D&D 5E Neverwinter & the North (LMoP campaign sequel)

[Nebulous]

I'll be starting up the next campaign arc soon and thought I'd create a new thread for the recaps. The party will be 6th level and leaving Phandalin to head north to Neverwinter, primarily trying to find a way to remove a curse on one of the characters (which was taken from Return to White Plume Mountain, but they opted not to follow those plot hooks).

I've looked over a lot of options, and I've settled with a blend of 2e, 3e, 4e, and 5e supplements and adventures to round this out. Starting out, this will be a city adventure for the foreseeable future, pre-Spellplague but incorporating some of the known events, such as the explosion of Mt. Hotenow and partial destruction Neverwinter.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

Sounds like fun. I'll be following your group's exploits.

 

[Nebulous]

Session #1 (or #19, if coming right after LMoP)


https://app.box.com/s/0ck8hi1ytaqtvkx0dcgtw4x1ybmsb82d

 

[Nebulous]

Myself and my players are what you would call casual gamers. We get together and have fun, laugh some and kill some ****. The newest player has never played D&D at all, but he's a veteran computer gamer who told me yesterday after delving into online research on the Realms and reading the PHB front to back, "holy crap, every game I've played is based on this!"

Everyone is really enjoying 5th edition. To me if feels like a blend of 2nd and 3rd with some 4th innovations mechanically. As a writer, I tend toward the more story based elements and 5e lends itself well to that. There's no staring at power cards or determining how many squares a miniature is pushed or pulled, which ultimately turned me off of 4e after running it for a good while.

I don't know where the campaign is exactly going next. Elgweth's player actually wants to swap the elf rogue/mage out before he dies and replace him with a paladin or full mage.

EDIT: the last part in the Chasm, the dark temple, is pulled from Frog God's Underguild adventure. The Cult of Ashmadai are vampires. And there's a planar portal to Evernight in the Rift, or in the temple, I'm not sure yet.

And now they have the cursed Book of the Black Spider as well.

 

[Unwise]

[MENTION=31465]Nebulous[/MENTION] if you wouldn;t mind, could you please tell me approximately how many hours of play LMoP was for your group? Did you do all the side missions?

If you want a set up for doing some city adventures, I suggest taking a look at Murder in Baldurs Gate. To me, it failed at its stated purpose, but it is a good info dump on a city with a lot of intrigue. Waterdeep is also a very interesting place for city games, with the masked lords' intrigues, skullport, undermountain etc. To be honest, Neverwinter seems like the least interesting or well supported of the cities. I would love to know where if anywhere you are getting your info though, I am looking for a good rundown of the major cities in the region. Maybe I am missing something with Neverwinter.

Bummer about them not taking the White Plume bait. I know you put in some effort on that in another thread.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

(snip) To be honest, Neverwinter seems like the least interesting or well supported of the cities. I would love to know where if anywhere you are getting your info though, I am looking for a good rundown of the major cities in the region. Maybe I am missing something with Neverwinter. (snip)

You're right in that Neverwinter is the least supported of the cities you named, and some of the others on the Sword Coast. Frankly, unless you want to take material out of the various computer games set in Neverwinter, you really only have 4E's Neverwinter Campaign Setting and a few paragraphs in Volo's Guide to the North. (There are a few more sources but those two account for about 95%+ because of some overlap.)

However, it is an interesting place even relying on only those two products. I used them as my basic foundation and then made a few changes to better tie it in to my version of FR. (Frex, Neverember is a thrall of Graz'zt and Graz'zt controls the church of Waukeen as was the case post-Time of Troubles. The ultimate end of the campaign involves stopping Graz'zt from absorbing Neverwinter into his abyssal realm.) I would also recommend having a look at the DDi adventure Shards of Selûne as an example of how the city can be brought to life as an adventuring location using the material from NCS.

 

[Nebulous]

@Nebulous if you wouldn;t mind, could you please tell me approximately how many hours of play LMoP was for your group? Did you do all the side missions?

If you want a set up for doing some city adventures, I suggest taking a look at Murder in Baldurs Gate. To me, it failed at its stated purpose, but it is a good info dump on a city with a lot of intrigue. Waterdeep is also a very interesting place for city games, with the masked lords' intrigues, skullport, undermountain etc. To be honest, Neverwinter seems like the least interesting or well supported of the cities. I would love to know where if anywhere you are getting your info though, I am looking for a good rundown of the major cities in the region. Maybe I am missing something with Neverwinter.

Bummer about them not taking the White Plume bait. I know you put in some effort on that in another thread.

We play roughly 2 hours at at time, so LMoP took about 40 hours. They did not follow any of the side missions, and actually skipped Cragmaw Castle. I'm pulling info for Neverwinter from the 2e Guide to the Savage North currently, and supplementing with random city encounters from a 70+ card deck that I found. And adding a Quests of Doom adventure from Frog God.

But i wouldn't go so far as to say Neverwinter is not interesting, but as far as "support", yeah, it's far less than Waterdeep. And maybe we'll head that direction eventually, I'm not sure yet.

And yeah, i did put a lot of effort into the White Plume plot hooks, but they didn't take them, and I guess it would have been a dungeon crawl so it's kind of nice to do something different like the city adventure, but it is taking a WHOLE lot more work on my end to flesh it out. Much more than I intended to.

 

[Nebulous]

[MENTION=98008]Unwise[/MENTION], you know, you got me thinking about how much i do like Waterdeep. And the supplemental material is probably six feet high! I could easily add a portal or teleport circle from Neverwinter and bam, the players are there. Undermountain, all that, I should really consider it.

 

[Nebulous]

But, on the other hand, I was going to introduce Evernight as the evil flip side of Neverwinter, from the 4e NCG. Having an evil mirror image of the city in the Shadowfell with a river of lava is just too interesting for me to pass up.

 

[Nebulous]

I don't know what do next exactly. Incorporate the Underguild adventure from Quests and place it under Neverwinter The earthquake has shaken loose the sewer system and there's a big hole in the earth...the cursed PC, his cursed book is down here now, being observed by the Vampire Guild of Asomedeus, and they LOVE the idea of eternal life, and that's what the Curse of Keraptis is all about. This module is for 10th + characters but I can easily change it to a 6th level party.

Our cleric is such a tank though. He's tough. So tough I don't even know how in 5e to present a real challenge. Focus on his weak saves, which is DEX. He's badass though and very tough, he shrugs off most attacks and has exceptional healing abilities.