Savage Tide starting in the Planes (pre-Faction War PSCS)

[primemover003]

I have a group that wants to revamp their 2nd ed Planescape PC's. the group as a whole were fiendslayers and we ran pretty much every adventure involving the Tanar'ri, Baatezu, or Yugoloth that came out... from Love letter in the Well of Worlds to Squaring the Circle in Hellbound and even A Paladin in Hell. Needless to say that campaign (which lasted 4 years on and off) is by far our favorite 2nd ed group hands down.

So with the return of an old player to the table and some fond reminiscing they decided to make characters. As the DM of that campaign I tossed out character generation method (24d6 and quick equip via MIC for 10th level) and started looking through my pile of Duneons for fodder... so of course Savage Tide sprang to mind.

So seeing as I started them at 10th level I figure I could run Tides of Dread as my opener. The Hook I'll catch them with is a request by one of the most respected but most subdued Factol in Sigil, Factol Rhys of the Transcendant Order. She tells the party that her daughter (Lavinia) is in danger and demonic forces are at work (or so the Cadence of thr Planes has shown her). She asks them to travel to the Beastlands and the town of Farshore, built on an island in the River Oceanus to warn her daughter of the danger to her settlement.

The threat turns out to be a demonic backed raid of the Cypher town by the Dark Hunt a planar sect of big game hunters and slavers led by the Half fiend Vanthus. Given a week or so to prepare for the assault the PC's can recruit dinosaurs from Krigala (1st layer), seek out tree sap from a branch of Yggdrasil (replacing Phanatons with Ratatosk), negotiating with the 7 Wylder enclaves nearby for support against the Dark Hunt. Xotzilaha become the Bat Lord in Brux or Karasuthra (2nd and 3rd layers respectively)…

Once the hunters attack the town the PC's can track them to their base of operations but must fight the Dragon Turtle Emraag to reach the Portal leading to the subterranean world of Golismorga and the Lords of Dread for Into the Lightless depths…

Any thoughts from you old planar greybeards on how to further tweak the STAP?

--"King of Vrock"

[lin_fusan]

Wow. It's been years since I've cracked open my Planescape stuff. I really miss it. Somehow playing a 3e Planescape campaign really didn't feel right.

Spoiler:

Anyway, you could even use "Here There Be Monsters" as a template to get the PCs to Farshore. You'd probably have to excise some of the dungeons and such, but I've always felt that it should be harder to get from one place to another in the planes. Taking a portal right to Farshore would seem a bit too easy for the Ciphers not to easily reinforce their colony.

Are you intending to continue on past the Lightless Depths with Scuttlecove and the Abyss? I can easily see that adding onto the adventure, with the pearls being an abyssal weapon to corrupt the good planes.

By the way, did your players follow all the campaign setting rules for Planescape, such as clerics losing a spellcasting level per plane separated?

[primemover003]

lin_fusan wrote:

Wow. It's been years since I've cracked open my Planescape stuff. I really miss it. Somehow playing a 3e Planescape campaign really didn't feel right.

** spoiler omitted **

By the way, did your players follow all the campaign setting rules for Planescape, such as clerics losing a spellcasting level per plane separated?

In 2nd ed we did follow the wonky spellcasting rules of Planescape, but most of my players didn't play clerics often. Since 3rd edition we've run a couple planar based campaigns and it's worked out all right. I much prefer the way magic works in the Planes in 3E.

I'll have to look back at Here there be Monsters, but I was trying to get them into the Planar aspects of the STAP right away. Using Portals is convenient, but it's not always easy... Getting from the Cage to the Beastlands won't drop them square in Farshore. They'll likely have to hump their way across the plane or navigate Oceanus, which can be just as treacherous as the Styx in some respects.

Getting to Laogroat and Golismorga means fighting through the Dragon Turtle to find a gate leading directly into the Underdark. Taboo Temple likewise is elsewhere in the multiverse.

[primemover003]

Well working through the STAP and adapting it to the planes will be even more interesting then I thought!

HTBM, ToD, and CoBI will all take place on the Beastlands in and around the Forbidden Plateau (subtituting for the Island of Dread), TLD will take place in Pandemonium. SoS obviously will be the tie to the Prime world that is infested with the Shadow Pearls, and the rest of the Path runs as written.

The Players...

• Arros Firebrand - m Human Clr 5/Demonwrecker 5 of St. Cutbert, (Harmonium) LG
  
• Brautmer - m Dwarf Bbn 5/Frenzied Berserker 5, CN
  
• Deek - m Dwarf Bbn 5/Hellreaver 5, CG
  
• Duklar - m Tielfing Scout 10, ?
  
• Falyte - m Aasimar Clr 7/Divine Disciple 3 of Tymora,(Society of Sensation) CG
  
• Horny - m Minotaur Ftr 2, CG
  
• Lucien Bradley - m Aasimar Ftr 2/Pal 8, (Believers of the Source) LG
  
• Renqual the Wild - m Aasimar Wiz 5/Wild Mage 5, (Xaositect) CN
  

Editing my previous posts, Lavinia is the daughter of Factol Darius of the Sign of One Faction (who maintain a presence on the Beastlands) and she Dreams of the upcoming assault and sees the PC's there. Thus she sends them to protect her daughter and the colony which studies the Forbidden Plateau. Vanthus becomes the leader of a combined force of tielfing Dark Hunters, Tanar'ri, and Doomsguard (in Ships of Chaos!). Vanthus' backstory changes to that of the scion of one of Demogorgon's former general Za'rafass who was killed in a raid on the outlands (in which Darius' divinations played a pivotal role).