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Hand_of_Kain 09-22-07, 04:32 AM

This is my first try at political machinations. Though I have been a DM for several years now, my players have had little interest in the political realm. I thought that there would be some experienced political designers here that might read this and critque it. Please tell me what you think. I take criticism well so don't hold back. Thanks Ok here goes, All of the political movements we are concerned with deal with or spring from the Grand Vizer of Du'lar, an Athlean by the name of Jorath whose strings are being pulled by the Athlean King's brother, Prince Malve. A little history on Jorath. Raised in Lower Athlea, Jorath was the son of a famous wizard who specialized in transmutation, enchantment, and illusion. When he was 7 yrs old, the kingdoms of Du'lar and Lower Athlea were once again at war and Athlea was losing. A radical faction in the Athlean government decided that extreme measures needed to be taken and they devised a plan to use the kingdoms most promient mages to turn their magiks against the Du'larians. Joraths father was one of those mages that was approached but he, and a few others, refused and fled with their families to Du'lar. With the added help of the wizards, Athlea now had the upper hand in the war. When Jorath's father approached the king of Du'lar telling him of the Athlean use of magiks against Du'lar, the king saw a chance to end this tiresome war. He arrested the rogue wizards and sent them back to Athlea as a peace offering. Jorath wacthed as his father was publicly executed after being tortured extensively. He and his mother were then imprisoned lest they seek vengence. After 2 yrs in the Athlean prisons, Jorath's mother died of influenza. Jorath, a boy of 9, was all alone in prison. He was befriended by a insane old man who claimed to have vast mystic powers. Many laughed at him wondering if he truely had these vast powers, why not escape? Jorath listened and learned quietly in the depths of prison and at the age of 12 he made his first escape attempt. He was caught, flogged, and thrown back into the same hell hole. Three years later, he escaped and made his way, slowly, to Du'lar. At the age of 16 he found himself in the capital of the focus of his burning hatred, Du'lar. He was already an accomplish mage and he "convinced" a noble family to adopt him. He kept his magical abilites a closely guarded secret and used his affliation with his noble "parents" to enter the political sphere, eyes on the royal advisors position. So CLOSE to the king....... That is his history. As a master of transmutation, he created many Skin Dancers (Skinless abberations that can don a victims skin and impersonate them) and has placed them in key positions all over Dul'ar, rarely in the place of the person in charge but rather in a place that has his or her ear and trust. The major factions in this game of thrones are the Chruch of Pelor (read Catholic Chruch), the Earl of Dayvorn (the King's cousin), The Guild of Commerce, The Three-edged Sword Mercenary Guild, The Duke of Be'enyl, The Count of Tiers, The Duke of Vale, and the Athleans of course. King Tirian, Du'lar's current king, has no hier. The queen has yet to bear any children and people are begining to talk of infertility. Queen Julia is the duaghter of the King of Lower Athlea, another peace offering, though she is quite happy with her place and has even fell in love with her husband. Then the news spreads like wild fire, the queen is pregnant! Three days later, King Tirian is found dead in his study. The Earl of Dayvorn claims Athlean involvement, saying that they waited till their princess became pregnant to secure their path to the Du'larian throne. The King of Athlea is outraged at this and demands the Earl retract such claims. Then the pregnant Queen is kidnapped. The Athleans blame the Earl of Dayvorn claiming that he kidnapped her in retaliation for the supposed assassination of his king. War breaks out. Needless to say, the Grand vizer is the perpetraitor of all this. His Skin Dancers assassinated the King and kidnapped the Queen. (Phase 1) The Count of Tiers and the Duke of Be'enyl are distant cousins, something that is completely lost on the two. They have feuded since beyond time remembered. With the Duke taking the brunt of the invading army, the Countess (a skin dancer) begins to whisper in her husbands ear themes of glory. He uses the Athlean army as a distraction and moves in on the Duke's land hoping to increase his holdings and give him the advantage over his cousin. The Duke is now best on two front and his aide (a skin dancer) has begun to whisper in his ear themes of his inevitable defeat. (Phase 2) The Guild of Commerce (three of the five council members are skin dancers) are hurting because with the war, all trade lanes are either closed off or at risk of being attacked. They have decided to colapse back on their guild hall, taking with them all the supplies they have, fortify their position, and hope to wait it out. They have forged a shacky alliance with the Three-edged Sword Mercenaries, despite the mercs are usually the ones taht attack the trade caravans, and use them to fortify the town around their guild hall. The villagers of the town (currently unnamed because I don't have my maps with me) are rather upset about the sudden imposition of a lot of mercs in their town and their locked down state. No one in or out. The Duke of Vale (skin dancer) is the lord of that area and he is none to happy about losing his town to a bunch of mercs and traders. (Phase 3) The Church of Pelor has recently suffered a grivious loss. The former Grand Inquisitor had found the traces of evil spreading through the kingdom, even to the highest levels. Unable to act secretly for fear of his prey elluding him, he started a full inquisition. It was well controlled and led the Grand Inquisitor along the path to find the source of this infection. The Grand Vizer realized that he was close to being uncovered by the Inquisitor and began to drive the Inquisitor insane with his illusion and transmutation magic. The Grand Inquisitor slowly decended into insanity and his inquisition became more and more depraved and misguided. He slaughtered whole villages becase "taint" was evident there. THe church had no choice but to quietly assassinate their own Grand Inquisitor. The world was told he had died of a degenerative disease. The church elected a new Inquisitor and the Grand Vizer replaced the new Inquisitor's chamberlain with and skin dancer. The High Cardinal (read Pope) has begun to see the taint of evil all over Du'lar thanks to the whispering of his right-hand man, the Cardinal of Du'lar. (skin dancer) He believes that the nobles of Du'lar have not only allowed the practicing of the dark and forbidden arts, but actually encouraged it in hopes of diminishing the power of the Church. The Church sees itself as the "Shining Light of Truth and Order" and that the only way to restore proper order and faith is to transform the current monarchy into a theocracy under their control. When they announce their intent, they are met by harsh resistance from the nobles which only reinforces their resolve that they are right and that this is the right course. The town under the control of the Traders and Mercs is seen as the bastion of evil forced on to the helpless townsfolk and the Duke is asking the Church for aide in expunging this blight on the face of Du'lar. (Phase 4) The Earl of Dayvorn is the only one of the Nobles that has not be influenced by the whispers of the skin dancers. His aide, who is also his brother, is a skin dancer but the Earl has noticed that his brother is not wuite himself and has not paid much attention to his advice. Seeing his beloved Du'lar fall apart around him from invasion and in-fighting, he is convinced the only path out of this is for him to take the throne temporarily and lead his people away from the precipice on which they are precariously perched. This will not be recevied well by the other factions so he is hesitant to take such a drastic step. All of this will happen in steps as the PCs adventure. Sort of like a flowering back story that slowly evolves as they play. The Earl will suffer several attempts on his life by what seems to be Athlean assassins. Oh, yeah. Nearly forgot something. The Grand Vizer has close, close ties with a noble house of the Drow through Prince Malve and he uses them as spies, assassins, and diversions. With his illusion magic, they can look like anyone and they have impersonated the Mercs, working with the Athleans, making the Mercs look like traitors. The Grand Vizer hasn't thought past the destruction of Du'lar because he is blinded by his hate. Instead, Malve is using the Vizer and his rage as a tool to take over the throne of both kingdoms. Athlea is too weak to win an all out war with Du'lar so Malve is counting on the defeat of the Athlean armies and the death of the Athlean king and his prince for they both insist on leading the army. The political infighting in Du'lar will weaken the strong country enough that the Prince Malve will be able to take over with the help of his drow allies. And in some vampires. A house of vampires, more honorable than most, that has lived in Du'lar for time untold. They were hunted by one of the original kings of Du'lar and most thought they were destroyed then. The king found them during the day when they were helpless and intended to exterminate them. The ruling Lord of this household, Lord Alexi, bargained with the king and they came to an agreement. The king would allow the vampires to live on, provide them with food in the from of criminals that needed to be caught, and tell no one of their exsistance. The vampires, in return, would serve the throne as bounty hunters (their fee the blood of those they caught), and would not bother the innocent villagers. This vampire house has loyaly served the throne for eons and the only ones that know of them are the royal bloodline they serve. The vampires are important figures for two reasons. 1) They will attempt to find the missing queen and rescue her and might seek out the PCs to aide them in this task, 2) they are one of the few ways that the Skin Dancers can be exposed for the vampires possess a keen sense of smell for blood. The skin dancers (being aberations and not humanoid) smell different. If the vampire or the PCs are able to rescue the queen, the Earl will insist on sending her to Athlea for Du'lar is not safe for her and that will get the Athlean army of his back. The Drow house is the fourth ranked house in the dorw city. They are using their alliance with Prince Malve as a power play to boost their standing, possibly even to the first house. If the plot pans out, they will be allied to a surface kingdom that covers over hlaf of the continent and such a powerful alliance would bring them the favor of Lloth. The PCs will learn of the Drow connection before learning of the Grand Vizer of the Prince. By the time they learn of the Drow, the plot of the Prince should be quite unravelled and the drow will know that the fourth house has lost the favor of Lloth though they will not know why. The PCs will expose the alliance between the drow house and the surface and the other drow houses will take care of the rest. When the PCs exposes the drow house, they will learn of the Grand Vizer. Only after confronting the Vizer will they learn of the Prince's involvement. The climax to the campaign will be a mad dash for the Athlean capital to stop the brother from killing the Du'larian queen who is "safely" inside. That is it. Any ideas, improvements, critiques, or new twists are welcome.