Greetings.
I'm looking to start a campaign where one of the places the heroes may wind up playing in is the campaign arc "Istivin: City of Shadows" (as detailed in Dungeon issues 117-119).
I'm seeking an FR city to run this in.
Some of my choices so far have been the following:
Arabel or Highmoon
As soon as I find a suitable city for this conversion to The Realms I'll probably begin my write up for the campaign up to the completion of this arc.
Thanks for your assistance in advance.
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I wish I could help you with this, but my knowledge of the realms is pretty weak.The events surounding the arc are pretty world specific to Greyhawk, but I guess you could mess with stuff to make it fit where ever you want. Im currently running a campaign that I built around the trilogy, but Im using Greyhawk as my campaign setting.You can check it out on the campaign journal threads called Savage_Screen Monkeys Shadows over Sterich campaign.
Well, one obvious location is Tilverton.
My suggestion is Uthmere in the Great Dale. There are giants in the mountains nearby and the area has a long history of demonic activity. The Malgoth could be one of the many legacies of ancient Narfell (or, do what I plan to do, and replace the Malgoth with Eltab).
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Tilverton is a good choice but because it's so close to Marsember, Suzail and Anauroch -- extremely well developed places that can't be converted to areas that close to Istivin, it may cause problems as your PCs move throughout "Sterich".
Of course, if in your campaign you don't send the PCs that far out of Istivin you won't run into these problems.
Keep in mind, Istivin is the capital city. You'll have to develop Tilverton as a lot more important in the area. Now, as Cormyr is struggling with its new ruler and Tilverton has just been rebuilt, this may not be difficult.
Finally, the Crystalmist Mts and Jotens are BIG -- much more like The Spine of the World. The toy sized Mts around Tilverton and Cormyr will have to be bulked up a bit -- or make SE Anauroch much more mountainous and drop, um, the city of Shade (oops). . .
You'll have to do quite a bit of remodelling Sterich's regional area to make Tilverton Istivin but it's still probably the best choice.
-W. E. Ray
...or make SE Anauroch much more mountainous and drop, um, the city of Shade (oops). . .
Hee hee!
Tilverton is probably a good choice, but I might go for the Marsh of Tun region to a little west of Cormyr and slap it in that region. It's close enough to Priapur (I think that's the name of the Thay enclave there), plus has the potential benefit of being a good link-up for the Zhentarim's Black Road for some smuggling goodness.
I don't know, I'd veer away from Tilverton, but it also depends on how much you want to follow canon long term in your campaign. Tilverton is being rebuilt, but there are still a lot of shadow creatures lurking and unless you advance the timeline or assume that events there happened differently, then Tilverton isn't as good a choice.
Once you take this out of the mix, Tilverton isn't that much more appropriate than any other location.
Seeing as how The Spine of the World was mentioned a few posts up, perhaps the (often underused) Nesme would be a good fit if it was a little bigger. Maybe Everlund might be a better choice with it's location near Giant and Drow infested areas.
Plus last time I checked Cyric has had his eye on Everlund for quite some time.
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Nesme (to me, at least) is a backwater hick-town, not at all similar to Istivin. I think it'd be hard to put a walled castle ward inside Nesme, let alone sewer system, mongrelfolk shantytown and bustling market / town square. Even the gates entering Istivin (4 giant dog sculptures) would be hard to put in Nesme. And ultimately, Nesme's on the Trollmores, not exactly Sterich material. If you really want Spine of the World area, I'd go with Sundabar -- a little work needed, but the flavor of the town and the geography are very compatable.
Thinking about it, if there were a good sized city smack in the middle of The Giant's Plain, or perhaps The Shining Plain, it would be geographically perfect. I'm far from an FR expert but I don't believe there is one. If, however, there's a village or small town, isolated and near the center of The Giant Plains, you could decree it has had a population boom over the last couple decades and make it into Istivin perfectly.
-W. E. Ray
Of course another thing I can do is just place Istivin itself in FR...but somewhere off of Faerun.
hmm...
What about Zhentil Keep?
It's been a while since I read the adventures (although I remember enjoying them), but Zhentil Keep is the only major city I can recall that has been recently smacked down by giants (during the Cyrinishad debacle).
Zhentil Keep is also arguably "capitol of the Moonsea".
--Eric
What about Zhentil Keep?
It's been a while since I read the adventures (although I remember enjoying them), but Zhentil Keep is the only major city I can recall that has been recently smacked down by giants (during the Cyrinishad debacle).
Zhentil Keep is also arguably "capitol of the Moonsea".
--Eric
Now I'm going to have to go back and reread those adventures. That's an interesting idea Eric. Although if that's the case, then I guess any drow issues the city has had would have been from Maermydra, correct?
It might be fun to "back date" this adventure and run it after the "rebuilding phase" of Zhentil Keep but before the Silence of Lolth.
I ran it in Hluthvar, a small, but walled town in the Western Highlands just south of Darkhold. Having something that ominous nearby added to the adventure.