tahu88810
2010-04-18, 01:36 PM
So my group is beginning a new D&D campaign and, as usual, I am DMing it. Set in a steam punk setting, it will revolve around the world's battle against an evil necromancer, with groups of adventurers (particularly the players) taking a major role.
This is all well and good, but I'm having trouble fleshing out the first adventure. It will begin in the human army's camp just within the ruins of a large town that has since been annihilated by the undead hordes, on the eve of the human's attack on an old and ruined keep/castle/fortress which the undead are currently in control of. There have been rumors that the device which the lead necromancer uses, an eldritch machine created with a mixture of technology and dark magic, to create and control his undead monstrosities, is within the keep. During the chaos of the attack, the players are supposed to slip into the keep and take out the enemy leaders (powerful undead and necromancers) with a side goal of finding the machine and destroying it (they have explicit orders to put destroying it atop their list of priorities, above even surviving, if they find it there).
This is where things get messy...as I am not entirely certain how this ruined keep should be set up, and how the undead might inhabit it. So far I have only the following ideas:
-Large throne room on the top floor houses a massive purple gem surrounded by and attached to clockwork mechanisms.(Not the machine, but an eldritch device nonetheless. It puts a permanent Darkness and Desecrate in a 3mile radius around the gem and allows a cleric to command 5X the number of undead they would normally be able to)
--Stone stairs leading to throne room are covered in rubble, and undead use this to their advantage somehow?
-Crypts containing fallen heroes and knights who used to inhabit the castle.
-Kitchen is used to prepare alchemical ingredients and create more undead. (Makeshift altar is set up, which continues to have a normal permanent desecrate on it even after the device is destroy)
-Lieutenant is a Wheep (Libris Mortis), who's sobbing echoes down nearby corridors.
-Prisoners who have been mounted by a Bloodrot (Heroes of horror)
I am unsure of what else to put in, and also what sort of undead to use in order to challenge my players, who are all ECL 10.
At the moment, the party consists of:
Warforged Artificer (who loves homonculi and can never have enough daka)
Half-elf Rogue (with a pistol of undead bane, and a metalline rapier. A noble who has been expelled from his house)
Human-Ghoul Fighter (Primarily damage. Uses a falchion and focuses on getting criticals)
Awakened Sloth Druid (Our...comic relief. Rides a megaraptor and calls down lightning. One of the few remaining druids in the world, as druids were largely wiped out in the initial attack of undead)
The Undead are Led by a Death Knight (Yet to stat him out, I've been meaning to do that today). This is subject to change if anyone has any better suggestions.
I can obtain access to any 3.5 books.
This is all well and good, but I'm having trouble fleshing out the first adventure. It will begin in the human army's camp just within the ruins of a large town that has since been annihilated by the undead hordes, on the eve of the human's attack on an old and ruined keep/castle/fortress which the undead are currently in control of. There have been rumors that the device which the lead necromancer uses, an eldritch machine created with a mixture of technology and dark magic, to create and control his undead monstrosities, is within the keep. During the chaos of the attack, the players are supposed to slip into the keep and take out the enemy leaders (powerful undead and necromancers) with a side goal of finding the machine and destroying it (they have explicit orders to put destroying it atop their list of priorities, above even surviving, if they find it there).
This is where things get messy...as I am not entirely certain how this ruined keep should be set up, and how the undead might inhabit it. So far I have only the following ideas:
-Large throne room on the top floor houses a massive purple gem surrounded by and attached to clockwork mechanisms.(Not the machine, but an eldritch device nonetheless. It puts a permanent Darkness and Desecrate in a 3mile radius around the gem and allows a cleric to command 5X the number of undead they would normally be able to)
--Stone stairs leading to throne room are covered in rubble, and undead use this to their advantage somehow?
-Crypts containing fallen heroes and knights who used to inhabit the castle.
-Kitchen is used to prepare alchemical ingredients and create more undead. (Makeshift altar is set up, which continues to have a normal permanent desecrate on it even after the device is destroy)
-Lieutenant is a Wheep (Libris Mortis), who's sobbing echoes down nearby corridors.
-Prisoners who have been mounted by a Bloodrot (Heroes of horror)
I am unsure of what else to put in, and also what sort of undead to use in order to challenge my players, who are all ECL 10.
At the moment, the party consists of:
Warforged Artificer (who loves homonculi and can never have enough daka)
Half-elf Rogue (with a pistol of undead bane, and a metalline rapier. A noble who has been expelled from his house)
Human-Ghoul Fighter (Primarily damage. Uses a falchion and focuses on getting criticals)
Awakened Sloth Druid (Our...comic relief. Rides a megaraptor and calls down lightning. One of the few remaining druids in the world, as druids were largely wiped out in the initial attack of undead)
The Undead are Led by a Death Knight (Yet to stat him out, I've been meaning to do that today). This is subject to change if anyone has any better suggestions.
I can obtain access to any 3.5 books.