I'm not sure where to post this, but I am dying to know. Is it pronounced "pay-zo" or "pie-zo"?
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Hi, I find the "Adventure Hook" section of There Is No Honor a little lacking in inspiration. I'm wondering if any other DMs have come up with a prelude to get the campaign going, a sort of way for the PCs to meet each other/get the adventurer reputation they are supposed to have? I prefer to roleplay this rather than just invent backstory and then start the PCs off at 0 XP :)
Well as I suspect is true for a lot of groups, mine didn't happen to explore the kitchen or whatever the ONLY room is that leads to the Kyuss Shrine in Champion's Belt. So they've explored Raknian's Manor, which I improvised and now they're about to head to the Titan's House. My plan is to leave a blueprint for the Coenoby that shows a middle level (but only rough details) in the chamber with the ghasts...perhaps one of them was an architect who Raknian had killed so as to keep the shrine area secret. However, I would not be surprised if they decide to continue exploring past the areas in the adventure. Has anyone detailed the ghoul tunnels? Any cool ideas other than oodles and oodles of ghouls?
I'm confused as to how the darkness spell operates. It says it counters or dispels light spells of equal or lower level. Does this require a caster check, as per a targeted dispel? Also, if the spell is cast and a continual flame is used in the area, does the continual flame cancel the concealment because it is of equal level? Or does it continue to provide light, as well as darkness providing concealment? Lastly, if there is no magical light within the radius, and no natural light, does it cover these artificial light sources, creating total darkness (except for those with darkvision, who still suffer the penalties of concealment)? If not, why is it more effective against magical light (it can dispel it) than it is against artificial light (which it only partially mutes)? I'm sure there was a sage advice about this somewhere. Could someone "enlighten" me? Thanks.
Has anyone had a PC wear Ulavant's seeker ring and be seen by Khellek? My party was in Lazare's, one of them wearing the ring, and Khellek attempted to use the secret phrase. He of course got no response and succeeded on his Sense Motive when the PC tried to Bluff that they had just found the ring on the roadside. So he asked Tirra to find out what she could about the party. Early on they were recruiting in town to replace lost party members so I'm assuming her +8 Gather Information will allow her to find this out. Now that I have the Free City Adventurer stat blocks I'd like to stage some kind of follow-up of the encounter in Lazare's. After Tirra finds out that they are exploring a cairn, what do you think the group would do? Search for the cairn on their own? Follow the PCs? Try to charm their way to the info? Tirra has already failed in her attempt to seduce a male elf in the party. However, Khellek could use charm person on an isolated PC. Since Tirra has no ranks in Hide or Move Silently, she wouldn't be good at tailing them. Does anyone have any ideas or have something that worked well in your campaign? Thanks.
I noticed Wolfgang Baur's upcoming module features a "mechanical man" who's been out of it for a while. Is this a sequel to Raiders of the Black Ice from issue 115? If so, this is going to be a great issue. Age of Worms, a Baur sequel to a good Baur module and the start of the FR Campaign Arc! Yeehaw!
Hi, thanks for adding the Three Faces of Evil miniatures page to help us find appropriate minis for the adventure path. I was pleased but also disappointed because many of the links are dead. Hopefully this can be fixed soon so I can get on to ordering those minis. http://paizo.com/dungeon/products/adventurePathMinis/theThreeFacesOfEvil
SPOILERS BELOW So we finally got to play the Whispering Cairn tonight. The intrepid adventurers consisted of: male halfling rogue
They met in the abandoned mining office, and after brief introductions and a few surprises, headed off to the cairn. Finding it easily, they entered and found the broken portal and soon afterward were attacked by the wolves. They dispatched the wolves without much trouble (well...the barbarian pretty much did it single-handedly), healed up some of their wounds, and pressed on. After finding the indigo lantern and elven armband they proceeded to area 7. They were very cautious and searched all the hallways and decided to climb up to area 8. At least, the rogue and ninja did while the more bulky characters waited below. The rogue failed to find the trap and the two of them almost got blown away but managed to catch onto the chain and climb down before falling. They fled before the wind picked up enough to cause any damage, so they were shaken but unscathed. Next they tried moving the sarcophagus and the arcane elevator popped up. They weren't sure what to do with it and put the yellow lantern in it and then attempted to send it down by turning the sarcophagus again. This pointed it at the other elevator, and after hearing the loud cacophony the elevator broke and the skittering of the beetles began. I asked them to roll initiative and round-by-round asked them what they were doing for the 2 rounds before the beetles arrived. A couple of them started fleeing, others poured oil on the ground and others braced themselves. When the beetles burst forth one of them was fetching the yellow lantern (and the torch they'd put in it), but then the rest of them began to flee. Seeing this, the ninja (who was fetching the torch) ran after them. Of course the slasher is faster than they are and caught up with the ninja and then the others turned around to save their companion. Swarms are tough! They had one torch to damage it and the wizard only had colour spray and cause fear. Virtually no means of hurting the swarm (they didn't think to use their lantern). They nearly smashed the slasher to bits and the swarm finished it off when it ventured too close but in the mean time, it also consumed 3 of the PCs: the rogue, barbarian, and ninja. Seeing their 3 companions eaten alive the other 3 decided discretion was the better part of valour and they fled the cairn. We role-played a bit of their drowning their sorrows at the Feral Dog and a run-in with Kullen there but decided to end for the night once they retired to bed. The other 3 players will be making new characters to act as new recruits for their party. This encounter strikes me as one of the more difficult ones in the adventure and it is right near the beginning. I see that even in the playtest party of 8, one PC died. Looking at the EL, it is quite high for a party of 1st-level characters. What makes it worse is that they weren't at all prepared to fight swarms--no alchemist's fire, no fire spells prepared. I'm sure if they went back prepared it wouldn't be a problem for them. Oh well, maybe this will be a lesson for them: if you have 2 rounds to prepare for a likely swarm attack, co-ordinate your response in those 2 rounds! I hope one of my players isn't too bitter, as this is the fourth halfling rogue of his who has died in one of my campaigns. How did this encounter go for other people who have run this adventure? Did anyone have a similar experience?
Does anyone have an answer for this? One of my players wants to take the Sudden Widen feat from Complete Arcane, which instantly applies a Widen Spell effect to one spell once per day without having to prepare it at a higher level. He is wondering how it will affect spells like burning hands and colour spray, which are clearly burst spells but that don't have an area, but rather a range. Since the range is fixed and would not be affect by Enlarge Spell, I ruled that Sudden Widen would double the range of these spells. But the issue is muddy because they technically do not have an area, and Widen Spell increases the area of a spell. Yet the area is clearly a 15-ft cone, hence my ruling. What do you think?
Any DMs on this board must be familiar with the scenario. Everyone loves the idea of playing an evil character. So your buddies make up their assortment of characters--the cleric of Heironeous, the ninja, the thuggish fighter, the wild barbarian, the rogue serving time for past indiscretions. Then one player comes up with the idea that he wants to play a neutral evil wizard. Well, the group was quite a hodgepodge before. But throwing an evil character into the mix? Working alongside a cleric of Heironeous? I don't like to say 'no' to any of the options in the Player's Handbook so I tried explaining to the player all the reasons why it would be a bad idea. My question is, has anyone tried running any evil characters through Age of Worms? Was it a completely evil party or was there a mix of alignments? Has anyone successfully had a party consisting of both good and evil characters? How did you justify this? Directly to Erik & company: Will the later plot require that the PCs be good or neutral? Will evil characters have any interest in preventing the Age of Worms or be more likely to want to bring it on? The first adventure is quite open--the PCs are tomb-robbing so anyone could conceivably be a part of it. But I'm wondering if later on the alignment will become a problem as far as adventure hooks go. I have to decide whether to let this player play an evil character or not. I'm leaning towards no because there is a LG cleric of Heironeous in the group but I hate forcing something as basic as alignment on someone. Help would be appreciated. |