Rades's page

Hey all, I'm about to start running this module, but I've one major snag - I really, really don't want to use the whole Harrow theme. My current group has been together for about 2-3 years and has played in two campaigns together. Most of them were new players when they started, so those two campaigns have been their entire D&D experience. And in both of those campaigns, the Deck of Many Things was a major campaign plot point.

(The 2nd campaign was by a first-time GM, so I don't give her a hard time for re-using the artifact.)

So that's my problem - I can't use the Deck AGAIN. That would be getting pretty ridiculous. Any ideas for alternatives? Not just for the endgame artifact, but for the initial hooks with Zellara? I could just have her be the ghostly partner and not form the Deck in the end, but I'm worried that even having some sort of magical card deck will be too similar and feel stale to my players.

(Also, I'm running this in 4E and have been doing a ton of conversion to personalize the campaign, so I'm definitely going to share those here. :D)

So in my campaign, the PC's have just headed down the river in search of Alek and arrived at the headless statue. My party was already a little curious how a lone paladin was wandering around in this dangerous area and surviving, let alone taking a canoe downriver and then...hiking back up to Redgorge??

So was looking ahead and realized...just how in the hell did Alek get past wandering monsters, gnolls, quasits, giants, ettins, and a fire giant, without realizing he was walking right into a den of evil? Sure, he might see the Hags as Archons, but what about the rest of the monsters? Knowing my group, they'll start wondering this as they fight their way in, and I've yet to think of something plausible.

We just finished off Chapter 4: Zenith Trajectory in a blood-pumping, cinematic finale and it was a huge hit. I thought I'd share how it went here.

I found the layout of Bhal-Hamatugn a little redundant and anti-climactic, so I replaced Zenith and Dhorlot's rooms with other encounters (a kitchen area and a bathing room), and instead made Mangh-Mincto's chamber open up into a huge, open underground cavern.

The room itself had a rushing waterfall in it and some PCs got tackled off the edge by fanatical kuo-toas into a large water pool below. The others navigated down long sets of stairs flanking the pool. They immediately heard a deep, rhythmic beating sound echoing throughout the entire cavern. I used music to capture the moment and it worked perfectly - the first minute or so of this song, looped:

Beyond the Wasteland - Final Fantasy Advent Children

A long stone bridge extended farther in, spanning a gaping chasm. Before proceeding they investigated a cave off to the side and fought Dhorlot, chased him off, and stole his treasure. They rested there and then continued on over the bridge, which soon opened up into a circular amphitheater-type room (think football stadium) with a huge shrine in the center. THOUSANDS of kuo-toas underneath, chanting - the beating sound was their hearts beating in unison. I still had the song playing so the players were freaked out and scared.

They knew Zenith was in the shrine (they were magically tracking him) so they went inside and found him whacked out insane and etc. There was some other mooks in the fight that were all aberration/Far Realm themed (I'm using the Far Realm flavor for the various madness stuff in the campaign). Party knocked Zenith out in a moderately difficult fight, then went back to sneak out.

Sneaking across the bridge was done as a skill challenge (4e has a skill encounter system where you roleplay the use of skill checks to accomplish things; in this case, sneaking across a bridge without disturbing the horde), and they eventually failed, making noise and alerting the kuo-toas. At which point I didn't tell them they had failed or that the kuo-toas had noticed them, I simply switched the song to the 1:45 mark, and everyone at the tables lost their minds.

The horde started swarming up the bridge to get them and throwing javelins, and the PCs started running the hell away. It became a second skill challenge: to escape. Also adding to the panic was the many whips down below - the PCs had already learned of the "more whips = more lightning" notion, and there were dozens of whips channeling electricity amongst themselves down below.

The party did well, escaping all but the quickest kuo-toas, which led them into the next encounter - Dhorlot hiding in a cloud of darkness on the side of the bridge, ambushing them with an acid spray. They hurriedly fought the out-for-revenge dragon, while fending off kuo-toas from behind. They killed Dhorlot, saw the horde closing in, and sprinted off into & through Bhal-Hamatugn.

They made it all the way through the temple, with the sounds of kuo-toas screaming and pursuing them, and ran down the front steps to get to the boat. However, the kuo-toa whips had one last trick up their sleeve, and summoned a horrible, tentacled watery abomination to block their way. The PCs threw everything they had left at it, trying to kill it fast because every round another whip would run out the front door and start tossing lightning bolts into the fray. They managed to kill it, despite two PCs falling unconscious during the fight, hightailed it to the boat and finally escaped.

It was an intense, crazy session that really captured the panic and desperation of the party to escape a murderous horde, while already tired and injured, and get the HELL out of this terrible, terrible place.

I was considering my campaign plans this week and came up with the idea of using Levistus - the arch-devil frozen in a giant block of ice who rules Stygia, the 5th layer of hell - instead of Adimarchus. I was never a huge fan of the Adimarchus storyline, as I am pretty sure my players wouldn't be very interested in his history/motivations. But an arch-devil? One of the infamous layers of Hell? That's got some potential.

Levistus has a plan of using Cauldron's unique environment to parallel his own, as part of a powerful ritual in which his forces would a) flood Cauldron, killing thousands of people in the process, all in his name; b) freeze the now-flooded caldera, creating a massive lake of ice infused with evil and suffering; and finally c) cause the volcano to erupt, shattering the unholy ice, causing a similar chain reaction in Stygia and freeing him.

Drakthar's Way / Flood Season
Drakthar steals the decanter of endless water from Orak, sells it to Triel, Skaven and Tarkilar. The trio also steal the wands of control water and plan to use them with the decanter to flood the city. When the PCs find Triel (a Paladin of Bane in my campaign, which is 4E) they find a small statue of Bane in her quarters in the middle of a simple bowl of water...odd, but not really noteworthy. When they find Tarkilar, who has the decanter, they find him in a cavern deeper underground and he's got the decanter open in the centre of the cavern, causing it to be semi-flooded. In addition to his T-Rex skeleton, he also has some chillborn zombies and ice attacks, continuing the ice & water theme.

Future Objectives:
• After this "flood, freeze, and blow up Cauldron" plan is thwarted, I want to revert back to the original plot of the Cagewrights rounding up all the Shackleborn and doing the big evil ritual. How exactly this happens is still undetermined.
• I still plan to use the Cagewrights, as the symbolism between birdcages and Levistus in his prison of ice is just as strong as Adimarchus in his cage.
• I also still intend to use the "madness" hooks (Zenith and Alek going mad and whispering prophetic threats, etc.) because I think that's totally in line with something one of the arch-devils would do, and plus I could easily see Levistus as being half-insane after his forced imprisonment for thousands of years.
• Ideally the campaign will end at or near 30th level (again, 4E!) with Levistus (or his avatar) appearing/emerging out of Crater Lake, and having a huge-scale battle with the PCs with possibly other Cauldronites helping / hindering them.

Any feedback, potential problems, or suggestions to offer? Obviously this is pretty rough and not fleshed out completely but I'm open to any ideas!

Hi all, I'm running the Shackled City campaign converted over to 4E and I'm wondering how to keep the Stormblades as believable rivals.

We are right in the middle of Flood Season, and my party - who has taken the name The Stormhammers because they hate the Stormblades so much - just finishing beating the Stormblades at pretty much every competition during the Festival. Then the Stormblades started a fight with them, further cementing the enmity between the 2 groups.

This is all good, but what I am wondering is how the Stormblades will remain relevant compared to the party. I mean, soon the PCs will be famous for saving kidnapped orphans and breaking up a slave ring, stopping goblin vandals, and saving the city itself during its most celebrated event. While in comparison, the Stormblades have...rescued a kidnapped girl from Redgorge way back in Chapter 1, and collapsed the tunnels to Jzadhirune.

Why would anyone even consider them rivals after Flood Season? The PCs would be the clear heroes of Cauldron over the Stormblades. Has anyone else encountered this problem?

(Oh, I also have a 5th member in the Stormblades, the son of the Lord Mayor, which will explain the political favoring and special treatment the Stormblades get for a while, and has also led to the party disliking the "corrupt" Lord Mayor but liking his "honest" Chancellor ;) However I don't see the special-treatement angle as being believable for more than maybe the next chapter before my players start to point out that it doesn't make sense that citizens would like the Stormblades more than them since they have done way more for the city.)

Hi all, I'm just starting the SCAP, and I've been putting together a soundtrack for various specific events. My players strongly dislike "traditional" medieval music, like you'd hear at a renaissance fair. So these are all a bit less cheesy and hopefully more exciting or suitable.

My goal is to have music chosen for important moments, and at other times, not have any music. That way when the music comes on the players know it's time to pay attention and stop throwing erasers at each other, because Important Stuff is about to happen!

Here's what I have so far, uploaded as mp3s. It's not much but I'm going to try and figure some more out today. I'll edit the list as more are finalized. The numbers refer to what chapter it takes place in, and I've added what mood/feeling I'm hoping the song will evoke.

01 Jzadirune A
Clockwork, deserted feel. Mysterious.

01 Jzadirune B
Also mysterious, but more of a magical mood.

04 Cusp of Sunrise
Choral version of Final Fantasy 6's opera scene. Perfect background music for a posh club like the Cusp.

04 Kuo-Toa Fortress A
Approaching/entering Bhal Hamatugn. Edgy and ominous, slightly creepy. Huge sense of building tension which leads to...

04 Kuo-Toa Fortress B
Bhal Hamatugn, on full alert! Frantic, fast-paced. Sense of overwhelming numbers. Unholy feel. There's even a rhythmic clanging that starts at 0:40 that I might actually have be Zenith, clanging on a shield or something.

04 Zenith Splintershield
Showdown music! Still has the holy chanting, but this song sounds more "crazy" then "evil" to me.

07 Assaulting the Cathedral
Regal and powerful, but distinctly fitting an evil church...especially one that is a cathedral stretching into the sky.