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Hello everyone. I have run into somewhat of a conundrum. I have been considering for awhile that I wish to reduce the number of the "Big 6" magical items that are appearing in my campaign. There have been a number of discussions on this matter on these forums:
The Trailblazer book also discusses this concept. However I also find myself really wanting to run Kingmaker for my players. Unfortunately, Kingmaker (especially the city building rules) seem to be balanced around the "magic item walmart" that I'm hoping to avoid. I was wondering if anyone else has thought about this and if they have any suggestions? I'm writing this post kind of late at night, so pardon the brevity of it.
Hey guys. Having just started reading all of the Kingmaker material, I was struck by how much Brevoy seems to be similar to the nation/continent of Westeros from GRRM's "A Song of Ice and Fire" fantasy series. Both kingdoms: - Were multiple disparate nations before a single conquerer from outside the nations appeared and united them. - Said conquerer used dragons to overwhelm the mundane armies of the other nations. - The conquerer's descendants then ruled the nation for a time, but eventually are completely erased. - The nation is made up of many competing noble houses who are constantly scheming and kept only in check by the ruling family. - The noble houses all have catchphrases that represent their ambitions. - A single noble house tries to step into the vacuum after the ruling family is gone, but is hated by half the other houses and constantly struggle against civil war. It was the conquerer with dragons that first did it for me, but when I saw that the noble houses all have phrases that are so similar to the houses from Game of Thrones I basically decided that I had to point it out.
Hey guys. I’m in a bit of a pickle and so I’ve come to ask the trusted DM’s in this forum for some ideas. Before the summer hiatus began, my PC had just completed the “Secrets of the Soul Pillars” chapter of the AP. They were happily asking the pillars questions and getting some good info when something terrible happened. The factotum/chameleon, whose intelligence is through the roof, rolled a natural 2 and failed the DC of the pillars. Thus all of his mental stats dropped and his skill based character was neutered for several weeks game time. No big deal, right? I could just let the PCs have some time to recover before I throw the next adventure at them, right? Unfortunately my PCs did the chapters in a weird order, and completed the Soul Pillars only days before “Foundation of Flames” is set to occur. The PCs know they have a time limit as all the divinations indicate that the XIII are about begin the ritual. Therefore my PCs need to find a way to cure him fast and easy. What I’m looking for from you guys is a neat little adventure to set them on in order to remove the curse the pillars have placed upon him. My PCs are pretty mighty, and have the ability to cruise the planes with ease if they wish to. They also have strong ties to powerful magical organizations and churches. So feel free to throw anything out there for them.
So my PCs just finished Lords of Oblivion and are entering the ending stretch of my Shackled City campaign. Right now the party has the scribblings found in the beholder’s fortress that essentially shows where he was searching for The Fiery Sanctum. My party has decided to be pro-active and use these maps to find the Sanctum themselves. Here is how I’m running it. The PCs spent about a day laying the scribblings out and studying them and easily made a 30+ Knowledge [dungeoneering] and [geography] check working together. So I told them that there were basically four places that Vhlantru had narrowed down as the location of the Fiery Sanctum. One of these locations (location 1) was entirely underwater, while the other three only had portions underwater. I rolled randomly on a d4 for which location the Sanctum was actually at. One of my PCs is a Factotum/Chameleon and adapted himself for diving and searching caves. He decided to search location 1 (the underwater caves) first. As he does this I essentially have him roll a search check (once per day of exploration) and add the results up until they reach a certain threshold. After that threshold is reached then that area has been fully explored and if it’s the correct location they will have found the Sanctum. What I’ve come to ask you guys, is for some encounters to throw at my PC. He has already had a close brush with the Crater Lake Monster. I’m looking for other denizens that he might run into in both the underwater sections as well as the other dark tunnels deep under Cauldron. I’m looking for him to hit lots of stuff as his search check is HUGE and he thinks this will be easy exploration.
Hello guys, I've run into a small problem in planning my next session. In these days of power-creep and crazy PrCs the Shackled City AP has be modified somewhat to keep it challenging for PCs. The party at Thifirane's approaching in my game (it may be this Friday!) and I've realized that these NPCs are going to die instantly. While I would not usually have an issue with the PCs making a plan that's intelligent and surprising my villains, they likely won't even need to do that to beat this encounter. None of the enemies have really good ACs or attack bonuses, and most of them are going to instantly fail a couple of saves and be dead for the count. What I'm looking for are some suggestions for how to modify the villains in the room. Feel free to incorporate stuff from any WotC book as my PCs have been doing that the whole game. The spell compendium is your friend. I have been sitting, staring at these NPCs for about a week and have been unable to come up with any ideas besides giving a few of them levels from 'The Book of Nine Swords'. My composition follows: Human Warlock 13
One of them has a cohort artificer that can give them infusions that last 1ast 100+ minutes. The multi-class cleric and wizard are both AC machines that can't be hit with normal attacks (ACs in the 40ish) and both of them plus the dwarf can't miss with attacks as they can drop 30+ touch attack rolls while power attacking. The warlock is also able to do multiple d6's of damage a round with touch attacks. Overall the only thing the party has ever missed is another warblade with the "Black Pearl of Doubt" combat stance (+2 to AC everytime someone misses you). Incidentally, my PCs use that stance all the time. HELP!
SPOILERS! AS ALWAYS, IF YOU PLAY IN MY STATE COLLEGE GAME DON’T READ THIS!! Hello everyone, I’ve been doing something in my Shackled City campaign that I thought I would share with everyone. Within my campaign world, I’ve been using the 13 Cagewrights suggested by Delvesdeep and I’ve strived to make them as secretive as possible. For example, each of the 6 masters knows the identity of their own apprentice, but do not know the identity of the other apprentices. Each of the 6 also does not know the true names of the other five. The apprentices are only aware of the portion of the “grand plan” they are working on and only the masters know the full picture. The only person that knows the true identity of all the members is the leader himself Dyr’Ryd. I did this for a variety of reasons. The first reason is that it allows my PCs to see parts of the plan as they capture or kill the apprentices around the mid-point of the game, and secondly it makes sense for a group that has spent several centuries (and gone through several members) trying to complete their grand plan. One aspect of this secrecy is that the 6 masters go by “false names” which describes their personalities, but hides their true identities. As the PCs learn these names it makes these villains seem more mysterious and creepy. These are the names I’ve come up with…
Additionally, I’ve expanded a bit on the “touched by Adimarchus” effect Delvesdeep write about. Basically, I have it that more than just the XIII are touched by the big-A. Every once in awhile someone’s consciousness brushes up against the vast insanity of Adimarchus and the contact begins to change them. Most eventually become completely mad (but also very powerful) before burning out and dying. However, once in awhile a person retains their lucidity with only minor psychological detriment. These people gain great power and insight…these are the Cagewrights. These are the powers (and mental detriments that I gave each Cagewright).
I’ve also come up with a few other “Cagewrights” that are either dead or left the group.
Hello fellow SCAPers. I’ve run into a small problem in my campaign and I thought I would come here to ask for some suggestions. My party just completed the Test of the Smoking Eye, and I plan to run DD’s “Siege of Redgorge” when they return to the prime material plane. I have about two weeks before we play again and I’ve run into a problem in running the siege as written on these boards. The main problem is the presence of the Blue Duke. I didn’t want him to come out of nowhere earlier in the campaign so I had “Zarn Kyass” exist as the second in command of the Cauldron guard. The problem of course is that nobody knows that the mysterious Bluke Duke and he are one in the same. In my campaign Zarn was put in command of the mercenaries within the city up until my party found a clever way to oust them from the city. When they return from Occipitus the siege will be just beginning with the mercenaries given the job of raiding the city and finding the leaders of the Chisel. My question for you guys is how to incorporate Zarn into this? By the end of the siege I want to be clear that the Blue Duke and Zarn are the same person and that he is an apprentice Cagewright. I want the reveal to be awesome, but I’m not quite sure how to go about it. Suggestions?
Hey guys, it's late at night so I'm going to make this question short and sweet. In "The Demonskar Legacy" what prevents a party from simply scrying Alek Tercival and then teleporting to him after they observe his location? Did I read past something that prevents this? I can't see how there could be anything blocking either spell since the end of the adventure has the baddies doing just that. And to stave off anyone saying that a level 8 party is not capable of doing this, they very much can and I've seen it happen already once with my game. I can easily see the party just doing this and skipping the entire cool adventure.
If you are a player in the PSU Shackled City game please don’t read this! Hello fellow SCAPers! I’ve run into a little snag in my own campaign after the events of Zenith Trajectory. The party successfully saved Zenith and all was well as they returned him back to Cauldron. They made their way through the city and eventually brought him to ‘Celeste’ (Vhlantru’s doppelganger) in the Cusp of Sunrise. She told them that the clan leader of the Splintershields had returned to his home in the mountains for health reasons and that he had left the funds to pay a mage to teleport Zenith to him. The party seemed fine with this and gladly excepted their awards. He is where the problem hit however….One of the PCs is a member of the Splintershield clan. When the mage went to take Zenith to ‘his father’ she wanted to go with him to see her people again. The mage (a Cagewright minion) was rude and asked for more money in order to convince her to relent, but when she wouldn’t (and actually said she would pay) he decided to take her with. The party does not expect her back for a few days at least and we ended the session there with the party beginning downtime. You can see my problem now. Both dwarves have obviously not been teleported to the Splintershield Clan home. I’m thinking they are either in the Fiery Sanctum or Oblivion right now and she is essentially going to be overwhelmed by the high level baddies waiting to bag Zenith. The player herself already knows she did not reach the home of her people, but I have not shared what she actually sees with her yet. What are my options here? The PC has the Scarred Soul trait and is a shackleborn just like Zenith so I can’t see them killing her outright. What would they do with her? Where is she? Is there any chance the other PCs can find and save her without disrupting the later adventures of the path? Thanks!
Hello everyone, my party is well on their way to doing something quite unexpected and I thought I would look to the many DMs of the forums to see if they have any ideas… A member of the party is a warlock whose mother had a random affair with some person of fiendish ancestry (the PC is fully human though). On his 18th birthday he began to hear whispers in the night asking “…all children of the Scar…” to return to their master. What’s happening is that Nabathorteron is basically sending out a message to all his scattered legions in preparation for the destruction of Redgorge. Since many of his original demons are dead, his way of filling the ranks has been to send his remaining powerful soldiers out over the centuries to produce tribes of power half-fiend creatures that will be loyal to him. Because the warlock’s bloodline can be traced back to this fiendish source he is able to dimly hear this call. The party knows that demons of the Demonskar are mobilizing. They had a random encounter with a Vrock in the jungle where they learned that it was heeding the same call. They used the ‘Star of Justice’ and were given a pretty clear message that Nabathorteron was alive and gaining strength. Much of their planning is based around ending this major threat (which they believe to be the major threat of the whole campaign!) and I soon believe they are going to enter the Demonskar. Currently Zenith Trajectory has not yet been started, and so what I’m looking for is ideas or modules that I could use should my PCs basically go straight to the Demonskar. I still intend to run Vaprack’s Voice when the time comes, so what I’m looking for is further fleshing out of the Demonskar itself. I also fully intend to run Delvesdeep’s “Siege of Redgorge” so I don’t plan on the party being able to beat the demons before then. Some ideas I have already:
Hello all. I'm about to run Zenith Trajectory in about a week and I found myself asking an important question. My PCs have learned the time-honored tradition of using Speak with Dead on the heads of their enemies. I'm almost sure they are going to behead the fiendish umber hulk and use Speak with Dead on it. This left me wondering something..."where DID the fiendish umber hulk come from?" Its hinted that Orbius summoned it to test the party, but no indication is given of WHO summoned it, and whether it was called or a summoned monster. I was wondering if anyone else knew the answer to this question?
Hello, I am graduate student who recently moved into the Penn State area and I am seeking gamers or a game to join. I figure there have to be players in such a populated area, but I've been pretty unsucessful in finding them. I am experienced in a variety of games, but mostly D&D (3e/3.5) which I haved DMed for 4 years. I wouldn't mind being a player though. I have also played other systems such as Engel, Arcana Unearthed, and dabbled in Iron Heroes. If you are looking for a new player, or know of any gaming organizations please contact me at Sean_Smiley75@hotmail.com
So my PCs just finished the trials of Last Resort and managed to kill the entire Hand of the Lich-God in the process. They took one look at the Hand of Vecna and immediately brought it to Mage Point. Manzorian was on another plane at the time, so they left it in his citadel under heavy guard and went to do other things. Right now I'm at a loss about what Manzorian would give them in return. They have already brought up the idea of compensation and I'm not sure what he would give them. So what do you guys think?
Hello all. Recently my party managed to explore the tomb in “A Gathering of Winds”. As they made their way back to Diamond Lake I had one of the PCs receive a sending from Alchemist Refrum (from “The Styles”). The alchemist said the following: Have encountered a problem in Greyhawk, may be in trouble. Investigating the Lantern Man murders. Have stumbled upon something far more sinister. Please send help. The party was torn about what to do. On one hand they want to help their friend (I had the party meet him at a very low level), but they also feel they need to go to Manzorian’s in order to stop the impending doom. In the end they decided to go on to Magepoint and hoped that Refrum could handle the situation without them for awhile. So here is what I am thinking. I’m sure the party is eventually going to return to Greyhawk (where I have placed the Styles) looking for the alchemist. I intend to have them find his small house in the Alchemist Quarters abandoned and ransacked. With a little bit of information gathering, they will eventually meet up with the sister of Jarme who will tell them that Refrum was doing investigations on her behalf. She’ll mention that as he continued his investigations, he began to get more and more paranoid, eventually telling her that “they” were coming to get him. A few days before his disappearance he gave her his journal of what he had learned, but she had not been able to make heads or tails of it. I’ve come to you guys to help me flesh out what the journal should have in it. I want it to chronicle Refrum’s growing loss of reality as he learned more about the corruption within the government and the tentacled horror that slept below the city. I want it to be creepy in the true Lovecraftian fashion that this adventure so rightfully deserves. Suggestions would be much appreciated; quotations or passages to actually have in it would be even more wonderful.
Last week as my session drew to a close the Ulgurstasta was just making its first appearence. The party sucessfully killed Bozhal before the Championship Fight and he was forced to released the Apostle of Kyuss 12 hours early. As the party retreated from the understructure (thinking they were done) it burst forth from the arena and crashed through the colisiuem wall and started chasing them down the street... As my next session starts, we will be picking up from there and I have a few questions. The Ulgurstasta supposedly has an aura tendrils which surround it when its angry. How exactly do these work? Are they always active during the fight? Can it move when they are out? The ability is not very well explained in the Fiend Folio or the stat block in the module, so I was just a little confused by it. It seems like a very powerful ability.
Hello, my question today is mainly for the editors over at Dungeon. Over the past few months I've noticed a few trends on the board. It seems that many people want another epic adventure, but the Dungeon staff really doesn't get that many good proposals. It also seems that many people like the 3-part adventure arcs that sometimes appear in the magazine. Well I put two and two together and was wondering about the feasibility of having a three part epic arc. I say this for two reasons. The first is that I personally have an arc in mind and am willing to write a proposal for it, and the second is that I think being able to expand the plot to three different adventures allows the "epicness" of an epic game to be realized completely. So I was just wondering if this would be rejected immediately just because the demand is not high enough, or if I should try and start up a proposal for it.
Hello all, the title says it all this time. I managed to get my PCs on track in AoW despite their prior hatred of "The Whispering Cairn" and still managed to put them in the true tomb and up against Filge. I thought things were going great when they let Allustan do research on the horns, circlet, and talismen. I even had a PC who was a former assistant to big A. However, then my PCs went and did something quite odd. They beat up Filge, took the worm and never bothered to tell Allustan! In a brief conversation with the PC Allustan hinted that he knew about them beating up Kullen and asked her what she and her new friends were up to. She flat out hid the truth and thus gave me no opening to ask about Filge or the cult. So right now they are inside the cult complex and will be fighting the Faceless One and his kenku minions in the next session this Friday, however I'm not sure where to go from there. I'm sure Allustan will ask about the cult and will learn about what they did down there, but there is no realistic way I can have him ask about the worm. The PCs kind of saw it as a minor detail and just flat out have not considered letting the sage take a look. Without the worm he has no reason to investigate it and no reason to send them to the Mistmarsh and later to Eligos! I already have a few plans on how to continue the AoW without hinderance but I was wondering what any of you could think of. Thanks ahead of time!
Hello all, I'm not sure if this question has been asked and answered already but I was wondering if the the official modules of the AP ever have a point where the talismen of the sphere will become useful? My party went through quite a lot of trouble to retrieve the loop from Allustan and I don't want it to sit and gather dust in their inventory. I don't see any previews which mention it being used and was just wondering if I would have to come up with my own little side adventure?
Hello all, my party is going through Three Faces of Evil and I thought I would share something I had Theldrick do during the course of the module. The party has essentially been tackling the different parts of the cult in the order presented in the module. They managed to walk into the Hextor trap and yet somehow survived all close to 14 different enemies raining pain down upon them. When the dust settled all three of the Hextor priests were still alive. After some interrogating the PCs tied all three of them up and left them in The Beast's pen and chained the doors behind them. They intend to return later and bring the clerics to the garrison to face their punishment. They then moved on to the grimlock caverns and ended up sleeping there after defeating all of them. In the meantime I've decided to have some of Theldrick's goons return to the temple while the PCs are sleeping. They will discover the chaos and end up finding Theldrick. Once released he will pen a note and ride the elevator to the top of the shaft. Once safely on solid ground he will have his men cut the chain and let the elevator drop violently back down to the bottom of the shaft with his note pinned to it. It will read something like this: Faceless One,
Your damnable secrecy may have prevented me from coming to understand the nuances of the Triad but it will also be your undoing. While you and your birds sit and scour tome after tome it has been my Hell Guards that have defended this Cathedral and it has been my petitioners that has been in charge of getting supplies. It is because of them that I now have the chance to pen this letter. For you see, when some of my men returned from the surface they found me, left for dead by the heretics, and released me. I wish you luck Faceless One, for the heretics will be coming for you and your ilk next. However, it does not matter who comes out on top in this conflict for the winners shall be forever trapped beneath the surface of the earth. Since the latest supply run was only a trick to allow the invaders in I estimate there is only enough food left for three or four more days. You could always sacrifice yourself to Black Pool if the pain of hunger becomes too much for you. Do not bother trying to scale the elevator shaft. In less than a day my men will have managed to collapse the mining tunnels leading to this place and your entombment will be eternal. The Ebon Triad will continue on, do not concern yourself with such worries. Only seven of my Hell Guard were slain in this invasion, and I have many more petitioners willing to replace those that were lost in the arena. This entire fiasco has the odorous smell of Smenk and I believe I will have him killed, immediately. Perhaps I will also dispose of Dourstone as well. He may have betrayed us as well. No matter though, my men and I will regroup and begin anew. Good bye forever you pathetic fool! “He shall be obeyed!”
How does this sound? Could the letter be improved? Thanks.
Hello all. I am here again requesting suggestions from the wonderful DMs of these boards. So my PCs have finally gotten onto track in the AoW and will likely be breaking into the Ebon Triad's hideout soon. However, they are doing it for very different reasons than written. I started my campaign with "Mad God's Key" and thus they are following up information from that module. For those of you that do not know, that particular module ends with the PCs finding a newly opened ancient tome, but many of its pages have been ripped out and taken away to unknown locations. Well my PCs returned the book to the library and were thus hired by said library to retrieve the missing pages. The party has essentially tracked the book to The Faceless One, and will soon be trying to get it back. I plan to have them be able to retrieve the pages when they defeat him in his lab. My question is this: What should the pages say? They had to be something so important that he was willing to try so hard to get them, but I don't want them to reveal everything in the campaign. So what should a bunch of ripped out pages have written on them?
Hello all. As some of you may already know from previous threads I ran a short abortion of a campaign many months back when the original Whispering Cairn adventure first came out. The party in that adventure ran into the face trap and throughly explored the remainder of the cairn. However, they never got the last lantern and never got past the face (so they never saw Alastor and Filge, etc.) The campaign fizzled after a single session and the players decreed they would never visit "that damn dungeon" again. Okay, fast forward to recently. I started up AoW again. However, this time the players started in Greyhawk and did some intro adventures. In another thread I introduced that idea that my players STILL hate the Whispering Cairn and thus refused to follow a rather tasty hook to it. Therefore I improvised. The party is visiting Diamond Lake on other business. However, along the way they will be caught in a storm and forced to take shelter in a nearby abandoned cairn. There they will meet Allustan who is also travelling back to the town. He will speak with them about things and in the middle of the night a lightning bolt will hit the hill that tomb is built under. My plan is for this lightning to cause a cave-in that reveals hidden rooms beyond the one the party is camping in. Allustan will want to explore them and will try to convince the party to help. In intend for the following things to be in this new area:
This should get my PCs back on track in the AoW while still avoiding the Whispering Cairn itself. However, I want there to be a few other rooms before the ones I mentioned. This will be an entire complex devoted to a Wind Duke. Does anyone have any ideas for additional rooms in this complex? I only need a few, but they can't be any that already appeared in the Whispering Cairn itself. Thanks in advance for anything you guys give me.
Hello all, this post requires a large amount of background to make sense so bear with me. This will probably become a rampling mess but thats my current state of mind...I've once again began running AoW with my gaming group. This particular group has been gaming with me for almost 3 years now and they are a very good group I've come to know well. I ran a highly altered Shackled City with them over the last few years and eventually that campaign tied up with some real epic events. Now the problem is this: Back when Whispering Cairn came out I was gung-ho about running it with this group just to fart around. I gave them a load of information about Diamond Lake and they made their characters and hit the ground running. However, when the time came for them to go through the dungeon the entire thing was a diaster. PCs were getting beaten into an inch of their lives in every fight, the DCs on the traps were constantly too much for them to handle, and they felt that the hook just was not very good. We ended the game about halfway through the Cairn and they never met the ghost or heard about Filge and the Ebon Triad. Now we fast forward to the future... I am running Age of Worms again with the same group but have made many changes to its beginning. The party is starting in Greyhawk and the majority of them have never heard of Diamond Lake. Today they completed Mad God's Key and I concluded that adventure with allusions to the Faceless One and the cult being in Diamond Lake. I also dropped hints that the Erynthuul (sp?) cult was searching for a temple of their own, seperate from the main complex, and that the Whispering Cairn was a likely possibility. I honestly thought that this was a sweet hook for a group of adventurers and then the problem arose...My players do NOT ever want to see the Whispering Cairn again, and they shuddered when they saw Diamond Lake mentioned. Their characters prompty handed the materials over to the Temple of Boccob and told them that THEY might want to check out this cult bussiness. I was actually prepared for this eventuallity but not to the degree that it occured. I ran the party through Salvage Operation and leveled them to 3 nd basically got a feel for what their long term plans are. Here they are: -Two of the players are Grandar (a homebrew reptile race from the area around Cauldron). They are currently being mistaken for lizardfolk left and right and are having a hard time in the city. They came here to fight in the arena but can't catch a break. My original plan was to have this break come in The Champions Belt, but they are currently camping outside the arena offices trying to get their foot in the door. -A female cleric of Kord accompanied the grandar pcs and is currently searching for a relic lost from the temple that she is originally from. She ran that last piece of information past me for the first time today and I'm not sure how to integrate that into the adventures thus far. -A female ranger from the Bronzewood Lodge has come to Greyhawk to work on cleaning the city up and to just see the world beyond where she is from. This presents the most interesting problem as she does not want to return to Diamond Lake for in-game, in-character, reasons. Out of game she has mentioned interest in following up on the cult but says that she doesn't want to rush back home to the hovel that is Diamond Lake. -The final PC is a halfling rogue who is in it for the money. He is a foreigner to the entire area with no family, or home to speak of. He is sticking with the party because their recent two jobs have netted nice cash and he has no other people to go to. However, he has stated no small number of times, "I'm no hero!". He was the one most against returning to Diamond Lake, claiming it wasn't his job or the party's to take out cults for charity. He spends his day in the bars waiting for more merchants to come to him in order to hire him for a job... Essentially I have a few options here. The Age of Worms is going to happen no matter what, but many aspects of it won't be very visible until much later in the game as best I can tell. I have no paucity of adventures to run the party in. There is The Styles, Fiend's Embrace, and an other short one shots that are of high enough caliber to make a campaign, but I am not looking forward to just tossing the first 4 adventures in the path. My other option is a little bit more tricky and requires a little winking to get the PCs moving. Does anyone have an suggestions with how to more subtly bring my PCs into the adventure path? They have shown interest in running it, but the total lack of hooks for Whispering Cairn is just killing me.
Hello. I noticed last week that issue 129 has been sent out and that for some reason there is no image avaiable of its cover. I figured you guys were a few days behind so I forgot the matter over the weekend. However, its now been 8 days since it was sent out and still no cover picture. This isn't a huge deal, but I was just wondering what foul sorcery was afoot over at Paizo.
Hello, I just had a question for other DMs running Age of Worms. In "The Champions Belt" it is mentioned that Loris Raknian tries to kill the PCs because they might have discovered a link between himself and Theldrick of The Ebon Triad. Of course, we all know that as written 3FoE makes no mention of Raknian, and that he is actually screwing himself by trying to asassinate the party. However, I was wondering if it would be more interesting (and logical) if there actually was some kind of subtle piece of evidence that indicated that the Ebon Triad was being funded by someone in the Free City and that this piece of evidence would make the PCs a real enough danger to risk having them killed. Can any of you think of something that the PCs can find that could serve this purpose?
Okay, got the magazine today...awesome job on this one! This is one of the most intriguing adventures I've ever read. On that note, its time for the inevitable DM Questions. SPOILERS AHOY: Okay, most of my questions are map related and are actually all for the same map (Sodden Hold). -In D2 how do the dopplegangers normally reach the Catwalk? The only stairs onto the catwalk are in D5 which can only be reached by people already on the catwalk. The ladder in D4 supposedly breaks when people use it, so the dopplegangers seem to be not able to get to the catwalk... -In D7 the text mentions highlighted boards as being the trapped ones. However, they all look the same color (at least to my eyes). -In D16, one of the best rooms in the dungeon, the text describes dotted lines as being the locations of the mirror trap walls, however I do not see dotted lines (at least to my eyes). The latter two questions I think are stemming completely from the size of the map. Most likely the boards are highlighted and there are dotted lines, but because the map is jammed into such a small part of the page they are not readily visible. Thats all for now, everyone else feel free to add your own questions!
Hello all! I’m a DM of about 3 years looking for players who want to play in 3.5 D&D game. Allow me to tell you a little bit about myself and what I am looking for. I am a 22 year old recent graduate of college whose regular players have all graduated as well and have spread about making it impossible for me to play with them. Combine that with the fact that I am now moving to Delaware and I have found myself without a gaming group to play with! I really like to DM and wish to run a long-term (levels 1-20) campaign set in my own homebrew world. For the last three years my players have all enjoyed this campaign and the great memories it provided them as they watched their characters’ personalities evolve through the game. My campaign is a balance between role-playing and action (with plenty of combat!) that places that characters in a world where they can choose to act on events happening around them if they wish but will hardly rail-road them into a single story. I sometimes draw from pre-made modules (especially those of Dungeon magazine) but always convert them so seamlessly into my own world that my players hardly ever guessed when I was using a pre-made module vs. something I came up with on my own. I will be living in Felton when I move down into the state (at the beginning of August) but from what I can tell, there are very few gamers in that immediate area. Therefore I am willing to drive about an hour’s distance to meet up with others who wish to play. Because of my own preferences and the fact that I may have to drive a long distance I would prefer to play with rather long sessions (around 6 hours, longer if players are so inclined). I tend to find that my campaigns become more action-packed when longer sessions are played because the PCs are given a better amount of time to tackle the situations they find themselves in. I’m hardly a rules-lawyer and will often ad-lib a ruling if it makes the game more fun for the players and it would slow the pace down if I turned to one of the books. I’m also very lenient on what PrCs and other materials from WotC accessories are allowed, as long as I don’t feel power-gaming is occurring. In my world the characters are everything and all 7 of my former players had the same characters throughout the whole campaign (some were lucky and never died, others were resurrected) and each PC evolved from very simple roots to awesome positions in the world. If you have any questions for me feel free to email me at: Sean_Smiley75@hotmail.com or post here. Thank you very much for reading this mighty long post! -Sean
Hello all! I'm running the first installment of the Adventure Path on Saturday and I was wondering if anyone had any opinion on appropriate music to set the mood for the different parts of the adventure. What songs really set the mood when walking around Diamond Lake? What tunes fit exploring the Whispering Cairn?
Hello, I'm a DM of about 3 years whose players all recently graduated from college. As they have spread across the state I've found it rather hard to gather them together and my game has fallen apart. I'm looking for either a group of players who want to play in a homebrew D&D 3.5 game I will run. Its also been awhile since I've been a player so I'm willing to just join an existing group at this point and be a player. I'm looking for people that like to mix role-play with action and who will not let rules get too much in the way of fun. If any of this strikes your fancy post here or send me a message at: hallora4@tcnj.edu
I apologize ahead of time for the length of this. Hello all I’ve been DMing a recent plot arch using a mixture of homemade adventures and a good number of Dungeon modules. However, I’ve run into a small snag on how to end the arch and was wondering how different DMs would handle it? In a nutshell the PCs are basically soldiers in a large multination alliance and have been sent into a small rural nation surrounded by forests for reasons not made clear to them. In the nation in question there exists a large number of Malar worshipping lycanthropes who have allied with an evil druid organization that also worships Malar. Together these two groups are trying to bring about an event called the “Furious Hunt”. This would involve a massive series of attacks on civilization by the druids, animals they control, and the lycanthropes. These attacks would cause huge numbers of deaths and could potentially disrupt the stability of this nation. For the last 12 years a certain organization within the alliance has been trying to disrupt and prevent the “Furious Hunt” but just as they are about to close in on the leaders the lycantrhropes and druids just disappear into the forest and can never be found. This time a daring leader within this “anti-hunt” organization has decided that the best way to stop the hunt forever is to let it begin unhindered. He hopes that small groups of soldiers unaware of their true reasons for being the in the area have the best chance of gaining information on the hunt without causing it to be moved again. He hopes that the gathering point of the hunt can be learned before it begins and that he’ll be able to send troops there at the last moment in order to take out all the enemies at once. So here is how it has gone for the PCs. After a short intro. adventure the PCs arrived at the city of Deepwatch deep within the Malorne Forests (the name of the nation). They were only given the instructions to “investigate several disappearances”. While there they discovered that a several children of high standing had been robbed from the city and that the situation was being blamed upon bear attacks. In fact, the children were taken by an evil druid named Vermil who using his bear animal companion and large amounts of misinformation and trickery hoped to have the abductions blamed on a local were bear tribe. The were bears who were intrinsically good were indirectly preventing Vermil from preparing the forests around Deepwatch for the hunt. So...for a short time my PCs took the bait and even fought several of the were bears before realizing that they had been tricked. Using excellent diplomacy and cool heads they managed to find out the location of Vermil and even got a were bear to go with them to help kill the man. When they found the druid he was handing a message to a werebabboon (Tongue-eater from “Flood Season”) who immediately bolted. After a short fight the druid sucided himself against the party (he did not wish to be questioned as he was very loyal to the cause) and the party started to track down Tongue-eater. After finding and fighting him in an incredibly bloody battle (Tongue-eater should by named TPK-maker) the party finally prevailed and got a moment to relax. Amongst the items of both the druid and the lycanthrope the party found notes written in Sylvan which hinted toward greater happenings to the north and a druid named Kazok. The next part of the plot involved the party following up on the notes they found. When they returned to Deepwatch they were contacted by an agent of the organization that sent them here and told to give an update on the situation. When the agent read the notes he “suggested” they follow up on them and figure out who sent the druid. He reminded them that they were not being ordered to do so but rather were simply adventurers following up on evidence. This was important because the organization believes that if the PCs actually know what they are investigating it might end up leading to the lycanthropes and druids deciding to go back into hiding. So the PCs began their journey north where they stopped off at the town of Redrick where a harvest festival is just beginning. This was the beginning of the module Cry Wolf where the PCs basically discovered that a poacher had trapped a local ranger and was attempting to hunt his animal companion down. The PCs easily wiped the floor with the poacher and his pals and saved the ranger. The ranger explained that he was a member of a group of druids called “The Council of Pines”. He was sent by them several years ago to guard the forests around Redrick and he suggested that when the party move up north they should give them a call if they needed help tracking anyone down in the woods. Questioning of the poacher also gave the PCs information on a bandit/druid named Loris who had paid the poacher to “keep the ranger busy” for about two weeks...The plot thickens. So now the party has reached the large town of Berlingford and started the module Forest of Blood. They have learned that animals seem to be attacking citizens at the edge of town and that many women have gone missing over the last few weeks. It is at this town that the druid Kazok, a member of the inner circle of the evil druids, has decided to begin his portion of the hunt. In order to do so he has told all of his students (including the now dead Vermil) to gather here when they have completed their individual missions. While he awaits them he has taken some actions of his own. First, he has been raising a group of wolves that he is now using to attack civilians and woodsmen. He has also joined forces with a were boar by the name of Remus who has formed a tight unit of rogues and scoundrels. Remus, Kazok, and all their minions have completely eradicated the Council of Pines leaving only a single druid alive and trapped inside Kazok’s lair. He has also kidnapped a cleric of Silvanus who he intends to sacrifice to summon a beast of Malar. Finally Kazok has developed a poison made from a black fungus which can cause people and animals to go insane and eventually feral. Unfortunately for the party his first test subject was one of his students...Loris...who has since gone insane and is useless to the party when they tried to question him. So that is where the party is right now. They have tracked down Remus and his gang and managed to defeat the powerful lycanthrope, but they have yet to face Kazok and his small army of druid students who have gathered to witness the summoning of the beast and the beginning of the hunt. When the party inevitably meets up with Kazok and defeats him they will have prevented the hunt from starting up in the surrounding area but they will have only cured a symptom of the greater problem. However, this is where I’m kind of stuck. I want the PCs to face off against the leaders of both the lycanthropes (Based loosely off the People of the Black Blood) and the druids (most likely lead by a chosen of Malar). But I also want a clever setup where they have to infiltrate a meeting between these groups, discover where they intend to begin the hunt and finally they get that information back to their commanders without the enemy discovering them. But I’m just pulling a blank on how to even start making an adventure like this. Any suggestions would be very appreciated. I’ll stop rambling now, thanks for listening!
Last session my PCs took on the spellweavers of "Strike on Shatterhorn" and one of the PCs was taken over and stolen away by Embril. The spellweavers hurt them something bad. My PCs then retreated up the pillar back to the room with the egg to lick their wounds and plan strategy. My problem is I don't know what to do next. The PCs will soon finish the module and I'm at a loss for where to go from there. They are not high enough level to survive "Asylum" and I'm sure they are going to chase after their teammate. I want to run this rescue mission as a session-long adventure but I'm not sure what the encounters should be. Basically I'm looking for ideas for encounters and maybe traps that will keep the party entertained and give them some exp before delaying the inevitable fight at Skullrot. Here is what I have in mind already: Embril sucessfully planeshifted away the fighter and brought her to a small temple of Nerull on Carceri. The three surviving Cagewrights have followed her there and watch her perform the ritual. She sucessfully delivers the soul to Nerull's servant and then departs to use the information she gains from the transaction. At this point Embril begins using mindblank to hide herself from trackers and leaves the other Cagewrights behind to await her further instructions. This is where the PCs come into the picture. Scrying/Divination will lead them to Carceri and the outside of the temple. They are now in Nerull's realm and four Cagewrights await them somewhere in the temple guarding the body of the fighter. I would like to have any ideas anyone has on how to run this. Besides the Cagewrights, what else should they fight while approaching the temple or exploring it? Should they fight the servant of Nerull for the soul? What should the servant be? Thanks all in advance!
Hello, tonight I'll be running Shatterhorn for my PCs and I was wondering if any other DMs had run into any problems or such. When I ran "Thirteen Cages" I spent like three hours completely reworking it as it was plain horrible as written and I was wondering if anyone had run into anything similar while running Shatterhorn. What did any of you change if anything? How did you handle the Cagewrights? Did you move them all into the same room (they KNOW the PCs are coming) or did you leave them all in their nice serperate little encounters?
Hello all, once again I have a question for the masses. This time I'm trying to create a fair mechanic before my game this Friday for the plans a wizard PC of mine has. Lets begin with some background. My 2 year long campaign is reaching its close and the 16th level PCs just went up against a very powerful wizard trying to complete a ritual that would bind a huge amount of energy from Carceri to himself. The ritual required the life forces of many, many, many insane people for there to be enough energy to complete it. Well the PCs took quite some time in forcing their way to the wizard and so he was less then a round from completing it when they managed to cut him down. Now the PCs are chasing down more of his kind in a very well fortified underground volcanic fortress and my PCs realized something...they are seriously outmatched. One PC is dead already, and the other is MIA (he ran away from an ambush which killed the other and the party can't find him) and the rest of the party is made up of fighter types and a single wizard who is running out of spells. So here is where my wizard presented me with a plan. He is a 10th level Shadow Adept (Forgotten Realms PrC) and thus left behind his Shadow Double at the location of the ritual. I have already told him that the lifeforces are still lingering there before moving on to the after-life and he intends to use the energy while its still there. Basically he wants to channel the life energy through his shadow double and use it to cast arcane spells. I've warned him that this will cost him as he is using the raw lifeforce of insane people to power them and he has accepted that he may very well be permanently damaged by doing so. So what mechanic should I use to represent the corrupting affect of this way of spell casting? I was thinking that the spells should give him a corruption score equal to the spell level and that when he reaches certain scores a nasty thing happens to him. As he continues to build up a score worst and worst things occur. Any ideas? -Daldolin
I have gotten myself into quite the conundrum since last session. The PCs were fighting a reoccuring villian of my own creation immediately after "Foundation of Flame" when the villian was basically messaged by one of the Cagewrights telling him to come to the Fiery Sanctum because the Stormblades were attacking. This was mainly because my PCs seemed to have no interest in going down there themselves, however the bait worked and they followed the villian down into the volcano. My problem is where should I put the Stormblades in the dungeon. I don't want to party to join up with them because I run an 8 PC game already and those NPCs would be annoying. But I don't want to flat out say their dead either because thats kind of cheap. And ideas?
Hello all, I was just reading the Maure Castle thread currently being discussed and I came upon people claiming that Eli was a poorly created melee-wizard. I couldn't agree more and I'm desperate for ideas on how to change him. I've taken the NPC out of Maure Castle and placed him into my home-brew campaign. Already the PCs were able to injure him horribly and he was forced to run away after sundering an expensive sword. I was wondering what changes I should make to him to make him better able to handle the PCs?
So, my players are fast approaching the prison of Adimarchus and will soon by fighting mr. insanity himself. I was just wondering if anyone had suggestions for music to play during the titanic and epic final encounter. I'd expect something with church undertones and he is an angel afterall, but also something suitably last boss enough.
Hello all, at my last session I ran "Lords of Oblivion" and my party easily stomped the last laugh and laid down serious pain on Lady Rhivandi's meeting. However, before any of this started they had been sending letter asking Lord Vhlantru to meet with them some night so they could discuss donating money to the city's defense. This was of course just an excuse for them to actually meet with him since he is so darn elusive. Now before I began running LoO he replied by saying he would meet them in three days. He timed this so that the third day would be AFTER he finished his ritual and so he could handle the part easily. In three real time hours my next session starts and Vhlantru is going to use the doppleganger from "Zenith Trajectory" to pose as him and eat dinner with the party in his estate's dining room. So here is my question...What should he be planning. The PCs don't fully suspect his true evil (they thought Maavu was evil and when they discovered he was not stopped suspecting everyone). I figure a smart person such as Lord V would still want to use adventurers if he could. Or would he just use all the power he has to set a trap and screw trying to keep them fooled?
Today I found issue 115 in my local gaming shop when I went there to meet with a few fellow DMs before we went off to run our campaigns. So a few of us decided to buy it and check it out (silly store owner won't let us read the magazines without paying...imagine that!). After a few of us went through it I decided that I would share the group’s opinions on the issue. THE GOOD & THE NEUTRAL:
THE PROBLEMS:
Once again it still appears that the path peaked at "Foundation of Flame" as "Strike on Shatterhorn" seems to contain some of the same problems "Thirteen Cages" did. The most glaring problem once again is the total lack of set-up for the adventure. Chapter 1 immediately starts the party in on the dungeon crawl without answering the question "Why are we here?” However, the answer to this question comes remarkably in the...adventure synopsis??? Apparently the adventure synopsis no longer summarizes what the party will do but rather gives a paragraph of how the party got to this dungeon. Once again it appears Jenya got another divination that points the party to exactly where they need to go. Gone are the awesome riddles from that artifact in the St. Cuthbert vault and the need for the PCs to investigate in order to find the dungeon. For a comparison of what we mean I'll give a few examples from some of the past installments. Life's Bazaar- Chapter 1: Party saves a cleric of St. Cuthbert from a beat down and is eventually given the task of investigating kidnappings long before they enter a dungeon. Zenith Trajectory- Chapter 1: Party fights a fiendish umber hulk and attracts the attention of Celeste who can help them get an inside position on Cauldron's nobility. Combat, intrigue, no dungeon. The Demonskar Legacy- Chapter 1: Party must deal with a riot and save/kill Maavu. Depending on their actions they could potentially make allies with the Chisel. Subdual and tactical combat, role-playing, intrigue, no dungeon. Foundation of Flame- Chapter 1: Party attends a meeting with Cauldron nobles and could potentially choose who runs the city in the future. At the end they fight a small group of cagewright lackeys. Combat, mostly role-playing, no dungeon. Thirteen Cages- Chapter 1: Party receives a monologue from Jenya. Strike on Shatterhorn- Chapter 1: Party finds Shatterhorn and enters the dungeon. I'm not joking, that’s how the first chapter opens. The adventure is also seriously missing a good hook. The PCs soundly defeated a nice number of Cagewrights in "Thirteen Cages" and destroyed/disabled the Tree of Shackled Souls. So why are they worried about the remaining Cagewrights. Oh no, they have ANOTHER way to open the gate to Carceri. Why didn't they use that way in the first place?? I can just see my PCs (a good group of adventurers) telling Jenya to go handle the remainder herself if she knows where they are. Now luckily the adventure ends on a note which says that the PCs will have some downtime. This gives the next installment the chance to allow for another investigation role-playing Chapter 1 to be set up. So yeah, this post got negative real fast but I do not want to try to kill the adventure path. I hope that the aspects that my friends and I mentioned brings attention to them. High level players want more then dungeon crawl and slash and burn, there is no reason why they did more role-playing at lower levels and almost no chance for it at higher levels. -Sean of New Jersey :)
Hello all. I’ve noticed a difference between what my fellow DMs at the local gaming shop and the people on these boards seem to think of this latest edition to the “Shackled City” adventure path. Now I’ve already given my somewhat negative opinion of “Thirteen Cages” in another thread, but for the most part I’ve seen very few posts specifically mentioning whether they thought it was good or bad. In the gaming shop I frequent and amongst the other DMs I know in person running the path I have basically been receiving negative comments about it especially when comparing to past installments. One guy went as far as to say it ruined the path for him. I was wondering what the people who have begun frequenting these boards thought of it? **In no way is this meant insult the author of the module or the people of Dungeon. I love you guys. It’s just that the consensus that I’ve picked up on this subject seemed to point at a glaring problem and I wanted to start a discussion on the matter.
I would like to commerate the opening of these boards with the story of my PCs and their adventures in and around Cauldron. This first installment is just the prelude, next I'll introduce each of the PCs if interest seems high enough. The Province of Pillsnarth: Part I. The wizard stared intently at the flaming phantasms rolling across the barren sky. He absently mindedly reached out to stroke his long beard before realizing that it was no longer there. He pulled his loose robes tighter around his body as a shivered moved through him. This barren layer disturbed something deep within him. Once a portion of the Seven Mounting Heavens of Celestia it had plummeted into the Abyss over 3000 years ago. The deep conflict between its lawful good origin and current chaotic evil state caused a deep feeling of wrongness in the wizard’s core. He turned westwards to survey the valley that lay before him. Roughly fifty feet down the steep incline before him the fleshy barren land became dotted by shallow pits of smoking caustic smelling fluid. Further across the plains a huge rock formation resembling a half-buried skull spewed more fires plasms into the air. “Humph, so this is the Plain of Ulcers…” the man muttered to himself. “That place is not meant for you mortal, you should return to your home plane before you get hurt.” a cold voice suddenly spoke up behind the wizard. He cursed his negligence at not noticing the creatures approach. He whirled around to face the owner of the voice and was surprised of all things to see a deva. Its time on this abysmal layer seemed to have taken its toll as its wings had turned a dark sooty black and its body was covered with foul tattoos and scars. “I could say the same thing about you angel,” the wizard began, “Its rare to see one of your kind wandering Occipitus.” “My presence in this place has always been, and always will be human. I can handle the beasts that call this place home, but you may find yourself vastly outmatched by the wards left by this layers former prince.” the dour celestial replied. The wizard laughed as a hot blast of caustic air from the plains below blew his dark brown hair into disarray. “I am hardly what I appear to be outsider! Soon ownership of this layer may belong to a new prince!” With these words the man finished an incantation within his head and with only a small flicker of light vanished from the celestial’s presence. Moments later he reappeared next to one of the pools of bubbling acid completing the dimension door spell. Speaking another incantation he threw a small black stone into the fluid causing it suddenly bubble and foam before completely evaporating. Quickly working his way through a series of underground tunnels he finally found himself standing before the source of the fiery plasms spilling through what appeared to be a rip in the very material of the plane. “Hmm, so this is it.” the wizard began to mumble again as he began to move around the geyser of energy studying it carefully. As he stared into the flames he swore he saw an almost humanoid shape moving beneath the ripples of flame. As he stood transfixed attempting to make out the image he swore he saw of pair of deep red eyes starring back out into his own… *************************************************************** Master Adrian Beleth of the Arcane Order slowly moved his hands through his graying beard as he stared at the others across the small obsidian table. The garishly dressed noble woman from Cauldron covered her mouth with a small white cloth as she giggled, having apparently found the man’s attempt at compromise rather funny. The beholder floating above her, however, seemed to still be intently listening. Having pushed the cloth square into a small pocket on her hideously bright gown the woman began twirling one of her many rings as she spoke. “What you are suggesting is quite a heinous little act. What makes you possibly think we would go for such a thing?” “Lady Rhiavadi, has a point,” the beholder began to speak, “we both already seem to be in an excellent position. All our needs are provided for by the good citizens of the city, and none are the wiser.” Beleth reached his hand our and began to pet a large black crow perched on the arm of his plush chair. “Ah, but I can only answer that question with another question my friend. The most important question that needs to be asked…” With these words the crow began to twist and reshape itself before their eyes. After only a matter of moments the bird had formed into what appeared to be figure wrapped in a deep black cloak its face shielded save for two small pinpoints of red light that resembled eyes. Beleth couldn’t help be think that it resembled those strange undead known as wraiths. As the figure looked up at the people in the room it uttered its question in a rasping voice, “What desire burns in your heart?” |
