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Finally after exactly way too many years of trying to get an Age of Worms campaign off the ground I've actually done it. We're 6 sessions in to Whispering Cairn, about to finish it up and move on to Three Faces of Evil and I'm working up my notes for the conversion of the 3 Temples.
In Eberron the Ebon Triad consists of cultists of The Mockery, The Keeper, and The Shadow.
I'm thinking about replacing the Tiefings in the Temple of Hextor(The Mockery) with Flayed Hand monks. I'm also thinking Theldrick was once a Karnathi officer and is a war criminal in hiding. And now he's leader of an Ebon Triad cell.
I'm thinking that I'm going to leave the other two temples about the same as the module. Grallak Kur leads a murderous Keeper cult of grimlocks and receives visions not from the Keeper but from Kyuss/Katashka. The Temple of Vecna is now an old lab and temple built by the mortal wizard Vecna, who may be the first human lich.
I'm also going to be reducing the numbers populating each temple. I've only got 3, 3rd level PCs right now and numbers in 5e are really quite dangerous. That and the supreme competency of the Temple of Hextor/The Mockery in their defense plans makes them even more dangerous. I'm wondering about adding an NPC to the party to give them some backup. They let Filge live and while he hates them Smenk may send him along with the PCs as backup and to punish Filge for dropping the ball so completely and spilling the beans on Smenk's involvment with the cult.
I was wondering if anybody might have some suggestions on the temples, party situation, or Eberron conversion in general.
I think it's great that you're doing this campaign. I've read through it, and I plan on doing it with my group sometime in the near future.
As to suggestions, I think your plan with the monks would be a great idea.
My question to you: How hard was it to convert everything to 5th? If it's not too bad, I may have to do it as well, but base it in the original setting or Greyhawk.
Earl of the Malebolge wrote: I think it's great that you're doing this campaign. I've read through it, and I plan on doing it with my group sometime in the near future.
As to suggestions, I think your plan with the monks would be a great idea.
My question to you: How hard was it to convert everything to 5th? If it's not too bad, I may have to do it as well, but base it in the original setting or Greyhawk.
The 5e conversion has been pretty easy so far. I don't have the DMG yet so I've been eyeballing everything but aside from a couple fights that were too easy, everything has gone pretty well. A lot of what I've done is reskinning 5e monsters and adding abilities to them. I haven't used them yet but my Wind Warriors are just Animated Armor monsters with the 2 slam attacks replaced by 2 longsword attacks (so slightly more damage) an added sonic blast attack, and flight. I based stats for things like the small elementals on monsters of the appropriate challenge rating and gave them elemental traits. Places where I broke down was pulling my punches on the encounter with Filge. I nerfed his zombies to human zombies because I thought that would be enough against the party, but the zombies had trouble doing any real damage. 1d6+1 only leaking through on a roll of 12 or more isn't all that dangerous. And Filge rolled crappy on his spells attacks.
So yeah, 5e conversion is pretty easy and I expect my encounter design will improve with the DMG next week. I think 3 Faces of Evil will be the first real test of my conversion skills though. There are some serious fights there and they need to be deadly without being impossible.
BayonetPriest wrote: Earl of the Malebolge wrote: I think it's great that you're doing this campaign. I've read through it, and I plan on doing it with my group sometime in the near future.
As to suggestions, I think your plan with the monks would be a great idea.
My question to you: How hard was it to convert everything to 5th? If it's not too bad, I may have to do it as well, but base it in the original setting or Greyhawk.
The 5e conversion has been pretty easy so far. I don't have the DMG yet so I've been eyeballing everything but aside from a couple fights that were too easy, everything has gone pretty well. A lot of what I've done is reskinning 5e monsters and adding abilities to them. I haven't used them yet but my Wind Warriors are just Animated Armor monsters with the 2 slam attacks replaced by 2 longsword attacks (so slightly more damage) an added sonic blast attack, and flight. I based stats for things like the small elementals on monsters of the appropriate challenge rating and gave them elemental traits. Places where I broke down was pulling my punches on the encounter with Filge. I nerfed his zombies to human zombies because I thought that would be enough against the party, but the zombies had trouble doing any real damage. 1d6+1 only leaking through on a roll of 12 or more isn't all that dangerous. And Filge rolled crappy on his spells attacks.
So yeah, 5e conversion is pretty easy and I expect my encounter design will improve with the DMG next week. I think 3 Faces of Evil will be the first real test of my conversion skills though. There are some serious fights there and they need to be deadly without being impossible. Sounds great! Will have to try soon!
Also, there is a synopsis of this adventure that includes how to make the campaign Eberron based. Actually, it's on paizo.com
Earl of the Malebolge wrote:
Sounds great! Will have to try soon!
Also, there is a synopsis of this adventure that includes how to make the campaign Eberron based. Actually, it's on paizo.com Yeah, I have that. I was just wondering about additional advice people who have run it might have.
Speaking of advice, my rogue is very set on robbing Smenk. I'm thinking he's going to want to try a burglary of Smenk's mansion and steal the contents of his private safe. I'm wondering how to handle the defenses of the mansion. The material says that Smenk has 3 thugs patrolling the the perimeter of his estate and a number of dire apes guarding the outer halls. Not too useful against a rogue who can sneak good, scale walls, shimmy open windows and such. Smenk has at least one spellcaster in his employ, Merovin so I've decided he has warded the place with Alarm spells. In 5e Alarm is a ritual and can be cast for free with a 10 minute casting time, so I expect alarms will cover a large portion of the house. All the windows at least. The rogue has just made 3rd level and has picked up Arcane Trickster so he is going to have Detect Magic to locate the Alarms and I've already decided that a skill roll can bypass the alarm if you can see it(have Detect Magic up).
Any thoughts on that?
BayonetPriest wrote: Earl of the Malebolge wrote:
Sounds great! Will have to try soon!
Also, there is a synopsis of this adventure that includes how to make the campaign Eberron based. Actually, it's on paizo.com Yeah, I have that. I was just wondering about additional advice people who have run it might have.
Speaking of advice, my rogue is very set on robbing Smenk. I'm thinking he's going to want to try a burglary of Smenk's mansion and steal the contents of his private safe. I'm wondering how to handle the defenses of the mansion. The material says that Smenk has 3 thugs patrolling the the perimeter of his estate and a number of dire apes guarding the outer halls. Not too useful against a rogue who can sneak good, scale walls, shimmy open windows and such. Smenk has at least one spellcaster in his employ, Merovin so I've decided he has warded the place with Alarm spells. In 5e Alarm is a ritual and can be cast for free with a 10 minute casting time, so I expect alarms will cover a large portion of the house. All the windows at least. The rogue has just made 3rd level and has picked up Arcane Trickster so he is going to have Detect Magic to locate the Alarms and I've already decided that a skill roll can bypass the alarm if you can see it(have Detect Magic up).
Any thoughts on that? Skill roll sounds appropriate, though you could always force him to find another way in. It would also be appropriate for tons of alarm spells in his home, since he's got a spellcaster workign for him.
It could be kind of interesting if he had to find a place that wasn't warded—somewhere Merovinn wouldn't think to ward, like the chimney or one of the second-story windows. Merovinn's kind of a jackass, after all—he seems the type to go, "F*&* it, I got all but one of the windows, which of these a&~@#+*s is gonna notice?"
I have Bask swear a lot in my game.
Allowing a skill roll might be a better precedent, of course, but it would add a fun puzzle element.
Sorry it took so long to reply but thanks for the advice. Haven't gone much farther, no grand heist yet and the party has just wrapped up the Whispering Cairn and sold a bunch of the loot to Allustan. Their last trip in the fighter spent some time taking notes on everything they found and they gave this somewhat detailed overview of their findings to Allustan in return for his free consulting on the Cairn. Afterwards they were approached by Kullen with a message from Smenk. They've been invited to dinner.
We won't play again till after the holidays but I'm chugging away at converting the next module and planning out the meeting with Smenk. The way I see it is Smenk wants to get a feel for the PCs and see if he can through them at the cult situation. The Rogue is already in his employ but Smenk doesn't exactly trust him (for good reason). The fighter is related to a rival manager (Ellival) but Ellival keeps out of the petty politics so Smenk doesn't likely see him as much of a threat.
I did something a bit different with Filge than I thought I would. Instead of running to Smenk he skipped town entirely, burning the Observatory to cover his tracks. Smenk doesn't know if Filge is alive or dead but he suspects the cult killed him. The party was seen skulking about the Observatory the day before it burned though so I think he's going to get to the bottom of that. The rogue has a decent excuse for that though (Kullen was sick of dealing with the necromancer so he foisted the job off on him, Kullen would probably corroborate given that "Give me the bastard's eyes" would go over even worse with Smenk)
So that's what's coming up. Still got work to do on those temples. The Mockery(Hextor) is mostly done, but the other two need a lot of work.
BayonetPriest wrote: I did something a bit different with Filge than I thought I would. Instead of running to Smenk he skipped town entirely, burning the Observatory to cover his tracks. Smenk doesn't know if Filge is alive or dead but he suspects the cult killed him. Just gonna say, this is really clever. I may use this myself if I ever re-run Age of Worms.
BayonetPriest wrote: So that's what's coming up. Still got work to do on those temples. The Mockery(Hextor) is mostly done, but the other two need a lot of work. What kind of work do you mean? And I would love to hear what you did instead of using Filge.
Kobold Cleaver wrote: BayonetPriest wrote: I did something a bit different with Filge than I thought I would. Instead of running to Smenk he skipped town entirely, burning the Observatory to cover his tracks. Smenk doesn't know if Filge is alive or dead but he suspects the cult killed him. Just gonna say, this is really clever. I may use this myself if I ever re-run Age of Worms. Thanks. I just felt it made sense in this situation. A thorough investigation of the ruined Observatory may have revealed that he escaped but they didn't do that. So now they're kind of divided about whether or not he is still alive.
Earl of the Malebolge wrote: BayonetPriest wrote: So that's what's coming up. Still got work to do on those temples. The Mockery(Hextor) is mostly done, but the other two need a lot of work. What kind of work do you mean? And I would love to hear what you did instead of using Filge. I just meant conversion work and token making for the encounters, since I play on Roll20. And I did use Filge at the observatory, he just burnt the place and skipped town after the party attacked him. I was thinking about keeping him around and sending him in with the PCs as extra muscle but decided against it as we have a 4th PC now so it isn't as necessary.
I finally got the chance to work in this a bit more, and played a session last night. Pretty much 85% done with prep for this place, the first half of each temple is ready to go. Still need to convert the Faceless One and Grallak Kur fights. And the Ebon Aspect. I need to be careful with the Faceless One, at level 3 a fireball will kill most of the party on a failed save, the fighter can't tank even an average damage roll from one. Spellcasters are hard to get right, Filge was a pushover because I gave him Necromancy spells (which suck) and he missed with all of them but one anyway. But if I had let him burn every slot on magic missile he would have probably wiped the party. Magic Missile is kind of a beast in 5e. 3d4+3 at level 1.
We might be picking up another player in a couple weeks though, and good god did she roll good on her stats. I watched her do it, 4d6 drop lowest. 17, 16, 15, 15, 15, 14. She's going Barb. If she shows up that's pretty much the end of me lowballing anything. She's not got much experience as a player but that character is going to be a beast.
I really need a better medium for communicating. Microphones don't work on my computer for some reason so we can't do voice chat and text chat is not really cutting it. I'm rather bad at NPC interactions anyway and text chat is just making it more difficult. One players has hard time saying anything and it always comes out in wowspeak when she does and another says too much and takes over most of the conversation. Annoying, I really wish my group was able to get together IRL but it was just proving too difficult to schedule.
Anyway, last night's game went alright. They went to dinner with Balabar Smenk and he questioned them about what they had been up to lately and why they were derping around the Observatory. The rogue tried to through Kullen under the bus but Smenk really suspects the cult was behind Filge's seeming demise. I expect Kullen and the rogue are finally going to come to blows next time they meet. The party quickly agree to remove the cult, some for altruistic reasons and others for mercenary reasons. Because I was getting tired of the plodding conversation via text I just had Smenk send them into Dourstone Mine under the guise of another supply shipment. He also gave them a few potions, an up front payment and a bit of insurance on my part because rest opportunities aren't all that common ahead.
Another thing I changed was I put a couple grimlocks in the Dark Cathedral room instead of Mockery(Hextor) guards. My reason was simple, I didn't want the party to immediately derp into the most heavily defended temple and get ripped to shreds, so I lured them to the easiest one. The Grimlock caves are probably a lot more dangerous in 3e or 4e but in 5e everyone and their mother has Darkvision so it loses out on that.
They bluff their way into carrying the supplies further into the cave, to the first guard room. There they get in a argument with the leader of the grimlock guards who tells them they have to leave which they do, only to come back about 2 minutes later to try to ambush him. He ambushes them but is quickly overpowered. They continue to the Ledge room where they dispatch the Kennel Master, Archers, and Krenshars without much difficulty. I'm of mixed thoughts on that, by the XP that should have been a Hard rated fight, adjusted XP value was 700. But they blew through it expending just 2 spells and a second wind. I don't like that the guidelines for encounters aren't seeming to line up, but I do like that the party handled this fight without much difficulty because that means I don't have to pull any punches later.
We stopped there, the PCs debating whether to continue or head back and investigate the strange black pool upstairs. We'll probably pick back up sometime this weekend.
Sorry I haven't replied sooner, I have been getting ready for Spring semester.
I am sorry to hear about the microphone problem. I use to have similar issues with Skype, but a quick trip to computer-savvy friend fixed that.
I am starting my campaign on Saturday, with the following party of 5.
Tiefling Paladin of Vengeance
Dwarf Fighter
Half-elf Warlock
Gnome Illusionist
Dwarf Cleric (Light domain)
I will post how it goes. My group is very much intro rp-ing, so it should be interesting with the npc's.
I just noticed that the "Aarakocra" on Page 12 of the MM are connected to the Wind Dukes and the Rod of Seven Parts. I think I'm gonna incorporate them in as the Wind Dukes' descendants (mixture of mortal form and elemental air?) and have them in later modules. What do you think about their connection?
Earl of the Malebolge wrote: I just noticed that the "Aarakocra" on Page 12 of the MM are connected to the Wind Dukes and the Rod of Seven Parts. I think I'm gonna incorporate them in as the Wind Dukes' descendants (mixture of mortal form and elemental air?) and have them in later modules. What do you think about their connection? That was the first thing I noticed when I opened up the book, very cool. I haven't really thought of how to integrate them though. I'm using Eberron which makes for somewhat different cosmology than the traditional, my Wind Dukes were elemental beings who lived on the material plane, in great flying cities and islands. The war during the Age of Demons wiped them out and destroyed all their cities. I'm not sure what to do with the Aarakocra though. If I ever set another campaign in the same canon as Age of Worms I could see an expedition to a ruined Wind Duke city, crashed in some remote area and now inhabited by Aarakocra. That would be pretty cool.
BayonetPriest wrote: Earl of the Malebolge wrote: I just noticed that the "Aarakocra" on Page 12 of the MM are connected to the Wind Dukes and the Rod of Seven Parts. I think I'm gonna incorporate them in as the Wind Dukes' descendants (mixture of mortal form and elemental air?) and have them in later modules. What do you think about their connection? That was the first thing I noticed when I opened up the book, very cool. I haven't really thought of how to integrate them though. I'm using Eberron which makes for somewhat different cosmology than the traditional, my Wind Dukes were elemental beings who lived on the material plane, in great flying cities and islands. The war during the Age of Demons wiped them out and destroyed all their cities. I'm not sure what to do with the Aarakocra though. If I ever set another campaign in the same canon as Age of Worms I could see an expedition to a ruined Wind Duke city, crashed in some remote area and now inhabited by Aarakocra. That would be pretty cool. I might borrow this ;)
I finished another session. The party has cleared the Grimlock caves and holed up for a long rest Grallak Kur's chamber. The session had it's ups and downs.
It was mostly a combat slog all the way through, I didn't get to give much personality to Grallak Kur or the Grimlocks beyond "crazy underground blind guys". Anytime ordinary grimlocks were encountered the party wiped them out quickly. 11 HP is no way to survive when you only have 11 AC. Almost every hit took one out and there were lots of hits. The grimlock barbarian in the tunnel was another story. That fight was a terrible slog, nobody enjoyed it. I couldn't justify her high AC in 5e because stats are lower in general so I gave her very high HP. We got the problem common to early 4e monsters where damage output wasn't high enough to be scary but HP took too many rounds to cut through. Won't make that mistake again.
Grallak Kur was a more interesting fight but a very easy one. The party ranger and rogue both got the drop on him and got surprise shots with their bows. Did pretty good damage right at the beginning. The ranger was nearly killed though. I gave Grallak's guards oversized scythes because their god in Eberron, The Keeper, has that as his favored weapon. Really just reskinned Greataxes. Well d12's are pretty nasty on a crit and I nearly killed the Ranger outright with a crit while he was at low HP. 4 more damage would have done him in. It's usually pretty hard to do that in 5e so that was definitely a close one. It kept the fight interesting though.
Anyway, the party leveled after this fight, now level 4. I have level 5 set for when they take out the Overgod. They found good bit of monetary treasure, some potions, and a bag of holding. Everybody is excited about level 4 because that means feats. The ranger is taking Sharpshooter, which means he can shoot from any conceivable firing position, he ignores cover. A big deal for him because these tight confines have been playing hell with his archery. The Rogue is taking +1 Dex, +1 Con to bump both of those stats up. The Fighter is taking Great Weapon Master, which is sure to turn the premier death machine of the party into a force of nature. The Cleric is taking Healer, which is going to be a big deal for the party's daily HP reserves.
Next up they'll choose either the Vecna laboratory or the Temple of the Mockery. Both have their ups and downs, the Battle Temple shows no quarter and is brutal all the way through but the other one has the Faceless One who will be the first unnerfed high level caster they have faced. Lastly I still need to stat the Overgod.
Sounds like a great session.
How my first session went:
Due to scheduling, the session was cut rather short (2-3 hours), but the party now has experience with the 5e rules. The party assembled under the contract of the dwarf cleric of the group, who hired them using clan funding to explore a tomb on their claim (whispering cairn obviously). There they slaughtered an upgraded wolf encounter (4 normal wolves, 1 warg flavored as bigger wolf), with minimal trouble (dwarf fighter killed big wolf with crit, and gnome wizard used sleep on two of the wolves). The group also figured out the puzzle rather easily for the color wheel. Just have to wait for the green hatch to give way.
The only major issue I have been having is that the party seems to be slaughtering through encounters rather easily. However, having only had one encounter (and a rather simple one at that), I will have to wait to experiment more.
Also, I am not sure if I want to use the feats from 5e. They seem troublesome, or borderline broken. Let me know how that works for your group.
Earl out.
EDIT: Ah, I see. Yeah, the acid beetles will be a better test. The wolves are supposed to be a cakewalk—I think Erik just likes the idea of raising PCs' confidence before crushing it, though I'm sure he has some spiel about "easing them in".
Anyways, I dunno much about 5E, but immunity to weapon damage is nasty at that level. The warlock will help, but that's why there's also a mad slasher. If they breeze through the (assumedly modified) beetle fight, that's when you know you need to be more generous with the modifications. 3.5 had pretty low power levels compared to Pathfinder or later D&D editions.
Interesting that you added in a worg—I did as well. Wasn't much of a challenge, but it wasn't supposed to be. As for the acid beetles, I think the main thing I did was double the beetles' HP (the party had an alchemist) and give the mad slasher some extra hit points as well. The group had one casualty, but it was sorta Erip's own fault for not casting defensively. ;)
Kobold Cleaver wrote: EDIT: Ah, I see. Yeah, the acid beetles will be a better test. The wolves are supposed to be a cakewalk—I think Erik just likes the idea of raising PCs' confidence before crushing it, though I'm sure he has some spiel about "easing them in".
Anyways, I dunno much about 5E, but immunity to weapon damage is nasty at that level. The warlock will help, but that's why there's also a mad slasher. If they breeze through the (assumedly modified) beetle fight, that's when you know you need to be more generous with the modifications. 3.5 had pretty low power levels compared to Pathfinder or later D&D editions.
Interesting that you added in a worg—I did as well. Wasn't much of a challenge, but it wasn't supposed to be. As for the acid beetles, I think the main thing I did was double the beetles' HP (the party had an alchemist) and give the mad slasher some extra hit points as well. The group had one casualty, but it was sorta Erip's own fault for not casting defensively. ;)
5e swarms don't have immunity to weapon damage, just resistance (half damage). I just used reskinned Swarm of Insects for my acid beetles. They were serious tanks with an effective 44 HP since my party didn't have any nonweapon damage capability. 4d4 damage is a rather powerful attack at level 1 as well. The party were quite fearful of them, until they stocked up on oil and burnt out the nest. That greatsword fighter with 18 Str also made mincemeat out of them, half damage or no.
Anyway, next game tonight. Will it be door number 1 or door number 2? Maze of Vecna or Battle Temple of the Mockery? I get to find out tonight.
Blegh. I liked immunity better (and it made more sense), but I guess I can't like everything I hear about this fancy new edition. :P
So Monday night we had our next session. The party caught on to the puzzle quickly, and after flipping to green twice caused the elevator to collapse. Te fight consisted of a beetle swarm (which kept tha paladin busy), and I substitued an ankeg for the mad slasher. Seemed to work well, since it almost killed the fighter at least once, if not a close second. Party then descended into the lair of the architect first, clearing it, and are now finishing the lair of the laborers. I think I finally got the power levels right for fights, and the players have enjoyed the campaign so far. We'll see about the upcoming owlbear :)
Huzzah!
Since it's a larger party, you might consider upgrading the owlbear in some way—extra HP, for instance. But it shouldn't matter too much. My party made mincemeat of the poor guy because it wasn't able to get a full attack in. If it manages to get close, people will get hurt.
Yeah, my party ended the owlbear in one round. I had reduced the HP of the MM Owlbear to simulate it being wounded but I get the feeling they could have taken the real deal. Or not, the ranger was very lucky it missed with its attacks but they put it down with 3 arrows. Hunter's Mark and Sneak Attack can really add up in damage, especially when everybody rolled real high on the damage dice.
I'm still not sure I'm getting the difficulties right for the encounters. They didn't have much trouble in the Grimlock caves but a lot of the challenge there is the darkness and the entire party has darkvision so they kind of skipped out on that.
They've entered the Battle Temple now, slaughtered their way through the skeletons, petitioners and a couple of the Flayed Hand Excoriates (Monks that I replaced the Tieflings with) They held fast in the doorway so the skeletons couldn't gang up on anybody too badly. And when they started getting some licks in the Cleric turned them all and put them out of the fight. The Boar got in one fantastic hit, he critted on his charge and did 8d6+3 damage to the rogue. But I didn't roll to hot on the d6s so he didn't even go down. One round later the boar was dead.
The Ranger has really come into his own. The Sharpshooter feat lets him stand in the back and fire arrows with impunity. When he has both his Hunter's Mark up and triggers Colossus Slayer he's making attacks at +7, 1d8+3+1d6+1d8. Very accurate, good damage. That's gonna go through the roof when he gets his second attack.
Anyway, a couple Excoriates got away and alerted the rest of the temple. Against the wishes of the fighter, the cleric wanted to take the time to cast Prayer of Healing (10min cast) to bring the fighter and rogue back up in HP. The Fighter player knew this was more of a SWAT style dynamic assault than something where you can just stop for 10 min but let the cleric have his way. So 2 minutes later Kendra and several monks burst through the door to the arena, intent on luring the PCs in. We're gonna pick up there tonight.
I've got 4 Monks left, Kendra and Garras, and Theldrick. Their plan is to fire some shots down the hall then fall back to lure the PCs. Then rain shuriken, javelins, arrows, and spells down onto the party from above. Could get dangerous, the fighter and rogue are only at half HP. Maybe they'll be smart enough to chug a potion before they go in. The cleric is down to a single 1st level slot and 3 2nd level slots. Still should be enough for the fight but I haven't decided how the Faceless One is going to react. 2 long rests is plenty of time for him to realize something is amiss.
Assuming they take out Theldrick and hole up in his temple for a long rest, what do you think the Faceless One is likely to do? I expect one of the Kenku will notice the corpse of the monk the party left in the Dark Cathedral.
The most effective way for the Faceless One to take out the party is to wait in the Dark Cathedral for them to come back out, then ambush them with all his forces at once. The party lacks effective crowd control so this is probably a TPK for even a rested party.
BayonetPriest wrote: Yeah, my party ended the owlbear in one round. I had reduced the HP of the MM Owlbear to simulate it being wounded but I get the feeling they could have taken the real deal. Or not, the ranger was very lucky it missed with its attacks but they put it down with 3 arrows. Hunter's Mark and Sneak Attack can really add up in damage, especially when everybody rolled real high on the damage dice.
I'm still not sure I'm getting the difficulties right for the encounters. They didn't have much trouble in the Grimlock caves but a lot of the challenge there is the darkness and the entire party has darkvision so they kind of skipped out on that.
They've entered the Battle Temple now, slaughtered their way through the skeletons, petitioners and a couple of the Flayed Hand Excoriates (Monks that I replaced the Tieflings with) They held fast in the doorway so the skeletons couldn't gang up on anybody too badly. And when they started getting some licks in the Cleric turned them all and put them out of the fight. The Boar got in one fantastic hit, he critted on his charge and did 8d6+3 damage to the rogue. But I didn't roll to hot on the d6s so he didn't even go down. One round later the boar was dead.
The Ranger has really come into his own. The Sharpshooter feat lets him stand in the back and fire arrows with impunity. When he has both his Hunter's Mark up and triggers Colossus Slayer he's making attacks at +7, 1d8+3+1d6+1d8. Very accurate, good damage. That's gonna go through the roof when he gets his second attack.
Anyway, a couple Excoriates got away and alerted the rest of the temple. Against the wishes of the fighter, the cleric wanted to take the time to cast Prayer of Healing (10min cast) to bring the fighter and rogue back up in HP. The Fighter player knew this was more of a SWAT style dynamic assault than something where you can just stop for 10 min but let the cleric have his way. So 2 minutes later Kendra and several monks burst through the door to the arena, intent on luring the PCs in. We're gonna...
I feel the faceless One would lead his forces in an attack on their position of rest after long rest. Could make it a siege combat that way.
Also, to my regret, my party has asked to stop the Age of Worms AP, due to lack of interest. Instead, they will continue to adventure in the world of GreyHawk. I hope to read more entries from the both of you. Best of luck, fellow DM's.
Earl of the Malebolge wrote: I feel the faceless One would lead his forces in an attack on their position of rest after long rest. Could make it a siege combat that way.
Also, to my regret, my party has asked to stop the Age of Worms AP, due to lack of interest. Instead, they will continue to adventure in the world of GreyHawk. I hope to read more entries from the both of you. Best of luck, fellow DM's.
Sorry to hear that. I'm sure there will be a lot of fun adventures to come in Greyhawk though. I just recently picked up the old box set PDF from D&DClassics and I really liked what I read. 576CY is a lot easier to follow than the 3e era stuff.
On my end, we got to continue last night. Things did not go as planned, for the party or for me. Very nearly wiped the group. They picked up where they left off, with 3 monks and Kendra engaging them so they couldn't rest or heal up. Now, the party had effortlessly stomped the monks so far so I didn't expect 3 monks buffed by bless to tear through them the way they did. The dice weren't with them tonight either, the first 5-6 attack rolls made by the party were misses. Against targets they could hit on a natural 8. The fighter was the only reason any of them survived, he kept himself up with second wind and a potion of heroism and slowly managed to cut them down.
They killed 2 of the monks before the 3rd retreated, they neglected to follow him into the kill box and retreated back up the elevator. They bribed some miners to smuggle them out of the mines (and back in the next day) and headed back to Ellival's estate, since he's the fighter's uncle.
So, consequences time. First up, what do Theldrick and company do? I'm thinking that with well over half their number gone they take refuge with the Faceless One. The Faceless One probably sends some scouts into the town to track where the party went. I'm not thinking any assassins though, because the party will be in a rather well put together compound with elves on watch.
Perhaps they abduct a number of townsfolk for sacrifice, trying to speed along the release of the Ebon Aspect.
It looks like the party going to try not to let Smenk know they came back to town. They snuck back in in the evening so unless they go derping about he'll still think they are in the mines. Probably going to make him sweat, not knowing if they succeeded or not.
You guys got any ideas? Anything stick out that I might have missed. The module is quite lacking in advice on this eventuality
Having scouts go forth would make a lot of sense. You could then have either all the cultists form up in the same area (probably under Faceless One), or have the survivors leave under the cover of darkness, seeing the plan as a failure and a new base of operations would be necessary. The party would then have to track down their new lair (perhaps they had a back-up lair in the Cairn Hills?), then go back to dungeon-smashing.
Abductions could also be an option, forcing the party to move without too much preparation. If I was a cultist though, I would get the hell out of town (no pun intended), after seeing all my buddies lying dead.
Earl of the Malebolge wrote: Having scouts go forth would make a lot of sense. You could then have either all the cultists form up in the same area (probably under Faceless One), or have the survivors leave under the cover of darkness, seeing the plan as a failure and a new base of operations would be necessary. The party would then have to track down their new lair (perhaps they had a back-up lair in the Cairn Hills?), then go back to dungeon-smashing.
Abductions could also be an option, forcing the party to move without too much preparation. If I was a cultist though, I would get the hell out of town (no pun intended), after seeing all my buddies lying dead.
Hmm. I thought about a retreat but it seems to me that the black pool is important for their plans. The Overgod stirs within and all that.
I've been thinking about it today and here's what I have. After the party retreat Theldrick alerts the Faceless One. They set guards on the elevator and accelerate their plans. Monks and Kenkus are sent out in the night to abduct 2-3 victims for sacrifice. The Faceless One wishes to release the Ebon Aspect, even if it is incomplete he hopes that it will be enough to destroy the party and keep them safe, at that point they may choose to relocate, perhaps seeking out more of the worms to bring about Kyuss's rise.
So say 3 sacrifices. My timetable is the first sacrifice at dawn. Dawn is also when the abductions will become apparent. The next at dusk. And the third at midnight. If they wait until after the last sacrifice the Overgod will be released and seek them out in town.
I doubt they'll wait that long so they should have a chance to avert that eventuality and save at least 2 of the captives. The party is also probably going to lose one PC and gain two others between now and next session. So they'll have a bit more firepower this time around, they'll need it with the cultists on alert and together.
BayonetPriest wrote: Earl of the Malebolge wrote: Having scouts go forth would make a lot of sense. You could then have either all the cultists form up in the same area (probably under Faceless One), or have the survivors leave under the cover of darkness, seeing the plan as a failure and a new base of operations would be necessary. The party would then have to track down their new lair (perhaps they had a back-up lair in the Cairn Hills?), then go back to dungeon-smashing.
Abductions could also be an option, forcing the party to move without too much preparation. If I was a cultist though, I would get the hell out of town (no pun intended), after seeing all my buddies lying dead.
Hmm. I thought about a retreat but it seems to me that the black pool is important for their plans. The Overgod stirs within and all that.
I've been thinking about it today and here's what I have. After the party retreat Theldrick alerts the Faceless One. They set guards on the elevator and accelerate their plans. Monks and Kenkus are sent out in the night to abduct 2-3 victims for sacrifice. The Faceless One wishes to release the Ebon Aspect, even if it is incomplete he hopes that it will be enough to destroy the party and keep them safe, at that point they may choose to relocate, perhaps seeking out more of the worms to bring about Kyuss's rise.
So say 3 sacrifices. My timetable is the first sacrifice at dawn. Dawn is also when the abductions will become apparent. The next at dusk. And the third at midnight. If they wait until after the last sacrifice the Overgod will be released and seek them out in town.
I doubt they'll wait that long so they should have a chance to avert that eventuality and save at least 2 of the captives. The party is also probably going to lose one PC and gain two others between now and next session. So they'll have a bit more firepower this time around, they'll need it with the cultists on alert and together. Great plan! Yeah, party rotations always seem to spike power levels, so good luck with that.
Fun Fact: 7 players can fight off a young green dragon single-handedly (a CR 8 encounter).
Seven players? You must have a different crop of players than I.
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