The Temporal Cauldron Incident

Befriend a sentient cauldron to avert the fey time loop apocalypse.

The Temporal Cauldron, an ancient artifact inadvertently brought into the mortal realm from the Feywild, is causing reality to unravel. This mystical cauldron alters time, creating unpredictable loops that threaten both worlds with chaos. Players must track its distortion across the ethereal landscape of the enchanted wilderness and negotiate with the cauldron's curious spirit to avert impending disaster. With only 24 hours, they face moral dilemmas and the potential of time itself erasing their progress at every misstep. The key to saving two realms lies in understanding the true nature of the cauldron and convincing the sentient artifact to retain stability. The journey plunges the players into the spiraling heart of the Feywild, where the environment is alive with magic and danger. Characters navigate temporal rifts, encounter fey creatures with their own agendas, and strive against the clock to prevent cataclysm on a monumental scale.

Campaign Image

The World

Context

The world is rich with magic and fey influence. Artifacts hold unpredictable powers and draw upon fey logic, blending with medieval technology to form a society on the brink of mythical incompatibility. Nature, alive with magic, changes daily life, offering challenges, wonder, and conflict.

Concept

A sentient cauldron, warping time every 24 hours, threatens reality.

Impact

Daily life is disrupted by temporal anomalies, causing people to age, de-age, or disappear mysteriously.

The Plot

Summary

The Temporal Cauldron, an artifact from the Feywild, suddenly appears and begins warping time around it. Each cycle risks merging reality with the chaotic fey realm, endangering both. The PCs are drawn by a moral duty to restore the balance. They follow the cauldron's trail in the enchanted wilderness, facing temporal storms and creatures bent on exploiting the chaos. Mid-mission, they learn the cauldron is sentient and seeking a connection with the realm; however, it can't control its effects. Realizing it's the key, players must establish communication and convince it of the importance of stability. Approaching the Feywild's heart, players encounter a twist: some forces wish to use the cauldron for selfish means. In a final confrontation, the party must determine alliances, risking reality's unraveling. Defeat means permanent time loops, trapping players and unleashing havoc across realms. Success brings resolution, restoring time and preventing fey encroachment, honoring the cauldron's wishes.

Complication

The cauldron desires a connection but inadvertently resists control.

Hook

Temporal distortions threaten reality within 24 hours.

World stakes

Entire regions could merge with the chaotic Feywild.

Personal stakes

Players risk being lost in time loops.

The Acts

Act 1

Summary:

The PCs arrive at the site of the first temporal distortion, a Hollow Glen now caught in a time anomaly. They must navigate backwards-fluctuating weather and battle creatures displaced through time, seeking clues to the location of the Temporal Cauldron. The discovery of a fey-marked map provides the next lead, but leaves them with a choice of two potential paths through the wilds: the Overgrown Trail or the River of Echoes, each fraught with unique challenges.

Location:

Hollow Glen: trees and structures flicker through time.

Challenge:

Navigate time-phased beasts and unstable glyph traps.

Objective:

Locate the Temporal Cauldron's trail.

Set Back:

A trusted guide is temporarily aged by the anomaly.

Revelation:

Cauldron is sentient and confused.

GM's Guide:

Encourage exploration and experimentation, with the fey-marked map offering branching paths. Maintain tension with time anomaly effects while allowing the group to set the pace. Roleplay creatures as confused rather than villainous, hinting at wider chaos.

GM's Move:

Time anomalies worsen, spreading beyond the glen.

Act 2

Summary:

Pursuing the cauldron's trail into the mystical River of Echoes, the party confronts additional temporal traps and a faction of fey intent on harnessing the artifact for their ends. Navigating negotiations and avoiding the fey's mesmerizing allure proves critical. Here, players can learn from the Fey Envoy about the cauldron's original intent as a peacemaker artifact gone awry, reframing their approach from adversary to caretaker.

Location:

River of Echoes: water reflecting future/past events.

Challenge:

Resist luring visions from the time-reflective waters.

Objective:

Discover the cauldron's original purpose.

Set Back:

An ally falls under a fey enchantment temporarily.

Revelation:

Cauldron was meant to unite, not destroy.

GM's Guide:

Manage the timeline tightly. NPCs are mystically tricky and not inherently hostile, seeking an advantage. Challenge players with moral choices and insight gathering through social encounters.

GM's Move:

Fey factions actively interfere with mixed motives.

Act 3

Summary:

The final approach leads the players into the heart of the Feywild, where the cauldron floats above a collapsing nexus. Players must establish a dialogue with the cauldron, even as competing fey forces vie for control. The environment shifts chaotically mimicking a kaleidoscope of possible futures. The party needs to solidify the cauldron’s reality and intentions by feeding it meaningful experiences catalyzing its desire for harmony.

Location:

Heart of the Feywild: vibrant, chaotic shifts in reality.

Challenge:

Outmaneuver power-hungry fey and confuse time rifts.

Objective:

Convince the cauldron to halt the time anomaly.

Set Back:

Fractured timelines temporarily separate the group.

Revelation:

Cauldron seeks to return to a stable timeline.

GM's Guide:

Encourage creativity. The cauldron communicates uniquely, understanding through gestures and emotions. Maintain pressure with describing unraveling space-time, emphasizing decisions' weight.

GM's Move:

Reality begins to unravel with vivid, shifting visuals.

Climax:

Stabilize timelines through empathy, averting fey-mortal reality merge.