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Post by Scott on May 21, 2011 7:59:50 GMT -5
I have a soft spot for this adventure. It was the 1st or 2nd module I ever DMed, and I have such fond memories of it. I think it was released at about the same time I started collecting my own D&D stuff. It doesn't really fit well into the Greyhawk setting, but I did link it to my Greyhawk Dungeon; it's one of the first demi-planes that PCs can get transported to. It's a dungeon crawl, but the PCs don't start with a friendly home base where they can rest and resupply. It can be deadly because once you get into the expanded adventure, the difficulty increases quickly, so you'll need to have made allies to finish it. I'd like to DM this one again.
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Post by Scott on May 21, 2011 12:42:28 GMT -5
I made Zargon a minion of Demogorgon.
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peter
Prestidigitat
Posts: 7
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Post by peter on May 26, 2011 7:19:56 GMT -5
It was also the first adventure I ever played We were on a tour in Scotland, and a friend asked if I would try to play. I played an elf. But we never came very far, think we only made it through a few rooms, before we got separated, and then the game died down...
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Post by amalric on Jun 2, 2011 15:42:43 GMT -5
Scotland is an excellent place to adventure! I recently played through B4 on Dragonsfoot, in jamabarn's game there - a lot of fun, but I think it would work much better on the tabletop, f2f (like most games). It's one of those lost-world type adventures I love, and having it as a demi-plane linked from CG is a great idea.
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Post by Scott on Aug 2, 2017 19:24:20 GMT -5
I'll be starting a Basic campaign this Friday, and I'll be running the Lost City. I'm placing it in the Bright Desert, a pre-migration Flan kingdom. The PCs will be from the Wild Coast, hired as mercenaries by a higher level magic-user looking for ruins in the desert.
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Post by GRWelsh on Aug 3, 2017 8:00:44 GMT -5
Probably as good a place as any. I've always pictured ruins in those sands, like ziggurats, pyramids, broken columns, dried up fountains, etc. I've always liked this module, too, it reminds me of "Red Nails."
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Post by geneweigel on Aug 3, 2017 8:41:24 GMT -5
My friend DMed this and I have a record of it but I don't recall him DMing it. I remember playing it with someone else with other people that doesn't match the record. I think it was a redo game in my records. My record for B2 says that I played it several thousand times (record is from 1985)
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Post by Scott on Aug 5, 2017 11:50:58 GMT -5
The Lost City 8/4/2017 Session Notes
The party: Plāsolder, a Veteran, played by Eric Sharpe Thordak, a Veteran, played by Liam Gregg Corbek, an Acolyte, played by Mike Darick Kasfire, an Apprentice, played by Tyler Sharpe Cordius, a Medium, played by Gavin Gregg Therion, a Veteran-Medium, an NPC
The party (not knowing each other yet) started in Fax on the Wild Coast. After hearing rumors that the magic-user Silvin was looking for adventurers to join him on an expedition into the Bright Desert, the party tracked the wizard down. Silvin explained that he knew the location of ruins within the desert, but it was too dangerous to try it alone. He would pay the expenses, and the party would get a share of any treasure discovered. The party was eager to adventure, and liked the idea of joining up with a high level magic-user, so they accepted. Several days later they met at the docks. Silvin had gathered a large number of adventurers, men-at-arms, and porters. He had also chartered a ship and crew to cross the Woolly Bay. The voyage across the bay was uneventful, and the party began its trek into the desert. A week passed, and it started to seem like Silvin didn't really know where he was going. After several more days of wandering a sandstorm struck. The storm came out of nowhere, and lasted for hours. When it had ended, the caravan was scattered. Each member of the party found himself alone. After some searching and calling the members of the party found each other, but no sign of Silvin. The party wandered the desert, looking for the caravan or a way out. They depleted their supplies. Two days after they drank the last of the water they stumbled across the stone blocks of an ancient, ruined city sticking out of the sand. Most of the structures in the city had collapsed into piles of rubble, but a large step-pyramid in the center was intact. Three 30' tall statues stood on top of the pyramid: a bearded man, a child, and a warrior maiden. A search revealed a secret door on the top tier held open by the body of a dead hobgoblin. To be continued.
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Post by Scott on Aug 5, 2017 14:55:35 GMT -5
The party entered the secret door. Followed an the passage and came to another door. Through this door they entered a 40' square room with three bronze tubes running from the floor to the ceiling. There was a door on each tube. The party entered the room. A moment later the thief detected a hissing sound. A snake? No, it was gas seeping into the room. Plāsolder Checked to see if the door they had entered was still open, and saw that it was not. Nobody checked the door, they just assumed they were locked in. They started to get dizzy, and panicked . Plāsolder Ran to the nearest bronze door and yanked it open. Several darts shot out of the wall, but they all missed. In the tube there was a ladder going up and down. The debate on which way to go ended when everybody in the room took a point of damage from the gas. Kasfire and Cordius went up the ladder. Everybody else went down.
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Post by Scott on Aug 5, 2017 15:51:31 GMT -5
View from behind the DM screen:
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Post by geneweigel on Aug 5, 2017 21:20:49 GMT -5
Whats that? The next generation?
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Post by Scott on Aug 5, 2017 22:18:18 GMT -5
Yeah, the 2 Suel babies in the front are mine, Liam on the left, Gavin on the right. 2nd on the right, putting way too much effort into the map, is Eric. We've been playing on and off since 1984. Across from him is his son Tyler. And at the end is my nephew Mike.
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Post by Scott on Aug 5, 2017 23:03:01 GMT -5
Kasfire and Cordius could see light above. Climbing to the top they discovered they were in one of the statues on top of the pyramid, and the light was sunlight from outside. Many levers, cranks, etc. were here. Moving them could cause the statue to appear to move, though sand and rust now prevented much movement. Below Plāsolder was the first down the ladder. There was light coming from below too, but this light was caused by three fire beetles waiting in the room at the bottom of the ladder. Plāsolder jumped from the ladder in attempt ti squish one of the beetles, but he missed. The rest of the party followed and they managed to kill the giant bugs. In the room were machine parts and oil they guessed were for statue maintenance. There were also thee doors: one to the east, and two west. The took the southern west door. Following the passage beyond they found a flight of steps going down, and a room with another dead hobgoblin in it. The hobgoblin's arm was swollen and discolored. The party guessed it had some kind of disease, so the didn't touch it. They searched the rest of the room, and came up with nothing. Continuing through to a connected room they found a room with giant bees flying around, and a giant bee hive hanging from the ceiling inside a metal cage in the middle of the room. There were coins and gems visible on the floor below the hive. The party entered the room and the bees attacked. The party killed the bees and were trying to get into the cage when doors on the opposite side of the room opened up and humanoids came pouring in. They appeared human, but they were shorter, and all of them wore masks that looked like the bearded man statue. The party tried speaking to them, but they did not speak common. Corbek tried speaking Lawful, and they were able to communicate. They were members of the Brotherhood of Gorm. Gorm was one of the Cynidecian's (the city) old gods. The brothers gave the party water, and sold them food. Their leader, Kanadius offered to let the party stay with them to rest, an offer which the party accepted. While they were there the party learned of the other statues/gods: Usamigaras, the child, and Madarua, the maiden, and it was clear the factions did not get along. There was also the cult of Zargon, an evil entity whose followers were now the most powerful group of the surviving Cyndiceans. The party offered to help the Brotherhood defeat the priests of Zargon. Kanadius is considering the offer.
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Post by Scott on Aug 6, 2017 13:47:57 GMT -5
After resting the party continued to explore the pyramid. They met a dozen sprites in a room and dragged the encounter out just to make me keep talking in my sprite voice. The sprites were sitting on crates of fireworks that they gave to the party. They burned up some green slime in an otherwise empty room. Exploring another room they found a giant lizard munching on a dead body. They rushed in and were surprised by the other lizard clinging to the ceiling above the door. The body was wearing a gold inlayed mask, which was the first treasure they got for their efforts. They then headed down the steps. Reached the door at the bottom, and failed about 5 attempts to open the door before the noise attracted wandering monsters, 3 rock baboons. After a serious bite on the cleric Cordius cast a sleep spell and they finished them off. The party returned to the previous level and holed up in an empty room to rest, and that's where we called it for the night.
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Post by geneweigel on Aug 7, 2017 9:40:37 GMT -5
Was it in the official SPRITE (R) dialogue of IN SEARCH OF THE DUNGEON MASTER? Go to 5:42 for sprite talk: www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLxvYx63l2AJust kidding! Seriously, is that even possible to recreate?
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Post by GRWelsh on Aug 8, 2017 11:57:08 GMT -5
Go to 5:42 for sprite talk: My favorite part of that scene is how Sheila is the only one who understands it, simulating the usefulness of knowing languages in D&D. In an interview with Ernie Gygax that I recently listened to, he said he worked on the D&D cartoon, and his job was to keep it more D&D. Uni was originally going to be a dog! I'd like to know more about changes Ernie may have been behind, on that show.
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foster1941
Warlock
Duke of California, Earl of Los Angeles, Knight Bachelor
Posts: 475
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Post by foster1941 on Aug 8, 2017 14:27:15 GMT -5
I was always annoyed by the way the Tom Moldvay modules (this, B3, and X2) all had circumstances to prevent the party from being able to go home between expeditions (the sandstorm here, the mysterious red glow in B3, the mist in X2) which seems contrary to how D&D - especially low-level D&D - is supposed to work. Maybe in non-Advanced D&D it's easier to gloss over (characters don't require training to level-up, magic-user spell books aren't necessarily as bulky as they are in AD&D and can perhaps be assumed to be carried along, etc.), but you've still got issues like what to do when a new PC join the party (or someone doesn't show up to a game) - just assume they find other wanderers in the dungeon? There's also the problem of what if the players get bored by the adventure before they get to the end and want to go somewhere else. I never liked it (and didn't like it any better when Tracy Hickman started doing it in AD&D modules).
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Post by Scott on Aug 8, 2017 15:13:51 GMT -5
I think the unicorn thing was already set. Ernie didn't start until 3 or 4 episodes in.
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Post by Scott on Aug 8, 2017 15:14:49 GMT -5
I think I remember hearing that they were trying to phase Uni and the barbarian out.
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Post by geneweigel on Aug 8, 2017 17:10:00 GMT -5
Go to 5:42 for sprite talk: My favorite part of that scene is how Sheila is the only one who understands it, simulating the usefulness of knowing languages in D&D. In an interview with Ernie Gygax that I recently listened to, he said he worked on the D&D cartoon, and his job was to keep it more D&D. Uni was originally going to be a dog! I'd like to know more about changes Ernie may have been behind, on that show. PLAYER: You're saying,"Whoosh whoosh crackle crackle whiplash crackle sssssss whoosh." and only the thief can understand? DM: Your character doesn't understand Olde Balrog...
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