What adventures are you thinking about running?

[The Goblin King]

I'll prefer it to be accesible and if Allaria fits as posible place to put the desert, the Allaria it is.

Your wish is my command. shazam!

 

[Voda Vosa]

Groovy! thank you very much djinn.

 

[renau1g]

So as a follow up to my idea, I thought that perhaps the earthmote was previously the stronghold of a necromancer, who was killed long ago, but his base of operations was never found. As undead don't age and take a long time to decay, they would still be following his last orders of guarding his keep.

For the hook, perhaps a few undead have washed ashore on the island and attacked some commoners, or got caught in fisherman's nets and once pulled aboard attacked the fisherman? The group would be sent to investigate, first part would involve finding out where they came from, second would be getting there, third would be clearing out the old fortress, twist comes at the end... (I'd post it, but...well, can't spoil all the surprises )

Thoughts? It would be a more combat-heavy game...

 

[Graf]

I was, randomly, thinking about flying castles again last night... Maybe I looked at your post earlier and it seeped into my consciousness?

I love stuff like this. The castle could become a recurring thing, or it could disappear, never to be seen again.

One suggestion would be for the necromancer to have been based in Bacarte during it's more wild-and-wooly days. S/He could even have been the necromancer whose defeat lead (indirectly) to the ascent of the merchants of Bacarte.
[sblock=Extremely obscure reference]

Bacarte wiki[/URL]]According to tales that circulate through the taverns of Daunton the Five, when they were younger and less respected, spent much of their effort fighting the corrupting influence of Bacarte; they made inroads in stopping some of the worst practices (slavery, corpsetheft) but inevitably they'd find that however thoroughly they routed out and defeated some menace the cloaking mists of the isle would simply attract some other unsavory group; often just as bad if not worse that whatever the five had removed before.



Then a fateful event happened; though the Five could hardly have known it at the time. The five, growing in power and renown and increasingly frustrated arrived on Bacarte on one of the rare clear days. And promptly laid waste to a necromancer, two slave cartels and obliterated the shop of a merchant trafficking in "unsavory magics and items" located in the middle of the shantytown. Challenged by a brash young hobgoblin about their actions Jeronel Threehammer loudly replied that "We will continue to return so long as you engage in vile acts that are an abhorrence to all right thinking people. If it takes one time, or a hundred, we will return so long as you offer succor to necromancers, and diabolists, slavers and murderers." And the five left; pleased at their success and saddened that they would soon return.



Within a week rumors were spreading among the "less law-abiding classes" of a change in Bacarte.

[/sblock]

Maybe the necromancer they defeated was "the necromancer". He lives (maybe as a lich?) but reads the writing on the wall and decamps to some place that's harder to get to.

(Or should I go write (I will be less obsessive and detail oriented 100 times on the blackboard?)

He could even, potentially, be one of a group of mages who banded together for mutual protection in an attempt to avoid the five. Invidually they were easy targets, but collectively they could protect themselves. So there were several elementalists (so you can explain the earthmotes), the necromancer (who provided cheap defenses), illusionists and weather mages (to cloak the towers from detection) and some other evil wizards or cabals of wizards/warlocks/etc.

Some have fallen in the interim and their towers are no longer cloaked . But there are still a few that presumably fly over the Shifting Seas, invisible (presaging possible higher level conflicts later).

renau1g[/URL]]I also like the flying mounts from the AV, which I might use either as a plot device, or potentially as reward for the quest, if the 3 month waiting period & approval process is completed.

I don't think anyone would mind the appearance of flying mounts as a plot device.....

As a reward?

I think there would be pushback.
There are two potential issues
1) everyone and their dog would want a flying mount, especially if its a one shot offer so you'd have a massive food fight to get into your adventure
2) a lot of adventures focus around the idea of travel; the existince of a small group of people with mounts could make it difficult for DMs to balance their games.

You -might- be able to swing some sort of wonderous figurine that only works near one of these specific earthmotes (that were created by this Wizardly Collective); i.e. it'd work in future adventures that you run, but not more generally.

Just riffing. Hope its helpful.

 

[renau1g]

Thanks Graf!

I love it, and I was worried about the flying mounts at such a low level (I think griffons were like 9,000 gp or so), so plot device it is... I'm thinking of a one (or maybe two so they're not stranded there) item...

This would be a kick-off adventure to that stream of adventures... so it could be a minor outpost of the group/cabal of evil....(perhaps drifted off course due to the magic waning and lack of direction from the necromancer?)

 

[Graf]

That works really well. If we can establish a background for extant inhabited earthmotes then everyone can join in the fun.

And I think a loose federation of hidden arcanists wizards offers a lot of interesting possibilities if they aren't a single monolithic group.

Potentially one could be anchored above (or near) one of the proximate isles and doing something that isn't necessarily the sort of thing that would trigger a direct conflict (selling magic items, researching at the library, etc); or fund competing teams of adventurers, etc.

 

[Voda Vosa]

That gave me an idea...

 

[Graf]

<cue spooky music>

 

[Voda Vosa]

*Evil DM laugh*

 

[renau1g]

I agree about the loose affiliation. If they were a full out group, then they would be too big a target and too visible, much better this way.