Vanifae
First Post
A little lengthy but a basic outline of a campaign I want to try and run. Any thoughts and or concerns? My basic guess is that the city-state will be Tyr before Kalak dies but I left it semi-open for now. I wanted an opening that was a play on being slaves while also playing up some of the big concepts of the setting hence the Dragon of Tyr making an early appearance and incorporating his defiling into the first encounter.
Fall of a Sorcerer-King Heroic Tier Outline
Levels 1 – 2: The PCs begin the campaign in chains, marked with tattoos/brands as sacrifices for the Dragon of Tyr they are being marched out to a place of sacrifice as a levy for the brutal defiler beast. Something goes wrong though and a great battle ensues allowing the party to break their bonds get some simple weapons, daggers/clubs perhaps a makeshift shield from their now dead guards and fight for their freedom. The Dragon provides a backdrop for the encounter with constant defiling pulses that sap at their strength, mixed with the defiling power in the region forever marks the PCs with boons, treasure reward.
Once the fighting ends the PCs can fully outfit themselves with whatever gear they can find, suitable items dependent on their classes will be available nothing of masterwork quality obviously. One of the sacrifices is still breathing though dying and gives them a map to a hidden village of freed slaves begging, possible quest as well. The PCs now have a path and a place if they can survive the wastes without any survival days and the items they have on their backs, weapons, armor, and little else. This will be a group skill challenge of survival, each failure punctuating a day and a chance at sun sickness. Halfway through the skill challenge they find a small oasis, but have to challenge whatever occupants currently hold it for water. This phase ends when the PCs arrive at the village, which should hopefully put them at level 2 by the conclusion.
Levels 2 – 5: The village is not welcoming of strangers especially armed folks that just stumble out of the wastes. The PCs will need to engage in a skill challenge/role playing to earn the trust of the village, if they fail they will be given meager provisions at a price, they probably cannot afford, and sent on their way. If they succeed they are allowed to stay in the village but must prove their usefulness. Assuming they decide to use the village as a temporary base of operations they are given a task, given their armed and capable nature, to hunt down a predator/bandit group/monster for the good of the village.
This task is a test to see if the newcomers are as capable as they appear and if they succeed and seem amenable they will be asked to join a growing resistance to the sorcerer-king and his/her minions. This test should culminate with them reaching level 3, hopefully the fact that they were about to be sacrificed to the Dragon as a levy on behalf of the defiler lord should give them some incentive for payback. Once they are recruited the PCs should stumble upon news that a powerful relic that could aid in the defeat of their enemy may be stored in a hidden vault guarded by undead creatures and demon guardians. The search, investigation and retrieval of this relic should end with them reaching 5th level or so. A twist is that there is a spy in the village feeding information to their enemies, something they discover in their search for the relic.
Levels 5 – 8: The stage is starting to open up for the PCs, there is treachery afoot and their resistance and village will come under siege from the forces of their enemy. But they have the relic now and possibly a chance to win, even if that chance is slim. The campaign will branch out from here taking them across the wastelands to the city-state facing danger across the way and defeating minions of the sorcerer-king. They have become important people in the resistance and their names resonate with those that yearn for revolution. This section should end with the PCs reaching the city-state from whence they originally came, a chance to tie up loose ends, settle old scores, and assist the resistance directly. Their arrival should bring them close to 6th level or so.
The urban environment will be a new one for the players to contend with, they will need to use subtlety and guile as well as their combat prowess to face their enemies. They may have to deal with nobility in social settings; strike deals with less than trustworthy templars, and make sure the resistance stays true to their goal. The end of this arc should end with a daring raid on a powerful sorcerer-king servant to gain information that will prove crucial to the plans of the resistance. The defiler templar is also a competent demonologist as well.
Levels 8 – 11: The final pieces of this heroic tier arc are coming together armed with the information and possibly new, if dangerous, allies the PCs and the resistance can put their plan into motion. Armed with the relic and the information they learn that they need one final piece to create a weapon that should greatly weaken their enemy and allow them a chance to deliver a mortal blow. The final piece exists in a ruin high up in the Ringing Mountains and will require a dangerous journey to acquire it. The PCs will have to contend with ravenous halfling tribes, a strange forested environment that is still quite deadly, and ancient horrors that haunt the ruined structure.
All the while they are being hunted a group of defiler assassins sent by their enemy to silence them and destroy the resistance for good. It is within the walls of the ruin that they learn some of the secrets of Athas and that some greater evil threatens their world that the Dragon and the slave levies are tied to. The ruin is filled with guardians and twisted aberration horrors that used to be halflings. This sojourn should end with them just about or at level 10, assuming they find the relic and return back to the city-state for the final showdown.
The capstone of this tier would be the assassination attempt on the sorcerer-king using the completed weapon. The sorcerer-king, far too arrogant to heed the warnings of his underlings is going to hold a grand melee that will have the arena sands drenched in blood to honor the opening of his final great work. The PCs will be placed in the role of the grand finale, essentially disguised as gladiators, the final spectacle of the games, after a week of bloodshed. They will face some horrible creature, a solo encounter, and then if they succeed the sorcerer-king will personally reward them which is their moment to strike with the weapon. He will flee and their allies will aid them in following amidst the chaos to finish him once and for all. Normally he would be too much a match for them but in his weakened state due to the weapon which is now all but useless they could win. What follows is skill challenges, traps, and a final bloody encounter with a level 12-13 solo and the fate of the city-state in their hands.
Fall of a Sorcerer-King Heroic Tier Outline
Levels 1 – 2: The PCs begin the campaign in chains, marked with tattoos/brands as sacrifices for the Dragon of Tyr they are being marched out to a place of sacrifice as a levy for the brutal defiler beast. Something goes wrong though and a great battle ensues allowing the party to break their bonds get some simple weapons, daggers/clubs perhaps a makeshift shield from their now dead guards and fight for their freedom. The Dragon provides a backdrop for the encounter with constant defiling pulses that sap at their strength, mixed with the defiling power in the region forever marks the PCs with boons, treasure reward.
Once the fighting ends the PCs can fully outfit themselves with whatever gear they can find, suitable items dependent on their classes will be available nothing of masterwork quality obviously. One of the sacrifices is still breathing though dying and gives them a map to a hidden village of freed slaves begging, possible quest as well. The PCs now have a path and a place if they can survive the wastes without any survival days and the items they have on their backs, weapons, armor, and little else. This will be a group skill challenge of survival, each failure punctuating a day and a chance at sun sickness. Halfway through the skill challenge they find a small oasis, but have to challenge whatever occupants currently hold it for water. This phase ends when the PCs arrive at the village, which should hopefully put them at level 2 by the conclusion.
Levels 2 – 5: The village is not welcoming of strangers especially armed folks that just stumble out of the wastes. The PCs will need to engage in a skill challenge/role playing to earn the trust of the village, if they fail they will be given meager provisions at a price, they probably cannot afford, and sent on their way. If they succeed they are allowed to stay in the village but must prove their usefulness. Assuming they decide to use the village as a temporary base of operations they are given a task, given their armed and capable nature, to hunt down a predator/bandit group/monster for the good of the village.
This task is a test to see if the newcomers are as capable as they appear and if they succeed and seem amenable they will be asked to join a growing resistance to the sorcerer-king and his/her minions. This test should culminate with them reaching level 3, hopefully the fact that they were about to be sacrificed to the Dragon as a levy on behalf of the defiler lord should give them some incentive for payback. Once they are recruited the PCs should stumble upon news that a powerful relic that could aid in the defeat of their enemy may be stored in a hidden vault guarded by undead creatures and demon guardians. The search, investigation and retrieval of this relic should end with them reaching 5th level or so. A twist is that there is a spy in the village feeding information to their enemies, something they discover in their search for the relic.
Levels 5 – 8: The stage is starting to open up for the PCs, there is treachery afoot and their resistance and village will come under siege from the forces of their enemy. But they have the relic now and possibly a chance to win, even if that chance is slim. The campaign will branch out from here taking them across the wastelands to the city-state facing danger across the way and defeating minions of the sorcerer-king. They have become important people in the resistance and their names resonate with those that yearn for revolution. This section should end with the PCs reaching the city-state from whence they originally came, a chance to tie up loose ends, settle old scores, and assist the resistance directly. Their arrival should bring them close to 6th level or so.
The urban environment will be a new one for the players to contend with, they will need to use subtlety and guile as well as their combat prowess to face their enemies. They may have to deal with nobility in social settings; strike deals with less than trustworthy templars, and make sure the resistance stays true to their goal. The end of this arc should end with a daring raid on a powerful sorcerer-king servant to gain information that will prove crucial to the plans of the resistance. The defiler templar is also a competent demonologist as well.
Levels 8 – 11: The final pieces of this heroic tier arc are coming together armed with the information and possibly new, if dangerous, allies the PCs and the resistance can put their plan into motion. Armed with the relic and the information they learn that they need one final piece to create a weapon that should greatly weaken their enemy and allow them a chance to deliver a mortal blow. The final piece exists in a ruin high up in the Ringing Mountains and will require a dangerous journey to acquire it. The PCs will have to contend with ravenous halfling tribes, a strange forested environment that is still quite deadly, and ancient horrors that haunt the ruined structure.
All the while they are being hunted a group of defiler assassins sent by their enemy to silence them and destroy the resistance for good. It is within the walls of the ruin that they learn some of the secrets of Athas and that some greater evil threatens their world that the Dragon and the slave levies are tied to. The ruin is filled with guardians and twisted aberration horrors that used to be halflings. This sojourn should end with them just about or at level 10, assuming they find the relic and return back to the city-state for the final showdown.
The capstone of this tier would be the assassination attempt on the sorcerer-king using the completed weapon. The sorcerer-king, far too arrogant to heed the warnings of his underlings is going to hold a grand melee that will have the arena sands drenched in blood to honor the opening of his final great work. The PCs will be placed in the role of the grand finale, essentially disguised as gladiators, the final spectacle of the games, after a week of bloodshed. They will face some horrible creature, a solo encounter, and then if they succeed the sorcerer-king will personally reward them which is their moment to strike with the weapon. He will flee and their allies will aid them in following amidst the chaos to finish him once and for all. Normally he would be too much a match for them but in his weakened state due to the weapon which is now all but useless they could win. What follows is skill challenges, traps, and a final bloody encounter with a level 12-13 solo and the fate of the city-state in their hands.
