DM's Aid: Share Your Campaign, Plothook, and Encounter Ideas

[redzimmer]

Campaign: A God Am I (If this were a TV Show, this part would be done via montage) Part 9: All Together Now

Level: 16-18
Synopsis: With the locations of the three remaining unclaimed Orbs in hand, the PCs have some searching to do.

The PCs now have a top-of-the-line Battle Airship, and the songs to locate the Gold, Green and Copper Orbs of Dragonkind. Without any further obstructions (save the entire amassed armies of the Mad King on their tail), the PCs set out to collect them.

Gold: The Great Wyrm green dragon Venothrax is well aware of the treasure he possesses. It serves as the crown jewel of his hoard. He also is disguised as the Elflord of the grand Metropolis of Xix. Free the city, slay the dragon, get the orb and elude the Mad King's personal assassins, the Twelve.

Green: The PCs must again activate the Valley of All Worlds and travel the Plane of Shadow. The Green Orb is in a shadowy parody of the Free City, where everything and everyone wants to consume the PCs.

Copper: Fieri Hall, the home of the Mountain King of Fire Giants is the Copper Orb's current address. Smallfolk are most certainly not welcome, especially during the tense diplomatic summit currently taking place between fire and cloud giants.

After all the orbs are collected, it is time to retrieve the other orbs: the PCs must travel into the very heart of the Mad Kingdom...

[redzimmer]

Campaign: A God Am I (I wish I had three years to run this myself) Part 10: All Things Must Die

Level: 18-20
Synopsis: The PCs invade the very realm of the Mad King to retrieve the final Orbs of Dragonkind, the travel to the mythical Dragon's Graveyard and restore the Orbs to the Shrine of Io. Easy.

However the PCs want to do it, be it full-scale invasion, elaborate heist, epic-level bluff check or what-have-you, they must breach the vault of the Mad King, get the Orbs and find the Dragon's Graveyard (Draconomicon again, it's like I'm married to it or something).

Once Orbs are obtained and Graveyards are located, a final battle betwixt the Mad King and his minions (not to mention the hazards and guardians of the Graveyard), and the PCs.

Winner takes all.

If anyone fleshed out and plays this campaign, please let me know how it works on paper.

[redzimmer]

Plot Hook

Seven Paladin Kings were rewarded with seven magical swords, each representing a divine virtue each King best exemplified.

However, each blade possessed a taint, cursing each King with the Sin that countered their paragon virtue.

Hundreds of years later their lands are in ruin, and the only way to restore the lands is trial the Seven Kings' Seven Castles and purge the swords (and now-undead fallen paladins) of evil.

[Bohandas]

Hook:

-Unicorns are being poached due to their usefulness in creating Soverign Glue in a quicker manner

[redzimmer]

Plot Hook

Half-orcs and half-elves are being targeted in racially-motivated murders.
Tensions rise in a once-tolerant city, with the lynchpin being an impending wedding between a half-orc lass and a half-elf lad.
While the prime suspects are human supremacists (i.e. Zarus), but a strange collaboration of elves and orcs are the true perpetrators.

[Bohandas]

Plot Hook + Creature:

-Some Sibriex obryith demons have devised a baroque new way to trick paladins into falling. It's a side application of a recent developments they have made in the fields of curses and casual recreational mass murder. What they have done is bred, from stock of awakened and celestial rats, a race of intelligent beings which are pure and innocent yet give off an aura (similar to a Cloak of Hate spell) compelling all other races and creatures to see them as worthless vermin in such a way that even while conversing with one verbally a person will still see it mostly as an ordinary rat, and possibly casually kill it. This is combined with excessive trustingness and naievety that makes they easily killed; they don't realize how people see them. The demons originally created these creatures to have a quickly replenishing population of good beings that could be conveniently slaughtered without risk (think of a safe, sustainable version of Androlynne). They soon also hit upon the idea of tricking paladins into killing them.

[statistically, these rats have stats like normal rats but modified as follows {approximately}-
Type: Magical Beast(Good)
Int 10, wis 8, cha 8
special qualities-
Pest: Under constant effect similar to Cloak of Hate spell. All creatures of other species encountering one (must make a will save? or) have their starting attitude lowered by one step, and tend to view the creature as a nuisance animal. The ratw take a -10 penalty to diplomacy checks with creatures of other species.

Friendly and trusting: Their Initial attitudes towards others are improved by one step and they do not gain the standard bonus to sense motive against bluffs that put them at risk.

Tiny Powers: All damage done by spells, psionics, etc cast by these creatures is scaled down in accordance with their size, as if they were using a smaller sized weapon. All effect radii and diameters are halved. Other areas of effect are halved as well. Finally all spell ranges are halved as well. Lines are changed to rays. All effect radii and diameters are halved. Other areas of effect are halved as well. All spell ranges are halved as well. Lines are changed to rays. Class hit dice sizes are reduced by two steps.

Alignment:
Always good(any) ]

[Bucky]

Campaign (one shot): 10 minute dungeon crawl
Level 8-9
(previously discussed here)

The PCs have been invited to the underground base of another group of adventurers, who have heard of the PCs' quest to save the world and want to lend them a useful artifact. When the PCs arrive, instead of being greeted by the party, they find the place swarming with undead. When they engage the undead, a poorly-constructed contingency in the base's security system activates, sealing the front door shut. Also, as the friendly butler construct informs the party, they also activated a self destruct sequence, and have 10 minutes to open the vault containing the artifact and escape before the place explodes.

The next 100 rounds happen entirely within initiative.

The link describes most of the encounters, but there are a few important details not mentioned:

Spoiler: Logistics

Show

*The entire base must be compact to reduce travel time; the original design fit into a 30x24 grid.
*If the party tries to reconstruct the details of the attack, it was clearly a scry-and-die (that bypassed the security contingency watching the front door) involving a (Pathfinder) Dread Zombie Undead Lord as the main combatant. The Undead Lord itself was recalled out, leaving its semi-intelligent Dread Zombie minions to finish ransacking the place.
*The party can quickly and easily a loot healing wand from the base's infirmary to sustain them without real rest. But consider having the 'best' wand (Cure Serious) fixed in place so they can't walk off with it.
*The vault itself is permanently dimension locked, and requires the authorization of three (dead) adventurers to open. Those dead adventurers have keys that can substitute for personal authorization (not all of which were carried when they died), and each also has a substitute (such as a spare key hidden somewhere or a written note in the office room that can be altered by Forgery). The front door can be unsealed in the same way as the vault, although the Forgery can only be used for one of the two.
*I'd planned to also have a very well hidden second entrance to the vault, possibly involving descending a garbage chute and fighting the 'toilet' encounter.
*Encounters after the first were balanced around the possibility of a split party.

And the draft bios for the other adventuring party, with Gather Information DCs:

Spoiler: Adventurer Bios

Show

Bios:
Ruford - Male Human fighter. Often seen carrying a pole arm (DC 10 Gather Information in local village), but also competent at bare-handed combat (DC 20). Breeds magical beasts in his spare time (DC 25). Currently working on a solution for the local Giant Wasp problem (DC 15 incl. circumstance bonus from his own actions) by breeding and training half-dragon animals as wasp hunters (30).
Seren - Female (race) artificer. Has innate spell casting but almost always uses wands and scrolls. Apparently makes the wands herself (DC 20) but has plans for a more ambitious project(25) - golems (30 + DC 25 Know Arcana). Has ties to the Shadow plane dwelling fetchlings (DC 30).
Dahvi - Female Undine Druid. (incomplete)

[redzimmer]

Campaign: What They Left Behind Part 1: Mud Hill

Synopsis: A fledgling empire is trying to recapture the legacy of another ancient empire. The problem is, their former subjects would rather they didn't. In one such former colony, locals have begun to disappear.

Level: 1-3

An ancient and cruel empire had colonies throughout the world, and when it began to crumble, colonists fled back to the homeland to escape reprisals.

Some of these colonial outposts held fell artifacts and other varied riches.

The PCs live in a repressively dull logging town called Mud Hill, on the aptly-named Bleak Isle. Recently people have gone missing. Thus far it was only migrant loggers, but now a local child has disappeared. The PCs search for the missing child and uncover a twisted conspiracy.

The search leads first to the local skid row where pubs, brothels and rooming houses ply their trades. A slimy individual has been drugging loggers and other people who would not be missed by locals. When confronted about the missing child, he gets violent.

This leads to a slaver from another town on Bleak Isle, a hidden slaver and pirate haven called Carnage.

On the Island there are several common hazards and indigenous peoples to encounter:
-Stirges as thick as mosquito swarms,
-Sea Orc raiding parties looking for food or slaves to trade (based on Unearthed Arcana water orcs with a Polynesian theme),
-wild elf war parties (Grugarch elves with a Pacific Northwest First Nations look),
-Slavers from aforementioned Carnage,
-Various carnivorous plants.
All in all, Bleak Isle kind of sucks.
Investigations discover a slaver who has been selling labourers to a secret excavation taking place inland on the Isle.

The excavation site is revealed to be one of the previously-mentioned ancient empire relics. A dark altar which promises great rewards in exchange for the Blood of Innocents.

The expendable workers have now been repurposed as undead guards, while the child is being prepped as a sacrifice. The mastermind behind the whole kidnapping/excavation scheme is a warlock who posed as a local paladin, trying to discover other Ancient Empire locations.

The warlock is killed, and the ritual is interrupted. The warlock's blood instead lands on the altar, and a mildly annoyed demon appears to grant the PCs a mediocre boon.

Returning to Mud Hill as heroes, the PCs are encouraged to travel to Bleak Isle's largest community, Salmon Ferry, and collect a bounty on the slavers and warlock.

[Bohandas]

Hook:

-The PCs are hired to investigate a ring of fay and elfin counterfeiters

[redzimmer]

Encounters

Death Knight Encounters

A monk who poisoned his opponents in a tournament died an ignoble death, and now haunts his abandoned monastery challenging all comers to single combat. For added fun, give him four-armed ogre henchman.

A samurai failed his liege lord and was unable to commit ritual suicide to atone his failure. He now wanders the countryside seeking a worthy opponent to destroy him and end his curse. The trail of bodies left behind him tells of his mounting frustration.

A knight is defeated in a joust by an irreverent elf lord. He murders the elf soon after, but the elf's ghost slowly drives him to his death. Sadly for the knight, death gave no relief. The death knight and the elf ghost now wander the realms, the knight brooding and the elf happily tormenting him. (Actually this sounds like a cool fantasy plot. Does Tor take unsolicited manuscripts?)

[Mikalo]

When I master I never write a linear story. I don't feel the need the see the party as a single entity and I don't like when my players feel useless without the rest of the party, I want them to take decisions with their own mind.
I am no fool though, I am aware that when two or three players are playing the rest is just going to "watch" but with a couple of tricks it's completely doable, it's not easy but with an interesting story even when someone is not playing he will still feel the need to follow the plot

[Bohandas]

*At some major upper class function somebody set off some sort of nass polymorph device, randomizing the race and sex of everybody there

*Solving a mystery is made more annoying by the tagging along of an elven "boy detective" who's older than anyone in the party

[redzimmer]

When I master I never write a linear story. I don't feel the need the see the party as a single entity and I don't like when my players feel useless without the rest of the party, I want them to take decisions with their own mind.
I am no fool though, I am aware that when two or three players are playing the rest is just going to "watch" but with a couple of tricks it's completely doable, it's not easy but with an interesting story even when someone is not playing he will still feel the need to follow the plot

Yes, it's great when the game runs organically. However when times it doesn't, a handy DM resource with Plot Hooks, Campaigns & Encounters is a welcome aid.

Why here is one right here! Splendid.

[Bucky]

Plot Hook

The baron's little girl: urban bodyguarding for low level characters

A local VIP tries to hire the PCs to tail his daughter during a local festival and keep her out of trouble. His daughter (spec'd as a Rogue of the PCs' level) notices them and uses their presence as an excuse to get into trouble. If she finds their presence too restrictive, she also tries to ditch them. And there might be actual kidnappers or assassins around...

If this seems too easy, the VIP might also have warned them not to kill anyone in front of her.

[ganondorf50]

The PC's are approached by a weaponsmith or armorsmith depending on who you want to use. He uses a secure vault to store all of his weapons every night. Every morning he finds a weapon is gone, he cannot figure out why. The armory is a 30 by 30 foot room with all sorts of armaments. He asks the PCs to stay over night to see if the wizard next door who is jealous of his business, has been sneaking in and stealing. Note there is only one entrance a solid iron door. When they PC's stay over night they hear a skittering all throughout the room but when they look they don't see anything. What the PC's don't know is there are four tiny rust monsters eating the metal in the room!!! Over the course of a few nights the PC's should discover whats going on and maybe link it to the wizard or not either way it makes for a fun roleplaying and encounter.

[redzimmer]

Now that is a scary monster.

I think a tiny rust monster swarm would be a magnificent thing for snugs PCs to encounter.

The PC's are approached by a weaponsmith or armorsmith depending on who you want to use. He uses a secure vault to store all of his weapons every night. Every morning he finds a weapon is gone, he cannot figure out why. The armory is a 30 by 30 foot room with all sorts of armaments. He asks the PCs to stay over night to see if the wizard next door who is jealous of his business, has been sneaking in and stealing. Note there is only one entrance a solid iron door. When they PC's stay over night they hear a skittering all throughout the room but when they look they don't see anything. What the PC's don't know is there are four tiny rust monsters eating the metal in the room!!! Over the course of a few nights the PC's should discover whats going on and maybe link it to the wizard or not either way it makes for a fun roleplaying and encounter.

[ganondorf50]

Now that is a scary monster.

I think a tiny rust monster swarm would be a magnificent thing for snugs PCs to encounter.

Thank you its always nice to take the PC's down a peg when they get really smug

[Bohandas]

A strange planar confluence deposits the ship the PCs are traveling on into the River Styx

[Bohandas]

Campaign:

OK, horror campaign idea:

A bunch of surface dwellers (no dwarves) are kidnapped by the drow and taken underground and enslaved. They have to escape and make their way back to the surface. But the entire campaign occurs in pitch black darkness; there are no light sources and they can't see anything. Twist ending: they finally get to the surface and back into the light and they STILL can't see anything, the drow have taken their eyes and replaced them with realistic feeling fakes.

(BTW, this was inspired by a version of the scottish ballad "Tam Lin" in which the fairy queen remarks that she should have done just this to the title character; taken his eyes and put in useless replacements)

[Bohandas]

The students and faculty of a school of the arcane are being preyed upon by a vampire in tneir midst, and nobody can figure out who it is. Many people there have undead grafts, confounding the use of detect undead. Also, the vampire has taken steps to hide their identity; including countermeasures against some common divinations, as well as the use of full-body flesh-tone makeup and a hairpiece so that they will show up in mirrors.

[redzimmer]

C: What They Left Behind Part 2: Salmon Ferry

Synopsis: Someone is arming the local Orc tribe with high-quality weapons, in hopes of destabilizing the status quo on Bleak Isle. The investigation leads to new insights about the unholy altar the PCs found.

The PCs travel to the largest town on Bleak Isle, Salmon Ferry. En route they encounter Sea Orcs (UA water orcs with a vaguely Polynesian theme) wielding equipment well beyond their usual stone, tooth & bone tech level.

After collecting the bounty on the warlock in Salmon Ferry, a sergeant on the town Watch asks if the PCs can investigate a well-established merchant he suspects to be supplying the Sea Orc with the masterwork gear. The merchant has several town councilor sand Watch members on his payroll and the sergeant thinks 'independent investigators' would be more trustworthy.

Digging about leads the PCs to follow an employee of said merchant to the north end of Bleak Isle. The employee rows offshore and returns an hour later with a some crates which he loads into a cart and departs with. If confronted, he surrenders quickly, and spills the beans that a ship wrecked on a reef both of the island is where the gear comes from. He won't admit his boss is involved as the worst the PCs can do is just kill him.

A necrotic cyst (Libris Mortis) then bursts in the informant, killing him and the body is animated as a skulking cyst, which attacks the party (and if they fail throws, the PCs may unknowingly be infected with cysts themselves). A journey to the shipwreck finds a larger galleon loaded with weapons, and some nasty aquatic ghouls. The cyst-infected employee unknowingly was protected from these undead, but the PCs are not so lucky.

The captain's quarters have been smashed open and occupied by a large fiendish octopus which the ghouls avoid.

Defeated the ock will lead PCs to the semi-legible log of the ship. It reveals the ship was commissioned to off-load these weapons to a 'contact' on Bleak Isle. The final entry speaks of the wreck and an attack by undead. The rest of the log is water-damaged, but PCs can make out the port of origin (the fledgling Empire mentioned in part one synopsis) and a few lines warning to not go inland until the Idle is secured.

Once the PCs are done with the boat and return to shore, they are ambushed some appropriately challenging NPCs. Each of them too will let burst with a necrotic cyst if the PCs defeat them. Infected PCs will suffer ill effects as well.

They can be ID'd by the Watch sergeant as persons in the employ of the merchant, but a search of the merchant's home and business shows he has run off. The PCs get a reward, the contents of the ship are seized and the Watch and town council are purged of the corrupt elements.

If asked about why the aspiring-Empire-in-question is interested in the island, the sergeant suggests contacting one of the wild elves that periodically inhabit the island. The nomadic elves have inhabited the island for centuries and their long lives and memories might give more insights.

NOTE: I freely admit taking some liberties with how necrotic cysts are made and used in this adventure as Rule of Cool always trumps RAW for me.

[Bohandas]

This other thread may also be helpful:

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showt...ng-out-of-time

[Draco_Lord]

Plot Hook

Half-orcs and half-elves are being targeted in racially-motivated murders.
Tensions rise in a once-tolerant city, with the lynchpin being an impending wedding between a half-orc lass and a half-elf lad.
While the prime suspects are human supremacists (i.e. Zarus), but a strange collaboration of elves and orcs are the true perpetrators.

I like this idea, mainly imagining the PCs finally figuring out who the true villains are, and having it be a group of old people, each more racist then the last, yelling at each other about how much they hate each other slightly less then they hate the idea of their kids getting married.

"I hate you only slightly less then I hate the idea of being your son's father-in-law, green skin." "Same here, you knife eared jerk!"

[redzimmer]

This other thread may also be helpful:

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showt...ng-out-of-time

Thanks for the cross-pollination. The more people that benefit from this, the happier I'll be.

[redzimmer]

Plot Hooks

Un-Human Wars.

Goblins vs. Kobolds: the technologically-superior goblins are trying to eradicate the numerically-superior kobolds. Both have access to lots of coin, and hire mercenaries such as the PCs.

Lizardfolk vs. Troglodytes: Both sides vie for an ancient temple that the PCs seek, as they both claim it holds religious significance. They are too great in size (or CR) for the PCs to face, so manipulating the war may be a means to distract them long enough to get what you need from the temple.

Hobgoblins vs. Orcs: A brutal expansionist hobgoblin kingdom has pushed to far into or lands, inciting them enough to set aside their own tribal rivalries and unite into a single genocidal horde. The hobs now are demanding the local "goodly" races aid them, or you all will face extinction.

Bullywug vs. Sahuagin: Shipping lanes are disrupted as these aquatic and amphibious races make war on the swamps, shores and seas of a major shipping port.

[johnbragg]

Goblins, goblins everywhere!

Jeez, why are there so many goblins in the woods all of a sudden?

Because there has been a coup in the local goblin chieftaincy. The goblin king's court wizard, a necromancer of one stripe or another, has seized power, and half of the tribe is scattering in all directions, figuring that if they don't, they'll end up as undead servants sooner rather than later.

So the players *could* make common cause with at least some of the invaders/refugees, who would be happier returning to their forest rather than starting new tribes in your forest. But that requires SOMEONE to take down the new goblin Necromancer Lord.

[Bohandas]

Plot Hook:

Mysterious cattle mutilations!

[redzimmer]

Campaign: What They Left Behind Part 3: What Lies Below

Synopsis: The wild elves of Bleak Isle have long memories. One memory in particular is regarding the temple the PCs recently raided.

At the advice of the Salmon Feery Watch sergeant, the PCs head to the nomadic camp of the wild elves (who you'll recall are a pastiche of Pacific Northwest First Nations). Diplomacy is a requirement of there are no elves in the party.

If they come around, they will reveal the about 900 years prior, an old Human Empire (which will call the Old Empire for simplicity) had a temple complex in the centre of the Isle. Elves tended to avoid the Isle at this time, but a curious young scout (likely still around, because elves) did see a massive, panicked withdrawal of the humans which culminated with a massive magical earthquake sealing up the temple.

Exposition over, the elves and PCs are attacked by a massive Sea Orc war party, and again they are clearly outfitted beyond their technological level.

After the refreshing combat, the PCs can head back to Mud Hill to heal up and return to the temple.

Upon reaching the altar, some investigation will reveal a before-unseen staircase under the altar. Once the PCs figure this out, the Necromancer Merchant pops up and tries to capitalize on your success. He has several scaled CR minions with him. You win or you die, of course.

Necromancer and co. dispatched, the PCs descend into a temple not only full of traps and magical guardians, but also the risk of the unstable building collapsing onto them.

Upon reaching the innermost chamber, a sarcophagus can be opened, and if it is (and honestly, what sensible PC would not?) opened, an overwhelmingly evil presence wafts out. Some good treasure can be looted, but at this point there is nothing else left to see. To rush them along, the temple might begin to crumble.

After returning to the entrance under the altar, the dead necromancer and his cronies are all animated.

The necromancer in a deep, otherworldly voice thanks you for releasing his bound spirit. While he still needs to recover his body(?!), this vessel will suffice.

To reward you, he will give you a quick death, unlike those who put him in this position to begin with.
He orders half of his now-undead followers to kill you, while the rest of them set off, and the temple begins to fall apart in earnest.

If the PCs survive, they should probably investigate whatever this unholy abomination they've unleashed might be.

Note: This is not at rip-off of the Mummy (1999). Shining Force 2 came out years before it did.

[martixy]

You know, I've been reading the posts and I kept wondering why it's actually not very useful. Then it hit me... half of this thread is missing.
Lots of hook, very little plot.

Given that this thread is DM Aid, why does everyone keep pitching as if to players instead?

Example:
Hook:

"Half-orcs and half-elves are being targeted in racially-motivated murders.
Tensions rise in a once-tolerant city, with the lynchpin being an impending wedding between a half-orc lass and a half-elf lad."

Plot:
Elves and orcs are being manipulated into the murders, thinking they're stopping a disease, by a cabal of necromancers who wish to use the half-breeds to summon a demon prince.

Or somesuch... you get the idea.
Better spell it out anyway: A "why" that a DM can use instead of just the "what" that players will see.

Hook = Mysterious cattle mutilations!
Plot = ???

[Bohandas]

Plot Hooks:

A few Eberron themed hooks, mostly having to do with the Warforged:

-Turf war in the Mournland between the undead and the cult of the Lord of Blades

-The cult of the Lord of Blades has begun murdering any warforged that show a strong tendency to thinking of themselves as male or female

-The PCs are being hunted by a new type of warforged with the shapeshifting powers of a changeling or dopplegangar. I may have stolen this last idea from Terminator 2.