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

[redzimmer]

@redzimmer;

I really like the "A God I Am" campaign path you outlined, and I think I like the "What They Left Behind"
even better, but ... did you intentionally not post part 6?. Or did I somehow miss it despite the fact I looked several times (entirely possible with my aged, decrepit, and disheveled mind)?

Part six was kind of a hard thing to make due to the amount of DM & PC input required. I might have neglected to post it or rolled it into a summation at the end of part 5. I'll check.

Huh, I guess I DID overlook it. I shall post and edit soon.

[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 s 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.

[lylsyly]

Part six was kind of a hard thing to make due to the amount of DM & PC input required. I might have neglected to post it or rolled it into a summation at the end of part 5. I'll check.

Huh, I guess I DID overlook it. I shall post and edit soon.

I thought you must have, someone who gives that much thought to a simple campaign guideline wouldn't normally miss posting a section off it.

Great work by the way.

Thank You.

[redzimmer]

I thought you must have, someone who gives that much thought to a simple campaign guideline wouldn't normally miss posting a section off it.

Great work by the way.

Thank You.

My pleasure. I'm now in the process of trying to God Mod A God Am I. Hopefully it works out.

[Bohandas]

Hook/Campaign Concept:

*A Journey to the West knockoff where the characters have been sent to retrieve a copy of some rare mystic book(s) from a far off land

Location Concept

Once, during a famine, a mad ruler had his land's remaining food buried in an elaborate mausoleum after a bombastic funeral ceremony. This is that mausoleum. (I don't know what would be inside it. Undead plant monsters? Rats?)

[redzimmer]

Villain

Count Erich Von Kreigr, devotee of Zarus.

He is governor of a colony of a human-supremacist theocracy:

Count Erich Von Kreigr
Male LE Human Paladin of Tyranny , Level 9, Init -1, HP 68/68, Speed
AC 22, Touch 10, Flat-footed 22, Fort +10, Ref +4, Will +6, Base Attack Bonus 9/4
Three times per day, you can command this +1 lance to fi re a 15-foot cone of searing fl ames from its tip, dealing 5d4 points of fi re damage to targ Blazing Skylance (Double damaged if charging mounted) +11/+6 (1d8+2, x3)
When you activate this weapon, you can launch either one spike (a standard action) or all six spikes (a full-round action) from its hilt as a ranged a Manticore Greatsword (6/day) +12/+7 (2d6+2, )
Heavy Mace +1 +12/+6 ( , )
Restful Crystal (MIC pg. 26) Full Plate +3 (+11 Armor, -1 Dex, +1 Deflect, +1 Natural)
Abilities Str 12, Dex 8, Con 15, Int 12, Wis 13, Cha 17
Condition None
16 pt + 4 each level (34)

[Matrota]

So after listening to some music recently I got an interesting idea for a small plot hook, or rather more of an NPC recruitment that turns out a little more than the party might have wished for. The somng that gave me the idea is 麻枝 准×やなぎなぎ「無敵のSoldier」.

Basically, there's a group of thieves/bandits that are causing trouble for nearby towns, and someone's forming a group to go take them out. PCs join in the interest of coin (and maybe justice), and go find and assault the hideout. In the end, emerging from some of the carnage, is a 15 year old boy/girl who looks terrified, that refuses to speak (potentially mute if you really wanna lay on the angst). The kiddo is actually a member of the bandits themselves, and has several levels in rogue, with a hefty bonus to sleight of hand. Have the npc who lead the assault take pity on the child who might have been dragged into it, or maybe the party PCs takes pity on the child and takes them in. Maybe just have the child look awed by their "saviors," and try to follow them. Build up some trust with some good bluffs, have the kiddo help the party in a few scuffles, and then one day have the kid start pulling random things out of their bag that they've stolen along the way. Comes to a moral judgement point, where the party has to decide whether to intervene and stop the kid from resorting to old habits of theft. Or, potentially have the kid steal right in front of their eyes and get caught, and then have the party blamed for aiding in theft. Whatever suits your fancy.

Note: This will probably work best in a heavy roleplay campaign, min-maxing murder hobos probably won't care too much about the problems of a 15 year old thief.

[redzimmer]

Campaign Setting - Plot Not Included

Level: Adjustable, depending on the hook.


Twenty years ago, explorers from the most-populous continent discovered a New World across the vast, uncharted sea. The people already living in this New World were surprised to hear they were new.
Over the next two decades, explorers, adventurers, conquerors and settlers moved to this New World. The natives were for the most part unimpressed.
The PCs begin at a New Town, just founded, at the furthest inland expansion in the New World.


Hooks

Scallywags! (Level 1-2): A n'er-do-well has set up a den of iniquity (prostitution, gambling, dog-fights, drugs, poetry slams) in a nearby clearing and is fleecing the population and undermining the settlement. Shut them down, or depending on alignment and inclination, take it over.

Olive Branch (Level 3-5): Local humanoid natives have been raiding the town and outlying farms. Find a way to either make peace or wipe them out.

The City of Gold (Level 6-7): Many rumours abound of a lost city of an ancient empire of reptilian humanoids that died out eons ago. Untold riches, lost magic and whatever else a greedy PC might want just happens to be there.
However, the city once found proves to not be as dead as they thought...

We the People (level 7-10): The Lawful Evil empire from which the settlers were exiled from has decided to impose its rule more directly. Taxes, sanctions, religious persecution and all manner of oppressive policies are stamping the independent spirit of the New World.
The time to rise up and throw off the shackles of the empire is at hand!

[Bohandas]

Plot Hook/Adventure:
Inversion of Super Mario Brothers. A metallic dragon hires the PCs to investigate a cult of Zuggtmoy worshippers operating out of a city's sewers.

Plot Hook/Adventure:
Reverse dungeon/mirror fight. The (royal palace/mayor's office/questgiver's abode/whatever) is being raided and looted piecemeal by a criminal gang of evil aligned adventurers. The PCs are hired to stop them.

[redzimmer]

I wish I could upvote this.

[Bucky]

Pandora's Box (Adventure): The PCs come across an ancient anti-magic field vault full of what looks like valuable magical jewelry. In reality, it's a repository of lich phylacteries, whose owners haven't been able to respawn in centuries because the vault suppressed them. Now that the vault's looted, they're coming back at a rate of several per day, with no idea what happened except that the PCs were apparently involved. Then a powerful Good organization investigating the sudden surge in lich sightings muffs some divinations and becomes convinced that the party has secured their services and tries to hold them accountable.

Appropriate for a level 16+ party.

[Bohandas]

Ring of the Lords
Ok, so i recently saw this post by Giledragon and it immediately gave me an idea for a story arc about an intelligent magic ring who wants to control all other intelligent magic items and is attempting to do so via the intermediary of various humanoid patsies like a role reversed version of Lord of the Rings.
To extend the LoTR analogy perhaps The ring's not too much of a threat at the moment because it's been seperated from it's main humanoid minion, whom you need to assassinate before he can be reunited with it

[ShadowFX]

:::So this is my current campaign. It's my first time writing my own, and I know it is very derivative, but it morphs into its own further on.::

The players start out on a very basic dungeon crawl. You see, for the past five years they have been attending an adventurer's guild, training to become guardians of the continent. Upon completion of the initial crawl, they are full-fledged members of the Guild, and are given their first quest. The king of the Eastern Kingdom has summoned them. There has been a series of villages ransacked by invading forces from the Southern Kingdom. This is very unlike the southern races, who have normally lived in a very tribal, peaceful state, for hundreds of years.

The party travels to the villages that are being invaded, and there they come upon the invaders, who have been ensorcelled by a spellcaster, causing them to become enraged, full of bloodlust, killing everything in sight. They are now tasked by the king of the Eastern realm to travel to the far side of the continent, to retrieve an ancient relic, the Horn of Gygax, in hopes that it will dispel the bloodlust.

When they have retrieved it, they return to find the entire Eastern Kingdom's capital city fallen, the king slain. In a final desperate attempt to achieve victory, they fight their way through the city, climbing the highest tower and sounding the Horn of Gygax.

The fury of the battle lessens for just a moment, a long breath, before returning to full fury. But on the horizon a shape appears. A roar splits the air, the sound of massive wings beating the air. The dragons have awoken!!!

[danielxcutter]

:::So this is my current campaign. It's my first time writing my own, and I know it is very derivative, but it morphs into its own further on.::

The players start out on a very basic dungeon crawl. You see, for the past five years they have been attending an adventurer's guild, training to become guardians of the continent. Upon completion of the initial crawl, they are full-fledged members of the Guild, and are given their first quest. The king of the Eastern Kingdom has summoned them. There has been a series of villages ransacked by invading forces from the Southern Kingdom. This is very unlike the southern races, who have normally lived in a very tribal, peaceful state, for hundreds of years.

The party travels to the villages that are being invaded, and there they come upon the invaders, who have been ensorcelled by a spellcaster, causing them to become enraged, full of bloodlust, killing everything in sight. They are now tasked by the king of the Eastern realm to travel to the far side of the continent, to retrieve an ancient relic, the Horn of Gygax, in hopes that it will dispel the bloodlust.

When they have retrieved it, they return to find the entire Eastern Kingdom's capital city fallen, the king slain. In a final desperate attempt to achieve victory, they fight their way through the city, climbing the highest tower and sounding the Horn of Gygax.

The fury of the battle lessens for just a moment, a long breath, before returning to full fury. But on the horizon a shape appears. A roar splits the air, the sound of massive wings beating the air. The dragons have awoken!!!

Nice. Hope this isn't thread necromancy, though.

[redzimmer]

Nope. Updated as often as possible. Thanks for your concern.

[redzimmer]

Encounter

A particularly powerful Djinn manages to summon the PCs via an augmented Summon Monster spell.

While under the effect of the spell the PCs are subjected to every type of summoned monster abuse and Munchkin genie shenanigans possible.

[Bohandas]

Hook for Eberron
The cleric receives prophetic dreams from his god in which he is given tasks to carry out. Later it turns out that he's merely being incepted by the Quori.

[Bohandas]

Adventure Concept
Disrupt the illithid equivalent of a cattle drive

[danielxcutter]

Adventure Concept
Disrupt the illithid equivalent of a cattle drive

You know, I think the Underdark actually does have cattle. Or more like buffalo, if I remember correctly, but yeah.

[redzimmer]

Rothé they're called.

[IIzak]

Plot Hook/Adventure:

Deal with the Devil

I like this idea as a way to take the PC's into hell, as it's a lot of fun. When the PC's need help, point them in the direction of a Devil near town that offers to help people who enter into contracts with him. It's a lot of fun to actually type out a contract and physically make the PC's sign it. You do this because the Devil secretly writes clauses in invisible ink into the contract that the PC's will most likely unwittingly agree to. My favorite way to do this is that if someone needs something really big, you have that devil say "well, I can't actually give you what you want, but I know some people who can, if you sign a contract with me, I'll put you in touch with them." The clause would be something like "Kill (The person that he's sending them to) within X days or pay (The devil who gives them the contract) 500,000gp. Failure to comply with any clause in the contract is grounds for the forfeiture of the soul of the people who signed this contract. or something like that. This means that they have to secure the assistance of the next person in order to get what they want, and they have to kill them, without tipping them off.

[Braininthejar2]

The burned tower:

This necromancer used to be the terror of the mountain pass, adding travellers to his collection of undead. But now there seems to have been a fire in his tower's top floors, and he hasn't ventured out for days. Someone sends the party there to investigate (in my version, the party ran afoul of a local orc tribe - the orcs decided that they could rob and kill the adventurers, but they would serve them better as disposable scouts.)

Spoiler

Show

The tower is still infested with undead, and even some weak constructs, an ample challenge for a low level party. The necromancer would have destroyed them with ease - but as it turns out, he has succumbed to age and disease, unable to achieve lichdom in time. His last, desperate gambit to cheat death backfired disastrously - one does not attempt planar binding while delirious with fever. The summoned efreet set his library alight, and warped his wish by turning him into a curst, granting him immortality at the cost of all his power and much of his mind. The once powerful wizard is now reduced to a raving lunatic, that won't stay down no matter how many times the party dismember him.

[Bohandas]

How about something with a Hellraiser-style cult of deranged sadomasochists who operate out of the positive energy plane (where too much life makes you explode and thus is the perfect habitat for deranged supersadomasochists

[Braininthejar2]

An idea from an old adventure I once read - a man used to grow up in an abusive home, suffering at the hands of his deranged relatives after his mother, the only good person in his life, passed away.

One day the home burned down under mysterious circumstances, the boy being the only survivor. However, something (his grandfather's occult experiments are the main suspect) cursed him, preserving his nightmarish childhood inside his mind.

Now he periodically suffers from episodes where he randomly falls unconscious and into a nightmare, and pulls nearby people in with him. He's a helpless child inside his own mind, and the twisted reflections of his family gleefully go Freddy Kruger on any outsiders.

Spoiler

Show

The ghost of the mother will try to give them clues - they can't leave, and killing the kid would be horribly risky, as he's the dreamer - what they need to do is try to find the pieces of his toy sword, an item that can be used to defeat the grandfather.

I could probably remember more details if asked.

[danielxcutter]

How about something with a Hellraiser-style cult of deranged sadomasochists who operate out of the positive energy plane (where too much life makes you explode and thus is the perfect habitat for deranged supersadomasochists

Not gonna lie, that could fit a cult of Ragnorra, an Elder Evil, surprisingly well.

[redzimmer]

What are Kytons if not Cenobites of a different name?

[Bohandas]

You know, I think the Underdark actually does have cattle. Or more like buffalo, if I remember correctly, but yeah.

Yeah, but I meant that the illithids are moving thralls

[Braininthejar2]

* A mission in Carceri that involves getting a vital piece of information - from a village of petitioners who are all compulsive liars.

[TheFamilarRaven]

One Shot Adventure (Pathfinder, level 4-5)
The party wanders into a village. While staying at the inn, they over hear the locals expressing concern about a band of hunters who have been missing for a few days. That night, a gang of ghouls assault the town. They bear a striking resemblance to the missing hunters. Following the ghouls' tracks leads the party to a cave occupied by a newly born Nabasu Demon.

[J-H]

(Inspired partly by Worm)

Large city environment
Medium level PCs

The Seven Deadly Sins are in town recruiting apprentices. A wandering band of mercenaries, murderers, and servants of evil, each of their members keeps up to two apprentices (possible replacements) as well as a number of lesser minions. Each follows a theme associated with their name, although there may be some surprising variations. Powerful and crazy, they set rules and make attempts to kill them into a twisted sort of game.

They have kidnapped the entire royal family, and are holding them captive somewhere in the city. The military and militant church orders are being watched somehow, and last time they tried to slip forces out to act, a Projected Image was sent to the front door of the appropriate building, showing the prince's hand being cut off. His hand was Dimension Doored over a half minute later.

The city is in moderately controlled chaos, with many stabilizing forces forced into inactivity, the government paralyzed, and a band of serial killers in charge.

PC objectives may include any and all of:

• Kill or wipe out the Seven
• Drive them off
• Avoid being recruited as apprentices
• Successfully be recruited as apprentices
• Kill off minions of the Seven
• Find and rescue the royal family
• Develop a method to let the army, paladins, churches, etc., participate
• Build a relationship with the Thieves Guild, Bards Guild, etc., for information that can help with all of the above
• Stop any nefarious plans the Seven may have while in town (poisoning food, water, summoning monsters, etc.)
• Suppress the elevated levels of ordinary crime
• Persuade non-governmental actors (independent wizards, nobles, wealthy merchants) to act

You could probably assign point values to each of these items, and declare victory for a given number of points.

As for the Seven? That's up to you, but I would probably go with Wrath as some type of Rager, Lust as a succubus or enchanter, Pride as a wizard or a blademaster (Eternal blade?), etc. One of them should be a clear leader who is very, very hard to pin down and kill, and who provides vision and keeps the group in line.

The Seven should be each generally doing their own thing, but should still be in frequent contact and frequently meeting each other. The PCs might track down one, only to find three and be forced to retreat.