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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Michael Morris" data-source="post: 3046566" data-attributes="member: 87">For now 4 months in 10 hour marathon sessions I've been slowly building my campaign up and ensaring the players into the plot.  To date they've been on ups and downs, hill's and valleys, but last session they realized that they just reached the apex of the first true climb of the roller coaster.All Hell is about to break loose.I need help.Quick bring up to speed.  Party has been on numerous adventures with one piece hinting at another, at another, and so on, and they finally decided to get back to the main through line of the story and hunt down Dalsundria's missing prince.  I have arranged to have that character played by a player so we set him up and the first session was introducing the character and bringing to an apex an plot arc that's been running for about 3 months. At the end of the session I left the players on a very unsettling cliffhanger -- The princess teleports in sensing her brother's presence (which is now possible because his memory had been wiped and the party managed to get that undone).  She shows up, falls into his arms crying.  When she stops she looks up into his eyes and says simply, "The king is dead. Long live the king."Now the party has a throne to claim and win.  Unfortunately several enemies levels 8th (the party's level) to as high as 14th have other plans).  Plots and treacheries years in the making are about to be unleashed and the party is going to be hurled into a breathtaking start for the middle part of 2nd chapter of the chronicle (which they've been on since 5th level and will finish when they hit 10th or so). There's been a lot of talk and posturing - now head rolling time.Now, it's hard for me to pin down what's going to happen.  I will outlay what the NPC's are up to what they have planned for the party's most likely actions within the limits of their own knowledge.Lord Viscount Travis Triel (5th level wizard - 10th level blue mage)Triel is the nemesis the party is most familiar with, though they aren't aware of the exact scope of his powers as when they originally met him he seemed to be an ally. When last they met him he sent them into a dungeon - when last they heard from him he commanded who they thought was an ally into attacking them.  That line, "Your former companions are coming - kill them, kill them all." still sends chills up the party's spine.Triel is a schemer who want the throne as directly as possible. He has subtly manipulated his leige, Archduke Prince Valsil into preparing for war to seize the throne from Crown Princess Nelaria. Their preparations have been in secret and they are ready to show their hand. Up until now the Prince has been missing.It was Triel who arranged for the murder of Prince Joel and would have murdered Prince Nathan (the PC mentioned above) where it not for subterfuge on the part of Alblasker and some druids.  Triel left the boy to be ripped limb from limb by wolves, but the wolves turned out to be druids in wild shape.  This miscue will come back to haunt Triel someday if the Party can help it at all.Triel is the best sort of villain - the party absolutely LOATHES him. They want his head on a stick - but they have many adventures and a lot of work before they can face him.Triel at one point could spy on the party at will, but they've managed to remove the items he was using to scry on them and he has of late lost track of them.  The party has the advantage of surprise though they do not realize it as they overestimate Triel's capacity for scrying (and interest in their particular plight -- he doesn't realize they are working for the Princess or else he'd be much more interested in them).Duke Prince ValsilBlind with his desire to reign as king, Valsil is largely under the sway of Triel. Valsil will actually be warming the throne if all comes to pass as Triel plans.Duke Prince AnderValsil's twin brother also has his eyes on the throne, but he does so out of fear of Triel who he believes (rightly) is controlling his brother.  He was also born first of the twins (albeit by only two minutes) so he feels justified in taking his place as the King.  While not an active plotter against the Prince Nathan, Ander isn't above taking advantage of the situation and has built an army of his own. He's also ran his fingers deep into the trade of the nation. He isn't the most militarily powerful noble but he is certainly the wealthiest.DurokThis is a dwarven necromancer who I need to work back in at some point. The party killed him and destroyed his tower - though they did so with Matacha's direct intervention (the DM preferred this to a TPK). However, since Matacha aided the party Kepho has aided him. He's back as a lich though his moment to step back on stage hasn't arrived.I've got a couple of weeks to go over this.  Right at the moment I'm open to ideas (though I admit a lot of the details are missing).</blockquote>

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