My next campaign is a jumbled mess in my mind!

[Slaygrim]

I'll give you a brief rundown on the campaign I am running right now to catch you up to speed before I get into this mess that is in my head regarding the next campaign, which I intend to be very big and very fun.

The first Campaign revolves around a mysterious wizard from Halruaa named Magnimar Indrid (NE, H, M, Wiz 19th). Magnimar is from an old wizarding family known as "Indrid" dating back many thousands of years to Netheril. Magnimar is the head of a small cult he calls his "Cabal". With him is his childhood friend, the eccentric Gnome Wizard Mephisto Brittlestick (CN, G, M, Wiz 14th), a half human/half Iron Golem Thanatos (NE, M, H-IG, Ftr 18th), a Shadovar Wizard Maximel Mortis (LE, S, M, Wiz 15th), a fey'ri sorcerer named Braxis Dlardrageth (CE, F, M, Sor 16th), a mysterious fighter/rogue/assassin known as the "Widowspur" Erezan Severhart (NE E, M, Ftr/Rog/Asn 17th), and a greedy merchant called Gedion Belluth (N, H, M, Expert 13th).

To cut a long story short, Magnimar's motivation is to search for his long lost ancestor Halicron Indrid, a extremely powerful Netherese Arcanist whom was trapped in a Stasis Prison by his peers and locked away deep beneath the earth to be forgotton. His existence was erased from most history books. Halicron had been dealing too closely with Abyssal Lords and Arch Devils with his magical research and crossed acceptable lines.

Magnimar knows the existence of his ancestor through information passed through the family, but does not know the location. He wants to free Halicron and then learn from him to further his own power.

The campaign begins for 4 or 5 PC's at 6th level when they stumble across Magnimar's trail while the wizard was excavating old netherese ruins and showing little regard for any commoner or individual that crossed his path. The PC's do not uncover the true motivation behind Magnimar's actions until near the end of the campaign when they witness the Cabal defeat Saharel at Saharelgard (aka Spellguard) and pull the information from her, as she was one of those who trapped Halicron 2000 years before. It all leads to a climactic conclusion deep within the underground prison in which Magnimar succeeds in freeing Halicron and gating him out, but is ultimately killed himself while fending off the PC's.

Now onto the Campaign in question:

My idea's of course will center around Epic Magic and Halicron Indrid. The PC's did not learn where he was gated to, and neither could they track him down. After the previous campaign another DM is taking over for his own before I come back to this one.

My idea's include a series of "Labors" set forth to the PC's by a mysterious character who contacts them through telepathy. I'm thinking of having this character a Spellweaver trapped in Chult as a monolith, although the PC's do not know what he is until they free him. Once (or before) he is freed, he will direct the PC's to complete 10 quests, or "Labors". Perhaps to collect a series of artifacts that were hidden long ago.

The Spellweaver will direct them (or take them) to a ancient "Gateway" beneath the ground that has 10 open portals within. Each portal would take the PC's within 10 or so miles of the lost artifact in question. They will be told by the Spellweaver (Called "Ornikali") the description of the artifact and possibly the means to locate it, either by the effects of it's usage or by another means. Not sure.
Each time an artifact is recovered the PCs could return to the location of the portal that brought them there, and go back to the Gateway in Chult.

I was thinking of tying these ancient artifacts to the Sarrukh's. As for what they do or how they tie into Halicron Indrid, I am not yet sure. The plan was that once the 10 artifacts are together Ornikali will be able to do something with them, either activate them or use them in some manner that will aid the PC's in either defeating Halicron, or perhaps beating Halicron to his goal.

I was thinking of having the artifacts be in several locations in which an adventure to take place. 1 perhaps with illithids, another with phaerimm beneath the Anauroch, another in Mulhorand/Unther, another in the ruins of a ancient Sarrukh city, another with the Yuan-Ti, etc.

For Halicron's ultimate goal, I was thinking of several possibilities. Perhaps having him trying to gain access to 10th, 11th, and 12th level spells once again (which seems to be a dead end unless he can do this through the Shadow Weave), perhaps having him trying to travel back in time to Netheril itself, but this too has it's limitations per Mystra's Time Loop rules, or maybe having something to do with Abyssal Lords and Arch Devil's gaining entrance to Faerun through him, tying him in with his original plot that cause his peers to imprison him to begin with.

Anyway, I think you get the gist of what I am trying to put together. The original campaign started at 6th level for the PC's and ended at 10th. We will begin this one after the other DM runs his, and I believe the PC's will have reached around 14th Level (give or take one) by the time I start this. I want this campaign to run around 12-14 adventures and 70-100 gaming hours) with the PC's ending near 20th level.

I want this campaign to have it all. Riddles, twists, intriguing NPC's, incredible battles, Indiana Jones/Allan Quartermain and King Solomon's mines-like exploration, etc.

i was also thinking of having Ornikali direct the PC's to collecting an old childrens book that has hidden clues in plain sight to most people regarding the quest.

It's putting all the pieces and ties together that's giving me a headache... Have any ideas or tips?

 

[Slaygrim]

Some notes:

I came up with Ornikali as a name for the Spellweavers and not necessarily the one in which the PCs are dealing with, although he may refer to himself as Ornikali. I created this name by doing a little research. Spellweavers are barely medium sized monstrous humanoids that have bird-like features and six arms. Ornithology is the study of birds, and Kali is a 6 armed deity from India. How this ties into the Realms... I don't know, I just wanted the name I gave them to have some meaning. Thus ornithology and Kali became Ornikali.

The ideas that are forming in my mind are to have this particular Spellweaver as an upgraded version of the ones you find in MM II. I want him to be able to access spells of 9th level at least. I hear that a Spellweaver has a Level Adjustment of +7 which will mean I will have to put him into Epic Levels in order to access that.

This Spellweaver I planned on having a story regarding him being trapped or transformed into a monolith in one of the cities or tribal area's of Chult. The locals will believe his voice (since he can communicate telepathically) is that of Ubtao.

I want there to be story upon story regarding nearly everything I do here. Even with the Labors. Whoever is holding the artifact, be it a Thayan Archmage or a beholder, I want a backstory explaining how they came upon these artifacts.
Such as if the phaerimm of the Anauroch have one, it can be tied back to Chult through the Sarrukh. The Sarrukh had major cities in Chult and Isstosseffifil was located where modern day Anauroch lies. In fact it was the phaerimm themselves that instigated the downfail of Isstosseffifil, thus the artifact could have remained in their possession for over 30,000 years.
The same could be said if the Yuan-ti have one, as they were created by the Sarrukh.

My biggest problem in putting all of this together is to understand what Halicron is doing now that he is returned, why the Spellweaver is involved, and how it all ties to these artifacts of the Sarrukh.

 

[Slaygrim]

Any cool ideas guys? I was hoping for some feedback.

 

[tameriaen]

On a very basic level Spellweavers are all insane, so far as we can comprehend them. They are hyper intelligent but unable to communicate with any intelligent being--tending to leave behind cryptic notes which may or may not hold any significance. What's known is that they covet particularly powerful items. If you have powerful artifacts, you have a reason for a weaver to show up. Beyond at, there's no knowing if spellweavers age, or eat, or even experience time in the same fashion we do. The weaver might have allowed himself to be trapped, or perhaps compelled another to trap him, so that he could act in a specific way at a specific later time so as to gain the artifact in question, or perhaps simply effect the way in which it is used so as to set a much larger chain of events into motion. Perhaps the spellweavers are all batting around here because a long time ago one of them messed up a lost a bunch of artifacts on this plane, or perhaps they intentionally scattered them around this plane to create some unique cosmic effect, or something equally grand. As for the weaver, he's an NPC right, ignore the level adjustment base him his CR advancing it by 1 for each additional level of magic-using class, then just have those levels stack with his native ability, then after all is said and done do an ad-hoc adjustment (+/-) CR by examining his capabilities against creatures/NPC's of a similar CR. But none of this really matters unless you want the player's to fight him. As for his telepathic communication with the surrounding folks. one assumes that such intercourse would either drive them mad, or perhaps it has slowly driven him mad? Perhaps he no-longer thinks quite like a weaver; more comprehensible to humans, but still a little strange? In this case he might have begun to empathize with humanity or despise it altogether? I hope some of this ramble is helpful.

 

[RichGreen]

Hi,

Have you read The Shackled City and Age of Worms adventure paths in Dungeon? Both feature some stuff (not a lot, admittedly) about spellweavers and their history. Dungeon 130 has stats for a spellweaver lich.

I like the sound of your campaign a lot. There are some great dungeons and lost civilizations in the Realms so it's cool to have a plot that involves exploring several of these.

Cheers


Richard

 

[Slaygrim]

Thanks for the tips guys!

 

[RichGreen]

Hi,

I was flicking through the Dragon Ecologies collection last night and there's an Ecology of the Spellweaver article in there. Don't know if this is of any use to you? It originally appeared in Dragon 338.

Cheers


Richard

 

[Slaygrim]

Thanks! I also received that tip from another place and ordered that mag online.

 

[Robbs]

It would be tricky, but placing seemingly innocuous items on the PCs early (an immovable rod, etc.) that are not inherently powerful but come in extremely handy at critical points in the labors could be interesting. The concept is key in most time bending stories (Paycheck, Dead Zone, et al) but is hard to pull off without seeming trite. A GM in our gaming circle had a villain send some somewhat underpowered opponents at the PCs who killed them and took their stuff only to discover that some of those items were cursed, pushing the heroes to leave the area seeking out a cure (removing the curse was beyond their power level). The PCs discovering the manipulation was the kicker. So in this, the 'crappy magic spoon' actually being useful (and the PCs realizing how they ended up with it) becomes the trick.