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Lord

Registered: 08-2011
Posts: 102
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Help direct my campaign!


So I've gone from not having enough material to feed my warriors, to having so many ideas that I need some help figuring out the best way to pull it off!

Here's a basic outline of what's going on in my current campaign, and then some ideas on where the story should go next. I'd really appreciate any feedback and suggestions on how to make things work out! I apologize if this is really long, it actually just really helps me to write things out and work through the ideas.

quote:

We're playing through the Karak Azgal adventure in the RPG Book, but there have been some differences because I'm running a much more in depth campaign. First of all, the warriors all met each other at an Inn in the Border Princes where they were captured by an evil witch and had to escape, forming the basis of their first little adventure. Without that intro and some of the items they picked up from it (plus the visit to a settlement in between) I don't think they would have made it this far into Death Below Karak Azgal (they're almost through the second Deep).

The Witch Hunter and the Warrior Priest had originally been traveling together investigating disappearances in the area when the very witch they were looking for took them prisoner. The Wizard had travelled all the way from Altdorf investigating the attempted theft of the Grimoire Necris by one Alberto Laranscheld, but Laranscheld's father's minion, the hunchback Luthor, had enlisted the help of the witch - who had already been performing sacrifices for the family, leading to the disappearances - to try and kill the Wizard. So the players have already met Luthor briefly, and by overhearing conversations are somewhat aware of the existence of Gunther Laranscheld.

The Barbarian was originally traveling with a Dwarf named Rorek Grunnson, whom he had spent many months at sea with. Whilst in Barak Varr they learned that Rorek's cousin Ironbeard was now head of the Grunnson clan, and Rorek set off towards Karaz-a-Karak to find out what happened to his cousin's father and grandfather (Grimcrag and Ungrun, respectively). Rorek was killed dramatically in the witch's inn, and with his dying words asked the Barbarian character to carry on and find out what was happening, which gave the all-human party an "in" with the Grunnson clan and led to their accepting the quest to go into Karak Azgal. I've also been using the Karak Azgal sourcebook from WHFRP, and given everything a lot more depth than just "OK, roll three event hazards and you're there".

If the warriors succeed, they will be joined back at Karaz-a-Karak by the captain of a Dwarf patrol that they had met on their way into the stronghold earlier. This should be fun, since we'll have a party of five warriors which means I can throw even MORE nasty stuff at them!

I'm also setting up Lair of the Orc Lord: the warriors heard of a growing Orc power in Fredrickburg, the first settlement they went to. By the time they get to the next settlement (which should also be nearby to Karaz-a-Karak) they will meet refugees from Fredrickburg, which was completely wiped out by Gorgut's forces. They've also fought and wounded Skabnoze, and the new Dwarf player will enter the game a little early as he encounters the wounded Shaman while on patrol in the mountains, being helped to safety by a host of Gorgut's minions.

When the warriors get to this next town I think I'll run "For Love or Money" from WHFRP Plundered Vaults and then have them attacked by a full WHFB-sized Orc army and have to defend the town with just a few members of the garrison and militia to help out. Once they survive this they should be prepared to track the retreating Orcs back to Mt. Gunbad and play through Lair of the Orc Lord (unless they decide to do something else, of course).


Themes that need to be addressed:

1. There is a growing presence of greenskins in this area of the mountains, and it appears to be centered around a new warlord who has taken up residence in the Goblin stronghold of Mt. Gunbad.

2. Skabnoze the Orc Shaman is now working with the new warlord, Gorgut, and has stolen the Doom of Grishnak, Ungrun Grunnson's famous pendant. How anyone discovers this fact is sorta unresolved.

3. The first settlement that the warriors visited, the town of Fredrickburg, has now been wiped out by Gorgut's raiders. The only real NPC they met there was a captain of the watch named Felix, who may be one of the few survivors, and will re-encounter the warriors at the next town they visit, Mittleresdorf.

4. One of the other NPCs the players met previously was Buliwyf Stonecrusher, a Dwarf who led one the patrol around Karaz-a-Karak that intercepted, interrogated, and escorted the PCs as they approached the Dwarf capital. Since the 5th player to join our group wants to play a Dwarf character, he'll just be picking up this NPC and I'll be writing him into the storyline.

5. Gorgut's rise to power is much as described in Lair of the Orc Lord, but the old warlord of the Black Fang Orcs was slain specifically by Ironbeard Grunnson, a few months before his father disappeared in Karak Azgal. Gorgut has now changed the name of the tribe to the Severed Eyes (a concept I'm lifting from a D&D module) and adopted the symbol of a severed eye. Several of his Big 'Uns have dug out one of their own eyes as a sign of loyalty to him, and many goblin and human captives have a brand put over one of their eyes. Felix may bear such a wound.

6. In my timeline, the Storm of Chaos has not happened yet, though it is very much about to.
30/Nov/2011, 2:57 pm Link to this post Send Email to Nachie   Send PM to Nachie Blog
 
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Lord

Registered: 08-2011
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Re: Help direct my campaign!


Things that need to happen:

1. The warriors will rescue Grimcrag Grunnson from Karak Azgal upon the successful completion of Death Below Karak Azgal.

2. He will travel with them back to Karaz-a-Karak and resume lordship of the Grunnson clan, rewarding them richly for their endeavors. Along the way, he may ask to see his father's corpse and may notice that the Doom of Grishnak is missing.

3. The warriors, accompanied by Grimcrag, may have an easy path back to Karaz-a-Karak but I still want there to be some especially "mountainy" events to create issues for them. Right now I'm thinking of a rockslide, maybe an earthquake, and perhaps and Orc encounter that will introduce them to Gorgut's boyz and show them the power of a Level 10 warrior (Grimcrag).

4. At some point during all this, probably while the warriors are on their way back to Everpeak, Buliwyf will be leading a patrol of 1D6 + 3 Dwarf warriors through the mountains when he sees the wounded Skabnoze being borne along on a litter by (probably) a whole bunch of Night Goblins. I need to devise a way for him to notice that the shaman is carrying a piece of Dwarf treasure (the Doom of Grishnak) even if he doesn't recognize it. Perhaps his patrol is slaughtered to a man and only he survives, but either way he won't recover the necklace at this time.

5. The warriors arrive at Everpeak and Grimcrag takes over the Grunnson clan. Buliwyf, who was actually originally born in Ostland, decides to join the party. I think I need a good reason for this, though. Perhaps he is on his way back to Ostland to help against the rumored Chaos invasion? Or he's taken on a personal oath to retrieve the Doom of Grishnak? Part of this is up to the player, of course.

6. The warriors (minus Buliwyf) will each roll 1D3 and the added total will be the number of Grunnson clan warriors whom Grimcrag sends away with the PCs. I think this might be a fun opportunity to create another NPC, perhaps the leader of the Dwarf detachment who is racist against the human warriors and resents his assignment. However, there is a problem because:

7. The warriors will travel West to the town of Mittleresdorf where they will play out the short adventure "For Love or Money" from WHFRP 2nd Edition's Plundered Vaults. I really want to run this to break up the dungeon crawls and introduce some Skaven, but it might end up being really unbalanced if the warriors are allowed to have their Dwarf allies with them. Of course I can always (and was already planning on) just making there be a lot more Skaven than there would have been in WHFRP, but maybe there's also a good way to just not have the Dwarfs show up in town until the adventure is resolved?

8. Mittleresdorf is exactly like it appears in WHFRP Plundered Vaults (except geographically relocated to suit my campaign), but the Southern Gate is still under construction, making it a weak point in the town's defenses.

9. After "For Love or Money", Mittleresdorf is attacked by the Severed Eyes Orcs and Goblins, led by Gorgut. The warriors will encounter him and see that Skabnoze is with him, but will not have a chance to actually fight him as he retreats as soon as the battle seems to go badly.

10. I need to do a lot of work to prepare this siege encounter. I have tons of Orcs and Gobbos to use and I'd like to acquire a Rock Lobber model from somewhere, but if I include it in the scenario it might be too much of a distraction, since the heroes will effectively have no way to disable it from inside the city walls they defend, so it'd have to misfire or something? As far as the human defenders, the warriors will have their Dwarf allies, a few members of the town watch, and a good handful of less effective local militia (including Felix, who may or may not survive). The battle will go on just long enough for the heroes to feel like they are just baaaaaaarely going to make it. I will probably bring in another player just to control the Severed Eyes Orcs for this battle, since that will lend a layer of tactics I can't replicate as a GM.

11. Eventually the players will chase the retreating greenskins back to Mount Gunbad, where they will play through the Doom of Grishnak campaign from Lair of the Orc Lord and finally kill both Gorgut and Skabnoze.

12. The warriors make their way back into the Empire proper, participate in the defense of the Empire from the Storm of Chaos somehow, and then end up playing through the entire Paths of the Damned campaign from WHFRP, starting in Middenheim after the war.

Odds & Ends:

1. The ruins of Fredrickburg seem like a great location to use, somehow. Perhaps the Goblins who razed it are now occupying the site, and the warriors have to sneak in (a la D&D's "The Slaying Stone")? If so, maybe they have to go back there because that's where Gorgut first fled to, and they are chasing down the Doom of Grishnak?
 
2. I have an absolutely amazing battle-map of the terrain outside a ruined Dwarf citadel from the D&D module "The Orcs of Stonefang Pass", and really want to use it! There are basically two opportunities - first, there could be a holdout of Orcs stationed there after the attack on Mittleresdorf, and the warriors have to go mop them up. Secondly, I could save it until after they've killed Gorgut and say that a scattered branch of the Severed Eyes has assaulted Blackfire Pass and is now making it impassable, so the warriors have to go put an end to that. Could be a good chance to throw in one last Orc NPC (a Severed Eyes big boss, or something).

Using it right after Mittleresdorf makes it impractical to also use the ruins of Fredrickburg (though there will be plenty of future opportunity for ruins if the party heads to Ostland during the Storm of Chaos) while saving the encounter for Blackfire Pass means I might go mad with anticipation, or more importantly may not have a chance to use other ideas for the setting such as the contents of the 3rd Edition WHFRP sourcebook on BFP.

So.... thoughts?
30/Nov/2011, 2:58 pm Link to this post Send Email to Nachie   Send PM to Nachie Blog
 
lord mavik Profile
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Hero

Registered: 08-2011
Posts: 45
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Re: Help direct my campaign!


YOWZER!

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Sounds like a lot of fun.
1/Dec/2011, 12:34 am Link to this post Send Email to lord mavik   Send PM to lord mavik Blog
 
OldWarrior Profile
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God

Registered: 04-2006
Location: USA, Western hemisphere, earth
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Re: Help direct my campaign!


For #7, I like your suggestion -- in form a of a question -- to let the Warriors go on that diversionary quest without the Dwarf allies. It might let you concentrate more on the other details of your story development.

#10 -- I love siege scenarios! I did one in a campaign WHQ game entitled 'War to End All Orcs'. I thought it was a fun variation on the game, doing much like you say, adding allies to help defend the gate(s) and walls. I let the players control their own Warriors (of course) AND different groups of allies.

I like your idea of bringing in another player to control a faction of enemies. It could lead to some surprising twists in the battle.

---
Old Warrior

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1/Dec/2011, 2:31 am Link to this post Send Email to OldWarrior   Send PM to OldWarrior Blog
 
Nachie Profile
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Lord

Registered: 08-2011
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Re: Help direct my campaign!


Thanks for the feedback!

Things have been going very well, and this coming Sunday should be the big siege scenario, which is going to see 8 different people playing the game simultaneously... should be fun!

OW I know in another thread you had commented about my wanting to use the Mordheim critical hits and I just wanted to report back that we tried it for the first time last night and it was absolutely incredible! I don't think I'll ever play a game of Quest again without them, even though I do still need to spend a little time tweaking them to perfection emoticon
17/Jan/2012, 2:12 pm Link to this post Send Email to Nachie   Send PM to Nachie Blog
 
OldWarrior Profile
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God

Registered: 04-2006
Location: USA, Western hemisphere, earth
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Re: Help direct my campaign!


quote:

Nachie wrote:

OW I know in another thread you had commented about my wanting to use the Mordheim critical hits and I just wanted to report back that we tried it for the first time last night and it was absolutely incredible! I don't think I'll ever play a game of Quest again without them, even though I do still need to spend a little time tweaking them to perfection emoticon



Interesting. I would like to know the final form of your adaptation of the Critical Hits once you get all the tweaking done.

---
Old Warrior

Check out Bible Notes
It is one of my favorite places on the Internet.
God bless you, everyone!
17/Jan/2012, 4:47 pm Link to this post Send Email to OldWarrior   Send PM to OldWarrior Blog
 
Sardaukar74 Profile
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Lord

Registered: 09-2008
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Re: Help direct my campaign!


Me too, me too...
18/Jan/2012, 1:51 am Link to this post Send Email to Sardaukar74   Send PM to Sardaukar74
 


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