The PCs in my campaign, after defeating Vlad Drakov and his troops while on the run in Falkovnia (I said it was the Big Climactic Ending, remember!) and spoiling the plans of the Gentleman Caller, are pulled through the Mists and given a choice by the ghost of Bastion Joan Secousse (I think that's how you spell her name), one of the attendants of the goddess Ezra. They can either return to their homeworlds do to whatever they wish, or they can return to Ravenloft to fight one last great evil.
Secousse informs them that Robert Radanavic, a paladin of the Morninglord, and his party are headed to Lamordia to face off against a villain that the PCs had met before--a transmuter named Gregorian DelShonar. If they do not help him, Radanavic will die in the attempt and DelShonar will complete his ultimate goal....
(Background on DelShonar: Born in Darkon to minor nobility, he spent his life drawing ire from his mother and brother in pursuit of arcane knowledge and his love for a common girl, Josephine Clairmont. He moved to Lamordia to escape them, but when his brother fell ill with plague, his mother appealled to him for help knowing her son's talents for herbalism. DelShonar turned away and returned to his lab to continue on his life's work--"The Theory on Arcane Robotics". Upon completion of its first edition, DelShonar and his wife invited numerous intellectuals to their mansion to discuss the treatise and sent many of them free copies of it. Simply put, the treatise was seen as trivial and fantastical, and DelShonar became the laughing stock of the intellectual community at large. Infuriated, he threw himself into his work...neglecting his wife and even himself. Josephine died soon after, presumably of heartbreak. After burying her, Gregorian simply returned to work on his theories. Even now, he attempts to bridge the gap between man and machine by planting his own brain into a mechanical, magic-driven body.)
If DelShonar succeeds, he will become trapped in his new body and will forever be unable to prove his theories to any intellectual, as everyone will see him as his normal self (Dark Powers' doing, undoubtedly)
Anyway....in order to stop this, the PCs (with Radanavic and co.) will have to make it through DelShonar's mansion in less than 4 hours, before he completes his procedure.
The setup of the mansion will follow in the next post:
Second floor. Here's where things get complex. I set things up in a bizarre array such that it would be hard for the PCs to navigate, and it would be easy for them to be separated from Radanavic and company.
Each time the PCs travel through a door (15 rooms on this floor), they will not enter the hallway. Rather, they'll be teleported to another room, with seemingly no correlation to the room prior.
However, they will have one clue. The room that they start in is the master's game room and includes his left behind chess notes, which correspond to elements on this floor. (I have yet to write this up, so bear with me)
Notes on the King, naturally, refer to Del Shonar.
Notes on the Queen refer to the geist of Josephine Clairmont, who, at times, can serve as a tortured form of advisor, but only if they learn of her past with DelShonar and make their intentions known.
Notes on the Rooks refer to two golems at opposite ends of the floor. Dealing with them can be made much easier by following the notes
Notes on the Bishops....I need ideas here. Anyone have any ideas?
Notes on the Knights are the important ones. Basically, movement through the rooms is done as a "knight's jump" two steps in one direction, and one in another. By properly interpreting this, they can actually GET where they're trying to go.
Notes on the Pawns refer to a particularly nasty creature on this floor, called a Golem Swarm. It's basically what it sounds like--250 tiny figurines, all acting of one accord. I found it in Dragon #310
Now, should the PCs make it through to the third floor......they'll face 3 more challenges before facing off against DelShonar. I don't have ideas yet for these.....hoping that you guys do. I'd prefer mental challenges, rather than physical ones. They'll already be battered enough, by then, to make the fight with DelShonar deadly.
So....what do you think? A good campaign climax?
Have any ideas on the Bishop's Notes, or for the three challenges?
How about for the setting as a whole? Sound good? Sound Gothic?
Input, please! ;)
Hrmmm...
"Arcane Robotics..."
Mayb the bishops could represent some clerical aid that DelShonar consulted/stole from?
Sounds rather interesting actually the whole rotting banquet reminds me of 'Great Expectations' and I've always thought someone neglecting their wife was one of the most terrible things (and the fact she dies of a broken heart makes it all the more sad).
For Arcane Bishops why not have some Vampiric Clerics or Ancient Dead Monks with religous atire. Speed should be key for them as a Bishop can move in the most annoying of places very quickly. Why does Gregorian have them as henchmen? Some sort of robotic implant to control the mind maybe? Something mechanical that imitates the spell 'Control Undead' with pumping fluids and chemicals etc.
Do you have any books on riddles? In the 3rd floor why not stick a room with thousands of tiny holes around the walls with a pedastool in the centre on a raised platform big enough for only one person. On the pedastool is a copy of Gregorian's old book with the words 'They thought it a joke' written over and over again over it (or something to that effect) and at the back are a few (3 or more) riddles. A voice will then read the first one and demand an answer be shouted out by the idealised member (the one on the platform). Then whenever they get it wrong something comes out of the holes, at first maybe darts zip shoot out, next maybe spears that require a reflex save and stay pointing out moving the party closer to the centre.
Then perhaps water starts to flood the room or snakes slither out. The point is that the party will be hurt but the one on the platform will not. And if another player yells out an answer instead of the one on the platform -have a huge sythe take a swing at the platformed one. That ought to get tensions growing.
To make sure they can live through this I've said to keep the spears out, the players can climb up them (reflex save and climb skill) to reach some sort of skylight or ventilation duct or something.
This post is big enough so I'll let others think of more challenges.
Might be a tad less climactic.
Plus what do they get as a reward for stopping the great evil? Unless they all die they're still trapped in the Mists and looking for a way out. Unless they're granted freedom at the end, but they had that anyway.
Originally posted by Coan
But after all this work the players decided 'Hey its not our problem lets go home and have a beer'
Sounds rather interesting actually the whole rotting banquet reminds me of 'Great Expectations' and I've always thought someone neglecting their wife was one of the most terrible things (and the fact she dies of a broken heart makes it all the more sad).
For Arcane Bishops why not have some Vampiric Clerics or Ancient Dead Monks with religous atire. Speed should be key for them as a Bishop can move in the most annoying of places very quickly. Why does Gregorian have them as henchmen? Some sort of robotic implant to control the mind maybe? Something mechanical that imitates the spell 'Control Undead' with pumping fluids and chemicals etc.
Do you have any books on riddles? In the 3rd floor why not stick a room with thousands of tiny holes around the walls with a pedastool in the centre on a raised platform big enough for only one person. On the pedastool is a copy of Gregorian's old book with the words 'They thought it a joke' written over and over again over it (or something to that effect) and at the back are a few (3 or more) riddles. A voice will then read the first one and demand an answer be shouted out by the idealised member (the one on the platform). Then whenever they get it wrong something comes out of the holes, at first maybe darts zip shoot out, next maybe spears that require a reflex save and stay pointing out moving the party closer to the centre.
Then perhaps water starts to flood the room or snakes slither out. The point is that the party will be hurt but the one on the platform will not. And if another player yells out an answer instead of the one on the platform -have a huge sythe take a swing at the platformed one. That ought to get tensions growing.
To make sure they can live through this I've said to keep the spears out, the players can climb up them (reflex save and climb skill) to reach some sort of skylight or ventilation duct or something.
This post is big enough so I'll let others think of more challenges.
Okay, I'll deal with some things quickly, then get on to these good ideas.
There's one big problem about having undead clerics/monks flitting around DelShonar's mansion--there's no reason for them to be there. DelShonar, as I see him, is fully convinced of his theories being correct and has no use for divine magic or gods. As such, no clerics. However, I did think of one character that might fit into the Bishop's role: DelShonar's old lab partner and confidante Herbert Pickman, whom the PCs will meet at a masked ball in Dementlieu. He's now a professor at an Academie in Richemulot, and holds his former comrade as very tragically fallen...
Jester--yeah, I suppose that after Drakov and such, this could be seen as a sort of anti-climax, but I wanted to have several villains running at once, each with different agendas. DelShonar wants his reputation and his work to be acknowledged. The GC wants havoc--doesn't matter who's fault--and he wants his enemies eliminated. Drakov wants a bigger tyranny. I thought that, by facing off against each in turn, from biggest aims (Drakov) down to the most intimate (DelShonar), it would make the PCs that much more sympathetic and hateful of what DelShonar was doing.
I do fully anticipate that not all of the PCs will face off with DelShonar--hence the prescence of Radanavic (the players can take control of he and his party, if they want to keep playing). As for reward....it's a big campaign ending battle and, as they say, "virtue is its own reward".
I like the ideas of the book with three riddles....each wrong answer could result in more water being placed in the room. Hope they took ranks in Swim! ;)
Any ideas of what these riddles could be, though? Perhaps dealing with DelShonar's work? Or maybe something more philosophical?
Thanks for all the ideas thusfar, guys! Keep 'em coming!