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I love that I got into university and I'll be living with two of my best friends!!

The main story arc of this Ancient Greece-inspired campaign will be:
-Players discover the undead are rising
-Hera, queen of the gods, suspects Hades, god of the Underworld, is behind this and sends the PCs to the Great Oracle where they will learn of an ancient prophecy and be granted their first mythic ranks. They travel the land to the Oracle's city encountering fresh undead horrors and destruction to villages and cities on the way.
-The PCs travel to the underworld to confront Hades, but upon breaking into his stronghold find him chained up (the same figure as a chained statue the PCs keep seeing in dreams) by Thanatos, spirit of death, who is in league with the primordial embodiment of Chaos to bring about an end to all things. A recurring villain redeems herself by attacking Thanatos for lying to her about their mission (she thought it would be to create a new order free from the tyranny of the Olympian gods) while the PCs deal with the avatar of Chaos.

So that's that, but I'd like another couple of linked story arcs to keep things interesting. One idea I really want to implement is a large sea voyage, à la the Argonauts, to find the Golden Fleece to really get the Greek mythology theme going. Plus I have some good ideas for what will happen at sea.
BUT, one thing I really can't get round is an idea for why they need the Fleece. Judging from their main task, to stop the undead from destroying the world, this will need to be very important, not like Jason's where it was to prove his kingship. I was thinking it could maybe heal a great swathe of land the undead army had defiled.
Any opinions are very much appreciated, I'm having a bit of writer's block with this one. :)

P.S. No points to whoever spots the Percy Jackson inspiration ;D

Thanks for all the advice, everyone, I really appreciate it :) I think I will go with Extra Lay On Hands, because the healing has saved me more times than I care to remember, and hopefully we'll be facing a lot of Evil enemies in the finale so I can get good use out of turning them into Smite Evil.

Considering you can disguise it by just wearing a hat or growing your hair long, I think it's just a flavour thing, and you can change flavour however you please. :)

I'll start by saying this campaign is heavily, heavily based off Judeo-Christian "mythology", but is in no way intended to offend or mock anyone's beliefs. I'm a rather devout Christian myself, but tend to take things regarding my religion with a pinch of salt and so I'm generally unsure what may offend other believers. If I cause any offence with a topic so close to home, you have my absolute sincerest apologies. :)

The basic set-up is angels living and training in Heaven, working on Earth to guide mortals to a greater destiny and protecting them against demons.

There are numerous plot points in the history of my campaign's world, secrets and links that will need to be discovered by the PCs. I know they can be linked together in a nice tapestry of divine deceit, I'm not just sure how. So:

-The Lex Infernus: A contract that Satan signed with the angels allowing him possession of evil souls, evil being defined by consistently committing the Seven Deadly Sins without any remorse. Turned out to be a trick, and Satan had rebuilt his realm into one of relentless suffering, "Hell", and was corrupting mortals on Earth to bring them to Hell. (Straight-up Pact Primeval steal from Golarion.)
Now, part of this deal, is that after the birth of Jesus (it's a Judeo-Christian setting, He has to be in there somewhere. ;D), the Lex was renegotiated and the battles between demons and angels on Earth would remain unseen by mankind, a sort of perception filter deal. I thought this is a cool way to explain why miracles and epic events "happened" in the past, yet nowadays so few occur.
My questions:
*Why did Satan and the devils accept this change in terms? I mean, it's great for them, more fear and bloody devastation = more happy demons. :3
*How is the birth of Jesus involved with this?

-Heaven's Dark Secret- Inspired by the Seventh Accord in Golarion's setting. A really, really evil thing very high-up angels did. My thought was along the lines of this: After Satan offered to take evil souls away from the angels, God refused to let him possess neutral souls. God then created, far from sight, just beyond the horizon as seen from the peak of the Mountain of Heaven, a new land for reborn mortal souls. Here they would toil, sustain themselves and explore, living in as much peace as they themselves chose. There was one condition, however: they must not interact with Heaven, nor go further than their northern borders. For a while both sides were content, until the largest Hellmouth ever known cracked open, destroyed their civilisations and turned the land into what is essentially the Worldwound. The angels reacted quickly and placed wardstones to prevent the demons and daemons from encroaching further on the rest of the Empyrean. Since then they have been fighting a great war, attempting to reach the Hellmouth and close it. All expeditions have thus far failed. Mendevian Crusades yeah! ;D
The dark secret of the angels, I thought, was that the angels opened that Hellmouth on purpose, signing a pact with the infernal dukes to destroy the civilisation. The devils would gain delicious, delicious souls, and the angels would remove the threat of this civilisation, as a few powerful leaders had been demanding, after 2,000 years, entry into the celestial realms.
My questions:
*Is this believable? I was thinking it could be more of a trick on the devils' part, saying they would destroy the civilisation but neglecting to mention they would stay in the land and turn into a blasted, twisted waste. Then again, is that believable? Are the angels really going to fall for another "should have read the fine print"? Maybe tying this further with the Lex Infernus would be nice, I just have no idea how to. :/
*If the above idea doesn't work at all, which I totally get, any other ideas for terrible deals/things the "righteous" may have done? :) Really looking forward to hearing ideas on that one!

-The Order of the Primeval- In Heaven, there are seven churches, or orders, all basically allied, representing a different aspect of God. So, the Ordo Regis (Order of the King) leads Heaven's battles and helps mortals on Earth who wish to fight for righteous ideals. Or the Ordo Viridis (Order of the Green), helping mortals who protect nature.
These are all written up and defined, except for the Order of the Primeval, for which I like the flavour and the domains membership grants, but don't really see a point in it.
Basically it represents everything base and primal about the universe, how existence was before and just after God created the heavens and the earth. It grants domains of the four elements, the void, scalykind, chaos, darkness, sun and luck.
My question:
*But really, why does this exist? What purpose can this Order possibly serve on Earth, when their time is, almost by definition, passed?

Thank you for reading all that; I know it's a lot. Looking forward to hearing any ideas or pointers to other sources of inspiration. Just say if you need me to provide any more information regarding the setting. :)

Smurf

Oh, fine...;)

Everyone before this post gets a free copy!

Thanks for the enthusiasm, folks!

Thank you so much! I'll be buying more of your stuff in future, methinks!

Dragon (10 RP)
A dragon is a reptilian creature with magical or unusual abilities. A dragon race has the following features:
Dragons have the darkvision 60 feet racial trait.
Dragons have the low-light vision racial trait.
Dragons are immune to magical sleep effects and paralysis effects.
Dragons breathe, eat, and sleep.

Planning to run this straight after Dragon's Demand, as the levels run into each other nicely, and they're very conveniently set geographically close.
I can't seem to find where they end up level-wise, though I'd guess somewhere around level 9, judging by the final encounter?

Thanks everyone, I didn't expect to get so many replies!
I think I'm going to throw them a mastodon encounter, maybe give it a template for difficulty, then narrate the cyclops (sans miniature!) being charged by another and ripping its head off or something in one fluid motion.
Then tell the players about some nearby bushes which could provide nice concealment from the raging giant, hope they get the hint and then hav the cyclops find them again at a later stage on the same island.
If they decide to attack it I'll do the d20+WIS+BAB check to know it's way out their league, do to speak.

Deusvult and Tacticslion, great stories. :D

In the Odyssey, Odysseus and his men are taken prisoner by a cyclops, so they wait until he's asleep before blinding him with a sharpened stake, as there's no way they could best him in a straight fight.
I'd love to make an encounter like this for my players, but is there any way to ensure they won't go into full-attack mode at a monster I know they can't beat?

Glad to hear you guys like it! Actually I only meant the ship section to be like the Odyssey, it never occurred to me that the witch was like Circe haha, perhaps it was a subconscious thing. :)
Yes we're definitely using Mythic rules, the whole idea came from my urge to use Mythic Adventures, and being a huge Greek mythology nerd it all seemed to fit together perfectly!
Yeah... Cthulhu, I think when it comes to it I'm going to ask the boards for advice on nerfing him slightly. Maybe. ;D

Guys, thank you for all the suggestions and advice, it's invaluable to me. TacticsLion... that's fantastic. Engliosh doesn't have a word to express this much gratitude, no way did I expect you to write all that for me and give me so much practical help too. :) You're awesome.
Best get writing, then!

And I really need some advice.

Here's the plot, I'll try to keep it short as I can:

Based on Ancient Greece, there are numerous cities and settlements but none stronger than the twelve "theopoleis", or "god-cities", one for each Olympian god, which have aspects of their patron. So Ares' is very war-like (think Sparta), Zeus' is built in and around a mountain that goes up into the clouds, Dionysus' is a big party town filled with drunk and reveling satyrs etc.
The PCs first have to find a king of a small city's princess and missing people. Turns out they're being kidnapped by undead, which are thought non-existent. After they traverse the dungeon and get the people back, the king advises them to go to Apollo's city where the Great Oracle lives to find out more about an ancient prophecy which could explain the undead, and why the gods are being silent and prayers go unanswered.

En route they are approached by Hera, queen of the gods. She says undead are rising in small isolated areas and it must have something to do with Hades, god of the dead. Zeus, unwilling to accuse his brother Hades and start a war, has closed Olympus and refuses to allow any god contact with mortals for fear of escalating the situation.
Hera explains she needs them to descend into the Underworld and imprison Hades, replacing him with her daughter Angelos as ruler of the Underworld. To imprison him they will need 12 sacred keys located somewhere in each of the theopoleis.

So they quest all over Hellathia and do various tasks and trials to get these items. There's also a big sea voyage bit where they kill a cyclops then Poseidon punishes them by sending storms that force them onto various islands filled with stranger beasts and peoples. Yes, that's a shameless rip-off of the Odyssey.

They are followed and fought by a witch who tries to stop the PCs at every turn, who has a vendetta against the Olympians after Zeus smote her family when they failed to produce a good offering at a festival.

Plus, there's a large sub-plot about arcane magic, which is punishable by death, becoming more commonly practiced. This is eventually revealed as Hecate, goddess of magic, who is on the side of "Hades", to distract the gods from the undead problem. One of the players is an inquisitor, you see.

PCs descend into the Underworld, get to Hades palace, bust down the door... wow! Plot twist! Hades is in chains and it's now Thanatos, personification of death, running the show. He threw in his lot with the primordial deity Chaos, in an attempt to speed death up and make his job easier. Remember the witch? Yeah, she's angry her master, revealed as Thanatos, not Hades, manipulated her to turn her evil, and fights Thanatos, leaving the PCs to fight and drive back Chaos/a reskinned Cthuhlu.

Oh there's also a dragon in there somewhere. An oread PC wants vengeance.
And I'd like the PCs to hear the prophecy sometime.

Phew, sorry for the long read, if anyone has advice on pruning the story and making it shorter, my appreciation would be endless. I imagine the first thing to go will be the big sea voyage. I also really want ot keep the witch recurring villain, she's one of my favourite aspects of the story. :)

Aye, twelve cities for the Olympians and Hades' is pretty much a huge graveyard shrouded in black fog. The few citizens live underground to be closer to they patron, but I love the idea of a prison too; it's basically a mortal Tartarus.

Thanks to Tacticslion and Healer, they're invaluable! :D

Great idea for Dionysos and Hermēs. I'll have Hermēs' (Tradanos) on the Isthmus of Corinth, called the Hermian Isthmus in Hellathia, where all traders have to pass through to get to and from the Peloponnese and the mainland. Hera's polis (can't think of a name, any help?)

Dionysos' polis, Symphōsi, is a satyr place to cement the wild party aspect.

Sorry I can't respond to everyone before launching into a new question asking for advice. :)

I'm taking quite a few liberties to make things more defined for the players, so Ares will be the patron of Sparta, or Lakeros in my campaign. I think can get away with taking these liberties because (secretly) it's the far future just regressed back. So I can have iron weapons as the norm.

Just if anyone wants to throw other ideas around, here are the very basic foundations for each polis. (Darahnkesh is what Persia has become).

Aphrodite- Limnos- Famed for its liberties and brothels
Apollo- Thraesē- Famed for training best healers and musicians, strong alliance with Dasos
Athena- Ionatha- Centre of learning and wisdom.
Ares- Lakeros- Unbeatable army, trained from the cradle, haloi slave class treated brutally
Artemis- Dasos- Polis hidden away in a forest, inhabitants only women
Demeter- Myagēa- Walls made of thorns, enormous wealth from olives and farming, borders Hera's polis and helps feed cattle
Dionysos- Symphōsi- Near Darahnkesh and trades in wines to the rest of Hellathia. Party town dominated by satyrs, receives sultans and princes from all over Darahnkesh
Hadēs- Necropia- Primarily a mass graveyard shrouded in a permanent dark fog, citizens live underground, huge prison for worst criminals; "mortal Tartarus"
Hephaistos- Phōtadōmi- Situated at the foot of a volcano, heated by geothermal fonts. Steampunk dream, brass and steel. Supplies weapons, arms and gadgets to Hellathia
Hera- ?- Rears cattle, very traditional, incredibly strong fortifications but little in the way of an offensive army. Takes refugees from all over the world so has become a mosaic (not a melting pot) of different cultures and is less racist than the other poleis.
Hermēs- Tradanos- Located between the Peloponnia and the rest of the mainland on the strip of land known as the Hermian Isthmus. Main trading city which attracts foreigners from all over the world.
Poseidon- Posagos- Giant city that floats on water, water elementals can move the city anywhere in times of war for attack or defence
Zeus- Ouranopolis- Vast city built spiralling up in and around Mount Ithara, second highest in Hellathia

BIG QUESTION: I want the final destination to be a fight against Khaos. Yeah, chaos itself. The gods start warring on each other because of rivalries and confusions. Hades amasses an army of the undead for protection and the other gods think this is to invade and refuse to parley. Heroes will quest for the Three Words of the Bottle of the Bound and the army reveals Hellathia is in fact Greece in Earth's future. But this huge war is orchestrated by Khaos who hopes the gods sill destroy creation in the process, allowing himself to hsve sole dominion. So how do I get the players (Level 20 Tier 10) to fight the undefeatable force? I guess only having to send it back to sleep or whatever, but how on Earth do I go about building a stat block for this?

In my GM's game, Draconic is pretty much dead though it was once used as a powerful tongue for spellcasting.
However, I talked to my GM and said it would be cool for my character to say some phrases in Draconic in the midst of battle, to inspire himself and the party with the might of wyrmkind. So yeah, I'm inventing a language with a weird grammar system and a vocabulary partially based off Gaelic, so please give me phrases to roar!
So far I've translated "Death before dishonour" and "Honour in all things".

Thank you everybody. :)
I'm going to see how my first session goes and then brainstorm what I need to work on.

Help. :( I have a story planned out but I don't know what to do if say, the players refuse to go to the village with the ninjas.
Plus I don't know what to do about making a village seem realistic, if they want to explore the woods do I make encounters completely off the fly? Argh first time GM panicking haha!

Oh I don't think I actually bought the explorer's outfit, just put it on my inventory list then forgot about the rule. Thanks for reminding me!

Apsu, of course. I only say Sarenrae because she is the most important character in the background. The heroes are basically her champions, and she gives them gifts and pointers along the way. But Apsu fought in the battle against Rovagug (the true villain of the story) with her, so she could enlist his help.

That power ranger's idea is bloody awesome!!! If there's no way to balance, I'm using that in a heartbeat, thanks a lot man! :D

As shall we all! They will be hung on special coat racks through all corners of the land!
Sweet! I know right?! xD

Hahahaha, no worries man! xD

Eben TheQuiet wrote:

Pleather.

... meh. Are they bomber-style pleather jackets? This isn't really as important, but it's kind of interesting.

EDIT: I'm probably mostly sticking with my ratty old ones that are literally falling apart anyway. But I like the idea of new ones for club use!

They're bomber-style... LEATHER jackets. Awh yeah, authentic American leather. Only the best for the United Christian Believers Paizo Pathfinder Forum Crew!

toxicpie wrote:

Took me about twenty seconds. > < Still that was clever, I indeed c wat ewe did thar!

I too, Spook, am Catholic. Nice to meet a fellow believer!
Session tomorrow was cancelled, so there is another week to discuss this, amigos! ;D

Hahah! (I wouldn't have called it clever, so much as "corny", but thanks for being polite!)

Hey, I'm not Catholic, but, er, my wife is! And... um... I'm Christian! So, uh, can I hang out with the cool kids too?

Hahaha!

Do you just add the two class levels' BABs together? So if I had a Cleric VIII, then Prestige Classed to Vindicator I, my total BAB would be +7/+1?
And do the three Saves work on the same principle of simply adding them?

My Wisdom score of 20 means I get two extra 1st level spells per day, as well as one extra second, third, fourth and fifth level spell each day. Can I use these for extra domain spells, or is it just for ordinary cleric spells?
Also, with Fire Bolt, how do I decide if it hits? Is it just a d20 as normal? Thank you very much in advance! :D