Destroying everything the players have worked for, for the thrill of it - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 iggore Feb 04, 2009 12:46:27	My campaign is in an urban setting, and the current story arc of my campaign is supposed to culminate in the destruction of the city. But the more the story progress, the less I am convinced this is such a good idea. I will try to explain the context of my campaign in 250 words or less, for your convenience. I would like it if you guys could either tell me if you approve of the way this is going, and if you could suggest alternate ending for my story arc. Here goes: The city of Liege, a relatively huge coastal merchand seaport (13 000 permanent population, 2000 foreigners at all time) as been conquered by “the Empire” a decade ago. All players, except two, are parts of the Resistance, which actively tries to undermine the control of the Empire over the city. The Empire as been overstretched by a generation of continuous military expansion, and liberation is now a plausible goal. They are currently embroiled in a Vietnam-like conflict with elves in a forest. A ****-off family of green dragons isn’t helping either. The Resistance is a loosely connected, decentralized collection of interests groups (thief guilds, a few noble houses, a few churches, and a few powerful individuals), which actualy rarely work toward a common goal. Its very chaotic and very secretive. One of the Resistance cell is the local Church of Tempus. But the high priest, driven mad and crazy by everything he’s lost during the war a decade ago, made a deal with a powerful extraplanar entity to “bring the city into Heaven”. The extraplanar entity is of course evil, and the High Priest is manipulating the Resistance and the PCs toward his own twisted goal of completing the ritual, which involves the sacrifice of 555 children. Once completed, the ritual will invoke a long-dead angel, which will actually desecrate its resting place and ** it off. Once this happen, the region will be covered in permanent mist, the dead will rise, and the angel’s remains will transform into a Nightwalker, who will be temporally trapped into the underground temple, until he figure out how to reach the surface.
#2 dnkedue Feb 04, 2009 13:40:16	Sounds like you've got a really epic adventure set up. I'd say you should go through with it! Every story has its ups and downs, and ending up destroying the lives they had before the incident is such a powerful, dramatic event. They should have the option of not doing it, but not doing it would likely cause troubles for them in the future. Myself, I would appreciate being a part of such a grand, emotional story.
#3 Vatras Feb 04, 2009 13:42:10	You can always have them win and stop the ritual. If you want to do something with the idea of the city sinking into decay anyway, here is a suggestion. There is a novel by Neil Gaiman, "Neverwhere", which describes a plot in a London underground that does not exist for normal citizens, and into which the hero is drawn. The basic idea can be re-shaped for D&D like this: the city has a dark twin on the Shadowfell, where things are like negative images of their real-life counterparts (and which can be reached and left only at very few points). The PCs get there by accident and need to find a way out. They may not even be aware, where they are, they might think they were thrown into a dark future they have to stop. It allows you to introduce any shadowy plots you might have, without destroying the PCs achievements.
#4 erk_ Feb 04, 2009 14:24:03	I'd go for it as you have planned, with one change. If the ritual is stopped, have it reach partial completion, resulting in Liege "budding off" the real world into a pocket dimension frozen in time. You can continue with your story, but the players have the ultimate goal now of restoring their home town. It also opens up the possibility to visiting the Liege pocket dimension and working to remove the empire and purify the resistance without outside influence, a cool mid- to endgame scenario.
#5 iggore Feb 04, 2009 16:07:46	I'd go for it as you have planned, with one change. If the ritual is stopped, have it reach partial completion, resulting in Liege "budding off" the real world into a pocket dimension frozen in time. You can continue with your story, but the players have the ultimate goal now of restoring their home town. It also opens up the possibility to visiting the Liege pocket dimension and working to remove the empire and purify the resistance without outside influence, a cool mid- to endgame scenario. Thats a plausible compromise. The dead rising, and the nightwalker trashing around, would be understood as the partial consequences of the botched ritual, and I could give them a chance to stop everything. Maybe by killing the nightwalker, or the now-possessed evil priest-lich-deamon thing. Who's crossed on the other side of course. Into Ravenloft. ...in Strahd's backyard. It all make sense now. You can always have them win and stop the ritual. If you want to do something with the idea of the city sinking into decay anyway, here is a suggestion. There is a novel by Neil Gaiman, "Neverwhere", which describes a plot in a London underground that does not exist for normal citizens, and into which the hero is drawn. The basic idea can be re-shaped for D&D like this: the city has a dark twin on the Shadowfell, where things are like negative images of their real-life counterparts (and which can be reached and left only at very few points). The PCs get there by accident and need to find a way out. They may not even be aware, where they are, they might think they were thrown into a dark future they have to stop. It allows you to introduce any shadowy plots you might have, without destroying the PCs achievements. Having the scenario taking lace in a mirror pocket dimension would allow for their city to remain intact. Maybe chasing the evil priest, who was sucked there after the botched ritual, and who was twisted by the evil entity... That could work. Sounds like you've got a really epic adventure set up. I'd say you should go through with it! Every story has its ups and downs, and ending up destroying the lives they had before the incident is such a powerful, dramatic event. They should have the option of not doing it, but not doing it would likely cause troubles for them in the future. Myself, I would appreciate being a part of such a grand, emotional story. Well, I assume that the players will become sick and tired of the urban setting at some point, and my scenario could provide an exciting excuse for them to leave the city and travel the world. The challenge would be to tell my story up to the point where they'll want to leave, and then implement my scenario. It'll depend on their mood and the timing. Bonus question: how many ordinary guards and soldiers does it take to contain or destroy a nightwalker? I'm still unsure of what will happen when it'll reach the surface of a city who's already got a relatively problematic zombie plague.=D Thanks for the suggestion so far guys, I'm glad this community is actualy dynamic.
#6 stompie5 Feb 05, 2009 14:05:56	What you have planned sounds awesome. I would just go through with it.

Post/Author/DateTime

Post

iggore

Feb 04, 2009 12:46:27

My campaign is in an urban setting, and the current story arc of my campaign is supposed to culminate in the destruction of the city. But the more the story progress, the less I am convinced this is such a good idea.

I will try to explain the context of my campaign in 250 words or less, for your convenience. I would like it if you guys could either tell me if you approve of the way this is going, and if you could suggest alternate ending for my story arc. Here goes:

The city of Liege, a relatively huge coastal merchand seaport (13 000 permanent population, 2000 foreigners at all time) as been conquered by “the Empire” a decade ago.

All players, except two, are parts of the Resistance, which actively tries to undermine the control of the Empire over the city.

The Empire as been overstretched by a generation of continuous military expansion, and liberation is now a plausible goal. They are currently embroiled in a Vietnam-like conflict with elves in a forest. A ******-off family of green dragons isn’t helping either.

The Resistance is a loosely connected, decentralized collection of interests groups (thief guilds, a few noble houses, a few churches, and a few powerful individuals), which actualy rarely work toward a common goal. Its very chaotic and very secretive.

One of the Resistance cell is the local Church of Tempus. But the high priest, driven mad and crazy by everything he’s lost during the war a decade ago, made a deal with a powerful extraplanar entity to “bring the city into Heaven”.

The extraplanar entity is of course evil, and the High Priest is manipulating the Resistance and the PCs toward his own twisted goal of completing the ritual, which involves the sacrifice of 555 children.

Once completed, the ritual will invoke a long-dead angel, which will actually desecrate its resting place and **** it off. Once this happen, the region will be covered in permanent mist, the dead will rise, and the angel’s remains will transform into a Nightwalker, who will be temporally trapped into the underground temple, until he figure out how to reach the surface.

dnkedue

Feb 04, 2009 13:40:16

Sounds like you've got a really epic adventure set up. I'd say you should go through with it! Every story has its ups and downs, and ending up destroying the lives they had before the incident is such a powerful, dramatic event. They should have the option of not doing it, but not doing it would likely cause troubles for them in the future. Myself, I would appreciate being a part of such a grand, emotional story.

Vatras

Feb 04, 2009 13:42:10

You can always have them win and stop the ritual.

If you want to do something with the idea of the city sinking into decay anyway, here is a suggestion. There is a novel by Neil Gaiman, "Neverwhere", which describes a plot in a London underground that does not exist for normal citizens, and into which the hero is drawn. The basic idea can be re-shaped for D&D like this: the city has a dark twin on the Shadowfell, where things are like negative images of their real-life counterparts (and which can be reached and left only at very few points). The PCs get there by accident and need to find a way out. They may not even be aware, where they are, they might think they were thrown into a dark future they have to stop.
It allows you to introduce any shadowy plots you might have, without destroying the PCs achievements.

erk_

Feb 04, 2009 14:24:03

I'd go for it as you have planned, with one change.

If the ritual is stopped, have it reach partial completion, resulting in Liege "budding off" the real world into a pocket dimension frozen in time.

You can continue with your story, but the players have the ultimate goal now of restoring their home town. It also opens up the possibility to visiting the Liege pocket dimension and working to remove the empire and purify the resistance without outside influence, a cool mid- to endgame scenario.

iggore

Feb 04, 2009 16:07:46

I'd go for it as you have planned, with one change.

If the ritual is stopped, have it reach partial completion, resulting in Liege "budding off" the real world into a pocket dimension frozen in time.

You can continue with your story, but the players have the ultimate goal now of restoring their home town. It also opens up the possibility to visiting the Liege pocket dimension and working to remove the empire and purify the resistance without outside influence, a cool mid- to endgame scenario.

Thats a plausible compromise. The dead rising, and the nightwalker trashing around, would be understood as the partial consequences of the botched ritual, and I could give them a chance to stop everything. Maybe by killing the nightwalker, or the now-possessed evil priest-lich-deamon thing. Who's crossed on the other side of course.

Into Ravenloft.

...in Strahd's backyard.

It all make sense now.

You can always have them win and stop the ritual.

If you want to do something with the idea of the city sinking into decay anyway, here is a suggestion. There is a novel by Neil Gaiman, "Neverwhere", which describes a plot in a London underground that does not exist for normal citizens, and into which the hero is drawn. The basic idea can be re-shaped for D&D like this: the city has a dark twin on the Shadowfell, where things are like negative images of their real-life counterparts (and which can be reached and left only at very few points). The PCs get there by accident and need to find a way out. They may not even be aware, where they are, they might think they were thrown into a dark future they have to stop.
It allows you to introduce any shadowy plots you might have, without destroying the PCs achievements.

Having the scenario taking lace in a mirror pocket dimension would allow for their city to remain intact. Maybe chasing the evil priest, who was sucked there after the botched ritual, and who was twisted by the evil entity... That could work.

Sounds like you've got a really epic adventure set up. I'd say you should go through with it! Every story has its ups and downs, and ending up destroying the lives they had before the incident is such a powerful, dramatic event. They should have the option of not doing it, but not doing it would likely cause troubles for them in the future. Myself, I would appreciate being a part of such a grand, emotional story.

Well, I assume that the players will become sick and tired of the urban setting at some point, and my scenario could provide an exciting excuse for them to leave the city and travel the world.

The challenge would be to tell my story up to the point where they'll want to leave, and then implement my scenario. It'll depend on their mood and the timing.

Bonus question: how many ordinary guards and soldiers does it take to contain or destroy a nightwalker? I'm still unsure of what will happen when it'll reach the surface of a city who's already got a relatively problematic zombie plague.=D

Thanks for the suggestion so far guys, I'm glad this community is actualy dynamic.

stompie5

Feb 05, 2009 14:05:56

What you have planned sounds awesome. I would just go through with it.