Keltaris
2012-11-02, 05:38 AM
I've been DMing for the past year RHOD for a party of 3. Now we're closing on the end, but since none of them wants to DM, once we're done with this one, I'll be DMing again. :smallsigh:
Here's my idea:
- Starts at 1st level
- Medium-Low magic setting
- Taint rules from Heroes of Horror
The adventure starts in a dungeon the party found clearing the nest of some mostrous spiders that were terrorizing their village. They started exploring it out of curiosity, and after a couple empty rooms, they find themselves in front of a door. Once they get through it, something odd happens: colors look dead, as if color saturation suddenly dropped between rooms.
They're now in some kind of Ravenloft-ish world. Behind them, in the stead of the door they just got through, they find some kind of arch drawn on the stone wall. They can decipher the writings around it, so they press on, out of the dungeon and in a grey, unwelcoming, tainted world.
Being unable to get back home, the PCs will have to adapt. Finding a job is not hard on this dimension, as evil monsters, and thus people in need, are everywhere.
For the first 9 levels or so, I'll run some one-shot assignments (monster feeding on defenseless villagers, pretend-God enslaving people and coercing them into adoration, etc, etc). Between an assignment and the other, mysterious attacks will target the PCs, and they'll always have the feeling they're being observed/followed.
In reality, their assignment are not random. They've been led in a straight line to the village where "some" Vecna lived. It is said that before becoming a god, he was trapped in this dimension too and that he's the only one that managed to break out.
Vecna guided them there, one step at a time, so that they could be ready to face the hardest part of their journey. Despite being a god, his powers are very limited in this dimension, and so he couldn't do more to help the players reach this stage.
He now wants them to retrieve his old notes, that he left under his house, in an extension of the plane he created, the dungeon he affectionately calls "The Tomb of Horrors". Here I run the 3.5 conversion of the module, treating every character death as a "go back to square 1" of the dungeon and a penality in exp for all the members of party.
Why does he want them to escape so bad? Easy. (:smallcool:)
The Dark Powers, the essence of this dimension, the entity that rules over it, wants to break out and flood the multiverse, drowning it in misery and desperation. Only way to do this, is use the PCs in a ritual to open a portal, as Vecna did the time he escaped.
Once (If :smallbiggrin:) the PCs get to the end of the Tomb they'll find that the only thing that they need to complete the ritual is some kind of barrier, to stop the Dark Powers from coming with them through the portal.
The only thing that at the time Vecna thought might work is a wall made of riverine, with holy water in place of sea water. Apparently it worked for him, so the PCs set to the only place where they can have such material worked: in the deepest reaches of the ocean, where an Aventi community lives (or at least used to in Vecna's times).
The Aventi live in a village at the bottom of the ocean, surrounded by a large spherical shield made of holy riverine, courtesy of Vecna, with Coral Golems roaming around it, also Vecna's work (that's how he paid the Aventi for the riverine).
If the PCs can't find anything of value to offer to the Aventi, they'll have to take them back to the Material Plane with them.
At the portal, the one they started the adventure, they'll face a manifestation of the Dark Powers in a last climactic battle before trying to get back home.
Pretty straightforward, nothing much, but I think they might like it.
Advices?
P.s: I wanted a better race in place of the Aventi, something more akin to crafting and such, but I also wanted it to have some kind of affinity to water...
P.p.s: Bear with english, is not my first language.
P.p.p.s: Thanks.
Here's my idea:
- Starts at 1st level
- Medium-Low magic setting
- Taint rules from Heroes of Horror
The adventure starts in a dungeon the party found clearing the nest of some mostrous spiders that were terrorizing their village. They started exploring it out of curiosity, and after a couple empty rooms, they find themselves in front of a door. Once they get through it, something odd happens: colors look dead, as if color saturation suddenly dropped between rooms.
They're now in some kind of Ravenloft-ish world. Behind them, in the stead of the door they just got through, they find some kind of arch drawn on the stone wall. They can decipher the writings around it, so they press on, out of the dungeon and in a grey, unwelcoming, tainted world.
Being unable to get back home, the PCs will have to adapt. Finding a job is not hard on this dimension, as evil monsters, and thus people in need, are everywhere.
For the first 9 levels or so, I'll run some one-shot assignments (monster feeding on defenseless villagers, pretend-God enslaving people and coercing them into adoration, etc, etc). Between an assignment and the other, mysterious attacks will target the PCs, and they'll always have the feeling they're being observed/followed.
In reality, their assignment are not random. They've been led in a straight line to the village where "some" Vecna lived. It is said that before becoming a god, he was trapped in this dimension too and that he's the only one that managed to break out.
Vecna guided them there, one step at a time, so that they could be ready to face the hardest part of their journey. Despite being a god, his powers are very limited in this dimension, and so he couldn't do more to help the players reach this stage.
He now wants them to retrieve his old notes, that he left under his house, in an extension of the plane he created, the dungeon he affectionately calls "The Tomb of Horrors". Here I run the 3.5 conversion of the module, treating every character death as a "go back to square 1" of the dungeon and a penality in exp for all the members of party.
Why does he want them to escape so bad? Easy. (:smallcool:)
The Dark Powers, the essence of this dimension, the entity that rules over it, wants to break out and flood the multiverse, drowning it in misery and desperation. Only way to do this, is use the PCs in a ritual to open a portal, as Vecna did the time he escaped.
Once (If :smallbiggrin:) the PCs get to the end of the Tomb they'll find that the only thing that they need to complete the ritual is some kind of barrier, to stop the Dark Powers from coming with them through the portal.
The only thing that at the time Vecna thought might work is a wall made of riverine, with holy water in place of sea water. Apparently it worked for him, so the PCs set to the only place where they can have such material worked: in the deepest reaches of the ocean, where an Aventi community lives (or at least used to in Vecna's times).
The Aventi live in a village at the bottom of the ocean, surrounded by a large spherical shield made of holy riverine, courtesy of Vecna, with Coral Golems roaming around it, also Vecna's work (that's how he paid the Aventi for the riverine).
If the PCs can't find anything of value to offer to the Aventi, they'll have to take them back to the Material Plane with them.
At the portal, the one they started the adventure, they'll face a manifestation of the Dark Powers in a last climactic battle before trying to get back home.
Pretty straightforward, nothing much, but I think they might like it.
Advices?
P.s: I wanted a better race in place of the Aventi, something more akin to crafting and such, but I also wanted it to have some kind of affinity to water...
P.p.s: Bear with english, is not my first language.
P.p.p.s: Thanks.