campaign

Tier III, Levels 7-9: Agents of the Crown

Tier III, Levels 7-9: Agents of the Crown

Scope: the whole subcontinent. Goal: thwart a blow aimed at the kingdom’s survival, earn the trust (and debts) of its powers, and reach name level (around 9th), the threshold of lordship. The map is open: the dragons, the far north, the enemy capitals.

Adventure seeds

  1. Errand to the Wyrmsteeth. The crown needs the dragons, who have refused to act against the Heldannic Warbirds, and Baron Arcadius’s envoy Sandryth can open the door to the hidden city of Windreach and the Parliament of Dragons [Alm-Arcadia] [MMB-Region] [Neri-TG]. The party must survive a court of dragons and give them a reason to move. Pays off: a dragon ally for Tier IV.
  2. The Waking Spur. The conspiracy means to wake the black dragon S’hastarl beneath the Dragon’s Spur and loose it on Ironwood and the eastern dominions [Alm-Ironwood] [Neri-TG]. A race into the under-mountain to stop (or bargain with) a waking wyrm.
  3. The Ice Tomb. The native-evil arm traced to its source: Frota’s Ice Tomb and the bound legacy of Akra, where the plot to freeze the Great Bay permanently is being worked [LoZ-R2R] [Neri-TG]. A major dungeon with the ice-power’s heart at the bottom. Breaking it is the spine’s first real victory.
  4. The Oracles of Crystykk. The party climbs to the Crones of Crystykk for the one thing they lack, the name of the prime mover and the where of his seat [CM1] [Neri-TG]. The oracles answer in riddle and price.
  5. Hold the South. A Heldannic push toward Oceansend, or a Thyatian landing from the Isle of Dawn, that the party must blunt as the crown’s shock troops [Alm-Oceansend] [Phindar-Aftermath]. Their first taste of commanding, not just fighting.
  6. The Traitor Lords. With proof in hand, the party is sent to break the spy-lords at last, Longtooth, Alak Dool, Dimitri Dikhoff, by exposure, duel, or siege of a dominion [Neri-RBP]. Each fall weakens the conspiracy and frees a dominion that could be the party’s own.

Set-piece: the Thwarted Winter

Stage the conspiracy’s great stroke: the attempt to freeze the Great Bay for good and open the whole coast to the giants of Frosthaven [Neri-TG] [Alm-Leeha]. The party, with the allies they have gathered (a Banner, a dragon, a lord’s levy), fights across the ice to break the ritual at the Ice Tomb or atop a frozen massif. Win, and the north holds. The prime mover, unmasked by the Crones, escapes to his seat, the objective of Tier IV.

Advancing the spine

The ice-power is broken; the spy-lords are falling; the kingdom owes the party a debt it cannot pay in coin. There is only one coin Ericall has left.

The gate to Tier IV

The charter. King Ericall offers the party a dominion, a frontier worth holding, by the same Land-Rush law that made every lord in Norwold [Neri-LandRush] [CM1]. Accepting makes them players in the lords’ game, and targets. Tier IV begins the moment they take the land.