D&D 3.5 The Marked campaign reconstruction
Synopsis: Magical plague rapidly spreads across country, continent, possibly globe. Plague has no apparent downsides - a one inch diameter symbol 'mark' appears somewhere on the body. Symbols are of no known language. Initially there is no effect on anything except cosmetic. All sentient races get it and they vary widely.
What causes plague? Need to decide. Approaching Elder Evil? PCs may be too low level.
Plague has phases. Initial phase: Cosmetic, by design and color. They correspond to Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Good, Evil, Law, Chaos, Mind, Body, Soul, Positive, Negative, Plants, Animals. May expand or shrink list.
Faint sign: People begin to express their mark a bit more. Regardless of race, class, or alignment. For instance, those with Good marks behave a little nicer, are a little more generous and respectful. Those with Plant marks enjoy being outside more and smelling things. Those with Water marks drink more water and think about bodies of water. Those with Negative marks act more morose and depressive. Those with Body marks exercise more. This takes course over a week or two or three.
PCs arrive either before or during the Faint sign. Before they can fully investigate or explore what's going on, they are hired by a local Magistrate, Myshelle, to investigate a more pressing problem: Either blaming the humans for the appearance of the Marks or taking them as a sign from their dark gods, tribes of savage humanoids are launching a war. The Magistrate suggests the marks were caused by the tribes themselves in some foul demonic act to weaken them, though she's not sure. She wants the PCs to check it out.
This is a complete ruse. Myshelle (Lich? Pre-Lich? Undecided) is in league with a rogue Mind Flayer, and while they are not responsible for the marks, they recognize in them a potent alien magic (Possibly an incoming Elder Evil?) and wish to experiment. Starting a war would give them fewer prying eyes. The Mind Flayer is in charge of leading the armies and conducting experiments on captives: Myshelle is in charge of sowing confusion and conducting her own experiments. If she is found out, it will seem like the Mind Flayer has Myshelle under its control: The opposite is true, the Illithid is under a Geas to help Myshelle take control of the plague.
The PCs are given a contact: A human female Truenamer who is 'charged' with investigating this magical phenominon happening. If the PCs find anything, they are to report to her. She has an Evil mark right on her forehead. She is actually very Evil already, and an absolute fanatic: But she disguises this very well. Her main task is to keep tabs on the PCs and make sure they do not stumble over anything they are not supposed to. She is loyal to Myshelle only in that she believes helping Myshelle spread and advance the Marks will reveal powerful, ancient magical beings. The Truenamer knows the Dark Speech.
PCs discover little about the plague and become 'infected' themselves, though because they are Persons of Legacy, they can resist it better than commoners. Most of their focus is on the incoming hordes. They eventually discover task parties of more magically inclined savage humanoids undertaking raids and doing experiments on prisoners or townsfolks, trying to manipulate the Marks, often casting never-before-seen spells from scrolls upon townsfolk: Varying effects happen.
PCs track down the commander responsible for the raids and field experiments: He is wiley however, and smart, and leads them on quite a chase through the mountains, eventually killing him near an ancient Dwarven fortress, dilapitated. The Mind Flayer and his thralls make their base here. They discover the Mind Flayer's lab, some early experiments, a couple research notes, and a huge magical device of unknown purpose, looking half-constructed. The PCs will fight the Mind Flayer here. After defeating it, they will vaguely gleam that the construct's purpose is to take, or create, Mark energy, either adding or removing Marks from people. If the PCs get a high enough search or Knowledge check of some kind, they will discover the Mind Flayer's correspondence with Myshelle, and some hints about her goals. If not, they will leave 'victorious' that they defeated the commander of the savage humanoid army.
After PCs deal with the Mind Flayer, they may or may not know Myshelle's true role. They go back to the town to tell or confront Myshelle - but they find that the plague has progressed to the Moderate sign: People are not just acting differently, but they are becoming different. Good marked people are now all Aasimaars. Evil marked are all Tieflings. Chaos marked are all starting to turn into Slaads. Lawful marked are turning into Inevitables or Fomorians, undecided which. Elemental marks become Genasi. Etc for all marks. Plant marked people are turning into half-plant people. Other than the strong-willed people, alignments of most everyone are shifted one step closer to their respective paragons. PCs all gain minor benefits based on their Marks, but do not shift. Additionally, if they attempt to deal with the remaining savage humanoid army, they will find that while it is still active and coherent, interally there are schisms as Marked start forming their own clans, not exactly friendly with their differently-marked former army.
When they return all the way, they do not find Myshelle; instead they find the Truenamer waiting for them. If the PCs are unknowing of Myshelle's role, the Truenamer attempts to dupe them into following her to Myshelle's underground laboratory, for capture and experimentation: The PCs are some of the few people who are not displaying changes to Outsiders or Elementals or the like. If the PCs do know of Myshelle's role, they likely try to tell the Truenamer the truth: The Truenamer will act surprised, and try to lead the PCs into the laboratory, the same trap. The PCs then have to fight and kill the Truenamer.
After her death, the PCs can then explore the massive, underground laboratory - they will find experiments, research notes, theories, Mark-changed captives, and other horrors they can choose to fight or avoid. Eventually they will reach Myshelle, in her Main Laboratory, just as she is conducting an experiment on some high-profile person: They will watch Myshelle cast a strange spell, and four caged/chained captives around the Subject have their marks somehow 'ripped' off their bodies and all placed on the Subject, who then undergoes a horrible transformation. Myshelle looses this monster on the PCs and makes her escape.
After defeating the monster, the PCs resurface. The plague has advanced to Strong sign: People are losing their mortality, and gain the Half-Celestial, Half-Devil, etc etc templates. Their alignments shift one step again. Groups of like-marked people are banding together and warring with other groups, often in the streets. It is total chaos. The PCs gleam from the notes that Myshelle left behind as she fled, that she's going to try and activate the Device back at the Dwarven Fortress, for she believes that if she can become Marked with all of the Marks at the same time, she will ascend to divinity. As they race towards the fortress, they will see that the Marks are rapidly advancing: People are starting to fully become elementals or angels or devils, demons, plants, animals, fey, undead, etc. The PCs can guess this is a continent, or planet-wide loss of life and mortal potential.
The PCs then race to the Dwarven Hall to stop Myshelle. They confront her there, while she is repairing the machine: She beat them there with a Greater Teleport, but not that long ago. Myshelle then climbs into the device and activates it - the device then rips all the marks off the surrounding PCs and adds them to herself: She laughs, saying how she is growing in power, she can feel it, she can feel all the other marked. She says she can command them, and she will crush the PCs and turn this world into her godling playground.
However, the uncompleted Device kills her and explodes. In its place, stands one Creature for each Mark that exists, though all of them resemble Myshelle in some way. Each time the PCs kill a Creature, there is a flash of energy, and a sense of cosmic balance returns a little bit.
The PCs must defeat all the creatures to anhilliate the Marks. No Creature will do anything except attack the PCs. If the PCs attempt to capture one or more creatures, perhaps so that all the mortals who were afflicted with that Mark will not change back, then sometime later the Creature will be ripped through the planes, along with every mortal afflicted by that creature's mark, and deposited on their home plane. They will hate the PCs and may return in the far flung future.
What causes plague? Need to decide. Approaching Elder Evil? PCs may be too low level.
Plague has phases. Initial phase: Cosmetic, by design and color. They correspond to Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Good, Evil, Law, Chaos, Mind, Body, Soul, Positive, Negative, Plants, Animals. May expand or shrink list.
Faint sign: People begin to express their mark a bit more. Regardless of race, class, or alignment. For instance, those with Good marks behave a little nicer, are a little more generous and respectful. Those with Plant marks enjoy being outside more and smelling things. Those with Water marks drink more water and think about bodies of water. Those with Negative marks act more morose and depressive. Those with Body marks exercise more. This takes course over a week or two or three.
PCs arrive either before or during the Faint sign. Before they can fully investigate or explore what's going on, they are hired by a local Magistrate, Myshelle, to investigate a more pressing problem: Either blaming the humans for the appearance of the Marks or taking them as a sign from their dark gods, tribes of savage humanoids are launching a war. The Magistrate suggests the marks were caused by the tribes themselves in some foul demonic act to weaken them, though she's not sure. She wants the PCs to check it out.
This is a complete ruse. Myshelle (Lich? Pre-Lich? Undecided) is in league with a rogue Mind Flayer, and while they are not responsible for the marks, they recognize in them a potent alien magic (Possibly an incoming Elder Evil?) and wish to experiment. Starting a war would give them fewer prying eyes. The Mind Flayer is in charge of leading the armies and conducting experiments on captives: Myshelle is in charge of sowing confusion and conducting her own experiments. If she is found out, it will seem like the Mind Flayer has Myshelle under its control: The opposite is true, the Illithid is under a Geas to help Myshelle take control of the plague.
The PCs are given a contact: A human female Truenamer who is 'charged' with investigating this magical phenominon happening. If the PCs find anything, they are to report to her. She has an Evil mark right on her forehead. She is actually very Evil already, and an absolute fanatic: But she disguises this very well. Her main task is to keep tabs on the PCs and make sure they do not stumble over anything they are not supposed to. She is loyal to Myshelle only in that she believes helping Myshelle spread and advance the Marks will reveal powerful, ancient magical beings. The Truenamer knows the Dark Speech.
PCs discover little about the plague and become 'infected' themselves, though because they are Persons of Legacy, they can resist it better than commoners. Most of their focus is on the incoming hordes. They eventually discover task parties of more magically inclined savage humanoids undertaking raids and doing experiments on prisoners or townsfolks, trying to manipulate the Marks, often casting never-before-seen spells from scrolls upon townsfolk: Varying effects happen.
PCs track down the commander responsible for the raids and field experiments: He is wiley however, and smart, and leads them on quite a chase through the mountains, eventually killing him near an ancient Dwarven fortress, dilapitated. The Mind Flayer and his thralls make their base here. They discover the Mind Flayer's lab, some early experiments, a couple research notes, and a huge magical device of unknown purpose, looking half-constructed. The PCs will fight the Mind Flayer here. After defeating it, they will vaguely gleam that the construct's purpose is to take, or create, Mark energy, either adding or removing Marks from people. If the PCs get a high enough search or Knowledge check of some kind, they will discover the Mind Flayer's correspondence with Myshelle, and some hints about her goals. If not, they will leave 'victorious' that they defeated the commander of the savage humanoid army.
After PCs deal with the Mind Flayer, they may or may not know Myshelle's true role. They go back to the town to tell or confront Myshelle - but they find that the plague has progressed to the Moderate sign: People are not just acting differently, but they are becoming different. Good marked people are now all Aasimaars. Evil marked are all Tieflings. Chaos marked are all starting to turn into Slaads. Lawful marked are turning into Inevitables or Fomorians, undecided which. Elemental marks become Genasi. Etc for all marks. Plant marked people are turning into half-plant people. Other than the strong-willed people, alignments of most everyone are shifted one step closer to their respective paragons. PCs all gain minor benefits based on their Marks, but do not shift. Additionally, if they attempt to deal with the remaining savage humanoid army, they will find that while it is still active and coherent, interally there are schisms as Marked start forming their own clans, not exactly friendly with their differently-marked former army.
When they return all the way, they do not find Myshelle; instead they find the Truenamer waiting for them. If the PCs are unknowing of Myshelle's role, the Truenamer attempts to dupe them into following her to Myshelle's underground laboratory, for capture and experimentation: The PCs are some of the few people who are not displaying changes to Outsiders or Elementals or the like. If the PCs do know of Myshelle's role, they likely try to tell the Truenamer the truth: The Truenamer will act surprised, and try to lead the PCs into the laboratory, the same trap. The PCs then have to fight and kill the Truenamer.
After her death, the PCs can then explore the massive, underground laboratory - they will find experiments, research notes, theories, Mark-changed captives, and other horrors they can choose to fight or avoid. Eventually they will reach Myshelle, in her Main Laboratory, just as she is conducting an experiment on some high-profile person: They will watch Myshelle cast a strange spell, and four caged/chained captives around the Subject have their marks somehow 'ripped' off their bodies and all placed on the Subject, who then undergoes a horrible transformation. Myshelle looses this monster on the PCs and makes her escape.
After defeating the monster, the PCs resurface. The plague has advanced to Strong sign: People are losing their mortality, and gain the Half-Celestial, Half-Devil, etc etc templates. Their alignments shift one step again. Groups of like-marked people are banding together and warring with other groups, often in the streets. It is total chaos. The PCs gleam from the notes that Myshelle left behind as she fled, that she's going to try and activate the Device back at the Dwarven Fortress, for she believes that if she can become Marked with all of the Marks at the same time, she will ascend to divinity. As they race towards the fortress, they will see that the Marks are rapidly advancing: People are starting to fully become elementals or angels or devils, demons, plants, animals, fey, undead, etc. The PCs can guess this is a continent, or planet-wide loss of life and mortal potential.
The PCs then race to the Dwarven Hall to stop Myshelle. They confront her there, while she is repairing the machine: She beat them there with a Greater Teleport, but not that long ago. Myshelle then climbs into the device and activates it - the device then rips all the marks off the surrounding PCs and adds them to herself: She laughs, saying how she is growing in power, she can feel it, she can feel all the other marked. She says she can command them, and she will crush the PCs and turn this world into her godling playground.
However, the uncompleted Device kills her and explodes. In its place, stands one Creature for each Mark that exists, though all of them resemble Myshelle in some way. Each time the PCs kill a Creature, there is a flash of energy, and a sense of cosmic balance returns a little bit.
The PCs must defeat all the creatures to anhilliate the Marks. No Creature will do anything except attack the PCs. If the PCs attempt to capture one or more creatures, perhaps so that all the mortals who were afflicted with that Mark will not change back, then sometime later the Creature will be ripped through the planes, along with every mortal afflicted by that creature's mark, and deposited on their home plane. They will hate the PCs and may return in the far flung future.