Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Templetroll" data-source="post: 2976532" data-attributes="member: 2201">Imperial SummonsThe campaign setting was based on the comment in the 1e DMG about there having once been 10th+ magic during which time artifacts were created.  I set an ancient empire where this was so.  The armies were all outfitted with magic armor and weapons and there were military units of magi and clerics.  They spread out conquering the world and building heavily fortified underground defense installations.  Elves held out in the deepest parts of the forests.  Dwarves moved back underground, and then these races made treaties that stopped the assault against them for work done on behalf of The Empire.Any listing in the MM type books that attributed the existance of a creature to a 'mad godling', 'wizard's experiment' or 'occult ritual' were all due to The Emperor or at his direction.  Most Artifacts were of Imperial design.Then, it happened.There was a mystic cataclysm, called the Decline of Magic, that brought the level of magic possible down to only 9th level spell effects.  This had the side effect of making most of the magical items created by The Empire of Calydonia lose their magic completely or in part.  This allowed the subjugated races to rise up and free themselves of The Empire.  Many magic items changed hands as the Imperial Army tried to retreat.  Some items that reatained their magic also acquired a degree of intelligence, but whether this was from the magic or by absorbing someone dying nearby is unknown.The capital city of Calydon was devastated by the Decline; the Emperor, a mighty Lich,  disappeared that day and was believed destroyed.   The capital city became a location of monster lairs and strange magical effects.  A corridor on an upper floor of the palace would shift through time, past and future.  When it hits the time of The Decline it was deadly to be in the area.The newly freed lands split into kingdoms and freeholds, and monsters wandered freely in newly uncivilized lands.  Time past, things settled down.A group of youths from a small town decided to do something other than fish or farm so they looked around for something adventurous to do.  During one such journey there was a strange dark cloud flowing oddly across the sky.  A single bolt of lightning struck one of their number and left a smouldering pile of ash.   Shaken, the group continued on their journey, carrying the ashes of their friend.  A few days later, after they had accomplished their task, they once again saw the strange cloud but this time the bolt of lightning that cracked down left their friend!  He stood there smiling with tendrils of smoke rising from him.Turns out he had spent the time with The Emperor, in the Palace of Calydon.  The Emperor only seemd to want to chat with him about his life and what he had been doing.  So it was for many adventurers over the years.  Some of the more astute noticed that not all of those they adventured with were summoned, however.A couple of players figured there had to be a reason for it all.  I just smiled, and cringed inside because the reason was to allow me to remove absent player's characters from the game and get them back the next time the player showed up!  So, I set out to come up with a proper reason - The Emperor would be in a great battle against powerful Heroes.  He was near defeat and then took a trip back in time to set up a trap.  The Emperor put a Clone in the palace with a powerful spell set in place that would draw those Heroes to him while they were young.  The goal was not to defeat or kill them before that great battle but to set as many up for an Imprisionment or Trap the Soul spell by permitting the clone to spend years talking to the young folks and learning all the details of their lives.  Then, at the point where the Emperor had escaped the Clone could come in and use his spells to decimate the Heroic forces.  We didn't get that far yet.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

Verification