so in my campaign i have a few factions being the Humans Government, Elven Kingdom, the Rebel Organization, and the Archfey. Here's their goals:
Elven Kingdom
the elven kingdom is a safe haven for all races exuding humans.
they wish to keep their subjects safe in their kingdom but the humans threaten the peace
the counsel has decided that the elven kingdom will hunt the humans to keep their peace, to extinction if they must.
The Rebel Organization
the rebel leader strongly disagrees with the way the elven kingdom treats every human the same. he has seen that there are good humans and understands that there are dreadful one as well
the rebel group was formed in order to take out the human government leaders, their rebel leader believes that to do so will stop the virus from spreading
the rebel group wants to prevent the hunting of random humans and help the humans that are worth saving
to be worthy of help from the rebels, one must prove themselves of a good heart
The Human Government
the human government believes that all other races are below humans, and wish to rule over the entire continent
their King is in dire health and is no longer in a condition to serve his kingdom. however he has no heir to take his place.
to solve this solution the human government has found a way to help his majesty regain his youth. they have found the fountain of youth within the feywild. although it is guarded by an Archfey, the human government has made a deal with this archfey. for a droplet from the fountain of youth, they must offer a life to the archfey
they sent out a message saying "We have released a virus out among you that will spread across the continent. Of course we humans are immune to this virus, but as for all the other races the virus will affect, you will end up dead and withered in do time."
The Archfey
they want a sacrifice(s)
I suppose my brain is just tired from thinking up the rest of the campaign, so this is where I'm stuck at the moment. I need an evil plan that is being played out through out the campaign that the archfey are conducting. I have them filling the fountain of youth with life force from people by using fey spirits, which in my campaign is actually the virus. That is all a have so far. I need some help coming up with why they agreed to help the humans, why are the filling the fountain of youth, what is there actual goal, and how are they going to try to execute this goal behind the scenes. All help is appreciated, thank you.
The virus is actually "fey spirits" which are draining life force from people and filling the fountain.
Therefore the Archfey have an interest in the Human Kingdom continuing to spread the virus.
This is assuming that the Archfey find some value in the fountain being "charged" - but if they did not, why do this whole thing with the spirit viruses charging the fountain?
So - this begs the questions really:
What is the value - to the Archfey - of the fountain being filled with "life energy"? What do they need it for?
Once you know that - what they need, and why, their "plan" kind of writes it'self.
However this setup had 2 issues I can see:
Why do the Archfey demand a sacrifice? They have vested interest in the Humans doing what they're doing - why don't they just give the droplet to the King, since the Archfey will indirectly benefit from the King remaining in power?
Why on Earth did the Humans announce that they'd released a bio-weapon?! That just gives the non-humans the chance to decide "Hey, if we're doomed, let's just slaughter all the bastard humans first!".
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Why do the Archfey demand a sacrifice? They have vested interest in the Humans doing what they're doing - why don't they just give the droplet to the King, since the Archfey will indirectly benefit from the King remaining in power?
They want to maintain their reputation as ____.
They don't want the humans to suspect that they benefit from it.
It makes a better story that way. Yes, I'm serious.
Waste not, want not.
It's a test (single-blind, of course).
They want to see what will happen when word gets out or how the victim will be selected, purely for their own amusement.
They were in a sacrificial-victim mood at the time.
Why on Earth did the Humans announce that they'd released a bio-weapon?! That just gives the non-humans the chance to decide "Hey, if we're doomed, let's just slaughter all the bastard humans first!".
They're all bloody idiots.
Someone critically failed an Int check, then enough for a majority failed their Int checks to notice. In other words, dumb luck.
They don't believe nonhumans are capable of slaughtering them.
They don't believe nonhumans are intelligent enough to decide to slaughter them.
They don't believe nonhumans are organized enough to decide to slaughter them in time.
They want to give their victims advance warning. Maybe not doing so goes against their religion. "And should thou unleash a bio-weapon on thine foes, thou shalt do them the courtesy of telling them." (The current state religion originated thousands of years earlier, but was lost for a significant portion of that time. It was rediscovered recently when its holy texts were found carved into the wall of a cave. Unfortunately, the written form of the language used negated words by placing a certain mark above them, and that mark was eroded away in one very important spot. That wouldn't be so bad, but the language also had a single word (or symbol) for "do the courtesy of telling".)
Highly placed nonhuman sympathizers found out about the bio-weapon and leaked word to the victims, hoping for an unlikely band (the standard collective noun) of heroes to show up in the nick of time with a miracle cure.
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"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Why do the Archfey demand a sacrifice? They have vested interest in the Humans doing what they're doing - why don't they just give the droplet to the King, since the Archfey will indirectly benefit from the King remaining in power?
maybe the archfey only want to fill the fountain for themselves and dont plan on giving the humans anything, or perhaps they lied about the fountain needing to be filled and want sacrifices for another reason. it could be that the achfey lied and its not actually the fountain of youth at all and is some other kind of well that the need filled. i figured that the archfey don't care what the humans want and are proceeding with their own plans. i am still uncertain of how to go about these concepts though.
Highly placed nonhuman sympathizers found out about the bio-weapon and leaked word to the victims, hoping for an unlikely band (the standard collective noun) of heroes to show up in the nick of time with a miracle cure.
i very much like this idea and will incorporate it into my campaign somehow. this can also explain why the humans announced the virus being spread
The Archfey in question is Bandiric ( or some other fey name you come up with) Lord of the Frozen Betrayal.
* He was banished from your world by an alliance of the races before he could bring an eternal winter and death to the world.
*He is using this fey plague to replace peoples souls/spirits with the spirits of his loyal fey army for when he is ready to cross over.
*He needs the souls/spirits to power this pool, lets call it the Pool of Crossing, so he can physically cross the planes to this world
*He being Archfey is playing both side, like stoking prejudices, to start this war (side note this is were warlocks in you campaign come in as his agents)
Another idea for the Archfey is that the PC's can ally with another Archfey who may not like what the other is doing (you can include motives like the two just don't like each other or some of the other fey (some fey with an aliment of good) don't like this slaughter of mortals
Purely a matter of my personal taste but I've never been fond of the "it makes a better story" justification - although if I'm honest that's often the real reason. I just like there to be an in-world justification as well. However, if the players never dig into the true motives, having a more true-to-world reason probably doesn't really matter - and I'm just being cranky (what a surprise).
I quite like the idea of someone leaking the information for reasons of moral outrage, hoping that the non-human or a "plucky band of adventurers" stop the plague.
TallHats: Good responses, and you have a seed of an evil Archfey plot there. The Archfey could be building the pool's power is essential for some plan of theirs ( opening a Gate into another plane, bringing about some magical transformation of the Feywild, raising themselves to Godhood, calculating the last digit of Pi, etc. - ratchetitup has some cool ideas there), and are using the humans to spread the virus, and charge up the power they need.
I like Matthias von Schwarzwald's idea that they're demanding payment as a smokescreen, so that the Humans don't realize that they're being used as pawns. Why a sacrifice? Well, when you're dealing with fates, and Godhoods ( or whatever ), and reality altering magic, time gets slippery, and you get The Prophecy which foretells of one who can stop their malevolent plan - and that could be who they want as a sacrifice. Not because they want a sacrifice per se - they just want that individual(s) dead so they can't interfere.
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Reading this through, and I may be completely off, but here is what I am coming up with.
1) There is no plague. Humans spread the rumor in hopes of causing the elves and other creatures to flee, in order to avoid a full blown conflict with "lesser" creatures they cannot win. However, the rebel elves' solution caught them off guard, and now they are scrambling. Indeed, they may even create some sort of elf-death related "cure" to try to stir up inter-species conflict.
2) the archfey are actually REALLY ticked off at the humans who have hurt their children, but want their punishment to be slow. The youth fountain will save the king, but is highly addictive. The king, once "treated" will become desperate for fountain droplets, and will give greater and greater sacrifices until the people rise up, causing humanity to collapse under the cloud of civil war.
Purely a matter of my personal taste but I've never been fond of the "it makes a better story" justification - although if I'm honest that's often the real reason. I just like there to be an in-world justification as well.
That was an in-world justification. Archfey are at least mostly immortal, extremely powerful, and completely chaotic. It's not at all unreasonable, I think, for one of them to do something just because it'll make for a better story when some bard writes it down.
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"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
so reading everyone's comments this is what I've come up with:
Brelyan, an ancient god that over looks the region and observing all the factions movements. this god is not one to intervene with the ordeals of mortals but the archfey had began their plot to destroy the mortals of the region unfold. Brelyan could not ignore what they were doing and made contact with one of his followers to disrupt the archfey's plans.
this is where the humans gave the warning to the rest of the region that there is a virus that would kill everyone if nothing were to be done.
Brelyan also bestowed upon Elisabeth, a human girl, the power to stop the archfey for good (the power she has is undecided). although this being unknown to Elisabeth, she still follows her destiny. she has joined the rebel organization in hopes to stop the virus from spreading further than it already has.(i have already picked a NPC that the PCs have already met to be this chosen one)
the archfey's plan is to return to the mortal plane to reestablish their dominion that they lost in the past ancient war. the humans have discovered a way to the feywild and made contact with the archfey with hopes to get a hold of the fountain of youth rumored to be hidden inside the feywild. the archfey made use of the humans greed to their advantage, they told the human this "The fountain is within the feywild yes, but if you wish to make use of it you must help us fill the pool." With this the humans made a deal with the archfey, to give them life to fill the pool and a girl with (the power to stop them) ability [(the archfey have caught wind of brelyan giving this power to Elisabeth and doesnt want anyone to know that they know of this)]
looking for any helpful criticism for this final bit to my campaigns story
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so in my campaign i have a few factions being the Humans Government, Elven Kingdom, the Rebel Organization, and the Archfey. Here's their goals:
Elven Kingdom
The Rebel Organization
The Human Government
The Archfey
I suppose my brain is just tired from thinking up the rest of the campaign, so this is where I'm stuck at the moment. I need an evil plan that is being played out through out the campaign that the archfey are conducting. I have them filling the fountain of youth with life force from people by using fey spirits, which in my campaign is actually the virus. That is all a have so far. I need some help coming up with why they agreed to help the humans, why are the filling the fountain of youth, what is there actual goal, and how are they going to try to execute this goal behind the scenes. All help is appreciated, thank you.
Still working on this outline?
OK:
So - this begs the questions really:
Once you know that - what they need, and why, their "plan" kind of writes it'self.
However this setup had 2 issues I can see:
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
Possible answers:
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Tooltips (Help/aid)
maybe the archfey only want to fill the fountain for themselves and dont plan on giving the humans anything, or perhaps they lied about the fountain needing to be filled and want sacrifices for another reason. it could be that the achfey lied and its not actually the fountain of youth at all and is some other kind of well that the need filled. i figured that the archfey don't care what the humans want and are proceeding with their own plans. i am still uncertain of how to go about these concepts though.
i very much like this idea and will incorporate it into my campaign somehow. this can also explain why the humans announced the virus being spread
Some ideas for you:
The Archfey in question is Bandiric ( or some other fey name you come up with) Lord of the Frozen Betrayal.
* He was banished from your world by an alliance of the races before he could bring an eternal winter and death to the world.
*He is using this fey plague to replace peoples souls/spirits with the spirits of his loyal fey army for when he is ready to cross over.
*He needs the souls/spirits to power this pool, lets call it the Pool of Crossing, so he can physically cross the planes to this world
*He being Archfey is playing both side, like stoking prejudices, to start this war (side note this is were warlocks in you campaign come in as his agents)
Another idea for the Archfey is that the PC's can ally with another Archfey who may not like what the other is doing (you can include motives like the two just don't like each other or some of the other fey (some fey with an aliment of good) don't like this slaughter of mortals
Hope this helps a bit
Hmmm ... good, if somewhat depressingly realistic answers, Matthias von Schwarzwald.
Purely a matter of my personal taste but I've never been fond of the "it makes a better story" justification - although if I'm honest that's often the real reason. I just like there to be an in-world justification as well. However, if the players never dig into the true motives, having a more true-to-world reason probably doesn't really matter - and I'm just being cranky (what a surprise).
I quite like the idea of someone leaking the information for reasons of moral outrage, hoping that the non-human or a "plucky band of adventurers" stop the plague.
TallHats: Good responses, and you have a seed of an evil Archfey plot there. The Archfey could be building the pool's power is essential for some plan of theirs ( opening a Gate into another plane, bringing about some magical transformation of the Feywild, raising themselves to Godhood, calculating the last digit of Pi, etc. - ratchetitup has some cool ideas there), and are using the humans to spread the virus, and charge up the power they need.
I like Matthias von Schwarzwald's idea that they're demanding payment as a smokescreen, so that the Humans don't realize that they're being used as pawns. Why a sacrifice? Well, when you're dealing with fates, and Godhoods ( or whatever ), and reality altering magic, time gets slippery, and you get The Prophecy which foretells of one who can stop their malevolent plan - and that could be who they want as a sacrifice. Not because they want a sacrifice per se - they just want that individual(s) dead so they can't interfere.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
Reading this through, and I may be completely off, but here is what I am coming up with.
1) There is no plague. Humans spread the rumor in hopes of causing the elves and other creatures to flee, in order to avoid a full blown conflict with "lesser" creatures they cannot win. However, the rebel elves' solution caught them off guard, and now they are scrambling. Indeed, they may even create some sort of elf-death related "cure" to try to stir up inter-species conflict.
2) the archfey are actually REALLY ticked off at the humans who have hurt their children, but want their punishment to be slow. The youth fountain will save the king, but is highly addictive. The king, once "treated" will become desperate for fountain droplets, and will give greater and greater sacrifices until the people rise up, causing humanity to collapse under the cloud of civil war.
Fenchurch, Gnome Wizard, Red Skies in Mourning
Sorry about that.
That was an in-world justification. Archfey are at least mostly immortal, extremely powerful, and completely chaotic. It's not at all unreasonable, I think, for one of them to do something just because it'll make for a better story when some bard writes it down.
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Tooltips (Help/aid)
so reading everyone's comments this is what I've come up with:
Brelyan, an ancient god that over looks the region and observing all the factions movements. this god is not one to intervene with the ordeals of mortals but the archfey had began their plot to destroy the mortals of the region unfold. Brelyan could not ignore what they were doing and made contact with one of his followers to disrupt the archfey's plans.
this is where the humans gave the warning to the rest of the region that there is a virus that would kill everyone if nothing were to be done.
Brelyan also bestowed upon Elisabeth, a human girl, the power to stop the archfey for good (the power she has is undecided). although this being unknown to Elisabeth, she still follows her destiny. she has joined the rebel organization in hopes to stop the virus from spreading further than it already has.(i have already picked a NPC that the PCs have already met to be this chosen one)
the archfey's plan is to return to the mortal plane to reestablish their dominion that they lost in the past ancient war. the humans have discovered a way to the feywild and made contact with the archfey with hopes to get a hold of the fountain of youth rumored to be hidden inside the feywild. the archfey made use of the humans greed to their advantage, they told the human this "The fountain is within the feywild yes, but if you wish to make use of it you must help us fill the pool." With this the humans made a deal with the archfey, to give them life to fill the pool and a girl with (the power to stop them) ability [(the archfey have caught wind of brelyan giving this power to Elisabeth and doesnt want anyone to know that they know of this)]
looking for any helpful criticism for this final bit to my campaigns story