Just wondered if anyone was interested in helping me work on the story of my ongoing 4.0 D&D campaign. I'll lay out the basics, any feedback would be appreciated but I have some particular tough spots that I'll indicate.
Theme
The overriding theme of the campaign is blood, particularly the flow of magic within the blood of people and the leylines of the land.
History
The setting is the archipelago of Casma, comprising 3 largish islands. About 1000 years ago, the area was ruled by eladrin, who did a lot of work mapping the leylines of elemental power in the land. When an invading force of ships appeared (tieflings, humans, etc), the eladrin attempted to fight them off by harnessing the leylines, but the ritual led by the emperor Sazarul went badly, resulting in the destruction of not only most of the invading force, but most of the eladrin empire as well. This disaster is called Sazarul's Sorrow.
Although not commonly known, the ritual went badly because of interference from a lich named Ixidest who had been an advisor to Sazarul before. Ixidest attempted to take control and use the ritual to spread undeath through the land, but he was thwarted by a giant shaman who caused the entire mountain where the ritual was happening to fly into the air, severing the connection with the leylines. Ixidest was cut into pieces and scattered to the winds.
A human king has recently reunited the islands and sparked an arcane renaissance. Dragonborn are kept as slaves, elves control most of the trade, and eladrin and gnomes are important in the arcane hierarchy.
Party
Currently we have 5 players, all of whom are lvl 13:
Tim Drakefire, Human Wild Sorceror, from a minor noble family but scorned for his lack of mastery over his magic.
Gharga, Dragonborn Slayer, chief of a small village who was captured for arcane research and freed by the party.
Penny, Deva Cleric, a reincarnation/avatar of Pelor who is only gradually coming to realize her role and had been magically disguised as a human since birth. Her previous incarnation was present at Sazarul's Sorrow.
Karis LeFou, Half-Elf Assassin, a shady character who faced death at the hands of mind flayers but promised to help bring them powerful mages such as Drakefire.
Bardryn Stonefoot, Dwarf Warden, a recent addition in replacement of a Raven Queen paladin, he follows the call of nature spirits to the flying mountain Radulan, site of Sazarul's Sorrow.
The Enemies
Tarva Raza: This is an organization of arcanists that secretly guides most of the kingdom's activities, controlling the mage academy, libraries, temples, and the magistrates. It is headed by Sevander, an eladrin who advises the king and is actually a descendant of Ixidest's line. Another prominent member is Tim's childhood friend Tharis Oakenshield, actually Sevander's son (the players don't know this). He and his Tarva Raza associates have tried to kill the party several times. The Tarva Raza's goal is to finish Sazarul's project of controlling the leylines, and then using them to shape the land as they please.
Ixidest: In their early adventures, the players found the head of the lich Ixidest, unearthed during an earthquake. They have since been hunted by his various limbs in the possession of other creatures, now holding both arms and a leg. The other leg and head were destroyed, meaning that they will return to the phylactery. The body rests at the center of Radulan.
Mind flayers: Based on Karis's background, I decided that one of the mind flayers had gotten a hold of one of Ixidest's arms and come looking for him.
So the current situation is that the party is on Radulan, the flying mountain, fighting their way into the depths of the mountain to prevent the Tarva Raza from reconnecting it to the leylines. Meanwhile, there are some lich parts and a mind flayer came and attacked, nearly wiping the party since it had help from Karis until the end. I want to end the Tarva Raza arc more or less here, and use that to push them into the Elemental Chaos for some adventure there.
Looking mainly for ideas on how to deal with the pieces of lich - I'm not sure where his phylactery should be yet, although the Abyss or the Elemental Chaos seem like good starts. Tracking Ixidest will probably be the main impetus for the rest of paragon tier.
I'd also appreciate advice on how to deal with a traitorous PC, who almost put the party to their deaths but managed to cover it by claiming he was mind controlled the whole time (he was for a moment).
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Just wondered if anyone was interested in helping me work on the story of my ongoing 4.0 D&D campaign. I'll lay out the basics, any feedback would be appreciated but I have some particular tough spots that I'll indicate.
Theme
The overriding theme of the campaign is blood, particularly the flow of magic within the blood of people and the leylines of the land.
History
The setting is the archipelago of Casma, comprising 3 largish islands. About 1000 years ago, the area was ruled by eladrin, who did a lot of work mapping the leylines of elemental power in the land. When an invading force of ships appeared (tieflings, humans, etc), the eladrin attempted to fight them off by harnessing the leylines, but the ritual led by the emperor Sazarul went badly, resulting in the destruction of not only most of the invading force, but most of the eladrin empire as well. This disaster is called Sazarul's Sorrow.
Although not commonly known, the ritual went badly because of interference from a lich named Ixidest who had been an advisor to Sazarul before. Ixidest attempted to take control and use the ritual to spread undeath through the land, but he was thwarted by a giant shaman who caused the entire mountain where the ritual was happening to fly into the air, severing the connection with the leylines. Ixidest was cut into pieces and scattered to the winds.
A human king has recently reunited the islands and sparked an arcane renaissance. Dragonborn are kept as slaves, elves control most of the trade, and eladrin and gnomes are important in the arcane hierarchy.
Party
Currently we have 5 players, all of whom are lvl 13:
- Tim Drakefire, Human Wild Sorceror, from a minor noble family but scorned for his lack of mastery over his magic.
- Gharga, Dragonborn Slayer, chief of a small village who was captured for arcane research and freed by the party.
- Penny, Deva Cleric, a reincarnation/avatar of Pelor who is only gradually coming to realize her role and had been magically disguised as a human since birth. Her previous incarnation was present at Sazarul's Sorrow.
- Karis LeFou, Half-Elf Assassin, a shady character who faced death at the hands of mind flayers but promised to help bring them powerful mages such as Drakefire.
- Bardryn Stonefoot, Dwarf Warden, a recent addition in replacement of a Raven Queen paladin, he follows the call of nature spirits to the flying mountain Radulan, site of Sazarul's Sorrow.
The Enemies- Tarva Raza: This is an organization of arcanists that secretly guides most of the kingdom's activities, controlling the mage academy, libraries, temples, and the magistrates. It is headed by Sevander, an eladrin who advises the king and is actually a descendant of Ixidest's line. Another prominent member is Tim's childhood friend Tharis Oakenshield, actually Sevander's son (the players don't know this). He and his Tarva Raza associates have tried to kill the party several times. The Tarva Raza's goal is to finish Sazarul's project of controlling the leylines, and then using them to shape the land as they please.
- Ixidest: In their early adventures, the players found the head of the lich Ixidest, unearthed during an earthquake. They have since been hunted by his various limbs in the possession of other creatures, now holding both arms and a leg. The other leg and head were destroyed, meaning that they will return to the phylactery. The body rests at the center of Radulan.
- Mind flayers: Based on Karis's background, I decided that one of the mind flayers had gotten a hold of one of Ixidest's arms and come looking for him.
So the current situation is that the party is on Radulan, the flying mountain, fighting their way into the depths of the mountain to prevent the Tarva Raza from reconnecting it to the leylines. Meanwhile, there are some lich parts and a mind flayer came and attacked, nearly wiping the party since it had help from Karis until the end. I want to end the Tarva Raza arc more or less here, and use that to push them into the Elemental Chaos for some adventure there.Looking mainly for ideas on how to deal with the pieces of lich - I'm not sure where his phylactery should be yet, although the Abyss or the Elemental Chaos seem like good starts. Tracking Ixidest will probably be the main impetus for the rest of paragon tier.
I'd also appreciate advice on how to deal with a traitorous PC, who almost put the party to their deaths but managed to cover it by claiming he was mind controlled the whole time (he was for a moment).