Acknowledging Ones Sources

[subplotkudzu]

After my shout out to Nigel Findely, Cambias chided me for pulling back the curtain and dispelling the myth of my own creative brilliance in the Emirikol campaign. Nonsense! When I started the campaign it was with the statement to everyone that I would be doing less work on the games in a post-baby universe. It’s clear from cambias and 40yearsagotoday’s statements that they didn’t quite believe that the subplot laden, intricate campaign I was running (with note cards of data to hand out to PCs who made knowledge checks) was a low-impact campaign for me.  

 

 

Allow me to disabuse them of this notion:

A Dark and Stormy Knight by Owen K.C Stevens from the WotC web site, 2005: travelers seeking shelter from a storm in a once blocked cave find that it is actually the crypt of a warrior from the last great war.

Below Vulture Point by Jeff Fairbourn, Dungeon Magazine #39: PCs recover the medicine of the ailing nobleman Randamis Ambleer from the raiders who stole it – said raiders are kobolds riding giant vultures.

The Lurkers in the Library by Patricia Neal Elrod, Dungeon Magazine #9: Orkish thugs grab the son of the librarian at Ferrantino library, pulling him into the secret basement stacks that the library thought long lost.

Last of the Iron House by Jasper Jones, Dungeon Magazine #39: Pirates and evil sea monsters plot to destroy the reputation of a troublesome noble by using his double to commit various crimes about town.

Wreck Ashore by Robert Wise from the WotC Website, 2004: Pirates in the Seawell swamps killed a lighthouse keeper and are luring ships to crash with a false light further ashore until the PCs cross the swamp to stop them.

Mad God’s Key by Jason Bulmahn, Dungeon Magazine September 2004: the theft of a magical key that can open any lock starts a quest that includes dockside chases, a diseased gang and a confrontation with cultists in a mountain temple bisected by a river of blood.

The Alchemist’s Eyre by Edward Belome, WotC web site, 2001: Dwarvish alchemists in a highly fortified stone tower in the mountains. We’ll likely come back to these folks later….

House of Harpies by Owen K C Stevens from the WotC Website 2001: harpies make use of a strange tree tower as their base of operations. The PCs killed the harpies in the war and never visited this place, but it’s still there.  

The Ministry of Winds by Monte Cooke from the WotC website 2001: a long-inaccessible wizard’s tower is opened, revealing mad cultists, minotaurs and extra-dimensional observers.

Nightshade by Nigel Findely, Dungeon Magazine #7: a nobleman hoping to avoid a scandal hires the PCs to get a potion from a slightly mad wizard in his magical workshop.

 

To Come (and really, these plots should be obviously foreshadowed so I’m not giving anything away here):

Legerdemain by Michael Matthew Patrick Schutt, Dungeon Magazine #39: Strange things are afoot at the city’s great theater, run by Keurin Earntor and his vain daughter Tivity

Asflag’s Unintentional Emporium by Willie Walsh, Dungeon Magazine #36: Politics between the wizards in the 4 towers of the city of Serin – the slightly mad Asflag, Ednoc the Short, Mirim Galeweather & Tullinen Grimm.

Is there an Elf in the House by Rafael Fae and Dan De Fazio, Dungeon magazine #23: Winter storms keep the PCs in the haunted home of a newly married but grievously ill nobleman.  

Huddle Farm by Willie Walsh, Dungeon Magazine #12: Halfling peasant farmers turn to PCs for help as odd events cut into their livelihood. Hey, doesn’t Detrick have lands farmed by Halfling peasants?

 

I have a few other published adventures up my sleeve as well, but they’re still in print I don’t want to spill any beans. Yes, I’ve had to weave these together into an actual story, but it’s been easy – especially since Below Vulture Point and Is There and Elf in the House both have the same starting trope (sick nobleman), as do Nightshade and Asflag’s Uninentional Emporium (crazy wizard), and Dark and Stormy Knight, Mad God’s Key and Ministry of Winds (cultists worshiping an ancient battle), and Last of the Iron House and Wreck Ashore (crafty pirates working with seagoing monsters). Having had these adventures for years if not decades it’s been nice to pull them off, file off the creaky bits, replace the names with things that sound like real world (Randamis?) and stitch them together. Having all of them in advance also made it very easy to foreshadow things – the PCs found the box with Aslan Nightshade’s seal in session 2, and the sign of the Cult of the Bleeding Tears in session 1. Olivar Sandoval first appeared in session 6. The work has come in designing the feel of the world and the politics between the four quarters of Emirikol, and that’s so much fun it can hardly be called work.

 

In short, if I have seen farther than others it’s because I’m standing on the Hill Giant corpses left by previous authors.