gah writers block

[Rechan]

Let's twist this around: the Feywild was the original source of these troubles. They solved it by "pushing" it out to the midworld. Once it was eradicated from the Feywild, they fought viciously to keep it out, regardless of the cost to the midworld.

The Far Realm aberrations are more like a parasite, feeding on the poison plaguing the world. It draws them, gives them strength.

I want to play with this, taking it a step further.

The Real World (Midworld, whathaveyou) was once actually PART of the Far Realms. A domain of some large entity. As time went on, this section of the Far Realms grew so orderly, it became an island of Law in a sea of Chaos. And that Order put the Entity asleep. And as it slept, the world became more orderly, an island of Order and Law within a soup of Chaos. It got so strong that the Far Realms "rejected" it, pushing the world outside of the Far Realms.

A rift was created when the Far Realms shoved the Midworld out of itself. That caused a lot of tears and bleeding, and sent shockwaves of the Far Realms into the Feywild. The Feywild, x number of years ago, managed to push the taint of the Far Realms out of itself, and lock the doors. The return of the Far Realms has seeped through the cracks of Order, and are stirring the Entity that sleeps in the core of the earth. As it comes out of hybernation, it is so starved that it is widening the gaps of the Far Realm to grow stronger, intent on returning the world to its rightful place amid the chaos. The poisonous plants, the cancerous growths, it's a sign of the Rot of the world, as the world's very Nature is being changed from order to chaos.

Aberrations are like flies and parasites; they sense the growing trend, and so are breeding and festering and chewing on the order.

 

[ShockMeSane]

I think ShockMeSane's idea is a winner. I particularly like how it ties in the Eladrin into the plot in a deep, integral way.

Another cool thing is how Heroic, Paragon, Epic all plug in to the campaign's unified theme. There's probably a general lesson about structure to be learned here. First, start with some great, epic level Threat. Then:

* Heroic -- stumble around in the dark, fight various minions of the Threat. By level 10, you've basically put most of the pieces together about what the Threat *is* and how to start fighting it effectively.
* Paragon -- take the fight to the main bad guys in the World, saving cities and kingdoms. By level 20, you've at least halted the Threat's advance.
* Epic -- no more Mr. Nice Guy, take the fight to the heart of the Threat itself. By level 30, the campaign is over: you've defeated the Threat for 1000 years / forever. (Or you failed, and the next campaign is set in a world that suffers the consequences -- perhaps a post-apocalyptic setting. Or the PCs are defeated & seduced by the Threat and become Avatars of Evil for the next 1-30 campaign. )

Thanks. One of the great aspects for me from a campaign designer PoV about 4th is that the storyline is very easily neatly divided up into the three tiers. While of course this was doable in all previous editions, it's the kind of storytelling aid which lets a DM create a storyarc with obvious chapters while keeping the final goal in sight from the very first adventure a bit more easily.

Also, this is pretty much Dungeoneering 101, that Eldarin/Feywild hook in the campaign is just screaming for some kind of secret... it could just as easily be a number of things, but I find the more shocking the better.

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

Thank you very much to everyone who responded. There are lots of great ideas there. I'm definitely going to steal the Eladrin conspiracy arc and run with that. I also like the idea of midworld and the "real" cosmology once being a part of the Far Realm.

So here is what I got so far

In the beginning there was only the Far Realm that consisted entirely of a universe sized organism (think big old amoeba). Through mutation and chance other life forms within the Aggregate spawned and an entire far realm ecosystem eventually formed.

Then something appeared in the cytoplasm that was alien to the Aggregate. Like an oyster with a grain of sand the Aggregate encysted the foreign particle and isolated the irritation from the rest of the organism. Gradually this cyst grew to the size of the "real universe" and spawned its own life. (then follow the creation myth in worlds and monsters from within the bubble)

Now after countless eons of neglect and coexistence the Aggregate and the other inhabitents of the Far Realm are finally beginning to notice this upstart cosmos in their midst .

Going with that, the current situation the players start in is the Far Realm is leaking into Midworld. The leak is physical and located somewhere deep underground. In Midworld the essence of the Far Realm manifests itself as "reality tumors". Giant fleshy masses that distort and consume the fabric of the real world. The Dwarves courageously fight a ceasless battle with implements of war and magic to keep the tumors at bay but gradually they are losing ground.

On the surface the essence of Far Realm is held in check by the very object that spawned the creation of the cosmos. Because of this the Aggregate can only infect and damage existing life rather than create new malevolent life on its own. The "creation object" is located in Feywild and this proximity keeps the Feywild infection free. But that doesn't stop the Eladrin from guarding the paths between Feywild and Midworld and killing any who cross on the orders of their immortal King. The King is actually using the energies of the "particle" to keep him immortal and is willing to sacrifice all of Midworld to keep himself alive.

The gods are blind to this threat for their very nature makes it impossible for them comprehend anything outside the realms of their creation. The primordials only want to unsettle the order of midworld, even if it will mean their eventual destruction. The secretive devils may be aware of the truth but aren't willing to fight and may even be encouraging the incursion as a part of their complex schemes.

The players start knowing the world is messed up. The monsterous humanoids who normally stay underground are openly attacking settlements, whole forests have turned into poisonous deathtraps, and once fertile plains languish as dusty lifeless wastes.

Thanks again to the community the inspiration and any comments or criticisms are encouraged and appreciated.

 

[Cadfan]

Take a cue from the "points of light" principles. Start small. Don't worry about tying the whole setting together yet. The surface is a poisonous wasteland- why? The players don't know, its just always been that way. The eladrin guard the feywild and kill anyone who enters? Why? Players don't know, its always been that way. Dwarves fight giant underground tumors? Where do these come from and why? Don't know, but the tumors still need killing. The far realms are involved? Why and how? Again, the players don't know yet.

What the players DO know is that a seer has prophesied that a tumor will grow and wipe out the community in their home tunnels, unless someone can find it and kill it before it has time to get started. The PCs are the logical choices for the job. Normally, this would be easy- scour the tunnels, cut out any tumors, and burn the scarred stone until its sterile. But goblins have moved into the tunnels where the tumor is expected likely to begin. There's a lot of them, and they've arrived suddenly, attacking immediately upon arrival.

During the course of the game the players will learn the following:

1. The goblin warparty contains the deposed goblin chief of a nearby goblin nation.
2. He was kicked out by a rival, a goblin cleric.
3. The goblin cleric has created a cult like religious revival amongst the goblin people.
4. The goblins now worship some entity that has some connection with the goblins.
5. The reason these particular tunnels were likely to grow a tumor is because one of the goblins with the chieftain was infected with some sort of bizarre disease.
6. Wherever this goblin's body is left when he's killed, tumors will grow. The disease is not yet evident from looking at the body, but the players will have the chance to figure this out if/when they return to the site they killed him. If this particular goblin is killed somewhere inconvenient, or his body is disposed of in an inconvenient place (like a dumpster the player's home town) the tumor will show up there as the goblin's body melts into spores that seep into the surrounding stone.

7. And if the players are smart, they'll figure out that maybe this is why the Eladrin kill anyone who tries to enter the Feywild. The Eladrin are immune to this Contagion (as they call it), but other races are not. Permitting them entrance to the Feywild risks spreading the infection.