Anybody have any good sidetreks for the Pomarj or Suss? Edition and level don't matter, I'm just looking more for frameworks to work with. For that matter, any ideas anyone has for sidetreks in the Suss would be helpful, or even good forest-based sidetreks that could be adapted to the Suss. I've got a few but there is potential for a whole series of them. Thanks!
There's always that rumor of an ancient, lost Suel city in the Suss. In fact, wasn't that the main reason why Gord the Rogue went to the Suss? And he found some type of Artifact of Evil in those ruins, right? Maybe you could design your own lost city. Complete with an angry, green Allosaurus and hissing Sleestaks!
I've always wanted to do the Lost City but it's a little too much, and too far west for this potential part of the campaign. Maybe later though. In fact, that gives me a great potential idea! The sleestak thing is funny but I did have the idea that it was built on the ruins of a city of the troglodyte ancestor race mentioned in Scarlet Brotherhood.
By side trek, I take it to mean an incidental event that occurs while the party is pursuing its primary objective.
I mention that because just getting to the Suss can be a main adventure after the Greyhawk Wars. It is surrounded on most sides by the Orcish Empire or Woolly Bay, with the portion along the Lortmils being the one “safe” side unless the party is allied with the orcs.
*Party uncovers non-humanoid settlement (wild elves?) trying to keep themselves from discovery. Prefer to remain due to permanent magical effect of local shrine. Settlement really wants the party silenced purely out of concern for their own survival – best solved by role playing?
*Party runs across slaves who have escaped from the humanoids. Humanoids and slavers are pursuing.
*Party runs across slaves running for their lives. They were release for the purpose of being hunted down for sport by a humanoid chief and his other high level member entourage.
*Party runs across crew of undead dragging a log through the forest. Back tracking the party finds slaves/undead and humanoid overseers/clerics clear cutting a portion of the forest. No need to float the logs, zombies just drag them day and night to where they are needed.
*Party encounters feuding humanoid tribes. The source of the feud is which group gets to explore an old Elredd mercenary company cache of weapons/construct troops that was never recovered but still has working traps.
*Party encounters a bear beating the snot out of a few humanoid scouts. The bear is a changed shape druid seeking to protect the forest, and needs help to stop a larger group a little ways off.
*A dragon (likely green, perhaps in another form) approaches the party for aid in removing the leaders of a humanoid clan, promising them the loot. The dragon intends to kill the party right after they win the battle and take control of the remaining humanoid clan members.
*Along the Woolly Bay coast line the party sees a vessel at anchor – it has the Yellow Sails of the slavers.
*Along the Woolly Bay cost line the party witnesses a battle between the Hardby Marines and orc raiding galleys.
Deeper in the Suss
*Party comes across abandoned humanoid camp/caves – susurrus are to blame for the casualties and evacuation by the humanoids.
*Encounter some entangling plant monster appropriate for level. Among remains of prior victims are recent bodies of missing gnome scouting party from Ulek who had uncovered location of caves/camps of Pomarj troops readying for an offensive. It is apparent that the information must be returned to the authorities in the Principality.
*Encounter lost scouts (either side), refugees, escaped slaves, etc., barely surviving as they wandered deeper into the forest.
By side trek, I take it to mean an incidental event that occurs while the party is pursuing its primary objective.
I mention that because just getting to the Suss can be a main adventure after the Greyhawk Wars. It is surrounded on most sides by the Orcish Empire or Woolly Bay, with the portion along the Lortmils being the one “safe” side unless the party is allied with the orcs.
It's pre-war. You hit the nail on the head with your definition of side trek, and these are all great ideas! Thanks!
Okay, I searched, but I can't find the name of the adventure card from the world of Greyhawk boxed set that has a short, role-playing encounter within the Suss, or Gnarley, Forest wherein the party encounters a group of fey arguing over a statuette of Ehlonna (or other forest deity).
I believe the group is made up of three factions - dryads, satyrs, and centaurs - and they are about to come to blows. The party stumbles upon them and, hopefully, facilitates an arrangement between the three groups to share the holy statuette, avoid bloodshed, and keep the three factions on peaceful terms.
I always thought that would be a fun side-trek to run, especially since it could provide the party with some allies later in the campaign, but never had the opportunity to do so.
- the process that transforms humanoids into gibberlings has gone wrong, resulting in incomplete human-gibberling hybrids, limping due to their mismatched limbs, their language half jibbering, half comprehensible speech. Deep beneath the earth, some entity is attempting to create gibberlings and doing it wrong, or something is preying on the gibberslugs before they can fully implant.
- The party discovers a suspension bridge that giant spiders have made by stringing together human and humanoid corpses with their webs. It's the only way to cross the ravine, and spiders lurk nearby to ambush.
- an ancient treant was given dominion over this part of the woods by Obad-hai long ago, but as the forest was corrupted the treant was as well. Now it is twisted, cracked, and leafless, surviving on pure hate for all flesh-based mortals and served by red-eyed demonic satyrs and sprites.
- a community of araneas asks the party to help recover a group of magical scrolls they've crafted on silk and bark. They've been stolen by a gang of chitines led by a priestess of Lolth.
- Ancient ruins, so old they're nearly indistinguishable from the foliage that covers them, are being used by spider-creatures and their adherer servants as a lair. Inside, ancient elven script identifies the ruins as once being a dark elven fortress during the wars that resulted in the banishment of their kind. The fortress was destroyed in a siege by elves of Celene, but it still holds old magic.
- a cataboligne demon has escaped the forgotten temple it was bound to guard and set itself up as a local potentate served by spiders and goblins.
Okay, I searched, but I can't find the name of the adventure card from the world of Greyhawk boxed set that has a short, role-playing encounter within the Suss, or Gnarley, Forest wherein the party encounters a group of fey arguing over a statuette of Ehlonna (or other forest deity).
I believe the group is made up of three factions - dryads, satyrs, and centaurs - and they are about to come to blows. The party stumbles upon them and, hopefully, facilitates an arrangement between the three groups to share the holy statuette, avoid bloodshed, and keep the three factions on peaceful terms.
I always thought that would be a fun side-trek to run, especially since it could provide the party with some allies later in the campaign, but never had the opportunity to do so.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
Canonfire! is a production of the Thursday Group in assocation with GREYtalk and Canonfire! Enterprises