D&D 4E Dragon Mountain (4e conversion - complete!)

jrowland · Dec 19, 2012

Quickleaf said:
Those are excellent ideas, and definitely the same lines I'm thinking along.

I do wonder about your use of "concordance", which essentially means harmony or concord...

Yeah, I almost elaborated, but didn't. I used concordance to bring to mind artifacts...but a better term would be discordance, which may suit your sub-goal of introducing new crunchy things. So rather than concordance (harmony) with the mountain, the PCs become more discordant with it, as if the PCs are a virus the host is trying to exterminate. If we think of the mountain as an artifact (or perhaps the Arcane Engine thingamajig that ports it around), then a concordance-like structure lends some parallels.

One thing comes to mind. Whatever you choose, the increasing difficulty might be too much if there is too much of a spread between encounter levels. That is, if the spread in encounters is about 5 levels, High discordance would be a severe penalty and effectively the spread may be more like 10 levels (level 1 encounter no discordance to level 5 encounter with 5 discordance eg). You might need to adjust xp when under discordance, flatten the spread a bit (2 or 3 levels eg), or both.

pemerton · Dec 20, 2012

[MENTION=20323]Quickleaf[/MENTION], still can't XP you but I really like your latest version of "100 eyes", and also agree with you about the unhappy implication that would follow from using fake kobold commandos.

Quickleaf · Dec 21, 2012

[MENTION=42582]pemerton[/MENTION] Well, guys like you and me can be hard to XP

Besides me finishing the conversion and making some player handouts, I think the last two design dilemmas with the conversion are...
1. Planeshift ritual foci encounter (skill challenge & hazard, new)
2. Temple encounter (puzzle, based on Clan Blood's temple in module)

Almost there

Should finish by new years.

Quickleaf · Dec 26, 2012

Here's my "almost finished" draft of the Dragon Mountain conversion for Christmas. Unfortunately, I had to break it into 4 parts to upload it cause of global server setting issues on ENWorld after the hack. Even though it's not *complete* yet, there is a heck of a lot of material in here! And I heartily welcome any feedback.

Especially if you run it for your group

[sblock=Table of Contents]
Essentials
DM’s Background (The Dragon Infyrana)
Map
Entry Areas
Exploring Dragon Mountain

Area Descriptions
Level One
Level Two
Level Three

Encounters
“Dragonstrike Force”
“Rooftop Flaming Death”
“Temple of Fire & Blood”
“Under-Mines”
“Molokac’s Fungal Fury”
“Garunaak’s Ambush”
“Hagniar’s Rot Grub Bootcamp”
“Crusher’s Kobolds"
“Harlichak’s Gelatinous Doom"
“The Arena”
“Golem Works”
“Dwarven Burial Chamber”
“Gagranax’s Rust Monster Cavalry”
“King of the Kobolds”
“Planeshift Focus Chamber”
“Wyrmling Hatchery”

Kobolds & Traps
The Kobolds of Dragon Mountain (tactics)
Traps

The Dragon’s Lair
“Approach to the Lair”
“Infyrana’s Lair”
Treasure Hoard

Miscellaneous
Concluding the Adventure
Appendix: Magic Items & Monsters
Player Handouts
[/sblock]

It sounds like my group will start running Dragon Mountain after the New Year, so I'll have more updates/play reports then.

Cleon · Dec 26, 2012

Quickleaf said:
Here's my "almost finished" draft of the Dragon Mountain conversion for Christmas. Unfortunately, I had to break it into 4 parts to upload it cause of global server setting issues on ENWorld after the hack. Even though it's not *complete* yet, there is a heck of a lot of material in here! And I heartily welcome any feedback. Especially if you run it for your group

Great, a late Christmas present!

Thanks for the good work, Quickling. I doubt I'll be running it, but I may be ~~stealing~~ borrowing bits and pieces from it for inspiration.

Cleon · Dec 26, 2012

Cleon said:
Thanks for the good work, Quickling. I doubt I'll be running it, but I may be ~~stealing~~ borrowing bits and pieces from it for inspiration.

Dang it, I got your name wrong Quickleaf. :blush:

An evil nitro-charged fey sprite made me do it. B-)

Quickleaf · Dec 31, 2012

[MENTION=57383]Cleon[/MENTION] Heh, if you get a chance, let me know what you steal and how it works for your group.

Btw, when I run it, I am including minor quests for each PC as "Fate has brought them to the mountain", something to break up dungeon-crawling a bit. I didn't include these in the conversion, but here they are:
[sblock=Side Quests]
Deva Wizard - in past incarnation he died in Dragon Mountain trying to retrieve his grimoire from the kobolds/dragon, his grimoire is still lost in the halls of the mountain somewhere.
Barbarian - kobolds stole her tribe's totem.
Fighter - recover bodies of young adventurers he accidentally caused the deaths of in his ambition.
Paladin - recover Blade of Bahamut which the founder of his knightly order wielded when he died in Dragon Mountain.
Vampire Cavalier - retrieve treasures of the Raven Queen and piece together mystery of a dracolich ritual.
"Half-Succubus" Elementalist - gain a fully mortal soul by ritually imbibing dragon's heart/blood.
Bard/Warlord - ?[/sblock]

Manbearcat · Jan 1, 2013

@Quickleaf Forgot to congratulate you on your finished product. Masterfully done. A report on the games progress through this would be appreciated.

Quickleaf · Jan 3, 2013

[MENTION=6696971]Manbearcat[/MENTION] Thanks! Your help was instrumental and much appreciated

We start Dragon Mountain Friday, and I'll post "playtest" reports as I'm able. The campaign also has a website on Obsidian Portal over here: http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/banner-marches

Quickleaf · Jan 5, 2013

We started Dragon Mountain this night

And there are photos! (which I'll upload over the weekend)

The first half of the session was setting the stage, final logistics, introducing 2 new PCs, and an encounter with a Vistani seer. I'm skipping that stuff to go directly to how the first few kobold encounters ran...

I meant to start the group off easy, with low-threat encounters to lull the players into thinking "kobolds? bah, easy!" and that's exactly how things went. Through good scouting they avoided the avalanche hazard, swiftly disabled the ballistae, and then entered the second level via the trap door in a ballista tower. Upon entering the dungeon, they heard kobolds whispering "gas" preparing an ambush, and they speedily moved thru a (trapped) door when a barrel was rolled toward them. Thus the party was coated in monster bait (this will come into play later). After a skirmish with a large group of archers and javelin-wielders, the PCs were totally victorious.

The old school player played very smart by uncovering several kobolds lurking in ambush behind a stone counterweight. He also tampered with the controls on the counterweights to prevent them counterweights from being used to seal them within the mountain.

Another player aptly noted at the end of the session: "I get the feeling Dragon Mountain is going to be a marathon and not a sprint...the usual tactics of expending daily powers first probably isn't going to work."

I've been setting the stage for "Garunak's Ambush" (in which I try to kill one of the casters

) by having the kobolds yipe "wizard" whenever one of the casters kills a kobold with a spell. "Garunak's Ambush" will probably be the group's first really dangerous fight. Depending on how that goes, I may need to up the threat level given that they are a large party (7 PCs), well-equipped, and a pretty savvy group.

EDIT: Adventure log in more detail over here http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/banner-marches/adventure-log