I'll try to dig some more info up on these guys. And by dig I mean ask the boards. 
The Council of Affairs
Tue, 2011-06-07 10:00
#53
Re: The Council of Affairs
Thu, 2011-06-16 15:29
#54
Re: The Council of Affairs
I had a new idea for a twist...
the party are currently aiding a small group of drows who calls themselves "the hidden", the leader of which is a shadowdancer/assassin... I had the idea of letting him be a former apprentice of the proxy assassin master... and at some point reveal this before they go back in time and prevent kiriansalee from becoming a deity... so that when they come back to the present... she will be friendly and the former apprentice now an enemy who controls the city ... 
The master assassin proxy has already taken a slight liking for the shadow dancer, asking for his advice on poison making etc...
I have asked the group to think of a description for a "signature item" something that is just right for their character. It is not something they need to have on them at present time nor do they have think of any powers, only description. The master assassin proxy came up with a special type of black blade that has no handle ... was thinking of maybe letting the shadowdancer have this blade, having been told to hold it until the right time.. 'you will know this when it is the right time' sorta thing ... and let him present it to the proxy before they go back in time..
sound good?
Thu, 2011-06-16 17:13
#55
Re: The Council of Affairs
I like the apprentice, and love the idea that right before they go back in time you have him give the proxy the dagger right before traveling to the past.
I think too often time travel stories drag on because no one can change the past or the past is too far back to be relevant. What you do here, an intricate web of characters shifting personalities based on the proxies' actions in time, is far more interesting!
Thu, 2011-06-16 17:37
#56
Re: The Council of Affairs
im trying to convert one of my major flaws into a strength
I have this tendency to put a conspiracy spin on almost any story... always searching for hooks that can twist and turn and connect everything in many ways... this often leads to overwhelming stories and can be quite hard to implement via clues etc.. and I have failed at it before.. having had the huge story and the intricate web behind the screen.. but not succeeding in revealing this web to the players. I am trying to losen up, open up, reveal more and faster than i normally do, I have this strange notion that it has to be revealed in tiny bits so that suddenly a half year later into the game it suddenly dawns on them "oh so ThATS whats going on"... but the campaign always seems to slip between my fingers like sand and break up before that.. but im getting there with this one i think... tossing many small tid bits into the game at once..
I think after the first time travel... I am gonna have some kind of npc talk to them and reveal abit more about the artifact... give them interest and motivation in collecting it all.. and hopefully have quite a few lose ends for them .. like who is the nemesis guy who seems to be superhuman and took the first part of the artifact from them when they were captured and was working with the white banshee... why can they suddenly do these strange things like sensing metal, poison, hear faint whispers (i used the secrets idea you had with hearing whispers, but first time it was barely audible she could hear the whispers but not make out any words)... how can they have been in sigil before when they havent.. why did the priestess drow have a memory of a human girl named Sade (a former character of that player).. I have tossed in quite a few questions for them and im gonna keep mentioning these facts in the email resume I send out after a session and before a new session so they are fresh in their minds and they dont forget
I must really thank you guys for kick starting my inspiration again and lending your knowledge of the planes to me, I am really pleased with the direction the story has taken in my mind after brainstorming here
Mon, 2011-06-27 21:32
#57
Re: The Council of Affairs
Excited to see where your ideas go, consider writing out your story hour on the boards! Here's a link to some of D&D's Guardians of Time that the site members were kind enough to notify me about.
Also, heh, check out this blurb for Years of Rice and Salt by Kim S. Robinson:
"This idea that we travel through our lives as a group with several people that we have this core connection to, led by perhaps one bodhisattva, working on issues within our core character through the different lifespans, returning to the bardo, and then spinning out again. Beautiful."
Tue, 2011-06-28 01:34
#58
Re: The Council of Affairs
ahh loads of info there thanks!
this leads to the conclusion that the proxy nemsis who have been travelling throughout time planting seeds and manipulating people so events can unfurl by themselves but according to his will and plans. This requires lots of scheeming and careful planning to avoid attention
the council's proxies might have had some kind of protection from any guardians of time, or a limited elbow room to work in with regards to time altering jobs. but now that they are no longer proxies... they might run into "grunts" of the "time police". Maybe eventually run into some intermidiate or greater power who has noticed that the "grunts" are having trouble and decides to take an active look for him/herself and could be a herald of clues for the party.
have already talked with a friend about a fatedemon, who drains fate points (wrm beanies) that is attracted to time travellers. somehow fate and time feels connected in my mind.
Sun, 2011-10-23 09:23
#59
Re: The Council of Affairs
How's this going?
Sun, 2011-10-23 15:08
#60
Re: The Council of Affairs
Well we often have a few months between sessions, now that everyone is in their 30's some have kids, wives etc..
however.. one of the players have made a short 3 session scenario in another world, where the players have been summoned by a group of 3 (war, pain and death) known as the opal riders. The encounter turned into a fight so War summoned a black mist that engulfed them all and they woke up in another world in other bodies with both their own memories and the knowledge and memories of the body they now posses.
Turns out, those bodies are somehow their own but in another world and/or time. Coming from Forgotten realms they are very unused to pistols and rifles. The setting is a very musketeer like setting. Here they are the kings royal police of the kingdom, the ultimate authorithy besides the king himself. They are sent to investigate a valley that has been closed off for many hundreds of years, one of the kings knights has gone missing there while trying to re-establish trades between the long lost Count and the kingdom.
I have talked extensively with this player about my campaign, it is usually him or me who GM's our group so we often bounce ideas of each other and share our plots. So he knows a great deal of my extensive and complex campaign plot. In this valley will be another part of the artifact, I havent been fully informed of the scenario etc.. I am playing an NPC who are part of the kings watchers and whom has worked with their "bodies" for many years.
But I do believe he took one of your ideas about the artifact to heart... I think he made it into an ancient dwarven song carved into bark from the world tree. I am not sure exactly hehe..
Once they are done with this Blackmoor Valley, they will come back to the Maerimydra castle in the underdark where they are soon to face the white banshee and activate a rune that will cast a chronomancy spell to transport them 30.000 years back in time to the world where the white banshees goddess was a mortal at the time where she will be at the crossroads of becomming immortal or staying mortal. The group is to prevent circumstances that would propel her into demigod by slaying the entire world and when they come back to the underdark, the undying temple will be gone. The city will be ruled by Hamad the shadowdancer drow and he will not be an ally, the white banshee will however be a goodaligned and about in the city. She will be friendly and a potential ally and im thinking of letting her be a piece of the artifact somehow. Still mulling on how to "release" it in her..
After that.... I think it might be time for revisiting Sigil... and start introducing the bergs to the philosophies of the planes .. some short side quests to help explain things.. maybe have some npc's recognise them without explaining why or who they are.
I need to introduce more LAW and CHAOS chasing the artifact, a side effect of starting the law and chaos war is that both fractions now wants the artifact to win the war. Whereas the god who manipulated everyone into creating it, wants it for himself to abuse the council of affairs. I think.... the next of this sort of encounter shall be good aligned LAW beings confronting the group and some evil aligned CHAOS beings shall come to the groups aid.. thats not exactly what "heroes" is used to
Tue, 2011-10-25 12:43
#61
Re: The Council of Affairs
"She will be friendly and a potential ally and im thinking of letting her be a piece of the artifact somehow. Still mulling on how to "release" it in her..."
Be impregnated? Dying? Having her finish a particular long form poem?
Thu, 2011-10-27 10:03
#62
Re: The Council of Affairs
Hey banhe, I'm collecting campaign spotlights that we can use in the zine. Would you want be willing to give a summary of your campaign - the back story, some interesting challenges that came up for the players or DM, and and some advice on running some of the more unique aspects of your game (time travel, reincarnation)?
Let me know - thanks!
Thu, 2011-10-27 10:20
#63
Re: The Council of Affairs
Would love to give it a try...
If you could email me a list or scope of things or something similiar
Thu, 2012-04-05 19:14
#64
Re: The Council of Affairs
I have decided that all the "avatars" were titled 'hand of...' so we have the hand of daggers, the hand of secrets .. etc..
the hand of secrets will be hearing whispers now and then, whispers that is some sort of divination in the form of formless voices whispering riddles and vauge answers or stories, riddles, questions. Sometimes not so vauge etc...
the hand of daggers is the master of assassins, as such has an affinity for poisons among other things.
the hand of steel is the arms master, can feel/sense metal in a given radius. for now..
the hand of beasts can atm summon animal companions much like you would summon an astral animal through a magical figurine (thinking of drizzt and guennewhar) but without a figurine and it takes the form of golden dust when it comes and goes.
so I came up with an idea on how to let them discover who they used to be.. the hand of secrets mortal coil was destroyed and she "died".. but she instead was trapped between worlds as the foes her group was facing at the time of her death cast a special spell transporting them to another realm/world.. she was stuck in darkness with no form and her old whispers found her and began telling her secrets. There she was among other things told that a lavender stone has a secret to be unlocked and this stone is gonna be some kind of roadmap to finding one big secret split up in 4 parts. This secret is the secret of WHO... of regaining your identity. She was forewarned by her whispers that something was amiss and she went about discovering this secret so that she could keep it safe if need be to have it someday. When they have found these 4 parts of the secret they will know how to regain their identities...
this while they are trying to reclaim all the parts of the shattered rod, evading and avoiding those that pursue them or pursue the artifact.. and while my 10-15 subplots will resurface here and there 
so now i need to figure out what this secret is and how to split it into 4 parts hehehe.. also.. where she hid them, how and why.. meanwhile also creating 4 more scenarios for rod pieces..
Wed, 2012-04-11 21:53
#65
Re: The Council of Affairs
"There she was among other things told that a lavender stone has a secret to be unlocked and this stone is gonna be some kind of roadmap to finding one big secret split up in 4 parts. This secret is the secret of WHO... of regaining your identity. She was forewarned by her whispers that something was amiss and she went about discovering this secret so that she could keep it safe if need be to have it someday. When they have found these 4 parts of the secret they will know how to regain their identities..."
Good stuff, mulling over possible options for the secrets.
Thu, 2012-04-12 02:04
#66
Re: The Council of Affairs
hehe yeh... same here... gonna be a parallel quest line along side finding the pieces of the artifact..
I have made a brainstorm list of "where" she could have hid these.
limbo -
nine hells - guarded by a devil of secrets, "speak the phrase and have the secret spoken back" kinda thing.
astral plane - inside the corpse of a dead god
abyss -
I'd like to get a grasp of "why" so as to better provide clues and riddles..
We are coming up on my "back in time to prevent the 'birth' of a demigod" scenario, i still got some loose ends on that one.
Sun, 2012-04-15 06:03
#67
Re: The Council of Affairs
If you might recall, my group's version of Faerun has lost Mystra and her weave and in her and it's place are now Elemental magic. Mystra had at some point struck a deal with the elemental kings to sustain the world of Faerun with magic should she and her weave be destroyed.
In my mind, these elemental kings are ancient malicious and extremely cunning, so they took this oppertunity to build into their elemental magic a backdoor to be used to take over the world if Mystra should fail and their magic be shared with the mortals. Each mortal spellslinger would have inside him a core belonging to one of the kings which would enable them to beguile and manipulate and the more the spellcasters learn and achieve the greater the conduit to the kings. Not only that but they bargained for greater conduits to their planes, if they should fuel the magic of the world they would need greater and stronger connections to their planes, Nodes of elemental power, gateways. These gateways could be used to pour forth from their planes into the prime, but would have to be activated on the prime. Who better to do this than the spellcasters now loyal to them thanks to the conduits inside them allowing them to work elemental magic.
With all this in mind, this is happening slowly while the party is on their quest to find their old identities and the artifact of 7 parts and discovering the council of affairs, I worked up a background for one of the party members.
The Hand of Knowledge
Fire is said to fuel inspiration, creativity, lust for knowledge, desires.. some have heard of the "consumers of knowledge" on the plane of fire. Therefore when the council's god of knowledge's attention was drawn to an ancient being now living in mortal coil, he found it suitable that it was in fact a fire elemental who now lived as mortal. Somehow it had found a sorcerer who could 'trap' it inside a body, a vessel and it had struck a deal with him because it wanted this to happen, it wanted 'out' of the plane of fire.
The elemental was exiled, banished, cast out by the king of elemental fire, for the king did not suffer usurpers. Not even usurpers that was his own offspring.. the prince of the elemental fire. So the prince was anxious to get out of the elemental plane of fire, to escape his fathers wrath.
Now living in mortail form he wandered the ages, now and then changing bodies through the ritual learned from the long dead sorcerer. To the god of knowledge this entity was perfect as his right hand, so he approached the prince with an offer and the prince could not refuse.
This will be the Mage in the group, he has already chosen his affinity with fire and I have on a few occasions displayed small visuals with fire about his person for others to see when he becomes agitated or uses great power.
Soon the group will meet a big fire elemental in a long hallway filled with walls of fire, it is guarding the cave where the undying temple of Kiriansalee is located. As they approach, the group will suffer terrible damage from the fire should they venture forth and they possess little protection against such terrible power. But one of them will be unscathed, the mage and he will feel inside him a yearning, aching.. something that is struggling to be set free. He can feel an oppertunity, he can let his guard down and allow this inner force to emerge if he wants... The elemental in the hallway is annoyed that this mortal is not destroyed by its many powerful fires, but if the mage lets his guard down his body will melt away in the flames and reveal a body of fire, an elemental and the guardian elemental will be filled with fear when it recognizes the prince of flame. Reluctantly it will obey, angry and fearful...
Now all this gives me a way to introduce them into the whole elemental struggle for Faerun later on... the party have a way in on the fire plane, will they usurp the king and use the elemental fire to battle the other kings? through brute force or diplomacy? will the prince reclaim his mantle and throne and cast down his king? will he abuse this power and aid the other kings in invading Faerun and reclaiming it for themselves?
But for now.. if he tries to suppress his inner fire yet again, he will now look differently, he will appear as a Genesai of Fire. His old coil now gone forever, now marked by fire.
Also.. I introduced the whispers to the hand of secrets more clearly now.. the character was destroyed just prior to the group being shifted to another alternate realm with alternates of themselves, but given the powers at play around her she did not die. Instead part of her drifted through void and was found by the whispers.. I wrote a small story for the player about what happened to her while she was "dead" until she is reincarnated when the party is shifted back to their "own" world.
The player has seen fit to post it on our obsidian portal wiki (although that has not been maintained for almost 2 years sadly) http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/shadowcircle/wikis/sera-journal
I am thinking of letting these whispers be somekind of divination tool.. also they might give an edge when dealing with certain people.
Next weekend is the pre-timejump scene.. I am planning to have the confront the white banshee, meet their nemesis hand of schemes who wants them to access the core of the undying temple and free another piece of the artifact. However when they (hopefully) activate a timejump rune he is alarmed and panics, he does not want them to go back as he did and alter time. This would upset his masters plans, which he has carefully plotted and carried out and now awaits to reap the fruit from. He wants them to find the pieces so that he may take them away from the group as they are no real match for him in current form and power.
He tries to work against the artifacts nature by changing time and thus trying to have the pieces planted by his choosing instead of its own random chaotic ways. This piece, this time.. he has managed to get planted inside the great artifact spell of the undying temple by helping create a goddess and manipulating her servants, even tricking Lolth to attain greater godhood so that the city of Maermydra would go silent and Kiriansalee's followers could take over and summon this artifact that he manipulated the piece into.
By going back in time they might change all of this and this piece... will not be where he planned and he will not be in position to take it from them. And the more pieces they have in their possession at a given time, the more powerful they might become and the closer they might be to reclaim their lost powers and then they will present themselves a difficult challenge to overcome and he might never succeed in fulfilling his masters plans of destroying the council and steal their powers for his own agenda.
aha.. i am not familiar with those guardians...
this is the first time I have dealt with such topics in D&D... we usually keep it on the material plane and stop just around getting our own kingdom