Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Timpookie Jan 06, 2015 5:01:49	I was reading my 4e PHBII, in particular the entry on Sorcerers, and an idea hit me for the concept of a campaign. I'm going to be discussing this with 4e in mind, as that's what I was reading as I got my inspiration for this, but because I'm mostly going to be talking about story aspects of the campaign you could easily change it from the 30 level system of 4e to, for instance, the 20 level system of most other editions. Another note to keep in mind, the concept for this campaign will likely be in a historic setting, cosmology and divine pantheon similar to that of Nentir Vale but with different geography or starting in a part of the world that's not just directly around Fallcrest. I'm putting this here because Nentir Vale and Beyond is the most inactive forum I have ever seen.   Anyway, the basic concept of this campaign came from the following quote from the Dragonsoul Heir paragon path: “That’s no dragon—it’s a slug, content to sleep on a pile of coins. See my power, the same power wielded by the dragon lords of ancient Arkhosia: I, my friend, am truly a dragon.” and the description that follows after, which I won't copy-paste because copyright. What follows also assumes that dragons have an average lifespan of about 700-1000 years before they become Twilight Dragons.   The backstory of this campaign is as follows:   During the year 360 ARN (After Rise of Nerath), a red dragon laid a nest of 6 eggs. The eggs incubate for two years before finally hatching. One of the dragons in question, named Colrath, had exceptionally greater strength than his bretheren, though for many years he lived as all other dragons did, just watching or sleeping as Nerath fell, taking gold and food for himself when it suited him, and so forth up until about a hundred years after the fall of Nerath.   While raiding the city of Brightmoor, however, the dragon came across a library that was the home of an elderly cleric of Ioun, named Drathix. The cleric asked the dragon why he chose to raid cities instead of helping them, and the dragon decided to humor the cleric with conversation for a time. The dragon thought about this first question for a minute, before simply saying that he was raised to go after valuable treasures. The cleric responded by telling the dragon that the most valuable treasures aren't gold and silver, but the spread of knowlege and a legacy that will last millenia to come. Curious as to the clerics reasoning (But still planning on eating him later), the dragon allowed the conversation to continue, until he was mildly convinced as to the clerics ways of thinking.   So Colrath struck a deal with the cleric. Drathix was to give six books full of knowlege, be it of Arcane, Religion, History or some other study, and if the dragon was then convinced that knowlege and legacy were more valuable than gold and silver, Colrath would return the texts and convert away from the philosophy and dogma of Tiamat. If Colrath was unconvinced, however, Drathix was to allow Colrath to burn the library to the ground and be eaten alive without a fight.   The books and scrolls that Drathix chose were on the following topics:   Ioun's commandments, and the good and bad that follows them (And how Clerics can minimize the bad) Moradin's commandments, and the good and bad that follows them (And, as above, how clerics can minimize the bad) A 600-page chronology on Arkhosian history A book about the Feywild A book about the Underdark An ancient scroll written supposedly by a Silver Dragon about advanced forms of Draconic Sorcery   After reading these texts, Colrath was converted away from the teachings of Tiamat and his worship instead changed to Bahamut, Ioun and Moradin. He returned the texts, and decided to end his reclusive life living atop a pile of gold and travel the world, collecting knowlege and trying to decide how to create a lasting legacy, frequently discussing ideas and concepts with Drathix's disciples (For the old cleric passed away of age a few years after the meeting with Colrath, becoming an exalted spirit in Hestavar for the work that he has done).   Two hundred years after Drathix's death, or roughly three hundred years after the fall of Nerath, an army of barbaric Minotaurs attacked Brightmoor and burned the once-great city to the ground. Colrath, returning to Brightmoor looking to ask a new initiate into the clerigy that Drathic once served about any ideas for how he could seek his destiny, arrived only in time to see the minotaurs finish up their slaughter. He attacked the army with all he had, forcing them to retreat, but there were few survivors. One of the casualties of the battle, the initiate into the clerigy that Colrath sought out, died protecting two pieces of scripture from the library, the only texts to survive - The scroll on Ioun that Colrath read, and the 600-page chronology on Arkhosian history.   At that, Colrath realized that his destiny was to rebuild the old empire of Arkhosia. He instructed the few hundred survivors of the destruction of Brightmoor that, once they had rested, they should head to the volcano where Colrath laired before being converted by Drathix, and drew them a map of the area and instructed them of how to get there as well. After that, he returned to the volcano, using the natural recources around it to build a city around the dormant volcano for when the survivors of Brightmoor arrive. In the centre of the town, instead of a town hall or a palace, he built a grand library, hoping to store as much knowlege as possible in it over the years.   Over the next hundred years, Colrath built up the city, which he dubbed New Brightmoor, organizing groups to build roads connecting it to nearby settlements and personally searching around for refugees in need of help to bring to New Brightmoor, until he finally decided that he was ready to begin the expansion of Arkhosia.   I was thinking that the PCs could begin as a "search-and-rescue" team for New Brightmoor, looking around in this dark age for survivors of the destruction of their village/city/town and bringing them into the growing empire of Arkhosia, until, around mid-Heroic tier, they find that Colrath isn't the only person seeking to rebuild an ancient empire - The Illithids are attempting to rebuild their Underdark society, enslaving all who they come across. Colrath would then send the PCs to hinder the efforts of the mind flayers for the rest of the heroic tier, along with their other duties (search-and-rescue and occasionally fending off attacks from hostile armies, along with forging alliances with nearby settlements).   During the early paragon tier, however, Colrath would change their duties to mainly diplomacy, as they've earned a name for themselves clearly and would be more likely to win people over, in an attempt to quickly build a strong empire capable of fighting against the Illithids. At the same time, they'd also periodically be tasked with raids against the Mind Flayers enslavement camps, bringing those willing to go into the growing empire of New Arkhosia.   At the beginning of the Epic Tier, the PCs would return from a raid against the Mind Flayers to find that they had a counterstrike set against New Brightmoor, and they'd then fight them off. Colrath would then wage outright war against the Illithid empire, which would take up the Epic Tier, with the PCs as important figures with great titles in New Arkhosia going around trying to convert other dragons to their cause and waging war upon the Illithids. Near the end of the Epic Tier, the Illithid King would kill Colrath as the great dragon is fighting the Illithids, and the PCs would end the campaign breaking into the subterranian city that is the enemy capital and kill the Illithid King in vengeance, assimilating the Mind Flayer empire and annexing it's territory into the new empire of New Arkhosia.   I just chose Mind Flayers as an example, I can easily substitute them for anything else, from evil Fey to Yuan-Ti to the works of an evil necromancer. The entire campaign wouldn't be focussed around this either, there would occasionally be quests taking the party away from the main war, travelling the planes (Maybe occasionally collecting Fey artifacts for a hefty reward from Colrath, due to his research interest in them) and fighting other random evil things.   If you intend to take a lot of inspiration from this to use in a future campaign of yours (Feel free to do so, it's one of the reasons I'm posting it here), I'd recommend including in the campaign handout the following things:   Races that are the most common are Dragonborn, races with the "fey" origin, Humans and Dwarves. Tieflings and Minotaurs, while not technically outlawed in New Arkhosia, are highly discriminated against by the majority of people due to the history of Bael Turath's war against "Old" Arkhosia and the fact that Minotaurs destroyed the original Brightmoor. Classes that are the most common are Warlords, Fighters, Paladins, Clerics, Wizards, Swordmages, Sorcerers (Especially Draconic Sorcerers) and Bards. Primal classes and Rangers are outlawed due to the common perception that they're too uncivilized and Psionic classes are treated with superstition (Especially with rumors floating around about the Mind Flayers), so it's not wise to advertise those two as your power source. Gods that are the most popular amongst New Arkhosians are Ioun, Bahamut and Moradin (in that order), although all good, lawful good and unaligned gods (Other than perhaps Melora) from the PHB have a place in this new civilization. All the history detailed above, along with whatever you want to make up about the knowlege that Colrath recorded for his library on Nerath and whatever you want in the Chronology of Arkhosia, is available for anyone to read in the public section of the library. The Chronology of Arkhosia was copied by scribes multiple times, word-for-word, and the copies are what are available, the original is in the palace where Colrath lives (Which, while being huge enough to make a dragon confortable and having all the features of a regular palace but dragon-sized, is rather small compared to the empty storage space in the Library which still isn't full).   Will this idea work well as a campaign, in your opinion? Are there places where it can be improved? Things that should be added.removed to make it better? Once my current campaign reaches the Heroic tier, I may DM a second campaign, which will probably be this one.
#2 cowleymen Jan 06, 2015 22:45:02	your end script has to be flexible. hell even your middle script does. This will require tons of work and quick thinking to set up the illusion of free choice. You need to let the Players think things are happening because of their actions, and not just that this is a video game, and that they are just watching the story via cut scenes. This could be one of the hardest campaign ideas I have seen online or in person, but I wish you the deepest luck
#3 Timpookie Jan 07, 2015 0:40:29	cowleymen wrote:
#4 rampant Jan 13, 2015 0:20:08	You can't really assimilate mind-flayers into any decent empire. Their hunger for sentient minds aside they are arrogant cruel creatures that revel in snuffing the spark of free will and creativity and see themselves as the rightful overlords of other beings despite thier ability to connect mind-to-mind with others. I mean if you can feed flayers non-sentients, you still need to basically off every adult flayer in the area to prevent mental contamination of the larval stage (and this is trickt given what those grow into if they aren't implanted or eaten by the elder brains that lead the flayers, furthermore implanting a larval flayer into a sentient mind is required for them to mature into an actual flayer adult and that's an awful thing to do to a person. Half-flayers retain some aspect of themselves and might be a slightly less morally objectionable solution to a bunch of larval flayers, but even if that's the case and everything goes perfectly well flayers made form non-humans (i.e. how half-flayers come about) don't reproduce flayers, or mature into elder brains. By the second generation the best you can expect is abberant taint in the bloodlines, if that.
#5 Timpookie Jan 13, 2015 1:23:21	rampant wrote:
#6 rampant Jan 13, 2015 8:31:44	Hobgoblins would work as well. Maybe they're taking the opportunity caused by the fall of nerath to build themselves back up to their pre-arkhosian might.
#7 Timpookie Jan 15, 2015 5:46:25	rampant wrote:
#8 Book5 Feb 09, 2015 11:03:03	I think it is intruiging. The idea that two people's with ancient empires are attempting to reconstruct those empires, but those empires borders are definately in conflict. You could diversify a little bit? More Romance of The Five Kingdoms style? Arkhosian, Illithid, Dwarven? Gith? Hey, what about Formians invading exptraplannerly somehwhere far from Brightmore?
#9 Timpookie Mar 03, 2015 4:51:22	Book5 wrote:
#10 rampant Mar 05, 2015 21:08:49	One main villain can still puppeteer lots of factions, or for that matter the factions can be backgorund for the main game which could be much smaller in scope but still affected by the conflict between empire builders.
#11 RalofTyr Mar 06, 2015 13:56:32	Reminds me of a dragon character I played that never burned the libraries and could care less about treasure.  It was a reading dragon.   The problem with people and dragons is that the humans are always trying to control / manipulate the dragons, which causes the dragons to burn down their halls (it was a Mage: The Ascension game in which mortal-magic could work against dragons (dragons did not have immunities to magic).