Shadow Rift adventure planning – part 1 (arrival, to Arak’s memorial)

[Joël of the FoS]

Next in my campaign is the Shadow Rift adventure.

Part 1 is somewhat easy – after the Fracture, they go to Arak’s memorial and retrieve Maeve’s Crown from a pilar of fire. Of course there will be a few encounters here and there, some dangerous, but until they have the crown in hand, things are mostly easy.

After that, it will get worse as they will be pursued by the Unseelie Court feys.

So Part 1 – from arrival in SR to Arak’s Memorial:

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Gaz 5 suggest twilight for light condition all the time in the SR (and the D&D rules are funnily unclear on that matter – can someone tell me you can see what and from how many feet in twilight or shadowy?)

So I changed the light in the SR. Some of the landscapes are very interesting and picturesque, but if the players can’t see beyond a few feet, it’s wasted. As written, they can’t even see the rolling blacks clouds above them.

So here’s what I plan to use (human twilight vision is about 100 feet, so I cut this in half for the SR) :

Morning, 7 am to noon – twilight (dim light): without torches or spells, good vision is 50’ (200’ to see a movement or silhouette)

Noon to 2 pm – grey sky let passes more light – good clear vision is 200’ (800’ to see a movement or silhouette)

2 pm to 7 pm - twilight – without torches or spells, good vision is 50’ (200’ to see a movement or silhouette)

7 pm to 7 am – pitch black. You see nothing without a torch. Of course, the feys can see in the dark (darkvision 60’).

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I won’t bring them to the Malachite Palace. As written, this place feels weird and empty. I do not like the feel of it.
Instead, I will develop Arak’s tomb as a memorial, and that’s where the pillar of fire is located (where Maeve hid the Crown).

I recycled three rooms from the Palace: the Gallery of Orbs, the North Gallery and the pillar of fire, now relocated in the memorial.

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On the way, they will meet:

- The brags repairing the bridge, more or less as written in SR

- Many many many weird vegetal features of the SR – moving branches, quickly changing vegetal landscape, a mix of trees usually not found together, trees dropping acorns on the PCs, etc.

- Weird animals with human behaviors. It’s sure the druid will try to interact with these.

- Flower field – meeting the Alven, more or less as written in SR

- Hungry Grass, more or less as written in SR

- They are watched from the side of the road by a silent, hare headed woman.

- A Nuckelavee encounter (hey, that’s the occasion to use the weird)

- Midnight Garden (weird topiary), more or less as written in SR (encounter with Lashweeds)

- The shadow of a large fish-like creature can be seen eerily drifting in the forest, in the distance, between the trees.

- Lotus tree, with sleeping shees or satirs nearby

- Weird things where they sleep – branches creeping out of the fire, and next morning they find a new path that passes through their camp.

- A changeling on a mission - Yrilstin Nilhausen, an architect from Nartok, traveling to the Malachite Palace take measures of a room. He will be able to explain what are changelings.

- A tree with the top shaped like a hairy woman’s head (a not so friendly treant if they get too close)

- Travelers to Arak’s tomb – a mix of Shee, Sith, Portune and a teg. They are curious to see humans that are free willed. “You are the property of which fey?” “What are you doing in this region?” and so on. They say they arrive from the Malachite Palace but turned back – none of either Maeve or Loht are there.

- Arak’s memorial, a sober construction mostly buried under a hill, where many feys gather to pay homage to their founding father. The pillar of fire is about 100’ high above the hill, and it escapes through a hole in the hill. While the memorial is crowded with feys, there is an area behind the pillar of fire where the PCs will be mostly left alone, for their plan to get the Crown.

Part 2 – run for the Obsidian Gate (I’m not there yet for planning)

- Somehow, the Unseelie court knows the Crown have been found.

- PCs are pursued by tegs and powries

- Cath Shee (allied of Maeve) to save them from a tricky situation

- Etc.

If you have ideas to improve part 1, let me know. I’d like to add more encounters with SR Feys – what fey? Why are they met on the road? Do they live nearby or are travelers? What kind of interaction they have with the PCs?

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

What is the campaign about? What's the vibe you're aiming for? Do you have a linear plot in mind (as in, X leads to Y that leads to Z) , or you're just coming up with encounters and we'll see how it turns out?

Also, may I ask - why is Maeve sending them? What's the background?

[Joël of the FoS]

What is the campaign about? What's the vibe you're aiming for? Do you have a linear plot in mind (as in, X leads to Y that leads to Z) , or you're just coming up with encounters and we'll see how it turns out?

We started this campaign in 2004, and we’re now at session # 118. In 2004, we were 20 years + experienced players and DMs. We had many weekend-in-hell type of adventures in Ravenloft, but that new campaign was to be 100 % Ravenloft, with native players.

Other than that, there was never a long-term goal in the campaign, like the hunt for their nemesis XYZ, or discovering the meaning of life, or whatever, as a goal. I knew this campaign would have a long-term run, so I didn’t want to establish that kind of campaign goal. It felt too retraining and boring. I wanted space to play.

However, I like to do story arcs that do last 15 to 20 sessions. Call them mini-campaigns if you want. For example, the current one is now based in Tepest, and has many smaller story arcs that meld into one mini-Tepest-campaign.

When finished, I move to somewhere else, with a different atmosphere.

And for vibe, I try to do different things in every mini-campaigns and they do have different vibes – ex. running after an evil cult (feeling they have to proceed quickly and run through the core, or a great evil will be summoned), the Bleak House long adventure (helping an old friend, van Richten, from becoming insane, and themselves too in the process), a long stay in Levkarest city (as Ivana’s toys, this one was about politics, urban vibe, hidden secrets, and dangerous social encounters), an Har’Akir story arc (alien desert vibe, with classic dungeon crawls), then Tepest (aka Servants of Darkness rearranged, with other mysteries added to the mix. Inquisition and religious oppression vibe).

I try not to repeat myself and try different things.

Servants of Darkness will leads to Shadow Rift, which I also rearranged. The vibe in SR will be fey weirdness (part 1 – see above) and fey dangerousness as they will be hunted (part 2).

And each session has a planned scenario (ex. see above), which is thrown at the players, and I see how they react to it. I might cut things or impro others.

In the case above, they have travel to do from arrival point in the Shadow Rift to Arak’s tomb mausoleum, and I planned various encounters along the way, for atmospherics.

For the Borca sessions, it was very loose, with various social events, mysteries and encounters, giving the PCs a lot of free time to deepen what they felt like the thing needed at the moment.

Also, may I ask - why is Maeve sending them? What's the background?

I’m following the Shadow Rift adventure, and this is more or less as written.

From journal session #118 :

(The players have found Loht’s sword and gave it to him. Maeve explains it was a bad move.)

Maeve to the players: It’s clear he (her brother Loht) hasn’t found the Crown yet, because his spies, the Powries, are still watching me relentlessly. If we are to stop my brother and save the world from Gwydion's return, we must find the Crown.

I cannot do it because I am too closely watched. You, on the other hand, Loht will deem you unworthy of his attention. You can therefore act where I cannot.

[moonglum]

What level is the party now?

[Joël of the FoS]

Around 9th level.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

I've seen a fan theory that Seelie culture's view of morality is centered around deals - keeping your end of the bargain no matter what - while Unseelie culture's view of morality is centered around codes: each fey is sworn to a certain set of principles and must not deviate from it.
I think it's a good way to portray fey as actually having a consistent moral framework that's different from the mainstream human one rather than just being random about it (though it isn't the only way to do so, of course).

Another thing I like to do in fey-centered stories is small things mattering, sometimes more than big ones.

How about encounters built around these idea?
For example, a Seelie fey asks the party to give her a leaf from every tree in the area in return for aid, but there's an Unseelie fey who had sworn to not let anyone get close to or remove a part of one of the trees - The Unseelie one can't let them take a leaf because it's against their code, but if they don't get that leaf Seelie fey would be upset. This obviously feels insignificant to the PCs - like, we need to get the crown, there's no time for arguing about *leaves* - but the Unseelie fey is very protective of her beautiful tree, and the Seelie fey has been working for years on her leaf collection and takes it very seriously.