| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| LordArcana |
Posted - 04 Dec 2007 : 16:53:35
I am just curious to get a little feedback on my new friday night forgotten realms campaign. I am starting all characters off at 2nd level gestalt for two reasons (1) there are only going to be three starting players and (2) i want the pc's to be larger than life. I want them to be the stuff of legends [yet to be developed]. Also i am going back in time a bit and starting off in 1363 DR for reasons that will become apparent.
Book of Darkness
*Prelude*
The pc's begin in the hire of Argnos McFergus of Loudwater, an independent merchant and trader trying to start large scale business like Auroa. He has hired the groups to escort two wagons of goods from loudwater to Llorkh making a few stops along the way to drop off and pick up some goods. This takes place in early Tarsakh so its still possible to run into cold weather, infact i intend the first tenday of their journey to be below average cold requiring cold weather gear.
Along the way i have a few planned encounters that are more to get the group in sync playing style and to introduce a few house rules.
Along the way the group has a "hopefully" non-combat encounter with a mysterious hooded figure on an ancient looking wagon that passes by their group late night and disappears into the mist.
Skip ahead, everything goes as planned and the PC's make it to Llorkh.
Book of Darkness
*Days turned Dark*
After arriving at Llorkh and delivering the goods as promised the group is soon approached by an aged patron of an old native house. The man (name undetermined) has history in the area as aiding the dwarves leave when the zhentarim arrived. He recently discovered an odd tunnel in his wine cellar and asks the pc's to explore it. He is affraid if the zhents find out about it, they will take his house and kill him as they will obviously be more concerned with finding new powerful magics.
The group heads down into the darkness of the tunnel to discover it leads into a trapped series of rooms that become a crypt. Through the process of "exploring" they learn a little about local history (100+ years ago) and pick up a few cool magic items too.
When its time to depart the find the way they came in is closed and nearly impossible to breakdown. If they try to muscle their way through, providing the have hammers and not just swords) it will take almost a day to burst the massive stone doors. Otherwise they can find a secret passage out or wait three days until the dwarven built locking mechanism unlocks.
Book of Darkness
*Trio of Tanarukks*
By this time i expect the group to have leveled to 3rd. When they emerge from the extensive dungeon crawl they discover they are in the middle of a wicked electrical storm (odd for the season and location). During the storm they are heading back to their rooms or some part of town when they hear the sounds of battle over the thunder. They happen to see a patrol of six zhent soldiers being attacked by a stout bulky figure with glowing red eyes and a heinous looking axe (long axe from Complete Adventurer). The Tanarukk, after defeating the zhents, challenges the group after talking in a supreme demonic voice...almost like three voices at once. [the prelude to fighting is descriptive making the group really wonder what in the world...or another world they are fighting.]
If the fight goes too easy another Tanarukk can join in, but alteast one of the three that scout out Llorkh has to get away after causeing lots of damage.
In the morning after the rest of the Zhent soldiers discover the dead bodies and on some of them are holy symbols of bane. The local church of Cyric goes nuts at the blasphemy and orders the town locked down bringing about...
Book of Darkness
*Bane Death*
For the next ten days the group is stuck in Llorkh unless they try to escape. The Zhentarim ransack the town looking for the Baneites and this is the first place where i stop steering the group. They have to decide here if they want to:
(1) stay and wait it out
(2) help the zhents
(3) help the baneites
(4) help the dwarves use this confusing time to escape
(5) save the merchants and independent folk from the might of the zhent's and the advantage they are taking of them.
(6) use this time to research other options
Future Plans
A big part of this year is the fight at Daggerford and the Hordes of Dragonspear. This i plan on later in the year as i have a few months to grind through first.
I created an idea a few years ago about a powerful necromancer that is broken free from stasis to exact his revenge. He uses powerful magics long lost and ritual magic to create an army of Wraith-Beings imagine orcs, trolls, ogres, orogs and even an adult green dragon turned into wraiths. I called it "The Wraith Wars" and i initially planned it for 1364 Year of the Wave {Wave of the Wraith Army}.
After breaking out of stasis the necromancer soon fell under the sway of Velsharoon and his personal dislike of cyric leads him to bend his new necromancer follower to start his army in the graypeaks near the weathercote woods (turning the green dragon) and follows the black road to Llorkh and stomping it. From there the army could go anywhere...west to Orlbar and Loudwater...North to Silverymoon after crossing Hellgate and Myth Glaurach...south across the Highmoor.
So, what do you think so far? Any questions...advice...suggestions? |
| 1 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Darkmeer |
Posted - 08 Dec 2007 : 03:13:17
Okay, good start, and a nice outline. I hope you've written the house rules out for your players beforehand, as they'll be suspect if there's anything that might be considered strange in the house rules.
The gestalt rules have always irked me. I'm not terribly fond of them, although a Gestalt character can fit in, it's just harder to do so. Good luck with them.
As far as the "caravan duty," it's fairly standard low-level traveling type adventuring. Makes sense in society, and give you a chance to feel out how the campaign will feel. The ancient wagon figure will be nice to be ominous, and just let it pass. Something like "a heavily cloake man in an impossibly old, rickety, covered wagon passes you midday on day x of the trip." The man can haunt them later... and they'll do the Spider-Man "I shoulda taken care of him earlier" type reaction when they realize he's an evil... so and so.
The Zhentarim in the town... nice. Perhaps allow for the PC's to set up a resistance? I know that may not be in the final outline, but many players like the idea of beating the Zhents at their own game.
As to the "Banite vs. Cyricists" choosing between the lesser of two evils... Nice touch. I think the group may take the resistance outline, or they could escape with the dwarves (more likely, depending on the Zhent leader). I don't know where they will go from here, and good luck to you.
Recommendations: Figure out a central "villain" to let them see, but not challenge. I believe that this will encourage them further. The army of undead/wraiths could be interesting, especially if Xvim uses it, that'll throw the players off a bit. Also, who will the PC's allies be? That needs to be relatively clear, even if one of them betrays them at a later date.
I know, stream of consciousness, but I hope it helps.
/d |
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