New Ghostwalk Campaign, looking for suggestions

[Nezkrul]

I will shortly be running a Ghostwalk campaign built into Forgotten Realms; I'm placing the city of Manifest in the dale lands, and the PCs will be starting in Neverwinter, alive, and a few opening scenes will get them together on a caravan guarding quest of some sort heading in the direction of the dales.

What I'm looking for are CR 3 -7 side adventure hooks as the caravan crosses the dale lands, leading up to the discovery of Manifest (about 3 or 4 side adventures into the campaign).

Themes I'm looking for-

Classic bandit attack on the caravan, exploration of ruins, bbeg attack where the pcs force it to flee and they track it back to its lair, a large river or lake crossing with a couple encounters either on boats or in the water (or both), damsel in distress (which could be an illusion or the real deal), zombie horde attack leading up to the defeat of their necromancer creator, possible CR 9 to 11 encounter where the PCs know they can't win so they do their best to save the caravan without getting killed.

The party will most likely consist of 4 ECL 5 characters with possibly a 5th joining in now and again but not constant. High powered characters on the attribute side but standard WBL (9000gp); currently I know the party has a Rogue 2 / Beguiler 3 setting herself up for Unseen Seer PrC.

 

[Samloyal23]

Just off the top of my head, have the damsel in distress be kidnapped from a caravan but secretly in league with the bandits so she can get ransom money from her rich but uncaring family...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Just off the top of my head, have the damsel in distress be kidnapped from a caravan but secretly in league with the bandits so she can get ransom money from her rich but uncaring family...

IOW, The Big Lebowski.

 

[Nezkrul]

interesting idea, i think I'll use that one; thanks!

 

[Shaghayegh]

The damsel in distress is a necromancer and even her own family does not know. They bought the castle of a lich who was killed by a party of adventurers and she found his secret collection of spellbooks and magical manuals. She has been using the caravan to dig up and smuggle rare spell components and magical items that she can use in a ritual that will allow her to animate every corpse in every graveyard in the country, giving her a vast army of skeletons and zombies to command...

 

[Ragmon]

Well there is an option of killing them without knowing and make them run around as if nothing changed.
Depending on the number of player:
- If 3 or less then proceed with the normal plan. Then slowly they realise there dead, then the players are gonna:
a.) Want to come back to life, make up some story of some one (in the ghost realm) can help them...insert quests.
b.) They want to stay dead, then just try to hunt them with Kelenvor or there followers... maybe even some soul eaters, in addition give em some quest to fight them off or hide from them.

- If 4 or more only kill 2 of them, but do this if you plan on playing in an enclosed area with not too much roaming. A villa, castle maybe even a dungeon.
1. Kill the players right at the door and lock them in.
2. Make the dead players see the place like it brand new, dead NPC going about there day as if nothing happened.
3. Add some story about the place, how there is a curse and so on.
4. The live player see the place as is...a ruin.
5. Add some stuff cause I never thought this scenario to the end.

 

[Shaghayegh]

Well there is an option of killing them without knowing and make them run around as if nothing changed.

Hmmm... A whole party of Malcom Crowes walking around trying to solve a riddle...

 

[Ragmon]

Hmmm... A whole party of Malcom Crowes walking around trying to solve a riddle...

I was thinkig more of ghosts with a warped sense of reality...but Malcom Crowes works too.

 

[Samloyal23]

Well there is an option of killing them without knowing and make them run around as if nothing changed.
Depending on the number of player:
- If 3 or less then proceed with the normal plan. Then slowly they realise there dead, then the players are gonna:
a.) Want to come back to life, make up some story of some one (in the ghost realm) can help them...insert quests.
b.) They want to stay dead, then just try to hunt them with Kelenvor or there followers... maybe even some soul eaters, in addition give em some quest to fight them off or hide from them.

- If 4 or more only kill 2 of them, but do this if you plan on playing in an enclosed area with not too much roaming. A villa, castle maybe even a dungeon.
1. Kill the players right at the door and lock them in.
2. Make the dead players see the place like it brand new, dead NPC going about there day as if nothing happened.
3. Add some story about the place, how there is a curse and so on.
4. The live player see the place as is...a ruin.
5. Add some stuff cause I never thought this scenario to the end.

What happens when they find their own corpes? Do they suddenly remember how they died, or do the go into denial and pretend the bodies are not their own? Hmmm...

 

[Ragmon]

What happens when they find their own corpes? Do they suddenly remember how they died, or do the go into denial and pretend the bodies are not their own? Hmmm...

It's up to the DM to decide. And what corpses? There still alive. *wink*