The Lost Crusade (Brainstorming for plot ideas)

[Talakeal]

I was reading about the background of the Lord of the Rings and read the story about what happened to the last king of Gondor. Basically, he was challenged by the Witch King, rode off to Mordor to meet that challenge, and then was never heard from again. It is fairly obvious he was simply killed, but Tolkien leaves it an unanswered mystery. LoTR online has him become a ring wraith and the players can fight him iirc.

Reading this story while listening to the Fall of Gil-Galad (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFz7Olesgfc) inspired me to create a plotline for an upcoming RPG campaign.


So my campaign world has a vast Wasteland filled with monsters, mutants, undead, inhospitable terrain, Lovecraftian rifts in reality, and the stronghold of the BBEG and his servants.

My idea is that several centuries ago a very virtuous someone (either the last of a line of kings or a peasant visionary ala Joan of Arc [I haven't decided which] led a great crusade to cleanse the Wasteland. The entire crusade entered the Wasteland and then disappeared without a trace, no one knows what happened to them.

Now, hundreds of years later, the whole event has become a myth similar to the children's crusade (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children%27s_Crusade).

But I want the players to have a reason to investigate and interact with the event. So I need to figure out:

1: What really happened to the crusade.
2: How their fate is relevant to the current world
3: How and why the players are involved

The obvious answer would be to have the crusade be defeated or captured by the BBEG, raised as undead, and used as an invasion force. But that, especially by itself, seems way to basic and clichéd. Another idea is to have the players find some relic of the crusade which serves as a clue and is, perhaps, haunted in some way. But at this point it is just a vague idea.

Anyone have any advice or inspiration for plot elements I could use? I would really appreciate it. Thanks!

[Cluedrew]

Several centuries ago you say... how about some people from the crusade show up tomorrow after losing (ambiguously dead or captured) their leader in a battle within site of something huge and important in the center of the wasteland. You have to main hooks here, the first being the fact the people showed back up now, the other being the battle in the heart of the wasteland. That's my 5 minute contribution.

[Honest Tiefling]

What if the person doing the crusade wasn't all that...Well, virtuous? I mean, you got a charismatic guy who is good at talking and has great hair. Gets a whole bunch of people to wander into this wasteland. You can either feed them to the lovecratfian horrors, perhaps to try to appease them to not come around to his home town. Maybe he is the BBEG, because well, waste not want not when it comes to undead fodder! Entire army turned into undead, no biggies, just change the ol' wardrobe to black and good enough. It's just a slight career change!

If your party is up to it, it could be that these undead horrors just love forcing people to have visions of the past. Visions of the past where they get horribly killed. But hey, at least you know the fate of these guys, one at a time! Have fun!

These guys also could have had an important relic, because a crusade into an undead/lovecraftian world seems like a good time to break out the holy relics. Maybe by finding this relic, they can use it themselves or prevent someone who really shouldn't be having it to have it.

[Yora]

Sounds a lot like Slumbering Tsar. Which I would recommend if it wasn't so ridiculously expensive.

I think there should be some kind of twist. If they simply lost and all died it would not be a very interesting expedition. "Yep, it happened exactly like everything thought it had. What a great story we'll have to tell."
So just as a starting though, how about they actually did make it to the fortress, successfully breached it and destroyed the evil that was there. However, after that things started to go wrong.

One possibility would be that they were overcome by the evil of the place and became the new tyrants of the wastes like it had happened countless times before, but that would also be rather predictable. I would probably go with something like a great storm in the waste forcing the remaining crusaders to stay inside the fortress longer than they want and as time drags on and supplies run out, everyone turned a bit edgy. And perhaps they figured out that the evil they just destroyed would simply come back and they came up with a plan to prevent that and it was this part where everything turned ugly.

[Demidos]

Instead of turning evil, what if they were just trapped in an alternate planar rift, in a frozen time period, turned to stone in an eternal sleep. Then from them, the evil race that inhabits the other plane detached their shadows from them, shaping them into warped foot soldiers, still bearing twisted insignias of their original outfits.

The twist here being that the crusade is still alive, but are merely trapped and need to be rescued by venturing into the portal in the depths of the dungeons.

As bonus, you can have the spirits of the most powerful crusaders having manifested themselves as ghost type creatures that cannot percieve non shadow creatures. This means that sometimes ghostly beings of light might show up and attack the shadows, but leave without ever interacting with the PCs. If you have the weaker members of the army be rescued before these more powerful crusaders, then you can set up some explanation for that via them.

Might create some interesting scenes.

[Talakeal]

Thanks for the great ideas! This plot is really starting to come together in my mind.


Several centuries ago you say... how about some people from the crusade show up tomorrow after losing (ambiguously dead or captured) their leader in a battle within site of something huge and important in the center of the wasteland. You have to main hooks here, the first being the fact the people showed back up now, the other being the battle in the heart of the wasteland. That's my 5 minute contribution.

Good idea. Unfortunately it is one that I have already used in the setting, so I don't want to repeat myself.


What if the person doing the crusade wasn't all that...Well, virtuous? I mean, you got a charismatic guy who is good at talking and has great hair. Gets a whole bunch of people to wander into this wasteland. You can either feed them to the lovecratfian horrors, perhaps to try to appease them to not come around to his home town. Maybe he is the BBEG, because well, waste not want not when it comes to undead fodder! Entire army turned into undead, no biggies, just change the ol' wardrobe to black and good enough. It's just a slight career change!

If your party is up to it, it could be that these undead horrors just love forcing people to have visions of the past. Visions of the past where they get horribly killed. But hey, at least you know the fate of these guys, one at a time! Have fun!

These guys also could have had an important relic, because a crusade into an undead/lovecraftian world seems like a good time to break out the holy relics. Maybe by finding this relic, they can use it themselves or prevent someone who really shouldn't be having it to have it.

Yeah, having an evil guy in charge of the crusade is a good twist, but it robs it of an element of tragedy that I would like. Con men and villains are a dime a dozen, but real heroes...

Having the hero defeat and then become the villain is not going to work because I have used the BBEG since and it wouldn't fit. But, this new campaign exists in an era long after the PCs of the previous game defeated the BBEG and saved the world, so maybe I could work something out...

Visions of their deaths and relics are great ideas. I will certainly be using both of those.



Sounds a lot like Slumbering Tsar. Which I would recommend if it wasn't so ridiculously expensive.

I think there should be some kind of twist. If they simply lost and all died it would not be a very interesting expedition. "Yep, it happened exactly like everything thought it had. What a great story we'll have to tell."
So just as a starting though, how about they actually did make it to the fortress, successfully breached it and destroyed the evil that was there. However, after that things started to go wrong.

One possibility would be that they were overcome by the evil of the place and became the new tyrants of the wastes like it had happened countless times before, but that would also be rather predictable. I would probably go with something like a great storm in the waste forcing the remaining crusaders to stay inside the fortress longer than they want and as time drags on and supplies run out, everyone turned a bit edgy. And perhaps they figured out that the evil they just destroyed would simply come back and they came up with a plan to prevent that and it was this part where everything turned ugly.

Cool stuff. Yeah, I can easily incorporate elements of this. Victory only to be defeated by the landscape itself is a great tragic irony, I like it.


Instead of turning evil, what if they were just trapped in an alternate planar rift, in a frozen time period, turned to stone in an eternal sleep. Then from them, the evil race that inhabits the other plane detached their shadows from them, shaping them into warped foot soldiers, still bearing twisted insignias of their original outfits.

The twist here being that the crusade is still alive, but are merely trapped and need to be rescued by venturing into the portal in the depths of the dungeons.

As bonus, you can have the spirits of the most powerful crusaders having manifested themselves as ghost type creatures that cannot percieve non shadow creatures. This means that sometimes ghostly beings of light might show up and attack the shadows, but leave without ever interacting with the PCs. If you have the weaker members of the army be rescued before these more powerful crusaders, then you can set up some explanation for that via them.

Might create some interesting scenes.

That's original. I don't think that would work for the whole plot, but there are definitely elements of awesome in there that I will be using.

[Maglubiyet]

I know you've got some good ideas already, but I'll throw in my two cents anyway.

1. The crusade actually succeeded...sort of. The members sacrificed their physical bodies to become part of a spirit shield to seal a portal to a Realms of Madness. This prevented the beings on the other side from entering the world any longer. In recent years, though, the shield has begun to falter. The group has realized that the portal will soon re-open so they've released the souls of one of their number from the shield to seek aid. This soul manifests as an incorporeal undead haunting the kingdom the crusade originated in.

2. The survivors of the crusade found an oasis within the Wastelands and formed a settlement. Their descendants still live there today. Due to the odd nature of the region, the oasis shifts in and out of the timestream. Subjectively, only 60 years have passed for the residents, only a few generations removed from the original settlers. Their religion still reflects their strong ideals. And the symbol of office of their leader is an artifact carried by the initial crusade's leader, the only thing that can Defeat the BBEG.

3. The crusaders reached a rift to an alien realm and plunged through in zealous fervor. Unfortunately, their minds and bodies were promptly absorbed by a powerful alien demigod on the other side. Through their brains, which it has retained marinating inside one of its gut chambers, it learned much about the world of humans. It has spent the last several centuries making its way here -- its goal: conquest.

[JCAll]

As far as getting the players actually involved, a crazy historian with deep pockets and some recently uncovered records of the time period looking to hire people to help with his research would be an alright start. You can get them involved in the mystery when the mystery starts to unfold, until then the hard part is just getting them in the door.

[Honest Tiefling]

Well, if you don't like the leader being evil to rob the story of the tragic element, why not roll it in? As in, his best bro or lover or something betrayed them and then went to go either fight or work with the undead/mind-shredding abominations. Heck, maybe they even destroyed the crusade themselves because they were worried the crusade was going to do something to release something they shouldn't, but their betrayal was known so they couldn't stop it.

[1337 b4k4]

Some of my thoughts:

The person who led the crusade was indeed the last of a line of nobles. The last of the "pure of heart" rulers of the local kingdom. Since then, the kingdom has been rules by craven and cowardly men and women. Rulers who saw the total annihilation of their predecessors armies and bloodline as a sign that the world was dangerous and inhospitable, that resistance and sticking your neck out was futile and that man should be content with the meagre existence they eck out of the land they have. Walls have been built, and guards and defenses fortified. Of course, when good men do nothing, evil thrives and unbeknownst to most of the people (but not all) the Last Crusade had a real impact. True the armies were defeated, but somehow their sacrifice managed to slow, delay or contain the irresistible march of chaos. And the relative peace that the kingdom has lived in for the past few centuries has only been assured by that sacrifice.

But now, that protection is waning. The cracks are beginning to show and the evil that has been thiving and biding its time is once again on the move. All the defenses of men measure to nothing compared to the forces evil brings against them, and peace is beginning to shatter. And with that lack of peace is coming unrest. The guards and defenses are given more power and control, which is attracting corruption. The lower classes are in fear for their lives, while the upper classes are in apparent denial of the truth in front of them. And the rulers and leaders refuse to do what they know must be done. They can't muster the courage in their hearts to lead a new crusade. To ride into battle and stop the evils that threaten their lands. In their fear and cowardice, they've grown despondent and defeatist. To them, the coming night is as inevitable as death itself, and it's better to rule now, and enjoy what power they have, than to sacrifice their lives in the hope of the sun rising again.

Now the question is, how to hook the players in. My suggestion is they come across a rumor, or story or other clue that the crusade was more than just a foolish last stand. That something happened, and that something needs to happen again. If you like "man from the past" stories, perhaps a single survivor of the battle remains, kept alive unnaturally due to a curse or promise. Have a "mysterious stranger stumbles into town" trope kick things off.

To me, though, I think its important to actually forgo the "defeated and twisted against their own ends" angle. As you point out, con men and villains are a dime a dozen, but honestly so are good guy turns bad after capture stories. If you want to go for tragedy, go for pure and honest sacrifice. As the PCs explore and learn more about what needs to be done, have them encounter the tragedy that occurs when so many good people go off to die in defense of their homes. The broken dreams, the broken families and the reason for the fear. Your current nobles shouldn't be one dimensional cowards, they're regular people, afraid because their ancestors made them afraid because they too were made afraid by the death and the sacrifice. The pain of losing your family, of being the last remaining heirs to what appears to be senseless and useless slaughter and sacrifice.

I should warn though that if you're players are the kick in the door and loot the corpses types, this may be a bit more investigation / non-combat heavy than they prefer.

[veti]

Instead of turning evil, what if they were just trapped in an alternate planar rift, in a frozen time period, turned to stone in an eternal sleep. Then from them, the evil race that inhabits the other plane detached their shadows from them, shaping them into warped foot soldiers, still bearing twisted insignias of their original outfits.

The twist here being that the crusade is still alive, but are merely trapped and need to be rescued by venturing into the portal in the depths of the dungeons.

This is actually a classic (http://www.caerleon.net/history/arthur/page11.htm). There's another variant featuring Sir Francis Drake (http://www.bartleby.com/103/41.html). Cool idea, but it does risk reducing the PCs role: they get to wake up the crusaders, then the crusaders... finish what they started while the PCs look on? Works as a children's story, but maybe not for a campaign.


1. The crusade actually succeeded...sort of. The members sacrificed their physical bodies to become part of a spirit shield to seal a portal to a Realms of Madness. This prevented the beings on the other side from entering the world any longer. In recent years, though, the shield has begun to falter. The group has realized that the portal will soon re-open so they've released the souls of one of their number from the shield to seek aid. This soul manifests as an incorporeal undead haunting the kingdom the crusade originated in.

I like this one.


2. The survivors of the crusade found an oasis within the Wastelands and formed a settlement. Their descendants still live there today. Due to the odd nature of the region, the oasis shifts in and out of the timestream. Subjectively, only 60 years have passed for the residents, only a few generations removed from the original settlers. Their religion still reflects their strong ideals. And the symbol of office of their leader is an artifact carried by the initial crusade's leader, the only thing that can Defeat the BBEG.

It took me a few minutes to realise that this was a second option, independent of (1), but when I did - I like this one too. Although I'm not sure why "only 60 years" should have passed. Why not just as many generations for them as for the world they came from?

[Cluedrew]

As you point out, con men and villains are a dime a dozen, but honestly so are good guy turns bad after capture stories. If you want to go for tragedy, go for pure and honest sacrifice.... Yeah.


Cool idea, but it does risk reducing the PCs role: they get to wake up the crusaders, then the crusaders... finish what they started while the PCs look on? Works as a children's story, but maybe not for a campaign.Intelligent weapons. The bodies of the last crusaders have rotted away but their will, are their arms, have not.

[Talakeal]

Intelligent weapons. The bodies of the last crusaders have rotted away but their will, are their arms, have not.

I was actually thinking the exact same thing.

[Demidos]

... Yeah.

Intelligent weapons. The bodies of the last crusaders have rotted away but their will, are their arms, have not.


I was actually thinking the exact same thing.

I get the thing about the weapons, by why didn't their arms rot when the rest of their bodies did?

I'm sorry, too easy. Couldn't resist.

[Honest Tiefling]

No, no, keep it. Have the players encounter these swords, with the bodies only partially rotted...See, they tried to keep their bodies fresh in case they could be returned...But the power of the swords was weak, and cannot extend too far from the sword itself. So the players encounter these half-rotted things in the place filled with undead. It'll be either hilarious or creepy, so win-win.

[Cluedrew]

...why didn't their arms rot when the rest of their bodies did?

... Oh, sorry.

I'm participating in another brainstorming section about a rebellion against an empire that is quite fond of hacking off limbs as punishment. Some other detail aside a lot of people in the rebellion have prosthetic limbs. Bit of a mix up there. Not really, the other conversation doesn't exist.

[Honest Tiefling]

The souls of the crusaders could also be stuck in their very bones. Bodies of holy/magical people have been popular to collect across different cultures anyway. Since we got some undead running around this place, it could lead to a situation where the undead need to be defeated, but not destroyed so their bodies can be purified to get more hints about what happened to these people. Also could show the crusaders' character in that they are more then willing to delay proper burial for themselves and suffer the indignity to aid the characters.

Not to mention, wouldn't the BBEG not want people running in to learn about this crusade? So why not have the very bodies that could be a problem protect themselves so people cannot learn about the crusade?