The Age of Worms is over! (Spoilers)

[MerricB]

I've just arrived home after the last session of our Age of Worms campaign.

For those wondering how many would fall in the last session, I can give the answer: One. In the fight with Maralee, the cleric was attacked for 250 damage in one round and died. (In the next round, the paladin used a ring of wishes to revivify the cleric).

Kyuss himself never got an attack. The two rounds of him coming out of the monolith was all the group needed to slay him.

Looking at my notes, it went something like this:

Round 1:
(Init 26) Tom the Rogue: Flies out of stairwell, shoots once at Kyuss (5 damage inflicted)
(Init 24) Martin the Fighter: Flies out of stairwell into melee, uses Slashing Flurry (PH2) to attack twice for some damage (35 points)
(Init 23) Craig the Druid: Flies out of stairwell, casts Deadfall (SC) on Kyuss for some damage (63 points). Kyuss is not knocked prone.
(Init 19) Peggy the Wizard: Flies out of stairwell, casts Meteor Swarm on Kyuss for some damage (20+8+11+19=58 damage)
(Init 15) Bradford the Paladin: Flies out of stairwell, moves into position for charge next turn; casts Find the Gap (SC)
(Init 4) Rob the Cleric: Flies out of stairwell, casts Firestorm on Kyuss, but fails to penetrate SR.

Round 2:
Tom the Rogue: Puts bow away, draws sword.
Martin the Fighter: Goes into haste, slashing flurry and attacks with Weapon Supremacy [PH2] and Power Attack - Kyuss takes 25+27+37+41 Damage.
Craig the Druid: Casts final Deadfall for 68 Damage.
Peggy the Wizard: Casts fireball (or similar) for 26 damage.
Bradford the Paladin: Swift casts Rhino's Rush (SC), charges, power attacks for 20, and Smite Evil... final damage: 168 points!
Rob the Cleric: Moves in and hits Kyuss for 18 damage.

Round 3: (Kyuss will act after Peggy in initiative order, having rolled an 18)
Tom the Rogue: Uses magic sword to hit Kyuss with sonic damage (16 damage)
Martin the Fighter: Goes into haste, slashing flurry and attacks with Weapon Supremacy [PH2] and Power Attack - Kyuss takes more damage than he has HP remaining and dies.

So, there ended the campaign. Bradford fought Prince Zeech (who had killed his PC's father, back in the day when they were both paladins) and all ended happily.

We then created characters for the Savage Tide adventure path...

Cheers!

 

[Nifft]

That Kyuss dude had a serious minion shortage. :\

-- N

 

[MerricB]

That Kyuss dude had a serious minion shortage. :\

-- N

They'd spent the past two sessions killing the minions.

Cheers!

 

[Imruphel]

Two questions:

1. I seem to recall that you're able to run your combats quite speedily. How long did this take in real time?

2. How did your players feel afterwards, both about the rapid victory (unless those two rounds took two hours... but that's only my group who does that! ) and about the overall campaign?

 

[MerricB]

Two questions:

1. I seem to recall that you're able to run your combats quite speedily. How long did this take in real time?

2. How did your players feel afterwards, both about the rapid victory (unless those two rounds took two hours... but that's only my group who does that! ) and about the overall campaign?

The last combat took about 20-30 minutes... I think. The entire session was 90 mins, including a 4 round combat against Maralee and her 8 minions.

Not sure about my player's feelings - although some accomplishment at finishing the AoW, and relief as well, I think.

Cheers!

 

[mhensley]

seems kinda anticlimatic to me

 

[MerricB]

seems kinda anticlimatic to me

Yeah, well - there is some staggeringly bad design there.

Maralee and her minions (8 Kyuss Knights), are in a chamber that's described as being quite tall ("to a dizzying height, several hundred feet above"). All the PCs can fly. Maralee & company cannot fly, nor do they have any ranged attacks. I'm sorry? Huh?

Kyuss is basically impossible if the PCs haven't succeeded in a bunch of quests first. They did, so he had two rounds of doing nothing. If he'd had one turn, it would have been Time Stop, harm, harm, harm, harm and healed back to near-full. I'm not unhappy about how they took Kyuss down. Him acting is far worse, IMO.

Both encounters allow the rogue to do nothing (no sneak attacks). Sure, I'd given the rogue's bow the ability to sneak attack undead, but Maralee's gaze attack negated that opportunity.

Cheers!

 

[RichGreen]

Yeah, well - there is some staggeringly bad design there.

Maralee and her minions (8 Kyuss Knights), are in a chamber that's described as being quite tall ("to a dizzying height, several hundred feet above"). All the PCs can fly. Maralee & company cannot fly, nor do they have any ranged attacks. I'm sorry? Huh?

Kyuss is basically impossible if the PCs haven't succeeded in a bunch of quests first. They did, so he had two rounds of doing nothing. If he'd had one turn, it would have been Time Stop, harm, harm, harm, harm and healed back to near-full. I'm not unhappy about how they took Kyuss down. Him acting is far worse, IMO.

Both encounters allow the rogue to do nothing (no sneak attacks). Sure, I'd given the rogue's bow the ability to sneak attack undead, but Maralee's gaze attack negated that opportunity.

Cheers!

When my Freeport campaign finishes up with Bastion of Broken Souls, I was going to run Age of Worms but I'm not so sure now. It's obviously a big time investment. What do you think? Should I go for Shackled City or Savage Tide instead?


Richard

 

[MerricB]

When my Freeport campaign finishes up with Bastion of Broken Souls, I was going to run Age of Worms but I'm not so sure now. It's obviously a big time investment. What do you think? Should I go for Shackled City or Savage Tide instead?

I'd say "Savage Tide", but you may find the theme a little too close to Freeport (not that I know much about Freeport).

Cheers!

 

[Joshua Randall]

Based on what I've read, the consensus is that any competent party will (effectively) defeat Kyuss if given two rounds to act before he emerges.

Thus, Kyuss must either be allowed to emerge before the PCs get there, or he must have some (extra) minions handy to slow down the party while he emerges.

Also, good point MerricB about the non-flying Maralee & co. WTF?! Not being able to fly at high levels is stooopid. Not having ranged attacks is just lame.