So, I've been away for a while. In fact, since my son was born two years ago, I just haven't played D&D much. But, ya know, I've recently drifted back. Since I never let my subscription lapse -- I've been distracted, not crazy -- I decided to see what's going on. So, I picked up and read Issue 132 completely. A lot of good stuff in there. And I got a really strong nostalgic feeling. I really, really miss D&D. I guess until that moment, I didn't realize just how much.
So, I'm stoked. I'm seriously thinking about trying to get published here again. It ought to be loads of fun and I have a bunch of ideas all ready to pursue. But before I really get going, I thought I'd drop in here and see what the community is up to. And while I'm here, I thought I'd ask a quick question -- namely, do any of you guys remember any of my previous stuff, and if so, did you like it? If so, I'd love to hear any stories you might have concerning the adventures. Nothing tickles me more than hearing that someone really enjoyed my work. Oddly, aside from my brother -- who has run most of them -- I've heard very little in this regards.
And just to jog the memory, here's my Dungeon credits: "Wild in the Streets," "Priestly Secrets," "To Walk Beneath the Waves," and "Valley of the Snails."
Okay, sorry for the self-serving post. Hopefully you'll all forgive my little indulgence.
Off to see what else is going on in here.
I ran Valley of the Snails a few years ago. We liked that one. It was early in the stages of the all-evil PC game we tried.
They made a very good tactical assault on the goblin hideout in the valley, but they never found the quasit. Veshra became the group's archenemy, plaguing them off and on until the end of the game, when they all died around 12th level.
One of my players had an orc barbarian who was learning how to write and was starting his own book He had classic line in it from this one like "No eet bloo slugz" and "Dogs scared of Namrok" and "Dwarfs are good fallers"
He ate one of the blue snails and got rather sick. He also shouted at the blink dog who...blinked. The dwarven sorcerer did a good job of falling down the cliff...or a bad job of climbing, depending on your point of view.
M@
You miss D&D and got nostalgic about "writing"?...not "playing?" I mean, to each his own, but....?????
Farewell,
I know, I know...I'm a sick guy. Actually, for me, playing and writing are pretty much the same thing. I'm almost never a PC -- I'm the pertetual DM. Which is cool, really, as for me crafting the world and the adventures has always been the most fun. Still, being a PC has always been fun too. I do have some really memorable characters from over the years.
There is also the matter of me having moved away from my group. I guess I'm waiting for my son to get old enough to be my new group. Of course, looks like that's gonna be a while. Man I miss my buddies too. :-)
Matt,
Ha! That sounds great. He actually ate one of the snails without any coxing? Well, that's a barbarian for you. Yeah, evil campaigns can be a lot of fun. One of my most memorable campaigns was back from high school, an evil campaign ran in the shadow of Bone Hill. All my players broke down into three factions, several were anti-paladins (who struck up a deal which the wraith in Bone Hill!), one was a double-agent for a good kingdom and they all mistrusted each other. It was amazing that they got anything done -- but they did. Great fun. Played for a long time and they all reached around 7-9th level.
Eventually they were almost all smoked by a wandering beholder. So many great lines and moments came from that campaign. We still reference them today when talking.
ehb1022,
Became a dino farmer did he? Cool. My group loved that adventure. My dad was a wild mage, and had a search spell that created a feeling hand go haywire. Basically, it created a big hand that floated through town feeling everything up. :-) The next day the people kept saying there were really four loose monsters, and one got away. Therefore, the PCs were thought of as not being totally successful by the populace.
Great stuff guys. Thanks. I love hearing stuff like this.
--Jason
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Priestly Secrets notes ---
“……… wherein the Rounders return to Restenford to find the town has been sacked,Qualton recalled to the Grand Aerie & replaced with a cost efficient abbot who has peculiar funerary ideas; Aristabulous blasts a trio of ghasts while Ardenta & Sandra recover & return the Chalice of Phaulkon……………”
Sandra from the module became a beloved NPC for several campaign years as Ardenta's (an elven mage/thief) henchman. Sandra settled in Greyhawk & is still an our groups liason with Greyhawk Thieves Guild. This was great lowlevel adventure....thanks much.
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Wild in the Street notes --
“……… wherein the Rounders help Capt Bulryck stop a trio
of creatures from rampaging in the town square; Marlowe sends
Calipus (displacer beast) to be raised by Sylva the dryad & Phernwudd (a treant); Baby (an ankylosaur) is put out to pasture at Billy Boy's farm; the new sherrifs issue their first warrant (for Jegard Stanton)……”
This adventure was incorporated into the Night Below campaign. All the PCs were Rangers, Druids, & Bards (or some multi classing of the same) trying to figure out where all the spellcasters from Haranshire (placed in Geoff (circa 579 cy)) were disappearing to. Stanton became a pain-in-the-butt con artist in the region (ie-device to help me lead the PCs to the next Night Below chapter when they'd missed a clue...) & actually helped them escape from an underdark prison months later. I'm betting he's still scamming & jamming somewhere in Erelhei-Cinlu as we speak.
You defintely added a lot of flavor to our campaign. Please add to your (our) cannon...
Another footnote: as I recall, the displacer beast cub was calico in our campaign.
ehb1022,
Hey man, you really made my day there. I'm very happy to see someone out there getting a lot of use out of my creations. I'm really fired up now! Gotta start polishing those four primary ideas I've had on the back burner for a long time.
Hey, anyone know what the response time on inquiries is right now? That last one I sent was pretty killer ... I forgot about it myself for a while. :-) Ha!
Thanks again for the input.
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Glad I could give you a little back...your contribution to our campaign is greatly apprectiated. We been playing in Greyhawk since 1982 & "that b@$#&rd Stanton" is still being accused of just about any bad turn our party recieves....in fact, I'll think I'll stick him in the Bandit Kingdom episodes of the Age of Worms...again, thanks.
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Jason,
I was working on Jegard's 3.5 stat block (he's finished 2ed as an 11th level Bard in Erelhei Cinlu profiting from the chaos that ensued after the Queen of Spiders series). I'm placing him in The Prince of Redhand adventure as either an advance agent of Tenser/Manzorian (its going to be more than excellent when the group realizes that an old nemesis form the late 90s has returned to bedevil a new generation of PCs) or as a trusted advisor to Prince Zeech. Then I realized that he is your character, so maybe I'd get your perspective first (feel free to throw out anything or nothing at all).
I always portrayed him as a D & D version of Willie Nelson's Barbarossa? How would you like to see him in 3.5? Multiclassed? Reformed & working with Tensor as a spy (coerced or changed heart?) Advisor of a Bandit Lord or maybe even a member of the Boneheart (keeping tabs on Zeech for Iuz)?.
Also, there's a 3 part arc placed in Istivin & I'm going to have the new PCs travel to Thenwyck for advice from their old PCs.
You've gotten me pretty fired up too. I'd yet to tie any 3.5 stuff to our old campaign which ended in 586 cy-we're playing in 596. I think subconsciously I'd written off our 24 years of campaigning when we decided to go to 3.5...since your post I'm connecting old plot lines at dinner, in the toilet, at work...very happy DM.
ehb1022,
Sorry, got distracted by life there for a minute. Well, while I'm happy to share my ideas on Stanton, I want to stress right off that I only created the first appearance -- from the sounds of things he has really become your character. I mean, look how far he has come in your group? 11th level? Bedeviling players for years? Hey, that's great. But with all that mileage, I'm sure he has evolved plenty beyond my first creation.
Still, you asked, so here goes. I really don't see Stanton being a member of the BoneHeart -- he's just too cowardly. Sure, he'll be great at faking otherwise, but I think Iuz requires his highest agents to be really serious combantants too. Besides, I think he would just grow board with the whole groveling before an evil god incarnate thing.
On the other hand, I can see him as one of Zeech's advisors. (The Prince of Redhand was a pretty cool adventure, wasn't it?) I see him at that level becoming something like a high-end weapons dealer, kingdoms-wide blackmarket guildmaster or something similar. A real mover and shaker in a continent-spanning criminal underworld. But all the Age of Worms things, or cultist, etc. would just not be his thing. I see him as just too self-centered and shifty, all that cult/destiny/ etc. stuff just requires too much faith and dedication for him. But regarding the Prince -- that's definitely a guy he'd like to know and assossiate with.
Of course, and again, all this is just my opinion. He's your character now. Let Stanton follow thw path you choose.
Later.
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another footnote to Jegard, he survived (& profited) from dealings with the Slavers (2nd book adventure), Eclavdra (post-Queen of Spiders), & the Scarlet Brotherhood when they took over the Hold of the Sea Princes....he also arranged for (suckered, more accurately) our group to go back into the Tomb of Horror (the Return boxed set). He's been the catalyst for a huge chunk of our Greyhawk canon. Your idea led to all this history, underling yet another marvelous aspect about our hobby.
My group played "To Walk Beneath the Waves" and it was great. My players usually complain loudly about underwater encounters of any kind but this adventure really silenced them (for a time anyway).
Looking forward to future contributions!
ehb1022, hey, I'm glad you guys got so much from that simple character that appeared in such a short adventure. Really, I think that's great. I'm pretty amazed actually. With that list of adventures -- all great classics -- Stanton was sure standing in fine company.
SirMarcus,
I'm glad your players liked the adventure. I had always wanted to create an underwater adventure, as I felt most of those that I read in that environment were lacking. I really wanted to give the whole thing a feeling that the characters were not in their element -- to really focus on the alienness of the undersea. I hope that I captured those aspects well.
My brother has run To Walk Beneath the Waves twice, for two seperate groups, so I figure he liked it. :-) It amazes me that both his groups were surprised by the giant crab in that adventure -- I had thought that I made it pretty obvious there was something there. Hmmm...
SirMarcus, if you don't mind, can I ask a couple questions? What exactly do your players complain about concerning underwater adventures? And given this, what made them feel differently about To Walk Beneath the Waves?
Later,
Jason