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Message: <blockquote data-quote="el-remmen" data-source="post: 8160616" data-attributes="member: 11">IRON DM ROUND TWO MATCH ONE EXPOSITION[SPOILER="FOR NON-JUDGE EYES ONLY (at least til after judgement) "]Dark Paragon - the possible outcome of the phoenixName Level - the Decks of the S.S. SymposiumBinary Suns - Erebus and HemeraStuck Elevator - the rudder on the SymposiumCursed Sword - Ludocrat the Evil Sword - plan to destroy the clockwork of creation.Bardic College - Hires party, but also the ship itself is classroomRedundant Ogre - Virxorex (fired from bardic college)So I immediately got stuck on the elevator (har-har). I needed to figure out a scenario that included an elevator and if I wanted to do something D&D/fantasy related an elevator was gonna be harder to incorporate. At first, I thought I'd set the adventure in an asteroid trapped in the gravity well of a binary sun that dwarves had mined, and there'd be a stuck elevator to get down to the center the PCs would have to get past some way. But then I was like, "A sun is a just a star, and if I have another dwarven mine and star like in round one, I am gonna lose." Then I was like, "What about a grain elevator in silo?" But couldn't make it work in my mind.So I jumped to dictionary.com to look up other definitions of "elevator" and thus the idea of a space/air ship with a stuck one popped into my head - the decaying orbit came out of that thought.The redundant ogre was easier, because I knew I would use the British use of the term to reference lay-offs or downsizing. And an opponent who wants to kill the person who took his job but also get evidence that will help him get his job back seemed fun (in a sort of, I've been unemployed for over a year way, so I might be projecting <img class="smilie smilie--emoji" alt="🤣" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f923.png" title="Rolling on the floor laughing    :rofl:" data-shortname=":rofl:" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" />) and once I had that the bardic college being the place he worked it made sense - adding the variation on a "semester at sea" program struck me as perfect - now the bardic college both hires/sponsors the PCs and the ship itself is part of the bardic college.The space-liner ship orbiting the binary suns in a decaying figure-eight (infinity and beyond!) seemed cool - and the timed aspect of the effects was cooler in my mind.  I wish I had the time and resources to actually map out the Symposium's orbital trajectory over time.Name Level was difficult because, while I know it from older D&D editions, making it work in a non-meta way was tricky. I think it was probably my weakest ingredient, but looking at the model of a super cruise ship, the names of the decks struck me as an appropriate application of the ingredient - adding the themed aspect and the "thematically appropriate undead bards" (I giggled with glee when I typed that phrase) strengthened it some. I really wanted to have more detail about every deck, but there was no room. I think having Hallward be a Crypt Thing also supplements the ingredient - as the PCs could be teleported to different areas. Originally, I had a note about how Hallward will teleport them to areas of the ship that are ironically appropriate for trying to kill the PC (different themed decks).The Dark Paragon meant there should be a LIGHT paragon (at least in my mind), so having a phoenix that can hatch into one of two different kinds of paragons, but the egg was used as a power source, seemed great. I didn't get to add the bit about how the egg also refreshes the spelljamming ship's air envelope - so if it is removed the air in the ship will begin to get befouled - though not for many hours. What I really wanted was a final desperate escape scene at the end as ship plummets into one of the suns and the egg hatches/explodes. I see the PCs trying to get back to the hammership or stealing Virxorex 's smalljammer and taking off.The last ingredient to come together was the cursed sword. At first, I was gonna have Igor Alerut just be evil - but why would he want to destroy the ship and the crystal sphere? So having him taken over by the curse, and using the swords anti-machine powers to further jam up the elevator seemed the way to go and allowed the PCs to interact with the ingredient rather than just fight him while he wielded it. Another detail that didn't make the cut was that the sword thought it'd survive the Dark Paragon hatching and be able to continue to try to find ways to destroy more "mechanisms of the cosmos." I also wanted to give the sword a backstory involving the massacre of tinker gnomes and their clockwork guardians - but alas no room!But in the theme of giving something up to perform something greater (like the phoenix does), I liked the notion of a PC giving himself up to the sword to do it - but I did not want them using a construct or telekinesis to do it. Speaking of constructs, an earlier and longer version referenced construct guardians unaffected by Erebus's corona.I also wanted to detail more about Virxorex  and the Drop-Outs (how awesome is that name?)Finally, the name of the adventure comes from mashing the title for the story included in X-Men #137 by Chris Claremont & John Byrne (among others) in which Jean Grey dies (the first time) - "The Fate of the Phoenix" - and Igor Stravinsky's 1910 ballet "Firebird" (which was also adapted in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eG_O1wEJ40" target="_blank">Disney's Fantasia 2000</a>) [/SPOILER]tl;dr version: "Win or lose, I am just happy I got to type the phrase 'thematically appropriate undead bards'."</blockquote>

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