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View Full Version : help with lvl 12 portion of dnd 3.5/ pathfinder campaign



Elvenoutrider
2010-10-25, 11:42 PM
Fair warning: long post

Fellow play grounders, I've found myself with a rather stubborn case of writers block. I spent the spring semester of last year running a game for a few people in my college gaming club. The campaign started at first lvl and has progressed to level 10.

I stopped the campaign for this semester because i have a rather heavy workload. I also just for the life of me couldn't figure out what to write for the campaign. Everyone gets writers block, but I have found myself without an idea of how to progress for about 6 months now. My usual sources of inspiration havn't managed to bear fruit so I turn now to you for help.

The premise of the campaign is the world is in the middle of a massive war between two kingdoms. The pcs side is losing to the more powerful khazakian nation. The khazakian nation is a human centered kingdom where all non humans are treated as, at best second class citizens and where all magic is illegal without a license from the church of Zarus (races of destiny).

The pcs have been tasked with finding the scattered pieces of an artifact of great power to help turn the war in their favor. The campaign progression went like this:

1) pcs investigate a village that the army has lost contact with. Nearby to the village is the tomb of a former paladin who was known to have buried a piece of the artifact with him. - pcs find the village filled with zombies with no reaction to the standard anti undead tactics (IE: turning), they were however not immune to critical hits. The only survivor in the village was a very kind cleric of pelor who had gone insane and nailed up a bunch of corpses to the pew so he could perform mass. The pcs made sure he was secure, raided the dungeon and returned only to find out the zomb ies were being controlled by a group of cultists. After a lengthy battle the village is destroyed by a bomber zepplin and the pcs escape with the artifact and with the cleric.

(on a more lighthearted note this actually makes a great halloween adventure. if anyone wants me to send them what i had written in case you need some inspiration for something your running id love to send it out)

2) Cultist had a note that the pcs traced to a remote corner of the underdark. They journey to a drow trade city where an information dealer askes them to raid her mothers tomb to find some valuable poece of parchment. The pcs get to keep everything else. The pcs succeed and uncover a plot to overthrow the city. The information dealer uses this to become the new drow queen and sends the pcs to their destination with an escourt. The pcs black out and wake up in a lavish room in a mind flayer city. They are brought before the elder brain and handed a collection of waht the mind flayers know about the whereabouts of the artifacts. When the pcs ask why these aberrations are helping them the mind flayers say that the continuation of the war is in the best interests for their plans. They flat out tell the pcs that them hunting the artifact is only helping htem take over the world and even knowing this the party will still continue the adventure.

3) the mind flayers mark that a breakaway faction from their city has one of the artifacts at a spot in the middle of the ocean. The pcs hire a group of pirates to take them their. They find the island and their ship is destroyed by an octopus tree. The pcs survive. Their attempts to flee the island are fruitless as any time they sial away they return the the island. Day time shortens by an hour each day as the pcs try to figure out a way off until they are bathed in night. Meanwhile their is a constant thick fog. Pcs are taunted by figures of their past and if they try to swim into the ocean they can find out that the island if not actually a landmass but is floating in the water. Further investigation reveals the island is its own demi plane. The pcs are completely trapped until they find the artifact. The island is actually a long catatonic fragment of a cuthulu like elder evil. The pcs journey through its gullet fighting apperations until they fight the creatures brain for the artifact which allows them to escape.

4) the next artifact is worn around the neck of a khazakian general. The pcs had to sneak into the kings ball to assaasinate the general before starting riots to destabalize the city while their army moves in. The pcs escape with the artifact to a keep owned by the party. A khazakian elite force attacks the pcs and their garrison at the keep and the pcs need to hold off (battle strategy adventure)

I would like to say here that if any of my players from my gaming group (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE) are reading this this would be a good time to hit the back button.

The 5th adventure is mostly written. IN it, a faction of the pcs faction decides to defect and steal the artifacts the pcs have collected. He retreats to his castle/wizard school where he fortifies qnd waits for the pcs.
The pcs will have to crawl throught the castle duneons fighting traps, elementals, and constructs before having to find a way around murdering the army of dominated young students, fighting all the dominated teachers, and killing off the mad artificer running the school.

After this point the pcs should be level 12 or 13 and im really stumped as to where to bring them next. I know that one artifact is in hell and the other is held by the emperor of khazak himself. But I have no idea where the other 2 would be. The end of the campaign will be a face off with the supreme deity of abberations himself.
.
So, can you guys help me come up with some ideas Im trying to return to the theme of abberations controlling the party without using any powers but before this i want to make sure my players are having fun. Even at the expense of plot. Pretty much anything goes with these players - investigation, hack and slash, political intrigue, hard role play. The group is a little on the silly side though

Crossblade
2010-10-26, 12:08 AM
Not sure how you'd work these into any store, but how about...

*Have a dragon own an artifact? Everyone loves fighting dragons.
*Make them fight some mirror versions of themselves for an artifact.
*Have a morally challenging situation occur... like a monk on a secluded valley is using an artifact's power to protect orphaned children.
*They find an artifact sitting peacefully, undisturbed... in the center of a colossal Gelatinous Cube.

Drakevarg
2010-10-26, 12:17 AM
*They find an artifact sitting peacefully, undisturbed... in the center of a colossal Gelatinous Cube.

*has A Modest Destiny flashbacks*

Also, the Gelatinous Cube should explode when the artifact is removed, into thousands of tiny ones. From that point on, small oozes shall replace racoons as the local scavanging pest. :smalltongue: