GreaterDane's page

Unholy necromancy! But, since we're here...

Most of the Big Bad Guys and NPCs in the second half of the campaign merit some extra foreshadowing for greater impact. This is a side effect of the disjointed way in which they were written. Tacking Thessalar's name onto any number of weird creatures early in the campaign is a great way to foreshadow the character.

That said, Thessalar's role in the adventure is to be a speedbump for retrieving Balakarde's spirit. He's a one-off mini-dungeon with some big monsters and a spellcasting boss. I opted to replace the lich with a less momentous mini-dungeon adventure.

Side note: parts 11 and 12 make use of liches wherever an undead spellcaster is needed. This rankled me a bit, since I think of liches as Very Rare and Always a Boss. (Especially in Dawn of a New Age, where gangs of liches are used as henchmen. I know the party is level 20+ at this point, but come on.) I think this is because there aren't really any other core options for undead spellcasting bad guys.

Well, the party finished off the Spire of Long Shadows last night. I wound up pseudo-pairing all three Knights with Mak'ar. The lich telepathically instructed the Knights to inquire about the progress of the Age of Worms, but the PCs got antsy during the conversation and attacked.

Mak'ar spent the first few rounds of combat buffing up back in his chambers, then used greater dimension door to join the battle and open up with maze and quickened enervate. (I reworked Mak'ar to just be human; the influence of spellweavers on the Age of Worms feels more like an excuse to use spellweavers than a plot thread.) Tragically, that's the sum of what he managed - repulsion doesn't protect against enemies that just teleport RIGHT ON TOP OF YOU. The rest is grapple checks and history.

Once Mak'ar was down, the Knights were an easy cleanup. I think my big mistake was staging the fight on the Sea of Worms; the Knights have terrible maneuverability, and couldn't bring their full attacks to bear against a party that could easily fly/teleport/jump from one place to another.

After the party restocks at Magepoint, it'll be off to Alhaster next session. You mentioned that your party is burning out a bit on high-level play, but hopefully that will be mitigated by the transition from the fight-for-your-lives Spire to the more investigative urban adventure. Are the players excited for the feast? I'm hoping mine will agree to help assemble a real-life version of the dinner.

Woah, someone else is playing Age of Worms using 3.5? My party is almost done with the Spire of Long Shadows. Last night they slew the overworm (the party druid decided to go toe-to-toe with it using aspect of the earth hunter); all that's left is Mak'ar and the three Knights. I know I want to give Mak'ar a friend, but I haven't decided whether to pair him with a Knight or give him some more numerous mooks. How did your "final battle" in the Spire go?

I'm now gearing up for Prince of Redhand. The guest list needs a lot of work - the callbacks to Diamond Lake will be lost in my group, which spent most of its time trying to get out of that dingy little mining town. Loris Raknian escaped during the Champion's Belt, to the players' chagrin, and I think this will be a good place for him to resurface. How far along is your party?