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View Full Version : Help me cobble a story out of these disparate elements



Scalenex
2007-01-20, 04:19 PM
I got three things I need to integrate together in order to save my story. The PCs started at 2nd level and are now 6th level (due to very high CR encounters).

I'll go top down. First off I have a dragon villain that I was originally intending to be the main villain that I think may be way too much right now, even if only sends minions against the PCs from afar. To understand my dragon villain, you must understand my backstory.

Long ago the gods created dragons to inherit the world. In my world all dragons are of the same species even though they can have widely ranging powers and breath weapons and colorations. Any two dragons of opposite sex can mate and the powers of their offspring may or may not manifest traits like theirs. For more info. Check my old post on the mechanics I used:

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30196

Anyway dragon society collapsed because of tensions between the oldest and younger dragons and external threats from evil gods and extra-planar invaders. The gods figured that the dragons were too powerful, and their theoretically infinite life spans gave them plenty of time to get corrupted by their own power so they created the smaller weaker, elves to inherit the world. So began the second agae. After they became established, they got mired in internal power struggles coinciding with another distasterous power play by the evil gods.

In a very simarilianesque ploy, one god made dwarves behind the back of the other gods, but they let him keep them. Once the gods decided that elves couldn't cut the mustard, they created humans next to inherit the third age. Gnomes were created to act as peacemakers and go betweens for the elves, dwarves, and humans. I have yet to decide why halflings were created but that's not super relevant to this.

Despite their war torn numbers, many dragons were not willing to let elves usurp their rightful place as masters of the world. The elves gave the dragons such a drubbing that most were not going to let history repeat itself when the gods decreed humans would inherit the world. Torakus was not going to let it stand. Through a combination of brilliant intrigue and pacts with the chief evil god, he managed to become the leader of a declining evil elven kingdom and attempted to wipe out humanity before they could establish themselves thoroughly (though he was willing to accept merely culling them to a point where they could easily be enslaved). He reasoned that dragons could retake the world if the humans were stopped, since the elves were so weak at the moment. He underestimated the ability of good people to work together and a coalition of good dragons, elves, and humans managed to utterly crush his minions. He took human form to try to avoid justice but his ruse was spotted. For a karmarific punishment, an elven wizard of legendary power cast a spell to trap in human form. In their hubris, they let him go, figuring he'd live a short miserable life as one of the humans he hated so much then grow old and die.

Torakus was stuck in the body of an unaging and immortal human. When life deals you lemons you make lemonade. If humans were going to inherit the world, and he was a human, he would inherit the world. He decided to lie low for a century or two. He realized that is sorcerery powers were intact. He used his manipulative skills and magic to encourage a decline of a small city-state of humans. When the people were almost ready to openly rebel against their corrupt nobility, he heroically stepped in to lead them victory and became king by acclimation, taking a new name, King Drosst. Over the next generation of his city state, he managed to conquer a neighboring city state. Through diplomacy and warfare, he expanded his kingdom (Ophidia) into the largest empire in the world in terms of land and the second largest empire in terms of population. Over the last two and hundred fifty years every war he fought with his remaining neighbor (and the world's other super power) has been fought to a stalemate. To avoid suspicion over the fact that he doesn't age, he has long since stopped making public appearances in the day. When not working to expand his kingdom's power base, he tries to undo his curse with various magical experiments. He worked hard to establish a wizard school within his capital city to help him in this, increase his Ophidia's magical power, and put pressure on other sorcerers (he doesn't like competition). Whether due to one or more of his experiments working or due to the curse wearing off over time, he gained the ability to shapechange teeth and claws, hiding or revealing them at will. Since the awakening of those powers he has taken to feasting on the flesh of the most beautiful and promising maidens of his kingdom to weed out the best from the human gene pool (he still hates humanity). He is never seen during the day and the women who go into his chambers are never seen again. His pale skin and noble predatory features already peg him as a vampire. This is an ultimate subterfuge. Any would be regicidal assassins will attempt to use garlic, sunlight and other banes of vampires which means their intial attacks will be wasted effort. Also, he doesn't want any of his old dragon enemies (if any are still around) to realize he's still alive.

The PCs mostly hail from Ophidia's competitor, Brettonia, a nation that's inspired by both Rohan and Camelot. The players wanted to go to an area where they could fight monsters and the like so they went to the frontier region beyond Ophidia. They were able to cross through Ophidia with minimum difficulty. Ophidia and Brettonia's nobility may hate each other, but their regular citizenry still engages in trade during times of peace.

Now here's the hole I dug myself in. The reason the frontier is the frontier is because centuries ago, vampires ruled the region until they were eliminated and no one wanted to settle there if they can help it because the land is cursed. With military expansion blocked, King Drosst gave huge tax incentives to any who would settle into the frontier. Naturally the new settlers have some serious issues to deal with. That's where the PCs come in. The whole "help our village" schtick

First a ranger and druid were in the area enticing animals to harass the villagers in order to entice them to leave. Since most undead feed on living humans, they figured a large concentration of living humans would cause the sleeping undead hordes to waken anew. The villagers couldn't really leave until their crops were harvested, even then they didn't really want to abandon every thing they built. The PCs worked a compromise where the ranger and druid agreed to leave the villagers alone if they left right after the harvest. Unfortunately the ranger and druid were right and the undead were rising. So the PCs had to help defend the villagers against the private armies of two minor vampire lords who did not want their new food source to move away. They also had to work with a LE adventuring party from Ophidia with nice enemy-of-my-enemy rping. My story gotten away from my control. I still wanted to have something involving King Drosst so I had the adventurers meet a friendly young dragon, Terwyn, a dragon who hangs out with a pack of blink dogs. Drosst offers large bounties for dead dragons (combination of him wanting their body parts and just being spiteful towards non-cursed dragons). This dragon had no common sense and loved to talk. So one of the Ophidians got her to spill her guts on her powers and habits and then reported it to the authorites in order to collect his 10% finder's fee on a vulnerable dragon. The PCs got wind of this, and rallied their ranger and druid friend and forewarned the dragon in order to stop the would-be dragon hunters.

Next the PCs helped moved the villagers to their new home, surveying a site and helping guard the exodus, fending off a last ditch vampire attack.

The players are frustrated with me. I said there was a lot of monsters in the frontier to fight but they haven't encountered many (because between a dragon, a pack of blink dogs, and hungry undead, how monsters would there be?). The gnome wizard has long had the goal of making a Saddle of Blink Dog Kinship (the halfling ranger wants one too), allowing them to ride one into battle without being dropped on the ground and/or disoriented whenever it used it's Blink or Dimensional Door abilities. They are happy that I set up a nice story where they could befriend blink dogs and find some young ones who are willing to adventure with them (so they didn't have to kidnap puppies and raise them away from their parents), but they still feel like their magical item is impossibly far off. Magical items cost a lot and while they are getting a fair amount of treasure, most of it is in items not cash. Realistically, how much treasure would a vampire from a defeated kingdom have? There is also frustration because the PCs have no real connection to the village they are protecting. I'm running out of story ideas apart from throwing the whole monster manual at the exodus of villagers (after the vampire attack, they were attacked by hill giants).

How do you guys think I should salvage this? I want to give the players the oppurtunity to get treasure (without simply handing it to them), integrate the maneuvering of King Drosst, finish up the frontier vampire plot, and keep everything looking like a coherent story.

Scalenex
2007-01-20, 04:22 PM
Here's Torakus/King Drosst's stats

1100 year old Wyrm

Dragon Stats Human Stats
Str 34 +12 14 +2
Dex 10 +0 14 +2
Con 25 +7 16 +3
Int 24 +7 24 +7
Wis 22 +6 22 +6
Cha 25 +7 25 +7

Dragon Saves: Fort +28, Ref +21, Will +28, Base Attack +37, Secondary Attack +35, AC 26

Human Saves: Fort +15, Ref +14, Will +28, Base Attack +19/+14/+9/+5

Fear/Breath Save DC 36, spell save = 10 + spell level +7

0th (6 per day) Arcane Mark, Prestidigitation, Ghost Sound, Touch of Fatigue, Open/Close, Read Magic, Detect Magic, Detect Poison, Mage Hand
1st (8 per day) Disguise Self, Shield, Mage Armor, Charm Person, Alarm
2nd (8 per day) Mirror Image, Speak with Dead, Pyrotechnics, Detect Thoughts, Scorching Ray
3rd (8 per day) Vampric Touch, Displacement, Suggestion, Cure Serious Wounds
4th (7 per day) Greater Invisibility, Charm Monster, Bestow Curse, Sending
5th (7 per day) Telekinesis, Dream, Hold Monster, Cone of Cold
6th (7 per day) Create Undead, Flesh to Stone, Greater Dispel Magic
7th (7 per day) Reverse Gravity, Control Undead, Greater Scrying
8th (6 per day) Binding, Create Greater Undead, Mind Blank
9th (6 per day) Energy Drain, Astral Projection, Power Word Kill

Dragon form, 38 hit dice, Spell Resistance 28 CR

Bite 2 Claws 2 Wings Tail Slap Crush Tail Sweep
4d6+12 2d8+6 2d6+6 2d8+18 2d8+18 2d6+18

Innate Abilities: Mighty Breath Weapon, line of lightning: 22d10, water breathing, telepathy, Polymorph Self (3 times a day), Detect Thoughts (at will), Dominate Person (once per day) 5 points to spare, Teleport (once per day)

Feats: Multi-Attack, Snatch, Wingover, Hover, Alertness, Combat Casting, Power Attack, Cleave, Improved Bull Rush, Awesome Blow

Skills: (403 points, 41 max): Spot 41 (+47), Listen 41 (+47), Search 41 (+48), Spellcraft 41 (+48), Concentration 41 (+44), Sense Motive 41 (+47), Bluff 41 (+48), Intimidate 41 (+48), Knowledge (arcana) 41 (+48), Decipher Script 22 (+29), Use Magic Device 22 (+29), Move Silently 6 (+8), Hide 6 (+8), Ride 5 (+7), Knowledge (history) 11 (+18), Appraise 10 (+17), Tumble 9 (+11), Use Rope 3 (+5), Swim 5 (+7), Jump 5 (+7), Climb 5 (+7), Knowledge (nature, architecture and engineering, alchemy, dungeoning, nobility and royalty, nature) 1 (+8), Knowledge (religion and the planes) 5 (+12)

DaMullet
2007-01-20, 04:31 PM
Might I suggest, for your Gnome/Ranger problem, a solution: An enemy who DID kidnap a blink dog, and thus HAS such a saddle upon his defeat?

Also, who's to say that the village isn't falling apart due to internal conflict? Perhaps there's some trouble hereabouts that's got nothing to do with monsters. Maybe the elite of the village are condemned criminals, who live out on the frontier because there was no room in the jail, like how Australia got started.

While you're at it, throw in a MacGuffin to get them all motivated. That works wonders.

TheElfLord
2007-01-21, 08:36 PM
Why are people not Responding to this? Look at all the detail the OP put into his call for help. For Heaven sakes you people spout out story ideas all the time. I know you guys can help him. Why aren't you?

AmoDman
2007-01-21, 09:25 PM
How much treasure would a defeated vampire lord have? Probably a lot. He's a vampire lord. But on that note, are you telling me a "known" vampire lord in power is tolerating former vampires coming back to power? Sounds like a good ruse to keep up pretenses for some of the king's army, after the PCs defeat their due, of course. And perhaps the PCs just happened to recover some nifty (for a vampire) magical items the king would like to "acquire" for his own purposes. Since the adventurers defeated whatever vampires they did and earned the treasure before the army arrived, they could receive nice royal compensation for trading in the items.

Furthermore, unbeknownst the PCs perhaps that dragon does get captured behind their backs, and is carted off when the army leaves unkown to them...until the blink dogs come to implore their help on the young dragon's behalf. Cue rescue mission, cue various encounters, cue Drosst's private scorn for the adventurers but "public" appreciation for helping him out with the "competition," etc. Take the story where you will from there. Acquiring or commisioning a couple saddles shouldn't be too difficult during/after the rescue, what with the blink dogs getting even friendlier with the PCs and money made by royal compensation.

Scalenex
2007-01-22, 03:01 PM
Good call, particulary the first paragraph. I like the idea of the second paragraph, but I just don't know how you'd capture something that big with spell casting powers alive.

Matthew
2007-01-22, 03:02 PM
How about having the Player Characters start operations against the Vampire Lord frontier. There must be a ton of ruins and tombs around waiting to be explored.

What you need is a long term story objective (perhaps several, though only one will probably be fully used).

Getting a Blink Dog Saddle (or whatever) is not really a long term story goal, unless that saddle is needed to accomplish something.

At sixth level there is no reason at all why the adventurers shouldn't establish their own border hold and use it as a base to begin exploring and pacifying the countryside. They could be sponsored by the King, especially if he is annoyed that the establishment of frontier settlements is going so badly.

Ancient Prophecies, Rumours of Powerful Artifacts and such would probably serve to begin tying your Player Characters into a storyline.