Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Cranewings 04-18-08, 12:24 AM	In my game I have two powerful NPC wizards. This is a low level world. The King is 10th level. His son is 10th. The head of the church is 8th. The Dukes are 7th. The player characters are all 5th, there are 6 of them. There are two wizards of note. There is the King's Abjurer, who is really a Necromancer. He is 17th level. There is another wizard who is a Transmuter. He is 16th level. The Transmuter never learned Divination but can cast Polymorph Self at will. He travels everywhere and constantly adventures because he has to see for himself. The Necromancer has started a war between his nation and the vastly superior orc nation to the north. The war started 4 years ago and about a third of the nation is overrun with orcs or sickness. This winter the Necromancer's plan will come to fruition. He is going to cast a spell on the Solstice that will affect all the recent dead. Right now it is the begining of spring. The Transmuter was trapped in the spirit world for the last four years, along with the party. Everyone just returned. So this is my question: What are the two wizards doing now? The Transmuter, I rule, can evade divination with his magic, but he can't cast it either. The country is mostly rural and the necromancer has minions in all of the five cities. I'd like to think they could exist in some kind of stalemate, where neither can afford to use much magic for fear of the other one coming down hard while he is weak. The Transmuter had a plan in the past to take over the country, and while he is evil, he wouldn't have wished for this. Any ideas on what happens next?
Cranewings 04-18-08, 12:33 AM	Also, if anyone wants to be real involved cause they are real bored, my live journal link goes to my game log.
Dash Branaghan 04-18-08, 01:46 AM	It sounds almost like Jedi hunting in a sense...I have this image of Darth Vader (Necromancer) looking for Yoda (Transmuter) and Yoda is using the dark cave in Empire to hide his connection to the Light Side of the Force. Okay, enough of that. I'm not sure entirely what you're looking for to be honest. If you don't want the NPC wizards doing battle yet, then don't sweat it. Though it could lead to a showdown a la Star Wars where Transmuter gets dusted and the PCs witness it but must escape because said Necro is too powerful and... Don't ask me why I'm on a Star Wars kick right now...I don't rightly know myself. Anyway, for the Necromancer to cast this major spell, maybe he needs certain items. The transmuter doesn't want to be caught weak so casting powerful spells might be out of the question, but RESEARCHING seems to be in this particular NPCs character. Since he doesn't want to waste his magic (maybe he needs it to counter the spell the Necro is going to cast?), he has the PCs to do his fighting for him - assuming they even know that he's a high level Transmuter. So he needs to find out what the Necro is up to if he hasn't already, get the PCs to help him do that, then thwart him by catching whatever item of power is needed etc... In the end, he doesn't fight because he has these pawns...err...PCs to do his work for him. So he is trying to stop the Necro but not until he is assured the victory...and letting that spell get cast will prevent that from happening. Is that sort of what you were looking for?
Cranewings 04-18-08, 01:50 AM	Dash, that is perfect, I can sleep now. I just couldn't think of that for some reason. Of course the Necromancer is preparing for the ritual and of course the Transmuter is keeping it on the low, trying to figure out what the spell will do, and is looking for a way to counter it. Sense they are both amoral, involving themselves in the war isn't high on the list of important things to do. Being 6-7 levels higher than the next best person in the nation, they could really affect a war fought over five cities with less than 10,000 men per side. I'd rather them not take part in it too much.
Entropy_Judge 04-18-08, 01:56 AM	Hrmm. Have you read The Drawing of the Dark? It's not terribly important, it's just that it had a part about two high-level wizards being in close proximity (and, since it's historical fantasy, pretty much everyone is low-level). Basically, the closer the two archmagi were to each other, the lower power the spells they were restricted to, though this didn't affect hedge-wizards and such, or lower level spells. For example, if the two Wizards fought directly, they might be limited to spells of fourth level or lower, at least until one of them was significantly weakened, or something, so they'd need lower-level lackeys (undead, NPCs, PCs, etc). Basically, it'd run down to the Transmuter finding out about the Necro's ritual, and racing to get near enough to disrupt the ritual's taking place, and staying alive long enough that the Necro would have to wait for the next appropriate time, whenever that would be. The PCs would probably be engaged with defending the Trans, or locating and taking down the Necro (though if they do this when the Trans is still alive, I'd let the Necro have access to all his abilities unless the Trans is in the same room, or similarly close).
Cranewings 04-18-08, 09:21 AM	Entropy Judge, that is kinda cool. The idea is that there isn't enough magic to go around? I like it. Seriously, it is pretty dynamic.
Entropy_Judge 04-18-08, 09:26 AM	I think the idea in the book was more like two similarly charged magnets repelling each other, but it's been so long since I've read it that I don't recall. Man, why'd I have to get it for my sister instead of keeping it for myself?
Cranewings 04-18-08, 09:29 AM	I don't have to worry about shared intrests with my siblings... I do steal my dad's books and mags a lot though. That is a better way of putting it, the magnet thing.
Dash Branaghan 04-18-08, 10:25 AM	I do steal my dad's...mags a lot though. I used to as well when I was younger until my Dad got me my own subscription to Playboy. :D
iserith 04-18-08, 10:28 AM	Don't ask me why I'm on a Star Wars kick right now...I don't rightly know myself. A gamer on a Star Wars kick? That must be a first. ;)
Cranewings 04-18-08, 12:47 PM	I run a science fiction game pretty often, and CONSTANTLY have players trying to look like Jedi. Normally everyone in a science fiction game is from one of the following: Tenchi Starwars Macross Xenosaga mmmmmaaabbbeeeyyyy Robotech
lifeblender 04-18-08, 01:08 PM	The Transmuter is in a quandry. The country he cares about is overrun with orcs and sickness. Since the Transmuter wanted to rule this country, it is natural that he would want to do something about this, somehow solidifying his control at the same time. However, on the face of it, anything the Transmuter does to help the country will also help maintain the Necromancer's power and plans for war. The Transmuter would have a very hard time helping the country without helping the Necromancer. Likewise, hindering the Necromancer would most likely hurt the country. This situation would often result in the Transmuter engaging in cloak-and-dagger power games with the Necromancer to try to usurp control along with more direct attempts to turn back the orcs or the sickness. The most logical method is to bribe or mind-control the top generals of the Necromancer's army so that the Transmuter can claim power once the war is won. If the Necromancer has turned them into vampires, or is otherwise employing intelligent undead this might be tricky (because of the undead immunity to mind-affecting abilities). Instead of fighting the invading army, the Transmuter could take the fight to the enemy, invading the orc nation to cut supply lines and cause general havoc. That is not hard for a high level wizard with Greater Teleport and a group of PCs. A third method is to somehow cut off the Necromancer's power source. Hallowing the mass graves of the conflict might do it, since that would prevent the corpses' animation.
Cranewings 04-18-08, 01:59 PM	The spell the Necromancer wants to cast will cause all of the dead from the war on both sides to rise up as an army together. That is, so far, about 7000 warriors. The nation has also lost about 400,000 people to illness so far. Now... a legitimate heavy calvery charge should do a number on a skelleton army. There isn't a lot there in terms of mass or hitpoints to slow a horse down, and sense a skelleton only weighs about as much as a halfling, I give them a -4 to their grappling and trip rolls. Even still, such an army IS world ending. Especially if this same sickness can travel with it. There could be another 100,000 dead from the plague by the end of the year, before the spell is cast. It looks like what I need are a better list of: Orc Generals Necromancer Minions Transmuter Minions (likely to include the player characters) I already have most of the Aquinellan Nobility figured out. Also I need a list of: Things the Necromancer has to accomplish in order for his spell to work. Things the Transmuter can do to take control of the country after this is over. The party is already planning to go to the next nation, an old enemy of Aquinella, and try to get them to send forces to support them. This other Nation, Cerront, has an 11th level Invoker living very near the boarder. I know they want to get his support, which will be difficult sense he is Neutral Evil (like 80% of the nobility) and pretty much hates Aquinella. You are right though. If someone just kills the Necromancer, that doesn't solve the problem of the orcs or the illness. The illness, at least by the Transmuter's logic, is clearly being invoked by some sort of artifact. Finding out the where and what of that is top on his list. Honestly, the orc's don't have much in the way of supply lines. They get reinforcements occasionally, but they have been so successful at plundering as they travel, and can weather the winter by eatting their own dead, that they don't need anything while they fight.
Dash Branaghan 04-18-08, 09:53 PM	Now... a legitimate heavy calvery charge should do a number on a skelleton army. There isn't a lot there in terms of mass or hitpoints to slow a horse down, and sense a skelleton only weighs about as much as a halfling, I give them a -4 to their grappling and trip rolls. Even still, such an army IS world ending. Especially if this same sickness can travel with it. Ah, depends on whether your Necro is stacked with Corpsecrafter Feats from the Libris Mortis. Those might make a difference. :devil: Orc Generals Necromancer Minions Transmuter Minions (likely to include the player characters) Orc Generals? How many do you need? I might also consider, if the Orc community is vastly superior, having other races intermixed - elite fighting units if you will, like Ogres and Trolls (I know, it sounds like WoW but I'm thinking more Tolkien here). Maybe toss in a HobGoblin merc troop as well...hobgoblins like war, don't they? Going back to the Orc Generals - why not have one or two be Paladins (who says Orcs have to be evil? Maybe they are simply a neutral race that got pushed into a war - like World War I - I would be hard pressed to claim any particular country was evil in that) who are cavalry specialists as well - maybe they have PrCs focused on mounted combat. Have a couple of Orc Generals who are Devoted Defender PrCs. And of course a Barbarian with Beserker (and a whole troop of Beserker Orcs)...basically I'm suggesting that your generals be a mix of offensive, defensive and balanced fighting styles under the leadership of one Orc who is one of them. Necromancer Minions - well, undead for the most part, or maybe Renfields and apprentices. You would figure there would be a number of students wanting to learn from the master. Especially if he is a total corpsecrafter here. Transmuter - The PCs and any allies the PCs have. 'Nuff said I think. :D Things the Necromancer has to accomplish in order for his spell to work. Bloodlines are always good for this sort of thing. Maybe among the things he has to do, he has to sacrifice someone of a particular blood line, and the Transmuter discovers this. Then you need to find the identity of and protect that person. That is the PCs job. Perhaps one of the Necromancer's students is sent to take care of that task with a little help from some undead friends. Now, the Transmuter is evil, so odds are he will willingly kill the person to prevent the bloodline from being severed by the Necro. How will the PCs handle this? Especially if the Necro student is beating on the PCs and getting ready to snatch the girl (why not make it a girl, right?) and the Transmuter just blows her away. At this point, the Necro student will leave (killing the PCs is not the mission) and the PCs, banged and bruised, will have to confront the Transmuter who can try to make his point by killing the person. Added Twist - Dash style - the bloodline is not in fact severed since one of the PCs is unknowingly related to the person killed by the Transmuter - later vengeance! Things the Transmuter can do to take control of the country after this is over. What if the Transmuter doesn't take control? What if he makes a deal with the Necro (Contract of Nepthas' are always good for this purpose)? Say you use the above bloodline scenario - WHEN the Transmuter discovers that the given PC is also of the bloodline, he might make an exchange (hmmm...kind like Jack Sparrow with Will Turner from Pirates - oh GAWD I'm geeking out hardcore in this thread) in return for shared power. It is possible. Suddenly the two most powerful characters in your world are allies to the effect that they will wipe out most people (PCs included) and now it is up to the PCs to take them out. Alternately, the Transmuter can always bribe one of the Necro's minions. Perhaps one of the Necros minions is actually a lover of the Transmuter and a planted spy who will assassinate the Necro at the point of casting his major spell - which means the undead created by it are free of all control and just go on a chaotic smash and grab in the country. Oh no...who can stop the rampaging Undead? Or worse...what if the minion kills the Necro at the peak of the spell, but before it is entirely finished, so that the magical rift into the negative energy plane is not fully sealed, and anyone who dies rises again as Undead equal to their HD? Looks like I'm dipping into Army of Darkness now... This other Nation, Cerront, has an 11th level Invoker living very near the boarder. I know they want to get his support, which will be difficult sense he is Neutral Evil (like 80% of the nobility) and pretty much hates Aquinella. Yeah, but Neutral Evil can be manipulated by promises of power. :D You are right though. If someone just kills the Necromancer, that doesn't solve the problem of the orcs or the illness. The illness, at least by the Transmuter's logic, is clearly being invoked by some sort of artifact. Finding out the where and what of that is top on his list. In my world, I created a contagion through a powerful Necromancy cult - now, this contagion made people like living undead (think of the Vampires in Blade 2, but I had my idea before Blade 2 - honest...no really) and could be spread. In this case, maybe your illness was tailored by the Necro or one of his student minions to prepare people to be filled with negative energy. The illness will make you an advanced Undead (ghast or ghoul maybe?) if you're infected by it when the spell is cast, and the rest will simply rise up as whatever. So while the Transmuter thinks it's an artifact, it may not be. That said, if you want it to be an artifact, have it be an artifact in the hands of the Necro that amplifies their nature into the world around them. Since Necros are mostly about death, decay, destruction, entropy, etc...well, illness that causes that is spreading. And preparing people for the ritual to take place. If the Transmuter gets it, well, they are all about form, substance, and change. So maybe the world will start to warp and change form, maybe things will become unstable in appearance or suddenly change style (think cute fluffy bunny being petted by little child in the forest suddenly becoming the Vicious Black Beast of Cahr Banogh and biting said child's head off...yes, Monty Python now...Cranewings, you bring out the movie geek in me). Just some thoughts on the artifact if you go with it. Honestly, the orc's don't have much in the way of supply lines. They get reinforcements occasionally, but they have been so successful at plundering as they travel, and can weather the winter by eatting their own dead, that they don't need anything while they fight. I still like the idea of having the Orcs, once you get to know them, simply be a misunderstood nation. :D You know, like Canada. No one really knows anything about them. *chuckle*
Cranewings 04-19-08, 02:17 AM	Quite the post.... where to start :) A little backround on the orcs. The players to this point have pretty much liked the orcs they've met better than the nobles. The orcs are Lawful Nuetral and Lawful Evil. They are pretty much Klingons. The frontier in the north for the humans is the frontier to the south for the orcs, so they were constantly running into orcish rangers. The problem for the Necromancer is that no one can know he is a Necromancer... he is like Palpatine before the fall of the Republic. Everyone thinks he is an Abjurer. He even keeps an Abjuration spell of every level memorized incase he has to fool other wizards. As far as the sacrifice for the spell, she is already picked out. The princess the party saved from the dragon's castle ruins is an 18 CHA, 20 y/o virgen princess with 6 levels of sorcerer. She meets about EVERY criteria for being a good human sacrifice... or at least all the ones some CE wizard on a power trip would be looking for. Unfortunitly, no one in the party is even of actual noble blood. The only one it could be is the ranger, sense no one knows anything about his family before they moved north... maybe he is a prince!!! Wow.... that is almost too good of an idea to pass up. There isn't anyway the Transmuter and the Necro could team up. They have too much ego. There can be only one. Think of my game world as Magic the Gathering, the players are little more than creature cards right now, and the Black player just drew his third dark ritual. (:
Entropy_Judge 04-19-08, 04:36 AM	Think of my game world as Magic the Gathering, the players are little more than creature cards right now, and the Black player just drew his third dark ritual. (: If the ritual he's planning to do with the princess is the equivalent of Yawgmoth's Will, the party's boned. Not a bloody thing they can do once it's done. ... Although ... *if* they're able to find out about the ritual (don't even need to know who's behind it, just that it's going to happen at *place/time* and involves the princess), and are willing to slide into Evil territory ... kill the princess. Most of my characters have been LN, and if we knew that something like that was going down, but didn't know any way to stop it, I'd go and take out the intended sacrifice and keep the corpse hidden somewhere, to prevent raising/resurrecting.
Dash Branaghan 04-19-08, 06:39 AM	Quite the post.... where to start :) Uh oh...sounds like shredding time. :D The problem for the Necromancer is that no one can know he is a Necromancer... he is like Palpatine before the fall of the Republic. Everyone thinks he is an Abjurer. He even keeps an Abjuration spell of every level memorized incase he has to fool other wizards. I disagree. The problem for EVERYONE BUT THE NECROMANCER...and besides, who says no one can know? Maybe just maybe he has his dark apprentices anyway, but no one knows they are his dark apprentices. After all, people on the path to Darkness rarely do it without company - okay, well maybe I'm the only one that likes company. But even Palpatine had Darth Maul... The only one it could be is the ranger, sense no one knows anything about his family before they moved north... maybe he is a prince!!! Wow.... that is almost too good of an idea to pass up. *cough* ARAGORN *cough* Sorry...was that my outside voice? :D Also a bit of Sword and the Sorcerer too... There isn't anyway the Transmuter and the Necro could team up. They have too much ego. There can be only one. Think of my game world as Magic the Gathering, the players are little more than creature cards right now, and the Black player just drew his third dark ritual. (: Ego notwithstanding *and the Highlander reference* you will recall that even if such is the case, this could be the Transmuter's move...a bluff check. Especially if he offers to sell out the PC Ranger. Sort of an easy truce if you will. Hell, if the PCs are ultra successful (as PCs are wont to be) the Necro might try to buy off the Transmuter anyway...and this is the Transmuter's opportunity. Then when the Transmuter betrays the PCs and leaves them captured and hopeless, you can have, say, a Demon or Devil show up to aid them (think Lucifer from The Prophecy) because he knows something about the artifact or the spell that the spellcasters don't...about how, if miscast, it may open a Rift into the planes letting out various hellspawn and minions...not that he tells the party this. So much potential chaos...
Cranewings 04-19-08, 12:35 PM	Entropy, that spell would indeed, bone them. (: Most of the party is LG or CG, and pretty good at RP, so they won't do it. On the other hand, I have a reputation for running games where LG characters can prevail, so I can't back them totally into a corner with that. I can make it super hard for them, but in the end if they kill her, it is just them chickening out. Dash, I'm a little worried for his minions. The pc group is VERY GOOD at killing minions. The two rogues are pretty much designed for killing other humans. I'll have to put some work into it. He must have some though, and I already wrote up his Darth Maul. The Necromancer, named Paku, has a secret idenity as one of the country's most powerful dukes ( in the south of course, as far from the orcs as possible). So you agree with the Aragorn refrense? hahaha You have to admit, it is pretty funny. I could see the Trans selling out the party. The Trans was actually the villian behind the scenes in the first three months, and the party foiled him several times. That climaxed when they saved the princess before he could. (save her, marry her, kill the king's sons, take over the country). Also, Asmodeas can show up at any time. The party has already had two clerics of the devil, pretending to be clerics of the god of light (uses the same spells / prayers and can spontainiously heal, so you can't tell) and they just got another one. You could say that the devil has it out for the party. Thanks, John
Aeriese 04-29-08, 02:35 PM	I run a science fiction game pretty often, and CONSTANTLY have players trying to look like Jedi. Normally everyone in a science fiction game is from one of the following: Tenchi Starwars Macross Xenosaga mmmmmaaabbbeeeyyyy Robotech Hey, which of the above was my character A.K. from in your Critical edge game? Yes, I'm one of Cranewings' players X)
Cranewings 04-29-08, 02:39 PM	AK was a cyborg soldier; he's from all future anime and science fiction.
Aeriese 04-29-08, 02:43 PM	AK was a cyborg soldier; he's from all future anime and science fiction. Or he was until Tommy's character converted him into a mutant