Party begins adventure in Sharn.
Sharn is locked down due to presence of foreign spies that must be captured.
Party adventures in Sharn for a few levels, finds the spies, spies are bait- they claim to be from the country in Khorvaire that has the strongest millitary (can't remember the name.) In reality, they were sent by a strange summoner from the Demon Wastes, but that isnt discovered until much later in the adventure.
After capturing the spies, the party is teleported into the lava pools below Sharn by a strange summoner. He gives a strange, cryptic speech about a "new world order", one that will guarantee peace for a lifetime. He declares the party to be a threat to that dream, and attacks them. The summoner is "defeated", as far as combat is concerned, but is clearly far from dead. He decides to leave the party's fate to a foul beast he summons. The party kills the beast. As it dies, the party is teleported once again, this time to the tallest tower in Sharn. A dense fog, similar to the fog present in the Mournlands, is draping the entire continent.
Its a bit of foreshadowing.
The party is teleported again, for the last time, back down to ground level. It seems that in the beast's death throes, it ignited a vein of explosive minerals in the cavern wall. Massive explosions rock the city, and all around structures are collapsing.
The party rushes out, and is instructed by a guard to flee to a town a few days north. When they arrive at the town, they find a wagon being ambushed by mountain trolls. The party likely slays the trolls and talks to the man, who thanks them. he comments on their power and asks them if they could investigate some ruins in the mountains to the east. He says there it is an old treasure vault, and in it an artifact he needs. In return, he offers some gold and any loot they find in the vault.
When the party gets to the farthest area in the vault, they find the artifact they are looking for. They grab it, and suddenly all the doors magically slam shut and lock. A familiar runic circle appears and the summoner they had previously seen returns. He thanks the party for going through the trouble to get this artifact that he needed so dearly. When any party members tries to attack him, he lets out a shockwave that knocks everyone prone. As soon as they stand up, he waves his hand and all of them are petrified.
5 years later
The party suddenly awakens, surrounded by what appear to be soldiers, and a medic that brought them back to life. Their leader says that they have to leave, now, because they are being chased by a force that outnumbers them 15 to 1. They go through a cavern system that leads them to the other side of the mountain range. At some point, the party learns just how long they were petrified for. As it turns out, in the time that passed, the dreaded Next War flared to life. The leader at some point recognizes the party, and asks them if they were sent by a man to retrieve an artifact in those ruins. The party says yes, and it turns out that he is that man. They are part of a ragtag group of fighters trying to defend from a numerically and technologically superior force that appeared to rise out of nowhere. They have strange war machines and seem to be incredibly coordinated.
The next large chunk of the campaign is them fighting a war. This is pretty sparse, because although the action here is intense, and their is story to the war, its only relevant to the war. This is basically a very exciting, long, minor plot arc that connects stuff together.
Now what i'm having trouble with is tying everything together for the ending.
What i'm going for is for the summoner to be behind everything. He formed what he calls "The Unity" and enslaved a country to his magic. "The Unity" has a hive mind, they all think as one, are completely coordinated, and communicate through telepathy.
The very end of the campaign finds the party confronting what appears to be a radiant, pale blue sphere. It speaks, however in a very cryptic manner, and says that it is the mind behind everything. It consumed the summoner's mind, took over his body and soul. It was behind every one of his actions. When the party attacks it, it simply laughs. Their attacks can do its current form no harm, and it asks the party if it truly knows what it is. It explains itself to be a living embodiment of other souls with limitless capacity. It takes control of other beings. The host bodies think, but their thoughts parallel that of the sphere. In that sense, it is not a giant remote control for sentients, but rather a sinister corporeal being that seeks to spread its influence. It appeases the party's desire for battle by transforming into a massive, pale blue dragon. This is the final battle, as it were.
What im having trouble doing is finding a reason that this sphere (also perhaps a name for said sphere) would want with starting a bloody war. Perhaps it would be able to spread its influence, but if its so powerful as to be able to corrupt a nation, why would it need to do it through a war?
also perhaps critique and whatnot. this is clearly not the entire story, it is extremely condensed and whatnot. These are just the major plot events.
The gathering of souls would explain its cryptic language, as well as its knowledge base, possibly knowing everything its collection of souls knew in their lives, so tracking down various artifacts to assist its plan could be easy enough. It would also know various secrets about the leaders of different lands.
It would have the " We are One and Many" of a legion type character. Hope this helps.
Tylar
Perhaps the " sphere" was somehow created by the summoner during the Last War, from all the deaths that occoured. A gathering of souls as it were. It became too much for the summoner to control, and evntually overtook him and as the years have went by it has only gained power by obsorbing more souls. Currently, its ability to enslave people is at a low-medium level. It seeks abother war to boost its power to a medium or even high level, and potentially enslave the whole continent, maybe even becoming a god in a way.
The gathering of souls would explain its cryptic language, as well as its knowledge base, possibly knowing everything its collection of souls knew in their lives, so tracking down various artifacts to assist its plan could be easy enough. It would also know various secrets about the leaders of different lands.
It would have the " We are One and Many" of a legion type character. Hope this helps.
Tylar
That seems like a very good place to start. Thanks for the idea. Really i was just having a massive writer's block late last night, and needed something to unclog the pipes. That seems to have done the trick, heh.
Also, for anyone out there who likes their RTS games, im pretty shamelessly borrowing from Sins of a Solar Empire for the whole "Unity" thing, if you hadn't guessed
. What the players dont know, wont hurt them.