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Starting FotWK on Saturday (long post)

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Grgbobe	Starting FotWK on Saturday (long post)	Lead	[-]
Posts: 6 Jul 11 05 7:42 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Tags : None Hello, I rarely post, but thought people might be interested in the history arc I've put together in my effort to tie FotWK in with Mr. Montano's other cool adventures, The Black Egg and Black Ice Well. It's rare that campaign plans survive interaction with PCs, but here are mine. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Over 1,000 years ago, two young black dragons met and, inexplicably, fell in love. They went by the names Ghul Lacronus and Shae Mora. Over time, they grew ever more powerful until one day a human woman sought out Shae Mora and bested her in single combat. This human woman spared Shae Moras life on one condition; that she and her mate, Ghul Lacronus, serve her. A direct descendant of the gods, Lilith Balthazon became emperor over the whole of Renaaria Bay, including the demi-humans of the area with the help of Shae Mora and her mate, Ghul Lacronus. Years passed and Lilith grew ever more powerful. Shae Mora and Ghul Lacronus became special agents to the empress, much like powerful enforcers. While Ghul Lacronus was away in the area that is now known as Kalamar, Lilith went mad. It is not known exactly what caused this madness. Perhaps she touched just one too many items of deep power or touched a plane across space and time that caused her to devolve to madness. Some speculate that the Harvester of Souls was jealous of her power and caused her madness and gave her the curse she would use on her entire empire. Certainly, many believe it was the influence of the Bloodthorn Amulet, an item linked to the Harvester of Souls and, now, to Shae Mora. Whatever the root cause, Lilith went mad, became a vampire and cursed her subjects to all become undead. Normally, a dragon wouldnt be affected by such a curse, but Shae Mora somehow was affected and she, too, became a vampire. She also went mad. What followed this was what can only be described as an epic battle against evil, spearheaded by the heavenly hosts of the Knight of the Gods and the Eternal Lantern. Many outsiders were granted phenomenal powers by the gods to strike down these undead abominations. Being quite possibly the most powerful creature on the planet, Shae Mora was the last of these undead to survive (although many scholars speculate that powerful representatives of each form of undead did survive; it is surmised the vampire that rules Giilia and the lich lord that rules the city of the dead in the Khydoban Desert are both examples of this). However, even Shae Mora could not hope to survive against the combined might of the gods of good, especially when the forces of the Abyss also turned against her. It turns out that a group of demons on the run from the Abyss for betraying a demon prince were the ones who finally destroyed her physical body. These demons backed a demonic Witch King who was destroyed when he tried to usurp the rule of the demon prince. They brought many powerful and evil relics with them and hid them away in a temple to the Witch King, a place called the Ebon Fane. Below this was an area called the Black Vault, where the relics were kept and a GATE to the Abyss was secreted. Alas, true evil is never so easily destroyed. These demons, the Sajaith, tried to use Shae Moras blood in their necromantic experiments. (see Black Ice Well for more info on this part of the story) These experiments went awry and the human cult of Sajaith worshippers, known as the Sajaithy Cult, was nearly wiped out. Only one cultist, a wizard and alchemist known as Asharoth, escaped the Sajaith compound. He took the Bloodthorn Amulet with him. The rest of the demons and the human cult members were trapped within their compound, the Black Ice Well. It was called Black Ice Well due to the strange ability Shae Moras black blood had to create cold. What happened to Asharoth is not known, although it is assumed the Sajaithy Cult determined they must separate the Amulet from the Black Ice Well and he was to hide it until they could determine how to defeat the incorporeal Shae Mora, brought back to some semblance of unlife and power via the Sajaithy experiments gone wrong. Now, during the time of the curse, Ghul Lacronus was afraid to return to the Empire for fear he might be affected, as well. However, once the curse was lifted by the powers of good and it was safe to do so, he returned and began a campaign of destruction against the empires people to retaliate for Shae Moras fate. He learned of the role the demons had in Shae Moras destruction and a hatred of humans (and elves, dwarves, gnomes, etc.) and demons grew within him. He vowed that he would one day rule Renaaria Bay both above and below and no demon would be welcome in his empire. Centuries have passed and events are occurring that are leading to a dangerous head. The dragon, Ghul Lacronus, has created a method for creating half-dragons loyal to him through the assistance of a crazed druid (see Goodman Games Temple of the Dragon Cult). He and some of his dragon allies are using their blood to create an army of loyal half-dragon followers. This group of dragons and half-dragons is the Black Covenant, part of Ghuls larger force, the Ghul Legion. Ghul Lacronuss plans for ruling both the above world and the underdark are in motion. Hes gathering items of power to go along with his newly created (but still small) army. Hes co-opted a clan of stone giants and their minions to help lead this army. Hes also made contact with evil humans willing to betray their own kind for power. Among these contacts, Ghul Lacronus has found scholars and wizards to help track down powerful magic items, artifacts and relics. Hes recently discovered that the Ebon Fane is below Geanavue and has sent a team led by the human Crithian Raine to determine how to get to these items of power. Ghul Lacronus has also been searching for an artifact called the Black Egg, something created by an abyss-touched human wizard known as Zebediah Frost. Ghul Lacronus has learned the Black Egg will give him control over half-fiend/half red dragons and he wants these creatures to serve as his vanguard of terror as he assaults the above world. His scholars also tell Ghul Lacronus that it appears as though Frost also had possession of an amulet that serves as a key to some ancient evil. Ghul Lacronus (rightly) believes this to be the Bloodthorn Amulet that can release his beloved Shae Mora. Its been years since anyone last saw Frost, but Ghul Lacronuss agents are close to finding someone who knows how to find the Black Egg (see Tobias Hilcrest, a.k.a. Tobias Frost). Ghul Lacronus has plans in motion to: Find the Ebon Fane/Black Vault and plunder their items of power Determine where Zebediah Frost hid the Black Egg and the Bloodthorn Amulet Divine the location of the Black Ice Well and Release his beloved Shae Mora to rule the world by his side These things may just come to pass unless a group of heroes can upset the plans of dragons, demons and men. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ I've placed the Weapons Vault deep underneath the sewers of Geanavue in Kalamar. Crithian Raine has been in the area some time and purchased a small mansion near the opening to the cavern (reached through the sewers). He's recently abandoned the mansion having found the dwarven keep. My PCs are searching the sewers for some missing sewer workmen and will be stumbling upon the fake wall that opens into a passage that leads down to the cavern. They'll find this on Saturday. Who knows how my guys will fare. They are usually the gung-ho types and their average level is 8th, so they'll romp at first. This may get them into trouble later. Well, if you've made it this far, thanks for reading. I'm happy to hear ideas/criticisms on my history arc and would love ideas on how to make it better. I'll try to note updates in this thread as my group makes their way through FotWK, but make no promises. Regards, grgbobe
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Daezarkian	Re: Starting FotWK on Saturday (long post)	#1	[-]
Posts: 196 Jul 12 05 6:48 AM Necromantic Writer Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	This is awesome. I've always been curious to see how someone (other than myself) might tie these adventures together, since they (as well as "Hellstone Deep", my other MonkeyGod adventure) were all written for the same campaign. Your story is air-tight, and making Ghul the behind-the-scenes bad guy for the campaign is a great idea (sorry I never made stats for him ). If your PCs are starting FotWK at 8th level, they'll probably be able to plow right through the early parts of the adventure, barrel into the Fane or take the fight to Raine right from the get-go (though, as you pointed out, they could very likely get themelves into trouble with this approach, especially if they get cocky after the first few lower EL encounters). If they play all of the way (or even most of the way) through FotWK, they should be able to move seamlessly into "The Black Egg", and maybe to bridge the level gap between that adventure and BIW you can have the Covenant of the Claw/Black Covenant (as I've established in a prior post, they're the same group, just with different publishers...) come gunning for the PCs, as detailed in Chapter Eight of FotWK. My only suggestion (and it's a minor one) is that if you're going to play BIW as written, it might be fun to somehow introduce Craven or some of his cohorts earlier in the campaign while the characters are lower-level. Since Craven is the one who winds up with the BloodThorn Amulet, he could either be an ally of Ghul or representative of yet another evil party interested in Shae Mora's remains. (If you take the second option, maybe the Covenant of the Claw could be a third group that the PCs have to contend with in BIW). That minor (and superfluous) recommendation aside, your storyline sounds like a lot of fun, and I'm happy (and more than a bit flattered) that you're getting so much mileage out of my humble work... Have fun! Daezarkian
Grgbobe	Re: Starting FotWK on Saturday (long post)	#2	[-]
Posts: 6 Jul 12 05 8:05 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Wow, Daezarkian, thanks for the reply and suggestion(s). I have to admit I've been working more on "The Black Egg" connection, but introducing Craven earlier is a great idea. Hmm, methinks a third group is the best way to do this. Although I can just introduce Craven at the end of The Black Egg, since the amulet is with the egg. We'll see what I have time for and what the PCs bring. I've been printing up "battle maps" via Dundjinni for the Cavern, Weapons Vault and Black Fane. I'm also working on orders (papers) from Craine to be found on some of the team leaders and a journal for Craine himself that should help the PCs understand just how much danger the countryside is in. BTW, I'm so stoked about the half dragons (not seen before in my campaign), that I've been preparing special half-dragon minis. I've got 5 or 6 of the "main" characters from The Black Egg prepped and painted and I've got some Chainmail Orc Berserkers ready to go for the black orcs and I'm planning on a Confrontation wolfen for the white gnoll(s). Now, if I could just find a six-armed man! All-in-all, I'm hoping to make this campaign arc fairly memorable for the guys. Thanks, grgbobe
Daezarkian	Re: Starting FotWK on Saturday (long post)	#3	[-]
Posts: 196 Jul 14 05 6:23 AM Necromantic Writer Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	That's awesome -- with the amount of preparation you're making, it sounds like your players are in for a real good time! So as the "Black Egg" connection, that can be handled easily enough if your party becomes long-term enemies of the Ghul Legion and the Black Covenant. Maybe some high-level information gathering or even a prophetic vision can direct your group to the fact that the Black Covenant is trying to retrieve a powerful artifact that will grant Ghul Lacronus great power...but all that the information/prophecy/vision/whatever can actually tell them is that the Covenant's activities will end up affecting the city of Rhale (or whatever Kalamar city you decide to nuke in "The Black Egg"). It's a bit tenuous, but since all you need to do in order to get the party involed in "The Black Egg" is get them near the city, something like this may suffice. So far as a "six-armed man"...well, I actually originally designed Sabar Trug based on this miniature (WARNING: it's a bit risque'...). Her name was Sabarra Trug, and while the spear and shield didn't really work, I thought it would be neat to make her a half-marilith of a class that could really use all of those extra arms, so the half-marilith monk was born. The reason I changed "Sabarra" to "Sabar" in FotWK was because the villain in the climax was already a female (Kytarra Bane wis one of my favorite creations), and I didn't think it would serve to have the PCs battle two powerful female half-fiends right in a row, so I abdicated and switched one to a male (I wasn't taken by the concept of a male nymph...). This is a great miniature: in my next campaign I'm going to use her a specially "bred" type of female Spellweaver (from the Monster Manual II) that can assume a normal human form (which comes in handy, because she's a spy). It's a lot of fun to take existing minis and warp the rules around them to make them work... Anyhow, your campaign sounds like a lot of fun; if you get a chance to post any details, I'd love to hear how it goes. Have fun! Daezarkian
Grgbobe	First adventure log	#4	[-]
Posts: 6 Jul 17 05 10:23 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	So, my players began their assault of the Fane of the Witch King last night and heres a short write-up on their experience. But first, maybe a roll-call is in order: Kaylar, 9th level elf wizard Mohag Jr., 8th level human fighter Esker, 9th level gnome rogue Melnik, 5th/3rd level dwarf fighter/cleric and Brandon, 6th/2nd level human cleric/ranger I created a short back story/adventure for FotWK. Basically, Crithian Raine found the tunnel to the cavern while in the city sewers and built a secret door to cover the entrance. His team has been surprised by several groups while using the secret door, including some sewer workers and a team or two of guards sent in to look for the sewer workers. All of these folks have been drug down to the cavern and become food for the inhabitants. Raine has since moved his operations to Ghul Keep, but my band of adventurers have been hired to determine what has happened to these folks by an alarmed lord of the city. Raine had his people create a couple of traps in the tunnel to take out whoever might find the tunnel. The PCs began searching in the sewers near the last known point of the sewer workers. I used Skeleton Key maps to create a sewer area and the party was off. They overcame an otyugh just before finding the secret door to the tunnel, but not before Mohag Jr. fell into the sewer while trying to run across a slippery ladder/bridge in an effort to flank the otyugh. A nice laugh for all. Next, the team began an arduous descent down the tunnel. Arduous, since they decided to continuously check for traps and stop to make listen checks. This was compounded, since I made the tunnel 1 mile long. That will teach me to have a trap at the very beginning of the tunnel. Ugh. The dwarf was lucky enough to be wrapped in the shins with a scything blade trap. A lot of search rolls later, the party begins to get a stronger smell of rotting meat. They make the gnome invisible and send him about 100 ahead to scout. Despite darkvision, 10 before the end of the tunnel, he deftly falls into my 7x7 pit trap with spikes at the bottom. This is a bad omen, as the team begins to fail just about every saving throw. So, the rogue is in a pit that has closed above him and has a miserable climb skill. He makes the attempt, but falls and takes yet more damage from the spikes (and fall). The rest of the team (with lights) discovers the pit trap. They come up with a plan to wedge the pit door open via the dwarf standing on the back side (right at the edge of the tunnel). I figure the gnolls can see the light and decide to take a crack at the dwarfs back with the ballista. Natural 20. A threat. Roll again, a 19, easy enough to crit the dwarf. Pow, down to about half of his HP. A round or two later and the PCs are at the edge of the tunnel (with lights) trying to figure out where the bolts are coming from. They make a plan and execute it on the 3rd round. Bam, the elf takes a ballista bolt in the chest and finally realizes the lights are making them targets. OK, lets light up the cavern. The cleric/ranger lights up an arrow and shoots a shot into the rift. OK, cant see anything, lets try another. This one stays up, but is nowhere near the gnolls. So, three standard gnolls have caused about 50 HPs of damage so far. The team starts flying and rappelling down into the cavern. Several rounds later and a bunch of wizard spells later, the gnolls are dead, but have inflicted about 75 HPs of damage on an 8th level party. Not a good start. The team spies the bodies in the Rift and discover that they make up about of the missing men. Lets check out this first passage to the right (the cloaker lair) says the dwarf. So, here we go. Now, I didnt think the cloaker alone would make much of an encounter, so, I add a destrachan. The destrachan seems to be able to adjust his hearing, so I decide he sees value in partnering with the cloaker whose sonic effects he can ignore. Once the team is fully in the area, the cloaker goes for his nausea effect. Down go the wizard and the cleric/ranger for 5 rounds (nice roll). Out comes the destrachan who sonic blasts the fighter, dwarf and gnome. Thinking the moaning is also coming from the destrachan, the 3 standing PCs all attack it. Next round, the cloaker tries stupor on the gnome, bang, one hold rogue. The destrachan goes down, but the cloaker engulfs the fighter and clubs the dwarf. The fighter then fails every single grapple check for several rounds. At one point, I think the dreaded TPK is upon us, but the gnome finally comes out of the stupor flanking the cloaker and takes him out with a great sneak attack. The fighter has 7 HPs left. I rule the cloaker has a lair up above, but all the fly spells are done for and the rogue doesnt want to try another climb. They send the wizards owl familiar up with the last light spell and note that it sees a cave space with some bodies. OK, well rest in a bit, get spells back and then loot it. Im thinking, OK, theyre smart to stop here and rest or teleport back to town. But, no, lets check one more side passage suggests the dwarf. Theyre pretty much back to full health thanks to the 9th level Cure Moderate Wounds wand, but theyre sacked on spells. Everyone agrees wed better check one more passage. So, the party starts into Hellstorms lair and I really play up the dead gnolls. They smell like theyve been cooked; yep, theyre blackened and their fur is gone; melted armor etc. The rogue is nervous, but the wizard says It was probably the work of a fireball. Famous last words. The dwarf pushes past the dead gnolls like a fireball isnt going to be a problem. The fighter decides hes going to back up the dwarf and moves adjacent to him at the opening of the cavern. The cleric/ranger moves up to the rogue next to the dead gnolls to search for booty just about the same time as the first rock from Hellstorm beans the dwarf in the head. Unfortunately for the team, Hellstorm is further than 60 away, so darkvision isnt cutting it and no one knows where the problem is coming from. The wizard wisely hangs back and prepares a spell. Hellstorm flies to about 30 high right in front of the dwarf and fighter and lets loose with a blast for fire breath. It catches everyone but the wizard (who is so protected against fire anyway, hed be fine). Bad luck ensues as only the fighter and the rogue make their saves and the dwarf misses with his frost-burst dwarven throwing hammer. No one else has a missle weapon ready and the wizard burn a magic missile on Hellstorms shield spell. OK, retreat to the main cavern. Hellstorm spends a round grabbing another rock and the PCs are realizing their mistake. The cleric/ranger does some healing on himself (good thing, too); the wizard waits by the door working on a plan but does nothing this round; the dwarf waits for his hammer then runs over by the cleric ranger. The rogue and fighter run over by the dwarf; all are bunched together in front of the entrance to the dragons lair. Oh yes, did I mention that they all blew their initiative roll this fight, too? The dragon throws another rock and beans the wizard this time; again out of darkvision range, so no hammer tossing for the dwarf. The wizard runs over to the entrance to the old cloaker lair while everyone else either buffs or heals themselves. Next round, Hellstorm drops down within ranges and breaths again. Down goes the cleric/ranger to unconscious. The fighter shoots his bow and does 9 HPs to the dragon, the rogue is trying to hide and the dwarf is so injured, he runs over to the wizard. Hellstorm is thinking shes got a bunch of patsy slaves about now and wizard decides its time to teleport everyone back..except, he can only take three others with him; can the gnome fit in a handy haversack and not count against the three? I rule yes and the plan goes into action for the fighter to throw the gnome in his haversack while the elf and dwarf race back over so everyone can be touching. Hellstorm thinks this is not so good and lands to grapple the unconscious cleric/ranger to keep the plan from proceeding and tells the group to surrender. The team has seen Galaxy Quest too many times (never give up; never surrender) and decides to leave the hapless cleric/ranger to his fate, spurred on by the dwarfs cry of Ill never surrender to that bastard dragon. Thats where we ended the night. Yikes. They went in pretty over-confident after the otyugh and gnolls encounters (despite the gnolls really laying into them; they forgot about that as the gnolls went down so easy). OK, so this write-up was longer than I planned. In all, we had a lot of fun, but I think the guys got a little frustrated with a long night of bad rolls. Theyre really into this now, but the capture of the main cleric is causing some angst. More in two weeks (or so). Grgbobe
magoo	Re: First adventure log	#5	[-]
Posts: 1225 Jul 18 05 6:08 AM Necromancer Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Great read. Seems like you all had lot of fun! -- Shut your cake hole, Skeet.
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Daezarkian	Re: First adventure log	#6	[-]
Posts: 196 Jul 18 05 6:10 AM Necromantic Writer Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Ouch!!!! It's amazing what a night of bad rolls can do -- regardless, I'm impressed that the dreaded TPK did not occur. I'm sure they'll do better next time, especially now that they know what to expect (and can prepare accordingly). Very nice touch teaming up a destrachan with the cloaker...nasty combination, that. And it's nice to know how dangerous some common gnolls can become when you give them the right tools.... Very cool -- can't wait to see how they fare on their next delve into the Excavatiion area! Daezarkian
Grgbobe	Re: First adventure log	#7	[-]
Posts: 6 Aug 9 05 10:24 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Hmm, I'm having trouble posting my 2nd session notes here. I'm trying to copy & paste them here, but the session keeps timing out, saying "server not found or dns error". Does the forum have a limit on the amount of text a post can have? I'm trying this shorter post to test. Grgbobe
magoo	Re: First adventure log	#8	[-]
Posts: 1225 Aug 10 05 4:23 AM Necromancer Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I assume you are trying to copy and paste directly from MS Word to ezboard. Don't do that. Copy and paste from MS Word, to notepad, to ezboard. MS Word has some embedded hidden character that may crash the form your are submitting. -- Shut your cake hole, Skeet.
Grgbobe	Re: First adventure log	#9	[-]
Posts: 6 Aug 11 05 8:01 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Well, same problem coming from Notepad. It's almost like the ezboard server times out because it can't read in the entire post. Whether that's due to hidden/restricted characters or to the post being too long, I'm not sure. I'll try typing in the entire thing Saturday when I have time. Thanks for the tip, Magoo. Grgbobe
magoo	Re: First adventure log	#10	[-]
Posts: 1225 Aug 12 05 4:39 AM Necromancer Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	maybe you could try to split your post in two parts... -- Shut your cake hole, Skeet.
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Starting FotWK on Saturday (long post)

Starting FotWK on Saturday (long post)