[plots] Let me tell you about my campaign

[der_kluge]

My players - stay out. You know who you are.

One of the things I've always hated about being a DM is the loneliness. I've been sitting here at work with little to do and I've been storming over where to take my campaign, and how to tie it all together.

I just needed to be able to bounce this story line off *someone* to get a "yea, that's awesome", or "wow, that sucks", or something. That, and it will help me write down my thoughts since I've got about 80 things floating around in my head right now, and it will help solidify them.

So, if you're willing to listen, I appreciate it, maybe you can get some ideas for your own game. And actually, I'm planning on making all my notes available to ENWorld in case any one wants a free, ready-made 9th-20th level campaign for themselves.

This game is being played out in my story hour, though I'm a bit behind. This will give insight on things to come. If you don't want insight into things to come, stop reading.


Ok, here goes.

First off, I'm using Monkeygod's HellStone Deep, and Black Ice Well modules, and I'm also heavily using Malhavoc's Requiem for a God supplement.

My campaign in a nutshell:

The PCs have been stranded on a lost continent (think Land of the Lost, without the Slestacks(sp) and dinosaurs). While here, they become separated from their leader (An archaeologist named Valgo) and the rest of the crew.

The party stumbles onto a group of Gripplis (from ToH) (think small bullywugs) who are being attacked by Trolls. The party saves the gripplis, and the grippli leader tells them that their village was attacked by Slaad (the party deduces this) and that the Slaad were after a powerful artifact that the Gripplis had in their possession. This particular grippli has the artifact - a talisman of no small power. These remaining gripplis were asked to take the talisman away from the village for safe-keeping, but were hunted by trolls soon after leaving the village. The Gripplis take the PCs back to their village, and discover that everyone in the village was slain by Slaad. The Gripplis decide to give the talisman to the PCs since it is no longer safe in their village.

The PCs are then attacked by Slaad, and after subduing them, the PCs learn that the Slaad are combing the land for sources of power, and they squeeze out of the Slaad that there is another source of power coming from a canyon not far from the current location. This canyon, dubbed "spider canyon" by the Gripplis was where the Gripplis found this talisman many, many years ago.

PCs head to Spider canyon, and witness as four Slaad enter the canyon, and are quickly devoured by ravenous, hellish spiders. The PCs then encounter a Nymph, named Merenya, that asks the PCs for their help. "The Avatar of Elbard is trapped in there, and I can not free him", she says. (Elbard is product identity of MonkeyGod Enterprises, but IMC it's the name of a God, in the module "Treasures of Elbard", it is the name of a kingdom). So, the PCs willingly blast their way, with the Nymph's help (also a druid) into the canyon. Currently, they have rescued the avatar (a stag who is weak, and can not walk) and have wall of forced themselves inside the giant spider's cave. This is where last week's game ended.

If the PCs manage to fight their way back out, they will be ambushed by Slaad who *ask* that the PCs turn over the sources of power, and they will promise a swift death.

Hopefully, the PCs survive, and will flee to the Nymph's grove, where the Stag will ask that the cleric hallow a space, and make it undetectable to scrying. There, he will be able to commune with his god.

Now, for some history. 200,000 years ago, there was a battle between gods. A god of destruction, Chairos (PI of Monkeygod) was destroyed by two other gods - a god of suffering and compassion, and Elbard, the god of Law/Nature. Both Elbard and Chairos were killed in the battle, and the evil aspect of Chairos transplanted into the god of Suffering - and now he is an evil god *bringing* about suffering to the masses, instead of comforting them.

As a result of these deaths, several energy wells were created, and large pools of godsblood were created. The Slaad are working for a devil named Draz Ghulan (again, from MonkeyGod, from Hellstone Deep) who is trying to link the power of all the energy wells to activate a powerful, celestial-destroying artifact.

Elbard's death also released powerful energy sources into the land, which are also scattered about. The White Stag asks the PCs to locate these sources of power and claim them so that the forces of evil do not. The Slaad are scouring the place looking for the sources of power, but can not get into Black Ice Well, where the pool of godsblood is stored. The White Stag also asks the PCs to enter this place, to retrieve the godsblood of Chairos so that The White Stag can perform the final spell to lay rest to Chairos' loosed divinity once and for all.

So, the party is currently 10th, and after the Slaad ambush, they'll be 11th. I will have multiple quests for them which will have them hopping about the continent until about 15th when they will make their way to Black Ice Well, and after retrieving the godsblood of Chairos from there, they will begin attempting to deactivate all the energy wells of Chairos, to ultimately end up in Hell where they stop Draz Ghulan from bringing an end to civilization.

Thoughts?

 

[Crothian]

Wow, I can fit my camapign with yours with ease. I have both those Monkey God modules, and have also been using Requim for a God. OIne of my PCs is actually gathering godsparks and will be getting the god infused template very soon.

So far it sounds really cool. Have you seen the Slaadi conversions people are doing in the Creature catalog her on EN World? There are some very cool new types and even some of the lords have been converted.

What other items of power are over there? There is just so much that could be done with exploration and tracking down artifacts. Sounds good so far.

 

[Telperion]

I think it an interesting concept for a campaign =).
A bit too epic for my taste, but then again that’s beside the point.

Since we are talking about the essence of divinity raining down upon the world, and pooling into these “energy wells”, would it be an impossible idea to assume that the artifact the gripplis possess is intelligent? Perhaps driven insane by the pooling of more than one source of divine essence? Maybe by using more than one pool of energy, thus creating a more powerful, but also chaotic artifact. This item, certainly unique in all of creation, could serve as an interesting third player in our drama. If it is powerful then it can also be fickle and treacherous when it so wishes, but perhaps benevolent and helpful at other times. Could the party feel a strong urge to complete their quest, just so they will get rid of this damned thing? I’m loaning stuff from the Lord of the Rings, but in a modified way.

What would such an artifact want? Would it seek release from its tormented existence trough destruction? Would it seek reunion with its shattered essence in the energy wells? Or would it promise divinity to its carrier and a world that he could control as his own? Naturally under the powerful yoke of the artifact granting him/her this divinity.

Hm…aside from that I’m at a bit of a loss to add anything really “inventive” to this story. All the players seem to have their own reasons for wanting the energy wells either dissipated or harnessed. It’s obviously going to bring about lots of conflict and spectacular fights =). Personally I always enjoy adding a random element to a campaign, and the artifact would seem to be the easiest way to do it. Also, if you use it in a secretive and careful manner, then the intelligence and purposes of the artifact might remain hidden until the very end. And then it’s time to play the final act of the play, and see where things go from there…

 

[der_kluge]

I could actually work with that, Telperion. I just had in mind that this was a talisman of Elbard, and that it could be infused with godsblood from Elbard and Chairos to grant further powers, becoming a tool of law.

I suppose one final twist to all this is that the White Stag may ultimately use the PCs as tools for bringing his fallen god back into the world somehow. That would certainly be an interesting twist.

 

[der_kluge]

Crothian, if you're so inclined, tell me about your campaign.

 

[der_kluge]

And yes, those MonkeyGod modules are awesome, and they converted perfectly to my storyline. I used much of Black Ice Well, but struggled with finding a way to tie the Slaadi used in it. (Oh yes, I've seen the Book of Slaad, I intend to use those nasty Yellow Slaad at some point) I also changed the Well itself to house godsblood, versus the "essence" of the vampire dragon, Shae Mora.

Hellstone Deep also fit perfectly, and is where I culled much of my campaign history from (I'm even using most of the terms as they appear in that module), but I like that I can expand it so easily by increasing the locales described in the module. My epiphany today (in the bathroom, where all great ideas are born) was to change those sites to energy wells. That helps tie the whole dead god theme together.

So far, I've been very impressed with myself, and the way these things have tied together so conveniently, and smoothly. It's almost scary.

 

[Mystery Man]

And yes, those MonkeyGod modules are awesome, and they converted perfectly to my storyline. I used much of Black Ice Well, but struggled with finding a way to tie the Slaadi used in it.

When I first bought Black Ice Well I only bought it for the size of the thing and I just planned to steal what content content I could, but then I started actually reading it and was quite impressed. I'm using it now, running it with a bit less combat because it is quite combat heavy but I plan on taking the last third of it and changing the ending into something else I had planned. but all in all it really is an impressive work.

 

[Crothian]

My game centers around a War and gods ascending in power. IMC the 13 greater gods cannot manifest on the world becasue of an ultra powerful artifact. There are demi gods who exist on the world and have recently realized that they can increase their power and possible become greater gods replacing the ones that cannot manifest.

One of the PCs is the chosen of Yondolla, but not near as powerful as those chosen templates from Forgotten Realms. Basically he's infused with divine sparks and will get that template soon.

There are very few magical items, I perfer artifacts so while the party has a few really powerful items, they don't have common things like potions of healing. There is a lot of questing for powerful items and using them. They just recently used the Lance of Endless Night to free a trapped Demi god and then had to find a way to destroy the lance so it could never be used again.

The Slaadi fit in in my game becasue one of the guys has two parts of the Rod of Seven parts. In a previous game the Queen of Chaos was killed, so now the Slaadi have taken interest in the rod and want it. The players don't know why.

The War is happening on the known continent but they just found an unknown continent which is going to be similiar to yours. Like I said I have those two modules and was thinking of ways to use them.

At some point soon I hope to start a Story Hour. I have notes on the sessions I just haven't sat down to write anything up.

 

[der_kluge]

You should check out my SH. I haven't really gotten to the meat on the bone yet, so to speak, but I will soon. And it has pictures!

Yes, in our first campaign, the GM was going to have us move into the Rod of Seven Parts module. And my character became a cleric of some LN god in his world, and ended up acquiring the first piece of the rod, but we finished the campaign at that point (stopped at 13th level; started at 3rd). But, I can see how RoSP would fit nicely into this whole mesh of stuff. I really like the Law vs. Chaos theme. I intend to include Modrons in here eventually as well.

Mystery Man, have you updated your story hour lately? I've been following along.

 

[Nightfall]

Not bad Klugie! I like the way you think.