I know nothing of the adventure, as I came to Dungeon after it's publication, and only recently subscribed. Then again, I am a new *returner* to D&D after 12 years anyway.
I have returned to D&D with Eberron and I'm curious to know if this adventure will fit into my world, and if so...with how much work?
I will be playing this in Eberron. I began subscribing to Dungeon after the SH guys were already in higher levels. First, my group will be playing the age of worms though.
There is some hope on these boards that there will be some recommendations from Paizo for playing shackled city in Eberron and the Realms, but who knows?
Otherwise, I'm sure it will fit somewhere in Khorvaire without too much work.
Rooster
I am planning on running Shackled City in Eberron. I will be working on a detailed conversion within the next few weeks, assuming nothing "official" comes out from Paizo in the meantime. I don't think it will be too much work (and it should be fun). Other than the names of deities, there isn't too much campaign specific info to the adventures.
Right now I believe I want to set Cauldron in the mountains (Greywall mtns?) on the border of Breland and Droaam. Some people have suggested Q'Barra or Xen'drik. I think these are good options, but I am more familiar with Breland and I think it would be fun to have a few side trips to Sharn.
Other than that, Church of St. Cuthbert = Silver Flame; Pelor & Kord = Dol Arrah or Dorn (I forget which is which off the top of my head), Wee Jas = Blood of Vol. Some of the local businesses in town will be owned by specific Dragonmarked Houses. The half-troll slaver in Life's Bazaar will be selling the kidnapped victims to the monsters of Droaam. I plan to make the half-orc merks hired by Vhalantru, all warforged, which should be interesting. Maybe Vhalantru even has a deal with the Lord of Blades who is supplying the mercenaries?
I will post more specific info later as I work on the conversion. This is just off the top of my head with no books in front of me. I am interested to hear other people's ideas as well.
Excellent, I'll keep my eyes open.
I have returned to D&D with Eberron and I'm curious to know if this adventure will fit into my world, and if so...with how much work?
It will definitely fit into your world. As for how much work it will require to make it do so... that is going to depend on how Eberron-specific you want to make it, and on how much work you *want* to do. Do some exploration on these boards, and run a search through the archives (with keywords "Shackled" and "Eberron," for example) and you'll find a LOT of interesting ideas from other people's campaigns. You'll also start to get a sense for yourself about how time-intensive of an adaptation you want to do.
It sounds like many people are just picking up Cauldron as-is, plopping it down in Khorvaire somewhere, and not doing much more work than that. Changing the names of the gods to fit Eberron gods, etc. Could be as easy as that for you.
Others are taking a lot of time to adjust all of the various planar settings to Eberron-specific versions, updating the NPCs to fit Eberron standards and new races/classes, etc.
Basically, the adventure is cool and could be run in Eberron with as much/little effort as you want to put into it.
I am interested to hear other people's ideas as well.
Me, too! All this discussion is good fuel for the imagination.
I'm going the lot-of-work route in my campaign. I decided that I didn't want to, in my world, just squish Occipitus and Carceri, etc. into the existing Eberron cosmology. I have changed the entire Cagewright plot into a Dreaming Dark plot; the goal is not to tear open a portal to Carceri, but to Dal Quor. This, obviously, is going to involve a LOT of adaptation in later adventures (as I have to change out Demodands for Quori, rethink some of the Cagewrights themselves, etc.), but doesn't have too much impact on the early part of the Adventure Path.
I've decided to set the adventure in Sharn, just 'cuz my players and I LOVE the setting and the companion book, and I thought it would be an interesting challenge to run the AP's events against a much larger scale. Don't get me wrong - Cauldron, as presented, is also very cool and well detailed, but my players really wanted to explore Sharn, so that's where I decided to go. Instead of the volcano, I've got the lava pools of the Cogs; instead of the small-scale politics of Cauldron, I've got the scheming of the Sharn Council and the Lord Mayor; Vhalantru is masquerading as an Aerenal Elf and he just (in the last elections) ousted Councilor Maza Thadian from her seat on the Council (representing Upper Northedge); instead of the Last Laugh, I'm using the Boromar Clan; I've replaced the Striders with the Trust (of Zilargo); Jzadirune becomes an old *goblin* enclave from Dur'Shaarat days and the Malachite Hold was a *hobgoblin* outpost, skulks in my world are actually hobgoblins from the old Empire that were cast out of society, rather than humans; etc, etc.
To fit the whole corrupted-churches theme of Eberron, I'm using a temple of Aureon to replace the evil activities of the church of Wee Jas. The Silver Flame has replaced St. Cuthbert in my campaign, too. Jenya's an adpet. Rufus is an expert.
Down the line, as things progress, I will attempt to use as many of the new Eberron monsters as I can to replace "old-standby" D&D creatures. I plan on swapping out the Kuo-Toas (which are very "traditional D&D"-y and have appeared in several recent adventures I've run) in Bhal-Hamatugn (sp?) and use the more Eberron-specific Sauhagin. I may (I haven't decided yet) replace the Spellweavers with Daelkyr. Etc.
So... getting back to Soulkeeper’s question, in my case there is a lot of changing to do, but the adventure is so cool and open to individual ideas/tweaks that I think it'll be a lot of fun.
I plan to make the half-orc merks hired by Vhalantru, all warforged, which should be interesting.
I’m doing the same. One of my PCs is warforged and I’m hoping to get him caught up in some nastiness as public opinion/trust of warforged plummets.
Maybe Vhalantru even has a deal with the Lord of Blades who is supplying the mercenaries?
I’m also hoping to get the Lord of Blades involved. I haven’t squared away how he’s involved in my campaign yet. Maybe he’ll be one of the Big Bads invited to the meeting during LORDS OF OBLIVION?...
The half-troll slaver in Life's Bazaar will be selling the kidnapped victims to the monsters of Droaam.
That’s a great idea; I think I’ll steal it. Maybe my Kazmojen is a member of Daask.
I'm going the lot-of-work route in my campaign. I decided that I didn't want to, in my world, just squish Occipitus and Carceri, etc. into the existing Eberron cosmology. I have changed the entire Cagewright plot into a Dreaming Dark plot; the goal is not to tear open a portal to Carceri, but to Dal Quor. This, obviously, is going to involve a LOT of adaptation in later adventures (as I have to change out Demodands for Quori, rethink some of the Cagewrights themselves, etc.), but doesn't have too much impact on the early part of the Adventure Path.
Wow. I'm impressed. Sounds very cool, but a little too ambitious a project for me. I'll be taking the change the names approach, and change a few NPCs, monsters, and locales to Eberron.
I've decided to set the adventure in Sharn, just 'cuz my players and I LOVE the setting and the companion book,...
I thought of this, but again too much work for my schedule. I'm going with the Greywall mountains location so a side trip or two to Sharn is possible. I may also set the kuo-toan/underdark dungeon somewhere in Xen'drik.
I may also set the kuo-toan/underdark dungeon somewhere in Xen'drik.
I'm thinking of doing maybe Shatterhorn in Xen'drik. I'll probably put the Demonskar in the Demon Wastes. Or maybe the Mournland. I definitely want to involve both Xen'drik and the Mournland, but haven't fully settled on where all of the individual sites are going to be relocated.
Did you read that article of Keith Baker's at the WotC site about the Shulassakar?:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ebds/20040920a
I just stumbled across it. One of those could be a very cool replacement for what's-her-face, the celestial woman that "helps out" from time to time, first appearing out by the Demonskar. (Sorry, I don't have any of my books with me.)
I will be running the Shackled City AP in Eberron shortly. Here are the changes I made to Cauldron:
Place Cauldron in the Howling Peaks, which are in the nation of Zilargo near the Breland border.
The city's founder, Surabar Spellmason, becomes Surabar d'Cannith
Tereson Skellerang becomes Tereseon d'Deneith
The Church of St. Cuthbert becomes the Church of the Silver Flame. Replace Jenya's subordinates (except Rufus) with adepts. The Church does not carry potions and scrolls, but House Jorasco does.
Maavu Arlintal becomes Maavu d'Cannith. Replace his wizard levels with levels of magewritght. He warehouse is patrolled by warforged warriors rather than human fighters
Lady Ophellha Knowlern becomes Lady Ophellha ir'Knowlern
The Drunken Morkoth Inn and Tipped Tankard Tavern is owned and operated by House Ghallanda
Replace Adrick Garthûn rogue and fighter levels with expert and warrior levels respectively.
Lord Zachary Aslaxin and Zachary Aslaxin II become Lord Zachary ir'Aslaxin and Zachary ir'Aslaxin II respectively
Temple of Lordly Might worships Dol Dorn instead of Kord. Replace all clerics except Asfelkir with adepts.
Lord Mayor Severen Navalant becomes Lord Mayor Severen ir'Navalant
Cathedral of Wee Jas becomes Cathedral of Vol. Replace clerics save Embril, Ike, and Calmus with adepts
Church of Pelor becomes Church of Olladra
Lord Orbius Vhalantru becomes Lord Orbius ir'Vhalantru
Lady Thifirane Rhiavadi becomes Lady Thifirane ir'Rhiavadi
Lord Ankhin Taskerhill and Annah Taskerhill become Lord Ankhin ir'Taskerhill and Annah ir'Taskerhill respectively
Cora Lathenmire becomes Cora d'Cannith
Replace Half-Orc mercenaries with warforged warriors
The Striders of Fharlanghn becomes the Striders of Kol Korran
Also, here are some changes I made to Life's Baazar:
Make Jil a changeling
Rufus and Jenya are clerics of the Silver Flame.
Make Neva Fanister of the Lantern Street Orphanage a halfling. Her name changes to Neva d'Jorasco, and she has the Mark of Healing.
Make Patch of the Lantern Street Orphange a half-orc expert 2
Make Kazmojen a male half-illithid dwarf fighter 2. He works for the Cult of the Dragon Below.
Replace Kazmojen's Hobgoblin minions with Dolgaunts, but reduce in number (1 Dolgaunt for every 4 hobgoblins, rounded down with minimum of 1)
Replace Kazmojen's Goblin minions with Dolgrims, but reduce in number (1 Dolgrim for every 3 goblins, rounded down with minimum of 1)
Great ideas. I agree with a lot of these suggestions.
One more idea: I originally was also going to make the Church of Wee Jas = Blood of Vol. However, I just read Keith Baker's notes on the Age of Worms conversion in the online supplement to #124. He mentioned something called the cult of Restful Watch, that venerates both Aureon and the Keeper. I am going to use this in place of the Church of Wee Jas; except it is a front only.
Unknown to most townspeople and even most worshippers, the Church really venerates the Blood of Vol. Ike Iverson and the other cleric (Embril?) worship the Blood of Vol and the Church supports the Emerald Claw. This will help later in the series when the PCs enter that Church and if I recall correctly, it is chock full of undead.
I just want to encourage everyone to post their Eberron conversion notes. It is a ton of work and if you guys are like me you just "wing" it with very few actual "notes" taken. But for those of you with better brains and more time then myself, I humbly request that you keep your Eberron notes coming.
The adventure path is awsome. Neither me or the guys I play with want to leave Eberron for some time. I feel it would be a waste of a great adventure (and the 60 dollars I spent on the hardcover) if we didnt have some sort of conversion for SC:AP.
Thanks
I think the Jungle is just for fluff, and can be easily switched to heavy forest or swampy land. I personally was going to turn Sesserin into sharn and have Cauldron located in Breland in the Howling peaks or the Greywall, though that would put Sesserin in Droamm right?
What house if any should the chisel belong to? I'm thinking they are a group who are trying to make it despite the houses control of trade, so they wouldnt belong to any one house per say.
I am making the Chisal a fringe group of House Cannith. The whats his name Spellmason was a adventerous member of house Cannith who pacified the region for monetary purposes. After a while House cannith left "Spellmason" D'cannith and his secretive and odd familiy aone. To this day the Chisel is given wide berth by the House, they are eccentric and secretive. As long as House cannith recives its share of profits the Cauldron region is left to the the Chisel.