lord buckley's page

Dear Koramado,

a sad thing to hear, that some doors will be closed in the future, and honestly spoken, the site wasn´t that much of a pain, believe me, in my time I´ve seen far worse than that ...

It was great work, and should be rememembered as such by all those, who just dropped by, to steal a little bit of someone elses wisdom, such as I did, and more so by those, who were more than willing to share the fruit of their hard work and little bits of insight, for almost no reward, which I have to confess, I never did - shame on me.

You did well in keeping all important information together, and should be honored as one of the greater minds in a ever-bubbling cauldron of intrigue and adventure

Yours sincerely, Claremont the Elder, Lord Buckley

Side Trek Ib: The Retake of the Malachite Fortress, part II

4th – General Layout
The main complex M22 to M33 is fine (just a question: where does the chimney of the forge lead to?) – all necessary rooms are there, and if the fortress is overrun with attackers, the defenders retreat across the bridge M13 to their firing positions, covering the single point of entry the following attacker has with thrown axes and crossbowbolts – fine – but, what kind of rooms do they retreat to?
A dead end watchtower with no tactical value whatsoever? Dozens of cellblocks, built for prisoners which shouldn´t be in a position to enter the fortress at all? And there is still a secret passage, which will allow the enemy to suddenly appear behind the defenders backs!

A whole lot of changing layout seems absolute necessary – first the watchtower (now the torture chamber M21) has to be placed to overlook the bridge M13 to give possible invaders hell from above with ranged weapons.
Then delete the second secret entrance to Zeniths Hall M6 on the south-western hall, because it would allow the invasors to attack the defenders from both sides – the would be cut up between two pincers …
And, honestly, is there really a need for three cellblocks? Additional barracks and storage rooms would seem a better idea (even when Kazmojen changed their interior to makeshift cellblocks) for the original concept of a fortress built for defense.

And after all that re-aranging is done, the curtain goes up, dramatic, martial music starts, and it´s time for Side Trek Ib: The Retake of the Malachite Fortress …

In my campaign, and perhaps in yours, dear reader, too, the characters weren´t able to free all the kidnap victims at once – they got their share, though – but the nagging sense of having not finished the whole business (something the Stormblades never grew too tired to mention) was a thorn in my partys side.
Nor having a foul halfblood defile the hohorable halls of Zenith Splintershield was something the local dwarven community couldn´t tolerate any longer – so why not combine resources, manpower and knowledge to start a short military campaign to satisfy all partys concerned …

This short Side Trek adventure pairs our party of heroes with a dwarven warparty, roughly the same size and made up entirely of fighters (unless your party is in the dire need of additional spiritual backup or arcane firepower) of a little bit lower level than the characters are, with their own leader, a grizzled veteran of the greyhawk wars (which were barely noticable in Cauldron – but who cares, he can show several medals of honor, heroically won at different campaignsites, if asked for something to back up his neverending stories about the war) and tough opponent (not only in melee, especially when it comes to haggling about the share of loot).

It works best if the players sit around a big map of the fortress, depicting all they know about Kazmojens residence, combined with some data supplied by the dwarves, but still with a few doors, which open to the unknown … let them scribble down what they know about traps, where and how many guard were posted during their last visit, and how many did survive …

Those planning sessions (how do you get a dwarf in full armor to cross a ten foot pit?) are fun, and detailed battle plan should be rewarded, but alas, Kazmojen was busy, too, and improved his defenses – and he absolutely knows from which direction the possible danger will come …

New guards will be hired, some of them better trained than those, who fell – the is a lot of inspiration in the scaling the adventure sidebar at the beginning of Lifes Bazaar – and shrewd old K. knows how to use the tactical advantages of his new, reconstructed mansion …

Think of some nasty incident in the elevatorshaft (how often you can say “plummet” accelerating 10 meters per squaresecond down the shaft, hmm?)… animated chains dangling behind and above closed doorways, ready to grapple (not essentially the first or the last to pass) … falling shutters to divide the entering party … some mimic midschief – like posing as ideal cover in a ranged weapon fight … perhaps old K. hired some additional talent from the Underdark – perhaps some Drow wizard … or he changed his pet to some monstrous xxx (you know better than anyone else, what works best to give your players the screaming whillies …)

All in all, the victory should be sweet, but earned the hard way, because that is what being a real hero is about … and several, but not all kidnap victims can be freed on that day – some of them are still missing, and rescuing them might take an other Side Trek …

Thanks for your undivided attention, dearest readers

Yours sincerely, Claremont the Elder, Lord Buckley

I bid all thee greetings,

Welcome to an other installment of Straying from the Path – the Side Treks, a (hopefully) ongoing series of adventure ideas to fill the gaps the original storyline left, and other buckley-isms to entertain you, my worthy audience.
Before I start with Side Trek Ib: The Retake of the Malachite Fortress, some, unfortunately not to gentle, words about the location in question:

We know that the fortress was built by dwarves to guard against incursions from the Underdark and was abandoned when Zenith Splintershield and his righteous, but foolish comrades decided to wage a war against the denizens of the Underdark on their own turf … that was about a decade ago, the fortress was left, only a few defenders remain, who were quickly overrun and sold into slavery when Kazmojen and his cronies moved in – a little more than a year ago.
That’s fine, and makes sense, but sadly (sorry, Chris & Chris) the whole layout of the Malachite Fortress doesn´t, because the whole design doesn´t reflect the purpose it was built for.

1st – Watersupply
The Fortress has no independent watersupply of its own – there is no well, fountain or the like. Somebody might point out that there is a waterfilled cavern under the arched bridge M13 to serve that purpose, but chances are high that this body of water is somewhat connected with the moat under the main bridge M7 – a watersupply the enemy, coming from the underdark can easily tamper with …
Adding a well to the pantry or the larder M31/M32 solves the problem, but there are others …

2nd – Acess to the Fortress
There are two points of access: the main, fortified double door, leading across the bridge into the dreaded Underdark, and a secret passage, leading to the elevator shaft, and to the gmomish enclave of Jzadirune. Both of them connect in Zeniths Hall M6, the first room to fall into the hands of possible invaders from the Underdark – when the invading troops secure the hall, the remaining dwarves are trapped, no supplies, reinforcements or other benefits can reach them – if they are not able to drive out the invaders, sucessfully securing the first room an invading force can enter leads to their automatic victory …

3rd – Supplies
Supplies can be brought into the fortress using the afore mentioned two ways – but wait ! – the fortress against incursions fom the Underdark gets supplied by the main enemy ? – O.K., nobody would do that, so the main gate is out of question – the only remaining way leads to the gnomes of Jzadirune – but wait ! – they left the enclave, plagued by the Vanishing, a whole 75 years ago, and abandoned the place, effectively erasing the memory of - so good old Zenith had to go on for 60 years without supplies ? (That would drive me too into a foolish military campaign, rushing into the Underdark just to get a cup of coffee and some fresh bread …)

To get out of this dilemma, there are two ways – change the timeline, or change the layout of the fortress, adding an other, perhaps secret, corridor, which connects the fortress with some dwarven settlement on the outside, preferrably within Cauldron.
Changing the timeline means that the Vanishing struck later, about ten years ago, and when the support for Zenith ceased, he shortly after decided, that time was right for his crusade – but then every gnome in Cauldron can recall what happened a mere decade ago and will warn the characters – the Vanishing shouln´t be a real threat to them any more …

Changing the layout means adding a corridor which leads upward, but has to be blocked in some way, or be cleverly hidden to remain secret until now (Kazmojen and his cronies had more than a year to get familiar with their new residence)
Best place to place such a corridor would be on the last position the defenders of the fortress would, just in case that the complex is overrun, retreat to (behind the bridge M13)

to be continued ...

I bid thee all greetings, dear audience,

it was a long time since my last contribution to these marvellous threads, but I´m back now with the first Side Trek adventure idea (hopefully others will follow – time is always precious and scedule tight – so please be patient, dear reader of these lines).

The Beast of Cauldron – Chapter Ia

A short Side Trek Adventure taking place directly after Lifes Bazaar. In my campaign it was combined with the revels of Flood-Festival, which was the reason why the characters assembled in Cauldron initially, but the festival wasn´t about to start until their return from the Malachite Fortress. The main reason forselecting that time was to give the characters a better starting position in the competitions and games throughout the fare (no longer first level!), and with a city filled to the brim with visitors, red herrings are easier to place.

The story starts with a grisly murder, the victim, a street-vendor selling fruit and vegetables, is found dead, killed by powerful claw-strikes and partially eaten, in the early morning hours. All tracks found on the crime scene (located near the Drunken Morkoth Inn) suggest that the assailant (who wore brown fur clothing, or was covered with fur) came from above, jumping down from a nearby roof, pouncing on the poor vendor and completing his vile deed, and leaving again on all fours, only to gain speed, and taking wide leaps, to get on the rooftops again, relying heavily on claws to do the climbing.

On the next morning a new body turns up, same clawmarks, and partally eaten, this time a local fisherman, washed ashore on the southern shore of Craterlake, near the piers. One day later the next victim is claimed by the beast, this time near Minutas Board, a shady Halforc and resident of mentioned flophouse, earning his meager living with staging cockfights and similar cruel means of entertainment involving small animals.
But there is good news – he survived the attack – badly wounded he is taken into the custody of the town watch, who rescued him by showing up on patrol. The guardsmen saw only a shape of something large and furred, the beast retreated and escaped, running along the waterline – conciously to avoid tracks – using great speed, so the guards weren´t able to follow.

The Halforc is in very bad shape, his two halfbrothers, who were also on the scene, suffered a far worse fate, both are nearly ripped apart. If the characters are able to supply some healing, the Halforc tells his story about a beast, which runs on all fours, but fights standing upright and using both powerful, clawed arms.

At this time, the Lordmayor announces, that the beast has to be stopped, and a bounty for bringing in the corpse of whatever animal caused this mayhem, is set – and attracts all kinds of competition for our characters – an old ranger past his prime, but with lots of experience; an elven hunter, using some kind of mysticism to locate the beast; a cruel slayer of beasts using poisoned crossbowbolts and some vicious hunting dogs; and, of course – the Stormblades!

Every hunter or hunting party has to register at townhall, and receives a letter which entitles them to openly carry the kind of weapons, ready, they need for the hunt. Soon the bickering begins, every party uses different tactics and constantly seems to get in another hunting partys way (definitly a bad time for furred animal companions) and brawls ensure – sometimes even blows with weapons are exchanged – Lord Skellerangs men have to spend more time going after hunters gone mad than after the quarry in question ...

The beast goes on with its rampaging, staying near the shore, prowling the western half of Cauldron, the next victims include a single would-be hunter, and a barmaid with the bad habit of kicking dogs.
The characters hunt, no matter how carefully planned and executed, yields no success at first, there is no glimpse of the beast to be seen, only having, or carefully avoiding, a blue-on-blue with an other hunting party, puts some action in those boring nights.

But who is behind all that?

Below are some suggestions – which one is the real culprit, is up to you, dear GM, to decide - for you know best, which solution fits your campaign-style, the others are excellent red herrings ...

The (un)usual suspects:

A ranger/druid who has the ability to wildshape and is determined to punish all those, who lack proper respect for nature and her creatures.

A real Lycanthrope/Shapechanger, seeking retribution for a deed in the past, or simply driven by murderous hunger.

Somebody who came into the possesion of an cursed magic item, which allows transformation into beastform, but the user has to pay the price of succumbing into savagery

Somebody who is able to enlarge and magically augment his animal companion – imagine an enlarged dire boar with greater magic fang – to extract revenge

Some kind of Olman warrior/monk from the nearby Armedio jungle, dressed up as wild beast and proficient with claw-like weapons, killing members/progeny of some adventurers who ransacked the holy temple of his people

A wild beast from the jungle, brought into the city by the priests of Korrd, to offer a challenge fighting for young initiates, but the animal freed itself from its chains and escaped – angry and very, very hungry

...

The characters should have one opportunity to fight the beast unprepared, survive, but get some important clues, and one last, climatic fight, when they know about the true nature of the beast and are able at last to get their hard earned victory.

Hopefully you enjoyed this little Side Trek, dear reader,

Yours sincerely, Claremont the Elder, Lord Buckley

Dear audience,
although the magazines clearly state that Lord V and the terrible beholder share the first name, it is certainly a bad idea to stick with. I think the hardcover edition corrected this mistake (I´m not really sure, because I didn´t buy the book)- Lord V got the first name of Alahind instead - which also can be used as a hint, albeit a hint in disguise, because a little shifting of syllables is necesary to get it:

Alahind Valanthru gets changed to D´valan thru´alah´in, an elven expression for "he, who perceives all" - a quite catchy name for the most important advisor of the lordmayor ... but , translated literally the same phrase means "he, who got his eyes everywhere" ...

hopefully that little lession of elfish language helps,
best regards, Claremont the Elder, Lord Buckley

Hi all,

Perhaps I'm missing something obvious, but are the streets of Cauldron named somewhere? The avenues are labeled prominently on the maps of the city, but the streets that wind their way from city wall to Crater Lake are not.

There's Lantern Street (from the orphanage description), but what of the others?

Thanks.

Ully

I bid thee greetings, my friend,

log in and enjoy, Claremont the Elder, Lord Buckley

Dear Forever Man,

things seem to look rather bad right now, but there is hope, as always. First of all, Triel is not a member of the Cagewrights - shes not a part of the whole Adimarchus business, the Ebon Triad only had a contract to fulfill - which they did only to further their own goal of fulfilling the prophecies given (which lead to the age of worms adventure path), Cauldron has to be destroyed for a greater good/evil - therefore you don´t really have to do a great deal of foreshadowing of upcoming threats/villains, if you don´t want to (but now you can share with the players exactly that kind and amount of information, you want them to have - and they will buy all, trusting their spell ...) and even a charmed Triel will only tell what in her opinion is the truth ... Triels history (posted by, among others, the same author, under: the Triel Eldurast file) states clearly, that revenge on Cauldron is Triels main motivation - if a mysterious stranger approached her, telling he has plans that would deal damage to the city, but he needs some help in doing so, she won´t neither ask a great deal of questions about the motivations of that stranger, nore hesitate to give her full support ...

If you try the deus ex machina way, give the players a hint, who is behind the sudden desintegration - they will get the feeling that they stumbled over something important, but have to be careful, if they want to learn more, they have to be brave/foolhardy enough to follow the hint about whom, who is behind all.

I´m sure those little lines did spark lights of imagination within your mind, to be prepared for the challenge,

yours truly, Claremont the elder, Lord Buckley

Dear Gericko,

it tremendously helps if the campaign is something personal for the characters and players alike, and it´s the DMs job to make that clear on from the beginning.
The Characters of my personal SCAP once were all orphans of the Lantern street orphanage and had childish streetfights with those snotty highborn brats, who later would become the Stormblades, they know Patch and trust him because they did that when they were children and they adore Sarcem for the same reason (Valanthru, claiming to be an orphan of the city, too, on the other side made them suspicious, because they didn´t expect such a degree of amiable social bluntnes from an elf ...)
I think that keeping it personal is one of the keys to sucess, because it grants the motivation to stay in character for the player.

I´m looking forward to enjoy more discussion on that topic - gratefully yours, Claremont the Elder, Lord Buckley

The adventure series you mentioned sounds interesting. What magazines would I find it in. Would it fit well? How much modification would it need? How many levels of play would it cover? Would I need to change much of Cauldron/Sasserine to run it? How did you get such a cool avatar?

Thanks for your ideas

Delvesdeep

The City of Shadows Conversion

Dear audience, the adventures I was referring to in my last post were collected in Dungeon magazine issue 117, 118 and 119 (decembre 04 to february 05) – the Abyss trilogy Touch of the Abyss, Shadows of the Abyss,and Wrath of the Abyss, written by Greg A. Vaughan. The original adventures were intended as a sequel to the Vault of the Drow adventure (revolving around Lolths attempt to trap a part of the material plane within her demon-web), but the storyline can, with a good deal of tweaking, be easily modified to fit into the SCAP.
The greatest problem in converting the trilogy is the fact that it was intended for a mid-level group of characters (maximum of 12th level), and the best time to include this side-trek comes after completing Foundation of flames, before the party starts to hunt down Embril and the rest of the remaining cagewrights (at that time the average level of the party should be definitely higher than 12th level) …
Apart from that difficulty, the given story arc fits quite nicely into the ongoing tale of Adimarchus and the Cagewrights, although some changes are required – forgive me for not being able to present a well rounded conversion kit to those who need one right now, but only a rather crude collection of ideas how to do it, because, considering the time my campaign needs to evolve quite nicely, for me there is still plenty of time for preparation ahead . But let´s start:
The main antagonist of the original trilogy is an abyssal entity called Malgoth, which hasn´t the power of physical manifestation yet, but it is well versed in invading peoples dreams, turning them into nightmares, its able to produce effects similar to the dominate person spell, and its powers are associated with madness – to change that into manifestations of Adimarchus stirring madness is quite easy.
The main objective of the first part of the trilogy, called Touch of the Abyss, is finding the missing marquis, who once ruled the city – sounds rather familiar, too – it turns out, that he is imprisoned in the deepest vaults under his own former palace/keep – envision post-eruption Cauldron, wafts of volcanic gases drifting through deserted streets, the occasional plundering of left behind property, and the journey down the vaults of the cityguard keep, where a now dead beholder had imprisoned his greatest political enemy – but the catch is, our poor marquis no longer has both oars in the water, instead he acts as Malgoths voice – imagine a hunger-stricken, frothing Lordmayor Navalant, acting as Adimarchus prophet (an excellent opportunity to feed the party some clues they missed …) and behaving crazier than Zenith and Alec at their worst times – in this madness also lies power, and there is a confrontation with the marquis, which can easily lead to his demise – definitely not the preferred outcome of a quest intended as a rescue-mission, but it may lead to a bit moral dilemma, if the DM and the player are in the mood for that. (high level spellcasters are perhaps able to overcome this problem, new problems with a resurrected lordmayor may occur in the future, if the game involves the political landscape of post-eruption Cauldron – struggles of the mayor noble families and those, who claim a noble title for themselves could be fun!)
The locations of the first part of the story are all in Cauldron, there is no real need to include Sasserine now – in my opinion that helps to further the feeling of OUR CITY in peril, which I plan to evoke gradually in characters and players alike, but let´s turn our attention to the second part of the trilogy:
In the original adventure the entity Malgoth arrived on the material plane hitching some metaphysical piggy-back ride through Lolths demonweb, but stayed unnoticed, even when the web was destroyed, only to corrupt, as its a habit of all abyssal entities, a cleric to do its bidding. The cleric showed his loyalty by sacrificing a superior to grant a body for the shapeless Malgoth – in the past Cauldron had its share of sacrificing, too, when a young Alurad Sorizan wiped out the noble family Hatil (read more about that in the New Cagewright thread by the same author, to know more about Alurads past check out Ridolfins contribution on the same thread, the Hatil family sprung from Dhelvesdeeps mind, pay attention to one of the first magic items on sale at Skies treasury in the beginning of the SCAP – thank you folks for building a strong foundation others can built their castles of imagination on) so its rather easy to connect these incidents and build up some older conspiracy involving the Cagewrights.
During the first part of the Abyss trilogy the characters stumble across the name of the cleric and are able to piece some things together, which leads them to an abandoned temple, where they get ambushed – a great opportunity to show the necromantic vanguard of the remaining Cagewrights around Embril, Alurad and the Necrocants – in the original adventure the cleric made a deal with hill giant occupying a nearby fort, which went wrong – Jarl Khuroks Keep suddenly comes to the DMs mind, doesn´t it – but the cleric is no longer imprisoned, but in the hands of the Drow – which surely can be substituted for an other mayor player in the underdark, or perhaps Cauldrons eruption shook more people up, than anybody had anticipated ... - who seek an alliance to overtake their surface-dwelling competitors for once and all ...
The background of the Hatil executions has still to be fleshed out to make perfect sense, right now it is not exactly sure, what the Cagewrights intended to achieve, perhaps it was a crude attempt to release and channel Shackleborn energies which didn´t yield the desired effect – constructing the soulcages to make the process more controllable could have been the direct consequence of this badly executed field-test (sorry for the pun).
The growing tension of being the only one to protect what is left of Cauldron from scavengers should – hopefully - dramatically improve the sense of responsibility in the characters hearts.
In the last part of the trilogy, Wrath of the Abyss, the characters follow the lead and descend into the underdark – once again for those whose career started with Lifes Bazaar – to learn more about their antagonist to finally confront and face the Malgoth, using the sacrificed body as a focus, in a climatic battle ...
- That could be a taste of what is waiting for the characters in the aftermath of Strike on Shatterhorn, and give them some ideas about what is really going on – their first clash with Adimarchus madness, which still threatens Cauldron and the waking world ...

Hopefully my rants were entertaining enough to keep you reading, and good ideas to further improve the concept are as always welcome, so let the ideas fly, my fellow DMs –

humble at your service, Claremont the Elder, Lord Buckley

p.s.: the avatar was the 23rd to choose from – surely there is a kind of conspiracy behind all that ...

After Chapter 9[/b], another idea I had was to have the party be contacted by Ophella Knowlern concerning the missing Lord Mayor. The idea was that Nalavant secretly approached her in Hallowsky to reveal his suspicions of Vhalantru and of his deep concerns about his growing influence on the concil and in the city as a whole. He found it increasingly difficult to make any ruling or appose any decision Vhalantru made.

Dear Dhelvesdeep,

I really like your idea of an investigation concerning the whereabouts of the missing lordmayor (to be honest, I like almost every post of yours), and I´ve always been a fan of dungeons three part adventure saga taking place in the city of shadows.
Substituting post-eruption Cauldron for the City of shadows, an imprisoned lordmayor, touched by the madness of Adimarchus for the voice of the demonic malgoth entity, getting the chance of introducing the giants of yarl kuroks keep into play, and enjoying another trip into the dangerous deeps of the underdark - all fits perfectly and gives the players a whole lot of opportunities to gain additional, much needed, expierience in the time between Cauldrons destruction and the climatic sequences with the fallen angel.

Let those olde brains storm, Claremont the Elder, Lord Buckley

This is good; Really good. Do you have any ideas how any of this is learned by the PCs? or how much of it?

Robert

Dear Robert,

it depends on whom your PCs are on friendly terms with, Skylar is, of course, the best source and will, if the PCs earned his trust and respect, tell everything he knows, bit by bit. A disgruntled Shemwick will also not hesitate to tell his (heavily biased) version of what has happened, and there is also the possibility of talking to Triels old mentor, if the PCs are somehow connected to the cityguard.
But beware, whoever has sold Triel out in the past - he is still in the force, and a now major player for the Guild of the last Laugh - inquiries about Triels past will surely get his attention and may spark a sidetrek-adventure during the winter - involving the insideman, the Guild and the cityguard.
I´m planning to start a new thread in the immidiate future dealing with such sidetrek adventures, it will be called "straying from the path - the sidetreks" - watch out for it ...

with dearest regards, Claremont the elder, Lord Buckley

I bid thee greetings, DM in trouble, let´s see, which dirty secrets we can dig up ...

The Triel Eldurast File

As long as anybody could remember, young Triel wanted to be a city-guard. But it wasn´t for the shiny breastplates, the lightning-blue plume on the helmets, or the great parade on the second day of flood festival, which held a never ending fascination for the small,skinny girl she was, it was the idea of upholding the law, which captured her heart.
She idolized the city watchmen for being the symbol of safety – these people patrolled the jungles, roads and city streets to make sure that no wild beast, thug, or other menance had the chance to prey on unsuspecting merchants, travellers or citizens – they were all that stood between the chaos outside and the innocents, who they had sworn to protect .
Triel has always been determined – some would rather say stubborn and unflinching, but Triel never gave much about what other people thought about her, and even less about their idle gossip – and having a goal without reaching it has never ever been her thing.
So Cauldrons biggest boy club had no chance, except to welcome sooner or later one of the first female guardsmen within their ranks – but first a whole lot of people had to be convinced, that this was a good idea. Being born as a merchants granddaughter and having no martial tutoring whatsoever didn´t help, either, but obstacles are here to overcome and to grow in the process …
Soon Triel excelled in weapon training, her knowledge of the local law became impressive to encyclopaedical and her attitude never to back away from any kind of challenge led to a formidable reputation for being capable of handling almost any situation. That and a few called favors ( granddaddys name and financial influence didn´t hurt here ) were enough to get her into basic training.
Being better than any male applicant at any task at hand didn´t help Triel in the task of making friends within the force, which led to Triels reputation as a loner. Only Sgt. Instructor Naelan Crispwood and the only other trainee with a similar attitude to hers, a guy named Skylar Krewis, were the only important persons in Triels life during the training year.
The first one as mentor – a role, that the longest serving, halfelven veteran of the force already filled for several generations of trainees - the second one at first to share a friendly rivalry with, friendship later, and even love, Skylar and Triel were betrothed in the same week they finished training and became full fledged members of the city guard.
Her first months with the force were all that Trielhad ever dreamt of, for now it was her, protecting the innocents and punishing the guilty, she was the person, who stood for the law, the visible, acting part, who took care, that law was no longer just an abstract term, or concept, but something visible, something the innocents can trust and feel safe because of.
Then, a new threat raised its ugly, painted head.
Cauldron always had its share of thugs with painted faces, indulging in petty theft and scaring elderly citicens, but when Thavalar the Crooked, most influential fence of the city, was assasinated – not only he, but his entourage of four bodyguards, too – in bright daylight, midday, on the steps to Shurefoots Livery, by two men with painted faces and dressed up as jesters, everybody knew that the times had changed, and none for the better.
The two assailants escaped, and a crime-spree began to haunt the city watch in the following days, influencial nobles were robbed – everybody in Cauldron remembers the famous Rhiavadi Mansion heist - , warehouses plundered and the hired guards killed without mercy. Nobody seemed safe, even the movers and shakers of the local branch of the underworld sooner or later had to decide if they accepted the offer to become member in the so called Guild of the Last Laugh under the leadership of the so called Jesters, cruel twins, who guaranteed that everyone, turning down their offer, met an untimely demise.
All efforts of the guard to keep the peace, failed, some most horribly, the members of the new guild seemed exactly to know where and when a guardpatrol was on the way. Soon accusations began to fly, rumors about at least one inside man within the ranks of the guard begun to circulate, and suspision rose.
It was terrible for Triel, because the neat categories, in which she used to think, crumbled to nothingness, there were no longer the innocents, the protectors, and the bad guys … criminals approached the cityguard, offering information about the Guild of the Last Laugh in exchange for personal safety and dropping all charges against them, watchmen openly accepted bribes to guarantee the safety of civillians, and “innocent citizens” sold out watchpatrols for a quicj buck.
Triel realized, that the innocents were few in numbers, but those, who deserved punishment, became more and more. In a rather desperate moment she volunteered for a secret mission, given by Khyron Sedgewick, one of the trusted lieutnant of the Captain of the Guard, Terseon Skellerang, himself – to track down the inside man within the guards own ranks.
She never told anybody else, not ever Skylar, what she was about to do, and a clever deception was devised: Triel losing her temper when interrogating a small-time information broker named Atus Shemwick – and nearly breking his leg in the process – she had to be held back by Krewis, her partner, to prevent further nastiness. Some other acts of releasing pumped up anger followed, making her prime candidate for being kicked out of the watch.
When one of Triels touts, the head-bouncer at the Green Eel Tavern, named Keoghan Kharatys, told her, that he overheard something important, Triel was on her way, but, alas, too late.
She only met two fellow guardsmen, Hemon Dresker and Mihel Callagher, cleaning their weapons after a “particularly unfortunate case of domestic violence” and stepping back from the bodies of Keoghan and Elisabeth Karathys, whom “they were too late to protect from unknown assaulters, probably halforcs from Shantytown”, who “were unfortunately able to escape, after they coldblooded struck down an officer of the guard”, as the official report puts it.
Triel signed the report, took care that the newly orphaned baby-boy Terrem found his way to the Lanternstreet Orphanage ( more about him in the “Who is(t) Terrem Karathys”-thread by the same author ) , didn´t ask any questions and shadowed her fellow guardsmen Dresker and Callagher to find out more.
She did, and in the resulting battle Triel Eldurast killed several guardsmen, all of them bought by the Guild of the Last Laugh, and no other than Khyron Sedgewick among them.
He taunted her – What will you do? Kill the only person who knows about your mission? The only one who can offer redemption? Are sure that you want that?
Triel was.
But unfortunately for her, she didn´t get all bought guardsmen of Cauldron … and one of them left had the reputation of being a paragon of justice, truth and the Cauldronite way, and he saw his chance – if he could arrest Triel for slaughtering the watchmen he could also use her as a scapegoat for other incidents, and eventually present her as the inside man. But first, he had to arrest her …
Triel, severely wounded, left the city after having a message delivered to Krewis, the only man left she could trust now, in which she asked him to meet her.
And Skylar came, but he wasn´t alone, there were other guards with him, guards who were enraged, guards who wanted her head for the slaughter – and Triel realized in a strange calm, that there were no innocents any more, nobody she could protect, only herself.

She doesn´t know why she spared Skylars life, maybe for the sake of the old, better times, but one thing she knows for sure – there are no more innocents, everyone is guilty of something and therefore deserves to be punished , a whole city , and they will be punished…

Hopefully this was of assistance and worth reading, let me know, if those revelations pleased you, my dear audience - yours truly, Claremont the elder, Lord Buckley

As always, dhelvesdeep is right, but if your party wants to find out more about the boy Terrem, try the "who is(t) Terrem Karathys" thread - sorry for the typo - enyoy ...

yours truly Claremont the Elder, Lord Buckley

Players are a crafty lot and tend to ask the wrong questions at the worst possible timethe DM can think of – they have a keen sense for knowing that their DM isn´t prepared for an innocent sounding question like:
Who is this orphan boy, and, why is a big, scary beholder interested in him?
Just telling them, that they can´t find out, is both unsatisfying and completely unrealistic, because nobody treads that lightly and leaves no tracks ...
So, dear Fellow Dms, lean back nd enyoy, what research dug up:

Kharatys, Terrem, only son of Keoghan Kharatys, headbouncer at the Green Eel Tavern, dedicated follower of Korrd, the Brawler, rumored to be of half-orcish descent, with a criminal record of using excessive force doing his job; and
Elisabeth Kharatys, born Veskar, seamstress and abandoned by the Veskar family for “running off with some filthy mongrelman showing tusks”- as every selfrespecting member of the Cauldronite Veskars would put it .
(for more information on the Veskar family, check out the Fleshing out Cauldron Thread)
Terrem was baptized in blood and tears in the temple of Our lordly Might at Obsidian Avenue, Cauldron, and became an orphan shortly afterwards, due to a “nasty incident of domestic violence, happening in the halforc ghetto of shantytown”as a footnote in the city-guards daily reports files it.
(a tidbit for the conspiracy specialists, the footnote was filed by an young, rookie city-guard named Triel Eldurast, who handed over baby Terrem to the headmistress of the Lanternstreet orphanage, who can easily recall most of the above mentioned)

To get further information, we leave the orphanage, and check out the parents family histories, where the temple of Korrd, where both families attended services and participated in the games and competitions, is our next stop.

Keoghan Kharatys, as a devout follower had an outstanding record of victory, or coming close to winning, but getting disqualified in the end for showing too much enthusiasm – meaning deliberately maiming and, on one occasion crippling a direct opponent – more about that case in the city watch files.
He scored even better than the former champion, his older brother Repion II, who left Cauldron years ago to join the army (and never to be heard of again), he showed all the virtues his sister, Grellis, lacked.
“Poor Grellis couldn´t cope with the challenges of daily life, and ended in the gutter – where all the whiners and wash-ups, fallen from the grace of his lordly might, end up” as a devout priest would put it.
Finding Grellis isn´t difficult for a rogue, or someone connected,, and getting her to tell her story only costs a couple of silvers and stiff grogs ...
“Yes, I´m Terrems auntie, and no, I couldn´t take care of him, after wahat happened to him, having too much troubles myself” - having suffered a lot in the past and being on the long, road spiralling downto the very bottom of existence, Grellis is an addict and a source of cheap entertainment for halforcs in need. If telling her story pays at least as well as another stop in the alleyways back, she will talk, as long as the silver flows ...
Grellis is the daughter of Repion I Kharatys, and Amalda, born Vaine, decent folk who worked hard and cared for their children, poor, but righteous, and not a lying, backstabbing buch as the ruthless Veskars are.

Yes, Grellis can tell a tale or two about those greedy, inbred butchers and tanners, who abandoned poor, delicate Elisabeth for following her heart and love of her life, handsome Keoghan – curse them all!
Especially old, creepy Sandor, whose idea of a perfect marriage involves getting the family closer together to preserve their oh, so pure blood!
He is the complete opposite to Grellis´dear mother, may the celestials bless her soul, the daughter of Kellem and Grellis Vaine (our Grellis inherited her grandmothers name), and granddaughter of Ardeth Vaine, a noble lady indeed. Grellis is aware about the fact, that there is no noble family bearing the name Vaine in Cauldron - it is a very common name in the area – but this Ardeth was of proud and noble demeanor, surely the product of upperclass upbringing and education.
More grog will keep the memories flowing, and what else is told, is up to the DM to decide.

Let´s take a deep look at the family of Terrems dear mother (the Fleshing out Cauldron Thread bout the Veskars will be helpful, too) and their business. Athough the Veskars are a tightlipped lot, flattery and a keen interest in their flourishing enterprises may unlock some further secrets

Numerous rumors about the Veskars are in constant circulation, and only few of them are pleasant, but the fact state:
Elisabeth was the only child of Orgo and Lucinda Veskar, born Veskar – yes, correctly, Lucinda married her second degree cousin Orgo of the Sasserinite branch of the family – and was abandoned after the union with a rumored halfblood the family disapproved of.
“Her own grandfather, patriarch Sandor, had to give the orders of abandoning his beloved grandchild, acting against the will of the family and comitting treason to all the families ideals by running off with some unkempt, orcblooded street-thug” her father Orgo, the parfumer would say with a long sigh of grief, before mentioning the special irony of all this, because Sandors father, Kellem, had to order his own wife and mother of Sandor to exile for not showing proper respect and obiedience.
Unlike Elisabeth, this Ardeth spat on those family-members, who gave her a warm welcome and was most ungrateful for all that was given to her – her name, before the marriage says it all – for it was Vaine, Ardeth Vaine ...

That leaves us with an interesting question: are those two Ardeths the same person? And what is true about her, has she been the noble lady, or the women scoffing at all the Veskars could offer?
And finally, why do we talk like she´s already dead? - Those who follow the New Cagewright Thread will be ready for a surprise, that much is guaranteed ...

Further research about Ardeth Webb ... ahem, of course, Ardeth Vaine, and her possible involvement in the Cagewrights plans will follow

Let me know, if those revelations pleased you, my dear audience - yours truly, Claremont the elder, Lord Buckley

This thinktank already has seen many opinions about the how and when of foreshadowing important members of the Cagewrights, but , it seems, that a special lady always gets overlooked.
Poor little Ardeth Webb, almost 150 years old, at least 90 of them in the service of Dyr´ryd and now being degraded to a mere footnote in the history of the SCAP?
That´s naughty, because this lady is more important than anybody has realized yet …
Longlived, as she is, she is one of the longest serving cagewrights, constantly advancing in ranks and being smart, she surely knows a tad or two about the real purpose of the whole shackleborn business
Being a Tiefling, means that the outsider blood is strong within her, making her a prime candidate for being shackleborn herself – but much too valuable just to be put into a cage and sacrificed
As dyr´ryds right hand girl she has been in charge of of protecting the obese demodand and his cause, which surely involved a good deal of violence, ruthlessness, and other, even more sinister things …
As it is put in the introduction of the SCAP hardcover edition, some of the Cagewrights began to to fear that the shackleborn would die off completely before the ritual could be perfected – there is one solution for this problem, which is quite simple, at least to a twisted mind like Dyr´ryds, and that is
Why not try to infuse an old, tainted bloodline with fresh blood …
In the about ninety years of service, Ardeth had to do this “job” on several occasions, using different aliases, and therefore left “footprints” in some genealogical trees of the shackleborn families in Cauldron, tying her directly to the noble family Hatil (whose members, with only two excemptions, were executed for treason by an young henchman for hire, spotting strange, red, tattoos on his face) and the not so noble families Veskar (more about the Veskars in the Fleshing out Cauldron Thread) and Kharatys (more about that in the upcoming Who ist Terrem K. Thread) – although she preferred the name of Ardeth Vaine, a quite common name in the cauldron area, at that time.
Cunning genealogist will see that Ardeth is Terrems greatgrandmother, counting both bloodlines.

An other of the Cagewrights is already quite prominent in the foreshadowing business, but there are still some things left to tell …
Alurad Sorizan, a tall, dark and loathsome paladin, honouring the ways of the god of slaughter, who, as research by Dhelvesdeep uncovered, already had an unpleasant encounter with the Striders of Fharlaghn, which claimed the life of Meerthans former master.
Although there are some rumors about his past, connecting him with numerous acts of seemingly random violence and murder in the countryside, even less is known about his role in the afore mentioned Sasserine incident, but we can safely assume, that the young henchman for hire, who executed single-handedly nearly the whole family Hatil, after being tried for treason, in an especially gruesome, stomachturning way – even the Cauldron Herald refused to give a detailed description of the ongoings, and the public was excluded – for reasons still unknown – was the same redfaced madman of now.
Cicling rumors about the morbid artsy, choreographed and almost ritualistic way the remaining 13 family members were slaughtered, sprung up shortly after it was generally known what little fee the henchman demanded.
The whole business left a vile, bitter taste, and was, of course, orchestrated by the Cagewrights.
At the moment, we cannot be shure, if this was done to get rid of an unwanted competitor, or just one especially vile field test to perfest the ritual of releasing shackleborn energy … further research will be necessary, to uncover the truth.

Yours truly, Claremont the elder, lord Buckley

The Cauldronite family Veskar

Business in Cauldron means mostly family business, and that is especially true – in every aspect – for the Veskars, one of the oldest families of the city, who singlehanded control most of the slaughterhouses, skinning businesses, tanneries and soap kitchens.
Although not a noble family by birthright, the veskars are very proud of theit lineage, their emphasis on family-values, and the fact, that every “real” Veskar is pure blooded human, without a trace of elven, or, the gods may beware, orcish blood in their veins.
Keeping the blood “strong and pure” has led to some rather dubtful marriages between distant – and more than often, not too distant – relatives, causing a great deal of gossip about the Veskars, and their reputation as a sometimes too close knit clan of unsavy individuals, who show a love for their chosen profession (always involving blood or/and shiny sharp tools od the trade), which is disturbing at best.
The typical Veskar male familymember tends to be not overly handsome, but powerful, burly built, sometimes a little hunched over, the spot droopy mustaches and often wild, unruly hair. Their wives and daughters are usually of quite lithe, sinewy but graceful built, and generally have dour, humorless expressions on their faces – some say, that´s because they marry early, to help bringing more and more Veskars into this world …
The Veskars are many, and mostly keep to themselves, they aren´t a talkative lot, eighter, what seems to lead to more rumors about the family, and are strong supporters of the church of Korrd in Cauldron.
A Sasserinite branch of the Veskars also exists, the two branches share the same business interests, but the Sasserinite branch is usually more outgoing than their Cauldronite counterpart.
The Veskars value the family and its interests above everything else, and those, who suceed in pleasing their elders, are as greatly rewarded, as those, who fail, are punished. Those familymembers with a rebellious streak, who are stubborn, or foolhardy, enough to argue, or declare their doubts about the way of the family, can expect to be kicked out of the city – literally – and face a life in exile …
Persistent rumors hint that the Veskars are capable of disposing dead bodies witout attracting any unwelcome attention, and some of the family butchers may (or may not – the DMs decision) do a bit of legbreaking (up to full fledged assasination) on the side.
Important familymembers include the patriarch Sandor, almost 80 by now, and still a harsh and unvorgiving ruler; his wife, and mother of ten children, Elisabeth; their eldest son Devon, who does most of the administrative work; cousin Orgo of the Sasserinite branch, the most skilled perfumer in Cauldron, owner of a flourishing soap kitchen, and the most stylish (he dresses like a true fop) of the Veskars, and Ricaldo, one of Sandors grandchildren, who was amongst the recent kidnapping victims, a fact, which rather upset the family – rumor says, they are out for blood – literally …
The Vescar family has its fair share of shackleborn within their ranks, the youngest amongst them Ricaldo, who wasn´t captured by Kazmojens skulks, but taken away by the Cagewrights themselves, and if someone paid attention to the Veskars genealogical tree, she would stumble over the fact, that Terrem Kharatys belongs to the Veskars by blood – although not pure – read more about it in the upcoming thread: who is Terrem?

Always at your service - yours truly, Claremont the elder, Lord Buckley

Our favorite, axe-wielding halftroll-slaver has amassed a respectable amount of wealth, stored in his secret vault. Low level characters call such a hoard at lest verrry impressive and some of them (those pesky smart ones) will ask the dreadful question:
“Where did all that come from?”
For the DM that´s a very good question, considering the fact, that old K.´s slavering business doesn´t seem to run especially well - I mean, according to the web-enhancement to Life´s Bazaar, there were a total of 25 cases of dissappearing townsfolk in the last three months, and even when we assume, that old K.´s cronies were behind all those kidnappings, we also know that 13 of these haven´t been sold when the characters enter the scene …
Some of the victims had to stay for a rather long time in those prison cells, where they had to get food and water to remain in shape for reselling, but old K. offers the children at a discount rate of 50 goldpieces for each of them to Pyllrak, who acted on behalf of an interested buyer, who had ordered the children in advance.
What we also know, is, that the dark-creepers and skulks sell their victims to old K. for further reselling.
And, finally, keeping a household consisting of 25 hobgoblin guards and 5 goblin servants costs money, too.
As far as we can tell, old K. has to worry about a lot of expenses, but very little income, but still manages to have a great deal of wealth, which has to come from a previously unknown source …
The belongings of the kidnapped victims are not a very likely source, because the skulks have kept most of the loot for themselves, only valuables the victims kept close to their bodies (for example, Ms. Pikes walking-cane) found their way into the malachite fortress.
Lord Orbius is also a most unlikely candidate for funding old K.s operations, because it is clearly stated in the adventure book, that Lord Orbius only allowed K. to conduct business in exchange for information about current ongoings in the local part of the Underdark – payment of any kind was never mentioned.
- So, we have to ask ourselves, which options for a steady income does a shrewd business-troll like old K. have?
He owns a fortress, employs guards – therefore we can guess, that he gets paid for guarding something valuable, which is most likely stored at the location old K. considers the safest – his treasure vault.
Going through the items of the vault, the most sinister looking are the black, iron, demon-shaped keys – which seem almost to cry out : plot-device, plot-device!
I´d like to use those keys for tie the adventures in Cauldron together, perhaps they are important to some movers and shakers of the underdark, or the guild of the last laugh, perhaps they mean something to the cagewrights, or even to a Cauldronite noble with not exactly noble intentions …
Has anybody out there some further suggestions, leading to memorable side-treks, which doors those keys will unlock?

Let those olde brains storm - yours truly, Claremont the elder, Lord Buckley