Ferronach
2016-03-11, 12:10 PM
I am currently working on a swashbuckling adventure of proportions that the party will never guess. Unfortunately, I have some holes in/concerns about the story and would appreciate any ideas that you may have.
I am thinking that the campaign will start off around Character level 13-14 - please feel free to comment on this if you think it needs changing for a specific reason
The gist of what I have so far is as follows:
1 on 1 session with each player to somehow get them onto a merchant ship - will vary based on each character type/personality
Ship will encounter a few sea based encounters with various options - not everything will be a winnable fight
On the ship is an NPC who seems a little different and some higher spots checks will hint at his true nature - he is an old gold dragon in human form who has wandered the lands for a few centuries learning all sorts of things. He has a spell on him that causes him extreme pain and can potentially kill him if he uses magic so he is somewhat trapped in his current form (more on this later)
depending on how the party handles certain encounters they will end up either being attacked by a leviathan which will smash the ship to pieces, or s massive storm of magical nature will capsize the shim and break it apart.
The will be teleported to an island (that does not show up on any maps) along with a random number of crew and other passengers by the dragon NPC who they find writhing in agony on the beach.
He will be mumbling something about "that 'jerk' and his stupid curse" and "didn't think it would still work, especially at this distance" and "can't use any powers or he will know"
The party will lose most of their items unless they had them on them or have some other way of retrieving them from the shipwreck (they don't know where it is in relation to them) but the NPC has a bag of holding with various items that should suit the party's needs. He will give them these items if they help him bring the other people to a village on the island and consider entering his employment afterwards
Getting to the village will be a classic escort mission with a few wildmen and jungle creatures thrown at the party. Other then their natures and the NPC, there is no real incentive to keep everyone else alive (hooray for options).
The party will get to the village guided by the NPC who seems to be getting weaker as time passes.
The villagers will help the wounded and feed the party. When asked for a way off the island, the villages will mention a legend of a ship in a mountain.
At this point the NPC reveals that he wants the party to help him get the ship, which was one of his ancestors and was stolen a long time ago - this is the employment that he was hoping to pay for with the weapons
Hopefully the party will accept :S and head out despite warning from the villagers
More jungle slogging to get to the mountain...
Inside the mountain I would like to have a bunch of undead pirates and living pirates of long lived races with booby-traps.
To make matters worse there will be devils and demons who are looking for the ship for some reason (more on this later). They will be fighting each other as well as the "pirates"
When the party gets to the ship, it is unlike anything they have ever seen as it is actually an airship (of sorts) and is immensely large
The crew of the ship will be battling a bunch of devils and demons. The captain of the ship notices the party and shouts to the NPC, asking if this is his doing. The NPC says no but he is powerless to help because of the captain's curse. The captain responds that he to is powerless because of the NPC's curse.
It is now revealed that the NPC was the captain of the ship and the crew mutinied against him with the current captain. The villagers are descendants of the crew who went with the NPC but stayed on the island. Out of spite the NPC cursed with a spell that will turn the crew undead if they stray too far from the ship or die while within that radius in addition to sabotaging the ship. The new captain placed the no magic curse on the NPC that also saps his strength while he is on the island and cast a spell that caused any ship that the NPC was on to encounter the magic storm if it came too close to the island. The NPC used an item that created a custom anti-magic effect (to suit my needs) on the ship.
While the two captains argue over who's fault it is, I hope that the party convince them to release their curses on each other as the devil and demon armies are about to mount a huge assault on the ship.
The mutinous captain will be a red dragon who was raised as the gold's brother. He constantly battles his evil nature but it got the better of him and caused him to mutiny. I hope to have them patch up relations and if the party decides it, have them reveal that the ship is capable of trans-planar flight and be willing to take them on as crew or take them wherever they wish.
I guess that what I need help with most is, do devils and demons fit the theme? Would they want to control a ship capable to travelling between planes?
I have purposely weakened the NPC to prevent him from becoming a DMPC but will have him step in if things look incredibly bad. Will his presence be too much of a railroad?
If all goes according to plan and the party have access to planar travels and want me to continue, should I? I don't really have any ideas past that point. The players have experienced interest in becoming pirates... The gold dragon may object to piracy though.
I am thinking that the campaign will start off around Character level 13-14 - please feel free to comment on this if you think it needs changing for a specific reason
The gist of what I have so far is as follows:
1 on 1 session with each player to somehow get them onto a merchant ship - will vary based on each character type/personality
Ship will encounter a few sea based encounters with various options - not everything will be a winnable fight
On the ship is an NPC who seems a little different and some higher spots checks will hint at his true nature - he is an old gold dragon in human form who has wandered the lands for a few centuries learning all sorts of things. He has a spell on him that causes him extreme pain and can potentially kill him if he uses magic so he is somewhat trapped in his current form (more on this later)
depending on how the party handles certain encounters they will end up either being attacked by a leviathan which will smash the ship to pieces, or s massive storm of magical nature will capsize the shim and break it apart.
The will be teleported to an island (that does not show up on any maps) along with a random number of crew and other passengers by the dragon NPC who they find writhing in agony on the beach.
He will be mumbling something about "that 'jerk' and his stupid curse" and "didn't think it would still work, especially at this distance" and "can't use any powers or he will know"
The party will lose most of their items unless they had them on them or have some other way of retrieving them from the shipwreck (they don't know where it is in relation to them) but the NPC has a bag of holding with various items that should suit the party's needs. He will give them these items if they help him bring the other people to a village on the island and consider entering his employment afterwards
Getting to the village will be a classic escort mission with a few wildmen and jungle creatures thrown at the party. Other then their natures and the NPC, there is no real incentive to keep everyone else alive (hooray for options).
The party will get to the village guided by the NPC who seems to be getting weaker as time passes.
The villagers will help the wounded and feed the party. When asked for a way off the island, the villages will mention a legend of a ship in a mountain.
At this point the NPC reveals that he wants the party to help him get the ship, which was one of his ancestors and was stolen a long time ago - this is the employment that he was hoping to pay for with the weapons
Hopefully the party will accept :S and head out despite warning from the villagers
More jungle slogging to get to the mountain...
Inside the mountain I would like to have a bunch of undead pirates and living pirates of long lived races with booby-traps.
To make matters worse there will be devils and demons who are looking for the ship for some reason (more on this later). They will be fighting each other as well as the "pirates"
When the party gets to the ship, it is unlike anything they have ever seen as it is actually an airship (of sorts) and is immensely large
The crew of the ship will be battling a bunch of devils and demons. The captain of the ship notices the party and shouts to the NPC, asking if this is his doing. The NPC says no but he is powerless to help because of the captain's curse. The captain responds that he to is powerless because of the NPC's curse.
It is now revealed that the NPC was the captain of the ship and the crew mutinied against him with the current captain. The villagers are descendants of the crew who went with the NPC but stayed on the island. Out of spite the NPC cursed with a spell that will turn the crew undead if they stray too far from the ship or die while within that radius in addition to sabotaging the ship. The new captain placed the no magic curse on the NPC that also saps his strength while he is on the island and cast a spell that caused any ship that the NPC was on to encounter the magic storm if it came too close to the island. The NPC used an item that created a custom anti-magic effect (to suit my needs) on the ship.
While the two captains argue over who's fault it is, I hope that the party convince them to release their curses on each other as the devil and demon armies are about to mount a huge assault on the ship.
The mutinous captain will be a red dragon who was raised as the gold's brother. He constantly battles his evil nature but it got the better of him and caused him to mutiny. I hope to have them patch up relations and if the party decides it, have them reveal that the ship is capable of trans-planar flight and be willing to take them on as crew or take them wherever they wish.
I guess that what I need help with most is, do devils and demons fit the theme? Would they want to control a ship capable to travelling between planes?
I have purposely weakened the NPC to prevent him from becoming a DMPC but will have him step in if things look incredibly bad. Will his presence be too much of a railroad?
If all goes according to plan and the party have access to planar travels and want me to continue, should I? I don't really have any ideas past that point. The players have experienced interest in becoming pirates... The gold dragon may object to piracy though.