Aengmor Liberation Mega Campaign Idea
by HåvardI have this idea for a slightly different take on Aengmor in the post-WotI continuity. Rather than a new Gazetteer for a Shadow-elf based nation, my idea is to develop this as if it were a Mega Adventure Boxed set or an adventure path Hardback.
My ideas here may contradict some previously established canon or fan material, but I think that could be overcome by pushing it further down the timeline. I am keeping exact dates vague here so that it more easily could be adapted to the various campaigns out there.
A few design goals:
1) I don't want the Shadowelves to be the main villains of this campaign. While there could be villainous Shadowelves, my idea for this campaign is that at one point the Shadowelves loose control over the region to other forces. This can allow the PCs to side with either the Shadowelves or the Alfheim Elves or perhaps work with either side at different points. Other factions could also be introduced with their own goals and motivations.
2) The end goal of the campaign should be a restoration of Alfheim. If we want to avoid a complete railroad perhaps including different factions (as mentioned above). For low to mid level parties, exploring parts of the dead forest could be enough of an adventure, focusing on finding treasure, recovering lost magical items, rescuing trapped or captured NPCs etc.
3) I'd like to revisit warped versions of the locations and features described in Gaz5, but also other modules connected to Alfheim such as the Emerlas region (O2), Fenhold (CM9) and maybe tie in elements from CM7 Tree of Life as well as the Faedorne and the Shining Isles from AC9.
4) I am thinking that Aengmor at this point should have developed into a truly dangerous place to adventure as the magic from the good and bad magic points have become fused with the defensive magic of the forest itself making the place deadly to anyone but the most shrewd adventurers.
What do you think? Does this idea have merit? Do you think it can be tweaked to work with other fan material? What locations should be vital to the campaign?
Three regions could serve as interesting locations for the campaign (will add others later!):
Fenhold
This area south of Alfheim was explored in CM9 Legacy of Blood. In addition to being a great opportunity to revisit this adventure location or perhaps use the adventure itself as part of the campaign, I think Fenhold could serve well as a kind of staging area for adventure groups seeking to venture into Aengmoor. I imagine this to be a kind of neutral ground area for the various factions that are trying to liberate the forest from its cursed state.
Emerlas
This region within Alfheim was described in O2 Blade of Vengance. I will be using some of the ideas for the region proposed by Rabindranath in this article. For the campaign itself, I'm thinking this region has actually been able to withstand the curse. This would include all three communities of Scrubton, Granitgape and Oakendale with Grunalf elves suriving mostly in hiding from surrounding attackers. In the campaign it could serve as a place of refuge for the PCs as they travel to the forest. Or perhaps they have heard of an area where it is possible to find rest and explore to try to locate a safe path to this area.
Dreamlands
With the disappearance of the fey races, this region is a sad shadow of its former glory. Here I would use the suggestion by Greenbriar that the evil Treant Travestis from PC1 has taken over and set himself up as one of several villains in this campaign. He is served by other corrupted treants, gakkaraks and other plant creatures that control this part of the forest and prevent it from being recovered. If your group has already defeated Travestis, he can be replaced by another Treant created by the corruption of Alfheim.