lytokk
2013-12-17, 02:44 PM
Well, I didn't exactly write myself into a corner, but I didn't exactly set up the next session well. Pertinent information first. 3.5, my own campaign setting.
Long and short of the setting, over a thousand years ago, war in the outer planes breached the walls and spilled over into the material. As a result of the war, all gods, good and evil died. What followed was a thousand years of darkness in which the denizens of the abyss ran rampant across the world, but could only travel so far as lands that had been corrupted. It was a slow spreading process so it took a while. Eventually, some dragons were able to ascend to godhood, and took over the mantles of certain gods. Now, no one knows the dragons stepped into that role, or about the war in the outer planes. The corruption basically works as a disease for the initial infection, and then a few will saves to resist the corruption, for characters that is. If you become corrupted, your allignment changes to evil, and you become easily controlled by evil beings.
Now, the campaign, the group is part of a large caravan heading through the corrupted lands in order to start the consecration of the land, and rebuild a port town on the far end. It would be about a 5 month journey to the town, and then time to rebuild the port before the first ships land.
So far, the group has
Session 1) Cleared out a group of kobolds in a cave that was raiding smaller caravans. Mostly was just a game for the group to relearn combat mechanics
Session 2) Rescued an ogre who was lying near death off the road who is to this point still unconscious, made it to a small border town which had been razed to the ground, only to be chased out by a horde of zombies. This was more of a session for social mechanics as they interacted with the people in the caravan. Over 100 wagons, nearly 250 people (not counting warforged squadrons)
Session 3) snuck back into the border town in order to retrieve items that were lost during the hasty retreat. Rescued 2 of the clerics who were overwhelmed in the retreat (too many undead to turn was the reasoning I gave. It also served to show there was some sort of mind behind the attack, going for the clerics first). Found that a large group of ogres were behind the zombie raid, and that the new chief has an item of power to create and control undead.
And here I am at session 4. The PC's didn't destroy all of the ogres, and just hit level 3 in that session. The whole caravan is hold up in a forest which has some mysterious power to keep out the undead horde (fey did it, but no one knows that) but that's not going to keep out the ogres who they didn't kill. So obviously, they have to leave, but need to do so in a way that the ogres don't chase them down. I had an idea to send them underground, but threw that out of the window as I couldn't think of anything appropriate to encounter the caravan. Having to make sure its a challenge as well as make sure there's not a ton of collateral damage.
In my mind the magic undead item, is basically part of a lich's phylactery. Going with the voldermort route and having the lich split his soul into several different pieces. The lich will end up serving as the BBEG for the game, and if the PC's can destroy the phylacteries before meeting with him in his crypt, he'll have severely reduced power.
Now that split the soul idea came to me when a big problem associated with the campaign hit me, they're with a caravan. Coming up with ways of getting them away from the caravan was going to be difficult, cause why not let the squadron of guards and the high level captain finish off anything that attacks. The line of thinking, the ogre that the party rescued wakes up and tells them they were in the corrupted lands, when one of his tribe became corrupted himself, heard the call of the phylactery, retrieved it, and was dominated. I want a way of doing this without it seeming completely contrived. Magical healing wasn't doing anything up to this point, there's no drama in a simple cure spell curing a coma.
An idea I did just have was using the fey of the forest to aid in the escape by covering the caravan's leaving with illusions to distract the ogres. I'm really trying to avoid contrivance as much as possible. Coincidence, fine. Contrivance, not so much.
Anyway, what's the playground think about this? So far I know the party's having a good time, or at the very least are telling me they're having a good time. I know its somewhat of a railroad plot, but we've always favored story driven games as opposed to wide open sandbox. Since they're only level 3, kid gloves stay partially on, but they've been told once they hit 5, the gloves come off and I stop fudging rolls to keep them alive.
Long and short of the setting, over a thousand years ago, war in the outer planes breached the walls and spilled over into the material. As a result of the war, all gods, good and evil died. What followed was a thousand years of darkness in which the denizens of the abyss ran rampant across the world, but could only travel so far as lands that had been corrupted. It was a slow spreading process so it took a while. Eventually, some dragons were able to ascend to godhood, and took over the mantles of certain gods. Now, no one knows the dragons stepped into that role, or about the war in the outer planes. The corruption basically works as a disease for the initial infection, and then a few will saves to resist the corruption, for characters that is. If you become corrupted, your allignment changes to evil, and you become easily controlled by evil beings.
Now, the campaign, the group is part of a large caravan heading through the corrupted lands in order to start the consecration of the land, and rebuild a port town on the far end. It would be about a 5 month journey to the town, and then time to rebuild the port before the first ships land.
So far, the group has
Session 1) Cleared out a group of kobolds in a cave that was raiding smaller caravans. Mostly was just a game for the group to relearn combat mechanics
Session 2) Rescued an ogre who was lying near death off the road who is to this point still unconscious, made it to a small border town which had been razed to the ground, only to be chased out by a horde of zombies. This was more of a session for social mechanics as they interacted with the people in the caravan. Over 100 wagons, nearly 250 people (not counting warforged squadrons)
Session 3) snuck back into the border town in order to retrieve items that were lost during the hasty retreat. Rescued 2 of the clerics who were overwhelmed in the retreat (too many undead to turn was the reasoning I gave. It also served to show there was some sort of mind behind the attack, going for the clerics first). Found that a large group of ogres were behind the zombie raid, and that the new chief has an item of power to create and control undead.
And here I am at session 4. The PC's didn't destroy all of the ogres, and just hit level 3 in that session. The whole caravan is hold up in a forest which has some mysterious power to keep out the undead horde (fey did it, but no one knows that) but that's not going to keep out the ogres who they didn't kill. So obviously, they have to leave, but need to do so in a way that the ogres don't chase them down. I had an idea to send them underground, but threw that out of the window as I couldn't think of anything appropriate to encounter the caravan. Having to make sure its a challenge as well as make sure there's not a ton of collateral damage.
In my mind the magic undead item, is basically part of a lich's phylactery. Going with the voldermort route and having the lich split his soul into several different pieces. The lich will end up serving as the BBEG for the game, and if the PC's can destroy the phylacteries before meeting with him in his crypt, he'll have severely reduced power.
Now that split the soul idea came to me when a big problem associated with the campaign hit me, they're with a caravan. Coming up with ways of getting them away from the caravan was going to be difficult, cause why not let the squadron of guards and the high level captain finish off anything that attacks. The line of thinking, the ogre that the party rescued wakes up and tells them they were in the corrupted lands, when one of his tribe became corrupted himself, heard the call of the phylactery, retrieved it, and was dominated. I want a way of doing this without it seeming completely contrived. Magical healing wasn't doing anything up to this point, there's no drama in a simple cure spell curing a coma.
An idea I did just have was using the fey of the forest to aid in the escape by covering the caravan's leaving with illusions to distract the ogres. I'm really trying to avoid contrivance as much as possible. Coincidence, fine. Contrivance, not so much.
Anyway, what's the playground think about this? So far I know the party's having a good time, or at the very least are telling me they're having a good time. I know its somewhat of a railroad plot, but we've always favored story driven games as opposed to wide open sandbox. Since they're only level 3, kid gloves stay partially on, but they've been told once they hit 5, the gloves come off and I stop fudging rolls to keep them alive.