Massive, overbearing, super-complicated intrigue-based type plotline thingy

[Bob Aberton]

Just what the name says. The Elfblood Wanderers (PC group) have recently come into conflict with a local lord, who is planning on taking over the area where their stronghold (a small stone fortress w/town) is. He has several plans in place to take over this area.

The Players: The Elfblood Wanderers (1st-3rd level PCs - 1 Wizard, 1 Fighter aiming toward Windrider, 2 Druids, 1 Cleric, and 1 Thief.), Lord Meiron (The Lord in question), a local lord with a lot of land and a HUGE mercenary army, the Elves of the Elvenwoods, the Swifthammer clan of dwarves, the Svalberd (Longbeard) clan of dwarves, the Sorcerer's Guild, a group of high-level sorcs and wizards, a Old Red Dragon named Demeritax, and a tribe of giants living in the nearby mountains, and the Free Township of Urglath, a large mining town, and a covey of Hags living in a nearby marsh.

The Plot: Lord Meiron will use a small circle of ex-druids (Blighter PrC from MoTW) within the Elvenwoods to distract the Elves.

At the same time, he is getting funded by the Svalberd Dwarves, who hope to use him to distract the Free Township so that they can safely wage uninterrupted war with the Swifthammer dwarves. Lord Meiron plans to set up war between the Svalberd and Swifthammer dwarves, take over Urglath and the surrounding lands, and then use the dragon, Demeritax, with whom he has an understanding, to mop up the dwarves. If necessary, he will pit the Sorcerer's Guild against the Dragon in hopes they will wipe each other out, leaving him the undisputed master of the area.

He also plans to stir up trouble between Urglath and the Giants, to distract Urglath so he can take it over, and then he will turn his attention to the Giants, hopefully wiping them out.

He doesn't know about the covey of Hags, who are the wild cards, and his whole web of alliances, intrigue, and thinly veiled threats is only barely holding together, its really a house of cards.

Additionally, sometime soon, a horde of orcs, led by a warlord (level 7-12 Bane of Infidels) will be sweeping through soon, and there are the ever-present roving bandits.

Plus, there is a lurking spirit, who is an evil, corrupting influence (Think Sauron from the Silmarillion and Allakabeth, as opposed to the Sauron from the Lord of the Rings). It often appears as some form of inanimate object, and it delights in corrupting men's hearts. It plays a HUGE role in the history of post-Arthurian Avalon as I see it, about two hundred years after the Elfblood Wanderers have perished from the Earth.

So, all in all, things are coming together, and very soon the players will be facing: an Old Red Dragon, an army of mercenaries bent of raping and pillaging, a tribe of giants, a raging orc horde, and hostile dwarves. Plus a Vampire who has been troubling them recently, and some hostile dwarves.
They're going to be quite busy. I just need help refining this idea.

 

[Crothian]

Okay, complicated start, but a good one. Obviously the Pcs will have to build power for themselves to face the threats, make allies, get information on the who's who around here and all their different alliances, all the while trying to stay alive.

How is this beginning? I suggest starting small and usinf foreshadow to introduce the different groups. Rumors work very good with this. Will they know right off the bat the Lord is evil and trying to conquuor everything? Or perhaps will they thnk him good, maybe even allied with him in some way and then discover who he truely is. There are lots of ways this can go and be done. Good idea, though. I like.

 

[Darklone]

Hah!

Love it.

Everything looks fine so far. A map would be helpful to make sure who is sitting next to whom. How do the giants live, what do they eat? Which groups could be sent against each other by the players? Are there any rivers or natural defence lines somewhere? Ya know, that steep ridge in the mountains that one hero can defend heroically

The vampire is probably connected to one of the other NPCs. The dragon: What does he want? Food? Entertainment? Hags: Their aims? Probably working together with the giants/Oppressing them? Dwarves... Hmm. No idea. What does the sorcerers guild do? Researching something? Probably immortality?

I suppose the elves will ask the players for help against those druids?

 

[Bob Aberton]

Yes, the elves had done a small service for the PCs right at the start of their adventuring career, so they will be calling in that particular favor.

The Hags are aware of the situation, they aren't doing anything yet, they just want to come out on top.

The Dragon wants the Dwarven riches, plus the bonus tasty Dwarf snacks.

The Sorcerer's Guild is intent on not only immortality (which they are still very far from), but they are the main power in most of Avalon. They are the descendants of Merlin - they learned magic from the Druids, secularized it, and are intent on carefully monitoring its use, as Magic has a great potential for abuse. They deal mainly in Divinations, basically, if anyone knows whats happening at any given moment it will be them. They, however, have no real reason to scry on this particular corner of Avalon, as its generally a mostly unihabited, humdrum sort of place.

The Dwarves are intent on mining the rich veins of ore underneath this particular area. The original Patron of Clan Swifthammer once called the original Patron of Clan Svalberd "Old Beardless" once, about 400 years ago, and those respective clans have been killing each other since.

The PCs infiltrated the Lord's town at the instigation of the Mayor of Urglath, in order to earn a License to Crenellate, which will allow them to erect a fortified stronghold. They disguised themselves as seers, and, by means of excellent Roleplaying, slowly connived bits and pieces of info from the Lord. Finally, one day, he asked the "seeress," really the leader of the Elfblood Wanderers, if the message he was sending that day was important. The faux seeress told him to send the message by the North Road, the PCs ambushed the messenger, and discovered a short note to the Patron of Clan Svalberd, asking for more funds. So they are aware of that connection between the Lord and Clan Svalberd, but that is the extent of their knowledge.

The Vampiress basically wants lots of handsome men to suck the life out of, and also to be left alone. However, the PCs are currently trying to get rid of her, as she has been a constant thorn in their side (she's been killing the soldiers the PCs hired to guard their half-completed stronghold, and also killing the workers actually building the stronghold.).

So, thats that, the PCs are on good terms with the Swifthammer Dwarves, the Mayor of Urglath, and the Elves of the Elfinwoods. They are on bad terms with the Lord (not wise, as he can easily crush their Stronghold with his superior army) and the Svalberd Dwarves, and the Bandits. The Sorcerer's Guild is neutral toward them, as they haven't actually interfered with it yet. The Dragon, Hags, Giants and Orc horde are unaware of them, as they do not have any power base in the region to speak of, and so are not worthy of note.

 

[Bob Aberton]

The Lord, by the way, really isn't Evil. He is actually Neutral, with a greedy streak (which is why he wants to take over) who revels in overly complicated plots with minimized personal risk to himself or his assets.

I can't post the geography, as I don't have the soft ware. However: The Players are in the Northeast corner of Avalon, which is a small place, really. Thy are right between the Elfinwoods to the East about 50 miles and the Pillars of the Sky, to the North about 35-36 miles. Southward, 8 miles away, is the river, with the Hags, and across the river is Urglath. To the West, about 70 Mmiles, is the realm of the Lord. Half a days walk to the West is Brokentop Hill, which houses the Vampiress. The PCs are based on Greytop Knoll, half a day's walk from Brokentop Hill. The Dwarves mines honeycomb the entire area, and the Pillars of the Sky house the Giants (Who lives on Bighorn sheep and other such mountainous fauna, mostly) and the Dragon (Who has been sleeping for the past fifty years or so, until the Lord woke him up.

 

[Darklone]

Hmmm

Sounds very nice so far. What do you want us for now ?

If you want clues how to play the different NPC groups, set a time scale for the different plans they have. Till now, nearly everyone of them is sitting home and waits till the others make a wrong move. Check how everyone tries to get his informations. Per spys, familiars, animal companions, scrying devices, informants... whatever.

Enter some problems of the henchmen. Some spies get caught, the dragons scrying mirror has the ego of a woman and wants something or wants to talk, the dwarves build siege engines or whatever.