D&D 5E Lost City of Barakus: Campaign Discussion and Advice

[Neil the Knight]

For Christmas I received a copy of Frog God Games, Lost City of Barakus and havnt been able to put it down sice. The copy I recived uses the Sword & Wizardry system and have found it vary easy to convert to 5e.

Here is an overview put out by FGG:

Centuries ago, a race of humans built an elaborate underground city beneath the Duskmoon Hills called Barakus. These were a magic-loving people, and for hundreds of years, they dwelled peacefully in their subterranean home, delving into the arcane arts. Eventually, however, one of their number, a necromancer named Devron, rose to great power and transformed himself into a lich. The wizards of Barakus banded together, and after a great struggle, banished him to a prison far below the city. Before his banishment, however, Devron forged the helm of power, which he could eventually use to restore his power.

"The Lost City of Barakus," designed to take characters from 1st to 6th level (or higher), is as much of a bustling campaign setting as an adventure. Detailed within these pages is the great, bustling metropolis of Endome, the Penprie Forest, and Duskmoon Hills located north of the city, and, finally, the huge dungeon that is the Lost City of Barakus. Within all these areas are many adventures, NPCs, and locations for the party to explore, interact with, and conquer. How and in what order the party chooses to take on the various challenges before them is entirely yours (the GM's) and the players' choice.


I have been searching around on discussions on how other people have run it and only found old and very brief forums. So I put it to this community, if you've played this adventure before as a DM or a player what did you like? what did you not like? If you were to do it again what would you change? Maybe you did change stuff, how did it go? Really anything and everything relating to the module.

For those of of you who havnt read the adventure I am planning on posting lots of content purly about game play ideas, converting and adapting the adventure to make it my own. I would love your input even if your unfamiliar with the module.

 

[Inchoroi]

Sandbox. It is, at its heart, a classic sandbox.

I'll preface this with the knowledge that I have the S&W version, given to me by a friend for my birthday, along with two other books of theirs (Sword of Air, Stoneheart Valley; FGG is, by far, my favorite 3rd party publisher, I recently bought Bard's Gate as a present to myself). I would start with some rumors, and have them encounter the orcs as part of a "Oh, you signed on to this caravan as guards and the orcs attack you, and one of them has a hint that Barakus is hidden beneath there somewhere" (going from memory, mind you, so I might get them wrong).

After that, just let them explore Endhome and the area, have them pick up and hear rumors and things, especially having to do with Barakus itself. I would need to reread Barakus to give any more real details, though.

After Barakus is done, maybe get Cults of the Sundered Kingdoms and run that.

 

[Neil the Knight]

I was planning to start the party at lv 3 (mainly cause i find play before that tedious) and maybe have them go through to lv 9 or 10 (considering they fight a lich as the climax of the adventure).

To get the party started I was going to take one of the suggested hooks out of the module and have them accompany a merchant who is transporting perishable goods, through fools pass, so he can get them to market as fast as possible. 

Wile in fools pass they would be ambushed by Twees and his band of kobolds. I was thinking of changing Twees to be a kobold trap master from Tome of Beasts. Being crafty scoundrels the kobolds would block the road with a rock slide. Then Twees would lay down a chocking bomb in the surprise round. As the players emerged from the noxious gas the other kobolds would pick off the party with their slings. In the ensuing rounds Twees will lay down his stunner and shredder bombs to further hinder the party, sending his minions into the fray if the party gets to close. Once at leat half the kobolds or Twees him self has been killed the remaining ambushers will retreat and in their haste will drop a clue to the lost city. If the party tries to follow the kobolds into the hills the merchant will remind them that time is of the essence in getting his goods to Endhome.

I'm not sure if I'll have a Second encounter yet, further down the road to the city involving the Greentree bandits. It would need to have a distinctly different feel than the first kobold ambush. Possibly with the bandits setting up a fake road block to demand tariffs from people using the road. There is possibility for some RP and a non combat outcome but if it does come to fighting it would be more of a face off than an ambush. Does that work?
Are the encounters still to similar? Any ideas on other non combat orientated encounters that would tip the party off on the greentree bandits?

 

[pogre]

I loved Lost City of Barakus. Used it to start a long campaign years ago when the first version came out. As I remember it, I just threw out tons of adventure hooks and let the PCs explore. It had a very sand box feel to it for the first six levels or so - I really admire sand box style games, although I seldom run them. Once the PCs started really getting into the dungeon, that was the focus of play. It was a lot of fun. Sadly, my story hour about our run is long gone.

 

[Neil the Knight]

One of the adventures in the wilderness section that intrigued me the most was the Wizards Tower.


"Nestled at the base of the Duskmoon Hills is 50ft tall, spire-shaped stone tower. This enigmatic structure has no apparent means of entry: no doors, windows, or chimney. In fact, the only means of entry, aside from very powerful magic, is via Area R10, the end of a long subterranean passage that begins beneath the house of bricks (Area R). Attempts to breach the walls via magic are likely to fail. A crafty ward has been placed on the tower’s walls making teleportation spells such as passwall, teleport, and dimension door misfire. Furthermore, a narrow, 5ft wide anti-magic shell encircles the tower wherein no magic or magic items can function. Only a wish spell can penetrate the tower’s powerful defenses.

The tower was built 150 years ago by the magic-user Rajick, a conjurer of significant power who worked day and night studying the magical arts to increase his wizardly knowledge. Eventually, his studies took him to a far off continent from whence he has never returned. At the time of his departure, however, he had every intention of returning to his beloved tower and library to continue his studies. Therefore, he set up a series of summoning traps to defend the tower from intruders, should they find their way to it from its secret entrance. Finally, he laid a crafty trap: He “hid” a useful magic ring on the top floor of the tower. Anyone donning the ring would be impelled by a geas spell to seek a book called the book of Korbus and return it to the tower. Rajick had intended to look for the book himself upon returning, and so thought he could make use of any interlopers in his absence."


At the top of the tower is The Ring of Rajick.


"This plain platinum band appears to be a standard ring of wizardry, and indeed it functions as such. It has, however, two additional features, both of which become known to the wearer once it is donned. The wearer may teleport back to the top floor of the Wizard’s Library (Area S4). Furthermore, and most importantly, the wearer is affected by a geas spell to seek out the book of Korbus and return it to the tower. Since Rajick knew the basic location of the book, he imbued the ring with this information, which is then made known telepathically to the wearer. Until the book is returned the ring is considered cursed and cannot be removed except by the normal magical means. Once the book is returned the geas is lifted and the teleport power is lost, though the ring continues to
function as a ring of wizardry."


First my query is how would you RP the geas function of the ring without the feeling of railroading the party.

Secondly the book suggests Rappan Athuk (another FGG adventure) or in the hands of Devron (the lich you are meant to fight as the climax of the adventure) as possible locations for the book but i was wondering other possibilities. My first thought was lost caverns of Tosjcanth where you switch out Iggwilv's Deamonomicon for the book of Korbus but two of the guys I'll be playing with have DMed that adventure themselves.

Finally what properties would you give the Book of Korbus. The module suggests


"The Book of Korbus is nothing more than a spellbook detailing a single, very complicated spell. Called the spell of all summoning this conjuration spell allows the caster to cast all his summon monster spells currently memorized simultaneously. The spell of all summoning does not have a fixed level; instead it is memorized at the same level as the highest level monster summoning spell known to the caster. Magic users can learn this spell. It is, however, extremely difficult to learn, requiring one month of continuous study before the intelligence check to learn a new spell."


Instead of being able to summon a butt load of minions (there is nothing worse than being Pokemoned to death) this is what I came up with

Wondrous Item, Legendary (requires attunement by Bard, Cleric, Druid, Sorcerer or Wizard)
This tome details each of the following spells.
Conjure Animals
Conjure Minor Elemental
Conjure Woodland Beings
Conjure Elemental
Conjure Fay
Conjure Celestial
Planner Ally
Conjure Barlgura
Conjure Hezrou
Conjure Lesser Demon
Conjure shadow Demon
Conjure Vrock

Wile attuned to the book all the spells contained within it count as your class spells.

You may cast each of the spells once per week as a ritual taking 10 minutes. If the spell is of a level, higher than you can normally cast, you must make an ability check using your spell casting ability to determine weather you cast it successfully. The DC equals 10 + the spells level. On a failed check, the spell miss fires. The effect is determined by the DM (consider treating it as a fumble on a spell attack or rolling on the wild magic Serge table)

If you have the ability, the spells may also be copied out of the book, expending the time and gold it would normally require to-do so.


If your wondering where I got this last five spells from, they were published in the UA article "That Old Black Magic" found here http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/unearthed-arcana/old-black-magic

 

[Neil the Knight]

I loved Lost City of Barakus. Used it to start a long campaign years ago when the first version came out. As I remember it, I just threw out tons of adventure hooks and let the PCs explore. It had a very sand box feel to it for the first six levels or so - I really admire sand box style games, although I seldom run them. Once the PCs started really getting into the dungeon, that was the focus of play. It was a lot of fun. Sadly, my story hour about our run is long gone.

Dam IV been looking for some ones game jurnal online and havnt found much......mostly backing up what's already been said.....it's a sand box and it's alot of fun!!!!!

 

[Neil the Knight]

A few posts ago I talked about getting the party to Endhome now I wanted to run an idea by you guys about one of the first hooks I want to drop the party. Admittedly it's not actually from this module. The adventure is called Mad Gods Key and it's from Dungeon Magazine #114.

This is the adventure summery:
"The PC's become involved when they run across Theldrants business being pillaged by a pair of street thugs. Shortly after the PC's deal with the thugs, Theldant arrives at the destroyed shop and immediately begins a panic search for Zagig's key (a key that opens any lock). The adventures quickly discover that the thugs know nothing about the key and were in fact told to loot the place by someone named Irontusk. Theldant does not want the city watch involved with the search for the key and pleads with the PC's to help him.

After pressuring the thugs the heroes quickly learned that the half-orc irontusk can be found in Barge end, a crowded and treacherous shantytown sprawling on the river bank just north of Greyhawk. However just as they arrive Irontusk is tipped off to the PC's approach. The hulking brute makes a run for it across a number of gypsy river barges in an exciting chase scene. After catching him, the heroes learn that he sold the key to a gang of criminals called the Green Daggers.

Armed with the information form Irontusk, the PC's then break into the Green Dagger gangs base of operations. After braving a number of simple traps and various guards the heroes do battle with the thieves. From them they learn of a mysterious cleric of Boccob who hired the gang to steal the key.

The hero's later hear of the brash theft at the Greyhawk library, of a tome sealed by an unopenable lock, by a cleric of Boccob . Both leads send them to the temple of Boccob for answers. Although getting an audience with the senior member of the clergy provides difficult, the PC's do manage to speak with the same acolyte who was robbed almost a month ago and left near naked in an alleyway. His assailants left only one thing behind, a strange stone pendant depicting a fist squeezing out a large teardrop. With a bit of research the heroes learn that the pendant comes from the Cairn Hills North of the city. This particular pendant can only come from one place, The Tomb of Blood Ever Flowing , an ancient abandoned sepulcher deep within the Cairn Hills.

When they reach the tomb, the heroes must make their way through a series of chambers leading ever deeper into the blood-stained halls, fight a number of guards (living and not), and navigate through some dangerous traps. The characters eventually make their way to the heart of the temple, a shrine of Vecna to discover that the key has lost its power and then the book leads to further questions and adventures."

At the end of the adventure you face the head cultist named Veltargo and his "pet" an owlbear skeleton. In the adventure they have used Zagig's key to oppen the tome and tear out a a dozen or so pages related to summoning unique and powerful undead.

After my first read through of LCoB I found that there was a bit of a lack of motivation or investment for the party to go after Devron. Yes there are clues and promise of treasure that lead the party to the lost city but once there if they so wish it is quite easy to gather all your earnings and simply leave Devron in his chamber behind his stone of madness.

One of the ideas I am toying with is to have a reoccurring villain to help tie the whole campaign together and to get the party more invested in the over arcing story line. This is where Veltargo comes in. I was thinking of linking him to (or have him be) Asgaroth, a reocurring character in the LCoB. In the book Asgaroth is some kinda dark necrotic cleric who you never run into (because he has been dead for hundreds of years) but the party stumbles apon a few of his unfinished projects.

So my thought is bringing Asgaroth back to life. He and Veltargo would be part of a cult dedicated to freeing Devron. The book they stole was a history of the Arthemin (the people who built Barakus and imprisoned Devron) and they plan to use the information contained within it to free the Lich. The party would run into Asgaroth on numerous occasions through out the adventure each time learning more about his plot and finally facing down with him at the stone of madness deep within Barakus.

Other than that I think Mad Gods Key will be fairly easy to meld with LCoB. I would possibly associate the Greentree Bandits with the Green Dagger gang. Their hide out would need to be moved to the Southern warehouse district and slums. The temple of Boccob and the Greyhawk library would be part of the Wizards Acadamy in Endhome. Barge End can be placed in the shanty town West of the city. And the temple of Blood Ever Flowing set in the Duskmoon hills instead of the Cairn hills.

Let me know what you think and I would love to hear from anyone who has run Mad Gods Key.

 

[Neil the Knight]

Lets explore a little more about having Asgaroth as a reoccurring villain.

let's see what the book says about him:
"Many years ago, a wicked cleric named Asgaroth came to this area to build a shrine to himself and his God. He gathered about him a cluster of undead and began the construction of his temple. Unfortunately wile searching for a powerful evil relic, he was slain by a paladin named Van-Doren."

Of course The first thing I will need to change about him is the fact that he is dead. Next to be an effective arch nemeses the party will need to encounter him or find clues of his evil deeds through out the campaign.

In my last post I discussed how the party would first stumble across his trail when following the clues that lead them to the Temple of Blood Overflowing for the climax of the Mad Gods Key adventure. Here would be a good place to insert the PC's first sight of him as he leaves with the ripped pages from the tome and the party to face Veltargo and his pet.

The first place we find signs of him in LCoB is The Cave of Dead, one of the wilderness locations where, as mentioned above he has an unfinished shine to an unknown evil God. Apart from being full of undead there are two important parts to this cave. First is Asgaroths calling card.

"Ominous totems: 6ft tall wooden spikes adorned with five or six shrunken heads tethered to the posts by their hair"

The second is an unfinished dark energy focus.
"The northern half of this cave is 4 feet higher than the southern half and reach by two wide, broad steps that stretch the entire diameter of the temple. There are three 10 ft wide niches in the north. Within each niche is a small black pedestal with in which are different items.
The eastern niche contains a gold half lidded eye about 6 inches diameter. The middle nice is empty but there is a heart shape depression in the pedestal measuring about 10 inches from top to bottom. The western niche contains a gold clawed hand, lying palm up."


One of the items Asgaroth will be searching for in Barakus will be The Heart of Darkness. The item it self doesn't do much except radiate strong evil but when inserted into the pedestal in the middle niche the alter is complete and the cave becomes and evil focal point and all kinds of nasty things happen. It causes creatures in the cave to make a save or have their alignments changed, creature like undead become stronger and anyone who follows a good aligned dietie's divine spells are wiped.

My idea was to use this cave as Asgaroth personal study/ research hide out. Chalk it full of books about Devron and Barakus. Maybe maps on some of the upper cavers he's already explored, half solved clues to a couple of the puzzles in the lost city etc. I did not plan to have an encounter with him the first time the party come to these caves but if the party decided to come back once they've found the Heart of Darkness, which can be blessed along with the golden claw and eye to create a positive energy focal point, and as you can imagine this would anger Asgaroth greatly so he would confront the PC's.

It would be a defend the base style encounter. A good aligned divine caster would need to make either 3 consecutive or 5 accumulative successful spell casting ability checks. Mean wile the remaining party would need to defend the cavern from wave after wave of undead that Asgaroth would be sending to hinder them.

One of the side quest inside Endhome is The Slaving Priestess.

"Elan Kanto a female Priestess of Da-Jin arrived in Endhome several years ago and saw an opportunity. The city was Rife with homeless beggars, and she had contacts with a slaver, Dash Montrose, who was always on the lookout for cheap "cattle". She then proceeded to set up a fake Temple of Jamboor and began "taking in" these lost souls, feeding them, bathing them, and putting them to work around the temple. Then after a few weeks of good care she carted the men and women to the docks in the middle of the night where ship from Dash Montrose was waiting. The captain handed her a purse of coins, she handed him the confused rebel, and these lost souls would never heard from again."

The party is tipped off to the disappearances either by a beggar asking for help or by Father Beamus, a cleric of Solanus, requesting the party look in to this for him.
The idea here would not nessesarly to have Elan Kanto involved directly with Asgaroth and his cult but have Dash Montrose selling the slaves to Asgaroth who is in turn, taking them to a seaside caverns, abandoned fort or keep (such as Rivergaurd keep from PotA) and transforming them into undead. What he is doing with all these undead......I'm not sure yet.

The next place i thought to insert Asgaroths medling, is with the Ghoul King on the 4th lv of the dungeon. The king (though he is unaware of its true function) possess The Helm of Power. An artifact crafted by Devron to rejuvenate him to his full power (which trust me the PC's want to avoid at all cost). There is a chance for the players to RP with either the Drow or Ghouls on this level (depending which side the players want to take, If any). During the RP with either side I would insert an off hand comment about how all humans are the same when negotiating. Referring to Asgaroth who tried to or did (depending on who's possession I want the helm in) already try to negotiate with either the Drow or Ghoul.

 

[S'mon]

I enjoyed running Barakus in 3e, 1st to 7th level. I think it was over deadly at 1st (I used Fate Points to mitigate) so starting either at 3rd or 2nd with max hp might work well, and let it go to around 8th.

 

[Neil the Knight]

I enjoyed running Barakus in 3e, 1st to 7th level. I think it was over deadly at 1st (I used Fate Points to mitigate) so starting either at 3rd or 2nd with max hp might work well, and let it go to around 8th.

Awsome. Good to know. I'v played a few other FGG products (Slumbering Tsar and a few Quests of Doom) and find them in general to be fairly mercilous and deadly. So the plan is to start at 3rd lv and go to 9th lv. I hadn't consider max HP though, thanks. Also I'm qurious adout fate points. How do they work?