campaign ideas (long)

punkorange

First Post
I'm thinking of turning my attention from the WLD back to the campaign I was running prior to that. I am going to let one of the other players take over the WLD at the next section, and he isn't worried about not getting to play his character because of the TPK they endured last night.
Anyway, my other campaign consist of some somewhat powerful character types including an elven cleric who is starting to take classes in the racial class template half-celestial, two elven twins who are starting to take, or have taken, the racial class template half-red dragon, a wood elf fighter, and an elven wizard.

The campaign started with them getting hired to find a noble's daughter who was kidnapped but in the end really ran away. They helped her escape from her father who was supposedly a mad man. The group then helped a locksmith find a magical key which had been stolen by the cult of vecna to open an ancient tome. After defeating a few of the cult members and returning the tome to the library and the key to the smith they were summoned by the noble and told his daughter was still alive, and that he would pay them handsomely if they would please find and return her alive.

He gave them a map to where she was last seen, a cavern of sorts, being held ransom by a Minotaur. This cave was near the a temple that the cleric was to venture to as well so they said sure, although they all agreed the situation seemed odd, and that it was odd the girl was even still in the same region.

Halfway to the temple a man on the road greeted them and gave them a box, upon opening it they found the girl's head. When the man on the road was shown this he threw up, gave the party the gold he was paid to deliver the box and said he had no part in it. He left and the party continued to the temple.

After resting at the temple, and hearing distant drums throughout the night, they continued to find what was really at the cave. Upon reaching their destination they found no cave, only an invisible stalker which attacked them. After the fight they made their way back to the temple they were attacked by an orc scouting party.

That night the rogue (the elven twin sister) rode back into town with intent to assassinate the noble. Upon infiltrating his home and finding his laboratory, she found this scene: The large underground room was a typical wizard’s lab, in the middle of the floor was an altar, upon the alter was the headless girl with a ceremonial dagger on the floor next to her. Around the alter was a broken summoning circle, next to it the body of the noble who had been slain by some beast. The north wall had been blasted out and the sewers of the city could be seen beyond.

The twin returned to the group at the temple to inform them of what she found, and upon reaching the temple found her brother and the rest of the group in defense. It seemed an orc army had risen and was preparing an attack. The temple was gone by dawn. The companions held off a small army, part of a larger army, long enough for the temple occupants to leave towards the city and then they headed east to light the beacons and warn the nearby regions.

They met up with a mysterious fellow in the forest on the way who informed them that the army was led by an orc and backed by a red dragon. This red dragon would fight with the orcs for 90% of the loot, and the orcs could keep the land they won. He also informed him that the dragon and him were long time rivals, and that the red dragon, Nadarit Blackclaw was actually the twin's great grandfather. He knew their great grandmother and had ancestral weapons that belonged to them. He gave them the weapons then left. Soon after, they caught sight of a golden dragon flying towards the orc encampment.

They were captured by the orcs and escaped by means of a magical book that took them back to the wizard’s lab. They warned the city of the coming orc flood and rode out to meet them. They met up with a massive army of goodly folk and together they turned back the tide of the war, and killed the orc leader. After that things seemed to settle down on the home front, except a large black cloud (floating isle) begin to move in the sky, darkening the land slowly.

----- End of Campaign so far ------

Right now the group's average level is eight or nine. I hope to end the campaign around level twenty or twenty one.

---- What I need help fleshing out -----

On this floating island is a demon king (not sure about this guy yet, but the fight between him and the PC's will be epic, and upon him dying he will blow up killing the pc's and his island. The group will have sacrificed themselves to save the world)

In order to get to the floating island they will have to travel through another plane. In order to get to the other plane they will need an artifact. I don't know how they will get whatever this artifact is.

I don't really want one large adventure, but episodic adventures that lead up to this that way there is a bit of downtime between each episode, or chapter, allowing the pc's to create items, etc. Unfortunately I have a hard time not making my games one enormous adventure. Do you have any suggestions at all? I'm looking for ideas, possibly adventures I could tie in, advice, anything at all and I thank you very much for taking the time to read this post that seems now to be quite longer than I originally planned.

[edited for color]
 
Last edited:

log in or register to remove this ad

I edited out your colors. I use stealth mode and reading your post was really, really hard.

punkorange said:
---- What I need help fleshing out -----[/color]

On this floating island is a demon king (not sure about this guy yet, but the fight between him and the PC's will be epic, and upon him dying he will blow up killing the pc's and his island. The group will have sacrificed themselves to save the world) [/color]

In order to get to the floating island they will have to travel through another plane. In order to get to the other plane they will need an artifact. I don't know how they will get whatever this artifact is.[/color]



I don't really want one large adventure, but episodic adventures that lead up to this that way there is a bit of downtime between each episode, or chapter, allowing the pc's to create items, etc. Unfortunately I have a hard time not making my games one enormous adventure. Do you have any suggestions at all? I'm looking for ideas, possibly adventures I could tie in, advice, anything at all and I thank you very much for taking the time to read this post that seems now to be quite longer than I originally planned.[/color]

[/color]

You need:

a) an artifact
b) a way to break up the story

Right?

Answer: break up the artifact

This is a pretty well worn fantasy trope and it's in exactly one gagillion pulp novels. Start by figuring out how many adventures you want to run. Break the artifact into that many pieces. If you use a module, subsitute the boss' loot with a piece of the artifact.

Now your players will doubtless want to know why the artifact was broken up. My advice is to shoot the first player who asks. Nothing fatal. Just in the leg or something. After you get back from the hospital, tell the rest of the group you never want to hear that question again. The problem with this is that it's somewhat unethical and extreemly illegal and you'll probably go to jail.

Another option is to create a problem with the artifact. Now you've established that it's a portal to another plane. Obviously this plane will be nasty. Stealing an idea from Everquest, we'll say it's the Plane of Disease. Lots of ugly, diseasy type monsters inhabit it. The problem with the artifact is that not only does it work both ways, so that the diseasy cirtters can come out, but it creates a "thinning" of reality even when the pieces are just near each other. If the pieces are near each other long enough, plague will spread and eventually envelop the world.

Hope that helps!

By the way, don't write off the PCs dying this early in the game. If a few of them manage to teleport out or some other clever way to escape, let them. Otherwise you're just dropping an anvil on the character's head. But to each their own.
 

Well, I agree with Mr. Geekus. Even though it has been in a million gazillion novels, break up the artifact, and that your post is really hard to read in stealth mode.

Make each part something unique – like air, fire, water, earth; or north, south, east, west; or yin and yang. To make sure you give them some down time in between mini-quests to retrieve each part of the artifact, maybe they have to give the pieces to some great sage for safekeeping, and the sage then has to perform some ritual that takes X number of days before they can go back out. Or, maybe the ritual unlocks the location of the next piece?
 

Is that any better on the color. and what is stealth mode?

I know its kinda power rangerish, but what about a set of weapons when when brought togather have the power to open a portal. I also want to work in the red dragon somehow, since he is still out there and kickin it.
 

punkorange said:
Is that any better on the color. and what is stealth mode?

The default will translate nicely over the various skins. You can access skins in your user control panel (at least if you are a paid member). Stealth is black and white and looks like it *might* be buisness oriented. People who post at work tend to use it.

I know its kinda power rangerish, but what about a set of weapons when when brought togather have the power to open a portal. I also want to work in the red dragon somehow, since he is still out there and kickin it.

Weapons are just fine. I was thinking of pieces of a wheel myself, but you can't really fight with a pie slice. Your players will probably like weapons as well if they can use them.

You can easily work in the red dragon by making the plane the Plane of Fire. The disadvantage would be that the area around the artifacts would grow dry and hot. Potentially making for a big global warming thing if you just left them alone for long enough.
 


punkorange said:
Have you ever played Zelda, a link to the past for snes? I was thinking something dark worldish for the plane.

Sadly, no.

There are a few cool planes books out there if you are looking for ideas. You have plently of time before they hit it, so you may as well take your time and think of something special.
 

Pets & Sidekicks

Remove ads

Top