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Sir Luther Cromwell
Learned Scribe
Canada
158 Posts |
 Posted - 02 Sep 2005 : 18:23:30
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Fellow sages,
I was wondering if I could get some opinions/ideas for this next campaign I'm planning on doing called 'The Masque of the Law Giver'. A Masque, is when one of the Dark powers of the world Ravenloft is shunned by the other Dark powers, and attempts to gain his own footing in another world. In this case, its Faerun. This campaign also plays under the assumption that Dieties in the realm of dread are simply representatives of the Dark powers. What I'm going for is a very "perserve the world from an evil empire' type of feel: that the players must attempt to save Faerun from turning into something that it is not, to perserve the realms for what it is. The following in an intro, stating some of the politcal occurances that had to where the campaign starts. Tell me if you like it, if its sacraledge to hold a masque in faerun, if somethings just down right 'wouldn't happen', or if I'm nuts and a saddist for making faerun a darker place.
Adventure: The Red Coast
"Torm is dead, and Tethyr is at war"
The year is 1392 by Dale reckoning, The Year of Black Swords
It makes ten years that Amn, in all of its past riches and fame, declared war on the Nation of Tethyr over the city Riatavin. Amnish abassadors would tell other nations that the conflict began with a quick skirmish to reclaim a city that was of great financial aid to Amn's mercantile power. And yet, those same abassadors have no answers for why the Amnish forces continued past Riatavin, and continued to pillage Tethyrian farms and towns. Nor to the have any answers for why the shadow thieves have no comment on the war. It has been named 'the headless war', for its purpose has long ago finished, and yet still Amn men insisted on conquering Tethyr.
One by one, Tethyr's royalty was assasinated. King Haedrak III was the first to fall, from a shot made in public while riding on his steed. Ever since, Queen Zaranda has gone into hiding and grief, and a great veil had been laid upon the public whether their promising monarch is even still alive. Slowly, but surely, Amn pushed its forces against the Tethyrians, and fed a great void of power that relished in their courts. Tethyr seemed done for.
And yet, hope prevailed for the Tethyrians. As if a great celestial had been waiting all this time. Queen Zaranda returned, and with a great hoast with her. On what looked as if it was Darromar, Tethyr's captial's last hour, a great wave of paladins and war clergy swept through the Amnish forces. Somehow, Zaranda had united together the knights of Helm and the knights of Torm, and used their religious zeal against their northern enemies. No longer was it a war of financial convienience for Amnish Merchants, but a war of religious independence for Tethyr. They reclaimed the conquered sections of Darromar, the wasted farms, and Riatavin, and soon looked demonstrate to Amn that treachory is paid for only with vengence.
Soon enough, Amn lost its power. Due to the turn of tide in the war, Amn's merchants forsaw that Tethyr would indeed attack Amn, and thus deny it from its economic boons. No more would businesses flock to Amn, but away from it. The Tethyrians were in Athkatla within months.
And somehow, in all of this, there was no word of the fabled shadows theives of Amn. Many predict that it they either fall under Tethyrian swords, or simply fled Amn along with its Mercants. No one trully knows.
Tethyr wished not to obtain even more land, the Queen along with her noble paladins felt that the people of Amn had already learned their hard, long lesson. The knights of Helm and Torm began to evacuate Athkatla, and soon all other Amnish conquered cities. Amn would remain with the sobered, wisened Amnish.
And yet, the tides turned again; this time from the east. Queen Zaranda's scouts reported a "Red Armada' of ships flying in from the Lake of Steam. When the Queen's army went to meet them, the entire army was swept with misbelief. The ships were from Thay.
Quickly the two forces engaged, and those final three years out of the ten total came to be known as 'The Dead Years'. The red wizards of Thay pushed the knights back into their own territory, and soon their forces began to deplete.
Szass Tam, looking over the war, had made a very devious assumption.
"No matter how hard we hit the Tethyrians, no matter how many soldiers we may kill, we will never trully conquer this land by physical power alone, but for its pious citizens. Tethyr's armies, as well as Tethyr's religion, must die."
And so Tam's campaign against the church of Torm began. He ordered his Wizard army to burn its temples at every chance, even if doing so meant a tactical disadvantae for his troops. This angered Torm greatly, and more and more Torm felt the urge to smite the Red armies before his beloved Tethyr.
The disappearance of the Shadow Thieves, the brash attack from Amn, the coming of the Red Wizards, all of these things were of great contradiction with what Faerun's people thought about its world. But these oddities were nothing, compared to what was bound to come.
One night, just several months before the present day, a great desecration occured in the Borderline States. An entire area of undead and fiends rised from a section close to the Lake of steam. When this happened, a great roar from the heavens was heard. In truth, whatever force responsible had desecrated Torm's old kingdom of Calsembyr, the nation he defended with his life as a mortal. Torm knew that only a God was capable of making such a twisted mockery of his previous home. Torm, in all of his rage, assumed that it was Bane, seeking vegence for killing him in the Time of Troubles. He came upon the earth, and challenged to the death whoever destroyed his old kingdom.
A god stood before Torm, his mighty whip ready. Torm charged, but found that his blows could not harm this vile diety before him. With one crack of its whip, however, Torm was utterly destroyed. This mytersious, new diety then took Torm's Portfolios, and made his way back into the heavens. Uneducated thugs in the streets called out to this diety as 'Bane', however sages now know that whatever this diety may be, it is not Bane.
Recently, a new faith has been attempting to recieve Torm's old followers. A patron known only as 'The Law Giver' claims that it is Torm's rightful heir, and will bring justice to the people of Tethyr (RL players, it's ok to soil your stockings now).
Now stands what is left of Tethyr. You (the players) are members of the remaining Tethyrian army, and now you stand to defend Darromar's last standing cathedral to Torm from the Thayans and their conjured armies. On this sad day, during the year Black swords, as you wait for the Thayan horde to march upon the keep, there are several questions that bounce within the crowd.
What was Amn's true purpose for attacking Tethyr? What happened to the shadow thieves? Why would the Red Wizards attack as they did? What are to happen to Torm's worshippers, now that Torm is dead? Who was that diety that struck him down? Why would this diety be helping the wizards of Thay? What might this new 'Law Giver' diety have to do with anything? Is there any hope for Tethyr?
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Adventure Idea: The Masque of the Law Giver (long)
