"Epic moments" brainstorm

[Mongrel]

Hey guys! I'm starting a new DnD campaign soon and I'm trying to make it have an "epic fantasy" vibe. What I mean by this is that I want exciting, larger than life encounters. I was hoping that I could brainstorm these epic encounters (not to be confused with epic level encounters) with you guys, then find ways to fit them into the storyline (should be pretty easy as the PCs work for a mercenary guild, and the game style is going to be sort of an "adventure of the week" type of game)

The PCs will be 10th level, so they should be able to handle most of what I can throw at them. Here are a few examples of what I'm looking for:

-The PCs stumble upon a dark ritual of resurrection for a long dead leader of a terrible cult. They must slay the leader of the ritual or enough of the ley priests involved before it is completed (while being attacked by the rest of the cult, of course)

-The PCs must hunt a pirate ship with weather control abilities, which means they will be fighting it in a thunderstorm. If the fight goes on long enough, the pirates summon a whirlpool as well to sink the PCs' craft.

-The PCs must fend off an attack on a gnomish dirigible by a group of wyvern and gryphon mounted fanatics that simply want to crash it. They attack the bridge and the engine room with explosives, using them to breach the hull and get inside as well. If the helmsman is killed the dirigible starts to lurch and dive until it is controlled. If enough of the engine is destroyed, same thing. Once the attackers are wiped out, the PCs will still likely have to deal with the damage to the craft itself in order to not crash.

-The PCs find themselves in a minotaur run gladiator city centered around an arena. They must participate in the gladitorial games in order to accomplish their goals.

So, anyone have any other ideas?

[Emperor Tippy]

10th level is generally around the top of "save a nation" scale.
15th level is generally around the "save the world" scale.
20th level is generally around the "save the plane" scale.
21+ is generally around the "save the multiverse" scale

---
So let's see, bringing down/restoring/securing the monarch/government is a good standby for 10th level.

Rooting out and dealing with a fiendish (i.e. Devil)/Mind Flayer/Doppleganger (choose which works best for you) infiltration and replacement operation can work great (especially for a bit less combat focus, although you still have fights with the agents).

An Adult or Mature Adult Red Dragon has moved into the nation and set up shop demanding tribute to allow the nation to survive. You have to deal with it (perhaps said Red has a few other younger dragons and half dragons as support that need to be dealt with as well).

You should figure a campaign arc to run you between 13 and 36 equal CR encounters (i.e. 1 to 3 character levels) with a third being the set up, a third being the rising action, and a third being the boss fight.

So a 13 encounter arch should have something like the following.

1: Encounter that notifies the PC's of the adventure (prevent an assassination, randomly attacked, contacted and need to meet with the king, etc.).
2-4: Learning about the threat (gathering information, tracking down leads, dealing with lower level patsies with information, etc.). By the end of this the PC's should have a good idea of what they are facing.
5-8: Doing the preparatory ground work for dealing with the threat (taking out lieutenants, infiltrating a location to put the PC's on the guest list to the ball where the final event takes place, etc.).
9-13: This should be the final encounter and the one basically pure hack and slash true dungeon run with multiple encounters one right after the other with the final encounter being against the stronger boss (i.e. worth 2 regular encounters).

For a 36 encounter arc you basically just stretch out each of those 3 sections into all three again and treat it as multiple sub arcs.

---
But a lot of it depends on what you players want. For example, you can do a whole 36 encounter arc where the PC's set up and build a new city for whatever reason (secure the location, bring in supplies, build it, deal with entities that want to disrupt the city, get people to move in, deal with takeover attempts, defend it from outside attack, etc.) and some groups will find that great while others will find a mission where they have to take down three wizards performing a week long ritual that will vaporize the entire city at triangle points several hundred miles apart and it's basically just 12-13 combat encounter "dungeons" where they clear a tower, rest for a day, and are onto the next one with a strong clock and hard fights against them.

Both can be epic but play style and player desires matter a ton.

[Ignominia]

10th level is generally around the top of "save a nation" scale.
15th level is generally around the "save the world" scale.
20th level is generally around the "save the plane" scale.
21+ is generally around the "save the multiverse" scale

---
So let's see, bringing down/restoring/securing the monarch/government is a good standby for 10th level.

Rooting out and dealing with a fiendish (i.e. Devil)/Mind Flayer/Doppleganger (choose which works best for you) infiltration and replacement operation can work great (especially for a bit less combat focus, although you still have fights with the agents).

An Adult or Mature Adult Red Dragon has moved into the nation and set up shop demanding tribute to allow the nation to survive. You have to deal with it (perhaps said Red has a few other younger dragons and half dragons as support that need to be dealt with as well).

You should figure a campaign arc to run you between 13 and 36 equal CR encounters (i.e. 1 to 3 character levels) with a third being the set up, a third being the rising action, and a third being the boss fight.

So a 13 encounter arch should have something like the following.

1: Encounter that notifies the PC's of the adventure (prevent an assassination, randomly attacked, contacted and need to meet with the king, etc.).
2-4: Learning about the threat (gathering information, tracking down leads, dealing with lower level patsies with information, etc.). By the end of this the PC's should have a good idea of what they are facing.
5-8: Doing the preparatory ground work for dealing with the threat (taking out lieutenants, infiltrating a location to put the PC's on the guest list to the ball where the final event takes place, etc.).
9-13: This should be the final encounter and the one basically pure hack and slash true dungeon run with multiple encounters one right after the other with the final encounter being against the stronger boss (i.e. worth 2 regular encounters).

For a 36 encounter arc you basically just stretch out each of those 3 sections into all three again and treat it as multiple sub arcs.

---
But a lot of it depends on what you players want. For example, you can do a whole 36 encounter arc where the PC's set up and build a new city for whatever reason (secure the location, bring in supplies, build it, deal with entities that want to disrupt the city, get people to move in, deal with takeover attempts, defend it from outside attack, etc.) and some groups will find that great while others will find a mission where they have to take down three wizards performing a week long ritual that will vaporize the entire city at triangle points several hundred miles apart and it's basically just 12-13 combat encounter "dungeons" where they clear a tower, rest for a day, and are onto the next one with a strong clock and hard fights against them.

Both can be epic but play style and player desires matter a ton.

Tippy...that was beautiful...

[Sgtpepper]

Yet again Tippy equals win.