Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Stormonu" data-source="post: 5759530" data-attributes="member: 52734">Rather than a straight A to B to C to D run, I think it would be better if it were a sort of A,B or C encounter at each of the 5 points.  How the characters proceed from each help determine how the final encounter will play out.That is, perhaps there should be a "good", "neutral" and "evil" exit from each encounter; rather than seem like a straight shot, the exit the characters take from each encounter influence the appearance and goals of the next.  Likewise, each exit should have strong clues to how they will affect each of the next encounters.Starting with a pre-encounter, the characters might face a guardian/doorman of some sort, who upon being defeated gives them warning of what lies beyond. ("You have bested me, but you have not won! Three paths you face - one that leads to ruin, one lorded over by apathy, the last beset by unyielding righteousness.  Where I have failed, they shall be your undoing!")By the corridor they take, different things are modified in the encounter to make it different.  Choosing "evil" might make the terrain treacherous. Perhaps "neutral" upgrades the villain of the encounter from an Elite to a Solo.  "Good" adds additional minion/lesser creatures to aid the villain.  By mixing up what changes (and presenting a clue what that change might be), you give the players some ability to affect what they face - an illusion of choice.My own suggestions for the different trials:1) Shock/Disbelief/Denial (Frustration and the lack of progress)This appears as three arched doorways into a narrow maze at the mouth of a low, boulder-strewn hill - the barrow of Adimachus.  Characters undergo a skill-like challenge to maneuver through the maze of corridors, chasms, stairs, vaulted chambers and ever-twisting corridor to find the way out.  Blocking their exit from the maze is an Angel of Death - a hooded skeletal figure brandishing a blade of burning fire.Evil - a horrid, deformed caricature of Adimarchus stalks them through the maze.  At each failure, it pounces from the darkness, lashing out violently before disappearing cackling into the mazeworks.Neutral - Corridors suddenly shift and change.  What was a clear path ahead is suddenly an impassable wall.  Mocking laughter taunts the PCs efforts, driving their nerves to the edge.  Frayed nerves among the PCs rise with each failure and may eventually cause one or more individuals to snap, causing the party to turn on itself.  Only by mastering their rising frustrations will the PCs finally be able to force the maze to reveal the way out.Good - Fleeting glances of Nidrama can be glimped through the maze.  Only by leaving the right path, though can the characters track her down.  If they are willing to utterly lose themselves to the maze, only then can they find her and gain insight into Adimarchus's unspoken remorse.  Once revealed, a simple exit from the maze reveals itself.2) Anger (Unending combat)A furious volcanic ruin spreads before the players.  Among the ashes of a city being swept away by a river of magma and a biting ash wind, the characters must destroy the pillaging hordes of Adimarchus.Evil - The demon-horde raises the cadavers of the dead to fight as well.  Only with the death of their masters can the unending tide be stemmed.Neutral - The demon-horde plays a game of cat and mouse among the abandoned buildings.  The players must hunt down the horde before the flaying winds and scorching rivers swallow them whole.Good - The characters must save the abducted city dwellers before the demon-horde can spirit them away to their doom at a ritual to extoll Adimarchus.  At every turn, those saved plead with the PCs to save Adimarchus from his conversion to demonhood.3) Bargaining/Guilt (Consequences of choices and desires left unfulfilled)The Burning City is left behind as the characters pursue the remnants of the demon-horde into the cliffs at what was once the edge of a now-blasted sea of obsidian (volcanic glass).  Into the earth the demons have fled, carrying Adimachus to his demonhood.Evil - Through jagged, twisting, narrow tunnels of obsidian the characters face those they have wronged in the past, returned in smoky reflections to wreck vengeance once again on the PCs.  The dead enemies of the PCs take on bodies of living glass to impede the characters once and again.Neutral - Snaking corridors lit by the dim heat of magma just beyond the walls open into caverns of utter darkness occupied by strange pools that are windows back into their home lives.  Into these pools leap creatures of the demon-horde, bent on wreaking destruction on those unsuspecting back home.  The characters either must follow (and risk not being able to return) or push on and hope for the best.Good - Rough, dimly lit corridors wind deeper and deeper into the earth.  Here and there furtive folk with faces of those back home stare out, beckoning the characters to abandon their quest and take up dreams and aspirations long forsaken along their quest.  Yet for each dream to be fulfilled, a creature of the demon-horde awaits to steal away that dream from the character - if not their life as well.4) Depression (Overwhelming, hopeless odds)The winding corridors finally empty into a vast, black-walled chasm lit from beneath by the fires of Hell itself.  The creatures of the demon-horde flit about the chasm, mocking the character's approach.  Spirited away on a litter, Adimachus is borne into the heart of the hellfire below.  Three paths wind their way downward to the chasm below.Evil - This ramshackle path is treacherous and trap-laden.  The demon-horde lies in wait where the path turns into the rock of the chasm itself.Neutral - What at first seems a spiral staircase into the earth itself quickly opens onto a wharf overlooking a river of molten fire.  From here, the only way down is to ride the slowly melting slabs of rock down the fire-rapids.Good - This open path wends its way down the open face of the chasm, leaving the PCs open to overwhelming aerial & teleport attacks and guard tower/posts along its length.  But if the characters can breach the armories of the demon-horde along the path, they can take the fight with flight to the demons themselves, or perhaps hurry quicker down the path to their ultimate goal.5) Acceptance/Hope (Resolution)The character's path ends at platform at the bottom of the chasm.  Carved into the wall of the chasm is an unholy temple to evil; from within come the foul sounds of blasphemous rituals praising the ascenion of Adimachus.What awaits inside depends on the paths the characters have chosen thus far...At the heart of the temple Adimachus sits upon a throne soaked with his own blood.  There is pause enough for the characters to decide the path with which they will face him:Will they rush forth to slay him as a villain? [Evil?]Will they berate him for his choices and attempt to make him see the folly of his choices? [Neutral?]Will they attempt to redeem him? [Good?]</blockquote>

Verification