Sunday, November 22, 2020

We may ignore the map southwest

I find the northeast of the players' diagonal to make sense, as it clusters to the main D-series route. Since the ghouls are over on the northeast of D1's Players Map route, that constrains what we put there. By contrast the southwest side of the map past that first bypass is a tangled mess. The bypasses southwest don't go anywhere. Therefore the whole southwest poses no interest to D-series parties.

We got a few encounter areas to sit out there to the west of that other, western bypass: LM19, S27. But that's all they do: sit out there; with no effect on players' bypass unless they spawn monsters. The Dragonsfoot community would have LM19 as a trade entrepôt but I don't know that I care.

As to those monsters, I can only work off the modules' Encounter Tables.

The north half of the western edge must be kuo-toa, especially that bolthole N2O251 but again - why even go there. Or you can skip module D2 by hitting up E243 then I247-J248. Which are certainly gnomish and kuo-toa, respectively. So you're playing... D2.

We must assume that to the southwest is D1-based. The gargoyles own a lair on a primary road into Caverns chamber 4. ZA235 is a thought for them, if you agree with Dragonsfoot that LM19 is cosmopolitan. Umber-hulks go tertiary so I don't even know they have a lair.

I left the illithids for last. The GDQ appendix told us rather a lot about Dra-Mur-Shou the mind flayers' city down here. Despite that it is not on Dragonsfoot's map, I'd assumed it was that X-A2 sexthex on the western edge, where they got "forsaken city Naavros". The problem with illithids is Aristotelian: the 'flayers are at least as powerful as drow. That means they distract from the plot. A D-series DM cannot permit illithids much of a footprint. As "poetics" go the ghouls and (pace D2) the kuo-toa were pushing the limit.

Overall, it is difficult to inline this stuff with the D-series quest.

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