Well met! Well I've started a combination play by post campaign that will be used in conjunction with a weekly chat room online gaming session. I was using Screen Monkey but looking to give Fantasy Grounds a try.
Thus far the players have met in the old abandoned mining office, agreed to attempt to find the cairn, gotten inside, and have just bested the wolves from area 5. So obviously I'm just scratching the surface here but so far so good.
I've made a couple of changes to the Forgotten Realms conversion. Instead of beginning in Daggerford I chose to start them in Daggerfalls. I also started them in 1359...the Year of the Worm as Zhentish rule in Dagger Falls would add to the oppressive atmosphere. I think I may even sandwhich in the Doom of Daggerfalls into the campaign between visits to the cairn. It seems very easy to mold it all together.
I hope all of the other DM's are having good experiences. Share some of your highlights or concerns here.
The adventuring party I'm dealing with consists of:
A shield dwarf cleric of Haela Brightaxe
A monk from the Twilight brotherhood
A ranger from the Bronzewood Lodge
A wizard who is the student of Alustan
Wish me well.
Just finished the 1st installment with I think a resounding success! My groupmlooks like this:
Human Wizard (trained as a Collegiate Wizard in the Free City)
Half-Elven Ranger (Bronzewood Lodge)
Human Cleric of Pelor (again from the Free City)
Human Rogue (from Diamond Lake)
I'm using the default world of Greyhawk settings.
Good luck out there!
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My group has made it through the whispering cairn and have entered the Hextor temple. We just cliffed the game and they are camping out in area 3. The Hextor clerics await them in area 11 for the ambush. They really like it so, 1 big fight or not, so far so good.
Sayla Paylandra: a human female, exalted healer, patron to those society has shunned. Currently working as a medic to the working girls of the Midnight Salute.
Eldon, The Jade Fox: A male halfling rogue, tomb raider/antiquarian/would be merchant. Currently renovating the mine office into a shop.
Jeb: a male human Ranger, a mysterious and rough around the edges mountain man with a wicked three pronged bladed gauntlet.
Alldoun: A 13 year old human male sorcerer, on the run from his noble blooded family.
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The Pc's went around and actually caught the hextorite priests off gaurd. They party camped out so the "ambush" party was exhausted waiting for an attack all night. the hextorites were wasted, though 4 of 5 party members went to negatives. They cliffed and the party camped out in area 11 after figuribg out the door mechanism.
Next game:
The group enters the grimlock caves and fall for every ambush. By the time they meet Gralluk they are all near death. And then the onslaught of crit rolls from the players wash in, tearing the grimlocks apart in the finale. The players make their way back to area 11 in the hextor temple and lock themselves back in.
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We just finished the first half of The Whispering Cairn (set in Eberron). The party consists of:
A Changeling Rogue
A Warforged Fighter (sub. level from RoE)
A Half-Elf Artificer of House Lyrander
Only 3 players made it even more challenging. They defeated the wolves; ran from the first acid beetle swarm; killed the mad slasher; killed both giant bombadier beetles and the final beetle swarm.
They got lucky on a few rolls and not so lucky on a few others (typical D&D). It will be interesting to see how they finish tWC up now that they made 2nd level (I know-I was surprised too).
Quickest combat ever.. Fighting the earth elemental in Lair of the Architect.
The elven monk of Heironeous wins initiative, gets a crit on flurry of blows and smashes the crap out of "Eggbert." After that I decided: no more CR 1 encounters for a bit!
So I decide to try and send the party on some sidequests outside of Diamond Lake that are CR 2 and 3;the same monk almost dies fighting an ettercap. It's tough to balance things out sometimes you know?
Quickest combat ever.. Fighting the earth elemental in Lair of the Architect.
The elven monk of Heironeous wins initiative, gets a crit on flurry of blows and smashes the crap out of "Eggbert." After that I decided: no more CR 1 encounters for a bit!
So I decide to try and send the party on some sidequests outside of Diamond Lake that are CR 2 and 3;the same monk almost dies fighting an ettercap. It's tough to balance things out sometimes you know?
True.
My solution is to simply not try. I decide in advance more or less what lives where and what they plan to do. If the monster is too powerful the players better have an escape route or they are toast. If the monsters are too weak then they get a cake walk. They never really seem to mind the cake walks that much. Eventually they find the stuff thats challanging for them. Their smart enough not to visit trhe dragon when low level and I stop dropping hints about goblin lairs when they get up there.
My party journeyed to Elmshire and back on some sidequests. A couple of the PCs are at 3rd level.
The party now consists of: halfling sorceror
elven monk of Heironeous
(both played by one player)
half-elf rogue
half-orc ranger
human cleric of Fharlaghn (NPC)
I ran the PCs up against an ogre... bad idea. Given the circumstances. The ogre ran into the PCs as they were finishing up dinner at their campsite in the Cairn Hills. I wonder if the ogre in MM shouldn't be bumped up one or two CRs. (It's listed as a CR3 creature) The monster has a +8 to hit in melee and does 2d8+7 damage with its greatclub. That creature will smash to death at least one PC at levels one to three, and I'd say even at fourth level the ogre will slay at least one PC in several circumstances. Of course, with parties with higher numbers of PCs maybe it won't be so bad (a party of at least 6 characters plus). Rolling high on the d20 didn't help matters either. So I fudged it. But I won't be sending an ogre at the PCs again for a while.
The party has cleared the Lair of the Architect of the Whispering Cairn. Allustan suggested to the party that they lay low for a while as he awaits the Chronicle of Chan from the Greyhawk Library. The PCs have been keepin notes and diagrams of the Cairn as per Allustan's request. Now the Wizard's curiousity of the Cairn is really piqued. In Dungeon #124 it says that the book takes a week to get into Allustan's hands. Hence, the sidequests.
Next session the PCs will be hitting the Lair of the Laborers, which should be really interesting, as I don't think any of the PCs picked the Swim skill.
My party at this point is:
Gnome Cleric (At this point NPC - New Fathers make undependable players) - Sent from Grossengrottel, attended a pregnancy of a gnome prostitute in Emporium and was accused of theft on the way out.
Gnome Druid w/ Wolf companion - Sent from the lodge, wants to burn down the city at this point.
Elf rogue - Works for Moonmeadow, worried about his sister who is having WAAAYYY too much fun at the Emporium.
Human barbarian - Was part of a trade expedition from the southern lands that was taken out by orcs. He's been working as a miner.
Since the human and elf have lived in Diamond Lake for a while, they knew about the teenager who died in the Whipering Cairn. So they went in and took out the wolves without issue, found the tunnel to the true tomb (but hasn't gone up there yet - the skeleton scared them off), and then had a number of poor STR rolls to get the sarcophogus to move.
Eventually they got to the Lair of the Architect (after a brief issue of that the elf went down first - without the lantern. I said it was completely dark AND HE WOULDN'T GET OUT OF THE ELEVATOR, so it wouldn't return up).
They took out the strangler and was stopped by the mold. They rested from the gas trap and returned. The cleric (ran by another PC that time) cast "Endure Elements" on himself and crossed the mold and played with the statue.
Then the barbarian engaged in gnome-tossing to send the druid over the mold as well (with a rope tied to him) The druid touched the egg and kicked off the elemental. No-one spoke terran so the attack began. The party retreated out of the chamber, so the elemental couldn't get to them. So the party shot about 20 arrows at the thing while the cleric held him in melee range.
After that they returned to the surface and moved the sarcophagus to green (they found the red lantern in the wolf den) and faced the beetles and slasher, where they learned the uses of pints of lamp oil.
After much rope work with the barbarian the party finished going downstairs where they took on the beetle in the sleeping room. Die rolls were awful all around, but they killed him - THEN I noticed the bit on the fatigue effect on the room... (Note to self - READ THE ROOM COMPLETELY!)
They went into the beetle room again, and proceed to dump another 4 pints of oil onto the floor...
Next session, the underwater room - They will probably have to leave the cleric behind - He only moves 15' a round. They just reached 2nd level, so at least there is less chances of death on one hit now.
I do need to get some wandering monsters at some point, they are getting too complacent up in the mine house.
Share some of your highlights or concerns here.
***** CONTAINS SOME POSSIBLE SPOILERS *****
Inspirational videos to watch before heading int the AoW: National Treasure, The Deadwood HOB series season one, and From Hell. (Please feel free to list others.)
My campiagn is set in the Eberron campaign setting. I am not playing a "pure" campaign as I have incorporated many other aspects of D&D in the world setting.
The PC party is composed of the following:
Tzin Ho Lee: A mysterious and devious monk. (male)
Rugaz: A bad tempered male half-orc
Rhiannath: A female half-elf warrior of few words.
John: A greedy human male fighter mercenary
Shirey: A female human with a keen eye and strong bow.
Yuna: A female human paladin.
Sasha: A female shifter barbarian.
Khaleb: A half-elf rouge working for House Cannith.
Keevan: A male human ranger bounty hunter.
Having recently returned from a massive dungeon crawl, the playing characters wandered into Diamond Lake seeking some solace. They witnessed the murder of a professor of ancient history from Morgrave University who was in Diamond Lake investigating the possibiliity of the surfacing of a new Wind Duke tomb. Having witnessed the murder, the PCs were instructed not the leave Diamond Lake for a few days until the finer details could be figured out by the Law. Not long after, a represenative of Morgrave University hired the PCs to raid the tomb that had recently been discovered by the murdered professor. Recent discoveries revealed that although the tomb had been looted of many of its valuable contents in the past, that there may be a section of the tomb that was never actually explored. (False tomb, true tomb. Refer to National Treasure]
Instead of a pack of wolves, the characters did encounter a pack of Worgs who had taken up residence in the tomb. Passing into the unexplored territory included bartering with the Worrgs for safe passage.
During the Whispering Cairn expedition, four members of the party were seriously injured. Two fell to the ingenious traps within the tomb, and two others fell to the final guardians. They were escorted back to the Houses of Healing in Diamond Lake.
Interestingly enough, the following developments took place in the Whispering Cairn: (1) The PCs double crossed Alastor Land, and exorcised him from the tomb. [Liber Mortis, page 6] [I used Land as a Haunting Presence] (2) They found the items at the end of the Whispering Cairn, but chose NOT to take the red horns. They left them in the tomb.
Tonight the PCs head into Diamond Lake again, and will probably want to sell some of the loot they got from exploring the cairn. They will also have to decide if they are willing to give the device they found in the tomb to the person who hired them in the first place. (They believe the device is a part of the Rod of Seven Parts, and don't want it falling into the hands of their employers, as they don't trust them)
I'll let you all know what takes place tonight.
The PCs are almost finished with the Cairn. They finished up the Lair of the Laborers during the last session. I was burning out; I screwed up on the water combat rules!! AAAAAAAAAAAAARGH! The battle with the water elemental should've been much harder!! As it was, again the monk took out the elemental... But I didn't deduct damage like I should've for underwater combat!!
However, before that most of the PCs found the tunnel above the blue lantern and decide to explore that. The NPC cleric, who had previously examined the corpse and successfully determined its way of demise refused to climb up to the tunnel. Of course, they triggered the Mouth Wind Tunnel trap and the half-orc almost died.
Swarms!! The party was having a real tough time with the acid beetle swarms. It was a good thing that I had the PCs go on a few sidequests, because somebody would've died had I just ran the adventure strictly using the 124 guidelines. Since some of the PCs were already 3rd level, they were able to survive being swarmed, although the monk and the rogue again, almost died!! Almost died!? Thank goodness for sidequests. So at one point during the last gaming session every players' character was close to dying. So I don't think I did too bad.
They found the red lantern (after the half orc was chased by the ghoul underwater). So we'll see what happens in a couple of weeks. Actually I could use a little break.
Having completed the first part of the Whispering Cairn, the PCs travelled to Diamond Lake. I expected them to wander in and start trying to sell off some of their loot, or at least rent a room at the Inn, however neither took place.
They went to the ouskirts of town, and squatted in one of the abandoned buildings there by the docks that formerly was used by the fishermen and now is owned and operated by Smenk. They wanted to further check out the "magic box" they found in the Whispering Cairn. (Interestingly enough, the PCs ~did not~ take the horns found in the Cairn, being convinced they were demon horns which would be stolen from them and made to turn someone into a powerful demon thrall.) They squatted/camped in the abandoned building.
Then they basically burst into Allustan's residence at the crack of midnight, shouting that they needed a safe place to stay for the evening. Allustan had met with them earlier on to discuss possiblities about the Cairn. Although he was surprised and a little put out, he suffered the party for the night and then fed them breakfast in the morning. Afterwards, he hustled them out the door.
Quickest combat ever.. Fighting the earth elemental in Lair of the Architect.
The elven monk of Heironeous wins initiative, gets a crit on flurry of blows and smashes the crap out of "Eggbert."
I don't mean to steal your fire, but elementals are immune to crits.
MI
my party consists of:
Lia, human female rogue
Randall, human male fighter
Emmi, human female wizard (Alustan's apprentice, of course)
Davin, human male druid
We're barely into Whispering Carin yet, and already so far:
Lia has carved her name into entrance
Davin breezed their lucky arses right past the wolves
Emmi tried to run away at least 4 times (out of 0 combat encounters)
Lia actualy managed to *break* the blue lantern
and last but not least:
Just when I thought things were too easy, they get instantly and thoroughly defeated by the wind tunnel trap, leaving wiseguy Randall at -6 hp and counting. I suspect he'll be more patient with Lia's trap searching in the future. After much drama they actualy managed to limp out with their tails between their legs.
My players' party consists of:
Romero: human priest 1 of Wee Jas/ sorcerer 1
Cimmerii Acanthus: half-drow ranger 2
Reinhart Silverfox: human paladin of Heironeous 2
Fin: human rogue 1
Remus Winterbeard: dwarven fighter 3
Hailleck Beeblebrox: dwarven bard 1
They were just joined (session 3) by
Jethias Talimor: human wizard 1
My campaign log is here: http://tux.ius.edu/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=2770
My party is composed of the following (and there have been deaths, so these are the latest victims, er, I mean heros):
Madox - male, Drow Paladin
Drensharr - male Catfolk monk
Lelain - female human monk
Sorovak - male elf cleric
Alistair - male Golmoid fighter
Tynian - male Tiefling rogue
The party has just finished the Lizardfolk lair, so they are moving right along. I have noticed a couple of odd things with the adventure path so far, and I'm not sure if this is intentional on the part of the writers or what. I find that sometimes there is not enough information about how the different parts of the path tie together. I'll give an example. In the Whispering Cairn part of the adventure the party finds all kinds of glyphs belonging to the Wind Dukes. In the adventure it gives a knowledge check to figure out what the glyphs mean. Later, in the Lizardfolk part of the adventure it says that the party has given all the gpyph information to Allestun to study and that's why the get in touch with him to carry on. Well my party didn't need to do that as I had given them the roll and they past, so they knew all that stuff already. I know this is a minor point to be sure (and I'm loving the adventure path, so I'm not upset or anything), but for a DM that works long hours and doesn't have much time to prep it cause some concern. One other thing that I found confusing - don't read this if you're playing!!! - when the party get into the Lizardfolk lair and approach the shamen (my party found a way to be at peace with the Lizardfolk pretty quickly) they are given the task of killing the leader and his lt. and then they get the prisoners back. Okay, sounds good. But I couldn't find any reason for the party to explore the egg hatchery. Without the shamen telling them all about the dragon's help and so on, why would they keep searching the lair when they've done what was asked of them and have the prisoners. I had the shamen tell the party about the dragon, but now I'm worried about how that will play out later on. On top of that, the dragon's egg has kyuss worms in it and as written the egg is supposed to break and the party saves the Lizardfolk eggs. Of course, my party sees the big dragon egg and gold pieces flash before their eyes, so they up and take the egg with them. I'm waiting for the next issue to see what happens, but I have some worries about this all playing out neat and clean. I don't generally use premade adventures for this very reason, but this one looked so good (and to this point is has been, the groups is enjoying it) that I had to give it a try. Also, with work it's hard to come up with something really good every week.
Quickest combat ever.. Fighting the earth elemental in Lair of the Architect.
The elven monk of Heironeous wins initiative, gets a crit on flurry of blows and smashes the crap out of "Eggbert."I don't mean to steal your fire, but elementals are immune to crits.
MI
Oh no, you're certainly not, this is the first time I've DM'ed a campaign in years! Years! So any revealing of my screw ups I consider to be beneficial for me and what I need to do to tighten things up a bit. Thanks.
I'm attempting to run my AoW game in Eberron. The party consists of:
Shifter Soulknife/Scout
Human Psion(Telepath)
Orc Ranger/Druid
Human Sorcerer
Kobold Scout
So far they've managed to clear out the Whispering Cairn, but nearly died at the claws of the owlbear. Filge didn't have much fun having his home burnt down and a sword put through him several times. As soon as my group plays again, we'll be starting the next session with them finding the abandoned mind office, and Kullen's group snatching up their baby owlbear as ransom to meet with Balabar Smenk.
I hope the party enjoys the dolgaunts(360 ft Blindsight) as replacements for the grimlocks in the caves of the Dragon Below(Or Eryunthul if not in Eberron). I kinda feel like an evil DM by doing that, but they'll find a way to overcome the odds, those crazy heroes. : )
I kinda feel like an evil DM by doing that...
Thats one of the best feelings in the world. Almost rivals sex.
Group:
Sir Gabriel, Paladin of Heironous, transfered 2 years ago
Vang-Ro, Elven Druid of the Bronzewood Lodge
Drek, Elven Transmuter from the Moonmeadow Manor
This has been the best campaign we have ran. Everyone is really getting it to the NPC interaction and slothing.
Some high lights:
The Mad slasher out paced the beetles chasing after the PCs as they retreated to the cairn's entrance. When the beetles reached the entrance they swarmed over the closet creature, the Mad Slasher which was engaged in combat with the PCs. Both monsters were then short lived.
The brown mold was collected with a modified tensors floating disk, and it is now being used to cool their refrigerator.
The water elemental was nocked unconcious and disipated into the water. It was then sucked up by the water pump the group used to drain the water before attacking the undead monster (Paladin and their blasted detect evil). The water was being used to water their garden, and know weeds continue to grow at the rate of 6" inches a day.
The paladin rescued an escaped goblin slave from a group of orcs, and he's now tring to convert him.
The earth elemetal was laying dorment while the transmuter examined it. He turned his back for a second and the goblin picked it up, activating it and almost getting killed.
The paladin fell in the first attack by the wounded owl bear.
And the final battle with filge was a tramendous battle. The transmuter was knocked out of play and down the stairs. The paladin was at the verge of collapse when the goblin sprang out of the ghoul touch paralysis (the only spell Filge was able to land). With energy saved from the first round of combat when he got paralyzed, he was able to fell Filge with a magical short attack to the back.
My group consists of:
Twil, an elven wizard( Apprentice to Allustan)
Zahara, Female human barbarian from the swamp.
Pembroke, Female rouge changling, posing as a human.
and Artigone, a human healer ( from minatures handbook).
The group is just about to enter the swamp and encounter the lizardmen. Purple prose from the midnight salute is actually a changling and Pembrokes mother. This will cause some problems at the free city ( Waterdeep, for she is a member of the Unseen. See Waterdeep source book for that organization). I am having problems getting my characters to reach the level needed for next adventures so have to plan little side adventures.
WHIDPERING CAIRN SUMMARY:
I am running AoW in Eberron. This is the make up of my party:
Shenx, female shifter ranger from Bronzewood Lodge;
Wren, male shifter druid from the Bronzewood Lodge via the Eldeen Reaches;
Juna, female elf scout from the Bronzewood Lodge via the Eldeen Reaches;
Tinker, male personality warforger artificer "from" Diamond Lake;
"Singe", male human warlock from Diamond Lake;
Blaise "Crusher" Danson, , male human fighter from Diamond Lake.
They actually managed to befriend the wolves (sort of). The ranger maxed out her wild empathy roll at 25 (she used an action point) and offered the wolves food, so they didn't attack the party.
In the sarcophague room, they fell viction to the crushing elevator trap, but actually disabled the Face in the Darkness.
When they got to the True Tomb, they cleaned up the Wind Warriors. There were six in the party, but their dice were hot for that fight. Still, the druid was reduced to -5 hp and would have gone unconscious if it weren't for his shifter ferocity feat.
All in all, I've decided that I need to make 3FoE a little tougher because they handled most of the fights fairly easily.
Looking forward to starting AoW AP when there is an opening for DMing in my group. It won't be for a while, though, because of my 5 month+ Eberron DMing streak. Ahh, well. :)
Either in Eberron (players are forced to work in secret because of false charges on them, placed by Kyuss's men, or the Ebon Triad, or someone EVIL!) or FR.
WaterdhavianFlapjack
I'm running AoW once a month for four friends of mine. I've set the campaign in the World of Greyhawk. We've had two sessions thus far. The party for the first session was:
Krase, a young human fighter from Diamond Lake.
Ragaust, also a young human fighter from Diamond Lake.
Jordanus, a human warmage from the Duchy of Urnst.
Calvin, a human cleric of St. Cuthbert from parts east.
Contrary to the appearance above, I did not place any restrictions on race or class choices. That is what my players wanted to do. All characters were built using the point buy system (28 points) and were given maximum starting gold for their classes. All characters began play at 1st level. The synopsis below was written for my players after the adventure so the voice I'm using was intended for them.
Whispering Cairn adventure session #1
On the first day of Reaping, 595 of the Common Year the adventuring band met in a secluded alcove of Lazare's House, a relatively cultured nightspot situated along the "Vein's" central square of the small mining town of Diamond Lake. After a few rounds of drinks and a rather one-sided game of dragonchess, the four adventurers decided to embark on an expedition to the Whispering Cairn. The Whispering Cairn was all but forgotten. However, Krase's discovery of an old map in the Chief Cartographer's office brought back to memory old legends from childhood. The recent arrival of an adventuring band from the free city of Greyhawk and their declaration of intent to explore and loot the Stirgenest Cairn prompted the band into action. If there was loot to be had in the Whispering Cairn, it was best that this group of four found it first and used it to escape the dreariness and subsistence level wages of mining work.
So, on Sunday, Reaping 2nd, the band arose at dawn and made a few purchases from Taggin at the general store. Traveling northeast along the Company Road, past the Dourstone Mine and the Boneyard you left Diamond Lake proper. About an hour outside Diamond Lake, the band took note of an abandoned and somewhat dilapidated structure that used to serve as the office of a former mine manager, Ulgo Fant. Fifty years ago, the Fant mine ran dry. When Ulgo died over a decade ago, this particular property was left without an owner. Presumably the deed to the property may be purchased in Diamond Lake, though what the price is unknown at this time.
10 minutes after passing the abandoned property and exiting the Company Road, you found the entrance to the Whispering Cairn. You knew you'd found the right place because when the breeze would pick up you could hear sibilant whispers that sounded almost like sighing breath coming from the entrance to the Cairn. After a good half hour of work clearing debris and overgrowth, you lit torches and entered the Cairn.
The entry passage was twenty feet wide with a ceiling twenty feet high and the stonemasonry was incredibly precise. In a small alcove to the left you found an old bedroll and surmised that it belonged to an unfortunate young girl from Diamond Lake who disappeared several years ago. Further down the entry hall and in another, yet deeper, alcove to the left you discovered a remnant of an odd device bearing a strange glyph. The device was firmly attached to the floor, but Jordanus did manage to find and collect several strange shards of darkly colored glass at its base. Furthermore, Jordanus made a chalk rubbing of the glyph. Ragaust thought the glyph represented something related to transportation and may have been written in some type of elemental language. The alcove opposite this one (to the right of the entry hallway) appeared to have suffered some type of structural collapse and it was guessed that the densely packed rubble would take weeks to tunnel through.
Moving to a central hallway, the party noted that to the left a short set of stairs led to a dais, to the right was more densely packed debris, straight ahead (north) was a long cobweb infested passage at the end of which a mysterious green light flickered. Moving to the left, the party inspected the dais. From a vantage point at the center of the dais a faded fresco could be seen on the somewhat rounded terminus of this passage. The fresco made it appear as if the viewer was standing in the middle of a massive room with seven short hallways radiating outward from a central point. A single chain dangled from the ceiling at the end of each of those seven hallways and each chain bore a gleaming colored lantern. The colors of the lanterns were (clockwise), red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.
Before any discussion of the fresco and its meaning could occur, the party was startled by the low growling of three hungry looking wolves that had approached them from the debris passage opposite this fresco. A short, yet fierce, battle ensued with your band emerging victorious. Ragaust's morningstar crushed the skull of one wolf while a gout of flames erupting from Jordanus' hands finished off the remaining two. The priest of St. Cuthbert saw to healing a few bites and scratches while Krase inspected the rubble passage from which the wolves emerged. Finding a small tunnel through the rubble, Krase crawled through and found the wolves lair beyond. In it he saw numerous bones (both animal and human) and an old leather backpack. In the backpack he found an elaborate lantern of indigo metal inset with indigo glass panes. The lantern definitely appeared valuable. Joining Krase in searching amongst the bones, Ragaust found an intricately carved armband, bearing a repeating leaf motif, that suggested elven craftsmanship. It also seemed to be quit valuable. After a few more quick, yet fruitless, searches of the wolves' lair the party decided to burn their way through the cobweb strewn tunnel.
The room beyond was identical to that pictured in the fresco. The flickering green light was coming from a green lantern (nearly identical to the newly discovered indigo lantern) hanging from a chain that contained an everburning torch. In the same order as the fresco, all the other lanterns hung from chains (though they were not lit) except the indigo (currently in the party's possession) and the red (whereabouts unknown). In the center of the room was a sarcophagus. The lid of the sarcophagus was a bas relief sculpting of what appeared to be a completely hairless, somewhat androgynous, seven-foot tall human. It's arms and hands rest at its side. The left hand curls up into a fist, while the right is place palm up with the thumb turned in and all but the index finger held parallel to the arm. The index finger appear to have been broken off by tomb robbers in years past. The sculpted robes the figure wore were held in place by a sculpted scarab-like amulet that bore a glyph similar to the one discovered earlier. Jordanus made another rubbing. Removing the lid, Krase and Jordanus narrowly avoided the gout of flame that erupted from within. After catching their breath, the party saw that the sarcophagus was completely empty.
The party then put the indigo lantern in its proper place and put torches in all the lanterns (save the undiscovered red lantern). Nothing new happened. Krase noted that the pedestal that the sarcophagus rested on seemed to form an arrow pattern where the bas relief figure's head rested. It was currently pointed to the east and the orange lantern. The party in unison pushed the sarcophagus such that it turned, clicked into place, and pointed at the yellow lantern. A low rumbling was heard and underneath the orange lantern a five feet diameter metal cylinder rose from the ground. After a moment, two thin doors slid into the sides of the cylinder revealing a small space that one human could fit into. None of the party ventured into that space. You decided to push the sarcophagus once more, towards the green lantern. The doors on the cylinder closed and it sank into the ground as the party returned to the sarcophagus.
Upon pushing it towards the green lantern, a horrible rumbling was heard, much louder and more stressful than the earlier one. Ragaust ventured down the tunnel to see if anything was blocking a cylinder from rising in this passage. Whatever strain the mechanism was under was not visible, but was enough to cause the floor to cave in very nearly beneath his feet. Ragaust leapt to momentary safety and could see nothing from the cloud of dust that erupted from the newly formed pit. The rest of the party called out to see if he was alright and were answered by Ragaust running back towards them warning that he heard the skittering of thousands of insects climbing up the pit. The party quickly threw down some oil ahead of them, but the swarm of beetles crawled through it before the party could light it. Also climbing up the pit was the most aberrant creature the any of you had ever seen. It looked to be a spider the size of a large dog, but its body was almost entirely composed of a solitary eye and all six of its legs ended in sharp knife-like points. Though the party managed to light the oil, this hideous creature scampered quickly through the burning space.
And then tragedy set in. The battle was quick and deadly. Krase and Ragaust were swarmed by beetles, who in addition to biting furiously, exuded some sort acidic trail on anything and anyone they crawled on. Both Krase and Raguast were quickly overcome with nausea and scrambled to get clear of the thousands of diminutive insects. Jordanus moved to use his flaming fingers once more to light the swarm on fire (the beetles were covered in the oil they crawled through), but to his horror the now flaming swarm of beetles moved to him and were soon crawling all over him. Jordanus collapsed in a heap beneath the swarm. His sacrifice was not in vain however as the swarm soon dissipated from the flames consuming them. The horrible spider-like creature ran down and killed Ragaust and very nearly would've killed Krase if not for Calvin regaining his courage and making a valiant attack. The horrible creature retreated back down the pit from which it emerged. Krase and Calvin carried the bodies of their compatriots out of the Whispering Cairn and carried them all the way back to Diamond Lake, arriving shortly after nightfall.
So the first session ended in an HPK (half party kill), but all the players had fun and wanted more. Jordanus' player created Ballard, an elan Psion (Kineticist) to play in part two. Ragaust's player had a last minute time conflict with our scheduled session, so I created a place-holder character that he can either play or replace with a new character as he sees fit. The new character is Erroll, a young human fighter (Ragaust's younger brother seeking vengeance). Once again all characters were made using the point buy system (28 points) and received maximum gold for their class.
Whispering Cairn session #2
The night of Reaping 2nd, 595 C.Y. saw a wounded Krase and Calvin carrying the bodies of their companions back into the small mining town of Diamond Lake after a disastrous encounter within the Whispering Cairn. Krase reported the incident to the commander of the garrison, Captain Tolliver Trask. Krase was placed on leave to tend to "matters at hand." Calvin sought out the council of the priests in charge of the Chapel of Heironeous within the garrison, namely Valkus Dun and Velias Childramun. Both confirmed that Ragaust and Jordanus were beyond the ability to heal. Arrangements were made for their funerals the next day in the Diamond Lake Boneyard. Ragaust's family was informed of his death.
On the morning of Moonday, Reaping 3rd first Ragaust and then Jordanus were laid to rest in the Boneyard. Ragaust's family and a good portion of the garrison were in attendance for the ceremony presided over by Valkus Dun. In stark contrast, only Krase and Calvin remained behind for Ragaust's service in which Calvin called for the blessings of St. Cuthbert. Calvin noticed a green cloaked figure observing the service from a distance and caught up with her afterwards. The pale woman seemed to be a devotee of Wee Jas, the goddess of death and magic. The discussion was brief.
That night, Calvin and Krase once again sat down in a secluded nook of Lazare's (the somewhat upscale nightspot situated on the town square of Diamond Lake). There they endeavored to recruit someone to aid them in their return to the Whispering Cairn. They had already secured the services of Ragaust's younger brother, and able swordsman named Erroll. Erroll sought revenge on the "eye spider" for his brother's death. After the customary rental of a dragonchess board the party found their latest member. Ballard fared no better against Calvin's dragonchess skills, but impressed the party enough with his "walk the earth" philosophy that they enlisted him.
At daybreak of Godsday, Reaping 4th Krase, Calvin, Ballard, and Eroll set out for the Whispering Cairn. Arriving at midmorning the party entered its darkened passages. At Krase's insistence, the party searched the wolf lair to make sure it hadn't been reoccupied. The party took a couple of hours to thoroughly search the bones therein and found the missing marble index finger from the bas-relief sculpting on the lid of the sarcophagus. What it was doing here was anyone's guess.
The party made their way into the sarcophagus chamber again, noting that the everburning torch was still lit in the orange lantern where they had moved it but the other torches had burned out in the two days since they had left the cairn. The sarcophagus was still pointing at the pit / Green lantern where the party had left it. Krase immediately headed toward the pit / Green lantern tunnel and lit a makeshift Molotov cocktail from an oil flask and dropped into the darkened pit that the "eye spider" had emerged from and retreated to. The flask fell some 60 feet down the shaft before reaching bottom and exploding. Nothing happened. The party waited and short anxious period, but no "eye spider" appeared.
They then decided to light the Violet lantern with a normal torch and point the sarcophagus to it. In order to do so the sarcophagus first clicked into position pointing at the unlit Blue lantern. Nothing happened. The sarcophagus then clicked into position pointing at the unlit Indigo lantern. Another small cylinder rose from the floor (similar to the one that appeared when the sarcophagus pointed at the Yellow lantern). Once again, two small doors opened in the cylinder. Krase went to inspect it. It appeared to contain enough space to hold one human sized creature. Unlike the previous cylinder though, this one was not empty. Krase noticed numerous crushed bones and moldy clothes on the floor of this cylinder. Inspecting the pile with his sword he found a small pouch that he quickly snatched from the cylinder. Inside the pouch he found 35 gp, 15 sp, and a small red ruby that they estimated to be worth 50 gp.
Krase then returned to the sarcophagus and the party pushed until it was pointing at the lit Violet lantern. Nothing happened. They then pushed it towards the missing Red lantern. Nothing happened. Finally they pushed it towards the lit Orange lantern (it's starting position when the party entered this room two days ago.) Nothing happened. The party then decided to thoroughly search the various lantern passageways.
In so doing they discovered that most of the lantern passageways ended with lanterns hanging from chains fixed into 40 foot high ceilings. The Blue lantern passageway was different. The chain it hung from was fixed into a ceiling some 50 feet high. Also there appeared to be an opening near the ceiling. Krase began to climb the chain while Calvin called forth the blessing of St. Cuthbert to illuminate at torch shoved in Krase's belt. Slowly Krase ascended the chain and then reached the opening. There he stepped into a tunnel extending northeasterly into darkness. Below, Calvin and Ballard watched him disappear from their sight. Meanwhile, Erroll stood at the sarcophagus with a knocked longbow keeping an eye on the pit in the Green lantern passageway.
Krase made his way cautiously down the passage some 50 feet above his comrades. As he did so he took note of odd scratching and scraping marks in the floor and low sides of the passageway. After walking some 50-55 feet, Krase saw the end of the tunnel. The passage ended in what looked to be another bas-relief sculpture of an enormous stone human face, its mouth open in an angry scream. The mouth looked large enough that a human might pass through it were it not a bas-relief sculpture on the wall. Suspecting a secret door, Krase ventured forward. As he approached his heart sank as he heard a click and suddenly the eyes lit up, emitting swirling colors of red, yellow, green, blue and indigo. Krase found himself transfixed by the swirling colors, unable to move. A strong wind blew forth from the face, gaining in intensity every few seconds. Krase, unable to move, felt himself being pushed ever so slightly by the increasing power of the wind. Now he had a good idea of what may have caused the scraping. From the vantage point below the Blue lantern, Calvin and Ballard could only see a strange multi-colored strobe effect emerging from the opening 50 feet above, but they could hear the roar of the wind. Krase regained his senses only in enough time to feel himself be knocked down by the gale-force winds rushing at him. As he slid along the passageway towards the 50 foot drop he readied himself to make a last second grab at the chain holding the lantern. Success! Krase descended at quickly yet safely as he could. The wind continued to howl for 10 minutes and then it feel flat and the lights could no longer be seen from the opening.
The party moved to the sarcophagus to confer. No one wanted to descend into the presumed lair of the "eye spider." Krase hypothesized that the cylinders were nothing more than deathtraps. Everyone thought the face hid some means of passage. After comparing their resources, it was determined that they had enough rope and spikes to possibly safeguard everyone from the danger the wind presented in the passageway above them. Upon deciding this course of action, Krase and Calvin moved again into the Blue lantern passageway. Ballard decided to see what would happen if he tried to join the index finger back to the hand on the lid of the sarcophagus. Nothing. As Krase began to climb the chain again. Erroll called out with a yell. The "eye spider" had reemerged from the pit and was moving quickly down the passageway towards him!
It all happened very quickly. Krase dropped the 5 feet he'd climbed and both he and Calvin rushed down their passageway towards the sarcophagus. Erroll stood transfixed as the horrible creature charged towards him. He came to his sense just in time to narrowly avoid its deadly knife-like appendage strike which scratched the side of the sarcophagus instead. Dropping his bow and drawing his longsword in a fluid motion, Erroll slashed at one of the creature's six legs. Krase and Calvin arrived in the main chamber in enough time to see Ballard move around the sarcophagus and without so much as a word uttered, point at the creature and the "eye spider" was engulfed in flames. All they heard was the faint sound of chimes ringing as Ballard pointed. At last the creature was dead. The party collected a leg as a trophy and moved about their original plan.
Krase and Erroll climbed the chain. They used their ropes to pull Ballard and Calvin up. About 35 feet down the passageway they drove spikes into the floor and tied their ropes to it. Krase tied himself to the rope and the rest of the party wrapped the ropes around their arms. The party then cautiously approached the face at the end. As Ballard moved ever closer, the rest of the party closed their eyes in anticipation of the impending light show. Sure enough, after a click the face once again roared to 'life' with wind and lights. Ballard, with superior mental resolve, resisted the entrancing lights and struggled to move closer to the mouth of the face. In it he noticed seams within as if the wall behind the mouth might give way to a further passageway. However neither he nor the rest could long resist the increasing power of the wind. They were blown back roughly down the passageway and over the lip of the 50 foot drop. Ballard and Calvin were knocked so roughly that they lost consciousness. If they had not tangled themselves in the rope they surely would've fallen to their deaths. The party hung there, two conscious and two not, for ten minutes until the wind and lights ceased. Then Erroll and Krase entered the passage and pulled their comrades up and awakened them. The ropes had strangled circulation to the arms they were entwined around and the party rested briefly before undoing the ropes and attempting to climb back down. After some scary moments climbing down the chain the party rested again for a quick meal in the sarcophagus chamber.
Then they decided to descend into the pit of the Green lantern chamber. At the bottom they found a 15 foot by 20 foot chamber lined with dozens of bas-relief statutes that stared disapprovingly at them. Many sported crossed arms and stern expressions. A few of the statues' heads were missing and some had huge chunks torn out of them. Others had a weird melted appearance, as if they'd been sprayed by something terrible. A large glyph that looked like a stylized arrow pointed towards a short corridor to the north that led to a four way intersection.
Taking a left at the intersection the party entered a 30 x 35 foot room in which eight man-sized stone slabs rising 4 feet off the ground, were arranged in two rows. A long dead corpse, possibly a human, laid sprawled out upon one of the slabs, his red leather armor the only hint of color in the otherwise drab room. The north and south walls taper somewhat at the western end of the room and that western wall abutted a small stone stage. A red clay statute of a powerfully built warrior wielding a cylinder-headed great club stood tall upon the stage, its eyes surveying the room. As the party went forth to investigate the corpse, a giant bombardier beetle scurried out from behind one of the slabs and sprayed them with a horrible shower of acid! Krase was able to react quickly enough to avoid the deadly spray. As his comrades cried out in pain and confusion from this assault he stepped outside the arc of the spray and whirling his two-bladed sword with fearsome momentum he struck the abnormal beetle and split its carapace and sunk the blade into the goo within. The beetle's legs kicked feebly for a quick moment and then all life left its body. The party then noticed that the corpse on the slab, estimated at having been there for at least a few decades, had been in a state of repose when his head was crushed suddenly. Though tired and wounded, the party thought the better of resting here. They quickly looted the corpse of its armor and silver ring it was wearing and then retreated to the room with the disapproving bas-relief statues to heal and rest for the night. The red leather armor, despite its age, was masterfully made and still in good condition. It also was emblazoned with an eight-pointed symbol that Ballard recognized as belonging to the Seekers, an unscrupulous society of archaeologists and loreseekers. The ring was estimated to be worth 75 gp.
Thus ended the session. The party has set upon the idea of trying to find the missing red lantern. They hypothesize that once all the lanterns are lit, something may happen. There are still two unexplored passages on this level. What the next day will bring is only known to the gods.
The two veteran characters, Krase and Calvin, now have enough experience to make 2nd level. Ballard and Erroll are close but not quite there.
My game is set in Eberron.
My group is just getting started with the whispering cairn. They spent the first session roleplaying out their meeting and plans to explore the cairn. They enetered on the 2nd session and began the lair of the architect. The 3rd session saw them finishing the lair and we ended early that night. Next session they'll return to the roygbiv room and see what strikes their fancies. Mine is a small group rounded out by NPCs.
In the party are:
Half-elf bard (run out of Sharn for bad debts)
Human fighter (a Diamond Lake native and member of the local military, looking for a change)
Warforged wizard (NPC)
Gnome cleric of Balinor (NPC)
Chageling rogue (NPC)
Rooster
Hi!
I'm getting ready to run the first episode of this AP. I toyed with the idea of running shackled city, but decided on this AP instead.
I'll be using Greyhawk as the gaming world.
All players are experienced old farts (we are all between 36-45 and have been gaming for longer than we like to admit (27 years in my case, since I was 13).
Anyway, characters will consist of:
Lizardman Barbarian
Elf (female) Cleric
Elf female) Sorc.
(they are sisters)
Human Monk
Human Bard
and an occasional appearance by a dwarf fighter.
I’ll be adding a lot of horror aspects to the AP to add the feel of impending doom (we’re big Call of Cthulhu players) to the storyline.
Should be interesting (at least I hope so anyway).....
Peace
Roger
My game too is set in Eberron. THey just finished the Whispering Cairn In my party I have:
Lady Elle d'Cannith - female human artificer 3
Grind - male personality warforged fighter 3
Lady Amber d'Valadis - female human cleric 3
Sapphire - female dwarf Rogue 2 / Bard 1
Elle has set out on her own in search of herself. She has decided at this time not to accept aid from her house, but still performs work for them by creating items for the local blacksmith in Diamond Lake. She has recently manifested the Least Mark of Making but has kept that fact hidden from society and her family. With her travels her warforged companion, Grind. Grind was created by her family as a guardian and companion. Currently Elle is trying to come to terms with what her roll will be in Cannith South as she can feel the energies inside her growing.
Lady Amber d'Valadis has also arrived in town from the nation of Thrane. She fled Thrane for fear of persectution as a member of the Host of the Faithful. Now in Diamond Lake, she cares over the horses of one of the local mine managers and hopes to magebreed on of his finest white stallions.
Sapphire, from the displaced nation of Cyre has lost her memory and is fleeing an unknown foe. She is in Diamond Lake working as a laborer in the mines. Having overheard a group of adventureres talking about riches in one ot he cairns he quickly told his boss's employee and friend Lady Amber d'Valadis of the news. The two, knowing they might run into trouble, decided to bring along Lady Elle d'Cannith and her mighty warforged, just in case.
Recently it appears that they have stumpled upon not only treasure, but an apocolyptic prohecy of sorts. It all began when the ghost of one Alaster Land sent them on a mission to bury his remains. This led them to the Old Observitory where a strange Karnnathian named Filge was rumored to be living. According to their information, he had hired Kullen's group to get him some bones for his experiments.
Having thouroughly ransked the Observitory and destroying all of Filge's experiments, Filge broke down in fear as the warforged loomed over him. He told the party his friend Balebar had brought him here to investigate some strange happenings in town. He also spoke of the prophecy of the Age of Worms. He told them of the Ebon Triad. This coupled with Sapphire mysterioulsy being able to understand the nature of the fresoc's in the true tomb has led the party to believe that they are in the middle of history in the making.
Broke once more, the group wishes to travel to Sharn, but doesn't have the means to do so. So instead they feel they need to confront Balebar Smenk about what's going on down in the Dourstone Mines.