PDA

View Full Version : 3.5 Input appreciated for my first campeign.



Xathrax
2016-11-02, 03:37 AM
Hello everyone,

What I am seeking here is if there are any heavy flaws fluff wise(I can live with minor stuff as the players are not very well familiar with the FR setting) and if anyone has any good suggestions to add. I suspect I will come up with stuff as I go, but I want to have a basis for the grand scheme.

I have been playing D&D for a while now, but now I have finally managed to gather a group of friends and decided to run my own game. I realized that making something fully from scratch is not something I have sufficient time for so I took the module "Shattered Gates of Slaughtergarde" as a basis, but I will be heavily modifying it.

The big plot involves the Crown of Horns plotting the rebirth of Myrkul. As a first step a large amount of souls is required for some spell/ritual/artifact(the specifics are irrelevant at this point) and to do this a priest of Myrkul in the possession of the crown plotting with devils to claim all the souls in the valley of obelisks. To do so they intend to alter the magic in the obelisks scattered around the valley to capture souls as people die in the area and once that is done they will activate the dormant demon gates located in the Slaughterscar to have those pour out and kill everyone.

As devils obviously are not too fond of demons part of the plot involves multiple good NPCs willingly sacrificing themselves in a ritual to please several pit fiends. This is achieved through more than a decade of manipulation of said good NPCs without altering their aligment. The pit fiends then grant wishes that are very carefully worded to further the plot along(the main purpose of the wishes is to alter the obelisks and to mask these activities from those who would meddle). The devils get a cut of the souls so even if long term corruption is more their style they realize that these events would likely unfold anyways so better to get in on the action.

The players are currently level 2 and just arrived in the valley. One of the reasons they came is one of the characters has met one of the NPCs to be sacrficed when she was a child and it's an integral part of her backstory. She believes that the NPC is evil and responsible for the death of everyone in the village she lived in(again, manipulation) so she is tracking him.

I will leave some options to try and track the NPC as well as drop some threads to follow so that they can discover that devils are working in the area. They will probably soon embark to clear out the goblin(in the labratory), but I will be altering the encounters to have more evil outsiders and perhaps have some more options to get an idea what the grand plot is. The temple will probably not feature any drow and while the armory will retain a lot of it's features.

The players will not be encountring the priest possessing the crown as that will probably be a very high level character and I am still thinking how to have them avoid him while still being able to thwart the plans.

Thoughts/suggestions?

RazorChain
2016-11-02, 03:53 AM
How does the priest plan to bring back Myrkul?

How do the demons come into the story?

Why are the good NPC's sacrificing themselves?

Are the Pit fiends helping with bringing back Myrkul?

Xathrax
2016-11-02, 04:58 AM
How does the priest plan to bring back Myrkul?

How do the demons come into the story?

Why are the good NPC's sacrificing themselves?

Are the Pit fiends helping with bringing back Myrkul?

1. I decided not going too deep into the specifics as the players will probably not be able to get such infomation. But the general idea is that the trapping of numerous souls will fuel an event that will empower the essence trapped in the crown of horns. Afterwards events will be put in place to make people fear death once more and spread the message that Myrkul will return. This will cause those who wish to be spared to worship him once more which will eventually help him fully reform.

2. The demons are just a tool. The only purpose they serve is to be unleashed from the gates hidden in the Slaughtergarde Armory and kill everyone to fuel the soul gathering. The priest does not have any other reliable means of doing this as he has few followers and the devils would not get directly involved.

3. They are led to believe that this is for a good cause and are unaware what is the actual purpose. I am still working on the exact nature of the deception.

4. Yes, the wishes they grant is what allows the soul gathering to happen.