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Aloyce
Acolyte
3 Posts |
 Posted - 13 Feb 2013 : 17:05:06
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Hello everyone. I'm starting Shackled City adventure path soon as DM.
Will do it in 3.5 and I'll place it in Forgotten Realms as I have no idea about the original setting (Greyhawk) and I hate Eberron.
So I thought "What a best place to ask for ideas except from Forgotten Realms forums?" and here I am.
Geography:
According to Jeklea Bay=Shining
Sea and Amedio Jungle=Jungles of
Chult from the online conversion notes from paizo
I am placing Cauldron in a caldera on the Chultan Peninusla, on
the northern slopes of the Sanrach Mountains,
just east of the Jungles of Chult. Sasserine becomes Tashluta. Redgorge becomes Tehinggult.
Religion:
St. Cuthbert becomes Anachtyr
Pelor becomes Lathander
Fharlanghn becomes Shaundakul
Kord becomes Tempus
Nerull becomes Myrkul
Wee Jas becomes Savras
Timeline:
Placing it in 1373 and starting the campign at 15 of Uktar so I have the big rains fogs storms and stuff that campaign uses.
As you see I want to make this a perfect adventure for the players and DM alike (no OOC allowed) or else I'd just play the adventure as it's written in a world I have no clue about I'd use RL callendar etc. Ultimatelly I'll record everything in the campaign as a spectator following the group invisible and upload them in a blog I'll make about it as chapters of a book that tells Shackled City's story in a third person view of what the PCs are doing.
Here I'll give you a link of the post I made in paizo forums so you see about what I'm thinking in books allowed custom rules etc.http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2pgwa?35-SCAP-extra-stuff-FR-Trying-to-make-SCAP
What I want from this post here is mostly some backround ideas I could use etc. Mostly I want to cover the RP/IC/Foreshadowing/Player handouts stuff in here. But whatever you guys feel like commenting/adding/giving tips about.
Nothing of the above is set in stone so if you give me good reasoning to put Cauldron somewhere else for example I'm open about it.
PS. Also something I can nowhere find good ideas about is background music for the sessions. I got Softrope I used before for making backround sounds but then I used sounds from games I had in the PC. Now I have no games and no idea what to use. Most threads have excellent ideas about music but I believe only reason a non-instrumental song can be excused to be used is inside inns.
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 13 Feb 2013 : 17:31:48
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I am trying to peruse the adventure now (I have no clue about it) through the original Dungeon issues. Thus far I haven't figured out why it needs to be so far south (unless you want it that far south).
I don't know about the adventure, but I do know about FR and GH. Wee Jas is more the equivalent of Mystra, not Savras. The rest sounds about right (there is no 'perfect' substitute for Kord, so I've actually allowed Kord in my Realms).
EDIT: I did come across this page for you - seems like it could prove useful. |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 13 Feb 2013 17:53:11 |
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Aloyce
Acolyte
3 Posts |
Posted - 13 Feb 2013 : 18:12:49
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I'm doing it from Dungeon issues as well until I find the money to get the hardcover that is. Right now I'm trying to statblock and give bio/background/characteristics in every NPC from Life's Bazaar as well as statblock monsters into 3.5E. Besides the map this link is not really usefull as it is a campaign in Pathfinder and many balance stuff have beed changed so I can't use statblocks etc from there.
The reason for it being so south is to match the climate described in the original adventure. Can't have tropical forests or warm weather with big rains/storms in Baldur's gate now can we?
And the reason for putting Savras instead of Mystra as a substitute for Wee-Jas is this thread http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2hftl?Forgotten-Realms-Conversionhere. I really liked this idea.
EDIT: I got no clue why but usual code for naming the url doesn't work for me |
Edited by - Aloyce on 13 Feb 2013 18:20:02 |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 13 Feb 2013 : 18:30:54
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Well, now that I am looking at it, I really don't see any reason it can't be further north - it is a conversion, after all. The North (in FR) does have a very bad 'rainy season', which includes seasonal flooding (some of Daggerford has been underwater several times).
I see a bunch of references to 'the jungle' being outside the walls, and also some of the adventures (including the town of Redgorge and other settlements) are 'through the jungle', but the monsters are all very plain-vanilla (bugbears, goblins, half-orcs, etc) so I don't see a reason why it can't just be in a forested region instead. There are also dormant volcanoes in The North as well.
Unless, of course, you want to run the entire thing down in Chult, then go for it. I'm just pointing out that its not necessary to place it in the same exact environment as it was originally set in (since the original writers didn't bother to utilize the local environment, as far as I can tell).
I wish I had access to the hardcover - it would make things easier, and I believe there was another adventure in that that was included in the Dungeon path (concerning goblins, which could give us a reason for needing the jungle... maybe). The Age of Worms was another jungle-based (Paizo) adventure path which actually used the jungle flavor, and has an official FR conversion. I wonder if the Hardcover had anything like that?
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"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 13 Feb 2013 18:56:52 |
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Aloyce
Acolyte
3 Posts |
Posted - 13 Feb 2013 : 18:43:33
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Nope the Hardcover doesn't have any Conversion for FR just a new module that takes place after Life's bazaar and before Flood Season called Drakthar's Way. The placement mainly came from Savage Tide conversion to FR from the link you just posted. Between issues 139-141.
If you got a list of the NPCs in life's Bazaar it could really help me to block them out instead of reaing the whole thing again and blocking every new name I see... And I mean a list of every NPC the characters may come in contact with. I even made some lvl 1 Commoner fishermen for example. Don't need only the major ones that are already blocked in magazine issues. Player's at least mine have a tendency to screw with everything so stat blocks for everything would really help as well as backgrounds for every NPC they meet. Besides bringing them to life much easier by having stats and characteristics/bios/purposes etc than making them on the fly when they meet them... Also their action will also have impact in the game this way... Who knows if this or that fisherman that begs them for money has connections with the last laugh for example?
If you guys want me I can post the blocks with all info here for every character I make so there is a database for it for whoever needs it in the future 'till I make the blog. |
Edited by - Aloyce on 13 Feb 2013 19:32:49 |
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Razz
Senior Scribe
USA
749 Posts |
Posted - 07 Dec 2014 : 20:31:22
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I, too, placed Cauldron as one of the city-states in Thindol that makes up part of the Council of Cities that rule Thindol.
It was not easy where to place the city. It was very tricky, actually. I needed it to stay in Thindol, but not be too far away from important geographical features.
It was also interesting to put it near Narubel, thanks to the instability in that area. Which made Cauldron both a part of and a little bit isolated from the rest of Thindol.
Here is a map that I put together for my Shackled City campaign. Obviously Jared's Hut, Hookface's Lair, the giant stronghold of are all in the Sanrach Mountains (I didn't pick a specific spot for those, it didn't exactly matter as much as the settlements). Shatterhorn's Ruins are obviously past the edges of the jungles of Chult (and, officially, the Spire of Long Shadows is supposed to be further in the jungle depths.)
I changed names to better fit the region's naming scheme (Redgorge became Nyurketh, for example).
As for the religions, I always replaced Kord with Tempus, as the FRCS even stated to do. It's the closest you can get (Uthgar being 2nd best, but Uthgar made no sense in this region while Tempus fit just fine). Pelor became Lathander. St. Cuthbert became Helm. (And Helm is more worshipped in southern regions than he is in the north). Fharlaghn became Shaundakul. (and I made a Harper connection with the Striders)
Replacing Wee Jas was tricky, and I did think about using Savras at first. However, I found my best fit to be Jergal. I had the adventure take place in 1369 D.R., which left it a 10 year span of going from Myrkul (who handled funerary rites, undead, and other duties in Cauldron as allowed to by the governing body), to Cyric (which caused strife among the temple in Cauldron, but most switched over to Cyric) and then to Kelemvor.
A separate branch of Jergal worshipers stayed in the temple, and after having gone through 3 deities of death, the leader of the Jergal branch made everyone believe that it meant Jergal should take back his rightful rule over death, especially with Bhaal and Bane gone, too. Seeing it as a sign, I had the highest ranked Jergal priest root out all Cyric servants and exiled them from the temple, then he took it over. According to the adventure, the leader of the Wee Jas church is one of the Cagewrights, the enemy behind the entire adventure path. So now it became a Jergal cleric instead.
Which fits in perfectly with the next adventure path, Age of Worms, since it involves Jergal's machinations of events. I saw no place for Mystra, and while Savras is worshipped in those regions, I didn't think a deity that had such a small congregation after so many centuries of being captive of Azuth, that they would have a huge temple in that city. Nor did I think it made sense for a Savras cleric to be one of the leading enemies behind the Cagewright's plans.
I did add two more religions to the campaign --- Ubtao (thanks to the Chultan people) and Talona (of which there is secretly a yuan-ti presence that subverts worshippers into serving her yuan-ti aspect of Sss'thasine'ss).
Cauldron Original
Cauldron FR Version |
Edited by - Razz on 07 Dec 2014 20:32:46 |
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Shackled City adventure path
