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

[Bohandas]

Plot Hook:

-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) ]

The karmic pollution caused by these beasties is drawing chunks of the abyss up into pandemonium and higher. The PCs are hired by an irate demon lord not wishing to lose more territory (or allow its prey to escape) to find a way to stop this.

[redzimmer]

Plot Hook

A major metropolis is home to the largest arcane college in the world. Its endless magical experimentation has led to a sort of "magical pollution" which acts almost like a wild magic zone to those living the environs around the college.

Some effects may include:

The dead random rising, but as awakened undead who just go about their previous lives.
Local fauna become anthropomorphic creatures.
Random portals to other plane open like magical sinkholes.
Spells cast become living spells.
Constructs become self-aware and form unions.

Yes, these are all inspired by Discworld.

[Bohandas]

Campaign:

-The stagnation of technology at the medieval level and the inability of magic to overcome limitations such as seeing through lead or conjuring gold are both he work of an ancient conspiracy dating back to the Battle of Pesh, which the conspiracy whishes to prevent a repeat of as it was fought with gratituitous use of atomic weapons and twin-cataclysms level attack spells.

The PCs become involved in an investigation into this conspiracy and the curses that it has laid on the world which is being conducted by church of boccob's subsidiary the cult of Zagyg. The behavior of Zagyg's slightly unstable followers will also likely provide the PCs with insight into their enemies' likely motives for trying to suppress magic and technology.

It begins with the recovery of rare ancient kobold holy texts, the Glaucodot Sutra and the Smalt Tablet. These date to a time when more advanced technology and magic once existed. It seems that Kurtlmak started out, in his original form, as a Skynet style military nuclear missile command computer (this idea came to me based on the combunation of the traditional relationship between kobalds and cobalt, plus the theoretical possible use of cobalt in nuclear bombs to increase fallout for long-term area denial), but he gained not only self-awareness but also enlightenment. These texts are equal parts treatise on alchemy and list of nuclear launch codes. The Zagyg cult wants them for the former, but the deranged Kobold cleric who they have to fight to get them (and who found out about them largely due to the other cult's investigations, similar to how the nazis find the ark in Indiana Jones 1) wants them for the latter, to destroy real and imagined enemies on the surface world (although the weapons would have their destructiveness severely reduced due to the curse, they would still cause a lot of trouble if launched. Kurtlmak himself, by the way, has all but forgotten that form due to the curse on the world, and cannot launch any of said weapons without the codes anyway)

At any rate. this confirms the church's suspicians that at one time magic and technology both had more potential that were somehow suppressed.

The next step of the investigation involves the cult's plans to build a time machine to investigate directly. Zagyg himself is also personally involved with the investigation at this point. The PCs are tasked with acquiring various macguffins the cult needs as well as securing the area around Firestorm Peak; they intend to reverse engineer the Vast Gate and based on it build a vehicle that can dive out of the multiverse into the Far Realm and then reemerge in any point in space or time on any of the planes.

Their eventual test run of this ship, the Eldritch, releases creatures and environments inimical to life on both exit and reentry and also comes back hella haunted (think like the film Event Horizon for this last bit) and the PCs have to clear it out but is declared a complete success because it technically did what it was supposed to.

There is another macguffin for a seperate part of the investigation unrelated to building the time machine which the PCs have also been tasked/asked to keep an eye out for since prior to part 2 and which becomes the main focus of a wild goose chase for some time after the time machine is completed until it becomes clear that the reason it went missing all those eons ago is because Zagyg retrieved it in the Eldritch.


The last part involves the construction by the cult of a superweapon to attack possible culprits and/or lynchpins/capstones of the suppression curse that they've identified, including Tabjari, Regulus, the Outlands spire, Tharizdun, and the Regulators. The weapon is called the "ad infinitum" cannon and is powered by the concept of infinity, which it draws out of the bottomless pit in the second layer of the abyss. It's the construction is largely at the behest and urging of a demonic advisor; after seeing a depiction of it in a drawig Zagyg hired an actual angel and demon (or in this case an Eladrin and an Obryith) to follow him around and advise him and bicker with each other. At any rate the PCs can either try to put a stop to this madness of take up arms against others who are trying to stop it.

[Bohandas]

Plot Hooks, etc.:

-Angry at being barred from entering the city a spiteful demigod is sealing up Sigil's portals from the outside.

-Guarding a shipment of Oil of Purify Food and Drink being sent as relief to a town suffering some kind of blight that's causing all their food to rot quickly.

-Someone has to go out and get those rare and expensive spell components so that the magic shops can sell them. This time it's the PCs.

-A group of succubi are deliberately spreadig STDs

-Escorting some druids to an area where they need to conjure replacements for an animal population that has been extirpated. To put more on the line the druids may have bad stats other than wisdom and/or be using a special spell that not many know.

[redzimmer]

-A group of succubi are deliberately spreadig STDs

MAGICAL STDs. Totally using this one.

[Bohandas]

Plot Hook

A major metropolis is home to the largest arcane college in the world. Its endless magical experimentation has led to a sort of "magical pollution" which acts almost like a wild magic zone to those living the environs around the college.

Some effects may include:

The dead random rising, but as awakened undead who just go about their previous lives.
Local fauna become anthropomorphic creatures.
Random portals to other plane open like magical sinkholes.
Spells cast become living spells.
Constructs become self-aware and form unions.

Yes, these are all inspired by Discworld.

Don't forget the Post Office being haunted by the ghosts of the undeliverable mail in the dead letter room

[redzimmer]

Campaign: What They Left Behind Part 4: Clean Up Your Mess

Synopsis: Having released an ancient evil upon the world, it seems fair they should seal it again.

After releasing the trapped spirit of the First Emperor, the PCs escape the collapsing temple and return to Mud Hill. The town is in flames and the residents slaughtered. If inclined alignment-wise, the PCs should help any survivors and marshal them in the nearby lumber camp.

Moving right along, Salmon Hill has been occupied by New Empire naval units. The First Emperor 's host body was an Imperial agent and he uses the guise to instruct the navy to blockade the town.

The Watch sergeant who hired the PCs is now in hiding, and strongly suggests they get out of town.

There are three ways to go from here:

1. Head to the wild elves, help them fend off an Empire incursion until they can abandon the island and with them move to their nearest settlement on the mainland. (The "Good" option)

2. Find the Sea Orcs and in exchange for eradicating their elves, they will let the PCs hitch a ride to the mainland. (The "total bastard" option)

3. Head back to the slave port of Carnage and
a) Quell a slave revolt and get passage to the mainland from grateful slavers.
b) Support the slave revolt and commandeer a liberated slave ship, then take said slaves and ship to mainland and sell the ship, divvying up the spoils between the PCs and the slaves (it's tempting for the PCs to keep the ship for themselves, but a contrived way to prevent this is to enact a real cost for crew, upkeep and maritime fees).
c) Get shanghaied by a pirate crew, start a mutiny and turn ship over for a reward on the mainland.

Any of these choices ultimately lead the PCs to the mainland, at or near the port town of Hastir. And on the horizon, the New Empire's Navy is bearing down on the town in full conquest mode...

[Bohandas]

Plot Hook:

A good deity looked in a mirror of opposition and now there's a rogue aspect out there causing trouble

[Rakoa]

Redzimmer, I have done a first session of "A God Am I" and things are going great. Everybody is incredibly excited. So far all they've done is succeed in repelling the Whitespawn Hordelings from the village, and are about to set out to their lair. I decided to include the Traitor of Io among the Dread Knights, in order to establish a secondary villain immediately, and had him command the knights to execute one of the village elders as well as one of the PCs parents that tried to defend the town. So far, so good. They've already immediately figured out that the Orb was what was keeping the Hordelings away, and one of the players, out of game, thinks she knows what the Orb itself is. I'm not so sure, but maybe she does!

I'm already getting to work rolling up the Mad King. I'm probably going to go for some form of Sorcerer gish just because I think that'd be fun. That can wait, though, because for now I have work to do on preparing the Ranger Outpost encounter. Now that should be fun. I will keep you posted here on how this progresses.

[redzimmer]

Redzimmer, I have done a first session of "A God Am I" and things are going great. Everybody is incredibly excited. So far all they've done is succeed in repelling the Whitespawn Hordelings from the village, and are about to set out to their lair. I decided to include the Traitor of Io among the Dread Knights, in order to establish a secondary villain immediately, and had him command the knights to execute one of the village elders as well as one of the PCs parents that tried to defend the town. So far, so good. They've already immediately figured out that the Orb was what was keeping the Hordelings away, and one of the players, out of game, thinks she knows what the Orb itself is. I'm not so sure, but maybe she does!

I'm already getting to work rolling up the Mad King. I'm probably going to go for some form of Sorcerer gish just because I think that'd be fun. That can wait, though, because for now I have work to do on preparing the Ranger Outpost encounter. Now that should be fun. I will keep you posted here on how this progresses.

Pleased to hear it! Hope everyone has fun.

[Jay R]

I once ran a scenario called the Staves of the Wanderers.

The PCs started as servants of seven high-level characters who wandered the world. Each one had a staff that was an artifact. The staves were each capped with one of the seven metals (silver, mercury, copper, gold, iron, tin, lead).

The seven high-level characters told them that the Staves of the Wanderers were getting out of control, and had to be returned to a temple on top of a mountain. They let themselves be destroyed by the staves, to quiet the staves down long enough for the PCs to return them.

Each staff had an automatic power and a protective power. It had a medium power and a higher level power with risks attached.

1. The silver staff provided night vision and protection from lycanthropy. It also provided invisibility and Polymorph Others.
2. The mercury staff provided high speed and protection from Hold, or Slow. It also allowed Fly and Beguile.
3. The copper staff provided Charm Person and Protection from Charm. It also allowed similar advance powers.
4. The gold staff had light and heat based powers.
5. The iron staff had martial powers.
6. The tin staff had lightning and heroism powers.
7. The lead staff had powers based on time and coldness.

I always referred to the staves in the same order.

The clues so far are pretty obscure. As the adventures progressed, the clues became more and more obvious, until the players finally figured out the secret of the Staves of the Wanderers.

The "Wanderers" weren't the people who had once held the stave. These staves contained powers from the Wandering Stars - the planets (moon, Mercury, Venus, the sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn).

Mercury-based powers were about speed and beguilement; sun-based powers were light and heat, etc.

[redzimmer]

Campaign: What They Left Behind Part 5: A Price To Pay

Synopsis: The PCs are being hunted down by the First Emperor because He thinks they are a greater danger than they actually are. Regardless, they need to get out of town.

Level: 10-12

After making landfall at Hastir and having enough time to rest and recuperate, the PCs again are witness to the military power of the New Empire. Stone golems and minotaur slave soldiers lead the vanguard. After a few hours, the town surrenders and a death warrant is proclaimed for persons matching the description of the PCs.

The best option for escape in up through the mountains that encircle the port. At some point they become impassable. The PCs are then approached by an old wizard who seems to be waiting for them.

As night falls, the PCs need a way over the mountains and the wizard needs help getting some troublesome invaders out of his home.

These invaders are actually his former slaves. After cutting a swath (or, I don't know, stopping to negotiate?) they find out the wizard is a vampire and the slaves hedged out all undead.

The PCs can kill the slaves, kill the vampire, kill them both. The end result is discovering a two-way teleportation circle that will let them escape the New Empire forces...

...And transport them right to the capitol of the New Empire itself.

Campaign: What They Left Behind Part 6: Try to Act Normally

Synopsis: The PCs have found themselves at the very heart of the New Empire. Now they just need to find out how to re-seal the First Emperor.

Level: 13-14

Happenstance has led the PCs right to the bowels of the New Empire's Capitol.

Since his arrival in the host body necromancer, the First Emperor has enacted an ancient magical contingency plan, specifically to reclaim power if He were ever deposed. Even as they acclimatize to the new location, the PCs witness the First Emperor strike down the current Emperor and Senate, and a festival of celebration is proclaimed, with bloody gladiatorial games, sacrifices and all-around badness.

Rumour has it that some senators have survived. If the PCs seek them out, they will want to escape town. As the PCs have a secret teleportation circle to barter with, the senators offer a location of the Emperor's original body, as well as the means to again separate Him from his body.

One thing however, the rite is hidden in the Imperial Palace, so the PCs will have to use all their guile and power to break in, locate the ritual (hint: it's woven into a tapestry), and get out of town before all Tartaerus breaks loose.

[Bohandas]

Plot Hooks:

-A local judge has been possessed by a nalfeshnee

-While digging a well, townspeople unexpectedly breached into a settlement of some kind of underground dwelling creatures

-The elemental planes have shifted slightly, resulting in patches of ground dissolding, bodies of water evaporating, spontaneous firestorms, and open flames spontaneously collapsing into inert soot (edit: earth into water, water into air, air into fire, and fire into earth)

[redzimmer]

Campaign: What They Left Behind Part 7: Sometimes the Classics are Best

Synopsis: The First Emperor seeks His original body. The PCs seek a way to destroy it and Him. Someone else has beat them both to it...

Level: 15-16

The PCs have to first get out of the port of Hastir, occupied by the cruel forces of the New Empire. With the help of the locals, they must oust the Empire and steal one their ships. Now with a direction towards the First Emperor's body (and a ritual designed to eliminate the First Emperor for good), it is a race...

Once they get to the location of the body, the PCs quickly discover a great wyrm red dragon has added His body to its hoard. And so happens an epic battle with a THE iconic D&D villain.

The hoard begotten after victory is small comfort, as upon victory, the First Emperor in His necromancer host arrives to take the body for Himself.

Left for dead, any remaining PCs must regroup and complete the ritual and defeat the First Emperor for once and all.

[Bohandas]

Plot Hook/Potential Basis for Campaign:

-Illithids have hired salamanders to sabotage the sun somehow. You need to go to the sun and stop them.

[redzimmer]

Plot Hook/Potential Basis for Campaign:

-Illithids have hired salamanders to sabotage the sun somehow. You need to go to the sun and stop them.

Be sure to go at night

[THEChanger]

Plot Hook/Potential Basis for Campaign:

-Illithids have hired salamanders to sabotage the sun somehow. You need to go to the sun and stop them.

Wait...this actually could be really cool. Let's see.

The Last Dawn - An Adventure for a Party of Level 12-17 Adventurers

Firstly, for this adventure to make sense, all Illithid and related creatures have the following Special Quality, which under normal circumstances would reduce their CR by 1:

Sunlight Vulnerability: When exposed to direct sunlight or the magical equivalent, an Illithid is dazzled (takes a -1 penalty to all rolls), and can only take a single action per turn, either a move action or a standard action. In addition, an Illithid exposed to natural sunlight takes a single point of nonlethal damage each turn. While wearing a Dampsuit (Lords of Madness, pg. 68), an Illithid is not considered to be exposed to sunlight.

Illithid and their ilk should, also, ideally use their Psionic stats.

Ideally, the party has gained a reputation for themselves over the past 12 levels, and perhaps has already done some work out in the Inner Planes. While resting between adventures, news reaches the party that creatures normally associated with the Elemental Plane of Fire have been pouring out of an ancient ruin previously thought to have been abandoned. Perhaps the party has been to this ruin in a previous adventure. In any case, taking the bait, the party makes their way to the ruins, doing battle with Fire Elementals, swarms of Mephits, Azer warbands, and within the ruins themselves, a patrol of Salamanders. They guard a minor planar tear, a gate opened to the Plane of Fire, the source of the out of place monsters. A DC 20 Knowledge: Arcana or The Planes will reveal that the tear is not natural - it is being kept open by something on the other side. As they look on, the tear suddenly goes dark. Still open, it now looks to be a portal into blackest night.

On the other side waits two figures - one a salamander sorcerer named Agni(use an Average Salamander, to have more Sorcerer levels), the other a roughly humanoid figure, easily nine feet tall, encased in a suit of shifting black leather. This is Menigos, an Ulitharid Psion wearing a Dampsuit. The two are working with a strange black device, which seems to be drawing in the flames which should be flowing through the tear. Discovered, Menigos uses Psionic Teleport to flee, telling Agni to hold the party off while the experiment completes. Agni battles with the party for a few rounds, summoning aid and blasting them with fire spells, but does not risk their own life to protect the device. Once Agni flees, or is defeated, the planar tear begins to close.

If the party retrieves the device, examination reveals it to interrupt the natural flow of energy through a tear between the Plane of Fire and the Material Plane, absorbing that energy and preventing it from reaching the Material. Such tears can be caused by magic, but they often occur naturally - they are the source of stars, and the Material Plane's Sun is in fact a massive instance of such a tear. Around this point, the party is contacted by representatives of the Prince of Flint and Steel, one of the six Efreet Sultans who rule the Brass City of Kash. He and his siblings need the party's aid, and provide an explanation of these events.

A hive city of Illithid, in an effort to speed their eventual conquest of the surface of the Material, seeks to make the sun dim forever. To this end, they have created a magical device called a Solar Umbrella, which absorbs the energy that would normally flow through the planar tears when placed in front of it. What the party retrieved was a prototype, but even now Menigos is preparing the finished Solar Umbrella with the aid of their salamander allies. As the Illithid cannot maintain a presence in the Plane of Fire, they have created an alliance with the salamanders. If the salamanders protect and maintain the Solar Umbrella, they can use the energy it collects to create magic items of incredible power. With this newfound strength, Agni and his brothers could overthrow the Sultanate of Kash, something the Prince of Flint and Steel cannot allow to come to pass. Oh, and the Solar Umbrella will send the Prime Material into an endless night, in which the Illithid will emerge from their deep cave homes and overrun the surface, creating an empire of endless torment and slavery that will eventually spread throughout all other Planes but the Plane of Fire. This matters less to the Sultans.

So why don't the Sultans do something? Well, the planar tear responsible for the Prime Material's Sun lies within the divine domain of a god of fire(this could be an elemental lord like Kossuth in Forgotten Realms, or it might be an actual diety of the Sun, like Pelor or Saranrae). And while this threat is enormous, the delicate balance of politics prevents the agents of Kash from directly interfering in that deity's domain. Which is where the party comes in. Rather than approaching the tear from the Plane of Fire, and altering the deity, the adventurers will come at it from the other side - flying through the void directly into the sun. This is how Menigos snuck into the Plane as well, thanks to a Nautiloid ship. The Prince of Flint and Steel is willing to lend the party his chariot, pulled by eight noble Nightmares, which can navigate the void surrounding the sun. However, the party must first earn the trust of the Nightmares. This could be done through careful negotiation, Diplomacy and Bluff checks, giving gifts to the Nightmares(what does a flaming horse want?), or by the party proving themselves in a contest of violence.

Having obtained the Spark Chariot and the trust of the Nightmares, the party heads back to the Prime Material, and flies towards the sun. There are a few Lanceships guarding the tear, and Menigos' Nautiloid is moored nearby. The Lanceships can be engaged safely, but if the Nautiloid activates, the party is in for a rough fight.

Through the tear, the party finds Menigos and Agni standing atop a nearby spire of flaming rock, as well as a group of salamander warriors aided by Illithid Psions. It's a slugfest, though divine spellcasters find they can call upon aid from the flame deity's servitors against the invaders. The true battle, however, is with Menigos and Agni. Menigos is a clever tactician, attempting to use their psionic powers to enslave and confound the party. Agni is all fire and rage, applying as much brute force as they can. They make for a formidable challenge. However, the prize is the Solar Umbrella. If the party can disable it, Menigos has no more reason to stay, and they and any remaining Illithid attempt to flee through the planar tear. Here, Agni fights until the death.

Upon Agni's death, the party now has the Solar Umbrella, which contains many valuable magical components, as well as a partially charged arcane well. I will leave it up to individual DMs to determine exactly how the party might use such things. In addition, on Agni's body, the party finds a blade capable of cutting the fabric between planes, opening short lived planar tears (this is how Agni created the planar tear in the ruins, to test the prototype Umbrella). They also find a map, leading from the ruins where their adventure began to a hidden cave, where the hive city Menigos hails from lies hidden. A possible future adventure, the adventurers may decide to descend into the shadows of the Underdark, and confront the sinister puppet master behind Menigos' plan...

[redzimmer]

[/slow clap]

Love that.

[zyggythorn]

Terrorist attack on the equivalent of the Olympic games, starting 1 civil war (Dwarves- Mafia family v Alienist Clan) and resparking another (the humans- King and People v Nobles).

(Will explain further later. Away from notes)

[Bohandas]

Unusual Villain Concepts

-Dead wizard villain's familiar is running things now and/or out for revenge

-Intelligent item is the mastermind behind (whatever)

[killem2]

Maldrake, Drea, Ryo, and company do not look.

Spoiler: Way of the Wicked Spoilers

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So in part 2 the party must capture this large spire that inside holds a once evil cult that was trying to bring back to the material plane Vetra Kali Eats-the-eyes. The altar of kali has a seal over it and so they must do prayers and this ritual to break it blah blah. Week by week stuff happens to them.

On week five a pair of moon dogs happen to come around and start killing off minions. Except in my session the moon dogs have not killed anyone yet. The only thing the players know is, is that invisible attackers have done this and they are magical.

What they don't know is, a former PC (level 6 wizard) who left our sessions and originally agreed to craft stuff for us as downtime and eventually he couldn't even do that. Now, this normally would have no bearing on the story but it was the room he decided he wanted to make his own. (each player got their own room to make their own)

Spoiler: Room 3-9

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Since he prepares his spells here as well:

Anyone who meditates here for more than eight hours must make a Will save (DC 16). If the save is failed, the character goes insane, becoming a homicidal psychotic. The character's alignment changes to chaotic evil and they gain a +10 competence bonus on bluff checks to hide their insanity. The recipient of this 'wisdom' now revels in dealing death and killing. If the character goes more than a week with out killing a sentient creature, then the character must make another will save (DC16). The character must murder someone that day preferably in a gruesome and ritualistic orgy of slaughter. Every day they go with out killing someone, they receive a progressive penalty of -1 to any skill check not focused don finding or slaying a victim. However, while they possess this insanity, they also gain Iron will as a bonus feat. If they already have Iron will they will instead get improved iron will.

While his will saves are decent, everyone fails at some point and he has. And so he has actually been killing people.

Now, while this is all going on, I've been trying to secretly plan a "future cohort" for someone who is planning on taking leadership. It is a wayang illusionist. Who is scared to show himself now because he might get blamed for all of this murder. He has kind of become endeared to the rogue in the group for what he did to the boggards and has began leaving notes to communicate with him.

So they will have a couple weeks of hell until they catch on that this former PC has gone insane.

[Bohandas]

Plot Hook

-Members of an acting troupe need the PCs to rescue the mimic who usually plays most of the larger props in their plays but was recently kidnapped by someone (I just noticed that Mimics are neutral with int 10, so what if instead of being a monster, it was the victim they had to rescue)

[redzimmer]

Campaign: What They Left Behind Part 8: Rite Back to the Start

Synopsis: The First Emperor possesses His original body. The PCs are left for dead. But they have the ritual to separate them, and a dragon's hoard...

Level: 16-18

As the First Emperor takes possession of His body, magical wards placed by the original conspirators are triggered, greatly weakening the necromancer host body.

Rather than staying to kill the PCs, the First Emperor is forced to flee, leaving some powerful minions behind to finish the PCs off.

The PCs can find healing and offensive magic items suitable to defend themselves, if the red dragon fight should have depleted their HP and spells.

Before the First Emperor can dispell the wards and reunite His soul and body, the PCs need to perform the separation ritual. A site tied to the original rite is required to recreate it, so back to Bleak Isle and the ruined temple south of Mud Hill they go.

First, a suitable military assault or stealth insertion is required to get back to the island, which is left up to the PCs and the dragon treasure now in their possession.

Second, the PCs need to rally any of the original factions still present on Bleak Isle (or all of them, wild elves, sea orcs, Carnage smugglers and slavers, Salmon Ferry sergeant and the local militia) and rally them to drive off New Empire forces.

Third, they must excavate the temple site, which was collapsed previously.

Lastly, the ritual has to be completed. This is complicated by the arrival of the newly revived First Emperor and His nigh-invulnerable true form, and all the considerable forces at His disposal.

Completing the rite makes Him vulnerable and defeating Him will once again separate body and spirit. The most-loyal of His followers were reanimated by Him, and fall as well, and the remaining Ne Empire can be routed by timely arrival of one (or all) of the four original factions on the island.

Now with the First Emperor sundered, these strong and resourceful PCs shall have to find a way to ensure these components are not released and reunited again.

And that is up to whatever DM decides. A trip to Sigil to ask a multiversal sage's advice? Sphere of Annihilation? Bury the parts underground and place "Warning, ancient evil: do not release" signs all around? Who knows?

[Bohandas]

Plot Hooks:

-A group of intelligent rings of elemental command are trying to restart the cult of elemental evil

-The tavern where the PCs are spending the night is haunted

-Possessed marionette or ventriloquist's dummy

-All the crops are turning into different kinds of crops

-Intelligent dagger designed by demons to foment violent rebellions. It's beneficial when it falls into the hands of slaves or whatever (though even then it still creates an inappropriate number of civilian casualties) but even in benevolent lands it tries to overthrow the government and kill the leaders. If a rebellion succeeds it turns on the leaders of the rebellion, and so on until everyone's dead. It also has levels in psionic classes

[Efrate]

Campaign: A Tale as Old as Dragons

Setting: Forgotten realms, after time of troubles, before spellplague. Banned: Celerity line of spells (anything messing with time pre time stop is kind of BS IMO), MIC, anything from any setting not generic D&D (eberron, ravenloft, pathfinder, d20 modern, etc, greyhawk ok) , 3rd party, Shadow weave (see below), Dragon Stuff available on a case by case basis. Evil PCs can do this adventure as well with less intense RP but it fits them almost as well if not better than good ones.

Optimization level: tier 3-4. Any classes subject to above, but attempt to play not the I solve everything effortlessly from my private demiplane/astal projection/infinite wealth/city nuke/army of countless undead,etc. Nothing wrong being decent and prepared, everything wrong with invalidating the entire party though army of minions, world ending shenanigans, etc. If your party doesn't like this, and goes full op, then you do it as much as them, for (nearly) all the encounters. More work but them's the break.

A few of my players pop on occasionally, this is for their safety

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Overall theme: During the time of troubles, multiple deities dying has lead to a usurping of divine ranks, which being limited has thrown the balance of the multiverse out of wack. Lolth, Tiamat, Tempus, Shar, and the Azuth have been killed. Divinity is limited and kept in a careful balance, and this has caused the fracturing of everything. Think a set of scales which has had a significant amount of weight removed from a side rapidly and how it now goes up and down while trying to re-establish its balance. And right when it does, someone smack its again.

A trio of new greater gods has emerged. Two are LG, one is NE (and a demon/devil/yugoloth/evil outsider of choice pre-ascecnsion)
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As the multiverse attempts to right its balance do to the sudden influx of too much good, reality starts to tear. Random monster not native to material plane show up a lot, more or less randomly, like Balor in the middle of a Thorp's tavern. Far realm stuff shows up much more prevalently. People randomly walking are suddenly deposited on a random plane, sometimes its only briefly, sometimes forever. This is not effecting just the prime material plane. A devil can be on the first layer of Hell and appear in the Dragon's Eeyrie. A solar suddenly is on the negative energy plane, etc. Lesser creatures will likely be trapped, or destroyed, more powerful ones can get themselves out, provided they are somehow capable. Alternate realities cross over, including various GreyHawk elements. Sigil has even more doors to it now and from it now, and several deities might have been shifted to near the spire and be SoL.

Ao has forbidden any of the deities to get directly involved, though followers and proxies are fine. Root of the problem? There is now a surplus of Good and Law in the Multiverse. If the scales aren't balanced, everything ends. And it gets worse the longer you take.

Option 1:

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Easiest solution: Dragons, being the oldest race, must have their evil god. Canidates are any chromatic dragon, a source of divinity either by killing some amount of good and/or lawful dieties(new or old), or finding one willing to give up his power. Barring (perhaps) a select few gods of suffering, doing this to revive evil goes against the concept of a good god and their self preservation, gods being the exact ideals they represent (DM leeway, don't just ask Bob the God of Suffering to give it up for the best of everyone, least without something hugely drastic). This will fix the cosmos, with the least amount of new deities raised. The scales do not have to be perfect but this is a huge benefit, because oldest race is dragons and they matter more (rule of cool).

This solution is not known to many dragons, and fewer outsiders, and due to needing worship after the fact, many evil dragons are consolidating power and the Cult of the Dragon are very active. Dragons are much more frequent and tales of some sort of final reckoning between them circulate in the taverns of the world as epic dragon battles happen with alarming frequency. Neutral dragons are heavily recruited by various chromatic dragons to start to form a sort of power base. A CE dragon would be best, a LE or NE one would require more work. Many draconic themed encounters, protodragons, etc. The more powerful dragons with the assistance of the Cult of the Dragon are also attempting to siphon off worshipers from other evil gods. The Zhentarim, Thayan Empire, and most of the other evil organizations are mostly unaware of all this (until later), and fight back vehemently.

Eventually (level 14-16ish) if they haven't already, they figure this out and must start siding with a faction. Each chromatic dragon color has a few exceptional specimens, they can pursue one or all. All the dragons want it for themselves/their color, being greedy hoarding dragons and all, but none of them are willing to give up without a fight. Final Encounters pit their allied great wyrm draconic deity hopeful vs. some or all the others with allies, or just killing all the other top rivals. All of these are CR 20+, usually advanced via epic level progression, with multiple minions, trapped lairs, etc. Dracoliches are very much a possibility and the Cult of the Dragon would love to help with that. Nothing saying an undead dragon cannot be a god.

Many dragons/emissaries of the dragons try to bribe/convince/kill them throughout. Other high level NPCs (other high level parties, elminster, etc) may be working with another faction or trying another way. Why your PCs? Cause you are the heroes. Doing what must be done even if it isn't "right" in some ways. Ends justify the means, greater good, etc. Great fun RPing for paladins and the like. Yes its ****ed up and kind of grimdark, kind of the point.

They work their way through the colors as assassins or diplomats or whatever leveling until early epic (25-30ish is where I plan to stop, hopefully 25) where they have their final showdown, then use help their chosen dragon to get divinity. Good Luck. How you do this is up to you, massive battles, convincing arguments, what have you. My party is attempting one final entreaty to Ilmater then going god hunting if they survive the Great Green Dragon's test.

More work, better results?

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The "best" option: Add more to the fulcrum so good and evil are more balanced. You need not raise any new evil deities. You can balance by adding neutrality and a bit of Chaos. If not a dragon you have 38 divine ranks needing to be redistributed, some of which must be chaotic. This doesn't deal with dragons, or even possible any new gods, but can be completed almost entirely with converting gods various followers/nations to the worship of neutral deities. This has the advantage of being less evil; not raising new evil deities, and maybe only taking a bit from a bunch of different good gods. Easier to convince multiple good deities to give a bit of their power to something possibly ideologically similar in other aspects. Or even just make one CN god (a slaad mayhaps?) and distribute the rest to true neutral or an equal amount of law/chaos gods.

The draconic war is just a sidequest here, maybe a setting element. You will deal more with either people and followers, or outsiders of the law/chaos spectrum. Of course, some powers (the demonlords of the abyss, Asmodeaus, etc) want to "help" by taking power for themselves. Maybe they assist the PCs through proxies and then try to usurp the power someone else has given them. If they went to deities, then the magical mcguffin of awesome divinity storage might be opened by a lord of hell, or just a balor trying to move up the only way it can. They have to cross planes, ally with a faction opposed to said thief, get the mcguffin back before its seal is broken and someone gets divinity. If they do not do it in time, you get an evil deity of some stripe that buys you more time to fix things. You then get to go to all these good deities and try to convince them to still help, but they might not like it after your results, or may be unable to without sacrificing too much power, etc. Or they might require a great divine quest or crusade to agree to help again with more of their power which they directly transfer. During the ritual, more jealous or greedy beings break in trying to disrupt it hope to capture divinity themselves.

Let your imagination fly, you have options. You could purely do law vs. chaos as well and leave all the devils and stuff out of it, but you need to then avoid the lower planes' influential members and magic. You can sneak it all through hidden portals and be very cloak and dagger.

You may get lucky and just manage to be the largest evangelic movement in history to get people to worship the almighty farmer bob and his hogs, the Chaos Lord Ukjhk'Htskl the death slaad emperor, or the Fey Queen Titania.

The Hardest Way

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Ok so existence needs divinity? Ya know who'd be a great god. The PCs. Alignment whatever, they can just go kill the newest offending gods, share the divine wealth, maybe help the one new evil guy out, and take power themselves. This works especially well for evil (or highly chaotic) PCs. Your goal is to do exactly what caused this in the first place, kill a new (or some older) gods. Gods need a mortal voice, help them be more relate-able to the people. I'm a mortal voice, so why not.

Of course, by attempting divinity yourself, you merely becoming the targets of everyone. But the power of godhood is worth wading through attack from Demogorgon's lackys, Mephisto's slaves, Tyr's Solars,The formian great hive mothers endless nests, the slaad regime and everyone else, until you have what you need to steal the powers of godhood from whomever. If you want to use this as a short high level campaign, this option can work, or you can 1-20+ this in a place where literally everyone and everything or nearly so is against you. Your PCs must find allies where they can, artifacts for their final fight, with all of the planes against them. Can they do it? Do they have the power?

A little of this, a little of that?

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Combine all the above. You work with the dragons to raise one, but secretly you are helping a power in the lower planes. Or a neutral force. Or yourself. Doublecross everyone, have them do most the dirty work, and help them pick of the pieces. Maybe just play god(king) maker. Why do you do all this, why you and not someone else? Why you are the Pcs, and its your story. Your PCs have been called by destiny/gods/the multiverse/Cthulhu/farmer bob to do what only you can. Divinity cannot take direct agency, so they work through mortals. You just happen to be those mortals. Everything, all existence rests in your (more or less) capable hands. Reality is your essentially your toy. To you break it, fix it, rebuild it, or ignore it? Your call. There will be booze, there will be treasure, there will fame (or infamy), there will be a legend told forever about how you saved (or doomed) it all. Forever might just happen quicker than you think it will.

[Val666]

Encounter:

This is fun actually. This will fit really good in a campaign which have Daelkyr, Mind Flayers or The Far Realm as main boss.

1) Grab Illithids
2) Grab Dvatis
3) Voidmind every Dvati (both twins) you can
4) Make them learn or take Warblade levels
5) Grab Ironheart Surge

Now you have an army of enchanced Voidmind Dvatis. Some maneuvers work from range, so use half the twins as frontline fighters and the other half as ranged. Whenever ome of the frontline twins die the other twin will feel the sickness of losing his other half. Now Ironheart Surge removes a condition affecting your character. Only way of healing this sickness ia to bring your other half back to life so IHS will ress your twin.

Nearly Immortal army of Voidmind Dvatis at your service.

PD: When spending maneuvers with the frontliners you can recover maneuvers using the twin in the backline. Works the other way too.

[Flying Nostril]

Adventure Idea/Campaign

Character levels: any, but realistically 15-20 is probably best.

The Great White Whale:
The Obvious: A zombie space blue whale has been taken over by a band of pirates that travel between prime material plane planets/discs/ringworlds etc. These pirates land from space and raid villages--typically leaving no one alive, although they take as many captives as possible. Survivors say that the pirates wear regular clothing and armor, use weapons and magic like normal, but instead of regular bodies they have only skeletons that are constantly dripping blood. The PCs might be hired to stop their depredations or track them so that other groups can engage them (depends on their character level). High-DC knowledge(Local) or Knowledge(History) checks might reveal more information about the group: where they tend to strike, what time of the year/month, and other similar information.

The Secrets: The zombie space whale is an awakened zombie space whale with 1-20 levels of druid (again, depending on how difficult you want to make it). It is the real master of the pirate crew, whom it controls indirectly through a captain and a pair of wizards/other officers. It chooses which villages to hit and so on. It was the last animal companion of an ocean druid who chose to awaken it before they died, and so it lived for a long time awakened, gaining levels of druid. Eventually a human/whatever decided to make a life's work of hunting it and all of the whales like it, and succeeded in killing every blue whale in the ocean that this creature lived in. In the final confrontation between the two, the druid-blue whale destroyed the entire ship and crew of this whale hunter, and caught him in its mouth and crushed him to death. Mortally wounded, the druid blue whale died seething with hatred for all humanoids and their vile whale-killing ways. A god of undeath (pick one) took notice and short-stopped the whale's soul on it way to Obad-Hai and offered it a deal: return to life and continue to punish those who killed its kind or continue on and allow those who murder whales to be free. As a bonus, the god of undeath promised to curse the crew and captain that hunted it to death with a punishment fit for their crimes. Still enraged, the druid blue whale picks life, and is awarded with a zombified body. The whale's soul, now trapped in a body it loathes, discovers that the god of undeath made good on its promise to curse the whalers. It has cursed them to be bloody skeletons for all eternity bound in service to the whale. This means that unless the whale is destroyed the crew and captain re-surge back to blood dripping skeletal undeath some short time after their destruction (1d4 minutes/hours/days, depending on if your PCs can handle it), losing no levels in the process (though their stuff might be gone--certainly upsetting to your average pirate).

Additionally:
The crew can leave the whale-vessel for raids and shore leave. They capture as many people as possible to satisfy the whale's desire for revenge on humanoids, and when they have sacrificed enough captives they are granted shore leave--48 hours with their real bodies again. The captain and the officers should be high-powered NPCs with PC classes--in my game they are going to be gish tier 1 caster//tier 3 warrior combinations. The level of treasure these NPCs have could also be off the charts--they have been raiding and hunting like this for dozens, perhaps hundreds of years across numerous worlds. Heck if your players don't want to do it to save people they can at least do it for the money.

This setup also works for a one-off Encounter:
The players come across a few of the pirates on shore leave, and they behave curiously since their bodies are like those of Pirates of the Caribbean fame--they can't really die, they feel physical sensations only barely, and they have an utter disregard for the lives of everyone around them, perhaps including their own. This encounter can be tailored to the power level of the PCs again, but to lend credence to the legend of these villains I would make them very difficult, at least CR 2-3 higher than the PCs.

[Bohandas]

Intelligent dagger designed by demons to foment violent rebellions. It's beneficial when it falls into the hands of slaves or whatever (though even then it still creates an inappropriate number of civilian casualties) but even in benevolent lands it tries to overthrow the government and kill the leaders. If a rebellion succeeds it turns on the leaders of the rebellion, and so on until everyone's dead. It also has levels in psionic classes

Stabby McFacestab CE Intelligent Pitforged +2 Hideaway Anarchic Implacable Keen Dagger Ardent 5; Int 12 Wis 18 Cha 18; Speech, telepathy, read magic; 120 ft. darkvision, blindsense, and hearing; Lesser Powers: Invisibility 3/day, Knock 3/day, Sound Burst 3/day; Greater Power: Confusion 3/day; Special Purpose Power: Break Enchantment; Ardent Mantles: Chaos, Corruption, Deception, Freedom; Ardent Powers: Cloud Mind, Dimension Hop, False Sensory Input Matter Agitation, Mental Turmoil, Psionic Charm,

[Bohandas]

Hooks etc.:

-Babysitting a brass dragon wyrmling

-The river has turned to pus; find out why and undo it if possible

-The river has turned to piss; find out why and undo it if possible

-Sting operation to infiltrate the thieves' guild

[Bohandas]

Plot Hooks:

-Archon (or other LG or NG outsider) antivillain wants to mind control everyone into being happy and content all the time, to a degree detrimental to the survival prospects of creatures that actually need to eat and drink and stuff

-All the water has been turned to blood, which is attracting vampires. This has been done by a divine enemy of the sun god; this enemy is building a vampire army to destroy the sun god's temples and followers. The river blood grants them turn resistence.