demiurge1138
Inventor of Super-Toast
Alright, Steel Wind, that's a good place to start. Let's dance.
1. The party was of four players.
2. The four characters were a dwarf fighter/wizard, a dwarf fighter/cleric, a dwarf fighter/rogue, and a dwarf ranger. Notice a pattern? The group decided that they wanted to do an all dwarves game, and they did.
3. Too easy/too hard? The fight with the acid beetle swarms was difficult, because they were only level one, and the fighter/wizard's first level was in... fighter. So no AoE spells, and nobody packed any alchemist's fire. They ended up beating that one by opening the coffin and triggering the burning hands on themselves and on the swarm.
The wind tunnel trap nearly killed everybody. The only reason they survived was because, noticing the dagger marks in the tunnel and the broken body below it, the dwarves used their rope and pitons to make a net at the tunnel's mouth. Eventually, it gave way, but was enough of a cushion to keep them alive (barely).
The fight with the wounded owlbear was almost a total disaster, with three players in negative hit points by the end of it. Likewise, the battle with Filge was nearly a disaster; only a lucky critical it on Filge and the fact that, as dwarves, they all had good armor, kept them alive (those zombies are very, very effective meat shields).
The only death was during the final fight with the wind warriors. The fighter-mage killed himself, on a critical miss gone horribly wrong, due to homebrew crit-failure rules. This, combined with the fact that the PCs were rolling very poorly, nearly doomed them all. I know I pulled a few punches and turned a few hits into misses to keep them alive.
Nothing, as far as I know, was "too easy". There are some jobber fights (the skeletons in Filge's observatory, for instance), but those are good for pace.
4. By the end, they were somewhere in the middle of 3rd level.
5. I changed little of the module. Some character interactions went a bit differently than they did in the module, due to roleplaying. For instance, when the PCs were trying to find the Land's bones, they contacted Merrovin Bask specifically, then fought with Kullen and his cronies when they got upset that they didn't get part of the deal (and killed Bask for the PCs, incidentally). In addition, the party's relationship with Allustan is a lot more distant than the module assumes, as a few lucky 20s told the party a good deal about the Cairn's history and the nature of the Wind Dukes.
The only actual battle change I made in the module was cutting the second bombadier beetle; the one that's in the room with the animated statue.
6. The hook I used was profit, straight up. All the dwarves were disillusioned workers for the Greysmere Covenant. One of them, the rogue, had stolen an old map from the company detailing the location of the Whispering Cairn, which no longer appears on the offical maps of the area. During their exploration of the Cairn, they realized (well, the fighter-mage realized, as an economic expert) realized that it would be worth a fortune as a tourist attraction, and thus were the Adventure Capitalists created. They intend to buy the land rights to the parcel where the Whispering Cairn sits from the Free City of Greyhawk and turn it into a museum. Little do they know, of course, how much trouble this will be...
7. I didn't have that issue of Dragon until after they'd already cleared out the Cairn, but I did use it, as it is described very briefly in the module itself. Instead of playing out the restoration of the abandoned office, I used its state of decrepitness as a source of comedy (this is a fairly light game, if you couldn't tell).
8. The swarms were a bit too much, as I described above. A party that has a few flasks of alchemist's fire, a mage with burning hands, or even carrying a few torches (dwarves need no torches!) would have a much easier time of it than the Adventure Capitalists did.
9. The puzzles went smoothly. Everyone seemed to pretty much enjoy them, and they were solved with little difficulty.
10. The most fun they had was probably in Filge's dining room, sadly enough. In the module, the necromancer Filge has a dinner table holding the zombified corpses of all his old enemies. When somebody sits at the head of the table, the zombies come to life, miming a meal and spouting programmed sycophantic comments.
Now, one of the characters accidentally sat in the chair while casing the table for silverware (rolled a 1 on a Search check). Once the zombies started talking, everyone was very briefly freaked out, then were delighted. They intended to find out how to reprogram the zombies, then travel the countryside with the Zombie Tiki Jamboree Show, as it was quickly dubbed. It took me telling them out of character that they'd be attacked with pitchforks and the defeated Filge's in character begging to be left with something that convinced them to drop it.
11. Least fun part? The final fight and its aftermath. The ascent into the True Tomb and the getting of the talisman of the sphere fell a tad bit flat. Although they did freak out in a most delightful way once Allustan told them what they had found.
12. I set it in "Greyhawk". In other words, I played it as-is, with the Greyhawk gods and a tad bit of backstory despite the fact that I know very little of the setting.
13. Everyone had fun. In fact, one of my players was the girlfriend of a regular, who had previously given up on D&D and tagged along because her boyfriend was going. I am proud to say that she enjoyed herself and I brought her back into the gaming fold.
14. Effective strategies? Dwarf it up. This involves taking 20 often, searching in 5ft intervals when taking 20 isn't effective, and teaming up on opponents. Leave no stone unturned, and take advantage of the dungeon's own amenities. Also, tying a rope around everyone's chest so as to not get lost when exploring underwater (dwarves hold their breath and walk on the bottom!)
15. Big mistakes? Diving for shelter from the beetle swarm into the crushing elevator trap (the cleric only barely survived that). Trying to pass through the wind tunnel without finding and lighting all the lanterns. Not bringing alchemist's fire, or even torches. Leaving Filge alive
I love this module and look forward to running the next 11. I can honestly say that some parts of it rank high in my list of DMing experiences.
Demiurge out.
1. The party was of four players.
2. The four characters were a dwarf fighter/wizard, a dwarf fighter/cleric, a dwarf fighter/rogue, and a dwarf ranger. Notice a pattern? The group decided that they wanted to do an all dwarves game, and they did.
3. Too easy/too hard? The fight with the acid beetle swarms was difficult, because they were only level one, and the fighter/wizard's first level was in... fighter. So no AoE spells, and nobody packed any alchemist's fire. They ended up beating that one by opening the coffin and triggering the burning hands on themselves and on the swarm.
The wind tunnel trap nearly killed everybody. The only reason they survived was because, noticing the dagger marks in the tunnel and the broken body below it, the dwarves used their rope and pitons to make a net at the tunnel's mouth. Eventually, it gave way, but was enough of a cushion to keep them alive (barely).
The fight with the wounded owlbear was almost a total disaster, with three players in negative hit points by the end of it. Likewise, the battle with Filge was nearly a disaster; only a lucky critical it on Filge and the fact that, as dwarves, they all had good armor, kept them alive (those zombies are very, very effective meat shields).
The only death was during the final fight with the wind warriors. The fighter-mage killed himself, on a critical miss gone horribly wrong, due to homebrew crit-failure rules. This, combined with the fact that the PCs were rolling very poorly, nearly doomed them all. I know I pulled a few punches and turned a few hits into misses to keep them alive.
Nothing, as far as I know, was "too easy". There are some jobber fights (the skeletons in Filge's observatory, for instance), but those are good for pace.
4. By the end, they were somewhere in the middle of 3rd level.
5. I changed little of the module. Some character interactions went a bit differently than they did in the module, due to roleplaying. For instance, when the PCs were trying to find the Land's bones, they contacted Merrovin Bask specifically, then fought with Kullen and his cronies when they got upset that they didn't get part of the deal (and killed Bask for the PCs, incidentally). In addition, the party's relationship with Allustan is a lot more distant than the module assumes, as a few lucky 20s told the party a good deal about the Cairn's history and the nature of the Wind Dukes.
The only actual battle change I made in the module was cutting the second bombadier beetle; the one that's in the room with the animated statue.
6. The hook I used was profit, straight up. All the dwarves were disillusioned workers for the Greysmere Covenant. One of them, the rogue, had stolen an old map from the company detailing the location of the Whispering Cairn, which no longer appears on the offical maps of the area. During their exploration of the Cairn, they realized (well, the fighter-mage realized, as an economic expert) realized that it would be worth a fortune as a tourist attraction, and thus were the Adventure Capitalists created. They intend to buy the land rights to the parcel where the Whispering Cairn sits from the Free City of Greyhawk and turn it into a museum. Little do they know, of course, how much trouble this will be...
7. I didn't have that issue of Dragon until after they'd already cleared out the Cairn, but I did use it, as it is described very briefly in the module itself. Instead of playing out the restoration of the abandoned office, I used its state of decrepitness as a source of comedy (this is a fairly light game, if you couldn't tell).
8. The swarms were a bit too much, as I described above. A party that has a few flasks of alchemist's fire, a mage with burning hands, or even carrying a few torches (dwarves need no torches!) would have a much easier time of it than the Adventure Capitalists did.
9. The puzzles went smoothly. Everyone seemed to pretty much enjoy them, and they were solved with little difficulty.
10. The most fun they had was probably in Filge's dining room, sadly enough. In the module, the necromancer Filge has a dinner table holding the zombified corpses of all his old enemies. When somebody sits at the head of the table, the zombies come to life, miming a meal and spouting programmed sycophantic comments.
Now, one of the characters accidentally sat in the chair while casing the table for silverware (rolled a 1 on a Search check). Once the zombies started talking, everyone was very briefly freaked out, then were delighted. They intended to find out how to reprogram the zombies, then travel the countryside with the Zombie Tiki Jamboree Show, as it was quickly dubbed. It took me telling them out of character that they'd be attacked with pitchforks and the defeated Filge's in character begging to be left with something that convinced them to drop it.
11. Least fun part? The final fight and its aftermath. The ascent into the True Tomb and the getting of the talisman of the sphere fell a tad bit flat. Although they did freak out in a most delightful way once Allustan told them what they had found.
12. I set it in "Greyhawk". In other words, I played it as-is, with the Greyhawk gods and a tad bit of backstory despite the fact that I know very little of the setting.
13. Everyone had fun. In fact, one of my players was the girlfriend of a regular, who had previously given up on D&D and tagged along because her boyfriend was going. I am proud to say that she enjoyed herself and I brought her back into the gaming fold.
14. Effective strategies? Dwarf it up. This involves taking 20 often, searching in 5ft intervals when taking 20 isn't effective, and teaming up on opponents. Leave no stone unturned, and take advantage of the dungeon's own amenities. Also, tying a rope around everyone's chest so as to not get lost when exploring underwater (dwarves hold their breath and walk on the bottom!)
15. Big mistakes? Diving for shelter from the beetle swarm into the crushing elevator trap (the cleric only barely survived that). Trying to pass through the wind tunnel without finding and lighting all the lanterns. Not bringing alchemist's fire, or even torches. Leaving Filge alive
I love this module and look forward to running the next 11. I can honestly say that some parts of it rank high in my list of DMing experiences.
Demiurge out.
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