person searching the The Crown of Souls...

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Chris
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person searching the The Crown of Souls...

Post by Chris »

*Person steping out of the Mists*

Dear members of the Fraternity.
I´m Chris and i have luked this forum for some time. But now it is time for me to rise :D ......

I am DMing an GC campaign and my players are in Ragdas Lair at the moment. They are quite close to the Crown of Souls. So I need to get some 3rd Edition stats for it.
Is there a conversation in one of the books Sword and Sorcery published or a fanmade one on the net? This could be quite helpful.
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Post by ChrisNichols »

The Crown of Souls has never been updated from Feast of Goblyns. Like the rest of Daglan, it is assumed destroyed at the end of the module.

Chris Nichols
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Post by Drinnik Shoehorn »

Make a kick-ass Legacy item though...
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Post by Jester of the FoS »

We have added leeway with the Crown, as the adventure was posted freely on the Wizards site.
So:
The Crown of Souls is a dark and evil object which will bestow upon its owner the following powers:
• The Crown of Souls can be used to transform normal men (though not other humanoids or demihumans) into goblyns. To do this the owner of the crown merely holds it on the head of the victim with both hands, and speaks an ancient incantation. As the transformation occurs, the victim will scream out in anguish and terror as he looses his mind and will and is filled with evilness.
I would allow a fortitude saving throw to resist the transformation and holding the crown over a head should be a full-round action only usable on a willing or helpless opponent.
• Upon the brow of an evil being, the crown bestows the following special powers: -2 AC adjustment, +2 on all attack and damage rolls, +2 on saving throws, +20 hit points, and all class abilities (not hit points) will function as if the wearer were two levels higher.
+2 profane bonus to AC, attack rolls, damage and all saving throws. +20 bonus hit points that stack with any other bonus hit points, such as those granted by the aid spell.
• Anyone wearing the crown must make a save versus death magic each day. Failure means that a Wisdom check must succeed or the character suffers a slight alignment alteration.
Dungeon Masters are encouraged to adjust the check based on the characters past adherence to his alignment, with a maximum bonus or penalty of 4. Their alignment will slowly become neutral evil. The lawful/chaotic aspect will first change to neutral. Next the good/evil aspect will become one place closer to evil (good becoming neutral, and neutral becoming evil). Once this transformation is complete (for those already neutral evil, they still must fail the wisdom check once), the crown will be in complete control of them. The spirit of the warlock Daglan will drive them to kill Radaga without the crown on.
Wearer must make a Will save (DC 20) each day or their alignment moves one step closer to neutral evil.
Once neutral evil the wearer must make another Will save or become possessed by the spirit of the crown. The crown cannot attempt to posses any character not neutral evil, regardless of Ego score.
• The crown can also protect itself from harm. This can only be done if it is physically attacked or threatened (i.e. attempts to smash it, throw it off a cliff, melt it in a fire, etc. are made). In such a case, it can perform the following spell like abilities once per round as often as needed: affect normal fires, blink, levitate, gust of wind, spectral hand, and chill touch. These will be performed at the 13th level of proficiency.
The crown can cast produce flame, blink, levitate, gust of wind, mage hand, and chill touch when threatened as a 13th level sorcerer.
• Only one who is pure of heart (that is, lawful good) may take the Crown of Souls out of the domain which it lies in.
Unchanged.


This would make an intelligent item with no less than 3 greater powers and 3 lesser powers. I’d also give it ten ranks of Spellcraft to round it out. It would likely have an Int of 19, Wis of 19 and Cha of 10.
So its Ego would be (4+6+3+4+4+2+1) counting all of its bonuses. So the DC to resist its possession is 24.

The crown bestows two negative levels on any good character who attempting to wear it and one negative level on any neutral characters.
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Post by Chris »

Thanks a lot. This will be very helpful.



• Only one who is pure of heart (that is, lawful good) may take the Crown of Souls out of the domain which it lies in

I am looking evil grinning forward to that... :twisted:
All partymembers are zynic and neutral. So they need a "Frodo" to carry their ring er crown.

Maybe a member of the farmers family they defended on the way to Skald.
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Post by Rotipher of the FoS »

I'd replace "lawful good" with "Innocent". The former harks back to old 1E/2E presumptions that Lawful Good is somehow "better" than Chaotic or Neutral Good, whereas the latter is a much closer approximation of what "pure of heart" really implies.

Besides, the Crown is Neutral Evil, not Chaotic Evil, so if any alignment is its antithesis, it would be Neutral Good. And guarding an Innocent (perhaps even a child) who's carrying the Crown for them -- and making sure the bearer doesn't undergo a "loss of Innocence" during the journey, such as the need to make a Horror or Powers check -- would be an interesting game-challenge.
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Post by NeoTiamat »

Lord of the Rings in Ravenloft...

Can I beg a favor? Pretty please? Tell us how this ends up when you do use it.

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Post by Glim »

NeoTiamat wrote:Lord of the Rings in Ravenloft...

Can I beg a favor? Pretty please? Tell us how this ends up when you do use it.
A Giant Deus-Ex Machina in the disguise of an eagle, coming to the rescue of course.. :P
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Post by Jester of the FoS »

Well, Zeus was the favoured gods for the Greek plays that coined deus ex machina, and his animal representation is the eagle. Makes sense when you think about it.
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Post by Rotipher of the FoS »

Jester of the FoS wrote:Well, Zeus was the favoured gods for the Greek plays that coined deus ex machina, and his animal representation is the eagle. Makes sense when you think about it.
At least, it makes sense until you ask a die-hard Tolkien fanatic how come the eagles couldn't fly Frodo to the Cracks of Doom in the freakin' first place. They hate that question.... :wink:

(Sorry, slipped out of Ravenloft-mindset there for a minute.)
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Post by Jester of the FoS »

Because eagles are suckers for shiny objects and would have easily bowed to the will of the Ring.

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Post by NeoTiamat »

Rotipher wrote:
Jester of the FoS wrote:Well, Zeus was the favoured gods for the Greek plays that coined deus ex machina, and his animal representation is the eagle. Makes sense when you think about it.
At least, it makes sense until you ask a die-hard Tolkien fanatic how come the eagles couldn't fly Frodo to the Cracks of Doom in the freakin' first place. They hate that question.... :wink:

(Sorry, slipped out of Ravenloft-mindset there for a minute.)
Logic should never interfere with a good story. :roll:
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Post by LouisVendredi »

At least, it makes sense until you ask a die-hard Tolkien fanatic how come the eagles couldn't fly Frodo to the Cracks of Doom in the freakin' first place. They hate that question.... Wink
I always figured it was because Sauron would have noticed a giant eagle carrying a Hobbit into his land (at least enough to glance over and see the ring).
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Post by Gonzoron of the FoS »

Keep in mind that the crown must have another power not mentioned in its description. In the note from Dominiani to Akriel, he implies that their true plan is to turn his inmates into a goblyn army, and use the crown to open the border to invade Kartakass. So either he is deluded as to its true powers (in which case the adventure is moot because even with the crown, he can't succeed) or the crown can open closed domain borders too.
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Post by Chris »

Rotipher wrote:I'd replace "lawful good" with "Innocent". The former harks back to old 1E/2E presumptions that Lawful Good is somehow "better" than Chaotic or Neutral Good, whereas the latter is a much closer approximation of what "pure of heart" really implies.


Ah, interesting. I always wondered about that. Goot to know some about D&D History :D

I think I ll takte the inocent, that will make more sense and still a nice sidequest for the group.


Keep in mind that the crown must have another power not mentioned in its description. In the note from Dominiani to Akriel, he implies that their true plan is to turn his inmates into a goblyn army, and use the crown to open the border to invade Kartakass. So either he is deluded as to its true powers (in which case the adventure is moot because even with the crown, he can't succeed) or the crown can open closed domain borders too.
I think the crown don´t need this power. The two just need to think that it can acomplish this. Maybe their Info is false. Maybe this misinformation orginates from the Crown´s evil prisenor itself. Who knows.
I think that is a matter of taste. I like the idea of all the misery and strife for a goal the two can never accomplish.
But I understand your point of view.

And jeah I know that it is jut a design error..
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