Brainstorming and campaign building

[Veneficus the Great]

I started the post “How to start a new campaign?” and now I want to cooperate with some of the board users to outline a new campaign (something like the “Cooperative Dungeon”). I’m going to use it in my game, but I hope it will be so open that everyone can use it.

What you need to know:
It’s a new campaign in Faerûn. Ashabenford in Mistledale will be the starting point. It’s a low level campaign (the players start at 1st-leve) and a good mix of hack and slash and role playing. The main foe is a mind flayer, who has started his (or hers) business in Mistledale.

What I want to know:
The main plot and some side plots
Some friends and foes
Motivation for the characters, friends and foes
A background history
An open outlining of the first five sessions (they should meet the mind flayer once)

The rest is up to you!

- Veneficus the Builder

 

[diaglo]

read the Story Hour in my sig.

all of it.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

OK, I'm not a FR guru, but I can sketch out something generic:

One of the party's mentors was working on a magical device used to help people deal with emotional trauma. The item is a thin silver headband with a small crystal attached to the front. The device helps convey emotional subtext to the bearers words, essentially granting the user a +1 circumstance bonus to wisdom at the cost of suffering a -4 penalty to Bluff checks. (this is not something designed for a dungeon-delver, it is meant as more of a psychological tool). The item should be named after it's creator but for now let's call it The Headband of Gentle Introspection

The mind flayer hears of the device -- it is by no means a secret -- and relizes that it can use the Headband for its own evil ends. By corrupting the Headband's magic, the mind flayer can incorporate its victims' memories into its own. When the mind flayer is finished with its vile task, the headband -- when placed upon a potential victim -- will transfer 1 skill point from the victim to the mind flayer when the victim's cranium is consumed. This skill will be the highest skill rating the victim had. So if the mind flayer uses it on a farmer, he might gain skill in Profession (farmer) or whatever.

Of course, it's going to take some time for the flayer to peform this task and determine the pros and cons of using such a device before he can really exploit it.

The party can come across the mind flayer as it is slaying the mentor to gain the Headband. The mind flayer will be at 1/2 normal hit points and unwilling to fight the party (it has no idea that the party is a bunch of 1st level pushovers and doesn't want to risk capture or death). The flayer will escape (this might require a bit of railroading, avoid it if you can) and hire a group of goblins to attack the party's villiage. However the goblins are not truly loyal to the mind flayer and if interrogated will reveal the location of where their payment is coming from and the probable location of the mind flayer's treasury, which can be the next stop for the party in their investigation.

In the meantime the mind flayer will slowly be corrupting the Headband and finding good prospects from which to gain skill.