Construct army plot. Need more Ideas. (3.5)

[Ninja_Grand]

Ello GitP. I'm running a 3.5 game with a Construct is the new zombie feel. Basically, A fellow by the name of "Toymaker" is knocking out golems, dolls, and warforged by the dozen. But what I need now is some ideas.

I ran out of main plot ideas a level ago. Lucky, each PC has their own sub plot. But they are eager to "kick some robot chaise" so its back to the main plot. Dont worry about the setting. You need a castle, you got it. Heck, islands are good too.

Tl;DR : Need ideas for Construct based adventure

[GilesTheCleric]

Well, you could try copying the plot of a book or film you enjoy. Alternatively, you can't go wrong with using an existing module, just replacing the encounters with constructs.

What level is the party, and how did they last participate in the main plot?

[Matticussama]

Do you have any concrete plans for the Toymaker, such as levels and goals, or has it mostly just been a background plot reason to explain the constructs?

This general plot sounds like a great idea for a Lawful Evil Warforged Artificer/Effigy Master. Toymaster may feel that organic life is simply too chaotic and unpredictable to be left to govern itself; they must either submit to their mechanical overlords, or be exterminated like the vermin they are. Using an army of constructs and effigies, Toymaster could seek to carve out a Kingdom which would eventually want to conquer the entire prime material plane. With the army of constructs, Toymaster can attempt to enforce a stable and homogeneous prime material plane modeled after the Clockwork Nirvana of Mechanus.

Thus, they need to seek out knowledge and weapons capable of defeating constructs in order to stop the Toymaker's spreading influence - but for that very reason, the leading expert on golembane weaponry has gone into hiding. The party must track down a powerful crafter who has gone into hiding, seeking out leads and trying to prove their trustworthiness and competence in order to be brought into the group that could help equip them and teach them how to stop the Toymaker.

If you wanted to go even deeper and push towards an extraplanar adventure, maybe Toymaster was in fact created by one of the Formian Queens of Mechanus who saw the Prime Material Plane as a threat to the stability of her realm. She created the Warforged Toymaster with the urge to propagate a mechanical race to conquer the prime material plane, unify it in mechanical harmony, and then try to merge it into Mechanus itself using some sort of Epic Magic. By combining the powers of the two planes, the Queen then hopes to conquer the other chaotic planes in order to swing the universal pendulum of morality irrevocably towards Law.

You could just as easily replace the Formian Queen with a Devil Lord, but I feel having a Devil pulling the strings behind the scenes is too cliche. They wouldn't expect this world-conquering plot to have been devised by a Queen from Mechanus.

[mabriss lethe]

The Junkyard Asylum:

Your toymaker hasn't always been successful in his craft. He's got a dumping ground for his earliest experiments or possibly something more sinister. It's a massive containment complex filled with insane human captives loaded with warforged grafts. Deeper within the asylum, there are even stranger creations (See the goodies in the Mindflayers of Thoon section of MM5 for some good creeptastic constructs) I think a Madcrafter vomiting out scythers and stormclouds of Thoon would be about perfect. Even these are poor attempts by the Toymaker to copy something older than time. The deepest darkest levels of the asylum are actually the remnants of an archaeological dig. The whole place is a prison for an immensely powerful Soul Fused Elder Eidolon. It's his muse, his inspiration. He's been toiling for years to unravel its secrets, but he's barely managed to scrape the surface.

[ArcturusV]

Depending on the levels involved, I always like operational plan adventures. If they know this Toymaker exists, and they're gunning for him at some point (Or at least want to hinder his ability to inflict harm upon the world), they're going to have to cut him down in some fashion. The classic adventure for this is the usual direct, frontal assault on their sanctum.

But I tend to have more fun breaking it up into more adventures. So they might go around and do something like try to liberate and burn out an Iron Mine complex/town, to cut down on the source of materials for the Toymaker to be cranking out Iron Golems and the like. At higher levels they might be trying to figure out some way to cut his access to the elemental spirits he needs to animate his creations. They want to make sure that they can limit his ability to expand his forces before they go for the frontal assault, constantly whittling him down until he's easily manageable.

Yeah, there are work arounds for something like that. Like "Pssh, you burned down my Iron Mine? I'll just keep casting Wall of Iron every day and harvesting it". Then again I usually curtail moneymaking spells/powers like that in my own games. I don't really like post scarcity utopias.

[Ninja_Grand]

Thanks for all the great ideas. I have concrete plans its just the PC's want more of the main plot way before I planed. They were going to movie forward on the land for a holy stone, but like i said, they want robots for where they are now.

[TheIronGolem]

Consider adding an element of the "grey goo scenario (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_goo)" into the mix. Constructs can build more constructs who build more constructs still, etc.

Imagine having the BBEG crash the party at some castle/keep where the PC's are are chillin'. He shows up with, say a hundred golems or whatever. They start bashing the walls apart while they ignore the rain of arrows from the defenders atop the battlements, and start building more golems from the pieces.

Soon enough the BBEG has two hundred golems, and a great big hole in the castle wall to march them through. Lord Deadmeat von DoomedByThePlot charges the PC's to get his wife/heir/McGuffin to safety while he and his men buy them time to escape. Then they need to figure out how to stop an army of self-replicating golems.

Damn, I think I just talked myself into making this the plot of my next game.

[mabriss lethe]

Consider adding an element of the "grey goo scenario (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_goo)" into the mix. Constructs can build more constructs who build more constructs still, etc.

Imagine having the BBEG crash the party at some castle/keep where the PC's are are chillin'. He shows up with, say a hundred golems or whatever. They start bashing the walls apart while they ignore the rain of arrows from the defenders atop the battlements, and start building more golems from the pieces.

Soon enough the BBEG has two hundred golems, and a great big hole in the castle wall to march them through. Lord Deadmeat von DoomedByThePlot charges the PC's to get his wife/heir/McGuffin to safety while he and his men buy them time to escape. Then they need to figure out how to stop an army of self-replicating golems.

Damn, I think I just talked myself into making this the plot of my next game.

This looks like a job for a Madcrafter of Thoon. Unfortunately for the people in the castle, the whole area is rich with Quintessence, the power that Madcrafters feed on to spew out more constructs. The backbone of the invading force is a wrecking crew of golems backed up with an ever growing population of scythers and stormclouds of thoon. The golems are both the backbone and the potential weakness of the operation. There are only a limited number of them, and the Madcrafter can't replenish their ranks when one falls. They're also the only units on the field with the raw physical power to tear apart the walls of the keep to maintain the production of their lesser kin.

If the party manages to isolate and eliminate the golem wrecking crews, the siege will stall out. The army will still be a huge threat, but the madcrafter will not be able to continuously pop out scythers and stormclouds.

[Drachasor]

There could be some intelligent/awakened golems that are rebelling or persecuted and living on their own. Any number of possible stories there.

He could be working on a massive golem larger than a Tarrasque as an ultimate weapon. Maybe it has Alter Self and normally looks like a (animated) city.

Constructs that look just like normal animals (like effigies) and he's slowly replaced the animal population with spies. Druids not happy!

Or, construct and spell labor is so efficient along with pacts to use magic to grow wood, plane shifts to gather resources from planes, etc, that Druids LOVE him. He's letting more areas become wild.

He starts taking control over outsiders from Mechanus or building duplicates.

Construct jewelry being sold that acts as spies for him.

Every villain needs a flying citadel.

More to come.

[Vaz]

The whole Science against magical theme? The PCs are relics of a bygone age and are hunted across the land by an empire determined to wipe out magic. In reality they are wanting to eradicate sources of magic that are not their own.

Golems, Runic Guardians, etc all sent across the globe to hunt down the PC's and several 'bandit' groups of supernaturals.

[Drachasor]

1. Seeking rare and valuable magical components and artifacts to incorporate into constructs can lead to many different plots. Especially if the artifact would actually be safer stored inside a construct because outside it is so harmful.

2. Toyman making deals with other nations to provide constructs under their control to supplement their armies. Troops, transport, etc. Lots of benefits to forces and transport that doesn't get tired. We assume Toyman has some unique technique. Some of these nations are good aligned (perhaps fighting a country of undead) and the constructs are perhaps truly needed. This provides conflict when opposing Toyman.

3. Toyman has made constructs to upgrade normal people into constructs -- kind of like Magic Jar, but permanent and non-dispellable. Body is made, mind/soul transferred, old body stays alive for a time and then rots. The new bodies have pretty good physical stats and don't age. People have mixed feelings, but Toyman doesn't give them a choice -- he's against death.

4. Toyman seeks to steal or create a divine power source that can be used to give some of his constructs divine casting. Intelligent constructs would connect to this source and get abilities based on their user level -- but he has to get it up and running first. Maybe he calls it the Primus Project

5. Toyman is working on combining a Simulacrum with Constructs, to make more easily healable simulacrum for all sorts of purposes.

6. Toyman has found a source of metal that regenerates damage or some other material to make constructs out of. These heal automatically and have to be taken to negative hit points (perhaps equal to their size bonus to health) in order to really kill them.

7. Possibly toss in some purely benevolent acts here in there, as long as they fit in with Toyman's character. Construct prosthesis for disabled kids and so forth.

8. He's made constructs that absorb spells like a Rod of Absorbtion. Perhaps they are channelling the absorbed magic to some secret project -- though they can use it in combat for various effects too.

9. Colony Constructs that can animate a number of hit dice of random stuff like animate objects, and keep them active indefinitely -- useful to provide additional labor, security, surprise the enemy, etc.

[kreenlover]

When they get back to a town, have everyone be acting really weird. They won't say why. They have been promised to be saved from the robopocalypse if they turn over the PCs to him. They must stall the PCs until a force of elite warforged arrive.

Maybe he is working on something big (as everyone else suggested) one final device that will let him win. Some massive Macguffin. They need to get the different parts first, and destroy them, or stop him from getting them

They find evidence that he is doing this for a good reason. The world needs to stand united against some terrible threat that is approaching. Maybe all the Elder Eidolons (or massive, semi-aware construct factories) are awakening, and they are the harbingers of something worse. There is a rise in construct production everywhere, as ancient forces awaken, and begin to create their untiring armies which will stand against the darkness. Is this really what is happening, or is it some new plot by the Toymaker? is it misinformation? and if it is real, how do you tell the good constructs apart from the bad ones? Or, is the Toymaker really doing the right thing, but just in the wrong way?

Maybe these giants semi-aware construct factories are awakening to produce constructs to stave off the apocalypse, but the Toymaker is trying to take control of these city-sized Golem factories as fast they awaken. The PCs must figure out which one is awakening next, and go make sure that it stays free of the Toymaker's influence

I also like the whole he is converting people to robots because he doesn't like death thing. Very much like the Cybermen of Dr. Who.