Arctic Wolf
First Post
Crap I added the updated monster I was working on to the wrong thread, so ignore this update atm xD.
Hello all. I am finally wrapping up a friend's campaign for heroic tier and going to start my own within a month or so, so I wanted to try to get advice for how to accomplish it. First off, I have a few questions I want to ask:
1. Which setting do you think sounds better to use? (vanilla aka PHB infor, Forgotten Realms, Eberron, etc.)
2. How do I make it seem less linear? (I have a few ideas but ultimately I need help)
3. Do you think it is a good idea to start at paragon? (personally I am think I am better for this type of play since I find it hard to build up characters)
4. How does everything sound story and plot-wise?
And now I will start with the current back-story behind the world and the main antagonist.
Setting
After a few centuries in the 11th era, humans have finally been able to build up 6 kingdoms even though they are mere infants compared to their holdings from before they made their infernal pact. They have managed to push other races out of these territories and guard them fairly well. They are listed below from the most powerful to the least:
1) The Kingdom of Camelot. They are very powerful and have the most holdings on the continent everyone is at, Trimcutar (a good 3/10 of the total land), and small colonies on islands and the other continent, Falssen.
History- Founded in the 10th era (each era is 1000 years), they are the main reason humanity was able to finally settle down. They first conquerored any tribes on the continent and enjoyed a good rule for 300 years until the Tarrasque awoke and casued massvie destruction. This is the destruction is what caused the country to break into smaller countries.
Religion: They worship all of the good aligned gods and this is where most avengers, clerics, invokers, monks, paladins, and runepriests come from since they have the best schools.
Leader: King Arthur Cammol. A 62 year old human and a mighty paladin of Bahamut. He has been leading for 24 years and has brought great prosperity and peace to the land as well as well as having the Dragonborn and Dwarves make peace after their 10 year war.
Current Threats: On their holdings to the west, pirates are stealing their supplies and stopping them from reinforcing their other threat, which is the undead from Dethorres.
Main Races: Pretty much every race in the PHBs.
2) The Kingdom of Dethorres- They were the second strongest nation only because they put their fullest into their navy and magical ships. Now they have been invaded by an unknown undead threat and have since all retreated to Camelot.
3) The Kingdom of Harmonia. They have recently risen in strength mainly because of the undead threat being so close to Camelot.
History: Founded by Sir Hyoth Buzius, a mighty warrior, 25 years after the Tarrasque attack, this nation blames all ills on the other races for prying into the affairs of the mortal realm and especially hates tieflings for their infernal bargain even to this day.
Religion: They revere Bane as their top god a long with Erathis and Tiamat. They only train humans who believe in their views and have one of the strongest armies made of warriors and a few swordmages since they believe in brute strength.
Leader: Oyitis Grende Buzius. A 37 year old human fighter at the peak of his power. After the *mysterious* death of his father which happened to be after he showed some mercy to a tiefling family for not paying taxes, he taken over and is now massing an army.
Current Threats: Pretty much any place that has non-humans in their minds.
Main Races: Humans, Dwarves and Halfings are second class citizens but still percieved as inferior. Any other race is likely a slave.
4) Kingdom of the Blackbloods. Another nation that has also risen in strength recently but from a different reason other than Harmonia. They have added many races to their fold and thanks to all these different people working together, have managed to conquer most of the Northern territory in the continent (1/10).
History: Founded by Amaria Bel Blackblood 50 years after the Tarrasque attack, she had to go through a long process to finally make this territory a country, mostly due to the Buzius nobles. When they did manage to claim it the Buzius threatened to attack them but was stopped by the other countries which made them sign a pact that if any infernal business was going on, all peoples in the Blackblood kingdom would be wiped out, no matter young or old. Even with the Buzius attempting to give false evidence, the Blackbloods have kept their Kingdom clean of infernal threats and in recent years have been redeemed by The Raven Queen for helping her add Psionic power to her portfolio along with the dreadful mind flayers. These mind flayers are different from their far realm brothern though thanks to a secret potion the current queen, Kisha Kathrine Blackblood found when she was an adventuerer. They don't require brains and have a specific sex so they reproduce by mating, which makes them easy to recognize assuming you live long enough to see certain parts...ahem.
Religon: The Raven Queen is the main goddess here and it is possible to see this everywhere from the clothing to music and even the architecture. Other gods are Erathis, Kord, Ioun, and oddly enough Pelor. This country is one of the largest collections of raw knowledge in the entire world and they protect it with their life. Most Arcane power source classes study here along with Psionic classes and monks.
Leader: Kisha Kathrine Blackblood: Extremely young for a leader at the age of 29, as stated above she helped The Raven Queen out with getting Psonic power under her name. Since there are a lot of different races living here, there are a lot of clans and she has to play the power game to get anything done since some of them are corrupt, at least for now.
Main Races: Everything including Yuan-Ti and Mind Flayers.
5) The Lunis Kingdom
History: Founded around the same time as The Harmonia Kingdom, they never quite grew in strength since they prefered getting a long with nature compared to the cities of most countries. To this day, they still live in tribes and their biggest city is Naturen, and is made by some of the biggest trees on the planet.
Religion: Avandra and Melora are mainly worshipped here, along with Corellon. This is where most primal powered people go to find themselves and to talk with spirits of the world since they gather on this sacred land.
Leader: RunningWolf. She is a wise, 54 year old elf shaman, whose bloodlines can be traced back to when the kingdom was under the Cammols. She is one of the best cheiftains and has helped many find their true path, especially the minotaur Most dare not cross her since she can summon many spirits to aid her as well as her allies. At the moment, she is all preoccupied with helping out King Arthur with the undead invasion so that they cannot steal the spirits that rest on her lands.
Main Races: Elves, Minotaurs, Shifters, and Tieflings.
6) The Kingdom of Shi-Kar
History: The most recent Kingdom to form. It was over a dispute with the Kingdom of Harmonia that lead to this facture. The Harmonians offended the leader of the shifters who in turned broke away with protection promised by the Camelot Kingdom.
Religion: Zehir, Sehanine, Erathis, and The Raven Queen are the major gods worshipped here. The best assassins are trained here and many thieves guilds have strongholds within this country.
Leader: Grandfather Assassin Ti'git Siffen Zafi. At the age of 76, most would assume this old male shifter is harmless but that is far from the truth. He is so skilled that he could be right in front of you in a moment and disappear the next. Since he is leader of all the guilds that are within his domain, he soley works to increase the wealth no matter what as long as it doesn't give him away.
Main Races: Shifters, Halflings, Gnomes, Yuan-Ti, and Humans
While all this background information is helpful, it is not the main idea of this campaign. It will all focus around the Consort-General Nihail Herald Obyrin who is a 28 year old *human*. Here is the back story for him:
Eons ago before the races started speaking their own languages and all knew Supernal, Nihail was known as Nihilious, an Obyrith, and also held the title Prince of Time. During the battle between the gods and these demons and elementals, he decided to betray the Queen of Chaos because she is the reason that his power destroyed their previous universe/realm. He decided to strike just when the demons were about to win and managed to seal the Queen of Chaos to one of the lost Abyssal planes (the one where they meet now). The only reason he could seal her away was because while he hid his true power, so did she and he figured this was the least he could do to get back at her. This distracted the forces enough to where the wind dukes of aaqa could craft the Rod of Seven Pieces which provided another victory by sealing Miska the spider-wolf away too.
Before Nihilious managed to lose his body, he used a special ritual to seal his power into four gems which represent the four foulest events that appear throughout time: False leaders, War, Famine, and Death. Then after his body finally gave, his soul wondered around aimlessly for thousands of years until a very interesting event happened: his soul fused perfectly with a human soul. So when he was finally concieved, all his memories were gone of his life as an Obyrith. Only when he started studying magic did his *natural* knack for it show and thus started his adventuering days to find out what he was and boy did he do just that.
Only when he broke into an abandoned temple did he manage to find out who he was after recovering the Gauntlets of the Timelord. As soon as he put them on he recovered most of his memories and realized what he needed to do: get back at the Queen of Chaos by killing Miska and kill Juiblex, The Faceless Lord so he could not be controlled since he has used his time magic to go back as an observer and sense that he knows his true name. Nihail has managed to gather a lot of consorts who inform him of almost every move that any power takes, whether it is in the mortal world or any other realm, he has a sense of what is going on. Now this brings me to the campaign idea.
He will use the PCs to get his gems of power back, slay Juiblex, and gather the Rod of Seven Parts to summon Miska and slay him. After this is done, he will kill Ashardalon to claim the Bastion of Unborn souls as his domain so he can imput his next scheme: kill all the other Obyriths and claim their power as his own.
The campaign will start in paragon tier where I plan to have at least 3 major plots go on: Kill the clan leaders who are trying to stop the country from getting ready for war with The Kingdom of Harmonia and the Bearers of the Famine and False Leader gems and which will start the PCs on the path to becoming strong enough to kill Juiblex. The reason Nihail can't do it himself is because if if gets found out he is still alive, he can't fulfill his missions.
The war with Harmonia will be the entry into epic tier which will net the PCs the war gem and Nihail will be able to *provide* evidence that Juiblex was behind it to frame him and get him killed. After that, the PCs will take on the undead threat which they will learn that the leader is the Fallen God of Death, Nerull and he has the death gem. Then they will kill Ashardalon and most likely face Nihilious and if they decide not to (which I would be mad about since I am trying to develop him in another thread), I will have him as a one-shot boss fight.
I would like to first state that these are my basic outline of what I want to happen and fully expect that it won't work this way and any help would be appreciated since I haven't DMed as much. The reason why I am starting in paragon is because it will go by a bit faster and I am having the players tell me what they did to become famous wherever they are from. Here is what I am asking them:
1) What did they do to become famous and known throughout their land?
2) Give me some background information about the character and 3 goals they want to accomplish and why.
If you have anymore things for me to ask them please list them and if I did not put enough information in each country please tell me. I thank you for reading all this and am putting myself in your hands to help make an awesome campaign for my friends
Hello all. I am finally wrapping up a friend's campaign for heroic tier and going to start my own within a month or so, so I wanted to try to get advice for how to accomplish it. First off, I have a few questions I want to ask:
1. Which setting do you think sounds better to use? (vanilla aka PHB infor, Forgotten Realms, Eberron, etc.)
2. How do I make it seem less linear? (I have a few ideas but ultimately I need help)
3. Do you think it is a good idea to start at paragon? (personally I am think I am better for this type of play since I find it hard to build up characters)
4. How does everything sound story and plot-wise?
And now I will start with the current back-story behind the world and the main antagonist.
Setting
After a few centuries in the 11th era, humans have finally been able to build up 6 kingdoms even though they are mere infants compared to their holdings from before they made their infernal pact. They have managed to push other races out of these territories and guard them fairly well. They are listed below from the most powerful to the least:
1) The Kingdom of Camelot. They are very powerful and have the most holdings on the continent everyone is at, Trimcutar (a good 3/10 of the total land), and small colonies on islands and the other continent, Falssen.
History- Founded in the 10th era (each era is 1000 years), they are the main reason humanity was able to finally settle down. They first conquerored any tribes on the continent and enjoyed a good rule for 300 years until the Tarrasque awoke and casued massvie destruction. This is the destruction is what caused the country to break into smaller countries.
Religion: They worship all of the good aligned gods and this is where most avengers, clerics, invokers, monks, paladins, and runepriests come from since they have the best schools.
Leader: King Arthur Cammol. A 62 year old human and a mighty paladin of Bahamut. He has been leading for 24 years and has brought great prosperity and peace to the land as well as well as having the Dragonborn and Dwarves make peace after their 10 year war.
Current Threats: On their holdings to the west, pirates are stealing their supplies and stopping them from reinforcing their other threat, which is the undead from Dethorres.
Main Races: Pretty much every race in the PHBs.
2) The Kingdom of Dethorres- They were the second strongest nation only because they put their fullest into their navy and magical ships. Now they have been invaded by an unknown undead threat and have since all retreated to Camelot.
3) The Kingdom of Harmonia. They have recently risen in strength mainly because of the undead threat being so close to Camelot.
History: Founded by Sir Hyoth Buzius, a mighty warrior, 25 years after the Tarrasque attack, this nation blames all ills on the other races for prying into the affairs of the mortal realm and especially hates tieflings for their infernal bargain even to this day.
Religion: They revere Bane as their top god a long with Erathis and Tiamat. They only train humans who believe in their views and have one of the strongest armies made of warriors and a few swordmages since they believe in brute strength.
Leader: Oyitis Grende Buzius. A 37 year old human fighter at the peak of his power. After the *mysterious* death of his father which happened to be after he showed some mercy to a tiefling family for not paying taxes, he taken over and is now massing an army.
Current Threats: Pretty much any place that has non-humans in their minds.
Main Races: Humans, Dwarves and Halfings are second class citizens but still percieved as inferior. Any other race is likely a slave.
4) Kingdom of the Blackbloods. Another nation that has also risen in strength recently but from a different reason other than Harmonia. They have added many races to their fold and thanks to all these different people working together, have managed to conquer most of the Northern territory in the continent (1/10).
History: Founded by Amaria Bel Blackblood 50 years after the Tarrasque attack, she had to go through a long process to finally make this territory a country, mostly due to the Buzius nobles. When they did manage to claim it the Buzius threatened to attack them but was stopped by the other countries which made them sign a pact that if any infernal business was going on, all peoples in the Blackblood kingdom would be wiped out, no matter young or old. Even with the Buzius attempting to give false evidence, the Blackbloods have kept their Kingdom clean of infernal threats and in recent years have been redeemed by The Raven Queen for helping her add Psionic power to her portfolio along with the dreadful mind flayers. These mind flayers are different from their far realm brothern though thanks to a secret potion the current queen, Kisha Kathrine Blackblood found when she was an adventuerer. They don't require brains and have a specific sex so they reproduce by mating, which makes them easy to recognize assuming you live long enough to see certain parts...ahem.
Religon: The Raven Queen is the main goddess here and it is possible to see this everywhere from the clothing to music and even the architecture. Other gods are Erathis, Kord, Ioun, and oddly enough Pelor. This country is one of the largest collections of raw knowledge in the entire world and they protect it with their life. Most Arcane power source classes study here along with Psionic classes and monks.
Leader: Kisha Kathrine Blackblood: Extremely young for a leader at the age of 29, as stated above she helped The Raven Queen out with getting Psonic power under her name. Since there are a lot of different races living here, there are a lot of clans and she has to play the power game to get anything done since some of them are corrupt, at least for now.
Main Races: Everything including Yuan-Ti and Mind Flayers.
5) The Lunis Kingdom
History: Founded around the same time as The Harmonia Kingdom, they never quite grew in strength since they prefered getting a long with nature compared to the cities of most countries. To this day, they still live in tribes and their biggest city is Naturen, and is made by some of the biggest trees on the planet.
Religion: Avandra and Melora are mainly worshipped here, along with Corellon. This is where most primal powered people go to find themselves and to talk with spirits of the world since they gather on this sacred land.
Leader: RunningWolf. She is a wise, 54 year old elf shaman, whose bloodlines can be traced back to when the kingdom was under the Cammols. She is one of the best cheiftains and has helped many find their true path, especially the minotaur Most dare not cross her since she can summon many spirits to aid her as well as her allies. At the moment, she is all preoccupied with helping out King Arthur with the undead invasion so that they cannot steal the spirits that rest on her lands.
Main Races: Elves, Minotaurs, Shifters, and Tieflings.
6) The Kingdom of Shi-Kar
History: The most recent Kingdom to form. It was over a dispute with the Kingdom of Harmonia that lead to this facture. The Harmonians offended the leader of the shifters who in turned broke away with protection promised by the Camelot Kingdom.
Religion: Zehir, Sehanine, Erathis, and The Raven Queen are the major gods worshipped here. The best assassins are trained here and many thieves guilds have strongholds within this country.
Leader: Grandfather Assassin Ti'git Siffen Zafi. At the age of 76, most would assume this old male shifter is harmless but that is far from the truth. He is so skilled that he could be right in front of you in a moment and disappear the next. Since he is leader of all the guilds that are within his domain, he soley works to increase the wealth no matter what as long as it doesn't give him away.
Main Races: Shifters, Halflings, Gnomes, Yuan-Ti, and Humans
While all this background information is helpful, it is not the main idea of this campaign. It will all focus around the Consort-General Nihail Herald Obyrin who is a 28 year old *human*. Here is the back story for him:
Eons ago before the races started speaking their own languages and all knew Supernal, Nihail was known as Nihilious, an Obyrith, and also held the title Prince of Time. During the battle between the gods and these demons and elementals, he decided to betray the Queen of Chaos because she is the reason that his power destroyed their previous universe/realm. He decided to strike just when the demons were about to win and managed to seal the Queen of Chaos to one of the lost Abyssal planes (the one where they meet now). The only reason he could seal her away was because while he hid his true power, so did she and he figured this was the least he could do to get back at her. This distracted the forces enough to where the wind dukes of aaqa could craft the Rod of Seven Pieces which provided another victory by sealing Miska the spider-wolf away too.
Before Nihilious managed to lose his body, he used a special ritual to seal his power into four gems which represent the four foulest events that appear throughout time: False leaders, War, Famine, and Death. Then after his body finally gave, his soul wondered around aimlessly for thousands of years until a very interesting event happened: his soul fused perfectly with a human soul. So when he was finally concieved, all his memories were gone of his life as an Obyrith. Only when he started studying magic did his *natural* knack for it show and thus started his adventuering days to find out what he was and boy did he do just that.
Only when he broke into an abandoned temple did he manage to find out who he was after recovering the Gauntlets of the Timelord. As soon as he put them on he recovered most of his memories and realized what he needed to do: get back at the Queen of Chaos by killing Miska and kill Juiblex, The Faceless Lord so he could not be controlled since he has used his time magic to go back as an observer and sense that he knows his true name. Nihail has managed to gather a lot of consorts who inform him of almost every move that any power takes, whether it is in the mortal world or any other realm, he has a sense of what is going on. Now this brings me to the campaign idea.
He will use the PCs to get his gems of power back, slay Juiblex, and gather the Rod of Seven Parts to summon Miska and slay him. After this is done, he will kill Ashardalon to claim the Bastion of Unborn souls as his domain so he can imput his next scheme: kill all the other Obyriths and claim their power as his own.
The campaign will start in paragon tier where I plan to have at least 3 major plots go on: Kill the clan leaders who are trying to stop the country from getting ready for war with The Kingdom of Harmonia and the Bearers of the Famine and False Leader gems and which will start the PCs on the path to becoming strong enough to kill Juiblex. The reason Nihail can't do it himself is because if if gets found out he is still alive, he can't fulfill his missions.
The war with Harmonia will be the entry into epic tier which will net the PCs the war gem and Nihail will be able to *provide* evidence that Juiblex was behind it to frame him and get him killed. After that, the PCs will take on the undead threat which they will learn that the leader is the Fallen God of Death, Nerull and he has the death gem. Then they will kill Ashardalon and most likely face Nihilious and if they decide not to (which I would be mad about since I am trying to develop him in another thread), I will have him as a one-shot boss fight.
I would like to first state that these are my basic outline of what I want to happen and fully expect that it won't work this way and any help would be appreciated since I haven't DMed as much. The reason why I am starting in paragon is because it will go by a bit faster and I am having the players tell me what they did to become famous wherever they are from. Here is what I am asking them:
1) What did they do to become famous and known throughout their land?
2) Give me some background information about the character and 3 goals they want to accomplish and why.
If you have anymore things for me to ask them please list them and if I did not put enough information in each country please tell me. I thank you for reading all this and am putting myself in your hands to help make an awesome campaign for my friends
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