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Balor01
2014-02-16, 09:51 AM
So I'm setting up a short campaign for a few friends. I downloaded a few free adventures and I'd like to connect them in a way that they lead to the last "great confrontation".

Modules are about:
- a cursed cleric that is permanently polymorphed into an ettin and is attacking the village every night. PCs can try to fight him, but the way to solve this module is to make him realize the error of his ways (his god does not return him back to normal state because he was too radical)
- a bunch of hobgoblins in posession of a powerful item that depletes the land of water. Certain nobleman knows what item they have in posession and places bounty on hobgoblins
- third is about a hunting lodge becoming a point of interest for dark forces that kill hunters and turn them into savage beasts
- fourth is about a bunch of sea-raiders that use a false beacon to have ships smash into the underwater rocks and plunder the area.

behind all of this should be the BBEG:
- fifth and last module is about a cleric who is trying to rebuild an old temple of forgotten god. His newly-attained powers enable him to wreck havoc in villages at range by burning them from the top of his tower

So I'd like to weave all this random destruction into a single plot:
BBEG gets an easy way to polymorph cleric into a mindles beast and sends him to harass village, he also gets a few mooks to use an artifact that causes drought, cuts off shipping into the region via his mercenaries and even manages to have a notorious hunting ground, where adventurers often hone their skills "cursed" by an evil spirit.

The question is, why? I always go from a standpoint of BBEG hiding his plans to the very last, so how could i logically connect all these overt bad deeds?

thanks

Yora
2014-02-16, 10:06 AM
Sounds a lot like the villain is trying to destroy the economy of the realm. Which leaves a couple of options:
- He wants to weaken them before his army invades. (But has a plan to restore things, once he has taken over.)
- He wants to drive the population out, so there will be nobody to oppose him when he moves in to take control of some special local resource he wants to possess.
- He plans to transform the landscape into something more suitable for his ultimate goal.

Balor01
2014-02-16, 10:37 AM
Thanks for input, Yora. Weakening thing does not work for me. If he plans on getting an army, he can roflstomp everything once he gets it.

But hmmm. What if say, an entire mountain is actually a temple, populated by these three villages? And while he is planning to re-activate this mountain/temple he wants mountain empty so his diggers can do his job. I think that is good and rather epic approach.

Artemicion
2014-02-16, 11:20 AM
It seems to me that the answer "the villain was doing all this stuff to make people leave" quite unsatisfying, since the actions are really very different and follow different "modus operandi".

My thoughts:
-Not all the bad stuff need to be directly caused by the BBEG, but they can somehow link to his activities.
-It would be good to have some more details of what is the forgotten deity involved. It seems to be somehow related to fire, right?

Some ideas:
-The powerful magic item that the hobgoblins have is actually a relic from the evil deity (relic that causes droughts could be well be linked to an evil fire god - things burn better when they are dry). The relic was somehow being delivered to the cleric because it will be useful for his temple revival, but the delivery people (merchant caravan?) was attacked by hobgoblins who are now using the powerful evil toy. If the PCs end up with the item, the cleric might be very interested in retrieving it. If the PCs get their hands on the relic, indentifying it could do some pretty cool foreshadowing.
-About the radical ettin-cleric: maybe your BBEGwas lloking for some recruits for his new cult, saw that there was a pretty unstable cleric in a village which might join. Alas, the unstable cleric, instead of joining the BBEG's ranks, radicalised his position the other way. BBEG somehow cursed cleric to become an ettin. If the PCs manage to save the cleric, he will be able to tell them the tale of this mysterious cleric who came to recruit him.
-The evil spirit hunting the cabin might have emerged from one of the dread rituals necessary to reactivate the evil temple. Or it might actually be forest spririts trying to create monstrous allies to protect it from the burning god intent on coming back. If they manage to speak to the spirit, they could get some really confusing and scary foreshadowing.
-Your BBEG could well have hired of otherwise convinced the sea raiders to appear as a significant threat that attracts the attention of local authorities away from his own plan in the mountains. Again, discussion with the brigands could provide some pieces of information.

Balor01
2014-02-16, 11:48 AM
Splendid work Arctemion. I'm using the fire god plot. And mine "Entire mountain is a temple" idea. I think this will mainly be happening on Arctemion mountain :P Now, what clues could these "fire clerics" leave behind them? High enough Knowledge DCs on an item could be a clue as well as talkative mercenaries. Detect magic on Polymorphed ettin could show some "fire god properties". Evil spirits could be fire-related. (at least fluff-wise).

Calen
2014-02-16, 12:14 PM
For a different approach and if you are open to some tweaking of the module plots.


- a cursed cleric that is permanently polymorphed into an ettin and is attacking the village every night. PCs can try to fight him, but the way to solve this module is to make him realize the error of his ways (his god does not return him back to normal state because he was too radical)
and

- third is about a hunting lodge becoming a point of interest for dark forces that kill hunters and turn them into savage beasts

are related. Make the beasts the same in both scenarios and perhaps the cleric was protected by his god to be more open to "realizing the error of his ways". Perhaps the cleric was a companion of the BBEG and they had a falling out.


- fourth is about a bunch of sea-raiders that use a false beacon to have ships smash into the underwater rocks and plunder the area.
and

- a bunch of hobgoblins in posession of a powerful item that depletes the land of water. Certain nobleman knows what item they have in posession and places bounty on hobgoblins

Replace the beacon with the artifact that removes water, causing the ships to crash on reefs. When the players take care of the pirates (and if they don't figure out where that artifact is and/or what it does/know it exists) then the hobgoblin tribe finds it and mess around with it.

Now that nobleman is either a proxy of or the BBEG, he needs both the artifacts to complete his ultimate fire tower (Transforming the lack of water into fire…yeah sounds lame but)

Artemicion
2014-02-16, 04:35 PM
Hmmm... So you got a whole mountain to become the dedicated temple of an evil fire god... Can I say volcano?

Maybe the hobgoblins took some of the merchants prisoner, if the PCs rescue them, they could even get a clue as to where they were supposed to deliver the relic?

Blightedmarsh
2014-02-16, 06:52 PM
So you have a dormant volcano and the BBEG is planning to reawaken the volcano god.

The artifact could be the divine power of a water/sky/rain god; balance to the volcano and holding it in check. The BBEG could be planing to sacrifice it to the volcano to prevent it from being used to bind it again.

The wrecking could be a kind of blood sacrifice; something to get a sea god on side for the big fight against the volcano god.

The ettin you be as a result of laxity. The priest was supposed to be doing rituals to keep the volcano dormant. He couldn't see the point as he though the think well and truly dead. Laxes in his duties and is punished.

The hunting lodge could be angry spirits of the ancestral dead trying to stop the volcanos awakening.

Balor01
2014-02-17, 06:08 AM
Sweet, s-weet :) I'll use most of this. Volcano it is.

Balor01
2014-02-17, 06:32 AM
Here we have sort-of final idea.

- Artifact team wants to make volcano more active. Also item dries up the land and thus attracts PCs (clue: Knowledge checks on item, interrogating prisoners)
- Looting of ships means live sacrifice for temple of Fire god as well as loot and distraction from main works (Clue: if defeated, talkative mercenary pirates)
- Ettin was a good cleric, got corrupted by Fire god, switched sides, but remains cursed (Clue: Cleric knows about Fire cult but not their location)
- Lodge site events are consequence of fire spirits awaking (Clue: General knowledge regarding the fact that Fire clerics are active in region)