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The Funkytown Allstars. The session when they were filling out the Champions Games forms fell close to the birthday for one of the players. This particular player HATES the song Funkytown, so naturally I got him a card that plays it when opened and gave it to him at that session. The rest of the party thought that name was appropriate to commemorate the occasion.
If your players pursue that course of action, then the Age of Worms is over, IMO. The time from the recovery of the phylactry to the coming of Kyuss is intended to be a matter of DAYS. I doubt Kyuss will put his return on hold while the players travel the known planes gathering up dragon hordes. Personally, I would try to impart a sense of urgency in completing the remaining two adventures first. Once they've saved the world, then they can go horde hunting.
Why not let the Fablers tale be played out by the PCs? Let them take the place of a few pregenerated characters- fae trapped by trolls and trying to get out? Let them play through a few obstacles, and if they die, let them play the opponents of the original replacement characters? Give RP XP as needed. That's not really what I was looking for. Thanks for the idea, though.
I'm pretty sure my players would dig it, which is why I'm asking. I have a feeling that my bard player would definately go over the top with a story of his own if he actually had one to compete against.
So, out of all the very creative people on this board, nobody came up with an actual tale for the Fabler to tale? I find that disappointing... :)
Following the first course of the banquet, Zeech commands the Fabler to tell a tale. The Fabler responds by telling a story about a dryad, a wealthy merchant and the dryad's revenge on the merchant. Did anyone actually come up with a humorous story for this to tell to your players? If so, would you be willing to share it with those of us who are about to run Prince of Redhand?
Barring the actual possibility of getting compendiums for Core Beliefs and/or the Demonomicon, can somebody give me a list of issues that each appeared in? I have some of them and would really like to fill out my collection at some point.
If it saves a step, I've been able to pull all the WotC pictures straight from their website. No foolin', they have an art section that includes every picture from every book they're publishing. Between easy .jpgs of all the monster books and the illustrations I can pull from Paizo's online supplements, I've yet to be at a loss for an appropriate image for a critter token. That will definately save me several steps! Thanks a bunch, Fletch!
I've run into the same problem, so I've been making my own minis. I scan the creature pics in from the appropriate book, format them to the right size in Image Composer, print them out on cardstock, then a little folding and tape and voila, my very own stand up minis. Sure, they aren't fancy, but I can make any mini I need up to Colossal with the templates I've set up and they all have the correct picture on them. None of my players have complained yet.
I could not find this (beyond your first sentence) verbiage in either the SRD or the PHB. PHB, page 181, top of the second column above the "Bard Spells" header. For the SRD, go to this link at Wizards website: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=d20/article/srd35 Go down the list to Spell List I and open that document. It's in the same place above the "Bard Spells" header.
Then try this section. I pulled this from the SRD, but it should be somewhere at the beginning of the Spell List in the PHB. Note the last sentence and the use of the word ALWAYS: "Caster Level: A spell’s power often depends on caster level, which is defined as the caster’s class level for the purpose of casting a particular spell. A creature with no classes has a caster level equal to its Hit Dice unless otherwise specified. The word “level” in the spell lists that follow always refers to caster level."
I also have another question. The apostolic scrolls : are they re-usable ??? Nothing mentions if they're detsroyed after calling one ulgurstasta... Any thoughts ? Actually, it is mentioned at the end of the Apostolic Scrolls sidebar. The scroll is a one-shot item. Once the ulgurstasta is released, the scroll becomes non-magical. It still contains all of the lore written in it, hoewever, and grants a +4 bonus to Knowledge (religion) checks when researching Kyuss.
That's a pretty good segue into my next question, actually. The AP is intended for play with four PCs, and it provides scaling info for players of inappropriate level. I, however, am thinking about running it with 5 PCs. Are there scaling notes anywhere for running with more PCs than it was originally intended for? I am running the AoW for a group that tends to fluctuate in numbers (we started with 10, now we have 4-6 at any given session). When we have 6 players, I have found that using the "Scaling the Adventure" suggestions for the higher level party tends to work fairly well in providing a challenge to the party without being over-bearing. 5 players is in that border area between normal and scaling, so I kind of play it by ear, but more often than not I leave the encounters as written.
The supplement is still available. Go here: http://paizo.com/dungeon/resources/downloads and scroll about halfway down the page. It's right under the Age of Worms Overload.
There is one piling in the center of the pool that has three planks leading out from it in different directions (South, Northeast and Northwest, I believe). These are supposed to be the shaded planks in question.
Your take was not slanted by your bad day. I had a pretty good day yesterday and I was certainly incensed by this "article".
I did one that was essentially exactly what you described: the Diamond Lake backdrop article with all the DM info edited out. I would be more than happy to send you a copy to look over if you would like.
Hishka doesn't trust Ilthane. It says so in the adventure, I believe. In my game, when she surrendered to the PCs, she explained to them why she didn't have a problem with them killing the king and asked for thier help in removing the eggs from the chamber before Ilthane returned. She told the party that she and the other lizardfolk survivors would be no match for Ilthane's modified kobold guards and all she wanted to do was move the eggs to another tribe. That was good enough for my group.
Just out of curiosity, are you DMing or playing in the campaign?
Thanks for the link. Those are some interesting suggestions. I'll have to see how I can incorporate them into my game.
Well, there is the end of a Millenium approaching in Greyhawk. Bad things always happen around times like that...
Here's the set-up: The group I'm reffing is just about to finish up Blackwall Keep. Now, due to the fact that we have a larger than preferred group, the party is slightly lower level than they should be. Combine that with the upcoming doppleganger-in-the-party plot and various player scheduling conflicts in April and I find myself wanting to postpone Hall of Harsh Reflections for a couple of sessions and run a side-trek first. This led me to look through my Dungeon back issues and I think I've settled on "The Fiendish Foot" from issue 122. It's the right level, it's relatively short and it seems to be fairly straight forward. My problem is in how I want to tie it into the goings on in Diamond Lake before the party bids their (almost) final farewell and heads off to Greyhawk. Currently, due to the party's actions, Dourstone has left town and Smenk has been implicated in the whole Ebon Triad cult business, so he's not going to be around much longer. I'm thinking this puts Chaum Gansworth in an excellent position to make his bid to become the premier mine manager in town. But first he wants to make sure that Gelch Tilgast isn't going to be a problem. My plan is that Gansworth will recruit the PCs to go find the Fiendish Foot and bring it back to him, with the intention of using it to frame or implicate Tilgast and get him out of town as well. My problem is that I'm not sure how specifically he could use the foot to do that. Any suggestions, my fellow Dungeonites?
I've got probably two or three sessions before my group gets to this, but I was wanting to start getting opinions on it now so I could be prepared. So tell me fellow Dungeon forumites, how did you handle the doppelgangers' mirror maze?
I took my cue from the campaign journal of Erik's game with the Dungeon staff and started mine at the end of Richfest in 595.
It was just the author that was "to be announced", the adventure description should be right under that. It is in mine and I downloaded it as soon as it was released.
Our group of 8 meets every other Saturday, starting around noon and going until 6ish, ocassionally later, depending on what's going on.
1. Personally, I would try to discourage this. I believe it has been mentioned that the Talisman will be usefull towards the end of the campaign. In my campaign, Allustan (who they had identify the item) told them straight up that it was potentially very powerful and they should hold on to it. Also, the Talisman is a Minor Artifact and would therfore be worth potentially hundreds of thousands of gold pieces. Way more than a low level party should be allowed to have. 2. The first piece of the rod shows up in A Gathering of Winds (adventure 6). 3. This probably all depends on what setting you're running in. In Greyhawk, Diamond Lake is about three days away. The best map of the Diamond Lake/Greyhawk area is in an old 2nd Edition supplement whose name escapes me at the moment (The Player's Guide?). It shows Greyhawk, the Cairn Hills, Diamond Lake, the whole area.
Just another gamer here who wanted to express his gratitude for everything you guys (and gals) are doing over there. Keep up the good work and come home safe!
It is still published by Chaosium.
Along with Warnes Starcoat from Isle of the Ape, the other two new members are Alhamazad the Wise and Theodain Eriason.
Just finished up Three Faces tonight and I have to thank Rexx for making it rock for my players. I saw the post Rexx made about the Faceless One's motivations and thought to myself "this freaking rocks", so I used it and turned it into a journal entry from the F.O. which my players discovered right after they'd killed him. As the player who was reading it slowly realized that they'd actually just done something bad by killing the F.O., the ground started to rumble and shake as the Ebon Aspect started to rise. The party raced out of the Vecna temple and had their battle with the just risen aspect. Discussing it with them afterwards, every one of my players thought it kicked ass that the stuff from Rexx's "letter" made them little more than pawns in someone else's bigger scheme. The thought that they had been used by higher powers for a sinister purpose was great for them. It also helped to explain exactly what was going on with the Ebon Triad. It took the adventure from a series of battles with little explanation for the PCs and turned it into something more meaningful and story driven, even if they didn't find out about it until it was almost too late. So my DM hat is off to you, Rexx. Thanks for the awesome material! My players definately appreciated it.
I also don't have my Dragon handy, but the most important prerequisite in my mind is that the PC taking the class has to have taken ability damage from actually having been infected by a Worm.
The map hasn't been released yet. My guess would be next issue (#131), since that's when the PCs will be heading to Alhaster.
I wondered if Cymria was from "Vecna Lives", but didn't have a copy handy to check. We had a group that started that adventure, too, but it didn't last much beyond the first time we got our butts handed to us. I thought the premise for that adventure rocked, though. And of course, I recognized all the stuff at Tens... I mean "Manzorian's" fortress. I love all these hip Greyhawk in-references. I'll say it again, from one D&D nerd to another: Erik, you guys ROCK! :)
One of my all time favorite gaming experiences occured way back when I was in high school (oh so many years ago). A group of us spent a summer vacation going through the TSR module "Isle of the Ape", using the pre-generated characters provided in the adventure. One of those PCs was a cleric named Agath of Thrunch. I know that another of those PCs, Warnes Starcoat, was long ago elevated to a seat on the Circle of Eight, but imagine my surprise when I discovered, while browsing through Spire of Long Shadows in my recently arrived Dungeon 130, the very same Agath of Thrunch hanging out in the town of Magepoint. Needless to say, I was very pleasantly surprised. One other member of that high school group is in my current group and I know he'll get a kick out of it as well. It's the little details like this that really make me enjoy Dungeon magazine even more than I already do. Kudos to Erik, James, Jesse Decker and anyone else who may have been even remotely involved in throwing details like this into the Age of Worms. You guys rock! Now if only someone would use Rowena Silverbrow (the PC I played) in a new adventure... :)
I don't see that having a conversation with Smenk before going into the mines is at all necessary. My party followed the clues from the Land Farm to Kullen to Filge. Filge's info led them straight to the mine. There was never any question of them talking to Smenk and, as far as I can see, they didn't need to. On the other hand, Smenk hasn't been a real focus for anything in the game to this point and my group did (reluctantly) take Filge alive, so he provided them with way more info than if they'd killed him.
My players slaughtered all the zombies before they could act out the dinner party scene, so they missed out on that fun (though I did read it to them after the session was over). They were also intent on killing Filge, even after he started screaming about surrendering. Fortunately, one of the PCs came to his senses and grabbed Filge, actually shielding him from the rest of the party. After a thorough questioning, they eventually turned him over to the Wee Jas acolytes in the boneyard. It remains to be seen whether he will show up again or not...
I pondered long and hard on the water elemental before my group got to it because I was also confused about the Vortex ability. I finally interpreted it this way: The vortex only does damage to creatures smaller than itself. It can still affect larger creatures (i.e. pick up and move them) as normal for the vortex. This made since to me since, when the elemental turns into the vortex, the vortex is pretty good size (as high as the ceiling, ten feet wide at the top, five feet at the bottom (or thereabouts). I attempted to make good use of this when the elemental picked up the barbarian that had been doing serious damage to it and dropped him off on the other side of the underwater area, then went back to the main fight (only to be killed by a single blow from the wizard's quarterstaff...). And I repeatedly tried to extinguish the light source the wizard was carrying, but just kept missing with my rolls. Oh, and just for information's sake, I upsized the elemental to medium since I have 9 players in my group (only 7 of which were there at the time).
The group has just left the Cairn to go bury Alastor's bones: Blaze - Female Elf WarMage 2
Lebanon, huh? Don't suppose you're looking for players? I posted on the Gamers Connection board a few days ago. Sorry, dude. We're pretty well maxed out at 9 players plus a DM. If we suddenly have a bunch of players spontaneously combust or something I'll keep you in mind, though...
Thanks James. I guess that's what I get for skimming and not reading... :)
I'm expecting mine here in Indianapolis any day now. I'm in Lebanon, IN and I got mine yesterday.
I noticed last night, while skimming through Champion's Belt, that it mentions that several of the items picked up in the True Tomb of the Whispering Cairn would not be of further importance for the campaign. The two most notable of these items were the Talisman of the Sphere and, Zosiel's diadem, the latter of which was specifically stated in Whispering Cairn as getting more powers as the campaign went on. So I guess my question is, has this been changed now? Are these items no longer going to be important to the bigger picture? My PC's haven't found them yet, as we're just now getting to the Land Farmstead, but if that is the case, I may replace the Talisman with something more useful if it's no longer needed. Just curious...
Greyhawk is Metropolis size, with a population of 160,000+. I don't have any figures on actual city dimensions handy.
The paladin is thinking of ousting Mayor Neff in a challenge/election of popular vote. If I'm not mistaken, doesn't the Background: Diamond Lake article say the position of Mayor is appointed by the Ruling Council in the Free City? Could make for some interesting political adventures...
Is there an archive or something somewhere where I can look at threads that have dropped off the page? My group will be getting ready for Three Faces of Evil soon and I was wanting to look over the thread that detailed all the corrections that needed to be made to the adventure. Of course, it's not on the list of threads anymore and I can't find a way to get to it now. As a related aside, does anyone else think it might be a good idea to have somewhere that collects all that kind of information? An AOW Errata as it were. I know there are several DMs out there who aren't starting the campaign until it's all out and by then all this useful info will be long gone. Just a thought...
I like these ideas. May have to slip one or two of them in myself. Personally, I don't have a problem with the PCs heading back to town whenever they want to. Most of my party has "day jobs" in Diamond Lake and are doing a good part of their adventuring in the Cairn on their time off. They make sure to hide the Cairn entrance when they leave and most of their coming and going from town is done at night, so nobody has really taken notice of them yet, either. And just as a side note, according to all the background info, technically the Cairn is supposed to be an hour and ten minutes outside of Diamond Lake. The abandoned mining office they are supposed to use as a base is about an hour out of town and the Cairn is ten minutes past that.
how about a slipcase for the year's magazines? This is the one I would like to see.
Uh... Level one of the keep is the poster map that came with the issue...
How come my players don't appreciate all the behind the scenes stuff I do for them? Amen, brother! I have maybe two out of ten players who will get any relevance out of it being Tenser instead of Generic High-level Mage #8. Oh, sad times, sad times...
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