I was a little worried about running LD. I didn't think I could do Golgismora justice and give the PCs as vivid a picture of the city as I had formed from the reading. I needn't have worried, it is running excellently.
I want to thank the poster who jokingly wrote he was going to re-create the city by mixing legos and ground beef and throwing them down on a battlemat. That phrase painted a vivid and memorable image for my group.
I treated the fungus forest in Tlaloc's crater as a mine-field; rather than mapping out the different types of fungus, I had the PC's make a Reflex save (DC 15) for every 10' travelled. A fail indicated some sort of fungal or mold interaction, usually something exploding with poisonous spores or acid, and many with a secondary save (Fort to avoid poison or disease). I wish I had made a chart beforehand (% to determine effect, amount of damage, and relevant DCs). Casting Hero's Feast in the morning allowed the group to aviod many of the efects.
For the truly creepy aberation feel, I added some monsters adapted from my years playing Gamma World. I came up with some more building descriptions and dropped them in at every opportunity. And every poor skill check was explained away with flavor description; I turned a failed move silently check into an involuntary gasp of horror as the PC's hands sunk into the "flesh" of the building she was peering around.
All the players and thier PCs can't wait to finish up and go home. All but one, that is: the Dwarven Necromancer/Fleshwarper, on his way to becoming an aberation himself, feels he found a new home.
Thanks James and crew for a great setting. It really stretched my DMing skills to the limit without breaking them.
Indeed, this looks to be one of the most fascinating of the adventures. Although it's placement seems anti-climactic after Tides of Dread, leading me to make story arc parallels with A Gathering of Winds (AoW AP), I know that my players will enjoy this one far more in terms of the content. In short, the creature types in TLD are more up their alley than those in AGoW were.
And thank God for the aboleth! One of my players has been itching to see aboleths featured in a campaign as more than just arrow fodder. I won't spoil it for him, but he'll be happy.
Another player is a Cthulhu-junkie, so the ubiquitous aberrations are sure to suit his fancy. I'm especially excited about the Neh-Thalguu (brain collector), as it's previous, epic incarnation is more familiar to my players, and I know it's going to jar them ferociously, as they are all closet metagamers.
Here's to Golismorga!
I agree that this is probably one of the best parts of the adventure path, especially with all that leads up to it. While I did enjoy reading the other parts somehow the Isle of Dread parts in general had a drama and excitement mixed with the sinister and creepy that I really loved.
I like you putting in stuff from other games in it to add more flavour, that's very cool btw.