Michael Cyr's page

My party has just finished Zenith Trajectory. During the adventure, when the party ran into Dhorlot, the sorcerer in the party, who has the Wyrm Blooded trait from the HC, has taken a few Draconic Heritage feats (from Complete Arcane), and is now mulitclassing into the Dragon Disciple prestige class (i.e. he's really playing up his draconic heritage), went into the room with Dhorlot by himself, shutting the door behind him to protect the rest of the party. Dhorlot recognized that he might actually be one of his descendants, which didn't necessarily mean that he was safe from the dragon, but he at least allowed him to speak before deciding whether or not to eat him.

The sorcerer, for his part, suggested that he might be of use to the dragon. Dhorlot was skeptical, especially since he had seen that one of the other party members was a follower of Pelor, but the sorcerer said that he was only using the party in order to gain in power, and he rolled exceedingly well on his Bluff check, and Dhorlot (surprisingly enought) doesn't even have any ranks in Sense Motive. When the dragon mentioned that he would probably need to find a new place to live, now that the party had either killed or driven off all the kuo-toas, the sorcerer told him that he knew a place that would make a good lair, essentially offering him the kopru ruins from chapter 3.

The sorcerer gave the dragon his name, told him that he could be reached in Cauldron, and the dragon let him go.

The sorcerer is actually CG in alignment, and I'm not entirely sure what his goal is in offering to help the dragon, but now I'm trying to figure out how get the most fun out of this interesting development, and I thought that I would draw on the imagination and cleverness of the board's readers. If you have any interesting ideas, feel free to post them here, and thanks in advance.

My PCs will question Ghelve tomorrow. Ghelve knows about the Vanishing. My question is: does he know everything written in the book? How the disease is transmitted and how it is cured?

It's really up to you, but personally, I think that's making it too easy for the players. In my game, the gnomes knew that the Vanishing was connected to the magic items they created, but even they didn't know why (e.g. they didn't know anything about the spellweaver connection). But that was 75 years ago. I played it that no one really knew that much anymore about the disease/curse, other than that it had happened and had led to the abandonment of Jzadirune, and even that wasn't common knowledge.

My characters (going on 6th level in the middle of Flood Season) still have a chest full of all the magic items they took from Jzadirune and the Malachite Fortress because they're paranoid about what might be infected with the Vanishing.

Doesn't it seem like the game should have a detect curse spell?

Hi all,

My five guys are about to enter the Pit of the Seven Jaws (PotSW), and they are just on the cusp of 7th. Should I cheat a little and bump them up to 7 before they head in?

Thanks,
Olodrin

I would say that that depends on how your party has done up until now. If they've had a lot of character deaths, and you don't want them to experience a lot more, you might want to up them to 7th to give them a bit more survivability, especially since there are only five of them and, as you may have seen on this board, Bhal Hamatugn has been a tough fight for a lot of parties.

On the other hand, if your group has come through the previous adventures relatively unscathed, I would say play it straight and leave them as is. They obviously know how to deal with things when the situation gets tough.

Just my 2 cp.

If Drakthar successfully dominates one of the PCs and tells them to attack another member of the party, does that trigger the "any subject forced to take actions against its nature receives a new saving throw with a +2 bonus" clause of the Dominate Person spell? If so, does the PC get to make a new save every round he spends attacking another party member, or just once to resist the general command. It's pretty obvious what my players' opinions will be on this, but I'd like to get some feedback from some GMs.

Yes, this is open to some debate, but in my opinion: yes, attacking your companions is an action against your nature, so you get a new save. But sorry, only one save. If given a new command that went against your nature, you would get yet another save, but only one new save per command.

Also, in Drakthar's stat block, it lists his full attack as morningstar (primary) and slam (secondary). His slam attack is so much more devastating (damage + energy drain + temporary hp) than a swing with a morningstar, I don't understand why he even bothers with the morningstar. Wouldn't he be much more effective if he used his slam attack with his full attack bonus? What am I missing here?

You might be right, but my main concern was that this would just be TOO nasty. Negative levels really a hurt a low level party. Especially when it's a minimum of 380 gp to get a restoration spell cast, assuming you can find someone to do it for you. Note that Jenya is not high enough level yet.

The first time Drakthar went after my party, he did so in dire wolf form. He grappled one of the soul knife on the first round, and he never managed to escape before Drakthar had dropped him to negative hps. All this time, the rest of the party had hardly damaged him at all.

I'm also thinking of running Jzadirune sometime soon, and had a couple of questions:

1. The "Player's Map of Jzadirune" seems to available to them twice - once as a sketch on a piece of leather in G5 (Keygan's Bedroom), and then again in on the wall in room J16 ("Map Room"). This seems a little odd. Is the intent to make the map available again in case they didn't get it from Keygan, or am I not reading this correctly?

That is essentially correct. Both maps show the same thing. Of course, the characters can't take the map from room J16 with them.

2. The Vanishing seems poorly explained. I understand that there's a one-day incubation period, but after the initial Fort save (and possible 1d6 Cha loss), what happens? An additional Fort save at DC 15 every day, with another 1d6 Cha lost until the victim has disappeared? It's unclear to me.

It functions like any other disease (see the DMG, page 292). The diseased character must make a Fortitude at the listed DC every day or suffer the listed damage. If he makes the save two days in a row, he fights off the disease. (Unless the description of the Vanishing says otherwise, what with it being a supernatural disease and all, but I don't think it does.) Also note that a character will regain 1 point of ability damage each day (2 with complete bed rest), even on a day where they take damage from the disease.

Okay, so I've made a stab at creating my own item set. It's loosely based on the vestments of divinity. Any feedback, good or bad, is welcome. I'm also trying to figure out where to place the new items, and suggestions for such will be welcome. I'm thinking, though, that not all of them will just "happen" to be found in adventures of the adventure path. They may have to make an extra effort to complete the set.

SURABAR'S ARRAY
Surabar's array is a set of items that were used by Surabar Spellmason and that were particularly useful in his battle against the demons of the Demonskar.
Surabar's array is most useful if you are a good-aligned arcane spellcaster, since you can use your spells to enhance your abilities to combat evil outsiders. However, any character can appreciate the benefits of at least some of the items in this set.

LORE
Characters who have ranks in Knowledge (history) or Knowledge (arcana), or who have the bardic knowledge ability, can research Surabar's array to learn more about these items. When a character succeeds on a check, the following lore is revealed, including the information from lower DCs.
DC 15: The items of Surabar's array were revealed to Surabar Spellmason by a celestial being known as Nidrama. He spent years tracking down each item until he gathered them all.
DC 20: When Surabar Spellmason came to the Cauldron area and made known his intent to oppose the demons of the Demonskar, he received a visit from Nidrama, who watches over the Cauldron region. She gave him Alakast and told him rumors of other items that might aid him in his battle, assuming he could find them.
Surabar spent years adventuring, tracking leads, and following up clues, until he finally located all the items Nidrama had told him about. With these items, Surabar set out to break the power of the residents of the Demonskar for good.
DC 25: When Surabar died, the items of his array were buried with him. However, it is known that tomb raiders broke in and stole all of the items centuries ago. One or two of the items have been rumored to have shown up now and again, but the current location of the items is unknown.
DC 30: A check result of 30 or higher reveals the location of another piece of the set. Use this to drive further adventure and direct the PCs toward some location or story you would like them to explore.

COLLECTION BENEFITS
Wearing Surabar's array grants you powers that bolster your ability to battle evil creatures, from a stronger resolve against their attacks to a greater ability to affect them with your spells. With each new item added, you gain additional divine confidence. When all five pieces are worn together, your body takes on a silvery sheen, and your eyes become the color of glowing aquamarine.
2 Pieces: You gain a +1 sacred bonus on saves against effects created by evil creatures.
5 Pieces: You gain a +2 bonus on caster level checks to overcome the spell resistance of evil creatures.

ALAKAST
Price (Item Level): 20,600 gp (15th)
Body Slot: — (held)
Caster Level: 8th
Aura: Moderate; (DC 19) conjuration
Activation: —
Weight: 4 lb.

This thick oaken staff is shod with iron on both ends and is carved with celestial symbols all along its length.

This is a +1 bane vs. evil outsiders quarterstaff. Both heads of the quarterstaff bear identical magic qualities. Attacks made by Alakast penetrate damage reduction as if it were a good-aligned weapon.
Prerequisites: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, summon monster I, creator must be good.
Cost to Create: 10,000 gp (plus 600 gp for masterwork quarterstaff), 800 XP, 20 days.

BADGE OF GLORY
Price (Item Level): 3,400 gp (8th)
Body Slot: Throat
Caster Level: 5th
Aura: Faint; (DC 17) transmutation
Activation: Swift (command)
Weight: 1 lb.

This ornate platinum badge is set with two large cabochon aquamarines.

When you activate a badge of glory, the next melee attack you make on the same turn against an evil creature deals an extra 1 point of damage per two character levels. A badge of glory functions two times per day.
If you have the smite evil class feature, the extra damage granted by a badge of glory is instead equal to that granted by your smite evil ability (or 1 point per two levels, whichever is greater).
Prerequisites: Craft Wondrous Item, ability to smite evil, possession of a piece of the set.
Cost to Create: 1,700 gp, 136 XP, 4 days.

CORD OF FAVOR
Price (Item Level): 3,000 gp (7th)
Body Slot: Waist
Caster Level: 6th
Aura: Moderate; (DC 18) evocation
Activation: — and standard (command)
Weight: 1 lb.

This silver cord is worn about the body as a belt.

A cord of favor grants you a +5 competence bonus on Sense Motive checks. This is a continuous effect and requires no activation.
In addition, three times per day you can activate the cord and sacrifice a prepared arcane spell or arcane spell slot of 1st level or higher to use protection from evil (as the spell), using your own caster level or that of the cord, whichever is higher.
Prerequisites: Craft Wondrous Item, protection from evil, possession of a piece of the set.
Cost to Create: 1,500 gp, 120 XP, 3 days.

CRYSTAL OF BINDING
Price (Item Level): 2,000 gp (6th)
Body Slot: — (weapon crystal)
Caster Level: 9th
Aura: Moderate; (DC 17) abjuration
Activation: —
Weight: —

This perfect crystal sphere emits a faint aquamarine glow.

This crystal is the equivalent of a lesser augment crystal (for example, it functions only when attached to a weapon with a magical enhancement bonus of +1 or higher). If a weapon with this crystal attached scores a critical hit against an evil outsider, that creature can't use any teleportation abilities or spells for 1 round.
Prerequisites: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, dimensional anchor, possession of a piece of the set.
Cost to Create: 1,000 gp, 80 XP, 2 days.

PHYLACTERY OF LIGHT
Price (Item Level): 6,500 gp (10th)
Body Slot: Head
Caster Level: 7th
Aura: Moderate; (DC 18) evocation
Activation: — and standard (command)
Weight: —

This small black leather box attaches to two leather straps worn around the brow. Inside the box is a parchment of sacred prayers.

A phylactery of light allows you to better resist the powers wielded by residents of the Lower Planes. You gain a +2 morale bonus on saves against effects created by evil outsiders. This is a continuous effect and requires no activation.
In addition, two times per day you can activate the phylactery and sacrifice a prepared arcane spell or arcane spell slot of 4th level or higher to use celestial brilliance (as the spell), using your own caster level or that of the phylactery, whichever is higher.
Prerequisites: Craft Wondrous Item, celestial brilliance, possession of a piece of the set.
Cost to Create: 3,250 gp, 260 XP, 7 days.

By the way, celestial brilliance is from the Book of Exalted Deeds, although in my campaign I've changed the duration from 1 day/level to 1 hour/level.

You can also check out the spell horrible taste from the Spell Compendium. It's 1st level for druids and sorcerers/wizards (and rangers). If a creature bites a subject of the spell, it become nauseated until the end of its next turn. Of course, there is a Fort save, and I don't think a T-rex would have much trouble making that.

Knowledge (dungeoneering) would also seem to be appropriate, but that's probably not as common as Knowledge (nature).

My party had interrogated one of the bad guys who had been on duty in the basement, so they knew Shensen was there. When they called out, she answered. But she didn't know how to help them get through the door. The party sorcerer ended up using a few lesser acid orbs on the door until it was sufficiently destroyed, then the party tank barrelled through what was left of the brown mold (just how much acid damage do you need to do to kill brown mold?) and rescued Shensen.

My party has named themselves the Lantern Street Irregulars (ala Sherlock Holmes's Baker Street Irregulars), because most of the party grew up in the Lantern Street Orphanage.

They haven't earned the adventuring party discount from Skie yet, though. They haven't done enough business with her.

I've been thinking of making Alakast one item in an item set (as described in the Magic Item Compendium). I was thinking that the other items would relate to helping fight or defend against demons.

I was wondering if anyone else has done this and would be willing to share what other items they created for the set and what sort of collection benefits they had? Ideas from anyone else would be welcome as well.

The psionic character in our group has the elemental envoy feat from complete psionics; what it boils down to is the character has a Geodite (complete psionic) as a combat ready follower, who can burrow through stone. This makes dungeon crawling go pretty smoothly, but sometimes the Geodite gets in over her head.

I know I'm a little late responding to this, but I think the bigger issue here is that a geodite should not be able to burrow through stone. If you look at the description of the burrow movement mode in the MM glossary (under "Movement Modes"), it says: "A creature with a burrow speed can tunnel through dirt, but not through rock unless the descriptive text says otherwise." There's nothing in the geodite's descriptive text that says it can burrow through stone. It does say that on the Elemental Plane of Earth, "they enjoy slowly burrowing through all the mineral varieties of stone," but it says they do this "with shaped sonic bursts."

Human Fighter: gold threaded ivory white silken gowns adorned with purple velvet and glowing yellow stars, human half-mask and white wig, floats 10” above the floor. Elaborate staff radiates a cone of green light, if tapped on the floor.

Halfling Monk: gold threaded white silken gowns adorned with grey velvet, and glowing blue stars, human half-mask and grey wig, floats 5” above the floor. Elaborate staff produces a rain of stars, if tapped on the floor.

I was wondering about this. The writeup from rpgenius has a number of descriptions for demon costimes, but doesn't include any for the city founders. Did I miss this somewhere, or did you makes these up Maglub?

Also the players are still not sure if they need to sacrifice someone (ie ally) or self-sacrifice. I think they plan to sacrifice someone else in the party who is willing to be sacrificed. Which begs the question, should the person sacrificing get the smoking eye or the person who thinks they are being sacrificed by someone else, but happy to be sacrificed get the smoking eye?...confused :)

As far as this goes, I would say that if player A "sacrifices" player B, and player B is willing, then effectively player B is sacrificing himself, and I would treat it as such.

I'm going to be starting a SCAP campaign soon and I have been unable to find a list for prices at inns and such in the SCAP hardcover book. There seems to be prices for magic items only. Where can I find the prices for each tavern/inn and equipment stores??

You could simply use the prices listed in the Player's Handbook. Personally, I prefer to use the variant Upkeep rule listed in the DMG so that my players and I don't have to worry about every little meal or drink.

2. The Smoking Eye. If you don't forshadow the importance of this, the chapter will seem completely useless and out of place to the characters. Im my campaign, I constantly threw out statements and teasers on how the Smoking Eye was important with a character that had the Dream Haunted trait (fit very well). If you don't plan on using or showing the importance of the Smoking Eye, get rid of the chapter and throw something else in.

This is a great idea. I don't have anyone with the Dream Haunted trait, but I do have a character with the Scarred Soul trait, and I think I can use his dreams to do some foreshadowing. Anyone have any good ideas for how to introduce the smoking eye into one of his dreams?

Out of interest, what minis did you buy for what creatures? I was looking at using minis for when I run the SCAP so it would be interesting to know what minis everyone else is using.

Olaf the Stout

I've been trying to match all the monsters/NPCs in the SCAP to appropriate minis, mostly D&D ones, but I occasionally use a metal one if I can't find a good D&D one. Sometimes I resort to using tokens (from rpgenius) printed on cardstock. Here are the D&D minis I used for the first two adventures (my party just started the second, so I haven't looked beyond that yet):

Life's Bazaar
-------------
Beholder - Deathknell 32 (my most expensive mini, because I just had to have one)
Choker - Aberrations 47
Dark Creepers - Underdark 42
Lemures - Giants of Legend 34
Dire Rats - Giants of Legend 30
Dread Guard - Archfiends 31 (even though it's Medium)
Pylrak - Underdark 35 (duergar champion)
Keygan - Harbinger 28 (Nebin, gnome illusionist)
Goblins - Dragoneye 32 (goblin warrior)
Grell - Deathknell 35
Fellian - Angelfire 18 (elf swashbuckler)
Fario - Underdark 15 (elf stalker)
Maple - Giants of Legend 19 (Lidda, adventurer)
Kazmojen - Underdark 1 (battle plate marshal)
Hobgoblins - Aberrations 27 (bladebearer hobgoblin)
Zarkad - Giants of Legend 32 (hobgoblin sergeant)
Prickles - Harbinger 39 (barghest)
Ruphus - Aberrations 4 (cleric of St. Cuthbert)
Street Thugs - Harbinger 66 (human bandit)
Monstrous Spider - Underdark 57 (spider of Lolth)
Xukasus - Dragoneye 56 (ogre ravager)

Drakthar's Way
--------------
Drakthar - Dragoneye 46 (I didn't want him to look too different from a regular bugbear)
Lemure - Giants of Legend 34
Dire Bat - Underdark 44
Orak - Aberrations 2 (anvil of thunder)
Xoden - Aberrations 7 (hill dwarf warrior)
Goblin Adepts - Deathknell 34
Silent Wolf Goblin - War Drums 40 (Snig, worg rider) if mounted, otherwise Aberrations 43 (silent wolf goblin) and Harbinger 80 (worg)
Goblin Skirmishers - Dragoneye 31
Goblin Sneaks - Harbinger 42
Half-Orc Mercenaries - Harbinger 74 (orc spearfighter)
Chorlynder - Aberrations 12 (adventuring wizard)
Jil - Underdark 12 (slayer of Domiel)
Wererats - War of the Dragon Queen 39
Kallev - Harbinger 76 (tiefling captain)
Shocker Lizards - Harbinger 19 (crested felldrake)

Let's just say he "shot the hostage to take him out of the equation"

He killed Terrem rather than let the beholder take him?!? Just what alignment is this character?

If your PCs clear out every room in that first adventure, they might even be hitting 3rd level by the time they get to the end of it.

Are you kidding? My five characters have already hit 3rd level, and they're just starting the Malachite Fortress.

The creature can "wrap" itself around a "grappled" foe (Round 2) (If the PC won the opposed grapple in round 1, or the PC successfuly escaped during his own turn before the Raggamoffyn had gone again return to round 1 for options as the creature cannot "wrap" an ungrappled foe.) This is a standard action. It does not require an attack roll or an opposed roll. It is automatic if the PC had already been successfully grappled by the creature.

Actually, according to the raggamoffyn description in MMII, the creature needs to make a successful grapple check to wrap a foe it has previously grappled.

The grell actually klled our dwarven barbarian. Well, the fall killed him, the grell was just the instigator. Well, I guess technically our wizard casting Ray of Enfeeblement on the grell caused the grell to drop what he was holding, but...

That's another thing that bothers me about this encounter: the whole grell paralyzes one character then carries him off thing. Even assuming that the grell can fly with its maximum load, that's only 130 pounds. That must have been one light dwarf. :p

As an aside, in our SCAP campaign, the party rogue failed to find a single pit trap in Jzadirune, and fell in at least 6 of them! We lost count after a while, thus the legend of Badvock Trapspringer was born, along with the quote "Are you sure you're a rogue?"

See my campaign journal (Diary of Tycho al-Baragu)from this week for a description of the b@%!~&ing about we had to do to fish him out of the 'tilty-pit spike trap'.

So it's not any guarantee, even if you do have one!

As I recall, there are three 'tilty-pit spike traps' in Jzadirune. My party found the levers to all of them and flipped them to disable the traps before they ever walked across even one of them. (They still don't really know that the levers disabled the one trap they've discovered.) Quite amusing.

This is a great idea. I can have him arrive from the main church in Sasserine to investigate the Cathedral, possibly even become a new ally or antagonist to the party.

Yes, I could see this going either way. The inquisitor could be grateful to the PCs for helping eliminate the corruption from the local church. On the other hand, Wee Jas is a lawful deity, and the inquisitor might not appreciate the PCs acting as vigilantes and interfering in Wee Jas affairs.

I have the mags and am pleased with my purchase of the HC.

I have to agree with Sean here. I too have all the magazines, but find the hardcover to be much more convenient. And one benefit no one else has mentioned: the early adventures were published under 3.0; the HC updates everything (well, most everything) to 3.5.

*leaps into the air and trips over cape, landing in an undignified heap on the sidewalk*

To quote Edna Mode (The Incredibles): "No capes!"

My players decided to call their party The Swords of the Black Lake. We don't know if there is an official name for the lake in the center of Cauldron. Anyone knows if there is?

I don't have my book right in front of me, but I'm pretty sure it's called Crater Lake.

Also one of the encounters is a sloth. But the sloth is not listed in the appendix. Where is this monster from?

If you look at the adventure, you will see that the creature is listed as a "Forest Sloth." If you look under F in the appendix, you will find its stats.

(Side Note: Aushanna is a "good" flyer, which means she can't hover. Which means no full round attack while flying. So our battle was Aushanna flying with a shot on the run. Landing somewhere, getting a full round attack or two, and then flying away once anybody closed with her.)

Just FYI, a maneuverability of "good" does allow you to hover. I know this well, because my warlock with Fell Flight does it all the time.

Big Jake wrote:

And if you only have the hardcover, and not the Dungeon magazines, I'm sure one of us would be happy to post the scaling information for you here if you ask.

That would be vastly appreciated, in fact.

Actually, you're in luck. They actually forgot to put the Scaling the Adventure information in that issue, so they published on paizo's Dungeon errata page: http://paizo.com/dungeon/resources/errata.

2. Scale the next adventure down (per the scaling the adventure side bar), and add extra encounters to give them a level boost. The random encounter charts in Occipitus are fun!

And if you only have the hardcover, and not the Dungeon magazines, I'm sure one of us would be happy to post the scaling information for you here if you ask.

human monk/exotic weapon master/hulking hurler

Okay, you've piqued my curiosity. How does a human qualify for the hulking hurler prestige class, when one of the prerequisites is being Large or larger?

ps. Is this the Mike Cyr that used to be in Poughkeepsie, NY, then moved to Austin, TX... From the old Seekers of the Crystal Monolith (Shard?) group?

That would be me, though to be honest, the name Seekers of the Crystal Monolith doesn't really strike a bell. Is that really what we were called? I think my transmuter was around 7th level when I left.

I'm still in Austin, by the way, but before we get too far off topic, feel free to email me directly at mikecyr@bigfoot.com.

Playing in Greyhawk.

Currently five players, though I wouldn't mind going to six.

Chandra, female human druid 2, with a big (i.e. riding) dog companion and the mark of the beast trait.

Craven, male human spellthief 2. I've never run a spellthief before; should be interesting.

Dorse, male human sorcerer 2, with the wyrm blooded trait, as well as the draconic heritage (black, of course) and draconic breath feats.

Hrothgar, male dwarf cleric (Pelor) 1/fighter 1 (so he can use his inherited dwarven waraxe; he's mainly going to be a cleric). He also has the scarred soul trait.

Valaina, female elf ranger 2, who fights with scimitar and kukri.

Finally, if you see the planar ally variant merely being a power of the statue that needs 20 rounds to happen, then the dispel magic did suppress this power for 2 rounds and when the statue recovers, it will resume the planar ally variant where it left off and Aushanna will arrive in 22 rounds total.

Personally, if it were my campaign, this is the option I would go with: the statue builds up power for 20 rounds until it is sufficient to summon the devil. However, unlike Marcos, I think that because the statue is nonmagical when it is successfully dispelled, the built up power is lost, and requires 20 more rounds once it becomes magical again.

Also, I wouldn't interpret the "enters area 5" phrase too literally. I think the mere presence of a nonevil character in the room would be sufficient for the statue to start the process of summoning Aushanna. The trigger for the "trap" isn't on the doorway, it's the whole room.

Ok, I'm pulling my hair out. This letter is almost unreadible. The font is extremely difficult to read! I've managed to understand most of it, but some key words still escape me. Has anyone translated this letter? I'm afraid my decipher script skill just isn't up to it.

I admit, the font was probably not the best choice; it's pretty hard to read. Here's what it says:

High Priestess,
As many have heard me say, the cages alone will not afford the completion of the ritual. The Cagewrights have built a matrix on which to support them, but due to the shortsightedness of the others, I have been left out of these discussions. You are my only ally amongst the Thirteen now. You must warn them that there is more hidden in the Soul Pillars that could prove of great import to their plans. What more is needed I cannot say, and so I continue to explore the mysteries of the Soul Pillars at great peril. Vittriss Bale grows ever more restless, and the insanity that lies frozen in Karran-Kural begins to stir. Yet I shall remain here until the end, in hope of unveiling the last of the weavers' hidden lore. Still, the risk is great. My price has doubled.
F. Abradius

So they share the XP for traps...but only the first time they encounter that particular trap (like in Jzadirune, where there are several doors of each type)...So say the rogue successfully disabled a particular trap the first time he encounters it, and the group gets the xp...if he can't disable it the next time he encounters it, and everyone near him takes damage...do they get any xp for that?

Since each type of door is trapped in the same way, I would rule that once the rogue figures out how to disable the trap, he can disable it again without a problem (unless something changes, like he loses his masterwork thieves tools).

But even if a party forgets about trying to disable the traps and goes around setting them all off, I would only give them XP for the first one of each type, because after that they should know what to expect and can prepare for it.

Is that how it works? I thought the rogue got all the points if he/she disabled it, and if it goes off, the points are divided among the characters who took damage...and then I thought, boy, the rogue's going to outlevel everyone else pretty darn quick.

If the rogue gets all the experience for disabling a trap, then the fighter should get all the experience for the monsters he kills, right?

The idea is that everyone contributes in their own way, but not all those ways can be directly associated with an experience award, so everyone gets an equal share of all experience earned.

Based on others' estimates, it sounds like with a pace of 4 hours every other week, it'll take about 4 years for us to finish.

So has anyone actually had a party who managed to defeat Adimarchus all on their own?

There are Pteranidons in the Eberron book and Quetzacoutali in the Monster Manual II. Pteranidons are Large. Queztzacoutal are Huge.

By the way, the pteranodon is listed as a glidewing in the Eberron Campaign Setting.

Subject pretty much says it all. I was just wondering how many people have actually run the Shackled City all the way through.

If you have, about how long did it take? How many characters were killed along the way? Did you have any characters survive all the way through?

Just curious...

My party decided that they all knew each other because they all grew up in the Lantern Street Orphanage, so one of the players has suggested that they call themselves the Lantern Street Irregulars (ala Sherlock Holmes' Baker Street Irregulars).

They're fully aquatic. They don't even have a land speed.

According to my notes, despite being called an "aquatic ooze," they do have a land speed of 5 feet (1 square). So even though it might have a land speed, it hardly seems like it would be much of a threat out of the water.

Don't forget that speak with dead allows a Will save, so it's quite possible the PCs will get no information from the dragon.

But I did have the impression that the dragon still lives with his dad. I don't have the book right in front of me, but I think there's a rumor that Hookface has been seen recently, but it's actually his son instead. I got the impression from that that they still lived together. If you decide that's the case, you should make it clear to your party that this particular challenge is probably beyond them.

Actually I can't find anything on the mechanic's of banishment in FC1 (still reading it though). Nabthatoron and his demons entered the prime at the Demonskar after the spell weaver device exploded. They failed to conquer Redgorge. Yeenoghu is unhappy and banishes them to the prime. I assume this means the following:

1) They can no longer planeshift (in the case of the glabrezu)
2) They can no longer summon demons

Who says that the banishment has to be magically (or whatever) enforced? It may just be that Nabthatoron knows that if he returns while he's banished, there'll be hell to pay (literally). But I don't know that that means he can't planeshift anymore.

He probably can't summon demons though, as no demons would want to risk Yeenoghu's wrath by answering such a summons.

She did 1d8+6+1d6 with her bow, which meant she could shoot down the hardness 8 hp 60 doors in two rounds (party delayed this with a make whole) with Rapid Shot and full attack.

Can you really picture someone shooting down a door with a bow? Just so you know, the rules actually state that most objects can only be smashed by slashing or bludgeoning weapons (i.e. not piercing).

To increase the possible options I also allowed the doors to be rotated and opened with an appropriate Strength DC (30 indeed). Adding three adventurers strength scores - which is for me the maximum number for a 5 feet door - can lead you to a fair strength bonus. If the DC roll is fine the doors then rotates and triggers the trap...

Actually, when characters work together to accomplish a task requiring strength, you shouldn't just add their strengths together. The strength score is geometric, not arithmetic. In other words, 2 people with a 12 Strength do not have the same strength as someone with a 24 Strength. In fact, if you look at the carrying capacity table, you'll see that the capacity doubles for every 5 points increase in Strength.

The way this is supposed to work is that the character with the highest Strength rolls a Strength check, and the others use aid another to help him/her (i.e. if they make a DC 10 on their Strength checks, they add +2 to the primary character's final result). Which means that with 2 people helping, the primary character would need at least a +6 Strength modifier to have any hope of making a DC 30 check.

Of course, you're free to run your game however you like.

1) Detect the trap (using detect magic or some other means)

A Search check can find it (as listed in the trap description), but if the DC is higher than 20 (as all magic trap's are), then a character needs the trapfinding class feature (or the artificer's "disable trap" ability) to find it.

One thing we've done to accomodate psionics is make sure every creature with Spell Resistance is also granted some Psionic Resistance. Otherwise a psionic party would simply slap a dragon around. Give the dragon a similar PR as it has SR and it manages to be the correct CR again...

That's not really an issue in my campaign, since I'm definitely playing with the magic/psionics transparency rule. The alternative would require way too much work on my part to keep things balanced. So psionics is just another form of magic, and SR and PR are essentially the same thing.

My PCs are second level, and there are eight of them, but none of them are very good with the disable device thing.

You have eight players and no one is playing a rogue (or rogue-like) character? Or have the rogue(s) simply not put many ranks into Disable Device? You might want to encourage them to alter that situation, as traps are a classic obstacle that adventurers need to overcome. Of course, characters get just as much experience from "surviving" a trap as they do from disabling it. :)

This is no different than any other PC with an item creation feat. Creating magic items takes time. The SCAP often mentions giving players time to use their item creation feats between adventures. So I don't see how one player taking Ancient Relic is more of a problem than another player taking, say, Craft Wondrous Item.

Of course, if you really don't like the idea of players taking months off between adventures to make items, you can use the Craft Point rules from Arcana Unearthed. (Or is it Unearthed Arcana? The Monte Cook book, not the WotC one.)

Personally, I wouldn't allow players to stake a vampire unless it was helpless, pinned, or at least flat-footed. And both of the last two would involve opposed checks. Since the vampire is pretty much toast once the party stakes him, allowing them to try to stake him from the very start of combat just weakens vampires too much.

But putting that aside, I'd also comment that allowing the vampire's DR 10/magic and silver apply (or is Drakthar's DR weaker? my party has just started Lifes Bazaar) to the stake pretty much means the stake will never do damage. I don't think you can have a silver wooden stake.

As a note of interest, I just ran a different party through one of Dungeon's adventures (the one with the heptad of vampires; I don't remember the name off hand, something to do with light or darkness), and they had a special rule for staking vampires. It was mainly intended if you surprised them in their coffins and caught them flat-footed. But the point I wanted to mention was that they too had a rule about Exotic Weapon Proficiency (wooden stake).