Goodman Games

Though I would love to run a Whiterock campaign, my availability (as well as that of my players) is extremely limited. So what I've done is incorporate parts of CW into the ongoing campaign. Specifically, I've planted Thane Vejik's redoubt and the Bleak Theater into the game close to the drow city of the original 1st ed modules (D1-2-3) , Erelhei-Cinlu.

Recently, the party attempted to track down and take out a villainous npc, a derro vampire cleric who was known via their divinations to be in possession of an important relic. This relic is necessary for them to successfully complete the main plot of the campaign, so the party set about trying to lay a trap for this npc. In the end the dice were against them and the villain npc escaped with the relic, though all his henchmen and one of his main hideouts were discovered and plundered or put to the sword. So what's a homeless vampire on the run from pcs to do? Retreat to the Underdeep! At least there he knows they won't haul his carcass out into the noonday sun.

During the attempt on the vampire's unlife, there was a LOT of collateral damage including, among others, a duergar ambassador (the pcs were aware of his presence but not his significance). The derro has spent his time since performing various divinations and sendings, and has assembled a group of creatures to help him against the party, each representing a group or entity which has suffered at the pcs' hands in the past.

Enter the Bleak Theater! The death of the duergar ambassador opened the door for me to introduce another villain, though one readily-enough neutralized. The party received a missive containing a formal challenge upon the field of honor from the derro vampire. Non-response or failure to appear for this challenge would result in a large sum of money being devoted to putting a price on the pcs' heads (enter the Wolf Pack, advanced to a high enough level to threaten the pcs).

Now the party has battled their way through the various obstacles of Descent into the Depths and part way through Vault of the Drow to reach the Bleak Theater, where they will be surprised to see some familiar (and unwelcome) faces in the arena.

Just one of the ways I am putting CW to good use, even without playing it from level 1...

YES!
It sounds like you've really embraced the modular aspect of the boxed set.

(I'm also a little tickled anytime someone uses the Children of the Night-Wolf...they're based off my SCA group)

Nice segues, by the way. I dig how you're stringing all the plot pieces together. I think I saw in the other thread that you're using PFRPG...how is the conversion turning out? Are you going to substitute your derro vampire for Gora-Khan?

No, the group has a bad history with the derro vamp with mutual serious grudges, so after irritating them incessantly for a couple months with this guy I need to give them some closure while furthering the main campaign thread. I did consider putting Gorakhan into the arena to fight alongside him, but I was concerned that 2 vampires might be a bit much to handle in a single fight. Gorakhan will just have to keep until they party offends the Thane in some way (high probability).

The arena will be stocked with a group of npcs culled from previous enemies the party failed to utterly destroy; an erinyes ranger from a cult of devil-worshippers the party pummeled and then basically ignored (low wisdom), a mutant sahuagin skum gladiator with grafts (created using that handy skum template from CW, btw! Nice!) sent by a cabal of aboleths the party stole from (outright foolish!), a death knight of Orcus (even Orcus hates grave-robbers), and so on. Once the party gives me the final roster of characters I'll crunch some numbers and see if I can squeeze someone else in there. Gorakhan is definitely on the list.

So far we're still working out the conversion of items and skills. In the last game though they were hit by a very large (15hd) rust monster, so that should simplify the item side of things.

I think everyone is psyched about the conversion; each character is getting something that they didn't have before in the way of abilities, and that overrides concerns about item slots or how the skills all knit together. The hard part comes down on me since I have a backlog of npcs to convert!

P.S. the derro's name is Harry Palmer. He had five sisters, but they were all killed by the party. He's a cleric of Manos, the Hands of Fate. See what I mean about closure?

P.S. Thanks also for Chain and Aura of Command. Those are going to fit nicely into the drill for my lawful evil devil cult shock troops.