Two great suggestions, thanks! That will help a lot when they start making their way in. I hadn't even considered the whole "Alek is familiar to the area" idea, but it makes so much sense!
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So in my campaign, the PC's have just headed down the river in search of Alek and arrived at the headless statue. My party was already a little curious how a lone paladin was wandering around in this dangerous area and surviving, let alone taking a canoe downriver and then...hiking back up to Redgorge?? So was looking ahead and realized...just how in the hell did Alek get past wandering monsters, gnolls, quasits, giants, ettins, and a fire giant, without realizing he was walking right into a den of evil? Sure, he might see the Hags as Archons, but what about the rest of the monsters? Knowing my group, they'll start wondering this as they fight their way in, and I've yet to think of something plausible.
In my campaign we had: • archery skill contest (plain attack rolls)• archery trick shot contest (mostly so players could come up with creative, wacky shots, then use magic/Acrobatics/whatever to attempt them) • drinking contest! always a safe bet • arm wrestling competitions with Asfelkir overseeing (good way to introduce him) • Seance sessions by the Church of Wee Jas where each person could speak to a dead person (good way to meet Iverson and Embril, and flesh out backstories or tie up loose ends from slain foes) • bear-wrestling contest in a cage • cooking contest (our party has a bizarre culinary obsession) • team tug-of-war by the lake (combined checks, nice way to kick off the rivalry with the Stormblades) Another street game that would be relatively easy to set up would be an obstacle course, where people have to run/jump (Strength), dodge/weave (Dexterity), and then hit a target however they wish at the end (attack roll).
We just finished off Chapter 4: Zenith Trajectory in a blood-pumping, cinematic finale and it was a huge hit. I thought I'd share how it went here. I found the layout of Bhal-Hamatugn a little redundant and anti-climactic, so I replaced Zenith and Dhorlot's rooms with other encounters (a kitchen area and a bathing room), and instead made Mangh-Mincto's chamber open up into a huge, open underground cavern. The room itself had a rushing waterfall in it and some PCs got tackled off the edge by fanatical kuo-toas into a large water pool below. The others navigated down long sets of stairs flanking the pool. They immediately heard a deep, rhythmic beating sound echoing throughout the entire cavern. I used music to capture the moment and it worked perfectly - the first minute or so of this song, looped: Beyond the Wasteland - Final Fantasy Advent Children A long stone bridge extended farther in, spanning a gaping chasm. Before proceeding they investigated a cave off to the side and fought Dhorlot, chased him off, and stole his treasure. They rested there and then continued on over the bridge, which soon opened up into a circular amphitheater-type room (think football stadium) with a huge shrine in the center. THOUSANDS of kuo-toas underneath, chanting - the beating sound was their hearts beating in unison. I still had the song playing so the players were freaked out and scared. They knew Zenith was in the shrine (they were magically tracking him) so they went inside and found him whacked out insane and etc. There was some other mooks in the fight that were all aberration/Far Realm themed (I'm using the Far Realm flavor for the various madness stuff in the campaign). Party knocked Zenith out in a moderately difficult fight, then went back to sneak out. Sneaking across the bridge was done as a skill challenge (4e has a skill encounter system where you roleplay the use of skill checks to accomplish things; in this case, sneaking across a bridge without disturbing the horde), and they eventually failed, making noise and alerting the kuo-toas. At which point I didn't tell them they had failed or that the kuo-toas had noticed them, I simply switched the song to the 1:45 mark, and everyone at the tables lost their minds. The horde started swarming up the bridge to get them and throwing javelins, and the PCs started running the hell away. It became a second skill challenge: to escape. Also adding to the panic was the many whips down below - the PCs had already learned of the "more whips = more lightning" notion, and there were dozens of whips channeling electricity amongst themselves down below. The party did well, escaping all but the quickest kuo-toas, which led them into the next encounter - Dhorlot hiding in a cloud of darkness on the side of the bridge, ambushing them with an acid spray. They hurriedly fought the out-for-revenge dragon, while fending off kuo-toas from behind. They killed Dhorlot, saw the horde closing in, and sprinted off into & through Bhal-Hamatugn. They made it all the way through the temple, with the sounds of kuo-toas screaming and pursuing them, and ran down the front steps to get to the boat. However, the kuo-toa whips had one last trick up their sleeve, and summoned a horrible, tentacled watery abomination to block their way. The PCs threw everything they had left at it, trying to kill it fast because every round another whip would run out the front door and start tossing lightning bolts into the fray. They managed to kill it, despite two PCs falling unconscious during the fight, hightailed it to the boat and finally escaped. It was an intense, crazy session that really captured the panic and desperation of the party to escape a murderous horde, while already tired and injured, and get the HELL out of this terrible, terrible place.
In my 4E campaign, I reskinned the fingerlings using the fearsome Kruthiks (who have a "gnashing aura" that does auto damage to any character who ends their turn next to one), and gave a few juveniles an acid spit that dealt ongoing damage. They are also perfect as minions - little scurrying creatures with a big bite but no health. The party fought them in a room stolen from Keep on the Shadowfell, a caved-in room with small tunnels through which the "fingerlings" could scurry, but medium sized characters had to squish into. It was nasty. The gnome rogue pursued a fingerling into the tunnels, only to get trapped by a second one that cut off the tunnel behind him, and no one else could fit into the tunnels to help him. Meanwhile the constant gnashing aura damage and numerous ongoing poison effects ravaged the party. Seems to be a tradition - they had a harder time with the babies than with the father himself. ;)
That's a great idea, working in the Striders like that. And it fits perfectly...a harmless reporter gathering information about the new heroes. Bravo!
Multi-level battle in Bhal-Hamatugn was intense. I set up three separate maps and stacked them on glass sheets to accurately display the room (players' eyes grew wide when I began putting it together and nervous glances were exchanged). (This was converted to 4E). They had a moderately difficult time navigating around the room while being hammered by lightning bolts from the whips, but nothing too crazy until Aushanna was summoned. Most of the party's at half HP or lower, healer's mostly out of healing, and they're all on the bottom floor while she's at the very top. They recognized her strengths of long-range dmg and flight, contrasted to their complete lack of said abilities as a party, and grew worried. However, the eladrin swordmage dug out a sword he'd had since day one BUT NEVER USED UNTIL NOW, ran up the 3 flights of stairs, leapt off the balcony and fey-stepped over to a surprised Aushanna (in mid-air and cuts her with the sword, which inflicts a slowing effect on her. He then fell to the level below. Meanwhile, the heavily-wounded barbarian, lacking any ranged weapons, began climbing the statue of Blibdoolpoolp (70' high don't forget). Confused, Aushanna continues plunking away at the party. Her turn over, she rolls her saving throw against the slow effect and fails...at which point the eladrin's player squeals with glee and reveals that failing the first save means she is now IMMOBILIZED...which means she falls 60' straight down to the floor. She survives but is quite injured. It is then that the barbarian announces he is leaping from the top of the 70' statue, riding his spear straight down onto her. Eyes go wide all around the table and there is stunned silence. DM's, take a collective deep breath at this point. He ends up obliterating her and almost ends up at the "instant-death" plateau himself (in 4E, you die once you reach half your max HP in negatives), but interestingly he's using a special Phoenix rage which, when he falls to negative HP's, instantly restores him back to 1/4 max HP. In other words, he plummets screaming down, completely destroys the horrified demon, and then pretty much hops up and wipes off the gallons of demon blood covering his entire person. It was something.
4E, a few close calls but no deaths so far (about to start Zenith Trajectory). Against Skaven, and then later against Triel, both times over half the party was making death saves (3.5 equivalent: in negative HP), which is to be expected I suppose. The Triel encounter was purposefully rough (Triel, two ogre bodyguards, and two shadow-using, blinding skirmishers, and two automated crossbow turret traps, AND a bookshelf trap, AND a magical evil rune circle...) but the Skaven encounter was shocking, as it was just him (elite controller) and a minotaur statue bodyguard, taken from Thunderspire Labyrinth, and a few spiders. They just could not hit the statue to save their lives. The only really surprising near-death experience was in Chapter 1, when the party somehow managed to aggro three separate encounters all at once: - the animated mass of chains (easy difficulty)
That was pretty hairy. However, I let one of the PC's charm/bluff the ogre into getting mad at the hobgoblins, so he spent about half the time attacking the party and half the time fighting the hobgoblins. Otherwise it would have definitely been a TPK. It did also make it one of the more memorable moments for that PC. :)
Continuing my previous post, we just finished up the Ball, and it was great. Some more highlights: During the strength contest with Dalam, the disguised Jil whispered to the party's wizard that they should convince Dalam to put more garbage on the cart so it would spill on him because it would be funny. Sure enough, he did, and he rolled bad, so he ended up covered in garbage, and the mage and Jil laughed together and flirted the rest of the night. The party felt bad for Dalam when he wasn't allowed back in because of the stench, so they ran him over to Orak's Bathhouse (who gives them free baths/scents because they recovered his decanter of endless water from the Ebon Triad). Anna Taskerhill and the party's bard are becoming fast rivals. Both characters are quick-tempered and a bit arrogant, and our bard bested Anna in both the Song of Heaven contest AND the Demonskar Dance, which she specifically challenged him to, in hopes of humiliating him. The big showdown between the Nabthatoran PC (who took great pleasure in describing how fearsome and scary he looked, which was accompanied by magic fog and dazzling lights from the party's wizard and sorcerer) and Zachary/Surabar was great. The party's Avenger and Cora from the Stormblades were absent from the final dance, as the avenger had finally managed to woo Cora and the two of them snuck away from the Ball together. The party's gnome sorcerer, who had asked Skie to the Ball, had treated her great all night and behaved like a perfect gentleman, so they left together and now they are seeing each other (he wants to marry her.) On the flip side, the party's wizard, who burned his coach to the ground when he arrived for a flashy entrance(!) danced more with the disguised Jil and flirted with her. She offered him a ride home in her coach since he had destroyed his, and they also left together. Of course, they went straight to a Last Laugh safehouse and he's since been captured/betrayed, which the party will discover next session.
We've only finished Chapter 3 (Flood Season) but so far the most memorable moments have been: - Nothing from Chapter 1 except the appearance of the Beholder, which in retrospect is only actually memorable if your party are longtime D&D vets. - The Flood Festival was a grand hit since it gave every PC a chance to individually shine and have some fun creatively, since there were no real repercussions if a reckless decision or action went wrong. Plus it was the first time so far that Cauldron, with the various Churches, the lake-themed events, the fire/flame motifs, seemed like a living city and not just a backdrop. - The Demonskar Ball was a huge hit as well for many of the same reasons (creativity, a nice break from combat) - The Ebon Triad went down in infamy, as each of them (Skaven, Triel and Tarkilar/T-Rex Skelly) almost destroyed the party. The first real "boss fights" of the campaign in my opinion. - Anything related to the Stormblades, mostly because my group is pretty mischievous and love tormenting and harassing the Stormblades.
Obviously this depends on what happens in the campaign, but there's a few foes that could easily become recurring villains should they survive their initial encounters with the PCs. Skaven springs primarily to mind, as I believe multiple groups have had this happen with him, and the crazy derro wild mage (...Kravichak? I think?) could also escape and return to harass them. By the book, Jil pops up 2-3 times, and of course there's our resident beholder who'll make a big splash and then be put back on the shelf for a loooong time. :) Depending on what kind of rivalry they have with them, the Stormblades might also warrant minis. I know for my group, just seeing them "honored" with their own minis would make them scowl.
I just ran this for my group last session and it was highly entertaining. Thanks again Delves! I've incorporated probably 90% of your ideas (converted to 4E). The only snag I ran into was that there is no Perform (dance) or Perform (sing) in 4E, but I just whipped up a simple makeshift skill system for that. The party all rented specific demon costumes at Rhiavadi's Fine Silks that they custom designed (I made them all demon invites, to parallel the all-founder Stormblades.) They then pretended to be a servant of the Taskerhills and picked up the Stormblades costumes and sabotaged them, so the Stormblades had to show up to the Ball with average costumes, hurting their influence during the event. One of the party members commissioned a demonic giant hot dog costume. Did I mention my group can be rather immature? It was really funny and everyone loved it though, so I didn't penalize him for having such an absurd outfit. They all signed up for dancing and etiquette lessons except the barbarian who pointedly wanted NOT to be good at such things. He did sign up for the singing lessons though...go figure. The players, who are all male and play male characters, all came dateless except for the gnome sorcerer, who courted and then asked Skie from Skie's Treasury. During the Liduton dance, the cleric danced with Shensen, the barbarian danced with Ophela, the avenger (who has an ongoing flirting/rivalry with Cora) stole her away from Todd and danced with her, and the bard who has made a point of being a follower of Pelor danced with Embril(!). Lady Rhiavadi also introduced herself to the party and commented to the Nabthatoran character that she personally designed all the costumes, including the Nabthatoran one. She was accompanied by a "hulking, brutish man who seemed uneasy in his fine clothes" - Zarn Kyass, polymorphed. The party found a note signed with a "Z" on the mercenaries in Chapter 2, and are highly suspicious of Zenith (the only person they had heard of with a Z, and is "mysteriously" missing). They didn't seem to react when Rhiavadi mentioned Zarn's name though. So we'll see what happens there. Finally when they got to their table I replaced Bolar with Tygot, as I wanted to personalize Tygot a bit now instead of Bolar, since Tygot returns a few chapters later. I still kept the friendship with Keygan and his questions the same. I also picked up Findas' idea about replacing Geneth (the dwarven guildmaster) with a disguised Jil. I said she was a junior apprentice in Geneth's merchant/gemcutting guild and is a last-minute replacement for Geneth who just didn't want to come (in reality the Last Laugh murdered him.) We stopped here, but she'll play the same role during the Ball, and hopefully seduce one of the party members so I can play up the Last Laugh's status in the campaign. So far it's working like a charm, since just like the party, she seems out of place and awkward and a little bored and mischievous. The cleric (the Nabthatoran character) was bummed we had to end before the finale, as he has been looking forward for months (in real-life) at taking part in a dance-fight with Surabar. All in all, AWESOME conversion! It will definitely be one of the more memorable events in the campaign.
Oh, something else I did to solidify Vhalantru as a good guy in the party's minds was the old standby - he gave them loot. Specifically, as thanks for saving the orphans he gave them special rings that (this is 4E lingo now) as a minor action, could recharge an expended encounter power. Also, the wearer of a ring can sense the general location of all the other rings in the set, as long as they are also being worn. This of course has the hidden side effect of allowing Vhalantru to ALSO track them and scry on them. Also, when they finally confront him, I'm probably going to have him trigger an explosive or paralyzing spell that's been lying dormant in the rings ever since they got them.
I'm playing Vhalantu in a similar fashion, only it's more of a good-cop bad-cop type synergy with the mayor. The mayor is the "bad cop" because his son is the 5th member of the Stormblades, so naturally he favors them over the party. Conversely, Vhalantru is the mayoral advisor who wasn't born a noble, and thinks the Stormblades are spoiled and bratty, so the party likes him as a result. As for roleplaying Vhalantru, I play him pretty much like Bruce Wayne or Tony Stark (Batman, and Iron Man in their civilian personalities) - bumbling, good-natured, easygoing and always slightly drunk. :)
I was considering my campaign plans this week and came up with the idea of using Levistus - the arch-devil frozen in a giant block of ice who rules Stygia, the 5th layer of hell - instead of Adimarchus. I was never a huge fan of the Adimarchus storyline, as I am pretty sure my players wouldn't be very interested in his history/motivations. But an arch-devil? One of the infamous layers of Hell? That's got some potential. Levistus has a plan of using Cauldron's unique environment to parallel his own, as part of a powerful ritual in which his forces would a) flood Cauldron, killing thousands of people in the process, all in his name; b) freeze the now-flooded caldera, creating a massive lake of ice infused with evil and suffering; and finally c) cause the volcano to erupt, shattering the unholy ice, causing a similar chain reaction in Stygia and freeing him. Drakthar's Way / Flood Season
Future Objectives:
Any feedback, potential problems, or suggestions to offer? Obviously this is pretty rough and not fleshed out completely but I'm open to any ideas!
I too am still looking for these adventures! Hopefully someone out there still has them?
I too would like to get this side adventure please! My email is thirteen at gmail dot com - thanks!
We just played through the Flood Festival and by far it was the most enjoyable session we've had in ages. I made a number of changes, drawing heavily on these boards plus stuff from other sources like the RPG Genius site. It's also 4E so the Church of Wee Jas is the Church of the Raven Queen. (Full session recap of the Festival is HERE. Anyways while doing the Drakthar's Way chapter, the party found a magical cauldron that didn't need external flame to heat its contents. (I don't remember if this was something in the actual book or something I just ad-libbed.) In any case, one of the PCs immediately latched onto this cauldron and started lugging it around - you know how PCs get about random treasure. Fast forward to the Flood Festival. As soon as the party "The Stormhammers" heard there was a cooking contest, they immediately entered and had chef hats with their emblem made for the contest. One of the Festival events was a special opportunity at the Church of the Raven Queen to have a speak with dead ritual cast on you so you could speak with a loved one who was deceased, which I threw in there to introduce Embril/Ike Iverson and plus it fit the Raven Queen really well. Well, the party decided to spend a day researching famous chefs so they could get cooking tips and advice so they could win the contest. The character doing the research at the Bluewater Academy rolled a natural 20 on his check so I told him the region's most famous chef was also renowned for other things too - Surabar Spellmason. So they summoned Spellmason's spirit, and convinced him (impromptu Skill Challenge) to help them in the contest, AND found out that the magic cauldron was actually his, and when combined with arcane fire enhanced the taste of whatever was cooked in it. A quick trip over to Vortimax (the party has no mage) to hire him for a flaming sphere spell, and they were set. Oh, and they were also able to use 200 dead bats a party member had brought back from Drakthar's caves. Needless to say, they won the cooking contest and are famous in Cauldron for having the most creative and bizarre dish in Flood Festival history.
Here's what I've had in my Cauldron Chronicle so far:
You might notice some name changes (Vhalantru is now Alahind, Asfelkir is now Rokk Strongarm, Jzadhirune is now Gnomeregan) but it should be easy to decipher.
I am indeed planning on running Delvesdeep's Demonskar Ball, it's one of the things I was most looking forward to prior to even starting the campaign. As it is, each party member received an invitation (which they haven't opened yet) and one of the PCs also got an extra one for "winning" the Drink Down the Flood contest. Incidentally, one of the PCs is also infatuated and flirting constantly with Cora Lanthenmire, and they actually ended up - through random determination - facing off in the drinking contest, which was awesome. That's a good idea to have them go on adventures while the PCs are off doing other things, especially with the whole Zenith story arc. I think I will maybe have them take on the Last Laugh publicly - since Jil in chapter 1 there hasn't been any Last Laugh involvement, and the jester coins has been an ongoing rumor ever since. Any other ideas?
Hi all, I'm running the Shackled City campaign converted over to 4E and I'm wondering how to keep the Stormblades as believable rivals. We are right in the middle of Flood Season, and my party - who has taken the name The Stormhammers because they hate the Stormblades so much - just finishing beating the Stormblades at pretty much every competition during the Festival. Then the Stormblades started a fight with them, further cementing the enmity between the 2 groups. This is all good, but what I am wondering is how the Stormblades will remain relevant compared to the party. I mean, soon the PCs will be famous for saving kidnapped orphans and breaking up a slave ring, stopping goblin vandals, and saving the city itself during its most celebrated event. While in comparison, the Stormblades have...rescued a kidnapped girl from Redgorge way back in Chapter 1, and collapsed the tunnels to Jzadhirune. Why would anyone even consider them rivals after Flood Season? The PCs would be the clear heroes of Cauldron over the Stormblades. Has anyone else encountered this problem? (Oh, I also have a 5th member in the Stormblades, the son of the Lord Mayor, which will explain the political favoring and special treatment the Stormblades get for a while, and has also led to the party disliking the "corrupt" Lord Mayor but liking his "honest" Chancellor ;) However I don't see the special-treatement angle as being believable for more than maybe the next chapter before my players start to point out that it doesn't make sense that citizens would like the Stormblades more than them since they have done way more for the city.)
Wow, that's impressive! I knew those two were from Advent Children, but I had no idea which songs they were. I'm still trying to find out what the two Jzadirune songs are. ...also, I just found out that you can't edit old posts. :\ So I'll have to leave the list for now, until I've got a bunch of new ones to post.
Do you have a song/artist list for those...? Didn't even think of that, I'll add those in if I still have their original source info.
I just started a thread with specific event/songs. It's here. I like to use video game music in my games, as it tends to be a little less recognizable than a lot of movie music. Not all, obviously, but the last thing you want is to ruin a great scene because the players are all too busy looking around for Darth Vader because you're playing something well-known from Star Wars. Final Fantasy: Advent Children has some great songs that would fit a wide range of scenes. As far as video games go, the Silent Hill series has a wide selection of creepy atmospheric music, as would Resident Evil I'm guessing. Devil May Cry games have fast-paced speed-metalish stuff for action scenes. The PS2 game Stella Deus also has amazing music, and a huge track list too.
Hi all, I'm just starting the SCAP, and I've been putting together a soundtrack for various specific events. My players strongly dislike "traditional" medieval music, like you'd hear at a renaissance fair. So these are all a bit less cheesy and hopefully more exciting or suitable. My goal is to have music chosen for important moments, and at other times, not have any music. That way when the music comes on the players know it's time to pay attention and stop throwing erasers at each other, because Important Stuff is about to happen! Here's what I have so far, uploaded as mp3s. It's not much but I'm going to try and figure some more out today. I'll edit the list as more are finalized. The numbers refer to what chapter it takes place in, and I've added what mood/feeling I'm hoping the song will evoke. 01 Jzadirune A
01 Jzadirune B
04 Cusp of Sunrise
04 Kuo-Toa Fortress A
04 Kuo-Toa Fortress B
04 Zenith Splintershield
07 Assaulting the Cathedral
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