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If Demogorgon is slain, my PCs will have to choose between letting Iggwilv take Demogorgon's aspect and betraying Ahazu, or battling Iggwilv. Ahazu has a lower CR.

Are Ahazu's stats anywhere? Players might also negotiate for Ahazu to accept Demogorgon's soulless corpse. That possibility was never explored in the negotiations.

My PCs fumbled their roll with Iggwilv, and they might just try fighting her once she releases the aspect of Obox-Ob. I'm trying to avoid a TPK. I suppose they have the ring of 3 wishes, which will help somewhat. Maybe she could just turn them to statues or otherwise subdue them.

If they don't fight her then, they might fight her when she tries to take Demogorgon's aspect. The PCs know they will be hunted by Ahazu the Seizer without it (unless the corpse without the aspect counts for something) and don't know Iggwilv might be more powerful.

What kinds of things did you have Malcanthet say to PCs if they failed their diplomacy? I have a group of middle aged men.

My players rolled a 1 for the meeting with Iggwilv! I had her turn one into stone as they pressed ahead, and then they left. They managed to bribe one of the arcanloths into finding out what they wanted to know. I've skimmed chapter 12 and I think I have to have Iggwilv approach them for the iron flask anyway - perhaps with the arcanaloths in tow. I can have them say "how do you think I persuaded Iggwilv to share this information with me"?

Yeah, we've been meeting once a week since the pandemic started.

Over a 15 year period, I have done Shackled City, Age of Worms, and Savage Tides. I'm on chapter 11 of Savage Tides and already thinking about what to do next, since my players find D and D the most fun part of the pandemic. Is there something like them, but for Fifth edition?

Alternatively, with their epic level characters, they might get into high level campaigns against Hades or canonical gods. Is there a prewritten campaign where PCs fight Greek gods, or on what Graz'zt was goind with Lolth?

As Iggwilv presents it, the players can make allies in whatever order they want. There are two difficulties with this: one, it makes it harder for me to prepare as GM, since I have to be ready for anything and can't just study one segment. Two, I think the chapter goes from easiest to most difficult. How did other people handle this? Maybe Iggwilv makes suggestions, at least "Save Bagromar for last, because this has the greatest risk of exposing your plot to Demogorgon."

My players are all over 35, so I wasn't worried about the X rating. It did work out, though I'm not sure it was their favorite part. I beefed up the stats a little for 3.5, but it was still too easy. One of my players shot an arrow after the Yuan Til had swords to the necks of the innocent orgiasts, resulting in a lot of hostages dying (I took away XP from him).

The tie in was that Tyrlandi wouldn't disclose the location of Harliss until they took over the PH. My players also negotiated to be her business partners.

I know some other people have done this, and I think it's a great idea. Tyrlandi can make her information hinge on slaughtering the current bosses at the Porphyry House, where they use wolverines and ugly aberrations as prostitutes. But a couple of things about that adventure path confuse me.

1. The serpents are using polymorph on animals and aberrations with intelligence of 1 and 2. So they may look like beautiful courtesans or whatever, but would they know how to act in bed? Maybe I missed something. Seems like it would require some sort of dominate spell.

2. I suppose you could ask a customer if they care about having a courtesan who can talk, and if they do, get a harpy or something with intelligence. The party might get a kick of NPCs who don't care if a prostitute is mute.

3. My characters are 14th or 15th level. I think the key will be using a DC save high enough that some people in the party will be half fiends after the demon's breath. Otherwise, it will just be cakewalk.

4. Maybe I could also make it a hostage situation - "Stand down, or another participant in the orgy dies."

Well, I've partially compensated for the number of players by leveling slowly. They are at 8th level. How many vrocs do you think? Thanks for the stats!

One of my druid players has control water, which can create a whirlpool effect with a diameter of 80 feet, and basically lasts 80 minutes. He can also cast it twice, basically encompassing the entire mouth.

It's unclear that this does any more than give the entire ship caught in it a dizzying experience - says creatures are unable to leave.

I want to reward the players for coming up with this but also want some of the ships to make it. A few options are

a) Have flying Yuan Ti's cast dispel magic
b) Have a separate invasion from the east
c) having some sort of mass concealment
d) Having the vrocs attack first - though I have 7 players (covid, nothing else to do), and the druid could easily cast whirlpool while the rest deal with the vrocs. Maybe summon more vrocs?

The druid could also charm dinosaurs, but I'm a little confused about how this would work without him chronically casting charm spells. If there are more than a few, couldn't even vegetarian dinosaurs do a lot of damage with just a couple of failed handle animal or charm animal spells?

Nah, they didn't ask, but I probably would have had I been a player.

I had the Jade Ravens training the militia.

I'm trying to think of a good reason why Lavinia doesn't go with the party to Tanaroa. She's got more diplomatic skill than anyone in the party, and perhaps being a female will have an advantage in a matriarchal society. I guess you could say she's running for office, but given the gravity, that seems like a frivolous reason not to go. Also, why wouldn't the Jade Ravens go?

First, I'm going to ask for advice on what to do next. My players are about to enter the Dark Mountain Pass. My players just don't like combat that has no overall tie to the story or role playing. I kept the T Rex for the wow factor, but skipped the terror birds.

1. Only the pudding sounds interesting to me. I don't think they'd like the mummies. Therefore, I want to primarily use the mountain pass as a way for the players to learn about the Olamns - maybe the Tanorians specifically - and foreshadow the savage tides. Any suggestions? I'll also have a destroyed village along the way with acid damage so that players will see the connection with Chapter 2. I have only read through Chapter 4, so if people have ideas on what to foreshadow without foreshadowing too much, I could use your help. It's possible there would be a reason the Olmans would know something about the shrine to Demogorgon.

What I changed in Chapter 3, successfully.

2. I thought the Sargasso was just tedious, so I used another dragon magazine article about the Oquon and Cabanite talking sword civil war. I changed the location to somewhere else along the route. Characters had a lengthy debate about what to do with them.

3. Changed the masher to a Sea Serpent. If anything, it was too easy. With quarantine, I have 7 players, plus I had Skald, Lirith, and Avner's assistants join the fight. They also had a ballista on the ship. With the storm, a druid effectively used call lightning and a sorcerer used ray of enfeeblement. I deliberately had the serpent go after NPCs as a way of getting rid of them - I didn't find it plausible that so many died in a reef or beach crash but none of the PCs did. Since it was the NPCs manning the ballista, which was doing the most damage, it made sense that the serpent went after them.

I definitely see potential there, especially if she kills a character and takes that character's form. Who has the most potential for a mystery that could be solved based on a mistake Rowyn makes?

One flaw in the Rowyn plotline is that characters can find her with detect magic spells. Any way around this?

Variation: I'll have Rowyn (disguised as Lavinia) approach the party as a group after the dinner party. She will act a little tipsy and encourage people to go skinny dipping. If people resist, she takes off her clothes and jumps in the water, saying "I hired you to protect me. If you want to do your job, you'll just have to join me." For any remaining characters, she uses suggestion. Then, she casts expeditious retreat and summons a shark out of sight.

Does this seem plausible to most people?

I have players that like problem solving and role playing better than combat. They don't like combat more than once or twice in three hours session. If there is combat, it's nice to tie to someone's character. Attacking plant people doesn't really do that.

Given that, what were the best parts of the Sea Wyvern's Wake?

What kind of role playing with the NPCs brought the most laughter?

I think the mystery of people being poisoned could be fun. The sorcerer is womanizing and might be an easy target for Rowyn to seduce, disguised as Lavinia. (It will be awkward, but hilariously awkward, for me to role play that).

Did anybody add anything else that spiced up the journey?

I think a naval battle has great potential, but 9 pirates doesn't sound especially exciting after they already had a swashbuckling battle on the Blue Nixie in Chapter One.

My players just finished with the caves of Kraken's Cove, and I think it makes a lot more sense for them to take the Sea Wyvern now than to come back later. After all, if the Crimson Fleet is coming there, won't they be interested in it?

But how can that be done if only one of my players knows how to sail? They arrived on a separate manned ship, so I suppose they could hire away a few sailors from there. My players also don't know who owns the ship and don't want to annoy a captain of the Crimson fleet.

Separate question - one person in the party is a ranger with a named enemy of animals, against whom he gets bonus damage and to hit. I think his idea was that it should be used toward dinosaurs - are dinosaurs just a type of animal?

I just started reading the Bullywug Gambit even though we are not done with There is No Honour. We have one spellcasater who specifically focused on illusions and mind-affecting spells. He's already frustrated by the zombies and he role plays well enough that I want his powers to have an effect. Is there some other immunity I could give to savage characters while allowing mind effects to work? What would you suggest?

Also, what level would you recommend for the start of the chapter?

What silly things would happen? Holy clams from the bottom of the ocean join the fight? I wanted to reward them for a reasonably good idea.

What a clever idea! Though I'm pretty sure it shouldn't have really worked quite like hat. Dragotha has True Seeing constantly active. :P

Hide from undead is supposed to overrule true seeing.

Dragotha killed two of my players last time. They planeshifted to Magepoint and resurrected two of them.

Tonight, they went in with "Hide from undead" potions, which are 50 gp each. The wizard snuck in, cast dimensional anchor, and then opened up a gate in the ceiling above Dragotha. The gate opened up a portal at the bottom of the ocean in Acadia, which is an ocean of Holy Water (2d4 damage per quart).

On the fly, I didn't know if I should finish the battle or if they would have fun with more combat. I just subtracted half of his hit points before Dragotha seals the gate with a wall of force. The dwarven fighter teleported inside Dragotha's rib cage and attacked from there, where the breath weapons wouldn't really reach. Ultimately the dwarf severed Dragotha's spine with his axe, having two halves of the dracolich fall into the pool of holy water (they put a wall of force stopper over the chasm leading down into the wormdrake lair.

I ignored the description and role played him as a very sad, lonely child. I didn't want to take the chance that the players would be annoyed and not move the plot forward. I've played with the same players in the past, and I know they get easily annoyed by NPCs that aren't willing to compromise.

I could imagine my players siding with Kord and leading an evacuation out of the city. It says it's dangerous, but how dangerous? What if the players accompany them - how many die?

Manzorian gives a spellcaster three scrolls of wish. One scroll of wish is hard to handle. Is there any good one-stop location for the ins and outs of using a wish spell? There's nothing in the index of the dungeon master's guide.

When bitten by one of the bloated worms from a Kyuss Knight's eye, do those worms die from any paste that players are wearing?

I have a player hell-bent on playing a gnome illusionist.

The rules say you get a save when you interact with an illusion, and that the DM can modify saves based on how realistic the concept is. However, it doesn't establish what the saving throw is.

Is it 10 + the level of the spell + your bonus?

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicOverview/spellDescriptions.htm

They want to appeal to him for money, weapons, and magic items for help in the tournament. I've presented him as someone rich as well as concerned about the Age of Worms, although opposed to the vulgar games. If they get a reasonably good diplomacy role, how could he conceivably say no?

My players have just acquired Ilthane's egg from the Lizardfolk's lair, in hopes of using it as a bargaining chip with Ilthane. They're heading back to Blackwall Keep, not even close to suspecting it of being filled with Kyuss worms. I'm wondering when the best time would be to spring the hatching on them. The players flew over the eggs to avoid destroying them and I wanted to reward them for that choice by not having it burst when the eggs were nearby. Also, it was getting late and players wanted to go home.

This time, I plan on having the battlemage rescued from the lizard lair, Marzena, being infected with a slow acting worm as she rests in the basement. That will do the trick of acquainting them with the worms.

Bolt of Glory is pretty broken, as are all the orb spells and such. I hope Dragotha put in a decent showing though. To have him be a cakewalk would be criminal.

Yeah, that battle took an hour and a half and just about every spell they had. No deaths other than the Devourers though.

At the battle with Dragotha, the sorcerer's disjunction proved most valuable, allowing the minotaur to hit AC 53 instead of AC 58. Dragotha controlled one of the devourers, so the cleric had to put it down. Not long after, Dragotha slew the other devourer. The overworm - controlled by the cleric of Wee Jas - had a second success in grappling after your disjunction, only to discover Dragotha's freedom of movement unabated. In the final rounds of the battle, the cleric kept the minotaur from being caught in a force cage, the other cleric got the occasional bolt of glory through, and the sorcerer did his part with two disintegrations. Both passed spell resistance and the one time Dragotha failed his save, he took 40d6 damage!

Also, they dispatched with Thessilar after four rounds with a "dismissal."

I have four experienced characters and they just made it to the gates of the Tabernacle. They're at 20th level and they've taken very little damage.

They all have death wards cast on them and they've also cast spell resistance. They also have "fortunate fate" cast on them. Wail of the Banshee had no effect and Thessilar couldn't have known this. They took out one of the thesselhydra's with a flesh-to-stone spell. Zyrith knocked one of them out and into the green slime but he was immune to ability damage.

One of the characters, a cleric of Wee Jas, is good at turning and creating undead and has two devourers. One of the devourers "robbed" a thesselhyrda's soul and killed it. Another one did the same to Zyrith. I'm thinking it's just too powerful for him to have creatures with this kind of save or die effects, so that I'll have to lower the die roll. This character heals with negative energy or harm person spells, and will benefit from some of the area effects.

They've found out through Balakarde that the wormdrake has cold breath, so they'll probably be prepared for a number of breath attacks, the frost worms, and Mahuudril's spells.

I want to make them sweat without killing them. One thing to do is to raise the save for the insiders to -3, as the chapter says. I think I'll also add an Overworm to the wormdrake lair, and that I'll have to nerf the soul robbing abilities so that badguys get an easier save.

What kinds of wishes did players make using Manzorian's scrolls? And how did you treat them?

I'm confused by Balakarde's abilities - do they go away once Dragotha is dead?

I think he's more interested in the concept, which means perhaps we could just make him a fighter with the same scoundrel personality traits. Eloquent speech looks cool though.

He's starting at level 3. I don't think sneak attack matters much.

A new player is joining our campaign n Friday and he's not used to 3.5. He would like to be a rogue. I was hoping someone had a ready made character or suggested class for what we need.

We don't need lock picking/trap disarming. We could use a charmer - someone with diplomacy. And we could use one that's good in melee. Any suggestions? The duelist feats look pretty useless to me.

If there is any conversation at all with Darl Quethos, I'm sure my party will try to explain why stopping the age of worms is more important than getting his eye of vecna. And if I were Quethos, I'd find that pretty compelling. Why would he want a world full of Kyuss zombies? He'd have to be pretty crazy, and thus far he's seemed pretty smart.

The alternative would just be for him to attack without giving anyone the chance at negotiation.

One thing that occurred to me - why not let Quethos get the location of Dragotha's phylactery, use that to trade for information, and then give this knowledge to the players too?

I was wondering if anyone filled out the Prince of Redhand by coming up with specific lines and stories for the hobgoblin and the fabler. Certainly there's a lot of room for creativity in what the hobgoblin brags about, and it would be funny if you sketched out how each skeleton dies in the macabre play.

Lots of characters are pretty thinly sketched out. I live near Hollywood and I have a friend who does improv comedy every week. He's not part of the group but maybe it would be cool for him to take over some of the characters.

One of my players is thinking of playing some sort of undead race that can cast spells. How would a worm/wormspawn affect him? We're about to start chapter 7.

Let's say Flycatcher is persuaded the party will bring him Moreto's head, either because he captured a party member and they want him back, or because they used diplomacy. I think my players are likely to do this. It seems inconceivable that he wouldn't warn them of the traps that lie ahead - such as the Blood River waterfall, or the lightning room. I realize he's crazy, but that seems weak to me. Has he never left that room, not even on his first journey? Also seems unlikely. He wants the characters to live so they can kill Moreto.

I have a player who was hit by a spawn of kyuss and then put on a periapt of health. The player doesn't know about the disease that incubates and sets in a day later. Does the periapt cure/remove existing disease or does it just prevent infection?

My players asked me a good question, and that is, "if the conscious members of a team surrender, but their summoned creatures or golems are still alive, does a team have to beat the summoned creatures/golems while everyone else sits back and watches?" This assumes that the surrendering team does not have complete control over summoned creatures, but that's not a bad assumption. Flesh golems can beserk.

Also, what if someone on the opposing team surrenders because of mind control effects? I assume that counts.

Finally, I'm wondering what Talabir Welik is supposed to do when the ulgarstasta appears. As written, Raknian announces the apostle of Kyuss. If Welik is a stickler he should fight the ulgarstasta and/or Ranknian himself.

This might be a stupid question, but I'm a first time DM. Is the Thieve's Guild a legally recognized and sanctioned entity? The title Guild implies that.

I would never go with the "jumping in" idea. This way Raknian admits to the whole Free City that he's a villain. If the players want to kill him, let them come to him.

Raknian has total deniability when the worm bursts out of the arena floor. If it kills the PCs, fine, if the PCs kill the worm, he can applaud them and look for another opportunity to kill them, possibly luring them into an ambush, aided by his captain and some guards (or even some gladiator friends).

Of course, especially with the revenge side plot, it would be an excellent to have Raknian turned into an undead, sop he can hound the PCs again in the future.

Also, Doesn't Raknian already admit guilt when he says something about offering to sacrifice a champion to the worm?

I would never go with the "jumping in" idea. This way Raknian admits to the whole Free City that he's a villain. If the players want to kill him, let them come to him.

Raknian has total deniability when the worm bursts out of the arena floor. If it kills the PCs, fine, if the PCs kill the worm, he can applaud them and look for another opportunity to kill them, possibly luring them into an ambush, aided by his captain and some guards (or even some gladiator friends).

Of course, especially with the revenge side plot, it would be an excellent to have Raknian turned into an undead, sop he can hound the PCs again in the future.

Hm. What if (assuming Raknian doesn't become undead) the players' manager kills Raknian when he hands over the Champion's Belt? He's got motive and may be willing to go to jail for it.

One of my characters had a back story where she was an enslaved gladiator. Her mission is to free other slaves. At the outset, I told her it was Loris Raknian, who also owns gem mines operated by slave labor. I want to give her the chance to kill Raknian without getting the entire town guard, etc., after the players.

If the players don't destroy the giant wormlike thing before fighting Auric and the gang, I can provide this chance easily. If the players seem to do well against the worm, Raknian could jump in the arena to fight to defend the worm so he can be recast as an undead badass. If Auric is eaten successfully, players can fight him in another plane later.

But if the players prevent the giant worm from disrupting the games ahead of time, which is the optimal course, things are murkier. Raknian presumably would find out that his lackeys have been killed and his dreams will not come to be. The only reason for jumping in the arena to attack the players would be revenge - he's got nothing left to live for, players ruined everything. This is such a bad action movie move, but perhaps its the best one.

If the PCs don't talk their way out of the attack on Tarquin, the local police take them to jail. But why would the police take them to Sodden Hold? Are the police ambushed by doppelgangers on the way to the real jail?

I could have misread this.

Have them "inquire" about their gear from a friendly guard but learn it was stolen by thieves. Then they can gear up with basic stuff, and hunt down this den of thieves in the sewers. They can come across signs of Zyrzog's lair but not know what it means until later. Tie the thieves in with a Doppelganger boss and it would mesh nicely with the whole adventure. Then when they kill the Greater Doppleganger and see the same Zyrzog's mark on him, the most observent ones will remember the marks from the sewers and BAM! they are on the hunt again.

I'm not a big fan of how the sewer search is written. Its somewhat vague and turns the whole party loose in a huge sewer complex with almost no clues on where to go. My party isn't even close to getting there, but I will definatly be changing it to have more connection and clues.

7 years later, but do you remember what you changed?

I'm thinking that the players find Marzena dead in the Lizard lair. They return to the keep to search her desk for clues, and find a letter addressed to Eligos. (In it, she reveals that she recently found out about the basement spawn). It's a runaround but it's more plausible than Marzena being alive and not knowing anything.

I was wondering what people at this list had Eligos reveal, and whether, in hindsight, he revealed too little too much.

http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/age-of-worms-the-return/adventure-lo g/the-champions-belt-adventure

This page has him reveal that Raknian purchased apostolic scrolls.