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<blockquote data-quote="LostSoul" data-source="post: 5994773" data-attributes="member: 386"><p><strong>Still working</strong></p><p></p><p>The second question I had was a pretty basic one.</p><p></p><p>[sblock=Question Two]<p style="margin-left: 20px">What is the point of the Crater Ridge Mines?</p><p></p><p>At first my idea was that they still had to find the Elemental Gems. That would require a mining operation, however, and didn't really fit with the feel of the CRM in the module.</p><p></p><p>I decided to leave this for a bit and focus on another question.</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">How could the Triad create the Orb of Silvery Death?</p><p></p><p>I decided to break down its cost using the standard magic item creation rules. What I ended up with was something costing 476000 GP. Obviously that result is just a wild guess, but I didn't have a problem with it.</p><p></p><p>That much GP and XP created a problem in itself. Even three beings of great power wouldn't have the XP required - unless they got in a lot of dangerous fights. That triggered an idea...</p><p></p><p>I turned to the Book of Vile Darkness. The Sacrifice rules. A sacrifice can grant "Dark" GP or XP used to create magic items.</p><p></p><p>Well then. I just found a reason for the CRM to exist.</p><p></p><p>I added up the modifiers to Knowledge: Religion checks for the various temples and figured out how many sacrifices it would take to gather enough "Dark" GP and XP. </p><p></p><p>The result: 3797.</p><p></p><p>I decided to say that, in order to create the Orb - an artifact - they <em>needed</em> the "Dark" GP and XP. Normal components and XP would not do. The various Temples in the CRM would then turn the sacrifice into <em>Incense of Dreaming</em> and send it to the Triad for consumption.[/sblock]</p><p></p><p>Now, with the first two questions answered, the third - and most important - loomed: how can I give the players meaningful decisions to make?</p><p></p><p>[sblock=Question Three]Since the Triad, creating the Orb, were restricted to Dark GP and XP, they needed a steady flow of sacrifices.</p><p></p><p>Obviously, then: The Triad <em>will</em> complete the Orb unless the PCs take action to stop the steady flow of sacrifices from the Temples.</p><p></p><p>But how long had they been doing this? How many sacrifices could the Temples make per day/week? How much time should I give the PCs to stop the Triad?</p><p></p><p>I went through the module and added up each encounter presented. I assumed that 4 encounters with an encounter level (EL) equal to average party level (APL) were equal to one Adventuring Day (AD). Applying some modifiers to ELs higher or lower than expected APL, I came up with the following:</p><p></p><p>94 days until completion.</p><p></p><p>I decided to alter the timeline to set the campaign within the Greyhawk Wars. The conflict and refugees fleeing from the Shieldlands would provide cover to the activities of the Temple. </p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">And, perhaps, instigated by the Temple? The Elder Elemental God has been known to play dirty tricks - perhaps it was he who convinced Iuz to being the Wars.</p><p></p><p>Here was the timeline, then:</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">579 CY: Lareth is killed by Y'Dey.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">579 CY: The Temple falls. Zuggtmoy is banished to the Abyss. The Orb of Golden Death is destroyed.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">579 CY: Hedrack flees, hunted. He is saved by the Triad. They tell him the truth. He serves them.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">580 CY: Playing a hunch, Hedrack raises Lareth from the dead. He casts Commune and learns that Lareth is the Champion who can reach Tovag Baragu. Hedrack hides this fact from the rest, believing that there's a way he can become the Champion.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">580 CY: Commune is cast multiple times to discover the location of the Elemental Gems. They lie within the CRM.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">May 6 580 CY: They set up in the CRM and begin excavations for the Elemental Gems. To avoid unwanted attention until their defenses are strong. Slaves are brought in by the dozen.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">Jun 7 580 CY: The Triad dream about the Orb of Silvery Death. The Doomdreamers search for The Bringer of Doom. Hedrack runs the CRM and the Fanes.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">Aug 3 582 CY: The Triad discover the ritual to construct the Orb of Silvery Death.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">Aug 5 582 CY: The Triad begin work on the Orb of Silvery Death. Thousands of sacrifices are required.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">Aug 8 583 CY: The Elemental Gems are found.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">Sep 1 583 CY: Based on a Commune cast by Hedrack, he determines that there is Incense of Dreaming in the Moathouse. An expedition is sent. To avoid suspicion it is kept small.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">Sep 27 583 CY: The expedition finds the relics, but Festrath goes insane. Before the others can take them, Utreshimon arrives at the Moathouse and keeps them pinned down.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">Dec 3 583 CY: The drow envoy arrives in the Fane.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">Dec 15 583 CY: The Doomdreamers discover the Orb of Oblivion and return to the Fane.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">Dec 24 583 CY: The Orb of Silvery Death is completed.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">+1 week (Dec 31 584): Allies for the excavation of the temple arrive at the CRM.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">+1 day (Jan 1 584): Excavation of the Temple begins.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">+2 days (Jan 3 584): The Temple is excavated. Lareth is brought there.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">+2 days (Jan 5 584): The Bringer of Doom is brought somewhere, where they want the Invoked Devastation to be brought forth.</p><p></p><p>Now I decided to figure out how many agents - slavers - the Temple had looking for sacrificial victims. I decided to go with 60-100% of the total number of guards within each CRM complex, based on the fact that the module had reinforcements arrive each week for a few weeks. These reinforcements, then, were agents scouring the lands looking for sacrificial victims.</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">It helps that Greyhawk is a post-apocalyptic world.</p><p></p><p>I came up with a figure of 152 total agents.</p><p></p><p>How long would it take to gather a single slave? I decided that Profession: Slaver was the best way to abstract it. I looked on-line for a value for a slave and found one that said 61 GP. Statting up the slavers to focus on Profession: Slaver, I came to this figure: 7 slavers could gather 1 slave per week.</p><p></p><p>In addition to this, I decided to tie the Slavers of Suderham (from A1-4) into the campaign: every six weeks, they'd bring 45 slaves to Rastor for sale to the Temple.</p><p></p><p>The Temple would need some way to pay for all of this - and finance all the guards, and supplies their endeavour would require. They'd go through Rastor, using Tal Chammish, and Hedrack would use <em>Planar Binding</em> to summon a demon named <em>Glabrezu</em> to <em>Wish</em> for 25000 GP each month. That would give them just enough to supply the entire organization.</p><p></p><p>*</p><p></p><p>This left me with multiple ways for the PCs to disrupt the Triad's timeline:</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Kill slavers</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Destroy the caravan</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Destroy Temples within the CRM</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Free sacrificial victims</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Stop the supply line in Rastor</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Kill the Glabrezu providing the cash</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> and many others...</li> </ul><p>[/sblock]</p><p></p><p>The XP system, however, provides a problem. If the players are making smart decisions, they are going to be avoiding many pointless fights in order to hit the bad guys where it hurts. In order to make <em>not fighting your way through their entire organization</em> a valid choice, I had to provide bonus XP values.</p><p></p><p>[sblock]Based on the Adventuring Day/EL calculations, when the Triad would start noticing the PCs taking action, and what level the module expects you to be at that point, I came up with the following:</p><p></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">EACH wave of slavers defeated is worth 325 bonus XP to EACH PC.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Slave Lord caravan, if defeated, is worth 4000 bonus XP to EACH PC.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">2450 bonus XP to EACH PC per destroyed temple</li> </ul><p>[/sblock]</p><p></p><p>...And then I was done. I had a few more details to work out - how much information the PCs needed in order to make meaningful decisions, how many guards the NPCs had along their supply line drop, etc., but we were ready to play.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="LostSoul, post: 5994773, member: 386"] [b]Still working[/b] The second question I had was a pretty basic one. [sblock=Question Two][indent]What is the point of the Crater Ridge Mines?[/indent] At first my idea was that they still had to find the Elemental Gems. That would require a mining operation, however, and didn't really fit with the feel of the CRM in the module. I decided to leave this for a bit and focus on another question. [indent]How could the Triad create the Orb of Silvery Death?[/indent] I decided to break down its cost using the standard magic item creation rules. What I ended up with was something costing 476000 GP. Obviously that result is just a wild guess, but I didn't have a problem with it. That much GP and XP created a problem in itself. Even three beings of great power wouldn't have the XP required - unless they got in a lot of dangerous fights. That triggered an idea... I turned to the Book of Vile Darkness. The Sacrifice rules. A sacrifice can grant "Dark" GP or XP used to create magic items. Well then. I just found a reason for the CRM to exist. I added up the modifiers to Knowledge: Religion checks for the various temples and figured out how many sacrifices it would take to gather enough "Dark" GP and XP. The result: 3797. I decided to say that, in order to create the Orb - an artifact - they [i]needed[/i] the "Dark" GP and XP. Normal components and XP would not do. The various Temples in the CRM would then turn the sacrifice into [i]Incense of Dreaming[/i] and send it to the Triad for consumption.[/sblock] Now, with the first two questions answered, the third - and most important - loomed: how can I give the players meaningful decisions to make? [sblock=Question Three]Since the Triad, creating the Orb, were restricted to Dark GP and XP, they needed a steady flow of sacrifices. Obviously, then: The Triad [i]will[/i] complete the Orb unless the PCs take action to stop the steady flow of sacrifices from the Temples. But how long had they been doing this? How many sacrifices could the Temples make per day/week? How much time should I give the PCs to stop the Triad? I went through the module and added up each encounter presented. I assumed that 4 encounters with an encounter level (EL) equal to average party level (APL) were equal to one Adventuring Day (AD). Applying some modifiers to ELs higher or lower than expected APL, I came up with the following: 94 days until completion. I decided to alter the timeline to set the campaign within the Greyhawk Wars. The conflict and refugees fleeing from the Shieldlands would provide cover to the activities of the Temple. [indent]And, perhaps, instigated by the Temple? The Elder Elemental God has been known to play dirty tricks - perhaps it was he who convinced Iuz to being the Wars.[/indent] Here was the timeline, then: [indent]579 CY: Lareth is killed by Y'Dey. 579 CY: The Temple falls. Zuggtmoy is banished to the Abyss. The Orb of Golden Death is destroyed. 579 CY: Hedrack flees, hunted. He is saved by the Triad. They tell him the truth. He serves them. 580 CY: Playing a hunch, Hedrack raises Lareth from the dead. He casts Commune and learns that Lareth is the Champion who can reach Tovag Baragu. Hedrack hides this fact from the rest, believing that there's a way he can become the Champion. 580 CY: Commune is cast multiple times to discover the location of the Elemental Gems. They lie within the CRM. May 6 580 CY: They set up in the CRM and begin excavations for the Elemental Gems. To avoid unwanted attention until their defenses are strong. Slaves are brought in by the dozen. Jun 7 580 CY: The Triad dream about the Orb of Silvery Death. The Doomdreamers search for The Bringer of Doom. Hedrack runs the CRM and the Fanes. Aug 3 582 CY: The Triad discover the ritual to construct the Orb of Silvery Death. Aug 5 582 CY: The Triad begin work on the Orb of Silvery Death. Thousands of sacrifices are required. Aug 8 583 CY: The Elemental Gems are found. Sep 1 583 CY: Based on a Commune cast by Hedrack, he determines that there is Incense of Dreaming in the Moathouse. An expedition is sent. To avoid suspicion it is kept small. Sep 27 583 CY: The expedition finds the relics, but Festrath goes insane. Before the others can take them, Utreshimon arrives at the Moathouse and keeps them pinned down. Dec 3 583 CY: The drow envoy arrives in the Fane. Dec 15 583 CY: The Doomdreamers discover the Orb of Oblivion and return to the Fane. Dec 24 583 CY: The Orb of Silvery Death is completed. +1 week (Dec 31 584): Allies for the excavation of the temple arrive at the CRM. +1 day (Jan 1 584): Excavation of the Temple begins. +2 days (Jan 3 584): The Temple is excavated. Lareth is brought there. +2 days (Jan 5 584): The Bringer of Doom is brought somewhere, where they want the Invoked Devastation to be brought forth.[/indent] Now I decided to figure out how many agents - slavers - the Temple had looking for sacrificial victims. I decided to go with 60-100% of the total number of guards within each CRM complex, based on the fact that the module had reinforcements arrive each week for a few weeks. These reinforcements, then, were agents scouring the lands looking for sacrificial victims. [indent]It helps that Greyhawk is a post-apocalyptic world.[/indent] I came up with a figure of 152 total agents. How long would it take to gather a single slave? I decided that Profession: Slaver was the best way to abstract it. I looked on-line for a value for a slave and found one that said 61 GP. Statting up the slavers to focus on Profession: Slaver, I came to this figure: 7 slavers could gather 1 slave per week. In addition to this, I decided to tie the Slavers of Suderham (from A1-4) into the campaign: every six weeks, they'd bring 45 slaves to Rastor for sale to the Temple. The Temple would need some way to pay for all of this - and finance all the guards, and supplies their endeavour would require. They'd go through Rastor, using Tal Chammish, and Hedrack would use [i]Planar Binding[/i] to summon a demon named [i]Glabrezu[/i] to [i]Wish[/i] for 25000 GP each month. That would give them just enough to supply the entire organization. * This left me with multiple ways for the PCs to disrupt the Triad's timeline: [list][*] Kill slavers [*] Destroy the caravan [*] Destroy Temples within the CRM [*] Free sacrificial victims [*] Stop the supply line in Rastor [*] Kill the Glabrezu providing the cash [*] and many others...[/list][/sblock] The XP system, however, provides a problem. If the players are making smart decisions, they are going to be avoiding many pointless fights in order to hit the bad guys where it hurts. In order to make [i]not fighting your way through their entire organization[/i] a valid choice, I had to provide bonus XP values. [sblock]Based on the Adventuring Day/EL calculations, when the Triad would start noticing the PCs taking action, and what level the module expects you to be at that point, I came up with the following: [list][*]EACH wave of slavers defeated is worth 325 bonus XP to EACH PC. [*]The Slave Lord caravan, if defeated, is worth 4000 bonus XP to EACH PC. [*]2450 bonus XP to EACH PC per destroyed temple[/list][/sblock] ...And then I was done. I had a few more details to work out - how much information the PCs needed in order to make meaningful decisions, how many guards the NPCs had along their supply line drop, etc., but we were ready to play. [/QUOTE]
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