Ideas for a Campaign

[Trusk'our he/him]

As my internship crawls closer to it's end, I'm looking towards going back to college and playing more of the Stormlight RPG with my friends. I think I'd like to take a shot at being the GM and running the game actually, and have a loose idea for a 5-6 session campaign. 

I'm still stuck on specifics, but if anyone has suggestions, I'd love to hear them (except any of my friend group, obviously. You guys go away from this thread, cause it needs to be a surprise).

It would take place a year or so before Kaladin arrives in the Shattered Planes, with the War of Reckoning raging on. 

The PCs are in the warcamps for various reasons, but come together for a small beginning quest/mystery they solve (most likely a fight with some thugs who've been avoiding the law or something, since my groups are terrible at puzzles and love murder).

This act doesn't go unnoticed, and Highprince Aladar brings the PCs to his keep to congratulate them on their success and offers them a proposition: he recently loaned his Shardblade out to a trusted commander who was slain in combat. Somehow, Aladar is unable to resummon his Blade- he can sense it's bond to him, but it is physically out of reach (I'm not sure how common the knowledge of danaged Shardblade gems is. I think Adolin thinks about it in WoR? Aladar or his agents probably know of this, and could deduce what happened).

He promises to pay the PCs handsomely for it's retrieval, as he wants it back ASAP and wants to keep the incident under wraps. None of his other agents are particularly good at detective work, probably being taken up by Sadeas (probably not likely, but you've gotta find a way to get the PCs in somehow).

This leads to the PCs hunting for this Shardblade, tracking it from the battlefield to a disloyal lieutenant who took the opportunity and snatched it, fleeing to Thaylenah and selling it to the underground for a life of wealth. 

They realize they need more information, and are lead to Sesemalex Dar to meet up with a mysterious information broker who seems to have tabs on anything and everything- who turns out to be a Cryptic who has been running an intelligence-collecting organization for centuries (might have to sneak around the 80s War to get into the city- so more excuses for combat. The Valley could also be an option on the way there too).

They're directed to the lair of an infamous Iriali outlaw who's been using the Blade to grow their forces and become a far more dangerous threat (the Blade's martial prowess is nice and all, but really it's the reputation that would make the real difference for their growing warband).

After the PCs defeat the BBEG, they can replace the lost pomel gemstone and return the Blade to Aladar, then return to the warcamps to claim their rewards. 

 

Basically, the campaign is an excuse to wander Roshar and see new locations, talk to NPCs, but most importantly to fight things. No Fused, but other enemies could be fought and bonding Spren should still be possible. 

So, any ideas for specifics on the steps, modifications to better fit the setting, specific (even homebrewed) enemy types, or treasures to find?

[Jult]

On 7/25/2026 at 11:28 AM, Trusk'our said:

So, any ideas for specifics on the steps, modifications to better fit the setting, specific (even homebrewed) enemy types, or treasures to find?

Aladar is a great choice because we know a surprising amount about him. I think timing-wise this would be right around the time Skar got himself arrested by the Blackcaps (Aladar's personal guard) if you want to throw some cameos in. May and Arobadar would probably be around somewhere too. I'm not sure if it's confirmed exactly when Adolin and May fooled around together, but that also could have been around this time. Seeing as Arobadar and Adolin are both arena duelists; you could easily set up a little arena side quest.

Not having access to Fused or Regals does cross out a good chunk of the Adversaries list. But there lots of threatening creatures on Roshar already (Whitespines, Chasmfiends, Khonaks, etc.) and there are already stat blocks for many of them. Also, organizations like the Ghostbloods or the Sons of Honor could very reasonably be keeping an eye on Ishar if you need more people to potentially fight in Sesemalex Dar. I wouldn't be surprised if there were some Skybreakers around too.

One thing I'm curious about is your Cryptic information broker. How is he in the Physical Realm? Is he bonded to someone? If he is, then I'd be even less surprised to see some Skybreakers showed up.

[Returned he/him]

The biggest hurdle is credibility in selling a Shardblade, so that's a good place to situate a lot of story elements. They are so rare, so valuable, so useful, and so unique that few people would be able to afford to purchase one and keep it from its previous owner. Maybe someone in Jah Keved could afford it and feel secure against an Alethi invasion. I would also be curious how a random officer might expect to be able to fence one, confidently enough that they might take such an unlikely opportunity to steal it. There are some good story hooks in that. Transporting the Blade is also a very difficult task: it's ~7 feet long, distinctive, and the blade will cut through anything at all with even the most casual touch. How the lieutenant is able to secure the Blade for travel while also reliably disguising its presence will provide good details to work into the story and can suggest additional clues and contacts.

Connections with unsavory people will probably be integral in any such plan, and that would give an opportunity to bring in one of the nameless Ghostbloods we see in WoR as a contact, or possibly one of the Sons of Honor. If neither of those appeal, someone connected to the Weeper might do. She was able to obtain and and use a Shardblade in secret. Regardless, the lieutenant and the Blade could be too hot for anyone to want to interact with, but the opportunity to get a cut of any deal involving them might be too tempting to pass up. Betrayal of the lieutenant in hope of a reward from Aladar for helping restore his Blade is also a good angle someone can have.

Ultimately I would probably have the Blade be stolen by the infamous Iriali outlaw while in transit to its buyer or fence. That allows you to easily sidestep the minutiae of how the transaction would work, as well as how an outlaw would be a plausible buyer. The sword is a real white elephant of a possession, particularly if its owner doesn't know enough to switch out the gemstone and bond it themselves. Reports of it will inevitably get out, and its description will be recognized as Aladar's. That should prompt a huge response from Aladar, and anyone else with army enough to try taking it for themselves. The setup for the scenario sounds like there shouldn't be much, if any, time for the outlaw to make use of the Blade, which would explain why the large military response hasn't happened yet.

Tukar seems like a reasonable place for the Blade to wind up, if the trip is from the Shattered Plains to Thaylenah first, but these are long journeys by land and sea. The players will either be in relatively hot pursuit of the lieutenant (he can't be more than a couple of days or weeks ahead of them at most, and little meaningful news will filter back to the war camps unless he happens across people with spanreeds), or they will be way behind him (far enough that the lieutenant has reached a major city before they set out). I would decide in advance which you want, to be on the heels of their target and urgently trying to reach him or trying to trace his path by picking up clues along the way.

Moving across the Frostlands should be arduous and involve survival skills to live off the land as they go, or the players can be attached to a caravan heading West. A caravan gives a chance to work in antagonists (maybe Sadeas agents looking for the Blade themselves, possibly aware of the players' mission?) with some intrigue along the way, but less combat potential (the caravan will have guards, and spies observing the players won't want to kill them before they find the sword). Some NPC accompanying the players might be nice to give some continuity as they move between such different places.

I might skip Thaylenah altogether, or at least seriously abbreviate the time spent there to only cover hiring a ship to take them to Tukar. Five to six sessions is relatively little time for developing characters and settings, so the goal of letting the players wander and see new places could be undercut by a crowded itinerary (especially with such large distances to cross). We've already seen a fair bit of Thaylen City, so you might get more mileage out of time spent in Sesemelax Dar.

Enemies to encounter could include dangerous wildlife, like Jult suggested, and bandits are known to be a problem in the Frostlands. Bandits might be ragtag deserters at the low end and a well-equipped mercenary force on the high end. If any of the players are developing a spren bond then a Skybreaker would make a great difficult enemy to encounter. Tukari (or other Ishar-aligned) humans would also fit, and might even have fabrials from Ishar to make them more dangerous. More magically-powered enemies could be hard to work in without the players having magic of their own, and organized opponents might be hard to fit in with the secretive scenario and early-campaign timing.

One possible alternative (or addition) to the Shardblade storyline involves regrowing Shardplate. The Plate is shattered into only small pieces on the field, and an opportunistic soldier steals the biggest piece they can get. Knowing that any piece can reform the entire set if it's fed enough Stormlight quickly enough, they could try to grow their piece faster than any other and thereby steal the whole armor without drawing a lot of immediate attention. This gives a specific ticking clock to deal with, makes it easier to move the Plate in secret (since it's just one piece, maybe even a small one), and because Plate is less distinctive than Blades it would be easier to sell illegitimately. But you can also easily grant the lieutenant enough resources to plausibly move the Blade without detection, and the final boss having a Blade makes for a better fight than their having part of a suit of Plate.

Edited 11 hours ago by Returned

[Trusk'our he/him]

10 hours ago, Jult said:

Aladar is a great choice because we know a surprising amount about him. I think timing-wise this would be right around the time Skar got himself arrested by the Blackcaps (Aladar's personal guard) if you want to throw some cameos in. May and Arobadar would probably be around somewhere too. I'm not sure if it's confirmed exactly when Adolin and May fooled around together, but that also could have been around this time. Seeing as Arobadar and Adolin are both arena duelists; you could easily set up a little arena side quest.

Ah, I forgot about those characters (see, this is why I miss so much in the books. I forget like 80% of the relevant side characters). Good ideas there though, I should brush up on those people so I can add more depth to the setting.

Honestly I went with Aladar purely because he's the one Highprince I remember who was known to hand off his Shards to others so they can fight in his stead. Makes the most sense for how a Shardblade could be lost but the Highprince still being in one piece.

10 hours ago, Jult said:

Not having access to Fused or Regals does cross out a good chunk of the Adversaries list. But there lots of threatening creatures on Roshar already (Whitespines, Chasmfiends, Khonaks, etc.) and there are already stat blocks for many of them. Also, organizations like the Ghostbloods or the Sons of Honor could very reasonably be keeping an eye on Ishar if you need more people to potentially fight in Sesemalex Dar. I wouldn't be surprised if there were some Skybreakers around too.

I'll be frank when I say I'm only a little disappointed about the lack of Fused or Regals though- those were almost exclusively the opponents we fought in the last campaign I played, and though they're pretty fun opponents and make the most sense, I think it'll be nice to have some different enemies for once.

Ghostbloods I may want to keep away from, at least for the beginning, since they were also a core part of the last campaign and I want to have some variety (though I'm already planning on some Mistborn RPG stuff and the Ghostbloods are going to be a big part there). Sons of Honor I totally forgot about, but I like the idea. I'll see if I can integrate those, plus Skybreakers as a bigger threat that has to be hidden from if the PCs begin bonding Spren.

10 hours ago, Jult said:

One thing I'm curious about is your Cryptic information broker. How is he in the Physical Realm? Is he bonded to someone? If he is, then I'd be even less surprised to see some Skybreakers showed up.

I was going to have him in the Cognitive Realm, but using a mirror to be seen through like with Elhokar. He'd have a number of human proxies that act as his hands and eyes in the PR, and have a personal Spanreed network that the players could leverage if they appease him.

My main thinking with this Spren was that he'd be a bit more like a Warlock patron- powerful and mysterious, with his own goals and will. Basically the opposite of what we'd done in our previous game where Spren were basically roleplay puppets for us players.

Ultimately I was thinking the meeting he had with the PCs would be interrupted by a third party engaging in combat, and afterwards the Cryptic allows them to bond him since he's fascinated by the Nahel bond and has seen their capacity firsthand. Of course, he'd also have some ulterior purposes for them, and would occasionally demand they do tasks for him.

4 hours ago, Returned said:

The biggest hurdle is credibility in selling a Shardblade, so that's a good place to situate a lot of story elements. They are so rare, so valuable, so useful, and so unique that few people would be able to afford to purchase one and keep it from its previous owner. Maybe someone in Jah Keved could afford it and feel secure against an Alethi invasion. I would also be curious how a random officer might expect to be able to fence one, confidently enough that they might take such an unlikely opportunity to steal it. There are some good story hooks in that. Transporting the Blade is also a very difficult task: it's ~7 feet long, distinctive, and the blade will cut through anything at all with even the most casual touch. How the lieutenant is able to secure the Blade for travel while also reliably disguising its presence will provide good details to work into the story and can suggest additional clues and contacts.

Connections with unsavory people will probably be integral in any such plan, and that would give an opportunity to bring in one of the nameless Ghostbloods we see in WoR as a contact, or possibly one of the Sons of Honor. If neither of those appeal, someone connected to the Weeper might do. She was able to obtain and and use a Shardblade in secret. Regardless, the lieutenant and the Blade could be too hot for anyone to want to interact with, but the opportunity to get a cut of any deal involving them might be too tempting to pass up. Betrayal of the lieutenant in hope of a reward from Aladar for helping restore his Blade is also a good angle someone can have.

Ultimately I would probably have the Blade be stolen by the infamous Iriali outlaw while in transit to its buyer or fence. That allows you to easily sidestep the minutiae of how the transaction would work, as well as how an outlaw would be a plausible buyer.

My reasoning was that it would be more of a spur-of-the-moment decision made by the lieutenant, him snatching up the fallen Blade as a particularly brutal battle raged on, and he flees to Thaylenah shortly afterwards where he might have some connections. He sells the Blade shortly afterwards to some people with power as he's come to realize the huge amount of danger simply holding onto an un-dismissible Blade brings, which gives him protection and a life of relative luxury (allowing the PCs to catch up to him and question him).

Good points all around though, I'll make sure to refine this part more so it's plausible enough. I was going to go with some unnamed Thaylen lowlife group that might serve as the buyers, but tying in a canonical group would probably be more exciting.

4 hours ago, Returned said:

The sword is a real white elephant of a possession, particularly if its owner doesn't know enough to switch out the gemstone and bond it themselves. Reports of it will inevitably get out, and its description will be recognized as Aladar's. That should prompt a huge response from Aladar, and anyone else with army enough to try taking it for themselves. The setup for the scenario sounds like there shouldn't be much, if any, time for the outlaw to make use of the Blade, which would explain why the large military response hasn't happened yet.

Yeah, this is where it gets rather tricky. Aladar- and really most people with Shards- will have the military power or at least the wealth and connections to send an army after the artifact.

My main excuse for why this doesn't happen is twofold: Aladar wants to save face and prevent a tremendous embarrassment that his "cowardice" eventually let his Blade be stolen, and he knows other powerful people like Sadeas would do their best to hunt it down if they know about its recent disappearance. 

4 hours ago, Returned said:

Tukar seems like a reasonable place for the Blade to wind up, if the trip is from the Shattered Plains to Thaylenah first, but these are long journeys by land and sea. The players will either be in relatively hot pursuit of the lieutenant (he can't be more than a couple of days or weeks ahead of them at most, and little meaningful news will filter back to the war camps unless he happens across people with spanreeds), or they will be way behind him (far enough that the lieutenant has reached a major city before they set out). I would decide in advance which you want, to be on the heels of their target and urgently trying to reach him or trying to trace his path by picking up clues along the way.

I'm thinking it will be a tracing of the path he took, where there is a time restraint, but looser than if they were on the thief's heels. That way it opens more avenues for side quests and exploration.

4 hours ago, Returned said:

Moving across the Frostlands should be arduous and involve survival skills to live off the land as they go, or the players can be attached to a caravan heading West. A caravan gives a chance to work in antagonists (maybe Sadeas agents looking for the Blade themselves, possibly aware of the players' mission?) with some intrigue along the way, but less combat potential (the caravan will have guards, and spies observing the players won't want to kill them before they find the sword). Some NPC accompanying the players might be nice to give some continuity as they move between such different places.

I might skip Thaylenah altogether, or at least seriously abbreviate the time spent there to only cover hiring a ship to take them to Tukar. Five to six sessions is relatively little time for developing characters and settings, so the goal of letting the players wander and see new places could be undercut by a crowded itinerary (especially with such large distances to cross). We've already seen a fair bit of Thaylen City, so you might get more mileage out of time spent in Sesemelax Dar.

Ooo, I particularly like the idea of a second group also pursuing the Blade. That would spice things up, but still leave some wiggle room for the PCs. A Sadeas-aligned group would be perfect.

It's ultimately possible that this campaign will last longer than I originally intended, it depends largely on the number of usable ideas I can put in and whether I can sustain the energy to run it for so long.

4 hours ago, Returned said:

Enemies to encounter could include dangerous wildlife, like Jult suggested, and bandits are known to be a problem in the Frostlands. Bandits might be ragtag deserters at the low end and a well-equipped mercenary force on the high end. If any of the players are developing a spren bond then a Skybreaker would make a great difficult enemy to encounter. Tukari (or other Ishar-aligned) humans would also fit, and might even have fabrials from Ishar to make them more dangerous. More magically-powered enemies could be hard to work in without the players having magic of their own, and organized opponents might be hard to fit in with the secretive scenario and early-campaign timing.

Honestly, even without Surgebinding PCs are generally pretty powerful if built appropriately. I'm not super worried about them being in danger, though I'll try to give them some cool stuff to boost them over time and ensure survival isn't an issue.

4 hours ago, Returned said:

One possible alternative (or addition) to the Shardblade storyline involves regrowing Shardplate. The Plate is shattered into only small pieces on the field, and an opportunistic soldier steals the biggest piece they can get. Knowing that any piece can reform the entire set if it's fed enough Stormlight quickly enough, they could try to grow their piece faster than any other and thereby steal the whole armor without drawing a lot of immediate attention. This gives a specific ticking clock to deal with, makes it easier to move the Plate in secret (since it's just one piece, maybe even a small one), and because Plate is less distinctive than Blades it would be easier to sell illegitimately. But you can also easily grant the lieutenant enough resources to plausibly move the Blade without detection, and the final boss having a Blade makes for a better fight than their having part of a suit of Plate.

Honestly good point. I hadn't thought about Plate being stolen in this way, but it would make a lot of sense.

I'll think on it some more, but there's a good chance I'll just go with a Blade since it's more symbolic.

 

I'm very much appreciative of your advice guys, I really like the ideas so far.

[Returned he/him]

2 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

My reasoning was that it would be more of a spur-of-the-moment decision made by the lieutenant, him snatching up the fallen Blade as a particularly brutal battle raged on, and he flees to Thaylenah shortly afterwards where he might have some connections. He sells the Blade shortly afterwards to some people with power as he's come to realize the huge amount of danger simply holding onto an un-dismissible Blade brings, which gives him protection and a life of relative luxury (allowing the PCs to catch up to him and question him).

Good points all around though, I'll make sure to refine this part more so it's plausible enough. I was going to go with some unnamed Thaylen lowlife group that might serve as the buyers, but tying in a canonical group would probably be more exciting.

It's a legitimate idea. A Shardblade is such an incredible, life-changing thing to get that the chance to obtain one might overwhelm anyone. The trick will be in how the lieutenant is able to get away from the Alethi and Singers both without being killed or having the Blade taken from him, especially if it's on the plateaus. I can imagine lots of ways, maybe hiding it by jamming it into the plateau's side and saying it fell or that Aladar summoned it back. One shakier idea I had today is that the Alethi who borrowed the Blade is killed in battle by a Singer, who is in turn killed by the lieutenant. The lieutenant might now believe the Blade belongs to him by right, even bearing it back towards the war camps without others commenting on it, but starts to worry that Aladar will just take it from him and so flees to the West to preserve some scrap of his good fortune.

Either one could explain why he took it without a plan for what would come after, and desperate fear could lead him to just getting rid of it for a pile of spheres rather than actually bothering to broker a more appropriate deal.

2 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

Yeah, this is where it gets rather tricky. Aladar- and really most people with Shards- will have the military power or at least the wealth and connections to send an army after the artifact.

My main excuse for why this doesn't happen is twofold: Aladar wants to save face and prevent a tremendous embarrassment that his "cowardice" eventually let his Blade be stolen, and he knows other powerful people like Sadeas would do their best to hunt it down if they know about its recent disappearance. 

Lots of good choices, especially with how slow travel is. Even if Aladar wanted to mobilize an army, that takes time and he needs to know where to send them, which he doesn't. His wanting to keep everything quiet is also a good angle, and that plus the timing is plenty to set up why the players are ones spearheading the retrieval.

2 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

Ooo, I particularly like the idea of a second group also pursuing the Blade. That would spice things up, but still leave some wiggle room for the PCs. A Sadeas-aligned group would be perfect.

It's ultimately possible that this campaign will last longer than I originally intended, it depends largely on the number of usable ideas I can put in and whether I can sustain the energy to run it for so long.

One more group (in addition to the players, Aladar, the thieves/recipients of the Blade) should be workable in a campaign this length, especially if they're related to a group that the books already set up. My personal experience as a DM is that it's better to have a set plan for the campaign story and put in all your best ideas that suit it rather than holding back or stretching the plot into an indeterminate future. You'll almost certainly have more ideas than play sessions, and having to come up with more plot later is better than using play time to set up a bunch of stuff that may or may not ever pay off if the campaign continues. Everyone is different in their approach, so feel free to disregard this, but I wish I had followed this advice in my earlier, multi-year TTRPG campaigns.

2 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

Honestly good point. I hadn't thought about Plate being stolen in this way, but it would make a lot of sense.

I'll think on it some more, but there's a good chance I'll just go with a Blade since it's more symbolic.

The Blade is definitely a cool choice, and it has the added benefit that there's little chance the players will try to keep or fence it themselves. And the Blade being hard to hide and move will give more opportunity for the players to find clues and witnesses which wouldn't exist for Plate. It sounds like a cool campaign, I hope you'll let us know how it goes!