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View Full Version : Help Me Brainstorm Adventure Ideas?



Muz
2009-03-06, 02:32 PM
First of all, forgive me if this should go in the Homebrew forum. I put it here because I'm not looking so much for nitty-gritty specifics but ideas of a more general nature, but if I'm wrong, I apologize. :smallsmile:

So I'm DMing a (D&D) game in a world of my own making, and the continent the PCs are on has a long east-west mountain range separating about a fifth of the continent on the north side. The party will be crossing the mountains to the other side (they're not yet sure how, but they've access to aerial transport, so that won't pose too much of a problem, and they've found a pass they could traverse on foot as well). So now I have to populate the place and come up with an adventure idea or two. I have a few general elements, but nothing yet that links together into a cohesive adventure. I'm asking you folks for help.

Here's what I DO know:
1) The place is generally wild and dangerous, though not a complete anathema to people trying to eek out a living and some sort of home life--at least in some areas.

2) Many centuries ago, a group of elves was exiled up there. They were more on the neutral part of the spectrum, but with evil tendencies. They now have some sort of culture up there, and the party has met one of them who ventured across the mountains again. (They're not all evil, or even primarily so, just unscrupulous, I suppose.)

3) There are some humans up there as well, though there are no major cities. Mostly I figure there's no government organization, and things are somewhat tribal or clannish.

4) There's at least some orcish population as well, and the party has once discovered human and orcish slaves taken from that area who, once rescued, seemed to be looking to partner up as a mercenary company, so there's not TOO much animosity between orcs and humans...at least not in the standard "humans good, orcs evil" kind of way. (The slaves were owned by a fire giant that the party ran into in the aforementioned pass.)

5) There's a magical garden up there (of which the PCs know the general location) created by a powerful elf wizardess who went around the continent 6 centuries prior seeding such gardens. The garden is a good place of peace and healing. (And if you're curious, these gardens are ripped off directly from Erana's gardens in the Quest for Glory series.) The elf who created them is accounted for elsewhere (and currently indisposed), so she won't come into play directly.

6) Here's the big one: I'm really looking for some way to use a death knight. I'm thinking he's going to be the lieutenant to a lich whose got a fortress tucked away in one part of the region. (Surrounded, of course, by pestilence and undead.) I don't plan for them to go up against the lich himself any time soon, though. I'm also considering resurrecting an old enemy of the party that was killed a while back, so feel free to toss in a vampire-wizard into the mix if you see a good spot for one. :smallwink:

7) The area is mostly forested to the east and central regions, giving way to a moorlandish area (where I figure the lich might make his home), beyond which is a small desert area. The humans/elves/orcs I figure mostly live in the more forested areas and near the moorlands.

So...any thoughts on how to draw an adventure out of this? Specific, general, it's all good. Brainstorming welcome! :smallsmile: