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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cor Azer" data-source="post: 4420287" data-attributes="member: 870">So I'm working on a campaign outline for my next game, and I'm planning on revisiting an old cliche, but fleshing it out significantly - basically, a troll under a bridge. Now, this isn't going to be a normal troll (probably slap some sort of wizard abilities and beef it up a few levels). The campaign will likely just be heroic tier - 1st-10th level.The setting is basically on an isolated peninsula, with only one real community - a village of only a few thousand people that has long been isolated from the rest of the world. The only real way to the mainland is by crossing a massive bridge that has been cursed/controlled/whatever by this troll for generations (so obviously, not a normal troll). Normally the troll doesn't let anyone cross, although it does rarely (once every few years) let a caravan pass, but only with significant losses. Sure, an army could easily pass, but the peninsula is (to the greater world at least) so little of note, that... why would anyone bother? Fortunately for the village, it is quite self-sufficient, so while not prosperous, it's not dying from the isolation. The villagers are a fairly spiritual folk, and despite the hardship of the troll's tyranny, are generally unwilling to leave the kami (local spirits they worship) behind.Now, the reason the bridge is the only way to pass is because the peninsula is a rocky promontory several thousand feet high, bordered by fjords to the north and south, a raging sea to the west, and mountains (and the bridge) to the east. Steep cliffs on all sides, with no real access to the waters below.The peninsula is fairly large (it takes about 4 days to get from the village on the western cliffs to the bridge at the eastern end), so there's plenty of room to play with for the party. I've got a forest region on the southern side with some adventure ideas, a dormant volcano and caldera lake on the north for more stuff, and some underground caverns for dark delves.Still... the PCs, starting as residents of the village, will begin play knowing about the existence of the troll (although not her full details). They'll have a tale saying she can only be slain with the sword of the village's original founder (it'll mostly end up being a flaming weapon with quirks), but I'm loathe to explicitly say this weapon must be used. I've got several adventure ideas, but not all are directly related to finding the sword and defeating the troll. I suppose I could just to a linear hunt to find a hint that suggests a clue that shows a tower where hides a map that leads to the sword needed to kill the troll, but that seems a bit too... well, like I said - linear. Part of the reason I want a closed environment is so that within it, the players have a lot of freedom to explore, so dragging them from site to site seems counterproductive.Any suggestions as to other plot twists or the like that could encourage the PCs to not immediately seek to end her tyranny of the bridge? Particularly those that can be done in varying order. I'll be having several NPCs suggest they wait and offer cautions, but really, these are PCs - they won't listen <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> Sure, they'll likely get spanked if they go after her too early (and I sort of hope they do try and yet fail once before "the big blowoff"), but I'm looking for ways to delay this spanking. If it helps for inspiration, the culture is a blend of Norse and Japanese - me having recently watched Beowulf and played Okami <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Thoughts/comments welcome.</blockquote>

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