Forgotten Realms Game narrowly evades absolute disaster

[JackSmithIV]

I think some might appreciate this...

I have my sessions on Wednesdays and Sundays, and we've been running my own Forgotten Realms game, 4th Edition. We started with Loudwater, and I quickly expanded and adapted the adventure to launch the beginning of en epic, and they are reaching the end of heroic tier.

The party is a group of high-ranking Cormyrian soldiers, including Ornrion Sirron Vel (Earthsoul Genasi Warlord), Leuitenant Swordcaptain Nymeria Norathem (Eladrin Swordmage), and Chaplain Swordcaptain Morgrim Ironhide (Dwarf Paladin of Kelemvor), Ornrion and Swordcaptain being actual ranks in the purple dragons. They've been spending the campaig struggling against Thayans, the Order of the Blue Fire, Najarans, Netherese, and various other forces.

SO. The players this last session had to take a trip to the Greypeaks in order to investigate a dwarven ruin named Sarrak'Var, an underground plagueland that was a huge dwarf city before the spellplague burned away all of it's inhabitants. They use a passwall ritual to get through a caved-in passave, but when they enter the ruin, they find a teeming dwarven citidel with hundreds of thousands of inhabitants. Also, the eladrin cannot feystep or use her magic.

They then realize that using the passwall in such an area of teeming wild magic has sent them back to the dwarf citadel before it was eradicated. Since what they were looking for is a concentrated area of plaguefire in order to cast a ritual, they have no way of performing the task they needed to, and with the weave intact and no one trained in it's ways, they had no way of getting home.

They then thought... "Hey, I wonder if it's possible that we can try and stop the spellplague." (hopeless endeavor) They spent time theorizing whether or not they could get the paladin to warn Kelemvor, but unfortunately Kelemvor of this time didn't know of the paladin. Then the warlord put things to a sudden halt...

"Guys, if we stop the spellplague, the weave remains intact, we never go back... we'll be stuck in Edition 3.5 forever!!!!!"

This put an immediate and terrified halt to the proceedings. Needless to say, they were returned by the passwall to the day of the spellplague itself. They fought through the city while everything went to madness, they found the tunnels at the source of the twisted invasion, had an awesome fight against a sharn, and cast their ritual, putting them back in the present.

TLDR: And the campaign goes on. Ultimately, my players spent an hour or so after the game talking about how funny and horrible it would be if they actually had to recreate their characters in 3.5. When they get outside of the ruin, they'll find that they've been gone a whole week.

Should be fun!

 

[chaotix42]

Hilarious! The idea of editiontravel is so amusing.

 

[Wormwood]

Okay, I LOL'ed.

Bravo!

 

[Dragonbait]

To put it in IM/TM speech: lol @ ur grup

Cute story. It's nice to see that groups other than the one I GM for think that they all aspects of a setting are there for them to stop (in fact, MY players also wondered about stopping the spell plague, amongst other things).

 

[Weregrognard]

Nice. It reminds me of an idea I had to run a time travel scenario, perhaps to a classic location, where they have to play previous edition versions of their characters. I have yet to try it.

 

[JackSmithIV]

It's nice to see that groups other than the one I GM for think that they all aspects of a setting are there for them to stop (in fact, MY players also wondered about stopping the spell plague, amongst other things).

Haha, I think it was really only a passing fancy. My players actually dig post-spellplague Faerun more than pre-spellplague. And their backstories are such that un-spellplaguing might create a few story paradoxes. And nothing is worse than having to reroute your campaign because of a time paradox...

 

[TarionzCousin]

Haha, I think it was really only a passing fancy. My players actually dig post-spellplague Faerun more than pre-spellplague. And their backstories are such that un-spellplaguing might create a few story paradoxes. And nothing is worse than having to reroute your campaign because of a time paradox...

Who are you and what have you done with JackSimthIV?

Spoiler

It sounds like it was a fun session and will provide lots of fuel for future laughs.

 

[Badjak]

Uh oh, I see a time paradox happening. "Power cards, where we're going we don't need power cards!'

 

[wingsandsword]

Hilarious! The idea of editiontravel is so amusing.

It's actually been done officially before. Back in the 2e era they had a FR box set for the golden age of Netheril, pre-Karsus's Folly. As this was set long before the Time of Troubles it was set during 1e, so the 2e box set had notes on changes to make to the rules to make it more like 1e since that was the rules of the world at that time.

In terms of time travel and the Spellplague, I preferred what our own group did: In a 3.5 campaign where a time travelling archmage from over a century in the future comes back, from a devastated future where Mystra is dead, the weave is ruined, the realms lie in ashes, and a horrible cataclysm called "spellplague" that was worse that Karsus's Folly, the Dawn Cataclysm, or the Time of Troubles (combined) has rent Toril asunder, and the PC's have a chance to save Faerun from a fate worse than death (our group hates 4e/post spellplague realms, and the idea of pre-empting that timeline was just too good to pass up).