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Hello,
I have 4 first time players in my savage tide game. They are battling through Kraken's Cove and loving the story so far.
My problem is scheduling the times we play. We all want to play more, I want DM more, but none of us want to continue on in the game unless everyone is there. It is usually only one of us who has plans and cannot make the DnD game, leaving the 3 other players and myself waiting until the next possible time to play and continue the story. The players and I don't want someone to miss out on any developments as they hunt down that scoundrel Vanthus.
So I was thinking about running another campaign for whoever can make it and it be related to the Savage Tide campaign now. Unfortunately I'm having trouble thinking of ideas for a campaign. I wanted to maybe do something involving the adventures of Lavinia's parents and the founding of their colony (which they know because of someone in the party knowing sylvan when in the vault), but I don't want to reveal too much of the horror or surprise of future Savage Tide developments. Any ideas or helpful advice would be much appreciated!
I would opt for one shot adventures that tease about the enemies ahead and don't give too much away. On the same side I would caution not to have too many repeat encounters because you might risk players (in the main campaign/story) that have a , "oh yea been there, done that" attitude.
Dungeon 120 - Lost Temple of Demogorgon, great introduction to Death Knights, he may even be an ally, great adventure I have run with other campaigns.
Dungeon 114 - Torrents of Dread, wold be a great mid level adventure for the Vanderboren family's first trip to the isle. I would caution about the familiarity issues here again because they will repeat some of these monsters later.
or go classic with Dungeon Module X1, the Original Isle of Dread. Haven't played it but it is good by all accounts.
or go gonzo and do an adventure or to about Phanatons or some other less seen creature of the Isle.
If you're thinking of another campaign in the same region, you could use "The War of the Wielded" (Dungeon 149), which is an urban adventure for a L 5 party set in Sasserine.
As MaxPowers has already mentioned, "Torrents of Dread" (for L 6) takes place on the Isle of Dread itself but risks being too much of the same. Ditto for "Lost Temple of Demogorgon".
Adventure titles which I recall as being either thematically- or geographically-linked include:
"The Mad God's Key" (Dungeon 114, L 1)
"Fiend's Embrace" (Dungeon 121, L 4)
"Tammeraut's Fate" (Dungeon 106, L 6)
"Forsaken Arch" (Dungeon 120, L 7)
"The Porphyry House Horror" (Dungeon 90, L 10 ... part of the "mature content" issue)
"The Spire of Long Shadows" (Dungeon 130, L 13 ... part of the Age of Worms AP)
"The Mud Sorcerer's Tomb" (Dungeon 138, L 14)
"Strike on the Rabid Dawn" (Dungeon 111, L 15)
You could poach the Material Plane portions of the Shackled City adventure path, as Cauldron is not too far from Sasserine (just up the Thunder River).
The two Styes adventures are also port-city related (Dungeon 121 + 138, L 9 + L 10).
The Lashimire pair are island-dungeon and aquatic adventures (Dungeon 116 + 125, L 12 + L 15).
Some of the suggestions above could be used as red herrings, designed to distract/mislead players who also play in your Savage Tide campaign. (Kyuss or Tharizdun, Asmodeus, or demon lords other than Demogorgon, finding something which belonged to Iggwilv, etc.)
Take a look at the other Savage Tide threads. Many DMs have chosen to add other published adventures to their Savage Tide campaigns, so there will be lots of inspiration there.
Some very good suggestions by Bellona.
Some other possibilities:
- you can also mine some of the pathfinder society adventures for ideas. I used the "slave pits" adventure as a rescue mission for a future cohort of one of the PCs (not set in Sasserine though). "Mists of Mwangi" can also be easily linked to Savage Tide.
- I used different scenes of Mad God's Key as well (chase scene as introduction - Rogues hideout replaced the Lotus Dragon dungeon - the Tomb of Blood Everflowing as the hideout of cult of demon worshipping lizard folk - this was situated a few days walk from Kraken's Cove & Vanthus escaped from Kraken's Cove to that location)
- The next session we will start with Forsaken Arch (severe problems with pink pearl delivery needs to be taken care of).
- in the future I'm thinking to include "River into Darkness" as well (Paizo Module).
(most of these can be played as "missions" ordered by Lavinia (she seeks funding for the Isle of Dread expedition) (perhaps PCs as alternative Jade Ravens?)
Good luck!
Hagor
I forgot to elaborate on/add five things:
"Lost Temple of Demogorgon" is L 14 (but the over-exposure warning still stands).
"Fiend's Embrace" is listed because it includes something which belonged to Iggwilv.
"The Porphyry House Horror" (the "mature content" adventure) is listed because it takes place in Scuttlecove.
"Spire of Long Shadows" (the Age of Worms excerpt) is listed because it takes place in the Sasserine region.
"S 4, Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth/Iggwilv's Legacy" (L 11) is a web-only update of a classic 1e module to 3.5. It is available here.
If you're thinking of another campaign in the same region, you could use "The War of the Wielded" (Dungeon 149), which is an urban adventure for a L 5 party set in Sasserine.
As MaxPowers has already mentioned, "Torrents of Dread" (for L 6) takes place on the Isle of Dread itself but risks being too much of the same. Ditto for "Lost Temple of Demogorgon".
Adventure titles which I recall as being either thematically- or geographically-linked include:
"The Mad God's Key" (Dungeon 114, L 1)
"Fiend's Embrace" (Dungeon 121, L 4)
"Tammeraut's Fate" (Dungeon 106, L 6)
"Forsaken Arch" (Dungeon 120, L 7)
"The Porphyry House Horror" (Dungeon 90, L 10 ... part of the "mature content" issue)
"The Spire of Long Shadows" (Dungeon 130, L 13 ... part of the Age of Worms AP)
"The Mud Sorcerer's Tomb" (Dungeon 138, L 14)
"Strike on the Rabid Dawn" (Dungeon 111, L 15)
You could poach the Material Plane portions of the Shackled City adventure path, as Cauldron is not too far from Sasserine (just up the Thunder River).
The two Styes adventures are also port-city related (Dungeon 121 + 138, L 9 + L 10).
The Lashimire pair are island-dungeon and aquatic adventures (Dungeon 116 + 125, L 12 + L 15).
Some of the suggestions above could be used as red herrings, designed to distract/mislead players who also play in your Savage Tide campaign. (Kyuss or Tharizdun, Asmodeus, or demon lords other than Demogorgon, finding something which belonged to Iggwilv, etc.)
Take a look at the other Savage Tide threads. Many DMs have chosen to add other published adventures to their Savage Tide campaigns, so there will be lots of inspiration there.
I'm liking the idea that these characters are alternate Jade Ravens. Since it will be played only when we're not all here, it would be relatively easy to just say so-and-so was "reassigned" and here is replacement X (etc).
Thanks for everyone's suggestions! Especially Bellona. There are a ton of adventures posted for me to read up on and find one I like.
"The Porphyry House Horror" is also a little awkward, due to its location (go to Scuttlecove at level 10, go back at level 15 for SoS), and it's denizens like Tyralandi, the yuan-ti and the Orlath might come off as "ho hum -- more of the same". Then you have the issues with how much power the Scuttlecove folks have gained as a whole when the party return at 15th level (Kedward Bone, for instance, gains 5 levels of Diabolist in that time).
I do like all of these related adventures, though, and I plan on incorporating some of the subplots into the mainline (rescuing Aaron Islaran is one).
Yes, "Torrents of Dread" (L 6) on the Isle of Dread and "The Porphyry House Horror" (L 10) in Scuttlecove are at different levels than when those locations/people are first encountered in the Savage Tide adventure path.
But it depends in part on how often the alternate characters are played, and how closely the alternate "campaign" mirrors the real adventure path. Is it a question of "meanwhile, back at the ranch ...", or maybe a parallel universe where some things work out differently? And will the alternate characters be behind the Savage Tide characters in level, the same, or ahead of them?
Come to think of it, someone in the Savage Tide sub-forum did use "Torrents of Dread" in the real Savage Tide campaign, but - because of potential kopru over-exposure - swapped out the kopru with something else in either "Torrents" or "Lightless Depths". Unfortunately, I can't remember who did it and what monster race was used instead.
Anyway, good luck with the reading, plotting, and playing! :)
Come to think of it, someone in the Savage Tide sub-forum did use "Torrents of Dread" in the real Savage Tide campaign, but - because of potential kopru over-exposure - swapped out the kopru with something else in either "Torrents" or "Lightless Depths". Unfortunately, I can't remember who did it and what monster race was used instead.
Don't remember who, but I do remember it was Illithids that they swapped for the Kopru.
But it depends in part on how often the alternate characters are played, and how closely the alternate "campaign" mirrors the real adventure path.
My goal was to have this side campaign occur before, timeline wise, the current campaign. I want this fun side-campaign to already have an ending... (IE: the colony is founded) and when it comes time for the players in the real campaign actually start seeing how the effects of the fun downtime campaign has influenced this campaign (in a minor way).
I was thinking something along the lines of this:
- the STAP group may come across a petrified version of their "alternate" character,
- a massive t-rex corpse, slain in the "alternate" campaign still rests where it was fallen, only now is home to an advanced, half-fiend rhagodessa who is using its rib-cage, vegetation and decaying tissue as its lair.
- An "alternate" character's magical sword is found and used by someone in the STAP campaign
- An "alternate" character resides among the olman who they could possibly meet.
Basically I want to give my group of tenderfoots the idea of a living world where their consequences matter but not over-shadow the savage tide game.
Come to think of it, someone in the Savage Tide sub-forum did use "Torrents of Dread" in the real Savage Tide campaign, but - because of potential kopru over-exposure - swapped out the kopru with something else in either "Torrents" or "Lightless Depths". Unfortunately, I can't remember who did it and what monster race was used instead.
I think it was Carborundum, who swapped the kopru for illithids or an aboleth (or maybe both).
If you want pirate-themed adventures, you could also check out the Freeport series (if it is still available; it was some while ago in the Paizo shop).
Just a note on "Fiends Embrace". Another thing that makes it a pretty good fit is that it takes place in a marsh enviroment, which is perfect for the Sasserine environs. Granted as written it is a cold marsh, but that is easily changed.
And "Tammeraut's Fate" is just too good to not be included as a side quest!
Too bad that I already used "Mad Gods Key" in my AoW campaign, These plus the 2 Styes adventures and "Mud Sorcerors Tomb" are the best adventures from Dungeon's heyday IMHO.
"Salvage Operation" in Dungeon #123 can be readily adapted to any costal/sea area.
Bellona's hit most of the other possibilities. If you don't mind some conversion work and are able to track down a print copy, you can always run the old 1st Ed AD&D module N4 Treasure Hunt (starting everyone as a commoner 1) instead of using "The Mad Gods Key" as the starting adventure.
During the early part of the campaign in sasserine I ran concurrently with TINH, "Pandemonium in the Veins" from Dungeon 96. My players loved their rise as Gladiators and it was a good way to bring in the Zelkarunes horns faction.
Yes, "Torrents of Dread" (L 6) on the Isle of Dread and
Come to think of it, someone in the Savage Tide sub-forum did use "Torrents of Dread" in the real Savage Tide campaign, but - because of potential kopru over-exposure - swapped out the kopru with something else in either "Torrents" or "Lightless Depths".
I also ran Torrents when the party got to the Isle. I didn't like the railroad ship crash from SWW so my party stayed afloat during that night having a close encounter with Emraag and were then forced into the bay of Mora with the eye of the howling storm circling around the village. I followed the mod pretty much as written except for leveling up the monsters.
I kept the Kopru and had them causing the storm during their summoning ritual. I used the tablet from COBI as the ritual focus which gave them access to that link to puzzle over. The kopru worked as a nice forshadowing of things to come and they now had good intro and relations with the Olmans. I also found that with them killing the villages zombiemaster it allowed me to use their obligations to make them go to the fangs of Zotzilaha easier and they were forced to take a zombiemaster initiate with them which caused all sorts of fun during that part of TOD.
I'd also changed most of SWW and bits of HTBM by using both Tammeraut's fate (Dungeon 106) and Last breaths of Ashenport (Dungeon 152). These also worked a treat, both highlighting Dagons involvement with Demogorgon.
*Off-topic warning!*
Bacchreus - out of curiosity, did you beef up the final encounter in "Ashenport"?
I ran it as a Lovecraftian one-shot, and the last foe's abilities seemed somewhat "all-or-nothing". While I am no fan of 4e, I did note that the 4e version of "Ashenport" (available for free on-line "in" Dungeon 156) has some hench-beings in the same room as the Voice. (Probably as a result of 4e's rules for designing encounters.)
Anyway, I decided that if I were to run "Ashenport" again then I would re-vamp more of the encounters. (I had already re-done the fish-men as a nastier kuo-toa/Deep One [from d20 CoC] hybrid.)
*Off-topic warning!*
Bacchreus - out of curiosity, did you beef up the final encounter in "Ashenport"?
I ran it as a Lovecraftian one-shot, and the last foe's abilities seemed somewhat "all-or-nothing". While I am no fan of 4e, I did note that the 4e version of "Ashenport" (available for free on-line "in" Dungeon 156) has some hench-beings in the same room as the Voice. (Probably as a result of 4e's rules for designing encounters.)
offtopic/ Anyway, I decided that if I were to run "Ashenport" again then I would re-vamp more of the encounters. (I had already re-done the fish-men as a nastier kuo-toa/Deep One [from d20 CoC] hybrid.)
yeah, I did use the 4e version as a guide and stole some ideas from that such as the last room. The voice on his lonesome would have been owned. I also used the deep one (same source) for the base monster and beefed it up. I also pushed the lovecraftian themes. /offtopic