fissionessence
First Post
The title pretty much says everything.
The idea is to have a backup adventure for the PCs in the event that they all die. It would need to be pretty scalable so it can be used at pretty much any level when they might die (although one obviously wouldn't want to reuse the adventure every time this happened).
For my 4E campaign world, I was thinking the Shadowfell could be a mix between what the DMG says and Greek Hades. When anyone dies, they go there until their soul eventually passes on, whether it be to the domain of their god or to the 'beyond' about which no one really knows. Or perhaps one would go to his god's domain and skip the Shadowfell if the god chose him in such a way. But since my campaign world doesn't have any gods that anyone worships at the current point in time, this doesn't really matter.
Anyway, some beings fought death and were able to bind themselves to the Shadowfell and have become the Shadar-Kai. They basically work the place, and give tasks to the dead as they arrive for them to do until they move on (perhaps a few weeks?) The 'inhabited' portion of the Shadowfell is just big enough for all of the dead on it at any given time. Outside of that is uncharted expanses of darkness and shadowy purple terrain, filled with lurking monsters and very little sentient life.
Somewhere, though, there is a place where the Shadowfell and the material world connect in such a way that even the dead can come back to life simply by walking through the barrier. Perhaps the leader of the Shadar-Kai knows the way, or else one of the dark monstrosities that inhabits the shadowed wastes.
I imagine the PCs wake after all dying; they feel bodies writhing under and above them. Suddenly the dim light pervades their view as the person on top is lifted up, and a pale-skinned, tattood and pierced bald and frail humanoid pulls them up to their feet, then shoves them along. They are ushered forward in the midst of hundreds of other recently dead, who are all shouting and murmuring, wondering what has befallen them. They are given tasks, probably manual labor of some sort, and told their spirits will move on soon enough. When they try to do something about their situation, they may somehow prove their worth, although all of their gear is gone (presumably left on their corpse), and they wear only dirty rags. They may be given rusty old weapons and semi-broken implements to use to accomplish the task that they have been given to prove their worth before they get more clues on how to leave the Shadowfell. Of course, they should be able to get their gear back somehow later when they return to life. This all could also be a good way to introduce players to some aspects of the game world, depending on the setting and the changes the DM may have made (it works great for my world, anyway!)
One thing I was wondering is how to get the players dead. Obviously, this isn't a priority, but how often do groups all die? I'd let it happen if they screwed up, but if they're just overwhelmed perhaps one will die, and the rest of the PCs will finish the encounter and later resurrect the dead player. For this idea to work, though, all of the PCs will need to die at the same time. Perhaps once one player has died I could take that as a cue to bring in more monsters so that the rest of them die as well. I don't know.
~
The idea is to have a backup adventure for the PCs in the event that they all die. It would need to be pretty scalable so it can be used at pretty much any level when they might die (although one obviously wouldn't want to reuse the adventure every time this happened).
For my 4E campaign world, I was thinking the Shadowfell could be a mix between what the DMG says and Greek Hades. When anyone dies, they go there until their soul eventually passes on, whether it be to the domain of their god or to the 'beyond' about which no one really knows. Or perhaps one would go to his god's domain and skip the Shadowfell if the god chose him in such a way. But since my campaign world doesn't have any gods that anyone worships at the current point in time, this doesn't really matter.
Anyway, some beings fought death and were able to bind themselves to the Shadowfell and have become the Shadar-Kai. They basically work the place, and give tasks to the dead as they arrive for them to do until they move on (perhaps a few weeks?) The 'inhabited' portion of the Shadowfell is just big enough for all of the dead on it at any given time. Outside of that is uncharted expanses of darkness and shadowy purple terrain, filled with lurking monsters and very little sentient life.
Somewhere, though, there is a place where the Shadowfell and the material world connect in such a way that even the dead can come back to life simply by walking through the barrier. Perhaps the leader of the Shadar-Kai knows the way, or else one of the dark monstrosities that inhabits the shadowed wastes.
I imagine the PCs wake after all dying; they feel bodies writhing under and above them. Suddenly the dim light pervades their view as the person on top is lifted up, and a pale-skinned, tattood and pierced bald and frail humanoid pulls them up to their feet, then shoves them along. They are ushered forward in the midst of hundreds of other recently dead, who are all shouting and murmuring, wondering what has befallen them. They are given tasks, probably manual labor of some sort, and told their spirits will move on soon enough. When they try to do something about their situation, they may somehow prove their worth, although all of their gear is gone (presumably left on their corpse), and they wear only dirty rags. They may be given rusty old weapons and semi-broken implements to use to accomplish the task that they have been given to prove their worth before they get more clues on how to leave the Shadowfell. Of course, they should be able to get their gear back somehow later when they return to life. This all could also be a good way to introduce players to some aspects of the game world, depending on the setting and the changes the DM may have made (it works great for my world, anyway!)
One thing I was wondering is how to get the players dead. Obviously, this isn't a priority, but how often do groups all die? I'd let it happen if they screwed up, but if they're just overwhelmed perhaps one will die, and the rest of the PCs will finish the encounter and later resurrect the dead player. For this idea to work, though, all of the PCs will need to die at the same time. Perhaps once one player has died I could take that as a cue to bring in more monsters so that the rest of them die as well. I don't know.
~
