I've been running in as a PbP game for the past two months now. The party has nearly finished their exploration of the Cairn, and they are now heading into town to look for the Land family's skeletons. You can find the game
here.
1 - Size of party:
8 PCs
2- Classes of PCs:
Barbarian, cleric (Pelor), cleric (Wee Jas), monk, paladin, rogue, wizard, illusionist
3 - Areas too easy/ too hard - any deaths?
So far the group hasn't had too many problems with the module. This is probably because I haven't done any scaling, and there are eight party members. The acid beetle swarms have the potential to cause serious problems for unprepared PCs, though, and the underwater combats with the elemental and ghoul can be very dangerous. The most dangerous encounter so far has been with the owlbear, because the party split up (always a bad idea) and only the barbarian, illusionist, and cleric of Wee Jas fought it. Due to a series of bad rolls, the barbarian and illusionist nearly died in the encounter (and would have without a bit of fudging).
4- XP at end of module
Well, they're not at the end yet, but so far the PCs have amassed 1069 XP each.
5- Did you change things - if so - what?
I didn't make any real changes in the module. I did have the party encounter the rival adventurers suggested in the "Backdrop: Diamond Lake" article.
6 - Hooks used
I used the suggested hook in the adventure. I typed up a short background for each of the PCs and had the paladin and the cleric of Wee Jas find the map for the Whispering Cairn and invite their friends to join.
7- Did you use Worm Food's suggested Mining office map as a home base? Did you set up encounters there to clear it out?
I got the issue of Dragon with Worm Food after the party had already started exploring the Cairn, and so far they haven't shown any interest whatsoever in the mining office. They sleep in the tomb.
8- swarms - ok or too much?
Ok, as long as the party is prepared.
9- puzzles - ok or too much?
Ok; the party enjoyed figuring them out. It's a welcome change from mindless dungeon crawling.
10- favorite part
The part the group hasn't got to yet--the encounter with Filge in the observatory.
11- least fave
Um, I don't know. The fact that at first the party basically ignored the fact that the Land family ignored the open graves and missing bones kind of irked me. >< But that has nothing to do with the module, just the players.
12 - setting used and any conversion recommendations?
Kept it in Greyhawk. I think it fits best there.
13- did you find it fun? did your players find it fun?
I'm enjoying running it, and the players say they're enjoying playing it, so yes
14- effective strategies
Tying a rope around a PC when she went to explore underwater. Color spray vs. the first encounter with wolves, and igniting flasks of oil to use against the swarms. Searching everything for traps.
15- big mistakes
Touching the stone "egg" in the Lair of the Architects. Splitting up and getting mauled by an owlbear.
