CoTSQ in eberron? [Archive] - Wizards Community

CoTSQ in eberron? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
beezly
11-28-06, 10:38 AM I posted this in the adventures board and i got no substantiative reply. I thought i'd try here:

I'm currently DMing the Forgotten Forge ->Grasp of the emerald claw adventure path and, being a busy college student, i don't have too much time to write adventures. City of the Spider Queen is nice and long, but i don't know if it will be way to out there to convert to Eberron (I want to keep the eberron feel, not just transplant it into Xen'Drik and change every "spider" reference to "scorpion"). Can somebody who has read the module tell me if it's too FR-esque to play in Eberron? I'm not against converting all of the antagonists into other monsters (rakshakas, illithids, even crazily empowered warforged)...but would it be worth it?
DarkWarriorKarg
11-28-06, 12:55 PM Being near the end of the module in one game I'm in...

I can tell you that it's VERY FR-Specific. First, there's the oodles of drow...

It would require quite a bit of work to redo it...

For minimal changes I suggest

Change the drow to a corrupt branch of elvenkind... pseudonatural fiendish could keep the CRs the same and really gross out the PCs

Have them be in a power struggle between followers the Rajah of Death and an imprisoned demon queen. Maybe use Lloth, but as a demon queen rather than a goddess, and she's just been imprisoned in Khyber crystals.

The leader wants to begin a ritual that will Free the Rajah of Death from imprisonment (hence the reality warping) and lead an army of undead to conquer the surface.

This is, of course, high-level in concept and an epic quest.
beezly
11-28-06, 04:32 PM Would replacing the Drow with Quori and having the magic be psionics work? How about if the plane was moving back into orbit with eberron?
Thwyvylyn
11-28-06, 04:52 PM You could move it to Xen'Drick and involve the Umbragen (Dragon Magazine #330, the one with the mindflayer and the soon to be brainless guy IIRC)

They are very sinister if played right and they live adjacent to Khyber and thus have been fighting aberrations of all horrid kinds for millenia. Any references to Lloth could probably be changed to Vulkour or just some powerful fiend.
Ellorin
11-30-06, 04:42 AM You could move it to Xen'Drick and involve the Umbragen (Dragon Magazine #330, the one with the mindflayer and the soon to be brainless guy IIRC)

They are very sinister if played right and they live adjacent to Khyber and thus have been fighting aberrations of all horrid kinds for millenia. Any references to Lloth could probably be changed to Vulkour or just some powerful fiend.

That's what I'm doing at the moment! But since it IS FR-specific, prepare yourself for some changes. Personally, this is what I did for our campaign:

a) Since it is full of high lvl NPCs, we need some credibility. Ok, the Umbragen are tough due to the danges they face, but still... thus, I use the Qabalrin. Ancient elven intelligent undead and the source of the Umbragen's arcane lore...and now some of their greatest have awakened. Yes, I know, modifying most of the drow leaders to undead is some work, but it's...well...working. As for Irae, I vampired her...but she could be the "chosen of the Umbra" or something.

b) The invading forces are just a front for the ancient aberrant foes of the Umbragen, although few of the know that. The blackguard conqueror was actually assassinated long ago.Less fiends, more aberrations.

c) The Hidden are a somewhat larger group. They're hunted to extinction since they refused to bow to the Qabalrin lords. If your players like large battles, they can try to help and unite them. My players do, so...

d) Vulkoor doesn't seem to work. The key religions are the Umbra, the shadow( for the Qabalrin) and the Cults of the Dragon Below.

e) A recurring villain. Irae's sendngs and summonings help, but if one already exists in your campaign, use her too.

f) the FR drow are oh-so-irredeemably-evil. I suggest "graying" your drow somewhat. At some point, give them a drow paladin of the Umbra-surprise!Remember, alignment is unpredictable.

g) I don't know what a "kir-lanan" is, so I'll have to replace it with something. I'm not sure with what yet.

That's all. Hope my ramblings have helped.
Kid SixXx
12-01-06, 04:44 AM Basically, the COTSQ module surrounds the Drow threatening the surface with a planar incursion.

The Sulatar facination with an Age of Fire that will wipe out all infidels and outsiders is almost tailor-made for such a plotline, but it does get away from the undead flavor of COTSQ, not that it's necessarily a bad thing.

Making Irae the head of the Sulatar (perhaps her albino skin marks her as some sort of messiah?) is not a stretch. Convert her tower to a massive eldritch machine designed to bring about the Age of Fire and that's pretty much it.

The planar machine can also explains the existance of Kurgoth Hellspawn's demonic horde so you can keep his army in the plotline without too much trouble.

The reason COTSQ caused a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth is because mechanical survival depended on having at least one cleric because of the undead & negative energy threats. Altering a Eberron plotline to a faction that doesn't heavily depend on such things allows for survival the exotic character classes you're bound to encounter in most Eberron campaigns.

Involving the Sulatar also guarantees that CoTSQ won't be a carbon copy of the FR adveture, allowing you to shoehorn in whatever you want to in subsitution. Swap out the Kir-Lanan for a race of uber-gargoyles (or keep them in & rename them) or whatevayalike.

I'd suggest picking up Keith's Dreaming Dark novels. The Shattered Land (Book #2) provides some useful fluffy snippets of the Sulatar and the Scorpion-Kissers (the aboriginal Drow that most folks associate with Xen'Drik).
Ellorin
12-01-06, 04:53 AM Basically, the COTSQ module surrounds the Drow threatening the surface with a planar incursion.

The Sulatar facination with an Age of Fire is almost tailor-made for such a plotline, but it does get away from the undead flavor of COTSQ, not that it's necessarily a bad thing.

The reason COTSQ caused a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth is because mechanical survival depended on having at least one cleric because of the undead & negative energy threats. Altering a Eberron plotline to a faction that doesn't heavily depend on such things allows for survival the exotic character classes you're bound to encounter in most Eberron campaigns.

Involving the Sulatar also guarantees that CoTSQ won't be a carbon copy of the FR adveture, allowing you to shoehorn in whatever you want to in subsitution. Swap out the Kir-Lanan for a race of uber-gargoyles (or keep them in & rename them) or whatevayalike.

Hm...never thought of it that way- that was really good Kid SixXx! I suppose I'm too much of a vampire fan to change...but still, great!I'm curious about what you would exchange the undead with- fire outsiders? Rogue dragons and agents of them? I suggest changing the type of the Giants in this case( too much fire, unless of course you like it that way).

By the way...there is a possibility that the PCs will actually try to gain a contract for the Red Gauntlets( I'm not sure with which faction though- probably the Hidden, but House Tharask and the Riedrans are a possibility). They certainly have the ranks...Can you picture that? Anyway, I think I rather like the idea.
Kid SixXx
12-01-06, 05:41 PM Hm...never thought of it that way- that was really good Kid SixXx! I suppose I'm too much of a vampire fan to change...but still, great!I'm curious about what you would exchange the undead with- fire outsiders? Rogue dragons and agents of them?

I suggest changing the type of the Giants in this case( too much fire, unless of course you like it that way).

I'd probably swap out the undead with fire outsiders of equal CR and use the Yuan-Ti instead of the Kuo-Toa.

Keeping the dragons as rogue agents would be fun.

As for the overplot:

I enjoy twists of fate, so I'd have the Sulatar's plans stem from some miscommunication.

Most likely, I'd have the "big error" arrive via the plot that Sulatar are using the tower the wrong way! The tower is merely supposed to make the immediate area more habitable for Fire Giants by raising ambient temperature by channeling planar energy.

By "breaking the thermostat," the Sulatar will jumpstart their fiery apocalypse, but will also crack dimensional seals allowing denizens from Mabar to cross over into Eberron's prime materiel plane.

That's where Kurgoth comes in. Kurgoth would be a half-fiendish Fire Giant decendant of an elder clan of Fire Giants banished to Mabar when the Dragons razed Giant civilization.

By using the tower in a manner it wasn't supposed to be used, the Sulatar would unwittlingly bring Kurgoth to their doorstep along with his army.

Naturally, Kurgoth would want to punish the Sulatar for failing to support their masters (ie. The Fire Giants) when the Dragons crushed Giant civilization. That stand-off would lend itself to being the distraction the PC's will need to enter Irae's tower and save Stormreach.

Seems like a good attitude of denial to give to a meglomaniacal half-fiendish Fire Giant.

I haven't figured out what I'd do with other incidentals yet.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
beezly 11-28-06, 10:38 AM	I posted this in the adventures board and i got no substantiative reply. I thought i'd try here: I'm currently DMing the Forgotten Forge ->Grasp of the emerald claw adventure path and, being a busy college student, i don't have too much time to write adventures. City of the Spider Queen is nice and long, but i don't know if it will be way to out there to convert to Eberron (I want to keep the eberron feel, not just transplant it into Xen'Drik and change every "spider" reference to "scorpion"). Can somebody who has read the module tell me if it's too FR-esque to play in Eberron? I'm not against converting all of the antagonists into other monsters (rakshakas, illithids, even crazily empowered warforged)...but would it be worth it?
DarkWarriorKarg 11-28-06, 12:55 PM	Being near the end of the module in one game I'm in... I can tell you that it's VERY FR-Specific. First, there's the oodles of drow... It would require quite a bit of work to redo it... For minimal changes I suggest Change the drow to a corrupt branch of elvenkind... pseudonatural fiendish could keep the CRs the same and really gross out the PCs Have them be in a power struggle between followers the Rajah of Death and an imprisoned demon queen. Maybe use Lloth, but as a demon queen rather than a goddess, and she's just been imprisoned in Khyber crystals. The leader wants to begin a ritual that will Free the Rajah of Death from imprisonment (hence the reality warping) and lead an army of undead to conquer the surface. This is, of course, high-level in concept and an epic quest.
beezly 11-28-06, 04:32 PM	Would replacing the Drow with Quori and having the magic be psionics work? How about if the plane was moving back into orbit with eberron?
Thwyvylyn 11-28-06, 04:52 PM	You could move it to Xen'Drick and involve the Umbragen (Dragon Magazine #330, the one with the mindflayer and the soon to be brainless guy IIRC) They are very sinister if played right and they live adjacent to Khyber and thus have been fighting aberrations of all horrid kinds for millenia. Any references to Lloth could probably be changed to Vulkour or just some powerful fiend.
Ellorin 11-30-06, 04:42 AM	You could move it to Xen'Drick and involve the Umbragen (Dragon Magazine #330, the one with the mindflayer and the soon to be brainless guy IIRC) They are very sinister if played right and they live adjacent to Khyber and thus have been fighting aberrations of all horrid kinds for millenia. Any references to Lloth could probably be changed to Vulkour or just some powerful fiend. That's what I'm doing at the moment! But since it IS FR-specific, prepare yourself for some changes. Personally, this is what I did for our campaign: a) Since it is full of high lvl NPCs, we need some credibility. Ok, the Umbragen are tough due to the danges they face, but still... thus, I use the Qabalrin. Ancient elven intelligent undead and the source of the Umbragen's arcane lore...and now some of their greatest have awakened. Yes, I know, modifying most of the drow leaders to undead is some work, but it's...well...working. As for Irae, I vampired her...but she could be the "chosen of the Umbra" or something. b) The invading forces are just a front for the ancient aberrant foes of the Umbragen, although few of the know that. The blackguard conqueror was actually assassinated long ago.Less fiends, more aberrations. c) The Hidden are a somewhat larger group. They're hunted to extinction since they refused to bow to the Qabalrin lords. If your players like large battles, they can try to help and unite them. My players do, so... d) Vulkoor doesn't seem to work. The key religions are the Umbra, the shadow( for the Qabalrin) and the Cults of the Dragon Below. e) A recurring villain. Irae's sendngs and summonings help, but if one already exists in your campaign, use her too. f) the FR drow are oh-so-irredeemably-evil. I suggest "graying" your drow somewhat. At some point, give them a drow paladin of the Umbra-surprise!Remember, alignment is unpredictable. g) I don't know what a "kir-lanan" is, so I'll have to replace it with something. I'm not sure with what yet. That's all. Hope my ramblings have helped.
Kid SixXx 12-01-06, 04:44 AM	Basically, the COTSQ module surrounds the Drow threatening the surface with a planar incursion. The Sulatar facination with an Age of Fire that will wipe out all infidels and outsiders is almost tailor-made for such a plotline, but it does get away from the undead flavor of COTSQ, not that it's necessarily a bad thing. Making Irae the head of the Sulatar (perhaps her albino skin marks her as some sort of messiah?) is not a stretch. Convert her tower to a massive eldritch machine designed to bring about the Age of Fire and that's pretty much it. The planar machine can also explains the existance of Kurgoth Hellspawn's demonic horde so you can keep his army in the plotline without too much trouble. The reason COTSQ caused a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth is because mechanical survival depended on having at least one cleric because of the undead & negative energy threats. Altering a Eberron plotline to a faction that doesn't heavily depend on such things allows for survival the exotic character classes you're bound to encounter in most Eberron campaigns. Involving the Sulatar also guarantees that CoTSQ won't be a carbon copy of the FR adveture, allowing you to shoehorn in whatever you want to in subsitution. Swap out the Kir-Lanan for a race of uber-gargoyles (or keep them in & rename them) or whatevayalike. I'd suggest picking up Keith's Dreaming Dark novels. The Shattered Land (Book #2) provides some useful fluffy snippets of the Sulatar and the Scorpion-Kissers (the aboriginal Drow that most folks associate with Xen'Drik).
Ellorin 12-01-06, 04:53 AM	Basically, the COTSQ module surrounds the Drow threatening the surface with a planar incursion. The Sulatar facination with an Age of Fire is almost tailor-made for such a plotline, but it does get away from the undead flavor of COTSQ, not that it's necessarily a bad thing. The reason COTSQ caused a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth is because mechanical survival depended on having at least one cleric because of the undead & negative energy threats. Altering a Eberron plotline to a faction that doesn't heavily depend on such things allows for survival the exotic character classes you're bound to encounter in most Eberron campaigns. Involving the Sulatar also guarantees that CoTSQ won't be a carbon copy of the FR adveture, allowing you to shoehorn in whatever you want to in subsitution. Swap out the Kir-Lanan for a race of uber-gargoyles (or keep them in & rename them) or whatevayalike. Hm...never thought of it that way- that was really good Kid SixXx! I suppose I'm too much of a vampire fan to change...but still, great!I'm curious about what you would exchange the undead with- fire outsiders? Rogue dragons and agents of them? I suggest changing the type of the Giants in this case( too much fire, unless of course you like it that way). By the way...there is a possibility that the PCs will actually try to gain a contract for the Red Gauntlets( I'm not sure with which faction though- probably the Hidden, but House Tharask and the Riedrans are a possibility). They certainly have the ranks...Can you picture that? Anyway, I think I rather like the idea.
Kid SixXx 12-01-06, 05:41 PM	Hm...never thought of it that way- that was really good Kid SixXx! I suppose I'm too much of a vampire fan to change...but still, great!I'm curious about what you would exchange the undead with- fire outsiders? Rogue dragons and agents of them? I suggest changing the type of the Giants in this case( too much fire, unless of course you like it that way). I'd probably swap out the undead with fire outsiders of equal CR and use the Yuan-Ti instead of the Kuo-Toa. Keeping the dragons as rogue agents would be fun. As for the overplot: I enjoy twists of fate, so I'd have the Sulatar's plans stem from some miscommunication. Most likely, I'd have the "big error" arrive via the plot that Sulatar are using the tower the wrong way! The tower is merely supposed to make the immediate area more habitable for Fire Giants by raising ambient temperature by channeling planar energy. By "breaking the thermostat," the Sulatar will jumpstart their fiery apocalypse, but will also crack dimensional seals allowing denizens from Mabar to cross over into Eberron's prime materiel plane. That's where Kurgoth comes in. Kurgoth would be a half-fiendish Fire Giant decendant of an elder clan of Fire Giants banished to Mabar when the Dragons razed Giant civilization. By using the tower in a manner it wasn't supposed to be used, the Sulatar would unwittlingly bring Kurgoth to their doorstep along with his army. Naturally, Kurgoth would want to punish the Sulatar for failing to support their masters (ie. The Fire Giants) when the Dragons crushed Giant civilization. That stand-off would lend itself to being the distraction the PC's will need to enter Irae's tower and save Stormreach. Seems like a good attitude of denial to give to a meglomaniacal half-fiendish Fire Giant. I haven't figured out what I'd do with other incidentals yet.