|
I posted a similar thread in the Age of Worms forum, but after looking at the Shackled City book a while I'm leaning toward running it instead.
The problem is that I've already started my game, in the Sunless Citadel, though they haven't actually entered it yet. I've set it in Oerth in the Yeomanry and the characters don't have any reason to run off to whereever I'd set Shackled City.
The idea I had was that in the Dragonpriest's tomb on the first level would be the last artifact that the Cagewrights need for their ritual, but they need someone else, someone without traceable ties to them, to open the tomb. Reason being that powerful forces are watching the tomb, knowing the artifact is important to some future important event, but not knowing what.
So whoever it is set up scrying magic to notify them of who retrieves the artifact. Once the party triggers the enchantments it gives the Cagewrights the opening to swoop in and steal the artifact from them, without being directly scryed upon. They know the watchers of the artifact will track down where it went eventually, but by then it will be too late, their ritual will be complete.
The Cagewrights' agent kills the party, takes the artifact and teleports out. Here's where things get kinda railroady. One of the characters is a cleric of Mayaheine, recently ascended demigoddess and former paladin of Pelor, from the Greyhawk Gazetteer. Mayahiene, the Gazetteer says, is from another world, brought here to fight evil.
Mayaheine scoops up the characters' souls and offers them a deal. She can restore them to life if they'll agree to travel to her original world, where I'd set Shackled City, and investigate things there. She'd tell them a little about the events transpiring, but not too much. Using offworlders, low level ones at that, to counter the Cagewrights' plans allows her to slip under their radar so to speak, just as the Cagewrights were attempting to do in grabbing the artifact.
Mayahiene sends the party to Cauldron where the Shackled City campaign kicks in.
Sound plausible? I haven't read enough in the SC book to solidify all the details yet, so any suggestions?
which hooks did you use to start the sunless citadel?
Was it possibly the search for the missing adventures/youths?
if so i think you could wrap that up just using the first level from Sunless Citadel.
Have them alive but have been sold into slavery ..make the head Hobgoblin guy part of the slavery ring that has documents in his possession that leads to the slavery ring in cauldron.
when the players get to cauldron they'll hear of the kidnapped kids and put two and two together and realise there is a grander plot based out of cauldron and the rescue of the missing adventures from sunless citadel becomes more a secondary plot to finding out the mystery of whats going on.
With some polish this could work fairly seemlessly.
|
|
Interesting idea rob, thanks. I'm not sure if it makes sense that slavers would be transporting slaves that far, but maybe I'm getting too hung up on the Oerth map. Maybe the kids are Shackleborn? I'm not sure how the hobgoblin would know that, but maybe it doesn't matter, could be he was just acting under orders of whoever did know. Dunno, any more suggestions?
|
You really can stick Cauldron anywhere you want to. My PCs actually had a world map I made for them (before I knew of Shackled City) and when I decided it was time for a trip to Cauldron I just pointed at a near-by mountain range and said, "Its there, just not written on the map." No need to transport them across worlds to get there.
|
|
I think I've decided to do something like rob suggested. Balsag, the bugbear hunter on the lower level of the Citadel, will have recently received word from his brother who ended up in the employ of Kazmojen in his slave trade and has decided to make the underdark trip to join him, taking a couple of slaves (the young adventurers the PCs are looking for) with him as a gift to get himself into Kazmojen's good graces. The PCs would be foolish to try to follow him into the Underdark, though I suppose they could try. Eventually they'll have to follow overland and by ship though, making their way to Cauldron, where they'll get caught up in the action there. Eh, sounds plausible enough to me I guess.