Burnt-out DM needs a push. Quickly!

Yes, I'm burnt out. There's no denying it anymore. At Sunday's (tomorrow's) game I will declare to my players, this will be my last DM-session for a while.
I don't want to abandon the campaign, just take a break. We've all had some great times with it, me included.
I still feel I have to come up with something for Sundays game though, as I've already promised my players that and I don't break promises I can in any way keep!
Problem is, my players finished off their last quest during Friday's (yes, yesterday!) game. Killed BBEG and adopted his old dungeon stronghold for themselves. I now have but 14 hours (8 of which I plan to spend sleeping) to come up with a nights worth off gaming material, preferably without starting anything major. I'd really like to supply something that could be done in one evening, rather than a cliffhanger, so as to minimize the pressure on me to restart the campaign.

The players are a half-orb ftr, an elven archer, an elven wiz and an elven sor, all lvl 8 and with highly questionable ethics. Yes, it's a highly unlikely group, I know. Any ideas at all? Please?

The story has revolved around the arcanists lately, so something for the fighters would be best. The half-orc in particular deserves more attention than what he's been getting lately. Poor guy, stuck with a bunch of elves all the time...

I know there's heeps of both helpful and creative people on these boards. Just hope you read this post, people!

They just took over a dungeon? Make them defend it. News gets out and a group of adventures/wondering mid level goblins/a dragon/ whatever, and whomever it is wants the dungeon and to get it they are more then willing to go through the PCs.

Wow, that was quick!
And not a bad idea, either...

Please describe the terrain surrounding the dungeon and the neaby area (towns, factions, etc.) Also, if you have a map of the dungeon that you can attach in this thread (you don't need a site to host it, just attach it at the bottom.) Any old encounters they had where someone escaped from them? Someone who could have also advanced in levels in between their prvious ancounter and now? Describe the last BBEG they off-ed, also, please.

ok, i have no idea what BBEG is.. here's my idea..

The PC's set up camp and relax and heal for a while... perhaps four 5 days... if you have to run a quick little combat with a wandering tunneling creature like umber hulk, purple worm.. what ever.... keep them there long enough so they's want to hang for 4 or 5 days.

this will help maintain integraty for your next move..


When the arcanists wake up one day, and the prepare their spells.. mention to them that they seem to have more space than normal... they'll go "huh?" (all players are brilliant ) inform them that a few of their spells that they prepared and didn't use the day before seem to be missing.

What's going on is this.. under the dungeon's a recently migrated group of strange creatures that feed off magic. make 'em suck spells like level drain to levels, but have proximity be enough to do it (ie. every round within 60 feet of one of these things they randomly lose a spll). The PC will of course investigate (they earned their own dungeon dammit!) and there ya go.

pretty good short shot.

You can make it much longer if you want to later and you can adjust the difficulty to suit your desires.

Creature info: would tunnel like umberhulks, suck spells every round within 60 feet, drain spells within 100 yards one per 6 hours. They generally like to burrow under mage's, sorcs, clerics houses etc and try to remain undetected so they can reproduce. This group, has a new baby, who is not as wise as the others so he got to close and that's what made the PC realize what was going on.

run with it...

joe b.

jgbrowning said:

ok, i have no idea what BBEG is..

Click to expand...

Big Bad Evil Guy, I believe...

Another idea, perhaps the BBEG wasn't so evil. Perhaps he had a lover or a close associate/friend. Therefore now, that he's gone, his [insert relationship type] has ordered up a powerful cadre of assassins as well as calling on divine favors (you can say good or evil, your call). They do have to defend their new found realm, but perhaps they won the trust of their new followers.

Suggestions for new friends:

Wizard 6/Cleric 4 of some god of forbidden knowledge. (Knowledge and Protection or Destruction) (your BBEG)

"assassins" Half orc rogue 4/barb 4 wielding Namarra (from Magic of Faerun)

Wizard 7/Incantrix 3 (from Magic of faerun) with a ring of Spell Turning

Fighter 5/Weapon master 3 using a fullblade enchanted with sure striking and dispeling.

And finally, a half dragon/half Minataur with a level in druid.

Summon Allies: A young white dragon with a few levels in sorcerer

A junvile fang dragon

1d4+1 Hound Archons (if good)

2d4 Lemures

Thanks for posting, Mark.

The dungeon is located in at the foot of a mountain, near a river. The entrance is hidden with an illusion-spell that makes it look like any other mountainside and the door is Arcane Locked.

Neighbouring communities up until recently included only some scattered farms and a dwarven community further into the mountains. A few months ago, somebody discovered gold in the river a couple of hours walk downstream and a small Klondyke-esque boomtown has sprung up there since. A widow dutchess (human) has a small keep yet a couple of hours past that town, and is the highest local authority-figure.

The last BBEG was a really old human wiz, who framed the PCs. They were supposed to be working for him, but he led them into a trap. He hit them with summoned Allips and Spectres, draining them of both WIS and levels. All of this to lower there resistance (will-saves) before he struck himself. His objective was to permanently take over the body of one of the PCs, as his own was getting VERY old and frail. He used a combination of Magic Jar and Imprisson Possessor (BoVD), took over the sorceresses body, was found out, exorcised and finally decapitated by the orcish fighter.

There last quest before that was to deliver/safeguard a package to an ogre mage living in what equalls the Underdark in my campaign world. Didn't really leave many loose treads there...

As for former, possibly recurring enemies, they have none. This campaign got started at level 7, so it hasn't lasted very long. You see, the group have no twice worked it's way from level 1 to 6/7 only to experience total annihilation. Everybody was tired of playing low levels, so this last campaign started at lvl 7.

Hope this helps!

Looks like they keep working for evil guys, in one capacity or another. Maybe the locals have gotten wind of this and are tired of having evil folks squatting in their locale. Perhaps severl of the nearby goods and neutrals should band together to eliminate the party as a perceived threat (and one they should assume is weaken from their recent usurping of the dungeon.) Hope that helps a bit.

Well no need for recurring ones. Just have the ogre mage have a friendly mage/mentor that had a mutual relationship with.