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OneMoreWave Mortal (11/3/03 2:45 am) Reply	OneMoreWave's DM Log A new Log for the reader's pleasure. When the old Dain died, the dwarven citadel of Duderoem fell into civil war. The High Patriarch renounced Moradin and warred with the Dain's sons, seeking to create a society free from the gods' "tyranny." The High Patriarch failed and his followers, including the pcs, fled. Having learned of the abandoned Crater Ridge Mines from old maps, the pcs seek to find and claim them as their own. Everything starts with the pc's arriving in Hommlet. Horace: Male dwarf Conjurer 4; Lawful Evil Morice: Male dwarf Illusionist 4; Lawful Evil Dollo: Male dwarf Enchanter 4; Lawful Evil Mogs: Male dwarf Rog 4; Lawful Evil Solit: Male dwarf ex-paladin 4; Lawful Evil Morino: Male dwarf ex-cleric 4; Lawful Evil A day is spent exploring Hommlet. The party learns about the missing Spugnior and the Moathouse from Renne but are indifferent. At the Wench Morino and Dollo heckle Redithidoor off the stage. I have Elmo mention the old temple and Hobs but again the party isn't intersted. Chatrilon overhears the pcs ask Xoad and then Nierethi for directions to the CRM and leaves to tell Dunrat. Dunrat is a little concerned and decides to get rid of the pcs, just to be safe. The plan is for Vacra to use her wand of change self to pose as a merchant who lost her caravan to the temple hobs. She'll offer 500gp for its recovery and an additional 100gp for each of her fictitious brethren rescued. Chatrilon will be introduced as a "Ranger Scout" who will lead the party to the old temple. Chat's real job is to make sure that none of the party survives. The party again refuses - they have places to go and things to do so go away you human. My players are enjoying annoying me with their stubborn taciturn dwarven personas. Vacra is a little flustered and sweetens the deal by offering to let the dwarves "guard her caravan" on its way to Rastor, which is "near some old dwarven mines." My players get a little suspicious but write it off as deus ex machina and it's off to the temple. I play Chatrilon as a man who considers himself a professional surrounded by fools and amateurs in regards to both his employers and the party. His attitude gets Solit and Mogs to challenge him to a knife throwing contest which the pcs lose along with 200gp. Naturally this makes Chat even more insufferable. At the temple the pcs roll over the outside guards and then take cover in the rubble of the gatehouse (area 1). Morino throws out two bags of caltrops and they wait to see what comes out the temple doors. Hmmm ok. Seven rounds later the dire ape throws open the doors and charges out, followed by 23 hobs and 9 goblins. The caltrops and three (!) web spells do a good job of holding up my troops while the melee plink away with arrows. The unstuck Hobs target Horace and Morice with their javilins but neither drop due to cover. Sleep spells and flaming spheres thin the ranks further before I can move a sizable group of hobs up to the pcs. Morino gets surrounded and beat on while Solit and Mogs fight with the ape. Despite a color spray and the flame spheres, I get more hobs and gobs into melee next round. Chatrilon finishes his three rounds of study and makes his move. Dollo the Enchanter takes a rapier in the back and drops dead. Oh you should have seen my players: they were Pissed! Morice gets lucky with a glitterdust blinding Rakrus, two hobs, and revealing Krebbich the adept. Mogs drops the ape with a tumble and sneak attack freeing Solit to charge Chat, who takes a blow and goes invisible. Another two color sprays and most of the hobs are incapacitated or dead. Just as the last hobs are being cleaned up Chatrilion reappears to death attack Morino, but only drops him into the negatives. Chat flees and my players swear revenge. Edited by: OneMoreWave at: 11/3/03 2:55 am
grimbold Memunite (11/3/03 3:54 am) Reply	Re: OneMoreWave's DM Log Interesting read! Especially as this is the first time I have ever encountered Dwarven conjurers, illusionists and enchanters (but that might just be my old 1st Edition self...). How did the paladin and cleric lose their faith? I wonder how they will fare against big U.
msherman Kalkydrite (11/3/03 8:02 am) Reply	Re: OneMoreWave's DM Log Interesting party concept. Aren't the ex-paladin and ex-cleric at a real disadvantage, though? It seems like a strange situation to start in. Will the cleric be converting to some other god? Will the ex-paladin be stuck with a sucky character until he's got the pre-reqs for blackguard?
JRedGiant Memunite (11/3/03 7:53 pm) Reply	Evil dwarves...sweet! Okay, I've got a few takes on this one... First off. All dwarves. All evil dwarves. This is STELLAR! I love it! Based on their success taking out the hobgoblins en masse at merely 4th level. I wouldn't be too worried about their survival. However, I'd suggest maybe having rumors of Chat fleeing to the moathouse. They really need the xp there. I'm seeing a Law vs. Chaos clash coming here as the party attempts to tame the CRM for themselves...eventually discovering the plot of the Doomdreamers and slaying them on general principle. After all, an apocalypse would be really bad for their budding empire. I'll have to keep an eye on this one...really looking forward to them in the Dwarf Temples and the interplay with Rerrid.
Infiniti2000 Cherub (11/3/03 10:13 pm) Reply ezSupporter	Re: Evil dwarves...sweet! Yeah, me too. Not many groups are up to the challenge of an all evil party. I wish yours luck.
OneMoreWave Mortal (11/4/03 2:23 am) Reply	OneMoreWave's DM Log The big hob fight ended up being a great kick off to the adventure and I'm pleased the pcs handled it so well. I had forgotten how well even low level wizards can handle the one hit dice fodder. The whole campaign started with my players saying they wanted to found a kingdom (cool), they wanted to be evil (ok... the bovd has been gathering too much dust anyway), and they wanted to play dwarves (dwarves.. kingdom.. crm... alright!). Although they've heard of the adventure my players have no idea that they're playing RttToEE and have been scared of Monte Cook ever since we ran through the corpse fest called Bastion of Broken Souls. The back story is that the High Patriarch of Duderoem discovered the Ur-Priest Heresy and through his eloquence convinced a large segment of the clergy to abandon Moradin. This ultimately led to a civil war in which the High Patriarch was killed, but some of his followers (the pcs) fled with his works collectively called the Divinity Meditations. When Morino makes level 6 he will have learned enough of the High Patriarch's teachings that I will introduce him to the Ur-Preist prestige class. None of my players own the bovd so they are finding the odd feats and spells I toss at them very cool (malign spell focus, slash tongue, and a couple others. I can't wait to introduce vile spells). I'm doing my best to curve the usual excesses of an evil party. The pcs have a common goal, are clannish dwarves, and share the lawful alingment.
OneMoreWave Mortal (11/6/03 9:45 pm) Reply	OneMoreWave's DM Log What a Log I have for you tonight! Torture! Extortion! Maiming! Abduction! Bringing back the dead is nothing but trouble for my six kingdomless dwarves. The surviving dwarves spend some time plotting and looting before marching back to Hommlet, carrying Dollo on a bier decorated with the dead Hob's weapons. Meanwhile Chat has reported back to Dunrat and was sent off to the Moathouse to lay low. Dunrat then orders Vacra to tail the pcs should they return to Hommlet. Unfortunately for the pcs, they can't get an audience with Y'day because they detect evil. They also can't find Chat and nobody seems to have heard of their merchant employer. Luckily, Mogs nails his gather info check and learns that Chat liked to chat (haha) with Maridosen. I guess being a dwarf is all about direct action, because Mogs goes strait to the Wench, breaks into Maridosen's room, knocks the sleeping fighter on the head with his sap, rolls her up in a sheet, and walks out under the cover of his invis potion. Everything would have been fine if Vacra hadn't followed the party out to the woods and seen who they were interrogating. Vacra runs to faux Jaroo, who fetches his "good friend" Elmo, who grabs the nearest six Badgers and charges off to save the damsel in distress. I gave the party twenty minutes before the calvary arrived. That drops to fifteen when the frustrated dwarves hang Maridosen over a fire and she starts screaming. However, in that short time the dwarves got four good answers (I used the bovd rules for torture). Chat went to the moathouse excavation. Dunrat got worried about dwarves asking about the Crater Ridge Mines. Dunrat is in the Mill. It was the wizard Vacra who set the pcs up. Then Elmo, faux Jaroo, and the six guards show up. Elmo demands their surrender. Morino yells that Maridosen is an assassin who helped murder Dollo. Faux Jaroo says they are lying. Solit gets angry and states that humans can leave or the humans can die. Elmo, thinking he a powerful druid at his back, tells the party it is their funeral. Solit fires his crossbow. I take a look at Elmo and he's got a 15 int and 16 wis; I send him right at Horice the Conjurer. Elmo crits and confirms with a 20 which means I break out our homebrew crit chart. Horice loses an eye and nose to Major Facial Damage. -2 spot, -1 chr. The war 1s go the same way the Hobs did: en mass to color spray and sleep and Elmo gets surrounded. But to our little level four dwarven friends Elmo is a Beast! 21ac, 12/ 7 atk, and 50hp send Mogs and Solit into the negs before Elmo dies, calling for Jaroo's help. Faux Jaroo ran when combat began. Of course none of this helps bring Dollo back to life and Maridosen burns extra crispy durning the battle. Our dwarves plot another plan: extort a raise dead from Y'dey in exchange for Elmo's body. Hmmm. I'll give them a little bit of help: Elmo hates Y'dey for not reaching his brother Otis in time to raise. Y'dey, hardass that she is, none the less feels guilty about it and has a strong compulsion to raise Elmo. Mogs sets up the deal with Y'dey and gets some nice diplo rolls so I let it fly. It makes a good story and Cuthberths' clergy are always happiest when they got something to avenge anyway.
grimbold Memunite (11/7/03 12:53 am) Reply	Re: OneMoreWave's DM Log This sounds like a fun campaign! How about this: Xaod somehow finds out about this extortion and decides that this is the time to act like a paladin again and bring the criminal dwarves to justice...
Infiniti2000 Cherub (11/7/03 7:34 am) Reply ezSupporter	Re: OneMoreWave's DM Log Either that or lets them go for the price of a mug of ale. No, seriously, the dwarves are still the heroes, albeit evil ones. It would be very interesting if Xaod's path led him to join the PC's, even though they are evil, to defeat the greater evil. It would definitely provide interesting and continuing RP. He knows they are evil, but has to deal with it. They know he is good, but don't mind so much given his incredible usefulness (particularly in being able to convince everyone else that the dwarves can't be all that bad). And, as long as they bring plenty o' ale, everyone's happy.
DestyNova1 Memunite (11/7/03 9:08 am) Reply	Whoa Wow! I think they can pretty much write off Hommlet as a base of operations. A suggestion that was on the board a while ago, is to have Nulb still inhabited. This will allow the party to have a base-camp that is more in line with their alignment.
OneMoreWave Mortal (11/8/03 10:37 pm) Reply	The Moathouse Thanks for reminding me about Xoad, I have this impulse to play him as Don Xoad de la Mancha. I kept Nulb as a ghost town but bumped Lareth up two levels. The party's dependence upon Lareth for info and spells should pay off when he becomes the champion. But I'm behind in the logs. The pcs decide to delay the conquest of Mount Stalagos until they've had their revenge upon Chatrilon, and ride to the Moathouse. In fact the pcs are so intent upon their goal that they don't even slow down for Old Del. Chatrilon has been chased down into the Moathouse dungeon by Big U. Miffed that the assassin evaded his lightning breath, Big U has been regularly using his create water ability to flood the Moathouse courtyard. The dwarves missed the significance of that wide, shallow pool until the dragon charges out of the great hall and fries them all by merely breathing at their feet. Naturally no save. Big U has a splendid time chasing the dwarves as they scatter, burrowing into the old tower at one point, but finally falls to the wizards' new third level spells. As hard as I tried, the only deaths were the six horses from the first lightning breath. Utereshimon's head is hacked off, fortified with a few preserve organ spells, and mounted on a pike. Solit carries the party's new standard. Down in the basement Mogs and Morino manage to capture a gnoll guard. After interrogating him, the dwarves send him back to his masters with the message that the dwarves have slaughtered the dragon, and will slaughter everyone else they find if Chatrilion isn't delivered into their hands. Geynor and the Trog think this is a fine idea but are too incompetent to catch Chat before he goes invis and spider climbs down to Festrath (the gnolls trapped him downstairs with the portcullis). Geynor explains this to the pcs, but fails to be convincing. Much carnage ensues. Down with the Obex, Chatrilion is still pleading with Festrath when the dwarves come down the elevator. We get a very cool battle. When Festrath flies up and starts hacking at the rope, Mogs climbs up the rope (!) to stop him. Festrath backs up five feet and casts wither limb (arm). Mogs falls, slams into the platform, causing Morino and Dollo to fall off. Horice and Morice move the elevator up and Solit tackles Festrath in mid air (touch atk and grapple check with a fall if he fails sound right?). Festrath and Solit fly around a bit before crashing into the grell gate. As the party charges the cleric, Chat finishes his study of Dollo and Kills him for a Second Time! Chaos for several rounds as Chat re-invises and Festrath and the grell are put down. The dwarves run around desperately trying to find Chat before he can death attack when they notice the elevator moving up on its own. Chatrilion escapes again! The pcs eventually escape with spider climb and drag the unconscious Gren, Trog, and Gnoll Ranger into the courtyard for some therapeutic interrogation. Frustration is vented and much about the crm learned. Edited by: OneMoreWave at: 11/8/03 10:49 pm
ZansForCans Cherub (11/8/03 10:47 pm) Reply	Re: The Moathouse WOW! Very fun read. That sounded like an excellent battle. Keep them coming! 6 dwarves in a pool of water, lighting... hmmm... <obscure reference>Good thing those dorfs didn't have satchels, eh? Pool party!</obscure reference> Group Editing & Authoring Support flexible campaign management for the web info :: demo Edited by: ZansForCans at: 11/8/03 10:49 pm
arcane12 Memunite (11/9/03 12:10 pm) Reply	Re: The Moathouse hmm, a little comment on the suggestion of Xaod: A Paladin can't knowingly associate with evil characters or people who continually violate their moral code. So takling to them would be OK adventuring nope. ---edit--- OK, there is ways around this (apart from being a leniant DM) but on a long term basis most ways would be too hard to pull off. Eventually he will have enough suspicion to detect evil on them, unless they can afford amulets of non-detection all around (!) or play with 3.0 nondetection rules (no large material component cost). Edited by: arcane12 at: 11/9/03 12:13 pm
OneMoreWave Mortal (11/9/03 11:37 pm) Reply	Nulb and Rastor The pcs travel to Nulb seeking means to revive Dollo the Enchanter. I gotta say, I had fun with the place. As per the module, it is overcast and raining. I tell my players that when they enter Nulb the town lets out a looong sigh, but of course that's just the wind. A pair of shadows take the form of a little boy and his dog that stare at the party for a round before opening their mouths in a silent scream and attacking. In the Waterside Hostel, right before Wat manifests to attack he wispers in the pc's ear "Dala, you had it coming you bitch." Outside of Dala's room the pcs hear the sound of two lovers whispering to each other but inside it just Dala screaming her head off. In the pirate ship the pcs can hear two voices arguing about dividing plunder. My payers were creeped out. The dwarves listen to Lareth curse and rave about Hedrack, Tharizdun, and the EEE for a bit before paying him to raise Dollo. They are surprised when Lareth invokes the very god he blasphemes. When asked, Lareth pauses and says "No matter what I do, he won't Get Out Of My Head!" The dwarves have a major grudge against Chatrilon, and correctly guess that he, Dunrat, and Vacra have returned to the crm. The dwarves head to Rastor. The party spends a couple weeks in Rastor. The wizards craft two torches of no light and scribe a few scrolls. The party is determined to lead the Rastor dwarves against the cultists but need to subvert or depose Rerrid Hammersong, cleric of Moradin, first. So they've been gathering dirt. They've discovered that Deeperdark and Tunraug the blacksmith are addicted to Tanbrosh, that the dwarves co- exist with orcs, and that they are resigned to the cult's control of their mines. The party wants to prove that they, not Rerrid and his god, are the future of the clan. I'd be happy to hear any ideas on how to run this. Edited by: OneMoreWave at: 11/9/03 11:38 pm
msherman Kalkydrite (11/10/03 6:04 am) Reply	Re: Nulb and Rastor It sounds like the players are doing just fine on their own building a case against Rerrid. He really is a broken dwarf at this point; his tribe has dwindled, he's lost his ancestral home in the mines, and of the few dwarves that remain loyal, many are actually pawns of the human drug pusher. The party should have no trouble eliminating Rerrid. I'm really enjoying this log; it makes me want to run this module again with an evil party after my current campaign is done. I particularly liked the scene with Lareth; I think that he has a _lot_ more impact with an evil party, than with a good one that just sees him as a walking bag of XP.
Infiniti2000 Cherub (11/10/03 8:27 am) Reply ezSupporter	Re: Nulb and Rastor Has the ex-cleric found a god yet? I guess he'll need an atonement. Have you developed any plot ideas around that? Has the player decided which direction his character will take? In Rastor, I'm guessing Thandain will welcome the party with open arms. Despite Rerrid's lackluster effort, he is still quite formidable and is the most powerful (in a fight) person in Rastor, by far. She will therefore encourage the PC's to destroy him, or capture him to be...questioned, and then tear down the temple or convert it to something else. Tal, of course, is really the one behind this, but no need to tell the party that. Does the party want to guard the next shipment to the mines? There could be a few gold in such a line of work, not to mention other 'perks'.
OneMoreWave Mortal (11/10/03 8:01 pm) Reply	Re: Nulb and Rastor I like your ideas, but unfortunately the pcs have already discovered (but not acted upon) Tal's shenanigans, having tailed Tunraug the blacksmith. They've even discussed trying to addict and expose Rerrid although they aren't sure of the drug's effects. Morino has had an epiphany. I tell him that his study of the Divinity Meditations is complete, and that he can once again wield Moradin's power, but this time, without Moradin's knowledge. I tell Morino that he has vanished from the gods' sight and has learned to syphon the gods' power to fuel his spells. Morino becomes an ex-cleric5/ur priest1 (bovd) and the rest of my players are excited about the prestige class as well. Oh, when my players turned sixth level, they let me know that they had ALL taken leadership. My take on Rerrid: There is something pathetic about squatting in the shadow of their conquered home, and Rerrid knows it. Rerrid should have led the Stalagos dwarves away long ago but he can't bear to abandon his home. Procrastination and rationalization have turned into despair and if the pcs bring evidence of victories against the temple both Rerrid's authority could crumble. Edited by: OneMoreWave at: 11/10/03 8:04 pm
DestyNova1 Memunite (11/10/03 9:02 pm) Reply	Priests Check out Requiem(sp) for a God. Also by Monte Cook. It has a PrC called The Disaffected who can draw upon the energies of dead gods for spellcasting.
Infiniti2000 Cherub (11/11/03 9:25 am) Reply ezSupporter	Re: Nulb and Rastor That's a great hook with the ur-priest. On Leadership, they can only take it with your permission. I personally would think hard on allowing it, but most objections I have are because only one player takes it. If they all do, then it probably won't be much of a problem. It will be a LOT of extra work, though, work that IMO would be better spent on the characters themselves, or the story, and not on relatively inconsequential NPCs. Anyway, it's all about having fun and your players seem to be doing that, so keep it up!
OneMoreWave Mortal (11/15/03 8:01 pm) Reply	South Gate Shenanigins There is no zealot like a convert. The pcs engage Rerrid in a loud public argument over Rerrid's "toleration" of the EEE cult and his slavish devotion to a god who has obviously abandoned Rerrid's clan. The argument ends with Morino declaring that Moradin is a chain binding the dwarves to Rastor, and that he will demonstrate what a free dwarf can accomplish. The party marches to the south gate. I don't accomplish much with Kellial's paltry forces, thanks in part to the continual darkness produced by the party's no-light torches. Kellial runs to Fachish, and while the pcs stabilize Kellial's peons for questioning, Fachish gathers his forces in the Air Temple. Choranth and the six archers from 71 hold the dais, Kellial, Graud, four bear skeletons, and four gnolls hold the floor, and an airwalking Fachish with his silenced (thank you botb) air elemental float near the ceiling. If Mogs the rogue hadn't scouted ahead I would have served the party their asses. Three invisible wizards casting three fireballs dropped everybody but Choranth, Fachish, and the elemental. Damn it. Alone on the dais, Choranth uses her scroll of darkness on herself and spends the rest of her short life "summoning" creatures with her deck of illusions. I had high hopes for High Priest, but Solit delivered an euncore of his moat house performance; drinking his potion of jump and grappling Fachish in mid air. With the BBEG contained, the elemental only manages to knock Horice unconscious before dying. After a bout of looting, interrogation, and decapitation the party sets out to rescue Harchol (dwarf com1) from the gargoyles's arena. Meh. Summoned monsters and web make it a dull fight and then it is back to Rastor. My players barge into the shrine of Moradin while Rerrid is sermonizing. The party marches up to the front of the church and empty out their sacks containing the heads of Choranth, Fachish, and the all rest of the south gate and air temple inhabitants. Some rp combined with Harchol's testimony turn most of the Rastor dwarves into the player's followers. The players lead 29 of Rastor's 30 dwarves back to the air temple and begin to fortify their small state. I'm not sure what to do with Rerrid. Right now he is torn between the realization of his dreams and his faith in his god. My main concern is that the players are being Noisy. Nothing is going to get Hedrack's attention faster than a dwarven reconquista of the crm. They way I'm thinking of running it is the south gate is going to receive its usual temple traffic forcing the players to kill or bluff the cultists. The first time they fail, Varchan will intercept the report. The second, Hedrack has a hernia, buffs Chymon to the gills, and sends her to do what dragons do best. Anyone else thinking Smaug? Harchol is headed back to his clan, who are the hillbilly cousins of the Rastor dwarves. The pcs want their help, Harchol's clan will be sending an envoy. Edited by: OneMoreWave at: 11/15/03 8:06 pm
grimbold Memunite (11/16/03 2:14 am) Reply	Re: South Gate Shenanigins Lovely! I really like the thought of a lawful evil dwarven community rising from the ashes of the CRM! And yes, Rastor should be destroyed by Chymon soon. The same will happen in my campaign if the assassins fail vs. the players.