A Foil for Mordenkainen?

[werescythe]

So I was thinking of maybe having an NPC hire the player party (in preparation for the Waterdeep: Dragon Heist adventure coming out in the future) who is to an extent a foil to the famous Wizard Mordenkainen.

For those of you who don't know Mordenkainen views the world in a sort of balance. Neither Demons nor Devils can win the Blood War because it could result in the end. There are a few other things like this discussed in MToF. Basically his ideology is that as long as certain forces are at a perfect standstill, then the world is safe.

This NPC views the various factions in Waterdeep as rival groups that are always striving for control but never achieving it. The NPC wants to upset the balance by introducing a new factions to Waterdeep with the players at the head of it. However, now isn't the time, preparations have to be made (largely because Dragon Heist isn't out yet). So the NPC hires the party to go out and perform various tasks so they will be ready when the time comes.

Here is where I need your help.

I'm not sure which module I should start the players (4-5 lvl 4 characters) on. I was thinking Storm King's Thunder, but I don't necessarily want to get the players stuck fighting giants when the Heist comes out. I was also considering the Yawning Portal, but that seems more like content to extend existing campaigns than its own actual campaign (could be wrong, please enlighten me if so).
I want to NPC to feel unique, while I want him to at first appear human to the players, I really want him to be... something else. I had considered a few ideas, including him being an Oblex or Vampire, however I'm not sure either of those would be wise.


Another thing is that, I don't necessarily want this NPC to be an antagonist. In his mind he is doing this because it's entertaining. I have also considered making the NPC a deity (either one that already exists in the Realms or a new one entirely), which could work considering how one of my players is a Divine Soul Sorcerer, who gained his sorcery from being the child of a god.

If you have any suggestions for a new GM who is planning on running this campaign this upcoming Sunday, that would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for reading this post.

[HolyDraconus]

So I was thinking of maybe having an NPC hire the player party (in preparation for the Waterdeep: Dragon Heist adventure coming out in the future) who is to an extent a foil to the famous Wizard Mordenkainen.

For those of you who don't know Mordenkainen views the world in a sort of balance. Neither Demons nor Devils can win the Blood War because it could result in the end. There are a few other things like this discussed in MToF. Basically his ideology is that as long as certain forces are at a perfect standstill, then the world is safe.

This NPC views the various factions in Waterdeep as rival groups that are always striving for control but never achieving it. The NPC wants to upset the balance by introducing a new factions to Waterdeep with the players at the head of it. However, now isn't the time, preparations have to be made (largely because Dragon Heist isn't out yet). So the NPC hires the party to go out and perform various tasks so they will be ready when the time comes.

Here is where I need your help.

I'm not sure which module I should start the players (4-5 lvl 4 characters) on. I was thinking Storm King's Thunder, but I don't necessarily want to get the players stuck fighting giants when the Heist comes out. I was also considering the Yawning Portal, but that seems more like content to extend existing campaigns than its own actual campaign (could be wrong, please enlighten me if so).
I want to NPC to feel unique, while I want him to at first appear human to the players, I really want him to be... something else. I had considered a few ideas, including him being an Oblex or Vampire, however I'm not sure either of those would be wise.


Another thing is that, I don't necessarily want this NPC to be an antagonist. In his mind he is doing this because it's entertaining.

If you have any suggestions for a new GM who is planning on running this campaign this upcoming Sunday, that would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for reading this post.

The book in question is only lvls 1 thru 5: you are running the risk of leveling them right out of even starting it.

[werescythe]

The book in question is only lvls 1 thru 5: you are running the risk of leveling them right out of even starting it.

Are you talking about dragon heist or one of the other adventures I mentioned?

[werescythe]

Another question I wanted to ask is, would it be absurd if an NPC, used the Clone spell on the party (collecting blood ahead of time) just in case something went horribly wrong?

This would be done secretly so the players wouldn't know about it (unless they died and they weren't brought back any other way).

[PhantomSoul]

Another question I wanted to ask is, would it be absurd if an NPC, used the Clone spell on the party (collecting blood ahead of time) just in case something went horribly wrong?

This would be done secretly so the players wouldn't know about it (unless they died and they weren't brought back any other way).

For each PC, that would be an 8th-level spell slot, one hour of casting, with a range of touch (so you'll probably want this to happen in character -- maybe faked as a summoning/teleportation ritual with each PC in contact with at least one spellcaster), 1000 gp consumed, a 2000-gp container each, and a wait time of 120 days before the clone is viable!

If the party is low-levelled, you'd want to have a reason why THEY are worth that expense and effort. After all, low-levelled adventurers could be a fairly expendable resource!

[werescythe]

For each PC, that would be an 8th-level spell slot, one hour of casting, with a range of touch (so you'll probably want this to happen in character -- maybe faked as a summoning/teleportation ritual with each PC in contact with at least one spellcaster), 1000 gp consumed, a 2000-gp container each, and a wait time of 120 days before the clone is viable!

If the party is low-levelled, you'd want to have a reason why THEY are worth that expense and effort. After all, low-levelled adventurers could be a fairly expendable resource!

I was under the impression that you just needed the flesh for the spell, that they person didn't actually have to be present for the ritual.


Components: V, S, M (a diamond worth at least 1,000 gp and at least 1 cubic inch of flesh of the creature
that is to be cloned, which the spell consumes

So in theory you could have a character (perhaps even an antagonist) doing this with multiple characters.

But I do see what you mean with the low level characters being considered expendable.

[Mith]

I was under the impression that you just needed the flesh for the spell, that they person didn't actually have to be present for the ritual.



So in theory you could have a character (perhaps even an antagonist) doing this with multiple characters.

But I do see what you mean with the low level characters being considered expendable.

A level 1 character may not show enough promise to warrant investing in the resources to get this contingency set up.

[Elistan]

Are you talking about dragon heist or one of the other adventures I mentioned?

Dragon Heist is an adventure for levels 1-5, which is then followed by The Mad Mage, an Undermountain adventure. If your characters are already level 5, and will continue playing for several months until the release of DH, I would say they will be severely over leveled for it.

[Scots Dragon]

I think the best fit would be to use Tenser the Archmage, who is an old ally and frequent friendly rival of Mordenkainen but who is more disgusted by his less-than-perfect devotion to goodness, though really neither mage is really a good fit for Waterdeep itself because they're both from another world entirely.

If you want to use someone more home-grown to the Realms and kind of play into the incursion aspect inherent to Mordenkainen's presence, use Laeral Silverhand, the actual Open Lady of Waterdeep and a member of the Chosen of Mystra.

[cZak]

Rary would be a traditional antagonist to Mordenkainen
Both are very well developed in lore as believing their perspective is the right course for the betterment of society, but totally at odds on how to accomplish

But yea, the whole mix of Greyhawk into Faerun cosmology might be a bit problematic
Unless you want to introduce a nice 3-way contest; two rival archmages from another cosmos bringing their dispute to another territory.
One looking to establish a outpost to train/develop tools to use against the other.
Some Faerun 'Boss' not liking the intrusion into their perceived turf

You could generally have three 'Good' factions contesting each other