Grogg of the North's page

I'm taking over the GM chair for my group soon and I'd like to run We Be Goblins as a mini campaign. (B4, Be, Too, Free, 5uper) Has anyone had success doing this? Any advice or pitfalls to avoid? I plan on avoiding having the Licktoad tribe being destroyed while the PCs are out of town and instead having the Birdmunchers beg for help. I'd also like to expand a few things, like capturing Scribbles and his banishment.

Finally, I'd like to add an adventure after 5uper so the players can get home. Any advice on adventuring in the Astral Plane? Are there any scenarios/modules/adventures that take place there? The only thing I could find was Dead Gods.

I thought about doing Carnival of Tears after Hungry are the Dead depending on how Pallid Plague goes with the fey. That introduces Syntira and it would be nice to have her show up again.

The only problem I'm seeing with Carnival of Tears is ... that my group has two children. And I think I'm going to have to heavily edit parts of it.

I had Edgrin show up after Hollow's Last Hope as a traveling bard. I cut his adventuring group. He interviewed the party, asking about how they cured the Blackscour Taint. The dwarf fighter suggested he visit the old monastery for inspiration. And was promptly captured by the kobolds that were still alive.

I'm also hoping that the party will do something about the lumber consortium. I keep telling them all about the evil things they do to their employees but their plan seems to be "We'll tell someone in charge in a bigger city and let them deal with it".

I'm running a group through some adventures in Falcon's Hollow. My players completed Hollow's Last Hope and are about to conclude Crown of the Kobold King. I've altered them a little in that the kobolds spread the blackscour taint in town, hoping that the weakened humans wouldn't be able to stop them from kidnapping children. They were about to try again when the events leading up to CotKK happened. Go team kobold! Now we can break that curse and defeat Drazmorg! Oh, wait, there are adventurers here and they're killing everything! My current plan is to have the Kobold King tease the name of Drazmorg on his death and that he will be coming for Falcon's Hollow soon.

I am definitely going to run Pallid Plague (with some alterations) and Revenge of the Kobold King. I want to run one more adventure after RotKK before I run Hungry Are the Dead. Something to tease Drazmorg's appearance so he's just not this Villain of the Week.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thank you! I can't believe I missed that. I feel like I read that page a thousand times. Thank you!

My group just finished up Hollow's Last Hope and are about to have some downtime in Falcon's Hollow. I'm preparing to run them through Crown of the Kobold King next. My question is, where is Mikra in Drosakr's Crucible? I see that Kimi and Edgrin make their stand in the mess hall to let Savram run to the north. And it says that Mikra ran off too but I can't find to where! Am I just missing it somewhere?

IMC, the rivalry between the PCs and the Stormblades can be boiled down to this:

Stormblades: We're awesome, amazing and rich. You peasants should just leave everything to us!

PCs: I'm sorry. You are ...? We've been too busy saving the city to keep up on local politics.

*Stormblades storm off in a huff*

The test for all fumble rules:

Have a squad of mid level fighters square off against training dummies for an hour. If the training dummies win, rethink your fumble rules.

The only thing they're "stuck" on is where the ritual for the planar junction is happening. They used the Soul Pillars to ask about the ritual and the cagewrights. One of the questions was "Is the ritual being performed on Carceri?". I rolled and got the Lie result. Of course it's happening on Carceri! Now the PCs are trying to figure out where on Carceri they need to be; ignoring the papers from Vhalantru's house.

After the party defeats the beholder, has anyone had anything come of all the petrified people in Oblivion? My party has contracted Weer to create an elixir/potion/paste/whatever to restore the petrified people. Other than having them have information that, Surprise!, Vhalantru is not whom he seems what else can they be useful for? I doubt they have information on the Cagewrights. I've even considered having some of them be from before "Vhalantru" even showed up in town.

Thoughts? Ideas?

My condolences delvesdeep. I pray everything works out for you.

My party has just started Lords of Oblivion. They've learned about EvilCon at Lady Rhiavadi's manor and are desperately trying to get in contact with Lord Vhalantru to warn him and the government of this traitorous noble!

@Mykull has a good opinion.

Maybe Drakthar feeds the bodies to the worgs? Can't let the meat go bad.

Or he has his charmed goblins toss them outside into the jungle. The jungle scavengers would pick over the bodies quickly enough.

My players actually debated over whether taking ears was justified as good PCs. If you are afraid that they will miss out on money, you can always add a few more gold pieces to Drakthar's horde.

Okay, this is embarrassing. I cannot find how far it is from the walkway to the floor in Vitriss Bale's chamber in Karran-Kural. Unless I've forgotten to read, it's not listed in the hardcover. I swear I found it once on the boards but now that I need it I can't find it again. Since the room is described as spherical, I was going to go with 40 ft to the bottom. Thoughts?

Has anyone come up with any interesting scenarios for Myaruk's Phylactery? Myaruk is the lich at the end of Test of the Smoking Eye that is investigating the Nexus of Evil. Has anyone had him return to terrorize the party later in the campaign?

My players are getting ready to journey to Occipitus and I'm preparing for their travel and trial at the Cathedral of Feathers. One thing I'm worried about is the flying book trap in the cathedral's library.

With multiple books attacking and having a very good chance to hit, it feels like anyone opening the door is doomed!

I've thought about changing it so that only tampering with the books triggers the trap.

I've also heard once, somewhere, that holy damage cannot harm a good aligned creature. But, despite all my searching, I cannot find that anywhere in any rule book. Maybe I'm mis-remembering?

Did anyone else have trouble with this trap?

Thanks!

I probably would have forgotten about them were it not for the fact one of my players asked about the MTA. Flipping through the hardcover they do seem to be suspiciously absent after the umberhulk. Which is why I asked if anyone had any neat ideas for them. :)

This is after the fire elementals attack. The party has just gone down the river to look for Alek. I think if they press the issue and dig into it I'll have the MTA agents say they were ordered to stand down by the Mayor and not intervene.

I don't know if I'm going to run the siege of Redgorge. I'd like to give the PCs the chance to diffuse the situation first.

During Umberhulk Smash, the MTA shows up to assist the players. (My umberhulk didn't live that long!) Later, after the tax riot when the fire elementals attack Minuta's Board they are nowhere to be seen.

One of my players asked if the MTA was still around. I smiiled and said "Yea, that does seem odd that they didn't show up for that, huh." But deep down I was thinking "Oh crap, I forgot all about them!"

I cannot think of when else they will show up until Foundation of Flame. Did anyone else use them throughout the campaign?

For those curious, what I did was have Gottrod move to the jungle near Redgorge. He took over the gnoll tribe that ambushes the party near the headless demon statue. I also removed the forest sloth and turned that into Gottrod's lair with some more gnoll guards and a druid shaman.

As the party arrived at the shore, the gnolls ambushed the party, firing arrows at them from the southern shore. The party dealt with the gnolls and I had Gottrod land next to the statue and attack the party.

Unfortunately, the dice HATED the gnolls and they were more of a nuisance than anything else. The party warlock slowly removed the gnoll archers while everyone else ganged up on Gottrod. Gottrod, battered and bruised attempted to fall back to his lair but the rogue wouldn't have that and put a well placed arrow that took him before he could finish flying off. (Rolled 20, 20, 19!)

IIRC The hardcover suggests that if your players want something that Skie doesn't have, she can get it through Maavu's imports in 2d6 days. This is the approach I'm taking.

Skie likes helping young adventurers. I think that whatever tax the city places on the items she may just eat. She's not out to get rich, just to live comfortably.

The hardcover also says that the Temple of St. Cuthbert has an abundance of healing items. Mostly potions and scrolls I think. But you can add in wands. It can help endear the party to Jenya and St. Cuthbert.

Congrats!

I will just start to run chapter 4 with my players, but another option can be that Gottrod attack your PCs in their return to Cauldron after they captured Zenith. He can be fully healed as the players hopefully managed to level up in Underdark.

And then he eats Zenith. ;)

The party let White-Eye and Cherrit go while fleeing from Aushanna. I was planning on having them come to attack the group or try to rob them.

However, given the trouble they've had with Aushanna, I'm not sure if right after rescuing Zenith is the time to spring Gottrod on them.

In my game, Gottrod gave the PCs a run for their money. But a few lucky hits convinced Gottrod that he needed withdraw. He fled Crazy Jared's hut badly wounded but alive. He now waits for the moment to strike and take his revenge....

Has anyone else had Gottrod survive? Did he return? I'm thinking of adding him to the gnoll ambush in the river trip in Demonskar Legacy. Maybe drop the forest sloth and turn the old ogre's cave into a lair for him.

Thoughts? Ideas?

@delvesdeep I just wanted you to know that my group greatly enjoyed your demonskar ball work. :)

Hmm... this may be an issue of text over table. The text for the class doesn't list it so perhaps it's a misprint?

What I would do for the feats is go with item creation, metamagic, and skill centered feats. But really, as long as the feat goes with the feel of the class, crafting, it should be allowed.

So, in preparation for the Demonskar Ball, I've been devouring all the information I can find. Campaign journals, posts on forums, and, of course, Delve's Deep's write up.

I passed out the invitations to my group ready to see everyone in the group flex their role playing muscles. My players looked at the invitations and immediately became suspicious and started to discuss whether they should decline them!

Thankfully, most of my party is associated with the church of St Cuthbert. Jenya told them that to snub the movers and shakers of Cauldron would reflect badly on the church and they should plan on going.

Has this happened to anyone else?

So last session my group took on Kazmojen in Life's Bazaar. They came in across the arched bridge, through the side door. The party attempted to bluff their way in at first but it quickly deteriorated to combat. Prickles howled and brought down the rest of the hobgoblins (the barracks, hallway guards and forge guards) down on the party. It was a hard pressed battle but the party eventually pulled through. (Their reaction when the beholder showed up was one of the most fun moments I've ever had as a DM) After defeating the last of the hobgoblins, the party gathered up the children, sans Terrim, and the prisoners from the cell block and booked it back to the surface. Battered and beaten, they did not feel they could continue to explore the fortress. The group has stated that they want to rest to get back spells and HP.

Which brings me to my questions. What to do with the goblins in the forge and kitchen? And what of the remaining captives? I can see the goblins continuing their business for a little bit. But eventually one of them is going to see what happened to the hobgoblins. And when they discover the mountain of corpses I think they'd flee into the Underdark. Would they try to take the other slaves with them to sell/eat? Maple would probably try to fight....

Or does Gryffon just turn the whole place into Gryffon's Grill (franchise opportunities available!) and attempt his dream of being a cook in the Underdark?

I'm getting ready to run Shackled City (yay!) and I was looking over Chapter 1. I got to looking at Kazmojen and I noticed his stat block. Dwarven Urgosh, okay, that's different. But his full attack with the Urgosh is very inaccurate. Apparently, he doesn't have Two Weapon Fighting since his dexterity is too low.

Is this intentional? An oversight? Has anyone changed his weapon and had a successful run? Or is his inaccurate flailing still deadly as is?

If you're going to cut the AP off at the Test of the Smoking Eye I think you're going to have start building Occipitus up early on and give the PCs a reason to go there. Do you build up Kaurophon up early as some sort of BBEG?

I guess you could do it where the slavers were working for Kaurophon, raising funds so he could go to Occipitus and do dastardly things. Last Laugh and even Drakthar are part of this insidious plot. Zenith would be required for some sort of ritual. And they need Alek, or at least something he has, to stop Kaurophon before he completes the Test.

I think you're looking at some heavy retooling to get all the chapters connected and tight enough to have a finished story.

I would be curious to see how the world reacts to the PCs. If any details regarding their involvement leak out, I can't imagine things going favorably for them. Sasserine might take the refugees in but refuse the party admittance. Or perhaps the city is demanding the party submits to a trial. How do Celeste or Nidrama, good outsiders, feel about what happened?

I think that you're going to have a long trail of stragglers heading to Sasserine. The sick and wounded at the rear of this column. Bandits, jungle predators and so much more are going to pick off refugees. The refugees may even turn to banditry in order to try and acquire the things they need to survive!

Perhaps Hookface shows up demanding tribute, since Cauldron was in his domain, or else he'll attack Sasserine/the refugees/the party/whatever.

About 3 years ago a campaign I was playing in fell apart for a variety of non game reasons. We had played shackled city up to about the battle in the town where the masons are. Anyway I would like to run it now with some of the same players, starting from the beginning but I am happy to make some changes so the people who went through it don't get bored ( although to be fair the secret plot was still pretty much a secret).

Any suggestions for tweaks to the early parts to make it replayable ?

If it's been three years, how much do they remember?

Otherwise, I guess you could move some of the items and baddies around so the group doesn't think "okay, behind this door there will be three goblins so we'll need to ...."

They've now had one fight with a dragon at a distance, one fight with a dragon up close and in your face, and now they are curled up in a small cavern some where near the temple arguing with one another that Zenith isn't worth it and that they should just pack it in and go apologize to Davked.

Do they have a rivalry with the Stormblades? Because I would totally have them get the job done and completely rub their faces in it. ;)

Maybe she didn't prepare True Seeing? Maybe she didn't have the material components (expensive oil/ointment) on hand? Maybe she just flubbed the spot check? Or maybe it wasn't a doppleganger but a mind controlled Davdek?

There are plenty of ways around the issue. :)

Using a wish to cancel the ritual just seems to be begging for the DM to use the clause in wish where you interpret it in the most literal manner possible. Yea, the ritual didn't work but <insert horrible horrible events> did happen! Good job heroes, you broke the Prime.

Using the wish to get to the Tree seems okay. But do they have the means to stop the ritual? So even if they defeat the cagewrights there, they've gotta figure out how to stop the Tree still.

When I played Shackled City, the group agonized over what to call ourselves. We eventually went with Das Crolexs after the goblins kept shouting that at us.

So, my players recently finished Life's Bazaar, and they did it fairly quickly. They only went through about a third of Jzadirune, and then when they got to the Malachite Fortress, they managed to bluff & roleplay their way into a meeting with Kazmojen- so after the final confrontation, they escaped the hold without exploring more than a couple rooms. I expected them to go back down and go treasure hunting once they'd rested & levelled up, but, after group concensus, they didn't! They went on and haven't made any motion towards returning.

Did they find the other prisoners in the fortress?

If they didn't, I'd have the Stormblades find them when they go down to collapse the tunnels. Have them come to the surface and accuse the PCs of being in league with the hobgoblins and generally make life hard for them.

If the PCs freed all the prisoners down there but just left the hobgoblins and dark ones alive, I'd have the hobgoblin boss (his name escapes me) take over Kazmojen's operation. Have the kidnappings continue and maybe even leave something at one of the crime scenes taunting the PCs.

However, with all of that being said, you shouldn't punish them for good roleplaying.

Sorry for the late reply.

When I was playing in SCAP, my group had an urban druid. She got in good with the Striders and as a benefit they gave her a magic ring. If we were ever in over our heads, she could use the ring to summon them to our side and they would appear after X rounds I believe.

Granted that's a bit more "down the road" for you but I thought it was a neat idea.

I know it can be done. I think I've seen a few people here try to do the very same thing.

Mostly you'll just have to update things like the CMB and CMD for the NPCs. With the Beastiary out that should with a lot of the work.

Sounds like everyone had a good time. :)

I'm still curious to know the response from the firefighter though.

If they are resting because they are out of spells, does that also mean that they're out of HP? Because if you're going to interrupt their rest, that means no HP and no spells. I don't know how you and your group feel about TPKs.

I would leave Tarkilar and the harpoon spider out. If I recall correctly, the rest of the Triad gives Tarkilar a wide berth ever since his ritual went wrong and his loyalties are questionable.

As for the Harpoon spider, I think the biggest question you have is if he has room to maneuver and fight. Though I think that Skaven may want him to continue to guard the wands "just in case".

I don't have my maps in front of me at the moment but, if the PC's room is going to fill with smoke, will the hallway the alleybashers are staging in fill too? It's something I know my players would ask about though a wind wall from Skaven would solve that easily.

An interesting twist you could use is that the fire draws the air out of their room. Suffication would become a threat while the party is trying to break out.

I'm planning to start the SCAP soon after my current campaign ends. I've read through the book and, as a bonus, I've even played through part of the AP. Now when I was a PC in the game we did 28 point buy for stats and even then I remember the adventure being pretty tough. What did you use for stats in your run of the AP? Would 32 point buy or 4d6 with re-roll ones be game breaking?

Also, I'm okay with the adventure as written except for the last chapter. I personally feel that ending the AP after the destruction of the Thirteen would be a better place to stop and just leave Adrimarchus locked away. Has anyone else done this? How did it work out?

Thanks!