Monstrous Arcana Series

[Grald]

I'm running a C&C Ravenloft campaign and with the ease of conversion from 2e I've been using a lot of 2e stuff. I've come across the Monstrous Arcana series (3-part adventure series about beholders, sahuagin, and illithids) recently and I'm wondering if anyone has them or has run them. How easy would it be to Ravenloftize them? My players are about the right level for the illithid trilogy (I believe the modules are for levels 7-9, 7-9, and 8-10 respectively) and that's the one I'd be looking at first. Not sure how portable the other two monsters would be to Ravenloft, but the FoS's Noctural Sea Gazetteer gave me some ideas about sahuagin.

Doing some research on the illithid trilogy, it looks like the final chapter takes you on a spelljammer through space to an illithid planet. How difficult would it be to change this to hitching a ride on a Vistani caravan to go to Bluetspur?

Questions like this are what I'm looking at. Does anyone know the level ranges for the other two trilogies and what they might entail, and how appropriate they'd be to Ravenloft?

[Strahdsbuddy]

I've glanced over the Illithiad, which I'm sure helped craft one of the best unofficial adventures ever made, "The Man Who Lost His Mind" by John Mangrum. I think the book adds a lot, and would be a nice way to supplement Thoughts of Darkness for a scary Lovecraftian or Invaders from Mars mini-campaign. The other two i cannot comment on, having never read them.

The answer to your question regarding converting Spelljammer is that they can absolutely be converted and useful. Keep in mind that one of the most popular scifi concepts of all time, Star Trek, arose from the American love of westerns and an attempt to apply the concept to another type of story arc. Star Trek is basically Gunsmoke if you boil the two down. Do the same with any gaming material, try to find the spookiness in it and you can use it in Ravenloft.

Also, some of us consider Bluetspur to be Ravenloft's moon, so a little steampunk spelljamming might actually be in order to visit the Illithid's realm.

Welcome to the forums!

[Grald]

Cool, where can I find this unofficial JWM adventure?

But aside from the Illithiad itself, are you familiar with the follow-on modules, A Darkness Gathering, Masters of Eternal Night, and Dawn of the Overmind?

I've heard the Bluetspur-as-moon theory (I've been lurking on this board and the predecessor Kargatane board as long as they've existed) but my PCs, most of whom are outlanders from an Earth-like world with a normal cosmology (where the heliocentric theory is common knowledge and accepted), are pretty intrigued about whether the Core's sun(s) (since IMC Nova Vaasa still has 5) and moon(s) (since IMC Sithicus still has 3) really "exist" or are just painted up there by the DPs, and I would hate to ruin the mystery for them by having them physically travel to the moon.

Thanks for the welcome, LONG-time lurker (since RL was canceled near the end of 2e) to this and the Kargatane boards. I know there are more lurkers out there.

By way of background, I've run 3 different RL campaigns (actually more if you include each time the PCs have been 100% replaced by new ones) off and on since around 1998 or so. I've been through RL in 2e, 3.0e, 3.5e, Grim Tales, and now C&C, which has proven to have the longest staying power so far since I've been using it from 2005-present (with a 5-year interruption to do other campaigns).

[alhoon]

Cool, where can I find this unofficial JWM adventure?

But aside from the Illithiad itself, are you familiar with the follow-on modules, A Darkness Gathering, Masters of Eternal Night, and Dawn of the Overmind?

The Illithiad was simple the best supplement for 2nd Edition IMO. (One that made clear alhoons are not liches!. Still in the late 3rd editions they turned us to liches with phylactery, 11th lvl prereq and all. )
Could you tell me a bit more about those Monstrous arcana series of adventures? I like all these kinds of monsters.

[The Giamarga]

The Illithiad (and the other 2 similar books about Sahuagin and Beholders) were each accompanied by a trilogy of adventures featuring the highlighted monsters.

See also the TSR Archive's Monstrous Arcana subpage

[alhoon]

Aaaand... where could they be purchased at?

EDIT: Nevermind, http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ ... worldof-20

[The Giamarga]

Umm.. ebay.com, nobleknight.com, half.com, hitpointe.com and many more...

Check out the Marketplace sticky thread for advice on where to get used or out of print D&D stuff...

[Catman Jim]

Cool, where can I find this unofficial JWM adventure?

Page 22 of "The Forgotten Chidren" Kargatane Netbook, still available for download here: http://www.kargatane.com/forgotten/tfcpdf.zip

[Grald]

Thanks, Catman, I'd forgotten (no pun intended) all about that!

[alhoon]

Yeap. It slipped my mind too.

[DeadReborn]

I'm running a C&C Ravenloft campaign...

It's great to see a fellow Crusader here! I'm actually kicking off an online Ravenloft campaign using C&C in about two weeks.

[Germaine]

I find the Illithiad to be an outstanding product from one of my all-time favorite D&D designers- and an excellent resource if you plan to make much use of illithids or run an adventure in Bluetspur itself.

On the other hand, the adventure trilogy that accompanied it -while extremely cool- may be a bit much for Ravenloft. Not only do they involve "giths", long-distance space travel, and an artificial planet, but a key plot point hinges on an ether gap- a fascinating concept, but probably not the best- or easiest- idea to introduce into Ravenloft.

[alhoon]

Not every campaign should be in Ravenloft IMO. Some nice planetraveling and high fantasy is a good change.

[Germaine]

I agree 100%, which is why I've always alternated between Ravenloft and campaigns for my homebrew setting, etc. If high fantasy- maybe with a touch of "science fiction"- is what one is looking for, said illithid trilogy is probably among the 10 or 20 best adventures to come out of the 90s- well written, epic and potentially apocalyptic without the need for Level 20+ PCs, and filled with imaginative elements. As I recall, the last of the trilogy even features an alhoon.

[alhoon]

Crap I must find these.