Matrota
2018-02-07, 03:52 AM
If you are a player in a campaign of mine called Curse of Humanity, stop reading now. There are bound to be spoilers in this thread and you only ruin the experience for yourself if you continue. That said, below is the situation I've found myself in.
The players in my campaign have recently encountered an NPC who has started them on the main story. Their quest involves recovering the stolen White Orb of Dragonkind, as well as a couple other artifacts that were taken by a powerful green dragon 35 years ago. The green dragon attacked Erafnir the White, a white dragon who had been entrusted to guard the White Orb of Dragonkind and keep it from non-dragons and those who would use its powers against their kind. When the green dragon came and fought with Erafnir, she used one of the other artifacts there to curse him, permanently changing him into the form of a weak human.
The players recently learned of this as they had met and fought alongside one of Erafnir's daughters, a full-blooded human who had been conceived several years after Erafnir had changed. She asked the party to help her restore her father and, with the promise of a powerful dragon's hoard and the possibility of acquiring artifacts, the party pledged their aid. They went and met with the Erafnir, now a neutral human who had taken the name Eliam for convenience sake, who told them his story. The party agreed to seek out the green dragon and keep in touch with Eliam/Erafnir in case they found anything.
The players returned to tie up some loose threads in the starting city before moving forwards. The party barbarian had learned that a collector had purchased the head of a young blue dragon the party had slain and put up for sale (lots of dragons in this campaign), and had gone to see him for curiosity's sake. The barbarian ended up asking the man about myths, artifacts, and legends that the collector found particularly interesting, and so the collector told him of a legendary piece of armor and a mythical location known as the Isle of Myst. After hearing of this mythical location, the party collectively decided to try and find the Isle of Myst, taking Erafnir's daughter along with them.
As I had mostly just thrown a comment about the Isle of Myst in for fun, I wasn't prepared when the party went out seeking it and resorted to improv. The Isle of Myst was a fabled location just south of the continent, a location that had a perpetuating mist surrounding it for miles upon miles. It was said that no ship which sailed into that mist had ever returned. Through investigation, the party found that there was rumored to be a ring that allowed you to surpass the fog barrier and sail without becoming lost. They paid a powerful wizard to cast vision and discern its location, finding it located in a far off forest within the hollow of a great tree. The location is near to the coast as well as a village of maenads. The name of the ring is the Ring of the Misty Messenger, and was given to a mist dragon (why not) who long ago traveled back and forth from the isle and the rest of the world.
The session ended on that last note as the party sorcerer was ready to teleport everyone close to the location of the ring. He he had traveled through the great forest of Thyandri when he came from his homeland to the starting city of Rouen, and so he can at least get them into the kingdom of Thyandri where they can start travelling on foot.
And so that brings me to the current issue. With the unpredictable pace at which the party moves, they could either spend all of next session in the forest causing trouble, or could find the ring and travel to the island before we're even halfway through the session. I'm currently flat out of ideas on what to put on that island, since it's definitely there, but definitely not prepared. I was thinking either had a reclusive tribe, a tear between the material plane and the plane of water/mist/steam/whatever, or maybe something Atlantean themed? The island was previously used in another rpg entirely, where it held nothing but a portal to a timeless plane with every kind of elemental. In that rpg, elementals were unable to manifest on the material plane but could still influence it, and they had a dragon fly back and forth to deliver messages to the elder elementals so they could control things like wildfires, floods, tornadoes, etc. That doesn't work in 3.5, as elementals most certainly can manifest on the material, wouldn't all be found on one plane, and couldn't remotely influence such massive events. While I still kind of like that idea, I don't think it fits in too well within this world.
The party is currently about 12th level. It consists of a wizard/initiate of the sevenfold veil, a sorcerer/sandshaper, a barbarian/bear warrior, an alchemist ported over from PF, a fighter/elemental warrior (fire element), a vow of peace healbot cloistered cleric, and a monk/kensai/something which actually does a very respectable amount of damage. I don't want them to just waltz up and take the ring no-questions-asked, but I also don't know what to put there to protect it. The mist dragon is already dead, so that's not an option. The forest of Thyandri is closely linked to the Feywild, so maybe I should throw some unseelie court fey against them? I honestly have no idea. Any and all advice is welcome, and if you actually read all of this text I commend and respect you.
The players in my campaign have recently encountered an NPC who has started them on the main story. Their quest involves recovering the stolen White Orb of Dragonkind, as well as a couple other artifacts that were taken by a powerful green dragon 35 years ago. The green dragon attacked Erafnir the White, a white dragon who had been entrusted to guard the White Orb of Dragonkind and keep it from non-dragons and those who would use its powers against their kind. When the green dragon came and fought with Erafnir, she used one of the other artifacts there to curse him, permanently changing him into the form of a weak human.
The players recently learned of this as they had met and fought alongside one of Erafnir's daughters, a full-blooded human who had been conceived several years after Erafnir had changed. She asked the party to help her restore her father and, with the promise of a powerful dragon's hoard and the possibility of acquiring artifacts, the party pledged their aid. They went and met with the Erafnir, now a neutral human who had taken the name Eliam for convenience sake, who told them his story. The party agreed to seek out the green dragon and keep in touch with Eliam/Erafnir in case they found anything.
The players returned to tie up some loose threads in the starting city before moving forwards. The party barbarian had learned that a collector had purchased the head of a young blue dragon the party had slain and put up for sale (lots of dragons in this campaign), and had gone to see him for curiosity's sake. The barbarian ended up asking the man about myths, artifacts, and legends that the collector found particularly interesting, and so the collector told him of a legendary piece of armor and a mythical location known as the Isle of Myst. After hearing of this mythical location, the party collectively decided to try and find the Isle of Myst, taking Erafnir's daughter along with them.
As I had mostly just thrown a comment about the Isle of Myst in for fun, I wasn't prepared when the party went out seeking it and resorted to improv. The Isle of Myst was a fabled location just south of the continent, a location that had a perpetuating mist surrounding it for miles upon miles. It was said that no ship which sailed into that mist had ever returned. Through investigation, the party found that there was rumored to be a ring that allowed you to surpass the fog barrier and sail without becoming lost. They paid a powerful wizard to cast vision and discern its location, finding it located in a far off forest within the hollow of a great tree. The location is near to the coast as well as a village of maenads. The name of the ring is the Ring of the Misty Messenger, and was given to a mist dragon (why not) who long ago traveled back and forth from the isle and the rest of the world.
The session ended on that last note as the party sorcerer was ready to teleport everyone close to the location of the ring. He he had traveled through the great forest of Thyandri when he came from his homeland to the starting city of Rouen, and so he can at least get them into the kingdom of Thyandri where they can start travelling on foot.
And so that brings me to the current issue. With the unpredictable pace at which the party moves, they could either spend all of next session in the forest causing trouble, or could find the ring and travel to the island before we're even halfway through the session. I'm currently flat out of ideas on what to put on that island, since it's definitely there, but definitely not prepared. I was thinking either had a reclusive tribe, a tear between the material plane and the plane of water/mist/steam/whatever, or maybe something Atlantean themed? The island was previously used in another rpg entirely, where it held nothing but a portal to a timeless plane with every kind of elemental. In that rpg, elementals were unable to manifest on the material plane but could still influence it, and they had a dragon fly back and forth to deliver messages to the elder elementals so they could control things like wildfires, floods, tornadoes, etc. That doesn't work in 3.5, as elementals most certainly can manifest on the material, wouldn't all be found on one plane, and couldn't remotely influence such massive events. While I still kind of like that idea, I don't think it fits in too well within this world.
The party is currently about 12th level. It consists of a wizard/initiate of the sevenfold veil, a sorcerer/sandshaper, a barbarian/bear warrior, an alchemist ported over from PF, a fighter/elemental warrior (fire element), a vow of peace healbot cloistered cleric, and a monk/kensai/something which actually does a very respectable amount of damage. I don't want them to just waltz up and take the ring no-questions-asked, but I also don't know what to put there to protect it. The mist dragon is already dead, so that's not an option. The forest of Thyandri is closely linked to the Feywild, so maybe I should throw some unseelie court fey against them? I honestly have no idea. Any and all advice is welcome, and if you actually read all of this text I commend and respect you.