| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Hi all,
I am planning on running Incursion as a campaign and capping it off with "Lich Queen's Beloved" from dragon 100. I have level 1 to 10 covered. Any suggestions for level 11~18?
One of the things I want to stick in there is a dungeon adventure. Since the group would have been pretty much doing war scenarios until about level 11+ the adventure preceding Lich Queen's Beloved I wanted it to be a dungeon crawl. Preferably something like an ancient tomb with puzzles, traps and guardians.
Think of the dungeon on the shoulders of the titan from god of war I.
Any suggestions welcome.
Hi all,
I am planning on running Incursion as a campaign and capping it off with "Lich Queen's Beloved" from dragon 100. I have level 1 to 10 covered. Any suggestions for level 11~18?
Heh, great minds and all that.
I was playing NWN2 (until it got too slow) and the characters are around 11th level. I pulled the "Lich Queen's Beloved" adventure out and am working on the same thing you are.
My thoughts are to have the PCs be from some village, run then though a couple of local dungeons (maybe the 1st one from the 2nd Dungeon AP - the tomb something or other), or maybe even thru the old N5 - Under Illefarn module. Then throw in Githyanki / Githzeri on them.
The over all plot is that the "shards" (see NWN2) they have are parts of a broken Githyanki Silver Sword (the minor artifact kind) and eventually they get it repaired (15th level or so) after having run ins with the Gith, and they end up having to do the Lich Queen's Beloved just to save their collective keisters.
If you would like to work on this together off line, just let me know and we can exchange emails.
-- david
Papa-DRB
Grognard
My better half and me
Hapilliy. Send me an email at solomani AT electric DASH rain DOT net and Ill run you through what I am currently planing.
Hapilliy. Send me an email at solomani AT electric DASH rain DOT net and Ill run you through what I am currently planing.
care to share with the rest of us? i'm interested in seeing what you've done. :-)
messy
I had this to say back in the summer of '06:
I adored this module. It was the culmination of a 1.5 year FR campaign arc using the Githyanki Incursion material from Dragon/Dungeon. It was a peak in the previous campaign, lemme tell ya.
PCs at the time:
Rusk - male human barbarian 13/fighter 6/champion of Gwynharwyf 5
Khaltarah - male elf wizard 24/arch mage 1
Aldamar - male human cleric of Mystra 21/spellfire channeler 4
Remmy - male gnome sorcerer 9/rogue 6/arcane trickster 9
The PCs actually assaulted Tunarath itself, alongside powerful NPCs (no Realms' specific characters), cohorts, and summoned celestials (including hound archon and planatar paladins of Tempus, a ghaele eladrin barbarian, and Gwynharwyf herself (Exalted Deeds)... Good dragons battled red dragons in the Astral skies above, wizards and sorcerers clashed with githyanki warlocks... Astral ships... We had a lot of fun with the web enhancement.
Anyway, as the PC barbarian led the ground assault through legions of githyanki, nightmare knights, iron golems, and a balor gated in by Vlaakith herself, the other three PCs (wizard, cleric, arcane trickster) waited to strike. Once Vlaakith used gate to call the balor, the three PCs (along with their own cohorts and NPC allies... all spellcasters of one sort or another, a bladesinger, and a monk) used a portal provided by Zetch'rr to slip into the Palace and attack Vlaakith. The scry-and-die was out due to her casting mind blank and nondetection so as to be warded 24/7, conveniently.
Having learned of the inner halls of the Palace through Zetch'rr, the group hastily moved into Vlaakith's throne room. One of her clones sat upon the throne, and she and her minions were ready. That battle was fierce, with the clone falling victim to the PC cleric's spellfire.
Vlaakith then called upon a b'kallash dreadnaught to fight for her. The awful beast crashed through the roof of Vlaakith's throne room... The barbarian took Eladrin form (artifact gauntlet) and flew in through the hole in the roof to lend his axe. In the end, its eye was put out by the arcane trickster, and the barbarian swept off its head.
Things got really hairy when the group encountered the real Vlaakith in the reliquary (room 38). The barbarian was immediately sucked up by the mirror, leaving three PCs and two NPCs to fight Vlaakith and all of her terrible minions. That battle was so intense. It lasted for a couple hours. Vlaakith dropped two horrid wiltings in one round, forcing the arcane trickster to teleport away to consume potions (lol). To make things interesting I had an insane red dragon (prismatic spray) clumsily shatter the mirror late in the battle, releasing its prisoners (and the barbarian... completely naked). Vlaakith was destroyed after some tense spell turning exchanges and a pair of chain acids (mastery of elements), one of which I believe was empowered.
The duthkagith guards were pushovers... There were a few minor skirmishes that amounted to skillful killing on the PCs' part. The fiendish beholder and Xam'Kras were swept aside like grass. The two-headed red dragon guarding the phylactery was diced to pieces once it fell within full attack range of the barbarian (who wielded a +3 vorpal greataxe with deadly efficiency). A ranged sneak spell from the trickster ended the wyrm's life.
Once her phylactery was destroyed (smote into pieces by the barbarian's axe), the group used plane shift and greater teleport to return home, while the allied forces helped to set Zetch'rr up as the new leader of the githyanki, hoping to place a more trustworthy (or perhaps easier to control) leader on Tunarath's throne.
And the campaign moved on from there...
The Lich-Queen's Beloved was a great module. It inspired the Githyanki Incursion in my campaign, and it got me hooked on Dungeon. Thanks for that
Hapilliy. Send me an email at solomani AT electric DASH rain DOT net and Ill run you through what I am currently planing.care to share with the rest of us? i'm interested in seeing what you've done. :-)
messy
Happy to. Here is the rough adventure path outline. May change at the drop of the hat. I will also be working in all the suggested encounters from the polyhedron magazine.
Basic background: Characters start in a tiny French style kingdom in my homebrew called Francland. It’s an inconsequential little state and is a vassal of the much larger neighbouring Imperium. The Imperium is the “super power” of my world. It’s the biggest, most technically advanced and militarily powerful state in my campaign world. The Imperium is the main target of the Incursion. The githyanki will be pulling off an Independence Day style invasion – appearing out of nowhere and throwing their full weight against the Imperium. Simultaneously they will have much smaller armies, mostly made up of mercenaries, attacking all the Imperium’s vassal and likely allies. One of these smaller mercenary armies will be attacking the player’s home-land of Franc. These are all distractions.
Vlaakith’s ultimate goal is to find the resting place of the last (and only) remaining goddess of the gith. Before the gith were enslaved. My home brew (which is an antediluvian mythic earth setting) is the original home world of not only the gith but the illithid (who crash landed on this world centuries before – yes they are a future style alien race). I don’t have the goddesses name handy but will post that later.
The illithids, when they first took over Pangaea (my homebrew) and enslaved the human race (collectively known as the gith) also killed off the gith’s gods. Only one, a female goddess of fertility, women, civilisation and agriculture was imprisoned by Manazacorian for some unfathomable reason. She is bound in a prison protected by traps, puzzles and automaton guards. To add insult to injury the prison is strapped to the back of her son (a titan) who is cursed to wander the Undying Desert.
What the illithid’s know but no one else does is the reason this particular goddess wasn’t killed off is that she is the source of arcane magic for my world. Vlaakith doesn’t know this either. She is attempting to steal what remains of her divine essence to ascend to god-hood. The other thing that no one knows is the goddess is slowly fading. Eventually she will pass on to the land of the dead. So it’s a bit of a race against time at the end by both the gith and the party to find her and free/drain her. Though the consequences are staggering.
ADVENTURE PATH
All these modules I have or am reworking at the moment. Once 4e comes out I am hoping it will just be a matter of swapping mobs out with minimal effort to update from 3.5 to 4e.
Treasure Hunt
Level range: 0~1
1e Module. I have updated it to 3.5e. The characters start at -500xp and as 0 level commoners. There actions during the adventure determine what class they become once they hit level 1. I also thought it’s much more appropriate for such a heroic storey to actually have the players start as nobodies.
Introduce Lord Jannarath who will award them commissions into the Brindol Lions. His wayward (adopted) tiefling daughter, Jeanne, is one of the NPCs that join the party. Also introduces, briefly, the forgotten goddess who is the key to the entire invasion.
Within the Circle
Dungeon 130
Level range: 1 (or Urban Decay)
Lord Jannarath will send them on this mission. The unknown sponsors will turn out to be githyanki who have been planning the incursion for many years.
The Beasts of Alubsmill or The Fall of Graymalkin Academy
Dungeon 131
Level range: 2~3
I am leaning towards the later. The premise of a bunch of factions trying to break into a magical academy to steal something is easy to turn one of the factions into the Gith looking for it themselves.
A Buzz on the Bridge
Dungeon 110
Level range: 3
The halfling hunter will seek them out since they are the local heroes. This will be one of the first towns the characters will need to save during the war. By introducing them earlier will have more traction with the party when they come back to save them from the gith army.
Chasing the Snake
Dungeon 105
Level range: 4~5 (6)
Just a cool adventure. Need to add some tie in. Adventure levels 1 to 5 are just to set the scene and let the players get to know the people of Francland (Elsir Vale). May drop it though as there is no direct tie in and maybe too much to squeeze in at such a short level range of 1 to 5. Though I could make the assassins work for the gith.
Riding the Rail
Dungeon 143
Level range: 5~6?
This is an important adventure for me since my world has a lot of steam based “technology” including a primitive rail system. I believe when you have one of these unique ideas about a world you need to show the players that idea immediately. So in this adventure they get to see two of them – a train and a steam powered mech.
So the premise is that a bunch of Imperial arciologist have uncovered the head of (what looks like) a giant automaton/steam mech. They are eager to get it back to the White City (capital of the Imperium). The reason they are eager? The Imperium is currently building a super-giant steam mech and this head could provide key techne (my in game word for technology) to help them complete the task. Of course the last thing the gith want is for the Imperium to gain even more military power so they try and hijack the train.
Assuming the players stop them they get to spend sometime relaxing in the most splendid city in the world before returning to Francland. On the way back they get a glimpse of the 1000 foot mecha as it is being put together in the “field of war” outside the city. This whole adventure is one big foreshadowing.
The Red Hand of Doom
Level range: 5/6~11
This is the core of the campaign. This adventure will be run mostly intact but with the leadership being replaced by gith and duthagith (the half red dragon). The army attacking Francland (Elsir Vale) is mostly made up of raw recruits and mercenaries. Since most of the mercenaries are beholden to Tiamat that is what gets her involved as well (plus the githyanki alliance with the her). Elsir Vale has become the tiny kingdom of Francland in my world and all the place names have been converted to French.
Once the players turn back the horde their celebrations are cut short. An Imperial envoy arrives and fills them in with what’s been happening elsewhere. The Imperium has been brought to its knees by the full force of the githyanki war machine. The White City itself is now threatened and the Imperium is throwing everything it has against them. It is also calling on all its allies and vassals to send everything and anything to help in this climatic battle.
The Field of War
Level range: 12
Custom “adventure”. Not so much an adventure as one big encounter. Assuming the players accept the call they turn up in time to see the battle begin outside the walls of the White City. The giant steam mecha is the lynchpin of the defence as it swats dragons out of the sky. It has both of the astral behemoths wrapped around it trying to crush it. It tears one in two but the other crushes the life out of the giant machine as it tumbles to the ground. It’s at this point I will have a bunch of battlefield encounters which the players will need to win to swing the tide of battle. At the height of the battle an illithid army of thralls will also pour out from the underland (my underdark) led by a redeemed flayer who the players previous characters saved during the SCAP (which the players show of kindness set it on the path of good). The player’s previous epic characters from the SCAP and my Planescape campaign will also arrive to help turn the tide. Hopefully they win but it doesn’t affect the next step of the adventure path too much. I will be using a lot of the book of battle (?) for this as well as the ancient war system from the ancient world: Israel/Troy settings.
Eyes of the Lich Queen
Level range: 13~18
This Ebberron module sounds appropriate for the next part of the adventure. I just ordered it so I don’t know if it will be appropriate or not. Will need reworking for the level range. Basically the players find out, via githzerai intelligence, that the invasion is a distraction. Vlaakith is searching for something, perhaps a world ending artefact, and set the players on a giant detective hunt to find whatever it is before the githyanki do.
Assuming they beat the githyanki and free the goddess from her prison she is too weak to go on and passes on to the land of the dead. Will be using a lot of ideas from the Malhavoc books about dead gods and such. But before she leaves she each gifts the players with a boon. A shard that will allow them to continue to tap into her demiurge and use spells. Because as soon as she goes all arcane magic will cease functioning in the world. She also reveals she is the mother of the human race (and gith) – the equivalent of Eve – the first woman.
Once she dies her son is freed and every human and gith* knows exactly what happened and what Pangaea is. There is a lull in the war as many githyanki feel betrayed by Vlaakith. But it’s only a matter of time before she re-asserts her will and the war continues.
Her son is freed and takes on his divinity. He speaks to the characters and thanks them but as he talks to them he slowly transforms from looking like a human to looking like a gith. He then sets off, finds and kills Manzocorian whose shattered deifiec body falls to Pangaea with such great impact it falls into the underland (this is a hook to the follow-up campaign after Incursion).
The Lich Queen's Beloved
Level range: 18+
Dungeon 100
Finale! Assuming the players are successful the gith decide to settle Pangaea peacefully. Their astral fortresses ring Pangaea like some kind of futuristic space stations on both the astral and material plane. The githyanki and githzerai finally begin talks about unification. Gith* become a playable race and common sight amongst the inhabitants after a few years.
Hopefully the first monster manual for 4e will have gith*. I purposely split the adventure path up into “episodes” so the players can get a sense of accomplishment at certain levels (so levels 1~6 with riding the rails as the pinnacle, Red Hand of Doom as the central war episode, Eyes of the Lich Queen with the freeing of the goddess as another episode and the Lich Queen’s Beloved as the finale).
Comments welcome.
Hope this isn't off-topic, but there are a few Dungeon adventures w/ Githyanki you might want to look at, and maybe incorporate:
"The Death of Lashimire" (#116: 12th level); and "Interlopers of Ruun-Khazai" (#92: 13th level). I enjoyed them both.
The Red Hand of Doom
LOL! wow, i just had the idea yesterday of adapting this to the incursion campaign! great minds think alike. ;-)
i think it will work great. it's easy to substitute githyanki for hobgoblins, even though the former is much more powerful.
awesome ideas, solomani. :-)
messy
Hope this isn't off-topic, but there are a few Dungeon adventures w/ Githyanki you might want to look at, and maybe incorporate:
"The Death of Lashimire" (#116: 12th level); and "Interlopers of Ruun-Khazai" (#92: 13th level). I enjoyed them both.
Yes I have read them and decided not to use them at this point. There is just a limit to how many adventures I can put in.
The Red Hand of DoomLOL! wow, i just had the idea yesterday of adapting this to the incursion campaign! great minds think alike. ;-)
i think it will work great. it's easy to substitute githyanki for hobgoblins, even though the former is much more powerful.
awesome ideas, solomani. :-)
messy
Glad you liked them. I wasn't going to replace the foot-soldiers at all. But the higher ups - like captains/commanders etc. Though in 4e you should be able to run lower powered gith much like the savage species races in 3.5e.
Hi,
I found these much older notes which I will use as well. The Ralferst Company are the heroes from my SCAP game.
A lot of ideas from Malhavoc's "Requiem for a god".
The gith goddess is Theyasmalan (The One in the Void). NG. Power of wisdom, patience and contemplation. She was not the chief power of the pantheon but the most loved and worshipped by the prehistoric gith who were peace loving and abhorred war. Power rating 16. Tunarath is built on her Astral corpse.
Body rests in a pool godsblood that is so beautiful lake so clear it could only be described as invisible. At the centre of the pool is her body (corpsu dei) which lies in state and has turned into godsflesh. Floating above the pool were tiny stars, like sparks of energy.
When she dies:
• a huge explosion in the sky
• an earthquake.
• flames everywhere all go out at once, no matter what their strength.
• The wind itself seems to weep
• moon turns black, as though it has been covered with a shroud.
• An eclipse of the sun proves that even the heavens are in mourning.
Her son becomes a gith and the prime power of the gith. Her son the titan then slays the Illsernine in revenge throwing its brain-carcass to the earth of Pangaea like a meteor. It comes to rest in the Underland. Becomes focus for a new campaign when the flayers try to douse the sun.
All Gith suddenly are momentarily connected to her mentally, seeing the scene of her death in their mind’s eye. And they know who she is after the forgotten aeons. And they grieve.
Characters charged with killing the lich queen.
Gain demiurge token and the divine template.
Theyasmalan’s temple becomes her graveyard. Guarded by Gith (~yanki and ~zerai)
ALL magic ceases to function except for the divine magic of the Unknown God (custom god of my campaign world - monotheistic).
Next campaign will be a short “iron heroes” style campaign one involving the mind flayers trying to destroy the sun by moving the moon in front of it permanently and the rediscovery of magic. However this leads to a fourth campaign ala Dragonmech where the moon comes close to Pangaea and scours the planet.
Shocker game start.
• Ralferst Company character assassinated (or well known foe).
• Cauldron attacked by saved by the heroic action of the Ralferst company. However St Cuth priestess killed.
• PST heroes return and begin resistance movement.
• A known dungeon (Shatterhorn?) becomes a Gith outpost.
• An item of import is stolen?
Possible player actions:
- Lead a flight of Gold Dragons against the Gith.
- Capture a gith ship and use it to sow confusion during the initial battles. Possible use of the Ebberron adventure about recovering an airship.
- Organise an alliance with the Horde (monster kingdom).
- Organise an alliance with the Ashen Compact.
- Organise an alliance with the Githzerai. -> send one general to train troops -> teachs feats etc.
- TMNT style kuo-toa allies (depends on their actions in Zenith’s Trajectory). (This wont happen since party killed ALL the kuo-toa, including the eggs, in ZT).
- Mind-flayer army intervenes if they save flayer from ZT (which they did).
Give Vlaakith epic spells including Dragon Knight
I know there have already been some fantastic suggestions but City of the Spider Queen should run a party from level 10 or 11 up to level 18 or so. It's not a Dungeon adventure and it's 3.0 but not hard at all to adapt. I haven't run it but I have heard from a lot of people that it was really good.
I know there have already been some fantastic suggestions but City of the Spider Queen should run a party from level 10 or 11 up to level 18 or so. It's not a Dungeon adventure and it's 3.0 but not hard at all to adapt. I haven't run it but I have heard from a lot of people that it was really good.
Thanks. Worth checking out. Isn't that war related as well?
Thanks. Worth checking out. Isn't that war related as well?
As far as I know it is but don't quote me on that. I read it a while back but never got a chance to run it.
Had a read of this module and I think it fits nicely into my campaign arc with modifications. Some points off the top of my head:
• The mysterious artefact is replaced by Theyasmalan. Though it’s never revealed until the end that the artefact is actually Theyasmalan, the imprisoned goddess.
• Thematically replace Vol with Vlaakith.
• Replace the cultists and Emereld Claw with githyanki.
• Keep many of the dragons but change the thematic ones to illithid related mobs. Would make more sense that they are the ones left guarding the secret.
• The final adventure (the Orrery) would need to be rewritten IMO. Create a smallish dungeon with lots of traps and undead/construct guards. Probably just pull Pandora’s dungeon from god of war 1 and use that as my base to build around. Have the place built by enslaved humans (proto-gith) who were all killed and entombed. This would justify the Greco feel of the dungeon – since it was built by humans and The Architect knew what its final function was for and thus secretly built weaknesses to the traps/puzzles to be one day bypassed.
• Make the illithid guardians/opposition faction Thoon thralls. That way they are different from the run of the mill flayers that the players may meet. Perhaps even have them involved in leeching quintessence from Theyasmalan.
Otherwise I think it works well since I was creating something similar – lots of travel, race against time and the githyanki with the “weapon” or “artefact” turning out to be the goddess.