MortalPlague
Adventurer
Thank you for all the kind words about my little adventure. I'm very proud of what I wrote, and I was just as amazed to read what [MENTION=221]Wicht[/MENTION] came up with. That list of fiendish, ingenious ingredients was a real challenge to work with, but I think it brought out the best in both of us.
I did see this earlier, but I didn't have a chance to comment; I was actually running my adventure as a one-shot (we had some people for my Thursday game who couldn't make it).
[sblock=Game Synopsis]The PCs entered the dungeon, crossed the bridge and met Gorthog. One of them disarmed him and took Whisperion (who tried to ask her to go downstairs to 'finish things up', which she agreed to do). They convinced Gorthog to tag along, but he was killed by a randomly-rolled giant fish in the river. The party refused to cross the river, so Whisperion demanded to be thrown across, to where a rug was waiting to take it. The sword was scooped up by the rug and carried off into the dungeon while the PCs took a short rest to heal up. They found the treasure pile much as it was before, but they got to Mendor and found him dead in his cell, and Whisperion missing, off to build an army.[/sblock]
I have to say, when I read the competition, I knew this would be a tough fight. I thought Wicht's low-level dungeon was a far better usage of the element than mine, though I thought my sword was more integral. Across the rest of the board, it felt pretty even to me. The fact that the judges went both ways tells the story; this was a close match.
As for how I got here? The earliest drafts of Beneath Ratter's Dell featured an evil wizard who animated objects, and a sword he built turned against him, led a revolt of his animated things, and locked him in his own dungeon. He sent 'Help Wanted' signs (not bricks) to look for people to rescue him. The angry ogre was still wielding the sword, and he was still angry because the sword was magical. So... not much changed.
There were two big changes. Early on, Jon Redding was just some noble who got kidnapped and murdered. Mendor was going to convince people to free him so he could lead them to Jon, who was obviously dead. But when I shifted his approach to pretend to be Jon, I realized they had to look somewhat alike. Making them half-brothers made the murder deliberate, and gave Mendor the necessary teeth to be a genuine evil wizard (rather than some hapless, bumbling artificer run afoul of his own creations). The second change was to move the pile of treasure. It was always going to be animated, but I had it in a treasure vault rather than the workshop, and it was just going to jump up and attack PCs when they tried to claim it. It was pointed out to me that nobody would be surprised about that after going through a dungeon full of animated furniture, and so I made it a third entity in the dungeon. Making it mimic its master was one of my favorite touches.
Also, I added the animated armor late, since I wanted Mendor to have something he was building up to do. Up till then, he was just some odd wizard who lived in a hole with animated objects (who had killed his half-brother). Now he had a plan and the means to execute it.
It was important throughout the process that the actual dungeon was nonlinear. It's something I had some complaints about for previous rounds, and I wanted to show a design that had multiple avenues of approach (both geographically, and from a roleplay standpoint). The map as a handout stemmed from that; PCs are best able to plan with some information in their hands, even if it is incomplete (not showing the encounters on it, for instance). Vault of the Dracolich had a great map handout, which really complemented the adventure, an effect I was going for here.
I'm thrilled that everyone enjoyed the adventure. The final result is an adventure I am very pleased with, and I'm honored that you found it worthy of the Iron DM title. I'll bear this achievement with pride, and I can't wait for the chance to defend this title next time.
Judges, thanks again for all your hard work. It can't be easy to pick over entries and weigh them, especially being objective and fair. Your efforts are very much appreciated.
Wicht, it's been an honor and a privilege. Until next time.
I did see this earlier, but I didn't have a chance to comment; I was actually running my adventure as a one-shot (we had some people for my Thursday game who couldn't make it).
[sblock=Game Synopsis]The PCs entered the dungeon, crossed the bridge and met Gorthog. One of them disarmed him and took Whisperion (who tried to ask her to go downstairs to 'finish things up', which she agreed to do). They convinced Gorthog to tag along, but he was killed by a randomly-rolled giant fish in the river. The party refused to cross the river, so Whisperion demanded to be thrown across, to where a rug was waiting to take it. The sword was scooped up by the rug and carried off into the dungeon while the PCs took a short rest to heal up. They found the treasure pile much as it was before, but they got to Mendor and found him dead in his cell, and Whisperion missing, off to build an army.[/sblock]
I have to say, when I read the competition, I knew this would be a tough fight. I thought Wicht's low-level dungeon was a far better usage of the element than mine, though I thought my sword was more integral. Across the rest of the board, it felt pretty even to me. The fact that the judges went both ways tells the story; this was a close match.
As for how I got here? The earliest drafts of Beneath Ratter's Dell featured an evil wizard who animated objects, and a sword he built turned against him, led a revolt of his animated things, and locked him in his own dungeon. He sent 'Help Wanted' signs (not bricks) to look for people to rescue him. The angry ogre was still wielding the sword, and he was still angry because the sword was magical. So... not much changed.
There were two big changes. Early on, Jon Redding was just some noble who got kidnapped and murdered. Mendor was going to convince people to free him so he could lead them to Jon, who was obviously dead. But when I shifted his approach to pretend to be Jon, I realized they had to look somewhat alike. Making them half-brothers made the murder deliberate, and gave Mendor the necessary teeth to be a genuine evil wizard (rather than some hapless, bumbling artificer run afoul of his own creations). The second change was to move the pile of treasure. It was always going to be animated, but I had it in a treasure vault rather than the workshop, and it was just going to jump up and attack PCs when they tried to claim it. It was pointed out to me that nobody would be surprised about that after going through a dungeon full of animated furniture, and so I made it a third entity in the dungeon. Making it mimic its master was one of my favorite touches.
Also, I added the animated armor late, since I wanted Mendor to have something he was building up to do. Up till then, he was just some odd wizard who lived in a hole with animated objects (who had killed his half-brother). Now he had a plan and the means to execute it.
It was important throughout the process that the actual dungeon was nonlinear. It's something I had some complaints about for previous rounds, and I wanted to show a design that had multiple avenues of approach (both geographically, and from a roleplay standpoint). The map as a handout stemmed from that; PCs are best able to plan with some information in their hands, even if it is incomplete (not showing the encounters on it, for instance). Vault of the Dracolich had a great map handout, which really complemented the adventure, an effect I was going for here.
I'm thrilled that everyone enjoyed the adventure. The final result is an adventure I am very pleased with, and I'm honored that you found it worthy of the Iron DM title. I'll bear this achievement with pride, and I can't wait for the chance to defend this title next time.
Judges, thanks again for all your hard work. It can't be easy to pick over entries and weigh them, especially being objective and fair. Your efforts are very much appreciated.
Wicht, it's been an honor and a privilege. Until next time.
