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View Full Version : I would appreciate some feedback on some plots, please!



Wandering Saint
2014-01-09, 02:52 PM
Hello, all. I am beginning to generate my world that I will be using in my DnD 3.5 campaign. I am trying to come up with some plot points that could grow into epic adventures later on, and I would love some feedback on a few of them.

1) The Necromancer's Folly. (I know it's zombies, shut up)
In one of the smaller regions of the world, a dark wizard came up with the belief that flesh was weak, and as such, sought to become one of the first Masters of Death (What we would refer to as Lich.) He succeeded in creating an infectious disease (curse?) that would turn people who are bitten by any organism carrying the infection, and then killed, into a zombie.
Before his plan could come into fruition, and before his 'ascension' could come to pass, a band of adventurers slew him in his mountain-fortress, but were fearful of the consequences of the disease being released into the world. The Wizard of the group stayed behind, activating a magical device that belonged in a long-gone period, trying to allow the rest of his party to flee the fortress. Unfortunately, the wizard was slain in combat, and he was unable to police the device, which transformed what was once fertile green fields into a frozen wasteland. The rest of his party died in the fortress, which became their frozen tomb.
This fortress has remained unmolested for centuries, and the tale of the adventurers fades from the common mind. However, nations and regions grow, their leaders more belligerent, and demand for this wasteland, so anomalous in its existence, to be conquered is high. Who knows what horrors the world would face were the Necromancer's disease reach these bustling nations?

2) Masters of the Sea
The world is divided up into three distinct continents (that civilization knows of.) Civilization on two of these continents relies on trade with the third, and would suffer greatly if this bond is interrupted. It is a grand age of exploration, and the call for adventurers to help explore the seas of the world are loud and endless.
But as civilization expands its reach, a poorly-thought action by a headstrong and noble captain alerts an old foe to the existence of civilization. Either a fourth continent is discovered, containing a race of conquerors who salivate at the thought of a new world to conquer... Or perhaps a race of conquerors are on the bottom of the expansive sea? In either case, they are intimidating, they are legion, and they have only the desire to inflict pain, take what riches they please, and take all land from the interlopers.

3) The Red Tower
The world is a place of war and power struggles. There are thousands of factions, and all of them are vying to tear out the throat of another. A band of wizards are one such faction, who watch the world below, literally from their sky-bound tower, lament at the tragic loss of life, and seek to help the poor people below.
Unfortunately, a poorly-thought assassination attempt on the Grand Magus' life leaves him in a state of infirm for years... In these years, the Red Tower is silent. The only communication in years, coming from the sky like a loud, booming thunder, claim that the Blades of Analeth, a hither-to-unknown order within the Red Tower, has decreed the world corrupt, and have taken it upon themselves to create a world without violence... Without strife and without war.
With a grand army of warforged warriors and machines, the Blades of Analeth command deathless soldiers, augmenting them with spells and enchantments, lamenting every loss of life... But the death of anyone who would do harm to another is a death that prevents even more. Who would dare defy those who seek only peace?

Rhynn
2014-01-09, 03:11 PM
1) The Necromancer's Folly.

Great hook - a dungeon adventure that can grow into something enormous. (Reminds me of both the Dwimmermount campaign logs on Grognardia and the adventure module Death Frost Doom.)

One quibble: why does anyone want or need a frozen wasteland?

Land isn't actually useful unless you can farm on it, generally speaking. Or is the point that the wasteland must be unfrozen by disabling the device? Doesn't that require the decision-makers to have oddly specific knowledge of what happened, if "the tale has faded"? Or is the hook in play going to be one specific noble or other would-be landowner who has discovered a very partial version of what occurred (i.e. that a magic device froze the land)? Why has he concluded it's an ongoing effect that can be unfrozen?


The other two actually don't strike me as interesting, but that's probably because they're so general. The first is very concrete: there's a location, probable motivation for the PCs, the likelihood (not certainty) of the PCs screwing things up, and consequences. The other two are very vague, at this point, largely by reason of being so grand in scale. The PCs' role is undefined.

Wandering Saint
2014-01-09, 03:14 PM
Great hook - a dungeon adventure that can grow into something enormous. (Reminds me of both the Dwimmermount campaign logs on Grognardia and the adventure module Death Frost Doom.)

One quibble: why does anyone want or need a frozen wasteland?

Land isn't actually useful unless you can farm on it, generally speaking. Or is the point that the wasteland must be unfrozen by disabling the device? Doesn't that require the decision-makers to have oddly specific knowledge of what happened, if "the tale has faded"? Or is the hook in play going to be one specific noble or other would-be landowner who has discovered a very partial version of what occurred (i.e. that a magic device froze the land)? Why has he concluded it's an ongoing effect that can be unfrozen?


The other two actually don't strike me as interesting, but that's probably because they're so general. The first is very concrete: there's a location, probable motivation for the PCs, the likelihood (not certainty) of the PCs screwing things up, and consequences. The other two are very vague, at this point, largely by reason of being so grand in scale. The PCs' role is undefined.

Perhaps the area is in a strange location? A location that makes absolutely no sense? Sure, snow on the mountain makes sense, but not all around it. Not like that, the snow is constant! Perhaps the adventurers are sent there to investigate. Shut the machine down! ... oh crap :smalleek:

Dawgmoah
2014-01-09, 04:12 PM
One quibble: why does anyone want or need a frozen wasteland?

Gold or some other rare mineral has been discovered? A type of fur bearing creature, whose pelts are worth thousands to the southern cities, has thrived there? Two Ley Lines, or if you prefer Magic of Faerun, a "Spark" (An area that heightens the effects of magic cast there) has been discovered, or a Crossroad is found to intersect there?

Just a few suggestions.

Dawgmoah
2014-01-09, 04:16 PM
2) Masters of the Sea
The world is divided up into three distinct continents (that civilization knows of.) Civilization on two of these continents relies on trade with the third, and would suffer greatly if this bond is interrupted. It is a grand age of exploration, and the call for adventurers to help explore the seas of the world are loud and endless.
But as civilization expands its reach, a poorly-thought action by a headstrong and noble captain alerts an old foe to the existence of civilization. Either a fourth continent is discovered, containing a race of conquerors who salivate at the thought of a new world to conquer... Or perhaps a race of conquerors are on the bottom of the expansive sea? In either case, they are intimidating, they are legion, and they have only the desire to inflict pain, take what riches they please, and take all land from the interlopers.

I've played with the, "Death from the Depths" scenario before and unfortunately the surface world lost heavily.

It is a good explanation why some prime lands are left uninhabited and who knows what may be found in the mouldering ruins?

Raine_Sage
2014-01-09, 07:01 PM
I agree I'm also confused as to why anyone would want to conquer an artic wasteland. I would imagine any valuable resource would either be considered too much trouble to obtain, or could be obtained with small scale outposts. The same way you drill for oil in the ocean, but you don't try and build cities on it.

If the arctic zone is in a place you wouldn't normally find an arctic zone, and if magic is common enough in your world, shouldn't that be a huge neon warning sign all on its own? If you were going to try and dispell it wouldn't you send in the magic equivalent of a hazmat team? Actually that could be an interesting plot, your PCs are a team of magical contamination experts sent in to find out the origins of the wastelands, discover the magical disease, and realize they themselves are contaminated. Cue quest to find a cure while dodging efforts from the king to quarantine them in the waste.

EnglishKitsune
2014-01-09, 07:21 PM
Easy Answer for the wasteland to be conquered: Defense of the Realm.

Make it be centered in a strategic point for 3 or 4 nations, have some of them be at war in one of those weird lovely political knots that result in everyone backstabbing and shaking hands with the other. Have an aspiring noble (possibly relegated to some post due to bad blood) hire the adventurers to scout out the fortress, with the idea of sneakily occupying it and securing a key strategic point for the home nation.

When they open up the tomb and activate the virus however, all bets are off. Make there be something big, semi-cataclysmic, when the place gets unfrozen so not only does every nation know that something happened, but now every Eye is turned towards this one small patch of land which could secure the ruling power for the area for centuries.

Then have the players do more work for the noble, possibly now promoted due to his plan, in scouting, spying, and doing all that fun small prep-stuff for an all out war. THEN they slowly start hearing reports of attacks on the border of the mountain area, and EVERY nation assumes it's one of the others. If the players go back in. (Maybe they now have access to a secret route? I doubt any Necromancer of note wouldn't have at least one very hidden easy way through the mountain.) They can discover the zombies.

Then it becomes a point of traveling to through the warring kingdoms, all of whom are responding to the new Zombies and Virus in their own ways. You have to rally them all to stand together against the ever growing zombie horde. The Necromancer could return, say like Sauron, not full corporeal but more a malevolent entity. with him controlling them the zombies rally, and you can start adding armored and smarter Wights to the battles. (Imagine the first time your players get ambushed by zombies.)

Eventually, with an army at their backs, the players, the only known people to penetrate the Fortress, must charge against the undead hordes, and defeat the spirit once and for all. (I could easily see a Dracolich featuring somewhere in here. Undead zombie Dragons!)

JeenLeen
2014-01-10, 04:34 PM
I would go with someone discovers a fortress, or ruins of a fortress, are there in the frozen area. (Perhaps the PCs do this; perhaps the quest-giver.) Whatever country the players work with sends them to investigate the fortress to see if it can be seized and make habitable for their forces, since it would be a useful fort to stage an invasion of another country.

You could also have it be that the fortress wasn't lost to legend, but just the details were. The countries around there all know that that area is cursed (hence the cold that kills most who venture there). Perhaps some golems or the ghostly energies of the heroes also stops those who venture there. Regardless, people have left it alone. Sure, maybe some adventurers have gone to explore a few times, but nobody's made it deep enough to really discover much. Too dangerous.
But NOW, with all this war, the pressure is on enough to motivate the PCs (or whoever commands the PCs) to really explore it. Perhaps they find an ancient scroll mentioning the cold-making-device?

I'd also recommend having some bosses be the ghosts (or other undead) of the heroes who stopped the necromancer. There's some Good version of undead in Book of Exalted Deeds, I think... or maybe it's another book. Perhaps their minds are altered so they can't perceive anyone trying to use the fort as anything but a servant of the lich, but it could provide a tip to the players that something strange is up.