Roadmap

This page is for roughly planning a skeleton outline of possible plotlines and the general story arcs we plan to have. I think it's a good idea to break the story into clear arcs with short breaks of low-energy sessions between each arc to make the story more digestible.

Fraz Urb'luu is the persistent villain for the campaign, so the Silvertongues will be the main antagonists for the party until they decide to defeat them. The Silvertongues' hideout is near Burrova.

* The Silvertongues steal the staff piece that the party take from The Dust Caravan, the party knows that they work for Bigsby (I think?), so they will have to find their HQ to defeat them and get it back.
* They already have the claw piece, so taking them out is the party's next course of action.

**The Redwyn Arc:** Establish the situation and open the party's options.

* Raiding The Dust Caravan's Lair will give them positive favor with Redwyn, cancelling out their current wanted status. When the Wise Fool hears of this, he will pardon the party but tell them that it would be best if they left Redwyn at their earliest convenience and didn't come back without good reason.
* Each party member will be given a waiver for one free use of the teleportation waypoint in Redwyn (City). This waypoint can take them to one of three other Redwyn waypoints: The South Sorn Grasslands towards Moorvane (probably not, unless we give them a reason to go to Moorvane), Spring Pass (going towards Belhaven, Torkel, or Creston), or Torvas (towards Valhurst). This will give the party a choice between three different arcs that all progress their campaign against the Silvertongues, or secret fourth option Creston which mostly progresses Kristianna's shid.
* The Silvertongues revealed that Captain Onir assisted the fugitive party members escape capture in Torvas. Oggin, who has become friends with Onir, is also implicated in the party's crimes. The two of them are now with Robitussin's Raiders. Even if the party is pardoned for what they did, Onir still betrayed his duties as guard captain by aiding wanted criminals.
* Since Robitussin's Raiders have often sided with Redwyn in the war, they're wanted by Valhurst. But since they're harboring fugitives and are general disturbers of the peace in The Val Highlands, they're not welcome in Redwyn either. They're going to have to leave the area and go west because it's getting hard to hide with both nations' armies moving throughout the area.

**The Valhurst Arc:** Pure story, taking the fight to Fraz Urb'luu.

* Kiaransalee, now in posession of the hand (and eye?) of Vecna, is becoming a bit erratic. She's started ramping up the war effort against Redwyn, and a huge counteroffensive to the invasion of Shellyn is going to be launched soon.
* Kiaransalee will ask to see the party if they are in Valhurst. Idea: Kiaransalee is kinda losing her sanity as Vecna's influence is taking hold.
	+ She wants to ask the party where they've been. She'll come across a bit too concerned, almost like a mother talking to her teenage children. The voices of Vecna are getting to her. She'll ask what happened to some of the other members who aren't here.
	+ If they tell her about the fate of Ömorhen or any other reference to Fraz, she'll tell the party about Castle Greyhawk, the ruins of an ancient castle that was once used to trap Fraz in the material plane. It's been avoided by travelers for a long time, but all indications are that it's in the northern Val Mountains.
	+ She'll ask the party if they can keep a secret, and if they make any positive indication she'll tell them that she's launching a counteroffensive to take back Shellyn and finally take Torvas. She will laugh hysterically about this.
* The leader of the Devouts of Zagyg, General Mathias Hopkins, is leading a battalion of Devouts and is searching the northern Val Mountains for Castle Greyhawk. He knows it's in this region of the mountains but not where. He thinks Kiaransalee might know better, but he doesn't trust her and doesn't want to risk her finding it (even though Kiaransalee doesn't really particularly care about what's there but he doesn't know that).
	+ Depending on whether or not the party already learned of Castle Greyhawk from Kiaransalee, they may choose to help him locate it.
* Cade Pike, one of Fraz Urb'luu's warlocks, is working for the Silvertongues. He's a young half-elf from Redwyn. He's been promised that he'll be given great status and wealth once Bigsby assembles the Staff of Power and takes control of the Land of Eternal War. [needs writing] He will in some way find out that he's being lied to, maybe party finds it out and has to convince him or something. Totally possible the party doesn't do this and/or just kills him...
	+ Castle Greyhawk is hidden in a small crater-like depression in the top of a mountain in the northern Val Mountains.
	+ There are two main options for how this whole thing can go depending on whether or not the party brings the Devouts of Zagyg to the castle.
		- **Doesn' t bring:** The party will discover a small group of Silvertongues standing guard at the entrance (that the party will probably obliterate), although the castle still looks abandoned. When they go inside to explore the dungeon, they will find Pike alone in a room trying to open a hidden door in a wall. He tells the party that what they're looking for is probably behind it because he's looking for the same thing (the party will probs be looking for how to trap Fraz, Pike will just be looking for information about Fraz because he's started to get suspicious), and that he knows how to open the door but can't do it. Hopefully the party will help him and try to open the door. When they do this, the entrance to the room closes and the hidden door opens.
		- **Brings:** There will be more Silvertongues standing guard and some more within the walls. The two groups won't fight on sight but General Hopkins will try to pull imminent domain on them and rant about how the powerful god Zagyg left this castle here for his mortal followers and they need to leave, etc. The Silvertongues will say they're just here looking for some specific knowledge, they're not planning to stay in the castle. After a moment of arguing, Pike will approach from the castle and take over the Silvertongues' side of the argument. He says that the dungeon is locked and that it seems in everyone's best interest to work together to open it, also making clear that they can't do it without him [needs thing he can do that other can't]. Depending on how the party mediates this dispute, this could either end up with an understanding being reached or a fight.
			* Understanding: Pike, Mathias, and the party will enter the castle's dungeon together.
			* Fight: Pike and Mathias will duel. It will be a close fight but Mathias will win, knocking Pike to the ground. He commands Pike to lead him, the party, and a group of Devouts into the dungeon and then he and the Silvertongues will leave and never return.
	+ Inside they will find that the walls of the underground dungeon tell a story of how Fraz Urb'luu deceives mortals into becoming his warlocks, dooming their souls to eternal suffering and servitude with him, and how entrapping the souls of mortals this way is part of something he's planning. A lot of the walls are cracked, and there are skeletons and signs of destruction everywhere. One room looks like an altar of some kind, and an inscription on the wall begins explaining how to break the oath of a warlock even in death, but the rest has been intentionally destroyed. There is a large, circular chamber in the middle, with runes burned into the walls and a huge hole blown out of one wall.
	+ Pike will realize what this means for him. and start to panic about being deceived and having his soul doomed.
		- Devouts: If the fight option happened and there are other Devouts there, they will realize that he's saying he's a warlock of Fraz and want to kill him on the spot, but Mathias will stop them.
	+ He'll seize up for a moment followed by his eyes turning black with a green haze. Fraz will speak through him, telling them that trying to trap him the same way won't work again. He'll also joke that he's become particularly fond of Half-Elven souls (both Ömorhen and Pike are Half-Elves). Pike will start attacking the party, his eyes still black. If any mind-reading or mental communication is used on him, Pike will be able to communicate back (not Fraz). If he's knocked to zero non-lethally or put to sleep, he will wake up a minute later without Fraz's control. He tells the party to leave, and how to open the door. He also asks them to figure out the ritual to breaking a warlock's contract, and not to contact him again before then so that Fraz Urb'luu can't learn what they're doing through him.
		- Devouts: Mathias will command his men to use non-lethal force. After the fight, he will briefly interrogate Pike about Fraz and who his other warlocks are, and will also promise Pike to assist in breaking his contract with Fraz.
	+ He also knows that the Silvertongues are based somewhere between Burrova and Valhurst.
* In the ruins of Burrova there are a few small libraries and one grand one. The city's destruction predates Fraz Urb'luu's escape from Castle Greyhawk, so the knowledge used to trap him and the process of breaking a warlock's oath may be there. Most of the ruins have been scavenged over the centuries, but places like libraries, military installations, and government structures may have hidden rooms or basements that are inaccessible to most. The party can learn all this from The Burrova Restoration Society.
	+ Hidden in the grand library are two volumes of the Demonomicon. They describe the specific methods for forcibly summoning and binding a number of demon lords as well as their truenames, but not Fraz Urb'luu. The books each indicate that there are [a number] other volumes.

**The Torkel Arc:** Expand on James. Lysandre, Kristianna, and Hex get some stuff.

* Getting to Torkel (City) from Redwyn will take them to the Spring Pass area, to Wynne, through Torkel Forest, and maybe a little bit of The Great Sea. They will most likely encounter The Scarlet Circle in Spring Pass, some Silvertongues in Wynne, and some presence of The Torkel Trading Company in Torkel Forest.
* James' parents, Nicholas and Silvia Windstorm, and his sister, Eliza Windstorm, are all at The University of Torkel's Mage's College. Nicholas and Silvia are professors/researchers, Eliza is a student in her first year. Read Plans for James for more info on James' arc.
	+ They will all be relieved to know James is okay, but very angry because he didn't tell them he was leaving the college. James cleaned out his dorm when he left, and had indicated to Eliza that he felt more like a sorcerer than a wizard, so they assumed that he had left of his own accord.
* If they are on campus at the University or have been in town for a while, they will be contacted by messengers from the University's Artificer's College that professor Makuria Irasa wishes to speak with Hex because she's discovered another construct like him. Read Plans for Hex for more info.
	+ The body of Hex's brother, Oct, was recently discovered in Torkel Forest by hunters who brought him back to the University. He is still deactivated, and she doesn't know how to reactivate him or if he's dead.
	+ Makuria tells them that she worked with Tarren Soong to create Hex, but she doesn't have experience with this new model that he must've made after she left.
	+ If the party wants to know more about her experience creating Hex, use Tarren Soong's journal entries on his page for reference. The events took place about 5 years earlier. The two first met decades earlier when she traveled to Belhaven for research while earning her doctorate in Artificery from the University.
* Lysandre has many friends at the docks, some of them with a bit of influence.
* The party knows that the crystal piece of The Staff of Power is located in a body of water, although they don't know that it's specifically in The Great Sea. There will be references and lore in town about a great event on Lake Isle in the Great Sea that completely destroyed the city of Ekin. They may recall that they met a wizard by the same name (I think Ekin gave them the book that let them see the staff pieces but I'm not sure).
* The Wizards' Guild's Torkel chapter has many powerful artifacts and exotic lore brought there by Alexander Windstorm after his legendary decades-long journey across the continent.
	+ A volume of the Demonomicon
		- This book is owned by Nicholas Windstorm but is currently held in the Wizards' Guild library. The library is inaccessible to non-members, so the party will have to either convince him to let them see it, become members of the guild, or find a way inside.
		- This volume specifically has a page written by Alexander describing a place called Whitestone Tower that lies on the banks of Crest Lake. Many demons and half-demons are named as having lived there in the past, including one named Kenora Dyab.
			* Should Kristianna and her mother be included on this page as well? The Demonomicon is supposed to contain a piece of the Abyss which keeps the book up to date, so it could have automatically created entries for them when they were born?
	+ A small statue of Falazure
	+ The Mantle of the Phoenix
	+ Many books written by Alexander
		- One describing the items he brought back, where and how he found them, what he knows about them.
		- One describing the interesting places he's been in a kind of encyclopedic way.
		- One that tells the story of his travels, more of an autobiography.
			* Mentions of a powerful group of adventurers whose path briefly aligned with his in the isles off the east coast of the continent.

**The Creston Arc:** Expand on Kristianna and Lysandre.

* In Spring Pass, the Runehunters often come into conflict with The Scarlet Circle due to their forceful methods of finding Runechildren. Kristianna's unique appearance will alert them to her presence (they already have knowledge of her). Read Plans for Kristianna for more info.
	+ The Scarlet Circle have managed to learn some of the Runehunters' primary targets, one of them being a blue tiefling in the Redwyn/Valhurst region. Most will protect her and the party from the Runehunters, but some may try to earn the bounty on her.
	+ The party can learn from many people that the Runehunters are a new problem in the area, having recently started recruiting in Creston.
	+ Lysandre's brother, Garlyn Ravensmane, is a member of the Runehunters and is assigned to the area. He would betray the Runehunters before hurting Lysandre or any of his friends.
* In the Westerwoods near Eris, Ga'arel is independently hunting Runehunters to get revenge on them and train his skills.
	+ It would be kind of funny if we had Micah's old character trying to kill his new character's brother lmao
* North of Creston (City) is Whitestone Tower, an ancient tower surrounded by the weathered ruins of a castle. Read Plans for Kristianna for more info.
	+ The Devouts of Zagyg have established themselves in the tower, and have been making excursions into the expansive labyrinth beneath it to locate magical artifacts. They have a lot of the labyrinth near the base of the tower mapped but it goes much deeper than that.
	+ They will tell the party that the General, Mathias Hopkins, has been away taking care of more important business, but they won't give any more information as his mission is classified. (He is in the Val Mountains searching for Castle Greyhawk).
	+ There are many demonic and abyssal creatures still living in the labyrinth, as well as traps to stop intruders from stealing the magical artifacts and demonic knowledge hidden within. This labyrinth will be a true dungeon crawl.
	+ The final room will contain a number of items with runic magic and other magical artifacts, including a volume of the Demonomicon. On the wall is a large, circular mirror on the wall that's pitch black with a red shine. If anyone touches the mirror, a red light is emitted from the mirror and everyone who does not have ties to the Abyss will have to pass a DC 15 Intelligence saving throw or take 6d6 Psychic damage (half on success). After a moment, a woman with blue skin, red hair, a long blue arrow-tipped tail, clawed hands, and a large pair of bat-like wings appears in the mirror, walking towards the party. She stands in front of the mirror on her side, looking at everyone. (the mirror is a portal to the Abyss)
		- This woman is the succubus Kenora. She is the mother of Bel Dyab, Kristianna's mother. She had Bel with a human man, making her an Alu-Fiend (or Cambion). Also making Kenora Kristianna's grandmother (Bel's father gave her the Dyab name, and he would be long dead by now). She and Kristianna will have a brief telepathic conversation that will only last a few seconds for everyone else.
		- Idea: Kenora sent Bel to seduce Randall because she knew Randall's work and affinity with runes had imprinted him with unique magic. When Bel abandoned her mission and fell in love with Randall, she didn't interfere because she understood the temptation from her own previous affairs with humans, namely Bel's father.
	+ After a moment, one of the Devouts will cast a spell that pulls Kenora through the mirror into the room. The Devouts will attempt to kill Kenora, and the party will have to decide what to do.

**The Belhaven Arc:** Expand on Hex and learn more about Eternal Wars.

* Getting to Belhaven (City) from Redwyn will first take them to the Spring Pass area, to Prylin, and through The Dimwoods. They will most likely encounter The Scarlet Circle in Spring Pass, some Silvertongues in Prylin, and members of The Dimwoods Hunters' Guild in the Dimwoods.
* In Belhaven, it will be pretty easy to find Tarren Soong as he is serving as the Master Artificer of The Artificers' Guild. Read Plans for Hex for more info.
	+ Tarren Soong is working on a new project for the upcoming Master Artificer's Election, basically a big science fair and tech expo held every 5 years by the Artificer's Guild to decide the next Master Artificer. His project is a large, warforged-like construct that a humanoid can pilot. His prototype is obviously fitted for a gnome.
	+ Shivae Lenoran, the reigning Chancellor of Belhaven, is trying to sabotage Tarren to prevent him from defending his position as Master Artificer. She's doing this because the Master Artificer is usually also elected Chancellor by The Belhaven Council and she doesn't want to lose her position. She was able to subvert the Chancellor vote last time by spreading rumors of Tarren defying Primus when he was working on the Warforged project that won him the previous Master Artificer's Election.
	+ Shivae has also secretly authorized a project in The Lostwoods where the sentient trees in the forest are being turned into Warforged Juggernauts to create an army with naturally magical bodies and the souls of the trees they're made of. These Warforged are highly unstable.
* The Silvertongues are also in the city attempting to locate the upper shaft piece of The Staff of Power. It is protected inside the core of a giant iron golem disguised as a statue in the center of the central plaza.