The stories that never were....

The NeoExodus Legacies campaign had a number of storylines going. Obviously, these will not reach their climax, some may be transformed and reintroduced into SPX. Most I will simply abandon. Most are just a directing line without clear destination.

That was on purpose. I don't want to predetermine the storyline too far in advance, just have a rough idea of where I am going and take it from there. Work with the best, most current idea until an adventure is ready to roll out to the players, and extend the storyline itself.

When I started this campaign, I promised the players that *THEY* would determine the direction of the campaign. Therefore, I chose to avoid determining a path or a firm destination. Instead, I thought and designed a few high points along the journey.

Battle Of Gytha

The Battle of Gytha where the players unexpectedly won at Zcerkov's Farm had me spinning my wheels to find a way for Cazimir and Ulf to strike back and put the Protectorate on the defensive. The loss of Spluburg was a big blow. I hadn't yet come up with a replacement character or idea.

My next step, at Origins was to have the PCs explore and old (First One-era) cavern under the swamp trying to look for an item of the ancient Sametian and simply deny the enemy access to it. This cavern had some cool tidbits about the creation of the Kaga (or the attempts made that led to).

The next adventures would have featured a more war-like setting (what follows are a series of encounters/ partial plots). In the planned Gencon special, the PCs were going against the Sahuagin under the waves.

They would head into the ironforged graveyard to stop a mad machinesmith turning the rusting creatures into junk golems. The PCs contact the druids of the compact to turn them against the Horde. Those are just a few of the basic ideas.

The Crusade

The Crusade arc was turning into a power struggle for the control of the Caneus Empire between the Empress and the Cavian Hive mind. Whereas the two had worked together before, they now fought for supremacy. Cavian interests used (and abused) the weak-minded Janus Horde to do much of its dirty work.

This storyline featured our two Crusaders and favorite knights: Lady Maud and Lady Sofie, two characters who have grown and changed since their first appearance at the Genghis Con 2012 special "Opening Moves".

This storyline had a lot of psionic-based themes and unlike the Gytha/Sametia storyline, I saw as a number of vaguely linked adventures until it reached its climax. Some adventures that I linked to this was James M's excellent Need of the Many.

This climax would've featured a chase through many planes with the PCs trying to stop or aid the Hive Mind achieve its goals.

Arem'Shehr

In something of a twist Brutchek was going to go around stealing a number of items before trying to take on Arem'Shehr in a revenge bid for what the Khaynite did to him in the prologue to Flames of Yesterday and leading into Dousing fire with blood.

I envisioned a scene with both he and Preest together asking the PCs to take on Arem'Shehr. A top criminal and the top agent of the Imperial Alliance was such a fun scene to imagine. They would argue and present their case to the PCs about how to proceed.

Lost Child of Hasani

The lost child, presented in Sugar and spice, a tale of a lost little girl all alone in the world. This story featured gevets in the Dominion, and a fair amount of demons involved in an unclear conspiracy. These demons appeared as "random" encounters in other adventures set in or around Hasani. This story was one that was very slow-growing, almost foreshadowing.

As Sugar and Spice is an adventure I love to run, I fully plan to re-release as part of SPX. The core of it is very interesting and people have described themselves as "slimy" after playing the adventure.

Flattery? You bet!

The Tsarina's pregnancy

I made no secret that I did not know anything about the child: boy or girl. Its name would be Vladimir or Vladimira (IIRC). Since the child was born out of wedlock, I planed to put out a major challenge by some of the princes NOT to recognize the child as Tsarevich/Tsarevna (Crown-Prince/ss) and have the Tsarina turn into something of a Red Queen: one who eliminates all her opponents in a Vlad Drakul type repression. Which in turn, creates more resistance.