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I think there is a balance. Players are not npcs. They ARE special. The world is there for them. It isn't realistic to believe that they go from level 1 to level 20 in a week, but still, given an epic campaign of battle after battle, players should be able to advance more quickly than npcs that have not dealt with the same epic level of action.
I created character writeups similar to Erik's. They're posted here: http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/dungeon/ageOfWorms/fourMoreCharacterBa ckgrounds This was my first foray back into roleplaying in 15 or 20 years, and I was starting out DMing. I'm playing with my girlfriend and kids, who had never played before, so I came up with the characters myself. I think you could easily allow your players to come up with their own characters and even have some input into the character backgrounds and still tie them into Diamond Lake pretty well. I also created an NPC elf ranger who is a member of the bronzewood lodge. I didn't write a character background for him, but I have a hazy idea that one or both of his parents was killed by worm filled undead, and that he's got a wish for vengeance. Since he's a ranger, this also give him the class feature of favored enemy: undead. I've got the vague idea that he's a representative of the bronzewood lodge sent to diamond lake by the leader of the lodge, and that he's been hanging out at the Feral Dog trying to gather information, where he's met the other players. As I said, I haven't had to flesh his story out. We've only played one session, although it was a long one and it went really great. I've been holding out on adding detail to him for more information on the bronzewood lodge and how it ties into everything.
I hadn't played in over 20 years, (since AD&D), let alone DM'd. I found this a great opportunity to get back into it again. There is plenty of material for your storyline already fleshed out by erik & the gang.
Just thought I'd drop a note that the description of "The Three Faces of Evil" on the web page for the current issue -- http://paizo.com/dungeon/products/issues/2005/v5748btpy7fjd -- says it's "A D&D adventure for 1st-level characters." Shouldn't this read 3rd level characters?
My personal theory is that a lot of gamers from the 80's are rediscovering the game as they head into their 40's... Or 30s :P A lot of us (Erik included) were introduced to D&D in elementary or middle school. We all remember Greyhawk and the look and feel of 'old d&d.'
That would be very useful. I'm sure by the time it sees hardback (as I'm sure will happen similar to AP1) we'll see one. The question is when will they find time/money to fit it in before then.
Any thoughts? Sounds like a good solution to me
My party was all first time adventurers, and this was their 2nd encounter, so I didn't go to hard on them with the swarm. When the swarm started running for them, I told them they looked at their swords and quickly realized that they weren't going to do much good against thousands of acid beetles. Also, since I had created their characters for them and equipped them, one of the party members had alchemists fire, and 2 of them had oil. They actually figured it out for themselves, and nobody died.
I was in the UK in april, and spent most of the time driving around old castles, cairns, iron age hill forts, etc. It's one thing america really lacks. 1000s of years of civilization. Sure, there's a few sites here and there, but the sheer proliferation of sites in the UK is incredible.
My players are all brand new, so I opted to start them off all standing in front of the cairn. I wrote character backgrounds for all the characters. I used the mage apprenticed to allustan hook. I made a half-elf fighter the son of the female lieutenant at the garrison (Mikela Vendarin, I believe). The halfling rogue's parents work in the kitchen at the emporium, and the halfling learned the tricks of the trade from an escape artist/slight of hand artist that performed for a while at the emporium. The cleric is a gnome cleric of heironeous that joined the order in search of glory and action, and was recently placed at the garrison. The elf ranger NPC I'm playing helping them is a member of the bronzewood lodge. I figure I've successfully tied all the characters to diamond lake, and hopefully tied them into enough of the main entities that that they A) have access to the places the need to go, B) have reason to have knowledge of events going on without having to make them work to hard to gather it, and C) are going to be closely tied to big events ahead that key NPCs will be involved in.
and perhaps an adventure or two set in unusual locations like the Abyss I seem to recall that one of the staff said there wouldn't be adventures outside the prime material plane, since this was done already in AP1.
My group camped out for a day in the abandoned mine building and came back the next day to finish the architects layer. In real life it was getting pretty late and I was the one that suggested they go back to town, since it would make a good breaking point in the game, they wanted to sell the red pedastal, and they needed to identify the wands and goggles (the architects tools). This was my first attempt at playing any dungeons and dragons -- as either DM or player -- since 20 years or so ago. I went pretty light on the players, since it was my girlfriend her 12 year old son and daughter, and they had never played before. They really enjoyed it, which I am happy about, because I put quite a bit of prep into it. Tonight we're going to start off back in town, role play a little bartering at the shops, and have Allustan fill them in on what exactly this cairn appears to be about. Also, after my first session, I've prepped for this session a little better by printing out some monster stats ahead of time for the monsters in the Laborer's Layer, and also reading up on their special abilities a little more. I plan on being a lot more strategic with the monsters this session and giving the party more of a run for their money. The most interesting part is going to be the water elemental, but I have a feeling I know what the party is going to do. They'll send one person into the water first, to check it out. When the elemental goes after the player, the player will either immediately come back out of the water, or someone will have to go in to save them. I'm assuming that they'll probably be able to make it back out of the water, and the elemental will follow them, where they'll end up clobbering the elemental. Still, it should provide for some nice scary moments for them.
For Eberron, the Free City (Sharn) is north and somewhat west of Diamond Lake. It's probably an error. I would assume the directions on the destination chart don't carry over when you convert to other campaign settings (Forgotten Realms & Eberron)
I'm planning on running this encounter either tonight or tomorrow. I had a few questions. First, What does a water elemental look like in water? I'd assume it was either invisible, or an area of turbulence similar to the cloaking effect of the predator in the predator movies. (I'm going to assume the second) I know as the DM it's my choice, but I was just wondering if this was established, since I haven't read it anywhere. Second, the SRD says an everburning torch is just a normal torch with continual flame cast upon it. The description of the water elemental says it can douse magical light based as dispel magic (levels based on hit die). Dispel Magic DC is 11 + caster level. What would we assume the caster level of the creator of the torch to be? More importantly, would you consider the torch to be permanently doused, or just temporarily?
I'm about to take the party back to town for their first roleplay in town. I started them out in front of the cairn, and they've cleared through the false tomb and the architects level. They want to take the red metal pedastal back, plus they managed to get the architects tools and they want to identify them. It's a good opportunity to take them into town, roleplay a little at the shops, introduce them to allustan (the wizard is apprenticed to him), etc. They also reached second level after the architects layer.
Still, a cairn suspended in the clouds, but visible from the ground so it could be seen from miles around would be glorious indeed, and still be tied to the wind dukes elemental heritage. Of course, the magic and cost involved with creating such a wonder would be immense. Perhaps the heroes buried their aren't so glorious after all? Maybe that was just too much expenditure of resources so soon after the Wind Duke's war against the spider queen. Maybe they were holding back on expending all that magical energy because they were concerned the spider queen was plotting her return. Maybe we're looking at considerably scaled down cairns, and the Wind Duke's culture and the heroes themselves are twice as glorious as they appear :P
I'd be interested in joining up. While the kids are here I'm running the adventure path with them on saturdays, but at the beginning of july they'll be gone to their father's for the summer.
Looks like my players made 1020 xp each their first session. Perfect, they get to learn about leveling their characters at the beginning of the next session, which should get them hyped up to use their newly beefed up 2nd level characters :P
If you really need a map, make one up with a few rooms and a collapsed second story. At least, I seem to recall reading it had a collapsed second story.
We played our first session yesterday. The players finished up the main level (false tomb) and the architects level. I'm going to calculate the experience today.
One rationalization might go like this: The Wind Dukes believe that those who die in battle should be celebrated in glory. They want everyone to know of the valor of the fallen. We already know the Wind Dukes choose to put their dead to rest close to where they fell in battle. So in this case the Wind Dukes fell in battle on a terran world. In order for the terrans to learn of the valor of these fallen ones, they need to be put to rest in a traditional terran manner. Hence the glorious burial cairns.
There could also be possible reprocussions of upsetting the wind duke's cairn on such a large scale. Maybe some representatives arriving from the elemental plane to politely request they put it back lest they face the wrath of (a lot higher level) Wind Duke retribution
GhostOrb looks interesting. I've been meaning to sign up. Apparently I couldn't be included in your campaign, since I'm not a 'storm crow' :P Will probably be signing up soon, at least to check it out.
Gundigoot Turco
You grew up in the gnome warren of Grossetgrottel, not far from Diamond Lake. Life was good for you, but you were restless. You left in search of glory and adventure. You traveled the area for a while, but had little direction to your quest. One day at an inn you heard a cleric speak of Heironeous, God of Valor. This Heironeous guy sounded like your type of God. If he couldn’t give you some guidance on your quest, who could? So you went to the temple to Heironeous in Free City. Asking for guidance, they suggested you join the church. You figured you’d do one better. You enrolled for training as a Cleric of Heironeous. 6 months ago you finished your training, and they assigned you to the Chapel of Heironeous at Diamond Lake’s Garrison. The Garrison is the fort of the local militia. It sounded like you might finally see some action, but you’ve been here six months now, and nothing in the slightest bit interesting has happened. A few days ago you were in the chapel praying to Heironeous for guidance when Thaniel Vendarin came in. He’s the son of one of the higher ups at the Garrison, although not a member of the militia himself. You’ve spent some of your free time over the last six months hanging out with him. He’s quite a bit more interesting than the militia members, and seems to be as interested in finding a little glory as you are. He told you that he’d found out about a burial chamber near here that might hold some secrets yet to be revealed, some traps yet to be disabled. Taking it as an answer to your prayers, you told Thane (as his friends call him), that you’d be more than interested. You’re meeting up with the rest of the party this morning at an abandoned outbuilding close to the cairn. You feel Heironeous is with you, and glory awaits!
Quinn Thornwistle
You’ve lived in Diamond Lake for 15 years or so now. It’s a squalid, dirty town full of corruption and greed. Your parents work in the kitchens at the Emporium, a combination tavern / freak show / gambling hall that exists solely to separate the miners of Diamond Lake from their money. You know it’s seedy, but it has its benefits. You used to hang out behind the scenes of the Emporium’s stage show and “Gallery of Science.” Tasmo the Magnificent is escape artist/sleight of hand expert that has worked in the emporium stage show for a good 8 years now. He befriended you as a child, and taught you everything you need to know to unlock most any lock that comes your way. He is also a proficient cutpurse, and taught you a few tricks of the trade. Between what you learned from Tasmo, and the things you picked up from all the other “professionals” at the emporium and around town, you’ve become quite the rogue. Last month Tasmo picked up and left town. He said he “had the itch,” and was moving on to “Bigger and Better Things.” His sudden departure upset your status quo. Things seem rather dull around here. Sure, there’s the constant opportunity to separate a mark from his coin purse, but you feel like that’s just not you anymore. You’re looking for something more. And that’s where Thaniel Vendarin comes in. Thaniel, or Thane, as his friends call him, is an army brat who lives up at the Garrison. His mother is a lieutenant in charge of a large contingent of militia stationed there. You met him at the Feral Dog; a seedy bar that caters to the town’s poorest laborers. The Feral Dog has a reputation for trouble, but it’s nothing you can’t handle. You’re wise to the Diamond Lake underworld, and you know enough to stay out of the way. Last week three richly dressed adventurers from Free City showed up at the Feral Dog. You were there having a drink with Thane, and an elven woodsman friend named Aramil Silverfjord. They made no secret of their intention to explore the long abandoned Stirgenest Cairn on the lake’s distant southeast shore. Every local knows that place is all empty of anything of value. You’ve been in there many a time as a child, and know firsthand. You didn’t think much more of it, other than eying their bulging purses a bit. But after sizing the adventurers up, you decided you’d stick to easier marks. Two days ago when you met Thane and Aramil at the Feral Dog, he told you about a plan he’d worked up to check out a little known cairn called the “Whispering Cairn.” He said he’d done Alyssan Strandoval a favor and gotten her a copy of one of the Garrison’s survey maps of the area, so that she could find out about the cairn. From what Thane has told you, it sounds like it could be pretty promising. Both you and Aramil agreed to join them on an expedition into the cairn. You’re to meet this morning at an old abandoned outbuilding near the old mine. Time to put some of those skills you’ve learned to good use. This ought to be a lot of fun!
Thaniel ‘Thane’ Vendarin
After the goblin wars your mother was transferred to the Diamond Lake Garrison, and was eventually promoted to lieutenant in command of her own squad. For as far back as you remember, you have lived in the Garrison. Your mother is always busy with her duties, and subsequently you’ve been raised as much by the other members of the Militia and the members of the Garrison’s chapel to Heironeous. You’ve been trained in military ways since you were old enough to hold a sword, and you are now old enough now to join the Militia, but you just don’t like the military life. You know there’s something more out there. Your heart craves excitement and adventure. Bored with the Garrison life, you’ve been going into town more, hanging out at some of the more seedy joints, like the Feral Dog, a sleazy, run down ale hall with a reputation for trouble. Last week a trio of richly dressed adventures from Free City came into town. They’ve been hanging out at the Feral Dog all week, talking loudly of their plans to explore Stirgenest Cairn. You and the other locals think they’re nuts. Every kid worth his salt has been into the Stirgenest Cairn at one time or another. Any treasures or artifacts that it might have held were plundered years ago. A few days ago, however, Alyssan Strandoval came to see you at the Garrison. Alyssan is the apprentice of Allustan, the “smartest man in town”, and a wizard of some reknown. You’ve met Alyssan several times before. Diamond Lake isn’t that big. Alyssan asked you if you could get a hold of a map of an area containing the “Whispering Cairn.” She said she had reason to believe it may still hold some secrets to discover. This has definitely got you interested. Finally, something interesting is going on around here. Deitrik Cicaeda is the Chief Cartographer for Diamond Lake. He works in the Garrison, and he is the only person in Diamond Lake with the official survey maps of the area. That’s why Alyssan asked you to see what you could do. You’re pretty tight with Dram, Deitrik’s son, both of you growing up together at the fort. Dram showed up the next day with the goods, and wow, they looked really promising! It turns out that the Whispering Cairn is sitting next to mine that has been abandoned for a good 50 years. The owner died 10 years ago, with no heirs. The place hasn’t been touched in forever. It should be easy to sneak into the cairn and do a little exploring. Alyssan was just as excited about the news as you are. She asked you to put together a small team and meet her at the abandoned outbuilding near the old mine in a few days. You went down to the Feral Dog and got some trustworthy friends together for the expedition. Quinn Thornwistle is a halfing you’ve known for some time. She’s handy with a set of lockpicks, and that will probably come in handy. Aramil SilverFjord is an elf from a few hours north of here. He’s been here a lot in the last year since father died. He’s good with a bow, and the best woodsman you’ve ever met. He can track anything. You decided to round out the party with a gnome cleric named Gundigoot Turco. He recently came to the chapel of Heironeous at the Garrison. He’s quirky, but you like him a lot, and it can’t hurt to have Heironeous on your side. Today is the day. You’re all meeting at the abandoned outbuilding near the old mine in just a few hours. Finally, time for some excitement in your life!
Alyssan Strandoval
Your father used to be a fisherman. He made a good living for your family. That is, before the runoff from the smelting houses poisoned Diamond Lake. The crystal clear waters of the lake gave this community it’s name. Now, the lake is poisoned and filthy, and the fish that sustained a whole industry have all died. The once majestic docks are now dilapidated, the once beautiful waters stink. When the fishing industry failed, your father took work in the mines. Your parents had to sell their house. They "temporarily" moved into Jalek’s Flophouse. A run down converted warehouse that’s home to nearly a hundred of Diamond Lake’s poorest. Within days of the move, your mother grew sick. You were only a little girl, but you remember your mother’s passing. Your father always being in the mines, you were left to raise yourself. You and the other kids from Jalek’s played in the streets, found whatever you could to entertain yourselves. Games of dare were particularly popular, and you weren’t afraid of anything. One day the kids dared you to steal an apple off a tree in Allustan’s garden. Known as the “smartest man in town,” Allustan is a reclusive wizard. People speak in hushed tones of the mystic power he wields. Usually, he would just shoo away children that enter his meditation garden, but the day he caught the bare-footed, grubby faced girl stealing an apple from his tree, he invited her in for tea. You were very afraid, but equally fascinated. Allustan’s house was luxurious. His library filled with hundreds of leather bound tomes. The smell of the herbs, spices, and exotic spell components lingered in the house, exciting your senses. He must have seen something in you that first visit, because he invited you to come and visit again the next day. And you did. You kept going back, day after day. At first he would just chat with you, or have you help him in his garden. Soon he was teaching you to read. You loved reading. He’d lend you books to take home. Reading them would allow you to escape from the harsh realities of the slums into the history of the realm and the myths and legends of old. You were welcome to read any books in the library except the ones on the top shelf: his magic books. That just piqued your interest in them more. They were beautifully bound, with strange symbols embossed on the spines. Allustan began to allow you to stay at his house while he went into town. Usually, you would do chores around the house while he was away, or read in the library. One day your interest got the best of you. You just knew this magic stuff couldn’t be that hard. You pulled down a book of the shelf and opened it. Attempting to read a spell from the book, your head began to spin, your brain started hurting. The next thing you remembered, you were laying in a bed in the guest room. Allustan was sitting over you looking at you with concern in his eyes. After it was established that you were ok, Allustan told you that what you had done could have driven you insane. “The words of magic are not to be taken lightly,” he said. “If you want to read those books, you have to start at the very beginning.” You thought Allustan would be mad, but instead, he told you, “Well, if you’re going to try to read them anyway, you might as well learn how to do it correctly… besides, I need a little entertainment in this dull city.” That was 6 years ago. You’ve been studying hard, apprenticing under Allustan ever since. You love magic. It has actually come to you quite easily. But you tire of lessons. You want practical experience. A week ago, a trio of richly dressed adventurers from Free City showed up in town. They’ve been frequenting The Feral Dog. Word has it their intention is to explore the long abandoned Stirgenest Cairn on the lake’s distant southeast shore. What a joke. You and your friends used to play in that Cairn. There is no treasure to be found there. The place is harmless. But it got you thinking… What if there are other cairns around here that haven’t been thoroughly searched. The hills surrounding Diamond Lake are filled with the burial chambers of heroes of ages forgotten. Maybe one of them might have secrets left to reveal. Allustan has held a long time fascination with the tombs in the nearby hills. After reading through some of his research on the subject, you came across references to the the “Whispering Cairn,” a little known tomb said to be haunted. The "Whispering" is supposedly the sound of the ghosts. Deitrik Cicaeda is the Chief Cartographer for Diamond Lake. He works out of the Garrison, the local fort that protects Diamond Lake and the surrounding area. Deitrik has all the official survey maps of the area. Thane Vendarin is the only person you know at the Garrison. He’s the son of Lieutenant Vendarin, who is in charge of one of the squads at the Garrison. You asked Thrane if he could get you a copy of the map that shows the location of the Whispering Cairn. Two days ago he brought it to you. It appears that its close to a mine that has been closed for a good 50 years now. Apparently the owner of the mine passed away with no heirs a good 10 years ago. It should be easy to go in and do a little exploration.
You are all meeting this morning at an abandoned outbuilding near the old mine. Hopefully you’ll get a chance to have some practical application of your skills, or some ancients artifacts that will earn you some gold.
Thanks! That's a lot of reading. I'm coming close to my deadline (have to have these character writeup written today), so I'll stick with the basics -- Tuorosh Mok & Pomarj -- and do more reading later to allow for some story line tie ins possibly.
Cool that you are returning to the game and taking you S.O and family with you. We all have our memories of our first encounter with mold, jellies, worms and other dungeon nasties. Thanks :P Yeah, tomorrow is the big day of our first session. I'm hurriedly finishing up their characters and writing up their character profiles. I'll post the profiles later today, and possibly tomorrow some sort of adventure journal describing my first day DM'ing in 25 years :P
I'm writing up character profiles for the player characters at the moment. One of the players is a half-elf fighter. I'm making him the son of Mikela Venderin, one of Captain Tolliver Trask's three leutenants. I've decided the human mother met the elf father during wars with the goblins/orcs. I know there was/is some sort of goblin war going on with the goblin nation to the south, but I don't know any of the details, dates, or names. I'd like to add some of this information to flesh the character out more. Can anyone help?
Nice :) I'll be posting 5 character backgrounds tomorrow. I'm planning on starting my first session saturday morning, so they'll have to be done by friday. Mine will be a little more brief because I'm writing them for my kids, and I don't think they have the patience to read more than a three quarters of a page or so. But hopefully I can include enough background to flesh out the characters interestingly, tie them to each other, tie some of them to a few npc's and the story arc in general, and tell them a little about Diamond Lake and the Cairn.
Well, all my players are brand new, and I want to get them right into the action as soon as possible, so I'm creating their characters for them with writeups filling in their history, and plopping them down right in front of the entrance. However, I'm sure they're going to get banged up pretty quickly and need to get some rest / return to town in short order. I'm creating a young wizard apprentice to allustan as one of the characters, so the players should have a friendly and informed patron to help them. I want the players to meet up with the rival adventurers, but I haven't decided how yet, since the players are so inexperienced I want to keep them from blabbing what they're doing to the other party. Maybe I'll have Allustan warn them to keep quiet about their findings upon return from their first foray into the cairn.
As for the Bronzewood Lodge, here's my unedited text on it, which you may find helpful Thanks! Really, posting your unedited text is above and beyond the call of duty. You rock!
On a similar vein -- Diamond Lake pun intended :P -- I'm considering creating a half-elf ranger, and I was thinking that in that when I do the character writeup I'd make him a member of the bronzewood lodge community. Is there anything I should know ahead of time, or anything I can tell the player about their affiliation to the lodge?
Yay! Ok, I'm playing my first session with the girlfriend & kids this saturday. Going to start early so brains aren't too dead. Time to write up some characters for them and give them some backgrounds.
Ok, I've finally got a chance to do some reading into the Diamond Lake backdrop, and I see a several opportunities for the Rival Adventurers to find out that the party is exploring the whispering cairn and explore it themselves. There is mention that the fighter NPC will face the players later when they get to Free City, but not much else about that I see about how the Rival Party figures into things. Is anyone planning on actually having the rival party head into the whispering cairn (given that the players spill where they are exploring)?
I have not familiarized myself with underwater fighting rules yet, but the players basically have to go in there to get the lantern, otherwise they're not going to be able to open the mouth door. I'm thinking it will be fun sending them in underwater, I just think I'm going to have to do a lot of research before this encounter.
How exactly would an area effect of brown mold fit on a shovel? I would treat it as an improvised ranged weapon attack if PCs were to fling bits of it from the shovel, but I would also have the mould die within an hour of it being removed from its home. Can't see it sticking to the shovel for it to be a melee weapon. I'd say that the damage would have to be lower. The brown mold covers a decent amount of area. Also, it has the benefit of having been in the same place a decent amount of time. To do that much damage with some of it sticking to a shovel and moving around an environment might be a stretch. Plus the accuracy of a 10' pole, a rope, and a shovel sounds like it leaves a little to be desired. But yes, I'd love to see a group of players think it up too.
Sweet, thanks for all the advice. Didn't check for lower level spells. I'm going to pregenerate a standard party -- fighter, rogue, mage, cleric. I'll be sure to give the mage 'ray of frost' as a spell in his/her spell book. Plus I'll probably put one more 'muscle' npc with the party. maybe a ranger or something. Someone that might have the knowledge(dungeoneering) skill. I'll also try to see to it that the party members have some ranks in different useful knowledges that fit their classes. That might get me out of having to write up some sort of short 'dungeoneers survival guide' for the party, and also allow them to use the knowledge checks to help with the swarm encounter. Otherwise they're going to get torn apart when the swarm shows up :P
You know, an interesting way for the party to defeat the swarm that nobody has mentioned is that they could run for the lantern chains, climb up them, and drop burning oil on the swarm. Unless you decide that the swarm is going to climb up the walls to the ceiling and come down the chain, or, if you think the beetles can jump that far, spring straight from the walls onto the player, the players could escape the encounter completely unscathed.
I would personally avoid making an NPC with them anything more than "hired muscle." If the NPC begins solving riddles and such, they'll come to rely on such help. Yes, I agree completely.
Ok, I haven't played D&D in 20 years, and I'm starting AoW with all new players that have never played before (My girlfriend, her 12 year old son and 12 year old daughter). I've been looking through Whispering Cairn trying to find areas that could present major difficulties/tpk's to new players. The brown mold in area 11 looks to be one of them. Being at work, I don't have my DM's Guide to reference, but the online srd says " "Living creatures within 5 feet of it take 3d6 points of nonlethal cold damage. Fire brought within 5 feet of brown mold causes it to instantly double in size. Cold damage, such as from a cone of cold, instantly destroys it. ", and also "For purposes of spells and other special effects, all slimes, molds, and fungi are treated as plants." So how does the party go about overcoming this obstacle. 'Cone of cold' is well beyond a first level spell caster. Do they just have to book ass across the mold to area 13, taking non-lethal damage in each direction? Can they string a rope across it somehow that is more than 5 feet above it and avoid the damage? I want to warn the party about trying to burn it somehow, because after dealing with the swarm of acid beetles, that is exactly what the party will want to do. But how to go about that. I was considering 2 options: 1) Put an adventurer's journal in the backpack in area 5. I wouldn't want the adventurer who wrote this journal to have made it to the lair of the architect, so it would have to be some sort of non area specific advice. Maybe instead of a journal it could be some sort of adventurers handbook like 'flora and fauna of the cairn hills cave systems' or something. That way I could include advice about swarms too. Or it could be more of a 'caving for dummies' type book. 2) I will most likely be playing an NPC, so maybe he/she could have some knowledge in regards to these things. The only problem is I don't want to turn the adventure into one where the players turn around and say 'what do you think, bob?' every 20 seconds. Any advice would be great.
None of my players even suggested grappling the swarm. How the heck would you grapple something made up of tiny bugs. Who would willing jump into a swarm of bugs that do damage automatically!?!? I think scootrose was actually talking about the opposite. Is the swarm effectively grappling the player.
I don't believe they even have oil flasks or vials of acid. Who's fault is that you say? They are inexperienced 2nd level vagrants from the slums of Diamond Lake with little to no money. Of course, what's a better lesson than life itself? I read the module over considering the same thing for all the encounters. My entire party are first time players: My girlfriend, her 12 year old son, and 12 year old daughter. There are several encounters in this module that have major potential to be deadly for them. Apart from the swarm, the brown mold that doubles in size when fire is applied comes to mind. There are several possible solutions I've been pondering. First of all, I am going to just pre-generate and equip their characters, so we can get into the act of actually playing quickly and not bore them with setup, so I figure I can equip them with oil and acid flasks if need be. In your case it sounds like your party is already equipped, so why not leave some flasks of acid/oil lying around for the party. For instance, in the backpack in area 5 that contains the indigo lantern. Or, if you're concerned your players won't go back into the wolf's den, maybe put them in a backpack or sack somewhere else in the main entry area. The second issue you have to worry about is, are your players even going to know or try to use fire to kill them before it's too late? I'm considering letting them roll some sort of knowledge check to do it. if they fail the knowledge check, I'm just going to tell them outright. As far as the brown mold is concerned, I was just looking at the srd and apparently it does non-lethal damage, so it won't necessarily kill the party, but I'll have to look at how to help the party deal with it more. I haven't DM'd or played in 20 years, so I'm doing a lot of research. Gotta hurry with it though, becase I plan on starting the campaign as soon as the online supplement comes out, which should be in the next couple of days. I'm going to start a new thread about the mold.
The Whispering Cairn is great, and was well worth the wait. Thanks Erik, for an incredible adventure to introduce my children to D&D. I see Will introduces his kid to D&D in his article, too. Good to see D&D being passed from one generation to the next, and used to bond. Anyway, I think the adventure is absolutely great, and I like the development sections for pushing the story along if the characters don't figure it out for themselves. Hopefully there will be hours of fun ahead this month, and that I'll only have to fudge a medium amount not to kill all the party ;P
Man, still no magazine. Is there anyone else in texas that hasn't gotten theirs yet? I hate to gripe, but it's been over a week since someone in Waco said they got theirs. Just when should I consider it AWOL/MIA? I mean, the newstand date is just a few days away. I griped too soon, doh. It showed up this morning. Argh, the cruel irony. I have a full day's work ahead of me on my house before I get a chance to sit down and read. Can't wait though :P
Check out the d20 3.5 online srd: [url]http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/swarm.htm[/url]
Man, still no magazine. Is there anyone else in texas that hasn't gotten theirs yet? I hate to gripe, but it's been over a week since someone in Waco said they got theirs. Just when should I consider it AWOL/MIA? I mean, the newstand date is just a few days away.
Man, I felt sure I was going to see a magazine in the mail today. Hopefully the mailman is cracking a whip on the snail that's bringing me my copy!
I'd recommend not giving newbie players multiple characters to play. Try to find someone else to join the group and play those NPCs (or better, their own PCs). It is difficult enough to roleplay one PC, much less two. I've been playing for a long time, and I really dislike having to play multiple characters -- in a roleplay-focused game, one character always gets neglected, and in a combat-focused game, neither character is as effective as it could be (I miss out on tactical opportunities). I'd agree, except in my case I'm going to pack a lot of playing into a short period of time. My girlfriend's son is only down here for one month of the summer, so we'll be squeezing a lot of sessions in together then. It would be too difficult to find additional players that would be able to make it on the random gaming schedule we'll have. Especially out of the group of people I know and am comfortable coming to game with me & my children. Most likely I'll just be controlling an npc or two to help them.
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