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Post by sparkusclark on Nov 29, 2016 6:32:54 GMT
Preface: Not so much of a campaign idea as it is kit modding the dungeon at the end of a campaign, but hoping there'll be enough differences for folk to adapt to their own setting.
Contents:
Part 1: The Rough Idea
Part 2: Changes to the Cave
Part 3: Rival Group
Part 4: The True Spell Forge
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Post by sparkusclark on Nov 29, 2016 6:34:32 GMT
Part 1: The Rough Idea
I have another two or three months before my players will (if they choose, natch) reach the thrilling climax of 'The Lost Mines of Phandelver' and enter the long lost Wave Echo Cave (WEC). This is all a very rough first outline, but in order to add an insentive for them to make the journey, I'm making it a race:
The Paladin's older sister (strictly business-minded noble from a family that made it's fortune on mining) arrives in Phandalin with an accompaniment of hired workers and her personal guard (think a rival adventuring party). She claims that she has discovered the entrance to WEC and plans to lay the groundwork to bring prosperity to the town.
Mr. Rockseeker interrupts, enraged at having his discovery potentialy taken away from him. The two compare notes and discover that while Rockseeker's side tunnel is indeed on his property, the Sister's people have found the original entrance on a piece of land that she owns the deed to. (Note: in reality her benifactor is a cohort of Black Spider's who, in my game, is a member of the Cult of Kiransalee, and this is a gambit to win power, wealth, and access to the Spell Forge of legend for further nefarious deeds) The Sister proposes a friendly competition...
Here's where I'm still rough.
My basic idea would be for both teams to try and make their way through the caves the fastest, marking each area as their own (a symbol of some sort). This would mean that the players would have to choose between pressing foreward and gaining ground, or resting up and potentialy losing ground.
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Post by sparkusclark on Nov 29, 2016 6:58:03 GMT
Part 2: Changes to the Cave (Game Spoilers) 1.Entrances:
The Rockseeker side entrance is still in its orginal spot in the SW corner. The Main Entrance that the sister's group enters from has been switched with the fungus cavern. My thought for moving was so that both groups wouldn't enter essentialy side by side (though if there's a good counter argument for leaving it as is, I'm open to it). Also, given the danger the fungus presents, it makes it more difficult for the parties to run into each other. 
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Post by sparkusclark on Nov 29, 2016 7:09:25 GMT
Part 3: Rival Group
What I'd like to do is plot out a rough timeline of events for this group. Which way do they go? What rooms do they choose? How long will it take them to deal with a room's encounter? When will the push and when will they rest?
The idea being that I have this on hand when the party makes their own decisions and how it affects WEC as a whole (i.e. if they make it to a room first, if they make it last, or even if either team encounters the other at all or if either is in the middle of something when they do.)
I'm taking all advice for this. Should I plan all the little parts of it like rolling Percep and Invest checks to see what loot they might find that the party would then miss out on (I do have the time)? How could I easily gauge their rate of encounter success and survival? Perhaps a random table chart? ... Yeah, now that I think about it, that may be something to come up with and roll on while the players are, well, playing.
What say you?
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Post by sparkusclark on Nov 29, 2016 7:35:42 GMT
Part 4: The True Spell Forge Here's where we really divert from the path (like you do). I reasoned that: 1. The Phandelver's Pact was made by metalsmiths (Dwarves), wizards (Humans), and tinkerers (Gnomes) in order to share the area. Who says they didn't all work on a large scale group project together? 2. WEC has been lost for over 200 years now, if the exact location had been lost, why not the specifics of what was inside? This lead me to create the idea that the Spell Forge of legend* was actually a misspronounciation of the Spellforged, and that the Pact was working towards creating magical artificial intelligence (yup, it's one big excuse to bring Warforged into Faerun). This essentially turns the folk of the Pact into a bunch of magical scientists in a Fallout Vault (because ALL Vaults fail, even if it's from outside forces). What does this mean for the caverns? 1. I'd like the room where the final encounter is supposed to take place (NW corner) to be either the Pact's work area or something that leads to the work area. 1b. If it just leads to the work area, what kind of room is it? How is the entrance disguised? If not disguised, how obvious is it that there is something important behind this door?** 2. Getting the Spellforged up and running (something the Pact was about to do before the attack, or shut down to hide them from the attack) should be a puzzle of some kind (something the adventure has been kind of lacking). <I'm starting to fall asleep at my keyboard, so I will leave off for now. Please forgive any disjointed thought processes  > *Though the room with the magical basin of fire will still be there. **Part of me wants it disguised so there's more of a chance of the rivals over looking it, esp. if they found the magical basin of fire first.
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Post by Bneffer on Mar 31, 2017 2:37:51 GMT
Hi,
Did you end up running this? How did it go? Sounds cool, I like the idea. I'm thinking of making the BS a warlock and having his patron pushing him being his limits to try to activate the SForge... But instead a perusal is ripped open... Or something. An excuse to have gibbering mouthers and such show up
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Post by sparkusclark on Sept 4, 2017 4:29:26 GMT
Hi, Did you end up running this? How did it go? Sounds cool, I like the idea. I'm thinking of making the BS a warlock and having his patron pushing him being his limits to try to activate the SForge... But instead a perusal is ripped open... Or something. An excuse to have gibbering mouthers and such show up Gosh my plan did NOT go the way I had set up for, that's for darn sure. Not a bad thing mind. Mostly I scratched the Rival Group/Race aspect, while a cool idea, it would have had me rolling and coming up with numbers to roll or beat along the way. By that point i was already juggling a bunch of other stuff, so it was axed. As a matter a fact there ended up being no wager at all (*shelves the idea for later*). My players chased a group of gnothics into the mine, which I had reconstructed to be several layers deep. When they reached the new main chamber, they found that while they had come through the Rockseeker passage, the paladins sister had dug out the original entrance <now on the other side of the mountain> the week before.* So in the middle of an undead-infested dungeon, we had f'kin Downtown Abbey negotiations/spite-slinging. Still, everyone had fun. And they did manage to find the true Spellforged, waiting to be awoken. How'd yours go? *Which she has bought the rights to from Harbin. |
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