The easiest way to do that is just to present the players with fait-accompli: open play with a meeting at the mine office. The PCs have agreed (prior to start of play) to meet there to explore the Whispering Cairn. As long as you've used the backdrop article to help your players build characters that have backstories with motivations to explore the mine (get out of debt, master's bidding, or whatever), you don't need to roleplay for hours to get them there. Start your game with the adventure, and then let them explore and roleplay their way through Diamond Lake once they've made their first foray into the mine.
It really depends on your players. If they like to write backgrounds for characters you could try to have them write the backgrounds first and work around that. If they don't care about backgrounds then it is easy enough to have all of them in Diamond Lake or 2 in DL and the other two in the big city. Another factor is whether or not any of them are evil. I have noticed that Allustan sends them on quest, but there seems to be no real motivation for them to do the quest, at least not at the beginning. As a good character I might help out, but as neutral or evil I would probably tell Allustan where he could go with the quests. You could use money as a motivation, or you could have them infected with a disease that is somehow tied to Allustan's quest. I have thought about running a pre-adventure if my group goes the evil route, and the disease is what makes them do the quest. At some point, I will have them get rid of the disease, but at the same time they will know the Age of Worms is a very real thing, and they will continue on, not so much to save the world, but to save themselves.
I am probably about to start the adventure within the next two weeks. If your players have a background post it here, and we may be able to find a way to start. If they are from DL maybe one is a miner, another is an apprentice to Allustan, another works for one of the mine managers, and so on.
Well, if all your PCs are from Diamond Lake, they should know eachother. The easiest way to get things started is to have them be friends already, because the grew up together.
When they were younger, they went to the Whispering Cairn already, on some sort of 'dare' challenge. There were stories of people disappearing in the cairn in the past (e.g. Alastor Land, although they don't have to know his name). The location of the cairn was a secret shared by some of the local youngsters and a place they visited to prove their courage to eachother. Your PCs did the same when they were about 14 years old, but they never got past the wolves (or whatever predator that inhabited the entrance in those days - you decide).
Now there are some high profile adventurers from the Free City in town, looking for unexplored tombs in the hills. The PC rogue who works in the Emporium overhears them talking about great treasures that might be buried there. Of course they don't know the location of those unexplored cairns. The rogue PC then contacts his friends of old to set up a little expedition of their own ...
Our DM wasn't really satisfied with the beginning presented in Dungeon, so he developed his own. The storyline went something like this: The PCs are all sent letters from a mutual acquaintance. When the PCs arrive, they find that their friend has been killed. After some rather exciting confrontations with the man's killers, they find some notes in the man's study about the Whispering Cairn.
The storyline went a little off the rails from there. For starters, the only reason that the man was interested in the Whispering Cairn was because of the treasure opportunities it represented. I always thought it would have been more interesting if he had been killed by members of the Ebon Triad while trying to uncover some deeper, darker secret about their organization. Anyway, that's just a suggestion.
I want to throw a word of caution out: Diamond Lake needs to suck, but there still needs to be something that ties them to it, especially if they aren't all good or lawful.
Later on in the path, after they have "moved on" from Diamond Lake to the Free City, a bad guy will come to Diamond Lake in search of them, and cause a lot of damage, which the PCs need to come back and put a stop to. No problem for altruistic or responsible PCs, the bad guy is hurting people, and its the PCs fault for leading it back to Diamond Lake. But more self-serving PCs may be less inclined to return. Many of the backstories suggested by the first adventure imply that your PCs should want to get out of Diamond Lake and never come back, which can make it even more problematic.
So give them ties. Give them freinds (who don't get kidnapped or betray them for a silver), give them family (who don't annoy the crap out of them), give them reasons to care about the place after they leave.
I want to throw a word of caution out: Diamond Lake needs to suck, but there still needs to be something that ties them to it, especially if they aren't all good or lawful.
Later on in the path, after they have "moved on" from Diamond Lake to the Free City, a bad guy will come to Diamond Lake in search of them, and cause a lot of damage, which the PCs need to come back and put a stop to. No problem for altruistic or responsible PCs, the bad guy is hurting people, and its the PCs fault for leading it back to Diamond Lake. But more self-serving PCs may be less inclined to return. Many of the backstories suggested by the first adventure imply that your PCs should want to get out of Diamond Lake and never come back, which can make it even more problematic.
So give them ties. Give them freinds (who don't get kidnapped or betray them for a silver), give them family (who don't annoy the crap out of them), give them reasons to care about the place after they leave.
This is what I would also recommend. As for forging ties to NPCs, if your PCs are good-aligned, the easiest motivator might be the inclusion of a potential remedy for an obscure disease deep within the Whispering Cairn, and a fabled rumor of it leading the heroes to it. Of course, any PC would want money and a better life, and the adventure hook that worked for us was an NPC approaches the party with an offer of a treasure map--unsure of its validity--leading into the Whispering Cairn, one that turned out to be quite legit.
Since this thread is close enough to what I want I will post here. We know the Ebon Triad is trying to speed up the return of Kyuss by making things happen. If another of the many organizations in Eberron decided to follow the same route by forcing the PC's into action since their version of the events involved a group of heroes opposing Kyuss as a forked prophecy(stole that from Sword of Truth), which organization evil or good aligned would most likely have such knowledge, and get the NPC's to Diamond Lake by any means necessary if they knew the heroes had to start there.
For the sake of this discussion the heroes may have had some training, but they may have no intention of becoming heroes so asking them to investigate some dangerous cave(cairn) is definitely not going to go over well.
I am asking this because one of my players has yet to communicate with me what he plans to do for the campaign, and I don't want to waste to much time role-playing something or thinking of a good in-game reason to have him tag along. I prefer to have everything figured out when I get to the table, which is hopefully this coming weekend. As of now I am considering having him wake up in Diamond Lake with nothing other than his gear, and no memory of how he got there.
Snorter - you forgot to use the sniffer alter ego here didn't you? Never mind. Anyway, I'm just a player in this, but my advice would be to see how others have done it by looking at some journals. There's one here that seems to be okay *ahem*
Tell him if he doesn't get his act together, and give you a background, you'll start him off as a tattoed gimp in The Emporium, biting the heads off chickens for copper pieces.
Hrm ... an interesting role for a gnome, to be sure...
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I start the game off with the background info and ensure the PC's kenw the town was corroupt (sp), downtroden, and overall the place was just an unhappy place. THe only avialble work was the mines and the pay was horrible.
When the PC's met up to find work and to "explore" the town they lived in their whole lives ;-). I had a little girl get kid napped out side the whispering cairn. She was seen talking to a....ghost of all things and was taken but some really dirty smeally guy. (Ghoul)
It was witnesed by some other kids and they are the ones who make the report to the Sherrif. The PC's bored and looking for pay are asked to rescue the child and bring the culprit to justice......
What you do from their is up to you. THe goal was to get them to the cairn and to "form" the party.
The little girl (who i named after my sister in law (evil grin) was killed in my story becuase the took 4 days to get anywhere inside of the place. Darn near had a TPK with the wolves and the "wind" trap.
Becareful with the adventure and make sure you not to to deadly with your encounters. I found this advenure and the next had to have some...DM fudging of the dice rolls to stay away from the RANDOM overkill.
I just colpleted the entire campaign as of the past weekend (2.5 years to complete) and it was awesome.
I think this is the best of the 3 Adenture paths in Dungeon.
Two words should terrify your party in the future
DRAG-OTHA
Paul
Since I plan on switching out some of his more useless spells they will be afraid. I am hoping they try to be his friend so he can turn on them during the fight with Kyuss, but my sneaky players have left the area, and the new people will most likely destroy it or use it as a bargaining chip to keep Dragotha out of combat at all if they can find someone brave/foolish enough to hold on to the phylactery for them. Most likely it will be Tenser, but as he is only a CR 22(this information is not in the AP) he wont probably won't agree to it. I don't know who they will else they will try to get to hold onto it.
PS: Speaking of Tenser, do any of you know where I could find the stats for Tenser or any 22 level wizard? I doubt I will need the stats, but just in case I want them to be handy, but since he is not supposed to be in combat I don't want to devote the time to making him.
I have googled his name, but not stats came up, only the fact that he is a CR 22 wizard.
Since I plan on switching out some of his more useless spells they will be afraid. I am hoping they try to be his friend so he can turn on them during the fight with Kyuss, but my sneaky players have left the area, and the new people will most likely destroy it or use it as a bargaining chip to keep Dragotha out of combat at all if they can find someone brave/foolish enough to hold on to the phylactery for them. Most likely it will be Tenser, but as he is only a CR 22(this information is not in the AP) he wont probably won't agree to it. I don't know who they will else they will try to get to hold onto it.
PS: Speaking of Tenser, do any of you know where I could find the stats for Tenser or any 22 level wizard? I doubt I will need the stats, but just in case I want them to be handy, but since he is not supposed to be in combat I don't want to devote the time to making him.
I have googled his name, but not stats came up, only the fact that he is a CR 22 wizard.
24th level in Pathfinder Beta (if purely a Wizard), or a Wizard 20 with a heap of templates... (3.5 he'd still be Wizard 17/Archmage 5 ... just all kinds of wrong ...)
Yeah, he can keep the phylactery "safe enough", at least in the short term. :) If he had to tangle with Iggwilv he'd get his lunch handed to him though, especially after his stint as a blue dretch in the Abyss a little while ago...
Since I plan on switching out some of his more useless spells they will be afraid. I am hoping they try to be his friend so he can turn on them during the fight with Kyuss, but my sneaky players have left the area, and the new people will most likely destroy it or use it as a bargaining chip to keep Dragotha out of combat at all if they can find someone brave/foolish enough to hold on to the phylactery for them. Most likely it will be Tenser, but as he is only a CR 22(this information is not in the AP) he wont probably won't agree to it. I don't know who they will else they will try to get to hold onto it.
PS: Speaking of Tenser, do any of you know where I could find the stats for Tenser or any 22 level wizard? I doubt I will need the stats, but just in case I want them to be handy, but since he is not supposed to be in combat I don't want to devote the time to making him.
I have googled his name, but not stats came up, only the fact that he is a CR 22 wizard.
24th level in Pathfinder Beta (if purely a Wizard), or a Wizard 20 with a heap of templates... (3.5 he'd still be Wizard 17/Archmage 5 ... just all kinds of wrong ...)
Yeah, he can keep the phylactery "safe enough", at least in the short term. :) If he had to tangle with Iggwilv he'd get his lunch handed to him though, especially after his stint as a blue dretch in the Abyss a little while ago...
I don't know a lot about Tenser, but I always thought he was better than a CR 22. I figured at he would have been 25-30. Iggwilv would probably turn against the party and end up trying to help Dragotha if she were in the AP.
I don't know a lot about Tenser, but I always thought he was better than a CR 22. I figured at he would have been 25-30. Iggwilv would probably turn against the party and end up trying to help Dragotha if she were in the AP.Since I plan on switching out some of his more useless spells they will be afraid. I am hoping they try to be his friend so he can turn on them during the fight with Kyuss, but my sneaky players have left the area, and the new people will most likely destroy it or use it as a bargaining chip to keep Dragotha out of combat at all if they can find someone brave/foolish enough to hold on to the phylactery for them. Most likely it will be Tenser, but as he is only a CR 22(this information is not in the AP) he wont probably won't agree to it. I don't know who they will else they will try to get to hold onto it.
PS: Speaking of Tenser, do any of you know where I could find the stats for Tenser or any 22 level wizard? I doubt I will need the stats, but just in case I want them to be handy, but since he is not supposed to be in combat I don't want to devote the time to making him.
I have googled his name, but not stats came up, only the fact that he is a CR 22 wizard.
24th level in Pathfinder Beta (if purely a Wizard), or a Wizard 20 with a heap of templates... (3.5 he'd still be Wizard 17/Archmage 5 ... just all kinds of wrong ...)
Yeah, he can keep the phylactery "safe enough", at least in the short term. :) If he had to tangle with Iggwilv he'd get his lunch handed to him though, especially after his stint as a blue dretch in the Abyss a little while ago...
As I recall, Tenser is a LG Wizard - about the CR 22 range in 3e terms is pretty spot-on. Mordenkainen and Bigby are prolly nastier - but the Circle of Eight were not nearly on Iggwilv's playing field - maybe in the nosebleed seats at best, barring bushwhacking her in a dark alley after she went on a serious bar crawl with no friends.
He got whacked then slurped off via soul gem to the Abyss and forcibly crammed into a dretch. An adventure was done on this, pretty good one at that, among the few that were done in late-2e for Greyhawk.
I wouldn't worry overmuch for AoW in a short-term concern about Tenser unless you expect your player characters are the sort to throw down with an archmage...
I don't know if they will be evil or good. If they are good it won't be an issue. If they decide to play evil characters I am expecting neutral evil tendencies, and once he offers them the trade for the Rod of 7 parts I would expect for them to try to get both. I know I have a lot of time before that happens, but if I get all everyone(NPC's) statted out now, all I have to do for the next 1.5 years is make people cry, and not have to worry about how it will happen.
PS: I should have posted under my DM name. Now I just have to hope they don't come lurking.
I don't know if they will be evil or good. If they are good it won't be an issue. If they decide to play evil characters I am expecting neutral evil tendencies, and once he offers them the trade for the Rod of 7 parts I would expect for them to try to get both. I know I have a lot of time before that happens, but if I get all everyone(NPC's) statted out now, all I have to do for the next 1.5 years is make people cry, and not have to worry about how it will happen.
PS: I should have posted under my DM name. Now I just have to hope they don't come lurking.
^^ Depending on the set-up ... anti-life shell plus telekinetic sphere or project image plus globe of invulnerability, using mage hand or telekinesis.
Tenser may be the one stat-block you hold off on requesting about in more detail until your player characters are ready to rumble.
They are deciding on classes now. Next will be a group(hopefully) decision on alignment. The only issue is that I have two 2nd ed(3.5 nubes). I may throw in a training mission to get them accustomed to things like tripping, aiding another, and other tactics. I would feel guilty watching them die without a chance to learn the game. This is not an OJT adventure.
They are deciding on classes now. Next will be a group(hopefully) decision on alignment. The only issue is that I have two 2nd ed(3.5 nubes). I may throw in a training mission to get them accustomed to things like tripping, aiding another, and other tactics. I would feel guilty watching them die without a chance to learn the game. This is not an OJT adventure.
O.o Urm, yeah, that is a really good idea ! If they're solid 2e/1e/previous ed veterans, the basics of the game are not the issue - the CMB-type mechanics and the change to "plus signs are good" will be the adjustments. 'Specially the CMB mechanics ... yep yep.
If they are evil I have modified free campaign I found on this site that I could tie into AoW, but if they are good I will have to find a pre-made 1st level adventure. I would prefer a situation where they stop to get supplies and "surprise" they have to take action.
If anyone knows of a decent 1-shot(can be completed in 8 hours or less) it would be appreciated. I may have to modify it, but that is ok.