Pathfinder Need to test if something makes sense for the campaign I'm writing... [Archive]

BlackDragonKing

2014-08-21, 02:17 PM

Hi there. I'm a pathfinder GM going into his second campaign, and I'm looking to have things a little more plotted out than my first time, which was mostly improvisation past the first half.

To this end, I've focused on a narrative "spine" for the campaign to have an idea of beginning, middle, and end to build all the other stuff around. The simple one-two-three structure of the "spine" as it currently stands goes thusly:

1. The campaign mostly takes place between the sea and a chain of islands and coastal villages and a deep jungle full of old temples and dinosaurs. One of the first plot hooks I intend to throw out is that there's some new pirates making life hell for the coastal and island villages, and the guild the players work for has a job open to put a stop to that.
2. After the pirates from part 1 are defeated, things progress for a while until rumors of ghost ships start, and the players will at some point encounter a resurrected derelict staffed by skeletal pirates and a necromancer "captain", who is part of a cabal of wizards raising old shipwrecks from the depths for treasure and cheap undead armies; since I intend to mention that one such shipwreck had a king's ransom in onyx and necromantic tools on board when it sank, I think that explains pretty handily why the necromancers would bother and how they can afford to do all this.
3. The lynchpin is that the cabal's initial greed has been overtaken by something a lot more ominous; plumbing the depths for treasure and corpses ended up freeing a vengeful Magus who had been trapped in his sunken ship for twenty years after he drowned and revived as an insane Grave Knight, and the Grave Knight has since taken over the Cabal to make them his flunkies in building a dead armada to take revenge on the children of the island folk who killed him.

My main question is, does it make sense that a 14th or so level Magus with Grave Knight powers (Ruinous Revivification: Cold, from drowning) would be trapped deep beneath the sea for two decades? I'm running on the assumption that he was drowned wearing mithral full plate after his spell book was destroyed, but I'm concerned I need some further explanation for how he was trapped for that long until someone came along and released him by mistake. I don't want to introduce a BBEG whose time sealed indicates he was only stuck that long because he was a moron, but I'm rather attached to the idea of the BBEG being a vengeful, insane undead raised from the depths of the sea.

Kol Korran

2014-08-22, 10:40 AM

Hi there! I thought of an idea to try and connect the start to the greater whole. I think it might be more rewarding for the players to have a feel of a bigger story or such. i don't know all of the details for your campaign, so I leave some things blank. As to your direct question (Is it feasible that this undead magus of a high level will be kept under the sea for so long), I will answer that too. hopefully satisfactory.

A slight change to the campaign background: The settlement/s/ country the PCs start from has long ago had troubles from some people of the islands. These may have been people of a different race, perhaps the forefathers of the necromancers, and so on... These enemies were troublesome due to some sort of aspect of their culture/ race/ powers- perhaps they were very cunning, perhaps their ships were hard to track/ could travel through storms, perhaps they had powerful magic of some sort...

So they warred against them for some time. At some point they found a weakness to the enemy- perhaps they knew who was their leader, or their main port, or something else. The PCs' country raised a fleet to deal with them, and commanding that fleet was someone special- destined/ specially trained/ chosen/ of a special lineage or such. S/he would command the fleet to victory!

But as the campaign for victory drew to a close, after much of the enemy has been defeated, the chosen admiral for some reason had turned on his country. Perhaps he fell in love with some of the enemy leaders, maybe he even married and had children. Perhaps he learned some terrible truth about the original country, one that contradicted his values. Perhaps he was ensorcelled (As many would believe). The truth is probably known only to a few, the consequences probably even to fewer...

As the admiral prepared to marshal his troops and ships to strike down on the country, it's leaders summoned some great magic, and a great curse. A great magical storm struck the fleet, dispersing it far and wide and sinking all ships. The Admiral however was not to die so easily- for his crimes, for his BETRAYAL he would "live" (exist as an undead) forever on the bottom of the ocean, with some great curse binding him, tying him to a small place (His "lair") to slowly rot under the waves, unable to flee by the restraints of the magical curse.

To the people at home it was said that this was some sort of a great tragedy, or a last desperate strike by the enemy. The Admiral was symbol, and now he is a martyred symbol. But without the fleet, and with the enemy thoroughly beaten down. The war seemed to be over...

But the admiral, and some of the enemy who now worshiped him, did not forget...

It took some time for the enemy to even found the Admiral still lived (Perhaps he can exert some sort of a minor influence from his captivity- dreams/ visions/ maybe affect wave and weather patterns slightly). But they made contact. Through the years, and through the Admiral's condition they have learned some of the secrets for necromancy, but their numbers,and influence was slow. Yet, they started gaining strength, numbers, assets, and even a few well placed spies in the settlements.

Cue in to modern times: The Admiral and his people have started to find out (finally) what might be needed to break the curse, and how to strike at their enemies). The pirates raids have two objectives: First- they aim at weakening the country, and gaining more resources and such. Secondly- special strikes aim to gain more info about the curse, the means to break it, and the people behind it.

I suggest making the curse somewhat of a complex matter, in which there are several objectives, and you do not need all of them to succeed breaking free the admiral. This way the party could have several targets, and they can succeed and fail on some, with the enemy still succeeding at others. The make up of these successes and failures will affect the power of the returning admiral, and possibly his resources, or the PCs resources at stopping him. Some examples:

- Most of the line of the original curse casters need to be taken out. You can have about 5-10 people. Depending on how many people the PC save this can affect how much time the PCs have before the Admiral breaks loose, or perhaps some "extra stats" he may have, or perhaps resistances, immunities and such.
- Same can go for obtaining special "ritual ingredients/ Mcguffins" and so on.

let the PC unravel this slowly. The enemy doesn't share the secret of the admiral or the purpose of all raids with all pirates. Not even all pirates may be of the enemy's people- quite a few can be hired hands.

Meanwhile, as the PCs will discover, the enemy's necromantic cabal is trying to dredge the former fleet of undead soldiers to serve under the Admiral. I suggest to do better than mere skeletons and zombies, perhaps even make them special undead, possibly with the "favored enemy" ability against the PC's country or something similar and thematic.

Again, you can also have a few special quests here, with the Admiral tryign to raise some of his prime lieutenents- powerful ship captains in the old times, which can work as "mini bosses" or "hig rankign underlings" For the commander. Undead with class levels.

The party learns more, The Admiral may rise or not, there may be a final battle in the midst of a big war between fleets, or in the Admiral's sea lair, or such. The party may also learn WHO the admiral truly is, and WHY the admiral betrayed, which may color their view on their country differently, and lead to tough choices.

A suggestion which can enhance play- Give the Admiral a limited form of communication with the PCs. Perhaps he can use the senses of people devout to him (Or not devout, but following the orders of the cabal), and he might be able to take over these briefly, or talk throguh them. Perhaps vision or more. This way you can interact (roleplay wise) with the character as the BBEG before meeting them. He might be intrigued by their exploits, or frustrated, or maybe he can appreciate their actions and so on... I think this could greatly enhance him as a character, before they actually fight. (And he might even be able to fight them, in a limited- level- appropriate fashion- he can take short control of subjects but can use only a limited portion of his power through this connection. As he comes close to breaking free, this grows, and so confronting "him" becomes harder.

I hope this can help. :smallsmile: