A heavy-intrigue pre-war campaign loosely based on Game of Thrones
It's more than a decade ago that I read for the first time "A Game of Thrones", but the HBO's adaptation made me relive it in exquisite detail. All my players watched the show, and they asked me to run a heavy-intrigue in the brink of a war campaign. And, as an Eberron fan, I designed "Sede Vacante". Here I'll share the highlights for you to inspire your own home campaigns.
Of course, for such a campaign to run smoothly, you have to make the players select the province they want to come from (one of the five nations-to-be). The campaign starts just before King Jarot's death. For intrigue-enhancing purposes, I established a few changes in the canon:
First, I killed Jarot's first wife (whoever she was) and re-married him to his main advisor's younger sister, a third of the king's age. Second, ir'Wynarn sucession established the first "son" to be named king. It wasn't an issue so far because the first child of every king has been a boy. Third, I had Mishann having a child fruit of an indiscretion with a Cannith more than 14 years before.
With those details, the pieces are set.
The first adventure revolves around Mishann's heir. Playing Aundairian or Cyran citizens, they're considered pro-Mishann. Finding her son gives her the chance to run the kingdom in behalf of him. Playing Thrane, Karrnathi or Brelish citizens, they just want to make him disappear. How good they want to do that depends on the alignment of the characters.
Well, back in the time, the indiscretion was solved by the father's father, a Cannith Enclave manager stationed at Metrol. He told everyone involved he had to kill both his son and his grandson to protect them from the king's enforcement of the Korth's Edicts (Jarot was already paranoid by then). Actually he gave his grandson to a priest serving at a Sovereign Host monastery outside the city, where he grew with no knowledge of his birthright. His son, an arrogant dilettante, was sent to Dreadhold as "Prisoner 13", which no one could even talk to, even less listen. The priest, nonetheless, wasn't so naive, so he did a research of his own, and finding who the child was, kept the secret until his mother was able to keep him as Queen of Galifar. This is the link the character must exploit to succeed.
This is just the beginning. Do you like it? What do you think I can run as next assignments?
