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[Jimmy]

Working on building my group's latest dungeon. Here's a few excerpts from my notes:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Section 2 - The Boneyard



2: Boneheaps
A small mountain range of bone piles stretch in either direction in a curve, the remains of hundreds of thousands of creatures. The majority appear to be corpses of vermin, with tiny rat skulls, long slender bat bones and dessicated spider exoskeletons layered on the surface, though you see larger bones beneath. The slightest of breezes from your arrival makes the piles shift loosely.
Encounter: Lizardfolk Dread Ghost, 2 Kobold Ghosts
Treasure: Four ancient coins crafted from mithril. They are triangular in shape, with a hole in the middle. On one side is a curved tail and the on the other is a reptilian eye. They are roughly fourteen hundred years old, but due to their construction appear as they did when newly minted. (Coins: 160gp each)

2a: Coal Room
This chamber appears to be a storage area for coal for the furnaces, though the disuse has seen a thick sticky layer of black pitch to ooze across the floor from the coal piles. The air in this room smells strongly of coal tar and volatile chemicals.
Exits: West Stuck Wooden Door (2 in., Hardness 3, 15 hp, Stuck DC 25)
Treasure: A large pile of coal. Two small, rough diamonds are near the bottom. (20gp, 25gp)

2b: The Furnace
A blackened opening like the maw of some great beast sits in the wall of this room. Smoke stains rise up the wall above the opening, and a layer of ash coats the floor. Rusted iron hooks dot the remaining walls at waist and shoulder height, their presence the only remaining evidence of the tools that might once have hung upon them.
Exits: 2a Stuck Wooden Door (2 in., Hardness 3, 15 hp, Stuck DC 25)
Treasure: A cracked ceramic mould sits at the bottom of the furnace, inside of which rests a ruined silver idol. Whatever shape it was once supposed to take was lost when the mould broke in the heat. (55 gp, 11 lb)

2c: Forge Hallway
This corridor is filled with stone shelves for tools and materials, their contents long forgotten and in disarray. Various discoloured stains of brown, green and grey run from the shelves showing where the damp and years of neglect have allowed once precious valuables to decay.
Exits: 2e Locked Trapped Wooden Door (2 in., Hardness 3, 15 hp, Locked DC 30)
Treasure: A large chunk of raw silver ore (25 pounds) (5 gp; 8gp when smelted); A large pile of dismantled copper pipes covered in mold and verdigris (140 pounds) (35gp); A set of four green copper pots of various sizes embossed with a snake styled relief (3 lbs) (8sp, 12sp, 23sp, 30sp; 9gp for the set); a foot-high bronze statuette of a pair of entwined snakes (10 lbs) (80gp)

2d: The Firing Kiln
Shards of broken ceramic and dried lumps of clay litter the floor of this room, dominated by an oven large enough to fit a fully grown man inside. The massive iron door to the oven is closed and barred from your side. The ruined remains of a potter’s wheel sits in the corner flanked by a wall filled with clay containers.
Treasure: Seventy-three clay vials of oil (1 pint each). (1sp each); Six identical wax-sealed clay pots. All appear to be the same weight, but five of the pots hold chemicals that will explode on contact with the air (3d6 damage in 5 foot radius; Ref Save DC: 14 for half damage. Search DC: 28, Disable Device DC: 28). Opening the clay jar while under water circumvents the explosives. The other contains a similar (non-explosive) gelatinous concoction that holds three sapphires. The clay pots can be hurled with a range increment of 10 feet. (Sapphire value: 250 each). [Inside Kiln] A set of three white porcelain ewers, each bearing a blue glaze depicting reptilian creatures engaged in combat with delicate silver trimming along the rim. A fourth, the largest, is shattered, but the silver appears to be salvageable. (15 lbs total) (8gp, 12gp, 20gp, 2gp)

2e: Jeweller’s Workshop
As you open the door the light you carry glitters across the contents of a jeweller’s workshop. Stone workbenches resistant to the ravages of time hold the works of master craftsmen that have lain undisturbed for centuries.
Exits: Locked Trapped Wooden Door (2 in., Hardness 3, 15 hp, Locked DC 30)
Frost Fangs Trap CR 7
Type mechanical; Perception DC 25; Disable Device DC 20
Trigger location; Duration 3 rounds; Reset none
Effect jets of freezing water (3d6 cold damage, DC 20 Reflex save for half damage); multiple targets (all targets in a 40-ft.-line)
Treasure: An intricately carved ivory rapier scabbard trimmed in electrum and set with three red garnets along its length. There is a small opening at the terminus end to allow the scabbard to be used as a breathing tube, if needed. (445gp), A silver ring shaped into the likeness of a snake eating its tail (4gp); A copper necklace set with a small amulet shaped into a symbol representing a reptilian eye (2gp); A miniature golden chest with tiny emeralds lining the top. The chest is crafted in exquisite detail (75gp) and is matched to perfect scale by a full sized replica of the miniature chest that glitters with emeralds the size of grapes (400 lbs) (7,500 gp)


2f: Stoneworker’s Workshop
Large and small blocks of stone crowd this room, making it difficult to see the full details of its shape. Everywhere you look you see half-finished stonework, carved into anything from columns, flagstones or arched supports to finer works of art. The stone statues are uniformly reptilian in appearance and their cold stone eyes seem to glare in anger at your intrusion.
Treasure: A small marble bust of a kobold wearing a ceremonial religious headdress (26 lbs) (7gp); an untouched six-foot cubed block of black granite, suitable for sculpting (1,017 lbs) (10gp); A life-size basalt statue of a raven (11 lbs) (25gp) A 14 ft. tall basalt statue of an armored lizardfolk with spear and shield. (2,413 lbs) (340gp) A magical statuette of white marble, roughly a meter tall that shapes its form to the last sentient being that touched it. It currently has the form of a kobold. It takes one round for their image to be transferred to the statuette when touched. The statuette weighs nearly 200 pounds. (Hardness 15, HP 50). (500gp)

2g: The Way of the Lowborn
[Outer]: Two massive stone doors, each five feet wide by twenty feet tall, stand firm against entrance into the underground city of Hadramkath. A chill crawls up your spine and out over your skin as you look upon them. The carvings on the doors are magnificent, a symphony in stonework -- but given the themes represented, it might be better described as a requiem. Scenes of kobold death, both violent and peaceful, appear on every surface framed by grinning lizardfolk dressed both in noble finery and warrior’s garb. A jagged script is carved into their surface in letters a foot high.

[Draconic]
The way of the lowborn
Beyond their last breath
Is to toil for their masters
In life and in death

Exits: Large Barred Stone Double Doors (4 in., hardness 8, 60 hp, Break DC 32)

[Inner]: The floor of this corridor shows signs of frequent travel between the massive stone doors and a smaller door to the south. The flagstone floor carries twin grooves along the length, as if countless carts had passed this way carrying heavy loads. The stone doors have a long iron bar across their face, still strong despite centuries of rust and decay leaving a scattering of rusted brown flakes across the threshold. The bar hangs across the backs of two kobolds sculpted out of the door’s stone like a heavy yoke, their faces twisted to depict suffering and struggle.

I think they'll be at this one for more than a session or two. Got some devious puzzles planned as well.

[miauw62]

That looks awesome! What tools did you use to make it?

[SOLDIER First]

Beautiful.

[My Name is Immaterial]

I picked up that Pathfinder eBook bundle on Humble Bundle at the last minute, so if you want to 'borrow' any of them, shoot me a PM, and I'll sort you out with a copy.

Spoiler: Books inside it (click to show/hide)

Book of Dirty Tricks
The Black Monastery
Quests of Doom
Cults of the Sundered Kingdoms
Unusual Suspects
Streets of Zobeck
Zobeck Gazetteer
Advanced Bestiary
Dead Man's Chest
Against Tsathogga
Cyclopean Deeps Vol. 1-2
Advanced Races Compendium
Your Whispering Homonculus
Halls of the Mountain King
The Mother of All Treasure Tables
Splinters of Faith Vol. 1-10
Deep Magic
Wrath of the River King
Freeport: The City of Adventure

[Jimmy]

The map was made by this guy who stole it from this guy. I just added the room markers and wrote the descriptions by hand. Some inspiration was taken from these guys for the room descriptions in a few cases, and the loot was created by this guy.

[Rolan7]

We're in a trailer park, watching a cult lead by FUCKING AZRAEL, which has a LITERAL FUCKING HELL-PORTAL in its basement.
Almost all the clergy being children
And they're basically hinting that they have a problem with werewolves
So they opened a gate to hell which is attempting to fray our sanity

I know what side I'm on, a different cult, but basically we're all clutching our heads and sighing.
And also planning to murder one particular guy who we won a race against.

Heh, we ended up sparing that cultist.  But he smashed my camera on the way into the church, so after we finished doing diplomacy...  We kinda broke his legs and torched his truck.  We actually cleared this petty revenge with his demonic-children cultmates first.

...Possibly because they sent us to fucking die.  Why did we agree to investigate Mt Rushmore.  They even SAID there were werewolves... and angels... involved.  Well, there sure were a ton of werewolves.

So first, Jen gets us lost literally just for giggles, hehe.  Brian (my character) tries to navigate correctly, but fails his social roll so hard he sounds like he's lying.  On the way to Mt Rushmore from Kentucky, we end up in... Wyoming.  Apparently we drove really fast when we were lost

So we end up at an *ancient* gas station in a huge wood, just as we're running out of gas.  Sean goes inside to prepay because the pump doesn't take cards.  An old Native American man charges him $4.50 a gallon, glaring at him and suggesting we leave ASAP.  Sure enough, midway through fueling, a pack of wolves start walking towards us from the trees...  staring at us.  7 bigass wolves.  Brian, currently weak as a child thanks to my power that boosts intelligence, advises GTFO.  Sean jerks the nozzle out (it continues spraying on the ground) and jumps in the van, flooring it.  The wolves close in.

We're accelerating fast, but not really fast enough on the dirt road.  So Jen and Brian have a characteristically stupid but spiteful idea, and open the back of the van to shoot at the gas...  But instead one of the wolves leaps in, tackling Brian by the arm.  I'm almost entirely helpless, but I *do* manage to succeed on a chance roll to shrug it off.  I think Brian lulled it into a sense of security then slapped it in the eye.  It just pounces on him again, but resisting for that round probably saved Brian's arm (or throat).

Jen takes the opportunity to inject it with a syringe of bleach, while "Ronnie Jeremy" just shoots it.  The bleach nearly kills it, the bullet is just enough to finish it.  It turns back...  Yeah, it was a fricking werewolf.  FML.  As Brian lies pinned beneath the corpses's bulk, Jen helpfully destroys its head "just to be sure".  While Ron shoots the gas...  Without modern safeguards, the entire station explodes in a fireball.  The shockwave rocks the van, causing Brian to slide out (fuuuuuuck) which does free him from the corpse.  The werewolves are dazed and fleeing from the fireball, so Brian's able to pick himself up and sprint back into the van. 

Sean did stop for him...  This is actually like the third time Brian has fallen out of the back.  For the rest of the session, Brian made a big deal of buckling in.  Heavily bruised and bleeding out his arm, Brian helpfully informed everyone that the werewolf bite is not a problem and that he definitely won't turn.
Brian is good at making friends, and begging favors, but pretty bad at convincing people of the truth XD

So... crap, that was just the trip *to* Mt Rushmore.  That's when shit really got crazy...

[Rolan7]

As we rolled into town and quibbled over lodging, a meteor struck the base of Mt Rushmore.  Rather spectacularly.
Mt Rushmore was fine, but the meteor... it was green.  Well, that doesn't mean anything just yet.  Brand new camera in hand (and a backpack full of stolen wallets because Jen, like the rest of us, does whatever her demon suggests 99% of the time) we drove to the mountain.

Side note:  Rapid city has a LOT of Wendy's and Arby's for its size.  That isn't actually important, we just thought it was weird and funny.  (I love Wendy's)

[looong drink]
Yeah... we drove to the mountain.  That's where the disturbance was, and if we have one united purpose, it is to record weird disturbances and acquire fame.

There were cop cars blockading the road.  The meteor was dangerous, they said.
"Don't worry, we're meteorologists"
It was a little better than that, but we literally said that!  We rolled well and social skills won the day, the cop let us past.
hehe, that cop... he comes up again.

We came to a vast glowing crat-
Shit, actually, first we went offroad.  In the van.  To avoid detection, which is fair, but still... in a van.  Sean insisted, but he does have a history of driving across terrain that should not be driveable.
Brian is the one who has to fix the van, just saiyan   (not actually complaining, in or out of character, Brian is a total mooch who holds a camera)

So we came across a fence around the actual base of the monument.  Our driver was possessed by PRIDE...  he revved the engine and slowly shoved the fence over.  I like to imagine that Brian's scrap teeth and bumpers around the van helped, though I don't think we actually used them.

NOW we approached the crater.  It glowed an unnatural, deeply unsettling green...  Not like Jen.  No.  This was...  A silhouette emerged from ground zero as we slowly drove around.  One of us (Ronnie Jeremy) got a particularly good look at it... and collapsed, fingers in ears, saying all these squares make a circle "no no no no".  Green... everywhere.  I captured it all on tape, but I could tell...  The figure would only appear to fellow ^EnLiGhTeNeD.

More.  Fucking.  Werewolves.

And also, a couple of FBI drove up in front of our van, since we failed our stealth roll.  They pointed guns at us and demanded we stop - right as the crater EXPLODED IN A PULSE OF GREEN.  Whatever it was, the agents felt it, freaking the fuck out.

"We are time agents from the future"
"Come with us if you want to live"
"Hurry, those are time dogs"
"Oh no that guy's the time police, hurry"

Catchphrase of this campaign is "We could not be retarded"

It fucking worked, because they didn't know WTF, they got in the van and Sean slammed the gas.

OH OH I ALMOST FORGOT, THIS SHIT STARTED PLAYING

So yeah I made an occult roll "yeah it's an angel" "SHITBALLS guys it's a FUCKING ANGEL"

When I say Sean slammed the gas... I should clarify.  The balls on this guy.  He got a bit of distance, U-turned the van, and accelerated straight at the angel, who was now hovering all mighty-like over the fucking werewolves.

Yeah, we tried to run over a couple wereweolves and an angel.  That...  Didn't turn out so well.  As the FBI agents did excellent kerbin impressions, and Brian dove the fuck out of the way because his whole thing is knowing better, the angel passed straight the van and... Hrm.  How to explain this.

The angel...  kinda grabbed Sean's demon (a whirlwind made of teeth) as we passed.  Our demons are *supposed* to be overlayed on top of us...  Sean's became displaced by a couple feet.

Blood started trickling out Sean's nose and ears (3 AGGRAVATED damage).

Fortuitously, Brian rolled to the side of the van early enough that the angel lunged and missed.  Which triggered a curse Jen had laid on it...  The ANGEL TRIPPED.  It fell... through the ground.  It emerged a few seconds later, trumpets still blaring, pissed as all fuck.

So we're being chased by ANOTHER pack of werewolves, we have two FBI agents screaming in the van, and oh yeah there's an ANGEL floating after us.
I... said things got particularly crazy this session.  Well... here's where that happens.

First the werewolves transformed into a "garu" form or some shit, which is apparently a sanity-shocking event.  The FBI agents went from screaming to gibbering and convulsing.  Ronnie saw them as more angels and went back to cowering.  Brian looked past the world and saw the glow, Jen just didn't give a shit.  In fact, she started stripping the FBI agents of their badges and also their clothes.

Then angel, shimmering with holy aura...  possessed a werewolf.
Oh yeah, our demons had be screaming ever since we saw the angel.  Even Brian's sloth demon.
And now we started screaming OOC, or at least I did.
Reminder:  Werewolves in World of Darkness are incredibly powerful at a base level.  And I have intentionally avoided learning most of what they CAN do.
As for angels?  COMPLETE UNKNOWN to me.

So then... the werewolf sprouted... wings.
And
*sigh*
The divine werewolf began "charging its lazor".

A few seconds later, it began breathing divine lightning at our van.

I'm honestly not sure how we were *supposed* to win.  Jen's bleach-dart missed, and Brian was still in no shape to fire his mundane gun.  Sean was doing a remarkable job of SERPENTINE, SERPENTINE, but it was only a matter of time (and the lightning was blasting actual craters of glass into the dirt road).

So Brian "prayed"...  Putting a song on the surround sound, max volume, desperate:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fajq_zyFhX8
The rest don't care about Captain Murphy, but Brian is a true believer
And sure enough, uh...  Purple goo started flowing from the speakers.  Which was... something?  Another blast of Holy Lightning, and Brian's overclocked brain produced an idea:

"Maybe the goo will do something to it!  Syringe it!"  Brian dipped his bullets in the goo, but turns out shooting is a physical skill
Jen, on the other hand, wasn't a cripple (and her demon was eagerly helping).  As the FLYING FUCKING ANGEL WEREWOLF charged up for a fourth shot, she hit it with a syringe full of concentrated heresy.  Which...  IIRC...  Began multiplying over the surface of the wolf, weighing it down in a disgusting purple mass.

And... that's mostly it.  We spent a while figuring out the chase rules again, but basically we skidded down the dirt path away from the remaining weres.  Somehow still alive, having faced down a fuckmothering angel.

It may seem like a shit deal...  Particularly since the angel will only show up on the video to other possessed...
But the floating wolf shooting lasers?
Aw yeah, Youtube gold.

[Rolan7]

Oh shit I forgot about that cop, I said he came up again.  As we fled the scene, Sean skidded the car up to the cop.  Leaned out of the van, bug-eyed, and screamed "AYY LAMAOS".  Then drove off.

As we screeched off into the night, we heard the poor cop on the radio, probably losing his job.  IDK.  And Brian doesn't care, he has 4 humanity!

[Twinwolf]

Might be a relevant place to drop this quote

*fweeee-thunk*  Message for you, sir! /python

Neverwinter Nights 1 Complete is free on GOG's Winter Sale thinger, offer expires in ~47 hours.

[Jimmy]

So the Pathfinder party, which consists of a level 8 gnome Kineticist, a level 8 halfling Rogue, a level 9 dwarf Cleric and a level 9 human Samurai walk into a bar reach the underground city of Hadramkath.

They find the entrance in a ravine that's exposed an underground tunnel due to an earthquake a few decades ago. Climbing down, they reach the tunnel and discover a trap. I describe it as a ring of magical runes inscribed in a full circle across the floor, walls and ceiling, with a golden lantern studded with gemstones and crystal panes attached to the top of the tunnel, inside of which is a ribbon of bright light that burns with a magnesium bright flare. They even find the message scrawled onto the wall informing them that someone created this trap to keep the creatures inside, and warning them not to follow but to seal the entrance. Of course, being the greedy bastards they are, they destroy the trap and take the lantern as loot, which causes them all to take 6d6 positive energy healing as the light fades from the lantern.

They enter the tunnel, spot the pit trap near the bridge but bypass it, missing the loot at the bottom (it's just a climbing kit though). They reach the bridge and find the first puzzle trap, this one an easy introductory version of a 3x3 Lights Out puzzle. I'm particularly proud of this as I've got a touch screen tablet set up to actually run the puzzle real time as they press the buttons. They solve it without issue and cross the bridge, avoiding the fire.

Then they reach the boneyard. They fight the three ghosts at the boneheaps, and the Samurai takes 1 Str and 1 Con damage. The Rogue takes 1 Str and 2 Con drain instead when he fails his Fort save. Still, they manage to clean the clock of the ghosts, but the Cleric makes a high enough Knowledge: Religion check to know that ghosts manifest again between hours to days later. If they retreat and come back, there's good odds the ghosts will be back.

They circle around the boneheaps without searching them for treasure, advancing on the main entrance. They reach the barbican at 1c and the skeletal lord archer rings the alarm bell in the tower, rousing his companions. The kobold skeleton archers at 3a start shooting the samurai, and the skeletal lord in the tower and on the cliff at 3b start firing poisoned crystalline arrows. The party has just walked into a shooting gallery and they're wearing big bullseyes.

The samurai takes cover and uses total defence after being knocked down to a quarter of his hit points in one round of combat. The cleric runs up and heals him back above half, and the rogue hides and hopes they will survive with their extremely low Con score. The kineticist starts blasting, going nova in an attempt to knock down one of the skeleton lords. He lucks out on a critical hit, punching the enemy blow half health.

After another healing spell the next round, the samurai feels confident enough to pull a reach weapon and go for the archers on the north cliff. He sets off a symbol of pain trap but saves without trouble. The cleric summons spiritual weapons to harass the kobolds and follows the samurai, while the rogue goes for the barbican and the skeleton lord at the top. The kineticist starts getting pincushioned for his trouble and decides to head into the barbican to take cover.

The rogue gets an arrow in the ass and takes an additional 1 Str drain from failing shadow essence poison. The amusing thing is that he fails by one point, which is revealed when the samurai succeeds his saving throw by getting 1 point higher. If the rogue hadn't taken the Con drain from the ghost, he'd have resisted the poison. Rogue and kineticist get inside and find a spiral staircase going up the tower, and start climbing. Then the skeleton lord at the top cuts the rope holding the giant bronze bell.

The bell rolls an attack against everyone on the stairs. It crits the roll on the rogue. The rogue is shitting themselves because this is probably game over for their character given how poorly they've rolled for hp. Luckily they have a reroll token, something I give out to each player at the end of a successful adventure. This lets a player reroll one d20, either their roll or mine, before the roll is resolved. I reroll, get a 5 on the die, and with the rogue's trapsense bonus to AC it's enough to dodge the hit. The kineticist isn't half as lucky, taking 6d6 damage and rolling a reflex save as their stairs are smashed out from underneath them. He manages to nail the reflex save, so he doesn't add falling damage.

They reach the top and the kineticist starts going full nova on the skeleton lord, doing his desperate best to take him out. He knocks him down to half hp before the return fire knocks him below his nonlethal damage threshold, sending him to the ground unconscious from his accumulated burn.

The samurai is way too far away to reach them, busy mopping up the kobolds. The cleric however has line of effect, and redirects his two active spiritual weapons onto the skeleton lord. A critical hit at x3 multiplier with a max roll for damage finishes off combat for the session.

I gotta say it was a damned good session overall. The group succeeded by the slimmest of margins, as is to be expected when they simply charge straight in without strategy. Hopefully they'll be more cautious for the future as they've learned this won't be a pushover. I'm pretty sure they're planning to fall back to camp and lick their wounds for a day or two.

Unfortunately for them, they made one fatal error. At the very entrance to the mine the golden lantern was actually a trap of Undeath Ward. They didn't attempt to identify the trap, and thus they've actually disabled something they could have walked straight through without trouble. Instead, now it's gone they can expect undead to come out at night and harass them at their camp. No rest for the wicked greedy!

[BlackFlyme]

Pathfinder campaign's over. We had to kill an immortal by finding his heart, which was removed in the ritual for him to become immortal, and forcibly return it to his body.

Luckily, I took grappling feats, so we didn't have to beat him into unconsciousness before we fist-fucked his chest-cavity.

Next up is another player being DM. Gestalt, really high point-buy, and the firearm rules are 'Guns Everywhere'. This means that guns are simple weapons, cost only 10% as much as normal, and any class or archetype that normally gets the Gunsmithing feat instead gets the Firearm Training feature, gaining Dex to Damage with the gun of their choice. This campaign will mostly be testing for a cowboy style campaign in the future.

Anyone have experience in a gun-filled campaign, or any ideas of character types? My current idea is one I've been wanting to do for a while, with a Commando style character. Uses Alchemist Bombs, guns, and Sneak Attacks. Shame Bombs are limited to Alchemists, one Wizard Archetype, and an underwhelming Rogue Talent.

[Neonivek]

I see so many people making Dragon Ball Z games... But goodness the rules for those games are always sooo very bad...

I feel like the only way there is ever going to be halfway decent mechanics for those games is if "I" the greatest person in the world... Make them myself.

[Cthulufaic]

I see so many people making Dragon Ball Z games... But goodness the rules for those games are always sooo very bad...

I feel like the only way there is ever going to be halfway decent mechanics for those games is if "I" the greatest person in the world... Make them myself.

Now I kinda want a competition where everyone makes their own ruleset/mechanics to see whose is best.

[MrWiggles]

I see so many people making Dragon Ball Z games... But goodness the rules for those games are always sooo very bad...

I feel like the only way there is ever going to be halfway decent mechanics for those games is if "I" the greatest person in the world... Make them myself.

Now I kinda want a competition where everyone makes their own ruleset/mechanics to see whose is best.

Tried for years. Lost cause.

[MrRoboto75]

A DBZ rpg would only be accurate if it takes multiple game sessions to get charged up for battle.