So I've been putting my players through Spellgard Tower and surrounding area. Party is 8th level and I'm using the spirit of the published Spellgard adventure, though not the details. I specifically tried to avoid the combat-heavy nature of the published module.I was drawn to the open-ended nature of the various NPCs and wanted to provide a bit of a sandbox for my players.
Its certainly been interesting, heres how it played out for us. This contains some plot spoilers in a general sense.
- Several prior sessions hinted at Spellgard, first as a place for treasure-hunters and adventurers. The players received a copy of the Analects to get them interested. I photoshopped it a bit for that weathered feel, and cut it up as handouts.
- The players were ambushed by a hated enemy, the Zhents, who offered a truce with the players in order to team up against their mutual enemy, the Netherese. Zhents gave info that the Netherese were up to no good in Spellgard. If the Shades could gain control of the prophetic ghost in the ruins, theres no telling what they could get away with. Of course the players refused any Zhent help, killing them on the spot.
- Players arrived at the Spellgard ruins and met various NPCs at the Monastery. Meanwhile the tower 'turned on' with a beam of blue light shooting out the top. "That must be bad", they said, and they decided to head out for the central tower. First failing to enter the locked and occupied tower, then attempting to go underneath via a kobold lair.
- They laughed about having to fight kobolds...but they should know never to laugh at the DM. I used an equal-level NPC group, the Free Company from the module, to ambush them during the battle. Nice three-way fight between the NPCs, PCs and lots of annoying kobold minions (combat #1).
- They met up with Clewsoro, a greedy mercenary NPC from the module, beneath the ruins and chased him off (verbally). They then entered an old catacomb and fought the resident undead (combat #2). That led directly below the tower, which they entered and killed off some Netherese guards (combat #3).
- Meanwhile, Clewsoro returned with his men, following the players through the catacombs to the tower. At the same time, Vannak (the dragonborn NPC from the module) had his mercenaries ramming the tower entrance. Three-way battle between Netherese guards, PCs and Vannak's men, who quickly joined forces against Netheril (combat #4).
- Vannak's men held off Clewsoro's crew at the ground floor. PCs and Vannak raced upstairs to save Lady Saharel. She was already magically imprisoned by a Netherese wizard and being questioned. Lots of campaign plot hints dropped (combat #5).
- Players chop the Netherese to bits. Here's where it gets interesting. Vannak decides to free the Lady but the PCs try to stop him - they want to question her while she is still imprisoned! Meanwhile, Clewsoro shows up with his surviving bodyguard and a halfling rogue NPC. Vannak offers Clewsoro piles of money to assist him against the PCs. (combat #5, continued)
- Players ally with the halfling NPC and barely win the day. Session ends with Saharel still imprisoned and the players trying to figure out what to ask.
It was a heck of a ride. The interaction of multiple NPC groups, both with and against each other, was very nice. Its what I was really expecting out of Spellgard.
Future ideas: Next session will be a doozy. Saharel will test the players in some way, possibly a dream sequence of a return to ancient Saharelgard in it's living days. Lots of possibility for play outside the normal setting. From there its a set-up to the final sessions before the players enter Paragon tier.
Players still dont really know the nature of Saharel, just assuming she is some random ghost. I'm going to enjoy the slowly dawning horror when they realize who they are messing with.
Love those handouts!
They look pretty sharp! I just might use them, Spellguard will be the next adventure i put my pcs through. You got some good ideas there.
Awesome stuff. TYVM for sharing.
As I wrapped up Spellgard, the final piece of the adventure was the most troubling: how to successfully use Lady Saharel? How are you supposed to use an all-powerful NPC? I didnt want to blow the players away with "shes a lich/ghost/archmage!", nor did I want her to be overpowered by some pathetic adventurers or a mortal wizard; it was beneath her.
I settled on the "she meant to do that" story, that she was intentionally searching for a champion(s) able to leave Spellgard and do her work. First she would seek out the worthy, testing their magical ability or other qualities.
So as my players freed Saharel from her "prison", she quickly took control of the situation and posed four tests to the party. This session was a ton of fun (Trap Haunts. Use them!).
At the end I did let them ask one question each, as I saw that as the core reward of Spellgard. Able to ask anything, they asked three campaign-related questions, each in turn narrowing down what to do next. "What is the greatest threat we face? How can they be defeated? Where can we find the most effective allies for this task?" It served the story well, far better than if they just asked "where is a pile of money?".
After finding them worthy, she sent them far away from her tower, to a place she was unable to travel...and directly to the next adventure.
And thus ended Spellgard Tower, which I was able to wrap up in two lengthy sessions by keeping combat to a minimum and tossing out most of the published adventure.
For the curious, its on here: www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/sacredbl...
Thanks!
After passing her tests, Saharel geased the party into traveling to a Netherese town (Oreme), setting some plot elements into motion and recovering an item for her.
But the players didnt know about any of that. They 'remembered' passing the tests, which never really happened, then she teleported them to Elturgard to seek an alliance with that paladin nation. An upcoming battle between Netherese and Zhents at Darkhold Keep has been a large plot element. Whichever evil side wins would become too dominant in the region. So it was supposed to be the players and Elturgard backup vs whoever wins at Darkhold.
Instead the players were quickly exiled from Elturgard. Oh well. The rogue couldnt resist. During this time their memories of what really happened gradually returned. Suspicious of Saharel's motives, they abandoned Elturgard to its fate, ignoring the upcoming battle at Darkhold and traveling back to Waterdeep.
All this time it was basically self-made modules. A lot of RP, only a few combats with NPC monsters created in Adventure Tools.
Soon the party went after an old nemesis, a high-ranking Zhent vampire. Killed her, looted her castle, found her portal to...Darkhold Keep. Campaign story back on track. Its now weeks after Darkhold was besieged by Netheril, and the Zhents decided on a 'scorched earth' defense.
So now the castle was a floating, demon-haunted, zero-gravity mess. I used some floating castle rules from a Dungeon article, and a lot of combats took place as platforms they stood on floated here and there. After the climatic battle over an Abyssal portal vs some crazed Cyricists, Darkhold was fully destroyed and became a spellplagued ruin.
Netheril declared 'mission accomplished'. Next target: the Grey Vale region, previously under Zhent influence (the vampire), but that evil was removed by the players. So nice of them to help the Empire!
The party has just reached paragon tier so I am expanding the campaign's scope a bit. The Lords' Alliance has raised a large army to deter Netheril from invading at all and preventing any large conflict. The players, mostly Tempus worshippers, consider this the worst possible outcome (they want a war!). So they are looking around for allies who also want to fight Netheril.
I am currently running Dark Heart of Mithrendain from Dungeon 157, placing the eladrin city Mithrendain in the Feywild side of the High Forest. Besides changing some NPC motivations and background plot to fit my campaign, the module itself is pretty nice. After this adventure wraps up the elves will be on-board for some Netheril fighting, and from there I'm betting the players will divert the Alliance army into the Shadowfell to attack some Netherese outposts there. More plane-hopping will work its way into the campaign and Sigil will make an appearance at some point.
Sounds like you handled it quite well though.The concept of a castle that's, "a floating, demon-haunted, zero-gravity mess" is pretty damn awesome. That Dungeon article where you got the rules from...was that a current DDI issue or an older one?
I'm thinking it might be time to explode Darkhold in my campiagn too.
Floaty rules are in "Remains of the Empire", Dungeon 165. The picture at the start of that article is what I showed to the players to describe what they saw. Though after a few rolls I just started winging it and moving around pieces the PCs and ground-bound monsters were standing on, and splitting them from like 2x2 blocks into 4 1x1 blocks that go in different directions. And since they were mostly above the ground, vrocks made for some annoying fly-bys ;)