It is a time past history, and the world is aflame. Deep within the Mountainhome, the Dwarves wage an unceasing civil war for possession of the Burning Wheel, sealed within the heirless High King’s vaults, consumed by their greed. The Elves have left this place in grief some centuries ago, letting their spires and citadels fall to ruin and plunder - and leaving those too young to remember their glories to grow bitter and dark with their hatred. The Human and Roden joint-kingdoms are alive with life and their own petty feuds, wars, and skirmishes - and happily make use of Dwarven exiles and mercenaries who come up from the deeproads in disgrace, battle-hardened and hungry for loot and plunder.
And within a ruined Elven spire, trapped with their backs against a wall, hemmed in by enemy action, a desperate splinter of a human mercenary company faces a Griffin, and loses. After two sessions of bitter struggle against a dwindling food supply and an angry monster atop the spire, that’s where my group left the situation: After failing to tunnel into an Elven Vault that could possible contain vital supplies, my surgeon and quartermaster players mustered their dice and led a bitter Bloody Tactics test against the creature who’d kept them trapped for the past few days, and though they managed to kill it, the quartermaster took a B9 Mortal Wound and passed on. The surgeon fled the company in disgrace (as they blame the Roden for failing to heal their paymaster and for making the griffin so angry in the first place) and the company split up to try and escape the dwarves who were in the employ of their opponent.
But, after talking about things, the player of the deceased character wanted to pick up with a side character I’d mentioned offhand - their employers Bodyguard, a knight with a magic sword (which was conveniently missing so they couldn’t help fight the Griffin), now released from her oath and seeking her sword again (we figured the Roden could rejoin as an adventurer/wanderer). After some discussion we worked out that while the sword is probably well made, it is in fact the Knight’s Faith that empowers it and makes it so special. There are also still the vaults of the haunted elven tower to loot!
But now I’m a bit stuck, and I turn to you all for some help:
- I’ve absolutely no idea what’s inside this ancient elven vault, and would love some cool suggestions
and - I’ve no clue at all where the sword is, or how to make hunting for the sword interesting. Maybe the Dwarves have it? Not sure!
- The Knight wishes to make the belligerent of the war (the evil Duke Ronwey) pay somehow, and I’m trying to think of interesting ways to challenge that - especially since she is Faithful.
And so I turn to you all! Help me brainstorm some cool challenges for my PCs to face, and treasures for them to find - the war between the local human kingdoms is all but won, with the richer kingdom having turned to Dwarf Mercenaries to turn the tide, but that leaves a host of gold-hungry dwarves roaming the countryside, a sacked city, and strange unexplored ruins to uncover. Happy to share more information about the world or the situation up to now as needed.
Thanks!