Starting a "vs. Undead" bit of the campaign

Gorilla726

First Post
Hi. I need a little help. :-D Me and my new group have had one session so far, and I can see that they are going to be a great group (I've been friends with them since I met them years back, so I had a general idea that they would rock, but yeah...). Anyways, here's the idea that I've come up with. Just thought I'd bounce it off of you guys to see how you like it.

The party is hired by the local museum (again) to go to an abandoned barracks/training facility to retreive a magical item rumored to be there (I haven't decided on one yet, but it doesn't really matter what it is because it won't be there). The party will travel to the barracks, arriving at dusk and work their way through. There are not any living things inside, though they are going to be attacked by a few wolves as they are walking up to the front door. As they make their way through the building, they notice a large amount of dead bodies lying in various locations. When they reach the armory where the item was said to be kept, the door slams shut behind them and the dead body of a large man that was in the room begins to stir. Within a few round it is upright and begins attacking the party. When the party has defeated it, they find a crowbar under a pile of rags and can use it to open the door. All of the dead bodies have risen and attempt to destroy the party. If the party makes it through and reach the front door, they are stopped by a werwolf in half-wolf form. He introduces himself as working for Lord Condract of Berliyt, a death knight. It turns out that the previous adventure in which the party was hired by the museum owner was a test to see if they had enough potential to be worth recruiting (you can read about it here: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=148692 ). Lord Condract would like for them to join his league of Werewolves and work for him. If the party refuses (which they probably will), the werewolf will attack them. It won't kill them if it is winning the fight, choosing rather to let them feel Lord Condract's wrath at a later point.

This will hopefully lead to following adventures in which the party is plagued by more attempts to recruit them, and if they continue to refuse, attempts to see them dead and joining the undead ranks instead of the Were-beasts.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. I'm sure it needs some tweaking, but that's what I have so far. Thanks in advance for any comments.

Gorilla
 

log in or register to remove this ad


From your post I'm not quite sure what kind of help you're looking. Sounds like a pretty classic zombie attack, always fun. Off-hand the only thing I can think of is that zombies normally are pretty easy to defeat even for a low-level party. So you might to add some other undead in the mix to spice up the encounter.
 

johndaw16 said:
Off-hand the only thing I can think of is that zombies normally are pretty easy to defeat even for a low-level party. So you might to add some other undead in the mix to spice up the encounter.

That's the kind of stuff I'm looking for. Though I rarely admit it, I don't have too much experience with gaming (DMing or playing), so any little things like that is what I need. :) Thanks.

Gorilla
 

What level are the PCs? If you want to use the single zombie but still have it be a challenge, as well as freaking out the PCs/players a bit, just describe the room as containing multiple bodies, all of them in many pieces, and have some of the pieces join together to form a large, misshapen zombie. And then use the stats for one of the larger zombies in the MM. Simple but effective.
 


shilsen said:
What level are the PCs? If you want to use the single zombie but still have it be a challenge, as well as freaking out the PCs/players a bit, just describe the room as containing multiple bodies, all of them in many pieces, and have some of the pieces join together to form a large, misshapen zombie. And then use the stats for one of the larger zombies in the MM. Simple but effective.

The PCs are:

A level three Cleric
A level three Magic-User
A level four Dwarf

So in 3.x terms: a Cleric, a Sorcerer, and a Dwarf fighter.
 

Lord Condract would like for them to join his league of Werewolves and work for him. If the party refuses (which they probably will), the werewolf will attack them. It won't kill them if it is winning the fight, choosing rather to let them feel Lord Condract's wrath at a later point.

Make sure you have a plan just in case the party decides to take him up on his offer. If your players are new to D&D (couldn't tell from your post), they might take the bait and go with the werewolf. Just be prepared if that is the case. Either they would be eager to cut to the chase and go after the head bad guy or just assume it was part of the adventure you had for them. In any event, don't offer them a door without being prepared if they choose to go that way. I've learned that lesson the hard way.

Also, I'd remove the crowbar from the room. Make the party use their own abilities to figure out how to get out. Either the dwarf can bash the door down, the sorcerer could knock it open or some other such idea. The crowbar makes it too easy and the players will learn to rely on you to provide the easy way out of every situation. Just my 2 cp. Sounds like you've developed a fun adventure with a plot that should last deep into a full campaign. Good luck!
 

While zombies ARE easy kills, anything in large amounts will eventually tear down the most powerful PCs.

Skeletons are nasty, but only certain kinds of museums would have them be available.

As an option, you could always use more modern, cinematic zombies that require decapitation/destruction of the brain to kill, and who have a small recollection of their lives, so may have access to superior weapons or feats: that's right...feats & possible ftr levels for zombies!

There could even be a necromantic relic in the museum that keeps dumping negative energy into the zombies, "regenerating" them.

However, we ARE talking about 3 PCs with 10 levels between them. You don't want a TPK, after all...or do you?

(I ask, because my last campaign, and the one I'm designing right now, both have sections in which the PCs are supposed to spend time as Undead themselves.)
 


Remove ads

Top