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A few things. The cleric *aggressively* trained in his morphic powers and subjugated the inhabitants Occipitus as quickly as he could. Being subjected to nightmares and possible possession from Adimarchus (I've made him roll will saves periodically) he has some insight into the mind and memories of the demon prince, which also helps. Additionally, he has the support of the halfling pantheon. His patron deity, Dallah Thaun, was actually killed by the Ebon Triad in my alternate storyline and he is being groomed to replace her. I know it's strange and perhaps if I were to do it again, the power would be toned down. But at this point I'm not going to snatch back the cheese I've already handed out.

As for the CL, I will keep it at 30 with the very important exception of the blasphemy and word of chaos spells. Being automatically stunned for several minutes, or even being killed outright, kinda takes the fun out of the entire 2-year-long campaign.

For DMs that have already completed the adventure path, or anyone who's studied his stat block, how should I prepare for this final and hopefully epic battle?

Adimarchus is a tough opponent, and the party has to kill him twice. Do you think I should have them fight one form all the way to the end, and then have the other appear? Or should he randomly change forms as a free action whenever it helps him to do so?

Here is the party facing him:
Fighter 20 with very high melee damage
Transmuter 20 wielding a staff of the magi (engagement present from Boccob)
Cleric 20 (smoking eye, demigod rank 1)
Bard 20
Rogue/Monk/Acrobat 20 who flurries with Alakast
Rogue/Shadowdancer 20
super-archer cohort 18
Nidrama

A major problem in planning for this combat is that the halfling cleric of Yondalla has conquered Occipitus and ascended to demigod power. This gives him all kinds of immunities, DR, SR, an AC in the forties, and a buffing aura that helps the rest of the party. With this in mind, do you think I should also give Adimarchus a divine rank of 1 as detailed in the Deities and Demigods book? Of course this would take an already scary boss and make him just sick.

One of the best abilities Adimarchus has is Blasphemy, which if used as written would be a TPK in one round. The CL 30 is likely a typo and should be CL 20, but I might keep it that high and simply reduce the effects of blasphemy in this case to only the milder ones, not dead or stunned.

From what I've read, it looks like his Implosion ability is the next scariest, since it completely destroys an enemy.

Maze could be useful if successfully cast on the demigod cleric, since it removes him from the fight for at least a couple rounds and he is the biggest threat to Adimarchus.

In the experience of others, is Adimarchus the sort of foe you have to whittle down with hit point damage, or is there a spell or effect that will basically take him out if it breaks his spell resistance? What are his main strengths and weaknesses?

Do you think I should use his 1/day powers right from the beginning, or is that unfair and should I save them for later in the fight?

The party all recently purchased demonbane and/or cold iron weapons before going to Carceri, so I think they have a sporting chance.

The fight against Hookface was something I had been looking forward to for some time. It comes at the end of a chapter, when the PCs should be worn down. And dragons in general are quite deadly.

In this case the party was not very worn down at all. The party's bard has levels in a prestige class called "seeker of the song" which gives her access to a song that gives the whole party fire resistance 15. So the evacuation was easy for them.

I gave the players spot checks to see the dragon flying into the city. Anyone who made their spot check was given a surprise round to cast a buff, drink a potion, etc.

The wizard cast Polymorph Any Object on the monk, turning him into a storm giant.
The sorceror cohort casts haste on everyone.

So combat begins. The halfling cleric runs in the direction of Hookface and shouts out a challenge, getting his attention.
The wizard casts Enlarge Person on the monk, who is already a storm giant. I argue with the players that they can't do that, it's against the rules. We bicker for a while. Eventually I give in. The monk is now bigger and has more strength than Hookface.
The (now gargantuan) monk readies an action to charge the dragon if it flies to a low altitude. Other people also hold their actions until the dragon approaches.
Hookface dives down and bites the cleric, quickening a breath weapon against everyone. The rogue evades all damage, and everyone else still has resistance 15 to it anyway. The cleric seems very pleased that he has been bitten. At this point Hookface would normally fly away and drop the cleric from a high altitude.
But no, the giant monk had readied an action. He runs over and TRIPS the dragon. Shit, my dragon is now prone! Improved Trip feat gets the monk a free unarmed attack, and he crits. The damage is unbelievable. Everybody in the party runs over to join in the smackdown. Wizard casts Greater Dispel on Hookface. Fighter starts laying in with his greatsword and full power attack. Sorceror succesfully casts Ray of Exhaustion on Hookface. The bard shoots some ice crap at him a couple times with her bardic music, just for good measure.
The cleric uses his Divine Quicken feat to cast a quickened Freedom of Movement, which releases him from the dragon's jaws. With a maniacal grin, he runs straight into Hookface's mouth and jumps into his stomach.

For Hookface's 2nd action, he tries to stand up and fly away. Standing up provokes attacks of opportunity from just about everybody. Then I figured everyone has used up their attacks for this round, I'll have him fly away before he dies. But the monk has the Combat Reflexes feat. He decides to (you guessed it) TRIP Hookface again and punch him. Everyone continues to beat on the dragon mercilessly.

The halfling cleric is in the dragon's stomach, taking acid damage. He casts Harm. Before the end of the 3rd round, Hookface slumps to the ground, dead.

WTF.

The spell weavers are a very interesting part of the region's history, and the loremaster in my party has decided to specialize in studying them. She was amazed by the Starry Mirror, Amaranth Elixir, and other aspects of their advanced society. When she heard about Karran-Kurral she got really excited about going there and making additional discoveries.

While Karran-Kurral is a rather small dungeon and only has a handful of encounters, it displays more spell weaver artifacts and is very creepy. I think this needs to be expanded upon. If the spell weavers had enough mastery of magic and technology to travel the stars and the planes, then why don't their bases look more futuristic?

I was thinking of changing the walls and doors to titanium alloy, making the doors motion-activated, (or even locked by a passcode in some cases) adding lots of pretty blinking lights and buttons... having harmless little spy drones flying around inspecting the characters. Maybe even adding some security robots that try to arrest them. It would add a flavor similar to "Expedition to the Barrier Peaks". I was even contemplating making a CD of futuristic, appropriately creepy background music.

Fetor Abradius is possibly one of the most intelligent villains in the game. His unhealthy obsession with the Soul Pillars is driving him mad, to be sure, but he is still a difficult boss to defeat. If he has been studying this area for months, then maybe he has figured out how to operate the technology. The face of Fetor Abradius could appear on big video screens at random parts of the dungeon, taunting the adventurers or remotely setting off traps making it harder to get to him.

Another example: one could replace the iron golem with a similar giant "hunter-killer" robot armed with gatling guns, flame throwers or laser beams... making sure to keep it balanced and increasing the CR by 1 or 2. Anyone who has played a Final Fantasy game and battled Ultima Weapon can appreciate the potential coolness of such an encounter.

My PC loremaster always has 'comprehend languages' on so she can read any writings the spell weavers might have around the dungeon. I think there should be a way to raise the spell weaver coffins with a button so they are not buried in the floor. Then would be the appropriate time for the corpse to momentarily animate, scaring the crap out of the players and making them creeped out for the rest of the dungeon.

I was also contemplating including some futuristic weapons as treasure. Giving everyone in the party a laser pistol would be okay since it has limited charges and there is no way to reload.

But I also think that the SCAP is lacking in good challenging puzzles. The Starry Mirror is the only one I can think of. I would like to incorporate some fun and thought-provoking puzzles in Karran-Kurral that must be solved in order to advance to certain rooms. I'm not sure what they would be just yet... and searching for ideas on the web hasn't been very helpful. A large puzzle that consists of several smaller ones in different locations would be ideal.

When the spell weavers inhabited this area, they had a huge metropolis. Then a huge explosion at the Planar Travel Installation 1800 years ago killed just about everyone and everything. But what went wrong? If the Planar Travel Installation had worked, the spell weavers could have used it to conquer Oerth and the entire universe. Their only real competition would be the illithids.

What about this: while in Karran-Kurral the PCs stumble upon some sort of space-time portal (a miniature version of the Planar Travel Installation) and accidentally (or intentionally!) use it to travel back in time and cause some horrible damage to the power core somehow. Meaning that the PCs are directly responsible for killing the spell weavers and creating the demonskar. This would create a very satisfying time paradox in which the PCs retroactively save the universe... again.

While I've got some exciting ideas, I might be going overboard making so many changes to the dungeon as presented in the hardcover. Any suggestions or input are very appreciated.

*SPOILERS*
Here is how things went in my Shackled City game:

Sarcem Delasharn is the high priest of St. Cuthbert in Cauldron.

Jenya Urikas becomes high priestess after Sarcem is killed in Flood Season.

Ruphus Laro, a very young priest, fades into the background or becomes a cohort after he is rescued in Chapter 1.

The Cuthbertians in Sasserine are not named and not important, although I do believe Ruphus goes on to become High Priest of Sasserine years after this campaign is over.

Kristoff is the only surviving priest of Pelor in Cauldron. The other three priests have been secretly murdered by Embril Aloustani of Wee Jas (who is, in fact, a cleric of Nerull). Kristoff is young, inexperienced, and frightened.

Shebeleth Regidin is the bishop of Pelor, meaning he is the final authority for all temples to Pelor on this continent. Shebeleth travels to Cauldron presumably to investigate the mysterious disappearance of the other priests and to help Kristoff. He seems to be a kind man who wins the love of the people. The church of Pelor grows and gains new paladins loyal to the bishop. These paladins are later fooled into attacking a rival temple, and a bloody battle follows. Shebeleth uses his powers to slay any Pelorian survivors, and reveals his true identity to the PCs long enough to laugh at them and summon a few demons for them to fight. Then he teleports away to join the other Cagewrights with their evil plans.

I ran the ambush last night and there were no PC deaths.

There were a few problems. Firstly, my players are so paranoid that they always wear their armor everywhere. This isn't inconvenient because they all got mithral armor as rewards for "rescuing" Zenith.

Secondly, the party has 9 characters due to 6 PCs, half of which have the leadership feat. Even though I added a fourth dervish assassin, it wasn't enough to kill any of them, though there were a few close calls. As a DM I'm not sure whether to be disappointed in my performance or happy with the players tactics.

Now they have taken the sorceror Kennock Brage prisoner and are going to interrogate him. Do you think he'll talk? Does this call for beefing up the encounters in the cathedral? I think it does.

I was pretty sure the telepathic bond was only between Meerthan and each individual strider. And also it only takes a moment to be turned to stone, so no time to send a telepathic message.

The rules for scrying are too vague. What happens if the target of the scrying is dead or their body doesn't exist anymore? Lord V would not do anything that would put him at risk for being found out.

As for the problem with LoO, I intend to solve that by having the Strider (in this case Shenshen) already infiltrating the guildhouse when they are captured.

The doppleganger, of course!

Previously they had left the lord-mayor in Fellian's care, since they expected an assasination attempt. Fellian and the Lord-Mayor have both been eaten by Vhalantru but the PCs don't know that. All they know is that the two of them have been impossible to scry lately. Gortio can make up a story about how they were attacked by *insert villain here* and had to flee to a safer hiding spot on another plane. Gortio can also lie and say that the mayor is the target of some sort of ritual (implying that the mayor is a shackleborn). All this deception serves to turn the attention of the PCs away from Vhalantru and towards the Last Laugh, Cathedral of Wee Jas, or other scapegoat.

The fighter PC in my group found out during the course of the game that he was actually a descendant of Surabar Spellmason. This elevated him from the status of blacksmith's apprentice, to a founding member of Cauldron's nobility. And that means... he was eligible under the Law of Peers to challenge Captain Skellerang for his position.

After returning from Occipitus, the party arrived at Redgorge and put an abrupt end to the siege. Laharl Spellmason challenged the captain to a duel and won easily, instantly getting control of the whole militia. The Blue Duke would not accept his authority, so the battle continued with those loyal to the PC joining forces with Redgorge.

Nabthatoron and his army of demons chose that time to attack. They marched over the hill with a huge legion of dretches, babaus, and hezrou. What followed was an epic three-way battle in which many soldiers died, but the city of Redgorge was victorious.

Now Chapter 7 is beginning and I am allowing the PCs some downtime to relax, research, and make items. But instead of relaxing they are talking about taking over Cauldron's government! With the Lord-Mayor gone missing, (they tried to scry his location and got nothing, you can't scry on the dead) Lord Vhalantru is the temporary ruler and they think he is corrupt. (actually they think all the nobles are corrupt). Since my PCs now control the militia, I don't know how to stop them from completely derailing the campaign!

Technically the captain of the guard has to take orders from the acting Lord-Mayor... in this case Vhalantru. He used to be a friend of the PCs and have wine and cakes with them at his estate. But with the mysterious disappearance of Celeste, and Vhalantru's constant drinking, followed by the huge tax on magic items, they now hate him. In fact, they almost tried to break into his house. If they tried that again, they would be powerful enough to make it past the half-orc guards but then probably be destroyed by Vhalantru himself.

The PCs have also considered firing or arresting all the council of nobles, and setting up whatever kind of government they feel like. They believe they are high enough level (12) to get away with that sort of thing. My fighter PC is the kind of guy who power-attacks the cohorts/NPCs with a Merciful greatsword if they dare to disagree with him.

Even if they don't invade the Vhalantru estate, the PC still intends to sit in on any future council meetings (he is a noble and as such has a vote in the council). He wants to pronounce the Lord-Mayor dead and call an immediate vote for a new mayor. This isn't supposed to happen until after the PCs have already killed both Rhiavadi and Vhalantru.

Suggestions?

I am using three male love interests in my game:

Edmund Lidu, the shy, intellectual necromancer who began as a humble student/librarian at the Bluecrater Academy, and rose to the rank of captain of the MTA after being "inspired" by the female wizard PC. Later, he will come to the stunning realization that he is actually an avatar of Boccob.

Simon Greensparrow, wealthy halfling merchant and celebrity, who seduced the female rogue in my party. Only later, when she was already his slave, did she realize he was a vampire. Eventually the party's cleric killed him, which paved the way for a new romance between two PCs. But not before the rogue tried and failed to avenge her "master".

Fario Ellegoth, the handsome and daring womanizer. At least, he was a womanizer until the party's female bard seduced him and made him into her personal love toy. Now he is her cohort, her bodyguard, and her b%&#%. Amazing what charisma can do.

The corresponding female love interests are Jil and Shenshen... both of whom have fallen in love with the SAME PC. This causes a lot of drama and forces the PC to choose "beautiful and innocent" or "dark and mysterious".

There aren't any answers in the book, but here's what I came up with:

The umber hulk was summoned by Freija Doorgan. She is one of the most powerful wizards in Cauldron, and the main Conjuration instructor at Bluecrater Academy. She is also a Cagewright and a traitor to the city. Orbius gets her help to terrorize and villify Maavu, making his grip on the city that much tighter.

My players insisted on going back to Cauldron for rest and supplies before travelling to the Abyss. Kaurophon reluctantly gave into their demands. In order to get home, the Strider PC in the party contacted Meerthan via telepathic bond, and convinced him to Scry, then Greater Teleport everyone to Cauldron. They were able to spend one evening gathering their belongings together, and making any last-minute purchases of rations, potions, or magic items. In the morning, Kaurophon plane-shifted them directly from Cauldron to Occipitus.

Mostly, I depended on Kaurophon's arguments to convince the PCs that not only do they WANT to go to Occipitus for treasure reasons, but they NEED to go in order to stop Adimarchus (who is haunting a PC's dreams on an almost nightly basis). Time is of the essence because other parties might get to the tests first.

I think it makes sense for Kaurophon to spend an entire evening conversing with the party before asking them to make a decision in the morning. The spell weaver vault makes a great place for this introduction... it's suitably creepy and isolated.

The Shackled City is low on treasure, but this challenges the players in a way even veterans might not have experienced. They have to get by on their tactics and class abilities.

For players who absolutely need to have a particular item, they can order it through Pike Imports from Sasserine, paying a small import tax and waiting 2 weeks for delivery.

Another option which I love is to insert treasure of the dungeon master's own invention. Legendary weapons and minor artifacts can be really fun for this. Here's what I came up with:

Surabar was a powerful wizard who wielded Alakast. Very few people also know that he was a war-wizard, an eldritch knight. He had two weapons: one gifted to him by the angels, and one he created himself using the soul of an air elemental. This sword was named Aether.

Aether: the sword of Surabar
+1 Merciful bastard sword
INT score of 10. AL: CG. understands common and draconic, but communicates using light generating ability. (one glow for yes, two glows for no)
Aether may choose to be merciful or not merciful as a free action. The wielder has no control over this.
Aether's true power is only unlocked by a Scion of Surabar. Fate will see to it that the blade and its rightful owner cross paths.
The powers of Aether are unlocked gradually as the sword grows in respect and admiration towards its wielder. No rituals, XP costs, or gold costs are necessary.

Scion reaches level 8 and defeats a powerful evil:
Propelled by mystical winds, Aether becomes supernaturally light and fast, increasing its normal damage by one full die to 2d10.

Scion reaches level 13 and defeats a powerful evil:
Aether's enhancement bonus increases to +2.
If the wielder is disarmed, Aether flies to the hand of its owner as a free action on their next initiative.

Scion reaches level 18 and defeats a powerful evil:
Aether gains both the Throwing and Returning abilities. The damage dealt is the same as a melee attack, and power attack may be used in conjunction with a throw.

Another item of my own creation:

MINOR ARTIFACT: THE ORB OF THE DRAGONFATHER
Deep within the dark and acidic confines of Dhorlot's watery lair, he hides a secret that if discovered would be his undoing. Centuries ago, red and black dragons roamed the countryside in abundance. As the leader of his new settlers, Surabar set about destroying or driving away these dangerous predators. Lord Nagasang, one of Surabar's friends, was a half-black-dragon. He wept to see the death and destruction his dragon parent was causing.
To end the black dragon threat once and for all, Surabar created a powerful magic orb for Lord Nagasang. When held, it gave him complete command over any creature that shared his bloodline. Using the orb, Lord Nagasang enslaved his own dragon relatives to wage war against the red dragons. Even without the orb's interference, the war between blacks and reds continues to this day.
In present times, Dhorlot hides the orb along with the rest of his treasure, knowing that to let it fall into the hands of any of his progeny would mean losing his free will.
(note: the usefulness of this item assumes Dhorlot will flee before being slain, and allow the PCs to loot his hoard. I recommend enlarging his lair, giving it a backdoor water exit, and placing the orb in a trapped chest underwater.)

ABILITIES:
Only usable by a PC with the Wyrm-blooded trait.
Activating the orb is a full-round action.
Gain the half-dragon (black) template while orb is held in one hand.
Gain ability to Summon Dhorlot once per day, casting time 1 full round, duration 1 round/level. Dhorlot is under the effects of Dominate Monster and will follow the verbal commands of the orb-holder, cursing them the entire time and swearing to get vengeance one day. At the end of the duration, Dhorlot is teleported back to his lair. (unless he has been slain in combat)

I'm also working on a prestige class called Lord of the Smoking Eye. =D

I still have the dungeon maps at least.

There was a really neat fold-out map of the city of Cauldron that came with my hardcover. I lost it and probably won't ever find it again.

It's too bad because it would've made for a really neat poster after the campaign was finished.

What do you guys think about simply making the hideout larger? The hardcover mentions that the PCs may want to attack the Last Laugh's main guildhouse at some point. I am seriously considering getting rid of the map as provided, and using a guildhouse of my own construction, with more encounters and traps included.

Then when they finally get to the end where Jil is holding Fario hostage, it can be Jil AND one of the guildmasters they must fight. Not Velior Thazo but one of the other masters, someone appropriately difficult to defeat.

The players will get much more satisfaction out of sacking the Last Laugh HEADQUARTERS than they will just a random safehouse.

Has anyone else had trouble maintaining a challenging game when the Leadership feat is used extensively?

In my campaign, I have a party of six PCs and three of them have taken the Leadership feat. That means the party consists of six level 10 and three level 8 adventurers. Often, these odds are so overwhelming that the enemies don't even get a chance to have an initiative before they are dead.

I've been trying to increase the difficulty by giving monsters more hit dice (but not increasing the XP gained from them) and also by encouraging PCs to leave their cohorts behind in Cauldron as assistants who work behind the scenes.

Another problem with leadership in the SCAP is that the campaign is known to be low on treasure. How much worse will it be, then, when players have to use part of their share to equip their cohorts? Everyone's gear is sub-par for their level.

Having a party of usually 8-9 combatants also makes combats long and drawn out. In a game where we only play five-six hours a week, going through a long initiative order only to find the players have easily won is pretty annoying to all involved.

I would warn any DMs who are just starting this campaign to attempt to discourage leadership unless the party is small and needs to grow. Having followers is neat from a player's perspective, but it really complicates things. The SCAP hardcover says it is meant for six players, but I truly believe it is better suited for four. Either that, or my players have above average playing skill.

Also, does anyone have neat ideas for how players can use their followers? My wizard player used her leadership feat to become the leader of the Magical Threats Agency. My cleric turned the Kopru Ruins into an underground cult dedicated to fighting demons. And the female noble bard is using her many 'suitors' as spies and informants.

The leadership feat is just too powerful in my opinion. It's given me a lot of trouble as a DM. I'd like to hear what the rest of you think.

The "Dream-Haunted" trait is only one of a few optional traits in the back of the hardcover. It gives the character strange nightmares that are sometimes prophetic, and also the ability to keep going longer without being fatigued (they are used to getting poor quality sleep). But there are drawbacks such as taking a penalty on certain will saves.

All of the optional traits have benefits and drawbacks, and they are given to players at character creation. There are prestige classes in there also, such as the High Handcrafter and the Pathwarden. I recommend you buy a hardcover and take a look at what they have to offer. If you don't have the money for that, there's always the option to invent your own changes and additions to the game. Being imaginative can have some really great results as a Dungeon Master.

I told my group at the beginning of the campaign that there would be bonus experience points for anyone who managed to find Drizzt. They were relieved when they found him already dead.

I use the Midnight Syndicate songs pretty heavily. Different songs fit perfectly for different situations such as battles, stealth missions, dungeon crawls etc.

I would advise making heavy use of instrumental pieces with lots of emotion. It creates more drama and if you associate a song as an NPC's 'theme' it makes them seem cooler and more important.

Recently I've been using songs by Nightwish a lot. They are great.

The location of Shatterhorn can be given to the PCs in several ways:

1) It is included in the private notes of one of the defeated Cagewrights.

2) Nulin surrenders after Ardeth is killed, and he reveals the location when the PCs interrogate him.

3) Divination magic. I don't like this option, however, because if it was possible to find the Cagewrights base with a divination spell, someone would have found it a long time ago.

With an appropriate knowledge roll or just from past experience, Kaurophon could've heard of the nexus and its power. He'd be willing to accept the damage especially if he could fool the party's cleric into healing him afterwards.

I intend to have Kaurophon make a big show of "cleansing the evil artifact" and looking quite drained afterwards.

My version of Maple is secretly one of the guildmasters of the Last Laugh. She also happens to be one of the party's cohorts. One of these days she's going to betray them all, and hard.

I don't think the Cagewrights should just leave.

Yes, the plan involving the shackleborn is ruined. But even though it seemed like the only method at the time, the Cagewrights will find another way to free the demon prince. They are not a member of this organization just for shits and giggles. Many of them are under the strong influence of Adimarchus. They feel a strong compulsion to free him. Some of them even start to believe they ARE Adimarchus.

They would regroup and make a new plan. Embril has a backup plan in which she will offer the soul of a powerful hero to her deity in order to find and free Adimarchus. The other cagewrights would likely be willing to assist in that endeavor.

That means luring the party into a terrible trap, then stealing a soul or two. And that's exactly what they'd do... if only for revenge.

This gives you a great opportunity to re-write the entire Shatterhorn dungeon, making it more dangerous and exciting instead of "you are in a room. you fight one boss till they're dead. move on to the next room." Which as other people have already pointed out, is lame and way too easy.

In my game, Skaven was the last surviving 'cleric'. After learning of the party's presence, he quickly evacuated the dungeon. Then he set up an ambush in the lava tunnel.

The ambush party consisted of Skaven, the harpoon spider, the ettercaps, and five alleybashers. They figured they could easily defeat the weakened party, just when they thought they had won. Skaven laughed triumphantly and said he would spare their lives if they handed over the wands.

However, all the members of the ambush were all burned to death by a single fireball from the party's wizard. *sigh*

The cart-lifting contest in my game was hilarious. The fighter accepted the challenge since the Bradly-Dipinshires were encouraging him to do something to shut the half-orc up.

Half the party considered themselves too civilized for such things, and waited inside at the table while all this took place. I changed the contest slightly... nobody was helping them to lift the bags of refuse onto the cart. So if one happened to break open, it would spill all over either the fighter or Dalam.

It was a really close contest... just when the weight was beginning to get seriously challenging, one of the bags ripped open and spilled all over Dalam. So now the half-orc is stumbling drunk on Bubbling Cauldron drink, covered in filth and refuse, and flailing madly about on his back in the alley.

Everyone else just laughed heartily at him and walked back inside. Dalam was not allowed to return to the ball in his condition.

I just had an interesting idea.

When Nabthatoron appears and attacks the PCs, isn't THAT the perfect time for Kaurophon to appear and assist them?

Kaurophon is confident the PCs can win against the demon general. In fact, he chooses them BECAUSE they are strong, and he NEEDS them to win this battle so he can use them to get through the tests.

Rather than using summoned babaus, just add some real ones to the battle with Nabthatoron. Then when the PCs are peeing their pants in fear, Kaurophon arrives in a puff of ninja smoke and uses a REAL scroll of dismissal! POW, babaus are gone. Then he helps by firing magic missiles at Nabby.

Making friends with the PCs in this way ensures that Kaurophon is trusted from the very beginning. Never mind his evil aura... he just saved the PCs from certain death!

Of course, that adds a deus ex machina to the existing problem of railroading... but you should've thought about that before buying the hardcover. :p

David has mastered the internets! Hurray!

rpgenius is my god.

By modifying the Smoking Eye slightly, you could turn it into a prestige class instead of just a template. The character immediately gains one level in Lord of Occipitus.

Stats for Shensen's levels, 6-19, are in the hardcover on page 392.

You could simply make her any way you want, though. The players won't know what you changed.

At level 8, she is a Monk 2/ Bard 1/ Druid 5 with 38hp
STR 8, DEX 14, CON 10, INT 14, WIS 16, CHA 12

Hope that helps.

The ball was written up by delvesdeep, whom I consider a SCAP celebrity. I also ran his version of the ball with few changes. The Siege of Redgorge is almost finished too, just in time for me to use that. And the halfling cleric in my party has been losing his sanity over the Dream Haunted trait... heh.

If you only run things by the book, players get bored because they can tell you're running from a book. Adding special stuff is what really makes SCAP fun. If you haven't already, check out www.therpgenius.com and grab yourself some maps/newspapers/goodies.

Considering it one attack is cruel... that's an instant kill for most characters if they fail their reflex save.

I think the idea of destructible stairs is more important thematically than it is in terms of the actual battle.

I've been contemplating changing the stairs from metal to stone, but making them *very* old and crumbly. The pit needs to be much deeper, also. A spiral staircase is a lot creepier when you've been going down it for several minutes. It adds suspense.

I could maybe set up the unsafe sections as traps that could be searched for, or spotted. Then some relatively easy jump checks would be in order... with a fall possibly resulting in death.

That's a dramatic introduction that sets the mood to the players: you're in danger here. Watch out.

But I don't think collapsing stairs should actually be a part of the battle. The hydra is already dangerous... at least give the party something solid to fight from.

Even if the stairs are made unusable, that doesn't mean the party is prevented from fleeing the Kuo-toas. They could at least retreat to the base of the staircase, which is MILES away from the actual shrine. And any adventuring group worth its weapons carries rope.

If they attack the Stormblades at the Demonskar Ball, the campaign will go horribly wrong. If any of the Stormblades are killed by the PCs, I can see all the nobles in the city ganging up on the party and destroying them.

My group had this problem. They all got drunk in a tavern, and then the Stormblades were calling them names. There was a duel in the street, and the fighter was so drunk he forgot to deal subdual damage. He ended up killing Todd Vanderboren in one swing of his greatsword. Then the militia arrested the whole party for an illegal duel, and the fighter was charged with murder. Luckily, their 'friend' Lord Vhalantru arranged for their crimes to be pardoned. Todd was raised from the dead, and actually became friends with the fighter. Even so, the parents of the Stormblades hate them to this day.

The adventures in the SCAP assume your party is on friendly terms with the city. If they are arrested, wanted, exiled, etc. it could potentially be the end of the campaign.

I would suggest you encourage your party's hatred toward the Stormblades, but remind them that suspecting the Stormblades of evil action does not entitle them to start a war. You can't kill a person just because of their alignment. They need proof of their evil before they would really be justified in killing them.

The best way to make up for lack of wealth in the SCAP is to add in unique magical items that are custom-tailored to your players. I don't mean giving them the ideal item... I mean giving them something that adds flavor and depth to the game, rather than simply another +1 weapon.

For example, the fighter in my group has found the sword of Surabar Spellmason. I gave it powers similar to Alakast, and in turn made Alakast more powerful. By giving him the sword, I foreshadow Alakast while adding to his character wealth. Also, he wouldn't dare sell Surabar's sword for gold, so it makes items more meaningful.

I didn't see housing as a component of D&D worth much time and effort. When my players wanted to buy small houses for themselves, I gave them the standard 1000gp price, plus or minus a few hundred gold depending on the location. I made them roleplay a bit to find someone willing to sell... there isn't much available space in Cauldron. In addition, I made them buy furniture and such seperately, at a rate of 1-10gp per item depending on what it is. Not very scientific, but it moves the game along to more interesting things.

So far nobody in the party has expressed interest in creating a "base" for everyone, but in that case I think they should construct it themselves with utility/security in mind. Having a home base or a mansion can be a cool aspect... houses, not so much.

It be Talk Like a Pirate Day, mateys!

I be runnin' D&D in about 5 hours. How can we make Shackled City more piratey?!

Arrg. Have a look at me wooden leg, landlubbers. Morkoth done bit it off, curs'd son of a bilge-rat!

Heh... he must've shot it up his nostril and given him a brain freeze.

So I'm running SCAP a 2nd time (the first was cancelled around the middle of Test of the Smoking Eye) and the party this time took out good old Kaz before I had a chance to roll a single to hit for him.

The cleric paniced and shot off a hold person, save failed. The hexblade charged him and missed, so I had some hope all was not lost. Next round, failed save again. Hexblade coup de grace, 40 damage. 'Oh noes', I thought 'my half troll be deaded!' Rolled a 20 for the fort save, but alas good ol' Kaz was at neg 1 and was doomed, fast healing or no.

Prickles got revenge though, doing 18 damage to that mean old cleric and putting him at -9. One failed stabilization roll later and we had a heaping helping of rotting cleric. Yum. ;)

Kazmojen is one of my favorite encounters, also. At five different times during the battle, he had my party's fighter at -9hp. The cleric used up a bunch of charges on his cure wand. :D

Then Fario and Fellian entered the battle from invisibility like a couple of ninjas, and the female members of the party swooned.

It was tough, but nobody died. Except Kazmojen, of course.

That's just plain lame.

The way I run my game, everything has to be cleared by the DM unless it's from the core books. If a player requests something silly or unbalancing (such as most of what your players are using), I won't allow it. That will prevent this sort of god-gaming.

Alternatively, if you want to allow the players neat powers like these, you've got to go in and change the monsters so they have them too.

Also, why the heck would you allow your players to be level FIVE by the time they fought Tongueeater? The Lucky Monkey is a dungeon designed for a party of four/six level 3 characters.

I think battles in D&D are pointless unless there's a chance of dying. With a group of level 5 characters, a CR 5 encounter has virtually no chance of killing them. So it should be strengthened.

My party has become overconfident. They've displayed brilliant tactics thus far, dispatching all the various "bosses" in the SCAP with relative ease and little danger. They have amazing character stats (due to rolling three sets and choosing the best) and they've played enough games in the past to know how to fight as a team and win a battle.

There are six of them, and all are at 6th level now:
Human Fighter 6 - greatsword expert and improved disarm. always wins.
Human Monk 6 - runs into melee constantly with low AC. never dies.
Halfling Rogue 6 - always flanks to sneak attack
Halfling Cleric 6 - selflessly heals front-runners
Elven Transmuter 6 - casts 1:haste 2:enlarge fighter 3:bull's fighter
Human Bard 6 - inspire courage, hang back and heal

In addition, they will be getting cohorts now, increasing the party size to eight!

The way it looks right now, the Umber Hulk has no chance. It wouldn't even be an exciting fight.

Others have suggested perhaps adding a second umber hulk to the equation, but again that would just lengthen the battle but add very little to its difficulty. Boring.

I think the party needs to learn a lesson. They need to stare death in the face. I'm going to upgrade the umber hulk into a TRULY HORRID UMBER HULK. Yes, a CR 14. 270hp. With a will save of 22 to avoid being confused. It will likely hit with every one of its attacks, dealing a MINIMUM of 26 damage each round, and potentially killing the fighter in one round. Of course, I'm hoping he won't run up to fight it in melee. Considering it will tower over him!

Why am I doing this, you ask? Because I still think the PCs can win, if they fight cautiously instead of charging in as usual, trying to do as much damage as possible in one round. I'm gonna try to convince the fighter that maybe, just maybe, for the first time in the campaign, he should pull out his composite bow.

I see this being a memorable battle, with the umber hulk trashing the majority of the warehouse district (all buildings except for Maavu's in order to cast suspicion on him) and causing huge casualties and such. When the party brings it down, they'll get much more fame as a result. If things look badly for them, I can have Fario and Fellian, or possibly the Stormblades, join in. Also, I can have the MTA agents show up earlier if need be.

Just wondered if anyone had convincing arguments for why this is a horrible idea.

I've been thinking of giving Kaurophon the voice and mannerisms of Deckard Cain, from the Diablo series.

"Stay awhile and listen." :)

My name is Deckard Cain and I've come on out to greet ya, so sit your ass and listen or I'm gonna have to beat ya.

horadrim, ho ho horadrim!

As written in the book, I had the Stormblades provoke the party while they were celebrating in the tavern. What followed was an exchange of insults which quickly escalated into a "let's take this outside" situation. The PCs, who were all drunk, didn't have the presence of mind to hold anything back. They did all lethal damage, and the fight quickly turned ugly. The fighter scored a critical hit on Todd Vanderboren with his greatsword, decapitating him. The sight of the noble's head rolling down the street was enough to sober them up, at which point the PCs all dropped their weapons in horror and were promptly arrested.

How do you think I should play this out, in such a way that nobody has to roll up new characters?

I have thought of a few things... for example, Lord Vhalantru intercedes on their behalf and negotiates a settlement with the other members of the council, whereby the PCs only have to pay a hefty fine... which Vhalantru graciously "loans" to them.

Of course, Todd's parents will raise him if they can. What are the rules for raise dead, exactly? I know the body has to be 'whole' but if the severed head is present, can they sew it back on or something and revive him in that condition?

Even if Todd were raised from the dead, he still spent some time being dead. As an evil NPC, what sort of afterlife would he go to? Having experienced that (probably unpleasant) afterlife, do you think it would be unreasonable for his alignment to shift to neutral or even good?

Even if the PCs do make it out of the situation as free men, won't this drastically change the way the Stormblades, and the general public, look on them? The nobles would likely look upon them as little more than drunkards and savages.

The rivalry between the PCs and the Stormblades has always intrigued me and I see it as a great roleplaying opportunity. There are many ways that it can pan out, from all-out war to a friendly alliance. What do you think?

My players were actually 2nd level when they defeated Kazmojen. It was extremely dangerous, but they eventually whittled him down. The only reason they survived was the wand of cure light wounds they had purchased in town. Many potions and wand charges had to be used to keep the characters from dying. The fighter was at -8 or -9 hp on three seperate occasions.

After several sessions, the group I'm DMing for has finally come up with a name!

They went down into Drakthar's Way and the fighter immediately set off the tripwire alarm. All the goblins nearby woke up, and began to charge them shouting "BREE YARK BREE YARK!"

The fighter took the front line of the 5-foot-wide hallway, ready to do some serious killing with his greatsword. But then the elven wizard (played by my girlfriend =D ) dashed ahead of him, HURLING her longsword at the line of goblins. (this is a spell she took from the Spell Compendium, called Whirling Blade). The longsword cut through the goblins like butter, killing eight before returning to her hand where she took up an intimidating combat stance.

The remaining goblins, seeing nearly a third of their number cut down in an instant, were all like "retreeeeaaaaat!"

Now the party is known as "Whirling Retribution".

Hi everyone, I'm still fairly new to being a DM and this is my second attempt to run the SC hardcover... my first group dissolved due to scheduling problems.

My regular players are as follows:
Human Fighter
Human Bard
Elf Wizard
Half-Orc Druid (worships Gruumsh)
Halfling Rogue
Illumian Rogue/Monk

My campaign has only gone through two sessions so far, and the action has gone at a surprising pace. There were a few problems I wanted to ask your advice about, so I'll go through them one at a time.

Firstly, game balance. These skulks the party has been fighting are CR2, yet they die quite easily to the fighter's greatsword. Nobody else got a chance to even fight, really. Weapon Focus, Power Attack and Cleave make him unstoppable. The question has never been IF the party will win, but how quickly. Even when half the party fell into a spike pit, and the fighter was caught alone by four hobgoblins, he defeated them all. Basically I'm wondering if I need to make things a little more difficult to keep it interesting.

The players were wounded in the fight, so naturally they decide to leave and heal for the night. There is no sense of urgency to saving the children... they've slept three times despite skipping most of Jzadirune. Having raised a general alarm, I have all the remaining hobgoblins in the fortress chase them but they still make it out. Now I've decided when the elevator reaches the top they will have to deal with some very angry dark creepers (none of whom they have seen yet). Hopefully all the crossbows pointed at them will make diplomacy look favorable, and maybe they'll go slay the Grell or find a cure for the Vanishing. Or maybe they'll continue killing anything that moves. We'll see.

I'm thinking of increasing the number of hobgoblins down there, and having them use all the equipment in the armory combined with a solid defense plan to fight the characters once they come back down. It's only fair the hobgoblins get to prepare if the adventurers are going to use hit-and-run tactics. Maybe I will have a single hobgoblin wave a flag of truce, informing the party that Kazmojen is in the middle of an important business deal and therefore would rather speak with them than have a pitched battle. Then, have all the other hobgoblins waiting in ambush inside the main room. Perhaps I will punish their lack of speed by having one of the four orphans already sold off to an anonymous buyer. Some of you on these boards have said the battle with Kazmojen is already pretty tough for a group of level two adventurers... but I disagree. When I ran a group of four adventurers last year, they made short work of him. In any event, I think it's more exciting to totally outnumber the players with hobgoblins, then have Fario and Fellian emerge from invisibility to sneak attack a couple of them.

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Secondly there is the issue of roleplaying. How do I promote it more when all my players seem too eager to advance the action? These aren't newbies... I have seen in other tabletop and LARP settings that they're perfectly capable of good roleplaying. But they aren't. They're just reveling in their stats, and shouting OOC excitedly about "oooh i know what monster that is" etc. etc. The first session was a joke as all the characters scrambled to "coincidentally" choose each other as companions for an adventurer's group. There was the feeling of "let's hurry and get this done so we can get to the meat of the game." There's nothing wrong with that, exactly, but for a game this huge in scope and length, there has to be involving roleplay or they'll eventually get bored with their characters and lose interest in the game. So I'm totally open to any advice you guys have for me in that regard. I want to bring these characters to life.

The fighter has some decent roleplaying, I guess. He is a blacksmith's apprentice who seeks to bring business to the shop by converting himself into a walking advertisement. He has "Gurnezarn's Smithy" etched onto his banded mail, and frequently boasts of how he will one day slay Hookface.

The bard has frustrated me to no end. She is playing Anjali Lathenmire, the rich girl who ran away to join the pirates in Sasserine. Now she returns to Cauldron, and I give her plenty of opportunities to talk/fight with her parents/sister, but she just ignores them, instead asking if they will give her any weapons/potions. I even had Cora nearly DIE from the attack on the kobolds, and it didn't affect her one bit. The 'friendship' between her and Gurnezarn's apprentice is a bit weird, also. The following is only a *slight* abbreviation of the convo they actually had:
"Hey, I'm back after being gone for two years."
"Hey, we were childhood friends. What you been up to?"
"Y'know, being a pirate. playing the fiddle, eating limes, getting gangbanged by the rest of the crew."
"Oh, well I'm going to take this sword and go kill things until I'm famous. Do you want to come along?"
"Sure, why not."

The wizard is an interesting character in theory but needs work. She used to be a servant girl in Hollowsky but got sponsored by Lady Knowlern to attend the Academy for magical studies. No one knows she is part black dragon, complete with cute little vestigial wings on her back. She had NO reason to join the party, and hasn't really made friends with any of the other characters. Her character is timid and intellectual. When we encounter 'monsters' in Jzadirune, her first impulse is to befriend them and study them. Meanwhile the rest of the party just kills. And she says nothing.

The Half-Orc Druid was the toughest person to incorporate into the party. He lives as a hermit in the jungle, looking for mystic signs in the entrails of animals. The party wanted someone fierce to fight with them, so the fighter led them to this guy ("I hear he eats children.") I gave him the dream-haunted trait and wrote up some pretty awful nightmares for him...which he hasn't spoken of to anyone. His reasons for joining? Completely a mystery. No sparks flying between the follower of Gruumsh and the elf in his party, either.

The halfling rogue is your stereotypical prankster. She grew up in the orphanage and escaped frequently, learning the pickpocket trade all the while managing to stay independent from the guilds. She's in it for the money... even going so far as to steal weapons from the Lathenmire's Mansion.

The Illumian Monk is another character that just seems to be 'there'. He is the last of his kind and aids the adventurers out of respect for Jenya and St. Cuthbert. Again, rarely speaks in character.
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Lastly, there is the issue of a new 7th player. When my roommate heard about the campaign I was running, he eagerly wanted to play. Unfortunately he is far from anyone's favorite person and behind his back is looked down on for being a snob. Still I wanted to be nice so I said he could play if the other players voted it was okay. Then when it came time to vote, nobody would vote or even speak, so I figured it was okay and he was introduced to the other characters as a Cleric of Kord. During the session he earned the annoyance of the other players twice, once by leaving to IM with a girl for nearly an HOUR, and secondly by trying to have a long conversation with the druid in the middle of a full-scale alert inside Kazmojen's Fortress! NOW after the fact I am slowly but surely hearing from the rest of my friends that he has got to go. The question is not if, but HOW I should break the news to him. I do have to live with him for another few months, after all.
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To sum it all up, I have my hands full and I'm struggling. It's difficult enough to keep track of all that's going on, while six people are all talking to you at once it seems. I find myself concentrating on keeping the initiatives and HP tallied, and little else. You know that blue text you read to describe rooms? I might as well not even bother. As soon as they hear an object they can fight/loot, they interrupt my description. I'm getting frustrated and I need some tips how to:
1. keep the players happy
2. increase roleplay
3. avoid boring/killing my PCs
4. get my game to 'flow' more easily. it seems really awkward and forced.

One of my PCs also decided to take the Scarred Soul trait. He is a half-orc druid, known to superstitious locals as "child-eater".

Since my game started just a couple weeks ago, I haven't revealed anything to him just yet. His character is very dark, grim, and antisocial. He was a slave in an orc camp when the entire tribe was mysteriously destroyed, all except for him. He escaped and spent his teenage years learning the ways of the druids.

I think the best way to slowly build suspense and foreshadowing for Shackleborn characters is to also secretly give them another trait, such as Dream Haunted or Touched in the Head. In the case of my PC, I have been writing out very vague and disturbing prophetic nightmares for him once or twice each chapter. They seem to hint that he has a dark destiny ahead of him, full of nightmarish creatures and somehow linked to a young boy with black hair. So far he doesn't understand why he has them, or what he is. Of course at some point, he will discover the invisible birthmark upon his forehead. I am hoping he will eventually obtain the smoking eye, and be the scariest, most insane mofo ever.

To "pwn" someone means to defeat them so completely that it's humiliating to them. It implies that you "own" them. The weird spelling comes from a common typo that probably started in the early days of gaming over the Internet. Since then it has become a popular victory cry.

Saying "I own you!" isn't nearly as fun as yelling "PWNED!" or "j00 g0t Pwnz0r3d, n00b! L0LZ!!!111oneoneone"

My four players killed Drakthar!

Having skirmished with him a couple times before, they knew he wouldn't go down easily. They systematically cleared the dungeon of goblins. Often after an encounter, Drakthar would appear to taunt them and attempt to Dominate the rogue. Each time he would fail, and each time she would give him the finger.

1st encounter: He sent four bat swarms at them, and my players had a tough time with those. While they fought the bats, Drakthar used his dominating gaze... and kept failing repeatedly. The sorceror was the powerhouse, using his wand of burning hands, and firing off as many magic missiles as he could. The swarms were defeated, and Drakthar was forced to flee and heal up.

2nd encounter: The party was so confident they decided to SLEEP in Drakthar's way. I rolled on the encounter table four times, and got nothing, nothing, nothing, Drakthar. So Drakthar shows up to see only the rogue is awake. He tries to dominate her for several rounds but she makes her will save each time. Then she wakes up the rest of the party and Drakthar leaves, deciding such tough foes need a trap set up for them.

The trap involved all the remaining goblins in the dungeon gathering in one place for a massive ambush. This included the adept and the shocker lizards. The party barely survived the ambush, and the wand of cure light wounds was used liberally.

3rd encounter: By now the party had realized Drakthar would not go down easily. They had just become level 4, but had precious few resources left. The sorceror was all out of spells/day. They devised a plan to ambush him. The cleric cast "Hide from Undead" on everyone but himself. Then he marched into the throne room, silver longsword in hand. "Drakthar, I've come to slay you." When they begin fighting, the others (still invisible to Drakthar) take up flanking positions. I had Drakthar and his animated throne stand their ground, fighting as a team. Their damage reduction was difficult for the party to get through.

It was a tough battle. By the end, everyone's HP was in the single digits. At one point the cleric went to -7 HP, but the rogue bravely administered a potion to him in the heat of battle. The wand of cure light wounds, as well as the wand of burning hands, were almost entirely used up in that fight. But they WON. And I didn't have to bend the rules for them one single bit.

Is it possible to go through the SCAP as written, fighting all the encounters, with a party of just four characters and not have a TPK?

I've only got three players:

Dwarf Fighter
Elf Cleric of Corellon-Larethian
Half-elf Rogue

...and to round out the party, I've had to add an NPC Sorceror to the group. I haven't been pulling any punches with the encounters... I've been running them pretty much as written. But they've been doing surprisingly well. They dispatched Kazmojen and his minions with ease, as well as the were-rat assassins (they had no silver weapons) and they've resisted Drakthar's numerous attempts to dominate them while navigating through his lair. Next session, they should enter the throne room and have the final battle with him, during which he'll unleash his most powerful attacks on them alongside his animated throne.

So, my players are very much against adding new people to our game. They also seem to have a contempt for all NPCs. They are very cocky due to their good rolls so far this campaign, but I'm worried they're all going to die and be discouraged from ever playing DnD again (yes 2/3 of my players are newbies).

Being a fairly inexperienced DM, I'd like some advice on how to proceed.