Does anyone else remember this module? I never had a chance to run it, but it's stuck in my memory as a rather interesting module with a great deal of detail built into the town.
I'm thinking of adapting the module to 3.5 and running it later in my campaign, though I'm not sure my conversion skills are up to the task. I am sure I have a copy of this issue somewhere, if I can just find the silly thing.
If anyone out there is familiar with this adventure, especially those who may have ran it in the past, what are your opinions of it? I could be looking back with rose tinted glasses.
Does anyone else remember this module? I never had a chance to run it, but it's stuck in my memory as a rather interesting module with a great deal of detail built into the town.
I'm thinking of adapting the module to 3.5 and running it later in my campaign, though I'm not sure my conversion skills are up to the task. I am sure I have a copy of this issue somewhere, if I can just find the silly thing.
If anyone out there is familiar with this adventure, especially those who may have ran it in the past, what are your opinions of it? I could be looking back with rose tinted glasses.
Never ran it, but I do recall it, bits and pieces at least: green dragon, a "quartered" city where a barghest runs one quadrant (ppl mistake it for a goblin), a jann NPC...
16 led to Dungeons 17-19, probably my favorite Dungeon/Dungeon adventures of all time...
MistaRyte
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Actually Blubb, this one has always stayed a favorite of mine as well. It really seemed to signal the paradigm shift in adventure design at the time toward more unique, less cookie-cutter modules. For that reason alone it stays in my consciousness when I think of great scenarios.
Vesicant was essentially an undersized green dragon who realized she coudn't attain a substantial hoard on her own, so she subcontracted pirates in seedy coastal city she eventually came to control. She employed traps and trickery to even her odds against more powerful sorts, like the PC's. If I am not mistaken, she had only a handfull of hp, even by 1st edition standards, but the DM was encouraged to play her ruthlessly.
An old one but a good one for us grognards.
And I'll always remember it for one of the neatest 'dragon tricks' I've ever seen, bar none (her way of getting a sneak attack with her breath weapon...I won't spoil it for any players reading this thread who may run into it later). In fact, the 'main baddie' dragon in my campaign has a similar 'meeting place' in her lair for player characters. Being a red, it won't work quite as well for her, but....ah...what a fabulous surprise for pcs.
A classic and one of the most memorable adventures I ever ran! The first time I ever administered a TPK (to my older brother and his best friend, no less...heh, heh). They had each rolled up a party that they thought was just super cool and then combined them together taking the best half from each for the new party. Other than two PCs who died in Scrape, all died in the dragon's lair. Well, that's not true; the wizard Eliezar was polymorphed by the dragon into a frog and then punted off the cliff at the front of the dragon's cave, so technically he died several hundred feet below the dragon's lair (I did deduct 1d6 hp of the falling damage since he landed in water, but it really didn't matter).
It was so much fun after an extensive rewrite on my part (I had a civil war of sorts break out between the human pirates of the city and the goblin and orc pirates), the remaining two halves of the parties combined and went on a search and rescue/revenge mission. They successfully completed it but only ever much blood sweat and tears.
One of the most memorable moments in the first one was when the party's two halflings (a thief and a fighter) had knocked off the orc captain on an assassination mission and found themselves surrounded in his headquarters by the combined might of the orc quarter after an alarm had gone out during their assault. After a protracted standoff, neither of them made it out alive.
Okay, I'm going long so I'll cut it short real quick. Anyway, in college many years later I updated it to 2e and ran it as a 13th-14th-level adventure in the Forgotten Realms. I placed Scrape in the Gulthmere Forest and replaced all the gnolls at the lair with alaghi. I tied it in with the politics of Westgate, the Emerald Enclave, and the Cult of the Dragon/Church of Tiamat rivalry, but the details escape me just now. Anyhow, the party on this go 'round was much more successful, though I do recall the priest getting his arm torn off by a wereshark (one of the neat abilities of the wereshark in 2e)....
Definately encouraging, I haven't found that issue yet, but I'm sure it's in a box somewhere. Just have to figure out which box it's hiding in. It should be interesting, if I do end up converting and running the adventure, it will be my first attempt at converting to 3.5e.
Mind you, based off player actions so far they've got a ways to go before they would be ready to deal with this sort of adventure. Going to hunt a local band of bandits, they didn't even bother to try to speak to townsfolk or guards to get any information. Just took the hook NPC at his word and made no real effort to get more info. I don't think that tactic will work with Vesicant, in fact it seems rather suicidal from what I remember.
Yes, I ran it years ago, 2 survivors, one who drank a potion of gaseous form to flee the fight in the city, another who ran faster than the ennemies.
Two fun death, the ranger with 3 hp left, another character in coma near him, found a potion that had a chance to explode when opened (don't remember the name)a kind of fire grenade, he opened it, hoping it was a healing potion (he was in the dragon cave), he saw a little flame but made the dexterity check to put the stopper on, after a moment of reflexion he decided to re-open it but at arm length to not burn his face.....KABOUM!!! 5D6 damage = 2 deads.
It was hilarious for everyone.
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It's a neat adventure and I would like to see a 3e treatment of it.
I started to do a conversion - but the real problem with this adventure is that the power balance between 1st and 3.5 e dragons is just so large, the rest of the cutroats in the nearby just do not work.
It's a major rewrite to get this up to speed; so much so that I was left wondering what the point of it would be.
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I too remember that adventure fondly. Great use of a dragon back in 1e. The trouble if you're adapting it to 3.5e is that dragons are too different nowadays.
Back in the 'old days' <cough>, not all dragons could cast spells, or even speak! I always get a great laugh re-reading the 1e MM when I reach the section about dragons. To think each subspecies had a flat chance to be caught asleep in its lair!
Plus you had different size categories. So, your draconic encounter could run all the way from a small, non-speaking, non-spellcasting runt to a huge, speaking, spellcasting monster.
The interest of the Vesicant's adventure was that it showed a DM how a physically-weak dragon could achieve great results by using its brain.
Alas, in 3.5e, all dragons are similar. Sure, you could 'advance' on within his age category but what would be the point? From the moment players learn the main bad guy is a green, they'll expect acid immunity, an undersea lair, spells, and a gas-based breath weapon.
So, the trick is to still surprise the players. Instead of achieving that (as in 1e) by using a small and weak (but old) dragon, you'll have to do it by using a dragon that is younger than what they'll expect. The 'original' Vesicant was Old. The new one should ideally be Adult. That will give you roughly the same size and spellcasting abilities as the 1e version. He can still use all the 'tricks' the 1e version had prepared to defend its lair. And relying on henchmen to gather its hoard is something all evil dragons should be proud of.
I would probably give it illusion spells mainly so that it could appear larger and more fearsome. NPC would describe it to the PC as a G-size dragon while, in fact, it's only Huge.
Another good trick for Vesicant would be to make people believe he is a black rather than a green. Heck, or even a copper! The guy is a deceiver, so let him bluff, cheat, and lie its way to the top.