Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Jag1588 06-21-04, 05:01 PM	What were the best adventures your playing group had, and what made them so good? Im looking for some ideas and I would like to see what others enjoyed. Thank you.
Stormranger 06-22-04, 11:04 AM	:bigeyes: About three quarters of the way through writing this, I realised that it was stupidly long, but I decided to press on anyway, seeing as how I'd already written so much. It may not be worth the time it takes to read, I have to say. Er, sorry... Well, *one* of the best adventures that my group had was actually just a simple wander through some caves, but it was still quite fun. The PCs were hanging around a largish city called Ironguard looking for quests (they were about 4th level at the time), and the ranger received a tip-off from a friend in the watch that the son of a wealthy ore merchant had become lost while prospecting in some caves (the city is surrounded by numerous mining townships and iron-rich valleys). Apparently, the young man's father had asked the watch to mount a search after his son failed to return from what was expected to be a short, one-day trip - the watch refused on the (somewhat dubious) grounds that the area in question was unmapped and too extensive to search. Fortunately, the PCs had just recently acquired a detailed map of the outlying canyons made by a halfling explorer, so they set off themselves to find the missing prospector (name of Kell Redstone). The caves in the particular canyon where Kell had gone missing were, conveniently, marked on the map, so the party left their horses tethered outside and headed in. At this point, I should mention that I wrote this particular adventure the day after I'd got back from a caving trip of my own with the university speleological society, so I was doing my best to render the caving experience as faithfully as possible, and I think I succeeded fairly well. Caves in D&D are usually depicted as being fairly spacious and level tunnels which aren't too hard to navigate, and which may even have a bit of light in them. This was competely the opposite of what I tried to create for the players - they had to crawl on their bellies and remove their armour to squeeze through narrow passages and piles of boulders, they bumped their heads on low ceilings (of which there were many), they were confronted at every turn with absolute pitch darkness and I made it deliberately difficult for them to avoid getting lost, even though they made an effort to draw a map. This worked well enough that the players really did stay interested and engaged throughout even though there was only a limited amount of combat in the entire adventure. Anyhow, the PCs eventually came to the end of a passage and found themselves at the edge of a 60' drop into a cavernous chamber below. Made fast to a boulder were the remains of a rope which had apparently been cut off at the top. As they were preparing to descend down their own rope, the sharper-eared members of the group heard something that sounded like stone sliding across stone. The group's diviner also happened to have a detect thoughts spell active at this time, and just for a brief instant he thought he felt the touch of an alien mind. When the party made it down to the floor of the chamber below, the ranger nudged an object with his foot, and, picking it up, found it to be a severed human hand, looking more as if it had been bitten rather than cut from the arm. At this point, my players let it be known that their characters were getting more than a bit nervous. The PCs continued through some more labyrinthine passages and came to an underground lake, in which the diviner's raven happened to spot a submerged tunnel. Seeing this, the ranger and the dwarven fighter stripped down to their loincloths and, taking only the dwarf's warhammer for protection, swam through to the other end. The diviner and the party's cleric, lacking sufficient lung power to make the trip themselves, waited at the edge of the lake on the understanding that the two swimmers would merely do some scouting and then come back directly. The ranger and the dwarf decided instead that they would do some serious exploring of the new cave area that had opened up to them, and proceeded to follow one passage until, peering round a corner, they saw a group of four mercenary-looking types holding an intense, whispered discussion by torchlight in front of a pile of boulders. The gist of the discussion seemed to be "That thing is still out there, we should get out while we still can", met by "Damn you, we'll find them and finish the job first". "Ah," thought the dwarf and ranger "these people must be friendly. Maybe we can ask them for directions". So, as the mercenaries began to squeeze through the boulders to the other side, the two dripping PCs stepped forward with a cheery greeting, at which point I buried my head in my hands with a groan and the four mercenaries drew their swords and charged. "Well that's it for the campaign" I thought to myself as they bore down on the fighter and ranger. "Those guys are toast, and there's no way the other two are going to get out of here by themselves". I prepared to administer what promised to be a short and brutal fight as the two naked and poorly-armed PCs were summarily butchered by the four fighters who had been intended as a suitable challenge for the whole party. Bizarrely, though, the two PCs didn't get carved up in the first few rounds like I'd expected. Instead, aided by ridiculously good rolling, they proceeded to knock off all four of the fully-armed and armoured mercenaries by disarming them of their torches and relying on dwarven darkvision and the ranger's blindfighting to carry the day. Which they eventually did, though not before the PCs had been reduced to 5 and 7 hps apiece (and by the end of the fight, repeated disarm attempts had seen one of the mercenaries' swords change hands between its owner and the PC ranger a total of 6 times). Anyway, we just about killed ourselves laughing, even the other two players who had to watch as the dwarf and the ranger surged ahead in experience which they didn't get a share of. To cut the rest of a long story short, the party found Kell holed up with the two surviving members of his prospecting party. He explained that the dwarf in his team, an independent prospector, had located a vein of mithril in the caves and had approached his father to offer it for exploitation. To prove his claim, he agreed to take Kell and his two fellow prospectors (who were well-equipped with dark-vision goggles and suchlike and well-trained as geologist-miners, but weren't warriors of any description) to verify the vein's existence. Unfortunately, it appears that spies from a rival mining organisation got wind of the mission, and a party of (ten) mercenaries were sent to kill the party so that they could mine the mithril for themselves (apparently the watch was payed off as well so a search party wouldn't be dispatched). One of Kell's companion's was killed by the mercenaries, but they managed to lose them in the darkness; it turned out that there was also some sort of monster with them in the caves, and from the sound of things it attacked several of the mercenaries and caused their party to become seperated. So, the PCs tried to lead the prospectors back out of the caves, and on the way encountered two more of the mercenaries' eviscerated corpses and hearing the occasional harsh, sibilant, roaring sound (I had a good time building atmosphere). At one point, one of the mercenaries, clearly terrified, ran straight into them, leading to a brief combat before the ranger cut his head off. They finally made their way back to the place where they had left the rope, when the monster - a gargoyle - came swooping out of the darkness. They defeated it, although not without difficulty, and made their way back to the surface, where they found the tenth mercenary (who had stayed at the surface to lower the rope for his comrades when they were finished) trying to lead their horses away. The mercenary turned to flee after standing momentarily with a stupid expression on his face, but before the party could chase him down, another two gargoyles swooped down from the cliffs and scooped him up in their claws. At that, the PCs hightailed it out of there, leaving the gargoyles to their meal.
Murr-Quan Lord #2 06-23-04, 12:42 AM	That is so cool. :) Let's hear some more stories! They don't have to be that long, either. One or two paragraphs will do, I'm thinking.
Stormranger 06-23-04, 03:35 AM	I said I was sorry...:blush:
MinusInnocence 06-23-04, 05:57 AM	I was playing a gnomish Paladin named Keldrenn Dufflepud. The group and Keldrenn found their way to a city called Ironforge after only adventuring for about four or five days together. Three massive smokestacks marked the skyline of what basically amounted to a fortress, and it was rumored that if the forges ever went cold, not enough coal and flame existed on the Prime to rekindle them. Well, all of this was rather distressing to Keldrenn, as he could clearly see all of the surrounding countryside (particularly the area south of the mountain ranges skirting the city) desolated by the smoke. The natives of the region didn't seem to be faring much better - apparently, most or all of them had been roped into some shady trade agreement and now were working themselves to death just to keep their families alive and healthy. It should be noted at this point that Keldrenn, while accepting certain responsibilities as the leader of his companions (why they thought I was smarter or wiser or swifter or more charming than any of them, I still don't know), was very headstrong. He was stubborn and when he saw something that didn't sit well with him, he didn't hesitate to bring it up at the first opportunity. We had received work as an armed escort for some of the miners in the nearby mountains. Apparently, the local Dwarven population was at odds with the people of Ironforge - normally they didn't attack the humans outright, but they certainly seemed eager to do so now. As it turns out, the person responsible for marshalling the troops in Ironforge against the others in the region was none other than a Dwarf himself, known as Graybeard. He was possessed by some sort of mystical amulet he bore, but that didn't come to light until later. Anyway, we met some of the Dwarves, and instead of battling them off like I suppose the DM thought we would do, we split up. I convinced the locals that my friends were slain in the cave-in during the fight, and they went on to seek the alliance of the Dwarves against the tyranny we witnessed. I got a full night's rest and climbed up onto a wooden crate in the middle of a busy thoroughfare. There, I gave a stirring speech and roused the people to arm themselves! Meanwhile, my friends were discovering that the orb Graybeard had possession of was an ancient Dwarven artifact, and the lengths he must have gone to capture it drove him mad as well as made him an outcast from his home. It had obviously tainted his good judgement, so he had to be stopped. Well, a few revolts in the surrounding countryside later, I led my peasant armies to the gates of Ironforge. My fellow heroes were digging tunnels with the Dwarves and planting what we call "boomdust" in key locations beneath the city. The night culminated in a spectacular assault on the city, both within and outside its battlements. To this day, the people of that world sing songs of how a tiny hero who called himself "the Badger" routed the armies of Ironforge in the Battle of the Burning Fields. We were being butchered, so I ordered my troops to run in all directions through the tall grass with lit torches. The smoke and the wind did my job for me, and Graybeard was dethroned.
lord_blackfang 06-23-04, 09:06 AM	I've once participated in a 2-year campaign (real time and game time!). The campaign focused on locatinge a bunch of crystal shards, then useing them to activate giant robots, piloting them and walking all over the Xill/Devil joined invasion. The campaign lasted from level 1 to 22. All along, a particular Devil would pester us every once in a while, and every time we beat him up. Every time, he got demoted back home, so he was actually getting weaker and weaker and had to compensate with powerful items. After we had saved the world, yadda yadda, my character (Bard/Dragon Disciple) and one other (Wizard/Elemental Savant) wanted to get revenge on a couple of powerful characters that had done us wrong in our backstories (hey, we were epic now, we could do it). So we go to the evil mage who once turned our wizard into a donkey... he sees us walk in and quickly starts a summon spell... summoning that silly incompetent Devil. We beat them both up, the Devil vanishes. Then we visited the corrupt governor who had killed my Bard's parents... he cast a summon spell... (no need to go on, is there?) We beat him up, beat up the Devil (second time that day), then I tucked the Devil under one arm, Plane Shifted to Baator, found the nearest Pit Fiend, and handed over the Devil, saying "I'm from the Prime Material, I'd like to return this idiot and I want to request a decent challange next time." I Plane Shifted back to Faerun before he got angry and I'd have to kill him.
Dragonsbane1313 06-23-04, 09:49 AM	The best adventure I DMed was Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. The players in my group also agree it is the best adventure we've done so far. Maybe on of the things that makes it so fun is that our group is an interesting mix of kids and adults (we are all cousins, and siblings, and aunts and uncles)... Anyway, everyone has a great time and we usually play on the weekends for about 6-8 hours each time. Everything is so humorous and while people are serious sometimes, humor usually finds a way to leak into the situation. Some of the younger people in our group like to joke that we are the D&D SWAT team beacause of something that happened once (its too long to explain), they even have a list of SWAT team "rules". Well, its a lot of fun and the adventure is so in-depth and long that it provides a great opportunity to spawn extremely interesting relations and events. I highly recommend this adventure to any group. We have 7 players so I had to double a lot of the monsters, but other than that, its great!
PSchirf 06-23-04, 10:31 AM	Erda, my game world, is flat, and it is said that you can sail off of the edge. Most major temples include an image of three titans supporting a large rock. One of the titans is on his knees under the rock with the weight of the rock upon his back. In one hand he holds a large bowl, which is catching the water spilling off of the edge of the ocean. The second titan is standing, holding the world steady in his arms, with his lips puckered as he blows the winds over the surface of the land. The final titan is using one hand to support his edge of the world, and is pouring rain out of a bowl with the other. Priests explain that occasionally the titan under the earth must pass the bowl up to one of his brothers while the empty bowl is passed back down to him. During these exchanges droughts are likely to occur. Also, there are times when the earth shakes. These can indicate that the titans are getting a better grip, or may even indicate that they have swapped positions. I DMed for a group of characters that decided to prove that the world is round. They sailed off the edge, and landed in the bowl of the kneeling titan. From there things got interesting. They learned that the gods are indeed servants of the three titans, as is told in the holy writings. They met a number of these “lesser” deities, and eventually had their ship deposited on the top of the worlds highest mountain, the peak of dawn, where many other ships were grounded. There they learned that the sun is indeed a “burning craft” piloted by the sun-god and the moon is the underside of the bowl of water held over the land. They were then commanded to leave their vessel on the mountaintop so that it may too serve as the light in the sky at some future date. They traveled overland from there to their homes, having truly circled the “globe”. Ancient Map of Erda (http://www.erda.ws/mapancient.htm) Planetary View of Erda (http://www.erda.ws/mapplanet.htm)
Dragonsbane1313 06-23-04, 10:38 AM	WOOOWWWW.... ...Truly Imaginative! That deserves a golf clap. Did you make that up?!?!?! Thats such a clever plot with all the tiatns and stuff!!...... WOW
PSchirf 06-23-04, 10:48 AM	Yes, the world is my creation. I didn't work on it alone. Over the last 25 years many players have helped shape it into what it is.
Dragonsbane1313 06-23-04, 11:07 AM	Oh.....
Starboy36 06-23-04, 01:02 PM	I created a NPC once that became a favorite of the group. The characters would always get inadvertently pulled into some adventure triggered by his bumbling. Any experiences with him were a welcome comic relief. Currently, I am converting all my old self-made 2e adventures and campaigns to 3.5e and .pdf. Here is the segment I wrote about this character. It's kind of long, but hilarious. The numbers just refer locations on a town map (cut+paste job) 16. Yargendibble’s Workshop Most gnomes find war displeasing and prefer the cozy comforts of their burrows to the chaotic turmoil of the fields of battle. Even less likely would a gnome actively seek out a people at war. But Yargendibble Fubernackle (NG male rock gnome Exp5) is not like most gnomes. Driven by a desire to develop new inventions that will turn the tides of war in favor of the gnomes’ allies, Yargendibble set up a workshop in Nesme to design and test his innovations. He feels sorry for the humans and other friendly races that are unable to live in peace like the gnomes. After observing and analyzing human behavior, Yargendibble has come to the conclusion that the only way to end a war is to win it. He looks forward to the day when his inventions lead Nesme to victory and a peaceful existence. At that point, he will move on to the next war-torn town and begin anew. One of Yargendibble’s proudest accomplishments was a suit of plate armor that he developed using a generous donation of steel he “borrowed” from the foundry. After observing how the giants swing their clubs and fists in combat, this set of plate mail is designed to greatly increase the likelihood of completely deflecting the blows, leaving the wearer unharmed. This added feature makes the armor only slightly heavier (it weighs a mere 150lbs.), though it is a small price to pay to be able to walk away from combat unscathed. Unfortunately, Yargendibble has yet to find a solider who is forward-thinking enough to test the suit of armor in combat. In the meantime, he discovered (by accidentally leaving it outside during a rainstorm) that the armor also functions quite well as a cistern. Yargendibble recently informed Darven of his intentions to create a powder, that when ignited, can create an explosion which rivals that of a mage’s fireball. The military application of such an innovation could turn the tides of battle in this war. With this burden removed from mages, they would be able to focus on other spells to assist in battle. He believes that Darven might be more excited about this than he is. As soon as he heard the news, Darven suggested (practically insisted) that Yargendibble move to a new workshop (where he is now located), as far away from everyone else as possible, so as to not disturb him in his research. Even though his inventions are essential for the survival of the community, Yargendibble still thinks it is important to make time for outside interests. As the gnomes say, “All work and no play makes Banderwonki a dull boy.” When not immersed in his vital labors, he spends his time tinkering with less important devices. Frequently, Yargendibble makes small mechanical toys for the children in town. He also likes to help out in the mines by making sure the mine carts keep running smoothly. Strangely enough, Yargendibble finds that these frivolous hobbies generate more income than the awe-inspiring developments from his military research. This does not concern him though, as he is not in it for the money. 17. Yargendibble’s Old Workshop During his preliminary experiments in developing Fubernackles Amazing Igniting Launchable Exploding Dust, an unfortunate mishap occurred where a prototype was inadvertently left unattended and too close to an open flame. The resulting incident launched his roof (which happened to be set ablaze from the explosion) into the road and scattered flaming debris upon impact. Luckily, at this time, Yargendibble was away from his workshop informing Darven of this latest development in military technology, as well as stopping at Tantor’s to pick up a new trowel for his turnip garden. His return to the workshop left him bewildered, though not as to the shambles to which his workshop was reduced, but at the anger his neighbors seemed to express over the incident. After all, what are a few minor contact fires when it leads to the invention that will save the town? On the other hand, Yargendibble had never been in the path of a flaming roof garden so he did not take it personally. The loss of his workshop was only a minor setback, as he had recently voiced intentions to move into the palace to be more accessible to Tessarin, Jygil, and other important figures in Castle Niran who relied upon his services. Yargendibble had already packed most of his things and had them sent to the palace. As a result, his material losses were minimal, though the second move (quite abruptly) to the new workshop was somewhat inconvenient. His only disappointment stemmed from Shorgath’s refusal when Yargendibble desired to return the trowel on the grounds that he obviously had no use for it anymore.
The MadStepDad 06-23-04, 02:31 PM	Hey Jag1588, how interested are you in other people's ideas? No seriously, how interested are you? REALLY interested?... :cool: If you got a minute, check my sig - my campaign summary has alot of juicy info and links I think you could appreciate. Assuming you're REALLY interested in other peoples games, of course. peace, MSD
Jag1588 06-23-04, 08:24 PM	Wow all of these adventures are so original and creative! I love them. Thanks for all the interesting ideas and keep em coming!:D
Carkni 06-24-04, 12:34 AM	Most my adventures are fairly average, but what makes them different is the campaign world I paint around them, plus I've sardonic even with my own work. It usually sets a comfortable tone, and thus people get relaxed. You relax, you get complacent, which leads to stupidity, and lots of fun. Most of the time it's from newbies that weird stuff happens, but that isn't the case some of the time... The party's trapped in a haunted house that they have exactly 6 hours to figure out how to stop, or the ghost will kill them all and take their souls to raise himself. What kept it interesting was that I used an hourglass to mark the passage of hours. I would tip (pause) the hourglass for combat, then ask everyone to be quiet while I let the hourglass catch up to the amount of time they fought. They felt fine at first, but when I started flipping it, they were getting increasingly nervous. I would throw Zombies and Animated objects at them, which aren't threats but sure do eat up time hacking to pieces. With Ghouls barging through the old house, a failed save wasn't a nuisance, it was losing 10 minutes. I would let everyone have a break after they stated what their characters were doing during the payalyze time, but they were nervous even during the "off" time. What made the adventure memorable was all the stupid things a certain newbie did, but that's another story.
Jag1588 06-27-04, 10:57 PM	Heh It seems like newer players bring newer ideas to the table with them.. they seem to be more fun to play with.
Tanon 06-27-04, 11:42 PM	My best adventure was a couple of months ago. i was dming for a group and the setting was about dark elfs. there was alot of foreshadowing involved. the players started off in a market place. soon they were interrupted by a young elvin boy who tried to seel them some stolen items.(nothing of much worth like rusty daggers and some half eaten bread) he lead them into a dark alley and there they saw an open back door to a restaurant. they went in thru the door and for some reason went to look at a book shelf in a kitchen where a chef was cleaning some dishes. they made alot of noise trying to figuere out what was special about the book case. the chef was outside by this time calling some town gaurds to arrest them. they figuered out that there were some clues on how to press certain books on the book shelf revealing a dark library behind the books. luckily they escaped the guards. the book shelf closed up on time to lock out the chef and the guards. they walked thrue the gigantic library and stumbled on a corpse. it was a young elvin man with a book in his hand and his eyes seemed to have been ripped out. in the book they found a page that was half ripped. they part where the young man reading said something about "the darkness changes into the moonlight. the mountain is not the center point of the cause." on the side of the page was a star a cirlce and a rectangle drawn in by some blood. the players were confused by all this. they found an exit from the library into the woods. there they found some unicorn they had saved once. the unicorn gave them a ride for some two miles until they were attacked by some archers. the unicorn teleported out of the scene leaving the PC's abandoned. once they killed one archer another's eyes would start bleeding. they kileed 3 archers and 3 died of the bleeding eyes. they examined the bodies to find that they were elvin looking but theyre skin was a pale green color. they slept the night in the woods.they were woken by a hawk who tried to worn them about something they were missing. ;) they found in one of the bodies a star shaped piece of stone . they walked for 20 miles. and climbed the mountain. inside they found skeletons which knocked them out. they awoke in an under ground dungeon where they were whiped by a slave trader. they're lips were pierced and ears were pierced so that they could understand and speak all languages. they were about to be sold to someone when they escaped ......by a miracle. they ran inside the hut where they were kept and retireved their belongings and found a circular crystal ball. they ran into the mountain again killing off some skeletons. in a carved entrance they found a rectangular golder bar. they placed the star the cirlce and the rectangle into the entrance. they went in and found a young girl who described herself as dark elvin. she explain she was undergoing her blooding but that she had some matter to set straight with her mentor. they walked to the underground city where they were kept to find out that they were in darkelvin grounds. the reason they took on this mission was to find out what was attacking the town they were in. they found out that the dark elves where strealing humans elves and dwarfs for blooding rituals and slave trade. they help the girl out by setting an attack on the training grounds where she had made her home for the past 16 years. she then critically damaged her mentor. she told the girl she was her mother... that her real mother had never died as she was told..the mentor then died of her wounds. the girl told the adventurers that something haunted her people. somehting that was making them attached to each other in a vital way. every time one of them got killed another would die of blood loss to the brain. draining the blood thru their eyes. but that was left for another adventure.