Need help designing a one shot low paragon tier adventure!

[SoulsFury]

Last year, me, one of my friends and my girlfriend had a pretty good run playing table top. It was the first time I had played table top in many years. I usually just play PBP because it is much easier to find players and work around schedules. Our table top game stopped when my buddy moved up north for a job. I talked to my buddy today and he will be home for a week over the Christmas holidays. We've decided to do a D&D game day. Most likely, it will just be the three of us playing. I will probably run my DM PC just to help the other two PCs out so I can throw some harder things at them. However, they haven't played since last year when we stopped playing.

I would like to design a one shot that is easily playable in 4-6 hours that will be:
1) Iconic, dragons, beholders, and any other low paragon leveled creatures. The characters will be level 11.
2) Feature a very creative setting inside my homebrew campaign setting.
3) Memorable for all players involved thanks to good NPCs, great fights and interesting ideas.
4) Pick up where the campaign setting has left off.

The campaign setting is our homebrew world. Everything in the world was created in game because of characters going there. This adventure will be set almost a decade after the characters left off. The last adventure they played took them to 11th level. They successfully destroyed a cult of Orcus. The setting is very low magic and they are the highest level heroes in the world. After this last adventure, they went to NPC status.

His character: An elven-werescorpion swordmage that is leader of the largest town in the campaign setting.

Her character: An elven wizard who has retired to do magical studies in her lake side manor, guarded by a wide variety of animals.

My character: An elven avenger of Arawai who has built a Citadel of Nature, and is leader of the church of Arawai and the elven communities around it.

As NPCs, they have set forth the current PBP games I have going. Both groups are searching for pieces of a crown of a God-King that caused a cataclysm. Those groups will complete the crown, however their success will not happen IRL for some time. I'm trying to come up with some thing for them to go after, some where completely cool without leaving for the Feywild or Shadowfell, or delving into the underdark.

Please throw any ideas at me! I am stumped on this one, though I admittedly haven't put much thought into it yet.

Thanks!

Nik

 

[Quickleaf]

Sounds like whatever you come up with will be closely connected to the events of your campaign. Three things popped out at me:

(1) Your group defeated a cult of Orcus. Besides the obvious, why? How were the cultists connected to the Cataclysm?
(2) They're after the God King's crown. Why have they let 10 years pass?
(3) The PCs are arcane types in a "very low-magic world" - what's up with that?

 

[fba827]

hrm. getting some information on this crown that those seeking the crown will eventually need. Or along those same lines, maybe they have to get some item that will help contain the chaos that exudes frmo the crown, else it would be too much and destroy the other people who try and get the crown later.

noting the fact that your party is all elves: the cult of orcus is taking revenge and has started an illness that is affecting elves (in hopes of taking care of the elves responsible for the prior defeat of the other cell of the cult).

noting the fact that the party is all arcane-magic oriented: their expertise is called upon to investigate a strange magical mist/haze that has fallen some region. the haze has some effect if you have prolongued exposure. and traveling it in eventually leads to the source which could be one of the iconic monsters you listed, just need a good reason as to 'why' it made the magical haze (protection, or to kill off would-be intruders to it's new lair, or maybe it transforms those caught in the mist too long to be more suseptible to following it's orders, etc).

The characters find that the current cell of the cult of orcus is in the process of sending a dragon/behold/soemthing back in time to that fateful battle 10 years ago. the party must stop them and the creature or else history will get re-written (note that this isn't the greatest idea unless you know your players well since there are so many points that this could break down - what if they don't stop the creature, what if they end up going back in time too, and so on).

Unrelated to your existing plot lines, maybe one of them has a personal side quest that comes up -- a family member's wedding, or a past love interest showing up, etc which in turn goes terribly terribly wrong for some reason.

anyway, justr andom ideas off the top of my head (not necessarily great ideas, i know, but maybe something there will help spark an idea).

 

[SoulsFury]

Sounds like whatever you come up with will be closely connected to the events of your campaign. Three things popped out at me:

(1) Your group defeated a cult of Orcus. Besides the obvious, why? How were the cultists connected to the Cataclysm?
(2) They're after the God King's crown. Why have they let 10 years pass?
(3) The PCs are arcane types in a "very low-magic world" - what's up with that?

1) The cult was competing for a valuable resource called meteor ore. This resource is the basis for the economy since the cataclysm. The cult also attempted to stop any form of a peaceful civilization from forming.
2) The crown, along with other artifacts, was thought destroyed. A piece of it recently reappeared thanks to a curious githzerai setting out after his lost tribe.
3) I don't know about your game but in mine the PC's are heroes. When I think of a low magic setting I think of a place with no giant cities floating around, no red dragons tied up outside of taverns, etc. It doesn't mean magic is less powerful. To me, it means just the opposite. Magic wielding PC's are powerful because they have it. I don't need elminister in my game, that's what the PC's are for. The characters even have an airship and hippogriff mounts. There are floating islands, fey crossings and all sorts of cool magical places. That is why I posted, so I could come up with an interesting place for them to visit. Just because there is magic doesn't mean everyone needs or uses it.

hrm. getting some information on this crown that those seeking the crown will eventually need. Or along those same 8, maybe they have to get some item that will help contain the chaos that exudes frmo the crown, else it would be too much and destroy the other people who try and get the crown later.

noting the fact that your party is all elves: the cult of orcus is taking revenge and has started an illness that is affecting elves (in hopes of taking care of the elves responsible for the prior defeat of the other cell of the cult).

noting the fact that the party is all arcane-magic oriented: their expertise is called upon to investigate a strange magical mist/haze that has fallen some region. the haze has some effect if you have prolongued exposure. and traveling it in eventually leads to the source which could be one of the iconic monsters you listed, just need a good reason as to 'why' it made the magical haze (protection, or to kill off would-be intruders to it's new lair, or maybe it transforms those caught in the mist too long to be more suseptible to following it's orders, etc).

The characters find that the current cell of the cult of orcus is in the process of sending a dragon/behold/soemthing back in time to that fateful battle 10 years ago. the party must stop them and the creature or else history will get re-written (note that this isn't the greatest idea unless you know your players well since there are so many points that this could break down - what if they don't stop the creature, what if they end up going back in time too, and so on).

Unrelated to your existing plot lines, maybe one of them has a personal side quest that comes up -- a family member's wedding, or a past love interest showing up, etc which in turn goes terribly terribly wrong for some reason.

anyway, justr andom ideas off the top of my head (not necessarily great ideas, i know, but maybe something there will help spark an idea).

I like the idea of something to contain the crown. I have had the idea that it was what drove the God king to madness. I think I might run with this. Destroying the crown would be too much like some other story I read .

So new questions:
1) what magic device could hold the crown?
2) where could they find it?
3) how would they know it was there in the first place?

I'd also like to express a since of urgency so maybe the return of the first piece of the crown is causing a disease that affects elves.

Thanks and keep the ideas coming.

 

[the Jester]

Well, thankfully you're already using my biggest piece of advice re: one-shot adventures in 4e, which boils down to, "Players have a hard time using a character effectively if they don't know their abilities, so either keep to pcs they know well or keep to low-level one-shots."

With that out of the way, how about a trip to another plane? Paragon level is perfect for that kind of thing. Maybe the crown must be contained in a specific vault of granite in the Elemental Chaos, or only the energy-sucking nature of a particular part of the Shadowfell can keep its powers from gathering.

Or maybe the complete destruction of the crown requires that they take it to a specific planar location?

 

[fba827]

I like the idea of something to contain the crown. I have had the idea that it was what drove the God king to madness. I think I might run with this. Destroying the crown would be too much like some other story I read .

So new questions:
1) what magic device could hold the crown?

A scepter. It does not contain the crown, but rather provides some balance for the crown. The god king never had this (or his servants saw what the crown was doing to him, and crafted the septer for him, but he refused it)

2) where could they find it?

um. no idea depends on how they learn about it and what story you craft around it. but at the very least as a fall back idea, it could be in a dragon/beholder horde since you seemed to want to use one of those iconic type creatures.

3) how would they know it was there in the first place?

legends/history, magic research/magical experiemnts, they receive the info from a mentor that did the magical research/communing

I'd also like to express a since of urgency so maybe the return of the first piece of the crown is causing a disease that affects elves.

you might be breaking down the story at that point. is there a reason that the crown would be "anti elf" ? if not, maybe it is a general disease affecting people not based on race but something else -- a specific location, or desendants of a certain family, etc. -- and people that the PCs hold dear are in part of the affected group (or at the very least, it is a town that is affected and the PCs will feel urgency in order to help that town)

 

[SoulsFury]

Well, thankfully you're already using my biggest piece of advice re: one-shot adventures in 4e, which boils down to, "Players have a hard time using a character effectively if they don't know their abilities, so either keep to pcs they know well or keep to low-level one-shots."

With that out of the way, how about a trip to another plane? Paragon level is perfect for that kind of thing. Maybe the crown must be contained in a specific vault of granite in the Elemental Chaos, or only the energy-sucking nature of a particular part of the Shadowfell can keep its powers from gathering.

Or maybe the complete destruction of the crown requires that they take it to a specific planar location?

I was hoping to keep it in the campaign setting so I could add a very unique, cool location to it. A valley with floating islands, a perpetually flowing volcano that leads to a lava lake, stuff like that, which could add character to the campaign setting.

A scepter. It does not contain the crown, but rather provides some balance for the crown. The god king never had this (or his servants saw what the crown was doing to him, and crafted the septer for him, but he refused it)

Interesting idea. One of the other groups recovered a staff of the God-King already. I could definitely use a similar item though.

um. no idea depends on how they learn about it and what story you craft around it. but at the very least as a fall back idea, it could be in a dragon/beholder horde since you seemed to want to use one of those iconic type creatures.

Since we rarely play, I would like the most memorable monsters possible.

legends/history, magic research/magical experiemnts, they receive the info from a mentor that did the magical research/communing

All possibilities, thanks.

you might be breaking down the story at that point. is there a reason that the crown would be "anti elf" ? if not, maybe it is a general disease affecting people not based on race but something else -- a specific location, or desendants of a certain family, etc. -- and people that the PCs hold dear are in part of the affected group (or at the very least, it is a town that is affected and the PCs will feel urgency in order to help that town)

The God-King was an elf. The specific location would most likely be a better way to go. The town could fall under a curse, but what kind? Everyone falling asleep might be a bit cliche.

Thanks for the input!

 

[Quickleaf]

[MENTION=4174]SoulsFury[/MENTION]
Haha, my definition of "very low magic" apparently is lower than yours by orders of magnitude, hence my confusion.

I totally get what you're looking for now

What about a residuum mine found by an old meteorite ore deposit? This could tie into the githzerai's notes about another piece of crown (perhaps a gem is actually crystallized residuum), and gives a sense of continuity with their fight against the ore-grubbing cultists. I'm envisioning an underground chamber with separate mini floating earth motes inside, everything humming and lit by eerie blue light shed by residuum crystals below. Periodically harsh vibrations pass through chamber. Somewhere in the chamber is a crystalline map leading to the crown's pieces...

 

[Zaphling]

An idea came up if you want to play with alien entities such as the beholder.

Your world was plunged into unreality. It was so sudden that no one knew how it came. Unreality means that rain is made of blood, the moon is divided into two, etc.
An evil beholder and a group of mindflayers are actually bending the reality and they have captured several cities or towns to be their slave. I also have this idea that a deep excavation site is made because they're trying to find something.

 

[SoulsFury]

[MENTION=4174]SoulsFury[/MENTION]
Haha, my definition of "very low magic" apparently is lower than yours by orders of magnitude, hence my confusion.

I totally get what you're looking for now

What about a residuum mine found by an old meteorite ore deposit? This could tie into the githzerai's notes about another piece of crown (perhaps a gem is actually crystallized residuum), and gives a sense of continuity with their fight against the ore-grubbing cultists. I'm envisioning an underground chamber with separate mini floating earth motes inside, everything humming and lit by eerie blue light shed by residuum crystals below. Periodically harsh vibrations pass through chamber. Somewhere in the chamber is a crystalline map leading to the crown's pieces...

I had an idea last night about using a seed. There is a particular tree that is very important to the world called the Padonthia Tree. I'm thinking legend has it that a seed from the first Padonthia Tree can contain the crown once it is reassembled. Plant the seed inside the crown and it will grow up around it, causing a literal prison for the crown.

I think I will steal the idea for the underground chamber with floating motes. Maybe the first tree is dead, and the only one with a seed is a dragon, who is hiding deep within the chamber. Of course it has to be an evil dragon so they can kill it.

Thanks for the ideas! If I could give you more experience, I would!