Sigil, City of Doors
I felt anxious about bringing a party into the Planescape setting as my knowledge of the planes is quite lacking and there are no official 5e resources for it as of now. But in continuing a campaign of 13th level characters, I wanted something new that would stretch the characters outside of their comfort zone. They had just successfully dealt with one of the major antagonists of D&D canon, and I just didn't know what I could do with them in their home world that would live up to the quest they had just completed in destroying the Soulmonger. The next conflict had to be bigger and the stakes needed to be higher.
The Party
Reggie (Joe T.) - An over-eager human paladin of Torm who in the events of ToA had acquired the Ring of Winter. It had tried on multiple occasions to corrupt him, but his heart of gold has remained pure.
Klaus and Reggie wake up on the streets of Sigil, the hub of the multiverse, and quickly realize that they are not in Kansas anymore. Gazing around they took in the sight of buildings crowding down upon them from up above and took notice of creatures that seemed straight from the heavens and hells seemingly walking past each other on the street without a care. The bodies of their comrades Sindri and Mogh were lying nearby and a gigantic construct with spears sticking out of its back was picking them up and skewering them upon its iron spokes. A humanoid body collector seemed to be its owner and it was in possession of the Ring of Winter.
Corpse Collector
Reggie attempted to reason with the individual. She seemed surprised to see Reggie talking, commenting that he "was not as dead as she thought." She seemed to be a fan of death as she spoke in veiled jealousy of Sindri and Mogh for experiencing the "true death." Reggie was physically and emotionally exhausted and had no patience for such talk - the Ring was important and dangerous and he tried to take it away from her. The construct (a cadaver collector) intervened and a battle ensued.
Just as the clash of battle began, Dino and Azod who had been sent to find Klaus and Reggie by the absent god Ubtao. They helped to intervene in the battle which had quickly spiraled out of control with the construct summoning the spirits of the deceased corpses it carried. A well placed polymorph spell on the construct by Dino gave the party freedom to flee.
They made their way to the Bottle and Jug where an audience had been requested by Ubtao. The tavern's bouncers were trolls and the marquee promised patrons an opportunity to get into a boxing match with a cyclops. Our heroes were much to battle weary to be interested and just wanted to see Ubtao. In a private room at the tavern, Ubtao explained that he had been watching them and their heroics in Chult. With the taint of Acererak gone and the absence of the Trickster Gods, Ubtao wished to return to Chult and reaffirm the faith of the people in him. He also wants to help the PCs to return home, so he has hired the planeswalker Azod and wants them all to return to Chult with his petitioner Dino who will act as the voice of Ubtao to reinvigorate faith in him again. He worries that the waning faith of his people will deprive him of strength that he will need when he one day confronts Dendar the Night Serpent.
Evening falls and the party decides to take up rooms at the Bottle and Jug. As Reggie is going to bed he studies the Ring of Winter and decides to slip it back on his finger, deciding that it will be safest upon his finger. Just as he is putting it on, it telepathically was pulled away from him and into the hands of a Githyanki gish. She took the ring and quickly walked and passed right through a wall. The session ended with Reggie rushing out into the alleyway adjacent to his room to find no trace of the thief.
The Ring of Winter
Where Do We Go From Here?
In preparing this campaign, I decided I would borrow heavily from the Monte Cook book Dead Gods. I have done a thorough reading of that book and supplemented it with a read through of PowerScoreRPG's session breakdowns of the book (a fantastic resource for many other official campaign products - I reviewed their Tomb of Annihilation guide heavily to prepare the first season of the campaign).
I have also decided that I would try to not force my ideas on the players and to keep this campaign open. Borrowing heavily from a mechanic from Dreamchaser I asked all the players to write three milestones that they felt their character needed to complete. The intention here is to gather from the players the story beats that they want to see happen to help me design encounters and drive home certain themes that will help them play in a story that they want to see. Sometimes as a DM its difficult to predict what will be engaging for the players so this process will help the players signal to me in a non-obtrusive way what they want to see in future sessions. We shall see how it turns out when we return on September 13th, 2018 at 7pm cst!
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