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Lawrence of Arabia
Acolyte
Japan
7 Posts |
 Posted - 19 Dec 2015 : 08:14:04
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Hello all! As the name suggests I am about to run a campaign ranging from Skullport all the way to Zakhara. I have been hitting a roadblock however, I can't quite seem to figure out how to get there!
I know Zakhara is somewhere on the southeast side of Faerun, but travelling all the way through the Underdark and eventually switching to go above-ground, I'm not really sure what or where the best course of action is. Any suggestions, or books to look at/utilize? I'm fairly new to the Realms to be frank, I know more than the average player because I'm a permanent-GM but a lot of it's locales and histories are lost upon me. Thanks!
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hashimashadoo
Master of Realmslore
United Kingdom
1150 Posts |
Posted - 19 Dec 2015 : 11:07:50
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| Most traders who go to and from Zakhara go by sea from southern Faerūn. They pay 'protection' to the corsairs that infest The Great Sea. |
When life turns it's back on you...sneak attack for extra damage.
Head admin of the FR wiki:
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/ |
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Kentinal
Great Reader
4686 Posts |
Posted - 19 Dec 2015 : 11:14:45
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Well there was a guideline once offered that offered two things.
Travel in the underdark is three times as long as if travel on the surface. That is number of miles to be traveled due to the fact tunnels are not straight lines they go up, down and do not travel in same compass point for long distances.
That often there can be found a tunnel that leads to the surface. Some well known however many known to a few.
There were a few underdark maps published over the years, however I do not recall any that showed main connecting tunnels, they all tended to indicate city locations and what cities or towns were on the surface above or near them. |
"Small beings can have small wisdom," the dragon said. "And small wise beings are better than small fools. Listen: Wisdom is caring for afterwards."
"Caring for afterwards ...? Ker repeated this without understanding.
"After action, afterwards," the dragon said. "Choose the afterwards first, then the action. Fools choose action first."
"Judgement" copyright 2003 by Elizabeth Moon |
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Artemas Entreri
Great Reader
USA
3131 Posts |
Posted - 19 Dec 2015 : 12:53:01
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| Sailing southeast from Dambrath or Luiren is the best way to go, though as noted above, you had better be ready to hand out some serious coin to the corsairs of the Corsair Domains. |
Some people have a way with words, and other people...oh, uh, not have way. -Steve Martin
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Hoondatha
Great Reader
USA
2449 Posts |
Posted - 19 Dec 2015 : 17:32:41
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Right. It's a long, long way from Waterdeep to Zakhara. The best would be by ship. You go south to Calimshan, then cut southwest to swing around Chult. Then go west past Halruaa (where you can't dock) and Dambrath (where they have lots of pirates). Then finally either skirt the coast along the edge of the Great Sea or brave the open water by going directly south-southeast.
On second thought, the best way is a gate. You're in Skullport, surely you can find a gate to get you most of the way there. Even just jumping to Durpar (east of Dambrath) would be a huge timesaver. Durpar, Var, and Dambrath all trade with Zakhara, so they would be logical starting points to get there.
Here's a map from Corsairs of the Great Sea that puts things a bit in perspective. The little inset squiggle north east of the "G" in Great Sea (by the fifth red dot in from the left) is Dambrath, just for reference.
Zakhara's Place in the World |
Doggedly converting 3e back to what D&D should be...
Sigh... And now 4e as well. |
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Lawrence of Arabia
Acolyte
Japan
7 Posts |
Posted - 19 Dec 2015 : 18:07:45
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| Wow, thanks a ton everyone! All of this helps immensely (especially that map!), now, are gates commonplace? What exactly are they? |
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Hoondatha
Great Reader
USA
2449 Posts |
Posted - 20 Dec 2015 : 00:27:15
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Gates (or portals, as 3e liked to call them) are extradimensional linkages between locations. The stereotypical gate is a glowing doorway that instantly teleports whoever steps through to another location, but there's a huge amount of variety.
A few gates are always active. These tend to be well-hidden, and still require some action on the part of the person traveling, even if it's just lying down between two particular logs in a forest.
Most gates either function intermittently or require activation. For instance:
* Only active on nights of a full moon
* Requires a dagger with a particular maker's mark on the blade
* Only transports elves
* Requires a traveler to cast a lightning bolt spell at a particular rock
* Underwater gates often require particular currents, formed by swimming around them in a particular fashion
Most gates need to be stepped through to transport someone. A few will transport everyone in a particular area when activated. Most are sized for a human, some are large enough for wagons or ships. Many are two-way (ie: you can turn around and step back through), though they sometimes require different keys going and coming. Some are part of multi-gate circuits, so to get back where you started you need to go through three, five, sometimes even seven or eight gates.
Gates are as common as you want them to be. The Realms is famous for the high numbers of gates, but if you as a DM don't want to deal with them, then they don't appear. But certain places, like Myth Drannor and Undermountain, have scores if not hundreds, and Undermountain's gates are actively, if insanely, managed.
Depending on what kind of campaign you want to run, it might be easiest for your PC's to find a gate in Undermountain to Var the Golden or Durpar, which will put them well on the way to Zakhara. This can either happen accidentally, or they can actively research it. If they need to get to Zakhara within a particular period of time, it would actually be faster to spend a month researching and spelunking Undermountain to find such a gate than trying to do the whole thing by ship. And you can make the right gate as easy or hard to find as you wish. |
Doggedly converting 3e back to what D&D should be...
Sigh... And now 4e as well. |
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Rymac
Learned Scribe
USA
315 Posts |
Posted - 20 Dec 2015 : 00:45:02
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If you don't use Gates, the quickest way (although I have not done the math) would be to sail from Zakhara to different ports up the coast, then once arriving at Waterdeep, use the route to Skullport via the South Sea Caves entrance. That assumes the South Sea Caves are still operable.
If I recall correctly, there was a gate on the Deepwash that allowed travel between the underwater river Sargauth that leads to Skullport. Nor do I recall if that gate was a one-way or two-way gate. But Zakharan merchants or adventurers would have to travel overland to obtain passage on a ship on the Inner Sea to get to the Deepwash. (Although they could travel overland to the shores of the Deepwash, and obtain passage on a ship directly to Skullport.) |
- Ryan |
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Lawrence of Arabia
Acolyte
Japan
7 Posts |
Posted - 21 Dec 2015 : 00:28:59
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| I've decided on a gate, several weeks travel into the Underdark, I'm just not entirely sure what to call it or where it leads, besides closer, of course. Are gates even usually named? |
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36781 Posts |
Posted - 21 Dec 2015 : 02:58:35
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quote:
Originally posted by Lawrence of Arabia
I've decided on a gate, several weeks travel into the Underdark, I'm just not entirely sure what to call it or where it leads, besides closer, of course. Are gates even usually named?
Only if they are well-known, and even then, not always.
A lot of times, those who do know about gates often try to keep that knowledge to themselves.
Without knowing the specifics of your campaign, I'd suggest having the PCs find a book somewhere that references this gate.
Again, depending on your needs, I'd not necessarily have the book contain all of the relevant specifics on this gate -- maybe there's a riddle to solve to determine its exact location, maybe the book's author omits the minor detail of the gate consuming a +1 sword as a key, maybe the gate is vampiric and siphons off hit points as people pass thru, maybe the other end of the gate is in a little-used corridor of an extensive wererat warren, etc. |
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Lawrence of Arabia
Acolyte
Japan
7 Posts |
Posted - 21 Dec 2015 : 15:38:09
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| Ah, I guess I should've given a small overview of the situation. The characters were in Skullport because they were captured by slavers off the coast of Candlekeep. One party member ended up evading capture by being very smart with his wildshape, and stowed up on the boat for a few days. The party were sold as slaves, half to the remaining party member, the rest to a son of the Grand Caliph, who for the past 10 years has been on a quest given by his father to explore the world and bring back something of "value" (up to the son's interpretation). He's on a return trip and he needed more "guards" to make it back home, as the Underdark is a rather treacherous place. He knows there is a gate in the Underdark, and the relative location, because of several old manuscripts and research and whatnot, but he doesn't know quite what to expect and he only has a ballpark answer for where it comes out, all he knows is it will be closer to home and potentially shave months/years off the trip. So they're all headed through the Underdark right now, to this gate that I'm still forming in my head. |
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Artemas Entreri
Great Reader
USA
3131 Posts |
Posted - 21 Dec 2015 : 15:43:20
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quote:
Originally posted by Lawrence of Arabia
Ah, I guess I should've given a small overview of the situation. The characters were in Skullport because they were captured by slavers off the coast of Candlekeep. One party member ended up evading capture by being very smart with his wildshape, and stowed up on the boat for a few days. The party were sold as slaves, half to the remaining party member, the rest to a son of the Grand Caliph, who for the past 10 years has been on a quest given by his father to explore the world and bring back something of "value" (up to the son's interpretation). He's on a return trip and he needed more "guards" to make it back home, as the Underdark is a rather treacherous place. He knows there is a gate in the Underdark, and the relative location, because of several old manuscripts and research and whatnot, but he doesn't know quite what to expect and he only has a ballpark answer for where it comes out, all he knows is it will be closer to home and potentially shave months/years off the trip. So they're all headed through the Underdark right now, to this gate that I'm still forming in my head.
I know everyone's Realms differ, but canon lore is that the Grand Caliph of Huzuz never had any children as of 1367 DR. |
Some people have a way with words, and other people...oh, uh, not have way. -Steve Martin
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Edited by - Artemas Entreri on 21 Dec 2015 15:43:54 |
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Lawrence of Arabia
Acolyte
Japan
7 Posts |
Posted - 21 Dec 2015 : 15:46:03
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| Yes I know the Caliph didn't have children, this is just a fabrication on my part, please forgive my transgression :^) |
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Artemas Entreri
Great Reader
USA
3131 Posts |
Posted - 21 Dec 2015 : 16:54:24
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quote:
Originally posted by Lawrence of Arabia
Yes I know the Caliph didn't have children, this is just a fabrication on my part, please forgive my transgression :^)
No need for forgiveness, the Forgotten Realms exists so we can make it our own.  |
Some people have a way with words, and other people...oh, uh, not have way. -Steve Martin
Amazon "KindleUnlimited" Free Trial: http://amzn.to/2AJ4yD2
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Korginard
Learned Scribe
USA
126 Posts |
Posted - 21 Dec 2015 : 18:11:39
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Given the similarities between Calimshan and Zakhara, I would imagine that a gate or two exist between the two. If I recall, humans and halflings were originally transported to Calimshan from Zakhara by the Noble Djinn Calim. Perhaps the portal near Skullport leads to somewhere in or close to Calimshan, and then another portal must be found that will lead to Zakhara.
This whole idea got my imagination going and I thought it might be cool if the Caliph's son has an evil Sha'ir controlling a bound Genie. In order to defeat them and rescue their fellows, perhaps the party has to find a way to free the Genie and convince it to help them. |
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Lawrence of Arabia
Acolyte
Japan
7 Posts |
Posted - 22 Dec 2015 : 11:20:26
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| Hmm, I do like the idea of a second portal. The son of the Caliph is good of heart, and had originally planned on freeing the party at journeys end, but an evil Sha'ir advisor would certainly fit in well. |
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Artemas Entreri
Great Reader
USA
3131 Posts |
Posted - 22 Dec 2015 : 15:22:15
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| I always loved campaigning in Zakhara. Genies, sha'irs, mamluks, holy slayers, etc made for some fascinating adventures. |
Some people have a way with words, and other people...oh, uh, not have way. -Steve Martin
Amazon "KindleUnlimited" Free Trial: http://amzn.to/2AJ4yD2
Try Audible and Get 2 Free Audio Books! https://amzn.to/2IgBede |
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moonbeast
Senior Scribe
USA
522 Posts |
Posted - 23 Dec 2015 : 01:41:07
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quote:
Originally posted by Lawrence of Arabia
Hmm, I do like the idea of a second portal. The son of the Caliph is good of heart, and had originally planned on freeing the party at journeys end, but an evil Sha'ir advisor would certainly fit in well.
Make sure that the evil court advisor is titled a "Vizier" or Grand Vizier. That would make for a good classical narrative (just like in the Arabian Nights). |
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Cards77
Senior Scribe
USA
745 Posts |
Posted - 24 Dec 2015 : 01:45:30
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| It would probably be easier to find and negotiate the use of a gate than it would be to actually make the trip. |
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Korginard
Learned Scribe
USA
126 Posts |
Posted - 28 Dec 2015 : 15:58:30
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The Sha'ir/Vizier will most certainly be manipulating events. Perhaps he/she is controlling or manipulating the Caliph's son, forcing him to accept and even commit to acts he would normally not allow.
Cards' suggestion of a negotiation is a nice touch. The Gate won't just be sitting there ready and waiting to be used. It is being controlled by someone and the Party must negotiate and barter for it's use in order to follow the group that has their companions. This could be complicated by the Vizier having warned whoever controls the portal of the dangerous and duplicitous group following them. Perhaps the Gate owner is wise enough not to be totally misled by the Vizier, but more than willing to use the warning as a method of requiring more from the party than would normally be expected. After all, they are "Dangerous and Duplicitous" individuals are they not? |
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JohnLynch
Learned Scribe
Australia
243 Posts |
Posted - 29 Dec 2015 : 07:51:57
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quote:
Originally posted by Hoondatha
If they need to get to Zakhara within a particular period of time, it would actually be faster to spend a month researching and spelunking Undermountain to find such a gate than trying to do the whole thing by ship. And you can make the right gate as easy or hard to find as you wish.
If you're happy having the gates be two-way the easiest way to do this would be to have someone from Zakhara living in Skullport or at least be contactable through someone who travels through Skullport. They could then reveal the gate(s) they took and their location for the right price.
Or you could have someone who is from Zakhara and is stuck in the Faerunian Underdark. They may have extensively researched how to get back and have clues that reveal the locations of certain portals that will enable them to return to Zakhara, however because the person isn't from Faerun they're struggling to make sense of these clues. When shown to the players they may immediately know the locations that the clues refer to and be able to take the Zakharan with them (this Zakharan could now be a local guide and also be someone they can ask for help from). |
DM of the Realms: A blog for my Forgotten Realms adventures. |
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ErskineF
Learned Scribe
USA
330 Posts |
Posted - 02 Jan 2016 : 05:50:38
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If you want to stick with the idea of travelling through the Underdark--always fun--there's a place known as the Ruins of Tellectus in the Upper Underdark between Candlekeep and Beregost. It was once a Mind-Flayer outpost created for the purpose of kidnapping visitors to the library, and perhaps launching a raid on the castle. A preemptive strike destroyed the outpost, and forced the Mind-Flayers to retreat. You could locate a gate there.
Official lore says the ruins are now inhabited by Mozgriken--former thralls of the Mind-Flayers, created by inserting an illithid tadpole into the brain of a Svirfneblin. You could make use of them, or replace with some other Underdark creature. |
--
Erskine Fincher
http://forgotten-realms.wandering-dwarf.com/index.php |
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Lawrence of Arabia
Acolyte
Japan
7 Posts |
Posted - 02 Jan 2016 : 12:39:00
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quote:
Originally posted by ErskineF
If you want to stick with the idea of travelling through the Underdark--always fun--there's a place known as the Ruins of Tellectus in the Upper Underdark between Candlekeep and Beregost. It was once a Mind-Flayer outpost created for the purpose of kidnapping visitors to the library, and perhaps launching a raid on the castle. A preemptive strike destroyed the outpost, and forced the Mind-Flayers to retreat. You could locate a gate there.
Official lore says the ruins are now inhabited by Mozgriken--former thralls of the Mind-Flayers, created by inserting an illithid tadpole into the brain of a Svirfneblin. You could make use of them, or replace with some other Underdark creature.
This actually fits perfectly with what I had in mind. Do you perchance know of any materials it might be in? |
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From Skullport to Zakhara
