So one part of my campaign is going to involve breaking a shadar-kai out of Wheloon, Cormyr's Guantanamo Bay, because he has information the party will need. I wasn't really sure how I was going to handle it, but I read a terrific article in Dungeon 163 about running a skill challenge to move around a hostile city (Suderham, the slave city). I really liked the style of the skill challenge presented there and I am 99% sure I will use it for my Wheloon adventure.
But the article got me thinking further that Wheloon would need separate factions and sections of the city. Perhaps there is a shadovar faction there. Perhaps a Cormyrian faction that got walled in. Maybe there are now worshippers of Shar or a particularly nasty thieves' guild. The Purple Dragons might make incursions into the city to put down unrest. Roving bands of thieves, thugs and general miscreants are commonplace. All of this in a walled off city, that was now a prison. This started sounding familiar, eerily familiar. Then it hit me . . . Escape from New York. So as an homage, I decided to make a map of Wheloon that honors the movie and the city.
Behold, the Prison City of Wheloon (aka lower Manhatten):
There is an excellent LFR adventure dealing with Wheelon. It's called Gangs of Wheelon and you should really try to get it somehow. The plot is very similiar to your idea
Highlight to read spoiler
The PCs are hired by the crown to break an agent who has gone missing out of Wheelon. During the course of the adventure the PCs are send to Wheelon disguised as prisoners and discover that Wheelon has been divided between several gangs. Long story short the PCs take over their own gang and then have several options to meddle in the gang politics from trying to ally with other gangs to outright hostile takeovers. Eventually they discover that the missing agent has been captured by the sharran faction and they need to rescue him. They can either try a covered ops mission or use their new gang for an open assault thus starting open war on the streets of Wheelon. In the end they can escape through the secret exit known only by the royal agent (and either take their new gang with them or leave them behind)
It's one of the most roleplaying rich LFR adventures and has so many opportunities and possibilities that it's just impossible to experience them all within a single play. The adventure could easily be turned into an complete heroic to end-paragon campaign. In fact ait's not uncommon for LFR players to chose their character to stay in Wheelon as a gang lord.
Your map is really nice. Here's a suggestion from the aforementioned LFR adventure (highlight to read):
In GoW a river only borders the city on one side and it's through the river that the crown sends in the supplies for the prisoners. Naturally controll of the river means controll of the food distribution and thus is the most valuable territory a gang can get (which makes it a prime targets for the players if they want to secure more food for their hungering gang which only controlls one of the less desireable territories when the PCs take over leadership). My group tried to ally with other lesser gangs so that we would be able to muster the strength to take the river territory from the superior gang currently controlling it.
A friend of mine's statement, "If you can think it up, it's probably been done before," continues to hold true. I had no idea LFR had this idea already. How does one get a hold of an LFR module anyway? I might use aspects of it in my upcoming campaign, but I think i want to hold to this map and some of my original ideas that differ.
Filson
A friend of mine's statement, "If you can think it up, it's probably been done before," continues to hold true. I had no idea LFR had this idea already. How does one get a hold of an LFR module anyway? I might use aspects of it in my upcoming campaign, but I think i want to hold to this map and some of my original ideas that differ.
Filson
The LFR module has no real map, at least not of the city, so yours is -infinitely- better.
You need to join the RPGA and become a herald-level DM to get it. Rather than explain it all here, I would suggest heading across the LFR forums where some kind souls will tell you exactly what you need to do.
I was actually able to get my hands on the adventure (special thanks to a certain forum reader). Mostly I just want it for general structure issues and maybe borrow some NPCs. I can't really use the adventure because this part of my adventure fits in at a much higher level (for now anyway). It will definitely be useful for window dressing. I think I will use the map I created since clearly there is no other map (and I don;t think my map necessarily defies canon in any sort of way).
Thanks for the suggestions.
Filson
That map is pretty cool.
So who is going to be "Snake Pliskin" in the adventure? Will the Head of Cormry be trapped in the city? Damn that sounds all kinds of fun.
At first I thought it said Snake Pigskin...and was like wtf. I see I was mistaken.
Maybe I will have a half-orc gang leader named Snake Pigskin.
Make him Cyric's Hand in the city!
hey all i also plan to do a "escape from new york" style adventure for my current campaign,,, i rember reading about the LFR module and thought that was a cool way to use that town.
i remeber a 3.5 mod that used whelhoon as it's start( hence how it turned into a prison i assume) but i don't think it came with a great map,,,which is what i need.
would love to take a look at the current whelhoon adventure to help develope my story,,,any help?
They don't have a full map of the city in the adventure, just very small portions of it for the encounters.
so what is the best way to get a hold of this adventure????
As i understand it you have to join the LFR, then take a test to become a Herald level DM, then you can get the adventure, among many others.
Or . . . ahem . . . have someone send it to you.
;)
Yes that would be one way of doing it.
Hypothetically speaking of course.
The whole endeavor sounds freaking cool to me. 