After my players finish The Keep on the Borderlands set in the Yeomanry, they may head off to Keoland or they may head off to the Hold of the Sea Princes. Now if they head off to the south, then I will run The Sentinel for an adventure. I believe this will be an excellent adventure to tie in with all the trouble that has been going on down there.
Now if the party goes to the Hold of the Sea Princes, they will most likely travel on the western side of the realm or along the Hool River. Either way, I am stumped on a question; will they meet the Scarlet Brotherhood? More importantly, how deep has the Scarlet Brotherhood managed to travel in the Hold of the Sea Princes? If the group were to travel on the eastern side of the lands, I'd have them meet orcs, goblins, maybe a red troll I would certainly have them meet a few slavers and some monks. I imagine that the SB has managed only a foothold on the western side of the Hold of the Sea Princes.
Granted, there has been a rebellion in the village of Kusnir according to canon, but I will ignore that as it conflicts with the adventure. Kusnir will still be a sleepy little fishing and farming town for my purposes. Anyway, do you think they should meet anything or maybe I could make a dynamic. Across the Hool River to the east there is asymmetrical warfare, but across the west bank all is still mildly quiet. The Duchy of Berghof (where the Keep of Alderweg is located) is still untouched as the SB hasn't managed to make their way up the mountains yet (that's where the Gauntlet comes into play). Do you think this follows a logical setting? I didn't know if I overlooked something Thanks for your help.
The SB have pretty thoroughly infiltrated the area. If you intend to run the modules in current times, I would suggest altering the backstory and NPCs a bit to have some SB faction seeking the Gauntlet so they can invade the region through the pass, with the PCs needing to find the Sentinel so they can stop them. The plots tweaks are really pretty minor to do that, it is just the descriptions of the local villages that will require hefty modification.
Thanks for the input. I didn't realize the SB was *everywhere* in the Hold I was thinking that, for my campaign, I would have a Scarlet Brotherhood agent or two in each town. They would be gathering information and such. Do you think the towns really need to be altered that much? Maybe a small garrison of local militia to help secure supplies would be sufficient. I figure that Berghof would act as a great supply base, but very undermanned.
If the SB is in charge then most of the former people in charge are now in slave camps.
If the rebellion noted in the LGJ has happened, then all the slaves are free and moving about, and all the SB types have been hunted down.
Either way it should be rather different from the laid back, small town atmosphere suggested in the module. Still, that is mostly in the yakking, the hacking should run the same. And in the end, isn't that what really matters?
I was hoping to run the adventure so that the SB has yet to make a full landing on the Hold of the Sea Princes. Don't get me wrong, they are controlling Port Toli and Monmurg, but really haven't made their way in. Most of the fighting is hit-and-run down in the dirty lowlands. There is some tales coming up saying that a foreign power has control of the city of Monmurg, but nothing has happened yet.
I was hoping to use the Sentinel as a stopping point of the SB. In essence, the Keep of Alderweg eventually becomes a rallying point for the people of the Sea Princes and they slowly drive back the SB to the lowlands. I was thinking that any serious SB agents could have been accidently knocked off by Lavinia and her half-orc sons. Or maybe *they* could be the SB agents!?! Hmmmm, methinks there is a plan afoot.....
I'm curious as to what people have done with Alderweg and its corresponding pass. I would think that the SB would've fortified this place, if they knew about it. I know that, according to the LGJ Dispatches, that a rebellion was attenpted in the nearby lake area, but put down by six summoned devils (cornugons? ?sp).
Actually, I think you can run the module without too many changes.
Firstly, the Scarlet Brotherhood holdings have always been concentrated in the cities and plantations of the central Hold. Berghof was never populous and is of limited strategic use to them except as a possible trade route to Melkot and the Yeomanry. Since we know that the Yeomanry will have no dealings with the Brotherhood, it doesn't seem likely that they would bother with this on any grand scale. Canon also suggests that the Brotherhood concentrates on sea trade.
Secondly, the Brotherhood leaves institutions in place and simply changes who runs them. This may be a Brotherhood member or just a native Suel willing to work under them. Not all these Suel will support the Brotherhood, but those who oppose them openly would obviously be treated no differently to non-Suel.
It is likely that the Brotherhood would have representatives in the area, and would probably be in charge of Adlerweg. However, since Adlerweg is infiltrated by Gauntlet in the second module, you can include this without missing a beat, maybe add some norkers to the captured keep soldiers or something. Not hard at all.
Berghof post 591 CY is actually more stable than the rest of the Hold. The villages are probably keeping a low profile and carrying out some trade with Melkot. Sea trade is probably non-existent. Peaceful Olman slaves have settled by the lake. There are roving bands of insane ex-slaves further west, and rumours of something wearing the Gauntlet have surfaced... all of which can be slotted into the modules nicely.
In our campaign, my character actually ended up as the Guardian of Adlerweg and has been using her doppelganger cohort to pose as the Brotherhood's Castellan in the Keep to give the illusion that the Brotherhood is still in control there.
Then there are the machinations of the Black Brotherhood, searching the western Hold for ancient temples to Tharizdun. There's a lot you can work with here I think!
I was thinking that one of the reasons that the Sentinel shouldn't be too much of a problem is that Berghof was isolated and that the SB haven't made it too far into the Hold yet. I planned on having agents in the various towns, but they were to be more of a recon/intel platform. The Gauntlet plays in nicely b/c I can easily see the SB thinking "Yes, let the humanoids and Fire Giant crash themselves against the Keep of Alderweg like the waves of the ocean on the rocks. Capturing the Keep is important, but not important enough to sacrifice the lives of our superior Suel brothers and sisters. If they succeed, excellent! If they don't, we have plenty more humanoids!" Just some thought. And I like the idea of the Lion Throne trying to reclaim Westkeep and use it as an invasion point into the Hold of the Sea Princes as retribution from the small attempt on Gradsul. But maybe I'm waaaaaaay off
DwarffromNyrond, tell us more about your campaign, esp. when it is set and whether/how you used the GH Wars.
I corresponded with Erik a bit about the story he evoked via the LGJ Dispatches, and based on that communication, I've thought a lot about how to incorporate Sentinel and Gauntlet. Recently, Samwise and PSmedger had a good chat regarding the Toli Suel and how they resisted the Rhola and rest of the Kingdom of Keoland.
My baseline is that the campaign is what you make it. If you want the Scarlet Brotherhood not to have reached the "Grand" Duchy of Berghof, then so be it. However, if you otherwise use the GH Wars, and it is after 582 CY, then I'd want to know more about your rationale for the Scarlet Brotherhood not to have captured the entire territory of the Hold of the Sea Princes. With Lake Spendlowe, it seems more likely that the surrounding lands are fairly fertile and therefore would likely have significant plantations.
IMC, which uses the Greyhawk Wars, is connected to Erik's ideas and incorporates the old modules, the mixed-race former-slaves are led by Utavo the Wise, who successfully bargained with the Gauntlet. While the artifact had once only sought to control Alderweg Keep, Utavo has resolved to expand its hegemony as broadly as possible--so long as the Gaunlet helps Utavo destroy the hated Shepherds of the Scarlet Brotherhood--placing the former slaves in control of the land once known as Berghof, as well as the former coastal barony.
I've sketched Utavo, as a spirit shaman who once revered Uvot above all others before he was enslaved. Afterwords, he prayed long to Berna, who accepted his cause as just. I've also sketched a campaign setting that incorporates aspects of Haiti's historical revolt against France.
OK Marc, you've posted too many teasers NOT to give us a full story about Utavo and the Gauntlet. Are the Gauntlet and Sentinel going to make amends? It sounds like a terrific set of ideas.
I am running my campaign after the Greyhawk Wars. The way I have run the Sentinel is that the Hold of the Sea Princes is still at war, but the Scarlet Brotherhood has only managed to keep a foothold on the coastal regions and lowlands. Because the Scarlet Brotherhood has to be resupplied via the ocean, it takes time to mass troops and move them to centers of gravity. Port Toli and Monmurg are suffering greatly, but the guerrila warfare by the citizens of the Hold are taking a heavy toll on the Scarlet Brotherhood.
The Scarlet Brotherhood has failed to reach deep into the hinterland of the Hold and have failed to conquer the Keep of Alderweg. One of the reasons for this stroke of luck is that the resistance has learned that if the Suel officers are killed, the warbands of humanoids quickly turn on themselves. When the Greyhawk Wars began, many wizards moved to the quiet and unassuming plains of the Yeomanry and the fertile hills of the Hold of the Sea Princes. Once the SB made their move, they stirred up a hornets nest of epic proportion.
Free traders are allowed to dock in Keoland and allowed to keep 75% of any plunder they gain from raiding SB shipping. This sounds incredibly generous, but the free traders (cough, pirates, cough) end up selling their goods in Keoland anyway, who in turn exports it to to other areas overland. Greater gains could be had by the free traders if they sailed up the Wild Coast, but few are willing to tempt fate.
Now that the Gauntlet is awake, the SB is going to try and make one last ditch effort into the region. It is a fertile stage for a lonely group of adventurers to turn the tide of the war. And my goofy, I mean unsuspecting, players think they have little in the way to affect the war.
I am running my campaign after the Greyhawk Wars. The way I have run the Sentinel is that the Hold of the Sea Princes is still at war, but the Scarlet Brotherhood has only managed to keep a foothold on the coastal regions and lowlands. Because the Scarlet Brotherhood has to be resupplied via the ocean, it takes time to mass troops and move them to centers of gravity. Port Toli and Monmurg are suffering greatly, but the guerrila warfare by the citizens of the Hold are taking a heavy toll on the Scarlet Brotherhood.
The Scarlet Brotherhood has failed to reach deep into the hinterland of the Hold and have failed to conquer the Keep of Alderweg. One of the reasons for this stroke of luck is that the resistance has learned that if the Suel officers are killed, the warbands of humanoids quickly turn on themselves. When the Greyhawk Wars began, many wizards moved to the quiet and unassuming plains of the Yeomanry and the fertile hills of the Hold of the Sea Princes. Once the SB made their move, they stirred up a hornets nest of epic proportion.
Free traders are allowed to dock in Keoland and allowed to keep 75% of any plunder they gain from raiding SB shipping. This sounds incredibly generous, but the free traders (cough, pirates, cough) end up selling their goods in Keoland anyway, who in turn exports it to to other areas overland. Greater gains could be had by the free traders if they sailed up the Wild Coast, but few are willing to tempt fate.
Now that the Gauntlet is awake, the SB is going to try and make one last ditch effort into the region. It is a fertile stage for a lonely group of adventurers to turn the tide of the war. And my goofy, I mean unsuspecting, players think they have little in the way to affect the war.
Sorry I haven't been able to produce a substantial article for a while Peter. Like your early reporting of Ranet's role in your exciting campaign, much I've posted since 2002 or so has been only evocative. I blame law school.
I'm thinking of outlining and producing a set of articles to submit to Dungeon in the summer--as a kind of break from studying for the California Bar Examination. First up, is a Hold of the Sea Princes campaign setting and adventure or two featuring Utavo, the Gauntlet, and the Sentinel. Next is a set of articles that feature the border between the Great Kingdom of Northern Aerdy and the Bone March. I'd love to be able to focus on them now, but amidst my final semester of law school, too many tasks take priority.
Samwise answered this in Looking for information on the Duchy of Berghof, "Berghof is part of the Sea Princes. It was independent way back when, but it has been part of that nation since the Sea Princes were founded."
Also, in that thread, I've posted several links to relevant Canonfire! articles and forum posts, plus a couple of Oerth Journal articles.
I just found another vital conversation on the Hold. In August 2006, Rurik started Hokar and the Hold of the Sea Princes, which features lots of great discussion by many of us, including some focused on the "Grand" Duchy of Berghof.
I just found the forum post that I had been looking for regarding my thoughts about Berghof in Oct. 2005. The post links to Samwise's then-new article, The Rhola and the Toli: the Battle for Jeklea Bay (Sept. 18, 2005), which features an extended discussion, in the article comments, by Samwise, Woesinger, and Wolfsire about the so-called Grand Duchy of Berghof.
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I would certainly have them meet a few slavers and some monks. I imagine that the SB has managed only a foothold on the western side of the Hold of the Sea Princes.
Thanks for your help.
I was thinking that, for my campaign, I would have a Scarlet Brotherhood agent or two in each town. They would be gathering information and such. Do you think the towns really need to be altered that much? Maybe a small garrison of local militia to help secure supplies would be sufficient. I figure that Berghof would act as a great supply base, but very undermanned.
