Well it seems as though my PC's are in the "Empire Strikes Back" part of the campaign. They kind of went there on their own accord. I'll explain.
The group consists of a Black kingdoms Barbarian, Stygian Noble, Zamorian Thief, female Zingarian Pirate, Turanian Nomad, and a Scholar from Khitai.
The campaign recently moved into Shadizar with an audience with the king. They had recently defeated Yara and had no qualms telling everybody in Arenjun what they had done. They ventured to Shadizar from Stygia, the Nobles family palace, and received a hearty reward from the King. Which brings us to the next part of the campaign.
After purchasing and reading the Shadizar box set I decided to make a few changes and fit it into my Campaign. The players have bought a manor house in shadizar, made some local contacts (as per the box set), and then proceeded to drink and wench the rest of their money away
.
From the adventure I have made Lady Nehira the kings daughter, a few levels higher in scholar, and gave her a different agenda (she's an Evil B*tch).
They went through the adventure in the box set fairly unchanged. The ending did not have Kara Prima (I'm using her someplace else) and the party "rescued" Nehira from the clutches of the evil cultists just in time. This was planed by lady Nehira, she was hoping to weaken them and then defeat them and use them for her own sinister purposes in a story arch I won't bother getting into right now.
Now down to the situation at hand.
She seduced and enslaved the Noble as per the spell. The PC playing the Noble had no idea, had him roll a saving through later for what he thought was a completely different reason. The noble was the one that led the PC's into the trap.
Some time passed and they continued their socializing in Shadizar
Nehira then tried to seduce and enslave the Scholar. Unfortunately for her he had cast Calm of the Adept earlier and he was completely immune to her charms. Nehira didn't know this and told him most of what she planned to do. She also sent them up to a northern encampment of Assassins to steal a ceremonial dagger from a nearby Sorcerer’s tower.
The scholar told the rest of the PC's everything, the Noble and the Barbarian were to the south checking on the Nobles recently acquired commission to lead a small retinue of the Kings army (The players for those two characters weren’t at the last session). Oh ya forgot to mention the Noble was given a command from the King, another long story.
They succeeded in stealing the dagger for her and the Zamorian Thief hid it so she wouldn't find it.
Nehira send four of the "Kings own" guard with them to help steal the dagger, to support their efforts, one survived. The Scholar tried to intimidate him into serving him, it worked, but he was enslaved to lady Nehira himself. He reported back to her that the PC's know everything, this was not good!
Lady Nehira requested their presence. She sends the guardsman to retrieve them. The PC's using sense motive figured out he was holding something back (The fact that he told her everything). The proceeded to walk right into her temple and into a trap :roll: She had 6 of the Kings own guard that were loyal to her, and had summoned an Earth Elemental she was keeping hidden in the room beyond the worshiping chamber. She had also through her Demon patron performed a ritual preventing the PC's from harming her or her followers in her temple, (Will save DC20 or could not follow through with an attack) home brew spell like unhallowed ground, but more powerful.
The ensuing fight was that of legend :lol: .
The scholar was immune to the unhallowed because he cast calm of the adept and the unhallowed ritual was from the school of hypnotism.
He was able to cast greater warding on the thief freeing him of the spell and defensive blasting 3 guardsman before they took him down to -4 HP.
Lady Nehira laughed and commanded the Elemental to attack, which burst very dramatically out of a set of double doors in the back.
The Elemental brought the thief down to 16 hp. I allowed him to use his last fate point to shrug off the massive damage save he failed, thought I would be nice.
Lady Nehira ran into a backroom to escape and let her minions kill the party, laughing all the way knowing that she had them right where she wanted.
The thief gave chase.
Nehira defensive blasted him with her 11 remaining power points killing him, no fate points, no left for dead maybe, dead .
The Zingarian and the Turanian got the front doors open and escaped to the street. The guardsman caught and arrested the Turanian but the Zingarian escaped by hiding in the garden outside her manor, later climbing the wall and escaping via the waterways in the city.
Nehira then killed a slave girl for power. Got healers to attend to the
Scholar. Then cast Greater warding, entrance, dominate, and enslave on the scholar (all his saves failed). I allowed him to use a fate point to succeed at the enslave save, only partially enslaving him
So were left with the remaining party as such:
1. Enslaved Noble and his. . .
2. Barbarian body guard who doesn’t know what’s going on.
3. Enslaved Scholar
4. Dead Thief
5. Turanian in her personal dungeon, beaten and broken. (He has already used a fate point to "escape").
6. Zingarian pirate, badly wounded, and really know were to go. (Like she won't be watching their manor house.
I often don't know where my campaigns will lead as I never railroad. I play the NPC's to the best of my ability utilizing their powers. I don't pull punches, what’s the point. But I also (I think) give the PC's every opportunity to succeeded, like:
1. They new the guardsman sent to retrieve them was holding back something, they even mentioned that he probably told Nehira everything.
2. They new the difficulty of the battle at the beginning, they knew within the first round of combat that evil enchantment was on the temple and they found it hard to attack Nehira and her guards.
3. They new they were outmatched and outgunned, even after walking into the trap they could of escaped by trying to get out the front doors! Nehira confidently proclaimed at the beginning of the battle "Nothing can harm me while I reside in the Temple of Bel, NOTHING! Bowu ha ha ha ha. hint, hint, HINT!
4. Nehira was still trying to hide her evil ways from the rest of the hierarchy of Zamora; if they got out of the temple they probably could have killed the guardsman. The Elemental was instructed not to leave the temple, ever (I would doubt the nobles of Shadizar would like to see a large stone monster running around the street). Nehira still doesn’t want to tip her hand to the general public of her power or what she is capable of.
What did they do?
They stayed and fought it out until all hope was lost, then two tried to escape. One succeeded.
F.Y.I. :arrow: I made Lady Nihera lvl 14 scholar, lvl 2 noble. She had some summoning (elemental of coarse), a few more skills etc, but pretty much the same as stated out in the Shadizar box set.
Thank you very much for reading this post (if you got this far). My question is this; What should I do now with. . .
1. Enslaved Noble and his. . .
2. Barbarian body guard who doesn’t know what’s going on.
3. Enslaved Scholar
4. Dead Thief
5. Turanian in her personal dungeon, beaten and broken. (He has already used a fate point to "escape").
6. Zingarian pirate, badly wounded, and really know were to go. (Like she won't be watching their manor house
Any suggestions, campaign ideas, anything? I would appreciate some input.
The player who lost the thief is making up a new character, I think a soldier.
Now what? Nehira now controls two partymembers indirectly. The scholar knows he's enslaved but can't do anything about it (made save). Nehira has one in the dungeon(Turanian). I think she will have the Scholar "escape" to help find the Zingarian(the only one who escaped).
How are they going to get out of this mess :roll: . Suggestions please ?
The group consists of a Black kingdoms Barbarian, Stygian Noble, Zamorian Thief, female Zingarian Pirate, Turanian Nomad, and a Scholar from Khitai.
The campaign recently moved into Shadizar with an audience with the king. They had recently defeated Yara and had no qualms telling everybody in Arenjun what they had done. They ventured to Shadizar from Stygia, the Nobles family palace, and received a hearty reward from the King. Which brings us to the next part of the campaign.
After purchasing and reading the Shadizar box set I decided to make a few changes and fit it into my Campaign. The players have bought a manor house in shadizar, made some local contacts (as per the box set), and then proceeded to drink and wench the rest of their money away
.From the adventure I have made Lady Nehira the kings daughter, a few levels higher in scholar, and gave her a different agenda (she's an Evil B*tch).
They went through the adventure in the box set fairly unchanged. The ending did not have Kara Prima (I'm using her someplace else) and the party "rescued" Nehira from the clutches of the evil cultists just in time. This was planed by lady Nehira, she was hoping to weaken them and then defeat them and use them for her own sinister purposes in a story arch I won't bother getting into right now.
Now down to the situation at hand.
She seduced and enslaved the Noble as per the spell. The PC playing the Noble had no idea, had him roll a saving through later for what he thought was a completely different reason. The noble was the one that led the PC's into the trap.
Some time passed and they continued their socializing in Shadizar
Nehira then tried to seduce and enslave the Scholar. Unfortunately for her he had cast Calm of the Adept earlier and he was completely immune to her charms. Nehira didn't know this and told him most of what she planned to do. She also sent them up to a northern encampment of Assassins to steal a ceremonial dagger from a nearby Sorcerer’s tower.
The scholar told the rest of the PC's everything, the Noble and the Barbarian were to the south checking on the Nobles recently acquired commission to lead a small retinue of the Kings army (The players for those two characters weren’t at the last session). Oh ya
forgot to mention the Noble was given a command from the King, another long story.They succeeded in stealing the dagger for her and the Zamorian Thief hid it so she wouldn't find it.
Nehira send four of the "Kings own" guard with them to help steal the dagger, to support their efforts, one survived. The Scholar tried to intimidate him into serving him, it worked, but he was enslaved to lady Nehira himself. He reported back to her that the PC's know everything, this was not good!
Lady Nehira requested their presence. She sends the guardsman to retrieve them. The PC's using sense motive figured out he was holding something back (The fact that he told her everything). The proceeded to walk right into her temple and into a trap :roll: She had 6 of the Kings own guard that were loyal to her, and had summoned an Earth Elemental she was keeping hidden in the room beyond the worshiping chamber. She had also through her Demon patron performed a ritual preventing the PC's from harming her or her followers in her temple, (Will save DC20 or could not follow through with an attack) home brew spell like unhallowed ground, but more powerful.
The ensuing fight was that of legend :lol: .
The scholar was immune to the unhallowed because he cast calm of the adept and the unhallowed ritual was from the school of hypnotism.
He was able to cast greater warding on the thief freeing him of the spell and defensive blasting 3 guardsman before they took him down to -4 HP.
Lady Nehira laughed and commanded the Elemental to attack, which burst very dramatically out of a set of double doors in the back.
The Elemental brought the thief down to 16 hp. I allowed him to use his last fate point to shrug off the massive damage save he failed, thought I would be nice.
Lady Nehira ran into a backroom to escape and let her minions kill the party, laughing all the way knowing that she had them right where she wanted.
The thief gave chase.
Nehira defensive blasted him with her 11 remaining power points killing him, no fate points, no left for dead maybe, dead
.The Zingarian and the Turanian got the front doors open and escaped to the street. The guardsman caught and arrested the Turanian but the Zingarian escaped by hiding in the garden outside her manor, later climbing the wall and escaping via the waterways in the city.
Nehira then killed a slave girl for power. Got healers to attend to the
Scholar. Then cast Greater warding, entrance, dominate, and enslave on the scholar (all his saves failed). I allowed him to use a fate point to succeed at the enslave save, only partially enslaving him
So were left with the remaining party as such:
1. Enslaved Noble and his. . .
2. Barbarian body guard who doesn’t know what’s going on.
3. Enslaved Scholar
4. Dead Thief
5. Turanian in her personal dungeon, beaten and broken. (He has already used a fate point to "escape").
6. Zingarian pirate, badly wounded, and really know were to go. (Like she won't be watching their manor house.
I often don't know where my campaigns will lead as I never railroad. I play the NPC's to the best of my ability utilizing their powers. I don't pull punches, what’s the point. But I also (I think) give the PC's every opportunity to succeeded, like:
1. They new the guardsman sent to retrieve them was holding back something, they even mentioned that he probably told Nehira everything.
2. They new the difficulty of the battle at the beginning, they knew within the first round of combat that evil enchantment was on the temple and they found it hard to attack Nehira and her guards.
3. They new they were outmatched and outgunned, even after walking into the trap they could of escaped by trying to get out the front doors! Nehira confidently proclaimed at the beginning of the battle "Nothing can harm me while I reside in the Temple of Bel, NOTHING! Bowu ha ha ha ha. hint, hint, HINT!
4. Nehira was still trying to hide her evil ways from the rest of the hierarchy of Zamora; if they got out of the temple they probably could have killed the guardsman. The Elemental was instructed not to leave the temple, ever (I would doubt the nobles of Shadizar would like to see a large stone monster running around the street). Nehira still doesn’t want to tip her hand to the general public of her power or what she is capable of.
What did they do?
They stayed and fought it out until all hope was lost, then two tried to escape. One succeeded.
F.Y.I. :arrow: I made Lady Nihera lvl 14 scholar, lvl 2 noble. She had some summoning (elemental of coarse), a few more skills etc, but pretty much the same as stated out in the Shadizar box set.
Thank you very much for reading this post (if you got this far
). My question is this; What should I do now with. . . 1. Enslaved Noble and his. . .
2. Barbarian body guard who doesn’t know what’s going on.
3. Enslaved Scholar
4. Dead Thief
5. Turanian in her personal dungeon, beaten and broken. (He has already used a fate point to "escape").
6. Zingarian pirate, badly wounded, and really know were to go. (Like she won't be watching their manor house
Any suggestions, campaign ideas, anything? I would appreciate some input.
The player who lost the thief is making up a new character, I think a soldier.
Now what? Nehira now controls two partymembers indirectly. The scholar knows he's enslaved but can't do anything about it (made save). Nehira has one in the dungeon(Turanian). I think she will have the Scholar "escape" to help find the Zingarian(the only one who escaped).
How are they going to get out of this mess :roll: . Suggestions please
?
