Long term campaign- is it any good?

[Tels]

I've had this idea for a Homebrew campaign floating around for awhile now, and I've been slowly working on it as I run Curse of the Crimson Throne and play in other APs. It will be set, largely, in Nirmathas, and will start off with some module to get through the lower levels. I'll be using the Price of Immortality series followed by Conquest of Bloodsworn Vale. After that it'll be homebrew.

Some Backstory:

Anyway, my idea is around the end of Price and in Conquest, I introduce a character named Nicholas who will be a priest of Sarenrae. He's a half-elf and is very old. A long time ago he fell in love with, and married, a an elven woman. She was traveling with their daughter in a caravan to visit some relatives in Korvosa through a mountain pass when a blizzard struck. Nicholas was distraught when he heard the news as he had only returned to town after tending to victims of an outbreak in a neighboring village. When he heard, he tried to form a rescue party to head out and search for them, but none would aid him so he set out on his own. He never found their bodies, and was consumed in grief. It is at this point he is contacted by Charon, the Horsemen of Death, who whispers in his ear and Nicholas' mind snaps. He his mind splits into two personalities, Nicholas, and Karon (he adopted his new patrons name). Nicholas is still a good man and a follower of Sarenrae (whom still grants him power in the hope he can be saved), while Karon worships Charon and is largely seeking revenge against his townspeople and Nirmathas at large.

Now, Nicholas' story all happened before the PCs ever begin the Immortality trilogy, and for those who don't know, the modules I mentioned have a large amount of fire elements in them, while Charon, as Lord of the Styx, grants access to the Water domain. The idea is the PCs will largely be set up to be good at combating things of fire, possibly weakening themselves to cold. Anyway, Nicholas/Charon is not only a priest, but a Mystic Theurge (dual personality, dual classes is the theme with him). As Nicholas, he concentrates mainly on his divine abilities, and mostly ignores his arcane, as he is in denial about Karon. Karon, however, embraces both aspects of his abilities and uses both Arcane and Divine powers. The idea is, in combat, if Nicholas uses a spell, and then Karon takes control, an equal level spell slot is used up from Karon's spell list, and the reverse being true if Nicholas takes control. Take note, when Nicholas is in control, he's a cleric of Sarenrae, but while Karon is in control, he's a Cleric of Charon.

Part I:

Charon has set a goal of expanding on being the Lord of Death and wishes to usurp Pharasma's power. To that end, he has been using Nicholas to create an artifact, the Orb of Winter, that he hopes will grant him enough power to use his limited control over Death to over throw the Lady of Graves. If one were to follow the modules, then at the end of Conquest, it should be near winter. At this time, the Orb will be activated and will slowly be sucking heat from the area, and plunge the region into one of the coldest winters it's ever faced. Nicholas, in his madness, is bringing about the same conditions that killed his wife and child.

The Orb will absorb any souls that die within it's area, and store them for Charon's use. While being used, the Orb also has another usage. It can be used to create gems that will empower snow golems to abduct children and bring them to his fortress to protect them as some aspect of Nicholas still remains. The children will be enslaved by the artifact and be used to create toys which can also be animated by the gems.

In case you haven't noticed, it's very much so got an evil Frosty the Snowman and Evil Santa Claus theme going on.

The players will be made aware of children disappearing from their homes, but investigations turn up few clues. Until that is one child awakes and manages to escape the snowmen and toys and return to town half-frozen and near death. From there, they will get a description of the area from the child, which leads them to some nearby caves.

Part II:

Inside the caves is a den of leveled werewolves in a affected similarly to the mana wastes. The farther you proceed into the caves, the less spells you have access to. You lose access to the highest level spell per 100 ft into the caves, around the cause of the disturbance, no magic functions. In the very back of the complex will be an island surrounded by unique crystals that seem to hum and glow. On the island will be the forms of a man and a woman that appear to be made of stone. For this alternate, I've pulled from old legens of Merlin and Nimue. The man will be a powerful Word Caster, while the woman will be a powerful Wizard. The man, of course is Merlin (though named Myrddin here) and Niviane. Myrddin fell in love with his pupil Niviane, but she didn't love him and didn't believe in his teachings of the 'old ways' of magic. She embraced common wizardry, and, eventually, they came to blows. She planned on sealing him away and using her freedom to join the mystics of ancient Thassilon. I planned on both having magics similar to spell turning on, and Myrddin, in his rage, using a killing spell while Niviane used Flesh to Stone. The killing spell and the flesh to stone spell reflected off each others spell turning effect, collided and merged, then affected both casters. Both casters were turned to stone, and, if freed, will die shortly thereafter.

There will be a book the belongs to Myrddin and a book that belongs to Niviane nearby. They will be journals of the two casters, and their spell books. Similar to Blessed Books, instead, if one were to open from one direction, you access a journal, while from the other section, you access a spell book. Either side has an infinite number of pages. To read the journal, one must first decode it, then they can attempt to read the ancient language.

The players have the option of attempting to decode the book themselves (as a mini game) and if they do, bonus xp, or they can let it be a die roll, or a spell, and no bonus xp. Anyway, they will gather the stories of the two casters (shedding themselves in the most favorable light), and then they can choose to break them free if they wish, though cancellation of one, reverses the other. At that point, the two casters will resume their fight, and the PCs can choose to aid or hinder at their leisure.

The mages will have been frozen for many centuries, and most of their gear will have been lost as the magic drained away. But shortly after the fight ends, the death spell will affect the winner, and they too will die.

Part III:

Papers and notes gathered inside the werewolf den will reveal that they are being controlled by some monstrous skeleton that goes by the name Gashadokuro. Gashadokuro is actually an abberation that looks like a large skeleton, but will in fact have transparent flesh. The creature will have an ability that allows him to wield weapons designed for large creatures. The sword is actually named Gashadokuro (which is the name of a spirit from Japanese myths that takes the from of a large skeleton) that will have an ability to transform into the best weapon for the wielder, and has an ability to unleash a wave of energy that will be similar to a bullrush from telekineses, but in a 15 ft cone. Gashadokuro was once a brilliant smith in service to Gorum, but after creating his masterpiece sword, refused to smith any longer. Gorum cursed him by turning him into a mindless abomination. He only retains sentience when his sword is in his possession. Without his sword, the abomination will seek to recover it at all costs, and acts as if though in a mindless rage as per the rage spell. However, Gashadokuro is at another location, under serving another person.

At this point, they will learn of Karon and that he's been controlling things from the Immortality series, the conflict in Conquest, and the abduction of the children. If they attempt to learn of Karon through means of divination magic, they will find Father Nicholas, the local priest and their ally through their ordeals.

If they confront Nicholas, he will deny everything, and magics that determine if he is lieing, or sense motive, will reveal he is telling the truth. If pressed further, his visage will suddenly change to one of malevolence and he will attack the players, before using fleeing through his magic to his own fortress.

At that point, they will have access to his private notes, and a rough map will pinpoint Karon's fortress in the mountains. The fortress will be under an effect similar to Dimensional Anchor that only Karon/Nicholas is immune to. His fortress will be composed of two parts. The outer fortress, which appears as a crumbling ruin from afar, but is fully restored if one gets close enough. The inner fortress is built within the mountain, and serves as the private sanctum of Karon. The Orb of Winter is located here, as is Karon and his deadliest traps. Gashadokuro is the leader of the outer fortress, and it is there they will learn of the Orb. The inner fortress is extremely well hidden and can't be entered through normal means. Karon simply teleports in and out, while others need to use spells like stone shape to create an entrance.

Part IV/End Game:

Now, I know how I would like to see the campain proceed, but have no idea where to go from here. Ultimately, I'd like to see a final fight with Nicholas/Karon with Nicholas fighting to redeem himself. I plan on introducing an NPC wizard that is adopted the Vargidan family in Kassen after Moltus (the old head of the family) rescued a young elven child from the frozen body of an elven woman in the mountains. The mother used what magic she had to protect her child from the cold, and Moltus rescued the girl as an infant. Moltus has survived longer than most humans, and the elven girl calls him father. At the time of the PCs starting the first module, I'll either allow a PC to play her, run her myself if there is no arcane caster (which is possible given my groups tendencies) or keep her an NPC that adventures on her own and reintroduce her later on. She's actually Nicholas' daughter, but has no memory of her parents, and the PCs will discover this information over time. The revelation of his daughter being alive will make Nicholas fight Karon for control and will attempt to aid them in the final fight, through acts like using healing spells to cure the party, or buffing them or debuffing himself etc.

After the final fight, there are one of two paths available. This depends largely on whether or not there is an epic level handbook. If there is one, I'd like to see Charon forcing himself onto the material plane and recovering his Orb. Then, using the Orb, he overthrows Pharasma, but isn't powerful enough to destroy her and reduces her to that of a minor-deity or demigod. Now, Charon will use his new control over death to unleash the dead upon the world. Pharasma would seek out the PCs for aid and journey with them to Abaddon and the Drowning Court to face Charon and help Pharasma regain her power. Now, while Charon has taken on Pharasma's power, he is not stable and still getting used to the energies, so he is still vulnerable. As we really don't have a lot of information on things like the effects of the River Styx, I'll be designing that myself, but there will be a lot of encounters with powerful undead and and daemons inside Abaddon, ultimately ending in a showdown with Charon himself. It will be the party and Pharasma working to fight Charon, so they will have a chance with Pharasma being their most powerful weapon against him.

The other option is if there is no book, to simply end with the Party destroying the Orb and releasing the souls to their eternal rest. With the Orb gone, Charon's plans are thwarted, and the region reverts to a normal winter.

If you've read through all my ramblings, thanks for doing so. As you can tell, it's not fully fleshed out, and some parts I'm not sure of where to go or how to accomplish my goals. Any help in these parts would be much appreciated. However, I'm looking for an opinion on whether or not the story is a good, whether or not if fits Golarion canon perfectly. I'm more interested in crafting an epic tale.

[mjb235]

Had I not read the entire thing and spoiled it I would be honored to play in a campaign like that! xD
But in all seriousness, I thought it was pretty wicked. Harkens back to the days when TTRPG was about this epic story full of allusions to myths and legends and ends with this epic showdown.
That being said, a lot of players might feel like this is extremely railroaded as there is already a direction in mind and certain encounters are prescripted to have specific endings. But that really depends on your players, and how they feel about such things.

[Tels]

Well the idea was to model it after an adventure path. At low levels one should get the feeling of wandering around, fighting crime, monsters and stuff, but at higher levels, one should have a focus or goal that they wish to accomplish. At any point in time until they really encounter the true BBEG, they can divert themselves and I can start a new adventure, this is just a goal I'd set up ahead of time. My players are generally pretty good at going where you want them to go, as they realize that is how the story will progress. For instance, the first contact with the Frostys will strike in a region they happen to be in, or are beholden to. If necessary, I can have a message sent to them asking for help as they have had strange things occurring and children disappearing.

Anyway, thanks for your opinion and I'll be working on this story for a long time. We alternate taking turns running campaigns, but never more than 2 at a time. I'm running a game right now, and am playing in another, and there are 3 more campaigns lined up after these two for Legacy of Fire, Carrion Crown and I believe Jade Regent, so it will be some time before I even get to run the story and I hope to have it fully fleshed out at that point.