My game is at still, I cannot decide how to go on. Advice appreciated please

[Gandal]

First of all, better i tell it right from the beginning that i'm running a campaign of 2 people;i do the gming and run three chars and my player runs the other three; homemade setting (similar to Forgotten Realms).
The chars are (and their level as for now):
F elf magus 7 – M human TWF fighter 7 – M dwarf cleric of Pharasma 7 – M Aasimar paladin 7
F human sorcerer/draconic bloodline 7 – F tiefling rogue 7

I'm not here to explain why the group of 2 (as usual,old group disbanding because of RL,marriages,different work schedules and so on).

My player asked me to create a campaign that makes use of true names (i hate true names,they are too restrictive,you usually have to go out of your head to explain why someone actually got to learn one and there are virtually no defenses agaist them.)

He gave me a story in which the PC are initially slaves of a crazy mage who delights in binding and breeding experiments with outsiders, and the PCs should have been the next, only they escaped with the help of one devil claiming to be the mother of the group's tiefling, and she makes it clear straight away that she knows the true names of each one of the PCs. I said “maybe you are exagerating” but he was sure he can handle his part of the story,pity after few days he asked me to do all the gming because he no longer could (i know i know, no need to get vulgar).

Anyway i took the party from 3 to 7 and through these events:

They started in a Qadira/Katapesh nation as fleeing slaves,and were tracked down by associates of the crazy mage (which was slain by the other guy knows who) that want to know what he was about.

They discovered a way to leave the nation;a noble whose daughter was abducted by gnolls slavers asked them to save his girl (she herself was on a trip to discover ancient secrets of a tomb.)They found the gnolls camp but the enemies were a lot.There were also a F elf cleric of Calistria (we are using Golarion deities for simplicity's sake) as a potential ally, but in the ensuing dialogues the player was incautious and the cleric was also captured and illtreated (to put it kindly).Another ally was a Lamia also enslaved by the gnolls chieftain, and she helped the PCs wiping out the slave camp. (not going too much into details, it would be too long).They saved the cleric and the noble's daughter.

The cleric of Calistria was there,posing a slaver herself, to gather info from a human man slave merchant (suspected of kidnapping elves from her place) but since he died during the fights with the gnolls she could only turn back to her home (she'll be encounterd again, for a quest Calistria herself will force on the group to take revenge for what her cleric had to endure).

They then took the other girl on her trip to the tombs, where after a dungeon everyone where caught in a forgotten portal and taken to a demiplane; inside it they discovered that millennia before their time two empires were on war when the emperor of one (human necro-very original i know) tried to win by cheating on a drow house worshiper of Abraxas.

One drow,a wizard, offered to this emperor a way to have the power to win over his enemy (a great wyrm red dragon) with a spell that in his intentions should have made him invincible. But something went wrong as during the ritual they were interrupted by a rival drow house and the spell backfired, creating that demiplane inside which this ancient war has never ended.The chars discovered all this because the lord of this tomb was the drow wizard that started everything (now a very underpowered lich, and about to end his days).His fear is that the original spell will soon end,releasing the demiplane and all of its occupant back in the world (a lot of CR 15+ drows and undeads plus the emperor -now a CR 20+ lich- and of course the ancient great wyrm red dragon,you can guess the CR)

Once back in the desert,the pc's suffered other attacks by assassins/creatures summoned to get them back to the mages running the place but managed to escape.

What they don't know is that the drow had the true names of both the emperor and the dragon,they meant to use them to make them slaves of Abraxas (while the emperor thought he was going to cheat on the demon lord, in reality it was the other way around-he intended to gain the power he needed through a pact with Abraxas only to deceive him once made invincible by the mage) but lost their occasion with the backfire of that spell.

Now the chars managed to escape the desert nation and are in major city occupied by troops from a nearby country which is the remnant of the empire they saw in that demiplane (think of it as Taldor but with more evil tendencies).This army is here to recruit (willing or not) mercenaries to help against barbarian horeds from the east and the north, but of course the chars want to stay as little as possible,as they plans are to pass through the elven nation just few hours north of this city.

Anyway, long story short; i'm now at the point in which i have too many quests and subquests running around in my head but i don't seem to be able to give them an order, or more generally how to go on, and the game has been still for some time now.

To end this wall of text,here are the main quests i can think of atm:

There really is a slave trade of elves going on the city, and the owner of the local temple of Calistria wants to end it (that elven girl cleric from before is also here, and is still traumatized). The family of the merchant slain back at the gnolls camp came to know of his death and through means both magical and mundane also discovered the presence of the chars and that cleric, so is now planning revenge (and probably to capture alive the magus of the group,being her an elf)

In the nearby elven nation drows and orcs are secretly plotting agaisnt the empire (the orcs) and the elves (the drows).They took over a village on a far border of the forest with a surprise raid and estabilished a HQ there; Orcs are also working with an officer of (the empire similar to Taldor) to lure patrols there and capture them aided by the drows debilitating attacks. (Drows here are mostly shadowdancers or assassins, with a chief cleric; orcs are almost only barbarians).

Drows have a powerful backup: a young adult green dragon CR11 that repels/kills any creature not suitable for capturing alive in exchange for the gear of the captives. (Of course this HQ is shielded against divination, so folk have to phisically go there to check).

The presence of the drows and orcs is altering the balance of the forest, and fey are increasingly restless. (the pcs will surely have to grow in power before attempting to storm the HQ, or they'll be wiped out, so this is a hook to give them more side quests around the forest).

After this part of the campaign pcs should see that drows are still searching for the scrolls of the True Names their ancestors had prepared to enslave the necro emperor and the red wyrm, and should begin exploring the underdark (general name for the classic setting deep beneath the earth) in order to get to the scrolls before them.

If you had the patience of reading everything i hope i was clear enough (English not being my first lang), and that i gave sufficient info.

[Trinite]

I don't know your group, but here's my general advice:

What part of the campaign have your characters liked the best? If you don't know, just ask them.

Once you've got that figured out, ask yourself, "Why was that the best part?"

When you answer that question, figure out a plot that will give your players more of what they have most enjoyed.

[Stubs McKenzie]

Personally i would pair down the pc load to 3-4 total, and only run 1 yourself if needed... it makes dming a lot less time consuming imo. As this is a custom setting you can easily tailor the encounters to a smaller party, and would probably benefit a lot from doing so. 3 quests with 6-10 encounters each is way way harder to plan out against 6 pcs vs 3.

Past that, if your player is having fun with any/all of those ideas, run what you enjoy most! It is important that you both have a good time, not just one or the other.

Dont try to plan too far ahead with any one story line... in my opinion, the single greatest trait a dm can have is the ability to improvise. In large part that alone should ease your burden.

[Tom S 820]

I will say which one do you want to GM and tell rate in 1 to 4 score.
Then give lead to your player for all 4 and ask them which they would like to do in 1 to 4 scale. The one whith highest point total do last so you can build up to it. Then do the lowest total first and fit the other 2 in as you see fit.

Green Dragon back up in desert? Should it be Blue or Red?

If was me I open with slave trade hook then have it lead in to Drow/ ORk village stuff. That is open ended that can not close out till both fey / balence thing fix and Dragon is slain.

Level 7 to 8 Free girl/slave trade thing Demon, Kalavakus CR10 boss
Level 8 to 9 Ork/Drow village thing open but do not close
Level 9 to 10 Dragon and home guard
Level 10 to 11 Fey balce fix caused Drow/Ork
Level 11 to 12 True Boss Drow wizard

Reoccurring attacks by Drow Ranger/Rouge, Rouge/Shadow dancer/ Assassin, Socerer of Fey Blood line (Shadow, Aberrant or Abyssal blood line with Eldritch Heritage feat Chain) Have cleric use Variant Channeling in UM and them to useing Eldritch Heritage. Summon Demons by both Orc and Drow, A half Blooded template Dragon ORC Fighter 4/ Barb 2 (Dragon of what ever color you pick). Orc Sorcerer ORC bloood line with Abyssal blood line with Eldritch Chain.

Make use of shadow demon, succubus CR7, vrock CR 9 and maybe a hezrou CR 11,Demon, Incubus CR 6, Demon, Schir CR 4. Feel free to add Barbarian
Rogue, and /or Sorcerer level to any to help raise there CR to right point. Remember when you add class level you add +4,+4 +2+2+0-2 to stat and add NPC weath to the equal to there new CR.

[Gandal]

Tom S 820 wrote:

Green Dragon back up in desert? Should it be Blue or Red?

Maybe i missed to tell this part of the campaign is in a great forest, i told the party escaped the desert.

Tom S 820 wrote:

If was me I open with slave trade hook then have it lead in to Drow/ ORk village stuff. That is open ended that can not close out till both fey / balence thing fix and Dragon is slain.

Level 7 to 8 Free girl/slave trade thing
Level 8 to 9 Ork/Drow village thing open but do not close
Level 9 to 10 Fey balce fix caused Drow/Ork
Level 10 to 11 Dragon and home guard
Level 11 to 12 True Boss Drow wizard

Reoccurring attacks by Drow Ranger/Rouge, Rouge/Shadow dancer/ Assassin, Socerer of Fey Blood line (Shadow, Aberrant or Abyssal blood line with Eldritch Heritage feat Chain) Have cleric use Variant Channeling in UM

This is a really useful suggestion, thanks.