EverQuest d20 - low level adventure ideas

[Evil_Dead_Jedi]

Hi everyone. I am working on a low level adventure for EverQuest d20 for a group of three players. I will probably GM an NPC to go with them, so a total of either 4 or 5 heroes will be in the adventure. One player has played D&D2e and VtM off and on for years (mainly 2e honestly) but the other two are complete newbies to the hobby. That being said, my idea so far was something along these lines:

The heroes come into contact (somehow, not sure yet) with a person (so far only the nickname The Linguist) who is basically someone that has dedicated his life to studying the language of the dragons. Recently, he has partially deciphered a story or prophecy that tells of the awakening of a dracolich. (I know they are beginner PC's, but bear with me here) The Linguist hires them to find an old dungeon lost to time (probably on Faydwer) to retrieve a staff that holds the key to awakening the dracolich.

Once the staff is brought back to The Linguist, he will in turn watch over it for safe keeping. Meaning, he will try to research more history on it, and unwittingly set in to motion events that will enable me to write more adventures linked to this story.

So far my ideas for this are:
1 A good bit of roleplaying interaction with The Linguist.
2 A decent trek across the land to the cave system which holds the "temple." (not really a temple per se, but somewhere the staff was hidden away for safe keeping to prevent it from falling in to the wrong hands.
3 Searching the complex cave system for the temple that houses the staff.
4 In the temple itself, a series of either riddles or puzzles that will unlock certain areas of the temple that will in turn lead them further in to help find the staff. Ideas for this are kind of like needing to find certain keys or objects like in Resident Evil or Zelda.
5 Typical encounters in the caves and temple such as low level undead and vermin. Maybe a few mini-bosses here and there to end the playing sessions.
6 The final showdown is against a boss who is actually two humanoid bodies that share the same mind.

I want the "temple" to be so old that any guardians who might have been assigned to it are either gone or weakened so that low level heroes can have fun but not get slaughtered. I imagine the staff to be made of bone and look like it is missing a big crystal that would be in the tip of it. (This is important for an adventure further down the road)

So, any thoughts on this idea? I am open to anything, even having the staff NOT be part of awakening a dracolich (because it DOES seem so very powerful and epic a situation for newbie heroes). Thanks in advance everyone!

 

[Evil_Dead_Jedi]

Come on guys, someone has to have a few ideas to contribue. That's what we do, use our imagination.

 

[knightofround]

What are you looking for? It seems like you have everything planned out already.

I would agree that anything to do with a dracoliche is too crazy for a low level party. As some general advice, I would recommend against having a DMPC follow the party...if for balance reasons there needs to be a larger party, then have some of the PCs "dual box" (heh)

I dunno. From the write-up, the adventure doesn't seem to have an EverQuest "feel" to it. To me it looks like just a basic points of light setting, with the all the names pulled from EverQuest.

This is just my opinion but I think way too many people in the RPG world overemphasis the "quest" part in EverQuest settings. When I think about EQ, I think about putting together groups, establishing a guild, and ***exploring***, rather than "fetch item A from spawn point B and hand it over to NPC C, and you gain +1 faction". If I ran an EQ campaign I would think more along the lines of creating a zone. Then I'd create 1 general quest that requires the "clearing of the zone", 1 quest specifically tailored toward one of the PCs, and 1-2 more quests hidden inside the zone itself.

 

[Evil_Dead_Jedi]

Thanks for the reply and ideas. Well, I guess I liked that idea and I am worried that my players may not make it to a high enough level to play that scenario, so I tried to water it down into a low level adventure. Which now that I think about it, it might be kinda cool, but if I let it be what it is at a higher level, it would be much better. So I am going to scrap it for the time being.

I do like your idea on how to lay out an adventure design. Since I haven't written anything for rpgs in over 10 years I am still trying to get in to the hang of doing so again. I am going to try those design tips and just let a story form in my head rather than say A, B, C.

What kinds of things would you, as an EQ player, like to see in an adventure? I really like the idea of describing the settings and getting in to the feel of the world. It is so rich in lore and history.

 

[Gruns]

As another huge fan of EQ, I've tried to incorporate EQ type quests into my DMing. Ultimately I've found that they simply don't translate very well. "Go kill wooly mammoths until a tainted one spawns, then kill it and bring me the tusk" just doesn't work. The best I've come up with is using the names and backstory(there are a LOT of backstories in the game that most people don't really know about) and creating campaigns/adventures from there. I ran a very fun and successful campaign based on the PCs living in Qeynos, and having to deal with the gnolls, while the Kane Bayle/Bloodsabers corruption thing was going on within the city. Here's a quick, basic outline:
1) PCs are hired to deliver/retrieve something from Surefall Glade, a few days away through increasingly dangerous hills. A few gnolls attack on the way there.
2) On the return trip, some rabid wolves attack. Holly Windstalker appears near the end of the fight (but doesn't one-shot the PCs as she would in the game ) and expresses concern about the erratic behavior of the wildlife recently. She asks the PCs to take the infected wolf corpses to the Temple of Life in Qeynos for further study.
3) Lashun Novashine takes an interest in the party, and asks them to clear out some undead.
4) The gnolls send their ambassador, Fippy Darkpaw, to 'negotiate with' Qeynos. By this he threatens the humans and gives them the ultimatum that they must leave the area, or be wiped out. This is of course laughed at by the Qeynos guard and they tell Fippy and the gnolls to do their worst, as they take pot shots at the fleeing, dejected gnoll with their crossbows. Fippy shouts insults as he runs back to Blackburrow.
5) Temple of Life finds that the wolves have been diseased.
6) A scouting party from Surefall Glade has turned up missing. PCs search the area and find clues that lead to Blackburrow/gnoll involvement.
7) PCs enter Blackburrow, looking for clues. Dungeon crawl a bit before finding bodies of Surefall rangers.
8) Return with bad news. Surefall asks Qeynos to join them in declaring war against Blackburrow. Qeynos refuses, don't see gnolls as a viable threat.
9) Meanwhile, Kane Bayle has been corroborating with the gnolls the entire time. He gives one of them, a higher level wizard, the key to his father's (the king, Antonius Bayle) chambers so he can be assassinated, and Kane will obtain the throne.
10) PCs pick up on some clues that the Qeynos water supply is being poisoned, as many people succomb to disease.
10) Antonius is assassinated, the gnoll is chased (and intentionally caught) by the PCs or the guards.
11) Kane Bayle leads the public execution of the gnoll. PCs may notice a wink when Kane is telling the gnoll how evil and worthless he is. The gnoll is surprised to see that Kane is actually going through with the execution, and at the last minute, shows his true power. He escapes in dramatic fashion. (Or attempts to.)
12) Rumors start that Kane was involved. Most people don't believe them, or simply refuse to talk about the idea. Joffrey Clay(or anyone you want) IS convinced, though, and the PCs help him convince the paladins that something is amiss.
12) The gnolls vow revenge for the betrayal (they were promised some claim to the land once Kane took over) and the attacks increase before a full out assault on the city.
I ran this as a full scale 100 Qeynos citizen vs 100 gnolls battle. The PCs fought an appropriate number of gnolls as normal, and on Qeynos' turn I rolled a d12. This is how many gnolls they killed that round. The gnolls rolled a d10. (Because the good guys are supposed to win.) Adjust as you like. And don't forget the PCs are likely killing gnolls as well.
13) Eventually the PCs find out the Kane Bayle was in fact involved, and they confront him and some Bloodsabers in an epic Big Bad Evil Guy fight.

I've left out a ton of details, and side quests, but you can fill them in to your tastes.

Later!
Gruns

 

[Evil_Dead_Jedi]

Gruns, that is pretty awesome. I've been out of RPGing for so long it would take me years to come up with something that detailed and cool. Thanks for the post though, it is helping me get my creative juices going. You are correct about all the lore that EQ has. I can just log in with my high level ranger, travel around and talk to people, get some story ideas and let it roll. Very cool idea. Thanks again!

 

[knightofround]

I guess it depends what gaming system you're using. I'm not sure if by "EverQuest d20" you're referring to the Swords & Sorcery version of EQ, which was pretty bad imho. If you want to use it though, thats great, I'm just saying that it doesn't encapsulate the "feel" of EQ that I got from the game.

I guess when I think EverQuest I think of getting a ton of guildmates together and tackling epic foes. My fondest EQ1 memories are stuff like Plane of Hate raids, getting my butt whooped in Castle Mistmoore, doing epic quests, and--most importantly--guilds. I think if I ran al EQ campaign I would do it with 4E, as the d20 system is too lethal for PCs at lower levels imho. If I were to do it with d20, it would probably be a high level campaign.

Although to be honest I think EQ2 is a better fit for RPGs than EQ1. The focus is less on gathering 50 people to do something cool and more on small groups accomplishing extraordinary things.

There's nothing stopping you from ripping the lore out of EQ and putting it into whatever gaming system you desire though. I think it depends whether you're looking for plot to yoink, or if you're looking to encapsulate the feel of the setting.

I know that I have used several EQ ideas into my D&D campaigns. I actually printed out the floorplan of Karnor's Castle and used it for one adventure. One of the endbosses was Venril Sathir (although he wasn't an iksar, he was a demon that broke free of one of the PC allies' summoning circle). I've used the character of Lucan as a patron-turned-villian. I've used frogloks and sarnaks.