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And so, after nearly 2 years, my players and I finally completed Shackled City last night. What began as an impromptu pick-up game between me and a few friends at GenCon 2005 eventually resulted in our group's longest running D&D Campaign.
Last night the party finally confronted Adimarchus within Skullrot. After defeating the warden of Skullrot in a previous session, the party managed to rest while they recovered their spells. The next morning the party's rogue, a halfling named Penelope (and only member to bear the Smoking Eye), smashed open the cage that held Adimarchus. While the battle against him lasted most of the night, the party did admirably well. The only change I made to the demon-lord was to give him divine rank 0 (in my opinion all Demon lords have at least divine rank 0), with the subsequent benefits (AC bonus, immunities, etc...)
He tried to use blasphemy on the party, but the cleric managed to counter it using a ring of spell battle. A subsequent Word of Chaos, however, drove about half the party insane. In fact, the only death in the party occured when the party's warblade was confused, attacked and killed Penelope. However, one thing ended up saving the PC's, the Iron bands of Billaro thrown by our party's archer. These managed to imprison Admiarchus again, long enough, for the group to launch a counter-offensive.
So in the end this was one of the best, and most satisfying campaigns I've ever DM'd. I am, however, glad it's over as I've been itching to pick up the dice as a player for months now. We begin the Age of Worms next week.
The Good
- Some of the most interesting NPC's and villains I've ever had in a campaign. Inparticular I very much loved Vhalanthru, Tifraine (who was one PC's love interest for most of the campaign), Jenya and the Stormblades.
- The Eruption in Cauldron. This adventure, while difficult to run, was probably one of my favorites in the campaign. Amazing use of events to guide the PC's and a frantic night for the characters that stretched them thin.
- The focus on Cauldron. For the first time one of our campaigns was based almost entirely within a single city. I think this did a lot to tie the party to the campaign and motivate them to take a more proactive approach to running their characters.
- This board. The Paizo boards and TheRpgenius web site were some of the best resources I found during this campaign. While I obviously couldn't use every idea, they were inspiring to read.
The Bad
- Forshadowing, while it existed, wasn't really prevalent as much as it could be throughout the campaign. The Cagewrights are introduced too late in the game, and Adimarchus only comes into play late as well. I did my best to incorporate future campaign elements as early as possible, but I wasn't always successful. Vhalanthru was well foreshadowed, but that was about it. Everything else I had to pretty much do on my own.
- Trip to Occipitus. The Test of the Smoking Eye was a hard adventure to include and justify in the adventure path. It comes out of left field, has very little reason for the party to accept the adventure, and the payoff is a long time in coming. Many changes (like many suggested on these boards) could have been made to improve the adventure.
The Ugly
Honestly, nothing comes to mind in this category.
This has been one of the best-written campaigns I've ever had the pleasure of DMing. I say congratulations to Paizo and all involved in crafting some of the best entertainment my friends and I have had for the last 2 years. I look forward to Age of Worms and every Adventure Path to come.
Froze, congrats on finishing and lemme tell ya, that was the slickest post formatting I've ever seen. You'd be good at professional layouts.
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I can finally take a look at these Shackled City threads! Best campaign ever. I started off playing a dwarven fighter with mediocre stats, but that character survived to level 20 and has become the best character I've ever played.
Favourite moments:
- Knocking on that wall in Jzadirune, only to see it get opened by a hobgoblin who disabled the trap I was standing on.
- The fight at the Lucky Monkey. We started that 28-round fight around 11 PM and it was past 4 AM by the time it was finished.
- The election of the Lord Mayor. I actually had Jenya nominate my character. Unfortunately, the evil wizard won.
- The evacuation of Cauldron. Fiunally a chance to save the citizens of Cauldron directly.
Congrats frozen! glad you guys enjoyed the campaign. We'll miss you on these boards. I think we have another 6 to 9 months to go before we finish the SCAP. Right now, we're at the start of lords of oblivion, but I want to have at least a couple side treks involving occipitus and the haunted dreams.
I recognise the format you used from extremetech or a similar website. Is that where you got the idea, or am I way off?
Congrats! My group are near the end of Zenith Trajectory and doing well. Am inserting my own foreshadowing as I agree there not being enough in the campaign. But that's okay as it should be up to the DM how this is done anyway.
One way is that one of the party has just become a Strider. With that group knowing about the Cagewrights I think it's only fair that he should be informed of the group. I don't see how it would adversely affect anything anyway.
BTW, i know what you mean about needing to play rather than DM. I haven't played properly in years. :(
Way to go, Frozen! I've got a bit to go still. I get to broil my group in Foundation of Flame at our next session. But Age of Worms is coming soon and I get to sit back and enjoy the ride as a player, too.
Be sure to introduce your new DM to these boards and theRPGenius.com so he can get all the same mischevious, make that brilliant, assistance that you did.
Raise a frothy mug!
Koramado
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Congrats frozen! glad you guys enjoyed the campaign. We'll miss you on these boards. I think we have another 6 to 9 months to go before we finish the SCAP. Right now, we're at the start of lords of oblivion, but I want to have at least a couple side treks involving occipitus and the haunted dreams.
I recognise the format you used from extremetech or a similar website. Is that where you got the idea, or am I way off?
No, I normally try to organize my thoughts when writing, and this format seemed the best way to do it.
I would heartily recommend some side-quests like the ones you mention since I've found throughout the adventure path that occupitus is one of the more disconnected elements of the campaign. It's an interesting plane and if you can make it more important to the story-line, you'll eliminate one of the few problems I know I and my players had with the adventure path.
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One way is that one of the party has just become a Strider. With that group knowing about the Cagewrights I think it's only fair that he should be informed of the group. I don't see how it would adversely affect anything anyway.
Definitely agree. One thing I tried differently in this campaign compared to previous ones, was not leave my players in the dark as much. It helped that one member of the party was a diviner dedicated to Istus. But in my opinion, it is better to err on the side of giving the PC's more info that less. Learning about the Cagewrights and their plans early only emphasizes the importance of stopping them and makes them seem a credible threat. I find players are less motivated to actually stop the villains if they don't know who they are or what they are planning.
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Way to go, Frozen! I've got a bit to go still. I get to broil my group in Foundation of Flame at our next session. But Age of Worms is coming soon and I get to sit back and enjoy the ride as a player, too.
Be sure to introduce your new DM to these boards and theRPGenius.com so he can get all the same mischevious, make that brilliant, assistance that you did.
Raise a frothy mug!
Koramado
Well my DM for Age of Worms is Hagen who dropped in just a bit higher up. I know he's been spending the last year or so preparing for AoW, on this site and RPGenius as well. My only fear is that the DM's on those boards will have as many, or more, devious ideas as the ones posting here. I tremble in anticipation to see what we'll face.