zemerkenator
2014-05-23, 06:57 PM
Hello everyone this tuesday 5/20/14 i started a group of players on a homebrew adventure of mine, leading up to the beginning of play and even now im constantly searching the intarwebz for "dm tips/hints" i recently found one that said it is sometimes a good idea to have someone not playing in the campaign which you can talk to and discuss ideas, future plot points, etc with as a second opinion is never really a bad thing...since i do not have any friends interested in D&D that arent playing with me,i have come here to seek your opinions and critiques.
so to start off a little bit of background info...the world itself is rather earth like though something like 90% of it is covered in water leaving one main continent and various small islands.with this abundance of water i thought i could finally use the zaratans which i love so much but have never been able to encounter in any games ive personally played in.there are two zaratans in my world for sake of my sanity they will be referred to as zaratan(a) or (b).(a) is quite empty with the only sentient life being two fey stags and a spell weaver,(this is where the players are currently). while (b) is filled with an assortment of various nasty critters ranging from kobolds and goblins to orcs and minotaurs, perhaps even an ettin or hill giant. they use (b) as basically a mobile raiding outpost.
As for the mainland there are three major cities Rageon, the human city is located farthest north. Calamah, is roughly in the middle top end of the continent and is the home of the elves. and finally kersplunk is located furthest south and is the home of dwarves and various halflings.
The adventuring hook is that on each of the six sides of the planet respectively the north pole the south pole and 4 points even spaced around the eqautor.(imagine the world is a d6 on each side in the center is a large tower made of a shiny black material reaching over 1300 feet up into the sky out of the ocean. an ancient wizard known only as "the red"(who is the spell weaver on zaratan(a)) built the towers and put into place a defense shield around the planet giving the sky an eery red glow.this defense system was put into place as the party will soon find out to prevent hoards of elementals from various panes using the planet as some sort of focusing agent to gain access to the prime material.
i say the party will learn of this shortly because the shield will soon fail. (i plan to have this happen near the beginning of the next game session.) which will allow the elementals to once more gain access to the planet and the prime material.i realize elementals are rather nasty creatures and since my party are all level one they will be facing watered down versions to start and assuming they do nothing or take their time to reactivate the shield the elementals will grow stronger as larger and more powerful elementals begin to come through the various portals.
In order to reactivate the shield they must go into each tower and flip a switch or some such(havent decided on activation mechanism yet) which will be guarded by a plethora of creatures.the tower on the north pole is the main tower which requires the five others to be activated in order to proceed with powering up the shield. each tower has a theme which are as follows. :shark, bird, insect, feline, and snake. i have the tower maps all drawn out and places set for various traps and creatures which follow the themes.
i also have a map of the world and a blank turtle picture which i use as a map for the zaratans. these have been laminated and i have dry erase markers for making notes or marking locations and what not.
some last notes the games system being used is AD&D 2nd edition as it is my favorite. and the party consists of a bullywug shaman, a halfling thief, a dwarven fighter, and a half elf mage. there are talks of another bullywug(not sure of class, and an elven mage joining the party.
i forgot to mention how to gain access to the towers in the first place,(the following is copied directly from my notes so my apologies if it is confusing lol)when someone goes to the top of the tower in the very center is an odd elven hand shaped rune...requires an elf to place hand on rune and speak the elvish word for "down" written in elvish in a circle around the hand "to enter the depths speak "down"
if successful the entire top of the tower will split into multiple sections and begin to move (like the iris on the stargate or a nuclear missile silo door) revealing a second platform that covers the entire area inside the tower (roughly a foot down from the door) 30 seconds after the door is fully opened the platform(elevator will begin to descend at a steady rate of 60ft/min, which takes roughly half an hour to reach the bottom.(northern tower takes 1 hour.
each tower will descend into a different dungeon/puzzle...
the tower at the north pole is ringed by thick ice at the base and will descend the furthest and open into a massive chamber with a large pair of heavy locked doors. with intricate runes leading to 5 different animal statues (snake,cat,bug,bird,shark) placed evenly down the outer walls of the chamber, snake in center.
thats all i can think of currently though i have tons more notes...feel free to ask questions give suggestions and what not.
so to start off a little bit of background info...the world itself is rather earth like though something like 90% of it is covered in water leaving one main continent and various small islands.with this abundance of water i thought i could finally use the zaratans which i love so much but have never been able to encounter in any games ive personally played in.there are two zaratans in my world for sake of my sanity they will be referred to as zaratan(a) or (b).(a) is quite empty with the only sentient life being two fey stags and a spell weaver,(this is where the players are currently). while (b) is filled with an assortment of various nasty critters ranging from kobolds and goblins to orcs and minotaurs, perhaps even an ettin or hill giant. they use (b) as basically a mobile raiding outpost.
As for the mainland there are three major cities Rageon, the human city is located farthest north. Calamah, is roughly in the middle top end of the continent and is the home of the elves. and finally kersplunk is located furthest south and is the home of dwarves and various halflings.
The adventuring hook is that on each of the six sides of the planet respectively the north pole the south pole and 4 points even spaced around the eqautor.(imagine the world is a d6 on each side in the center is a large tower made of a shiny black material reaching over 1300 feet up into the sky out of the ocean. an ancient wizard known only as "the red"(who is the spell weaver on zaratan(a)) built the towers and put into place a defense shield around the planet giving the sky an eery red glow.this defense system was put into place as the party will soon find out to prevent hoards of elementals from various panes using the planet as some sort of focusing agent to gain access to the prime material.
i say the party will learn of this shortly because the shield will soon fail. (i plan to have this happen near the beginning of the next game session.) which will allow the elementals to once more gain access to the planet and the prime material.i realize elementals are rather nasty creatures and since my party are all level one they will be facing watered down versions to start and assuming they do nothing or take their time to reactivate the shield the elementals will grow stronger as larger and more powerful elementals begin to come through the various portals.
In order to reactivate the shield they must go into each tower and flip a switch or some such(havent decided on activation mechanism yet) which will be guarded by a plethora of creatures.the tower on the north pole is the main tower which requires the five others to be activated in order to proceed with powering up the shield. each tower has a theme which are as follows. :shark, bird, insect, feline, and snake. i have the tower maps all drawn out and places set for various traps and creatures which follow the themes.
i also have a map of the world and a blank turtle picture which i use as a map for the zaratans. these have been laminated and i have dry erase markers for making notes or marking locations and what not.
some last notes the games system being used is AD&D 2nd edition as it is my favorite. and the party consists of a bullywug shaman, a halfling thief, a dwarven fighter, and a half elf mage. there are talks of another bullywug(not sure of class, and an elven mage joining the party.
i forgot to mention how to gain access to the towers in the first place,(the following is copied directly from my notes so my apologies if it is confusing lol)when someone goes to the top of the tower in the very center is an odd elven hand shaped rune...requires an elf to place hand on rune and speak the elvish word for "down" written in elvish in a circle around the hand "to enter the depths speak "down"
if successful the entire top of the tower will split into multiple sections and begin to move (like the iris on the stargate or a nuclear missile silo door) revealing a second platform that covers the entire area inside the tower (roughly a foot down from the door) 30 seconds after the door is fully opened the platform(elevator will begin to descend at a steady rate of 60ft/min, which takes roughly half an hour to reach the bottom.(northern tower takes 1 hour.
each tower will descend into a different dungeon/puzzle...
the tower at the north pole is ringed by thick ice at the base and will descend the furthest and open into a massive chamber with a large pair of heavy locked doors. with intricate runes leading to 5 different animal statues (snake,cat,bug,bird,shark) placed evenly down the outer walls of the chamber, snake in center.
thats all i can think of currently though i have tons more notes...feel free to ask questions give suggestions and what not.