Telcarr's page

8TH LEVEL

Extend Runtime: Either cast from a higher level slot or spend 1 RP to make 10 min/level spells on yourself last 24 hours. You can have more than one extended at a time. Applicable spells are: Comprehend Languages, Detect Radiation, Disguise Self, Flight 4, See Invisibility, Spider Climb, Resistant Armor (Lesser, Greater), and Tongues.

I'm asking for a friend. :) It looks like the description of Extend Runtime says you can spend 1 RP to make 10 min/DAY spells last 24 hours, not 10 min/LEVEL. If the technomancer was 10th level or higher, could they use this hack to extend Improved Invisibility or other spells with a 1 min/level duration?

I didn't see any errata on this hack, even though I suspect it is a typo in the book. My friend is asserting that 1 min/level spells will last at least 10 minutes that day, and thus qualify for Extend Runtime. I am very dubious.

I played this series using 3.5, but like you I had six players for the entire series. Through levels 1-13, I generally balanced the challenge and xp progression in three ways. I added an extra monster or two, but didn't go crazy with that method as it slows down play for the players. If I was afraid the action economy would grind to a halt with extra monsters, I added hit dice to monsters instead. And lastly I added side adventures if the group fell behind the leveling curve (I did not use milestone leveling).

But around level 14 I saw burnout developing, so I generally did not add any monsters or hit dice except for the most iconic of the fights in the adventure path, and computed xp as if the group only had a party of four to ensure the group was at the proper level, even if I eliminated some encounters to streamline the later modules.

I’m happy to report our group completed the Age of Worms campaign on 4/2/2022. Most of the same characters listed above for the Dragotha fight took part. Swift Taylor and Xitomax were absent, but Nik (the original character we began with in 2013 that missed the Dragotha fight) was present. Nik is a Cleric of Tyr 14/Fighter 1/Ordained Champion 5.

The team destroyed the negative energy machine under the graveyard and disintegrated Lashonna, but did not overcome despair. They did some moderate buffing (10/min level and 1/min level spells only) and dimension doored to the top of the ziggurat, with all under the effect of a Mass Fly.

Round 1:
Avorr went first. He reported his arcane sight saw no spell buffs running on Kyuss, and that Kyuss was an aberration, which came as a surprise to the group. Using his Major Spell Esoterica, he swift casts Sphere of Ultimate Destruction, but misses Kyuss with a ranged touch attack roll of 31. Avorr realizes he will need some help hitting Kyuss with the Sphere of Annihilation inside the portable hole carried by Reggie. He also casts Bright worms in front of Kyuss to scrub worms off anyone that approaches Kyuss. Nik uses a Miracle to replicate the spell Giant Size, and grows to over 70’ tall and 30’ wide (Nik previously used a Greater Strand of Prayer Beads to bump his CL to 21). Muscra does her skirmish dance and hits with her splitting bow, but learns Kyuss is immune to crits and thus immune to skirmish damage. Her base damage is insufficient to penetrate Kyuss’ DR, and she wonders why she bothered to join this fight.

Gwilym moves and uses a Wish from a Talisman of Azuth to wish that Muscra’s +1 Splitting bow is Aberration Bane. Since the bow has a chained Greater Magic Weapon cast upon it, its total bonus is now +7, defeating Kyuss’ epic DR. Kyuss uses the whole round to emerge from the monolith. Reggie moves to the right side of Kyuss and opens the portable hole. Ravalynn (Enlarged with a glaive) moves near Reggie and casts Doom Scarabs, doing minimal damage to Kyuss. The team hears flaps of leathery wings as Brood fiends fly from their perches lower on the ziggurat up to the top. They see two of them, but the third flies up unseen from the back side of the ziggurat. Mortimer charging smites Kyuss, doing 136 damage. Kyuss missed his opportunity attack as Mortimer charges in.

Round 2:
Avorr realizes he forgot to pre-cast Moment of Prescience, so casts it now , then uses a move action to control the Sphere of Annihilation into Kyuss, halving his remaining hit points. The team is dismayed that the sphere failed to annihilate Kyuss. Nik uses his colossal reach to make a full attack, hitting twice for 63 damage. Muscra stands still and shoots 3 times (becomes 6 with her splitting bow) and hits 4 times with excellent rolls, doing 84 damage total. Gwilym uses a swift action magic item to swap places with Mortimer, and does a full attack for 80 damage. He is wearing the circlet of Zosiel, so his attacks bypass Kyuss’ DR. Kyuss uses his Divine Blast (which I changed to a swift action) to do 110 damage, then casts Time Stop. It takes him 3 rounds to Harm up to full health (his CL is low due to loss of the negative energy machine), and uses the 4th and last round to cast Anti-Life Shell.

Reggie moves a bit to get line of sight to the stairs coming up from the lower levels of the ziggurat and uses his SLA Wall of Force to block the Kyuss Knight reinforcements. Ravalynn makes a full attack action, powering Vampiric Touch through her weapon, but learns of Kyuss’ Negative Energy Affinity. Ravalynn’s reach was sufficient that she never tried to get within 10’ of Kyuss (and her glaive isn’t alive), so she had no idea the Anti-Life Shell was in effect. She used a lot of Power Attack to ensure good damage through Kyuss’ DR, and did about 90 damage. The three Broodfiends continued to fly up to the top of the ziggurat, and each got close enough to use their acid breath weapon. The team groaned as they learned of the damage type, as they had up Resist Energy Mass for cold, fire, and lightning, but not acid. Most of the team were hit by two breath weapons, but Ravalynn and Reggie were only hit with one. As hit points dwindled, Stalwart Pacts and one Fortunate Fate fired off. Mortimer tried another Charging Smite, but bounced off the Anti-Life Shell.

Round 3:
Avorr reports the unseen barrier emanating from Kyuss, and casts Time Stop. In time stop round 1, he uses a Wish Scroll to add Aberration Bane to Nik’s Sword of Aqaa from the Gathering of Winds. Again, due to the chained Greater Magic Weapon on the sword, it will have a +7 bonus, sufficient to defeat epic DR. In time stop round 2, he casts Limited Wish to automatically hit on his next attack and uses a swift action to cast Assay Spell Resistance to buff his SR rolls against Kyuss. In time stop round 3, he uses a greater dispel magic to dispel the Anti-Life Shell. In time stop round 4, he casts Summon Monster IX to summon a Colossal Fiendish Centipede. Surprised he has a time stop round 5, he decides to cast a Prismatic Wall behind the team to make the Broodfiends fly around it. Time restarts and Telcarr halves Kyuss’ hit points again with the move action controlling the Sphere of Annihilation. The Centipede attempts to grapple Kyuss and succeeds (I mistakenly thought Kyuss already used his attack of opportunity, but he did so in the previous round). Kyuss’ AC falls by 7 because his loses his dexterity bonus to everyone but the centipede.

Nik hits three times with the Sword of Aqaa, each swing doing 66 damage now (he forgot to burn a spell using his ordained champion ability, so he could have done even more). He also connects with his off-hand Lightning Sword. Muscra stands still to fire another barrage from her Aberration Bane splitting bow, and hits 4 times for 84 damage total, and Kyuss discombobulates. The Broodfiends flee, Gwilym casts a Mass Heal, and the tower collapses into the worm eaten pit. The god Kyuss is dead!

Mortimer later accepts Prince Zeech’s challenge, and kills him in a duel, becoming the new Prince of Starmantle. I want to thank all the players for sticking with this campaign to its conclusion. It is the first time any of us completed a full level 1-20 campaign. It took us eight and a half years, but we did it!

The other easy way to protect Dragotha from save or die effects with Lifeward would be to bring a couple avolokia priests into the Sanctum with Lifeward memorized, and have them Ready an action to cast Lifeward on Dragotha when needed. They have a Spellcraft skill bonus of +15, so they would be good at identifying most situations where it would be appropriate. For example, after someone casts a Greater Dispel, Chain Dispel, or MD on the big D.

Unfortunately, my OCD party scoured the ground floor of the Tabernacle and killed all my avolokias, even the ones at the top of the corner towers.

I was thinking (after the fact) of whether Lifeward would have defeated the Greater Slaying arrows, if Dragotha had a chance to get that buff up before the arrows hit. As you can see from my original post, that was part of his plan. Is a Greater Undead Slaying Arrow a positive energy effect? I think I would have ruled that Lifeward protected him from the arrows, just like Deathward protects against Death Magic for living creatures.

So KC, if you are looking for a way to protect Big D from this type of one-shot, perhaps have him protected with Lifeward from the start (or a Contingency to trigger Lifeward the first time the spell would provide a benefit).

Of course the problem is your party might dispel Lifeward (or the Contingency) before it's really needed. In this instance, if Dragotha had used his Anticipate Teleport round to get Lifeward up, Lifeward would have been dispelled in round 1 before the arrows hit in round 2. Gwilym only needed to roll a 2 to dispel spells cast by Dragotha (CL 24 + 4 Inquisitor bonus vs. CL 19) with Chain Dispel.

Glad you enjoyed the write up. Wasn't sure how many people still visit this board, since its been over a decade since Paizo published this campaign in Dungeon.

The Belts of Battle definitely expanded the action economy for the team. I knew they would use their swift/immediate actions, so I made sure Dragotha could do the same by adding Breath Weapon Admixture (swift action to cast) and Alter Fortune (immediate action to cast) to Dragotha's sorceror list. And Arcane Strike is a free action. Fortunately nightwalkers and nightcrawlers already had good swift action options.

Due to the opponents not being bunched up, Chain Dispel really worked like a plain vanilla Greater Dispel Magic during this fight. The main reasons Gwilym and Avorr used Chain Dispel were:

1) Chain Dispel has no cap on the CL bonus to dispel (Gwilym was CL 24 due to the bead of karma, and Avorr was CL 22 due to Archmage Spell Power (+1 CL) and a Ring of Arcane Might (+1 CL)); and

2) Chain Dispel cannot be counterspelled by a Ring of Counterspell, since the ring is limited to 6th level or below. The team was very frustrated by that ring when they first fought Zyrxog. See the description of that fight here: https://paizo.com/threads/rzs2rrx1?HoHR-Zyrxogs-Next-Move#7.

I lament allowing the splitting property from the Forgotten Realms splatbook Champions of Ruin. It kept the Scout (an original character from level 1) relevant as we climbed in level and everyone else started getting multiple attacks, but the new player's archer Ranger (joined at level 14 or 15) shows just how broken that property is.

I have the initiative order of the nightwalkers and Mortimer reversed in the post above. Mortimer went first, because he still had his Find the Gap spell running, allowing him to hit Dragotha's touch AC with his charge attack. I believe he applied 12 points to Power Attack (he probably could have applied all 20).

Six and half years ago (November 2013), I began to DM the Age of Worms campaign in D&D 3.5 with six players. Yesterday (meeting virtually via Zoom to display the map and RollDiceWithFriends to roll dice), five of those players (plus one new addition) faced Dragotha with the same characters they had at the beginning (we've had a few deaths, but revivify/raise dead/resurrection has brought them back to life).

The heroes are:
Mortimer Underwood, Paladin 10/Fist of Tyr 10
Gwilym, Cleric of Tyr 10/Inquisitor 10
Avorr, Focused Specialist (conjuration) Wizard 6/Master Specialist 10/Archmage 4
Muscra, Scout 20
Ravalynn, Cleric of Oghma 1/Duskblade 19
Swift Taylor, Ranger 20

They also brought a couple friends:
Xitomax, Couatl Monk 16 (Gate negotiation with Gwilym)
Reggie, Leonal Guardinal (Greater Planar Binding with Avorr)

The heroes had cleared out most of the Tabernacle of Worms, including Mahuudril, all of the avolokia priests, and the wormdrake. They got a quick glimpse of the final cavern and teleported out. After buffing hard, they returned via greater teleport right into the Writhing Sanctum. They faced the following:

Dragotha, bumped up to Great Wyrm age, and spell list revamped using the Spell Compendium
Two nightcrawlers and two nightwalkers (instead of three nightcrawlers)
Venk and Zyrith
Brazzemal the Burning from Kings of the Rift (the heroes grabbed the Phlactery and fled)

Dragotha had Anticipate Teleportation running, so no one was surprised when the party teleported in. During the round available to Dragotha, one nightcrawler remained in the tunnel to block any advances the enemy might make via the tunnel, and the other nightcrawler and two nightwalkers spread out within the sanctum after hasting everyone. Dragotha used Sending to demand Brazzemal to come to his aid (my expanded Writhing Sanctum is large enough that Brazzemal can teleport in above the door on the ledge and be out of range of Dragotha's Anticipate Teleportation). Brazzemal casts Shield to augment his AC, planning to teleport next round.

The heroes’ plan: Avorr and Gwilym will dispel buffs off Dragotha, then use Dimensional Anchor to stop him from teleporting away. They each memorized both spells so whichever of them went first could begin the process, and the other could finish it.

Dragotha’s plan: The minions in front of him stationed themselves 60’ away from Dragotha, so Dragotha can start by using the 9th level swift action spell Breath Weapon Admixture to breathe a clinging fire/lightning breath (122 fire/122 lightning, then 61 fire/61 lightning next round). With his extra age hit dice feat, Dragotha has Arcane Strike, so he plans to full attack the next round, with the goal of spiking down Mortimer, whose Charging Smite is renowned for doing massive damage against his minions. His contingency plan if he gets into trouble is to Time Stop, Harm up to health, and buff with Lifeward if he has time. If he misses a key roll, he has Alter Fortune on his sorcerer list to give him an Immediate Action re-roll.

Note: In this campaign, the players and DM have agreed to a MAD based decision to not use Mordenkainen’s Disjunction against each other.

Round 1: Avorr uses Chain Dispel on Dragotha, but 7/8ths of it is turned back against him. Dragotha loses Resist Acid, Avorr loses almost all his lower level buffs from scrolls. He uses 2 charges from his Belt of Battle to cast Time Stop, and gets 3 rounds. In time stop round 1 he summons two storm elementals (rapid spell metamagic) and swift casts Assay Spell Resistance on himself to buff his SR rolls against Dragotha. In time stop round 2 he rapid spell metamagic casts Summon Golem (Iron) and draws a potion of Barkskin from his Heward’s Haversack. In time stop round 3 he quickens (Major Spell Esoterica) Sphere of Ultimate Destruction and drinks the potion. The Time Stop ends and Avorr uses his move action remaining from the original action round to order the sphere to enter the space of the nightcrawler near Dragotha, doing 140 damage. The storm elementals use their 1/minute Su lightning bolts to do over 100 damage to both nightwalkers, and the golem swings and misses. Avorr reports to Gwilym his Chain Dispel mostly failed due to spell turning. Avorr’s player apologizes to the rest of the group for how long his turn took, lol.

Xitomax moves to Dragotha and makes one unarmed attack, missing. Gwilym casts Chain Dispel on Dragotha and strips all of Dragotha’s buffs except Haste (+28 caster level check due to Inquisitor prestige class and karma prayer bead) and draws his rod of empowerment. Venk ends up being useless, as the Mass Spell Resistance blocks his eldritch blast SLA against everyone due to his pathetic CL 10. Zyrith swoops from a ledge to hit Muscra with a talon, grapples her, and via Flyby Attack moves away to land next to a nightcrawler (and within reach of Dragotha). During Muscra’s turn, she realizes she has Freedom of Movement as a class ability, uses it to automatically win the grapple check to escape, and tumbles back toward the other heroes. She then uses two charges from her Belt of Battle to shoot 1 arrow at Zyrith (with +20 bonus from the slayer fragment). Swift Taylor full attacks Zyrith, pin-cushioning him to death. The nightwalkers cast targeted greater dispel magics on Gwilym and Mortimer, stripping about 6 spells from Gwilym, and about 10 from Mortimer. Each also quick casts Unholy Blight for minimal damage. Mortimer charging smites Dragotha, doing 176 damage. Dragotha goes next, sticking to his plan. Spell Resistance Mass does nothing to stop a Su breath weapon, but the group’s crazy high saving throw buffs (including everyone affected by fire and lightning being within range of the Evasion/+10 Reflex Save fragment) saves the party for the most part. Gwilym and Ravalynn each take (122-30 Resist Energy Mass – Electricity) 92 electrical damage, and they will take 31 additional electrical damage next round due to Clinging. Brazzemal teleports in next, surveys the battlefield, and uses a move action to land next to the left flank of the heroes, positioning himself for a full attack next round against almost any of the heroes. The nightcrawlers go next. The one in the tunnel takes a double hasted move to squeeze out of the tunnel to avoid getting trapped, foiling the intended role for Reggie to use Wall of Force to block tunnel reinforcements from coming. He quickens a cone of cold (as does the other nightcrawler), but no one takes any damage due to a combination of cold immunities, Spell Resistance Mass, and fragment enhanced Evasion reflex saves. But the second nightcrawler’s standard action is to cast a targeted Greater Dispel Magic on Mortimer, stripping him of many of his remaining buffs. Ravalynn mutters to herself why she puts herself in these situations, drinks an Enlarge Person potion, and moves into range to hit either Dragotha or the nightcrawler next to the big D. Reggie, seeing no reinforcements left to block in the tunnel, casts a 20’ high 50’ wide wall of force in front of Brazzemal to block him from full attacking anyone.

Round 2: I comment that the party has completely failed to understand how the fragments work. Avorr’s Sphere of Ultimate Destruction finishes off the nightcrawler next to Dragotha, doing another 140 damage. Avorr lands a Dimensional Anchor on Dragotha, uses a move action to draw his rod of lesser quicken, and quickens a ray of clumsiness on Dragotha, reducing his Dexterity by 8 (and his AC by 4). The storm elementals miss the nightcrawlers with their melee attacks, and the Iron Golem takes a 5’ step to swing at and miss Dragotha. Xitomax does his full flurry of blows of Dragotha, landing 3 fully buffed hits for a total of 87 damage. Gwilym casts a purified Righteous Smite, finishing off one nightwalker and damaging the nightcrawler that emerged from the tunnel. He then uses 2 charges from his Belt of Battle to cast another spell (I forget which one) that finishes off the nightcrawler. Venk realizes he is outclassed and Flees the Scene to the 15’ high ledge. Muscra uses her last charge from her Belt of Battle to move to get her Skirmish bonus, and full attacks the remaining nightwalker. Since she has both the Slayer fragment and a Greater Truedeath Crystal in her bow to allow her skirmish damage to affect undead, the last nightwalker dies. Dragotha only has useless Venk and faithful Brazzemal left as allies. Since Swift Taylor goes next, Muscra interrupts her turn to pass the Slayer fragment to her as an immediate action. She has two Greater Undead Slaying arrows, and fires them from her splitting bow. All four shots hit, forcing Dragotha to make four DC 23 Fortitude saves. We read the entry in the DMG to verify they work against undead, even though undead are normally immune to Fortitude saves. My first two saves from the first split arrow include a 1. The party cheers, but I announce Dragotha has Alter Fortune on his spell list, and he takes an immediate action to cast the spell and re-rolls a 12. The second split arrow forces two more rolls, and I roll another 1 on Roll Dice With Friends. Dragotha is destroyed, despite having about 600 hit points left. Sigh.

We finish round 2 and go far enough into round 3 to see if Brazzemal is able to kill Mortimer in melee, but when Brazzemal finishes his second full attack on Mortimer and he remains standing, I announce the hero’s victory (Brazzemal only had about 120 hit points left, and the whole party was arrayed around him ready to act). Heroes 1, Dragotha 0 (no hero deaths at all).

An interesting YouTube video was posted recently that touches on many of the issues brought up in this thread, especially the race/species players choose to play. The video is about D&D as a whole, not specific to the Age of Worms or Blackwall Keep:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ch7kakb9aAg

Woah, someone else is playing Age of Worms using 3.5? My party is almost done with the Spire of Long Shadows. Last night they slew the overworm (the party druid decided to go toe-to-toe with it using aspect of the earth hunter); all that's left is Mak'ar and the three Knights. I know I want to give Mak'ar a friend, but I haven't decided whether to pair him with a Knight or give him some more numerous mooks. How did your "final battle" in the Spire go?

Per a suggestion in these forums, I had Mak'ar use a Limited Wish to bring the corrupted Eladrin Kelvos back to life. This allowed Mak'ar to learn all about the party that has been invading the Obsidian Ring and their tactics. My group had a hard time with the spellcasting of an improved invisibility Kelvos last time up on the surface, but Kelvos rolled a "1" against a save vs Destruction this time around from a cleric that defeated his invisibility, and thus only had a chance to cast one spell.

I am still trudging along at a snail's pace using 3.5 with the Prince of Redhand. I see some burnout in the group and some are getting uncomfortable with high level play, but I'm hoping the RP heavy PoR will rejuvenate the group.

One factor will significantly affect how big a deal this is from campaign to campaign. That factor is what races the DM allows the players to play. In a human centric game that uses the FR or Greyhawk setting as written where the DM allows only races from the Player's Handbook, xenophobia is a natural condition in those campaigns. If an armored minotaur walks up Waterdeep's main gate, it is greeted by a hail of arrows, not a friendly "Welcome to the City of Splendors"! No one bothers to check his alignment first. A party of adventurers coming upon the siege of Blackwall Keep by lizardfolk typically will not bat an eye about breaking the siege to relieve the human troops in these campaigns. My PCs, which included a paladin and a lawful good cleric, had no misgivings, even after they later learned from the lizardfolk druid that the tribe had been deceived by Ilthane. They helped the druid by defeating the lizard king and helping her assume leadership of the surviving members of the tribe.

On the other hand, if a DM allows PCs to play all the dozens of races in splatbooks and Monster Manuals, the DM has to make some societal changes to allow those PCs to interact with NPCs, buy equipment, Gather Information, etc. Some would say these changes to civilized sections of the campaign setting make them more cosmopolitan, other less generous observers would characterize the changes as modern cultural relativism imposed on a fantasy setting. :)

I wrote up this contract for my PCs to sign when they participated in the Waterdeep based Champion's Games. Amusingly, the biggest issue my players had with the contract was turning over the prize money (and their stuff if they died) to their team manager (an NPC I created for this campaign). Some of the PCs think he is a disreputable character (much like a used car salesman). :)

Champion's Games Gladiator Agreement

I, ______________________________, agree to participate in the Champion's Games held in Waterdeep Arena in the year of DR xxxx of my own free will and volition. During matches, I agree to follow the instructions given by the referee and his appointed deputies. I agree to honor the surrender of opposing team members.

I understand the dangerous nature of Champion's Games matches may result in damage to my property, personal injury, or death, and waive the Champion's Games, Loris Raknian, Champion's Games referees, deputies, wardens, and staff (thereafter referred to as The Games) of all liability for such events during Champion's Games matches. Further, I waive opposing Champion's Games team members and managers of all liability for damage to my property, personal injury, or death if such damage, injury, or death occurs while such team is following the Champion's Games Rules of Battle as enumerated below. I understand that if I cause damage, injury, or death during a Champion's Game match while not following the Rules of Battle, that Waterdeep authorities may hold me legally responsible for such actions.

I agree that the Champion's Games will award match prizes and awards for my team's victory after each match to my team manager. I agree that any disagreement related to the distribution of such prizes and awards between the team manager and members is a dispute solely between the team manager and members and not The Games. I agree that a match victory gives me no right of spoils from the defeated team. I agree that upon my death during a Champion's Games match, all my possessions will be turned over to my team manager.

I agree to the following Rules of Battle, and agree to accept the penalties for breaking such rules.

1. I agree a Champion's Game match will continue until only one team has one or more members that are not disqualified, not surrendered, and not dead. That team is the victor.

2. I agree to honor the surrender of opposing team members. An opponent has surrendered when they have dropped their weapons, fallen to their knees, and held both hands up in the air. The match referee may also use his discretion to designate helpless gladiators as surrendered by outlining them in green fairie fire.

3. If I surrender during a match, I agree to remain surrendered until the match is complete.

4. I agree that the following actions will result in my immediate disqualification:
a. Attacking a surrendered gladiator;
b. Taking any action during a match after surrendering;
c. Flying, levitating, or teleporting to more than 40 feet above the arena floor;
d. Burrowing into the arena floor;
e. Endangering spectators (as determined by the match referee); or
f. Applying green fairie fire (or any magic that creates an effect similar to green fairie fire) on any opposing team member.

5. Upon being disqualified, I agree I will immediately cease fighting and move to the edge of the arena. I understand that failure to take these actions will disqualify my entire team. Disqualified gladiators on winning teams are ineligible to participate in subsequent matches of this year's Champion's Games.

Team Name

Gladiator signature

Witness 1 signature

Witness 2 signature

Team Manager name

Team Manager signature

I'm still running this adventure path too. We started about 2.5 years ago, and I will be starting Spire of Long Shadows soon. Our group only plays every 2-3 weeks, and we take breaks from high level play to play other games, so its been slow going, but I've really enjoyed running AoW so far.

The other issue that can arise is some loot is concentrated in places where the team might not cash in. Examples from the first module: the owlbear cub and the loot underwater.

This certainly isn't the only module with these issues though. Many modules have the high value loot hidden behind secret doors or in places the team may not need to go to complete the plot arc.

Agreed, different groups will do different things. My group has a cleric with the Knowledge domain and an elf scout who spots secret doors without needing to Search, so different strokes for different folks.

I know people have had trouble with wandering PCs getting in ghoul-related sidequests. It seems weird that there's so much map content, plus two potent encounters, for stuff that barely matters.

I was fortunate enough to have my group cast a divination in which they asked how to find the Apostolic Scrolls. I gave them this cryptic clue in response: "No secrets lie in palatial splendor; seek instead the sour, which hides the rotten decay below."

When they investigated the pool in the Titan house, they tasted the water and I told them it had a strong mineral taste from water dripping from stalactites, but definitely not sour. That was enough for them to not bother with all the magic needed to explore the underwater plug.

So I'm trying to understand the map, and I have a question about the Arena Caverns/Coenoby.

Is there any way to reach the Shrine of Kyuss from there that doesn't involve removing the ghoul plug and heading west? And if your party did that, how did they make it up from there?

For reference, here is miph-not-melf's excellent 3D map showing the four levels.

SPOILERS

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That is a very difficult way to get to the Shrine. The much more typical way the group can find the shrine is to take one of the padlocked spiral staircases from the lower ring corridor to the upper ring corridor, explore the upper ring area, and find the secret door in room 8. It leads directly to room 25 in the Shrine.

Uh, what? Where are you getting that it reverts to a normal ulgurstasta after three days?

All I see is that it loses 1d8 hit points per day until it's down to the old minimum. Nothing about an all-out reversion, and certainly not so quickly.

Read the Apostolic Scroll sidebar carefully, especially the fourth bullet.

However, I'm guessing many DMs probably overlooked the precise wording in this sidebar, and others ignored it to up the challenge of the NEM fight.

First, I think it is natural to want to explore the palace, and not the underground features beneath the Arena. Eligos tells the PCs Raknian has political clout, and that they need concrete evidence against him before they go to the authorities. So even if their plan was not just to kill him in response to him putting contracts out against them, the natural place to look for evidence/secrets implicating Raknian is in his palace. I was disappointed their wasn't much detail about the palace in the module; it presumes the PCs will look for clues underneath a very public arena. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

I'm getting ready to start this module, and I have the same concerns you do. I don't have any answers yet, but I will come back to this thread to share any I come up with.

So I wrapped up HoHR two nights ago. Zyrzog, Elaxan, and 3 rogue mercenaries attacked the group as they came downstairs from their room at the inn. He had all his buffs up, and they only had their daily buffs or those with durations of 1 hour per level (they were headed back to his lair).

His initial attack wasn't as powerful as I hoped. Even though they didn't have a Mass Conviction buff up, I stunned only 1 of 6, instead of the 4 of 6 I stunned in the lair (when they had Mass Conviction running). Elaxan moved in and get a nice sneak attack on the paladin/Fist of Tyr. The rogues then fired their human bane arrows at the paladin, but all missed.

Zyrzog got off one empowered lightning bolt on half the party, but then lost his standard actions to nausea from a Cloud of Bewilderment. He tried to use his move action to fly up out of harms way outside the inn, but an Enlarge Personed Duskblade tore him out of the sky with his now 20' long Glaive.

The trap provided some fun for my group. The doppleganger was impersonating the scout that was moving side by side down the corridor with the paladin, so they both fell through. The scout/doppleganger floated down via a ring of feather falling. The paladin didn't take that much damage, so doppleganger didn't try to kill the paladin of Tyr right (there was another reason, but that is too long a story for this thread).

I took the two of them aside in another room with music playing so each group wouldn't overhear the other. The paladin threw a grappling hook high enough to clear the illusion, but it didn't catch. The top group noticed the grappling hook, so they lowered one of the clerics of Tyr Mission Impossible style down the pit, who promptly got hit in the face with a second try of the grappling hook. :)

Later, they obsessed for about 20 minutes about how to get to the (fake) door on the opposite side of the pit. My group has a pathological desire to search every nook and cranny of dungeons.

That's a great story Jam Falcon! There a couple ideas I can use from it. I still have a couple weeks before we play again (holiday hiatus), so I'm still finalizing my plans.

Zyrxog successfully fended off my group of six (Duskblade, Scout, Paladin of Tyr, Cleric x 2 of Tyr, and Focused Conjuror). He locked down the Scout (their only significant ranged damage dealer) with stun, and counter-spelled the conjuror's dispel magic to keep levitating. When he was close to killing three party members with lightning and fireballs, the conjuror Dimension Doored the stunned members away, and the rest ran away. Since Zyrxog's success depended on staying away from melee (all three unstunned party members have powerful melee attacks and high Will saves/immunities), Zyrxog chose not to pursue into the low ceiling areas.

Any ideas about what Zyrxog should do next? His lair has important info leading to the next module; how do I get this to the players? The notes say he defends the tadpoles to the death, but he isn't stupid. All of his allies and minions are dead, but I'm thinking he's desperate enough that he might come to the surface to Dominate some WaterDeep City Guard or others residents to defend his lair in the short term.