[FR]What the heck happened in Tilverton?

[Marion Poliquin]

I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that the FRCS designers don't fall in the old habit of expecting us to read all the novels and all of the sourcebooks beyong the main campaign setting.

I still remember the first time I stumbled across the new realm of Luruar in Cloak and Dagger. I had absolutely no idea what that was and the book made absolutely no attempt at a quick explanation for those who hadn't followed the whole FR line. The only hint was the mention of Alustriel. I searched, and searched and searched that book like crazy because I expected that somewhere in that freaking huge timeline there must have had some mention of Luruar's founding. I finally found what it was all about when I put my hands on a copy of the the North boxed set. And even then. in that boxed set the name of the new country was not even decided yet.

At least I finally got the complete clack in FRCS ; even though they changed the name of the country.

 

[Marion Poliquin]

I bitch, I bitch, but somewhere along the way I forgot to praise as well.

It would be worth mentioning that I have seen no hint yet of the design team slipping into old bad habits and that all FR books so far have been nothing less than excellent.

Even the screen. I love those random encounter tables. I much prefer tables that I'll consult once in a while even if I never use them in play than an adventure I'll never read.

 

[hong]

Were the old Realms that much better? How were they different? Just sort of curious...

I know I didn't really like the Time of Troubles--you can't just kill off the best, most badass god the realms had to offer: Bane.

And then you replace him with that crazy bastard Cyric? Yeesh. Bane is an awesome god, end of story.

Not Bane, but I'm glad they killed off Bhaal. That gave rise to the Bhaalspawn, and thence to the Baldur's Gate CRPGs, which have been responsible for more wasted hours of my life than any other computer game.

 

[Dareoon Dalandrove]

OK, this isn't the first time I've seen "The Shades" mentioned. Is this some sort of new mysterious powergroup that got added for 3e? Is it just a bunch of shade monsters working together for some reason? I'm really curious, especially since my guy is wandering around Cormyr...

Spoilers!! if you don't plan on reading the books read on!



In the books the shades are Nithrease (not sure of spelling). They were from the city of Shade and escaped the destuction thay was caused by what's his name... the Nithrese wizard who tried to drain off some of Mstrals power to defeat the Pherim. Anyways, they had forseen that this would happen and planshifted the entire city to the plane of shadow. They stayed there for a few hundred years. "Shades" the template in the FRCS refers to people that have traded their soul for the stuff of shadow.

 

[Arthur Tealeaf]

Spoilers!! if you don't plan on reading the books read on!



In the books the shades are Nithrease (not sure of spelling). They were from the city of Shade and escaped the destuction thay was caused by what's his name... the Nithrese wizard who tried to drain off some of Mstrals power to defeat the Pherim. Anyways, they had forseen that this would happen and planshifted the entire city to the plane of shadow. They stayed there for a few hundred years. "Shades" the template in the FRCS refers to people that have traded their soul for the stuff of shadow.

They are properly named "Netherese".

The wizards name was Karsus and he tried to merge with Mystryl to become a god through a single spell. To save the Weave, mystryl sacrificed herself causing magic, and thereby the netherese flying cities to collapse, destroying the netherese empire. the city of shade escaped just before this accident.

sorry for errors and such, but my arm is broken and writing is very tiresome...

 

[Wolfspirit]

*Spoilers, and nobody playing in my games should be reading this anyways *

Actually for info on the shades, I'd REALLY recommend the Lords of Darkness FR suplement. Basically, a powerful Netherese Arcanist (wizard) was testing his ability to shift an entire floating city into another plane. (un?)Luckily, that happened to be the exact time Karsus cast his Avatar spell. From then they spent centuries with the only outside contact being through Shar.

Now they're back.

They seem like a really cool power group, and are going to be a major influence in my campaign. After they figure out who the Shades are at least

 

[Ruvion]

I haven't read the series...

What terrorists those Shades! Destroying the innocent Tilverton like so!

 

[TBoarder]

Spoilers for The Seige
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I've just finished reading the Seige this afternoon and have been following the plots of the Shades throughout the Forgotten Realms game books in which they're mentioned (All 2 of 'em ). A couple of things struck me...

First of all, the FR books don't seem to be going exactly by the novels. In the game books, the Shades are mysterious and nobody knows exactly what they're up to. Nobody (or not many people) know that they were responsible for the destruction/disappearence of Tilverton.

In The Seige, what happened to Tilverton was actually somewhat expected. I feel weird saying this in light of real life events of the past year, but I feel as though much of the menace and effect of what the Shades did was severely lessened by the fact that Tilverton was pretty much completely evacuated when it happened. I didn't feel like the crap was hitting the fan at the end of the book, despite the fact that Laeral lost an arm (Which we all know will get regrown), despite the fact that Vangey got his butt kicked, and despite the fact that Tilverton was destroyed (No question, it was destroyed in the novel, not moved to the shadow plane as some people have theorized). Troy Denning is usually MUCH better at conveying a feeling of dread (see Pages of Pain), but it just didn't come through here I think.

The main thing I'm really hoping for at the end of this series though is for the Shades to still be around and to still be a HUGE threat. I'm worried that the heroes of these books will end up defeating all of the Princes of Shade as well as drive the Phaerrim away. I like what's been happening in the novels and would love to include it in my campaign, with as few changes as possible. Already, I may be keepiing the Shade Prince who dies alive and doing away with the evacuation of Tilverton. I don't want to alter things too dramatically so my PCs will still be able to have an effect on the outcome of the upcoming war.

Finally... up until today, whenever I've read anything about the shadows in the ruins of Tilverton, I've thought it would be a great opportunity to adapt the 2E Ravenloft adventure, The Shadow Rift, to the Forgotten Realms. It actually seemed like a great fit and wouldn't need much tinkering at all. Oh well, nothing says I still can't do it, huh?

 

[Welverin]

Tasted like...


Evil pie...

Shouldn't you be trapped in a dungeon of a not so evil evil bad guy right about now?