Help fix my too linear game please--My players stay out

[Jeremy]

Hey guys.. Any help is appreciated here. I'll answer any questions that would help you help me as soon as I see them. I'm stuck in a rut and my game is Saturday so I need an injection from all you creative people.

My party is made up of:

Dragonkin Psychic Warrior 4
Human Clairsentient 13
Human Cleric 7/Divine Disciple 6
Human Evoker 5/Elemental Savant (Electricity/Air) 8
Human Sorcerer 5/Summoner 9
Dwarf Rogue 2/Monk 7/Drunken Master 4

They have abilities and equipment and numbers that makes them able to take out challenges pretty similar to if they were a 17th level iconic party.

They are in a mortal created plane of limited size where they have lived their entire lives. The plane is sealed, though one of it's still living (unliving) wizards wishes to leave it and will inadvertantly destroy the plane doing so (unbeknownst to him).

The story follows the original Final Fantasy game with four elemental fiends, in this case, one for each elemental anchor that holds the plane together. The party has reached and cleansed Earth, Fire, and Water.

The final anchor, Air, is located in a flying castle populated largely by technological machinations ('technomancy' is the term they've heard in reference to the place). In order to reach it they still need to go through a tower.

The bland desert of the game was long ago replaced with the Darklands of Helgedad and all their involved power from the Lone Wolf series of books. Conveniently enough, the party has eliminated Haakon, putting Gnaag (insect-like humanoid praying mantis-looking undead psionic necromancer) and the Nadziranim (evokers specializing in small black cubes that detonate on command in greenish fireballs) into power in the Tower of the Damned in the center of the black steel city of Helgedad still suspended above it's lake of fire with it's eternal choking sulphur fumes.

That's the tower they need to reach the top of to be transported to the castle of technomancy.

At the end of last session they had successfully completed a gladiatorial challenge, entertaining the black dragon who had come into possession of the key they infer from divinations they will need to reach the castle. I haven't found a way yet to tell them that the key must be activated from within the Tower of the Damned.

Lately the game has taken on a very dull here task, do task. There used to be economic and political intrigue regarding the party's fostering of a rebuilt frontier town they saved as well as throwing the Darklords out of their home town where they had made a significant economic impact. They have also repopulated the devestated elven population of the nation of Elfland to the south as the Marsh Cave instead held illithid that had around 3,000 of them in a stasis hive like the machines power plants in the Matrix using Quintessence to keep them frozen in time.

I've been fairly creative so far weaving additional elements into the story from outside Final Fantasy and Lone Wolf that make the game unique and interesting. But I just have no ideas for what to do for Saturday's game short of....

'The creature's dragonkin guards escort you through a series of catacombs into the presence of the golem-like creature you have been seeking.

It is a creature of what you can only speculate is technomancy---and it looks broken.

As you approach it, paces jerkily back and forth with no purpose.'

*PC's do something clever*

'The creature seems to gain a moment of warped lucidity.' "Please step this way and prepare for transport," it crackles in a harsh metallic monotone. It motions to it's right to some phantom only it can see in it's fractured programming and transforms it's hand into a cube assembled of various bits of metal and lined with some kind of power. It reaches forth, looking like it is trying to insert the cube into some phantom structure and as it tries to press it in to the non-existant space, it clatters to the floor noisily. This unforseen event seems to puzzle it and it goes back to pacing, nearly squashing the now unseen--to it--cube.'

After which point they try to get to the castle, can't, do some divinations I guess. Get riddles and hints that point to the tower. Infiltrate a tower in the heart of the blackest city of the Darklands some how, transport to the castle, purify the Air anchor of it's guardian (a tiamat knock off) and celebrate.

This is too straight shot. Too plain and simple. I'd like to work in some interrupting world events of some sort. Especially those that acknowledge all that the PC's have down to make 3/4's of the world safe so far. Or the 4 towns who's survival they personally assured... Or the academy one of them established. Or some such. I'd love to get them to have to stay in one of the Darklander cities like Aarnak for a while for some purpose and say have a crew of Vordak (psionic undead) and Drakkarim (fighter/barbarians--human) bust in looking for someone and it turn out that they aren't looking for the PC's like in PirateCat's story hour. Or just get them into a smaller scale side note that has nothing to do with saving the world.

Anything to change the linear nature of the game right now. Help please?

 

[Pielorinho]

Interesting dilemma. I'm personally a big fan of the NPCs who come to the PCs for help, or blackmail, or bribery.

Perhaps the psychic warrior is approached by a group of monks who want a leader, and offer him the services of their monastery in exchange for his teachings. In reality, they're trying to transcend the boundaries of this plane, and they have prophecies telling what will happen if they transcend: "The fragments of dreaming, the fictions that walk about you, will dissipate as smoke in the wind." Each monk believes he is the only true consciousness, that the world is his dream, and that on waking, the rest of the world will cease to exist.

You can do similar stuff with the other characters. Do any of them have families? Do they have old friends? Do they have individual goals? Play with some of these things: family members (elected mayor of a saved town due to their blood tie to the heroes) contact the heroes for help, finding themselves desperately in over their heads. An old friend may have adventured into the air castle before the PCs arrived and may be a captive there -- and the big bad of the castle might threaten to kill the friend if the PCs advance any further. A note may come to a PC from a mysterious stranger who claims to know the identity of the PC's long-lost mother. And so on.

Make sure other people in the world are doing things, and make sure some of them want to recruit the PCs for their purposes.

Daniel

 

[Jeremy]

The Dragonkin was an experiment, like many of his brethren, he considers them all family and as they are still in bondage to their creator, he wishes to free them. That's family and purpose for him.

Old friends would include a pair of shopkeeps, an innkeeper, and an adventuring party that they have been through thick and thin with. The innkeep is dead but still maintains his inn, the shopkeeps are a flamboyant Red Mage from Final Fantasy dressing wizard who has been helping them for a long time and at one point was a semi-mentor/confidant to the sorcerer/summoner. The last is an old fisherman/priest who has been a bastion of peace for them. What ever their troubles, he has listened to them, offered them a rod, and fished and talked with them until it didn't seem so bad. The rest of their friends and family have either died horribly or are behind the scenes.

Individual goals would include, founding a school of magic based upon the sorcerer's sphere theories as well as coping with being a father of an exiled half elf and his elven mother whom he still loves all for the sorcerer/summoner.

The wizard dreams of establishing for himself a home on the elemental plane of air or paraelemental plane of electricity which he cannot access as yet as the plane is locked. He is attempting to transform himself into a creature of air as well as surround himself with servitors called and bound from there and contracted to serve him.

The priest is trying to resolve his guilt over multiple failures that are not his own as well as justify to himself the favor he has found with his god. I really want to do something with the small church he funded and built with spells and time and money. But I fear I don't have the talent for it, or at least ideas for how.

The clairsentient has been used as a plot hook repeatedly as she has the Sight and has been able to dream or have visions of possible future events, but her player is somewhat unimaginative and apathetic and she really doesn't have any goals for her PC.

The same can be said for the dwarf.

There are also several still living former PC's. One of which due to his elven blood and desire for peace is the Prince-Regent of Elfland and is trying to direct the rebuilding of the nation. He is the one who exiled the sorcerer's love and her son for fear of diluting what left of the elven bloodline and to avoid the half-elven son from growing up in a world he couldn't be a part of. It was a difficult decision for him and one that the sorcerer will likely never forgive.

Another former PC was driven insane by the things that happened to him and that he perceives the party to have done to him. He has "joined the dark side" and has worked his way up into the ranks of the Darklanders. He is currently aspiring to the feared (by the PC's and anyone in the know) rank of Deathknight (just really powerful fighters). When last the party saw him he was illusioned to be chained and bound in the bowels of Aarnak, though they scried him recently and got nothing, figuring him to be dead. He's actually been protected by the Darklords for successfully kidnapping the clairsentient. I want to say something was done to the clairsentient while she was in captivity that she is unaware of, but I can't decide what. The Darklord who had access to her is powerfully psionic, but also somewhat vile and base and straightforward. Anyways, the former PC, Khuuld, one of the 5 original PC's is currently the Slavemaster of Aarnak, a very high position for a foreigner and very close to second in command of the important trade city under the Darklord Unc. I haven't figured out anyway to utilize him now either. His player is game to weave him in any way I see fit and has made cameos by his player since he left the party years ago. He has in the past scuttled their ship, haunted their members, kidnapped one of their own, and had perfect alibi's for all to the point that he got away with all but the kidnapping unnoticed. And the kidnapping was made to like he was coerced into it and then betrayed after it.

Unfortunately I just used the captured friend happened to be in the dungeon trick when I slipped Nightfang Spire into the campaign in a kind of alternate reality pocket where an artifact had detonated after it was destroyed.

And it's extremely difficult to get messages to the party, especially for mundanes as they travel in a heavily modified sailing ship that has had linked Ascendium plates affixed to it that allow them to cause the ship to elevate, as well as the Air Key (a set of wind chimes) which allows them to control the winds and fill its sails. Additionally the ship has been permanently dimensionally locked save for a portion atop the forcastle of the ship and a permanent Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum has been applied to it making it appear from the outside similar to a cloud. No sight or sound emenates out from it nor can it's occupants be scried.

In the past a cult led by Rahksasha had infiltrated the ship they use as their sanctum and since then they got very paranoid. It also has several permanent illusions on it right now to make it appear what they believe technomancy resembles.

I hope this answers your questions in a constructive way. Thanks for the feedback and any more ideas you may have!

 

[Sir Whiskers]

Just a few ideas off the top of my head:

1) Make the key intelligent. It can provide information to the party, but has its own agenda. If the party is smart, it will not just do as the key says, but do some side investigation (perhaps in one of the towns you suggested).

2) Have there be two keys, and the other one is in the hands of another adventuring party. Do the PC's cooperate with the other party, or is it a race to be first? Do the two keys have separate agendas, competing with one another, or do they cooperate to manipulate both parties?

3) You say some of the PC's, e.g., Khulld, have attained positions of responsibility in some areas of the world. Sounds like the perfect situation for an underling to try to take over - some intrigue, economic sabotage, maybe an assasination or frame-up, perhaps just getting everyone else to see these all-powerful PC's as a threat to be eliminated.

4) This party must have access to very powerful magic - one look at their ship confirms this. You might try putting them in a situation where no magic works - maybe they need to fix something to set things right, or it's a local phenomena which is growing and has to be stopped, or a plot, etc. One item I stole from a short story many years ago was a disk which absorbed magic, which caused the disk to spin, which caused it to absorb magic more quickly, which caused it to spin faster, which...ad infinitum. Basically, the party had to figure out a way to escape the range of the disk without any magic, then somehow come back and destroy it, again without magic. It's amazing how creative players suddenly become when they don't have magic as a crutch.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

 

[Jeremy]

Unfortunately they already have one key for each of the 4 elemental anchors, and they've had them for over a year real time. Besides, among the party there are already 2 intelligent items.

The other team has saved and has been saved by this team on several occasions in game. They are close friends. Currently they are keeping the peace in a town the pc's stirred up trying to calm things down.

While more political plots are what I need, the characters that have political responsibilities are both former PC's, neither is a current PC. Both left the party for different reasons.

As for anti magic, that's a good idea. I can work that into the castle of technomancy as they already know the reason they need the cube to access it is because they cannot fly to it. Though I have no problem challenging the group, it's more a matter of coming up with things aside from the main plot to happen.

Getting off my railroad to the finish line. Make them stop and smell the roses for a while so to speak.

 

[Jeremy]

Still looking for inspiration. Maybe the late night crew has got some ideas for me.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I keep coming back to to your priest who founded a church.

I have this mental image of the priest on the flying ship receiving a Sending from someone within his organisation, saying something like "Have you heard about what's been happening here?"

One of the clerics in charge of a parish of his new church has had a revelation, and the congregation is rapidly expanding as news of his message spreads. However, the doctrine he is preaching has some subtle differences from what the PC would teach, and it has some ramifications.

Perhaps the people are being incited to overthrow the secular authorities. Perhaps the new priest is being hailed as an Avatar. Or whatever.

And the people in charge are getting concerned, and since the guy was originally the PC's subordinate, those people in charge are going to be looking to the PC to sort matters out...

-Hyp.

 

[Jeremy]

OOoooo NICE!

I've been totally unable to come up with a compelling personality, or even name, for the underling he trained to minister to the small church while he is off doing what must be done.

That has promise. I could use a Marrilith that the party set free accidentally as a catalyst on him. Make him sort of a Masema-like Prophet. Who theoretically is on your side and serving your interests but he takes way way WAY to far. Hmmm....

 

[Hypersmurf]

That has promise. I could use a Marrilith that the party set free accidentally as a catalyst on him. Make him sort of a Masema-like Prophet. Who theoretically is on your side and serving your interests but he takes way way WAY to far. Hmmm....

Yeah, that's the sort of thing I had in mind.

Maybe she can use a Nightmare effect to provide him with the Visions. And her Archfiend boss continues to provide the cleric with spells once his deity cuts him off, so he never realises he isn't serving his original god anymore...

-Hyp.

 

[Jeremy]

Naughty! I like it. More guilt for the Cleric Joe! Just heap it on there!