Hi,
I am planning to start GMing for a new group, and we'll most likely be playing 3.5. I'd like to run Red Hand of Doom, since I've heard such good things about it. I'm not sure what to run to get the characters to 5th or 6th level, though.
A player in the group provided me with a flash drive full of pdf's, but a cursory reading has made it difficult to find interesting low-level content.
One thought I had would be to run Hollow's Last Hope and Crown of the Kobold King, but that still leaves a gap.
Any thoughts or suggestions?
Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh and its two follow up adventures are great for 1st level.
Ghost Tower of Inverness would be good to run right before Red Hand of Doom.
My guess is if you run all four of these modules you will be ready for Red Hand of Doom.
Many thanks for the suggestions!
I went through the pdf's I have, and unfortunately these aren't among them. I did a quick google search and it appears that free pdf's may be available.
They are written for AD&D and I'd prefer to avoid doing conversions (not dead set against it, just a slight preference). I have a supply of Pathfinder adventures that I could convert backwards as well, I guess.
Among the modules I received were The Sunless Citadel and The Forge of Fury. It appears that these could be run back-to-back. Could this work well at all?
Thank you!
I ran Forge of Fury once and the players enjoyed it quite a bit. I have Sunless Citadel but haven't ran it before. I see no reason why these would not work and get the party up to the level you want them to be for The Red Hand of Doom. Go for it.
The Sunless Citadel and The Forge of Fury adventures can work as a lead-in to The Red Hand of Doom. Both feature draconic tie-ins that can be emphasized to highlight an overall theme.
You also can strengthen the connection between The Sunless Citadel and The Forge of Fury by expanding on the scroll mentioning Khundrukar ("Glitterhame") in the Trophy Room (37), as well as the connection between the two adventures and The Red Hand of Doom by placing them in or near the Elsir Vale (changing the towns and NPCs in the modules to suit their "new" locations).
Thanks, both of you! I'll be proposing this plan to the group a couple of weeks.
In the meantime, I guess I need to do a lot of reading!
I don't see that The Sunless Citadel needed plot reworking at all.
Second of all, if you did feel that story needed reworking, it's hardly "serious". It's just a little background to lead into a dungeon crawl. Here, I'll rework it right now: Belak was the one who traded the fruit - just once - to someone who didn't know him. There. Thinking of that took me all of 10 seconds.
Third of all, that was just one of THREE optional hooks for the PCs to get involved. You could use one of the other two instead, or just make up your own.
Fourth of all, if the humans do believe that the goblins cheated them by stealing the trees, isn't that all the more reason to invade their home and steal the trees back?
First of all, I have a few minor quibbles.
The module came out in 2000. The PRD is dated 2009. Are you calling the module's author ignorant because he failed to comply with a different company's document? When that other company didn't even exist yet?
And you're still assuming that hook is necessary for the module to work. As I explained in my last post, it isn't necessary at all.
But these are moot points. My main point is that...
Since you don't explain what you mean by "screw over" I can only try to figure it out. I've come up with three possibilities of what you might mean.
Possibility #1 is "When we plant the seeds, they start to grow into trees, but then those trees disappear. We think the goblins are stealing those trees so they can monopolize the supply of that magical fruit." If that's what you mean, that's all the more reason to invade the goblins' lair, bust some goblin heads, and take their stuff, which is exactly what the PCs need to do anyway to make the module work perfectly, as written.
Possibility #2 is "By planting the trees, the people are increasing the Twig Blight population and playing into Belak's hands." Is that what you mean? Because the PCs don't find that out until the final encounter of the module! And even if the PCs do somehow figure this out early, it's all the more reason to wipe out the goblins and stop them from spreading the fruit. Where's the need for a rewrite?
Possibility #3 is that only a dumb--- would ever do any business with anyone evil. Is that what you mean? Do you think that no one but a dumb--- does business with anyone evil? In the real world or in a typical fantasy campaign setting? People want that fruit to save their dying relatives or friends. Some people would willingly do business with the Devil himself under such circumstances.
In short, this adventure works perfectly with the assumption that goblins are evil. Why do you think otherwise?
So you're saying that the goblins should not have CHEATED the humans, but would only have tried to KILL them instead? Is that the idea?
I mean... you keep suggesting that HUMANS would never deal with GOBLINS, but I guess what you really mean is that GOBLINS would never deal with HUMANS. That instead of selling the fruit to humans, the goblins would have killed the humans instead, because they knew the humans to be weaker?
And no, I never ignored the point that goblins are monstrous, evil creatures. I thought I made it clear in my previous post that I don't deny it. Should I make it clearer still? Goblins are bad. Goblins are evil. Goblins are monsters. There. Is it clear enough now? Can we get to the actual point here?
EDIT: And my son wants to add the following: If the goblins are evil and outpower the humans, then they can simply bully the humans into trading with them. Far from being dumb####s, the humans realize that the goblins must be up to something, which is exactly whey they send their local adventurers to go slaughter some goblins. Hence, the adventure works perfectly as written.
And I'll rephrase my point from Tuesday, because I feel it answers your question (in your last spoiler) perfectly well: In-universe, a poor boy has a sick, dying father. He desperately wants that father to live. A bunch of goblins go to him and say "Hey, we have this magical fruit that can save your father's life." The boy thinks "I know that the goblins are evil..."
And I'll repeat that point, in case you still think I'm ignoring it, or failing to see it.
THE BOY THINKS "I KNOW THAT THE GOBLINS ARE EVIL..."
However, the boy's thought process continues: "...but I'm desperate. I'll do anything to save my father, even deal with goblins."
So he buys the fruit, gives it to his father, and the father is cured! To all appearances, the goblins haven't screwed the boy over. The goblins haven't given the boy the shaft. The fruit worked exactly as advertised.
But even that last paragraph is only the secondary point. The main point is that YES, IN UNIVERSE, PEOPLE DO DEAL WITH EVIL CREATURES. IN THE REAL WORLD, PEOPLE DO DEAL WITH EVIL PEOPLE. They do it because they have to, or because they want to, or because they don't see any alternatives, or for various other reasons, but THEY DO IT. And it doesn't mean that they're dumb----s!
(Okay, some of them are. That's another possible reason. But not the only one!)
Goblins used to be CE in 3.0.
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I’m a bit late to this discussion, but I ran Sunless Citadel and Forge of Fury before running Red Hand of Doom and it worked really well. I replaced the town in Sunless Citadel with the one from Red Hand, which gave the PCs a bit more of a connection to the area when the Red Hand came calling.
I also ran Guardians of Dragonfall (Paizo 3.5 module) afterwards.