EbbTide's page

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?

Thaniel ‘Thane’ Vendarin
Male Half Elf Fighter
Your mother is Mikela Venderin, a lieutenant in charge of one of the three squads stationed at the Diamond Lake Garrison. You’ve never met your father. They met during the goblin wars when their units were stationed with each other. Soon after the great battle with Turosh Mok, the leader of the evil humanoid invaders, your parents’ units were separated. A few days later your mother discovered she was pregnant. She was never able to contact him, and to this day has no idea whether he survived the war against Pomarj, or is alive today.

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!

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?

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)?

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.

Ack! Nothing in Friday's mail!!! Please Please let it show up tomorrow! *twitch* *twitch*

Starting in June, I'm planning on running a D&D campaign with my girlfriend and the kids. The kids are both 12. A boy & a girl. I haven't played D&D in 20 years. I've purchase the core rulebooks, the basic set and a bunch of miniatures. I'm planning on running the Age of Worms adventure path with them.

I've done a lot of reading, and I'm pretty comfortable with the 3.5 edition rules now. I did a quick playtest with my girlfriend and the daughter, and I've identified some areas I can improve on in my DMing and things to make the experience flow a little better.

I was just wondering if anyone had any input or any experience sbringing their kids into RPGs that they might share with me.

Ok, when I started playing D&D it was back in the early 80s playing Keep on the Borderlands, The Giants series, and other classic modules. Since these were based in Greyhawk, i suppose I have some experience in the setting. But I don't know the details of a lot of the mythos discussed in the threads here. What should I be reading to brush up on my Greyhawk knowledge?

Prior to the first playtest session of the Age of Worms Adventure Path campaign, I wrote about a page of text for each player in the campaign. I thought it would be fun to share these backgrounders as we get closer to publication of the first installment, "The Whispering Cairn," by yours truly.

So here we go. We'll do one a week until I've covered everyone.

The last character writeup was a month ago, can we get another one please?

P.S. Ok, I know my first post on the messageboards shouldn't be begging, but I'm sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for Age of Worms. The Shackled City adventure path was great, and I bought a subscription to Dungeon specifically because of the new adventure path, so keep up the great work :D