Against the Cult of the Reptile God - your experiences?

[Man in the Funny Hat]

Quite possibly was the best adventure I'd ever read - I remember I actually enjoyed READING it. All the NPC's, relation to the overall plot, every building in the village noted, a terrific unfolding mystery. And it was the worst disaster I'd ever experienced as a DM when I actually ran it. Not because the module itself was in any way at fault, but simply because it was the most shockingly poor, brain-dead, pathetic gameplay I've ever seen from players who had no reason whatever to suddenly be so stupid.

They ignored all the information they actually gathered in the village and promptly stepped into the lions jaws, brushed his fangs and sharpened his claws for him, and then asked him to tuck them in with a bedtime story. It was a TPK from the word go - or at least would have been if I'd actually felt like telling them all to just roll up new characters and we'd start a new campaign. I was SO disappointed I was speechless. I wish now I'd had the rocks to actually have wasted them all and not batted an eyelash. If only I were actually an EVIL DM...

I've never run it again - but I believe I still have it on my shelf because in the back of my mind I still want to try it again and see how really great I know it must be.

 

[ptolemy18]

I'm in the middle of running this module right now. (Elliott, if you're browsing this forum, LOOK AWAY! )

I modified it pretty heavily, however -- basically, I adapted it to Green Ronin's EGYPTIAN ADVENTURES setting and put the whole thing in the delta swamps of Egypt. The profaned temple was a temple of Isis and the "reptile god" was actually a real god (else how could the priests get their spells?) -- the evil snake god Apophis.

Unfortunately for me as an evil DM, the players called for Sense Motive rolls and pretty much immediately realized they couldn't trust the priests, and they hooked up with the allied NPCs and cleaned out the town pretty easily. They then had the bright (but module-spoiling) idea of gathering a big militia/lynch mob (with the mayor's help) to go combat the evil snake worshippers in the swamp.

HOWEVER--! Of course, the cultists infiltrated the militia, and betrayed them to troglodytes, leading to a big battle in which the militia was slaughtered by giant turtles while the PCs escaped. So now they PCs stuck in the swamps, equidistant from the evil temple and the hapless town, whose best good NPCs have all been eaten by troglodytes...

Jason

 

[ptolemy18]

Great Module!!! Has anyone ever ran this without the party being captured? I'm in the process of running it for 2 separate groups. One was captured in the Golden Grain, the other when they tried to infiltrate the temple.

My group managed to hook up with the two elves and the mayor, and then busted into the temple with heavy NPC support and killed everybody (though one PC died).

Jason

 

[S'mon]

I have it, ran it, and quite enjoyed it, though it's not my favourite. The damp marshy setting is not my favourite, living in Ulster it was a bit too close to home. AIR I ran it for a single 5th level half-ogre Fighter, who demolished everything in the module with gusto. I'm sure it would have been better for a group of 4 PCs. Since there are a couple of "CR 7" opponents it would work well as an adventure for 3rd level PCs in 3e, I think there's a 3e conversion available (both the Naga & the Clr-7 would be unbeatable for 1st level PCs). BTW being an '80s American module, all the villagers seem extremely wealthy, everyone seems to have a chest with 80gp in the attic. This obviously creates the temptation to kill the villagers and take their stuff...

 

[S'mon]

As for the cosmological implications, "Frostburn" (which I'm just reading now) states that Levistus doesn't grant spells, but he's a focus of worship for entities that DO grant the spells. The BBEG in N1 could certainly serve in precisely the same way.

You could just accept that in 3e Clerics officially don't need gods, and the Reptile God clerics are 3e godless Clerics...

 

[S'mon]

BTW the official 1e rule on Cleric spell acquisition was as follows:

1st & 2nd level spells are gained through Cleric's own faith without outside intervention. These are the only spell levels that can be regained when a Cleric is totally cut off from his deity, eg in the Q1 Demonweb Pits.

3rd & 4th level spells are granted by non-deity supernatural agents of the deity - which could include things like Nagas, presumably.

5th level spells are granted by demigods, this is the highest level demigods can grant.

6th level spells are granted by the deity, this is the highest level lesser gods can grant.

7th level spells are granted by the deity, this is the highest level greater gods can grant.

8th & 9th don't exist.

So the Clr-7 in Orlane isn't violating the 1e rules AFAICS, since he only has 4th level spells, grantable by a supernatural entity.

BTW in 1e demon princes & Archdevils counted as lesser gods while on their home planes & could thus grant spells up to 6th level.

 

[Hussar]

Ran it, played it and loved it. This was one of my all time favourite modules. Orlane became the home base for more than a few campaigns. It was excellently detailed. I went more Shadows over Innmouth with this since I had just discovered Lovecraft about the same time I got this module. Way too much fun.

As I recall, the party's cleric, for some bizarre reason stayed inside the BBEGal's silence spell and tried to turn. Twice. Not a shock when we lost a couple of PC's there. Followed by said cleric charging through the secret door without waiting for the rest of the party, she got her just rewards.

Definitely one of my favourites.

 

[Quasqueton]

This is one of the rare few modules I've ever run. Back in the mid 80s I ran it for two PCs -- an elf fighter/wizard 4/4, and a human assassin 4 (maybe 5?) -- with two NPCs -- dwarf fighter 3, and a human cleric 3.

They investigated the town by day and night, but without enthusiasm. Wandering about at night, they met the two "secret agent" elves, and slaughtered them (attack first, ask questions second). In the Golden Grain inn, they tried partying but got paranoid. They ordered beer to be sent up to their rooms, with the intention to pretend to get drunk. They wanted to see if someone made a move on them while drunk.

Of course, as the module suggested, the innkeeper doped the beer to knock out the adventurers. But up in their room, they didn't want to actually get drunk, so they let the dwarf drink all the beer himself. So the dwarf was solidly unconscious when the troglodytes came in the secret door and attacked. The PCs ragged on the dwarf throughout the rest of the adventure about not being able to handle some human beer. No one knew the beer was doped.

The next morning, I think, there was a big battle in the inn common room with several of the charmed townsfolk. The PCs had prepared their battleground pretty well, with caltrops at the back door, furniture blocking windows, etc. (This was the first and only time that I ever recorded a game session on audio tape. I still have the tape somewhere around, and listen to it every few years.)

I think the "hermit" wizard (who lived in the middle of the village, only about 60' from the inn) told the PCs about the dungeon off in the swamp, but the PCs didn't bother getting his help in taking it on. They just went out to the dungeon.

I don't remember a whole lot about the delve into the dungeon except the end, "climatic" fight. The NPCs had died somewhere in the adventure, and the assassin PC was badly wounded and holed up in a upper-level room. The elf PC, still mostly healthy and prepared with spells, went on to explore a few more rooms. He came to the secret door back way into the naga's lair. When he saw the naga, and the naga saw him, he pulled back into the throne room (?) and started preparing. The naga came through the secret door looking for the elf, and opened the fight with the fireball (as the module said).

The elf survived the fireball, then moved forward for melee combat. With a really good AC and mirror image up, the elf slowly widdled the naga down to death. The 4th-level elf had defeated the BBEG of a 1st-3rd level module single handedly.

The elf then went about collecting all the treasure in the naga's lair. On his way out of the dungeon, though, he met a random wandering monster: a carrion crawler.

When the elf didn't return after a long time, the wounded assassin went looking for him. He found the elf face down in the mud being nibbled on by the badly wounded crawler. The assassin killed the crawler with arrows and pulled the elf out of the dungeon. He considered going back down for the bags of treasure, but wisely decided against it. (It was not an easy decision, though.)

The assassin took his friend to a nearby city to have him reincarnated (AD&D elves couldn't be raised). The elf came back as a dryad. (We dropped the fighter character class and had him/her only a wizard.) The assassin hired a cleric to come out and exorcise the dryad from her tree, and once done, the dryad charmed the cleric. (AD&D charm lasted a long, long time.) The assassin, dryad, and cleric then went on to have more adventures.

Quasqueton

 

[JohnBiles]

This is a great adventure; sadly, I was part of a party which totally bungled it. IIRC, this was the kickoff of my last campaign in which I gamed with the group I first played D&D with in 1982. We were lousy detectives, killed a bunch of people we shouldn't have, a bunch of us got slaughtered and the whole thing was one giant catastrophe.

But it's a great adventure for a wiser group than us.