World's Largest Dungeon in actual play [Spoilers!]
- Thread starter haiiro
- Start date
So the party, hellbent on trying to get to the tomb of the unliving, crossed the lava river and basically followed the necromantic pulses of energy that the tomb keeps releasing eastward (phew!).
They found the abandoned watchtower (M15) and then went north to M17 where they angered a flock of achaierai. This made us laugh since I had a WotC achaierai mini that we always use as a substitute mini for whatever I dont have. So they actually retreated to the watchtower with those stupid things in hot pursuit! (I wish I was making this up..)
After that weird encounter, they searched around and found N1. They agreed to help the devourer get inside and get some tasty souls to eat! They tried to enter through N4 and the shield guardians utterly spanked the group. Both the sorcerer/dragon disciple and the half-orc ranger were killed and the shadowdancer and cleric BARELY got away. It was almost the dreaded TPK. So, so close...
So the session was a big achaierai fight and the world's largest ass-whoopin. Weird but strangely fun.
Anyone put anything cool and/or unusual north of Region M/N? Just curious...
They found the abandoned watchtower (M15) and then went north to M17 where they angered a flock of achaierai. This made us laugh since I had a WotC achaierai mini that we always use as a substitute mini for whatever I dont have. So they actually retreated to the watchtower with those stupid things in hot pursuit! (I wish I was making this up..)
After that weird encounter, they searched around and found N1. They agreed to help the devourer get inside and get some tasty souls to eat! They tried to enter through N4 and the shield guardians utterly spanked the group. Both the sorcerer/dragon disciple and the half-orc ranger were killed and the shadowdancer and cleric BARELY got away. It was almost the dreaded TPK. So, so close...
So the session was a big achaierai fight and the world's largest ass-whoopin. Weird but strangely fun.
Anyone put anything cool and/or unusual north of Region M/N? Just curious...
Regarding death within the dungeon:
I allow my players to use the ethereal and astral planes, but the dungeon is solid within them and they are unable to open doors or manipulate objects, so ressurection is allowed in my game. Its accepted that 99.5% of deaths will just be a gold / xp sink rather than an actual loss of the character. However, now that the characters have reached the point where high level ressurections are possible (the kind requiring only a smidgeon of the original) and 5000 to 10000gp isnt breaking the bank for them, I have made sure that if they ever *do* actually lose a character completely or get wiped, that it matters.
They have one backup character each, already made up, to use if their original becomes unrecoverable. Once the orignal and the backup is gone, that's it for them. They are spectators until the end. Since they are current investigating the World Eater they are near the end anyhow so it only makes sense.
So to summarize the whole process, from 1st to 8th level if they died they were just dead, nobody could rez yet. From 9th to 12th level found them unable to afford many Raises at first, then later the problem became making sure bodies were Raise-able. 13th to 16th level similarly began with them unable to afford Ressurections and ending with them having limited backup characters (increasing risk). 17+ should find them going through another time when True Res is effective at first, then less so when the enemies get so tough that True Ressurection becomes a combat spell.
I allow my players to use the ethereal and astral planes, but the dungeon is solid within them and they are unable to open doors or manipulate objects, so ressurection is allowed in my game. Its accepted that 99.5% of deaths will just be a gold / xp sink rather than an actual loss of the character. However, now that the characters have reached the point where high level ressurections are possible (the kind requiring only a smidgeon of the original) and 5000 to 10000gp isnt breaking the bank for them, I have made sure that if they ever *do* actually lose a character completely or get wiped, that it matters.
They have one backup character each, already made up, to use if their original becomes unrecoverable. Once the orignal and the backup is gone, that's it for them. They are spectators until the end. Since they are current investigating the World Eater they are near the end anyhow so it only makes sense.
So to summarize the whole process, from 1st to 8th level if they died they were just dead, nobody could rez yet. From 9th to 12th level found them unable to afford many Raises at first, then later the problem became making sure bodies were Raise-able. 13th to 16th level similarly began with them unable to afford Ressurections and ending with them having limited backup characters (increasing risk). 17+ should find them going through another time when True Res is effective at first, then less so when the enemies get so tough that True Ressurection becomes a combat spell.
Max Rebo said:
North of region M/N I didnt put anything, but I did add a big wizard's tower above N1 that I really dont recommend, I regret it now because the PCs are using it as a base now that it's cleared.
I should have put the thing to the north where you describe. It would have fit there better. It was the base of a particularly crafty pair of prisoners who were trying to escape by manipulating their own Planar Seed (Planar Handbook) to expand beyond the borders of the dungeon.
The final battle was really cool because it involved a Planar Swap that put all the PCs in the wizard's custom pocket dimension, where divine magic didnt work at all and all arcane magic was considered maximized.
That was the backup plan for the two, assuming that the borders of the dungeon wouldnt allow the pocket dimension to pass through them, to capture one of the primary leaders of the Celestial Garrison (like Cerlebrai for example) where his and the rest of the garrison's powers were useless and hold them hostage until they were freed.
It was a fun side-adventure.
erucsbo
Explorer
how come it's so quiet here?
Or am I the only one not seeing any new posts.
Anyway - my players are about to start I this coming weekend. (and look like progressing from E without any rogues - should be interesting)
Any advice from those that have done it before to make it memorable, yet survivable?
Any gotchas or other problems I should be aware of?
Or am I the only one not seeing any new posts.
Anyway - my players are about to start I this coming weekend. (and look like progressing from E without any rogues - should be interesting)
Any advice from those that have done it before to make it memorable, yet survivable?
Any gotchas or other problems I should be aware of?
Hussar
Legend
Didn't run E, so can't really comment on that.
Did just open the floor up for my players to get a bit creative though. They wiped out Lord Tarnaticus and searched his library for the map fragments. On the website, I told them that they can add in stories that they found for small rewards - trinket magic items, xp, whatever. We'll see what they come up with. I'll post them here if they actually give it a go.
I think it's the long weekend that has things runnign slow. The Americans and the Canadians are both on holiday.
Did just open the floor up for my players to get a bit creative though. They wiped out Lord Tarnaticus and searched his library for the map fragments. On the website, I told them that they can add in stories that they found for small rewards - trinket magic items, xp, whatever. We'll see what they come up with. I'll post them here if they actually give it a go.
I think it's the long weekend that has things runnign slow. The Americans and the Canadians are both on holiday.
BlueBlackRed
Explorer
No rogues in I? Good luck.erucsbo said:
Region I pretty much requires a rogue to perform his standard duties and to find key items to push the plot along.
Might be time for a drow NPC with his own agenda.
As for making it memorable, watch some gore movies before-hand.
Gilladian
Adventurer
Well, Sunday morning I ran my first WLD session for my parents. 2 players, 1st level gestalt characters. My father is playing a fighter/wizard and my mother a cleric/rogue.
They went through A1 -A4 and then doubled back to A10. They were in A20 when we stopped. They've already used up their alchemist's fire and are beginning to understand that resources are a problem. I'm going to have to plant some random bits of stuff to refresh them once in a while (alchemist's fire, other potions besides healing, etc...) to help make up for the limited characters. I'm also tempted to have them "rescue" a good NPC fighter pretty quickly.
I'm going to use "level up" rooms rather than experience points in this campaign. Anybody else doing that? What rooms in A would be good level-up points?
Any other advice welcome!
They went through A1 -A4 and then doubled back to A10. They were in A20 when we stopped. They've already used up their alchemist's fire and are beginning to understand that resources are a problem. I'm going to have to plant some random bits of stuff to refresh them once in a while (alchemist's fire, other potions besides healing, etc...) to help make up for the limited characters. I'm also tempted to have them "rescue" a good NPC fighter pretty quickly.
I'm going to use "level up" rooms rather than experience points in this campaign. Anybody else doing that? What rooms in A would be good level-up points?
Any other advice welcome!
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