Challenging my high-lvl group (NPCs and monsters; my players shouldn't read this!)

[Spatzimaus]

Considering Sagiro's campaign is all about the "they changed the past, changing the outcome of a big war, and now look at what's happened" thing, I'd forget any ideas of time travel. Besides, it's just really cliche'd.

Although, if you wanted to put in a really limited time-travel thing to let them solve the Kellharin situation by grabbing a relative of his from the past (say, a young cousin who disappeared while wandering through some tunnels...) to continue the family bloodline in the present, that could work.

 

[Bronz Dragon]

Re: Time Travel And Other Things

...the White Kingdom should try to confront the Defenders not only with their fears, but with some nemeses of a sense.

Malachite with a genuinely beneficial undead. Stone Bear's ancestors

Mara with the sun as a destructive force. a giant ant with a magnifying glass

Velendo with walls being a bad thing. A deep, deep pit with crumbling walls that fall in when the captive tries to move.

 

[Piratecat]

Considering Sagiro's campaign is all about the "they changed the past, changing the outcome of a big war, and now look at what's happened" thing, I'd forget any ideas of time travel. Besides, it's just really cliche'd.

Yeah, without meaning to, Sagiro and I keep grabbing plots from each other - planned before they spring up in the other person's game! I had originally planned to have them confronted by the lackeys of an evil wizard named Rath, who of course was a time-traveled Dylrath trying to change the past so that he didn't become evil and twisted. It never worked out, unfortunately, but I have other fun things planned.

Although, if you wanted to put in a really limited time-travel thing to let them solve the Kellharin situation by grabbing a relative of his from the past (say, a young cousin who disappeared while wandering through some tunnels...) to continue the family bloodline in the present, that could work.

SUPER SECRET - don't mention the following!

Remember that key Nolin found in the first vault room, and the snippet of legend he remembered about a lost dwarven city? There's an entire city of 40,000 (somewat degenerate) dwarves sealed away on the elemental plane of earth - if the PCs ever decide to check it out by using it as a plane shift component, they'll be brought there. Instant army and dwarven city repopulation, anyone? I betcha they won't think of trying it until after the adventure, though.

 

[Graf]

I betcha they won't think of trying it until after the adventure, though.

In there defense, they have a lot of balls up in the air to start side-treking...
(the mark of the true RBDM, you have all the tools you need but you figure out just a bit too late how to put it together)

Time travel..... Very hard to pull off. I've played in several games where it train wrecked completely because the DMs weren't flexible enough to cope with what you can do when you *know* the future.

 

[Spatzimaus]

I had originally planned to have them confronted by the lackeys of an evil wizard named Rath, who of course was a time-traveled Dylrath trying to change the past so that he didn't become evil and twisted. [/B]

Naw, the REALLY twisted way to do it would to make the evil wizard Rath be a time-traveled Htarlyd, who wants to prevent the events that caused him to betray and kill Dylrath. That way, they'd end up spending a few adventures just arguing about HOW it was possible. (Answer: well, Teliez wanted an assistant, and Dylrath said no once too many times, so he went with the next best thing; using sort of an Epic variation on Simulacrum, he created a "Dylrath Golem", transferred Htarlyd into it, and so on... okay, maybe I've been watching too many old horror movies)

As for Goldstone, I guessed that they weren't going to want to take many "side trips". I mean, if they spend a lot of cash to avoid losing a few months training levels, they're probably not going to want to take any planar jaunts. Unless, of course, they have no choice.
For example, maybe at some point in the future (like when TomTom's player is ready to play full-time again), they'll need to take a trip to try and shut off that temporal rebound thing once and for all. Of course, TomTom will immediately want to head back to Eversink to grab whatever money remains in the now-failed investments, and so on.

Which reminds me, I had a question: when Agar was trying to arrange payment with Mijrik, how exactly did they plane shift in and out of the town? Wouldn't the random scatter in the spell have done nasty things to anyone who getting back? Or did they planeshift back to a safer place on the surface and then Teleport Without Error? Guess I answered my own question.

 

[Talix]

I sincerely hope you avoid doing something cheesy a la Star Trek time travel (the past they already lived through actually changes). All these other ideas seem definitely plausible and evil in a really fun way, though! Love the undead Priggle.

 

[Bronz Dragon]

Just reading the story hour, and I couldn't help noticing the dead bullete...

could that be what I think it is?

*prepares a girlish squeal of glee*

 

[Samnell]

Is it too late to share Kuo-Toa ideas? This isn't so much cultural, but wouldn't it be cool if their city were defended by one or two skeletal krakens? Ok, I know in real life mollusks don't have skeletons like humans do, but this is D&D.

Just imagine, the Defenders come up on a giant cavern containing the city beneath the surface of this little underground sea and one of them is grabbed by a giant skeletal tentacle. Alternatively, pseudonatural krakens. Maybe another marriage prospect for Agar, and one he isn't so against.

 

[MTR]

The Defenders believe they were responsible for causing the disaster that looms over them. I thought you might have them go back in time to undo that. Of course they need to avoid paradoxes while they do so, which could be used as a way to strip them of some of their power. Of course somebody like Nolin would get impatient with avoiding paradoxes and kick the whole structure over.

I *love* the lich Priggle.

 

[Kugar]

I just had a evil kinda idea from reading the main thread. KidC said that soon the local ex-vergins may come a calling carrying "gifts". What if you used the cliched serving girl, with the proverbial love child, but instead of looking for Nolin, she comes after Malachite or Velendo? Would having a child change Malachite's martyr complex. How was the child concieved? If the Emerald Chapel demands celebacy, then you got a real puzzle on your hands. Of course divinations agree with the young woman, but they have been wrong before, right?

Kugar