PDA

View Full Version : Adapting 'City of the Spider Queen' to Eberron



Benejeseret
2010-11-25, 05:05 PM
I am running an Eberron game for my group and we are making our way through:

Forgotten Forge->Shadows of the Last War->Whispers of the Vampire's Blade ->Grasp of the Emerald Claw->Eyes of the Lich Queen

And these adventures leaves us about lvl 10. I am looking at what to run next to pick up the next part of our epic and I was wondering about adapting City of the Spider Queen.

Those with experience, do you think it would be feasible/interesting to adapt that module to Eberron?

Replace the Underdark with the dark undergrowth of Xendrik and caverns within.

Refluff the dark elves to a more savage/tribal feel.


Possible?

Greenish
2010-11-25, 05:43 PM
Eberron does have Underdark with it's quirky dwellers. You could replace drow with dolgrims, dolgaunts, mind flayers and daelkyr.

Maybe. I'm not familiar with the module. :smallcool:

T.G. Oskar
2010-11-25, 06:10 PM
I am running an Eberron game for my group and we are making our way through:

Forgotten Forge->Shadows of the Last War->Whispers of the Vampire's Blade ->Grasp of the Emerald Claw->Eyes of the Lich Queen

And these adventures leaves us about lvl 10. I am looking at what to run next to pick up the next part of our epic and I was wondering about adapting City of the Spider Queen.

Those with experience, do you think it would be feasible/interesting to adapt that module to Eberron?

Replace the Underdark with the dark undergrowth of Xendrik and caverns within.

Refluff the dark elves to a more savage/tribal feel.


Possible?

Hmm, interesting: Lolth vs. Vulkoor?

Thing is: in Eberron, drow are aligned with scorpions, not spiders. Lolth as a goddess does not exist, but there's a quip in Exemplars of Evil that adapts one of the villains (Calais IIRC) to the setting, and makes Corellon a Valenar ancestor hero, with Lolth being one of the fiends trapped within Khyber, which has influence over the drow. Normally, the drow in Eberron are either followers of Vulkoor (in any of his three aspects, whether the more noble or the adaptation of The Mockery), followers of ancient fire gods (Sulatar) or trapped in the Umbra (Umbragen?).

The module presents unrest in the center of the drow communities, an invasion from a separate race, and finally a confrontation with an opposing deity. In this case, you can claim that the descendants of the giants (with perhaps a Primordial Giant leading them) take over the drow settlements, and the drow's belief in Xen'drik having a "limiter" in terms of power influencing their decisions to strike Stormreach. You enter the jungles of Xen'drik, take one of the drow settlements and try to drive out the giants (you can handle giants, right?), then find out all of this unrest is caused by a "Lolth", a fiend that claims herself a goddess and has control over spiders (which are native inhabitants of Eberron). So the idea would be to introduce Lolth as an enemy of the drow instead of their chief deity, with Vulkoor being the one that suddenly doesn't provide new powers and whatnot. It would also make an interesting conflict between the "scorpion" drow (the followers of Vulkoor), the "spider" drow (those corrupted by Lolth, quite probably female drow disheartened by the nomadic, tribal society of the drow) and the Sulatar and Umbragen.

That might require some books (namely Secrets of Xen'drik and Drow of the Underdark to refer to Lolth and the "traditional" drow), but it could be pulled off quite well. It may also cause a unique shift in power and flavor in Xen'drik, with suddenly revealing a fiend from the Age of Demons claiming godhood, and the unrest that this causes upon the drow (and the giants, the yuan-ti, the shulassakar and other natives).

One question, though: so you've driven your characters from level 1 to 10 with all those modules? I was planning to use that on a group I'm DMing (skipped Forgotten Forge and used the first Basic Game dungeon, trying to lead them to Shadows of the Last War, planning to end with Eyes of the Lich Queen and from there tailor results of the adventures into new ones), but the group is quite big (six people) and I was planning to start introducing my own content at level 6, so this may be a bit of a drawback.

Benejeseret
2010-11-25, 09:45 PM
My game is quite small - 2 players, both characters gestalt

Dorian d'Phiarlan: A Karnathi born elf of House Phiarlan and a Shadow of the Serpentine Table with ties and influence to Karnath.

Rogue // Wizard (skeletal minion variant familiar)

Mark of Shadow. His house recovered Nolashar on a raft in the Principalities and he was given charge over watching this raving man in the hopes the House can profit from his knowledge of the Prophecies. Strong ties to the House operation in Karnathi by heritage.

Nolashar: Human outcast of Seren. Tainted Dragon Prophet strongly influenced by Khyber

Barbarian (Dragon Totem) // Warlock

Mark of Xoriat (Aberrant Mark / Mark of Madness / Mark of Xoriat)
Haunted by dark premonitions and dreams that leave him weary and confused. Compelled follow the raving of the Prophecies (tied to plot). Unique undertone is that there is not one single set of Prophecies, but rather one for each of the great Dragon originators of Eberron.
________________________________________

Adventurer Changes

1. Forgotten Forge: Elayden is actually a double agent and informant for House Phiarlan working within Cannith. All schemata recovered in next 2 modules are examined/charcol rubbing taken first by Phiarlan before being turned over.
Schemata themselves and their patterns were foresaw by Nolashar while in Phiarlan's infirmary when first rescued. Their tie to the Prophecies precipitated House Phiarlan's interest.

2. Whispers of the Vampire's Blade: House Phiarlan and Serpentine Table originate this quest. Lucan was their agent that Dorian trained with back in Karnathi.

3. Grasp of the Emerald Claw: Previous sidequest leading to this = Dorian's report to Serpentine Table and the Emerald Claw's involvement (From past modules) worry his Karthani House contacts and they send him to infiltrate a Claw base for information. Within the base he discovers their dual focus on the schemata and the Dragon Eyes. Finds/interrogates the info about Elaydren's attack and rushes back to her aid - but she is dead. Sets off for revenge and to recoup Phiarlan's investment in tracking the schemata.

At the end of the adventure - Xulo/warforged is defeated BUT counterattack by the dark elves living in the ruins catch the PC's off guard and they flee under the onslaught as a dark elf finds the Xulo artifact and gets 'possessed'

4. Eyes of the Lich Queen: House Phiarlan believes the Xulo threat abated (but not Nolashar), however, Nolashar sees the crossing of two Prophecies and the House redirects them back to countering the Emerald Claw back in Khorvaire.

No Council/Su’Kil content. Cut and re-written as House Phiarlan agents. Instead of Argonnessen, the party must return to Xendrik. They still run into the Blue Dragon, but it recognized Nolashar as a Tainted Prophet and vowed to destroy him from twisting the 'true' Prophecies. Brings Nolashar's old tribe of Seren to stop the tainted Prophet.


Dark Elves:

I am actually thinking of making Xulo (evil consciousness from Grasp of the Emerald Claw) the driving force of the Drow unrest.

A cult quickly driven by Xulo amasses the Drow clans to precipitate events.

Lolth is a Scorpion aspect revered by the tribals resisting Xulo. Change all spider references to Scorpions when possible (some spiders occasionally are fine as they live in Xendrik)

Warforged replace the orcs/goblins/giants rampaging Drow settlements. They are searching for the Schemata/Xulo and are a near legion under directions of the Lord of Blades and are led by an awakened Warforged Titan. They believe the consciousness of Xulo is the Becoming God.

Future Leading
Again Xulo artifact escapes as it is captured by the Lord of Blade's agents.

Leads to Xulo taking the mantle of the Becoming God and nearly reaching godhood through warforged worship. Embodied into a MASSIVE construct build by the Lord of Blades and begins a warforged revolution/invasion staged out of the Mournland.

Thinking that a HellFire Engine (Tyrants of 9 hells) advanced to Colossal size with some other upgrades as the final incarnation of Xulo.