Eyes of Nine
Everything's Fine
Love that Apparatus of Kwalish mini!
D&D General Your last adventure in photos.
- Thread starter darjr
- Start date
John R Davis
Legend
Vecna in Krynn. Dead bark dryad encounter with some trolls, into the three moon vault, which I had drew quite badly beforehand hence the dodgy squares
Clint_L
Legend
Last game was super fun - the party had finished up a huge arc, so spent a few days doing sand box-type stuff. They geared up, partied, and finished off two minor adventure hooks they had acquired over the past few weeks. First they finally located alleged treasure cave on a crude map they had won, and battled the zombie hillbillies - the Sawback Family - that dragged their way out of the dirt to ambush them. Notable because my spouse's artificer, who normally stays well out danger, found themselves in the thick of things and almost died, and the party came to really appreciate the value of the paladin's radiant smites, which were the only thing that finally stopped the cannibalistic monsters from coming back:
Then they located the hunting ground of a legendary zombie shark, Blackjaw, in order to retrieve a lost signet ring. This was one of those fights that was over before it even began as Blackjaw rolled a 1 for initiative, the ranger led off with an absolutely ridiculous critical, and then everyone else piled on. As the DM, I was disappointed, but on the other hand the players loved that they absolutely kicked but. Given that in the previous session they had come within a whisker of defeat against the Big Bad, this lopsided victory was probably what they needed, so it's all good.
Finally, they set sail for their next destination: the lost dungeon of White Plume Island (I've done a complete revamp of White Plume Mountain to fit it into this campaign).
Then they located the hunting ground of a legendary zombie shark, Blackjaw, in order to retrieve a lost signet ring. This was one of those fights that was over before it even began as Blackjaw rolled a 1 for initiative, the ranger led off with an absolutely ridiculous critical, and then everyone else piled on. As the DM, I was disappointed, but on the other hand the players loved that they absolutely kicked but. Given that in the previous session they had come within a whisker of defeat against the Big Bad, this lopsided victory was probably what they needed, so it's all good.
Finally, they set sail for their next destination: the lost dungeon of White Plume Island (I've done a complete revamp of White Plume Mountain to fit it into this campaign).
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Aellic Mornbringer
Explorer
If you don't mind, at a high level, what are some of the key things you've changed for your revamp of White Plume Mountain? I just reread it a couple days ago and am brainstorming a massive revamp myself to fit it into the campaign I'm prepping for. (I'm keeping the original location but scraping the backstory somewhat and definitely adjusting quite a few of the encounters. The party will be searching for the location to recover some artifacts to help them and the Shield Lands defend against the Horned Society and/or Bandit Kingdoms.)
Clint_L
Legend
Ohmigosh - I changed virtually the entire thing and just kept the map and the basic premise of an archamge's lost lair. My write up is 12 pages long. In small print.
I love WPM, but it very much shows its age in that, plot-wise, it is pretty nonsensical.
In this version, set for a party of 6 players, level 7, it's still the long neglected lair of the archmage Keraptis, who vanished in the Age of Arcanum, but was known for tinkering at the boundaries of magic and technology. My backstory is that he found a volcanic island (which puts it in the right region for the current campaign) and was working on harnessing its geothermal energy while working on his immortality project, like any good archmage does. Unfortunately, Keraptis botched his attempt at lichdom, so he survives in the inner sanctum, but as a sort of twitchy, muttering lunatic of a lich (which depowers him enough to be level appropriate).
Centuries later, a bunch of Dwarf traditionalists came to the island. They had stolen a sacred artifact, the Hammer of Moradin, from their home city and, learning of the fabled lost lair, decided to repurpose the dungeon to hide the hammer. This they accomplished, just using the east wing of the dungeon as the rest was more trouble than it was worth, but the volcano erupted as they were leaving, killing them and wrecking their ship.
Recently, the party discovered that wreck while testing the artificers submersible (seen in photos above), and with it clues that have led them to the island (the dwarf barbarian knows of the legends around the hammer). So here they are.
Changes:
Surface entrance is buried after an eruption; added a second underwater entrance, which is how the party is getting in.
Kept the neglected gynosphinx, but sassed her up a bit.
The east wing is now dwarven themed. Kept the green slime; added a dwarf skeleton with more clues/flavour. The nine orbs room now basically is a "truth or consequences" game as the spirits of the dead dwarf fundamentalists tests the worthiness of the party. Kept the idea of the numbered golems but made them stone defenders. Kept the swinging discs trap with a few tweaks; it's always good fun. The final room now has an iron golem guarding the hammer of moradin (in it's dormant state, so unlocking its full potentian can be a plot thread for the rest of the campaign).
The central wing is now about the archmage's research area and the main engine of the complex. All the foes are redesigned with this in mind, so helmed horrors, water elements, and living spells. The former lviving quarters for the werewolf guard and his wife are now the archmages study and lab. The central encounter, with the magical membrane protecting the platform, is somewhat similar except now the platform is built around a geothermal-thaumic engine, protected by living spells.
The west wing is about the archmages living quarters. I kept the weird floating river feature but now it leads into a storage area for spell components guarded by magical constructs (all of which are getting kind of glitchy after all this time). I tweaked the traps a bit, and the heat trap is now a magnetic trap coupled with a living cloudkill spell that should really mess with them. The tiered aquarium is now fully dead and packed with creepy, atmospheric details. In in the final room is the above mentioned Keraptis himself.
So...big changes, but I think it makes a lot more sense now, and ties in much better to their story.
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John R Davis
Legend
So the level 15 PCs doing the Oerth chapter of Vecna , return to Saltmarsh where they started and encounter the Kraken of Tharizdun seeking the rod in the tomb. Coupled with a storyline of a dragon orb they found in the Tower of Zenopus led to a 2 hour epic and entertaining battle last night
CacklinSlayers
5E 4-evah, I'll be waiting
Bonus points if you guess which dungeon I'm running here
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