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Okay I'm setting up my SCAP campaign and mid-prep I've decided to actually move the SCAP from a generic setting into Greyhawk.
I'm not looking to build a strictly cannon campaign but I am wondering what the veteran Greyhawk DMs may have done to insert the Cauldron Region into the world.
I know that the Cauldron Region is in the border of the Hellfurnaces near Jeklea Bay and the Amedio Jungle. What I'm particularly curious about is the governmental, political, and historical territories. The Hold of the Sea Princes seems to be the closest nation.
I'm thinking about casting Cauldron, Sasserine etc. as allied Free Cities but have not yet worked out all of the details.
Suggestions?
Actually, it was suggested in a response to a letter in one of the SCAP issues of Dungeon (107?), that Cauldron was a former outpost of the Sea Princes, but with all the chaos during the Greyhawk Wars, that it has pretty much been left to itself for the past decade or so. I'd assume the same for Sasserine.
M@
It was issue #109:
"Players wishing to set the Shackled City Adventure Path in the World of Greyhawk might consider placing Cauldron near the northwest border of Hex 77-U1 on the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer map. With this placement, Cauldron (and the nearby city of Sasserine) would have been established as a secure trade outpost by Sea Princes-aligned merchants about 150 years ago. When the expansion of the Keoish navy checked the ambitions of the Sea Princes 20 years later, the Cauldron/Sasserine colony was forced to survive in a hostile, isolated clime. In the ensuing years, they freed their slaves and abandoned their connection to their former patrons, embracing a culture and political identity all their own.”
The first time I started this campaign, I took this idea and ran with it, establishing the area as a small nation unto itself, which I called the County of Narbonne. This is what I wrote for the player’s introduction:
The would-be heroes begin their adventuring lives in the port city of Sasserine, capital of the County of Narbonne. It is a middling city of some 22,000 souls, built in a sheltered cove formed millennia ago by cooling lava flows from the now dormant volcanoes nearby. The city is built of dark basalt stone, and is the largest settlement for 500 miles, resting upon the southern shores of Jeklea Bay. It was founded nearly 200 years ago as a secure trade outpost by Sea Princes-aligned merchants. When the expansion of the Keoish navy checked the ambitions of the Sea Princes 40 years later, Sasserine and the neighboring towns and villages were forced to survive in a hostile, isolated clime. In the ensuing years, they freed their slaves and abandoned their connection to their former patrons, embracing a culture and political identity all their own. The current ruler is the Countess du Claire, an accomplished sailor and stateswoman. Her family has ruled Narbonne for three generations, and claims a distant blood tie to Keoland’s nobility.
Several smaller towns line the coast to either side of Sasserine, while still others are to be found in the rough interior, which is a mix of dense jungle, bits of higher elevation savannah-like grasslands, and the ranges of the Smokestone mountains, including many dormant and even a few active volcanoes. The climate around Sasserine is sub-tropical, generally ranging from warm to hot, and often humid. Summers can be oppressive, with periods of little rain that are broken only by torrential thunderstorms. Winters are mild and often have stretches of steadier rain. Of course the higher elevations are much cooler, though even there it rarely ever freezes. Only the highest peaks to the south and west ever see any snow.
Narbonne trade goods include ships, rare woods, spices, dyes and tropical foodstuffs; from the mountainous interior come gems, iron and rare metals. It doesn’t have extensive international trade, but many of its goods are sought after in the northern climes of the Flanaess, and it has prospered over the last century and a half. Narbonne’s remote location makes sea travel more hazardous than in the well-patrolled sea lanes elsewhere, and piracy is always a problem. Its navy is small and efficient, but is limited to the southern portion of Jeklea Bay.
So, how did you go about the whole Surabar Spellmason angle? If Cauldron and Sasserine where founded 150-200 years ago by the Hold of the Sea Princes, Cauldron could not be founded 700 years ago by Surabar Spellmason. Did you just adjust the history and move it up 500 years, making Surabar a wizard from the Sea Princes?
Good questions evilash. The first time I ran this the campaign ended before the hardcover had come out (and well before we finished the whole thing, unfortunately), so I didn’t have to deal with the time discrepancy.
But there are a few possible solutions – here are some ideas that come to mind:
- There’s no reason that Cauldron couldn’t have been there before Sasserine, and it was just absorbed into the growing colonial power.
- Both cities could have been there already and been taken over by the Sea Princes as their power expanded.
- You could ditch the whole Sea-Princes theme altogether and say that the area has been its own independent little country since Surabar’s time, perhaps even founded by him.
- Perhaps Sasserine was actually founded a thousand years ago by Suloise fleeing the Invoked Devastation. Then it’s easy enough to pick up the history as printed in the hardcover, saying that Surabar lead a small army inland and established Redgorge 700 years ago.
There could be a history there of conflict with the Sea Princes, and maybe an old alliance with Keoland – with whom they still trade, counting on help from the Keoish navy to get by Sea Prince and Scarlet Brotherhood privateers.
Between the Sea Princes, the Scarlet Brotherhood and Keoland there are all kinds of possibilities for political intrigue, hidden alliances, betrayals and other diplomatic fun. To add even more to the mix, you could say that the old Olman tribes from the Amedio Jungle have played a hand in the history. There’s a lot there to work with.
I'm thinking about making Surabar an Olman or Suloise wizard who founded Redgorge and Cauldron according to the "official" SCAP history. Sasserine was founded by the Sea Princes and they later conquered/incorporated the Cauldron region into their realm. When Sea Princes collapsed Sasserine and Cauldron broke free and are now free cities.
I set the SCAP in Rauxes, smack in the middle of Aerdy, and simply rewrote the background of the city wholesale. It was part of a greater rework for an Evil group, but it worked out in the end. I left Surabar Spellmason in the story as a past influential person of note, but left out his position as a founder of the city.
M
Well, I've been reading a bit more on the history of the Amedio Jungle (found in Oerth Journal #4) and came to the conclusion that Surabar should probably be a Suloise wizard, since the Amedio Olman Empire perished around the time of the Rain of Colorless Fire. The Suloise entered Amedio around -350 CY, which fits pretty well with the official SCAP history.