Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Bliss 12-29-04, 03:21 AM	I had a request to elaborate on what I did with my expansion on the Sunless Citadel basing an over-arcing campaign around him and thought I'd do so on the boards in general in case anyone was interested. Basically I'll run you through what my players have already done as well. The setting is Forgotten Realms, by the way. This could easily be altered to fit elsewhere, however much leads towards the party eventually doing City of the Spider Queen, although that is optional. I placed the Sunless Citadel northeast of Waterdeep. Chapter I: The Sunless Citadel First you bring you new players through the Sunless Citadel. There are very few changes here really except for the Calcryx part. For those not familiar, Calcryx is a wyrmling White Dragon. The Kobolds, if the players go that route, ask you to retrieve their "pet" from the goblins. This went just as usual, with Meepo joining the group for a short time. The change to make is Calcryx himself. In the module it calls for the players to just knock the dragon out with subdual damage and return him to the kobolds. What I did was had Calcryx actually have a conversation with the party. Before anyone talks about such a young White dragon being clever enough for this, well he isn't what he appears to be. Get back to that in a bit. The players barter with Calcryx who agrees to let them return him to the Kobolds in return for a favor which they must swear to do for him. He doesn't elaborate on this "favor" then but says he will tell them after they have finished with the Citadel and are ready to leave. My players went and eliminated the goblins and then returned Calcryx to the Kobolds before heading down to the Druid. Calcryx plays stupid when around the Kobolds pretending to be a dumb White wyrmling. On the way back to the kobolds he tells the party to return to him after defeating the druid. The party leave Calcryx with the kobolds who are most grateful. They then went and defeated the druid. Upon returning the kobolds are all dead ... in a frosty eaten sort of way as Calcryx has eaten them. My players were saddened by this icky demise of Meepo's. Calcryx then informs them of the details of the favor they owe him. By the way, I am blessed to have some wonderful RPers in my group and this Calcryx plot line really demands some good RPing from both the DM and the players. Calcryx's personality is haughty and arrogant but not threatening. He also rarely tells the truth, although he never tells a lie which leads to the party being in danger. The favor is that he has been waiting for a group of adventurers such as themselves for some time and that he will accompany them on their adventures. As the party gave their word, things should fall into place. If the party insists on not living up to their side of the bargain, Calcryx forces it on them. Here is how. If the party agrees, Calcryx asks them to choose a volunteer amongst them to be his particular companion. As soon as the party agrees on someone he magically transforms into a white, dragon shaped bracelet which is affixed onto the wrist of the chosen character. The bracelet confers a +2 deflection bonus to AC, +2 save vs. cold effects and a +2 Fortitude save. If they party breaks their agreement with Calcryx he forces himself onto one of them anyway (preferably someone who does not already have a familiar, as a spellcaster with Calcryx attached to them cannot have a familiar. If a spellcaster is the person who volunteers, Calcryx will inform her that he will have to free her familiar from servitude to take him.). At that point, the Sunless Citadel is over. Chapter II: Forge of Fury Okay, now for the secont part. I placed Forge of Fury in the Nether Mountains just off the Turnstone Pass. Again you could easily place it anywhere. My party included a Monk of Oghma and the Church of Oghma took a decided interest in Calcryx (for those in the party who know Draconic his name means "Inheritor"). Any attempts short of a Wish spell to remove Calcryx will fail. The interim period for my players was spent first in the Temple of Oghma in Waterdeep and then via Portal to the Temple of Oghma in Sundabar. At this point on the party is basically "hired" as an exploratory team for the Oghmites. Now here is the plot hook to Forge of Fury. At some point Calcryx told the party that he was descended from a dragon named Mornax'a'caeldum. Research by the party or by the Temple of Oghma will tell them that Mornax was a Silver dragon, not White (the plot thickens for the players) and that there are references to him attached to the old ruins of Glitterhame (remember the dwarven scroll in Sunless Citadel refering to Glitterhame?). The Loremaster as the Temple in Sundabar hires the party to investigate the ruins of Glitterhame to discover more. And so the module can begin. As an aside, at this point I had another player join the group and he played a Cleric of Helm. He was hired by the Oghmites to be a guardian (the group was lacking a 'tank' and healer). And so the Temple of Helm is also now involved in the story. This module will run basically as is. There are three notable exceptions. The first is that there is a reference to the Silver dragon, Mornax'a'caeldum, in the library where the succubus is. Mornax gave Durgeddin the hill where the Glitterhame is originally when he sought a place to build his forge. Again it states that Mornax was a Silver. The party and expecially the bearer of Calryx should be notably concerned now about their lil' White friend. The second exception is only viable if the player bearing Calcryx is in a situation where she is about to die (for my group it was over the rope bridge where the player fell in). If the Bearer is about to die, a Time Stop type spell comes into effect. Players will have a Will save DC 20 to notice that something happened although they are not powerful enough to resist it yet. Only the Bearer isn't stopped. At this point Calcryx transforms back to himself and berates the Bearer for being stupid enough to die and informs the bearer that he can only aid him in such a way three more times. That is the limit to his power. He does not answer any questions however. He simply either reverses time to before the point of death or in some other way prevents it from happening and time goes on (for my players it was Calryx levitated the Bearer back up the chasm ... it could be something as simple as a Heal spell or some such thing). Remember he can only do this three more times. Hopefully the Bearer won't get cocky though and should not get the impression from Calcryx that that sort of behaviour is acceptable. The last difference has to do with Nightscale, the Black Dragon. At some point, the Bearer should receive a telepathic message from Calcryx that "I can sense Nightscale near. Do not waste time. I need her soul." Now my players at that point had no clue that Nightscale existed so they got twitchy for the rest of the module. When the party actually fights Nightscale there is the major change. When Nightscale reaches 0 HPs (although I use the Wound/Vitality alternate system) and is effectively dead Calcryx stops time again. This time players should receive a DC 25 Will save to actually resist being stopped in time as well. So the Bearer might have other witnesses to what is next. Calcryx becomes a dragon again and touches the body of Nightscale in her last throes. She disappears and Calcryx becomes a Black dragon and returns to being a bracelet on the Bearer's wrist. His only response to any inquiries is simply "My ascendance approaches." Well that should finish Forge of Furty. Whew. Players should be about 5th-6th level at this point. I'll continue this in the next post as I don't know if there is a character limit on these things
Bliss 12-29-04, 03:22 AM	Okay, these next parts are kinda up in the air more as I moved away from modules. My goal is to get the characters to 9-10th level and get them into City of the Spider Queen (there are 6 players, if you have less you'll want to get them to a higher level). A quick review by the way of the party members as their own backstories are kind of important. First you have the Bearer, Galfon who is a Monk of Oghma. The best part about him is that he writes a journal of everything that has transpired, always tells the truth and while completely tweaked out about having Calcryx attached to his wrist as an Oghmite wants to know what Calcryx is. Next you have Unther who is a Sorcerer (although working towards Dragon Disciple) ... sort of leader of the group although my party is more democratic than that. The best part about him is his familiar, Skald, a raven. Skald is ... well sort of special. I roleplay him (he speaks Draconic) ... more intelligent than he ought to be, always wants to eat the eyes of any creature the party kills and occasionally makes references to things like "cars", "tvs" and "pop culture". He is a good humor tool for the game. He also seems to know a lot of things ... I'd give more on him here but the player might read this post and shouldn't know Skald's history. Let's just say getting Skald as a familiar was something special. Next you have Brannigan, who is a militaristic, pure-hearted Cleric of Helm. One of the best RPers in the group although they're all great. Then there is Shai ... a Druid of Mielikki (sp?). Let's just says she, as in the character not the player, smokes dope. In fact if she doesn't have at least one joint per game day she takes a -2 to her rolls. But she can't have more than 2 joints per game day or else she takes negatives to her rolls as well. The best part is she has saved the asses of party members more times than I can count (Yay Summon Nature's Ally). Then there is Rowan ... one time street urchin of Waterdeep and now the party's Rogue. All I have to say is she with a Cloak of the Bat hanging from ceilings, flanking, Hiding and sneak attacking has eliminated more baddies than is healthy. And last is the party's Ranger, an Air Genasi who has buddied up with Shai a lot. Sorry for the diversion, but the group's make up helps put some things in perspective. Okay so where to now? Well for the next step you'll need the Silver Marches book, which by the way is probably one of the best Forgotten Realms source books out there. There is a miniadventure in there call Telkoun's Tower. Really what you need to do is get your players to a high enough level to start City of the Spider Queen but here is what I did: Chapter III: Telkoun's Tower Having returned to the Temple of Oghma in Sundabar and given the Loremaster there the update on what has happened (not to mention sent an Oghmite archaeological team as well as a group of dwarves to reclaim Glitterhame ... gaining some brownie points with the dwarven holds in the North), the party can rest and resupply. After sufficient time the Loremaster resummons the party together. He tells them that there is yet no direct information on Calcryx to be found. It appears Calcryx wants the souls of dragons to metamorph into whatever he is "ascending" to. The Loremaster tells the party that perhaps the next time such an event occurs they should refuse to do what Calcryx asks them (ie chasing down a particular dragon or something of that nature) to see his response and therefore discern his purposes. And it just so happens that the Loremaster has a way of putting the group into such a situation which will have the added benefit of solving another problem. Through a Harper contact, the Loremaster has discovered that the reclusive and enigmatic sorcerer, Telkoun, is in two weeks time planning on having a meeting with one of the Morueme Blue dragons (again having the Silver Marches book helps) and that a small group of Drow have been seen in Telkoun's valley. Unfortunately the last two Harper agents sent to investigate have not returned and no word has come from them. Therefore the Temple is hiring the party to go to Telkoun's valley to arrive during this meeting and find out why Telkoun, a Morueme dragon and the Drow are conspiring about. Perhaps with Morueme dragon's presence will cause Calcryx to demand something from the Bearer but if nothing else perhaps the party can discover what the meeting is about and what happened to the missing Harper agents. And they're off. Now there are aspects to this mini-adventure that are important, but more important than anything is that there are encounters involved which are far above the capabilities of even 6 6th level characters. But that is okay. It takes some quick thinking by the DM to get the players where they ought to be. In my case Rowan, the group's Rogue, was able to get to the Tower itself while the rest of the party was dealing with the Hydra near the river. And here comes the first connection to the City of the Spider Queen ... a party member needs to be captured. There are many ways of doing this ... from one of the players who was scouting ahead and therefore alone (as in Rowan's case) or perhaps at night while the party is resting. In any case Maas (a Rogue/Assassin/Shadowdancer Drow Vampire from CotSQ) comes across and knocks out (in Rowan's case from behind with a gag of ether) a member of the party. Taking her back to the Tower, she is thrown into one of the holding cells next to Niema (or whatever her name is. In the published mini-adventure she is just a commoner, here she is a 4th level Ranger and member of the Harpers). The captured party member will overhear a conversation between Telkoun, Maas and Cabrath (the other Drow from CotSQ who is Maas' lover in that module.) about the upcoming meeting and whether the small band of adventurers currently entering the valley is a threat to that. They determine not and that the meeting will go as usual. Now here I gave Telkoun the ability through magic to mind read Rowan ... in any case figure out a way for him to discover the existence of Calcryx. Obviously he is interested, as are Maas and Cabrath. Otherwise the only reference to the nature of the meeting has to do with the the Drow receiving something from the Morueme dragon in payment for other services (what they are receiving actually is an old tome which eventually helps Irae T'sarran, from CotSQ, to research her Great Revenance spell). Eventually the captured party member escapes although Niema's cage is magically sealed and only Telkoun has the key. Niema suggest returning with the rest of the party to liberate her and her fell Harper agent, Orrin (sp?), who is imprisoned on the floor above. Now ... it is best if the person captured is the Rogue of the group. Because getting out of the Tower (in Rowan's case through the window) is not easy. I also ran this as a seperate afternoon session with just Rowan's player one-on-one. Anyway, hopefully the person gets out and gets to the rest of the party to let them know what's what. Now the fun part. The players need to get to the top of the tower. They seen at one point a large, Blue dragon flie overhead to the tower and then disappear. So the meeting is happening soonish. My group scaled the tower to the window Rowan had opened and got through that way. Eventually they got to the top of the tower as the meeting was happening. Cabrath, Telkoun and Eshaedra (the Morueme dragon) were present. Maas is at this time invisible and shadowing the Bearer of Calcryx. The meeting interrupted the battle ensues. Now here is the tricky part. All of the baddies here are much more powerful than the party. But that's okay for a couple of reasons. The first is that the Baddies recognize the party isn't as much of a threat as each other are. So as soon after the interruption happens they turn on each other, particularly Telkoun vs. Eshaedra (who is consequently in Human form at the moment as they are in the smallish room at the top of the tower). At an opportune time Maas sneaks up behind the Bearer of Calcryx sneak attacking with an attempt sever the Bearer's hand off, including the wrist, and grabbing it and the bracelet (Now in my game I had Maas have a special Rod which was able to force Calcryx to unhinge and grabbed him that way. Do what you like there). Cabrath (with the Tome that Eshaedra brought) and Maas then run through the Portal in Telkoun's lab ASAP. Their aim is to get Calcryx and leave. Immediately. Do not get them too involved in a melee with the party because the party will not survive long. Also the Portal they go through is shut off after they go through it (in my game with the same Rod that Maas used to get Calcryx off the Bearer's wrist). That leaves now just Telkoun and the Morueme dragon, Eshaedra, who should be mostly concentrating on each other while at the same time inflicting enough upon the party to get them worried. At an appropriate moment (after Cabrath and Maas have left with Calcryx) Eshaedra reverts to dragon form and inevitably this destroys the top layer of the tower ... should be interesting for the party. She then departs ... this and his fight with Eshaedra should kill Telkoun ... it should also shatter the Stasis Sphere. Well ... fun eh? Yes much of that last combat requires the DM to either bend rules behind the scenes and guide the scene along towards certain ends ... the key is to do so in such a way that the player's don't notice or are too busy staying alive to care.
Bliss 12-29-04, 03:23 AM	Well here is the conclusion to our story so far .... The last time we left our adventurous ... adventurers ... they had just witnessed the top floor of Telkoun's Tower exploding because the Blue dragon present had shifted from human to dragon form. Telkoun had died in the explosion of rubble and our party members were hanging on for dear life. Now during the combat Telkoun had released one of the imprisoned monsters from the Stasis Sphere. Of course he has no control over what will come out and in this case it was an Air Weird named Eryl ... during combat she remained just an amorphous pillar of swirling air but not that the fight is over she emerges and speaks to the party. A bit about Eryl: The valley where the Tower was built was originally the sight of Eryl's Air Pool until a few millenia ago a Netherese wizard had imprisoned her in the Stasis Sphere and built the Tower on top of where her Pool was. She has been a prisoner ever since. Now released she thanks the party members for being the instruments of her freedom. Well having an Air Weird present and now being at a loss since Calcryx was just stolen, the party might be wondering if they can get some information out of Eryl. And she is willing to oblige, recognizing the danger of the Drow having possession of Calcryx. She responds to their queries by telling them in a riddle where they can find Calcryx to retriev him: "At Chahir's Door there lies a way to seek the city under Hellspawn's hold. Ere lurking at the threshold of the noble Jhaandathan seek the Hall of Morn acrossed the sand." Cryptic? Yes ... but that's Weirds for you. Eryl informs the party that they may seek her sister, a Fire Weird named Inspyr, to illuminate the answers to their questions and put them on their path. Unfortunately Inspyr is also imprisoned by old Netherese magic under the ruins of the outpost of Harnak. If they free her, Eryl will give them the key to Telkoun's Tower, which she renames the Tower of the Winds, and dominion over the valley in which it lies. So the party headed back to Sundabar in my campaign to do more research and find out where the old Netherese outpost of Harnak was. Luckily the Temple of Oghma had the old maps and situated it at the western border of the Anauroch desert. So after resupplying off the party went. They reached the ruins of Harnak, with only one extant building and the rest just broken wall to find a Lamia and her two pet Maticores had taken up residence. So after a fun little fight they find a shaft with a ladder heading down in the remaining building. After climbing down about 1500 feet they reached a tunnel that lead to a ledge overlooking a great abyss. I used this map: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/UD_Maps/Underdark_M2.jpg replacing where water was to just dark abyss. On the ledge are two large, 50' tall, statues of Netherese mages. The party figured out a way to get to the island rock in the middle which was a big block of a building with a giant black pearl on top. Now the magic trapping Inspyr came from the black pearl and was fueld by two other statues on the farther ledges which were pointing their staves at it and emitting beams of energy into the black pearl. The party went inside to find a room, I did not use the map of the inside of the building provided, with an abyssal shaft in the middle of it over which a sphere of fire hovered. Also in the room in the corners were four statues of Netherese mages, these marked with names (Muldanax the Red, Ardana the Blue, Foryn the Green and Dethud the Black). A throne was situated on the far wall with the name of Dethud Tanthul, Prince of Shade engraved on it with his crest (much of this info can be found in the Lords of Darkness book). Now hopefully the party is keeping an eye out or will hear people approaching from outside the building because a group of Shades have teleported onto the ledge and if the party takes time to listen to their conversation, they are talking about excavating the site for Prince Dethud who wishes to reclaim the outpost and its prize, namely the Fire Weird. Anyway combat ensues and afterwards the party finds the two crystal keys which when placed in a lock on the giant statues on the far ledges turns off the prison. Inspyr is freed with the black pearl shattering and the abyss surrounding her island becoming a lake of fire. In thanx, Inspyr is more ready with her answers to their questions than Eryl was, although nothing that will give away tooooo much. I had her illuminate a bit on Eryl's riddle eventually leading the party to know they need to go to Daggerdale. Also she gives them a warning: "When Inheritor's heart falls into shadow Then all the Wyrms made will come to ruin If Io's race falls asleep then the Gods of Old will seize his Throne." So ... not good then. She then tells them to return to Eryl at the Tower of the Winds, but that they have only 90 days before the Inheritor (which is Calcryx) falls into Shadow (that gives the party about 30 days to reach the beginning of the City of the Spider Queen since Calcryx will fall into shadow when the Great Revenance spell is cast). The party returns and receive the keys to the tower from Eryl, then go and resupply for a journey across the Anauroch desert to Daggerdale. Well that is where they are at now. We're doing the journey across the desert in ... oh about 2 hours. I'll keep updating this thread about their journeys. So this is just one way of expanding on Calcryx as well as tying together a few modules (Sunless Citadel, Forge of Fury, Telkoun's Tower and City of the Spider Queen). The party is at 7th level now ... by the time they get across the desert they should be 9th and ready for City of the Spider Queen. Well that's it for now... If you want to know some of the background on Calcryx, Skald or any other references I've made which I'm not detailing because my players will read this post, just private message me. I'd be happy to talk about them. -Bliss
Bliss 01-04-05, 01:01 AM	Well the adventure continues.... Out party was just organizing for its trip across the Anauroch Desert to Daggerdale where they must meet with Lord Randal Morn, from there they begin the City of the Spider Queen module with the added element of trying to save Calcryx before he "falls into shadow". Going over their options of just heading across desert or going by caravan, the party decides to head south to Llorhk to hire on as guards for a caravan going along the Black Road. Sure its run by the Zhentarim, but you can't have everything. Naturally the party is travelling incognito. They get hired by one Smannet, a likeable fellow who is trading Calimshan silks to the Dalelands and could use some guards to protect the shipment, himself and his three associates. You know I love Wizards for their wondeful resources. I found this lil' gem: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/oa/20010824a and used the members of the Council for the next stage of our adventure. Smannet (the doppleganger) as well as Carlotta, Ernest and Veris pose as the caravan owners (none of them are evil alignment and Smannet who does all the talking using his mind reading abilities to constantly keep the party unsuspicious. Now in secret the other members of the Council (Dorin, Terquad, Enchilios, Varimer and Garx) are staying either in the Ethereal Plane or Invisible as the caravan moves across the desert. Now I spiced some things up like while still in Llorkh, the party's rogue saw Smannet outside the tavern talking to Varimer, although by the time she got close enough to hear Varimer had disappeared. Now a lot here depends on what the party does. They are the hired guards of the caravan so they should be keeping watches up ... the party travelled at night and slept during the day. Again it was the party's rogue, Rowan, who did some fast thinking. Using her Cloak of the Bat, she flew over to Smannet's fire (which was seperate from the one used by the party) and overheard Smannet arguing with Veris about waiting for the proper time to take "them" and such. Nothing overt, just enough so that the party was on their toes. The Cleric of the party tried to question Smannet about this conversation with a Zone of Truth spell but Smannet luckily saved his Will Save and talked his way out of that one. The party's first big encounter was with Kordonax, a Blue Dragon who occasionally raids the Black Road. Kordonax attacks the caravan, killing Veris, a couple of camels and a couple of horses in the process and destroying one of the wagons of Calimshan silks. The party got out of this one when the monk, Galfan, in the middle of the battle yelled to Kordanax that they were the holders of Calcryx who was stolen from them. The mention of Calcryx gave Kordonax pause and after Galfan recited the Weirds' prophecies, the Blue allowed them passage through his territory and would keep a look out against raiders for them. It was two days later when the party is resting that the assassination began. The only party member not resting was Shai, the druid who was attacked by Garx, the phase spider. At the same moment Terquad slipped into the sorcerer's tent to attack him, Smannet assumed the form of the party's sorcerer to sneak attack the monk and was then backed up by Dorin, Varimer attacked the cleric and Echilios stayed hidden to provide magical backup if needed. Carlotta and Ernest also attacked. What ensued was the first really major challenge for the party. How well would they hold up against a group of people all with class levels. Well ... it was a tough fight with three of the party members nearly dead at one point, but eventually they succeeded. Well ... now our party is about a day and a half journey from the eastern border of the Anauroch and then another day and half or so to Daggerfalls to meet Randal Morn. They'll have two more encounters before that (which we are RPing out tomorrow night) and that should bring the party to 9th level and ready for City of the Spider Queen. Whee. I'll post about tomorrow night's events later this week. Otherwise thanx for reading and please feel free to post your responses, thoughts, suggestions and questions or to private message me for more background information on Calcryx and other DM notes. -Bliss
Bliss 01-14-05, 01:27 AM	Greetings ... this thread has been moved over to a different board but I wanted to let people here know since it is Forgotten Realms related. My players have begun to add their impressions of the campaign to the thread which is great. For those interested, go here: http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=355686 Thanx, Bliss