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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SparqMan" data-source="post: 5462960" data-attributes="member: 77624">Thanks for replying. On reread, I see that my OP wasn't as clear as it could have been. To clarify, HS2 isn't relevant to the question.A few notes:- My current plan is to basically lean on the Orcus wants the Raven Queen's domain theme of P1-E3. The Vampire Lords replace the Ashen Covenant, seeking to elevate the status of Orcus and themselves at the same time.- Paragon will focus on the heroes isolating or removing the high-level allies that have aligned with Orcus: Torog (who wants to back the deal he had with Nerull to keep any souls that perish in the Underdark/Feydark/Shadowdark) and the Prince of Frost (who wants the Domain of Winter and hates living things).-- Early adventures saw the heroes clash with some minions of Torog. One PC even has a Tattoo of Vengeance that includes the name of the King That Crawls. This will work will with a modified P2.-- One PC is an Eladrin scout sent to the Material Plane to see what's been up since Nerath fell. She has noticed a few winter fey clues here and there, and serves a Gloaming Fey noble. I will likely replace/modify P1 to have them engage in some Fey Court intrigue to thwart the Prince of Frost's involvement.-- P3 they meet the Raven Queen and maybe enter her service.- Then epic will follow E1-E3 in actually confronting Orcus and his minions as they enact their plan sans allies.The PCs are totally unaware of that larger arc in any sense. I haven't tried to include it and fear that I will do so in the most obvious manner.As far as remaining Heroic times and the BBEG plans, I've got this:- There are three key Vampire Lords, each in a different city.- The one nearest to the heroes' homebase is the most martial of the Lords. He tires of playing with mortals on the Material Plane and wants action. He seeks to build an army to invade the Shadowfell, create a foothold and slowly eat up the territory of the Raven Queen.-- The Vampires mostly rule through fear and evil power, but don't have a standing force of arms. To that end, he has engaged two key minions in building an army. The heroes have met these two sub-bosses, but had minimal direct contact/encounter against them:--- A lich seeks to collect a set of powerful artifacts that will enable him to cast a mass Raise Dead ritual and provide an overwhelming undead army.--- A priestess of Torog is attempting to enhance the fighting capability of mortals by transfering their tortured souls into twisted bodies (think Witherlings).My hope is that by the end of Heroic tier, the heroes have either toppled the martial Vampire Lord and freed his city (causing all sorts of other chaos)That's about what I've got now. The heroes have met a Good order that wants to help the people and topple the Lords, and there's probably room for a more extreme organization (like the Platinum Talons) that want an even deeper purge of the lands.As far as the Cobalt, it wasn't a planned addition. The blue dragon mention just blurted out and that's why I'm trying to fit it in. It can go any direction, which is where I'm looking for ideas.Draconomicon 2 paints Cobalt dragons are interested in ruling: territory, people and things. They want to be masters. The location of this dragon is far from the major Vampire Lords, which means they aren't threats. Plus even though I may choose to make him a young dragon, dragons have long consideration timelines and might see this as something that will blow over.The best option seems to be proving their valor to the Cobalt and/or taking him on as their master. What could make that more interesting than them simplying saying "Yeah, okay, you're our Master, sir."?</blockquote>

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