Newbie (to 3.0 +) DM - Advice for Sunless Citadel

[redkobold]

I will be DMing the Sunless Citadel in the next week. Is there any advice from those of you that have run the adventure. Are there encounters, situations, etc. that worked or caused the adventure to go awry?

Also, are there any 3.5 updates for the adventure or things I need to look at and revise as I prepare?

I have not run a game in years and feel a little trepidation. Luckily, the players in the group have not played the new (and newer) edition of Dungeons and Dragons so we will all be on a learning curve.

Any advice, help, experiences, etc. would be appreciated.

 

[Herremann the Wise]

Unfortunately, I can't help you too much in terms of the Sunless Citadel - I have only gone through it as a player. From memory though, nothing should have changed around too much but I'll leave others to comment - just play Meepo cool: everyone has good memories of Meepo.

Perhaps the biggest deal though is dming 3.0/3.5 for the first time from earlier versions. How well do you understand the basics?
Just a question - are you using a battlemap: counters or minis?

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[Capellan]

Meepo who?

(His only line of dialogue when I ran the module was "Aaaaargh!")

The giant rats at the beginning are a nasty encounter, since they will usually get the drop on a lone 1st level character. Most people who've played this adventure have had someone knocked unconscious in that fight. I know we did - and it was a Paladin with 14 hp, so you know they dished out a lot of damage.

The Mephit, Quasit (or Imp?) and Troll Priest encounters all also have the potential to get pretty nasty. Especially if your PCs run into them while injured (or without appropriate means to hurt them).

 

[IcyCool]

When I ran it, it was modified to fit into my birthright campaign. The tree at the bottom was a source that a necromancer was using to create legions of the walking dead. All of the kobolds, goblins, and orcs were zombies, including poor Meepo. The rats were a little trouble for the party, but only because they split up . The troll-priest was a reasonably tough encounter, and the Mephit was ridiculously difficult for them for some reason. She didn't do much damage, but she was incredibly annoying in her ability to heal quickly . My favorite encounter had to be with one of the bugbear "gardeners" on the lowest level:

The party walks into the room, surprising and surprised to see a living bugbear holding a scythe (for harvesting and the like). The party knows the name of the necromancer, and without missing a beat the rogue steps up the bugbear and proceeds to "dress him down": "What do you think you are doing? Didn't Belkirk tell you that you were supposed to be harvesting these mushrooms? And look at your clothing and equipment! The master would have a fit if he saw just how shabby you kept it. Your scythe for example, it's rusty. Here, hand it to me and I'll show you how to fix it." The poor bugbear, malnourished and scared of becoming one of Belkirk's undead minions, gratefully hands over the only weapon he has. At this, the rogue looks at his rather stunned companions and says, "Now would be a very good time." *sigh* That poor bugbear.

 

[redkobold]

I will be using a laminated battlegrid with dry-erase markers and miniatures. I am a miniature fanatic.

Meepo (who will be renamed) will be a stonger and more central character. In fact, one of the pcs in the party is a kobold based on some rules I have written. The kobold pc is an agent of a dragon seeking to kill the white dragon wyrmling.

I have a fair understanding of 3e and lots of roleplaying experience. I started playing Ad&d in 1980 and played regularly until around 1994. Since then I lost interest then started getting all of the books when 3e started up. I bought the 3.5e books a few weeks ago.

As I began re-reading Sunless Citadel again last night, making notes, and preparing, I noticed a lot of editing mistakes. Most were typos but the stat block for the bugbear with the scythe is not correct in my copy. It has him statted as having a morning star.

Were there any updates, erratta, web enhancements, etc. out there that I should track down?

My only big concern is how to get the characters to stop for Belak to make his big speech and discover what he was up to. I'm hoping to have him talk to the party as it fights his minions. How did you/your DM work out this final scene?

 

[Klaus]

Go to my website ( http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/hosted/Pozas ), click on the Art Gallery link and go to Play Aids. There are a few images I did for my Sunless Citadel game.

Have Belak start his mad speech before the PCs can see him (purple fog and all). Make sure the PCs think that cutting/burning down the Gulthias Tree is the only way to save the day.

IMC, Meepo deposed the kobold queen and is using blood from Calcryx to create an army of half-white kobolds... He's quite power-mad by now (and is a sorceror/dragon disciple)

 

[afreed]

Shadow

I'm surprised no one's mentioned the shadow encounter as problematic. Our party (cleric / druid / rogue / fighter) couldn't find any way to damage it; I can't remember if we tried turning or not, but that's hardly an optimal solution. Ended up fleeing. In a party not willing to flee, the shadow could easily be the death of them.

The troll, on the other hand, wasn't a problem. We looked at the sarcophagus. We considered our options. And we turned back...

Belak, similarly, was given ample opportunity to give his speech. We wanted to know what was going on (and if there was any room for negotiation).

 

[Greatwyrm]

I'm pretty sure there are Twig Blights in that adventure. According to the 3.5 update document, their DR is now "5/bludgeoning or piercing".

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

Search function to the rescue!

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=80580
http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=64956
http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=46288
http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=37026
http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=32897
http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=9047

When I ran that adventure, I changed the troll-priest (which didn't make a lot of sense to me) into a Wight, but the rest pretty much remained unchanged. The party was totally bent on genocide, so no one was left alive.

I changed the captive gnome fighter/cleric into a half-elf sorcerer, because the party had no arcane casters. They hated that guy! I don't know why, but the players were sooo happy when he died... They didn't even try to save him... He later came back as a vengeful burning undead

AR

 

[Klaus]

Oh, yeah, I forgot...

I played Erky Timbers (the gnome NPC) as very bitter after his imprisonment with the goblins. He had a "take no prisoners" attitude towards them.

The party interrogated a hobgoblin and learned the general leyout of the goblin throne room. They arranged a strategy that let them fight the goblins and hobgoblins in that room without facing the rest of the tribe. After the hobgoblin king and his honor guard was killed, the PC ranger sat on the throne, with his feet on top of the hobgoblin king and the other two PCs and Erky stood by him. Then they opened the door to the rest of the goblin tribe, and the hobgoblins entered. The PCs rolled an Intimidate check (with two PCs and Erky helping the ranger) whose general gist was "It's OUR tribe now". One hobgoblin charged the throne, but the ranger (who had a bow on hand) rolled max damage, killing the hobgoblin with one arrow between the eyes. They ruled the goblins for a couple of days, while they levelled up. Once they were ready to go to the lower level of the Citadel, the ranger (who had Favored Enemy: Goblinoid) struck a bargain with the kobold queen and let her attack (and decimate) the goblin tribe while they were downstairs.