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Dungeons and Dragons Megathread

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So I was making a new character for a campaign I've been in for a while, and I noticed something crazy. There is a warlock ability that allows you to cast False Life (Which gives you 1d4+4 temp hp, lasts an hour and is not concentration) without using a spell slot or material ingredients.

I realized how broken that was, and decided to do some calculations. If I spent half an hour casting the spell, I'd get 300d4 + 1200 Temporary Hp. I did not plan on doing this of course, but I thought it was hilarious how you could break the game that way.

Then I realized Temp HP does not stack and I wasted ten minutes of my life. Outplayed by Wizards of The Coast yet again.
 
Blake Hannon said:
That's fine too. My main issue with dragons in DnD is that there are too many types of them for a world smaller than Jupiter to support, and that each type is color coded for your convenience. It makes much more sense when "dragon" is just one species, with individuals maybe varying if you really want one to have ice breath or some shit.

Personally, I'd like to see more eastern style dragons in fantasy fiction. Benevolent elemental demigods.
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Legend of the 5 Rings is pretty good for that, though Dragons and their spawn don't show up too much since they're incredibly powerful and warp the world around them with their every action. You know, because they're heavenly beings of terrible elemental majesty and that has an impact on things.
 
My site now has the magic items, though I haven't done anything fancy yet with grouping by rarity or whatever. I think that next thing on the list may be organizing the "attunement by (class)" data so that I can add a class-specific equipment list to the class pages, like listing the holy avenger on the Paladin page.
 
Nemuikougi said:
Just you weren't the only person with that idea. Which always sucks.
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Of course I'm not, but I don't have the same aims as the other people doing it.


Nemuikougi said:
These tables would probably look better with a vertical line as well.
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I've adjusted the styling so tables aren't full-width by default, so it should be a bit better for readability. Probably more adjustments in the future, but I'm intentionally trying to emulate a LaTeX-like no-vertical-lines look.

Nemuikougi said:
EDIT: Also what font is that? I really like it.
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ET Book.
 
Ran a few more sessions since the jungle adventure, and this campaign is turning out to be the best thing I've ever run. I've been reading a bunch of game design materials and dev blogs (for both DnD specifically, and for games in general) and it seems to have paid off. I actually ran this same campaign a few years ago, and its going INFINITELY better this time around due to the above (and the first time wasn't even bad!).

Kind of want to share it. If there's any interest, I'll do a longpost.
 
Blake Hannon said:
Ran a few more sessions since the jungle adventure, and this campaign is turning out to be the best thing I've ever run. I've been reading a bunch of game design materials and dev blogs (for both DnD specifically, and for games in general) and it seems to have paid off. I actually ran this same campaign a few years ago, and its going INFINITELY better this time around due to the above (and the first time wasn't even bad!).

Kind of want to share it. If there's any interest, I'll do a longpost.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
ooh, please.
 
So last night, my party played with a homebrew Deck of Many Things I put together; it's perfectly balanced for good, bad, equivalent exchange (just changes or trades, no increase or decrease in fortune) and 50/50 risky/gamble cards that can make or break you. It's been used before in previous games and it's been deadly and effective in equal measure without any retarded gotchas; nothing like getting shitfuck amount of wishes or "INSTA DEAD FOREVER."

They spent the session drawing from it, because one of their henchmen has been retardedly lucky. He's named Alen, a simple gravedigger boy who, on his first day of adventuring with the party, has become a level 2 Flower Knight (fey/druidish paladin) and has gotten to score with a CHA 30 dryad boy. He also suffered a teleportation mishap that, instead of rearranging his meat, has given him a spell-like ability.

So the PC that hired him decided to push his luck and let him draw some cards. Alen decides to draw three cards. "Lady Luck's 4th Challenge." He makes a perilous gamble; he must choose a number on a d10, and if he's wrong, he'll lose all ability to lose clothes, armor, anything as by a curse. Success grants him a Phoenix Down, good for one True Resurrection, worth 30,000 GP.

"Well, hm. I drew three cards, and I have two left, so....6." I roll. It's a 6. This level 2 hireling has a fucking True Rez. The fuck. As dictated by Lady Luck, he overwrites the challenge, penalty, and reward of the card for the next drawer. He decides on Rock Paper Scissors; the winner gains something based on what they threw (such as a magic weapon for scissors), and they lose something equivalent on a loss.

Next card, Alen draws the "Six of Rods", giving a holster with 1d3 wands. He gains a Wand of Wonder and a Wand of Fireball. Third card, he gains the "Gula", cursing him to be a vampire. He's ignorant to this condition though because he's precious and adorable. "Huh. I kinda got a craving for something. Sugar, maybe?" "Hey, look at all these cute bats following me!" "I think I'm allergic to garlic or something. Oh well; my family could never afford it anyway." His soul is still pure as well, so he hasn't fallen from holy grace into being an ordinary Fighter yet. The party plans to covertly feed him their own blood in a mix so he has no idea and retains his innocence until they can get him a cure.

So, two PCs, Liam and Yagura, decide to draw one card each. Liam draws "The Fates". He gains one mark of fate, and may use it to escape or avoid any single situation he finds himself in...by making a sacrifice to the Fates. They either accept or don't, no negotiation. If they don't accept, the Mark of Fate is not wasted.

Yagura draws the "Eight of Shields", and gains a random magical armor. I roll up a +2 Mithral Chainmail that gives the wearer Feather Fall 3/day. I decide to fluff it as being a green tunic set so he can cosplay as Link. Both of them are totally satisfied.

Heloise, another PC, is like "Alright this shit's gone on long enough" and decides to try to scare everyone straight. She draws 7 cards, throwing caution to the winds so everyone learns not to fuck with this thing.

The first card: The "Sun." I roll up an Ioun Stone. A really good Ioun Stone. Specifically, a Blue Faceted Pyramid.
This IOUN stone can have up to three charges and each allows its user to bring into existence a "shard lance". This weapon is 4' long, made of extremely hard crystal, is the equivalent to a +4 weapon to hit and damage. The lance does 2D4 + 4 hit points of damage to any sized creature, and can be used in melee for 2d3 rounds as a spear. The shard lance can be hurled as a javelin up to 60'. Because of their connection to the Mineral Plane, the lance will ignore armor, treating all targets as having AC 10, modified only by the targets Dexterity, magical Bracers which modify armor class, and Rings of Protection. If thrown, it vanishes after striking or missing its target. The stone regains one charge per week to the maximum of three charges.

She already had an Orange Rectangle, and I rule that Ioun Stones are mildly sentient so they bobble together like adorable rock buddies. Everyone is highly satisfied. She draws again..."Lady Luck's 4th Challenge." She makes her Ro-Sham-Bo with me. I play Scissors. She plays Rock. Guess who got another Ioun Stone? This time it's a Pale Lavender Egg.
The IOUN stone of ultimate duplication allows the user to create a temporary duplicate of any item of less than 100 lbs. The item to be copied must be handled by the user for a minimum of one complete turn before the process will function. Thus a magical weapon could be duplicated or a magical item. The copy will last for 2D3 rounds before vanishing, and any item can only ever be copied one time…ever. The power of this stone is usable once per week. This stone has a 50% chance to crumble when it is first used with a +10% modifier for each additional use.

She plans to never use it and to just collect adorable rock moons around her head, but in a pinch? Yea, totes. She writes in the next challenge. Cho-Han (a game where you roll 2d6 and call even or odd). The player must bet money or items amounting to 5 Platinum Pieces. On a success, double your winnings, otherwise lose your betting pool." Simple. She's not a risk-taker by heart.

Next, she draws the "Barrister", which summons a random Outsider who offers their services for a price of equal value. I roll up a Chaotic Good nine-tailed fox. Everyone has a good chat with it and makes a good impression. Heloise asks it a solution to a puzzle described in a note they just received, and they get it. The kitsune, "Violet" as an alias due to it's purple fur, can't think of anything worth such a paltry favor as piercing a simple child's illusion, so it simply says that Heloise owes it a favor to cash in later, and since such a favor might be worth more than what Heloise received, it also says that if they're ever in the Far East, to seek them out and they will give the party hospitality and warm welcome. They flattered them pretty well since there's a couple furries in the group.

Next, the "Red Joker". Heloise gains +2 CON, and another card. The "Artisan", giving her a +4 to any painting checks in the future. Her twin brother is a painter. She mutters his name "Samuel..." pensively, thinking of the day she can return to him, and draws her next card. The "Chariot." She must face a CR+1 monster alone. Success means a boon, failure, True Death that can never be reversed. It's a Fledging Black Dragon that knows Shield, Magic Missile, and Insect Plague. She immediately uses the Pale Blue Pyramid, spending two charges in the fight. She slays it with only 2 HP remaining. For her trouble, the dragon's soul is bound into an Orb of Black Dragonkind, a potent artifact.

Because the soul within is a fledging instead of an ancient dragon, the AC and Saving Throw bonuses it gives are negligible to the point of being useless for the values she already possesses, but it's still at-will Fly and the ability to detect and dominate black dragons, so fuck it. Despite being objectively awesome, Heloise's player suffered because she loves dragons to death and finds murdering them to be super uncomfortable, much less enslaving their souls. But it attacked her first, it was black, and she can control dragons. She comes out ahead emotionally.

One card left. "The Wheel." Draw two more cards. She Lols. The "Crooked Man" gives her the blessing of Stone. 1d4 is rolled. She turns to stone, petrified with no save. Her last card turns on it's own. "Barrister" again. This time I roll a Modron. This is quite fortunate, as Heloise has interacted with the forces of Mechanus before favorably, being Lawful Neutral. The Modron appears, sees her and unpetrifies her, considers that a boon, and gives her the job: There are a bunch of damaged, chaotic Modrons in the dungeon (as I already established but they hadn't yet discovered). She is to find them, return them to Law, and get them safely out of the dungeon. Failure to comply will repetrify her. "Uh okay." Party silently squeals because Modrons are adorable.

After seeing all this bullshit, the Deck's owner, Vasile, turns to his NPC girlfriend. "Hikari, you must never draw from the deck under any circumstances, understood." "Yes, you don't need to tell me twice, I'm pregnant afterall." "Yea, righ-WAIT WHAT?"

And that was the session.
 
AuraTwilight said:
So last night, my party played with a homebrew Deck of Many Things I put together; it's perfectly balanced for good, bad, equivalent exchange (just changes or trades, no increase or decrease in fortune) and 50/50 risky/gamble cards that can make or break you. It's been used before in previous games and it's been deadly and effective in equal measure without any retarded gotchas; nothing like getting shitfuck amount of wishes or "INSTA DEAD FOREVER."

They spent the session drawing from it, because one of their henchmen has been retardedly lucky. He's named Alen, a simple gravedigger boy who, on his first day of adventuring with the party, has become a level 2 Flower Knight (fey/druidish paladin) and has gotten to score with a CHA 30 dryad boy. He also suffered a teleportation mishap that, instead of rearranging his meat, has given him a spell-like ability.

So the PC that hired him decided to push his luck and let him draw some cards. Alen decides to draw three cards. "Lady Luck's 4th Challenge." He makes a perilous gamble; he must choose a number on a d10, and if he's wrong, he'll lose all ability to lose clothes, armor, anything as by a curse. Success grants him a Phoenix Down, good for one True Resurrection, worth 30,000 GP.

"Well, hm. I drew three cards, and I have two left, so....6." I roll. It's a 6. This level 2 hireling has a fucking True Rez. The fuck. As dictated by Lady Luck, he overwrites the challenge, penalty, and reward of the card for the next drawer. He decides on Rock Paper Scissors; the winner gains something based on what they threw (such as a magic weapon for scissors), and they lose something equivalent on a loss.

Next card, Alen draws the "Six of Rods", giving a holster with 1d3 wands. He gains a Wand of Wonder and a Wand of Fireball. Third card, he gains the "Gula", cursing him to be a vampire. He's ignorant to this condition though because he's precious and adorable. "Huh. I kinda got a craving for something. Sugar, maybe?" "Hey, look at all these cute bats following me!" "I think I'm allergic to garlic or something. Oh well; my family could never afford it anyway." His soul is still pure as well, so he hasn't fallen from holy grace into being an ordinary Fighter yet. The party plans to covertly feed him their own blood in a mix so he has no idea and retains his innocence until they can get him a cure.

So, two PCs, Liam and Yagura, decide to draw one card each. Liam draws "The Fates". He gains one mark of fate, and may use it to escape or avoid any single situation he finds himself in...by making a sacrifice to the Fates. They either accept or don't, no negotiation. If they don't accept, the Mark of Fate is not wasted.

Yagura draws the "Eight of Shields", and gains a random magical armor. I roll up a +2 Mithral Chainmail that gives the wearer Feather Fall 3/day. I decide to fluff it as being a green tunic set so he can cosplay as Link. Both of them are totally satisfied.

Heloise, another PC, is like "Alright this shit's gone on long enough" and decides to try to scare everyone straight. She draws 7 cards, throwing caution to the winds so everyone learns not to fuck with this thing.

The first card: The "Sun." I roll up an Ioun Stone. A really good Ioun Stone. Specifically, a Blue Faceted Pyramid.
This IOUN stone can have up to three charges and each allows its user to bring into existence a "shard lance". This weapon is 4' long, made of extremely hard crystal, is the equivalent to a +4 weapon to hit and damage. The lance does 2D4 + 4 hit points of damage to any sized creature, and can be used in melee for 2d3 rounds as a spear. The shard lance can be hurled as a javelin up to 60'. Because of their connection to the Mineral Plane, the lance will ignore armor, treating all targets as having AC 10, modified only by the targets Dexterity, magical Bracers which modify armor class, and Rings of Protection. If thrown, it vanishes after striking or missing its target. The stone regains one charge per week to the maximum of three charges.

She already had an Orange Rectangle, and I rule that Ioun Stones are mildly sentient so they bobble together like adorable rock buddies. Everyone is highly satisfied. She draws again..."Lady Luck's 4th Challenge." She makes her Ro-Sham-Bo with me. I play Scissors. She plays Rock. Guess who got another Ioun Stone? This time it's a Pale Lavender Egg.
The IOUN stone of ultimate duplication allows the user to create a temporary duplicate of any item of less than 100 lbs. The item to be copied must be handled by the user for a minimum of one complete turn before the process will function. Thus a magical weapon could be duplicated or a magical item. The copy will last for 2D3 rounds before vanishing, and any item can only ever be copied one time…ever. The power of this stone is usable once per week. This stone has a 50% chance to crumble when it is first used with a +10% modifier for each additional use.

She plans to never use it and to just collect adorable rock moons around her head, but in a pinch? Yea, totes. She writes in the next challenge. Cho-Han (a game where you roll 2d6 and call even or odd). The player must bet money or items amounting to 5 Platinum Pieces. On a success, double your winnings, otherwise lose your betting pool." Simple. She's not a risk-taker by heart.

Next, she draws the "Barrister", which summons a random Outsider who offers their services for a price of equal value. I roll up a Chaotic Good nine-tailed fox. Everyone has a good chat with it and makes a good impression. Heloise asks it a solution to a puzzle described in a note they just received, and they get it. The kitsune, "Violet" as an alias due to it's purple fur, can't think of anything worth such a paltry favor as piercing a simple child's illusion, so it simply says that Heloise owes it a favor to cash in later, and since such a favor might be worth more than what Heloise received, it also says that if they're ever in the Far East, to seek them out and they will give the party hospitality and warm welcome. They flattered them pretty well since there's a couple furries in the group.

Next, the "Red Joker". Heloise gains +2 CON, and another card. The "Artisan", giving her a +4 to any painting checks in the future. Her twin brother is a painter. She mutters his name "Samuel..." pensively, thinking of the day she can return to him, and draws her next card. The "Chariot." She must face a CR+1 monster alone. Success means a boon, failure, True Death that can never be reversed. It's a Fledging Black Dragon that knows Shield, Magic Missile, and Insect Plague. She immediately uses the Pale Blue Pyramid, spending two charges in the fight. She slays it with only 2 HP remaining. For her trouble, the dragon's soul is bound into an Orb of Black Dragonkind, a potent artifact.

Because the soul within is a fledging instead of an ancient dragon, the AC and Saving Throw bonuses it gives are negligible to the point of being useless for the values she already possesses, but it's still at-will Fly and the ability to detect and dominate black dragons, so fuck it. Despite being objectively awesome, Heloise's player suffered because she loves dragons to death and finds murdering them to be super uncomfortable, much less enslaving their souls. But it attacked her first, it was black, and she can control dragons. She comes out ahead emotionally.

One card left. "The Wheel." Draw two more cards. She Lols. The "Crooked Man" gives her the blessing of Stone. 1d4 is rolled. She turns to stone, petrified with no save. Her last card turns on it's own. "Barrister" again. This time I roll a Modron. This is quite fortunate, as Heloise has interacted with the forces of Mechanus before favorably, being Lawful Neutral. The Modron appears, sees her and unpetrifies her, considers that a boon, and gives her the job: There are a bunch of damaged, chaotic Modrons in the dungeon (as I already established but they hadn't yet discovered). She is to find them, return them to Law, and get them safely out of the dungeon. Failure to comply will repetrify her. "Uh okay." Party silently squeals because Modrons are adorable.

After seeing all this bullshit, the Deck's owner, Vasile, turns to his NPC girlfriend. "Hikari, you must never draw from the deck under any circumstances, understood." "Yes, you don't need to tell me twice, I'm pregnant afterall." "Yea, righ-WAIT WHAT?"

And that was the session.
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Need I remind you that I, as Liam, said "I don't like to tempt the fates," and then subsequently drew...The Fates.
 
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Leila Hann Homebrew: The Dawn Empire
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    • Okay. I'm running this with a heavily houseruled fourth edition D&D, but I'll be posting the summary/outline in system neutral terms. There are a lot of custom monsters, but a general description of their level, abilities, and other characteristics should serve as a systemless "stat block."

    The plot can basically be described as "The X-Files: Dungeons and Dragons Edition." An invasion from the Far Realms is underway, but rather than aberrant armies spilling across the land the invaders are corrupting the government of the setting's most powerful nation. The campaign is heavy on investigation, conspiracy, and horror, with trust and paranoia being major themes.

    Here are the setting and major plot elements. The actual campaign path will come in following longposts.

    The Dawn Empire is a sprawling economic and military powerhouse, and has been so for many centuries. Its fertile farmlands, ore-laden hills, and thriving sea-ports give it its wealth and population density, and the forbidding mountain ranges that surround it give it its security. Most striking, however, are the empire's enduring organization and government.

    The Dawn Empire is peopled by members of six races; humans, halflings, dorfs, orcs, elves, and eladrin (use wood elves and high elves for those last two depending on the system). Humans are the farmers and herders, and live in the lowlands. Halflings are traders, porters, sailors, and merchantmarines, and dwell along the rivers and ports. Dorfs are miners, masons, and metalworkers, and live in the hills. Elves are loggers, craftsmen, and herbalists, and live in the forests. Orcs make up the imperial legions (though the other races are expected to maintain defensive militias). Eladrin are the priests and bureaucrats who run everything and keep everyone happy and co-dependent. Members of any race who try to muscle in on someone else's niche on any industrial scale are hunted down by eladrin templar and, along with other capital criminals, prisoners of war, and the odd volunteer, make up the sacrifices around which the imperial cult largely revolves.

    The office of the Emperor is non-hereditary. When the old emperor dies, the eladrin search the land for worthy candidates of any race BESIDES eladrin; in being priests and administrators, they forfeit the opportunity to be Emperor. Anywhere from one to two dozen candidates are selected and subjected to many tests of wisdom, strength, willpower, and piety. All but one are sacrificed. The survivor is transformed into an angelic-looking winged humanoid that bears no physical resemblance to its former self, and adopts a new name. None but the high priests and the emperor him/herself ever knows the emperor's origins; anonymity and impartiality are key to the position.

    That's how it used to be, at least. Two hundred years ago, the ranking eladrin clerics grew haughty and power-hungry, and determined that only eladrin really have the qualities needed for such a responsibility; after all, the imperial cult itself was derived from an ancient eladrin religion, and it was they who unified the Dawn Empire in the first place. Since then, ALL of the imperial candidates have ended up on the altar, and a junior eladrin cleric in the pocket of the high priests has been secretly transformed into the emperor. A disconnect has slowly but surely grown between the government and the subject peoples, especially on the fringes away from the major cities, and a deep rot spreads through the heart of imperial society.

    And this rot has made it vulnerable.

    Hailing from another world, far away in the reaches of the astral sea that connects all realities, the tsarok are one of the most powerful races in existence. Though they were once natural inhabitants of a material plane not unlike ours, the tsarok long ago became an astral civilization, and adapted themselves through selective breeding and powerful sorcery to the rigors of planar travel. The tsarok have learned a terrible truth about the nature of the universe, and this knowledge has maddened them; they now seek to devour all that exists as fuel for their obsessive quest.

    There are several species of tsarok, related to each other in much the same way that elves, dorfs, and humans are all related; they come from the same material plane and share a similar biology and body plan that is dominant on that plane. In our world, the largest and most intelligent creatures are warm blooded, fleshy creatures with internal skeletons, while the smallest and most insignificant are the scuttling chitinous things. Where the tsarok come from, its exactly the opposite. All species of tsarok resemble giant, intelligent arthropods. Their roster includes the following:

    Tsarok-Nirrik (brood keepers): bloated, crablike creatures that breed a variety of smaller, short-lived organisms inside their bodies. Brood keepers are the artisans and laborers of the tsarok, using their utility swarms for construction, crafting, and resource extraction. They can also, with great effort and expenditure of consumed materials, produce living "items" for other tsarok to use. They aren't primarily fighters, but they sometimes appear on the battlefield in a support role.

    Tsarok-Aran (araneas): these tsarok are highly intelligent, and ranked second in the hierarchy. In its natural state, an aranea looks like a bony, many-segmented spider of highly variable size whose limbs and body parts can flex and rearrange themselves to an unsettling degree. Araneas have the natural ability to sustain any dead tissues they attach to their bodies in a lifelike stasis, and by hollowing out the bodies of their victims and reconfiguring their bodies to replace the skeleton, they can form a perfect disguise. Many araneas of the appropriate size have been surgically and alchemically modified to be compatible with humanoid flesh, and the brood keepers have created a symbiont that allows them to mimic humanoid speech and voices as well.

    Tsarok-Ensis (swordwings): the soldiers of the tsarok have been bred and beaten into a fighting force like few others in the universe. The swordwings are more divergent from the baseline tsarok physiology; while still spiderlike, most of their limbs have evolved into razor sharp wings of ultralight plating, and one of their remaining arms has become a hacking weapon of unbelievable deadliness. Just one of these flying, many-bladed terrors is a match for an entire squad of humanoid soldiers. Some swordwings have had their armblades replaced with a grafted weapon, and their elites are protected by grellstone armor (see below).

    Tsarok-Og (behemoths): by far the largest tsarok, a behemoth could step over an elephant or impale it on one of its spearlike legs. The tsarok use these colossal brutes for heavy lifting, mass transportation, and as living siege engines. Behemoths are so large that they cannot travel through portals like the other tsarok; they must be brought into a new world as tiny larvae, and raised to adulthood on location. The slow pace of the invasion is due in part to the tsarok needing to wait for their strongest units to mature.

    Tsarok-Hem (masters): the rulers of tsarok-kind were once a race of gentle mystics and philosophers. Their natural ability to extend parts of their bodies into other dimensions allowed them to study the astral sea and glimpse the worlds beyond, which made them great in learning and in magic. However, the tsarok-hem eventually learned something; a cosmic secret so horrible it changed them overnight. With their great magic, they conquered all the other races of their homeworld and repurposed them into an army of horrors. The Masters have moved most of themselves into the astral plane, from whence they direct the invasions-by-portal of other planes, seeking resources, knowledge, and useful new servitor races that will aid them in their quest.

    All tsarok have the same thorny, gray-green carapaces, glassy, bulbous black eyes, and sucking proboscises. Internally, they also share the same complex biochemistry; their circulatory and digestive systems are largely made up of a semi-liquid symbiotic fungus. The tsarok refer to their symbiotic fungus colonies as their "inner gardens." The tsarok constantly digest their own inner gardens, and must consume more of the fungus to stay healthy (though some, like the araneas, can consume liquified meat and let the fungus assimilate it internally, eating the fungus straight it still more efficient). If the tsarok succeed in conquering our world, much of its land and many of its creatures will be used to grow this fungus.

    In addition to the original tsarok races, some servitor creatures from other worlds have been brought into the fold. Most notable are the grell; floating, octopus-like creatures that can produce a very useful substance called grellstone, which the tsarok use to make armor, fortifications, and portal components. Another are the phase-spiders; nonsentient pets and hunting hounds of the Masters.

    The tsarok use magitech portals to invade new worlds. Operating the portals is resource intensive, so they must bring their forces in gradually, a few at a time.

    The tsarok were attracted to this world fifty years ago when a tiefling mystic known as Rakliss the Dreamer inadvertently ran into them during an astral journey. They deceived the tiefling, luring him into summoning an aranea into our world, which promptly killed him and put on his skin. That aranea then spent years building a portal to bring others of its kind through.

    Between the scouting of the hidden araneas and the scrying rituals of the extradimensional Masters, the tsarok have determined that the Dawn Empire would pose the biggest threat to them in a conventional invasion, but also - due to its resources and defensible geography - would make an excellent staging ground for an unconventional one. They have turned all their vast intelligence operations on the empire, and strongly suspect the eladrin clerics' deception. Araneas infiltrate imperial society at multiple levels. Portal facilities are being built in hidden wildernesses and caverns in imperial territory. Behemoth larvae are being brought in to be covertly raised to adulthood in advance of the other forces.

    The plan is to gather the evidence they need to prove the eladrins' trickery to the world, and then use it to blackmail the emperor and the high priests who control him into turning Quisling. In exchange for the secret being kept, the ruling elite will be able to retain their power as vassals of the tsarok, and will lead the Dawn Empire's forces to aid the tsarok in their military conquest of the rest of the world. Of course, in the following centuries the tsarok plan to gradually suck the world dry of resources and harvest any useful races before leaving the rest to die, but ideally that will happen too gradually for anyone to realize the truth before its too late.

    Fortunately for the world, the tsarok suffered a mishap. A freak earthquake has damaged one of their hidden portal facilities, and several highly incriminating items fell into a nearby river. These items are found by some human farmers in a village near the fringe of the Empire, who promptly tell the authorities.

    The PC's are either investigators sent from the nearest city, or concerned locals who happen to be in the right place at the right time when the tsarok launch their damage control operation to recover the items and hide the evidence.

    The campaign is divided into four main arcs.

    Arc 1 (low level): the PC's investigate the mysterious artifacts, and the conspiracy that seems to be trying to hide them. The arc ends with the discovery that the conspirators are alien infiltrators, and that the "artifacts" dredged from the river are actually something much more sinister.

    Arc 2 (low level): the PC's follow the trail of the fleeing araneas to a major city. Here, they find evidence that the infiltration is more than just a local phenomenon, and hear news of some disturbing political developments in the last few weeks; the empire is on the brink of multiple wars with neighboring powers. The arc ends with the PC's diffusing one or more of the situations by exposing the tsarok infiltrators who were instigating these conflicts.

    Arc 3 (mid level): the border situations are calming down, but the tsarok already got what they needed; while the imperial government and armies were distracted, tsarok agents got ahold of the evidence they need to blackmail the emperor. The PC's see the government turn against their investigations, and tsarok activity increase everywhere without fear of interference. The arc ends with them learning the truth, and confronting the corrupt emperor.

    Arc 4 (high level): the jig is up now, so the tsarok are going to try and take the fractured and civil war-ridden Dawn Empire by force. The PC's must rally the allies they have made throughout the campaign and fight the invading alien hordes and the ex-imperial factions that still support them. The arc, and campaign, ends with the PC's storming a portal facility and marching through the gate to fight the Master in charge of the invasion. During the final battle, the Master shares its people's horrific revelation with the PC's, and they are forced to make the hardest decision of their lives.


    If this sounds interesting, my next longpost will summarize the first arc of the campaign, with a particular focus on design principles, foreshadowing, and adventure structure.
     
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