Campaign Plotline
This is the Expedition to Shael plotline. It is briefly detailed yet long so please don't criticize it.
The PC's begin in the town of Clutterhill, where they are hired by a concerned noble to protect his manor from robberies. During a soirée organized by the noble, the house is attacked by a band of rogues and cutthroats known as the Two Coins. Defending the manor and preventing the robberies, the PC's are joined by the town guard. A captured rogue tells of the thieves base of operation and another robbery that will be taking place. While the guards go to stop the second robbery, the PC's inflitrate the Clutterhill Sewers and enter the Two Coins hideout. Reaching their leader, a self-centered half-elf rogue and trapsmith by the name of Senn they fight him in his trapped filled sanctum. After this rickety duel has ended, the players either hand in Senn alive or dead, they claim a bounty that was on his head. As well, the lord of Clutterhill, a certain aristocrat Hild d'Klutteril, grants them a gift and a mission at the same time. He promises them a manorhouse about a day's walk from here. The problem being, is that it is rumoured to be haunted. Before the player's leave, the guards inform the PC's that they've discovered papers from Senn's personal belongings talking about the manorhouse they've just “inherited”. Travelling to their new home, the PC's are waylaid by another group of travelling adventurers who call themselves the Nightflowers. Claiming they are on a quest to recover an ancient artifact they leave the “neophytes” to their buisness. Arriving at the manorhouse they do indeed find the place haunted, as well as the local hamlet of Springmill. The previous owner of the manor has risen from the grave and his undead have killed everyone in town. Ridding the manorhouse of these undead, freeing the few survivors from Springmill and killing the members of the Bloody Skin Cult they achieve victory. The nercomancer's were carrying documents that lead the players to the trading city of Farlan. Travelling there they investigate on the necromancer and any link to the Two Coins. Soon after, the PC's hear a rumour of robberies involving artwork around the city. Realizing that artwork was stolen from Clutterhill the PC's pursue this lead. What they uncover is far more sinister than just local thieves. An insane painter is at the heart of Two Coins and the Bloody Skin Cult. The painter, Avlin, has begun “reacquiring” his works of art as they posess nightmare spirits bound within their canvases. Avlin has reacquired his artwork except for two last ones. One is in an old decrepit library in the outskirts of the town while the other was purchased not long ago by the king of the city. After having stormed the library while fending off attacks from insane enemies they destroy one of the two paintings. They must then find a way to enter the castle, by diplomacy preferably, so as to destroy the second one. Hearing that the king will hold an open feast for the coming Harvest Day, the PC's must make contacts within the castle, obtain an invitation, survive a few more assasination attempts before Harvest Day finally arrives. On Harvest Day, the PC's will have few opportunities to search for the painting, while at the same time, Avlin's cohorts have also infiltrated the castle. Playing a dire game of infiltration against the other side, the PC's must become thieves themselves. At the end, they manage to defeat Avlin's side and destroy the final painting. In a fit of deranged anger, Avlin attacks the castle personally. Finding the castle's residents succumbing to Avlin's reflected insanity, the contacts and people they talked to and made friends with earlier will be more likely to resist Avlin's taint with the PC's nearby. The final showdown goes on as the PC's must fight not only Avlin but even King Alexander who has succumber to the taint. The PC's might have won the battle but seeing as regicide was commited and is a traitorous act, the PC's are imprisoned. Sent to the far off dismal prison of Talon's Hold, they must fend for themselves among the other inmates. There they meet Carver Arbalesta, a vampire shadowdancer who is on the PC's side. Breaking free of the prison while fighting off guards and convicts the PC's make it to the dark forests of Nachtwald, the realm of the vampires. Carver reveals to the PC's that he had other motives for freeing the player's. The vampires regent has become a bloodthristy tyrant and he wants the PC's to aid him in “removing” him. Carver and his Ragamuffins make preparations as the PC's perform minor side-quests to weaken the enemy vampires and strengthen themselves. A week later, Carver alerts the PC's that he has gathered what he belivies is sufficient troops for the battle ahead. Open war then occurs as the human rebellion led by the Ragamuffins assault Kerrick's dominion.During the course of the wat, the PC's will be able to control where the troops will be stationed. After having defeated the majority of the undead troops, the player's besiege Kerrick's keep. They then meet Kerrick on the battleground as well as his chosen elite guard and their captain, Leorik Nachtwasser. Aftter Kerrick is burnt and his heart pierced by a religious stake, Carver thanks the players. The sword that Kerrick wielded, he warns them, appears to possess strange powers and could be extrenely dangerous. He thinks he might know someone who could help the players answer their questions. At this point the adventure provides some much needed downtime for the PC's. When the PC's are ready, Carver sends out a message. A few days later, a gnome controlled airship lands in Nachtwald. Aboard, Captain Jackiel Dannson, a boisterous and happy go-lucky “pirate”, tells them that he's charged with bringing them to the dwarven city of Mithralforge where their contact awaits. Landing in the city though, they find it in a state of disaster. Their contact, the dwarf savant Hureldnen, agrees to find out what he can about the sword and any other questions the PC's might have. He has one request though. The city was ransacked by a group of fiendish dwarves a few days ago. He believes the vampire's plight and the dwarve's might be somehow related. He wants the PC's to penetrate deep within the Furnace Mountains and retrieve anything that could provide some clues or information. He also asks that the PC”s kill any fiendish dwarf that crosses their path and especially their lord, Grommdal the Demon, a powerful fiendish dwarf fighter. The PC's enter the boiling realm of the mountain and descend into the heart of Shael. Encountering battles like fiendish dwarf encampments, ravenous dire bat colonies and even a small myconid colony that aids the players in their quest. After having accomplished their objectives with the option of slaying Grommdal, the PC's make their way back up to the surface. With the recovered items, specifically a statuette with the same markings as on the blade, notes on a fiendish mutation chamber uncovered when in the mountain and the skull of a demon they battled as well. With all these key components, Hureldnen delves into books of forgotten history and pulls out the Archivus Nefaste, a sinister tome detailing the deity Mar, a fiendish god of decpetion and nightmares. He comprehends that Mar's realm must have begun an invasion on Shael. He offers the PC's some powerful magic items to aid them in their quest. He tells the PC's that if Mar truly is coming then an important ally might be able to help prevent his invasion. Deep underneath the sea of Shael lies a ruined temple. There, Hureldnen believes the PC's will be able to find powerful weapons and remnants of the heroes who defeated Mar long ago. Using the ancient submersible, The Kraken Notch the PC's dive deep within the freezing waters of Shael's Sea. They enter the ruins and fight it airtight and safe to explore. As they explore the empty ruins they finally come across the altar chamber where the weapons reside. When the players near the arms, the remnants of the ancient heroes rise up and confront the PC's. The PC's will have to present their case to safely make it out with their lives and the weapons. Minutes later though, the ruins are attacked by enemies. Fighting their way out and engaging an enemy submersible at 15,000 ft, the PC's defeat another key villain, a strange tiefling by the name of Half-Tongue who possesses a strange gemstone capable of travelling to Mar's realm. Reunited with Hureldnen for the last time, he grants the PC's a generous parting gif of powerful magical objects before the PC's enter the plane. There, the PC's find themselves alone amongst a world of darkness, fire and deception. Overcoming madness, taint, fiendishly grafted creatures, a cabal of deranged cultists and travelling more than a month in the dark realms, they reach Mar's Citadel, the Landtainter. The PC's attack the stronghold, slaying old and new opponents, uncovering dark secrets and revelations as well as making a final sacrifice and selling their souls for the power to defeat Mar, they affront him personally. A final battle erupts, with the plane imploding upon itself in the aftermath. The heroes awaken in Ilumius, the realm of the high heavens as saviours and the goddess Ilua herself grants the PC's a choice of either ressurection among old friends, or ascenscion as a deity.
I'm not sure what you're asking for, Quartet. The title of the thread says 'please comment and critic' (do you mean critique?) but then in the first few sentences you say that you don't want criticism.
And is this a campaign which is already done and dusted, all over apart from the final PC portraits, or is this an outline for a planned campaign which has yet to begin?
Edit:
Reading it through again, it seems to me more likely to be an outline for a proposed campaign, but clarification of exactly what you are looking for would be useful.
Is this a proposed plot for an upcoming campaign or a summary of one that's already happened? If its the former, it occurs to me that there is little room for the PC's to do much more than ride the rails.
I'd be pleased to read it more carefully, but the density of the text dump is crossing my eyes. Please break it into paragraphs and repost.
What kind of input are you looking for? Plotwise, converting it into a viable adventure...I'm happy to help as I *love* bouncing ideas off other people myself.
Bad doggy! He wants campaign advice, not the grammar police.
Quartet, you can edit your original post and try breaking it up, you don't have to post a new topic.
This is the Expedition to Shael plotline. It is briefly detailed yet long so please don't criticize it.
The PC's begin in the town of Clutterhill, where they are hired by a concerned noble to protect his manor from robberies. During a soirée organized by the noble, the house is attacked by a band of rogues and cutthroats known as the Two Coins. Defending the manor and preventing the robberies, the PC's are joined by the town guard. A captured rogue tells of the thieves' base of operation and another robbery that will be taking place. While the guards go to stop the second robbery, the PC's infiltrate the Clutterhill Sewers and enter the Two Coins hideout. Reaching their leader, a self-centered half-elf rogue and trapsmith by the name of Senn they fight him in his trapped filled sanctum. After this rickety duel has ended the players hand in Senn either alive or dead, and they claim a bounty that was on his head. As well, the lord of Clutterhill, a certain aristocrat Hild d'Klutteril, grants them a gift and a mission at the same time. He promises them a manor-house about a day's walk from here. The problem being, is that it is rumoured to be haunted. Before the player's leave, the guards inform the PC's that they've discovered papers from Senn's personal belongings talking about the manor-house they've just “inherited”.
Travelling to their new home, the PC's are waylaid by another group of travelling adventurers who call themselves the Nightflowers. Claiming they are on a quest to recover an ancient artifact they leave the “neophytes” to their business. Arriving at the manor-house they do indeed find the place haunted, as well as the local hamlet of Springmill. The previous owner of the manor has risen from the grave and his undead have killed everyone in town. Ridding the manor-house of these undead, freeing the few survivors from Springmill and killing the members of the Bloody Skin Cult they achieve victory. The necromancers were carrying documents that lead the players to the trading city of Farlan. Travelling there they investigate on the necromancer and any link to the Two Coins.
Soon after, the PC's hear a rumour of robberies involving artwork around the city. Realizing that artwork was stolen from Clutterhill the PC's pursue this lead. What they uncover is far more sinister than just local thieves. An insane painter is at the heart of Two Coins and the Bloody Skin Cult. The painter, Avlin, has begun “reacquiring” his works of art as they possess nightmare spirits bound within their canvases. Avlin has reacquired his artwork except for two last ones. One is in an old decrepit library on the outskirts of the town while the other was purchased not long ago by the king of the city. After having stormed the library while fending off attacks from insane enemies they destroy one of the two paintings. They must then find a way to enter the castle, by diplomacy preferably, so as to destroy the second one.
Hearing that the king will hold an open feast for the coming Harvest Day, the PC's must make contacts within the castle, obtain an invitation, and survive a few more assassination attempts before Harvest Day finally arrives. On Harvest Day, the PC's will have few opportunities to search for the painting, while at the same time Avlin's cohorts have also infiltrated the castle. Playing a dire game of infiltration against the other side, the PC's must become thieves themselves. At the end, they manage to defeat Avlin's side and destroy the final painting. In a fit of deranged anger, Avlin attacks the castle personally. Finding the castle's residents succumbing to Avlin's reflected insanity, the contacts and people they talked to and made friends with earlier will be more likely to resist Avlin's taint with the PC's nearby. The final showdown goes on as the PC's must fight not only Avlin but even King Alexander who has succumbed to the taint.
The PC's might have won the battle but seeing as regicide was committed - a traitorous act - the PC's are imprisoned. Sent to the far off dismal prison of Talon's Hold, they must fend for themselves among the other inmates. There they meet Carver Arbalesta, a vampire shadowdancer who is on the PC's side. Breaking free of the prison while fighting off guards and convicts the PC's make it to the dark forests of Nachtwald, the realm of the vampires. Carver reveals to the PC's that he had other motives for freeing the player's. The vampires' regent has become a bloodthirsty tyrant and Carver wants the PC's to aid him in “removing” him. Carver and his Ragamuffins make preparations as the PC's perform minor side-quests to weaken the enemy vampires and strengthen themselves.
A week later, Carver alerts the PC's that he has gathered what he believes to be sufficient troops for the battle ahead. Open war then occurs as the human rebellion led by the Ragamuffins assault Kerrick's dominion. During the course of the war, the PC's will be able to control where the troops will be stationed. After having defeated the majority of the undead troops, the player's besiege Kerrick's keep. They then meet Kerrick on the battleground as well as his chosen elite guard and their captain, Leorik Nachtwasser. After Kerrick is burnt and his heart pierced by a religious stake, Carver thanks the players. The sword that Kerrick wielded, he warns them, appears to possess strange powers and could be extremely dangerous. He thinks he might know someone who could help the players answer their questions. At this point the adventure provides some much needed downtime for the PC's.
When the PC's are ready Carver sends out a message. A few days later, a gnome controlled airship lands in Nachtwald. Aboard, Captain Jackiel Dannson, a boisterous and happy go-lucky “pirate”, tells them that he's charged with bringing them to the dwarven city of Mithralforge where their contact awaits. Landing in the city though, they find it in a state of disaster. Their contact, the dwarf savant Hureldnen, agrees to find out what he can about the sword and any other questions the PC's might have. He has one request though. The city was ransacked by a group of fiendish dwarves a few days ago. He believes the vampires' plight and the dwarves' might be somehow related. He wants the PC's to penetrate deep within the Furnace Mountains and retrieve anything that could provide some clues or information. He also asks that the PC”s kill any fiendish dwarf that crosses their path and especially their lord, Grommdal the Demon, a powerful fiendish dwarf fighter.
The PC's enter the boiling realm of the mountain and descend into the heart of Shael, encountering challenges like fiendish dwarf encampments, ravenous dire bat colonies and even a small myconid colony that aids the players in their quest. After having accomplished their objectives with the option of slaying Grommdal, the PC's make their way back up to the surface.
With the recovered items, specifically a statuette with the same markings as on the blade, notes on a fiendish mutation chamber uncovered when in the mountain and the skull of a demon they battled as well. With all these key components, Hureldnen delves into books of forgotten history and pulls out the Archivus Nefaste, a sinister tome detailing the deity Mar, a fiendish god of deception and nightmares. He comprehends that Mar's realm must have begun an invasion on Shael. He offers the PC's some powerful magic items to aid them in their quest. He tells the PC's that if Mar truly is coming then an important ally might be able to help prevent his invasion. Deep underneath the sea of Shael lies a ruined temple. There, Hureldnen believes the PC's will be able to find powerful weapons and remnants of the heroes who defeated Mar long ago.
Using the ancient submersible ‘The Kraken Notch’ the PC's dive deep within the freezing waters of Shael's Sea. They enter the ruins and find them airtight and safe to explore. As they explore the empty ruins they finally come across the altar chamber where the weapons reside. When the players near the arms, the remnants of the ancient heroes rise up and confront the PC's. The PC's will have to present their case to safely make it out with their lives and the weapons.
Minutes later, though, the ruins are attacked by enemies. Fighting their way out and engaging an enemy submersible at 15,000 ft, the PC's defeat another key villain, a strange tiefling by the name of Half-Tongue who possesses a strange gemstone capable of travelling to Mar's realm. Reunited with Hureldnen for the last time, he grants the PC's a generous parting gift of powerful magical objects before the PC's enter the plane.
There, the PC's find themselves alone amongst a world of darkness, fire and deception. Overcoming madness, taint, fiendishly grafted creatures, a cabal of deranged cultists and travelling more than a month in the dark realms, they reach Mar's Citadel, the Landtainter. The PC's attack the stronghold, slaying old and new opponents, uncovering dark secrets and revelations as well as making a final sacrifice and selling their souls for the power to defeat Mar, they confront him personally. A final battle erupts, with the plane imploding upon itself in the aftermath. The heroes awaken in Ilumius, the realm of the high heavens as saviours and the goddess Ilua herself grants the PC's a choice of either resurrection among old friends, or ascension as a deity.
I know it's long, sorry.
Gambit
I don't know if this is what the OP intended, but I've tried to edit it into paragraphs that make sense to me, and to tidy up some of the typing errors.
There was a post *here* about this subject, I believe.
Quartet Entertainment wrote:
Quartet Entertainment's 2009/2010
Adventure Path Design
For the past year I've been working on various trial and error campaign ideas, design processes and adventure parts and the time has arrived. If you didn't know, just making 1 adventure is time-consuming and tasking if quality is a high factor of influence. We are going farther than that. We are taking on an Adventure Path. That's right. The whole thing. With new Campaign Setting included. Of course, every person should now that adventures are team efforts. So that's we are doing. We are hiring. We will need to make the TEAM. The DREAM TEAM! We need proficient designers, gamers and creators with experience and potential. We need inovation, efficiency and co-operation. So if you're interested in joining us here at Quartet Entertainment e-mail me at roxasgray@hotmail.com and tell me what position you want.
The Campaign Setting/ Adventure Path will work like this.
1.The Region for the Adventure Path is created before making the Adventure Path.
2.Brainstorm of potential ideas for Adventure Paths
3.Design Adventure Path
Sounds simple enough, but the task is long my friends. We'll need all the help we can get.
So if you're interested let me know. Once we have enough people we can begin design work.
Thanks in advance,
Matt "Regalia Gambit", Quartet Entertainment Founder and Lead Designer
And welcome to the Paizo Messageboards, by the way, Matt.
Bad doggy! He wants campaign advice, not the grammar police.
I am not usually one to beat people over grammar. Lord knows I make plenty of spelling and grammar mistakes myself. But if you want my help, you have to help me out a little and make the presentation a little easier to swallow.
Regalia Gambit:
Okay, one general overall comment for now. The adventure paths I've seen most of are Paizo's, and I may be making an assumption here based on what I've seen in those, but it seems to me that Adventure Paths have overall themes, which show up or are at least there in the background from the first installment.
For Example:
Shackled City:
Spoiler:
In the Dungeon run of this (I don't have the hardcover) one of the Cagewrights, and main villains, makes an appearance in the first installment, and there is mention of the Cagewrights through many of the subsequent adventures.
Age of Worms:
Spoiler:
A Kyuss worm is there in 'The Whispering Cairn', and references to the wind-dukes which are developed in a later adventure.
Savage Tide:
Spoiler:
Vanthus is there in the first adventure, along with some of the minor creatures from the Isle of Dread.
Rise of the Runelords:
Spoiler:
Thassilonian ruins show up throughout the path, along with the Sihedron rune of the Runelords, and there is a chance for Karzoug to be glimpsed in a magical version of an eternally malfunctioning hologram transmission in the first adventure, even if the PCs will have little/no idea at that point who he is.
Curse of the Crimson Throne:
Spoiler:
All the early adventures are set in Korvosa (and the action comes back there later), and Ileosa is 'on stage' right from the start.
Second Darkness:
Spoiler:
A drow shows up in the first adventure, and there is a small-scale 'test fire' near to Riddleport of the rune magic which the drow are looking to use to pull down a meteorite to obliterate Kyonin at the very end of the Adventure Path.
From the outline you posted, I'm not sure that there is any foreshadowing early on of the end of your proposed path; they seem as if they could be a series of individual adventure modules, connected by coincidence.
Now this is COMMENT, not CRITICISM; I am used to seeing Paizo Paths which have strong developments of themes and villains throughout - I don't know if such things are actually necessary for Adventure Paths generally.
I agree with Charles Evans. You have some really neat ideas, but there is no coherant overstory that ties them all together. I write screenplays--not well, mind you--but I think some of the principles of screenwriting can really help you get your campaign on track.
Action screenplays have a lot in common with D&D. For example, the audience wants to see explosions, car chases, gunfights, shootouts, etc. However, if the entire screenplay is one giant action scene, it can risk losing its audience. They become non-complacent. Not to say that you can't have a movie that is constantly action-oriented (Speed, anyone?) but you have to make your whammies all the more special to wow the audience. (This is difficult to write and I haven't achieved this level yet. I envy professionals that have.)
What is a whammy? This is the key action sequence to your movie, one that is visually amazing and advances the plot along. If you've written it well, this conflict is inevitable for the hero. Whammies are spaced across a film at intervals to keep the audience "on the edge of their seat".
A film that everyone in the forum has probably seen that achieves this well is "The Dark Knight". This is a very intense movie, and the Joker keeps upping the stakes. The conflicts are very central to this movie. If Batman doesn't succeed, it's game over.
Spoiler:
The robbery in the beginning shows us the Joker's motivations and power over a third party. Shortly thereafter, we see Batman take on Scarecrow's minions. Neither of these are equivalent to the whammy at the end of the movie. We have nothing invested in any of the characters--the petty criminals/minions or the Batman wanna-bes. Of course, we probably won't in the beginning of a movie. A writer has to create empathy between the audience and the main characters. Since this isn't the point of the topic, we'll move on.
The next major whammy we get is the save Harvey or save the girl dilemma. This whammy occurs 1/2-3/4 of the way through the film. Perfect timing. This is a very emotionally charged scene and the result is so unexpected--stellar writing! We are so emotionally into the minor heroes by then that this whammy is super-potent. (I even cried, "That isn't supposed to happen!" but I'm a girl, so LOL.)
Our final whammy is the ferry scene. Batman's reputation is riding on this one, to him that's worth more than life. This is a very tense scene, also extremely well-done. I actually thought the middle whammy to be the best in the movie, since this is not as emotionally charged. Arguably, the stakes are higher, since there are more lives involved in the ferry scene.
So can Batman save your campaign? It's up in the air, but I believe that like a screenplay, campaigns have their whammies. These are key encounters that are wrought with conflict and are essential to more the plot along. And if you've done your DMing homework, the players should cooperate with you to set up the whammy. (Sometimes this takes some cooperation at the expense of your mysterious plot. Sad but true.) Conflict scenes may be emotionally charged, involving a beloved NPC or PC, or just plain full of hack 'n slash, whatever forwards your plot, but shake it up for surprize.
The rest of your campaign is spent trying to advance towards these whammies. So you can expect the unexpected. All you really need to hit is a few arrows pointing to that major whammy. Of course, Batman's plot is really tight, but his is pre-written; yours is evolving. Seed your campaign with NPCs and situations that lead towards the endgame major whammy along the way. Many of these Charles Evans detailed in his posting of Paizo campaigns. Be sneaky if you can. Revealing a character the PCs thought to be insignificant (but who they interacted with enough to remember) in the beginning as a significant player in the Grand Scheme later on can make a great whammy and plot twist.
So, in conclusion: Find out your driving goal. What is it the players have to save the world from this time? What happens if they fail--which unique way will The End come? What are your major encounters, the ones you can't leave on the "further adventures" page? How will these supreme adventures link together to get to the finale?
Lots of food for thought. But how do we eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
Awww...Once again, someone says everything I just said, only better. (We all that ninja'd, GKA.) But I enjoyed the link. I am interested in the differences in writing for games than for novels and would like to see more, please.
How about you, CourtFool? Do you do a lot of writing or not so much? My problem is that I'm never motivated long enough to actually finish the grand campaign. Usually I start with the Really Big Picture, which is fun and exciting, but ultimately damning.
At the risk of derailing Regalia Gambit's thread, no, I do not do a lot of writing. I want to, but I never make the time. The truth of it is that I want to be a writer.
I usually start much smaller, a city at the most. My problem is that I get bogged down in some unimportant detail or project.
I like to think of it this way, I am a great leader, a visionary, if you will. I have all these great ideas rolling around in my head. I am a terrible manager. I have not the slightest idea how to get from point A to point B or how to break things up into digestible chunks.
At the risk of derailing Regalia Gambit's thread, no, I do not do a lot of writing. I want to, but I never make the time. The truth of it is that I want to be a writer.
I usually start much smaller, a city at the most. My problem is that I get bogged down in some unimportant detail or project.
I like to think of it this way, I am a great leader, a visionary, if you will. I have all these great ideas rolling around in my head. I am a terrible manager. I have not the slightest idea how to get from point A to point B or how to break things up into digestible chunks.
I was listening to the CBC yesterday and they were interviewing the authour of "The White Tiger". His advice for writing was to have the discipline to sit in front of the computer every day and write. It doesn't matter what you write, just make the committment to do it. Eventually, you'll happen upon something that works.
I would echo the call for some more information one what the OP wants out of this thread. It would be easier to hone my comments if I knew what they were looking for.
