Re: Campaign Musings: Bral 200 years later

> Any reason why 200 years "later"?  When games "fast
> forward" like that, it kinda cuts out all the NPCs and
> pre-built material, leaving you to do everything from
> scratch :)


Sorry, I should have explained.  This is part of an ongoing series of
campaigns that go back to my first Greyhawk game back in 1979. Each
succesive games is played by the next generation, many times children or
descendants of prior PCs turn up as PCs or NPCs. Usually each game is 20-50
years after the prior one.

This time the last campaign was not actually finished, it was destroyed when
Katrina scattered our New Orleans based gaming group across the US. We are
trying to lan a reunion game to finish off the Overmind plotline, so both
the remaining players and I decided to go a little farther forward in time
for the new game.

I assume the game will be somewhat low-powered, as
> there are a host of spells that give access to pretty
> much all planes of existence :)  I guess the question
> is: WHY is this portal so special?  Have planar
> barriers collapsed such that these portals are now
> rare and spells no longer work?


No, its not rairity, but the nature of the portal that is imortant. In the
last game I used the plotline from Die, Vecna, Die but substituted the
rising demipower Dugkash for Iuz. To make a long story short the PCs were
victorious and were given a unique minr artifact by the Lady of Pain herself
that would create three permanent portals to Sigil. Since two of the group
were Celestian priests, and most of the rest were worshippers they
immediately decided to put one in the sculpture garden of the Celestian
Temple in order to facilitate travel for the priesthood. (It also meant that
they had taken care of their tithing for QUITE some time!)

It is a permanent two way portal, and is controlled on both ends by priests
of the travelling god. By its nature as a construct of the Lady of Pain it
is immune to effects below artifact level (i.e. dispel magic, Mordenkainen's
disjunction, etc).

Um, just curious, but with the effort it takes to
> craft a Lionheart-style station (assuming you're using
> my Lionheart as the template), wouldn't it be easier
> for their own archmages to make a portal themselves?
> Do you simply want an "elven city" there?  If so, and
> if you're using Paul's Bralspace, he put the Crown of
> Corelleon in orbit around Spiral, which could serve
> the same purpose.


Your Lionheart has indeed been my template. I have used it in my camaign for
several years now and love the work.  As to Sigil, the ONLY way in or out is
through the naturally occuring portals. Plane shift, gate, etc will not
work.

> Andru still sits upon the throne of Bral thanks to a
> > steady supply of potions of longevity.
>
> Don't potions of longevity eventually give out at some
> point?


Need to research this in 3.5 rules. I like the idea of him  being under
siege by descendants of Calar a lot though.

Two centuries is a LONG time to recover from a war,
> especially one fought so far from home.  Even the
> elves would be fully recovered by then.  For them to
> be that ruined, it'd almost have to be their homeworld
> was devastated somehow.


Hmmm. Good thought. I do not want Dukgash (the planet) to have been
devastated as it will play a key rle i an upcoming stroyline. I'll need to
reconsider this.

You don't discover the Vodoni Empire, it discovers
> YOU! :D


Mea culpa.

Any reason to *need* a "reset" event to change rules?
> If you're not trying to maintain continuity to an
> older game, I'd just assume the rules always worked as
> they do now, and not worry about.  Otherwise, too many
> resets, and you'll have something looking like
> Marvel's jumbled multiverse...;)


When the PCs found the Elder Outpost (ost Ships, as I recall was the source)
it played out in a pretty standard fashion. When the illithid that had hired
them plane shifted out with part of the helm he also triggered the begining
of the Overmind project (see Dawn of the Overmind by Bruce Cordell). The
energy pulse jump started the Overmind and began the prcess of putting out
the suns. The "reset," was my way of providing an initial clue that things
were going funky on a quantum level, even thoough it would be ten level ups
before they would see the real impact. No bloody secret wars here, at least
not Marvel style!

Heh, you know, other than the fact that the phrase
> "cloaking helm" sounds cool, I'm not sure those helms
> offer any real benefit a mid-level spell couldn't
> provide.  And psi helms could have always existed,
> just rarer because psi could only be used by psi
> characters, while standard helms can accept wizards,
> clerics, druids, bards, & high-level rangers &
> paladins (aka their pool of potential users is much
> greater, so much more attractive to wise captains).


Ah yes, but they have only recently become public knowledge.

> History tells of the "Black Months," a time 200
> > years prior when the suns dimmed across the local
> > supercluster of spheres and stayed that way for 3
> > months. Chaos and confusion were coupled with famine
> > as crops failed on most planets. While many theories
> > and legends surround this period there is no way to
> > verify them. The Gods remain silent on the subject,
> > and scrying seems to be blocked.
>
> OMG Warp Storms!!!  Ok, been reading too much
> Warhammer...:)


This is a side effect of the illithid manipulation of the varioous timelines
in an attempt to bring back their multiplanar empire. It also is a
convenient DM dodge to allow reunion games by the old group in order to
finish the storyline. If they fail then EPic NPCs based out of Union will
set things right and this campaign's hstory will remain stable.

Hell, that alone sounds like a great basis for a
> campaign in just one sphere.  Although a 3 month
> period of less sunlight isn't too devastating, on a
> grand scale.  For parts of planets which are in the
> midst of winter, they wouldn't even notice.  Arable
> areas in the middle of summer would be more
> devastated, and some planets, so far from the sun,
> would not even notice.


The light was dimmed to twilight levels in many spheres, in some it went out
completely.

Ok, that conjured a mental image: a local church is
> having Sunday Mass, a portal suddenly opens, and a
> bunch of sweaty, smelly, grunting guys walk through
> it, carrying huge crates on their shoulders, and pass
> down the asle. >:D>
>
> A church would not exactly be a great place to locate
> a portal used for trade.  Priests/scholars/sages
> looking to explore the planes privately, yes.  Used as
> a trade hub?  Not so much.  A better location might be
> a nearby asteroid owned by the College, where they've
> built approprate warehouses, markets, fortifications,
> and docking facilities.


The gate exists in the sculture garderns (now fortified) in the temple's
yard.  Some trading goes on, heavily tithing to the church, but mostly it is
there to facilitate travel. For the Celestians it is invaluable as it allows
them to travel the various planes in an extremely easy fashion thus
adhereing to the tenets of their god. Al traffic through it must be
presentedd to the current high priest before being authorized.

How widespread are these ships?  Nine ships in a
> single sphere isn't a lot, and nine ships scattered
> across the planes/spheres is not much better than
> having one ship.  I'd almost go with them having
> dozens or hundreds of ships, if you want to present
> them as "powerful" (putting them on par with say the
> Sindath Line or the Chalice), but only a few ships in
> any given location.  Maybe even use this as an
> opportunity to create a new class of ships owned
> exclusively by them, to further distinguish them.


Damn fine ideas, Adam! I guess I did lowball things a bit to much here. I
want ot shot for them being about half the size of the Sindiath line at
best. They do have a solid but tempestuous relationship with the Elven Fleet
as they were instrumental in helping win the Unhuman War II, and in
providing the EIN with an archaic psi-helm for research purposes. I'll ave
to mull this over..

Your input, as usual, is invaluable!

George "Loki" Williams, writing and other abberrations

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