Doctoring up Age of Worms

[Eurus]

So, I've tried to run Age of Worms repeatedly. Probably done the first module or two half a dozen times by now, never made it past the 25% mark or so. I'm going to try it again. But this time, well, I need to amuse myself somehow, right? So I'm going to be doing it a bit differently. More... lethally.

I basically want to take the Whispering Cairn and kick it up a few notches. Not quite Tomb of Horrors-level, but enough to strike fear into some PCs. I'm going to have a party of like 6 or so, and I'm not afraid to kill them off -- I plan to make it relatively easy to get revived/rescued/rezzed/zombified, to compensate.

But I'm still trying to figure out what kind of encounters and traps to actually use, so I'm here for suggestions. For those unfamiliar with the adventure, the Whispering Cairn is a tomb built ages ago by a race of auran outsiders called the Wind Dukes. It's very old by now and has been partially explored repeatedly, but still has plenty of secrets. The PCs normally start at level 1, although I'm not strictly opposed to bumping it to 2 or so instead, still considering.

For example... The first encounter, by default, is with some wolves. That's incredibly boring. What else could be lurking around there, that would give a crowd of low-level PCs a fright?

Also, if anyone has any fun ideas for unexpected twists to add into Diamond Lake, do tell!

[Aharon]

This board lacks a malicious grin emoticon.

*malicious grin* I'm AFB, but I did change a few things around. I'll contact you later. If you could PM me your email-adress, I could send you some of the monsters.

I kept the actual monsters intact, but changed the feats and ability scores around. For example, I gave the wolves some martial strike from ToB that fitted (pack leader attacking giving a bonus to the other wolves).

[Answerer]

Hey, your wolves one-shot KO'd me last time you ran it (yay 5 HP).

I also hope you'll contact me when you're starting up again. I'd love to give that another shot.

[CTrees]

This board lacks a malicious grin emoticon.

:belkar: or :xykon: work decently...

Anyway, how about Revived Fossil Wolves? You said you wanted to make it more dangerous...

Also, swarms are brutal at low levels. The beetle swarm in the room with all the elevators is just mean at level one. That's easy to run with.

More seriously, I'd go with Incarnum and ToB. Swap out feats and add some manuevers for combat effectiveness and some soulmelds for sheer oddness/tone setting. When the players don't know what's suddenly going to breathe acid at them or try to turn them to stone, it keep them on their toes a bit more.

[Eurus]

:belkar: or :xykon: work decently...

Anyway, how about Revived Fossil Wolves? You said you wanted to make it more dangerous...

Hah, oh gosh, that would be amazing. Probably slightly excessive, though.


Also, swarms are brutal at low levels. The beetle swarm in the room with all the elevators is just mean at level one. That's easy to run with.

More seriously, I'd go with Incarnum and ToB. Swap out feats and add some manuevers for combat effectiveness and some soulmelds for sheer oddness/tone setting. When the players don't know what's suddenly going to breathe acid at them or try to turn them to stone, it keep them on their toes a bit more.

Hm, fair enough. I know I want to make the thugs in Diamond Lake a little more Tome of Battle-y.


Hey, your wolves one-shot KO'd me last time you ran it (yay 5 HP).

I also hope you'll contact me when you're starting up again. I'd love to give that another shot.

Sadly, this one is probably going to be in meatspace rather than the net. Otherwise, I totally would. Play-by-post just frustrates me lately.

How about traps, then? The one trap in the hallway above the main chamber is a fun one, I'd love to see more like that.