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

[Hussar]

Heh, I believe BBR should be fielding that one E.

BTW, I just had the group meet Cylerbrai. Now, I know he's meant to be weak, but, I figured he was just that - weak. I had him do most of the exposition for the region and the Dungeon in general. Since I'm likely going to kill him off soon, either through assassination or the Flame thing, I figured he should be on stage at least a little.

What did other people dow with him?

On a side note, the abyssal basilisk disappeared in a red mist after the raging, buffed, orcish barbarian scored a crit with his great axe and blew about 130 points of damage into it. I think it scared everyone at the table. Great moment.

 

[erucsbo]

Region F questions

okay - so I'm not sure if my players are going to head north to I or east to F from E (expect they'll probably head F unless I railroad them), so I have some questions.

Warp Gate Keys: "If a PC possesses two warp gate keys, he passes through the gate as if it weren't there."
I don't get this. It talks about using the warp gate keys by inserting them in the keyhole to 'unlock' it. How does possession of multiple keys render a gate ineffective and does this supercede the 'unlocking' option?

and Warp Gate Side effects. Have any of you actually used these? I can't really see any benefit to gameplay from having these affect anyone not of LG alignment (which is all bar 1 character in my party).

 

[pokedigimaniac]

okay - so I'm not sure if my players are going to head north to I or east to F from E (expect they'll probably head F unless I railroad them), so I have some questions.

Warp Gate Keys: "If a PC possesses two warp gate keys, he passes through the gate as if it weren't there."
I don't get this. It talks about using the warp gate keys by inserting them in the keyhole to 'unlock' it. How does possession of multiple keys render a gate ineffective and does this supercede the 'unlocking' option?

and Warp Gate Side effects. Have any of you actually used these? I can't really see any benefit to gameplay from having these affect anyone not of LG alignment (which is all bar 1 character in my party).

You know, this is a good question. I hadn't thought of this before. At first, I had just interpreted this to mean that if you held a certain warp key, it would automatically set the door to send you to that location. But, now that I think about it, that wouldn't work at all... hmm. Good thing I'm most likely not running that region, eh? Whew!

 

[BlueBlackRed]

Back in the dim dark ages when I started playing D&D ('81), the first dungeon I made and ran a party through had a very well hidden secret trapdoor under which was a Ring of Gaxx (check the Artifacts in the 1ed DMG). Why? Because I wanted to have something I considered way cool in the dungeon, but hidden enough that it was unlikely that the party would ever find it (and they didn't). Stupid in hindsight and thankfully it didn't ruin the game.
I got a similar feeling from N223. Has anyone actually had a party find the scrolls? It is so far out of left field that I really struggle with its purpose except perhaps as a panic button or a way to violently shift the game flow in to a new direction. (ok - it states its purpose but it reads like a kludge).
Having said that, I don't think it is necessarily a bad thing, but would like to have the players able to reach it not completely blind to what is going on.

How have others of you who have had parties go through N handled it (if there are any of you still reading)?

I'm inclined to add it to the foreshadowing events that can be thrown in to other regions (certainly wouldn't give clues in N where the named undead might encounter them).
Maybe clues could be garnered in the Hidden Library in E, and from Cyrlebrai in G about the existance of the scrolls and where they may be found.

thoughts? comments?

My guys found the scrolls.
The way the region is designed, you almost have to search every room to do the job you need to do (find the keys, pull the levers).
In fact, they totally misunderstood my intention of the scrolls.
I had changed the scrolls to flashpaper so that they would light up at the slightest flame, but the spells on the scrolls would do absolutely nothing.

I left what would happen had they burned the scrolls open so I could wing it as I didn't want to end the WLD in an anticlimactic manner.
But to them "flashpaper" meant that they had to protect the scrolls at all costs.

And it wasn't until possibly the most crucial moment, about 8 combat rounds into it with the World Eater, that they wondered again outloud what the scrolls did and I reminded them "the 2 scrolls made of flashpaper".

Then something clicked, and the tide of the battle almost turned, but they had already blown many of their spells and they just simply weren't thinking that night.

 

[Hussar]

Some of you might remember that, before the server crashed, I mentioned that I would be turing the entire dungeon into custom tiles. Well, I finally posted a bunch of pictures from that endeavour. (The campaign is called the "Endless Dungeon" -- ignore the other campaigns, unless you like that sort of thing). All pictures are in-game shots.

Of particular interest would be the following:

• Session 14
• Session 15
• Session 16

Oh, I suppose it would help to add that these pictures all take place in Region A. You might recognize the pillar rooms.

Dude, that's cool. You have SO much work ahead of you.

 

[tbug]

okay - so I'm not sure if my players are going to head north to I or east to F from E (expect they'll probably head F unless I railroad them), so I have some questions.

Warp Gate Keys: "If a PC possesses two warp gate keys, he passes through the gate as if it weren't there."
I don't get this. It talks about using the warp gate keys by inserting them in the keyhole to 'unlock' it. How does possession of multiple keys render a gate ineffective and does this supercede the 'unlocking' option?

Yeah, I ignored that.

and Warp Gate Side effects. Have any of you actually used these? I can't really see any benefit to gameplay from having these affect anyone not of LG alignment (which is all bar 1 character in my party).

I used them. Basically, the net effect is that the players are avoiding Region F. I'm going to make them pay (there's a rakshasa in there, for crying out loud!) but they're just not willing to risk the doors.

One idea might be to make the keys deactivate the side effects. It's too late for my game, but that could help yours. Also, I'd add some keys. There are only three total out of a possible ten, and I think that having some scattered about (possibly in other regions) could really help.

 

[erucsbo]

One idea might be to make the keys deactivate the side effects. It's too late for my game, but that could help yours. Also, I'd add some keys. There are only three total out of a possible ten, and I think that having some scattered about (possibly in other regions) could really help.

good idea. I might seed a couple of keys in E.
If the party decides to go north I might hint that they may want to leave them with the Garrison so that once all the cleanups are done the garrison members can head east to help the celestials in G (if the party doesn't go that way) - I have a paladin NPC going through B and C to G as a separate (out of game) storyline [and has already been used to get two other characters joining the party].

 

[erucsbo]

Changes to Region E to include other regions

My party went for (and retrieved) the garrison charter last night.

In the Chamber of Ends there are candles for every garrison member. I read this to mean that the garrison was the entire WLD not just Region E as it states that there were hundreds and hundreds of alcoves and thousands of candles (which would be far too many for just region E). Only 19 remain lit - though by my (albeit quick and dirty) calculations it should probably have been 21. Now I had previously mentioned the garrison in Region G and had to explain the absence of candles for them saying that they predated the charter and thus hadn't had candles lit for them. You may also need to adjust the number if you have other celestials seeded about the place, and this neglects the lantern archons in other areas as well. 3 of the party signed the charter

Also - following the dispersal of keys from F. I've made quite a bit of use of the W rooms in an unnumbered rooms in E. One I picked was of the demon corpse that is slowly regenerating but is being consumed by bugs at the same rate. The party didn't search it, but I think did pour holy water on it to hopefully tip the balance towards decaying it further (they have spent more time in some of the W description rooms than most of the normal ones, particularly the W rooms with machinery). Now that they have been informed by the celestials in E of the breakout of demons in F and that keys were used, they might end up going back to search the body - and I'll have one of the blue keys from F there.

 

[twilko]

My party went for (and retrieved) the garrison charter last night.

In the Chamber of Ends there are candles for every garrison member. I read this to mean that the garrison was the entire WLD not just Region E as it states that there were hundreds and hundreds of alcoves and thousands of candles (which would be far too many for just region E). Only 19 remain lit - though by my (albeit quick and dirty) calculations it should probably have been 21. Now I had previously mentioned the garrison in Region G and had to explain the absence of candles for them saying that they predated the charter and thus hadn't had candles lit for them. You may also need to adjust the number if you have other celestials seeded about the place, and this neglects the lantern archons in other areas as well. 3 of the party signed the charter .

When my group reached that room they just couldn't help themselves. They got out their candles and started replacing the missing ones and relighting the dead ones. By my count (and I could be wrong) the garrison has 19 members including inevitables and region G has 53 celestials of one sort or another. So in the end the party ended up with 75 candles burning (a few will have gone out by the next time they visit). So the party knows there are other celestials about and are rather annoyed with the Garrison for not having gone out and found them. Only one of the party is Good by the way and the rest (6) are neutral.

 

[erucsbo]

Garrison count

If there are celestials in other regions (and I suppose we could count 15 lantern archons from regions A-O if they should be considered garrison members - the one in Region N probably should at least) that I have missed could people please add them.
This would be used if you want to have lit candles for all garrison members in E42.
This does not include extra creatures added to scale up encounters.

Region E = 21 (22 if you include a token lantern archon beyond Lilig, Spark and Sorjin)
Inevitables:

Dorsam (E78)
Dubar (E75)
Fastur (E68)
Astol (E68)
Toras (E68)
Morsaq (E72)
Persal (E69)
Presin (E71)
Senar (E65)
Smeras (E70)
Tekarus (E64)
Wetoq (E67)​

Celestials:

Besar (E102)
Doj (E101)
Kelara (E109)
Lilig (E108)
Morkor (E109)
Sanjid (E107)
Sorjin (E108)
Spark (E108)
Spers (E103)​

I haven't included Iridinhael (E5) as he is dead (well - technically undead)

Region G = 57 + 3 (petrified) = 35 Hound Archons + 3 petrified Hound Archons + 7 Trumpet Archons + 12 Astral Deva angels + 1 Planetar + 1 Solar + 1 Couatl
(and you could add another for the token lantern archon as well)
patrol x2 Hound Archons (listed in G3)
patrol x2 Hound Archons (listed in G7)
patrol Trumpet Archon (listed in G13)
(G1) x6 Hound Archons
(G3) x6 Hound Archons
(G5) Cyrlebrai [Solar Angel] + Celestial Couatl
(G7) x9 Hound Archons
(G9) Labarus [Hound Archon] + x3 Hound Archons + x3 petrified Hound Archons
(G10) x2 Astral Deva Angels
(G11) x2 Trumpet Archons
(G15) x2 Astral Deva Angels
(G16) x2 Astral Deva Angels
(G18) Evalan [Planetar Angel]
(G21) x2 Astral Deva Angels
(G23) Farnas [Astral Deva Angel]
(G25) x3 Astral Deva Angels
(G28) x2 Hound Archon + Trumpet Archon
(G32) x4 Hound Archons
(G35) Raverna [Ghaele] ???
(G67) Sarnikyan [Erinyes] ???
(G77) x2 Trumpet Archons
(G99) Mavian [Trumpet Archon]

I have ??? by Raverna and Sarnikyan as it is not clear (at least in my quick scan) if they are/were members of the garrison. It might be interesting if Sarnikyan had a candle flame that burned black (or purple or some other colour), and if the 3 petrified Hound Archons had flames that were rock solid. Not sure if the Couatl should be counted as a garrison member either (comments welcome).

That makes a possible total of 88 = 68 + 3 steady + 1 black + 1 (Raverna) + 15 lanterns.