Markus the Mad's page

So, one of my players for our upcoming Savage Tide campaign decided to name his female character: Crimson. Not only that, but after reading the latest Demonomicon, he's gotten the idea of making her a Thrall of Malcanthet - to which I secretly snicker, how perfect is that??

Anyway, it's a cool enough name, normally I'd be all for it. Yet in this case, I find its similarity to the name of the Crimson Fleet a bit undesirable - it would likely lead to some joking around at certain key moments in the campaign, when I wouldn't want the tension broken up by jokes regarding a character's name. It's certainly not a BIG deal, but I kinda don't want it.

So, since I'd never want to actually VETO a character's name - can anyone, off the top of their head, think of a decent alternative name for the Crimson Fleet that might work out for me?

Hey guys,

I have a bit of a unique scenario I need to somehow incorporate into Savage Tide, which I could use some suggestions on. Consider it a challenge for any devious and clever DMs out there (especially any of you who have already ran Shackled City).

Basically, it involves the great return of Orbius Vhalantru, who in my group's version of Shackled City, survived.

He'd been an awesome and very memorable villain, tricking his way into becoming the party's best friend and confidant. His kidnapping of Celeste was made all the more dramatic due to the fact that she was at that point engaged to be married to the party's leader. He'd fooled them all, and was truly a villain that they "loved to hate". And then, at the moment when the party would normally go take him out - things took a different turn entirely. From the clues available, the party essentially knew that both Vhalantru and Thifirane were baddies - but opted to go attack Thifirane at her manor first. They then proceeded, on a hunch, to discover the location of the Fiery Sanctum - and go take out the Cagewrights right away... skipping over Oblivion and the entirety of "Foundation of Flame".

How I reacted to that was two-fold: I opted to make party allies Meerthan and Jenya become the heroes of the evacuation of Cauldron, saving countless citizens, while the heroes were down below trying to stop the eruption.

However, in the midst of all that anarchy, Orbius Vhalantru was left unwatched... His ally Thifirane now dead, and everything going to hell down in the Fiery Sanctum below... So I opted to have him ditch his known Simulacrum Suit (the public face of the noble in Cauldron), don another spare that he had hidden away... and then escape the city in the middle of the chaos around him. The party later went to Oblivion and saved Celeste, but by then - Vhalantru was long gone.

So now, I am left with the interesting dilemma of trying to incorporate Vhalantru, in some way, shape or form, into the Savage Tide adventure path. I wish to do so only because he was one of our most memorable villains ever... and yet he was also "the one that got away"...

With Savage Tide taking place a few years after Shackled City, the beholder has had ample time to find a new life for himself. Yet, he also has surely stuck to his evil, greedy ways. His original escape likely led him to Sasserine, but he may or may not still be there. Also, as I said, he is in the possession of a new Simulacrum Suit, the appearance of which is currently unknown. (For all my players know, he didn't even have this backup one).

If you were in my position, what would YOU think of doing with him? Bear in mind that my Vhalantru did undergo the Tarterian transformation described in the latter stages of Shackled City - making him something like a Challenge Rating 16 foe.

Thanks for any help!

So I give my future Savage Tide players a few hints about what types of characters to eventually make for the campaign, letting them know that pirates and adventures on the high seas may play a significant part in it. Well, guess what has come of it?

One of them has decided upon (naturally) the Dread Pirate prestige class(from Complete Adventurer), while the other one has set his sights on the Legendary Captain prestige class (from Stormwrack). Both of which would be absolutely perfect for the campaign, on its own... Yet together, they bring up a funny dilemma. Namely, that both prestige classes have for prerequisite that the character own and captain their own ship!

So now I'm envisioning all kinds of fun that can come of this... beginning with initial squabbles and mutiny over who will gain control of the first major ship they come across. Since one or the other would technically lose all of the abilities of their prestige class when he loses the ship, I can see some fun back and forth for a while, as each makes attempts to regain what is rightfully theirs. And knowing my players, they will indeed do it in a "Fun" way - not through annoying and campaign-spoiling backstabbing, but in a fun game of one-upsmanship to see who can outsmart the other in the funniest and most unexpected way.

Then, after letting them have their fun with this for a while, I plan on making not one but two ships available to them, as they each get to captain their own vessel, with rival crews and constant competition to see who is the better man, better crew, and better ship. Yet at the same time, they realize that they need each other, in order to get all the riches and treasure that is at stake... so they allow the other to be "tolerated" until the mission is complete.

And then, after the world has nearly come to an end and Demogorgon has been defeated by the two rival pirates and their respective crews... the REAL battle will begin. Probably in the form of a race around the world, without magical intervention, with "winner-takes-all" stipulations - for a total fortune likely worth millions in gold.

This campaign is shaping up nicely indeed :)

The one downside? Little do my players know, but I am in the midst of constructing Worldworks' "Maiden of the High Seas", to be the party's ship! So now I will be forced to make TWO of them... hehehe. Oh well, I think it's more than worth the payoff!

On behalf of my gaming group up here in Montreal, we invite you to check out our campaign website/blog at http://shackledoutsiders.blogspot.com

I started it out just for fun, and as a way for me as a DM to keeping some running record of the details of the campaign. But my players are proud of their role-playing exploits, and the group dynamic we have built over the past 7 years of playing together - and they requested that I "announce" the website, and ask people to come check out their adventures so far (we just started Drakthar's Way last Sunday, so it's still early on).

As a fellow DM, you might find it a useful resource for ideas on how to foreshadow the roles of many important NPCs in the campaign. By the end of the first session, I already had the party registered under an adventuring charter, with Lord Vhalantru as their local sponsor/patron. The party cleric was working with both the churches of St-Cuthbert and Wee Jas. The party wizard was an apprentice to the dwarven magic item merchant "Tyro Amberhelm". And that's just the beginning!

Overall, I think I've done a great job in setting up lots of eventual shocks and twists as the PCs discover who they really can and cannot trust. The fall of Alek Tercival will have much more impact, for example, now that they have travelled with him as an NPC for much of Chapter Two.

So hopefully some of you check us out, and hopefully find this of interest! Feel free to leave any player-friendly (non-spoilerish) comments on the site itself. DM-only comments or questions (if you have any) should stay in this thread. Thanks!