Need Suggestions

Knightfall · Jul 5, 2007

Okay, the Shackled City Adventure Path, in my campaign, is about to conclude, and my players really want some significant downtime. [Note that the SCAP (partially) ends at the end of Thirteen Cages. The players are tired of the plot and want to try something new. And so am I.]

Anyway, one of the players sent me an e-mail and this is the groups plan...

Most players average between 165,000 and 173,000 exp and most are expecting to sink 10-18K into item creation; this will require a total of about 3 years to accomplish. Thus if you wish to preserve elements of your world timeline (since some of us will be on other planes during this time) I suggest you find a way to magically dilate time to keep things together.

So, now I have a bit of a dilemma. I need to find a way to give them the time they need without having to stall the current events of the campaign world. Plus, I don't want them to simply have 3 free years. They do deserve some significant downtime but 3 years is too much, IMO.

The main option they have is that they can do their item creation on a inner plane that I call the Plane of Twilight. I'd already decided that time spent on that plane is divided in half. So, if they spend 3 years there in isolation then only a year and a half passes on the Material Plane.

Another option that came to mind is the spell known as Genesis, which I believe is a 9th-level spell. But I'm not sure how that spell functions, other than it creates pocket demiplane on the Ethereal. Can they create their own demiplane that allows them to be "out of the main timestream?"

Temporal magic is a big deal in my cosmology, so they should have the opportunity to have some time dilation. But how much is too much?

I need opinions and any suggestions you all might have.

Cheers!

KF72

Nifft · Jul 5, 2007

The representative of a demon-prince offers them access to a delayed-time demiplane. For a price to be disclosed later.

Cheers, -- N

Aholibamah · Jul 5, 2007

Perhaps I'm missing your actual point but it seems to me that it might make sense for you to just have some downtime take place within the timeline anyway if they're actually tired of the plot. I'll check your other thread but personally I dislike adding cosmology to an existing game since that always seems to have consequences.

roguerouge · Jul 5, 2007

Can't they direct their minions to resolve side quests while they craft away? That way you can have the time line continue, they can get time off from the AP, and narrative continuity is retained. Everyone wins.

Knightfall · Jul 5, 2007

Nifft said:
The representative of a demon-prince offers them access to a delayed-time demiplane. For a price to be disclosed later.

Cheers, -- N

Heh. Heh.

Good, but not practical.

Quartz · Jul 5, 2007

How about allowing them to take the Epic feat Efficient Item Creation? 1 day per 10000 gp value for one Item Creation feat.

Knightfall · Jul 6, 2007

Quartz said:
How about allowing them to take the Epic feat Efficient Item Creation? 1 day per 10000 gp value for one Item Creation feat.

That's brilliant! Thanks for the great idea, Quartz!

Knightfall · Jul 6, 2007

Okay, here's the next thing I need. The PCs just stopped the Tree of Shackled Souls from opening the portal to Carceri. Howeve,r when they came up out of the Fiery Sanctum, I had them encounter a group of 50 soldiers and spellcasters working for the Matriarch of Mor's End.

Now, they had a deal with the Matriarch, but she never intended to keep her word. (I've decided to make her really evil in my campaign.) She had a powerful duergar psion alter the mind of one of the Order's allies. A frost giant named Shötte.

This domination effect made him completely forget who the PCs were, until the cleric cast miracle and freed his friend. They then plane shifted away to Celestia. (Note that in my campaign, magic and psionics are COMPLETELY different. Oil and water. They do not mix.) Psionics are very rare in my campaign.

Now, what I need is a 20-level duergar psion with the ability to completely dominate multiple opponents, permanently. I don't know the psionics rules as well as I'd like so I need some guidance on this one. I believe the best discipline to use in this case would be the Telepath concept, but I'm not sure. Plus, any prestige class suggestions would be good too.

39 of the soldiers are humans (75%) and half-duergars (25%) that will basically be Purple Dragon Knights, as per the FRCS, but completely EVIL. 4 of the spellcasters are warmages, and the other 6 are clerics of war. The PDKs should all be, at least, 15th-level. The warmages and clerics should be anywhere from 10th to 15th-level, but I'm thinking one of the clerics should be 20th-level.

Anyway, opinions and suggestions definitely needed!

Cheers!

KF72

Knightfall · Jul 8, 2007

Bump?

Knightfall · Jul 10, 2007

roguerouge said:
Can't they direct their minions to resolve side quests while they craft away? That way you can have the time line continue, they can get time off from the AP, and narrative continuity is retained. Everyone wins.

That's an idea, although they don't really have any minions. Only one of them has chosen to take the Leadership feat, and he only has a cohort. His followers are few, but that might be something to flesh out more, so they can help with some of the plot lines.

They do have many allies, but those allies have their own issues to deal with, and aren't at the beck and call of the PCs. The AP is basically over, but some of the other Cagewrights might pop up from time to time. Adimarchus is going to take what they've done very personally, if he gains his freedom from Asylum.

We've managed to pare down the downtime to 1.5 years, through the use of special locales on the Planes and some divine intervention. I'm going to try to get that down under 1 year, but that might be pushing it.