World's Largest Dungeon in actual play [Spoilers!]

[twilko]

Rampaging Angels 2

Damn, looks like I might have to turn the lights out!

Found my angel. A Justice Archon (cr6) from MM4. I gave it 5 levels of fighter to give it a bit of omph. Once the party defrosted it and released it, much party butt kicking ensued. Before it could kill anyone though, the cloistered cleric remembered she had a charged ward staff on her, grabbed the beastie, zapped back to the Garrison, and then ran like hell! It's kinda of a neat way of getting the Garrison to deal with the problem, but I am kinda disappointed that I didn't get to kick the party around more. I mean just 4 rounds, that was all, four rounds and then poof! :\

The party is now begining to worry that they have let Ash the Trickster out of his box, or that the angel was telling the truth and that Ash is already loose somewhere. Just wait until they meet the dragon who now has 3 levels of wizard.

 

[rvalle]

Still here. Been meaning to post an update but been pulled off onto other things. Once I had the reply window open and had started typing but never finished and lost the window somewhere.

I'll try to post tomorrow.

rv

 

[BlueBlackRed]

I've been here, waiting.

Nothing new about the WLD from me though, obviously.

 

[twilko]

I've been here, waiting.

Nothing new about the WLD from me though, obviously.

I guess thats the thing by now. Most people have run the dungeon, or those sections that they want to and have moved on. With my lot playing once a month and usually missing December, we are going to take quite a while to get through, even if they take the shortest path. The last session (25th) marked over 130 hours playing time and 3 years since we started all this.

 

[rvalle]

Ok... lets try to do this. (Long post)

So, my group has been stymied by I (too icky), F (made it though one of the magic doors and called it quits), and K (too afraid of the dragon) and decided to backtrack.

Now that Madness is dead I isn't so bad (Anguish is pretty wimpy) the Garrison is starting to expand their area of control. They moved though A and began cleaning out B. The party was invited to go with as they wanted to pick up some more magic items (they are at about half where they should be at 11th level).

I hand waved some fighting between the Garrison and the goblins and had the Garrison break N while the party saw an Ogre and some goblins to the S and gave chase.

The bad guys ran and put a group of goblins between the party and themselves. This proved to be a very minor speed bump as the parties sorcerer fireballed the goblins into ash.

The ogre/goblins turn to fight... and shapechanged into Baghest! This is the Baghest that killed a party member, beat up on the party and took their holy bastard sword (Vronil).

The party exacts their revenge and wipe out the wolf creatures (what a difference 5 levels make).

On a roll the party pushes on. They punch though B and move into C. I wasn't quite sure what was going on in C and missed some of the details. I picked that there was a magic key and opened a door. I told the party (though the Lantern Archon in the area) that the key activated the doorway in the big prison room between C and G. The party gets excited and goes forth to find the key.

Run into Gnolls but after some tense moments no fighting happens and the party moves on. Find the Giant in the big room by himself and drop him but get hurt enough to rest for the night.

The next day they find the hole they made to get to the Giant blocked up with rocks. Figuring there were more Giants behind it the head off to look around.

Not finding much they open it up and crawl though. The 2 remaining Giants were waiting. Mama Giant wasn't happy about the fact that her son was dead but knew he was crazy and saw the mage that probably triggered his rage. She knows nothing about a key but says if anything here has a magical treasure it would be in the treasure room to the North and gives directions to get there (despite the fact that I could find no way for her to have ever seen this room based on the current dungeon setup).

The party heads off without even asking about what or who's treasure it was.

Party finds the fake treasure room, fall. Get mad and swear revenge on the Giants. Wandering around looking for a place to rest up for the night they find the Gelatinous Cube and a fierce fight breaks out. After several rounds the nearby Black Dragon hears the ruckus and moves out to see what is going on.

He arrives just as the Cube is dispatched and another fight breaks out. This one is sadly short as the party makes quick work of such a young dragon.

I take this chance to bring the parties magic up to par... and to go out and buy the Magic Item Compendium. I add one good magic item for each character (Crystal Sonic shortsword for the bard, a +1 Shocking Surge Dwarven Axe for the dwarven fighter/cleric, Ring of Mystic Defiance for the sorcerer, +1 Kinetic Burst Longspear for the Dragon Disciple, Armband of Maximized Healing for the half-elf cleric and 'Myruun's Armor' +1 Vigilant Aquan Water Breathing Armor of Swift Passage. Also Belt of one Mighty Blow, Boots of Desperation, Counter Strike Bracers, Bracers of Quick Strike, and some other items).

Party heads back to the Giants, bullies their way past the Giants, finds the key and make their way to G.


In G they contact the Garrison and hear some of their story. They go out and quickly kill the Abyssal Greater Basilisk (I ran him wrong... I had his gaze attack be something he could turn on or off. As the description says he thinks the party is not much of a threat he has it off. By the time he realizes his mistake he is blinded and I figured he couldn't do a gaze attack while blind. He is dropped before he gets a chance to use the attack. I'm not really sorry about this... half or more of the party would have been killed from this).

Next is to 'kill the demons attacking the dome of power'. Since the party is already 11th level and there are 6 of them I use the 'make encounter harder' option. The party asks if anyone is going to go with them so I send out 2 hound archon and an angel deva.

So before going out the party each gets a max Aid and... a Holy Aura. Man, what a spell THAT is. +4 ac, 25 Sr from evil casters and +4 on saves. Oh... and if an evil creature hits you it has to make a save or be blinded. Bleh.

Party heads out and fly/d-door across the river of lava to engage the demons. There is some dancing around as no one wants to get close to the Marilith and her 6 swords. Finally the paladin moves up... takes an AoO on his way in (crit for 30ish points of damage) and attacks hitting ac 28... and misses (she has the evil version of holy aura up). On her turn she makes 10 attacks on the poor human. I tell him to let me know when he drops.

6 attacks hit for about 100 points of damage. Luckily for him he has a Stoneskin cast on him before heading out and this saves his life.

When we ended for the night the Marilith is down 1/2 her hp's and is blinded. (100 of 200), a Glabrezu is untouched, a Bebilith has just shown up. Most the Dretch have been dropped. The party is mostly ok... the deva cast a Heal on the Paladin. The party is feeling pretty good.

Next round the Marilith will start attacking the right spots (told via Telepathy), the Glabrezu is going to start Dispelling Magic on the flying really buffed up cleric and move on to the same to the enlarged Dragon Deciple. 9 more Dretch will show up. Then a boss. Then maybe another boss. Hopefully the party will bail soon.


I'm toying with the idea of having the demons launch an immediate counter attack with the Marilith telekinesising the makeshift door to the Garrison down and demons Teleporting into the room though the now open door. Could be fun.

Whew...

rv

 

[rvalle]

I guess thats the thing by now. Most people have run the dungeon, or those sections that they want to and have moved on. With my lot playing once a month and usually missing December, we are going to take quite a while to get through, even if they take the shortest path. The last session (25th) marked over 130 hours playing time and 3 years since we started all this.

And where are they at?

We will be at 2 years of real time this Aug. Party will proably be 12th or 13th level so just over half way. We play once a week for 3-4 hours a session.

rv

 

[raynbow]

I'm still here!

My group is just about done with Region A. They've got a few bits left undone, including the chapel, unfortunately, but I think they are going to move on to a new region.

Of course, I thought that last session, and they surprised me.

They started last session just inside Region E, but they decided they had alot left on their map of Region A that wasn't filled in, so they went back there to see what they'd missed.

They ended up working south and then east at a pretty rapid clip and ended that session just inside Region B.

Looking at it, I think I'm gald. On the one hand, Region E would be much better for them finally getting some plot information (they've had no luck with that in Region A), but, the maps and such for Region E look like a huge mess. The errata for that section are huge, and I'm not sure it even scratches the surface. Plus it's that huge mass of empty rooms. I was working on trying to insert the "bonus" rooms for that Region back in, but trying to figure out where the most logical place to put them was starting to drive me batty.

 

[rvalle]

Unfortunatly, B is a bit of a mess too. The biggest issue (from what I've heard) is that the Rebels have no way to get to their chappel without being slaughtered. You'll have to add a secret door/hallway somewhere.

I think there are some issues with guard rooms on opposite sides being too close together as well.

Plus I've heard there are too many traps in the N part of the region.

I didn't have too hard a time adding the extra rooms to E. I might still have a map of that around somewhere. E ended up becoming a very big part of the story with it being the parties base of operations as they explored more.

Good luck!

rv

 

[erucsbo]

I'm still here as well, but have been over in the US for the last few weeks, so it will be a about 3 weeks before we game again. The party has just hit 10th level and is now on the other side of the lava (having been levitated there by the Spider Kings).

 

[twilko]

And where are they at?

We will be at 2 years of real time this Aug. Party will proably be 12th or 13th level so just over half way. We play once a week for 3-4 hours a session.

rv

My party has cleared A and about 1/2 of E. They took a look at I and the description I gave of the first corridor was graphic enough they turned around and went to F. They did about 6 rooms but had two party members killed over two sessions and decided against playing with any more minotaurs. They then went to B via A and bee-lined through to C where they have just entered ash the Tricksters cell and are trying to figure out what happened. Most of the party is now 6th level with one just hitting 7th.

Their plan is to find a way north into G and then cross into H to the Elves who, they have been told, might have a way out to the surface. I am assuming this is the case as there are Elves who have joined the guard at Royal orders so it makes sense.

It took two sessions to get to the dungeon and begin. About 10 more sessions in A, 8 in E, 2 in F, 2 in B (all in the north) and 1 in C so far.