BoG'r OOC.

Yea, I wanted that to be a longer and more damatic post ... oh well ...

Anyway, the point is made. Even though you don't like Pale, and don't want to serve under him, he DOES have a purpose and now you have to think really hard what to do.

As for info on Sembia, I've revealed quite a bit so far, I'll recap. Know, however, that none of the gith who know about Sembia have been there recently...

The Sembian Campaign happened as such:

A huge force of about 12,000 githyanki invaded from the sea in their astral ships, attacking the graith port of Urmlaspyr. At the same time, a cabal of necromancers (presumably including Master Pale) opened a rift in the city of Daerlun to the Neg-Energy Plane. This allowed a force of undead led by Death Knight known as 'Black Blade' and 'The Claws of Death', a red dragon dracolich to enter. It also wiped out a good portion of the citizenry. These, allong with the casualties from Urmlaspyr (which also included much of the city) were reanimated and sent to war.

Southern Sembia was targeted to isolate Cormyr,a strong neighbor known for its war-wizards and elite troops. A good porion of the initial invasion force continued north to capture the passes of the Thunder Peaks and Tilver's gap on Cormyr's eastern and northern borders. The empty ships then continued north tho begin ferrying conquered graith from the Moonsea down to Sembia.

The Githyanki deliberately put themselves and their graith allies in a tight situation, between the forces of Cormyr and the northern cities of Sembia. They did this to make their graith recruits more motivated.

Operating from Daerlun and Urmlaspyr, the githyanki still enjoyed superior mobility and tactics which allowed them to quickly conquer the towns and villages of southern Sembia, but stopped at the river Arken and the walls of the graith cities. In addition, they had already taken The Vast and Procampur, and ruled the sea-lanes from their base at Lone Rock in the Dragon Reach (but not, as yet, the Pirate Isles). Therefore, they successfully kept Cormyr's forces within their own borders, blockaded Sembia from outside aid, and amassed a force to threaten the cities of northern Sembia, including the capital.

This was the first operation in which a large amout of the Zhentilar, troops from the city of Zhentil Keep (Vlaakith's first target on this world) were used.

The initial invasion took place in autumn, and after a winter of build-up, a massive force of graith, led by elite githyanki including undead and necromancers, pushed north, and attacked the as-yet-untaken city of Saerloon (in the south, east of Urmlaspyr). The Sembians gathered all the arms and magic they could muster to meet the attack.

Then the duthka'gith hit the vault ...

[I'm going to stop there, since we are now into out-of-character knowledge. Suffice to say, Ya'shenn and Ii probably overhear something about this within a couple of hours of any pirate, githyanki or graith, sighting Ar'dru or any of the dthka'gith or Cultists. Until then, I'll leave you as players wondering, and see how well you keep the teaser out of your In-character play. The duthka'gith don't talk about it, so not even Kirath knows much about this, but often wondered why he always had more than enough gold to pay drow guides and bounty-hunters ... ]

The rest of the Sembian campaign is anti-climatic. The massive push north was a feint (of sorts), and after meeting the Sembian army in the field, they swung bask south-east and attacked Selgaunt and Saerloon. Nether of these was ever fully conquered, though. Active and effective resistance tied up too many troops, and after Vlaakith's fall they pulled back to Urmlaspyr and Daerloon. The forces of Sembia were crushed, and though they've retaken most of their cities, the countryside is depopulated, especially in the south.

There was an invasion of Cormyr. After choking the kingdom, conquering one neighbor after another, the githyanki finally invaded. Feints were made in the west and north, but the attack came from Sembia. The battle was fierce, and there were losses and victories on both sides, but the githyanki and their allied companies pushed into eastern Cormyr as far as the Wyvernwater.

Then Vlaakith fell, and the githyanki pulled back. The Cormyrians have taken back their territory, but have not yet managed to push beyond their own borders.

Urmlaspyr and Daerlun remain in githyanki hands, sort of. Urmlaspyr is a largely empty city of pirates, rebels, gangs, and githyanki. Gith are said to walk in squads here, meaning a lone githyanki is not safe. The city serves as a port for the "Empire" in southern Sembia, but is a ghost town compared to the graith city of Westgate, a day's sail south across the sea (and also unsafe, but in a more general "watch your back around pirates" sort of way). Daerlun is ruled by the Claws of Death, who reigns over this small empire. As a red dragon dracolich and long-time friend and ally of the Lich Queen, Claws of Death is considered the leader of the Ascendancy in the northern lands [starts to come together now ... ] but also a member of the Cult of Tiamat, and presumably a supporter of the Singer of Fire. It is unknown what happened to the Black Blade he/she/it may still serve The Claws of Death in Daerlun, or may have retreated to the Astral or Neg-E.

All of this can be / could have already been gotten from Kirath's troops.

Edited the scene where Kirath sees what Pale is up to. Scrapped the 'golum' idea, came up with a better one.

I figure Starmantle is underpopulated. Actually re-populated from being largely de-populated during the Incursion.

As for Urmlaspyr, from the descriptions you get from Kirath's troops who served in Sembia, it went from ~26,000 to ~13,000 literally overnight. What it is now is uncertain. Some of the pirates may have been there recently though ...

*Sigh*

Bad DMing I guess. I'm trying to introduce the politics of the post-incursion githyanki, in a world that everybody can find a map to. The 'railroading' was a way to introduce a githyanki bloc that all the PCs oppose, but which has a major role in the politics here.

I'm sorry you felt railroaded. The NPC press-ganged you, so therefore so did the DM. I'm trying to set that right ( ... and failing? )

You now have an 'out' without Pale totally backing down from you or fighting you. Three days. A lot can happen in three days, and so, a lot WILL happen.

I mean, yes, I'd like to still get you to Urlamspyr, but at this point will be soon giving you an 'out' from that as well. There is a planned event, it would have been in U-spyr, but the PC revolt upped the time-table in the story ....

Not really my intention, no. I just wanted to make 'the guy you love to hate'

But anyway, as far as the criticisms go, I'll take it all under advisement, and try to do better in the future. This isn't as easy as it looks.

Yes.

Well ... OK I see your point, but in a way I have to respond : Well, what else is a DM supposed to do? I think I've done a fairly good job up to now, going with the flow of the party. I've made some interesting NPCs with depth, and let the PCs interact with them freely. I've presented the PCs with various options and let them choose their own course. I've built scenes and arcs around PC choices of action, and player choices of character interest. But there have been scripted events, and there will be more.

Now, if you don't see the 3-day thing as a way for the DM to back off, in response to party actions, without totally ruining the character of a major NPC, let me tell you outright. You won. The DM backed off. I want to keep Pale/Mist a credible threat and credible overall character, but you are now off the railroad.

One stop sooner than expected, and now I get to build a town I DON'T have a map for, a background for, an Incursion history already drawn out, etc. Not that I'm actually complaining, because this allows me to use the NPCs I would have used in Urmlaspyr, forces me to make up a bunch more on the fly (and I like what I came up with), and I can now use one Incursion character that I actually wouldn't have otherwise, one that may prove very interesting.

But think about it. Seriously, if someone in a movie says "We have 3 days to prepare" it means you're going to see a montage, maybe a couple of little character-building scenes, and when the horde/dragon/storm/etc comes it's a totally different game and the heroes triumph.

...

Thanks for pointing out the ONE TIME i did it wrong