Cristian Andreu
Explorer
My current campaign is set in Planescape, and it began in November 2013. System is Pathfinder, but transitioning to 5e.
The central plot is that, after years of adventuring, the party finally decided to settle down and move onto higher goals, thus founding their own organization. After discussing their background and how they'd met (which, considering we were set to start at 15th level, in itself ended being the description of an entire campaign!), I allowed them to design the purpose and function of said organization.
The result was the Brotherhood of the Impossible, an organization specialized in solving the most insolvable cases, while at the same time serving for the staging ground to set out and establish the PC's political network. With the help of a mysterious patron, the Brotherhood managed to purchase a run-down hotel in Treasure Lane, Market Ward, Sigil (here's the map of the building I drew based on the player's requests).
The core idea of the campaign is absolute freedom of action, allowing the PCs to dictate where the story goes. Still, there's a central plot: The Patron, later revealed as Loth the Magnificent, is an exceedingly well-connected individual leading both an organization meant to protect the interests of primals in Sigil and a smuggling network across the Lower Planes (through the use of ships able to jump across the planes at certain dimensional weak spots).
His reasons to help the PCs get started in Sigil were both to use them as a tool to handle stuff he didn't want to appear involved with (the opening adventure sent the PCs hunting for an iron sarcophagus containing a powerful demon that had been stolen from one of his ships by followers of Kali) and to see if they were useful to increase his political capital.
This, because a central theme I'm trying to push in the campaign is the tension between primals and planars, particularly regarding the political and economical spheres of power within Sigil. So there's the planar Factions on one end (with their own conflicts, of course) and the Council of a Thousand Worlds on the other, to which dozens of primal organizations belong. While the Council is normally about defending primal interests in the planes, there's currently a strong division after one of the most influential members, Pontos Moldoon (a ridiculously wealthy half-orc from Faerûn who engages in what's essentially large-scale tomb raiding across the Prime Material. He's not popular with the Powers) started pulling strings in order to promote a more hostile attitude towards the Factions, which clashes with Loth's more moderate and pragmatic approach.
After noticing he could rely on the PCs, Loth proposed his plan to the Brotherhood: One of the members, Moldanir Thuln of the Royal Tarovian Society, is about to be kicked out after managing to lose all support within the Council (there's 50 members in total, down from an originally unmanageable number of 1,000. They kept the name, though), and this presents the first opportunity in over a decade for a new member to join. Though there's a huge waiting list already, everybody knows the election is down to whomever manages to secure the most votes before the election takes place. So while Loth wants to get the Brotherhood elected, Moldoon is pushing to get his own puppet there (the Golden Anchor, a merchant organization originally from Waterdeep which keeps a lucrative trading route across the Oceanus River, but is involved in more nefarious stuff regarding ferrying souls). This has resulted in a bitter political (and often no so civil) race to secure the seat, with grave implications regarding the political stability of Sigil.
So right now the campaign is a mixture of Stargate and House of Cards across the planes.
The central plot is that, after years of adventuring, the party finally decided to settle down and move onto higher goals, thus founding their own organization. After discussing their background and how they'd met (which, considering we were set to start at 15th level, in itself ended being the description of an entire campaign!), I allowed them to design the purpose and function of said organization.
The result was the Brotherhood of the Impossible, an organization specialized in solving the most insolvable cases, while at the same time serving for the staging ground to set out and establish the PC's political network. With the help of a mysterious patron, the Brotherhood managed to purchase a run-down hotel in Treasure Lane, Market Ward, Sigil (here's the map of the building I drew based on the player's requests).
The core idea of the campaign is absolute freedom of action, allowing the PCs to dictate where the story goes. Still, there's a central plot: The Patron, later revealed as Loth the Magnificent, is an exceedingly well-connected individual leading both an organization meant to protect the interests of primals in Sigil and a smuggling network across the Lower Planes (through the use of ships able to jump across the planes at certain dimensional weak spots).
His reasons to help the PCs get started in Sigil were both to use them as a tool to handle stuff he didn't want to appear involved with (the opening adventure sent the PCs hunting for an iron sarcophagus containing a powerful demon that had been stolen from one of his ships by followers of Kali) and to see if they were useful to increase his political capital.
This, because a central theme I'm trying to push in the campaign is the tension between primals and planars, particularly regarding the political and economical spheres of power within Sigil. So there's the planar Factions on one end (with their own conflicts, of course) and the Council of a Thousand Worlds on the other, to which dozens of primal organizations belong. While the Council is normally about defending primal interests in the planes, there's currently a strong division after one of the most influential members, Pontos Moldoon (a ridiculously wealthy half-orc from Faerûn who engages in what's essentially large-scale tomb raiding across the Prime Material. He's not popular with the Powers) started pulling strings in order to promote a more hostile attitude towards the Factions, which clashes with Loth's more moderate and pragmatic approach.
After noticing he could rely on the PCs, Loth proposed his plan to the Brotherhood: One of the members, Moldanir Thuln of the Royal Tarovian Society, is about to be kicked out after managing to lose all support within the Council (there's 50 members in total, down from an originally unmanageable number of 1,000. They kept the name, though), and this presents the first opportunity in over a decade for a new member to join. Though there's a huge waiting list already, everybody knows the election is down to whomever manages to secure the most votes before the election takes place. So while Loth wants to get the Brotherhood elected, Moldoon is pushing to get his own puppet there (the Golden Anchor, a merchant organization originally from Waterdeep which keeps a lucrative trading route across the Oceanus River, but is involved in more nefarious stuff regarding ferrying souls). This has resulted in a bitter political (and often no so civil) race to secure the seat, with grave implications regarding the political stability of Sigil.
So right now the campaign is a mixture of Stargate and House of Cards across the planes.
Last edited:
