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Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wraith Form" data-source="post: 4950712" data-attributes="member: 10789">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!</blockquote>

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