Jam Falcon's page

I have a Sable Company PC in my campaign, and it hasn't been a big issue. She didn't join the party until around level four, a little bit into 7DttG (after the player's previous PC got a bit too nosy looking into the Gray Maidens). So I can't speak as much to the low-level issues, but other than dealing with Lamm, the majority of the work the PCs are doing in the first couple adventures is directly for, or aligned with, the guards.

My PCs are super close to Kroft, so they'd always go to her for support anyway. Having a Sable Company PC has actually helped, and just made it smoother when the PCs want to use the force of the law to back themselves up. There've also been instances where I've had Kroft or Marcus Endrin tell her outright not to wear any symbols or use her hippogriff, so that if things go bad it doesn't hurt the Sable Company.

It definitely has given the PCs a little bit of authority, but since the Grey Maidens don't answer to the Sable Company, it hasn't been a big deal. It also will be great when the company is shut down, because that'll rip that power away and give the character even more motivation for revenge (especially because Marcus Endrin is her brother-in-law).

Regarding flight at a low level, I don't think it's as big a deal in this campaign as others. Most of the low-level encounters are in tight spaces where a hippogriff lacks the maneuverability to be much use in the air (though it's certainly a powerful fighter), and as long as it can't carry the whole party, faster transport for one or two characters across the city isn't a big deal.

So yeah, I don't think there's any real issue with allowing a Sable Company PC.

If you're a player, I would say the best thing to do is to ask your GM first. While the guide won't spoil anything from the campaign outside of the secrets chapter, I felt it gave a bit more information that I wanted my players to have about some people and locations. Just little things, like a mystery about a location here or an NPC background there that could be spun-off into a short adventure. I would suggest your GM reads through it first to make sure it doesn't conflict with any of their plans.

It's been a few years since I ran Whispering Cairn, but I think it would work to just have him show up when they reached the sealed door. No need for them to defeat the grick - if they can avoid the pit, good for them. They still will find themselves at an unpassable door, and in need of help. I think he'd be just as impressed with their abilities if they avoid the fight as if they win it. So let them get over the pit, try to figure out how to progress past there, and once they seem stumped, Alastor reveals himself to offer a solution.

I think it'd definitely be different than what the book envisions, but if your players won't just kill each other out of suspicion, it could definitely be fun. The biggest difference would be that, rather than having an active saboteur, you're letting them knowingly sabotage themselves through arguing. Obviously it makes a letter less sense from a narrative perspective, but if your players do lean towards the "roll" side of things it shouldn't bother them.

I'd say it'll achieve the desired paranoia, but without requiring someone to act. If that trade-off seems right for your group, go for it!

It's been a couple years since I was at that part, but I do recall it was pretty disappointing for me too. A character did fall down, but I believe she was able to just use a magic item that didn't require a verbal component and fire off some sort of ray up through the illusory floor to alert the other party members. Even without metagaming, it seems like a trap that's maybe better on paper than in execution.

Thanks, I'm glad it can help!

I think whether or not you progress the NPCs depends wholly on what they've been doing since. For example, has Filge been cooped up doing research? Probably isn't going to gain more than a level or two (though he could have an unusually strong undead creation if you wanted to pose a challenge). But if he's been dealing with a lot of heat from the guards and had to elude them, fight some off, and generally go on the run, he could easily have kept up with them.

It's a small thing, but having the NPCs be at a different point in their lives than when the players last encountered them makes it all the more memorable. I know a lot of people on here have mentioned moving Filge to Alhaster, either as a potion seller, or perhaps another of Zeech's guests. Definitely a good place for him to hide, though he'd have trouble practicing necromancy there.

As for Kullen, I actually did run a second encounter with him. Perhaps built a bit too much on coincidence, in retrospect, but I had the party stumble across him and his thugs living in the Mistmarsh while en route to the Lizardfolk.

If you're interested, here's how I wrote that encounter (I didn't bother leveling them up, as they were tough enough still to prove a reasonable challenge but wouldn't be too lethal).

I believe my party got into a heated argument and Kullen was killed, but they managed to dissuade his allies from bothering them any further. You could just as easily use this basic setup for if they tried to track him down, just make it elsewhere in the Mistmarsh (or the Carin Hills, perhaps) where they won't stumble across it so easily.

I think whether or not you progress the NPCs depends wholly on what they've been doing since. For example, has Filge been cooped up doing research? Probably isn't going to gain more than a level or two (though he could have an unusually strong undead creation if you wanted to pose a challenge). But if he's been dealing with a lot of heat from the guards and had to elude them, fight some off, and generally go on the run, he could easily have kept up with them.

It's a small thing, but having the NPCs be at a different point in their lives than when the players last encountered them makes it all the more memorable. I know a lot of people on here have mentioned moving Filge to Alhaster, either as a potion seller, or perhaps another of Zeech's guests. Definitely a good place for him to hide, though he'd have trouble practicing necromancy there.

As for Kullen, I actually did run a second encounter with him. Perhaps built a bit too much on coincidence, in retrospect, but I had the party stumble across him and his thugs living in the Mistmarsh while en route to the Lizardfolk.

If you're interested, here's how I wrote that encounter (I didn't bother leveling them up, as they were tough enough still to prove a reasonable challenge but wouldn't be too lethal).

I believe my party got into a heated argument and Kullen was killed, but they managed to dissuade his allies from bothering them any further. You could just as easily use this basic setup for if they tried to track him down, just make it elsewhere in the Mistmarsh (or the Carin Hills, perhaps) where they won't stumble across it so easily.

Yeah, I'd agree that it's reasonable for Zyrxog to come after the party on their home turf, trying to strike back at them before they return. If they defeat him, they'll almost certainly head back to his lair to finish looting.

I had a similar situation in my campaign, however when he retaliated, he almost caused a TPK. I've got a big write-up of it in this thread: http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2qah2?Zyrxog-Recurring-Villain

That does however hinge on your party being interested in investigating the games for their own reasons, however, and it may seem forced if you push them towards it, and it just so happens to be where they need to be to progress the plot.

Technically, a vampire can't level drain in an anti-magic field, as energy drain is a supernatural ability.

Well, that's good to know. I'll have to let the player know that he was even more impossible to kill than I'd thought. :P

I can't find it in the adventures anywhere, but I'm pretty certain I either read or decided when I ran this that the phylactery was about two feet tall and 40 lbs. Big enough that they can't just tuck it in their (non-magical) pockets, but small enough that one person can carry it, if awkwardly.

Just wrapped up my campaign yesterday, so I thought I'd bring this thread back:

1) Kings of the Rift - it was the most complicated to run, very chaotic, and open enough that I had to stay on my toes, but when it worked, it really worked.
2) The Whispering Cairn - even ignoring the excellence that is Diamond Lake, it's an incredibly solid start to the campaign, a great dungeon crawl, and I love how the sidequest of Filge is the real hook.
3) The Library of Last Resort - it manages to cram so much high quality content into the adventure. Darl and Krathanos were two of the most memorable NPCs in the campaign.
4) The Champion's Belt - this was the third or fourth time my group has had an arena session, and rather than groans, they were excited and had a lot of fun because the adventure is so well put together.
5) The Hall of Harsh Reflections - two solid dungeon crawls, a good setting, and a villain (Zyrxog) that evolved into a long-term nemesis.
6) The Three Faces of Evil - it had some flaws, but the interplay between the three groups led to a lot of interesting roleplaying, and the encounters were uniformly excellent.
7) The Prince of Redhand - Alhaster made for a great setting, and the party was fun but not earth shattering.
8) Dawn of a New Age - a good conclusion that keeps everything moving quickly. Satisfying, but not outstanding.
9) The Spire of Long Shadows - an incredibly tough, enjoyable dungeon crawl with a lot of interesting new monsters. Engaging enough to keep the PCs coming back after all those deaths, but felt like it could have been a lot better.
10) Into the Wormcrawl Fissure - Dragotha was excellent, and Zulshyn made for an interesting break from all the combat, but otherwise there wasn't too much memorable about this adventure.
11) Encounter at Blackwall Keep - it was merely okay. The siege was surprisingly easy, the trek through the swamp lacked development, and the lizardfolk's lair was brief for a party that didn't fight their way through.
N/A) A Gathering of Winds - this one didn't really grab me, and since the party failed to stop the Ulgurstasta in The Champion's Belt, so I skipped it to run a few sessions of them cleaning up the mess.

Other than missing out on the fun of the owlbears, that seems like a pretty good solution.

My PCs put me in a similar situation. One spoke Terran, so I knew they'd talk to him. They rolled well on diplomacy, so I had Artophanx reveal his information in exchange for the promise that they'd free him in the future. I had decided that while in his egg form, Artophanx didn't even sense the passage of time (so he was confused when they first woke him up).

After finishing Encounter at Blackwall Keep, the Wizard returned to the Whispering Cairn and used dispel magic the free the elemental, who he then convinced to serve him as a new familiar. Of course, when he returned, Artophanx thought that he was being woken up immediately after going into his egg. I played him as not particularly smart and unable to quite comprehend how time passes while he's hibernating.

I think it's well worth giving Artophanx a lot to say when they first encounter him, if they're able to speak to him. He's the only NPC they'll speak with in the Cairn other than Alastor, and the best source for the sort of information that knowledge checks won't be able to provide.

If the have some way to contact Eligos or Ekyam, he could probably bring in a cleric to raise the sorcerer. I had a death in this adventure too, though it was in the arena (against Froghemoth), and that felt like a reasonable way to handle it. One of their number suddenly going missing between fights would likely raise suspicion, and this early in the adventure it's not going to be fun for the player who's left out.

If you've established something already that will make this not be an option, you could point out to the party that they might want to cover up the death. That could lead to all sorts of solutions—maybe they recruit a defeated entrant from the first round or dominate a guard and use magic to disguise them.

Perhaps the last two deaths in my campaign:

Character: Ellizabella Barriston, artificer 21
Adventure: Dawn of a New Age
Location: Lashonna's Ciborium
Cause: Vampires. Lots and lots of vampires.

Ellizabella (Lizzy) has been an almost unstoppable force throughout the entire campaign, an artificer with defenses beyond most beings ability to bypass. Lashonna, knowing this, equipped herself and her three blessed angels with antimagic torcs (from Underdark). Despite her penchant for spellcasting, she realized that her best option was to disable all the items and engage in melee against a defenseless Lizzy. Along with a blessed angel and three vampires, Lashonna cornered Lizzy and her level was drained entire after a couple of rounds.

Character: Keveth, fighter 21/paladin 11, hellreaver 10 (gestalt)
Adventure: Dawn of a New Age
Location: Lashonna's Ciborium
Cause: Blessed Angel

Not long after that, Keveth was attacked by a blessed angel that had not yet activated it's torc. It managed to unleash a full attack, and one lucky roll of a 20 allowed the vorpal sword to cleave Keveth's head off. Luckily for him, he had a contingent revivify and the next turn. From the ground, he grabbed his sword, which had been dropped in the adjacent square several turns earlier in favour of a wand, and stabbed up at the angel, channeling all of his abilities into it and slaying it in one strike.

This was supposed to be the finale, and Kyuss has just emerged from the monolith, but unfortunately a difficult scheduling situation and a thankfully harmless medical scare forced us to stop there. Wouldn't be surprised if I'm back here in a couple of days with one or two to report from my powered-up Kyuss.

My party of four missed a lot of the more hidden lot and felt like they were behind pretty much the entire time (losing everything to a near TPK with Zyrxog didn't help either), so I'd err on the side of more loot if yours seem to be similarly un-thorough. I'd agree with around 50% more gold, and a handful of additional magic items so everyone leaves each adventure with a shiny new toy (or something to sell).

My PCs first way the name way back in their first adventure—they captured Filge and questioned him, and when they asked about the worm he explained it was from a spawn of Kyuss, per the adventure's section on speaking with him. They didn't, however, ask who Kyuss was, and in Encounter at Blackwall Keep, they didn't really question it either. They knew they'd be facing "unkillable" zombies, so it wasn't seen as a great mystery.

It wasn't until the Spire of Long Shadows (and the conversation with Tenser/Manzorian which preceded it) that it really became clear to them that Kyuss was central to the plot, as I recall. They missed the entire under area of the arena, and assumed everything was just related to the Ebon Triad.

In retrospect (just started on Dawn of a New Age last weekend), I'm pretty happy with how it worked out. I've kept it pretty focused on stopping Dragotha from freeing Kyuss, which means up until now, they didn't even realize they'd end up fighting him. That said, I can see how someone might want to focus more. My players weren't too interested in his history and were more concerned with Dragotha and the Ebon Triad, so Kyuss took a back seat. Really, Dragotha was the BBEG in my campaign, with Lashonna being a last minute twist villain and Kyuss as the plot device they have to stop, and the climactic fight.

As for a knowledge check, I'd let them know it's called a spawn of Kyuss, and make it easy to deduce that it's worms are the same as Filge's. He's an obscure god, but not unheard of, and a decent (25+, I'd say) knowledge: religion check should be sufficient to know the basics, that he's a god of undeath with a focus on worms.

In my experience, players will miss out on plenty of information of their own accord, so intentionally keeping them in the dark can just lead to a complete lack of knowledge.

While it requires pretty specific actions from your players, here's what I did to get them to Blackwall Keep: they really latched onto Filge, and ended up taking him with them through the entirety of TFoE. I decided not to have him betray them like the adventure says, since it made little sense and we all liked the character, and I was playing him as genuinely interested in the Kyuss worms.

After they finished that adventure and took a rest, I had Filge come to them with a letter from Mazerna, who I had decided would be his sister. She wasn't captured in my game (though several soldiers, including the commander where) and had heard of the lizardfolk having problems with those same worms.

That let me keep Filge around for one more adventure, and since he was a level behind the PCs at that point, he didn't turn the tide of the siege in any major way. In all of this, Allustan was a pretty minor character, someone to identify magic items and give information about the Wind Dukes. That said, I ended up skipping AGoW for unrelated reasons, so having Allustan be important to the party was less of a priority.

Two more tonight, sort of.

Character Name: Keveth
Adventure: Into the Wormcrawl Fissure
Location: The Apostle Caves
Cause of Death: Death Trap

The Death Trap lived up to it's name.

Character Name: Keveth
Adventure: Into the Wormcrawl Fissure
Location: The Apostle Caves
Cause of Death: Death Trap

After being brought back with revivify, the Death Trap proved it was, in fact, perfectly titled.

Character: Kashana, level 18 cleric
Adventure: Kings of the Rift
Location: Near Far Tower Rock
Cause of Death: Xyzanth

The party decided that their best bet at getting into the Citadel's vault is to negotiate with Kagro Thundersmiter, despite his insisting that the vault will never be opened. However, they (perhaps over-confidently) offered to take out all of the dragons in exchange for a discussion after, and Kagro knew he'd be foolish to pass up on the opportunity.

Braver/insaner yet, the party decided to fight the entire dragon army head on when they saw it having returned after easing off for a few hours and laying waste to Far Tower Rock. They didn't even give their poor cleric time to finish resting, much less waiting until dawn for her spells to come back. While the rest of the party flew around and hurled their full might at the dragons, Kashana tried to hide behind the large "island" to the west of the fortress. Unfortunately, as she descended there, she found Xyzanth, the fang dragon, already waiting there for an opening to attack the party. Kashana was quickly slain by his powerful bite and constitution drain.

She was quickly brought back with a revivify, but the session ended prematurely shortly after. Given the risk of the party's tactic, I wouldn't be surprised if I'm back here with some more deaths to report next week.

Also, if I haven't missed any, this marks the twentieth death for my party in Age of Worms, though we're actually still (or rather, back) with the original characters that entered the Whispering Cairn.

I always thought that too, but I reread it at my last session, and I think that restriction only applies if the target makes their save. Assuming we're talking about 3.5, at least.

I did it, but it didn't really go anywhere. They did one job for him, trying to scare Ronatbont Mur out of town (he's mentioned in section 21 of the Diamond Lake write-up). A couple of them did it, but they didn't really have a lot of interest in helping him much more.

I also did a sidequest that a lot of them enjoyed which could pretty easily be worked into this, based on the hints for a hook in area 14. A childhood friend of one of the party members asked them to help his sister, Constance, escape town. They hired her, then snuck out a window in the night and snuck through town to get her to the Able Carter Coaching Inn, where they paid one of the drivers to leave for the Free City with her immediately. I later had her and her brother show up as employees at the Free City Arena. Perhaps you could have Chaum put them onto the task, maybe the brother is a lackey of his.

Sounds like it went pretty well. Whispering Cairn is, I think, one of the best starts to any campaign I've ever seen, even though it has little relevance to the overall plot of Age of Worms.

My players also just killed the zombies at the table without letting me play out the scene. I'm curious how many DMs actually got to do it.

On the topic of playing online, my group has recently transitioned from face to face to mostly online (playing with Roll20) and we've found it doesn't slow our sessions down much at all — if anything, we're moving faster because it's easier to schedule now. It's not quite the same as playing in person, especially for the roleplaying aspects of the game, but it's a lot better than I ever thought it would be.

Looks great! My PCs have continued to use Magepoint as a base of operations even into the late game, so it'll be nice to have a good map.

I agree with Kobold Cleaver—clerics are almost as bound to follow their deity's morals as paladins are their code. By offering his holy symbol as a trade, the cleric has shown that he's certainly willing to bring his faith into the matter.

Alastor is a 13 year old kid, and if you're already playing him as a bit stubborn, it stands to reason that he won't negotiate. He's concerned about his family's remains now that he's heard they're missing, and is smart enough to realize that he has some sway over the PCs. So he can flat out refuse to help them until he knows the remains and his have been returned (which he seems to be able to sense magically, so I don't think a bluff check would work).

That said, it's also important that, like you said, you don't turn this into player vs. DM. Probably the best bet is to try to play up Alastor's character strongly, but then when you're talking out of character, immediately change up your tone and be friendly and helpful. Don't let any of Alastor's annoyance and exasperation seep out into the way you speak as yourself. That will reinforce in your player's minds that while Alastor is stubborn and demanding, you are there to provide them with a good game. If the conversation can work in such a way that you get to switch between speaking as the DM and as Alastor a few times, I think it will help keep the tension in character a lot. Subtle manipulation can go a long way to keeping things running smoothly.

Encounter at Blackwall Keep is probably the easiest adventure in the AP, so that's probably a good spot for it. TFoE is very tough, and with the way it kind of pushes parties to do it all at once without returning to town, it's probably just as well that they're higher level for it.

I'd recommend you have them at appropriate levels by the the fourth adventure, because because that's where things start getting a bit more serious, and if they're overlevelled it will be a lot easier than it should be. Some of the fights, particularly the invisible stalkers near the beginning of the adventure, will lose a lot of their threat against a party that can easily fly and see invisibility. The leader of the doppelgangers also is quite a tough fight, but since he's likely to be fought without any allies, an higher level party will have little trouble with him.

I also had two more that I forgot to post a while back.

Character: Kashana (Cleric 16)
Adventure: The Library of Last Resort
Location: Lair of Harrowdroth
Cause of Death: Darl Quethos's monks, Sabir and Jalagar.
Grappled by one monk, Kashana was dragged away from her allies to Darl, Zyrxog, and the other monk, who attacked her as well. Although a polymorphed familiar (Lizzy's) managed to grab the monk, he was still able to take out her few remaining hitpoints.

Character Name: Lizzy (Artificer 16)
Adventure: The Library of Last Resort
Location: Lair of Harrowdroth
Cause of Death: Malhazar and Nalhazzarath
When Darl wished for an antimagic field on his efreeti friend, Lizzy was in trouble. She was quickly cornered, and with her defenses down, the two bruisers were easily able to take her out. Her contingent revivify was unable to trigger.

I was posting some recent deaths in the obituary thread and was going to explain all of this there, but I thought it warranted it's own thread, as it might give future DMs some ideas.

While my players have been trying to stop the Age of Worms, a sidestory has been grabbing at least as much of their attention. In Hall of Harsh Reflections, with two deaths in the doppelganger's warehouse and three more in Zyrxog's Domain. In the room right before encounter Zyrxog, down two party members and (unknowingly) holding a ton of cursed items, they made the decision to retreat. This was probably a wise move, as they would have had trouble taking on Zyrxog in the state they were in, but it was followed by two major mistakes. First they decided to wait for a few days, and second, they decided to make the doppelganger's warehouse their new base.

Zyrxog, being an intelligent fellow, used his scrying pool and watched as they rested. Seeing that it was only a matter of time before they came for him, he decided to hit them first. He procured a scroll of teleport, grabbed his two surviving octopins, cast his buffs, and teleported in to the room where the doppelganger's leader had been while the party was testing out the mind gem device on a captured drow.

The fight was over in a few rounds. The octopins overwhelmed and cornered the party wizard. The fighter, reincarnated as a tiny lizard creature after dying in Zyrxog's lair, was next to useless and had his brain eaten by Zyrxog. The artificer and spellthief tried to run. The spellthief used a potion of Gaseous Form to slip away, but the artificer wasn't so lucky, and was mindblasted and dominated. Luckily for the party as a whole, her familiar was intelligent enough to take a bite out of the dead wizard and sneak away, finding the druid who had reincarnated party members several times in the last few days. The wizard was brought back (now a lizardfolk instead of a dwarf), and managed to regroup with the spellthief at Eligos's house.

After that defeat, they hoped Zyrxog would leave them alone, and decided to investigate the Free City Games (they'd been wanting to join since they first arrived in the city, so no motivating was required). They signed up, and agreed to help locate their sponsor's missing sister. They recruited two new party members, Eligos's brother, a warmage, and a hulking frenzied berserker dedicated to Pelor. After a few days in the arena, Eligos came to visit them with troubling news. He and Celeste had decided that Zyrxog was too dangerous to stay in the city and had entered his lair to try to deal with him, but the mindflayer wasn't there at the time. They took the opportunity to look around, and found the ledger with details of Zyrxog's transactions with Raknian. The party was concerned about the Apostolistic Scrolls, but dismissed the idea that they would be under the arena somewhere, and decide to focus on winning the games so that they could get into Raknian's manor. In the final fight, the Ulgurstasta showed up, ate Auric, and turned the entire audience into wights. By the time the party escaped, rested, and returned to the Free City, it was being overrun and being evacuated, the wights contained by powerful wizards and clerics from around the world, but too great in number to be destroyed quickly.

The party did check Zyrxog's lair for themselves a few days later, but by that time he had left town. They spent the next few months cleaning up their mess in the free city and hunting down the Ulgurstasta (I decided to skip A Gathering of Winds, and used this instead). When they finally felt the situation was under control enough to return to their quest, they set off to Magepoint. A few attempts were made to locate their captured Artificer friend, but none were successful. The Spire of Long Shadows gave them some a lot of trouble, and while taking a few days of downtime in Magepoint between attempts to reach it's lower levels, they were attacked. An assassin targeted the frenzied berserker in the town square, causing him to fly into a rage and, unable to see his assailant, attack the villagers. The assassin was found and captured, and the berserker was able to get away with a large fine and exile from Magepoint, as the guards doubted the could hold or execute him without more deaths.

The assassin had a note with directions to a meeting place, so the party followed that and found a cave. Inside, they were surprised to find octopins, but as they traveled deeper, it became clear that this was one of Zyrxog's bases of operation. They found their artificer deep in the caves, channeling magic to enhance three octopins to great size. The wizard was able to dispel her domination, and, realizing that the they stood little chance against the giant creatures, the frenzied berserker offer his (now disgraced) life to hold the creatures back while the rest of the party escaped. The artificer tells the party that she was forced to make magic items for Zyrxog during the months of her imprisonment, not mentioning the fact that she was also used as an assassin for him.

Fast forward to the Library of Last Resort now. When Lashonna scrys on Darl Quethos, they see an all too familiar illithid on the ship. When the party arrives on the real Tilagos island through the portal of storms, and after speaking with the wild watchers, the artificer hears a disturbingly familiar "voice" in her head. Zyrxog tells her that he is working with Darl in hopes of taking his delicious, knowledge filled brain. He knows that the party seeks the information of the island, so he tells them that he plans to betray the cleric at a time when it would turn the course of the battle between the two parties.

When the party arrives at the Lair of Harrowdroth, they are able to take out the nightmare beast without any trouble, but the artificer is warned by Zyrxog that Darl's party is about to arrive. The party takes defensive positions, but are quickly overwhelmed by the number of intelligent, tactical foes. The cleric (a replacement after the spellthief died in the Spire of Long Shadows) and artificer are killed, while the fighter (the one who was originally killed by Zyrxog, brought back at a higher level by a miracle) and wizard manage to grab the bodies and escape. Darl has little interest in pursuit, having succeeded in his goal of weakening the party while taking no casualties on his own side. Zyrxog remained out of the way during the fight, sending out a few mindblasts and a lightning bolt, but knowing that most of the party was immune to his stunning now.

After retreating, resurrecting, and resting, the party returned to Tilagos and turned Darl's tactics against him. They scryed on one of his monks, and watched until the realized that they were going after the Night Twist. They quickly made their way to the forest and, when Darl's party was engaged in combat with the tree, they attacked. The open terrain was much more to the party's advantage, and the artificer put walls of stone all over to shape the battlefield to their needs. When several of Darl allies were dead, Zyrxog told the artificer that he would turn on Darl. She put a dome shaped wall of stone over them, trapping them in a tight space together. Once the rest of Darl's party was dead, they opened up the dome. Inside they found Zyrxog, who had tried to grapple Darl and failed. He had been hit with a dimensionally anchor, then harm, and finally Darl had used carved the words "All yours, Ellizabella" (the artificer's name) into his forhead. Darl was nowhere to be found, but Zyrxog was at one hitpoint, and unable to escape. Before he could even try to reason with the party, he was knocked unconscious by the fighter. As he bled out, they debated what to do with him, but in the end the artificer decided to get her long delayed revenge and finish him off.

So now, after more than half of the time we've been playing Age of Worms, they've finally defeated their biggest foe. Of course, now Darl Quethos is out there with a grudge....

Anyway, it's been interesting trying to adapt the adventures to make Zyrxog be a recurring threat, but still keep things mostly on track. I'm pretty pleased with how well the player's reacted to it, and finally getting him was certainly a highlight of the campaign for them. Let me know if you have any questions, and thanks for reading!

Good luck! I started about a year and a half back (currently on Library of Last Resort) and these forums have been invaluable

Yeah, Whispering Cairn is pretty tough, but that might make it a fair bit less difficult. You might want to add a couple more enemies here and there (an extra wolf or two, maybe another zombie for Filge if they're level four by then).

On the flip side, you could leave it the same. It's tough enough that they problem won't have too easy of a time, and the low CRs mean they'll be earning less XP than an appropriately levelled party (assuming you're using 3.5) and they'll be leveling up more slowly. The first two adventures are very tough as is, and by the time they reach the third one, their levels should have corrected to the right range.

I'd say leave it as is, although if you think a climatic fight like Filge or the Wind Warriors need a bit more power, don't be afraid to give it to them.

Yeah, someone on here did a breakdown, and a huge percentage of the enemies are undead, especially in the latter half of the AP. The first half may be enough of a break though, depending on your players—there are still undead, but they tend to be important fights (Filge's Zombies, the first Spawn of Kyuss in EaBWK, and so on). Library of Last Resort, Into the Wormcrawl Fissure, and Dawn of a New Age are super heavy on the undead, and while all the adventures have some variation, the theme of undead is a huge part of the campaign.

Edit: Here's the breakdown I mentioned: Favoured Enemies for Age of Worms. So undead are by far the most common type of enemy, but they aren't the majority.

That part actually does list a couple of ways the PCs might deal with the situation, including flattering them with diplomacy. Of course, what was actually said may not have met the adventure's description of how to get on their good side. I could see the DM letting a 26 fail if it was phrased as a demand, or impose a penalty if you weren't trying to pad Kullen and his buddy's egos.

But in the end, a lot of these questions are things only your DM can answer. An adventure path leaves a lot of room for changes from person to person, so one DM's interpretation of a certain character, location, or event could be almost unrecognizable from another's.

What he probably meant is that the temple is easier if you don't go into that big room, but instead go around the side and pick off the enemies in smaller groups if they haven't been alerted yet. The adventure gives tactics suggestions so that the cultists try to draw the players into the big room though, so it's hardly the wrong way. Just the more difficult one.

I managed to do the same with my players, and it would have been a TPK if I hadn't decided the Hextorians would take them prisoner. It's a very tough fight if you get ambushed like that. But the whole campaign is filled with moments like this, where you need to find a less obvious method to go about things, or you may end up in a tougher situation.

As for diplomacy, I wouldn't expect Theldrick to be easily swayed by a party with a paladin, but in general the successful of the skill will depend on how the DM wants to run things. If he's set on a hack and slash game, he might not be as willing to let you talk your way out of things. There are some points in the campaign where diplomacy is explicitly an option with a set DC, however, so I wouldn't recommend just ignoring it completely as an option.

Yeah, unless he's using the sidebars at the back of each adventure to scale things down, you're going to have a pretty tough time if your characters aren't incredibly powerful.

If he's not sure why you're behind, feel free to send him this way and we can help him out.

Each adventure lists the levels the party is expected to start and end at in the very first section, where it introduces the events of that adventure and explains the Adventure Path concept. As a three person party, you should be ahead if anything, unless you DM decided to slow down the progression to make things tougher.

You should probably be level 4 or 5 where you are currently, assuming you haven't missed any large chunks of the adventures, been resurrected, or crafted a lot of magic items.

Wow, I thought your Ulgurstasta was good, but this one is absolutely excellent.

I've forgotten about posting here in the last couple of months. Without going into full write—ups for each death, since the last post, the following have occurred:
Barbarian/Frenzied Berserker killed by Froghemoth
Warmage killed by aforementioned Frenzied Berserker uncontrollable rage in the SOLS, after fighting the first Kyuss Knight.
Spellthief and Warmage (again) killed by the Swords of Kyuss in the SOLS (one from the invocation of the worm, the other from a melee attack).
Spellthief (again) killed by Kelvos casting Destruction.
Fighter/Paladin killed by a worm naga's Slay Living, though he was revivified immediately.
Wizard, Fighter/Paladin (again) and Spellthief (again) killed by Mak'ar. Magic missiles, scorching rays, and a Plane Shift took them out. The fourth party member, an artificer, was also planeshifted randomly by Prismatic Spray, but got to a plane she could escape from.

Currently at 17 deaths, having just started PoRH, though only one character has been permanently lost (the planeshifted spellthief. The party couldn't locate him easily and decided to recruit a replacement rather than spend a lot of resources on a not particularly well liked character.)

Mine don't actually either, since they managed to miss the entire underlayer of the arena, but it does say that once the scrolls have been used they "become nonmagical. The lore within remains, however, and if consulted it grants a +4 bonus on any Knowledge (religion) checks made about Kyuss and his cult".

I think Wordelo means the diadem from the Whispering Cairn, and other than that, I can't think of anything else needed either. Maybe the Apostolic Scrolls, if the party managed to get a hold of them. They aren't essential later, but they are a unique item that can help with research.

The ghost does have some minor significance later, and the lore of the cairn comes up again in A Gathering of Wind, but really you could just run the investigation of Filge as an introduction, since that's the most important part of the book. The rest of the stuff in the Whispering Cairn is just a red herring, for the most part. Maybe you could have it start with the party having already reached the ghost and cleared out the rest of the cairn, so they just play out that end section.

My players did the exact same thing. What I decided to do was use the encounter with two trolls on the way to the Free City from the beginning of HoHR, and make sure that the player carrying the egg was attacked by the trolls. The egg would be broken, and the next round worms would crawl out all over the character. The trolls would be disgusted and scared away by that, opening up a window for diplomacy (my party actually managed to get them to join in the arena in Champion's Belt to try and get revenge on Auric and Khellek), and it gives the party a rather terrifying introduction. I put a pond just off the side of the road at the fight, so that the character could jump in and wash all the worms off quickly – had she not taken that or thought of some other method, I would have had the worms attempt to infect her, although probably just like a single worm, since it was their first encounter with them.

That said, your plan sounds good too. I think there were also a couple of other threads on here about this topic, so I'd recommend searching and taking a look at those too, and see which one you think will work best.

I don't have the book handy, but as I recall gestalt characters only apply the template to one side, so the second class can still run all the way.

Also, I'd personally suggest putting the LA on the fighter side, rather than the cleric. Being a couple levels slower with the feats and a point behind on BAB is nothing compared to being two levels slow on spells.

Good luck with the campaign – it's a good one!

And another one last night:

Character Name: Ellizabella Barriston (Lizzy) - Artificer 8
Adventure: Hall of Harsh Reflections
Location: Zyrxog's Domain
Cause of Death: Octopins

This one was much more straight forward than Keveth's. Immediately after Keveth died, the party decided to press onward, sending Lizzy and the spellthief to scout invisibly. Both were still CON drained from the yellow mold, and while managed to avoid too much damage from the Gylph of Warding, when they were jumped by octopins (who could, of course, see through their invisibility) they were both slowed. Despite Lizzy's high AC, the octopins were able to land a few hits while the spellthief retreated. On lucky critical hit and rend later, and Lizzy dropped from over twenty hitpoints to negative eighteen.

Character Name: Keveth (Again)
Adventure: Hall of Harsh Relfections
Location: Zyrxog's Domain
Cause of Death: A fellow party member

The party arrived in the large room that housed the drow, and were promptly met with a casting of confusion from the drow cleric. It hit two party members, Keveth, the fighter/rogue, and Lizzy, the Artificer. Lizzy's turn was next, and on her roll to see what action she would take, she rolled attack nearest creature. That just so happened to be her childhood friend Keveth. She hit him for a fair bit of damage (being an artificer, she has a pretty nasty home made gauntlet that can shoot some ray spells.)
Keveth was still at about 30 hitpoints, so the polymorphed spelltheif went after the drow while the wizard tried to dispel the confusion, but failed to do so. On Keveth turn, as per the rules of confusion, he attacked the last person to damage him: Lizzy. He hit her, but not for much damage. The problem came when it went around to her turn again. She shot back at Keveth – and rolled a critical. Since her rays only needed a touch attack, it wasn't hard to confirm. She hit Keveth for well over forty damage, killing him instantly.

After Keveth was dead, the spelltheif (who's polymorph effect had been dispelled by the drow cleric) returned to where the rest of the party was, and stole the confusion effect from Lizzy (who is widely acknowledged as the most powerful party member). Lizzy and the wizard were then able to take out the remaining drow, and the spellthief did not roll any confusion effects that were too problematic before the spell ended.

Yeah, if you think Charm Person will be an issue for your group, just swap it out for a more straight-forward spell.

And like Are said, the tieflings use crossbows, so the strength isn't a huge issue. They're tough enough that if the PCs play very poorly they can be a threat, but for the most part it's the stronger enemies that are a threat in this adventure.

Someone else did — here's the thread.

Depending on how much research they've already done, perhaps they could try to use the opportunity to find out more about Delvehaven. The Mayor, General Vorne and Oberigo would all likely have some information, and the other NPCs detailed could certainly know an interesting rumour or two.

There's a writeup on the Hellknights in the back of the third adventure (What Lies in Dust). It's got some general stuff about the organization, and about half a page on each order. Been a while since I read it, but I think the contents are aimed towards DMs more than players, so might have to have your DM take a look over it before you read any of it.

Character Name: Keveth
Adventure: Three Faces of Evil
Location: The Dark Cathedral
Cause of Death: The Ebon Aspect

Down a player already due to a last minute cancellation, the party engaged the Ebon Aspect, not knowing what to expect. Keveth, a fifth level fighter/rogue, managed to keep it away from his friends for a little while, but after a brave, and very damage charge, it managed to hit him with two claws and a bite, taking him down before anyone had a chance to do anything about it.

Not sure about the balance for a game with multiple players, but for a solo campaign that seems like a reasonable mechanic that will make the game more fun for your player.