The Lost Crown of Tesh-Naga (2012 Gold Edition)

from http://jrients.blogspot.com/

The following is an adventure I've been writing, tweaking, and fine-tuning since the Spring of '05. An entertaining diversion for a night's worth of fun, that not only provides pregenerated characters, but requires them. It is near and dear to my heart, as I've played it many, many times; all to great success. The replay value is very high on this, and so many of my delves had involved repeat customers.

That said, it's still a little rough. By that, I mean that it is certainly not professional level quality in its layouts of some of the (what I consider) extranneous fluff of a typical adventure.

This adventure is a simple delve that puts a new twist to the standard.

Lost Crown of Tesh-Naga: Epilogue

Kulimvorith triumphantly returns to his tribe and is crowned the Dragonborn Emperor.


All kneel before the red-scaled leader, save a handful of dissidents who are caught and shackled by the Imperial Jailer, Grimlock.

The first task at hand is completed swiftly: the complete extermination of the Dhakaani. The years of imprisonment still burning on his soul, Emperor Kulimvorith burns every Hobgoblin village to the ground.


With his leadership and the power of The Crown, a renewed Council of Wyrms then sets out to conquer and enslave all of Droaam,

and in time, to reconquer the lost lands of the ancient dragons, spanning the entirety of Khorvaire. 

LCTN: Let's Do This

THIS IS SCENE #7 IN A PLAY-BY-POST D&D GAME

Many elements of it are unique and innovative, with several key twists that will catch the players by surprise. The adventure is deadly and devious, with victory going only to those clever enough to take it. Though it may not be a traditional Fourthcore deathtrap dungeon, I assure you, dear reader, that it holds many of the ideals of Fourthcore close to its heart.

I will keep these posts easily collapsible, so that readers may easily skip past them if they wish. Although, really, you'd be missing out.

LCTN: The Dwarven Dead

THIS IS SCENE #6 IN A PLAY-BY-POST D&D GAME

Many elements of it are unique and innovative, with several key twists that will catch the players by surprise. The adventure is deadly and devious, with victory going only to those clever enough to take it. Though it may not be a traditional Fourthcore deathtrap dungeon, I assure you, dear reader, that it holds many of the ideals of Fourthcore close to its heart.

I will keep these posts easily collapsible, so that readers may easily skip past them if they wish. Although, really, you'd be missing out.

LCTN: Side Passage

THIS IS SCENE #5 IN A PLAY-BY-POST D&D GAME

Many elements of it are unique and innovative, with several key twists that will catch the players by surprise. The adventure is deadly and devious, with victory going only to those clever enough to take it. Though it may not be a traditional Fourthcore deathtrap dungeon, I assure you, dear reader, that it holds many of the ideals of Fourthcore close to its heart.

I will keep these posts easily collapsible, so that readers may easily skip past them if they wish. Although, really, you'd be missing out.

LCTN: Underground

THIS IS SCENE #4 IN A PLAY-BY-POST D&D GAME

Many elements of it are unique and innovative, with several key twists that will catch the players by surprise. The adventure is deadly and devious, with victory going only to those clever enough to take it. Though it may not be a traditional Fourthcore deathtrap dungeon, I assure you, dear reader, that it holds many of the ideals of Fourthcore close to its heart.

I will keep these posts easily collapsible, so that readers may easily skip past them if they wish. Although, really, you'd be missing out.

LCTN: Exploring the Sanctuary

THIS IS SCENE #3 IN A PLAY-BY-POST D&D GAME

Many elements of it are unique and innovative, with several key twists that will catch the players by surprise. The adventure is deadly and devious, with victory going only to those clever enough to take it. Though it may not be a traditional Fourthcore deathtrap dungeon, I assure you, dear reader, that it holds many of the ideals of Fourthcore close to its heart.

I will keep these posts easily collapsible, so that readers may easily skip past them if they wish. Although, really, you'd be missing out.

LCTN: Sanctuary

THIS IS SCENE #2 IN A PLAY-BY-POST D&D GAME

Many elements of it are unique and innovative, with several key twists that will catch the players by surprise. The adventure is deadly and devious, with victory going only to those clever enough to take it. Though it may not be a traditional Fourthcore deathtrap dungeon, I assure you, dear reader, that it holds many of the ideals of Fourthcore close to its heart.

I will keep these posts easily collapsible, so that readers may easily skip past them if they wish. Although, really, you'd be missing out.

LCTN: The Cold, Hard Road

THIS IS THE FIRST SCENE IN A PLAY-BY-POST D&D GAME

Many elements of it are unique and innovative, with several key twists that will catch the players by surprise. The adventure is deadly and devious, with victory going only to those clever enough to take it. Though it may not be a traditional Fourthcore deathtrap dungeon, I assure you, dear reader, that it holds many of the ideals of Fourthcore close to its heart.

I will keep these posts easily collapsible, so that readers may easily skip past them if they wish. Although, really, you'd be missing out.

The Lost Crown of Tesh-Naga: Play-By-Post

How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love PbP

I'll be the first to admit it, I did not like the concept, the very idea of playing Dungeons & Dragons in a play-by-post format. Without the face-to-face aspect, the very heart and soul of the game is lost. If you're going to run a play-by-post game, sitting alone in front of your computer screen, why not just play a video game? I thought play-by-post was for D&D players who didn't have any friends.

I was mistaken.

Through the enormous and overwhelming success of the Fourthcore Team Deathmatch blog, which includes a heavy dosage of play-by-post matches, I have come to learn the strengths of a play-by-post format and have embraced it.

• I can play D&D on the sly while at work. Blogger gets through the firewall, for the win!
• It allows friends from across the globe to get together and play a form of D&D. If there were only some sort of official version of this concept, a "virtual table" of sorts. If only.
• Everyone can play at their own pace, on their own time, only needing to spend a few minutes here and there out of their all-too-busy schedule.
• Cold and calculated, the players of a play-by-post game offer a scenario to the Dungeon Master where they can bring forth their best ideas without as much of a time pressure. This is very useful for testing out ideas to the breaking point. If your idea doesn't get broke in play-by-post, then it's fool proof for a real game.
• It's very fun, way more fun than I could have imagined, and way more fun than I'm sure you're thinking.

With that in mind, I want to formally announce that I am looking for players for the DMG 42 Lost-Crown of Tesh-Naga Play-by-Post!


Although the adventure has extremely high replay value, the adventure will be open only to players whom have never before read or played through it. If this is successful, I will run it again with a group of all LCT-N veterans. To those veterans out there: don't spoil anything!


To sign up, simply drop a comment below.

Your ability to comment on this blog is pretty crucial, so that will be your first test. I am looking for at least four players, but hopefully we will grab the maximum number of seven. Due to the special nature of this adventure, character sheets will be limited to fit the guidelines of the seven available character archetypes. More on that when you sign up. I'm looking to wait at least a couple of weeks to start this thing; so mid to late February.

Milwaukee Joe has provided a good summary of how the Play-By-Post style works, which can be found here.

I've spoken about this adventure before: here. I've temporarily disabled the links to make it easier to resist the temptation to look up all the goodies and spoil the fun surprises. That said, it's still possible to do so if you know where to look, so please do not go hunting for the adventure. You'll ruin all the fun!

I'm just a simple country lawyer who doesn't know much about your fancy technology ...

I just figured out how to make digital Dungeon Tile maps. Seriously, just now. Expect more posts with actually usable encounters/adventures in the near future. Here's what I slapped together for Room A of The Lost Crown of Tesh-Naga.

Lost Crown of Tesh-Naga: Epilogue

Ghaaldar returns to his tribe as the newly crowned Emperor of Dhakaan.

With his leadership and Duurkala's wisdom, the iron-clad legions set out to conquer and enslave all of Droaam,

and in time, to reconquer the lost lands of his people spanning the entirety of Khorvaire. 






Following Milwaukee Joe's lead, I'd like to get some feedback on the adventure. If you wouldn't mind dropping some Comments, I'd be very appreciative. This feedback is open to lurkers to post to as well, not just the players. Anyone is welcome to comment.

1. What did you like the most about the game? and/or What was the most exciting part?
2. What did you like the least about the game?  and/or What was the most boring part?
3. What one thing would you change if you could? 
4. What one thing can I change to make myself a better DM?
5. Tell me about some "oh shit!" moments. What things caught you by surprise?
6. What could I do to encourage more use of the Language Rules and have more whispers and machinations?
7. To those who've done play-by-post games, please compare and contrast those games with mine.

Lastly, please look to DMG 42 this week to start lurking on the next session of The Lost Crown of Tesh-Naga! A new batch of 7 dungeoneers has been picked, each receiving identical starting information as you guys did, but coming to the "table" with wildly different characters, and more importantly, reacting to the same stimulus in wildly different ways.

The Crown Revealed!

PLAY-BY-POST THE LOST CROWN OF TESH-NAGA (Part 9b)

All hail King Kulimvorith!

... Right?

I hope you're ready, shit is about to get real

PLAY-BY-POST THE LOST CROWN OF TESH-NAGA (Part 9)

As a motley pack of adventurers, you make your way through the long, winding halls and up some stairs, trying to forget the horrors of your recent Far Realm run-in. As the corridor turns, however, you see a discotastic flashing light coming from the wide opening on the left. Creeping up to examine this closer, you see that it comes from a nearby cylindrical room.

The room itself is made of polished granite blocks and the ceiling soars high overhead to a dizzying height. In the center of the room atop a raised portion of the floor is a great brass gate with two floating brass rings madly spinning about its center. The metal is embossed with an etching that makes the surface seem like the scales of an ancient dragon.

As the rings spins about at high velocity, they create a brilliant blue wormhole that pulses with light and sends rippling waves of distortion through the air in the room. The entirety of the room reverberates and vibrates in tandem with the chaotic patterns of the spinning arms.

The decomposing body of an unidentifiable woman lies twisted, distorted, and mutilated at the base of the eldritch machine. A shining silver crown rests on the bottom of the floor just at the edge of her outstretched hand. The spinning metal arms of the deadly machine miss touching it by mere fractions of an inch.

Before jumping right in to get a closer look, you glance up to see the tips of a razor sharp mithril portcullis of impalement protruding down from the archway just a few inches into the room. The portcullis is clearly visible from inside the room. The steel grate is held in place up high by a chains wrapped around a series of gears. The chain leads down to the floor and is loosely hooked onto a solid handle on the floor (square S41).

You feel the psychic pull from The Crown, and know immediately that it is an artifact of great power. Your heart skips a beat as your eyes gaze at the long-sought object of your quest.

Let's do this.

The Dwarven Dead, Part 2

PLAY-BY-POST THE LOST CROWN OF TESH-NAGA (Part 8b)

The Dwarven Dead

PLAY-BY-POST THE LOST CROWN OF TESH-NAGA (Part 8)

Machinery

PLAY-BY-POST THE LOST CROWN OF TESH-NAGA (Part 7)

Side Passage

PLAY-BY-POST THE LOST CROWN OF TESH-NAGA (Part 6)

Underground

PLAY-BY-POST THE LOST CROWN OF TESH-NAGA (Part 5)

Betrayal!

PLAY-BY-POST THE LOST CROWN OF TESH-NAGA (Part 4)