I just wrapped up Age of Worms last spring. We started in April of 2006. Set in the Forgotten Realms. Here are some of my experiences and some of the other additions I made to Age of Worms:
Diamond Lake: A great place to start, and it fits anywhere. Plenty of characters if you have the Age of Worms Overload. Mine was set southeast of Daggerford along Faerun’s Sword Coast.
Whispering Cairn: I like how it connects with a later module. A simple early dungeon crawl that can be inserted into any campaign setting. The lore behind the cairn connects to the Rod of Seven Parts, which allows multiple quests/conflicts. Great way to start a campaign.
Three Faces of Evil: Three cults lairing in a mine beneath Diamond Lake allow for a lot of DM creativity given the campaign.
Encounter at Blackwall Keep: When I saw this module, I asked one of my players if he’d be interested in playing a lizardfolk PC. He went along with it, made a druid, and it’s been fantastic. He now rules over 3,000 lizardfolk as the Lizard King of the Lonely Moor. I slipped in the
Sons of Gruumsh module after this adventure. Some of the prisoners from Blackwall Keep were taken to the orc stronghold of Xul-Jarak.
Hall of Harsh Reflections: This adventure has the potential to put PCs in a larger city, some place outside of Diamond Lake. This allows the campaign to branch out to a larger pond. I set the first half of this in Daggerford on the way to Waterdeep, and the second half was set in Waterdeep’s sewers. I didn’t run the doppelganger switch with the PCs, but I did have Allustan killed and replaced by a doppelganger as an attempt to draw the PCs to their deaths. It failed.
Champions Belt: This was one of the peaks of the campaign. The gladiator games could be set in an even larger city, allowing for a myriad of encounters and quests in an urban environment. Mine was set in Waterdeep. I supplemented the games with the article “To the Games” from
Dungeon 132. During this time I also used “Menagerie” from
Dungeon 126 and the entire Vampires of Waterdeep adventure path from
Dungeon 126, 127, and 128. They also got lost in Undermountain a couple times.
A Gathering of Winds: I skipped this module (“Allustan reentered the Whispering Cairn” is the very short version), mostly because the PCs were pretty strong after all of their adventures in Waterdeep. I used the Dragonlance module
Dragons of Despair as Ilthane’s lair. Ilthane was served by a tribe of draconic lizardfolk who were in turn served by draconic kobolds.
Spire of Long Shadows: This was the module that was almost a TPK. The Harbinger is tough after fighting through Kuluth Mar. I set the ruins in the Faerunian jungles of Chult, on Taboo Island in Lake Luo. I borrowed Taboo Island from
Dungeon 145, the module “City of Broken Idols.” Those modules worked well together.
Prince of Redhand: I blended this module with
Expedition to Castle Ravenloft and set it in Faerun’s Savage Frontier east of Waterdeep’s Sword Coast. The party was in the castle while the village was overrun with spawn of Kyuss. Very “Masque of the Red Death.” I made Lashonna a paeliryon devil (
Fiend Folio version), and in the end, they wound up with a castle of their own, however haunted it may be. The surrounding lands they governed, and soon they were worrying about more than their own hit points.
Library of Last Resort: I ran this pretty much as written. The group managed to succeed without having to kill any rocs or the titan, and they brought Krekie the kenku back with them. Some interesting nature-based/morality quests in this module.
Kings of the Rift: This is was a fun module to run, especially when the PCs decided to assault the Citadel of Weeping Dragons. I used the module “Storm Lord’s Keep” from
Dungeon 93 afterward. The “story” is that the Storm Lord retaliated for the destruction of the Citadel of Weeping Dragons, but in truth, the Storm Lord was in search of the next piece of the Rod of Seven Parts. His sword hilt was pieces 1, 2, and 3, and the PCs were in possession of pieces 4 and 5. When the smoked cleared, the PCs had 5 pieces.
Into the Wormcrawl Fissure: I added the Dragonlance module “The Dragon Keep of Palanthus” form the
World of Krynn book for a dragon’s lair. The rest was run as written, though I most-certainly didn’t have Dragotha cornered in a room waiting for the PCs to annihilate him. They faced Brazzemal and Xyzanth in a final confrontation.
Dawn of the New Age: Honestly, I hardly used this module at all. By the time the Ages of Worms was reaching its end, we had so many things going on that there wasn’t much I wanted to use aside from the broodfiends, Vulras, and Maralee. The PCs helped in the acquisition of the sphere of annihilation, but an NPC wizard (former PC) used the sphere against Kyuss while the PCs faced Dragotha in a final confrontation.
The campaign is still going strong, by the way. They’re currently navigating the River Styx with the limited aid of Charon (from
Dungeon 149), on their way to Citadel Coldsteel (
A Paladin in Hell), there to face Geryon and Amon on their way to Malbolge in search of Lashonna and the souls she’s stolen.