Developing Epic Campaign For Two Person Gestalt Game

[The Levitator]

Hi everyone. I've got a great opportunity to really take the gloves off and challenge myslef and a couple of my players. 2 of my regular gamers want to play in an Epic style campaign with gestalt characters. They want it to be exceptionaly challenging and start with their backs against the wall. I've got some ideas but I'm struggling with a couple of the details. Here's what I've got so far.

1 of the players wants to play a fighter/sorcerer, and the other a ranger/rogue. I'm going to start them out as outcast survivors in a sort of post war/invasion world, where evil has already taken over and is controlling things. They will belong to a rag tag bunch of survivors who escaped being killed or taken into slavery. The ranger/rogue is the survivor of the 2, who came up on the city streets but since the invasion of ______ he has been forced to adapt his wiles to the wilderness. The fighter/sorcerer was a simple member of the military who is at this point unaware of his bloodline and connection to powerful and ancient magic. He is going to "awaken" at the start of the campaign.

I thought the first few levels of the campaign would be centered around basic survival, staying alive and avoiding the "hunts". It would also involve their quest to try and learn where the Fighter/Sorcerer's power comes from. The middle levels would have them starting to take a larger role in the "rebellion". And the upper levels would be for the eventual toppling of the evil that is in power.

Here's my problem. I haven't really figured out what I want the "evil" to be. These are both long time gamers (each over 20 years) so they have seen a lot. I'm a very detail-oriented DM so I want to create a scenario that makes sense, but with some twists to keep them on their toes. I have a couple of basic ways I can go, but I would love to hear some additional unconventional ideas too.

My first idea is the basic "humanoids rebel against humankind" theme. Orc, orogs, ogres and trolls have banded together and reduced humankind to slaves. I am leaning toward this scenario as its simple and would make for some really fun twists, but I need to come up with some twists.

Another way to go is the "uber-powerful" necromancer and his army of undead". I've always loved this kind of theme but the undead theme can tend to pigeonhole me and gets boring after a while.

A couple of other ideas I've been throwing around is the "daywalking vampires". An army of mutated vampires takes to daylight and starts converting and eradicating humankind.

A similiar idea to that would be mutated Drow who have grown to be able to live in normal daylight.

I just need to land on the supreme evil faction that has taken over the world, and design some eventual plot twists to stir the pot.

I am normally pretty good at this kind of thing, but they have kind of sprung this on me and want to start this weekend. I use DM Genie to write campaigns so once I have the basic idea, it will only take a day or 2 to prepare it. I am interested to see if people think the above ideas are workable with sufficient twists or if you think I should go in a different direction alltogether.

Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this lengthy post!

 

[Sandain]

How about,

1000 years ago a great war was fought. The tide of evil was only barely defeated by the good aligned races and a few heroes from the Gestalt tribes.

The defeated evil forces crawled, slithered, skulked, and flew back to the forgotten parts of the wrld - underground, underwater, and the remote badlands.

The three most powerful leaders of the most powerful races met, and came up with a plan. They would lay silent for 1000 years, and make thier races powerful. Making remote lairs unknown even to each other, and teach them all ancient secrets.

The Aboleth's would spread silently undersea, the Ilithids would claim the Underdark, and the Beholders the forgotten ruins and mountain caverns.

Over time they would slay any descendants of the Gestalt's and purge history of what happened. Any Hero's they would use to kill off other threats such as liches and dragons - using planted clues, subtlety, or dominated agents.

In such a way Evil managed to neutralize the Temple of Elemental Evil, The Ebon Triad, Kyuss, Acerak etc.

Once all strength and Epic magic was eliminated from living memory and the ability to Gestalt was bred out of the humanoid races - they would strike.

All city, military, and church leaders were dominated. Coastal cities were sacked by Aboleth Thralls. Entire regions were laid to waste by an army of Beholders.

Noone knew who was controlled and who wasnt. Family turned against each other, neighbours killed thier friends. People fled - but there was nowhere to go.

Now the world is under control. Ilithids walk the streets openly - feeding on who they like. Beholders control all the humanoid and giant tribes - demanding tribute. Ilithids control the seas and lakes and the hidden riches and secrets of forgotten civilisations.

And there are no heroes powerful enough to stop them, and definitely no surviving ancestors of the Gestalts.

 

[The Levitator]

Holy Crap, that's good! After I posted and reread my post, I had thought about combining factions. I really like this idea and it really has the wheels turning. Thanks a ton for the quick and very descriptive reply!

 

[Sandain]

Any time, there is no reason there cannot be daywalking vampire Ilithids, or even a sect of dominated human vampire daywalker thralls.

There could be a Demi-lich beholder with his own army of undead.

This way your players will always have different and unique challenges appropriate to thier level. And also adds in prophecy and a long term story arc.

So, use ALL your ideas, why choose just one?

 

[Solarious]

Demi-lich Beholders?

...

I think I just had an evilgasm.

 

[The Levitator]

So, use ALL your ideas, why choose just one?

Well.....because......it just seems so.........eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeevil!

Seriously though, I think these 2 are up to the task. I'm trying to pin them down as much as possible to start, per their request. They are going to start holed up in an old abandon cave that used to serve as a commune but was recently cleaned out. The only thing there are tattered sheets and broken barrels. They have no allies, no family, and no town to go to. They are literally cut off from anyone else of their kind. I am going to start them out with at least one decent magical item each, since finding new ones will mean going into the mouth of the lion so to speak.

I think I'm leaning toward a massive coordinated humanoid invasion that was started by a secret coven of daywalking vampires. The coven is powerful, but small and needed an army to take humankind by surprise. They looked to humankind's worst enemies; orcs, orogs, ogres and trolls. They used their power to form a truce between these races and help organize them. As added insurance, the vampires have also formed an alliance with a pack of Red Dragons, promising to rid the land of those pesky humans and return it to the dragons in exchange for getting to keep the humans for feeding and creating blood farms.

I know that orcs, vampires and dragons are pretty commonplace in most D&D worlds, but I have a couple of reasons for going this route. The first is that I only have a few days to put this together so I'm using creatures I'm familiar with to make the adventure go smoothly without a lot of page flipping. The other reason I want to use somewhat mundane creatures is so that I can throw some curves at them. I'm going to change them all al bit to keep the players on their toes. For example, the standard ogres will all have the same stats as ogre mages, making them much smarter than normal and better leaders of the orcs and orogs. The ogre mages will all be necromancers that were taught the dark arts by the vampires. In addition, the orogs are going to stronger and dumber than normal to be the mindless muscle. And the orcs will be much like a normal race, with many of them having class levels, thanks to the organization and training of the vampires. Like I had mentioned before, the vampires will have no problems with sunlight, making them not only more difficult to kill but more difficult to even identify. And as for the dragons, well what do you really have to do with dragons? A pack of red dragons should be challenging for the toughest of duos. Of course, it will be a long time before they even get to the vampires, let alone the dragons. And that should give me more time to flesh out the world and all of the details.

I know this is probably yawnsville for many DM's, but I'm challenging myself to make the mundane as chalenging and suspenseful as possible with the deadline I have. with the focus on the plight of humankind and not trying to create the strangest creature imagineable.

Thanks for the great inspriation Sandian! I plan to use a similiar timeline in my campaign. I'm also adopting the idea of the 2 heroes being of special lineage. The ranger/rogue has a special connection with nature, which despises the incursion of the humanoids and their rampant destruction. And of course, the Fighter/Sorcerer gets his power from an ancient draconic bloodline and he will come face to face with his distant relatives.

I'm really looking forward to this as most of our campaigns are pretty mundane. We have 3 pretty novice players in our group, and if I put them in the position I'm going to start these guys out with, they would never even leave the cave!

 

[Sandain]

Maybe give them the Ancestral Relic feat for free or give them a Weapon of Legacy? that way it will grow with the character and not be put to one side at later levels.

Wow I gave someone an evilgasm! Do I get some kind of reward? a certificate? im really proud!

 

[Quartz]

Fighter / Sorceror I can see, but Ranger / Rogue? Aren't those two classes a bit too close? I'd think that the Fighter / Sorceror will totally overshadow the other. And, of course, neither of the characters is a healer, which could make things very interesting.

 

[The Levitator]

I think Ranger and Rogue are close in some respects. I believe what he was going for was sneaky wilderness/sneaky urban guy. A guy who's just as deadly in the woods as he is the back alleys. So far, it's making for a great story dynamic. And I'm one step ahead on the ancestral relic thing too, since civilization as they know it is basically gone and they will have to scrounge for everything they have.

 

[Quartz]

I think Ranger and Rogue are close in some respects. I believe what he was going for was sneaky wilderness/sneaky urban guy.

Agreed, but these should both be on the same side of the Gestalt, matched with something like Druid or Cleric on the other.