Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
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Rob Kuntz is currently working on a new level of Maure Castle, to be published by the magazine in 2005 (possibly with another level as well). Eventually, I'd like to publish a complete Maure Castle dungeoncrawl hardcover book, and at that time all of the cut material will find its way back into the module.
It'll be at least a year, though.
--Erik Mona
Editor-in-Chief
Dragon & Dungeon
PC Death #12 (last one?): PCs buy Alfebain's story hook, line and sinker. They destory the Shield keeping Alfebain in his room. On the way out, Alfebain attacks them in the great hall. Party LG assasin (cap of opposite alignment) moves in to flank one of the two cloud giant maurids (my replacement for maurid Troll Rgr6). Crit, hit, hit. Assasin is a splotch on the ground.
Alfebain is free. What to do now? See other post.
Rob Kuntz is currently working on a new level of Maure Castle, to be published by the magazine in 2005 (possibly with another level as well). Eventually, I'd like to publish a complete Maure Castle dungeoncrawl hardcover book, and at that time all of the cut material will find its way back into the module.
It'll be at least a year, though.
--Erik Mona
Editor-in-Chief
Dragon & Dungeon
Any closer to annoucing a date?
"Eventually, I'd like to publish a complete Maure Castle dungeoncrawl hardcover book, and at that time all of the cut material will find its way back into the module."
Rock.
Is there a PDF available of the Maure Castle edition? I would love to be able to print those maps off.
The next level of Maure Castle, "Chambers of Antiquities," is scheduled for Dungeon #124. Same issue that starts the new Age of Worms Adventure Path.
Cool. Two great tastes that go great together. :)
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Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
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The product isn't even in the pre-announcement stage. It's in the "here's what I'd love to do one day" phase, which is a similar phase to the "wow, I'd love an Audi TT" phase or the "I wish the pretty ones weren't also crazy" phase. In other words, it's just a thought off the top of my head that may never come true.
The way to make a Maure Castle book more likely is to buy the Dungeon and Dragon hardcovers we've already announced when they finally come out later this year. If we can prove there's a market for this type of thing, I'm guessing we'll do a lot more.
--Erik Mona
Editor-in-Chief
Dragon & Dungeon
The way to make a Maure Castle book more likely is to buy the Dungeon and Dragon hardcovers we've already announced when they finally come out later this year. If we can prove there's a market for this type of thing, I'm guessing we'll do a lot more.--Erik Mona
Editor-in-Chief
Dragon & Dungeon
Already pre-ordered. I even pre-ordered it from Paizo directly even though Amazon will be cheaper. Short of throwing you money I cant support you anymore!
Found a snafu: The assasins in room 81 (or so) don't have any spells. They should.Hmmm... they certainly should! Try these out:
Assassin Spells Known (4/3; caster level 5): 1-feather fall, ghost sound, obscuring mist, true strike; 2-cat's grace, darkness, invisibility.
Sorry about that!
Hi James,
I believe these three assassins are in the submission guidelines for Dungeon Magazine, and they don't have spells there, either.
ok, so has anyone else realized that arley the weaver is completely under cr'd? hes an 8th lvl sorc ogre magi with only a cr of 12- ogre magi is cr 8 with 8 lvls of sorc should put him at cr 16.
and his spells...6 zero, 4+1 first, 4+1 second, 3+1 third, 2+1 fourth, 2+1 fifth.
an 8th should have 6/6/6/5/3 not even high enough to cast 5th
with a save dc of 12 plus spell level...his chr of 24 should make it at least 17+spell..
also, how does he have a fly speed of 80 when all other magi get speeds of 40?
ok, so has anyone else realized that arley the weaver is completely under cr'd?
Never realized it. My party kicked in the door and one greatsword critical later Arley was dead. He never got to say "Hi", never mind casting a 5th level spell he shouldn't have.
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2011 Top 16
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MY PC's also just started delving the dungeon and found Arley in his room. I heard them approach however and pulled the "fat, jovial human cursed by a wizard" gag. It was working if not for the perceptive monk and the tiefling ranger who just wanted to put arrows in him.
He said he was under an evil enchantment, so the tried to dispel it (not that you can use dispel magic to dispel curses). Well it negated his polymorph (sp) and I bluffed a horrible transformation into an ogre mage and blamed them for it. One bad bluff check later and the archer was really, REALLY convinced I was evil. Of course his initial arrows barely hurt me.
I used Cone of Cold but the bard, the archer, & the rogue Evaded it, and the wizard's SR handled the rest. Then he Feebleminded me (Nat 1 on the save!). Arley the Weaver was dead in less than 3 rounds.
On a side note (this one directed at James, Eric and Co.) Will the Chamber of Antiquities include a section on how to use it with the whole Eli plot thread? Also, if it is a continuation of issue #112, how much of the adventure will be dependant on whether the PCs have explored the other levels detailed in that issue? It's just something I thought I'd bring up.
arley hears someone(s) - the pcs - trying to get through the door. while averting his eyes he commands the bodaks (since he is down there everyday, he knows about their gaze, plus being a caster it's only appropriate that he should have that spell - magic users catch all for undead...like magic missiles and fireball)
3 magical darkness later, and a silence the pc's round the corner to the chalice area from the main door in utter darkness.
mage steps up to detect magic, then next to dispel the magical darkness, making his check to cast with out being able to hear. dropping 1 of the three he gets greeted with a death gaze for his efforts.
one dead.
ranger tries to run through the darkness to clear out the hallway giving the fighters room to do their thing and also to divert the enemies attention on to two groups instead of all on one.
bodaks take a 5' step into the hallway, as fighters stand back holding their actions so they get full attack options.
bodaks gaze again fighters easily make their save.
fighters charge in to attack.
arley is out of darkvision range in the chalice room with invis on, but still able to see the fight as they are using light sources. he flies closer to cast a wall of force blocking off their retreat (not breaking his invis as he hasn’t targeted anyone yet).
ranger - blinded and deaf from the darkness and silence - tries wading back into the fight. is about to blindly swing in all of his threaten squares as his logic states that he would be behind the bodaks and shouldn’t be able to hit his party members. but then takes out his coin that has continual light casted on it to cancel out the darkness.
bodaks realize (since they are intelligent) that deathgaze might not work on these living bags of meat so they go into melee. while second two pair take 5' steps back and try to gaze with an off chance they roll a 1.
fighters take down the first two, moving on to the second pair.
arley casts grease along the back part of the hallway.
ranger steps in and attacks from behind.
the two bodaks that were stepped past last round thought for destroyed stand back up and gaze at the ranger - fails.
two dead
second set of two attack the fighters.
fighters now start paying attention to the damage they are doing and notice the DR that the bodaks seem to have. attack again. dropping the front two. they also declare that they are both shutting their eyes, accepting the miss chance to avoid the gaze attacks altogether.
arley casts a diagonal wall of force to where there is now only a 5' opening from the hallway into the chalice room, and moves in line of affect to that opening.
bodaks attack and try to gaze only before they realize that their prey have closed their eyes, they plan next round to all attack via melee.
arley casts fireball contained in a 20' area plus the additional damage as the grease ignites (relying on the bodaks resistance to fire to save them) the fighters are caught a little off balance at the additional fire power brought into the fight (no pun intended)
bodaks attack doing damage
one fighter attacks does more damage, the other realizes that since there was a fireball, there must be a mage, which means there is an intelligent creature close by. (fighter had a high intelligence) and tries to parley.
Arley (being chaotic neutral) rolls to see how his mood is. Which turns up pretty good. He tells them that he is going to cast another fireball at them, if they live then he will talk to them, if not it will save him the trouble of dealing with them.
He fireballs, with almost all 5's and 6's the damage knocking one fighter unconscious – the smart one, the other gets ready to charge as he just saw his whole party drop and wants retribution.
Bodaks dont hear what is going on - being in the area of silence - are still in combat mode. they continue their attack, seeing that the fighter is looking around they death gaze him – he rolls a nat one and fails.
Arley comes in, sees that the party is dead - saving him the trouble of dealing with them, tells the bodaks to take care of the trash, after relieving the dead party members of their valuables first of course. the three destroyed bodaks are now replaced with the three party members. as there is no loss Arley doesnt deem it necessary to notify anyone of the altercation. Gathers a new spellbook, new magic items, and the mages journal. Of which, the mage made notes of the vault of shadows and the treasures that lay within…
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Creative Director
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On a side note (this one directed at James, Eric and Co.) Will the Chamber of Antiquities include a section on how to use it with the whole Eli plot thread? Also, if it is a continuation of issue #112, how much of the adventure will be dependant on whether the PCs have explored the other levels detailed in that issue? It's just something I thought I'd bring up.
There's a little bit here and there about linking "Chamber of Antiquities" to issue 112's "Maure Castle." That said, it's a pretty self-contained dungeon. Sure, the only entrance is from the Statuary level in #112, so it's implied that you need to do that adventure to get to this one. At the same point, there's nothing in the adventure itself that says that entrance can't be connected to some other dungoen anywhere else in the world.
You certainly don't need issue #112 to play "Chambers of Antiquities." I see Maure Castle levels as more analagous to a TV show like early X-Files rather than late X-Files. You can pretty much jump in at any dungeon level and not feel like you're missing out on tons of back story, but if you KNOW that back story, you'll get a kick out of the connections.
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Creative Director
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Of course, the lazy way to explain Arley's ability to create items with spells he doesn't have is to assume he's had access to staffs, wands, and scrolls that contained all the necessary spells he needed. I don't think this is too unbelievable; Arley's been around for years, after all.
If this question has been answered just humour me and pretend it hasn't please ;). OK now to my question -
The Lost City of Elders.....??? What do people know about it and why is it so 'addictive' to Tomorast?
Delvesdeep
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Senior Software Developer
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Is there a PDF available of the Maure Castle edition? I would love to be able to print those maps off.
Dungeon #112 is now available as a downloadable PDF.
One bad bluff check later and the archer was really, REALLY convinced I was evil. Of course his initial arrows barely hurt me.
I used Cone of Cold but the bard, the archer, & the rogue Evaded it, and the wizard's SR handled the rest. Then he Feebleminded me (Nat 1 on the save!).
Geez - you know your in trouble when your DM starts refering to the monsters as 'me'.
You have to know your up a creek without a paddle when the DM starts sniffling and muttering 'you killed me' after you take down the CE Tiefling Ranger/Assasin in the third room of the Dungeon.
If this question has been answered just humour me and pretend it hasn't please ;). OK now to my question -
The Lost City of Elders.....??? What do people know about it and why is it so 'addictive' to Tomorast?
Can anyone help me out?
Delvesdeep
It's not made clear in the adventure. Tomorast is plainly interested in ancient lore of all sorts, and this could simply be his windmill to tilt at.The newest Dungeon, with the "Chambers of Antiquities" Maure add-on, contains some additional information on the Lost City and the Maure's explorations of it, so it's conceivable that the only reason Tomorast began studying Maure Castle was to gain additional knowledge of the demiplane.
Thanks for your reply Infomatic. I was curious to know whether the City is sourse of great power/spells/arcane resorces or simple where their are very powerful beings who could potentially 'teach/metor' Tomorast.
I will be lookking forward to looking through the new levels and see if this sheds any more light on the situation.
Thankyou once again
Delvesdeep
Bump - just 'cause this is such a great thread.
PC Death #12 (last one?): PCs buy Alfebain's story hook, line and sinker. They destory the Shield keeping Alfebain in his room. On the way out, Alfebain attacks them in the great hall. Party LG assasin (cap of opposite alignment) moves in to flank one of the two cloud giant maurids (my replacement for maurid Troll Rgr6). Crit, hit, hit. Assasin is a splotch on the ground.
Alfebain is free. What to do now? See other post.
Just noticed a post of yours in the last few hours and that reminded me about your story on this one.
With that in mind I'd like to know how this all turn out for your party in the end?
This thread really ought to be moved to the Maure Castle Forum.
Any way I'm having a riot running my players through this thing. Here are a couple of the quotes from the last few sessions.
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Tim: "Just how many hps does this thing have?"
Keir: "No kidding this is insane, I can just see Jeremy at home prepping this thing - (parroting my voice) You know all my monsters keep dying when they run out of hps, I think I should stop paying attention to those".
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Keir: "Doesn't he scream in horror or something while he's destroying all his magic items? Mike you have got to yell for help!"
Mike: "I am yelling - haven't you been listening!"
Keir: "No I mean your character."
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Mike: "You bastard! That trap was just vicious, I though I was just risking my characters life! How could you do that to him!"
DM Jeremy: "What part of 'I'm f%%@ing evil' do you guys not understand?"
I've remembered a couple of other funny scenes from last nights game and will toss them out here.
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After the players have thrown away around 15,000 gp in the magic destroying room.
DM Jeremy: "Well I did warn you guys with that danger symbol made by a powerful mage."
Seth: "Yeah but we are adventurers - DANGER - is bait! It means come quick!"
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The players are trying to figure out how to search the pool with the Het Fish. They've been frustrated by the fact that the Het fish are a swarm thats immersed in water - so they are in brainstorming mode.
Keir:"We could hire fishermen."
Dave:"Seth check out the stats on Elementals - I can summon those, oh and pass me Players Handbook II."
Seth:"We could summon a Giant Octopus, Oh look! Fiendish Dire Shark!"
DM Jeremy: What the hell are you guys doing? Making 'Joe's Evil Marina?'
Keir: "We could start a bucket brigade"
I've remembered a couple of other funny scenes from last nights game and will toss them out here.
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After the players have thrown away around 15,000 gp in the magic destroying room.
DM Jeremy: "Well I did warn you guys with that danger symbol made by a powerful mage."
Seth: "Yeah but we are adventurers - DANGER - is bait! It means come quick!"
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The players are trying to figure out how to search the pool with the Het Fish. They've been frustrated by the fact that the Het fish are a swarm thats immersed in water - so they are in brainstorming mode.Keir:"We could hire fishermen."
Dave:"Seth check out the stats on Elementals - I can summon those, oh and pass me Players Handbook II."
Seth:"We could summon a Giant Octopus, Oh look! Fiendish Dire Shark!"
DM Jeremy: What the hell are you guys doing? Making 'Joe's Evil Marina?'
Keir: "We could start a bucket brigade"
I don't even have the .pdf yet for Dungeon 112 (although I do have issues 124 and 139 in various forms), but I'm really getting a kick out of reading this thread!
"Danger" is bait! Joe's Evil Marina!
ROTFL! :)
I'm really looking forward to running these three adventures some time in the future. They're in the same queue as Savage Tide, Age of Worms, Rise of the Runelords, Second Darkness, etc. So many good adventures, so little time! :(
"Danger" is bait! Joe's Evil Marina!ROTFL! :)
Glad you liked them. I'll try and post more from future sessions. there is something about high level killer dungeons that make them really good for funny quotes. Maybe its because if my players didn't laugh they'd go out on the balcony and slit their wrists.
Monday's session was short and essentially just a single combat but a couple of fun scenes stick out.
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Taking a page from some other evil DM that frequents the boards I had Yug-Anark raise the Advanced Tryg and the lesser Trygs after my players killed them the first time.
Keir: What kind of dungeon is this? Who ever heard of a dungeon where you have to kill all the monsters twice?
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So one of the players died last session (party Ninja) and the player shows up but his character is not yet done. I pretty much tell the players we can just have him come charging into whatever situation the rest of the players are in when the character is finished.
So the rest of the players are in a big fight (with the undead Tyrgs above) when I jump them with a totally cheesed out Wilder/Anarchaic Initiate (I've replaced all the Seekers with classed NPCs). The Anarchaic Initiate proceeds to blast two of the players with energy missle for a whopping 17d6+34 cold damage. One player drops on the spot to -8 and the other is severely damaged.
I'm returning from taking a leak and am now just outside of the game room so I can hear the players talking.
Keir: Holy hell we are so screwed. The Seth's Paladin is nearly gone and your cleric is down and about to die.
Seth: We need reinforcements now! We've got to get Mike's character in here to help. I know! I'll distract the DM with cold beer and munchies. Kier you start choosing Mike's magic items, Dave you choose his feats. Hurry! fast, fast!
Seth:[charging out of the games room and grabbing my arm] Jeremy you've got to try this new beer I bought, oh and I've got a special treat for you!
Seth: [almost literally drags me up to the kitchen] Oh here's a stein for you and, uh, here's some special Beer I got sent to me from Amsterdam. Oh, and, uh, [He starts rummaging through the fridge] Here I wanted you to have this lasagna my girlfriend cooked for me.
DM Jeremy: I thought she cooked that for your lunch tomorrow?
Seth: Yeah, but, ummm, uh - I've become Vegan!
DM Jeremy: Sputter! What! Really?!?
Seth: Well, uh, just for 24 hours...
DM Jeremy: [spitting up and choking on some damn fine brew] What are you talking about? I don't think there's any such thing as Vegan for 24 hours!
So yesterday's game had a few funny outbursts. I always have a hard time remembering them after the fact but I do recall one here.
The PCs arrive at Yug-Anark's room.
DM Jeremy (as Yug-Anark): How dare you defile my room! Your presence near his alter is a...
Keir: We're the interior desecrators - this is a house call.
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So yesterday's game had a few funny outbursts. I always have a hard time remembering them after the fact but I do recall one here.
The PCs arrive at Yug-Anark's room.
DM Jeremy (as Yug-Anark): How dare you defile my room! Your presence near his alter is a...
Keir: We're the interior desecrators - this is a house call.
Lol! Good stuff man keep it coming.
24-hour Vegans and interior desecrators ... keep it coming! :)
After a couple of weak sessions this last one was pretty good. Lots of laughter, I'll see if I can come up with some fun exchanges.
The dominate Spell is very popular with my players so there was lots of fun around that.
Chucks Cerbermancer has dominated a nasty enemy Scorpion Clan Warrior (my version of the Seekers).
Chuck: Your such a good boy! I think I'll call you Ardy. We are going to be best friends forever. When we are not adventuring we can play Tea Time! You know how to do tea ceremonies right? You can teach me and we can have Tea Ceremonies. It'll be so much fun. I'll even let you share my rations and everything! We'll have so much fun together forever!
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The players are wondering why the spell even lists that you have to spend one round a day keeping the dominate up.
Dave: What? are you going to forget? Had to much to do that day and it just slipped your mind to spend six seconds concentrating on the spell?
Seth: Imagine what your wife would say if you did? I mean you send your dominated servant off to get the groceries and suddenly the dominate ends. Rampage in the supermarket for sure.
Mike: Hope that does'nt happen after you sent him to pick the kids up from school.
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Later Chuck dominates one of Yug-Anarks Gnolls.
Chuck: Eww...your an ugly gnoll. I'm not going to share my rations with you and your not allowed to play Tea Time with me and Ardy!
Kier: So your instituting a class hierarchy among your dominated servants?
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My player Chuck is an accountant by trade and the players clear out a room which shows how the money flows among the varous factions in the dungeon. Eli uses 'antiquities' to pay the Clan Warriors, money flows to Yug-Anark and her Gnolls as well as to the Tryg trainer and Arley the Weaver etc.
Chuck: Is there no place that accounting does not follow me?!? This is frigging swords and sorcery fantasy and now its also accounting? It's like accounting is chasing me around and accosting me in dark alleys and such.
DM Jeremy: I was going to make a hand out including all the numbers and actually let you guys crack the books as a puzzle but didn't find the time...
Chuck: I swear I'd have beaten you to death with the Players Handbook.
Oh, I forgot one.
Chucks just dominated one one the Gnolls and another is trying to flee the fight. My players don't want that to happen as it'll give their location away.
Chuck: I can have my Gnoll grapple the other Gnoll.
Dave: Don't do that, he'll get a free save.
Seth: Tell him to give his friend a big hug!
Keir: Tell him its a party...Give his friend a hug and that he's bringing him to a party.
Mike: We have cake! What kind of a cake does a Gnoll like?
Seth: Tell him we have doggy biscuit cake!
Mike: It smells just bacon! Bacon Bitz cake.
My campaign is on the verge of collapse at this point. Only a desire by some of the players to finish a game thats been going on for years is holding it together by the thinnest of strings. I think we'll get some of the attritioned players back when we switch to 4E as its the complexity of higher level play thats causing many of the players to loose interest. That and the fact that the players have begun to run a Zoo...Paladin's Dragon Mount, another from the leadership feat, some of the low level followers are even brought along. Cleric has a spells that bring in a slew of Lantern Archons, the mage and Psion are dominating enemies. I think the total party number is around 11 individuals at this point which makes for long rounds. This is exasperated when we can only seem to get enough players together to play once a month so everyone is having an even harder time with the rules then they would normally considering that higher level 3.5 is complex.
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Kudo's to Paizo on the well designed creature layout - Several of my players commented on just how well organized my (now dominated) NPCs were and of course I use Paizo layout for my guys.
Anyway aside from my frustrations with my inability to use Maure Castle to really add pazazz to the end of our campaign and 3.5 there was one funny scene in tonights game.
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One of the Dragons is stabbed by a Ninja with a poisoned Rapiar, poison is Dragon Bile. I had thought that Dragons were immune to poison but the player could not find that in the monster manual (I'm going to check out the SRD after this post). so I basically said...
DM Jeremy: OK thats DC 26 Fort or take 3d6 strength damage.
Chuck: DM incompetence, DM incompetence...how can a Dragon be poisoned by Dragon Bile. You should roll to see if the bile comes from teh same type of Dragon!
DM Jeremy: I don't see that in the rules.
Chuck: What! its basically Dragon spit! Their own spit makes them weak?!?
DM Jeremy: Well if you injected my with Dave's spit that might make me weak in the knees too.
Jeremy, I'm sorry to hear that your campaign is grinding to a halt under the excess baggage of pets.
While I haven't forced this point with my players, I do encourage them to take all sorts of alternative class features which replace pets. There are many options available in 3.5 in the splatbooks (including the PH2).
This still doesn't solve the issue of pets which turn up because of Summon Monster spells and the like, but at least those can be killed off without screams from the players. :)
Jeremy, I'm sorry to hear that your campaign is grinding to a halt under the excess baggage of pets.
While I haven't forced this point with my players, I do encourage them to take all sorts of alternative class features which replace pets. There are many options available in 3.5 in the splatbooks (including the PH2).
This still doesn't solve the issue of pets which turn up because of Summon Monster spells and the like, but at least those can be killed off without screams from the players. :)
After some discussion we seemed to smooth over the worst of the problems. Some of the problem was maybe expectations at the table and a tendency for some of the players to want to rush things to much in order to finally finish the campaign. That said the pets were significantly reduced which did help to some degree.
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Anyway this session was certianly better --- now for the funnies.
So I did not really have any background on what exactly the Rager Vagarion's are. I ran them as very impish prior to the players interrupting their game of 'Pooh Ball'. Basically the room is described as being absolutely flooded with excrement - to the point where it acts as difficult terrain.
So the Vagarions spent their time whipping balls of excrement at each other in some kind of a sick version of snowball fighting.
When the players killed one of of the Vagarions said (in Abyssal - which the players can understand) "Yay! Now I am Interdimensional Poohball Champion!"
When the players killed the second last Rager Vagarion "No! You've totally ruined Poohball!"
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Finished this campaign off. I ultimately cut it a bit short choosing to put the widget the PCs were looking for in Kerzit's lair.
Unfortunately for me the Kerzit battle was pretty anti-climatic. Kerzit's SR is phenomenal but my 14th level wizards player is actually able to get his caster level up fairly high. Spell Penetration, improved spell penetration, some kind of ion stone, there might be a few other knick knacks he adds as well.
Hence he started off casting dimensional anchor on Kerzit and when he got lucky and that worked the first time he used it (he does sometimes have to cast the spell repeatedly to get past SRs in the 30s) he followed that up next round with force cage. After that its just a matter of buffing through the wazoo while laughing at the Demon Lord. Once all buffs are done down comes the force cage and and everyone pounds Kerzit into the ground.
Needless to say I was pretty frustrated by that encounter. I was however able to make it up somewhat by having a couple of recurring NPCs kick in the door and make a bid for the widget as the last fight and these two were able to put up some kind of a fight as they were a Wilder and a Sorcerer with builds that were somewhat able to withstand my players. The players finally beat them (after two sessions of combat and with that I end the adventure, my campaign, and my run with 3.5.
My biggest pet peeve with Castle Maure was that the inclusion of the Seekers actually seemed to damage the adventure as a whole. My players essentially followed the Seekers nearly straight too the main temple on level three and missed out on most of the interesting encounters. The Seekers, even my heavily modified version there of, are just about the least interesting encounters in Castle Maure so their existence kind of creates a line through the adventure that dodges most of the truly interesting encounters.