Re: Overquest - What if the good guys had already lost?
As far as ley lines and advanced arcane knowledge and all that jazz... is this the sort of thing that Seklah knows or that Zilrax knows?
I'm always personally wary of keeping player and character knowledge separate. Sure, Seklah's a learned scholar so it makes sense she knows THINGS but, she hasn't read the script of the multiverse like Zilrax and Pervy and I have. So when do we start calling for knowledge checks and the like?
I dun even know much about Ley lines, not because I don't know much about D&D but because they are exeptionally vague as a concept.
As for when to call knowledge checks.. your characters can say whatever they want, that doesn't mean its true and correct unless its checked with me to be applicable to this gameworld. That doesn't mean that what Sekla says is wrong by any means, she may simple have read theories interpreting natural phenomena differently.
Simple example, with an entire
You must be registered to see the links
vampires have a bunch of weaknesses lots of people heard about, you aren't leaning far out of the window if you go 'holy symbols and sunshine hold, maybe destroy or at least weaken them' But for more exotic knowledge like 'have to count every single grain of rice on their way' and 'have no shadow' you wouldn't expect it to be true by default... though it may well be true depending on the DM's storytelling. My personal favourite in this situation is to not give the players a 'No' but a 'this may not be as effective as you think'. For example, if I played a more powerful vampire and the players tossed a bag of rice at him/her to count, I'd rp something like 'The creatures eyes lock on the rice as you toss it to the ground. Taking a step forward as the last grain settles it tells you: "2715".
Leylines are the same, in what they are and how they function. Perhaps I just treat them as high magic zones.