How do we proceed in our campaign?

[Grand Warchief]

So, as the title suggests, my group is having trouble figuring out where to go and what to do in one of the campaigns we are in. It seems that the DM really went out of his way to railroad us in one direction the entire time and we've gotten to the point where it doesn't seem that we stand a chance.

I'll start by giving the background:

1) 3.5 campaign, most splat books are allowed but we must run everything by the DM first.
2) Group is currently level 9 and consists of 7 people, though usually only 5 show up at a time.
a) Rogue/Assassin
b) Rogue/Shadow Dancer/Telflammar Shadowlord
c) Artificer
d) Bard specializing in words of creation
e) Sorcerer specializing in Blasting spells
f) Fighter/Barbarian/Frenzied Berserker
g) Cleric/Radiant Servent of Pelor specializing in Healing/Party Buffing (Me) :smallsmile:
The Fighter and the Sorcerer only rarely show up.
3) Moderately heavy undead setting

Brief Storyline:

There are 4 main parties in this campaign, one of which is my group, the others are NPC's capable of casting 9th level spells.

1) The campaign started with us in an inn being recruited by a vampire (none of us knew he was a vampire...don't ask) to go on these minor excursions in exchange for gold. We were your basic mercenary types just starting out. His plan was for us to go to these old keeps and clear all manner of creatures out of them. We didn't know why at the time, but we did find the first Jason inside one of these keeps (more on him in a bit). We eventually found out that his plan is to unleash some god awful thing upon the world at Mid Das, some vampire holiday of sorts. Needless to say when we found that out we didn't want to work for him anymore, even if the pay was good.

2) A couple hundred years ago there was a fellow who tried to take over the world, we know him as Jason. We have discovered that he had gone around to each of the kingdoms replacing the leaders with clones of himself in an attempt to gain control. He succeeded for a time until a massive rebellion sealed him and his clones in different prisons around the world. He is a Psionic of some kind, race elan, and has survived inside these prisons. We accidentally freed the main version of him from imprisonment and now he has gone around unlocking his fellow cohorts.

3) The last NPC party is a single individual, dubbed by him as "The Director of the Foundation." We met him once and know nothing of him other than that he is an extremely powerful wizard who loves to collect artifacts.

TL;DR version:
1) A group of undead bent on the destruction of the world
2) A megalomaniac bent on world domination with a clone army
3) A wizard that loves artifacts

The only thing we know for sure about all of these parties is that we don't want to associate ourselves with any of them. Hooray for the Commune Spell.

Oh yes, one more thing...Mid Das is tomorrow :smallfrown:

We are currently in a mountain range heading towards the ritual sight in a vain attempt to stop it from happening. We have attempted to enlist Jason's help, but he has been less than reachable. God only knows who/where the wizard is. And we have one day to stop the end of the world. We knew Mid Das was coming up, but we thought we would have more time. The DM had us roll a listen check this last session while we were at an inn to overhear some farmers talking about how there were two blood moons in a row these past two nights (indicating that Mid Das is at hand the day after).

We have no idea how we're supposed to stop 17+ level casters when we are only level 9 and we don't have any time to prepare. We are not in town and have no access to any more supplies. We have no idea what to do...

We meet again to continue the campaign in two weeks (9/24/2013)

Any help would be appreciated.

[Yora]

The main issue with heavy railroading is, that the outcome is already determined. When the GM wants the PCs to fail for the story to continue, they will fail. And if they have to succeed for the story to continue, they will succeed.
Best thing to do if you're interested to continue with that campaign is to just go along with anything that happens and not worrying too much about increasing the chances for the PCs.

[Crake]

The main issue with heavy railroading is, that the outcome is already determined. When the GM wants the PCs to fail for the story to continue, they will fail. And if they have to succeed for the story to continue, they will succeed.
Best thing to do if you're interested to continue with that campaign is to just go along with anything that happens and not worrying too much about increasing the chances for the PCs.

Couldn't have said it much better myself. Just go with it, unless the DM wants to end the campaign with the end of the world, you'll still have a game to play after your next session, and it's likely more will be clear afterwards.

[Grand Warchief]

I suppose you're right. I just hate not knowing what's going on. Throughout the campaign thus far we've been directed from point to point without really knowing what's going on. We only heard about Mid Das by accident and the entire party was under the assumption that that was the main story arc. It made sense. Cultists trying to end the world via a dark ritual and only we could stop it...i don't know. I usually pride myself with being able to see those kind of arcs. So either he's messed up somewhere, we've messed up somewhere, or he has an even grander arc that I just haven't seen yet. But yeah, i guess i'll just have to wait and see. Thanks

[Grand Warchief]

An update for those that are interested. We managed to interrupt the ritual (kinda), but an zombie-ish thing came out of the crater that was the summoning circle. We managed to banish it, but it came back d3 days later, slightly more powerful. A few good hits put it down once more...we now await it's likely return.
Also, we are apparently cursed. Remove Curse did diddly...Limited Wish (the most powerful spell we have access to in the major metropolis), did nothing but lessen it. This curse has been witnessed in the past, but no knowledge is known about a cure. The last person that was affected died about 2 months later of random ill fortune, but not before he managed to infect his entire clan and condemn them to the same fate...random ill fortune. According to the DM, we have, by using Limited Wish, been able to stem the curse to occur over the course of our lives instead of over our immediate future. (all still according to his plan incidentally)

Fun Stuff :smallsmile:

[Captnq]

Okay... you are screwed.

Huh... wait a sec... I suppose spending an action point and getting lucky, the artificer could scribe a high level scroll...

True Creation...?

A few gallons of Aboleth Mucus should take care of anything living...

Oh, Explosive packs. 1d6 damage for every 2 pounds. Now lets see.. True creation makes 1 cubic foot a level. We can assume that it can make stuff weighing at least as much as water, and 1 cubic foot of water weighs 62 pounds. Your artificer can make 9 cubic feet of material... one giant, highly unstable explosive pack would be... 279d6 damage. Only a blast radius of 20 feet mind you, But no reflex save to avoid, and if you use a spell to give yourself Profession (siege engineer) and make a DC 30 check, you can triple the damage against inanimate objects.

That's 837d6 damage, no save.

So. Find out where this thing is, do true creation, spread out the bombs, blow up everything.

Better yet, strap the bombs to yourselves and rush the vampires with your eyes blind folded so you can only see the ground. No mind control. Not only will you blow up the bad guys, but yourselves as well and TOTALLY screw his Railroad plot.

OR you could try for the highy unstable ditherbomb. 1 lb a bomb is 558 Wyrm Ditherbombs. 1d6*1d8 acid damage in a 15 foot radius, but the targets get saving throws. However, it IS acid. maybe mix and match. No save explosives and acid all over the place. Should be quite a show.

[Captnq]

Oh yeah, delver slime is 1 lb a vial, for 8d10 damage to objects. Make delver slime to tunnel under the enemy. Set up explosive packs to blow up the ground under the enemy.


Or use the artificer to make a gate and leave the universe. That should show him.

[JoshuaZ]

Sit down with the DM and explain that the degree of railroading has been a problem and explain why it has been a problem. Talking about things is generally better than trying to find clever ways to run off rails.

[Captnq]

Sit down with the DM and explain that the degree of railroading has been a problem and explain why it has been a problem. Talking about things is generally better than trying to find clever ways to run off rails.

It won't work.

Most conductor (as in, railroad conductor) DMs have psychological issues usually resulting in passive-aggressive problem solving techniques. The railroad is the DM's story and the players are just backdrop. Alas, direct confrontation is unlikely to succeed.

You need to break through the passive and get to the aggressive. Unless he moves past to actually accepting there is a problem, which usually requires some sort of drama bomb, he'll just nod as you talk to him and nothing will change.

A full on player revolution is usually what is needed to get through to a conductor. And make sure to point out:

"The one constant thing in all your failed campaigns is YOU."

[Grand Warchief]

While I admire the creative use of explosives XD It turns out that when a DM wants his players to partake in a plot point, he will make it happen. We are all cursed, this thing will continue to haunt us until we manage to un-curse ourselves. C'est la Vie. Thank you all for your help. I will be sure to continue to post to this thread with updates for those that are looking for story ideas for future campaigns. If this then makes the thread fall under a different heading such as "campaign ideas" or "roleplay only" or some such, then an admin may feel free to move it.

Again, thank you all for your advice :smallsmile: