Obergnom
First Post
I could need some help with the development of my campaign. To keep things interesting for me, I abandoned the idea of running Expedition to the Demon Web Pits in favor of an opener approach. In a way, I run the whole campaign sandbox style. There is 3 things I have not done with this campaign that still need to be incorporated: A Frost Giant Stronghold, a Fire Giant Stronghold and the Demonweb Pits.
At the moment, there are 5 Characters of level 9. When I use giants, I use a modified version (-4HD) with their CR reduced by 2.
Here's what happened so far:
[sblock]The characters were drawn into the story to end a threat to Cormyr. They were send to kill a Hill Giant leader, who was uniting the giant tribes into a mighty army, that could overrun the kingdom. They were able to slay him, but discovered he was actually possessed by a Vrock demon.
At the same time, the kingdom is threatend by civil war, as many nobles refuse to follow the infant king any longer and try to use the giant invasion for their own goals. The invasion started, allthough the players were able to kill the leader of the Hill Giants. There must be someone else behind all this.
A mighty divination (Locate Creature) told them, the Vrock teleported to Mirth Galnorn. (The Name is in Drow, meaning refuge of revenge.) As they severly offended Baron Teuselle, a local noble and bastard descendent of the old King of Cormyr who was about to take over the town of Tilverton(The groups homebase) and all of eastern Cormyr, the small group of loyal followers of the crown (The local captain of the purple dragons, some old adventurers/now inn keeper, an elven Magic Item Shop owner, the local high priests of Gond and Sharress and the local sage) decided, it would be the best course of action, to send the Party of Adventurers into the underdark trying to find the Demon and maybe the true head behind the giant invasion, while they try to work on the political floor, weakening the baron in anyway they can.
The party started their descent into the underdark (Following a map they got from a lokal priest of gond), so far they passed the Grotto of the Troglodytes, making more enemies, by letting their Mind Flayer "Leader" escape.
After that, the players continued their descent and after a long time and some dangerous encounters, they finally arived at Earth' End, a place run by earth creatures, who go there to leave fearun behind, traveling through the local portal into the Elemental Plane of Earth.
The players did some information gathering, they discovered the likely location of the drow outpost. They learned, for non earth creatures, to activate the portal a substance called "pure hope" is needed. "Pure Hope" is a very valuable substance, usually a gift from creatures living on the plane of Elysium, but the Kuo-Toa of Bhal-Hamatung trade with it, too. No one knows how theese creatures are able to harvest "Pure Hope"...
The characters traveled into the direction of the drow outpost, and discovered a huge cave with fungus fields, where bugbear slaves were harvesting food. The Drows food source. Entering the Cave, they were attacked by the guardian of the cave, a Beholder (Gauth) and 4 Minotaur Slaves. They lost this fight and as a result got caputured by the drow.
They were actually able to escape the prison cells and Mirth Galnorn during an attack by the Kuo-Toa of Bhal-Hamatung. They stumbled upon a summoning room, where the Vrock they were searching for was imprisoned and released him out of the magic circle, after intimidating him so severly, that he promised to go after the drow and not them.
The resulting chaos helped them to flee into the underdark. Without equipment and not knowing where they were (Mirth-Galnorn has more than one exit) they stumbled through the darkness. Luckily, two underdark travellers, a dwarven prospector and cleric of Dumathoin and his guide, a Duergar Rogue, found them. (2 Characters did not survive the prison break). With their help, they started a unsuccessful attempt of getting their equipment back and than journeyed back the Earth's End. During their Journey they discovered the Kuo-Toa moving huge amounts of troops in the area around Mirth-Galnorn and they were warned by Sirvneblin, whom they helped defend against a tribe of Great Horn Minotaurs, that Earth's End is no longer a save place, as the Portal seems to attract evil earth creatures.
Arriving at Earth's End they bought some new equipment with the treasure they acquired during their journey and than had to witness how the portal collapsed and transformed into ruin elementals.
Later on, they travelled back to Mirth-Galnorn, only to find it overrun by the Kuo-Toa... the sorcerer getting captured by those was where the last session ended.[/sblock]
These are my ideas:
I think the Fire Giant Stronghold could actually be Tilverton or another City in Cormyr, the headquartes of the giant armies invading Cormyr. By the side of the Fire Giant King there is Baron Teuselle, a puppet regent.
I think it would be cool to have the Frost Giant Stronghold actually be abandoned. The characters travel there to find the Frost Giant Jarls Sword. It is full of ice creatures and undead, the Jarl himselves covered by a thick layer of ice.
For the Demonweb Pits, I would like to use “The Harrowing” (Dungeon Mag Adventure by Monte Cook). This is the Backstory I created: (All my players know is writen down in the “what happened so far part” thus this could be changed with ease)
[sblock]What happened so far and what will happen in the future is actually a plot by Eclavdra (Is there a similar powerfull drow priestess in the Realms?), the first Priestess of Lolth's Church, to raise in Rank. (the only way for her to do that, as she is already the highest ranking priestess is becoming a goddess, if possible the goddess of the Drow.
She devised a ritual that could make her a (demi)goddess. As a goddess she would be very much out of Lolth reach, as she became a divine player, and she figured, once she is a goddess, there will be ways to raise in rank further.
What she needed first, though, were followers. She started a new cult among the Drow. A cult of outcasts, drider and Drow from fallen houses, but also of lesser houses, promising them a better standing in "the new order".
To be able to do this, without being destroyed by Lolth, she did not use her name for the Cult, but the name Laveth, the Dark Daughter. Thus would lead would be investigators on the wrong track, looking for scions of Lolth and not her highest priestess as the origin of the cult. The drawback of this is, that while she has a cult, its worship is not really directed at her, thus she receives no power through it. She was able to give her followers spell casting abilities, though, striking a deal with Vheraun. He figured that anything that weakens Lolth would further his goals.
To be able to perform the ritual of the Harrowing, Eclavdra needs the power of thousands of souls of good mortals. She build the soul receptacles, 4 or more powerfull artifacts that would consume the souls of recently the slain. All she needed was a full scale slaughter in a country of good on the material plane.
This is where the campaign started. The first plot of Eclavdra involved a small enclave of drow outcasts who she absorbed into her cult and used to whip the giants into war. These drow do not know why she wanted them to do that.
Though these Drow partially failed (They send a Vrock to unite the Hill- and Frost Giants of the Thunderpeaks) which failed, the Frost Giants inveded on their own. That invasion would not have lasted long enough, but other Drow were able to convince the King of the Fire Giants to join the war. The resulting havoc was enough to fuel the receptacles.
Once the characters reach the surface, the hear stories about cloaked figures walking among the giants during every attack, and the inability of priest to raise any of the fallen.
The will learn that the centre of power of the giants is in Tilverton, where the King of the Fire Giants resides.
And they might learn about the Crumbling Halls of the Frost Giant Jarl, up in the highest Mountains of the World. It is his sword, that will give its wielder the control about the frost giants. This should be reason enough to travel there, I think, as this would be the easiest way to defeat the giants.
There will be 2 finales if the players are fast. If they only need 2 weeks to actually defeat the giants, there will be a celebration, everything seems to be solved, but during the celebration the infant king of Cormyr will be kidnapped. A “Leader of Good” is needed to complete the ritual, and Eclavdra harvested enough souls already. If fighting the giants takes to long, this happens anyway, and they will have to leave immediately to rescue the King, instead of trying to free Cormyr, or Eclavdra will be the new Queen of Spiders.
What do you think? I do not plan to do any of this in a linear way, except for the finale. I love to be surprised by my players.[/sblock]
What I need most at the moment, are good encounter ideas for the Frost and Fire Giants, the whole war theme and maybe even the finale. I am quite concerned that Mass Resist Energy will ruin everything interesting about the giant strongholds, as it makes them mostly immune to energy damage, and I like to stay with the theme, rather than having Fire Giants using Frostbrand weapons or Frost Giants employing Hell Hounds.
But maybe you can improve the plot, too. I would love to have some alternate ideas, in case may players do something really unexpected. (I prefer changing the background story they do not know anyway to fit their decisions too railroading them back on track)
At the moment, there are 5 Characters of level 9. When I use giants, I use a modified version (-4HD) with their CR reduced by 2.
Here's what happened so far:
[sblock]The characters were drawn into the story to end a threat to Cormyr. They were send to kill a Hill Giant leader, who was uniting the giant tribes into a mighty army, that could overrun the kingdom. They were able to slay him, but discovered he was actually possessed by a Vrock demon.
At the same time, the kingdom is threatend by civil war, as many nobles refuse to follow the infant king any longer and try to use the giant invasion for their own goals. The invasion started, allthough the players were able to kill the leader of the Hill Giants. There must be someone else behind all this.
A mighty divination (Locate Creature) told them, the Vrock teleported to Mirth Galnorn. (The Name is in Drow, meaning refuge of revenge.) As they severly offended Baron Teuselle, a local noble and bastard descendent of the old King of Cormyr who was about to take over the town of Tilverton(The groups homebase) and all of eastern Cormyr, the small group of loyal followers of the crown (The local captain of the purple dragons, some old adventurers/now inn keeper, an elven Magic Item Shop owner, the local high priests of Gond and Sharress and the local sage) decided, it would be the best course of action, to send the Party of Adventurers into the underdark trying to find the Demon and maybe the true head behind the giant invasion, while they try to work on the political floor, weakening the baron in anyway they can.
The party started their descent into the underdark (Following a map they got from a lokal priest of gond), so far they passed the Grotto of the Troglodytes, making more enemies, by letting their Mind Flayer "Leader" escape.
After that, the players continued their descent and after a long time and some dangerous encounters, they finally arived at Earth' End, a place run by earth creatures, who go there to leave fearun behind, traveling through the local portal into the Elemental Plane of Earth.
The players did some information gathering, they discovered the likely location of the drow outpost. They learned, for non earth creatures, to activate the portal a substance called "pure hope" is needed. "Pure Hope" is a very valuable substance, usually a gift from creatures living on the plane of Elysium, but the Kuo-Toa of Bhal-Hamatung trade with it, too. No one knows how theese creatures are able to harvest "Pure Hope"...
The characters traveled into the direction of the drow outpost, and discovered a huge cave with fungus fields, where bugbear slaves were harvesting food. The Drows food source. Entering the Cave, they were attacked by the guardian of the cave, a Beholder (Gauth) and 4 Minotaur Slaves. They lost this fight and as a result got caputured by the drow.
They were actually able to escape the prison cells and Mirth Galnorn during an attack by the Kuo-Toa of Bhal-Hamatung. They stumbled upon a summoning room, where the Vrock they were searching for was imprisoned and released him out of the magic circle, after intimidating him so severly, that he promised to go after the drow and not them.
The resulting chaos helped them to flee into the underdark. Without equipment and not knowing where they were (Mirth-Galnorn has more than one exit) they stumbled through the darkness. Luckily, two underdark travellers, a dwarven prospector and cleric of Dumathoin and his guide, a Duergar Rogue, found them. (2 Characters did not survive the prison break). With their help, they started a unsuccessful attempt of getting their equipment back and than journeyed back the Earth's End. During their Journey they discovered the Kuo-Toa moving huge amounts of troops in the area around Mirth-Galnorn and they were warned by Sirvneblin, whom they helped defend against a tribe of Great Horn Minotaurs, that Earth's End is no longer a save place, as the Portal seems to attract evil earth creatures.
Arriving at Earth's End they bought some new equipment with the treasure they acquired during their journey and than had to witness how the portal collapsed and transformed into ruin elementals.
Later on, they travelled back to Mirth-Galnorn, only to find it overrun by the Kuo-Toa... the sorcerer getting captured by those was where the last session ended.[/sblock]
These are my ideas:
I think the Fire Giant Stronghold could actually be Tilverton or another City in Cormyr, the headquartes of the giant armies invading Cormyr. By the side of the Fire Giant King there is Baron Teuselle, a puppet regent.
I think it would be cool to have the Frost Giant Stronghold actually be abandoned. The characters travel there to find the Frost Giant Jarls Sword. It is full of ice creatures and undead, the Jarl himselves covered by a thick layer of ice.
For the Demonweb Pits, I would like to use “The Harrowing” (Dungeon Mag Adventure by Monte Cook). This is the Backstory I created: (All my players know is writen down in the “what happened so far part” thus this could be changed with ease)
[sblock]What happened so far and what will happen in the future is actually a plot by Eclavdra (Is there a similar powerfull drow priestess in the Realms?), the first Priestess of Lolth's Church, to raise in Rank. (the only way for her to do that, as she is already the highest ranking priestess is becoming a goddess, if possible the goddess of the Drow.
She devised a ritual that could make her a (demi)goddess. As a goddess she would be very much out of Lolth reach, as she became a divine player, and she figured, once she is a goddess, there will be ways to raise in rank further.
What she needed first, though, were followers. She started a new cult among the Drow. A cult of outcasts, drider and Drow from fallen houses, but also of lesser houses, promising them a better standing in "the new order".
To be able to do this, without being destroyed by Lolth, she did not use her name for the Cult, but the name Laveth, the Dark Daughter. Thus would lead would be investigators on the wrong track, looking for scions of Lolth and not her highest priestess as the origin of the cult. The drawback of this is, that while she has a cult, its worship is not really directed at her, thus she receives no power through it. She was able to give her followers spell casting abilities, though, striking a deal with Vheraun. He figured that anything that weakens Lolth would further his goals.
To be able to perform the ritual of the Harrowing, Eclavdra needs the power of thousands of souls of good mortals. She build the soul receptacles, 4 or more powerfull artifacts that would consume the souls of recently the slain. All she needed was a full scale slaughter in a country of good on the material plane.
This is where the campaign started. The first plot of Eclavdra involved a small enclave of drow outcasts who she absorbed into her cult and used to whip the giants into war. These drow do not know why she wanted them to do that.
Though these Drow partially failed (They send a Vrock to unite the Hill- and Frost Giants of the Thunderpeaks) which failed, the Frost Giants inveded on their own. That invasion would not have lasted long enough, but other Drow were able to convince the King of the Fire Giants to join the war. The resulting havoc was enough to fuel the receptacles.
Once the characters reach the surface, the hear stories about cloaked figures walking among the giants during every attack, and the inability of priest to raise any of the fallen.
The will learn that the centre of power of the giants is in Tilverton, where the King of the Fire Giants resides.
And they might learn about the Crumbling Halls of the Frost Giant Jarl, up in the highest Mountains of the World. It is his sword, that will give its wielder the control about the frost giants. This should be reason enough to travel there, I think, as this would be the easiest way to defeat the giants.
There will be 2 finales if the players are fast. If they only need 2 weeks to actually defeat the giants, there will be a celebration, everything seems to be solved, but during the celebration the infant king of Cormyr will be kidnapped. A “Leader of Good” is needed to complete the ritual, and Eclavdra harvested enough souls already. If fighting the giants takes to long, this happens anyway, and they will have to leave immediately to rescue the King, instead of trying to free Cormyr, or Eclavdra will be the new Queen of Spiders.
What do you think? I do not plan to do any of this in a linear way, except for the finale. I love to be surprised by my players.[/sblock]
What I need most at the moment, are good encounter ideas for the Frost and Fire Giants, the whole war theme and maybe even the finale. I am quite concerned that Mass Resist Energy will ruin everything interesting about the giant strongholds, as it makes them mostly immune to energy damage, and I like to stay with the theme, rather than having Fire Giants using Frostbrand weapons or Frost Giants employing Hell Hounds.
But maybe you can improve the plot, too. I would love to have some alternate ideas, in case may players do something really unexpected. (I prefer changing the background story they do not know anyway to fit their decisions too railroading them back on track)
