Right, so having just finished reading through Kings of the Rift, i've got an idea. it's still working its way through my brain, and I think it's time to have some other folks roll it around too.
Alastor Land shows up with his nice little speech there at the end of Kings of the Rift - and, for me at least - It felt like it was right out of nowhere. at the same time, I think it's kind of a nice recurrance/tie-in with the whole storyline, and i'd like to use it.
Since my group is still working its way through 3foE, i've got plenty of time to work in some interesting plot points.
here's what i'm considering. I've got two lawful characters - one LG monk and one LN warmage. i'm thinking about giving each of them secret notes at certain points over the course of the campaign. they will have dreams, some featuring Alastor Land, some featuring flashback/previews of the Fight at the end of Library of Last Resort. Even a few Tie-Ins to A gathering of Winds could be included.
The Idea is to make the Wind Dukes feel a bit more like a presence in the campaign, as well as build up some player tension.
First we'll start with barely remembered dreams - a flash here and there. building up, they'll begin to get more and more scenes.
so, what do you all who are DMing think of this idea?
Oh man, it's a good one. As long as you can keep the campaign on the same track, without shifting focus completely to the Wind Dukes......but yeah, I certainly wish I could have tried that! My party is almost done with Kings of the Rift, so I guess at this point it's somewhat out of the question. But anyway, sounds like a great idea!!!
so, what do you all who are DMing think of this idea?
To comment on your idea, I think it can work well. It might be very effective through writing down the visions, and then passing them secretly at opportune moments.
I am also DMing Age of Worms, with some heavy modifications to the early adventures. I just started though, and my party will probably meet Lil' Al tomorrow night as the fniish up the Whispering Carin. Here are some of the things I am planning so far to tie in the whole Vaati bloodline thing:
1. In Hall of Harsh Reflections, Zyzag has a collection of tomes that attempt to track bloodlines of various ancient races, including those of the vaati and the diluted demon blood of Miska the Wolf Spider. Both are inconclusive, but hint that those bloodlines are ofen activated by primal forces of Law and Chaos to produce and execute prophecies.
2. Kyuss himself fought in an ancient version of the Champion's Games, and he was the best that ever was. He used his poluarity and massive following to forge a cruel kingdom in his jungle homeland. Kyuss was never unseated as champion, but when he retired, he passed the belt honors onto the second greatest champion the ancient games ever had. . . Enterrus Land (the great, great, great, etc. grandfather of Alastor himself, with a much richer blodline). One of the encounter areas inside the coliseum complex will be a trophy rom with statues dedicated to the ancient Lands. . . once a family of powerful warriors hailing from Diamond Lake.
3. The Occulus Demon in A Gathering Of Winds does not only bear witness to the tomb itslef, there are literally hundred of interconnected seals, drawings, mathematical formulas. . . all of which drive the demon mad with its lack of understanding. When the PCs place the Seal of Law on the tomb in A Gathering Of Winds, the hundreds of figures lock into place, and the PCs receive the blessing, as well as an acnient carving that can be decipered to state: The lost blood of the Vaati has been renewed."
4. Manzorian will hint at an ancient bloodline of stewards dedicated to containing the evils of the Age of Worms, some of which might be found in the Spire of Long Shadows. In addition to the visions presented, I will add two of my own. . . one about the building of Icsosil's tomb, and another showing two books being flipped, one highlighting the vaati bloodline growing thinner and thinner and thinner, only to fade to nearly nothing at the last page. Teh other flips to show Miska the Wolf Spider's diluted blooline until it stops apruptly before finishing. The last third of the blood has been torn out raggedly, and the last surviving name on the list is Kyuss himself.
5. Alastor's mother is from Alhaster, and actually bore a child there who will eventually grow up to be Prince Zeech. In her youth, she abandoned the child and set off to Diamond Lake, where she married the last surviving bloodline of the Vaati, Farmer Land. She bore another son, and loosely named him after her old homeland. This info will be revealed in the Prince of Redhand by the St. Cuthbert ghoul cleric. (I also want Zeech to have sworn his initial oath to Paladinhood at the same moment that Alastor died in the Cairn, along with all the ideas about fate, determinism, etc . . . however, without seeing Dawn of a New Age, I don't know how this will play out yet).
6. The reason the PCs don't hear from Alastor again until Kings of the Rift, is because he was truly gone. Only restoring the lost lore of the Order of the Storm could have allowed Alastor to receive the revelation about his own bloodline and the details surrounding Dragotha's phylactery. This restoration also gave him a bit of energy to manefest again to the PCs. . . but only for that short time.
Anyway, those are some ideas I plan on using in my camaign. Sorry abou the typos. . . I went through it pretty fast.
All great ideas up here (that I'll have to swipe). Windnight, the only thing I would mention is that maybe you shouldn't exclude your other players from the dreams and such. Maybe make a roll to decide who should get one each night, and maybe have a predefined list of visions, increasing in intensity and detail. You could argue that your two characters' lawful nature puts them closer to their true bloodline, but everyone in the group is supposedly descended from the Wind Dukes in some way in Kings of the Rift as it is written. All I'm saying is that you may unintentionally be playing favorites in one way or another.
James - i'm not to worried about playing favorites - and I don't think that other people are either. I don't particularlly like the Idea that everyone in the party is decended from them, so i'm gonna cut that away...
and give the other players some other unique backgrounds that they don't know about which will come into play over the course ofthe adventure.
for instance, the Halfling ranger will really shine in LoLR not only because it's a good outdoor adventure, but because she'll have mystical bloodline ties to the order of storms.
The half-elven cleric of celestian will start noticing odd alignments in the stars, alignments previously unseen since the last time kyuss rose up.
I'm still working on some other background bits for the Elven Rogue and the (human? i think... wizard or bard... he's not sure yet, and joining the campaign this week).
No one's going to be left out, but i'd like to make this feel more like a convergence of several different prophesies and contingency plans...
Chris Wissel - WerePlatypus those were really good ideas. I already started on something similar, but got stuck, this will certainly get the brain juices flowing again. Good job.
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My PC's are currently finishing up TFoE. I've had an online newsletter for my PC's called the Diamond Lake Gazette that has offered up some news and rumors about what is going on in the area around the city. I really wanted to have a fiery volcanic setting somewhere in the campaign, something like Mustafar from Revenge of the Sith, or Mount Doom in LoTR. The biggest piece of forshadowing I have used was the Party felt a very minor earthquke in Diamond Lake. The earthquake turned out to be a precursor to the activity that caused White Plume Mountain to erupt, sending tons of ash into the atmosphere and blocking the Rift Canyon from the light of day. It's even been reported, though not confirmed there is a river of lava flowing from the mountain to the canyon. I think the party enjoyed it, they obviously aren't away yet tat they have to go to the canyon at some point, but they got the impression Diamond Lake isn't the only place having some a "bad" time lately. Here is the most humorous reponse I had, "Hooray! The end-times are upon us! Bow down and pay homage to the god who is about to snuf us!."
I also kind of metagamed before the campaign because I helped some of the party create their characters. One of the PC's is an Axani or a planetouched who are the heirs of Lawful outsiders who happens to be a descendant of the Wind Dukes.
I also am using the Earthquake mentioned above as what set off the lizardfolk in EaBK into battle frenzy.