Post/Author/DateTime	Post
EvilVegan 05-04-07, 01:47 PM	I've recently had an explosion of plot in my brain. This thread is for creative input, but also mostly just to get it out of my head and settled into a progression. My player's know that when I started this campaign I was doing so as an exercise in reworking popular modern plots. Most of it is directly and unashamedly ripped off from various fantasy and non-fantasy sources (star craft, resident evil, tales of legendia, Super Mario Bros, full metal alchemist, zelda twilight princess). While I'm paying homage to these wondrous works of fiction I'm also throwing in my own machinations. I want the players to realize what the creatures are when they see them ("hey, I'm pretty sure that big floating blob with dangly things is an overlord"), but they're all really good at not metagaming. Besides, they won't know the actual stats of an overlord, or any of the alien races I'm thinking about using, in D&D. Here's my plot so far, yes it's cheesy. Princess is kidnapped. Party collected to find her with the reward being a land grant (effectively becoming nobility). The following has already been done: Part 1, Pursuit... The party journeyed to a human town to follow a lead on the hand-maiden. Discovered that she was involved in a plot to steal personal effects of the princess (for scrying/control spells), but not in the kidnapping. Next lead goes to the kinth (dwarf) capital and eventually reveals that an illearen (elven) duke there was involved in a romantic trist with the princess, for which he is being blackmailed (plot subnote: it wasn't technically the princess, but her changeling kidnapper, the party doesn't know this yet though). The blackmail funds are being directed to a border town named Berand's Shield, going to a dead drop. The party is being sent to perform this drop and track the recepient down. That's really where we stopped, just leaving town. Here's what I know so far The drop eventually leads to a man known as The Serpent, a very powerful "crime boss" (gambling and smuggling mostly) who charges extraordinary rates for smuggling humanoid cargo deep into the Badlands (the lands of the Oruk, Revash, and Guvant whom are in an eternal war with the western Illearen empire). He won't reveal what he knows readily, but he smuggled someone who could fit the princess' description a while ago (depending on how long it takes the party to get there, its probably about 3 weeks). Here's where we're going from here: 1. Get into the Badlands. Avoid dying. 2. Try to reach human city on the northern border of the Badlands. These humans are very hostile (they live in the Badlands!) but not as hostile as Oruk and welcome any form of mercantile activities. 3. Track some info on princess, which leads further into the Badlands, out of them and into the Worldspine mountain range, home of the Guvant (half-giants, similar to darksun half-giants) and their ancestors (true giants). Hopefully at this level (7-10) they'll avoid most of the true giants. 4. Cross the Worldspine and find the Hidden Valley Ranch (I have one in every campaign). It's not really a ranch and I'll only call it that once. Actually it is the last remaining castle of the "Old Ones" who ruled the world after the dragons, but before the appearance of elves and orcs. A huge metropolis in a single building, capable of supporting millions of people, but home, currently, to about 5 people. And lots of monsters (including a captured overlord that has immense telepathic powers, especially in regards to changelings. . .) 5. Igravtha the Undying Emperor, thought to have been assassinated a little under 10,000 years ago resides here and he has brought the princess here by way of his changeling lacky, Aral. He is completely civil and an approximately 30-40th level warlock (using my custom epic rules, without the crazy exponential boost at level 21). (plot point: He is actually one of, if not the only remaining active "Old One", but the Old Ones resemble half-elves or half-orcs and can pass easily for humans, orcs, or elves, so this is not common knowledge). Being an old one he is immortal and approximately 100,160,000 years old. Yes he is very low level for being that old. He got busy with the minutiae, and there is actually a historical event that reset his level to 1, very recently. So he's only been actively levelling for the past 10000 years or so, most of which was spent recuperating from faking his own assassination. Too much info. 6. The old one's fortress is built on the edge of a massive crater (the same impact that created the Worldspine. The crater is lined with dragonstones (crystals that enhance magical energy) and is part of a massive alchemical array (using FMA rules for alchemy) designed to contain/imprison something. Something big. The fortress is part of this defensive system, fueled by magic and still running at 100% capacity after several hundred million years. The old ones were very good at magic. Inside this castle the party will discover the zerg overlord who is being experimented on by Igravtha, seeking a way to interface with the natural telepathy in order to control the hive. The overlord is separated from the hive, but still has a telepathic reach of a mile or so. It can also sense changelings and anything with changeling genetic restructuring (most of the player races were created by changeling inter-breeding, including humans, dwarves, tree-folk. The only PC races that aren't changeling touched are banders (ferret-like halflings), illearen (elves), Oruk (guess!), shevar (gnomes), and revash (goblins). Pure Changelings are detected at a range of 10 miles, and are subject to mind control within 1 mile. (Secret Backstory: Changelings descended from the offcast ooze of the Hive when it arrived, they were originally just a bit of goo that was used in breaking down genetic code for absorption into the Hive). 7. Igravtha himself has absolutely no fear of the PCs and they can't possibly defeat him yet, he treats them to dinner and lets them come and go as they please. After a day or two he takes them on a tour. This eventually leads them to an observation deck facing the crater, this deck is capable of flight and he takes them out over the crater to the center of the impact. The crater is full of briny, nasty water and at the very center there is a gigantic "structure". This structure is the Hive. A living being miles across. It is surrounded by its own young, a swarm of creatures seemingly melted together from various different creatures. They are surrounded by a bubble of force that keeps them locked in, and has kept them locked in for millions of years. They're patient though. During the tour Igravtha will explain that changelings are the advanced scouts of this species and that they contain the "blood" (genetic info) of thousands of species. This information could be used by the hive to create new creatures even more capable of destroying life on the planet than they are now. He will also reveal that banders (the ferret people) are a race magically created by the Old Ones for reasons he won't reveal. He will also state that the legacy of his people lives on and look morosely at an enourmous storm that is quickly approaching. Anyway, plot aside, the warrior of the group will be dominated by Igravtha to bullrush Aral off the side of the deck, falling to his apparent death far below. The hive is aware of the two changelings floating above (their telepathy is not blocked by the force field). They have sent some flying monstrousities to investigate. The force field also doesn't block inanimate objects. A large rock will bash the observation deck, distracting Igravtha enough to bullrush him off as well (he can fly and turn invisible, but they don't know that). Anyway, the deck is held aloft by magical skills that nobody has, so there will be some UMD checks involved to control the ship, but just as they figure out the controls they are enveloped by the massive black thunderstorm. 8. Lost! The storm leaves them stranded with a destroyed and way too complex to fix flying ship. They're on a very pleasant jungle island. After a few days they notice that the days are much longer than they're used to (about 40 hours). Also the stars are in different configurations every night. The island is populated by two groups of feral banders (ferret people!) who worship the old ones (they call them "manga"). Humans look like old ones. The Bander here are very brutal compared to the happy-go-lucky bander on the mainland. They have very deeply ingrained religious traditions. They perform a specific ritual daily and another one monthly at exactly the same time in exactly the same way. Anyone intimately familiar with magic will notice that these rituals are highly "spell completion" actions that complete a runic circle of ancient design. What's it all mean? Well the party is going to discover several relics of the old ones, including a hatch that can be opened by properly finishing the runic structure which leads to an immense underground dungeon. In this dungeon they're going find (among other things), frenzied automata, broken magical seals, observation rooms, ancient artifacts, and eventually a large chamber full of 100 glass sarcophagi containing 98 old ones in stasis, most of which are still alive. So it turns out the party is not stranded on a mundane island, but rather on the top portion of a collosal flying ship, which contains a full eco-system designed to create a very pleasant life, but gone awry. The religious activities of the bander maintain the course and altitude of the ship as well as recharging the energies that keep it afloat. It took 4 large tribes of banders rigorously maintaining these religious traditions for the last several thousand years (60,000 years). The party will somehow mess this up within month. Kaboom. 9. The airship that crashes will be found and commandeered by the Illearen Empire. The shevar alchemists will quickly pour through every corridor and uncover thousands of secrets. The "arcanolgy" level of the planet will increase exponentially. Within a few years they will go from early, magically enhanced steam power and a few trinkets of amusement to global networks of flying devices, telecrystal communication and entertainment, a new material known as starlight will be discovered (weapons/armor created from it have a natural +4 enhancement bonus), magic will not only become more prevalent, it will become more spectacular. New cities will be constructed within decades. Life will be great. The Badlands will be completely dominated by the Illearen empire for the first time in 60,000 years. There will be true world domination by one empire. Life will be very Orderly and everyone everywhere will know that it is because of the might and knowledge of the Illearen that all this came to be. 10. HUBRIS! The illearen and the Shevar are nothing if not blitheringly ignorant of their own pride. In the rush to control and dominate and understand and create they forgot one very important thing. Equivalent exchange. Magic (in my world) comes from the interaction of the shadow realm and the real world. Most spells siphon a minor portion of the shadow realm to fuel the results, balancing out the majority of the equation so that you get more out than you put in. On a limited scale the shadow realm can handle this. On the scale of world-wide mass domination and mass production amongst a people who number in the billions (illearen don't, but the humans do!) this causes a problem. The shadow realms are completely drained of all ability to fuel magic. Effectively the shadow realm is not an infinite plane and after the recent rush of advancement it has dwindled to a "single grain of sand" (teehee). Anyway. Guess what. No flying ships, no magical floating buildings, no magical supports to mundane buildings, no magic to make your tea warm, hairdryers and telecrystals all fail. Anything based on arcane magic is gone. Including. . . the binding circle that kept the Hive contained beyond the Worldspine. Additionally the front line of defense, the Oruk and Guvant empires, that were originally created to buffer against such an occurance are nearly non-existant. The illearen empire functions solely through the use of telecrystals to communicate. There are no rails and no proper roads leading to the new places they have conquered (flying ships!). So we've got this formerly great empire castrated. Major cities literally collapsed, killing thousands, if not millions. The force of this empire was an army built on magic that no longer functions. The only people who can still use magic are some priests and a few druids (their magic comes from a different source). And of course Igravtha, who uses souls to fuel his magic (and he's had 10,000 years to convert people into Soulstones). The spellcasters in the party have to find a way to fuel their magic and they have to do it quickly, because the hive spreads like wildfire in a drought. It doesn't help that most of the changelings in the world quickly become dominated. 11. If the party finds new sources of magic (Options: Nature magic, soul-magic [evil], defiling [evil], psionics) they can combat the Hive. It turns out that Bander are specifically bred for this purpose and they have natural abilities to overcome DR and regeneration of the Hive, and the Hive is completely unable to assimilate Banders to overcome this (additionally bander blood is poisonous to them). This part of the campaign will probably center around finding a way to eliminate the command center of the hive, weakening the remainder of the army. This may involve self-sacrifice by the party's resident Bander, Wiggles. It will be gloriously tragic... 12. Why won't these bastards die? Aral and Igravtha are still alive. Aral is now the de facto leader of the Hive, with much increased powers. He was a beguiler before being absorbed by the hive, so he's a natural fit. Aral's control is highly incomplete, and some overlords have rebelled and some are even mutating into a new Hivelord. Killing any of these people permanently is a challenge. Wiggles might have to be resurrected (also a challenge, what with there being no resurrection spells in my campaign). They will need to get some psychic dampening abilities in order to stop the telepathic consciousness transfer that happens immediately before death. 13. Profit. Okay, hopefully the party has killed the hivelord, Igravtha, and Aral at this point. Now it is just mopping up and spreading the word on how to combat burgeoning hivelords. There may be some very fruity unification of Order and Chaos, wherein Oruks and Illearen form an alliance against the Hive, but its a little too. . . well whatever. After the Hive has been suppressed (it is doubtful they'll be completely wiped out, but the hivelord may be permanently killed.). 14. Retirement? The party will probably be in the 30 level range at this point, if not higher. Again this is different epic level than the current ones. Really ran out of stuff to do. Questions will really help me flesh things out, because anything you guys can think to ask, my players will probably wonder as well. Also the campaign summary is on another thread: Here. (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=776504)
Return of the Flumph 05-04-07, 03:31 PM	I got lost about halfway through. Why did the Old One emperor capture the princess? Is he working for the zerg, or not?
EvilVegan 05-04-07, 04:45 PM	Glad you asked! The old one is the 3rd Old One to be born. He is a servant/aspect of the First original force of Evil and is himself directly or indirectly responsible for the majority of evil in the world. He isn't so much working for the Zerg as he is using them as a weapon to kill everyone. Why's he want to kill everyone? Some people are just crotchety. The reasons are manifold actually, but they happened a long time ago. First there is the distinct possibility that the fewer people there are in the world the more potent magic becomes for each individual. So a single individual by himself would have divine rank. He killed his father (who was immortal mind you). May be an accident, mabye not, but he got a taste for it. This resulted in a flurry of activity to figure out what happened and to stop it from happening again. No-one of their race had died before. They used massive magics to stop time by turning the entire planet into a gigantic runic circle. This worked. The First evil did not appreciate this flagrant disregard for entropy (time brings change and death, he likes those). So he hit the planet with a star (the Zerg hive). This created the sundering of the planes that allows modern magic to work. This is actually more mundane than it sounds. The Zerg travel from planet to planet, and the mystical powers of the Old Ones were galactic in their resonance. The Old Ones used what remaining power they had to lock the Zerg away and this caused their time-stopping spells to malfunction, and also due to the new nature of magic it resulted in all but 100 of them being killed (there were only about 2000 before). The 1900 didn't actually "die" but they split into their component parts, forming 4 new races. Illearen bore the immortal spirit and discipline, oruk the primal strength, shevar their curiosity and magical prowess, and the revash their desire for secrecy and dark thoughts. Illearen and Oruks were on the Prime, revash and shevar were on the shadow plane. Igravtha survived all of this. He then worked his way into the Illearen Empire (he favors thier aspect physically). During this time he engaged in horribly bloody and somewhat successful wars of attrition. He used the freed souls of the dead of both sides to fuel some massive magics to recombine the worlds. This didn't work like he wanted it to. But he did figure out that the shadow plane was limited and a huge influx of arcane magic could (if the scale were large enough) bring all of it to a halt. The princess he "captured" (technically she went of her own volition) because he 1) wanted to lure someone here that he could use to unwittingly increase the magic of the realms (by Law the princess will be the sole owner of the air ship, being the first noble to step on it). 2) he needed a puppet in power. Once the airship crashes the princess will become empress. She will be in the thrall of Igravtha (via secrets learned from the Overlord).
EvilVegan 05-06-07, 11:43 AM	I know its a long post, but are there any other suggestions/questions/critiques? My zerg are going to have the following traits in common: Hivemind - All zerg within 1 mile of an overlord are members of the hivemind. All overlords within 100 miles of cerebrals are members of the hive mind. All cerebrals within 100,000 miles of the hivelord are members of the hivemind. Effectively this means that as long as the chain is unbroken all zerg within 100,101 miles of the hivelord are in a collective with all the others. Regeneration - All zerg have at least regeneration 1. Bander blood can be used to coat weapons and will deal lethal damage. Other than bander blood, zerg take lethal damage from sonic and any dual energy sources (uttercold (negative+cold), noxious flame (acid+fire), sacred flame (fire+positive), molecular acid (positive+acid), flashflame (electricity+fire) antipode (fire+cold). I've made new metamagic feats, alchemical items, and magic items that include these dual energy sources. Later in the campaign they'll evolve resistances to eventually cover all of these except for bander blood. Damage Reduction - All zerg have at least 1 damage reduction that is overcome by a few sources 1)bander natural weaponry or blood coated weapons 2) magic and deep crystal 3) starlight (new material) 4) Zerg natural weaponry. This damage reduction increases with size and will get stronger as the campaign progresses. Energy resistance - as the campaign progresses the zerg will evolve to resist more and more forms of energy, beginning with fire. It will start at 5 and increase to 30. There will be ways to suppress this resistance. So even the lowliest zergling will eventually have decent regeneration, heavy resistances, and damage reduction. The bander blood/weapons are because bander are the race created by the Old Ones to combat the zerg and they are the only species on the planet that can't be absorbed by the Hive (They have runic circles protecting them on a genetic level, every cell in their body is designed to resist the Hive). They are also the only race that a changeling can't imitate and breed with. Even the Old Ones can be absorbed.
Return of the Flumph 05-06-07, 11:57 AM	Okay, it sounds good. Make sure to describe the zerg very well, but don't explicitly say what they are; let the dawning realization hit the PC's on its own. The zerg have been statted in a few places on a few sites, but I haven't been especially fond of any of them. I can help you with that, if you want; I'm a fairly good monster designer.
EvilVegan 05-06-07, 01:06 PM	Yea I haven't seen an ideal example, they're either way too powerful or way off base. I want zerglings to be about 1-3 hit dice and about CR 1 - 4 to begin with, and finally rounding out to about CR 6 (for elite strains). And I want them to be numerous. So yea I guess I would like to stat them out. I'm thinking for base: Common traits Type: Aberration (Zerg). Unlike standard aberrations, most zerg have good fort and reflex saves, poor will. (Zerg, Elite) will have all good saves. Overlords, Defilers, and Queens have good will saves and poor fort/reflex. Cerebrates and the Hivelord have good fort and will. Special Qualities: Hivemind, Darkvision, Damage reduction, Regeneration Zerg eat, sleep, and breath. Zerg may only eat Creep. Should I start a new thread on this portion? Here's the range of CR I had in mind for base creatures Zergling 1-3 Hydralisk 2-5 Overlord 5-10 (will be slightly better than starcraft style overlords, with decent psionic abilities) Mutalisks 5-9 Queens 6-10 -spawn Defilers 7-12 Ultralisks 12-15 Cerebrate 13-18 Hivelord 25 Elite will be a template that improves base stuff and increases CR by 3 or so. Can be applied to zerglings, hydralisks, mutalisks, and ultralisks. Unique may also be a template, for guys like the Tarrasque (or I may just use the standard tarrasque stats :)).
EvilVegan 05-11-07, 04:08 PM	I've decided that once magic begins failing the party will be forced to visit "arcane power-sinks". These will be ancient dungeons that are a reservoir for arcane power. Within these power-sinks arcane spells still function and at their core is a source of magic that can revitalize a caster so that he can function on the surface as well. I need to figure out how many to use and a better name than "arcane power-sink" Mana-font/well/spring comes to mind. . . Perhaps the wells allow a character to retrain fully as a different class, ushering in a new age of psionics (formerly unseen in my campaign world). Also still going to be working on zergys soon.