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Quale
Master of Realmslore
1757 Posts |
 Posted - 05 May 2010 : 13:39:54
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quote:
Originally posted by Jorkens
For me the very idea of Cugel the Clever ever setting his feet in the Realms is a scary one. Although it is a book I would love to read.
I've seen somewhere he was a model for the D&D thief, guess there should be many such types in the Realms. In the new anthology ''Songs of the Dying Earth'' there are two stories with him by other authors, quite good surprisingly.
quote:
Originally posted by Sill Alias
Nice scenario, Quale, but future with ilithids as the race of destiny?
 *shaking in anger*
FOUL VERMIN! JUST WAIT UNTIL THE UNITED GITHIYANKI AND GITHZERAI WILL TEAR YOU APART TO CLEAN THE LAND FROM YOUR PROGENY!
Not the illithids, their opponents, an anarchic race far evolved. That was the underlying motivation for the pcs, the image of a future of endless madness, suffering and slavery. Actually githyanki fell when they allied with Tiamat, who's related to Ilsensine in my world. Illithids and other like aboleths were enemies from the past, large parts about their domination in the Illithiad book was propaganda. Their masters in the future I imagined like clusters of thought and information in the Astral, organized into maddening, bureaucratic loops, somewhat like the AIs in the Hyperion Cantos except not technological but an echo of the Far Realm (which itself is a collective remnant of the previous, failed multiverses, shunned by the demiurge's mindfire who rises with each age like a phoenix). It has a complicated background story.
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Jorkens
Great Reader
Norway
2950 Posts |
Posted - 05 May 2010 : 16:20:15
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quote:
Originally posted by Quale
quote:
Originally posted by Jorkens
For me the very idea of Cugel the Clever ever setting his feet in the Realms is a scary one. Although it is a book I would love to read.
I've seen somewhere he was a model for the D&D thief, guess there should be many such types in the Realms. In the new anthology ''Songs of the Dying Earth'' there are two stories with him by other authors, quite good surprisingly.
There are many that might remind one, but I cant think of a single character in the Realms so charmingly despicable. I think its time to reread the stories again.
I think I saw Gygax talking about the Thief years ago (I cant remember where, but it might have been Dragonsfoot), I think he said it was part The Grey Mouser, part Jack of Shadows and part Cugel. But all of them had abilities with the sword or magic that hindered them from being a perfect match. Giants of the Earth in Dragon 26 had him as being a 14th level thief able to memorize three spells from Iucounu's notebook, with a 50% chance of them back firing. |
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Alisttair
Great Reader
Canada
3054 Posts |
Posted - 05 May 2010 : 17:20:26
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| One campaign that isn't done but we have yet to go back to, the Dwarves (PCs) are seeking to reclaim the Wailing Dwarf in Amn back to their Bronzebeard family. While doing this, they are collecting the Dagger of Ochir Naal in order to prevent a summoning of Tiamat (which multiple groups are seeking to do for their own purposes). |
Karsite Arcanar (Most Holy Servant of Karsus)
Anauria - Survivor State of Netheril as penned by me:
http://www.dmsguild.com/m/product/172023 |
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Mr_Miscellany
Senior Scribe
545 Posts |
Posted - 08 May 2010 : 20:11:57
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| One of the concurrent campaign arcs I ran was a quest for a Holy Avenger. This blade was secretly corrupted by Orcus and guaranteed to make a Paladin fall from grace. Then the campaign shifted to the character seeking penance through Aumanator and regaining his Paladinhood by finding the true Holy Avenger in the Bastion of Unborn souls and rekindling Aumanator's faith in the Realms. Lots of bad guy slaying in that campaign arc. |
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glitter
Acolyte
France
45 Posts |
Posted - 13 Jul 2011 : 10:46:16
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The starting point of my campaign (3.5 Ed) is the end of a previous campaign played for around 6 years in my club.
More or loss, a battle of gods that happened at the same time of the troubles in Seldarine, an event that destroyed so much important places that made gods ashamed of themselves, unable to defend their worshippers.
A common pact was established between them, they would forbid people to talk about their failures, the creation of Drows is the only element kept to hide the forest of events from that period.
So many mysteries, to such a scale, pushed Shar to invest a part of her divine energy to "buff" the required effect and to literally make people less interested into sharing information, cooperation so that, hiding important things is a second nature for most wizards, experts or nobles.
Why ?
Because knowledge/information are extremely important for organized civilizations and without it, they won't be able to survive with the "entropy" of Faerun.
11,109 years after that war, several events are imminent (well, within 2 years as you might have guest)
- Rage of dragons (with information from the book Dragons of Faerun)
- the curse of Leira will get active, it will be the end of creation, what has been lost is now lost. (To be honest, I'm still looking for informations made by fans about Leira since there is very few information from books, so I'm lurking a lot on such thread : http://forum.candlekeep.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=14097)
- One of the worst plague ever seen on Faerun.
Each of those three events are supposed to weakened several gods, and after those two years, the pantheon should be dominated by evil gods.
So, my players are supposed to avoid that as much as possible.
Since even gods have been influence by Shar action, only people coming from a different crystal sphere are less influence which ;eans in my campaign:
- two of my players
- Mulhorandis gods (the battle of Re versus Apophis in their original world is now to defend themselves from the dark influence of shar http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/apep.htm)
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-The black knight is invincible!
- You’re a looney. |
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Erik Scott de Bie
Forgotten Realms Author
USA
4598 Posts |
Posted - 13 Jul 2011 : 15:44:12
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Over about 7-8 years of roleplaying, my 2e FR campaign (of which I was the DM about half the time) went from wandering heroes to planeswalkers to major political movers and shakers on the Sword Coast. It was set before and after the Time of Troubles. At one point, my elf thief married the party's human wizard/fighter (they have kids), after which they settled in a small fortress near Ardeep Forest. The campaign ended with the characters retiring after the defeat of one of their oldest enemies (who attacked with a fleet of airships).
My 1479 FR campaign is very player-focused and responds primarily to what the characters want, based on their motivations, backstory, and current goals. You can read the transcript of the campaign in a series of online web-journals from one character's perspective starting here (http://community.wizards.com/zephsright/blog/2010/01/28/journal_of_an_elf_invoker_1) but basically . . .
They were at first the heroes of Loudwater until (depending on who you ask) a) they decided that town was too small for them, b) they'd accomplished all the subquests on offer, c) they got run out of town after the crazy warlock mayor framed them for burning down her mansion. (Believe whoever you will!)
They made their way to Waterdeep, where they got involved in entirely too much intrigue (including the events of my novel, Downshadow), including political machinations regarding the demi-humans of the city (particularly elves), a slavery ring operated by the Sightless (4e version of the Xanathar guild), assassinations, and the usual skullduggery. In particular, they clashed with their heroic nemesis, a drow priestess/warrior named Xara, but they finally destroyed her in her bid to seize power from the Blackstaff. Along the way, they also opened and operated a festhall called the Blushing Mermaid.
From there I ran them through the first chapter of the 4e Tomb of Horrors, which involved a trip to the Shadowfell to fight off an unknown/dark force that had infused an elven burial ground (see SPOILERS below), and they returned to find themselves high in the sky over Airspur, city of the genasi. They immediately began falling but managed to escape. They were then ushered into the queen's presence and are currently on a series of tasks to aid her (and further their own goals).
The game is *in progress*, so I can't predict exactly what will happen. The overarching plot concepts . . .
SPOILERS for my 4e FR Campaign (my players should look away now):
One of the characters is an elf invoker (kind of like a favored soul in 3e terms) of Corellon. Unbeknownst to her, she is the reincarnation of Eilistraee (when Corellon calls her "my daughter," he's not joking), who is destined to bring the Dark Maiden back to the Realms. Her BBEG is a drow who happens to be the reincarnation of Vhaeraun, who has spent most of the game "training her up" by throwing minions and would-be foes at her; his plan is to make her powerful enough that they can team up and take their revenge on Lolth. This is further complicated by the elf's will-the/won't-they romance with a badass drow assassin who keeps following them around, claiming not to know why he's doing it. Drama ensues. 
The half-elf rogue/ardent (kind of like a psionic cleric) is the son of one of my novel characters (who is very powerful and very morally ambiguous). He's very focused on love/romance and is currently and unintentionally founding a cult following in his wake. His destiny is to pursue some truly epic romances (with powerful gods, for instance) and become either THE god of love or an exarch in service to Sune (in which case he'd pal around with Sharess and they'd get up to some wild shenanigans).
The genasi warlord's parents were members of an all-genasi adventuring group called the Elemental Anarchs, and he is the result of a sort of breeding program to produce the ultimate genasi hero to destroy primordials. He isn't fully aware of that destiny, nor does he know that his BBEG is a treacherous member of the Anarchs, who slew the others and wants to control him to his own ends. Our hero is currently questing for justice (he hates slavers in particular) and sort of pursuing a romance with the queen of Akanul, Arathane. Also at issue also is his adopted sister/love interest, a firesoul genasi who is Arathane's closest bodyguard/confidante. (Those crazy genasi!)
The dragonborn sorcerer (kind of a half-dragon, in pre-4e terms) is walking the fine line between both sides of his nature, guided mostly by his powerful sorcery. He and the elf in the group have also made use of a Nether Scroll, which has heightened their powers considerably. The sorcerer has a "cute" romance with Jhalanvaloss (yes, that one!) from his days in Waterdeep, but his heart truly belongs to a dragonborn woman from his sister tribe, who he's not seen in many years. I'm sure she won't reappear later in the campaign (mwahaha!). Also, while fighting in Blackstaff Tower, the Blackstaff appears to have "chosen" him as an heir to its power. He now wields a "lesser blackstaff" in combat.
The last member of the group is a dwarf battlemind (kind of a psychic warrior) whose past and motivations are very mysterious. His father summoned a devil to infuse him with great power, but something went wrong . . . you know how it goes.
Also, the ultimate villain of the Tomb of Horrors in this campaign? Not Acererak, but instead LARLOCH, who is drawing the souls of those killed in the Tomb in order to breach Shar's blockage of a new god of magic and ascend to divinity to take Mystra's place. Will he succeed? Should he? Dun dun DUN!!!
END SPOILERS
Cheers |
Erik Scott de Bie
'Tis easier to destroy than to create.
Author of a number of Realms novels (GHOSTWALKER, DEPTHS OF MADNESS, and the SHADOWBANE series), contributor to the NEVERWINTER CAMPAIGN GUIDE and SHADOWFELL: GLOOMWROUGHT AND BEYOND, Twitch DM of the Dungeon Scrawlers, currently playing "The Westgate Irregulars" |
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MisterX
Learned Scribe
Germany
118 Posts |
Posted - 15 Jul 2011 : 15:07:59
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The campaign of mine that lasted the longest, started the players having three (or was it five? I think I ruled "five") character levels and ended about 15 or sixteen (since I moved away). I started the campaign with meeting their first "boss-npc", some red wizard from thay (he was meant to be level 8 or sth) who insulted them badly and sent them magically to the elemental plane of air. Actually, it was a Genius who kinda pulled them, since he thought them to be minions of that particular red wizard (who once tried to enslave the genius, so it hunted him). After defeating two Belkers (some monsters basically out of evil smoke…), the PCs convinced the Genius not to serve the wizard and proposed to hunt him down for the Genius (in exchange for a wish, granted after bringing the wizard to justice, iirc) – I even didn't have to force them!
So they were sent back to the material plane and chased the wizard to a nearby sembian city where he ran a magic shop. To get some gear and experience, they adventured for about ten levels, because they were afraid of the mighty red wizard. They only tried to kill him once, but "they" means "just the fighter-character" here, who was just blown out of the house by my BigBadEvilGuy. After that, they were always talking about taking him out but never did anything further to achieve this goal… |
I've lost track of recent realmslore, since my campaigns are still in the 1370ies. :-)
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When talking about rules (and related stuff) I always refer to 3.5e unless explicitly noted. |
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Suru
Acolyte
7 Posts |
Posted - 15 Aug 2011 : 22:28:05
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*Setting*
My last Campaign I call the "Snow Globe". Basically my campaign is set inside a snow globe sitting on Karsus' desks in a buried ruin. The party of course do not know this. Basically the snow globe contains a solar system of 7 worlds, and a sun which in reality is a piece of Karsus' soul. All the worlds are really essences of high magic contained within a sphere. The reason I did this, is because I run two campaign settings, and in the second setting on Faerun, the PCs are actually on a quest to recover this artifact. I plan to open travel between this realm and Faerun through use of this artifact, which has been my design from the start. The snow globe is called "Honne", and it contains the entire pocket plane I was referring to inside. Complete with their own Pantheon, although their gods are not true divinities, rather very powerful beings born of high magic. The races of these worlds were recreated by the high magic beings after digging for knowledge inside Karsus' soul. The worlds consistently experience wild magic, but they call them "Seasons" knowing that magic works in a certain way in certain cycles. Time works approximately 10 times faster then Faerun inside the globe (actually the time difference varies by pocket plane month and wild magic affect).
Anyways 100 years ago Faerun time, and 1000 years ago globe time, a Red Wizard by the name of Daedrum Rhym found the globe and activated it. He was sucked inside, along with a group of harpers who were trying to stop him. When they arrived Daedrum called forth the high magic he had came for to smite the harpers. Unfortunately for him, when he called forth the magic, what he got was the living high magic that now was embodied in the form of the gods of this realm. A battle erupted across the planet at which he arrived as he used his high magic to battle the gods, literally channeling their own power against them. Eventually he was defeated, and banished by the gods to the firey planet of Valas, and the world where this battle took place (Varilith) began to rebuild for a thousand years.
*Plot*
Well the party's story begins, with them being purchased as slaves by "The Scarlet Rose". The worlds most famous adventuring rogue. He spends a few years telling them stories and teaching them the tricks of his trade. He always treated them well like they were his children. One day, he is found dead, apparently of old age, and he leaves the party their freedom, and a deed to an old mountain fortress on a nearby mountain. As they party had nothing else to their name, them being slaves and all they headed up to the fortress, which is on the outskirts of a small mining village called Marshall's Peak. They get to know the towns folk, including a strangely powerful mute Marshall, who tell them tales of their cursed fortress. The Scarlet Rose, and companions had once descended into the fortress seeking the knowledge of the gods to use godly magic to return to their ancestor's homeland to tell the tale of what happened to them. They all bore strange pins they claimed were heirlooms. So the party intrigued begins exploring the fortress, which is filled with traps and danger of all sorts. Whoever or whatever was hidden inside was well protected. Eventually the party clears out the first half dozen floors of the fortress, and begins to sell off artifacts found within, but deem it best to not venture too far down into the lower levels after running into Demonic guardians. So with their new found wealth from their fortress expedition, they travel the world, and start to discover a intriguing web of deceit going on within most of the nations. War is going to erupt soon among the many nations, most of whom deplore wizardry against the Wizard nation of Eshtara. (Wizardry is frowned upon, while natural magic/sorcerers are viewed as divinely gifted from the gods) Well being the shady characters that they are, one member of the party finds work actively spying for Eshtara as they travel the world (unknown to the other party members). Well their adventurers go on for a while, they eventually become quite wealthy and famous, and even marry, and have children (we played like 30 sessions of this campaign so far). Well the war eventually breaks out, and on the eve of the first major engagement the party coincidently breaks a seal left on Marshall's Point to keep the evil within the fortress sealed. They never took the time to learn that Daedrum had been summoned there by the Scarlet Rose and friends in the past, so they could question him about the use of high magic so they could travel to Faerun. (I hinted at it, gave old documents/stories and bard songs indicating it, but my party consisted of roguish Bards and a Warrior obsessed with fishing who ignored them entirely). Long story short they let him out. When they saw the sky's change color and saw the bright flashes of high magic everywhere, they decided to run. Then my party took my vast planning and let me throw it down the toilet as they decided to become hermits and live in caves out in the jungle with their family for the duration of the war rather then actually confront this great evil. (Can't blame them, its the type of characters they role played the entire time). So about now Daedrum will be returning to Faerun with Honne and the ability to use high magic. I think I might tie my two campaigns together and have catastrophic events happen within the globe whenever high magic is used by drawing its power on Faerun(to force the party out of Honne). Could be Interesting. I planned Daedrum Rhym to be Druxus Rhym's Father/Grandfather and currently the party in Faerun is post-spell plague by a decade or so. So he might seek revenge against Szass Tam for murdering his descendant or wreak havoc in some other way.
*Perspective
The reason I did this, was because all of my parties on Faerun die horribly because my PC's always attempt to engage into dealings with notable canon NPC's that they should never ever be dealing with before making a name for themselves. So I set a Forgotten realms campaign inside a pocket plane, hoping to let them reach Faerun eventually (Already somewhat powerful PCs). The setting has both a powerful artifact, and a powerful enemy with the promise of other worlds eventually. I was able to incorporate FR lore my players knew, without letting them alter or engage in it actively until much later. This left mystery within the campaign with players who mostly know all of FR's content by heart. I also wanted to establish links between other settings and forgotten realms so I can bring forth new interactions with other worlds once the concept of holding a plane inside a sphere is established within my settings. I don't like how realm space is set up in the triad and I wanted to establish an alternate method to Star Jam then space travel. I eventually want to explain that all realms are similar globes sitting on the desk of Ao, and I feel like the concept of realms within spheres still fits with existing mythos (Space being space between crystal spheres on Ao's desk). I like how I have this set up in case I ever felt like sending the party to someplace like Lodoss or another non-canon setting I could do so with the existing universe mechanics.
*Other bleh
I actually have a hundred hours or so put into this making maps, bloodline ancestry charts for PCs and notable NPC, rules for high magic, and a few modifications to how sorcerers work (Their blood is used instead of traditional spell components etc) Its actually quite a developed pocket plane now. |
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Xevo
Acolyte
USA
35 Posts |
Posted - 26 Aug 2011 : 22:56:11
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| A one on one with my wife. She played a good assassin (not unlike. Batgirl' but without the strict morals or paralysis). Big baddie was a thayan wizard able to manipulate time and space around a particular subject. PC managed to kill him but found that her silver cord was knotted with a time conduit. Days,weeks, or even years would pass before she found herself "waking up" at a cafe in Athkatla in the year 1397 DR (a cafe she was at around the middle of the adventure). Ergo, she ended the adventure stuck in a perpetual timeloop and she killed the only person who could get her out. |
The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.
-Terry Pratchett |
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What were the plots of your campaigns?
