Dr.Dan
First Post
Attention Easthampton Massachusetts Gaming Group Players - Derik, Sean, Eric, Bill, Shauneen:
Read no further! Plot spoilers and other things you shouldn’t see lie below. If I find out you’ve read any of this, your punishment will be swift and brutal . . . as if your current predicament wasn’t bad enough!
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Obligatory Spoiler Protection Buffer
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My fellow plot jockeys,
I have come to a point in my campaign wherein I am rather stuck. I need an idea for a quest that is worthy of a wish or miracle spell as a reward. The situation is as follows:
The PC’s have just fled a ruined city inhabited by many undead nasties, wherein they just had their butts handed to them. They had come to this city because one of them had a greater curse (-8 to all attacks, saves & checks) laid upon him. The curse could only be lifted by completing some task set by the caster, or via a wish/miracle spell. Having no access to the latter, they sought to complete the former. This has proven to be nigh impossible.
Their method of flight was the plane shift spell, which brought them to the first plane of Bytopia. Here they met a celestial creature who heard about their plight and offered to seek aid for them from one of the planes powers. I intend for him to return several days hence with a quest that, should they complete it, will earn them the above mentioned spell, lifting the curse.
But what will the quest be?
I would like to tie the quest in with the campaign’s background material, which I will present below, so that some of the overarching plot of the campaign might finally be revealed to the players.
Background:
The Slaad:
The Death Slaad - Co'Watless
Co'Watless made a bad deal with a tanar'ri lord, Persecraiba (a Balor), borrowing 1 million lesser demons for an attack on a rival slaad lord, and promising a larvae for every tanar'ri lost in the battle. He figured that against such a force, entering through a 'secret' portal, his enemy would crumble easily, and he expected to pay up for a few dozen lost fiends. He was prepared to account for just over 6000 casualties if needs be. But when his rival met him with cunning traps and a strong reserve force of baatezu he began losing by the hundreds, then the thousands and finally by the tens of thousands as he retreated to less exposed ground. In the end, 9 out of 10 tanar'ri were lost and Co'Watless couldn't pay up.
Persecraiba was furious. Unable to effectively participate in the Blood War any longer, he launches a bloody campaign of revenge against Co'Watless. Now, on the heals of a monumental loss and besieged by demonic forces that want him annihilated, Co'Watless needs help. The baatezu, who just nearly destroyed him, send forces to aid him; but only enough to barley hold off the attackers and increase losses on both sides. His back to the crumbling wall, Co'Watless sends a special force of slaadi to the prime to "recruit" reinforcements from the native inhabitants. All he needs are a few (thousand) warm bodies to incubate some eggs, and . . .
The Grey Slaad - Taggis
As leader of the expedition to the prime, Taggis has authority over some 200 lesser slaadi, mostly red and blue. He also has some ambitions that Co'Watless has not, and would not care to, find out about.
When Taggis arrived in the jungles south of the Middle Sea, he noted the hot, wet climate, the hordes of insects, and the abundant toothy, scaly, reptilian life forms, and decided that this was a nice place. He bumped into some of its cold blooded, primitive denizens - first the bullywugs, then the lizard men, and finally the Yuan-ti - and observed that these were his kind of people. He also recognized the lack of Chaos - the stable land masses, regular weather patterns, and other predictable, cyclical things, and thought that he could get used to these oddities. He began organizing the natives into more useful patterns and set about his tasks - first, to birth a new army (partly for himself, partly for Co'Watless), second, to establish a scaly empire with himself as emperor, and thirdly, to betray Co'Watless, kill him, and transform himself into a new death slaad!
The Yuan-Ti:
As the primary allies in Taggis' little rebellion, the serpent people have been given high station by the slaad; station they see themselves as rightly deserving. The Yuan-Ti inhabit the jungles of Suth, right on the same land that they built an empire on 1000 years ago. The old temples, shadows of their former glory, still lie under the dense jungle foliage, serving as homes and fortresses. The temples remind the yuan-ti of what they once had, and the arrival of Taggis has spurred them on to regaining their once formidable power. They have delved into the buried regions of their homes and unlocked secrets lost there for a millennia; bending the jungle to their will, they are on the rise again.
The old empire of Valossa was built by a different kind of yuan-ti than that which currently inhabits Suth. Today's yuan-ti worship a beast that they call The Unspeakable One, whom scholars know as Sch’theraqpasstt (pronounced schik- there-AUK- past), a mad demon lord who cares only for destruction and was actually responsible for the fall of the old empire. In fact, one of these yuan-ti’s primary goals is to summon this demon lord from the abyss to wreck havoc on their enemies. What the consequences of this will be is anybodies guess. But the sacrifices are being received, and The Unspeakable One, who has slept for 1000 years, stirs once again.
FYI, the players no almost none of the above. They are aware of the yuan-ti, have read a thing or two about The Unspeakable One but are unaware of its summoning, have heard the name Taggis but don’t know who he is, and know that there are slaad working with the yuan-ti but don’t know why. For the campaign to progress that should change right about . . . now.
Any and all of your ideas will be welcome. And thanks for reading.
Dr. Dan
Read no further! Plot spoilers and other things you shouldn’t see lie below. If I find out you’ve read any of this, your punishment will be swift and brutal . . . as if your current predicament wasn’t bad enough!
*
**
***
****
*****
******
Obligatory Spoiler Protection Buffer
******
*****
****
***
**
*
My fellow plot jockeys,
I have come to a point in my campaign wherein I am rather stuck. I need an idea for a quest that is worthy of a wish or miracle spell as a reward. The situation is as follows:
The PC’s have just fled a ruined city inhabited by many undead nasties, wherein they just had their butts handed to them. They had come to this city because one of them had a greater curse (-8 to all attacks, saves & checks) laid upon him. The curse could only be lifted by completing some task set by the caster, or via a wish/miracle spell. Having no access to the latter, they sought to complete the former. This has proven to be nigh impossible.
Their method of flight was the plane shift spell, which brought them to the first plane of Bytopia. Here they met a celestial creature who heard about their plight and offered to seek aid for them from one of the planes powers. I intend for him to return several days hence with a quest that, should they complete it, will earn them the above mentioned spell, lifting the curse.
But what will the quest be?
I would like to tie the quest in with the campaign’s background material, which I will present below, so that some of the overarching plot of the campaign might finally be revealed to the players.
Background:
The Slaad:
The Death Slaad - Co'Watless
Co'Watless made a bad deal with a tanar'ri lord, Persecraiba (a Balor), borrowing 1 million lesser demons for an attack on a rival slaad lord, and promising a larvae for every tanar'ri lost in the battle. He figured that against such a force, entering through a 'secret' portal, his enemy would crumble easily, and he expected to pay up for a few dozen lost fiends. He was prepared to account for just over 6000 casualties if needs be. But when his rival met him with cunning traps and a strong reserve force of baatezu he began losing by the hundreds, then the thousands and finally by the tens of thousands as he retreated to less exposed ground. In the end, 9 out of 10 tanar'ri were lost and Co'Watless couldn't pay up.
Persecraiba was furious. Unable to effectively participate in the Blood War any longer, he launches a bloody campaign of revenge against Co'Watless. Now, on the heals of a monumental loss and besieged by demonic forces that want him annihilated, Co'Watless needs help. The baatezu, who just nearly destroyed him, send forces to aid him; but only enough to barley hold off the attackers and increase losses on both sides. His back to the crumbling wall, Co'Watless sends a special force of slaadi to the prime to "recruit" reinforcements from the native inhabitants. All he needs are a few (thousand) warm bodies to incubate some eggs, and . . .
The Grey Slaad - Taggis
As leader of the expedition to the prime, Taggis has authority over some 200 lesser slaadi, mostly red and blue. He also has some ambitions that Co'Watless has not, and would not care to, find out about.
When Taggis arrived in the jungles south of the Middle Sea, he noted the hot, wet climate, the hordes of insects, and the abundant toothy, scaly, reptilian life forms, and decided that this was a nice place. He bumped into some of its cold blooded, primitive denizens - first the bullywugs, then the lizard men, and finally the Yuan-ti - and observed that these were his kind of people. He also recognized the lack of Chaos - the stable land masses, regular weather patterns, and other predictable, cyclical things, and thought that he could get used to these oddities. He began organizing the natives into more useful patterns and set about his tasks - first, to birth a new army (partly for himself, partly for Co'Watless), second, to establish a scaly empire with himself as emperor, and thirdly, to betray Co'Watless, kill him, and transform himself into a new death slaad!
The Yuan-Ti:
As the primary allies in Taggis' little rebellion, the serpent people have been given high station by the slaad; station they see themselves as rightly deserving. The Yuan-Ti inhabit the jungles of Suth, right on the same land that they built an empire on 1000 years ago. The old temples, shadows of their former glory, still lie under the dense jungle foliage, serving as homes and fortresses. The temples remind the yuan-ti of what they once had, and the arrival of Taggis has spurred them on to regaining their once formidable power. They have delved into the buried regions of their homes and unlocked secrets lost there for a millennia; bending the jungle to their will, they are on the rise again.
The old empire of Valossa was built by a different kind of yuan-ti than that which currently inhabits Suth. Today's yuan-ti worship a beast that they call The Unspeakable One, whom scholars know as Sch’theraqpasstt (pronounced schik- there-AUK- past), a mad demon lord who cares only for destruction and was actually responsible for the fall of the old empire. In fact, one of these yuan-ti’s primary goals is to summon this demon lord from the abyss to wreck havoc on their enemies. What the consequences of this will be is anybodies guess. But the sacrifices are being received, and The Unspeakable One, who has slept for 1000 years, stirs once again.
FYI, the players no almost none of the above. They are aware of the yuan-ti, have read a thing or two about The Unspeakable One but are unaware of its summoning, have heard the name Taggis but don’t know who he is, and know that there are slaad working with the yuan-ti but don’t know why. For the campaign to progress that should change right about . . . now.
Any and all of your ideas will be welcome. And thanks for reading.
Dr. Dan
