I've been DMing for a few years now, but it's only been the one campaign, and because we're an RP-heavy group and I'm still figuring out how to give out quest XP (and really thinking next campaign is going to be milestone-based leveling) the party is only level 8 (one member is still level 7.)
But one of my friends has a level 18 character she never gets to play, and so I offered to run a one-shot.
Given that I've wanted to run a game set in Ravnica since before the book was even announced, I figured I'd take this opportunity to make a Ravnica-set one-shot. Thus, while the friend whose request prompted this one-shot is going to be from her pre-established Forgotten Realms origins, the other characters will all be lifelong Ravnicans, with memberships in the guilds.
I don't think anyone I know actually reads this blog, but just for safety's sake, Jane, Tim, Adam, and Reed (and Codee if you wind up joining this game,) please read no further!
SPOILERS FOR THOSE SPECIFIC PEOPLE TO FOLLOW
So, the group as it stands is the following:
Aucienne, a half-orc Sorcerer who is from the Forgotten Realms. Her arrival via an interplanar (and as it turns out, inter-multiversal) machine will be what kicks off the brief adventure.
Blazzet the Flesh-Taster is a Goblin Bard and member of the Cult of Rakdos.
As yet unnamed is a Half Elf Wizard and part of the Izzet League.
And we have a Golgari Swarm member who hasn't chosen a name, race, or class yet.
And possibly a fifth character.
The premise is that the Izzet Laboratory of Orientation (which specializes in teleportation magic) has been trying to find a way for non-planeswalkers to travel between the planes. Initially charged by the Office of the Guildpact with merely finding a means of communicating with Jace while he's off-world, the Izzet naturally decided to go one step forward.
Given that it's a big event with some important members of the League (including the party's Wizard - everyone in guilds will start with about 25 renown) are attending, they've hired the famous Bard to perform at the event - and they have definitely not done any research into what his actual act is.
Meanwhile, the Golgari have noticed that there's radioactive slime pouring from the basement of the lab into the Undercity, and have sent that party member to talk with the higher-ups about how much of a problem this is.
When the device is turned on, Aucienne will arrive from Limbo, and as a Wild Magic sorcerer, she'll set off a series of explosions that nearly destroy the place, forcing the party and all the other people there to try to escape.
Meanwhile, it turns out that the radioactive slime is actually the residue of a group of Krasis eggs that have been planted there by a rogue Simic member who wants to have a creature eat the interplanar device in the hopes that that will teach them how to simply turn people into planeswalkers.
A couple Category 2 Krasis (Krases?) will attack the party, giving us the first, presumably quick (I know that's a dangerous presumption in a one-shot) combat.
Then, the real chaos begins. Assuming the Simic dude survived the explosions, he'll emerge from Zonot Seven (the lab is right up next to it) on the top of a Category 3 Krasis, intending for the Krasis to eat the laboratory. He'll probably get eaten in the middle of his big villain speech, and then the Category 3 and a bunch of Category 1s will swarm forward.
A round later, a group of Azorius Lawmages and an Archon of the Triumvirate will show up on hover-disks (the Archon will be on a winged Felidar) and try to arrest everyone, making the fight a 3-way brawl.
But wait, then, if things are going to quickly, a group of Gruul raiders led by a giant Sunder Shaman will attack, attempting to destroy the lab.
The hope is that this is going to be utter madness and chaos, and give the players (most of whom appear to be spell casters) ample opportunity to come up with clever tricks.
The goal now is to figure out how to map it and also how to figure out positioning flying combatants.
The lab will use the standard Izzet lab set-up from Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica, but I think I'll need to come up with a customized map for the broad avenue between the lab and Zonot Seven.
I've tried to go with relatively simple creatures (though the Archon and the Lawmages might get more complicated.) I hope that the number of them means that crowd control abilities won't make the fight too easy. Nothing here has legendary resistances, which could neutralize some of my bigger threats.
Of course, the sheer number of combatants might get utterly silly. If the Bard has a bunch of Rakdos performers that survive the initial fight, we're talking a party with maybe over ten friendly units total. Then, we've got six Krasis monsters, five Azorius combatants, and six Gruul (though the Sunder Shaman is backed only by Anarchs, who will likely go splat very quickly.)
So we could have as many as 27 total combatants here, and that's before you get into innocent bystanders (though they should only be relevant in the first round or two, and might just die to single hits.)
Anyway, I'm very excited for this and hope that things go utterly crazy. I might need to add in some more environmental features to keep things particularly interesting.
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