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

[erucsbo]

Ropers rock.

After basking in their quick defeat of Thorodin (and with several players away) 4 of the party decided to investigate the bog a bit more.
They spied a tree in the distance and the dwarven Eldritch Knight, on seeing a treasure chest wedged in the roots, moved in for a closer look. There was discussion that maybe the chest was a mimic, but preliminary tests (tapping on it) showed it to be real, so the others present (assassin, mystic theurge and fighter) all moved closer. The dwarf had been echoing Durkon from Order of the Stick in that he believed that trees were evil, and there were jokes about the walloping willow from Harry Potter, when the roper sprang (figuratively) in to action and managed to snare the assassin and the eldritch knight. Both failed their saves vs weakness with the knight losing 6 points of strength and the assassin dropping 10. There was much brown trousering and breaking of strands, and casting Grease on the assassin's armour to allow him to use Escape Artist to get away. The high magic resistance of the roper meant that the few offensive spells they had left from fighting the dragon were ineffective.

They got away and determined that safe distance was 50' and were thinking about resting to regain spells when the roper lurched towards them. This caused major panic and running away.

They explored elsewhere (keeping an eye out for moving trees), running away when they saw the shocker lizards and eventually finding Sissifiss. They freed her and the dwarf managed to drag the cage far enough out of the anti-magic field so that he could shrink item on it, with the intention of melting it down for bullion later.

Sissifiss helped ferry the party across the lake to the west, whereupon they rested and waterwalked back to exact vengence on the roper. Lots of acid arrows and arrows from bows later they managed to topple it. Detect magic found the dagger in the chest to be magical but also revealed the fog behind the roper to be magical as well. Once more extreme fear, uncertainty and doubt entered our heroes minds and they decided that staying away from the fog was the best course of action.

All in all an enjoyable and satisfying evening of gaming.

 

[erucsbo]

Region K is turning out to be quite a bit of fun.
The party has had a frustrating encounter with Lightspar. Haven't been able to convince her to remove the necklace around her neck (with the eye), but they have cast restoration which has improved her abilities a bit. I think they have made the connection between her "stolen eggs" and Mahir's experiments that resulted in Anguish and Madness in Region I.
They rested and regained spells but have now expended quite a bit against the Tendriculous, the zombies and the watching hags also used ForceCage and Summoned some bats against them to see how the party would react. They now have a fairly good idea of their powers thanks to the group keeping the hags eyes found previously (which they still don't know what they are).

Assuming that a showdown with the hags is coming very soon does anyone have any tips? Has anyone else had the battle with the hag covey and how did it go?

thanks

 

[raynbow]

My group is getting ready to head from region B into Region C tonight.

I spent a while re-reading Region C last night, and I'm totally unimpressed with the whole 'key' subplot.

I just dont see any sense for why you need a key to get from Region B to Region F, and why that key would be in Region C.

There's nothing of any excitement in Region F that I can see. And knowing my group, they are more likely to wiggle through C and end up going up to G. Also, I'm confused by how the book refers to region C as a "dead end", since you can go from there to G.

I'm thinking of making the key open the door from C to G instead of all the doors from B to F.



I'm just having trouble understanding the whole thing. The lantern archon is supposed to tell them they need the key for something important, but I just don't see what's important about going from B to F.

If it's the key to G then at least there's an obvious reason the key would have been important in the past, in that you couldn't get to the room with the portal into C21 if you didn't have the key.

Did anyone else mess around with the "key" subplot thing?

 

[erucsbo]

skipped B and C. Party went north to E, I, M then through J to K.
Must admit that the length of the campaign is taking its toll, so I'm thinking of forcing the pace and giving a meta-game way of finishing.
They have dealt with the hags, freed Lightspar (who has gone south to the Garrison to learn what is going on) and are in the southern area of K.
I'll have the garrison get in touch if they don't find the link south themselves quickly then outline a plan of action.
Basically the garrison will ask them to clear out any immediate dangers in the southern part of K (they don't need to explore everything and intact cells should probably be left that way). Once done I'll bump them up a level (to 13) and offer Garrison assistance in dealing with Tyrus. I think it is doable with the right prep.
Getting past Tyrus will give them another level. They should then be well and truly able to handle the Tomb (N).
I'll give them a historical precis of the Tomb and ask them to investigate - with specific focus on the World Eater. Untangling that should get them another level (15) or two with a view to tackling the World Eater.
Depending on assessment of the situation I may turn the battle in to one where the Celestials etc are summoned to deal with all the mooks and buff the party while the party deals with the World Eater to hopefully bring a climactic finish to the WLD.
The scope and extent of the WLD has (in the end) been the biggest problem for our group, too easy to lose focus on the short term goals and it becomes a grind without the feeling of having had a satisfyingly complete victory. Then again - having bypassed G and the portal in A, and not done Tyrus they've probably missed the only other opportunities for such an event.

 

[DaveMage]

The scope and extent of the WLD has (in the end) been the biggest problem for our group, too easy to lose focus on the short term goals and it becomes a grind without the feeling of having had a satisfyingly complete victory. Then again - having bypassed G and the portal in A, and not done Tyrus they've probably missed the only other opportunities for such an event.

When did you start playing (what date)?

 

[erucsbo]

When did you start playing (what date)?

18th September 2005 (as far as I can ascertain and IIRC) - don't have my gaming notes handy

 

[DaveMage]

3+ years on the same adventure is tough, no doubt.

Hopefully your players can stick with it long enough to have that final epic battle, and call it a day (or decade).

 

[Hussar]

Hats off bud. Three years. I was happy to wrap things up after two.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

[blatant plug]

Would anyone be willing to share your story of this adventure on the War Stories Wiki?

It would probably warrant its own category...

[/blatant plug]

 

[rvalle]

We are on about 3 years I think.

Lets see (looks though old email)... first game was 9/9 2005.

I must admit to getting a bit burned out. Not sure if its running the WLD once a week for 3 years or just the grind of high level 3.5 DnD. What keeps me going is the thought of finishing this and moving on to something else (either Dnd 4th ed or Savage Worlds).

I serously thought about skipping N but in a moment of weekness I played the Lantern Archon by the book and he told them of the World Eater. He opens and closes the door for the party to get into and out of the Region. I'm NOT having the undead spawn every 24 hours but have moved it to a week.

So far the party has run into the Black Guard ghost. She told them of the keys and about the other warlords in the region trying to get the party to work for her. The party was on the way out the door when the monk charged her and started a melee. I had given her some armor feats and with fighting def her AC was in the 40's which made her hard but not impossible to hit for 2 of the party members. Between them and the spells going off she was reduced to about 1/3 hp's so she ran and found reinforcments. One character died in melee as the party retreated.

Trying to avoid her area (and tired of fighting things incorpreal) the party stuck to the south end of the area and ran into the insane Judge/Bodak. I thought this might be a tough fight but I had no idea it would turn out to be an almost tkp!

The party breezed though the minons up front the skeleton hoards and wights going down easily.

They open the door to the Judges room and see what there is to see. Not being much on talking and thinking it will be an easy fight the party's fighter and monk charges into the room to close with the Judge while the rest of the party hangs back.

Since he is insane the Judge's actions are random and it comes up as Dominate (he has a bunch of undead like powers... vampire's dominate, his own death gaze, mummies rot, ect.). His eyes glow as he tells the fighter to stop the others from disrupting his court... and he fails the save.

He heads back to lay waste to the rest of the party (he's a tweaked out two weapon fighter who can dish out 80 points of damage a round plus -5 or so con points from a dagger of wounding). As the party fights to keep him from killing party members the monk gets into hand to hand combat with the Bodak. After several rounds of each side missing the other with attacks the Bodak gets another Dominate on his random roll. Thinking that this would ruin the party as there is no way they could hold off both him and the fighter I change it to the Death Gaze as the monk has good saves.

And he rolls a 1. Thump down he goes. The party tries to pour all their damage into the Judge who moved towards them (the fighter having been locked away behind a wall of force) and almost drop him but not before he Dominates the parties Bard who then turn and glitter dusts the partys Sorcerer blinding him.

So, the 'party' now consists of 1 cleric and 1 blind wizard with 2 party members dominated and 1 dead. Oh boy. We stopped there for that week.


Man, this is getting long. Next week the party Druid showed up. He managed to get the fighter in a Wall of Thorns and they pounded him with Dispel Magics till he was free (lots of debat on if this would work or not. WoTC seems to have errated it so it will as per the core books it won't). The Bard had already been killed from lighting bolts from the Sorcerer (who had been Healed by the Cleric).

The go back in and get the body of the Monk (the Judge wandered off to get more members for his court) and everyone was raised.


I figure getting though N will take us another 3-4 months or so. After that they need to fight the Red Dragon who is waiting for them. Then out though O and the Frost Giants.

They are 16th level now. They should be 18th by the time they finish N and maybe 19th after the Dragon. I suspect O will be a cake walk but it should be fun for the party to do a beat down on some bad guys on the way out.

rv