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I am thinking of starting off my SCAP campaign at chapter 4. There are a few reasons for this:
1. My players have just gotten to level 6 in my previous campaign, so even with new characters, this provides power-level continuity
2. No one is thrilled about starting over with first level characters.
3. We only game once a month, so this would give us a shot of finishing the campaign... ever.
4. Chapter 4 presents a nice entry point (new group of adventurers catches a certain someone's eye, so he decides to test them out...)
So on to my question:
Are there any important items, clues, NPCs or anything else that I need to fold up from earlier chapters? I'm thinking of having the Striders meet up with the party before they go to the Cusp, so that one's no biggie. Anything/one else?
Also, how would others suggest handling the adventures that the players missed in terms of how they were resolved? I'm thinking that it would have been a combination of the Striders and Stormblades did most of it (with a bit of a rivaly developing between them, which will spill over onto the party). Does that not make sense for anything?
I've so far only skimmed most of the chapters after 4, focusing instead on what I need to know to run that, so please feel free to warn me if I'm doing something incompatible with the larger plot.
Thanks.
I'd find a way for them to bump into the Beholder. Other than that, I'd say you're OK.
That's one of the odd things about this "campaign"--the actions of the PC's don't have to have any huge effect on the early part. Chapter 1, if they fail, the kid still gets rescued. Chapter 2, evil still has a back door into the city. Chapter 3, some old wands were "found" by the cleric of Wee Jas, so the temple was able to save the day.
A few little foreshadowing encounters would also help including -
Important Events
Flood Festival - this sets up many of the later important NPCs and paints Cauldron as a vibrant, living, breathing city including the Stormblades, the Nobles, the Lord Mayor and numerous others.
Important NPCS
Half-Orc Gaurds (Ch 2)
Have the party meet a few of them at a pub where they attempt to start a fight only to have the disguised Ble Duke come in and forcably remove them, pay off the bartender, apologise and drag them back out. This will help the players see the obvious contempt Cauldron citizens have for the creatures and even assist them to understand why.
Perhaps even throw in a meeting with Tereson (Captain of the Gaurd) about the matter to reveal his racism about the creatures too. When the half-orcs begin to inflitrate the gaurd later the players will immediately know something is wrong here and understand the ramifications rather than after the fact.
Alek & Jenya (Ch 1 & 3)
Have Jenya assist your group in some way and have them meet with Alek. These two characters are important later in the path (Alek in Demonskar Legacy and Jenya in Foundation of Fire)
so including them somehow would be useful.
Other than these and the V-man, you should have no trouble starting in Chapter 4.
Important characters missed and purpose in Path-
Terrem (orphan Shackleborn)- used in ritual during FoF. Not essential to the story.
Orbus (aka Vhalantru) - very important. DMTodd is right on the money here but have him turn up numerious times during the path or at least continue to have the party hear of the terrible beholder.
Drakthar (Ch 2) Triel, Tongueater, Shaven, Tarkilar (Ch 3)
- not important to overall plot.
Zenith (Ch 4) - Zeniths story is foreshadowed in chapter one when the players descend into his old home: the Malachite Hold. This is not essential but is/was a good motivator for the players when meeting Zeniths father and Celeste at the start of chapter 4.
But all in all you shouldn't have any real problems.
Good Luck
Delvesdeep
That's one of the odd things about this "campaign"--the actions of the PC's don't have to have any huge effect on the early part. Chapter 1, if they fail, the kid still gets rescued. Chapter 2, evil still has a back door into the city. Chapter 3, some old wands were "found" by the cleric of Wee Jas, so the temple was able to save the day.
I don't think it's so odd. I mean, the players are just neophyte adventurers, so their impact is generally going to be small. The significant part is for the players to realize something big is afoot in Cauldron.
In chapter 1 if they fail only Terrem is rescued. The other orphans and the rest of the captured townsolk are doomed. (Though the players should find it very odd that one person was rescued and might start wondering why.)
As far as chapter 2 goes, again it's hinting that there is more going on than meets the eye. One thing to remember is that as soon as the party becomes a threat to the Cagewrights, the Cagewrights are going to act. The more important the operation that the PCs take down, the more force the Cagewrights are likely to use to get the PCs out of the picture. At low levels they could easily take the party down without breaking a sweat.
I don't remember Wee Jas having wands laying around in chapter 3, but I'm likely to let the town flood if the party fails.
I'm probably misremembering, but the wands are in the hands of the bad guys (some faction of them, anyway), with plans to sell them to the city at the time of direst need. I could see handing them over to Embril so the church could save the day.
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First off, thank you all for your feedback, this is a big help!
Important EventsFlood Festival - this sets up many of the later important NPCs and paints Cauldron as a vibrant, living, breathing city including the Stormblades, the Nobles, the Lord Mayor and numerous others.
Is the Lord Mayor at the Cusp? If not, I might have him there in my version of the game, so that he gets the chance to thank the PCs for their help with the first encounter in Ch4. Many of the other Nobles can be there. The Stormblades, I'm going to introduce in another way (I have them acting as foils to the Striders, since it was the Striders that saved the kids and got the glory for that).
Important NPCS
Half-Orc Gaurds (Ch 2)
I like your idea. I'll keep that in mind.
Alek & Jenya (Ch 1 & 3)
Ah. Good one.
Orbus - DMTodd is right on the money here but have him turn up numerious times during the path or at least continue to have the party hear of the terrible beholder.
I have that one covered. The party have arrived as hired guards for a caravan. On the way to Cauldron, the caravan was attacked by Orbus and a child was kidnapped (you can guess why). The party tried to stop him, but was beaten back (this happened "off stage", so I'm just telling them that they failed, but were healed after). The caravan is sure the PCs can't help (they're wrong, of course), so they've paid them up and let them go, and are seeking other means of getting the child back in Cauldron.
The PCs, naturally, will want to follow up, but events will overtake them early in chapter 4, and they won't truely get back to any of this until chapter 5. Thus, they can keep hearing of Orbus via the caravan, but won't be directly involved.
As for Zenith, I intend to have money be the prime motivator for his rescue. The PCs want to make some cash in order to fund their return from Cauldron. Of course, they won't make it, since the plot will pull them in (or at least that's my job to see to), but that's their motivation for now.