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Session 21: Shopping
Picking up the loose ends of the PBP activities and some FTF adventuring
Raven checked out the current rewards and found out that the local Thieves Guild was run by someone called "The Fat Man".
Angel got a tour of the town from Shubryn, paid some incentives, and heard a number of rumours about the Thieves Guild run by "The Fat Man", the Sewers, the problems with the logging trade, a rival thieves guild, and possible attacks from Giants in the mountains. She also met up with her new Cohort, a flamboyant and rumbunctuous Cleric named Justin (and Russell Brand alike) who seemed to fit in quite easily.
Taramis met up with a couple of identical halfling rogues and they arranged a meet behind the Inn where she got her lockpicks and a warning not to freelance in town without paying the Guild dues.
Mihaly found out her parents were in town trying to arrange some trade deals, mainly because their main rival, Jaques Dul'Gae was also rumoured to be doing deals here.
Ba'Thorn met the local lake Druid Bevin and then flew around in bird shape scouting the local area looking for property the party could buy.
Cal met up with the party at the end of the day and they all went over to the Order of Ancient Knowledge and made a deal whereby the Order brought details of the Caverns they'd been in and most of the items they'd liberated, especially those of more historical significance. In exchange the Order was able to sell almost all the items the party were looking to buy.
Next day having tooled up with their new gear, the party were again invited to OAK for an urgent mission to retrieve 3 items that had gone missing. A mocking ransom demand had been received and the Order took a very dim view of this. The Order offered membership and some bonus prestige for items retrieved plus the usual adventurers clause.
The party decided to take up the offer and were teleported nearby the location where the items were believed hidden, White Plume Mountain, so called for it's geothermal activity, a plume of steam ejecting from it's summit.
The party proceeded through a large crack in one side, apparently a well known entrance, and headed down some stairs into a corridor with foot deep water. Around a corner lay a bored Gynosphix on a pile above the water who informed the party they had to answer a riddle correctly to get past the Symbol traps on the three corridors. They managed the first one correctly, and then encoutered some green slime on the ceiling (fireballed) and under the water (stand-in 10' pole detection) which they avoided by some climbing, flying, and elemental form.
Another riddle was easily solved but they were suprised by a mimic pretending to be a portcullis which proved a tricky opponent until they could get some distance. Cal's bowmanship did impressive damage and the bardsong proved useful. Moving on, they found a large cavern with some strange suspended platforms in it.
Continuing Trouble in Durbenford, modified for the campaign and character's background hooks, with a side trek to S2 using most of the 3.5e WotC free conversion notes. Another classic module from 1st Ed. We'd already played S1 with a set of non-campaign characters. I like being able to get them into modules before letting them know "hey you're in S2" at the end of the session.

Taramis
Your aid from bluff would be 1d20 + bluff giving a bonus of +2 for 10-19, +3 for 20-29 etc on the diplomacy roll.
The stallholder continues, "You know those children are under the protection of the Fat Man, that's why the Watch does nothing".
"Looks like we have company", observes your snake looking behind you. You turn round and see two almost identical halflings. The stallholder finds a reason to go elsewhere. One halfling speaks, "good to see someone understands the value of children. Meet us in the alley behind the Inn in one hour, we have what you want".

Raven
Oops, didn't check page 2. Diplomacy check for the boy. You'll get some bonuses with that money
You find the following posters:
An older poster asking for information leading to the return of certain jewellery stolen from Kanto Manor, a reward of 100gp offered.
A new poster for a blue skinned dwarf wanted for murder, with a possible female armoured accomplice.
A poster warning of possible zombie attacks at night and wanting any information about the cause.
A watch sargeant observes your interest. "looking to earn some coin, it's a dangerous business that round here."
Diplomacy check if you want to talk to him

Angel
Diplomacy roll for the boy
"We're orphan's miss", says the boy, who takes the coins and the ragged children disappear into the marketplace.
Shubryn finishes some announcements (one mentions the Bard Yieria Moonblade will be playing at the Ox and Hammer in two days) and agrees to conduct you on a tour, handing over the announcements to his assistant. He seems to know almost everyone around and progress out of the market is slow. "You must be one of new arrivals from the harbour yesterday", he observes, "caused quite a stir with the town guards. Anything you particularly want to see?".
Diplomacy & Sense motive roll for Shubryn. You can also roll up a 5th Level cleric cohort using the standard fantasy stats, human male C/G.

Mihaly
You wake up late, you guess from your acheing head that the sherry round here is somewhat more potent than you're used to. You get down to the bar and the barman noting your condition gives you a glass of water, suggesting that you might want to take something stronger. A large late middle aged woman approaches you in the bar.
"Mihaly! Is that you? What are you doing here? You don't look well. I knew that monastery would be bad for you. I bet they never passed on the food parcels we sent. You know, we couldn't get a decent room here, some bunch of adventurers had booked up everything! We're in the Coy Carp down the street. Have you been in the market, so chaotic, not like at home. Everything's much more organised there. Have you seen the temple row? There's a temple of Set just like at home."
You head reels at this barrage of questions and you try and focus on the speaker.

Taramis
Make a diplomacy check, you can get an aid from bluff (not exactly a secret message but near enough) when speaking to the boy
As soon as you pay, the children seem to miraculously disappear into the market.
Within the marketplace most common alchemical ingredients can be found and several stalls have various tools available, particularly those used in woodworking and furniture making. One stallholder comments as you browse, "those damned children, always around, they're bad for business".
Another diplomacy check to gather information and a perception check

It is however common knowledge that Orin Glamdren the gnomish alchemist is the best place for purchasing the finished product and his shop is a short distance on from the Watch HQ (shop at place 8 on the map). Indeed Shubryn makes an announcement whilst you're in the square about his wares.

Raven
Recalling that any bounty posters are placed on a wall of the Watch Headquarters (and checking the sketch map hastily drawn the previous night), Raven headed across the corner of the busy marketplace.
The noise of commerce and smells of food and drink promise much on this warm early summer day. A couple of town guardsmen monitor the chaos seemingly oblivious to all the activity around them.
Before he's able to cross the edge of the marketplace, a throng of ragged children surround you. An older boy in ragged clothing, perhaps 11, addresses you.
"Hello mister, spare some money for the children, a silver piece to feed us all?"

Taramis
You head into the market to see what's available. Almost immediately a throng of ragged children surround you. An older boy in ragged clothing, perhaps 11, addresses you.
"Hello miss, spare some money for the children, a silver piece to feed us all?"

Angel
I'm not going to quote posts, I'll assume you can scroll back where required
You head into the market to find Shubryn. Almost immediately a throng of ragged children surround you. An older boy in ragged clothing, perhaps 11, addresses you.
"Hello miss, spare some money for the children, a silver piece to feed us all?"

PBP Rules of the Road
To help get you started.
1. You only control your own character. You can't say "I go and meet Angel", you can say "I go to the market and look for Angel".
2. In a shared reality the first poster sets the reality. If Taramis posts that she goes off having missed Angel, Angel can't then post that they did.
3. The GM will judge any reality clashes.
4. If you think you're going to need a skill check to resolve an action you're taking, you can include the roll beforehand. If I need that roll I'll use it otherwise it's ignored. If I need a different roll I'll ask for it.
Probably a few other rules that I haven't thought of, I expect someone has already covered elsewhere.

To get an idea of how PBP can work, take a look at one of my favourite threads (since it's also using the Wilderness as background but a long way away and is part 2).

http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/community/gaming/playByPost/wellardsWi lderlandsCampaignTheRegeneration

Next Morning
After spending a few hours in the bar the previous night, the party had got a fair idea of the important town locations and folks.
Angel decided to find Shubryn, not too hard as his voice could be heard in the market square outside. Taramis was also up, sitting at a table making some notes and muttering to herself. The few other customers steered clear of her.

Over to You

Think there are several backstories to explore, with some down time, could be interesting.

As for sewer creatures, there is an Alkali Flask that could work, but isn't core so we might not be able to use it. Its from Dungeon Denizens Revisited 19. Antiplague will probably be useful. Blade guard for weapons is an idea, stops them being eaten. Vermin repellent would be very useful, might also keep the druid away...

If you want to know what's available ask someone ;-)

Generally Core, APG, Adventurers Armoury, are all "in play". Note that the APG overrides AA where there are any differences. I'll make a note in the House Rules about this.
There may be other things too.

Back stories may come into play, I'm giving you a chance to act first.

Making Things Happen
If you want things to happen please state what exactly your character is trying to do either in first or third person. I'll reply on how that goes. If you want to act together, then someone needs to propose that and see if anyone else takes up the action.

I'd suggest you take a look at one of the play by post threads to see how this works.

Are the powers listed for personal items in addition to the original power? e.g. Angels boots acted as Boots of Dimension Stride.

Where the power is an improvement over the old one it replaces it e.g. +1 becomes +2. If it's new it adds to the existing power(s).

Great thread! Sorry to bust in.

I'm going to be running Caverns of Thracia (the original) with Labyrinth Lord in December - whereabouts in the Wilderlands did you set it?

Sounds like a fun game.

Ament tundra Map hex 2518. The whole campaign is in this area which has been recently recolonised.

There are a number of subtle differences between the 3e revision and the original. My comments addressed the 3e version. The less subtle differences are an expanded outdoor ruins section and expanded level 4.
I'd actually advise getting the 3e (pdf) version and converting back as it's better balanced and plotted.
Note that I also changed a few things to give the characters more opportunity to make their own choices on how the dungeon ended e.g. releasing the immortal king.
If you're using the old maps make some notes on which stairs go where, it's easy to get lost.

Update to Personal Items

ADMIN
Campaign files are in the SW files area, logged in members only.

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/ShadowWarriors_UK/files/Wilderlands%20C ampaign/

Session 20 - Reaching Town
The raft's arrival caused some excitement in town and was met by the Captian of the Guard, Harold Trindel, fortunately the party made a good impression. Also there was an Elf named Cal who represented the Order of Ancient Knowledge and had an interest in the objects the party had uncovered. The party arranged secure storage and rented out the best rooms at the best inn and made plans to explore the amenities of the town. First was a visit to local temple of Freya to get Angel restored and uncursed (from a cursed treasure item). They also met Cal for a longer chat about OAK.
A change of pace at last with some town based adventure from "Trouble at Durbenford". Also an opportunity to use the Messageboards interactively at last to progress the campaign. Note that the detailed campaign materials are on the Shadow Warriors file area to avoid dumping lots of text here.

Sessions 18/19 - Looting the Palace
The rooms at ground level were checked out first, finding nice greek style palace and a room with some magic water bowls and a magic dining table that fed eight. Some human kitchen slaves were found a released. The underground level had plentry of empty living quarters. More slaves were freed. A couple of guards remaining with the King's treasure were killed and the treasure liberated. A very old Minotaur and one with two young were captured. The party also found Silvermane, the leader of the Dogbrother's and his apprentices who had already decided to leave. The party negotiated with him and he agreed to use the limited wish scroll they had found to raise Angel before he then left. The party then looted his library. They also found an old temple with a "keep out" sign, so they decided to go right in (this party likes to explore everything they don't forget about). They found a strange caretaker and an almost dead lizard creature who spoke to them telepathically (which Ba'thorn found confusing with two voices in his head). They were given some "potions" to help prevent the enternal king from awakening. Ba'thorn's spirit encouraged them to agree and go. They refused the caretaker's offers to play some games. One final section had corridor's in darkness with pit traps. Ba'thorn scouted by walking through the side walls and feeling his way. The party used a reinforeced table as a bridge across each pit. They found a golem in one room but it proved virtually impervious to their attacks. Constructs are basically immune to most Witches attacks and the fighters could barely damage it, whereas it's attacks hit regularly and were almost impossible to cure. The party decided to withdraw. Taramis and Angel went back invisibly to grab an item in the Golem's room they'd spotted to complete the looting. They also used the same tactic to apply the potions as previously requested.
They used the magic water bowls to teleport out all the former slaves and the accumulated loot to the dungeon entrance.
Rather than attack the humans above the dungeon, they gave them the former slaves from the area and impressed on them that creatures were still loose even though the beastmen were dead and they should keep out.
With the remaining non-locals, they met up with the senior Druid, left the minotaurs in her care, and the Druid arranged for a raft to transport them over the lake to the nearest large town of Durbenford, which Taramis and Raven recognised from their brief visit earlier.
Caverns of Thracia is a 128 page module, and we probably went through it fast given 6 hour sessions. A few places got missed e.g. the shaft the monk partly explored, but the main plot was completed. I'd suggest gnoll raiding parties as a way to get other groups into exploring the area rather than the suggested rumours.

Session 17 - BBEG
The party headed to the palace where they'd been told the beastmen lived. Once more they found a secret door andheaded in, suprising a few female minotaurs. This noise alerted the others. A few remaining Gnolls were eliminated as a warm up. Then minotaurs with huge axes attacked from the inner door, and the dinosaur companion started taking significant damage despite it's high AC (inc. chain shirt). Taramis's sleep hex proved very effective whereas Angel's magic missiles had no effect and there wasn't room for more fireballs. The minotaurs then attacked from the secret door and a Dogbrother sorcerer fireballed Angel and most of the party in a reversal of tactics. Angel and Taramis took this personally and the Dogbrother went down next round. Raven and the Monk proved useful in doing coup de grace attacks on sleeping minotaurs, but the party was suprised by the fast moving minotaur king who took off Angel's head with a crital huge greataxe hit (x3 damage). The party was saved from further deaths when Taramis's sleep hex stopped the raging minotaur and he was finished off next round.
The party was then free to explore and loot the palace.
The party had worn down the palace defences over the last few esessions and advanced gnolls were just cannon fodder now, but a group of minotaurs were dangerous and the King was CR13 which had the potential for a TPK if they hadn't got him with a failed sleep hex save. Still, lots of xp earned.

Session 15/16 - Lizard City
The Beastmen had doubled the guard on the teleport area cutting off the party from the surface. Ba'Thorn decided to play around with the levers on the metal rooms discovering that one opened and closed the metal door. The second operated once the door was closed and the small room detached and was drawn up the pipe by the current (with the Druid inside). After a while the capsule started floating and Ba'Thorn found himself in the river by the lizardfolk. After saying hello he headed back to the teleport and attempted to bluff his way past the Beastmen. This mostly worked and he able to disappear into the woods, meeting up the party who had waited. The Dryads told the party the Beastmen didn't go down from the plateau they were on into the lizardfolk city below, plus Eddy was still looking for old lore books, so the party decided to investigate.
They checked out a number of buildings, a library with odd pillars; a blasted area with an underground chamber, where a spirit entered the unlucky Ba'Thorn and told the party to destroy the "mammals"; four large step pyramids which with sacrifices could be used to transport to another chamber that the lizardfolk had gone to.
The party noticed a large band of Beastmen, apparently overcoming their fear of the city, moving toward them, and decided to wait at the top of a pyramid. They also noticed they were being scryed. This let them fireball the Beastmen as they climbed the pyramid, killing the Gnolls, the party to concentrate on the Minotaurs. The combination of the Sorceress (now level 6) area effect and Witch single creature effects being very effective. With the monsters dead the party headed back up to the plateau to deal with the Beastman boss.
These sessions revealed more about the factions in the caverns. The treasure levels in the module, as written, are quite low. Given the encounters, I added magic items. To make it more interesting I used the Magic Item Compendium which has a wider variety of low level items. Given that the module holds areas unexplored for hundreads or thousands of years, non-standard items are reasonable and more fun.

Session 14 - No Surprise
The party rested, then prepared for a fight. The teleport only allowed for 4 at a time, so the first 4 went through and didn't surprise a big bunch of Gnolls waiting for just that. A big fight ensued, but by now the party were 5th level and able to take on a group of gnolls and once again Angel's web spell was effective between trees. Taramis was also effective by blinding the Minotaur that led the Gnolls, forcing it to run away before it was killed by missile fire.
It turned out that they were in an enormous cavern several miles wide lit by a strange blueish light that allowed normal plants to grow and a ceiling that was 200ft high.
Once the Gnolls were dead some local Dryads came out and offered to hide the party from more Beastmen, which the party accepted. It turned out the Dryads hadn't had much company for a long time and the male party members got less rest than expected. Within the Dryad's hiding place was a strange metal room with metal doors and a large 10' transparent tube of water leading up, the party noted it went up right into the cavern ceiling.
Once the Witch gets the more powerful hexes, she becomes very effective against single monsters.

Session 13 - The Druid's Decision
The Shaman and two senior lizardfolk went with Ba'Thorn back to the crystal. Ba'Thorn tried some blood on it (in lizardman form) and it seemed to glow a bit. Then they were hit by a compulsion and two lizardfolk slit their throats to give blood, Ba'Thorn felt the influence but managed to stop the Shaman killing himself. Deciding that this seemed an evil act, they retreated rapidly.
The party learnt that the Gnolls were guarding a teleport to the lower caves where the beastmen lived. The lizardfolk agreed not to help the beastmen any longer. Going through another part of the lizardfolk temple allowed the party to surprise the Gnoll gaurds and capture the teleport but not before one Gnoll got away through the teleport.
The Druid's lizardfolk background was the player's idea, possibly influenced by some foreshadowing (see above), and a tough dinosaur companion. It worked well in getting the party interacting with the dungeon denizens

Session 12 - The Lizardfolk Temple
Exploring beyond the secret doors, the full party suprised a bunch of Gnolls which were quickly dispatched, although the web spell was not much use on some bears. They then talked again to the Lizardfolk about the dungeon using the Druid in lizardman form, pretending to be a shaman. The tribes Shaman told them about an old lizardfolk temple he'd found and after promising to respect it, they went to explore. It had abviously not been used in centuries and had interesting flaking frescos showing strange lizard creatures and a lizard king. The Druid found himself drawn to a set of rooms guarded by some strange lizardman like creatures that fought the rest of the party but let the Druid in lizardman shape through. The party discovered the creatures to be too tough to kill but were able to slow them and get away/past (the Monk's speed was useful here) as the creatures didn't pursue. Beyond was a room with a huge crystal containing a large lizardman like humanoid and an inscription: "Awaken the Past with the Blood of My People and You Shall Be Justly Rewarded". Ba'Thorn decided to consult the Shaman.
There are a number of places where the creatures are too tough for the average party, this is deliberate. The party have to figure out another way to win the encounter. I consider this one of the reasons this module is regarded as a classic.

Session 10/11 - Don't Split the Party
Beyond the secret door, the party found a room with doors on a lower and upper level and some skeletons with glowing eyes. Part of the party explored the beyond the upper door, finding some old cells, one of which had a mummy in it, quickly dispatched, and an odd sword whose name turned out to be "thirster". Beyond this area was a corridor with a puddle of water. This was a water trap that started flooding when the far door was opened. A lot of swim checks were then needed, which the dinosaur regularly failed. Fortunately there was a chimney which was finally climbed to escape the trap. This led to part of a temple used by the locals. The dino was hauled up on a rope.
The other part of the party found a room with stone statues of monsters with gem eyes, which they decided not to touch and more secret doors. THey also found a metal guardian which the druid killed in single combat.
The split was due to absent players, but even with only two, some careful exploration avoided major disaster. We found that it takes a long time to drown in PF, somewhat shortened with later errata. Mummies are really weak in PF.

Session 9 - Into the Labyrinth
The party met up with some of local inhabitants. They didn't speak common and had skeletons painted on their bodies. Fortunately the elder of the humans had a spell available and told the party about the evil beastmen in the dungeon below that kidnapped and ate the humans. The party agreed to help in exchange for passage into the dungeon and the usual adventurers loot conditions. The human tunnels led them to a large cave with a small river in it. They met a hungry giant, a friendly but bored Gynosphinx, and the lizardfolk tribe camped by the river. Exploring up river they fought some spiders and found the first of many secret doors to a lower level.
The Caverns have a lot of secret doors and various sub levels that make it hard for a party to map the place and areas can be completely missed. Fortunately the Druid had a very high perception which helped. A Dwarf would be very helpful or the GM needs to handwave a bit otherwise interesting areas will get missed.

Session 8 - Looting the Bodies
With the new party established, they returned to blast the shambling mounds to death and then loot the bodies on the ledge, including the unfortunate Oeric. The exploration of the ruins continued, with them been attacked by another set of plant creatures in an old colosseum. They then met a character who became known as "Eddy" who was also searching the ruins for clues on how to remove the disease curse placed on him. They also met some lizardfolk who Ba'Thorn talked to using his cloak of lizardkind who told them about their camp in the dungeon and some humans living nearby in the ruins.
This is the start of the Caverns of Thracia 3e conversion from Necromancer games. I still have a character I rescued from the original version of this. Curiously, although the party met the lizardfolk in the main dungeon entrance, they never went back there.

It didn't quite happen like that.

You've jogged my memory. I recall the monk climbing up the rope to get away and Taramis trying to bluff (so she said) the creature with fresh elf instead of Raven, at that point Oeric (apparently) fell onto the ledge, thus providing the promised fresh elf.

Session 7 - A Whole New World
Mihaly and Oeric suddenly found themselves in a forest. A little later a Druid named Hester appreared and invited them to her camp where they met the Druid's apprentice Ba'Thorn and his brother a dinosaur.
Raven, a mercenary, had been travelling upriver to Durbenford looking for work. Also on board was Taramis, who turned out to be a female Witch (as soon as the beta class came out). They had just arrived in Durbenford when next day they also found themselves in the forest and were met by the Druid.
Nearby were some ancient ruins that Ba'Thorn was keen to explore, so the party took a look around. They found a quarry and some bodies on a ledge. One party member went to look and was attacked by shambling mounds. Oeric tried to climb down and help and fell 80ft and died.
The party returned to the Druid's camp and met Angel, a sorceress of many charms.

Characters
Human Monk, Mihály (Mee-Hi) (item: robe)
Human Sorceress, Angel (item: boots)
Human Witch, Taramis (item: circlet)
Human Fighter, Raven (item: Katana)
Human Druid, Ba'Thorn (item: cloak)

I'd not been happy with the 3e/PF falling damage, inherited as it was from 2e. With the additional tweaks it still seemed far too easy to fall a long way and walk away. I tried using the Order of the Stick variant less the nasty DC save but that seemed to nasty, in the end I used the 4e base 1d10 modified by size, each size step changes the dice size, so tiny creatures take little but huge creatures take a lot. This still meant a 80ft fall was lethal to a 4th level character, especially one who rolled two natural 1's on a DC5 climb check. Sometimes the character's just catch some bad luck.
From the previous session, I'd gathered the players hated to leave a room unexplored, so the lure of a whole dungeon plus a character tied in via backgound was good enough to get things moving.

Session 6 - On to Endhome... or not
The party left Fairhill to the nearest large city Endhome. The Kings Men had arrived in town and informed everyone that the road was now clear. A friendly merchant went with the party. They headed through the pass. As they came down the other side heading towards the nearest town of Riganarion, still a days journey away they found the entrance to some caverns that had clearly been occupied by Orcs. THey decided to explore. Inside they found and killed a ghoul and an Ogre that didn't want to fight, which they let escape. Further on they were threatened by some Ratmen which Taracus attacked. Oeric didn't like simply attacking for no good reason and there was an argument. They left the ratmen alone after some apologies and payment and followed another route that led to a large cave with a deep pool. On one island they found a trapdoor.
Adventure:Lost City of Baracus and Wilderness.
At this point the party had reached 4th level on fast experience and Baracus was really too low level. Also, the Core book had come out. So it was decided we'd move to the core rules and there was some revision of characters. In the campaign it offered a chance to move things around so the planned enounters in Baracus were thrown out and we moved on to the Caverns of Thracia. Since fast experience was levelling the characters rather faster than expected, I moved back to normal, otherwise the party would level so fast that they'd be too high level before they reached the end of the scenario.

Session 5 – Under the Ruined Keep
Exploring down some stairs the party meet the prepared Orc leader who turns out to be an evil half-orc cleric with some pet zombies. His negative energy channelling proves very dangerous by damaging all the party whilst healing the zombies, which keep getting back up from the negative energy. A friendly Cleric helps turn the tide with some positive energy chanelling (proving that the new channelling abilities at low levels can be both extremely useful and extremely dangerous). They decide against close examination of the dark pool of liquid other than determining it's necromantic.
The party are unable to convince an unfriendly door of their “good” intentions and are unable to open a rune covered door. Some grinding noises from the other side convince them to leave it alone.
After a rest they search the Orc's tower and find some treasure and a trapdoor. Several trapdoors later they find a sarcophacus filled room and an incorporeal hand attacks them draining strength. They open the main one and fight a nasty shadow whilst Tamas demonstrates how not to climb a rope repeatedly.
A final tower reveals a few giant spiders which are easily dispatched.
With the Keep cleared out, the party head back to Fairhill to rest, divide the loot, and literally regain strength. Gilray decides not to continue in the party and is replaced by the friendly Cleric.
Adventure: Crucible of Freya, Gryphons Legacy
A change in players at this point also changed the party

Session 4 – The Ruined Keep
The party eliminate the Orc in the guard tower but the Orcs decide to go look for for their raiding party. Taracus decides to attack the Orcs in the open and nearly gets killed by their leader when Gilray arrives to turn the tide. The rest of the Orcs start an attack but this time the party uses the tower to tactically wear them down. One Orc leader escapes down a trapdoor. The party seal it with a heavy altar and rest. They then check out a second tower and wake up an Ogre which Taracus fails to intimidate. Fortunately it is defeated with their combined efforts. They then go down the trapdoor and explore some strange tunnels and rooms that have something to do with lizardlike or snakelike creatures. They find and rescue an Archon trapped in a magical cage, then open a tomb and destroy a dark incorporeal undead creature.
Adventure: Crucible of Freya, Gryphons Legacy. Party mostly 3rd level.
This was a combination of two modules as I wanted to use the old tunnels but couldn't use the whole modules as fast experience option meant the party were already too high level. Also I wanted to move the story along to Endhome.

Session 3 The Crucible

The party returns to the village of Fairhill. Feeling the Orb is a dangerous item and unsure of the Wizards's intentions the party tries to determine whether the Wizard is evil.
Fortunately Netheril is amused at their presumption and arranges a zone of truth, mollified, the party hands over the Orb and claims their reward. They also exchange a +1 dagger for some healing items and potions. Gilray gets a letter of introduction to the Academy of Magic in Endhome. The party decides to leave next day for Endhome, the nearest large town about 50 miles south in the hopes of discovering more about their situation. They are interrupted that night by an Orc attack on the temple of Freya. Charging after the Orcs, the party gets split up and Tamas makes an ill-judged attempt to roll past the Orcs, who almost kill him with their greataxes and then escape with the Crucible from the temple.
The party are asked to follow the Orcs to their lair, return the Crucible, and stop their attacks. Meanwhile Oeric follows the Orc raiding party and then later meets up with the rest of the party and some town militia early next day. A more organised attack kills the raiding Orcs who had stolen the Crucible from the temple. The Orcs turn out to be tougher than expected but one is captured. The party then follow the trail to the Orc's lair, a ruined keep, which they scout in preparation for an attack.
Adventure: Crucible of Freya.

Session 2 Completing the Quest

Taran leaves the Keep with Eli and Gilray whilst Oeric arrives with Kath the Cleric. The party explores the rest of keep. Tamas is almost swallowed by a giant Toad but the Kobolds, Dire Rats, and Goblins are no problem but the Orcs with Greataxes prove dangerous. Oeric criticals a Gelatinous Cube saving Taracus from from a nasty experience. Gilray returns but displays a lack of courage as a Carrion Crawler causes chaos by paralysing almost the whole party. Some giant bats are quickly dealt with.
Tamas is the one that finally figures out how to use the magic key to open the hidden door.
Taracus finds the Shadows too much to handle but Oeric uses some Oil of Magic Weapon to enable him to hit them, Gilray's Disrupt Undead and some positive energy bursts from Kath help destroy the Shadows. One character figured out that the torches were linked to the Shadows but was ignored. Tamas ignored the Shadows and suicidally attacked a Mummy only to find it wasn't undead but merely dead, then decided to check the loot whilst the rest of the party fought the Shadows. With the Shadows eliminated the party collected the Orb the Wizard hired them for. On the way back Oeric takes a look at the Orb which is made of smooth crystal with undecipherable writing faintly visible on it's surface and discovers it looks back at him.
Adventure: Intro. To AD&D Tomb of Damara. Party mostly 2nd level.
NPC Cleric added due to missing player

Session 1 - Arrival

Characters

Halfling Rogue, Tamas (item: rapier)
Human Monk, Mihály (Mee-Hi) (item: robe)
Barbarian/Cleric, Taracus (item: greataxe)
Elf Wizard, Gilray
Elf Ranger/Wizard, Oeric Sinaran (item: ring)
Cleric, Eli

The characters arrive on a hilltop with a stone circle. They decide to head towards a village they see a few miles away. On the way some Orcs with bows attack but are driven off and Taracus kills a sleeping Orc with his mighty chopper. In the village of Fairhill they hear of Orc attacks and meet various people. They decide to take up the Wizard's offer of money to retrieve an Orb from a nearby ruined keep, a day's journey away. As they explore the keep, Taracus proves adept with his axe, chopping up most enemies. An amulet given by a Lizardfolk proves useful and interesting. The Ogre in charge and his wolves are no match for Taracus. The lost elf Taran is rescued.
Adventure: Intro. To AD&D Tomb of Damara

Campaign Background
===================
The Judges Guild Wilderlands Campaign was first published back before AD&D 1st Ed. More recently it's been redone in 3rd Ed. compiling all the old wildlands maps and descriptions into one box. In addition the City State is also a 3rd Ed. box set and there's a Players Guide. All these are now available as PDF as well as the original material (which also comes up on ebay). Most 3e players are not that familiar with this setting so it makes a nice base.
There's plenty of scope to add and modify the setting as it's not as fully developed as some. For my campaign, I updated the original gods list by splitting into "northern" and "southern" which were mostly Norse and Egyptian plus some others and tweaked the domains and alignments to give a better choice for players. The overall map and area descriptions from the Players Guide formed the campaign guide. Most of the rest of the Players Guide on classes, feats, magic items, spells was left out in favour of core PF.
The original campaign politics was a bit thin so I stole a chunk from Mystara and dropped it in to provide a frontier type area that would support adventurers exploring ruins and dungeons. I borrowed some ideas from Wolfgang Baur's Sun and Scale module around ancient civilisations as a campaign theme (only one published module seems to exist, but it's a good one).
The City State area has been used many times, so for this campaign I chose a different area with the City State offstage.
To get started I chose not to have the characters background in the campaign. The idea was to get a diverse group together with a common purpose of discovering where they were and why they were there. The disadvantage was limiting possible later campaign hooks. This didn't quite work.
I wanted to try out the PF rules fully, plus I was not very familiar with 3e, so the campaign started at 1st level. As the players were keen to try more powerful characters, the XP speed was set to fast.
One houserule at the start was a "companion item". Something that improved as the character did. The Magic Item Compendium was used to provide a greater variety of items compared to PF tables and to scale the companion item appropriately.
I had an AD&D Introductory set with some audio adventures which sounded like a neat idea and that was an easy conversion and could be conflated with the starter module "Crucible of Freya".
with all that in place we could start the campaign using the PF Beta rules.

Next, the characters go adventuring.

The Play's the Thing - A Design Philosophy

Why roleplay? Fundamentally we're doing this to have fun. We roleplay because we want to take part in a shared story, with each player taking an important role so that the shared experience is more than the sum of it's parts.

As GM my role is to provide the environment so that this can happen. If we all have fun, we all win.

So first steps, round up some players with the pitch in the first sentence of the first post.

Ruleset decision was simple, Pathfinder Beta had come out and promised to fix some of the 3.5 known issues and provide on-going support for the 3.5 material I had. As beta was a free download, the cost to join in was zero. Of course, the promise of an improved 3.5 helped too. I'd tried the 4e PH and found it far too limiting for character building (now fixed at the cost of numerous supplements) and too much of a fundamental change to 3.5.

What do the players want from the campaign? Ask them! I picked up a campaign survey from the net to get an idea of the themes/tone that they were interested in. The results favoured a heroic tale with mystery, and some role playing, a style I could work with.

[If you want to find out more on any of this, I expect you to use Google, I won't be giving links out]

Within the story, the arc is not fixed. The players get real choices that affect the campaign as well as themselves and the world turns whilst they're busy. I have scenes planned for the future that hopefully will come about but the path is not fixed and that future may not come about. What this means is that as GM you need to be flexible as the campaign proceeds. There are however some events I'd really like to include so that certain classic modules get played, more on that later.

It's hard to create a campaign from the ground up. Even more difficult to make it original. So shortcut with creative swiping! You don't have to design a dungeon if you can borrow one, especially if it's been well received by gamers. Adapt to the theme you have in mind and fit in into the campaign.

PDF's of products can be purchased very cheaply (I use RPGnow) and reviews can direct you to good modules, often they're already been converted to 3.5 to save you the effort. Ebay means you can get hard copy cheap and 3.5 material is readily available.

Next, a bit about the campaign world and the first adventure.

Borrowing from many sources, including some classic modules converted to Pathfinder, the campaign is designed as a story arc that takes characters from low level to very high level within the backdrop of the 3rd edition revised Judges Guild setting.

This campaign has been running for a while now (we started when beta was available) and I'll add some posts on what's happened so far in the story and some the known background.

In addition I'll include some technical notes on where I've borrowed scenes from published scenarios that fit with the background and story arc.
Going forward, this is also a resource for my players to comment on what's happening and conduct any side treks outside of the regular game slot.

We meet every three weeks at the Shadow Warriors club in Ealing (England). Google for the club web site.