Best way to Maure Castle

[Aureus]

I have considered running the MC modules after the Savage Tide AP, but I am not sure what to do with the first ten levels. I have considered opening with Mad God's Key as it plays in the City of Greyhawk. But what then? I wanted to make the campaign as Greyhawk as can be. I know of Raiders of the Black Ice a 3rd level adventure, but that's it. All the other Greyhawk modules from dungeon I know are 10th level upwards.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

[Infernal Osquip]

Aureus wrote:

I have considered running the MC modules after the Savage Tide AP, but I am not sure what to do with the first ten levels. I have considered opening with Mad God's Key as it plays in the City of Greyhawk. But what then? I wanted to make the campaign as Greyhawk as can be. I know of Raiders of the Black Ice a 3rd level adventure, but that's it. All the other Greyhawk modules from dungeon I know are 10th level upwards.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

You have plenty of options if you are up for some conversion work from 1E. Temple of Elemental Evil will get them up to 9th or 10th. Slaver series will do about the same.

If conversion is not your thing, you can try the Return to the ToEE. It's not as good as the others above IMO, but others have enjoyed it. It has also been updated to 3.5 (don't have the link handy). It will take characters to at least 12th, which is good enough for the big MC.

[Vattnisse]

Infernal Osquip wrote:

You have plenty of options if you are up for some conversion work from 1E. Temple of Elemental Evil will get them up to 9th or 10th. Slaver series will do about the same.

If conversion is not your thing, you can try the Return to the ToEE. It's not as good as the others above IMO, but others have enjoyed it. It has also been updated to 3.5 (don't have the link handy). It will take characters to at least 12th, which is good enough for the big MC.

I rather liked the Return to ToEE, and it provides an instant link to MC - just move some of the final excavation works into the Maure cellars (the ToEE masters are seeking some artifact there before digging out the last of the old temple, or some such thing). RtToEE takes you from 4th to 14th level, and is thus good prep time. Only problem: this whole campaign will turn into a looooooong dungeon crawl...

[infomatic]

There also MAY be some narrative connection between the two adventures. Eli Tomorast has been researching the main baddie of RttToEE, so you could throw him or his seeker group in there someplace, and the group follows him to Maure.

Good point on the dungeon crawl aspect, though. Players might get sick of the whole thing.

[grodog]

Tomorast's been to the Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun, so playing up that connection would be fun. S4 Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth and WG4 Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun both contain extensive wilderness encounters, which would certainly be a change of pace from a dungeons-only game.

Aureus, you could also adapt the Age of Worms adventures for use in conjunction with Maure Castle, and, and others have pointed out, if you're willing to do AD&D --> 3.x conversion work, you have a wide range of possible options before you.

Allan

[Vattnisse]

I ran the Forgotten Temple as a sidequest to the greater RttToEE, as the heroes were tracking a band of EE cultists there. The conversion work was extremely easy - keep the maps, have the antagonists kill off all the "resident" monsters and then have the PCs deal with them instead (lots of Giant zombies, newly placed glyphs and summoned monsters - and some fun NPCs). I was able to make one of them escape after earning some serious PC animosity, and relocated him to the new Inner Temple. However, the loose thread could just as easily have fled to the Maure catacombs to hook up with his superiors engaged in exploring there - this gives the PC an additional reason to go there. Just make the escaped baddie suitably memorable, and you have instant motivation to follow him there!

[Aureus]

Well thanks everyone. In deed I somehow lack the time to convert older adventures. As with the AoWAP-adventures: If we would start this AP we would have to play it until the Wormgod is no more. :)
But to beginn with the Temple of Elemetal Evil is a thing I would love to do! The only thing is I will have to convince my players that dungeoncrawling is never boring.

[grodog]

I'm not a huge fan of ToEE myself (or RttToEE either): the dungeons just aren't all that interesting. (T1 Village of Hommlet rocks, btw, I'm just not keen on its sequels).

If you're that worried about too much dungeon crawling in T1-4, shorten it: chop out some of the levels completely, or collapse some; ignore the elemental nodes; simplify the competing factions (perhaps only the Fire Temple still remains, or somesuch).

Another way to broaden the T1-4 adventure is to follow-up on some of the hints and leads mentioned in T1 that are ignored in T1-4: trace the cult back to Dyvers (or the Wild Coast, or somewhere else you prefer); play with the undetailed geography (for example, what if the village of Ostverk was infiltrated by evil doers even moreso than Hommlet was/is?). Etc. Or, replace T2-4 entirely by making Maure Castle the forces behind the ToEE, or by making it the real movers and shakers behind the Temple (instead of Iuz, Tzuggtmoy, etc.).

If you want to bridge into Maure Castle more clearly, then make some connections between the PCs and the Maures: hints about the Suel migrations, maps to lost Suel lore (perhaps tied to the migrations, perhaps to the lost city in the Suss forest [also expanded upon by Gygax in his Artifact of Evil novel]), links to the Lost City of the Elders (or the various cults detailed in Dungeon 112 [these didn't appear in the original WG5]), references to Kerzit or the Purple [Stone] Oracle, etc., etc. Tomorast found the Tome of the Black Heart in a curio shop in Greyhawk City: how did it get there, and do other copies of this fell tome exist (or, what about other, similar tomes: Tome of the Red Heart, or Tome of the Black Hand, or whatever)?

This is just stuff off the top of my head, but my point is that there's plenty of material in both T1 and MC that you can shape into whatever your needs are for your game.

Allan.