What, if anything, happens to the places that the PC's clear out in the course of the adventures? Are they left to the devices of individual DM's or are there specific things that happen to these places after their part of the story is over?
If it is left to the DM, what have the other DM's done with these locales in their games?
Neomorte
In my campaign, Jzadirune was turned over to the gnomes, which they cleaned up but had no intention to re-inhabit. The players didn't feel safe to live there, what with the magical disease and no easy access to get in and out. (I suppose it could have played out like the scenes in Real Genius... some guy walks out of a closet in Gelve's shop. I surprised my players didn't go for it.)
I had some dwarves come back to live in the Malachite Fortress. They then hired the Stormblades to colapse some tunnels to the underdark (as per Zenith Trajectory), and I used the dwarves as a means to introduce a side quest to run between Zenith Trajectory and the Demonskar Legacy.
The party rogue started her own guild, specializing in smuggling using the waterways under Cauldron, and she struck a deal with the Kopru (in Flood Season) and used the ruins there to stash away her wares as needed.
The first group I ran through the adventures were able to purchase the Lucky Monkey (but not the land it was on), and offered it as a base of operations to the Striders of Fharlanghn, in return for magical aid and information.
The PCs worked with some of the good-aligned denizens of Occipitus to fix up the Cathedral of Feathers, and eventually I assume that part of the group will go back and retire there. The party wizard (a drow) has the Smoking Eye, and the other drow, a fighter/ranger with the Vow of Poverty, might try to convince the wizard to dedicate Occipitus to Elestrae.
The rest of the PCs will likely remain in Cauldron. The party rogue/guild master is most likely to become the next Lord Mayor of Cauldron. (She's role-played enough to win the position if she wants it. She's currently debating on being the Lord Mayor, or creating a position of Chancelor to be in charge of a governing board. Either way, she'll be in charge if she wants to be.) So, she'll end up living in the Lord Mayor's residence.
Other party members are discussing a deal with the Vanderborens to get a nice bit of property for themselves. They should get a good deal on something... what with saving the city a couple of times over and all.
In my campaign, Jzadirune was turned over to the gnomes, which they cleaned up but had no intention to re-inhabit. The players didn't feel safe to live there, what with the magical disease and no easy access to get in and out. (I suppose it could have played out like the scenes in Real Genius... some guy walks out of a closet in Gelve's shop. I surprised my players didn't go for it.)
Yeah, I forsee this being a problem as well when I run the game. Although it would be interesting, RP-wise, if one of the players was a gnomish alchemist who spent a great deal of energy trying to find a cure so that his ilk could re-inhabit Jzadirune...
I had some dwarves come back to live in the Malachite Fortress. They then hired the Stormblades to colapse some tunnels to the underdark (as per Zenith Trajectory), and I used the dwarves as a means to introduce a side quest to run between Zenith Trajectory and the Demonskar Legacy.
Did your dwarves take the Malachite fortress after Zenith came back? And if so, how did the Cagewrights manage to snatch him AND keep things honky-dory with everyone? I assume the doppleganger shows up once in a while to show everyone that "Zenith" is alright, but that has to be a touch charade to keep up!:)
The party rogue started her own guild, specializing in smuggling using the waterways under Cauldron, and she struck a deal with the Kopru (in Flood Season) and used the ruins there to stash away her wares as needed.
OOOO, I really like this one! What was the deal she struck with the Kopru to get them on her side? How is the Last Laugh dealing with the fact that another guild is in their city. I actually plan to run "Mad God's Key" with some serious mods:
1. Replacing Boccob angle with Wee Jas
2. Replacing Theldrat (the merchant in the adventure) with Tygot
3. Replacing the “Key” with an amulet of the same design as the but with the prophesized power of “opening what cannot be opened.” (I really don't want to trample the plotline provided by Life's Bazaar)
4. Placing the Temple of Everflowing Blood in the Haunted Village and will be sure to give the backstory that is found in Demonskar chapter
I can give out more detail if anyone is interested...
The first group I ran through the adventures were able to purchase the Lucky Monkey (but not the land it was on), and...
How much did the Inn cost? Who owned it and who owned the land? Was the land too expensive or did it belong to the "State?"
Sorry for the bombardment of questions but the stuff you posted is really interesting;)
In my game, Keygan Ghelve was arrested and tried for his part in the slavers ring. He was given a year's hard labor for his crimes, and his shop was given to the players as a reward for stopping the kidnappings. The mayor had a banquet and gave them temporary custody of the shop and charged them with guarding the route to the Underdark through Jzadirune and the Malachite Fortress. One of the players figured out how to control the automatons during the course of the adventure (after getting hammered by one and then hearing a dark creeper issue commands) and they were used to collapse the creeper tunnels and to guard the bridge leading from the MF to the Underdark. Jzadirune is being used to hide most of their treasures from the tax collector at this point (we are about to start the Sign of the Smoking Eye), but the Malachite Fortress hasn't seen much use.
The Lucky Monkey was bought by one of the players for 50,000 GP. I figured that with all the destruction done to it during the slaughter of its inhabitants, and then again when Tongueater and his band were killed, and with all the bloodstains everywhere, that it would sell for cheap. It's got a heavy tax along with it. Notice a trend to all the taxations?
Nothing has been done with the Kopru ruins yet. They are formulating a plan to somehow sell the Amaranth Elixir in the Spell Weaver ruins, teleportation circles from the Lucky Monkey to the ruin was one plan...we'll just have to see what happens.
Well... my group turned into real estate agents, and now own Jzadirune, the Malachite Fortress, part of the Lucky Monkey, (the Striders own the other half,) the Kopru ruins... see a trend here? Basically, they've laid claim to every dungeon they've cleared out, except for the Kuo-Toa temple in "Zenith Trajectory". (They levelled that one.) Heck, they're threatening to cut Occipitus loose from the Abyss!
One of the main characters' last name is Bytch, so the adventure company, and the real estate company, are named "The Bytch Slap Real Estate Company."
Fortunately for me, the tremors released by collaring the Tree caused most of their claimed dungeons to be either flooded with lava or buried in rubble. So, they set up shop at Vaprak's Voice and are now trying to clear out Shatterhorn. They don't adventure to get cool loot... they adventure to claim land!
Squid
Let's see...
I guess I didn't have the dwarves come back as much as I had some dwarves come back. After it became known that Zenith had been rescued, many dwarves in the area were anxious to prepare the Malachite Fortress for his eventual return as their leader.
As to how the Cagewrights kept everything "honky-dory," they had the doppleganger appear in a fairly public location to pretend to be Zenith, a couple of weeks after they returned. He appeared a little better, and told the party that he was going to return to his father's home. He expalained that the problems between him and his father were many and deep, and eventhough his father's life hang in the balance, he needed to resolve those issues before forgiving him.
That was a good way of keeping the PCs from constantly looking him up, as well as the dwarven community demanding that he stay with them. The dwarves believed that he had gone off to his ancestral home, but have not heard from him since he'd been rescued (go 'fig). I'm going to have one of the dwarves meet with the party again soon, before Thirteen Cages, and I might even have one accompany the party.
As for the rogue's new guild...
She did quite a bit of work to make sure that she didn't (and doesn't) intrude into the Last Laugh's domain (security, blackmail, extortion, and assassination), and the Last Laugh has left her alone... as long as she pays for the security on her docks. But they'll soon discover their mistake when she becomes the next Lord Mayor and takes 'em out.
She made the deal with the kopru through diplomacy, mostly. She promised the kopru that she would not disclose the location of his lair and she pays him some treasure every time they do business. She pays him roughly 5% of the haul. In return, he guards the location against anyone not wearing a ring of farie fire (that she had made).
The Lucky Monkey...
I think they paid 5,000 gp for the inn. But they didn't own the land, so effectively they paid the money to operate the inn. I made the Vanderborens the owners of the land, and as far as ownership of the Lucky Monkey, the PCs took over and had to pay for repairs, upkeep and whatnot. The Vanderborens got taxes on the property, and the ability to "repo" the inn if the PCs ever defaulted.