In the tired and weary but nearly triumphant Republic of New Edom, victory appears to be at hand. For the first time, a major expedition is planned which will invade the Great Kingdom of the Drenai--with the aid of Drenai themselves! Having built an alliance with the kingdoms of Cadwald and Courdewayne (http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?39954
) there is a general agreement that the Duchy of Deva and the Lords of the Haralaw Isles are the key enemies.
I'd appreciate any input or suggestions for the important elements and adventure path listed below, any requesting of details that might help me flesh out my ideas, criticisms or completely out of the box ideas. I should also add that my players at this stage have had a lot to do with advising the general plans.
Important Elements:
1. New Edom has a new High Lord named Crowl; a bitter but eloquent and shrewd man who lost a hand fighting hobgoblins on the border. It is his grand strategy that the new alliance is pursuing.
2. Two major thrusts of the planned military campaign: one is a land based one entirely which will move mainly forces of Courdewayne and Cadwald against the Duchy of Deva; the other will be supported by Yasg privateers and Cadwaldish ships but will mainly be New Edomites invading the Harlaw Isles.
The Adventure Path
1. The pcs (now at around 10th-11th level) will arrive at the city of Cordwin in Courdewayne (if someone can come up with a better name I'd be happy) and there are responsible for the safety and keeping of a disgruntled Harlaw claimant. Part of the plan is that this prince will accompany the invasion force and try to raise his people to his banner. (I'm trying to come up with an adventure for this but I thought something intriguish might be good)
2. The initial invasion calls for an attempt to get directly onto the main inhabited island. The best way is nevertheless difficult; a river entrance is guarded by a tribe of Sahuagin who are aligned with the current rulers of the Harlaw family. Once this underwater fortress is taken (by the pcs leading aquatic allies) longships can take the army up river inland.
3. The Harlaw prince (minded by the pcs) heads for his own lands to raise his personal forces. However it is discovered that they are terrified by an incursion of demonic forces sent by the Harlaw ruler to claim the lands.
4. The pcs and their ally attempt to rally certain of his clansmen to their banner; in so doing they have a chance to discover an heirloom weapon in a forgotten tomb that might give their prince the proper claim.
5. Meanwhile the rest of the army catches up (ideally helped along the way by now friendly locals) but by now the Harlaw ruler has rallied an army of powerful foes. Here a great battle is fought with magics, monsters and mighty heroes on both sides. The pcs have opportunities to discover much about enemy plans and the region to give their army an edge.
6. (Supposing victory) At the fortress-city of Harleigh the pcs are key to finding a way into the fortifications that will not involve a long costly siege or wasteful assault. In so doing they learn that this is the home of the lich that has been their true nemesis all along. They learn that for whatever reason the lich has prepared a powerful gate into another world to raise yet another force there. There are hints that they may find in this other world why the lich is the enemy of their people and what he truly has in store for them...
1- Crowl seems a nice addition. what happened to the last one?
2- Which name do you dislike?
3- For the intriguish part, I'd have Crowl ask the players to find out what obtacles are in the way, and perhaps find the Harlaw prince insulted most of the major families in the area at one time or another.
By the way, which side are the yuan-ti and the Dark Elves on?
1. Lord Jetheh was essentially a merchant prince who was more well suited to peacetime than to war; he had a bit of a nervous breakdown and resigned.
2. Cordwin--I don't exactly dislike it so much as it sounds redundant along with Courdewayne.
3. Haha, isn't that rather a major hurdle? Do you mean so that they'd have to find ways to smooth it all over?
4. The Yuan-Ti and the Drow have aligned themselves firmly in the camp of the pcs' enemies. However the Drow were recently dealt a very fierce blow by the pcs and are more busy regrouping than anything else.
I actually think the name works, since they sound similar.
And yes, it would be kind of funny to find out that the Harlaw claimant has a lot of PR smoothing to do in order to gain some support with the other major families. Have the PC's need to recover some stolen family items from a band of thieves for one family, maybe help an old family rebuild their trading network by introducing them to some Yasg trading guild.
Maybe instead of a heirloom weapon, they can go rescue an ancient banner from the tombs that all the families will recognize. If you deal with a lot of heraldry in your setting, this can be cool. Maybe an ancient marshlling banner, reminding the lesser houses of their past successes?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heraldry
Those are good ideas, I think they'll also make things interesting as the pcs will have to have a more in depth encounter with Celtic culture.
BTW I forgot something: there may be a kind of odd alliance with the Yuan-Ti--the pcs captured an advisor to the Harlaws in their last major adventure and one of them proposed that the Yuan-Ti change sides.