| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Rhewtani |
Posted - 13 Apr 2010 : 00:04:20
I've been running Ruins of Adventure: Pool of Radiance with Pathfinder rules for almost a year now. I'm in the home stretch. I've been trying to use the novel information to fix the adventure as much as I could. I also am using a couple of adjustments to canon in order for the PCs to make sense.
1) Ren, Tarl, and Shal have all perished in one form or another - possibly from Tyranthraxus having some sort of premonition that they could be his undoing.
2) Ren's body was found in Kuto's Well, and he had been poisoned.
3) Tarl has, in the end, become some sort of cross between a vampire and a shambling mound. The vampires were driven from the graveyard into Phlan - due to actions by the PCs. They took up residence in a secret cult lair of Moander beneath a house in the slums. This was mostly to play up Moander some more.
4) Shal is clearly missing, but has not made an appearance.
5) I replace the ioun stones from the novel with six "ioun spheres." Ioun stones in the novel are very powerful and important, in the adventure almost every creature has one in its pocket. In fact, there's an undead creature who gives them away for free.
As I said, I'm in the homestretch. My intention is to run an adventure based on Pools of Darkness next. I'm hoping for some insight, as this will be my attempt to write a bad adventure based on a game - as opposed to working from a bad adventure based on a game. :)
From what I've read on the internet and from the novel, it has the following basic layout.
Bane scoops up several cities (Phlan, Melvaunt, Mulmaster?) to use in some sort of ritual of power. He has 3 artifacts with 4 guardians in place on the other side of pools of darkness (which destroy magic items that come through them).
The guardians include:
-Thorne an ancient red dragon guarding the horn of doom (which is causing storms throuhout the realms)
-Kalistes a Marilith which possesses a crystal ring (???)
-Tanetal a Glabrezu which possesses the talisman of Bane (???)
-Gothmenes a balor
Has anyone played through the game or read the novel and wants to help me fill in the gaps? I run my game in 3-hour sessions and will likely break it down into 2 sessions per villain (getting into the lair, navigating the lair and facing off against the villain).
This adventure takes place in 1350 and by crossreferencing GHotR all I can come up with that might be an adventure that took place is Bloodstone Lands. I'm not sure. I just saw that Zhengyi came to power in the mid 1340s.
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| 30 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Dalor Darden |
Posted - 30 Aug 2010 : 02:40:00
Kingdom of Barze...stood only from -456 DR to -351 DR. Ruled by the wizard Barze, a Netherese wizard and his followers founded it and evidently had "war wizards" that they allowed to follow "The Three" in the defeat of Maram of the Great Spear in c. -350 DR (not looking at the article right now) which resulted in the Kingdom of Barze losing the majority of its strength. It fell to the armies of Tyranthraxus immediately following. |
| Markustay |
Posted - 29 Aug 2010 : 22:02:22
Possession is a decent explanation, except that I was trying to get-at that Aesperus was Bane's pre-godhood name, which obviously does't work.
HOWEVER, saying some mortal half-Orc (Bane just doesn't look human) controlled a kingdom even further back then Thentur is a possibility. Aesperus may have simply rebuilt what Bane, Myrkul, and Baal abandoned when they ascended.
Hey Dalor, what was that name you found for that other kingdom in the area? What was the time-frame on that?
I think I'm getting an idea for a piece of lore that is almost entirely homebrew, yet will knit-together quite a bit more. It may be time for a pre-Moonsea map of the North West. I'm going to need all my books for that one - there was another name for the Moonsea that the Elves used - it could have been a name for a smaller, pre-fall body of water in that region. That will also explain some of the Gur migrations, which shouldn't have been so easy considering that Vassa was beneath ice at that time. If the Moonsea was the sight of a powerful evil kingdom before becoming a sea it could be used for a number of things. The vaporized ice in the region would also explain why the Moonsea is fresh water.
Hmmmmm... must get home and start researching.... might be something I can tie to Bloodstone as well... |
| Dalor Darden |
Posted - 25 Aug 2010 : 16:01:09
quote:
Originally posted by capnvan
quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
No reason why Aesperus couldn't have been Bane, is there? Perhaps he took on that name after receiving divine aid from core Bane, who set him on his path to destroy the seven lost Gods and usurp their power.
Well, Aesperus is an active, physical lich in c. 1000, 1375 and 1479DR. I suppose you could claim he's an avatar, if you'd like.
quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
No name for that Kingdom/Empire, eh capnvan? Thought I saw it somewhere... I will have to look around. Seems reasonable that that was the first human nation in the region, the one that took sides with the 'Dark Alliance', who were later scattered and formed the various (evil) city-states around the Moonsea.
It may have been simply Thentia or Thentur. Don't recall at the moment. I do believe that all indications were that Aesperus was simply a powerful wielder of magic who used his power to dominate the region around 1000. Nothing there to suggest anything related to really anything else, let alone remnants of an earlier civilization.
YMMV, of course.
I'm not a fan of the avatar theory either...however, it would not be unusual for Bane to possess someone as he has done it many times before.
He may have even learned the idea/ability from Tyranthraxus when The Three forced T's vassalage to Bane. |
| Rhewtani |
Posted - 24 Aug 2010 : 23:33:09
Oh, it occurs to me to mention minor involvement of major npcs.
Yarash was using cloning to create the perfect body for Tyranthraxus. He was using a combination of cloning, mutation, and surgery to accomplish this and while he had not perfected it before his unfortunate PC related death, he did create a horde of mutated lizard creatures and several clones of one of the PCs who had gone missing. Of which 2 (or 3 - the real one may stil be a clone) survived. These bodies actually functioned as traps of a sort for possessing spirits. So, when the ghost of Ferran Martinez possessed one of them in order to save lives during an attack on Phlan he became the permanent resident of one.
The other is actually possessed by Ranthor, the wizard of Phlan. He is a PC and has been going by the name Vassel (hehe - Vassal, Vessel ...).
All of them are clones of Anton Cormaeril, paladin of Ilmater. "Brother Anton" being unconcious in book 1 and of some minor import in book 2. Made him one of the "good" Cormaerils out there. He accidentally got his dad arrested for fraud and the family sent him to a monastery in Vaasa to complete his schooling. He disappeared from the group only to show up later with iron golem arms, azure tattoos across his shoulder blades and something akin to a shield guardian piece attached to the inside and outside of his sternum. He attacked the party and the PCs took him down, but he managed not to die.
Bishop Braccio sent word to the only Cormaeril he knew, which happens to be a good aligned Cormaeril living in Sembia. Loving the story of his nephew, he came by ship and then traded in a favor he was owed by the Blackstaff. Khelben removed the broken shield guardian pieces - much to Anton's agony - and restored him to conciousness and then left. None of the PCs really figured out (or seemed worried about it at all) who he was.
In Ruins of Adventure, there's a ghost in the graveyard that gives out magic items to anyone who can kill his spectres. So, I named him the Master of Valhingen and connected a legend to him of the Master of Valhingen restoring a child to life long ago with that child being Cadorna's grandfather. Elminster impersonated the Master of Valhingen while discerning the dangers involved with a portal to the Fugue Plane that exists in the graveyard (I turned the "stairs that just keep going" into such a portal). He informed the PCs that if they took the body of the deceased to Fugue plane and matched it up with the spirit of the dead person, they'd come back out alive. An Erinyes helped them get all that together when they tried it to get two PCs back to life.
He showed up again when they sought to clear out the graveyard. He awarded them a possession of their ancestors. They were really straight forward items - like a dwarven thrower for the dwarf, i.e. stuff El could gather together without a lot of effort. Sort of a "Oh you're a wizard? You had an ancestor that was a wizard, too. Here is his staff - he'd want you to have it." He used this routine to whisk away one of the clones (to Suzail ... then Waterdeep) so he could observe it. He also used Vassel to make it appear to Vangerdahast that he was meeting with Cormaerils. From Suzail they went to the Waterdeep sewers where El showed him a vault that only a Cormaeril could enter (he was sort of wondering how good a clone this really was). There, Vassel was able to claim some magic items (he was starting at 5th with a greatsword, a spellbook and pants. The church had to give him gold to buy a full set of clothes). Of course, the vault was still guarded and Vassel actually ended up unconcious, at which point El went in, killed the guardian, and teleported them back to Phlan. He healed him and left him in an alley during a battle.
He shows up again the night before they intended to take our Tyranthraxus. They were camping in the safety (questionable) of Sokol Keep. El was aware that Kalahanan's flaming greatsword is actually a relic of elemental power and that the four runes on the circular piece of its hilt were keyed to different elements. El discovered the method for attuning the sword to other elements which was to summon a water element and hope that Kalahahan stuck it with the sword, which he did. Since Tyranthraxus would be ignoring fire damage, this gave the PCs a little more of an edge against him.
So, that's how I've used the big guys so far. Khelben doesn't overly care too much what happens here. El is interested, but doesn't want to make a show. If he pushes too hard, Bane's going to push back and that just gets people killed. |
| Rhewtani |
Posted - 24 Aug 2010 : 23:08:48
I think that answers
Why Hulburg?
Why Verdigris?
Why demons and not devils (or devils in the books and demons in the game)?
It will also set things into motion for Curse of the Azure Bonds eventually. I also imagine that while there, Fzoul will have used the well of knowledge for some purpose - unless the well, itself, is actually the pool.
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| Rhewtani |
Posted - 24 Aug 2010 : 23:04:38
So, I wrote up a full theory on how to make my little mini-campaign worked, and it got eaten. So, let's try this again.
In 1340 Tyranthraxus was able to activate the pool in Phlan and actually used it to get to Myth Drannor. This did two things: It alerted Bane to the presence of the pools being active and it also alerted him to Tyranthraxus' presence. It's all fine and good having your subjugated demipowers showing back up, but that's only if you can keep them in check.
So, he summons Marcus (who I can only assume knows Dracandros). He puts Marcus into the process of learning how the pools work. Marcus is told that once the cities are brought out of the prime material the people will recognize Bane's power and serve him. Once this is complete, Marcus will draw more and more cities into the web.
In 1347 Hulburg gets all but destroyed and Marcus is then able to slip in unnoticed and begin ritual to activate the pools open them and relocate them to another plane. This involves using artifacts as anchors and tying the magic through the pool across another plane, through another pool and to another artifact. After a short duration the pools contract around the cord and people are not able to pass through them.
The next link is to be Verdigris where there is a pool that Bane learned about through Eldamar (from Secret of the Silver Blades) the Dreadlord. "The artifacts are going to be vulnerable ...," Bane tells Marcus. He has Marcus summon the devil Tanetal, but something goes amiss and he accidentally summons Gothmenes the Balor.
Gothmenes interested in the artifacts, the pools, and the opportunity for chaos and such, appoints Kalistes, a Glabrezu and Thorne the Red Dragon to impersonate devils and a green dragon. This fools Marcus, but not Bane. Bane chooses not to tell Marcus, since he is ... well, he's Bane.
After Hulburg, Verdigris, Phlan, and Melvaunt are pulled into the ritual Bane sends Marcus to Tanetal in Phlan. The Glabrezu is to guard Verdigris, and Kalistes is to guard Hulburg, and Thorne is to guard Melvaunt. Now, Bane sends through a more trustworthy servant through to Verdigris to acquire something before the portals collapse. One of the original silver blades who faced Eldamar the first time wielded a magical longsword dedicated to Lathander that could be very useful later.
This is where things go a little wrong. Elminster, as he often does, notices things, and Fzoul Chembryl on a ship set for Hulburg is enough of an oddity that he tracks him through the pool. He sees him pass into an icy cave through the pool (Verdigris), but before he can follow, the nexus starts to tie off. He uses silver fire to hold it open and looks about at the other portals in hopes of a reasonably good idea.
He is already aware that adventures sought to stop Tyranthraxus ten years ago and he gave them some minor assistance. He knows that through some means a heavy amount of magic turned them all to mithral and extensive spell research would be needed to reverse that. He also knows that the wizard hired by Lord Valjevo is actually the lich Akempus from Northkeep using the portal to Phlan to get there.
He provides Akempus with the inspiration to use the pool as the needed energy source for the spell. He provides only partial information to him and makes sure that the ritual would not work without his involvement from the other side of the pool. After they're restored to mortal forms, he can summon the PCs through the portal to aid him.
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| Markustay |
Posted - 24 Aug 2010 : 21:22:54
That was pretty much it, what I said there - I just like to toss stuff out there for folks to use.
No reason why Aesperus couldn't have been Bane, is there? Perhaps he took on that name after receiving divine aid from core Bane, who set him on his path to destroy the seven lost Gods and usurp their power.
No name for that Kingdom/Empire, eh capnvan? Thought I saw it somewhere... I will have to look around. Seems reasonable that that was the first human nation in the region, the one that took sides with the 'Dark Alliance', who were later scattered and formed the various (evil) city-states around the Moonsea.
Hmmmm... Moonsea... Eldritch pools... Moonwells...
There's something there... just can't put it all together ATM. I have to say all these threads covering FR's ancient/primordial past have really gotten me to re-think quite a bit of what I had already, and I like where all of it is going.  |
| Jakk |
Posted - 24 Aug 2010 : 20:40:03
quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
Could it be that the mortal Bane was once a king (tyrant) of an early Moonsea empire?
He does indeed seem somewhat preoccupied with the region.
There was one such kingdom mentioned in the Swordmage novel by Richard Baker - I'd have to look it up at this point. Not sure if the ruined city 'beneath' Hulburg was its capitol though - seems more likely that Phlan was the seat of power, considering the activity surrounding the place.
It may have been the precursor to Zhentil keep - there is mention of the early human settlers of the Moonsea being part of the Ogre kingdom's 'Dark Alliance', and Bane is part of 'the Dark three'. Those ships with black sails mentioned sounds like something those three would be behind - I'm getting a very 'Haradim' vibe now from that empire.
Hmmmmm... a Human (half-Orc?) Bane as a tyrannical king, Myrkul as his 'high priest' (of Jergal, naturally), and Bhaal as his head of secret police (basically assasin/spies), a'la 'the Gestapo'.
I'm seeing some VERY cool possibilities here....
So... any further thoughts on this, Mark? I suspect Dalor Darden might prefer us to take this chat to PM, tho... but I'm very interested in your ideas here.  |
| Markustay |
Posted - 24 Aug 2010 : 20:30:50
quote:
Originally posted by Dalor Darden
Shhhhhooooooosh!
Your ruining my surprises man! 
Sorry 
It seems we think too much alike. |
| Rhewtani |
Posted - 24 Aug 2010 : 20:18:35
Oh. The Well of Knowledge is in Verdigris. That makes a reasonable target. Or, I guess, Eldamar could have/had something of value. |
| Dalor Darden |
Posted - 24 Aug 2010 : 18:10:15
quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
Could it be that the mortal Bane was once a king (tyrant) of an early Moonsea empire?
He does indeed seem somewhat preoccupied with the region.
There was one such kingdom mentioned in the Swordmage novel by Richard Baker - I'd have to look it up at this point. Not sure if the ruined city 'beneath' Hulburg was its capitol though - seems more likely that Phlan was the seat of power, considering the activity surrounding the place.
It may have been the precursor to Zhentil keep - there is mention of the early human settlers of the Moonsea being part of the Ogre kingdom's 'Dark Alliance', and Bane is part of 'the Dark three'. Those ships with black sails mentioned sounds like something those three would be behind - I'm getting a very 'Haradim' vibe now from that empire.
Hmmmmm... a Human (half-Orc?) Bane as a tyrannical king, Myrkul as his 'high priest' (of Jergal, naturally), and Bhaal as his head of secret police (basically assasin/spies), a'la 'the Gestapo'.
I'm seeing some VERY cool possibilities here....
Shhhhhooooooosh!
Your ruining my surprises man! |
| Markustay |
Posted - 24 Aug 2010 : 18:01:40
Could it be that the mortal Bane was once a king (tyrant) of an early Moonsea empire?
He does indeed seem somewhat preoccupied with the region.
There was one such kingdom mentioned in the Swordmage novel by Richard Baker - I'd have to look it up at this point. Not sure if the ruined city 'beneath' Hulburg was its capitol though - seems more likely that Phlan was the seat of power, considering the activity surrounding the place.
It may have been the precursor to Zhentil keep - there is mention of the early human settlers of the Moonsea being part of the Ogre kingdom's 'Dark Alliance', and Bane is part of 'the Dark three'. Those ships with black sails mentioned sounds like something those three would be behind - I'm getting a very 'Haradim' vibe now from that empire.
Hmmmmm... a Human (half-Orc?) Bane as a tyrannical king, Myrkul as his 'high priest' (of Jergal, naturally), and Bhaal as his head of secret police (basically assasin/spies), a'la 'the Gestapo'.
I'm seeing some VERY cool possibilities here.... |
| Rhewtani |
Posted - 24 Aug 2010 : 17:33:56
Ok, so is it only there? I did procure a copy of that map section and see it's not too far from the Citadel of the Ravens? Since the Silver Blades game seems to indicate there's a new Verdigris and an old one, I'm wondering if it, too, would be in ruins at this point.
Then ... we have an interesting issue.
Bane's obsessed with Phlan, but he's putting all this effort into stealing Phlan (not that big ...), Melvaunt (ok), and two barely there cities.
So, now, it's more likely that regardless of the cover story (he wants converts) he's actually after something different.
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| Dalor Darden |
Posted - 24 Aug 2010 : 16:51:03
quote:
Originally posted by Rhewtani
Anyone have a map with Verdigris on it? Or know if it's in any book?
IF you have DDI, you can find a map of the area in the Monument of the Ancients adventure. |
| Rhewtani |
Posted - 24 Aug 2010 : 16:38:29
Anyone have a map with Verdigris on it? Or know if it's in any book? |
| Rhewtani |
Posted - 24 Aug 2010 : 16:17:51
I guess so.
It's all a little bizarre to me. I'm looking for basic logic - not even good logic, but some sort for the whole situation. Supposedly, Bane is stealing cities and sort of force-converting them to become Banites. Assuming that such a thing is possible, Hulburg would make a pretty sucky choice, though.
But there - I'm thinking quantity not quality. Maybe there's a specific family in Hulburg that he wants. That would add some logic back into it.
Okay...
Kalistes the Marilith of some sort of Drow influence
and
A Glabrezu
Then ...
Hulburg
Verdigris / Thorne the Red Dragon) /
Melvaunt
Phlan / Tanetal (or Gothmenes) /
And I also need to work out the Rakhasas / Myth Drannor / Alusair angle. I also need to learn how to spell.
I'm taking the situation sort of backwards from the books in that the PCs will be starting within a city and not outside one that has been city-napped.
I think for the fun of it, each city should be on a different plane. Also the pool needs to be located somewhere within the city limits (or at least near the city) as the pool is part of what is being used as an anchor to hold the cities out of the Prime Material.
By necesity, the artifact being used to complete the anchor (i.e. an item and a pool are both necessary to keep the city from returning home) would thus be placed within a stronghold of some sort to keep it protected.
Meanwhile I've got the devil/demon issue. So, I do think I will have demons pretending to by devils as a side angle to it. Each returning to a demon-form after they are slain or perhaps using an item that creates the diguise. Ooh, that's tempting.
1) The items are still subject to getting disjoined by the pools.
2) The PCs could try to do a disguise trick on one of the bosses which would go interestingly amiss since we're dealing with demons who would try to betray each other.
3) If 1-2 of the rings survive going forward, they'd be pretty cool. Thorne's would just need to make him appear as a lawful evil dragon and more of less change his breath weapon. So his ring would turn a wizard who wore it into the visage of a walking green dragon and would turn all his fire spells into acid. That's almost a net-zero magic item.
Okay, first game is Friday. So, I'm rambling too much and need to work on my notes. |
| Dalor Darden |
Posted - 24 Aug 2010 : 01:22:14
quote:
Originally posted by capnvan
The 2E Moonsea supplement makes it clear that while Hulburg was essentially destroyed, it was hardly unpopulated. There were survivors of the sack still scratching out a living.
True, and there are nobles still living there as well...if you really want to call them that.  |
| Markustay |
Posted - 23 Aug 2010 : 20:34:01
If you follow Rich Baker's 4e novels, Hulburg is alive and well.
Backwards-engineering this you could 'Phlan-atize' Hulberg and have it make a come-back a mere 5 years later. Zhentil keep is a good precedent as well - it seems abandoning an attacked/destroyed settlement and quickly re-settling it is business-as-usual around the Moonsea. |
| Rhewtani |
Posted - 23 Aug 2010 : 20:21:26
Of course, since Hulburg was DESTROYED in 1347, I'm guessing I should replace it with Thentia. |
| Rhewtani |
Posted - 19 Aug 2010 : 19:28:14
Gotta love how wrong that is timeline wise. Well, I'm looking to start the campaign in a week. I'm thinking it'll play out like this.
In the first session there's book-keeping to account for after the pool of radiance turned all of them to mithral when Tyranthraxus sucked up its power. A wizard (actually the Lich that dwells in Northkeep) will have developed a spell to return them to sentience, but it required fueling from the recently re-activated pool of darkness.
There are a couple of exceptions, though. The wizard believes there is not enough power in the pool to restor Srossar the dragon to form on account of his size and the additional fear that he is still Tyranthraxus. Interaction with the pool will cause them to have manifested 1 very minor psionic power. All of their potions have dried to a fine magical dust (purpose yet to be determined). Any metal objects they have remain mithral after the spell.
Unknown to the all involved, however, the spell drawing on the pool will also draw a creature (likely a froghemoth) through which will attack. Between the various levelling bookkeeping and some NPC interaction this encounter will help flesh out the first game. This also helps them determine that the pool is, in fact, some form of portal. I also hope to demonstrate that passing through the pool causes some pain/damage. This needs to be there to prevent the average townsfolk from being able to use the pool to escape.
They will eventually be summoned by a telepathic message through the pool to one of the PCs by Elminster. He will, as in the game, be holding the portal nexus open. He will be able to explain that this has not only happened to Phlan and that several other cities are in the same situation. Some sort of magical item is being used as an anchor point to hold the cities on some other plane.
I guess what I haven't determined yet was PC access to the cities. I've got, basically, 4 bosses with 4 items. Taking the item back through a pool of darkness will collapse it and shunt the city back to its point of origin. Do I make it that each city's pool leads to a lair demiplane that then leads to the central hub? In this case, the PCs would have to travel through one lair-plane before they reach the nexus. However, then, when they go after other bosses there is not much of an issue on the cities themselves. Also, that way, if they get stuck in the lair quest they have 2 possible exits, not just back the way they came.
I dunno - thoughts?
If I switch the demons to devils, I'm dealing with a gelugon, a cornugon, and a pit fiend. Knocks down the CR on one of them, I guess. It could also be that they are demons masquerading as devils. I always like to give Bane some level of deniability, so after they defeat one "devil" and its revealed to be a demon, Bane could have Fzoul "I don't believe in human sacrifice" Chembryl send someone along to aid the party.
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| nordlys |
Posted - 19 Aug 2010 : 17:32:39
Actually, Tanetal in the book is pit fiend, not balor (it always made little sense to me that a supremely LE deity used tanar'ri agents in the game). Good luck trying to marry the book and the game, they have very little in common other than having Phlan pulled underground, featuring an evil wizard called Marcus (main villain in the book and a minor sidequest NPC in game) and an extraplanar called Tanetal (Marcus' pit fiend sidekick in the book, Gothmenes' glabrezu third-in-command in game).
Also, both Kalistes and Tanetal in game dwell in extraplanar realms. Kalistes' plane is accessible through the drow dungeons beneath Zhentil Keep IIRC, and Tanetal dwells inside the corpse of Moander floating in astral, accessible via Marcus' tower in northern Dales somewhere between ZK and Hillsfar, I think.
As far as levels/CR go, Pools is actually the 4th adventure in the computer series, whereas Curse is the 2nd. |
| Rhewtani |
Posted - 03 Aug 2010 : 18:36:01
So the red dragon goes with Verdigris. That's from the game walkthrough.
I need to figure out the Gothmenes/Tanetal issue. Seems Gothmenes is the balor in the game and Tanetal is the one in the book. |
| Dreyrugrulfr |
Posted - 29 Jul 2010 : 22:56:56
I too have strong memories of this, though more recently! We just knocked off Curse of the Azure Bonds a month ago, and I think the DM wants to run a heavily modified Pools of Darkness at some point, tying it in with the Time of Troubles. I like the ideas you've posted, Rhewtani, numbers 3 and 4 in particular both add structure to the campaign while leaving you alot of wiggle room for dropping in/sliding out things on the fly as needed. |
| Mournblade |
Posted - 29 Jul 2010 : 19:03:06
This to me is the most classic area of the Realms. My first adventure happened here because I played the GOLD BOX PoR. My first table top adventure in the realms was in Daggerford. |
| Rhewtani |
Posted - 29 Jul 2010 : 18:56:49
Yeah, in the conclusion last Monday, it was unclear to anyone if Cadorna was truly evil. |
| Iliphar1 |
Posted - 26 Jul 2010 : 23:05:04
funny that you play the old 2nd ed. Pool of Radiance as well. It happend to be my very first adventure in the Realms more than a decade ago and currently I am back in Phlan with my party again, this time with an Cardona heir trying to become a new dictator in Phlan. As a base of the adventure I used a play by Bert Brecht.
What struck me most, was the fact, that Cardonia was so well played, that my players seriously considered joining him, oblivious, that many of the threats, that troubles Phlan were Cardonias doing to rally more support for him. |
| Rhewtani |
Posted - 23 Jul 2010 : 18:11:35
Ed responded to my question about the Rakhasa in Myth Drannor (and what would actually make it at all plausible). She certainly, would not have been allowed to either go into Myth Drannor or hunt the creatures, officially, but if she was in the Dales, she might've found an excuse to sort of make something similar occur.
My baseline plan for the campaignlet is as follows:
1) PCs awaken in the starless sky that is now above Phlan. They have finally (after 10 years of spell research) been returned to mortal form, from the mithral statues they had been transformed into at the climax of their battle with Tyranthraxus at the Pool of Radiance. The key component to the transformation was the liquid of the pool that has once again sprung annew since Phlan was transferred into another plane. The pool now surges with a dark magical energy.
2) Phlan has been sacked by dark creatures (without Tarl and Shal) to aide in the defense of the town, it has fought valiantly but is not as inpregnable as it had been in the books. They will be witness to Tanetal or Gothmenes (is one the name in the book and the other the name in the game???) and hopefully be able to discern he is too powerful for them to face now.
3) Somehow they will be learn that the pool of darkness is a portal that will be able to take them to a nexus held together by Elminster. From there they will be able to venture into the other hubs of the network and collapse them. The hubs (cities) are held in place by their link to the pool of darkness and an artifact that has been connected to it through Bane's machinations. While defeating the guardian is preferable, simply bringing the item back through the pool of darkness should collapse it.
4) Travel through the pools is unstable. Damage to the magical energies of items carried through them as well as the magical energies that make up each mortal makes these pools a non-preferable means of travel. Magic items will face a disjoining effect and the PCs will taken damage when they pass through (thus creating a sort of filter to keep the townsfolk from leaving (That's the #1 suggestion one of my players makes when a crisis occurs. Upon arriving in Phlan for the first time, his firm position was "these people should just leave.")
5) There will be some means for the PCs to be dropped back onto the prime material plane. This will drop them into the sidetrek with the Alusair, and also provide them with a dilemna on how to return to the fight. My thought is for Vangerdahast to be their best way back in (once he hears about the situation from Alusair). I'm also thinking that El might be stealing energy from the mythal at Myth Drannor to hold the pools open (thus allowing Tyranthraxus to slip on into Myth Drannor in the meanwhile and begin preparing Curse of the Azure Bonds).
6) The artifacts will be more powerful within the hubs than after they pass through the pools (they'll be slightly overloaded by breaking the link) which will be an asset to the PCs if they can gain it before they face the guardian. I intend to have the PCs be no higher than 15th by the end, so they're going to need CR diminishing tricks to face CR 17+ guardians.
More to come... |
| Brix |
Posted - 09 Jul 2010 : 14:33:26
Take a look at the map provided in "Monument of the Ancients" |
| Rhewtani |
Posted - 07 Jul 2010 : 21:24:47
Ok, so four cities and four guardians. That works fair enough. I'm a little worried that Yulash wasn't one - as it is ruled by a council until 1355.
But, I'd need to allocate Verdigris, Melvaunt & Hulburg for ...
1 - ??? - Glabrezu CR 13
2 - ??? - Marilith CR 17
3 - ??? - Ancient Red Dragon CR 19
4 - Phlan - Gothmenes (Balor) CR 20 |
| Rhewtani |
Posted - 14 Apr 2010 : 22:44:38
So, the video game has Alusair fighting Rakhasa in Myth Drannor ... when she was 15? |
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