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So after owning all of the magazine copies, and then buying the hardcover when it was first released, I've FINALLY got a group of 6 ready to run all the way through this game. Their one demand, though, was to set this campaign in the FR. I'm very well versed in FR stuff, but I don't have time to sit down and hash everything out like I'd want to for conversion.
My question is: what conversions have other FR DMs put into the SCAP? I've seen all the conversion notes for the AWAP, so I know where the cities belong and such, but what about the little stuff?
How should I convert Wee Jas? Should I make it a silly cult following both Mystra and Kelemvor? Is there a better conversion that doesn't seem like quite a reach? What about the other dieties? Go with the obvious? Tempus, Lathander, ect? What about Lathander? Should he be used for Pelor or St. Cuthbert? Or even more, should I try to fix the dieties entirely to match the regional dieties for Chult?
What about organizations? Should I leave the Striders alone since the serpent kingdoms are so far away from civilization? Should I make them Harpers, or maybe a wannabe Harper organization? Should the Harpers know of them or support them? What about enemy organizations?
I could easily just throw some answers into the game, but I'm trying to think about the future and what types of effects these decisions will have on the game at a later point. Any suggestions, advice, or stories of others' games would be well recieved and given much thanks.
In my campaign, I substituted St Cuthbert for Ilmater, which works really well.
Wee-Jas became Kelemvor, but with the death of Myrkul less than 2 decades behind us, I made Embril Aloustinai a bit older and considered her to have had her priest training from a Myrkul priest. So she's actually an ex-Myrukilte turned to Kelemvor, which explains her LE alignment.
The Striders are most easily turned into Harpers. I've always considered them to be something like Harpers IMC, but I've never revealed that to the PCs, so they could be anything (but certainly something Harperlike). It's just that the last two FR campaigns we played were quite heavy on the Harpers, so I wanted to keep that theme as light as possible.
Yep, Kelemvor with the easy tie in to Myrkul was what I opted for. I made the church much more recent (to fit Kelemvor's much more recent ascension) but that they gained so much money due to their monopoly of resurrection+ magic and taking over with funerary arrangements, wills, etc.
Striders to Harpers as well.
I used Lathandar, Torm, and Tymora (replacing Kord) for the other gods. I set my campaign in Tashalar (east of Chult), though there are plenty of other options... I did it there partially to keep the rest of FR locations from being too easy to get to and intruding in on Cauldron's spotlight. The town is fairly diverse as it was founded in large part by adventurers and prospectors long ago, and Tashluta (capital of the country and Sasserine replacement) does a fair amount of trade with Calimshan and Waterdeep.
I tossed in other details to tie it more strongly to the FR experience, as well, making cagewrights Zhentarim agents, Cult of the Dragon, Red Wizard of Thay, etc. Since I wasn't too worried about timing, I also set it a few years in the future from the current timeline since 1378 is the Year of the Cauldron in the official timeline (1377 is the Year of the Haunting) so I thought that was too good to pass up, and the town can have a celebration at the new year cause that's clearly auspicious :)
I haven't 100% decided yet, but I was considering tying Cyric's madness to Adimarchus' in some fashion.
For the Ebon Triad, you could do some kind of connection to Jergal or a cult of the Dead Three (yes, Bane is now alive and you can make Myrkul coming alive be part of the campaign via Embril & Ike)
P.S. I'm not a FR scholar, so yeah, some of the above can be shady. It's not my normal campaign world, but my players also wanted it there.
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I've been looking ahead to the next two adventure paths since I plan to play them all the way through. Tashulta will definitely be the Sasserine replacement, since that's where Sasserine is placed in the Savage Tides path.
The Savage Tide path also says to have Wee Jas replaces with Savras. The Kelemvor/Myrkul idea is a nice one, but would there be anything that may not make sense later if I replaced her with Savras?
Cyric's madness is also a nice tie-in. He was originally a good guy though, so it'll take a little more thought before I get to the end.
The Ebon Triad is described in detail during the AoWAP conversion guide, since they make an appearance there also. I do believe Jergal is a big part of that.
For what it's worth, I think Hoar is a better conversion for Saint Cuthbert than Helm. Helm is the god of guardians. Hoar is the god of vengeance. Cuthbert is all about smiting his enemies which, in my opinion, makes Hoar a better fit.
I've been looking ahead to the next two adventure paths since I plan to play them all the way through.
The Savage Tide path also says to have Wee Jas replaces with Savras. The Kelemvor/Myrkul idea is a nice one, but would there be anything that may not make sense later if I replaced her with Savras?
The Ebon Triad is described in detail during the AoWAP conversion guide, since they make an appearance there also. I do believe Jergal is a big part of that.
Looking ahead is indeed a good idea, but nothing prevents you from making different choices for the different AP's.
If you want to make the same choices for Wee Jas (which is not necessary), I'd go with the choice that fits best for the AP in which his church is featured most: Shackled City. For this you need a temple of a lawful god (to fit in Alek Tercival, the paladin who plays a very important role in the story) and a church that is inclined to protect the people (they have an orphenage, they protect Cauldron with the wands from flooding, they want to protect Cauldron from the Cagewrights ...). Gods like Helm, Ilmater, Lathander (some of his followers are LG), Torm or Tyr could easily fit this bill.
If one of your PCs is playing a cleric that follows one of those 'fitting' gods, I would certainly go with that one. It works like a charm in my campaign, with the cleric of Ilmater.
Fitting in the ebon triad into Shackled city has always felt like a stretch to me, certainly in the FR where Bhaal and Myrkul are dead, so I never used this idea. I used Shar instead, who is the perfect goddess for people with dark, secret plans. Of course, if you're also planning on playing through Age of Worms, you could use the triad as some kind of foreshadowing, but do consider that AoW is situated in and around Waterdeep (at least at first) which is FAR, FAR away.
Yeah, when I was picking the gods I felt like I put down the list then said that I could easily change any if any divine types were worshipping a mildly appropriate god that I should change to.
Ends up, two of the ones I picked were good for the characters people had designed so I went with that.
P.S. Savras? That doesn't make a ton of sense to be the 'big'/most powerful church for the town, does it?
Okay, I'm currently running the SCAP for my group, so KEJR don't read any further. One special note is that I still use the Great Wheel cosmology for the Forgotten Realms, as the events of Die Vecna Die do not happen in my timeline until 1380 DR, and it's 1372 DR. The main books I used for this are:
Shining South,
Serpent Kingdoms (MOST useful book of the bunch)
Unapproachable East
Underdark
FRCS
Magic of Faerun
Player's Guide to Faerun
Additional resources could include:
Faiths & Pantheons
Champions of Valor
Champions of Ruin
Location:
I set the Free City of Cauldron on the eastern edge of the Tashalar, north of the Black Jungles, with a route through the Lucky Monkey in the Black Jungles to get to Cauldron.
History:
When procalith was destroyed during the mage wars that rattled the region, some folk escaped into the giant infested Delphim Mountains. They fought and fought their way through, and both Giants and Yuan-Ti assaulted them heavily. They eventually came to a caldera of a dormant volcano, and realized that it would make for a great defense. A priest of Helm, unnamed, began building defenses with the help of Tempus, Lathander's & Chauntea's clergy. They defended the caldera for a few years, and eventually began building walls for the city... Fast forward a few centuries, and Chauntea's worship has become much less than what it was, with an abandoned temple in town. Lathander's clergy has recently been usurped, with merely an acolyte running the shrine to Lathander in Cauldron. The newest clergy of Cauldron is that of Savras (even excluding the worship of Azuth/Mystra!), who has a great foothold in the Tashalar.
Regionally:
Redgorge is a vassal city to Cauldron, which ultimately pays its own loyalty to the Tashalr. Redgorge is further down the mountain, about a 6 hour walk from Cauldron down the mountains towards the Black Jungles. The two cities have had many problems with Yuan-Ti, and as such are suspicious of anyone with serpentine familiars or "sharp features." The Lucky monkey sits about 10 hours hard ride from Redgorge. The Haunted Village is Procalith. The other "jungle places" such as Vaprak's Voice and such all lie in the Black Jungles.
In the City & Organizations:
Clergy Realms/Clergy GH
Helm/Cuthbert (even follows some of Helm's doctrines pretty well)
Tempus/Kord
Chauntea/Fharlangn (Yes, this is where I put the Striders)
Lathander/Pelor
Savras/Wee Jas (very interesting rebuild of Embril)
The Dark Three replace the Ebon Triad
The Dark Three is a heresy of Bane's faith that believes that Bane is not Bane. They believe that Xvim is posing as Bane, having somehow imprisoned Bane, and point to their receiving of clerical powers as proof of this heresy. The other followers within the dark three are followers of Myrkul and Bhaal who also believe that their deities are not dead/imprisoned (many don't know about the Crown of Horns & Myrkul). Together they believe that they can merge the three "imprisoned deity's" power to create one ultimate deity of Tyranny, Murder, and the Dead to destroy Xvim and Cyric. They have allied themselves with the Cagewrights to assist their own search, as Carceri is a very good starting location for their own search.
From there, it all flows fairly naturally. For the search for the Shackleborn Dwarf later in the campaign, I am going to send my players to Thindol, to use a certain underwater route to find them. I don't have all my notes handy, but we're in Flood Season and we'll be beginning the hunt for the wands very soon.
/d
P.S. Savras? That doesn't make a ton of sense to be the 'big'/most powerful church for the town, does it?
If you are in the Tashalar, Savras has a HUGE following. People go to the churches every day or every week to have tarot readings & other such fortune telling done for them. It's even implied that in the Tashalar, Azuth is the lesser deity to Savras, IIRC. Temple to JUST Savras exist in the Tashalar, rather than Mystra, with alcoves to Azuth & Savras. Savras makes sense in the Tashalar, and only in the Tashalar, elsewhere in the Realms, I'd definitely say NOT the biggest/most powerful church in town.
I hope I helped,
/d
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I think the way I'm going to explain Bane in the "Bane/Bhaal/Myrkul" version of the Ebon Triad is that, as far as the big picture is concerned, Bane believes that he can usurp the portfolios of the other two, so he sends his followers to go along with the plan.
The only thing that will be really different is that the followers of Bane will attempt to make Bane the overdiety, instead of a completely new entity. That can go according to the plan in AoWAP easily enough.
The distance between Tashalar and Waterdeep also isn't a big deal, since all of these dieties have followers all over the world. In Greyhawk it's a little more difficult, since the cult is considered a blasphemy of the dieties' worship. In Forgotten Realms, though, the dieties are all dead so it makes more sense that each of the sects would want to come together to have their dieties raised.
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P.S. Savras? That doesn't make a ton of sense to be the 'big'/most powerful church for the town, does it?If you are in the Tashalar, Savras has a HUGE following. People go to the churches every day or every week to have tarot readings & other such fortune telling done for them. It's even implied that in the Tashalar, Azuth is the lesser deity to Savras, IIRC. Temple to JUST Savras exist in the Tashalar, rather than Mystra, with alcoves to Azuth & Savras. Savras makes sense in the Tashalar, and only in the Tashalar, elsewhere in the Realms, I'd definitely say NOT the biggest/most powerful church in town.
I hope I helped,
/d
I completely agree with this explanation of Savras being the "Wee Jas" of the FR, but it the fact of its size wasn't an issue anyway. Wee Jas (and as such, Savras) was the biggest church in Cauldron not because it had the largest following, but because they were going to Orbius and striking deals behind the scenes.
Also, I think I'm going to use Anachtyr (a "dead" southern version of Tyr) for St. Cuthbert. St. Cuthbert, keep in mind, is actually LN. Paladins don't have to serve LG dieties, but Tyr fits in well because of the kidnappings being involved in justice, and also because it makes Alek a little more determined in some areas of the game.
P.S. Savras? That doesn't make a ton of sense to be the 'big'/most powerful church for the town, does it?If you are in the Tashalar, Savras has a HUGE following. People go to the churches every day or every week to have tarot readings & other such fortune telling done for them. It's even implied that in the Tashalar, Azuth is the lesser deity to Savras, IIRC. Temple to JUST Savras exist in the Tashalar, rather than Mystra, with alcoves to Azuth & Savras. Savras makes sense in the Tashalar, and only in the Tashalar, elsewhere in the Realms, I'd definitely say NOT the biggest/most powerful church in town.
I hope I helped,
/dI completely agree with this explanation of Savras being the "Wee Jas" of the FR, but it the fact of its size wasn't an issue anyway. Wee Jas (and as such, Savras) was the biggest church in Cauldron not because it had the largest following, but because they were going to Orbius and striking deals behind the scenes.
Also, I think I'm going to use Anachtyr (a "dead" southern version of Tyr) for St. Cuthbert. St. Cuthbert, keep in mind, is actually LN. Paladins don't have to serve LG dieties, but Tyr fits in well because of the kidnappings being involved in justice, and also because it makes Alek a little more determined in some areas of the game.
My main thought using Helm rather than Tyr was that Helm has a background defending children, and thus a way "in" to the first adventure, and following through with future ones. I do agree, though, that Tyr fits this bill as well, and it's all about your own personal tastes at this point. Heck, I have a follower of Ilmater allying with the Helmites at this point.
Even better was your thoughts on Savras' clergy allying as such with Orbius. That makes even MORE sense.
As to the "fall" of Embril, who do you think she'd fall to, or would she fall? I personally think Velsharoon, but any number of deities would fit the bill, even leaving her as a priestess of Savras would be okay, long term as far as I can tell.
/d