So I'm starting my campaign in 996 YK, two years before what the Campaign Guide recommends. The players start with the Last War in its death throes and the shock of the Day of Mourning still very much on everyone's minds.
The Thronehold Accords are actively going on as the players begin the game. It's been months of negotiations and diplomacies, accusations of war crimes, the question of the Warforged still unanswered... I'm really hoping to push that atmosphere of Berlin after the war, of Vienna and The 3rd Man or Casablanca, all that stuff. Throneport lies occupied by opposing troops and tensions are high, it's a powderkeg.
While the Ambassadors and Judgements rage on in the audience halls above, the PCs are on a mission for the Royal Eyes of Aundair - delving into the catacombs below and retrieving an artifact of Galifar, in hopes of securing some relic of the Golden Age that may hold the coming peace in its balance.
With torches lit, the heroes break through the door...
Dust crumbles from the ceiling, the stairway leads down to the crypts of the Kings of Old, to secret places where Royal Treasures lie guarded...
By what?
And others have broken in down here as well, perhaps a dangerous Tharashk mercenary and his agents, or some assassins of the Crimson Blood...
Who else lies in wait? Why?
And finally, there it is, or what's left of it (for other parts are scattered elsewhere, most probably)...
And it is?
Any thoughts? Help?
I would definately use the King's Dark Lanterns as major rivals. Most likely sent by King Boranel for exactly the same reason Aurala sent the PCs. They might even have to work together to get passed some of the guardians.
As for those, you could evoke a sense of antiquity with more typical medieval guardians. Like a construct chess/Conquerer board or the like.
I think construct guardians are the way to go, since Galifar was probably too moral to use undead and the like. For variety, you could have the PCs come across a collapsed corridor that shows signs of once having been breached, and have creatures from the underdark be wandering through the tunnels. Things like myconids and hook horrors (are those in 4e yet? I forget) becoming unintented guardians of the treasure. Flooded sections could house aquatic monsters as well.
Really depends on how diverse you want the environment to be. At the end, I think some sort of immortal guardian would be neat, like a Sphynx or intelligent Chimera.
As for the item itself, I'd say something so heavily guarded would have to be part of Galifar ir'Wynarn's original regaila of kingship. Maybe the sword he used to unite the nations, the shield he use to protect his subjects, the scepter he used to preside over them fairly, or the crown he used to lead.
Awesome stuff, thanks!
I'm thinkin' I might go with the whole Crown relic thing. I'm cherrypicking pieces of the Ashen Crown module as a starter for the campaign even though the actual story-arc will be pretty open.
I hadn't thought about the competing spy agencies, that's great! I like the idea of facing off against guys that aren't necessarily bad guys, but definitely have opposed agendas.
some helmed horrors are allwas nice:
I agree that undead guardians are unlikely, but deathless could be a different story. In 3.5, the deathless were effectively "reverse undead," animate dead but fueled by positive energy. Perhaps an ancient deathless guardian watched over the artificat for a thousand years but is now finding itself fading away, as it has been sustained by the reverence people had once held for Galifar.
Another possibility is the protection of Clan Kundarak - not House Kundarak. Galifar was a century old when the dwarves bearing the Mark of Warding became a House, but they had held the Mark for more than a thousand years before that. Perhaps Galifar negotiated for the services of Clan Kundarak dwarves to protect the artifact. Perhaps the deathless guardian is in fact an ancient Kundarak guardian. Another possibility is that these dwarves, being a subterranean race, actually still live below Thronehold, and no member of the bloodline has known the sun for a thousand years.
I think manifest zones are an interesting environment to place below Thronehold. A zone of Daanvi might influence a race of protectors (perhaps Kundarak, maybe another) to hold to their duty for generations. A Zone of Dolurrh might entrap visitors, causing those who descend to nearly always be forced to remain through their lives. Lamannia might produce a wild ecology under the island, filled with forests hanging from cavern ceilings and full of dangerous wildlife. Thelanis might slow time, so that the dungeons of Thronehold are protected by still living people who knew Galifar himself.