New DM here! Curious as to what anyone thinks about the situation I have in the story for my campaign.
My PCs are being led down a false quest by someone who is secretly a worshipper of Orcus. The lore here is that the Raven Queen and Orcus are currently in conflict, but the players do not know this right off the bat. The man traveling with them is trying to get them to activate three temples to the Raven Queen across the land in order to give Orcus' cult access to the Raven Queen's domain. This is his first step in conquering the land which the PCs come from in an apocalypse-style takeover. He has told the party they are activating these temples for a completely different reason, however.
My plan was, for each temple, a group of shadar-kai which the players will have already had other encounters with will appear and try to stop them from doing so. These shadar-kai do not want to kill the party, however, because they too have a use for the PCs. I want it to be the same group of shadar-kai every time because I want the vibe to be that they're always a step ahead of the party. I'm tying in a theme of fate, because the Raven Queen has that in her dominion. I'm trying to figure out how to make these encounters work so that the party still has agency, but doesn't lead to a complete cutoff from that half of the storyline. Here's the plan I had:
The first two encounters with the Shadar-Kai are balanced. The Shadar-Kai would likely first try not to fight with the party, and then would fight if talking doesn't work. In this case, if the Shadar-Kai lose, they would vanish at the last second before being killed. The last battle would be more difficult, as it would be the shadar-kai's last chance at halting the ritual, so one of their more higher-ranks would be there. At this point, if the party wins, they can kill the shadar-kai if they wish to with a big dramatic ending to this quest. By this point I should have set up enough intrigue surrounding the enigmatic raven queen to make it plausible that the story would be set up for the next part of the campaign to unfold.
My problem with this idea is two-fold: Logistically, if the Shadar-Kai are weak enough to be beaten by the party who by then will still be in the somewhat lower levels, I wouldn't figure they would be powerful enough to vanish into mid-air. Furthermore, as much as this whole escaping but not killing thing feels like it would work story-wise, it doesn't give the players agency in the first two battles, where they are fighting beings which, for all they know, are evil. I don't want the players to be frustrated that they cant kill the dudes who have been interfering with their plans.
Shadar kai elves have an innate teleport ability, so they can teleport away. Or give them all Cloak of the Mountebank to allow them to teleport 500 ft away as their "vanish" ability. However, IMO you have a much bigger problem which is what if the party listen to the Shadar Kai and don't fight them? What if they immediately turn on the quest giver and refuse to activate any of the temples?
Perhaps only the higher-ranking Shadar-kai assailants have access to this defensive magic, and the lower ranking cronies are cooked if the encounter hoes sideways. it would also allow them to get a little bit of information on the scenario through interrogation. Agilemind makes a good point about the characters turning down the mission, so add some incentive to the quest, whether that be money, favors, or something else.
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He doesn't have much besides the skin on his bones. Me: I'll take the skin on his bones, then.
"You see a gigantic, monstrous praying mantis burst from out of the ground. It sprays a stream of acid from it's mouth at one soldier, dissolving him instantly, then it turns and chomps another soldier in half with it's- "
thank you, this is a good point. that would definitely give some more agency and allow the players to proceed with the battle however they like, and give some satisfaction to the ending of each encounter.
The players believe they are saving civilization from a "rot" that curses the land. The rot their companion speaks of, however, is life itself. He won't disclose this to them.
So my incentives I have already set up are a) they have a monetary reward and b) they believe everything they know and love will be destroyed by this "rot". I also plan to make the shadar kai seem suspicious to them throughout the story so they are less inclined to listen. If they still refuse or fail the quest for whatever reason, the Orcus follower will reconvene with his cult and try to do it themselves and the story will continue from there, likely with a face-off.
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New DM here! Curious as to what anyone thinks about the situation I have in the story for my campaign.
My PCs are being led down a false quest by someone who is secretly a worshipper of Orcus. The lore here is that the Raven Queen and Orcus are currently in conflict, but the players do not know this right off the bat. The man traveling with them is trying to get them to activate three temples to the Raven Queen across the land in order to give Orcus' cult access to the Raven Queen's domain. This is his first step in conquering the land which the PCs come from in an apocalypse-style takeover. He has told the party they are activating these temples for a completely different reason, however.
My plan was, for each temple, a group of shadar-kai which the players will have already had other encounters with will appear and try to stop them from doing so. These shadar-kai do not want to kill the party, however, because they too have a use for the PCs. I want it to be the same group of shadar-kai every time because I want the vibe to be that they're always a step ahead of the party. I'm tying in a theme of fate, because the Raven Queen has that in her dominion. I'm trying to figure out how to make these encounters work so that the party still has agency, but doesn't lead to a complete cutoff from that half of the storyline. Here's the plan I had:
The first two encounters with the Shadar-Kai are balanced. The Shadar-Kai would likely first try not to fight with the party, and then would fight if talking doesn't work. In this case, if the Shadar-Kai lose, they would vanish at the last second before being killed. The last battle would be more difficult, as it would be the shadar-kai's last chance at halting the ritual, so one of their more higher-ranks would be there. At this point, if the party wins, they can kill the shadar-kai if they wish to with a big dramatic ending to this quest. By this point I should have set up enough intrigue surrounding the enigmatic raven queen to make it plausible that the story would be set up for the next part of the campaign to unfold.
My problem with this idea is two-fold: Logistically, if the Shadar-Kai are weak enough to be beaten by the party who by then will still be in the somewhat lower levels, I wouldn't figure they would be powerful enough to vanish into mid-air. Furthermore, as much as this whole escaping but not killing thing feels like it would work story-wise, it doesn't give the players agency in the first two battles, where they are fighting beings which, for all they know, are evil. I don't want the players to be frustrated that they cant kill the dudes who have been interfering with their plans.
Any advice would be appreciated!
Shadar kai elves have an innate teleport ability, so they can teleport away. Or give them all Cloak of the Mountebank to allow them to teleport 500 ft away as their "vanish" ability. However, IMO you have a much bigger problem which is what if the party listen to the Shadar Kai and don't fight them? What if they immediately turn on the quest giver and refuse to activate any of the temples?
Perhaps only the higher-ranking Shadar-kai assailants have access to this defensive magic, and the lower ranking cronies are cooked if the encounter hoes sideways. it would also allow them to get a little bit of information on the scenario through interrogation. Agilemind makes a good point about the characters turning down the mission, so add some incentive to the quest, whether that be money, favors, or something else.
He doesn't have much besides the skin on his bones. Me: I'll take the skin on his bones, then.
"You see a gigantic, monstrous praying mantis burst from out of the ground. It sprays a stream of acid from it's mouth at one soldier, dissolving him instantly, then it turns and chomps another soldier in half with it's- "
"When are we gonna take a snack break?"
thank you, this is a good point. that would definitely give some more agency and allow the players to proceed with the battle however they like, and give some satisfaction to the ending of each encounter.
The players believe they are saving civilization from a "rot" that curses the land. The rot their companion speaks of, however, is life itself. He won't disclose this to them.
So my incentives I have already set up are a) they have a monetary reward and b) they believe everything they know and love will be destroyed by this "rot". I also plan to make the shadar kai seem suspicious to them throughout the story so they are less inclined to listen. If they still refuse or fail the quest for whatever reason, the Orcus follower will reconvene with his cult and try to do it themselves and the story will continue from there, likely with a face-off.