Starter Set Sandbox 12 - Phandalin & Wave Echo Cave (Updated 26Feb2017)

Realmslore

Until Lost Mine of Phandelver was published, all we basically has by way of information about Phandalin and Wave Echo Cave was this:

Phandalin was an important farming center located northeast of Leilon, where the Triboar Cutoff East fades into a trail. The road was abandoned after years of orc attacks obliterated every caravan that passed down the road, conquering Phandalin in the process. When the orcs were driven out, the village was left largely in ruins, and it remains so today.

Under the leadership of a chieftain called Uruth, the orcs expanded steadily, building a realm called Uruth Ukrypt (Home of Uruth). Its name echoes today in Kryptgarden Forest. Too lazy to support themselves by farming, the orcs devastated the game in their realm and subsequently took to raiding human holdings for food. Some 400 years have passed since then, during which time concerted human attacks decimated the orc kingdom and nearly drove the creatures from the area entirely.

No one lives here now but monsters, though passing hunters and rangers often camp in one of the more secure buildings. It still has three usable deep wells, one of which is considered to be heavily tainted with an undetectable poison that kills the imbiber three days after ingestion. Orcs and half-orcs are supposedly immune to the toxin.

The orc attacks forced gnomes and dwarves to abandon a mountain delve near Phandalin where they mined mithral in a union they called the Phandelver's Pact. This lost lode was called Wavecho Cave because the roll of waves beating on the shore could be heard in the natural cavern. Shortly before the
mine was abandoned, a lode of platinum was discovered. The size is unknown, but a very old dwarf who worked the mine remembers that the vein "held great promise".

Phandalin is the best preserved of the many ruined keeps and villages scattered along the Sword Coast, most of which are little more than heaped stones, graves, and cellars hidden by reed grasses and creeping vines. Many of these areas shelter predatory beasts or passing adventurers.

And that's pretty much it. (I am quoting from The North boxed set.)

Adapting Other Adventures
 
Red Hand of Doom
 
If you've been reading my other posts and my rough ideas for the Cragmaw tribe to be orcs seeking to rebuilt their lost realm of Uruth Ukrypt, you can imagine that a place like Phandalin, once reduced to a monster-filled ruin by the orcs of Uruth Ukrypt, would seem to the orcs as a logical target for the modern day depredations.

One of the few genuinely good adventures published by WotC in the 3.xE era was, of course, Red Hand of Doom. (And, unfortunately, its success led to WotC thinking that Tiamat was the "go to" BBEG for the next two editions with the execrable pseudo-adventure path Scales of War for 4E and now the Tyranny of Dragons RSE for 5E.)

And while the hobgoblins of Red Hand are very different in play to an orc horde, I think the structure of that adventure can help inform a mini-campaign based on a rising orc threat with Phandalin one of the targets on the way to, say, laying siege to Neverwinter.

I will be starting another Neverwinter-based campaign shortly and I expect the orcs to play an even bigger role in that campaign and Red Hand of Doom is definitely going to inform some of the design choices I make.

Of course, some Lost Mine of Phandelver DMs are probably looking at my idea to turn the Cragmaw tribe into orcs rather than goblins as something they don't want to do. In that case, Red Hand of Doom might be much more useable "as is" other than stat block conversions.

With a bit of work it might also be possible to tie it into the Tyranny of the Dragon storyline if that's something that interests you.

Anyway, I'll stick with the orcs and maybe have a balor general driving the horde forwards....

Keep on the Borderlands
 

One of the really interesting things about B2 Keep on the Borderlands, and particularly the Caves of Chaos, is that it makes nearly no sense. Why are all these evil humanoids, many of whom are fundamentally opposed to each other, dwelling in close proximity without some sort of civil war taking place?

For me, that's not just a rhetorical question. I want to know what is uniting them and keeping them at relative peace with one another.

But before I post some ideas about the answer, let me throw out a suggestion: What if Phandalin replaced the titular keep? And related to that is this: What if Phandalin became the party's home base to scout out rumours of evil humanoids in the Sword Mountains which ultimately lead to the Caves of Chaos from Keep on the Borderlands?

So, what is uniting the evil humanoids? In the final section of the Caves of Chaos - marked with the letter K on the original map - there is a series of chambers that includes THE TEMPLE OF EVIL CHAOS (room number 58). I think whatever unites these disparate evil humanoids is the power represented in this temple.

And here are some FR-appropriate options:

Bane: The Black Lord is the deity of tyranny. Since the Spellplague, he's also been the official deity of Thay because of a deal struck between him and Szass Tam. Maybe this is a Thayan temple to Bane where they perform various arcane and necromantic experiments while also moulding these evil humanoids into an army of conquest. (This probably makes the most sense and also fits in well with the presence of Thayans in the Neverwinter region.)

Cyric: The Prince of Lies is a creature of chaos, murder, and strife. He is also the patron deity of most of the Zhentarim (this is in the 4E era rather than the 5E era where the Zhentarim are now almost player-friendly!). I do like the idea of Zhentarim recruiters training disparate humanoids to perform raids on various caravans and settlements only for the Zhentarim to then turn up and offer protection money to drive the humanoids away.

Garagos: The Reaver the chaotic evil version of Tempus, and possibly Tempus's predecessor as the deity of war. And Garagos is not happy about being supplanted. What if he and his bloodreavers (his clerics) decided to mount a campaign to increase his influence once more? Gathering war-like humanoids could be part of that. I also note that Menzoberranzan: City of Intrigue referred to the tanarukka (tanar'ri-blooded orcs) of the Scourged Legion and that their leader was now a bloodreaver of Garagos. That's another option beyond the ideas I have previously posted about the Cragmaw orcs being directed by clerics of Luthic.

The Scourged Legion

Ghaunadaur: I admit, I like drow. I like really evil drow. I like the traditional Gygax-created pre-Drizzt drow. And as much as I like spider-flavoured drow, I also like the insane servitors of Ghaunadaur. (On that note, one of the best combats I ever ran in 3.5E involved a drider cleric of Ghaunadaur. It took five hours to run 15 rounds and, at the end, we all thought it had only been an hour-and-a-half. It was brilliant.) What about an outcast drider cleric of Ghaunadaur with his (or her) fellow drow heretics gradually building their strength to raid a drow outpost somewhere beneath the Sword Mountains?

Lolth: Ahhh, drow again. Some of you may be familiar with the idea of the Demon Weave (just click on the link for more information otherwise) so maybe these humanoids are being used by the Lolthite drow to gather various items and sacrifices as part of the preparation for the creation of the Demon Weave. It also ties in with the drow BBEG at the end of Lost Mine.

Shar: Shar used to be my favourite evil deity but the whole return of Netherese city of Shade and its Shadovar caused me to lost interest in her. However, it would make sense for a band of Netherese as part of an experiment to determine if these various humanoid tribes can be turned into effective troops.

Tiamat: Again I admit I don't like Tiamat but, if you want to use her, look at Red Hand of Doom for inspiration and make this one of her temples. Frankly, this could potentially tie in really well with the Hoard of the Dragon Queen and the whole Tyranny of the Dragons story. Unfortunately, it's not something I can get excited about....

Summing Up
 
Let's face it, for all of its faults, Keep on the Borderlands is a great starter adventure. Maybe you could use it as part of a Lost Mine of Phandelver-inspired campaign with multiple delves in between completing chapters of the adventure proper?

I must admit, I already have an introductory adventure planned for my next Neverwinter campaign but I am sorely tempted to move the action to Phandalin and kick off the campaign with an updated version of the Caves of Chaos....

Oh, and I have nothing to offer regarding Wave Echo Cave so I simply made it part of this post. Sorry.

26Feb17: About Wave Echo Cave...

When I first did this post, I must confess I didn't actually bother to read the Wave Echo Cave section of Lost Mine of Phandelver. Actually, I may have but clearly I paid no attention to it. That was a mistake because it clearly has potential for expansion and adaptation consistent with some of the other ideas I've posted in this series.

So, thanks, to +Ibskib and +Ben Green for prompting me to take a proper look at it.

The Forge of Spells

The key feature of this location is, of course, the Forge of Spells. While it is implied that it was once a rather potent feature, it has been emasculated to be more suitable for a level 1-5 adventure. I run 4E and use the 4E version of the Forgotten Realms in my games so let me throw around a few ideas from that perspective.

One thing I have failed to do in my 4E games, as my players keep avoiding rituals, is to include magical locations which could conceivably replace the component cost of using certain ritual magic. (3.xE's Midnight Campaign Setting has these sorts of locations and WotC experimented with a similar idea of planar touchstones - go to a place, get a special power - during the course of 3.5E and particularly in the Planar Handbook.)

If I was going to use the Forge of Spells I would have it be, for the purpose of the Enchant Magic Item ritual, the equivalent of the gp value of a level 5 item each day (arbitrary number) but its entire power could be exhausted to produce a level 10 item (another arbitrary number), even for an item crafter of a lower level. That gives the players to choose between a renewing resource or a single major item (and maybe it needs to be level 15 or higher to make it really tempting.) I'm not sure what the equivalent is with respect to magic item creation in 5E but perhaps a 5E fan can comment on that below.

Beyond its usefulness in item crafting, what if it is the remains of an older, purer form of magic?

During the 3E era, Dragon published an article about the computer game Neverwinter Nights and the writer created his take on the reptilian creator race (this has subsequently been replaced by the sarrukh introduced in 3.5E's Serpent Kingdoms). That article postulated that there was a type of magic that predated the Weave which I think it referred to as "old magic" (or "whole" magic) and that the creator races had access to this "old magic" which combined the Weave, the Shadow Weave, and some unknown power. What if the Forge of Spells is, similarly, a legacy of this "old magic"?

Also, <this post> about the Old Owl Well mentions the spell-storing gemstones known as chardalyns. What if the presence of the Forge of Spells has the side effect of seeding chardalyns through the Lost Mine and, indeed, the "stars" - the glittering minerals - in the ceiling of 13. Starry Cavern. What if the presence of the Forge of Spells has the side effect of seeding chardalyns through the Lost Mine and, indeed, the "stars" - the glittering minerals - in the ceiling of 13. Starry Cavern are actually chardalyns that the PCs can recover.

Antagonists

Obviously, Wave Echo Cave is completely useful as is but, if you think about expanding the importance of the Forge of Spells, you may also want to think about how that could change the inhabitants of the 'Cave.

Aboleth

As mentioned by +Ben Green in the comments below, the presence of a dark lake linked to the Underdark (area 16) immediately suggests that an aboleth is present.

So, what would an aboleth want with the Forge of Spells?

SPOILERS FOR NIGHT BELOW. A rough synopsis of the classic 2E boxed set adventure Night Below goes like this: Aboleth-controlled orcs are raiding the countryside and capturing spellcasters. Those spellcasters are being sent into the Underdark where they become the raw material (I forget how - I will need to read it again) for the creation of mind-controlling obelisks which the aboleth will raise around the region to bring the region under the thrall of the aboleth in their city below.

Oh yeah.

Imagine that. With a few changes to LMoP, including making orcs more important and having them capturing spellcasters, you're now looking into a much larger and longer campaign that ends up in the Underdark.

So what purpose does the Forge of Spells serve? In such a scenario, the enslaved spellcasters are brought to Wave Echo Cave and rituals are performed using the Forge of Spells in order to create the mind-controlling obelisks. And once the threat is ended in Wave Echo Cave, the PCs are tasked with exploring the dark lake and travelling further underground to seek out and destroy the real threats.

And you get to run Night Below. Ask Matt Colville; that's a good thing!

Beholders

I admit, I have beholders on the brain. My favourite bad guys in FR are the Zhentarim and the Zhentarim are not the same without beholders behind the scenes. I think I have already mentioned a few times in this series how I used the Zhentarim when I ran my own version of this adventure.

But the main reason the Forge of Spells makes me think of beholders is because the beholder section of 3.5E's excellent Lords of Madness suggests that beholders derive nourishment by exposing magic items to their central eye's anti-magic gaze. I can only imagine how satisfying something like the Forge of Spells might be by comparison!

So, if your version of LMoP Expanded has the Zhentarim playing a key role, perhaps their beholder masters have them searching for this location because it would increase the potency of the beholder hive to the point where they could produce more beholders.

Drow

In the 4E era, WotC made a half-assed attempt with the Rise of the Underdark metaplot/megaplot to tell a big story about how Lolth was going to create her own version of the Weave called the Demon Weave. (I actually like the idea but its execution was, unsurprisingly, botched.) If you look for the Demon Weave tag on this blog, you will be able to find out more about the whole scheme or you can read a short version in the excellent Menzoberranzan: City of Intrigue.

If you go this route, the subsequent investigations of the drow plot could lead the PCs into a slightly different version of Out of the Abyss allowing the campaign to continue to level 20 or so with only a few changes to the story.

That's Enough For Now...

This has been very much a first draft based on a 15-minute reading of part of a product I haven't looked at for 2+ years. But even with no real research, it's plain that this can easily be expanded into a much larger campaign and even segue into either Night Below or Out of the Abyss. Of course, committing to such a choice also means making a few changes to LMoP to help tie everything together but, if you've run LMoP before, you're probably ready for a few small changes to keep things fresh and interesting for you as the DM.

Starter Set Sandbox 9 - The Crags

Realmslore
 
The North
 
This is all that is said in the boxed set:

Beset with goblins and gnolls, these hills contain the dead mines that brought men to the area.

(I would note that "goblins" also included orcs at that time.)

Neverwinter Campaign Setting
 
The Crags are introduced as follows:

This long wrinkle of hills and ridges runs northeast from Neverwinter Wood. Goblins, gnolls, ogres, hill giants, and other creatures have dwelled within this rocky landscape for centuries. So too has the Sky Pony tribe of the Uthgardt barbarians. Rumours have long persisted that an entrance to Gauntlgrym lies somewhere in the Crags. However, the hundreds of ancient and now-dead mines that long ago brought humans to the area make for numerous false leads.

They are later described as:

Lacing through Neverwinter Wood, like a stitch holding together the earth's skin, are the Crags. This series of hills and steppes grows into a small mountain range, terminating in the awesome Mount Hotenow. But Mount Hotenow isn't the Crags' only claim to fame. Myths claim that the range's many caves, chasms, and canyons hide paths to the lost dwarven city of Gauntlgrym. Whether the paths exist or not, the mountains do house the ruins of several of that ancient dwarven city's outposts - as well as their treasures - and the monsters that overran those sites.

And then there is Morgur's Mound which is in the southern part of the Crags and appears on the regional map that came with the Neverwinter Campaign Setting:

Atop this foothill of the Crags, Uthgar - deity and founder of the Uthgardt barbarians - died after saving the North from Gurt, Lord of the Pale Giants. The mound is named for Uthgar's brother Morgur (called Morgred by some), who is said to be buried there. Once, the bones of a great thunderbeast were spread atop the hill, marking it as the holy shrine of the Uthgardt. Now, the bones are gone and whatever treasures lay buried there have been stolen. Outsiders who are discovered by Uthgardt barbarians near the mound are typically slain on sight.

The thunderbeast is actually an apatosaurus. The North also notes that, in times of great need, the shamans of the Thunderbeast Tribe can animate the bones to fight.

Putting It All Together
 
Short Version

Orcs. More orcs. And even more orcs.

In previous posts I have mentioned about the gathering of an orc horde. The Crags is a key place for such an event because it is populated with orcs. I would also note that the ritual enemy of the Sky Pony tribe of the Uthgardt is the orc.

As is also the case in many other places across the North, lots of played-out mines and dwarven ruins can be found here.

At least one entrance to the lost dwarven city of Gauntlgrym is purported to be in The Crags. That also suggests encounters with dwarves (and others) searching for the lost city, as well as some of the monsters from the upper levels of the Underdark such as dire corbies, grimlocks, hook horrors, etc....

Long Version
 
But what I find most interesting of all is Morgur's Mound, particularly now that the bones of the thunderbeast (aka apatosaurus) have been stolen. Some time ago, I read an idea online suggesting that the purpose of the ancestor mounds of the Uthgardt was to seal away some great threat or threats. This makes even more sense in the context of 4E where the primal powers were responsible for sealing away the primordials... and that made me wonder what would be the consequences of the Bones of the Thunderbeast being taken from Morgur's Mound?

Firstly, why were the Bones taken?
 
IMC (and this is based on some ideas in the Neverwinter Campaign Setting and the outstanding DDi adventure Shards of Selûne), the Red Wizards of Thay stole the bones originally because they were losing their fight with the Netherese in the Neverwinter Wood who were using the Grey Wolf tribe of the Uthgardt - all of whom are werewolves - as potent shock troops. The Red Wizards retaliated with ritual magic combining the corrupting power of the Dread Ring with the (now corrupted) primal power of the Bones of the Thunderbeast. The net result: the Grey Wolves turned on their erstwhile masters and the Netherese were massacred.

Again IMC, the PCs will soon be embarking on a mission to recover and restore the Bones of the Thunderbeast so I will edit in links to those session reports once they have happened.

Secondly, what has escaped or is in the process of escaping?
 

My original idea was to have some primordial creature of cold be freed and unleash an unnatural winter - a Fimbulwinter, if you will - across The North. That's still a possibility and could potentially work well when combined with Icespire Peak.

The next idea I had - inspired by this picture of the tarrasque's claw - was to have the tarrasque be one of the creatures imprisoned by the ancestor mounds. And while the PCs would definitely not be capable of fighting the tarrasque itself, I had worked out a level-appropriate(-ish) encounter involving just the claw of the tarrasque being awakened by a ritual being performed by some Thayans. The consequence of the PCs' failure would have been the release of the tarrasque to rampage across The North.

However, the final version is more simple, for now. I decided to have Gurt, Lord of the Pale Giants return as an undead frost giant. Of course, his honour of frost giant wights would also have been released. As of now, this is what the PCs will be facing when they eventually reach Morgur's Mound.

One of my ulterior motives for this encounters - beyond revealing some of the history of the Uthgardt - was because I wanted one of my PCs who fights with a fullblade to end up with the Sword of Gurt which I had decided was a frost brand fullblade +3. This was just in case the PCs ended up fighting the fire giant/fire titan Gommoth in Mount Hotenow.

Other Ideas
 
B2 Keep on the Borderlands: The Caves of Chaos would fit perfectly in The Crags but there is nearby settlement on the map to serve as a safe haven as per the titular keep. However, if you look at the map of the Sword Coast that came with Hoard of the Dragon Queen, Luskan (for evil PCs or PCs who really enjoy danger), Mirabar, or Longsaddle could fulfil a similar role. Otherwise, my forthcoming Phandalin post has some ideas to make the Caves of Chaos more Realmsian.

CM8 The Endless Stair: This is a non-FR adventure written by Ed Greenwood apparently as a test by TSR to see if he could deliver a product on time and on spec. I rather like the idea of a staircase in the middle of nowhere with nothing apparently holding it in place but which, nevertheless, spirals upwards with no apparent destination. Of course, at the top of the staircase is an invisible door or portal which then leads to a dungeon or dungeon-like complex. I'm not 100% sure this is even the plot of this adventure or just an idea inspired by the cover art and the title. Also, if you have access to the adventure, I strongly recommend stealing the NPC names for your FR games. (And if you know R A Salvatore, suggest that he do the same for his novels.)

G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief: It's very simple, The Crags are hills and hill giants live in hills. This adventure makes perfect sense here.

Grimmantle Keep: This small site-based adventure from the outstanding Lost Empires of Faerûn is actually set in The Crags. For those who don't have acess to Lost Empire, the FR Wikia has some pertinent information and all you really need is a ruined keep plus a death knight - Gaucelm Gonfrey - and its servitors which can be anything from bandits to undead.

S4 Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth: While the original is set in a mountainous area of Greyhawk, other than the riddle - which I would personally drop - there is nothing stopping a DM from setting this adventure in The Crags. The backstory would need a bit of work to make it more Realmsian - perhaps tie it in to ancient Netheril which means there might also be Shadovar competing with the PCs to uncover the site's secrets - and the sheer randomness of some of the encounters could probably do with some work, but the basic idea of a strange site with extraplanar links and a difficult-to-access vault at the centre of the lower level doesn't grow old. Similarly, the wilderness encounters adapt well to The Crags with only a little bit of adjustment required.

Summing Up
 
The Crags is a great place for fights with "normal" evil humanoids and giants but I think doing something with Morgur's Mound - particularly the idea of "re-sealing" it before something really bad escapes - could be something your players remember for a while.

Because one of my PCs is an Uthgardt, he is going to be able to command the Bones of the Thunderbeast and that means the PCs will be riding, as it were, in the thunderbeast's ribcage from where they recover the bones to Morgur's Mound. I know they're going to remember that!

All of that said, The Crags is at the edge of the map and getting there will take time and effort. I can imagine a lot of groups will simply ignore it and focus on nearer and more accessible locations. That would have been the case with my group but they have accepted the Bones of the Thunderbeast quest and now they have no choice....

Starter Set Sandbox 7 - Sword Mountains

The Short Version

It seems the first time anything about the Sword Mountains was published was in 1996's The North boxed set. I had thought it would have been mentioned in either FR5 The Savage Frontier or Volo's Guide to the North but it seems I am wrong.

The boxed set notes that "orcs, bugbears, kobolds, leucrotta, and other dangerous creatures" can be found here which provides a rather nice simple monster roster. (Personally, I think leucrotta are one of the most criminally underutilised creatures in D&D, something I am presently trying to rectify in my own game.)

To that list, I would definitely add perytons - also horribly underutilised, IMO - and gargoyles for flying threats particularly if the PCs are climbing, together with ogres and hill giants (it's also a perfect location for a conversion of G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief).

It's also tempting to simply steal the wilderness portions of S4 Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth and WG4 Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun with very little modification other than stat conversions. Similarly, 3E's Forge of Fury would also fit right in as a former outpost of Delzoun.

Frankly, I think those basic ideas are enough for most DMs to spin the Sword Mountains into a fairly interesting sandbox.

The Long/Longer Version

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I actually prefer the idea of the Cragmaw tribe being orcs rather than goblins. Part of this is because I cannot think of a reason a tribe of goblins would name themselves Cragmaw (I mean, I can, but it doesn't really resonate) whereas it makes perfect sense for orcs.

What I am thinking of specifically, is that this is a tribe that, while not matriarchal, is heavily dependent for direction on the auguries and manipulations on a group of female orc clerics of Luthic the Cave Mother. Originally from The Crags where they frequently clash with the Uthgardt barbarians, the Cragmaws are actually an offshoot of the fallen orc kingdom of Uruth Ukrypt. Their clerics of Luthic - cave witches, for lack of a better term - have been receiving signs and portents from the Cave Mother that it is time for Uruth Ukrypt to be reborn and for a new orc horde to strike at the North. However, before the horde can be formed, certain relics of Uruth Ukrypt - I have previously mentioned the Bloodbone Throne of Uruth Ukrypt - need to be found. And that is why, for example, there are orcs at Wyvern Tor.

Anyway, this search for relics leads to at least two published adventures.

Sons of Gruumsh

At its heart, Sons of Gruumsh is a site-based adventure involving the PCs delving an ancient orc fortress at the same time as a band of orcs - the titular Sons of Gruumsh - are also exploring the same location. Conveniently in the context of my idea of a quest for relics of Uruth Ukrypt, the Sons of Gruumsh are also looking for an ancient orc relics.

The orcs who are present are even attempting a ritual to invest their leader with more power. Stopping that ritual being performed can be a key part of the adventure.

I also like the complication that an Zhentarim ambassador is present seeking to form some sort of alliance with the orcs. While that would work perfectly in my own game, for those DMs reading this and running the 5E version of the Realms where the Zhentarim are not heroic but they are a player-friendly faction, this probably wouldn't work but some Red Wizards of Thay or even the Cult of the Dragon could fill a similar role.

Orcs of Stonefang Pass

While 4E is rightly derided for having some of the worst published adventures of any edition - if you see Mike Mearls, Bruce Cordell, or Bill Slavicsek given design credits then assume it is complete and utter garbage - the later adventures were actually rather good. And although Orcs of Stonefang Pass is often considered the weakest of the later adventures, I think it has a tremendous amount of potential... particularly in the context of the Cragmaw orcs.

Before I give some ideas about how to use it, I just want to mentioned the dungeon of Southkrypt first mentioned almost in passing in FR1 Waterdeep & The North. FR5 The Savage Frontier then had this to say about this dungeon:

This abandoned dwarf-hold east of Leilon is the lair of many strange and dangerous creatures. Adventurers probing the upper levels have encountered norkers and bands of ravening gibberlings. Deeper forays have uncovered xaren, vilstrak, vargouilles and storopers.... In addition to the creatures mentioned, the lower halls of Southkrypt are lair to a vampire hill giant shaman (6th level) and his three vampire hill giant slaves.

What is remarkably consistent about this group of creatures is that they are, in later edition terms, all tied to the element of earth. FR11 Dwarves Deep further explained that Southkrypt was part of the ancient fallen dwarven kingdom of Haunghdannar which was notable for being the only dwarven kingdom that took to the sea and that the sea subsequently drove those dwarves mad. To me, that sounds like Haunghdannar was touched by the power of elemental or primordial chaos, and that is very much the tack I have taken in my Neverwinter campaign where the PC dwarf actually discovered his Haunghdannar heritage and tapped into some of their elemental magic.

It's also interesting how these basic ideas from 1E products take on new life when you look at the ideas through some of the 4E concepts such as the Elemental Chaos etc....

So, assuming that, consistent with the various hints, Southkrypt is touched by the power of elemental earth, having it substitute for the dungeon described in Orcs of Stonefang Pass makes perfect sense. To summarise that adventure for those not familiar with it, Stonefang Pass is a dwarven dungeon that is a prison for an earth titan (basically a larger - possibly dumber - hill giant that is very close to an earth elemental in appearance). So, what if the cave witches of the Cragmaw orcs have determined that freeing the earth titan under their control - let's assume they can perform a ritual to bind its will - is an important part of their plan to restore Uruth Ukrypt? The earth titan can, of course, wreak havoc on a battlefield but its command of elemental earth means it's a fantastic way of delving beneath the earth to uncover more of the secrets of that ancient orc kingdom.

If you're wondering where to put Southkrypt, I think somewhere around the letter T in Sword Mountains on the regional map makes sense. And for more on the hill giant vampire, he is covered in the Children of the Night article in Dragon 236 (although I don't think I would personally use that idea).

Iniarv's Tower aka The Tomb of Horrors

This idea is completely unrelated to orcs or anything else I have mentioned to date.

Iniarv's Tower is noted as being on the western slopes of the Sword Mountains and east of the High Road and Mere of Dead Men. On the regional hex map, I would put it in the bottom row of hexes immediately to the right of the High Road.

Iniarv is noted in The North boxed set and elsewhere as being a demilich. He was also revealed in the Eye of Myrkul adventure in Dungeon 73 ( where his tower is actually mapped) as being the reason that the Mere of Dead Men exists.

That background information aside, beneath his tower seems to be a good place to insert the Tomb of Horrors with Iniarv replacing Acererak. And there is no better way to wipe out a group of PCs, especially for those DMs who are itching, inexplicably, to have their groups start again with Hoard of the Dragon Queen. (Sorry, that's my anti-Tiamat bias showing. People often complain that drow are done to death... but Tiamat, for me, is the one who has had the most over-exposure.)

Summing Up

As I have been working through these posts, it's clear that I am focussing on an orc threat to the region depicted on the map which ties in nicely with the presence of the orcs in Neverwinter. Red Hand of Doom had its goblins but I cannot think of a campaign where orcs really served as major antagonists. Tiamat has been done to death across multiple editions so maybe it's time to steal a basic idea from Lord of the Rings and have the orcs on the march?

Icewind Dale: Legacy of the Crystal Shard 0 - Introduction

I have been preparing a second 4E heroic tier campaign based in Neverwinter but, aside from the opening adventure which I am really happy with, it just wasn't feeling like the sort of campaign I could use to introduce new players to tabletop RPGs, D&D4E, and the Realms.

One of the great things about a game set in Neverwinter is that the MMO that was released last year seems to be really well-supported and that means there are lots of screenshots and YouTube videos I can use to show the players what their characters are experiencing.

Old school DMs are probably wondering why I don't just describe things but, the simple fact is, I use English and that these prospective players' second language. If a picture is worth a thousand words normally, I think when you are cutting across language and cultural barriers then you can safely add one or more digits to that number.

However, something else occurred to me today: I bought The Crystal Shard as a graphic novel. 

But, before I talk about that, I thought I might address the question...

... Does the 4E Version of the Forgotten Realms Really Suck?

Mike Mearls recently announced in his patented damn-I-really-shouldn't-be-allow-to-make-public-statements-about-D&D-style that first came to our attention during the 5E playtest period (with Rodney Thompson riding to the rescue in almost every instance to actually explain what was really happening) that there were no plans for a 5E version of a campaign setting for the Forgotten Realms.

He then tried to clarify that statement by suggesting that the information might trickle out in other ways and also that maybe something might be coming but they all need a holiday first. Whatever the message was meant to be, it was garbled in a particularly Mearlsian way.

So, without a 5E version of the Realms beyond what is hinted at in the PHB and the adventures, what is a 5E DM who likes the Realms supposed to do? 

As someone who actively likes the 4E Realms I would suggest that the first question to ask is this: Does the 4E version of the Forgotten Realms really suck?

For Candlekeepers whose D&D-playing days are in the halcyon past, I can accept that it does. For RAS fans who think the Salvatorean vision of the Realms is pure and correct, I can accept that. But for DMs who are actually running games and want a familiar world to set those games in, I think the 4E version of FR is worth another look.

This probably deserves a post of its own but I just want to point to three games set in the 4E version of FR and posted on the RPG.net forums involving a mini-campaign set in Icewind Dale:

• Ice Station Zhentarim
• The Scrimshaw Redemption - DM's Thread
• The Scrimshaw Redemption - Player's Thread
• The Winter Soul Jar (this is incomplete but there are podcasts covering the remaining sessions of play)

I think reading those threads and looking at how the DM Acrozatarim mixed old and new Realmslore together should convince a lot of DMs that maybe the 4E version of FR is worth a second look.

Oh, and that's all a very long way of saying: this campaign is going to draw on a number of ideas that appear in Acrozatarim's games. And it's not plagiarism is you credit your source material. :)

The Crystal Shard

I have noted before on this blog and elsewhere that I am not a fan of R A Salvatore's books... except for The Crystal Shard.

There's a lot to love about The Crystal Shard, particularly the titular artefact itself. Crenshinibon itself is one of those artefacts that simply makes a DM's job easier. Forget how powerful it is: an artefact that drains power from the sun and creates a network of towers linked by portals is the sort of thing that inspires a campaign arc that almost writes itself. I must admit, running a campaign involving Crenshinibon - forget whether or not RAS's canon has destroyed it - remains on my gaming bucket list.

I must also admit, I like the basic set-up of Icewind Dale. It's remote. It's cold. It has an economy that largely makes sense. It's got a nice mix of normal creatures (crag cats, wolves), normal monsters (ogres, yeti), and plenty of room for dragons, remorhazes and similar magical beasts.


Sure, it has the horrible Salvatorean names but they are far less worse than those that appear in his later novels.

Legacy of the Crystal Shard

While I have no interest in 5E or the 5E Realms, per se, I am always interested in anything Realms-related that I can steal for my games. When WotC announced that The Sundering RSE was going to be played out in a series of five adventures (subsequently reduced to four), I was not confident that they were going to be anything but complete and utter duds.

WotC has rightly had a reputation for producing some of the worst adventures in the RPG world, in large part because 4E was launched with the edition-killing Keep on the Shadowfell and the even worse Pyramid of Shadow.

Further, the last time a major FR RSE was directly played out in the form of adventures was the Time of Troubles when the trilogy of Shadowdale, Tantras, and Waterdeep were published to show that PCs could play the part of bystanders and, um, enjoy it.

Fortunately, WotC did not screw the proverbial pooch with The Sundering adventures. In the first instance, you could almost say that they have nothing to do with The Sundering other than the logo appearing on their covers. Actually, that really is about it. 

Secondly, they're all quite good adventures but, IMO, Legacy of the Crystal Shard is the pick of the bunch.

My plan with this campaign is to use much of Legacy as the basic framework but also to include a few more direct nods to The Crystal Shard - primarily in the form of the presence of the balor Errtu - as well as chunks stolen from Acrozatarim's excellent session reports that I have linked to above. And then I plan to segue into the Demon Weave storyline from the Rise of the Underdark event. It just seems a shame to be so close to Menzoberranzan and then simply ignore the drow....

Some Background Thoughts

The Good Guys

Here Comes the Sun

I am thinking that the primary protagonist among the PCs is a cleric (or invoker) of Amaunator. While this idea is shamelessly inspired by a PC in Ice Station Zhentarim, it makes a lot of sense in the context of the campaign.

I had a lot of success a dozen or so years ago running a Netherese-era ruined monastery of Amaunator as a dungeon adventure in the mountains of the Silver Marches. It was one of the best dungeons I have ever run with a near-perfect mix of interaction, combat, and exploration and I still have my notes. It would work perfectly in Icewind Dale and I also love the basic idea of a cleric of the deity of the sun coming to a place that is so cold and trying to spread warmth.

Hopefully one of the players will jump at a chance to play such a character.

On the Run

Various source material makes reference to the fact that Icewind Dale is the sort of place that people who are running away from their past are likely to go: it's far enough away that their pasts are unlikely to catch up with them there.

And, as I am beginning the campaign in that wretched hive of scum and villainy called Luskan, I have a likely and logical origin point for such characters.

I have a few race and class combinations in mind already: half-orc slayer, changeling rogue, halfling thief, and even a pixie enchanter that is held prisoner in a cold iron birdcage by some crime lord who likes the light the tiny fey produces. (The pixie is also on the run from his royal obligations in the Feywild. It's a bit of an odd character idea for my games but it's the sort of thing that might appeal to my new players.)

The Bad Guys

In view of the banner I have created for this campaign, I am basically required to have this Chosen of Auril from Legacy of the Crystal Shard as a fairly important BBEG. And, to begin with at least, the Chosen of Auril has control, more or less, of the balor Errtu.

Beyond her, I definitely want to have orcs as the most common humanoid foe, as well as frost giants. One of the major set-piece adventures I want to run in this campaign is a 4E version of G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl, probably as the capstone of the Heroic Tier. (I have noted elsewhere before on this blog that I reduce the levels of monsters in my 4E games to match their 1E hit dice. As a result, my frost giants are level 10 brutes so they are eminently suitable for an end of Heroic Tier adventure.)

And, finally, the drow are going to be involved.

A Very Rough Synopsis

Luskan

The Accursed Tower is one of my favourite 2E adventures for the clever way it turns a castle into a dungeon and also for the wilderness adventure - the journey between Luskan and Icewind Dale - that precedes the dungeon crawl (and see the next section for the wilderness adventure).

Rather than simply handwaving away the start of the journey in Luskan, I thought I would use the time the PCs spend in Luskan as an opportunity to run three or so encounters so that the players can learn how combat, skills, and other facets of the game work... and maybe to emphasis to some of the players why their characters who have Luskan in their background are so desperate to leave.

I suppose it's more typical to introduce new players to D&D with a dungeon but, frankly, I prefer non-dungeon adventures in the main. That said, Luskan includes a lot of ruins, old sewers, and decrepit cemeteries so there are still opportunities to put together some small dungeon-like adventures.

I imagine I will probably begin with a press gang encounter so that the PCs can fight a group that is fairly normal and I am not yet sure where to proceed from there. I will cover that in a later post.

Into the North

Starting in Luskan is really just an excuse to justify this next part of the campaign. I have already noted that this is inspired by the journey in the The Accursed Tower adventure and I suspect I will steal several of the encounters directly from there.

One of the other things I like about running this journey as an adventure is that it allows the players to experience the mechanical changes that go along with the increasingly colder weather which is going to be good experience for the balance of the campaign in Icewind Dale when the mechnical impact of weather is going to be an important part of the game.

I have also done a little bit of research about the locations en route. FR1 Waterdeep & The North reveals this about the Iceflow River:

This, chilling, fast-rushing river thunders down out of the icy interior of the northern arm of the Sword Coast. It is not navigable by any normal means. Its waters are just above freezing, and travel at terrifying speed down through a great ice gorge.

In spring and high summer, great slabs of ice break off the gorge walls and fall into the waters, shattering with the force of a triple-strength ice storm as they spray the vicinity with boulders of broken ice. These chunks of ice are then swept down the gorge and out to sea, to drift south amid the great icebergs from the Sea of Moving Ice.

Remorhaz are known to lair in the vicinity, and great horrors known as “ice spiders” or snow spiders have also been encountered here. Human prospectors who made it back found no rich ores in what they could reach of the walls, but there are persistent rumours of ancient ruins and buried riches in secret places in the gorge.

I really want to do this description justice and make sure that whatever happens during the course of crossing of the Iceflow River is a major set-piece battle ideally including combat on fast-moving floating slabs of ice.

Also, in the course of passing through the Spine of the World and entering Icewind Dale itself, I am thinking that an encounter with a level-appropriate white dragon would be ideal. Story-wise, this dragon will have been menacing trade and so, if the PCs turn up in Brym Shander with evidence of slaying the dragon, they may begin their time in Icewind Dale as heroes and celebrated dragon-slayers!
 

Into the Sandbox

I really want Icewind Dale itself to feel very much like a sandbox.

The basic plot will revolve around black ice (this is the magical residue of the collapsed towers created by Crenshinibon mixed with normal ice and forms a key part of the published Legacy of the Crystal Shard adventure) and how it can be used to power certain rituals.

My initial thoughts are that the Chosen of Auril is behind this but the ritual itself is being performed by the frost giants. Because of its connection to the Crystal Shard, black ice has a powerful effect on the balor Errtu and the Chosen of Auril (she has no name yet as I am still mulling over some backstory for her) has used black ice to fuel the summoning and binding of the balor.

She has forced the balor to unite bands of orc renegades from the Kingdom of Many-Arrows to gather black ice and generally make a nuisance of themselves across the Dale. They also deliver the black ice to the frost giants (probably on Reghed Glacier) where they perform a grand ritual to unleash a Fimbulwinter firstly across Icewind Dale and then across all of Faerûn.

Unfortunately for the Chosen of Auril, her bindings don't negate the control that Lolth has over the balor and Errtu has been corrupting the Fimbulwinter ritual so that it actually serves to help create the Demon Weave. And that becomes the logical segue into the presence of the drow and a possible Paragon Tier mini-campaign that concludes in Menzoberranzan.

TL;DR: Black ice is being used to fuel a ritual to create eternal winter. Uncover the plot. Stop the ritual. Slay the giants in the glacial rift. Defeat the Chosen of Auril. Oh no, what are the drow doing here?

Silver Marches Sandbox 3 - Keep on the Borderlands

My previous post suggested ways B1 In Search of the Unknown, after which this campaign is named, could be incorporated in a sandbox set in the Silver Marches. And what follows B1 In Search of the Unknown? Why, B2 Keep on the Borderlands, of course.

I find that B2 Keep on the Borderlands, particularly the main adventuring site, the Caves of Chaos, seems to try and sneak its way into every campaign that I write. There's something about a valley filled with evil humanoid tribes that are both allied and at odds with one another that seems to be so eminently portable and, of course, game-able.

Considering how much of the real estate, as it were, of the Silver Marches is covered in hills and mountains, and also how many tribes of orcs and other humanoids are identified in 3E's Silver Marches, placing the Caves of Chaos is a really simple endeavour. What is more of a challenge, however, is finding a suitable location for the titular keep.

Mike Schley's outstanding map of the Silver Marches is really large and my plans for this campaign involve narrowing my focus to a 100 mile radius circle centred on Silverymoon. You can see some of that - and a lot more - on the following extract from the main map:

Some 60 miles east northeast of Silverymoon is Hawks's Nest, a location that is barely detailed in FR Realmslore. All that I can find boils down to it being a small watchtower at the top of Silverymoon Pass from where a dozen or so Knights in Silver protect the pass during the months when it is used by travellers.

 

However, that description dates back a century or so as it comes from 3E's Silver Marches. I think the idea that Hawk's Nest has been expanded into a larger keep from where scouts are sent out to monitor the Ripped Gut and other orc tribes to ensure that they're not whelming into a horde that could threaten Silverymoon makes a lot of sense. And, who knows?, perhaps other more secret threats from, say, the Underdark have arisen in the years since the Spellplague necessitating an expanded presence of Silverymoon's defenders at this key point in the Silverymoon Pass.

So that's the titular keep taken care of from a background perspective. Now for the Caves of Chaos:

This picture is from a WotC book (I think 3.5E's Dungeonmaster's Guide II) and is supposed to depict the Caves of Chaos from B2 Keep on the Borderlands... but it doesn't really match the map in that adventure. Nevertheless, it's an interesting take on the Caves of Chaos and one that could inspire a rather interesting adaptation.

The original Caves of Chaos included multiple humanoid tribes - from memory: gnolls, goblins, hobgoblins, kobolds and orcs plus a solo ogre and a solo minotaur - with no hint as to how they might successfully co-exist in such proximity to each other. The closest we have to a hint is the presence of mysterious shrine of or to "evil chaos" and that's something I would like to give some thought to because I think the Caves of Chaos work best when you first decide what has caused such disparate races to co-exist relatively peacefully.

In my previous post, I posited the presence of a group of Netherese in a dungeon adapted from the one in the B1 In Search of the Unknown adventure and I am going to again run with this idea at the risk of creating a plot for this campaign rather than a simple sandbox.

And here's the basic idea: what if the Netherese are using some relic of evil - some of the 1E artefacts such as the Regalia of Evil might provide inspiration - to draw these evil humanoids to this location where they are brainwashing them and training them for a mass assault on Silverymoon when the time is right.

The shrine of "evil chaos" instead becomes a temple of Shar presided over by a shadar-kai invoker of the Mistress of the Night. The keep of Hawk's Nest also plays host to a secret trio of Sharran assassins, actually sorcerer/monks from the order of Dark Moon monks, who may be used by the Netherese to punish those PCs who strike against the Caves of Chaos then think they are safe when they return to the keep at Hawk's Nest (and generally they are but, at some point, even new players need to learn to be scared of assassins in the night).

Another option involves focussing solely on orcs but arranging them by tribes. In such a case, these orcs include outcasts from Many-Arrows who are frustrated with the trappings of civilisation that now surround the orcs of that kingdom. These outcasts believe that this is not the orc way and they have gathered here in the Nether Mountains to build their strength until the point where they can wash away civilisation's stain.

The shrine of "evil chaos" thus becomes a shrine or temple of Gruumsh. And just as Gruumsh replaced Talos, Talos also replaced an earlier deity, Kozah, as the Storm Lord. I rather like the idea that this temple of Gruumsh was once a temple of Kozah known as the High Altar of Storms (and that's a nod to Warcraft II). Perhaps the orcs can perform ritual sacrifices here that allow them to call down destructive storms in the Silverymoon Pass providing both an additional adventure hook and an extra challenge to overcome.

I'm avoiding a Zhentarim connection but it does remain an option: the whole plan could be a Zhentarim operation and the temple could be devoted to either Cyric or Bane. I've used that idea so many times that I don't really want to use it again (plus I find that using Zhentarim tends to get me building more a plot-based campaign which is not what this campaign is meant to be) unless I somehow feel that it would be the best possible idea based on the players and the choices they have made.

Ideally, I would like to run this as the second adventure in the campaign - with In Search of the Unknown being the first - which suggests that at least one of the hooks could involve uncovering a Netherese plot following clues the PCs uncover in the first adventure and assuming that the shrine of "evil chaos" is now a temple of Shar. However, I really would prefer to avoid any hint of a plot except that which develops organically.

I rather like the idea of the PCs, following the success of their first adventure, being hired by the Knights in Silver to travel to Hawk's Nest and determine if there is a link between a series of unnatural storms afflicting Silverymoon Pass and mass movements of orcs from tribes that normally fight on sight but yet seem to travelling together. This is based on the idea that the shrine of "evil chaos" is now a temple of Gruumsh-who-was-Talos-who-was-Kozah.

Finally, if the Zhentarim are involved then the humanoids will definitely be raiding merchants travelling on the Silverymoon Pass (except for those who pay for Zhent protection). This option suggests that the adventure hook could come from the Knights in Silver seeking to remove the threat posed by the orc et al bandits or from a group of merchants concerned about their losses. It also suggests the possibility of some intrigue and adventure within Silverymoon as the PCs seek to first unravel a Zhentarim conspiracy before heading to Hawk's Nest for a more traditional adventure.

I think the sandbox is taking shape.