Ideas for Karameikan Conflict
by Joaquin MenchacaIf everything stays the same mundane boring world, then what's point to existing as a PC. So here's some ideas for possible conflict.
1. Traldaran Rebellion (Braveheart?)
One Traldar rises as the hero. His heroics eventually muster followers and inspire others to perform acts of heroism. Local Barons fearing the popular hero and his good deeds, jail him under fabricated evidence.
The hero escapes and builds a rebel army to overthrow the maligned barons. Thyatians barons and the Duke are in a dilemma. The hero is just, but they have to stick with there own, and if they go against the barons, other barons will form a coup. However, joining the maligned barons causes other Traldar to view all Thyatians as racist and as dissent grows further the rebel army grows in size.
Adventures will be hired to capture the baron and bring him to justice. Some players who believe in the system, will soon discover that this noble leader (whom should win the hearts of the players through his charm and righteousness) does not receive justice and is executed.
Or the players could join the hero, and help repel the tyranny of the Thyatian conquerors.
If the hero dies, he becomes a martyr causing the rebel army to grow. But a new hero is needed, perhaps a PC? Can the PC fulfil those shoes?
2. Iron Ring Coup
The Iron Ring (secretly controlled by a group of powerful high level mages) starts to gather armies of humanoids: gnolls, bugbears, orcs, kobolds, and goblins. Many of these humanoids live in the hills, mountains, and have caverns under Mystara.
At the same time, they manage to bribe a few Barons to help start a coup. Baron Ludwig gets in on this to and utilises his large Bugbear armies.
Soon many events will unfold. Player may be the victims of random hit & runs in Mafia- like warfare inside the streets of Specularum/Mirros.
Gnomish expeditions into the under earth reveal large standing armies awaiting the order to strike.
The players can get involved in many areas. This is a good chance to run B10: Night's Dark Terror, B6 The Veiled Society (add some gang warfare to the affects), and possibly an adapted A1-4 Scourge of the Slavelords. A masterful DM can combine the modules in such a manner to get the PCs hooked.
The PCs could also take a role in organising peasant armies of Traldarans, and acting as officers in a Karameikan army. Warhammer and BattleSystems could be used, and the players would be required to use some strategy on their parts.
3. The Church of Karameikos
With the various cult activities occurring throughout the country side, the Traldarans become a scapegoat. Convinced that people are becoming possessed by demons, and others are being manipulated by witches allied with these demons, the church takes it upon themselves to save Traldarans from themselves. If the Traldaran souls are not saved, the eternal war against the demons in will be lost. The church is able to manipulate the politics in such a manner so that all other religions are henceforth outlawed. Any found worshipping another religion will be considered a heretic and even worse a witch.
A player can worship one of these outlawed religions and be faced with a big problem as he/she cannot public ally practice the player's religion. Some in the church do not support the "one religion" proclamation. They are quickly disposed of by being declared a heretic, or they are assassinated by scrupulous Barons or priests whom feel the end justifies the means.
Players siding with the priests can actually hunt down and find true witches and possessed NPCs, and even demons. However, they will see innocents killed as well, and it'll be their moral dilemma to do something about protecting the innocent. Those that protect the innocent might find themselves declared a heretic as well.
INFILTRATION OF DESERT NOMAD SPIES
As the Master of Hule is busy with conquering Sind and building his massive armies, his spies are sent into Eastern Burn to gather allies to aid his cause, start religions, and start coups and inner strife.
In particular, he has organised allied with another evil Immortal to conquer Karameikos and eventually cause the downfall of Alphatia.
There are several modules that fit this area. I use T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil and place it in The Lost Valley of Hutaaka (good B10 tie in). I replace the cathedral structure with a more Egyptian-Greco style temple, but the dungeons remain the same for the most part.
I rename Hommlet to Verge. This seems to work out find. I make the "Old Faith" equal to a druidic cult, and change the Church of St. Cuthbert to the Church of Karameikos. I also use Nulb as is, but I place it in western Karameikos. This is a town for smugglers. The Iron Ring goes through this town often. Other good module tie-ins are U1-U3 which involves a haunted house and smugglers. The smugglers can be replace with official Iron Ring members.
Perhaps the Iron Ring could be in league with the Desert Nomads.
There are two evil gods used in the module. One god is trapped in the Temple, while the other is free to roam around. I have to replace these gods with Mystaran Immortals naturally.
Bozdogan is the replacement for the main Immortal there, and the trapped Immortal could be a god of one's choosing. A natural selection could be the god from the Silver Princess module. I use some good maps of giant cities of Middle Earth to describe Haven to the players. I think it works. I also use Haven as a city existing interdimensionally between the dreaming world of the faerie (good use of PC1 here) and that of Mystara.
Personally, I don't like Bozdogan being related to
Loki, so I replace him with Set. This is good for historical
Nithian relations to Traldara. For the imprisoned elemental type
Immortal, I use Tiamat. Those sticking to pure canon can use the
above suggestion and leave Bozdogan as is.