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

[rvalle]

Hussar: Yeah, I was pretty tired of things by the last 6 months or so. But was determined to get though it.

erucsbo: NOT fighting the WE wasn't an option. I made sure they knew that if it escaped it would turn into the Worlds Largest Graveyard (per the book. )


Giants: My group had fought the giants before so the giants were aware of them. Instead of having the fight in the caves I moved it out to the big open area outside the Giants home. I had the 3 clerics cast lots and lots of Glyphs of Warding all over the place with the ones down by the connection to the southern regions and along the lake go off as sonic damage.

This then turned into a big massive fight with about 30 Winter Wolfs, 40 Frost Giants plus the named ones. It make things easier I gave the saves, and AC to the players and when they cast area effect spells or attacked they took care of the saves or if they hit or not. I just had them give me the number of the bad guy they hit and how much damage it took.

The big open area allowed for spells like Storm of Vengeance, Thornwalls, Blade Barriers, Fireballs and what not. Once the fight started the Big Cleric Guy and the small ones started buffing up themselves and the other named Giants.

The fight lasted for 3 sessions but it was never in doubt. The party cut though them with no problems. The giants and their crappy ranged attack couldn't hit the party and they were not tough enough to stand toe to toe with them.

For fun I had the 3 hydra show up about round 15. One of the party members mass charmed them.

As for the big guy... lets just say that Irresistible Dance would rapidly become one of my most hated spells if we kept going at high level. 'Do nothing but Dance for 3 Rounds generating AoO's each round'. Great...

They got the Ramoraz at the end with the same spell. Sigh.

Now I get to PLAY in a game one of the players is going to run. Something Monte Cook is building on line with maps and stuff...? We're doing 4th ed. I can relax and just worry about my guy.

rv

 

[erucsbo]

erucsbo: NOT fighting the WE wasn't an option. I made sure they knew that if it escaped it would turn into the Worlds Largest Graveyard (per the book. )

The party decided to rest (and level up) then head back in to the tomb and go for the World Eater (for the same reason).
I had the NPC Cleric and rogue leave before they rested, heading back in to the tomb to find the NPC paladin. Egad the hatred shown to the paladin by a few of the other players. Some went so far as wanting to feed the paladin to the World Eater.

They had to fight the Iron Golems at the eastern entrance to the Tomb to get back in, but after ForceCage on one and managing to knock down the other they headed back in.
Arriving at the (now opened) Central Vault and seeing hordes of undead, Vinnara and Invistis and his golems and the World Eater gnawing at the ceiling they launched in to battle.
Vinnara's troops are now under the control of the WE but Invistis maintains hold over his golems.
We are part-way through the battle, the eldritch knight (dwarf) has been killed (took 114hp damage - shield other with the cleric meant that got cut in half, but failed the massive damage save (rolled 1)) and the rest of the party are thinking it might be easier to get swallowed and fight the WE from the inside (if they can avoid the massive damage from the bite attack).
So far the WE hasn't used Power Attack - that would just be insane.
Nor have I removed 4 levels off everyone (they are level 16) nor applied all the varied environment conditions.

 

[rvalle]

Yeah, I didn't use PA either. I skipped a crit he did on the sorc as well.

I think I mentioned in the post I did about the WE fight that they biggest problem they had was trying to manage the damage the WE could put out. He was basicly dropping/killing a character per round. The party had to use 2 Wishes to bring people back into the fight. One of them onto the Cleric whom the WE focused on after she did a mass heal/raise dead type thing.

I did do some of the encounter conditions. They were taking the fire/cold damage each min. Most had some energy resistance of some sort so the damage was minimal.

I did do the -4 levels but let them have a fort save to resist for half. Since it happened before they went into the main chamber they were able to cast Restores to remove the neg. levels before the fight.

rv

 

[erucsbo]

Scratch one World Eater

The party were considering pulling out, but I let the player of the dead dwarven eldritch knight play Vinnara as a cameo. With her incorporeal nature, ability to bypass natural armour, etc, she delivered enough damage to the WE along with the party fighter, and offered a tempting enough target that the WE suffered some real damage without managing to kill anyone else.
Then the LG Sorcerer managed to open the chain lightning sphere and beat the WE's spell resistance.
Result - the WE dropped.
Vinnara then cast inflict critical wounds to make it (the WE) better (she wanted it damaged enough for her to take it out on her terms, but still able to chomp through the roof).
The cleric then did a mass cure critical wounds and dropped it again while the fighter took out Vinnara.
btw - I changed Vinnara's scythe. A brilliant energy weapon is a stupid thing to have in a tomb full of undead and constructs - she would have never been able to use it.
The party's mystic theurge then disintegrated the head of the WE just for good measure before Invistis "advised" them that they might want to leave before the massing undead turned on them.
They took the hint and left the tomb to the east.
Of course this all plays nicely in to Invistis' hands now that Vinnara, Kasteoficiss and the World Eater are out of the picture (until they regenerate) - enough time for him to exert his control as undisputed leader of the tomb ...

Now out on the icy wastes in region O, the mystic theurge has cast prying eyes (and imbued them with Darkvision) to get a lay of the land. Do they head north east to the exit, back in to the tomb to find the "reset" switch, or something completely different? Next session should tell.

 

[erucsbo]

in preparation for Region O I have produced a DM map (credit to Hussar for the original layout). This will most likely be the last map I'll produce as one way or another I expect the party to exit the dungeon (either via the reset switch in the tomb or fighting through O).

 

[Hussar]

That's a nice DM's map. Pretty.

 

[erucsbo]

Region O

This is turning out to be a bit anti-climatic for me.
In 2 sessions the party has cut down WinterWolves, the Megaraptor and Korwynne the Frost Giant, then 1 Cryohydra and several more Frost Giants without taking any damage (well, only a few against the temp hitpoint gleaned from False Life and Heroes Feast).
End of last session 2 of them took on a dozen FGs while the rest started to make camp, and took out a few before the others fled deeper in to the caves.
With two of the party members having permanent Arcane Sight I'm assuming that Glyphs of Warding will be easy to spot?
I now have 8 hours (game time) for the Giants to rally and actually put up a defense that works, so any advice would be welcome.
Against a purely physical knockdown fight the giants might be in with a chance, but when you have Acid Fog, Cloud Kill, sneak attacks using scorching ray, characters with Improved Invisibility, and the like, not to mention Chain Lightning, Delay Blast Fireballs and Empowered Fireballs up the wazzoo, it is becoming a bit of a walkover. Throw in Walls of Force and Disintegrate and it doesnt look like 95% of the giants will be able to do much at all. The majority of the party can fly, so have maneouverability on their side, and have lots of energy resistance to cold, fire, etc. Sonic does provide one damage avenue, but the bard can countersong to make that easier to save against.

 

[Hussar]

Heh, I ran into this with Region D.

Region D looks REALLY cool. But in play? Blows. None of the creatures were even remotely a threat until I made them into mobs from DMG2. And, even then, they were only threats because of the auto-win grapple checks.

My bunch thrashed the big T without losing a hit point. Cost them a couple of heal spells and that was it. Sigh.

Your party is at the level where the only viable counter is magic. Non-magical creatures are just so much fodder. They can't compete at all.

Heh, would it be an idea to chuck in lots of baddies, let the party go on a mass killing spree and blow their way free? Let them revel in their bad assitude. They've made it through the WLD, let them go out as gods.

 

[erucsbo]

There are captives to be rescued, and I might have other creatures who are trying to get out of the dungeon be made aware of the partys assault on the giants (after all they havent exactly been quiet about it). Hopefully that should complicate things jsut a little.

I do want them to leave with a major sense of accomplishment, and if they get out too easily they may overlook a certain titan ...

 

[alexdesho]

map issues

Hi there, i'm about to start DMing a WLD campaign and i'm having a little trouble on the interpretation of map symbology.
Blue TMarks
Blue glowing spots
green portal marks
vortex
rings
etc.

I need to link this between the book, the original map and the map i'm doing for the game table online. (especially the blue glowing spots on all maps that i can't seem to get what they are)

some i get, some others i don't, but i wold really appreciate your help on deciphering some or all of this marks.
t.y.