I'm mad.
No, don't argue: I'm running D&D 3.5 for 9 players. For roughly 150 minutes every Thursday night (children and work schedule permitting).
From memory I started about a year ago, and I have a few notes on the initial stages of the campaign which I can share now. There will be more detail when we get into the meat of the Red Hand campaign.
Here's the set-up:
Knowing that the game was headed towards RHoD, I needed a base of operations for low levels with which the PC's could make a connection. Given that the game would be set on Greyhawk (Sterich, as suggested in the book), I decided to use the Goodman Games Module DCC28 Into The Wilds as a starting point. Into that, I would insert where appropriate warning signs, notes and premonitions regarding the Horde.
As that module brings adventurers up to Level 3, I back-converted DCC54 Wyvern Mountain into 3.5, re-naming it Dragon Hill in the process. Once this was closed out, I would start the PC's facing off against the Horde.
Would it work? Read on...
First up: the characters. Nine of them (good grief), but it seems that one or another is not there some weeks. When we get all nine around the table, it's quite a squeeze...
Spleen - Half-Orc Barbarian (weapon of choice: 2H Great Hammer, effectively a Blunt Great Sword).
Steele - Human Fighter (with a Great Sword, formerly a member of a mercenary company and rescued from being a Vampire's Dinner)
Invidious Locke - Human? Dread Necromancer. Devotee of Vecna, searching for the Libris Mortis.
Lazar - Human? Warlock (Has Fiendish Heritage as a Feat, so who knows).
Skittles - Gnome Illusionist. Not his real name, as how he came by this appellation will be revealed...later!
Havendir - Dwarf Rogue. Always looking to Stonecun something.
Anneka - Halfling Swashbuckler, great at Jumping and Tumbling.
Pierre - Favoured Soul of Corellan Larethon. Healing machine with a longbow.
Saeth - Human Druid, whose animal companion is a Wolf called Dog.
Those are our heroes. And quite a cast they make. It can be difficult giving them all screen time at times...
Edited highlights from Into The Wild
The Bat Riders
On more than one occasion, the party were harassed by goblins riding bats. The party includes a Halfling swashbuckler, who was small and light enough for the Half-Orc Barbarian not to notice when she ran up his back and used him as a launching pad to get up close and personal with the goblin whilst avoiding the nasty biting bats.
The Rainbow of Colours
Or: How the Gnome Illusionist got his name. Week One, with bats and goblins dropping in from out of the sun, he sighed and cast Colour Spray at a couple of likely targets. The player, in casting this spell, shouted out “Taste The Rainbow!” at once prompting cries of “Skittles!” from around the table. He is now called Skittles universally, and his original name is forgotten and unremarked.
The Flying Druid
Whilst assaulting the Goblin encampment, the Bat Riders took to the air to defend their territory. During one fight, a Bat Rider swooped in to grab an invader and carry him off. However, he picked up the Druid, who (whilst in the bat’s cruel claws) used his Animal Empathy ability to bring the bat under his control. Result: it was the Goblins, not the Druid, who ended up plastered all over the scenery.
How to Win Friends and Influence Vampires
Although the party is numerous, they sometimes have difficulty in hitting the broad side of a barn with a banjo. So, for the climactic encounter with Azubal, I turned him down somewhat and made him a half-vampire (I forget which book that’s in, it’s a template) but upped his Fighter levels to retain him at CR5. Result: a foe who can be hit, but who still has DR and a fair few hit points to back it up. I was also using the Solo Monster and Elite Monster rules from Trailblazer, which meant that he had even more hp to absorb when the Barbarian and Fighter waded in with two-handed weaponry.
Or so I thought.
We have with us a Dread Necromancer, who can Rebuke Undead. And Azubal counted as undead. The Necromancer rolled high enough not merely to Rebuke, but to Control Undead, and sent Azubal for a walk in the sunshine. Whilst everyone else was enjoying watching him get a Tan with Extreme Prejudice, I was busy rolling Will Saves (and failing!) to get him to break the Control Effect. After his excursion Outside, he managed to get back in the shade, but with a bagful of hp missing and that made him easy pickings.
“Uh… We’re the Bad Guys… Honest!”
So, they get into the Dwarven complex and find a dormitory full of Lady Aborn’s troops (Lady Aborn is the sister of the Baron in charge of Wildsgate, the town where the PC's are based, and trying to usurp her sibling). At this point, they didn’t know who they worked for, so they started to ask them questions about troop numbers, who was in command, and so on, all the while pretending to be reinforcements of the same force. It was going well, and they learned about Lady Aborn’s perfidy… until the Barbarian got bored and started the attack early!
Dinner Fights Back
The party get into the Valley of the Flesh-Eaters, on the trail of adventurers (former members of Steele's mercenary band, as it turned out) kidnapped for food. They get to the Fire Pit, where the dancers are hitting frenzy point around the fire. The Dread Necromancer then decides to cast Summon Undead and make a skeleton walk out of the fire pit towards the uncomprehending natives. Result: Flesh-Eaters scared out of their wits and running, screaming, for cover.
Curse of the Witch-Doctor
The climactic battle against the Witch-Doctor (enhanced to a Level 6 Cleric to improve challenge) was very back and forth. He cast Summon Skeletons and managed to get a dozen best – at which point the Dread Necromancer cast Rebuke Undead and managed to Control about half of them. Result: skeletal civil war and a Witch-Doctor left without meatless shields. His Death Touch domain ability took out the Fighter, and Hold Person kept the Barbarian out of the way. He even cast Blindness on the Necromancer, in an effort to make him drop control of the skeletons.
It didn’t work.
Sheer weight of numbers overcame the remaining loyal skeletons, and the emaciated Witch Doctor was unable to stop the invaders tearing him limb-from-limb.
Next up: the climax to the module, as the PC's uncover ancient artifacts and find out the extent of Lady Aborn's villainy!
Sounds like a great campaign. Loved reading about the Witch-Doctor fight. Good stuff.
L
We're hoping to see a healthy dish of fillet ala character before this campaign's finished!
We're hoping to see a healthy dish of fillet ala character before this campaign's finished!
I certainly hope so!
The story to Into The Wilds focuses on three artifacts (crown, sword and sceptre, from memory) of the Barony of Wildsgate, stolen over 100 years ago by a Master-Thief and hidden ever since. And the first baron has cursed the family line to sicken and die until they are returned. With the current Baron bed-ridden, his over-ambitious sister, Lady Aborn has been plotting and scheming to take over.
The return of the artifacts - and the Baron's recovery - would hole her plans under the waterline somewhat.
The group having managed to fend off bat-riding goblins, undead dwarves, Lady Aborn's scouts, cannibals and an ooze, finally managed to rescue the artifacts from their decades-long hiding place. At which, the Baron started to get stronger, and Lady Aborn got a little upset.
Along with some trusted troops, she rode out to take (by fair means or foul) the artifacts from the PC's.
The gang were traipsing back to Wildsgate and Lady ABorn stopped them. She asked for her family's property to be returned: having encountered mercenaries loyal to her, the group said that they would give them back to the Baron. She cast Charm Person on Invidious, the Dread Necromancer, and he totally blew his Will save, so much so that he grabbed the sack with the goodies and started to give them to her. Spleen the Half-Orc tried to grab him, but he wriggled away. So Skittles cast Enlarge Person onto the barbarian, who promptly sat on Invidious and stopped him handing over the goodies.
Meanwhile, Anneka and Havendir had been taking pot shots at Lady Aborn and her troops, and were wearing her down. She managed to cast Invisibility and Expeditious Retreat and make good her escape, whilst her loyal troops had their asses handed to them on a plate. Only the Warlock (with his See the Unseen invocation running) could make out where their quarry was, and he couldn't keep up with her.
They returned the items to the Baron - now recovering nicely - and were rewarded. They also managed to loot Lady Aborn's room for spellbooks and the like and were awarded a party in their honour.
It was just a shame that Havendir, the Rogue, tried to pick pockets at the party, and ended up fumbling whilst trying to relieve the Chamberlain of his purse...
- in our next episode we climb Dragon Hill and find out who - or what - lives there...
Next adventure up was DCC54: Wyvern Mountain. Anyone who has this or knows of it might recognise it as a 4E module, an indeed it is. However, I did a spot of back-conversion into 3E - and it was relatively painless - which is available over on the Goodman Games forum. I'll post a link to the conversion notes another time - that forum is firewalled while I'm at work, and I'm on my lunch-break right now!
Havendir, our beloved Dwarven rogue had blotted his copybook somewhat, being discovered by the Baron's Chamberlain while trying to pickpocket - erm - the Baron's Chamberlain. So, he was brought to trial the next day, and guess who was Witness for the Prosecution, Judge and Jury? Yup, the Baron's Chamberlain!
Havendir got off lightly: all he had to do was a spot off Community Service - scout up Dragon Hill (the re-skinned Wyvern Mountain) and see why there were lots of Mountain King's troops moving around there.
The Mountain King features in a few 4E DCC's - he's the ruler of a Dwarven Mountain state, on the borders of human civilisation, with Plans for Expansion. In this case, however, he's looking more to secure his realm against a possible incursion...
The team head up the mountain. Here, we have our first Victim: Havendir. The group approach a large gorge, with a bridge across it. He scouts the bridge and finds the mid-section is trapped to collapse when walked on. He tries to make the planks safe, botches his disable check, botches his Reflex check to avoid the drop, and falls 70' to what might be his Doom...
Except in this game, I use Action Points, a way of letting PC's and important NPC's get extras. They can confirm a crit, negate a fumble (natural 1), get a used-up ability back or - when in peril - save a player's sorry ass. Here, Havendir was able to "stabilise" on negative hp, the fall having done around 35hp damage and him having slightly less than that.
But that left a badly injured comrade 70' down at the bottom of a ravine. No problem: Skittles the Illusionist used Alter Self and turned into an Aarakokra (man-bird), flew down and adminstered a Healing Potion, allowing the shaken rogue to recover and get back to safety.
And so, the Illusionist flew up the mountain, scouting ahead, and spotted a Dwarf lurking in a ruined building further up the trail...
To Be Continued!
The Illusionist managed nothing more than putting the Dwarf on guard. Luckily, he managed to fly back down the mountain before his sorry ass got peppered with arrows.
The team headed back up the pass again. They were nearly ambushed a squad of Dwarves wearing the insignia of the Mountain King, but eventually overcame them. Skittles used a Fog spell to try and make the ambush fail, but all it did was make the fight last longer, as the mists hampered chances for everyone to hit each other! Highlight of the mess were Anneka the Swashbuckling Halfling Jumping and Tumbling onto ledges where the marksmen were holed up and taking them out, and the Warlock Lazar Spider Climbing the ridge to finish off the rival Warlock in the ambush party. Inconceivable!
Further up, they came to the area that the Dwarf had been sighted, but the ruined tower was empty. They tried a furtive approach, but the Dwarf (a Ranger) was in hiding, and her mountain-lion animal companion dropped one of the party (I forget who) and stood over the corpse. They were forced to parlay with the ranger for the life of their comrade, and agreed to work for her, scouting out the fortress hidden at the top of the mountain and finding out the reason for high levels of Orc activity here. She let them on their way, promising to meet them in Wildsgate later. So on they headed, looking out for orcs, not expecting a ambush from...
a band of very hungry Grimlocks, lead by a capable Fighter, armed to the teeth and wearing better armour than one might expect.
He didn't last long :( I think he got Spleened.
With the leader lying in a messy heap, the other grimlocks gave up the fight and were interrogated. As the module was inherited from 4E, there were instructions for a Skill Challenge right here - so I modified the encounter to work in 3.5E and rolled right along. The PC's demonstrated how superior to the grimlocks they were, and the degenerates "rolled over."
The PC's went to the grimlock's lair, a filthy cave which smelled of Ogre. There, they found a Wanted - Dead or Alive poster for an ogre who had been running a highway robbery gang. The grimlocks seemed to hint that the Ogre was up at the top of the hill. They also found a partial map, indicating a secret door into the lair at the peak.
And so, on they trudged. They arrived at the Great Gates of the fortress, nearly set off the traps, got molested by a fighter hiding behind an arrow slit and firing at them, before finally finding the secret door in and sneaking into the fortress. This tactic worked admirably: they arrived at a secret door inside the chambers, and were able to perpetrate an ambush of their own...
Lazar's player took me to task last night for not updating the Journal for a couple of weeks. I've been busy.
So while he's gone on holiday, here's another entry...
The secret passage led to a guard post, in which an Orc Witch-Doctor (actually a Favoured Soul with a couple of arcane-flavoured spells in the mix, to make him "feel" like the kit from the 2nd Ed Complete Book of Humanoids) and contingent of warriors were waiting. The heroes were busy picking them off, and the invisible gnome Illusionist spotted a passageway leading off the chamber, from which could be heard the sound of someone - or something -approaching...
Whilst his comrades butchered the Orcs, Skittles headed down the passage and encountered a large Orcish Battle-Champion (high level barbarian) - who, unable to see his Small foe, promptly tripped over him and landed flat on his face! The kerfuffle allowed other combatants in the guard room to rush over and hand the flattened Orc his arse on a plate.
Nearby, they found a strange staff (which they would need to get down to the next dungeon level) guarded by a statue of an ogre. One player had said, some weeks earlier, he'd never fought an stone ogre. Well, here was his chance.
The creature was really an Ogre with the Half-Golem template tacked on, slow but hard-hitting, and surprising a couple of the martial types before being taken down. They also came across an Orc Cleric of Gruumsh, busy "renovating" a chapel (removing idols of Tiamat and replacing them Gruumsh-style).
If I remember rightly, it was here that Lazar got hit and dropped below zero hp, getting caught in the crossfire of the fight. Whilst "dead" he had a discussion with a beautiful, dark-haired elf, who asked for his help in getting her fortress back. He agreed, and stood back up again, all wounds healed.
Invidious Locke, the party's expert on undead, is very suspicious of this turn of events!
Next Time - they encounter the Ogre in charge of the fort, and Havendir demonstrates his prowess at disarming traps. Don't miss it!
After a foray into the Ice Queen's crumbling artillery chamber (and an unfortunate encounter with some green slime), they found a few clues in a barracks, then came face to face with the leader of the humanoids - an Ogre Barbarian with a Greatsword who could lay the smack down when he hit.
His "guards" fared less well, dispatched quickly. The Ogre, made of sterner stuff, lasted longer but still fell.
They then arrived at a room with a strange carving, with silvered shards all over the floor. They worked out quickly that it was a magical lock to open a door, and the staff guarded by the Stone Ogre was part of the key. Havendir "volunteered" to work it, but got it badly wrong, and the silvered shards flew around his unfortunate head, doing lots of damage. I think it was enough to drop him, temporarily, though Pierre managed to get him back on his feet. Eventually, they managed to work out the trick and get the door to the deepest level of the fortress open...
More soon!