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Dungeons & Dragons 3e: Shoals of Intrigue

Shoals of Intrigue

Time to get wet! This adventure involves intrigue in a coastal town, but the investigation leads the party underwater - so you will have to make sure that they have access to spells or equipment to survive when submerged.

The backstory for the DM explains what has been going on in Flundspoor, Blakemire, and neighboring port cities - places where there is a thriving market for spies as the cities vie with one another for the best trade deals and other advantages. Sometimes, rarely, their competition dissolves into open warfare... and there are those who seek advantage from their squabbles. The general background as recounted here is common knowledge to locals, but there are some specifics that will, perhaps, become known as the adventure unfolds.

A wide array of hooks are provided to get the party involved, partly depending on where they happen to be. If they are in Blakemire, they might get hired by the local lordling: one of his spies is missing and he'd like him back. But there are other routes to get them into the adventure, some - as befitting a plot that involves spies - being quite devious.

Should they be able to do so, there's a fair bit of information to be gathered and they are going to need a ship - fortunately various routes are laid out whereby they can find themselves afloat. Once at sea, they will eventually come across a wreck - and that's where the adventure proper begins. Being a wreck, it has of course sunk and this is where the need to be able to get underwater comes in. The adventure assumes that the party has what it needs, so you'll need to make sure that provision has been made in some manner.

This wreck is near a chain of uninhabited volcanic islands and - in true James Bond style - the villain of the piece has made a lair in an inactive volcano. A basic map of the interior is supplied (based on one from the Map-a-Week series on the Wizards of the Coast website, the original is still available at the time of writing), but you'll need to come up with your own group of islands.

It's a delightfully original adventure, with opportunites to fight and to talk. In particular, if your party likes intrigue, the entire setting and background provides scope for a whole series of adventures based around the port cities and their fondness for espionage... and if they don't polish off the villian he's likely to have more plans for the area... and maybe for them, too. Or he might seek to hire them. The scope is massive, and I can feel ideas beginning to spawn even as I write.

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Reviewed: 28 May 2016