DarkEternal
2010-11-16, 07:53 AM
So, my players just finished an adventure(licensed material), so I was thinking of giving them a small sidequest. Since only one player wrote a backstory about his character, I thought of implementing him as the central character, or at the very least the reason why the sidequest happens.
Now, bear in mind, this is my first time creating such an environment, since I usually just followed published adventures.
Anyway, here's the gist of it:
The characters are all pretty high level(15), and after the last adventure they'll go to a big city to spend their money. The character I was talking about is a wizard. In his backstory, he told me he came from Silverymoon, a half elf with a human farmer father and a whore elf mother. he lived with his father most of his life, but was always frail and weak and had more interest in books. He met an archmage(or mage) of high level in an antiquary which the before mentioned fellow owned, and the wizard grew fond of the kid and took him as an apprentice. He beat the crap out of his farmer who called him a weakling all his life as, by creating his first Bull's strength potion.
Years later, he left to seek fortune, knowledge and glory and thus the 15 levels happened(we have been playing with the same group for over a year now).
I was thinkiing, that when he's writing down new spells, a single arrow shoots through the room's window and embeds itself just besides him, and on it are two things. A message and an item. Now, this item would be something belonging to either his mother or father, some personal affect that he would recognise, and the message would basically be a letter telling him that his mother or father(still can't decide which one, to be frank, forgot if he told me the mother is dead or not) was kidnapped and that he must obey the instructions down to the letter or that the person would die.
Now, since it's a high level campaign and there are clerics, there are magic's such as Discern Location and stuff, so that's why I was thinking of adding that they are being followed, that the walls have eyes too, and that they are basically under scrying all the time(or at least some of them, like the clerics and the wizard, basically people who could find the end instantly) and if they do cast the spell, or do stuff beyond the instructions in the letter that they get some sort of a retribution( a finger in the next "mail", or something like that).
Now, here's where I am a bit perplexed. Should I make it a direct confrontation with the kidnappers or should I play it off some with them fighing other stuff to get clues? I was thinking of making clues in forms of riddles as the where they have to go next, but again, being high level that could be very much...neutralised.
I already rolled and made the kidnappers who are led by an elf sorceror. I made it so that the elf was a fellow student of the same mage who grew jealous of the young half elf student and the attention and special training he got from the master, and that he attributes it because they were both mages and not sorcerors. The jealousy grew in the student, and he became a powerful man himself over the ages(level 15 sorceror-that prestige class that is a friend to the elves, forgot the name) and assembled a cadre of characters from various parts of Faerun(a chaotic evil dwarf scout-ranger who is the one responsible for the arrows, an evil orc barbarian, follower of Gruumsh who was in since one of the party members follows Corellon, an elven rogue who's in it for the money, and a cleric-shadow apprentice who bears a grudge since the party destroyed a plan for spreading the Shadow Weave in the last campaign).
I was even thinking of making it a spin so that the elf guy is not really all that evil, but that the cleric has him under his control, that he worked on his jealousy and insecurities which made him easy to dominate and bend to his will.
So, like I said, it's all very basic, and I want to give them a challenge. The members are pretty well equipped, though not overly optimised. They are: Mage, Ranger, Fighter, Cleric-Contemplative and one more Cleric. The only one overpowered is said cleric-contemplative.
I made the enemy party level 14, with the exception of the sorceror, who's level 15 and equipped them with various stuff, also placed a mean trap of chained enervation in the main room where the final showdown will take place(though trivial probably since the wizard of the PC's party has Arcane Sight permanent on him, the same reason why I made that the rogue has Magical Aura cast on her so that the party couldn't see her hiding in shadows because her magical items glow like Betlehem)
Any suggestions to make this more interesting? Should I just not bother, since the PC's will probably find a way, one way or the other to cut this as short as possible, with details and just go for the actual showdown or try to drag it out a while? It's basically buffer for the party so that they don't jump from one world altering campaign to the other, plus I want to move the party to level 16 before they start the next one.
Now, bear in mind, this is my first time creating such an environment, since I usually just followed published adventures.
Anyway, here's the gist of it:
The characters are all pretty high level(15), and after the last adventure they'll go to a big city to spend their money. The character I was talking about is a wizard. In his backstory, he told me he came from Silverymoon, a half elf with a human farmer father and a whore elf mother. he lived with his father most of his life, but was always frail and weak and had more interest in books. He met an archmage(or mage) of high level in an antiquary which the before mentioned fellow owned, and the wizard grew fond of the kid and took him as an apprentice. He beat the crap out of his farmer who called him a weakling all his life as, by creating his first Bull's strength potion.
Years later, he left to seek fortune, knowledge and glory and thus the 15 levels happened(we have been playing with the same group for over a year now).
I was thinkiing, that when he's writing down new spells, a single arrow shoots through the room's window and embeds itself just besides him, and on it are two things. A message and an item. Now, this item would be something belonging to either his mother or father, some personal affect that he would recognise, and the message would basically be a letter telling him that his mother or father(still can't decide which one, to be frank, forgot if he told me the mother is dead or not) was kidnapped and that he must obey the instructions down to the letter or that the person would die.
Now, since it's a high level campaign and there are clerics, there are magic's such as Discern Location and stuff, so that's why I was thinking of adding that they are being followed, that the walls have eyes too, and that they are basically under scrying all the time(or at least some of them, like the clerics and the wizard, basically people who could find the end instantly) and if they do cast the spell, or do stuff beyond the instructions in the letter that they get some sort of a retribution( a finger in the next "mail", or something like that).
Now, here's where I am a bit perplexed. Should I make it a direct confrontation with the kidnappers or should I play it off some with them fighing other stuff to get clues? I was thinking of making clues in forms of riddles as the where they have to go next, but again, being high level that could be very much...neutralised.
I already rolled and made the kidnappers who are led by an elf sorceror. I made it so that the elf was a fellow student of the same mage who grew jealous of the young half elf student and the attention and special training he got from the master, and that he attributes it because they were both mages and not sorcerors. The jealousy grew in the student, and he became a powerful man himself over the ages(level 15 sorceror-that prestige class that is a friend to the elves, forgot the name) and assembled a cadre of characters from various parts of Faerun(a chaotic evil dwarf scout-ranger who is the one responsible for the arrows, an evil orc barbarian, follower of Gruumsh who was in since one of the party members follows Corellon, an elven rogue who's in it for the money, and a cleric-shadow apprentice who bears a grudge since the party destroyed a plan for spreading the Shadow Weave in the last campaign).
I was even thinking of making it a spin so that the elf guy is not really all that evil, but that the cleric has him under his control, that he worked on his jealousy and insecurities which made him easy to dominate and bend to his will.
So, like I said, it's all very basic, and I want to give them a challenge. The members are pretty well equipped, though not overly optimised. They are: Mage, Ranger, Fighter, Cleric-Contemplative and one more Cleric. The only one overpowered is said cleric-contemplative.
I made the enemy party level 14, with the exception of the sorceror, who's level 15 and equipped them with various stuff, also placed a mean trap of chained enervation in the main room where the final showdown will take place(though trivial probably since the wizard of the PC's party has Arcane Sight permanent on him, the same reason why I made that the rogue has Magical Aura cast on her so that the party couldn't see her hiding in shadows because her magical items glow like Betlehem)
Any suggestions to make this more interesting? Should I just not bother, since the PC's will probably find a way, one way or the other to cut this as short as possible, with details and just go for the actual showdown or try to drag it out a while? It's basically buffer for the party so that they don't jump from one world altering campaign to the other, plus I want to move the party to level 16 before they start the next one.