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

[JoeBlank]

Hey, here's a question. What would you do to PC's that decide to eat fiendish creatures?

I will likely be faced with that situation as well, as I am making my group keep track of food and water. I'll make it easier after a little while, but at first I want them to get the feel of being trapped in the WLD, finding a way to survive.

Are you concerned with the morality of eating the fiendish creatures, or with whether they make for a healthy meal? Or both?

Not wanting to deal with the moral issue, and knowing that my players know little about templates, I'm figuring it is okay from an alignment standpoint for them to eat the fiendish creatures, thinking of them only as animals. And I figure they make good eating too.

 

[Hussar]

Well, I'm thinking fiendish calimar... I mean Darkmantles are not morally wrong to consider food. Cooking is kind of difficult since fiendish creatures have fire resistance 5. You are going to need one heck of a fire. But, I was more concerned about the health affects. Is eating a fiendish creature going to cause some serious heartburn?

Although, I suppose, purify food and drink solves that problem well enough.

My players were perhaps less than well prepared when they realized that they had enterted the Dungeon, knowing they would not be able to leave, with about 4 days of food between them.

 

[Barak]

Well.. I'm starting the game tonight, due to a confluence of happy events leading me to be ready much earlier than thought at first.

The previous post did touch upon something I've been wondering about. The one part of the whole thing some of my players -might- be disgruntled about is the "you aren't getting out of here" thing. Any players of people running the game got mad at that?

 

[Schmoe]

Hey, here's a question. What would you do to PC's that decide to eat fiendish creatures?

In the Book of Vile Darkness, there is a horrible disease (Soul Rot, IIRC) that affects those who consume the flesh of evil outsiders. I would use that or, barring access to BoVD, another similar curse or disease of my choosing.

Edit: "effect", "affect", let's call the whole thing off.

 

[BlueBlackRed]

The previous post did touch upon something I've been wondering about. The one part of the whole thing some of my players -might- be disgruntled about is the "you aren't getting out of here" thing. Any players of people running the game got mad at that?

My players were told that "once you enter, you cannot leave".
Nothing was elaborated beyond that, but at least they understood prior to entry and were able to prepare for it.

They accepted it just fine. But then again, my group's average age is 30, and I don't game with whiners.
Oh and they're used to me screwing them over...

 

[Barak]

Well, I didn't -really- expect them to seriously whine, but who knows.

Well, we started last night. I have..

-A Dwarven Barbarian (CN)
-An Elven Rogue (CN)
-A Human Cleric (CN)
-A Human Monk (LN)

I was a bit surprised by their alignement choice, but oh well, they're the ones who'll regret it somewhat. While they are now aware that they cannot leave, I don't think they really realize yet that it'll be like that for a loooooong time. They were -somewhat- prepared, but there was a few things they had talked of going back to town once they learned more that, well, obviously won't happen now (mostly hire hirelings). They are trying to make good use of whatever spare resource they find, including "pickling" meat in the barrels of vinegar. Orc meat, and fiendish rat meat, that is.

I've had two PCs fall to negative at the first darkmantle attack (Death from Above), mostly because it took them by surprise, and it took them a while to realize what was going on. In a funny twist of fate, they had mentioned looking at the ceiling in -all- previous rooms, but didn't in that one. We didn't get to play that long on that night, since we started pretty late, and I had to actually -get- them there, so they only got to interact with the 3 despondent orcs. Things are gonna get more.. Interesting when they get a bit further.

They did try to use oil to burn the fiendish rat swarm, which was pretty.. amusing. And the dwarf is now nicknamed "Doombelly", for killing both the darkmantle (in a grapple) and part of the swarm (using a shield in a somewhat.. Different shield bash) with Belly Flops. All in all, fun times. We play again tomorrow night, yay!

 

[CZHorse]

I will likely be faced with that situation as well, as I am making my group keep track of food and water. I'll make it easier after a little while, but at first I want them to get the feel of being trapped in the WLD, finding a way to survive.

Are you concerned with the morality of eating the fiendish creatures, or with whether they make for a healthy meal? Or both?

Not wanting to deal with the moral issue, and knowing that my players know little about templates, I'm figuring it is okay from an alignment standpoint for them to eat the fiendish creatures, thinking of them only as animals. And I figure they make good eating too.

There is nothing wrong with this approach, as it puts the pressure on the PCs to find food and drink, and with usage of Purify F@D it is not a problem. I did this to start, and let them find that in region E, they did not feel the need to eat or drink. If they get on the good side of the celestials, they will each get a ring of substenance.

 

[JoeBlank]

CZHorse, I like the ring of sustenance idea, and coming from the celestials it makes sense. If my players go that route then it would make sense at that time too, as the PCs will be getting a sense of greater importance and bigger goals, so it will be a good time to stop worrying about the mundane.

 

[Hussar]

Thanks for the heads up on the disease thing. I gave my players fair warning on that one. That is one NASTY disease.

For now, until I finalize the reasons, I'm just adding areas of food along the way. Last session, there were fish in the pools in Region A. They've managed to gather about three more days food, so starvation is a bit more remote. Heh. I'll seed a few other pools and other areas of food here and there. Perhaps one of the positive energy rooms could act as a greenhouse.

I do have an idea formulating in the back of my mind.

When the Dungeon was first constructed, there was no real reason to curtail any sort of reproduction. Extra planar creatures can't reproduce, so it wasn't a problem. However, with the earthquakes, mortals broke into the dungeon and the inmates immedietely started breeding with the mortals. The celestials realized that they would soon be overrun by these half breeds so the came upon a plan. Crafting powerful magic, a number of the celestials froze all reproduction for larger creatures. They knew that if they ended all reproduction completely, the mortals would die. Not willing to commit genocide, even to hold back the infernal inmates, they limited reproduction to anything tiny or smaller. This allowed the mortal creatures to still live, and created a stunted but functional ecosystem throughout the Dungeon. The creatures that need to eat, eat fungi and small animals and vermin and the bacteria within them still functions, allowing them to digest. However, the outsiders could no longer create half breed armies to overwhelm the celestials.

How does that sound?

 

[JamesL85]

I have a new addition to my WLD page. Richard Valle sent me a jpg map that has where monsters are located and broken into the different sections that are in the book. He's looking for feedback, so let's here what you guys think....

The aforementioned page can be found here.

James