CantigThimble
2015-05-27, 07:10 PM
Well, I recently got a chance to play D&D again and my DM gland started itching so I started writing a campaign. Using some random adventure generators to kick-start the process I came up with the following:
The characters will be hired by the lord of a port city on the edge of the island kingdoms to help muster defense for his city. they will be provided with a ship, crew, map and a list of ciphers and contacts to get support throughout the islands.
Their first mission will be to recruit a green dragon from the enchanted forest. The forest has many fey and awakened animals, as well as goblin tribes who serve the dragon. The players will be given an item that mentally *pings* the dragon to tell him they are not to be eaten. He tells the party he’s not leaving his domain until an elven colony is destroyed. If they don’t immediately spring at the chance to kill the elves, the elves will counter-offer to send fey reinforcements to the war and provide rewards if the players will help them use the contact stone to lure the dragon into an ambush. Either way, they’re going to end up with an elven ship armed with ballistas and an ally, either goblin or elf depending on the side they chose.
At this point the party will be contacted by a man who claims to be sent by their employer and tells them they need to go hunt pirates. He’s actually working for the villain and the pirates are allies in the coming war. After a few fights with the pirates they will find out what If they succeed on insight or think to ask for the codes they were provided with then their contact will be revealed as a spy for the invaders. Instead, they will get to hunt down the spy-ships immediately.
Their next REAL mission will be to hire a clan of gnomish engineers to install defenses in the city. Upon arriving the gnomes will be in chaos, repeated raids have deprived them of crucial supplies and engineers. It will fall to the PCs to hunt down the raiders. During this time, a dashing gentleman shall make their lives miserable. He will be leading them into ambushes, traps and making liberal use of misty step and glyph of warding and perhaps also some illusions to make the party truly hate him. He will augment this by being chronically overconfident and mocking, often putting the PCs in deathtraps and walking away rather than trying his hardest to finish them off in true Bond-villain style. The climax of the scene will involve an aerial chase on airships. He will have hidden raw meat around the PCs airship and once he knows they’re following him take a detour through giant bird/roc/harpy nests. (I'll give them a chance to notice and deal with this) Once they manage to bring his airship down and finally trap him somewhere they’ll find out just how terrible he is at direct combat and will likely take great pleasure in crushing him.
Their final mission will be to venture into ancient ruins to retrieve some water elemental summoning stones. I’m a little vague here but it will involve a race to the artifacts against the forces of the invaders.
The finale here will naturally be a massive battle, during which the resources accumulated during which the resources accumulated over the campaign will demonstrate their usefulness and after chewing through soldiers and various army champions they will get a shot at the main villain, a war cleric or paladin kinda guy and try to bring him down.
Oh yes, I probably should have mentioned this in the OP but the theme of the campaign is going to be Chaos vs Law, the invading force is going to be coming from a land based empire possibly theocratic worshipping a LN deity. The islands are completely chaotic, nothing resembling government extends beyond one or two islands and all types brush elbows there. They don't mind the empire being near because strict laws push smuggling profits through the roof. Finally, a major general has been sent to conquer the islands, he can't imagine any major resistance as the islands are so disparate that he can conquer each one on it's own without any major setbacks. He's going to be shocked to see Pirates, Gnomes, a Green Dragon and the combined military power of several islands somehow working together. Most of my players are pretty chaotic no matter WHAT's on their character sheet so I might be able to get them into it that way. The lord they serve is less a traditional lord and more a merchant prince with deep pockets and favors owed to him dating back three generations all across the islands; many of which he's calling in. (The green dragon and the gnomes being the ones directly dealt with here)
So the invading army is going to be some kind of legion primarily, I haven't planned much beyond that.
Also my party has a tendency to either want to fight or start screwing around whenever they hit a town. Putting on shows, running con jobs, looking for random stuff like fighting claws or poison. I want to have something interesting prepared for when this inevitably happens.
Well, it helps to write all that down. Now what I need are some various interesting encounters (combat or otherwise) to drop in when appropriate; while they’re traveling, when they start messing around in a port or of course at one of the major adventure locations. If I just try to make a bunch myself I expect to get burned out or bogged down and never really have enough to make this work. So I’m hoping to at least collect some cool ideas here.
If you're curious the system would be 5e but the plot isn't invested in that system at all so I figured the general roleplaying forum would be appropriate. Anyway, thanks in advance.
FYI, my group is pretty light, I don't expect heavy optimization or deep roleplaying it's all just a bit of fun for us.
The characters will be hired by the lord of a port city on the edge of the island kingdoms to help muster defense for his city. they will be provided with a ship, crew, map and a list of ciphers and contacts to get support throughout the islands.
Their first mission will be to recruit a green dragon from the enchanted forest. The forest has many fey and awakened animals, as well as goblin tribes who serve the dragon. The players will be given an item that mentally *pings* the dragon to tell him they are not to be eaten. He tells the party he’s not leaving his domain until an elven colony is destroyed. If they don’t immediately spring at the chance to kill the elves, the elves will counter-offer to send fey reinforcements to the war and provide rewards if the players will help them use the contact stone to lure the dragon into an ambush. Either way, they’re going to end up with an elven ship armed with ballistas and an ally, either goblin or elf depending on the side they chose.
At this point the party will be contacted by a man who claims to be sent by their employer and tells them they need to go hunt pirates. He’s actually working for the villain and the pirates are allies in the coming war. After a few fights with the pirates they will find out what If they succeed on insight or think to ask for the codes they were provided with then their contact will be revealed as a spy for the invaders. Instead, they will get to hunt down the spy-ships immediately.
Their next REAL mission will be to hire a clan of gnomish engineers to install defenses in the city. Upon arriving the gnomes will be in chaos, repeated raids have deprived them of crucial supplies and engineers. It will fall to the PCs to hunt down the raiders. During this time, a dashing gentleman shall make their lives miserable. He will be leading them into ambushes, traps and making liberal use of misty step and glyph of warding and perhaps also some illusions to make the party truly hate him. He will augment this by being chronically overconfident and mocking, often putting the PCs in deathtraps and walking away rather than trying his hardest to finish them off in true Bond-villain style. The climax of the scene will involve an aerial chase on airships. He will have hidden raw meat around the PCs airship and once he knows they’re following him take a detour through giant bird/roc/harpy nests. (I'll give them a chance to notice and deal with this) Once they manage to bring his airship down and finally trap him somewhere they’ll find out just how terrible he is at direct combat and will likely take great pleasure in crushing him.
Their final mission will be to venture into ancient ruins to retrieve some water elemental summoning stones. I’m a little vague here but it will involve a race to the artifacts against the forces of the invaders.
The finale here will naturally be a massive battle, during which the resources accumulated during which the resources accumulated over the campaign will demonstrate their usefulness and after chewing through soldiers and various army champions they will get a shot at the main villain, a war cleric or paladin kinda guy and try to bring him down.
Oh yes, I probably should have mentioned this in the OP but the theme of the campaign is going to be Chaos vs Law, the invading force is going to be coming from a land based empire possibly theocratic worshipping a LN deity. The islands are completely chaotic, nothing resembling government extends beyond one or two islands and all types brush elbows there. They don't mind the empire being near because strict laws push smuggling profits through the roof. Finally, a major general has been sent to conquer the islands, he can't imagine any major resistance as the islands are so disparate that he can conquer each one on it's own without any major setbacks. He's going to be shocked to see Pirates, Gnomes, a Green Dragon and the combined military power of several islands somehow working together. Most of my players are pretty chaotic no matter WHAT's on their character sheet so I might be able to get them into it that way. The lord they serve is less a traditional lord and more a merchant prince with deep pockets and favors owed to him dating back three generations all across the islands; many of which he's calling in. (The green dragon and the gnomes being the ones directly dealt with here)
So the invading army is going to be some kind of legion primarily, I haven't planned much beyond that.
Also my party has a tendency to either want to fight or start screwing around whenever they hit a town. Putting on shows, running con jobs, looking for random stuff like fighting claws or poison. I want to have something interesting prepared for when this inevitably happens.
Well, it helps to write all that down. Now what I need are some various interesting encounters (combat or otherwise) to drop in when appropriate; while they’re traveling, when they start messing around in a port or of course at one of the major adventure locations. If I just try to make a bunch myself I expect to get burned out or bogged down and never really have enough to make this work. So I’m hoping to at least collect some cool ideas here.
If you're curious the system would be 5e but the plot isn't invested in that system at all so I figured the general roleplaying forum would be appropriate. Anyway, thanks in advance.
FYI, my group is pretty light, I don't expect heavy optimization or deep roleplaying it's all just a bit of fun for us.