evil water elemental. Weeds continously grow, about a foot a day. What would yousuggest would be the means for them to remove it? The more complex or interesting, the better. |