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Derrafel
2017-04-27, 12:02 AM
First time post but i wanted to share the exploits of my players through the Age of Worms Adventure path and glean any advice or wisdom the playground can offer as this is my first attempt at DMing for this group of players. A bit about them, they formally began my DnD career and i have been playing with them for about 2.5 years. they each have nearly ten times that amount of experience in playing all sorts of table top games so I felt this was a big hurdle out the door. I read everything i could about the adventure path and being a good DM in general before i pitched the idea to my players and the were all for it. Ill start with character creation here and I hope i will be able to make regular updates, we dont play on a regulated schedule so sometimes it may take awhile. We are currently at the second magazine of twelve, Three Faces of Evil.

So, knowing that this set of modules can be character grinding, I came up with a way to do stats that ensured my party was well balanced but still offered diversity. I had them go with the standard 4d6k3 with 3 sets, but if they were unhappy with their results they would be given a point buy a bit below the highest roller of the group. They would have to decide without knowing the amount, but worst case they got some flexibility with their stats. This could be taken as mistake number one. It resulted in the majority of the crew having a 40+ point buy at their disposal. This did give them a lot of creative license with their character concepts though, so i feel it evened out. I allowed all books, no 3rd party, and magazine was iffy at best. All final characters had to go through me because i was unsure how well i could handle specific things and i didn't want those things to ruin anyone's experience. First character up to bat was BabaYaga, a witch (as defined by the DmG with tweaking) who would eventually go into dread witch and basically be a fear sorcerer. I approved this and so next came Click the Thrikeen Monk (after i vetoed dread necromancer *remember this*) and a spiked chain fighter. The fighter was actually unusual for this group as they universally hated the weapon. Last but not least was Avon the cleric of WeeJas. Enter in official DM mistake one. I was pitched a template by this player that i mistakenly read as undead lite. No con with a D12 and what not but did not gain the full set of undead traits. The mistake was not referring to the source. The page i read it from didnt specify that it became a full undead, but in the Libris Mortis (I cannot recall the name of the template) it gives an example one that does specify undead traits. I vetoed Dread Necromancer on two points, undead heavy campaign and it went lich at 20. Then i allowed a first level undead. *facepalm*

The fifth player didnt get a character to me before session one, but that ended up working out as we had several character swaps after we started. I will update as soon as i can, any comments questions or advice would be awesome.

As a side note I am loving this campaign so far, it has been a joy to DM and i highly suggest it.

ComaVision
2017-04-28, 02:54 PM
Interested in seeing more.

Derrafel
2017-04-28, 09:20 PM
Into the Whispering Cairn

The players were introduced to the campaign by hearing about a job offer from one Chappy Rosebottom, a well-to-do historian who had uncovered a map to the whispering cairn from an abandoned library formerly owned by a group called 'The Seekers'. She sent out messengers from the mining town of Diamond Lake to gather would be adventurers to take on the job. Each player gathered at the meeting point, a run down office for the nearby abandoned mines.
I changed this from the base module in order to allow more freeform character creation. It is written so that the players would be residents of this run down mining community seeking a way out, and i left that option open to them, but i felt they might not be so attached to the characters if they felt railed into a shared back ground
Click, Thrikeen monk, BabaYaga, The human Witch, and The fighter, his name escapes me, answered the call and heard her proposition out. (Avos was absent today and our fifth was running late) They were to fully explore the cairn for a base reward and would receive half the base value of any artifacts of historical relevance returned to her. They were given a copy of the map depicting where the cairn was located and a mule for cargo transportation. They set off the next day and found it readily enough. The stonework and eerie whispering of wind that exited the entrance fascinated them, but the adventure called so they didnt examine very closely. Within the first hundred feet they found 2 things of note, an old bedroll that turned to dust at a touch and further in the remains of an arcane device that vaguely resembled the remains of a mirror frame on a stone base. Closer inspection revealed arcane writing in the slot that would have held the mirror and a personal glyph of some sort etched into the base. Assuming this was what Chappy was after the fighter made a rubbing of the glyph before moving on.

The party was not quiet by any means so when the fighter walked a bit to far ahead of the group and was ambushed by wolves it shouldn't have been a surprise. They handled the combat readily enough and noticed an eerie green light flickering on the other side of a web covered arch deeper in. Not wanting to backtrack later they investigated newfound halls to the left and right, one ending in rubble the wolves made into their lair and the other ending in a large fresco. It depicted a central room with 7 short halls branching from it, each with a lantern of a different color at the end, left to right as a rainbow. In the rooms center is a large sarcophagus. One of said lanterns turned up in the wolves den, and the party found the puzzle room just on the other side of the arch.

This is a simple enough puzzle where if the sarcophagus was pointed to a lit lantern that was in its correct location it caused an effect to happen.

Being thorough adventurers they attempt the sarcophagus first, only to be met with a sheet of flames, and then inspect the green light down the northern hall. At the end was a green lantern with an ever burning torch inside. They decide to go back to the sarcophagus, realizing it was atop an arrow shaped platform. Together they managed to point it at the green lantern and were greeted by a loud rumbling beneath the floor. They wait it out, keeping a safe distance from the lantern, and the noise finally stops with the floor giving out. A large swarm of flying bugs shoots out and guns for the party as well as a medium sized beetle with arms like a mantis. The party isn't prepared for a swarm, only way to damage it is torches, and the slasher beetle hurts a lot with his whirlwind attack. Fortunately for the party a Dwarf wizard had also accepted the job and made a grand entrance here (player five has arrived). The party unanimously agrees to leave, the fighter is nearly gone and the rest are not much better, and BabaYaga Talks their new dwarf into abandoning the job with her. They return in the morning after a nights rest to find Feng the Half-Orc Cleric Barb and Tedron the Human Paladin waiting for them as co-workers.

The first order of business for the party was to confirm all options the puzzle had and then to decide on a direction to go. They find an arcane elevator down the yellow path, another one that was a crushing trap down the indigo path and a passage 60ft up down the blue path. at this point they have all the lanterns save red and have lit them. Click decides to climb the lantern chain to the passage above them and finds a hallway that ends in a sculpture of a distorted face. As he gets closer for inspection the trap springs and its eye glow a menacing red as a strong wind blows from its mouth. As it intensifies click is blown backwards, off of the ledge but manages to grab the chain again to prevent his free fall. Agreeing that the face is a no go and that they needed the red lantern, they one by one take the elevator down.

Here they find a tight room with a large stone block covering the arch to go forward and sculptures of androgynous figures in apparent worship. First order of business was moving the stone, which took them several minutes all combined, and then look at the sculptures. They soon realized they had the order reversed as gas poured from the mouths of the sculptures when the stone was moved. Pessing on to avoid the gas they found several gorgeous statues in the hall ahead, each one with its hands cupped as if to hold or receive an offering. At the end of the hall the Thrikeen found a lurking strangler, it didn't live long enough to strangle, and another arch to a large square room with a 20ft wide central pillar. A large section of this room was covered in brown mold and once again the party was faced with something they couldn't deal with out right. Click jumped over the mold to inspect the door on the other side, a workshop for a stone mason it seemed, while taking non lethal damage. Between that and the now angered small earth elemental in the room Click was downed. His party mates were smart enough to tie him to a rope before he wandered off so he was quickly dragged to safety and the elemental finished. They found several more artifacts that helped to explain the history of the cairn before leaving this section, as well as evidence that another group had been here several decades ago.

Down the hole beneath the green lantern they found more beetles, as well as a room that made one sleepy. They preferred not to play with magic rooms if they could avoid it and ventured deeper into the cairn. More beetles, some shiny loot and they come to a flooded room. Click and Tedron venture in, ropes to their waist, and were met with another elemental. Click managed to knock himself unconscious (I know some people hate fumbles but the cards are great) and had to be dragged out of the water. Tedron finished the water elemental and continued to explore, finding the red lantern and a ghoul with a sadistic side. Fighting underwater is never a good idea, but being pulled out of the water while a ghoul makes you dinner is a funny sight to see.

Once they went back up and set the red lantern in place, the face was challenged again. This time it opened its mouth to reveal a room with honey comb patterns to the wall and a wooden walk way across a pit filled with spheres. The lack of a party rogue continues to show itself as they are pelted with more spheres while on the beam until they are knocked to the floor below. Another fight ensues as a resident mole creature (another name that escapes me) attacks while a haunting voice laughs at the party and their follies. The ghost of a young boy shows himself after combat ends and requests the party return his remains to his families farmstead. In return he would open the way forward as it is barred by an incredibly thick stone door.

I intentionally hinted at the door being nearly 10 feet thick because this group likes to make doors open even if they don't want to. Also here i learned to be very precise with my wording.
The boy specifically asked to be laid to rest at his families land but not necessarily with his family.
This causes a deviation from the intended course in session two in which I decided to let them enter a combat they might not be ready for instead of arguing with a paladin who is lawyer-esque with contracts.

That's it for Session one, the party ran in line with the modules expectations so i didn't need to try and run on the fly for much. This is a bit longer than expected so for the next update I'll try to play with formatting and trim some details to make it more concise. Thanks for any reads comments questions or advice in advance.

Brion
2017-05-01, 07:58 AM
I am pretty interested in this. My group just finished this campaign a couple of months ago with Ranger, Oracle (me), Sorcerer, Paladin. I have to say the first two modules were extremely challenging for us and knowing how many traps are in the first 10 levels or so, the lack of a rogue-type (our ranger handled that) could lead to a lot of problems.

Derrafel
2017-05-02, 04:26 PM
I'll be updating with session two in a few days (getting notes together from a couple months ago), but the lack of stealth or rogue types really started being noticed from the start of the second magazine.

RedMage125
2017-05-03, 12:57 AM
Love this campaign. My players have just started "Dawn of a New Age". I've got new orders, though, and will be moving to another base shortly, so I'm hoping to do 2 sessions this weekend and finish the whole thing.

They've already hit 21
My group consists of:
Human Barbarian 11/Frenzied Berzerker 10
Human Cleric 10/Contemplative 10/Heirophant 1(Heironeous)
Human Druid 4/Wizard 3/Beastmaster 1/Mystic Theurge 2/Arcane Heirophant 11(Ape companion is monstrous)
Dwarf Wizard 6/Elemental Savant (Water) 10/Archmage 5
Elf Rogue 6/Thief Acrobat 5/Cleric 1/Skullclan Hunter 9

Advice? Either allow Sneak Attacks on undead, or encourage/allow options that permit it by the rules (Skullclan Hunter/Wormhunter PrCs, or Truedeath Crystals).
I use Pathfinder's Item Creation rules, so as to not set my PCs behind on XP. Either do that, or allow other PCs to share the XP spending (either everyone splits it, or the person the item is being made for pays it).
Also, I'd be cautious before letting PCs specialize in using one energy type to the exclusion of others. First time I ran this years ago, had an Air Elemental Savant. Turns out ALMOST EVERYTHING from Champion's Belt on is immune or extremely resistant to, electricity. Lots of cold immune creatures, too, as I have learned this time (my Elemental Savant player took Archmage to get Mastery of Elements as soon as he could).
I advise getting one of your players (preferably a martial character) get in on the secret when you start Hall of Harsh Reflections (you should know what I mean), follow the suggestion in the magazine.
Above all...DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT, allow uninhibited access to the Spell Compendium. My players have asked for some REALLY broken spells, which I've had to shot down. Mind you, some spells are totally fine. My players got a lot of use out of Panacea, for example.

If I can remember anything else, I'll let you know.

Brion
2017-05-03, 07:24 AM
I advise getting one of your players (preferably a martial character) get in on the secret when you start Hall of Harsh Reflections (you should know what I mean), follow the suggestion in the magazine.

Going to spoiler my response for those who might be playing through this or just want the plot to be revealed organically.
I am assuming you mean the doppelganger taking the place of a party member. Our sorcerer was the one "in" on the secret and it was getting the rest of us FUMING mad with how he was playing his character. He and the DM pulled off the swap REALLY well. My character was pissed enough that after we finished the fight we were already in, I was going to turn to kill him myself, and that happened to be at the moment that they had agreed to make the reveal anyway.

Edit - also I meant to mention that we played through this with Pathfinder rules/conversion, so we didn't really have multiclassing aside from the ranger.