I'll take this to a new thread under D&D general...
ASEO out
Whispering Cairn: Lair of the Architect Room #11: The Gallery.
There are some serious errors with the map and the description of the room. According to the map, it appears that the tool closet trap is at the south end of the central pillar. However, in the description of the room in the adventure it states that the tool closet is on the pillar's east face. What the heck!? "The central pillar's east face bears a similar niche.." According to the map, the compass indicates that the niches of the central pillar run north/south, not east/west. "A dry fountain along the south face of the central pillar features.." Again, looking at the map, it appears that the tool closet and the column trap are on the south face, not a dry fountain. The only way this makes sense to me is that the fountain basin is the northern niche which is covered in brown mold. Massive screw ups with this room. Fortunately, my party didn't get to that part yet as they had to go back up to the first level and rest after being gassed, fighting the lurking strangler, and one PC getting all the heat sucked out of him from the brown mold. I noticed these mistakes in a read through last night after the session ended.
Whispering Cairn: Lair of the Architect Room #11: The Gallery.
There are some serious errors with the map and the description of the room. According to the map, it appears that the tool closet trap is at the south end of the central pillar. However, in the description of the room in the adventure it states that the tool closet is on the pillar's east face. What the heck!? "The central pillar's east face bears a similar niche.." According to the map, the compass indicates
The compass is wrong on the map. North is up. And when you move the slab in area 9, it goes to the west, not north.
Peace and smiles :)
j.
Whispering Cairn: Lair of the Architect Room #11: The Gallery.
There are some serious errors with the map and the description of the room. According to the map, it appears that the tool closet trap is at the south end of the central pillar. However, in the description of the room in the adventure it states that the tool closet is on the pillar's east face. What the heck!? "The central pillar's east face bears a similar niche.." According to the map, the compass indicates
The compass is wrong on the map. North is up. And when you move the slab in area 9, it goes to the west, not north.
Peace and smiles :)
j.
Even if that were so, it still screws things up, because the description states that the fountain of nutrient sludge is on the west wall of the room's central pillar, which actually does match the way they have the map's compass.
So, I switch the compass, and make the niches east/west and the fountain of sludge at the southern end. Croikee! What a pain in the arse! : D But at least I'm not seeing things. Thanks J!
Even if that were so, it still screws things up, because the description states that the fountain of nutrient sludge is on the west wall of the room's central pillar, which actually does match the way they have the map's compass.
So, I switch the compass, and make the niches east/west and the fountain of sludge at the southern end. Croikee! What a pain in the arse! : D But at least I'm not seeing things. Thanks J!
Yeah, that was the other mistake. But you got it figured out now.
I ended reading the text out loud and I had to explain the f!$@ups to the players, they were understanding.
Peace and smiles :)
j.
Even if that were so, it still screws things up, because the description states that the fountain of nutrient sludge is on the west wall of the room's central pillar, which actually does match the way they have the map's compass.
So, I switch the compass, and make the niches east/west and the fountain of sludge at the southern end. Croikee! What a pain in the arse! : D But at least I'm not seeing things. Thanks J!Yeah, that was the other mistake. But you got it figured out now.
I ended reading the text out loud and I had to explain the f%@!ups to the players, they were understanding.
Peace and smiles :)
j.
Dude, I thought the Lair of the Architect was going to be a disaster, the strangler kept hiding (it's ungodly hide modifier) from the PCs and zapping them with its sleep and fear rays, amazingly, most of the PCs made their saves. However, the cleric and the fighter NPCs failed their saves and were down, the monk PC tries to burn the brown mold with the torch and gets knocked out. I decided to have the lurking strangler start strangling the party members as the half-orc barbarian is dragging the unconscious monk away from the brown mold. The half orc PC sees the lurker and tries to chop at it with his axe (while its wrapped around the throat of the fighter NPC, the half orc's wisdom score is horrible), kills the fighter NPC in the process and successfully grapples it with as it attempts to strangle the cleric. Eventually the half-orc squeezes it in half. Once the cleric wakes up, everybody decides to get the heck out of dodge and rest in the sarcophagus chamber.
For a few tense minutes I thought the party was toast. That is really deadly part of the Cairn!
For all you DM's whose PCs have passed the Lair of the Architect- how did your PCs defeat the brown mold in room #11, the Gallery? Did they do it or did they avoid it?
For all you DM's whose PCs have passed the Lair of the Architect- how did your PCs defeat the brown mold in room #11, the Gallery? Did they do it or did they avoid it?
My group has gotten into a very good habit of scouting. They quickly figured out that body heat and flame were bad ideas and decided to try cold. They ended up waiting until a spellcaster could use ray of frost at a new level.
The mold can be a problem, but how embarrasing would it be to be tpk'ed (albeit non-lethal) to brown mold? When i ran this encounter, i tried to describe the unnatural heat syphoning effect as very dangerous 10 ft beyond the radius in which the non-leathal damage would occur. Also, even though knowledge-Dungeoneering cannot be used untrained, (BTW DC 12 is more than reasonable) I gave any 'Races of Stone' (i.e. the dwarf in the party) a chance to identify the phenomenon (DC 15). he rolled a 16, warmage popped it with a ray of frost, end of story.
Hey thanks guys! Of course, there's no mage in the party! I've completely forgotten about ray of frost. What level is the spell?
Hey thanks guys! Of course, there's no mage in the party! I've completely forgotten about ray of frost. What level is the spell?
It's a cantrip => 0 level spell.
yup when the mages let loose those puppies well...well you know they are almost out of spells and the trouble is about to hit the fan.
Starting my party out tommorrow on it. Any way you can include a few more handouts, I see that most of these dungeon modules tend to be alittle short on the player handouts. Remember Tomb of Horrors, or Expedition to the Great Barrier Peaks with 60+ handouts. The biggest problem with the handouts I do have is they are mostle on the right side of your mag, which means to give out the colored version, you have to cut the back of the future page.
I counted 4 out of 7 that can be used as handouts on the right side. All-in-all it sounds great, feedback to come how the 1st level dorks make out. Also another question: When will you guys start up the mini-quests or what you used to call side-treck modules in your magazine, and if you could tie them in to the campaign arc as side quests that do not affect the story. King of like secretwars did in Marvel with their tie-ins. Wow I just showed my age, and level of geekness.
If you can get access to a scanner I would just scan hand outs and do a quick fix in something like Photoshop. If you don't have Photoshop use GIMP. Its free adn just about as poweerful. Get the hand outs printed out either on a colour printer if you have one or you should be able to use a copy centre like Kinko's for a very reasonable price.
I make hand-outs like crazy for my players and mostly its really just not that pricy and well worth the cost.
For all you DM's whose PCs have passed the Lair of the Architect- how did your PCs defeat the brown mold in room #11, the Gallery? Did they do it or did they avoid it?
My group is about it hit it this weekend (they saw it, but didn't come within 5' of it, so they retreated to let the poison gas wear off). We have no arcane spellcaster (a druid and a cleric is what we have). So I did hint that the spell "Endure Elements" will help with it. On review of the rules, I'm reading Brown Mold as basically a natural refridgerator (the effects of Brown Mold is no different from exposure from a cold environment) so I'm going to rule that "Endure Elements" will protect from the mold.
However, if they bring their lantern within 5' of the mold... It is going to get bigger - and leave them in the dark...
Fortunately (for them), I flubbed the Lurking Strangler encounter - The lurker got surprise, failed to sleep the barbarian or cause fear in the elf. Next round, the party won initiative, the barbarian made his saving throws, so it went down.
For all you DM's whose PCs have passed the Lair of the Architect- how did your PCs defeat the brown mold in room #11, the Gallery? Did they do it or did they avoid it?My group is about it hit it this weekend (they saw it, but didn't come within 5' of it, so they retreated to let the poison gas wear off). We have no arcane spellcaster (a druid and a cleric is what we have). So I did hint that the spell "Endure Elements" will help with it. On review of the rules, I'm reading Brown Mold as basically a natural refridgerator (the effects of Brown Mold is no different from exposure from a cold environment) so I'm going to rule that "Endure Elements" will protect from the mold.
However, if they bring their lantern within 5' of the mold... It is going to get bigger - and leave them in the dark...
Fortunately (for them), I flubbed the Lurking Strangler encounter - The lurker got surprise, failed to sleep the barbarian or cause fear in the elf. Next round, the party won initiative, the barbarian made his saving throws, so it went down.
I don't know if you flubbed it. In fact, I may have flubbed it, because in my campaign, I had it so that any creatures can't see the lurking strangler's eye rays, so the PCs kept being hit by them and making their saving throws, while failing
their Listen & Spot Checks. The strangler was making huge numbers on its Hide and Move Silently checks, at least 20 plus every time. Finally, the rogue heard it whirring around, but still he couldn't see it.Good thing your PCs saw it.
I've always DM'ed with the assumption that anytime there's a saving throw being made, the character *knows* something is going on. They feel the hairs on the back of their neck prick up, or they feel queasy, or suddenly very sleepy but they shake it off. To have something virtually undetectable flinging these effects at them time and time again is nefarious.
I've always DM'ed with the assumption that anytime there's a saving throw being made, the character *knows* something is going on. They feel the hairs on the back of their neck prick up, or they feel queasy, or suddenly very sleepy but they shake it off. To have something virtually undetectable flinging these effects at them time and time again is nefarious.
Oh I had the PCs feel the hairs on the back of their necks stand up and a slight tingly sensation every time they made their saves.But they thought it was a trap they kept triggering from the statues, after many of them were gassed from the previous trap, they decided to run out of the hall right into.. the brown mold.
I noticed that on pg. 34 of Dungeon #124 Alastor Land does not have all the abilities of a typical ghost on pgs. 117-118 of the Monster Manual.
He lacks corrupting gaze, corrupting touch, draining touch, and frightful moan. What's the deal with that?
I noticed that on pg. 34 of Dungeon #124 Alastor Land does not have all the abilities of a typical ghost on pgs. 117-118 of the Monster Manual.
He lacks corrupting gaze, corrupting touch, draining touch, and frightful moan. What's the deal with that?
Read the Special Attacks intro of the ghost template carefully. It says:
"The ghost also gains a manifestation ability plus one to three other special attacks as described below."
The attacks Alastor has were chosen from the list in the Monster Manual.
I noticed that on pg. 34 of Dungeon #124 Alastor Land does not have all the abilities of a typical ghost on pgs. 117-118 of the Monster Manual.
He lacks corrupting gaze, corrupting touch, draining touch, and frightful moan. What's the deal with that?
Read the Special Attacks intro of the ghost template carefully. It says:
"The ghost also gains a manifestation ability plus one to three other special attacks as described below."
The attacks Alastor has were chosen from the list in the Monster Manual.
Hey Q- thanks for bringing to my attention the fine print.
I'll go to my corner and put on the "Dunce" cap again. :D
On pg. 40 of Dungeon #124 it states that Merovinn Bask's brooch of shielding has 35 charges. On the DMG pg. 250 it states that brooch has no charges; however, it can absorb up to 101 points of magic missle damage. Shouldn't pg. 40 read that the brooch is capable of absorbing only 35 more points of magic missle damage?
On pg. 40 of Dungeon #124 it states that Merovinn Bask's brooch of shielding has 35 charges. On the DMG pg. 250 it states that brooch has no charges; however, it can absorb up to 101 points of magic missle damage. Shouldn't pg. 40 read that the brooch is capable of absorbing only 35 more points of magic missle damage?
That's what I took it to mean.