World's Largest Dungeon in actual play [Spoilers!]

[Kafkonia]

You could use the lhosks from MM3 -- visually, they're basically driders made with gorillas instead of drow. That could be something the drow and driders want to stay away from.

Also, check out some of the web enhancements for the Advanced Bestiary -- there's a template for drider-ifying other creatures, so you could have derro-driders, duergar-driders, and more.

 

[Kafkonia]

World's Largest Dungeon
Session 2

My PCs have made it through Region A, and in only two sessions, by completely bypassing the Longtail portion. They heard talk of him from some of the orcs they temporarily allied with, but through miscommunication and an insistence on going North until they ran out of hallway, they wound up in the Northeast corner and found a secret door to E.

What does this mean? Well, for one thing, it means that I'll be making him a bigger baddy later on in the dungeon -- give him a few levels, maybe a PrC (I'm thinking fiend-blooded or diabolist, depending on my mood) or third-party template and some fiendish rat-lackies. I'll drop hints by having mention of him. There's also the teensy-tiny matter of the portal still being open, so more fiendish beasties may overwhelm what's left of the humanoids in A, especially since the PCs killed Boyikt. Having an orc in the party made the kobolds less inclined to talk than they might otherwise have been. :/

I'm kind of relieved they're out of this section, at least for now, because they had really gotten the hang of things and what was a dangerous section at first -- putting the orc barbarian into negative hitpoints twice in the first encounter -- became a simple matter of tactics when the favoured soul bought it (critical hit on a burning hands trap = sad player ) and was replaced with a warlock, and the monk crossclassed into rogue so they could actually find traps without triggering them.

They're currently carrying the petrified elf head, intent on finding a way to get it to explain what they're doing in this place, and the orc is wearing a ring that, as written, is just a ring, but that I'm going to do something tricksy with... I'm thinking of making it something that's beneficial to good-aligned characters, has no effect on neutral characters (like the orc), and has a negative but addictive effect on evil characters. Then I can have a previous evil owner come looking to take it back... maybe a gollum -- er, golem.

 

[Xiag]

Beefing up Longtail

Anyone looking to beef up longtail may want to consider some of the handouts from Goodman Games free download section:

http://www.goodman-games.com/freematerial.php

They have a couple PDF's about half way down on Were-rats that could be useful. Along with some other free goodies (tiles, Complete Guides to, etc).

Oh, yeah, and it's free. I know I already said that, but it seemed important enough to mention again. Goblin Wererats and Half-rats are definately going to make it in if my group bypasses Longtail and comes back later.

 

[Kafkonia]

Anyone looking to beef up longtail may want to consider some of the handouts from Goodman Games free download section:
<snip>

I'll be sure to check that out.

I think I'm going to use the Ebon Servitor template from the Book of Templates to represent Longtail after he's made a deal with the fiendish powers on the other side of the portal he opened. And maybe throw in the devil-bound template from Advanced Bestiary.

From that book, I'm also thinking of upping Seraxes to a Dread Shadow.

I picked up Heroes of Horror on the weekend, and combined with the reaction my players had to the room-that-was-an-adventurer, I think I'm going to make the WLD more and more horrific as the game progresses.

 

[Traevanon]

My group is about to trek past Region M following the lava to the northwest. I'm viewing this as an opportunity to put some non-SRD baddies in the dungeon (yugoloths, if I can find a logical reason).
I was curious if anyone else added to this part of the dungeon and, if they did, what did they do exactly? I'm all about stealing good ideas for my own!

My group made extensive explorations to the NorthWest of region M.

This is how I imagined the area...

The Lava river continues on in a roughly straight path for five miles to the NW, though the ledges on either side taper into nothing a mere hundred yards off the map. The cieling is uneven, but averages out to a hundred feet above the lava. Characters within 10 feet of the lava take 2d6 fire damage per round, within 20 feet 1d6, within 40 feet 1 point, and further up 1 point per minute.

There isnt much to see as they fly, swim or paddle upstream but roughly each mile or so (4 possibilities) there are small caves for the party to find (spot 10). One was filled with various vermin so thick that I created a vermin swarm type terrain feature for the cave, another was completely filled with various oozes, the third was abandoned with a few leftover traps from goblins and dwarves in ancient times and the last was left undefined.

At the end of the lava river, instead of finding a way up the party will be disappointed to find the lava bubbling up from below and the cieling getting lower as it widens out into sort of a lava-swamp. There is no way to proceed through here without being actually able to move through the lava, and the whole area is filled with mephits besides, but if the party can overcome those difficulties there is a tangled web of under-lava passageways which will be almost impossible to navigate blind and swimming. Most passages are so thin that medium sized creatures have to squeeze to get through, and most are dead ends, but a few lead out to volcanos on the surface while a few others lead to either the Elemental Plane of Fire or the Abyss.

Overall this area is designed to frighten away the 10th to 12th level characters that generally encounter it. It would be more safe for characters of 16th to 18th level.

Let me know what your group encounters over there!

 

[Max Rebo]

I just wanted to thank everyone for their suggestions.

We played today and, well, things were definately different than I had planned. I placed a series of caves along the one wall that the PC's explored. The first had drow refugees (thanks Jim!). The shadowdancer kidnapped one and got information out of him.
The second was the home of a shrieking terror. I figured this may have been a creature that was one of Mahir's expirements that got away. This one ended up being pretty cool (thanks rvalle!) since they didnt know what to make of the thing! It almost turned the dragon disciple into a varguille with its kiss ability.
They also fought a conflagoration ooze from MM3 as a random encounter. It made sense and was actually pretty neat quicky battle.

I came up with a completely different idea for the lava river. I did it this way mainly because it served my campaign's story so well. I doubt it would work well for many other people.
I had the river flow northwest into a great lava lake, complete with a great lavafall. The lava lake, however, held no bizarre beasties or climatic encounters. It was the home of a fire weird that foretold impending doom. It set up the Tomb of the Unliving part and, if they paid attention, gave them clues on how to beat the World Eater.
So successful at giving them a sense of doom, the players decided to stop exploring the area and head straight for the tomb. I'm not too upset but I did have a cool illithid/yugoloth battle that has now been scrapped! Oh well.

Funny aside note: The group heard about the World Eater and also about Tyrus in a very short period of time. They heard about the great undead WORM and assumed that it was an undead WYRM and that it was Tyrus. They now expect to fight a dracolich instead of a nightcrawler in the tomb.

 

[thecelticking]

Help!! Death in the WLD??

If you are not allowed to leave the WLD with convential spells or otherwise where does one's soul go when it "dies"???

 

[BlueBlackRed]

If you are not allowed to leave the WLD with convential spells or otherwise where does one's soul go when it "dies"???

DM's choice.
Good luck!

Actually that topic has been discussed off and on with this thread.
Some have said it didn't matter, others say you get reincarnated, and there are probably more and scarier suggestions.

 

[thecelticking]

Keeping PC's Dead

My characters are playing on Map N & they are high level & what I am wondering w/o searching through 39 pages of posts is that if the undead can't leave wahty happens to one's soul say as in regard to a Ressurrection spell or a Raise Dead Spell. I am just looking for a way to make dead characters stay dead with a good reason for it. Otherwise IMO there is no real danger of dying if you can just be raised or resurectted.

 

[Kafkonia]

If you are not allowed to leave the WLD with convential spells or otherwise where does one's soul go when it "dies"???

I was just considering this. I see a few options:

1) It goes to another part of the dungeon, perhaps one populated by the undead, or perhaps I, where it is changed strangely.

2) It is irrevocably destroyed.

3) It hangs around, being spooooooky.