D&D 5E Sword Coast Adventurers Guide: Hidden hooks for Future Storylines?

[Parmandur]

So, the SCAG is out and in the wild now. Wondering what big, juicy hooks people might see in there?

After my initial read through, I can see two large ones:

1.) Hartvale: kingdom where humans and giants co-exist, to some extent. Gets a fair amount of coverage, might tie into the rumored Giant focused AP.

2.) Warlocks Crypt gets a pretty large section, and Larloch the Shadow King gets set-up as a Big Bad in a couple places. Undead focused AP seems plausible, particularly with the Shadow Sorcerer and the Radiant energy Warlock in the latest UA, and the Undying Pact Warlock in SCAG itself mentioning Larloch as a patron.

Both areas get about as much development as the Desarin river valley from Elemental Evil in the book.

Anybody, maybe with some more Realmslore under their belt, notice any potential major hooks?

 

[Parmandur]

Thinking about it, Najara and the surrounding area gets a lot of detail: a Serpent Hills AP, with reptiles galore?

 

[Demetrios1453]

You mentioned the one that stood out most for me: Hartsvale and a potential giants campaign.

You're right abut Warlock's Crypt though, and undead are an important monster type that has yet to be at the center of a big 5e campaign.

 

[pukunui]

It's not so apparent in the book itself, but I find it intriguing that so many of the little islands in northwest corner of the full map have one or more locations marked on them. I've never heard of Vilkstead or Ulf of Thuger before, and yet they're on the map while places like Everlund and Athkatla are not. I can't help but wonder if those islands are going to get some attention at some point. Maybe they're planning a high seas campaign. That might explain why the swashbuckler is in the book.

 

[Parmandur]

It's not so apparent in the book itself, but I find it intriguing that so many of the little islands in northwest corner of the full map have one or more locations marked on them. I've never heard of Vilkstead or Ulf of Thuger before, and yet they're on the map while places like Everlund and Athkatla are not. I can't help but wonder if those islands are going to get some attention at some point. Maybe they're planning a high seas campaign. That might explain why the swashbuckler is in the book.

The Sea of Swords is one big sandbox, eh? I could see it, particularly with the other maritime options in the UA article.

The Feywild is something they have built up quite a bit in the MM, DMG and even PHB: the High Forest gets some fairly extensive development, maybe a good launching pad for a war between fairy courts?

Whole bunch in regards to the Silver Marches, seems mainly novel related, but perhaps they are setting up for a future AP storyline (no big baddies present themselves, though...).

 

[pukunui]

That being said, there are no locations marked in the Nelanther Isles, so it seems doubtful that it's be a pirate-themed campaign. But perhaps they've got a Vikings-themed product in the works?

 

[Parmandur]

That being said, there are no locations marked in the Nelanther Isles, so it seems doubtful that it's be a pirate-themed campaign. But perhaps they've got a Vikings-themed product in the works?

Yeah, the Nelanther Isles are pure DM territory: there are pirates, they are horrible, make up any details you feel like.

 

[Parmandur]

So, running against the lack of a map scale (which is a strange oversight), I am not totally clear on the distances involved, but it seems that a large amount of undead themed things are described in detail to the south of Daggerford, not just Warlocks' Crypt: anybody with the full map able to shed some light on the space involved versus the area covered in Elemental Evil?

 

[mankyle]

I'm adding new places in their respective places in the map. For the momeno I've added all places that appear in the Begginer's Box, Scourge of the Sword Coast, Cormyr article and other accesories such as Silver Marches, the various Volo's Guides and basically all accesories I have.

Quite tiring. Tomorrow I will add places in Amn and Tethyr.

If only Mike Schley would had made this map as detailed as his regional ones......

 

[pukunui]

I've added a bunch of stuff to my copy of the map too.

If only Mike Schley would had made this map as detailed as his regional ones......

Mike just did the underlying map. WotC added all the labels themselves, so you can blame them for leaving it rather sparse.