Ideas anyone

[Plague]

Ok so i need idea's for an encounter. I have two pc's who are going to get called in for help. Let me fill in some info for everyone.

A long forgotten and buried city is found and dug up. Its team of workers and gaurds go missing. The two Pc's Beylix Anormer - Human Male Fighter
and Thala Stormrider - Female Elf Ranger, are sent to search the forgotten city to find what the remains of the guards and workers.

I'm thinking about making two possible conflicts here

a) The PC's run into a group of mobs who have killed and or captured the workers and guards. The mobs have set up a city of their own in this long buried and forgotten city. So the PC's must rescue the hostages and bring them back to the surface and then help the militia clear the City.

or

b) The pc's search the buried city and find nothing they simply just vanished. They return back to the surface to bring down the militia and conduct a more detailed search. During the search the PC's come across a room that a Militia member is in and that militia member is holding up an Horned skull. After looking the Skull in the face its eyes flash to life and the militia member vanishes. Now the PC's must find out what the skull is and has done with the militia, workers, and Guards.

So does anyone have an Idea's on what I could do!? If so that would be awesome. Thanks for the feedback

 

[Gilladian]

I think you should use both scenarios at the same time. I'm not sure what you mean by "mobs" but if you mean a criminal element, then sure, they could easily be using the ruins as a hideout. You could have a classic thieves guild there, hidden in the ruins.

You don't say how close to civilization the ruins are; if it is close by, the guild may use the ruins as their primary meeting and training grounds. Maybe they have an elaborate system of guards and watchers who protect "their area" of the city. They warn others off (with ghostly noises, bloodstains, etc...), but if intruders get too close, they "vanish" them.

At the same time, there could be an evil artifact, such as your skull, which teleports people who are foolish enough to handle it, somewhere else....

Else can be one of an unlimited number of places, based on your GM desires. Ever want to run tomb of horrors? Now's your chance. Or maybe a pocket plane of hell, or an elemental plane, or a huge underground cave filled with dinosaurs, or who knows what?

The PCs should have a fairly clear idea how to get back out reasonably soon; ie the other captives in the area can tell them "the great demon x rules this place, and only those who defeat him have any chance of escape". But if they ignore this info, or never ask for it, they could be there for a long time...

 

[Wraith Form]

I agree, you should definitely use both!

A bandit gang (or thieves' guild) takes over the ruins, pretending to be the excavation workers and guards. Meanwhile, an artifact in the lower sections of the city has just been dug up--your horned skull--and the bandits have just started to go missing. (In other words, most of the bandits have no idea that the thing has been dug up, but the skull is teleporting them to [where ever you'd like].)

Alternately, the skull might be the animated remains of a powerful wizard or priest. When the guard (who is actually one of the bandits) holding the skull disappears, it's the skull "eating" the guard, adding the guard's essence/soul to it's power. The skull floats from room to room, silently searching for more men so that it can consume their essences.... Or maybe it doesn't float. Maybe it's stuck on the ground, waiting for foolish mortals to pick it up. Once a mortal physically touches the skull, his soul gets eaten.

Once the skull eats enough souls, the powerful wizard/priest can regenerate the rest of his body and start causing serious trouble, summoning demons or practicing necromancy. It starts small, maybe a few farmers go missing or travelers disappear more and more often...but eventually the Bad Guy will have enough power to take over a village...and then a city...and then the kingdom itself...!!! Only your heroes can prevent him from gaining a solid foothold in this part of the world.

Meanwhile, those pesky bandits are still out to kill the heroes, too...and they have no idea the skull is eating souls.... (This can add some tension as well as a chance to do role-playing, negotiating a truce... maybe the bandits ask your heroes for help once the heroes prove their good intentions.)

Cool ideas, by the way--I might just snag this for my own!

 

[Plague]

Thanks for the help you two Yeah I have adapted the Excavation team and guards are guild members idea into my own thing. Along with the horned skull im turning that cursed item into my own twist of the Priest/Mage thing.

I'm turning the Buried city into the home of some evil guild/cult that posses as workers and then causes the newly excavated city to seem cursed and inhabited so that they can do their rituals and practices there. The skull is a cursed remenant from the Demon wars from the early years of Pretaeus' existancen which is now unearthed and free to perform its evil yet again.

I am thinking of making the Skull the remenant of a Devil which has human features. This Devil relishes himself to be the greatest Necromancer known. He goes around "consuming" the souls of those unfortunate enough to run into him. He then uses these souls as the power to animate the bones of the dead and sculpt them into a keep which he then powers through his magics. (for those HE-MAN fans im actually thinking of calling it Grey-skull Keep)

I might even make him a mini-boss/boss. We will see how it goes though. Thanks again for the idea's!

 

[Plague]

Ok I've been doing some thinking over the last few weeks and I've decided that Yeah I am going to do both. I am going to make a guild take over the ruins and they start vanishing due to kidnapping and ransoming the hostages. Most of the Crew working the excavation are part of the guild so when they vanish its because they've gone to their new hide out.

I am also going to use the skull as a flash back later on in the game. Where they will meet a very powerful Wizard who's face is covered by the horned skull with the rune engraved on it. This will make them feel the "DOH" moment realizing they could have stopped it all from the get go.

I am going to make the guild also become infected with a new disease that was unearthed in the excavation. This in turn causes the other guilds within the city to start a guild war seeing that the top guild house was recently knocked off the balance of power shifts and they begin to make claims at it. This putting the city in turmoil creating problem two, Those in the guild who are at the excavation have seen the PC's and notified those in the City. The PC's become an instant HIT target and now all scouts and soldiers of the guilds are on the look out for them.

I think I am going to do that because the typical hack and slash is not always fun. Now you make it so they have to think, use tactic's and be down right sneaky and thats a good PC right there. Using their noodle instead of doing things the long drawn out and too typical way to do it.