Meta: Thoughts on Paladins

Paladins are really cool. A lot of people dislike them because they're seen as being "moral police" for the rest of the party. And to an extent, the rules are written to support that. Paladins have to be Lawful Good. They must always act in the best interests of their deity. They are held accountable not just for their actions, but even for the actions of the rest of the party. And quite frankly, most people find that to be pretty dumb. And I don't really blame them.
But there's another way to look at paladins. They always have to abide by the higher power of their deity - but why does that always have to be Lawful Good? I always envision paladins as being above the law, and meting out justice and serving the world in their own way. If there's an evildoer, the Paladin doesn't want to spend their time going through the legal channels and battling them in court. The Paladin wants to cut them in half with their sword. And if they don't lose their powers for doing so, that's all the evidence anybody in the world needs to support their decision.
Paladins are sometimes described as having the "Stick Up Their Own Ass" class feature. And yes, it sometimes does seem that way. They have to be uptight about everything or else they lose all their own class features. But personally I find that silly. If the Paladin has their own way of dealing with evil, then they should be encouraged to do so. Their deity empowered them for a reason. It was specifically to let them do that which nobody else in the world ever could. If they're bound by transient laws, then the entire purpose is ruined. Paladins cease to be anything other than a bureaucracy.
What I find most fascinating is how a Paladin becomes what they are. Typically, I treat them as being trained from a very young age in an isolated monastery to become living embodiments of their deity. But just recently, a player in a new campaign I started on Sunday suggested the idea of a "Paladin Training Camp" where they are trained as adults after proving themselves as warriors. I rather like the idea, since it allows paladins to be actual people rather than automatons that always play by the rules. He actually said that his character flunked out of paladin training camp, and has a hatred of authority because of it.

Minor NPC: The Blackguard

Another minor NPC, though this one would likely be a recurring villain. I feel like sometimes I do a little too much backstory for things that should be rather basic. This one is the opposite end of the spectrum. Image is courtesy of Reddit user De_Vermis_Mysteriis.


Name: The Blackguard
Race: Human
Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Description: 
The air is cold and still around this figure. He steps forward with an unnatural grace even though he should be laden by his heavy armor. Blood drips down his blade in a constant trickle, and his eyes fixate on you unwaveringly.

Profile:
The Blackguard is a human that once was a paladin. He fell from his powers and made a pact with a triad of demon lords to gain new horrific powers, and now works as their pawn in Fomor. His name has been stricken from history, and his existence proves only to tarnish the reputation of all paladin orders. He is the first of his kind, to not only survive the judgement of paladins after falling to evil, but to prove himself worthy of becoming the servant of such masters.
In combat, The Blackguard is a purely melee combattant. He closes in with whomever he can reach and duels until they die. He no longer places any value on his own life, and will not stop until his target is destroyed. His evil magic serves to give him the ability to drain life from his opponents, and also buffs himself physically. He normally only fights alone.
The purpose of this character is to be mysterious without being too intricate. His past is a secret, since none of the paladin orders are willing to admit where he came from, lest they be seen as corruptible. He himself no longer views himself as human, and now blindly obeys his masters. He can be a recurring villain for the party to face, as he serves these enigmatic beings that may have nonsensical goals to mortals.

Location: The Shore

And now for a plot-centric location! This is one that won't appear for some time in the Fomor campaign, but I want it to be well-defined and fleshed-out area for when they arrive. For now it's a very short post just to get the idea out there, but this one will definitely be revisited in the future. Picture is by René Aigner.


Description: 
The waves slowly lap at the sand. The air is salty, and smells of ozone. You can see a large figure moving beneath the water, but it seems more amorphous than well-defined. No signs of life can be seen for miles.

Info:
This is the place that Garath saw his water dragon during his dream-state. It is located on the western edge of the continent of Fomor. This is the resting place of one of the last dragons - a massive Bronze dragon that slumbers beneath the waves. It can instill great power into any of its blood line, which consists of Garath and several hundred others whose potential was not as great. Its presence has driven off every other living creature, whether or not they are even aware of its existence.
The dragon is highly intelligent and nearly omnipotent. It is so ancient and entwined with Fomor's own existence that it can view the entire continent simultaneously. As such, it knows of the party's journeys but will not intervene in any way. Its purpose in life was satisfied millenia ago when it helped to purge the Formians. Now it only persists to bestow knowledge into another that it deems worthy. Which is Garath.
As far as an adventure goes, I haven't quite decided yet. In a sense, this would be a plot-heavy RP-centric session focused on Garath. But the dragon could also have some task for the party to complete before it fully makes its judgement. The journey to the dragon, however, would be fraught with danger. The party would have to move through ancient Formian hive-cities, and vast stretches of desert. 

Minor Location: The Ruined Temple

So I'm really bad at updating all of a sudden. Yesterday was Labor Day and that was my excuse. Anywho, this image is by Trung Nguyen.


Description:
Mist weaves through the mountaintops. The structures are collapsing, and their colors have been washed away by the winds. Vines creep all around where civilization used to stand.

Info:
The Ruined Temple was home to an order of monks several decades ago. however, they have since been completely driven off. The monastery remains, though it is now decrepit and falling into disrepair. The powers of nature are now taking over the formerly orderly place.
The monks that lived here dedicated their lives to order. Their discipline and mental powers shaped the reality around this area, making it unnaturally orderly. For the most part this has no apparent effect, but especially chaotic creatures experience pain and discomfort. Especially chaotic creatures, such as demons, find that they are unable to exist in this area. However, with their new absence, the neutrality of the Material Plane is reclaiming it as its own.
Several supernatural creatures have come to call this place home. Spirits of monks seek to keep the Ruined Temple as orderly as possible in a magical sense. They are opposed by nature spirits in the area. There is a perpetual conflict between the two factions, though neither can ever actually win. As such, the area shifts back and forth between its dilapidated state and pristine condition.
In gameplay, this area would be used mostly as a surreal one-off adventure. The spirits would coerce the party into acting one way or another to shift the balance towards order or chaos, which they would then have to choose. They could of course choose neither and destroy or ignore either or both sides. This poses a way to challenge the party cohesion, to either let nature run its course or allow the spirits to have their way with their home in life.

Minor NPC: Istrix

Wow. No sooner do I talk about how great it is to finally have time to update than a bunch of stuff comes up that then prevents me from doing so. I'm really bad at this. I am trying to get this taken care of in a reasonable fashion, but I may be inconsistent in the near future. Credit for the image to De_Vermis_Mysteriis.


Name: Istrix
Race: Human
Alignment: Neutral Evil

Description:
This human is slightly taller than average. He wears brightly-colored clothing that covers all of his skin, and wields a scimitar with one hand. He keeps an assortment of other combat equipment around his person, and watches everyone around him at the same time.

Profile:
Istrix is a bounty hunter. He mostly works alone, bringing people in either dead or alive to collect rewards. As an adventuring type, Istrix tends to take on more difficult charges that others aren't capable of retrieving. He doesn't question the reasons which someone might be taken in - while some are certainly criminals and evildoers, others are good people that were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Istrix makes no distinction so long as it serves him. He is well-known for never reneging on a contract after nearly a decade in the business.
Istrix has a style of combat very similar to that of a Ranger. He is an expert tracker, and is usually lightly armored. His tactics vary based on his mark and whether the bounty is to be brought alive or dead. If lethality is approved, he will often lay traps and attack from a distance. If they need to be caught alive, then he will close into melee and attempt to net them so they can be chained and marched back.
Istrix is very detached socially. He is not very outgoing, and is mostly focused on his work. He has no family that he maintains contact with, and no friends beyond temporary colleagues. While he has never explicitly betrayed someone working a contract with him, he certainly does not go out of his way to help them should they get into trouble during the fight. He is most well known for being a lone wolf, which is rare among bounty hunters. Currently, Istrix resides in Neris as a bounty hunter kept on retainer by a noble house.

Meta: Divergent Plots

I figured that I would write this up to clarify my "plan" for the rest of the Fomor campaign. I put plan in quotation marks since the whole plan is that there really isn't one. But with a good reason.

I am a fan of divergent plots. I always like the idea of the party determining where the campaign is going, since it gives the party an element of control in their own fate.This allows for the world to feel much more involving, and gives the DM free reign to do whatever they want in the background. For instance, I post every now and then about characters that might come up should the party decide to go down a particular path. One of those paths that I posted about today was involving the fey. So far, the party has only encountered one fey, and he didn't even have a name. They didn't seem to care too much for the whole idea.
When the party encountered the fey, they entered his lair. They noticed that they were actually traversing through planes when they entered. To them this was a minor detail, and nobody even paid it a second thought. If they'd decided to question more about that information, there are a lot more plot developments they would have uncovered. For instance, in the world of Fomor there is a perpetual cold war between the different groups of fey. Denizens of the Underdark are preparing for an oncoming invasion of the Material Plane. Elements of nature are becoming perverted and warped by all the dimensional travel that's suddenly happening.
So what happens now? The players didn't bite the bait. Maybe there's a small inkling in the back of their minds that it's at least possible for this type of plot to happen, but it is by no means the focus. Each of them are right now centered only on their own personal plots, and they each view NPCs as nothing but a means to an end. And this is perfectly fine. I've dangled some other plot hooks in front of them but all of the players are pretty single-minded in wanting to fulfill their own plots before anything else. This is what drove me to feed them a giant platter of plot hooks all drawn from their own backstories.
Now all this plane-traveling plot is not just gone to waste. All of these events are still occurring in the background. The party will see evidence of it, whether they recognize it or not. A side quest every now and then might relate to these events, but it won't necessarily be the focus. As the PCs progress through their story arcs, they will become more and more involved in various events. In the future, they may never even encounter another fey - it all depends on what they decide to do in future sessions. But there are about a dozen of these different plots that may or may not ever be resolved.
This structure helps for making plots on the fly. When the PCs do something unexpected, or go somewhere that I hadn't considered. All I have to do is have a rough idea of what might be happening around the world while the PCs have been off doing their own thing. The objective is to make the entire world seem alive and dynamic. 
Right now, the party is heading off to investigate Salma's vision to the south. They are very likely to encounter dwarves and other creatures related to Salma's backstory. I won't go into too much detail about that second part, but they will be very much exposed to other elements of the world that they have never seen before. I'm not sure yet how the party will react to loose threads. Will they chase after different tangents? Will they commit to completing the tasks already set before them? I really don't know yet. But whatever they do, there is a lot that will continue to happen with or without their intervention. And that to me makes the whole game that much more interesting.

NPC: Ferellian

And now I'm back! I'm all moved in and settled into college, and I've finally got some time to get back to the blog. As I promised earlier, I will do two updates a day until I've caught up with all the posts that I failed to make. The delay was a bit longer than I had anticipated, but I'm back in action now. This post deals with an NPC that I doubt will ever see play, but the party is set up that they may encounter her later on. It helps me to establish NPCs like this early on in my mind so that I can use them should they come up later. Credit for the image to De_Vermis_Mysteriis.


Name: Ferellian
Race: Fey
Alignment: Neutral Evil

Description: This female is tall and lithe. She looks vaguely elvish, but is dressed entirely in plant material. Vines writhe around her body, and plants seem to grow under her feet as she walks.

Profile:
Ferellian is a fey tied to Spring. She is attuned to plant life moreso than animal life, and causes spontaneous plant growth everywhere she goes. She is a powerful spellcaster that is very similar to a Druid. 
Ferellian is unrepentantly evil to the eyes of mortals. She cares only for her own affairs, which are alien and incomprehensible to mortal creatures. She does not so much have "allies" as she uses pawns to gain power. She does not have the ability to have compassion for mortals, and oftentimes forgets that they exist. She considers other fey to be beneath her, even if they are technically stronger. Her plants are used as minions to accomplish whatever tasks Ferellian has need of doing.
Generally, Ferellian's actions all have the aim of expanding her own power. Her exact methods are not always obvious, but she is perpetually obtaining that one goal. Like all other fey, she is somewhat tied to her season. As a fey of Spring, Ferellian tends to be more active than other fey. This is also somewhat responsible for her goal of constantly expanding.
Ferellian's interaction with PCs would largely be through her other minions. She has plant creatures that have some form of intelligence to accomplish basic tasks without her micromanaging them at all times. It is fully possible that, should the PCs prove themselves capable, these minions would seek them out to obtain artifacts or materials to accomplish her goals. This would potentially tie into other fey plotlines if the party is involved with them.