Any Ideas For This OA Campaign?

[The Green Man]

OK, I know this doesn't really belong here, but I had posted it already in the Plots forum and haven't gotten any responses. And I really, really would like some input here.

I'm planning on running (fairly) soon, after we're done with Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, a campaign set in the Asian lands (The Morninglands) of my campaign world. I'd like the input of some other of you imaginative DMs on this.

Some parts of the plotline are lifted liberally from books I've read and such, but said references are obscure enough that my players won't recognize them.

Basically, the skeleton of a plot I have involves an elemental savant (per Tome and Blood) whose favored element is Water or Ice (most likely Ice). Anyways, said savant steals a scroll from an excavation in Qanin (vaguely Mesopotamia-Arabian). The possibly pre-human scroll details the ritual used by the gods to exile the world's most powerful fire demon and Satan-type figure into the Netherwells (Far Realm).

The savant sets up shop in Adlivun (the Inuit-tinged northern plateau of the world), and intends to use the scroll to perform a similar ritual exiling the sun god - thus calling down an endless winter upon the land.

Plotlines liberally ripped off from "The Winter of the World" series and "The Way of the Tiger" gamebooks, particularly #1.

Comments, questions, suggestions, things you like, things you don't like, whatever?

Also for those in the know - is there anything in the Rokugan worldbook that would be good to throw in? I'm particularly wondering if I could substitute Void for Ice.

I have one particular scene in mind in which the PCs get to a village (the adventure hook is that the regional government lost contact with the village, a la Aliens), and the townsfolk, livestock, everything is completley frozen over. And they'll immediately think "white dragon".

 

[nameless]

Void wouldn't work for your plan. The best comparison I can make for void is that it's the element corresponding to fate/destiny. Void is the common thread of all the world, and void specialists gain the ability to basically scry at will.

In Rokugan, there is a similar device to the one you mentioned. When the gods fell from heaven, one became evil. Years later, the humans of the world battled the dark god (Fu Leng). They trapped his essence in the 12 black scrolls. A thousand years later, the scrolls were opened and the god was released for the empire to fight again.

Later in the storyline, a powerful mortal killed the evil moon god (and therefore the moon). His wife, the sun, committed ritual suicide, leaving the empire in 27 days of darkness. To make a long story short, the slayer of Lord Moon became the new moon, and another powerful mortal became the new sun by assisting the sun goddess commit seppuku.

As far as suggestions, you could have the scroll detail the objects needed for the ritual. Obviously the party won't be able to stop him from getting the first objects, since he's so powerful, but as they gain power, they will be a match for him. As long as they can get even a single artifact that he needs, he'll have to face them eventually. The PCs can be from a guardian order made to protect the ritual, though some of them may only be members due to heredity, while others are active members.

Obviously for anything I've said, YMMV.

-nameless

 

[The Green Man]

Thanks, Nameless.