need help with plot, characters, everything! on a time limit!

[kelson]

I am dumb... I agreed to have an entire campain set up and run it over the course of at most 2 days. I have until dec. 20th to create the campain, and it will be run sometime between dec 26 and jan 1. I am DMing a RP heavy group here, and I have already given them the basics of my starting scene, and now I cant figure out where to go from here! writers block sucks... here is what they know. they come from a world where most things are identical to the standard D&D world, except that even the average commoner is of near epic lvl. true adventurers threaten the very throne of the gods. a few years ago a famous seer looked into the future and saw the doom of the whole plane of existance. A evil god was comming to destroy thier world in a form that would make the most stout hearted adventurer quail. he would come as a tarrasque/lich/sorcerer (yes I promised them a tarrasque that was also a lich and a sorcerer... rum can make you say strange things) the characters they will play will be 20th lvl (or so they think) and the apprentice/squire/footman of one of the adventurers called upon to rescue the world. their masters will fail. as the world is destroyed they will flee into a portal set up by one of thier masters as an escape route. the portal is designed to take them into the standard D&D world. then as they are falling through the portal, everything freezes, and a strange old lady approches them, and says something to the point of "the monster is following you through the portal. I cant stop it but with your help i can slow it down, and give you a chance to defeat it. but the magics required may destroy you" they agree (I am not going to give them much of a choice) and the old lady drains thier power, killing off any NPC's left with the group and putting them all at 5th lvl. now the old lady makes eye contact with each of them in turn and knowledge pops into thier heads (I will hand them each a seperate print out now) basic retrieve these items and their might combined will stop the beast type dealie. now they get dumped into standard D&D 3.5 at lvl 5 and have to hurry. instead of lvling from xp they will now REgain 1 lvl per day (or something of that nature) and must rush through the campain in order to save this plane and thier own butts. when they get the items they go back to the place where they entered this world and out comes the monster and the old lady still battling. the lady loses, the monster kills her. the leaves on the trees all turn from spring green to autum russet and snow starts to fall (she was a nature god) and now its up to the Pc's and whatever NPC backup they have acumulated in the mean time to stop the monster. I figure the monster should be pretty much normal in power after getting beaten on by 100's of lvl 60's and a goddess, plus the PC's have the uber item they have been collecting which will weaken it more. hopefully to the point where they can kill it.

here is where I need help. what happens in bettween landing in the D&D3.5 world and fighting the weakened tarrasque? I figure 5 items must be found (5 PC's) that somehow fit with each other and with the plot. each one has guardians or some such that must be defeated or convinced to join the fight. but I have no idea how to run with this part. I need some help for these plot points in the middle, especialy cause they are the most important part!!

(I DID IN FACT GET MANY OF MY IDEAS FROM OTHER THREADS HERE IN ENWORLD. I AM NOT STEALING THEM, JUST BORROWING BITS FROM ANY THAT I FOUND INTERESTING. DONT WORRY I AM NOT TAKING CREDIT FOR THEM! IF YOU SEE SOMETHING THAT COULD HAVE COME FROM YOU PLEASE POST BECAUSE FOR THE MOST PART I CANT REMEMBER WHERE I SAW THESE THINGS AND WOULD LOVE TO GIVE CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE!)

sorry for the very long and very rushed post, please help me...

PS. additional rule, the only books that can be used are core3, dragon magic, unearthed arcana, epic book, and oriental adventures. these are the only books that either I own or one of the players is sure to bring.

 

[Quartz]

Signature item for each character: perhaps a polearm for the fighter, a staff for the wizard, holy orb for the priest, etc.

 

[kelson]

unfortunatly I wont know what classes the Pc's will be playing until the day of, but perhaps I can make them generic enough to work. I am also thinking i'll need a story to go with the items. Like i said this is an RP heavy group. perhaps the thief will get a dagger once owned by some renouned thief that later turned out to be a god, or the paladin will recieve the HAMMER OF THOR or something of that nature... or maybe instead I could just make the items completely generic? place this orb onto that staff, and it will destroy whatever it strikes, but you will need such and such magical gem to recharge it, and you will need these gloves over here on the other side of the planet to wield it or it will destroy you instead... that kind of thing. each peice would have its own useful magical ability that would be useful to an individual player, but only when the peices are combined do they destroy the beast. that way I can custom fit the items to specific PC classes. I'm still working on the plot hooks to bring them to each item though... as well as where the items actualy reside... I'll post more when i figure it out.

 

[kelson]

I have gone with a generic set of items. here is what i have for them.

Gloves of Hakkar. Turns all Dmg taken by the wearer into subdual damage. Deflects the Dmg of the staff/orb combo. (I need to go look up subdual dmg because I have never really used it before. Doesnt it work just like regular dmg, except it heals much faster, and no matter how much you take it wont kill you it will just knock you out? I will look that up later today and tweak it. I want the items to all be powerful, but not THAT powerful...)

Stave of Stalvan. Functions as a rod of empower, enlarge or, maximize spell until combined with the orb, can be used 5x per day. (I havent decided which metamagic to put here yet)

All Knowing Orb of Jezrial. Allows the user to ask one question per day about future events, and receive a “truthful answer” (it wont be a lie, but it probably will be as unhelpful as possible, use with caution.) when combined with the staff it creates the staff orb combo. Only a great archmage well versed in both divination, and transmutation can combine the two. They will need the gloves or it will kill them when they finish the spell.

Eye of Nuighar. Doubles any magical damage that the wearer does, up to 3x per day. Has been made into a necklace. Can be used to empower the staff/orb to create the staff/orb/gem. The empowerment can only be done by a powerful archmage specializing in evocation and enchantment. He must have the staff/orb already, and must be wearing the gloves. Empowerment destroys the gem.

Cursed Sepulcher of Alhiamat. (stick+orb) Casts harm, once per round on whoever is in contact with it, unless they are wearing the gloves. Can not be used offensively (if you strike an enemy with it it will not harm them, just whoever is wielding it). Still retains all properties of the staff and the orb, but can only be used safely by the wearer of the gloves.

Chaos Stick. Using this item will completely destroy one creature. It will literally erase it from time. Everything will revert to as it would have been had that creature never existed. The item is consumed in the process. As are the gloves. Doing this takes aprox 20(?) rounds and does not require a concentration check once it is started. (basicaly all they have to do once they get these items together is survive the beasts attack for a while)

what do you think ENworlders? Will this do? I am currently working on NPC's for the PC's to retrieve these items from. For the most part i dont want a lot of dungeon crawling in this game, but I figure at least one of the items will be in the hoard of a dragon, so that they get a little bit of battle to play in. Does anyone have any ideas to add? helpful tips? reasons that this will not work or things that can improve it? critisism is appreciated!