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

[Elephant]

good call - while my party has gone A->E I do have an NPC paladin heading through B and C so I may be able to introduce items from there if the party crosses her path.

And thanks pokedigimaniac - yes there is the watrazor in L and Eight-Strike-Fang in I (which might be the bait I need to send them north).

As an aside - there is a ridiculously powerful evil sword and evil spellbook in C. I know that if my party had gone that way, at least one of the party would have been very tempted to change alignment just to use the things. I can't think of any reason why such items would be included in WLD unless you wanted to punish people playing good characters.
What have others done with these items?

On the other side of the coin, there are some very strong benefits to playing good characters. The elemental rooms in region A, the possible alliance with the celestials in E, etc.

 

[twilko]

As an aside - there is a ridiculously powerful evil sword and evil spellbook in C. I know that if my party had gone that way, at least one of the party would have been very tempted to change alignment just to use the things. I can't think of any reason why such items would be included in WLD unless you wanted to punish people playing good characters.
What have others done with these items?.

I don't know about that. Big evil items should be there. Afterall if the purpose of the dungeon is to trap evil then that applies to evil items as well as evil creatures. You may have to create rewards for Good characters but the evil stuff should be there to temp the weak.

My party hasn't gone through C and probably won't (touch wood, they do the damnedest things). I did add 3 extra rooms to the All Door loaded with evil books, evil weapons and armour and just cool evil items. They party has some of these things and are begining to learn the nature of them. I don't won't to destroy the party by forcing them all to be evil but I do want them to make a choice about which way they go. The party started out neutral but has shown a deffinate evil bent.

 

[Hussar]

As an aside - there is a ridiculously powerful evil sword and evil spellbook in C. I know that if my party had gone that way, at least one of the party would have been very tempted to change alignment just to use the things. I can't think of any reason why such items would be included in WLD unless you wanted to punish people playing good characters.
What have others done with these items?

Sword? Don't recall that one. The book though, yeah, it's bad assed. Granted, if you can actually get to the book at that level, without any help, I'd be impressed. Never mind that if you're an evil party, the only way to get there is through the Celestial halls, which are just going to do so many bad things to you.

Really, it does make sense that in a prison like this, they're also going to house a number of evil artifacts. G has several within the Celestial garrison as well. It's not punishing good parties, but rather providing a bit of flavour, IMO.

An evil party in the WLD would get it's butt handed to it pretty hard in many regions. Maybe it's just because I'm doing G at the moment, but, sheesh, there's a bloody Planetar in there! Evalan by herself could wipe out a 10th level party without breaking a sweat. Never mind the Ghael Raverna that's sauntering around as well that has no problems slaughtering evils on sight.

I would definitely NOT want to play anything other than a good PC in here.

 

[erucsbo]

Never mind the Ghael Raverna that's sauntering around as well that has no problems slaughtering evils on sight.

Do you consider Raverna to be a garrison member or not?
I don't recall any other Ghaeles in G, and off the top of my head, can't remember if there are any living Ghaeles left in E either.
It didn't really make it clear to me on my preread of the section (there are a lot of things that come to light in gameplay that are obscured in a beginning to end read of the section).

 

[Hussar]

Raverna isn't listed as one of the Garrison members, so I treat her as a free agent/ ally. It's not like she's going to help the demons. OTOH, the lawful garrison would likely be a problem as well. So, she stays outside the garrison, splatting demons and others from time to time. She has already met my party and sent them forward to the garrison, armed for bear against the basilisk. Worked pretty well.

I think she's an excellent card for the DM to play if the party gets in over their heads in the region. Just as the bad guys are about to lay the slippers to the party, she can show up and drive things off. Not often, but, maybe once or twice in the region.

 

[pokedigimaniac]

I think Raverna is more of a lone wolf. How she got there is unclear, and pretty much up to the DM, but what the book has to say in the obvious areas about her:

"Though she has not officially allied herself with the Children of the Inner Light, Raverna met their leader and took it upon herself to rid the REgion of the evil fiends haunting it. Unless the PCs are evil, she views them as potential allies."

Mind you, that's from her Random Encounter text on page 350. Most of her other Random Encounter texts are fairly similar. And, frankly, that's pretty much all the information that the book gives on her. I get the feeling she's there as a bit of a DM's tool - much like the random encounters which can bring either Besar (bralani Ftr3, I believe) or one of the inevitables down to the south end of Region E to pull a party out of bad shadow fights if needed.

So, Raverna could be there for whatever reason you desire, but she's not connected to the garrison. Think of it as 'the enemy of the enemy is my friend.'

In terms of powerful artifacts, there's a +3 dragonbane dagger in C72 under a big pile of rubble that could easily have more fluff attached to it, but I haven't been able to find info about a powerful evil sword in C in my scan through the region. However, I did remember other interesting artifacts...

Region D has Truesilver, which is interesting enough on its own. (Page 175)

Region E has a nine lives stealer, but it's been discharged.

Region F, I haven't reread recently, and can't tell you much about.

Region G has some pretty vile stuff that's being kept locked up by the celestials, such as a talisman of ultimate evil, and the spear of Ternius (a cool weapon - +4 humanbane longspear of wounding, with purple worm venom attached. Shame the celestials won't let anyone use/touch it.). Lord Tarnaticus has an interesting weapon with a story to go along with it. (Page 361) And I almost forgot - a very powerful item with a very powerful guardian, the rod of tainted earth, with a fiendish elder earth elemental (24 HD!) guarding it.

P.S., Hussar, if you don't use this against your party, I'll be sad.

Region H has Lyonatar's Eye (page 395), which is pretty much damn impossible to use/activate with things as they are in there. Jolinaar has some cool stuff, though. (page 427)

Region I, as previously mentioned, has Eight Strike Fang (page 435), among other things. It's also got the Ritual of Unmaking, but don't expect your spellcasters to start tossing that one around.

Region J has the chaos diamond in the possession of some behirs (page 508). There's also Baltazzar's Lantern (a variant djinni's lamp) (page 516). On the same page is a gem that acts as a brazier of commanding fire elementals with some advantages and drawbacks. The gem radiates evil, though, as it summons an evil elemental. Shame. There is, of course, Tyrus' hoard, but good luck getting that stuff.

Region K has the crystal of vile attraction (page 543), a cursed item. There's all the tanaa'ryl items (page 557), which have a couple of drawbacks. There's a gem of lightning, well hidden. (page 583)

Region L has the watrazor. Enough said. The whole region's effectively built around that - completing it will be an epic challenge. (And whoever built Mahg'Gog has succeeded in impressing me. Giving a kraken wings? Awesome!)

Region M I haven't read in forever. No idea here. Didn't impress me that much.

Region N... now we get interesting. This is where that powerful evil sword resides... Varnarul, a CE +5 celestialbane keen bastard sword. (page 767) Besides that, there's so much STUFF in this region that I can't cover it all. Let's put it this way - it's the old lost treasures of the ages.

Region O... geez, you won't get here for a while.

That's pretty much all of the major treasures and artifacts. Feel free to add more.

Edit: Clearly Hussar and I agree on the usage of Raverna. And I can't believe I just went through the whole WLD book and spat out all that information. Pretty amusing.

 

[erucsbo]

And I can't believe I just went through the whole WLD book and spat out all that information. Pretty amusing.

thanks pokedigimaniac - very much appreciated!

Hussar - the sword was in C21.
PCs who search the room for at least 1 hour are allowed a DC30 search check to find a single loose stone protected by a DC28 search/disable glyph and a DC50 open lock check to find a box with another DC28 search/disable glyph and another DC50 open lock check (and both stone and box are indestructible). In the box is a longsword - Strong Evocation [chaotic, evil] and moderate transmutation. +3 anarchic flaming keen mighty cleaving unholy longsword!

 

[pokedigimaniac]

I gotta tell you, if your PCs have the capability to make DC 50 Open Lock checks when in C, there's something weird going on. But good catch - I had missed that one.

 

[Dracorat]

I gotta tell you, if your PCs have the capability to make DC 50 Open Lock checks when in C, there's something weird going on. But good catch - I had missed that one.

Let's assume 6th level and a rogue who absolutely wants to have the highest check possible.

Level + 3 for straight ranks: +9
Masterworked tools: +2
Nimblefingers feat: +2
Dex base of 20: +5
Cat's Grace: +2
Skill Focus [Open Lock]: +3
Rolls a 20 on the check: 20

43, just off the top of my head. Im sure more situations might apply.

Other possible bonuses:
Circumstance: (knowing the lock from previous experience, for example) +2
Synergy: More than one lock picker assisting (+ 2)
Bardic: +2

Finally, if the wizard or sorcerer knows knock then a locked chest is laughable at best.

 

[pokedigimaniac]

Fair point, in a theoretical situation. However, with all the feats available, the probability of a rogue taking Nimble Fingers and Skill Focus: Open Locks doesn't seem that high.

And as for knock, I'm guessing that this particular lock should be immune to knock - it's an ancient evil relic that was locked away by celestials, after all!