Trying to flesh out my 5e ToUD Campaign. In need of help! :)

[SilentRave]

Hey all, I'm SilentRave, new to the forum, and in love with the setting 3-4 years or so...

As I draw near to the conclusion of the general layout for my upcoming 5e campaign I decided to run a Time of Unparalleled Darkness scenario. The campaign will start at level 1-??? and will be centered around Dementlieu but will of course take place in other Domains as it progresses. I've drawn inspiration from the FoS Vault, this PDF to be more precise (kudos to the author for the inspiration):

http://fraternityofshadows.com/TheVault ... DzLSnYz0xk

While there are some great many ideas I want to include from this, I find myself kinda baffled as to how I could implement some aspects of the layout given in the PDF, so I'd appreciate some brainstorming from you guys.

For one, my players will be: A high elf noble scribe wizard, whose goal is to become Dementlieu's archiver as his family's tradition dictates.

2 Arak brothers, whose tribe has been exiled from the Shadow Rift and I've integrated their backstory in the False History of Dementlieu, one of them is gonna be a gunslinger, the other a path of the beast barbarian.

And the other one is gonna be a cleric of the Church of Ezra, probably of the Nevuchar Springs' Sect, not quite sure on what domain he'll lean on atm.

As of now, the layout I have in mind is as follows: PCs get involved in a mysterious attack in Edrigan village, that will be orchestrated by agents of the Gentleman Caller and will involve a supply caravan from Falkovnia and locals from the village.
This will lead to local authorities delivering a philosophical manifesto written by Drigor to The Brain, that will eventually force a revolution in Port-a-Lucine that will in extent snowball the events and machinations of the Dark Powers for the Time of Unparalleled Darkness.

My main concern is how do I implement, not necessarily as written, the events of the first Episode in the PDF from above that will have Malocchio Aderre escape Invidia. In other words how do I introduce Malocchio to my Dementlieuese PCs?

If you're interested in me further elaborating about the plot I have in mind as of now feel free to ask and I will provide more details! Thanks in advance

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Hello, SilentRave, and welcome to the forum.

Malocchio being Malocchio, I imagine he'd celebrate his freedom by assaulting the Vistani. A brutal attack on a Vistani caravan could be your intro: the PCs come upon the wreckage and the mangled bodies of the dead - and find one survivor.
Up to you how long the survivor stays alive, but they should at least live long enough to gasp: "The... Dukkar... loose!"
After that, Malocchio Aderre is relatively well known among giorgio, and very well-known to pretty much all the Vistani.

[SilentRave]

Hello, SilentRave, and welcome to the forum.

Malocchio being Malocchio, I imagine he'd celebrate his freedom by assaulting the Vistani. A brutal attack on a Vistani caravan could be your intro: the PCs come upon the wreckage and the mangled bodies of the dead - and find one survivor.
Up to you how long the survivor stays alive, but they should at least live long enough to gasp: "The... Dukkar... loose!"
After that, Malocchio Aderre is relatively well known among giorgio, and very well-known to pretty much all the Vistani.

This is really good and along the lines of the current sketch I had in mind. I guess this caravan should be more of a big foreshadowing event than I had initially planned. This caravan could be convoyed by Vistani and it could actually include refuges from Invidia instead of a supply run from Falkovnia. Even more than that, the attack could be coordinated by a lycanthrope of the Kargat along with some Kargatane, who could act as agent provocateurs and pose as Falkovnians to further eyewash the Dementlieuese as to Malocchio, Azalin, and the Gentleman Caller's schemes.

Thanks a lot for the inspiration

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Glad to help. ^_^

Alternatively, given Malocchio's alliance with Vlad Drakov, they really could be Falkovnians... masquerading as Kargat, masquerading as Falkovnians.
It'd be more subtle than Drakov's usual kind of operation, but if you add the Gentleman Caller to the whole deal, we might expect an upgrade in operational procedure.

It'd be surprising for the Gentleman Caller to lend one of his kids a hand, but he might take a hand for the sake of the Time of Unparalleled Darkness.

[SilentRave]

It'd be surprising for the Gentleman Caller to lend one of his kids a hand, but he might take a hand for the sake of the Time of Unparalleled Darkness.

I'm actually going with the insinuation in The Evil Eye that Malocchio is indeed working with his Father gathering all these women for the ritual to escape Invidia, in which case he is actually furthering the plots of the Gentleman Caller, who in turn is in cahoots with Azalin and has whispered sweet nothings to his rotten ears about freedom and revange against the Dark Powers.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

For all his power and intelligence, Azalin would probably fall for that and fall hard.

[SilentRave]

For all his power and intelligence, Azalin would probably fall for that and fall hard

Exactly, note that the campaign will take place in mid-late 760s-770s, which means both Soth and Vecna (really not sure about Vecna but to my mind at this time he has escaped) are out of Ravenloft and I really like this unhinged and infuriated Azalin affected by these events noted in the PDF. So yeah it makes perfect sense!

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Azalin would have real trouble accepting Vecna got out because he's both stronger and more cunning, and Soth got out because he refused to play the Dark Powers' game and justice drew him back to his fair sentence.

[The Lesser Evil]

I could see a few options. There could be the fallout of Malocchio's actions in Invidia- for example some of the refugee women could have fled from Invidia.

The Falkovnia-Invidia alliance and its threatening of the Treaty of Four Towers is something you could point to introduce by Malocchio by name. In preparation for finishing the sacrifice, Malocchio might suddenly step up his mercenary incursions into Borca, and Borca's retaliation could both spark a war- dragging in the other Treaty signees- as well as destabolize trade. Doing something about teh problem- or simply researching it- might help the high elf get closer to his goals. Your Ezran cleric might hear about the threat of Malocchio through church channels, perhaps the Home Faith putting out a call for the faithful to fight Malocchio's invading mercenaries.

A side quest leading into Scaenae and Lemot Sediam Juste could be a good way to play out the Evil Eye module and thus get a closer look at Malocchio's origins.

[SilentRave]

A side quest leading into Scaenae and Lemot Sediam Juste could be a good way to play out the Evil Eye module and thus get a closer look at Malocchio's origins.

Oh boy this is a goldmine I swear, I didn't even think about using Scaena to fill in such gaps. Clever as hell !!!

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Eventually, a meeting with Madam Eva might also be in order.
Not only because she wants the Dukkar back in his cage, but because the Gentleman Caller is pursuing her with the goal of reproducing with her and creating the most powerful Dukkar ever.
She can drop some serious lore if she feels like it.

[SilentRave]

The Falkovnia-Invidia alliance and its threatening of the Treaty of Four Towers is something you could point to introduce by Malocchio by name.

Also such a good plot point. I have to admit I'm kinda over my head here. While I've read the lore extensively over the years, I've never really sat down to weave how it all comes together. You guys are gems .

[SilentRave]

Eventually, a meeting with Madam Eva might also be in order.
Not only because she wants the Dukkar back in his cage, but because the Gentleman Caller is pursuing her with the goal of reproducing with her and creating the most powerful Dukkar ever.
She can drop some serious lore if she feels like it.

Eventually yes, Madam Eva should make an appearance but not until early T3 play. My players' sole RL experience is CoS and have literally no idea what happens outside of Barovia, always in CoS context. I really want to highlight what makes RL the setting it is and I want it to feel more organic and more geniuine than the usual FR and big NPC cameos.

[onmyoji]

Exactly, note that the campaign will take place in mid-late 760s-770s, which means both Soth and Vecna (really not sure about Vecna but to my mind at this time he has escaped) are out of Ravenloft and I really like this unhinged and infuriated Azalin affected by these events noted in the PDF. So yeah it makes perfect sense!

For what it's worth, I did my best to correlate BC years to DR (FR) and CY (Oerth). Based on what I could come up with, "Die, Vecna, Die!" (in which he escapes Ravenloft) takes place in or around 742 BC. If you go through the madness of creating a correlating timeline, your correlations may well differ. However, that's the best I have. Either way you cut it though, chances are pretty good that Vecna is pretty well out by the ToUD.

— onmyoji

[onmyoji]

Eventually, a meeting with Madam Eva might also be in order.
Not only because she wants the Dukkar back in his cage, but because the Gentleman Caller is pursuing her with the goal of reproducing with her and creating the most powerful Dukkar ever.
She can drop some serious lore if she feels like it.

I plan for something similar to this in my larger Ravenloft campaign, but it's not Madam Eva he's seeking out. (I *hate* the whole nonlinear Vistani thing and fixed that, which has some...... implications... for Madam Eva.) Instead, he's seeking out Arabelle, the Vistani girl from Curse of Strahd who almost gets thrown into a lake. (I'm aware that Arabelle's canonical youth in CoS makes this rather cringe-y, but suffice it to say she may indeed look like a young girl, but she's definitely an "old soul" in the campaign. There will be far more to her than just her apparent youth. She's also going to be one of the strongest Vistani in my campaign's "present," hence TGC's interest.

Can spoil if you like, but I figure I'd phrase it without spoilers for now, just in case.

— onmyoji