Topic: Campaign direction

[gandalf970]

I am running a high fantasy RMSS game and need some campaign direction.  The players are sons of the Heironeous (Greyhawk) and are attempting to overtake a town that has been subjugated by a half devil Duke.  The Duke has been very sneaky in doing this so as not to cause alarm.  The party doesn't know he is a half devil.

The first thing he did was to entrance all the town with a spell of forget that is embedded into the castle walls, thus forgetting they are adventurers and most are placid.  Then they shipped the military off and replaced them with hobgoblins.  The Duke has made the hobs control their desire to hurt the townsfolk, so there is no issue with them attacking the people.  He then replaced the town church with Hextor (evil God of war). 

The party has slowly figured this out and recovered the blessed stone to replace the church back to a good God.  Next they found the ritual to destroy the forget spell on the town.  But I don't want this to happen yet.  I am stuck as to what to have the group do next.  They are only 5th level (2 players, Paladin and a Rogue) and they don't have the skill to challenge the Duke yet.

They have adventured in a wood to the south of town and discovered old Elven ruins and that is where they found the ritual.  The woods are forbidden so this could be a direction.

I could use some ideas to add to this puzzle.  More quests or thoughts on getting them to make their job easier.  Thanks in advance for the ideas.

[jdale]

You could use the ritual to break the forgetting spell as the trigger event, the townsfolk rise up against the hobgoblins creating the opportunity for the party to reach the evil Duke for a climactic battle. In that case, you need to delay the ritual. The obvious ways to do that are A) components, B) location, and C) timing.

Components would be unique or rare items that need to be obtained in order to perform the ritual. Each one can have its own mini-quest to get the thing, to gain the assistance of someone who has the thing, etc.

Location would be a specific location the ritual must be performed, the party must gain access (e.g. find out the location, get keys or find a secret back entrance, etc) and perhaps gain allies (e.g. maybe allies can distract the guards who would otherwise stumble upon the location during the ritual).

Timing would be a particularly auspicious time to perform the ritual. It could be that it will only work on a particular date, during a particular event (e.g. during an eclipse or meteor shower, or a holy holiday), or maybe there is a situational opportunity e.g. they need to do it when the Duke is away from the location and busy with some other thing. They may need to find out the date (e.g. they need a meteor shower but don't know when the next one will occur, or they don't know when the Duke's business will take him out of the city). There could be prerequisites or it could depend on their own actions, e.g. exactly 60 days after the reconsecration of the temple.

Or...  maybe you don't want the ritual to trigger everything. Perhaps you've already given them the ritual information and it's too late to add those requirements, or maybe other dramatic reasons. In that case, it could be that removing the spell will prevent new arrivals from forgetting, but will not in and of itself restore any memories. Maybe it just makes it possible to restore the memories of individuals (with an item, a spell, maybe you need stories about that individual or a personal item from their past as a reminder). If you go with that, you could spend time letting them pick who are the most important allies they will need, figure out how to get to those individuals and how to restore them. These could be the individuals who can identify the time and date of the ritual, or provide the distractions; they could also be the people who give the players the clues about the Duke's true nature.

[gandalf970]

jdale
     This is exactly what I was looking for.  Thank you so much, my players won't be especially after they go on the hunt for Troll blood and Fairie dust, muahhhhhhhh!

[Cory Magel]

I'm curious how many Hobgoblins there are in the town and how prepared the townspeople are to fight them with or without the parties help.  It seems like if there are too many of them you'd be creating a situation where a bunch of average townspeople are suddenly faced with foes out of the blue.

As a party member I think I'd be trying to figure out a way to make sure townspeople don't get killed in the process of it all.

You could potentially have some in the town that, for whatever reason, are not under the spell but are pretending to be while they figure out what to do.  Local charm maker?  Priest from the old church?  Maybe they have observed the party and realize the party also know what is going on.  They might have information that can be passed on to the party?

[gog]

Then they shipped the military off and replaced them with hobgoblins.

There is always the finding of allies, in this case the shipped of military,  who would may want to come back and safe friends and family, and gives you a force to deal with the Hobs

[gandalf970]

It is a little deeper.  The wooded area south of the town was a place of extensive elvish ruins.  They have become lost in the past and up until the Duke took over the town were being extensively explored by adventurers.

When the Duke created the forget ruin, most of the adventurers settled into the town and forgot their past.  So there is a considerable amount of allies and adventurers who could help. 

There are about 400 hobgoblins in the town and they are very well prepared.  They have 16 guards at each of the 5 gates and rotate constantly.  They also have 2 spell casters at each gate to recharge the forget ruin.

That's a good point to reinforce to the group to be careful not to unleash this upon them.  I want to open it up to let them do what they think is important. 

Now I need a list of components for the ritual.  I am thinking a holy day is the only day they can do the ritual. 

What are your thoughts on how they learn about the components of the ritual.  An old elven scroll speaking of it or your thoughts. 

Please keep adding ideas and thoughts to this adventure.  My players are really enjoying this and so am I. I am also adding another player.

[gandalf970]

Another thing I haven't really decided yet, and could use some ideas is why did the half-devil bring all these hobgoblins to take over the town and put the town under a forget spell.

I haven't wrote it all up and just wanted to sandbox it a bit for my players.  I was thinking maybe researching a powerful spell or trying to build a gate to bring in a very powerful demon or even a demon lord.

Any thoughts.

[jdale]

They found the ritual in the elven ruins, so certainly information about the ritual could also be there. You could even have them encounter the long-dead author of the ritual, maybe he/she is bound as a ghost until his/her work comes to fruition. Or maybe turned undead for some other reason. They might have to prove their worthiness (riddles? combat? puzzles? combination thereof?) before getting any answers. Or maybe he's a ghost for some other reason, but if they put him to rest he'll have a few minutes of clarity to impart some wisdom.

They could also consult someone knowledgeable about this type of ritual magic. Could be someone in the town, could be an ally or quasi-ally outside of town (an old hag in the forest is traditional, helpful but with her own motivations as well).

The duke could also give it away himself. Maybe word is out among the hobgoblins to be extra on alert on this holy day, because he knows the ritual is possible only on this day. Of course the PCs overhear, or an ally overhears. This is also good villainous monologue material if he catches one of them. ("Even if you did have the Ritual of Ksifenox, we only have to be on guard against it on the holy day of Xepilex, did you really think we wouldn't notice?") Or what if he caught someone else trying to break the enchantment, who the players have to free? That person could know additional information (though obviously the ritual itself is something they don't have, since the players got it first), either from their own research or from villainous monologue.

[gandalf970]

Great stuff.  I have a week to plot it out until we play again.  Leaning towards the captured ritualistic who knows stuff or the ghost hmmmm.

[tbigness]

You can also go with a Precognition of events to come or a Postcognition of events that happened to a spell user who touches an item of import or a rune of sorts that belonged to the ritual.

[gandalf970]

Update on the campaign.  So the group went deep into the forest to find the other components necessary (thanks jdale).  They venture deep in the ruins and surprisingly don't release a demon upon the world or unchain the Pukel-Man.

Anyway they discover that not only do they have a ritual and now it's components, but the enemy Duke Half Devil is trying to summon the evil hobgoblin God to assist in taking over the world.

They also found some elven artifacts (because it was one players wish when we created the campaign).  I am getting nice, weak and soft in my old age as a GM.  In previous versions of myself I would have crushed them with artifacts just for asking for them, sa lave'!

I feel I am going to add some more intrigue, but am not sure what or if I need to.  Currently they need to wait about 2 months for the God Heironeous's holy day (playing in Greyhawk). 

I am having them watch the Half Devil construct the ritual, see that people are waking up from the forget spell, but I may need more ideas.

I appreciate all of your help and insight.