Plot hooks with WotC Map o' the Week Mega-map

[CrazyMage]

WOTC has given us half an adventure--let's make the rest. Currently the map of the week is parts of a giant dungeon map. This lends itself nicely to a plot where PCs will be going to said mega-dungeon, and are trying to get the pieces of the map together before they go. Your cool color handouts are already done for you. For extra fun, put a time limit on it (24 hours to find as many pieces as possible to get to the room with the princess about to be sacrificed, usw.)

BUT the pieces are scattered all over the place--one in drow library, one on elemental plane of Air, one on the Astral plane, etc. etc.

So where would be good places for these pieces and what would be could encounters for them as well (can't just waltz in, grab the map, and leave)? I suppose we could talk about the mega-adventure (why go to the mega-dungeon) and the 15 side adventures to get the pieces.

If this goes over well, I suppose we could brainstorm on the fun things found in each of the rooms...

Well, brainstorm away!

 

[Jeeves]

Beh. I don't like the idea of WotC pansying-down their Map of the Week by just cutting up a larger map and spoon feeding it to you over the course of 3 months or so... the map does not even look that great...

I'd love to see more of the ink-wash black and white maps before they went all amateur Photoshop-crazy coloring the maps... good examples are of the old tower series of maps released back in early 2001. (the tree and lighthouse, etc) or the excellent maps that Eric made his adventure contest out of.

 

[Ashrem Bayle]

Good idea Crazymage. Just one problem....

How do the PCs know where to look for the map fragments? If you have one hidden in a fortress floating in the elemental plane of air and another between the pages of a lich's old spellbook, how can you present to them the locations of these things?

Oh yea, make sure one of the pages is destroyed so that you have a section of the place that isn't mapped.

 

[CrazyMage]

Hey, two replies and this thing is still not kicked into Plots and Places. Whoo-hoo!

How do the PCs know where to look for the map fragments? If you have one hidden in a fortress floating in the elemental plane of air and another between the pages of a lich's old spellbook, how can you present to them the locations of these things?

Excellent question, and it gets to the issue of what kind of story you want driving the hunt for these pieces. For example, a epic wizard is using this dungeon to test parties for a job he has in mind. He has put all the pieces of the map in the rooms of the dungeon itself, so that one of the rooms of map one might contain the map for section two or six or 15. A lower level party can more easily miss secret doors and passages, so having a map where that is indicated would be a plus over just mapping it yourself as you go. Season with monsters and traps to taste, and serve. Perhaps there are other teams of adventurers competing with the PCs.

Maybe the adventure is to track down the pieces of the map from clues or research. Somewhere there is enough information; the PCs just have to find it. Trick is to make it worth their while. Perhaps in the center is hidden an artifact. Maybe it's an evil artifact that was concealed by hiding the pieces of the map hither and yon. (Don't use that phrase often enough). It's an item that should not be found, but those pesky PCs want it (or maybe they need it to counter some greater evil). Maybe it's a good artifact, and evil forces that couldn't destroy it, tried to hide in the dungeon, but the good guys had a map. To keep the bad guys from destroying the map, the pieces are hidden.

Maybe they know exactly where all the pieces are, but it's going to be real hard to get any of them, much less all. Someone who helped hide the pieces left notes. A deity gives them a divine quest, helps them by telling them where to go, but after that they're on their own to get that page from the lich's spellbook, convince the ancient red dragon will just hand over the map he has, etc.

If you want to keep PCs from going to the dungeon early, just have the final piece/last piece they find contain the location of the dungeon. Otherwise they just have a map for an unknown location.

For extra fun, the PC's map is incorrect.

I just think it's a neat excuse for a planar treasure hunt.

 

[Buttercup]

Alternatively, the PCs could find several of the sections in an old & rare book, in a famous library. The book might not be written in a language any of them know. They would have to do several things. 1. Learn the language or find someone to translate. 2. Figure out how many pieces of the map they're missing. 3. Figure out where the dungeon is actually located. The book could use archaic place names, which would make the whole thing harder.

 

[Squire James]

Those "find a translator" quests don't work too well in standard D&D campaigns, where Comprehend Languages is a first level spell. Nixing the spell before the campaign is fair, but declaring that one document immune to it would be a bit fishy, especially if that document's the first thing they try the spell on!

 

[Ashrem Bayle]

This just occurred to me:

You have this evil cult right? Something like the Cult of the Dragon or Scarlet Brotherhood.

Inside the temple is something they want to protect or store for later use. It could be an artifact or whatever.

In a recent conflict with that order, they recover a wizard's spellbook. In the book is information regarding this mega-dungeon constructed to house this wonderous thing.

The cult has created a map for the place, but didn't want it to fall into the wrong hands. To be safe, they split it up into a number of fragments and hid them in several places that only they know of. The book the PCs finds has all of their locations in it, though they did this 100 years ago so some of the fragments may no longer be where they put them.

1. Fortrss of Tosh'manor in the Elemental Plane of Air.
2. Spellbook of the fallen lich, Al Bundy.
3. Citadel of the Flame. Located in a volcano.
4. Within an alter dedicated to Bane or Nerull located in a temple that once existed in a since lost city.
5. The treasure hoard of Craesis the Fetid, an ancient black dragon.
6. A map store in Sigil.

etc. etc.

 

[Ashrem Bayle]

*bump*

I'd really like to hear what some others think of this.

 

[CrazyMage]

Well, Ashrem Bayle and Buttercup, it looks like we're the ones most interested. I still think it's a cool idea so thanks for your ideas.

Some other hiding spots
--buried under 5 feet of ice in the side of a white dragon lair in an iceburg floating in the far south.
--djinn in a bottle (so got the find the bottle/lamp first); need to burn a wish to get the map
--it's diguised with an illusion as a portrait of a floozy in some run down bar. No one there knows what it really is.
--in the possession of Zahav, an ancient gold dragon.

These don't all have to be combat encounters either. Just having it a "treasure hunt" would be sufficient for certain levels. Maybe the gold dragon/powerful king will hand over his map if PCs undertake a certain quest (ie they have to earn it).

 

[drnuncheon]

Those "find a translator" quests don't work too well in standard D&D campaigns, where Comprehend Languages is a first level spell. Nixing the spell before the campaign is fair, but declaring that one document immune to it would be a bit fishy, especially if that document's the first thing they try the spell on!

Note that comprehend languages doesn't work on coded documents. They could be searching for the information they need to break the code.

J