Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 apparit Apr 12, 2011 7:57:02	I've hit a roadblock recently with my imagining of a campaign line which I see my party bound to run down seeing as one of them has become a member of the Gatekeepers. I concocted my campaign with the idea in mind that after a "Prologue" so to speak, there would be about four or five major lines for the campaign to go in. One of which, is titled above, War on Daelkyr. Now, the obvious trail to follow is after a series of hints, the players discover a plot to unleash a Daelkyr, they don't know where the Daelkyr is, so they look for a relic to fight it when its released, include a bunch of interesting allies like Mordain the Fleshweaver and Xorchylic, they attempt to stop its minions from getting items to release it, they then either find out where it is and stop the release, or they fail to stop the release for one reason or another (they couldn't find its lair for example) and they fight it, and kill it. Now, as a conclusion to a campaign, I can't help but feel that's a bit disappointing. Sure, you are working for the Gatekeepers, they 'gatekeep', they don't hunt. So there being four more Daelkyr still sealed shouldn't bother me too much. But it does. And I think it would bother my players. They'd feel that their victory was a bit empty. Plus, the Gatekeepers and most organisations in Eberron acting out of character (this is resolved in an epilogue, so the players would probably be about 17/18 when they fight the Daelkyr) is a key theme in the campaign. So them hunting down all the daelkyr would seem like an idea. Only problem is, when you're looking at a 3-18 campaign path, you'd imagine the only position when you can fight a daelkyr is 18. I've already thought of some ideas by which weaker characters could kill daelkyr: the players stopped the complete destruction of the seal and though the daelkyr still broke free, part of his power was stuck in the seal still, and they thus fight a lesser daelkyr; they find a 'one-shot-kill' daelkyr weapon to fight another...Now there are two problems with this. First of all, I can't really think of many other without their fights being repetitive and unimaginative. Second of all, it makes the daelkyr seem not as mighty as they actually are. I need advice.
#2 naturax Apr 12, 2011 9:07:50	I think you've made the assumption that the PCs are going to be killing daelkyr all alone. But what if they gather allies? What if there are differect factions within the Gatekeepers, and others who would want to see the daelkyr destroyed (Church of the Silver Flame, etc. etc.) and the PCs spend some time uniting them, set aside their differences, and work together to Save The World? Then you're looking at an epic battle against a full-powered daelkyr + minions against the PCs with their allies. You need to make sure the PCs are the ones who turn the tide of the battle, because they need to be the heroes of the story, but it prevents you from having to water down the daelkyr in any way whatsoever. And the fights will be extremely climactic.