The major NPC's, good and evil, do not wait passively for the players to act. These adventure hooks were based upon likely behaviours of the NPC's, and how they'd create new work for the Fetch and his agents.
These adventure hooks were originally placed within the Gazetteer. They don't have the footnotes which required the Rich Text Format in the first place, and they're hardly canonical. They will be more accessible here, too.
Too many other players have gone through the DA2 module or its predecessor in Supplement II. DA2 (and DA3) also bring into the campaign a most distressingly unbalanced technology which doesn’t even affect play in DA4. Both DA2 and DA3 rely on the same "rescue" plot that you find in DA1. And finally, DA3 demands that the Temple be destroyed and rebuilt; why bother with DA2 at all?
By all means the DM should allude to the magicks of the Temple and City. The DM may even introduce a low-charged Light Blaster into a random encounter. But it would be a mistake to throw the party from DA1 directly into DA2, let alone DA3. I would declare that a team of NPC’s visited both Temple and City while the PC’s were away on an adventure. (These NPC’s may be supplied from the Rogues, Regents, and Rascals sections of DA2 and DA3.)
I have an alternative idea for a Temple of the Frog adventure...
The Frog is trying to enlist lizard men, who care nothing about the Frog's ulterior motives but that they too wish the Gator Men eliminated. When all eyes are elsewhere (the Zugzul-Egg or Tenian offensives will do - details below), the Froggies and lizardmen will invade. Their plan is simple: topple the Afridhi-occupied towns of Southport and Rusagern first, deport their captured armies, and use those cities as bases against the Gator Men. In the meantime, any armed forces who wish to enter or leave the Duchy will be assessed a stiff toll.
The Gators' god knows nothing of this, but could do nothing about it if he tried. Most likely, the Gators will be immediately thrown back from the southern Barriers, and gradually pushed back toward Octagern. The Gators have one hope of averting extinction: summoning the Gator God to the Prime Material Plane in person. But the Frog has very probably foreseen such an event; Saint Stephen once claimed that "in times of utmost crisis the Temple itself would defend the holy order" (Sup II p. 29). If the Gator God should appear, he will be drawn to the Temple, where the Keepers will bind him to the eternal service of the Frog. The Gators will then become the cannon-fodder of the Temple.
The Egg does not have access to Froggie or Gator plans, but it will know when the Gator God arrives. There is certain to be quite a party in Frog Island on that day...
In the mixed congregation left behind, mammal, reptile, and amphibian will band together in sealing Ten and Blackmoor from the lands to the west. Only then, assuming he has survived, will the Frog allow Saint Stephen another shot at the City of the Gods. His usefulness at an end, the Frog will be only too pleased to have him martyred.
Saint Stephen enthroned as the Frog's eternal, Immortal subject- the user becomes the used-
This hook may be placed at any time after the events detailed in DA2.
The Great Svenny was seen walking, alone, on the road to the Northern Delving. Newgate’s castellan has just sent an emissary to the dwarves to get them to call off their raids against orc territory and to concentrate instead on finding Svenny. He has also notified the King.
Events have taken a faster turn; just as the emissary reached the Northern Delving, the orcs sent a message: they have taken Svenny as a hostage. All raids against the orkish people, everywhere in the Northlands, must cease... immediately. Blackmoor and the dwarves are advised to procure witnesses on the behalf of Svenny and of Uberstar... immediately. "The trial begins in one month."
What Svenny had done was characteristic - suicidal and brilliant. He had successfully eluded or subdued all orc parties in the Peaks for a whole month, while killing none of them. Eventually an orc party came along, whose commander was much more cunning than the average. Svenny was successfully led into an ambush where flight was impossible. Svenny immediately surrendered and permitted himself to be led away. This orc captain immediately declared himself King of the Orcs, and mounted a quick and successful coup against his clan chief. Within a fortnight, he had all the orcs of the Crystal Peaks on his side.
This captain’s reign has not yet been accepted in the Stormkillers, must less among the orcs of Karsh and the further North. For one, his victory seemed (and was) somewhat fabricated. But however he had done it, he had captured the Great Svenny, and moreover taken the Peaks in record time. The news has spread, and all the orcs are listening.
The problem for the new "king" is this: his authority rests entirely on his baronial hostage. Svenny (who already spoke decent Orc, and is growing more fluent by the day) was with him on his victorious march through the Peaks, putting on a suitably fearsome but cowed display. In one particularly tricky engagement, Svenny offered tactical advice which reduced the casualties on both sides. He has made clear his intention of further co-operating with the king, to aid against dwarven raids. He has even offered to go on trial on charges against orc-kind; and to accept any verdict the orcs can devise.
This seemed far too good to be true, so the king sent for a shaman as soon as he had taken over the Black Hand, that he might probe his mind with ESP. The shaman found that Svenny has no intention of mounting an escape. The shaman further found - shockingly - that Svenny held no animus against the orkish people. Actually, he did have a slight tinge of irritation at being hounded so long, but it was outweighed by ... guilt. The shaman could not believe this, so he ran a detect magic, but he failed to uncover any. As a result, Svenny has been held in ease (relative ease, anyway - they're orcs).
Svenny may not have thought of everything, though. The dwarves officially do not know where their "Regent" Uberstar was last seen. Unofficially (i.e. the PC's don't know as of the end of DA1) they realise he's in orkish custody. Even more unofficially the Fetch may have found out. But the Fetch is a member of Blackmoor's Regency Council, and guess who's the leader of said Council? The new orkish king could conceivably figure out, from Sven, just where the Regent's being incarcerated (probably the Stormkillers).
The Egg wants Svenny too (and the Regent, depending on how much it knows), and is rallying its own factions in the area. It has declared the new King of the Orcs to be a Prince of the Egg. It is hatching (as it were) a plot of its own, to the end of corrupting the orc king and bringing both him and Svenny to its fiendish Realm.
If players want to rescue the Baron of Glendower, go ahead and adapt Greyhawk’s City of Skulls adventure. If Bascom Ungulian is restored, he will be extremely weak; he will swiftly resign his lands to the crown and die not long afterwards. Otherwise, Glendower will revert to Thonian rule. The Egg will send agents to "help" the new Baron and the Fetch had better send his own!
The lich-lord who geased Philo may be placed in an adapted Tomb of Horrors.
The Duke has bluntly told the Skandaharians that if they pursue their old tactics, they will never be able to cart off the loot of Vestfold or Blackmoor, let alone Maus (DA1 p. 43). All Blackmoor’s major cities are teeming with mages. The Duke has given the Raiders a 13th level wizard of the Cabal to teach to their thus-far-neglected Frost Mages, Ship Magic too (Dragon issue # and #)
The Duke is technically at war with the Afridhi, but he does not wish to destroy them. They are a useful foil, and provide the Skandaharians with safe harbours. Besides, if the Peshwah take back the Plains of Hak, they will no longer press against Blackmoor (DA1 p. 44); if they die off, then the Duke gets the Afridhi for neighbours, and that's even worse. As a result, the Duke is planning a way to keep at least Blackmoor from aiding the simmering Tenian rebellion, to keep the Peshwah where he wants them, and incidentally to garner some gain in the process.
The Duke cannot have the Peshwah as enemies and so cannot oppose them overtly. However, the Fire Giants at Windhoek have long been a pest to Thonian and Peshwah alike. If the Duke can pick a fight with the Fire Giants at the right time, he could bottle the majority of the Peshwah to whatever Hak he needs them in, for a limited period.
If he stirs up Windhoek in summer, most Peshwah will be in the High Hak. That frees up half his border force, starting with the 600 horse at Wookum. The closest barony of the kingdom is the new land of Dragonia. However, the Baron "Peshwan na" Shepro has cultivated close ties with the current Sirk’s tribe (the Bortai). Besides, Dragonia is a militarily strong barony that could easily hold out until reinforcements arrived.
Archlis, on the other hand, affords an ill-defended and very long coastline. Marcovic could get the Skandaharians to do most of the dirty work (in Fel and Dukane, too), and while the Baron’s forces and potential reinforcements are away, he could swoop into Archlis town. He would then use it as a beachhead for the horsemen, which, he reckons, will put the Baron’s forces to a swift rout. Then he will deport its leading citizens to Thonia as "rebels", and its surrendered army as "mutineers"; in their place he can settle a Skandaharian jarl or two. Archlis could be transformed into a Thonian subprovince faster than Blackmoor can retaliate. As for the Tenian rebellion: let the Peshwah help, as long as Blackmoor doesn't. The Duchy of Ten was Blackmoor's great foe in the past.
The Duke has already told the eastern Skandaharians - with whom he has some influence - that Uther was going to involve his army in a revolution in the Duchy of Ten, which if successful would shut off their western cousins' few non-Egg-controlled ports of call. Accordingly he has requested that the Skandaharians concentrate on Fel, Dukane, and northern Archlis in 1026, and ignore Vestfold and Blackmoor.
The new cities of Fel and Dukane are fair enough to the Skandaharians, but Archlis is a tough sell. The pickings are slim in Archlis, particularly in the north, which is far from Archlis castle and not a concern to Maus. The Duke is in effect arguing that the Skandaharians look to the future.
Having Archlis in friendly hands would deliver to them the plunder of Blackmoor’s untouched eastern coast, bring them closer to Maus, and offer a vast shoreline in which to hide their ships and treasure between raids. Not least, the Skandaharians are one of the weaker powers at present and would not mind a season of easy campaigning in which to perfect their new tactics.
If the Duke can succeed in juggling the giants and Skandaharians, he might be able to take Archlis with little loss of resources. Jackport and Maus will conceivably be forced to pay tribute to the Iron Duke, that he might "protect" them from pirates. (Arguably the dwarves could engineer something to protect Bramwald, but even so it won't be finished in years.) And, since the Archlisians are not as pro-Blackmoor as the rest of the kingdom, Uther will be able to do nothing about it. The factions of Maus will now have their excuse to seek their own understanding with Thonia. Miklos could foment riots in Vestfold... it’ll just be a big mess.
The above scenario appears to me the easiest way the Iron Duke can retake the kingdom. The Duke knows he cannot invade a kingdom of that terrain in one campaign. In our world, Xerxes could not take Greece with all Asia, but Philip could with Macedonia and a little time. The Duke proposes to let Blackmoor's other enemies do his dirty work. Without its egress to the North Sea, the upstart kingdom will lack vital resources against the Afridhi and the Egg. Weakened with relentless attacks from the Egg and the Skandaharians, faced with the prospect of a resurgent Afridhi juggernaut, the Duke reasons that Uther will prefer to surrender his kingdom to the Duke.
All the above assumes the Regency Council hasn't figured it out yet. There are a number of ways this plan could go wrong - and these ways suit better the adventuring party than the army.
Above all, the further into autumn Windhoek is restive, the more desperate the Peshwah become. A party could clear out Windhoek (adapt Hall of the Fire Giant King) and allow the Peshwah back into the East. If the Duke's hand is revealed in this, the Peshwah could join with the Baron of Dragonia and take the Thonian Rand. These forces will stay just long enough to replace the slaves, who do not want to mine gold, with free dwarves, who do. Even if the Duke retakes the Rand - as is likely - he will have lost direct control over those two mines. He will have to pay a fair rate in kind for his gold, and militarily he can expect the dwarves to shelter escaped slaves and rebels. Bandit gangs will in turn provide cover and supply routes for Peshwah raiders. Expelling the dwarves may not be an option. This situation will cripple his finances and defence, and potentially render him the thrall of Mohacs.
Also, the Skandaharians may not all pull together. Many jarls, particularly in the west, will not see any benefit in Borkshold's alliances with Thonia. Some may be tempted to attack Vestfold after all. Others may even elect to go after Robinsport or Fort Dacoit. If the Egg joins the Afridhi, the western Skandaharians won't stand for weakening Blackmoor: Thorsen and Marcovic will have to write them off and go it alone. A party might go into Skandaharian territory and play up these divisions.
And the rebellion in Ten may succeed after all. (In my opinion, only the gods can save Ten for the Afridhi now - see following chapter.) It is possible that Ten will look beyond Blackmoor's abandonment of it in its hour of need; or that Blackmoor will surrender to Ten(!). The Duke thinks it more likely that the Egg will take advantage of Ten's post-war chaos and take it over as it has in the past. A party of adventurers could guard against this too.
The King and the Regency Council have to weigh up: how much can it allow for the revolt in Ten, versus the defence of Archlis? Archlis is essentially a write-off for this season. Retaking it may be a necessity for the next season, if it wants to avoid a siege, and loss of morale at home.
So the Duke's proposition is dicey. The alternative of doing nothing is scarcely preferable, though, because the King would then certainly aid in the Tenian rebellion: in one swoop he could win the Peshwah as an ally and strengthen them, earn another ally (possibly annexed) in Ten, and push his Afridhi enemies to the other side of the Plains of Hak.
Toska Rusa may not be able to envisage an alliance with another God... but Zugzul can. In hells fiery and abysses dark, Energy and Entropy are reaching an accord; an alliance of disorder. If it happens, Zugzul will order Rusa to allow the Egg’s clerics into the cities and its sorceries into the wilds. In a related move, he will also grant limited clerical powers and autonomy to the Children of Zug, in return for full support for this diabolical alliance (which will also force competition on the Sisters of Fire). Zugzul is further aware that He is forcing a religion of Chaos upon the Children, but He is banking on it being a temporary arrangement. Besides, they may succeed in rallying anarchists to their cause.
When the rebellion is stamped out, Zugzul plans to order the Afridhi to their final march upon Blackmoor. Time enough, then, to use any information the Afridhi have gathered to throw out the Egg. Time enough, then, to reorganize His empire and priesthood for the final clash against Thonia, the Promised Land.
Marfeldt, the so-called "last anarchist", earned enough trust to be considered a "friend of the Regency Council" (DA1 p. 33), even a "friend of the King" (DA1 p. 36). He was also tapped for the expedition to the City of the Gods (DA3 p.7-8). His actions in the past will one day rank him among the King’s Companions (DA1 p. 28).
Marfeldt "has been a fixture in the Northlands for many years now" (he ranks with Mello, Willem, and Svenny as one of the oldest rogues in the region), but he was not born there. From his aspect and his name - and because he speaks a Goblin dialect - he is highly suspected of being a Norlander. If this is true, he very probably left the wild country because of the Egg’s tyranny, for he is at heart a lover of anarchy. There is a contrary story that "he killed the Wizard who created him during a friendly wrestling match" "about a year" before he first came to Blackmoor (JG p. 15).
Some months later, Marfeldt earned a vile reputation in the Duchy of the Peaks, where they blame him for the slaughter of no less than 30% the population. Other rumours - and a devastating written text from the so-called Archives of Rhun - have blamed him for the downfall of an entire civilization across the North Sea. After a brief stint in Blackmoor, he wandered around to the south, where he may have caused a degree of civil strife in a few Thonian provinces, returning just in time for the Great Rebellion.
As a result, the Egg’s recent alliance with the Afridhi has the Fetch very concerned. This alliance has been planted on the common ground between Fire and Entropy - disorder. It has just occurred to the Fetch that Blackmoor now harbours a very powerful citizen who believes in disorder for its own sake. Of course, neither the Egg nor Zugzul view disorder (or each other) as aught but a tool. Marfeldt has assured the King that he is very aware of this.
What he has not told the King is that he has a plan of his own, through all these divine machinations. He has met with Children of Zug worried for their future, and with the mad and powerful mage Gul Hadda.
To further this plan, Marfeldt has elected to join the Afridhi anyway. With his charisma, his support for Zug, and his non-Thonian ancestry, he is the ideal adventurer-captain of the new Afridhi army. But one must always remember what manner of man is Marfeldt... "never a servant... only an ally".
Whatever the outcome of the war (about which, they secretly care little), Marfeldt, Gul Hadda, and the clerics of Zug plan to clean out the Wizard’s Watch and conduct in it a bizarre and twisted ceremony. They seek a way to solidify the Doctrine of Disorder... a way to bind the two gods to their marriage of convenience for all eternity.
This is not as laughable as it might seem. Zugzul has been forced to permit certain Children of Zug clerical powers - even if they be used in ways Zugzul did not anticipate. A change in belief among the faithful can change the very aspect of their God. Finally, even a chaotic God must be bound by certain oaths. The most powerful oath a God can swear, is an oath sworn on the afterlife of His believers. A God who broke such an oath, would end up breaking His Heaven and Hell, releasing millions of subject souls (loyal and divinely punished) into the voids. It is unclear if an Immortal could survive such a catastrophe. Certainly none is known. Drain the Styx, and down falls Olympus.
Therefore, Zugzul and the Egg can be manipulated, if a mortal is tricky enough to do so.
Few mortals have successfully tricked the gods; such that have are mentioned only in the murkiest of legends. But if there was ever a rogue charismatic (and reckless) enough to do so... it is Marfeldt. And if he succeeds, he will be well on his way to his own Immortality.
As I've stated elsewhere, DA4 is not fully canonical within Blackmoor. For Mystarans campaigning in that ancient land, however, destroying the Well of Souls takes on a greater significance. The Well could unmake the future to which the player characters are native - Mystara's present. DA4 also emphasized that Blackmoor had the Mystara multiverse of "Spheres of Power". In DA4, Zugzul is not just a hedge demon of fire and energy. He represents (however independently) the Sphere of Energy, on whose behalf he was launching an attack on the Sphere of Time.
Admittedly, David Ritchie was hamhandedly shoehorning Frank Mentzer's Master's Set theogony into Arneson's homegrown campaign, presumably because Black Lorraine (L. Williams: the wicked sorceress in charge of TSR at the time) ordered him to. This would be another reason why Arneson does not endorse DA4. Still, DA4's backstory isn't vital to the plot. It just adds urgency. Likewise, the Energy-Entropy axis is not vital to Marfeldt's plans. It's doubtful he's even heard of the Spheres. Moreover, for the Mystara-based this adventure would be ideal as a sequel to DA4.
Zugzul has been foiled in his attack on the Sphere of Time, is weakened by the sabotage of his artifact, and is under pressure from his superiors. Should Marfeldt's scheme succeed in a Mystara-based campaign, Energy and Entropy would be kept in an unnatural balance; never a change in this chaos, no way up and no way down. This state of nature the three other spheres - Time, Matter, and Thought - would certainly interdict swiftly. But "swiftly" in Immortal halls could mean centuries in a world where Time, Matter, and Thought have individually succumbed to Chaos.
And this world would, by then, hold no more trace of Blackmoor and, arguably, Mystara.
27 Jan 2001: first real update since 20, 26 Sep 1999. The whole Duke's Plan scenario is overhauled; and I made an internal distinction between the Fetch and Svenny within the Regency Council.
3 Oct 2000. I had to fix the wretched ASCII (this stuff did derive from MS Word, and it shows). I also decided some things about Svenny's imprisonment weren't accounted for. The orcs may have access to more information now...