Help! I've DM'd myself into a corner

[SilverSnake]

I need help coming up with ideas for an evil Cult of Shadows, the leader of which is known to be Drow.

Here's the sitch, After running through a conversion of Sunless Citadel, my party (human cleric, dragonborn pally, and drow rogue) was hired to escort and guard a gem merchant caravan from his home city to his brothers' gem stores around the region. Simple enough, and would have involved plenty of fun wilderness/bandit encounters on the way. They were in the city and met with their employer, gotten provisions and all was set for the next game day to head out.

And then the Hubbs says he's talked to a couple of guys he plays MTG with and they want to join. Great, we only had three players, and one misses regularly. Two more is fantastic! And we're in a city, so it's easier to have them join up with the party there as opposed to on the road. But they can't make it this week.

So, in order to hold the party up until the new characters can come in, their employer goes missing. Turns out his shop in town was broken into and robbed, and he's gone off, presumably to investigate or to confront who he thinks did it. The party does some investigation of their own, and rule out some of thcomes up with a few leads.

Next session, one of the new guys is there. He, a former soldier (human fighter), was hired for the same purpose, but separate from the others, so they are working together whether they like it or not. They follow up on their leads, and rule a few out. Then they hear a rumor of cultists (Cult of Shadow) in town from another merchant.

OK, that's all I came up with to keep them in the city until the new players could join. I have NO idea what my cult is up to, other than they needed one of the gems (special and/or magical) or all of the gems for some ritual or other. I have a Drow as it's local leader, or at least high up in the heirarchy.

They just made 4th level. Any suggestions for what my cult is up to? We meet again in 4 days (this Sunday).

 

[MarkB]

You said that their employer had 'gone off' - have they had any contact with him since the robbery? One idea would be that the cult took him, perhaps for something he knows, and staged the robbery as a cover.

 

[SilverSnake]

I had it that he had been captured by the cult while trying to get his merchandise back. (The merchant's cousin, a weaponsmith, had contact with him shortly after the robbery took place).

 

[delericho]

The best thing about it being gems that are stolen is that it's hugely flexible: they could need them for a ritual, they could simply be a bribe, or they could even just be bait - perhaps what they really wanted was the store owner and this was a way to get to him. I'd be inclined to run with the third idea, since that's probably the one your players would least expect...

At this point, I'd suggest having the PCs be approached by an old friend of their employer. He is becoming increasingly concerned about his friend - the gem merchant came to him yesterday for information, went on to see another contact of theirs, and was supposed to meet him for dinner... only his never showed.

Make a point of a strange tattoo/brand/birthmark that the friend has, and perhaps remark that their employer actually had a similar marking.

This should point the PCs on to go visit this same contact, who they find easily enough. Only to discover him digging through the wreckage of his own store, which has been turned over recently as well. The contact is apologetic, but he can't help the PCs - he didn't see his friend, and he's recently been robbed and doesn't have time to answer any questions.

And, again, mention that same tattoo/brand/birthmark. Oh, and if the players think to ask: yes, this guy is hiding something. (Or perhaps you should just tell them that. )

So, what's going on?

Well, in their mis-spent youth the three friends fell in with a bad crowd, and actually got themselves initiated in some mystery cult. As soon as they learned this cult was associated with the Cult of Shadows, they beat a hasty retreat, and thought they were in the clear.

But now the CoS are performing a ritual (to summon demonic assistance, or something) that requires them to sacrifice the life of a member. Not wanting to sacrifice one of their own, they tracked down the third friend... who proceeded to sell out his buddy (the PCs' employer) to the cult to save his own skin. The CoS captured the employer, and the contact tossed his own store to hide the evidence.

I'm not entirely sure how best to connect up the rest of the dots for the PCs (you'll want lots of clues to take them along the path), but of course you'll want a nice climax where the PCs interrupt a ritual being conducted under the light of a full moon and where they get to be Big Damn Heroes.

Or something like that. I hope it helps, anyway. With luck, even if not, it might trigger a few ideas.

 

[Wicht]

The obvious answer for what the cult is up to is that they are summoning something or trying to open a gateway.

Personally, I would go with the gate idea, as its slightly less cliche. But of course, when they open the gate something has to come through.

At 4th level, the best thing to do is to grab a CR 4 monster that appeals to you and slap a shadow template on it, with perhaps another template, to make it more unique. Or you could throw the Shadow Lord template onto a creature and then give it several lesser shadows as minions. Something like an advanced shadow lord gelatinous cube (CR 6) could be quite nasty, and could be reskinned pretty easy to be a rather large shadow mass of nothing seeking to suck the living into it.

 

[Grogg of the North]

If the cult is lead by a drow, perhaps they're trying to cast a great shadow over the area, making it perpetually twilight. This would allow the rest of the drow leader's buddies to come out and start slaving/conquering.

 

[SilverSnake]

I like both the gateway idea and the idea that they are trying to bring darkness to the area. Is there any kind of monster that could do something like that they could summon, or perhaps a ritual. (If this were Call of Cthulhu, my path would be set.)

 

[Wicht]

At level 4 there is no monster that powerful, but this might just be the first part of a larger plan. Perhaps the gate will get bigger and bigger as time goes by, so that if it is stopped early then all is good, but if not then the walls between the planes get thinner, bringing dim light to the real world. The Shadow Lord template has some sort of power that feeds into that idea actually.

What ruleset are you using?

 

[Rune]

Another, less obvious possibility is that the cult's immediate goal is a lot more mundane; they plan to take over the city by assassinating important figures in the guard and government.

This can lead to interesting over-reactions from the establishment, such as martial law and curfew (which can be an interesting way to keep the PCs from leaving).

 

[SilverSnake]

We're playing D&D 5th Ed.

I've got all of my players together now, so there isn't a need to keep them in the city, but that doesn't mean there's a hurry to leave it. The gem merchant was setting the time table.

All the ideas and advice so far has been great, thank you all! Keep the good ideas rolling!