HTBM in Eberron with an airship

[Cory Stafford 29]

I'm running Savage Tide in Eberron, and the party has just acquired an airship. I mainly did this because one of the characters has wanted to be captain of an airship from the beginning of the campaign. He's named it the Mourningstar since he's from Cyre. They are about to start Here There Be Monsters. Anyway, it looks like the airship will have to crash to follow the storyline. A fully functional airship will let them bypass almost the whole adventure. Is there another way around this dillema?

[James Jacobs]

You either have to engineer a crash for the air ship or take the hit for handing out an airship early, basically. Of course, an air ship can crash just as easilly as a conventional ship in a storm, so really, there's not much you need to change there. If you'd rather not crash their ship, you can go ahead and have them skip the entirity of HTBM; it's purpose is to introduce the PCs to the terror of the Isle of Dread, and without the adventure they miss out on that first taste and instead get the notion that the Isle of Dread's about pirates and colonies. Which is kind of a shame.

ANYway, I'd suggest that you crash the ship as scheduled. If you don't, you can use some of the elements of HTBM (like Dark Mountain Pass and Fogmire) as mini-quests during Tides of Dread. But really... I'd suggest that you crash the ship since Savage Tide assumes that the PCs have to do the exploration of the Isle of Dread on foot; it kind of takes the fun out of the adventure if you're not down there with the dinosaurs.

[Heathansson]

Reminds me of Tarzan at the Earth's Core.
When ERB wanted the zeppelin Tarzan was in to crash, along came a massive flock of Pteranodons led by some Mahars (giant pterodactyls with psionics/hypnotic powers).

[Dag Hammarskjold]

I'm curious. How did you handle Journey's End in SWW? An airship would sail right over unless the PCs want to explore.

But to answer your question, crash the ship. At least temporarily. While nothing in HTBM is critical, it does give 2 levels worth of XP before the next chapter. Plus, while not critical, it does foreshadow demogorgon's role pretty well.

[Cory Stafford 29]

It looks like I will indeed have to crash the ship. I skipped a large portion of SWW in lieu of Riding the Rails. Basically, they traveled overland to Sharn where they acquired the ari ship from some not so friendly Riedrans. I plan on having the Mourningstar replace the Sea Wyvern for the most part. Thanks for everyone's input.