So I'm late to the party, but I just picked up Expedition to the Ruins of Castle Greyhawk, penned by our good Mr. Jacobs and Mr. Mona (and Jason Bulmahn, for completion's sake). I don't think I'll have much opportunity to run it, but I do love the delve format.
So anyways, as I flipped through it at my FLGS and notice a picture. A cute half-elf named Tirra. Hmm, that's a coincidence. Flip the page, ah look, a familiar mage named Khellek. Pretty awesome, they included two from Auric's Warband (although Auric was notably absent in my perusal). And guess who else? Loris Raknian, after the fall from grace. Kudos for using these iconic characters again.
It's especially cool for me, given that I'm knee-deep in The Champion's Belt right now, and I'm very familiar with these three.
I thought this was particularly cool, myself. In my campaign...
Indeed, Khellek is already figuring as a "behind the scenes" guy in my STAP campaign, having made a significant cameo, while looking for allies to recruit to serve as unwitting assassins of the wizard who slew him in the Champion's Games a year prior. I'll be sure to give him similar treatment in Ruins of Castle Greyhawk.
There are many references to past AoW stuff (and other Greyhawk DUNGEON material) in there if you look hard enough. I'm just stoked that they brought back the aurumvorax.
There are many references to past AoW stuff (and other Greyhawk DUNGEON material) in there if you look hard enough...
Hmm... does that mean my players - who are now half-way through EaBK in our Age of Worms campaign - would see spoilers if they picked up a copy of Expedition to the Ruins of Castle Greyhawk? Does it say much about Loris Raknian and the The Champions Games?
One of my players has already expressed an interest in the book, but if it's a problem for our campaign... perhaps I'll buy it for him, and store it away in a dark closet until the campaign is finished, then hand it over?
Ok. Thanks for the warning. I do so dislike spoiling nasty surprises!
Hi, we are finishing HoHR at the moment, and preparing to enter the arena...
I do not have the Castle Greyhawk book yet, could anyone who has it tell me if there is a way to mix it with AoW storyline and use it alongside the Dungeon path ? I would love to see my group delve in to it, especially as some of the players made several forays into 2nd edition Greyhawk Ruins! They have fond memories of it (many wonders, heavy casualties, expeditious retreats...)
Cheers
I've read the first four chapters of Greyhawk Ruins, and skimmed a few sections, so it's hard to be sure so far (overall, I'm finding it to be a very "all over the place" organisation, nothing like the adventures I'm used to in Dungeon which, although a bit verbose here and there, are at least easy to see the logical progression of how the adventure is planned to unfold - Greyhawk Ruins is tending to leave me wondering what the "plot" is supposed to be, or even how it is the PC's are going to be motivated to go from A to B, which as DM of course I can work out myself, it's just kinda annoying).
[...spoilers ahead, obviously!...]
Anyway, I'd say yes, you could tie it in easily enough. No doubt it would be fun, extending the PC's stay in Greyhawk by a lot. It features a few places in Greyhawk City, specifically focusing on the River Quarter which is close to the Midnight Muddle (north-west of there, to be precise). From there, it's a series of forays to and from the Ruins, which are near to the city (north-west, to be precise), as well as a few other places within the Free City walls.
The main enemy in Greyhawk Ruins is the cult of Iuz - you could leave that as-is, or I guess replace it / merge it with the cult of Kyuss / Ebon Triad. Other tie-ins to the Age of Worms are Tirra and the Thieves Guild, as well as Khellek and the Guild of Wizardry.
If you want to use most of what's in Greyhawk Ruins, I'd say place the PC's in the Green Dragon Inn rather than the Crooked House of the Midnight Muddle. Greyhawk Ruins has a specific intro designed to motivate the PC's to start the adventure - replace that with something from the Age of Worms, but lead them to the Ruins some way that makes sense for the campaign. You could, easily enough, place Zyrzog's lair within the castle dungeons, as for the most part the dungeons are left for the DM to populate as desired. The dopplegangers are probably best left as they are, just outside the River Quarter. The Champions Games, you could run pretty much as is - it almost becomes a side-quest from Greyhawk Ruins.
As I say, it will extend the PC's time in the Free City a lot, so if that's of interest to you and your players I'd say go for it. Just be aware that it's either a very long side-trek, or a very extended foray against the Triad / cult of Kyuss if you change the main protagonists. In a way, the latter is probably quite cool, as the Age of Worms only has the PC's defeating a few cultists here and there, not really putting and end the the cults personally (they kind of do that by taking out the leaders by the very end, but still...)
By the end of all this, you'll probably want to skip some or all of the next Age of Worms adventure, featuring a return to the Whispering Cairn, as your PC's might well be 13th level. Personally I'd recommend you use all the AoW adventures, but trim the Cairn a bit, and let the PC's hit the Spire one level ahead of the "plan" (i.e. at 14th level). You can then simply delete all the story awards in the Spire, and they should then hit Alhaster at 15th level as per plan.
Hastur, many thanks for the detailed recommendations.
I am extremely happy about your feedback (in the sense that you think IT IS indeed quite possible to tie into AoW).
As the thief of the band is a member of the GH City Thieves Guild, and knows Tirra... good moments ahead.
Unfortunately, the characters are already located in the Crooked house and defeated the mind flayer in his lair in the sewers. No possibility to act on this one. But may be I can figure out a good way to relocate them to the Green Dragon.
I agree about the AoW not pinning enough the characters against cultists of the Ebon Triad. This is probably a good opportunity to correct this. But on the other hand I like the Iuz/GH Ruins/Zagyg/St Cuthbert/Robilar story. So I may try to work out something to involve everyone.
Thanks again, I will post future developments on this arc (although our game is particularly slow, sessions being about 6-8 weeks apart...).
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Unfortunately, the characters are already located in the Crooked house and defeated the mind flayer in his lair in the sewers. No possibility to act on this one. But may be I can figure out a good way to relocate them to the Green Dragon.
This part is easy: have some villains burn the Crooked House to the ground in an effort to assassinate the PCs! :)
Then Tirra can help set them up with rooms at the Green Dragon, seeing as it's closer to her area of influence in the city. Maybe she can help them investigate, and this arrangement makes it easier to communicate on a regular basis.
Ha ha, that's a good suggestion!
I was going to suggest just using the Crooked House and forgoing the Green Dragon Inn, as while it's a useful well detailed place to hang out, so is the Crooked House, and neither is actually crucial to the plot, just a useful place to help drive the plot from place to place.
In my own campaign, the Crooked House was indeed the place where Zyrzog's cronies tried to assassinate the PC's - I never thought of burning it down, although in retrospect that would have been a good idea as the ideas I did use were foiled reasonably easily by my players, despite them being ambushed on multiple sides during the middle of the night...
Nice suggestion indeed. I will think all of it over !
Also, my thief is tempted by the assassin prestige class, or another one (do not remember the name) similar without the evil alignment requirement. Of course he would like to join the Assassin's Guild.
As it is historically an offspring of the Thieves Guild with the mission of disposing of GH enemies, I think the Guild might be interested in testing him during AoW. Do you think Greyhawk Ruins would be a good testing ground for that matter ? May be the Assassins could contact him after Tirra so that he has double reasons to explore the Castle ?
Last one: I have a new player joining, greatly tempted to come up with a druid. He knows the campaign is rather dungeon/city oriented, but insists. Do you see a good motivation for him to visit the Castle also ?
Thanks again for your insights.
Nice suggestion indeed. I will think all of it over !
Also, my thief is tempted by the assassin prestige class, or another one (do not remember the name) similar without the evil alignment requirement. Of course he would like to join the Assassin's Guild.
As it is historically an offspring of the Thieves Guild with the mission of disposing of GH enemies, I think the Guild might be interested in testing him during AoW. Do you think Greyhawk Ruins would be a good testing ground for that matter ? May be the Assassins could contact him after Tirra so that he has double reasons to explore the Castle ?Last one: I have a new player joining, greatly tempted to come up with a druid. He knows the campaign is rather dungeon/city oriented, but insists. Do you see a good motivation for him to visit the Castle also ?
Thanks again for your insights.
go for the urban druid... i think it was in the cityscape book... a pretty good variant if your player is keen but worried about the urban environment
Thanks for the tip, unfortunately I do not own Cityscape.
Moreover situation is getting tricky. A game is being organised on the spot as most players will be available tomorrow night, and I do not have received my EttRoG from Amazon yet! I will have to start the Champions Games before introducing any Ruins of Greyhawk plot...
Pity, but I am so happy to game tomorrow!