Demon In Me
2011-03-31, 02:27 AM
So, I've been playing Second Edition AD&D for about 2? years now. Recently tried to DM my first campaign which went...eh. I basically tried to take on more than I could chew with about 6 players, including a newbie who I was trying to teach. It scared me off for a bit, but I recently decided to give it another go to try and give my DM a chance to play a bit more.
Unfortunately, as I'm trying to draw up some ideas for the campaign, I find myself falling short...My mind seems to be all over the place, so I decided to come here, since my DM is a player and I can't really ask him for advice without giving away sh*t so...It's an Epic campaign, and this is the general outline with key events that I'm hoping to lead the players to(barring unforseen events). Apologies for the long post, but here goes:
Players:
Ellyan : A male human paladin of Apollo with a bit of Psionic wild talent (Dimension Door). Played by my DM who's been playing for years and knows practically every character in the Monster Manual, so I want to try to mix things up with some palette changing to give him a scare or two, unless someone has a monster from another system/edition they can help me port to 2nd edition.
Calla : A female human priestess/thief of Aphrodite. Played by my friend, who started playing with me, so 1 and a half to 2 years experience.
Lysandros : A male human fighter/thief of Poseidon. Played by another friend, but he's played for a bit longer, less than my DM though. Still, he knows a good amount about a lot of different systems.
Now, I don't think any of my players(MA area) read these boards, but if you have a character with any of those names, with a DM who's been putting off, and delaying, and generally taking too long (I'm sorry!) with the campaign outline, you should probably stop reading and check with your DM before continuing, just in case...
The world of Elendir:
Etreia is a country which is populated by mostly humans who worship the Greek Pantheon. The emperor is being manipulated currently by a dark follower of a dead god into waging a war against any who are different or disagree with the Empire's way of life. Due to this manipulation, the emperor treats any non-human and anyone possessing magical or psionic talent as basically second class citizens. He's cut off trade with nearly everyone else. The country is poor, and as the farmers and laborers starve the Lords only get richer from illegal endeavors and/or from the hard work of the peasants. Raids have been conducted into the lands of Tirindar(land of Elves who worship the Celtic Gods), Glanvir(land of Dwarves who worship the Norse Gods), and the nomads of the plains and desert who worship the old gods.
The Story:
Each player is going to have an origin story, per se. A single session that sets up the scene, lets them sink into their character's skin, and gets them to the rest of the party. All three will be going to Alera, the capitol city of Etreia, where they have been drafted into the army for a required tour of duty.
Ellyan, as a wild talent, is required to go. The Inquisition(run by the Lord Chancellor Krymenes Fidrae, the evil follower) decreed that any and all persons who show talent in magic or psionics is required to serve his country.
Calla will be informed by her High Priestess that the empire has requested of the temple of Aphrodite to supply a healer to the army. As a newly "graduated" priestess, the High Priestess has selected her, since a lot of of the other priestesses are either too old, too young, or in positions of import within the temple structure. (This seems a bit weak to me, honestly. I really want to give personal reasons why each of them are drafted, instead of anyone else, but this is certainly better than Lysandros...)
Lysandros I'm a little stumped on. For right now, I'm basically leaning towards he either gets picked up coming off a boat(he's a sailor) or in some kind of town or is given a notice by his ship captain or something. I don't know. Regardless, he as well has been summoned by the Empire to serve it's glory and protect and defend.
Each origin session will be relatively simple. They'll get their army notices, and they travel. Mostly I'm using it as a device to showcase the world and allow each character to form thoughts and opinions of the state of the Empire independent of the party. Each character will encounter bandits, deserted towns, broken down people, etc. (Any particular suggestions here? Any encounters or happenings that basically show that Etreia's people are starving, the rich are getting richer, and underneath it all is a general black...malaise without having demons flying around...Like dead bodies eaten by something definitely not a normal creature or some such. KInda the feel I'm going for here.)
Once they arrive amidst a whole bunch of other people, they'll basically be grouped. Healers/Clerics, such as Calla will be in their own division, assigned as adjuncts to army divisions. Ellyan and Lysandros will be placed in an elite unit, based on their already existing fighting and specialty skills, along with some other NPCs, while the rest, the farmers, peasants, labourers, workers, are thrown into the general army as meat shields, etc.
The commander will be splitting the elite group into groups of three to tackle small missions, such as scouting, information gathering, or bandit takedown within the Empire. Basically, things that a smaller, more mobile group would be better designed for. A couple I had thought of was routing an orc/goblin bandit camp, investigating the disappearance of a town, tracking down an Elven mage who was trying to run from his own required army service, etc. Any suggestions would be most appreciative. This is kind of a chance for me to just get used to DMing and improvising on the spot and really absorbing the rules(especially the ones I don't use as a player!).
Eventually, there'll be some mission(a smuggling operation which happens to lead them to a plot to assassinate the Emperor, one in which a cloaked Krymenes is there is what I was thinking, but suggestions here are also welcome...) that brings them to the Lord Chancellor's(Krymenes') attention. He'll request their aid in rooting out a Lord(evidence will point largely to Lord Darragh, who is actually becoming suspicious of Krymenes and wants to help the Etreian people) who's plotting treason against the Emperor. On an annual tour of the Empire, in the city of Darragh(a large, rich port city), someone will try to kill the king. Regardless of whether it fails or succeeds, I'm thinking that Krymenes will try and pin the blame on the PCs. Or I was, orginally, thinking that. This is kind where this general outline starts to fall apart. For one, being a Paladin, Ellyan will probably stick around and try to fight through it or whatever legally, and that would lead to a sticky situation in that if they're still found guilty due to whatever fabricated evidence Krymenes produces, then Ellyan won't want to run, and they'll hang. If they're not found guilty, the PCs as outcasts and pariahs in their own country(the result I want) won't happen, though I guess it's incredibly hard to outrun a murder charge, especially of the king, but...eh. Seems weak. I was thinking Darragh could get into it and let them escape, basically saying that Krymenes has fixed the trial and bribed the judge...but I feel that would give too much of my hand away and ****. Any suggestions here would be nice.
Moving on from there, an old brotherhood will come forward and explain to the PCs that they are the Chosen Ones, because...eh, I don't know, something(Suggestions?), and that Darragh/Krymenes(I would prefer Darragh, but I can't if he helps them escape. I can, perhaps, have Krymenes himself help them escape, I guess, and try to lead them into the general actions, but...he's the one who accused them. I don't know. Suggestions would be great.) is an evil sorcerer who controls the king and is bent on destroying the world in fire and blood and brimstone, yada, yada, yada. The town of Darragh is a demonic pit full of his agents and they, as the Chosen Ones, need to find the Orb of Purification and use it to purify the town. It will banish all the demons, including Darragh, to hell and everything will be spiffy. They'll be given a map and some money and some instructions as to how to activate the orb and sent on their way.
Unfortunately, it's a trick. The brotherhood is non-existent, they actually work for Krymenes, and are trying to get the PCs to wipe out the entire town of Darragh, including its Lord, who is actually a Warden(either one of 4/6/8 or however many immortal[long-lived, not indestructable immortal] warriors/mages who made a pact with the old gods to protect Elendir from the awakening of the dead god, who's bad, or a highly secretive organization of various races/classes bent on the same thing. Any ideas? I really can't decide which one is...better? An organization is more wide-spread so I have more flexibility with it as a tool to advance the plot, but as an organization, rather than a single individual, some plot holes come into play, like why haven't they stopped Krymenes before this, why aren't there more people fighting, etc...)
If they do it, well, one of the Wardens is dead, the Paladin loses his powers for a bit and has to atone, and they know for a fact that something bigger than them is happening. If they don't, well, they still end up knowing that someone is trying to deceive them.
I really start to stall here. I'm thinking that either Darragh(if they don't destroy the town) or another Warden coming to investigate will let them know a bit of information, and then go off to find the others. I'm thinking that Krymenes pretty much picked them all off, one by one, except the last. This will take care of any questions like, "Why aren't more uber people than us handling this?", as the people who were suppose, can't. I'm also thinking that the weapon of one of the Wardens will be found by one of the PCs, so that at this point we have an idea that at least some of the Wardens are dead or missing.
After the incident with Darragh, I'd pretty much figured to really start ramping things up. Evil creatures and krakens and magical creatures really start to come out of the woodworks of a world that has largely written them off as myth. The PCs have to find a way to heal the hurts inflicted by centuries of argument and racism so that the world isn't swallowed by a god who is pissed he was killed by the Architect(world-creator) and insane from years as nothing more than a presence(basically his body was killed, but being a god he did not die, merely existed without thought or form or something).
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Alright. I know this can get specific and is a very long outline, but I'm generally careful about railroading when DMing. Granted, I only did it once for a few sessions, but I figure if I can't come up with a way to make whatever my players do work with the bigger events of the plot, then I probably shouldn't be DMing. I did want to come up with the bigger events and a general chain of 'em to make use of foreshadowing and rumors and stuff like that though.
I've pretty much got Ellyan's origin session taken care of, however I would like some more convincing/personal reasons to get Calla and Lysandros to the army. I guess I can have Lysandros on a mission for a thieves guild and have him get arrested and sent to the army as punishment? Anyways, if you have any thoughts on this that would be welcome.
From the origin sessions on, for about four levels, I'm keeping it pretty vanilla. They get missions, they do them however they want, they succeed or fail, whatever. Some of them may have hints as to the deeper, darker plot at hand(undead, maybe a few unknown creatures, dark rituals, whatever), but subtely. I want to use this as a chance to really get a handle on drafting up encounters and session outlines and improvising and in-the-heat-of-the-moment judgement calls. That said, I could really use some ideas for a variety of run-of-the-mill medieval missions, especially any that could possibly provide a clue to the deeper story. Basically, I want to give them some kind of...hints to work with once they start to work with Krymenes without giving it away within five seconds.
Any way that Krymenes can manipulate or mess with the players and the rest of the world politically would be a welcome addition. For this part of the plot, it's a behind the scenes game where the players play their hands. I'm hoping for an "Oh, sh*t!" moment, where the players realize they've been had completely and utterly. But my players are smart, soo...if you any ideas, great.
And then any epicness after that would be awesome. After the "Oh, sh*t!" moment the players will have to find a way to find out how to stop Krymenes from ressurrecting his god and casting the rest of the world into peril. The Emperor had a wife, who died(was killed, actually, by Krymenes) upon giving birth to a daughter, and he remarried a succubus in disguise who is assisting with manipulating him...Anyways, the daughter is considered an unfit heir, which contributes to the general unease. I was thinking of using her somehow to pass on information, or something. Also, I was thinking of taking a page out of the book of DA:O and have the players attempt to rally the rest of the races and get some info from them. However, at this point, I don't know how Krymenes is going to ressurect his god, and since I don't know that, I don't know the options to stop him.
And...that's that. I apologize for the length, again, and I apologize for any reptitiveness. It's nearly 3:30am here and my mind wander and I ended up...repeating stuff. So. Sorry. But, any help would be appreciated!
Unfortunately, as I'm trying to draw up some ideas for the campaign, I find myself falling short...My mind seems to be all over the place, so I decided to come here, since my DM is a player and I can't really ask him for advice without giving away sh*t so...It's an Epic campaign, and this is the general outline with key events that I'm hoping to lead the players to(barring unforseen events). Apologies for the long post, but here goes:
Players:
Ellyan : A male human paladin of Apollo with a bit of Psionic wild talent (Dimension Door). Played by my DM who's been playing for years and knows practically every character in the Monster Manual, so I want to try to mix things up with some palette changing to give him a scare or two, unless someone has a monster from another system/edition they can help me port to 2nd edition.
Calla : A female human priestess/thief of Aphrodite. Played by my friend, who started playing with me, so 1 and a half to 2 years experience.
Lysandros : A male human fighter/thief of Poseidon. Played by another friend, but he's played for a bit longer, less than my DM though. Still, he knows a good amount about a lot of different systems.
Now, I don't think any of my players(MA area) read these boards, but if you have a character with any of those names, with a DM who's been putting off, and delaying, and generally taking too long (I'm sorry!) with the campaign outline, you should probably stop reading and check with your DM before continuing, just in case...
The world of Elendir:
Etreia is a country which is populated by mostly humans who worship the Greek Pantheon. The emperor is being manipulated currently by a dark follower of a dead god into waging a war against any who are different or disagree with the Empire's way of life. Due to this manipulation, the emperor treats any non-human and anyone possessing magical or psionic talent as basically second class citizens. He's cut off trade with nearly everyone else. The country is poor, and as the farmers and laborers starve the Lords only get richer from illegal endeavors and/or from the hard work of the peasants. Raids have been conducted into the lands of Tirindar(land of Elves who worship the Celtic Gods), Glanvir(land of Dwarves who worship the Norse Gods), and the nomads of the plains and desert who worship the old gods.
The Story:
Each player is going to have an origin story, per se. A single session that sets up the scene, lets them sink into their character's skin, and gets them to the rest of the party. All three will be going to Alera, the capitol city of Etreia, where they have been drafted into the army for a required tour of duty.
Ellyan, as a wild talent, is required to go. The Inquisition(run by the Lord Chancellor Krymenes Fidrae, the evil follower) decreed that any and all persons who show talent in magic or psionics is required to serve his country.
Calla will be informed by her High Priestess that the empire has requested of the temple of Aphrodite to supply a healer to the army. As a newly "graduated" priestess, the High Priestess has selected her, since a lot of of the other priestesses are either too old, too young, or in positions of import within the temple structure. (This seems a bit weak to me, honestly. I really want to give personal reasons why each of them are drafted, instead of anyone else, but this is certainly better than Lysandros...)
Lysandros I'm a little stumped on. For right now, I'm basically leaning towards he either gets picked up coming off a boat(he's a sailor) or in some kind of town or is given a notice by his ship captain or something. I don't know. Regardless, he as well has been summoned by the Empire to serve it's glory and protect and defend.
Each origin session will be relatively simple. They'll get their army notices, and they travel. Mostly I'm using it as a device to showcase the world and allow each character to form thoughts and opinions of the state of the Empire independent of the party. Each character will encounter bandits, deserted towns, broken down people, etc. (Any particular suggestions here? Any encounters or happenings that basically show that Etreia's people are starving, the rich are getting richer, and underneath it all is a general black...malaise without having demons flying around...Like dead bodies eaten by something definitely not a normal creature or some such. KInda the feel I'm going for here.)
Once they arrive amidst a whole bunch of other people, they'll basically be grouped. Healers/Clerics, such as Calla will be in their own division, assigned as adjuncts to army divisions. Ellyan and Lysandros will be placed in an elite unit, based on their already existing fighting and specialty skills, along with some other NPCs, while the rest, the farmers, peasants, labourers, workers, are thrown into the general army as meat shields, etc.
The commander will be splitting the elite group into groups of three to tackle small missions, such as scouting, information gathering, or bandit takedown within the Empire. Basically, things that a smaller, more mobile group would be better designed for. A couple I had thought of was routing an orc/goblin bandit camp, investigating the disappearance of a town, tracking down an Elven mage who was trying to run from his own required army service, etc. Any suggestions would be most appreciative. This is kind of a chance for me to just get used to DMing and improvising on the spot and really absorbing the rules(especially the ones I don't use as a player!).
Eventually, there'll be some mission(a smuggling operation which happens to lead them to a plot to assassinate the Emperor, one in which a cloaked Krymenes is there is what I was thinking, but suggestions here are also welcome...) that brings them to the Lord Chancellor's(Krymenes') attention. He'll request their aid in rooting out a Lord(evidence will point largely to Lord Darragh, who is actually becoming suspicious of Krymenes and wants to help the Etreian people) who's plotting treason against the Emperor. On an annual tour of the Empire, in the city of Darragh(a large, rich port city), someone will try to kill the king. Regardless of whether it fails or succeeds, I'm thinking that Krymenes will try and pin the blame on the PCs. Or I was, orginally, thinking that. This is kind where this general outline starts to fall apart. For one, being a Paladin, Ellyan will probably stick around and try to fight through it or whatever legally, and that would lead to a sticky situation in that if they're still found guilty due to whatever fabricated evidence Krymenes produces, then Ellyan won't want to run, and they'll hang. If they're not found guilty, the PCs as outcasts and pariahs in their own country(the result I want) won't happen, though I guess it's incredibly hard to outrun a murder charge, especially of the king, but...eh. Seems weak. I was thinking Darragh could get into it and let them escape, basically saying that Krymenes has fixed the trial and bribed the judge...but I feel that would give too much of my hand away and ****. Any suggestions here would be nice.
Moving on from there, an old brotherhood will come forward and explain to the PCs that they are the Chosen Ones, because...eh, I don't know, something(Suggestions?), and that Darragh/Krymenes(I would prefer Darragh, but I can't if he helps them escape. I can, perhaps, have Krymenes himself help them escape, I guess, and try to lead them into the general actions, but...he's the one who accused them. I don't know. Suggestions would be great.) is an evil sorcerer who controls the king and is bent on destroying the world in fire and blood and brimstone, yada, yada, yada. The town of Darragh is a demonic pit full of his agents and they, as the Chosen Ones, need to find the Orb of Purification and use it to purify the town. It will banish all the demons, including Darragh, to hell and everything will be spiffy. They'll be given a map and some money and some instructions as to how to activate the orb and sent on their way.
Unfortunately, it's a trick. The brotherhood is non-existent, they actually work for Krymenes, and are trying to get the PCs to wipe out the entire town of Darragh, including its Lord, who is actually a Warden(either one of 4/6/8 or however many immortal[long-lived, not indestructable immortal] warriors/mages who made a pact with the old gods to protect Elendir from the awakening of the dead god, who's bad, or a highly secretive organization of various races/classes bent on the same thing. Any ideas? I really can't decide which one is...better? An organization is more wide-spread so I have more flexibility with it as a tool to advance the plot, but as an organization, rather than a single individual, some plot holes come into play, like why haven't they stopped Krymenes before this, why aren't there more people fighting, etc...)
If they do it, well, one of the Wardens is dead, the Paladin loses his powers for a bit and has to atone, and they know for a fact that something bigger than them is happening. If they don't, well, they still end up knowing that someone is trying to deceive them.
I really start to stall here. I'm thinking that either Darragh(if they don't destroy the town) or another Warden coming to investigate will let them know a bit of information, and then go off to find the others. I'm thinking that Krymenes pretty much picked them all off, one by one, except the last. This will take care of any questions like, "Why aren't more uber people than us handling this?", as the people who were suppose, can't. I'm also thinking that the weapon of one of the Wardens will be found by one of the PCs, so that at this point we have an idea that at least some of the Wardens are dead or missing.
After the incident with Darragh, I'd pretty much figured to really start ramping things up. Evil creatures and krakens and magical creatures really start to come out of the woodworks of a world that has largely written them off as myth. The PCs have to find a way to heal the hurts inflicted by centuries of argument and racism so that the world isn't swallowed by a god who is pissed he was killed by the Architect(world-creator) and insane from years as nothing more than a presence(basically his body was killed, but being a god he did not die, merely existed without thought or form or something).
__________________________________________________ _______________
Alright. I know this can get specific and is a very long outline, but I'm generally careful about railroading when DMing. Granted, I only did it once for a few sessions, but I figure if I can't come up with a way to make whatever my players do work with the bigger events of the plot, then I probably shouldn't be DMing. I did want to come up with the bigger events and a general chain of 'em to make use of foreshadowing and rumors and stuff like that though.
I've pretty much got Ellyan's origin session taken care of, however I would like some more convincing/personal reasons to get Calla and Lysandros to the army. I guess I can have Lysandros on a mission for a thieves guild and have him get arrested and sent to the army as punishment? Anyways, if you have any thoughts on this that would be welcome.
From the origin sessions on, for about four levels, I'm keeping it pretty vanilla. They get missions, they do them however they want, they succeed or fail, whatever. Some of them may have hints as to the deeper, darker plot at hand(undead, maybe a few unknown creatures, dark rituals, whatever), but subtely. I want to use this as a chance to really get a handle on drafting up encounters and session outlines and improvising and in-the-heat-of-the-moment judgement calls. That said, I could really use some ideas for a variety of run-of-the-mill medieval missions, especially any that could possibly provide a clue to the deeper story. Basically, I want to give them some kind of...hints to work with once they start to work with Krymenes without giving it away within five seconds.
Any way that Krymenes can manipulate or mess with the players and the rest of the world politically would be a welcome addition. For this part of the plot, it's a behind the scenes game where the players play their hands. I'm hoping for an "Oh, sh*t!" moment, where the players realize they've been had completely and utterly. But my players are smart, soo...if you any ideas, great.
And then any epicness after that would be awesome. After the "Oh, sh*t!" moment the players will have to find a way to find out how to stop Krymenes from ressurrecting his god and casting the rest of the world into peril. The Emperor had a wife, who died(was killed, actually, by Krymenes) upon giving birth to a daughter, and he remarried a succubus in disguise who is assisting with manipulating him...Anyways, the daughter is considered an unfit heir, which contributes to the general unease. I was thinking of using her somehow to pass on information, or something. Also, I was thinking of taking a page out of the book of DA:O and have the players attempt to rally the rest of the races and get some info from them. However, at this point, I don't know how Krymenes is going to ressurect his god, and since I don't know that, I don't know the options to stop him.
And...that's that. I apologize for the length, again, and I apologize for any reptitiveness. It's nearly 3:30am here and my mind wander and I ended up...repeating stuff. So. Sorry. But, any help would be appreciated!