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

[erucsbo]

This reminds me of that Escape from New York movie.

why not go for a series of movie-type adventures based on what a party who has already been through knows about.

Assuming that they haven't pulled the kill-switch in N which could destroy the entire WLD, and knowing that there would be areas that the characters didn't get to/through ...

The memoirs / stories / debrief reports of those who got through the dungeon are now known - the general condition of the dungeon, its history (both past and recent) and rumours of who or what is left.

Given that the party members who have gotten out are now probably of a level that tackling other untouched regions would be a cakewalk, and that psychologically they probably never want to set foot in there again, a number of tasks remain to be done by groups that can follow in their footsteps (level dependant on what tasks they go for).

1 - recover the remains of characters lost in the dungeon - if possible - so that their souls can move on to their next phase in the great cycle.
2 - word has come via the elves that due to the destabilising actions of the previous characters, one group has gained dominance and is expanding in to other regions - they need to be dealt with while the elves shore up defences or make a withdrawal
3 - ancient records of a relic known to have last been seen with a named demon lord or high celestial can now be tied to that demon lord or celestial having last been in the WLD
4 - a mysterious disease is affecting the mortal world - a component(s) needed for the cure can only be found in the distant past (or somewhere that has been sealed off for 10,000 years) - the characters must find a region within the dungeon that has remained intact
5 - massive geological movements are causing the lava flow to increase and fill what is left of the dungeon - the characters need to help the remaining celestials/garrison and/or elves escape before they suffer a firey end. A race against time ensues, or the party might find themselves suffering the same fate.

 

[jim pinto]

1 - recover the remains of characters lost in the dungeon - if possible - so that their souls can move on to their next phase in the great cycle.
2 - word has come via the elves that due to the destabilising actions of the previous characters, one group has gained dominance and is expanding in to other regions - they need to be dealt with while the elves shore up defences or make a withdrawal
3 - ancient records of a relic known to have last been seen with a named demon lord or high celestial can now be tied to that demon lord or celestial having last been in the WLD
4 - a mysterious disease is affecting the mortal world - a component(s) needed for the cure can only be found in the distant past (or somewhere that has been sealed off for 10,000 years) - the characters must find a region within the dungeon that has remained intact
5 - massive geological movements are causing the lava flow to increase and fill what is left of the dungeon - the characters need to help the remaining celestials/garrison and/or elves escape before they suffer a firey end. A race against time ensues, or the party might find themselves suffering the same fate.

and of course, there's the issue of cleaning out the regions that the PCs missed the first time

btw... did anyone notice that this thread has been read over 90,000 times?

 

[DaveMage]

btw... did anyone notice that this thread has been read over 90,000 times?

Yeah, I've really gotta stop reading it 1,000 times a day....

 

[erucsbo]

Region M to N?

Region M is levels 9-12
Region N is levels 14-16

The eastern edge of the M map is open floor
The western edge of the N map is mostly rock-wall
so - either there is a very straight wall right on the edge of the M map to N, or I'm half inclined to get rid of the rock on the western side of N.

This may lead the players to try and get in to N before they are ready though.
Just wondering if the rock wall on N's edge might have been put there to try and funnel adventurers from M down to J first.

My characters are at level 10 - well below what is needed to survive in N and still under the lower edge of J.
They have now been kicked out of the Barrows in M so all that is left are the relatively few encounters north of the lava in M.

Anyone else had parties in this situation before?
Any suggestions, comments or advice would be welcome.

 

[Traevanon]

Hi guys!

After a lengthy move to a new house we have resumed the WLD in Lansing, MI.

The campaign is almost over though, the characters are all 18th-20th level, and the World Eater is in the process of escaping its wards. The World Eater battle will be the final one of the campaign. I have boosted it all the way up to an astronimical CR-50, but given the party an epic means of disabling it temporarily. It should be a great fight and a good capper for the campaign.

BTW: Everything has been boosted in my version of the WLD. I feel that if you played it exactly as written and the characters were motivated to escape (as mine were) they could have easily done so around level 11 or so. So, a summary of my campaign might not exactly make sense to some here because large swaths of terrain, characters, encounters and treasure have been magnified and expanded.

However, most recently they recieved a massive preview of the World Eater battle against Chtryx and the Terrasque over in the other corner of the dungeon which killed two of the seven charcters (they were rezzed).

At this point I can say that it has been a great ride for two and a half years and I am looking forward to letting someone else DM for a while.

Great job Jim, RValle and the whole crew. Even if everything wasnt perfect, just the sheer volume of information on the setting helped D&D work properly for us for a change and took a massive portion of the work off of the DM's shoulders.

 

[raynbow]

We had an interesting night last night.

My group of 2nd & 3rd level PC's wandered into the edge of Region B two sessions ago. There are 7 of them, so I figured they'd be ok, even though the region is a bit on the high side.

There are two rogue types in the group, so I think they are enjoying all the traps so far.

Unfortunately, they took a turn northwards and headed into Region F. Not only that, but they somehow made a beeline straight for the cryhoydra.

They got the idea that I might be a little concerned about them being where they were, and ended up being a little extra cautious.

Two rogues snuck successfully into the nest, or at least they were successful until they actual spotted the hydra and one of them screamed 'RUN'.

They fled back down the hall into Region B, and at least had the foresight to slam every door they could find behind them. They remembered where a series of 5 ft corridor was, and ran through that as well. I figured they deserved to survive for at least showing some thought, and let them outrun the hydra.

After that they headed south through the mirror room.

We had a fun time with the traps in B7 and B8 (I think? sorry don't have the module in front of me). It's the room that fills with water, followed by the room that fills with poison.

They did some testing by throwing various things into the water room and decided that it probably did fill with water. Hoping that was true, they sent the Warforged across. They decided that since he was over there, he should just check out the next door and see if there was anything worth seeing. He went through into the 'gold' room, and figured he'd save them all some trouble and just bring back the valuables.

It would have been funnier if warforged weren't immune to poison.....

Ok, it was still pretty funny. While he made his balance check on the way in, he failed it on the way out and ended up submerged in the water room for several minutes.

The impressions of a grumpy warforged, soaking wet, and carrying several bits of 'worthless' gold were very entertaining.

Oh, and then the dwarf made him go back and get him a pick out of the gold room....

All in all, it was a fun night!

 

[Hussar]

Raynbow - I gotta admit, a Warforged in the WLD would have some serious advantages. Most of the biggest threats at lower levels - disease, poison and food - get ignored. Have you had any problems with this? Given the rather large boost he's getting, would you think a +1 LA might be warranted?

Just a question.

 

[raynbow]

It's a pretty casual group, so I don't really see it as an issue. Most of the 'advantages' he has have been used to benefit the entire party so far.

And he's also a monk. And being a low level monk is a pretty good counter for just about any advantage

 

[pokedigimaniac]

Well, that was fun. The group I'm running is in Region G right now, just hitting level 10. Some of these players have been playing this game since level 1, and it's fun to see things progress. None of the original characters are still living, sadly, but some of them have been around for 6 levels or more! Anyways, on their quest to find the Holy MacGuffi-erm, sorry, been playing too much KoL lately. On their quest to find the Sacred Flame of Aranas, they decided to take an expedient approach to the problem and storm the Demon Triumvirate's area.

First few rounds, Gwarny'z (the hezrou, who is really a little too weak) used his blasphemy to mess up their days, and then took a few nasty holy longspear hits before 'summoning' a dretch horde (First time using a horde, and it was interesting) that surged up from the southern hallway while he gaseous form'd and retreated over their heads. A Black Tentacles spell served to pretty much solidify the wall of dretches (although it really did hurt them - I amended the 'can't grapple a horde' rule because the tentacles' area was actually big enough to hit the ENTIRE horde) while Gwarny'z retreated into Glebshayy's area, and the vrocks came out to play. With Glebshayy warned, a reverse gravity in the 4-way intersection caused some problems, and the vrocks tore into the PCs some before the PCs decided to retreat, not even having come face-to-face with Glebshayy yet. Granted, they took Gwarny'z down to sub-50 HP, which is a good accomplishment.

Now, here's a question. It seems to me that the demons should have some source of healing for the demon lords, at the very least. But the region doesn't really allow for that, save for the flux of positive and negative energy. Any thoughts? Otherwise, Gwarny'z is going to be very anticlimactic when the group returns.

 

[Hussar]

Cache of potions of healing?