World's Largest Dungeon in actual play [Spoilers!]
- Thread starter haiiro
- Start date
New to the thread and EN world
Hi all!
New to the thread. First, I want to say thanks to all of your great inputs on the behemoth of a module.
I am determined to run this thing, but I am attempting to tie in the dungeon with the world's plight. The story goes as such: There is a lich necromancy trying to gain control of the entire world. Due to the way my world works he is able to aquire an artifact that regulates the world's weather, so everything is slowly going to hell in a handbasket. I have not yet decided how much the players will know when they come across the dungeon. Anyways, I figured the farthest reaches of the dungeon would be a perfect place for the lich's hiding place (he figured it a good place to hide the thing, then realized he couldn't just teleport out. But why bother, he'll just wait for everyone to die on the surface). My question is this: for those of you who have played out the whole dungeon, or at least more familiar than I am with it, where would be the best place to put this lich and artifact?
BTW: I was thinking that the players would eventually realize that this place could be a safe haven for surface folks (that belief coming from legends and rumors). They'll be in for a treat when they get trapp... ahem, I mean start exploring.![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
Hi all!
New to the thread. First, I want to say thanks to all of your great inputs on the behemoth of a module.
I am determined to run this thing, but I am attempting to tie in the dungeon with the world's plight. The story goes as such: There is a lich necromancy trying to gain control of the entire world. Due to the way my world works he is able to aquire an artifact that regulates the world's weather, so everything is slowly going to hell in a handbasket. I have not yet decided how much the players will know when they come across the dungeon. Anyways, I figured the farthest reaches of the dungeon would be a perfect place for the lich's hiding place (he figured it a good place to hide the thing, then realized he couldn't just teleport out. But why bother, he'll just wait for everyone to die on the surface). My question is this: for those of you who have played out the whole dungeon, or at least more familiar than I am with it, where would be the best place to put this lich and artifact?
BTW: I was thinking that the players would eventually realize that this place could be a safe haven for surface folks (that belief coming from legends and rumors). They'll be in for a treat when they get trapp... ahem, I mean start exploring.
jim pinto
First Post
bluespire said:My question is this: for those of you who have played out the whole dungeon, or at least more familiar than I am with it, where would be the best place to put this lich and artifact?
BTW: I was thinking that the players would eventually realize that this place could be a safe haven for surface folks (that belief coming from legends and rumors). They'll be in for a treat when they get trapp... ahem, I mean start exploring.
region n... replace the lich there with yours
or make the world eater encounter at the center the finale
region l... make the kraken there is a living weather device... and put the lich at the bottom of the lake... they don't have to breath, i suspect
region d... the derro are digging to the tomb where the lich is... but they don't know that's what they are digging to
region h... the treant is a weather device ... corrupted by the elves who serve the lich (knowingly or otherwise)
region g... the dome
region j... the tomb
region k... and the dragon is the lich's guard dog
region m... although it would require a lot of redesign, the region could be a holdout of the lich who needs drow sacrifices to "man" the machine
hope that helps
Hussar
Legend
Question about Region D.
The Truesilver bit says that it "loses its special properties ... if touched by a creature other than an outsider." What does that mean? If I use my truesilver sword against anything other than outsiders, it becomes a straight up silver sword? If any of the PC's pick up these weapons, it will lose the abilities as well.
How exactly is one supposed to use truesilver?
The Truesilver bit says that it "loses its special properties ... if touched by a creature other than an outsider." What does that mean? If I use my truesilver sword against anything other than outsiders, it becomes a straight up silver sword? If any of the PC's pick up these weapons, it will lose the abilities as well.
How exactly is one supposed to use truesilver?
jim pinto
First Post
Hussar said:
the players aren't supposed to use the truesilver... the bad guys believe they can control the devils in the tomb if they extract enough of it
as soon as a PC touches it, it becomes inert
it's something from my home campaign that i snuck into the book... if you don't like it... ignore it... and allow anyone who has blessed it, to touch it
that might as fit the region thematically
fair?
erucsbo
Explorer
After a 6 week break for Christmas and New Year my WLD game restarted.
The characters had rested in Mahir's Cache licking their wounds after the side trip in to J.
Realizing that they weren't powerful enough yet to head east they opted to go north - towards Madness.
Fully healed and ready for action the 5 PCs (and drow NPC) made their way through the disco room (as they call it now) and took the side passage to the four humours. The priestess made her will save against the black bile, but after some exploration by conjured celestial eagles (courtesy of Shadow Magic by the sorcerer) resulted in the one that went south returning in a rage (and therefore being quickly dispelled) the party decided that that was NOT a pleasant place and to leave it well alone.
North again - in to the area of Madness itself, but before reaching heart of his domain I rolled 02 and he showed up early.
The gibbering caught 2, and with a 06 from both of them on confusion, they both closed with the beast.
It then became a slugfest. Their rolls were not good, and Madness hit more often than not, engulfing the main fighter, blinding at various times, the dwarven fighter/wizard, the priestess, the sorcerer, and the mystic theurge, finally engulfing the priestess as well.
All of them were reduced to single digit hit points and multiple healing spells being cast did not keep them in double digits for long.
The lightning bolt caught two by surprise, and the sorcerer was so desparate he even sent his celestial cat familiar to fight (and almost lost it).
I allowed the priestess to convert V only spells to cures that could be cast while within Madness and she used her one spell thus memorized to stop the fighter from dying.
She then used sacred healing to give everyone Fast Healing 3 for 5 rounds. The way we run this is that you do a turning check and the result determines the maximum HD of the creatures that can get the benefit. The party members are all 8th level. Madness is 12HD. She got 10HD - so the party got fast healing and Madness didn't.
I allowed those who were engulfed to make an opposed grapple check to escape, and the fighter eventually managed to roll a 19 when Madness rolled a 1 - enough to get out on 1 hp.
At this stage the dwarf summoned help.
Now - I have a paladin NPC who is also travelling through the WLD and was with the party for a considerable time prior to them entering (quite a long time prior). A bracelet of friends which didn't quite work properly (you had to make a DC15 strength check to break a charm to use it) had a charm which was attuned to the paladin.
The dwarf summoned the paladin and she came to help.
It was enough for her to soak up the damage from Madness that round, deal some damage, enough so that the sorcerer's last fireball pushed Madness in to negatives.
The party then went hack happy, especially when they noticed that the flesh of Madness was very slowly regenerating.
If there had been one less party member. If the priestess hadn't done Sacred Healing. If the fighter hadn't escaped from being engulfed. Party members would have died.
There was a real sense that they scraped by by the skin of their teeth and it could have been the end of at least a couple of them.
They have now gained a level - 9th - and since the Ritual of Unmaking requires a 9th level caster they are now in a position to perform it.
Looks like at least one more big fight is in order for the coming sessions.
The characters had rested in Mahir's Cache licking their wounds after the side trip in to J.
Realizing that they weren't powerful enough yet to head east they opted to go north - towards Madness.
Fully healed and ready for action the 5 PCs (and drow NPC) made their way through the disco room (as they call it now) and took the side passage to the four humours. The priestess made her will save against the black bile, but after some exploration by conjured celestial eagles (courtesy of Shadow Magic by the sorcerer) resulted in the one that went south returning in a rage (and therefore being quickly dispelled) the party decided that that was NOT a pleasant place and to leave it well alone.
North again - in to the area of Madness itself, but before reaching heart of his domain I rolled 02 and he showed up early.
The gibbering caught 2, and with a 06 from both of them on confusion, they both closed with the beast.
It then became a slugfest. Their rolls were not good, and Madness hit more often than not, engulfing the main fighter, blinding at various times, the dwarven fighter/wizard, the priestess, the sorcerer, and the mystic theurge, finally engulfing the priestess as well.
All of them were reduced to single digit hit points and multiple healing spells being cast did not keep them in double digits for long.
The lightning bolt caught two by surprise, and the sorcerer was so desparate he even sent his celestial cat familiar to fight (and almost lost it).
I allowed the priestess to convert V only spells to cures that could be cast while within Madness and she used her one spell thus memorized to stop the fighter from dying.
She then used sacred healing to give everyone Fast Healing 3 for 5 rounds. The way we run this is that you do a turning check and the result determines the maximum HD of the creatures that can get the benefit. The party members are all 8th level. Madness is 12HD. She got 10HD - so the party got fast healing and Madness didn't.
I allowed those who were engulfed to make an opposed grapple check to escape, and the fighter eventually managed to roll a 19 when Madness rolled a 1 - enough to get out on 1 hp.
At this stage the dwarf summoned help.
Now - I have a paladin NPC who is also travelling through the WLD and was with the party for a considerable time prior to them entering (quite a long time prior). A bracelet of friends which didn't quite work properly (you had to make a DC15 strength check to break a charm to use it) had a charm which was attuned to the paladin.
The dwarf summoned the paladin and she came to help.
It was enough for her to soak up the damage from Madness that round, deal some damage, enough so that the sorcerer's last fireball pushed Madness in to negatives.
The party then went hack happy, especially when they noticed that the flesh of Madness was very slowly regenerating.
If there had been one less party member. If the priestess hadn't done Sacred Healing. If the fighter hadn't escaped from being engulfed. Party members would have died.
There was a real sense that they scraped by by the skin of their teeth and it could have been the end of at least a couple of them.
They have now gained a level - 9th - and since the Ritual of Unmaking requires a 9th level caster they are now in a position to perform it.
Looks like at least one more big fight is in order for the coming sessions.
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My game has finally started.
The players so far are:
A dwarven duskblade (who probably won't be playing for more than a session or two)
A warforged monk
A human fighter
A half elf scout
A kalashtar soulknife
A halfling druid
There are two more players to come, hopefully playing a rogue and a cleric, or there may be problems. Well, there will be problems anyhow, because the warforged has no one to heal him, but we'll see how it goes....
The group is a bunch of rejects from a mercenary company sent out to 'scout' (read, get lost for a while) for a rumored humanoid army. This of course led them to the the titan's body and the dungeon entrance.
The scout in the group immediately put his hand through the door and got stuck, which was good for quite a bit of amusement. That's a player I can always count on to move the story along without alot of unneccessary thinking
The group talked to the orcs in A1 for a bit and ended up leaving them alone. They moved on to A7 where the found the secret door and from there have headed straight east.
The last time I tried to run this, the group headed north, so this time around has been very different.
Their very first combat encounter was with the Rat swarm in A75, but with all the fighter types in the party, they did fine.
They are resting in A76 now, and I have alot of prep to do for next session because I honestly have no idea where they will go next. They may go back out to the hallway and head up towards A60/A70. Although, that's unlikely because of the color spray trap at A74.
I think they are most likely to go out the door from A75, but from there they can easily head in about 5 different directions.
The players so far are:
A dwarven duskblade (who probably won't be playing for more than a session or two)
A warforged monk
A human fighter
A half elf scout
A kalashtar soulknife
A halfling druid
There are two more players to come, hopefully playing a rogue and a cleric, or there may be problems. Well, there will be problems anyhow, because the warforged has no one to heal him, but we'll see how it goes....
The group is a bunch of rejects from a mercenary company sent out to 'scout' (read, get lost for a while) for a rumored humanoid army. This of course led them to the the titan's body and the dungeon entrance.
The scout in the group immediately put his hand through the door and got stuck, which was good for quite a bit of amusement. That's a player I can always count on to move the story along without alot of unneccessary thinking
The group talked to the orcs in A1 for a bit and ended up leaving them alone. They moved on to A7 where the found the secret door and from there have headed straight east.
The last time I tried to run this, the group headed north, so this time around has been very different.
Their very first combat encounter was with the Rat swarm in A75, but with all the fighter types in the party, they did fine.
They are resting in A76 now, and I have alot of prep to do for next session because I honestly have no idea where they will go next. They may go back out to the hallway and head up towards A60/A70. Although, that's unlikely because of the color spray trap at A74.
I think they are most likely to go out the door from A75, but from there they can easily head in about 5 different directions.
raynbow said:
Yep. I find this to be equal parts interesting and annoying.
Even something so simple as at T intersection means I don't know which way the party will go that night and so can't prepare as much in advance as I'd like.
Heck, some times I'm not sure which REGION they are going to play in that night. I try to push the players via email between games to come to an agreement on what they will do, but it always ends up everyone talking for the first 10-15 min of the game on which way they will head.
Ehh, it keeps me on my toes and has become a source of amusment with me saying the group NEVER does what I had planned on them doing.
rv
Ogg
First Post
Yeah it's tough but every game is meant to be played differently. I've found myself adapting slightly. Like I accidentally put the acid arrow trap in the wrong area (the big T should have been a giveaway, whoops). Anyways I realized it right after it fired so I downgraded the search & disable rolls on THAT one & kept the other one.
My experience so far.
I have a very unusual group running. I let them take flaws from Unearthed Arcana & play unusual races if they wish. Anyways, one is a Jermaline who scouted ahead & came upon the lone fiendish rat scouting ahead for it's group. He tried chatting with it (since Jermaline can naturally speak with rats) & it basically told him off. He followed it out of curiousity, ran into the whole swarm forming up, turned tail & ran back to the group after they all started telling him how they were going to eat him. He realized they were fiendish, not your momma's rats.
I let the Jermaline take the feat to give himself fast healing/1. It's paid off since it makes him cocky
. He already almost died once from the Acid Arrow trap. He told the cleric to go away after the first round of damage. Just about everyone left him when the 2nd round hit & he dropped unconscious.Having a rogue with a move of 40 & the main tank with a move of 20 is making for some fun scenarios. The usual is the rogue running back full speed with a pack of something right behind him. He's tiny though so half the time some of the not so bright humanoids mistake him for rat.
We have 4 solid players (cleric, fighter, thief, wizard (necromancer)) & 2 alternate off & on players right now. I'm giving fun experience but splitting it with an extra share. The group agreed to it. It will give them a pool later on to assist with leveling players that miss games & for spells & making magic items.
Oh & 2 players are dwarf brothers. When they came into the first room the orcs basically told them off & they slaughtered them. The necromancer found the room full of corpses & was excitedly happy. It was like he found a treasure trove. When last we left off one of the stirges of the first 4 got away. Hopefully, he'll be a fun returning annoyance.
Hussar
Legend
jim pinto said:
Ah, now that I understand better. Otay. Although, honestly, since the players will likely just pick up any magic they find, they will likely never understand the difference. Hrm.
As far as the whole prep thing goes, I think I have a distinct advantage having things online. Since I type up the region descriptions beforehand, create those DM Master Maps and then do the die rollers ahead of time, I do next to no prep. Granted, my group doesn't region hop. They stay in 1 until it's done.
Just a thought for those just starting the WLD. Take the time to make DM Master Maps. I have made several, so you can download them from the James' site, but, really, it makes life SO much easier. Even doing them by hand with photocopied sheets would be fine. Mark on what creatures are in each room, shade each section of a region a different color, mark on if rooms have traps and what conditions exist and mark if doors are open or not. It only takes about half an hour to do actually and it will save you SO much time.
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