Howdy Folks,
I'm looking to run "War of the Wielded" in a couple days, but I'd like to squeeze it into Wheloon, as that happens to be where the PC's are at the moment. Can anyone provide tips / feedback as to how I could do this both quickly and easily?
Thanks.
nothing? throw me a bone people.
Sorry, just got into work and I won't wake up for another two diet cokes. Where's Wheloon again?
Sorry, just got into work and I won't wake up for another two diet cokes. Where's Wheloon again?
Cormyr, on the border with Sembia.
Cormyr, on the border with Sembia.
Right, right, right! No wonder it sounded familiar; just this week I read through "Tearing of the Weave." Not a bad book, that. Are you running that adventure and want to squeeze it between, or do they just happen to be there coincidentally?
Cormyr, on the border with Sembia.Right, right, right! No wonder it sounded familiar; just this week I read through "Tearing of the Weave." Not a bad book, that. Are you running that adventure and want to squeeze it between, or do they just happen to be there coincidentally?
My group is currently level 2, almost level 3, and I'd like to get them closer to the level 4 mark before I send them through Tearing of the Weave. As such I was looking for adventures to run in-between.
They just finished one of my own creature, where some bandits (lead by a priest of Shar, *foreshadowing*) were kidnapping people from along the Way of the Manticore and it just so happens, that they kidnapped the Cleric of Mystra that gives out the Tearing of the Weave mission. (I figured that they know the guy now so are going to be more willing to listen to him)
Anyways, I'd prefer to keep them in Wheloon to run War of the Wielded, as this enables me to not create a reason to get them back to Wheloon.
A couple changes I was thinking...
- The spa where the first major confrontation occurs will be a estate in just outside of town
- The show down with Kogolaxan (sp?) will occur in an old Tower, againt, outside the town...
I'm not quite sure where to put the Caves of Rust and Fire, if anyone could help me out that'd be great.
Any Idea's on how you will get the party to destroy all weapons?
I think if I run this game my party will try to keep as many weapons as they can, giving them an enourmous treasure....
Any idea's on this?
Well if you look at the alignment of the weapons you see that they are either evil or neutral. The weapons have goals and feelings. Since they are intelligent the weapons can choose not to let the wielder use their powers.
Not sure the make up of your game and group but, starting to do questionable actions and ignoring friends they have made should also be motivators.
I'm not an expert on the Realms by any means, but I think the "War of the Wielded" has a secret war quality to it and Wheloon doesn't seem like a very big community. If a bunch of people wielding ornate magic weapons were duking it out in the streets, their eyes glazed over and personalities warped from who they were, more people would notice. I would keep it an urban adventure, maybe with Wheloon as a starting point? Perhaps one of the weapons, like the short sword of quickness, is found in that area after its last wielder is assasinated by one of the daggers of venom. The PCs pick it up, and it leads them to the nearest larger city to duke it out. You can throw some random encounters in to let them enjoy their new "ally's" power. Plus, later in the campaign, they have a location with a higher gp limit to sell or purchase magic.
Maybe you can add an NPC noble or weapon collector that has one of the intelligent weapons. Not an epic level character, but maybe someone with a few PC levels and NPC levels that has a lot of influence and resources. Someone the PCs don't want to cross. He or she is either captive or abetting one faction in the war. Once the PCs with the former paladin's help lure the weapons into a showdown with the rust monster (maybe it lives deep in the Haunted Halls of Eveningstar?) the noble collector is pretty peeved about the loss of such historical and powerful weapons. So they initiate a kind of cold war: the watch pays closer attention to them for one reason or another, shadowing them wherever they go in the city, some merchants (especially weapons and armor dealers) jack up their prices a bit and nobles whisper and gossip about them. Just enough to make them uncomfortable and encourage them to head back to Wheloon.
Just a bit of commentary on how the adventure is working in play...
I'm about half way through so far, using WotW as a Savage Tide sidequest before the start of Sea Wyvern's Wake. The PCs discovered Sabrehawk as written, though I made the deceased ex-wielder an acquaintance of theirs who's recently happened across the sword, to give them a bit of personal motivation.
I set up Larcos as a deeply suspicious character - he's still wanted by his old paladin order (who are allies of the PCs...) for the murders that he performed under the control of the blades last time around - they think he's become a blackguard. The PCs caught him following them a couple of times (Dex 5 and half-plate does his Move Silently modifier no favours), but I'd also given him a Cloak of the Mountebank to let him get out of trouble and avoid answering questions if Sabrehawk's wielder was present. It blows the roof off the expected wealth curve if the PCs end up with it, but soon the PCs are going to be stuck on the Sea Wyvern for quite a while, so I don't mind giving them out a bit extra now.
The fight in the bathhouse was childishly easy - with the exception of the samurai (who'd slipped over the doomy line of alignment change through nobody's fault but his own recently, and then managed to get himself caught in the cleric's Holy Storm spell) I hardly managed to cause 20 hp of damage in the entire combat. Now, my group is 5 tough level 5 PCs, but it wasn't even close. I'm going to have to beef up the rest, I think.
However, after that, things have gotten very interesting. Everyone's suspicious of what the samurai's been up to that means holy spells burn him, the scout has both Sabrehawk and Triage, the dragon shaman has three of the Duchessas, and the cleric's powers have been revoked after he cut down an ex-Imperativa who regained her right mind and surrendered after the Holy Storm dissolved her dagger (and he also let two more, who'd been fascinated by the wizard, drown in the steam bath). Then the cleric went off by himself to seek atonement and happened across Larcos. Larcos told the full story (all the rest are still completely in the dark that the Cabanites are weapons, at this stage), and the cleric kinda-sorta believes him despite his reputed blackguardness. But in the meantime the Duchessas have dominated the dragon shaman and he's run off to give the blades back to the rest of the Cabanites, who will a) instruct him to gift one of the daggers to Lavinia in order to replace the slain Imperativa, since I've decided the current wielder of Valora is Lavinia's fencing instructor (who has, after the bathhouse debacle, been promoted to Swordsage 8...), and then b) return to Cabanite HQ, don a Friend Shield ring, and hang around to cop any wounds the Cabanites might take in the final confrontation.
However, the next bit is going to be rather tricky. Two of the 5 PCs are wielding intelligent weapons and can't be trusted. One of the others is evil, and so Larcos and the (LG) cleric won't trust him either. That's going to make it more than a little tricky for the group to troop out of town to catch the kogoloxen. Not to mention what happens when they realise Lavinia's missing and the wizard (who has chambers in Witchwarden Tower), gets word that a Witchwarden sorceror was slain in the Featherwhisper bathhouse the previous day and Lux Seoni herself is preparing divinations to find and punish the culprit. Larcos's original plan isn't looking quite so workable any more.
I'm glad I've got until next week to come up with something else...
I am planning on adding WotW as a sidequest to STAP. The first encounter and the bathhouse will be before they leave for the cove in BWG, they will see the paladin in the crowd trying to stop the cart/float, finally finish after the seige.
I too worry about the party wanting to keep the swords and so far have four solutions. 1) let them, we have no spellcaster and a magic sword might be worth while. 2) any wielder will continually see an evil doer infiltrate the party then a random party member will continually get stuck by a sword. 3) a lot more rust monsters 4) wash it overboard. I think it would also be cool to have one or two of the weapons show up in FarShore or even, if I do wash one overboard, have a Kopru wielding it later *grin*
Apologies for the thread jack.
Larcos's original plan isn't looking quite so workable any more.
I'm glad I've got until next week to come up with something else...
Totally! If Sabrehawk, Triage or the remaining Duchessa get wind of the plan I could see them looking to either foil it or at least get a warning out to their brethren as soon as it becomes possible.
Given that they are having an relatively easy time of the adventure so far, I imagine that the remaining PCs, (the cleric and the wizard?) could sneak off and attempt caging the Kogoloxen by their lonesome and then try to fool their own comrades. But I can see how that could fall apart quite quickly.
Regardless, this is way cool chaos. I love how you wove in Lavinia and made the opening death scene more personally motivating.
Humble, you’ll have to let us know how it turns out!
Scott & Le Janke,
Having a weapon re-emerge in the hands of a kopru is a pretty wild idea!
-MiKe
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My plans to run War of the Wielded as a mini-campaign are slowly starting to see fruition. I now have a general idea of how I want to extend it to last somewhere in the region of 6-8 whole levels (starting from level 1-2). I've got the first few adventures sorted and a group, I'm just lacking a few finishing touches.
Just a warning; the spoiler tag includes plot elements from the Savage Tide Adventure Path.
I'm going to begin with a modified "There Is No Honour", in which Rowyn Kellani and the Lotus Dragons are actually a Cabanite front being used to gather financial resources and new wielders. I've retro-fitted Rowyn into a rogue/swordsage; the bard part of the final encounter is now supplied by her Cabanite blade Chanson Triste (one of my own creation). The PCs get pulled into this when Lavinia hires them to find Vanthus, who is also a Cabanite wielder, and they get Sabrehawk snuck to them as help in finding someone whose offed a couple of Oquon wielders.
I've decided that lead caskets are a "safe" way for the wielded to be transported, but the PCs shouldn't find this out for a while. By the time they do, they'll already have had to contend with at least one Cabanite blade and what to do with her. I'm toying with a further layer of conspiracy where Lavinia is the wielder of Gahn, but doesn't let on to the PCs, the reason being that the Oquon don't want any public connection between them and their meal ticket...Yet.
We then move on to a far less modified version of "The Bullywug Gambit", in which Vanthus is despatched to return a mysterious black pearl to the Crimson Fleet. In return, he is to recieve what the Crimson Fleet believe to be a simple weapon that has languished in their armoury for a few years, but is actually another Cabanite. Cue a double-cross and accident with what is actually a shadow pearl and a mini-savage tide. (The actual origins of the pearl will probably change to fit in with one of my PCs backgrounds, I just haven't decided how, and don't anticiate running any further into the AP).
Diamondback, and her stit walkers, become Cabanite assassins, sent to deal with these troublesome pests that have wandered into their war. Diamondback with probably be carrying Princess Cathandra, and I might modify her class levels. The events at Vanderboren Manor can continue as planned, except that I'm going to replace the Jade Ravens with Oquon wielders and leave a few more talking swords scattered all over the place. Perhaps have a few bullywug corpses that have got themselves killed by their fellows trying to free Lavinia.
At the moment I'm at a loss for two things; how to segue into "Home Under the Range" (a talking rope is just too good an oppurtunity to pass up, thanks for even further inspiration MiKe) and when I should have Larcos Dengrin contact my PCs. The background to "Home Under the Range" is going to chagne considerably; Twinoch becomes a dwarven mage who created the first wielded and who was approached by the Oquon to make more. In a cataclysmic battle, the Cabanites destroyed the artefact she was using and pulled down much of Vultania Gorge around them. This is where I get to have fun designing some intelligent gear in the form of armour, rings, etc, that the cataclysm formed (this is exactly Sosias' origin, he's a Cabanite trying to destroy the Oquons buried in the rubble, Vanthus gets to show up again here). The dwarves and/or the PCs also get to unleash a few more Oquons and Cabanites. I think the final stages should go as per "War of the Wielded", but I'd really like to give my players a chance to decide which faction they want to be a member of early on, either Cabanites, Oquons, or friends of Larcos'. If I can get them to like Lavinia, despite her semi-domination by an Oquon wielded, I'd really like saving her from pseudo-slavery to become a motivation too, I'm just going to have to be careful in their meetings with her not to give the game away.
Wow, that was huge. Thanks for reading, if anybody even gets half way through the spoiler tag!
Ukos
Humble, you’ll have to let us know how it turns out!
Well, it's getting even MORE complicated! Tonight's session was more trying to come up with a plan than anything else, but threw up a few interesting wrinkles...
The wizard and cleric, in consultation with Larcos (who they still don't entirely trust...), have decided to bring Mahommed to the mountain, so to speak, and lure all the Cabanites and the Oquon to the crumbling caves. They're going to do this by dropping hints of some ancient magic forge in the Dungeon of Rust and Fire that can make magic weapons more powerful. They're going to scry (via a scroll) on the imprisoned dragon shaman and use a Message through the scrying focus to tell him that they're headed to the forge (knowing that it'll be overheard by the Duchessa, but counting on the fact it won't know that they know that), and use that to lure the Cabanites in. For the Oquons, they're going to lie to the scout, and then let Sabrehawk tell the Lone Hand (the identity of whose wielder they know) to spread the word.
Of course, the cleric and wizard are still the only two who know about the blades, and they don't know about Lavinia having a Cabanite dagger yet (not that their plans will change a great deal once they find out...). The Jade Ravens, though, HAVE found out Lavinia has disappeared, and have turned up to confront the remaining PCs about what they weren't told, and to demand to be let in on the rescue. And of course the scout mentioned Triage, and Tolin has decided that since none of the PCs are going to wield it (they prefer their own weapons), he might as well - it's too useful a weapon to leave behind, he reasons, and everyone's on the same side in wanting to retrieve Lavinia, after all!
And, to make it more complicated, the scout (not knowing any reason not to), mentioned within Sabrehawk's hearing that they'd seen an ex-paladin following them around - a fact that seemed to interest Sabrehawk more than a little, but about which he didn't press the scout for any more information...
Scott & Le Janke,
Having a weapon re-emerge in the hands of a kopru is a pretty wild idea!
-MiKe
Actually started WotW this weekend and on a reread I realized something about one of the Cabanites (name?). The dire flail is a double headed weapon. She also transforms from a rod to dire flail and in so doing undergoes a personality change. From calm and calculating, to viscous and eager. Does that sound like the type of weapon a minion of Demogorgon would wield or is it just me? Should have seen it the first time I read it considering I just finished reading the ST adventure. O:)
*Retyping the whole damn over-long post, since the damn website logged me out and ate my post half way through last time*
Finished (sort of) the adventure last session. Larcos, the wizard, and the cleric lured the other PCs, the Jade Ravens, the Oquons and the Cabanites into the Crumbling Caves, then sealed the door with a Web and let the kogoloxen and its mates do their business in a five-way battle royale. In the end, the only blade to escape the trap was Czarina Valora (and I have no idea what to do with her now...)
Issues with the adventure, as a whole:
- Any combat with the wielders of the blades tends to be a bit all-or-nothing. Generally the Imperativa and the Operatives are not powerful enough to significantly worry 5th level PCs (the Duchessas are particularly unthreatening - 1 attack for 1d4+1 isn't really going to frighten anyone at this level), but the possibility of a crit from an enlarged Hoardcutter or Con drain from poison or Czarina Valora can lead to PC death in double-quick time if the dice are unkind. In the final confrontation, it's either a cakewalk or you can expect multiple PC deaths, to be honest.
- Think carefully before going with the adventure as written and placing Czarina Valora in the bathhouse. By potentially handing her, Triage, Sabrehawk, and a fistful of Duchessas over to the PCs after this combat, you a) weaken the final scene considerably, and b) basically hand the PCs all the information they need to get the truth of the situation without needing Larcos's input at all. Look at replacing the Czarina with one of the lesser Cabanite blades, and put some thought into why the opposing blades just don't blab the entire plot at this point (while arguing with each other, naturally!)
- The Ego scores of the weapons (excepting the Czarina and the Lone Hand) are very low, and they will have real trouble wining a personality conflict against a PC. In fact, I had to fudge ruthlessly in order to get even NPCs to fail their checks (Tolin with Triage, and Lavinia with the Princessa). The ability of weapons to betray or control their wielders is enormously important for the flavour of this adventure, and having the save DCs so low as to be negligible isn't really using the setup to its full advantage in my opinion. Who's scared of a DC9 Will save, anyway? Particularly when the first failed attempt on the part of a weapon to take control is likely to result in "Oi, Sabrehawk just tried to mess with my head. I'll teach you to get uppity! *tosses offending blade to the kogoloxen*"
- The final combat can be horribly unbalanced, considering there can be up to 13 Cabanites and as few as two Oquons, depending on how things have panned out beforehand. Consider adding more Oquon blades (from the ones posted on this board) or else adding levels to the NPC Operatives. Since I knew I'd have the Jade Ravens on board, I made Hoardcutter's wielder a Barbarian 5 and the Lone Hand's a Paladin 5, but that might have been overdoing it a little, especially since I advanced the Czarina's wielder to Swordsage 8!
Overall, a potentially great campaign arc that was probably hamstrung a bit by being shoehorned into a necessarily limited page count in Dungeon and converted into a mere one-shot. The concept calls for shadowy and vicious multilayered intrigue between free PCs, PCs with intelligent weapons, PCs dominated by their intelligent weapons, NPC wielders, Larcos, the two weapons factions, and any other interested parties such as Larcos's old order, the current thieves' guild, and the shortened version in the magazine doesn't really do this justice. It'd be much better as a 2-3 level campaign arc than a simple two-combat-scene module. Though such a thing, with uncertain loyalties, potential for intraparty conflict, hidden domination of PCs, and the rampant keeping of secrets from fellow party members, would be rather a difficult thing to run, and would require a very competent and mature group.
Humble,
I can’t tell you how great it is to get feedback like that. I gotta say I pretty much agree with all of it.
1. If the combats are too “tippy” (all or nothing) that’s never a good thing—particularly for a low-level adventure. I find it a hard problem to avoid at high levels where ‘save or die’ crops up everywhere, but at this level it should be something that can be controlled with solid design.
2. The ego scores are admittedly too low. For what its worth, what I struggled with is I wanted to remain faithful to the existing mechanics. The only way to crank the ego scores is to power-up the weapons. This, of course, brings its own bag of problems, both further unbalancing encounters on both sides as well as making it harder to get the PCs to part with their acquired weapons. One solution, though its perhaps less than ideal, is to keep pouring on the sheer number of saves a PC has to make if the PC elects to keep an intelligent weapon around. Sooner or later a PC will fail. If the PC wisely junks the weapon before a failed save, good on them. (Though with the themes you were developing above, I agree it would be a lost roleplaying opportunity.)
3. I definitely wouldn’t want the Cabanights overpowering the Oquon in the final encounter. Larcos invitation should specify the number of delegates each side is permitted to bring to his mediation which should help (in theory - though as you have demonstrated, no plan ever quite survives contact with the PCs. . .)
4. Expanding the adventure into an arc sounds awesome to me. I have been reading Ukos take on this idea in this and in other threads with particular interest. The original idea for “War of the Wielded” was born out of a much longer running campaign which featured two rival factions of intelligent weapons. Maybe someday for me or another!
Thanks again! (especially for typing it twice)
-MiKe
Sorry for the thread resurrection (but now a bunch of new folks can read the praise for this wonderfully fun adventure). Next week we go into the amory for the final scene. I thought there was a post here with Mike adding an additional int item so that both sides could be rounded out to six. I am not finding that thread though. The cabanites have the dutchesses which can be multiplied, but didn't the other side as well? Any recommendations would be appreciated.
BTW the praise was high on reading. we are having even better blast playing it!
Sorry for the thread resurrection (but now a bunch of new folks can read the praise for this wonderfully fun adventure). Next week we go into the amory for the final scene. I thought there was a post here with Mike adding an additional int item so that both sides could be rounded out to six. I am not finding that thread though. The cabanites have the dutchesses which can be multiplied, but didn't the other side as well? Any recommendations would be appreciated.
BTW the praise was high on reading. we are having even better blast playing it!
Thanks Curaigh!
Hopefully I am not too late with this:
The extra Oquon weapons are found in this thread here.
-MiKe
Awesome, you made it by about 2 hours :) Thanks,
This is such a great thread. I'll be running the adventure in a few weeks in Ptolus - using rules for intelligent weapons from Monte Cook's Book of Eldritch Might and overall Arcana Evolved rules - and there's so much here for me to use.