The Shackled City Adventure Path

The Shackled City Adventure Path (or simply Shackled City) is a role-playing game campaign designed for Dungeons & Dragons, originally appearing as a series of modules in Dungeon Adventures, later published in a hardcover edition collecting all previous installments plus an additional chapter written especially for the book release. Various elements of the game were revised for the collection. The setting was enlarged to better suit the needs of a typical high-level game.

Campaign information

Location

The adventure is primarily set in the city of Cauldron. Cauldron itself is nominally located in the World of Greyhawk, although the series is designed to be easily adapted to other Dungeons & Dragons campaign settings.

Shackled City's Impact on Cauldron

The Adventure Path was released by Paizo Publishing as series of 11 modules, printed in Dungeon Adventures over a period of almost two years. Prior to the publication of Shackled City, Cauldron was an obscure part of the Greyhawk landscape without significant background or development. In the Adventure Path, however, the city was greatly expanded upon and became the center of multiple plot threads within the overall evolving Greyhawk lore that Paizo developed, eventually dovetailing with the later Adventure Paths Age of Worms and Savage Tide. The former featured an adventure set in a jungle region relatively close to Cauldron and the latter began in the city of Sasserine, Cauldron's main trading partner.

In general, the Adventure Paths were widely lauded throughout the gaming industry, and the collected issues of Shackled City, including extensive background and location notes on Cauldron and its residents, were nominated for and received multiple ENnies in 2006.

Geography and population

Located in the caldera of a dormant volcano, Cauldron is a medium-sized city founded by Surabar Spellmason around 500–600 years before the nominal "present day" in the campaign. The city has extensive subterranean caverns that connect at various places to the Underdark.

In Greyhawk, the city is set in the Hellfurnaces near the Amedio Jungle, east of the Sea of Dust and southwest from the Azure Sea and Jeklea Bay.

In the Forgotten Realms, the city is set somewhere on the Chultan Peninsula in the Jungle of Chult.

Purpose

The adventures are designed to begin with first level characters and to end with characters at or near twentieth level, taking them through twelve distinct adventures that span basic dungeon crawls, urban adventures, political intrigue, and even extra-planar excursions.

The Adventure Paths

The Adventure Paths were an ongoing and popular element of Dungeon magazine over its' final 53 print issues. Shackled City made its debut in issue 97 and ran intermittently until it's conclusion in issue 116. Eight months later, issue 124 marked the debut of the next adventure path, known as the Age of Worms which ran every issue until 135. It contained some elements from the Shackled City (such as the Ebon Triad who were minor characters in the Cauldron saga) but stood on its own as a campaign.

The third Adventure Path, Savage Tide, ran from issue 139 of Dungeon until the magazine's final print issue (150). The first two adventures were set in the city of Sasserine, Cauldron's closest neighbor and trading partner, and the adventurer's patron, Lavinia Vanderboren, was a relative of the character Tod Vanderboren from the Shackled City storyline.

Summary

The Adventure Path consists of the following scenarios:

Chapter	Title	Author	Illustrators	Levels	Issue	Date
1	"Life's Bazaar"	Christopher Perkins	Chuck Lukacs, Val Mayerik, Christopher West (cartography for entire series)	1–3	97	March 2003
In this adventure the player characters investigate kidnappings. The trail leads to a slaver operating from Underdark passages below the city.
2	"Drakthar's Way"	Christopher Perkins	Omar Dogan	3	NA	August 2007
In this adventure small bands of goblins raid and vandalize the city. The player characters track the goblins to a hideout in a series of caves below the city that lead out the side of the mountain. The goblins are led by a vampiric bugbear, the eponymous Drakthar.
3	"Flood Season"	James Jacobs	Peter Bergting, Stephen A. Daniele, Scott Fischer	4–6	98	May 2003
In this adventure the city of Cauldron is threatened by flooding during the rainy season. Magical wands of "control water" normally used to control the flooding are stolen and taken to a lair below the city. The player characters presumably track down and recover the stolen wands.
4	"Zenith Trajectory"	David Noonan	Thomas M. Baxa, Jeff Carlisle, Mark Jackson, Mark Nelson	6–8	102	September 2003
The player characters are asked to rescue Zenith Splintershield, a dwarf who has been missing since heading into the Underdark to fight evil. Zenith has gone insane and is treated as prophet by the kuo-toa (fish-people) who captured him.
5	"The Demonskar Legacy"	Tito Leati	Jeff Carlisle, Matt Cavotta	8–10	104	November 2003
In this chapter, the heroes must find a missing paladin to stop an incursion by Cauldron to nearby Redgorge. After retracing his steps through a jungle, a giant-controlled cavern, and an otherworldly maze, they must face the demonic architect of the area's strife.
6	"Test of the Smoking Eye"	David Noonan	Mark Nelson, UDON	10–12	107	February 2004
Following their warning from a dying paladin to "seek the sign of the smoking eye", a mysterious plane-wanderer asks for their help in completing a series of test to redeem an abandoned layer of the Abyss.
7	"Secrets of the Soul Pillars"	Jesse Decker	Jeff Carlisle, Andrew Hou, Arnold Tsang	12–13	109	April 2004
After several assassins attempt to kill the heroes, they are traced back to the temple of Wee Jas. After assaulting the temple and fighting its undead inhabitants, they are led to an ancient frozen spell weaver complex, where a powerful oracle is guarded by a horrific undying dragon.
8	"Lords of Oblivion"	Christopher Perkins	Peter Bergting	13–15	111	June 2004
An ally of the heroes is kidnapped and taken to a safe house of the Last Laugh, Cauldron's thieves guild. Once they break in and rescue him from the den of thieves, they learn of a secret meeting among some of the realm's most horrific criminals at a noble's mansion. In addition, their beholder overlord is practicing unholy rituals in the complex below.
9	"Foundation of Flame"	Chris Thomasson	Christine Choi, Benjamin Huen, Chris Stevens, UDON, Jim Zubkavich	15–16	113	August 2004
The Cagewrights begin their plans in earnest now, awakening the volcano on which Cauldron is built. Spewing lava, earthquakes, and collapsing buildings require the heroes help to get everyone evacuated. Worse, demodands begin to emerge from a planar rift already building, and a certain local dragon gets riled up by it all.
10	"Thirteen Cages"	Chris Thomasson	Ramón K. Pérez	16–18	114	September 2004
The heroes must march on the Cagewrights' headquarters, in the heart of a volcano, before their ritual is complete and a permanent gate to Carceri is opened above Cauldron.
11	"Strike on Shatterhorn"	Christopher Perkins	Tim Fowler, Eric Kim	18–19	115	October 2004
What few Cagewrights remain must be hunted down and exterminated in their jungle retreat.
12	"Asylum"	Christopher Perkins	Attila Adorjany, Jeff Carlisle, Eric Kim	19–20	116	November 2004
When the twisted mind of Adimarchus, imprisoned Demon Prince of Madness, leaks into Occipitus and begins resurrecting his followers, the heroes realize they must go to the otherworldly asylum of Skullrot where Adimarchus is imprisoned and destroy him utterly.

During the course of the adventure, the city is nearly destroyed by an eruption of the volcano under it, which is triggered by magical forces. Shattered, but still inhabited, the city of Cauldron still exists at the end of the adventure.

Awards

The expanded hardcover edition of the Shackled City Adventure Path won three ENnie awards at the 2006 Gen Con game fair, taking home the gold award for "Best Adventure" and "Best Campaign Setting/Supplement", as well as the silver award for "Best Cartography".

References

• Decker, Jesse, James Jacobs, Tito Leati, David Noonan, Christopher Perkins, and Chris Thomasson. The Shackled City (Paizo Publishing, 2005).