Byrons_Ghost said:
St. John's College of Abjuration
If it were in Canadian money, I'd probably take a stab at it. As it is, I'm still hesitating to buy NPC Essentials. Thanks for the link, though - I'll bookmark it in case I end up needing it!
As for the religion, I'd just pick a few mythological gods you like and assume that they oppose each other for whatever reason.
There is an appealing simplicity to that arrangement. It would probably cut down on my paperwork as a DM, at the very least.
On the other hand, the reason that I want to have completely different religious systems is to foster believable opposition. Historically, people who lived in polytheistic cultures didn't believe that a single god out of the whole pantheon was the only true god. They would invoke the god who had the purview of whatever task they were undertaking. There is no conflict - the gods are there to answer (or not) the prayers of the people who called them.
Now, if I have a group of fanatical monotheists who run into a group of nature-revering polytheists, or even a different group of fanatical monotheists, I can legitimately have the parties claim that they have The One True Religion, and all sorts of silly human bigotries can ensue. Nobody is as arrogant as someone who believes they are the sole owner of The Truth.
On the
other other hand, the priests of different polytheist gods would sometimes do funny things to each other. They'd steal a tripod, go after their women, or kill an animal sacred to the other god - it's actually a lot like frat houses, when you get right down to it.
You mention that you want to start out the story with an event of import- what will be important in your campaign? The foreshadowing sort of depends on what you eventually plan on doing....
That sounds like sound advice to me! I've just come up with a new antagonist: the Mad Hermit. I stole him out of The Keep on the Borderlands, converted him to a druid, gave him a whole bunch of animal companions, and gave him a couple of reasons to be ticked off.
The wizard from the
Pet Shoppe in the village is capturing animals in the forest and polymorphing them into pets. The hermit thinks that it is the school that is attacking his forest, despite years of peaceful coexistence.
Secondly, and much more importantly, there is a secret group of necromancers in the school that is creating undead. They are taking animals from the forest as well: some for killing and animating, some for experimentation, and some for feeding their creations. They aren't high enough level to create greater undead, so they will acquire a ghoul and study it in an attempt to create more controlled versions. Unbeknownst to them, the ghoul will kill a spider and spawn it as a ghoul. It escapes to the forest, and kills and spawns other animals, growing somewhat as it does so. At the end of the school year, the ghoul animals will attempt to overrun the school.
So here's the opening scene I've come up with. As the PCs are on the way to school for the first time, they are on a well-travelled trail that skirts the forest near the school. With them are other students, some hired guards, and a couple of adult wizards coming from the same direction. The group makes a lot of noise as they travel, but eventually someone hears a rumbling noise. That is getting louder.
And then the stampede hits.
![Smile :) :)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
-blarg