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Frywick
2016-06-27, 12:45 PM
In the game I'm currently running, the party may have to seek out the aid from a society of druids that live away from civilization and aren't welcoming to outsiders. I do not have much experience in making adventures centered around druids or the fey so I'm having somewhat of a writers block. The ideal plan would be for the party to assist the druids in some way and in return they would help the party, but I don't want it to be "Go kill this thing and then we'll help you." I was hoping for something maybe more political or may require the party to pick a side and support it. There was a recent invasion on a nearby city by a foriegn kingdom so that might be able to play into something. I'm not having alot of good ideas on this matter so any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

Geddy2112
2016-06-27, 12:52 PM
The Shades of the Uskwood (http://pathfinder.wikia.com/wiki/Shades_of_the_Uskwood) are an evil cabal of druids in the PF setting Golarion. You could always have the druids be the bad guys(or at least evil).

Since you have a war going on, the druids could be interested in seeing both sides lose and society fall, if they are the "back to nature" types.

And if you want some really metal druids, you can always make them undead (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/siabrae-cr-2)

Khedrac
2016-06-27, 01:39 PM
Have a bunch of settlers that have recently moved nearby and are starting to clear farms - and have the druids go and ask them to go and move the farmers.
The catch on this one is that the druids will be judging the party on how they manage this - as the druids will not want the farm animals hurt in the process!
(For added fun the farmers can be refugees settling here as they have nowhere else to go.)

Thrawn4
2016-06-27, 01:54 PM
In the game I'm currently running, the party may have to seek out the aid from a society of druids that live away from civilization and aren't welcoming to outsiders. I do not have much experience in making adventures centered around druids or the fey so I'm having somewhat of a writers block. The ideal plan would be for the party to assist the druids in some way and in return they would help the party, but I don't want it to be "Go kill this thing and then we'll help you." I was hoping for something maybe more political or may require the party to pick a side and support it. There was a recent invasion on a nearby city by a foriegn kingdom so that might be able to play into something. I'm not having alot of good ideas on this matter so any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!
It basically depends on what kind of druids we are talking about: tree-hugging hippies or survival-of-the-fittest darwinists or "true neutral" people with some affinity to nature based themes?

Honest Tiefling
2016-06-27, 02:25 PM
Well, what would these people need? Since they are druids, I'm going to assume they have the basics nailed down. You know, food, water, safety, collars for murderfloofs. What in the outside world would interest them?

Diplomacy is I think a good idea, as was suggested before. They could talk to settlers (as was mentioned before) and get them to move peaceably, or scare them off, whichever. They could also be talking to other groups. Does the group have a dwarf? Go talk to them. Does the group have a paladin/cleric type? Go talk to other members of their own faith.

If the group is of a less then good bent, they could steal or assassinate people. Yeah, that guy there? Defiled a holy grove and killed a nymph, so go whack him. This is indeed killing a thing, but will take a great amount of planning to pull off and is more then a simple kill n' loot job.

The same logic can be applied to a druid that desires the return of an artifact that must be stolen from civilization, or even desiring some sort of trade good/magical supplies. I mean, you want help with that army, right? So steal us some stuff that'll help us help you.

If the druids have a spiritual side or a connection to the fey and your group is cool with it, you could also do a dream quest aside. Some sort of challenge is presented to them in the dream, and the druids judge them on their actions in said dream. Now if injuries in the dream translate to real life, well, you know you'll get a more honest answer...

There is always the idea that the group has to PROVE that siding with them in this war is a good idea. Escort one of their members to ascertain the damage to the wilderness and return them safely. Or bring a magical doodad they can teleport or see through if you aren't in the mood for an NPC. I would entertain this idea as a backup, where a character skilled in diplomacy can skip the task and go with this option instead if so desired.

Consider also a council of druids, each one proposing a different task/idea, each one with their own agenda. They'll push for their own task for some reason (a cautious druid favoring evidence, a bloodthirsty one out for revenge favoring assassination, and a more peaceful one wanting the settlers to shoo before they become a problem and possibly create another conflict for instance), which means they'll back the party in picking one even if the other council members don't agree.

hymer
2016-06-27, 02:31 PM
You could have the druids engage the PCs in a philosophical debate. The druids aren't interested in converting the PCs, or even find out what their point of view is. But they do want to find out if the PCs can do well in an argument, because they want someone to go to a nearby lord, and have a word with him about his plan to bring [invasive species] to his domain to farm them.
And to further show the aloofness of the druids, they don't even particularly care if the PCs do that mission successfully. All they want to do is make sure that it is plain they've done what can be expected to deal with this peacefully, before the lord and his family begin suffering maladies, weather, pests, etc. The real mission for the PCs here is to save the lord and his lands from the disasters the druids will call down if things can't be ended peacefully.

Another thought: Druids are patient, and their organizations even more so. If the PCs have a good reputation, and their mission at least viewed neutrally by the druids, they may grant help in return for a later favour, to be named when you feel more inspired.

Hopeless
2016-06-27, 02:41 PM
Maybe discover one of them is missing and volunteer to search for them in hopes this proves their intentions are genuinely noble?

Perhaps one of the druids is particularly malicious and sends them to locate a particularly reclusive druidess except she's actually a Silver Dragon...😨

Funny part is that she's actually willing to talk to them as someone stole a druidic artefact whilst she was sleeping...

The artefact is actually connected to whatever reason sent them out seeking the druids in the first place but don't tell your players that!

Just wait for them to stumble inside the underground Barrow that functions as her lair point out there's a huge lake at the far end with an ancient shack that's clearly being used and then have her turn up forcing fear saves to avoid being frozen motionless or run away in blind panic... then the dragon shapeshift into a human form similar to Elsa and then reveal she's reclusive because even the druids are intimidated by a Sorcerer/Druid who was resurrected into her current true form following the ancient battle when the artefact in question was stolen en route to the druidic group who pointed them towards her.

By the way why were they trying to contact the druids in your game?

Frywick
2016-06-27, 05:28 PM
Maybe discover one of them is missing and volunteer to search for them in hopes this proves their intentions are genuinely noble?

Perhaps one of the druids is particularly malicious and sends them to locate a particularly reclusive druidess except she's actually a Silver Dragon...😨

Funny part is that she's actually willing to talk to them as someone stole a druidic artefact whilst she was sleeping...

The artefact is actually connected to whatever reason sent them out seeking the druids in the first place but don't tell your players that!

Just wait for them to stumble inside the underground Barrow that functions as her lair point out there's a huge lake at the far end with an ancient shack that's clearly being used and then have her turn up forcing fear saves to avoid being frozen motionless or run away in blind panic... then the dragon shapeshift into a human form similar to Elsa and then reveal she's reclusive because even the druids are intimidated by a Sorcerer/Druid who was resurrected into her current true form following the ancient battle when the artefact in question was stolen en route to the druidic group who pointed them towards her.

By the way why were they trying to contact the druids in your game?

Well they could end up not going to the druids at all but its a definte option. The party was given a parcel of land as a reward for a lengthly questline and the land is unable to grow any thing as many generations back that area was tainted by a corruption that took over a dwarven city and led to war on the continent. The corruption has been taken care of and the land is no longer tainted as before it was corrupting those who stayed on it and had other nasty things happen so the land was cleansed but despite this the land is still scared and any plant life dies. Thus the only way for the land to properly grow anything would be to revitalize the land through magics that are not divine but rather a more nature based approach.

LibraryOgre
2016-06-27, 06:58 PM
One of my favorites is having a swamp being drained. The druids want to maintain the swamp ecosystem, but aren't ready to go full-on ecoterrorist. So, they want go-betweens to help negotiate a settlement and get information. OTOH, you might have (especially with lower-level groups) a conflict where both sides HAVE gone to war, and they need people to carry out various actions in enemy territory.

hymer
2016-06-28, 03:29 AM
ecoterrorist

I prefer the term 'rainbow warrior'. :smallwink:

LibraryOgre
2016-06-28, 11:05 AM
I prefer the term 'rainbow warrior'. :smallwink:

May you be sunk by French intelligence. ;-)

AceOfFools
2016-06-28, 02:26 PM
Wheels within wheels: the council is deadlocked on some issues. One leader thinks her call for more investment in security would be supported if there were some hostile foreigners in the area. But if the PCS do too well, the council will demand revenge. Plus, it will be harder for their council contact to have a subordinate willing to help them afterwards if it's too obvious they were the perpetrators they had to fight against. (Obviously, she will be both under too much scrutiny and to busy afterward to do the ritual herself).

Wild Trade Agreement: the druids want something in large quantity that they can't get from their forest (say a plant not naive to the region useful in creating magic). They have goods they can trade for it (magical medicine, druid worked wood, maybe even animals to help recover populations after a disaster elsewhere) but are unwilling/forbidden to leave the forest to do the negotiation, plus may not know who even would have what they want.

The forest needs eyes: some one from civilization is sending a small, but steady stream of zombies to harass them. Repelling these attacks isn't that big a drain on their resouces, but they have no idea why someone would do this, let alone who. They don't need the pcs to deal with the threat (which is fortunate, as those responsible operate at scale/power level beyond the PCs), but they do need someone to figure out where to send their actual people. Sets up a future villian.

Here, take my daughter: the druids are happy to help, if the pcs ate willing to surrender a portion of the land to a young druid seeking to start her own circle. After arguing about just how much land, things go okay for a while. But then the farmers that work the pcs' land come into conflict with druids who live in their land, especially add they start stealing/recruiting some of the farmers' children to join their circle. So little adventure now for bigger trouble later.

Belac93
2016-06-28, 02:46 PM
Try checking out this article, 7 myths everyone believes about druids. (http://goblinpunch.blogspot.ca/2014/09/7-myths-everyone-believes-about-druids.html) It's all about having evil druids in your game, and is pretty awesome.

Fable Wright
2016-06-29, 05:07 AM
Having come off The Witcher 3, which is full of exceedingly Druidic and Nordic elements...

1. The Guardian Spirits. You know that town that was invaded some time back? The Druids were pretty okay with that shift—it's the strong devouring the weak, progress over time, and human nature besides. However, they are rather interested in the aftermath of that invasion. See, the Druids have made friends with all the local guardian spirits of the area, and put together a pretty good leyline system to benefit everyone nearby. But the invading army have brought their own cultural beliefs, and foreign guardian spirits besides. At the moment, the guardian spirits of the village and the soldiers are fighting a slow war of influence, which involves the soldiers' spirits mucking with the whole system the Druids have. So they send out the party to resolve the matter in whatever way they find best, be that to drive out the invading spirits, kill the local guardians and convince the invaders to fix up the leylines, arbitrate a peace or form of conflict that leaves the leylines alone, or whathaveyou. Only problem is, it tends to be a wee bit difficult to communicate with incarnations of nature and society; gotta find some intermediaries, first...

2. A powerful nature spirit has settled into the nearby forest, and is killing all who enter there. On the one hand, villagers are dying, not even Druids are safe in the area, and travel has become perilous. On the other, the area is becoming absolutely steeped in mystical power, and the Druids can tap into that wellspring from safely outside the nature spirit's hunting grounds. The Druids are helping the party in exchange for the party's efforts in keeping the nearby villages from hiring a monster hunter. Find some way to appease the nature spirit, finagle some new trade routes, convince the villagers to leave, any or all would be acceptable solutions.

3. Druids want to reclaim the land that the party owns. Get crops to grow there, get a forest to grow, get some Druids to help maintain the land and make it profitable for them and the PCs both. Only problem is, they need to tap into old magic there. Magic that works through ritual and sacrifice, not by spell slots and skill. So, all the PCs need to do is get them one virile young virgin sacrifice. A child whose family can't feed them would work after a bit of fattening up and exercise; some kind of capital criminal that's never been laid would be ideal; or they could just kidnap or otherwise find someone else to fit the bill. Do that, your lands will flower, wealth will flow to you, we'll be friends with you and your children for seven generations, and we'll give you that information you seek. Or we could be enemies, that works too.

Lycanthrope13
2016-07-01, 04:51 AM
At the center of their grove is the Great Mystic Tree. Beneath its roots, the Spawn of Ultimate Evil lies bound and sleeping. The druids have watched over this site for millenia, as it was prophesied that the Dark One would rise again in 10,000 years. But something is wrong, the Tree is sick, and the Evil is stirring, 2,000 years too soon. It takes all the power of the Circle to keep him bound. They need someone to determine what is weakening the Tree and to put a stop to it. They can only spare one member to help the party, a novice with very limited skill. If they cannot resolve this issue before the next equinox, then all hope is lost.