You can run. But you cannot hide! About DMing, ideas?...Münster guys: STAY OUT!!!

[Quartz]

Play on why are they keeping the monk alive. What information can they extract from him that they don't already know? How can they use that information?

 

[Dark Dragon]

What I would definitely do here is:

1) the Shadow Masters wait for the Hathran, kidnap her and kill the bodyguard
2) the PCs receive the head of the bodyguard.

This would possibly force the PCs to make the first move, which, in my experience, does not lead usually to good results for the PCs, especially if the Shadow Masters are prepared, as they are now.

Bye,
Ze

Exactly that has happened, well, nearly...Thanks for the idea, I modified it a bit.

The hathran was attacked the same night when the landhouse was attacked by the rogues. However, this time it was done by an ambitious red wizard who leads a group of 4 people (himself, his Thayan knight, a rogue/assassin, a clr 7). They were sent to pave the way for an attack on the Iron Lord of Rashemen (which should happen in the current year of my campaign). The Shadow Masters gave all crucial informations to the red wizard, so the attack was easier and well planned.
The bodyguard is still alive, because the hathran was a bit too confident about her powers and the security within the city of Immilmar in Rashemen. She was on the way to a meeting with other hathrans. It is only a short way from Mystra's temple, so she allowed her bodyguard a day 'off' (men are not allowed at hathran meetings).
After the battle she was brought to Thay and is kept unconcious until the red wizard has decided about her future.
The hathrans are quite upset about the assault but at the moment, they don't have a clue. They try to find her with their own means, but they will contact the adventurers within the next day via sending.

 

[Dark Dragon]

Play on why are they keeping the monk alive. What information can they extract from him that they don't already know? How can they use that information?

My idea is to use him as a puppet, either by geas, charm person or dominate person. This would be useful to give the party a very bad reputation...

IIRC, Modify Memory should also be able to extract more information from the monk's mind.

 

[Ze]

IIRC, the monk is a PC - couldn't this be a bit frustrating for the player?
I do have one player who would get along well with that, but I, as a player, would not.
I mean, I would have a little less fun than usual. And gaming is all about having fun, IMO.

 

[Ryltar]

First of all, it sounds like a really engaging game . Congrats!

As for future developments:

You might consider having one of the bad guys take the shape of the monk. Then, set up clues for the PCs to follow, so they can "rescue" him. The bad guys might sacrifice a few pawns for the opportunity of having somebody in the PCs' midst.

To round it off, have a talk with the monk's player beforehand, and let him in on a part of your plan. Have him play the character, as normal, but ask him to fulfill missions for the bad guys. If your group won't be upset about that kind of situation (some slight player vs. player conflict there), this might be a great plot twist.

Grüße nach Münster!

 

[Dark Dragon]

IIRC, the monk is a PC - couldn't this be a bit frustrating for the player?
I do have one player who would get along well with that, but I, as a player, would not.
I mean, I would have a little less fun than usual. And gaming is all about having fun, IMO.

Yeah, but that's often the case when a PC is on a solo tour and then gets into trouble...not so easy to handle.

Nevertheless, the story continued.
To bring the group together (easier for me as the DM), and to minimise a vendetta (the monk always seeks revenge when someone treated him bad, he is a servant of Hoar...), the Shadow Masters and their allies decided to capture the party. However, only three attackers were sent: the wiz/acm, the ftr/rog and the leader, the rog/asn.

The adventurers had a meeting with Lady Gallidy in Two Stars. There they were also visited by a hathran and the ftr/bbn bodyguard of the captured hathran (see above). The two told the party about the attack in Immilmar.
The party was a bit nervous because now they don't have a cleric for support. Lady Gallidy was also unsure about what to do next. The party seemed not being able to handle the Shadow Masters.
The Lady offered guarded shelter in her castle for one night. However, the group knew that the castle was infiltrated once earlier by two rogues, so the security level is not high...
So always two adventurers were on watch, the party stayed in one small room (15x15). During the first watch (the dwarf and the bodyguard were awake), one guard patrolled the area before the room every 30 minutes. Every time the guard passed the room, the dwarf opened the door to have a look. However, he didn't check the guard with detect magic or the like...
When the guard passed the door the fourth time, the dwarf opened the door again...The guard turned around, cast a Mass Hold Person and a quickened confusion...This put the the bodyguard and the tempest out of action. The ranger and the tempest were also confused. Two invisible rogues (the fighter/rogue and the rogue/assassin) then attacked the dwarf, dealing lots of subdual damage...Initiative was rolled. The alienist was too slow. The Shadow Master wizard cast Bigby's Grasping Hand and thus disabled the alienist. The dwarf (last man standing) cast a Wall of Force to separate the wizard and the assassin from the party. The bodyguard and the tempest failed their saves vs. Hold Person again...The ranger was doing nothing dangerous.
Next round, the wizard disintegrated the wall of force, and the two rogues focused their attacks on the dwarf. He was k.o. by the end of the round. Now the rogues worked their way through the party: the bodyguard and the alienist were next and disabled quickly. However, the tempest made finally her save against the Hold Person spell. The wizard cast Otto's Irresistable Dance on her, so she couldn't do much. With this major threat removed, the confused ranger (specialised in archery) was no match for the attackers.

It could have been a TPK. The three attackers have killed the guard, the wizard used Disguise Self to mimic the guard. The two rogues took a position near the door and waited for the first person to leave the room.

The party was stripped of all possessions, sent into an old prison complex within the Forest of Lethyr and repeatedly enchanted with Modify Memory, Detect Thoughts, Bestow Curse...

After some days, they awoke from unconciousness. Everyone was tied to a wall in different small cells (5x5). There was no light source, except in the tempest's cell, where a burning candle was placed (it should be an important spell focus later!). Food & water were very bad, and no one took care of the wounds. So I ruled that there was no regeneration, everybody stayed at 1 hp. The only exceptions were the monk who could heal himself, and the tempest who as treated better because she should be sold to Kront.
The alienist's cell was sealed with a wall of stone, however, the room was enchanted with a zone of fresh air. He was left there to starve to death.

Here starts one part of my campaign, but it is not entirely fix (I have not much time at the moment and thus have to improvise some parts on the fly; that's one reason why I'm posting here ) :

But the alienist was able to 'communicate' with the voices of the Far Realms. So he tried to meditate and stayed in trance for days. Finally he was able to enter the Far Realms mentally, leaving his weak body on the Material Plane (somewhat similar to Astral Projection). There, he met an entity that was formed like a wast colorful net. The being was quite interested in the alienist and liked philosophical discussions about ethics, the future, chaos and the mind. During these discussions the being tought the alienist the power to link his mind with his friends and to summon their minds into the Far Realm.

So they were able to speak with each other, even the captured hathran (who was imprisoned in souhtern Thay) participated. But when the alienist sent the minds of his friends back into their bodies, a mishap occured: The minds of the monk and the barbarian were forced into the barbarian's body, the ranger's mind into that of the monk, and the dwarf's mind into that of the ranger. This offered the opportunity to heal the barbarian's body with the monk's self-healing power and the monk/barbarian was now in a cell without a Dimensional Lock. So he tried to escape. He was able to free the dwarf/ranger before an alarm went off. The two tried to leave the complex, but a troll guard disabled the dwarf/ranger on the way. The monk/barbarian fought his way through the guards (several human and orc ftr 5), left the complex and found himself in a dense forest haunted by ghosts. He received a sending from a wizard called Talaran, who shortly explained that the monk will not survive in woods because of the ghosts that hunt intelligent beings in the night. Without weapons and food and unsure about a way out of the forest, the monk returned to the prison and was put into a cell again (this time he was tied to the wall with his head down - see Life of Brian ).

The alienist shortly returned his mind into his own body, realizing that he'd starve to death (his str, dex, and con were already drained by 6, I used a different ruling here for starvation). So he went into trance again. The net creature was very interested about what might happen if it would interfere with the happenings on the Material Plane. So it tought the alienist on how to pass spell energy to his friends. However, this came with a price to pay. Depending on the spell level given to another creature, the alienist's con and str will drain further...But it was the only option for the party, since the day was close when they should be separated (either sold as a slave, or sacrificed in some bloody ritual).
The alienist summoned his friends to the Far Realms again to establish the mind link needed to pass spell energy to his friends. Once the link is established, he could either give a spell to a friend (like imbue with spell, but more powerful) or cast the spell through the link on a friend. When he sent the minds back into the bodies he was luckily able to put everything into order again.

He used gaseous form, invisibility, and summon monster VII for every party member. This brought his con to 2 and str to 0, leaving him helpless in his cell and almost out of magic energy. But now the party made a relative coordinated escape attempt, using some summoned monsters to distract the troll guards and gaseous form to escape the cells. The dwarf found a strange unnatural stone wall in the complex. The monk destroyed it and found the helpless alienist in the room behind it. The human and orc guards were no big deal for the monk and the barbarian, and the group escaped into the forest.
They didn't explore the prison further, because of the trolls and possible other foes like spellcasters. The alienist had also learned that a very powerful being was close to the prison. The adventurers grabbed some weapons of the guards (some daggers, longswords, crossbows and a shortbow with a few arrows) on their way out.

It was night, most party members were weakened, fatigued, badly wounded and in an overall poor condition. The ranger (thanks to Endurance) and the barbarian pushed the group along, but after two hours, the rest of the party was totally exhausted. The ranger found a place to rest, the alienist cast a still Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum to avoid scrying attempts.

But the night is not over: A huge Green Dragon found the group. The ranger and the monk had met the dragon a few weeks earlier and had to pay 100 gp for visiting the dragon's forest...The dragon was not really interested in the party (they had nothing to offer for their lifes), but he told them that he was called by Tiamat herself for a 'meeting'. The dragon goddess has sent an Aspect of Tiamat to the prison to guard the party's ftr/rog/tempest. The tempest is a young woman who had a short affair with a polymorphed deep dragon. She is pregnant and expects giving birth soon. Tiamat and her church is very interested in the baby that'll be a half dragon (the party knows this). But the Green Dragon was not instructed yet by Tiamat and he doesn't really like the goddess, so he simply said: "I'll let you go this time. But you all owe me a big favor!" The party agreed and the dragon knows that the party should stick to the deal later (the dragon will show up later in the campaign again).

So far...dawn wil begin in four hours, but I plan a final assault on the group by a hunting party from the prison (without the aspect of Tiamat or strong spell support, of course). The group has no magic items, no costly spell components or foci and no armor, spellbooks, food, and water. Anyway, the players are just waiting for the moment when their PCs could hunt the Shadow Masters...

The hathran was able to escape her prison in Thay as well, but it would take some hours for her to meet her friends in the forest.

First of all, it sounds like a really engaging game . Congrats!

Thanks!

As for future developments:

You might consider having one of the bad guys take the shape of the monk. Then, set up clues for the PCs to follow, so they can "rescue" him. The bad guys might sacrifice a few pawns for the opportunity of having somebody in the PCs' midst.

Yes, that's a nice hook I could use.... Yep, that might work: The hathran who visited the party in Immilmar could have acted in disguise. The party didn't know her very well. She is the mother of the captured hathran. Hmm, I could replace her by a durthan, maybe Chaul of the Fortress Rashemar (see Unapprochable East)...Could work, have to think of the details.

To round it off, have a talk with the monk's player beforehand, and let him in on a part of your plan. Have him play the character, as normal, but ask him to fulfill missions for the bad guys. If your group won't be upset about that kind of situation (some slight player vs. player conflict there), this might be a great plot twist.

Have definetively consider this for future situations, e.g., successful demands and alter self actions.

What will happen is that the Shadow Masters will ruin the good reputations of the party, like causing trouble in disguised form.

Grüße nach Münster!

Thanks. You're from Germany?

 

[Ryltar]

Nice going. Using the alienist to free the party is a great idea, and avoids the deus ex machina escape - or at least makes it a little more believable. Please keep us updated of further developments! (Bookmarked this thread)

What are your plans, once the initial conflict is resolved? Any story arcs on the horizon?

Oh, and would you mind sharing some of your NPCs, should you have writeups at the ready? Who knows, they might come in handy in someone else's campaign .

[Your last assumption is correct, of course. ]

 

[Ze]

Great twist! Sounds like it was a great fun to play!

I liked the alienist's travel in the Far Realms.
Just one question: did he recover his own spellbooks during the escape or has he got Spell Mastery in Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum??

And I would love to see some PC stats too...

Keep up with the good things!

 

[Dark Dragon]

Nice going. Using the alienist to free the party is a great idea, and avoids the deus ex machina escape - or at least makes it a little more believable. Please keep us updated of further developments! (Bookmarked this thread)

Thanks. I don't like the idea of deus ex machina either, so I used the idea of the alienist's frequent contacts with the Far Realms. The mind-link power he learned there is very useful but also very exhausting (it costs him the energy of a level 9 spell and 1 Con point, temporarily). I think there will be no misuse here.

What are your plans, once the initial conflict is resolved? Any story arcs on the horizon?

My initial plan was that the group (who is very experienced in attacking fortresses) has to clear Fortress Rashemar from the durthan Chaul and her monsters. The Thayans tried to ally with Chaul but the party has thwarted that attempt in an earlier campaign. I decided to put the attack on the fortress to the end of my campaign.

The idea of involving Tiamat came when it turned out that the tempest is pregant with a half-dragon (deep dragon). That happened in the previous campaign. I wasn't DM at that time.
The dragon goddess wants the baby for her own plans (which involve a future war of the evil dragons versus the civilized lands). She has sent two of her servants: a half-giant half-dragon (who failed but survived) and an Aspect of Tiamat. These two will try to get her claws on the tempest...They interfered a bit with the Shadow Masters but were able to arrange themselves.

The Red Wizards prepare their attack on the Iron Lord of Rashemen. In addition, they'll send a magically enhanced warship to attack the western coast of Rashemen and cause more trouble and distract the hathrans. The group has to deal with the ship at some point.
Also, the party learned that some Thayan farmers in Ashanath are involved in the attacks on the party. The group wants revenge...

The storyline will bring the party into the far north of Rashemen. I plan a fight with the Aspect of Tiamat, the half-giant/dragon and the party somewhere in the mountains. Have to work it out.

Finally, the party has to uncover the durthan conspirancy within the hathran sisterhood in Rashemen. This leads to the fortress Rashemar. I have the idea of putting a Temporal Drake (see WotC web supplement) from a futuristic world there. He was hunting a Shadow Dragon from the same world who followed Tiamat's call as well and reached Toril with a space ship (I have the d20 future rules book). The drake was imprisoned by Chaul before he could deal with the Shadow Dragon. The party has to stop the Shadow Dragon before he could use his arsenal of futuristic weapons to cause trouble and turn the tide of the coming dragon war... That's just an idea and I'm not sure if it fits...However, I like the mix of science fiction and fantasy.

Ok, these are the three major plots of the campaign. The attacks of the Shadow Masters should force the party to think about foes that use deception and stealth and about means of how to counter that... Most foes will use stealth and infiltration,so...nothing is what it looks like...

Oh, and would you mind sharing some of your NPCs, should you have writeups at the ready? Who knows, they might come in handy in someone else's campaign .

[Your last assumption is correct, of course. ]

Yep, of course. Have to get the data out of HeroForge, however...

 

[Dark Dragon]

Great twist! Sounds like it was a great fun to play!

I liked the alienist's travel in the Far Realms.
Just one question: did he recover his own spellbooks during the escape or has he got Spell Mastery in Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum??

And I would love to see some PC stats too...

Keep up with the good things!

Thanks, I will try to post the PC stats after the next session (will take place next monday, I don't have the sheets at hand).

The alienist is a sorcerer/alienist with the eschew materials feat, so he doesn't need a spellbook. As he is very paranoid, he had chosen Private Sanctum and other warding spells.

The dwarven eldritch knight, however, is a wizard. At the moment, he has no spellbook and thinks of taking the feat spell mastery (he just level up to level 18 and can choose a feat).