Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Setherial 01-02-06, 05:46 AM	Hey guys, happy new year, may roleplay be good this year :) I have an upcoming adventure I need to prepare for and I have a main idea but the rest needs fleshing out. The players are now level 7 and will be level 8 by the time the adventure starts. During the campaign they've acquired a ruined estate called Blackstone Keep located in Aundair. Currently 3 of the original characters and owners of the keep are still alive, one has become an NPC and he stays with the keep overseeing it's reconstruction. The others fund the reconstruction with their adventuring profits. Now after a year of absence the party returns to their estate. To their surprise the construction has gone a lot better then expected. A small town has formed around the keep and the keep itself has grown into a newly build shiny fortification. The players should wonder how it is possible so much work has been done with the poor funding they provided so far. Soon they'll find out they've lost control over their estate as well as Lord Solver and his new lovely young wife, the co-owner who lives in the Keep has pronounced himself Lord of the town of Blackstone and only owner of the Keep refusing the others entry. Blackstone keep has been tainted (Heroes of Horror) by great evil (the cause is material for another adventure) from the start but the party members stayed unaffected as they never stayed in the keep very long. Solver however has become a tainted minion, his mind totally lost to the corruption of evil. Not only is the place cursed but it is a magnet for evil as well and so a Succubus ended up taking the keep as her new base of operation. She seduced and married Solver who is now no more then her slave. Through skillful diplomacy and subtle magic she gained the support of some of Aundairs Nobles who fund her town and Keep. Her intentions are to expand her newly gained power aiming for nothing less then the throne of Galifar in the end and throwing the five nations into a new age of darkness and war. Currently I'm fleshing out the town so that I can provide the players with a surrounding that can spawn multiple approaches to solving their situation. Main NPC's so far: - Raziel, Succubus SoulEater 3 (Book of Vile Darkness) CR 10, member of the Lords of Dust - Solver, Tainted Minion, Human Ranger lvl 5 - Master Borrik, NG Male Dwarf Expert 2, head of the workers building the keep - Prat, N Human Male Commoner 2/Exp 1 Caretaker of the small cemetery just outside town. - Lis, 12 year old human child and daughter of Prat - Roach, NE Male Shifter Child of Winter : He moved to the forest surrounding Blackstone and occasionally travels to the Keep where he disappears with Raziel behind closed doors, remaining in private conversation for hours. The town has little over a 100 workers working on the construction of the town and keep, most of them are dwarves, goblinoids and warforged. They were allowed to spend part of their time constructing the houses they now live in, in exchange for a small monthly fee. Despite her dark intentions Raziel has been good to the town and makes every effort to make it grow. She invests a lot of recourses into the town and it's protection. Currently about 50 soldiers are stationed at Blackstone Keep all of which have become tainted minions under the control of Raziel. They look and act as normal guards defending the town from any dangers that occur. Many of the people who have lived in Blackstone for more then half a year start to show signs of taint as well. The town has mostly hunters, farmers and traders amongst its people and a guild was recently founded named The hidden Path. It's a small foresters and hunters guild. There is also a hidden temple of the Dragon Below, rapidly growing in members as the taint of Blackstone corrupts its citizens. I guess it's clear that I'm trying to lay the foundation here for a lot of later roleplay potential. Also the party is not involved because of some dark plot they have to prevent but rather because their property has been taken from them and they are gonna want it back. There will be no straight forward solution aside from levelling the place with the ground which I hope they don't do :) They have to find out what is wrong with their old companion, who his beautiful young wife is and what her involvement is and how to regain control of their estate. The rewards are plenty as before they had only a ruined keep, now they have nothing and if they regain control they'll have a new beatifull keep with a town to govern. so any and all ideas you wanne throw at this are most welcome Seth
DargonSwift 01-02-06, 11:56 PM	Cool idea. I don't have the BoVD or HoH, nor my other books here at work, but I'll take a stab. The main thing that I was wondering about as I read this was, "What is the source or origin of this corruptive magic?" As you said, the succubus was drawn to the place due to the corruptive magics, not that she was the cause of them. To explain this, I would say that deep below the epicenter of this source of evil lies the following: I'll presume the fort/town is on a hill (if not, perhaps the adventurers realize, upon their return, that the terrain seems oddly different somehow - they just can't put their finger on it). This hill actually a large caldera-type volcano (like the one in Yellowstone National Park: http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/Yellowstone/description_yellowstone.html). A large volcanic lake lies in a sealed chamber below, and within the lake and around the edges are thousands of Khyber dragonshards. Within the middle of this lake is an island which contains some very large specimens of Khyber shards, perhaps some of the largest (pure) shards in all of Khorvaire. The problem is, the couatl used this place to imprison hundreds of fiends, inlcuding a powerful Raja. The succubus is aware of its significance, or at least suspects, and wishes to free the Raja and the other fiends. However, she has a few problems. One, if the shell of the volcano is pierced, it will likely explode due to the immense pressure contained within. Not a huge problem for her personally, but it does make it difficult to get down into the chamber without prematurely triggering this catastrophy. Secondly, there is a guardian in the central island, a very ancient red dragon. This dragon has been corrupted by the energies of the place, and has the fiendish sub-type, but it is still no friend to her or the raja. Another problem she has is the fact that the raja will be hungry for souls when it awakens. As if these weren't big enough problems, she's got these annoying adventurers returning to bother her. Hmm, what's a sexy demon to do? She's already figured a solution to some of her problems. She has been encouraging the construction of the town to solve her issue with a hungry raja. When she manages to free him (after she finds a way to kill that annoying dragon), he can feed on the town above. The town can also help her solve another problem: accessing the chamber below. She can generate enough wealth from the town above to hire artificers and magewrights, which will construct a portal to the lake below. Once completed, she could have workers (cultists, corrupted minions from the town, and perhaps other fiends) mine the shards on the edge of the lake (away from the dragon). Once she acquires some of these shards, she can free the lesser fiends trapped within. Once she has enough of the fiends under her command, she can launch an assualt against the dragon. Then she can work at freeing the greater fiends trapped on the isle. I'd say that of the thousands of shards below, 1 in 10 contain a trapped fiend. Due to the powerful emmanations of the raja, it's impossible to tell which ones contain fiends until they can be brough above for examination in a shielded room. Destroying the fiend, possibly in conjunction with a blood sacrifice will restore the trapped fiend. At first she is completely against the party members, as reflected by the cold welcome Solver gives the PCs, but it quickly dawns on her that she can *use* them to quicken her goals. She continues to manipulate Solver into a maintaining a negative view on the PCs, feeding his taint-based jealousy, while playing "good cop". She can approach the PCs, and reveal that Solver is overcome with greed and jealousy (the best lies are based on truth). In her most demur way, she can explain that she will "help" the PCs and try to reason with him. She makes good on this promise, but getting Solver to allow them access to the town and keep. Shortly after that, she makes even more progress, but getting Solver to begrudgingly admit their claim to partial ownership of the land. However, Solver still claims majority ownership based on the fact that he has provided (albeit by means of his wife's influence) the greatest portion of the funds to restore the keep. Solver may publicly play "bad cop", but is soothed by his wife (in view of the players) into giving the adventurer's more power within the town. The succubus' reason behind playing up to the PCs is this. If any are wizards or artificers, she wants to use them (as they are likely higher level than those she can easily afford to hire) to help build the portal. She admits, as if trusting them with a great confidence, that a diviner has informed them that the keep sits on a vast deposit of dragonshards - hense her husbands sudden greed. She'll claim he feels justified in keeping it all for himself due to the PCs lackadaisical funding and involvement. She, of course, feels the valiant adventurer's are due a fair share. To this end, she'll explain the problem of the volcano, that it is impossible to simply mine into the chamber, lest the volcano errupt and destroy everything. Therefore, she can convince the party to aid her in constructing the portal, and purhaps finding a way for miners to survive the harsh environs below while they extract the rich shard deposits. She wont tell them about the dragon until she is read to pit them against it. She'll claim only a small portion of the shards for her and her husband (those shards containing fiends), the rest can go to funding the town and lining the PC's pockets. All the while, the fiends presence in the town increases (possibly giving the PCs more to do, possibly raising suspicions) and town people mysteriously vanish (sacrificed to feed the fiends). Once the time is right, she sends the PCs in to deal with the dragon. If it kills them, good ridance, she sends her army of freed fiends in to finish the weakened dragon off. If they kill it, even better! The PCs are easier to do away with (one at a time) than the dragon itself. One last point. You should reduce Solver to level 1 ranger, as the succubus would have level drained him by now, and doing so makes him more succeptible to her power. Possible adventures using this scenario: -The succubus needs special materials to construct the portal below. She asks the party if they will do such-and-such to acquire these exotic materials. -A corrupt (true or not) Aundair official is proving to be an obstacle to part of her plan. She dupes the PCs into taking care of him. -House Tharashk has caught on to the rich shard deposit below and are trying to horn in on the action. The idiots are likely to trigger the volcano if they keep up their illegal mining (as the property isn't owned by them) operations. She asks the party to "deal" with them. -Aberrations under the control of illithids/beholders are moving in, drawn to the shard node. Unaware of the succubus' aims, they hope to take control of the "simple" town. She uncovers the plot and sends her heroes, the adventurer's in to "rescue" the town. -Greedy little gnomes are trying to steal our crystals for their stupid elemental ships! The Trust offers protection to gnomes who are attempting to reopen the Tharashk mines for themselves. They are desperate for bigger and better Khyber shards, as the airship market is growing faster than they can keep up. -Agents of the Silver Flame are investigating reports of fiendish activity in the area. She claims this is just an excuse to push her and the adventurer's out of the town so Thrane can claim it for their own (might even be true). Everyone knowns Thrane is ever hungry for more magic (see their entry in the Five Nations source book), and it is just the sort of bullying tactic they'd try. -Fernia has become coterminus with Eberron! The lava lake below has become a manifest zone, and evil salamanders/effriti threaten to destabilize the volcano unless the party can put an end to their meddling. Luckily, the manifest zone should only last a few days. -The town is wracked by quakes. A fissure uncovers a hidden couatl outpost. What guardians and traps lurk within? The succubus might discourage the party from exploring the ruin, afraid for their safety, of course. Why to the strange carvings upon the walls there depict demonic forces below? Some partially destroyed stone stele refer to the "serpent guardian". Perhaps they find some weapons to aid against fiends. This should get you going, and give you plenty to do for some time. Regards, Dargon
Setherial 01-03-06, 04:09 AM	The reason I'm not going into the source of the evil is because it belongs to our other DM. I've been playing as one of the players until now and I'm actually one of the surviving owners of the keep. The other DM lay the foundations of there being something wrong with the keep. A dark fey we killed multiple times already keeps returning, when we went to fairhaven to see a professor who knew about these things he told us the fey is attracted to a place of a great wrong that has not been set right, each full moon the creature returns. The previous owner we aquired the keep from turned up as a corpse later in the basement of the keep, tortured. etc... Since it's a very long campaign spread out over what will probably take 2 years of real time I'm jumping in for one adventure so that our other DM gets a chance to play and I can DM for a change. So I'm not really touching his campaign all that much but I am using it. The wealth of information you provided provides for an epic campaign in its own rights, totally awesome stuff man !! On one side I don't want to take it as far as you took it because it will disrupt the other DM's campaign and go beyond the scope of a single adventure. I do however want the use all the political intrigue and manipulation you offered. You made the succubus exactly into what I wanted, the rotten egg playing good cop. One problem I need to deal with is that Blackstone Keep is build in a swamp, I don't know all that much about geology but I can't picture a swamp on a volcano or mountain.... I do know that volcanic islands result in very fertile ground so in your version the top of this forgotten volcano would not only provide strategic value but also fertile lands for a city to florish. Ok lets try to rework some of this stuff and tone things down a bit so that the situation does not disrupt the current campaign too much: - The Succubus Raziel marries Solver and drains him, he becomes her puppet. - Miners mining stone to build the keep and town hit a small deposit of shards in the nearby hills and word gets out - The players return to their land only to be denied entry to their estate. They are politly asked to leave. - The players pick up rumors about the marriage of Lord solver to his lovely bride, their beloved leader Raziel and how she brought prosparity to these lands. They also hear about the discovery of dragonshards in the mines. - Raziel has the mines closed and claims dangerous pockets of gas reside underneath this entire swamp, if miners would hit a pocket the entire valley would explode. This is actually true. Raziel cares little about the DragonShards, they are an unconvinience that popped up messing with her plans. She wants to dig a tunnel deep into the earth underneath the keep to an ancient prison chamber where a Raja resides trapped inside an ancient artifact (a sword perhaps, with a blade made entirly out of a large kybher shard, that sounds cool). She too needs to avoid hitting these gas pockets. An explosion would ruin everything. Digging this tunnel will take years and this is why she is building a city. Over time more and more people will start to change by the corrupting taint. They will become her workers, undead minions able to work at night and look like ordenary people during the day. A large undertaking but a perfect one. - shard hunters start showing up, first the House Tharashk miners trying to illegally mine the shards then the gnomes just like you suggested. - the succubus needs to take care of the problem without drawing attention to herself, the pc's seem like the ideal pawns for the job. Skilled, powerfull and insignificant. This is where de deception you previously described comes up. - She plays the diplomet between them and solver, throwing the party a bone. Giving them back partial ownership, in return she wants them to take care of those dangerous illegal minders. - somewhere in all of this I want this child of winter to get mixed up in things as well. His involvement should be an entirly different angle. Maybe he seeks destruction using natures natural resources (the gas), maybe it was he who suggested the minders mine where they did knowing their greed for the shards they would find would destroy this entire unhallowed place. Maybe at the start he did try to negotiate with Raziel but no middle ground was found and both are to strong to confront one another in combat. He thinks she is just a powerfull human sorceres corrupted by greed and magic. Raziel however knows the druids powers and so far has no solution to take him out. - People start disappearing due to the cultists increasing activities, this too is a thorn in Raziels eye (hehe, evil getting in the way of evil) but she has not been able to trace them down yet. Now the Flamers start taking an interest and Raziel becomes more and more concerned for her plans. - another possible use for the party is to have them help with the dig under the keep. Destroy the Aberrations that dwell in the caverns beneath the earth before they destroy her diggers. (having a few high level goons at your command is always a good thing for any evil lord :) Also in the end they can help her recover the artifact, she can easely tell them she is digging for a legendary shard herself, letting them in for a cut of the prise. any more ideas guys ??? this stuff is going great if you ask me ! Seth
DargonSwift 01-03-06, 04:55 AM	You might want to pass the other info on to your primary DM. As far as the swamp, not all caldera are bubbles, most are actually craters, which would make a swamp possible. Also, Aundair is far enough north to make a swamp unlikely (most major swamps are usually in southern tropical lands). However, the geothermic heat of a underground caldera could produce swamp-like conditions. To tie in the caldera, you could simply state that much of the swamp seems to be draining off, or heating up. Khyber shards are typically found deep underground very near to lava (per the Eberron source books), so you'd invariably have some type of geothermal source near any Khyber shard source. Volcanic rock is also black, which would explain "Blackstone Keep". Regarding the corruption; since your main antagonist is a fiend, and the power source is related to corruption, it would make sense to stick with demonic energies over the used of undead. For these corrupt individuals, I'd recommend going with the fiendish template, or something similar (but perhaps watered down) over undead minions (unless she simply raises them herself). The Khyber shard sword is a cool idea, however, the couatl and dragons (who imprisoned the rajas and other fiends) did not have any need for swords (couatl = no hands, dragons = big claws/teeth), and did not utilize the other races (as most were too primitive to be of any real use) during the Demon War. If such a blade did exist, it would be from a much later era than the original imprisonment. Just something to keep in mind. The Child of Winter and the Lords of Dust would have similar aims (destruction), and would make likely allies. The key difference might be that the succubus's plan is to longreaching to appease the druid, who'd rather see a little destruction *now*, rather than a lot of destruction long after he's dead himself. This "cursed" fey could be fiendish, and/or possessed by the raja or other fiend. Good luck! :)
Setherial 01-03-06, 05:36 AM	thanks for your help mate, you're a bottemless pit of information, I'm very impressed :) The sword not making much sense for the time period is something that bugged me too. The coolness of it and it's possible later presence in the world for many campaigns to come does make an effort to make it fit worth while. If the sword was ever examined to trace it back to its origin and estimate its age things would not add up. The shard itself would predate the handle (or however you call it in english) of the sword by far, hinting that the shard was crafted into a sword ages later to harness its powers but it has been around since the age of demons. Anyway, this is the kind of stuff I like to throw in for later use. The sword is like the one ring of LOTR, it has a will of its own and has a nasty habit of turning up over and over again. As for the undead minions, well it kinda makes sense to me in an odd way. First I started with taint from Heroes of Horror which corrupts people, mutates them, disfigures them over time until they die from this corruption and rise as tainted minions. These minions are rather cool since they can shape change into healthy looking individuals and are undead. Raziel being a Souleater isn't too keen on mortals to put it lightly. Capable sentient Undead with minds easily controlled however is what she needs and the taint is providing her with countless of these minions. So you have your healthy looking poeple in town (those that have been there long enough to have been destroyed by the taint, dies and raised as tainted minions looking back as they did before the taint) and your unhealthy tainted individuals who are on the path to becomming minions themselves. Now what keeps them from leaving the town, thinking it is the source of their disease ? Raziel! She plays the mercifull healer, those that looked the worsed, those that would not recover from the disease she visits and after her visit they are completly healed (actually they are dead and rerisen). So people have faith in their leader, she will come and help them once their time has come. This puts Raziel in a the spotlight, making her seem like the hero. It suplies her with more and more minions and at the same time keeps the non undead population happy. It's perfect. ....if it wasn't for those cultists who mess with her plans, creating necrocarnum zombies and making people think they too will turn into such monsters if the disease isn't stopped.... hehe this is such fertile ground we are laying for plenty of adventuring :) Your new take on the volcano and how it can fit into creating a swamp in Aundair makes sense to me, I like it. It provides them with a valley and mountenous terrain to mine from. The name Blackstone makes sense giving rich history to the place. The gas pockets in combination with the volcano history are killer! It all falls delightfully into place. Beneath Blackstone keep if one digs far enough lies a maze of lava caverns providing the heat that changes the climat around Blackstone Keep. They are also home to Beholders and the worst kind of other aberations that make the way to the real prise all the more dangerous. in the deepest of lava pits lies the ancient sword, knowledge that died with the civilisation that created it (if it wasn't for the Lords of Dust who keep track of such things). A sword created by a race who revered the Coualts thinking these ancient "Gods" left them a great gift. So they shaped it into the form of a sword, the weapon that would bring down their enemies but instead destroyed them. And so the shard became burried once more with the passing of time, eathen by the very earth that errupted and swallowed the beings who created it. this is good stuff if you ask me :)
Setherial 01-05-06, 05:57 AM	Here follows the current chain of events, a summary of what I got so far : - Raziel, servent of the Lords of Dust, moves into blackstone keep and marries Solver, the owner. She finds investors and speeds up the construction of the keep together with the town that forms around it. Her plans are to dig a tunnel under the keep over the course of years to retrieve a Khybershard that is prison to a Raja. The raja was imprisoned by the couatl and ages later a couatl worshipping race forged a sword out of that shard bringing destruction upon themselves and the downfall of their race. - The powerful taint that resides in the area around Blackstone slowly transforms people into tainted minions. Raziel uses these undead creatures to dig her tunnel at night. During the day they act like the happy people of a healthy growing town. Those that haven't transformed yet show various stages of taint, for these people Raziel plays the miraculous healer. Visiting those that are about to die from the taint and claiming she healed them when in fact they died and transformed in tainted minions looking like healthy people again. - A small cult of the dragon below has moved into town attracted to the evil that resides there. They are experimenting on those that show signs of taint, transforming them into zombies (possibly necrocarnum zombies, don't know yet. Given the nature of the place they should be something special, something new to my players). Raziel suspects the presence of this cult and she fears they will attract unwanted attention to her cause. - Somewhere in thrane a profet forsees a great catastrophy. Knights of the Flame (few Warrior 2 guys) under the command of a high level paladin (our other DM who will be playing this character) are send to the town of BlackStone to investigate the evil the seeer forsaw. - This group of knights runs into the other players who are on their way back to their estate. The players introduce themselves most likely and tell the knights they are returning to their property, blackstone keep. The Paladin is careful with how much info he reveals and simply asks he may join them as he and his men are headed in that direction as well. - The players arrive at the keep and are denied entry (what will happen here I can't predict). The guards however try to remain polite and tell them the Lord Solver does not wish their presence on his property nor in his town. - Party hopefully seeks shelter in town and starts an investigation. The knights of the Flame too start their own investigation trying to find signs of this great evil. They'll soon recognize the signs of taint present in town. - Miners hit a supply of khyber shards (Khyber shards are not normally found on Khorvaire right ??), words spreads quickly. Most of the shards are sold to merchants passing through. - Raziel has the mine closed warning for dangerous gas pockets beneath the entire valley. If miners where to hit these the entire place would blow up. This is true but Raziels true concerns are to avoid attention. She does not want the town overrun by treasure hunters nor does she want to attract the gouvernments attention. - Despite Raziels efforst the treasure hunters do come and illegal mining commences. - Raziel now with 3 problems on her hands, the co-owners of the keep she did not count on, the cultists and the illegal miners decides to pit some of these problems against eachoter. She approaches the party in secret and tells them her husband has grown more and more paranoid, that he is sick and not himself. She claims she will do whatever she can to persuade him to see them and grant them back what is rightfully theirs. - An audience is arranged the next day between the party and Lord Solver in the keep the next day. Here follows a diplomatic roleplay. In the end Solver will claim he invested most in the keep and the town and that he sould remain in charge, he will however grand them certain important positions as co-owners (Like captain of the Guard, High Councilor of Magic etc... meaningless titles that seem appealing). - If a compomise is reached Raziel again comes to the players in private and asks them for a favour in return for what she did for them. She tells them about the illegal miners that might blow up the town and asks to take care of them. - Meanwhile Raziel continues her own investigation to find the cult. So do the Flamers. - Construction of the keep continues day and night. Raziel claims with the dangerous gas pockets in the area mining of materials will only be done beneath the Keep. This contains and limits the possible threat and allows mining of the foundation of what will become the sewer system that will allow the town to expand for years to come. In truth she has her undead minions dig the tunnel straight down into Khyber. - Once the treasure hunter problem diminishes Raziel will once again call upon the players to help her root out this cult she suspect is the cause of the zombies and disappearing people in town. - Raziel will under no circumstances agree to an audience with the Paladin or the other flamers. ok so far so good. But here are some iddues I'm still dealing with : - what if the party trusts Raziel and become her true allies ? After a few months they will start to feel the effects of the taint themselves, this might convince them they should continue their search for answers. Also there is the matter of the player that plays the Paladin. He will want answers too.I guess I'll have to improvise a lot but all stuff you can throw at me is most welcome. Better I be prepared. - I still haven't found a use for the Child of Winter. I don't have to use him but I would like to. However I don't have a good motivation for him comming to Blackstone and for him to have dealings with Raziel. He could however be a good high level antagonist taking the spotlight away from the real antagonist, Raziel. - I can also use more fluf, poeple in town the party can interact with like the hunters guild etc... - I also need to tie what I have so far to going into Khyber, fight through the Aberations and horrors of the below, maybe run into some underground dwelling goblinoids who've never seen humans before and don't speak commen. They still think it's the Age of the Dakhaani but are not perce hostile, unfriendly yes but they can be worked with. And in the end finding the sword and potentially bringing the greatest threat of all back to the surface. Also at some point they have to figur out Raziel and face her. How can I get to that ? What will bring her out ??? comon guys, help me out here !!! cheers
Setherial 01-06-06, 02:11 AM	comon' poeple, are Dargon and I the only ones who see potential here ?
Setherial 01-30-06, 06:02 AM	Ok, continueing the story and mixing in some additional players: I'm thinking about what would happen after the players wrap things up. Lets say they have recovered the Khyber Shard Sword from the depths below BlackStone, they have killed the evil Raziel or at least driven her from their land and reclaimed ownership of their estate. Cool what now, The town of Blackstone is infested with taint, most poeple have become undead tainted minions and others are well on their way of suffering the same faith. The players will have to purge the entire town of evil, killing most who live there now (some really hard decisions for a ruler) and they might end up with a deserted city, it's population dead or fled. A lot of the gold they will earn from selling the shards they find below (by the way, I'm thinking of going with Syberis shards as they are more likely to be found of Khorvaire and leave the sword as a rare khyber shard, making it all the more misterious) will have to be invested in rebuilding the city and attract new people. Question one: what can a ruler do who just had to kill of his people and needs to attract new people to live on and work his land ? For the kybher sword I think I'll have a merchant pass trough and make what seems like a very generous offer for buying it. If they sell it they will be quite wealthy and they might have what it takes to persuade people to live in Blackstone again, if not the sword will slowly corrupt them and sooner or later they will want to get rid of it. One way or another the sword will start a life of its own and function as a hook for later adventures. Purging the town, how: Well I was thinking to drop the child of winter as I can't find a good way to tie him in and introduce the Blood of Vol (for the first time in our game). On their way to Blackstone keep the players will run into a group of red cloacked men, most on foot walking behind a horse pulled wagon. On the wagon sits a priest of the blood (Very Old Elf Dread Necromancer or Necromancer Cleric with some powerfull Libris Mortis goodies), he will be the guy doing the talking if the party adresses these strangers. All the other guys are low level followers of the blood, priests, soldiers... In the wagon lies a coffin :) (this is where it gets fun) In the coffin lies a vampire who is actually the leader of this group, not the elf doing the talking. The vampire is a high priest of the blood of vol and he and his men are on a pilgrimage from Karnath to Aundair to find a holy spot to build their new church. If the party asks what they are transporting the elf will in all seriousness (picture spock from the enterprise) say that their holy leader lies within the wagon, he who has parted with sun ages ago. Anyway, taken that the party does not start chopping up blood of vol cultists and all proceeds peacefully the blood followers happen to be on their way to Blackstone as well. Their intensions simply to start a community in Aundair and start converting people to their faith. Now during the entire adventure these guys don't actually play a role aside from the fact that they stop in Blackstone for a while and are present there throughout the adventure. At the end however they might offer their help (as once they offered their help to Karnath on a somewhat larger scale) in purging the town from these undead minions in return for funding to build their church in Blackstone. They also will offer their help in return to bring new life to the town, with a new religeon blooming there they suggest, soon this community will florish again and might grow into the religeuos center for the Blood in Aundair. In their vision BlackStone will turn into a metropolis where the players become powerfull leaders with the church of the Blood as their spiritual guide. what do you think ?
Setherial 03-04-06, 02:29 PM	Map of Blackstone town http://www.davidopdebeeck.be/temp/blackstone.jpg
Endless_Helix 03-05-06, 08:51 AM	hey Setherial! Good to see you're still pumping out more crazy adventures ;) On topic... The children of winter seem to be a bit too "grafted on" in this adventure. I'd think that of the Druidic cults, Gatekeepers and Greensingers have the most interest in the area. Gatekeepers battle against stuff out of khyber and don't want it on the suface. The succubus is digging into a huge nesting ground of Dolgrims/Dolgaunts/Dolghasts with mindlfayer back up. I'd think that they'd try to convince the Succubus to stop the digging. They'd also probably offer to help her get rid of the illicit miners, as they also might accidently open Khyber up. She'd obviously say no but ask for their help with the miners. They probably walk away in a huff. The fiendish fey could be rogue fey that the greensingers are tasked to send back to thelanis for trial or something. Another thing that could happen is that the PC's could act as a relay between the Flamers and the Succubus. Particularly later on. As for some fluff for the town, heres a run down of important people in a small town. -Blacksmith, particularly in a mining town, which is essentially what this is. Everyone needs to go to him so he'll hear if anything's odd in the mines. -Postmaster, probably the most important person for the PC's to befriend, as he hears everything that goes on. I'd make him a retired adventurer, possibly with some experience fighting abberations, either a rogue or a swashbuckler. -General store owner, another gossipmonger. He's the #2 most important person to know in a town. I'd make him an expert 2 with skill focus(knowledge:local), and possibly a gnome. - The tavernkeep. #3 most important to know. He may not know everything, but he'll have all the rumors down pat. Again, he's probably not going to have PC levels, just expert or warrior 2 or 3 focussing on unarmed strike. He'd probably be a half-orc or a human. - Since the town is fairly new, you're going to have roads being laid, new construction. This means that there is going to be a steady stream of construction workers coming in. Lodging will be an issue. There will be camps of individuals outside of town who need protection from the Khyberspawned horrors if they get loose. Evacuation will be crazy. Have the PC's sleep on the street for a night, because the tavern is filled up. There will only be one inn at this early stage. Then have them pay through the nose for their lodging after that, and have it be half of what the rest of the people are paying. More to come in a bit.
Setherial 03-06-06, 03:34 AM	Thanks Helix, I appreciate the help. I like the Gatekeepers/Greensingers angle, I don't know why I didn't see it but it makes a lot of sense. They'll be sabotaging Raziels attempts at mining, even negotiating with her to stop her mettling. They'll be attacking the town and its tainted population but in the end they could become allies on the side of the players if they handle it right and don't become Raziels puppets. I'll post what I have for the town as soon as I can, your ideas included. Maybe I'll set up a webpage describing the adventure without the clutter of this thread, including maps and stuff. Recap of the Adventure: ok I dropped a lot of stuff and here is what I'm leaning towards at this point. - Raziel a succubus comes to Blackstone with the intention of moving into the world of human politics. Her goal is the throne of Aundair or a position close to it from where she can spread her corruption and mess with the lives of mortals. She is a member of the Lords of Dust and the higher she can infiltrate into the mortal realm of the 5 nations the more important she'll be to the Lords of Dust. This is her motivation, the reason she picks Blackstone keep as a base is because of the taint and the evil already present, its origin unknown to her, but here her influence is the strongest. She drains those like Lord Solver so they succumb to the taint faster and become her puppets. - Raziel already formed an alliance with two individuals who are funding her operation, both I still have to flesh out but one should be a well established wealthy Lord with reasonable political ties, his political influence is Raziels key into Aundairs gouvernment. The other one lives on the opposite side of the law, a kingpin, leader of a large criminal organization based in Fairhaven and functions both as wealthy moneylender as well as underground contact. Both allies have much to gain from this alliance. - Raziel opens two mines in the nearby hills to mine resources for the construction of her keep and town. She knows the exact location of a fissure deep in the rock where she has her miners mine that leads into the depts of Khyber. She has Dolgrims and other horrors use the fissure to bring Khyber Shards to the mine and have her miners (tainted minions under her control) spread the rumor they have discovered a rich Dragonshard mine. News travels fast and the town grows at a dazzling rate attracting people from all over dreaming to get rich of the discovery of the mine. Hence Raziels power grows, within years she'll be the Lady and ruler of a great city. - Raziel has the mine fortified, only her crew of tainted minons mines it (in reality they just deal with a mindflayer in charge of the Dragonshard transports). No one is allowed in for reasons of safety, the underground of Blackstone is unstable and consists of many gas pockets that could explode if mined carelessly. - Illegal miners try to break into the mine and Raziel will try to use the players to stop them. - Trane knights come to investigate the evil that is slowly eating away the people of Blackstone (the corrupting taint). - A small group of Greensinger druids is attracted to the presence of the aberrations and the taint. They sabotage Raziels efforts and try to fight the citizens already transformed into tainted minions (they see through the illusion that make sthe tainted minions look like their former selfs). To outsiders the druids seem like Eldeen Terrorists at first glance. - A cult of the Dragon Below is attracted to the taint as well and they hear the call of the aberrations so near the surface. They start abducting and offering people for dark gifts, some of these sacrifices return from the grave as strange zombies. Raziel is enraged by the meddling of these cultists, she wants them dead. more will follow....
chimpman 03-12-06, 11:46 PM	Hey Setherial, Sorry I've missed this for so long. I think there are a ton of great ideas here. A lot of the gold they will earn from selling the shards they find below (by the way, I'm thinking of going with Syberis shards as they are more likely to be found of Khorvaire and leave the sword as a rare khyber shard, making it all the more misterious) will have to be invested in rebuilding the city and attract new people. If I'm not mistaken Syberies dragonshards are the ones that are found on Xen'drik. It's one of the reasons for going to that continent, so I'm not sure they make sense on Khorvaire. I don't think that Khyber shards should cause you any problems here. The only requirement for Khyber shards are that they are found in Khyber. If you go far down enough (from Khorvaire, Xen'drik, or wherever) you should find them. - I also need to tie what I have so far to going into Khyber, fight through the Aberations and horrors of the below, maybe run into some underground dwelling goblinoids who've never seen humans before and don't speak commen. They still think it's the Age of the Dakhaani but are not perce hostile, unfriendly yes but they can be worked with. And in the end finding the sword and potentially bringing the greatest threat of all back to the surface. Also at some point they have to figur out Raziel and face her. How can I get to that ? What will bring her out ??? I'm going to try and answer your specific question before I go off and brainstorm. Check out an older thread of mine for some Dhakaani clan ideas: http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?p=7372776#post7372776, in particular (taken from Eberron Expanded by KB) the Kech Nasaar (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ebee/20050905a), the keepers of night. Supposedly they lair somewhere under the Blackcaps (in Aundair), so that might play into your story rather well. Believe it or not I've been thinking about the downfall of the Dhakaani empire for quite a while now and I have some interesting theories. We know that the Dhakaani were fighting an incursion of Xoriat, and that ultimatly the empire fell because of the stress brought upon by this war... and by how the Dhakaani ultimately won it. Of course the Gatekeepers were ultimately responsible for binding the daelkyr in Khyber, but the Dhakaani were the ones to drive back all of their armies of unnatural spawn. 1) We know the Dhakaani had contact with the elves of Aerenal at the time, and I'm thinking that some of them might have turned to the magic of undeath to help solve their problems. 2) Another route to power (quickly) is through the Rhajas. I think some of the Dhakaani may have sworn allegiance to the Rhajas and the Lords of Dust, in order to gain firepower against the daelkyr. 3) Some may have even embraced the power of their enemies (see dolgaunts and dolgrim). But even after the defeat of the dealkyr and their spawn, the Dhakaani had many obstacles to overcome (which in the end, they didn't). Elves had encroached their lands, and had to be pushed back. I think there would have been a lot of infighting amongst the goblinoids at this time as well, as the traditionalists, undead, and demon worshippers all fought one another. The final straw was when humans invaded the land and Karrn the Conquerer broke the final remnants of the empire. So given this type of history, I can see several types of goblinoid cultures that can be encountered underneith Aundiar. Perhaps they are: 1) LoD worshippers. 2) The undead. 3) Seal guardians tasked with keeping the Daelkyr seals safe. 4) Corrupted (by the daelkyr) Dhakaani Given your story outline and needs I'd say #3 would make the best fit for an initial contact. These Dhakaani have been tasked with guarding their particular Seal and have done so since it was created by the Gatekeepers millenia ago. Because of this they would not have had any experiences with humans and would have remained fairly insular in their realm below.
chimpman 03-13-06, 12:26 AM	- A small group of Greensinger druids is attracted to the presence of the aberrations and the taint. They sabotage Raziels efforts and try to fight the citizens already transformed into tainted minions (they see through the illusion that make sthe tainted minions look like their former selfs). To outsiders the druids seem like Eldeen Terrorists at first glance. - A cult of the Dragon Below is attracted to the taint as well and they hear the call of the aberrations so near the surface. They start abducting and offering people for dark gifts, some of these sacrifices return from the grave as strange zombies. Raziel is enraged by the meddling of these cultists, she wants them dead. I think you should really play up these roles as well. Gatekeepers vs Dragon Below. It just makes sense that the daelkyr and their spawn would be as interested in the evil in the area as much as Raziel. Perhaps they want to siphon the power of the Rhaja in order to break one of the dealkyr seals to free their own masters. Perhaps something else totally unimaginable. Where a Cult of the Dragon Below exists, it is not a far stretch to aberrations from below (I'm thinking Illithids) who may be controling them. I love the idea of Illithids fighting with demons for control over the town, and the PCs are stuck in the middle.
Setherial 03-13-06, 05:40 AM	Hey Chimpman, I missed your input man, good to see you again !! Ok this brings an interesting new turn: - We have a cursed town that is attracting a lot of people and is growing fast. - We have a demon (Lord of Dust minion/servant of the Rajahs) who established herself as leader of the town and who is using lesser aberrations to bring kybher shards to the surface to bring wealth to her city. How she gained the services of these aberrations is still an unanswered question ? - We have an Abberation/Daelkyr worshipping cult of the Dragon Below settling down in town (see http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=601126 ). They have their own agenda and are tunneling into Raziels mine to get to their abberation masters. - More powerfull Abberations (Possibly a Mindflayer) is working the minds of the cultists, he has his own plans and here we get a possible conflict between the demons (Raziels) interests and those of the Cult/Mindflayer/Some Dealkyr OverLord. -->> This point needs heavy work !!! <<-- - we have Gatekeepers storming the mine, grant scale combat: two armies clashing into eachother, one of the druids (GateKeeper Druids, Rangers, animal hordes, animated plants, a Forest Giant) and the army of Blackstone (a unit of Townsfolk, few units of Blackstone keep soldiers, Raziel + her Wartroll bodyguard as commander of the army, the Dragon Hole mine defenders, warforged miners from the Snake Tooth mine under the command of the players most likely) This makes 3 major players clashing into eachother with the players caught in the middle :) to make things worse : - once we look beneath the surface of the earth we have a city of Dhakaani descendants, Seal Keepers guarding a trapped Dealkyr overLord. They are shut of from the world and have never seen the comming of the other races, they speak an ancient dialect of goblin. They are currently fighting an invasion of Abberations that recently moved into their region, this should be tied to what is going on in Blackstone. PS: Can anyone explain to me how these seals work that trap the Daelkyr ? I've read that unlike the Rajahs the Dealkyr are not bound and roam free in the depths of Khyber. So how does this work, are they trapped in a cave (be it a bit oversimplified) with no access to the surface world ? It's been a while since T've taken a look at the Dealkyr statblock but as powerfull beings don't they have means to escape such an environment ? Ok help me flesh this out, I need to figur out what the extend is of Raziels plans (Resources I read told me the Lords of Dust have no interest in gaining political power in the world, at least not to the extend of ruling the realm of mortals as that would make them targets for the other evil power groups. Other resources however have shown us that the Lords of Dust do infiltrate the realm of men at every level so this might be what Raziel is doing. She doesn't want the Throne but she wants to get close enough to influence it from behind the curtans). I need to figur out what it is the Daelkyr/Cultists/Aberrations are after and why they are helping Raziel, at least on some level (bringing up Kybher Shards). I think Raziel vs the Dealkyr is the key to the story here. Everyone else is just caught up in their evil sceme be it trying to fight it (Attack of the Gate Keepers, the knights the Silver Flame sends...), trying to defend the acient bonds (the Dhakaani), trying to figur out what the hell is going on and how to gain back their property (The players). Other minor players will be the gnomes trying to get to the Shards (possible Trust involvement), The Blood of Vol who want to raise a church in this new town, The cultists of the Dragon Below who are just pawns at the merci of the madness of the Aberrations behind these mess. etc... aaaarggghhh so much to figur out and so little time, the adventure will start in a few weeks from now (Why can't I just be happy with a simple published dungeon crawl :)
chimpman 03-13-06, 01:57 PM	PS: Can anyone explain to me how these seals work that trap the Daelkyr ? I've read that unlike the Rajahs the Dealkyr are not bound and roam free in the depths of Khyber. So how does this work, are they trapped in a cave (be it a bit oversimplified) with no access to the surface world ? It's been a while since T've taken a look at the Dealkyr statblock but as powerfull beings don't they have means to escape such an environment ? My understanding on this is limited, but this is the way I've always thought about the situation. The Rajahs are actually trapped within Khyber itself. In a sense they have merged with the very fabric of "the Dragon Below". Some can percieve the world in a limited sense, but they can't really physically manipulate it. In this case the "Seal" that keeps the demons in check is in great part the sacrifice that the couatls made long ago. One physical manifestation of this Seal is the Silver Flame. The dealkyr on the other hand, are actually physically trapped within the bounds of Khyber. They maintain their own physical bodies, but are prevented from leaving the boundries of Khyber by Seals placed there by the Gatekeepers. IIRC the Explorers Handbook has an example of an ancient Dhakaani/Gatekeeper Seal. This means that there might be vast daelkyr ruled kingdoms below the earth, but that the daelkyr can't leave them. - More powerfull Abberations (Possibly a Mindflayer) is working the minds of the cultists, he has his own plans and here we get a possible conflict between the demons (Raziels) interests and those of the Cult/Mindflayer/Some Dealkyr OverLord. -->> This point needs heavy work !!! <<-- The key to pulling this off is going to be finding some kind of common goal for both parties (demons and aberrations). Let's take your sword/shard idea from before and try to build on that. What do we know about the sword/shard? - The khyber shard that forms the blade of the sword holds a powerful Rakshasa Rajah, and thus eminates a great evil (possibly one of the causes of the evil under Blackstone). - The Rajah was imprisoned in the shard by the dragon/coautl alliance at the end of the Age of Demons. - As such the shard could not have originally been a sword since neither dragons nor couatls use swords. So why was the shard shaped like a sword? A possible answer: We can assume that the Dhakaani were pushed to their limits during their fight with the daelkyr. They would have jumped at the chance of acquiring any weapon capable of fighting this implacable foe. So one of the Lords of Dust lets them know about the Rajah Shard. Dhakaani wizard-smiths forge the shard into a great sword. Now let's assume that not only did the sword play a large role in defeating one or more of the dealkyr, but it is also instrumental in keeping them trapped in the depths of Khyber. Think of it as a "key" to one of the Great Seals. It's power is what keeps the Seal intact and what keeps the dealkyr trapped in Khyber. We're using one evil to fight another. Now we have something - an artifact that both the LoD and daelkyr might desire... but for entirely different purposes. Raziel wants the shard so that she can siphon it's power off for her own nefarious goals. Perhaps at some point she might even want to destroy the shard and free the Rajah trapped within. Note that she has a problem with this: Once the shard is destroyed, the daelkyr trapped below will be freed. This might not be such a big deal for a Rakshasa Rajah to handle, but then again it might. If the dealkyr are freed and can somehow open up a link to Xoriat again, then even the Rajahs might have problems handling them. The daelkyr spawn, on the other hand, want to remove the shard or somehow use it to break the Seal holding their master. They would not want the shard destroyed, and would not want the Rajah freed. If this happened it would be yet one more problem for their masters to overcome. So now you have an artifact that both parties will want. They may actually work together at some point, but they won't want the other party to succeed fully in their task. Perhaps the illithids know the exact location of the shard, but can't get to it because the Dhakaani have been trained for millenia to fight their kind. Raziel has the means to acquire the shard, but not the means to find it - it is hidden from her searching by ancient dragon magic - so she needs the illithids to help her.
Hola 03-13-06, 03:09 PM	Wow someone give me premisson to steal these ideas, now it all looks good so far but I was thinking of expanding even more on the political side. Perhaps the quori have sent agents in to see if they can manipulate the power struggle to help in the weakening of aundair, perhaps the deathgaurd have sent in a uhnit to take care of this new breed of undead but have themselves become corrupt and are killing villigars and travellers at night, yet anouther thing for the demon to worry about, perhaps their attacks are being confused with the local cults. Or Breland has sent in some dark lanterns to chek out the new nobles. Also if your party is going to do a dungeon romp through the mines I suggest throwing in a couple of advanced earth wispers (races of stone), I've found that they can wreak havok if played right (Besides haveing evil goastly earth elementals seems to make perfect sense for this place). Sorry if this dosn't help Its all off the top of my head. be careful of my spelling, its dangerous :)
Setherial 03-13-06, 03:30 PM	Ok I think you are on to something here, the only thing that doesn't make sense is if the servants of the Daelkyr know where the sword is then why don't they get it and use it. Maybe they can't touch it because it would consume them and they need a demon to use it, so why haven't they led her to it yet ? The question is why would the demon help them once she aquired the sword, the sword is a very powerfull item, and once she has it they no longer have anything to bargen with. It sounds like the abberations are in a position to use the demon and not vice verca.... Would work better if the demon had leverage over the abberations, through a magic mirror she contacts a Mindflayer and gives him orders, like mining and bringing khyber shards to the surface. By creating the mine Raziel dug a tunnel in the rock of Dragons Tooth deep enough to reach the fissure that leads to Khyber, a path that was previously blocked by the mountain. The Mindflayer does Raziels bidding but only for so long, already he is putting a plan in motion to overthrow Raziel and get what he wants. He'll work the minds of the cultists as well as the minds of the players while they sleep, he'll try to sway them over to his side (I have a sorcerer among my players who might be persuaded to become a Dealkyr worshipper by the promise of power). Lets say Raziel already has the sword, it is unlikely that both key (sword) and Dealkyr seal were in the same place anyway so she got it from somewhere else and is using it's power. She makes contact with a Mindflayer promising him to free his master if he mines shards for her (she has no plans of freeing this Dealkyr but she gains great wealth and fame and her town quickly grows as does her political power). The Mindflayer doesn't trust Raziel to ever give up the key to break the seal but she did open a passage to Kybher and is giving him other options, while his minions drag shards to the mine he is working the minds of the surface dwellers. Once he gets the key (sword) to break the seal he will still need to get past the Dhakaani who guard it, he might need powerfull mortals (misguided heroes) to help him accomplish this. The only regrettable thing is we missed out on Raziel getting the sword in the first place which would be a great adventure in its own rights. Ofcourse discovering the sword in Raziels treasury, a sword they had dreams about (send to them by the mindflayer), a sword so powerfull that no mortal should be allowed to wield it, and possibly be tricked into using it to free a Dealkyr will make a great adventure. Also the sword is a great tool to introduce here as I can use it in future games as well, an item like that is a magnet for all who yearn for power. It will be fought over for many centuries to come. The bonds that hold the Rajah might be too strong for even the Lords of Dust to shatter, but now that the sword has surfaced the power of the Rajah has been greatly enhanced and it whispers are luring, tempting, seducing...
Setherial 03-13-06, 03:54 PM	Wow someone give me premisson to steal these ideas, now it all looks good so far but I was thinking of expanding even more on the political side Yeb I would like that but using the dreaming dark migth be taking it over the top. There are already a lot of supernatural elements involved and I would like to have more mundane players dragged into it. The players should feel like there is a political struggle going on at first before they are dragged into a web of madness and the demonic. Groups so far: Major players: GateKeepers: they are fighting the abberation threat, their starting attitude is hostile at first but they can be talked to Cultists of the Dragon Below: starting attitude hostile Dhakaani Seal Guardians: starting attitude unfriendly to hostile Lords of Dust: Basically just Raziel, starting attitude is indifferent which changes depending on the actions of the players and how she might abuse them. Minor players: Blood of Vol: they are there just to start a church, attitude: friendly Zilargo gnomes and possibly the Trust: they want a piece of the pie, starting attitude is indifferent Knights of the Silver Flame: since one of my players is leading them they play a part but their mission is to gather evidence of a demonic or alien threat without taking action that might lead to political tension between Aundair and Thrane. Once they have evidence they are to return to Flamekeep. ok who else might be involved, is there room for any of the houses ? I guess there will be some wealthy dragon shard merchants in town. House Cannith might be shopping in Blackstone as well...
Rechan 03-13-06, 04:17 PM	If Raziel is trying to get the city to grow, she's definitely going to court the Houses. The more Enclaves she gets in Blackstone the more money pours into the town's coffers, the more people come in because the economy is blooming. House Thurashk will likely want to get a piece of the shard pie. As the place builds, perhaps a Sivis outpost, and an Orien outpost.
Setherial 03-14-06, 02:11 AM	If Raziel is trying to get the city to grow, she's definitely going to court the Houses. The more Enclaves she gets in Blackstone the more money pours into the town's coffers, the more people come in because the economy is blooming. House Thurashk will likely want to get a piece of the shard pie. As the place builds, perhaps a Sivis outpost, and an Orien outpost. indeed :)
ChaoticGood 07-02-06, 05:16 PM	One problem with this adventure is adaptability to someone else's campaign. Obviously, not every party has been deeded a keep, much less retired a character to maintain it. So here are some ideas for working this into another campaign. If you are running the standard modules, particularly Whispers of the Vampire's Blade, the owner of the keep could be a brother of the Aundairan diplomat encountered in Trolanport. She may remember the party as troublemakers, but that's just what she needs right now. Her brother has married some unknown woman and she needs bodyguards to accompany her to his keep and put an end to this nonsense before it disgraces the family. You could also choose a patron from an earlier adventure who has used the power and wealth they gained for him through their adventures to secure a title for himself. They should receive the invitation to come see his new place and meet his new bride while they are busy with another adventure, thus leaving a space of a month or more between the invitation and the party actually showing up.
Zuj 07-03-06, 03:28 PM	Wow, a lot of good ideas in here. Here are my two cents: Be careful using all of these major groups. To be honest, I think your players might be a little overwhelmed with all these major power players muscling in on the same area. You have a lot of good leads, but keep in mind quality over quantity is key. I would toss out some of the people who don't seem to be as important, or that you could do without, like the Trust, Blood of Vol, and even maybe the Seal Guardians (they could show up at a later time in the campaign, after this sword has been unearthed). Also, I would have the Knights of the Silver Flame remain small in number. I would get some extra clearance from the usual DM to use all of this stuff, as it will undoubtedly have a HUGE effect on his/her campaign to come.