I was just curious if anyone else was planning or did run side treks between the various chapters of Shackled City. I for one am going to run "Mad God's Key" after "Life's Bazaar" and "Three Days to Kill" after "Flood Season."
With "Mad God's Key" I had to alter a few key components as the adventurers would have already had exposure to a master-key situation with Ghelve. Also, the priesthood of Boccob isn't even in the city and the Green Daggers have to have some sort of dynamic with the Last Laugh (this town isn't big enough for TWO guilds!). So here is what I did:
1. Replace the "universal key" magical item with a magical mediallion with the specific prophecy of "opening that which cannot be opened" (translation: something which is magically barred and/or warded). Tygot will be in possession of this rare item but because it has no magical aura surrounding it, he really never discovered its full capabilities.
2. The Green Daggers can stay as is, but really must be nothing more than a gang that has to pay the Last Laugh off to run their petty jobs in the city.
3. Boccob is replaced by Wee Jas. So, in fact, what gets stolen is one of Ike Iverson's personal treasures: a Tome on powerful new theories of Undead Creation.
4. The staging ground for the final chapter will occur in the Haunted Village near Cauldron.
These elements really flush out the rich culture Cauldron has to offer by introducing very important characters early and exposing the party to elements of History: such as what exactly is an abandoned shrine of Wee Jas doing in the middle of this ghost town? I think there is a sidebar somewhere in "Demonskar Legacy" that gives hints on why this village is abandoned and more importantly what the Church of Wee Jas had to do with it (maybe there isn't but I just made that connection). For my campaign, I had the church play a pivotal role in defending the land during the Demon War by raising the dead of enemies/allies to replenish their reserves...it worked up until the creations turned on their masters and seized control of the town. Since then it has been a haven for the walking dead. A cult of Vecna has capitalized on the anonymity this place affords to convert the very shrine that created the undead creatures all those years ago. The showdown should expose the darker side of both religions (Wee Jas and Vecna) as well as provide a great launching point for Ike Iverson as key NPC. Recall also that Skaven (a member of the Ebon Triad) is a worshiper of Vecna...now if only I could figure out a clever way to introduce him as a reoccuring villian or even some sort of link to the next adventure I would be set!:)
After "Flood Season," I wanted to continue with the above by having a tenuous alliance struck between the remaining Alleybashers and the now fragmented cell of Vecna priests (maybe Skaven is part of it if he survived) in order to ensure survival for both groups. Ike Iverson, already angered by the theft of his book could hire the PCs to take care of this problem...sick, I know:) You could even push the envelope by up'ing the reward if they kill the priests of Vecna.
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I have posted this already elsewhere but it fits here like a glove.
In orde to obscure mr Vhalantrus role to the players, I gonna let him be really helpful to the group, but not too obvious. Or I am bringing in some red herrings to indicate, that he is a leader of the "Last Laugh". In order for one of the jesters to obscure his own part in that organization from detection, he lays false leads pointing to Mr Obvious. Or could it be, that those false leads were planted by Mr Obvious himself and he asks the group to help him prove his "innocence"... oh those devious thoughts. *GRIN*
I think I will include this as a Side Trek, if my group has to gain some experience between adventures until "Lords of Oblivion".
Basically the best point to fit this in would be directly before the Demonskar episode...and Jil would be there to silence any people that could talk too much...oops.
I also know who will be the jester in question. My group will hate this...*Big Evil Grin*
This has to do with my group not staying at the Drunken Morkoth Inn (way too expensive, and I also did not want them to stumble directly into the Striding HQ). So they are staying in the Slippery Eel, that is run by the brother of the Captain of the City Watch, Hadamar Skellerang. Many guards are there after their shifts and many rumors and truths can be overheard. If the final clue to the identity could come from the Chisel, then the motivation of Terseon Skellerang to be so hostile toward Maavu and his comapnions would be perfectly understandable... hmmm *REALLY BIG EVIL GRIN*
And the group can also have another run-in with Jil who is trying to stop the group from discovering the jester's identity. She will also be responsible to silence any people that can talk too much at a later point.
And another idea would be to have a Contest Of Champions at the end of the Flood Festival. I love these riddle modules...
I'm currently running my party through "Life's Bazaar" and I'm considering cutting "Flood Season" from the campaign. It feels like an unnecessary adventure, who's sole purpose seems killing of Sarcem Delasharn so Jenya can be high priestess. It's easy enough to dispose of him some other way, so by cutting "Flood Season" I get an opportunity to run some wilderness or urban adventures without any hint of dungeon crawl, there will be enough of that later anyhow.
Adventures I'm looking into at the moment to run instead of "Flood Season" are "Devil Box" and "Buzz of the Bridge". Anyone have any experience of them?
I have run side treks between each of the adventures so far, and I even started with a "pre-adventure" to give the players a chance to get to know each other before the begining of Life's Bazaar.
I've tried to use the side treks to bring certain elements into the game, flesh out some events in the adventures, and to try to mesh the adventures together and avoid an "episodic" feel... "This week we find our intrepid band of adventurers getting a job from Jenya!"
I've mostly used adventures from wizards.com to make things easier for me. But I think it's been just as much work making sure that the adventures fit into my game, and scaled it when necessary.
Here's how my campaign has gone:
1. Of Sound Mind (by Kevin Kulp for Fiery Dragon Productions). The group was hired by Maavu for their first job to guard a caravan.
2. Life's Baazar
3. Fallen Angel (by Ramon Arjona on Wizards.com). I used this adventure as a start to some planar rifts that will eventually become more common. This was also used to bring in exalted feats, from The Book of Exalted Deeds.
4. Zenith Trajectory
5. The Alchemist's Eyrie (by Edward Bolme on Wizards.com). One of the players contracted lycanthropy, and the group sought out an alchemist to try to remove the curse. Instead she was given a drought that allowed her to maintain her alignment and control her lycanthropy.
6. The Demonskar Legacy
7. Desert Sands (by Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel on Wizards.com). Instead of meeting Kaurophon as indicated in the adventure, the party discovers him having just barely survived an ambush on a caravan that he happened across. The ambushers took the scrolls of plane shift and the lesser amulet of the planes, so the group went to help to get the needed items.
8. Test of the Smoking Eye
9. Road to Oblivion (by Penny Williams on Wizards.com). When the group plane shifted back to the material plane, the ended up at the start of this adventure, and found clues to a missing friend (who happened to be a shackle born in hiding).
10. Secrets of the Soul Pillars
11. Practical Magic (by Jason Nelson in Dungeon #113). I threw this in after the group raided the Cathedral of Wee Jas, but before they found Karran Kurral. The party rogue has an aquatic dwarf as a cohort, so I changed the aqautic elves to dwarves, had Delthrin kidnap Skye (taking away the ulterior motives of Ellie provided in the adventure), and set the finale under the Haunted Village. The party had a great time with underwater combat.
12. Lords of Oblivion
13. Foundation of Flame. There isn't much time between the two that I felt comfortable to run something in between.
14. Anything Goes, Everything Goes, and Too Far Gone (by Owen K.C. Stephens, on Wizards.com d20 Modern). At the end of Foundation of Flame, the party archmage attempted to teleport everyone away from Hookface. The magic didn't blend well with the surge of magic in place, and they got "rifted" to the d20 Modern "Urban Arcana" world, the home of one of the PCs. They discovered that there is a substantial time differential between the two world, so when they are able to rift back, they will have been gone only hours, instead of weeks.
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That's our story so far. We should start Thirteen Cages next week, but then our game will go on a six-week hiatus as I have to travel to Japan.