Ok, so, my PC's failed.
Scenario: Chapter 10.
The PC's are to bring the fight to the enemy. The party:
Rurik - Dwarven fighter
Kalek - Dwarven wizard, initiate of the seven fold veil
Braxton - Human druid, master of many forms
Kippy - Gnome bard, seeker of the song
Fario - ...of the Striders, modified to be a street fighter, now a PC
Naginada - Elf necromancer, cleric of Wee Jas, true necromancer
Fernando - Halfling cleric of Pelor, radiant servant of Pelor
Group has done well so far, all around level 14, but having no real problems despite being a little short in levels (extra PC and all).
We were rushed, I think, to finish or to get to a stopping point. One of the players in the group (Kalek's player) recently got the last of the Dungeon magazines with the Savage Tide Adventure Path in it and we have all been eager to start with a fresh DM and new players, to come back to the Shackled City later this winter to finish. Kalek's player was eager to DM and I have to admit I'm eager to jump in as a player again.
I say all this because at the last session there were only four PC's. And we decided to play anyway.
Group was tearing through the Cagewrights. Ti'rok the fire giant was a pushover for Rurik, who was hitting for 30-40 a swing with power attack and his enchanted brilliant weapon, and Ti'rok couldn't answer due to Ruirk's own mid-40's AC against giants. Gau fell in one turn after landing a single hit on Braxton. Kippy managed to talk Moltenwing into handing over the collar. It was pretty sad how easy a time they were having.
And then no one showed for yesterday's session. But because we had decided to start Savage Tide next week, we gamed anyway. Rurik, Fario, Kalek, and Braxton. Still, they seemed to be able to handle it. Then they stumbled upon Shebeleth. Right off the bat Rurik and Braxton became nauseated from the summoned Hezrou and Fario was having to stave off the attacks. Kalek managed to defeat the two demons by himself and even dispelled all of Shelbeleth's own protections. Then I hit them with Blasphemy and outright killed Fario with a Harm spell. Then there were three. Rurik managed to kill Shebeleth just before another Harm spell killed him.
The group were battered and shook up, but had enough healing pots left to risk going on. Dyr'Rid and the tree. Witty banter went back and forth for fifteen minutes until Kalek realized he was stalling for time. Charge! At first it looked like Rurik was in trouble, but Kalek threw up a double veil and the tide seemed turned. To be on the safe side, Kalek cast Repulsion. Then Mindbite used Feeblemind. Repulsion and Feeblemind, not a good combination for someone walking around with a Prismatic Sphere cast on him, the only protection the other two party members had from the cloudkill spells that dominated the room.
Needless to say, a retreat after a fashion was mounted. The ritual went uninterrupted. Now there's a portal to Carceri opened in Cauldron. Normally this would be fine and we'd be rolling up high level to epic level characters in what promises to be a kickass second campaign. However, Savage Tide takes place in Sasserine, and the DM was going to use a lot of NPC's AND PC's from Cauldron in his campaign. He doesn't want to mess with world continuity as we're thinking of using this area as the springboard for other campaigns, so...
I don't know anything really about Savage Tide and I don't want to, so without any spoilers what is the suggested way of working Cauldron's pretty piss poor state of affairs into the Savage Tide campaign? Will it be an issue? How far will the Demondand's expansion onto this plane reach? I told Kalek's player that we could assume it only went so far as two or three days from Cauldron, but am I selling the demondands short?
Demodands ... meh. If the campaign continuity has older high-level retired PCs floating around, it should not be hard to determine via GM fiat that the veterans came swarming out of the woodwork to stomp a mudhole in the (generally) lamest evil outsiders in the game, kick thier tarry kiesters back to Carceri and take all thier swag.
Cauldron is a mess for sure, but in the aftermath of war there is often economic opportunity, which brushed so close to Sasserine. The tie-ins from continuity (at least with the example given above) would be in the economic boom a mere 2 or 3 years' game time later for the noble families and assorted scum and villains infesting Sasserine's port facilities and warehouses.
In effect, it should not be difficult to 'fill in' the information on the aftermath of the failed PC's actions. Of course, they have skipped over the Age of Worms by skipping ahead to the Savage Tide...
I'd have the Stormblades man up and stop it. They'd hate that! >;)
I always found the demodand angle odd. Like in the Lords of Oblivion one where the noblewoman is making the speech and then she is referring to demodands. It almost is anticlimax. Although I always kind of liked shators but I classify them as just unique demons in my game. I don't like the others at all.
However VERY cool setting. I've sort of just discovered it through picking up used backissues at bookstores.
One way to handle it would be to say that the Kingdoms of the north have quarantined the Gate town. Cauldron is gone but some of the NPCs have escaped imprisonment and made it to Sasserine. The Demodands in Cauldron may be actively trading in slaves in the area but the area has stabilized enough to let the PCs find their own way on the frontiers of Demodand controlled lands.
Advise you GM to add Demodand slavers to all wandering monster tabels and replace any demon thugs with demodand thugs.