I recently got a PDF copy of Red Hand of Doom from 3.5e. I really enjoyed reading through the adventure and am currently trying to plan out how I could run a D&D group through the 5e Starter set and then right into the Red Hand of Doom.
My issue is the book recommends putting Elsir Vale halfway across the realms from where LMoP is. I have looked online a view places for help and wanted to post this here and get the DDB forum's advice. I am trying to decide if its better to redesign RHoD to fit into the area around Neverwinter, or whether to change the area to include Elsir Vale. Also I would want to have story plot hooks to insert into LMoP for RHoD.
Any thoughts or suggestions?
(Note: I'm not necessarily concerned about transferring combat and other stuff to 5e)
I'm not familiar with the Red Hand of Doom module myself, so I don't know what the hooks are into the adventure.
I'd either work out a way to locate it somewhere along the Sword Coast, near where LMoP takes place or devise a means for the player characters to WANT to be on the other side of the Realms.
There are various ways you can do this and Teleport is a great way for an npc Wizard to get them to where you want.
While I haven't looked at Red Hand of Doom, the best option is to move it nearby. This way you can more easily bring elements of it into Lost Mines. Also means you don't have to completely rework on NPC's as you still have ones available form Lost Mines.
I'm doing something similar. I actually moved LMoP down to the Cloud Peak mountains south of Baldur's Gate because a fellow DM was running a campaign in the Sword Coast North and we didn't want to conflict. So the Elsir Vale is going to be set further south in Amn. To the East of the Small Teeth mountains there's a series of hills. I'm turning that area into the Elsir Vale. Map makers don't always capture everything they need to - distances can vary and hill or mountain size might be way off. this way I'm taking that tip of the Wealdath and turning it into the Ghost Lord's domain.
You can do this pretty much anywhere, just choose a location you want to set the Elsir Vale in or you can choose to just rename the cities/towns for those in the north. You could set the Elsir Vale in the hills just south of the Spine of the World (north of Luskan) or something like that. Or you could snug it in west of Longsaddle/east of The Crags & Neverwinter. Distances can be what you set them to be.
For hooks, I used the Orcs at Wyvern Tor to hint at an alliance with hobgoblins that flew away on Wyvern mounts. The PCs could see the Red Hand painted on the hobgoblin's armor. The Hobgoblins are bribing the orcs to raid into Amn and keep the Amnian military busy while the Red Hand consolidate their power in the Elsir Vale and then pull more tribes to them from the Troll Mountains for a push to destroy Eshpurta with their fiendishly enhanced army (if their successful).
I also used a book the found in Mormesk's demense and another in the Spellforge itself to hint that the Delzoun dwarves passed the secrets of the spellforge onto the Phandelver Pact Dwarves & Gnomes. The adventure trail for my PCs to rekindle the Spellforge leads them into the Elsir Vale trying to find an entrance to one of the Delzoun Dwarves holdfasts to search for that information. They'll get swept up in the RHoD storyline while on that search.
They were definitely focused on the Spellforge. As the DM I was prepared to let them do what they wanted but I put it into some meta-game terms they could understand. The RHoD path was one adventure path for them and searching for the origins of the Spellforge was another. If they didn't go down the RHoD path, there would probably be consequences they'd have to deal with/avoid that would be worse than if they did go down it. I don't have the time to run a full sandbox game so i make sure my players are on the same page about what their choices could mean for their futures rather than leaving it all a mystery. It's helped focus them in on their place in the world as heroes (and sometimes walking disasters).
Necrothread, but a fun fact here... the Elsir Vale is just a renaming of an area in the Shaar (pre-desolation) where the Wyrmbone Mountains are. Lake Rhestin is really Lake Lhesper.
Necrothread, but a fun fact here... the Elsir Vale is just a renaming of an area in the Shaar (pre-desolation) where the Wyrmbone Mountains are. Lake Rhestin is really Lake Lhesper.
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Hello,
I recently got a PDF copy of Red Hand of Doom from 3.5e. I really enjoyed reading through the adventure and am currently trying to plan out how I could run a D&D group through the 5e Starter set and then right into the Red Hand of Doom.
My issue is the book recommends putting Elsir Vale halfway across the realms from where LMoP is. I have looked online a view places for help and wanted to post this here and get the DDB forum's advice. I am trying to decide if its better to redesign RHoD to fit into the area around Neverwinter, or whether to change the area to include Elsir Vale. Also I would want to have story plot hooks to insert into LMoP for RHoD.
Any thoughts or suggestions?
(Note: I'm not necessarily concerned about transferring combat and other stuff to 5e)
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D&D Beyond FoundersI'm not familiar with the Red Hand of Doom module myself, so I don't know what the hooks are into the adventure.
I'd either work out a way to locate it somewhere along the Sword Coast, near where LMoP takes place or devise a means for the player characters to WANT to be on the other side of the Realms.
There are various ways you can do this and Teleport is a great way for an npc Wizard to get them to where you want.
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While I haven't looked at Red Hand of Doom, the best option is to move it nearby. This way you can more easily bring elements of it into Lost Mines. Also means you don't have to completely rework on NPC's as you still have ones available form Lost Mines.
I'm doing something similar. I actually moved LMoP down to the Cloud Peak mountains south of Baldur's Gate because a fellow DM was running a campaign in the Sword Coast North and we didn't want to conflict. So the Elsir Vale is going to be set further south in Amn. To the East of the Small Teeth mountains there's a series of hills. I'm turning that area into the Elsir Vale. Map makers don't always capture everything they need to - distances can vary and hill or mountain size might be way off. this way I'm taking that tip of the Wealdath and turning it into the Ghost Lord's domain.
You can do this pretty much anywhere, just choose a location you want to set the Elsir Vale in or you can choose to just rename the cities/towns for those in the north. You could set the Elsir Vale in the hills just south of the Spine of the World (north of Luskan) or something like that. Or you could snug it in west of Longsaddle/east of The Crags & Neverwinter. Distances can be what you set them to be.
For hooks, I used the Orcs at Wyvern Tor to hint at an alliance with hobgoblins that flew away on Wyvern mounts. The PCs could see the Red Hand painted on the hobgoblin's armor. The Hobgoblins are bribing the orcs to raid into Amn and keep the Amnian military busy while the Red Hand consolidate their power in the Elsir Vale and then pull more tribes to them from the Troll Mountains for a push to destroy Eshpurta with their fiendishly enhanced army (if their successful).
I also used a book the found in Mormesk's demense and another in the Spellforge itself to hint that the Delzoun dwarves passed the secrets of the spellforge onto the Phandelver Pact Dwarves & Gnomes. The adventure trail for my PCs to rekindle the Spellforge leads them into the Elsir Vale trying to find an entrance to one of the Delzoun Dwarves holdfasts to search for that information. They'll get swept up in the RHoD storyline while on that search.
How did it went? Wasn't your party too focused on the Spell Forge that they didn't pay attention to the goblins?
Someone on reddit made an excellent map for exactly your scenario. Maybe they find a map on one of the orcs from LMoP?
They were definitely focused on the Spellforge. As the DM I was prepared to let them do what they wanted but I put it into some meta-game terms they could understand. The RHoD path was one adventure path for them and searching for the origins of the Spellforge was another. If they didn't go down the RHoD path, there would probably be consequences they'd have to deal with/avoid that would be worse than if they did go down it. I don't have the time to run a full sandbox game so i make sure my players are on the same page about what their choices could mean for their futures rather than leaving it all a mystery. It's helped focus them in on their place in the world as heroes (and sometimes walking disasters).
Necrothread, but a fun fact here... the Elsir Vale is just a renaming of an area in the Shaar (pre-desolation) where the Wyrmbone Mountains are. Lake Rhestin is really Lake Lhesper.
...cryptographic randomness!
Necrothread, but a fun fact here... the Elsir Vale is just a renaming of an area in the Shaar (pre-desolation) where the Wyrmbone Mountains are. Lake Rhestin is really Lake Lhesper.
...cryptographic randomness!