In my homegame, the Outer Ones are not exiled outside Mystara, but the Immortals are exiled in Mystara (if the Outer Ones were interested, they could come to Mystara, but... they are not very interested!)

The Outer Ones are the "definitive" beings (beyond good and bad, almighty, all-knowledgeable, motor immobilis, etc. etc. etc.) and the Immortals aspire to become like them (eventually...), but until then, the Immortals are condemned to prove themselves in this universe (that is a tiny bit of the dimensions of the Outer Beings).

The Egg of the Coot and similar (Burrowers etc.) are former exalted-type creatures associated to some Outer Being and have been left behind for some unknown reason by them. These life-forms (or mystic energy sources...) can be very different between them in power, activity and motivation (in fact, in one campaign the Nucleus of the Spheres was actually one of them, connected with the other-wordly technomancy powersource) and the Egg of the Coot is obviously resenting being left behind with no explanation (suspecting it wasn't deemed worthy enough) and releases in some way its rage and its mystic energy.

My "Blackmoor-related" campaigns were usually set in a time shortly after the departure of King Uther with back-stabbing political councils having the "real" power, even if some too young king or queen can be formally carrying the crown or maybe is gone away adventuring in incognito to come back later, once grown in age and power.
In that time the kingdom is bent on gathering gold and magic to hire adventurers and mecenaries to protect it from the countless external enemies (and of course there are plenty of internal enemies as well...).

My players usually started in a remote keep or, more often, in a remote colony similar to early Spanish colonies in the West Indies, with very harsh climate and environmental conditions (usually very hot, arid volcanic rock or broken lands - type), unknown sicknesses, with a mothercountry extremely greedy for gold, governors and viceroy concentrared just on the short term gain and career (to be promoted and go away as soon as possible from this hell), church representatives strict, dogmatic and pretty paranoid towards the others (but scheming and extremely greedy and corrupt privately).
The only connection with Blackmoor is a fleet that comes once a year to collect the gold and magic components (plants, magic ores etc.) and to bring new colonists and goods.
The same yearly fleet brings also new governors and viceroy, so maybe the PCs overcome a great crisis after the death of the governor and took de facto his place, just to find them substituted by a new governor that doesn't know anything about the local situation and that messes up everything...
The colony regularly fails every few years and it's re-started by Blackmoor, as the gold is too good.
One thing that happens regularly before the periodic failures of the colonies is Red Imps coming in a very harsh and desperate times and offering relief and refuge if some strange contract is signed with blood... :roll:

Eventually, somewhere near the colony (or under, or over, etc.) turns out that there is something similar to the Egg of the Coot / Burrowers (probably less powerful) that sends dreams, promotes crazy cults, sends bad weather (no rain for years, then terrible floodings, etc.), makes people crazy and violent, attracts enemies, etc. etc. the colony will never be stable and thriving until that's dealt with someway (creatively).
Typically that's the end of the campaign (or at least of the section of the campaign)...

Oh, I almost forgot about them, but... do you remember that caves in Soderfjord (or was it Vestland?) where you have ancient Gnomic technology (calculators and the like) in an area cleared of Gnomes by Kobolds long time ago? I made that technology Blackmoor derived.

I had a Gnomic kingdom/tribe mixed up somehwere in/near Blackmoor and exchanging technology with them in a pretty advanced stage of Blackmoor history.

In my campaigns, Gnomes and Kobolds are always linked and where one is, there is always the other (a bit like Elves and Orcs).
While Gnomes were too technologically superior, keeping the Kobolds out of the door was just a game and during this time they established some colonies in various parts of the world (including Soderfjord, of course).

When Blackmoor is obliterated, the Gnomes (that are not too far) are greatly weakened (but not fully and directly destroyed, as they tinkered with Blackmoor technology and made it "Gnomish"), Kobolds (that are less hurt by the waste disease) take them over and, in relatively short time, get quite a lot of their technology, starting up a glorious civilization somewhere under South Pole ice cap (powered with nuclear reactors, of course).
This civilization is the "fabled" Kobold civilization, very isolationist and based on a highly scientific and phylosophic approach to life. They could possibly rule Mystara, but they are not interested in power, just in knowledge and philosophy, however, their only "weakness" is that they like travelling in secret and helping "underdeveloped" Kobold tribes all over the world (that's where Kurtulmak's "shining" armor suit comes from, for example, but there can be plenty of other interesting situations...).

In the Known World, more recently, history repeats itself again and Kobolds destroy Gnomes in Soderfjord caves, but their technology is in too bad conditions to be salvaged.

Somewhere else, another Kobold tribe was saved from too dangerous enemies and brought to safety in the South Pole secret city (something quite unprecedented, but they were in too desperate situation).
This was a great mistake as the "newcomers" didn't share the high cultural ethos of the Kobold civilization and tried to use their technology to destroy their old enemies - in my campaigns, the missile creating the great Crater in Glantri doesn't come from the crazy old-fashoned dwarves (Modrigswierg? possibly wrong spelling - I don't like a lot that idea...), but from Kobolds using Gnomish-derived technology, that in turn is Blackmoor-derived :roll:
Actually that missile was intended by the "civilized" Kobolds to deflect an asteroid on course for hitting the planet and not as a warfare item.

Once found which kind of damage technology can do and that, no matter what kind of measures you put in place, they can always be used for major destruction, they decide, stoichally, that the lesson from Blackmoor history has to be learnt and (after sending a second missile to the asteroid, effectively saving the planet as intended) they destroy their own civilization in a blast, removing from Mystara this source of technological knowledge (and danger) for the whole world.

You deserve a thread on your about this, Yaz!

Should I split this one?

Actuallly, I had intended to make this an announcement only... And forgot to lock it. :mrgreen:

and moved to the Campaign Journal's forum.



-Havard

After I relocated, I'm not running this campaign anymore, but I'm still in touch with the DM.
At the moment, most of the character are at Master level and, after indication from their Immortal patrons, they are doing a reverse Chthulu trick, i.e. THEY are discreetly infiltrating the alien, aberrant universe of the Outer Beings, trying to establish a local cult of the Immortals and eventually opening a portal to allow a large scale invasion, always staying undercover and hoping hat the Elder Ones won't catch them red-handed too early...

I love the reversed infiltration concept! :)

Will need to borrow that at some point...

-Havard

:D