How the mighty are fallen: A campaign ends

[thulsa]

After more than 50 gaming sessions and 4 years of campaign play, it all ended with a de-facto TPK last week!

The current group consisted of

Zalayeta, male Zamorian Thief 11
Zaporovo, male Zingaran Thief 10
Nauron, male Bossonian Soldier 10
Ynnek, male Iranistani Nomad 1 (yeah, that's right, level one...)

After countless adventures, they finally met their doom in HS4 The Lost Caverns of Acheron, the next in my series of classic conversions, which will soon be available for download.

Not even fate points could save the players from themselves, after two of the four PCs, with what I can only ascribe to a combination of greed and naiveté, willingly entered into a pact with an evil being. The other two PCs were thus easily defeated, and the campaign ended with victory for an ancient evil.

And thus fell the mighty...

- thulsa

 

[Der Rote Baron]

Curious to see The Lost Caverns.

Other than that - D O O M to the D O O O O M E D !!!

:twisted:

 

[Style]

Another heartless GM holding characters accountable for their actions. What the? :x




:wink:





I'm intrigued by the title "The Lost Caverns of Acheron". The Lost Caverns of Thracia is probably my favorite adventure ever, and I've been tossing it around in my head for some time now how I could possibly convert it to Conan. Placing it on the island Orinolo was about as far as I'd gotten. The problem I kept having is CoT is so demi-human centric. Sure, it's an easy swap to exchange snake men for lizard folk, but then there are Minotaurs and dog brothers. Playing these three groups against each other, four if you count the human tribes, can (should?) be a big part of that adventure. I guess you could just make them three different competing tribes of snake men.

Anyway, I can't wait to see it!

 

[The King]

I think he is refering to the TSR Module "S4" Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth. Up to now, Thulsa only converted TSR material.

To Thulsa: I am surprised that you allow a group of 4 to adventure there because the older TSR modules were usually made for 6-10 PCs.

 

[thulsa]

I think he is refering to the TSR Module "S4" Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth. Up to now, Thulsa only converted TSR material.

That's correct, it is indeed based on "The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth" (S4, adding an "H" for Hyborian, so it becomes HS4), not "Caverns of Thracia".

I do have a copy of Caverns of Thracia (the 3E version by Necromancer Games), but have not had a chance to run it yet (but since I am restarting my campaign I have the chance now... but nothing decided yet). It seems like a well-done dungeon crawl. The various competing groups could perhaps be a combination of snake men and human tribes (dog brothers = neanderthals, perhaps?).

To Thulsa: I am surprised that you allow a group of 4 to adventure there because the older TSR modules were usually made for 6-10 PCs.

True, but the contents of the caverns were changed quite a bit. To quote from my own introduction: "However, since the original cavern complex is (at least in this author’s opinion) a rather mixed bag of monster-filled caverns with little internal consistency, I have re-stocked the caverns with a more appropriate menagerie."

My party of 4 PCs did quite well until the final stages of the adventure, when some of them made bad decisions...

- thulsa

 

[Spectator]

Its absolutely cool how Thulsa has made me look at material for Conan adventures. I was watching the western 3:10 to Yuma, last night and my little mind was trying to figure out to set up an adventure on the Road of kings between Zamora and Brythonia.

 

[Majestic7]

Actually, I think that sounds like a pretty nice ending for a campaign. You can then use those two guys who went to the bad side as villains in another campaign...

 

[Ichabod]

Memorial Weekend is our 4th anniversary for our campaign. But, we already sided with evil (ancient and otherwise) on various occasions. We do some of the dumbest things possible, oftentimes out of greed. We probably should have had de facto TPKs.

So, omen? Coincidence?

 

[The King]

I think a party of evil only is possible if the group stays together during adventures. It would be silly to reduce the power of a group if others can do the job of killing critters and other abominations.

 

[Hervé]

It's good to see back you back on this forum, Thulsa!
I'll be waiting eagerly for your next adaptation of The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth
You were talking of a more professional project a couple of months ago. I hope it will see publication someday soon. Could you give us some hints about it. Will it be as Conanesque as the wonderful Ancient Kingdoms: Mesopotamia?

The end of your campaign reminds me of a quite shizophrenic CoC campaign where most of our original party turned cultist (the ones who did not were brutally murdered). We created a new party of "good" investigators (with the same players) but kept playing the old characters turned evil from time to time. It ended with the original party plotting against the new investigators and killing their other selves in the process! I guess all the players lost some SAN that day!

 

[Kyorou]

It's amazing how often those turned-evil PC's end up killing the rest of the party...

 

[Paladin]

Almost all good hereos have a tragedic ending. Though a noble sacrifice is more desirable than conversion to the dark side/betrayal...

 

[Style]

Thulsa, when is your web site going to be back up? I've come to rely on it for some things.

 

[thulsa]

Thulsa, when is your web site going to be back up? I've come to rely on it for some things.

Back on June 1st, when the monthly bandwidth counter resets.

I may have to purchase some more monthly bandwidth if the page views keep increasing. I suspect the launch of the Age of Conan MMORPG might have caused a spike/increase in traffic.

- thulsa

 

[thulsa]

It's good to see back you back on this forum, Thulsa!

Thanks. I've been lurking and reading, too busy to post much.

I'll be waiting eagerly for your next adaptation of The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth

Should be available in a few days...

You were talking of a more professional project a couple of months ago. I hope it will see publication someday soon. Could you give us some hints about it. Will it be as Conanesque as the wonderful Ancient Kingdoms: Mesopotamia?

If anything, it's more Conanesque than AK: M. But it won't see print anytime "soon" (2009 is more realistic, I guess). Possibly as a 4E product, with the 3E statblocks available separately. I finished writing it at a bad time, just when the 3E market collapsed after WotC announced 4E.

- thulsa

 

[The King]

If anything, it's more Conanesque than AK: M. But it won't see print anytime "soon" (2009 is more realistic, I guess). Possibly as a 4E product, with the 3E statblocks available separately. I finished writing it at a bad time, just when the 3E market collapsed after WotC announced 4E.

- thulsa

Why don't you convert it to Conan RPG and propose it to Mongoose. They say that they pay better than in the US.

 

[Hervé]

Thulsa wrote:

If anything, it's more Conanesque than AK: M.

PLEASE!!! Tell us more!

But it won't see print anytime "soon" (2009 is more realistic, I guess).

I'll probably be dead by then, or chained to the rowing bank of a stygian galley...

 

[Paladin]

Thulsa, when is your web site going to be back up? I've come to rely on it for some things.

Back on June 1st, when the monthly bandwidth counter resets.

I may have to purchase some more monthly bandwidth if the page views keep increasing. I suspect the launch of the Age of Conan MMORPG might have caused a spike/increase in traffic.

- thulsa

you might also do some digging on who/what is hitting your site. A lot of times your bandwidth gets burned by spiders/bots from useless low end search engines. You can filter a large number of these via your robot.txt file.

 

[thulsa]

Why don't you convert it to Conan RPG and propose it to Mongoose. They say that they pay better than in the US.

Well, I'm certainly not writing adventures for the money, anyway. Seeing one's name on the cover of a book, and reading the reviews/feedback, is much more rewarding than the actual paycheck.

That said, the book would fit the Hyborian Age like a glove. But I have a good relationship with Necromancer Games. Now that 4E is finally out, their publishing plans will be much more predictable. Perhaps they decide there is no market for it. We'll see.

- thulsa

 

[thulsa]

Thulsa wrote:

If anything, it's more Conanesque than AK: M.

PLEASE!!! Tell us more!

All right, here is a little teaser... (The following text is copyright 2008, Xoth.Net Publishing):

Sunken Temples and Serpent-Haunted Vaults
Enter the City of Stone and slay the high priest of Jul-Juggah! Plunder the ancient gold of Namthu! Seek the fabled jewel of Khadim Bey, but beware the nameless horrors of the Al-Khazi desert! Fight the dread adepts of the ape-god, or succumb to the pleasures of the Moon-Juice of Yaatana! Or perhaps you will perish by the curses of Ur-Kharra, the long-dead sorcerer-king of Elder Kuth?

- thulsa