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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Luthien Greyspear" data-source="post: 2634688" data-attributes="member: 34334">Wow, what a blast from the past...  I ran this series way back in high school (late 80's), but never got to G3 because everybody went off to different colleges and the military and stuff.  I had to wait more than a decade to finish off the entire GDQ series.  (I just told the new party that the old party was adventuring concurrently, so they could take over when they got high enough level...more on that later.)We only had four players, so some players took extra characters to cover all the bases.  The core group was Varden "the Rat", a N(E) wizard with a Charisma of 6, a cleric/thief of Olidamarra that had become infected with lycanthropy (weretiger), a female ranger specialized in archery, and a blustering paladin of Heironeous.  The secondary characters were the paladin's squire (2nd level herald-bard dual-classed into fighter), a hired halfling assassin, a dwarven alcoholic fighter, and a druid of Obad-hai.  Not all the secondary characters were always around (except the squire) but the core group stayed constant.The best fight came when the party decided that they had to sneak into the Hill Giant Steading, and were worried that the paladin wouldn't let them because it would be "dishonorable".  Well, the paladin's player had been boning up on wargaming, and had come to the decision that his people were officially at war with the giants, so his actions would be justified as necessary to prevent unwarranted deaths.  He was totally cool with sneaking in, just not with "assassination".  So, the party cast invisibility on him, made all their stealth preparations, and snuck into the throne room while the room was mostly empty.  As morning rolled around, the majority of the Hill Giant clan came in for breakfast.  The giant chieftan sits down, bellows for his beer, and hears a challenge come from BEHIND him as the paladin raises his bardiche and brings it down on his head.  The paladin was visible, the giant wasn't officially surprised, but the party totally whaled on the giants.  It was the most fun we had in a fight that entire campaign.Unfortunately, as mentioned, the group broke up and I never got to finish the series.  When I started my next campaign, I made it my intention to finish the damn modules with the new group.  Problem was, they were first level.  I ran them through the mini-campaign module Fate of Istus, which made a great framework for a country-hopping campaign.  Over time, I constantly dropped hints and news about the growing problems in Sterich and the surrounding countryside.  Eventually the party ran into the paladin's squire, now a war leader in his own right (and one character's illegitimate half-brother), and he enlisted them to go back and get revenge...on the wizard, Varden.I had known for a long time that Varden was aiming for Lichdom, and I just figured that when he actually ran into a lich (in the Underdark), he'd betray the party for the chance at immortality.  The group went after him, and he totally screwed them over.  He claimed to have been "mind-controlled" by the lich, and that he had no control over his actions when he tried to kill them all.  The party swallowed it, and went after the lich (after battling through the rejuvenated fire giant clan and the drow).  Once they got down there and barely beat the lich, Varden teleported in while they were resting (he was tracking them by crystal ball) and stole all the lich's spellbooks!They still haven't forgiven me... <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":]" title="Devious    :]" data-shortname=":]" /></blockquote>

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