To answer your question, what kind of campaigns you could run on Scarrn, her is mine in a nutshell:
Certain informations in the Creature Collections lead to the conclusion, that the Slacerians were a psionic talented race. being independent from the arcane magic of the titans, and the divine magic of the gods, they were able to challenge them both for the dominion over Scarrn. The gods and the titans teamed up,and destroyed the Slarecians.
In a last desperate move the Slarecians sealed one of their underground fortresses, so that only a psionic creature could enter the place, and build a psionic powered machine, that could breach the barrier between the dimensions. They intended to use this gap in reality to suck the very essence of the gods and the titans into oblivion. But as soon as they opened this gap, something cthulhloid came through, and took over the complex. Unable to return to its dimension, it still sits in this fortress, served by a caste of psionic liches. Some fifty Slacerians could escape to the astral plane. Knowing, that their return to Scarrn would mean their immediate death, they are so far content with watching the events from afar, and acting through their githyanki henchmen.
Nearly a thousand years later queen Galeeda of Calastia, a halfhag and follower of the titan Mormo learned of the existence of this facility, and its purpose. She also learned of the existence of slarecian teaching devices, that could turn a person into a psion, if they are charged with the proper ritual. She remembered, that one of this devices was in the possession of the druids of Khet, who didn`t knew the purpose of the device. She figured, that if she could take control of the facility, she could bundle the essence of Mormo, revive her, and use the device as a weapon against the gods. Of course she don`t know of the THING, that lurks in the slarecian fortress.
In order to get the key, Galeeda sent a few of her agents to Khet, to obtain the teaching device at all costs. They stole it and fled east, hoping to shake of their pursuers by moving as close as possible along the borders of the ganjus, where natives of Khet are not welcome. One of the agents, a bloodwitch succumbs to the influences of the teaching device, murders his companions, and travels to a place of power near Amalthea in order to carry out the ritual necessary to charge the teaching device fully.
Enter the players (finally)
The characters (a halfelf druid of Denev, a halfling rogue, an elven wizard, a human fighter, and a dwarven cleric of Corean) all hail from Amalthea, and are hired by a shady merchant to help him relocate a cache of trade goods, that was hidden by his family in some ancient ruins near Amalthea during the druid war.
Here they stumble upon the blood witch and his two ratman henchman, just as the bloodwitch complets the ritual. They defeat them easily, as the bloodwitch is weakend after the ritual, and before anybody can prevent it the halfling touches the charged teaching device with her bare hands. From that moment, she has sorcerous powers.
At least she thinks, she is a sorcerer. In reality she is a psion, whose powers take a form better suited to a being normally not capable of displaying psionic powers. There is a slim chance however every time she casts a spell, that a similar psionic power manifests. The players are all new to D&D, and don`t even suspect that something like the psionic exists, so every time it happens it scares them to death.
Back in Amalthea, the Council of Elders decides, that the players must bring this artifact to a place, where it can be studied and destroyed, should it prove dangerous. I ruled that the elves of ganjus wouldn`t allow anything slacerian be brought into their realm, so the only option was, to transport it to Mithril. Now the Calastian secret service, and the cult of Belsameth both had agents in Amalthea, who reported these events to their superiors.
Chancellor Anteas was able to connect these events with the machinations of queen Galeeda, his opponent at the calastian court, but lacking further informations he instructed his spies in Vesh and Mithril just to watch the players closely.
The cult of Belsameth on the other hand knew enough of the device and its purpose to realize the danger the artifact meant for the rule of the gods, and the very existence of the world. So they decided to do something about it. The last Slacerians watched the events from their astral fortress very interested.
Meanwhile the players traveled from Amalthea south to Ontenazu, and are ambushed by the remains of the Kethian pursue party. They defeat them with the help of an elven border patrol, and continue their way through the canyon of souls into Vesh.
Here the cult of Belsameth acts. A hired band of coal goblins steal the device, and bring it to an abandoned fortress, where a priestess of Belsameth works to create surgical improved werecreatures. She has the order, to guard the device, until the cult sends a party to collect it. The players are able to track the goblins with the help of the wizards hawk familiar. They storm the tower, kill the guardian creatures and capture the priestess. Four of the characters (all true neutral) wanted to execute the priestess for her misdeeds and the cruel experiments she was conducting, but were kept from it by the party cleric (lawful good), who spoke against killing a fellow cleric, even if she was serving an evil diety.
The party, feeling save, dawdled too long in the lower levels of the tower which had a connection to Underscarrn. So they were suprised by the pickup party, six barbarian horseman, led by a shadowsorcerer. They took one player as a hostage, and traded him for the priestess, and the device. Then they rode away, with the partys horses.
The Slacerians not happy with the way the events unfolded, sent a party of githyanki assassins, to reunite the device with the living key. They ambushed the pickup party in the sleep, and butchered them. the priestess escaped, and fled to the main Belsameth temple in western Ghelspadh, to report her failure.
She was severly punished and given among other disfigurements the gift of lycanthrophy, and will resurface as a nemesis of the party later in the campaign.
The party found the device sitting in the middle of their slaughtered enemies, which led them to the conclusion, that the device itself was responsible for the carnage. So they took it to Mithril, and spent the winter there. The device, and the halfling were tested by both the wizards guild and the clergy of Corean, but so far they haven`t come to a conclusion, what to do with the device, and the halfling.
Meanwhile the cult of Belsameth has learned through a mole in the wizards guild, that the halfling was already tranformed into a living key, and has ordered her death. The party has already dealt with the first wannabe assassins, but now they are facing a real danger. Two bloodhounds (a bountyhunter prestigeclass from Masters of the Wild) have chosen our halfling as their next target. These two (a ranger and a monk) are old rivals, who do the odd job for the paladins of Mithril by bringing wanted criminals to justice. They don`t want to jeopardize their good reputation by murdering an innocent in the city of Corean, by the orders of an evil goddess. So they plan their proceedings very carefully will trying to sabotage the plans of their opponent.
That`s the Story so far. I`m planning a great showdown in the ancient slacerain facility and/or their astral fortress, with heavy participation of the Galeeda-, the Slacerian and the Belsamethparty. A kind of four way deadlock, with a lot of opportunity for roleplaying, and backstabbing. The characters are currently at level 6 or 7, and I plan to wait with this showdown until my players are level 15 to 16. So if you have some suggestions how to fill that gap, I would be most grateful
); but the setting is still so new that there is no "cannon" about what's happened. While i personally beleive that we'll see S&S "advance" the metaplot (king Virduk dies, Durrover falls to the hegemony, Glivid Autel masterminds a 5th siege of Hollowfaust; That Which Abides returns to life) right now the setting pure and non-contradictory. The world exists solely to be played in by you and you're players.
