Been workshopping a campaign that will involve the classic twist of "your starting patron was the villain all along!" - though might allow the PCs to start suspecting and working out the patron's evil nature early on, and let them guess at what they're dealing with and possibly try to expose her. Anyway, I was thinking that the campaign could begin with the patron (a nagpa disguised as a benevolent old female mage of some renown) gathering the heroes-to-be and tasking them with investigating the source of this strange, unidentified reagent being distributed through underground channels. The clues lead the party to a respected elven wizard who is basically creating the stuff by grinding up souls. Naturally, it will be up to the party to either bring him down or expose him, but by the time he's dealt with, he'll have already distributed a lot of his reagent (and possibly the means to produce more) around the lands, creating the hook for the first part of the larger campaign.
The question I have is, what benefit would the nagpa have to put the PCs on this quest? Her kind's primary driving goal is to cause destruction and ruin that they can then scavenge for knowledge and power - why would she want production of this reagent shut down? Can the act of stopping it be twisted into a bad thing? My idea for her later scheming involves rekindling a long-cold war between dragons and giants, intending to lay waste to a city and academy of magical research, allowing the nagpa to pick through the ruins for valuable knowledge. Could this be tied in somehow?
For a plot like this, I'd go with the age old standard of 'cleaning out the competition'. So, the party are good guys, and they're attacking bad guys, but really, these bad guys are simply competitors of the villain - or former allies she no longer has any use for. Tying up loose ends.
Also, who says your ... nagpa? ... isn't simply trying to get the formula for this reagent?
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Or maybe the reagent would actually end up limiting her power and/or protecting civilization, so the elven wizard doesn't view the act of grinding up souls to be ultimately evil.
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Paladin main who spends most of his D&D time worldbuilding or DMing, not Paladin-ing.
Hmm, now there’s a thought. Nagpas can’t learn things normally, so just getting her claws on the formula wouldn’t do her much good...but sending in a bunch of untested “heroes” to no doubt bungle the delicate situation into a disaster area, leaving ruins she can pick clean of information on this new magical resource? Something to think about...
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Been workshopping a campaign that will involve the classic twist of "your starting patron was the villain all along!" - though might allow the PCs to start suspecting and working out the patron's evil nature early on, and let them guess at what they're dealing with and possibly try to expose her. Anyway, I was thinking that the campaign could begin with the patron (a nagpa disguised as a benevolent old female mage of some renown) gathering the heroes-to-be and tasking them with investigating the source of this strange, unidentified reagent being distributed through underground channels. The clues lead the party to a respected elven wizard who is basically creating the stuff by grinding up souls. Naturally, it will be up to the party to either bring him down or expose him, but by the time he's dealt with, he'll have already distributed a lot of his reagent (and possibly the means to produce more) around the lands, creating the hook for the first part of the larger campaign.
The question I have is, what benefit would the nagpa have to put the PCs on this quest? Her kind's primary driving goal is to cause destruction and ruin that they can then scavenge for knowledge and power - why would she want production of this reagent shut down? Can the act of stopping it be twisted into a bad thing? My idea for her later scheming involves rekindling a long-cold war between dragons and giants, intending to lay waste to a city and academy of magical research, allowing the nagpa to pick through the ruins for valuable knowledge. Could this be tied in somehow?
For a plot like this, I'd go with the age old standard of 'cleaning out the competition'. So, the party are good guys, and they're attacking bad guys, but really, these bad guys are simply competitors of the villain - or former allies she no longer has any use for. Tying up loose ends.
Also, who says your ... nagpa? ... isn't simply trying to get the formula for this reagent?
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Or maybe the reagent would actually end up limiting her power and/or protecting civilization, so the elven wizard doesn't view the act of grinding up souls to be ultimately evil.
Paladin main who spends most of his D&D time worldbuilding or DMing, not Paladin-ing.
Hmm, now there’s a thought. Nagpas can’t learn things normally, so just getting her claws on the formula wouldn’t do her much good...but sending in a bunch of untested “heroes” to no doubt bungle the delicate situation into a disaster area, leaving ruins she can pick clean of information on this new magical resource? Something to think about...