Rapidghoul
2011-11-16, 03:31 PM
There's a big plot twist coming up in my campaign. In fact, this is when the whole campaign starts falling into place leading up to the climax of the entire story (or at least the first arc). Nearly every session has had some piece in the puzzle of the story. As such, I want to avoid any plot holes and develop the situation well.
Background:
This campaign takes place in the Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles world. I'm using homebrew races (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=180576) for everything. Cheat sheet for the races: Clavats are peaceful farmers, Lilties are headstrong rulers, Selkies are sneaky bastards, and Yukes are calm spellcasters.
Everything takes place in or around a new colony being run by the princess of the Liltian Kingdom from the mainland. While her father runs the country in a somewhat supremacist fashion, she runs the colony without prejudice. The captain of the guard - a racist, fallen paladin corrupted by an evil god - doesn't want to see the kingdom fall to such lowly standards. The colony is an opportunity for racial purity, and he has taken steps towards overthrowing the princess and declaring martial law. He plans to kill her and blame the Selkies so he can begin a genocidal crusade (think Princess Bride meets the Third Reich).
The party is out on a lengthly quest to find a magical macguffin for a high level artificer (described here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=222128)). They've been gone for about a month, and it will be at least another couple weeks before they return. By the time they do (at around level 12), the princess will have been kidnapped by the very pirate that the captain of the guard planned to use as a scapegoat. This throws a wrench in the captain's plans but allowing him to instate martial law. It still keeps the princess alive, and provides a good next step for the party.
A few things that I'm trying to set up for the colony under martial law:
* All the Selkies have been thrown into prison. Seeing as the general believes that the Selkies kidnapped the princess and he hates them anyway, he's set up sort of concentration camps for the whole Selkie district. Since the party includes a Selkie (and a Goblin NPC), they will attempt to seize him immediately and throw him into the camp.
* Spellcasters will be locked within the university, which is under constant surveilance and Antimagic Field lockdown. Lilties are the least magic inclined race, and they have been foiled by magic (particularly the Yuke tribe) before. The Bard/Thaumaturg and White Mage/Summoner (homebrew classes) will be locked away here.
* Lilties will be commissioned for the royal guard. The Lilty in my party is a lawful good fighter who used to be part of the guard before joining the group and has a strong sense of duty to the kingdom, so he will be ordered to rejoin for the good of the colony.
Problems:
The rogue's backstory has other Selkies that want him dead. They'd be in the concentration camp. This might very well end up killing him, but hopefully it will just produce fun roleplay opportunities ("escape with me now, kill me later").
The heads of the university are all epic level casters, one for each school of magic. Even being trapped in an antimagic field, they'd be difficult to control. To help curb this, the head Necromancer is a spy for the general. He'll employ Nondetection and so forth to prevent others from figuring this out, and he can work behind the scenes to stop the other professors and report to the general. He'd probably have a decoy in the university when the antimagic field goes up, since he'd be the most likely candidate to set it up in the first place. The party members have 7 epic level casters, the bard guild which the party bard founded, and the best library in the world available to help escape, but no magic or weapons to do so.
The royal guard will have a lot of patriots in it. The fighter isn't racist like most of the others, but his sense of duty might get in the way. That said, if he's posted on guard duty, he might be able to serve as contact between the other members. Having 10 Int, 10 Wis, and 9 Cha however, such tasks might prove difficult.
The real problem, thus, is having ways for the party to escape. I can't make it easy for them, but I can't make it impossible or the story just ends. As soon as they all escape, there's a lot of potential for the group.
There are several groups which can help them. The farmers to the north owe them a big favor and don't like the general. The prince of the forest goblin tribe has been traveling with the party for weeks, so if he asks for help, the entire tribe will join. Any exploring bards will follow them for the good of the guild. Any prisoners that escape with the party will join for the sake of rebellion. The dread pirate's fleet will seek the party out to have them help reinstate the princess and kill the general.
So, playground, once again I ask for advice. Imagine you were in an adventuring party returning home for the first time in months only to find a Nazi Germany-like takeover. Two members of your group get thrown in a camp, two are locked away in university-prison, and the last is forced into working for the military. How would this play out in your mind? What feasible escape methods would you search for?
Background:
This campaign takes place in the Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles world. I'm using homebrew races (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=180576) for everything. Cheat sheet for the races: Clavats are peaceful farmers, Lilties are headstrong rulers, Selkies are sneaky bastards, and Yukes are calm spellcasters.
Everything takes place in or around a new colony being run by the princess of the Liltian Kingdom from the mainland. While her father runs the country in a somewhat supremacist fashion, she runs the colony without prejudice. The captain of the guard - a racist, fallen paladin corrupted by an evil god - doesn't want to see the kingdom fall to such lowly standards. The colony is an opportunity for racial purity, and he has taken steps towards overthrowing the princess and declaring martial law. He plans to kill her and blame the Selkies so he can begin a genocidal crusade (think Princess Bride meets the Third Reich).
The party is out on a lengthly quest to find a magical macguffin for a high level artificer (described here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=222128)). They've been gone for about a month, and it will be at least another couple weeks before they return. By the time they do (at around level 12), the princess will have been kidnapped by the very pirate that the captain of the guard planned to use as a scapegoat. This throws a wrench in the captain's plans but allowing him to instate martial law. It still keeps the princess alive, and provides a good next step for the party.
A few things that I'm trying to set up for the colony under martial law:
* All the Selkies have been thrown into prison. Seeing as the general believes that the Selkies kidnapped the princess and he hates them anyway, he's set up sort of concentration camps for the whole Selkie district. Since the party includes a Selkie (and a Goblin NPC), they will attempt to seize him immediately and throw him into the camp.
* Spellcasters will be locked within the university, which is under constant surveilance and Antimagic Field lockdown. Lilties are the least magic inclined race, and they have been foiled by magic (particularly the Yuke tribe) before. The Bard/Thaumaturg and White Mage/Summoner (homebrew classes) will be locked away here.
* Lilties will be commissioned for the royal guard. The Lilty in my party is a lawful good fighter who used to be part of the guard before joining the group and has a strong sense of duty to the kingdom, so he will be ordered to rejoin for the good of the colony.
Problems:
The rogue's backstory has other Selkies that want him dead. They'd be in the concentration camp. This might very well end up killing him, but hopefully it will just produce fun roleplay opportunities ("escape with me now, kill me later").
The heads of the university are all epic level casters, one for each school of magic. Even being trapped in an antimagic field, they'd be difficult to control. To help curb this, the head Necromancer is a spy for the general. He'll employ Nondetection and so forth to prevent others from figuring this out, and he can work behind the scenes to stop the other professors and report to the general. He'd probably have a decoy in the university when the antimagic field goes up, since he'd be the most likely candidate to set it up in the first place. The party members have 7 epic level casters, the bard guild which the party bard founded, and the best library in the world available to help escape, but no magic or weapons to do so.
The royal guard will have a lot of patriots in it. The fighter isn't racist like most of the others, but his sense of duty might get in the way. That said, if he's posted on guard duty, he might be able to serve as contact between the other members. Having 10 Int, 10 Wis, and 9 Cha however, such tasks might prove difficult.
The real problem, thus, is having ways for the party to escape. I can't make it easy for them, but I can't make it impossible or the story just ends. As soon as they all escape, there's a lot of potential for the group.
There are several groups which can help them. The farmers to the north owe them a big favor and don't like the general. The prince of the forest goblin tribe has been traveling with the party for weeks, so if he asks for help, the entire tribe will join. Any exploring bards will follow them for the good of the guild. Any prisoners that escape with the party will join for the sake of rebellion. The dread pirate's fleet will seek the party out to have them help reinstate the princess and kill the general.
So, playground, once again I ask for advice. Imagine you were in an adventuring party returning home for the first time in months only to find a Nazi Germany-like takeover. Two members of your group get thrown in a camp, two are locked away in university-prison, and the last is forced into working for the military. How would this play out in your mind? What feasible escape methods would you search for?