Unoriginal
2018-01-30, 10:25 AM
Hi folks.
I'm writing a campaign for my setting, and I'd like to hear your opinions/advice/suggestions on it.
The Unusual Suspects:
The campaign centers around the scheme of an Ultroloth called Zinor Tak and his Yugoloth cohorts. The campaign world has for characteristic that it is possible for portals to other planes to open given the right circumstances (for exemple, a portal to the Plane of Fire opening near a volcano or into a forest fire, or a portal to the Shadowfell opening where a great tragedy has taken place), with rituals being used to facilitate/control the opening of those portals and what go through them. The more power is involved or the more significant the event is, the bigger and longer-lasting the portal will be.
Tak's plan is to use those portals not only to bring himself and his Yugoloth army to this world, but also siphon energy from the planes to turn himself into a being stronger than a Pit Fiend, and then pillage the world until nothing valuable is left (before moving to the Lower Planes to become the biggest bully in the yard, or so he thinks).
The campaign would go like this, summarized:
-The PCs are hired to help defeat different bandit groups who have been kidnapping people in the region. Once one of the bands is defeated, the PCs can learn of a ruined fort in the wild where the bandits have been bringing the captured people. When they arrive, bandits and prisoners alike have been slaughtered, and the walls of the fort's most intact room are covered with angular symbols, arranged in a manner reminding a mathematical equation. The person who hired the PCs ask them to find out more about this, because it's obviously bad news.
What happened is that a cultist used the fort's history (its last lord was betrayed by his troops when one of his rivals offered more) and the bandits' greed (as they were willing to sell people for some gold) as part of a ritual to summon forth a Mezzoloth, who promptly slaughtered everyone but the cultist as to leave no witness and so to not have to pay the bandits.
- If the PCs go seek answers at the country's biggest academy, an old dwarf mage can help them: when he was just an apprentice, one hundred and some years ago, he met one of the famous heroes of this world, who had a sword engraved with symbols similar to the ones in the ruin. He doesn't know more about them, though, but he knows that the hero went to fight in the arena of a city to the south, ruled by a Marilith, and he died there.
The symbols are actually an old code invented by Devils to give orders to Yugoloth, back when they were still under Hell's control. The hero's sword dated from this era, and the ritual used that ancient binding to lock on the right creature.
And that's how far I went with the details. The next move would be to travel to this city, encountering adventures and misadventures along the way, while the cultist and the Mezzoloth are preparing to summon Zinor Tak's second-in-command, an Arcanaloth more able to carry out the plan than the low-ranked brute.
The Marilith still has the sword, but while she does not care for it one bit, she does care about bringing the worst from people, so she will only accept to let the PCs access it if one of the heroes accept a fight to the death against one opponent of her choice (with the assurance the opponent will be willing and not be an helpless victim led to slaughter), promising to give the sword no matter if the PC wins or not. If the PC accept, she immediately designates one of the other PCs as the opponent.
So, any thoughts?
I'm writing a campaign for my setting, and I'd like to hear your opinions/advice/suggestions on it.
The Unusual Suspects:
The campaign centers around the scheme of an Ultroloth called Zinor Tak and his Yugoloth cohorts. The campaign world has for characteristic that it is possible for portals to other planes to open given the right circumstances (for exemple, a portal to the Plane of Fire opening near a volcano or into a forest fire, or a portal to the Shadowfell opening where a great tragedy has taken place), with rituals being used to facilitate/control the opening of those portals and what go through them. The more power is involved or the more significant the event is, the bigger and longer-lasting the portal will be.
Tak's plan is to use those portals not only to bring himself and his Yugoloth army to this world, but also siphon energy from the planes to turn himself into a being stronger than a Pit Fiend, and then pillage the world until nothing valuable is left (before moving to the Lower Planes to become the biggest bully in the yard, or so he thinks).
The campaign would go like this, summarized:
-The PCs are hired to help defeat different bandit groups who have been kidnapping people in the region. Once one of the bands is defeated, the PCs can learn of a ruined fort in the wild where the bandits have been bringing the captured people. When they arrive, bandits and prisoners alike have been slaughtered, and the walls of the fort's most intact room are covered with angular symbols, arranged in a manner reminding a mathematical equation. The person who hired the PCs ask them to find out more about this, because it's obviously bad news.
What happened is that a cultist used the fort's history (its last lord was betrayed by his troops when one of his rivals offered more) and the bandits' greed (as they were willing to sell people for some gold) as part of a ritual to summon forth a Mezzoloth, who promptly slaughtered everyone but the cultist as to leave no witness and so to not have to pay the bandits.
- If the PCs go seek answers at the country's biggest academy, an old dwarf mage can help them: when he was just an apprentice, one hundred and some years ago, he met one of the famous heroes of this world, who had a sword engraved with symbols similar to the ones in the ruin. He doesn't know more about them, though, but he knows that the hero went to fight in the arena of a city to the south, ruled by a Marilith, and he died there.
The symbols are actually an old code invented by Devils to give orders to Yugoloth, back when they were still under Hell's control. The hero's sword dated from this era, and the ritual used that ancient binding to lock on the right creature.
And that's how far I went with the details. The next move would be to travel to this city, encountering adventures and misadventures along the way, while the cultist and the Mezzoloth are preparing to summon Zinor Tak's second-in-command, an Arcanaloth more able to carry out the plan than the low-ranked brute.
The Marilith still has the sword, but while she does not care for it one bit, she does care about bringing the worst from people, so she will only accept to let the PCs access it if one of the heroes accept a fight to the death against one opponent of her choice (with the assurance the opponent will be willing and not be an helpless victim led to slaughter), promising to give the sword no matter if the PC wins or not. If the PC accept, she immediately designates one of the other PCs as the opponent.
So, any thoughts?