Zlorf's page

Question 2)
Good question and not very obvious, i can't find it :(
It might be too late, but maybe Vhalantru had a map, with his other maps. Their the painting on page 232 (R19)of Shatterhorn but i dont think that gives much away.

To make the link it would have to be sometime during chapter 10, maybe in Dyr'ryd' chamber in her desk, a note & map from another Cagewright located at Shatterhorn explaining the setup and that things look good here and if Vhalantru escaped that he has arrived etc, or info about how Ssythar Nahazir has kept the yuan-ti in the region away from the area.

The PC might be able to scry one of the shackleborn they have met who may have escaped and find out their location that way.

I havn't really read much of that part of the book, so sorry if
some of my idea's dont make sense :)

Cheers
Zlorf

Hi all,

I've been pre-reading Thirteen Cages, and I have a few questions.

1) If the front gate to the Cagewright hideout is alarmed, who gets notified, and how does it change the dungeon?

2) Where's the link or info to tip the players off to Shatterhorn?

Thanks!

Hi,

Just having a read to try to help you out. It looks to me that that the Cartwright leaders arn't to worried if the PC's intrude into the Fiery Sanctum due to their ego's (paragraphs just under the fiery sanctum heading), but at least they should be some what prepared for the worst.

I would send the three Farastu Demodands from area C4a and C4b to investigate and put pretty much everyone on alert, so no surprises. The PC's will have quite a few forces to meet before getting to deep into the Fiery Sanctum.

Is their no Rogue in the party the Alarm trap has a search DC and Disable device of 26, any rogue worth his or her salt can bypass this in his sleep at this level. :)

If it wasnt Dnd you would just send in as many of the baddies to deal with who ever set the alarm, but that wouldnt be fun for the PC's...right :)

Hope this helps
Zlorf

Hi all,

I've been pre-reading Thirteen Cages, and I have a few questions.

1) If the front gate to the Cagewright hideout is alarmed, who gets notified, and how does it change the dungeon?

2) Where's the link or info to tip the players off to Shatterhorn?

Thanks!

Hi,
Has anyone looked at improving this as a weapon to make it even more powerful? I was thinking of making it bypass the DR for monsters/NPC's that are Evil Outsiders. It may not happen straight away, only after a certain ammount of time it has been in the possession of a good character. The PC's with the weapon could aways add to it to make it more powerful.

Cheers
Z

Hi.
Theirs plenty of travel to get to Demonskar (Redgorge, boat trip, jungle walk, demonskar ruins) ,the encounters dont have to be completely random, they can be related to previous adventures or up and coming adventures or just give xp for good roleplaying, puzzle solving etc. You may find that they dont even battle all the monsters in Demonskar, they might go straight to the Stary Mirror so the party may even be still short of XP.

Maybe even some city encounters related to the riots before the party set out to Redgorge to speak to the Chisel. Maybe some a few easy encounters that dont take to long and still provide some XP, this makes the Party feel tough :), good for their ego...something to crush later on :)

I can understand you concerns on just adding more encounters, it does tend to bog things down occationally and then take more time for the player to reach their goal. Give them extra XP, the players dont need to know that you gave them a xp 10% here and their.

CHeers
Z

My group is just starting on Chapter 5, Demonskar Legacy, and I've read through the adventure and I've noticed that there's nowhere near enough XP given out in this one. My group was about 1,000 XP past 8th level when they started the adventure, and they're supposed to be 10th level when they start Test of the Smoking Eye. The problem is, there's barely enough XP in Demonskar Legacy to raise the characters one level, let alone two (this is a six member party, which I believe is the ideal for this campaign).

So what should I do? I can't see many options other than to throw a bunch of random encounters at them on their way to Vaprak's Voice, which would probably get boring in a hurry. Any suggestions?

I also noticed that the Dungeon mag had info about the lighting, magic aura of items and even sounds for most of the rooms, this was omitted from the Hardcover. It would have been nice to have but i understand it would have added quite a few more pages. Maybe it could have been included as a seperate booklet as a reference.

Regarding new statblock, i recommend the following site:
http://mikael.borjesson.net/dnd/monster-list.asp

Wont help with NPC's and modified monsters but still good for monsters straight from monster manuals. Handy to have a print out to save flicking through another book.

These guys are tough, they burst out of the building, so the PC's decide to attack them. With combat reflex they got one attack each, plus crit, they hammered the parties Goliath on thier go, who then died of fire damage. The rest of the party ran away. I even had problems trying to sort out how the city guard would cause enough damage to the elementals, they would kill most of the guards. Zarn could use his cone of cold, but they would just come up to him and pound him to. Eventually with enough reinforcements, and maybe some spellcaster that can do cold damage..but i could see 1/2 the city on fire, unless some really powerful city folk came to the rescue.

The elementals are gated can they be forced back into the gate?

Cheers
Z

I was wondering how people handled the 6000gp arms or armor the player can choose as a reward for bring back Zenith?

Did DM's allow the players to add extra money to pay for something more than 6000gp. It unlikely the players will
be able to get items that add up to exactly 6000gp anyways.

Any other things to consider?

Cheers
Z

GOod points, i did think about moving him, he could use the entrance as a home, it more roomy. It will be a tougher fight in the cavern, the last dragon kill 2 characters.

I getting to the point were i would like them to move on, there level and xp is just about right to start the next chapter. I leave it up to them, to see if it a priority, if so
i can push the riot out another week.

Cheers
Z

That sounds realistic, but not much fun.

If you want to teach them that things change, have Dhorlot change. He's waiting in the lake to ambush the troublemakers if they return. Or he's moved his Fingerlings there as a warning. The PCs don't know about woman and children, sprout a couple new kua-toa guards to warn D when they return. Bury his treasure on the beach just in case. Move him to the throne room.

If you're just tired of the adventure, then have him leave.

The party are taking Zenith back to Cauldron. THe party did a detect thoughts on him, most of his past was just blank, darkness, but recent events were still in his mind, ie a Black Dragon in a small room, surrounded by treasure (urns etc)

The party plan to take Zenith back and collect their reward and come back and take on the Black Dragon.

I dont plan on leaving the Black Dragon there, considering that their are only a few clerics, women and children Koutoan surviving. The trip itself would take about 5 days. They will
probably have 5 days or so before the big riot starts.

Considering the black dragon doesnt have any loyalty to the Koutoan, he would leave, take most of his treasure and find another home. The PC's will realize that things change, they could have taken on the dragon when they were there, but they were keen to get their 6000gp arms or armor reward for the return of Zenith. If they go, i would leave some loose gold etc, but most of the valuable stuff would have been taken.

What do people think?

Cheers
Z

Also if they do subdule damage, they would want to do more than the ammount of extra hitpoints zenith gets from his defensive stance (DS), because he has say 90 hitpoints, but used DS to take him to say 110 hitpoints, that party does 101 hitpoint of damage and say 9 subdule. When he comes out of his DS his hitpoints drop back to normal and that could kill him.

Yes the chances are slim :) Sounds like the party could do with a monk like dude..otherwise -4 to attacks and all in grapple and pinning should do the trick.

Cheers
Z

Things didnt go to well for Zenith, he got grappled and dropped the sphere onto the ground, which then summoned the Invisible Stalker. Unfortunately for the Invisible Stalker the whole party had protection from evil, which prevents it from hurting anyone with its natural weapons.

With all the breaking from grapples and getting up from trips, it was a matter of time before they knocked him out.

Also a few issues with Defensive Stance, ie when your grappled you have to move from the square you were in, because you are forced to moved, i deemed this fine. Does Defensive Stance still work while your prone?

Cheers
Sami

Well the party missed out on a sh*t load of magic equipment. :)and i presume their reward. I would have thought bringing him back to Cauldron so he could be treated by what ever evil has consumed him, would have been the smart thing to do, at least a way to justify why you have brought an evil dwarf into town.

Then again its good to see that greed isn't the only thing that drives your characters :)

Cheers
Z

hehe...when we encountered him, he was siting on his "flesh throne", with the dripping bodies/zombies around him, dressing in a human flesh tuxedo, holding the orb, smirking to himself. Well, we detected evil (just to be double sure), and asked him who he was. He replied (and the cleric had previously had a Discern Lie), we stared blankly and said, "Huh. Who'd a thunk it?". Then we closed the door and went back to town. There was no way we were going to 'rescue' this psychopath, so we told our employer that he was a crazed, evil, wack-job, and it was safer to just leave him there.

End "Zenith Trajectory". :)

Hi,

I can see this happening...

Zenith takes his defensive stance...party attack from with reach weapons and missle attacks.

Can you take a 5ft step with Defensive Stance?

Cheers
Z

I replyed without having your post up. So it was a bit hard to answer your reply.

I like the idea, gather the rest of the troops and attack as one with Zenith leading the way. I probably mis-interpreted the text, i didnt think Zenith would initiate combat if not threatened, this actually may work well for him, now that the PC's may think he completely lost it and is waiting for them to return.

I have tended to be on the side of caution, due to the TPK's that have been mention in this area. No has been close to dying to maybe its time to make it a bit more scary for the PC's

Thanks again for your comments, i agree sometimes it too easy to follow scripts...they should sometimes be tossed out the window :)

Cheers
Z

Zlorf wrote:

Hi,

The party im DMing has just found Zenith, they have just defeated Mangh-Mictho, Aushanna, Saagogoi and a bunch of Kuo-toa soldiers and clerics so they need to rest mainly for the cleric to get some spells back.

The chatted with Zenith and asked him to come with them, but he refused, so they left to find a place to rest.

Does Zenith do anything? Does he communicate with the rest of the Koa-toans to track the party down?

I'll send the Spearman with some soldiers to search the complex for the PC's and attack during the night, but im assuming they would do this anyways after they discover dead bodies and probably alerted that intruders are in the area.

I'll probably leave Zenith in his room, he's not afraid of the PC's and he will wait for the PC's to return.

The PC's are probably going to use ranged attacks against him and maybe even sunder/disarm the orb in his hand if they do try to get into melee, btw if the orb hit the ground from a disarm does that creature still get summoned?

If the PC's rest im also going to kill off the two prisoners, they had a chance to release them but the cleric cast detect thoughts on them and didnt like what they were thinking :)

Does anyone have any other suggestion on what approach i should take?

Cheers
Z

Pardon my tone, but as a DM, you blew a good, dramatic encounter intro on that one. Read on...

1. Zenith has just had his entire temple gutted and his lackeys murdered by a roving band of invaders and HE WANTS TO TALK WITH THEM AND THEN LET THEM LEAVE?????

The encounter text is pretty clear that, other than his opening threat, he will clearly make the party pay. You already know that Zenith doesn't fear the party - why would he let them retreat and rest up when he can kill them off more easily when they are weak and battered?

2. The encounter text clearly states that Zenith's first action will be to throw the orb to the back of the room as the party attacks (or he initiates an attack on them, of course),...

Good points. I appreciate you views.

The party probably could have gone in without resting, basically they are made up of 3 fighter types, rogue and fighter/cleric. I think they were a bit worried of the orb, the undead and the circle. They didnt enter the room or initiate combat.

Yes, Zenith could have initiated combat by throwing the orb, but i feel the party would have just closed the doors and even if the invisible stalker had a chance to attack, i think the combat would have been more exciting for the player and DM (me) if the inv stalker was between the them and doorway (the only exit, apart from teleport circle)

I think sometimes the DM has to consider whether the continue beating up on the PC or give them a break. If the PC's wish to continue exploring maybe i should have had Zenith attack.

Do you think i should have Zenith follow them and attack them straight up, they have entered the Mushroom room and there is only one exist, it would be easy to break down the door and throw the orb and let the Inv stalker loose as he follows up .

Cheers
Z

Hi,

The party im DMing has just found Zenith, they have just defeated Mangh-Mictho, Aushanna, Saagogoi and a bunch of Kuo-toa soldiers and clerics so they need to rest mainly for the cleric to get some spells back.

The chatted with Zenith and asked him to come with them, but he refused, so they left to find a place to rest.

Does Zenith do anything? Does he communicate with the rest of the Koa-toans to track the party down?

I'll send the Spearman with some soldiers to search the complex for the PC's and attack during the night, but im assuming they would do this anyways after they discover dead bodies and probably alerted that intruders are in the area.

I'll probably leave Zenith in his room, he's not afraid of the PC's and he will wait for the PC's to return.

The PC's are probably going to use ranged attacks against him and maybe even sunder/disarm the orb in his hand if they do try to get into melee, btw if the orb hit the ground from a disarm does that creature still get summoned?

If the PC's rest im also going to kill off the two prisoners, they had a chance to release them but the cleric cast detect thoughts on them and didnt like what they were thinking :)

Does anyone have any other suggestion on what approach i should take?

Cheers
Z

Im presuming the party knew how to deal with a vampire and had their weapons ready to bypass his DR. Unless he just got hammered with spells...he didnt have many hitpoints if i remember correctly. Was this the first meeting they had with Drakthar, did he get a chance to attack as a wolf?

Cheers
Z

Lighting bolt trap in Area 13 (p144 SCAP) uses 3.0 rules for lighting bolt. 3.5 lighting bolt is now a line effect and needs start slightly off centre and on a slight angled to at least get someone standing in the adjacent squares near the door.

Mangh-Mictho should only get 2 attacks when spelled up at +19/+14 (mentioned in other message). Not 3 unless you give him a level of something else to reach 11 class lvls.

Cheers
Z

You mean Divine Power?

Calling upon the divine power of your patron, you imbue yourself with strength and skill in combat. Your base attack bonus becomes equal to your character level (which may give you additional attacks), you gain a +6 enhancement bonus to Strength, and you gain 1 temporary hit point per caster level.

So his character lvl is 8?, so his BAB=8, dont you need at least a BAB of 11 to get 3 attacks?

Cheers
Z

Hi,

I was wondering how Mangh-Michto gets 3 attacks when buffed, what gives him the extra attack?

PC's met him last night, unfortunately for him, he weapon was disarmed and then pretty much grappled and then its was slow progression of him trying to break free of the grapple and being regrappled or tripped.

Cheers
Sami

The SCAP campaign encourages the DM to provide some downtime to allow PC's with the craft feats to make items extra. The party mage has spent his feats on making these items, but he has also sacrificed other feats that would help him in combat with his spells etc.

Im am also slightly concerned that given time and money that it will be very easy for the party to have alot a magic items, probably above their treasure level and that magic items in the
game become default sell and make something better.

Yes, i could compress the time between adventures, but i actually like the periods of downtime, it helps improve the concept that the PC's lvl arn't going up to fast and justifies time taken for certain things to happen.

I would be interested in suggestions in making item creation less automatic and how other DMs have controlled the making of items. ie Does the mage have a random chance of being interupted while working in his room :) etc

Cheers

Things brings up a subject I've been a bit plagued with in my game. My group has come to understand that they can dramatically increase their lethality and survivability by crafting their own magic items instead of relying on stumbling across them.

They have coordinated the jobs of crafting Arms & Armor, Wands, Potions, Scrolls, and Wonderous Items by ensuring that each of the casters has at least one of these feats and that all of these feats are represented in the group.

While I applaud the teamwork of the group and the sacrifice required to devote one or more slots to these feats, the result is the group is able to twink themselves to high heaven by selling off whatever they find at half market price and converting that gold directly into new magic items specifically tailored to maximize their offensive and defensive potential making them drastically more lethal and survivable than the typical characters of their level. This in turn reduces the challenge from every encounter they have and when the challenge is reduced, so is the level of fun.

While this issue is not specifiec to SCAP, and in fact they have not yet started SCAP yet but will be within then next couple weeks, I'm wondering if others here have encountered this dilemma and how it has been handled. Can anyone offer their insight?

I hope you made the PC's roll for beginning of each round that they were looking at the Umber Hulk. :)

My party are also at the same stage, they just defeat the Umber Hulk.

They Hydra should be interesting, to my understanding all the heads get to use there breath weapons, thats just crazy :)
I'll probably get Crazy Jarad to drop some hints on how to defeat it, ie try loping off the heads and then damaging the stalks...to prevent them from growing new head...i think thats how it worked. :)

Cheers

I just played the Umberhulk battle last night and the party had no problems at all! I was really surprized.

They all made their save and then proceeded to take the monster apart in two round not even leaving any time for the critter to escape.

The party was helped out by the rogue rolling a crit on his sneak attack and then the ranger also rolling a crit on her initial attack but the fight was far less telling than I had predicted. Perhaps this will be the case with your party too?

It all depends upon luck in most instances I have found. The party just returned from the Plane of Shadow (side trek) and had a battle with a shadow troll. I had anticipated that the party would have little difficulty with the creature but through a series of good rolls on my behalf and bad rolls on theirs the party was almost completely wiped out.

I'm looking forward to see how they handle the cryohydra and Ashanna (sp?).

The swamp sounds great. Have fun

Delvesdeep

Im a bit lost with with how the Sepia Snake Sigils are used in Skavens Bedchamber (K25, p116 SCAP HC. After reading the spell description, it seems more appropriate hidden amongst text.
So in this case is it just cast on a door, or is there some text written on the door which the PC's are expected to read and therefore effected by the spell if they fail there save. Same with the bookcase?

Its also a terrible spell for slowing down the whole adventure. Can it be removed by another caster?

Here a copy of the spells text:
Sepia Snake Sigil
Conjuration (Creation) [Force]
Level: Brd 3, Sor/Wiz 3
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: Touch
Target: One touched book or written work
Duration: Permanent or until discharged; until released or 1d4 days + one day/level; see text
Saving Throw: Reflex negates
Spell Resistance: No

When you cast sepia snake sigil, a small symbol appears in the text of one written work such as a book, scroll, or map. The text containing the symbol must be at least twenty-five words long. When anyone reads the text containing the symbol, the sepia snake springs into being and strikes the reader, provided there is line of effect between the symbol and the reader.

Simply seeing the enspelled text is not sufficient to trigger the spell; the subject must deliberately read it. The target is entitled to a save to evade the snake’s strike. If it succeeds, the sepia snake dissipates in a flash of brown light accompanied by a puff of dun-colored smoke and a loud noise. If the target fails its save, it is engulfed in a shimmering amber field of force and immobilized until released, either at your command or when 1d4 days + one day per caster level have elapsed.

While trapped in the amber field of force, the subject does not age, breathe, grow hungry, sleep, or regain spells. It is preserved in a state of suspended animation, unaware of its surroundings. It can be damaged by outside forces (and perhaps even killed), since the field provides no protection against physical injury. However, a dying subject does not lose hit points or become stable until the spell ends.

The hidden sigil cannot be detected by normal observation, and detect magic reveals only that the entire text is magical.

A dispel magic can remove the sigil. An erase spell destroys the entire page of text.

Sepia snake sigil can be cast in combination with other spells that hide or garble text, such as secret page.

Material Component
500 gp worth of powdered amber, a scale from any snake, and a pinch of mushroom spores.

Keygan was questioned by the guards for his involved with the skulks. When the guards found out that he had several skeleton keys and that none are accountable for (Well the party thief has one, but only I the DM know that)they decided to get keygan to begin replacing or altering all the locks so one key doesnt open them all. Starting with the rich first. This will be his punishment. Fortunately there has only been a few break ins with the skeleton key since his capture and its hard to prove if a key was used or not, especially when the thief who has one, tries to make it look like the locks have been picked.

Regards
Z

Glad to have you back Delvesdeep!

I think loose ends are something of a given with any large adventure. PC's go in unexpected directions, certain NPC's click with the party (and the GM), while others aren't that interesting and drop off the radar. In my case this was the striders. Although they're a pretty cool organisation, I just don't have any wilderness oriented PC's. So the striders aren't that hot with my players. I solved this by combining the Striders and the Chisel into one big organisation, and making it benevolent. (in other words, no self-serving corruption).
Another example: my players released Kaurophon after sacrificing themselves in TotSE. So right now, he's a loose end. I may have a fix for that, though <evil grin>.

Here are some loose ends I found:

Jazidrune and the Malachite Hold are both huge loose ends. Big complexes connecting the city directly to the underdark... that's got to be a problem to right-thinking captains of the guard.

The Last Laugh is a bit of a loose end too, although they connect back into the story nicely by Lords of Oblivion. I think they should tie in to other adventures too.

There are too many dragons, and they don't tie into the AP as well as they should. This was partially fixed by James. A more structural fix would be to remove some or all of them.

The invasion of Redgorge should feature more prominently in the campaign. It's a turningpoint for Cauldron after all. From that point forward the Cauldron Government becomes LE.

Celeste is a cool character, but only makes an appearance once. (and near the end, in LoO in James' HC). I would love to see her in a more prominent role.

that's it for now... I'll probably think up more loose ends during the rest of the day.

If you were true friends, you would all chip in and buy them a car. Also you would give him money to refuel it. Thats what i expect my friends to do. :) Oh wait i have no friends :(

Nevermind.
Zlorf

Hey all,

My group has reached a breaking point. One of the players does not have a car and lives all the way on the other side of town. In addition, he has made time commitments that conflict with our normal gaming time on the weekends. We've tried playing during the week but the inconvinience of picking him up coupled with the short amount of time we get to play (most have got 9-5 jobs) has made this unfeasible.

The rest of the players all live very close to me and we could easily get together at a moments notice. We've decided to proceed without the player. But there's a few problems:

1. How do we break this to him gently? He's our friend and such, but we're all just sick of driving him around and changing our schedules to coincide with his.

2. Each of the players (there are 3) plays 2 characters a piece so if this guy stops playing that will take out 1/3 of the party. I was thinking that each remaining player would adopt another character, but this could slow down our play considerably.

3. The player in question plays two very important characters. The arcane spell caster and the smoking eye ranger. I could justify these characters jagging off somewhere else, but they both are pretty integral to the story (esp. the smoking eye character). The arcane caster is Vortimax Weer (who post-eruption) is looking for money to re-open his shop. I can just have him go back there. But what of the smoking eye character...I guess he can go back to Occipitus and supervise there, but what about the final battle? What about Vhalantru's return.

4. The party is currently ~18th level and being run through the final rooms of "Root of Evil" (side trek). How can I justify 1/3 of the party leaving all of a sudden. If I do bring in more characters, how do I justify their arrival?

5. What characters would you recomend for a replacement? The previous party composition was
run by player A:
Paladin of Heironeous 18
Barbarian 17
run by player B:
Human Rouge/shadow dancer/fighter 18
Cleric 17
Run by player C:...

Hi,

Thanks for the info guys. As i said ive only skimmed though the book

Re: hiring of half-orc. I actually had a player who was a half-orc and started as a city guard, unfortunately he was killed.
I have been hinting to my players that half-orc are been recruited as town guards..and why not..they're strong and have darkvision.

My problem is that if hiring half-orcs is considered acceptable and even common, then why try to smuggle them into the city? Why not just have them come through the front gate and avoid all the suspicion.

The quest for the wands will side track the PC's but they still be suspicious about the noble and half-orc. As it is part of the adventure for the PC's to begin realizing that theres may be some sort of corruption going on.

Zlorf

Hi,
Im sure i saw a thread on this before, but i cant find it.

Im slightly confused: SCAP HC P88, 3rd point regarding info that Chorlyndyr, Kallev may disclose to the PC's mentions that
a noble wants to augment their bodyguards with stronger mercenaries (half orcs). Is this true? I cant find anything about who the noble is.

My PC's will starting asking questions, to find out who the noble might be, I imagine they would go to the mayor and tell him. Whats is the mayor likely to do? Send out a investigation team and tell the PC, i'll see what they can find..meanwhile they get distracted and go off and search for wands..that sounds good :)

I also want to clarify why and when the half-orc enter the city.

Chapter 2: Drakthars Way (DW): Cagewrights try to smuggle half-orc in Cauldron via DW, foiled by PC's

Chapter 3: Flood Season: No mention of half-orc. I presume with the backing of Vhalantru, Terseon Skellerang starts hiring half-orc, but why? This should start ring alarm bells everywhere, that something is wrong. I understand that Terseon is loyal to Vhalantru, but even the other guards whould see a problem with this.

Chapter 4: Zenith Trajactory: Alek Tercival discovers proof of corruption in Cauldron's city guard (Terseon Skellerrang..right?)

Chapter 5: Terseon Skellerrang recently announces special security measures against a sect of dangerous anachists (presume this is the Ebon Triad). Half-orc mercenaries accompany tax collecters. More Half-orc hired. Is this to make it look they are trying to protect Cauldron?

Anyways i might be missing a few key details, hence the confusion..I haven't read the whole book, but have skimmed though it.

TIA
Zlorf

My players have run into Drakthar twice now, a couple of things to remember:

1) Dont forget he likes to play with his victims first, so TPK shouldn't be a issue until he's really angry. Send in a few swarms, attack as a undead dire wolf or just go in as himself and mock and laugh as he swings his mace. Then leave the PC's licking there wounds.

2)Im not sure how much your players know about vampires, i didnt realize you need Silver AND magic weapons to bypass his DR, i thought it was Silver OR magic.

3)Prepare for your players to be disappointed when you tell them he is a only a CR4 creature...I havnt come to this yet. :)
He's tough unless the players are completely prepared for him.

4)A bunch of guards shouldn't stop the might Drakthar..does he still have the wererats at his disposel? If not, send in a bunch of goblins to take them out, if they can. Drakthar has plenty of goblins available to him as suggested in the book with wandering encounters.

Regards

My group has massacred the goblins in the first half of the complex but had to retreat due to heavily depleted resources (got to love those sneak crossbow attacks). They know nothing as yet about Drakthar but they have caused town guards to block the bath house exit whilst they recuperate for a couple of days.

I am not sure what Drakthar will do now. His one Cauldron exit is blocked and so he has lost his main strategic advantage and his chance of becoming a "player" in Cauldron.

At the moment I am thinking that he will dominate the town guards on duty so that he can supposedly be trapped but actually carry on as before. He then needs to eliminate the party when they return (which will necessitate cutting off their upper exit). So he needs to recruit more goblins and maybe channel the returning party deeper into the lower caves.
Of course I also want to avoid a guaranteed TPK!

The other option is to have Drakthar and co relocate elsewhere so the party have closed the smuggling route without uncovering the deeper plot points. However, this would be less fun and remove XP and treasure opportunities for them.

I would be grateful for any thoughts on these or other options.

My players met Drakthar the other night. He sent in a few bats swarms and then hid until a fighter came close enough to dominate. He failed with the first but managed to dominate the parties Goliath Barbarian who loves to trip. I forgot about the second will save if Drakthar asks the dominated person something that the PC wouldn't do, ie kill your friends. Anyways the Barbarian attacked the rest of the party and was going to go close to dying because of the loss of hitpoint when his rage wore off, before that happened, i checked the domination spell again and saw the part about the second roll. We did the second roll which he made, so Drakthar ended the domination, he had enough fun, so he turned gaseous and took off. (btw he was twice webbed and also made deaf by a thunder stone, so things didnt really go 100% his way.)

Re: Drakthars tactics: Devour the Soul (p93 SCAP-HC)I like the tactic, but like dont like Drakthar being in a grapple with someone while 4 other PC's try to smash him. If they all have magic or silvered weapons it wouldn't take long to take him down.

A interesting question came up, it some had a Arrow of slaying vampires, would it kill them outright if the vampire failed its save or would they just become gaseous?

Zlorf

Am i suppose to give the treasure suggested in the Monster Manual when the SCAP refers to the monster manual for the monster. 4 Wererats were a EL6 encounter, which equates to quite a large ammount of treasure. I initially asked my players to roll on the random treasure list, which i dont think we ever have done before and they rolled about 900gp, 50gp gem, bunch of smoke sticks and acid flasks.

The amount seems way to much, i could justify maybe 400gp (100gp each as payment to keep a eye on Orak's bathhouse, but thats about it).

I think i read somewhere on the board that treasure had already been set for the whole adventure..though im not sure if that for all instances.

Should i renig on the treasure and maybe cut the coinage down, or let them have there spoils..its works out to be a extra 300gp per character?

TIA
Zlorf

Hi,

I was wondering what kind of XP DM's are giving for defeating Orak? My players knocked him out, they had no probs hitting him due to 11AC (no armor). He's definately not worth a CR4, i was think for like CR2.

Zlorf

If i take say -5 attack and +5 to AC (dodge bonus)(combat expertise) can I use Two weapon Defense to add another +2 AC (shield bonus)if i say im fighting defensively? So -5 attack and +7 to AC.

TIA
ZLorf

Ah the board doesnt like "< or >" signs.

First line of chart should read.

less than 1000gp 90% chance available (1 day)
betweem 1001->2000gp....so on

Strange.,.i had a chart on my initial post that didnt turn up.
Here it is again.

To buy stuff from Skies Treasury:

<1000gp ... 90% chance in stock otherwise it takes (1 day)
1001gp -> 2000gp...75% chance in stock (1d4 days)
2001->4000gp...60% chance in stock (1d6 days)
4001-6000gp...30% chance in stock (1d8 days)
6001-10000gp...15% chance in stock (3d4 days)
10001-15000gp...5% chance in stock (2d6 days)
All these can be available through Maavu imports
over 15000gp get from other source, contact ie Sasserine

Hi, i have looked at it and plan to use the fantastic descriptions of some of the items, but has the author just added magic items that his/her player wanted to buy? If so, then why have a dynamic shop like this? And if not, say as a player i want a +1 Amulet of wisdom..., do i make allowances for this and just say yeah Skie has it in the back room or use some sort time delay. I might just email Michael Farrell the author and see what he does.

Im still not sure which way to go..thats why im trying to get some input so other options that i havent thought about are available. I dont want it be over complex, but i dont want to just hand out magic items as if there using the DMG as a catalog.

have you checked out the SCAP DM's resources page? if not, here's a link. The list of items available at Skie's treasdury is quite impressive. It should cover all your magical needs for the first few chapters of the campaign.

Because the cagewrights need a lot of mithril and admantine for the cages and the tree of shackled souls, these metals are going to be in short supply in cauldron. That means that weapons, or at leas the ore, will have to be imported. This translates into longer waiting periods and higher prices.

Im still trying to work out the best way to handle magic item purchasing and special metals item such as , mithril armor or adamantium weapons. Im looking for some advice. :)

With Skies Tresury, im happy to go with the list of magic items provided and change them based on what the book says.
25% cumulative chance the item is bought by a NPC per month and then 20% chance its replace during the week. Doing it this way seems the limit the variety of items the PC's can buy though. I mean do i replace them randomly or put items that the PC's want to buy, and if its the later than why run a store like this anyway, I could just say buy what you want from the book below 3000 gp and i'll roll 20% which is the non campaign suggestion.

I dont want to make it hard for PC to get items that they want, but i dont want it to be taken for granted that they can get any item they wish.

Some Idea i have, which may work..suggestions welcome.

1) Items changes as per campaign suggestions. If item isnt listed, there is a percentage chance that Skie can get it in the near future

<=1000gp....90% (1 day)
between 1001gp & 2000gp...80% (1d4 days via Maavu imports)
between 2001gp & 4000gp...60% (1d6 days via Maavu imports)
between 4001gp & 6000gp...30% (1d8 days via Maavu imports)
between 6001gp & 10000gp...15% (3d4 days via Maavu imports)
between 10001gp & 15000gp..5% (2d6 days via Maavu imports)
>15000gp...Order from Sasserine, other means..contacts etc

2)Other items that are non magical, ie mithral/adamantium,
Should they be available? ie 3000gp Adamantium sword? Would Gurnezarn have it in stock? Should i use a similar system to
Skies..will the players hate me :)

If you have any suggestion to improve the system or idea..i would like to hear them.

TIA
Zlorf

Hi All,

I was wondering how long it has taken for your players to return the kidnapped children back to the orphanage?

And what penalties, if any, have you applied for taking to long?

Currently my player have taken 4 days and have just defeated stone spike and the polymorphed ogre. If things go smoothly they should complete the mission on the 4th day.

Z

Hi

I was wondering how DM's were going with the suggestion in the HC SCAP to keep track of whats been sold and bought by Skie?

Info given is:
1) 50000gp worth of items in her shop at one time.
2)increase by 10000gp per chapter
3) change list as you see fit
4) each month 25% chance that an item is sold to NPC
5) If stock is below max gp, 20% chance each week that some new item is puchased to replenish stock.

So when a player requests Skie for a item not on here list, have DM's just added it as per option 3? Or have DM rolled % chances that the item appears during the week? Also does 25% chance an item sold to a NPC seem very low?

I just trying to find out how other DM's have modified this system, or suggestion on improving it based on there experience DM's the campaign.

TIA
Zlorf

Hi,

Im sure its as simple as a seperate will save for both cleric and mage, if they make it they cast normally. If they fail they can move out of the area of affect (20ft radius)and then cast normally.

Z

hello guys,

can somenone tell me how silence work when its cast on a fighter who then attacks a few clerics and wizards? are they each separately allowed a Will save to be able to cast normally and not be effected by the silence?

or are they unable to cast until they are in the radius of the spell which moves with the fighter?

Silence spell description: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/silence.htm

thanks for your help!

Thanks, i did read remove curse, but what about weapons, armour and shield. I can't remember if any of these types of items are still available from Jzadirune, if they were is there anything that may remove the curse for them.

TIA
Sami

Being Skie likes to hear stories from her patrons, the PC's may say where they got it. And I wouldn't find it hard to believe that she knows about the Vanishing. I'd have her tell them to get those items cured before they sell them. ANd being the business woman she is, she would probably get verification from the church that probably helped in the removal of the curse.

My players just got the first item which is infected with the Vanishing. The item is an ioun stone, which im pretty sure they will sell to Skye before the infection takes place. A couple of questions i have:

1)How does someone get rid of Vanishing from an item without destroying it?
2)How has Skye handled the items once she realized they are infected?

Notes: Im sure Skye wont know that the item is infected, but may find out if an irate customer comes back half faded, who knows something about the history of Jzadirune. Skye may know something about the history of Jzadirune and start asking the PC's whether they got the items from there.

TIA
Z

A bit of a oversite with the SCAP HC, the text clearly doesn't explain the trap very well without the picture present.

teknohippy wrote:

Was that pic missed out the SCAP Hardcover? I can not recall seeing it before. It certainly clears up the visualisation problems I was having.

Yes, it was missing. In fact, I also didn't understand it before seeing the diagram.

Excellent, thanks...nothing how I pictured it. :)

Regards
Z

Zlorf wrote:

Hi,

I see what your saying, but what opening? I think a diagram of the trap would have been good. :)

Clint Freeman is right. Here you can find a diagram:

http://paizo.com/dungeonissues/97/97WebEnhancement.pdf

Hope this helps.

Hi,

I see what your saying, but what opening? The only opening is ceiling of the actual pit (what used to be the floor of the coridor). Now if the pit itself which is 10x10 is located in a 20x20 room suspended some how, then when it tilts 90deg you would see the larger room, and then would be able to climb out sideways into the 20x20 room with the gears. If it was like this the top of the pit would have to be a few feet below the corridor so it could rotate without hitting the edge of the corridor. :) I think a diagram of the trap would have been good. :)

Ah ok, but if it is a big box with spikes, then how does it expose the gears below (20 feet below) the box, something would have to open?.

Regards
Sami

A couple of things that came up in our last session

Does the skulks camouflage (ex) still work if they are splash with paint or flour? Its says it can still use its camoufage when using in light armor, so maybe it would still be able to use it, i guess weapons carried also are hard to see.

A few of my players couldn't see the logic behind the Tilting pit trap in Jzadirune. Its impossible for the whole floor of the trap to tilt 90deg because the spikes would get in the way. I ended up saying its a 5x10 foot wide section of the floor which tilts.

Hi,

I was wondering if someone has started an errata on the hardcover, if not should i start one?

And how can i get access to all the archived messages relating to SCAP?

Thanks, DM SCAP - starting 9-1-2006