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Thangorn
Seeker
New Zealand
84 Posts |
 Posted - 26 Oct 2006 : 13:18:31
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Thats how I like to play it..
every time I DM my players they are on the brink of death, insanity or worse at some stage in the game.
Our group plays 2nd Edition players option with a few rules borrowed from 3.0 - 3.5. I just recently decided to fire up the adventure from the original forgotten realms 2nd Edition boxed set, under the twisted tower in Shadowdale, just as a filler game as we couldnt get our full group along to session. I'd always wanted to start an old school forgotten realms campaign using all the well-loved sites detailed a hundred times in various books.
3 adventures later, they have been so scared of pushing on through the underdark (as any intelligent adventurer would be) that they have decided to head off and take the body of a dead dwarf enslaved by drow back to his home village of Glen in Mistledale.
I've been so inspired by re-reading about 50 different manuals I've come up with a absolutely mind-blowing plot (well for me anyway).
the next few games I plan to have them -:
* Spied on and possibly attacked by Ghaunadan drow who's backyard they inadvertently stumbled into while working for the Twisted Tower.
* Some one may become corrupted by an magical dagger with evil, murderous tendencies
* Roughed up by Zhentarim raiders
* Walk into the middle of a deal gone awry being hatched between some Dragon cultists and a dwarven merchant of Glen refusing to sell them a Dragon Egg.
* Stumble across a dangerous trade route into the Underdark
all because they seem to enjoy the sensation of being on the brink of destruction...
The crux of it is, I have Ghaunadan drow who have been carefully watching the machinations of the Kiriansaleean drow faction in Maerimydra (drow city several miles below Mistledale). It seems the Kiriansaleean faction will make some major powerplays to wrest some of the control of the city from the Lolthian drow.
The Ghaunadan drow are planning on capturing a series of three earth nodes that are equidistant to and surround the city of Maerimydra. They plan through the power of an ancient artifact they are unearthing under the Twisted Tower to corrupt and consecrate these earth nodes to Ghaunadar.
Once the earth nodes are under their control, they will be able to combine their power into a single destructive strike that would utterly destroy Maerimydra. They then plan to threaten the drow of Maerimydra to bend to their will and rulership lest all be destroyed.
In order to unearth the artifact which has been buried for millenia, the Ghaunadan drow have begun to capture and enslave dwarves from the Desertsmouth Mts, Glen and Daggerdale. In order to allow the faithful of Ghaunadar to capture these dwarves without drawing the goodly folk of the dales upon them, 13 drow (and otherwise) acolytes of Ghaunadar have submitted themselves to become the sentient jellies known as Ghaunadans in a dark ritual. The PCs have already come across one of these Ghaunadans, the least powerful of their number and almost all died.
These Ghaunadans lure dwarven families from their homes by assuming various pleasing shapes, paralyse them and then their drow allies remove them while the Ghaunadans remove any evidence of their passing.
the women and children are held to ransom while the dwarven males work to uncover the fell Ghaunadan artifact. When the dwarven males pass out from exhaustion, the Ghaunadan drow sacrifice them in a transformation ritual, turning them into gibberlings which are then set upon Shadowdale farmlands to further draw attention from the Ghaunadan drow and hide evidence of the dwarven slaves.
The PCs may get in the Ghaunadan drow's way and end up enmeshed in that plot or perhaps they'll annoy the Zhentarim or Cult of the Dragon enough to end up becoming embroiled there. Due to the time period I've picked Sembians, Red Plumes and Red Wizards are also possible antagonists.
This is exactly why the realms have been my favourite RP setting for over 17 years, there are so many rich possibilities for adventure at every turn.
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Ex-A Land Far Away (ALFA) DM/Builder
Faerunian Canon Despot |
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Delzounblood
Senior Scribe
United Kingdom
578 Posts |
Posted - 26 Oct 2006 : 15:51:15
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I have said this before and will say it again many times:
To be a good DM you need several things
1: Dungeon Masters Guide
2: Players Handbook
3: Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting
4: One of the Monster Manuals
5: And the most important A DAMN GOOD IMAGINATION.
Thangorn I am assuming you have the first 4.
The 5th is plain for all to see. WELLDONE sounds great!!!
 
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Thangorn
Seeker
New Zealand
84 Posts |
Posted - 26 Oct 2006 : 21:30:05
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Thanks Delzoun,
What originally sparked this tangent was trying to "justify" the actions of the drow in that below the twisted tower module. If you have ever read it, I was thinking "why are they bothering to do all this stuff?". I made my answer :)
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Ex-A Land Far Away (ALFA) DM/Builder
Faerunian Canon Despot |
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KnightErrantJR
Great Reader
USA
5402 Posts |
Posted - 27 Oct 2006 : 02:05:00
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I like this, especially since there are Ghaunadar worshippers in Szith Morcane in the City of the Spider Queen adventure, so it would make sense that there would be a pocket of them plotting in this situation.
Oh, but don't go too hard on the Glen dwarves . . . I still have a soft spot for them from my own campaign (say hello to Wulgar Browniefriend, Chorn Stoneturner, and Brongulf and Yrend Ironfurrow if anyone goes near Glen . . . ) |
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Wandering_mage
Senior Scribe
688 Posts |
Posted - 27 Oct 2006 : 03:45:04
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| It is easy to see that you have fun. That is the goal of the game. Keep up the great Dm'ing and report back every now and then. |
Illum
The Wandering Mage |
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Thangorn
Seeker
New Zealand
84 Posts |
Posted - 27 Oct 2006 : 05:32:07
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If you've ever used Glen in your campaign I'm interested in your perspective on a few things -:
1. How did you manage the whole sale of dragon eggs? ie. how rigourously did they screen/select their dragon egg clients? I guess I was confused by the line in Volo's guide to the Dales that said something about getting in line behind a Dragon Cultist.
2. How did you handle the whole Deep Mine/Underdark elevator thing? Where and how deep did you let the so-called "Long Road" run. I'm using it to connect to Dwarves Deep, the Kingdom of the Great Rift via the Oghrann bat-rider outpost.
3. The city of the Spider Queen adventure states that Maerimydra does not have any connections to the surface apart from Haptooth Hill. Volo's Dales guide does mention that the "Long Road" from Glen to Dwarves Deep is constantly beset by Underdark monsters most notably drow. What drow factions have you/might you use as protagonists along this route?
Oh and Knight Errant, if you give me some stats and rp tips on yer dwarven mates, I might even use them in my version of Glen. What races, classes, levels, personality are Wulgar Browniefriend, Chorn Stoneturner, Brongulf and Yrend Ironfurrow?
Thanks folks
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Ex-A Land Far Away (ALFA) DM/Builder
Faerunian Canon Despot |
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KnightErrantJR
Great Reader
USA
5402 Posts |
Posted - 27 Oct 2006 : 05:48:12
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Brongulf Ironfurrow was one of the elders of the village, and a pretty well known merchant, selling the famous mushrooms of Glen, as well as goods gathered from the "Long Road" basically in a very low key manner. As a well respected merchant of Glen, he had contacts with the dwarf contacts that sold dragon eggs. The PCs saved Brongulf's daughter and worked with Chorn, who is essentially his bodyguard/head caravaneer/fixer, and during the Feast of the Moon, while the PCs were in Glen, he got a bit tipsy and spilled the beans about the dragon eggs. Brongulf also hired them to go on a trip for him on the "Long Road," after they had saved his daughter and proven themselves.
The way I saw it, the dwarves in Glen were fairly careful about who they told about the dragon eggs. Someone just wandering in and saying they wanted dragon eggs wasn't going to get any attention, nor was anyone that seemed power hugry or cruel, since the dwarves gain their dragon eggs through agreements with the dragons (I'll have to look it up, as I'm sure I saved it, but in one of Ed's responses here at the keep he mentioned that the dwarves of Glen get the dragon eggs from dragons that agree to allow the dwarves to sell them, and as such, the dwarves don't sell them to anyone that doesn't have some respect for them. The eggs come from unwanted matings, or are orphans that other dragons happen across, or are young left over when one dragon kills the parent of the unhatched ones, but the victor doesn't want to see the young perish, but can't raise them themselves).
I'll get back to you in a bit about the personalities of the dwarves, and some more details on the dragon trade and Glen, and as a side note, there is an agent of the Cult of the Dragon in Ashabenford, Jarwain Evensword, and that played into some of what happened in my campaign.
If you get curious before I get time to post it, a lot of information is in my campaign journal in the adventuring section of the forums. |
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Thangorn
Seeker
New Zealand
84 Posts |
Posted - 27 Oct 2006 : 09:22:46
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heh KnightErrant I did actually read through most of your campaign log, what a wild ride your folks went on, being buried for a thousand years in stasis was a fairly nice (read: diabolical) touch.
Thats given me a brilliant bunch of ideas to go on with Glen, thanks. Feel free to keep em coming if you have more 
Cheers
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Ex-A Land Far Away (ALFA) DM/Builder
Faerunian Canon Despot |
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On the brink
