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Rangda's Zeitgeist Campaign (SPOILERS)
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<blockquote data-quote="rangda" data-source="post: 6057890" data-attributes="member: 86125"><p><strong>12/1 session</strong></p><p></p><p>Session starts out with the party building a list of some questions to ask the bodies outside the ziggurat using Speak With Dead. Unfortunately they don't know much, just that their heads hurt a lot then they died. The party does confirm that Xambria did leave to get supplies and that (as far as the spirits knew anyway) she was not present when they died. They enter the ziggurat, ponder the 3 mummies in the entrance way a bit, noticing the fact that they appear to be missing a staff, sword, and amulet. Now they know where the ancients magic items came from.</p><p></p><p>They then decide to go left which takes them to the (hideous) puzzle room. But first things first, before the puzzle there has to be a fight with the resident monsters. This took a bit longer and was a bit more challenging than I expected (my house rule of two hits to kill a minion making minions a lot tougher but the party prevails with some clever tactics (and meta-gaming the 4E combat system a bit but I'm OK with that).</p><p></p><p>With the monsters dispatched it's time to deal with the puzzle. Sadly I have a group of players that by and large doesn't care for puzzles (FWIW I don't care for them either). One player does enjoy them and she coaxed them through it. I will say the description of the puzzle as written is horribly vague, but that 's been covered in its own thread already (although even reading that thread I'm still not sure I got it right). I ran it as:</p><p></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">All colors start on (so all platforms/walls active).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Buttons toggle colors on and off.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Turning a color off turns that color off and does nothing else.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Turning a color on turns that color on and turns its opposite color off if it is on.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Hitting the button behind the 6 colored walls shuts the puzzle off by turning all of the walls off but leaving all of the platforms on.</li> </ul><p>Run like this the solution is pretty easy once you figure out how the buttons work and overcome the natural cautiousness of players (my party was initially reluctant to split up for example). The buttons only acting on their opposite color when they turn a color on also really threw them and bogged them down a bit. But they get through it and proceed into the map room. Carlie is the one that “solves” the puzzle by pushing the final button so she is the one that gets the vision (and the ability to solidify the war beasts). In the map room I then somehow totally miss the paragraph on page 30 that talks about how to read the map (despite having read the module twice) so they flail for it a bit and move on. I catch it later on and they suddenly have an epiphany to come back and play with it again for the location it reveals.</p><p></p><p>From the map room they proceed into the “seal” storage room. They notice the constellation on the floor with Mavisha marked, Ford decides to pour a water skin of water on it. I rule that this is close enough to “place both of water” that it disables the flooding trap which will make their life a bit easier on the way out. They then play with a fire pillar trap and Ford gets fried, but for essentially nothing as his resist 5 fire negates all the damage. They then think to hit the constellation in the floor with Jiese marked with fire (easy when you have a fire sorcerer handy) which shuts this trap off.</p><p></p><p>They then head down the corridor with all of the spear traps; which I've made worse by putting pit traps next to the spear traps (figuring what you to do bypass one of them makes you trip the other one off making the traps more in the spirit of Indiana Jones which the ziggurat seems inspired by). This has the expected effect; Laci sets off the spear trap, gets restrained, but makes her save. Cyrus pushes her forward to get her out of the spear trap but promptly dumps her on the pit trap and into the pit she goes. This convinces them to try the other way which takes them to the seal room.</p><p></p><p>They are cautious here and look around a bit (and move the welcome mat) before going in. However they don't do anything to the constellation with Nem marked (honestly there is no way they would ever figure out how to disable this) which triggers all of the undead. But for now they get to examine the map room. An arcana IP point is spent and they notice the magic of the pillars and the rituals. They know they are probably triggers for something but do not know what. This causes extreme caution. They decide to drag one of the tieflings outside and cast Speak With Dead (several times as it ends up). They don't learn as much as they might like but they do learn a lot.</p><p></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The tieflings came here to cast a ritual to unlock the seal so it could be taken away.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">How the tieflings died. As luck (d20 roll) would have it the particular caster they chose didn't see their circle being broken so all he knows is that something broke their circle and when the portal was unlocked the warbeasts poured out and killed them. The module is unclear about whether the tieflings were expecting the warbeasts, on the one hand they did have a circle up but on the other I don't see anything that would make them expect them. So I ruled they weren't expecting them and were just being cautious with the warding circle (for all the good it did them).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The tieflings worked for Caius.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">They are part of a group that calls themselves the Obsurati or Ob.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Other members of the Ob can be recognized by rings with inscriptions that abbreviate to O.B.</li> </ul><p>Once done with Speak With Dead they take open the seal to see what is behind it and find the void. Oddly nobody decides they want to play with the void that looks suspiciously like outer space (minus all the stars). They do notice the body though, and the fact that the seal opens to nothing rather than Apet is unusual.</p><p></p><p>They then proceed to head further down the hallway which puts them next to some spear traps except that thanks to the Nem trap they've now been upgraded to mummy monsters. It's almost midnight so the session ends with mummy's coming out of the walls (literally).</p><p></p><p>Goals for next session:</p><p></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Explore the rest of the ziggurat</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Don't die of mummy poisoning</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Find Caius when they get back to civilization</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Prepare an expedition to the coast of Ber.</li> </ul></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="rangda, post: 6057890, member: 86125"] [b]12/1 session[/b] Session starts out with the party building a list of some questions to ask the bodies outside the ziggurat using Speak With Dead. Unfortunately they don't know much, just that their heads hurt a lot then they died. The party does confirm that Xambria did leave to get supplies and that (as far as the spirits knew anyway) she was not present when they died. They enter the ziggurat, ponder the 3 mummies in the entrance way a bit, noticing the fact that they appear to be missing a staff, sword, and amulet. Now they know where the ancients magic items came from. They then decide to go left which takes them to the (hideous) puzzle room. But first things first, before the puzzle there has to be a fight with the resident monsters. This took a bit longer and was a bit more challenging than I expected (my house rule of two hits to kill a minion making minions a lot tougher but the party prevails with some clever tactics (and meta-gaming the 4E combat system a bit but I'm OK with that). With the monsters dispatched it's time to deal with the puzzle. Sadly I have a group of players that by and large doesn't care for puzzles (FWIW I don't care for them either). One player does enjoy them and she coaxed them through it. I will say the description of the puzzle as written is horribly vague, but that 's been covered in its own thread already (although even reading that thread I'm still not sure I got it right). I ran it as: [LIST] [*]All colors start on (so all platforms/walls active). [*]Buttons toggle colors on and off. [*]Turning a color off turns that color off and does nothing else. [*]Turning a color on turns that color on and turns its opposite color off if it is on. [*]Hitting the button behind the 6 colored walls shuts the puzzle off by turning all of the walls off but leaving all of the platforms on. [/LIST] Run like this the solution is pretty easy once you figure out how the buttons work and overcome the natural cautiousness of players (my party was initially reluctant to split up for example). The buttons only acting on their opposite color when they turn a color on also really threw them and bogged them down a bit. But they get through it and proceed into the map room. Carlie is the one that “solves” the puzzle by pushing the final button so she is the one that gets the vision (and the ability to solidify the war beasts). In the map room I then somehow totally miss the paragraph on page 30 that talks about how to read the map (despite having read the module twice) so they flail for it a bit and move on. I catch it later on and they suddenly have an epiphany to come back and play with it again for the location it reveals. From the map room they proceed into the “seal” storage room. They notice the constellation on the floor with Mavisha marked, Ford decides to pour a water skin of water on it. I rule that this is close enough to “place both of water” that it disables the flooding trap which will make their life a bit easier on the way out. They then play with a fire pillar trap and Ford gets fried, but for essentially nothing as his resist 5 fire negates all the damage. They then think to hit the constellation in the floor with Jiese marked with fire (easy when you have a fire sorcerer handy) which shuts this trap off. They then head down the corridor with all of the spear traps; which I've made worse by putting pit traps next to the spear traps (figuring what you to do bypass one of them makes you trip the other one off making the traps more in the spirit of Indiana Jones which the ziggurat seems inspired by). This has the expected effect; Laci sets off the spear trap, gets restrained, but makes her save. Cyrus pushes her forward to get her out of the spear trap but promptly dumps her on the pit trap and into the pit she goes. This convinces them to try the other way which takes them to the seal room. They are cautious here and look around a bit (and move the welcome mat) before going in. However they don't do anything to the constellation with Nem marked (honestly there is no way they would ever figure out how to disable this) which triggers all of the undead. But for now they get to examine the map room. An arcana IP point is spent and they notice the magic of the pillars and the rituals. They know they are probably triggers for something but do not know what. This causes extreme caution. They decide to drag one of the tieflings outside and cast Speak With Dead (several times as it ends up). They don't learn as much as they might like but they do learn a lot. [LIST] [*]The tieflings came here to cast a ritual to unlock the seal so it could be taken away. [*]How the tieflings died. As luck (d20 roll) would have it the particular caster they chose didn't see their circle being broken so all he knows is that something broke their circle and when the portal was unlocked the warbeasts poured out and killed them. The module is unclear about whether the tieflings were expecting the warbeasts, on the one hand they did have a circle up but on the other I don't see anything that would make them expect them. So I ruled they weren't expecting them and were just being cautious with the warding circle (for all the good it did them). [*]The tieflings worked for Caius. [*]They are part of a group that calls themselves the Obsurati or Ob. [*]Other members of the Ob can be recognized by rings with inscriptions that abbreviate to O.B. [/LIST] Once done with Speak With Dead they take open the seal to see what is behind it and find the void. Oddly nobody decides they want to play with the void that looks suspiciously like outer space (minus all the stars). They do notice the body though, and the fact that the seal opens to nothing rather than Apet is unusual. They then proceed to head further down the hallway which puts them next to some spear traps except that thanks to the Nem trap they've now been upgraded to mummy monsters. It's almost midnight so the session ends with mummy's coming out of the walls (literally). Goals for next session: [LIST] [*]Explore the rest of the ziggurat [*]Don't die of mummy poisoning [*]Find Caius when they get back to civilization [*]Prepare an expedition to the coast of Ber. [/LIST] [/QUOTE]
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