In need of Sidequest

[MichielHagen]

Hello,

my party has last session killed the storyline of the sidequest i gave them, and i am currently blank on how i am giving them another.

The world
The world they are in is medieval, with no magic, and only humans.
Currently they are travelling from their current destination (small town they pass through) to the capital, with still 3 days of travel ahead of them.

The Party
The party consists of 5 humans with special powers (this is homebrewed, but other then that we play 3.5 rules).
Telekinist (Flying, ranged attacks)
Lifeforce (Drain attacks, detect lifeforce, healing)
Stonebending (Rockarmor, hard punches, Rock throwing, Burrow)
Teleporter (Dimension Door as move action, Skirmish)
Mushroom (Female, Grappler, immunities, spores)

The story
The party has recently discovered that in the future (about 15 years) their world will allign with a demon world in another dimension, which will cause portals to appear where demons will come through. Currently they are on their way to the Great Library of the Capital to find more information. They are travelling with the Duke of their Duchy, he has previously asked for their help, and is one of the few who knows that the demons are coming. Also travelling with them are 6 soldiers, a butler of some kind, and his daughter.
His daughter is also a special, which the party suspects, but she has denied. She can duplicate powers of specials she touches, and has the powers of all party members and a random firestarter she met before. She has stolen some special magic items (from her father, and magic items are extremely rare, like almost non-existent). She has no good intentions, altough i have no real goal set for her, she is extremely jealous and currently in love with the Telekinist.

The sidequest
The last sidequest was a traveller who would unintentionally summon portals to the demon-world when scared. They first encountered him in a tavern, where he was accused of cheating by a NPC and demons appeared, the traveller was the only survivor (because the demons dont attack him). When they see him the next day, the traveller was on the cart of the Merchant he was travelling with before (who died by demon), and the party accused them of stealing, eventually threathening him and demons appeared. The party decided to kill the traveller first, then the demons.
Anyway, i was planning on more story with this traveller, but he is gone.

I need a new sidequest, i have three options:
Special
In the next town, on the road, or tavern they find another special. If this is simply a good guy special, then there is not much story, they might ask him to join them and that's it. Either it's a bad guy special, or a special that is in some kind of trouble with his powers.
I prefer not a bad guy who is just going to attack them, but i want more of a story than that.
Currently i was thinking of a special who has taken over a town, maybe mind controlling the townpeople, but i am not sure how to go about that. What hints would i give the players, what if they do not pick up on the hints and want to leave. I guess i could have the townpeople not letting them leave until they meet their leader, who will try to mindcontrol them?
But since i am not sure about my own idea, if you got some other interesting special, tell me :D

The Daughter
At some point, i want the Daughter to confront the party. She currently hates Lifeforce guy, because he accused her of stuff (which was true). Maybe she will plan a assassination in the next town they stop in. I was thinking the town has their annual townsfestivities, which will cause some diversions. She will hire some bad guys to somehow lure the Lifeforce guy away from the party, and let them attack him, while she would join in after. I haven't tought of a good lure yet, and i wonder if i should do this as a DM (single one player out, with a decent chance to eliminate him).

Something else
A combat encounter seems hard, i could send a large bunch of bandits at them, but have done this before, and they proof of little challenge (they are level 7 by now, bandits are not).
I have also given them Dire Bears and Dire wolves, which would not be fun to duplicate those encounters again.
I cannot think of a challenge (whether combat or something else) that would challenge them.
Obstacles are easily overcome by a teleporter and flyer.

Anyone have any ideas? it would be mostly appreciated.

(sorry for any gramatical or spelling errors, english is not my native language)

[Swaoeaeieu]

Hello,

The sidequest
The last sidequest was a traveller who would unintentionally summon portals to the demon-world when scared. They first encountered him in a tavern, where he was accused of cheating by a NPC and demons appeared, the traveller was the only survivor (because the demons dont attack him). When they see him the next day, the traveller was on the cart of the Merchant he was travelling with before (who died by demon), and the party accused them of stealing, eventually threathening him and demons appeared. The party decided to kill the traveller first, then the demons.
Anyway, i was planning on more story with this traveller, but he is gone.


ah, PC's killing the npc you needed to stay alive... and that is precisely the reason GM's never let PC's meet the important NPC at the start. players kill everything, so be prepared for that with you planning ;)

as for new ideas... maybe the npc wasnt the reason he summoned demons? maybe he was cursed by someone else, who is now pissed at the party. maybe killing him made him so scared just before death he made a permanent portal that now has to be closed? the party killed the guy but kept the merchant cart i assume? maybe they find a shipping order/message from a buyer and the shipment is valuable enough to make a little detour, little do they now a group of high level assasins are sent to murder ''the demon summoner that burned down that village, last seen on a stolen merchant cart''

what i am trying to say is, the players may have killed your plans, but you can always use their actions to influence the world, causing a new story to develop.

The daughter seems important to you. for an NPC like that i think its better to give them a goal instead of keeping them around in case you need plot. determine what she wants and how she is gonna achieve that, and the storie will write itself.



on a side note, i would love to hear more of this homebrew system. it seems like you dont have normal classes?

[MichielHagen]

Thanks for your response,

the NPC killed was not really important, but i had some more plans with him which would fill more sessions of sidequest. It just ended faster than i hoped. A sidequest ending sooner is not really a big problem, but just gives me the need for a new one.
Their actions have consequences though, because this NPC if kept alive and protected and willing to join their side, would have helped them close portals in the final battle in 15 years.

Giving the Daughter an actual goal would indeed lead to more opportunities. I have a plan for her in the future, should she confront them and escape out of it alive. I will have to think on it, currently she just acts as a greedy and jealous person.

The homebrew part is actually not really worked out well. The players could choose from 3 basic classes (Strong, Agile, Mental) with different BAB, saves, skills, CL. They would receive 3 feats per level, and with the feats they can buy regular feats, specially designed basic feats (like bonus STR, speed increase, bonus on saves, ...), specially designed attack modes (excel sheet where they can enter the their level, type of damage they want to do, effect of damage such as ranged touch or burst, range, damage dice, other stuff, the excel sheet would give them the resulting feats needed to buy the attack), and non-specific feats. The last is the part where the DM determines the cost of the ability. I could not work out every possible ability they could choose, so just waited for them to come up with an ability (like detect life force) and we would work out the details, usually with a progression how the ability would grow over the levels, and i would value it with feats (also working with half feats).

[DedWards]

Did the girl that copies powers touch the Demon portal guy at all? If yes, you could somehow tweak the sidequest, putting her in the now dead guys spot. Depending on how much the party cares for her, they could try save her instead of killing her, like they did with the other guy.

You could include her jealousy and love for the one PC and hatred for the other to spark the unintentional portal Summoning. Because the portals where tied to a strong emotion, who's to say that other strong emotions can't trigger it. Women are, generally, emotional.

[MichielHagen]

That was indeed part of the sidequest should the Demon-guy have survived, but in this case, it never got to that point. Unless she can take the powers of dead people as well, which i hadn't thought of before, in which case i can still let her touch him. The battle ended at the end of last session, i can ask what they plan with dead body of the demon-guy and go from there with a way for her to touch him. Could be interesting.

[weckar]

Mushroom (Female, Grappler, immunities, spores)Being female counts as a special power in your world? :smalltongue:

[MichielHagen]

Isn't this the same in the real world?

[DedWards]

Being female counts as a special power in your world? :smalltongue:

Isn't this the same in the real world?

Ha ha ha ha, laughing so hard right now :D

[hifidelity2]

Hello,

my party has last session killed the storyline of the sidequest i gave them, and i am currently blank on how i am giving them another.

Special
Currently i was thinking of a special who has taken over a town, maybe mind controlling the townpeople, but i am not sure how to go about that. What hints would i give the players, what if they do not pick up on the hints and want to leave. I guess i could have the townpeople not letting them leave until they meet their leader, who will try to mindcontrol them?


I used this - It was the local priest - at the weekly Sunday service (that in a medieval setting everyone attends) he had the ability to cast a mass charm. Normal saves but at -1 / time you attend service so the whole village was taken over - I made it very "Stepford Wives" with strangers being kept in the village as long as possible (and invited to "Mass" to supply a slave labour force. The party were given hints about the way people acted, that the local tavern was almost empty, and that some people while happy were worked like slaves

Each time you missed the Sunday service you got a fresh save (but at the cumulative minuses you had accrued - decreasing by 1 / week)