D&D 5E (2024) Thoughts on Infinite Staircase?

[QuentinGeorge]

Those levels were barely detailed. I remember a blue dragon.

The Goodman Games version fully detailed all the levels, keeping the sparse details of the original module and expanding them. (The dragon has a name, as does the vampire). My problem with this version is that Lost City is a megadungeon, and truncating it into a short adventure like they've done here makes it all end rather abruptly.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

I'm running through some of them now. After using The Lost City, I'm expanding the "Zargon Plot" using some of the guideance in 3e's Elder Evils, which provides some seeds for a campaign that revolves around Zargon's rise. I'm using that as the framing device for the other adventures, rather than the Inifinite Staircase, which I found kind of....bland, in the end.

So, like, the party was hired by Vanessa Mackelroy (from Elder Evils) for the initial expedition and, having completed that, is now rescuing Dorn from gnolls. The weather will start to turn. Then, we'll have Vanessa send them on to the next adventure in the series. When they return from that, they'll find the Juiblex cult and Vanessa missing. And so on, until they return to the Lost City for the big confrontation at the end.

Using some of the material from 3e's Sandstorm and 4e's Dungeon Delves, too, to add a bit of texture to the adventures in between the main ones.

I did a whole campaign with Lost City, utilising the Goodman Games hardcover, the Elder Evils supplement, and the prequel adventure from Dungeon, Masque of Dreams - which Wizards should honestly have incorporated for their own version.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

So it's taller than the real pyramid upon which it is based. However, I don't think it's meant to be in the middle of a flat plain.

The real pyramids where built in the middle of a flat plain. But they were partially buried in the sand from the end of the pharaonic period until the 18th century I think.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

My problem with this version is that Lost City is a megadungeon

I wouldn’t call it that. Given its octahedral shape, whilst level 5 is large, the other levels were quite compact. It was a large dungeon, but nothing like the size of Barrier Peaks, even the cut down version in Infinite Staircase.

The dragon has a name, as does the vampire

Susan and Bob.

 

[Zardnaar]

B4visnt a megadungeon imho. Its a large one though

 

[pukunui]

I think what I'll do re: the beginning of Pharaoh is have Amun Sa's ghost only be visible at night.

I'll have the Infinite Staircase door open into an empty, plundered Valley of the Kings-style tomb in a hillside. They won't be able to see the pyramid from there. I'll say it's mid-morning when they arrive. I'll let them know that it doesn't really matter what direction they go in, so the druid/ranger's job is more about keeping the party alive* than navigating through the desert. That being said, I'm fine with them wanting to look for an oasis or some other sort of landmark so they're not just wandering aimlessly.

Regardless of where they are physically by the evening of Day 2, I'll have Amun Sa's ghost wander up to them after the sun sets. He'll do his thing and start walking toward the pyramid. They can follow right away or not. But when the sun rises, his ghost will fade away. They can either keep going in the direction he was going in, or they can wait till the next evening, when the ghost reappears, reiterates his spiel, and starts walking toward the pyramid again.

If they can't keep up with him, they'll find him waiting for them near his pyramid on the evening of Day 3. I might also make it clear at some point that they're in a dry riverbed area and they can keep following that if they want to as it will lead them straight to the pyramid.

I'm also going to adapt the read-aloud text from the original, which makes it clear that the pyramid was once part of a larger civilization, not just some lone construction in the middle of nowhere.


*She's got Goodberry, so malnutrition won't be an issue, but since the PCs won't know they're going into a desert until they arrive, they won't have brought enough water. (Small and Medium creatures need two waterskins' worth of water each day, and they've only got one waterskin each.) The druid/ranger will need to forage for more water on the first day. She can then swap out one of her druid spells for Create or Destroy Water for subsequent days if she'd rather do that.

 

[Zardnaar]

Usually the downside of these anthology conversions. They truncated them buy make them look pretty.

 

[mamba]

the PCs won't know they're going into a desert until they arrive, they won't have brought enough water

why do they not know, doesn’t the genie know where he is sending them?

 

[pukunui]

why do they not know, doesn’t the genie know where he is sending them?

Actually, he does mention it's a desert, but as written, he doesn't give them a chance to gather supplies first ... I mean, it's not like there are any shops on the Infinite Staircase!

If you’re using Nafas as a patron, he summons the characters to the Censer of Dreams ... where he recounts the following wish: “Condemned for his actions in life, the ghost of a long-dead pharaoh wanders the desert, day and night. Eons of torturous solitude have shown him the error of his ways, and he asks for brave mortals to free his soul and end an ancient curse upon the land. Seek him out and heed his call.”

Nafas then teleports the characters to a door along the staircase that opens into a bleak desert. After the adventure, the characters can return to the staircase through the same portal.

He also doesn't tell them it will take them at least two days to find the pharaoh's ghost. During their previous Infinite Staircase missions, it's been trivial for them to find the local quest giver once they step through the doorway. This time will be different but really, it's not going to be hard for them to survive since the druid/ranger is with them.

 

[plecostomus]

I have a question about When A Star Falls. This is just my ignorance from never having played a hexcrawl before. The hex map for the module has some artwork for each key location, including obvious smoke rising from settlements.

The characters receive a "crudely drawn" version of the region map at the adventure's start that clearly marks a couple of these key locations, but not all of them. It sounds like the travel and exploration is handled through Survival rolls/etc. to determine if the characters can find the precise location they are looking for, and there's no instructions about hiding anything on the hex map.

Am I correct in thinking I don't need to hide anything on the hex map from them, even if it makes it obvious what general directions they should go in?

Another nice touch on the map is there's actually art for each of the random encounters on some of the hexes, though I will have to tell the players that they don't magically find a griffon just by going to the hex with the griffon art.