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Lycan 01
2009-09-08, 04:00 PM
So I've managed to cobble together a nice little group for DnD 4e. Yaaaaay... At the moment, its 3 people, with a 4th joining us on occassion. Here's a quick run-down of the party...

Roommate -
Lvl 3 Human Paladin: (Good) Mix of tank and healer. Great in combat, and lots of healing items and abilities. Roleplay wise, he's comedy gold. His Paladin worships the Flying Spaghetti Monster, who's followers number about about 12 - most of whom were converted by said Paladin. He gets XP for conversions, and some of his powers have a spaghetti theme to them...

Buddy -
Lvl 2 Halfling Warlock: (Chaotic Evil) Psychotic Striker of the party. He's pretty good in combat, and he's usually coming up with crazy plans that somehow work. Roleplay wise, he's also quite entertaining. Picture Belkar, but with the ability to light people on fire. His backstory is an interesting one - he got his powers from his dad, who was a human Lich, and mom was a halfling Necrophiliac. :smalleek: (I know, not possible, but we thought it was hilarious...)

Girlfriend -
Lvl 2 Shifter Druid: (Chaotic Good) Nature loving controller for the team. He's actually more wolfen in appearance than human, essentially being a humanoid wolf in armor. This makes for great roleplaying material, as he's shunned by the human world yet he doesn't completely fit into the animal world due to his human aspects. He hasn't made an in-game appearance yet, so I can't give you much on him...

Buddy's big bro -
Lvl 2 Tiefling Avenger: (?) I don't know anything about this character, really. He hasn't joined us yet, but he's got his character mostly put together. No real clue as to when he'll actually be playing with us...




Anyway, here's my problem. I don't know where to go with this group. I don't know if I want to just offer them random one-shot adventures and somehow string them together, or actually present them with a serious storyline to work with. I have ideas for both options...


Currently, the Paladin and the Rogue are in a small town they've been using as a base of operations for the past few sessions. (They were part of the group last year, which basically TPK'ed when I through more at them than I should have... oops. :smalleek:) They just cleared out a goblin camp, and have heard rumors of an Ork war party attacking town further up North. I'll have them meet up with the Druid during our next session...

Now, I have a few ideas for where to go from here.


Idea 1: Ork War Party
The Ork tribes to the North have recently been attacking and raiding settlements in the far North. Supposedly, there's little chance of them attacking towns this far South. Well, once the players leave their town, they'll stumble upon an Ork scouting group, which will provide them with much needed XP and information on the Ork's battle plans, which reveal that the town they frequent so much will be attacked in a few days. They'll then have a few options...
-They can return to the town, help to muster its defences, and defend it from the attackers when they arrive. This will mostly be skill rolls to help convince people to fight in the battle and build up the defences, and the battle itself will have them fighting several Ork elites and leaders while the townspeople keep (most of) the minions at bay.
-They can head off towards other local towns and try to convince people to help. Skill rolls will help them recruit mercenaries and warriors, as well as procure supplies. They'll arive mid-siege, though, and the battle will be a bit tougher since the Orks have the upper hand. But they'll have several decent NPCs to aid in the combat.
-They can try to intercept the raiders, and take out their leader. If they can find and sneak into the Ork camp under cover of darkness, killing their leader(s) will throw the group into confussion and chaos. But getting caught or screwing up would mean almost certain death... :smalleek:


Idea 2: Return of the Young Black Dragon!
This is more of an option, really. When the party next returns to their beloved town (perhaps after encountering the Ork scouts), they'll return to find the town under attack. Apparently, the Young Black Dragon from the Paladin and Warlock's old adventure has returned to wreak havok on them for killing off its tribe of Kobold followers. Naturally, I'll have lowered the difficulty of this guy to make him fair for a party of lvl 3-ish adventurers... Plus, they only have to get him down to half-health before he chickens out and flies off. There are a few variables for this, too...
-If the battle takes place in the town, I may provide a few environmental aids. For example, a guard tower with a ballista or giant crossbow in it. One player could run and use that while the others distracted the dragon.
-Town guards and other such NPCs could rush in to aid the heroes... or at least serve as cannon fodder to keep the dragon busy while the heroes come up with a plan or something.
-If the heroes were to go to the Ork base camp as previously described, and screw up somehow so that they're facing certain death, the Black Dragon could swoop in at that exact moment for revenge, rampaging through the Ork camp before finally getting to the stunned heroes. The dragon takes some hits before the encounter, AND the heroes no longer face certain doom... :smalltongue:


Idea 3: Just a bunch of random quests.
I have a bunch of random quests though up to run them through. A few examples include...

-A small town to the South has a paranoid Mayor. To get a good plot and make most of my players laugh, the Mayor is Adam West, and the town is actually called "Adam West Land" or something of the sort. Well, the Mayor believes his friends are out to get him, so he hires the party to go kill them. Well, it turns out they're planning a suprise party for the Mayor's birthday, so the players can either kill the friend's to get the rewards Adam West promised, or they can lure him back to where the party is in exchange for XP. Kind of a light-hearted quest...

-An old wizard is having a yard sale. He'll offer the party some gold and items if they help him get some stuff out of his attack and into the yard. Well, they bite off more than they can chew, with various monsters popping out of cursed luggage and random furniture trying to eat them, as well as the occassional cursed or poisoned knick-knack. They'll get good loot and XP for their trouble, though... Also kind of a light-hearted quest...

-An old abandoned castle is located to the East of their hometown. Its full of skeletons, zombies, traps, and other various risks. Decent loot and XP rewards expected. Basically, its an old fashioned dungeon crawl...

-A town on the Eastern coast is having a bit of a pirate problem. The adventurers are hired to help pose as passengers on a "merchant" ship that will serve to lure out the pirates. Once the ship is boarded, the players are to take out the main pirate leaders on board, and if possible discover the location of the pirates' base. Pretty good loot and XP expected, and it could possibly lead to more pirate hunting quests...


That's all off the top of my head...



So yeah. I'm just not too sure where I want to go with this group. Anti-Ork campaign, optional Dragon revenge attack, or just a bunch of "adventure of the week" games? :smallconfused:


And yes, I DO realize I spelled Orc with a k. Warhammer 40K is to blame for that, and I'm too lazy to go back and fix all the times I said Ork. :smalltongue:

Leeham
2009-09-08, 04:20 PM
You gotta go with the orks man (40k power!). Also, your paladin sounds hilarious! Our paladin just keeps looking at my notes....

FoE
2009-09-08, 04:55 PM
So why is the halfling warlock with the party? Is he doing community service? :smalltongue:

Lycan 01
2009-09-08, 06:18 PM
The Paladin is, indeed, hilarious. His Channel Divinity is a healing power that allows an ally to spend a healing surge and find themselves with a full stomach and the taste of spaghetti in their mouth, and his Daily Power (On Pain of Death) causes noodles to appear and writhe within the target's body. :smalleek: He actually stopped in the middle of a battle once, sank to one knee in front of a terrified Kobold minion, and offered it eternal salvation and all-you-can-eat spaghetti dinners. That's right. He converted the Kobold to Pastafarianism. :smallbiggrin:


IIRC, the Warlock and the Paladin met while walking in the woods one day. Its as simple as that. They were both headed in the same direction, and they decided to team up as adventurers. Then the Warlock blew up a cow. Which, over a course of several sessions, resulted in the founding of "Eliam's Burger Palace and Evening Inn." And Eliam was the old starving farmer who's cow the Warlock exploded, not the Warlock himself.


There used to be a Human Wizard and a Dragonborn Warlord in the party, but the Wizard blew himself up in order to distract the dragon, and the Warlord... well... he wasn't invited back to play with us this time around for a variety of reasons. :smallsigh:



Okay, I think I'm going to throw the Orks at 'em tonight... I'll have 'em bump into the scouting party (4 Ork minions, 4 Ork fighters, and 1 Ork berserker) and then they can spend the rest of the session deciding what they want to do about the inevitable Ork invasion...


So when should the Dragon show up? :smallconfused:


Oh, and if they just decide to ignore the town and let it be burnt to the ground, I'll dangle an Alignment shift over their heads, since they're consciously deciding to let hundreds of innocent people die because they are too lazy/scared to do anything at all...

Strawman
2009-09-08, 07:37 PM
There is a dwarf that wants to connect the town with a nearby city, but the orc camp is in the way. He wants to connect the two locations with a primitive locomotive. If you succeed in eliminating the orc camp, and any other threats along the path, the dwarf agrees to build a temple to the Paladin's god in either the town or the city. If the party does exceptionally well, the dwarf will build a temple in both locations.

The dragon shows up when the party is on the inaugural ride of the locomotive. They have to go up to the train's roof and do combat with the dragon atop a moving train.

If the train is kept very primitive, it shouldn't be too out of place in a medieval setting. Especially in a campaign as silly as yours seems to be. :smallbiggrin:

Lycan 01
2009-09-08, 11:51 PM
There is a dwarf that wants to connect the town with a nearby city, but the orc camp is in the way. He wants to connect the two locations with a primitive locomotive. If you succeed in eliminating the orc camp, and any other threats along the path, the dwarf agrees to build a temple to the Paladin's god in either the town or the city. If the party does exceptionally well, the dwarf will build a temple in both locations.

The dragon shows up when the party is on the inaugural ride of the locomotive. They have to go up to the train's roof and do combat with the dragon atop a moving train.

If the train is kept very primitive, it shouldn't be too out of place in a medieval setting. Especially in a campaign as silly as yours seems to be. :smallbiggrin:


Hmmm... I like it. :smallbiggrin: The main city in the country/province/whatever they're in right now is due West from the town they frequent so much. The main city is technologically advanced, with a very Steam-punk atmosphere. In fact, I was planning a mission for them waaaay later on where they get hired to protect an airship from air pirates. This would then open up other countries/provinces/whatever up to them via air travel...

At any rate, its no stretch that the Dwarves would be building a railroad across the land, since the only real way to and from the capitol city is through a mountain pass that's quite dangerous. It makes since that the Orks might slow it down, and taking care of them would get the project back on track, so to speak. :smalltongue:


Even if they end up dealing with the Orks in a different manner, like the town siege, I can still use the railroad idea. The Dwarf might pay them to help defend the railroad from the remaining Ork raiders, and maybe even a few human bandit attacks. The occassional wandering monster works, too...


Oh. Wait. I've got it! :smallbiggrin:

Here's the next several sessions for the campaign!

-Players find Ork scouts and defeat them, learning in the process that the Ork raiders are heading south towards their beloved town
-The players may either defend the town, try to gather mercenaries and other help to rescue the town, or attempt to infiltrate the Ork base camp
-Once the Orks are defeated or the game goes belly up fast, the Black Dragon returns for revenge. Once he gets Bloodied, he'll chicken out and fly away, swearing even greater revenge.
-A Dwarf in town describes the current situation with his railroad. He asks the players to help defend it from attack while they finish setting up their defences... oh, say, a couple of Warforged warriors or something. The players, eventually with the help of a Warforged or two, just have to drive off several waves of Orks/bandits/monsters/whatever.
-Given a few days of time to kill, the players can go run a dungeon crawl or two. Woo!
-Upon completing the railroad, the Dwarf offers the players a ride back to the main city. Half way there, the Black Dragon (leveled to match players) returns to exact his revenge. Cue epic battle atop a speeding train! :smallbiggrin: Once the dragon is defeated, for good, the players will be rewarded to a ton of XP, and a temple of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is built in honor of the Paladin.

Once it gets to that point, the players will have essentially "beaten" this part of the world. The next stages can be accessed by certain quests presented to the players. If they want to go on to the West (a desert setting), they have to do the "protect the airship from air pirates" quest line at the main city. If they want to go the East (ocean, islands, and swamps) they have to do the "hunt the sea pirates" quest line on the coast.


So yeah... How does all that sound? :smallbiggrin:

Strawman
2009-09-09, 05:38 AM
Have you thought about DM'ing in PbP in these forums? Because that sounds awesome.

Lycan 01
2009-09-09, 11:57 AM
I occassionally run Call of Cthulhu games here on the forum. I'm planning on starting one up in a day or two, actually... As for DnD, I've never really thought about it. I don't know how to put maps and stuff up online, and it seems that its impossible to run a DnD pbp without maps. (Although, I think a DM of ample talent could get by without maps by just being descriptive enough, but some players may disagree...) And besides, I'm not a great DM. I forget various little rules often, I accidentally leave out tidbits of info I should have mentioned, and naturally I'm always my biggest critic. :smalltongue:


I just realized that the Dragon needs a name. :smalleek: