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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Runesong42" data-source="post: 2086541" data-attributes="member: 10578">My most recent high level characters recently finished Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil.  My advice - don't ever play through it if you hate dungeons.  If at all possible, beg your DM to skip "the caverns" and go straight to "the Outer Fane".  He/she'll know what you mean.  <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/paranoid.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":uhoh:" title="Paranoid    :uhoh:" data-shortname=":uhoh:" /> After its completion, my char's are now level 16 (Rogue 5/Fighter 5/Ninja of the Crescent Moon 6 and Cleric 8/Sunlord 9) and wondering what do next.  The great thing about high-level play is your wealth of opportunities. The bad thing is your wealth of opportunities. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Seriously, though, at that level of play, your players should (hopefully) want to accomplish more for their characters than kill bigger/more monsters.  If not, just keep sending the hordes and let the dice fall where they may.  The Diablo "camapagn setting" would be perfect for this kind of thing.But I see you've given them land now, which is good.  But don't let it go easy for them.  As an example, here's what's going on in the aftermath of my RttToEE adventures:The continent is partitioned into several states, which were awared to various family members after the passing of the King.  The Big Bad was dissatisfied with her piece, and vowed to take it all in revenge.  She's winning - most of "the free world" has been conquered by her and her array of fiendish (literal and figurative) troops.  There are still several areas as of yet untouched - the Dwarven Kingdoms (your typical mountainous strongholds), the Elven Forests (Elves are rare in this campaign, and it's kind of their last bastion of defense), and the Badlands.  The Badlands is a large piece of relatively worthless territory that acts as a buffer between the Elves, Dwarves, and neighbors a few of the (as of yet) unconquered-by-the-Big-Bad territories.  The Big Bad is taking the long route as she conquers, basically skirting the edges of the continent and making her way to the middle.  As such, this Badlands area has loose claims by everyone who borders it, but because it's not that valuable, no one has enforced their claim as of yet.My characters Jarl (the Ninja) and Amberlee (The Sunlady) earned a boon from the Dwarves for clearing out the Temple, and Amberlee chose to have a church built to her deity (in this campaign, Taelisha, who is essentially a female Pelor).  These two have lived in the Badlands their whole lives, and don't want to see it conquered.  Now, as if crap wasn't happening already, the Big Bad had made an alliance with the Orcish hordes, and the Orcs have decided they want the Badlands for themselves.  So, the Big Bad sends the Orcs to go and demand the surrender of the various villages in the Badlands, or to raze them if they do not surrender.  This has caused a number of homeless refugees left to scatter and become nomadic.  Since the other states are busy warring with the main forces of the Big Bad, they cannot respond in kind to the slow rape of "their" Badlands.Amberlee has decided that she is going to rally these survivors and create a fortress for their protection.  Jarl decides that claim-jumping and forming thier own state is the best idea. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> With the aid of a local and wildly successful Merchant-King, and the trade of mining rights for the Badlands in exchange for troops and support from the Dwarves, she has begun to build the beginning of what will be, campaign-wise, the last-ditch effort to quell the tide of darkness.This is the stuff which high-level campaigns are made of.  Highly political, where any action the PCs make affects the world at large, and other high-level NPCs take notice and react to said actions.  Everything the PCs do has a consequence.Try to reinforce this point.  The Hill Giant example given earlier rocks, as it has the potential to be both high-action and very dramatic, especially if you divvy up the PC's and send each one to defend a separate village.  If succcessful this could award tem with a) prestige b) NPC support and C) a base to start building their empire.  Of course, one the PC's gain fame, NPC's will being to bother them for all sorts of aid, both fantastic and mundane.  Drive this point home, and your players will always have stuff to do.Hope this helps!Dru</blockquote>

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