D&D 5E Age of Worms Adventure Path

[Vienneau]

Attacking the party makes sense, but it can't get down the tunnel and I suspect my PCs will try to hit from range. So it might start heading up (as per "Tactics"). That will scare them too!

If he doesn't release it (say they charm him somehow before killing him), I wonder how if there's any way for Raknian to not notice that Bozal is dead - "Hmm, haven't heard from Bozal for a few days, and we *do* have a big moment coming up...he said not to disturb him while he did the ritual, and I hate going down into that charnel house...but still, it would really suck if that ulgurstata doesn't show up at the right moment"

 

[Tormyr]

Heading to the surface only makes sense if gladiators are up there. It may make sense for it to go sideways into the housing area to hunt down Auric otherwise.

It can burrow, so heading a different direction including widening the hallway toward the heroes seems to make sense.

 

[ParanoydStyle]

I have just uploaded Age of Worms Adventure Path to the downloads area.

This is a conversion of the Age of Worms adventure path from 3.5 to 5e. You will need a copy of the adventure, adventure supplement, Player's Handbook, Monster Manual, and Dungeon Master's Guide. The adventure is available from paizo.com, and the core books are available from amazon.com, local gaming stores and other retail outlets. Most creatures other than named NPCs are included by reference from the Monster Manual.

As always, feedback is appreciated.

You can find the file here in the downloads section. Please use this thread for comments.

EDIT: Almost all chapters are now available.

Well, I know I am responding to a four year old post, but this is awesome. Age of Worms is one of my favorite published campaigns and I'm happy someone updated it to the edition people around here (I mean where I live, I don't mean ENworld) actually seem to play.

 

[Vienneau]

Wow. That did not go as expected!

I decided that Bozal just needed his reaction to free the ulgurstata, and they managed to take him down without him ever getting even that. The monk just kept stunning him and they killed him with their very last action before he cast mass heal and got back into the fray (and released it).

So now I need to figure out how that plays out!

*Then* they wander down the hall into the room with the alkilith. I didn't really read the alkilith entry - "some sort of slime demon" I thought to myself.

That thing is *tough*. They were low on spells, and it's nearly immune to magic anyway. Three of them failed their buzzing madness save by 5 and were Confused, and it has 3 attacks for 8-28 damage!

And I even used the Mordenkainen version vs. the converted one. The converted one is CR14 with spells, which would have been deadly.

And they ended off trying to destroy the Kyuss chest and now the monk is trapped in the box and they have no spells and don't realize there's a time limit to how long they have before they can get him out!

I really enjoyed it. They seemed a bit overwhelmed by the Alkilith though. The first fight where they actually struggled, because they'd blown everything on the earlier ones!

 

[smbakeresq]

AoW is tougher then any published adventures as published adventures are meant to be fleshed out but few really do it, AoW is already fleshed out.

 

[Vienneau]

We're playing tonight and I'm not sure how to handle the monk being trapped inside the chest in Bozal Zahol's room (29). It wasn't included in the conversion.

DC 20 Will save (DC 15 CON) or 2 points of CON damage. He saved the first time he touched it (picked the lock!) and lost 2 CON, recovered after a long rest (or 1 point per long rest?)

Then he touched it again and now he's taking 1d4 INT/WIS/CHA damage inside the box. Freeing him requires Dispel Magic (vs. 20th level!), Antimagic, Dispel Evil, Freedom, Miracle, Mordenkainen's Disjunction, or Wish. Only Dispel Magic might be available. Do I say it's against a 9th level spell?

The wizard is out of spell lots, so is it 8 ability score checked until he rests? Average of 20 ability score damage means it's a dead monk!

Or the trap can be disabled with a DC 35, which is DC26 in 5e, nearly impossible to do. It doesn't say whether attempting to disable triggers the trap - is touching it required?

Or it can be destroyed, with hardness 8, and 60hp, break DC of 30 (converts to 23) (what is a break DC? STR check?) and the trap triggers every time it's damaged, even from range.

They may decide that to rescue him, they need to leave the games to get high level help, which disqualifies them, and I don't want that.

Anyone have suggestions?

 

[smbakeresq]

I would treat the CON damage as exhaustion levels, 5e doesn’t support ability drain. If not, a long rest seems appropriate or a lesser restoration spell or both. In this case the monk will be fully exhausted if the dispel magic doesn’t work.

As far as Dispel Magic, the spell affect seems like it’s a permanent bestow curse, which IIRC is a level 9 spell, so that seems appropriate. Lowering to level 7 is appropriate also, as the trap is permanent but not the curse, it effectively ends sooner. Don’t forget to have someone use guidance to boost their ability check, or maybe make arcana checks to get a modifier from the DM to improve their chances.

Having him die and then casting dispel magic until it works and then getting him raised from the dead would work also.

Hey, they took the chance with casting dispel magic, divinations, commune, and such before trying to get into the chest.

 

[Vienneau]

Interesting idea to use exhaustion for CON damage. I took his CON down by two and he suffered the HP loss, and I figured it would recover one point per day (or all of it). But exhaustion might be better.

Permanent Bestow Curse makes sense to me, I like it!

DC19 for the Dispel is still pretty tough, but it's manageable.

Once the character dies in the box, he can only be recovered by Wish/True Resurrection.

The irony is that they broke into the box and stole everything without an issue and I breathed a sigh of relief. But then they decided that the box was so evil that it must be destroyed and they attacked it and failed the save. Oops!

 

[Tormyr]

We're playing tonight and I'm not sure how to handle the monk being trapped inside the chest in Bozal Zahol's room (29). It wasn't included in the conversion.

DC 20 Will save (DC 15 CON) or 2 points of CON damage. He saved the first time he touched it (picked the lock!) and lost 2 CON, recovered after a long rest (or 1 point per long rest?)

Then he touched it again and now he's taking 1d4 INT/WIS/CHA damage inside the box. Freeing him requires Dispel Magic (vs. 20th level!), Antimagic, Dispel Evil, Freedom, Miracle, Mordenkainen's Disjunction, or Wish. Only Dispel Magic might be available. Do I say it's against a 9th level spell?

The wizard is out of spell lots, so is it 8 ability score checked until he rests? Average of 20 ability score damage means it's a dead monk!

Or the trap can be disabled with a DC 35, which is DC26 in 5e, nearly impossible to do. It doesn't say whether attempting to disable triggers the trap - is touching it required?

Or it can be destroyed, with hardness 8, and 60hp, break DC of 30 (converts to 23) (what is a break DC? STR check?) and the trap triggers every time it's damaged, even from range.

They may decide that to rescue him, they need to leave the games to get high level help, which disqualifies them, and I don't want that.

Anyone have suggestions?

You have 2 options for the traps damage. 5e doesn't usually do ability score damage. Instead you usually get necrotic damage with an equal amount of max hit point loss or a level of exhaustion. For the trap's damage, on a successful save I would say 5d10 necrotic damage with a equal loss of max hit points. While in there, the monk should either take 10d10 necrotic damage /max hit point reduction at the start of each hour or take a level of exhaustion each hour. Take a look at the AoW 00 file for the trap conversion cheat sheet I did for why I came up with that much necrotic damage.

Bozal Zohal's mentor, a 20th level cleric, made that trap. It would be reasonable for the mage to have a DC19 saving throw DC, so that for saves against being trapped. The DC for dispel magic should be 10 + the level of the spell. The mentor can cast 9th-level spells, so DC 19 would work for dispel magic as well. There are several classes that have dispel magic. Without that, destroying the box may be the solution. Too bad the wizard is out of spells. Maybe a Paladin could smite it? Break DC would be a DC 23 Strength check to break it. Did anyone bring a portable ram? A DC 25 Intelligence (Arcana) check against the magic (converting the DC 35 Disable Device) would be another possibility.

 

[Tormyr]

Interesting idea to use exhaustion for CON damage. I took his CON down by two and he suffered the HP loss, and I figured it would recover one point per day (or all of it). But exhaustion might be better.

Permanent Bestow Curse makes sense to me, I like it!

DC19 for the Dispel is still pretty tough, but it's manageable.

Once the character dies in the box, he can only be recovered by Wish/True Resurrection.

The irony is that they broke into the box and stole everything without an issue and I breathed a sigh of relief. But then they decided that the box was so evil that it must be destroyed and they attacked it and failed the save. Oops!

Couldn't leave well enough alone...