Plot Choke: Gimme a Hand?

[ondonaflash]

Okay, so I have a campaign developed in brief:

Players find Artifact, Artifact Gets Stolen (By those guys with the brain sucking tentacles),

They go to next major city, Red Dragons are Rampaging (In human Form), because Red Dragon Orb was stolen (By the cuthuloids, the King is part of a mind-eating monster worshiping cult)

After investigation, many artifacts are stolen, they clearly need help from magic sentient sword.

The Sword guides them to the underdark where they meet the Great King from Ages Past, who originally owned the sword, he is encased in crystal

The Sword frees him and he aides them in the foiling of the Guys With Tentacles for Chins' plot. (To summon their god from the chaotic future and with his aid restore themselves to the dominant position.)

The part where they free the king is where I have the problem. He's a Badass. a Machiavellian Balls-to-the-Wall super warrior who conquered the world once before. He's too powerful, but for reasons pertaining to follow up plots I need to introduce him here. What I need is for him to have a role in which he is clearly helping the party, and doing something Vitally Important, but also out of the way of their spotlight. Can you help?

[Gnorman]

Okay, so I have a campaign developed in brief:

Players find Artifact, Artifact Gets Stolen (By those guys with the brain sucking tentacles),

They go to next major city, Red Dragons are Rampaging (In human Form), because Red Dragon Orb was stolen (By the cuthuloids, the King is part of a mind-eating monster worshiping cult)

After investigation, many artifacts are stolen, they clearly need help from magic sentient sword.

The Sword guides them to the underdark where they meet the Great King from Ages Past, who originally owned the sword, he is encased in crystal

The Sword frees him and he aides them in the foiling of the Guys With Tentacles for Chins' plot. (To summon their god from the chaotic future and with his aid restore themselves to the dominant position.)

The part where they free the king is where I have the problem. He's a Badass. a Machiavellian Balls-to-the-Wall super warrior who conquered the world once before. He's too powerful, but for reasons pertaining to follow up plots I need to introduce him here. What I need is for him to have a role in which he is clearly helping the party, and doing something Vitally Important, but also out of the way of their spotlight. Can you help?

He immediately demands their loyalty and conscripts them as his elite squadron of problem-solvers. He then proceeds to build up his armed forces elsewhere to conquer the world once more. Since the evil tentacled ones are his primary competition, his goal is to stop them. So he sends the PCs to disrupt their ritual while he gathers his batallions. The PCs get to do their own thing, and eventually they might have an army ex machina to get out of a bad spot. Of course, they'll likely have to stop the aspiring Machiavelli at some point, but that's further down the line, eh?

[evil-frosty]

I really like the idea the dude above me posted it. It works and offers another adventure when everything is done.

[FoE]

At the moment, he's a king without a throne?

He makes a bid for the current throne of the city (since he technically WAS the king at some point). He begins making rounds to the nobles to enlist their support. Since this is all boring diplomacy stuff but it needs to be done, he enlists the PCs to ... assasinate his rivals?

Or hey, I know: his imprisoment was of a magical nature, right? So Time catches up to him. He begins to age rapidly, to the point where he's a frail old man. Say, he ages a year for every hundred that's passed, or whatever. (I don't know how long your guy's been imprisoned.) From there, you can decide what he's doing.

[arguskos]

Because it bothers me, the word you are looking for is not cuthuloids, it is Illithids, also called Mind Flayers.

As for your plot, what if Mr. Super Warrior King decides that he's not really interested in helping them at all, and instead wants to tool around and be a badass. He goes off and takes over the country, distracting the illithids from chasing the party down. Indirectly, he's helping the party by drawing illithid resources.

[FoE]

Or kill him, and let his ghost aid the party.

[arguskos]

Or kill him, and let his ghost aid the party.

Heh, that's a good one. Use his own sword to kill him, and trick his ghost into helping the party.

[FoE]

Heh, that's a good one. Use his own sword to kill him, and trick his ghost into helping the party.

Hey, ancient god-king probably made some pretty fearsome enemies, and in the D&D word, living centuries or even millenia is not so much an issue.

[arguskos]

Hey, ancient god-king probably made some pretty fearsome enemies, and in the D&D word, living centuries or even millenia is not so much an issue.

Either that, or he killed them all.

[Kylarra]

Either that, or he killed them all.

Descendants dedicating their lives to making sure he never comes back!

[arguskos]

Descendants dedicating their lives to making sure he never comes back!

You know, I think this is a great idea we're creating here.

So, Super Warrior King Man is freed, and when he leaves the cave, the party is beset by an ancient order of knights and mages that dedicated their lives to ensuring that he remained locked away forever. He goes off into mortal combat against overwhelming forces, leaving the party wondering what is going on and with the choice to aid him, and maybe get his help, or to not, and loot the bodies.

[FoE]

Either that, or he killed them all.

Obviously not; he got imprisoned somehow.

Darkness began to gather at the corners of his vision. The king looked out of his crystal prison at the lich staring in at him. Though the undead sorceror could no longer smile, there was no mistaking the joy in his voice.

"And when you awaken, oh king, you will be in this world but not know it. Centuries and millenia will pass by, and when you rise in a new time, you will find your empire swept away and your name will be forgotten. And you will die in that new world at my hand, old, broken and irrelevant."

"Pleasant dreams," he said, and the world faded away.

[Kylarra]

You know, I think this is a great idea we're creating here.

So, Super Warrior King Man is freed, and when he leaves the cave, the party is beset by an ancient order of knights and mages that dedicated their lives to ensuring that he remained locked away forever. He goes off into mortal combat against overwhelming forces, leaving the party wondering what is going on and with the choice to aid him, and maybe get his help, or to not, and loot the bodies.

For fun, throw in the obligatory third party dedicated to resurrecting him, who are obviously weaker (tm), but may survive the skirmish with the assistance of the party.

Also the king has lost his memories.


They and the secret to his power is contained in an inverted golden pyramid that a high school boy wears around his neck.


what?