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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11696 Posts |
 Posted - 28 Nov 2022 : 20:52:24
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So in this past week, I took a vacation, and during that time I read through the Light of Xaryxis adventure more just to see what they were doing. I won't say it's bad (I won't say its great either), but what I will say is there's a classic problem I'm seeing with the big 5e releases. I bring up this topic to see what people might do to fix it (not just forget it or not use it entirely). Essentially it's "Save the World from Cataclysm X" and its put in the hands of mid level parties, when it could EASILY be something more, well, believable. What am I talking about? Well, let's give the high level gist.... WARNING SPOILERS BELOW..... (NOTE IN THE BELOW, I USE SOLAR SYSTEM BECAUSE I FORGET THE COIN TERMED IN THIS PRODUCT TO REPLACE CRYSTAL SPHERE).
.... WARNING SPOILERS BELOW.....
So, the basic plot line is that there's these "astral elves". They have a failing sun because for centuries they've been basically metamagically enhancing their magic by leaching power from it. They are in a very small "solar system" with just 3 planets. They number fewer than ten thousand and many of their brethren have gone on to "elsewhere" over time. They devised a way to regenerate their star by sending out crystalline ships (star moths) to drop "star seeds" that they get from their sun. These "star seeds" then burrow down, create giants crystalline vines, and basically suck the life from the ENTIRE world and send it back in a "burst of light" that regenerates their sun. In order to stop this, they must go to the "solar system" of these "astral elves" and overthrow the current emperor (won't go into some of the other stuff there) and then destroy their sun and entire civilization to stop the "star seeds" from sucking their world dry. They include a "canned martyr" in the form of a vampire pirate who will martyr himself if none of the PC's will do it (the joke being a vampire travelling to the sun).
Along the way, they must gain allies to help them, and they go to a "solar system" called Doomspace that has effectively a giant black hole at its center sucking down the planets. It previously was enclosed in a crystal sphere "created by the primordials long ago to keep out the gods", and the "gods" shattered the crystal sphere (which all thought impossible). Now there are groups of aarakocra, humans, aartuks (starfish shaped plant creatures), ssuran (skinnier space lizard men), and thri-kreen that you must seek out to ally with you against the "evil of the astral elves empire". All of these groups are vying for the favor of a Mercane to buy spelljammers from in order to escape eventual death, and he's also running an arena. You also seek out the aid of some "vampirates"... vampire pirates.... and some giff. As far as this goes, this could be easily revamped to different groups, etc...
So, I know the authors were looking for a "Flash Gordon" feel to the story, but I feel like they could do some pretty basic things and dress this up a little better. Others may like that storyline, but I just find it unpalatable for what I would consider relatively mediocre power characters. I'd also like to hear how others might improve the story a little more.
First thing "sucks the life from an entire world".... I'm picturing more "sucks the life from a small area of the world". Easy enough fix.... but maybe we can improve on that.
Second, I know there's some canon story of a crashed elven ship (the Monarch Mordent) that is now covered in "amber and emerald crystal webs", and that during the fall of Myth Drannor they were helping the elves (source ruins of myth drannor and the greenwing war entries, and cult of the dragon under the entry for the green dracolich Dretchroyaster). Later a green dracolich moved into the area. Perhaps this ship was from BEFORE these elves turned wicked. Mentioning just because it may help improve storylines... could drop it entirely.
So, what about this?
The elves of this solar system are an offshoot of the elven imperial navy.
Their sun is powered by an ancient mated pair of solar dragons and it was growing so old that they were going to die. Their offspring that would have taken over from them were killed by .... who knows, maybe Githyanki? This just started during the reign of the previous elven ruler, so it's not forever ago.
The previous elven ruler came up with a way to prolong the life of the solar dragons. It involved taking the eggs of other dragons, firing them INTO other worlds, letting them "suck" the life from the local areas into the eggs. Then they would collect the unhatched eggs and bring them back to use some high magic ritual to rejuvenate the solar dragons.
The elves see no problem with this idea because the dragon eggs that are killed are "bad dragons".... for instance maybe red dragon eggs for their link to fire, obsidian dragons for their link to lava, or even green dragons or amber dragons since they are a source of issues for elves and their forests.
In the end, the players maybe must destroy the "artifact" that is being used to drain the life from unborn dragon eggs. This will effectively kill the solar dragons and cause their sun to "fade".
As far as allies go, gonna throw out some "unlikely" allies that the party might have to work with in order to fight their way to the center of this astral elven civilization.
Throw in a conflict with the Githyanki caused by the "astral elves" sneaking into their hatcheries for red dragons and stealing eggs.
Throw in some illithids that want to see this elven "sun" destroyed (and maybe they destroyed the sun in Doomspace by calling on some power of void and darkness).
Throw in some followers of Shar who also might want to see this sun destroyed.
Thinking the "rain of dragon eggs" could easily fit into some of the oddities we've seen happen in canon 3.5e. You might even be able to tie it into the githvyrik race, why Vhostym the sojourner creating his eclipse, and the rain of dragon eggs that happened afterward.
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Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
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Spelljammer: Revamping Light of Xaryxis
