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

[Ogg]

Still in A

I'm having fun with rats as guides for my evil party. The rogue is a Jermaline which can speak with rats so he's got rats scouting for him. They have different personalities with only one being helpful but of course of rat intelligence so not overly useful but it's enough to coerce them into certain directions.

They are more or less bullying the ogre to go with them. He hasn't been too useful yet though. They're trying to use him as a shield but he doesn't move forward unless they talk him into it & mostly hangs back after they kill anything eating it. They only were able to talk him into going by convincing him they were going to kill the orc leader.

It's funny because they can't find the orcs due to the fact they're behind a secret door. They can hear them sometime because of the wierd acostics of the area but even their rat scouts can't find them & on top of it the noise from the stirge nest is keeping them from pinpointing it.

Good stuff!

(How many more days until GenCon?)

 

[erucsbo]

Invisible Stalkers rock.
The party are slowly changing their tactics, delaying actions until the ones with good spot rolls are able to pinpoint a location, and the sorcerer keeps casting mirror image to lessen the chances of getting flat-foot wallopped.
Oh - and Blind-fighting, with the not flat footed v insivible, and extra chance to hit against invisible is paying off in spades for the Eldritch Knight. He has nominated it as the best feat he has chosen. I think that he hasn't succeeded on the first v concealment roll yet - but hasn't failed the second - true 50%.
Planning for next session is going to involve something quite huge I think.
The party has gone from the mining area in M heading towards where the spider kings are (bypassing the passage to the slave lords section), so there could be a lot of action on both flanks with the party being surrounded.
I threw some flesh golems at them in the most recent session and the magic immunity was really nice - they fluked slowing them with fireball and ray of frost (and glitterdusted the stalker), but I'll have the driders watching the party actions while invisible and now they can adapt. Lightning bolts through squares with the golems will heal the golems and damage the party - and the golem DR/adamantine means that their attacks bypass stoneskin

The party has depleted most of their spells, so will be interesting to see how they cope if things get desparate. I'll avoid a TPK because the Spider Kings will want subjects to experiment on, and having them chained up the other unfortunates could make for an interesting session if it comes to that.

 

[Ogg]

!!

Sounds groovy. Our necromancer has already chosen See invisibility as one of his 2nd level spells so I forsee them not running into some of the issues your party is erucsbo, of course that's the difference between a blaster party & a non-blaster.

The ogre was waiting to prove himself to the orc leader. When they made it to the last of the orcs in A I decided to make the orcs a lot less willing to talk & more on edge so the orcs ended up charging the party in a 10' wide hall. The ogre used that time to turn on the party. It was quite a mess. Party managed to barely pull thru. I give the players d4+1 fate points & the parties tank chewed up one of those & nearly used another lying KO'd on the ground next to the parties necromancer. Pretty exciting battle with a near total party KO. It was only thru some very lucky rolling that they managed with less casualities. It's going to take them probably 2 days in game to recover. Now they got a ton of loot & an altar just waiting for them to try their luck on.

 

[rvalle]

Hussar or erucsbo, do you have an 'DM Version' of the K map?

If not I'll work on one.

rv

 

[rvalle]

And speaking of K...

Is the region lit somehow? I don't see anything that says so, but all through the region it says how the Grn Dragon can see the players and vice-versa. This is at a range of... 300 feet? Something like that.

How about how high the ceiling is? There is a definate large cavern feeling to the map.

Hmmm, thought I had a few more. Anyone still reading this run K yet?

rv

 

[erucsbo]

Hussar or erucsbo, do you have an 'DM Version' of the K map?

Hussar did one - available on my website (holding pen for stuff that never got put on James Lorimor's site).

 

[erucsbo]

And speaking of K...

Is the region lit somehow? I don't see anything that says so, but all through the region it says how the Grn Dragon can see the players and vice-versa. This is at a range of... 300 feet? Something like that.

How about how high the ceiling is? There is a definate large cavern feeling to the map.

Hmmm, thought I had a few more. Anyone still reading this run K yet?

rv

It says in the opening paragraphs that the Derro cracked the roof (flooding here and L), and later that the dragon has gotten too large to leave, so perhaps there are fissures in the ceiling allowing reflected light to pass down.

I'd be half tempted to add a degree of phosphorescense to the water (make it pink - I dare you, and see if the players get the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy reference ) and that that allows normal vision to 120', shadowy to 240' and low-light vision gets twice that, but only over water (make it go shadowy once you hit land, and only extend to 60'/120' high). That should take care of the dragon (low-light vision + keen senses (x4 in shadowy)) being able to see them at 300', even if flying high above.

 

[Hussar]

And speaking of K...

Is the region lit somehow? I don't see anything that says so, but all through the region it says how the Grn Dragon can see the players and vice-versa. This is at a range of... 300 feet? Something like that.

How about how high the ceiling is? There is a definate large cavern feeling to the map.

Hmmm, thought I had a few more. Anyone still reading this run K yet?

rv

In the room descriptions, it mentions that everything is lit. IDHTBIFOM, but IIRC, there's something about the entire region lit by dim, foggy conditions. The whole phosphorescent thing works.

Reading and prepping this region, I admit that I didn't like it too much. However, playing it, I was pleasantly surprised. This is a VERY short region. After the party deals with Thorodin, there really isn't too much else to do. I got rid of the Hags actually because I just didn't like them, so that made it even shorter. However, the interaction with the brass dragon (bronze?) was actually quite fun. The lizard folk also made for some fun interactions as well.

To be honest, I found this region to be one of the higher RP ones that I ran. Although, IIRC, we only stayed in here about 5 or 6 sessions (other regions last 10-15), I do think it was quite fun. Plus, any fight with a dragon is always a blast.

I thought about doing K, but, I chickened out at the end. I just couldn't figure out a way to do the underwater thing with the resources they had. I knew they'd be pretty unhappy to go in with just Water Breathing spells. After all, a simple dispel magic could easily wipe out the entire party. Not a good thing at all. I'd love to give it another shot.

On another note, after I finish up with D, I want to write a rather lengthy report on what I liked, disliked and would do differently. Watch for it in the next couple of weeks.

 

[jim pinto]

To be honest, I found this region to be one of the higher RP ones that I ran. Although, IIRC, we only stayed in here about 5 or 6 sessions (other regions last 10-15), I do think it was quite fun. Plus, any fight with a dragon is always a blast.

Region K is one of my favorite in the book. Patrick did an amazing job with it. I was very impressed when it was done.

As always, things like lighting slipped through the cracks (no pun intended), but the intention was for the ceiling to be very high. An unnatural permanent shadowy light throughout the region could work, but isn't necessarily a deal-breaker, either.

I find it interesting how easy PCs kill Thorodin.

 

[Hussar]

Well, as far as whacking Thorodin goes, it's not really all that much of a surprise. IIRC, the CR for Thorodin is about 13, only a level or so higher than the party is at the time they meet him. Because he's easily visible from pretty much anywhere in the region, the PC's can pretty much gear up for the assault. A couple of simple spells negate the terrain penalties, buffing out the wazoo brings up the effective party level.

Really, an encounter that is only APL+1 or +2 shouldn't be a tough encounter. Tougher than standard, but, not extreme. Particularly since the party can pretty much dictate the time of the fight.

It was a fun fight for my bunch for all that. Still nice and challenging. But, certainly not a major blowout.

The black dragon in C, now that was a major blowout. As well as the fiendish wyverns in J. Thorodin? Not so much. A fun encounter, but, not an edge of the seat one.