After 3 years of playing my group has entered the Fiery Sanctum and will likely halt the gate ritual in the next session or so.
At that point I would prefer to go with the alternate ending that delvesdeep proposed, with the PC's going to the Haunted Village, entering Adimarchus' mind, etc.
The only problem is that I just have the rough outline that I was able to find on these boards.
delvesdeep, I see that you are still around the traps. Have you now run this "adventure" of the AP? Do you have any more detailed notes that you might be able to share, or did you come up with it on the fly?
Any help here would be appreciated as I'd really like to end this campaign on a high note.
Olaf the Stout
High Olaf. No I haven't run it yet but I have a decent outline for the adventure I will be using. I'll post it up here in a few hours.
High Olaf. No I haven't run it yet but I have a decent outline for the adventure I will be using. I'll post it up here in a few hours.
Awesome, thanks!
Olaf the Stout
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I'm not sure this is what you have but here is what I have found. If you have any suggestions to improve it please let me know -
Nidrama - Adimarchus’ Lost Love
When the party learn about Nidrama from hearing the mad rambling dreams of Adimarchus when their party member sleeps, they may attempt to seek her out. If they use magical means, Nidrama is revealed to be imprisoned by Alurid somewhere in the Haunted Village.
To free Nidrama the party would need to track down the last two Cagewrights they did not face during Thirteen Cages – Alurid and Embril –as part of a side trek into the Haunted Village and beneath the village lakes dark surface to find them in the Kopru Necropolis.
The Haunted Village
Event One –
Travelling to the shadowy ruins of the Haunted Village and searching for the magically hidden Embril. Alurid ambushes them with any surviving ‘undead villains’ from the path such as Mhad the vampire and/or the Necroaunts or failing this, with some flesh golems of his own creation. The party discover that Embril has taken Nidrama beneath the lakes surface and into the Kopru Necropolis.
Event Two –
Descending into the lake the party see the alien appearing Kopru Necropolis resting in its murky depths. A wave of powerful Kopru ghosts appears around the party and attack.
Event Three –
As they enter the ruins the party find a great temple alit with green ghostly light at its zenith. When they enter the temple they are assaulted by visions of Adimarchus’ madness and continue to grow in strength as they move towards the temples heart. (Will DC 15 + 1 for every ten feet closer to altar, for a maximum of DC 25 or be confused as per the spell for 1d4 rounds)
Event Four –
In the temple corridors the party are assaulted by two sets of guardians –Two Darkwalkers and, as they approach the air-filled inner chamber, 3 Demodands.
Event Five -
Temple of Adimarchus, depicting Adimarchus more as a ‘fish-like/Kopru’ creature. Embril and the Spellweaver (as per same encounter found in Ruins of Shatterhorn) with the following exceptions.
- Embril and Nidrama lie next to each other in tranquil sleep. Standing over them is a Spellweaver who has weaved a dome of silvery web which glitters like a myrad of stars. Held in one of his hands is a strange device in which the Spellweaver continues spins and twirls, weaving ribbons of the stars around the sleeping figures.
Any items which move into the curtain/dome of stars disappear. Stepping into the dome casts the character into the Realm of Dreams.
When the party step through the gate they float in a great glittering violet and sliver haze 'sky'. Sparkling clusters of dreams float through the landscape like clouds. Looking deeper into the haze they find great black and red rivers slowly reaching out from a great lake of darkness (Dreamheart).
Embril has summoned 'Nightmare Creatures' (any ideas) to immediately attack any creatures stepping through the gate. Once the party desposed of the fiends, they can see two faint figures flying down one of the 'rivers' towards the inky heart of the Realm. The party can see the inky fingers of madness washing over countless dreams and into countless creature’s minds.
Willing themselves forward the party find they can 'fly' (Movement equals one foot per point of intelligence). The party attempt to catch the party but are again attacked by summoned fiends. This time Embril has relized the risk and returns to face the party leaving a bound Nidrama to continue to flow down the river towards the heart. The party have 6 rounds to rescue Nidrama who is 100 feet away from the party at the beginning of the encounter.
Once Embril is defeated and Nidrama saved, the party can return through the gate and emerge within the dome. The party can then attack the Spellweaver who immediately stops 'dream weaving' and attacks.
After they rescue Nidrama and take her from the Haunted Village, Nidrama asks for them to find rest. As they sleep Nidrama shares with them the final dream where Adimarchus commits the crime which is responsible for him being expelled from heaven and being torn from Nidrama.
As a side note
Embril captured Nidrama in an effort to finally destroy Adimarchus’ mind and therefore releasing his Inner Demon to fully control the angels body, effectively transforming Adimarchus into the demon mind and body.
Embril attempts to ‘find’ Adimarchus and show the angel his love before she kills Nidrama in front of him and destroys his mind altogether. Embril is unaware that she can not enter Adimarchus’ nightmares from the temple.
The party can not enter Adimarchus' Nightmare Realm in this way. Anything appraoching the heart of his Insanity is consumed in this manner. The only way to enter his dreams is to use the Dream Catcher while in his direct presence.
The party can claim the Spellweaver’s Dream Catcher to ‘Dream Travel’ 1/day, as per the Manual of the Planes spell. Only passing into the dream world in Adimarchus presence and through Adimarchus’ mind (while directly looking at the fallen angel) can the party hope to enter his nightmares and free him from his Inner Demon.
Perhaps a better 'hook' could be that the party all share a dream one night (to keep in line with the Nightmare/Dream scenerio and link it/her with the dreams the party have been having from Adimarchus)
Nidrama's Dream -
A silver haze filled with tiny twinkling stars fade to reveal strange sinister surroundings. You are lead through the ruins of an ancient village, the light of the full moon your only guide. Your hands are bound and you stumble as your capture, a crazed dark knight with a cloak made from human skin, drags you foward. All around you, you feel unearthly eyes watching you and the groans your shambling goblem guards makes you shudder in fear.
Your long silver hair falls about your face amking it more difficult to see and you trip and fall to you knees. "You're not in heaven now b&@~~ and I'm no angel I can assure you!" you hear the darkguard spit, "Get on your feet before I change my mind and start to skin you for may clothes!". You raise you head and suddenly feel a wave of pain rip through your scalp as you are lifted from the ground by your hair. "I'm sure Embril wouldn't mind if some of that beautiful silver skin went missing!" the knights whispers into your ear before dropping you to your feet. "Now move!"
The pain of your head thuds but you force yourself forward.
The buildings suddenly open up and you stagger into an old village square. Lapping the edges of the crumbling cobblestones, the edges of a dark large sits to its side. The moon reflects in the lakes mirror like surface.
Standing by the waters edge is two shadowy forms. One is a beautiful, darkhaired woman while the other a humaniod with 4 arms.
"You have done well Alurad!" the woman speaks, "you will be well rewarded". The woman beakoned for Alurad you bring you forward. You feel fear wash over you and try and resist.
"There's nothing to fear little angel" Embril laughed mockingly, "soon you will be nothing more than a dream and then your lover will be destroyed and his Inner demon finally set free!"
Embril graped you hand and began to pull you toward the darkness of the lake....
Needs work but something like that anyway. I'll keep working at the rest of the adventure as we go but please lots of suggestions will help!
Delvesdeep
Thanks DD. I think that is basically what I have already from the various threads you have posted. I'll see if I can work it up a little bit more.
Embril will definitely maintain her prominence in there. One of the PC's took a bit of a liking to her at the Demonskar Ball so that will add a bit of spice to the encounter.
I like the hook coming from the dreams. I have used your dreams as is and both myself and the players have definitely enjoyed them. It helped a lot with the Kaurophon / Occipitus part of the AP. Without the dreams Kaurophon appearing and whisking the PC's off to another plane seems a bit odd. The dreams helped the PC's to trust that they were heading along the right path at least.
I also like how what seems quite abstract to begin with starts to make a lot more sense as the campaign progresses. You get a lot of "AH HA!" moments as the players start to piece together things and connect the dots.
Olaf the Stout
Thanks DD. I think that is basically what I have already from the various threads you have posted. I'll see if I can work it up a little bit more.
Embril will definitely maintain her prominence in there. One of the PC's took a bit of a liking to her at the Demonskar Ball so that will add a bit of spice to the encounter.
I like the hook coming from the dreams. I have used your dreams as is and both myself and the players have definitely enjoyed them. It helped a lot with the Kaurophon / Occipitus part of the AP. Without the dreams Kaurophon appearing and whisking the PC's off to another plane seems a bit odd. The dreams helped the PC's to trust that they were heading along the right path at least.
I also like how what seems quite abstract to begin with starts to make a lot more sense as the campaign progresses. You get a lot of "AH HA!" moments as the players start to piece together things and connect the dots.
Olaf the Stout
Thanks Olaf. I just need to piece together this last, and most important section, of the campaign. I want to make sure I do it justice so your help/ideas and constructive criticism would be extremely helful.
Event One Ideas
In this adventure the party are likely to enter into two types of combat they would rarely (if ever) entered into - aerial and underwater. Both are 360 degree battles which change the rules in terms of flanking in particular.
In Event One the party travel to the Haunted Village to search for Nidrama. After the dream (above) they may think to just fly in and dive straight into the dark waters of the lake by-passing the village entirely.
Whether they decide to traverse by foot or fly the party will encounter undead. The village undead have been corrupted by both Embril and Alurid to be particularly active and vigilant against intruders. They do not want anything to interfere with their attempt to destroy Adimarchus' mind and free his Inner Demon.
There are some particularly nasty undead in and around the village including - a Crawling Head (FF pg 35) on the outskirts of the village, a group of Elite Vampires with their dread wraith underlings within the town….(any other ideas?)
Flying over and around the town is a ‘flock’ of specters….(any other ideas?) and of course Alurid and his entourage (see below)
To attempt to ensure they meet Alurid before they descend into the lake, first I will have the Dark Knight riding on the back of a Nightwing (if you would prefer you can swap this for a ramped up Nighmare). Accompanying him is his flesh golem creations who have long wings of taunt skin.
Add to this entourage any of the Necrocaunts or villains that escaped earlier in the campaign (ie Mhad the Vampire).
Ok, I adapted your Haunted Village adventure to Shatterhorn (just easier as I have maps that way). I stripped a lot of the encounters out of Shatterhorn to keep things moving plot-wise. Last session ended with the PC's entering the dream portal to see Embril with Nidrama.
Here is where I plan on going with it:
The PC's are attacked by various dream creatures and then Embril (probably in conjunction with some demons). After defeating Embril and rescuing Nidrama there will be some plot exposition.
From there Nidrama will give some plot exposition and the party will rest (they will need to by this point) and have Haunted Dream 10.
Then, based on what they find out from the dream and Nidrama, they will plane shift to Carceri in order to try and stop the madness Adimarchus is sending out.
Once on Carceri they will encounter the huge Vhalantru from Asylum that will be possessed by Adimarchus. (In my campaign Vhalantru's body teleported away soon after he was killed in his lair. I think my players will love the opportunity to face off against a suped-up version of him.)
This will give Nidrama the idea to find Adimarchus through his dreams/nightmares. After defeating Vhalantru, one of the PC's (probably the one with the Smoking Eye) will need to allow themselves to be possessed by Adimarchus. That possessed PC will then be used to allow the party to dream travel to Adimarchus' nightmare realm where they will face a series of challenges.
I'm not really sure about this bit, but I had the idea of the PC's working through the 5 stages of grief. Once these stages are overcome the PC's will then find themselves in Skullrot in front of Adimarchus
5 Stages/Challenges:
1. Shock/Disbelief/Denial
2. Anger
3. Bargaining/Guilt
4. Depression
5. Acceptance/Hope
Ideas for each stage/challenge:
[u]1. Shock/Disbelief/Denial[/u]
The PC's will head down a totally non-descript corridor, face some creature (possibly Adimarchus himself), fight and defeat it before continuing on down the corridor. The fights will either be exactly the same (or possibly get more difficult each time). In any case it will look like exactly the same creature every time.
In order to move past this challenge the PC's need to disbelieve that it is real.
[u]2. Anger[/u]
A relatively simple challenge in concept, (but still difficult to overcome! :-D)
The PC's must defeat Adimarchus' inner demon (Adimarchus' demon stats used) who has captured and is torturing his inner angel. Although defeated, he can never be completely killed and taunts the PC's that will return over time to regain control once again.
[u]3. Bargaining/Guilt[/u]
Not sure. Ideas needed.
[u]4. Depression[/u]
Not sure. Ideas needed.
[u]5. Acceptance/Hope[/u]
Not sure. Maybe they need to somehow convince Adimarchus that all is not lost, that his inner angel can once again regain control of his body.
Upon overcoming the final challenge the PC's will find themselves in Skullrot. There they must defeat Dark Myrkul. After doing that they can release Adimarchus' from his cage but he will remain unresponsive. His eyes will be open but staring blankly ahead.
Nidrama speaking and embracing him will get some positive responses but won't break him out from wherever he is. Only placing the Elypsium tulip he gave her* will bring his mind back.
I'm thinking the campaign will end with either Adimarchus and Nidrama trying to track down Anthux or simply letting it go and choosing to live out their lives together in the mortal realms.
*After serving her penalty for being with someone greater than her station, Nidrama returned to where she and Adimarchus were found out and arrested by the other angels. It was there she found the crushed tulip still laying on the ground. She has carried it with her since that time as a reminder and considers it her most valuable possession.
Olaf the Stout