The Campaign Builder's Guild

I was reading some old Forgotten Realms material and realized I'd somehow by some jinx (as happens) germinated a plot they had already done. Basically a group of elves who believe that humanity has stolen their destiny, ruined the world that was once beautiful vow revenge upon them. However in my campaign what they are doing is starting wars, encouraging humanoids to get involved, creating chaos. One of the things they have noted is that humans and humanoids are often eager to fight their own kind.

However in the Cormyr setting this is pretty much just straightforward revenge. What I had decided is that similar to in Irish mythology the elves at one time posessed powerful magical weapons that were terrifyingly destructive which they had used to defeat a monstrous army. (in Irish mythology these are the Formorians but I have simply called them "The Demons") Essentially when tempted to use them to curb the advances of humanity the then High Prince of the Elves persuaded the other leaders to create a spell of forgetfulness and to hide the weapons away somewhere. Even the knowledge of where they came form, how they were made, has been lost.

Now the elves find themselves a scattered people, diminished and eclipsed by humanity. So this cabal of vengeful elves do not merely want to get revenge--they want their plot exposed, not immediately but while many forces are already ready for war so that they will be in a position to act upon their fear and hatred of the elves, and force the spell to be undone so that their people can demonstrate their power and supremacy--and hopefully restore the world that was.



At the moment these particular elves are busy stirring plots. Many of them will be too subtly done for anyone to really figure out until after they've already come to fruition, but in a sense New Edom is key because it has dangerously given the elvish nations nearby hope that humans and elves can live in peace. The cabal know this to be a lie! Therefore it is fitting that the wars that will ultimately come to the doorstep of the elvish lands will begin in the little Republic.

Anyway I'd appreciate not just feedback but ideas on what the weapons could be exactly, what these elves are like perhaps, how the forgetting spell actually could work and so on.

Well, as for the forgetting spell, it sounds pretty straightfoward in its effects.  As to the creation, perhaps a giant ritual/incantation?

For the weapons, you could them on those from Irish mythology if you wanted.  A lot of crazy spears and so forth.

A spear that slays any it strikes, that sort of thing.  If this is D&D we're talking, then the vicious property is a good add-on.  You could also have it deliver slay living or something equally gruesome.  Not doomsday enough?  Perhaps a bow that fires arrows that explode, sort of like WMDs?

I'm also picturing say spells that can strip the flesh off the bones, cause plants to actually take root rapidly in bodies, weather spells that cover great distances...

Any more ideas are appreciated...

but what I'm wondering about is how it could be undone, this forgetting spell.

I'd say a counter ritual, which would have to be researched, since presumably they don't remember doing the ritual at all?

No, they don't. That's the thing I'm having some trouble with.

What about this.
When the memories were removed, they went somewhere. Now the memories of each individual elf are locked within gemstones (or whatever. i dunno) that are scattered around the world. If an elf ever comes wihtin a certain distance on his/her specific stone, the memories return. Now the odds of an elf randomly stumbling across his stone are very low, but over the years, a few have. Now these few elves with their memories returned are scouring the globe for as many memory stones as they can and are trying to discover who each belongs to so they can return that individuals memories. Slowly their ranks are increasing one by one as they reunite more and more elves with their lost memories. For the moment they remain a small radical group, but their numbers and influence are growing.

Hmm... i kinda like this idea. i may use a variant myself at some point.

As far as weapons go, you could introduce an irony of sorts - for example, the weapons (or some of them) were great and powerful weapons for fighting demons, but not really all that snazzy otherwise. That might not fit your paradigm well, as it could lead to an anti-climax. Then again, there might be a way to work it in as a plot twist instead.

For the secret knowledge - perhaps the secret to undoing the forgetfulness spell has been entombed in a secret vault, locked and hidden with powerful spells. The only thing everyone knows is that the vault will appear or open or be revealed in the event of the destruction of the Throne of Kings, or some other trigger event. So they'd be trying to engineer the desired event without tipping their hand.

I second snakefing's idea about a trigger. It seems to be the most logical effect they would put in, assuming they prepared for a possible second demon incursion.

I also like TDC's idea about having the memories stored somewhere... but personally I would put them in the weapons themselves. Have each of the weapons storing one or more memory 'consciousnesses' as intelligent items. When mated with the original loser of the memories the consciousness in the sword melds with the one in the body, restoring the memories.

Now depending on how long ago this happened, there may not be any of the original elves still alive. In that case, I would either have them merge with anyone of the bloodline (which could imprint some of the original's personality into the person), or have the sword carry on as intelligent items, doing whatever the mind inside it would do.

Minor weapons with crazy magic powers are good, but what about really, really big ones?  Massive golems, for instance, or huge portals that open to the plane of fire as a sort of instant bomb?  Dropping one of those things on a human city and then opening it would cause untold destruction (think of Stargate SG-1 when they put the gate in the middle of a star).  Maybe they're not just powerful flesh-rending spells, but flesh-rending spells that have the living spell template applied?  An inexorable approaching mist, and anyone inside is flayed alive, but you can't see through the mist, you can only hear the screams...

You could also have an artifact that boosts effective caster level by something like thirty levels.  A giant device that takes an hour or so to charge, but you can fire off a fireball so big it could level a city.  Something like that.

Then there are creatures.  Indestructible monsters like the Tarrasque at the elves command would be an immeasurable powerful weapon.

Hm...some really cool notions popping up here. I like the idea of a trigger too--I'm not sure I like the idea of it being something that you can stumble onto easily though, although the gemstone/item memory is a neat way to do it. What I'm thinking is that they would have to nevertheless be hard to find without knowing the necessary lore of where to look.

Also I like the idea of there being two different kinds of weapons/spells--some that are tough and nifty but rather personal and others that are phenomenally dangerous.

I have to admit I've never liked the Tarrasque much as an idea in and of itself but I would love suggestions about either how to make that fun and interesting or else other creatures that could be used.

One thing I do like about for instance the idea of the flesh eating cloud or the super fireball is that there's no way you could call using such magic truly good due to the indiscriminate nature of their application. It would probably be at best a necessary evil.

Another thing I am doing with this concept is replacing the Drow with this growing elvish conspiracy. I have to admit that part of my reasoning behind this is that I'm a little tired of demons and such, which are cool but which I've done enough to suit me for a while. I wanted something different for the metaplot this time and I like the idea of superweapons and conspirators and vengeance.

One idea I'm also toying around with is having an actual special place that must be found and opened and the magical seals broken and so on, perhaps a place where magical energies can be charged that will enable the weapons/spells.

Quote from: TybaltOne idea I'm also toying around with is having an actual special place that must be found and opened and the magical seals broken and so on, perhaps a place where magical energies can be charged that will enable the weapons/spells.

You mean the place where the weapons can be found, or a separate 'power plant' as it were? If the latter (and you want it to relly be evil), have the thing use the power in sentient beings, effectively draining them of their life to shove it into the weapon.

Quote from: Stargate525

Quote from: TybaltOne idea I'm also toying around with is having an actual special place that must be found and opened and the magical seals broken and so on, perhaps a place where magical energies can be charged that will enable the weapons/spells.

You mean the place where the weapons can be found, or a separate 'power plant' as it were? If the latter (and you want it to relly be evil), have the thing use the power in sentient beings, effectively draining them of their life to shove it into the weapon.

OOh, nice one


Lesse, magical WMD's
- Anything that can animate buildings en mass. (imagine hitting a heavily fortified city hit with something like this. The battlement and towers you are hiding in, are all of a sudden beating the crap out of you)
- Mass hive-mind control of assorted vermin (including rats and stuff - not just vermin types) (all those things about rats outnumbering new-yorkers thousands-to-one finally get put into play. imagine like a dozen rat swarms for every man woman and child in the city. Even if they manage to fight back, they will likely have to burn their own city to the ground to stall the swarms)
- A portal to the plane of fire would be cool, but think of this. A portal to the plane of water, opened a few hundred feet above a city. (a huge torrent of water would crush, flood and drown everything)
- Any weather control variant (walker in the waste turns an area into desert. some spells can turn an area arctic)
- portal to negative plane (course then you have to deal with a city full of undead afterwards)
- two words. Eathquake (wait that's just one. english is stupid)
- or tsunami
- mass insanity/mind control/aggresion boosting
- The giant golem idea is cool (any big thing couls work actually)
- living spells are nasty (that flesh eating example is especially good)

there's really no limit to ways to kill large numbers with magic because its, well, magic. it can do anything.

Or how about mind/body affecting spells that cause people to mentally and physically change, becoming animalistic in a way best suited to them? The Beast Spell might make say violent people become nasty as rabid dogs, might make timid people terrified of leaving their homes, might make slothful people just literally lie around like frogs only active if they see something to eat.

There was a device in a modern war novel I read that affected the central nervous system and made people as helpless as infants, unable to speak or move but fully conscious. It was a truly horrific idea.

Well, some of these might be neat, but at the same time, you have to keep in mind that they are supposed to have originated from a battle with the Demons. (Or at least was effective in that war.) Whatever you use, it has to be something that would work against them.

I'm not sure what you have in mind as the ultimate nature of your Demons, so I can't suggest much about it. Thinking off hand, it seems fairly likely that things that are powerful against Demons might not be as useful against people, and vice versa.

Well...demons do have to take on a fleshly form. And actually what I had been thinking is that while against demons they might be reasonable weapons against say humans or humanoids they might be utterly horrific.