Vaults not Scarwall (spoilers)

[tbug]

It looks like my players are going to skip Skeletons of Scarwall. They're particularly concerned with the denizens of the Vaults, as well as the situation with the Gray Maidens and the statues of the queen being erected around the city. I'd like to give them a really solid, long-visit dungeon crawl beneath the city streets investigating the vampire lords serving Sorshen, and would love not to have to map it all out myself. Any suggestions for something off-the-shelf I can use?

For instance, Gary Gygax's Necropolis sounds interesting. Would that work?

[Charles Evans 25]

What about using something such as Dungeon of the Crypt (Dungeon #127), Maure Castle (#112) or maybe The Mud Sorcerer's Tomb (#138) as a starting point if you want a dungeon crawl? Though some adaptation in terms of flavour or encounters would be required, admittedly. (Mud Sorcerer's Tomb in particular being aimed at 14th level characters, as it stands.)

Edit:
Dungeon of the Crypt (and its adjacent parts in the trilogy Blood of Malar (#126) and The Fireplace Level (#128)) has some vampire villains you might want to lift, whatever else you do.

[James Jacobs]

You can always just use "Skeletons of Scarwall" anyway; just change the nature of whatever it is they're looking for and use the castle dungeon as an underground dungeon, with some changes here and there to the way things work between levels.

Necropolis, while a fun adventure, is too big and too deadly and too non-Varisian in flavor to work gracefully for this situation; you'd do more work adapting Necropolis than you would Skeletons of Scarwall.

[Greg A. Vaughan]

Necropolis is very Egyptian (Khemitian?) in flavor. It's an awesome dungeon crawl, but it would not really fit at all without an EXTENSIVE rewrite, up to and including room descriptions. Scarwall would make a decent dungeon crawl by filling in all the surroundings with rock and making it just a series of chambers dug around an open cavern (the courtyard) and you could then move all the Mandravius drama to the subbasement of Korvosa itself. Or in old, old school Dungeon magazine (a bit Dark Tower of Kabilar-esque) fashion, you could even import the castle, tarn, and gatehouse whole, as a freestanding structure in an immense cavern beneath the city--even tie it in to the Runelords maybe to help explain it.

The Vampires of Waterdeep series from Dungeon is also good idea that fits pretty well thematically.

[Turin the Mad]

Heheh.

For me, the Kuthonites were an expendable element of Scarwall - I used them as guardians to the gatehouse as scripted and that was about it (going on memory). The players LOVED the skull fortress! You could easily use the causeway as an underground tunnel leading into the aforementioned (by Jacobs and Vaughn) underground environment. Given the nature of Scarwall, being underground makes it a much more formidable environment too, which is rather nice.

The 'causeway tunnel' could be treated similarly to a modern subway, with the ruined keep on the surface. Extend the tunnel a suitable depth into the ground beneath the island Korvosa sits on before it crosses the watery chasm (where the gargoyles are). Alternatively, the ruined keep on the map of the city to the north side across the water, near the grove of trees, could be the entry point, the causeway extending into the ground at a modest slope a considerable distance. The causeway would cut beneath the water table, allowing you to add the echoing water drips, various moldy odors which is nasty in an enclosed environment and the terror of the darkness. Sprinkle some deathbugs here, various monstrous fungi there and tack on icky flavor text ... even gugs are on the menu (so to speak) ...

[tbug]

Thank-you for the ideas, and the comments on Necropolis. I'll definitely check out those Dungeon issues, Charles, as well as ponder converting Skeletons of Scarwall. My only reluctance with the latter idea is a nagging worry that the players might change their minds and send a group (probably half PCs and half iconics) there after they get a better feel for what's going on with Ileosa.

Regardless, I now feel better-armed. Thanks, everyone!