RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
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My group finished ToD having completed almost all the tasks - and after scoring a magnificent victory they want to finish the list... the Seven and the missing Olman Village.
I figure I can cut plenty of the Lightless Depths anyway, so it's a nice opportunity to do something else for a change. The Seven is no problem, there are enough variants here to keep me more than amused! The problem is choosing what is going on at the missing village.
The party is 11th level and pumped full of splatbook goodness. Count them as a well-equipped 12th. I have narrowed my options down to:
The Mud-Sorcerer's Tomb Dungeon 138: need a rationale for this. Thinking quickly... umm... the village guarded a relic with the key to the entrance puzzle. Crimson Fleet types wanted it, didn't get it quick enough, slaughtered everyone or took them into slavery. A ghost can explain. Phew! Basically though - a cool dungeon, even if I drop it a few levels. A nice change of pace after the sandbox year.
The Coming Storm Dungeon 136: Easy to fit in - the Riders took the village the last time they were here. Tricky being locked in with all those clay golems and no cleric. (Did I mention that? Fools!)
Lost Temple of Demogorgon Dungeon 120: Pro - fits perfectly. Con - More trogs and monkey demons. Pro - good practice for not attacking everything evil. Con - Trogs. Monkey Demons.
Torrents of Dread Dungeon 114: Pro - fits easily. Con - their next step will be Lightless Depths, and more Kopru. (IMC Mind Flayers) Don't want to spoil the surprise!
Has anyone played or ran one or more of these who would like to give me some advice?
I have added Torrents of Dread as one of the missions in ToD. I upgraded the monsters quite a bit. It is really a nasty dungeon because of all the water. My players at first underestimated it a bit and suffered lots of damage.
I used the bullywugs as potential enemies or allies (I left this up to the PCs). Since Burbalarg has his own bullywug tribe, I decided these bullywugs did not want to worship Burbalarg, since they were true to Dagon. Therefore they ran and came under control of the kopru, who dominated all the leaders.
The group defeated the kopru and asked the bullywugs for help against the crimson fleet. They have promised to come, but want the group to help them against Burbalarg. So this will be a nice tie-in to the infamous seven.
I also decided that the kopru were using the ritual to open a gate to the abyss. The storms were side effects of the ritual, and if the group had not defeated the kopru, I would have added a storm during the battle against the Crimson Fleet. :-)
Of course they succeeded at the moment the PCs burst into the room and they were confronted with a greruor demon (from one of the Tome of Horrors manuals), which is a sort of frog demon. This was really an epic fight. The group tried to drive the demon into a corner, and then it jumped to the other side and started to attack again. Great fun!
One of the PCs also took the bronze plate with her. So I have decided it is some kind of seal which has to be put somewhere on the ground and activated. Now it has been removed from the spot, it has been deactivated. However, creatures still want to escape through the seal, so the PC keeps hearing scratching of claws behind the bronze plate in her dreams.
I hope this inspires you. I had great fun with Torrents of Dread.
My group finished ToD having completed almost all the tasks - and after scoring a magnificent victory they want to finish the list... the Seven and the missing Olman Village.
I figure I can cut plenty of the Lightless Depths anyway, so it's a nice opportunity to do something else for a change. The Seven is no problem, there are enough variants here to keep me more than amused! The problem is choosing what is going on at the missing village.
The party is 11th level and pumped full of splatbook goodness. Count them as a well-equipped 12th. I have narrowed my options down to:
The Mud-Sorcerer's Tomb Dungeon 138: need a rationale for this. Thinking quickly... umm... the village guarded a relic with the key to the entrance puzzle. Crimson Fleet types wanted it, didn't get it quick enough, slaughtered everyone or took them into slavery. A ghost can explain. Phew! Basically though - a cool dungeon, even if I drop it a few levels. A nice change of pace after the sandbox year.
The Coming Storm Dungeon 136: Easy to fit in - the Riders took the village the last time they were here. Tricky being locked in with all those clay golems and no cleric. (Did I mention that? Fools!)
Lost Temple of Demogorgon Dungeon 120: Pro - fits perfectly. Con - More trogs and monkey demons. Pro - good practice for not attacking everything evil. Con - Trogs. Monkey Demons.
Torrents of Dread Dungeon 114: Pro - fits easily. Con - their next step will be Lightless Depths, and more Kopru. (IMC Mind Flayers) Don't want to spoil the surprise!
Has anyone played or ran one or more of these who would like to give me some advice?
Lost Temple of Demogorgon CON: Another Death Knight would make 3 in the STAP, and would likely lessen VV's impact when he makes his penultimate entrance. PRO: Thematically its such a good fit, right until the end even with all the repeated mobs. I would think changing out the artifact at the end for something more fitting with your current campaign would tie it in better (here's a stretch: involve Malconthet somehow, indirectly of course). There have been suggestions on how to change the Maw's version of VV, perhaps he's not a DK but some other undead form which might keep the other two instances fresh. Or change the BBEG in LToD to some other type of baddie, like a half-fiend priestly Thrall to Big D
Torrents of Dread Since you changed the Kopru to Illithids in your STAP, why not keep the Kopru in this adventure, so that you don't spoil the surprise?
Thread jack
@carborundum
The email I have for you on record for Coliseum Morpheuon bounced
Steve Russell
Rite Publishing
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
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More time to post now! I don't think I'll do the Mud Sorcerer's Tomb, having read it properly, there's too much work involved to drop it a few levels and translate all the riddles. I might use it to pimp Wells of Darkness though - the tomb would make a great base for Ahazu!
Cheers, Luna - I like Torrents because it's already an Olman village. That makes it nice and easy to fit in. I want to avoid Kopru though - the party is really mobile, flying and dimension hopping and whatever. Unless I could always make them move like Naga or Yuan-ti though, make them top-class athletic amphibians. Hmmm... Maybe I could just use Yuan-ti - though might would make Scuttlecove less fun. Needs more thought.
Cheers, Hired Sword! Great feedback. I like having more Big D, so this is a good one. I don't quite see how it won't degenerate into a wave of 'every monster in the tomb' as soon as the party get halfway though. I may need to separate the three sections by ... say... half a mile, with magical alarms that can be triggered by people in the front and middle sections. Cue the old "Stop him before he rings the bell" drama. Plus dump the whole Death Knight and Forge thing. It's just a temple. An advanced Clay Golem would be a sweet end-battle, I could pilfer one from The Coming Storm. The player with the Tooth is wanting to find more - and Mal may have more. Any thoughts on how to tie that in - apart from, say, having the High Priest being 'toothed'?
Flow, creative juices, flow!
Perhaps replace the kopru with one aboleth? That way you can also expand on the plot of The lightless depth. Perhaps this aboleth got split off from the ones in Golismorga, or was banished for some reason.
That way you can keep the dominate effect. And there is water enough in this dungeon. But perhaps he is trapped in a pool with no exits to the sea (or only a small exit, which he cannot get through).
Or some bullywugs have to carry buckets all the while to keep him wet :-)
I added some extra water pools to give the kopru some more speed. That is also a solution.
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
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Now THAT'S a great idea! Thank you! I can stick in enough story that LD doesn't seem so weird. I can make him not-evil but more 'Far Realm uncaring' of petty mortal squabbles - really alien.
"When did I get here? Ohh, not that long ago... maybe three thousand of your solar years? Something like that."
It will pay off to give them a glimpse of the aboleth long-term mindset, and he can fill them in on the history of the island. They'll have more of an idea of what they're up against when they find the sleeping ones, and also have a VERY difficult choice with the whole Curtain thing. The obvious choice is to get rid of the Mind Flayers... but if that means allying with aboleths... the choice will be more personal.
I love it!
You're welcome!
I am preparing The lightless depths at the moment, since the group is halfway in TOD. I think this adventure is underestimated. It has a creepy Cthulhu feel, which works best if it is foreshadowed.
I am planning to include a diary fragment in the hoard of the Rakasta. It contains references to a descent of a Rakasta party in Golismorga in order to check whether Tlaloc's tear had worked as it should. They happened upon the neh-thalggu and only one of them survived and returned, overcome with despair, finally killing himself.
Hopefully I can make the players very nervous even before they descend into Golismorga :-)
I have also added some more creepy monsters to Golismorga. Years ago I played the adventure "The vanishing village" from Dungeon 19 with some of the players of this group. It was so memorable they are still talking about it today. The main antagonists of this adventure were gargantuan and colossal mimics pretending to be an abandoned village. When I read the part about the screaming buildings in Golismorga, I decided to add one gargantuan mimic, for old times sake :-)
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
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Hmmm. so how did the aboleth get there and how can I drop a clue in. How about this?
The village sent an expedition to Golismorga to check up on things. Why? Maybe... a couatl told them?
They had instructions to avoid the plateau (hint to players) and sailed to the cove to enter past the trogs. These were not yet totally corrupt and could be bribed. (Sets up a surprise for the players, and the contrast makes the trogs almost sympathetic - as far as evil slaver baby-eaters go.)
They passed the curtain and were pleased to find it still working. They came to the chamber where N'glothnuru had been partially revived by the Kopru... no... where a different aboleth had been revived and imprisoned. This one did the same trick as N'glothnoru does later and projected an image of a couatl. He said that the spirits of their ancestors had been tormented by the evils of Golismorga and placed in the statue of a giant demon-fish. The only way to free their folk was to chip out the stone fish, haul it back to their village and put it in a sacred, underground pool. (Mind-readers have all the answers.) So they got to work with tools and spells, and transported the aboleth back to their village. It was a heroic task.
The aboleth instructed them to remove the Kopru glyphs, and then took over the village. Muhahahaha!
Any obvious problems? ;-)
Sounds good to me!