DiscipleofBob
2009-08-11, 02:17 AM
Ok, bad pun aside, here's the deal.
My players are about to move into elven territory, and by elven territory I mean forest-overgrown ruins with one large treetop village. Their purpose in the area, either pass through on way to the shifter and gnoll lands where the BBEG is causing trouble, or to win the elves' help against the trouble the BBEG is causing. They don't exactly know what's going on in the area, this is just where the trail leads. I'm having a little writer's DM's block with designing the one major elven city, major/interesting elven NPC's, immediately relevant combat or skill encounters, and possibly a hallucinogenic druid trial, but that's later. I'm just looking for a few ideas
Elves in this campaign are rather xenophobic, but with good reason. They pretty much live in one giant tree city with enemies on all sides, goblin barbarians to the west, hostile human nation to the south, gnoll and shifter tribes to the east in conflict with resources, and a fey kingdom to the north. They will meet the party with hostility and at best, take them captive to decide whether to shoot them now or later.
The party consists of the following:
A female human rogue with a noble background,
A male human fullblade fighter
A female tiefling infernalock
A male half-elf bard
A male shifter druid
Also 2 NPC's who might be accompanying them:
A female eladrin with no real power or combat value, she was just rescued by the party, and her sister's being manipulated by the BBEG in the area.
A sentient brain-in-a-jar who helps the party because the BBEG killed his best friend, not to mention he reeeally doesn't want to be dropped. For flavor purposes, I've ruled that the brain doesn't have any senses other than some minor telepathy and whoever he happens to dominates. Oh, and he can't dominate anything without express permission from the party because he's too afraid they might break his jar as a punishment. So basically unless the party specifically gives permission, the brain doesn't even know what he's going on.
So there's definitely going to be a social skill challenge as they try to convince the elven chief to a) not kill them, and b) assist them against the BBEG's efforts in the area. Success means they can roam the elven city freely and plan from there. Failure does not necessarily mean death, but the elven archdruid will step in and request the party be kept captive until he can determine whether or not the nature goddess wants them alive or not. Basically, being stuck in prison, probably having to deal with some sort of hallucinogenic druid vision quest before being trusted.
Stuff working against the party as far as this skill challenge is as follows:
- The eladrin chick who's probably going to be traveling with them. Elves hate eladrin. In this world, eladrin were once regular noble elves who abandoned their soldiers and citizens to start another arcane-based nation elsewhere, leaving modern-day elves to fend for themselves.
- Although he won't be traveling to the elf city with the party, the gnoll chief entered the region allied with the party. Elves are at war with gnolls, so they'll take this as the party being on the gnoll's side. He'll split off before the party reaches elven territory, but probably not before elven scouts see him traveling with the party.
- Same deal with the shifter chief, who was also traveling with the party, but will split up with the party before they reach the elven city.
- One of the party members is a shifter. Yeah, that'll go over well with the elves.
- The rogue of the party has a certain pendant belonging to the missing elven princess. Earlier, the party had to kill said princess as she was a necromancer's girlfriend.
- Oh, don't forget the undead abomination known as the brain in the jar, which might be well-meaning and helpful, but he's still an undead brain.
Stuff which might work in the party's favor:
- The shifter, even though he's a shifter and therefore a natural enemy of the elves, is a druid, and the druids have at least some respect for one another, no matter the race.
- A human woman staying with the elves, Rosalina, is studying botany and other naturey stuff with the elves. She happens to be a childhood friend of the party rogue.
I think that's pretty much everything so far. Any suggestions?
My players are about to move into elven territory, and by elven territory I mean forest-overgrown ruins with one large treetop village. Their purpose in the area, either pass through on way to the shifter and gnoll lands where the BBEG is causing trouble, or to win the elves' help against the trouble the BBEG is causing. They don't exactly know what's going on in the area, this is just where the trail leads. I'm having a little writer's DM's block with designing the one major elven city, major/interesting elven NPC's, immediately relevant combat or skill encounters, and possibly a hallucinogenic druid trial, but that's later. I'm just looking for a few ideas
Elves in this campaign are rather xenophobic, but with good reason. They pretty much live in one giant tree city with enemies on all sides, goblin barbarians to the west, hostile human nation to the south, gnoll and shifter tribes to the east in conflict with resources, and a fey kingdom to the north. They will meet the party with hostility and at best, take them captive to decide whether to shoot them now or later.
The party consists of the following:
A female human rogue with a noble background,
A male human fullblade fighter
A female tiefling infernalock
A male half-elf bard
A male shifter druid
Also 2 NPC's who might be accompanying them:
A female eladrin with no real power or combat value, she was just rescued by the party, and her sister's being manipulated by the BBEG in the area.
A sentient brain-in-a-jar who helps the party because the BBEG killed his best friend, not to mention he reeeally doesn't want to be dropped. For flavor purposes, I've ruled that the brain doesn't have any senses other than some minor telepathy and whoever he happens to dominates. Oh, and he can't dominate anything without express permission from the party because he's too afraid they might break his jar as a punishment. So basically unless the party specifically gives permission, the brain doesn't even know what he's going on.
So there's definitely going to be a social skill challenge as they try to convince the elven chief to a) not kill them, and b) assist them against the BBEG's efforts in the area. Success means they can roam the elven city freely and plan from there. Failure does not necessarily mean death, but the elven archdruid will step in and request the party be kept captive until he can determine whether or not the nature goddess wants them alive or not. Basically, being stuck in prison, probably having to deal with some sort of hallucinogenic druid vision quest before being trusted.
Stuff working against the party as far as this skill challenge is as follows:
- The eladrin chick who's probably going to be traveling with them. Elves hate eladrin. In this world, eladrin were once regular noble elves who abandoned their soldiers and citizens to start another arcane-based nation elsewhere, leaving modern-day elves to fend for themselves.
- Although he won't be traveling to the elf city with the party, the gnoll chief entered the region allied with the party. Elves are at war with gnolls, so they'll take this as the party being on the gnoll's side. He'll split off before the party reaches elven territory, but probably not before elven scouts see him traveling with the party.
- Same deal with the shifter chief, who was also traveling with the party, but will split up with the party before they reach the elven city.
- One of the party members is a shifter. Yeah, that'll go over well with the elves.
- The rogue of the party has a certain pendant belonging to the missing elven princess. Earlier, the party had to kill said princess as she was a necromancer's girlfriend.
- Oh, don't forget the undead abomination known as the brain in the jar, which might be well-meaning and helpful, but he's still an undead brain.
Stuff which might work in the party's favor:
- The shifter, even though he's a shifter and therefore a natural enemy of the elves, is a druid, and the druids have at least some respect for one another, no matter the race.
- A human woman staying with the elves, Rosalina, is studying botany and other naturey stuff with the elves. She happens to be a childhood friend of the party rogue.
I think that's pretty much everything so far. Any suggestions?