My group (and myself) would like to express their gratitude for writing the scene of Filge's Dinner Party...
Their reactions were priceless. Truly priceless.
They felt completely justified that he had died by slowly bleeding to death during the combat a day or two before.
It was truly a moment for DM's to live for.
My thanks again for a fantastic campaign (I just need to figure out how to get them to 3FoE now).
My party actually felt bad for Filge. The party cleric said something like, "Aaaw... that's so sad! He doesn't have real friends." The others pretty much agreed, thinking that this might be normal behavior for a necromancer.
Later, looking at the angelic sculpture, they weren't sure if Filge was looking for redemption or just deluded. When the finally met Filge, the opened with dialogue and roleplayed the situation out. They later asked Filge to join them to go through the hidden temple complex, where Filge ultimately betrayed them.
Ah Filge... A truely unique NPC. My group was disturbed by what they saw before finally meeting Ol Filgey. Maybe I'm sick (and what DM isn't?), but I too pitied him; he was kind of sad and pathetic, so I played him that way. He gave a decent fight, but eventually they knocked him down to 2 HP, and he started begging for his life. He sobbed that he'd do anything if they just let him live, he even offered to be their prison, er, wentch. When they let him go, he swore he'd change his ways, and if they ever came to the Free City, they had "a friend in Filge."
I thought it over and decided to have Filge genuinely try to turn over a new leaf (with a lot of effort he might work his way down to neutral). I planned on having him help them while in the Free City.
My group is part way through the Sodden Hold, and they are utterly convinced that it was Filge who set the doppelgangers on them! I love it! I may really throw them off by having him actually sacrifice his life to save the PCs/audience members during the final battle of the Champions Games, just to mess with their minds.
My group had the good sense to make him promise not to hurt anyone, then they told him that he works for them now.
"Um, uh, okay, can I have my spellbook and stuff back then?"
And they gave it to him, them reminded him that he "worked for them" and that he "promised not to kill or animate anyone without their permission." Then they left to continue the adventure.
Three day's later they wen't back to the observatory with some loot for "their magician" to identify.
Turns out Filge left town about twenty minutes after they left him alone. Go figure. He'll turn up for revenge in the free when they get to the free city.
Creative Director
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I am sure the dinner party had to be paying homage to the Peter Jackson classic "Dead Alive". I have always wanted to see that scene placed in an adventure. Now I am just waiting for the "punch-bowl" scene from "Bad Taste".
Nice. I assure you there'll be plenty of chunky bits to come in the magazine, then!
Heh. My players got into some trouble in town, so Smenk made a deal with them--he'd get the charges dropped, but they had to keep his name out of any business they find in Dourstone Mine. He also sent Filge along, partly because the necromancer was curious, partly because Smenk doesn't trust the party, partly because he really wouldn't care if Filge died anyway, & partly because the party didn't have any real arcane firepower.
To make a long story short, after they cleared out the citadel of Hextor, Filge started making sleazy advances toward the half-drow ranger. Much to my surprise, she ended up spending the night with him in Garras' & Kendra's room. Even worse, Filge had gained control of one of the troglodyte zombies beforehand, & it stayed in the room as well, so now half the party thinks there was some zombie-lovin' goin' on as well!
filge was a fair cool NPC. thax Erik!
In my campaign Filge was arrested and turned over to the authorities. He was so interesting, that I have plans on having him come back. In fact, He's going to be taking the parts played by "Alustan" in later adventures. The sagely wizard of Diamond lake just seems to dry for me character wise. He's basically just an information kiosk until "A gathering of Winds". Having Filge as an important source of information that the party must work with down the road will add some real amusement and tension to the group. Filge will be the "black sheep" pupil of the Archmage that the party hunts down later on.
My players slaughtered all the zombies before they could act out the dinner party scene, so they missed out on that fun (though I did read it to them after the session was over). They were also intent on killing Filge, even after he started screaming about surrendering. Fortunately, one of the PCs came to his senses and grabbed Filge, actually shielding him from the rest of the party. After a thorough questioning, they eventually turned him over to the Wee Jas acolytes in the boneyard. It remains to be seen whether he will show up again or not...
In my campaign Filge was arrested and turned over to the authorities. He was so interesting, that I have plans on having him come back. In fact, He's going to be taking the parts played by "Alustan" in later adventures. The sagely wizard of Diamond lake just seems to dry for me character wise. He's basically just an information kiosk until "A gathering of Winds". Having Filge as an important source of information that the party must work with down the road will add some real amusement and tension to the group. Filge will be the "black sheep" pupil of the Archmage that the party hunts down later on.
In my version of the AOWAP, Filge has been sentenced to prison. His role in my campaign was that he was being used to research the worms and Kyuss for the Faceless one. I even went as far to have the necromancer allow one of the worms to infest him like is discussed in the pretige class in the recent issue of Dragon magazine. Filge survived, and has the taint of Kyuss madness. I picture future episodes where the PCs go to the prison to speak with the mad necromancer to find out more and more information. I picture it as a D&D version of the Silence of the Lams or Red Dragon. The madman behind bars, spouting information.
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While I can't say the scene was an homage to "Dead Alive" (which I just saw again in a theater a couple of weeks ago--thanks for being so awesome, Seattle!), I can say that there are some creative benefits to writing stuff between the hours of 1 and 3 AM.
--Erik
I am so jealous that you actually got to see it on the big screen. (Phoenix is lame)
The whispering Cairn is the 1st adventure our group has played in almost ten years and it is blowing everybody away. Thanks a lot to all of you at Dungeon for helping the "band" get back together.P.S.
As a long time horror fan I still get a kick out of seeing "wingnut films"(or productions??) at the start of every LOTR movie :)
I've run the Whispering Cairn for two different groups, and both times, the dinner table scene got a very strong reaction. The second time I ran it, it got what Erik was obviously going for - a combination of revulsion and pity, especially when they ended up negotiating with Filge rather than attacking them, and he invited them to his table for a brief repast while they discussed the Dourstone Mines and the horrors within.
The first group I ran, though, reacted rather differently. These were the Adventure Capitalists, a band of dwarves devoted to making as much money as possible (before their gruesome deaths in the Battle Temple of Hextor, they were planning on turning the Whispering Cairn into a museum and charge people to enter it). So when they saw the zombies sit up and begin to spew syncophantic comments, their eyes flashed with gold pieces. There was some serious discussion given on how to reprogram the zombies, so that they could form a traveling zombie band. They considered it a slightly more ghoulish version of animatronics, and wanted to make a Disney-esque attraction they called the Zombie Tiki Jamboree. They even made up a little song for them to sing.
A brief but graphic reminder about pitchfork-and-torch wielding mobs chasing them from every village, town and city until another band of adventurers was hired to wipe out the abomination of life was enough to get them to drop it.
We did sneak in from the window and killed since in the first room everybody started by targeting Filge he was pretty much the first creature to die in that old observatory...so he didn't get to do much.
That dinner scene was definitely eerie though...
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I didn't really have a chance to let the scene play out when I ran it. I even insisted on working in the pathos and played a "DM interrupt" to get another moment to describe it
Didn't work. It sort of went like the players meeting the Bandit King in the movie "The Gamers".
The Gamers: "I am the bandit..(*thwack*)"
My Players: "Zombies? C-H-A-R-G-E!!"
Sometimes things work; sometimes they don't.
I really liked the table scene especially by the time my group got there one of their comrades was already a 'guest'. The groups rogue had tried soloing the observatory the night before and was killed by the tomb mote under the stairs. Filge not wanting to waste good material had animated him.
Of course it meant later, when Filge tried pleeding for his life, he was swiftly dispatched by the enraged group...