Gipgorn? Wtf?

[Cirripedius]

So I am going to be starting up a game this summer and I want to introduce it where my roommate (one of the players in this new game) left off in a solo adventure*.


What happened was my roommate came across this town back in the woods. All the townspeople are basically clones of each other and all call each other Gip Folgorn. My backstory for the town was that upon arriving at the town adventurers are treated as kings and given everything they want. Then they are somehow "sent" to the woods to do something (in my roommate's case this was to rescue one of the guards who was "lost" when the PC was trying to just be a douchbag and leave the town after completely bypassing like 3 adventure hooks (the town is also magically isolated, once you come in you can't leave the forest)).
Basically though, what happens is if you fail to kill an owlbear or 5 then the mayor (a halfling named Gip Folgorn who started the town and everybody is a clone of) will transform you into an Owlbear via a special polymorph I made up. If you succeed then you "get to" be transformed into a halfling like Gip. Either way the character is unaware of anything that happens while polymorphed and cannot remember anything they did as Gip Folgorn halfling clone. Once the original Gip Folgorn is killed the spell is broken and the town can be left, the polymorph spells end, and the characters transformed into clones become themselves again.

My roommate successfully killed the original Gip and now I plan to introduce the party as people restored to their original state. It is here I have no idea of how to unite the party or what to do. The best I have is the fact that their gear (they are starting at lvl 3) is hidden away in the mayors secret chamber room thingy and they go on an epic quest to find their crap. I am also giving them the option to get any free non-magical adventuring equipment that they can carry (assuming they aren't a paladin or monk or something stupid like that).

I need help. What can I send them to do? Btw, nearby is the main Dwarven city (and thus a small mountain range).



* This was to help me to learn how to DM and to start my own world.

 

[Alt F4]

I'd start with two questions:

1. Why did Gip Folgorn do this?
2. What did the people do while they were polymorphed?

The obvious answers are the sinister ones, which could lead to attempts to make reparations on the part of any good-aligned characters.

Less obvious is that Gip was actually trying to do good somehow. Perhaps everyone he lured into the town was in danger from some powerful enemy and he was trying to hide them from that enemy (this also gives the characters a common goal if that enemy is still a threat). Or maybe he was trying to build an army of light to fight the followers of some dark deity.

Or maybe he had reason to believe that everyone he captured was a danger to the world or the forces of good, so he lured them there to neutralize them.

On a similar note, maybe it was a prison of sorts, and the PCs were accidentally caught up in it. So everyone else who is released is actually very dangerous, and the original PC is responsible for setting them free. Which, if he's good-aligned at all, means he should be responsible for recapturing them. In this scenario the other PCs could perhaps have been recruited as prison guards, but somehow the magic went awry and transformed them just like it did the people intended to be prisoners.

 

[Cirripedius]

Gip became fascinated with the story of how his race was formed (Yondalla found good aspects in all the other races and put them together to her own race). He thought the idea was genius and proceeded devote his life to trying to recreate Yondalla's "trick". He became fanatical and his fanaticism led to insanity. He managed to succeed in the recreation of Yondalla's "trick" to a certain extent, but only to be able to transform people into clones of himself rather than independent, autonomous, unique halflings. He determined this was sufficient and began trying to convince people to become halflings as well. upon failing to do so, he would kidnap them and force them to against their will.

So the idea of luring them to nuetralize them is similar to the wya I did it, but the transformation was more motivated about what they would become rather than what they were.

I imagine Gip's alignment to have been true neutral. Also, know that Gip is dead now and there is no power left associated with him. Also, the PCs are starting at lvl 3

 

[Alt F4]

Cool setup. It has a fairy tale quality to it that I like. Unfortunately it also seems like everything with Gip has been resolved, so I'm not seeing anywhere else to go with that element.

Do you know broadly what type of thing you want to run next? Dungeon crawl, political backstabbing, siege warfare, treasure hunt, rescue the princess, etc? Knowing that might help a bit.

Even without knowing that, at 3rd level with only non-magical gear, the group may be interested in obtaining some magic items. So the offer of a magic item in exchange for a task, or a rumored location of a small cache of magic items might grab their attention.

Another possibility is to have someone in the town have reason to visit the dwarven city. They could be wary of going without an armed escort, so they hire the PCs. Of course there can be obstacles along the way. Not just your typical orcs or bandits, but perhaps a bridge is out and the party has figure a way to cross a ravine, or else take a long detour. This becomes more tense if the person who hired them is in a hurry. Weather-based obstacles are also good now and again.

Once the party arrives at the dwarven city, there can be plenty of opportunities for adventures. In a city, there's almost always someone in trouble or looking to hire someone to do a dangerous job. Or, if any of the PCs give you a detailed backstory, you could pluck something out of that. Long as you don't use it to screw the players over, most players love it when a GM actually uses an element of their character in a game.

 

[Cirripedius]

I like your idea of a guy needing an escort. I think that is the key to getting them together. Thanks alot

I have also decided to let them start at level 5 as well. When my roommate ran this and defeated Gip he was level 6 (Yes, a lvl 6 defeated a wizard with mass permanent baneful polymorph, lol). And I'm going to let them have magic items, they just won't be introduced with them because Gip would have taken them away from them once they became halflings. But given your idea I will probably push them right to where Gip put their magic items or make it so their equipment was absorbed into them when they were polymorphed.

As for what the campaign will be, I am going to have them become private agents of their nation's head of diplomatic relations. However, in reality he is planning to use them in his rise to power to become a dictator of the nation. In addition, he will be using his under the table influences to incite a war with the southern antarctic nation of orcs. His reason for wanting to rule the nation is to be able to mine/harvest a substance found in large quantity only remaining in a large quantity in two places in the world, one being the south pole. This substance is very valuable and can be used to create metals and other things that have the ability to heal/restore themselves. Initially there used to be a large deposit of Aevum (the substance) in Crestan-Val, the main nation the PC's will be from. However this was nearly a millennium ago and that resource has been exhausted. To top it off, the Elves, Orc, and the Tortles (a race from a Dragon Magazine that I fell in love with) view Aevum as a sacred substance. Too much to really cover but that is the main gist of it.