Planning an adventure...

[Greenfield]

The game is 3.5, the group is level 10/11. Ranger Druid, Paladin of Freedom, Barbarian/Sorcerer/Dragon Disciple, Cleric/Adept, Bard

Books: PHB, DMG, MM I through maybe MM III. Maybe a bit out of Complete Adventurer.

I'm planning an adventure that might run into a fiendish plane, a nightmare realm related to the Plane of Shadows.

Obviously the Fiendish template is going to be used on a lot of critters. Still, I'm looking for inspiration, in whatever form you care to offer, for opponents, encounters etc.

We've established that the plane in question has sites where there are permanent portls back to the mortal realm. Exactly where they open on the mortal realm changes constantly. A powerful enemy has learned how to focus and control these dimensional rifts, holding them so they open in specific places and stay there for an extended time.

Party's job, long term, is to take on that enemy, but so far there haven't een any extended journeys through to that other plane.

We need to make that leap, and any help would be appreciated.

 

[Eltab]

Something leaks out of a hidden portal and causes a fuss. Enter the PCs. If the PCs kill it, another thingy shows up just after the victory celebration. If the PCs pursue it to its source, they discover the portal. Investigation time. Maybe it sucks the group in while they are up close (taking measurements)? They find the horror-world behind, and yet another monster. Presuming they make it back out, they have to go to The Big City to properly research what they found. During the research they learn about the BBEG who is manipulating the portals; make it sound like an incidental fact at the time.

Something - like a Hell Hound? - that oozes flame from its body and starts raging infernos just by walking around would be a good place to start to draw the locals' attention and incentivize them to call for Heroes. Then the doggie's owner comes looking for it. &c &c

 

[Greenfield]

Actually kind of past that stage. Dealing with the rifts, and the BBEG behind them, is the theme of the whole campaign.

The BBEG, called the Nightmare King, has been directing rifts for a few years. He has troops, usually Fiendish templated things, that come through and wreak havoc.

PCs have been dealing with them, and occasionally closing portals, since the first session of the campaign, 10 levels ago.

But to even start to do more than patch and bail, they need to take the fight to the enemy. They need to make an extended excursion through the dimensional rift. They've been dealing with mooks, more or less, while the lieutenants who command the monsters and direct the rifts remained mostly safe on their side of the portal. There have been only two times, in 10"+ levels, that the foe of the moment ever fell. They always got away, usually without ever risking their own hides at all.

The real BBEG, the Nightmare King himself, is neither remotely human nor remotely sane. He sometimes forgets how gravity works in mortal realms (I'm using a specific example), and has little or no clue how people think. Some times. Other times he's proven to be calculating and canny.

In any case I need to come up with something that the PCs will venture through the rift to deal with, and an appropriate set of dreamscape scenes for them to deal with.

We've had PCs cross before, but always some hold back, so continuing means a party split with half or more being left out of the action.

They need to take that step, and I need to be ready when they do.

 

[Eltab]

You may have to kidnap the PCs. They've been messing with BBEG's plans rather consistently, he will finally see them as an obstacle. If they won't come over here where he can deal with them, under their own power, then they will have to be pushed / pulled / dragged.
Or plan a flat-out assassination attempt. The PCs might be mad enough to pursue a fleeing survivor back, even back through a portal.

Do the PCs have any way to mess with the dimensional rifts? If not, they need it. Whatever they come up with can include a "motion detector" when a new rift is created or an existing one is moved. This gives them a way to get a step ahead in the game.

Have you accidentally created circumstances where the PCs can only ever be on strategic defense, they cannot take the fight to the enemy?

You could introduce an NPC who has been academically hypothesizing about the rifts, and finally learned that this stuff works in real life. He can fill in information the PCs do not have presently.
You can also introduce an NPC who has been more aggressive about dealing with this problem; he went scouting on the other side. He heard about the PCs' reputation and came over to explore joining forces. He can boost confidence of the PCs who aren't 'going over there'.

3e Heroes of Horror has background-building material about dreamscapes and nightmare realms that you may find useful.
I suppose you could set up 'beyond the rifts' like the classic 4-part video game: locate and beat up progressively-tougher Local Bosses then face Final Boss after a side-quest to obtain some vital equipment.

 

[Greenfield]

Our campaigns are oddly organized. We agree on a campaign theme, the goal of the whole thing, then we take turns as DM, building towards solving the big issue.

Because of this, it isn't just me who sets the rules or defines the BBEG. He started as a shadowy figure, just a name attached to an oddly disjointed proclamation.

Each DM can and does add to the tale, filling in whatever details they see fit as to the BBEG's plans, methods and means.

But ultimately, it's a sandbox environment. I've set up carefully detailed scenes and plot points, only to have the group decide to completely ignore them and go to a completely different territory.

My concern is that, because of the extradimensional nature of their opponent we/they aren't making any real progress. It's turning into the "Monster of the Week", where each DM sets up a situation to deal with, and more or less blames it on a rift, or the BBEG. We're just grinding, for the most part.

I want to take it to the next level, to introduce the idea of extended adventures in the nightmare king's demenses. Obviously, since I'm not the full-time DM I can't just shift the entire campaign over to the alternate reality. I just want the others, as both players and DMs, to carry the game in that direction.

That being said, I'm looking for suggestions on dreamscape scenes, monsters, situations etc.

Night Hag is a natural for this, since she plagues the PCs with nightmares and slowly wears them down, and the only way to really deal with her is to go and face her on her home plane.
The books say that that's the Ethereal plane, of course, but since my literary license is up to date and certified I'm free to change that for campaign purposes.

And maybe that's my hook, an opponent who can attack them from that other realm, and can't be dealt with from this one.

Other ideas are still welcome, of course. And thanks for the pointer to Heroes of Horror.

 

[Gilladian]

Maybe another way to motivate everyone to go is to have some NPC they care about get kid napped. Also, possibly before they go, they get a magic item that can anchor a rift in a way that they can't lose their gate home. I know that would be a big factor for my PCs.

For the other side, this first long incursion needs to be cool and weird, but not too scary. No draining heat effects or poison air, yet! I wrote an adventure ser in an essentially nuked city ruins, and I designed various rings of effect that got worse the further in the PCs went. Here's a link. Dunno that it will help in detail, but may give you some ideas: http://vishteercampaign.pbworks.com/w/page/90749414/Umade's Barrens

 

[Nagol]

IIRC, the kidnap attempt thing was done really early on in this campaign. I'd suggest the reverse, actually. Have a turncoat go to the party for help. The NPC was originally on-board with what was happening, but the newest despicable plan is just one step too far since it threatens something with personal value (i.e. one of the reasons evil can't have nice things is they often don't play well together).

The turncoat is willing to offer some basic intelligence for a guarantee of safety and might be willing to help more if the price is right...

 

[Greenfield]

Yeah, the first adventure involved an attempt to kidnap a noblewoman, my own PC's mother. PCs unexpectedly foiled it. BBEG, not really understanding the way things worked, then kidnapped the one who had wanted her kidnapped.

Original plan had bee to kidnap the noblewoman so a mortal minion (the "bad guy" of the scenario) could rescue her. He wanted to marry her for name, title, and because she's hot.

BBEG, not understanding the cause and effect here, kidnapped the minion so the noblewoman's agents (The PCs) could rescue him. BBEG figured that would work out the same, in terms of love, marriage, title, and BBEG getting a minion in a position of power inside that kingdom.

That minion was eventually caught and executed, rather gruesomely. Beheaded, drawn and quartered, and his corpse dragged, in four pieces, throughout the kingdom as a warning to anyone else who might want to try an assault on the monarchy.

That helped cement the idea that BBEG is alien in his thinking, and pretty much insane.

Recently the minion's family was targeted by an assassin. Only his sister survived. (This was one of the scenes I set up for the PCs to solve, but they walked away.) The family has been revived, but by tradition their titles and claims to any other titles are gone, passed on to the heir (the daughter). She could hand them back, but her father, the former Baron, advised against it. Instead he's teaching her how to be a wise ruler, a serious hands-on training. She is, at this point, second in line for the crown. (Her father, the Baron, was the King's brother. King has no direct heir, so when he dies the crown passes to his wife the queen, then to his brother's line.)

The King can also restore, or even re-order, his brother's family's claim to the throne, leaving the daughter at the top but allowing her brothers and/or parents to inherit from her.

It's weird, in a world where the dead can come back.

I actually have a plot line running through all of that mess, but it's kind of longer term. Shorter/intermediate term, I need to get the PCs to do a serious adventure on the other side of a rift, and get used to the idea that this is okay and survivable.

I think I can do that, but I'd like ideas on what dreamscape or nightmare scenes would serve well in that plane.

I'm thinking maybe a Mad-Hatter's tea party scene, with the royal family being represented in caricature. Remember that the Plane of Shadows, as an example, is supposed to include twisted versions of reality. This place is much the same, in its way, in that it can include or represent the scenes from people's nightmares. Most are fleeting, but if many people share the same worries or concerns then there can be nightmare scenes that are longer and more substantial. There can also be fairly common bad dream settings and scenes.

To give some grist for that mill: An entire region called Five Points (five cities, set in a cross pattern) was recently destroyed in an earthquake. The land collapsed and flooded, leaving an inland sea where the cities and their surrounding lands once were. There are survivors. Some are fleeing as refugees, some are trying to rebuild along the shores of that sea. Bad enough that Charon, the boatman of the Styx, has been seen on that see offering the living transport to see, and perhaps rescue, their fallen loved ones. Kind of outside his normal job description, but the death toll literally flooded the afterlife, and he was told to make the job easier if heroes wanted to try and retrieve anyone.

That sounds like good base material for a nightmare, doesn't it? (We'll leave off the classics, like finding yourself naked just as you're about to appear before the High King's court, etc. I'm looking for group nightmares.)