give me your over-arching plots NOW!!! please :)

[Maester Luwin]

Hey everyone! My old Forgotten Realms campaign was a bast. It was based on an old Dragon article (can't remember which one) which dealt with magical daggers that were made to be joined together. Two daggers make a swort sword. Three make a longsword. Four a bastard sword. Finally, all five joined make a great sword. A priest of Tiamat made the daggers... one for each color of the evil dragons- red. blue, black, ect. Each time the daggers were combined the bearer gained an extra minor magical ability... such a flight. Now this Priest had a reason to have these daggers joined. Once all five were brought together the greatsword could be used in a ritual that would tear a rift in the prime material plane... allowing Tiamat herself to return to Faerun!

The Harpers discovered & foiled the plot. They (perhaps Elminister) enchanted the daggers so they became dragon bane blades (+3) of throwing. The Harpers also used their far flung membership to scatter the daggers all over Faerun. To better to keep them apart.

At the start of the campaign all players were Harpers or Harper agents who had gathered in Sembia to seek out the dggers (The Harpers found out the the Cult of the Dragon as well as the Church of Tiamat were searching for the daggers). The Zhent agents in Sembia found out about them & began seeking them as well. Little known to the players but Shar supported by Cyric (& his agents) were seeking he blades also. They wanted Tiamat's aid in destroying Selune & Mystra.

The campaign had the players traveling all over Faerun & even to distant Maztica (an elven ranger who was also a Harper had taken one of the daggers there!). The players had a blast trying to figure out where the daggers were located & who was who when fighting the bad guys as there were shifting alliances among them. The characters went from 6th lvl to 16th lvl in a 2 & 1/2 year romp all over the Realms!

Thanks Maester Luwin

 

[Boss]

First... a little history:

In my campaign world of Tiessa, a little over 900 years in the past, the elven empire ruled the largest continent called Makinth. While the elves ruled, their low birth rate precluded there being enough of them to truly control the other races found within their realm, so they used slave overseers... mainly dwarves and hobgoblins, to help control things. The emperor, disturbed by the rate at which the human race was growing, instituted a program in which breeding was curtailed and selective "pruning" was carried out (ie. wholesale slaughter of human villages).

Things changed rapidly when a human envoy from a neighboring island came and assassinated the emperor. Seeing this as a sign, a cleric of Aramir (Human god of Justice) called for a holy war against the elves. Humans across the continent rose up against the elves, forming a vast army (much of the elven military was made up of humans, dwarves, goblinoids, etc.) that overran the elven cities and fortresses. Finally, all of the various armies met at the final elven retreat, a mountain fortress named Goldenspire.

What happened next is still a mystery, but on the 12th day of seige, at dawn, a brilliant burst of energy surrounded Goldenspire and the surrounding lands for approximately 10 miles in every direction. When vision returned to those outside that area, the mountain was gone, leaving only the very top of it with the highest buildings remaining, surrounded by a vast lake. Of the elves, there was no sign, nor any sign of much of the vast army that surrounded the fortress.

While the losses in life were huge, the fact that the elves were gone was celebrated, and quickly, the military leaders began dividing up the continent. A mysterious order of monks called The Brotherhood, took possession of Goldenspire, with the blessings of the church of Aramir.

Here endeth the history lesson... now for the current action:

The party stumbles into the machinations of one Lord Tamberlain, who hires the group to seek out and recover an ancient artifact, The Shroud of Gallinah. This shroud, reported to have the power to raise the dead regardless of circumstances, is needed for the Lords recently deceased wife, or at least that is what he is telling his pawns. In reality, Lord Tamberlain is a Wyrm, the last elven emperor's steed and companion, and he wishes to use the shroud to return the emperor to life.

Once this is accomplished, the emperor will seek shelter with the half-elves (they breed true, and are xenophobic, living on a series of islands north of the continent with their dragon guardians) and begin to work out how to return the elves from their exile, for that is what happened. The elves used a pool of chaos, the very stuff that the gods used to create the world, as a portal to another realm. Unfortunately, the realm is one of chaos, and the elves are changed greatly from what they once were. Now more monstrous than ever, their return will spell the beginning of a new age, or the end of a world.

Of course, there are several other plotlines in progress at the same time... the lich lords that control a nation behind the scenes, the desert kingdom in which a rebellion by it's female populace is in the wind, and a couple of others I still have to flesh out.

 

[The Cardinal]

Where: Wilderlands of High Fantasy
Starting Area: The Roglaras / near the CSIO & along the Old South Road
Starting Configuration: The majority of PCs is employed by a rich sage (Archivist from HoH) who wants to create an "encyclopedia" of the Wilderland, including maps, ancient history, etc. They mainly work as "field agents" to retrieve rare artifacts, copy strange inscribtions from the walls of remote ruins, etc. This sage is also an old friend of a local high priest of Mitra. During their first adventure the PCs freed a cleric of Mitra from a crystal which had kept him in temporal stasis for 80 years. This cleric (also a PC) is now also a member of the party.

SPOILERS

Onion 1: Certain secretive but powerful groups - an ancient bloodline of red dragons, an exclusive cabal of old elven wizards, and a weird order of psionic monks - are searching for age-old relics from before the legendary Philosophers' War. All seem to be in a race for some strange kind of overwhelming power...

Onion 2: ...but in truth they all follow their own ancients traditions and oldest prophetic writings: all seem to be preparing for some great coming doom of global proportions...

Onion 3: Meanwhile more and more rumors tell of a new power behind the thrones of the distant eastern lands. It is said to be a body of criminal organizations with very good ties to the Demon Empire of the deep south - and with near limitless wealth at their disposal. Then strange foreign fleets of merchant and slaver ships begin to appear in all known harbors - and within months the slave and drug markets are dominated by those new suppliers.
The three groups from #1 seem all very determined to not be noticed by this new player...

Onion 4: ...who turns out to be a weird race who keeps umber hulks as personal slaves: The Neogi. By now one of the three groups from #1 - the one the party didn't harass as much as the two others - will have gained the upper hand: They will try to reach a certain remote ruin where they will use their gathered artifacts and ancient "knowledge" (=rites & rituals) to "summon" their "allies from beyond the heavens"...

Onion 5: ...which will turn out to be one of three groups from the interstellar empire from FFG's "Dragonstar" setting - because in my version of the science-fantasy Wilderlands *this* is what the local galaxy looks like *now*!

Onion 6: The party will then have to deal with a whole new playground: The Neogi - who are true aliens from beyond the rim & planned to turn the whole planet into a nice little slavepit - *will* be combatted by the empire. But then they will have to face imperial politics: especially if the dragons were the ones who succeeded in "calling their allies"....

 

[Snapdragyn]

This is all from a now-defunct campaign, but on the offchance that it starts back up again....*spoiler*

Spoiler

[Known history]Eons ago, the world was shattered by the wars of the greater gods. The scattered pieces now drift through the sky, and the gods are mostly quiet save the regular battles between the Summer King and Winter King (i.e. turning of the seasons).

[Real history]The gods weren't warring with each other, but against the elemental lords (with water and air combined into 'storm, & ice & dream added). The seasonal battles are 'round ups' of those elementals that still leak through from the planar portals, which could only be partially closed since the world needs the basic elements in order to exist.

[Known history]A few hundred years ago, the god of shadows & thieves killed the goddess of beauty, betrothed of his own twin brother (all lesser gods). That brother, the god of light, defied the Summer King to enter the realm of the dead and bring back his love. She returned a bit... off; he went mad with grief; and the god of shadows became a hated outcast of gods and mortals alike. Undead have become a plague across the land in the years since as the door into death opened by the god of light has never closed.

[Real history]The god of shadows had a gift of vision, and all of his actions were to fulfill prophecy and open the eyes of the beauty goddess (& hopefully his own brother, though that hasn't happened yet) to the corruption of the Winter King, who has been gathering captured elementals to him rather than sending them back through the ice portal as he should. The Summer King is too blinded by his own arrogance to see the danger, and the god of shadows needed allies for the battle he foresaw; now that she has passed through the gates of life, the beauty goddess is stronger than before.

[Real real history]The Summer King knows what the Winter King is doing, but sees it as a chance to be rid of 'balance' & rule the world in his own right -- with the Winter King blamed as the instigator.

The Winter King isn't gathering his army to conquer, but to defend against the mad god of dreams, who is weakening the portal to the realm of dreams (Eberron-esque Quorri plane).

The god of dreams sent the vision to the god of shadows, who secretly realized this but followed along with the vision anyway because he saw a way to twist the vision to the advantage of himself & the forces of good. Unfortunately, his plans centered on his brother, who threw everything out of whack by going crazy and swearing bloodoath against him.

[Story]The PCs run into a strange benefactor from time to time. They eventually realize he bears a striking resemblance to the (grief-crazed) god of light, & come to believe that it is the fractured sane part of his psyche seeking their help to regain his sanity. In actuality, it is the god of shadows (though he pursues the same goal, the return of his twin's sanity). This draws the PCs into the machinations of, & brewing war between, the other gods in a plot arc that was planned to eventually include one of the remaining shards of the world crashing into the ocean of another in a disaster of incredible scale (one shard sunk beneath the waves with the nation of gnomes who lived on it; tsunamis destroying every coastal city that existed on the other -- unless the PCs managed to prevent it all).

 

[The_Universe]

The world is a forgotten, imperfect creation of an omnipotent God.

One of His first children, an Angel, becames jealous of his later progeny (a single "true" mortal race), and plots to destroy them so that he/she/it can once more bask alone in the God's love.

Turning his/hers/its attention on an abandoned, lifeless "early-draft" world, the Angel, in imitation of his/her/its creator, creates life (though with a monstrous tinge--cthulhoid horrors and evil giants).

Meanwhile, this same Angel convinces a few other powerful archangels that the God does not have the best interests of the mortals at heart, telling them that she hopes to save the mortals that they have been tasked to care for by stealing (and hiding) the mortals from the cruel and jealous God, before He can abandon these new creations, as well. 9 other powerful archangels buy into this, and together they plot to "rescue" the mortals and relocate them on the Angel's world (unaware that its current inhabitants are less than hospitable).

The theft is partially successful. The God becomes aware of the treachery, and a great battle ensues. The Angel, who planned to feed the mortals to his/her/its twisted creations, ends up fighting a losing battle with the God. In a last-ditch effort, he/she/it manages to close the gate/portal/rift before the God can recover His lost creations...at least temporarily hiding them from Him.

Leaderless, the 9 archangels find themselves not leading the mortals into an earthly paradise, but rather into an inhospitable world filled with monsters. They realize that this has been their leaders plan all along, and they ensure that the Angel is trapped within the veil from their side, as well...declaring to the mortals that the imprisoned Angel is in fact a benevolent, dead god.

They alter some of the True mortals to become Humans and Elves and Dwarves (or maybe only 2 of those, since one may be the True race), and wage a war against the giants, and demons, and chaotic monstrous Things.

The 9 archangels have ruled as gods for millenia, but now the Angel stirs in his/her/its prison. Mortals have disturbed the veil, and are now slaves to the Angel's insidious will. The Angel gathers its servants from the fringes of civilization, first to grant it long-sought Freedom, then to destroy the 9, the mortals, and the world, and then to wage war against the God on the other side of the veil.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

This thread goes to show how many good untold stories there are in the universe that are never going to become famous.

DS

 

[ashockney]

Cool stuff in this thread

Cormyr Campaign

Scope: Forgotten Realms between Eveningstar and Arabel
Primary Villians: Zhentarim agents, Shadovar, Devil Dragon, Draconic Shedim (Barbarian Orcs), Denizens of several local dungeons
Primary Allies: War Wizards, Purple Dragons, Red Ravens, Harpers, townspeople of Redwater
Political: wild-west frontier land, very few landholders, law of Cormyr but little enforcement
Financial: adventurers/explorers, mines (gemstone), pottery, mercenaries, wyverns

Insert adventurers into the middle and go! Tons of back and forth, nothing clearly linear, the campaign could really turn several different ways from all out war to poltical to dungeon exploration.