Tuesday, November 28, 2006 6:55 PM
From: "Marc-Tizoc González"
To: greytalk@canonfire.com
Great to see the list alive!
While I appreciate Joseph Bloch’s comment (and am excited to see him post!), one of Dungeon’s new ideas, the “Campaign Arc,” seems useful for the proposed project and much more viable than a GreyTalk Adventure Path. The Campaign Arc is basically a trilogy of adventures, much like the old modules’ series.
In addition to three adventures being more manageable than twelve, the smaller number of proposed adventures may encourage participation from people interested in different regions of the Flanaess. We could form one or more working groups, perhaps even inspiring each group by providing updates via the list.
As I count ‘em, six ideas have been contributed:
1. Basiliv’s list of locations, characters, and monsters;
2. Gerall Kahla’s suggestions re investigating UnderOerth or the Sea of Dust;
3. David Argall’s suggestion to start in Keoland before venturing west;
4. Aeolius’s suggestion re hags;
5. Scott Casper’s ordered list of locations; and
6. Scott’s ideas about old school monsters and specification re Furyondy and the Cold Marshes
Because I presently campaign in Sterich, I am generally more interested in the western Campaign Arc idea (starting in Keoland, venturing to the Yeomanry, and then into Slerotin’s Tunnel and the Sea of Dust). However, I’d prefer not to design an adventure into the Crystalmist-Hellfurances UnderOerth or the Sea of Dust, since they’ve already been explored in published modules, LGJ or OJ articles, or Randy Richards.
I propose adapting and integrating the ideas into the following:
Adventure 1: The PCs are raided by worg-riding goblins while traveling on a road in Bissel. The PCs best the goblins, but some NPC traveling companions are taken captive as the goblins flee. Following their trail, the PCs enter the nearby hills and find the goblins’ lair, which is based in old (Oeridian or Flan) ruins. The dungeon beneath the ruins is controlled by lamia(s) (noble?), which dominate the goblins.
If successful, the PCs recover their traveling companions, learn that one of them is a nobles’ scion, and return her/him to her/his ancestral keep, thus gaining a noble patron. The PCs may also find signs that indicate the involvement of the Horned Society
Adventure 2: The noble asks the PCs to investigate the ruins further. While doing so, they are meet a small expedition commissioned by Evard the Black (a fact initially unknown to the PCs) to investigate the ruins. If the PCs are hostile, the NPC party responds in kind. If the PCs cooperate, the NPC party repays the PCs by asking their further help with a nearby fort (in the Bramblewood?). Along the way, the parties encounter kech, giant spiders, and ettercap. If the PCs defeat these monsters, they attract the attention of the hag covey that oversees this part of the woods.
At the fort, the PCs learn that kobolds are assembling significant warbands, apparently intending to raid into the Highvale. Skirmishing with or scouting them, the PCs are separated from the remaining NPCs. Should the PCs return to their noble patron in Bissel, she or he sends them back, as scouts for a larger force. Should the PCs act otherwise, eventually they should enter the Highvale and help defeat the kobold raiders, reuniting with the remaining NPCs, and meeting an elven sage in Highfolk, who informs them about the hag covey in the Bramblewood, discusses what the PCs have learned about the Horned Society, and attempts to recruit the PCs to investigate the hag covey.
Adventure 3: The PCs attempt to locate the Bramblewood hag covey, whether they were persuaded by the Highfolk sage or so instructed by their noble patron (who has unknown to the PCs become dominated by a lamia noble that is antagonistic to the covey).
Their discovery of the covey’s apparent cave domicile leads them beneath the mountains, where they encounter at least one roper and unwittingly enter a conflict between illithids, githzerai (or githyanki), and cloakers. The PCs may tip the balance or be smashed on the scales. Additionally, they may find the remaining hags (who have fled the surface due to the lamia noble’s machinations) to be implacable enemies or wary allies.
After significant conflict, the PCs fight their way to the surface and find themselves in Perrenland, near Lake Quag.
***
I’ve run out of time to produce ideas for how to connect this part of the adventure to the Cold Marshes and to incorporate further ancient Flan or Baklunish cultures.
I really like Scott’s suggestions regarding the conflict between the Blackwater hag covey and Iuz!
MTG
Scott
Hi all,
Public interest in the new cooperative project seems to have died off already, or at least publicly. Still...
"Aeolius" wrote:
>In BPAA, I devised the Covyn; three hag coveys, one epic-level
covey, and one leader - 13 hags in all.
>As far as other hags go I've been working on a few, starting with
the squalus. Much as a winter hag is the offspring of a greenhag and
ice troll and the dune hag is born of the union between wasteland
troll and greenhag, the shoal hag or squalus is parented by a
greenhag and scrag.
>I'm also revamping my Blackwater (new domain from Stormwrack)
hags. Envision the remains of a slain sea hag covey, animated into a
single undead creature by Blackwater. I got my inspiration for the
three-made-one from this: http://www.designtoscano.com/images/us/
local/products/viewlarger/DB51037_vl.jpg Considering how many hags I
am likely to unleash upon Turucambi, I think the Blackwater Hag will
be [expletive deleted]-bent upon slaying her living sisters.<
Perhaps one of these coven of hags has come to Furyondy to kidnap someone important (the Viscount of the March? his wife?) and take him deep into Iuz's territory. Everyone will assume this is Iuz's plot, but Iuz's forces are after the hags too to get their hands on their prisoner. The hags are actually delivering a sacrifice to a blackwater hag in the Cold Marshes. In exchange for the sacrifice, the blackwater hag will stop trying to kill the other hags.
Anyone interested in working on that?
~Scott "-enkainen" Casper
