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Demzer
Senior Scribe
873 Posts |
 Posted - 28 Aug 2013 : 20:21:53
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I'm running a campaign in 1375 based in Calimshan and with trips up through Tethyr and Amn, to Tarsult, Lapaliiya, the Lake of Steam, Border Kingdoms and everything in between.
The main plot is the struggle for supremacy in Calimshan between the Knights of the Shield and the Twisted Rune.
The PCs are a party of neutral and good adventurers (one fighter, two sorcerers, one wizard and one bard) hired as mercenaries by one of the richest merchant families of Calimshan. This family has just been recruited into the KotS and the head is a good candidate for a vacant seat in the Shield Council due to the family's commercial fortune and its good relations with the Syl-Pasha.
A lot of third parties are and will be involved in minor ways in this unfolding stealthy conflict for influence and political power in the country.
The 3 big names in the title have interests in the actions of the PCs for reasons i'll detail below and will interact in various ways with them (i'll detail those below too). I'm asking you, fellow scribes, to provide advices and ideas to keep the interactions respectful of the characters in question and interesting for the PCs. None of it will be "Big Name appears out of thin air, throws spells, you win/die" or "Big Name appears out of thin air and gives you the Staff of Twisted Rune Destruction, enjoy".
Elminster: the Sage of Shadowdale is a professional meddler and a harper, in my campaign he is well aware of the existence and meddling of the Runemasters and he knows the Knights of the Shield aren't just a bunch of merchant gentlemen and are guided/aided by the church of Gargauth. Harpers are already in place undercover in Calimshan watching the unfolding struggle and as the PCs progressively acquire a major role in it the harpers will start to aid them as subtly as possible. If and when the PCs will get to mid-levels (around level 8-9), being them a party with 3 "and a half" arcane casters, Elminster himself will start to appear in various guises during their travels to offer directions to hidden magic caches or other magical aid (for example: the party in the middle of a sabban in Calimport may stumble in the stall of a gnome book seller and notice wizard runes on a couple of the books on sale, and the gnome will sell the books for a few gold pieces instead of their real value; another example: the party is out in the wilds and they camp, a weary traveler approaches their camp and ask permission to stay for the night and on departing the following morning he will tell them of some long lost ruin near there they can visit with only a small deviation from their planned course). Each Elminster "encounter" will leave a distinctive pipe-tobacco scent in the air and nothing more.
Halaster: Mr. Undermountain is interested in the campaign only because he wants Frostrune to toy with and disrupting the other Runemasters schemes is just icing on the cake. In my campaign Halaster will not die the 30th of Eleint and Priamon is still ... uh ... undead and kicking (he wasn't given to Halaster by Khelben in 1374). That said, Halaster will be the most active of the Big Names, after the party engages the highest rank of the Rune agents he'll probably send monsters and servants to help the PCs if they're taking an unexpected beating and i'm thinking he may even send a simulacrum or projected image of himself a couple of times to talk directly to the PCs and specify that Priamon "is his" and maybe drop magic items along the way. Speaking of Halaster appearing in "first person", i see him still quite insane even after Mystra's restoration, i think of him (personality wise) as some sort of evil half mad Khelben that acts through projected images and portals spawning monsters appearing out of thin air. Am i too much off the mark?
Larloch: the Ultra Lich in my campaign has a weird hobby, he likes collecting new and powerful liches to add to his servant army. This means that he has some of his servants regularly spying on the Rune and even some infiltrated agents. That said he'll be both the least and the most interactive of Big Names:
- the least because as soon as the PCs start racking up successes against the Rune agents they will start to notice plain looking men and women watching them from afar with emerald green sparkles in their eyes and that will avoid any contact, i'm sure my PCs will try everything to get their hands on these creepy observers and if they catch one of them i plan to have he/she have living emerald green eyes somewhere on their body that will coldly stare at the PCs and then have bright green flame consume the creepy individuals;
- the most because if and when the PCs start to track and assault the lesser liches of the Rune i plan to have Larloch agents pop in place and claim possession of the philacteries in exchange for minor information and maybe a spell or a magic item.
If it's relevant the other factions involved are:
- other Calishite families trying to supplant the PCs employers in the KotS ranks or just trying to thwart them as ordered by the TR;
- harpers;
- a lone paladin of Eilistraee on a holy crusade against the drows of the Muzad and the drows of the Forest of Mir;
- the churches of Kelemvor and Lathander trying to root out necromancy and undeads (but unaware of the Rune and of the big picture)
- Shoon VII acting through intermediaries (he is busy rising in the ranks of the Cowled Wizards and messing with the harpers of Berdusk [for me he is the cause of Cyliria's "disease" and Khelben process, to get the harpers out of "his"/Amn doorstep]);
- abyssal agents looking to undermine Gargauth's church, disband the KotS and steal/destroy the Shield itself;
- an efreeti clan that as planted members all over Calimshan's positions of power, including the taking the place of the Syl Pasha (the effects of a past campaign).
That's it for now. I'll reiterate, i'm looking for corrections if my take on the Big Names is awfully wrong and new ideas to have them pop in the campaign now and then.
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PC interactions: Elminster, Halaster and Larloch
