Shackled City + Eberron = ?

[Engine Joe]

I've been reading and enjoying the Shackled City series in Dungeon but haven't run it yet for a couple of reasons. A) it's almost done and I can wait til then to run it with full knowledge of the story line and 2) I had no idea where to put it. None of the campaign worlds I'm familiar with have any convenient volcanic regions amidst jungles near major cities and the use of the non-traditional/Fiend Folio monsters makes it a tricky fit in any Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, or Scarred Lands as I picture them.

However, the more I hear about Eberron, the more I get the idea that maybe that's the place for Cauldron. In this post, I'm asking for the opinon of those of you (and there may not be many) who know enough about both Shackled City and Eberron. Do you think they would fit well together? How would the Eberron cosmology match up with the spoiler-avoiding not-to-be-named villains in Shackled City? Would you use some of the more alien/rare creatures from SC, or would you replace them with similarly themed creatures from Eberron?

And for those of you especially in the know, I'd like to hear some opinions about how SC could be combined with the published Eberron adventures such as the one in the back of the campaign book. Are they mutually exclusive or could the party do the opening adventure in the Eberron book, travel to Cauldron for Life's Bazaar, then do some world travelling in Shadows of the Last War and then be in a position to return to Cauldron for Flood Season.

Be warned, I don't even own Eberron (yet, still saving up), so I may not get some of your ideas without a little background.

Thanks for listening...

 

[Morrow]

Spoilers!

Spoiler

I've been thinking about setting the Shackled City adventure path in Eberron somewhere down the line. I think they would fit together pretty well thematically . The adventure path assumes that you're only using the adventure path, so in order to squeeze in the Eberron modules you'd have to do some tweaking.

I would be inclined to run The Forgotten Forge, Queen with Burning Eyes (from Dungeon 113), Shadows of the Last War, and maybe the next two (not yet released) Eberron adventures first, rather than moving back and forth. Once you get going on the adventure path the timeline really moves along. Break the campaign into two chapters, one based in Sharn and one in Cauldron.

You'll have to tweak the adventure path to start at a higher level, but cut out enough material so that by The Demonskar Legacy or so, the characters aren't too far above the recommended starting level. (Being a level or two ahead isn't the end of the world. Some of the stuff in the adventure path is really tough.) You don't want to have to retool the whole path.

For example, I'd make Life's Bazaar a much shorter adventure. Remove Jzadirune entirely-it’s just a goofy dungeon crawl, and never gets mentioned again. Just go directly from the surface to the Malachite Fortress, and beef up Kazmojen's forces so the characters feel like they've accomplished something.

I would have the villains who shall not be named working for the Daelkyr, trying to open a gate to Xoriat. You wouldn't even have to change the outsiders that are coming through. Just make them agents of the Daelkyr, rather than have them working for themselves.

In Test of the Smoking Eye, rather than breaking off Celestia, Occipitus is a demiplane coterminous with Shavarath. It could have broken free from Shavarath, or even Syrania.

As for the gods, I'd replace Wee Jas with the Blood of Vol, St. Cuthbert with the Church of the Silver Flame, and combine Pelor and Kord into a single church dedicated to the Sovereign Host. Or reverse the Soverign Host and Silver Flame depending on the make up of your party and what else you're doing in your campaign. The specific doctrines of St. Cuthbert, Pelor, and Kord aren't really prominent in the adventure path. The other gods mentioned in the path (mostly followed by throw away villains) can be replaced with members of the Dark Six.

The biggest question is really where to put Cauldron. Some folks have suggested Zilargo or Q'Barra. I think with some tweaking you could put it in the Graywall Mountains in western Breland. The climate is almost right. Then you'd have the advantage of keeping it fairly near Sharn. Or you could just bite the bullet and put it in Xen'drik. Say there are some settlements that remain from a failed attempt to colonize the continent.

Does that help?

Morrow