Psion's game day plots

If you are in my Trinalia campaign run in southern Maryland, SHOO! There are MAJOR spoilers hereafter and you WILL ruin several surprises for yourself.

Okay, this thread is a spin off of the thread in the general forum:

http://www.enworld.org/messageboards/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5133

Basically, my players are trying to plan an extended weekend of gaming, and I would like to plan ahead and make it special.

Right now, my campaign is at a juncture where the players have been bombarded with lots of recent events that can lead them in a number of different directions. A recent battle that did not go well for the players had the following results:

• Prince Greyhawk, the exiled elven prince that some of the PCs call leige, has been kidnapped; he teleported out of the battle, only to have the teleport intercepted by a psion with redirect teleport. Drakar (see below) was responsible for this, but ultimately the prince will end up in the hands of Lerendia, the nation that he was exiled from. The psion-autocrats of Lerendia overthrew the royal family in a bloody coup. Lerendia is allied with Drakar, and made a bargain with them to capture Prince Greyhawk while he was meeting with the King they intended to assassinate.
• King Isiana Thindara, the last righteous ruler of the Suertrea bloodline, was permanently slain. The Suertrea bloodline is said, by prophecy, to be that which will always hold sway over the Aborian people (a human culture). This bodes ill, as the only two remaining members of the Suertrea bloodline are members of the Drakarian imperial family.
• The PCs faced a beholder construct (beholder with magical construct template from BoEM applied). Little do they know at this point that this beholder construct comes from another world, one which the local culture originally came from. The people fled through a gate to the current world 1000 years ago when there was a "magical apocolyptic war" (called the Chaos War) on the old world. Two of the PCs have the keys to enter this old gate (in the form of magical tatoos, hence the keys are not transferable... well they are, but that is a long story...); a third NPC also had a key to this gate. This NPC WAS friendly to the PCs, but she got mind seeded by an evil psion and now works for Drakar, my resident opressive evil empire. They mounted expiditions to the old world to recover artifacts of the Chaos Wars. This problem will continue to mount until the players decide to do something about it, as they are the only ones that can.

Now, with the current setup, the players are forced to decide which path they will go down... this will probably be spelled out for them in a prophecy by a prophetess they have just saved.

• Continue pursuing their old nemesi, the Arcane Alliance - The party's major villain to this point has been the Arcane Alliance, a cabal of wizards bent on establishing wizards as an upper class. I want to taper off this plotline for a while as I refocus the campaign more on Drakar and their foibles. However, one of the hurdles I mentioned I might set the party up to acheive during the game weekend is the opportunity to eliminate an old nemesis. Their most hated nemesis is a female summoner named Galea, so I may have to work up a chance for them to cross paths.
• Free Prince Greyhawk - This will be priority number one for some of the players, thoug in reality the next too goals are really more important for the state of the world. I had planned on having the players set of a revolution that will will start the fall of the Autocracy in Lerendia and eventually restore Prince Greyhawk to his throne. Two of the PCs in a Bloodguard in service of Prince Greyhawk, and one of them was an orphan that did not now his parents, who remain mysterious to him. I had been thinking on making one or both of his parents a member of an order that made the ultimate sacrifice to save the Greyhawk family and maintain the fight against autocrats, but over the years, he has been slowly twisted towards evil.
• Deal with the war machines - The war machines are going to be a big problem for the PCs' homeland... and all free races, really. They will have to deal with it. This will involve them travelling back through the gate to the world that Drakar is getting these things from and stop them somehow. I am a little fuzzy on this one, and would like to leave several options open to the players. The old world is just recovering from the war that happened a thousand years ago, and the ice age it caused is slowly coming to an end.
• Find a solution to the problem triggered by the King's Death This is going to be a doozy. The king is dead; this mean in the mind of many that Drakar will win their fight... and it certainly looks that way considering the above. However, someone will suggest a solution. The previous good regent, Ariel, was rumored to have obtained immortality. However, she was last seen when she forced the avatar of Idan (Drakar's deity) through a gate and closed it behind her. Many presumed her dead. However, someone will unearth a clue that will reveal that she indeed acheive her quest for immortality, and she may yet live. If she can be found, this will give new hope to the people. The players will have to retrace the steps of her quest for immortality, and face some hazards along the way. They will eventually be drawn into my campaign's orient, and learn that she has become immortal through internal alchemy, and that after being slain, she will rise again. However, her new form will have to awaken, something that will not happen for the first 16 years or so of her new life. However, once that happens she will have all of her memory and power back. And the timing is just about right, the party will so realize that the Queen's reincarnated form is someone they already know...

Now this has loads of possibilities, and what it seems like will happen is that they will start with 2, get deflected to 3, then to 4, and then resolve 4 and work their way back down the chain.

Where they will be in a month (when this game is likely to happen) I don't know... but I'll probably have a better idea after next week. However, what I am looking for now is ideas for activities highlighted in the other thread appropriate for a major turning point game day.

Any thoughts?

I saw your post in the general forum, and thought I might share a thought about a comic relief moment.

Make an NPC insane.

If it is an enemy, the PC's get a chance to see a very frightening whacko that could be very dangerous. But it can set up several little gags that are within the situation.

If it is an ally or neutral, there can be a sub plot about helping them. Or even saving them from their own actions. But depending on the insanity it could be rather funny. That poor fellow who is convinced that the gnomes are out to get him.....

I should steal those tag lines...

What, if anything, is the relationship between the Arcane Alliance and Drakar? Perhaps Galea can be going to them, whether friend or enemy (deal with the devil) to get help against the party. Especially if the PCs have been stomping on the AA.

Re: Re: Psion's game day plots

Chimera said:

What, if anything, is the relationship between the Arcane Alliance and Drakar?

Click to expand...

They have cut a couple of deals, and basically have acted as mercenaries in order to further their own goals. In they end they probably can't trust each other; each pictures a new world order with themselves at the top. However, the arcane alliance is smaller, but has some talented individuals. This makes them great mercenaries, if relucant ones, as they would rather be pursuing their own goals.

Shooting from the hip again...

If the Arcane Alliance becomes aware of the War Machines and their potential, would they not seek out the same powerul artifacts and machines? Hey, "we" are not going to sit still while the stupid "good" guys and those Drakar b@stards get their hands on our doom, are we? No! This is an arms race, and we need to get our hands on those things too!

Perhaps if Galea shows up with more constructs, the PCs will get the idea that they should put a stop to this kind of thing.

Chimera said:

If the Arcane Alliance becomes aware of the War Machines and their potential, would they not seek out the same powerul artifacts and machines? Hey, "we" are not going to sit still while the stupid "good" guys and those Drakar b@stards get their hands on our doom, are we? No! This is an arms race, and we need to get our hands on those things too!

Click to expand...

Good point... but that sounds like a setup for an uncomfortable alliance more than a confrontation; perhaps she will try to convince the party that Drakkar must be stopped, with secret plans to snatch the goods for herself. Which is worth considering. The uncomfortable alliance with Galea would be something that the party would loathe right now...

And Galea probably knows that. She is a summoner, though. Perhaps she can send some summoned lackeys to do her dirty work, and I'll leave it to the players to figure out who is behind this.

In the past, I have already had a turncoat within the Arcane Alliance -- a spectral loremaster named Sigrid -- help the PCs because he fears that the Alliance's plot with Drakar will eventually turn against them... which is a valid concern. But he has hidden his connections with the party from the rest of the alliance, so if I use him, it has to be in the context of what the whole alliance knows he knows. However, in the back of my mind, he is the perfect go between, because in order for Drakar to pass they gate, they would have had to have defeated its Ghost-mage guardian. As a spectral loremaster, he would be the one to call on to speak with the guardian.

Anyways, thanks for the feedback! Still chewing on this one...

Okay, update time for anyone still listening and/or willing to contribute:

Last game, I gave the players their options and they followed a few other leads that pointed them in the direction of the gate to the ice age world. For more info on the ice age world I am planning, see my post on the whereabouts forum:

http://www.enworld.org/messageboards/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5498

Which is the "deal with the war machines" plot.

I may end up playing several sessions before we end up with that, but I'm still not sure when this "game day" will be, so what I am going to start doing is working up a backlist of adventure ideas so when it happens, I can be ready.

With that in mind, the activities for next week will start out with the party venturing into the ley line nexus that contains the gate. The party has a magic amulet which they (correcly) beleive contains the spirit guardian of the gate, that was trapped by Drakar to allow them to use the gate.

The party discovered last week that the third NPC is somehow under the control of Drakar by speaking to fellow prisoners that they released. She was imprisoned with the other prisoners, and was visited by a psion who used some effect on her. A week later, the guards came, let her out, and she assisted Drakar of her own accord.

When they release the spirit, he will reveal some facts about the gate. The gate was made to accomodate a lot, and Drakar this. They have already returned with some war machines, but he will allude to the fact that they are greater war machines and other artifacts still to be had. In all likelihood, when the PCs enter the gate, they will have a few objectives.

Their primary objective will probably be to neutralize the mind seeded NPC... she is the key to the whole plot.

However, even if they succeed at this, Drakar has already escaped with several war machines, and the players may think of or be nudged into finding a foil or counter to this menace by further exploration.

Drakar knows that the mind seeded elf is the key to their plan, so they guard her well. That said, this may fall down to a tactical scenario as they players try to outmanuever Drakar, guess what they are doing, and try to evade whatever machinions they activate.

Hopefully, there will be an exploration and diplomacy aspect to it as the players need to get information from the locals and possibly allies against Drakar.

Oh, one other thing, regarding Galea. While reading the MotP, I was inspired as to a very interesting plot regarding her true nature while reading the Manual of the Planes... perhaps she is a mirror of a true galea that was slain in a mirror plane. The true galea was the betrothed of a knight that I have destined to become a betrayer in my current campaign; he too is actually a mirror creature. They player's digging into the past will reveal this past and bring to the fore the NEXT stage of the campaign after this three-part campaign comes to an end. So I will be putting Galea on the back burner for the time being, and she won't be part of the game day (unless it REALLY gets delayed).

Okay. Game day is this weekend, and I have to pull it all together.

I haven't done much work on it since last time I worked on this thread, but as of last Friday, the situation is this:

Most of the stuff I talked about in the last thread has happened. The party learned that Drakar was up to something, and was grabbing war machines from another world. They tromped into the ley line nexus and found a Drakarian camp stationed outside the obelisk that contains the gate. The defeated the Drakarian guards, and where able to get some information from the freed prisoners and the freed ghost guardian of the obelisk. They find that one of the three people who have the keys to the gate has been dominated by Drakar somehow, and they went through the gate looking for something. They also notice three stone spheres stacked on the local side of the gate.

The party decided to pursue them. On the other side of the gate was an ancient elven city entombed in a sheet of ice. They defeated the guards an a fiendish minion of the Drakarian's dark deity. They explored the ancient elven city and:

• found reference to artifacts in the city
• found an ancient vault with soul magic designed to defend the city
• the city is infested by demons; they fight a few
• a ghost of a Dark Minstrel who saw the city fall wreaks havoc. He possesses the body of one party member and activates a soul magic (see BoEM II) spell that gets rid of the demons (good) and shuts the gate back to their homeworld (bad). They defeat the ghost, but he will probably return.
• by means of a divinatory soul magic spell, the party uncovers a few facts, like the fact that the stone spheres that they discovered were eggs for lithomorphs, living floating mountains. This scares them. They also discover that the next nearest gate is in the hold of dwarves to the south (these are the psionic dwarves I discuss in the above linked thread.)
• They discover a floating skyship under Drakar's control but manned by creatures called Asherake (see Bastion press' minions'; they are basically brutal flying slavers). They defeat the remaining Drakarians and asherake, and find a scroll protected by warding magic, and free some slaves that can pilot the ship and provide them with information.

That was last time. The scroll will be sort of a situation report that will provide major clues to what drakar is up to. I wrote this up earlier totally ad hoc and I am using it as the basis for my plans for the campaign day.

The scroll contains hints to the following facts.

• The drakarians have excavated what they call the "Floating Mountains" (the lithomorphs) and have established a base on one of them. (Adventure idea 1: The party confronts the Drakarian base to get more information and/or eliminate the threat)
• The supply of available war machines in the floating mountains is exhausted, but the report indicates that their research indicates more can be found out a place called the City of the Golem. The city of the golem is currently under the control of a Lich Kobold Sorcerer. (City of Golems/Kobold lich idea taken from bastion press' Villains.) (Adventure idea 2: The party goes to the city of golems to get their own warships or stop the Drakarians from doing so.)
• The Drakarians are after even more powerful creatures, Kaiju per the recent dragon. Their plans for controlling the Kaiju involve tracking down ancient demons and wresting a secret procedure they used during the chaos wars to dominate Kaiju from them by infusing the creature with demon blood. The demons primary stronghold and leader was destroyed in the war, but three demon lords remain in a place called the pit of souls. Drakar is travelling there to get the procedure. (Adventure Idea 3: Go to the pit of souls and stop Drakar from either freeing the demons or getting their secrets.)
• The explorations on the floating mountains uncover a mage that is experimenting with machines. The letter indicates that the psion inquisitor was able to dominate the mage and that he has mastered a technique that will allow drakar to create half machines that can be bent to their will; the inquisitor beleives that this technique is generally useful, but it may be possible to apply the procedure to a kaiju if the demon blood technique does not work. (Adventure Idea 4: The party goes through a tweaked version of Kambranex's Machinations in Dungeon #91)
• The Drakarians know that the gate in the ancient elven city is too small to accomodate the Kaiju. They mention two other gates, one guarded by the psionic dwarves, and another one left anonymous, which is actually at the site of some of the PCs anscestor's kingdom, and is a path through the plane of shadow. (Adventure Idea [*]Join forces with the Dwarves to repel the Drakarians)(Adventure Idea 6: Uncover the secret of the other gate to make it back to their home world, and in the process they may uncover some ancient history of their own world that will segue into the next adventure.)

I'll put up the letter as I found it. Those are the basic ideas; I am looking for some ways to flesh this all out before Friday. PLEASE HELP ME!

Well to help out, while the City of Golem is one place they are looking, in a far distant part, buried MILES beneath the earth, a very AMBIOUS illithid has hit upon an incredible idea. Fusing his own body and soul with that of an automaton so that he can gain control over other automani(sp). He's currently trying to persuade the relucent Kobold lich to let him experminent on a few of his creations.

Meanwhile, the Arcane Alliance, in an effort to both strengthen their position as well as help in stopping the possible invasion by Dakar, have hired a new recruit and his fellows. Rickon Taleason, a necromancer(prohibited school, abjuration)/shadow adept/animator, hails from an alternate prime, which has ties/touches both the negative material plane as well as the plane of shadow. There he has successful subjugated the few remnants of living society into an orderly mass that serves his whims as well as guards his borders from incursion by otherworldly forces. He came to this world because of the Arcane Alliance's offer to help in giving him certain rare compontents that will help in his greatest acheivement, true immortality. That and the fact they need him to help organize troops. His second in commands are the fearsome yet beluging Talia Shroon, a fighter/cleric/unfailing whose knowledge of things both military and divine have helped to keep Rickon in power as well as strengthen her own resolve, to be his forever no matter the cost. His other follower is a much more gruesome yet powerful creature, the tannruuk barbarian/Fist of Grummsh/Foe Hunter called only Harm. Harm himself commands an impressive array of living and unliving troop of orcish descent. They were original just foreign travelers, hunting in the distant etheral, until they came to Rickon's world. There they became elite troops, ready to fight no matter the cost. Now Rickon looks to learn more about automati (they are cheap and easy to maintain compared to humans, especially the undead kind). He hopes to snatch away any chance Drakron has of gaining dominance, since he feels only those of arcane strength deserve some measure of rule and authority.

Finally, deep in the desolate ice fields, a long forgotten evil, a gelugon and his unholy spawn, a half fiend/white dragon, a half fiend/frost worm, and a dozen or so of fiendish dire polar bears, awaken, hoping to find a way back into Hell, since they were cast out for failure in some service to Hell.

That help any?

Whoa? A response! Cool!

Nightfall said:

Well to help out, while the City of Golem is one place they are looking, in a far distant part, buried MILES beneath the earth, a very AMBIOUS illithid has hit upon an incredible idea. Fusing his own body and soul with that of an automaton so that he can gain control over other automani(sp). He's currently trying to persuade the relucent Kobold lich to let him experminent on a few of his creations.

Click to expand...

Have you read the Dungeon adventure I referred to above? The main villain there is a character who has placed his soul in a shield guardian. Probably too much overlap there.

Rickon Taleason, a necromancer(prohibited school, abjuration)/shadow adept/animator,

Click to expand...

Animator?

Talia Shroon, a fighter/cleric/unfailing

Click to expand...

Unfailing?

Are these classes from Hollowfaust (which I don't have?)

Anyways, that is something to think on for later, but I really think the arcane alliance is going to be off stage for a while. Are these characters from your campaign, perchance?

Finally, deep in the desolate ice fields, a long forgotten evil, a gelugon and his unholy spawn, a half fiend/white dragon, a half fiend/frost worm, and a dozen or so of fiendish dire polar bears, awaken, hoping to find a way back into Hell, since they were cast out for failure in some service to Hell.

Click to expand...

Nasty. I ran a frost worm against them last session (I guess I should have mentioned that in my last post.) It almost killed them when they first met it and they ran away... those things are nasty. However, they came back and the bard charmed it, and they used it to dig a way to one of the under-ice chambers in the frozen elven city.

Right now my focus is more on demons. Devils serve Drakarian priests, but if they players enter the Pit of Souls, they will be struggling with demons.

Thanks for the input!