Carrion Hill Candlemere [spoilers]

[RobRendell]

I've seen a few references on the forums to expanding Candlemere Tower with content from Carrion Hill. It seems like a good fit for theme of Candlemere Tower and for the PCs' level, but the situation in Carrion Hill doesn't exactly fit the likely state of the players' kingdom in Rivers Run Red.

I thought I'd share my ideas, and see what other folks have done. Spoilers ahead, obviously.

Spoiler:

The basic premise of Carrion Hill is easily applicable to RRR: the five Keepers of the Oldest have unwisely summoned a Spawn of Yog-Sothoth, and it needs to consume them all to return to full power. They are all in hiding, and the Spawn is hunting them down - the players need to find them and secure or kill them first, or they'll have an unstoppable monstrosity on their hands.

However, the specifics of the module assume the city where play occurs is old and built on top of dozens of older ruins. That doesn't fit RRR where the players are founding brand new settlements in the wilderness, unless the players choose to found a city on the Candlemere Lake island itself before cleansing it (which doesn't seem likely).

So, the changes I'm thinking of making:

• The Sunless Grove is hidden under Candlemere Tower, but inaccessible the first time the players visit the tower.
  
• The Keepers of the Oldest have gravitated to the PCs' kingdom because their research has taught them the location of the Sunless Grove, and there is now a convenient nearby settlement to base themselves in and the lands are being cleared of nasty monsters, making travel safe.
  
• If the PCs investigate Candlemere Tower, run it as written or with variations (such as the awesome ideas from this thread).
  
• Once the players have made the island safe (if not cleansed of taint), Keeper Rupman the merchant organises a boat and the five make their own trips out to the island searching for the Sunless Grove. If the players take too long to deal with Candlemere Tower (e.g. advance beyond 5th level) the Keepers can head to the island with Protection from Energy and brave the dangers to get to the Grove anyway.
  
• When they summon the Spawn of Yog Sothoth, it only manages to eat Keeper Baskerwhel initially. Keeper Marshan escapes with the other three. The summoning causes some large obvious sign in the world, to be spotted by the PCs (or the Old Belledame, or hunters and trappers, or farmers if they’ve claimed hexes near Candlemere). Lightning repeatedly striking the island, or a vortex of black clouds in the sky centered on the tower, or something. Animals in the area could briefly go wild at the same time, to make it more portentous.
  
• The Spawn takes a while to break free, as per the module. It escapes just before the PCs reach the island if they go to investigate the strange occurrence. They find a previously-missed secret door hanging open leading to the Sunless Grove under the tower and the Pnakotic Manuscript with the incriminating signatures. A sickening slime trail leads out of the cave along a tunnel that emerges near the edge of the island and then changes direction and enters the lake - heading directly towards their settlement.
  
• The creature attacks Marshan’s house and absorbs him, putting it on par with the start of the written adventure. If the PCs went to Candlemere, this happens shortly before they get back. If they didn’t, this alerts the PCs that something bad is happening and gives them a chance to learn the names of the other keepers from the wreckage.
  
• If the PCs haven’t built sewers under their town, make the Spawn able to cast Fly 1/day. It invisibly flies over the town, destroys a Keeper's building and returns to the lake to recover the use of the spell each day.
  

From there, the module can run as written. The three surviving Keepers have specific buildings in the module, but it should be possible to set them up in something similar before the summoning occurs.

• Keeper Rupman can set himself up as a merchant with zombie labourers in some smelly and unpleasant job pretty much as per the module without the rulers getting involved.
  
• Keeper Hyve the loremaster can set himself up likewise, although the caves under his workplace will be harder to justify. There could be a "random" kingdom event where the town gains a free library as he sets up shop, but the owner is very fussy about where the building is sited (because his knowledge of geology and Rupman and Crowe's magic have located some suitable caves he can tunnel down to).
  
• An asylum for Keeper Crowe is even harder to arrange. He could instead have set up a shelter for beggars and outcasts, pretending to be a cleric of Desna or something.
  

Any of the three Keepers who doesn't have an interesting home base can always do a runner and require the players (and the Spawn) to track them across the Greenbelt.

Thoughts?

[kadance]

The distance from Candlemere to the town may necesitate overland flight (1 hour/level) vice fly (gets you less than 1/4 mile per caster level)

[RobRendell]

I was thinking that it would make the trip from Candlemere island to the town by

Spoiler:

swimming through the Candlemere and Tuskwater lakes, rather than flying. The creature doesn't have a swim speed or the ability to breathe underwater in the module as written, but given its amorphous nature and history of being banished to the Dark Tapestry between the stars it doesn't seem a stretch to give it those.

The Fly ability 1/day was so that it could attack individual buildings in the town without having to burst through any city walls and leave a trail of devastation through the town to reach them. That gives a similar effect to the original scenario, where it seems to appear and disappear from each building that is attacked by moving through ancient forgotten tunnels.