I am part of a group that has played SCAP up to chapter four, where we suffered a TPK at the hands of the Kuo-Toa cleric. Our DM moved away, and I am preparing to take over as the new DM and continue the campaign. My players have their new PCs and will be a search party sent out by Jenya (original, I know) to Bal-Hhamatun. I've been frantically skimming the book to prepare for our first session this week, trying to figure out what's "really" going on. I think I have a decent grasp on the main plot - Vhalantru as a beholder in disguise, the Cagewrights seeking the Shackleborn for their ritual, etc. But I haven't been able to read chapters 1-4 in as much detail as I would like. I played through them, but player knowledge and DM knowledge are quite different. Can you all help bring me up to speed on plot points (especially things from chapters 1-4) that I might have missed as a player but will need to know as a DM?
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I'll provide some info, but you still should read the intros to each chapter and the wrap up to each chapter so that you know inside info from the book as well. (you dont need to read through the adventure especially since you played in it, but reading the synopsis helps fish out DM info)
SPOILER ALERT!!!
Ultimately the theme is stopping an extra-planar group of evil baddies (The Cagewrights) trying to open a permanent portal from their world to ours. A plan set in motion MANY years ago has the bloodline of these fiends living in the area of Cauldron. They bear an invisible mark. They are known as the Shackleborn. The evil baddies need 13 such bodies to perform the ritual to open the portal. They have 12 so far.
Chapters 1-3 really have very little to do with this. The baddie in each of the first three chapters have nothing to do with ultimate plot. The only overlying plot is in chapter 1; one of the children that must be saved is a shackleborn. (Terrem). Vhalantru (beholder in disguise as a good noble) knows this that is why he 'saves' the boy in the end of chp 1. For the most part chp 1-3 are more about the PCs turning into local heroes whom the city can rely on.
Chpt 4 send you into the underdark to find a missing dwarf. He, too, is a shackleborn. Vhalantru craftily set it up to make it look like you were going to save the dwarf for humanitarian reasons. The old dwarf that asked the group to go is actually a cagewright doppleganger and as soon as the missing dwarf is returned, he is handed over to the cagewrights. (The PCs dont know this, though.) The woman who was working with the old dwarf (Celeste) who sent the PCs to rescue Zenith is imprisoned in a painting of Vhalantrus' by some Binding spell. The PCs are led to beleive that she left the city, and that Zenith is hiding because of those who are out to cause him harm.
In short, little of chp 1-3 will matter in later chapters as written (only if your DM has included a lot of side trek intrique etc that needs to be tied up - that I cannot help you with). The only points to make note of is Terrem's existance from chapter 1, and the half-orcs that were supposedly being smuggled in chpt 2 shows up anyways later when Capt Skellerang uses them to assault the town of Redgorge in Chpt 5. Also the mention of The Blue Duke whom the PCs probably heard about in Chpt 2 is rementioned later as well. Chpt 3 Flood Season really doesnt have a lot of carry-over, unless as I said, the DM had a few loose ends he created or NPC interactions that have reasons to be followed up on.
Now, armed with 13th Shackleborn that the Cagewrights need to perform their ritual they are ready to proceed. Enter Chp 5; Demonskar Legacy is the first chapter that the truth of all the ultimate baddies truly begins to be explored by the PCs. Be sure to read that intro well, and understand the reasons for all that happens. This chapter begins the PCs on the quest to finally root out the hidden menaces.
In all honestly, you are starting as DM at the perfect time, one could argue that chpts 1-4 really arent needed in the grand scheme of things. The game could just as easily start at chpt 5 and all you'd really miss out on is the "city-flavor" of the campaign and miss some of the backstory on some of the characters.
If you have any further specific questions about why or what, feel free to post, but this should be ample overview for what you need.
Robert
Thanks a bunch, Robert, that will help greatly. One more question - what if Zenith doesn't survive the encounter at the end of chapter 4? Obviously this will affect the Cagewrights' plans, but I don't think the book talks much about it. I have a trigger happy player in the group, and if Zenith attacks them, willingly or not, well, it might end badly.
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Thanks a bunch, Robert, that will help greatly. One more question - what if Zenith doesn't survive the encounter at the end of chapter 4? Obviously this will affect the Cagewrights' plans, but I don't think the book talks much about it. I have a trigger happy player in the group, and if Zenith attacks them, willingly or not, well, it might end badly.
Call an audible. Terrem is still available. One of the PCs may have taken the trait that designates him as a shackleborn. OR you could apply the status to any random NPC in cauldron.
The point of the trait is that you don't know you have the mark, so anyone could be that role.
Robert
Thanks a bunch, Robert, that will help greatly. One more question - what if Zenith doesn't survive the encounter at the end of chapter 4? Obviously this will affect the Cagewrights' plans, but I don't think the book talks much about it. I have a trigger happy player in the group, and if Zenith attacks them, willingly or not, well, it might end badly.
Well, the Cagewrights don't really care if they bring him back dead or alive, as long as they bring him back. They have the ability to raise him for the ritual.
- what if Zenith doesn't survive the encounter at the end of chapter 4? Obviously this will affect the Cagewrights' plans...
Not really. They were drawn to the Cauldron region to begin with because there was a high concentration of shackle-born there. If you WANT it to interfere, then of course it can. But if you DON'T want it to interfere, then the Cagewrights simply find another somewhere and get to 13 again. It's not anything that has to intersect with the PCs unless you want it to.
Let's see if I can use these little taggie thingies. Spoiler coming just in case I don't get it to work right: