| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| newbiedm |
Posted - 07 Mar 2015 : 17:15:20
Greetings and well met. This may be my first post here, perhaps I posted once or twice before, honestly I'm not sure...
I wanted to run my campaign idea by you folks, who are far more knowledgeable in Realms lore than I'll ever be... I am playing a 5e game, but using my 2e Realms materials, including the boxed set. The game is set in 1368DR.
I have a half elf rogue who worships Oghma, a Dragonborn Paladin, a Tiefling cleric of Lathander and a human warrior from Damara. Seeing as how a Dragonborn in 1368 Faerun would be... Odd... I thought I'd have a bit of fun...
I started the campaign with the assumption that the Dragonborn made his way to 1368 Faerun after some wild magic sparked during the Sundering tossed him through a time portal that magically opened up, an accident. He found himself a stranger in a somewhat familiar land. He traveled to Shadowdale, hoping to find the famous Sage of Shadowdale who could perhaps help him with this temporal troubles... There he hooked up with the other folks and took a job clearing out the tunnels under the tower of Ashaba (adventure in the Shadowdale book in the boxed set) before he could find Elminster. After clearing out the tower, the sage came looking for him. Elminster knew of Dragonborns, and that he came from the twin world of Abeir... He asked how he csme to Faerun, and the Dragonborn explained (what he knew at least) of the Faerun he knew in the future, including the spellplague... His knowledge was limited, but it was enough info to make Elminster cautious, as he knew this involved Mystra.
He sent the party on a mini quest to recover a tome a wizard named Elzid had in his possession (i ran an adventure called A Wizard's Fate, written by Christopher Perkins, from an old Dungeon mag) and use it to enter Candlekeep. There, they were to try and learn if Alaundo had written any prophecies about the Spellplague, Mystra, etc...
So this is where I am right now... And here's where I'm thinking of going...
In Candlekeep, a prophecy for 1385 will be blank... Meaning the future is in flux... Something is definitely happening, but what? The spellplague? The pc's preventing it?
The monks will be apprehensive about helping the party, because changing the future means "destroying whatever knowledge exists in that future", a future that has existed in some form, since the Dragonborn is here "in flesh and blood". Basically in their eyes all knowledge, no matter from where or when it comes from, needs to be preserved. "We'd be helping destroy knowledge held in the Candlekeep of your future, and we cannot do that."
The only way they'd do it is if the party finds Alaundo's severed head, possibly held by the illithids in Oryndoll, and spoken about here:
http://forum.candlekeep.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=4739
Here's lore on the skull: http://imgur.com/Wrw2H0q
Te monks would want that artifact back, and believe the full prophecy could come to light via Alaundo's head and powerful speak with dead magic... While they are doing that, Elminster is off screen doing his own thing... Research, whatever, out of the pc's way...
The end goal will be to destroy Cyric before he kills Mystra, either in his plane of Limbo or as a human further back in time.
I have a lot of gaps to fill in, sure, but that is the general outline. Can I have some thoughts, ideas or suggestions? Keep in mind I am not too familiar with Pantheons, or events from fiction, I've never read a FR novel...
Thanks for the help!
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| 3 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 10 Mar 2015 : 14:57:04
There were some prior hints in Realmslore about the Spellplague, though it was more of a "potential bad thing in the future" than what it became. From Ed, via Krash:
quote:
Originally posted by George Krashos
Well here's the low down on the "spellplague" before it even was the "spellplague" from Ed himself. Given that the 100 year jump and the Abeir returning thingies are now in the public domain, this post isn't spoiling anything and I thought that the wider forum community might appreciate the insight.
There are actually THREE references, all of which will really only be understandable "after the fact." One of them is the "Smashed the black star" curiosity that several scribes have been so fascinated by, and another is a CYCLOPEDIA heading (yes, just the heading). [Ed was referring to the "Abeir-Toril" heading]
The third, "main" reference is on page 40 of the DM'S SOURCEBOOK, referring to Mellomir's claim of finding an "ancient" and "magical" treasure in the vicinity of the Haunted Halls. The dwarves vanishing over the years were fleeing the Realms through gates (portals, linking to other worlds / alternate Prime Material Planes) that are not in the Haunted Halls, but can be reached through the Halls (I think the maps I gave you at GenCon included the "Whisper's Crypt" level, yes?). The dwarves were departing to avoid the coming Spellplague, and the monsters and adventurers vanishing into and emerging from the Halls were also using the gates.
The original text of this entry had Mellomir referring to an unspecified "message of fire."
The original turnover of FR1 THE HAUNTED HALLS OF EVENINGSTAR included a magical "message" formed by flames dancing in midair that briefly appeared to anyone entering the many-pillared room of Encounter 31, that said this: "A great storm of magic is coming, that will twist or maim many. Beware the Black Star." It was edited out because the TSR designers of the day thought it too substantial to print without providing something of an explanation (that there was no wordcount left in the module to provide, and that would open a can of worms they wanted to avoid). This same message appears in front of the gates used the dwarves, monsters, and adventurers, whenever they are approached from the "Realms" side.
So there you have it. Too mangled and chopped-down for anyone studying the Old Grey Box to recognize without this explanation. Sorry. I DID warn everyone it would be nigh-impossible to spot, beforehand.
By the way, there's something else in FR0 tied to this: Sabirine's Specular. A Spell Engine provides a tiny "shelter" from Spellplague effects around itself, and Sabirine chose to die rather than embrace lichdom because she didn't want to endure years of undeath only to be swept away in the Spellplague, or twisted and maimed and left in a world ravaged by the Spellplague.
The Spellplague term isn't mine (I called it "the Doom," or "the Coming of the Black Star" or "THE Spellstorm"), and I always intended this to be a mythical always-in-the-future bogey-tale.
There you have it.
-- George Krashos
The referenced Black Star bit, from pages 36-7 of The DM's Sourcebook of the Realms in the legendary Old Grey Box:
quote:
Marchayn of Archendale, the feared "Mad Witch" of the Tunder Peaks has been found in het citadel, mindless and drooling, amidst chaos. All about her lay the dead bodies of the orcs (and worse) that served her, and much of her tower is now a fire-blackened shell. The herdsman who found her reported to merchants of Arabel that Marchayn (who soon died and whose body was burned by the herdsman) repeated endlessly "Dove! Dove! Smashed the Black Star... Dove!"
Interestingly, that blurb was flagged with an asterisk, which, per the book, "will NOT ever have follow-up in the published Realms material".
Anyway, the reason I'm throwing all this out there... This Black Star has not, so far as I know, ever been described -- all we have is this blurb. But thanks to Krash, we know that Ed had some intent to connect it to the his version of the Spellplague. We don't know that connection, though; it's entirely possible Ed never came up with anything more than the references above.
Maybe Dove's destruction of the Star was part of what caused the Spellplague... So preventing the Spellplague could focus on preventing the destruction of the Black Star.
I, personally, once made the Black Star into a big star sapphire that was an ancient power key of Shar's. A power key, from Planescape lore, is basically a bit of a deity's power given physical form. It could be something else, though; I'm just tossing that out as an idea. It could be some ancient artifact from the earliest days of the Realms, it could predate the Realms, it could have some connection to the Shadevari... It could also be the key to a prison containing some fell power like an imprisoned primordial or deity, or an archfiend, or something similar.
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| newbiedm |
Posted - 10 Mar 2015 : 13:55:49
I like that. Tabra is in the north near my players. I have a bit of an outline already of how i'm going to do this... tabra was a good suggestion...thanks. |
| Eilserus |
Posted - 07 Mar 2015 : 18:54:29
If I recall, when Zhentil Keep was destroyed, Cyric was paralyzed to inaction because he lost the belief of so many worshippers at once. You could have the PC's destroy his premiere center of worship (maybe as other attacks against other temples are taking place at the same time) or some other "artifact" of power of his right as he starts his attack against Mystra (timing would be critical and probably hard to guestimate). Weakened, distracted, or handicapped in such a state, it's possible Mystra would have the edge to destroy him.
Attacking Oryndoll strikes me as flat out insane in scope. My first thoughts would be to figure out how to get my hands on a copy of Ioulaum's Longevity and cast it in the middle of their city. Perhaps the players will need to track down Ioulaum or his apprentice Tabra(? I think that's the one). Destroying Oryndoll would probably prompt a fight with the avatar of Ilsensine in the form of the city's elder brain.
Nothing spectacular, but a few ideas that may be of use to you. Please let us know how this campaign proceeds. |
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