Sin Stalker

Sin Stalker CR8 

CE Medium outsider (Chaotic, Demon, Evil, Extraplanar) 

Init  +4; Senses darkvision 60', Sinscent*, Perception +18 

DEFENSE 

AC  23, Touch  14, Flat Footed 18 (+4 Dex, +1 Dodge, +8 Natural) 

HP  96 (9d10+45) 

Fort +8, Ref +10, Will +10 

DR 10/Cold Iron or Good; Immune  death effects, precision damage, electricity, paralysis, poison 

OFFENSE 

Speed 30' 

Melee  2 claws +15 (1d6+6), bite +15 (1d8+6) or By Weapon 

Special Attacks Energy Drain (2 levels, DC 18), Sinful Stare, Sinstrike 

STR 22, DEX 18, CON 21, INT 15, WIS 16, CHA 19 

Base Attack +9; CMB 15; CMD 29 

Feats: Cleave, Dodge, Furious Focus, Power Attack, Vital Strike 

SINSCENT  Any creature within 60' that has a sin upon their soul cannot hide from a Sin Stalker. They can sense the target through invisibility, blur, concealment, cover, illusion or any other trick. 

SINSTRIKE When a Sin Stalker hits an opponent with an unobsolved sin, it does an additional d6 damage. 

SINFUL STARE 1/rd a Sin Stalker can take a free action to stare into the soul of a sinner. The sinner must make a Will save (DC 18) or become Nauseated for d4 rounds. A successful save means that that character cannot be affected by this ability for 24 hours (from this creature only). The attribute to the save varies upon the sin (use the most pronounced sin if more than one apply): 

Lust = CHA 

Gluttony = CON 

Greed = WIS 

Sloth = DEX 

Wrath = STR 

Envy = INT 

Pride = NONE 

How many unique monsters?

When buying a product like Mord Mar (a mega-dungeon in the 50-100$ range) how many new, unique monsters do you expect to get?

CotMA Session 10

The party this week:
Feran, Human Ranger 5: Me 
Chance, Cleric 4/Rogue 1
Clip-Clop, Centaur Fighter 4 (ECL penalty)
Inquisitor 5
Barbarian 2/Druid 3 (I think)
Magus 3/Rogue 2 (I think)

End of last session, we killed Brekk, who blew up. This session picked up immediately after.

We looted his area, and found a bunch of coin, a Rod of Wonder, a Ring of Retribution (the thing that blew Brekk up), Ring of Maniacal Devices, and a couple of potions. After tallying up our haul, we decided we need to rest. We were quite deep in the Castle, and just had a dude EXPLODE! on us.

After nothing happening during our rest period, we entered back into Brekk's workshop. Looking over the machine that disoriented us, was the Mad Archmage himself. After a bit of a talk, he asked us if we 'wanted to see his Crypts.' I said yes. And away we went.

Well, the rest of the party was a bit upset as we were teleported. We appeared in a crossroads.The Mad Archmage then told us we were to meet a 'caretaker.' A rumbling started. We began to run in a random direction.

Eventually, with the rumbling following us, we found a 'jawbreaker machine.' Three of us bought jawbreakers. As we did, a variant bulette attacked us. The centaur, ranger, barbarian, and ranger's animal companion failed saves vs disease. (tbd).

From there we stumbled onward. We passed through bronze doors, and didn't disturb any tombs. Eventually, we decided 'up' wouldn't be inside the area inside the bronze doors. We found our way through another bronze door, and eventually to an area with more tombs.One marked "Guy Fawkes." My ranger broke it down, and found a +1 dagger of distance and returning.

From here, we turned a corner into a death cult, who assumed we were powerful enough to be here, and negotiated a way back to level 6 for the Ring of Retribution. That's where the session ended.

Tenkar's Tavern Talk

So, on Wednesday nights, there is a nice talk about the OSR at http://www.tenkarstavern.com/. It starts at 8:30 and runs until about 10. Check it out if the OSR is in your wheelhouse.

CotMA: Session 9

The party this week:
Feran, Human Ranger 5: Me 
Chance, Cleric 4/Rogue 1
Clip-Clop, Centaur Fighter 4 (ECL penalty)
Inquisitor 5
Barbarian 2/Druid 3 (I think)
Drow Fighter/Rogue1/4
Magus 3/Rogue 2 (I think)

After dealing with the hobgoblins at the end of our last session, we jumped right back into the action.We finished clearing out their complex, finding keys to the portcullis and a few secret doors. We found a bunch of money, bracers +2 and a wardrobe with an animated suit of scale armor. Our grapple expert grabbed it, and never let go. It was quickly pummeled into submission. It was guarding a tuning fork, that radiated magic. We stowed this carefully in the cleric's bag of holding. After this, we rested, and headed back to find Brekk.

We looked at our maps and figured out about which way to get to him, and followed a plan. The druid had Know Direction memorized, which kept us from getting off track, and possibly lost. Going through several corridors that seemed to double back on themselves, we eventually found another complex.

First, we ran across a room with a leaky pipe and moss growing in it. We tentatively checked it out and were not molested by any shambling mounds or other planty doom.

Then we came across a bloodied room. It was apparently the scene of a bloody battle (we found out later it was between hobgobbos and orcs). Following our best guesses, we found two emptied barracks and a room with a stone arm from a statue in it. (We left the arm there.)

Finally we came to a place where we found something alive again. Behind a door we hear voices speaking in Orcish. We knocked on the door and negotiated directions to Brekk and passage through their territory.

Following the orcish directions we found our way to Brekk's complex. One arrow trap blasted the party. We were fortunate on our search rolls after that.

We muscled our way to Brekk's workshop, where we were immediately hit by a device that disoriented any movements we made. (Chance and Feran rolled nat 20's to be unaffected.) The battle was joined with Brekk, his 5 gnolls, and only Chance and Feran moving normally.

Our War Mage hit the machine with a projectile, proving it could be destroyed. Chance turned it on the gnolls, keeping them out of the fight.Turning it also allowed our heavy hitters into the combat. Brekk was forced to destroy his machine himself.

Brekk activated some crazy stupid armor: Displacement, Shield, and Mirror Image. Then he used a touch attack to deliver a 5d6 Vampiric Touch and a 5d6 Shocking Grasp to Clip-Clop! Ouch.

Then he turned it on the Ranger. Double-Ouch. The gnolls went down, and I had to head to work, but the rest of the party were able to finish off the gnome-o-mancer. That's where the session ended.

EDIT: Apparently, this was session 9. Updated in the title.

Mord Mar 2015

I have been working slowly on Mord Mar. The third part of Goblins is being penned, Sourcebook 0 is slowly growing, and we are delving into the Bazaar in a short-shot game. But, Saturday is CotMA. I have another week to plan.

So, the plan is the usual suspects want to play evil characters. We will see how they do starting by getting kicked out of Var Nae.

CotMA Campaign Reset

We reset the CotMA campaign the weekend before Christmas. That's why there wasn't a post about it. Now I have to relearn everyone's character names. We did it to rebalance the party. A few of the players felt there was a brighter spotlight on some people (myself included). We also felt that some roles (in combat) were being under served, that's another reason for the reset. We also procured a few new books that everyone wanted to use in the game.

Our old characters sold our new ones their maps, and many of the quests were open to the public, so no real loss of continuity. The only things that really happened in the 'remake session' was discussion of roles and some light RP (finding the quests and etcetera.)

Here's the new group:
Ranger 5 (me)
Cleric 4/Rogue 1 (Oldhimara?)
Centaur Fighter 4 (ECL penalty)
Inquisitor 5
Barbarian 2/Druid 3 (I think)
Warmage 3/Rogue 2 (I think)
Some wizard thing 5 (from Advanced Class Guide)

So, last week's session found us heading once again towards Brekk (with different people. heh.) We found hobgoblins instead.

Not a lot actually happened. We had an encounter with a Hobgoblin Shaman with an Ape pet of some sort. Other than Spike Growth in a dungeon, we breezed this encounter.

Next a Hobgoblin patrol found us searching the Shaman. There were about 12 of them, that we again handled with little problem.

We followed the passage they came from to find an oddly shaped "room." A portcullis blocked one passage out. Another passage led further than we could see, and there were 2 doors. The room had signs of the Hobgoblin clan living here, so we knew they were close. We found a secret door that led to a weapons cache for the Hobgoblins. Then we found the Hobgoblins.

About 25 of them.
And 2 more Apes

All at once.

And 3 leaders showed up after the fight began.

Our centaur dropped, but we did well. The cleric was able to move into position to heal quickly, and efficiently. The Ranger used his bolas and sickle to trip, and AoO prevailed. The wizard-thing used lightning balls to harass and damage.
The Inquisitor used his judgements to great effect. All in all, the reboot did what it was supposed to. We were much more combat effective, and able to work as a team. We won the day, and beat all the hobgoblins (and pets).


Let's hope it continues.

Castle of the Mad Archmage Session 6

Castle of the Mad Archmage Session #6 recap:

Current Party:
Hask (1/2 Orc FTR 3/ PAL 1) - played by me
Ankar (1/2 Orc SRC 4) - played by Ian
Einar (Dwarf CLR 4) - played by Dave
Santiago (Halfling ROG 4) - played by Dustin
Go'ram(??? ALC 4) - played by Richard
New Guy (Dwarf DRD 3/MNK 1) - played by Rob
Skarsnik (1/2 Orc FTR 4) - played by Jake - new player


This week we didn't actually head into the CotMA. Instead we were approached by the town's cleric, Scarlett. She asked us to send a representative to a secret meeting. We elected to send our Dwarven Cleric, as it was a religious invitation. Through the next couple of days, he and the DM texted the meeting, which included the Pints 'o Pain (the adventure group we attacked in our last outing of the dungeon) and the wizard (sorcerer?) who almost killed us in our first incursion.

Through negotiation, our Cleric did an awesome job of getting us paid: 3500 gp to investigate a "temple," 250 gp per cultist, and 2k dead or 3k alive for a cleric we were familiar with, Abigail. She had traveled with us from Hommlet to Greyhawk as a guard of the caravan that we hired on to.

We headed out after dark, based on directions from Scarlett. Finding the temple was no problem, and a storm even rolled in to cover our noise! Luck seemed to be with us. We spotted a light patrolling the area, and engaged 4 followers of Demogorgon! I have to say, Channel Energy (Negative) really hurts. We survived, and took minor injuries.

Moving around to the back of the temple, we found two entrances. We sent in Santiago, invisible to scout the area. He returned telling us of a long hallway with 10 (?) doors and another corridor leading to a temple with a Demogorgon statue. The group quietly entered the outer door, and began systematically checking the doors. All of them were empty save for a desk, and perfectly made bunk beds. We checked the second corridor and found that a couple of those rooms were used, but unoccupied. Then we heard a scream.

The Paladin ran towards the woman's scream, ignoring a pair of double doors, which Santiago glued with a tanglefoot bag. Approaching the screams Hask saw 2 ogre sized "bleeding" skeletons, which he ignored when he saw the clerics dragging a maiden.

Three more clerics of Demogorgon engaged with the skeletons on the party. Skarsnik, Go'ram, and the Druid, dealt with the skeletons, while Hask, Santiago (with a Pro Evil from Einar), and Ankar moved to deal with the clerics.

In the middle of this hard combat, 3 more clerics broke out of the tanglefooted door. We did eventually take them out. But we were bloodied when done. However, we did save the maiden!

Between the 2 Ogre-Blood-Zombies were another set of doors. We healed some and headed in, to find 4 more OBZs and Abigail. She gave a fairly typical bad guy speech and the fight was joined. Hask got dropped by a zombie, and Abigail fled through a "door." Skarsnik played cleanup on the zombies while Ankar, Einar and Santiago chased her through the illusion.

She tried to escape through an outer door. Santiago blocked the escape.  Meanwhile, Hask came to, stood up, and was dropped by the same zombie taking an AOO. Another fight ensues with Abigail, while Hask is brought to consciousness again. Abigail is close to defeated, when Menkel (the Inquisitor) shows up and kills Santiago. They dimdoor to escape, and the session ends.

A problem

I wanted to do my bi-weekly write up of Castle of the Mad Archmage, but instead I need to talk about party strife. We had a player quit in the campaign over the weekend. Because initiative got screwed up for 1 round. Well, that was his excuse anyway.

Now, he is a friend, and a longtime gamer in many of our campaigns. But, this is not the first time this has happened. I'm tempted to tell the DM he cannot come back to the campaign (it is run at my house.) This could break a friendship. I don't know that it will, as he is currently in the XCrawl game that runs on the alternate Saturdays.

Currently the policy is he is welcome back as long as we don't fill his slot. Which we are not actively trying to do.

Has anyone experienced this, and how did you handle it? Anyone have any blogs you have read on the subject that could help?

I finally figured out Raise Dead in Mord Mar

I have been thinking for a while about the ability to Raise Dead characters. It has always seemed too simple of a task. I have decided that only a cleric of a god the dead character follows can Raise or Res the dead character.

It seems like a good solution. It doesn't tax any resources over the normal amount. It expands role playing possibilities. Anybody try this before?

Castle of the Mad Archmage Session 5

While in my 'downtime' for Mord Mar, we have two DMs filling in the game sessions. Blondie is running XCrawl for the group, and Adam is running CotMA. I plan on doing session updates for at least that game, as it is a pretty popular setting.

Long and short of previous sessions: we started in a caravan heading to Greyhawk. Fought some kobolds, and established a party. We've established ourselves in the town, Chenth. We killed the bandits, got our asses kicked by Gorkhar the Magnificent, met the dwarves and elves. We made a deal with the kobolds (in the Castle), and found or fought several other random battles. We met and made deals with Hannegar.

Our current party makeup:

Hask (1/2 Orc FTR 3/ PAL 1) - played by me
Ankar (1/2 Orc SRC 4) - played by Ian
Einar (Dwarf CLR 4) - played by Dave
Santiago (Halfling ROG 4) - played by Dustin
Crazy-Ass (??? ALC 4) - played by Richard
New Guy (Dwarf DRD 3/MNK 1) - played by Rob
Jade (Human CLR 3) - NPC (pd 200 gp +10% over 2k from each Hask and Ankar)

A bit more back story:At the end of our previous session, Rob's old character (an Inquisitor of Grumish) attacked Ankar, and was left naked at negative HPs in the Xvents rooms. He had interrogated the bandit leader about their treasure that was left in Greyhawk.

So, we began Saturday's session heading to Greyhawk ahead of the Inquisitor. We decided to do some research while there too. No issues recovering the treasure, and spent several days researching the following topics:
Chenth (a legendary blue dragon who died twice, apparently) - and his bloodline
Chenth's mate - the kobolds believe they are descendants of hers. Part of the treaty.
Lyndys (the LN dragon god, Bahamut's dad) Jade's god
Elder Elemental Eye - our caravan at the start of the campaign went through Homlet, and this came up
Tristan, Scarlett, and Blaze (mayor, head cleric, and guard captain of Chenth)

Returning to Chenth from our trip, we found that the Inquisitor had indeed survived, and lodged a complaint to Tristan. They apparently think their law extends into the dungeon. Hask told them he would willingly submit to a Zone of Truth on the matter. That was set up for 2 days later.

The group headed into the dungeon, heading down toward level 3. As we entered, a rival group was in the great hall, using our kobold "allies" as puppets. Talking was an option until the other group pointed at 3 elf corpses and said "don't mind the axe marks."

The problem is, those elves saved our lives after we were knocked out by Gorkhar. So, Hask walked up and attacked the puppeteer. A lively fight ensued, with 2 Black Tentacles spells making sure we could not have an advantage. The other group fled, and we followed. This time, the crazy alchemist talked to them, and paid them to not talk in town about us attacking them.

We then proceeded down to level 3. We found a rhino trap, and a room with giant scorpions, who knocked Hask out, but the party was victorious. Everybody got <500 gp and leveled up.

So I missed 2 Mondays. Again

So, I missed 2 Mondays again. But, I had a good reason. Like hours at the dentist. I have a lot of work to do, and Monday is the day, apparently. So, as much as I would like to give steady updates, it may not be in the cards for a while.

I missed Monday

So, I am trying to get into the habit of posting on the Facebook page (Mord Mar) on Mondays. I've been calling it "Mord Mar Mondays" (aren't alliterations great?) Well, due to some strange occurrences (namely sleeping all day) I didn't get it done yesterday. I made up for it on the Facebook page, introducing a new villainous weapon. That's a bit too pedestrian for the blog. So, I give you the playtest version of Mord Mar's first Prestige Class:

DEAD ONE

Dead Ones were a sect of great warriors that once defended Mord Mar. They traded their individuality for anonymity. Until recently, these warriors were believed to be lost to time. Together, Dead Ones in society were called the Legion of the Dead

Hit Die

d10

Requirements

To qualify for Dead One, a character must fulfill the following criteria:

Alignment: all Dead Ones are Lawful

Base Attack Bonus: +3

Feats: Endurance

Role-Play: contact with the Legion of the Dead

Class Skills

A Dead One’s class skills (and key ability) are Climb (STR), Intimidate (CHA),   Knowledge: Dungeoneering (INT), Perception (WIS), Sense Motive (CHA), Swim (STR)

Skill Ranks: 2 + INT modifier

Level	BAB	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special
1	+1	+0	+0	+1	Die Hard Feat, Iron Mask, Will to Die
2	+2	+0	+0	+2	Death’s Embrace
3	+3	+1	+1	+2	Clarity of Death
4	+4	+1	+1	+2
5	+5	+2	+1	+2	Death’s Emissary

Class Features

Die Hard Feat: Per the Pathfinder CRB. Dead Ones at 0 HP or below are not considered disabled or staggered.

Iron Mask: All Dead Ones have an iron mask grafted to their faces. This gives them a -2 to CHA and a +1 AC (Circumstance Bonus). The CHA penalty can only be removed with a Wish or Miracle spell (which removes the mask).

Will to Die: All Dead Ones forsake any type of Resurrection Magic (including Raise Dead, Reincarnation, Breath of LIfe, etc). If a Dead One ever loses their Lawful alignment, they will attack every living thing near them until slain.

Death’s Embrace: At 2nd level, when a Dead One’s HP is below 50%, they do an additional 2 points of damage with every melee attack. When below 75%, they deal an additional 3 points of damage with every melee attack, and when below 0 HPs, all melee damage is at +5, and any crit has an additional +1 to its damage multiplier (a x2 critical weapon would do x3).

Clarity of Death: Whenever a Dead One is under the influence of any spell with the following descriptors: Charm, Compulsion, or Pattern, the Dead One may re-roll his saving throw against that spell.

Death’s Emissary: At 5th level, a Dead One is able to call upon Death. Once per day, if the Dead One is below zero HPs, he may activate this as a swift action before rolling to hit. If the hit is successful, the target must make a Fort Save with a DC equal to damage dealt. If the target fails this save, it dies.
 

Blogging at work

After reading the 1d12 blog I mentioned, I immediately found something to work into Mord Mar. On December 26, 2011 he wrote a Strange and Terrible Curses table. One of these curses was a "beard of worms." As Mord Mar is a dwarven city overrun, there are a lot of dwarves. And this curse sounded particularly heinous. So, in it had to go:

Meet the newest NPC:
Captain Trask Stoneblood Trask is an ex-adventurer who contracted a strange curse. His beard has been turned to worms. It wriggles constantly. The beard serves as a warning to other would be adventurers. No cleric has been able to break the curse.

Captain Trask is a long time member of the Var Nae Guards, who has worked his way up the ranks in spite of his 'handicap.' He generally can be found guarding the entrance to the Lost City, usually berating young adventurers. This is the only time he brings notice to his wormbeard.

When not on duty, Captain Trask can be found in one of the taverns of Var Nae, drinking away his sorrows. Here, he is quite a different man. He is standoffish, ready to fight anyone he imagines is laughing at his beard.

D&D 5E Monster Manual

I just had a chance to thumb through the 5E Monster Manual. Other than not having recommended Encounter Levels, I absolutely loved it. The art is amazing, and the organization of material is top notch.

And our team mascot:

So I found this blog: http://roll1d12.blogspot.com/. I found it pretty interesting. In honor of finding it, here is a Dwarvish Surname Generator I made for Mord Mar:

Surname Generator

    d20        +           d12

1.   Iron              1.   Axe

2.   Steel            2.   Hammer

3.   Earth            3.   Helm

4.   Fire              4.   Beard

5.   Gem            5.   Shale

6.   Rock            6.   Smith

7.   Mithril           7.   Pick

8.   Stone           8.   Shaper

9.   Ruby            9.   Grinder

10. Onyx            10. Drum

11. Copper         11. Blade

12. Silver            12. Plate

13. Gold

14. Strong

15. Heat

16. Brick

17. Jewel

18. Rake

19. Break

20. Spark

It has been a while

Well, it has been a long busy summer. Work was crazy as it always is in the summer, and it stole a lot of my game time. We at Mord Mar successfully ran games at both Gen Con and Grand-Con. And that's actually what this blog is about today.

First up, Gen Con. We planned on 4 events, all running Goblins of Mord Mar. We planned Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday. Three of these were actually played. For whatever reason, Friday was a no show. And Sunday had to wrangle passers bye, but it did play.
Goblins seemed well received. Everyone I talked to enjoyed it. I'm even willing to send anyone who contacts me on the Facebook page a PDF copy of Goblins.Oh yeah, we started a Mord Mar Facebook Page. Just go message us there, and you can play the first Mord Mar adventure with your gaming group.
The times seemed to run well for all groups at Gen Con with nobody running over. The encounters were balanced well enough, and everyone had fun.

The trickier game we ran was in my back yard, at Grand-Con. We ran a simultaneous 4 team delve with a singular goal, the Tome of Silver Inkweaver. Again, it seemed to go quite well. We had 17 players out of a possible 24. I wrote a complete write up on the Facebook page. The long and the short of it is: We should have capped at 16. We should have done simultaneous initiative for the multiple party combat. We learned a lot. It will be a lot better at Who's Yer Con.

Now, I'm back to working on the main source book. I'm taking a break from DMing, and playing in Castle of the Mad Arch-Mage and an X-Crawl game.

These will probably start showing up more regular now. I hope to get onto at least a weekly schedule.

That paragraph

For those of you who don't know what "that paragraph" is:

"You don't need to be confined to binary notions of sex and gender. The elf god Correllon Larethian is often seen as androgynous or hermaphroditic, for example...You could also play a female character who presents herself as a man, or a man who feels trapped in a female body, or a bearded female dwarf who hates being mistaken for a male. Likewise, your character's sexual orientation is for you to decide."

That's from the D&D Next rules. Its all the talk right now in RPG circles. I don't understand why. We are talking about a fantasy game, right?

Although I have never (knowingly) played with a gaymer before, its not from exclusion. All of my friends (and I have a lot of gay friends, at least for small-town-middle-America) are welcome at my home table, and all are welcome at my convention table. Period. D&D to me as a child was an escape from the bullying I faced as a poor kid in a rich, private, Catholic school. It is supposed to be a refuge from the senseless anger around us in our real world lives. Its a place where we, the outsiders, get to do the attacking, and feel comfortable about it. We get to be the heroes.

We play for different reasons. But, why we play doesn't matter. What we learn about ourselves as humans does. Maybe, that one paragraph will change one person's anger to tolerance. That would be worth the ink.

RPGs have since the beginning allowed us to explore who we may want to become. I am not sure it needed to be spelled out in black and white.Kudos, to WotC for doing it anyway. I hope that paragraph brings attention to the RPG world. And congrats on the whole lot of free publicity.

(written at 530 in the morning, so take any grammar, punctuation, flow or other mistakes with a grain of salt)

Mord Mar has an official Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/MordMar

That seems too small of a blog. So, here's a quest from the bounty board for added pleasure:

Seeking stalwart adventurers to recover the Sphere of Pajan. Last known to be in the hands of the brown dragon, Caxior Parruth. 10,000 gold pieces will be paid upon delivery to the Mord Mar Adventurers' Guild.
Sponsored by Tinoth, high priest of Blain Oreweaver

Obviously a higher level quest.

Recent Inspirations

The word "recent" in the title may be a bit of a misnomer. I'm thinking of the influences that led me to make Mord Mar. All of them are from the past two years, and all of them have contributed something. In no particular order:

Undermountain: This was my first mega dungeon experience, and still colors my view of Dungeons and Dragons (and other FRPGs) to this day. My cousin still occasionally runs Undermountain when I need a break, and my Dwarf Druid is stupid powerful. (Powerful meaning able to run away succesfully).

300: I really think this movie is why Mord Mar was overrun by a terrible army. The visuals and fight scenes amaze me still.

Gary Gygax: When there is an unresolved rules dispute at my table, we go to the 1st edition books and read what Gary had to say. That's generally the final word. He created the genre, and even the megadungeon itself. I hope 5E gets closer to his vision than the last few versions were. And I hope they have the OGL back.

Castle of the Mad Archmage: I now have 2 copies of this masterpiece, the OSRIC and the Pathfinder versions. It is great. I look to it for layout of the dungeon in particular. I hope to have a chance to play in it someday.

Frank Mentzer's Lich Dungeon: He has some great ideas, that I'm not going to give away. Check out his work. I hope to borrow some concepts from him.

Conan the Barbarian: Probably the quintessential sword and sorcery movie. I love it, and it colors how I see combat in Mord Mar.

The Wheel of Time: I know a lot of people that say R.J. is a hack,but his interpersonal relationships are top notch. His attention to detail can get a little long winded, and that's something I keep in mind when writing descriptions of my own.

True Dungeon: This event allows me the perspective of seeing inside the dungeon. I get to see what it looks like from a character's and a player's point of view. Plus, Jeff comes up with some fantastic puzzles and creatures.

Random Ideas

Here's a few random ideas that have been floating around in my head for Mord Mar. They are not fleshed out yet. Summer time is busy time and all of that. Some will be turned into sub-levels (I hope)

The Lost Forest of (Random Name): a forest, with everything that entails, only miniature and in a bottle (like a ship-in-a-bottle).

The Palace of Molten Rock and Ash: a palace of lava and ash, magically held in place. Owned by a Pit Fiend or some other devil/demon.

The Hidden Library of Tarina Wakelain: Tarina was a planes-traveler that is rumored to have secreted a library somewhere in the mountain while she was questing for immortality.

The Daggers: a system of caves filled with stalagmites and stalactites. Piercers, ropers, lurkers above, executioner's hoods, cloakers, trappers, and a basilisk or two,

Secret Pools of (something watery): A series of pools in an underground river. 7 in all, each holds a great challenge and great treasure.
1. Kelpies' Domain: 4 kelpie have been luring adventurers to their death for over 2 years. A large portion of gold and silver coins remain.
2. Freshwater Merrow Cavern: 3 Merrow inhabit a cavern which connects to the sewers through a well. Hidden in their cavern is a Ring of Water Breathing, among other things.
3. Crab Pool: A colony of giant crabs hold an area. Their treasure is crab meat, which sells for a small fortune in Var Nae, and is a great change-of-pace for many denizens of the mountain.
4 - 7. still getting flexed out.

That's it for now.