Cairn of the Skeleton King

All topics including role playing games, board games, etc., etc.
Post Reply
User avatar
maximus
Lore Drake
Posts: 1203
Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2015 12:23 am
Location: North Carolina

Cairn of the Skeleton King

Post by maximus »

Note: spoilers below

DM'ing my son through Rob Kuntz's Cairn of the Skeleton King. It's for a party of 4 - 8 players, levels 4 - 7. The party consists of L6 Ranger, L6 Fighter, L6 Cleric, L7 Thief, L6 MU. They have another cleric and fighter, but they were left behind for various reasons. Anyway, the party got through the first part in fairly short order, and accomplished what they were hired to do. However, they found a secret door leading to a lower level. They descended and have had their asses handed to them several times by hordes of "Ghools". They're only level 2, but get claw/claw/bite and on a successful bite they do extra chill damage. Has anyone here played this a DM or player? Looking for some thoughts on how to handle continuous forays into this level. Last session the party walked into an ambush and had a fireball dropped on them by one of the ghool mages. Good times! Appreciate any insights.


Max

User avatar
Lurker
Greater Lore Drake
Posts: 4348
Joined: Thu Jan 18, 2007 8:00 am
Location: Oklahoma

Re: Cairn of the Skeleton King

Post by Lurker »

I've never played it myself, but it sounds interesting !

Goul mage ... NICE ! Soooooo can I steal that for Masque :evil:
"And so I am become a knight of the Kingdom of Dreams and Shadows!" - Mark Twain

Forgive all spelling errors.

Knight Errant & Humble C&C Society Contributor
C&C Society

serleran
Mogrl
Posts: 14094
Joined: Mon Oct 13, 2008 7:00 am

Re: Cairn of the Skeleton King

Post by serleran »

Holy water, protection from evil, and ranged weapons.

Regarding the undead spellcasters... don't group up tightly and use scouts, preferably the kind that can be sacrificed. Like... say, chickens.

User avatar
Tadhg
Cleric of Zagyg
Posts: 10878
Joined: Mon May 01, 2006 7:00 am
Location: Somewhere in Time

Re: Cairn of the Skeleton King

Post by Tadhg »

Fantastic module.

I only ran a few rooms on the first level, but then our gaming group broke up.
I can't find my notes . . hmm, might be inside the module, so I may be able to post some thoughts.

Right, your son's party seems totally appropriate, BUT it's a Rob Kuntz mod ~ perhaps allow the party to find loads of healing and magic. I always allow clerics to have their gods intervene if a TPK is close to happening, but then you might love for that to occur.

Have fun and let us know how it goes!
Lord Tadhg - Lejendary Keeper of Castle Ardmore

"Enjoy a 'world' where the fantastic is fact and magic really works!" ~ Gary Gygax

"By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes:" - Macbeth

User avatar
maximus
Lore Drake
Posts: 1203
Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2015 12:23 am
Location: North Carolina

Re: Cairn of the Skeleton King

Post by maximus »

Tadhg wrote:
Fri Jul 22, 2022 10:00 pm
Fantastic module.

I only ran a few rooms on the first level, but then our gaming group broke up.
I can't find my notes . . hmm, might be inside the module, so I may be able to post some thoughts.

Right, your son's party seems totally appropriate, BUT it's a Rob Kuntz mod ~ perhaps allow the party to find loads of healing and magic. I always allow clerics to have their gods intervene if a TPK is close to happening, but then you might love for that to occur.

Have fun and let us know how it goes!
If you find the notes, post them. I'd definitely be interested.

It was a good module. Very tough. The party used Continual Light spells to block off areas so the bad guys couldn't follow, then followed up with their own area of effect spells. Worked out well. Now on to the Tower of Blood...

User avatar
maximus
Lore Drake
Posts: 1203
Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2015 12:23 am
Location: North Carolina

Re: Cairn of the Skeleton King

Post by maximus »

serleran wrote:
Fri Jul 22, 2022 9:14 pm
Holy water, protection from evil, and ranged weapons.

Regarding the undead spellcasters... don't group up tightly and use scouts, preferably the kind that can be sacrificed. Like... say, chickens.
Holy water wouldn't work against these guys, as they weren't really undead. Prot from Evil would have helped, but no one memorized it for some reason. The NPC Magic User they picked up had a Wand of Conjuration that they used to summon some meat shields which definitely helped.

User avatar
Kayolan
Lore Drake
Posts: 1945
Joined: Sun Jan 20, 2008 8:00 am
Location: Ohio

Re: Cairn of the Skeleton King

Post by Kayolan »

I just picked this one up recently and I have to say, excellent module. I wish Kuntz would put out more stuff but his release schedule is super slow.

User avatar
maximus
Lore Drake
Posts: 1203
Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2015 12:23 am
Location: North Carolina

Re: Cairn of the Skeleton King

Post by maximus »

Kayolan wrote:
Fri Nov 11, 2022 6:51 am
I just picked this one up recently and I have to say, excellent module. I wish Kuntz would put out more stuff but his release schedule is super slow.
We finished it at the end of summer. Nice mix of fights and puzzles. I'm prepping Tower of Blood currently in anticipation of playing over the Christmas holiday.

Post Reply