Quantum Leap Campaign

Quantum leap campaign.


I need some help fleshing out details for a campaign that found its inspiration from the old television series Quantum Leap.
The back-story is pretty simple. At some point in the distant past there was an order of benevolent wizards who held dominion over a world. While the wizards ruled the land justly, their main concern was the acquisition of knowledge. After a time their knowledge grew to the point where they could challenge the Gods, but being benevolent gave no thought to their power. Eventually, they came to realize they had nothing else to learn in the universe. Faced with this fact the wizards began to despair. A powerful demon, banned from this plane, took notice of the wizards and began to whisper hints of a secret knowledge kept from them into their ears. Intrigued, the wizards listened to the Demon and were thus ensnared by him. Fully deceived, the wizards invited the outsider into their realm, and thus they released a terrible evil into the universe. The wizards, despite their awesome power, had no defense against the demon horde for all of their thought was put into learning, and not warfare. Slowly the Demon consumed them and their world, destroying every last vestige of life on the planet.

The tale would end there were it not for the fact that a precious few of the wizards survived the destruction of their world and fled to another. The demons, though engorged on the life force of the planet, where not satisfied with their victory but pursued the wizards to world after world, with absolute destruction following in their wake. In time the wizards found a hiding place from their adversaries, a secret place in the center of the universe known only as Nexus. Given this respite, the few remaining wizards begin to focus on a way to undo the terrible malice they have brought upon the universe

Enter the party. The players come from a world that, like the wizards, is ruled by a single government. A mighty empire has brought every free nation under its yoke, save one. This tiny, desperate nation searched frantically for a way to escape their oppressor and so were easily seduced by the empty promises of the Demon. As the campaign begins the players find themselves on the plain outside of the Imperial City, the last holdout against the demon advance, preparing to defend their emperor to the death against the horde. The first game will put the group in a vicious losing battle against the demon horde. They will see the blackness engulfing their pitiful army, and behold the terrible presence of the Demon King. At the final moment, the party will experience a blinding flash of light and will be drawn into the Void?.

The strategy of the Nexus Wizards is a simple one: confine the demon horde to one world and let them devour one another. They realize they are no match against the Demon in a direct confrontation, so instead they attempt to undermine his attempts to enter other worlds, thereby nipping the problem in the bud. They take a group of adventurers and place them in the threatened world, knowing that if the adventurers do their thing, the demons will be thwarted on that world. Fear of the Nexus being discovered prevents the Wizards from revealing themselves openly to the party, so they will at first appear as an omnipotent force controlling the groups course.

So the group will ?leap? from to world after world, enthralled by a power beyond their reckoning, saving entire populations from the demon menace. Eventually the group will discern the Nexus and will learn how to traverse the planets. They will confront the wizards who have used them and learn of their terrible past. The ultimate climax of the campaign will be confronting and hopefully defeating the mighty Demon King.

Here are some details I need help with:

1) Why are the Gods unable to deal with the threat destroying their worlds?
2) What is the nature of the Nexus and how do the wizards control the party from it?
3) What kind of demons should I use, and what would be a good candidate for the Demon King?
4) What clues could I spread out to lead the group to Nexus?
5) Anything else that you think would be helpful

The adventure will be episodic; I?ll only run it when I feel inspired or see a good pre-published adventure that fits the theme. Any advice you guys can offer will be appreciated.

Munin said:

1) Why are the Gods unable to deal with the threat destroying their worlds?

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There is nothing to say the Gods are unable to deal with it, perhaps they simply are not?
It primarily depends on what sorts of Gods you are going to use? Gods bend on balance would either intervene or are simply allowing the worlds to be taken over to account for a previous (or future) conquering of "good" forces.
So, really depends on what sorts of Gods you are going to use: published one? Home brew? If so, what are they gods of and what are their motvations?

Alternatively, if they are _truely_ unable to deal with it, then perhaps they are trapped elsewhere and all they can do is unleash some divine energy which the clerics learn to wield for spells, etc.

Why are they trapped? Perhaps when the wizards grew in knowledge trapping the gods was something that they did?
Now it can't be undone? Or perhaps the demon king (taken during the "negotiations of power" from the wizards) has the final "key" to open whatever is trapping the gods.

Munin said:

2) What is the nature of the Nexus and how do the wizards control the party from it?

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Magic. enough said. I say leave it ominous and not truely defeined. These wizards are supposed to have breeched unlimited knowledge, well, it's just some magic that they have mastered. Perhaps (if using the theory that it is they that trapped the gods) it is some mix of arcane and divine magic.

Munin said:

3) What kind of demons should I use, and what would be a good candidate for the Demon King?

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I don't know my demon creatures very well so I can't answer this. But, just as a possibility, take features/traits of several creatures and put them together into your own creature? Or, if you have access to one of the divine books (Dieties and Demigods or Faiths and Pantheons) actually give the Demon King the stats for a Divine Being but take away some aspect of the divinity since he is not actually a god (thus enforcing the idea that he is so ultimately difficult to defeat)

Munin said:

4) What clues could I spread out to lead the group to Nexus?

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In these other worlds that they visit, they should run across sages who are investigating the source of these invading demons. each of these sages have uncovered a little bit.

Also, during one of the "leaps" something happens just as they are about to leap (one of them is being zapped by magic at the exact time of the leap perhaps?) thus, that character, while leaping, gets a strange glimpse of several cloaked figures around strange orbs, etc (i.e that character actually glimpses the wizards at the nexus mid-leap - a side effect of whatever strange coincidence happened while he/she was leaping; course the rest of the group wouldn't have seen it, only that one character). This should be presented as a one-time fluke though - don't do it again no matter how much the PCs try to recreate the scenario.

Maybe sometime _much_ later, the PCs meet other NPCs that are trapped or dead (and have a journal) that are the failed experiment of previous attempts to "leap" a group. they could simply be trapped on the world (ie no more leaping) or trapped in a situation or dead (thus some events are detailed in a journal). Of course, you'll have to be careful how involved you want this test subject to have been or else he/she will be able to give way too much info the PCs.

Munin said:

5) Anything else that you think would be helpful

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I'll think about it and post if I can think of something else...

Oh, don't forget Sam did have Alea (sp?) - the evil leaper. So keep in the option for an opposing group (to be met SEVERAL adventures later, after the idea of nexus and what not has been established in the players mind)... Of course, if the Demon King's allies are doing the evil leaper group, then that means the Demon King is probably on to the wizzards in the nexus (or that "someone" is doing this) that is why i say this twist shouldn't be introduced until well after the nexus idea has been reinforced and established to the players.

Perhaps because the demons were invited into this universe by the wizards, the gods are unable to do anything about it? Maybe the demons invade with such speed that the gods find their worshippers (and thus their source of power) depleted too rapidly to put up a response?

Maybe at the start of the campaign the demons are the equivalent of gods. But as the players continue to foil their expansionist goals, they begin to run out of food (whether they eat actual food or innocent souls, it doesn't really matter.) The world they are trapped on is stripped bare and they begin to turn on one another. As the demonic horde self-destructs, their demon-kings lose worshippers, slowly losing their divinity. Of course, since they are trapped on a god-less world, no one is there to stop them.

Will clerics experience any special problems leaping about worlds? Maybe some gods get a little ticked off that other gods are sending in clerics? Perhaps the clerics can feel their god back on their home world weakening as the demons rape their world.

I am a big fan of dreams. Perhaps the party continously has dreams of strange men around orbs. Later on, they can actually remember scrambled bits of conversation between the men. Perhaps some of the wizards think they are being unfair to the party? Perhaps some of the wizards think they should expose theirselves to the party?

To make everything cooler, I always write out dream sequences and give individualized dreams to each character (or to the ones that get them at least.) Some characters can't help but talk about their dreams the next day. Some never bring them up.

I cannot stress the creepiness of the unknown. Don't let distinctions between demons and devils bother you. In fact, throw in some yugoloths (daemons in olde speak.) Throw in other monsters too. Make them slave warriors. Make them fiendish goblins, or half-fiend water elementals. Use some CoC monsters.

Maybe the demon king(s?) is a former wizard who went bad? (You could call him Voldermort ) Perhaps a classed marilith? (For some reason, I think marilith's are about the coolest monster there is. A high level ranger/foe hunter marilith would be a scary match indeed.)

The journal of another group of leapers is a great idea. The party should quckly notice the similarities (talk about weird dreams, flashes of light, waking up in strange lands ... I am sure you get the point.) Perhaps someone the party meets early in the game will come back as a leaper? (The wizards saw him and decided he would be a good leaper too.)

If the demon-king is a wizard gone bad, perhaps he still has friends within the Nexus? Maybe these bad wizards start an evil leaper party? One that goes about trying to let the demons in. Might make some good antagonists.

I was thinking the Nexus could be maybe a demiplane of some sort, but in the Prime instead of the Etheral. A floating bastion in the center of void, guarded by powerful spells. Scrying balls scattered throughout the entire complex so that the leaper teams can constantly be watched. Perhaps stock rooms and such? The Nexus really doesn't need to be THAT detailed unless the party will eventually go there. I would suggest the wizards just contact them through dreams (or perhaps mid-jump?) rather than bringing them to the Nexus itself (except for perhaps the after-campaign wrapup. Finally getting to meet the boss in person could be cool.)

Are you going to pull out new cultures? Have them warp to a world where woman are dominant over men? Or where humans were wiped out by an intelligent squirrel race long ago? High technology world? Perhaps a world conquerred by celestials, "for the good of the people living there"? Oriental adventures? Pirate hordes? Giant animal land?

Don't forget the spooky demon worshipping cult. Or the demonically possessed barbarian (he isn't raging, hes losing his humanity!)

I am pretty tired now. Hope you can use something from that.

Thanks for the tips, guys. Keep ?em coming!

I really like the idea of having an evil traveler or group of travelers pursuing the party, much like Alea from the QL series.
One thing I?d like to point out is that the demons consume every living thing on the planets they invade. Nothing remains but a barren waste; even the sea life is decimated. The demons are like locusts: they eat everything. I even plan to use flying demons that look like locusts just to drive the point home.
After the party as grown in power to the point that they can travel through the void, I?d like to have them return to their home world, if only to behold the complete, utter devastation that the demons wrought there. Maybe they appear on the same plain that they left from, except now it is desolate and barren instead of green and lush. Hiding from the blazing sun, they may spot a single plant clinging to life in the waste, proof that life will one day return.

Another important point is that the demons must be invited to a world, they cannot just come there perchance. This is the only hope of the adventurers: they must foil those who would invite the demons, or show them the folly of their path. However, from the Nexus any point in the universe can be reached, so if the demons ever discover the location of Nexus, nothing could prevent them from consuming the entire universe. This helps explain why the Wizards are so afraid to reveal themselves openly.

As far as the Gods go, I am going with the idea that the major deities have a presence on most worlds, so a cleric would still have access to spells and divine powers on the different worlds. I want to throw a lot of different cultures at them, so every time they leap they don?t know what to expect. I like the idea that the Gods are unable to fully act against the demons since they were invited into the world. And since the world is consumed so quickly, they are unable to gather their worshippers quickly enough to make a unified stand. One interesting fact we can play around with is that since the demons destroy everything, both good and evil Gods would join forces against the common threat. That could place characters in an interesting predicament. Imagine that Lawful Good paladin having to work with the shaman of Gruumsh to overcome the demons!

The party will be aware while they are leaping. They will actually see the worlds flying by as they travel. Maybe they see the Nexus while they leap, but they don?t realize it?s purpose until later. I plan to throw every conceivable setting I can at them. I want them to be totally paranoid after they leap. They may get standard fantasy, or Ravenloft, Modern, Oriental, Prehistoric, Amazonian rule, anything goes. On one leap wizards might be worshipped as Gods, on the next, killed on sight. Another neat thing I can do is give the party powerful magic items for an adventure and then take them away the next "Oh, that kind of magic does not exist on this world, it must not have survived the leap, sorry." The only real problem I had was needing a recurring villain, but I?ve got that now.