HELP: Undead adventure! (my players go away!)

[Trevalon Moonleirion]

Happy New Year, my fellow EN Worlders!

I'm having quite a bit of fun getting to run some stuff since I'm home from school for the holidays, and have in fact started up a new and fresh campaign in a world that I'm going to try and build from scratch. The latest adventure has the PCs in an unexplored forest valley that's filled with undead and other unpleasantness.

What do I need help with, you ask?

What the hell do I run tomorrow afternoon?!

My group has 2 Rangers, a sorceror, a cleric of a moon goddess, and a fighter/rogue. all are 10th level and rather well equipped magically.

My vague plan is as follows:
PCs are in the inn of a small village that's just about devoid of inhabitants. they've been either scared off, turned into undead, or just devoured by the nasties that are suddenly pouring out of an ancient graveyard from a fallen empire. I have several ideas for good challenges: some cool new baddies from the Libris Mortis, a few suped up undead, and a good number of cannon-fodder than the party sorceror can obliviate with a well-placed fireball or two.

Does anyone have any maps of a huge cemetary in a slightly forested area?

What are some interesting things to put in the cemetary other than gravestones, a crypt or two, and undead? Quicksand or something similar? I want to keep the combats quick, but different and fun.

Finally, and most importantly. Who or what is the BBEG? What has unleashed the horror of the undead upon the world? A foolishly uttered incantation of an evil book (Army of Darkness, anyone?), a powerful intelligent undead creature? A necromancer?

Other considerations: the PCs quite literally fell into this valley from their home in a mountainous city they were exiled wrongfully from. who should i put in to let the PCs know where they are? Should i start feeding them information about the origins of the new king's advisor that had these heroes disposed of in the first place?


You guys have saved my butt in the past, so thanks in advance for anything you can do to help spark my creativity (or can just give me to shamelessly steal )

Thanks!

 

[shilsen]

Finally, and most importantly. Who or what is the BBEG? What has unleashed the horror of the undead upon the world? A foolishly uttered incantation of an evil book (Army of Darkness, anyone?), a powerful intelligent undead creature? A necromancer?

How about a paladin for the BBEG? Here's the scenario: The cemetery is far enough away from civilization that the undead it contained weren't really a threat, especially since they rarely left its bounds. Unfortunately, a week ago, the mighty paladin Sir Bob of the Incredibly Shiny Order learned of some evil relic which is buried in the cemetery and headed there to destroy it. Unfortunately, since Int was his dump stat, Sir Bob wasn't completely informed/sure about the relic's location, so it's taking him more time than he expected. And being a member of the Incredibly Shiny Order, he is happily smiting and destroying the undead he encounters. The end result? A lot of very pissed-off undead have fled the cemetery and are causing mayhem nearby, coincidentally where the PCs show up. Now not only do the PCs have to deal with the undead, but they have to find and persuade Sir Bob to stop what he is doing (esp. if he is wrong).

You could vary the above in a lot of ways. Perhaps it's not a relic which Sir Bob was after, but a lich who was content to live in the cemetery and use the weaker undead as servitors while he went about his academic studies about death. Unfortunately, he's the only one who can recall the undead, and Bob's not just destroyed the lich's wards which held them in there but is about to smash his undead skull in when the PCs show up.

And you might want to change Sir Bob's name and that of the Incredibly Shiny Order, since I have them copyrighted for my game

Hope that helps.

 

[diaglo]

try this free adventure:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20030328c


for a possible place to find Bob of the Shiny Order.

 

[Stormborn]

Perhaps the King's Advisor is the Big Bad here as well, just indirectly. Rather than having the undead be some kind of random phenomena, an agent of the advisor is testing a new weapon, something that creates undead in a wide area. This ties in to some sort of plans the BB has, either to use undead to take over the kingdom or to use the undead to make it appear that the kingdom is threated so he can impliment martial law or something of that nature. The flunky need not be a spellcaster or undead at all, and thus may be a bit of a suprise to the PCs, but just someone with lots of ranks in Use Magical Devise. Perhaps a high level rogue/assassin who is actually following the PCs around after their first encounter, seeing how the undead fare.

Obstacles in such a place could include sinkholes, various kinds of poison fungus, a few actually trapped crypts, or open graves in an area of heavy fog.

 

[diaglo]

also let me suggest you dig out the d02 Monster Manual 2 from WotC and use the spellstitched template for some added powers for your undead.

 

[MerakSpielman]

Consider ghouls. They're sentient and can have class levels.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

How about making the graveyard a series of crypts on a hillside, terraced like one of those italian hillside farms... So there are crumbling stairs leading to each new plateau roughly ten foot higher than the last, the crypts and mausoleums can be set close enough to allow daring PC's to leap from the top of one to another over the plodding zombies (but god help them if they fail their jump or balance checks!). So, the graveyard would look like a set of stairs leading up to a shrine or park-like area at the top. Maybe at the bottom are the graves of the more common folk, and only the rich get buried in the hillside...

 

[Stormborn]

also let me suggest you dig out the d02 Monster Manual 2 from WotC and use the spellstitched template for some added powers for your undead.

The original poster mentioned he had Libris Mortis, I think it has the spellstiched template in it too

 

[Trevalon Moonleirion]

Thanks guys! My game's about 20 minutes from starting, but any help is still appreciated. You never know--I could find somethin useful in the middle of my game, and change it on the spot

 

[Stormborn]

Thanks guys! My game's about 20 minutes from starting, but any help is still appreciated. You never know--I could find somethin useful in the middle of my game, and change it on the spot

We will of course be expecting progress reports.