I second Deryl's idea.
Could you guys please change this thread's title name ASAP!
Scydrex
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At least there are some decent folks on these boards. I'm truly amazed at the huge response Cryzabey got from everyone. Scrydex, you can take credit for getting the "D&D Christmas" ball rolling, I wasn't sure if it was proper etiquette to offer stuff on these boards until I saw you do it. I'm even nice enough not to take any credit for any of it. I vividly remember what happened when one of the guys lost all of his D&D material he had left in the back of his car, and all of the Paizo community helped out replacing a lot of the stuff. I have not read any rules about proper forum etiquette that say sending stuff through the mail is allowed or disallowed, but the situation I mentioned set a precedent. Even the guys at Paizo lent out a hand on that occasion, if memory serves me correctly. The complete sent list reads something like: Player's Handbook 3.0 (Fake Healer)
Those involved may make corrections for better accuracy.
Let us know when the books get there, Cryzabey! We'd love to get your impressions on the more recent D&D material.
Damn, you guys basically beat me to the punch...
You know you are dealing with unusual individuals when they compete to see who can be the nicest first... Don't get fooled, kid. In the real world, the competition is to see who can be the biggest son of a b*****...
Well, according to the wikipedia:
The yugoloths are manipulative, secretive, and mercenary by nature Meanwhile, the Dungeons and Dragons Glossary in the Wizards of the Coast site describes them as “possibly the greediest, most selfish beings in the Outer Planes”. In other words, they are very nasty demon-like creatures you would not want to cross at any cost. You can search for some images of the things on google. You really want to use Doppelgangers? I know there are a few nasty things you can do with them. I can write you an email about it, in case your players are reading this post. Wouldn't want to spoil the surprise, would we?
Good eye for that typo, Fatespinner. You made me laugh quite a bit. There are people out there willing to buy you stuff and give their lives up for you. In D&D, their called “henchmen”… “Dum-Dum, here are a few thousand platinum. Go get me a set of +6 dancing vorpal shurikens. After that, please distract that ancient, bloodthirsty red wyrm long enough for me to read these scrolls I have here”. I looked up the good ol’ doppelganger in the basic set, and it’s right there. On the Dungeon Master’s book. I think it was page 28, right beside the page where you can find the dragon breath diagrams, as well as the entries for the original chromatic dragons. Fake Healer’s and Lilith’s offer sound great. I can send you every book they’ve offered (well, except that my Player’s Handbook is 3.5 not 3.0). However, I do not currently live in the US, so it would probably be cheaper for them to send the books to Ohio. Concerning your payment for the books, allow me to make an analogy. Let’s say Bill Gates is driving down the road at high speed and is pulled over by a police car. The cop gives him a speeding ticket worth 900 dollars. I’m pretty sure if it was me, or Fake Healer or Lilith receiving such a ticket, we would be very upset, since 900 bucks is a hefty sum for those that have to work to earn a living. But, to Mr. Gates, such an amount would be downright negligible. The point I’m trying to make is not that Bill drives cars at illegal speeds (I just don’t think he would find that enjoyable) or that he does not work (he runs his own company, which must be a very complex ordeal). What I am trying to say is that any amount you could muster to pay us a fair price for the used books (say, 10 dollars a book) would not be significant enough for us, but quite burdensome on you. You could overpay to make it worth our while, but that would be pointless. So if you decide to accept any of the books you have been offered, I (can’t speak on the other guys’ behalf, but I don’t think they would object) would accept two things payment. You do those two things I would consider myself handsomely paid. First, do not neglect your school responsibilities. I’m pretty sure you’re a smart kid, at least judging from the way your write. Dungeons and Dragons is a time-consuming hobby, especially when you want to learn all the rules properly. We wouldn’t want your dad or anyone to say that D&D is having a negative effect on your studies. None of us like it when our favorite pastime is wrongly criticized. Although it was way worse in the early eighties, believe me. Second, maybe you can write a journal about your player’s adventures, just to see how they are doing. You could update it every once in a while (once again, as long as it does not interfere with your other responsibilities). Check out the Campaign Journals section to see what I mean. That’s all for now. Remember, you can trust us adult role-playing strangers as much as much as you can trust a Yugoloth. Best wishes,
I meant to ask you guys, any of you know any good stores in Ohio where you can by some old time d&d stuff, or at least some dice. Well, dude, something you have in your favor that did not exist when we were your age is the internet. You can buy pretty much anything you need in online stores. I buy stuff from a couple of them, but I will recommend this very website, where you can get a lot of cool and useful stuff. However, if you do not want electronic PDF's of first edition material then you will have to look for other alternatives. Ebay is a wonderful place to find a huge amount of vintage material. Pretty much any book you can think of from any edition can be found there. The problem with buying online is that you will probably need to purchase stuff with an adult's credit card. If your parents or a related adult is willing to cooperate, you can give them the cash and they can order the books and die for you. If you are looking for a physical store, I found many, many potential addresses in the following link: http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/20060928x Just look up the ones closest to where you live. The best thing about visiting a physical store is that you get to meet current D&D players while visiting. Maybe you can get to play 3rd edition material without having to purchase it. You would need your parent's permission to get together for a few sessions, but if you are able to, you will be glad. I myself had never been a player (always a DM) when I started out and only played as a pure player this year. I enjoy both roles, probably DMing a little more (just because I get to control more things... evil laughter echoes in the background), but both are very fun. You want a Christmas present? I have an extra 3.5 Player's Handbook that I use, but can live without. If you are interested, you can write me at scydrex@yahoo.com. Don't give your address or personal information in a public forum, though, just for safety's sake. Maybe other folks here can get you the rest of the core books (Dm's guide and Monster Manual). After that, there are a ton of free adventures available on the net. Or maybe you can convince your parents (or the folks here at Paizo) to give you a Dungeon Magazine subscription, where a lot of very, very cool adventures are published every month. May you make all your saving throws,
I've always loved Heward's Handy Haversack and Quiver of Ehlonna. Boots of flying always come in handy too. Weird that no one has mentioned portable holes. One item that I think is absolutely insane is the Retributive Amulet (Book of Exalted Deeds, page 116). Basically, whenever the wearer gets hit with a natural or hand-held weapon, the attacker takes half the damage. If the total is odd, the extra point goes to the attacker. This item basically doubles your HP in melee! Pretty nasty, if you ask me. I have a question concerning this particular item as well as the other exalted magic items in the book. Do you have to be good aligned to use them? I would say that non-intelligent items don't have an alignment, so they work regardless of the character's alignment, unless stated in the item's description (such as the tomes that give you free XP in the DMG). Can a neutral or evil-aligned character use the non-intelligent magic items described in the BoED such as the Retributive Amulet?
Wow, it's quite remarkable that someone starts gaming with the basic set in this day and age. Well, I and a lot of other people started playing first edition, then second and now third. Getting a taste of different editions gives you a great perspective on how the game has evolved. They're not even remotely close to mint condition, but I still have all my basic D&D books (the red, blue, green, black and even the gold immortal rules), as well as the boxes they came in. One of my cats peed on a couple of the boxes in the early 90s, but a decade and a half later they are OK. I hope exchanging ideas with old guys who don't have the heart to throw away an old piece of cardboard -peed by a cat- on doesn't scare you off, Cryzabey. If you really want access to a ton of free first edition material, visit the Wizards of the Coast site. In their Dungeons and Dragons page, visit the Downloads section and look for "Old Edition Downloads". There are many maps, adventures and additional rules and materials to further enrich your game. Many modules, spells, magic items and Non Player Characters are constantly updated to the more recent editions. I have never heard of anyone upgrading ("degrading"?) material from 3.5 to first edition. Perhaps some of us could convert some classes, spells and magic items to provide your players some more options. Maybe I'm just saying a bunch of nonsense. In any case, welcome to Dungeons and Dragons and these forums. Hope you enjoy the ride for decades to come, like some us have. 
I would also like to say another thing. It's my personal opinion, so you are entitled, as always, to disagree with me. It's not the characters or the levels they are at or the classes or equipment or abilities they possess that make the game fun. I think it boils down to two things:
Second, it has to do with the people you are interacting with. If the players don't get along well, they are not going to have fun no matter how cool the characters they are playing. Same goes to the DM who fails to bring any excitement to the table: "At the end of the corridor you find six more fiendish ogres wielding masterwork battle axes... roll for initiative...." Dungeons and Dragons has been described as "cooperative storytelling", a description I think goes quite well. And we all know that truly great stories are all about EMOTION. If you can make your players laugh in comic situations, feel fear during creepy encounters, feel anger at ruthless villains and/or weep about a tragedy you come up with... you can DM for me anytime. By the way, I've never made a player cry (well, unless I killed his lovingly crafted PC, but that's not what I meant). Can anybody out there share a story or two about feeling true sadness in a D&D game? It won't matter if you are playing an adventure called The Smurfs attack Waterdeep (SAW). If the DM and players really get into it, they will have fun no matter what level his or her smurf has attained.
So, rather than having my players map the thing, I decided I was going to map out each individual room on a half-sheet of graph paper. Once they reach that room, they get the half-sheet, which they can make notes on and reference back to. This creates a ton more work for me, since I'm essentially trascribing all of the maps in the World's Largest Dungeon onto new pieces of graph paper. I shudder at the thought of the amount of work you have to put up with!
I'm with Weird Dave on this one. I’ve played everywhere from first to 20th level and have enjoyed every scenario. High-level adventuring should be about defeating overwhelming odds and accomplishing legendary tasks. I believe it is the Dm’s task to come up with significant challenges for his players. You just have to look at the PC’s stats to see where their vulnerabilities lie. It’s quite difficult to have all the bases covered. Are they good against long-range attacks? Can they teleport away from a well-placed ambush? Maybe they are not suitably equipped for underwater combat. What happens if someone casts a dreaded Mordenkainen’s Disjunction on them? I love Superman as much as Seinfeld, but his weakness as a superhero is that he only has one real weakness, which makes him ultimately uninteresting. Superman stories may give you some clues on how to challenge super PC’s. Maybe they have hostages or civilians to worry about, making their fireballs and other area-damaging spells inappropriate. Perhaps they have a dilemma (which of the simultaneous threats do I solve first?) Or maybe it’s a race against time. It may come a time when you’re tired of sending overwhelmingly challenging monsters at them. At such a point you may ask yourself: “What made the party so powerful?” Adventuring, of course. There can always be more powerful, evil adventurers out there, with just as many spells, feats and special abilities. If they’ve had time to study the party, they can strike with particularly deadly effects. Just make sure they have some contingent teleportation spells cast on them, so the party doesn’t get a ludicrous amount of loot if they defeat them… :P
I have never been in love with MDT rules. Unearthed Arcana features some variants that are usable, but in the long run I think it punishes players that face constant massive damage through adventuring. They will face wizards who shoot maximized fireballs at them and fight monsters that can easily hit them for dozens of HP with a single hit. I'm currently playing a Warcraft campaign with the CON threshold variant: you can take up to your constitution score (plus some modifiers according to size) otherwise you have to make a fort save or fall to -8 hp (not sure how the DM arrived at that figure, I could ask him). Fights are still lethal, but at least you don't die if you have a comrade near that can stabilize you. To me, the most important question whenever I consider a rule such as this is the following: Does it make the game more fun? To me, it does not. Maybe some players will love it when they take that big bad dragon down with a single hit, but it surely will feel cheap when their 18 level barbarian goes down in a similar fashion. Randomness can wreck your well-planned campaign or kill a PC that had been brilliantly played up to that point. I would apply a variant of Occam's Razor that should say something like: Any rule that does not make the game more fun or a richer, deeper experience for you and your players should be disregarded. Well, if the guys at WOTC can clean up and simplify the wording, maybe they can print something of the sort in the intro to the DMG 4.0
Damn, I didn't know that... I really don't care about saving a buck. Not worth that much to me.But I would have certainly preferred you to receive a bigger share of the money I'm paying. You're the guys publishing the great magazines after all. Sorry about that! Maybe you can *cough* cancel my subscription so I can resubscribe *cough*... Now it's too late, but I'll keep that in mind when it's time to renew next year. Best regards,
The idea in general is cool, but you would have to adjust certain things to make the AP playable. Off the top of my head, I can think of two instances where there might be problems. One of the is the end of the Test of the Smoking Eye. That one can be solved through rolepaying and creative thinking. The other one has to do with fighting a beholder; its antimagic ray won't allow a wizard to have much fun. Besides that, I second the comments about those do or die saving throws that will invariably show up. The dragons in particular can be very nasty in this campaign. Considering wizards don't have too many hit points, a well-placed breath weapon can spell certain doom for your player. If you can adjust things to handle those issues, you can have a very rewarding and interesting experience. If you post a journal about it, let us know. It would be a very interesting experiment, to say the least...
On a six player group, I would prefer to have the party distributed like this: 2 Fighter types
From the tentative list you’ve provided, you have the rogue, a cleric, an arcane blaster and an archer. You mention the possibility of having a second fighting type, and finally, a bard (which can do a lot of different things and is bound to have a lot of roleplaying fun in the campaign). There are plenty of traps in this series, so the rogue will have his or her hands full. If played correctly, expect the Halfling to gain levels like crazy, at least in the beginning. The party composition more or less looks fine to me. However, and this is an area where a lot of groups can be found lacking, I think having one dedicated healer to service himself and five other guys is simply too little. Sure, parties can purchase scrolls, wands and potions to offset this, but then they would be spending valuable resources they wouldn’t if they had another capable healer amongst their ranks. The second healer could be an alternative to the cleric, like the favored soul, spirit shaman, divine mind, etc. Better yet, try out a druid. Those can be a load of fun. A paladin has a good BAB and limited healing capabilities, so that could work. You could face certain moral dilemmas in the campaign, so a paladin might be troublesome in certain spots, but I can’t get any more specific than that. For your second character you can go crazy and try something like the Duskblade. At least I’ve been itching to play one when I get the chance. There is an appendix in the Shackled City Hardcover that provides plenty of advice on what classes fit the campaign better. Have your DM let you read it or read it to you, if you have the hardcover version of the adventures. It’s entirely possible that some of the characters die during the campaign (I don’t think that’s any kind of spoiler). If that happens, those will be good opportunities to assess what the party has been lacking or not doing very effectively and a chance to address that. The most important rule is this: whatever class each of you finally chooses, make sure you enjoy this AP and have lots of fun!
Although I think the reasoning in the system used to identify prisoners is a little flawed, it seems to be very accurate, at least according to Cosmo. He writes: ''this is the first time since I've been with Paizo that we were wrong''. That sounds pretty accurate to me, unless you have not worked at Paizo more than a few weeks of months, in which case I would be willing to wager more mistakes will happen… Now, receiving a letter that incorrectly tags you as an inmate can be a simple annoyance or inconvenience, or maybe just something to laugh about if you find it funny. But I'd be very, very careful. Some people in the US (where I don't live) tend to sue companies over anything. My guess is that having access to an email account would largely depend on the type of prisoner that you are. If you are a terrorist or member of a criminal organization, I don't think we would want you to be able to communicate freely with your colleagues –accomplices- to coordinate further attacks or crimes.
To the guys at Paizo: Apologies accepted, Captain Needa
As Michelle has already stated, the matter is being handled. Thank you. However, I would like to provide you with some free advice. If you are going to be making educated guesses about someone’s incarceration status based solely on people’s mailing addresses, I think it would be better to at least try to contact the person first. A simple email asking, “Hey, man, are you in jail?” would have much faster and easier. I have used some of your products in the past (I’m currently DMing for a group playing the Shackled City AP) and hope to be one more of your customers for years to come.
Thank you for your responses.
The guys at Paizo might provide a plausible explanation of this bizarre letter. I don’t hold a grudge or think there’s some sort of conspiracy theory going on. Whenever you send a message to anyone, you usually double-check to make sure you are sending the appropriate information (canceling or renewing a subscription, answering a complaint, or contacting prisoners). I’m curious as hell to learn exactly how things got mixed up like that. Hello, Lilith. I’ve read many of the things you’ve posted on this website. You usually write very thoughtful ideas. To answer your question, I used a single street address located in Florida, and to my knowledge does not correspond to any correctional facility. Even if the address did correspond to a prison, I could be an employee at a correctional facility. In fact I am not, but the address itself does not tell that much about my status. Well, if my address was in Beverly Hills it would suggest that I’m probably incredibly rich, although the rich and famous have employees that live there as well. So ruling out the address, if Paizo sends me a letter assuming I am a convicted prisoner, it means there must be some database somewhere that says I am one. That’s what disturbs me. Let’s say I wanted to purchase airplane tickets or withdraw money from a bank. If the computer checks my ID and concludes that I am a convicted felon, people would assume I a criminal who has escaped from prison. Or how about applying for a job? A potential employer might discriminate against me if his records “showed” that I have been convicted. So it’s very important for me to clear this up. Paizo should at least address my concerns and let me know how the error happened. Perhaps there is a prisoner with my last name and the letters got switched. I am not even asking for an apology, I just want to learn the exact nature of the mistake, so I can rest easy that my name does not appear on any of the police’s convicted felon list. I admit I may have overreacted putting this here. I simply did not know how to react. Perhaps I would like to hear from someone else who has faced something similar. I would have thought that writing my concern in a messageboard named “Customer Service” would guarantee that some employee would take a look at it. I’ve read the title in many of the posts, and they have numerous questions about missing issues, subscriptions, etc. I still need to know when my subscription will start, if at all.
In any case, thank you for your attention.
I received a letter from Paizo Publishing today, concerning my subscription to the magazine. I ordered my subscription through Amazon.com. I was told I would have to wait the roughly 6 to 8 weeks it takes to process such orders. But then today I received a letter that left me baffled and upset.
After thanking me for my interest in one of your publications, you state:
It goes on to explain that (probably for security reasons) “prisons have varying policies on what inmates receive”. Then it says that by signing the document I agree to indemnify Paizo Publishing, LLC and not hold them responsible for the delivery of the “subscription or any premiums sent with or outside of the magazine” or demand that they replace any missing issues or premiums. I was very disturbed by this letter. I have never been incarcerated; have never been found guilty of committing any crime punishable by federal law. I have never even been to a trial. According to Paizo, what felony have I committed? In what prison am I incarcerated? The address the letter was sent to is not the address of any known prison. It’s a street address. As an undergrad, I visited a prison for humanitarian purposes. Much later, as a graduate student, I worked with young men in a youth correctional facility in Passaic County, New Jersey. Prison, and anything related with it, is not something I would take lightly. I am going to assume the letter was sent by an honest mistake. I sincerely hope it’s the correct explanation, as any other possibility is simply distressing. Normally I would have just crumpled the piece of paper and tossed it to the trash. However, in the letter is stated that my subscription to Dungeon Magazine is conditional on signing the agreement. If this letter is some type of joke (or some sort of role-playing test you guys send to aspiring subscribers) I find it of very, very bad taste. Not only not funny, but downright offensive. Please clarify whether I do have to sign this letter to finally start receiving the magazine subscription I have spent my hard-earned money on, or if it can be disregarded completely. In the latter case, I would need a timetable that lets me know when to expect the arrival of the first magazine. I want to subscribe and I would be willing to renew my subscription for years to come. But if I need to sign this letter as if I was some sort of prison inmate impersonator, you can certainly count me (and my money) out. As I stated previously, I hope this is all a simple misunderstanding. I know Paizo and the magazines it publishes have many fans, and I have read dozens of posts where customers constantly praise your service and devotion to them. Feel free to write me an email to if you need me to provide you my name, address, etc. If you don’t have my email, I can give it to you through this very post. Your would-be customer,
What I just wrote made me think of a joke... A cleric is attacked by a fighter, who is about to kick his butt.
When the 24 hours are up, time starts flowing normally again. The fighter is still charging towards the cleric, who, without losing his calm, says: "I know KUNG FU"...
I was wrong about Time Stop being an arcane spell. I had not considered the arcane spell failure. Such are the results of hasty and careless thinking! Sebastian does offer a good idea. I would probably handle things his way. No one is questioning you and your player’s right to have fun, teasing1. If all of you think it will be fun for the PCs (as well as villains and NPC’s!) to have access to such potentially game-breaking abilities, then by all means allow it. In such a case, sending Inevitables to “correct” the situation would make perfect sense. To answer Moff Rimmer’s question, what I would do for 24 hours while the rest of the world was solid? First, you are not necessarily exhausted after 24 hours. No one said you have to be under constant strenuous activity for the duration of the spell. There is nothing that stops you from spending some or most of those hours resting or relaxing. Or from eating the food that is in your possession. One of the most efficient abuses of 24-hour long Time Stops I can think of would be to effectively double the rate at which a character can create magic items. The spell description states, “You can affect any item that is not in another creature’s possession”. You would still have to pay the gold and the XP, but together with artisan feats presented in books like the Eberron Campaign Setting you could become a veritable Magic Item factory. You could also age at double the rate. I know more than one spellcaster who would love to be of venerable age ASAP. On a final note, I share Forgottenprince’s stance on the subject. If the trick is pulled off one or twice in an emergency, to save the party’s butt, then I would allow it and reward the player for his or her resourcefulness. Any player that just wants to exploit the rules (even if it’s at the rest of the party’s detriment) should be reasoned with first, or punished if he won’t care to listen to you.
Their interrogation of Chorlyndyr completed, the party decided to go upstairs to regroup. Then something totally unexpected happened. Trigen, who up to that point had appeared to be a reliable member of the Shadows of the Road, turned traitor. The group was caught by surprise. While the rest of the companions reacted, Trigen pushed Scarn off the ledge. The vanara fell a few stories, hitting the rocky ground with a resounding thud. The party managed to knock out and capture their former companion, but Chorlyndyr took advantage of the confusion to escape, arms bound and all. The party let him go, deciding that looking after their fallen friend was the priority. They took Scarn and Trigen’s unconscious body back to the surface. The Shadows took Trigen to the Town Hall for questioning. They left him there and decided to take the rest of the day off. Next day they went to the Adventurer’s Academy, to brush up on their combat training and meet potential new members. Therlan met a half-orc, who said had been looking for him. The half-orc, who called himself Skurrgh, had learned that the whisper gnome was interested in learning about the Sublime Way. He claimed to know much about it, and offered to provide Therlan some training if he was interested. Curious, Therlan went off with Skurrgh to one of the Academy’s numerous training areas. Leaving Kaelin training with her weapons, Landstalker and Scarn went to the jungle near the city, looking for Kade, the man they had met the previous day. They found him after a few minutes. They asked if he was interested in joining the Shadows. Kade gladly accepted, provided they also allowed his companion wolf to come with them. The half-giant and the vanara saw no problem with that, so they allowed it. The three (well, four) returned to the Academy, where they reunited with the rest of the group. Before leaving, Kaelin practiced a mock battle with Landstalker, beating him in two rounds. Then it was Kade’s turn to show his stuff. He won that fight without getting a scratch, summoning wave after wave of greenbound hippogriffs. (DM’s Note: There were many major goofs in that fight, all in Kade’s favor. All the summoning was done as standard actions, not full round actions. The Greenbound Summoning feat only applies to creatures with the animal type, so summoned hippogriffs would not qualify for the template. There will have to be a fair rematch one of these days, although it’s not something the druid is particularly looking for). The characters left the Academy and went to the Ashburn household. Kaelin went to check on Grandpa Bori. She had a big surprise when she found two underage girls in his bed. The old man tried to explain himself, but found no suitable excuse for his latest misdeed. Kaelin agreed not to tell his grandson Landstalker about it. The party had food, wine and some time to relax the rest of that day. When old Bori had more than enough to drink, Kaelin brought him to bed, undressed, and slipped into bed with him. Landstalker spent his night with the two little girls, although he did not suspect they had been with his grandfather earlier. Next day, when Kaelin woke up, she fooled Bori into thinking they had had sexual intercourse during the night. The old man felt proud of himself, remembering his glory days with increasing nostalgia. Inspired, the man took a small box from a drawer. The box contained an engagement ring that had belonged to his deceased wife. He asked Kaelin to marry him. Not wanting to hurt the old man’s feelings, she told him she would seriously think about it. The party was ready to explore the caverns below the bathhouse once more. They gathered together and returned to the area they had been exploring previously. A trio of goblin archers attacked them, but was defeated in a matter of moments. They found a very sinister chamber, painted in blood that had dried and turned brown. A very grotesque chair was in the middle of this room. While they searched the room, the chair attacked them by surprise. It turned out to be much tougher than the party expected, but they finally destroyed it. The room had a wooden ladder that descended about 20 feet, into a dark, cavernous room. While Therlan scouted ahead, the party was attacked by an immense bat. The creature dived towards Landstalker, who killed the thing with a mighty swing of his warcleaver. Further exploration of the cavernous area revealed another wooden ladder, descending even deeper into the darkness. The part of the cave they arrived to contained thousands of coins, weapons, armor, jewelry and magical items. A search by Therlan revealed that part of the floor could be lifted. Below this hole was a small space. An examination of the floor showed a depression in the form of a big humanoid, as if someone regularly used this space to sleep or rest. The party went back to the room where the chair had attacked. From there, they traversed a corridor and opened a door going north. Inside were two small blue lizards. Therlan decided to leave the little creatures alone. Before he could close the door, the two lizards sent a shock of electricity that caught him by surprise. The scout took a little damage, but managed to close the door anyway. They saw a rope bridge in the distance, connecting a pair of ledges. With nowhere else to go, they went west. As they walked through the dark tunnels, a green blob fell from the floor, missing Therlan entirely. The thing appeared to be alive. The whole party gave it a wide berth and continued walking to the west. After a few minutes, they noticed they were being followed. Behind them, they saw the two blue lizards encountered earlier. The party wiped a mile of the floor tiles with hostile reptiles’ vile asses. Yes, I thought that sounded funny, so sue me… After the brief altercation, the Shadows of the Road heard ominous laughter, coming from up ahead. A final ambush had been prepared in the party’s honor. There were four goblins, six half-orc soldiers, and a dwarf in a room up ahead. They could also see the pair that had attacked them earlier (Kallev and Chorlyndyr), as well as the feral bugbear vampire. A battle involving more than 20 combatants (counting animal companions and summoned creatures) would be too complicated to write in chronological order, so I will just give you some highlights. The battle started with Kaelin and Therlan charging towards the half-orcs. The enemies retaliated by attacking mercilessly, but without much success. A surprise attacker appeared from behind. It was a goblin, who started casting spells to harm the heroes. Kade sent Silverfang, his companion wolf, to deal with the goblin and started summoning a bear. Landstalker, buffed with Scarn’s Bull Strength, charged towards the enemies. The goblin spellcaster managed to hit the wolf with a powerful scorching ray. The wolf, as well as the greenbound bear summoned by Kade, eventually took the goblin down. Therlan, Kaelin and Landstalker were facing the massive half-orc/goblin onslaught.
Chorlyndyr, the white-haired human they had captured days earlier, kept back, shooting magic missiles from relative safety. In the ensuing rounds Kade summoned three dire badgers. One of them attacked Chorlyndyr, knocking him out. Therlan, Kaelin and Landstalker had eliminated most of the goblins and half-orcs, as well as Xoden and Kallev. But now Therlan, dominated by the vampire’s will, turned to attack Landstalker. This went against the whisper gnome’s nature, so he managed to shrug off the domination effect. A few rounds later, the party (and some summoned animals) surrounded the bugbear monstrosity. It got a lucky hit against Landstalker, who felt negative energy robbing him of part of his health and combat (and non-combat) skills. It was the vanara who ended the fight, touching the vampire with a curing spell. This is where we left the session. There will be some roleplaying and some loose ends to tie, but that will be done next time we get together to play in the Shackled City AP. Until then, have fun and drive home safely!
Here is a summary of events transpired during our two most recent sessions in the Shackled City AP. The party members were barely alive having faced dozens of enemies. They decided to leave the caverns and return to the surface. On their way, some in the party noticed a bat watching them. It had an ugly grin on its face. It appeared to be taunting them. When they got to Orak’s Bathhouse, they found the one-eyed dwarf accompanied by a pair of town guards. He accused the characters of invading private property and harassing an innocent citizen. The guards, who recognized the heroes as the ones who had been honored by Lord Vhalantru and the lord mayor himself for saving the kidnapped children, were hesitant as to what actions to take. The party took advantage of this confusion and left the building, going directly to Captain Skellerang’s headquarters to report the recent incidents. Kaelin stayed behind, to attempt to capture Orak and bring him to the Town Hall. She was unsuccessful: the dwarf ran away from her and locked himself inside the bathhouse. The group reported to the Captain, providing an account of what had happened in the caverns. Skellerang was very surprised that the group had so much trouble handling a bunch of “measly goblins”. One of his aides told him they should have hired the Stormblades, to which he replied that the Shadows had been expressly recommended by priestess Jenya Urikas herself. The Captain asked himself aloud whether he had overestimated the party’s abilities. He offered to provide guards to assist them. Or they could simply abandon the job, if they felt they were not good enough to finish it. All of this angered the party members, who left the Captain’s office after telling him they would stop working for him. The group went to see Jenya. The priests of St. Cuthbert offered them some healing, which they gladly accepted. They reported everything they had seen, heard and experienced to the acting high priestess. She was genuinely concerned for the party and told them it was okay to cancel the mission if they found it too dangerous or difficult. They told her they had been offended by Skellerang and had decided to stop helping him. Jenya pleaded them to return to the caverns below the bathhouse, if not for the Captain at least for her sake and for the safety of the good people of Cauldron. The Shadows reluctantly agreed to help, provided she contacted the Captain herself to let him know, since they had no further wish to speak to him. Jenya agreed to do this. The Shadows of the Road spent the next 24 hours regrouping, resting and replenishing some of their equipment. Therlan [who had taken a swordsage level, from the Tome of Battle] wanted to find a mentor or teacher who could train him in the arts of the Sublime Way. He asked in the Adventurer’s Academy. They told him there was once a very accomplished warrior who knew of such martial techniques, but he had left the Academy years ago. He was supposedly living in the surrounding jungle. He left the city in search of this warrior, accompanied by Landstalker, Scarn and Trigen. On their way, they met a man who was sitting beside a tree, petting an adult wolf. He introduced himself as Kade Brisbane and his wolf as Silverfang. The group asked him if he had seen the man they were looking for. He told them he knew much about the wilderness in the area, in which he had lived for a few years, and that he had in fact, seen the man they mentioned and had met him on a few occasions. The man was known locally as the Crimson Mask, and lived about 45 minutes to the north. They thanked Kade and went on their way. After walking almost an hour, they met a man dressed in a red cloak, which also hid his face. He exchanged words with Therlan, and they identified him as the person they had been looking for. The masked man told them he would gladly take apprentices, but that anyone who was not going to receive his teaching should leave. The rest of the group said goodbye to Therlan and returned to the city. The Crimson Mask told the whisper gnome that if he really wanted to become his apprentice, he would have to exactly as he was told. Therlan agreed to do this, as long as it did not conflict with his moral values. The man brought Therlan to an area full of bushes, besides a well-traveled road. They would have to wait for about half an hour, the Crimson Mask said. When thirty minutes had passed, they saw a carriage, pulled by a pair of horses, which was going south, towards Cauldron. Therlan was told that he would have to help the Crimson Mask rob the people inside the carriage. The man told him those people were nobles who exploited and oppressed the poor. They would punish them by stealing their valuables and giving them to the needy. Therlan did not agree to do this, and left the Crimson Mask alone. Upon returning to the city, he looked for the rest of the party. After they had gathered, they went back to the dwarf’s bathhouse. There were two guards stationed outside the building. The guards asked them to identify themselves. When they did, the guards realized they were the ones Captain Skellerang had said were to be allowed inside the building. When the characters asked for the dwarf’s whereabouts, they were told he had been brought to the Town Hall to be questioned for failing to report that there were goblins living below his business. The group descended to the caverns once more. On their way down, some in the group spotted a goblin which was apparently on the lookout for intruders. As soon as it saw the group, it ran to the south. The Shadows did not bother chasing after it. They returned to the part of the caverns where they had had their massive showdown with the goblins. They explored the area south of it, where the two worg riders had come from. There they were attacked by three tentacled monsters that looked like squid, with skin the color of limestone. They killed the little pests and continued onward. As they descended further into the cavern’s tunnels, some in the group heard a sound. It was apparent someone or something was waiting for them up ahead. The ambush was not to be, however. Therlan went ahead to do some reconnaissance. He saw a bunch of goblins hiding in a room north of the tunnel they were at. He shot an arrow at one of them, and ran back towards his companions. The goblins howled and gave chase, with the intent to kill the little scout. A big fight ensued. More goblins emerged from the tunnels, including another worg rider, a spellcaster and three sneaky-looking goblins who were shooting crossbow bolts at the party from a 10 foot-high ledge to the south. They put up a decent fight, but were simply outmatched by the Shadows. The only three surviving goblins (the ones that had been shooting at them from the ledge) escaped to the south. The party explored the northern tunnel. They found a ladder leading up. They ascended them and found a room full of wooden crates and casks. They ignored a door to the west and started to descend a staircase, when they were attacked by a pair of humanoids. One of them was a female warrior with horns on her head. The other one was a man with white hair and blue markings on his face. The party reacted quickly, knocking the man unconscious. The female decided that the odds were definitely not in her favor, so she fled to the north. The party did not pursue her. They questioned the man. After intimidating him, he revealed his name was Chorlyndyr, while his companion was named Kallev. He said that together with their friend Xoden they worked for a mysterious person only known as the “Blue Duke”. He also told them the Duke, who kept a private army of half-orcs, was in negotiations with one of Cauldron’s nobles. It looked as if the unnamed noble intended to bolster his or her own personal bodyguard. Their plan was to use the tunnels below the city to smuggle the mercenaries into town. This is where our tenth SCAP session ended. Following immediately is an account of what transpired during our 11th session.
You really don’t need too much rules-digging to come up with such cheese. Once you learn about divine metamagic and the fact that it does not raise the spell’s level you tend to think of all the powerful spells you can have last all day long. I think the solutions suggested by Bloodsbane (and reinforced by Saern) can address the problem, but does not really solve it. First, any decent 17th level cleric probably travels with an equally powerful party, more than enough to handle any Quarut or Marut that you throw at them. Well, you could send a horde of dozens of Inevitables at them, but as a DM I never resort to pitting players against overwhelming odds, unless the story specifically demands it. If any player character (with the right feats and domains) could cast 24-hour Time Stops, they would be doing so and as frequently as they could. The solution, I think, would be to look at the feat’s description. It specifically states: “You can channel energy into some of your divine spells to make them more powerful”. (Complete Divine, page 80). My answer to the player, then, would be that Time Stop simply is not a divine spell. We could debate whether domain spells, since they are granted by a power or deity, are divine or arcane in nature. My simple question would be this: “Is the spell in any divine spellcaster’s (cleric, druid, favored soul, etc.) regular list?” No? Then it’s not a divine spell. In my opinion, it is a bonus arcane spell a divine caster with access to a specific domain, such as Trickery, can cast.
Thank you for taking the time to describe your system, Jay. I might try it (or an implementation of it) in some future campaign. I wouldn’t worry much about your characters advancing faster. I have not played or read the Savage Tide AP, but am pretty sure three is less than the recommended number of players. The party has to have a way to compensate for the fact that they may lack a sufficient number of members. The risks of a TPK increase, since there are less people to face the threats when one of the characters goes down. The party also loses a lot of versatility when one of the four normal roles (fighter, arcane caster, healer, rogue) is not available. No class is absolutely indispensable, but adventures become harder when you don’t have access to the skills or spells necessary to overcome certain obstacles. The Player’s Handbook II describes all of this in great detail, so I won’t repeat that here. On the other hand, the self-correcting nature of the XP system ensures that higher-level characters receive increasingly less XP when facing lower EL encounters. So in the end, it all evens out. So it’s not the end of the world if the average party level is a little higher than what the adventure is designed for. When compared to a group with a higher number of characters, the party will always have less attacks and spells available during combat, and monster will have to divide their attacks and abilities against fewer targets. And finally, if you feel the characters will not be significantly challenged in a portion of the adventure, you can always do what good DMs do: you can adjust the challenge ratings accordingly.
Hello, I have a question for Jay. You wrote on this thread about assigning extra XP for the players. Would you care to describe in detail how the XP is awarded and the ways in which it can be expended? You have written about item creation, feats, etc. If it's not too much trouble for you, I'd really appreciate if you could include the exact amounts players would have to pay in XP for those things. Thanks, and may you keep having fun!
The members of the adventuring party known as “The Shadows of the Road” were forced to prove their resolve and their ability to survive as they faced their greatest challenge yet on session number 9 of our ongoing Shackled City campaign. Last session, we had left the characters at Raygar’s funeral, which was celebrated at the Church of St. Cuthbert. During the simple ceremony, Jenya Urikas provided a short, comforting speech to those who attended. Temple acolytes buried Raygar’s body on temple grounds. Something which occurred on the previous session, but which I had failed to describe was the reception of a mysterious note by the Therlan. A young boy approached him and handed a folded piece of parchment to him. Written inside, the scout read: “We are not responsible for what happened. But we sure are glad it did.” It was signed with the initials “TV”. Therlan had a pretty good idea of who had written such a note. After mourning their comrade, the Shadows took some time off before looking for a replacement at the Adventurer’s Academy. They interviewed numerous wild and/or crazy individuals, including, but not limited to, a half-orc barbarian, a pansy wizard, a stuck-up sorcerer, a gnome illusionist, a foolish samurai, an expert (specialized in profession: cooking) and an obnoxious bard. None of the candidates caught the party’s interest. Therlan and Kaelin came up with a fictional story involving a mythical hero named “Gronk”. The aspiring Shadows of the Road ate up the story. They thought such a brave warrior did indeed exist. Inspired by the scout’s words, the hopefuls formed their own adventuring party. They dubbed themselves “The Champions of Gronk” and started making plans to recover Gronk’s legendary equipment, as well as research all they could to learn more about this hero. While all of this was happening, a tall young man approached Landstalker. He told him about his interest in joining the adventuring group and asked for a private meeting with the leader. They satisfied his request and found their newest member. Before leaving the premises, they noticed the Champions of Gronk requesting all the necessary paperwork to register the adventuring party as an official member of the Academy. The five of them went to the Ashburn household, where they had lunch. They discussed their plans to investigate the dwarf Orak’s Bathhouse. They also asked Landstalker’s grandfather Bori about the Stormblades. He told them they were a group of very competitive young nobles, and advised them not to lose their temper at any of that group’s provocations, since they were all members of wealthy Cauldron families. The group left Landstalker’s home and went to Orak’s Bathhouse to investigate the recent goblin raids. Kaelin went inside by herself, while the rest waited near the building’s entrance. She was greeted by a one-eyed dwarf, who appeared to be Orak himself. He asked what her business was. She told him she wanted to take a bath. The dwarf said that he could not allow someone carrying menacing weapons inside his business, and asked her to return when she had left them behind. Kaelin did not comply, and the rest of the party entered as well. The dwarf was visibly angered by this unexpected intrusion. He threatened to call the authorities if they did not leave at once. The group started searching the building, finding small rooms with benches, as well as towels, soap, and a small office, apparently the dwarf’s. While this happened, Orak went to the building’s front door. He was about to scream something when Therlan used his silence ability to quiet him. However, before anyone else could react, the dwarf exited the building and called for help. From the streets came a group of four wererats, which entered the bathhouse and attacked. Orak appeared terrified by this, and ran away as fast as he could. The wererats put up a decent, but brief, fight before being defeated. The shadows explored the rest of the building and found a set of stairs going down into darkness. They descended the stairs and found a long, dark corridor. Therlan decided to scout ahead to see what he could find. He neglected to search for traps and tripped on a piece of thin wire that set off a very, very loud alarm. Whoever lived here had been alerted of their presence. The whisper gnome went back to the group. The started moving through the corridor when they were attacked by a pair of goblins, who were killed in a matter of seconds. They walked around the dark complex, searching for more of the nasty little creatures. They found what appeared to be an ancient dwarven chapel. A headless seven-foot statue holding a warhammer stood at the far end of this room. There were numerous bas-reliefs of dwarf artisans at work on the walls, but they had all been defiled with excrement and crudely painted images of goblins stabbing them with spears. Their exploration of the caverns revealed little else of interest. They found what appeared to be barracks –with plenty of signs of recent occupation- and were attacked twice more by pairs of goblins. The shadows arrived at an area that contained both artificial and natural walls. It featured a door leading south and a natural passage leading to the west. Bored after having fought so few enemies, the party chose to follow this passage. Then all hell broke loose. The goblins had not been idle after all. They had prepared a massive ambush for the intruders. Behind them, six goblins were closing in on the party. Two goblins, mounted on wolf-like worg, emerged from a southern passage. Going west along the corridor, right in front of the adventuring party, were eighteen goblin warriors. Kaelin and Therlan charged towards the worg riders, while the remaining three stayed to fight the goblins that had been approaching from behind. Two of the goblins at their rear had some spellcasting abilities. One attempted to put them to sleep, while the other one fired a superheated magical ray at them. Both failed. The goblins started closing in on Landstalker, Scarn and Trigen. Landstalker was particularly effective, cleaving through his enemies with his mighty weapon. Meanwhile, Therlan and Kaelin had their hands full with the goblin riders, their mounts and the warriors that had come to assist them. Numerous goblins fell, but some of their attacks managed to penetrate the party’s defenses. Everyone had been injured in some way. They were not fighting for Cauldron anymore. They were fighting for their lives. Kaelin was gravely wounded, so she had to disengage from the fight at the southern corridor’s entrance to attempt to heal herself. Three goblins went after her. She had the intention of quaffing a healing potion, but her attackers brought her down with their blows before she had the chance. Therlan was left all by himself with five attackers trying to cut him to ribbons. Through sheer skill (and more than a fair share of good luck), he managed to avoid most of their blows. However, he was not being too successful hitting them either, something that did not bode well in the long run. Things could not possibly get any worse. But they did. Out of nowhere, a fearsome humanoid landed and started verbally harassed the trespassers. It was a vampire bugbear. He tried to dominate Landstalker’s mind, but the half-giant seemed to be immune to this. The vampire tried to dominate Trigen’s mind instead, but was unsuccessful once more. Frustrated, but confident that his minions would eventually dispatch the intruders, the creature climbed a wall like a spider, then transformed into a bat and flew away. On his way out, he laughed and mocked the party for their foolishness. Landstalker and Trigen had dispatched most of their opponents. The goblins that had brought Kaelin down attacked them, managing to knock the vanara cleric/wizard out of commission. Both warriors finished off their assailants and ran to aid Therlan, who was still locked in a desperate fight with five enemies. Landstalker stopped by Kaelin’s prone body and brought a healing potion to her lips. This was enough to revive her. The half giant let her stand on her own and ran towards the remaining foes. The Shadows of the Road were eventually able to defeat their attackers. But the long fight had taken a very heavy toll: all of them were heavily wounded. They practically no useful spells left. They did not know whether their companion Scarn was alive or not. And they were deep inside a hostile stronghold. Now they had to find a way to return to the surface to rest and recuperate. Would they be able to accomplish this? We’ll find out next week… DM’s Note: On the player’s request, I decided to make this adventure a little harder. They felt they would not be significantly challenged by a bunch of lowly goblins, so I gave them an extra 10 hit points (effectively tripling their life totals) as well as +2 to their attack rolls. These measures certainly had an impact, as it was a near TPK experience that ended at about three in the morning. I had a lot of fun though, and am sure the players did too. At least they were high-fivin’ each other at the end.
You can always use the free adventures offered by Wizards at the Adventure Archive, in the Downloads section. Cave of Spiders is a short adventure that shouldn't change events related to the SCAP in a significant way, and it's pretty short. I haven't read The Temple of Redcliff, but if you have any PC's related to Heironeous, it could be a nice adventure. If you include the adventures you can adjust to make harder or easier, I think you'll find the one you need there. Have fun!
Hello, guys I started reading your journal. My players and I are currently playing the Shackled City AP. You can check out the "Playing Shackled City in a Steampunk Setting" journal if you want to. I was curious about this "awesome plan" you had come up with. I guess anything that involves a monkey is bound to be fun. Hope you have a lots of thrills playing your Savage Tide campaign.
We went back to the Shackled City AP after playing a few sessions of another campaign, which I am not Dming, by the way. The adventuring party has changed noticeably since the last time we played. 50% of the group’s roster has changed. Gone are Aiacos (the human psychic warrior), Daedalus (human warmage) and Xarat (human favored soul). The latter two appeared to be frustrated with the adventuring company, while the former opted for a career change, becoming a revered (and peace-loving) priest of St. Cuthbert. The party had successfully rescued the missing children from the Malachite Fortress. To celebrate the joyous occasion, a celebration in the heroes’ honor was arranged for the following evening. The group spent most of the following day recuperating from their recent ordeals. During this time, the party received a sealed letter bearing a was seal of the Office of the Lord Mayor. It read: “I would like to meet with you at the Town Hall to discuss a very important matter. Please come at your earliest convenience or send notice that you are unable to attend”. It was signed “Terseon Skellerang, Captain of the Town Guard”. The party in the group’s honor was held at the familiar Tipped Tankard tavern. All six original members attended the proceedings. Lord Mayor Severen Navalant provided a short speech thanking the PCs for the return of the kidnapped children. He left briefly after that, mentioning he had pressing matters to attend to elsewhere. Lord Vhalantru followed by making the first of many toasts celebrating the heroes’ courage. Gretchyn Tashykk, the Lantern Street Orphanage headmistress, spoke on the children’s behalf and also thanked the group. During these proceedings, Therlan improvised a name for the adventuring group. He called them “The Shadows of the Road”. Don’t ask me… perhaps the player can write a brief explanation of this name. In representation of the Curch of St. Cuthbert, priestess Jenya Urikas and Sir Alek Tercival applauded the party and provided them with the 2000 gold piece reward they had promised. Some in the party donated their funds to the orphanage, which brought many cheers from those present. Not everyone was merry that night, however. Sitting inconspicuously in a corner, a thin, young man with a weasel face listened to the accolades directed towards the party with growing bitterness. Therlan noticed the man slam his fist on the table in apparent frustration. The man left the tavern and headed southwest. Therlan cast silence on himself and followed him stealthily. The man approached the gates of a large mansion. He saluted the two guards and was allowed inside. Therlan went back to the tavern and asked for Sir Tercival’s whereabouts. Jenya told him the paladin had gone back to the temple. Therlan went there and asked for an audience with him. He gave Alek an account of what had transpired. Following the whispergnome’s description, Tercival identified the person as Todd Vanderboren, member of an adventuring group of young nobles collectively known as The Stormblades. The group was extremely competitive, and it was obvious that they felt envious for all the praise Therlan’s party had received in those days. The scout bid noble knight farewell and went to the tavern once again. The group met their first replacement PC during the celebration. Her name was Kaelin Kain, a human warblade. Being of a noble family herself, she had known the Ashburn family for quite some time, so she was very friendly towards Aiacos and Landstalker. Therlan told the warblade she would be evaluated the following morning in the Adventurer’s Academy. Kaelin and Landstalker spent a few more hours drinking. The half-giant fell drunk, so Kaelin brought him to the Ashburn mansion. She slipped into bed with him, but the drunk warrior did not even notice. Next day they had breakfast, and grandfather Bori was especially proud of his grandson, who had gone to bed with a beautiful lady. He thought something had happened, when in reality they had just slept. The half-giant had very vague recollection of the previous evening’s events. Aiacos Landstalker also came downstairs. He gave his brother and his grandpa a hug. He told them the Church of St. Cuthbert was sending him on a mission to the capital city of Sasserine, where he would be living. He promised to write as often as he could. The group met at the Adventurer’s Academy to recruit replacements for the three party members who had left. Therlan had a sparring match with warblade Kaelin. Apart from a thunderous critical blow Kaelin dealt to the scout, the two missed more than they hit each other. After a few minutes, Therlan appeared satisfied and welcomed Kaelin to the group. A short while later, the party recruited its second new member, a young fighter/wizard named Raygar who also sparred with Kaelin. The young man was eager to prove himself to the rest of the group. With two new members to replace the three who had left, the Shadows of the Road went to the Town Hall to speak to Captain Skellerang. After a brief interaction with admiring town guards, who appeared to be in awe of the adventuring group, they were led into the Town Captain’s office. The man appeared to be very preoccupied. He greeted each one of them and went right into business. He told the group that during the last few weeks there seemed to be a goblin infestation in the city. His men had killed a few of them in recent days, but there were still goblin attacks reported all over Cauldron. So far, there had been a few muggings, robberies and acts of vandalism. No citizen had been killed, although some had been injured. He offered the adventurers five gold pieces for every goblin ear they could bring. The group asked Terseon to give them a few minutes to deliberate. He was more than happy to comply. The Shadows were a little disappointed they had been summoned to eliminate lowly goblins. These goblins were organized, however, so there had to be someone else pulling the strings. The party came back into the office and told the Captain they would help him. Skellerang was very happy to hear this. He provided the group all the information his men had collected so far and bid them good luck. During their search for the goblins, they came across two pieces of graffiti which had been written with chalk. The first one read: “Who builds town in volcano? Stupid humans.” The other one said “Snerk smells like dung!” After about three hours of fruitless search, a beautiful young woman approached them. She was about 5 feet tall, with red hair and jade-green eyes, wearing a black cloak over a finely made suit of studded leather armor. The woman approached them and said the following: “I hear that you’re helping the town guard deal with the goblin infestation. I have some information that might be useful. Check out Orak’s Bathhouse on Lava Avenue. I think you’ll find that’s where the goblins come from. Orak, the one-eyed dwarf who owns and runs the place, hangs around there at night as well. He’s also a retired adventurer, so don’t underestimate him.” Raygar was especially captivated by the mysterious woman’s allure. They flirted with each other briefly before leaving together. The rest of the Shadows were amazed that their new companion had left with a stranger so easily. They asked about Orak’s Bathhouse location, but decided not to enter the building until Raygar returned. After a two hour wait, they sensed something had gone wrong. In their search for them, they described the couple to various individuals. They eventually arrived to an inn. The owner of the establishment told them the couple had rented a room and gone upstairs. One of his employees saw the woman leave the building alone about thirty minutes later. They knocked on the door a few times. After no answer came, the owner used his keys to open the room’s door. What they found inside was dreadful: Raygar lay naked on a bed, blood pouring from his back and forming a pool on the floor. The inn’s owner dropped his keys and screamed. He went downstairs to call the authorities. The Shadows grabbed their fallen comrade and took his body to the Temple of St. Cuthbert. Kaelin stayed behind to provide her account of events to the city authorities. After explaining what had happened to them, they escorted her to the Temple. They had brought the body to Jenya. She told them the materials she would need to raise their friend back to life were a bit expensive. To thank them for their significant help in recent days, she told she would put one thousand gold of her own savings to finance the ritual. The party provided all the money they could afford, which proved to be enough. Jenya contacted Raygar’s spirit and asked it to come back to this world. The spirit refused, so the young man would not be brought back to life. Urikas offered to provide funeral services and a proper burial at no charge. The session ended with Raygar’s funeral. Things started to look grim for the adventuring company. They had gained new enemies. Very lethal –and remorseless- enemies.
Hi, Perhaps you don't need to do any brainwashing at all to motivate your evildoers... I would handle things this way:
The mind flayers announce their plans to eat the prisoner's brains, except for those who volunteer to serve them. I'm pretty sure most players, regardless of actual alignment, would agree to serve them just to save their own hides. Paladins and LG characters may be willing to die for their ideals, but most other players would not. Once they are released and given their orders, the party would be perfectly free to betray or backstab their employers, if they so wish (they are evil, after all, so this shouldn't come as a surprise). The party would be under constant survellaince, of course, just to make sure they carry their out their orders. If they don't, they could be killed or perhaps they have family members, spouses, etc. still imprisoned. I'm pretty sure the players would have a lot of fun attempting to outsmart their captors. They could pretend to follow along (many ranks in bluff would be crucial) while they plot their own conspiracy. Maybe they like the mind flayer plan and simply want a bigger piece of the pie. My point is: PC's don't have to be forced into anything. If you offer good motivation (and evil PCs, with all their lust and greed are pretty easy to motivate) they should do whatever you'd like them to.
Following is a summary of the events transpired during our sixth and seventh SCAP sessions. Having sold most of the stuff thay had taken from the malachite complex below Jzadirune, they returned once again. The next thing they explored was the southernmost secret entrance they had discovered earlier. Behind it was a very large room guarded by four hobgoblins. The room also featured two sets of double doors on opposite walls, four stone braziers shaped in the likeness of ovoid creatures with three legs, three eyes and three arms and a nine foot tall statue of a dwarven warrior. Draped over the statue was a mass of irons chains that ended in nasty-looking barbs, spikes, hooks and blades. The hobgoblins attacked without hesitation. While the characters fought them, the mass of chains that had been on the dwarven statue animated itself and attacked Therlan. After a few rounds they managed to defeat all enemies. Examining the statue, they found an inscription that read “Zenith Splintershield”. They noticed that the statue’s eyes were immense black sapphires. They couldn’t figure out a way to remove the gems without damaging them, so they pulled down the statue with a rope and took its head with them. They had also found a secret door on the southwest wall. They left the double doors for later and took the newfound passage. It led to a corridor with two doors. They opened the one leading west and found themselves in a room full of various skulls and hides, as well as a large chair made of skin and bones, with a draconic skull on its top. They located yet another secret passage on the southwestern part of the room, which they took. This one led to a thirty-foot square room with three chests, as well as many chests, gems, coins and various other valuable items. There was also an unusual-looking engraved golden gong. As they searched throughout the room, the seemingly harmless gong sprang to life and attacked the party. Xarat attempted to negotiate with the thing, but it only issued threats to any who touched the valuable items. Their diplomatic intentions frustrated, they proceeded to destroy the hapless thing. It took a good beating, but went down all the same. The whispergnome examined the chests. One of them had a trap. It was a semi-corporeal dagger, which attacked anyone who triggered the trap for some 40 seconds before disappearing. Therlan disabled the trap after a few attempts, and the group grabbed everything of value they could find in the room. The most interesting thing they saw was a crumpled piece of paper, apparently a letter directed to someone called “Kazmojen”. The letter advised Kazmojen to ease off on the abduction of potential slaves from Cauldron, as this would attract unwanted attention. The letter was unsigned, but had a stamp of a flying kingfisher clutching a scroll in its beak. There found two more things in the room. One was an iron lever that could be seen on the south wall, and one more secret door leading south. Therlan pulled the lever up and opened the secret door. It led to a very short corridor. It seemed to contain some sort of trap, but it had been disabled, perhaps by pulling up the lever in the previous room. This room also had a secret door. Behind the newly found door they saw a mid-sized room, occupied by an automaton. The machine pulled down a lever and attacked. It was able to land a couple of vicious blows with a hammer attached to one of its arms, but was destroyed. After this, the party decided to get some rest, so they called it a day.
The group raised the levers the automatons had lowered and explored two corridors filled with many jail cells (28, to be exact). They were all empty. Next they explored a secret passage found on the south end of the room with the illusory walls. It led to a square room with many items and a few weapons. A secret passage on the south wall led to a corridor with more jail cells. These actually contained a few prisoners. They liberated them and promised to take them to safety. They opened a door to the east, where an ambush was awaiting them. Five hobgoblins attacked them as soon as they entered. They were no match for the party and were overcome very quickly. The party went through a door to the north this time. It led to a long corridor. Midway through it was an arched stone bridge that passed over a pool of still, dark water thirty feet below. The group continued going north, where a door led them to a rectangular chamber. There were four hobgoblins inside, two of them sleeping on slabs of malachite that jutted from the walls. The party attacked and killed three of them, and forced the remaining one to surrender. The captured hobgoblin agreed to take them to his leader. Xarat decided to take the freed prisoners to the surface while the rest of the group went to pay the kidnapper leader a little visit. The hobgoblin took them through a set of double doors (in the room where they had brought down Zenith Splintershield’s statue). As soon as the doors opened, a pair of hobgoblin guards, prompted by a signal from the captured hobgoblins, banged on doors behind them and shouted “Croleks!” (“intruders” in goblin). The guards stayed where they were standing and pulled out their bows. The party charged the guards. When Therlan and Landstalker were crossing an intersection, one of the guards pulled down a lever, which activated a pit trap. Both adventurers fell down the pit, took surprisingly little damage from the fall or from the spikes on the bottom. The captured hobgoblin, sensing a chance to run away, tried to jump over the pit. His attempt failed, and he fell to a very unceremonious death. Landstalker expanded himself, growing to 14 feet tall. He helped Therlan climb out and climbed out himself. Aiacos tried to jump over the pit but couldn’t. He grabbed the edge on the other side to prevent himself from falling to the spikes below. Daedalus and Scarn stayed behind, the latter trying to hit the guards with his sling.
Therlan and Aiacos (who had pulled himself out of the pit trap) charged the four newcomers, while Landstalker went to deal with the first two hobgoblins. There was a surprise in store for him, however, as the guards activated a second pit trap as the half-giant approached. Landstalker avoided the trap and landed in front of the two guards. Aiacos and Therlan made short work of the other four. Then the scout jumped over the second pit to help the half-giant. The killed the hobgoblins and pulled up the levers that activated –and deactivated- the traps. They could not open the double doors that led to the south, so they took a door to the east that led to a smithy. The room was very warm. Six hobgoblins and three goblins were here. There were also two halflings and a female dwarf, their ankles bound by iron manacles. The party did not have to break much of a sweat to dispose of their adversaries. They liberated the three prisoners and went through a door to the south. The room they arrived at looked like a large dining hall, with four long tables. They took a door on the west wall and got to large room with a twenty-foot high ceiling supported by four malachite pillars. The floor on the southern end of the room was raised five feet and a black staircase led to it. On top of this raised floor stood a five-foot tall dwarf clad in black armor and brandishing a pair of mean urgroshes. Another dwarf-like man, with ash skin, pointy ears and yellow eyes was talking to the armored one. They appeared to be negotiating the price for four children who were chained to a post. The chamber’s other occupant was a feral creature that looked like a gaunt feline with a mane of sharp quills. The armored dwarf, Kazmojen, threatened to kill the party if they did not turn back and leave. The group responded by drawing their weapons. Kazmojen threw an axe towards the group, but missed. The feline creature ran towards the door and bit Therlan, who was also struck by a pair of the thing’s quills. The scout moved out of the way and went to attack the other two adversaries. Daedalus struck the feline creature with a powerful orb of fire, and Landstalker finished it off. This appeared to upset Kazmojen greatly, who cursed the party for killing his “pet”. Aiacos and Landstalker expanded themselves and charged into the room. Therlan came up the stairs and tried to hit his enemies, but the quills that were lodged in his body appeard to affect his attacks. The two psychic warrior brothers approached as well. The ash-skinned one tried to hit Therlan, and then disappeared from sight six seconds later. Kazmojen brought Aiacos down with one swing of one of his urgroshes. Therlan and Landstalker maneuvered to attack the dwarf, while Scarn came up the stairs, mace in hand. Daedalus kept firing orbs of fire, most of them dealing a good deal of damage. The other enemy appeared, much larger than his original size. He tried in vain to hit Therlan. Kazmojen hit the vanara, who fell unconscious. There were only three members of the party left standing. Daedalus ran out of magical energy, so he was left to witness his companions’ victory (or demise). Using his warcleaver, Landstalker killed the dwarf-like creature that had enlarged himself. That left him and the scout against Kazmojen. The dwarf tried to wound Therlan, to no avail. Finally, the half-giant struck the dwarf with a massive critical hit that killed Kazmojen instantly. The three standing members of the party asked the two halflings and the dwarf they had liberated to help them carry their friends. They also released the children, who thanked them with tearful joy. The group’s ordeals were not over for the day just yet, however. Out of thin air, appeared a horrible creature with a single large eye, razor-sharp teeth and many smaller eyes that were attached to a spherical body. The creature floated menacingly in the middle of the room and said the following words: “I have come for Terrem Kharatys. That boy should not have been taken from Cauldron. I intend to see that he is safely returned to his orphanage. You can keep the others. They are of no consequence. Come, Terrem – you will be safe with me.” The child named Terrem looked at the hideous creature and hesitated. He begged the party to protect him from the thing. Therlan challenged the monster. The creature looked amused. He floated nearer, which allowed the scout to hit him with his shortspear. The creature floted higher and pointed one of its many small eyes towards Therlan, who fell to the ground instantaneously. Landstalker and Daedalus considered discretion the better part of valor, so they allowed the creature to take Terrem away. The child was fearful, but posed no further resistance. They examined Therlan and found that he was sound asleep. They woke him and took the rest of their friends with them. Accompanied by the children and the freed prisoners, they left the Malachite Fortress. The session came to an end here. Check back soon to read what follows next!
Our fifth SCAP session featured some more dungeon exploration, including a breakthrough in the character’s investigation of the kidnapped children’s location. The group explored a few more of Jzadirune’s rooms. One area apparently was used as a latrine when the gnomes lived in the enclave. Next they went to a mid-sized room with many empty weapons racks. In the middle of this room there was a large wooden chest. Atop the chest was a silver cage with a rat inside. As Therlan came near the chest to investigate, it came alive. The thing attempted to communicate with them, but it spoke in a language they could not understand. Using many gestures, and after much trial-and-error, they figured the thing wanted 200 gold pieces in exchange for the cage holding the rat. Xarat approached the chest creature and attempted to lower the asking price. It took her awhile, but eventually she had the thing agree to take some of her edible rations as payment. The transaction completed, the party took the caged animal with them and left the strange creature alone. The rat had a white star-shaped splotch of fur on its forehead. They concluded it had to be Starbrow, Keygan Ghelve’s familiar. Xarat put the cage inside her backpack and the party went on its way again. Next they got to what looked to be an abandoned theater. When they came near the stage, illusions of gnome actors and actresses in costumes started acting a play. When Therlan approached the stage, an ugly monster that had been hiding under the stage attacked him and attempted to grapple him. The scout escaped, but not before taking some damage. Landstalker used his warcleaver to skewer the thing. They explored the rest of the room and found some magical and non-magical items, including a spellbook, from under the stage. They entered a room that was around seventy feet long and thirty foot wide, with a fifteen foot-high ceiling. The discovered a secret door, that led to a much smaller room. When Xarat was examining the room, she touched something made of canvas. She grabbed the object and ripped it apart. She still could not see what she had destroyed, but tied the cloth around her waist. She touched another object made of the same material. This time, she felt around the edges of the thing and passed it to Landstalker, who was waiting outside along with the rest of the group. When she took the object outside the room, the thing became visible. It was a painting depicting a mystical landscape. The piece of canvas she had around her waist had been a painting as well, but had been destroyed by her carelessness. They found four more of the invisible paintings and took them. The party did not have many unexplored rooms left on their map of the place. This time, they decided to explore a secret door they had left unchecked at the northern end of the enclave. The door led to a very small and dusty room. As soon as they entered, an elderly, translucent female gnome with a ruby in her left eye socket appeared in the middle of the room, and recited the following words: “I am Emirystul, librarian of Jzadirune. The scrolls you seek have been destroyed to keep you and others from fading into nothingness. The curse of the Vanishing began here, in these mystic halls, and here it will remain. Be careful what you find, and mind whatever magic was wrought here.” The image disappeared. The characters left and went to explore the huge room that featured two balconies and an illuminated gear hanging from the ceiling, where they had fought the monster with a visible brain and tentacles. Inside, they saw Yuathyb, the mysterious figure they had met previously. Yuathyb told them he was desperately looking for help. He had contracted a very weird affliction that was making him disappear. Therlan, speaking for the party, told Yuathyb that they could offer no help to cure his condition, but agreed to meet with him later, in case they found anything to cure him. They asked about the missing children and wherever “half a dwarf” could be hiding. Yuathyb told them the person they were referring to lived a level below Jzadirune, and pointed to them in the map the location of an elevator they could take to visit the lower level, which, ironically, was very near the room where they had found the caged rat. The group thanked Yuathyb and went on its way. The party opened the door that led to the elevator and found a pair of nasty looking hobgoblins guarding it. They dispatched the two creatures without much trouble and activated the elevator. It descended about 200 feet in a minute’s time. They found themselves in a octagonal room with walls of smooth black stone. They found a secret door on the south wall, which they did not open yet. Going through a door on the southwest, they entered a long hall where two cylindrical iron cages hung from the ceiling. A very weird sculpture could also be found there. As they advanced through the room, the stone sculpture attacked them. As they were finishing destroying the sculpture monster, a very large ogre opened a side door and charged towards the half-giant. The ogre hit Landstalker once and took a beating before finally going down. They explored the room the ogre had come from and found many coins and a potion. The group went back and explored the first secret door they had seen (they had found two more in the long hall). It led to a very small room where an iron lever jutted from an iron plate bolted to a wall. The explored the next secret door, that led to a long passage. It led to an apparent dead end, but they found another secret door. It opened into a square room with dozens of weapons neatly arranged on weapons racks, as well as two tables covered with various suits of armor. Exploring dangerous dungeons carrying valuable paintings and dozens of weapons is never advisable, so the party gathered all the armor and weapons and decided to leave. They gave the cage holding Starbrow to Keygan, who thanked them profusely. They went to sell some of the things they had found. This is where the session came to a halt to be continued next week. Until then.
There was a little more action (as well as a little more roleplaying) for our fourth shackled session. The group had decided to retire for the day, so they left Jzadirune. As they were going through Keygan’s shop, the locksmith asked them if they had had any success locating his Starbrow’s whereabouts. The party let him know they had not found the familiar, but were still looking. He begged them to go back in, but after noticing the group was in no condition to continue for that day, he let the matter drop. Keygan gave them a letter from Jenya Urikas and bid them good night. Jenya’s letter asked them to stop by St. Cuthbert’s Temple at their earliest convenience, to update her on their search for the kidnapped children. The party rested and complied with Jenya’s request the following morning. They told her about their exploration of Jzadirune. They also let her know about Keygan’s involvement with the kidnappers. She vowed to investigate the matter and determine whether locksmith Ghelve should be punished. Urikas asked them to pay them a visit if they ever had any wounds to be healed or any conditions to be treated. The party thanked Jenya and left to continue their search. When they arrived at the shop, they had a little surprise. They spotted a hobgoblin that was hiding in a corner. Before they could do anything, it shot an arrow towards the party, then disappeared from view. The arrow stuck on the locksmith’s door. It had a message attached to it. The message, written in crude writing, said that the party was way over its head and to stop snooping around; otherwise, regrettable things would happen. It was signed with a letter “K”. The gnome locksmith opened the door to check what had struck it. He asked the party what was going on. Aiacos answered that he had been shooting an arrow and it had accidentally shot backwards towards the shop’s door. The gnome actually believed the psychic warrior’s bluff. He allowed them inside and once again asked them to find his rat familiar as soon as they could. After saying some mean words to the locksmith, Therlan got into an argument with Daedalus. It appeared as if the two could not get along very well. The rest of the group reminded them what their priorities were at the moment, so they left it at that and approached Jzadirune once more. This time they went through a tunnel that ended in a room with four exits (including the tunnel from which they were approaching). As they were entering, some unidentified source said “Attack all intruders!” in gnome. Out of nowhere, a metal automaton with four legs and two arms attacked them. They managed to dispatch the thing, but not before it did some heavy damage to the half-giant. The room had very unusual properties. There were two areas within the room that turned invisible anything that entered them. They examined a circular doorway marked with a “J” rune, then decided to take a passage leading west. They emerged into a room that appeared to be some sort of woodshop. They spotted a sleeping figure. They woke the creature and attempted, unsuccessfully, to communicate with it. It looked like a small human, with pallid skin, sinister eyes and hooves instead of feet. Eventually, they simply allowed it to leave. The party went through a corridor going east, then turned south to enter a room that resembled a glassblowing workshop. As they entered to examine one of two gear doors inside it, they were attacked by three creatures. One of them was the one they had allowed to go a couple of minutes earlier. There was also a much taller creature, standing head and shoulders above the other two, with dusty skin and covered in black clothing. They managed to kill the two small ones and knock the tall one unconscious. After being revived, it started talking in an unknown language. When it noticed it wasn’t being understood, it started speaking in gnome. Therlan asked it about obtaining keys to the circular doors. The thing, identifying itself as Yuathyb gave the party a necklace he had been wearing. It bore a “D” rune. The party decided to let Yuathyb go, provided he let them explore the gnome enclave in peace. Not looking forward to being put to death at the hand of strangers, he agreed to the party’s terms. The group turned north this time, arriving at what appeared to be a forge. Therlan searched the four barrels of scummy water in the room, and was rewarded with a rod engraved with the rune “I”. He had also found a secret door, which they now opened. It led to a T-shaped corridor. They found that the corridor leading north was trapped with spears that sprung from the walls when sufficient weight was put on a pressure plate. Luckily no one was harmed. The room at the end of the north corridor turned out to be empty. They found another secret door at the west end of the T-shaped passage. It opened into a room that was obviously used as a weaver’s workshop in the past. Three small spinning wheels started turning when they entered the room. Scarn’s detect magic and spellcraft skills told him they were enchanted with a Mage Hand spell. The wheels were harmless, so they left the room through a door marked with a “D”. Next they entered an enormous room with a ceiling that soared to a height of 45 feet. There were two marble pillars that supported a pair of wooden balconies fifteen feet above floor level. There was a huge wooden gear hanging from the ceiling, illuminating the north end of the room. There was a constant noise, resembling the sound of clattering gears. They left the room through a door marked with an “I” rune. It led to an octagonal room that appeared to be an ancient classroom, complete with small desks, a chalkboard and a web-shrouded lectern. They left this room by entering a small tunnel leading north. It eventually led to an intersection that led to the east and to the south. The opted to go east, where they arrived at a room that was obscured by mists. There was a rusty old fan hanging from the ceiling. They took out some torches and were suddenly attacked by three ugly centipedes. They destroyed the monstrous insects and found three secret doors. They took one leading south. The group crossed a corridor that featured a few niches on the north and south walls. There was also a makeshift wall composed of wooden planks, blocking the eastern end of the corridor. They went west, where they saw a room littered with hundreds of tiny wooden and metal gear mechanisms. There were also two fans hanging from this room’s ceiling. There was something draped in a large gray sheet in the middle of the room. When Therlan removed the sheet, an automaton, identical to the one that had attacked them earlier, came to life. It started advancing towards the rest of the party, ignoring Therlan completely. The group’s attacks were mostly ineffective against the machine. This time it was Daedalus’s well-placed spells that brought the thing down. They left the room and went east this time, approaching the wooden wall they had seen. Landstalker smashed it and they entered the huge room with the balconies and the illuminated gear. They walked towards a set of double doors, which led to a room with four of the circular doors. As Therlan approached one of them, a horrible looking thing attacked them. Apparently it had been hiding on one of the balconies and came down to feast on yummy adventurers. The thing had an exposed brain with no eyes, a bird’s beaks and ten tentacles. The thing did not have much of a chance to do anything, as it was struck a devastating blow from the half giant, which left it with little strength to withstand the rest of the party’s strikes. With the thing dead, they opened a few of the doors, which led to sleeping quarters. One of the doors, located on the southeastern end, led to a room with a wooden lever connected to an iron plate set on one of the walls. They left the lever on the “up” position and went through a tunnel that eventually took them back to the room that had two areas of invisibility. This time the group went to the south, descending a set of stairs that arrived to a very unusual room. It looked like a forest, with trees, sunlight, wind and chirping birds. Daedalus noticed that it was all an elaborate illusion. They left the false forest through a tunnel on the east wall. This tunnel took them to what looked like a kitchen. In the middle of the room were the corpses of three enormous spiders. When the scout came close to one of the two stone hearths to investigate, a pair of the small creatures with hooves for feet attacked. He tried in vain to calm them down by showing them the necklace Yuathyb had given him. Maybe they thought the scout had killed their leader. Seeing diplomacy was taking them nowhere, the party killed both of the attackers. Therlan went to investigate a large cabinet, holding clay dishware. As he tried to open it, the thing went down. He avoided it in time. This is where the session ended. Check the thread back next week for an update.
We played our third session on Sunday july 16th. In this session the group continued exploring the mysterious Jzadirune. The party smashed the door they had left a few minutes earlier, the one that felt as if some terrible trap would be sprung by whomever tried to open it. The room had a chain that hung from the middle of the ceiling. Therlan and Landstalker entered. While searching, Therlan found a secret passage on the south wall. The half-giant pulled on the chain, while the rest cringed in anticipation, but nothing occurred. The rest of the party entered the room, while Therlan explored the secret opening. It led to another room, which contained three chests and a lever set on a metal plate on the wall. It also featured a tunnel leading west. The chests featured carved animal insignias. One had a badger, the other a rabbit and another one a fox. Inside one of the chests they found a small sack, in which there was a little gray ball, made of fur-like material. Therlan started experimenting, putting the ball in each of the chests while raising the lever. Nothing of note happened. They left the lever on the “up” position and left the room through the passage. They arrived at a new room, in which they could see a half-finished metal construct with four legs and one arm. Therlan spotted one of the gray creatures they had seen before. The thing escaped through a passage leading north that was beside a closed circular door. The group chose to go in the opposite direction, through a circular door to the south. When Therlan tried to open it, a loud alarm started ringing. It lasted for a few seconds. When Landstalker attempted to open the door, a pair of spectral sickles almost cut his midsection. Therlan disabled the trap and the door was once again smashed by the half-giant. The door led to a large room, divided in three levels by sets of stairs. Between two pillars sculpted like petrified trees, there was a throne, occupied by an elderly gnome wearing a silver crown. The group made sounds to wake the creatures, to no avail. Therlan found a secret compartment on the throne’s right armrest. When he opened it, those close to the sleeping gnome heard the following words: “Betrayed we are by our own magic,
A few seconds later, a bas-relief carving of a gnome’s face spoke the following words: “If you wish an audience with the king, place your finest coin in my mouth.” Xarat placed a gold piece inside the carving’s mouth. The coin appeared inside the secret compartment, but nothing else occurred. Besides Xarat’s coin, they found some gold coins and two 5-inch-long steel rods, each with an engraved rune. One had an “N” carved on it, while the other featured an “E”. The descended the stairs and came to a circular door leading east. When the scout attempted to open this door, six cold rays shot out of it. Three of them hit some in the party, doing some minor damage. Therlan deactivated the trap and the door was smashed, as had become routine by then. They came to a corridor, which had a couple of surprises. First, Therlan found a secret that led north. This secret passage connected to a room they had visited previously, the one with the lever and three animal-themed chests. He also found a pit trap in the corridor. However, they learned that the lever they had left on the “up” position actually disabled the trap, rendering it harmless. Therlan and Landstalker disabled and smashed another circular door and came to a passage they had already been in. They attempted to open a circular door that was trapped with a very nasty electrical trap. They decided to leave this door unopened for the time being. They opened a couple of the doors (marked “E” and “N” in gnome runes) with the engraved rods they had found in the secret compartment. Most of the rooms were sleeping quarters that featured nothing of value. However, one of them had a secret door that led to a long-abandoned armory. They found various gnome weapons and gnome-sized armors inside. Another room they entered looked like an abandoned nursery, complete with wooden toys and a playpen. Therlan decided to go south this time, where he stepped on another pit trap. His quick reflexes allowed him to avoid falling in. He disabled the trap to allow his companions to follow him. They opened another circular door (I won’t mention the methodology employed again, as you should be familiar with it by now). This one led to a room with another lever on a metal plate on the wall. They found that this lever deactivated the pit trap they had just encountered. The room also had a passage that led to the other trapped corridor. The party decided to retrace their steps and come back to the first large room in the gnome complex, the one with various masks. They entered through the room with the door that was wedged open by a piece of rock (where two of the gray creatures had appeared). From there, they arrived at a huge hall, with black marble pillars, dancing lights and a pool of water on the far end. They opened a door marked “E” with one of the corresponding rod. This door led to what looked like a storage room, filled with crates and casks. Therlan found a secret door, which they opened. The next room they found featured walls adorned with turquoise ceramic tiles and a large octagonal bathing pool in the middle. A grislier sight was a cocooned humanoid corpse which was suspended five feet above the pool by strands of web. Xarat entered the room and cut the web with her weapon. As the body fell to the ground, three monstrous spiders came out of hiding and attacked. The group fought the horrible creatures. However, some in the group had been bitten and possibly poisoned. They found that the water in the pool was illusory. The party left this room through a corridor leading south, where Therlan found yet another pit trap. They returned to the huge hall and went to explore the southern end. As the scout went to examine a pile of rubble to the southwest, a pair of gray humanoids attacked him. He and his companions brought them down without much trouble. Next they tried to open a circular door that summoned big, fearsome rats whenever someone touched it. Therlan attempted to disable this door’s trap many times, summoning more and more of the rats in the process. “They did not hire us for pest control,” said an annoyed Xarat to the little scout. After many tries (and many dead rats), Therlan successfully opened the door. It led to a storage room where trunks full of costumes and theatrical props could be found. In the west end of the room they found a secret passage. This one led to an abandoned, non-descript room full of dead rats and broken bits of furniture. As Therlan started to search the area, two more of the gray men attacked. They were dispatched as well with little trouble. At this point, the group had drained most of their resources for the day. They were hurt and tired, so they decided to leave the abandoned enclave to return the next day. This is where the session ended as well. “Where are the monsters?” ask some of the players. Will the party ever finish exploring the puzzling, mystifying Jzadirune? Those questions and many others may (or may not) be answered next week. Stay tuned!
Session Two
Xarat was approached by a priest from the Temple of Kord. He informed her about a terrible occurrence: four children were abducted three nights ago from the Street Lantern orphanage. He asked her to meet a priest from the Church of St. Cuthbert, Ruphus Laro, who was investigating the incident. Xarat agreed. She met the priest at the Drunken Morkoth Inn. After introducing themselves, he told her he was on his way to the orphanage, and asked her if she would care to accompany him. Xarat decided to go with Ruphus. On the way to the orphanage, they made a stop at an apothecary’s shop. Ruphus gave the girl some coins and asked her to buy him some mints, since he had a sore throat. She agreed and went inside to make the purchase. While this was happening, Aiacos and the rest of the group were busy celebrating his Three Dragon Ante victory at the Tipped Tankard Tavern. Lord Vhalantru himself made an appearance. He gave prizes for the third and second place winners of the tournament. Then he remarked on Aiacos’ brilliant play and, commenting on his own level of skill, suggested they might play a game in the near future. He gave the champion a deluxe set of Three Dragon Ante cards as well as five times his hoard total in gold pieces, roughly 1,000 gp. Aiacos tipped the patron 15 gold pieces and told everyone drinks were to be paid by him. This brought many cheers from those present. Spirits, wine, ale, and all other available alcoholic beverages flowed freely from the Tankard’s cellar that night. A few girls approached Aiacos, who asked them to stop by his house later in the night to celebrate his victory a little more privately. After celebrating for a couple of hours, the tavern was starting to empty. With the partying done, the group opted to leave as well. While they were gathering their things, a noble-looking gentleman approached Aiacos, who recognized him at once. It was Alek Tercival, a paladin in charge of guarding the Curch of St. Cuthbert in Cauldron. Alek told Aiacos he had taken notice of him and recommended that he and the rest of the group enroll at the local Adventurer’s Academy. He suggested it was a good place to hone their skills and to meet other bold individuals who would face danger willingly. Aiacos took note of Tercival’s words and promised to visit the Academy on the following day. After that conversation, the party grabbed the weapons they had left at the entrance and left the Tipped Tankard. It was raining lightly outside. The group discussed their options. Aiacos had invited a few girls to his house for the night, so he and his brother Landstalker would be retiring for the night. Daedalus would be going to his own house. Scarn and Therlan had no place to sleep, since they normally lived in the surrounding jungle. Daedalus suggested they sleep at his house. While they were discussing these matters, they heard someone cry from a near alleyway. When they went to investigate the source of the noise, they witnessed a group of three men, their faces painted half white/half black, attacking an apparently helpless priest. The man was none other than Ruphus Laro, who was attacked by the thugs while Xarat was inside the apothecary’s shop, purchasing the mints for him. Xarat heard the commotion outside, so she opened the door and beheld the same scene. Therlan had moved silently and hidden successfully, so he fired an arrow at one of the attackers. The arrow hit its intended target, doing some damage. The men drew their swords and one of them slashed Ruphus viciously. Xarat was angered by this, so she stepped outside the shop and attacked one of the men with her greatsword. He went down in one swing. Aiacos expanded himself to huge size and joined the fray. He attempted to grab one of the attackers, unsuccessfully. By the time the rest of the group got there, Xarat had dispatched all three thugs. Some in the party spotted a mysterious looking person watching them from a rooftop. Scarn and Therlan climbed on top of a building, but whoever it was had disappeared. After the dust settled, Xarat healed Ruphus, while Scarn stabilized one of the men. The apothecary shop owner asked if everyone was all right and agreed to call the authorities. Meanwhile, Aiacos and Daedalus took the man to a closed room inside the Tipped Tankard. After being revived by Scarn (who was fetched by Daedalus), the man, intimidated, told them he was a member of the city guard who had been approached by Jil, an assassin who worked for the Last Laugh, Cauldron’s most notorious Thieves’ Guild. He was offered 50 GP to attack the cleric and “send a clear message” to the Church of St. Cuthbert to stop the investigations. The man had children to feed, and since they did not have to kill their victim, he had accepted. Done with their interrogation, Aiacos and Daedalus left the man, bound by rope, in the Tipped Tankard room. They returned to the scene of the fight, where they saw Ruphus and the rest of the party explaining what happened to the local authorities. The guards listened to their story and took the men away, including the one that had been left in the Tipped Tankard. Ruphus asked the group to escort him to the Temple of St. Cuthbert. They arrived without any notable incident. Inside, they were offered towels, crackers and hot tea. Ruphus left them to sit on couches near a fireplace while he went to talk to his superior. A few minutes later, Ruphus returned along with Jenya Urikas, the temple’s acting High Priestess. She recognized Aiacos and Landstalker, and said they had not been attending mass with much frequency of late. Aiacos retorted by asking her if she had received 10 gold pieces he had sent as a donation to the church. The church had not received those funds. Aiacos figured his grandfather Bori had probably taken the money and drunk it or gambled it away. After hearing the group’s account of the night’s events, Jenya had a proposal for them. She told them the Church of St. Cuthbert had publicly vowed to locate the missing children and to ensure that the wrongdoers were punished as established by law. She revealed that the kidnapped children were two boys and two girls, named Deakon, Terrem, Evelyn and Lucinda. She also told them she had consulted a magic, holy mace, property of the Church, called the Star of Justice, which had divination abilities. When she asked the “The locks are key to finding them. Look beyond the curtain, below the cauldron. Beware the doors with teeth. Descend into the malachite ‘hold, where precious life is bought with gold. Half a dwarf binds them, but not for long”. The party agreed to help Jenya and the Church of St. Cuthbert locate the missing children. She offered each of them a potion of cure moderate wounds, as well as a reward of 2,500 gp for the group if they helped return the children alive. After they bid their farewells, the party split. Aiacos and his brother went back to their home, while the other four went to pay a visit to the orphanage. The brothers (and their grandfather) had a very busy night with the women that came for the night. Aiacos in particular had a very creative use for his expansion powers. Daedalus, Scarn, Therlan and Xarat visited the orphanage to get more clues about the kidnappings. The knocked the door. A minute later, an old female halfling opened the door. She asked for their business at such a late hour. A natural 20 diplomacy check from Xarat, who also got bonuses for her high charisma and noble lineage, had the halfling opening the orphanage doors far and wide. The group examined the premises as carefully as they could. They questioned Gretchyn (the old halfling who acted as the orphanage’s headmistress) as well as a couple of the children. Gretchyn informed them that a pair of half-elf investigators, who work for lord mayor Severen Navalant) had come two days ago to inquire about the recent abductions. The only other thing that caught the group’s interest was the fact that none of the doors or the orphanage’s locks had been damaged. Gretchyn informed them that the orphanage bought all their locks (at quite a steep price) from the same seller, locksmith Keygan Ghelve. This was the most interesting clue they had gotten so far. Done with their questioning, the party bid the orphanage headmistress a good night and retired to get some sleep. Therlan and Scarn slept at Xarat’s home, while Daedalus went to his own place. The next day, Aiacos told his proud grandfather about his Three Dragon Ante championship. They got into an argument when he asked his grandpa about the missing money he had sent to the St. Cuthbert Temple. After some promises and apologies, Bori guaranteed his grandson he would send the new sum of money Aiacos gave him that morning. Then he went off to finish some business he had left unfinished with the three girls who had come to visit, which were still asleep upstairs. The brothers left their home and went to the Adventurer’s Academy to inquire about membership benefits and requirements. Whilst they were discussing these details, the rest of the party went to the Ashburn house, looking for the brothers. One of the servants informed them that they had left to visit the Academy, so they went there and eventually all six were reunited. They told Landstalker and Aiacos about their findings at the orphanage and about their intentions of visiting Ghelve’s Locks. As they were leaving, they spotted a young, strong-looking dwarf practicing with his axe in front of two dwarven children. They were told he was one of this year’s battle arena champions, an experienced adventurer that went by the name of Brik. As the party approached the locksmith’s shop, they noticed a pair of young half-elves that had been following them. The two identified themselves as Fario Ellegoth and Fellian Shard. They seemed to recognize Therlan, who had spent most of his time in the jungles surrounding the city. They told the party they also were investigating the kidnappings and were in fact the two persons that visited the orphanage the day after the abductions had occurred. The party was in no mood for chit-chat, so the pair wished them luck and disappeared right in front of their eyes. The party knocked on the shop’s door and a mature gnome, Keygan, greeted them and let them inside. The locksmith looked quite unusual, since he appeared to be nearly six feet tall. Curious, the party examined him more carefully and noticed he was wearing a pair of stilts. The gnome started describing the quality of his products. At the same time, he made a gesture, pointing to the back of the room, where a curtain hid whatever lay beyond. Aiacos and Therlan approached the curtain. They entered another room, which had a set of stairs. As the whispergnome searched the room, a humanoid creature jumped from a niche in front of him. The creature was about 5 feet tall and had soft, leathery gray skin. It fell flat on his face, then got up and attempted to slash Therlan with a rapier. Its attack missed. Landstalker approached the assailant and brought him down with one swing of his warcleaver. The party searched the rest of the shop for other enemies, but found none. Using their diplomatic skills, the party got Keygan to confess that he had helped the kidnappers. He told them they had abducted his rat familiar, named Starbrow, and threatened to harm it if he did not cooperate. The locksmith provided them with a set of keys that could open most of the town’s locks. He said the kidnappers included two types of creatures, “tall ones” and “short ones” and that they resembled hairless humans with gray skin. The party found a secret door at the foot of the stairs. Keygan told them that below was Jzadirune, a gnome enclave that was abandoned some 75 years ago. After providing them an old map of the place, the gnome refused to cooperate any further. The party entered the secret door and descended a stone staircase that plunged into darkness. Therlan went about forty feet in front of the rest. The stairs ended at a big room that contained walls with about a dozen masks hanging from them. Therlan approached one of two very peculiar circular doors. The door appeared to be wedged open with a piece of rock. As he ducked his head inside the door, two of the gray, hairless humanoids attacked him by surprise. They both missed his head. Therlan backed off and warned his companions. One of the creatures came through the circular door and tried to hit the whispergnome. Xarat came to his rescue, smashing the creature with her greatsword. The other party members entered the big room. The other creature decided not to come out to face six angry opponents. Aiacos and Therlan came through the door. Xarat went through the door as well. She killed the second enemy. The group explored a few passages that did not appear on the original Jzadirune map. They found another room, where another of the gray creatures attacked Therlan. The whispergnome proceded to utter some of the most popular last words amongst adventurers: “Leave it to me, I can handle it”. You know bad things are bound to happen whenever a PC says those words. Therlan swung at the creature and did some negligible damage. The thing struck back viciously, hitting the scout with its rapier and scoring a powerful critical hit. The little adventurer fell, but luckily was not dead. Xarat came to her companion’s aid, impaling the creature with her greatsword. She cured the whispergnome with a spell and helped him stand up. The gnome explored another door, which featured a gas trap that did some corrosive damage. Xarat had to cure him once more. As much as he tried, he could not pick the lock to open the door, so they let Landstalker smash the door down with his weapon. Inside they found a dusty barracks room that contained very little of value. As they came back to the large room with the dozen masks, one of them started to speak. It said: “Welcome to Jzadirune – behold the wonder!
The party ignored the strange mask and passed another corridor, where another of the circular doors was. As Therlan tried to unlock it, he felt as if he had activated a trap. He awaited his impending doom, but no harm came. Realizing that opening and disabling the circular doors was beyond the scout’s skills, the party decided to go back up the stairs and attempt to convince Keygan to provide them with clues or a set of keys to deal with the doors. The gnome locksmith informed them that the enclave had been abandoned decades ago and that he knew of no such keys. He also refused to accompany them downstairs, stating that he was mortally afraid. This is where our second session ended. Be back next week with more news about the party’s adventures in the Shackled City.
Your ideas about an academy are pretty similar to mine in most respects, Stunty. Although I have much lesser membership fees, which increase as characters gain levels, to allow low level characters to join. You bring up a crucial point which hadn't been mentioned, Frank. Indeed, a high-profile adventuring organization certainly wouldn't sit well with Vhalantru and the Cagewrights. In our SCAP campaign, the academy had flourished in the last century and a half. However, since the Cagewrights arrived 31 years ago, the organization has experienced a slow, but steady, decline. Vhalantru's arrival 15 years ago has only accelerated this decline. Members have been mysteriously dissapearing. It just doesn't make much sense to me to have Vhalantru actively culling adventurers from the area while at the same time constantly creating new PCs to replace those who die. Where had they been all this time? The thing to keep in mind is that Vhalantru's goal is to discourage adventuring parties, which is not the same as discouraging adventurers. At the beggining of the Path he does not view many as real threats, something that starts to change quite considerably in Chapter 7.
I loved your solution, Chairborne Ranger. I have a different one, which I think has its pros and cons. In my campaign setting, there is an organization simply known as Adventurer’s Academy. There are a few examples of such organizations, such as the academy mercenary force SeeD has founded in Final Fantasy VIII, as well as the ones found in Phantasy Star games. The main inspiration for the Adventurer’s Academy comes from the idea of wizard schools found in D&D. Thieves have their guilds and clerics have their churches, but why should wizards be the only class that benefit from formal academic training? The simple answer would be, of course, that by nature wizards are studious and organized individuals, learning to master arcane energies and needing to do research in huge, ancient libraries. They also need quiet places to meditate and to dedicate themselves to magical item creation. On certain campaigns, fighters may have received some military training, which provides them gives them extensive weapon and armor proficiencies, fighting techniques and at basic knowledge of battle tactics. This idea works well in a setting where adventurers are not a bunch of rare freaks. Adventuring parties would be common enterprises where a group of likeminded individuals work for a common goal, be it fortune, fame, vengeance, or whatever. If adventuring parties are common in your world, it wouldn’t be too farfetched to think that at some point a group of them would reunite to create some way to share their knowledge, as well as trade items and recruit new members. In my own homebrew campaign, the Academy’s mission is “to foster and encourage adventuring throughout the world”. The Adventurer’s Academy has extensive training facilities and various training schools (such as schools of combat, schools of magic, school of stealth, school of wilderness survival, school of dungeoneering, school of healing, etc.) Cauldron could conceivably be able to support such an academy. Considering its size, it probably would not have more than 100 members. I would say 40 to 60 members would be about right for a city like Cauldron. In my campaigns, the academy is an international organization, but if globalization is not something you want to mess with, there could be any number of independent academies in your world’s major cities with no relationship to one another. I can post the details on how the Adventurer’s Academy is implemented in my games here or on a new thread, if anyone is interested in them. As far as the pros and cons I mentioned about this approach, here’s what I think.
I also think an academy is better suited to provide players with fresh characters to replace the ones lost. At least it would make a lot more sense story-wise to recruit someone they have met before at the academy than simply telling your players: “you meet a tough looking half-orc at the local tavern”… Cons: It can take more work to develop than an adventuring company. The company requires obtaining a charter and “administering the business”, but it only involves a few characters. An academy requires that you designate a building or group of buildings as the premises, design the academy structure (who manages the organization?) and may involve dozens of characters, many of which you would have to create yourself. Obviously you don’t need to flesh out every single member, but at the very least you would have to come up with names and personalities for the members the party interacts with most frequently.
For our first session, two of the guys, playing Aiacos and Landstalker, the psy warriors, decided they are brothers, as well as worshippers of St. Cuthbert. One is human, the other half-giant, so I would assume Landstalker is adopted… I’ll leave those details to the players. A question has come up concerning the half-giant (played by my real life brother). Since the race can use weapons as if they were one size category larger, they could use spiked chains (a two-handed weapon) as a one-handed weapon. The rules are clear on this, so I will allow it. However, when I think about it visually, my ruling would be that grabbing the chains like that would cut the weapon’s reach by 5 feet, since both ends of the chain are in the same hand. What do you think? My second question is: If the character decided to use a large spiked chain, would its reach be 15 feet? In page 12, the Expanded Psionics Handbook states that “A half-giant can use weapons designed for a creature one size larger without penalty. However, his space and reach remain those of a creature his actual size”. I assume a large spiked chain has more length than a medium one, which would account for a longer reach. Aiacos and Landstalker have a grandfather who helped raised them, called Bori Quinn Ashburn, better known as Bori Q. A. (which would be read boricua, a person of Puerto Rican descent). The old man brought a few laughs to the table with his raspy voice and distrustful attitude. Most of the characters were sent a special invitation to participate in this year’s Three Dragon Ante tournament. The whispergnome had probably read one of the dozens of flyers that could be found throughout the city. In any case, they all attended that night’s event. Aiacos, Landstalker and Daedalus met while waiting in line. They had seen each other previously, considering all three have the nobility trait. They had some idle talk before paying the entrance fee (50gp) and entering the building. We fast forwarded a bit to the tournament’s final match, which featured all five party members, as well as a sixth player, represented by me. Everyone had played the game in real life once before, except our friend who plays Aiacos. Three of the characters - Therlan, Daedalus and Landstalker – were eliminated in the first three rounds, not before Landstalker played a devastating move where he copied the druid’s power from the ante, taking sure victory away from Daedalus and ensuring his elimination. In a surprising turn of events, Aiacos ended being the winner, accumulating more than 200 gold at the end of the fifth round. The prize for finishing the tournament was an amount of gold equal to the player’s final hoard times five. So Aiacos ended up with more than a thousand gold for the night. This is where the first session ended. Next week will have a little awards ceremony, where Lord Vhalantru will congratulate the winners. One final note to those who post here. Since I will encourage my players to read this post, I ask you to please keep this thread spoiler free. It's a pleasure being part of the Paizo community. Hope we can have some fun interactions in the near future!
I started playing the game 20 years ago. I started playing with the D&D Basic Boxed Set rules (the red box with the cool Larry Elmore cover depicting what looks like a barbarian fighting a red dragon) with my brothers. From the start I was the DM of our games. In fact, in 20 years I’ve been purely a player only twice. That will change soon, as one of the players will DM a Warcraft campaign a few weeks from now. We are currently playing in my own homebrew campaign, a setting called Gyrnia. The setting is a melting pot of fantasy themes I’ve liked for years. It has elements of high fantasy and steam age technology. I would describe it as a mix of Eberron tech with Forgotten Realms high level adventure (without the ever-meddlesome gods). It includes the Iron Kingdoms, developed by Privateer Press, as one of the planet’s northern continents. If you’ve played Final Fantasy VII, you’ll get a pretty good idea of how the world looks like. In fact, we have played with two innovations straight out of Final Fantasy: A materia system and a limit break system. The materia concept is very similar to the drangoshard idea used in Eberron. They grew more powerful as the characters gained levels. If you’ve read Weapons of Legacy you’ll get the idea. After playing with it for a while, we concluded that materia is game-unbalancing powerful or redundant with existing magic items and abilities, if weakened. Limit breaks, on the other hand, have been enjoyed immensely by my players. I think they work, if tweaked enough. However, DMs have enough to worry about with abilities characters possess, as well as the extra bookkeeping work necessary to keep track of characters’ limit break bars/gauges. I’ll be more than happy to share the mechanics for both experiments with those who wouldn’t mind to tinker with them. There’s another thing I’ve devoted some time to develop for my Gyrnia campaigns: The Adventurer’s Academy. I’ve seen settings like Eberron employ the idea, but the authors have given them very little substance. The Gyrnia Adventurer’s Academy is a world-encompassing organization with vast resources at its disposal. To quote my own description: “The Academy’s primary mission is to foster and encourage adventuring throughout the world. To this end, their complexes contain some of the most advanced training facilities found anywhere in the world.” What I like about using the Academy for the SCAP is that it can serve as a limitless resource of would-be adventurers, should any of the PCs die (as I expect they will). If enough people are interested - more than one ;) – I can post my description of the academy right here. It’s a Word document about 5 pages long.
So our group started the SCAP this weekend, which I will be DMing. Five characters were generated, with a sixth to be added next session. We will have the recommended six PCs, so there are two options available at the moment. First, we could let one of the guys' girlfriend play a character. She’s never played before. This could be a rough introduction to the game, considering the lethal reputation of this campaign. But if the rest of the players agree, I have no problems. I’m a democratic kind of guy… The second option would be for me to generate a character myself.
Aiacos “The Lion”, human psychic warrior
The party composition has a pair of fighter types (I think psy warriors are not heavy hitters like barbarians are, but can be very versatile if the right feats and powers are chosen). The warmage will provide arcane artillery, while the vanara intends to become a mystic theurge, for maximum spell versatility (at the cost of cool special abilities). The whispergnome scout will handle the searching and trap disabling duties (his 7 charisma is really appalling). The only thing I would add to the party (besides a third fighter) would be another divine spellcaster. A cleric would be great, but if it is up to me I’d probably create a druid, just because clerics bore me to death. A paladin would also fit nicely, though I believe the group needs a dedicated healer. Finally, if it’s my friend’s girl who plays, I’d suggest a favored soul, since they can be very easy characters to play. In my next post, I will write a little about myself and the world we play in. Those not interested in those details can jump straight to the third post. |