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Post by Scott on Sept 1, 2022 8:44:46 GMT -5
I found a Drow estate to use as a starting point in the Menzoberranzan boxed set. That should help a lot since starting maps is one of the areas I get stuck on.
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Post by grodog on Sept 1, 2022 14:51:53 GMT -5
There have been a lot of TSR and third-party drowic products published over the years. Would probably be worth pulling them together to sift the wheat from the chaff....
Allan.
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Post by Scott on Sept 1, 2022 15:02:56 GMT -5
I always liked the Menzobarranzan set, but there was so much Drow stuff, much of it bad, that came out that by the 90s my reaction to Drow in D&D was like my reaction to hearing Stairway to Heaven in the radio, “Ahh, not again!” The set has a lot of fluff in it that I would never use, but there are also some resources, like this, that can come in handy.
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Post by grodog on Sept 1, 2022 19:07:06 GMT -5
Sound like I'll have to pull it out of the sell pile and look at it more-closely to see if it's a keeper or it hits the road Allan.
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Post by Scott on Oct 5, 2022 10:04:32 GMT -5
I've ben lazy about updating. The last session started with Jastra being gated out of the Vault to appear before Blibdoolpoolp. After almost letting her drown, Sea Mother granted her water breathing. After threatening complete destruction or eternal torment, Blibdoolpoolp settled on never harming Kua Toa, returning everything the party took from the Shrine, and donating an extra 100,000 GP in treasure to help reestablish the Shrine. She made a few more threats in case her orders weren't followed, then sent Jastra back to the Vault. To be continued...
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Post by Scott on Oct 5, 2022 12:41:29 GMT -5
In the real world defenses evolved to protect against real, known threats. The same should occur with the extra threats available in a D&D campaign. astral/ethereal movement, teleport/dimension door, gate, etc. would all be known threats. I've come up with a few countermeasures. I thought it would be appropriate that the family building of a drow house would be protected. The party had another astral spell scroll and used it to scout out the Eilservs estate. They were able to get the layout. The lesser buildings could be accessed, but the party discovered that the main building had some kind of magical protection that prevented them from passing through the walls from the Astral plane. They tried sneaking in a door, but it triggered a glyph and as the party saw a large fiendish creature taking shape they fled as fast as they could think.
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Post by grodog on Oct 5, 2022 21:48:01 GMT -5
She made a few more threats in case her orders weren't followed, then sent Jastra back to the Vault. To be continued... Did she back that up with a quest or geas? Allan.
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Post by Scott on Oct 6, 2022 5:41:10 GMT -5
In effect yes. I did not quantify it as a geas or quest, just an amorphous divine compulsion.
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Post by Scott on Oct 19, 2022 7:54:23 GMT -5
We've had to cancel several sessions recently. Soccer season always ends up conflicting with game night. I'll be out of town again this weekend, which would be our next scheduled game night, but after that there will be a break in travel until February, so we should get back on our regular schedule. I still haven't decided on Q1 yet. I'm not a big fan, and the party seems more interested in getting back home and building castles. I will throw the option out there in-game and let them decide.
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Post by maximus on Oct 19, 2022 9:16:19 GMT -5
We've had to cancel several sessions recently. Soccer season always ends up conflicting with game night. I'll be out of town again this weekend, which would be our next scheduled game night, but after that there will be a break in travel until February, so we should get back on our regular schedule. I still haven't decided on Q1 yet. I'm not a big fan, and the party seems more interested in getting back home and building castles. I will throw the option out there in-game and let them decide. Have you looked at Q2 by Joe Bloch? It's an interesting alternative to Q1.
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Post by Scott on Oct 19, 2022 10:34:57 GMT -5
I did. I like Joe's stuff, but it's still more Lolth than I like with everything that has preceded D3. If the party opts to chase down Lolth I would most likely use Joe's adventure over Q1.
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Post by maximus on Oct 20, 2022 9:09:56 GMT -5
I did. I like Joe's stuff, but it's still more Lolth than I like with everything that has preceded D3. If the party opts to chase down Lolth I would most likely use Joe's adventure over Q1. Yea, his stuff is good. I love seeing additions to the Flanaess (and beyond). However, I'd also love to see an adventure that directs the party toward the EEG.
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Post by Scott on Oct 20, 2022 11:04:50 GMT -5
In the GD series there really was no indication that the EEG was trapped anywhere. That was something Gary mentioned much later. With Zuggy in the ToEE and Tharizdun, another trapped being is more than I need and definitely makes the EEG and Tharizdun too similar. I think Gary started stealing from ToEE to complete the GDQ series, and in the end both fell short of what they could have been. Gary mentioned that the EEG was part of his original ToEE concept, pretty much exactly how he explained it would work in the GDQ series, and you even had Lolth in the ToEE originally. It's been very common for DMs to work that into the adventure, that's another one Joe did, and it was something I added too, but ultimately I think it too much for the already convoluted ToEE story and it doesn't give the EEG the attention it deserves. Maybe someday I'll complete the adventure idea I've been tossing around that includes Dorgha Torgu and the EEG and publish it similar to Joe B's stuff.
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Post by GRWelsh on Oct 20, 2022 11:30:31 GMT -5
Based on the cover of D3, I always assumed the final battle would be a tentacle rod-wielding Eclavdra against your fighter armed with a light saber.
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Post by Scott on Oct 20, 2022 11:41:57 GMT -5
The 2nd cover, yes, The original is all Lolth. But Eclavdra does make much more sense. And my party has a light saber.
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Post by Scott on Nov 2, 2022 6:09:48 GMT -5
I had forgotten that Lolth is in D3. Which makes Q1 even more of a questionable finale to the series. “You’ve just defeated Lolth. For your next mission we want you to go defeat Lolth again.” But the way she is presented is so nonchalant, and there are other parts of the Fane that are written as if the fact that Lolth wasn’t in the dungeon. It’s such a bizarre and hodgepodge climax to such an epic series.
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Post by Scott on Nov 6, 2022 0:06:17 GMT -5
I just realized that I never finished the write up from the last session. After being foiled by the astral guardian the party decided on a plan based on what they knew. Jastra created a distraction using pyrotechnics outside of the compound to the north. Some of the party flew in from the south. And Jastra and Finders teleported in, and they met on the roof of the main building. Plasolder used Nolzur's Pigments to paint a trap door and they entered the top floor. The party used clairvoyance and true seeing to scan the level and proceeded to where they thought Eclavdra would be. Somehow they misjudged the map and ended up with a solid wall between them and the their destination. Jastra used a stone shape spell and opened a hole in the wall and they emerged into Eclavdra's chambers. Eclavdra called for help and a Lyme arrived a round later. One of the more suspenseful moments happened when Lyme got his disintegration spell off, but Ember managed to save. When the party heard reinforcements coming they resorted to Doud's Lanthorn and held Eclavdra and Lyme. The party fought their way through the another wave of reinforcements and escaped through a secret door they discovered earlier with true seeing. They took Eclavdra with them. The passage went below the estate and came out on the slope of the noble's plateau above the river. After a short discussion the party killed Eclavdra, cut up the body and threw the pieces in the river. The party was upset that they fled in such a hurry and got very little loot as a result. Plasolder wanted to go back in, convinced they could take the drow. Corbek disagreed, and the party ended up returning to town. With Eclavdra dead, Corbek was ready to leave and go back home. But the rumors of the treasure in the Fane of Lolth was too strong a lure and the party decided to go for it.
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Post by GRWelsh on Nov 6, 2022 13:00:15 GMT -5
What a gruesome end for Eclavdra! What happened to Lyme? That felt a bit anticlimactic. I suppose high level characters with a certain level of scrying ability and power -- including something like Daoud's Lanthorn -- make most encounters really one-sided. I might have had some magical defenses and bound demons around to protect her when she's alone.
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Post by Scott on Nov 6, 2022 13:51:33 GMT -5
It was more dramatic than than the quick write up. There were two lesser priestesses, bugbears, Some of the party was held. They tried putting Eclavdra in the Cage of Zagyg, but failed. They were low on spells. Using the Lanthorn carries a risk. It was a last resort move, and they were forced to flee before they had a chance to search anything. They were thinking about taking Eclacdra back to civilization, but when they considered the risks in trying to get her out of the vault they killed her, and did what they did to her body to try tp prevent her from being brought back.
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Post by Scott on Nov 6, 2022 13:54:21 GMT -5
It was basically a stale mate that was slowly tilting in Eclavdra's favor the longer the fight dragged on, which is why the party decided to risk using the Lanthorn.
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