Epic Level Adventure Ideas (Share Yours)

[Arcane Runes Press]

Hi,

So, now that the initial fervor of the ELH's release has died down and people have had a chance to explore the book in more depth, I think this is a good time to start throwing out some adventure hooks.

So, let's see 'em.

Ground Rules: Post a minimum of 1 adventure hook especially suited for high level play. Make it at least as long as the 100 adventure ideas listed in the ELH. Comment on each other's hooks, but always put a new hook in each of your posts. That way, the hooks (hopefully) don't get lost among the comments.

I'll Start:

LOVE AMONG THE DYING: The avatars/proxies of two gods of war from rival neighboring cultures meet again and again on the battlefied during the course of centuries of open war between their respective peoples. Attracted to one another's savage power and tactical prowess, they fall deeply in love. Unfortunately, their respective pantheons are wholly separate from one another, so they have almost no other contact aside from the fields of war. Even worse (for them), their peoples have settled their differences and are in the midst of a third century of peaceful relations.

Desperate to see one another again, they have commanded the heads of their respective churches to ferment discontent and are even now making plans to instigate a terrible war that will consume both nations in centuries of genocidal conflict.

Only the PCs have the power to confront the elders of each church, their champions and, ultimately, the avatars of the gods themselves.



Your turn
Patrick Y.

 

[GuardianLurker]

The Intruders :

Catacylsms are rocking the worlds and the planes threatening to unravel the fabric of the entire universe. As the characters rush from one trouble spot to another, they run into a dying leShay who is pursued by some incredibly powerful pseudo-natural creatures.

The leShay reveals to them that the troubles are caused by a breach in the Spire (the central spire on the Plane of Cocordant Opposition/Outlands), tasks them with recovering a lost leShay artifact, and sealing the breach with it.

In thier quest, the characters will be opposed by the Intruders, the Order of the Shield, the Regulators, and a traitorous faction of the leShay themselves.

 

[Psion]

Groundhog day!

Well, a while back on the old plots forum, we discussed a groundhog day like adventure. Here was my take, and the idea of the abominations being imprisoned sound like it is right up the right alley.

The basic concept is this. There was some abomination that the gods (or powerful clerics or wizards) considered an extreme hazard, and imprisoned in a sort of demi plane.

The method... the demi-plane exists in a time loop. Every so often, the players are returned to the moment that they entered the demiplane... this is what keeps the abomination from escaping.

The nice thing about this... the PCs can be slain in the conflict with the abomination (or its toadies) and be returned to life the next "day" with no loss of levels.

The catch... every time a day starts over, the PC retains all knowledge of the previous day. However, any PC that is slain loses all memory of what has transpired.

The challenge... astute players should quickly learn that if the whole party is slain, that is it... they will be doomed to eternally repeat prior days events. The challenge is to find a way out -- without unleashing the abomination -- while not letting the whole party get killed. The final solution may involve (or require) sacrifices. Just how that is to be done, I am not sure yet.

The way this adventure is run, the abomination and its toadies will be very dangerous encounters, but the players can use their foreknowledge to help them around various encounters.

 

[CRG]

(1) Brave new world

Take a bunch of PCs (current characters, former characters). Let them know that, for a variety of reasons - they die, their world is destroyed, they are on a mission from their 'god' or whatever - that they have been chosen.

A new world is being born. They are to shape it.

The mundane things in the world (livestock, trees, plants, animals, etc.) will automatically be there. Basic peoples will automatically be there.

The mix of PC races will determine the mix of PC races for your future campaigns.

The PCs take charge of one of their old characters. Any specific types of creatures, populations or "things" (artifact types? weapons? be creative here) that they want to bring will be their responsibility. Show them a basic map, and let them plop themselves (and their population) down.

Rest assured, there are plenty of dangerous foes - monstrous or simply high-level demi-humans, even outsiders - that will be trying to shape the world in THEIR image. Just make sure the movers and shakers are all about the same level.

Let them know that how they live AND how they die will shape the future of the world. The greater the role-play and effort, the greater the impact.

A buddy of mine and I ran this once after completing a few short and one long campaign. The high-level interactions were excellent. The best was between two former party members, one a ranger (who brought unicorns) and the other a former wilderness warrior - he had died and been reincarnated, with his alignment changing upon reincarnation. Formerly a human, now a drow and CE, he blamed the ranger for his pain and situation. He brought corruption - dire wolves, etc. to normal beasties. One of the culminating points was when she sacrified herself to save enough unicorns to ensure they would still exist in the world. One of those things the players talked about for years after.

(2) In the beginning

Same sort of concept, but different. Trust me.

Go and read the first part of the Silmarillion or other creation-myth books. The PCs play paragons of the first races. Maybe similar to the Amber series in power - a few tiers in a heirarchy. Play out the "beginning of new world XYZ".

(3) War in the heavens

If you're willing to touch on religious subjects, have your party play angels (or I fallen angels if you're just that dark). Make them aasimars if they want, but enough levels to be "angelic". The battle? Protecting the mortals from the fallen angels and demons.

Might be tough for some of the various denominations to play - I know that many religions frown upon direct references to evil beings as it gives them power. Still, if you can accept the fact that this is make-believe and that the party will be portraying the good guys in part of a struggle that sets the tone for the inner conflicts most western religions believe occur in our daily lives, so be it.

If your an atheist, agnostic or in general not bothered by these topics, you can just go beat some demons back to hell.

(4) Illuminati

You know how every world is ruled by a few super-secret societies? As the PCs gain levels, clue them in. Let them join one or a few (or try to form their own). Once they get to a certain point, let them see similarities, cause-and-effect-chains or other links that frankly, they wouldn't have noticed without as much experience.

Those power groups DO run their world. What are they going to do about it?

If you set this in an established world (Greyhawk, FR, etc) some of these power groups are known and well described. They may be more that the literature hasn't described and of which the PCs have very little knowledge.

(5) Time of Troubles

Not a FR head myself, but with the gods made human again ... well, they would be epic-level themselves right? Step in and join the fray. Maybe Moander DOESN'T die...or maybe the party Oozemaster replaces him...who is to say?

Do it in FR, another published world or your own.

(6) The Blood War

A different spin on #3 above. PCs are particpants in the Blood War between demons and devils. Maybe they are paying their dues. Maybe they are trying to protect bystanders on a planar border town. Maybe they're demons themselves. Who knows, doesn't matter just thrown them in sink-or-swim.

 

[rounser]

The Epic level PCs are in a bar, and this kid closes a window, and so the PCs all just flip out and kill the whole town.

More seriously: An existing epic level character of the world decided long in the past that power breeds corruption, and that it would be better for everyone if all epic level characters and monsters were removed from the world. Using divination magics, he or she tracks down the characters early in their epic level career and, in the course of an adventure, attempts to lock them in a demiplane with the rest of the world's epic characters and monsters. If captured and locked in the demiplane, a new campaign theme based around escape or survival could then commence. Perhaps the PCs find out that one of the evil denizens of the demiplane is on the verge of spilling it's contents back into the main world, resulting in untold disaster as a millenia of epic level characters and monsters are set free.

A potential advantage here is that many settings would struggle to provide challenges for epic level characters without verisimilitude troubles. In a demiplane full of epic level challenges, foes, and allies, there are no such difficulties with believability, and challenges commensurate with their level are everywhere.

 

[CRG]

Another two for my list....

(7) Planar gumbo -or- When World's Collide

For one reason or another planes of existence are colliding. Hard. Fast.

Destruction, chaos, or maybe just gateways (ie, Rifts) are spilling all over the place.

The PCs are from one or several of these plans, trying to sort things out. Maybe there's a danger from one that threatens multiple others, who knows. Maybe the PCs are spellcasters and have to enact a massive epic level ritual that moves the planes away from each other - opposed by the chaos/destruction/other-worshiping counter groups who made this happen. Maybe the PCs each find or forge an item to stop / reverse the process.

Maybe they're just out for conquest.

For a twist, maybe the PCs caused it by the destruction of a powerful artifact and now are seeking to mitigate the damage they've caused.

(8) Civil war re-enactment

Ok, not really a civil war re-enactment. How about the Baklunish / Seul war? In most settings there is a "time of heroes" where the really powerful folks walked, lived and breathed.

Maybe the PCs are those people. Maybe they are contemporaries, underlings. Or maybe they are as powerful and can re-write history.

 

[der_kluge]

The king's daughter, the Princess, is kidnapped by an epic-level dragon. The epic-level heroes must set out to rescue the princess by whatever means necessary.



Or wait - here's one:

The epic-level PCs are in a bar full of epic-level thugs. Someone calls someone a name, and an epic-level bar fight breaks out.


I crack myself up.

 

[Tonguez]

I crack myself up.

...but no-one else die_kluge but no-one else...

Anyway the theme seems to be 'PCs play with gods'

Anyone got an Epic plot that doesn't involve divine intervention or semi-divine PCs something more like - um-um-um!

okay then -um-

1. Powerful and Highly advanced aliens from another dimension are about to break through an invade your world.

2. Death is missing presumed ... um - the PCs must find Death and deal with all the recently deceased who are still walking around Deceased but not Dead

3. The PCs must save Christmas after Santa is kidnapped! (by an Epic level Abomination Grinch)

4. Lord Autumn has the power to control the Dreamworld and is now using Dreams to control the world... (just what can happen when Nightmares are real?)

 

[Lady Dragon]

Asmodeous the king of hell has stolen a priceless artifact (or had a few underlings do it) and wrested it to Malsheen his palace on Nessus the ninth layer of Hell. If the artifact is not returned to its rightful place bad things will happen to the multiverse.So some high up celestials convince the Epic PC's to go to Malsheen and get it back.Then return it to its rightful place.Easier said than done I would suppose.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Not a fully formed idea yet, but...

...the world is ending and the PCs discover that an atropal, an alternate universe version of the main campaign world's god/goddess of hope (or whatever other ironic portfolio you want the god to have), was stillborn in another universe, and is now siphoning off the energy of the PCs world in order to survive. The PCs travel to the alternate universe, where hope was stillborn, and try to perhaps spark it back to life - or die trying as an entire universe without hope fights against them.

By the way, the atropal is quite possibly one of the most interesting, yet replusive, ideas I've ever seen for a monster in D&D.