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SWAZ
2016-04-23, 11:23 PM
I'm a long-time dnd player, and I'm DMing my group's next campaign. I've spent a great deal of time working on the campaign, and I won't bore you with all of the specifics. Here's a summary of it:

The characters live in a small mining town at the border of the orc nation and that of humans and dwarves. They work primarily as miners, but make a bit of additional money by escorting trade convoys to a larger town (The road also runs along the orc/human border). The campaign basically starts when the characters find a telescope lense in the middle of a silver deposite, noting that it feels strangely heavy and cold. The mayor of the town (A changeling who has taken the form of a gnome) seizes the lense and has it transported to the larger town, of course asking the players to escort it. Along the way, a group of orcs lead by a mind flayer attacks the PCs and steals the lense, leaving the players themselves as unharmed as possible. The players complete their supply run to the larger town, but are once again attacked by the orcs. The orcs steal the convoy's food while yelling about the humans and dwarves violating hunting boundaries, which the players know hasn't been happening. Upon returning to the town, the players realize that all the livestock, pets and other animals in the surrounding area have fled. (Unknown to them, this is because the mayor has been experimenting with necromancy, and this has driven the animals away.) His ultimate plan is to animate the moon as a colossal undead and use it to destroy the sun, leaving him with a dark world that he could conquer with his own undead. He sends the players on a mission to retrieve the lense from the orcs, which takes a great deal of time and human rights violations to accomplish. After reaching the vault where the orcs have been keeping the lense, the players are confronted by the mind flayer from earlier. He is unarmed, and only warns them not to give the lense to the mayor. (Unknown to the PCs, his planet was destroyed by the 'mayor' decades prior, and he has spent the remainder of his life trying to stop this planet from suffering the same fate). Assuming the mind flayer just wants to see the town destroyed, the players give the lense to the mayor, who uses it to finish construction of his telescope. He then uses this to complete the first part of his lunar animation ritual. The first act of the campaign concludes with an enormous eye opening on the moon.

The second act of the campaign begins with the mayor launching a manhunt for the PCs, as they have outlived their usefulness to him. Throughout this act, the moon develops a more and more defined face and the ability of necromancers is limited more and more. (The mayor has almost unquestioned control over the town at this point, as he has claimed to be a prophet of the moon god). As a very, very broad summary, the rest of this act is centered around exposition. The players are introduced to the mind flayer, who explains the fate of his own planet at the hands of the mayor. He and several broodmates escaped aboard his ship, and followed the mayor to this planet in hopes of stopping him. He explains that he doesn't know exactly what the mayor is, but that he must be something ancient and powerful. Upon arriving on the planet, the mayor used a similar ritual to cause a comet to disable the mind flayer's ship. The ship crashes near a human settlement. Expecting to be helped by the residents, they were shocked to be met with hostility. He watched as the townsfolk slew every one of his broodmates and left him mortally wounded. (one of the characters was born in a nearby town shortly afterwards, and was born as a mind flayer due to contaminated water. He has no idea what he is; he has lived his entire life wearing a helmet he can't remove) The mind flayer spent the next few years trying to find the mayor. The act ends with the players and the mind flayer leading the orcs in a massive siege of the town in an effort to stop the mayor. After they succeed in taking the town, they watch in horror as the mayor escapes into space on some kind of magical tower.(Elemental rocket?)

The third act begins with the realization that the sun set 24 hours ago. This act is basically a race against time: The mayor is preparing for a final necromantic ritual on the moon, and the players need to stop him before the world is destroyed. Crops have already withered from lack of sunlight, and livestock and people alike are starving. Undead are roaming the countryside, and people have basically started an inquisition, killing necromancers and anyone they believe to be a witch in the hope that they will stop the undead from growing in numbers. Ironically, the ability of necromancers to use necromancy is almost completely gone by this point. The players and the mind flayer travel hundreds of miles through zombie-infested countryside, chases by the living and the dead. Their goal is to reach the mind flayer's ship and repair it enough to get to the moon. They somehow manage to, and the campaign ends with a climactic battle of the surface of the moon. As the battle is building to its climax, the mayor kills the mind flayer. The mind flayer character rushes to his side, still wearing his helmet and unaware of his race. In his final moments, the dying mind flayer tears a key from around his neck. He presses it into the mind flayer PC's hand and says 'do what must be done' or something along those lines. The PC unlocks and removes his helmet for the first time in his life, and realizes that he is indeed a mind flayer. The mayor is incredulous; he thought he had killed them all. The players, lead by this character, manage to slay the mayor and stop the ritual. They then perform a reversal ritual, and the moon begins to break down, almost like it's having a seizure. The players barely make it to the ship in time, but they suffer critical amounts of damage as they leave the dying planetoid. Their crippled ship falls through the atmosphere, and they are all knocked unconscious upon impact. As they regain consciousness, each has an experience that affirms that they succeeded. One awakens to being licked by a calf, one awakes to dazzling sunlight, etc.

That's pretty much all I have. Any comments or criticisms would be appreciated!

ImNotTrevor
2016-04-23, 11:34 PM
My only advice is this:

Unless the group explicitly agreed to follow this script, assume they will tear it to pieces within the first few minutes of the first or second session.

PCs destroy everything you love. It is their job. Expect them to do so. Be prepared to throw out large portions of this script, or railroad when those portions are threatened. Can't really have both

SWAZ
2016-04-24, 12:13 AM
My only advice is this:

Unless the group explicitly agreed to follow this script, assume they will tear it to pieces within the first few minutes of the first or second session.

PCs destroy everything you love. It is their job. Expect them to do so. Be prepared to throw out large portions of this script, or railroad when those portions are threatened. Can't really have both

Yeah, that's why I've kept it pretty broad. I've been railroaded in campaigns before, so I know how much it sucks. I'm prepared to scrap everything except for 4 or 5 major events, only using railroading as a last resort. Thanks for the input!