Campaign Idea - Good or no?

Post/Author/DateTimePost
#1

zombiegleemax

Jul 31, 2003 23:06:59
Alright, this is my first time writing a campaign for Dragonlance, and the first time gaming in Krynn for all my players. I'm kind of paranoid about writing in an existing setting and I want to keep everything as "cannon" as possible. So, before I get carried away writing it (more than I already have), I wanna know if this all works out.

Background:
Four months after the end of the War of Souls, a secretive cult dedicated to the dead goddess Takhisis takes the coming of a fierce storm, which rivals the fury of the storm that brought about the War of Souls, as a sign from their goddess. While most of the former Knights of Neraka and clerics of Takhisis have given up faith, her most devoted followers still seek to revive her power. The organization, called the Last Disciples of Takhisis, consists mostly of former knights from all three orders—mages, clerics, and warrior—as well as several former Black Robes who have been given offers they couldn't refuse.

Since its founding after the War of Souls, the group has worked with powerful magicks—both forms of arcane magic as well as that of the mystics—to bring about their ultimate goal: a second coming of their Dark Queen.

Adventure:
On the island of Schallsea, the storm rages particularly fiercely. And, as with the first, the Knights of Solamnia from the city of Schallsea have gone out to help the overwhelmed villages along the coast.

After a slew of fisherman-saving encounters, the party is unable to save one man in an anchored boat (long story, not railroading!) and the ship is pulled into the sea and tossed about by the furious waves for uncounted hours before being thrown up against a beach shortly before sunrise.

They've landed in Abanasinia, near the ruins of (the ruins of ;) ) Xak Tsaroth. Whether they head for Solace or Xak Tsaroth in hopes of shelter, the storm can be heard raging on in the distance all day. After almost a full day of marching (and some encounters with some territorial Que-Shu tribesmen, the storm seems to be coming back to them (!) and the only shelter from the wind and hale is the nearby forest and swamp surrounding Xak Tsaroth.

After crossing the obelisk ("The Great City of Xak Tsaroth whose beauty surrounds you..." Remember?), the characters are overcome with a strange feeling like déjà-vu, and a strong sense of nostalgia, although they've never been there before. This is the exciting part: The cult (Last Disciples of Takhisis) have used their potent magic to temporarily displace the small area around Xak Tsaroth 70-odd years into the past, to the time of the War of the Lance, in hopes of preventing Goldmoon from recovering the Disks of Mishakal and bringing the gods of Good to the people of Ansalon. It is their hope that they can change the past so that Takhisis would have won the war and would therefore rule Ansalon.

Anyway, to skip a lot of technical stuff (for now, anyway), the party foils the operation and the River of Time remains (more-or-less) unchanged. With the downfall of the mages, the PCs find themselves back at the obelisk and Xak Tsaroth in the present.

The party goes to Solace, where the Last Disciples are also in operations, and so on until they end up on the destroyed island of the Irda fighting the head hancho (who may or may not be Mina--I think she's occupied with other things at the time).

Of course, knowing that the River of Time could not be so drastically changed with only one pebble thrown in, the cult has already prepared other blasts for the past (preventing the Irda from releasing Chaos not the least among them).

Anyway... I think that about sums it up. Any major problems foreseen?

(And sorry about the length.)

Andrew T.
#2

ferratus

Jul 31, 2003 23:55:22
Well, I don't have a copy of the DLCS or AoM yet, so I might not be the best one to critique it, but I know the frustration of not getting responses to threads posting new material.

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Background:

Four months after the war of souls is too soon to be collecting "Black Robes". It would be better if you just stuck with followers from the Knights of Nereka. Since the only ones who knew about Takhisis returning were Mina, her followers, and Takhisis' enemies, it might be best to stick with Knights of Nereka who followed Mina. In fact, I rather like "The Last Disciples of Takhisis" to refer to Mina's inner circle, so I'm going to steal it.

As well, you have the fact that they want to ressurect Takhisis, so Mina should be involved somehow. Thus, you could have her send them on this mission. Since she knows that time cannot be changed, she probably thinks it is a fool's errand, but worth a shot.

However, you've got a wrinkle. If Goldmoon does not discover the disks and discover Mishakal, then Mina will not be inspired to seek a goddess of her own and discover Takhisis. That's not something Mina would desire.. she loves Takhisis as well.
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The ship at sea has these problems:

Never assume the ship is going to sink regardless, and never assume that they will fail. The PC's are not going to follow lock-step in tune with your story. They may succeed in saving the fisherman despite your best efforts to drown the rum soaked sea dog. Besides, I don't really see why the fisherman drowning is important to the adventure.

You also have to prepare for the fact that they won't flounder in the storm. Thus, you need two or three adventure hooks to get them to Xak Tsaroth. Have the disciples leave a few clues behind. Perhaps the old fisherman for example remembers the storm following some black sailed ships around Xak Tsaroth. The fierce storm could be the manifestation of the magic that is turning back time 70 years. Maybe the Disciples passed through Solace, talking about "The One God" and scaring everybody. The PC's might be tempted to follow after them to Xak Tsaroth to see what they are up to.

The adventure itself in Xak Tsaroth is not going to be easy. If you love that scene where the heroes discover the disks of mishakal and the power of the true gods... prepare to have it butchered by your players. The fangirl is gonna wanna have sex with Raistlin, and the fanboy with the ambiguous sexuality is going to wanna have sex with both Caramon and Raistlin, and so forth. Well, they are going to want to interact with the legendary HotL anyway. Even if they don't, they may decide to do other things that will seriously mess with continuity. When doing with players, always expect the unexpected. You don't want to be pulling at straw after desperate straw trying to keep the continuity of the entire dragonlance saga intact. You'll be screaming by the end of the night.
#3

zombiegleemax

Aug 01, 2003 0:36:37
Originally posted by ferratus
That's not something Mina would desire.. she loves Takhisis as well.

Ah, but isn't it her love for Takhisis (assuming Mina is at the top of this organization, which I'm not too sure about) that would drive her to sacrifice anything to prevent her Goddess's death?

Never assume the ship is going to sink regardless, and never assume that they will fail. The PC's are not going to follow lock-step in tune with your story. They may succeed in saving the fisherman despite your best efforts to drown the rum soaked sea dog. Besides, I don't really see why the fisherman drowning is important to the adventure.

Oh, I was just summing it up, really. I have all the check DCs and such for the encounter set. They have little chance of succeeding, because the stuborn old sailor refuses to leave his precious ship, so to save him, they have to get the ship to shore, and once they pull the anchor up, the ship is tossed about like a hackey sack. Anyway, I am prepared for them to succeed, it's just very unlikely that they will. ;)

Oh, and when I said "fail to save the fisherman," I meant they don't get the ship ashore. This does need some re-tooling, though. Thanks for the tip!

The adventure itself in Xak Tsaroth is not going to be easy. If you love that scene where the heroes discover the disks of mishakal and the power of the true gods... prepare to have it butchered by your players. The fangirl is gonna wanna have sex with Raistlin, and the fanboy with the ambiguous sexuality is going to wanna have sex with both Caramon and Raistlin, and so forth. Well, they are going to want to interact with the legendary HotL anyway. Even if they don't, they may decide to do other things that will seriously mess with continuity. When doing with players, always expect the unexpected. You don't want to be pulling at straw after desperate straw trying to keep the continuity of the entire dragonlance saga intact. You'll be screaming by the end of the night.

You have a good point there. I've been planning on keeping the Heroes of the Lance at a distance... I think my group is reasonable enough to avoid the above actions, too. (Players waiting anxiously to meet Tasslehoff when their characters don't even know he's going to be there and have only heard his name in legend are called metagamers and I have no tolerance for metagaming, especially that kind. Neither do my players, really. :D)

The advice is muchly appreciated!

*starts re-tooling*
#4

zombiegleemax

Aug 01, 2003 6:55:26
The largest problem is see with this adventure is the whole "affecting time" stuff. Even if their magic succeeds in displacing time near Xak Tsaroth, they should fail to disturb the returning of the gods. Remember Paladin (in the form of Fizban) has already returned (the gods were technicaly never gone), so did the gods of evil (Verminaard was already a cleric). Even if the heroes of the lance do not find the discs, another group of heroes might find them or another such item. In either case, Time will find a way for it to happen. It would take the cult some time to study this and they might discover eventually that they need a kender (or another non-elf, non-human, non-ogre) so that Time can be altered. One of the storyhooks could be that a large bunch of kender were kidnapped by mysterious creatures in dark robes with blank medaillons of faith.
#5

zombiegleemax

Aug 01, 2003 9:50:28
Nice. Sounds like a pretty good campaign idea. I especially like the storm starting your campaign. Its subtle but its a big clue for whats going on in the world. My only recommendations is to stretch the campaign out. Let your players gradually discover the last order of Takhisis. Make them find out little bits of information at a time and let the players WANT to go to Xak Tsaroth to stop them. If the players feel like they really want to stop the order themselves, then the campaign will feel much more satisfying to you and the players. You might throw in a bit of plot weaving.... (other shorter one off plots mixed in)... that way it seems like the order is a reoccurring nemesis.

Cheers ;)
Great Idea!
#6

zombiegleemax

Aug 01, 2003 10:33:47
I like it, it is indeed a pretty good idea. Here's an idea I had for the whole messing with time thing. When you think about it, the Last Disciples would want the retrieveing of the Disks to go smoothly. If Khisanth and her draconian minions are already in Xak Tsaroth, the situation will not run smoothly. So simply have the Disciples go back to just a few days before the dragon shows up and successfully steal the Disks. Now the PCs must track the Last Disciples and take the Disks back to Xak Tsaroth before Khisanth arrives.

Also, if you want, you could say that instead of disrupting time in a specific spot, you could have the Last Disciples use magic to travel back in time to achieve their goal. Thus an alternate timeline is created and no person knows why. For some reason all of the people still remember the truth, but when the Last Disciples went back, they also killed the ancestors of all who would be strong enough to stop them. The PCs, perhaps being overlooked, are then the only ones left to foil the Disciples plan. They must then find the Device of Time Journeying to go back and stop the Last Disciples.

Just a few ideas there. I still like the base idea you came up with, it's pretty good. Good Job! :D
#7

zombiegleemax

Aug 01, 2003 17:19:13
Originally posted by Paladin's Wrath
I like it, it is indeed a pretty good idea. Here's an idea I had for the whole messing with time thing. When you think about it, the Last Disciples would want the retrieveing of the Disks to go smoothly. If Khisanth and her draconian minions are already in Xak Tsaroth, the situation will not run smoothly. So simply have the Disciples go back to just a few days before the dragon shows up and successfully steal the Disks.

Sir, you are a genius!

Heh heh... This will avoid the problems of having a hostile Black Dragon anywhere near a 3rd level party (fewf!) as well as keep them away from the Heroes of the Lance. I just have to figure out how to tell them that the disks have to be saved (without giving them too much plot information). Might be hard, since they're stumbling upon this adventure entirely by accident.

*goes back to the drawing board*
#8

zombiegleemax

Aug 01, 2003 17:26:14
Originally posted by Wizard's Apprentice
It would take the cult some time to study this and they might discover eventually that they need a kender (or another non-elf, non-human, non-ogre) so that Time can be altered.

Will Draconians work? 'Cause that was my original plan....
#9

zombiegleemax

Aug 01, 2003 18:39:05
Originally posted by The Soulforged
Will Draconians work? 'Cause that was my original plan....

I believe so because they are not a creator (or such something) race. I was thinking about it at the end of my post but didn't want to delete the whole thing and start over
#10

B-naa

Aug 02, 2003 23:10:08
Draconians, Dwarves, Kender, Minotaurs, Gnomes, basically all the GrayGem Races were forbidden from Time Travel.
#11

zombiegleemax

Aug 03, 2003 1:55:07
Just thought I'd contribute my current campaign plot. Maybe you can be inspired, since they are somewhat alike, yours and mine.
Plus I'd also like some C&C on this plot.

Anyway:

Storm over Ansalon - DL Campaign:
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A few years have passed since the War of Souls and Ansalon is in a state of chaos. New governments are forming and the world is holding it's breath in anticipation of the future.
But all is not quiet.
A second storm is rising out of the east (same as your idea about a storm) heralding more evil. The remnants of the Knights of Solamnia have begun uniting and a great army is being build in Solamnia in response to the gathering storm.

(Player hook: One of the players is a minotaur from Kothas, and he is searching for his fatehr who was exiled from tribe leadership. The father is now general in the expanding army, since his tactics and warfare knowledge is vast.)

In the mountains to the east in the former domain of Malys, the last remnants of the Knights of Neraka(Thakisis) and the clerics of Thakisis have hidden to evade persecution. With them they have hidden the last eggs of Malystryx. One of these eggs contain the unborn incarnation of Thakisis (still mortal).

When the storm hits Ansalon the egg will hatch along with the other eggs containing red dragons. The Knights of Thakisis (they are renamed again) will then ride the red dragons to war against Ansalon and face the army of Solamnia.
The Solamnian army will recieve the aid of the silver dragons once again but the KoT are wielding Black Dragonlances forged by the fiery breath of Thakisis reborn. It is up to the heroes (accompanied by NPC's to make a full team of 8) to find the ancient dragonlances and aid in the war of the dark lances.
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I plan on pitching the WoHS in there too at some point and alot of other little details, but that is the overall plot...regardless of what the players do.

I use player hooks, like the one for the minotaur to force the players to get involved. So far they have journeyed from SOlace to SOlamnia in search for the rising army. They have met a few goblins in the solace area, trying to make the best of the situation, plundering travellers.
They have met a couple of clerics of Thakisis, but still don't have a clue about the overall plot. They just thought them to be yet another group of villains trying to use the state of chaos to rise to some level of power. (don't want to lay all on them from the beginning! :D )

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And yes, I think your plot is great. I don't like the whole time travel thing myself, cuz it involves too much planning in order to make sure you don't get any paradoxes, but that is just personal taste. Otherwise your plot look really good, and I'd love to help you out with details and minor events etc.