Jack99
Adventurer
I am currently running a campaign, but am atm a bit stuck on how to finish it, so I decided, in the spirit of the interweb, to lay it out to you guys, and get some help and advise on how to proceed.
The campaign setting:
The setting takes place in a sparsely populated wilderness area, simply called "The Wild". The Wild is an area of roughly 600x600 miles, with no more than 7 towns of more than 2000 adult inhabitants.
The north border of the Wild is a mountain range called the Wall, north of which is a even larger and wilder area, full of humanoids (goblins, hobgoblins, orcs etc). South of the Wild is a country called Nova, which, due to other circumstances, will not help in any way shape or form.
Plot: A beholder has quasi-perma-charmed King Gogol, a goblin-chief from north of the wall.
Via Gogol and along with some powerful allies, most notably an ogre blackguard and a red
dragon, they have rallied all the goblin and hobgoblin tribes, and formed an army of more than 50.000.
However, access to the Wild was blocked by the Hold, an ancient magical wall/fortress,
blocking the only way across the Wall. Therefore, they devise a plan to send a smaller army
(a couple of thousand) through the mountains, and have them attack the Hold from behind.
However, Kra'kull, the troll cleric who is leading the small army, has plans of his own, on the way to the Hold, he wants to capture Golmar (PC's home town), in order to impress his bosses.
Therefore, he makes a plan to get rid of any pesky adventurers in Golmar, to make the
invasion go easier (and for me to provide the players with a way into the story)
Some spies and assassins are sent down, to lure any adventurers out of Golmar, and kill them. Of course, the attempt on the players fails, and they discover that something is
brewing in Castle Black, an abandoned castle in the mountains.
Of they go to Castle Black, and while they do acquire some info on the army advancing, they
still think that Golmar is the ultimate target. They fail at delaying the army, since they
almost all get killed.
When they return (almost a whole new group), the army has already passed by, and is heading down to Golmar. They still enter Castle Black, and after dispatching those left behind, they find out that the enemy has a facility in the mountains, where they are creating
spell-warped half-dragon ogres, to use as shock troops.
The players decide to head to this facility, and stop this production, in order to help the
city against the army.
To get to this facility, they have to pass through an ancient dwarven city, in which they
are charged by the ghost of the past dwarven king to lift the curse on the city, by killing
the gnome vampire that caused it's downfall, and in the same breath acquire a dwarven
artifact that can tell who should be King.
After killing the vampire and acquiring the artifact, players decide to use it to find the
rightful king, and to make him help them, by calling the dwarves of the mountains to arms,
and marching for the defense of Golmar.
Easier said than done. The artifact tells them the heir to the dwarven throne is in Golmar,
who at this point is under siege. They manage to break him out, and start heading north to
the biggest dwarven settlement, in order to present him. On the way, they manage to
convince him (he is a paladin that lost faith and an alcoholic) to get himself together and
become king.
After delivering him to the dwarves, and convincing them to help Golmar, they swing by the
before-mentioned facility and take it out. There, they find the phylactery of a lich, who is making undeads for the big army (they still don't know there are 50.000 goblins somewhere relatively near).
As they return to Golmar, the battle is nearly over. With the help of the heroes, the city
manages to hold on a bit longer, culminating in an all out attack that finishes on the
town-hall doorsteps, when at the very last minute, the dwarven army arrives.
At this point, they do know that 50.000 goblins have taken the Hold. They are however stuck there till spring, which is around 3-4 months away.
Therefore, the players decide to head out and find the lich, to stop the production of
undead. The Lich resides in a castle inside a dormant volcano. The castle is only
accessible late at night, else it is too much on the plane of shadows (it goes back and
forth).
This is as far as we are. The players are halfway between 9 and 10 (we started at level 5).
Getting to the lich and dealing with him (diplomatically i hope) should take 2 sessions.
That leaves us around 12 sessions until 4e comes out, at which time I plan to start a new
campaign.
Now, assuming they live through the lich, and thus stops the production of undead, I would
love any ideas on how to finish up this campaign.
I want some cool nifty ideas on how to have the players stop this army and most of the
beholder behind it all, in a smart plausible way.
I have considered things like:
King Gogol must be freed of his charm. That would still not solve all problems, but it is a
start. Problem is that King Gogol's charm can only be broken by kidnapping him, and via
some arcane ritual, enter his mind and battle the psychic representation of the charm.
Since the 50.000 goblin army is camped in a fairly narrow pass, maybe the players should be
sent hunting for a forgotten artifact that creates earthquakes and the like, and could then
use it to literally topple the mountains on the goblin army.
They could start to do hit and run tactics on the army, trying to kill the important NPCs etc.
I considered briefly that they should assemble an army to stand against the goblin army,
they could maybe get 10.000 at most, if they can convince the orcs (who are left out by the
goblins) to join them. 1 to 5 aren’t the best odds, though.
Anyway, if anyone bothered to read through my post (I apologize for the poor language), and has an idea, I would very much appreciate it.
Thank you in advance,
Cheers.
The campaign setting:
The setting takes place in a sparsely populated wilderness area, simply called "The Wild". The Wild is an area of roughly 600x600 miles, with no more than 7 towns of more than 2000 adult inhabitants.
The north border of the Wild is a mountain range called the Wall, north of which is a even larger and wilder area, full of humanoids (goblins, hobgoblins, orcs etc). South of the Wild is a country called Nova, which, due to other circumstances, will not help in any way shape or form.
Plot: A beholder has quasi-perma-charmed King Gogol, a goblin-chief from north of the wall.
Via Gogol and along with some powerful allies, most notably an ogre blackguard and a red
dragon, they have rallied all the goblin and hobgoblin tribes, and formed an army of more than 50.000.
However, access to the Wild was blocked by the Hold, an ancient magical wall/fortress,
blocking the only way across the Wall. Therefore, they devise a plan to send a smaller army
(a couple of thousand) through the mountains, and have them attack the Hold from behind.
However, Kra'kull, the troll cleric who is leading the small army, has plans of his own, on the way to the Hold, he wants to capture Golmar (PC's home town), in order to impress his bosses.
Therefore, he makes a plan to get rid of any pesky adventurers in Golmar, to make the
invasion go easier (and for me to provide the players with a way into the story)
Some spies and assassins are sent down, to lure any adventurers out of Golmar, and kill them. Of course, the attempt on the players fails, and they discover that something is
brewing in Castle Black, an abandoned castle in the mountains.
Of they go to Castle Black, and while they do acquire some info on the army advancing, they
still think that Golmar is the ultimate target. They fail at delaying the army, since they
almost all get killed.
When they return (almost a whole new group), the army has already passed by, and is heading down to Golmar. They still enter Castle Black, and after dispatching those left behind, they find out that the enemy has a facility in the mountains, where they are creating
spell-warped half-dragon ogres, to use as shock troops.
The players decide to head to this facility, and stop this production, in order to help the
city against the army.
To get to this facility, they have to pass through an ancient dwarven city, in which they
are charged by the ghost of the past dwarven king to lift the curse on the city, by killing
the gnome vampire that caused it's downfall, and in the same breath acquire a dwarven
artifact that can tell who should be King.
After killing the vampire and acquiring the artifact, players decide to use it to find the
rightful king, and to make him help them, by calling the dwarves of the mountains to arms,
and marching for the defense of Golmar.
Easier said than done. The artifact tells them the heir to the dwarven throne is in Golmar,
who at this point is under siege. They manage to break him out, and start heading north to
the biggest dwarven settlement, in order to present him. On the way, they manage to
convince him (he is a paladin that lost faith and an alcoholic) to get himself together and
become king.
After delivering him to the dwarves, and convincing them to help Golmar, they swing by the
before-mentioned facility and take it out. There, they find the phylactery of a lich, who is making undeads for the big army (they still don't know there are 50.000 goblins somewhere relatively near).
As they return to Golmar, the battle is nearly over. With the help of the heroes, the city
manages to hold on a bit longer, culminating in an all out attack that finishes on the
town-hall doorsteps, when at the very last minute, the dwarven army arrives.
At this point, they do know that 50.000 goblins have taken the Hold. They are however stuck there till spring, which is around 3-4 months away.
Therefore, the players decide to head out and find the lich, to stop the production of
undead. The Lich resides in a castle inside a dormant volcano. The castle is only
accessible late at night, else it is too much on the plane of shadows (it goes back and
forth).
This is as far as we are. The players are halfway between 9 and 10 (we started at level 5).
Getting to the lich and dealing with him (diplomatically i hope) should take 2 sessions.
That leaves us around 12 sessions until 4e comes out, at which time I plan to start a new
campaign.
Now, assuming they live through the lich, and thus stops the production of undead, I would
love any ideas on how to finish up this campaign.
I want some cool nifty ideas on how to have the players stop this army and most of the
beholder behind it all, in a smart plausible way.
I have considered things like:
King Gogol must be freed of his charm. That would still not solve all problems, but it is a
start. Problem is that King Gogol's charm can only be broken by kidnapping him, and via
some arcane ritual, enter his mind and battle the psychic representation of the charm.
Since the 50.000 goblin army is camped in a fairly narrow pass, maybe the players should be
sent hunting for a forgotten artifact that creates earthquakes and the like, and could then
use it to literally topple the mountains on the goblin army.
They could start to do hit and run tactics on the army, trying to kill the important NPCs etc.
I considered briefly that they should assemble an army to stand against the goblin army,
they could maybe get 10.000 at most, if they can convince the orcs (who are left out by the
goblins) to join them. 1 to 5 aren’t the best odds, though.
Anyway, if anyone bothered to read through my post (I apologize for the poor language), and has an idea, I would very much appreciate it.
Thank you in advance,
Cheers.
