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View Full Version : The Body of Helemite (Need Story Suggestions!)



Halcyon_Dax
2006-08-25, 04:41 AM
Appologies for Length/Girth

Im a new DM and I recently started playing through a campaign of my own design with a group of friends. Everything is going great, but I have come to a point where I am not sure what is going to happen next!

I would love the any and all suggestoins as to what should happen next!

(I have my own ideas, but I would love to get some others from a dynamic D&D crowd)

Okay, the story so far, in summary:


Adventurers are all recruited (along with about 5 NPCs) to guard the mansion of a wealthy merchant.
The mansion is attacked by what appears to be a cultist and 10 hired thugs.
The PC's are the only survivors out of the guards (the party is born!)

It turns out that this cultist was after a seemingly value-less vase that the merchant had sold to other traveling merchants very recently, as they passed through the town, heading north.

The PC's decide to go and find the location of said traveling merchants, and attempt to retrieve the vase from them.

Soon after they leave they find the wreckage of a merchant caravan that was ransacked, the vase being the only thing stolen.

A bit of tracking later they find the culprits/ slaughter the culprits/ have serious moral qualms about slaughtering the culprits.

they are met by a magical projection of a man (Hologram! ::) ) who offers them a great deal of money for helping to find other pieces of the same metal that the vase is made out of.

Que a mission to the abode of a wizard known to have a piece of this metal (Dungeon! Yay!)

They find a book that seems to be written in an ancient form of common about a Demigod named Helemite.

Helemite is the Demigod of Metal, a blacksmith of the gods, he is the one responsible for originally seeding the Material plane with large quantities of iron, mithril and other useful ore.

He favored humans because of their maleable nature, their capability for all manner of axioms, etc.

The book goes on to say that his metalic intervention, as it were, was the leading cause of humans rise to supremacy (humans are by far the most populous race in my campaign).

Helemite was eventually stricken down by the gods, for many reasons (im sure you can imagine: other races no longer the rulers of the world as it were, mortals now much more powerful, he had begun to be worshiped as a god over them... the possible list goes on)

His pieces were strewn about one of the major continents of the plane (he was struck with such deific force that he litterally smashed into the material plane like a meteor and shattered)

The metal that once was his body now was but totally useless metal. Too weak for weapons and armor, and a brownish red tint, like bronze, made it not beautiful enough to be a precious metal.

much of it was crafted into ceremonial items by his followers and further scattered from its point of origin.

(skips a bunch of stuff)

The Pc's eventually find themselves in Arclea, the human Capitol of the country, a Mageocracy. They meet several of the council of mages, most importantly:

Magistrate Soloman
Leader of the mage council, happy go lucky old man, sort of a nut, but an excellent mind for how a city needs to be run and generally considered an excellent ruler.

Samule Garren
Council Religious historian and the man heading up the investigation of what shall be called "the church of helemite", he asks the adventurers to bring any samples of Helemite Metal to him.

Anyhoo

Things happen, the adventurers capture the mysterious man who also wanted the metal (right as he twisted the head off a cleric of Pelor with a form of Telekenisis *ouch*)

It turns out he has been offering the church of helemite lots of monetary aid, as well as bringing in large amounts of the metal (as well as convincing the church to go from simply worshiping the dead god, to trying to gather all of his remains, but the PC's dont know this)

Now the PCs are off sidequesting, killing orcs, you know, PC stuff.

*If you are still reading, I salute you*

The truth of the matter, is that the church is trying to ressurect the god.

The second truth is that Samule Garren and the mysterious Benefactor are the same person.

The third truth is that the resurection requires that a suit of full plate armor be crafted from helemites body (the metal) and then donned by a human, who will sacrifice his body to be taken by the god.

Samule Garren surmises (correctly) that the armor created will be of INCREDIBLE power. Which is why he is pushing the church to attempt to create it (he plans to offer himself for sacrifice, but never complete the ritual) thus obtaining power capable of allowing him to seize control of the city, and thereby the continent (and soon... THEWORLD???!?!)

He tried to use the PCs to help him gather the metal.
He took control of the investigation, to help avoid any real digging about the actions of the church to be done.

(He escapes from capture while the PCs are off adventuring, and tries to prevent them from further trying to help with the investigation [they are stirring up unwanted attention, not to mention capturing his alter ego])

By the way, incase you were confused, his alter ego is psionically obscured, not allowing recognition of his face.


ANYWAY!!!!
Thanks for reading this rediculously long first post!

Any feedback on anything is welcome! Please do! ;D

But what I am really looking for is any ideas anyone might have about what the adventurers should do at this point.

Before the church gathers enough metal to ressurect Helemite.

(the church is actually quite friendly, in most acts of violence, Samule was simply acting on his own behalf to hasten the aquisition of metal)

I will love you if you have read this far! Thanks!

Jarl
2006-08-25, 06:02 AM
So, you're asking how to occupy the adventurer's time between now and the juicy climax?
Probably... probably send them running around to try to get pieces of the metal. I dunno. Maybe ally themselves with the church.

-Or, the obvious route: Hunt down and capture (again) Samule.

Grey Watcher
2006-08-25, 02:04 PM
Well, I suppose it depends on what kind of God Helemite was. And what the other Gods might do if he's suddenly back on the scene. Basically, start giving your players a few hints about the truth of some of these broader plots, and let them decide where they want to go with it. (ie Do they want Helemite to stay dead? Are they going to want to help him come back? If they become aware of Sammy's plans to double cross everybody, are they going to stop him, help him, or do nothing? If they try to stop him, will they confront him directly, or merely sabotage his efforts? Drop your players some hints (perhaps, in one of these Orc camps they find a journal or a letter that gives them some tantilizing details, or whatever), and let them decide where they want to go. They are the players, after all.

Halcyon_Dax
2006-08-26, 12:33 AM
Hmm, I really like some of the advice you guys gave. And I think I have come up with what is going to happen next.

As this was a spontaneos 'im so tired' late night post, Im not exactly sure what i was looking for!

But writing it down helped me visualize the plotline as a whole, which helped, along with your comments, of course.

Im thinking of advancing the plot line through secret mental messages from Samule/Benefactor to each of the players.
Each of them already has their own unique take on the different factions, so it should be fun to cause a little discord before the final showdown.

heheehehe.