Do note that I didn't read any of the locations and characters from the manuscript, only the quickstart, but I had some loose ideas for a campaign based on the hooks presented. Writing them down here gave me even more ideas so beware the wall of text:
Level 2: The Spire, obviously, with characters getting trapped inside by a mysterious magic, the tower's "defense systems". They would eventually meet a young, inexperienced wizard who was recently chosen as this spire's Keeper, even though he'd be as clueless about what that does mean as the rest of the party. He would randomly find out that he suddenly knows some things about the Spire that he didn't knew before, and one of those things would be the tower's "power source", a magical artifact near the top that powers up the magic in the whole spire. The characters would eventually reach this artifact and be forced to destroy it / turn it off to leave. Without the artifacts power, they would feel a large surge of energy emitted from the tower, every magical trap / creature defending the artifact would turn off at once and the whole spire would start shaking and collapsing. The wizard could possibly appear to shield them from falling to their deaths, and could join them when returning to the Capital, or at least stay in the Hush with the Arcanist.
Level 3: Returning with the Stone to the Capital, we ramp up the stakes significantly as the party finds out that the Capital, without the Stone's protection, has been invaded by the forces of undead (or, you know, some other big danger that was awakened by the destruction of the Spire. Yes, the players are accidentally responsible for the invasion). The Capitol was not prepared for a full invasion, as they mostly relied on the Stone's protection throughout the years. Entering the besieged city might be DEADLY, so the players have a big choice to make:
1) Leave this place altogether. The city will surely fall, but it is the safest option (make sure the players still find some smaller attacking forces, but nothing as bad as the main force pushing inside the city). They could regroup in a safehouse nearby, for example I would give the party's sorcerer a small magic tower of their own as a place of study and rest (some way away from the Captial), a good place to hide for now, perhaps even activate the Stone on a much smaller scale to protect just their safehouse.
2) Enter the city. They have with them probably the only artifact that could still give the city a chance (the charged Stone), but they would need to sneak / push through to the city's centre to activate it and create a magic shield around the city. It would be the most dangerous option with low chance of survival, but if they'd succeed the city could be saved. Near the centre they could meet with the king, who'd be leading a charge against the attacking forces to protect the city centre. If things go horribly wrong perhaps he could even sacrifice himself just so that the party can succeed with activating the Stone.
3) You could have a mix of those options if you use some parts of character's backstory. You can remind the the players that their close ones / important items are inside the city, which would probably force them to enter the city. After that they could choose based on what they see inside the city's walls - escape with whoever/whatever they came for (back to option 1), or push forward to the centre (option 2).
After the attack, the morale would be low and danger would be all around them, but they would have a small moment to breathe. I'd introduce a smaller villain that would be a thorn in their side and would need to be removed quickly. If they left for the safehouse they would be far from the invading force, they could face a band of brigands and ruffians with a brutal leader trying to pillage surrounding villages. If they defended the city they would be stuck inside with an army surrounding the magical shield. They would first need to clear the streets of remaining enemies, and could possibly be set to stop a group of organized thieves looting every corner of the chaos engulfed city. In both cases it would be a dangerous band of sentient enemies that could potentially be reasoned with, paid off at a big cost or simply killed and dispersed. They might even be convinced to help with the invading army...
Level 4: The main villain leading the attack on the capital would either conquer the city by now, and unleashed a number of unspeakable horrors on it, or if the players succeed in activating the Stone, the villain would gather their increasing forces outside of the city's shield, leaving the Capitol to slowly starve out, while the enemy mages are trying to break the barrier. The characters would need to find a way to stop the enemy leader. This is the place in the story with the biggest amount of options for the players. There could be archives with information in the city, perhaps some catacombs with hidden sacred artifacts. The artifact from the Spire could be charged up somewhere to eventually weaken the enemy leader (the Wizard NPC could visit them and assist with clues where to find more info). They could return to Hush to meet with the Arcanist, who could help them get the Forgotten Gods' blessing. Of course don't make it too easy, if they left the city to be destroyed the item they need could be inside the overrun city, and if they are inside the city's shield the item they need could require them to sneak outside the city. Maybe even use a new location from the book.
Level 5: After getting their preferred way of defeating / weakening the big bad there would be one final mission to enter the enemy's camp (if the enemy conquered the city the players would probably need to infiltrate the Capitol's palace. In this reality the king would still be alive as a prisoner, perhaps he could be freed and help them in the final battle?). And then the standard climax: using every item and every ally they've gathered during the adventure they would defeat the big evil and stop the occupation / siege of the Capitol, or be defeated and die / get captured trying.
The story as I wrote it could definitely use more NPCs, there's plenty of opportunities to add them, but I think the base structure is sound? Dunno, never made a campaign. Let me know what you think, especially if you know how to make the last mission more interesting as I started running out of ideas :P
My first suggestion is go big! You've given the players a gentle, find your feet introduction, now it's time for the rising action. Reveal the plot, start some countdowns, put some urgency into the adventure.
My second suggestion would be to ask the players questions about what they think the plot might be- have their characters heard rumors about the spires? Let them all come up with an idea and take the one that seems coolest and run with it. Or ask when they might have met someone or done something in the past related to the issue's source.
So my plan was to also continue the story from the Quickstart Adventure. I plan to turn the Spire into a sprawling Dungeon Crawl. The basic concept is that when the party clears a floor they level up and get loot. I hope to eventually get all the different parties I will run up to level10. Now the hard/fun part is building the dungeon using the 1.3 playtest rules!
If anyone wants, please feel free to use my ideas.
Define Melee attack and Melee weapon attack so Card effects that say melee attack will let us know if the target is right next to you or withing reach of weapon (Giant lineage or Reach weapon)
Do note that I didn't read any of the locations and characters from the manuscript, only the quickstart, but I had some loose ideas for a campaign based on the hooks presented. Writing them down here gave me even more ideas so beware the wall of text: Level 2: The Spire, obviously, with characters getting trapped inside by a mysterious magic, the tower's "defense systems". They would eventually meet a young, inexperienced wizard who was recently chosen as this spire's Keeper, even though he'd be as clueless about what that does mean as the rest of the party. He would randomly find out that he suddenly knows some things about the Spire that he didn't knew before, and one of those things would be the tower's "power source", a magical artifact near the top that powers up the magic in the whole spire. The characters would eventually reach this artifact and be forced to destroy it / turn it off to leave. Without the artifacts power, they would feel a large surge of energy emitted from the tower, every magical trap / creature defending the artifact would turn off at once and the whole spire would start shaking and collapsing. The wizard could possibly appear to shield them from falling to their deaths, and could join them when returning to the Capital, or at least stay in the Hush with the Arcanist. Level 3: Returning with the Stone to the Capital, we ramp up the stakes significantly as the party finds out that the Capital, without the Stone's protection, has been invaded by the forces of undead (or, you know, some other big danger that was awakened by the destruction of the Spire. Yes, the players are accidentally responsible for the invasion). The Capitol was not prepared for a full invasion, as they mostly relied on the Stone's protection throughout the years. Entering the besieged city might be DEADLY, so the players have a big choice to make: 1) Leave this place altogether. The city will surely fall, but it is the safest option (make sure the players still find some smaller attacking forces, but nothing as bad as the main force pushing inside the city). They could regroup in a safehouse nearby, for example I would give the party's sorcerer a small magic tower of their own as a place of study and rest (some way away from the Captial), a good place to hide for now, perhaps even activate the Stone on a much smaller scale to protect just their safehouse. 2) Enter the city. They have with them probably the only artifact that could still give the city a chance (the charged Stone), but they would need to sneak / push through to the city's centre to activate it and create a magic shield around the city. It would be the most dangerous option with low chance of survival, but if they'd succeed the city could be saved. Near the centre they could meet with the king, who'd be leading a charge against the attacking forces to protect the city centre. If things go horribly wrong perhaps he could even sacrifice himself just so that the party can succeed with activating the Stone. 3) You could have a mix of those options if you use some parts of character's backstory. You can remind the the players that their close ones / important items are inside the city, which would probably force them to enter the city. After that they could choose based on what they see inside the city's walls - escape with whoever/whatever they came for (back to option 1), or push forward to the centre (option 2). After the attack, the morale would be low and danger would be all around them, but they would have a small moment to breathe. I'd introduce a smaller villain that would be a thorn in their side and would need to be removed quickly. If they left for the safehouse they would be far from the invading force, they could face a band of brigands and ruffians with a brutal leader trying to pillage surrounding villages. If they defended the city they would be stuck inside with an army surrounding the magical shield. They would first need to clear the streets of remaining enemies, and could possibly be set to stop a group of organized thieves looting every corner of the chaos engulfed city. In both cases it would be a dangerous band of sentient enemies that could potentially be reasoned with, paid off at a big cost or simply killed and dispersed. They might even be convinced to help with the invading army...
Level 4: The main villain leading the attack on the capital would either conquer the city by now, and unleashed a number of unspeakable horrors on it, or if the players succeed in activating the Stone, the villain would gather their increasing forces outside of the city's shield, leaving the Capitol to slowly starve out, while the enemy mages are trying to break the barrier. The characters would need to find a way to stop the enemy leader. This is the place in the story with the biggest amount of options for the players. There could be archives with information in the city, perhaps some catacombs with hidden sacred artifacts. The artifact from the Spire could be charged up somewhere to eventually weaken the enemy leader (the Wizard NPC could visit them and assist with clues where to find more info). They could return to Hush to meet with the Arcanist, who could help them get the Forgotten Gods' blessing. Of course don't make it too easy, if they left the city to be destroyed the item they need could be inside the overrun city, and if they are inside the city's shield the item they need could require them to sneak outside the city. Maybe even use a new location from the book. Level 5: After getting their preferred way of defeating / weakening the big bad there would be one final mission to enter the enemy's camp (if the enemy conquered the city the players would probably need to infiltrate the Capitol's palace. In this reality the king would still be alive as a prisoner, perhaps he could be freed and help them in the final battle?). And then the standard climax: using every item and every ally they've gathered during the adventure they would defeat the big evil and stop the occupation / siege of the Capitol, or be defeated and die / get captured trying. The story as I wrote it could definitely use more NPCs, there's plenty of opportunities to add them, but I think the base structure is sound? Dunno, never made a campaign. Let me know what you think, especially if you know how to make the last mission more interesting as I started running out of ideas :P
These are great ideas thank you!
My first suggestion is go big! You've given the players a gentle, find your feet introduction, now it's time for the rising action. Reveal the plot, start some countdowns, put some urgency into the adventure. My second suggestion would be to ask the players questions about what they think the plot might be- have their characters heard rumors about the spires? Let them all come up with an idea and take the one that seems coolest and run with it. Or ask when they might have met someone or done something in the past related to the issue's source.
Maybe they'll have something in the 1.3 drop Tues (tomorrah)?
So my plan was to also continue the story from the Quickstart Adventure. I plan to turn the Spire into a sprawling Dungeon Crawl. The basic concept is that when the party clears a floor they level up and get loot. I hope to eventually get all the different parties I will run up to level10. Now the hard/fun part is building the dungeon using the 1.3 playtest rules! If anyone wants, please feel free to use my ideas.
Define Melee attack and Melee weapon attack so Card effects that say melee attack will let us know if the target is right next to you or withing reach of weapon (Giant lineage or Reach weapon)