I've been playing Ravenloft since it was an I6 module, through to the Grand Conjunction, and Grim Harvest campaigns. I've also run a self-made campaign that dovetails with the Grand Conjunction, where a lesser god's avatar from my own homeworld setting gets trapped in Darkon along with the PCs, and they have to help it escape by triggering the Grand Conjunction.
I got back to dusting off my 2nd ed play materials, and I was looking at the Grand Conjunction, and I began to feel that the six events in Hyskosa's Hexad were all rather provisional and didn't have much rhyme or reason to them. It seemed clear to me that TSR had written an eerie seeming poem and decided to loosely base the next few adventures on them, leaving the continuity issues up to the DM or the "blame it on the Dark Powers" logic.
Now I've got a younger and newer gaming group, and they haven't spent too much time in Ravenloft yet. Our campaign is set in the pre-GC setting, before Death and Necropolis and the entry of Vecna and Kas (and even before the Shadow Rift and the disappearance of Gundarak). I'm thinking of replacing a few of those GC adventures, for my own campaign's use, with adventures that are really significant.
Most of these will, I believe, deal with acquiring some important artifacts of the demiplane and bringing them to Azalin (or his Karget minions). I'm thinking of having the PCs recruited by several different collectors or mercenary groups, all ultimately working for the Darkon Darklord, sent to recover various important artifacts. Or possibly a few adventures will focus on killing important figures.
The question is, what objectives should these be? I like the sound of Hyskosa's Hexad, so there has to be six of them, of which two will be From the Shadows and Roots of Evil. What could the other four adventures be? Bear in mind that the items they collect (or the darklords they eliminate) have to be of real, demiplane-shaking significance, not "go out and kill a few goblyns". Each adventure involves an item that leads to steadily increasing abilities of escaping the demiplane.
Here are my ideas for the items (I'll need to have four in total):
Item 1: Vistani Mist-walking Potion. This works well with introducing Hyskosa, or his legend.
Item 2: Scroll of Return. The PCs are placed on the trail of a badly damaged Scroll of Return, which can part the mists to let a party leave Ravenloft permanently. I'm thinking of putting this in the hands of Hazlik, and having the players sent on a mission to spirit it out of his mansion.
Item 3: The Rift Spanner. Perfect for the next-to-last adventure, because the item's creator, Styrix, is already a Darkon native.
I need a few more items or important darklords. Obviously, Strahd von Zarovich is crucial to any dastardly lich-orchestrated plan to strike at the core roots of the demiplane's existence and sunder the forces of darkness and destruction upon the multiverse. Azalin too is the prime mover here.
What other darklords have significance for the demiplane, beyond the borders of their domains? I am thinking of incorporating Leo Dilisnya, as per the novel "I, Strahd", into the opening Ravenloft massacre sequence of "From the Shadows". But I really hope to make a long reaching campaign that will show Azalin as a patient, inexorable planner who uses machinations to collect several artifacts of real importance to the demiplane's existence.
The Apparatus (or, more portably, the Rod of Rastinon) might well deserve a look-in, too.
It's a shame.
*The problem with the GC is that indeed, it seems to have faded...
The actual RL campaigns *I personally know about* are set up in the time after the GC and the Requiem, so if anyone plays one of the old modules, it is done in a different way - I personally use an altered version of NotWD in my current RL campaign, as an adventure set on Darkon's northern frontier and made to fit for 6th level characters. Not all, but only a few modules are played.
Another weakness of the GC series, IMHO was that the Touch of Death adventure (?) was set in a desert region, if I am not mistaken. I was never a fan of *environmental change without motive*, so I'd never let my GG just through the mists and pop out in a desert...
Besides, as you say, you plan a long - reaching campaign. With normal gaming groups, that almost impossible, because most players don't care too much about the setting AND because every few months, the group has to reform because for some reason, there is few or no time to play. SO, such longtime campaign like GC are out of discussion for most DM.
Still GC is very good and I'd like to play it one day entirely.
Besides, as you say, you plan a long - reaching campaign. With normal gaming groups, that almost impossible, because most players don't care too much about the setting AND because every few months, the group has to reform because for some reason, there is few or no time to play. SO, such longtime campaign like GC are out of discussion for most DM.
Ah, you may have a point there! The last time I played AD&D extensively, it was in high school and I had a constant group of four or five gamers, for four whole years. So in that case the campaign worked out very well. (It also goes to show just how old I am, if I'm talking about my high school years circa the Grand Conjunction... about 10 years ago, real time!)
Currently, I'm trying to form a gaming group here too. In real life, outside of school, with jobs and girlfriends and spouses to take care of, maybe the days of a unified campaign are over ;_;
Anyhow, I'm going to post my adventure hooks and ideas here, just as any other adventure in any other setting really. And anybody who wants can critique them to try to make them better. I'll also try to post shorter, more readable posts.
The PCs are passing through a domain when a village asks them to help fight against a local darklord (preferably one ringed by the Mists when the borders are closed). Good PCs will probably participate in the "liberation", evil PCs may need to be cajoled into doing so with the darklord declaring a price on their heads.
Unbeknownst to them, Azalin also has a purpose for them. Through local Kargat cells, he puts a bandit gang on the trail of a Vistani camp near the village. The PCs arrive on scene, save the Vistani, and rout the bandits. The Vistani are on their way north to a clan meeting with Hyskosa, the great Vistani seer - they also tell the PCs about the Hexad. In return for their help, the Vistani will help the PCs out too. They give the PCs a few doses of the potion that allows them to travel the Mists. This potion is what Azalin wants, regardless of the PCs' adventure outcome.
Shortly thereafter, the village guards offer to help fight the darklord. But one man among them has been secretly killed and replaced by a Kargat operative, and this operative has taken his place. The Kargat operative, a wolfwere, fights alongside the PCs as they storm the darklord's keep, but looks out for a chance to steal the Mist potion so he can take it back to Azalin.
The rest of this adventure is a typical dungeon/castle crawl, resulting in the death or escape of the darklord. If the PCs succeed, they can leave without using up any of the potions. If they did not succeed, but managed to escape, the darklord closes the misty border. Either way, the Kargat operative betrays them at the last moment and flees into the Mists with as many doses of the potion as possible.
The darklord should ideally be a fairly low-level one, or at least one whose influence does not spread far beyond the domain border. Obviously, hitting Strahd is right out, as we need him for later. Wilfred Godefroy could work, too, but he doesn't have many "agents" working for him throughout Mordent. Tristen ApBlanc could serve well, as he can come back several times before being completely defeated. Also, he was the first new darklord after Strahd arrived in Ravenloft originally.
Comments? Suggestions?
Only that Vlad Drakov is kind of the main villain, not Strahd.
He sort of puts me in mind of Kim Jong-Il, or similar type person. Definitely to be played as a very intelligent and capable leader. He misrules the nation because of a misplaced value system (overemphasis on military, and reckless disregard for his citizens' wellbeing), but the very fact that he's able to hold the sinking ship together for so long shows he has some real talent.
Drakov demands one death every evening or so - these would probably be drawn from the ranks of his enemies and their collaborators, to build his reputation as a mighty and feared lord. (Of course, instead of cowing his opponents, it just adds to their determination to oust him.) If you can imagine the feudal/medieval equivalent of a modern day military dictatorship, Drakov would be the untouchable tyrant in the middle of the system, and the society he has built will cannibalize itself to keep him alive.
Why not have one of the items for collection something pretty nasty -the crown of souls from feast of Goblyns or even possibly EbonBane? You may want to involve the kargatane as well at some point before meeting the kargat. Indeed one of the players could be a kargatane member without really knowing.
On the Drakov front - I play him much like i imagine Stalin was. He makes an excellent opponent. As your characters improve I would include not just Talons but elite 'state' units designed to capture or kill difficult threats.
The Talons until the death 'series' were just an elite bunch of thugs who were evil due to there own choices, not some ground up amulet they were forced to eat. I liked the idea of humanity can be worse in some cases that the creatures of the night.
Really, IMC, Drakov isn't such a bad guy, just a dork who let a magic uberpower take possession of his body... After his defeat, the players are supposed to go on with old 1st ed Dungeonland...* *So indeed, my campaign's abit different from others...* :D
On the grand conjunction front:
Why not have one of the items for collection something pretty nasty -the crown of souls from feast of Goblyns or even possibly EbonBane? You may want to involve the kargatane as well at some point before meeting the kargat. Indeed one of the players could be a kargatane member without really knowing.
I like the idea of the Kargatane! I should have thought of that before, but for some reason didn't. Plus it would make better sense for a village guard to be assassinated and replaced by a human, rather than something monstrously Kargat. Good idea!
Your point about the challenging items is good for balancing the gameplay (especially if the items are in the hands of the enemies), but I want to try to stick to items that will directly part the Mists or sunder the realms. Azalin would only spend time manipulating the PCs to chase after items that would help him escape. Of course, if it fits into the game, I could write in the Crown of Souls or the Ebonbane sword, but those probably wouldn't be the main items Azalin's after. (Unless of course he wants to fool the PCs... sort of "get into this vault and steal these powerful weapons but first locate the map... and the map turns out to be what he really wants.)
Outline for the second adventure coming soon, for critiquing and comments.