ryryguy
First Post
Hi All,
I have a session on Sunday, where the primary goal for the PCs is to find a planar gate. The gate is located on the Plane of Fire, hidden on or under or in what was previously a volcano. Originally it was a gate to Plane of Earth (thus the volcano), later it was altered to lead to the Plane of Ooze and/or Water. Also, there is a magical device or geegaw of some kind that is drawing power from the gate; the players must either destroy or (better) make away with it.
I'm having a little trouble getting my ideas to gel about how exactly to represent the gate, what the magical device might look like, and what challenge might be involved in destroying or stealing it. I could use some ideas!
That's the basic situation; I'll give more description of the setting and the adventure so far if that may help. If anyone has other ideas about any of this this, please lay 'em on me!
First, the setting. As noted, once upon a time there was a naturally occuring gate (planar vortex) leading to the Plane of Earth which took the form of a volcano. Later, a Sultan of the Efreeti moved the destination point of the gate to the Plane of Ooze bordering Earth and Fire (and possibly all the way to Water proper). This was part of his grand scheme to launch a surprise attack on the Marid. (The outcome of this scheme hasn't been specified, maybe it was a grand success, maybe a horrible fiasco.) As a result, there has been a gate leaking ooze and/or water into the old volcano, resulting in a strange terrain feature called a "molten mud boil". Basically the caldera of the volcano is filled with molten mud. This is a rare feature since gates to Water/Ooze are very rare on the Plane of Fire.
A thousand years passed, and a syndicate of mercanes learned of the site. They hatched a scheme. Using the vague magical device, they were able to channel cold / ooze / anti-fire arcane energy of some sort in order to create a stable "lambent flame field". Lambent flame field, which I took out of a Dragon magazine from a couple years ago, is basically an area on the Plane of Fire where the fire dominant trait is supressed, so non-fire creatures don't burn up there. Normally these are unstable and disappear after days, weeks, or months at the outside.
The mercanes then approached the current Sultan of the Efreet. They offered an absurdly high price in exchange for a grant of limited autonomy for their syndicate on the flame field. Basically, they get to rule the flame field, and most importantly, are exempt from the Sultan's tariffs so long as the flame field exists. Of course, their offer only seemed absurdly high, because the Sultan assumed that the flame field would disappear before too long. But sustained by the gate-draining device, the field has survived for more than twenty years, much to the Sultan's embarassment. The mercanes have essentially created a luxury hotel and duty-free shopping mall there and have been making nice profits.
One other detail about the location, which might potentially tie into the gate somehow. A big source of the mercane's profit here is that they can harvest something called "coldfire stones" from the molten mud boil. These stones have magical properties including usefulness in crafting magic items more cheaply than usual. Normally, these stones are mined out of small islands of solidified rock that form in the molten mud. Every once in a while, there's a "coldfire stone explosion" when a bubble suddenly forms in the mud, then explodes, causing a small quantity of the stones to rain down over a large area. In addition to the mercanes, their servants and employees, and customers, the flame field is the home of various hopeful characters - jann, mephlings, salamanders, random humanoids - who hope to strike it rich by getting in on one of these rare "bubble rushes". Plus various shady characters who prey on their hopes.
On to the players and the adventure. The PC's are a group of four-half elementals, one from each element. (The name of the campaign is "the E-Team"
) They are ECL 10, class level 7, monk (earth), rogue (fire), archivist (water), and sorceror (air). They have a grudge against a particular mercane from this syndicate. With the help of some allies, they arranged for all the mercanes to be summoned to the Sultan's court for a week, drastically lowering the defences at the syndicate. The only mercane there, who hurried back from the material plane, is their enemy. They can't take him on directly - they'd probably lose, and also their identities are known to the syndicate; even if they somehow succeeded, there would be bad consequences. So, instead they want to undo the magic sustaining the flame field. If this occurs while the enemy mercane is charge, he will be humiliated and perhaps even cast out of the syndicate.
The players know that there is some kind of gate with something stabilizing the flame field, and they know it is under the mud boil. They are just about to discover a secret entrance to a lava tube which leads to the area under the mud boil. Here's my vague plans for what they will encounter... since none of this has been revealed yet, it can all be changed.
The mercanes of course want the gate and stabilizer to be unmolested. They've probably left a few permanent symbols here and there. But they've also "outsourced" security to a half-red dragon phase spider. This phase spider is smarter than the average, but still no genius, and in addition to paying him, the mercanes have flattered him by making him the "Duke" of the area under the boil. He rules it as his own little "duchy". His subjects are mainly mephits. I'm thinking that there are ooze and/or water mephits who occasionally "leak" through the gate. These poor suckers can't leave the area of the flame field or they'd burn up, and in fact they probably don't ever really make it out of the area under the boil. So they are enslaved by the Duke. Probably there are also some fire mephits who are subjects of the Duke and basically lord it over the water/ooze guys. Finally the Duke has a couple of lieutenants, possibly ethereal filchers and/or marauders, though other fire creatures might be better. Some oozes wander around the place too.
I'd like for there to be some sort of economy/industry going on here too, but I'm having trouble thinking of exactly what it might be. Something they could trade to the mercanes perhaps. Also, I'm thinking that maybe the coldfire stones are actually made out of the water/ooze mephits somehow, but I'm not sure how. It could be something the Duke and his minions do intentionally, or it could be something that happens naturally/accidentally to escaped slaves. Possibly the "coldfire stone explosions" result when a large ooze or water elemental makes it through the gate and falls afoul of this process.
I'm still working out the physical layout of the place, but lava tubes are definitely part of it. The Duke has a hideout that is entirely enclosed in stone (ethereal travel to get there - in my cosmology the inner planes have their own ethereals, btw). The gate is probably not really in the main area of the "duchy" and is avoided by the Duke and his subjects. It's guarded by symbols, and also the mercanes have dropped a big stone on the ethereal plane there, so the Duke cannot really go there safely. I would like for the ooze/water leaking from the gate to end up in the boil somehow, but I'm having trouble figuring out how that might work if the gate is at the bottom of the volcano. One part of it might be that the flame field effect and/or gate cancelling the fire dominant property does not extend to the boil itself. So if you go up you will enter the burn area. Some areas may be partially or fully submerged with water and/or ooze. There might even be a few leftover areas of lava.
One other issue is that the Duke could theoretically go and alert the mercane after encountering the PCs. In fact that is what he's supposed to do. But I'm not thinking that would be really good for the adventure. The Duke is arrogant and thinks he can handle things himself. Furthermore, he does not like the mercane's fire giant chief of security. Still, it would be better if I could somehow make the PCs aware of the possibility that this could happen and turn it into a challenge for them to prevent it.
Thanks for reading (if you make it this far!), and please, I would love suggestions!
PS - The rogue is a talky rogue rather than a trapfinder, so I tend to avoid lots of traps. Generally, diplomatic or scam/con solutions are often used by the party - it's part of the style of the campaign that often the PCs are outclassed by their opponents in a standup fight. In fact the main part of the adventure so far involved getting the mercane to leave the manse and go to the marketplace, so that they could enter the manse safely. They did this by getting their hands on a dozen counterfeit coldfire stones and faking a "bubble rush".
I have a session on Sunday, where the primary goal for the PCs is to find a planar gate. The gate is located on the Plane of Fire, hidden on or under or in what was previously a volcano. Originally it was a gate to Plane of Earth (thus the volcano), later it was altered to lead to the Plane of Ooze and/or Water. Also, there is a magical device or geegaw of some kind that is drawing power from the gate; the players must either destroy or (better) make away with it.
I'm having a little trouble getting my ideas to gel about how exactly to represent the gate, what the magical device might look like, and what challenge might be involved in destroying or stealing it. I could use some ideas!
That's the basic situation; I'll give more description of the setting and the adventure so far if that may help. If anyone has other ideas about any of this this, please lay 'em on me!
First, the setting. As noted, once upon a time there was a naturally occuring gate (planar vortex) leading to the Plane of Earth which took the form of a volcano. Later, a Sultan of the Efreeti moved the destination point of the gate to the Plane of Ooze bordering Earth and Fire (and possibly all the way to Water proper). This was part of his grand scheme to launch a surprise attack on the Marid. (The outcome of this scheme hasn't been specified, maybe it was a grand success, maybe a horrible fiasco.) As a result, there has been a gate leaking ooze and/or water into the old volcano, resulting in a strange terrain feature called a "molten mud boil". Basically the caldera of the volcano is filled with molten mud. This is a rare feature since gates to Water/Ooze are very rare on the Plane of Fire.
A thousand years passed, and a syndicate of mercanes learned of the site. They hatched a scheme. Using the vague magical device, they were able to channel cold / ooze / anti-fire arcane energy of some sort in order to create a stable "lambent flame field". Lambent flame field, which I took out of a Dragon magazine from a couple years ago, is basically an area on the Plane of Fire where the fire dominant trait is supressed, so non-fire creatures don't burn up there. Normally these are unstable and disappear after days, weeks, or months at the outside.
The mercanes then approached the current Sultan of the Efreet. They offered an absurdly high price in exchange for a grant of limited autonomy for their syndicate on the flame field. Basically, they get to rule the flame field, and most importantly, are exempt from the Sultan's tariffs so long as the flame field exists. Of course, their offer only seemed absurdly high, because the Sultan assumed that the flame field would disappear before too long. But sustained by the gate-draining device, the field has survived for more than twenty years, much to the Sultan's embarassment. The mercanes have essentially created a luxury hotel and duty-free shopping mall there and have been making nice profits.
One other detail about the location, which might potentially tie into the gate somehow. A big source of the mercane's profit here is that they can harvest something called "coldfire stones" from the molten mud boil. These stones have magical properties including usefulness in crafting magic items more cheaply than usual. Normally, these stones are mined out of small islands of solidified rock that form in the molten mud. Every once in a while, there's a "coldfire stone explosion" when a bubble suddenly forms in the mud, then explodes, causing a small quantity of the stones to rain down over a large area. In addition to the mercanes, their servants and employees, and customers, the flame field is the home of various hopeful characters - jann, mephlings, salamanders, random humanoids - who hope to strike it rich by getting in on one of these rare "bubble rushes". Plus various shady characters who prey on their hopes.
On to the players and the adventure. The PC's are a group of four-half elementals, one from each element. (The name of the campaign is "the E-Team"
) They are ECL 10, class level 7, monk (earth), rogue (fire), archivist (water), and sorceror (air). They have a grudge against a particular mercane from this syndicate. With the help of some allies, they arranged for all the mercanes to be summoned to the Sultan's court for a week, drastically lowering the defences at the syndicate. The only mercane there, who hurried back from the material plane, is their enemy. They can't take him on directly - they'd probably lose, and also their identities are known to the syndicate; even if they somehow succeeded, there would be bad consequences. So, instead they want to undo the magic sustaining the flame field. If this occurs while the enemy mercane is charge, he will be humiliated and perhaps even cast out of the syndicate.The players know that there is some kind of gate with something stabilizing the flame field, and they know it is under the mud boil. They are just about to discover a secret entrance to a lava tube which leads to the area under the mud boil. Here's my vague plans for what they will encounter... since none of this has been revealed yet, it can all be changed.
The mercanes of course want the gate and stabilizer to be unmolested. They've probably left a few permanent symbols here and there. But they've also "outsourced" security to a half-red dragon phase spider. This phase spider is smarter than the average, but still no genius, and in addition to paying him, the mercanes have flattered him by making him the "Duke" of the area under the boil. He rules it as his own little "duchy". His subjects are mainly mephits. I'm thinking that there are ooze and/or water mephits who occasionally "leak" through the gate. These poor suckers can't leave the area of the flame field or they'd burn up, and in fact they probably don't ever really make it out of the area under the boil. So they are enslaved by the Duke. Probably there are also some fire mephits who are subjects of the Duke and basically lord it over the water/ooze guys. Finally the Duke has a couple of lieutenants, possibly ethereal filchers and/or marauders, though other fire creatures might be better. Some oozes wander around the place too.
I'd like for there to be some sort of economy/industry going on here too, but I'm having trouble thinking of exactly what it might be. Something they could trade to the mercanes perhaps. Also, I'm thinking that maybe the coldfire stones are actually made out of the water/ooze mephits somehow, but I'm not sure how. It could be something the Duke and his minions do intentionally, or it could be something that happens naturally/accidentally to escaped slaves. Possibly the "coldfire stone explosions" result when a large ooze or water elemental makes it through the gate and falls afoul of this process.
I'm still working out the physical layout of the place, but lava tubes are definitely part of it. The Duke has a hideout that is entirely enclosed in stone (ethereal travel to get there - in my cosmology the inner planes have their own ethereals, btw). The gate is probably not really in the main area of the "duchy" and is avoided by the Duke and his subjects. It's guarded by symbols, and also the mercanes have dropped a big stone on the ethereal plane there, so the Duke cannot really go there safely. I would like for the ooze/water leaking from the gate to end up in the boil somehow, but I'm having trouble figuring out how that might work if the gate is at the bottom of the volcano. One part of it might be that the flame field effect and/or gate cancelling the fire dominant property does not extend to the boil itself. So if you go up you will enter the burn area. Some areas may be partially or fully submerged with water and/or ooze. There might even be a few leftover areas of lava.
One other issue is that the Duke could theoretically go and alert the mercane after encountering the PCs. In fact that is what he's supposed to do. But I'm not thinking that would be really good for the adventure. The Duke is arrogant and thinks he can handle things himself. Furthermore, he does not like the mercane's fire giant chief of security. Still, it would be better if I could somehow make the PCs aware of the possibility that this could happen and turn it into a challenge for them to prevent it.
Thanks for reading (if you make it this far!), and please, I would love suggestions!
PS - The rogue is a talky rogue rather than a trapfinder, so I tend to avoid lots of traps. Generally, diplomatic or scam/con solutions are often used by the party - it's part of the style of the campaign that often the PCs are outclassed by their opponents in a standup fight. In fact the main part of the adventure so far involved getting the mercane to leave the manse and go to the marketplace, so that they could enter the manse safely. They did this by getting their hands on a dozen counterfeit coldfire stones and faking a "bubble rush".
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