D&D General Need help formulating a new campaign

[Ancalagon]

I'm about to go to bed and I will have to look at this in more depth.

But someone said "the cultists are dupes". I think that's important. Their plot to find victims to feed the tarrasque is ... bush league. It's way over convoluted. Just hire slavers or something, don't bother with plagues and fake-ish potions. This is a cult that has access/partial control to a tarrasque?!? They would be selling samples to high powered wizards/alchemists for a lot of money - enough money to finance the aquisition of victims.

So the first layers should be slavers/raiders (the sub-sub contractors of the operation really), then the low-end cultists, then higher up... If this has to last a campaign, unless it's a high level campaign, you can't just start cultists - tarrasque.

 

[Eltab]

When the PCs have figured out that the missing people are being kidnapped by slave-takers, introduce the Pathfinder adventure Broken Chains but the hidden mastermind in the lowest level of the dungeon is forwarding 'prime' slaves to your Tarrasque plot (instead of the as-written Ultimate Villain Scheme).

Written for L6 or so (iirc) and good for a level-up at / by the end.

 

[der_kluge]

I'll look into that module.

What I've cooked up thus far...

The main villain is an alchemist (in 5th edition, that's a wizard, basically), but I'm just calling him "The Alchemist". He's affiliated with Talos, Talona, and Malar so far.

Malar priests are on board because of the tarrasque, and more so interested in transferring their own essence into that of fearsome creatures. So, they've agreed to work with him since he's offered them access to the Apparatus. (Tyrannosaurus Rex Cleric, anyone? - what Malar worshipper can pass that up?).

Talona is interested because... plague. The Alchemist has supplied them with the formula for a terrible alchemical plague that they have access to. These are likely some of the foot soldiers in this debacle.

Talos is needed because the Apparatus requires lightning to power it, which they can provide. Talos is on board because of the destruction that's ultimately going to be wrought from this thing, but ultimately they'd prefer that one of their own is in the Tarrasque and not The Alchemist. So, there definitely could be a power struggle in the end here.

So yea, they're taking the plague victims and selling them into slavery, and keeping a few for their own operations. This alone would be wildly profitable. The city is literally going to pay them to take away the "dead people". So, they're double-dipping the system.

The Alchemist has the Apparatus somewhere, and has used it a number of times, but is currently building a much, much larger version of it around the Tarrasque. Since the Tarrasque is immobile, it presents the perfect opportunity. It's a huge operation, of course, and thus requires many slaves, and lots of resources. The Tarrasque itself it deep in a canyon in the forest, protected by a large

Malar priests like the slaves because they can release them into an enclosed forest and charge wealthy clients a huge fee to go on "hunts" where they prey is literally other people. (Wasn't there a movie based on that idea?) I'm thinking of sending the PCs here first. (Yes, I am that mean)

Talontar priests might take some slaves for medical experiements.

 

[fba827]

Side effects make for side quests

before investigating the cause ( or maybe in tandem) dealing with things around the town that are caused by shortage of able bodied persons.

start of campaign: only a couple people have been getting weak, not enough for anyone to really take notice and assume just a couple people have weakness onset from the flu.

the PCs can do some side quests and in doing so keep finding more and more people that are dealing with ‘the weakness’

example...

someone has gone missing while hunting nearby woods. PCs are asked to go help find him ( for extra connection if the PCs are from the town itself maybe one of them knows or is related to the missing person).
PCs go looking for the person. Turns out he slid down a hole in the forest and due to onset of weakness has been unable to climb out. Maybe he was then also captured or dealing with drow/duegar.

But this builds up the sick population for the PCs to see as illness level increases rather than just start with ‘people are sick’


another side quest could be some ‘clerics’ that come through town to help heal and have their ‘fetch quest’ of ingredients that they need to help.
So PCs being one of the few ablest bodies not yet sick are asked to go collect the items ( venom from a Medusa, tail feather of a dodo bird, whatever) so it gives PCs a chance to go far and wide to collect these things
Once they collect them, maybe the clerics realize they can’t help (or at best they can slow it )
Or once the PCs return they find the clerics were killed/missing(because of the kelvmor’clerics’ not wanting the interference)
Or maybe once the PCs bring back the stuff, the clerics take it and disappear the next day ( they were charlatans that just wanted the ingredients for something else)

and then there is a wizard that comes to town and just starts blowing stuff up. Truth is, his divination told him if a powerful power source in this area and believes it must be someone in town so he’s blowing stuff up to draw that person out and best him in hopes of obtaining the power. He’s so obstinate that he won’t listen to reason and trusts his own magic that told him a major power was here and he must have it. The PCs being the ones still strong enough to help defend the town, the wizard might believe that the PCs are connected to the power source , giving the PCs an enemy wizard that will be back if he escape



As an aside though this is one plot line. It is a strong plot line but you’ll be forcing yourself to make 20 levels out of it. You may want to reconsider centering a whole campaign around it ( instead have a mini campaign and isolate yourself to some specific 5 levels for this).
OR
think of another 3-4 major plot lines. Start weaving different adventures out of them. Some of these plot lines might overlap, some of them might conflict. What do the power groups of each of these plot lines do (if anything) in reaction to things done in other plot


( I’m tired, apologies for the rambling response. But hope it helps in some way)