Quote Originally Posted by Lord Torath View Post
I've heard of others putting Dwellers of the Forbidden City in the central volcano.

I used the standard plot hook: a sudden rainstorm on the way back from a dungeon reveals a map and journal entry. When that didn't seem to be enough, I had the cleric's superiors send her there on a mission to prevent what their seers had predicted was a future empire of evil (the kopru).

I staged an uprising of the Zombie Masters in each village on the same night. In the middle of a big feast, hundreds of zombies and a few other undead supported by clerics attacked each village, as well as the Wall. The PCs defeated the attack in their village, but I had two of the other villages fall to the undead. The PCs then got to help purge them. If the PCs failed, I might have had another village or two fall as well.

Another idea I flirted with: Lycanthrope uprising. Lycanthropes are relatively common on the southern half of the isle, but are shunned by the villagers, even those some of them (Werebears, weretigers) should be allowed. I figured I'd have some wererats, maybe a wereboar or two, and possibly even some werewolves roaming the jungles, capturing or killing any weres who won't join their cause, and slowly gathering forces in some old ruins. As soon as they have a critical mass, they'd attack the local villages. PCs would discover the plot, and possibly talk the locals into better treatment on at least the non-evil ones.

I had the Kopru just starting to expand their failing empire, having charmed a young red dragon to their cause a year or so earlier. The fishing village had been abandoned, and the surviving villagers had built a stockade directly beneath the PCs' path down from the volcanic cone. Charmed villagers had been formed into a mining crew, and were digging a tunnel through the cone wall on the opposite side of the caldera (allowing the Kopru to expand their influence). I enlarged the dungeon to allow easier access to the Kopru for the inhabitants, and assumed all the inhabitants of the central isle had been charmed.

I expanded the Rakasta a bit, and gave their encampment a migration path. I also created a large tribe of gnolls (with hyenadons) to pester and harass them. Gave them a reason to have the PCs help them (rescue kidnapped cubs, etc.). Plus, if anyone wants a really cool mount, they ride Sabre-Toothed Tigers. Or possibly Dire Tigers depending on Edition.

Finding a reason to get them to the north half of the island was trickier. When I played it, I wanted to fill in the whole map. My players wanted to head right back home after killing the kopru.

I really like the idea of the zombie master betraying the villages. Maybe the one at Tanaroa was charmed all along
I actually might no use the Rakasta in my game just because I'm not the biggest fan of their aesthetic as a race, but then again having distinct races feels more iconic than a bunch of human tribes.