Asmor
First Post
Hey, been a while since I've posted here... Haven't really been doing much D&D as of late, but that's starting to change...
ANYwhoo, here's the plot I'm working on... Any critique would be appreciated, and any suggestions appreciated even more.
Oh, 2 of the PCs will be siblings.
It starts with the PCs (who're around level 5) being asked by the king to investigate a recent increase in attacks by Kobolds living to the north. The kobolds have lived up there as long as the kingdom has existed and while they've never been allies, the kobolds also have never been more than a slight nuisance requiring little more than increased watches along the northern edge.
Recently, however, the Kobolds have started attacking the kingdom in earnest, and seem to have some organizing force to them. At first people scoffed at the idea, but in their last attack they were using siege weaponry that should be well beyond them, putting any doubts to rest, and making people suspect someone else may be behind it.
The PCs investigate and make it deep into the caves up north with comparitive ease, where they find a thin humanoid of average human height. He wears a crimson cloak and the hood obscures his face, so the PCs can't tell what race or even what gender he is. He also floats about 6 inches off the ground. As the PCs approach him, he doesn't acknowledge them at all, but they all get a sense of foreboding evil, particularly any spellcasters. If they try to cast a spell on him it fails and if they try to attack him they find there is a solid, impervious wall of force around him in a 5 foot radius.
Not long after they enter his chamber, one of the kobolds they killed comes walking in and stands in front of the figure, within his wall of force. If the PCs try to attack it while it is walking up, their weapons bounce ineffetually off of it like it was made of steel.
When the dead kobold stands in front of the figure, it begins speaking in a clear, very un-kobold-like voice, in the common tongue. The figure basically speaks through the kobold, and is curious who these intruders are and what they want. He allows them to refer to him as Johanus. He makes it very clear that he could destroy them easily, but for some reason doesn't (the reason will be revealed later...).
If they try to tell anyone in authority of him, they find themselves tonguetied, they can't bring themselves to describe anything that occured in the caves.
The PCs are no longer able to enter the forest, caves or mountains to the north. They can't even set a foot outside the norther gates.
After asking about a bit, they're eventually referred to an old fortune teller (divination magics are limited in my campaign for PCs). She tells them of an ankh they must fine to restore this being's mortality, and that it is located somewhere deep within a forest located on a completely different continent. She tells them that it is imperative they complete their quest, but cannot reveal anything else. She is obviously quite disturbed as she tells them everything.
After finally making it to said forest, they find themselves on the wrong end of several spears, and are captured by a community of high elves, which are not found at all on their continent (only wood elves on their continent). After explaining their story, they are released and told of where to find the ankh, in a deep cavern under the largest and one of the oldest trees in the forest.
When they retrieve the ankh, they find a scroll with it. The scroll is in an odd form of Elven which none of the PCs can understand, not even any elves that may be in the party. They take it back to the elves, who can read it easily. The scroll tells them how to use the ankh, and that to restore life to someone you must know their true name and have one of the same blood (a descendant) sacrifice their life willingly. The elves advise them that one of such power would not likely allow his true name to be known, for they hold great power. They say there is an ancient golden dragon in a mountain range not too far to the north who is rumored to be as old as the very world itself. If anyone knows Johanus's true name, he does.
They trek to the mountain range and eventually find the dragon's cave. Inside the cave, they find an old man, who claims to be the dragon's guardian. He tells the PCs that before they may see the dragon, they must complete a quest for it. I don't know what that quest is yet, that's one thing I need help on. Any ideas?
Anyways, the PCs complete the quest and return, and the old man reveals that he is the dragon (betcha never saw that one coming
). After thinking a while, he recalls one many thousands of years ago who sought immortality, but retched at the idea of lichdom. Instead, he followed a path towards godhood, and through ruthless, relentless, bloodthirsty tactics he eventually achieved it, striking a pact with an evil god of this world to usurp the power from a god in another world. The dragon believes this being to be that man, and that man's name was Temris something-or-other. His surname will change depending on the PCs who are siblings... They are his descendants (which is why he didn't kill the PCs before).
The dragon warns them that when they use the ankh, there are several possibilities. It might just plain out fail, or it may work as intended. Of course, if it does, they're going to be face to face with a likely-pissed off mortal with near god-like powers. Best case scenario is that after being restored, the years will take their toll and he will be reduced to a pile of ash.
Armed with the ankh, a descendant and his true name, the PCs begin their trip back to their home continent. But no ships will take them, they must buy one on their own and go it alone, perhaps adding a couple experienced seamen who seek revenge. While they were gone, the kingdom had fallen, and now every city above ground was being raided by kobolds, while elves have add to deal with increased pressure from gnolls and the subterranean races were being assaulted by orcs and goblins. The whole continent had been enveloped in war.
They finally arrive, and it's even worse than they heard. Not only are the "civilized" races losing badly, the goblins have begun creating warships to attack other continents. The PCs' ship is destroyed, but they're rescued by some merfolk rebels (who waging a guerilla war against the sahuagin) and are escorted to land.
When they finally locate Temris, who has taken the castle of the city he was assaulting in the beginning as his citadel, they use the ankh (and, consequently, one of the PCs sacrifices his/her life). Enraged, Temris, now a level 20 Sorcerer/10 Fighter, begins attacking them. He brutalizes them (I don't plan for the PCs to be very high level by this time, maybe 15 tops), but after 5 rounds he begins losing 10 HP and one point from each of his stats every round as his body decays, until finally he drops dead and decays into a pile of ash.
From here, any PCs that were lost are replaced by members of the underground rebel groups, who've amassed a good deal of experience and are justifiably at a level near the survivors (if any). They can either fight to retake and rebuild their lands or choose to pursue Temris's return.
If they choose the latter, they discover that when he supplanted a good god in the world he went to, he unbalanced the power, and he used that to his advantage to destroy a second god. This was too much, and the world began to die. He fled to this world while he still had his powers to try and build a base of followers on it, and he chose to achieve that by leading the evil races to world domination. He was outside the influence of the gods of this world, and so was able to do it with little struggle.
Wow, that's a long post. Tell me what ya think!
ANYwhoo, here's the plot I'm working on... Any critique would be appreciated, and any suggestions appreciated even more.
Oh, 2 of the PCs will be siblings.
It starts with the PCs (who're around level 5) being asked by the king to investigate a recent increase in attacks by Kobolds living to the north. The kobolds have lived up there as long as the kingdom has existed and while they've never been allies, the kobolds also have never been more than a slight nuisance requiring little more than increased watches along the northern edge.
Recently, however, the Kobolds have started attacking the kingdom in earnest, and seem to have some organizing force to them. At first people scoffed at the idea, but in their last attack they were using siege weaponry that should be well beyond them, putting any doubts to rest, and making people suspect someone else may be behind it.
The PCs investigate and make it deep into the caves up north with comparitive ease, where they find a thin humanoid of average human height. He wears a crimson cloak and the hood obscures his face, so the PCs can't tell what race or even what gender he is. He also floats about 6 inches off the ground. As the PCs approach him, he doesn't acknowledge them at all, but they all get a sense of foreboding evil, particularly any spellcasters. If they try to cast a spell on him it fails and if they try to attack him they find there is a solid, impervious wall of force around him in a 5 foot radius.
Not long after they enter his chamber, one of the kobolds they killed comes walking in and stands in front of the figure, within his wall of force. If the PCs try to attack it while it is walking up, their weapons bounce ineffetually off of it like it was made of steel.
When the dead kobold stands in front of the figure, it begins speaking in a clear, very un-kobold-like voice, in the common tongue. The figure basically speaks through the kobold, and is curious who these intruders are and what they want. He allows them to refer to him as Johanus. He makes it very clear that he could destroy them easily, but for some reason doesn't (the reason will be revealed later...).
If they try to tell anyone in authority of him, they find themselves tonguetied, they can't bring themselves to describe anything that occured in the caves.
The PCs are no longer able to enter the forest, caves or mountains to the north. They can't even set a foot outside the norther gates.
After asking about a bit, they're eventually referred to an old fortune teller (divination magics are limited in my campaign for PCs). She tells them of an ankh they must fine to restore this being's mortality, and that it is located somewhere deep within a forest located on a completely different continent. She tells them that it is imperative they complete their quest, but cannot reveal anything else. She is obviously quite disturbed as she tells them everything.
After finally making it to said forest, they find themselves on the wrong end of several spears, and are captured by a community of high elves, which are not found at all on their continent (only wood elves on their continent). After explaining their story, they are released and told of where to find the ankh, in a deep cavern under the largest and one of the oldest trees in the forest.
When they retrieve the ankh, they find a scroll with it. The scroll is in an odd form of Elven which none of the PCs can understand, not even any elves that may be in the party. They take it back to the elves, who can read it easily. The scroll tells them how to use the ankh, and that to restore life to someone you must know their true name and have one of the same blood (a descendant) sacrifice their life willingly. The elves advise them that one of such power would not likely allow his true name to be known, for they hold great power. They say there is an ancient golden dragon in a mountain range not too far to the north who is rumored to be as old as the very world itself. If anyone knows Johanus's true name, he does.
They trek to the mountain range and eventually find the dragon's cave. Inside the cave, they find an old man, who claims to be the dragon's guardian. He tells the PCs that before they may see the dragon, they must complete a quest for it. I don't know what that quest is yet, that's one thing I need help on. Any ideas?
Anyways, the PCs complete the quest and return, and the old man reveals that he is the dragon (betcha never saw that one coming
). After thinking a while, he recalls one many thousands of years ago who sought immortality, but retched at the idea of lichdom. Instead, he followed a path towards godhood, and through ruthless, relentless, bloodthirsty tactics he eventually achieved it, striking a pact with an evil god of this world to usurp the power from a god in another world. The dragon believes this being to be that man, and that man's name was Temris something-or-other. His surname will change depending on the PCs who are siblings... They are his descendants (which is why he didn't kill the PCs before).The dragon warns them that when they use the ankh, there are several possibilities. It might just plain out fail, or it may work as intended. Of course, if it does, they're going to be face to face with a likely-pissed off mortal with near god-like powers. Best case scenario is that after being restored, the years will take their toll and he will be reduced to a pile of ash.
Armed with the ankh, a descendant and his true name, the PCs begin their trip back to their home continent. But no ships will take them, they must buy one on their own and go it alone, perhaps adding a couple experienced seamen who seek revenge. While they were gone, the kingdom had fallen, and now every city above ground was being raided by kobolds, while elves have add to deal with increased pressure from gnolls and the subterranean races were being assaulted by orcs and goblins. The whole continent had been enveloped in war.
They finally arrive, and it's even worse than they heard. Not only are the "civilized" races losing badly, the goblins have begun creating warships to attack other continents. The PCs' ship is destroyed, but they're rescued by some merfolk rebels (who waging a guerilla war against the sahuagin) and are escorted to land.
When they finally locate Temris, who has taken the castle of the city he was assaulting in the beginning as his citadel, they use the ankh (and, consequently, one of the PCs sacrifices his/her life). Enraged, Temris, now a level 20 Sorcerer/10 Fighter, begins attacking them. He brutalizes them (I don't plan for the PCs to be very high level by this time, maybe 15 tops), but after 5 rounds he begins losing 10 HP and one point from each of his stats every round as his body decays, until finally he drops dead and decays into a pile of ash.
From here, any PCs that were lost are replaced by members of the underground rebel groups, who've amassed a good deal of experience and are justifiably at a level near the survivors (if any). They can either fight to retake and rebuild their lands or choose to pursue Temris's return.
If they choose the latter, they discover that when he supplanted a good god in the world he went to, he unbalanced the power, and he used that to his advantage to destroy a second god. This was too much, and the world began to die. He fled to this world while he still had his powers to try and build a base of followers on it, and he chose to achieve that by leading the evil races to world domination. He was outside the influence of the gods of this world, and so was able to do it with little struggle.
Wow, that's a long post. Tell me what ya think!
Seriously, though, I didn't think of that. I've got a couple ideas for why... Perhaps the kingdom was founded in peace, and it's against their charter (or whatever a kingdom would have?) to mobilize any group of soldiers outside the city walls except during an actual war. Or maybe on the flipside the king's own men don't trust him because of many losses in a recent series of petty attacks and raids for no reason other than to fill the royal coffers a bit more. He can't risk any more ill-will from his people. Or maybe with training and equipment figured in, it would be cheaper to hire a band of adventurers. What do you think?
