Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 fungal_vampire Mar 28, 2010 18:31:13	So, my campaign I'm currently running has just begun, and the PCs are in the Shadowfell seeking out a sorrowsworn overlord to retrieve a fortress-city sent into that plane (long story, but it was a sort of good thing for those involved).  Anyway.  My idea is to fool with the "standard" storyline a bit and move around the Raven Queen's assassination of Nerull so that as of now, Nerull is still god of death and the overlord the PCs are seeking will turn out to be the RQ before the assassination took place.  I know that changes around some of the backstory of the RQ, too.  The killing was basically a good thing, as the RQ knows some things about the Shadowfell itself, as opposed to Nerull knowing basically death and that's about all.  (I guess if needed, I could say that Nerull seized the plane from a primordial, but saw it as a home, and that's all - he doesn't know much about the plane itself).  Basically, the RQ knows that there's a *reason* the Shadowfell exists, and some things have happened that weakened it (namely the swaying to the other side of the old warden and spinner of the Shadowfell's barriers--more later) and now, with the Fringe-like transfer of people and places between the Shadow and the "real" world, which Nerull is allowing (or not concerned with, not decided), the RQ has to make her move.  There's something in the Shadowfell that nobody wants to make the crossing (basically, Tharizdun more or less). My thought is that the *actual* deicide will take place during a 100+ year jump in the camapign timeline.  The PCs at the point of exit from the Shadowfell will be about level 3 or possibly 4, and I'm kind of wanting to have them involved - if not in the actual killing of Nerull specifically, perhaps killing some powerful (well, as powerful as the low end of Heroic allows) servitor or something.  Any ideas? Also, I'd like the endgame (level 20+) of the campaign to be tracking down and swaying back to the good the old barrier warden of the Shadowfell - Lolth.  She used to be good, or at least indifferent, but someone swayed her towards evil, and when she left, she took the drow with her.  And if she can't be redeemed, she'll have to be killed and someone (likely a powerful drow NPC from previous campaigns) will take her place.  Then, basically, the Shadowfell will become the inescapable Ravenloft-esque place it needs to be.  Any ideas on hints towards this I can drop early on?  Or on the role in the equation of the drow and shadar-kai, which I haven't figured out? Thanks!
#2 calm Mar 30, 2010 19:57:04	FYI, Nerull is from Pluton in the Astral Sea, but your story works fine in the Shadowfell. How about using RQ, the master manipulator, to appear to the PCs in some form and get them to go on a quest seemingly for one purpose, but really it's too recover an artifact, or a key ritual component, that is what she needs to weaken Nerull's power to bring him down. Guild by association. The PCs don't actually topple old Death, but they sure help a lot, which makes them responsible in their own way and targets. Obviously, some powerful shadowfell creature (servant of Nerull?) will be guarding said item, and perhaps a shadow demon or some such will witness (though not interfere) the PCs actions.