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KotS DM Discussion Thread (spoilers)
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<blockquote data-quote="pukunui" data-source="post: 4425785" data-attributes="member: 54629"><p>I've got a number of my ideas from Justin Alexander's "KotS Kitbashing" thread over on the D&D forums. Here is the link to Justin's thread if anyone's interested: <a href="http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=1037342" target="_blank">http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=1037342</a>. Unfortunately he hasn't updated it in a while.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I'm going to use some of the ideas from both the Eberron and FR conversion articles, although I am going to modify them to fit into my campaign world. These are some of my plans:</p><p></p><p>1) I am going to use the changes to Valthrun from the Eberron conversion, although I'm going to have to change his motivations as I am not making Kalarel a Blood of Vol cultist pretending to be an Orcus cultist. As in the conversion article, I'm going to make Valthrun an old man afraid of death who hopes to find some way of attaining immortality, if not divinity, through undeath as per the supposed tenets of the Blood of Vol faith. The mirror will play a part in his plans and he will attempt to get the PCs to give it to him (although if they do, it will mysteriously reappear in their possession overnight -- causing Valthrun to insist that he accompany them). Perhaps he hopes that if he can give the mirror to Kalarel as an offering to help with his ritual, the grateful cultist will help him become an intelligent undead creature (although Kalarel would most likely just turn him into a blazing skeleton or some such thing).</p><p></p><p>2) I want to use the changes to Bairwin from the FR conversion, but I can't decide what kind of cultist to make him. I have two options: I can make him an Orcus cultist and have him be the one who sent supplies and equipment to Kalarel as per the article, or I can have him act as a red herring by having him be a member of some unrelated cult. No matter which option I choose, I'm thinking of making it so that villagers have been mysteriously disappearing for some time now -- some as victims of the cult(s), some to be sold as slaves by the Bloodreavers. If any of my players ask, the reason they're only just finding out about this now is because no one in the village wanted to mention it to a bunch of strangers. Now that they've earned the town's trust by dealing with "the kobold problem", the villagers feel comfortable enough to mention "the other problem" to the PCs.</p><p></p><p>If I decide to make Bairwin an Orcus cultist, then he will have kidnapped some of the villagers to send to Kalarel as human sacrifices to aid his ritual. If I make him a "red herring" cultist (I'm thinking of maybe making him a follower of the Shadow, so that I won't have to change anything in the encounter stats other than references to Shar - since she's now all about shadows and stuff, all the "shadow" fluff in the encounter will work with the Shadow as well), he could simply have kidnapped the villagers either for his own ritual sacrifices or to sell to the Bloodreavers for the slave trade. Either way, some of the villagers will have been kidnapped by the Bloodreavers directly, and I'm thinking of including the child of one of the more prominent villagers, perhaps even Lord Padraig himself, as one of them (although I haven't decided yet whether this child has already been kidnapped or doesn't get kidnapped until near the end of the adventure, so as to add a little more urgency to the hook leading the PCs to H2).</p><p></p><p>3) On a slightly unrelated note, I am changing the fluff in the Skeletal Legion encounter. As mentioned in the Eberron conversion article, I am making it so the skeletons all display Dol Dorn's holy symbol on their shields. However, I am dedicating the altars to Dol Arrah. The domed ceiling will look like a starry night sky, with the stars being the source of the dim light. If any of the PCs pray to Dol Arrah at the altars, the "sun" will rise from below the floor, go up one of the walls, and stop at the apex of the dome, transforming the ceiling into a blue sky that sheds daylight. I thought this would be a cool magical effect that my players might appreciate. The reason the altars belong to Dol Arrah and the skeletal warriors to Dol Dorn is because I wanted to highlight the relationship between the two deities in my campaign world (they're twins rather than just siblings) by emphasizing the idea that they can either overcome the encounter through sheer strength and endurance (by defeating all the skeletal warriors) as per Dol Dorn's doctrine or by turning to Dol Arrah for light and protection and having her "fight" for them.</p><p></p><p></p><p>On a totally unrelated note, I am doing away with the entire Kruthik Lair encounter. I don't like the kruthiks (partly because I feel like they're one of WotC's "cool" pet monsters--along with the kobolds and the shadar-kai--but also because the encounter seems unnecessarily stacked against the PCs. Also, kruthiks don't appeal to me.). Instead I'm going to have a cavern choker and some doomspores. I'm not entirely sure of the layout but I'm thinking that if one of the PCs goes down fighting the ochre jelly and the rats (and I'm going to swap out some of the giant rats for two dire rats, mainly to reduce the sheer number of creatures on the map), the cavern choker will come creeping out and attempt to drag the downed PC back into its lair. If it makes it, the other PCs will have to get through the doomspores in order to rescue their comrade. [Note: I'm not sure I understand how you're supposed to go about awarding XP for hazards. You obviously don't give it out if the PCs "trigger" the hazard. Do you only give it out if they successfully bypass the hazard? If I have a room full of doomspores, do I give the PCs XP only if they manage to get from one side of the room to the other without any of the spores attacking them (or at least only give them XP for the spores they managed to avoid, if they set off some but not all of them)?]</p><p></p><p></p><p>EDIT: On the way home from work, I had the idea that maybe I <em>would</em> make Kalarel only a pretend Orcus cultist. In reality, he's a follower of the Shadow, and he is attempting to steal power from Orcus by reopening the rift in the Shadowfell. Bairwin can be an agent of the Shadow as well. This way I can make the BBEG in H2 a follower of the Shadow, and I can make Vecna an exarch of the Shadow, so that I can still have him appear before the PCs in that adventure without violating my "the gods don't appear in physical form" rule.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pukunui, post: 4425785, member: 54629"] I've got a number of my ideas from Justin Alexander's "KotS Kitbashing" thread over on the D&D forums. Here is the link to Justin's thread if anyone's interested: [url]http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=1037342[/url]. Unfortunately he hasn't updated it in a while. I'm going to use some of the ideas from both the Eberron and FR conversion articles, although I am going to modify them to fit into my campaign world. These are some of my plans: 1) I am going to use the changes to Valthrun from the Eberron conversion, although I'm going to have to change his motivations as I am not making Kalarel a Blood of Vol cultist pretending to be an Orcus cultist. As in the conversion article, I'm going to make Valthrun an old man afraid of death who hopes to find some way of attaining immortality, if not divinity, through undeath as per the supposed tenets of the Blood of Vol faith. The mirror will play a part in his plans and he will attempt to get the PCs to give it to him (although if they do, it will mysteriously reappear in their possession overnight -- causing Valthrun to insist that he accompany them). Perhaps he hopes that if he can give the mirror to Kalarel as an offering to help with his ritual, the grateful cultist will help him become an intelligent undead creature (although Kalarel would most likely just turn him into a blazing skeleton or some such thing). 2) I want to use the changes to Bairwin from the FR conversion, but I can't decide what kind of cultist to make him. I have two options: I can make him an Orcus cultist and have him be the one who sent supplies and equipment to Kalarel as per the article, or I can have him act as a red herring by having him be a member of some unrelated cult. No matter which option I choose, I'm thinking of making it so that villagers have been mysteriously disappearing for some time now -- some as victims of the cult(s), some to be sold as slaves by the Bloodreavers. If any of my players ask, the reason they're only just finding out about this now is because no one in the village wanted to mention it to a bunch of strangers. Now that they've earned the town's trust by dealing with "the kobold problem", the villagers feel comfortable enough to mention "the other problem" to the PCs. If I decide to make Bairwin an Orcus cultist, then he will have kidnapped some of the villagers to send to Kalarel as human sacrifices to aid his ritual. If I make him a "red herring" cultist (I'm thinking of maybe making him a follower of the Shadow, so that I won't have to change anything in the encounter stats other than references to Shar - since she's now all about shadows and stuff, all the "shadow" fluff in the encounter will work with the Shadow as well), he could simply have kidnapped the villagers either for his own ritual sacrifices or to sell to the Bloodreavers for the slave trade. Either way, some of the villagers will have been kidnapped by the Bloodreavers directly, and I'm thinking of including the child of one of the more prominent villagers, perhaps even Lord Padraig himself, as one of them (although I haven't decided yet whether this child has already been kidnapped or doesn't get kidnapped until near the end of the adventure, so as to add a little more urgency to the hook leading the PCs to H2). 3) On a slightly unrelated note, I am changing the fluff in the Skeletal Legion encounter. As mentioned in the Eberron conversion article, I am making it so the skeletons all display Dol Dorn's holy symbol on their shields. However, I am dedicating the altars to Dol Arrah. The domed ceiling will look like a starry night sky, with the stars being the source of the dim light. If any of the PCs pray to Dol Arrah at the altars, the "sun" will rise from below the floor, go up one of the walls, and stop at the apex of the dome, transforming the ceiling into a blue sky that sheds daylight. I thought this would be a cool magical effect that my players might appreciate. The reason the altars belong to Dol Arrah and the skeletal warriors to Dol Dorn is because I wanted to highlight the relationship between the two deities in my campaign world (they're twins rather than just siblings) by emphasizing the idea that they can either overcome the encounter through sheer strength and endurance (by defeating all the skeletal warriors) as per Dol Dorn's doctrine or by turning to Dol Arrah for light and protection and having her "fight" for them. On a totally unrelated note, I am doing away with the entire Kruthik Lair encounter. I don't like the kruthiks (partly because I feel like they're one of WotC's "cool" pet monsters--along with the kobolds and the shadar-kai--but also because the encounter seems unnecessarily stacked against the PCs. Also, kruthiks don't appeal to me.). Instead I'm going to have a cavern choker and some doomspores. I'm not entirely sure of the layout but I'm thinking that if one of the PCs goes down fighting the ochre jelly and the rats (and I'm going to swap out some of the giant rats for two dire rats, mainly to reduce the sheer number of creatures on the map), the cavern choker will come creeping out and attempt to drag the downed PC back into its lair. If it makes it, the other PCs will have to get through the doomspores in order to rescue their comrade. [Note: I'm not sure I understand how you're supposed to go about awarding XP for hazards. You obviously don't give it out if the PCs "trigger" the hazard. Do you only give it out if they successfully bypass the hazard? If I have a room full of doomspores, do I give the PCs XP only if they manage to get from one side of the room to the other without any of the spores attacking them (or at least only give them XP for the spores they managed to avoid, if they set off some but not all of them)?] EDIT: On the way home from work, I had the idea that maybe I [I]would[/I] make Kalarel only a pretend Orcus cultist. In reality, he's a follower of the Shadow, and he is attempting to steal power from Orcus by reopening the rift in the Shadowfell. Bairwin can be an agent of the Shadow as well. This way I can make the BBEG in H2 a follower of the Shadow, and I can make Vecna an exarch of the Shadow, so that I can still have him appear before the PCs in that adventure without violating my "the gods don't appear in physical form" rule. [/QUOTE]
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