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Zenshichi
2016-02-06, 01:35 AM
I have decided to go from lurker to poster to find some help.

About 6 months ago my group completed an epic, 3 year long game. The last 6 months saw a interim megadungeon that was really more of a chance to catch my breath by focusing on combat than anything else. At the conclusion of the megadungeon, I gave my players the chance to give me input on what they wanted to do next. 6 of 6 asked to bring back the epic characters for another go.

I was hoping the many experience DMs on the forums might give me some campaign ideas for a high level party. What follows is a rules-lite outline of the campaign group and campaign so far.

The PCs:

Rhonda, Druid/Barbarian, Primary Meat-shield and Melee Combatant

Kelsier, Wizard, Debuffer and Battlefield control

Beatrix, Wizard, Buffer and occasional blaster

Xela, Factotum, General Fixer, Party Face

Jelessa, Cleric, DMM Buffer

"Trixie", Sorceress, Summoner

The Story So Far:

Act 1:
The Campaign began with the Heroes seeking to keep their home city of Kahdesh independent in the face of invasion by the Valka Empire. The empire drew considerable power from the fact that many of it's noble families were blood bound to devils (read as Warlocks). The heroes served the Prince of their city and broke the power of the empire's western army through a combination of their own prowess and gathering a list of allies that was... adequate. The climactic battle saw the last blooded prince of Valka slain by the heroes hands, which happened to be the clause for a powerful devil to enter into the world.

Act 2:
The Devil, Elmeael the Shade, began to spread madness and destruction. My players tracked him across the kingdom but always remained a step behind (often because of his teleportation abilities). It quickly became apparent that his goal was the "Crown of Erodath", an artifact left over from an ascended mortal, now God of Magic. Act 2 became a race between Devil and Heroes to find and recover the artifact. In appropriate climactic fashion, it was a tie. The final battle between the two saw the destruction of the crown, and the release of the lich that was imprisoned within.

Act 3:
The battle between the legendary and ancient lich Ar'zan and the Heroes lasted for several levels longer than I had originally planned. The lich took full advantage of the death and destruction wrought in the first two acts to create an army. He gathered allies that had remained in hiding for centuries since his imprisonment. The final battle was epic, heroes, allies, demons, dragons, armies, vampires, zombies. The players got a short epilogue for their characters, but that is where it ended.


So what comes next? What can I throw at a party that has defeated empires, devils and the undead? What can I do to top a campaign that reshaped my campaign world?

JoeJ
2016-02-06, 02:34 AM
For a change-up, give them something they can't defeat by fighting. Maybe the wars against the empire, devils, and the lich unleashed so much evil and destruction that the Fates have decided it's time to end this cycle of the world and start fresh.

It starts with the weather getting crazy. Instead of winter ending when it should, it just keeps getting colder. The dead start spontaneously rising and attacking people. Among mortals, greed and anger seem completely out of control; former allies are going to war with one another and crime is rampant. Demons have invaded the realm of the gods, and they're ignoring the pleas of their worshippers. Boundaries between planes start to weaken, and magic of any kind becomes unreliable.

The PCs have to figure out what is going on and then confront the Fates. And this is important: the Fates have no game stats and can not be defeated in combat. Not even by the gods. The only way to save the world is for the PCs to convince the Fates that there's still enough good in the world to be worth saving; that it's not time to just destroy everything and start over. If they succeed, things return to normal and the PCs should probably ascend to godhood or something similar.