The Salvation of Korthos (Free Homebrew Module)

[bjornicus]

I don't know if anyone has done this before, but I thought it would be fun to convert some of the DDO adventure packs for use in my home PnP games. The first story arc I decided to convert using the Pathfinder rules was The Salvation of Korthos. I am pretty excited how it turned out. Let me know what you guys think. Below is a link to the homebrewery page (with downloadable PDF) and a description of the adventure:

Module: The Salvation of Korthos (http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/HybKJ8Ly_M)
Level: This adventure module is for PCs level 1-3
Description: After being shipwrecked on their way to continent of Xen’Drik, the PCs awake on a snow covered jungle island. The island is home to the village of Korthos currently being terrorized by both the Cult of the Devourer and a White Dragon. Throughout the adventure, the PCs discover that a mindflayer is controlling the cultists and the dragon with a powerful artifact called the Mindsunder. Now, rather than destroying the evil White Dragon, the PCs have to destroy the Mindsunder and set it free to save the island.

Edited to add PDF hosted on Google Drive: The Salvation of Korthos PDF (https://drive.google.com/open?id=1EnBIznXep6rFEbBDFl9ippCWAJ39vPjm)

[Hafeal]

Color me impressed.

I read through the first half and it is well done from my reading of it.

P.S. There were a few typos.:)


I don't know if anyone has done this before, but I thought it would be fun to convert some of the DDO adventure packs for use in my home PnP games. The first story arc I decided to convert using the Pathfinder rules was The Salvation of Korthos. I am pretty excited how it turned out. Let me know what you guys think. Below is a link to the homebrewery page (with downloadable PDF) and a description of the adventure:

Module: The Salvation of Korthos (http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/HybKJ8Ly_M)
Level: This adventure module is for PCs level 1-3
Description: After being shipwrecked on their way to continent of Xen’Drik, the PCs awake on a snow covered jungle island. The island is home to the village of Korthos currently being terrorized by both the Cult of the Devourer and a White Dragon. Throughout the adventure, the PCs discover that a mindflayer is controlling the cultists and the dragon with a powerful artifact called the Mindsunder. Now, rather than destroying the evil White Dragon, the PCs have to destroy the Mindsunder and set it free to save the island.

[Saekee]

forumit Nibel used to do this quite a bit

[kmoustakas]

This is amazing. Thank you for doing this. For some reason though the maps won't load for me even though other pictures load properly.

[Swimms]

very well done, impressive

[Cordovan]

This is awesome, thanks for sharing it.

[bjornicus]

Thanks for the positive feedback everyone. I think I am going to adapt the Sharn Syndicate adventure pack next. I figured that those ones could be fun because they can be used as a whole arc or taken individually and thrown into any city.


Color me impressed.

I read through the first half and it is well done from my reading of it.

P.S. There were a few typos.:)

I did try to proof read it two or three times before posting, but stuff always gets missed. Ill go back over it again when I can look at it fresh.


This is amazing. Thank you for doing this. For some reason though the maps won't load for me even though other pictures load properly.

Homebrewery is set to work best in Chrome. I tried it in Firefox once and everything loaded very poorly, so I suggest trying Chrome if you haven't already.

[brian14]

I am most impressed. Who did the cover artwork?

[brian14]

Homebrewery is set to work best in Chrome. I tried it in Firefox once and everything loaded very poorly, so I suggest trying Chrome if you haven't already.
Maps won't load for me either, and I am using Chrome.

[Arkat]

Maps won't load for me either, and I am using Chrome.

Same here.

[bjornicus]

Maps won't load for me either, and I am using Chrome.

The problem with some of the images was that I tried to use the maps from the DDOWiki, but their server doesn't like homebrewery pulling from it all the time. I ended up having to download them and put them in my own Dropbox. Since so many people are having an issue with those images as well I might have to upload them to an Imgur account and try that.

And the cover art was an image I found from Neverwinter Nights.

[Astanila]

The problem with some of the images was that I tried to use the maps from the DDOWiki, but their server doesn't like homebrewery pulling from it all the time. I ended up having to download them and put them in my own Dropbox. Since so many people are having an issue with those images as well I might have to upload them to an Imgur account and try that.

And the cover art was an image I found from Neverwinter Nights.

Thank you for sharing this! You've done a wonderful job!

I did a quick scan and discover three page with content outside of the page, which are page 3, 4, and 29.
- Page 3 is the picture of Jeet. Lower the width from 300px to 200px would fix it in.
- Page 4 is in the section of "It's a trap". I don't have a good fix here but change the line starting from "After 2 rounds 1d4+1 Sahuagin Warriors (see Appendix A) jump down from the balconies......" to next page would do.
- page 29 is the treasure of the dragon hoard. I also don't have a good fix here but delete the line of Aussircaex’s Valley would fit it in.

I also can't see any picture from the dropbox. It give message saying "Error (403) It seems you don't belong here! You should probably sign in." when you grab the url from sourse. It seems you set the wrong private setting for these picture.

Overall, what a wonderful job. I hope to see your Shan writing soon. Thank you again for sharing this!

[mgoldb2]

The problem with some of the images was that I tried to use the maps from the DDOWiki, but their server doesn't like homebrewery pulling from it all the time. I ended up having to download them and put them in my own Dropbox. Since so many people are having an issue with those images as well I might have to upload them to an Imgur account and try that.

And the cover art was an image I found from Neverwinter Nights.

You can also try including the images inline for the ones that giving you issues. To do this get the BASE64 value using a site like https://www.base64-image.de/ then show code. Then copy the results in image tag like <img src='#results# ' />

[bjornicus]

Update

I moved the problematic images to be hosted on Imgur instead.

I downloaded a PDF of the version I see in Homebrewery and hosted it to my google drive for easier viewing. The Salvation of Korthos PDF (https://drive.google.com/open?id=1EnBIznXep6rFEbBDFl9ippCWAJ39vPjm)




Thank you for sharing this! You've done a wonderful job!

I did a quick scan and discover three page with content outside of the page, which are page 3, 4, and 29.
- Page 3 is the picture of Jeet. Lower the width from 300px to 200px would fix it in.
- Page 4 is in the section of "It's a trap". I don't have a good fix here but change the line starting from "After 2 rounds 1d4+1 Sahuagin Warriors (see Appendix A) jump down from the balconies......" to next page would do.
- page 29 is the treasure of the dragon hoard. I also don't have a good fix here but delete the line of Aussircaex’s Valley would fit it in.

I also can't see any picture from the dropbox. It give message saying "Error (403) It seems you don't belong here! You should probably sign in." when you grab the url from sourse. It seems you set the wrong private setting for these picture.

Overall, what a wonderful job. I hope to see your Shan writing soon. Thank you again for sharing this!

These were a lot of the problems I was having when I used Firefox to open the Homebrewery site. I decided to just share a PDF version to make it easier.

[kmoustakas]

Update

I moved the problematic images to be hosted on Imgur instead.

I downloaded a PDF of the version I see in Homebrewery and hosted it to my google drive for easier viewing. The Salvation of Korthos PDF (https://drive.google.com/open?id=1EnBIznXep6rFEbBDFl9ippCWAJ39vPjm)





These were a lot of the problems I was having when I used Firefox to open the Homebrewery site. I decided to just share a PDF version to make it easier.

I was using chrome to view it but with whatever you changed now it's fine and I downloaded it. I'll print it out and use it too. Thanks again for doing this. Not that interested in Sharn Syndicate myself but there's a whole lot of adventures out there that could use some pen and paper love <3

[Doctorivil]

This is amazing!
I just took a quick look at it and am already hooked!
This feels like a very cool short adventure for my D&D pnp group.

Quick suggestion: on page 8 the first time you show a image of korthos village, you may wanna use a picture from the snowy version of it.
That will contrast with the picture of the sunny korthos village at the end.

[Algreg]

Pretty cool!

[The_Human_Cypher]

The module looks very professional, more polished than early D&D modules. :)

[Lanadazia]

great job! this is really cool :)

[bjornicus]

Thanks again, everyone, for your positive feedback.


I was using chrome to view it but with whatever you changed now it's fine and I downloaded it. I'll print it out and use it too. Thanks again for doing this. Not that interested in Sharn Syndicate myself but there's a whole lot of adventures out there that could use some pen and paper love <3

You might be more interested in my interpretation of the Sharn Syndicate, no promises though. I'm trying to add in more role play like dealing with drunken Maxwell Statler while trying to plan a defense of his saloon, which sounds pretty amusing. After that, if I am still having fun doing it, I want to do the Sentinels of Stormreach because who doesn't want undead pirates. I was thinking I might try and roll the town of Three-Barrel Cove into the adventure. Then if I am really ambitious I want to do The Vault of Night and/or Demon Sands.


This is amazing!
I just took a quick look at it and am already hooked!
This feels like a very cool short adventure for my D&D pnp group.

Quick suggestion: on page 8 the first time you show a image of korthos village, you may wanna use a picture from the snowy version of it.
That will contrast with the picture of the sunny korthos village at the end.

Thanks for the suggestion. I did actually try doing the Snowy Korthos Village image early on, but the snow didn't show up too well and the image came out a little too dark for my liking.

[Revolted]

Still reading it. So far I'm enjoying it pretty much! You did a great job there. I'll wait for the next Module :)

[Andu_Indorin]

Awesome. Just awesome.

[Claver]

Thank you Bjornicus for putting this together

I'm having fun running my daughter and wife through the quests.

They just got into the village after having washed up on the shore and passed through the Grotto

I ended up running things a bit differently:

1. The party has to face the sahuagin on their own without the help of Jeets, Celinas or Talbron

2. Jeets was more interested in finishing the brandy he had recovered from the beach than going into a cave

3. Jeets offers to put in a good word for the party with a ship captain in town to help arrange passage off the island provided the party does Jeets dirty work in the grotto (while Jeets finishes his brandy and possible searches for more on the beach)

4. Party asked to put a nurse shark on the Devourer altar to desecrate this shrine (toothless shark). This will make this shrine/passage way taboo till the next moon tide meaning the cultist can't use this passage to attack the village for several weeks

5. My daughter leaped from the platform with the alarm near the portcullis down to where the old sahaugin was guarding the lever. She fell prone in the puddle of water while grandpa beat on her. My wife climbed down from the ledge and rolled a 1 also splashing in the puddle...deadliest trap ever

6. I was forced to improvise in the cave with the ambush (sahuagin jumping off ledges). My daughter stacked the bodies of 12 dead sahuagin high enough to be able to jump onto the ledges. I invented a series of caves leading off into the ocean that various Sahuagin were using as living quarters. I provided a stash of pearls to reward my daughters ingenuity.

7. It didn't make sense to me to have the key to the iron door at the bottom of the cage underwater so I put it on the body of one sahuagin sergeant. I made the cage in the ocean used to feed arms and legs of living prisoners to sharks roaming the sea

8. The Priestess at the end almost killed my daughter's character curtesy of a hold person spell and 2 failed death saving throws (critical hit)




I'll make future posts updating you on our progress. We are having fun. Again, thank you for making this possible.

Next up - Heyton's Graveyard

[bjornicus]

Thank you Bjornicus for putting this together

I'm having fun running my daughter and wife through the quests.

They just got into the village after having washed up on the shore and passed through the Grotto

I ended up running things a bit differently:

1. The party has to face the sahuagin on their own without the help of Jeets, Celinas or Talbron

2. Jeets was more interested in finishing the brandy he had recovered from the beach than going into a cave

3. Jeets offers to put in a good word for the party with a ship captain in town to help arrange passage off the island provided the party does Jeets dirty work in the grotto (while Jeets finishes his brandy and possible searches for more on the beach)

4. Party asked to put a nurse shark on the Devourer altar to desecrate this shrine (toothless shark). This will make this shrine/passage way taboo till the next moon tide meaning the cultist can't use this passage to attack the village for several weeks

5. My daughter leaped from the platform with the alarm near the portcullis down to where the old sahaugin was guarding the lever. She fell prone in the puddle of water while grandpa beat on her. My wife climbed down from the ledge and rolled a 1 also splashing in the puddle...deadliest trap ever

6. I was forced to improvise in the cave with the ambush (sahuagin jumping off ledges). My daughter stacked the bodies of 12 dead sahuagin high enough to be able to jump onto the ledges. I invented a series of caves leading off into the ocean that various Sahuagin were using as living quarters. I provided a stash of pearls to reward my daughters ingenuity.

7. It didn't make sense to me to have the key to the iron door at the bottom of the cage underwater so I put it on the body of one sahuagin sergeant. I made the cage in the ocean used to feed arms and legs of living prisoners to sharks roaming the sea

8. The Priestess at the end almost killed my daughter's character curtesy of a hold person spell and 2 failed death saving throws (critical hit)




I'll make future posts updating you on our progress. We are having fun. Again, thank you for making this possible.

Next up - Heyton's Graveyard

Thank you for sharing this! I love the desecration of the shrine with nurse shark and the improvisation of the Sahuagin cave system. While writing it I knew that PCs were going to try to get up there to see where the sahuagin were coming from. I never could have predicted that someone would stack 12 dead bodies on top of each other to do it. That's what I love about Pen and Paper d&d. I am right there with you on the key at the bottom of the cage thing, but I tried to keep it mostly in line with the ddo adventure. I am glad you enjoy it and I would very much like to hear about your further progress through the adventure.

[Claver]

Heytons Tomb

My wife and daughter were running low on hit points so they headed back to the tavern for the night after defeating just one of the Necromancers. As a consequence, I opted to have the Sahaguin/Cultist empty out the tombs when they returned. That evening, in addition to the raid on the village, my wife and daughter had to fend off the zombie apocalypse as the dead started wandering from the sea onto the shore

We were using miniatures, and I placed a variety of townsfolk (woman and children of course) on the table for the party to save. My daughter had taken it upon herself to name the various villagers. This added a lot to the game since they couldn't save everyone in time and had to make hard choices between helping "Gregory" or helping "Judith", etc. In the end, the zombies herded Judith to the shore where she was captured by the Sahaguin. This provided a much stronger motivation for my daughter to rescue the captives than Arrisa or Kaja since my daughter felt like she personally failed "Judith" and needed to make it right.

Raid on Korthos

Kudos Bjornicus for the design of the raid on the village. My daughter agonized over the choice of defending the tavern vs. the docks vs the korthos gem. The choice and consequence had them very engaged in the content. They opted to defend the tavern first. Everyone in the town hall was slaughtered (except the mayer who was in hiding). Ursa also got killed while defending the docks. I gave the party 6 rounds to get to her but they used up most of that time running after the zombies who were pursuing the children

I forgot to mention the dragon until the end. The main focus ended up being saving various villagers who were being chased by undead raised from Heyton's Tomb.

Sacrifices

I messed up a bit by having the tacks for the sahaguin and captives lead through the snow right up to the entrance at the cannith aqueduct. This didn't really make any sense with the spider webs and wooden door to smash. Once I realized my mistake I had all the spiderwebs broken, skipped the spiders, and replaced the door with a stone slab.

I altered the first room on the fly a bit to make it so the party had to leap to a platform to be able to lower the drawbridge. I made the cultist arcane who were harrying the leaping party members with ray of frost cantrips. My daughter's character fell in the water with the shark so that made for some excitement

I also expanded the lip around the room a bit so there would be more room to get prisoners in and out of their cells. I decided the keys to the cells are on a Sahaguin Seargent near the end so the prisoners were left behind for now.

We stopped right before the room with the Arcane Skeleton near the chest. This may be where we end the adventure for a while. My daughter starts school next week. We were going to play this weekend but have become involved in other diversions.

If/when we do start back up I'm going to make escorting the survivors back to the village through the wilderness while being harassed by cultist/sahugin a major focus. Keeping all/most the captives alive is likely to be very motivating for my daughter

[bjornicus]

Heytons Tomb

My wife and daughter were running low on hit points so they headed back to the tavern for the night after defeating just one of the Necromancers. As a consequence, I opted to have the Sahaguin/Cultist empty out the tombs when they returned. That evening, in addition to the raid on the village, my wife and daughter had to fend off the zombie apocalypse as the dead started wandering from the sea onto the shore

We were using miniatures, and I placed a variety of townsfolk (woman and children of course) on the table for the party to save. My daughter had taken it upon herself to name the various villagers. This added a lot to the game since they couldn't save everyone in time and had to make hard choices between helping "Gregory" or helping "Judith", etc. In the end, the zombies herded Judith to the shore where she was captured by the Sahaguin. This provided a much stronger motivation for my daughter to rescue the captives than Arrisa or Kaja since my daughter felt like she personally failed "Judith" and needed to make it right.

Raid on Korthos

Kudos Bjornicus for the design of the raid on the village. My daughter agonized over the choice of defending the tavern vs. the docks vs the korthos gem. The choice and consequence had them very engaged in the content. They opted to defend the tavern first. Everyone in the town hall was slaughtered (except the mayer who was in hiding). Ursa also got killed while defending the docks. I gave the party 6 rounds to get to her but they used up most of that time running after the zombies who were pursuing the children

I forgot to mention the dragon until the end. The main focus ended up being saving various villagers who were being chased by undead raised from Heyton's Tomb.

Sacrifices

I messed up a bit by having the tacks for the sahaguin and captives lead through the snow right up to the entrance at the cannith aqueduct. This didn't really make any sense with the spider webs and wooden door to smash. Once I realized my mistake I had all the spiderwebs broken, skipped the spiders, and replaced the door with a stone slab.

I altered the first room on the fly a bit to make it so the party had to leap to a platform to be able to lower the drawbridge. I made the cultist arcane who were harrying the leaping party members with ray of frost cantrips. My daughter's character fell in the water with the shark so that made for some excitement

I also expanded the lip around the room a bit so there would be more room to get prisoners in and out of their cells. I decided the keys to the cells are on a Sahaguin Seargent near the end so the prisoners were left behind for now.

We stopped right before the room with the Arcane Skeleton near the chest. This may be where we end the adventure for a while. My daughter starts school next week. We were going to play this weekend but have become involved in other diversions.

If/when we do start back up I'm going to make escorting the survivors back to the village through the wilderness while being harassed by cultist/sahugin a major focus. Keeping all/most the captives alive is likely to be very motivating for my daughter

Thank you for the second update and I hope you do start up again. I really enjoy hearing how the adventure is working out for others. Also, thank you for the kudos on the village raid. Merging those three quests into a raid was one of the highlights of this adventures design for me. I particularly like that you added the zombie apocalypse on top of that.

[Claver]

Sacrifices
If/when we do start back up I'm going to make escorting the survivors back to the village through the wilderness while being harassed by cultist/sahugin a major focus. Keeping all/most the captives alive is likely to be very motivating for my daughter

My daughter has been craving some D&D so we stated back up again this weekend

The party rescued the barmaid Judith Hogswattle (my daughter gets to name random npc) from the sacrificial altar....but at the cost of the life of my wife's animal companion (a python named Tartband) that slithered onto the altar and allowed the haunt to cut it into ribbons. Judith used a rock to strike the killing blow from behind on the evil cleric Drenyl Fallow. She has since evolved into a 2nd level fighter NPC hireling and is now a member of the party.

The party was able to get about half of the prisoners back home but lost two boys and two women to Sahaguin and cultist ambushes. Along with an old woman - agatha, the unlucky - who fell into the shark tank before they got out of the dungeon

The party took the path of aqueduct and got the drop on a campfire of cultist. The party was spotted crossing the bridge over the canyon and then ambushed from 3 sides as they neared Cannith Manufactury plaza.

In the end, most of the prisoners made it back to town alive and earned titles courtesy of my daughter.

Boys:

Drew The Forgettable
Derick The Runaway (He would break ranks and run when the group was attacked)

Women:

Jennifer the Foolish (Opted to take on the Sahaguin with a spear but lived to tell the tale)
Jonquil The Fast (Broke ranks and ran back into down without getting mowed down in combat)
Arissa the Useless (whined and complained like a spoiled mayor's daughter)
Judith Hogswattle (2nd level fighter/barmaid)

Captured Cultist:

Vernon the Clumsy