Psion
Adventurer
First off, it should go without saying, if you are in my campaign: shoo!
Okay, that said, fishing for some opinions here.
The characters in my main campaign are currently high-level (18-21)
I have a lot I still want to do with the campaign, but I am honestly getting a little worn on the game and want to shift gears for a while. But at the same time, I know that games put on hiatus often never start up again.
To this end, I have been shaping my last 4 (now three, as I did the first one last week) sessions to be a "season finale" with the specific goals of
1) Bringing a lot of campaign sectrets to the fore
2) Resolve many plot threads, and
3) Be an epic bang-up ride.
I do this in the hopes that even if we don't do this again, the players will be satisfied with what they accomplished.
A few important background points:
1) The Suertrea bloodline is promised by ancient divine pacts to rule the aborian people, and the lawful churches respect this fact.
2) Idan is an evil deity outcast from heavens. Idan was cursed to wander in mortal form over 1000 years ago. To take vengeance against the heavens, he kidnapped Casella, the Suertrea queen and set himself up as the ruler of mankind on the world at that time. Unfortunately, his heir turned against him, and his mortal form was destroyed. But Idan was very clever... most people assume that Casella died peacefully of old age. In fact, Idan cloned Casella as an insurance policy and it was the clone that died, the original is imprisoned in stasis in his realm in Gehenna.
3) Ariel is Idan and Casella's granddaughter, and an andventuring hero-queen of the people who led them to a new land. Ariel made it her responsibility to watch over her people. However, true immortality is elusive. Ariel managed to stave off the effects of time by entering "dream states" in which she could continue to learn and observe while sleeping agelessly.
4) Drakar is the major evil empire of the campaign. Drakar started as an Aborian frontier colony, but was slowly overtaken by cults devoted to Idan, led by four children of Idan and Casella. Two of these four children of Idan have been slain. The third, Tellus, currently rules as the priest emperor of Drakar. The fourth, Shaleen, is in exile after she rebelled when she saw the plot to sacrifice every living being in the world of Trinalia in a dreadful plot by Idan to take over the hells. (This plot, fortunately, failed.)
That Casella still lives is a secret; how these four came to possess the Suertrea blood is not widely known, but it is known that they do, because the first son of Idan was able to wield an artifact known as the Kingsword which can only be wielded by the Suertrea blood.
5) Ariel did return from he dream-sleep to assist the world of mortals when a demon-god threatened them. After this quest she quested to find true immortality of a sort and found it. She returned and assisted the PCs at the time in destroying Idan's Avatar and his first son. Ariel was slain in that battle, but rumors of her immortality persisted. In truth, the immortality she gained allowed her to instantly be reincarnated, though her new form had to mature to 17 before she regained awareness of her former incarnation.
(N.B. This all happened before 3e.)
The campaign thus far (or major important points thereof):
The last non-drakarian suertrea heir was slain (permanently). This led to a breaking of the morale of the free aborian peoples, as the prophecies say that the winds of fate shall follow the Suertrea heir, all of whom are Drakarian royals.
Faced with this problem, the party approached the prophetess for advice. The prophetess is a young 16 year old (coff) woman with unusual insight into events that have not yet occured. She set three tasks before the party in a prophecy.
In session one of the "season finale" the party just finished the third of these tasks (the other two tasks were done earlier and are not imporant to this adventure): Follow in the footsteps of the sleeping queen. In short, the party had to travel to my camapign's "Orient" and find out how Ariel acheived immortality and find where she is now, in hopes that she could return and take the kingsword, defeat Drakar and all that jazz.
They not only found out how her immortality works, but that Ariel is the prophetess. They rushed back to their home city to reawaken ariel. This was the end of last session.
Now, the complication is this. Ariel, having been reincarnated, no longer bears the Suertrea blood. A new queen must be found. In the beginning of next session, she will reveal that the party must find Shaleen, the youngest of Idan's children, and get her to pursue her destiny as the new empress, for she has already turned against Idan. (She may not be the ideal queen, but at least she's not the high priest of a God of Tyranny...)
So, in the remaining 3 sessions I plan to set the party out to find Shaleen and lead her to the Emperorship.
Shaleen was formerly in charge of the Drakarian Navy, and when she was exiled she took her most trusted officers with her and become something of a "pirate queen." To stay out of the grips of Drakar, she is obviously very well warded against scrying. So the party must find another means to find her.
Ariel/the prophetess will recommend exploring connections that a pirate would have to make, i.e., the criminal underworld. It just so happens, one of the PCs is the daugter of a crimelord.
Okay, if you have read this far, you are up to speed. Now to my tenative plans for the last three sessions:
1) The first session I have planned out a little better than the last two, where I need most of my help.
The party arrives at the prophetess' doorstep, only to be shortly followed by Drakarian assassins bent on ending her life before she can do escape into a new form. This is the setup for the first battle.
Ariel will explain the situation with herself and Shaleen, task the party with finding Shaleen, and dismiss herself to do important work.
The party must travel to find Meara's (the PC daughter of a crime boss) father. Once in the city, Meara makes contact with one of her father's cronies, and finds that he is acting very unusual and has caved to the six-blades. The six-blades are a criminal syndicate led by expatriate demons who once followed a now slain demon god. In investigating, the party should uncover where he is now, and that he does not seem totally himself. In truth, he is being dominated by a jahi (see MMII) in the employ of the six-blades.
It will be up to the party to free Meara's father from the jahi, but it won't be easy. They will have to face many six-blades demonic assassins, or even the marilith crime boss herself.
Once this is done, they can get the information to find Shaleen via a contact in Shadowport (my campaign's equivalent of FR's Skullport.)
Thoughts: I am thinking about having the Drakarians raid the city just as the PCs arrive to see the prophetess. That would explain the sudden Drakarian assault better, and put a little more pressure on the PCs.
The last two adventures I need a little more help on, but here are my formative ideas:
2) The party travels to shadowport and through a contact finds out that Shaleen has been captured. However, they find out that she was thrown into a dungeon type arena. The players will have to travel there and extract her.
3) The final confrontation - giving Shaleen the kingsword, slaying the current emperor, etc. This is where I need the most help, as I want this to be really epic, but am not sure how to do it without making the PCs into spectators.
I am thinking one thing Ariel cound be doing that could justify her absence is to go before the council of the gods and plead her case that some acts by the Drakarians justify the intervention by the Lord of the Dragons (basically, the Lord of the Dragons is a divine arbirter, and neutral dragons in my world act as his enforcers) to counter the power of some important artifacts they recently acquired (five floating cities armed with dozens of machine-beholders).
So, what I really need from any onlookers are some possible tasks and decisions for the players to make them feel involved in this unfolding of epic event, and a lot more ideas for the second and third adventures.
Okay, that said, fishing for some opinions here.
The characters in my main campaign are currently high-level (18-21)
I have a lot I still want to do with the campaign, but I am honestly getting a little worn on the game and want to shift gears for a while. But at the same time, I know that games put on hiatus often never start up again.
To this end, I have been shaping my last 4 (now three, as I did the first one last week) sessions to be a "season finale" with the specific goals of
1) Bringing a lot of campaign sectrets to the fore
2) Resolve many plot threads, and
3) Be an epic bang-up ride.
I do this in the hopes that even if we don't do this again, the players will be satisfied with what they accomplished.
A few important background points:
1) The Suertrea bloodline is promised by ancient divine pacts to rule the aborian people, and the lawful churches respect this fact.
2) Idan is an evil deity outcast from heavens. Idan was cursed to wander in mortal form over 1000 years ago. To take vengeance against the heavens, he kidnapped Casella, the Suertrea queen and set himself up as the ruler of mankind on the world at that time. Unfortunately, his heir turned against him, and his mortal form was destroyed. But Idan was very clever... most people assume that Casella died peacefully of old age. In fact, Idan cloned Casella as an insurance policy and it was the clone that died, the original is imprisoned in stasis in his realm in Gehenna.
3) Ariel is Idan and Casella's granddaughter, and an andventuring hero-queen of the people who led them to a new land. Ariel made it her responsibility to watch over her people. However, true immortality is elusive. Ariel managed to stave off the effects of time by entering "dream states" in which she could continue to learn and observe while sleeping agelessly.
4) Drakar is the major evil empire of the campaign. Drakar started as an Aborian frontier colony, but was slowly overtaken by cults devoted to Idan, led by four children of Idan and Casella. Two of these four children of Idan have been slain. The third, Tellus, currently rules as the priest emperor of Drakar. The fourth, Shaleen, is in exile after she rebelled when she saw the plot to sacrifice every living being in the world of Trinalia in a dreadful plot by Idan to take over the hells. (This plot, fortunately, failed.)
That Casella still lives is a secret; how these four came to possess the Suertrea blood is not widely known, but it is known that they do, because the first son of Idan was able to wield an artifact known as the Kingsword which can only be wielded by the Suertrea blood.
5) Ariel did return from he dream-sleep to assist the world of mortals when a demon-god threatened them. After this quest she quested to find true immortality of a sort and found it. She returned and assisted the PCs at the time in destroying Idan's Avatar and his first son. Ariel was slain in that battle, but rumors of her immortality persisted. In truth, the immortality she gained allowed her to instantly be reincarnated, though her new form had to mature to 17 before she regained awareness of her former incarnation.
(N.B. This all happened before 3e.)
The campaign thus far (or major important points thereof):
The last non-drakarian suertrea heir was slain (permanently). This led to a breaking of the morale of the free aborian peoples, as the prophecies say that the winds of fate shall follow the Suertrea heir, all of whom are Drakarian royals.
Faced with this problem, the party approached the prophetess for advice. The prophetess is a young 16 year old (coff) woman with unusual insight into events that have not yet occured. She set three tasks before the party in a prophecy.
In session one of the "season finale" the party just finished the third of these tasks (the other two tasks were done earlier and are not imporant to this adventure): Follow in the footsteps of the sleeping queen. In short, the party had to travel to my camapign's "Orient" and find out how Ariel acheived immortality and find where she is now, in hopes that she could return and take the kingsword, defeat Drakar and all that jazz.
They not only found out how her immortality works, but that Ariel is the prophetess. They rushed back to their home city to reawaken ariel. This was the end of last session.
Now, the complication is this. Ariel, having been reincarnated, no longer bears the Suertrea blood. A new queen must be found. In the beginning of next session, she will reveal that the party must find Shaleen, the youngest of Idan's children, and get her to pursue her destiny as the new empress, for she has already turned against Idan. (She may not be the ideal queen, but at least she's not the high priest of a God of Tyranny...)
So, in the remaining 3 sessions I plan to set the party out to find Shaleen and lead her to the Emperorship.
Shaleen was formerly in charge of the Drakarian Navy, and when she was exiled she took her most trusted officers with her and become something of a "pirate queen." To stay out of the grips of Drakar, she is obviously very well warded against scrying. So the party must find another means to find her.
Ariel/the prophetess will recommend exploring connections that a pirate would have to make, i.e., the criminal underworld. It just so happens, one of the PCs is the daugter of a crimelord.
Okay, if you have read this far, you are up to speed. Now to my tenative plans for the last three sessions:
1) The first session I have planned out a little better than the last two, where I need most of my help.
The party arrives at the prophetess' doorstep, only to be shortly followed by Drakarian assassins bent on ending her life before she can do escape into a new form. This is the setup for the first battle.
Ariel will explain the situation with herself and Shaleen, task the party with finding Shaleen, and dismiss herself to do important work.
The party must travel to find Meara's (the PC daughter of a crime boss) father. Once in the city, Meara makes contact with one of her father's cronies, and finds that he is acting very unusual and has caved to the six-blades. The six-blades are a criminal syndicate led by expatriate demons who once followed a now slain demon god. In investigating, the party should uncover where he is now, and that he does not seem totally himself. In truth, he is being dominated by a jahi (see MMII) in the employ of the six-blades.
It will be up to the party to free Meara's father from the jahi, but it won't be easy. They will have to face many six-blades demonic assassins, or even the marilith crime boss herself.
Once this is done, they can get the information to find Shaleen via a contact in Shadowport (my campaign's equivalent of FR's Skullport.)
Thoughts: I am thinking about having the Drakarians raid the city just as the PCs arrive to see the prophetess. That would explain the sudden Drakarian assault better, and put a little more pressure on the PCs.
The last two adventures I need a little more help on, but here are my formative ideas:
2) The party travels to shadowport and through a contact finds out that Shaleen has been captured. However, they find out that she was thrown into a dungeon type arena. The players will have to travel there and extract her.
3) The final confrontation - giving Shaleen the kingsword, slaying the current emperor, etc. This is where I need the most help, as I want this to be really epic, but am not sure how to do it without making the PCs into spectators.
I am thinking one thing Ariel cound be doing that could justify her absence is to go before the council of the gods and plead her case that some acts by the Drakarians justify the intervention by the Lord of the Dragons (basically, the Lord of the Dragons is a divine arbirter, and neutral dragons in my world act as his enforcers) to counter the power of some important artifacts they recently acquired (five floating cities armed with dozens of machine-beholders).
So, what I really need from any onlookers are some possible tasks and decisions for the players to make them feel involved in this unfolding of epic event, and a lot more ideas for the second and third adventures.
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