Xerlith
2013-09-22, 05:05 PM
Hello, playgrounders.
I am a rather fresh DM, I've ran some short stories before, never anything serious.
I am currently running a 3.P campaign set in a lore-modified Forgotten Realms setting and although no-one really says it, the game's slowed down and I would like to ask you for help with pushing it forward.
The party:
NN Dwarf Magus War Warder 4, a happy-go-lucky brewer
CN Human Warblade 5, a Yakuza elite soldier
CN Wood Elf Spellshot Marksman (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=6075.0) 5 She's another problem. A fresh player that, even though when she played a different character it was really alive, can't give this one any personality. It's like a doll).
NG Human Crusader1/Wu Jen3/Jade Phoenix Mage 1, a composed mediator between the Warblade and the dwarf.
Aasimar Cleric 5, not yet introduced to the party
All (except the JPM) fairly optimized, but that's beside the point.
Basically the story's premise is built around the JPM fluff. The Big Evil Drake from the class lore is an artificially created being that was an attempt in snatching the control over the Weave (Mystra never existed, instead the Weave is a sort of semi-conscious... thing). Netheril was the origin point of the beast. It siphoned the life from the beings around to come to existence, hence the Anauroch desert.
The Drake is now contained in 7 jade figurines. Every one of them is guarded by a pair of JPMs that crafted the prison by binding their souls to them.
Cult of The Dragon - greatly refluffed - is the one that's trying to free the beast, worshipping it as a god. They're lead by the evil JPM counterparts (that keep living on by twisted Magic Jar-like means.)
The story is, the party JPM's figurine (from Kara-Tur) got broken, the part of the beast's essence escaped. As it was by the act of the JPM and Warblade (A Yakuza kid ordered to protect the JPM), they were saved by being pulled through extra-dimensional shenanigans. To Cormyr. There they met the Dwarf and the elf. Elf, in the meantime, got bound to an ancient trinket from the elven ruins. Think of it as of a symbiote Moonblade.
A series of events made them kill a necromancer enslaving a goblin tribe, get kidnapped (kind of) and taken by the local JPMs (Two of them, who were responsible for their arrival in Cormyr) to the High Horn keep. There they learned about the Jade Phoenix Mages, the plot was exposed, they were made aware as of why the figurines are kept the way they're kept and why the JPMs need the help of random people like the party. They leveled up, then the Warblade argued with one of the JPMs ("Thousands of years? This is bull****, you're crazy. You probably messed with her [party's JPM's) mind and made her believe she's like you too. Prove it!"), fought with him, then - defeated - wandered out into the mountains. That's now.
The problem(s):
Party's split. Dwarf's always been hating the Warblade, felt no attachment to the JPM or elf. Warblade was only bound by honor to protect the JPM, but she's got "new friends", so it's moot. The elf displays as many emotions as an awakened broccoli.
My BIG mistake, of which I am painfully aware, was allowing the party to be created in different parts of the world and not knowing each other.
I'm also afraid I started off too big.
TL;DR Help me give the party of completely different misfits reasons to work together against a cult of an evil being that can wipe out continents if not stopped. The obvious doesn't work.
I am a rather fresh DM, I've ran some short stories before, never anything serious.
I am currently running a 3.P campaign set in a lore-modified Forgotten Realms setting and although no-one really says it, the game's slowed down and I would like to ask you for help with pushing it forward.
The party:
NN Dwarf Magus War Warder 4, a happy-go-lucky brewer
CN Human Warblade 5, a Yakuza elite soldier
CN Wood Elf Spellshot Marksman (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=6075.0) 5 She's another problem. A fresh player that, even though when she played a different character it was really alive, can't give this one any personality. It's like a doll).
NG Human Crusader1/Wu Jen3/Jade Phoenix Mage 1, a composed mediator between the Warblade and the dwarf.
Aasimar Cleric 5, not yet introduced to the party
All (except the JPM) fairly optimized, but that's beside the point.
Basically the story's premise is built around the JPM fluff. The Big Evil Drake from the class lore is an artificially created being that was an attempt in snatching the control over the Weave (Mystra never existed, instead the Weave is a sort of semi-conscious... thing). Netheril was the origin point of the beast. It siphoned the life from the beings around to come to existence, hence the Anauroch desert.
The Drake is now contained in 7 jade figurines. Every one of them is guarded by a pair of JPMs that crafted the prison by binding their souls to them.
Cult of The Dragon - greatly refluffed - is the one that's trying to free the beast, worshipping it as a god. They're lead by the evil JPM counterparts (that keep living on by twisted Magic Jar-like means.)
The story is, the party JPM's figurine (from Kara-Tur) got broken, the part of the beast's essence escaped. As it was by the act of the JPM and Warblade (A Yakuza kid ordered to protect the JPM), they were saved by being pulled through extra-dimensional shenanigans. To Cormyr. There they met the Dwarf and the elf. Elf, in the meantime, got bound to an ancient trinket from the elven ruins. Think of it as of a symbiote Moonblade.
A series of events made them kill a necromancer enslaving a goblin tribe, get kidnapped (kind of) and taken by the local JPMs (Two of them, who were responsible for their arrival in Cormyr) to the High Horn keep. There they learned about the Jade Phoenix Mages, the plot was exposed, they were made aware as of why the figurines are kept the way they're kept and why the JPMs need the help of random people like the party. They leveled up, then the Warblade argued with one of the JPMs ("Thousands of years? This is bull****, you're crazy. You probably messed with her [party's JPM's) mind and made her believe she's like you too. Prove it!"), fought with him, then - defeated - wandered out into the mountains. That's now.
The problem(s):
Party's split. Dwarf's always been hating the Warblade, felt no attachment to the JPM or elf. Warblade was only bound by honor to protect the JPM, but she's got "new friends", so it's moot. The elf displays as many emotions as an awakened broccoli.
My BIG mistake, of which I am painfully aware, was allowing the party to be created in different parts of the world and not knowing each other.
I'm also afraid I started off too big.
TL;DR Help me give the party of completely different misfits reasons to work together against a cult of an evil being that can wipe out continents if not stopped. The obvious doesn't work.