Please, never delete this video, even if the camera was not great. I've watched this video several times and I still watch it from time to time when I need inspiration for a mystery D&D adventure.
This review makes me understand how good my DM is. He made so many adjustments to make this module more fun and a better challenge for a 3rd level party. Our investigation part was pretty short though, not to his blame. After getting to Orlane and speaking with a friend of one our PCs who sent him urgent letters to come to his aid, we realized something's wrong with the guy. We talked to another farmer who told us something about an abandoned tavern. We went to investigate and found some weird stuff there. We then went to alert the authorities, or so we thought. We split the party (always a wise choise). 3 PCs (Fighter, Ranger, Thief) went to the mayor, 2 PCs (Cleric, Magic-User) went to the temple. At the temple we said all the wrong things, so eventually the (evil) priestess said we should report that to her high priest. "Well, she's taking us seriously! That's good!", we thought. She told us to wait outside of a door and went in. Soon, we heard a loud argument (not suspicious yet), then silence fell (Huh...?), the door opened and we both failed the saving throw, were held, and saw the priestess tying us while we stand helpless. The DM then sent us to call the rest of the party and stay in a different room. We started to think of our next characters... In the meantime, our friends heard from the mayor that he suspects the temple, among others, to be involved in the bad things happening in town. "Oh no! Our friends went there!" they rushed to the temple, were told no one came today (which they knew is BS), realized they have to sneak to the cleric's chambers somehow but it's hard when the temple is so busy. The Fighter and Ranger started a fake, loud, argument about who's a more benevolent diety - Pelor or Merikka - while the Thief sneaked and searched the temple. He was lucky to find us quite soon, watching us being dragged to Abramo's chambers. He called the other guys and a wild encounter ensued, resulting in a dead priestess, eight skeletons destroyed, Abramo badly injured (The Thief rolled a crit on a back stab), our Ranger was blinded, our Thief went unconscious and we had to flee the temple and escape Orlane. Later on we were wanted in Orlane and could barely speak to NPCs or do further investigation, only a very low profile one. Our DM made some cool adjustments, like the wight in the dungeon being the priestess we killed earlier. He also buffed it, so to counter that he let us find a potion of heroism which our fighter gulped before getting to a melee fight with her. She was locked on him because he killed her at the temple, and hit him a few times, draining only the temporary levels he gained from the potion. Other intersting adjustments: After getting out of the dungeon we were ambushed in the swamp by a bunch of humaniods who served to guard the area for the cult, and wanted revenge after the spell was broken with the Naga's death. They thought us for cultists. Also, when we came back to Orlane, we found it to be under martial law. When we went to Verbobonc to cure our blind Ranger (we put Orlane in the Viscounty map for plot reasons...), the Cleric (which I played) told his high priest that the temple of Merikka has been desecrated. The temple of St. Cuthbert sent forces to cleanse the temple, which arrived not long after we went for the dungeon. So even if you have a good module, you can change a lot of things to make it more suitable for you and your players. And you can let your player's action have an impact on the world around them, and to integrate it in the module. Makes it a lot more fun to play.
Oh forgot to add, I just finished running this classic module as my very first adventure for the new 5e campaign I'm running for me & my increasingly middle-aged friends, ha ha. They LOVED it! A giant turtle in the Rushmoors ate their NPC (extra muscle I'd provided) thanks to a blunder made by one of the players before they ever got to the "reptile god's" lair. Gallows humor all around, on that one. Took us 5 long game sessions to finish it. Had a blast!
Protip! The 5e conversion just tells you what conversions you should make for the module to play it in 5th edition. You need to have the original module to make the conversions.
I'm currently running this adventure so I really appreciated this review. The helpful tweaks you suggest to improve the progression and gameplay are always useful.
I appreciate this review, so much that I'm gonna share what I did with the Harpy. It was a pointless encounter, but my twisted DM brain did this: The Cave is white washed, there's moss on the floor and a bunch of Shriekers trained to sing back up vocals like the Supremes to "Keep me Hanging On." The Harpy is Leeli Crooner. She's come to the dungeon as an envoy from the BBEG 4 levels up. She'll flutter from her perch singing like Diana Ross. "Set me free, whatcha say? Set me free, why don't you eh? You don't want to hurt me. You just want to see me free." Roll that Charm with disadvantage because Leeli looks like she's wearing an evening dress. She's all fluffy black feathers, playing torch singer, for a surprised party. Her hair is a black cockatoo crest, her eyes are a hawk's and there's a big old ruby at her throat. She's smart, she's pretty, and she'll keep her word and be indebted to Players if they turn her loose. The necklace of Adaptation will change her feathers and features so she's able to maneuver herself in the campaign in any capacity the DM needs. I've really enjoyed all your videos on old AD&D modules. So this is my way to say thanks.
I played this as a Dwarven Assassin over 30 years ago. I don't remember the entire adventure, but we did give the GM fits during the investigation section. I remember snooping around Orlane and finding some lizardmen in a basement (which I set on fire to escape), and for some reason being permitted to assassinate the naga by the GM. (She was probably tired of our shenanigans).
An excellent video, thank you for reviewing Against the Cult of the Reptile God. This is one of my favourite D&D scenarios. I’ve run this scenario twice although I had to “fudge” it to allow the PCs survive the dungeon. The idea about an encounter with cultists on the way to the adventure is pure gold and I’ll remember it for future. The second time I ran this scenario was for Dark Ages Cthulhu and it slotted in perfectly although the second half needed a hefty re-write with the Naga becoming an avatar of Yig. Again, it was great fun.
This is awesome! Now I have Seth and Matt's advice on how to run this adventure. Definitely going to have to put this into my game now, lol! Thanks for all of the excellent content Seth!
An old favorite. My sister ran my party through part of it nearly 40 years ago, but we never finished it. There are some plotholes (Ramne having to do the heavy lifting or not aiding the village, even though he suspects something is wrong), but it is a unique module. As you mentioned, mood is important, especially in a scenario that is more role-play heavy like this one is. I'd suggest simple things like having a black cat cross the party's path when they are in front a cultist's home, a flock of crows descend on a fence and stare the party down if they are in front a higher level cultist's building (e.g. the Constable). Dying crops in cultist areas, etc. Excellent reviews and have subscribed.
Top Tip for GMs (or any Referee) keeping track on town locations etc. Get a cheap, small address book (with alphabet tabs) then re-label the locations with letters. Then note down location description on page, with an NPC reminder, special details (e.g. secret doors). If there are more than 24 locations, label the map A1, A2, etc. and add the number to the location description in the book.
I am currently converting this to 5th adventure for my group of 6 level-4 PCs. I'm using the suggestions in this video to help. My adventure hook is that an NPC princess (a paladin) has gone missing while searching the village of Orlane on a completely separate quest hook. The PCs are friends to the royal family and have fought alongside the princess several times. Meanwhile, the naga has set her favorite charmed cultist (the princess) as her personal guard and captain of her cult army.
I had a little retooling of it. I kept the Giant Weasel up stairs, I just made it a threat to the cultists too. The harpy was kept as a pet and Explicita watched people get eaten by it for fun. The coffer corpse I changed into a ghast, and a couple of ghouls. I kept the wight in and let them use silver against it as a weapon. I can’t wait for you to finish the S series love your videos!
Reminds me of the old trope of the Elminster Problem where a wizard or other sufficiently high-power character is sent with the players to ensure they win even though said NPC could easily handle literally any problem in the entire module or campaign themselves, usually with a single spell.
Ramen is very much the Gandalf character; fresh players back in the early 80s, could relate to this. In the modern game, characters would be a few levels higher than the 1st ed equivalents. All of this was brand new, people often forget that. This is a game when armed with 2 rule books and a companion book, we still had to figure out how to play the game! Loved this one, and we played it a couple of times. Thanks for the video.
killing555 I mean even if they resist the charm they'll just be enslaved and murdered anyway. But how did they get moved all the way to the dungeon with no escape opportunities?
I love your reviews, but the added insight and ideas of how to better the mods are my favorites. Could you do Keep on the borderlands, or maybe dwellers in the forbidden city?
Hey just wanted to say, last week finished a 5th edition update for this module and it was a blast. DM was great and gave the town a very 'shadow over innsmouth' feel. Our start was different from the basic module in that the Paladin's master was good friends with the Mayor who had sent him a frantic letter pleading to come help. The master couldn't attend so sent the Paladin instead. We all sort of met along the road as it were and arrived in Orlane. Went to the Mayor's house, turns out he's disappeared. Not only that but one of the player characters had a local weaver (who hadn't been indoctrinated into the town) make her a dress (as a bit of flavor). We walk around the town, meeting the various NPCs like a nice old lady that tells us a 'weird old man that talks to trees' hangs out in the woods and that people are coming and going at night from the temple, how nobody comes to see her anymore. Go see Ravyn and chat to him, feed his pet weasel, generally ask some questions and he acts like the rude hostile hermit. We had back into town The local constable ruffed up the weaver in order to encourage him to finish earlier so we would 'head on our way', handing us the dress. Later that night, my hill dwarf being the alcoholic she is, drinks some of the poisoned wine and proceeds to faceplant into her bed, snoring loudly. Get jumped by cultists, fight them off. Go back to see Ravyn, talk to him for a bit, go into the cellar underneath the tavern, finish the job and interrogate Derrick who gives us a map in exchange for not breaking his legs after we had knocked him unconscious and tied him up. Bust into the temple, kill everything in there apart from Abramo the priest who we, once again, knock unconscious, this time dragging him to Ravyn. Head to the lair, fight our way through (getting a nice +1 Warhammer from the head priest for my troubles), nearly get a TPK when the Naga hits us (since we were all in a line) with Lightning bolt. Gnome manages to get me up (Life cleric) which means I can use my channel divinity to get the other two KO'd players up. Take the risk on the following turn and cast Command on the Naga forcing her to grovel, which somehow actually worked, team wails on her and the Gnome gets the finishing blow by putting her arrow right through the Naga's eye. The DM had us at level 3 when we went to the final encounter. So it looks like he'd learned to bump up the player levels to better cope with the final dungeon. So yeah it looks like he took out the NPC aid from the adventure since Ravyn didn't follow us into the lair and the two elves plus the ranger were completely absent as well, along with a few other changes to make it more 'new player' friendly like the wight was gone for example. Makes sense since 5e is a bit less brutal in that regard BUT like I said the Naga did drop 3 of the 5 players with that Lightning bolt...could have been dicey if it were not for our brave gnome doing her stuff.
Our DM ran this module in his homebrew campaign (wrapped up last week) and it led to some hilarious changes compared to what I just watched here. The campaign is a sort of 'Undead planar invasion' story where our party is fighting off infiltrations of this undead threat all over the region. So to fit, the serpent cult having been re-flavoured to be more undead-y than serpent-y. Which led to the apparent unintended consequence of our characters beelining it on day one to the Orlain temple (where the deity officially worshipped was a harvest/life deity) and pretty much triggering the cult to attack us right then and there due to how we poked and prodded when they gave pretty shifty replies, seemingly sidestepping what the module describes as 'weeks of investigation'. The look on our DM's face makes SO much more sense now, in restrospect xD
This was my games first real arc with the recommendation by Matt colville. Explicita Defilus is now a party ally after they dragon ball her into a friend, transforming her into a guardian naga and having her act as their behind the scenes ally
What I did was have the evil temple with cultists be collecting items that are effective against reptiles and magic weapons so that if they snuck in and looked around they'd get a bit of help
The idea Ramne could save all the cultists and doesn't is hilarious and really seems like an oversight. Unless you're intended to have like 6 NPC cured cultists with you for the Naga which you clearly are not.
I just discovered your videos by searching for reviews on these classic modules, and yoy sir have earned another sub and pile of "likes". Keep up the great work. 'Merikka, fuck yeah!
I've run this adventure many times. I run it with 2nd level players. I changed the fireball damage to 5d6 and, if the players choose to have their character jump in the water (I give them a second to write down what each of them do), they automatically take only half damage, quarter damage on a successful save. I roll damage for each character separately. It is rare that the characters die from the fireball.
I’m really enjoying your reviews of these old modules. I usually opt for not using modules but your reviews give me tips and ideas for future adventures in the Mutants & Masterminds game I am currently running. Your videos have made me consider checking out modules in the future to see what I can use from them to enhance my own setting.
Here’s something I’ve done which almost makes it better. I converted this module into a Cthulhu 7e module. A medieval investigation which devolves into a struggle to survive as the party delves into ruined dungeon filled with supernatural creatures which would drive a normal medieval peasant mad, like lizard men and Naga’s. It worked well, as well as running it with Ad&d and better than d&d 5e, but took a lot of effort to do, making it a thing I would have too recommend with a warning.
I ran this module a while back and had it lead directly into "The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan". The party were of a somewhat higher level, so I did some buffing to encounters. The party arrived by ship in Olman City, formerly the massive docks district of the sprawling ruins of Old Tamoachan. The Wharfmaster was a mind-controlled cultist who was sending sailors to the Golden Gain Inn, located in the neighborhood of Orlane Street. Long story short, they quickly figure out something is wrong and get in a bar brawl before any sort of kidnapping attempt. They face off with the Assassin, who escapes. They work for the neighborhood's Councilman and rescue his friends, the Elves. They befriend Ramne, who is helping the native Olman's, who live in a swamp, with a man-eating tiger. I renamed the Naga to Tlaloc, who was insane and thought she was the reincarnation of an ancient Olman underworld goddess. She was mind-controlling people not only to worship her, but to act as sacrifices for her true master: the ancient Vampire-Priest Tloques-Popolocas, who was prophesied to bring about a world-ending eternal eclipse. In the end, they were unable to prevent the vampire from awakening or to stop the eclipse (though without human sacrifices, it made him weaker and the ritual took much more time to complete) from covering the world in undead-spawning darkness for about 48 hours, before finally defeating him and undoing his magic. It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed making some ambient sounds to play during the swampy, dripping dungeon.
I ran this as a 1shot for my 5e players using AD&D 1e rules (so as originally intended). Was a blast. Used your suggestions. One other thing to add is a drivethru product called "N0.5 Twisting Trail of the Reptile Cult". It fills in the travel time from Orlane to the dungeon with set, but optional, encounters. If the PCs engage the encounters they get loot which will help them in the fight with the naga without need Ranme. Some clever things my PCs did: * The druid used speak with animals to talk to the town's old homeless dog, Max, to find out about "green men" skulking about at night. She eventually made him her animal companion. * The druid used insect swarm to lockdown the naga for 3 rounds giving the party time to gain an advantage and win. Dumb things my PCs did. * The thief decided to swim through the lake with crocodiles - the crocs got two critical hits and devoured her, including all her magic items. * The party decided the temple of the naga was the a great place to take a "long rest". Explicates Defilus came through the secret door while they were sleeping and surprised them all. Things which I thought would be a problem but were not, mostly because I had 7 PCs all level 3 by the time they got to the dungeon: * The coffer corpse, once they figured out it wasn't a zombie, they easily dispatched (though it was touch and go for a while for the fighter it was choking). * The wight managed to survive two rounds and drain 1 level, missed on his second attack. So only the fighter lost a level. * The naga's fireball. This would actually wipe out even a 3rd level party, but the druid sacrificed her ice spear to cancel the damage - a magic item from the previously mentioned Trail module. +1
In my opinion this was a mayor problem of the old D&D Modules. The storry´s where really great. But if it went down towards the climax the opponents where much to tough, expecially (like you said) we´re talking about unexperienced players you don´t have he Metagame knowledge to counter these odds. Thats the reason i started to create my own adventures.
Nice video with great suggestions! This was one of the first modules I ever bought. I never had a chance to run it though. I might have to snag the 5E conversion and run it with my current group. Love the shirt!!
A nice adjustment to make here for 5e. Instead of a CR8 Spirit Naga, throw at them a Bone Naga (Spirit), CR 4. Just skin the Naga to the BBEG and give him some fun abilities from the original module. Makes the encounter much more reasonable. If you think the encounter its going way too easy, just throw some cultist at them. Im going to use some hobgoblins with a red hand painted on their hear for foreshadowing (MUAHAHAHAHA)
Yes back in the 80's my halfling thief "Fimbly Freefoot" died to that Wright and we all complained about it to the Dm. The Dm was my Friends older brother and even though we where like whats a wright doing in here (wasn't telegraphed in any way). He stuck to his guns and because I was disgruntled by the one hit kill, I was "kicked" from the game and told not to come back. Very sad outcome overall. All because there is a very overpowered monster in a generally overpowered module. The silver-lining to this whole story is that led me to putting D&D in a box for a year and a half. I really go into my studies especially science, math, and history which resulted in me getting an exchange student scholarship for a year in Denmark! Which totally change my life in the best way possible. Coincidentally in Denmark I ended up playing in a Dark Eye rpg game, a Drach och Demoner game and a Star Wars West End game which was great!
In my experience running this adventure (in AD&D) the party are generally in the region of fourth level by the time they reach the lower dungeon (rogues and clerical higher, fighters and mages lower); coupled with a Shillelagh gifted by the local Druid and their own shillelaghs, I didn’t find the singleton undead too much of a threat, nor the fireball entirely deadly (I have had characters downed by it, but never lost one).
Seth, your channel is really great! Very informative and entertaining and super professional! Really nice of you to share your knowledge and experiences with all of us. Very helpful as well!
I just found your videos and I'm really enjoying the content and the style. I love the NPC character and the review of classic modules is helpful if I decide to update these to 5th edition for the game I'm going to be running. Thanks!
Some years back I ran this module in my homebrew world. I switched up the assassin Derek DeSleigh to be a yuan-ti pureblood assassin/cleric of my homebrew reptile god, S'Jerra. Not only was he skimming off whatever the cultists would give, but spying on this upstart spirit naga that was passing herself off as a reptile god for his god. Needless to say, I did a deus ex machina maneuver with S'jerra himself making an appearance and dealing with the spirit naga (I rolled dice to determine if the dark reptile god would come and what he would do). I also added an extra angle where a priest was concerned about his fellow priest (Abramo-the head cultist priest) to add a decent hook for the players.
thumbs up just for the Team America joke, had me in stitches. However, kudos on another great review of a classic module. If I ever run it myself, which I am more keen to do now, I'll be sure to stop by again.
I ran a variation of this in an online game. In my version it was the fishing village of Wrenn and the party were trailing a missing prince as a violent coup was being waged back in the capital they came from. A pair of bards part of a group the party rogue was in charge of had travelled ahead leaving the others to catch up after learning they had done so without orders. Eventually reached the temple after most of the converted had been killed in a violent fight at the port as two cults fought each other. I had the Naga be part of the Cloaked Serpent Cult and had possessed villagers via Naga Spawn think Goa'uld from Star Gate. The other Cult was of the Strife Emperor who were picking up a delivery from the fishing village's port due to the fight in the capital making any such delivery impossible. The PCs only engaged to weaken both sides until the Strife Emperor Cult revealed they had a polymorphed dragon that breathed on the remaining Cloaked Serpent Cultists but refused to attack the village guard simply flying off with the surviving leader of the Strife Emperor Cult instead. They managed to breach the lower level of the Temple of Melora only to learn from 2 npcs heading back up that there was a portal down there and with their help recovered a couple of captives including one of the bards who had been caught helping the prince they were searching for escape the Cloaked Serpent Cult's grasp. They ended up calling for assistance from a reliquary that functioned like a Figurine of Wondrous Power summoning a Lantern Archon. Since they were within a Temple of Melora it immediately called upon Melora mocking her because of what was going on in her temple causing her to collapse the portals and tunnels beneath her temple. They were about to have little segway explaining why the bards left the group along with the reliquary I mentioned above when the game ended due to me leaving that gaming group. There was another video here about 5 openings I think it was one of the war stories about have you met Fred is what inspired this version!
Instead of a giant Weasel, I went with an undead Komodo dragon. I also changed the harpy to a manticore, though I later switched that over to couatl that the naga had charmed. It had gone crazy as a result.
I've read the Classic Modules Today conversion guide. It doesn't so much as try to convert the adventure to how it would be in 5th edition so much as change the rules and numbers on the characters to make them fit into a first-edition adventure for 5th edition. As a person who has run this adventure for 5th edition, I suggest not using the Classic Modules Today conversion guide and instead convert it into a 4th level+ adventure for 5th edition. Using Seth's advice here will help a lot.
This is where a TM's screen would be helpful. If the players don't have Ramne with them, you could just roll behind the screen and "fudge" the roll as Matt Colville puts it.
I'm a bit late to the party, as usual, but thank you for this. Recently started playing D&D again after *years* of playing GURPS, mostly because of the new 5e "homage" books by Goodman Games for old school adventures I loved in high school, and have been enjoying your channel for when I need a good review of a classic module. Ok this was a long winded way of getting to my real point: I LOVE THAT T-SHIRT! I gotta get one of those!! "Crom!!"
2:00 Rumors and legends are ALWAYS true (or will assumed to be so) so the only way if you don't want to be blamed for "lying" to the players for adding false ones is if they heard them from an evil NPC (who'll probably be a big bad because only mastermind could successfully mislead the players like that).
I can see a AD&D campaign using Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, this adventure, then throw in Tomb of the Lizard King and then a finale in Isle of Dread mixed with Dwellers of the Forbidden City
I'm 2 sessions in; to a ported and home-brewed version, of this classic module. I've changed the final dungeon; (to a 3-storey Ziggurat, hidden deep in the swamp) added a phylactery-like device for the Naga and they are busy breaking the cults hold over the town from within. They were ignoring the hooks I'd laid out for it before. But this time I had them; hired by an Acolyte of Merrika, who is after information about her sister, another Acolyte of the same faith and based from the temple in Orlane. Their party level is an average of 5, from 3rd Edition. With no direct magical weapons, in their possession yet. They investigated; the ruin of the Foaming Mug on their way into town and had a couple of close encounters (Non-Combat), with some Troglodytes (Spying on them, the night before their arrival and lookouts at the ruin, who escaped). With regards to Ramne, I have him as an agent of the Arcane Order. Who was away on Order business for an extended period; upon returning he found he has to be careful, whom to trust. He couldn't be curing the townspeople willy-nilly, or it would've gotten him captured, or killed.
This module really shows the old style of dnd. The writers basicly asumed the party will have some henchmen, two wardog and bisicly most of the npc caracters with them to gank the naga. Would i run it today i would make the naga really old so it gets reduced hitdice from age and maybe have to ranger tag along. It's a fun adventure
Thank you very much Seth. I'm writing a more comprehensive adaptation of this module to 5e; seeking to publish on DMsguild. And this video and its suggestions for running the original is to inspire me with things to include in my module. The "PC" persona is freaking funny too XD
Biggest complaint about this module is that the name gives it away. Next is the linear dungeon with one entrance, on stairs down, etc. Another is the reliance on an NPC wizard.
New to DnD, but the Harpy and Weasel rooms kinda fit. Weasels (and mon..geese?) And hawks are both natural predators to snakes. (Harpies look like they have bird of prey talons to me, so this is probably a stretch.) Maybe the writers were trying to show that even known predators fall to this creatures whim because of it's power
I played this when it first came out. We stayed at the wrong inn, were dosed with some sort of drug in the food, were all abducted, and all died. It was a frustrating TPK.
My first (thief) or second (illusionist) character ever died fighting the naga. It was a different era. A session without at least one character death was an exception. I don't miss those times at all.
One of the things i gave my players was rumors of "evil beast named whiskers" to get them there. because the cult members hate him. (Because snakes hate weasels and so should their charmed victims.) And it makes so much god damn sense.
I am part way through running this adventure, and instead of doing some investigation work my players tailed the two elf brothers to a large seemingly abandoned house, killed one, captured the other as he fled for his live, then proceeded to torture him for information. Their were a few alignment "adjustments" made shortly after to say the least.
Please, never delete this video, even if the camera was not great. I've watched this video several times and I still watch it from time to time when I need inspiration for a mystery D&D adventure.
Our cleric tried to turn the wight and failed. He didn't see the "No wight turn" sign.
I don't know what's worse - that joke or the fact I laughed at it.
jjj*jdwh
YIELD..
To the infernal.evil of the undead
You gain 1 negative level for that pun, and 1000 xp for making the GM laugh. I don't make the rules, that's clearly printed in chapter 12 of the book.
🥁🥁📀
"Nothing excites players more than watching the DM play with himself while leading up to the big climax!"
That is pure comedy gold right there 😀
He said: "players are not that keen on..."
@@Mr.Monster1984 Being a bard i know that a good story is better than a true story
Ahem...Shouldn't the DM playing with himself be an AFTER game activity? Just saying.
@@raymondking214 😒🤨😆😂🤣🤣🤣😂😉
@@raymondking214 or before just wouldn't let him use my dice
These reviews are good purely as entertainment.
His acting (Jack the NPC) is pretty good. 👍
This review makes me understand how good my DM is. He made so many adjustments to make this module more fun and a better challenge for a 3rd level party. Our investigation part was pretty short though, not to his blame.
After getting to Orlane and speaking with a friend of one our PCs who sent him urgent letters to come to his aid, we realized something's wrong with the guy. We talked to another farmer who told us something about an abandoned tavern. We went to investigate and found some weird stuff there. We then went to alert the authorities, or so we thought. We split the party (always a wise choise). 3 PCs (Fighter, Ranger, Thief) went to the mayor, 2 PCs (Cleric, Magic-User) went to the temple. At the temple we said all the wrong things, so eventually the (evil) priestess said we should report that to her high priest. "Well, she's taking us seriously! That's good!", we thought. She told us to wait outside of a door and went in. Soon, we heard a loud argument (not suspicious yet), then silence fell (Huh...?), the door opened and we both failed the saving throw, were held, and saw the priestess tying us while we stand helpless. The DM then sent us to call the rest of the party and stay in a different room. We started to think of our next characters... In the meantime, our friends heard from the mayor that he suspects the temple, among others, to be involved in the bad things happening in town. "Oh no! Our friends went there!" they rushed to the temple, were told no one came today (which they knew is BS), realized they have to sneak to the cleric's chambers somehow but it's hard when the temple is so busy. The Fighter and Ranger started a fake, loud, argument about who's a more benevolent diety - Pelor or Merikka - while the Thief sneaked and searched the temple. He was lucky to find us quite soon, watching us being dragged to Abramo's chambers. He called the other guys and a wild encounter ensued, resulting in a dead priestess, eight skeletons destroyed, Abramo badly injured (The Thief rolled a crit on a back stab), our Ranger was blinded, our Thief went unconscious and we had to flee the temple and escape Orlane.
Later on we were wanted in Orlane and could barely speak to NPCs or do further investigation, only a very low profile one.
Our DM made some cool adjustments, like the wight in the dungeon being the priestess we killed earlier. He also buffed it, so to counter that he let us find a potion of heroism which our fighter gulped before getting to a melee fight with her. She was locked on him because he killed her at the temple, and hit him a few times, draining only the temporary levels he gained from the potion.
Other intersting adjustments:
After getting out of the dungeon we were ambushed in the swamp by a bunch of humaniods who served to guard the area for the cult, and wanted revenge after the spell was broken with the Naga's death. They thought us for cultists.
Also, when we came back to Orlane, we found it to be under martial law. When we went to Verbobonc to cure our blind Ranger (we put Orlane in the Viscounty map for plot reasons...), the Cleric (which I played) told his high priest that the temple of Merikka has been desecrated. The temple of St. Cuthbert sent forces to cleanse the temple, which arrived not long after we went for the dungeon.
So even if you have a good module, you can change a lot of things to make it more suitable for you and your players. And you can let your player's action have an impact on the world around them, and to integrate it in the module. Makes it a lot more fun to play.
Why do I suddenly feel invested in the fate of Nine-Fingered Pete? :D
Ironically I have a good friend Pete who has - you guessed it - 9 fingers due to a work accident. :P
Oh forgot to add, I just finished running this classic module as my very first adventure for the new 5e campaign I'm running for me & my increasingly middle-aged friends, ha ha. They LOVED it! A giant turtle in the Rushmoors ate their NPC (extra muscle I'd provided) thanks to a blunder made by one of the players before they ever got to the "reptile god's" lair. Gallows humor all around, on that one. Took us 5 long game sessions to finish it. Had a blast!
Awesome to hear.
"give the cultists some symbol, so they're not like highway bandits"
::says the man wearing the Set t-shirt::
Well he is Set(h)
ahh, its just another snake cult. I know nothing.
Protip!
The 5e conversion just tells you what conversions you should make for the module to play it in 5th edition. You need to have the original module to make the conversions.
You could just use the Ghosts of saltmarsh book instead. It really incorporates many of seths ideas.
I'm currently running this adventure so I really appreciated this review. The helpful tweaks you suggest to improve the progression and gameplay are always useful.
I appreciate this review, so much that I'm gonna share what I did with the Harpy. It was a pointless encounter, but my twisted DM brain did this:
The Cave is white washed, there's moss on the floor and a bunch of Shriekers trained to sing back up vocals like the Supremes to "Keep me Hanging On."
The Harpy is Leeli Crooner. She's come to the dungeon as an envoy from the BBEG 4 levels up. She'll flutter from her perch singing like Diana Ross. "Set me free, whatcha say? Set me free, why don't you eh? You don't want to hurt me. You just want to see me free." Roll that Charm with disadvantage because Leeli looks like she's wearing an evening dress.
She's all fluffy black feathers, playing torch singer, for a surprised party. Her hair is a black cockatoo crest, her eyes are a hawk's and there's a big old ruby at her throat.
She's smart, she's pretty, and she'll keep her word and be indebted to Players if they turn her loose. The necklace of Adaptation will change her feathers and features so she's able to maneuver herself in the campaign in any capacity the DM needs.
I've really enjoyed all your videos on old AD&D modules. So this is my way to say thanks.
Note to self: Introduce an NPC named Nine Fingered Pete during the next game session. Nine Fingered Pete shall live again!!!
Nine-Fingered Pete is dead, long live the Nine-Fingered Pete!
I played this as a Dwarven Assassin over 30 years ago. I don't remember the entire adventure, but we did give the GM fits during the investigation section. I remember snooping around Orlane and finding some lizardmen in a basement (which I set on fire to escape), and for some reason being permitted to assassinate the naga by the GM. (She was probably tired of our shenanigans).
Hey mister, as a lifelong highway bandit with no particular symbols to speak of, I don't appreciate being referred to as 'run of the mill'... lol
An excellent video, thank you for reviewing Against the Cult of the Reptile God. This is one of my favourite D&D scenarios. I’ve run this scenario twice although I had to “fudge” it to allow the PCs survive the dungeon. The idea about an encounter with cultists on the way to the adventure is pure gold and I’ll remember it for future. The second time I ran this scenario was for Dark Ages Cthulhu and it slotted in perfectly although the second half needed a hefty re-write with the Naga becoming an avatar of Yig. Again, it was great fun.
This is awesome! Now I have Seth and Matt's advice on how to run this adventure. Definitely going to have to put this into my game now, lol! Thanks for all of the excellent content Seth!
ye my fellow covillian
Gambent Just be careful with the Spirit Naga fight.
Is that Matt Colville, Matt Mercer, or another Matt? haha
Revisiting this video since I plan to run Against the Cult tomorrow using The Black Hack.
An old favorite. My sister ran my party through part of it nearly 40 years ago, but we never finished it. There are some plotholes (Ramne having to do the heavy lifting or not aiding the village, even though he suspects something is wrong), but it is a unique module.
As you mentioned, mood is important, especially in a scenario that is more role-play heavy like this one is. I'd suggest simple things like having a black cat cross the party's path when they are in front a cultist's home, a flock of crows descend on a fence and stare the party down if they are in front a higher level cultist's building (e.g. the Constable). Dying crops in cultist areas, etc.
Excellent reviews and have subscribed.
Luckily, I took "broken table leg" as a weapon proficiency...
lindy919
Take the Tavern Brawler Feat!
Top Tip for GMs (or any Referee) keeping track on town locations etc. Get a cheap, small address book (with alphabet tabs) then re-label the locations with letters. Then note down location description on page, with an NPC reminder, special details (e.g. secret doors).
If there are more than 24 locations, label the map A1, A2, etc. and add the number to the location description in the book.
That is a brilliant tip. Thanks.
I am currently converting this to 5th adventure for my group of 6 level-4 PCs. I'm using the suggestions in this video to help. My adventure hook is that an NPC princess (a paladin) has gone missing while searching the village of Orlane on a completely separate quest hook. The PCs are friends to the royal family and have fought alongside the princess several times. Meanwhile, the naga has set her favorite charmed cultist (the princess) as her personal guard and captain of her cult army.
I had a little retooling of it.
I kept the Giant Weasel up stairs, I just made it a threat to the cultists too. The harpy was kept as a pet and Explicita watched people get eaten by it for fun. The coffer corpse I changed into a ghast, and a couple of ghouls. I kept the wight in and let them use silver against it as a weapon. I can’t wait for you to finish the S series love your videos!
Reminds me of the old trope of the Elminster Problem where a wizard or other sufficiently high-power character is sent with the players to ensure they win even though said NPC could easily handle literally any problem in the entire module or campaign themselves, usually with a single spell.
That’s why you give the wizard Alzheimer’s (a mind flayer baby in his brain)
Always love seeing a Seth video pop up in my sub box.
Ramen is very much the Gandalf character; fresh players back in the early 80s, could relate to this. In the modern game, characters would be a few levels higher than the 1st ed equivalents. All of this was brand new, people often forget that.
This is a game when armed with 2 rule books and a companion book, we still had to figure out how to play the game!
Loved this one, and we played it a couple of times.
Thanks for the video.
My players actually finished this module in one session... death by total party kill.
killing555 Just gotta kidnap them instead lel
technically one died, the other two were charmed, one was an elf and rolled a natural one and a two, the other was a human and rolled a natural 1.
killing555 I mean even if they resist the charm they'll just be enslaved and murdered anyway. But how did they get moved all the way to the dungeon with no escape opportunities?
If the party all "died", I don't think it really counts as "finishing" the module.
I love your reviews, but the added insight and ideas of how to better the mods are my favorites. Could you do Keep on the borderlands, or maybe dwellers in the forbidden city?
Hey just wanted to say, last week finished a 5th edition update for this module and it was a blast. DM was great and gave the town a very 'shadow over innsmouth' feel. Our start was different from the basic module in that the Paladin's master was good friends with the Mayor who had sent him a frantic letter pleading to come help. The master couldn't attend so sent the Paladin instead. We all sort of met along the road as it were and arrived in Orlane. Went to the Mayor's house, turns out he's disappeared. Not only that but one of the player characters had a local weaver (who hadn't been indoctrinated into the town) make her a dress (as a bit of flavor).
We walk around the town, meeting the various NPCs like a nice old lady that tells us a 'weird old man that talks to trees' hangs out in the woods and that people are coming and going at night from the temple, how nobody comes to see her anymore. Go see Ravyn and chat to him, feed his pet weasel, generally ask some questions and he acts like the rude hostile hermit.
We had back into town The local constable ruffed up the weaver in order to encourage him to finish earlier so we would 'head on our way', handing us the dress. Later that night, my hill dwarf being the alcoholic she is, drinks some of the poisoned wine and proceeds to faceplant into her bed, snoring loudly. Get jumped by cultists, fight them off. Go back to see Ravyn, talk to him for a bit, go into the cellar underneath the tavern, finish the job and interrogate Derrick who gives us a map in exchange for not breaking his legs after we had knocked him unconscious and tied him up.
Bust into the temple, kill everything in there apart from Abramo the priest who we, once again, knock unconscious, this time dragging him to Ravyn. Head to the lair, fight our way through (getting a nice +1 Warhammer from the head priest for my troubles), nearly get a TPK when the Naga hits us (since we were all in a line) with Lightning bolt. Gnome manages to get me up (Life cleric) which means I can use my channel divinity to get the other two KO'd players up. Take the risk on the following turn and cast Command on the Naga forcing her to grovel, which somehow actually worked, team wails on her and the Gnome gets the finishing blow by putting her arrow right through the Naga's eye.
The DM had us at level 3 when we went to the final encounter. So it looks like he'd learned to bump up the player levels to better cope with the final dungeon.
So yeah it looks like he took out the NPC aid from the adventure since Ravyn didn't follow us into the lair and the two elves plus the ranger were completely absent as well, along with a few other changes to make it more 'new player' friendly like the wight was gone for example. Makes sense since 5e is a bit less brutal in that regard BUT like I said the Naga did drop 3 of the 5 players with that Lightning bolt...could have been dicey if it were not for our brave gnome doing her stuff.
Our DM ran this module in his homebrew campaign (wrapped up last week) and it led to some hilarious changes compared to what I just watched here. The campaign is a sort of 'Undead planar invasion' story where our party is fighting off infiltrations of this undead threat all over the region. So to fit, the serpent cult having been re-flavoured to be more undead-y than serpent-y.
Which led to the apparent unintended consequence of our characters beelining it on day one to the Orlain temple (where the deity officially worshipped was a harvest/life deity) and pretty much triggering the cult to attack us right then and there due to how we poked and prodded when they gave pretty shifty replies, seemingly sidestepping what the module describes as 'weeks of investigation'.
The look on our DM's face makes SO much more sense now, in restrospect xD
This was my games first real arc with the recommendation by Matt colville. Explicita Defilus is now a party ally after they dragon ball her into a friend, transforming her into a guardian naga and having her act as their behind the scenes ally
does a decent video for this, but I couldn't disagree more when he changed the names of the taverns...
What I did was have the evil temple with cultists be collecting items that are effective against reptiles and magic weapons so that if they snuck in and looked around they'd get a bit of help
The idea Ramne could save all the cultists and doesn't is hilarious and really seems like an oversight. Unless you're intended to have like 6 NPC cured cultists with you for the Naga which you clearly are not.
when I hand out maps I use the coffee method but slighly differently. I soak the paper in the coffee then I put it in the oven for about 5-7 minutes
I played this module back in the '80s. My DM was really good and it made for a fantastic adventure. The naga encounter was epic.
I just discovered your videos by searching for reviews on these classic modules, and yoy sir have earned another sub and pile of "likes". Keep up the great work.
'Merikka, fuck yeah!
I've run this adventure many times. I run it with 2nd level players. I changed the fireball damage to 5d6 and, if the players choose to have their character jump in the water (I give them a second to write down what each of them do), they automatically take only half damage, quarter damage on a successful save. I roll damage for each character separately. It is rare that the characters die from the fireball.
Makes me feel like designers didn't like working on low level stuff. But turning this turkey into a mini campaign sounds like a good idea
I'm actually in the process of running this for my players! They're about to enter the temple with help from the very super trustworthy thief Derek.
What edition?
nathan paris running a 5e conversion.
Super trustworthy Derek not gonna sell you out or take your stuff. You can trust Derek, always.
A redux of this would be great. A similar treatment to Bone Hill would be much appreciated including your map treatments and fixes you often include.
I’m really enjoying your reviews of these old modules. I usually opt for not using modules but your reviews give me tips and ideas for future adventures in the Mutants & Masterminds game I am currently running. Your videos have made me consider checking out modules in the future to see what I can use from them to enhance my own setting.
Here’s something I’ve done which almost makes it better. I converted this module into a Cthulhu 7e module. A medieval investigation which devolves into a struggle to survive as the party delves into ruined dungeon filled with supernatural creatures which would drive a normal medieval peasant mad, like lizard men and Naga’s. It worked well, as well as running it with Ad&d and better than d&d 5e, but took a lot of effort to do, making it a thing I would have too recommend with a warning.
Nicely done, as always. I own a hard copy of this, a very old one, but I've never run it.
I have always loved this module. Thanks for the great break-down. Also, I had no idea there is a 5e conversion. Thanks for that too.
I ran this module a while back and had it lead directly into "The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan". The party were of a somewhat higher level, so I did some buffing to encounters.
The party arrived by ship in Olman City, formerly the massive docks district of the sprawling ruins of Old Tamoachan. The Wharfmaster was a mind-controlled cultist who was sending sailors to the Golden Gain Inn, located in the neighborhood of Orlane Street.
Long story short, they quickly figure out something is wrong and get in a bar brawl before any sort of kidnapping attempt. They face off with the Assassin, who escapes. They work for the neighborhood's Councilman and rescue his friends, the Elves. They befriend Ramne, who is helping the native Olman's, who live in a swamp, with a man-eating tiger.
I renamed the Naga to Tlaloc, who was insane and thought she was the reincarnation of an ancient Olman underworld goddess. She was mind-controlling people not only to worship her, but to act as sacrifices for her true master: the ancient Vampire-Priest Tloques-Popolocas, who was prophesied to bring about a world-ending eternal eclipse. In the end, they were unable to prevent the vampire from awakening or to stop the eclipse (though without human sacrifices, it made him weaker and the ritual took much more time to complete) from covering the world in undead-spawning darkness for about 48 hours, before finally defeating him and undoing his magic.
It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed making some ambient sounds to play during the swampy, dripping dungeon.
Great review, came here after watching the Matt Colville video about this module. Subscribed for more!
One of my favorite modules from AD&D! Great review!
I ran this as a 1shot for my 5e players using AD&D 1e rules (so as originally intended). Was a blast. Used your suggestions. One other thing to add is a drivethru product called "N0.5 Twisting Trail of the Reptile Cult". It fills in the travel time from Orlane to the dungeon with set, but optional, encounters. If the PCs engage the encounters they get loot which will help them in the fight with the naga without need Ranme.
Some clever things my PCs did:
* The druid used speak with animals to talk to the town's old homeless dog, Max, to find out about "green men" skulking about at night. She eventually made him her animal companion.
* The druid used insect swarm to lockdown the naga for 3 rounds giving the party time to gain an advantage and win.
Dumb things my PCs did.
* The thief decided to swim through the lake with crocodiles - the crocs got two critical hits and devoured her, including all her magic items.
* The party decided the temple of the naga was the a great place to take a "long rest". Explicates Defilus came through the secret door while they were sleeping and surprised them all.
Things which I thought would be a problem but were not, mostly because I had 7 PCs all level 3 by the time they got to the dungeon:
* The coffer corpse, once they figured out it wasn't a zombie, they easily dispatched (though it was touch and go for a while for the fighter it was choking).
* The wight managed to survive two rounds and drain 1 level, missed on his second attack. So only the fighter lost a level.
* The naga's fireball. This would actually wipe out even a 3rd level party, but the druid sacrificed her ice spear to cancel the damage - a magic item from the previously mentioned Trail module.
+1
In my opinion this was a mayor problem of the old D&D Modules. The storry´s where really great. But if it went down towards the climax the opponents where much to tough, expecially (like you said) we´re talking about unexperienced players you don´t have he Metagame knowledge to counter these odds. Thats the reason i started to create my own adventures.
Excellent suggestions for improving the module as written. Thanks!!
Nice a D&D video, thanks.
Big fan of the Thulsa Doom shirt for a Cult of the Reptile God
Good point about needing to emphasize mood in mystery. It would be cool if you did a video sometime that was all about how to run a good mystery game.
Nice video with great suggestions! This was one of the first modules I ever bought. I never had a chance to run it though. I might have to snag the 5E conversion and run it with my current group. Love the shirt!!
A nice adjustment to make here for 5e. Instead of a CR8 Spirit Naga, throw at them a Bone Naga (Spirit), CR 4. Just skin the Naga to the BBEG and give him some fun abilities from the original module. Makes the encounter much more reasonable. If you think the encounter its going way too easy, just throw some cultist at them. Im going to use some hobgoblins with a red hand painted on their hear for foreshadowing (MUAHAHAHAHA)
i love how jack pronounced ramney differently. it's the little touches.
Yes back in the 80's my halfling thief "Fimbly Freefoot" died to that Wright and we all complained about it to the Dm. The Dm was my Friends older brother and even though we where like whats a wright doing in here (wasn't telegraphed in any way). He stuck to his guns and because I was disgruntled by the one hit kill, I was "kicked" from the game and told not to come back. Very sad outcome overall. All because there is a very overpowered monster in a generally overpowered module. The silver-lining to this whole story is that led me to putting D&D in a box for a year and a half. I really go into my studies especially science, math, and history which resulted in me getting an exchange student scholarship for a year in Denmark! Which totally change my life in the best way possible. Coincidentally in Denmark I ended up playing in a Dark Eye rpg game, a Drach och Demoner game and a Star Wars West End game which was great!
In my experience running this adventure (in AD&D) the party are generally in the region of fourth level by the time they reach the lower dungeon (rogues and clerical higher, fighters and mages lower); coupled with a Shillelagh gifted by the local Druid and their own shillelaghs, I didn’t find the singleton undead too much of a threat, nor the fireball entirely deadly (I have had characters downed by it, but never lost one).
Seth, your channel is really great! Very informative and entertaining and super professional! Really nice of you to share your knowledge and experiences with all of us. Very helpful as well!
I just found your videos and I'm really enjoying the content and the style. I love the NPC character and the review of classic modules is helpful if I decide to update these to 5th edition for the game I'm going to be running.
Thanks!
Some years back I ran this module in my homebrew world. I switched up the assassin Derek DeSleigh to be a yuan-ti pureblood assassin/cleric of my homebrew reptile god, S'Jerra. Not only was he skimming off whatever the cultists would give, but spying on this upstart spirit naga that was passing herself off as a reptile god for his god. Needless to say, I did a deus ex machina maneuver with S'jerra himself making an appearance and dealing with the spirit naga (I rolled dice to determine if the dark reptile god would come and what he would do). I also added an extra angle where a priest was concerned about his fellow priest (Abramo-the head cultist priest) to add a decent hook for the players.
In fairness the Naga fireball moment isn't JUST for dramatic effect... Globe of Invuln is a KEY spell and it's there to show new players that.
thumbs up just for the Team America joke, had me in stitches. However, kudos on another great review of a classic module. If I ever run it myself, which I am more keen to do now, I'll be sure to stop by again.
This was the first D&D module i'd ever played, and it was amazing, well built and intriguing in it's construction and almost perfectly run by the dm
I ran a variation of this in an online game.
In my version it was the fishing village of Wrenn and the party were trailing a missing prince as a violent coup was being waged back in the capital they came from.
A pair of bards part of a group the party rogue was in charge of had travelled ahead leaving the others to catch up after learning they had done so without orders.
Eventually reached the temple after most of the converted had been killed in a violent fight at the port as two cults fought each other.
I had the Naga be part of the Cloaked Serpent Cult and had possessed villagers via Naga Spawn think Goa'uld from Star Gate.
The other Cult was of the Strife Emperor who were picking up a delivery from the fishing village's port due to the fight in the capital making any such delivery impossible.
The PCs only engaged to weaken both sides until the Strife Emperor Cult revealed they had a polymorphed dragon that breathed on the remaining Cloaked Serpent Cultists but refused to attack the village guard simply flying off with the surviving leader of the Strife Emperor Cult instead.
They managed to breach the lower level of the Temple of Melora only to learn from 2 npcs heading back up that there was a portal down there and with their help recovered a couple of captives including one of the bards who had been caught helping the prince they were searching for escape the Cloaked Serpent Cult's grasp.
They ended up calling for assistance from a reliquary that functioned like a Figurine of Wondrous Power summoning a Lantern Archon.
Since they were within a Temple of Melora it immediately called upon Melora mocking her because of what was going on in her temple causing her to collapse the portals and tunnels beneath her temple.
They were about to have little segway explaining why the bards left the group along with the reliquary I mentioned above when the game ended due to me leaving that gaming group.
There was another video here about 5 openings I think it was one of the war stories about have you met Fred is what inspired this version!
I've run this adventure once before and am excited to run it again. This time with a little more preparation!
Instead of a giant Weasel, I went with an undead Komodo dragon. I also changed the harpy to a manticore, though I later switched that over to couatl that the naga had charmed. It had gone crazy as a result.
My dad ran and my friends through this campaign almost 20 years ago as our first campaign. It almost took 2 years.
I've read the Classic Modules Today conversion guide. It doesn't so much as try to convert the adventure to how it would be in 5th edition so much as change the rules and numbers on the characters to make them fit into a first-edition adventure for 5th edition.
As a person who has run this adventure for 5th edition, I suggest not using the Classic Modules Today conversion guide and instead convert it into a 4th level+ adventure for 5th edition. Using Seth's advice here will help a lot.
I love these old AD&D reviews. though I do wish they were on a separate list from the other RPG reviews.
This is a refreshing take on module reviews.
Excellent review Seth! love this module and I hope you can resurrect Nine finger Pete for the next D&D review! :)
This is where a TM's screen would be helpful. If the players don't have Ramne with them, you could just roll behind the screen and "fudge" the roll as Matt Colville puts it.
Great video. Plan on using this one in our Rolemaster adventure.
Excellent video. I love this style.
I'm a bit late to the party, as usual, but thank you for this. Recently started playing D&D again after *years* of playing GURPS, mostly because of the new 5e "homage" books by Goodman Games for old school adventures I loved in high school, and have been enjoying your channel for when I need a good review of a classic module. Ok this was a long winded way of getting to my real point: I LOVE THAT T-SHIRT! I gotta get one of those!! "Crom!!"
2:00 Rumors and legends are ALWAYS true (or will assumed to be so) so the only way if you don't want to be blamed for "lying" to the players for adding false ones is if they heard them from an evil NPC (who'll probably be a big bad because only mastermind could successfully mislead the players like that).
'Merica, f$#@ yeah! Lmao!
Im guilty. I thought it.
I can see a AD&D campaign using Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, this adventure, then throw in Tomb of the Lizard King and then a finale in Isle of Dread mixed with Dwellers of the Forbidden City
I love that old Jim Holloway art.
more delta green please
This is such a great module!!!!! I have run it a few times in AD&D and I'd like to run it in 5e.
I'm 2 sessions in; to a ported and home-brewed version, of this classic module. I've changed the final dungeon; (to a 3-storey Ziggurat, hidden deep in the swamp) added a phylactery-like device for the Naga and they are busy breaking the cults hold over the town from within.
They were ignoring the hooks I'd laid out for it before. But this time I had them; hired by an Acolyte of Merrika, who is after information about her sister, another Acolyte of the same faith and based from the temple in Orlane.
Their party level is an average of 5, from 3rd Edition. With no direct magical weapons, in their possession yet. They investigated; the ruin of the Foaming Mug on their way into town and had a couple of close encounters (Non-Combat), with some Troglodytes (Spying on them, the night before their arrival and lookouts at the ruin, who escaped).
With regards to Ramne, I have him as an agent of the Arcane Order. Who was away on Order business for an extended period; upon returning he found he has to be careful, whom to trust. He couldn't be curing the townspeople willy-nilly, or it would've gotten him captured, or killed.
This module really shows the old style of dnd. The writers basicly asumed the party will have some henchmen, two wardog and bisicly most of the npc caracters with them to gank the naga. Would i run it today i would make the naga really old so it gets reduced hitdice from age and maybe have to ranger tag along. It's a fun adventure
I really wish you’d do more of these old first edition AD&D module reviews.,
Great shirt, man.
I figured it was appropriate
Love that old DM Screen at the bottom left side of the video... :)
I played in this one. I barely remember it, but I do remember the final battle. It was awesome.
Just found out that the guy who wrote this adventure also was one of the major novelists for TSR, doing a good number of the Forgotten Realms novels.
Thank you very much Seth. I'm writing a more comprehensive adaptation of this module to 5e; seeking to publish on DMsguild. And this video and its suggestions for running the original is to inspire me with things to include in my module.
The "PC" persona is freaking funny too XD
You are a cool dude to wear that "Awesome" shirt.. I love it....
OMFG YOU REVIEWED MY FAVORITE... you had my subscription now you have my affection!
I think the L1, T1 and N1 Mods make the best starter Mods. B2 would be the next best. U1 is good, but not as good as the ones I mentioned before.
Biggest complaint about this module is that the name gives it away. Next is the linear dungeon with one entrance, on stairs down, etc. Another is the reliance on an NPC wizard.
New to DnD, but the Harpy and Weasel rooms kinda fit. Weasels (and mon..geese?) And hawks are both natural predators to snakes. (Harpies look like they have bird of prey talons to me, so this is probably a stretch.) Maybe the writers were trying to show that even known predators fall to this creatures whim because of it's power
17:09 I always like a weapon with a favored enemy bonus.
Love your shirt
I played this when it first came out. We stayed at the wrong inn, were dosed with some sort of drug in the food, were all abducted, and all died. It was a frustrating TPK.
My first (thief) or second (illusionist) character ever died fighting the naga. It was a different era. A session without at least one character death was an exception. I don't miss those times at all.
One of the things i gave my players was rumors of "evil beast named whiskers" to get them there. because the cult members hate him. (Because snakes hate weasels and so should their charmed victims.) And it makes so much god damn sense.
So then they are curious about this old man. Have him call for whiskers. And he shows up. And it starts to click sometimes rumors are fake
I am part way through running this adventure, and instead of doing some investigation work my players tailed the two elf brothers to a large seemingly abandoned house, killed one, captured the other as he fled for his live, then proceeded to torture him for information.
Their were a few alignment "adjustments" made shortly after to say the least.
I know about this, but there's a module that hasn't been talked about, which is N4 Treasure Hunt.