GURPS Dark Sun Campaign Plotting - Page 2

Gorkamorka · 02-02-2012, 08:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jürgen Hubert

Oh, and I also need some good ideas for a "hunter" - someone who hunts them on Kalak's orders. Could be a templar, could be a bounty hunter, but they should give off a good "Dark Sun vibe".

I think this is a good time to introduce some foils to the PCs. Kalak is going to send a group of specialists to deal with the problem. I would include the following.

One of Kalaks pet Defilers/Templars. to mirror Amryn.

A Half Giant or Mul Glatiator that was Lagdush friend, or enemy, when he fought in the Tyr areana.

An Elf Ranger that has been kicked out his tribe or is the last member of the tripe, that is actually Flinx's father or brother. (He has weirdness magnet, right?)

Some evil Psionic barbarian to act as an evil mirror to the Tri-Kreen if he comes back in time. A gith, a Belgoi or Possibly an evil cannibalistic Halfling.

arconom · 02-02-2012, 11:14 AM

Quote:

I am thinking of some sort of psionic animal that can pick up the "psionic signature" of someone and seek them out - even if they used teleportation to move around (which the PCs do, now).

hound of Tindalos?

Not another shrubbery · 02-04-2012, 06:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by arconom

hound of Tindalos?

Could be. Here is Max's version of them from a few years ago. Tweak the write-up a bit, and you might have something you could use.

Jürgen Hubert · 02-08-2012, 10:30 AM

A member of the Order - a master of Probability Control - contacted the PCs outside of the city. However, when he asked the PCs what they would be willing to sacrifice to stop Kalak, they said: "Some time and effort". So he only gave vague promises of "things more likely going their way"...

Then the PCs learned via their Alliance contacts that Kalak was preoccupied with trying to stabilize his enchantment and put a lot of guards inside his ziggurat, the PCs decided to form a flying strike team and set his Palace Tower to the torch with some Create Fire spells. They did a lot of damage, but the mage suffered a serious injury from a psionic flying serpent (which happens to be 30' long...), and he apparently plunged to his death in the fire. However, his teleport amulet activated thanks to his psionically induced luck, and he ended up in the local barracks... just above where a new expeditionary force gathered, which had been formed on the orders of Kalak. Their mission? Find and capture a so-called "pyreen", and apparently it is very important that they bring it back before the Great Games. Their plan is to beat the stuffing out of some druid living near a village to the northeast of Tyr who allegedly knows how to contact one, and force him to do just that.

Gorkamorka · 02-08-2012, 10:30 AM

Woops. Delete this please.

Jürgen Hubert · 02-09-2012, 02:36 AM

So, the PCs plan to follow the expedition. Which will move towards their home village, which the leader did mention but which the mage's player apparently didn't hear... or at least pretended to when talking to the others. I don't know, and I'm not going to ask him.

I think I will use the various NPC templates from the Dungeon Fantasy adventure to fill out the expeditionary rooster - they were a godsend. I just need some coherent plan for how the expedition plans to capture a pyreen - who are very powerful druids and psionicists, after all.

At the same time, the hunter will finally get on their trace... and I think I will use that flying serpent as the "hound". It injected some poison into the mage, and it can trace the remains of that poison (I forgot to make the mage make HT rolls, so that should be a good excuse).

arconom · 02-11-2012, 07:41 PM

Find out what the pyreen cares about. Hold it as ransom to be given back if the pyreen cooperates.

Jürgen Hubert · 02-12-2012, 11:48 AM

So... the PCs follow the expeditionary force, but since their antagonists are on kanks and the PCs are not, they gradually fall behind during the day (the mage in particular is having a hard time... damn that HT 10!). They lose the trail (actually, they just missed the point where the other group went off the road to make camp), and then get attacked by the bounty hunter. The bounty hunter's plan to just snipe at the gladiator with his bow fails when the gladiator races him despite his injuries and comes far too close for comfort. He sacrifices two mercenary flunkies he hired and flies away with the (severely injured) flying snake.

One of the mercenaries dies, but the other one is captured and tells them about his employer. The mage announces that they are going to sell him into slavery to teach him a lesson about messing with the wrong people, and the mercenary tries to get out of this by asking them to let him go if he tells them where his kanks are. The mage asks about their location, the mercenary tells him, and the mage then proceeds to mock him because they didn't agree to any deal, and thus they are going to sell him into slavery anyway...

Jürgen Hubert · 02-15-2012, 10:06 AM

So... it's time to come up with stuff for my next session again.

The situation is as follows: The PCs have ****** off King Kalak of Tyr a few times too often, first by heavily damaging sensitive enchanted components of his ziggurat and then setting his tower on fire. While King Kalak is currently preoccupied with trying to repair the enchantment (and has sent some minions to fetch him a pyreen, with whose life force he intends to fix it), he has also send further minions to kill or capture the PCs, together with a psionic flying serpent which can trace the PCs since its poison is in one (now two) of them.

And so far, they have done a decent job. While the PCs managed to kill half of them in an ambush, two of the PCs are heavily injured and the third one (the mage) is all out of energy. They are fleeing into the desert with some stolen kanks, with the rest of them in hot pursuit (which also include the flying serpent and a bounty hunter who also happens to be an expert sniper with his bow).

We broke it off at this point in my last session - it was getting late, and I had to figure out what to do. Now I am beginning to have an idea.

One of the PCs has the Weirdness Magnet disadvantage - basically, weird stuff will keep on happening to him. I think I will have him stumble across one of the new ideas from the 4E version of the setting - one of the remaining islands of the "Feywild" left over from the Green Age. They can use this as a temporary refuge while they gather their wits and recover.

The inhabitant is what 4E calls an eladrin (though I will use names like "sidhe" or "djinn" - anyone has some other good names?) - a being vaguely resembling an elf, but immortal and a very potent user of psionics. She will recognize the half-elf character with Weirdness Magnet as either a distant descendant or the reincarnation of a former lover (I haven't decided which), which is also why he was able to accidentally gain access to the extradimensional hideout.

So... any ideas for how to embellish all that and make it more interesting? I don't just want to make this "random weird stuff that happens" - I want to make this a significant event which may have repercussions later on...

Jürgen Hubert · 04-12-2012, 09:59 PM

So... let's assume that you are a very powerful, very canny thousand year old sorcerer (and who is no slouch at psionics, either) who has been driven from his home base by a bunch of folks who stumbled across some elemental artifacts - which they used to summon a bunch of 500 pt elementals, among other things. He is hiding in secret base, but suspects that sooner or later they are going to track him down - they have done so before.

So, how would he prepare for the next confrontation? Especially for the next batch of mega-elementals?

02-08-2012, 10:30 AM	#14
Jürgen Hubert Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Oldenburg, Germany	Re: GURPS Dark Sun Campaign Plotting A member of the Order - a master of Probability Control - contacted the PCs outside of the city. However, when he asked the PCs what they would be willing to sacrifice to stop Kalak, they said: "Some time and effort". So he only gave vague promises of "things more likely going their way"... Then the PCs learned via their Alliance contacts that Kalak was preoccupied with trying to stabilize his enchantment and put a lot of guards inside his ziggurat, the PCs decided to form a flying strike team and set his Palace Tower to the torch with some Create Fire spells. They did a lot of damage, but the mage suffered a serious injury from a psionic flying serpent (which happens to be 30' long...), and he apparently plunged to his death in the fire. However, his teleport amulet activated thanks to his psionically induced luck, and he ended up in the local barracks... just above where a new expeditionary force gathered, which had been formed on the orders of Kalak. Their mission? Find and capture a so-called "pyreen", and apparently it is very important that they bring it back before the Great Games. Their plan is to beat the stuffing out of some druid living near a village to the northeast of Tyr who allegedly knows how to contact one, and force him to do just that. __________________ GURPS Repository • Sunken Castles, Evil Poodles - translating German folk tales into English!

02-08-2012, 10:30 AM	#15
Gorkamorka Ceci n'est pas un hyperlien Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Iceland	Re: GURPS Dark Sun Campaign Plotting Woops. Delete this please.

02-09-2012, 02:36 AM	#16
Jürgen Hubert Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Oldenburg, Germany	Re: GURPS Dark Sun Campaign Plotting So, the PCs plan to follow the expedition. Which will move towards their home village, which the leader did mention but which the mage's player apparently didn't hear... or at least pretended to when talking to the others. I don't know, and I'm not going to ask him. I think I will use the various NPC templates from the Dungeon Fantasy adventure to fill out the expeditionary rooster - they were a godsend. I just need some coherent plan for how the expedition plans to capture a pyreen - who are very powerful druids and psionicists, after all. At the same time, the hunter will finally get on their trace... and I think I will use that flying serpent as the "hound". It injected some poison into the mage, and it can trace the remains of that poison (I forgot to make the mage make HT rolls, so that should be a good excuse). __________________ GURPS Repository • Sunken Castles, Evil Poodles - translating German folk tales into English!

02-11-2012, 07:41 PM	#17
arconom MIB Join Date: Dec 2009	Re: GURPS Dark Sun Campaign Plotting Find out what the pyreen cares about. Hold it as ransom to be given back if the pyreen cooperates.

02-12-2012, 11:48 AM	#18
Jürgen Hubert Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Oldenburg, Germany	Re: GURPS Dark Sun Campaign Plotting So... the PCs follow the expeditionary force, but since their antagonists are on kanks and the PCs are not, they gradually fall behind during the day (the mage in particular is having a hard time... damn that HT 10!). They lose the trail (actually, they just missed the point where the other group went off the road to make camp), and then get attacked by the bounty hunter. The bounty hunter's plan to just snipe at the gladiator with his bow fails when the gladiator races him despite his injuries and comes far too close for comfort. He sacrifices two mercenary flunkies he hired and flies away with the (severely injured) flying snake. One of the mercenaries dies, but the other one is captured and tells them about his employer. The mage announces that they are going to sell him into slavery to teach him a lesson about messing with the wrong people, and the mercenary tries to get out of this by asking them to let him go if he tells them where his kanks are. The mage asks about their location, the mercenary tells him, and the mage then proceeds to mock him because they didn't agree to any deal, and thus they are going to sell him into slavery anyway... __________________ GURPS Repository • Sunken Castles, Evil Poodles - translating German folk tales into English!

02-15-2012, 10:06 AM	#19
Jürgen Hubert Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Oldenburg, Germany	Re: GURPS Dark Sun Campaign Plotting So... it's time to come up with stuff for my next session again. The situation is as follows: The PCs have **** off King Kalak of Tyr a few times too often, first by heavily damaging sensitive enchanted components of his ziggurat and then setting his tower on fire. While King Kalak is currently preoccupied with trying to repair the enchantment (and has sent some minions to fetch him a pyreen, with whose life force he intends to fix it), he has also send further minions to kill or capture the PCs, together with a psionic flying serpent which can trace the PCs since its poison is in one (now two) of them. And so far, they have done a decent job. While the PCs managed to kill half of them in an ambush, two of the PCs are heavily injured and the third one (the mage) is all out of energy. They are fleeing into the desert with some stolen kanks, with the rest of them in hot pursuit (which also include the flying serpent and a bounty hunter who also happens to be an expert sniper with his bow). We broke it off at this point in my last session - it was getting late, and I had to figure out what to do. Now I am beginning to have an idea. One of the PCs has the Weirdness Magnet disadvantage - basically, weird stuff will keep on happening to him. I think I will have him stumble across one of the new ideas from the 4E version of the setting - one of the remaining islands of the "Feywild" left over from the Green Age. They can use this as a temporary refuge while they gather their wits and recover. The inhabitant is what 4E calls an eladrin (though I will use names like "sidhe" or "djinn" - anyone has some other good names?) - a being vaguely resembling an elf, but immortal and a very potent user of psionics. She will recognize the half-elf character with Weirdness Magnet as either a distant descendant or the reincarnation of a former lover (I haven't decided which), which is also why he was able to accidentally gain access to the extradimensional hideout. So... any ideas for how to embellish all that and make it more interesting? I don't just want to make this "random weird stuff that happens" - I want to make this a significant event which may have repercussions later on... __________________ GURPS Repository** • Sunken Castles, Evil Poodles - translating German folk tales into English!

04-12-2012, 09:59 PM	#20
Jürgen Hubert Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Oldenburg, Germany	Re: GURPS Dark Sun Campaign Plotting So... let's assume that you are a very powerful, very canny thousand year old sorcerer (and who is no slouch at psionics, either) who has been driven from his home base by a bunch of folks who stumbled across some elemental artifacts - which they used to summon a bunch of 500 pt elementals, among other things. He is hiding in secret base, but suspects that sooner or later they are going to track him down - they have done so before. So, how would he prepare for the next confrontation? Especially for the next batch of mega-elementals? __________________ GURPS Repository • Sunken Castles, Evil Poodles - translating German folk tales into English!