PSCS Module Project: Shattered Dreams

I've all ready got, like, thirty different ideas alone off the whole mirror-breaking thing, but I'll hold off from exploding in a giant frothing fireball of creativity until the basic stuff has gone up.

I've got so many unused adventure hooks sitting on my desk and in my head that--well, there's a lot.

May I, in my ignorance, ask what these ideas are?

From the Encyclopedia:

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Given this write-up, I do not know that suicide is appropriate.
He might be harboring hate and brewing revenge. Though, given he has a rival Power taking worship away and he is weak, assasination is always an option.

Then again, this is also a bit abbreviated and does not cover the 'Styx Drinking' mentioned during the brain storm.

I have a lot of free time on my hands, some writing talent, and a few adventure ideas I wouldn't mind throwing out there. I'm probably not going to be one of you main writers, but I'll do my best to make myself useful when I can. I'll tell you more when I know more.

Gen Con is the largest gaming convention in the world. You can read more about it here.

For info about what happened to the factions after Faction War, download and read this PSCS chapter.

This is interesting. I expect I can contribute, given some direction so I don't run things totally off the rails.

Two points, one small-scale, one big-picture.

The small-scale notion is what sort of event, arising out of 'all the mirrors in the multiverse shattering' could lead to an adventure for a group of Level 3 PCs. Simplest answer is that something is released, close to the PCs, by the mirror-shattering event that they have to clean up. Could be a monster, could be a spell effect or curse, could be an NPC. The long-term mystery of 'what caused this to happen?' is what ropes the PCs into dealing with the kamerel, the Athar (assuming their attempt to put a power in the dead book is what caused the Mirrorshatter) and other players in the campaign arc.

Big-picture thought, meanwhile: In the Planes, there's different states of existence. Life, death, and - Rule of Threes - something else. (Not undeath; that's a transititory state between life and death. The 'something else' is distinct from either death or life.) The kamerel have placed themselves in this third state of existence; the Athar's 'Power-Slayer', unbeknownst to them, doesn't actually kill things but instead forces them into this third state of being. The third of the Transitive Planes, or the Far Realm, may be involved as well. Dunno whether this is useful or not, but might be interesting to throw into the mix.

I've not been keeping up with this project very well, so what I say could sound rediculous. Nevertheless, I will say it, for I am me, and rediculous is my middle navel.

Kamerel did go to the Mirror Plane to escape from the Rilmani and all other life forms, but it was an epically ironic failure. The Mirror Plane is a reflection, and a reflection only exists when it is being viewed by somebody looking at a reflective surface. Thus, the Kamerel and their entire quasi-realm only exist when somebody looks at them. From their perspective, somebody is always watching them. For a xenophobic race, that is worse than death. They've all gone pretty barmy from it.

Also, although I've said this more than once, I must reiterate the common opinion, as well as obviously my own, that the Far Realm is not a transitive plane. Whether or not it is the greater existence in which the multiverse is but a small part or some sort of plane utterly opposed to every order the multiverse represents is open to debate, but it is definitely not a transitive plane. The only place you'll be transitizing to through it is to barmyville. And you'll probably be burping spider horses for weeks.

So... yeah... that's my two cents. Doom doom doomtheend.

My mistake. I thought you were clarifying the name of the Third Transitive. Like saying "...and the head of the Greek pantheon, or Zeus, did..."

Anyway, my mistake, ignore it. These aren't errors you're looking for...

On a different topic... whatever happened to the promised GenCon photographs for all of us that couldn't go?

Addressing the two points:

First, we'd like a selection of adventure hooks related to the shattering of the mirrors, covering both planar and Prime Material adventuring parties. Possibilities brought up during our brainstorming include Athar raiders stranded while robbing a temple or supply venue, nerra assassins tracking Athar or rilmani through the mirrors, or rilmani tracking Athar or fleeing kamerel (or all three).

Second, this discussion has brought up an interesting idea. The Rule of Threes does indeed suggest a third state of being to accompany Life and Death...what about vestiges? The very term means the remnant of something, a reflection. Perhaps the Plane of Mirrors is actually the realm where vestiges dwell, or a gateway to such a place. Perhaps the kamerel know how to create or control vestiges, and the Athar stumble upon that method while researching how to kill gods.

What do people think?

Hrmmm. Gotta say, this is somewhat difficult without more guidance. Us freelancers don't know what caused the mirror-shattering, who's responsible, or who might have had access to the Plane of Mirrors when it happened. Turning us loose without this backstory is likely to be sticky.

Let me propose something as a strawman:
The introductory adventure will involve the PCs travelling to the Spire, most likely to investigate or deal with the Athar and their plans. Exact 'hook' can vary by group. While at the Spire, the PCs will have a chance to observe the friction between the Athar, the rilmani and the kamerel, as well as the Spire-mining operations and maybe a hint as to the crafting of the Power-Slayer.

A hook into this for Prime PCs:
- A powerful wizard of the characters' acquaintance has been caught in the backlash of the Shattering - it occured while he was using his mirror of mental prowess, breaking not just his concentration but also damaging his memories and magical abilities. Auguries have indicated that 'essence of stone from the Pillar of Reality' (in other words, the Spire) is needed to restore the wizard's powers. The PCs are sent to claim it.

I'm still trying to grasp the overall plot of this project, so my suggestions might be a little off. By the way, is there any more detailed writeup of the plans for this project that I'm missing?

That having been said, I was thinking that if the multiverse-wide mirror shattering is meant to represent some sort of destruction or 'blocking off' of the mirror plane, then a few problems arise. First of all, not all reflective surfaces can be shattered. Go shatter an unfrozen lake and see how that goes. Secondly, shattering a mirror simply creates lots of itsy bitsy mirrors, unless of course you grind it to a fine sand. With that in mind, and if indeed the shattering is an effect of the mirror plane's disconnection from the multiverse at large, may I suggest that instead of shattering mirrors, reflections simply disappear. Anything that used to be reflective - mirrors, water, polished metal, etc. - simply becomes dull or transparent. This would also bypass the whole problem with the fate of powerful mirror-based artifacts that no doubt exist in large quantities on the planes. The only problem, as I see it, is that Shemeshka the Marauder would not get a face full of broken glass as she stares into her omnipresent mirror of scrying and hair-styling. Oh well, you win some, you lose some.

After doing a little reading I see that the rilmani really couldn't shut down the Plane of Mirrors. I still like the Athar putting a God on trial angle, though--because it gives the Athar a real chance to figure out what they're about and what the future holds for them. Right now, the ones about the Spiral are just about survival and information proliferation. What would they do if they captured a God?

Anyway.

I recommend not all mirrors break--because Iavas raises a good point, and now we have to consider all the dungeons where there were mirrors that broke, all the architecture, all the wizards--better to just have all magic mirrors make a save or break, and all reflections to cease from functioning.

That said, it seems pretty clear that the mirror-shattering has something to do with the Kamerel.

Two other things--it'd be totally awesome if the final thread of the quest involved a chase-scene leaping out from mirror after mirror, going through a cross-section of the Multiverse (and if any players are held back too long, the portals through the mirrors close, leaving them stranded in only the Gods know where).

Also, there might be a great idea that can tie into Luis Borges' short story, the Garden of Forking Paths. The basic premise being of a labyrinth within which all sorts of infinite possibilities and potential paths exist. Perhaps this is the labyrinth within which the Kamerel now occupy, having retreated deeper into the proverbial looking glass (and trapped themselves within a labyrinth to escape all outside meddling).

That would be 59 flavors of awesome.

And although I do reside in the Nile, and I have been known to occasionally maw a random passerby, rest assured that they were irate little buggers and totally deserved it.

The mirror chase scene should be at the end, and the players totally should get a chance to run through Shemeska's apartment and wreck it on their way after whatever the hell they're chasing.

I've been thinking a lot about this at work in between dealing with irritable customers...

The biggest problem with the trial idea is that it really doesn't fit the Kamerel in there, and there isn't a lot of conflict (the whole module can't just be the PCs defending a God at a Rilmani trial, as cool as that would be).

So my basic underlying idea here--keeping with the Athar kidnap plot--is that the Kamerel got ahold of this God somehow (maybe they intercepted the Athar attempt to kidnap the God? Maybe they stole it from the Athar? Maybe they stole it from the Rilmani, who claimed the God for themselves so they could mediate on the situation and decide what would be best for the Balance?) and used the God's essence to completely shut down the Plane of Mirrors and create an elaborate labyrinth for them to exist in. Maybe they can get the Plane of Mirrors to continue existing independent of observation through using the God as some sort of observing 'eye' across the whole planes, or just fueling it off his essence or something. Whatever works!

My favorite solution at the end of this plot (and probably the 'good ending') involves the Kamerel, as a species, getting Mazed by the Lady of Pain in Sigil and ending up completely and deliriously happy.

Finally--and I know I'm putting a lot of posts here one after the other, apologies--I was thinking about the hub-town outside the Athar encampment that I keep talking about.

Because mirror-magic is one of the few things you can pull off this close to the Spire, the town's become a major trading hub, info-hub, and crossroads for the Rilmani, Athar, Nerra, and anyone else who's linked to the Plane of Mirrors or the Spire. Mirror-Town, or something.

Because of what the town deals in (reflections, mirrors, information, and balance), it has a certain notoriety as a very odd, barmy place. People wandering its streets have stumbled across nearly exact copies of themselves, precisely the same in every detail--except maybe one decision or one small difference that sets them apart. These people both claim to come from the same place, have the same background, so on--and inevitably telling the difference becomes very hard. What's weirder is that one of the copies (or the original, who knows) has a habit of just 'disappearing'. Not in any sort of sinister way--just one day, they're gone.

Dopplegangers run the town, I imagine--the mayor's definitely a doppleganger at least--and although the town isn't sinister, it's got a reputation for just being a very strange place. It's also renowned for its flawless and brilliant mirrors, some of which reflect things more clearly than they actually are--much to the concern of the mirror's owners.

Since the events of the Shattering, the town's fallen into desperate straits and will pay a group of adventurers quite a lot of money to find the source of the problem and get their mirrors (especially their mirror portals) back up and running. They're pretty much crippled, relying on one or two of the few non-mirror based portals they have in town (they're quite hard to operate because of the proximity of the spire).

I can describe this town in much more detail if anyone's interested, using another thread. My ideas for it are pretty loose at the moment (obviously), but I can come up with a lot of weird darks about it. The basic premise is that it's some sort of strange hub between the Plane of Mirrors and the Spire, where reflections can be more true than life.

I was imagining that the dopplegangers are just incredibly effective mirror-creators. So effective that sometimes the reflections come to life (and replace the originals). Either that, or the mirrors can even reflect alternate universes, with their subjects sometimes stepping out or switching places with the other poor sod (into a universe where everything is the same except some small detail). There are a lot of different directions this can go in, but I definitely want to avoid the whole 'dopplegangers are evil durr-hurr the town is under their control' plot. The dopplegangers are definitely neutral, in this case. I mean, there might be a couple of bad-apples (and maybe even a few who are responsible for disappearances), but generally that's frowned upon and most of the dopplegangers are pretty legitimate. They can be deceitful and backstabbity in their practices at times, but they aren't evil or out to conquer the world.

I was thinking about this a lot. When the Athar drew him up to the Spire, maybe they separated his divinity from him somehow--a 'vestige' similar to what the others were talking about. Maybe the God's divinity has been snagged by one of the Kamerel, leaving the Power a powerless shell sitting in an Athar cell (or facing an Athar or Rilmani trial, or under the Rilmani's care until he gets his powers back). The idea of the God being one of vision who's just completely lost is cool, too.

One other alternate is that the kamerel, having been trapped in the Plane of Mirrors so long, have constructed an intensely impossible web of mirror-based labyrinths (a hall of mirrors? Garden of infinite forking paths? maybe the source of all the 'reflections' that keep haunting the hub-town?) within which they've trapped the deity, who can't escape. They're drawing his essence out of the labyrinth while he wanders about it.

One last option is that the Kamerel have managed to return to at least one city near the Spire--one city completely obscured, not by mirror-magic, but by actual mirrors. A small cult of Kamerel who weren't sent into the mirror-plane have constructed high up on the spire a city obscured through the brilliant use of reflective mirrors, carefully arranged so that when you look up at it you see what appears to be only the sky (or part of the spire).

These are all wonky ideas, I guess, although I'm kind of partial to the vestige one (trapping Powers inside of labyrinths of mirrors are cool, too, especially if the labyrinth turns out to be a book).

Does engineering work near the Spire? Maybe that's what a cabal of gnomes are up to--or maybe the Kamerel are interested in getting as high on the spire as possible (to avoid any dealings with anyone).

I've been thinking about this hub city for a while. What I have in mind could be a whole module on its own. Anyway, here's my idea:

The city's name is Mirage. It's a lot like Las Vegas--a sprawling town in the middle of a desert. The entire theme of the city--what they sell more than anything else, in fact--is self-doubt.

Nearly everything in the city is designed to make you question your beliefs about what's true and what isn't. It's run by a cabal of mafia-esque doppelgangers (who all 'pretend' to be different officials; you're never sure if the mayor is the same person as he was yesterday, as it might just be another doppelganger 'taking up that role') who may or may not be an Anarchist cell. Things of interest include: A brothel where you're asked a series of questions and undergo an interview before being 'serviced' by a doppelganger who perfectly imitates your appearance and personality (yes, that's right, you get to make out with yourself--popular with Sensates!), a githzerai-run monastery with mirrors that after a long degree of study reputedly show you what /truly/ lies inside, a group of gnomes attempting to use mirror-magic to build a communication network throughout the planes with mirrors (they call it the Mirror-Net? I dunno, too corny? D: Might tie in with the Kamerel), and a crazy rich barmy mirror-collector who lives in a house filled with different mirrors, all of them reportedly enchanted (after the Shattering, his house has since gone into lock-down--adventure hook involves entering the place).

The city has a sharp duality between introspective reflection/self-doubt and superficial reflection. Regardless of anything, a berk visiting is just as likely to leave knowing something about himself that he didn't as he is to leave with empty pockets. The doppelgangers make sure the city isn't dangerous, but they thrive on trickery and deception (especially since high-level divinations and spells don't work this close to the spire, giving the doppelgangers an awesome edge). Some of the greatest mirror-workers in the Multiverse are said to work there.

This is all still flighty and abstract in my head, of course. D:

I was thinking that Mirage would be located a bit away from the base of the Spire. It's sort of a hub-city, an in-between city for those who have trouble with existing/handling affairs in a no-magic zone. The Rilmani use it as a trade-port (since not everyone is willing to walk to the base of the spire, especially not powers), information, et cetera--a sort of pipeline for them to interact with the rest of the Multiverse. It sits in the first ring, possibly the second ring.

I wasn't too sure about this, but I had a nagging suspicion. The one thing that might help fix that is the idea that Mirage is actually one of the abandoned Kamerel cities, and some of the inhabitants have been playing around with the toys that the Kamerel left behind. That might not work so well, though.

I'd be willing to give a shot at the ruleset, at least. I have a few distinct ideas in mind. My only hesitation is that I don't want to do anything too remarkable.

Edit: Oh, and there has to be some NPC--maybe a villain or a plot hook or something--who's stuck in the town because he's contracted a terrible magical disease/curse that only the proximity to the Spire can suppress. Probably the incredibly rich mirror-owner who's gone into lockdown since the shattering (a sprawling mansion filled with shattered mirrors, all of them enchanted, strikes me as a great place to have an adventure--especially if many of the enchantments have gone awry).

I like the idea behind this in principle, and I think it can be used later on in the campaign as a site for getting into the Plane of Mirrors and dealing with the kamerel in some manner. But I don't think it works at the base of the Spire... because magic won't work there. The dopplegangers won't be able to change their shapes, enchanted mirrors will just be pretty pieces of reflective glass, and other uses of mirror-magic presumably won't work either.

As a location located within one of the other rings of the Outlands, where low-level magic works but the high-powered divinations are blocked? Sure thing. But at the base of the Spire, all the most interesting stuff associated with it just doesn't work. :oops:

And--again--Mirage would be located just outside the base of the spire, within the first ring (is this feasible? Would it be too far, then?) and serve as a port for travelers heading to the base of the spire who need to stock up on non-magical gear (or who want to do business with those at the base of the spire, but can't risk going there--kind of a 'meeting point'). I'm suggesting it as a hub for players to start out in so it isn't immediately "BAM, no magic!"--plus an opportunity for them to gather intel before leaping into the fray.

The doppelganger love it because they can still shapeshift within the first ring, and most divination magics that would reveal what they're up to are too high of a level to work.

Sorry for my absence from this thread...I wasn't getting email notifications from it, so I didn't know so much discussion was going on! There are some great ideas here -- I'll address the ones I'd like to see developed, in no particular order:

We DO want all the glass mirrors in the multiverse to shatter. Steel mirrors (such as the ones adventurers can buy from the Player's Handbook) are unaffected; this actually helps our plot hooks, because now those people using the Plane of Mirrors have to use the everyday mundane steel mirrors that ADVENTURERS carry. Or mirror-hoppers can disrupt life for commoners, drawing adventurers in that way.

If there's a particular magic mirror a DM wants to survive the Shattering, he can arbitrarily say it does. It's not too hard for a DM to devise some way for a mirror to have become repaired if he runs an adventure after this that requires one; we can always have all the mirrors restored at some point in the adventure path, if we so desire, to fix this conundrum ourselves.

The idea for a mirror-hopping chase throughout the planes is in -- fantastic idea! And yes, a cameo through Shemeska's mirror would be great.

No Power on trial...there are too many variables, depending on the god in question, and it does distract from the central theme. However, another post has given me an idea (more later in this post).

The following adventure hooks are in -- Malfunctioning Mirror, Wizardly Mirror Troubles, and Nerra Exiles.

Mirage is in -- great idea! -- and it gives me another idea...what if the Athar shattered all the mirrors in order to drum up business? Sure, the average person will settle for a steel mirror, but those with money will want silvered glass ones, and maybe the craftsmen of Mirage are bucking to make themselves a name as elite mirrormakers. Canny bloods may put two and two together, suspecting the Athar in Mirage may have been responsible for the multiversal event, but only investigation will turn up evidence. Enter the PCs...

While I don't want the trial idea, there is precedent for the Power and the vestige-of-a-Power idea...Orcus and Tenebrous. The kicker comes with the next quote.

The vestige-god the kamerel are using to power their mirror labyrinth (and the explanation as to why mirror portals work differently from other portals, including near the Spire)? Why, it's Aoskar. The Lady of Pain knew Sigil would cease to exist if the god of portals was truly obliterated, so she separated his essence...and the kamerel captured it and trapped it in the Plane of Mirrors. It also provides a nice hook for the Sign of One to become involved at one point, if the existence of Aoskar's vestige is revealed before the end of the adventure path.

I like the doppelgangers being involved with Mirage as well...but we'd need to place the town somewhere where the Athar would still be safe AND supernatural abilities would still function. That might not be possible, but maybe Mirage would be the one place where doppelgangers would feel comfortable in their own forms. (Maybe in Mirage, a doppelganger's reflection shows something else? Maybe doppelgangers are kamerel, or their descendants?)

Mirror magic has made appearances in other sources from 2E and 3E, and people can consult them for ideas. The Ravenloft supplement Carnival (which I own) has a barker who is actually a reflection of a person now trapped in the Plane of Mirrors. He found a way to switch places with the "real" man, and he's always worrying about what would happen if the man happened to escape. Also, Monte Cook covered mirror magic in the Book of Eldritch Might. (I have this as well, if no one else has access to it.)

I've always adjudicated movement on the Outlands thusly -- 3d6 days from landmark to landmark, but I introduced a "travel token" in the form of a holy symbol of Aoskar that reduces travel time to its smallest component, i.e., 3 days.

Oracle:

Shattering mirrors are all fine and good, but what do you say to my original critique of the idea - particularly the part about it just creating more mirrors? After all, there are many other ways to get PC's involved without farmers complaining about mirror-hoppers, but how do you explain the fact that the mirror pieces still reflect if the mirror realm is cut off. Or... is it not cut off? I'm still a bit vague on that, among other things.

As for Aoskar... I would agree with Hippo and keep his involvement as vague and as limited as possible. He is too closely tied to the history of The Lady and Sigil itself to be defined by any adventure. He is one of those everpresent mysteries... is he dead? Is his corpse on the Astral? Does he still affect the planes? It's meant to be a woozy mystery. It would be very unwise, in my personal opinion, to retcon the earlier sources or specify something that they implicitly made unknown. Leave that, as well as giving Her Serenity stats, to WotC.

Similarly, I wouldn't retcon the travel speed around Outlands from what it said in the 2e source. It would just be confusing. A minor thing, true, but unless it serves some greater purpose, there really is very little reason to change it.

This is great. Go ahead and start on Mirage, and if you want any help with NPCs, post a list with the brief stats (name, race, class, level, faction, profession/role in Mirage) and we'll see if someone else can start statting people up. With NPCs developed, we can see how to connect people to other events/adventures. I have no desire to resolve or debunk any of the great mysteries of Planescape, unless we want such a reveal as the climax of the adventure path. I merely provided a possible explanation because people weren't happy when I DIDN'T provide an explanation for the shattering of the mirrors.

Did you actually mean Rilmani, or Kamerel? I had suggested Kamerel, although I'll admit that the 3E art for the Rilmani looks very close to the featureless, genderless form of the doppelganger.

Anyone else care to weigh in on this? Do we want to develop some kind of connection between doppelgangers and one of these races?

Care to elaborate?

Hmm, mirrors... don't forget Azzagrat and Grazzt's Argent Palace.

So, having never had Tales of the Infinite Staircase, I'm unfamiliar with the Kamerel.

I'm getting the impression the Plane of Mirrors is something like this:

Really, really deep into the plane: Kamerel and their new cities
Just on the other side of the mirror: Mirror mephits and Nerra
Our side: everything else.

This makes the Plane of Mirrors really, really empty, plenty of space to stuff a power or an aspect into.

As for Mirage, you might only want to have role-playing or social encounters there for the adventure path since if it's very close to the Spire, spellcaster PCs will feel totally useless, which is fine for a single weak encounter or two, but totally sucks ass if you have to go back there time and again.

Sorry there's been no noise from me, people. I was sick all last week and spent Thursday night in an emergency room. But I'm all better now, and I'm eager to see any snippets people might have written up.