Yemaj's page

I have moved to this area. If you are PCSing in and want to play shoot me a message.

Since we're launching Pathfinder and doing the last issue of Dungeon (which is 32 pages longer than normsl) this month... I wouldn't expect much in the way of online supplements till after the 4th of July.

It is well past 4th of July and I know you guys are slammed, but the time to put this up is coming to a close. Can we get some kind of update on this. Should we not hold out hope at this point? I am just starting STAP with my new group and I do love to be able to print the maps. Any info would be appreciated.

I am actually not going to get the chance to run the Savage Tide AP for some time, but I was wondering how all of your campaigns came to a close. I am sure that it may be a while before people finish up, but I would appreciate it if you could share.

I am working on a story that will take off from a little after this AP. It is going to be done as a series of modules for NWN2 about the Cult of Orcus and Orcus' push to divinity.

Demogorgon making it out alive but seriously battered with the Savage Tide being stopped seems to work well for me. Grazzt can continue in his plot against Lolth. This leaves Orcus with no serious threats and he can focus on things (like building his cult) other than their ongoing wars.

Oh and BTW... is the plot against Lolth that Grazzt detailed in print anywhere? It is mentioned quite a few times in this AP.

Knowing Heath in person... why would you insult that poor dog?

I am not sure I will stop buying WotC things, but I will say this. I will give anything Paizo puts out a benefit of a doubt. The adventure paths have been some of the best fantasy writing that I have read in some time. Frankly I am very excited about Paizo's new setting and the two adventure paths per year.

Now when WotC gets around to coming out with their 'replacements' of Dungeon and Dragon in their new online format, I have already cast serious doubts on that in my mind. I like have printed material that I can read away from the computer. I am a business data analyst and I play cRPGs... I don't need to spend all of my reading time on the computer too. So now I have to print out my DnD articles, reviews, and such? Or how about I bring my laptop to bed with me... I think not. I love the art, the stories, and the ideas that these magazines could inspire when I was unplugged. I read very few of the WotC articles on their site as it is. I wonder if they are just going to take all of that and put a subscription model over it... I hate (I mean love) to be a cynical bastard, but that is about what I expect from them... only time will tell.

Heath... how are the little mutants growing up in your lay line of the universe? Give me a call I would love to catch up.

Heathansson wrote:

No, they won't feel it. I don't care.
If I buy their products I'll feel it.
Do what you gotta do, man. I don't care.
I'll buy some Chaosium junk.

Just promise me you'll stay away from Rifts. That stuff can damage your brain...

It's too late for Heath and RIFTS. He has had MD done to is SD brain and he tried to do it to me.

Hmmm... We just did this on Tuesday kicking off our session right as they were getting done with the first arena event. My group felt that while being in the games was cool and it would be great to win, they would be willing to loose or be disqualified to get their grim work done. They were here as a cover. Their main purpose there was to establish firm evidence that Loris Raknian was associated with an evil cult and stop whatever diabolical plans he was up to... then with the added bonus quest of looking for Ekaym's sister they were all about exploring. They waited for things to quite down and went... They didn't even rest before heading out. oops :^O

When they were in the understructure and found that dome they ended up casting detect magic on it and got a strong Abjuration and Necromantic auras coming from it. They went on and fought all the way through to the Apostle of Kyuss and that is where we left off.

My recommendation would be to try hard to get them into the whole "figure out the mystery" mode. This is not just important for this module, but many of the upcoming ones. Without that desire to solve the mystery then they will have trouble getting on track in many upcoming modules without some serious railroading on your part. A more specific way to intervene might be to have someone’s dreams or thoughts be clouded with the orgiastic death and destruction that the ulgurstasta is thinking about. Describe the scenes that could come to pass... hundreds of women and children being consumed to only be spit back out as spawn of Kyuss, show them the possibility of being overwhelmed by large numbers of the spawn. If this does not get a group of adventurers riled up to take down this threat to society... I am not sure what will.

These dreams might make the most sense for a psionic character or maybe a cleric of a good faith.

You could also offer the dreams to all of them and whatever character takes this and responds as a good or even neutral character likely would, you could reward them with the <a href="http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicFeats.htm#wildTalent">wil d talent feat</a> as a bonus for their role playing. While it is a pretty big bonus, it will show them that there are benefits to (role) playing the game well beyond loot and XP. I often give out bonus XP (as much as an 1/10th of a level) for outstanding role playing. Also during the 1st arena battle, the daughter in Arcane Augurie was taken down by a critical and our cleric stabilized the poor elf. The leader surrendered and later gifted her own frost bow to the cleric as a sign of thanks. The player that gets these types of rewards often become quite pleased with themselves and the other players look for ways to play their character better so they can get some great reward like this.

Just some thoughts. Good luck.

Justin Fritts wrote:

Heathansson wrote:

Well, riddle me this: if there's no Paladin there on the Isle of Dread, then who's supposed to ride the celestial Triceratops in a mad cavalry charge against the fiendish 2-headed Tyrannosaurus with pitch black skin, and fiery stripes like angry jagged cracks of redhot magma?

Is there a joke here that I'm somehow missing?

Nope. I just talk crazy sometimes. I always wanted a celestial triceratops is all.

Sometimes! Heath have you changed considerably since you left the fair sunshine state? You always talk crazy!

To be honest a big part of this is the books you let into your campaigns. If you have NPCs that are all (for the most part) based on core books and you let PC do anything from any book... they will be overpowered... BIG time. My group experienced it time and time again.

I personally only allow things from the core rule books in my AoW campaign... and the players are LOVING it. I have been allowing things in from other books on a case by case basis. For instance I allow the mage to choose one of their spells per level that they research to be from the compendium and none of the spells in there can be purchased as scrolls. I have also allowed feats to creep in when the player made a case for how it effects their character concept. For instance I have a rogue that pretty much only does thrown weapons, and he wanted to take two feats from complete warrior that had to do with throwing.

This kind of stuff does not screw up balance, but any class/PrC/feat/spell from any book to face off against villains that are almost entirely from core rules... well of course they die quickly. Want them to last longer? Give that Lich some levels of some ubber prestige class that the mage has, and then use it in the conversation... "I have seen your style of casting ... blah blah blah"

Sorry for the rant, but I will say this. My campaign where the players could only use the core books has brought the role-playing back to our game a good bit.

ROG/FTR/Thrower (with the throw anything feat)... "I wonder what I should name my +1 Frost Great Axe?"

BRD "Maybe... Freeze Your Axe Off"

As I read it, the only thing the dagger tells you is that it matches the one used to stab Tarquin, thus helping the PCs avoid arrest. It has no link to Sodden Hold (not that it's a bad idea, if a little hard to rationalize).

The link is the key itself, which has markings of a long defunct merchant group that had holdings down in the docks district. I make heavy use of knowledge skills in the game and this was a pretty straight forward Knowledge(local) or Bardic Knowledge item.

I tell ya... my group jumped all over this. They were thinking it could be Smenk (who was led off in chains) or the Triad that was involved.

I also had them get jumped by Smenk (who had bought his way out) and some cronies. The funny thing is that the rogue (who joined the party only a session before) that had been replaced gets killed by the albino half-orc... and reverts before their eyes. Now they have no idea what to think... if it was Smenk why would they kill their own guy on this inside and why would he be trying to kill them. Who in the party is really themselves. Throw in Allustan, their patron, being showing up in the end to destroy them and it is total chaos and the curiosity should be going wild.

We just finished off the mind flayer last night and as my group leveled to 9th... they had huge smiles on their face and total confusion in their eyes... why now would a great leader of the Free City want them dead? Why indeed?

The hooks are pretty easy to string together with just a little bit of creativity, entertaining a bit of their false ideas, and really hitting it home when they get on the right track. If the party is N to G in general and even a bit adventurous (one would hope LOL) they should be biting hook line and sinker.

This was a fun module and leads well into the next few where they really start to get an idea of what the Age of Worms actually is.

Thanks for all the feedback folks... I am just going by what the AP says about the Wind Dukes. I have never run accross the stories of them before. I have read here that they are a fairly big part of the Grayhawk world. I am much more familiar with FR, but decided to play this in GH as it was written.

Oh and Heath... don't worry... Dez will certainly get the short end of the stick... he is a halfling bard.

I have a party that consists of mostly CG and NG characters. We are a bit off from returning to the cairn, but I am having a bit of trouble thinking that Icosiol would bestow a blessing upon these creatures.

Should I make it more of a good blessing to fight the forces of evil? That seems to really screw with the whole concept of the Wind Dukes.

I didn't really think about it when we were going through the first mod, but I kept saying that these were creatures that fought on the side of Law in the battle between Law and Chaos. I wonder now if they were like... cool we are looting the enemies tomb.

Yemaj wrote:

My rogue was out "scouting" and pilfered a pearl from one of the rooms in the WC. (actually I think maybe the WC in WC - now that is kind of funny in itself) He sold it while he was out and about, without ever asking someone to cast detect magic. Of course it was a pearl of power.

I broke the news to him one night when we were all out having pints. Of course I was also keen to point out that greed never pays.

Hey, Yemaj, you aren't from Gainesville, Florida, are you?

I know a Yemaj there; just curious.

The one and only ;-) It's like I always say... it sure is a small world wide web.

My rogue was out "scouting" and pilfered a pearl from one of the rooms in the WC. (actually I think maybe the WC in WC - now that is kind of funny in itself) He sold it while he was out and about, without ever asking someone to cast detect magic. Of course it was a pearl of power.

I broke the news to him one night when we were all out having pints. Of course I was also keen to point out that greed never pays.

Yeah, I basically made up 3 nice items for each player to choose from. He got his choice of 1) a suit of hide armor +3 that made you immune to crits & sneak attacks from your favored enemies, plus all weapons you wield are favored-enemy bane, 2) a cloak of resistance +3 that absorbs 50 pts of energy damage (any type) a day, and 3) a flaming frost keen mighty composite longbow +1 that adjusts its Str bonus to whatever the wielder's currently is. He thought these were all useless, which might be indicative of something else entirely, but in general he used comparitive gp values of items versus the recommended treasure levels in the core book when making his argument.

This person likes to play MMORPGs or the likes of Diablo I bet. I mean those items are ubber in the extreme.

THanks for all the feedback. I am not torn as to come up with someway to have the Shaman come and offer a reward for their assistance to clear the egg chamber, or just to let them move on... I know they will have to bring the ex-prisoners back to the keep, but they may go back to help. Since I have a party member out tomorrow night it might be good to do that instead of going into part 4 without him.

So i am just about done with Blackwall Keep and I coul dfind no reason for the PCs to end up in the egg chamber. Here is how it went...

They took a bunch of right turns and ended up facing off with the king pretty quick... drinking grog on his throne. (it was late at night and I didn't want him to be sleeping like many of the soldiers were) The mage runs around the corner and throws in a fireball, which does pretty minimal damage... the King in turn slams the mage with a crit from the trident and takes the mage down. They start taking a bit more caution and eventually take the king down. The Shaman approaches from the the rear and brokers the deal of hostages in exchange for the PCs trying to secure peace with the Free City. All is agreed...

Now why in the hell would the shaman ask the PCs to go into the egg chamber? Maybe he doesn't trust the dragon... I thought about that, but would he trust soft-bellies in the egg chamber either? I am thinking about having it have turned into a nasty little hole filled with Kyuss spawn if and when they return with the peace deal...

How did others handle this situation. I just couldn't come up with a reasonable excuse to get the PCs into a situation where they would go in there. The module offers a huge bonus (3,500 XP each!!!) if they go in and kill the spawnlings without damaging the eggs... but the only way I see them coming to this room is if they just slayed the shaman and they are plowing through looking for loot.

~Jamey