hewhosaysfish
2013-06-06, 07:13 AM
If you've recently played in or DnD 4e campaign in which Boris the Russian-accented Minotaur Monk WAS OUTRAGED! then please stop reading now.
From the rest of you, I'd like some suggestions to fill in the middle of a campaign I'm planning. Paragon tier, no specific starting level yet. No-one owns any Essentials stuff. At least 3 players, maybe 4, maybe maybe 5. No character built yet, with the possible exception of a certain Minotaur Monk who might get recycled (with a bump from Heroic to Paragon).
The big idea for the campaign is a "collision" between the Material Plane, the Feywild and the Shadowfell: portals spontaneously opening, planar beasties popping in and out, planes overlapping in some areas, occasional breakdowns of expected physical law, etc, etc.
The cause of all this chaos, I'm thinking, will be the new "arcanodynamic" engine built by a city-state of artificers to power their automaton without realising that the source of extraplanar energy it was tapping into is somehow integral to the structure of the planes. Planar breaches start occurring in an area centred on the city-state, small-scale at first but escalating. The city (or just the ruling artificer's compound) gets the worst of it -being at the epicentre- is overrun by some assortment of nasties before anyone realises that the engine is the source of the problems and pulls the plug.
Like, I said above, I've got ideas for a couple of adventures to lead into it, and one for how to end it but I'm not sure how to get between the one and the other.
My adventure ideas so far:
Adventure the First
...which hints at the blossoming greater problem but could easily be mistaken for a monster-of-the-week adventure until looked at with the benefit of hindsight.
The PCs have been asked to come to smallish town to meet a group of lower-level adventurers who have the plot-hook for the second adventure a profitable opportunity for them (also an opportunity to right an old wrong, for those PCs who care about such things).
However, a portal to the Feywild has opened in the nearby forests and a opportunistic tribe of cyclopses have enslaved the townsfolk (and the low-level adventurers) to toil in their silver mines. When the PCs arrive in town they will find all the inhabitants have been replaced with simplistic magical duplicates.
Adventure the Second
...in which the PCs engage in an endeavour not directly related to the main plot and hopefully forget about any foreshadowing until its too late.
Assuming that the PCs are able to find and rescue the low-level adventurers, they will find that the plot-hook on offer is an underground entrance into a former Dwarven stronghold now occupied by a white dragon and a clan of frost giants. The dragon is sitting on a big pile of Dwarf treasure and this would be the perfect opportunity to Bilbo Baggins it.
I'm thinking I could through in a few shadow-monsters to this, either as a "random" Underdark encounter heading into the fortress or as something skulking around the lower levels. It should seem like a perfectly natural thing to encounter there but foreshadow the coming problems.
If everything goes to plan, then at the end of thisa adventure they should emerging blinking into the sunlight, their pockets bulging with dragon-treasure, to discover things the world has started going a little crazy...
Adventure the Last
The remnants of the artificers' organisation responsible for the engine approaches the PCs and tell them of the connection between it and the planar confluence. They will explain how to shut it down safely; it's just up to the Pcs to get into the overrun facility.
The laborotory complex is heavily overlapping its extraplanar counterparts, turning the whole thing into a 4-dimensional maze. If there are any parts which are full of maurauding fey-beasts or shadow-monsters, its because that areas guarded by deadly traps and (now berserk) contructs.
If extra "fun" is needed, the PCs could have to race other 2 other groups to the engine: a band of bold centaur barbarians who want to smash the troublesome machine... not realising that this will cause a catastrophic explosion; and a group of... someone... from the Shadowfell who want to seize this great source of power for themselves, regardless of the side-effects of its continued operation.
What I'm drawing a blank on is what to plan for the third and probably fourth (and maybe fifth) adventures before the finale. I have a slew of ideas for the sort of pandemonium that could be breaking out but not for how to hook the PCs into it or necessarily how it could get wrapped up before the next hook.
Pandemonium ideas:
An army of Feywild Eladrin have started occupying the territory of local Eladrin, claiming that they are "reuniting these lost colonies with civilization."
Fomorians are attacking, seeing the cities of the Material Plane as an untapped source of slave labour. (Too similar to adventure #1?)
A singular, particularly nasty extraplanar beastie is ravaging the land and only the PCs can stand up to it
Two particularly nasty extraplanar beasties (one fey, one shadow) are having a big Godzilla-fight and wrecking everything around them in the process.
Refugees fleeing the random appearances of extraplanar monsters (and possibly an outbreak of some virulent foreign disease) are being helplessly preyed upon by opportunistic bandits.
Refugees fleeing the random appearances of extraplanar monsters (and possibly an outbreak of some virulent foreign disease) are turning to the worship of Fiends or Far Realms creatures in desperation
The inhabitants of this plane have made peaceful contact with those from the Shadowfell. However, local merchant guilds are unhappy about the sudden glut of cheap shadowsilk into the market and will forment discontent against the aristocracy unless trade is restricted... which wont happen because the aristocrats appreciate the tax money from this new trade too much.
The inhabitants of this plane have made peaceful contact with those from the Shadowfell. However, the humble potato is now enjoying popularity as a delicacy amongst the Shadar-kai and prices are soaring. Unrest amongst the peasants, as the poorest amongst them can no longer afford to eat.
The inhabitants of this plane have made peaceful contact with those from the Feywild. However, the Feywine their traders are peddling proves to be cripplingly addictive to the natives.
Like I said, plenty of ideas, but no clear idea of how to string them into escalating series of disasters that will help to make the stakes of the finale clear.
Also, I can think of plenty of evocative Feywild antagonists but precious few for the Shadowfell, and I'd like to include an even mixture of both. Who lives in the Shadowfell, anyway: Shadar-kai, shadows, those Dark Stalker guys.... maybe a whole bunch of undead...
Does anyone have any suggestions for assembling this pile of adventure ideas into a coherent campaign?
From the rest of you, I'd like some suggestions to fill in the middle of a campaign I'm planning. Paragon tier, no specific starting level yet. No-one owns any Essentials stuff. At least 3 players, maybe 4, maybe maybe 5. No character built yet, with the possible exception of a certain Minotaur Monk who might get recycled (with a bump from Heroic to Paragon).
The big idea for the campaign is a "collision" between the Material Plane, the Feywild and the Shadowfell: portals spontaneously opening, planar beasties popping in and out, planes overlapping in some areas, occasional breakdowns of expected physical law, etc, etc.
The cause of all this chaos, I'm thinking, will be the new "arcanodynamic" engine built by a city-state of artificers to power their automaton without realising that the source of extraplanar energy it was tapping into is somehow integral to the structure of the planes. Planar breaches start occurring in an area centred on the city-state, small-scale at first but escalating. The city (or just the ruling artificer's compound) gets the worst of it -being at the epicentre- is overrun by some assortment of nasties before anyone realises that the engine is the source of the problems and pulls the plug.
Like, I said above, I've got ideas for a couple of adventures to lead into it, and one for how to end it but I'm not sure how to get between the one and the other.
My adventure ideas so far:
Adventure the First
...which hints at the blossoming greater problem but could easily be mistaken for a monster-of-the-week adventure until looked at with the benefit of hindsight.
The PCs have been asked to come to smallish town to meet a group of lower-level adventurers who have the plot-hook for the second adventure a profitable opportunity for them (also an opportunity to right an old wrong, for those PCs who care about such things).
However, a portal to the Feywild has opened in the nearby forests and a opportunistic tribe of cyclopses have enslaved the townsfolk (and the low-level adventurers) to toil in their silver mines. When the PCs arrive in town they will find all the inhabitants have been replaced with simplistic magical duplicates.
Adventure the Second
...in which the PCs engage in an endeavour not directly related to the main plot and hopefully forget about any foreshadowing until its too late.
Assuming that the PCs are able to find and rescue the low-level adventurers, they will find that the plot-hook on offer is an underground entrance into a former Dwarven stronghold now occupied by a white dragon and a clan of frost giants. The dragon is sitting on a big pile of Dwarf treasure and this would be the perfect opportunity to Bilbo Baggins it.
I'm thinking I could through in a few shadow-monsters to this, either as a "random" Underdark encounter heading into the fortress or as something skulking around the lower levels. It should seem like a perfectly natural thing to encounter there but foreshadow the coming problems.
If everything goes to plan, then at the end of thisa adventure they should emerging blinking into the sunlight, their pockets bulging with dragon-treasure, to discover things the world has started going a little crazy...
Adventure the Last
The remnants of the artificers' organisation responsible for the engine approaches the PCs and tell them of the connection between it and the planar confluence. They will explain how to shut it down safely; it's just up to the Pcs to get into the overrun facility.
The laborotory complex is heavily overlapping its extraplanar counterparts, turning the whole thing into a 4-dimensional maze. If there are any parts which are full of maurauding fey-beasts or shadow-monsters, its because that areas guarded by deadly traps and (now berserk) contructs.
If extra "fun" is needed, the PCs could have to race other 2 other groups to the engine: a band of bold centaur barbarians who want to smash the troublesome machine... not realising that this will cause a catastrophic explosion; and a group of... someone... from the Shadowfell who want to seize this great source of power for themselves, regardless of the side-effects of its continued operation.
What I'm drawing a blank on is what to plan for the third and probably fourth (and maybe fifth) adventures before the finale. I have a slew of ideas for the sort of pandemonium that could be breaking out but not for how to hook the PCs into it or necessarily how it could get wrapped up before the next hook.
Pandemonium ideas:
An army of Feywild Eladrin have started occupying the territory of local Eladrin, claiming that they are "reuniting these lost colonies with civilization."
Fomorians are attacking, seeing the cities of the Material Plane as an untapped source of slave labour. (Too similar to adventure #1?)
A singular, particularly nasty extraplanar beastie is ravaging the land and only the PCs can stand up to it
Two particularly nasty extraplanar beasties (one fey, one shadow) are having a big Godzilla-fight and wrecking everything around them in the process.
Refugees fleeing the random appearances of extraplanar monsters (and possibly an outbreak of some virulent foreign disease) are being helplessly preyed upon by opportunistic bandits.
Refugees fleeing the random appearances of extraplanar monsters (and possibly an outbreak of some virulent foreign disease) are turning to the worship of Fiends or Far Realms creatures in desperation
The inhabitants of this plane have made peaceful contact with those from the Shadowfell. However, local merchant guilds are unhappy about the sudden glut of cheap shadowsilk into the market and will forment discontent against the aristocracy unless trade is restricted... which wont happen because the aristocrats appreciate the tax money from this new trade too much.
The inhabitants of this plane have made peaceful contact with those from the Shadowfell. However, the humble potato is now enjoying popularity as a delicacy amongst the Shadar-kai and prices are soaring. Unrest amongst the peasants, as the poorest amongst them can no longer afford to eat.
The inhabitants of this plane have made peaceful contact with those from the Feywild. However, the Feywine their traders are peddling proves to be cripplingly addictive to the natives.
Like I said, plenty of ideas, but no clear idea of how to string them into escalating series of disasters that will help to make the stakes of the finale clear.
Also, I can think of plenty of evocative Feywild antagonists but precious few for the Shadowfell, and I'd like to include an even mixture of both. Who lives in the Shadowfell, anyway: Shadar-kai, shadows, those Dark Stalker guys.... maybe a whole bunch of undead...
Does anyone have any suggestions for assembling this pile of adventure ideas into a coherent campaign?