Campaigns in a nutshell. Adventures in a sentence.

Defeat the Dawn of the World - The god Azalak has discovered what went wrong during Creation to cause all the evil in the world, he seeks to correct the error and create a utopia, but that would destroy all who currently live. The party must stop Azalak (combat solution) or convince him that his is misguided (roleplay solution). They will fight and ally with Celestials and Fiends alike, all have various motives surrounding the birth of a new and perfect world.

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Thats awesome. A feel a big scene involving demons and archons actually fighting on the same side would be a really cool thing to include. Basically to drive home just how severe the threat was.

Imperial Summons

The campaign setting was based on the comment in the 1e DMG about there having once been 10th+ magic during which time artifacts were created. I set an ancient empire where this was so. The armies were all outfitted with magic armor and weapons and there were military units of magi and clerics. They spread out conquering the world and building heavily fortified underground defense installations. Elves held out in the deepest parts of the forests. Dwarves moved back underground, and then these races made treaties that stopped the assault against them for work done on behalf of The Empire.

Any listing in the MM type books that attributed the existance of a creature to a 'mad godling', 'wizard's experiment' or 'occult ritual' were all due to The Emperor or at his direction. Most Artifacts were of Imperial design.

Then, it happened.

There was a mystic cataclysm, called the Decline of Magic, that brought the level of magic possible down to only 9th level spell effects. This had the side effect of making most of the magical items created by The Empire of Calydonia lose their magic completely or in part. This allowed the subjugated races to rise up and free themselves of The Empire. Many magic items changed hands as the Imperial Army tried to retreat. Some items that reatained their magic also acquired a degree of intelligence, but whether this was from the magic or by absorbing someone dying nearby is unknown.

The capital city of Calydon was devastated by the Decline; the Emperor, a mighty Lich, disappeared that day and was believed destroyed. The capital city became a location of monster lairs and strange magical effects. A corridor on an upper floor of the palace would shift through time, past and future. When it hits the time of The Decline it was deadly to be in the area.

The newly freed lands split into kingdoms and freeholds, and monsters wandered freely in newly uncivilized lands. Time past, things settled down.

A group of youths from a small town decided to do something other than fish or farm so they looked around for something adventurous to do. During one such journey there was a strange dark cloud flowing oddly across the sky. A single bolt of lightning struck one of their number and left a smouldering pile of ash. Shaken, the group continued on their journey, carrying the ashes of their friend. A few days later, after they had accomplished their task, they once again saw the strange cloud but this time the bolt of lightning that cracked down left their friend! He stood there smiling with tendrils of smoke rising from him.

Turns out he had spent the time with The Emperor, in the Palace of Calydon. The Emperor only seemd to want to chat with him about his life and what he had been doing. So it was for many adventurers over the years. Some of the more astute noticed that not all of those they adventured with were summoned, however.

A couple of players figured there had to be a reason for it all. I just smiled, and cringed inside because the reason was to allow me to remove absent player's characters from the game and get them back the next time the player showed up!

So, I set out to come up with a proper reason - The Emperor would be in a great battle against powerful Heroes. He was near defeat and then took a trip back in time to set up a trap. The Emperor put a Clone in the palace with a powerful spell set in place that would draw those Heroes to him while they were young.

The goal was not to defeat or kill them before that great battle but to set as many up for an Imprisionment or Trap the Soul spell by permitting the clone to spend years talking to the young folks and learning all the details of their lives. Then, at the point where the Emperor had escaped the Clone could come in and use his spells to decimate the Heroic forces. We didn't get that far yet.

Blood of the Kings

The PC's find out a horrible truth. The seal partitioning hell away from the material plane is due to fail soon. The solution is complicated.

Long, long ago (The exact date lost) six kings sacrificed their lives in a ritual that created six runes to seal away hell. They willingly participated in the ritual, which drained every last drop of blood from their body to write the runes. Six special swords were created which drew every last drop of blood from their bodies. Without these, the ritual would not have been possible.

Time stole the event from human memory but the gate to hell will soon open. The PC's are among a very, very small few who know the truth. Sealing away hell requires them to do the following.

1: Gather the swords. Each one must be filled with the blood of a king

2: As this story is ages ago, it will likely be difficult if not impossible to convince anyone that it is true. Trying to convince a king to kill themselves for the ritual would be nearly impossible. If they're not willing to give their blood freely, it must be taken. This opens up a lot of possibilities.

--If the PC's are good, can they find six evil kings to "donate" the blood? If not can they bring themselves to kill a good king? For that matter, assuming the ancient kings were all good, will the ritual have a different effect if evil blood is used?
--Killing a large number of national leaders will likely destabilize a large area. The civil/international wars that could result would be catastrophic.
--Is there even enough time? How close is the day when the seal fails? Can they go around picking targets or do they just have to get the nearest monarch they can?
--Assuming the PC's succeed, they will likely be outlaws nearly everywhere.

3: Finding the ritual site and getting there in time. For that matter, finding someone who knows exactly how the long-forgotten ritual must be done.


((I listened to the band Manowar for the first time tonight. The idea was inspired by the song "Blood of the Kings" ))

Brains…!

The Undead Plague Part I
One night an empty ship crashes into the docks of a major port city. No-one is on board, that is no-one is alive. Contagious carnivorous zombies spew out into the city fouling the air with their breath and clamouring for brains. This plague spreads at an alarming rate faster than any clerics can turn. The density of the population making it easy for the zombies to feast and spread their plague. Can the heroes stop the plague before everyone gets turned into a zombie?

The Undead Plague Part II
After the heroes have eliminated the plague in their home city, they must seek out the source of the plague before it spreads to rest of the world. Already other ports are under siege from the contagious carnivorous zombies. Can the heroes stop the source of the plague and save the world?


By the way, I ran both of these campaigns in 1994–1997 and it was a ton of fun.

Dannyalcatraz said:

Here's an interesting fact: Aspen Trees are a clonal species- they can spread by runners. One of the largest organisms on Earth is an Aspen grove in Utah’s Wasatch Mountains that has 41,000+ trunks.

That inspired this:

No Man's Land:

5000 years ago, a druid (whose name is lost to humanity...) of great power picked a large and remote island devoid of human life as his home, choosing a grove of aspen trees his most sacred space. At some point, he chose to cast Awaken upon one of the aspen...and the entire grove came to life! He had forgotten that Aspen spread by runners...the entire grove was actually one plant- and now it had a mind equal to his own. He trained it in the ways of the druids.

Eventually, death found the druid, but his greatest student lived on. Eventually, the Aspen grew enough in power that it began to experiment with Awaken itself. First, it made other Aspen and a few other mighty trees as self aware as it was, forming the Green Council, each a druid, cleric or mage in its own right. They, in time and in turn, granted awareness to some of the animals of the forest...bringing them into a society ruled by the Green Council, each day's food created by powerful magics.

As decades passed, the island became a great druidic haven, but still unknown to man.

1000 years ago, Man came...and he was not ready for what he found. The animals and trees welcomed those who resembled the one who had made their haven possible, but the ignorant sailors who found the island hunted for food for their journeys, and were driven back by the island inhabitants. The sailors returned to civilization to tell tales of the mysterious island to the East, where both animals and trees thought and fought as if men.

The Counci's research of the civilized world (directly and through its awakened, shapechanged agents) has brought them much information about the destructiveness of man...and also solutions as to how to fight back. Those shapechanged agents often lived lives among the so called civilized men, bringing their children, natural shapeshifters, back to the island. The Council did much the same.

Now, the island is inhabited by more than trees and awakened animals. Alongside them now live natural shapechangers and other curious hybrids of man and beast or beast and plant...all members of an insular society on the island.

And they are leery of Mankind's intent.

(In game terms, the island is inhabited by Awakened Trees of the Green Council (each with 20 levels of some combination of Druid, Cleric, Wizard or Sorcerer, some with Epic levels); Awakened animals (any class, Rangers and Druids most common); Anthropomorphic Animals (see WOTC's Savage Species); Shapeshifters (see WOTC's Eberron, but instead of being linked to Lycanthropes, they are linked to Druids); and Woodlings (see WOTC's Monster Manual III).

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Consider that stolen and twisted to my own nefarious purposes.

OK...I'll confess to watching to much Sci-Fi today, but how about this for an adventure:

Evard's Inspiration: A giant octopus* terrorizes a small fishing village by occupying the only harbor granting access to an isolated island along a minor trade route. Drawn by preying on sharks following the scents of the refuse ships leave behind, it starts by scavenging upon the corpses of the unlucky victims of thieves and assassins dumped in the water. It continues by plucking drunken sailors from the wharves- whose dissapearances are ignored by officials as nothing unusual.

Then it eats the mayor. In broad daylight.

Evard, a minor mage and mayor-pro-tem calls for heroes to rid the island's waters of this black-tentacled scourge...

*To scale things up for more powerful parties, you can use a Kracken, or if you're ooooooold school, a Golden Ammonite (from Dragon Magazine)...

Legends of the Last Age

Four young Akavars prepare for their Naming Hunt, when they will slay a beast that will become their totem, and join the ranks of their far-travelling fathers. The trail of the White Ape is long and hard, but when the boys return, victorious, fame and glory seem just beyond the next hill. But as they take up their fathers' paths as mercenaries among a strange people, the Akavan of the White Ape finds that the fame earned by blood brings more enemies than friends... and their fathers' fame was the bloodiest of all.

Legends of Great Knights

The twisted un-god stirs within its idol, and its cancerous madness has returned to the world. Mad cults begun to profane the West, even as the East weakens itself with incessant religious war. As an empire crumbles, three knights must set aside the kings, peoples, and faiths that divide them. Joined by duty, they must sacrifice family, happiness, and finally their lives to confront a horror whose slavering hunger and sick fecundity defies all comprehension.

There are ankhegs in the wheatfield, jermlaine in the kitchen, and the pigs have learned how to open the gate to their pen. And you thought farming was going to be easy.

Country Life, an epic misadventure for levels 1-4.

Heh- with a bit of a twist, you could make that into a dandy "Jack & the Beanstalk" adventure...

In the Giant's (Titan's?) kitchen, the ankhegs would be the equivalent of the weevils in the flour...and the thri-kreen the equivalents of the ants throughout the house...

A dire displacer beast for a housecat...preoccupied with the great white sharks in the aquarium...or the bullywugs (or slaads) in the terrarium.

Myconids are trying to escape the root cellar...