Give me your poor, your hungry, your BBEG Undead...new campaign help

[Patman21967]

In my new campaign, the PC's are resurrected into a land that is overrun with undead because of a curse. There are 11 city-states, that are now mostly in ruins, and being ruled, and overran by various undead. The PC's main goal, they all have different ones, but their main goal is to unify the surviving living beings, and ultimately find a way to reverse the curse. But in the meantime, I could use as many undead as possible, be that BBEGs, new templates, ideas for specific adventures, etc....I can do the work myself, but I see there are alot of good GM's of differing styles here, and would love to present my players with things that are new. There was a thread on here, about an Undead invasion toppling civilization that myself and a few others posted to alot. I took notes and ideas from there, and added some twists of my own.

Basically, the Emperor of the land made a deal with a powerful entity, a god long forgotten by the main populace, to rule, and live for 1000 years. At the end of that time, he was to give up his soul and join the God's unholy court, as Lord of the Undead. He found an ancient ritual to become immortal, and decided he would rather not give up his soul, instead rule his kingdom forever. Well, that obviously does not go over well when the Avatar of this god comes to collect his soul on the eve of the 1000th anniversary. So the land is cursed ...basic short story on the curse is that all who died by his command shall rise as Undead, and the ability to use magic is lost from the living.

Well it was prophecied that the curse would be brought down by 4 powerful individuals, the PC's obviously, who were there when the Avatar came. They died in the insuing rising of the undead, and are ressurrected a few hundred years later, by a priest of Lathander, who finds a holy relic tied to the prophecy. The ressurrection breaks the part of the curse about no magic but during the time that they were dead, no magic has functioned, and the populace has been shttered into small groups of survivors, and resistance movements.

Week 1 is going to be the arrival of the Avatar, the curse, the death and ressurrection of the PC's and their escape from the capitol city to the wilderness camp of the Priest and his followers.

Obvious ideas that come to mind are..quests to find magic items, as noone can create anything anymore, the Wizard needs to find ancient spellbooks in order to learn new spells, uniting the survivors, cleaning areas of undead and building new cities, or retaking the old ones..etc...

The PC's and their main character goal: all are starting as 8th level

A Radiant Servant of Pelor : The worship of Pelor has waned, since the curse, because the land has been plunged mainly into darkness. He is quested to bring back the worship to the living. His spells will be limited at first, and the more he brings the worship back, the more his access to Divine power increases and more hours of daylight.

A Mystic Theurge: he is given the ability to detect the Arcane "spark" in people. He is quested with the teaching of magic to the living.

A Half-Dragon Warrior: Sice the curse of " no magic " Dragons being magical monsters have died out, he is quested with returning them. ( I have this well detailed if anyone wants the specifics )

A Ranger: He is quested to lead the survivors out of the "darkness",basically to unite the many groups of surviving living, and lead them back to civilization.

Sorry about the length of this...I got carried away....lastly they will only be brought back with 1 item they once had. theRSoP (holy symbol) the Theurge(spellbook) the Half-Draon(his armor) and Ranger(his 2 swords). If they wan o regain their other items, that will be weekly adventures too...

Any comments or suggestions?

 

[Patman21967]

Anyone? Buehler?

 

[Piratecat]

Heh - you're falling prey to the truism that the more campaign background you post, even if it's brilliant, the fewer people read it... unless your question is right up at the top.

My "thread which must not be named" has some wonderful ideas for undead that people here have suggested. It might be worth scanning.

 

[painandgreed]

One of my tricks is a lich that hides his lichdom but keeps a Crypt Thing (Tome of Horrors) down in the dungeon pretending to be the lich which the actual lich pretends to be some minor castle functionary (to keep people from bothering his research). If party attacks the real lich, he pretends to die. When they attack the "lich" in the dungeon, they destroy it but hopefully after the thing has teleported several party members away. Now they have a pissed off lich who has had time to prepare waiting for them upstairs.

Take a page out of the old Swamp Thing comic and put vampires in the old stagnant water filled sewer beneath the city (or in a swamp). Since vampires don't need to breathe, they are at an advantage if the PCs do.

From the Deadworld comic, have the more intelligent undead raising humans to feed on and create more undead. Camps of thothing but pregnant females who lose their babies after birth. A few men used as studs who also act as guards and wish to keep their positions because they don't think that anyone can defeat the undead lords. not to mentin the spies among the living who hope to garner praise from the undead lords and survive when everybody else is wiped out.

 

[scourger]

twists

An interesting twist might be to have the undead warring with the emperor. This fits with your idea of the avatar cursing the land so that the undead rise against the immortal (living?) emperor. If the emperor is a living being, it presents the players with quite a dilemma. The emperor has undoubtedly unified all the other living people in common defense against the undead. He may even be a hero or a god to those people. Now, the PCs have to oppose him--or (more correctly) subvert him--while not consigning all the remaining living people to the fate of undeath.

Of course, the undead may be factionalized as well. Perhaps a death knight leads all the skeletons, a zombie lord for the zombies, a ghoul king of the ghouls, etc. You could have one undead overlord that holds tenuous control over the various factions. I sugest a vampire with some werewolf backup.

Or maybe the emperor is the vampire.

The living would likely cremate their dead to prevent them from rising to oppose them.

 

[scourger]

Ps

If it's the undead vs. the (living) undying emperor, then the PCs could die, come back as undead, and finish the struggle against the emperor. They would be destroyed ultimately if they lift the curse, but at least they get to finish the campaign.

(I thought of this option while pondering what you would do if one of the PCs dies.)

 

[Patman21967]

Scourger, I never even thought along those lines. What I'm planning, is that the Emperor escapes...He became undying, but being a Wizard, also has no magic until the ressurrection, so basically he spends a few hundred years in hiding, then one day, poof, all his arcane power returns. Then he begins to plot on how to reform his Empire. The "curse" will not end, until the Emperor 1)either gives up his soul, or 2)is somehow destroyed, because as long as he lives, the undead plague will the land.

So basically, he brought about the curse, then went into exile, and I believe I will have him as the end-game antagonist.

Along the undead lines, after the start of the campaign, any new players joining can play undead...I forsee having Vampire, Mummies and stuff wanting the curse to end, because for Vampires, their food source is getting low, and a Mummy Paladin just sounds really cool.I see the land as a bleak wasteland, with small refugee camps etc... fighting to stay alive.

As far as PC death, I plan new characters. My PC's never have a problem with concepts. Plus, I plan on other games in this world. One Shots if a PC can't make it, different parties altogether maybe...

 

[Patman21967]

Thanks Piratecat

Heh - you're falling prey to the truism that the more campaign background you post, even if it's brilliant, the fewer people read it... unless your question is right up at the top.

My "thread which must not be named" has some wonderful ideas for undead that people here have suggested. It might be worth scanning.

Yeah...unfortunately I am one of those people where, if I start reading something, or writing something, I get carried away...I think we call that Anal, but my girlfriend has a different name for it, that Eric's grandma would not approve of. I will check out said recommended thread, and thanks again. If you actually took the time to read it, any critique would be appreciated.