Help me build on this...

[Moff Chumley]

Hey, RPG section of the forum. Haven't posted in a while, mainly because I haven't D&D'd for almost a year. However, today, a pair of friends suggested we start a 4e game, and I obliged. We rolled up characters, set up a DMs screen, used a chess-set as a battle map, et cetera. I started ad-libing a campaign: the two PCs, a Dwarven Paladin of Kord and an Elven Ranger, were kicked out of a small nation for assault and theft, respectively. There was a short adventure, which mainly consisted of beating up some undead (bearing the symbol of an unidentified, minor evil god) and bandits, then being hired by a gnomish smuggler to help him get his goods back into the kingdom the players were kicked out of. After much sneakiness, the PCs got to their destination within Lanker (Aforementioned kingdom), at which point we stopped.

The backstory I came up with on the fly: Lanker is a small, yet populous nation. The secretive government is run by a very fundamentalist, very corrupt sect of the Raven Queen. Merchant families and Guilds basically run the country, with the exception of the Guard: a large force controlled by a paladin of the Raven Queen, created (and largely still used) to ward off the constant Orc invasions, but also used to keep the country in the governments control. One of the edicts of the priests of the Raven Queen was banning alcohol that wasn't created within the country, creating a huge demand for smuggled booze. Which, of course, is what the gnome that hired the characters was doing.

That's all I have right now. Literally, thats IT. And ideas on where I can take this world and campaign?

[Vorpal word]

Those unholy symbols on the undead? Say the orcs are cultists of said god, who is at odds with the Raven Queen. Or maybe the god is actually Orcus in a different guise, trying to dupe the orcs into worshipping him. Whatever it is, those two things should probably connect. Convincing the PCs to side with the Raven Queen as opposed to Orcus could make for some interesting plot, since they are currently working against the kingdom and will have a harder time getting a good name.

[Seonor]

1. Why are the Orcs attacking? Are they forced by another power to leave their homes, have the humans stolen something from the orcs (a holy relic, land or slaves) or are they just overpopulated? Any chance of piece?

2. They just completed a mission for a smuggler? A rival organisation tries to expand their territory. Classical Gang/Mob war. Think prohibition/1930.

3. Prison escape. They are exiled and came back smuggling forbidden stuff? The guard captures them and send them to prison. Or they are pardoned if they help to bring down a major crime syndicate from the inside.

4. There is a new cult spreading through the land, and one of its symbols is similar to the one on the undead. They are actually trying to awaken an old god who was slain hundreds of years ago.

5. The orcs managed to occupy a small unimportand area. After they were driven off, there are rumors the orcs tried to digg something up. What realy happend is that the orcs uncoverd some ancient ruins, but couldn't explore them. Classic dungeoncrawl, go in, kill what doesn't run fast enough away and take the loot.
Or the orcs are trying to establish an alliance with some underground empire and there was the nearest convinient entrance to the cave system the empire inhabits.

[Moff Chumley]

The way I see it, there are two threads going on here: the kingdom of Lanker, and the undead. Needless to say, the two will have to tie together eventually, but I'd rather refrain from having anyone TOO obvious be a cultist of the yet unnamed god. I'll try to think of another faction tying the two together.

A little fluff on Lanker:
Several hundred years ago, colonists from a northern continent settled along the coast of a peninsula, due to overcrowding and lack of food in their homeland. They quickly became successful farmers, fishers, and manufacturers, and the wealth the acquired via trade gave rise to several powerful merchant families. However, once the people of Lanker (for that was the name they gave their empire) started to press inland towards the mountainous center of the peninsula, they began to encounter several waring orc tribes. At first, the two groups stayed out of each others way, until about one hundred years ago, a human Paladin of the Raven Queen (who had always been a favorite of the powerful merchant families) and a small army he brought together began to actively wipe out the orcs. Eventually, he managed to push the orcs out of the peninsula entirely, and established a chain of fortresses on the mountainous neck of the peninsula to keep the orcs out. That hasn't stopped the orcs from trying, however. Today, that paladin's grandson is the de facto leader of Lanker. General St. Griffin is certainly a great warrior and a savvy politician, but Lanker's Parliament, made up mostly of representatives of merchant families and clergy of the Raven Queen, is the true power. Over the last hundred years, a profitable mining industry has sprung up in the former orc lands, contributing further to Lanker's wealth.

A young man in Lanker has very few choices: work for one of the merchant families as a miner, farmer, or dockhand at one of the gargantuan ports along the coast; or be drafted into the now huge Empirical Guard for several years.

There are four major cities in Lanker: Greyport, the center of shipping and commerce and one of the largest and wealthiest (yet still miserable) cities in Lanker; Queenhold, a fortress and accompanying city in the mountains in the center of the peninsula that's a power of mining and military, as well as the seat of St. Griffin's power; Newport, the wealthiest city in Lanker as well as the home of Parliament; and finally Clifftop, the home of several large merchant families, as well as Clifftop School, where most of the upper class between the ages of 12 and 18 reside.

Sorry for the wall 'o text, I'm just getting exited. :smallbiggrin: