Horror Campaign (prev. Army of Commoners)

[SilverClawShift]

so far, warlocks seem like the way to train these commoners

Good info, I'll keep it in mind

[BRC]

I am going to tell my paladin-loving friend about this, and he is going to demand a celestial spider mount, and I will back him up.

[bugsysservant]

Good info, I'll keep it in mind

Don't be patronizing

Doresain: Actually that battle was already held, and won. Several pages ago. Next time, if you are going to skip a few pages, at least read the last current one or two. This thread is now devoted to the growing cult of SilverClawShift, and the tales of her campaign. (hmm, I wonder what level bard she is to have fascinate all of her loyal readers. *Goes away to ponder.*)

[Doresain]

Don't be patronizing

Doresain: Actually that battle was already held, and won. Several pages ago. Next time, if you are going to skip a few pages, at least read the last current one or two. This thread is now devoted to the growing cult of SilverClawShift, and the tales of her campaign. (hmm, I wonder what level bard she is to have fascinate all of her loyal readers. *Goes away to ponder.*)

yeah i noticed...wish i had a group that could stay on one game long enough to make it epic...without the use of "one-shotty" the elven ranger and "beardyface" the dwarven cleric

[SilverClawShift]

This thread is now devoted to the growing cult of SilverClawShift

Awe, don't talk like that, it's just gonna make me do this ~>

Really, my DM is the bard, I'm just repeating what's going on.

[bugsysservant]

Awe, don't talk like that, it's just gonna make me do this ~>

Really, my DM is the bard, I'm just repeating what's going on.

Hmm, a blushing undead necromancer. The sight might just be worth the unspeakable wrath I will incur.

[Darkantra]

Aaaagh! I stopped reading this thread right after the battle for the village and just started reading it again tonight.

I have to say, reading about this campaign has given me numerous ideas for one that I'm brewing up, and since I'm still a novice to D&D it's actually taught me a good deal.

I have a couple of questions, does your group listen to any music to help set the scenes, and if so could you list some of the songs? Also, I'm curious about the monster ratio in this world, lots of aberations and undead to be sure, but are there any monstrous humanoids, and if so how are they handled effectively in a horror setting?

Brilliant saga, kudos to yourself and the DM!

[Zeful]

I have to ask, would it be possible to apprentence under your DM?

[Grey Watcher]

I gotta say, among his many gifts, I think the greatest talent your DM has is a good sense about when to just put down the rulebook and go with a cool idea. Yeah, Bless Water shouldn't work that way, but damn it, it's too cool a solution not to give the player a shot with it.

...I also don't forsee a macguffin, but it is possible. That's nother thing our DM doesn't like to do, big "Omg reach this to save the world" buttons....

Now I have this mental picture of the PCs busting into a room with a console with two buttons on it, labeled "SAVE WORLD" and "DESTROY WORLD".

[Kraggi]

If I were a BBEG, my quest would be to switch the labels on those two buttons.

[Anxe]

I would make one of them release a cream pie and the other drop a 5 ton weight on the closest halfling.

[SilverClawShift]

I have a couple of questions, does your group listen to any music to help set the scenes, and if so could you list some of the songs?

The DM is pretty much in charge of audio. A lot of the time, we're not listening to anything in particular, but he'll play stuff quietly when warranted. Actually, he has a habit of playing classical music really faintly, or anything with the proper mood he's trying to set up, but it's more often quiet.

He DOES have a habit of preparing sound clips and keeping them ready to play every now and then. Screams, growls, noises. Sound clips from movies or songs that might be appropriate.

But then, we have a pretty big area and a good set up for stuff like that. He has three "map" boards which are layered plexiglass, that we can put sheets of paper under. We use dry erase markers to keep track of stuff, make notes about areas, ect. Sometimes he'll put up artwork or miscellaneous stuff to help tie everything together (like an old timey image of a compass on an area where there's nothing else, or just symbols and things like that.)
But in addition, we all have laptops. Cheap ones, mostly, but the DM has a kickin' one, and he uses it for everything from notes about the campaign, to the sound bits, to stuff he typed up about classes or monsters so we have rules and info at the ready without digging through books all the time. I know, for instance, that he has crib-notes about dozens of monsters in little text files, so he can pull up whatever he needs us to be fighting. He also keeps 'flavorful' notes about it all, along with sadistic ideas he has in store for us
We also use the laptops to give information that needs to be kept secret. When the DM is passing notes or we're disscussing plans in quiet, we type it out to each other in IM while still carrying on the main game. Keeps things flowing smoothly, and lets use actually pass good 'notes' without spending the time scribbling back and forth on paper.

Also, I'm curious about the monster ratio in this world, lots of aberations and undead to be sure, but are there any monstrous humanoids, and if so how are they handled effectively in a horror setting?

We've been through a lot actually, stuff happened before the kython attack after all. Actually, the Archivist, paladin, and deceased clerics church has been a driving force for big parts of the game. We weren't railroaded into anything, (and we're not overtly religious in real life), but when half the party shares an explicit allegiance of faith, you not only have an instant reason to be learning about things that are 'wrong' in the world around you, but you have a driving reason to seek out why these things are going on.
I'm rambling, what I mean to be explaining is that the church wasn't assigning us 'missions' or anything like that. But we WERE getting information about stuff that the churhc was concerned with, and when the religious trio took it upon themselves to set out to find more, the rest of us accompanied them.

The religious grounds also gives you a lot of instant creepy gothic flavor when you're in a horror setting.

Anyway. We've had problems with undead from the start, but we (and by 'we', i mean everyone) were under the immpression that it was a series of localized phenomena, not some problem with reality fracturing itself. Dead bodies would raise, but they'd be put back down and things were mostly under control.
While we were on the island, the undead apparently reached critical mass. With the undead creating new corpses, well, you get the multiplication effect. What was just a half dozen corpses, in the wrong situation, turns into 12, and then 24, and then 48, and then 96, and before you know it all hell breaks loose. We're hopign we'll find citys that are still keeping things somewhat sane, but no matter where we go, the threat of 'critical mass' being reached remains.

Erk. I keep trying to bleed this into answering your question, and going in the wrong direction. There's a reason I'm NOT the DM

But yes, we've had trouble with other monsters.
Noteables:
We had trouble with a doppleganger infiltrating the church. He turned out to not be Evil with a capital E, but was trying to find out more about the undead thing going on (because apparently it's affecting the dopplegangers too. We didn't kill him, in the end, but we made the situation too hairy for him to stick around any longer.
He left us a note telling us where we could find the missing people (who he kidnapped to use their forms freely). Yeah, he buried them alive with a weeks worth of water and air tubes. They were all pretty psychologically messed up, but they recovered. Mostly.
So yeah, the doppleganger was insane, and a badguy, but not Big E evil, because he could have just slit their throats and left them in the woods, but didn't want anyone to die for his little fact-finding mission.

We ran into Gargoyles in an abandoned temple grounds. The DM successfully blindsided us with them too, mainly because we haven't fought gargoyles in... actually I don't remember ever fighting gargoyles!
So when the DM described the creepy statueary all over, we figured we were dealing with a screwed up cult with a penchant for stone work. Then the statues started moving when we weren't looking. When we came out of the church basement and back into the main hall, and saw stone monsters sitting motionless all over (doorways, windows, and sprinkled throughout the church pews), we realized too late that the trap we were walking into had allready been sprung.

We've also dealt with some 'mobile' plant matter in a stone maze, and a minotaur. And then an undead minotaur.

Surprisingly? Solid lack of human enemies. Our DMs favorite is human (and humanoid) villains, but I guess he figured he had plenty of ammo for us in this campaign.

I have to ask, would it be possible to apprentence under your DM?

lol

I dunno if he's accepting apprenticships at the moment, but I'll see if he has anything to say about it. I can also tell you a lot about what we do, including what he does to prep (the main thing is, anything will reflect the amount of effort you put into it. Sometimes you can put in a lot of effort and see little return, but you almost never see big return with little effort).

I gotta say, among his many gifts, I think the greatest talent your DM has is a good sense about when to just put down the rulebook and go with a cool idea.

Absolutely. Our DM will shut any rules lawyering down point blank. It's okay to point out when a rule mistake has been made, and our DM does try to play by the rules (it just makes sense, the system is there for a reason after all), but he's also happy to say "Nah, we're gonna do this instead"
For instance, sometimes there's just no dice rolling. When rolling the dice is a formality, straight up, he'll say 'forget it' and let things keep flowing smoothly. An example from another game, I attacked a first level commoner. I was a 5th or 6th level shifter/binder (who was also on fire). The DMs response? "Don't bother rolling, you tore his face off".

(I think the DMG even has a few lines about that. Something like "Don't make your players roll jump checks to hop over 3 foot high fences, or roll knowledge checks to buttons their shirts" or something along those lines).

The game is what counts, really. The rules exist to create the game, not the other way around, and when the rules are standing in our way, the hand gets waved .

*********************

Anyway, we're gonna be playing a lot tonight, but I'm gonna try to get the posts up to date with the story before we get together.

I'm glad you're all enjoying this, in any event.

[Eldritch_Ent]

Spiderdin, spiderdin, does whatever a spider c'n, Spins a web- to catch flies, Detects Evil with eight eyes- look out, here comes the Spiderdin...


You campaign fills me with much joy. Which state do you guys play in? I'll move there and hunt you down so I can play with you all.

[Shas aia Toriia]

Still amazing campaign.

I also notice you got an undead-fied version of your avatar. Related at all to this campaign?

[SilverClawShift]

Which state do you guys play in? I'll move there and hunt you down so I can play with you all.

Missouri, but I'm honestly not sure if we could support another player. Our 6th player (the dragon shaman) joined because he was friends with another player. My DM kicks ass, but 7 players?

I also notice you got an undead-fied version of your avatar. Related at all to this campaign?

Nope, just re-colored it for halloween.

[Eldritch_Ent]

Aww darn. Well if I'm ever in Missouri and you need a player, I'd love to attend!

Now for an odd question- when that Vestige the Kython summoned vanished, did you remember him tossing something to the Kython, and more importantly, what that item was? I just cracked open my old "Tome of Magic" to read up on Binders, and I'm wondering if your DM payed attention to that particlar quirk of that particular vestige...

[Doresain]

argh! i wanna join the campaign too! i havent played a serious game in a few months now...it always degenerates into movie/video game/anime/whatever else we can think of references...

[Ninja Chocobo]

After reading this, I have come to the conclusion that my campaign sucks, and I must make it better.

Thank you, both for this insight and your wonderful storytelling.

[TheSteelRat]

Seriously, if this guy has the campaign notes, can he arrange something on E-Bay to sell them to GM's only? This is the type of "adventure pack" I'd be willing to pay money for.

Keep it comin'!

[SilverClawShift]

Well if I'm ever in Missouri and you need a player, I'd love to attend!

Absolutely.

Now for an odd question- when that Vestige the Kython summoned vanished, did you remember him tossing something to the Kython, and more importantly, what that item was?

No, he didn't, and I know what you're talking about (I actually play binders, or dip into them, quite often). That's pretty easily explained by the fact that the vestiges are done with whatever charade they were acting out to get to this point, I think. When he opens up his spiel with "Sorry, no pacts anymore", it's a new dance you're taking part in.

argh! i wanna join the campaign too! i havent played a serious game in a few months now...it always degenerates into movie/video game/anime/whatever else we can think of references...

In all fairness, you can use other movies/games as base starting points fairly easily. We do it often enough, no one can have 100% fresh ideas 100% of the time.
Our DM either masks it well, or he uses those bases as a springboard in a new direction. Our he'll cherrypick different concepts and see what kind of story comes up from it (lich? bard? Bard lich? Phantom of the opera? Lichbard of the Opera!")

The main thing is a touch of planning and creativity in whatever you're doing.

After reading this, I have come to the conclusion that my campaign sucks, and I must make it better.

Thank you, both for this insight and your wonderful storytelling.

I don't know your campaign, so I can't comment, but be more optimistic

In any event, you're more than welcome.

Seriously, if this guy has the campaign notes, can he arrange something on E-Bay to sell them to GM's only? This is the type of "adventure pack" I'd be willing to pay money for.

He's joke about making modules/game packs before. He's also discussed it seriously before, as a group endeavor (with us as the testers). We're working on some actual 'polished' content, but most of our stuff (and his notes) are very chaotic. It comes with the terrtiroy of keeping track of that much, I suppose.

We're working on a campaign world (featured in my sig), and part of that is going to be modules/campaigns (both generic ones applicable to any world, and ones that are campaign specific) but a lot of work goes into it. And we don't have time lately, since we're gaming every time we get together.

I'll tell him someone thinks so highly of his work though, I'm sure he'll be flattered.

[Shas aia Toriia]

He should be more then flattered. He sounds awewsome!

Also, I agree with Steel Rat, this would make a great module.

[Forrestfire]

wow...I wish that I was in this campaign...

Also, when I was reading about the cause, I was reminded of the books "The Rising" and its sequal: "City of the Dead." Can you ask your DM if he gained inspiration from either of these two books?

[Thorguy]

Edit: Missed it. D'oh.

[13_CBS]

Actually, I think you might have a chance of taking out the slaymaster:

Train a couple of the villagers as Bards, Marshals, etc., but train the vast majority of them as Warlock 1/Something Else 1, with Eldritch Spear. Have all the warlocks take Weapon Focus(Eldritch Blast).

Each Warlock will have +3 or +4 to hit, and deal 1d6+2 or 3. I'm not sure what the Slaymaster's Touch AC is, but unless it's crazy high, the villagers can deal 100+ damage per round from 250 feet away. And the PCs haven't even acted yet.

A bit too late for the party, sirrah.

[bugsysservant]

A bit too late for the party, sirrah.

No, no, I think he's on to something there.

@SilverClawShift: Seriously, though, consider either changing the title of the thread, editing the original post, or both. I hate racing to this thread every time I see it in the "most recent" listing hoping for a new instalation only to find more recomendations for how to kill kythons.

[SilverClawShift]

That's not a bad idea. I'm working on the next bit, but it's a lot of writing and all.

[Shas aia Toriia]

Oh well, enduring the masses who still think this is a kython-killing topic to see the latest news from the best campaign ever is worth it!

[SilverClawShift]

Well, in all fairness, it's only been two i think ;)

[bugsysservant]

That's not a bad idea. I'm working on the next bit, but it's a lot of writing and all.

NEXT BIT!!!

Oh Frabjous Day, Calloo, Callay, I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve! 'Course that still means I have to wait.

And two people can be a masses. Especially if they are unwashed.

[Thorguy]

Yeah... sorry about that. Anyway, I read the rest of the thread, and I'm eagerly awaiting your next post.