The Writhing Age: Age of Worms Campaign Log and Advice

[Kymme]

Hello good patrons of the playground.

In about two weeks, I will begin running the Age of Worms adventure path. This will be the longest and most challenging campaign I have ever ran, and I will need the help of the playground to see me through it. This thread will be my catchall thread for anything AoW related*, and as a possible campaign log, from my perspective. I intend to maintain at least one post per week. I have several of the kinks worked out, but I may need some help.

First order of business:
Part 1: The Whispering Cairn
Two questions. First, does anyone have any advice or warnings of possible problems in the first adventure? If so, does anyone have any solutions? Second, I employ music in my games, and I already have a theme (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiBrqK72Ja0)picked out for Diamond Lake, but I don't really have any other appropriate music. Does anyone have any possible music suggestions?

*I have chosen the sub-forum that seems close enough, but there might be some other stuff that could belong in other sub-forums

[Sidmen]

Hi there, I am currently running the Age of Worms in pathfinder, still on the Whispering Cairn.

My first bit of advice is a word of warning: the acid beetle swarms are all but death to an unprepared 1st-level party, and since they come out of nowhere the party will be unprepared. Single-target spells and attacks can't hurt the thing, so you just have to hope the party brought along AOE spells (more than a single burning hands will be necessary) or grenades. Which, considering they're 1st-level when they meet this swarm (most likely), means they aren't likely to have these supplies. To solve this, I suggest planting a wand of burning hands (low on charges) or a few flasks of alchemist' fire somewhere in the opening areas - unless you know that they have enough AOE firepower.

The second is about the arcane elevators... My group had no end of trouble with them, granted this is because one member was being intentionally disruptive (he refused to take the elevator back up to report that it was safe), so a small passage in a tattered journal somewhere mentioning an elevator might be helpful.

[Kymme]

Hi there, I am currently running the Age of Worms in pathfinder, still on the Whispering Cairn.

My first bit of advice is a word of warning: the acid beetle swarms are all but death to an unprepared 1st-level party, and since they come out of nowhere the party will be unprepared. Single-target spells and attacks can't hurt the thing, so you just have to hope the party brought along AOE spells (more than a single burning hands will be necessary) or grenades. Which, considering they're 1st-level when they meet this swarm (most likely), means they aren't likely to have these supplies. To solve this, I suggest planting a wand of burning hands (low on charges) or a few flasks of alchemist' fire somewhere in the opening areas - unless you know that they have enough AOE firepower.

The second is about the arcane elevators... My group had no end of trouble with them, granted this is because one member was being intentionally disruptive (he refused to take the elevator back up to report that it was safe), so a small passage in a tattered journal somewhere mentioning an elevator might be helpful.
Thanks for the advice! I thought that acid beetle swarms seemed a little scary, but I didn't know that they were that deadly. Perhaps I'll switch around some treasure so they get a wand of burning hands.

About the arcane elevators, having a journal passage about them sounds like an awesome idea. Maybe I'll have mention of "ghosts in the machine".
Thank you!

[Rallicus]

I actually started my current campaign in Age of Worms, but I disliked it so immensely that I've since branched out from it and created my own campaign with AoW features (some NPCs, some settlements, similar metaplot).

That said, be sure to read each module thoroughly. I didn't, and it made for a lot of pauses and slowed the campaign down significantly. As for tips on the Whispering Cairn: Sidmen nailed it pretty well. Also don't forget that the Wind Dukes, or whatever they're called, sometimes reset the puzzle... so that's useful if the party gets stuck.

Music wise, since I use roll20 to run this campaign, I found this song (http://soundcloud.com/agasimov/misterious-place1) to be very suitable. The sound of wind in the background somewhat captures the essence of a dark tomb (or the whispers that can be heard), the chanting fits with the theme that it's an old tomb for the Vaati... I don't know, I felt it worked.

[Kymme]

*snip*
Music wise, since I use roll20 to run this campaign, I found this song (http://soundcloud.com/agasimov/misterious-place1) to be very suitable. The sound of wind in the background somewhat captures the essence of a dark tomb (or the whispers that can be heard), the chanting fits with the theme that it's an old tomb for the Vaati... I don't know, I felt it worked.
Thanks for that, that music really fits.

[Kymme]

So. The campaign is about to start, within the week.
Now, for the players perspective. So far, we have a halfling wizard and an elf rogue, though we intend to gain more players. The elf's player knows what he is doing, but the wizard's player seems a little overwhelmed with the options. Any advice for him?

[Forte]

From my experience with that module, be sure you're ready for the areas they go into. Brush up on the underwater combat/drowning/grappling rules before they're in the showers for example. It's possible to need the rules for suffocation as well if they light the food stores on fire, though that never applied to my games.

[Kymme]

From my experience with that module, be sure you're ready for the areas they go into. Brush up on the underwater combat/drowning/grappling rules before they're in the showers for example. It's possible to need the rules for suffocation as well if they light the food stores on fire, though that never applied to my games.
Thank you for the advice. I will brush up on the underwater combat rules and the grappling stuff. I do have the rules compendium, so it shouldn't be that hard.

[Galdor Miriel]

We are just heading into the final part of AOW this weekend after playing the path for the last six years. Our dm moved it over from 3.5 to 4th in the process. It has been a lot of fun and we have thoroughly enjoyed it.

My advice is simple. Let the PCs die if they get unlucky at low levels and bring in new pcs. As soon as they get survivors try and build them into the plot. My PC is a cleric of Kord, he has survived and so all things to do with Kord have been woven into the plot by the DM. With a campaign you have to make it about the players, as well as your story.

Galdor

[Kymme]

We are just heading into the final part of AOW this weekend after playing the path for the last six years. Our dm moved it over from 3.5 to 4th in the process. It has been a lot of fun and we have thoroughly enjoyed it.

My advice is simple. Let the PCs die if they get unlucky at low levels and bring in new pcs. As soon as they get survivors try and build them into the plot. My PC is a cleric of Kord, he has survived and so all things to do with Kord have been woven into the plot by the DM. With a campaign you have to make it about the players, as well as your story.

Galdor
That long? I kinda intend to get my campaign done a bit faster that that. Thank you for the advice. I guess I won't baby my players at all this game. And I also don't really want to change the plot of the campaign a whole lot, and it will be more plot central than character central. I will try to make sure that everyone is having a good time, though.

[Kymme]

BUMP

Anyways, new order of business. I need music recommendations for mood tunes for for the first part of the campaign, The Whispering Cairn.

I'm looking for a good theme for Diamond Lake, and some songs for the parts of the adventure. Perhaps two for the Cairn itself, two for a night on the town, and two for the abandoned observatory.

Any help with this would be appreciated! Thanks in advance!

[Callum]

I used Chris Wissel's idea of putting some introductory encounters in the ruined mine office, along with some helpful treasure (including a flask of alchemist's fire and a scroll of burning hands). You can see my version of the mine office over on the Paizo forums (http://paizo.com/forums/dmtyy9zk?AoW-prelude-The-Mine-Office-side-trek).

[Aharon]

The plot is ok, but there are some big gaps.
1) First Adventure
Whispering Cairn is largely ok. The whole campaign is very battle-centric, with few other solutions.
Since I don't enjoy battles that don't really add anything to the story, I skipped some of them, particularly the Owl Bear and the guys in the tavern.
Award lots of XP, the wind-warriors at the end are pretty powerful if played well - lot's and lots of bull-rushing the players down, or hovering somewhere inaccessible and using sonic blast often. If the PCs are bad optimizers or below 4th level, the encounter can be deadly.

2) Second Adventure
If the temple leaders act even slightly non-retarded, they should band together after the first intrusion and be next to undefeatable at the given level. I toned down the number of their minions.
Also, I didn't like the rail-roady appearance of the appearance of the Ebon Aspect in the end. My players called local clerics for help. They weren't particularly high level and could only cast Magic Circle against Evil, but I ruled that it worked to contain the Aspect (in fact, I will probably significantly alter what's in the pool).

3) Third Adventure
I'll probably make the guy below the fort stronger and the rest of the adventure contain hooks with NPCs from the backstories of my PCs

4) Fourth adventure
The doppelgangers are stupid, and should try to kill Eligos instead of the PCs. They will try that in my campaign, I have yet to think about how to deal with the consequences.

[Kymme]

I used Chris Wissel's idea of putting some introductory encounters in the ruined mine office, along with some helpful treasure (including a flask of alchemist's fire and a scroll of burning hands). You can see my version of the mine office over on the Paizo forums (http://paizo.com/forums/dmtyy9zk?AoW-prelude-The-Mine-Office-side-trek).
Hm. I was thinking of keeping the Mine Office as is, so the PCs would have a home base. Turning it into a side adventure was not what I had in mind. Thanks, though!

The plot is ok, but there are some big gaps.
1) First Adventure
Whispering Cairn is largely ok. The whole campaign is very battle-centric, with few other solutions.
Since I don't enjoy battles that don't really add anything to the story, I skipped some of them, particularly the Owl Bear and the guys in the tavern.
Award lots of XP, the wind-warriors at the end are pretty powerful if played well - lot's and lots of bull-rushing the players down, or hovering somewhere inaccessible and using sonic blast often. If the PCs are bad optimizers or below 4th level, the encounter can be deadly.

2) Second Adventure
If the temple leaders act even slightly non-retarded, they should band together after the first intrusion and be next to undefeatable at the given level. I toned down the number of their minions.
Also, I didn't like the rail-roady appearance of the appearance of the Ebon Aspect in the end. My players called local clerics for help. They weren't particularly high level and could only cast Magic Circle against Evil, but I ruled that it worked to contain the Aspect (in fact, I will probably significantly alter what's in the pool).

3) Third Adventure
I'll probably make the guy below the fort stronger and the rest of the adventure contain hooks with NPCs from the backstories of my PCs

4) Fourth adventure
The doppelgangers are stupid, and should try to kill Eligos instead of the PCs. They will try that in my campaign, I have yet to think about how to deal with the consequences.
These all seem like good ideas, but I don't understand how the aspect is rail-roady, or how the Doppelgangers are dumb. They both seemed cool to me. Also, I intend for the players to fight the owlbear, and hopefully role-play through the tavern part of the adventure.

[Aharon]

@Aspect
No matter what the players do, he appears regardless. For example, if the PCs get the hint that a great battle awakens the aspect, and act very stealthily, collecting all hints, leaving minions alone and imprisoning the three cult leaders instead of killing them, the Ebon Aspect still rises if one uses the adventure as written. As my players acted as written above, I think they would have found that unsatisfying - their actions would have had exactly the same effect as if they went in and slaughtered everything.

@Doppelgangers
Raknian has learned about the PCs, and lets his minions spy on them. He/his minions should understand that the PCs are still in the dark about what is going on, and are coming to the Free City to get Eligos' help. The best way of preventing the PCs from interfering in the cult's plans is to kill Eligos so they can't get any information, and then planting false clues that lead the PCs on a wild goose chase somewhere completely unrelated - if possible, targeting some other enemy of Raknian.

[Kymme]

@Aspect
No matter what the players do, he appears regardless. For example, if the PCs get the hint that a great battle awakens the aspect, and act very stealthily, collecting all hints, leaving minions alone and imprisoning the three cult leaders instead of killing them, the Ebon Aspect still rises if one uses the adventure as written. As my players acted as written above, I think they would have found that unsatisfying - their actions would have had exactly the same effect as if they went in and slaughtered everything.

@Doppelgangers
Raknian has learned about the PCs, and lets his minions spy on them. He/his minions should understand that the PCs are still in the dark about what is going on, and are coming to the Free City to get Eligos' help. The best way of preventing the PCs from interfering in the cult's plans is to kill Eligos so they can't get any information, and then planting false clues that lead the PCs on a wild goose chase somewhere completely unrelated - if possible, targeting some other enemy of Raknian.
Ah I see now. Thank you for elaborating on those two points. I doubt that my party will actually approach that aspect in any way that could be considered "Intelligent".
Also, I thought that Raknian started spying on the PC's after they got to the free city, and then sent the doppelgangers after the PC's.

New point! The Party is complete!
We have:
One halfling wizard (transmuter). Intending to take spells out of SC at a later date.
One elf rogue. He intends to go TWF and and the Penetrating Strike class feature to annihilate everything with sneak attack.
One human fighter. Intends to go straight power attack, and take some warblade levels later on.
One human cleric. New, and doesn't really have any plans for later.
Any advice for this party? How to make sure that everyone has a chance to shine? Ect., Ect.?

[Aharon]

@Raknian
I admit it's been a while since I read the whole adventure, but in the Adventure Background section, it says he knows about the group before they come to town.

@your group
The campaign is very undead heavy, obviously. You might want to consider leaving a few wands of gravestrike as part of the loot so the rogue isn't useless against those - or advise him about the methods to affect undead after the players start to notice they encounter lots of undead.

If the halfling already is a specialist anyway, have you proposed the focused specialist ACF to him?

What reason does the player of the fighter have to take fighter levels first, and not warblade right away? Mechanically, it's the superior class, and the fluff is very similar.

Cleric: the group should pool some of their starting budget to get him a wand of healing with a few charges left. Otherwise, he's a cleric. He should do fine.

[Kymme]

@Raknian
I admit it's been a while since I read the whole adventure, but in the Adventure Background section, it says he knows about the group before they come to town.

@your group
The campaign is very undead heavy, obviously. You might want to consider leaving a few wands of gravestrike as part of the loot so the rogue isn't useless against those - or advise him about the methods to affect undead after the players start to notice they encounter lots of undead.

If the halfling already is a specialist anyway, have you proposed the focused specialist ACF to him?

What reason does the player of the fighter have to take fighter levels first, and not warblade right away? Mechanically, it's the superior class, and the fluff is very similar.

Cleric: the group should pool some of their starting budget to get him a wand of healing with a few charges left. Otherwise, he's a cleric. He should do fine.
I probably should have mentioned this before, but I have said that the group must play core only at the start*.
The fighter's player is dipping at low levels for the bonus feats, and I think also to skip to the higher level warblade maneuvers.

For the rogue, I have already recommended that he take the penetrating strike alternate class feature. It will allow him to add half his sneak attack dice against undead. Also, I have recommended that he take the craven feat, as to give him a higher sneak attack minimum.

*I made this decision because I expected to, and still might, get several people who might be new to the game. I don't want to overwhelm people with options, and I also don't want anyone to wonder why the more experienced players get to pick classes that they do not.

[Aharon]

@Penetrating Strike
I overread that, thanks for clarifying.

@Core Only
Yeah, it fulfills your purpose. Especially new players might make bad choices, though. If I were you, I would ask the Transmuter and the Cleric to focus on buffing for the two mundane characters - especially if those players are more experiienced than the others.

[Kymme]

@Penetrating Strike
I overread that, thanks for clarifying.

@Core Only
Yeah, it fulfills your purpose. Especially new players might make bad choices, though. If I were you, I would ask the Transmuter and the Cleric to focus on buffing for the two mundane characters - especially if those players are more experiienced than the others.
I like that idea, however both of the mundane characters are the experienced ones, along with the wizard. The cleric (female) is the only one who is inexperienced.
Thank you, btw.

[Callum]

Hm. I was thinking of keeping the Mine Office as is, so the PCs would have a home base. Turning it into a side adventure was not what I had in mind. Thanks, though!

Ah, but the idea is that the PCs clear out the pesky goblins (who only stumbled in there looking for shelter, anyway), and then use the mine office as a home base! Having fought for it, they have a greater sense of ownership, and they also get some items that will help them in their exploration of the cairn.

[Eurus]

I'm running Age of Worms myself (or attempting to, for the third or fourth time...), but I've never really liked the Ebon Triad. It just seems kind of... silly. Is there any different sort of cult or group that might work a little better?

[Kymme]

Ah, but the idea is that the PCs clear out the pesky goblins (who only stumbled in there looking for shelter, anyway), and then use the mine office as a home base! Having fought for it, they have a greater sense of ownership, and they also get some items that will help them in their exploration of the cairn.
Ah. I get it now. I think that that could actually be a good idea, but I don't really know if I will have time.

I'm running Age of Worms myself (or attempting to, for the third or fourth time...), but I've never really liked the Ebon Triad. It just seems kind of... silly. Is there any different sort of cult or group that might work a little better?
Sorry, man. I don't know of any canon cults, and I really don't know about any other cults that could take its place. :smallfrown:

[Kymme]

Ah. I get it now. I think that that could actually be a good idea, but I don't really know if I will have time.

Sorry, man. I don't know of any canon cults, and I really don't know about any other cults that could take its place. :smallfrown:

Now then, we have found a fifth member, and he will be talking the role of our fighter. Does anyone have any suggestions on what class the fifth member of our party should be?

[Eurus]

Now then, we have found a fifth member, and he will be talking the role of our fighter. Does anyone have any suggestions on what class the fifth member of our party should be?

I love crusaders to fill the meatshield/beatstick role, myself. They do it very well, and are very fun.

[Kymme]

I love crusaders to fill the meatshield/beatstick role, myself. They do it very well, and are very fun.

That sounds like a good idea, but I am trying to stick to core for the first couple levels. Thank you, though!

[killem2]

My advice for the whispering cairn is be careful with the level of the party when you start. if you are starting right at level 1 it should be alright.

Make sure you read the colored lantern room carefully so it goes smooth, the room with the elemental almost makes no sense, and do make sure you are up to date on your swarm rooms.

[Kymme]

My advice for the whispering cairn is be careful with the level of the party when you start. if you are starting right at level 1 it should be alright.

Make sure you read the colored lantern room carefully so it goes smooth, the room with the elemental almost makes no sense, and do make sure you are up to date on your swarm rooms.
I will be, thank you for the advice!

[killem2]

No problem, it isn't everyday we see people bringing up this module. It is really fun, but it is a bit clunky which is why I urge anyone going through it to edit it for fluency.

It will probably work out much ebtter for anyone who starts everyone in diamond lake, we're about part way into three faces of evil, and we're just now starting to get to the point of what is going on and what the mine managers are.

It would also be best to scale on the higher end, at least at first. The last fight, can be really fun if you scale the wind warriors up. my group came in at level 4 or 4 with 6 people and 5 animals, and I gave them two full HD wind warriors and going back I wish I had put them up against 3 maybe 4. They can either cheap shot the group by hovering over the dark pit area or try and fight.

[Kymme]

No problem, it isn't everyday we see people bringing up this module. It is really fun, but it is a bit clunky which is why I urge anyone going through it to edit it for fluency.

It will probably work out much ebtter for anyone who starts everyone in diamond lake, we're about part way into three faces of evil, and we're just now starting to get to the point of what is going on and what the mine managers are.

It would also be best to scale on the higher end, at least at first. The last fight, can be really fun if you scale the wind warriors up. my group came in at level 4 or 4 with 6 people and 5 animals, and I gave them two full HD wind warriors and going back I wish I had put them up against 3 maybe 4. They can either cheap shot the group by hovering over the dark pit area or try and fight.
Thanks and also:
WE JUST HAD OUR FIRST SESSION!

It went pretty well, the party made it all the way though the Lair of the Architect, and or monk is loving the masterwork staff. The party wizard also chatted up the earth elemental with a lucky diplomacy roll, and it told them about the Cairn. The lurking strangler almost got the wizard, but the monk saved him in the nick of time.

The party also barely managed to escape the beetle swarm by climbing up the chain to the "Face in the Darkness" and were almost all taken out by that trap.

After that, I ended the session. Now, the characters still have to go through the Lair of the Laborers, and the water part might cream them. Just as well, I wonder if the grick will be an okay challenge. Any ideas on how to help them with this?

[killem2]

Thanks and also:
WE JUST HAD OUR FIRST SESSION!

It went pretty well, the party made it all the way though the Lair of the Architect, and or monk is loving the masterwork staff. The party wizard also chatted up the earth elemental with a lucky diplomacy roll, and it told them about the Cairn. The lurking strangler almost got the wizard, but the monk saved him in the nick of time.

The party also barely managed to escape the beetle swarm by climbing up the chain to the "Face in the Darkness" and were almost all taken out by that trap.

After that, I ended the session. Now, the characters still have to go through the Lair of the Laborers, and the water part might cream them. Just as well, I wonder if the grick will be an okay challenge. Any ideas on how to help them with this?

It was a really weird thing to fight in such a small place. If I were you, I'd add two, and make the room bigger. like 3 times the size.

[Kymme]

It was a really weird thing to fight in such a small place. If I were you, I'd add two, and make the room bigger. like 3 times the size.

Hm. I might just do that. Thank you.

[Kymme]

Yesterday, we had our second session. In it, the party finished with the first part of the cairn, met the ghost kid, and set out to bury his bones with that of his family. They proved to be very creative in the underwater part of the dungeon, using the bless water spell and one of the drains to create a current of holy water, and lured the Ghoul right into it.

After they finished with the cairn and made it to the ghost kid's house, they had an interesting fight with the owlbear, once again using the environment to their advantage. After that they went into Diamond Lake, and found out about Filge in the observatory. We left off just as they had began to enter the creepy house.

In other news, the party has been finalized and we have:
Temo, a human monk. The player intends to go warblade and take some unarmed strike feats from ToB.
Whisp, a human cleric. This is our newest player, and she only has two sessions under her belt. She doesn't have any plans.
Twelve, a halfling wizard. He intends to be a summoner and battlefield controller.
V, an elf rogue. He intends to take the craven feat at later levels and to max out sneak attack.

It was a very successful session, and I think that we might be able to wrap up the first adventure by next session, if all goes well. The fight with Filge is bound to be exiting, but I was wondering if there might be any things to watch out for. Does anyone have any advice?

[Kymme]

Vell zhen. A couple days ago, we had our third session.
We began where we left off, with our four intrepid adventurers still within the old observatory. They had just finished off the three skeletal guards, and they were now moving up the building. They first came to the dining room, and were all creeped out by the dinner scene. Our monk actually sat down, and was a bit weird-ed out when all of the zombies began speaking to him.

After that, they all went to the next floor, and our rogue, giving into his greed, triggered the alarm by stealing a platinum piece. They party then ran to the final floor.

During the fight with Filge, the wizard buffed the monk and the monk came out punching (going straight for Filge) and eating attacks of opportunity all the way. The rogue tried feebly to attack something, but hardly did any damage.

After the first round, the big zombies burst out of their tanks, one going after the wizard, one going after the monk, and two ganging up on the rogue. The monk now was trying to attack Filge, but Filge's mage armor spell was protecting him from taking the full force of the monk's attacks. The rogue managed to dodge the zombies, and the wizard summoned a fire beetle to be his meat shield. The cleric also healed the monk, bringing him back up to full.

On the next round, the zombies beat up on the rogue, knocking him down to low health. Just as well, the giant monk beat up on Filge, knocking him down to low health. When Filge's turn came around, he used his ace-in-the-hole: Baleful Transposition. The rogue failed his save, and Filge and him switched places. This did two things. It allowed Filge a chance to use his healing potion, and it allowed the rogue to be safe from harm for a bit.

On the next round, the monk closed with Filge, and utterly destroyed him. The wizard also managed to take out one of the zombies, while the party rogue was knocked out by one of the zombies.

After the fight, the Wizard killed Filge, and the party went on their way.
Will post more in a bit.

[Kymme]

Okay then. In the past two weeks, we have had two more sessions. My party finished the first adventure, and also did quite a few things around town, and really got familiarized with their surroundings. Over all, it went well.

Now, we come to the next adventure, The Three Faces of Evil. I have heard that this adventure has several flaws, and I have taken them into account when editing the adventure for my group. I intend to make the Tiefling Guards warblades, in hopes of giving them a little extra oomph to really take the fight to my party. I have also decided to bump them up to level 2, just to make for a more close fight.

As it seems that no one has any advice to give, or just doesn't care, I have decided to change this thread from an advice thread to simply a campaign log.

-Kymme

[Deadtissue]

Kymme,

Campaign Journals might be the source of advice you are looking for. There are several out there that offer some great insight into how the adventure plays. I used them for ideas and they helped my understanding of some of the trickier encounters and traps. I have been running AoW for about 2 years now and am currently running the Prince of Redhand section.

My Journal link is http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=213787

I have not updated it in awhile as it was not being read much so I felt little pressure to update it but will again soon just for completeness.

If you have any questions about how my game ran I would be happy to answer them but so far we are having a blast. I have not changed much from the original but added a bit to connect the different parts and personalize it for my players.

When you run the temple of Vecna make sure you have a battlemat large enough to contain the entire maze it makes it much easier to run and maintain a frantic pace to keep the players off balance as thier foes move around them unseen.

Welcome to the Age of Worms......

[killem2]

Okay then. In the past two weeks, we have had two more sessions. My party finished the first adventure, and also did quite a few things around town, and really got familiarized with their surroundings. Over all, it went well.

Now, we come to the next adventure, The Three Faces of Evil. I have heard that this adventure has several flaws, and I have taken them into account when editing the adventure for my group. I intend to make the Tiefling Guards warblades, in hopes of giving them a little extra oomph to really take the fight to my party. I have also decided to bump them up to level 2, just to make for a more close fight.

As it seems that no one has any advice to give, or just doesn't care, I have decided to change this thread from an advice thread to simply a campaign log.

-Kymme

I am about to start this campaign on Nov 10th. I have a really large party. I too am going to beef up the tieflings. Since our sessions are rather long and they are all level 6, I am going to make them either stout fighters (since a lot of our party is melee) or maybe pyschic warriors. Not sure yet though.

I do know that that aspect of hextor fight I am going to have some stronger undead crawling out of the black pool. (Animated bodies of those who were sacrificed to the god :) ).

I don't know if I ever showed this forum I think I did, but with no search function I can't find it, but here is the grimlock caves and the fight with the big hextor statue in it I made for this sessions:


From Three Faces of Evil, age of worms module :)

Grimlock Caves


http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i168/ica171/Brandon%20Misc/th_ffe3ff6b.jpg (http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i168/ica171/Brandon%20Misc/ffe3ff6b.jpg)http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i168/ica171/Brandon%20Misc/th_0c399a72.jpg (http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i168/ica171/Brandon%20Misc/0c399a72.jpg)http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i168/ica171/Brandon%20Misc/th_2a081161.jpg (http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i168/ica171/Brandon%20Misc/2a081161.jpg)http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i168/ica171/Brandon%20Misc/th_fb997493.jpg (http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i168/ica171/Brandon%20Misc/fb997493.jpg)http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i168/ica171/Brandon%20Misc/th_5f9d889a.jpg (http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i168/ica171/Brandon%20Misc/5f9d889a.jpg)

Battle of Hextorites


http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i168/ica171/Brandon%20Misc/th_7b2091bb.jpg (http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i168/ica171/Brandon%20Misc/7b2091bb.jpg)http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i168/ica171/Brandon%20Misc/th_880dc440.jpg (http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i168/ica171/Brandon%20Misc/880dc440.jpg)http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i168/ica171/Brandon%20Misc/th_d5fc9834.jpg (http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i168/ica171/Brandon%20Misc/d5fc9834.jpg)http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i168/ica171/Brandon%20Misc/th_0558fa33.jpg (http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i168/ica171/Brandon%20Misc/0558fa33.jpg)

Anyway, I have a lot of scaling to do. I am going to change out the chockers under the bridge for a Otulygh (whatever its called), and I am going to switch out the two hounds in the room before the grimlocks to a Enraged Rage Drake (forget source right now).


http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i168/ica171/Brandon%20Misc/IMG_5274_zps1c8b5fc4.jpg (http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i168/ica171/Brandon%20Misc/IMG_5274_zpsd1c5e228.jpg)

I'm still not sure what undead to use, I know our cleric has been itching to really turn some undead, and I think this might be a good chance to do it. The Aspect is going to be cranked to very high HD, and I plan to throw in a twist at the end for them (some dual characters they use are out on prestige class quests) and will arrive to help defeat the big aspect.



In addition to ALL of this, the party actually brought Filge with them. :smallconfused::smallconfused:

[Kymme]

Many thanks to both of you. We will be playing tomorrow, and I hope to update again soon after.

Deadtissue, thank you for the link to your campaign journal. I intend to read through it, and perhaps get insight into how my campaign will play out. Also, yes, my battlemat is enormous, and should be adequate for the Labyrinth.

killem2, best of luck to you with your game. I hope you and your group have a good time. Also, thank you for the pictures, as they are pretty boss.

-Kymme

[killem2]

keep us updated!

[Kymme]

Okay then. Today we had our FIFTH session. They party finally made it to The Three Faces of Evil.

The group for this session:
XII, the wizard
Temo, the warblade
V, the rogue
Whisp, the cleric

Funny thing was that the party wasn't really going anywhere, so I had Balabar steal XII's familiar, and also nab the owl that V had adopted. So the group went on a quest to go find their pets, and had one of the most interesting role playing conversations yet.

I played Balabar Smenk as a horrible, awful person, but also dangerous and unpredictable to match. The party had to tread lightly, and they weren't sure when Balabar was bluffing or not. Afterwards, the party left with a job to do, and a new enemy made.

All in all, I really thought that this session went well, and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves.