Post/Author/DateTime	Post
fukifino 08-08-07, 01:51 PM	I'm starting up a new, small game with 2 of my friends. Since we're short on players for this one, we're trying out the gestalt rules and a few other things (both will have Swordsage as one of their gestalt tracts.) After poking around at some ideas, we've settled on a pair of Cormanthor elves, part of one of the small communities who stayed behind after the Retreat. Given that the elves have such long lives, I thought I'd try something different. I'm going to start the campaign about 50 years ago, either right as the Retreat is beginning or shortly after it started, and move the game forward in jumps and spurts, stopping for brief mini-stories/adventures at various points in history. This will hopefully give them between 3 and 6 levels by the time the "real" campaign starts near the present timeline. Once the "real" campaign starts I might dip them into some of the Hillsfar and beyond portions of Mysteries of the Moonsea, or maybe the new Shadowdale adventure, but as they've expressed an interest in the ideas of being kingmakers of a sort (something we rarely explore) I also considered the possibility of something very radical: reclaiming part(s) of Myth Drannor. I've never done anything so bold in one of my games and thought it might be fun with this small group. Aaaaanyways, I was wondering if anyone had any information on certain things during the Flash Forward portion of the story. Some things I'd like to touch on: -Have the players travel to Hillsfar before it gets taken over by the current corrupt regime. Perhaps even at its founding? (Need to find out the date on this event.) Will provide an interesting dichotomy for when they travel there later and see how much it's changed. -Time of Troubles? I'm thinking about running a small arc during the Avatar Crisis, but I was wondering if anyone can point me at some information on where the elven pantheon made their homes during this time. Unfortunately, those are the only 2 solid ideas I have (short of some RP sessions to explore their community.) I'd like to explore some themes of elven longevity by giving them some encounters with humans who will eventually die of old age and perhaps the PC's will befriend their children. And if there are any other large scale events anyone can think of that would reach the ears of the elves left in Cormanthor I'd appreciate any reminders. A lot of it might just be background noise as they go about their daily lives but I want them to have a true sense of having lived through all these crazy events of the last 50 years or so. Any thoughts appreciated. :)
Nivek_kpk 08-08-07, 02:04 PM	- perhaps toss in stuff from the Azure Bonds? I know you can pickup the PDF for purchase in various places around the web, and Moander (sp?) did ingest a massive swath of forest. - I think the Time of Troubles would be pretty cool, but they don't HAVE to meet an avatar right? maybe they just experience some crazy magic or some such event. - Perhaps coming to the aid of the adventurers that freed Shadowdale from the drow? - Hear about the Crusade lead by Azoun to defeat the Tuigan? I know they recruited soldiers from a ton of different sources. All in all, I think that's a cool idea, but you'll have to get your players to use their suspenders of disbelief as they will more then likely not gain XP from year to year...
fukifino 08-08-07, 02:12 PM	-Azure Bonds, yes I had forgotten about that. That's tied in with the Moander stuff, right? I'll admit that's one of the novels/adventures I never actually read back in the day, dispite it being one of the iconic stories. I did mean to touch on the Moander event, perhaps I'll try to find that PDF. -And no, they definately don't have to meet an Avatar. I'd prefer they didn't. But if one of them plopped down in Semberholme, for example, it'd be hard to avoid, so I just want to check cannon on this one. ;) -The retaking of the Twisted Tower is a good call. Are there any adventures or any more information about this event? If not, I'll probably send them off on some tangentenial target (since they will still be low level anyways.) As for the suspension of disbelief, this actually counteracts the normal problem with elves in that your character starts at 1st level when he's 50 or 100 years old. This basically gives them a string of small adventures over a long period of time that would normally happen in the background, before character creation. So in a way, it makes *more* sense than your typical elf adventurer. :D Thanks for the ideas!
msatran 08-08-07, 06:15 PM	Let Myth Drannor rot. Crusade? Stuff it. Let them all die at the hands of the demons. Let your PC's save the day. It's certainly more plausible than the endless rain of Unholy Blights that would kill the entire elven army they sent in there.
Calmar 08-08-07, 07:28 PM	Just in case the Retreat is not the actual beginning of your stories... 1339 (Year of the Weeping Moon) - some guy called Aumrir is killed and another lad called Jyordhan becomes Lord of Shadowdale. Dunno who this Aumrir is, but these events could prove to be fertile ground for adventures, as Jyordhan seems to be a badass. 1340 (Year of the Lion) - Battle of the River Rising in Featherdale between Sembian and Cult of the Dragon forces; death of the wizard Mhzentul. Bam! That's something big to work with, isn't it? Guess there's knights and dragons aplenty. Yeah, ok, elves and sembians aren't the best match, but it's a historical battle... 1344 (Year of Moonfall) - Retreat of the elves from Cormanthor begins. Just for some thirty years. Oh, these unsteady elves... 1346 (Year of the Bloodbird) - Jaulothan Marlyx and two beholders appear in the center of the city of Arrabar and blast most of the city into ruins before the mage is torn apart by a tanar'ri summoned by deseperate local mages. Jaulothan had the Black Book of Beshaba during this time but it was lost in the confusion after this incident. Sounds interesting. Maybe from a novel, or so. I don't know anything about this event. 1347 (Year of the Bright Blade) - Zhentil Keep forces, allied with an orc horde, destroy Hulberg for the final time. Finally Hulberg get's what it deserves. Where there's Zhents and orcs, there's heroes to oppose them. ;)
Nivek_kpk 08-09-07, 07:53 AM	msatran I refer not to the Elven Crusade, but to the Crusade depicted within the Horde Trilogy, whereupon Azoun unites various forces in a grand alliance to defeat the Tuigan horde (essentially the Mogols.)
dragonheart 08-10-07, 08:41 AM	Other events you might include or use are the Fall of Teshendale (taken over by Zhentil Keep) and the various arrivals of the Drow into Cormanthor during the retreat. If you pick things up a bit Earlier (@1372 DR) and they are high enough levels they might lead a larger party of NPCs through the City of the SpiderQueen adventure.