I feel as though i have made a unhelpful plot that is too large to simply retcon. This is most likely due to me forming the overarching plot each session.
Heres the plot:
Characters do a simple job and stumble across a senteint book dropped by a lich of sorts (they are low level at the time and combat is not a option). This book tells them he has UNLIMITED KNOWLEDEGE expect the password is in a dungeon. They find the password and it reavels a large part of the plot. Followers of a powerful lich whose soul is trapped in some otherworldy prison are gathering shards of a keys to bust him out. The shards are scattered throughout the realms. The characters find two before i panic and dont know what to do, throwing them in a dreary realm to break out of. Time moves quicker back on the materail plane and the followers gather many shards. However the characters have two.
There are a few problems,
1. why cant the followers absoloutley decimate the characters and steal the keys and release their guy.
2.The characters dont really have a goal of their own; just making sure the enemys dont get their keys.
3. The scale is too big. If the dark force is brought back, uh oh all life one earth. This also doesnt make it as personal for the characters
Now the characters dont really get all of this info and its a bit fuzzy for them (bc its fuzzy for me). I feel as though i have screwed up and would love some help to set this back into a clear fun plot for the characers to adventure through.
1) Because the followers don't know where they are. The PCs need to focus on hiding themselves and the shards because if their location would be discovered the followers could decimate them.
But here's the catch. The followers, at least the powerful ones, can't be everywhere. Instead they have to rely on low-level minions, spys, assassins, and mercenaries to cover more ground for their search. It becomes a game of cat and mouse where, whenever the characters are discovered, they have to either eliminate the threat before it can send word to the true followers or escape before they arrive.
2) Some lesser goals that fit into the main narrative? How about finding a way to hide or destroy the keys? Maybe the followers of the BBEG are doing some terrible things of their own? For example, one of the followers has learned that a shard was buried away and hidden in the heart of a mountain and has enslaved a local community to mine it out. Freeing the slaves and helping them escape gives your PCs a smaller scale, concrete goal to achieve that also serves the larger narrative of preventing the followers of your BBEG from collecting all of shards. If the community is one that has helped the PCs in the past then it also makes things more personal for the PCs (see below).
3) Unless your characters are a bunch of edgelord orphans (always, sadly, a possibility) there are people in their lives that they care about. People that can be captured and used as bait to lure out the PCs and their shards...and suddenly things are very personal.
Hope some of this helps as a jumping off point! Best of luck with your campaign!
Forgive me, but I'm not seeing the problem. It sounds like you have a banger of a story. Why haven't they found the party? Because they're on another plane of existence. A lot of divination magic requires you to be on the same plane as the creature you're trying to locate or you have to be rather close to it. Even a high level spellcaster might have difficulty finding them. You can also say "magic" or "the gods" to justify just about anything.
But as for your story, what have the villains been doing other than finding the keys this whole time? Have they built bases? Taken over towns? Do the shards give them any additional power? Is it possible that the players could use their shards against the villains? What do the players need to do to destroy the shards? What will happen to the villains' plans if they destroy their two shards they have? Will they come back in two hundred years? Are they indestructible? Maybe take some cues from the major publications line PotA or ToA. How do they create tension and stretch out the game for many sessions? Answer some of those questions and I think you'll figure your way out of the box you feel like you're in.
1) Two easy ways to explain the Lich's followers not coming after them are the spells Nystuls Magical Aura and Nondetection. Nystuls Magical Aura chnges the aura of the shards so they don't appear magical and Nondetection makes them immune to all divination magic so whenever a minion comes looking for them they can;t find them and may even think the party have replica's designed to throw them off the trail of the true shards.
2) Following on from the above...the shards the party have actually are replica's. They possess some magical power but are not what they seem.
3) The powers that impriosoned the LIch are covertly aiding the party, sending their agents to misdirect the liches minions, maybe they enchanted the shards with the above spells prior to the party picking them up.
4) The Shards the party have actaully do have an alternative purpose, they are a booby trap. In the event the Lich escapes its prison the shards the party have will strip it of most of its power enabling the lich to be killed. Here's a coupe of links:
They are from The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim but involve a powerful spell caster that was trying to become a lich and collecting some items to summon him so he can be destroyed. You could easily adapt that quest as a finale for this story arch witht he aprty infiltrating the minions stronghold, setting up a ritual and then blasting the b'jeezus out fo the lich. The nature of the ritual weakens the lich so its no more than a level or two above the party level.
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* Need a character idea? Search for "Rob76's Unused" in the Story and Lore section.
Question - why did you whip the party off to never never land instead of slicing them on the minions hunting the shards? Just control the levels/strengths of the groups they go after as they collect the shards themselves. Also have then discover ways to either destroy the keys/shards so they can change the game by finding and destroying enough of the shards/keys before the minions find and use them thus stopping the bbeg from ever returning. ( or at least until he can communicate how to recreate the destroyed keys to his minions ( before the PCs find and destroy them and the remaining shards/keys)).
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Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
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1) Because the followers don't know where they are. The PCs need to focus on hiding themselves and the shards because if their location would be discovered the followers could decimate them.
But here's the catch. The followers, at least the powerful ones, can't be everywhere. Instead they have to rely on low-level minions, spys, assassins, and mercenaries to cover more ground for their search. It becomes a game of cat and mouse where, whenever the characters are discovered, they have to either eliminate the threat before it can send word to the true followers or escape before they arrive.
2) Some lesser goals that fit into the main narrative? How about finding a way to hide or destroy the keys? Maybe the followers of the BBEG are doing some terrible things of their own? For example, one of the followers has learned that a shard was buried away and hidden in the heart of a mountain and has enslaved a local community to mine it out. Freeing the slaves and helping them escape gives your PCs a smaller scale, concrete goal to achieve that also serves the larger narrative of preventing the followers of your BBEG from collecting all of shards. If the community is one that has helped the PCs in the past then it also makes things more personal for the PCs (see below).
3) Unless your characters are a bunch of edgelord orphans (always, sadly, a possibility) there are people in their lives that they care about. People that can be captured and used as bait to lure out the PCs and their shards...and suddenly things are very personal.
Hope some of this helps as a jumping off point! Best of luck with your campaign!
Forgive me, but I'm not seeing the problem. It sounds like you have a banger of a story. Why haven't they found the party? Because they're on another plane of existence. A lot of divination magic requires you to be on the same plane as the creature you're trying to locate or you have to be rather close to it. Even a high level spellcaster might have difficulty finding them. You can also say "magic" or "the gods" to justify just about anything.
But as for your story, what have the villains been doing other than finding the keys this whole time? Have they built bases? Taken over towns? Do the shards give them any additional power? Is it possible that the players could use their shards against the villains? What do the players need to do to destroy the shards? What will happen to the villains' plans if they destroy their two shards they have? Will they come back in two hundred years? Are they indestructible? Maybe take some cues from the major publications line PotA or ToA. How do they create tension and stretch out the game for many sessions? Answer some of those questions and I think you'll figure your way out of the box you feel like you're in.
1) Two easy ways to explain the Lich's followers not coming after them are the spells Nystuls Magical Aura and Nondetection. Nystuls Magical Aura chnges the aura of the shards so they don't appear magical and Nondetection makes them immune to all divination magic so whenever a minion comes looking for them they can;t find them and may even think the party have replica's designed to throw them off the trail of the true shards.
2) Following on from the above...the shards the party have actually are replica's. They possess some magical power but are not what they seem.
3) The powers that impriosoned the LIch are covertly aiding the party, sending their agents to misdirect the liches minions, maybe they enchanted the shards with the above spells prior to the party picking them up.
4) The Shards the party have actaully do have an alternative purpose, they are a booby trap. In the event the Lich escapes its prison the shards the party have will strip it of most of its power enabling the lich to be killed. Here's a coupe of links:
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Hevnoraak
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Evil_in_Waiting
They are from The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim but involve a powerful spell caster that was trying to become a lich and collecting some items to summon him so he can be destroyed. You could easily adapt that quest as a finale for this story arch witht he aprty infiltrating the minions stronghold, setting up a ritual and then blasting the b'jeezus out fo the lich. The nature of the ritual weakens the lich so its no more than a level or two above the party level.
Question - why did you whip the party off to never never land instead of slicing them on the minions hunting the shards? Just control the levels/strengths of the groups they go after as they collect the shards themselves. Also have then discover ways to either destroy the keys/shards so they can change the game by finding and destroying enough of the shards/keys before the minions find and use them thus stopping the bbeg from ever returning. ( or at least until he can communicate how to recreate the destroyed keys to his minions ( before the PCs find and destroy them and the remaining shards/keys)).
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.