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KnightErrantJR
Great Reader
USA
5402 Posts |
 Posted - 31 May 2005 : 03:15:44
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Well, my PCs have reached mid level and dispite some setbacks in the real world with having to replace players and reschedule times, I am about ready to unleash the first major multi part epic on them.
Before this, the PCs have run into House Jaelre patrols and kidnappers, traveled to Glen in Mistledale and fought Duergar, and more fearfully, rust monsters (!), and have scavened a gnome adventurer's house for his deed while fighting off the kobolds that had taken the place over and turned it into trap haven.
The biggest thing they have done up to now is a relatively short, but momentous, adventure where a Chronomancer from my "Forbidden Enclave" group of villains sent them back before Myth Drannor was founded to plant an artifact that would aid the defenders against the Army of Darkness. Thankfully they were smart enough not to rewrite history, and were put in statis for a few centuries until they were revived shortly after they went on the mission for the Chronomancer.
Now they are going to start exploring the Barrow Fields in Mistledale, and this is going to lead them to discover a key in the Netherese ruins that the Shadovar want.
If all goes the way it should, they will unwittingly open up a gate to a hidden trove of Netherese artifacts and have to try to catch up with the shade that tricked them, then destroy them.
Over the course of this I want them to run into a blue dragon whose children serve under Malagrys and want the PCs to bribe them away from the Shadovar. I am hoping to time this with the upswing in violence in dragons leading into the Rage, and the mother wishes to find her children and bring them to safety before the Rage fully effects them all.
I am also planning on having them run into a Shadow Dragon Dracolich double agent working both with the Cult of the Dragon and the Shadovar.
Still, the begining of this will be a series of dungeon crawls leading them from tomb to tomb in the Barrow Fields. Their first challenge will be to remove the curse on the items they find, and to fight what appears at first to be a simple Shadovar Necromancer scout.
If anyone has any good ideas to throw into the mix, I would greatly appreciate it!
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KnightErrantJR
Great Reader
USA
5402 Posts |
Posted - 04 Jun 2005 : 03:24:56
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Hm . . . No one seems to want to bite.
I am of course getting ahead of myself in the planning phases, as my fellow scribes have me all excited about my "Lost Orc City" campaign that I am likely to do next. Since my players are about to walk headlong into this one though, I need to ratchet back and focus.
I am planning on having a spectral mage, the spirit of a Netherese wizard, warn the PCs of the Shadovar scouts in the Barrow Fields. After the PCs defeat the Shadovar, or drive them off, the spectral mage is going to turn on them, since he only wanted to kill off one side or the other so that the survivors would be weakened and easier to kill. He still has dreams of mastering the magic in the tombs and binding the shadows and wraiths to his will.
I want the PCs to find out that the curse on the magic items from the Barrow Fields can actually be reversed by a spellcaster of Netherese blood. I want to plant some clues that a cleric of Selune in the Dale lands might be decended from the Netherese, thus giving them somewhere to look while still occaisionally being plagued by the shadow attacks that follow the magic items they find (assuming that they try to use or carry any out of the tombs that is).
I am thinking of having them find a talking skull, the remnants of a Netherese refugee that was trapped in one of the barrows. His memory is deteriorated, but he as answer "conveinient" questions. (Of course, I feel guilty about using this plot device since I have been playing Planescape: Torment lately, but hey . . . he won't fly or be able to attack, and who says you can't cannibalize other people's great ideas in your home campaign!)
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The Sage
Procrastinator Most High
Australia
31774 Posts |
Posted - 04 Jun 2005 : 03:48:52
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quote:
Originally posted by KnightErrantJR
I am thinking of having them find a talking skull, the remnants of a Netherese refugee that was trapped in one of the barrows. His memory is deteriorated, but he as answer "conveinient" questions. (Of course, I feel guilty about using this plot device since I have been playing Planescape: Torment lately, but hey . . . he won't fly or be able to attack, and who says you can't cannibalize other people's great ideas in your home campaign!)
Just so long as there isn't a mimir named Morte in your campaign, then you should be fine  .
I am curious about your usage of the Chronomancer though. Are you using the 3e interpretation, or the support material from the wonderful 2e Chronomancer tome?
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KnightErrantJR
Great Reader
USA
5402 Posts |
Posted - 04 Jun 2005 : 16:39:54
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| Well, since we are running a 3.5 game, I really didn't have time to convert matters from 2e to 3.5. I used the much stripped down version of the Chronomancer that appears in the AEG d20 Sourcebook called Magic. |
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KnightErrantJR
Great Reader
USA
5402 Posts |
Posted - 12 Jun 2005 : 16:16:11
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Okay, in the first phase of this the players are going to find a key to . . . something, and if they find the talking skull he will explain that they will have a problem with shadows if someone of Netherese blood doesn't remove the curse.
The local knowlageables, I am leaning toward Jhaer Brightsong here, will tell them that a cleric of Mystra in Harrowdale may be decended from Netherese blood. When the PCs get there, they will find out that the cleric does not have enough bloodline to remove the curse, but can get ahold of someone that can.
At this point the cleric will transport them to a Halruaan skyship captain. On the deck of his ship they will negotiate the removal of the curse, and if they have the key by then, he will explain to them that it is a key to some ancient Netherese strongholds. He will also be willing to part with a charm that will let them use the Netherese items without the shadow curse.
Upon returning home, a shade and a blue dragon will accost them and ask them to give up the key, and then the shade will leave the blue dragon will bargain with them to bribe her two hatchlings to leave the service of Malagrys and the Shades and travel south with her. She has had visions of ruin coming to the Blues that serve the Shades, as well as nightmares of blood rages starting in the north and spreading over the whole continent. |
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Diving into a new Shadovar campaign
