NeoSeraphi
2011-10-25, 12:17 PM
Okay, so in 24 hours my next session is going to start and I'm a little uneasy about this. I've never really written my story beforehand, and I don't want my player to feel bored. (At the moment, it's just me as a DM PC and him, we had another guy who canceled before the game started)
During our first "session" we decided to take it slow because there were only two of us, so I had him arrive to Hell and an imp greeted him, took him to the cotton fields where he would be working (This was all made up as I went along). His equipment was really close by so he rushed for it, the imp sighed and turned into a monstrous spider and started to attack him.
He managed to convince the DM PC to help him, so the DM PC rushed over and grabbed his greataxe and I rolled a natural 20 and splattered that imp on the pavement. (It's okay, he got plenty of solo fighting in before I allowed my character to be persuaded)
Then he felt his Empathic link awaken and saw his Air Elemental familiar being ganked by four lemures. So we saved the Air Elemental, and then I told him he saw a tavern and the DM PC prayed for guidance (he's a cleric) and told the player that his god wanted them to go to the tavern and convince the trapped humanoid souls there to rebel so they could sneak out of the city, and then we stopped there. (Yes, like I said, I have terrible DM skills, and I wasn't really sure how else to railroad)
Now this time I want it to be way better. I goofed off last time because we were playing just to play, this one is a real serious session. The full intent of the campaign is for our characters to escape the Nine Hells, and I have that in the back of my mind, what I need help with is my dialogue. I want to paint a real picture, but I'm having trouble really getting my words straight. Here's what I have so far:
You come to an enormous black tavern with loud yelling and whooping coming from inside. Upon entering, you see a whole mix and match of drow, duregar, gnomes and humans, alongside all kinds of strange humanoids you’ve never seen in real life that you assume to be devils. A few human female slaves are tending the bar, and you can see the shackles on their legs. The humanoids in the bar seem to be doing their best to get tables to themselves, but it seems they can never get too far from one devil or another, as the off-work creatures come to torment them willingly.
The atmosphere is quite different depending on where you look. Most of the humanoids seem both tired and relieved as they drink, but the look of depression never fully escapes a single face. Meanwhile, the devils are all happy and having a good time, they’re off work and just coming to enjoy their night on the town.
The air seems strangely tense here, both you and your Elemental can feel that. (Spellcraft check, DC 17)- (Fail) You can’t quite place your finger on it, but you can definitely tell your Elemental feels very uncomfortable.
(Success) Your magical aura is diminishing rapidly, it has become clear to you that you stepped inside an anti-magic field that seems to be surrounding the whole building.
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The idea is for them to sneak in and try to figure out how to convince the "leader" of the slaves, a human male, to fight against the devils in the bar. As the whole thing is under an anti-magic field, it would be natural and improvised weapons only, so I'm not sure how they would convince them (I was thinking perhaps a small cache of weapons hidden in a cellar that the player could give to the slaves, but I'm not sure)
I would like assistance both on setting the mood and the details (like what I did up there, but for the rest of the storyline) and possible hooks or ideas for twists or exactly how to make this whole storyline work.
This is only my third time DMing, and the first two were both basically one shots. I really want this campaign to last but I don't know what I'm doing. (I do not have access to the DMG)
During our first "session" we decided to take it slow because there were only two of us, so I had him arrive to Hell and an imp greeted him, took him to the cotton fields where he would be working (This was all made up as I went along). His equipment was really close by so he rushed for it, the imp sighed and turned into a monstrous spider and started to attack him.
He managed to convince the DM PC to help him, so the DM PC rushed over and grabbed his greataxe and I rolled a natural 20 and splattered that imp on the pavement. (It's okay, he got plenty of solo fighting in before I allowed my character to be persuaded)
Then he felt his Empathic link awaken and saw his Air Elemental familiar being ganked by four lemures. So we saved the Air Elemental, and then I told him he saw a tavern and the DM PC prayed for guidance (he's a cleric) and told the player that his god wanted them to go to the tavern and convince the trapped humanoid souls there to rebel so they could sneak out of the city, and then we stopped there. (Yes, like I said, I have terrible DM skills, and I wasn't really sure how else to railroad)
Now this time I want it to be way better. I goofed off last time because we were playing just to play, this one is a real serious session. The full intent of the campaign is for our characters to escape the Nine Hells, and I have that in the back of my mind, what I need help with is my dialogue. I want to paint a real picture, but I'm having trouble really getting my words straight. Here's what I have so far:
You come to an enormous black tavern with loud yelling and whooping coming from inside. Upon entering, you see a whole mix and match of drow, duregar, gnomes and humans, alongside all kinds of strange humanoids you’ve never seen in real life that you assume to be devils. A few human female slaves are tending the bar, and you can see the shackles on their legs. The humanoids in the bar seem to be doing their best to get tables to themselves, but it seems they can never get too far from one devil or another, as the off-work creatures come to torment them willingly.
The atmosphere is quite different depending on where you look. Most of the humanoids seem both tired and relieved as they drink, but the look of depression never fully escapes a single face. Meanwhile, the devils are all happy and having a good time, they’re off work and just coming to enjoy their night on the town.
The air seems strangely tense here, both you and your Elemental can feel that. (Spellcraft check, DC 17)- (Fail) You can’t quite place your finger on it, but you can definitely tell your Elemental feels very uncomfortable.
(Success) Your magical aura is diminishing rapidly, it has become clear to you that you stepped inside an anti-magic field that seems to be surrounding the whole building.
------------------
The idea is for them to sneak in and try to figure out how to convince the "leader" of the slaves, a human male, to fight against the devils in the bar. As the whole thing is under an anti-magic field, it would be natural and improvised weapons only, so I'm not sure how they would convince them (I was thinking perhaps a small cache of weapons hidden in a cellar that the player could give to the slaves, but I'm not sure)
I would like assistance both on setting the mood and the details (like what I did up there, but for the rest of the storyline) and possible hooks or ideas for twists or exactly how to make this whole storyline work.
This is only my third time DMing, and the first two were both basically one shots. I really want this campaign to last but I don't know what I'm doing. (I do not have access to the DMG)