Campaign idea that needs some fleshing out...

[Mystic_23]

I've begun working on a campaign idea and would like some input on it. Thanks, in advance, for whatever input you can give.

The basic idea: (FR setting)

The characters live in a small, backwater area that is pretty far from the known trade routes of the country. This area involves a small grouping of 4 or 5 villages, from which the PC's come from. The area has had a relatively peaceful existance, except for a time 500 years ago, when there was a large battle here involving a lot of undead (mostly wights and wraiths).

The enemy was crushed by a group of paladins, clerics and druids who banned together to destroy this affront to goodness and nature. (The enemy was destroying natural resources in a manner similar, but not exactly like Saruman in LOTR.) However, the enemy escaped, never to be seen again....

Until....

Recently, rumors of undead attacking people have been popping up. So far it has been merely all conjecture, but a couple of people have turned up missing and others narrowly escaped from a group of zombies led by a wight.

The PC's are friends who grew up in the area. They, like most of the people from the area haven't really even heard rumors of the war from 500 years in the past. At the beginning, there is nothing that links this even with that. However, as the game progresses, more and more clues will lead to the ancient enemies return.

The scope of the campaign will remain mostly in this area, and will span through several levels. As things go on, the characters will realize that they have been chosen (supernaturally speaking) to discover and stop this evil that is spreading through the area.

Also, as things progess, the ruler of the country will become involved and eventually the area will be a massive war-zone. The PC's won't be involved in the war itself, but will be affected by it. By the end of the war, the army of good and the army of evil will clash in a huge battle that will sunder both sides, ending with no clear winner. From then on, the wilderness will be like hell on earth, with undead, demons and evil humanoids wandering around chaotically. The former "army of good" will be sheltered in the villages and in encampments trying to find a way to pull together.

Meanwhile, the pc's will find out more and more, and will try to present this information to the leaders, but it'll be a hard sell. Eventually, it will be up to the PC's to stop the ancient evil, and bring order back to their formerly peacful little pocket of the world.

So, I would like anyones opinion on this. I'm a moderately experienced DM, but have spent more time playing. Any suggestions on what/who the ancient evil is? How to stop it? Why the PC's are chosen? etc.

I also have this neat idea about the PC's being heavilly outnumbered in one or two battles, but mysteriously recieve help in the way of healing, and bonuses that they can't explain. (The paladins, clerics and druids from the previous war help them. The idea is to make the situation look hopless, and then when things are at their worst, the pc's get a little deus ex machina. Of course, I wouldn't use this to great length, but it will lead them to wonder why they were helped and who was doing it. Perhaps they could find a group of oddly preserved bones, and use it to find out information magically.)

That's all I have at this point...thanks again for any responses.

Jeremy

 

[Hand of Evil]

I think I would do the Elder God(s) and a temple of evil underground. Every so otfen something happens to weaken the seals and the old god is able to command evil creatures in the hope they will break his chains and open the doorway.

 

[Mystic_23]

That's a great idea. Thanks for the reply.

 

[fba827]

Be careful with the races you stick in this town and surrounding areas.

Human life span will allow generations to pass during the course of the 500 years. However, if you have an elven family in the town, as recent as the grandparents may actually remember it (or at least been the generation after the fall of the evil person)...

PS. BTW, I'm way too sleepy to think properly right now. Apologies for the short but rambling comments. The idea is a good one, I'll think some more and post later if I think of anything helpful



Edit: Adding PS

 

[Mystic_23]

That is a very good point. I hadn't thought of that. Thanks for the help. If you have any other ideas, I'd like to hear them, but I don't think you were rambling that much.

 

[hunter2112]

Actualy you could use the Elven angle. You've already stated that the people in this area don't really remember what happened 500 years ago. If you limit human contact with Elves somewhat, they could become a source of information about what is going on that the PCs would have to travel to visit. An adventure in and of itself.

 

[presumed_druid]

This may be a little different, but here it goes.

500 years ago, the land was being ravaged (a la Saruman). Trees were being uprooted, and a force of relentless and unwavering laborers furiously worked pick and shovel into the ground.

Then the evil started... zombies, ghouls, and other mockeries of life. They spread like wildfire on a windswept savannah.

Of course the paladins, clerics, and druids believed that the undead abominations were controlled, and created by the land-ravagers. Thus began the battle... just like it happened 500 years before... and 500 years before...

In reality, the land-ravagers were assembled under a sect of Oghma [I'm not up on my Realms, but this is the god of knowledge, correct?], who had unveiled the fact that there is an ancient evil that has awakened in a 500 year cycle for millenia (and it's been getting stronger and longer-lasting... this time it may be permanent without PC intervention). They were not themselves evil, but as they tried to get nearer the evil underground temple, they slowly began to succumb to the evil aura that the temple oozes. This sect may be recalled as being evil, so if a few mysterious strangers bearing thier symbols begin poking around, things could get interesting.


What is the evil? Hmmm? Well, maybe the evil is an elder god (as suggested in an earlier reply) that has been banished/imprisoned in the earth. So who imprisoned the elder god, and how, and why. Let's say the imprisonment was by a powerful devil who feared that the elder god was threatening his power base (adding details to this can only make it easier to develop things later on). The devil forced the elder god, through a signed contract, to dig into the bowels of the earth for 499 years, during which time, the devil sealed the entrance. The cleverest part of the contract was that the elder god had only one year out of every 500 years spent imprisoned, in which he was allowed anything but to burrow into the earth.

So with a 500 year cycle, the evil comes closer to the surface, and it's evil and crazed rage boils out of the very ground. This force is strong enough to animate the dead that are buried in the earth, and it also effects the living, driving them towards evil, and insanity. The god can only leave the tunnels if he can somehow break the seal that the devil has erected.

Perhaps the sect of Oghma has some useful info, as well as some that is not correct.

After so many years of digging, the tunnel system under the earth would be HUGE! It should be inhabited by a menagerie of monsters, possibly hooking up to the underdark. Maybe the god is acitvely worshipped.

Hope that helps.

 

[Derulbaskul]

Why not have Moander as your BBEG?

There is a place called Darkwatch in the Dalelands and you can get the info on it for free. Part of Moander's essence is trapped there thanks to elven high magic.

Moander always required a gargantuan mound of rotting vegetation in order to manifest an avatar. This would explain the Saruman-like destruction of trees etc... and also explain why paladins, clerics and druids would be working together.

Anyway, I would suggest using the Blightspawned template from Unapproachable East, together with juju zombies and the Blightlords of Talona. Perhaps the Blightlords are tapping the dead/trapped Moander's power... which means that you better buy Monte Cook's excellent, Requiem for a god for further inspiration.

Oghma is indeed the god of knowledge. Another alternative would be Savras who specialises in divinations and foretelling. I am using some similar themes as I have described here in my next campaign and I plan to use a gynosphinx cleric of Savras as a major source of knowledge (of course, the party will have to first rescue her from a pack of marauding hieracosphinxes or perhaps shades as she will be based in an ancient temple of Savras somewhere near, or in, Anauroch). BTW, her name is Arialda the Wise. I've been wanting to use a sphinx in this way for years.

Cheers
D

 

[Mystic_23]

Thanks for adding some information guys. I hadn't checked this thread in a while, because I got sidetracked, and haven't been working on the campaign idea. I just remembered that I had posted this.

One of the things I was thinking about in this campaign was this:

500 years ago, during the blight, one of the paladins (who was mid-level at the time, but somewhat favored by Helm) had a crisis of faith. This resulted in him losing his paladin abilities. (Probably, since he was favored by Helm, most of everything in his life went right, so that when something DID go wrong, his faith was shattered.) Once his powers were gone, he basically lost his will to do anything. This needs to be fleshed out more, but, due to destiny (which is WHY he was favored by Helm) he ended up at the right place at the crux of the apoptylectic (sp?) battle where the Great Evil God was about to crush the opposition and escape. The failed paladin chose that moment to resolve his crisis of faith and volunteered to essentially become the lock which seals the Great Evil God back. In doing so, he is stuck in the main chamber of the God's prison (which combines actual real-world as well as extra-dimensional space). He is chained up and hanging at the gateway. It is his presence there (as well as his connection to Helm) that keeps the Greater Evil God within the dungeon. The God comes by every now and again, to torture him, but he cannot die as long as he is trapped here...however, after 500 years, his Protection is waning and he knows that he can't hold on much longer.

I like a lot of the suggestions I'm getting, and I hope to turn this into a fairly cool campaign, in which the PC's get to shine and become true heros...

Let me know what you think.

 

[Argent Silvermage]

Here is an alternative. You mentioned Druids, why not use them a bit more. The "evil" is actualy a natural formation of Ley lines that for a node of Negative energy. every 500 years the node 'erupts' and the townsfolks loved ones and the dead animals in the area awaken. The druids have known about it for centuries but have hidden it's exhistance because they feel as a natural formation it should not be "tampered with" by the clerics in the area. After every 'eruption' the druids taint the villages water supply with a forgetting potion and they all just forget about it over time.