Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Silvertongue 06-21-03, 11:15 PM	The small but powereful group that I G.M. has decided to take up the challenge of clearing the Stonelands w/ the intent of the party's knight claiming the title of Baron as per the deal originally offered by Azoun and currently upheld by Alusair. Help! The amount of planning that the party have put into this is phenomenal and I feel obligated to return the gesture. I am still relatively knew to the G.M. side of the screen and I need help with, for example, adjudicating xp. They have given me a 3 year plan which starts w/ a sweep of the entire area for the purposes of cleansing and then building (magically) a massive stone wall to separate the Anauroch from the Stonelands then building watchtowers before turning their attention to erecting a main keep and a terraforming project of the landscape to include arable farmland. They have many powerful allies and plan to call upon these with the addition of bought and freed slaves as recruitment and future population. I can role-play through several squirmishes and diplomatic encounters but not through 3 years worth of building a civilization from scratch- how much xp should I award for such an undertaking? Any ideas on actual encounters I should include would also be helpful-I would like to avoid an all out orc slaughter. Basically, I am worried about getting bogged down in the enormity of it all and letting it fall to the way-side so any help at all would be appreciated.
Lady Claransa Trent 06-22-03, 07:59 PM	The Shades might have issues with the wall, so you could have encounters with the princes or lesser denizens from Shade, depending on how high level the campaign is (sounds fairly high level). One of the most fun things in the transition from 2e to 3e was giving class levels to orcs and other weak monsters. We have a ranger in our campaign who hates orcs, and had a very fun encounter when he rushed in to slay several dozen orcs (thinking it would be a walk in the park) - was he ever surprised when they turned out to the fairly high level fighters and mages. The Zhentarim have been active in that area before, so that could tie in to, but I think the Shadovar are probably going to be the main threat in addition to the goblinoids. Giants are good too - there's probably a lot of them around, especially hill and stone giants. No idea on how much XP, depends on what they do exactly and how high level they are. Hope that helps a bit...If I think of anything else I'll post it.
PhilCW 06-22-03, 10:35 PM	Alot of information on the stonelands and the goblin marshes can be found in the Elminster's Ecologies Boxed Set. Suffice it to say, the Zhentarim in Darkhold have always been the dominant force in the area. THey've kept it lawless to prevent other merchant caravans from effectively using the area. They have employed all manners of tactics to keep the area untamed such as deepspawn, beholders and dopplegangers to manipulate the various tribes and bandits that roam the area. That is not withstanding the frequent caravans and patrols that go to and fro from Darkhold itself. The terraforming project your players seem to have is suspicious. The stonelands are caught between several mountain chains and an encroaching desert (aka Anauroch). Furthermore, one must think on the consequences of doing such climate changes. Unapproachable East details storms that are an offshoot of the Thayan tinckering with nature. Watchtowers and keeps need a foundation to build upon, so you need appropriate soil conditions. Else their "great wall" will go the way of the old Castles boxed set example. However, the boxed set does include a special "cheap" castle building company. It is lead by a halfling (secretly a Zhentarim spy) that by using "golems" (secretly hill or stone giants), are able to build fortifications cheap, and quickly. With a few hidden surprises (gates, tunnels, what have you for Zhents to pour into the keep without even having to assault or lay siege). Playing god might be fun, but one must look at the whole picture before making decisions.
Silvertongue 06-23-03, 12:49 PM	Thanx guys :) Have taken note of all suggestions and will try to get my hands on that box set. Must admit don't really like the terraforming plan myself, it would effect the entire ecology of the land including the harmless wildlife and as some of their allies are druids, I think they may have something to say about that- methinks some serious compromises must be reached in the overall plan. Cheers :D