LOL, this thread is really only for anyone who might be interested in the following intellectual idea. The idea is to mash together the old school module U1 – The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, with DCC1 Idylls of the Rat King, but to take out all goblins and replace them with Orcs. Lots of Orcs. How best to achieve this, and what trwists and plot hooks can I add to make it a really good adventure?
What I want out of it is a good but short haunted-house style adventure (Saltmarsh) followed by another short-ish dungeon crawl type adventure, ending with a main battle with the Were-Rat from Idylls along with an Evil Cleric (perhaps a Yuan-ti) and I love the illusionist Sanbalet, so I will make it a party vs- party final battle with the above 3 vs the party.
Campaign-wise, the factors leading up to this adventure are thusly: Lucerne (the were-rat) has stolen a magical item that helps keep the land safe from undead. He is the last ancestor of a mining family. Saltmarsh mansion is nestled in hills, not near the coast, and it is Lucerne’s ancestral home, now abandoned for many years, along with his family’s silver mine. He has returned after many years in a nearby city, to re-establish his family fortune. The cellars of the mansion will actually connect to the mines, rather than the sea (as in the original.) I was thinking at first some huge railed vehicle to replace the ship, the vehicle could take people from the mansion thru an underground corridor miles long to the silver mine and vice versa, but that might be too hokey.
And secondly, I want to have a big orc presence, so I am thinking of replacing all goblins in Idylls with orcs, but that would be a lot of work! Especially with the half-goblin were-rats in the deeper levels. Oh, and I am also thinking of trimming the dungeon in Idylls down to 1, maybe 2 at most levels, if possible. I have too much stuff for the players to do, big dungeons will level them up too quickly lol.
Any thoughts are welcome, if interested in helping me out.
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I'm in the midst of U1 right now; I mashed Funeral Procession from Dungeon Magazine (somewhat) into there.
I thought you had! LOL
I met the artist from Funeral Procession at Leeds Comic Mart (David Bircham). He was really selling his new title (Brodie's Law), and he was so animated he made Nick Logue look lethargic.
Like Wayne Reynolds, he had a stint as artist on Slaine by Pat Mills, so it's nice to see him get a leg in the door on D&D.
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I love the illusionist Sanbalet, so I will make it a party vs- party final battle with the above 3 vs the party.
My version of Sanbalet was such an utter s@!#, that I was glad when he finally got nailed. He lives in an alchemist's lab (albeit he hadn't found the back room), so I gave him Brew Potion, and effectively doubled his wealth. And all the smugglers, the pirates, and the gnolls (of which the two in the text are merely the tip of the tribe) were able to get their hands on half-price potions and poison, through him and Ned.
He invisibly buffed the bruisers, while under Ventriloquism, sending the PCs all over the place; he impersonated them and robbed their rooms, he infiltrated the town council and their households, murdering several of them, he sent the PCs into an ambush while the gnolls trashed the church and killed the priest, raised the dead smugglers and gnolls as undead, attacked the workmen and interrupted the refurbishment of the mansion, started a strike.
In short, he made himself such an utter turd that I was glad when they hacked him to bits. In a combat where he nearly escaped in drag, in the guise of one of his own dead hostages.
What a guy.
Wow I love what you did with Sanbalet, that is awesome! My characters are an orc encampment away from finding the clue to lead them to the abandoned mansion, so I have at least another week to get it all planned out (wandering monster table comes in quite handy when PCs move too fast for my writing to catch up lol)
I will be nixing Oceanus too, forgot all about him, mostly because I dont plan on using anything from U2 or U3 (although I love those modules alot, U3 being totally awesome, U2 fair) To be honest I never liked how in U2 the party could slaughter half the village, yet still make up with the lizardmen at the end (IIRC)
I need more orcs. I will drop the gnolls from U1 and replace them with orcs, and I am thinking of maybe adding an orc lookout upstairs in the mansion, not sure. I need to pull out the maps and look at them again. I found a 3E Saltmarsh conversion online somewhere so that is taken care of...
The one thing I have never done in the past is take all the sea-air out of Saltmarsh. This will be a hills/mines adventure, with no sign of the sea. Does anyone have a better suggestion than converting the ship into a railed trundling vehicle for transporting to and from the mine? I think it is a cool idea, but it is totally far-fetched, I can see my more astute players rolling their eyes at the idea, but I want to have something in their connecting the house to the mine. Maybe just a long walk down a dark tunnel...
Yep, Saltmarsh is a classic that I've run twice before, and I will be happy to use it again (with a whole new group) but this Idylls of the Rat King is such a cool module i just HAVE to include it somehow before these characters are too high level to get any fun out of it.
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Did you have Ned? I nixed Ned, because I didn't think anybody would fall for him.
Then I made Oceanus into Ocean, a hot sea elf babe, and put her in the mansion instead.
My guys didn't do the ship yet...
Yeah, Ned's tricky. Every group that I've heard play this seems to have smelt a rat and done him in.
My Ned got spotted lurking round their rooms by a PC who'd gone back to get something, who hacked him up and hung him in a wardrobe in an unused room, then forgot to mention it to anyone else, until they'd left town and come back, to find the citizens in an uproar.
Player 1: "What's that? A murderer? At the inn? Hiding bodies in wardrobes? Well, we're just the people to solve this!"
Player 2: "humm-de-hummm..."
..."AW, S&&$!"
A total 'Zogonia' moment...
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My first thought was to put orcs around the old house outside of Saltmarsh, say, from the Hool Marshes -- but the point of that old house is that everyone avoids it because they think it's haunted.
Thus, I'd make the smugglers/ pirates all orcs. And you can still infest the Hool Marshes with orcs. Also, connect those orcs with the surrounding towns. The other two towns mentioned north of Saltmarsh, both bigger, aren't detailed at all (that is, I don't own U2 so I don't know if they ever get detailed) and as such you can do pretty much anything with them. Maybe the orcs have already subverted, mafia/ DCC1-style, the other towns all the while using the "haunted house" near Saltmarsh as their base. . . . Orcs in the Hool Marshes. Orcs on the sea. Orcs using the old house as base for smuggling between the three towns.
Also, you can take another look at Richard Pett's first ever adventure (I think it's Dungeon 95 or 96, where a couple of orcs, fleeing, hide in a dead Dragon Turtle shell and accidentally learn how to use it to raid coastal towns. Neat little Side Trek. If you want to keep looking elsewhere, "Huzza's Goblin-o-War" (or whatever it's titled) from Dungeon 89 or so may really fit in the background here, too. Just change goblins to orcs (a hill giant gets a boat, enslaves some goblins and a baby wyvern or something, and raids small coastal towns).
-W. E. Ray
Hmm these are some interesting ideas. Unless I end up watching Vantage Point tonite I will write something up and maybe get a cohesive idea going. Will post results!
J~