Plot Index

[Andorax]

My search-fu is weak, so I do not know if something like this has already been done, but I thought I'd start putting together a structured list of plot ideas. If you have had something work well for you in the past, or just hit on an inspiring idea, please jump in and share it.

I'd like to keep a consistent format for the posts here, and intend to maintain a structured index of the plots posted. Please feel free to comment on, discuss, embellish...and most importantly ADD TO the list.

The format:

Title: A short one-liner that sums up the plot
Scope: Encounter, Adventure, Arc or Campaign
Setting: Any, or specific campaign world/region.
Levels: A range within which you feel the plot best works.
Resources: What sourcebooks you would need to pull it together
Holes: Any known "missing pieces" you would like to have others help fill in the blanks on. If the discussion that follows gives you a good answer to them, feel free to come back later and edit the Holes entry out.
Description: Here's where you go into detail about the plot.

SPOILER NOTE: Expect that dang near every post in this thread could potentially be a spoiler...if you try to go out of your way to avoid spoilers, you might want to just keep out in general, as asking everyone to spoiler the majority of their entries is just plain unreasonable.

[Andorax]

Plot Index
{table=head]Title|Level|Setting|Page
Whispers of the Shadow|5-10|Eberron|1
[/table]

[Andorax]

Whispers of the Shadow
Scope: Adventure

Setting: Eberron (Thrane/Lhazaar)

Levels: 5-10, best guess.

Resources: Eberron Campaign Setting, Five Nations, Dragon #344

Holes: Anyone know of a way to create a time-delayed (by about a month) stone to flesh...ideally one that doesn't require an extremely high level caster and can be made relatively undetectable?


Re-reading the section of the book on the Five Nations on Thrane, I hit on an interesting idea involving the Whispering Flame...the hidden cult that serves the demon bound within the Silver Flame. While the majority of them believe that the current Speaker, Jaela Daran, is secretly part of their cult, I would suspect that a few of them may well have stumbled onto a long-hidden truth.

That truth is contained in an article on Dreadhold (in Dragon #344), Khorvare's most famous and secure prison. Deep within the lowest reaches of Dreadhold is an area known as the Stone Ward, where prisoners who have been subjected to Flesh to Stone spells are interred/stored. One of those prisoners, Melysse Miron, is the chosen hand of the Shadow of the Flame...and has been for over five hundred years, still trapped and still alive, thus preventing the demon from selecting a replacement.

Discovering this long-buried truth, a group of Whispering Flame cultists under the guise of Thrane officials (perhaps one of them is even a high-ranked Bishop), ask the PCs to escort another 'prisoner' to Dreadhold...one who has been turned to stone and is bound for the very same Stone Ward that Melysse is stored in. The 'prisoner' has an ability that will allow himself to be returned to flesh in one month's time (adjust as needed to take methods of transport into account)...presumably right in the middle of the Stone Ward, where he can then seek out Melysse and free her from her stony imprisonment (along with who knows who all else).

The PCs could run into all manner of trouble along the way, from simple bandits and thieves who think the statue is of value to genuine Thrane Paladins and Clerics who have been warned of the disaster that could ensue if the PCs aren't stopped and sent to intercept them. Even more interesting is what happens if the PCs are still at Dreadhold when the false prisoner/cultist starts using a Wand of Break Enchantment on every human female statue in the ward and releasing who-knows-what extremely dangerous prisoners along the way.