SO I have ran ST before, the first few volumes (up to SWW) and was thinking of converting and running it again, but some of the same players would possibly be involved. ANy thoughts or ideas or replacement adventures for There is no Honor through Sea Wyverns Wake? A good couple of adventures that can still set up the campaign and the isle etc?
Well what I'm thinking is some adventuresto get them from level 1-5 or so (whatever the level is that SWW ends)... So essentially someideas to introduce the setting the savage Pirates and Pearls, and get them stranded on the Isle... What information would a new group need bare minimum to get invested in the plot going forward is my question.
Summary of the plot as I understand it:
1 "There Is No Honor" The pcs establish a connection to Lavinia, and Vanthus. They fight a thieves guild that is not importanat tothe overall game... Important part here is Lavinia, her brother, and her vault.
2 "The Bullywug Gambit" Pcs track Vanthus see what he's done, deal with the mutants and then rush back to save Lavinia...Important thing is saving her and witnessing the Savage tide.
3 "The Sea Wyvern's Wake" The important part here is the getting there. Really most of what happens is filler IMO... The only thing that narratively is important is the wreck at the end.
So by and Large I need roughly 5 or so levels of adventuring that ties the PCs to Lavinia and her brother, Introduces the Tide, and it's effects, and gets them to the isle and wrecks them.
At this point, I may set them up with some homebrew stuff. Maybe set them up as adventurers who happen upon the ruins of the pirate base, and find a map left behind that Vanthus had (maybe they are at the base looking for someone) and then they follow in its wake, get shipwrecked on the isle. The adventure plays up from there they wander and find Farshore. (need npcs they adventure with for HTBM) then upon finding Farshore they meet the potential employers jockeying for leadership (Lavinia and that guy with the porn stache) and they as nuetral adventurers get to play politics as both parties lobby for their support. Then they just kind of get sucked into the plot from there. I'll have to look at my other options. I could also run extremely short versions of the first few adventures that just get's them up to speed... Hmmm...
Some of the (many) modifications I did to my (3.5) ST campaign may be useful to you.
- I used “Mad God’s Key” (D114) as well: Lavinia asked the PCs to track down the halforc (he had stolen her ring); the thief’s hide out replaced the Lotus Dragons hide out & the Tomb of Blood Everflowing was the headquarter of a cult (with Vanthus as member) & was located near Kraken’s Cove (IMC, I upgraded the tomb’s inhabitants).
- If I recall correctly, when their parents were at the Isle, Lavinia was at school (?) and Vanthus lived at one of the plantations perhaps you can focus on that plantation (now in ruins?)
- introducing the savage tide: In addition to the Kraken’s Cove setup: in SWW the PCs find one of the jungle forts/outposts destroyed - other posters in older threads have suggested that this may be Crimson Fleet & pearl related. I used a map of a jungle port/outpost (google fu is weak at the moment) & had them fight some savage creatures with some Crimson Fleet allies in a nearby ziggurat ruin.
- I used Forsaken Arch (D120) (pearls & a demonic cult = good fit with general theme of ST!) & River into Darkness (Paizo – great adventure overall) to replace adventures I left out.
- SWW can indeed be filled in anyway you like: my PCs have to pick up Urol in Port Nyaranzaru (in FR) with the necessary complications.
have fun!
Hagor
STuff
Good Stuff I'll look into swiping that!
I have had a similar problem, since I had a suboptimal group when 2 of my players left. I ran some new characters through the Freeport trilogy and now they are about to meet the old ones in Farshore. In order to link the two campaigns I added some sea encounters and changed the nameless god into Dagon.
The Freeport trilogy is flexible enough to add some links to STAP, e.g. animal smugglers, thieves' guilds, etc.
Ok, first off Freeport Trilogy? Awesome, Luna. My PCs ran Death of Freeport concurrently with There is No Honor. (the snakeperson temple was under Parrot Island)
They are currently doing "Madness in Sasserine", though I sent them off to do The Standing Stone to find the Jade Crown of Yig instead of the part the adventure uses. And they did "The Prince of Redhand" for the ball scene, which made Drac look a LOT eviler than I'd expected.
What you do to launch the campaign depends. SWW is perfect if you need a journey to the Isle. Otherwise, you could start on the Isle, and go from there. Torrents of Dread is a good upper low level adventure, and beginning on the Isle (when they have no chance against T-Rexs and such) can allow for a more Jurassic Park beginning.
If I was starting from the Isle, I'd pick a few low level undead adventures, re-flavor them for the jungle/area, and replace the undead with savage creatures in order to set up the importance of the Tide. The Pearl could be held by whatever necromancer/mastermind served as the 'boss' of the original adventure.
Then I'd run Torrents of Dread, possibly turning Tilorik into a savage creature that somehow maintained his mind.
Then I'd send the PCs off to the other side of the Isle, probably to rescue a group of colonists/lost Olman hunters who used a scroll of sending to ask for help. Naturally, once they get there, their own craft gets wrecked, and Ch. 4 "Here there be Monsters" can begin on schedule.
The previous group just stopped before the final battle of TOD, so I had to get the new characters to level 10. Basically they make the same journey as in SWW, but are confronted with the consequences of the actions of the previous PCs (e.g. I played Tammeraut's fate with the previous group - they sort of managed to seal off Dagon's maw, but not good enough, so it is slowly opening again when the second group approaches this spot - and I have also added some ships taken over by savage creatures here and there). This has the nice advantage that previous plotlines are re-introduced during the sea voyage.
When they approach journey's end, some demons will teleport aboard their ship and attack. The enemy thinks these new PCs are reinforcements (and they are of course) and wants to prevent them reaching Farshore in time. I am trying to plan it so that they arrive in the nick of time to fight alongside the other characters in the siege of Farshore.
Drac was indeed very nasty. The fight in the lighthouse was memorable. I have also linked Dagon to TLD (instead of Holashner), so that they have reasons to go to Golismorga.
I liked DM-ing the Freeport trilogy. One comment one of my players made after having defeated Milton Drac: "I think this is the first night my character can sleep the whole night through since arriving in Freeport."
Yeah. My players are going into it at 14th level, but that works because I had a more powerful Drac anyways. I'm also tweaking the gem in the Lighthouse (powered by shadow pearl!) to super-charge the badguys there, forcing them to deal with trying to remove the pearl and use the Jade Crown, rather than just slashing through the bad guys. +100 temp hp, renewed every round is fairly rough, though I wonder if it will be enough.
Using the shadow pearl in the lighthouse is a really cool idea! I wish I had thought of that!