HELLO EVERYONE!
What was supposed to be something short end up growing to some sort of small campaign, , my party just finish what the first arc, now they will start the second, and my problem is... i don't know what to make them do exactly, i have some ideas but i can think in some ways to make it a bit more interesting that's why i ask for you help, i'm open for all the ideas,
a little bit of the background of it, (afortunally, my party never check the message board so no risk that my players found out about the plot:P)
- The party is now level 9 and they member are: a fighter/ranger, a sorcerer, a barbarian, a cleric and a ranger
- While the party manage to win the civil war against the dictator and also manage to save kendra who was held as hostage, also stopping the dictator himself, some of the characters still were questioning about some events that where still without answer, even an evil npc manage to escape, promising to have fun with them later.
- After all the troubles, the party start to gather information about 2 artifacts that Andrezy (The dictator) had in his power (and used during the battle) one is a mask that cover only the left side of the face, and the second part is an armor piece of an arm, both cursed.
- The sorcerer try to analyze both objects but his knowledge arcana check wasn't high enough to completely identify them ,so investigating he found some old scroll that talks about something or someone called "the Blackest Knight" (you're more than welcome to make fun of me :P) and seems to be linked to this mask and armor, and they presume there are more pieces of this armor (and they are right)
- One night, while the sorcerer was alone trying to figure out what to do, another party spontaneously appeared in front on him, and take away the arm, kidnaping another npc who help them a lot during the civil war (what they don't know, is that this npc is part of this second party) and the sorcerer manage to escape with the mask. When he reunite with his party he told what happened, and now they next course of action is going to magnimar, (some other clues found by other party members also point to magnimar)
-------------------
Clues and Hooks
-------------------
- An old diary from a former magnimar soldier who has a reward over his head, and seems also to be linked to this Blackest knight (this event is also related to the background story of the fighter who was after the reward)
- The little info that the sorcerer manage to get of both mask and arm and old scroll pointing in someway to magnimar, that seems to be part of a full set
- A divination performed by the fortune teller of the caravan, who give them an individual and group lecture of their future (a very negative for each individual and one ambiguous for the party)
- The cleric also receive an omen from the oracle of her church, a very disturbing one, which seems to be connected to the fortune lecture of the caravan fortune teller
- There is also second party who seems to be gathering the pieces of the armor of this blackest knight. this second party being composed by a caster who stole a very important dagger from the fighter, an orc , the wanted former soldier, a bard who seems to know too much about the players, and hidden in the shadows a rogue that has a second agenda (this rogue specifically is the evil npc who escaped)
--------------
--------------
- The main idea for starting the second arc (but it still can change) is that a old general from magnimar is hiding vital information about this Blackest knight, but he is not willing to reveal it to the public, so first they need that info.... and i can think a good way to make them work for that info. wich danger they will have to overcome, combats, dungeons, traps etc, i'm not saying i have no idea, it's just i can't think in a good way to start the second part rather than "we're going to inflitrate the army kidnap the general and tell us what he know or where to find the documents!" , may be someone can point me in some direction or recomend wich module or campaign could i use as reference or idea.
- Also, this Blackest Knight we can say is going to be the main villain of the rest of the arc, a very powerful antipaladin grave knight (a custom graveknight who need all his parts in order to completely regenerate, cr 14 to 18 depending on the case). His existence was hidden from the public because of his atrocious acts which involve a direct participation of this general, also this knight has in mind to unleash a powerful mayor artifact that he could not use previously, in order to bring devastation, apocalypse and all that stuff and the party has to stop him. Something i would like to do, but seems quite dificult, or at least i can't think in a way to make it work, is to make the party fear him, even when he is no around, and since this villain can't do much since he need all the parts of his armor, he can take possession of the body of someone who dare to wear any piece of his armor, or wield any of his weapons (the armor is also some sort of artifact in itself). But if i can't, well, it works anyway
- First THANK YOU for taking time in reading this, i really really appreciate it ^^, and for any feedback, help, hint, suggestion, even criticism you can give me will be very helpful, and to be honest, i would love to read your ideas!
- Secondly. sorry for such long post, i tried to make it as short as possible and keep the main idea and hooks for you to understand, also sorry for any grammar mistake my English it's quite rusty
Maybe you can glean some ideas from this link here on the boards.
thanks a lot man ^^
Bear with with as I just woke up:
What if the Blackest Knight was a kind of back-up plan for one of the politicians/nobles? I am thinking of something like he kept the knight around to destroy his rivals, or as sort of a ultimate weapon against the kingdom's enemies. Now that the Knight is out and about (an event he didn't have control over), he is trying to defeat the Knight while at he same time get rid of the evidence.
One trick is to have the party go to the general looking for information about something else, and stumble upon the Knight information. What comes to mind is:
The heroes are summoned to some important figure's place to receive a job/award/personal thanks, and interrupt an assassination attempt. The assassins are way too easy to defeat, as if half of their plan/back-up wasn't there. As it turns out, there was suppose to be a lot more back-up and assistance, and the killers have no idea why not. Investigations lead the party the corpses of the assassins' back-up, all killed days/weeks ago by something (in this case, it could be the blackest knight or one of its creations/warriors).
Following a trail of clues leads the party to the idea- hopefully- that the general found out about part of the assassination attempt and had it destroyed. So why only destroy half of the plot? "Let's go to the general and find out!" (the general's spies didn't find out about the other half of the assassination team; bad intel is the culprit here).
Other people might be interested in the knight as well. As a CR 14-18 creature, he has the power to change a nation. Unlike the party (who also have that level of awesome), he might be easily controlled (artifact, blackmail through hiding part of the armor, whatever), so other factions might be competing for the knight. One might even get a hold of its own 'adventuring party' to gather up the necessary bit of the armor.
Other factions- a good church comes to mind, but benevolent noble, a righteous knightly order, or other "nice guy" organization would work- is looking to destroy the knight, and have dispatched their own crew of trouble shooters to handle it. Things would get interesting should that order (or maybe just the crew) decide that the knight must be stopped at all cost, even if it includes sacrificing a city's population to do it. Even more interesting would be when the heroes discover that sacrificing the city was a cheap payment for stopping the knight...
That's it for now. Time fer work.
Knights usually work for someone. The only stories I can think of where a Knight is going around solo is when they are on a Quest.
Maybe this guy is a left over from the Whispering Tyrant's legions
Alternatively maybe he works for the Four Horsemen to unleash the end of all things. Lets you add Daemons to the list of minions to throw at the party
What if the Blackest Night isn't a knight at all?
The armor was once that of one of the greatest Eldritch Knights in all of Magnimar. In fact, a statue to the very hero still exists there, though now it is defamed and powerless. You see the hero's fall from grace is legend in the city but his memory has been actively stamped out elsewhere.
All that was good in him has been sold into torment by demons. Now all that remains is his corrupted mantle: The Blackest Knight.
Once joined this armor serves as a focus, a portal for the former tormentors. Legend says that as the last pieces are brought together the demon prince (insert villain name here) will emerge at the head of legions. Some oracles claim that the corrupt hero will come along to take up his mantle once more and stand at the right hand of the prince; others argue that the victorious demon itself will don the armor.
Whatever the case, an order was formed to hold back this apocalypse.
They are called the Silent Dawn. The guild is drawn from all walks and many faiths. They range throughout the realms far and wide. Their mission is to seek out any discovery of the pieces, investigate and possibly punish those who even dare name the fallen hero.
So your next leg of the campaign could be stopping a demon incursion before all the pieces of the armor are joined. For added fun involve the Silent Dawn but make the agent that joins up with the party corrupt and have them secretly working to resurrect the Blackest Knight.
Bear with with as I just woke up:
Other factions- a good church comes to mind, but benevolent noble, a righteous knightly order, or other "nice guy"...
WOW, just THANK YOU MAN; this is very complex, the idea of other faction, and working with false information is really really tempting! i love it! seriously dude thanks a lot, this will be of great help! the war of faction is also very tempting,
Something i forgot to ad (my bad) it's that in the final encounter with the Blackest knight, there is the possibility that the party loose the combat, and unable to stop the knight, he will bring some sort of undead apocalypse, , if that happen, we can say the mythic campaign start
again, thanks a lot for taking your time to answer and give me such amazing material to work ^^
Alternatively maybe he works for the Four Horsemen to unleash the end of all things. Lets you add Daemons to the list of minions to throw at the party
THank you ^^
i don't know anything about the whispering tirant, i will take a look ^^
And yeah, i already have thought that he might be a minion of the horsemen, and that his only mission to prepare the world for his master and all tipes of undead
So your next leg of the campaign could be stopping a demon incursion before all the pieces of the armor are joined. For added fun involve the Silent Dawn but make the agent that joins up with the party corrupt and have them secretly working to resurrect the Blackest Knight.
i like the idea of the armor being part for a greater artifact, really cool idea
and the idea of another small faction created in order to stop him and erase any evidence of his existence is very good indeed ^^
something i forgot to add, something that is a big part of the plot, but still i have time to change it, it's that this knight it's looking for an artifact called, "the cradle of the death" wich will make every creatrue who died rise as an udead (skeletons, vampire, lich, ravager, every undead creature of the bestiaries) making him some sorte of king of the undead and he will lead his legions against every living thing, if the party don't stop it, (wich is also very tempting) the mythic campaign will start in this undead apocalypse setting
once again, thanks for taking your time in reading the post, and more important to help me with this, really, it helpe me a lot ^^
I like undead apocalypse but question is with that many undead (whole world)
Who stops it?
Where did they come from?
How did they live?
What happens when they kill all undead?
How does earth(or named of your world) "repopulate"?
Guess that was questions
Last one why do they attempt to stop it if it looks hopeless?
Undead hordes is one of the scenarios in Twilight Apocalypse that could be of help to you, that might be more "world is screwed" than you are looking for though
And actually a few of the party members were made in to villains via being corrupted. It was pretty interesting cuz it was basically a party of min/maxers so i didnt even really need to think too hard on making them difficult lol. I just gave them better gear. It was cool for the party to fight their former characters
very nice indeed, i will take that into a count, in fact, i'm already thinking in killing one of the party members,
i was thinking on artifacts too,
thanks a lot dude ^^
I like undead apocalypse but question is with that many undead (whole world)
Who stops it?
Where did they come from?
How did they live?
What happens when they kill all undead?
How does earth(or named of your world) "repopulate"?Guess that was questions
Last one why do they attempt to stop it if it looks hopeless?
yeah, i'm sorry i could not give more information, my mistake, but at the same times, those questions help me too, but i have a bunch of answers :P
1: the main idea, is the party probably will gather an army in order to stop it
2: mostly every corpse in the place turn into an undead,
3: ... this one i'm not sure if your talking about the undead or the people who what to deal with them :P in any case, undead will be serving the blackest knight in his conquest and their lords
4: that's a very good one... i never thought in that
5: old fashioned way i guess? :P
6: the main idea, is that they still don't know what or who is this blackest knight they only know that it seems to be a very powerfull being and they have to stop his ... awakening, but they don't have idea of what's blackest knight plan is they have to find out, also, they don't know it's helpless