Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 zombiegleemax Dec 13, 2004 13:23:50	Does anyone know of any obvious adventures that could take place in these areas? My group is about 75% done fighting the massive Temple o' Elemental Evil and I nervously looking towards the future... I want to let the party decide where they are going to go fight evil next, but I was wondering if there were any side adventures in the region that might help tie it all together. The Slavers series might intrigue them, and I'm considering mixing the Scourge of the Slavelords with the second edition Slavers sourcebook, but I also think an adventure involving the Horned Society (pre-Greyhawk Wars era) or dealing with remnants of the cult of Zuggtmoy might be interesting for the party.
#2 qstor Dec 13, 2004 15:23:53	Blackthorn is there. Check out the online write up of Verbobonc. There's plenty of good ideas for city adventures in the City. There's an abandoned town rumored to have been visited by a cleric of Incabulus. There's plenty of humanoids in the Suss Forest, Venca cultists in the Kron Hills...Plenty of good stuff Mike
#3 scoti_garbidis Dec 13, 2004 15:40:49	Yeah, City of Greyhawk Boxed Set had a massive amount of good info and has an encounter for Blackthorn that was mentioned by qstor. It could be a very tough encounter for any party that doesnt have an excessive amount of magic. I prepped it for my last game but party never got that far along within the city of Greyhawk.
#4 zombiegleemax Dec 13, 2004 15:42:22	Rob Kuntz (the original co-DM for the Greyhawk campaign) released an adventure through Troll Lords called Dark Druids. The adventure was originally set in the Gnarley Forest. Scott
#5 ivid Dec 14, 2004 7:10:10	It would be interesting/useful if you could detail what kind of campaign you're doing at the moment, what characters you have in it, if ToEE is your party first adventure, if it's the party's first GH experience ever, etc. Dark Druids is a very good point to start, if you like to work with pre - made material. I personally would recommend you to let them stay a while in one of the villages (depending on the party's alignment) and let them do some shorter random adventures. Here my idea: A lesser wizard and cultist of Zuggtmoy has enchanted a scarecrow that hunted down some children and buried them alive. Now your party has only little time to find the wizard, fight the scarecrow and rescue the children... *Is it so obvious that I am a Ravenlofter?!* *Normally I am not that morbid* (I said this some time before...)
#6 zombiegleemax Dec 15, 2004 0:31:59	I have been using this module as a manner of introducing my players to the world of Greyhawk, and I have an interesting group of players. One was once a young DM himself who knew only the Forgotten Realms, or the Kingdoms of Kalamar. Another hasn't played Dungeons and Dragons since the days of the 1st edition, but never really got into the richness of Greyhawk when he was playing "back in the day." The other two/three members of the group had never played Dungeons and Dragons before, so I figured this would be a good opportunity to show them D & D in its old school Gary Gygaxian glory. Its been a blast running this module, due to its huge open endedness. The party has managed to do numerous things that have escalated the conflict between the forces of the Temple and those of Verbobonc, always caught in the middle between these bitter foes. The party seems so resentful of authority that they seem to hold as much hatred for the Religion of St. Cuthbert as that of the Elemental Evil. I've even brought in a young Sir Fenward Lefthanded, heir to the Viscounty of Verbobonc, to serve as a continuing foil for the party... Someone who is always there to claim the glory of their assaults on the temple, buying up the gems and relics they find and then using them as proof of "his" victories. They HATE this guy. One thought I had was running elements from the Fate of Istus Verbobonc section, leading the party to realize that the Viscount Wilfrick is threatened, and if they don't stop Iuz's Gambit then they will have their arch foe Fenward to deal with as a powerful Viscount. It also remains to be seen if they will discover Thrommel, and how they will deal with him, and how that will affect the campaign. In my version of the events of the Temple, it was Mordenkainen's magic that locked Zuggtmoy within the Temple, but to preserve the greater balance of the world he convinced Thrommel to be put into a sort of statis, strengthening the bonds holding Zuggtmoy. If he is freed, she is freed. And freeing or killing him might put the party deep in debt to Mordenkainen... Perhaps they might be forced to do odd jobs or missions for him, even ones that go against their personal feelings. Then the inner power struggle within the Circle of Eight could be explored. Tenser could become a great friend to the party, becoming their real sponsor. Or perhaps they could aid Rary, not realizing that he is becoming more and more like Iuz and the Horned Society that he secretly admires... There's so many ideas rattling within my head, but the one thing that I want to maintain is the basic timeline of the world of greyhawk. We are currently in CY 579, and I fully intend to allow them to participate in or witness major world events, so that years later they can pick up a Living Greyhawk Campaign book and say, hey, this all matches up and we WERE THERE! Even if they don't see every storyline play itself out, they can always follow up threads or remember sub plots and see how they resolved. Sorry, this was a long answer, but that's what I'm trying to accomplish with my players. Its probably overly ambitious, but if I can swing it I think the pay off for these people will truly be immense.
#7 ivid Dec 15, 2004 2:00:27	That's a nice campaign log! Now, I don't know exactly what's going on and what your plans are, but I think your story would demand a sequel involving Mordenkainen... Depending on your party's alignment, they could go for Zuggtmoy again - let's say that she(?) has nestled in some other corner of the Flanaess and begins to feed from people's souls to recover her strength, or get involved in a lesser intrigue with Mordenkainen, Rary and perhaps Robilar as famous WoG VIPs...
#8 qstor Dec 15, 2004 10:31:01	Dark Druids is a pretty good module. But it needs some reworking for Greyhawk. I asked Rob about it a few years ago but because of legal restrictions he had to remove all Greyhawk content from the module when Troll Lord Games published it. So there's no Greyhawk towns or gods in the mod. Its for 3.0 btw. Mike
#9 ivid Dec 15, 2004 14:21:35	To be honest, I think that for a party who has gone through ToEE, Dark Druids is too easy. The old ToEE + Slavers + Drow combo was fairly good. If you want to continue in a different way, you have to bring up something at least that spectacular - and that's not easy to be found... I personally don't know other campaigns of that complexity for Greyhawk. *Fate of Istus* perhaps or the late 2nd Greyhawk supermodules (RToEE etc)... Maybe you could do a combination of ToEE and RToEE... *This is really a tough topic, I think*
#10 zombiegleemax Dec 16, 2004 1:12:14	I guess I knew that there wasn't a huge wealth of published scenarios in this region, although I am very curious about the Living Greyhawk Campaign, and wish that region specific modules would be made available to the public to download in exchange for money... Basically, I'd like my players to meet famous people like Mordenkainen and company, but I don't want them to overshadow the true bravery of the party. What is more, I want the party to understand why these folks don't go out and annhilate evil doers. Sir Robilar in my campaign is used as an example of why people distrust "adventurers" in our world. After all, he was the one directly responsible for releasing Iuz, and now my party might be responsible for releasing Zuggtmoy from imprisonment. Iuz and his numerous servants/allies are certainly the main villains of this campaign, and I intend on focusing on them... I have contemplated involving the party in the exiled Shield Lander's fight against the Horned Society, so that later the party will feel like Iuz's coup of that nation was helped in part by them. I guess I'm just sort of cruel, but at least it will make them want to make things right, since they hopefully will feel responsible, and make them think about why many people in the world are neutral...
#11 zombiegleemax Dec 16, 2004 1:39:09	You have designed a good storyline for your players!! One of my first "serious" campaign also started with the ToEE. It is a great intoduction for a Greyhawk campaign. My players really enjoyed it, and with gaming experience, they really designed deeply their characters. Next adventure was supposed to be Scourge of the Slave Lords. I encountered two major problems with this module. First, the character's levels were too high to experience any real challenge. Second, the players definately hated this adventure, especially the introduction. "Automatic capture" of characters and the looting of all equipment they managed to acquire through the ToEE was too much for them, even if they were experienced players. It is really frustrating, and I almost lost my campaign at this time. So I had to wrap up all the mess, and cut the Slave Lords adventure to a fraction of what it was supposed to be. Then, I used Queen of Darkness. This one was a good follow up adventure. My players also enjoyed it a lot, and some major battle were fought with the giants. So here is suggestion: start with the ToEE, then go directly with the Queen of the Spiders adventure. If you use these two, you're up to many many weeks of game playing!! By the way, after these, I used the Vecna Live! adventure. It is a goo follow up, I think. And for Scourge, I used it for another gaming group. As a "stand alone", it is quite enjoyable!!! Best wishes to your campaign.
#12 ivid Dec 16, 2004 9:57:47	I guess I'm just sort of cruel... Welcome to the Club of Professional Dungeon Masters, my friend. :D
#13 zombiegleemax Dec 17, 2004 1:04:00	If I ran this adventure I'd defintely make it a more challenging one, particularly at the end... But, yeah, I don't like using automatic victory/defeat scenarios. Only if the party really bungled would they be caught in such a manner. And if I ran this as a campaign I would definitely run both Scourge of the Slavelords and the later Slavers sourcebooks together. I like the reoccuring Markessas, and the more complete examination of the Slave Trade... Actually, the biggest change I would implement would be to trump up the cult of the Earth Dragon, playing on the player's expectations of it being just another weird cult among many, and then finally have the adventurers face the High Priests of the Cult... Who I would probably make clerics of Syrul (Hey, Syrul is a Suel God, and the Scarlet Brotherhood is definitely involved in this whole Slave Lords business) who had allied with a REAL dragon. Hey, maybe Stalman Klim himself is actually a polymorphed dragon who wanted to start his own religion, or just figured that running a lucrative slave trade was less dangerous than going out and plundering. There are plenty of possibilities...
#14 zombiegleemax Dec 17, 2004 3:13:02	I'm really in accord with you. Plenty of possibilities. Plenty of opportunities. That's Greyhawk I would like to add that even if we are DMs or players, every paper and pencil roleplayers play for one thing: fun. Fun is the only true rule for roleplaying games. Fearghal
#15 clobberintime Dec 21, 2004 7:10:57	Honestly the best one even though people don't like it is 'vecna lives' if you can get your hands on it. If your party ends at 14th level its a great way to bring them to Greyhawk City at the bequest of Mordenkainen. The major beef with this module is that the circle of 8 buys it at the beginning, but since your pcs are new this won't scare them as much as it should. The module itself is great, you battle vecna cultits in Verbobonc, Travel to the plane of Ash, I think, chat with Kas, and end it all in a battle between Iuz and Vecna at Tovag Bagru, against hordes of vecna cultists from the past and the need to push the two demigods into a portal.
#16 qstor Dec 21, 2004 8:45:13	None of the Living Greyhawk modules are available to the public. There's some free material on www.verbobonc.net. Mike
#17 zombiegleemax Dec 21, 2004 22:08:54	Honestly the best one even though people don't like it is 'vecna lives' if you can get your hands on it. It's all a mater of taste, but remember there has to be a reason why people don't like it. I'd have to disagree with an earlier post stating that Dark Druids would be too easy a follow up for the temple. My opinion is that just the opposite is true. The module was designed with 8th to 12th level PCs in mind, and I've never had a PC finish the ToEE higher than 8th level. Even though the Slavers series was retro-fitted into being the follow up to the ToEE, and became a popular option, the series was originally designed to be started out by a party in the 4th to 7th level range. I tried it once, but abondoned it soon after starting because the party was having too easy a time with it, and I didn't feel like beefing it up. If you want to stay in the region, homebrew is your best option. If you want to use a published adventure, have the party meet some nobles at Thrommel's wedding (if they managed to rescue him), or some other location. Use these contacts to springboard the party into White Plume Mountain or the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth/Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun. These modules would work best level-wise as follow ups to the ToEE. Scott
#18 kelanenprinceofswords Dec 22, 2004 22:35:32	Why not pick up Dungeon #113 and introduce them to the horrors of Maure Castle? It lies only a little east of the Gnarley Forest, near the Bright Lands. Of course, by the time they wrap up ToEE, your players might be sick of dungeon crawls . . .
#19 ivid Dec 23, 2004 5:37:42	I'd have to disagree with an earlier post stating that Dark Druids would be too easy a follow up for the temple. My opinion is that just the opposite is true. The module was designed with 8th to 12th level PCs in mind, and I've never had a PC finish the ToEE higher than 8th level. It's not that it wouldn't fit concerning the levels... it's just that after having released one of the mightiest demons ever, you're somewhat unlikely, IMO, to go for some nasty herbalists... ;) It's a nice (average) adventure, but I just don't think it would be a good sequel... If you want to stay in the region, homebrew is your best option. If you want to use a published adventure, have the party meet some nobles at Thrommel's wedding (if they managed to rescue him), or some other location. Use these contacts to springboard the party into White Plume Mountain or the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth/Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun. These modules would work best level-wise as follow ups to the ToEE. Very good point - maybe the best solution one can propose. Merry Christmas to you all!
#20 zombiegleemax Dec 30, 2004 1:23:58	It's kind of hard to think of a suitable follow up to this adventure that doesn't leave the party with a sense of anti climax. Though I have to admit that one of my players turned to me as they were getting stomped by a Vrock (summoned by the Goldenskull) and asked: "Can we go back to fighting goblins?" An update: My party found the tomb/resting place of Thrommel, and the party's dwarf barbarian held him down while the rogue stabbed him to death. Of course, in my version of events the illusion over Thrommel made him look like a sleeping version of whoever the party wanted to kill on sight. In this case, Thrommel resembled Smigmal Redhand, who at one point used her invisibility and sleight of hand to lift the party's bag of holding off of them. Of course, the bag of holding had all of the party's money in it. Hee hee.
#21 extempus Feb 22, 2006 4:58:29	My players got more than a little tired of exploring the vast dungeon complex beneath the Temple, and so decided to deal with everything at once: they managed to communicate with the umber hulk imprisoned in area 309 and discovered it was not in the least bit happy about it's captivity. It vowed that if freed, it would destroy the dungeons by tunnelling underneath the lowest levels in a criss-cross pattern to weaken the foundations; it's rage was such that it actually did. It took a while, but the dungeons eventually caved in and the Temple collapsed into the sinkhole... But adventures are hardly finished in the area! Riggby sometimes hides out in Verbobonc, and Neb Retnar is said to be in the area as well; not all of the dungeon complex beneath the Temple may have collapsed, and then there's that obelisk under the Moathouse...