Pika...
2010-06-14, 12:57 PM
So my D20 Future/High Fantasy game is on it's way. It will be starting off real soon. Too soon, considering I am homebrewing like crazy and trying to design/map a craftworld style "arch" ship with multiple layers/biospheres.
Anyway, the main plot is that this ship is meant to be a semi-last hope uber ship trope in the last age of my cosmology against the rising Illithids. If that fails, it's backup roles is an arch to run to the far corners of the multiverse on.
Anyway, the PCs on the first session are to awaken from their hibernation Elven pods (many races worked together on this) to find a sleeping ship, with everyone else/the various armies worth of people and citizens still sleeping and the awakening system locked. They will also occasionally come across sections of the ship which have deteriorated over the years, and pod chambers which have been partly emptied/have bodies on the ground with holes in their skeletal skulls.
Long story short:
Spoiler 1 (Go away you pesky players! :smallmad:):
Traitors snuck a few Illithids on board before the final take off (the ship took centuries to build).
Spoiler 2:
The Illithids took advantage of a time anomoly/ripple (caused by the same players in my previous campaign no less! :smallbiggrin:) to jump the ship to the past long, long before the Illithid threat.
But unknown to them at the end of my cosmology the Illithid race will attempt to avoid the multiverse's end/it's entrence into Chronos' jaws (the universe originates from Io's jaws) by time jumping back into the past. They also fail to account for the astronomically unlikely chance that the ship lands/appears in the very spelljammer spear their very first ancestors (which were created by Humans) lie in stasis in hidden labs on a planet. Also, the great-lakes sized ship is heading straight for the planet. Also, the Illithids are unable to pilot the ship themselves due to it being designed to specifically prevent Illithid use (Elven souls reside within the walls of the ship, and semi-power it).
Now the PCs wake up, and see what has happened to the ship, and that the ship is about to crash on an unknown planet in a few days time.
So here is my basically ideas for the enemies on the ship who are currently awake:
The Five Illithid Infiltrators:
1-2. The Illithid Twins.
-Identical Sisters who share a powerful telepathic link, even my Illithid standards.
-Most likely the most powerful of the bunch level/power/psionics wise, but vulnerable in that if one dies the other will either go completely mad, try to absorb her sister's soul/personality into a shared body, or quickly wither into death or a mental coma.
3. Unknown
4. Unknown
5. Xxxxx, Male Illithid. His alignment is LN, and is the only non-Evil of the bunch. On par power-wise with #3 and #4, although physically frail as he feels feeding on dormant prey is beneath him.
He is the only one aware of the Illithid Alphas on this world, as he is a historian/scholar of his race. he has tried to inform the others, but they have ignored and turned against him as a whole because the only way to avoid hitting the planet would be to awaken the crew, hence putting this ship back in their hands.
Notes:
-At this point 1-4 have descended into rivalry and bickering, as they are convinced their time is short. They take pride in the achievement of removing this threat to the Illithid race.
-Xxxxx on the other hand has managed to unlock a few pods (aka where the PCs/cmapign begins) before fleeing, as he is now probably being hunted by the others. They have managed to prevent him, and keep him preoccupied with his own survival for now, so he can not unlock more pods without their approval.
-#1-#4 are completely separate at this point, and as would be expected of Illithids are not ones for even eachother's company. They will cooperate if needed, though. The excpetion to this is #1 and #2.
The traitors:
-The traitors are various and open ended, so I have material to work with later on. They believe that the Illithids will win in the end, and that servitude equals survival.
-The traitors have aged somewhat over the years,a s they are awake. They have pretty much served as servants/preferred slaves for the Illithids.
-The Illithids threat them somewhat well, as they help them live somewhat pampered and they bring food.
-However, the souls which reside within the ship have barred the traitors from accessing any ship systems as though they themselves were Illithids.
The Thralls:
-I will occasionally be using that template from either Lords of Madness or one of the MMs that has semi-mindless Illithid thralls.
-These will be "punished servants", or pod victims made to fight the PCs by the five Illithids.
So, any ideas on fleshing these five out? Any ideas, name ideas, ideas period for the missing ones, etc, etc ,etc? Any ideas or advice would be appreciated.
Many Pikas in Advance!
ps. Any ideas for encounters would be amazing as I am drawing a huge blank!
Anyway, the main plot is that this ship is meant to be a semi-last hope uber ship trope in the last age of my cosmology against the rising Illithids. If that fails, it's backup roles is an arch to run to the far corners of the multiverse on.
Anyway, the PCs on the first session are to awaken from their hibernation Elven pods (many races worked together on this) to find a sleeping ship, with everyone else/the various armies worth of people and citizens still sleeping and the awakening system locked. They will also occasionally come across sections of the ship which have deteriorated over the years, and pod chambers which have been partly emptied/have bodies on the ground with holes in their skeletal skulls.
Long story short:
Spoiler 1 (Go away you pesky players! :smallmad:):
Traitors snuck a few Illithids on board before the final take off (the ship took centuries to build).
Spoiler 2:
The Illithids took advantage of a time anomoly/ripple (caused by the same players in my previous campaign no less! :smallbiggrin:) to jump the ship to the past long, long before the Illithid threat.
But unknown to them at the end of my cosmology the Illithid race will attempt to avoid the multiverse's end/it's entrence into Chronos' jaws (the universe originates from Io's jaws) by time jumping back into the past. They also fail to account for the astronomically unlikely chance that the ship lands/appears in the very spelljammer spear their very first ancestors (which were created by Humans) lie in stasis in hidden labs on a planet. Also, the great-lakes sized ship is heading straight for the planet. Also, the Illithids are unable to pilot the ship themselves due to it being designed to specifically prevent Illithid use (Elven souls reside within the walls of the ship, and semi-power it).
Now the PCs wake up, and see what has happened to the ship, and that the ship is about to crash on an unknown planet in a few days time.
So here is my basically ideas for the enemies on the ship who are currently awake:
The Five Illithid Infiltrators:
1-2. The Illithid Twins.
-Identical Sisters who share a powerful telepathic link, even my Illithid standards.
-Most likely the most powerful of the bunch level/power/psionics wise, but vulnerable in that if one dies the other will either go completely mad, try to absorb her sister's soul/personality into a shared body, or quickly wither into death or a mental coma.
3. Unknown
4. Unknown
5. Xxxxx, Male Illithid. His alignment is LN, and is the only non-Evil of the bunch. On par power-wise with #3 and #4, although physically frail as he feels feeding on dormant prey is beneath him.
He is the only one aware of the Illithid Alphas on this world, as he is a historian/scholar of his race. he has tried to inform the others, but they have ignored and turned against him as a whole because the only way to avoid hitting the planet would be to awaken the crew, hence putting this ship back in their hands.
Notes:
-At this point 1-4 have descended into rivalry and bickering, as they are convinced their time is short. They take pride in the achievement of removing this threat to the Illithid race.
-Xxxxx on the other hand has managed to unlock a few pods (aka where the PCs/cmapign begins) before fleeing, as he is now probably being hunted by the others. They have managed to prevent him, and keep him preoccupied with his own survival for now, so he can not unlock more pods without their approval.
-#1-#4 are completely separate at this point, and as would be expected of Illithids are not ones for even eachother's company. They will cooperate if needed, though. The excpetion to this is #1 and #2.
The traitors:
-The traitors are various and open ended, so I have material to work with later on. They believe that the Illithids will win in the end, and that servitude equals survival.
-The traitors have aged somewhat over the years,a s they are awake. They have pretty much served as servants/preferred slaves for the Illithids.
-The Illithids threat them somewhat well, as they help them live somewhat pampered and they bring food.
-However, the souls which reside within the ship have barred the traitors from accessing any ship systems as though they themselves were Illithids.
The Thralls:
-I will occasionally be using that template from either Lords of Madness or one of the MMs that has semi-mindless Illithid thralls.
-These will be "punished servants", or pod victims made to fight the PCs by the five Illithids.
So, any ideas on fleshing these five out? Any ideas, name ideas, ideas period for the missing ones, etc, etc ,etc? Any ideas or advice would be appreciated.
Many Pikas in Advance!
ps. Any ideas for encounters would be amazing as I am drawing a huge blank!