A successful conclusion to the Age of Worms

[eastuart]

Our group's epic journey against the Age of Worms came to a successful conclusion earlier this month. For posterity, and for anyone else's possible interest, I thought I'd frame some of the "stats" of the campaign.

Warning - a few spoilers, here and there, below:

- Length: 22 months (2/28/07 - 12/13/08), about 75-80 total sessions
- PC level at finish (that is, start of the final battle): 22
- PC deaths: ~20
- TPK's: 1, at the hands of Telakin (!)

Group name: Reckless Endangerment (party #2, started at level 7, hired by Eligos to investigate the fate of the first party)

Belvis, human (now outsider) favored soul. Timid but charming, and the defensive lynchpin of the party - his magic made the PCs very difficult to kill.

Brutus Cassius, human scout/fighter. Socially direct, tactically savvy. The party's best melee damage-dealer, and their leader in battle.

Geordi, human archer. Careful outside combat, but a veritable hailstorm of piercing-damage doom when threatened. Wearer of the Circlet of Zosiel.

Glint, dwarven defender. A bulwark of defense and the (lawful) conscience of the party. Ended the campaign as the ruler of Alhaster and the bearer of the last two fragments of the Rod of Law.

Irklur Delmar, human transmuter. A brilliant, though prone-to-inebriation, mage, and a walking cornucopia of interesting spells, curious items, and odd bits of knowledge.

(The first party consisted of Luke, a human cleric of Pelor; Gustavus, a human paladin of St. Cuthbert; Illiana Cloudgazer, a human bard; Mandingo (I didn't choose the name), an elven duskblade; and Fife, a half-orc barbarian. They met their doom when they saved tremendously poorly against Telakin's Confusion spell...)

The final battle against Kyuss was about as dramatic as could be expected, given that they had successfully fought despair and destroyed the Unlife Vortex, and that I didn't bump any of the Wormgod's stats. I did alter his spell list (in particular, some of the players weren't thrilled about a couple of Disjunctions) to give him a fighting chance, given how weak he is physically. They did destroy Lashonna and Dragotha as well.

Darl Quethos & co. probably ranked as the last strong threat to the party, largely since they were able to prep heavily to face them (and since Darl, as a cleric, could prepare non-core spells). The PC's were on the ropes for a few rounds, but several key rolls got them back in the fight, and eventually Darl fled the scene (with most of his allies) after being hit with a Power Word: Blind.

Before Darl, the Swords of Kyuss presented a real TPK possibility, but the PCs made several key saves and teleported away, returning later (properly warded). Earlier in the campaign, the Alkilith demon and the Temple of Hextor were particularly memorable, on-the-edge-of-the-seat fights.

My favorite single session was probably the Gala. The scenario was fantastic, and the players performed admirably (even managing to save the cake from collapsing, courtesy of a Servant Horde!).

If I ever run the campaign again, there are probably two major ways I'll consider doing things differently:

- Evening the balance between players and NPCs/monsters with regard to non-core material (whether this means restricting the PC's access or increasing the bad guys', I'm not sure). We used Spell Compendium, Complete Warrior/Arcane/Divine/Adventurer, and PHB II, and the resultant power discrepancy was pretty marked; I had to work _very hard_ to figure out how to give the PCs a challenge, even on the major encounters (Brazzemaal, Dragotha, etc.)

- Generally, "loosening up" and being more open to take things in random directions. We played AoW pretty much "by the book", with only a very few exceptions (a 1-session intro, some adjustments to EaBK). Partly, I tried to keep the party on the "main track" because I didn't want it to become a 3-year campaign, and partly I wanted to do it in as "official" a way as possible. Next time, though, I'll be happy to add stuff and subtract other things if it feels like the right thing at the time.

Anyway, happy holidays, all, and have a great, wormy New Year!

[MrVergee]

Gratz on finishing the AP. My party is in the middle of Kings of the Rift right now. A couple of months to go ...

[Cuchulainn]

My group is beginning Spire of Long Shadows, that is, whenever we resume gaming again. We have been plagued with various issues that have prevented the whole group from meeting and thus playing.

[Demiurge 1138]

I definitely had to boost a number of encounters to make Age of Worms challenging at higher levels for my splatbook-happy party. Adding mooks and minions really helped. Giving Dragotha four avolakia clerics and two advanced, evolved Swords of Kyuss riding charnel hounds helped that battle's pacing immensely, even though all of the minions were cleared out by Round 2 or so. Access to non-core spells also made things memorable--Brazzemal wouldn't have been so scary if not for his favoring of the ironward spell.

Oh, and I gave Kyuss the Spell Stowaway feat for Time Stop. That made for a nasty surprise when the frail archivist had to spend 4 rounds with Kyuss solo... and lived to tell the tale!

[Vexer]

Congrats on completing it. I recently started DMing Savage Tide with a 3-character group consisting of a favored soul, a gold dragon shaman, and a rogue. I was and am concerned that this group composition may be ineffective against a campaign as undead-heavy as AoW; with useless sneak attacks and no undead turning. So I was interested to learn that the group with both a cleric and paladin got TPKed while one with neither made it through the home stretch. My players knew nothing of Age of Worms other than its title and I haven't been giving them hints about what to expect, so I'd like to know how Belvis the favored soul fared.

[Crust]

Congrats. Sounds like a great time, and I like how you didn't allow a TPK to stop the campaign. Nicely done.

My group started in April of '06, and we're just about to journey to Kongen Thulnir to recover Dragotha's phylactery. I've made some changes and added a few modules, so we're taking it a bit slower than many I've noticed on these boards.

[drsparnum]

Congratulations!

My party's most of the way through Kings of the Rift right now. I started them 1/2 way through the campaign with the Prince of Redhand. So far, Kranthos made them sweat a little, and Darl made them sweat a lot. Against Darl all but one PC died, and that PC had to run away. Otherwise I've had a few random deaths here and there (people rolling a bad save or something), but my party hasn't been faced with a TPK outside of Darl.

What book is Ironward in? I could use it. I'm considering having Brazzemal attack with either Necrozyte or Xyzanth at the same time...my party has already faced and driven off (but not killed) Necrozyte and Xyzanth. Do you think that would be too much?

[eastuart]

Vexer wrote:

I recently started DMing Savage Tide with a 3-character group consisting of a favored soul, a gold dragon shaman, and a rogue. I was and am concerned that this group composition may be ineffective against a campaign as undead-heavy as AoW; with useless sneak attacks and no undead turning. So I was interested to learn that the group with both a cleric and paladin got TPKed while one with neither made it through the home stretch. My players knew nothing of Age of Worms other than its title and I haven't been giving them hints about what to expect, so I'd like to know how Belvis the favored soul fared.

Warning: lots of potential spoilers below...

Though the original party had a cleric and a paladin, the overall party composition was far from optimal - in particular, they had no primary arcanist (duskblade and bard), no strong ranged attacks, and no strong scouting or trapfinding. None of those were really the reason for the TPK, though - that was the fault of 4/5 failed saves vs. Telakin's Confusion spell. I do think that some of the later combats would have been difficult for the group.

The second party (which made it from Zyrxog's lair through to the end) was very well-constructed:
- a dwarven defender with a zillion HP, an AC in the 50's, and an ability to make the squares around him difficult terrain, forming a difficult-to-penetrate front line
- an archer (able to deal ~300 damage in a full attack) and a fighter scout who could hit 3 times on a spring attack (thanks to a feat and a magic item), each of whom stayed, well-protected, behind the dwarf
- a well-rounded wizard for general arcane needs, who had a good sense of when to attack & when to defend
- the favored soul, who basically made the party unkillable with an endless panoply of buffs: sky-high saves via Mass Conviction & Recitation (and immune to various other threats via Death Ward, Heroes' Feast and Freedom of Movement); Greater Magic Weapon, Magic Vestment, and Fortunate Fate (basically a contingent Heal if you hit 0 HP) for everyone; massive amounts of healing; and occasional offensive spells (e.g., Bolt of Glory or a targeted Greater Dispel Magic) if he ran out of useful buffs to provide. When you have a Mass Death Ward up, and can get off a couple of Mass Heals to benefit friends and blast undead, who needs a cleric?

In addition, the favored soul was also the party diplomat, so he was key in the appropriate scenarios. (Among other things, he attracted the eye of the lillend in the Wormcrawl Fissure... who can say what happened that night?) :)

Summary: _in the context of a well-rounded party_ (defense, offense, and utility were all well covered), the favored soul was very, very strong.

For your party, I'd be concerned about whether there are simply enough characters to fill the needed roles. Also, I don't know that a 3-PC party has the luxury of a rogue in AoW - too often, he may simply end up being "trapfinder". (Our party's scout served dual duty as heavy-melee-damage-dealer and scout/trapfinder.) Even if you scale down difficulty, too, don't forget that variance increases sharply as party size goes down; all 3 could easily fail key saves, and even if 2 do, things could get very hard very fast.

[eastuart]

drsparnum wrote:

Congratulations!

So far, Kranthos made them sweat a little, and Darl made them sweat a lot.

What book is Ironward in? I could use it. I'm considering having Brazzemal attack with either Necrozyte or Xyzanth at the same time...my party has already faced and driven off (but not killed) Necrozyte and Xyzanth. Do you think that would be too much?

Krathanos actually could have TPK'ed the party, but, as suggested in the scenario, when the PC's were "on the ropes", he started pulling his punches and gloating. Played all-out, he's too tough for the typical PC party. Darl, on the other hand, doesn't screw around, and he also doesn't suffer the usual NPC disadvantage of "too many PC actions vs. one monster". Add to that the likelihood that he's well prepared, and his group can be really, really tough. If the monks hadn't failed on about 5 consecutive attempts to sunder the archer's bow, the battle could well have turned out very badly for the PCs - as it was, they were still very scared.

One big issue with pairing Brazzemaal with one of the other dragons is simply space, though I suppose you could always make the Vault significantly larger...

[Crust]

Interesting. I like how you paired the lillend with a PC (or perhaps it's only fortunate that the player's choice allowed such a pairing). One of my players runs a gloura (Underdark race) bard/sublime chord/sacred exorcist, and his perform and Cha-based skills are through the roof. He's the perfect companion to the lillend. Should be interesting and fun.

My group just dealt with Krathanos. I ran him as rather insane with loneliness, not one to smash rare guests just to smash them. (I removed Darl and co. entirely from this module, btw...) The group had convinced him (through the gloura's perform and diplomacy checks reaching above 50) that if he gave them his belt and completed their quest, the Watchers would free him. Making their way to the portal home, it dawned on Krathanos that he'd have to give up the belt before any promise of freedom, so he swept up his hammer, and everyone rolled initiative. Krathanos lost, allowing the PCs to go first. Each PC (to the surprise of this DM) took a frantic defensive move, whether it was withdrawing out of melee, drinking a potion, casting a defensive spell, etc. Krathanos saw this as a show of submission on the part of the PCs, and granted them his belt for showing him such respect. He then wandered off, talking loudly to himself about how much he missed his gargoyles. ;-)