How to progress with my campaign

[Orni]

Hi,

I've started a thread a while ago: Link! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?453853-Campaign-Story-idea-(advice-needed))
You guys helped me out a lot and we just had our fifth session. The players seem to enjoy it and I'm having a great time, too :smallbiggrin:

However, it seems I need your help once more - since my DM skills are somewhat mediocre.

Here's the campaign story so far:
(you can read the linked thread if you want more information on the story setting/premise)


The players woke up in a locked room in an inn without any memories of the last couple of weeks. They also found instructions that they apparently left for themselves before erasing their memories. After dealing with the situation itself they partied together and followed the instructions, which led them into an academy of wizards. They started quite a lot of trouble but managed to follow the instructions to the basement, where they blew up a magic device and entered the secret dungeon under the academy. After a series of fights against monsters (used as guardians by the wizards), they managed to free an imprisoned cleric who apparently knew them, as well as their plan. (Following the instructions). They managed to flee (teleport) moments before the wizards would have gotten them.
Once they were safe, it turns out the whole plan was orchestrated by them to get proof for the fact, that the academy is secretly a demonic cult - trying to summon the demon lord Pazuzu. The cleric was able to get this proof (he has an enchanted eye that can "record" what it sees), but not without getting himself imprisoned within the secret basement. The party (+ cleric) were able to anticipate this, though - which allowed them to make a plan to get him out of there. (the mind erasing had to be done, due to the fact that the academy has a thought-reading barrier).
Their new goal was to get the evidence to the king, so that the academy/demon-cult could get dealt with.
On their way to the next city they were attacked by an academy wizard (golem-summoner) that proved to be too strong for them and they narrowly escaped with their life. Once in the city they realized that an extraordinarily high bounty was issued for their capture (by the academy, under false accusations). They had to keep a low profile and decided they wouldn't be able to avoid being captured on their way to the main city (king) - so they visited the local paladin order, explaining the whole situation truthfully. After reviewing the evidence the paladins believed them and agreed to escort the cleric to the main city. Their job seemed "done", but they got informed about the golem-summoner knowing about their plan, so they followed the cleric/paladin to warn/help them. They ended up finding a turned over carriage and a lot of blood (as well as a dead paladin) in the middle of the road, it seems to have been attacked a few hours ago. After following the tracks they found a nearby (Lamashtu) cultist hideout and went in to save their friend. In a particularly clever way they ended up making a fortified door invisible and teleporting through it - skipping most of the dungeon. They defeated the cultist leader as well as some cultist followers and smaller demons in a hard fight but didn't manage to save the cleric - since he was horribly mutilated and bled out on the altar. So they carved out his magic eye and buried him.
Shortly after the golem summoner found them and they once again managed to flee (this time without too much of a fight). In their injured state they decided to head back to the city they came from, but were assaulted by a griffon riding bounty-huntress. The sorcerer of the party got a critical hit on the griffon which was set aflame and crashed down hard to his death - as well as wounding the bounty huntress severely. Instead of killing her (or at least forcing her to do their bidding), they healed her and were able to convince her of the impeding threat. The bountry huntress showed them a secret pathway into the city, leading right into the cellar of the adventurer guild she's a part of. The guilds leader imprisoned the party at first, but after reviewing their claims and the fact that they let his guild member live - he believed their story and some wizards of the guild were able to get the magic eye to display its "recording", which proofed their claims. The guilds leader decided to let the players go, but he wouldn't be able to directly help them - since even secretly working against the wizard academy/demon-cult would put his guild in severe danger. However, he helped them out a bit by offering some supplies and most importantly - a trained griffon for every player.
So: now the players are ready to depart for the main city (via griffon) and tell the king about the academy trying to summon a demon lord. Hoping that he believes them and puts an end to this before it's to late.

Obviously I have some ideas about how I'd like to continue the story - but I'd very much like to hear what you guys think. How would you continue? (both as a DM, as well as a player)

[Yora]

Just looking at the end, the obvious thing would be that it won't be the king who puts an end to the problem. That would be anticlimactic. What the king should give them is support and supplies so that the players can deal with it. After all, they are the ones who know the most about the situation.

[Orni]

Just looking at the end, the obvious thing would be that it won't be the king who puts an end to the problem. That would be anticlimactic. What the king should give them is support and supplies so that the players can deal with it. After all, they are the ones who know the most about the situation.

I think so too ... but it would be quite unreasonable of a king to let a undercover demon cult full of powerful wizards be dealt with by a party of mediocre adventurers. In addition, even with some convincing evidence, I don't think the king would flat out destroy the wizard academy just because a bunch of guys showed up claiming the academy that existed for hundreds of years is a big bad cult.

I actually thought about the king deciding to do a proper trial (tribunal) instead. The academy would successfully undermine the trial by using impostors, blackmailing and mind-control spells to make the trial progress in their favor. The players would obviously attend the trial and would realize some trickery is going on in some way (maybe they'd be the only ones noticing a mind control spell being cast or something like that).
Then it's their call deciding what to do about it. Simply accusing the academy of controlling the whole trial wouldn't be useful, since it would make them seem unreasonable and desperate - since they would be seen as liars that produce an even bigger lie trying to safe their wild accusations.
The trial would take multiple days and the players would have time to either try come up with a good way to shift the trial in their favor (either by using arguments and evidence - or more "unlawful" ways) or simply don't bother with the trial at all anymore and come up with some plan to defeat the academy in an other way.

background info: the leader of the academy (archmage) is already possessed by Pazuzu and is gathering power to completely break free into this world.

however - before reaching the king and doing the whole trial thing, they'd have to finally deal with the golem summoner once and for all. One of the players is very ... 'lust-driven', and I'm thinking of introducing a trap using a blackmailed/well-compensated whore or actress to lure one or all players in, so the golem summoner can kill'em all in one swoop. I'd be curious to see how the players try to get out of such a desperate situation. So far they always came up with some rather amazing solutions to presented problems.
I'd also like them to fight at least one other bounty hunter along the way.

I obviously want the trial to eventually conclude that the academy is in fact a demon cult - so that they'd loose all cover and flat out go full demon mode. a bunch of wizards would sacrifice themselves and the archmage would begin to transform into Pazuzu himself, which would make for a very cool fight. (especially in the big town hall of the main city)
so if the players screw up and don't get the trial turned around, I'd introduce some new evidence or something to throw them a bone.

Pazuzu would obviously be at very low power (relative to his actual power), since the players wouldn't have any chance of dealing with him in full demon lord form. (they'd be around lvl 10)
Defeating him would also only banish him back - for now. But that would conclude the whole story arc.


What do you think ?

[Yora]

That sounds like a very good plan. It would depend on how it's all executed in actual play, but on paper it sounds like it could get really fun and exciting.

One idea that comes to my mind is to have an informant give the players a clue about evidence hidden in the academy and they have to go and find it while the leaders are at the trial. But since the academy is under guard by the kings knights, they have to find a way to sneak in without being caught. And inside there might still be lower level apprentices that the players have to deal with to get the evidence.

The challenging part would probably be how to narrate the trial. After the players have made their initial statement, they would be mostly just spectators. Making them realize that it's not going well and they need to get more evidence quickly is something I wouldn't know how to do. But I am sure there are some here who might have ideas. I am never good with court and audience scenes in general.

[Orni]

That sounds like a very good plan. It would depend on how it's all executed in actual play, but on paper it sounds like it could get really fun and exciting.

One idea that comes to my mind is to have an informant give the players a clue about evidence hidden in the academy and they have to go and find it while the leaders are at the trial. But since the academy is under guard by the kings knights, they have to find a way to sneak in without being caught. And inside there might still be lower level apprentices that the players have to deal with to get the evidence.

The challenging part would probably be how to narrate the trial. After the players have made their initial statement, they would be mostly just spectators. Making them realize that it's not going well and they need to get more evidence quickly is something I wouldn't know how to do. But I am sure there are some here who might have ideas. I am never good with court and audience scenes in general.

thanks for your input.

the idea of having to travel back to the academy while under time pressure is really good!
I'll certainly use that.

Concerning the trial: yes, there are some stumbling blocks for narratives of this kind, but I think I can present a trial in an entertaining way. I'd like to introduce a lawyer that argues against the academy and presents all the evidence and so on in favor of it being a demon cult. As the trial progresses the lawyer suddenly flees the city in between hearings (due to blackmail/threats by the academy) and the players are forced to pick up where he left. This will give them a very active role as soon as the trial may become a bit boring. In addition they simply won't have enough hard evidence for their case and would therefore be forced to secretly travel back to the academy and gather more. As soon as they're back and hope to finally put an end to this they're the only ones to find out that all of the judges have been put under a mind control spell by academy wizards. I'm curious how they'd manage to solve that predicament. They obviously could simply accuse the academy of sabotaging the trial - but that could fire back. Another possibility would be to secretly dispel the effect before the judges state their ruling. The law commands that the judges have to hold a full-day meeting behind closed doors for big trials like that - before ruling. So the players could somehow use this time to figure out how to dispel them. However they do it - once the judges "wake up" and realize they have been mind controlled (as well as reviewing the new evidence the players got out of the academy) - they'll quickly and strongly rule against the academy and issue arrest orders for all academy members. This will make the academy wizards loose all disguise and they'll start summoning Pazuzu on the spot. This would result in the described fight and conclusion to the plot.