The heroes entered Epic Tier knowing that a threat to the fabric of reality faced them. Clearly that should be the focus of their efforts, but all of the heroes had threads of backstory and character development to tie up.
I had already decided that this would be our last calendar year with this edition. The characters become so complex, and there are so many extra options available outside the books, that it is pretty much vital to use the online character and adventure tools. I use them a lot for monsters too. The subscription isn't cheap, so I wanted to avoid paying for an additional year. By now I was well into a 5th edition campaign at my FLGS, and was really enjoying that system, 4th Edition didn't stand up well in comparison, but I'll talk more about that in the final post.
In brief, we had limited time, both as a group playing this edition, and in game to save reality. Given that Proteus was an Immortal of the Sphere of Time, he was able to give the heroes a little lea-way, especially since the next adventure would take place outside the normal flow of time.
I asked each player to come up with a plot thread or two that they would like resolving in a personalised one shot. Some came up with interesting ideas, some trusted me to come up with something (and seeing as I had to design the adventures, that made sense). Each player ended up with a one shot focused on their character, with the other players running pregens.
In brief; Switch helped his family out and strengthened his bond with them. At the beginning of his story he was the black sheep of the family. He was actually called 'Gabriel Windchime' but was told in no uncertain terms to leave and switch his name. Now he was fully accepted again, and even stepped back to let his brother woo the woman he loved.
Memnon officiated in the wedding of his mother and his uncle (she had travelled with two brothers and was never sure if she chose the right one). Alas, Morgash, who the heroes hated on principle for his allegiance to the Black Eagle, proved to have a darker master still, and when he refused to sacrifice his new bride, was taken in her place. memnon's mother was wed and widowed the same day, but was now the leader of the new village of Eagle's Nest.
Tol explored further the Watchers of Dymrak, an organisation of rangers and druids that the player himself largely designed. I gave them a legendary evil to track across the forest and finally imprison.
Ozzie showed that he had a duty of care to the students at Ozwarts by leading them on a trip to the Wizard's Guild in Specularum. Unfortunately there was a malfunction with the portals and they ended up in a puzzle and trap filled tomb. After a session that played out like the Crystal Maze, Ozzie was able to save everyone.
Kathra/Kathka's player asked for something different. So with the reappearance of Howler, an NPC first met in the Fae Realm, and an investigation into strange phenomena connected to something called the Well of Worlds, Kathra was lost to the Nexus. Fortunately, others were also investigating, and a pale elf emerged. Althea was back. I think the loss of Kathra was a real shock to the rest of the players, which I presume was the player's intent.
With all that sorted it was back to the main story. Proteus wanted to send the heroes back to what he had identified as the critical point in time, the days leading up to the destruction of Lhomar.
For him to do this they needed an artefact called the Protean Hourglass, which was currently in the safe-keeping of a mysterious race called the Temporal Masters, and was used to direct their home, a mighty ziggurat that travelled through both space and time (and was definitely larger on the inside than on the outside).
Unfortunately, when the heroes arrived at the current location of the ziggurat, something was wrong. There was no sign of the Temporal Masters, and parties of Carnifex were currently exploring the ziggurat and trying to take control of it.
I based this adventure on the Dungeon magazine adventure Ziggurat Beyond Time, though I substantially altered and expanded the original. My version of the ziggurat adventure focused on taking control of various power sources and their focusing systems. There were two possible routes to the 'bridge' of the ziggurat, and each went through several energy type systems. Some were protected by defence systems, others had already been taken over by the Carnifex and they and there servants were encountered in these areas.
By the time the heroes got to the bottom of the ziggurat they had learnt something of the history of the Temporal Masters and met some of them.
The triumphant heroes emerged with the hourglass and readied themselves for Proteus' next mission.
This is one adventure I wish I had done slightly differently. It didn't help that I was designing and altering the structure as the heroes were exploring it. I think the idea of the different power sources was good, but I probably didn't need two rooms dedicated to each one. I think the adventure would have worked better if entering the rooms had been a choice rather than the route taking the heroes through the rooms. If they had been off the corridors and stairs then the players would have had the choice to enter or to avoid them and if they had some way of knowing what power source was in the different chambers they could have prepared in advance in many cases.
By now I felt that the campaign needed either a dramatic final adventure, or a series of smaller adventures building up to a climax. Given the time pressure I opted for the former choice, and so the heroes found themselves back in time once more, trying to prevent the Carnifex from ripping open the portals in Lhomar and letting The Beyond in, thus destroying everything.
The heroes landed in the area between the Carnifex siege lines and the city of Lhomar. I got the name of the city from the work of various Mystaraphiles on The Piazza. The idea of a series of portals allowing trade and travel was my son's. He suggested the City of Eight Stars, where each star is a gate or portal, as an interesting place for D&D adventures, and I borrowed his idea for the end point of the campaign.
I ran the final adventure a bit looser; there were several possible goals including keeping the morale of the citizens of Lhomar as high as possible, and perhaps even finding a place of safety for them. There were various fifth columnists present in the city, and eventually a city wide revolt by the golem workers and defenders. There was also the issue of the nightmare aura that the Carnifex projected against the populace. Amongst other problems, it prevented the heroes benefitting from a long rest. Fortunately (after some prompting) they remembered that the flow of time between the Natural Realm, the Shadow Realm and the Fae Realm was different, and they learned that there were portals to the different realms. The chose wisely and entered the Shadow Realm. After defeating the undead creatures who dwelt their, they were able to rest, and soon a group of citizens followed them seeking safety. When the heroes revisited, only hours to them but days to the new residents, they discovered that the ennui of the realm was already having an effect. Perhaps these were the origin of the various Shadow races that they had met during their careers?
The main goal however, was to first determine how the Carnifex planned to carry out their scheme, and then try and stop it. A couple of commando raids to the Carnifex siege lines first prevented a horde of zombies from assaulting the city (not a danger in themselves, but when they are bodies of captives taken by the Carnifex...)
They also sabotaged an arcane siege tower who's purpose was to loose off soul energy at the portals. Permanently sealing some of the gates put the Carnifex pan in the balance. Unfortunately, unguarded conversation to a shape shifted serpent folk spy meant that the Carnifex were able to cobble together a back-up plan. A strike team (including a Chaos Dragon) lifted another crystalline device into the city itself. The heroes were able to wipe out the Carnifex strike force and destroy the device just in time to prevent the plan coming to fruition. They were unable to save Lhomar, though they guessed that this would be the case, as nothing survived of Lhomar in their time. As bolts of soul energy blasted Lhomar to ruins (and obliterated the Carnifex army) Proteus whisked them to safety in their own time again.
The heroes triumphed, the Carnifex plan was defeated. They may have had other plots, but that's something for the future.
Phew, that's a lot. I'll leave the final summing up to another post. Meanwhile perhaps you'd like to comment. If you are one of the players, please leave your thoughts. If you've been in a long running campaign, either as a player or a GM, tell us about it
I had already decided that this would be our last calendar year with this edition. The characters become so complex, and there are so many extra options available outside the books, that it is pretty much vital to use the online character and adventure tools. I use them a lot for monsters too. The subscription isn't cheap, so I wanted to avoid paying for an additional year. By now I was well into a 5th edition campaign at my FLGS, and was really enjoying that system, 4th Edition didn't stand up well in comparison, but I'll talk more about that in the final post.
In brief, we had limited time, both as a group playing this edition, and in game to save reality. Given that Proteus was an Immortal of the Sphere of Time, he was able to give the heroes a little lea-way, especially since the next adventure would take place outside the normal flow of time.
I asked each player to come up with a plot thread or two that they would like resolving in a personalised one shot. Some came up with interesting ideas, some trusted me to come up with something (and seeing as I had to design the adventures, that made sense). Each player ended up with a one shot focused on their character, with the other players running pregens.
In brief; Switch helped his family out and strengthened his bond with them. At the beginning of his story he was the black sheep of the family. He was actually called 'Gabriel Windchime' but was told in no uncertain terms to leave and switch his name. Now he was fully accepted again, and even stepped back to let his brother woo the woman he loved.
Memnon officiated in the wedding of his mother and his uncle (she had travelled with two brothers and was never sure if she chose the right one). Alas, Morgash, who the heroes hated on principle for his allegiance to the Black Eagle, proved to have a darker master still, and when he refused to sacrifice his new bride, was taken in her place. memnon's mother was wed and widowed the same day, but was now the leader of the new village of Eagle's Nest.
Tol explored further the Watchers of Dymrak, an organisation of rangers and druids that the player himself largely designed. I gave them a legendary evil to track across the forest and finally imprison.
Ozzie showed that he had a duty of care to the students at Ozwarts by leading them on a trip to the Wizard's Guild in Specularum. Unfortunately there was a malfunction with the portals and they ended up in a puzzle and trap filled tomb. After a session that played out like the Crystal Maze, Ozzie was able to save everyone.
Kathra/Kathka's player asked for something different. So with the reappearance of Howler, an NPC first met in the Fae Realm, and an investigation into strange phenomena connected to something called the Well of Worlds, Kathra was lost to the Nexus. Fortunately, others were also investigating, and a pale elf emerged. Althea was back. I think the loss of Kathra was a real shock to the rest of the players, which I presume was the player's intent.
With all that sorted it was back to the main story. Proteus wanted to send the heroes back to what he had identified as the critical point in time, the days leading up to the destruction of Lhomar.
For him to do this they needed an artefact called the Protean Hourglass, which was currently in the safe-keeping of a mysterious race called the Temporal Masters, and was used to direct their home, a mighty ziggurat that travelled through both space and time (and was definitely larger on the inside than on the outside).
Unfortunately, when the heroes arrived at the current location of the ziggurat, something was wrong. There was no sign of the Temporal Masters, and parties of Carnifex were currently exploring the ziggurat and trying to take control of it.
I based this adventure on the Dungeon magazine adventure Ziggurat Beyond Time, though I substantially altered and expanded the original. My version of the ziggurat adventure focused on taking control of various power sources and their focusing systems. There were two possible routes to the 'bridge' of the ziggurat, and each went through several energy type systems. Some were protected by defence systems, others had already been taken over by the Carnifex and they and there servants were encountered in these areas.
By the time the heroes got to the bottom of the ziggurat they had learnt something of the history of the Temporal Masters and met some of them.
The triumphant heroes emerged with the hourglass and readied themselves for Proteus' next mission.
This is one adventure I wish I had done slightly differently. It didn't help that I was designing and altering the structure as the heroes were exploring it. I think the idea of the different power sources was good, but I probably didn't need two rooms dedicated to each one. I think the adventure would have worked better if entering the rooms had been a choice rather than the route taking the heroes through the rooms. If they had been off the corridors and stairs then the players would have had the choice to enter or to avoid them and if they had some way of knowing what power source was in the different chambers they could have prepared in advance in many cases.
By now I felt that the campaign needed either a dramatic final adventure, or a series of smaller adventures building up to a climax. Given the time pressure I opted for the former choice, and so the heroes found themselves back in time once more, trying to prevent the Carnifex from ripping open the portals in Lhomar and letting The Beyond in, thus destroying everything.
The heroes landed in the area between the Carnifex siege lines and the city of Lhomar. I got the name of the city from the work of various Mystaraphiles on The Piazza. The idea of a series of portals allowing trade and travel was my son's. He suggested the City of Eight Stars, where each star is a gate or portal, as an interesting place for D&D adventures, and I borrowed his idea for the end point of the campaign.
I ran the final adventure a bit looser; there were several possible goals including keeping the morale of the citizens of Lhomar as high as possible, and perhaps even finding a place of safety for them. There were various fifth columnists present in the city, and eventually a city wide revolt by the golem workers and defenders. There was also the issue of the nightmare aura that the Carnifex projected against the populace. Amongst other problems, it prevented the heroes benefitting from a long rest. Fortunately (after some prompting) they remembered that the flow of time between the Natural Realm, the Shadow Realm and the Fae Realm was different, and they learned that there were portals to the different realms. The chose wisely and entered the Shadow Realm. After defeating the undead creatures who dwelt their, they were able to rest, and soon a group of citizens followed them seeking safety. When the heroes revisited, only hours to them but days to the new residents, they discovered that the ennui of the realm was already having an effect. Perhaps these were the origin of the various Shadow races that they had met during their careers?
The main goal however, was to first determine how the Carnifex planned to carry out their scheme, and then try and stop it. A couple of commando raids to the Carnifex siege lines first prevented a horde of zombies from assaulting the city (not a danger in themselves, but when they are bodies of captives taken by the Carnifex...)
They also sabotaged an arcane siege tower who's purpose was to loose off soul energy at the portals. Permanently sealing some of the gates put the Carnifex pan in the balance. Unfortunately, unguarded conversation to a shape shifted serpent folk spy meant that the Carnifex were able to cobble together a back-up plan. A strike team (including a Chaos Dragon) lifted another crystalline device into the city itself. The heroes were able to wipe out the Carnifex strike force and destroy the device just in time to prevent the plan coming to fruition. They were unable to save Lhomar, though they guessed that this would be the case, as nothing survived of Lhomar in their time. As bolts of soul energy blasted Lhomar to ruins (and obliterated the Carnifex army) Proteus whisked them to safety in their own time again.
The heroes triumphed, the Carnifex plan was defeated. They may have had other plots, but that's something for the future.
Phew, that's a lot. I'll leave the final summing up to another post. Meanwhile perhaps you'd like to comment. If you are one of the players, please leave your thoughts. If you've been in a long running campaign, either as a player or a GM, tell us about it
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