Stuck with a story arc

[ShirAhn]

Hi all, im dming a party of 5. Its my first experience dming and I made a (probably many) mistake with my story. Ill try to keep it short.

Basicly the story is as followed, there once was a loyal follower of vecna. She was a high priestess of the cult but fell inlove the mayor of a local town. She stopped worshipping vecna and married the mayor, got pregnant and gave birth to a beautiful dark haired girl.

At this time, she hid her most powerfull artifact a amulet with an symbol of a closed eye. The woman then goes on and has a happy life for about 8 years. Then one morning, when out walking with her daughter the pair gets robber. The woman gets stabbed and dies nearly instantly, unable to warn her daughter who was kneeling over her for the dangers that lie in the amulet.

The mayor is struck with greeves and treats the study the woman uses as a shrine. Nobody except him and his daughter are allowed in. After a few years when the daughter is 15, she finds the amulet. With the chain broken the thinks she can surprise her father by getting it repaired. She knows not the power that is inside. She brings the amulet to a local dwarven smith and asks him to repair it.

One the first strike against the amulet the eye opens, and a small green gem falls out. The gem, atunes itself with the daughter turning her into the avatar of vecna. She rises all the corpses in the cemetary and starts killing everyone in town to create a bigger army. Then she and her army move north to build a ritual chaimber for summoning vecna.

The mayor fled the town and meets the party, the party found out that the evil woman, doing all the evil things is his daughter. The mayor however does not know, he still thinks she is missing and hopes she still lives.

The party knows nothing about the history of the woman, but there is evidence in the house where the amulet was stored. I need some reason for a party to go into a zombie infested towbn and hopefully find the next clue for the puzzle.

Sorry for the long post.

[gfishfunk]

The mayor fled the town and meets the party, the party found out that the evil woman, doing all the evil things is his daughter. The mayor however does not know, he still thinks she is missing and hopes she still lives.

The party knows nothing about the history of the woman, but there is evidence in the house where the amulet was stored. I need some reason for a party to go into a zombie infested towbn and hopefully find the next clue for the puzzle.

Sorry for the long post.

This is all that the party knows, so this is all you are presently committed to, but I think you can incorporate all that you would like or change it on a whim.

Ideas to get them to zombietown.

1. Mention that there is a zombie town. The players will likely go there anyway.

2. Zombie town is on the way to the cavern where the daughter is.

3. No one knows where the cavern is, but the mayor helpfully suggests tracking zombies to see where they came from.

4. There is a shrine in the middle of town that is holy ground. A local priest/priestess is presently stuck there and cannot leave because the rest of the city is swarming with zombies. Conveniently, she knows something about that amulet.

5. Sing to the players 'Won't you take me to....Zombietown'. Repeat until they decide to go there.

[Night Eternal]

have the mayor offer whatever powerful relics that his wife had to the players inorder to tempt them to into the town. you can have the mayor say that he thinks that someone must have found one of his wife relics and that why ther zombies everywhere. someone in the group will probably jump at the option for magic items. especially a zombie one.

let me know how it goes be interested to find out

[ShirAhn]

have the mayor offer whatever powerful relics that his wife had to the players inorder to tempt them to into the town. you can have the mayor say that he thinks that someone must have found one of his wife relics and that why ther zombies everywhere. someone in the group will probably jump at the option for magic items. especially a zombie one.

let me know how it goes be interested to find out

Followup: my party decided to chase some wererats in the sewers and have so far totally ignored the main story arc. I haven't decided yet how to deal with this. Next Wednesday there will be another session and I decided that the mayor has created a secret council to try and take back his town. He asks the party to scout ahead to check the size of the army and gather information for weakpoints etc. He also asks the party a personal favor, he wants to find some personal belongings to remember his wife and daughter by. If they do a search, they will find the items.

To be continued.

[Smorgonoffz]

@ ShirAhn
What would you do if the party has no interest in following the vecna plotline?

[ShirAhn]

@ ShirAhn
What would you do if the party has no interest in following the vecna plotline?

The world would evolve "naturally", the queen wil try and send her forces to stop the undead unslaught, they will fail and large parts of the kingdom will fall. NPC's that the party know will die making it harder for them to shop/rest.

The characters that use divine magic will find it harder and harder to contact their god (give disadvantage to curtain roles and only telling the PC that they cannot reach their god).

The Region the undead control is currently as followed.

http://i.imgur.com/wCtS9Oo.jpg

If they do not help, the entire southern part will fall first. The SteelForge Mountains is the first to fall, one of the PC's is a dwarf so that should hopefully trigger him. If not thre rest of the eastern island will become in control of the undead.

[Hrugner]

While they're in the sewers chasing the wererats down, have a large military force begin moving stockpiles of weapons food and other supplies down into the sewers as part of a stockpile for moving a larger force into the city to deal with the growing undead army. If they ask any of the soldiers what's up, they meet someone who plans on going awol after the stuff is all stashed down in the sewers, he also mentions a reward for information regarding the undead.

[Smorgonoffz]

So basically they've got only one choice, was this discussed when the campaign started/proposed?

[ShirAhn]

While they're in the sewers chasing the wererats down, have a large military force begin moving stockpiles of weapons food and other supplies down into the sewers as part of a stockpile for moving a larger force into the city to deal with the growing undead army. If they ask any of the soldiers what's up, they meet someone who plans on going awol after the stuff is all stashed down in the sewers, he also mentions a reward for information regarding the undead.

This is a good idea, I will keep this in mind thank you.

[ShirAhn]

So basically they've got only one choice, was this discussed when the campaign started/proposed?

They always have a choice, however I feel that the world should evolve around them. A war is going on and one party is clearly winning. They are an elite team that might be able to turn the tide in the favor of the realm. If they choose to ignore it, I want there to be consequences. You do not agree with this? I'm curious to know you thoughts on this. Thanks

[Joe the Rat]

If the Rise of Vecna line just sat there waiting for the party to interact, I'd say it's an issue. But that is a regional background event, and one that will continue to grow.

Keep evolving what's happening - the mayor is still desperate to find his daughter. Regional threats, attacks of roving undead, etc. continue to increase. They hear (or see) signs of increased military action. The Mayor, desperate, goes looking himself, and gets quite dead.

And the party continues to deal with problems and get rich and develop a reputation. At some point, they will have enough renown that they are summoned for a specific mission... which they can turn down, to the detriment of their standing within the kingdom, and the broader situation.

They may leave the region, and hear tales of insurrection, or invasion, or the actual truth of a burgeoning zombie apocalypse... and at some point the news stops.

But this can't be the only thing going on in the world. Keep touching back to the trouble, but let your players get distracted by lycanthropes and Gnoll raids and secret creatures from below the earth and so on.

[Specter]

Some motivations might be:
- Money (if everybody is a zombie, everything's for the taking)
- Protection (receiving a message from someone dear to the party who's inside the town)
- Lore (knowing why things are the way they are, a la Warlock)
- Duty (putting the souls to rest a la Paladin).

But I tell you, from what you told me it seems you're trying too hard to rail the PCs. Build the places and the people and let the players do what they want. Maybe they have no interest in the origin of your girl during the game, so you tell them via cutscenes (descriptive sessions where you tell a story).

[BurgerBeast]

So basically they've got only one choice, was this discussed when the campaign started/proposed?

I can't disagree more with this line of reasoning.

First of all, they don't only have one choice. Even if ultimately they have to confront the avatar of Vecna, this doesn't mean they have one choice. There are a variety of ways they may choose to confront her and even more ways that each could play out. Providing a direction is a good thing, not a bad thing.

Second, what are you driving at? Are you suggesting that it's unfair to players or not? Because I'm in the "it's fair" camp. Players choose to be a part of a story. They don't automatically get authorship, in any degree, beyond their own character.