Nifft
Penguin Herder
Are you a player in my world?
Does the name "Valdemar" make you angry?
If so, PLEASE GO AWAY!
Thanks.
- - - - -
The PCs in my game are currently:
Sparrowhawk (yeah, zero points for originality): A Wizard 7 / Loremaster 7 of uncertain parentage. He came from an area to the North of Luxoria. He is frequently mocked for making pacts with a fiend or two, though to be fair, he didn't have much choice at the time.
Col. Cornelius: A Rgr 1 / Wiz 6 / Eldrich Knight 7, recently promoted quite high as a result of a successful adventure, and as a result of the higher brass having vanished. He has suffered many wounds as a result of recklessly charging foes, and he's about to start a school for army wizards called "Her Majesty's Special Branch".
Donatello: Monk 4 / Paladin 4 / Follower of the Golden Path 6. He runs a monestary / school in a southern colony of Luxoria -- half way to Valaria, but on the other coast.
I'd like some help with plots and historical events. Here's what I've worked out so far and what effect it will have on the PCs.
- - - - -
Arachne's Lament: Barsoom is an old, dry world. The albino elf natives ("Thurn") live underground in caves where there is water, and enslave the (red/black) humans to do farm labor above ground. Shockingly, the evil underground slaver elves have a thing for spiders.
They revere Lolth, but they do not worship her as a deity. In fact, they are athiests, as are all elves.
Who is Lolth? Her other name is Arachne, and if you know that story, you can probably figure out why the Thurn have been studying up on deicide for the last couple millennia. She lives in the Abyss so that she can make her plans far from the view of deities. (Arachne's curse happened about 2,800 years ago.)
I need help with: Clues. The Thurn had tolerated the Free Men of the North until the PCs dropped off a Cleric. The Cleric naturally started spreading religion amongst the Free Men, and... well... the Thurn are kinda down on that. So there's now a full-scale war of extermination underway. I need clues to lead the PCs to uncover the mystery of Arachne and therefore the meaning behind this war.
Stuff for the Thurn to yell at religious humans. "Die, kneeler!" is about all I've got.
Vore of the Clones: There are six gods known to mankind. This is a story of the seventh.
Mankind's gods are about 3,000 years old. They were created as a sort of sentient Van Allen belt to protect humanity from the ancient alien evils that inhabit the outer darkness. The creation process involved the sacrifice of one "template" soul and a thousand or so followers each.
The six "template" exemplars were paragons of leadership, wisdom, life, artifice, art and strength. The seventh was a hitchhiker -- he was a paragon of bloody-minded selfishness. His name is Vecna.
The six became aware of Vecna's ascendence after he had created sentient undead able to sustain him as worshippers, and able to drain souls (= bestow negative levels), which were fed to him directly.
In a meta-physical battle which lasted a hundred years, the Six were able to bind Vecna such that he could no longer feed of drained souls. In fact, the only soul he could feed off of was his own. The Six effectively split his divinity from his mind -- the latter becoming the first Lich.
Anyway. Vecna needs souls to fuel his second ascendence, but he can only eat his own soul. So, every 20 years or so he seeds five clones of himself in various human nations. These clones invariably become Wizards of great ability, at which point he eats their souls.
Sparrowhawk (a PC) is a Vecna clone.
Clues so far:
- Sparrowhawk recently cast his first magnificent mansion spell. He got a mansion that had seen some horrific use. (Ghosts, chained archons, torture implements, and demonic summoning diagrams, some full.) There was an ancient statue in his likeness in the torture room. When he freed a chained archon, it gave him a look, and teleported out wordlessly.
- Alberto Rossi, aka "The Albatross", is another Clone who SH has met. Alberto's first question to Sparrowhawk was, "What are you, some kind of stupid evil twin?!" Alberto lives in Valaria, far to the south of Luxoria.
- Sparrowhawk recently took Leadership. He got a Warforged Occult Slayer ("Cypher") who "has always served the Master". Cypher has a permenent discern location attuned to Sparrowhawk's soul, which is sadly not unique. Cypher will not fight other clones, nor will he fight the Fisher King himself (Vecna), but the PCs do not know this yet.
Where I Need Help: More cryptic clues, and three more wizards, who should have some kind of bird names. I'd like to have the PCs journey to find the other three. The first two are unhelpful, and the third is already dead -- claimed by Vecna, dessicacted and soul-shorn -- but I need some clues to get them moving.
The Shadow of Carceri: The PCs were on Carceri for a bit. They slew an adult blue dragon and took three eggs in addition to his hoard. The eggs hatched, and three adorable little blue wyrmlings came into the world -- half-fiend, shadow creature blue dragon wyrmlings. Two of the PCs took these wyrmlings on as pets / cohorts, the third wyrmling has been left in the care of Col. Corneilus' mentor.
The half-fiend stuff has been kept pretty subtle -- my players know that I dig Shadow stuff, and I've re-named many of the half-fiend abilities with shadowy names and rules text -- so the PCs are still unaware that they've got half-fiends for pets.
Anyway. It's well known that the creation of dragon eggs requires TWO dragons, one of which should be female. She's none too pleased that, upon her return, she found her mate slain and butchered for parts, and her eggs missing. She is a very old half-fiend shadow creature blue dragon, and she is pissed.
In order to get out of Carceri, she has been selling her services to Bel, whom she occasionally serves as a steed. Now that there is a war going on in Hell, she is in great demand. This gives her some freedom to investigate the location of her children, but it also means she's been too busy to make much of this freedom.
Here she is: http://enworld.org/showpost.php?p=1557680&postcount=12
As usual, I need clues -- especially since she's obviously not someone they're going to face, but rather someone they're going to avoid, for quite a while to come.
The Golden Age of Chitin: There is a young, new race on the scene. The Arrakin are insectile psionic dudes who have recently discovered planar travel, and bave been exploring. Some have discovered Earth, but they are becoming more common across all the planes. They have no living gods, but neither do they have any particular hatered for gods.
They're my "racial ingenue". They have been approaced by the Thurn (who like the whole chitin thing) and are currently allied with them against the Free Men of Barsoom. Since the Arrakin aren't actually evil, and the Thurn are horrificly ruthless, there should be lots of opportunities for the PCs to break that particular alliance.
However, they have a problem of their own: teen pregnancy. Specifcally, pre-sentient psionic larvae which are able to form psionic swarms of staggering potency (like cranium rats). This was a manageable problem until somehow the larvae became able reproduce on their own (without becoming adults). Now, half of their world is dominated by wild children with the power of demigods. Lolth has promised to help them solve this problem... but it was probably some arch-fiend who engineered the sudden evolutionary leap in the first place. Who? And why? Perhaps some other arch-fiend seeks to make them into its worshippers, or seeks to engineer evil swarms with similar psionic potency?
The PCs have met one Arrakin NPC ("Karthik"), but he wasn't particularly talkative -- that's the problem with psionic ninja, you know? Not so talky.
What I Need: potentially benign random encounters with this alien species. What would psionic alien explorers do?
There are other plots in motion, but those are the ones I need help with.
Any thoughts?
Thanks, -- N
Does the name "Valdemar" make you angry?
If so, PLEASE GO AWAY!
Thanks.
- - - - -
The PCs in my game are currently:
Sparrowhawk (yeah, zero points for originality): A Wizard 7 / Loremaster 7 of uncertain parentage. He came from an area to the North of Luxoria. He is frequently mocked for making pacts with a fiend or two, though to be fair, he didn't have much choice at the time.
Col. Cornelius: A Rgr 1 / Wiz 6 / Eldrich Knight 7, recently promoted quite high as a result of a successful adventure, and as a result of the higher brass having vanished. He has suffered many wounds as a result of recklessly charging foes, and he's about to start a school for army wizards called "Her Majesty's Special Branch".
Donatello: Monk 4 / Paladin 4 / Follower of the Golden Path 6. He runs a monestary / school in a southern colony of Luxoria -- half way to Valaria, but on the other coast.
I'd like some help with plots and historical events. Here's what I've worked out so far and what effect it will have on the PCs.
- - - - -
Arachne's Lament: Barsoom is an old, dry world. The albino elf natives ("Thurn") live underground in caves where there is water, and enslave the (red/black) humans to do farm labor above ground. Shockingly, the evil underground slaver elves have a thing for spiders.
They revere Lolth, but they do not worship her as a deity. In fact, they are athiests, as are all elves.
Who is Lolth? Her other name is Arachne, and if you know that story, you can probably figure out why the Thurn have been studying up on deicide for the last couple millennia. She lives in the Abyss so that she can make her plans far from the view of deities. (Arachne's curse happened about 2,800 years ago.)
I need help with: Clues. The Thurn had tolerated the Free Men of the North until the PCs dropped off a Cleric. The Cleric naturally started spreading religion amongst the Free Men, and... well... the Thurn are kinda down on that. So there's now a full-scale war of extermination underway. I need clues to lead the PCs to uncover the mystery of Arachne and therefore the meaning behind this war.
Stuff for the Thurn to yell at religious humans. "Die, kneeler!" is about all I've got.
Vore of the Clones: There are six gods known to mankind. This is a story of the seventh.
Mankind's gods are about 3,000 years old. They were created as a sort of sentient Van Allen belt to protect humanity from the ancient alien evils that inhabit the outer darkness. The creation process involved the sacrifice of one "template" soul and a thousand or so followers each.
The six "template" exemplars were paragons of leadership, wisdom, life, artifice, art and strength. The seventh was a hitchhiker -- he was a paragon of bloody-minded selfishness. His name is Vecna.
The six became aware of Vecna's ascendence after he had created sentient undead able to sustain him as worshippers, and able to drain souls (= bestow negative levels), which were fed to him directly.
In a meta-physical battle which lasted a hundred years, the Six were able to bind Vecna such that he could no longer feed of drained souls. In fact, the only soul he could feed off of was his own. The Six effectively split his divinity from his mind -- the latter becoming the first Lich.
Anyway. Vecna needs souls to fuel his second ascendence, but he can only eat his own soul. So, every 20 years or so he seeds five clones of himself in various human nations. These clones invariably become Wizards of great ability, at which point he eats their souls.
Sparrowhawk (a PC) is a Vecna clone.
Clues so far:
- Sparrowhawk recently cast his first magnificent mansion spell. He got a mansion that had seen some horrific use. (Ghosts, chained archons, torture implements, and demonic summoning diagrams, some full.) There was an ancient statue in his likeness in the torture room. When he freed a chained archon, it gave him a look, and teleported out wordlessly.
- Alberto Rossi, aka "The Albatross", is another Clone who SH has met. Alberto's first question to Sparrowhawk was, "What are you, some kind of stupid evil twin?!" Alberto lives in Valaria, far to the south of Luxoria.
- Sparrowhawk recently took Leadership. He got a Warforged Occult Slayer ("Cypher") who "has always served the Master". Cypher has a permenent discern location attuned to Sparrowhawk's soul, which is sadly not unique. Cypher will not fight other clones, nor will he fight the Fisher King himself (Vecna), but the PCs do not know this yet.
Where I Need Help: More cryptic clues, and three more wizards, who should have some kind of bird names. I'd like to have the PCs journey to find the other three. The first two are unhelpful, and the third is already dead -- claimed by Vecna, dessicacted and soul-shorn -- but I need some clues to get them moving.
The Shadow of Carceri: The PCs were on Carceri for a bit. They slew an adult blue dragon and took three eggs in addition to his hoard. The eggs hatched, and three adorable little blue wyrmlings came into the world -- half-fiend, shadow creature blue dragon wyrmlings. Two of the PCs took these wyrmlings on as pets / cohorts, the third wyrmling has been left in the care of Col. Corneilus' mentor.
The half-fiend stuff has been kept pretty subtle -- my players know that I dig Shadow stuff, and I've re-named many of the half-fiend abilities with shadowy names and rules text -- so the PCs are still unaware that they've got half-fiends for pets.
Anyway. It's well known that the creation of dragon eggs requires TWO dragons, one of which should be female. She's none too pleased that, upon her return, she found her mate slain and butchered for parts, and her eggs missing. She is a very old half-fiend shadow creature blue dragon, and she is pissed.
In order to get out of Carceri, she has been selling her services to Bel, whom she occasionally serves as a steed. Now that there is a war going on in Hell, she is in great demand. This gives her some freedom to investigate the location of her children, but it also means she's been too busy to make much of this freedom.
Here she is: http://enworld.org/showpost.php?p=1557680&postcount=12
As usual, I need clues -- especially since she's obviously not someone they're going to face, but rather someone they're going to avoid, for quite a while to come.
The Golden Age of Chitin: There is a young, new race on the scene. The Arrakin are insectile psionic dudes who have recently discovered planar travel, and bave been exploring. Some have discovered Earth, but they are becoming more common across all the planes. They have no living gods, but neither do they have any particular hatered for gods.
They're my "racial ingenue". They have been approaced by the Thurn (who like the whole chitin thing) and are currently allied with them against the Free Men of Barsoom. Since the Arrakin aren't actually evil, and the Thurn are horrificly ruthless, there should be lots of opportunities for the PCs to break that particular alliance.
However, they have a problem of their own: teen pregnancy. Specifcally, pre-sentient psionic larvae which are able to form psionic swarms of staggering potency (like cranium rats). This was a manageable problem until somehow the larvae became able reproduce on their own (without becoming adults). Now, half of their world is dominated by wild children with the power of demigods. Lolth has promised to help them solve this problem... but it was probably some arch-fiend who engineered the sudden evolutionary leap in the first place. Who? And why? Perhaps some other arch-fiend seeks to make them into its worshippers, or seeks to engineer evil swarms with similar psionic potency?
The PCs have met one Arrakin NPC ("Karthik"), but he wasn't particularly talkative -- that's the problem with psionic ninja, you know? Not so talky.
What I Need: potentially benign random encounters with this alien species. What would psionic alien explorers do?
There are other plots in motion, but those are the ones I need help with.
Any thoughts?
Thanks, -- N
Last edited:
![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
