Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Doom Crow 04-21-04, 01:54 PM	Hello chaps & chapettes, First, let me fill you in on some of the details of the campaign which I have constructed. My player characters include the following: Feral Volodni Barbarian Human Cleric\Stormlord of Talos Half-Drow Mage\Candlecaster Human (Major Devil BL) Hexblade\Paladin of Tyranny Half Gloaming\Half Black Dragon Ranger (Archery Style) Human (lycanthrope BL) Rogue\Teflammar Shadowmaster Elven Vampire Wizard Yes, they are all evil, some are NE but most are CE. I decided to have everyone start out at ECL 9, with 8th level character wealth. The vampire came in later and since everyone was levels higher than what they started out at, I let him start at ECL 10. Now for the campaign itself. It is set in the Vilhon Reach, an area that is a first both for me and my players. I've been at this as a DM for 8 years now, but haven't done a campaign south of the Sea of Fallen Stars until now. Go figure. Anyway, in order to try and keep the party from being wiped out completely like evil PC groups tend to do when they plot and scheme to kill one another, I established a relatively common link for my players to give their characters when they created them. I left this common thread up to them to decide, and they chose religion. 4 out of the 7 in the party worship Talos, and the party's leader is the Sotrmlord. The others are with the group either because they've been hired or because they have motivations and goals which are parallel to those of the Talos worshippers. The basic plot of the campaign is set around Talos. On Mount Andrus, a semi active volcano near Turmish, lies a Temple to Talos. There, a small sect of his priests guard the Eye of Talos, which is literally Talos' eye. Since it is no longer part of his divine body, the eye has since crystallized, but it is still a major artifact and possesses great powers. Recently, however, one of the priests charged with guarding the Eye has stolen it and escaped into the Vilhon Reach. To make things worse for Talos, this priest has since been roaming the Vilhon claiming to be Talos' divine emissary, and has been preaching of a reform of the church. He has been spouting blasphemies, claiming that Talos' dogma has been misunderstood all of these years, and that he is actually really a wild nature deity like Silvanus or Eldath. This heretic has also been quelling earthquakes and thunderstorms, supposedly with the power of the Eye, in junction with the preaching of his sacriledge. As a result, Talos has summoned some of his most devout followers (the PCs) and charged them with the task of tracking down this heretic, killing him, returning his Eye to Mount Andrus, and find out what exactly turned one of his priests from the true faith of Talos. What the PCs DON'T know, however, is the real reason why this priest has done what he's done. They just think he's either insane or something. What's actually going on, however, is something much more devious. Mask actually possessed the Eye, and has been speaking telepathically with this priest while he was at the temple, posing as Talos and feeding him everything that the PCs view as mad delusions. The priest actually believes what he is doing is the will of Talos, and does what Mask leads him to believe is the correct way of action. Mask has possessed magic items and artifacts before so this is not uncommon for him to do, especially for the purpose he has in mind. He knows that there are people coming to find his little pawn, so he has been using his alter reality ability to implant memories into the minds of people in various places all around the Vilhon Reach, making them believe that they have seen this Priest\Heretic and know where he has gone, creating a false trail for his pursuers to follow in order to buy him time to accomplish what he wants his pawn, as well as those pursuing him to accomplish. Now, this Heretic is in Chondath, and hasn't been moving all around the Vilhon reach like the Pcs think he is. He is trying to preach to the Chondathans, which is really stirring up hatred from the local Temples of Cyric. The Cyricists believe now that the ruler of Chondath has embraced Talos as the nation's patron, and thus try to assassinate him. The Heretic assists the ruler in staving off the assassins, killing a good number of Cyric worshippers. This causes Cyric to take on a rivalry with Talos as their followers start to clash. Talos is at an obvious disadvantage, because he is being drawn into a confrontation that he did not wish to start, all because of this renegade priest. So eventually when the PCs venture into Chondath and find a feud between the Cyric and Talos worshippers going on, they will tip the scales and their actions will ignite a Holy war between the two sides. Why is Mask doing this? To get back at Talos and Cyric, to put it simply. They both got on his bad side; Mask lost a lot of power to Cyric because of the Cryinishad thing and Talos for what transpired at the Trial of Cyric. He's also trying to earn back the portfolios he lost to Cyric, using deception to pit the two sides against one another so he can sneak in and take back what is his. Ok, now for the PCs role in the campaign, so far. Thus far, they haven't done a darn's worth of advancement in this plot. The campaign started out in Nimpeth, which was the party's gathering point. Everyone but the Hexblade, Shadowmaster and the Vampire were introduced into the campaign. The three mentioned came in a bit later on. I started the campaign in 1371, a year before the present year in the FR timeline. We played this session out as a flashback, to flesh out the characters' relationship with one another and how they all were assembled. this flashback just so happened to fall a few days before Midsummer, and so my players decided to celebrate it only how Talos worshippers know how. They started a slave rebellion in the city and armed them all once they fought their way to the armory. They lit fire to the famous Nimpeth vineyards, and so a good portion of the city was in flames. The low level mercenary army used as fodder for the city-state's defense were all killed when the Mage used Cloudkill in a bottle-neck area of the city, and to make a long story short they decimated half of the city. They decided to head across the Vilhon after this and hide out in the mountains for a year, which ended the flashback and started the campaign a year later. Since the start of present time, they have attacked Hlondeth and attempted to murder the Yuan-ti Halfblood royals (without success), and destroyed the city of Lheshayl with the help of a lizardfolk army they conscripted from Surkh after killing their king. The Shadowmaster has been using his cohorts and followers to scout the region and track down the Heretic (on the false trail set up by Mask), which is the only part of the campaign so far that relates to the main plot. Because of the blatant destructiont hey've caused, I sent a number of NPC groups to try and capture and\or kill the party. I've used adventuring groups of Lathander & Helm's devotion, each party made up of 5 members, all 9-12th lvl) but the Pcs killed them off already. There are other hunting them as well but they haven't found them yet. The Party also has a base of operations, hidden int he mountains north of Hlondeth, an abandoned Abbey of the Sword. They took a number of slaves from their incursion of Nimpeth to act as guards and whatnot, and have multiple spells guarding the stronghold. There are also several portals beneath the temple that lead to places like the High Forest, Darkhold, a mountain north of Waterdeep, and one they have not yet discovered which is sealed. They've sealed up all the tunnels down there with Stone Shape spells, as well as warded it with spells. So far I've been able to have limited success when I have caught them off guard or split in their numbers (meaning they got messed up but only in minor doses), but when the PCs prepare for an assault they can't be stopped. I'm trying to figure out ways to give them a real challenge without them complaining to me about stacking the deck against them. I have sewn a few seeds of dissent, though. I have had two separate NPCs go to two of the player characters separately and offer them large amounts of gold to turn in the rest of the party for their crimes. Of course they aren't going to pay them, but they don't know that. So far it seems to be working. Recently during their assault on Lheshayl I had a red dragon spying on them, and he sent out his thief to pocket some of their items for him. He has in his service an Ethereal Filcher who knows the good magic items from the dinky ones, and he took a few weapons and items from the party and escaped back to the dragon's lair. One of the PCs tracked him down, but the players got very upset with me for stealing their magic items, and a big argument ensued. How can I be the devil's advocate and score a blow for the good guys without evoking these kinds of responses? Does anyone have any advice on where I should take the campaign? Any plot ideas, ways to make this campaign more interesting for my players?
tnewton 04-22-04, 01:04 AM	I just started an Evil campaign and it's more difficult than I expected. Partially do to my lack of experience running games, and partially do to the lack of modules availible for an evil campaign My players are also varied in ages. Anyway, it requires the DM to be a little more creative to make it fun for everyone. The first session plot was about the players returning silver swords to Githyanki. Evil is as Evil does. They declined to surrender them. Needles to say, the campaign nearly ended then and there (Some of the Githyanki had the half-dragon template). The players didn't respond to my plot-line as expected. Hence, the seventh rule of dungeoncraft "Running a good D&D campaign is about building a world, not about building a story (Dragon Magsazine issue 293)" Since then I ask a lot more questions about what my players want and try to have a couple NPCs around to either help or challenge them. We are in the Pirate Isles where I've been running some adventures from Dungeon Magazine. I'm also flushing out some of the groups expectations. Ive aslo been talking with party members in sub groups because evil characters do like to fight each other. Why should PCs argue with the DM about a NPC stealing magic items when evil characters are happy to steal from each other. Anyway, I think having a Filcher working for a dragon is cool. Where would D&D be without dragons. Perhaps the dragon could send the players on a quest to fetch a magic item the Filcher couldn't get. They get their items back as a reward and then some. Tie in what the dragon wants to be from the temple of Talos or Mask, maybe give the dragon a couple cleric of Tiamat levels and your right on track with the Evil Diety Themes opposing each others. Plans within plans, sort out the details later. In any case, Sooner or later the characters will betray the dragon or the dragon will betray them. Good Luck
Dagda Mor 04-22-04, 03:08 AM	Sorry if this post seems rushed; I tried posting it once before and ended up losing the whole thing. I only have 1.5 years of experience to your 8, and no real experience with evil campaigns. Evil players, yes, but not campaigns. However, I have a few ideas: If you want to include more deception, have Mask convince the duped cleric that the "old church" is the one being deceived. The cleric may even try to warn the "misguided fanatics" of the deception before he attacks them. Mask could send a rival stealth-oriented party that, while maybe not as quite as powerful as the party, is very smart. They wouldn't attack the party head-on, but would wait for opportunities to harass and kill the party; say, after a harsh encounter. This might work best if the party knows about this party and knows that they have to be extra-careful. They could also use deception to put the party at each other's throats. The spell Translocation Trick (MoF) could be quite handy here. There are various other ways to up the ante; you could have powerful organizations or churches get involved. Other small touches such as thinaun weapons (Complete Warrior, they suck out the soul and prevent rezzing) have worked for me. One anti-trashing measure I'm trying is to have several factions with a custom-built NPC or two be present. They're about the same level as the PCs, and most can easily be friends or enemies. But if the PCs get too destructive, they may find they've made too many enemies. . . At any rate, you seem to be a very good DM who has created a great story that shouldn't go to waste. I tend to be decent at this, except for making it so that the PCs are aware of the plot in the first place.
Monsoon28 04-22-04, 07:24 AM	To start I really like your plot! Of coarse I like Mask and the Vilhon Reach area so that helps! ;) Remind them first that they've made some pretty big splashes and it is this that that has brought the attention of so many others from Bounty Hunter and Paladins to a Red Dragon look at their potential loot. They are not Thief-proof! Keep doing what your doing! Maybe left them know just HOW MUCH they're wanted with big postings with large Rewards for their apprehension posted in Taverns, Inns and such. Don't be afraid to stack the decks against them, if they;re smart they can still retreat! I say start bringing in groups of Paladins/Clercis of Tyr to work with the Lathanderites and Helmites. Justice must be served! Otherwise It sounds like you've been doing a good job, keep it up! Besides are they using Divinations to help in their search? Cheers...
Doom Crow 04-22-04, 12:20 PM	Thank you all for the tips so far. Well, I did create a group of NPC Tyr worshipers who were charged with hunting down the party for their crimes, The Just Knights. I haven't introduced them into the campaign yet. The Helmites, or the Companions of the One True Vision as they are named, have been wiped out by the PCs, save for their cleric and the Ftr\Sorc\Arcane Archer. They, along with the Dawnbringers of Lathander, were working together along with a Harper\Emerald Enclave alliance to stop the PCs. The Emerald Enclave druids were scrying on the party based on first hand descriptions (i forgot to mention that the party slew an EE druid in Nimpeth as he arrived to investigate the disturbance), and the two groups would then teleport in on the party and catch them off guard. Well, they were underground, beneath the party's stronghold when it all went down. The Dawnbringers had chased the party through a portal, and the party had no choice but to blow up the tunnel leading from the portal to the main area where the staircase to their stronghold led. It was then that the Companions teleported in after viewing this via scrying. On the map there was a deep pit, about 200 feet deep, and when the Companions teleported in, the Sotrmlord cast Sleet Storm on them, and then moved around and cast Gust of Wind, blowing them along the ice right into the pit. The Cleric got off a Plane Shift spell with the Archer holding onto him, and the others survived the fall, but the Feral Barbarian started hurling boulders from the tunnel collapse into the pit and the Mage used his Staff of Fire to finish them off. The next day when the Dawnbringers Stone Shaped their way through the collapsed tunnel, they ran into Glyphs of Warding that messed them up, and then the Stormlord and barbarian leapt down the staircase and slaughtered them. After the battle they stripped their items and then animated their corpses, preventing them from ever being raised. It's extremely hard to get them into challenging combat. The Stormlord, if he has enough time to prepare and spell up to cast Righteous Might, Divine Favor, Freedom of Movement, and a few others I can't remember that give him an effective Strength in the 30's. So yeah, it's tough coming up with challenges, and when all is said and done the combat lasts less than 10 rounds most of the time. I did have them see a wanted poster when they were at a Tavern in Hlondeth. The Stormlord and the Hexblade saw that there was a 2,000gp\head bounty on them, with an additional 1,000 gp\head if they were captured alive and brought o Nimpeth for trial and execution. They started talking to the barkeep about this and he mentioned he had family in Nimpeth who died. After further questioning they found he had no more family left, and so the Stormlord decided to make him a drink, because he felt sympathetic. After a successful diplomacy check, he agreed, handing the cleric the strongest stuff he had, which the cleric asked for. The Stormlord, after getting the bottle, proceeded to smash it over the barkeep's head and then lit him on fire with a tindertwig he had at the ready.. They then ran out of the tavern and Ice Storm'ed the building, killing everyone inside. That's to give you a small picture of just how random and destructive these characters are.. Just imagine what I gotta think up to keep them entertained lol. Oh, and the Filcher\Dragon idea I got from the 'Nasty Surprises' section of Random Encounters on the Wizards website.. They get the credit for that one, it was a good idea.
Monsoon28 04-22-04, 06:04 PM	Yup Gotta love ethereal filtchers! Used one once when I did some 3E DM'ing about two years ago. Party really hated it But I loved keeping them on their toes! :cool: Ahhh good I was thinking of Bring up the Emerald Enclave but wasn't to sure about it, but with one of their own murdered I can see them getting more involved!
Doom Crow 04-26-04, 02:01 PM	Ok, to update you on the dragon situation.. The Stormlord had cast control weather before the siege of Lheshayal, and the duration is a good 22 hours. After the attack, he got word about the dragon and decided to go off alone to deal with it. Yes, alone. Since there was a storm centered on him he could fly about at will, and so he mosied his way the three miles to the dragon's lair (a mature adult red dragon). As he arrived outside he casts Fortunate Fate, which Heals him as the spell if he is ever brought to the brink of death. He starts calling down after the dragon, goading his ego by insulting him until he comes shooting out of the top of his lair. He snatches the Stormlord in his jaws, but then the Stormlord ups the winds of the storm from his Control Weather spell to 174mph hurricane force, and blows the dragona nd himself away. As they are being blown away, the dragon points downward and uses its breath weapon to blow the human out of its mouth, effectively killing him since he gets no reflex save when he's in the dragon's jaws when it uses the breath weapon. The fortunate fate spell kicks in as he's freefalling and the dragon is still being blown away, and so he flies back tot he beast's lair in mist form from casting Wind Walk. He Wracks the Ethereal Filcher when he takes solid form again, demanding it bring him the items it stole. After the spell ends it retrieves the items from the dragon's hoard, which is walled off completely from where the dragon lives, and can only be reached by etherealness or stone shape spells, which the filcher and the dragon can do. After he comes back, the cleric Heartclutches the little guy and takes his corpse back him as he Word of Recalls. The draon was held at bay because he couldn't penetrate the winds, which extended out in a 2 mile radius from the cleric. That also got the Emerald Enclave angry because those winds were enough to uproot trees easily. So I decided to bring in the mercenary group sent by the Queen of Hlondeth after these guys now, as they had been on their trail and were closing in. They met in the PCs stronghold, trying to get the jump on them. Now, I want you to get a clear mental picture of the kind of firepower my players' party has. They went up against the following group: Human 12th level cleric of Cyric Elven 15th level Psion (Nomad) Mummy 7th Cleric of Cyric, 6th Monk Yuan-Ti Pureblood 3 Ranger\5 Assassin, Archery combat style Half-Fiend Gargoyle 10th Barbarian They killed every member of the group except for the Psion, who had Teleport Trigger activated on her and was teleported away to their base with -1 hps, where the Mummy's followers attended to her before she died. They took the Barbarian right out of the battle with Doomtide, and he was dazed the entire duration (14 rounds). Three of the PCs were brought down to low hps (in the 20s), and only ONE died, the Half Drow mage who the Psion made insane and was later picked off by the archer. The Stromlord still had well over 60 hps at the end of the battle, and the Volodni Barbarian had about 130 hps left. This was the most challenging battle they had to date, but it still wasn't a match for them. So yeah, I have no clue of what to throw at them next, short of having the three Chosen of Silvanus, Miliekki and Eldath trying to kill them for destroying the ecosystem around the Vilhon Reach. And that would just be overkill lol... Anybody got any ideas? Dungeons, monsters?