Joël's campaign (now: Har'Akir desert arc!)

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Just got caught up. Great stuff. I love the intermixing of the plotlines. Makes it really feel like the players are choosing their own path. I loved how you handled the obsession horror check. I'll have to remember that one.

Good idea to place Horror's Harvest in Mordent. It really doesn't seem to fit as written, in Falkovnia. And it's nice to twist expectations to a completely different culprit. (People acting strange in Mordent? Must be ghosts possessing them! Nope...)

I wonder if the players will try to connect the Dopp. Plant victims that rotted from within to the Cyrus Hope's sudden rotting due to the Halo. The similarities there might be fun to exploit. (i.e., Once they kill the DP in Delmunster, has a new one sprouted up in Mordentshire?)

[Joël of the FoS]

Just got caught up. Great stuff. I love the intermixing of the plotlines. Makes it really feel like the players are choosing their own path. I loved how you handled the obsession horror check. I'll have to remember that one.

That was hilarious indeed (for me!) I was laughing inside me during all this game, watching the players talk to the others while Varadan's player wasn’t there, until he found out what has happened to his PC, i.e. he was struck by obsession over the corpse and was always talking about it.

Good idea to place Horror's Harvest in Mordent. It really doesn't seem to fit as written, in Falkovnia. And it's nice to twist expectations to a completely different culprit. (People acting strange in Mordent? Must be ghosts possessing them! Nope...)

That was what I thought when I mixed all these adventure hooks at the start of the adventure: to put the player’s first guess to an obvious culprit that wasn’t.

I always thought this adventure was cool, but its root into Falkovnia always felt wrong, somehow. And Falkovnia isn’t the kind of place anyway where the players hang around for long, especially with a halfling and an elf.

It’s going to be interesting to see what they will try to guess at the start of the Transubstancial Halo game

I wonder if the players will try to connect the Dopp. Plant victims that rotted from within to the Cyrus Hope's sudden rotting due to the Halo. The similarities there might be fun to exploit. (i.e., Once they kill the DP in Delmunster, has a new one sprouted up in Mordentshire?)

We played yesterday. In their mind, the two events (Cyrus Hope dissolving, the strange illness in Delmunster) are not related. But they had a discussion on the topic, you guessed right.

In short, yesterday’s game: they decided to speak to the burgomaster (the insane guy who happens to have juju zombies for servants. Horror’s Harvest’s spoiler: The comet landed on his house and he burrowed it in the forest). In his manor, they are very badly treated by the human-appearing juju zombies, and they eventually identify them for what they really are. They eventually get to the top floor, where the burgomaster just finished painting his last work: the doppelganger plant. He speaks to them in insane rambling, shows them his last work, then jump off the 70’ feet house roof to his death. They are now looking for a cucurbitaceous plant in the forest. They said to the priest to propagate this edict: “do not go in the forest, and do not touch any suspicious looking plant.”

Of course, the pods are aware of that. For the doppelganger plant, that means war Next night, I’ll probably try to enslave one of the PC, starting with the most influential ones first. Then, the pods will prepare decoys “strange” plants and things like that.

I’ll probably roll the “control” dices before the game, and talk to the player before the game to prepare this game (and of course asking him not to talks to the others!).

Other mischievous ideas welcomed !

Joël

[Algaris]

Hmmm. I downloaded the zip file for your campaign, but am having difficulties opening it on my Mac. I keep getting the error message:

The file "Joels_Campaign_Journal_01-14.zip" does not appear to be compressed or encoded. It is advised that you obtain further information about the contents of this file from the provider of the file. It will help to know what program created the file and what operating system(s) the file can be used on.

I was looking forward to reading what you've been up to in your campaign.

[Joël of the FoS]

Hmmm. I downloaded the zip file for your campaign, but am having difficulties opening it on my Mac. I keep getting the error message:

The file "Joels_Campaign_Journal_01-14.zip" does not appear to be compressed or encoded. It is advised that you obtain further information about the contents of this file from the provider of the file. It will help to know what program created the file and what operating system(s) the file can be used on.

It was zipped with regular Winzip. Strange, as it works well for me: I just downloaded it from the site and opened it...

I was looking forward to reading what you've been up to in your campaign.

Is there an email address where I can sent it to (the zip is about 3.6 meg of PDFs)?

Joël

[Algaris]

Just tried downloading it again and got the same error message when trying to open the zip file. How strange, maybe it's just a Mac thing with Winzip?

You can send the PDF's to xxxxxxx

[Joël of the FoS]

Sent!

[Algaris]

Thanks.

[Joël of the FoS]

Session 25 and 26 are now online. Please comment as usual

It is mainly the Doppelganger plant adventure of Dungeon magazine; ending in session 26.

Joël

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Looks like that adventure worked really well. Lots of nice creepy imagery in the manor house. I hope Mac Razbunare's player enjoyed playing the bad guy for a bit. And I also hope the others weren't too upset at being misled.

Cool. now what's next?

[Joël of the FoS]

Ouch, it took me a long time, but here it is - session 27 and 28 - see the main page for download link.

As hinted in the other thread, it is mainly about the Transubstancial Halo adventure, as proposed on these boards by JWM.

Session 29 is planned for within a week.

Suggestions and comments welcomed!

Joël

[Adam]

Very cool. Are your players informed enough about Ravenloft lore out of character to know who the gentleman speaking to them at the end is? If so, I imagine that was quite a cliffhanger to wrap up on for them.

[Joël of the FoS]

Thanks!

No they did not know about the darklord of Mordent. In fact, they wrongly guessed it was Jules Weathermay I had a little devious fun giving them false hints and wrong tracks.

So that was a surprise for them to be "sent" in front of Godefroy, a caracter they only knew the name from history books!

Joël

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Very good read....

I especially liked the writing in the dust. (Creepy!) and the idea to have the Reaver stand on a rock to trick them into diving in. Will have to use those...

A Monk named Thelonious, eh? You had all the monks statted out. Were you expecting the PC's to make trouble?

How did the attacking ghosts make it past the basilisks?

Sigh... I'd really love to use this adventure, but my players already think the Guardians are well-meaning buffoons after their botched guarding of my Soulstealer dagger. I don't think I could have another of their artifacts stolen without completely undermining their credibility.

Great cliffhanger. Can't wait to see what happens next....

[Joël of the FoS]

Very good read....

Thanks!

I especially liked the writing in the dust. (Creepy!) and the idea to have the Reaver stand on a rock to trick them into diving in. Will have to use those...

I borrowed the dust idea from JWM's original THalo draft, IIRC.

And the reaver tactic is something I thought of on the spot! But it didn't work in my game, other that making me interested in writing about reavers in the NS Report monstrous appendix.

A Monk named Thelonious, eh? You had all the monks statted out. Were you expecting the PC's to make trouble?

Yes, a jazz fan here I wasn't expecting the monk to be trouble as much as the PCs arriving with hostile intent, because of the undead creature that came from there.

How did the attacking ghosts make it past the basilisks?

That's somthing I didn't have answer for (other that "they were lucky" (!)). Thankfully, the players didn't ask this question. I don't know, we'll ask JWM

Perhaps the ghosts did know about this defence, and came in the corridor eyes closed. The heroes didn't see them pass this area. Or the 10th level wizard had a trick about it?

Sigh... I'd really love to use this adventure, but my players already think the Guardians are well-meaning buffoons after their botched guarding of my Soulstealer dagger. I don't think I could have another of their artifacts stolen without completely undermining their credibility.

The Guardians often have this role, indeed. Think also of the TSR Jam RL adventure! I should perhaps make them the next "XYZ of the month" ?

Great cliffhanger. Can't wait to see what happens next....

Lots of fun I hope

Joël

[Joël of the FoS]

Next sessions para me are now up there in the veranda - sessions 29 and 30.

In it, you'll find the end of the transubstancial halo adventure...

Comments welcomed!

Joël