Dungeon 150

[Nicolas Logue]

Eyebite wrote:

Ah well, I think a lot of us are always up for Logue Poop.

Looking forward to your Pathfinder contributions.

Thanks my man!

I've just gotta finish Hook Mountain Massacre...deadline! Urgh!

Hopefully Paizo will keep me off the mean streets of New York.

[Phil. L]

Stumble once from the path my friend and the wolves will be waiting. ;-)

[Keno]

I just talked to my wife who informed me that #150 is waiting for me at home.

I don't know whether to cheer or cry.

[N1NJ4]

^^^ Oooh, whatever you do, throw up a little review for us after you've read it! : )

[Razz]

N1NJ4 wrote:

^^^ Oooh, whatever you do, throw up a little review for us after you've read it! : )

Already done HERE :D

[Matthew Morris]

I just got mine out of the mailbox.

Those maps of Castle Mistamere look beautiful and bring back so many memories.

[Mactaka]

I hope it comes today for me!

[BenS]

Got mine today, and since I've had the day off, I've already skimmed through it. Pretty awesome last issue!

General comments:

Loved the Lands of Mystery map!!! Unless my sense of geography is hopelessly distorted, I don't think it qualifies as a whole "world". So, um, Paizo, why not make it a part of Golarion and make a lot of people very happy? :)

"Prince of Demons". What can I say. Total nerdgasm (or is that "geekgasm"?) skimming through this. I have a fondness for high-level adventures, which are hard to come by. Awesomeness on a grand scale. Thanks James!

"Complete Dungeon Index": worth its weight in gold, thanks Paizo!

"Bar Fight": laughed my ass off! James, you're a funny guy. And that Kyle Hunter drawing was priceless.

"The Godtrap": friggin' sweet! Now I can't wait to get my copy of Expedition...

"Fiend-Sage": excellent! I've always liked Sean's work (I still treasure my copy of 2nd edition's The Scarlet Brotherhood), and this is a figure I've been dying to know more about.

"Dergholoth": if I'm not mistaken, this is by Shemeska of board-fame. Nice. Todd, I hope if there's ever a Fiendish Codex III, you have a hand in it.

Last panels of "Downer": this got wrapped up too quickly, but for excusable reasons. PAY ATTENTION TO THE FATE OF KALRO! Unless I'm mistaken, this is a dig at WOTC cancelling the print versions of our favorite magazines, and replacing them w/ the Digital Initiative.

There were a few too many typos throughout the magazine, but I can forgive that. Nice way to go out w/ a bang! (Next month: the shock finally sinks in when these stop coming in the mail...)

[Christopher West]

BenS wrote:

Loved the Lands of Mystery map!!! Unless my sense of geography is hopelessly distorted, I don't think it qualifies as a whole "world". So, um, Paizo, why not make it a part of Golarion and make a lot of people very happy? :)

Thanks, BenS! I'm glad you like the map!

As part of Dungeon, copyright on the Lands of Mystery map belongs to WotC, so I don't think Paizo would be able to integrate it into The Pathfinder Chronicles setting if they wanted to. That said, you're free to make it a part of Golarion for your own campaigns. I for one would be interested in hearing how that works out if you decide to do it. :)

[Todd Stewart]

BenS wrote:

"Prince of Demons". What can I say. Total nerdgasm (or is that "geekgasm"?) skimming through this. I have a fondness for high-level adventures, which are hard to come by. Awesomeness on a grand scale. Thanks James!

Can. Not. Wait.

BenS wrote:

"Fiend-Sage": excellent! I've always liked Sean's work (I still treasure my copy of 2nd edition's The Scarlet Brotherhood), and this is a figure I've been dying to know more about.

Spellcasting Molydei *drool*

BenS wrote:

"Dergholoth": if I'm not mistaken, this is by Shemeska of board-fame. Nice. Todd, I hope if there's ever a Fiendish Codex III, you have a hand in it.

That'd be me :D

If there was an FC:III, I'd try by hook or by crook to have a hand in it, but I don't know what realistic chance there is of that happening, either one getting made, or me having a role. One can dream, and in the meantime, the Dergholoth was fun. :)

[BenS]

Christopher West wrote:

BenS wrote:

Loved the Lands of Mystery map!!! Unless my sense of geography is hopelessly distorted, I don't think it qualifies as a whole "world". So, um, Paizo, why not make it a part of Golarion and make a lot of people very happy? :)

Thanks, BenS! I'm glad you like the map!

As part of Dungeon, copyright on the Lands of Mystery map belongs to WotC, so I don't think Paizo would be able to integrate it into The Pathfinder Chronicles setting if they wanted to. That said, you're free to make it a part of Golarion for your own campaigns. I for one would be interested in hearing how that works out if you decide to do it. :)

Gaah! Accursed copyright laws, why do you haunt me so...

Thanks for the reality slap Chris :) I think I'm going to incorporate the map in my version of the far western edge of Oerik, or near to it. I've already made that the original homeland of Arcana Evolved's giants, but there's room to play around in that area.

[BenS]

Todd Stewart wrote:

BenS wrote:

"Dergholoth": if I'm not mistaken, this is by Shemeska of board-fame. Nice. Todd, I hope if there's ever a Fiendish Codex III, you have a hand in it.

That'd be me :D

If there was an FC:III, I'd try by hook or by crook to have a hand in it, but I don't know what realistic chance there is of that happening, either one getting made, or me having a role. One can dream, and in the meantime, the Dergholoth was fun. :)

Todd, I've read your stuff for years as a lurker over on the WOTC boards, though I've stopped visiting them in recent months (I wonder why...). I don't know of another human being who could do justice to the Yugoloths et al. like you could. Surely WOTC knows who you are and would consider you as a contributor. Christ, they should solicit you. Anyway, I just read your real life bio, and, yes, the irony of your occupation is striking :)

[toportime]

I have to say, as the last adventure in STAP is in 150, looking it over it seems to be absolutely awesome. Great work on the Adventure path, and looking forward to Pathfinder.

[kessukoofah]

Man...I don't even get to read this for another month due to working away from home for the summer. Why do you all torture me so? However, from what I've read, it all looks very promising. And you're right, BenS, in your commentary on high-leveled adventures. There arent enough of them, and they're perfect for special one-shots. And the Dungeon index should be quite useful. I started to make my own, but since I started with #123, you saved me a lot of work. Am I correct in assuming it's a list of the adventures and associated level of each? (I know it's a lot to hope for, but I may as well ask.)

[BenS]

kessukoofah wrote:

And the Dungeon index should be quite useful. I started to make my own, but since I started with #123, you saved me a lot of work. Am I correct in assuming it's a list of the adventures and associated level of each? (I know it's a lot to hope for, but I may as well ask.)

This is the mother of all indices, my friend! Broken down into 1st, 2nd and 3rd edition; all by levels. Further broken up into campaign worlds (e.g., Greyhawk, FR, etc.) Just a fantastic resource. You won't be disappointed.

[Todd Stewart]

Well I got my issue in the mail today, and it didn't survive the trip from the mailbox back to my apartment before I opened it up and starting skimming through.

Random comments:

First of all, I absolutely <3 the chibi Malcanthet on page 5. Hehe!

Secondly, the larval Vanthus is wrong and twisted and absolutely awesome.

Prince of Demons - Greg Vaughn, understand that you made me cackle and scare my cat when I saw the inclusion of Verden and the Azure Iris Inn within Sigil as a location for a neutral meeting ground. The three quasits riding Orcus's proxy were another priceless moment of incredibly awesome wrongness. Gromsfed the Drowned singlehandedly rehabilitates the Klurichir from being a Molydeus wannabe into pure awesome. Notice I've used awesome quite a bit? There's a reason for that. The continuing the campaign section is full of seriously cool "what-if" hooks. I'm still working my way through the adventure, so those are just my initial comments on what snagged my attention first.

Downer - I've really grown to like the comic, but I'll echo the Cuprilach's comment of "What the hell?". I'm confused by what that was and what happened. O.o

Dergholoth - James, I didn't expect you guys to actually take my request for Julie Dillon to do the artwork. Sweet! *glee*

[Greg A. Vaughan]

Thanks, Todd. While the quasits and Gromsfed were mine (well actually I believe W. Baur came up with the name for Gromsfed--but the actual dude was mine, complete with the recurrence of my first monster/template to hit the pages of Dungeon way back in 106) the mention of the inn in Sigil was all James. I can take no credit from the master on that.

He probably did that bit of rewrite on account of the fact that I had the entire PC party murdered as part of the plotline in the second encounter of the adventure (What? They were all gonna' get resurrected!)

Anyway, thanks again, and kudos on the most excellent 'loth.

[James Keegan]

A larva with the head of a man? Someone's been stealing my ideas.

;)

[Atrocious]

Greg V wrote:

He probably did that bit of rewrite on account of the fact that I had the entire PC party murdered as part of the plotline in the second encounter of the adventure (What? They were all gonna' get resurrected!)

Could you elaborate on this?

[Kruelaid]

James Keegan wrote:

A larva with the head of a man? Someone's been stealing my ideas.

;)

You are a troubled young man. Have you sought counseling?

[Greg A. Vaughan]

James Keegan wrote:

A larva with the head of a man? Someone's been stealing my ideas.

;)

\

Yuck, man.

[Greg A. Vaughan]

Atrocious wrote:

Greg V wrote:

He probably did that bit of rewrite on account of the fact that I had the entire PC party murdered as part of the plotline in the second encounter of the adventure (What? They were all gonna' get resurrected!)

Could you elaborate on this?

I suppose. SPOILER ALERT

To get away from the norm on this, the final ever print Dungeon AP (as far as we know to this point), I created an encouter that would result in a TPK (or very close to it if not all the PCs were of resurrectable races).

Basically as the alliance was meeting (mentioned in Todd's e-mail above) under the protection of Morwel's court, a group of greater doppleganger assassins sneaks into the PCs' tent and murders them in their sleep (or tries to silence any guards and then murder the rest in their sleep). The dops would then consume their identities and sneak away. The PCs would then be true resurrected and awake the next morning possibly having no idea what transpired.

Now the chances of that going of without a hitch are virtually nil, so it was expected the PCs would catch the dops in the act and proceed to put a beat down on them at which point their ally from Shendilavri Crimson (who had a different name originally and got sent with the party by Malcanthet to keep on eye on them rather than being executed) would burst into their tent and try to stop the fight pproclaiming that she sent the dops to aid in the war against Demogorgon by creating virutally perfect decoys to run around Gaping Maw distracting Demogorgon from pinpointing the true PCs. She swears she was gonna' have them resurrected, though, at which point there was a good chance the PCs would begin to put the beat down on her as well.

At that point Faerinall would enter the tent and confirm Crimson's words, that the eladrin were in on the plan, and even show the scrolls of true resurrection that were going to be used (the eladrin are chaotic after all). The kicker was that Faerinall would then request that the PCs go ahead and submit to execution so that the plan with their decoys could proceed. Attempting to do the deed while the PCs slept was merely to prevent any discomfort they might have had at the thought of being executed and having their brain consumed. So the big concundrum was then, do the PCs go ahead and allow some or all of them to be killed and eaten trusting that the eladrin were as good as their word? If they refused, then the dopplegangers' disguise is imperfect and it affects the chances of Demogorgon detecting them and sending folks like Ulu-Thurg to deal with them quicker.

Anyway, that's it in a nutshell. What can I say. I'm a sadistic #*&^% DM with my regular players and it carries over into the adventures I write. ;-)

[James Jacobs]

Yeah, the doppleganger subplot was really interesting in the way it made for a "distraction party" against Demogorgon, but also a bit too hardcore and depended too much on things going just exactly right. Plus, the greater doppleganger stats are not only kind of wonky rules-wise, but ENORMOUS. There just wasn't room for them, really. And finally, there wasn't a map. When encounters don't have maps to supplement them, their chances of being cut increases dramatically. :)

Also... we kinda did the doppleganger trick already in Age of Worms. I didn't really want to go back there, since it's a pretty underhanded sneaky DM trick (well done, Greg!).

[Crimson Jester]

Mothman wrote:

Nicolas Logue wrote:

but I dragged my feet on the manuscript (cause I didn't know about the end of Dungeon) and now it is complete and completely never going to see print.

Captian's Logue

Ok now that I have my late input to the Logue list. Is there never ever going to be a way we can get a copy of the long awaited sequal????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

[Greg A. Vaughan]

Meh...you win some you lose some.

James Jacobs wrote:

When encounters don't have maps to supplement them, their chances of being cut increases dramatically. :)

Hmmmmmmm.....(files away for future reference)