Need some help for upcoming campaign

[Keral]

Hi guys,

I'm planning a new campaign and I need some help to setup the beginning.

One of the campaign plotlines, and perhaps the main one, wil involve a cult that is gathering corpses to create loads of undead to sell off as slaves.

The problem is: the players have started to flesh out their characters and I fear that the only reasonable way for them to have a serious reason to take on the cultist would be revenge.

As such, I thought that I could have the cult be responsible of the characters being shipwrecked and losing most of their possessions. However, what plausible reason could the cult have to destroy the ship they're on?

That cult's operation is based on a small island circa in the middle of a closed sea, thus I imagine they'll need ships to transport corpses from the mainland to it, so perhaps the two ships crashed into each other due to low visibility of night+storm?
It sounds a bit weak and it would be a bit of a stretch to blame the cultists for the accident.

The other scenario that came to mind is that from time to time they attack ships to 'create' more corpses. But to be honest it sounds a bit stupid since it's bound to arouse suspicion and have their plot unravel.


I'd really appreciate any suggestions on the matter, since I'd like to have a more solid reason than 'because plot'.

[Geddy2112]

To avoid this kind of thing in the future, you might want to tip your hand a little bit and give some general themes to your players so they don't build characters that are not compatible with the adventure you are running.

The easiest reason would be the cultist destroyed the ship because it was getting too close, and they don't want outsiders coming in and figuring out what they do. Is the start of your game the ship is destroyed and the players wash ashore on an island?

Another option is to keep this plotline going, but let the players do as they wish. They eventually start to realize that in towns they go to, corpses are being robbed left and right. People are being killed. Perhaps they find a city that has a lot of "surplus labor" for purchase. A cult that makes tons of undead won't stay hidden forever. If the players ignore it, let the natural consequences of that happen. The cult gains more power, making possibly more powerful undead, or an undead army that sacks a city, or more.

You could always abandon it and run a totally different game, saving this campaign for another day. Or when you need a fresh story arc, the players come across an island...

[zlefin]

My normal stance is open communication:
tell the players the issue, and see if you can all come up with a satisfactory reason to justify it. It's easier if the players know and are willing to fudge an excuse plot for a campaign to work.

Is slavery legal or illegal in the local area? And what about the creation/use of undead?
If the cult is trying to make money selling undead there has to be a market they're selling to, and hiding a large amount of undead slave labor wouldn't be easy.
Does the cult have any more nefarious plans?

[Keral]

To avoid this kind of thing in the future, you might want to tip your hand a little bit and give some general themes to your players so they don't build characters that are not compatible with the adventure you are running.

The easiest reason would be the cultist destroyed the ship because it was getting too close, and they don't want outsiders coming in and figuring out what they do. Is the start of your game the ship is destroyed and the players wash ashore on an island?

Another option is to keep this plotline going, but let the players do as they wish. They eventually start to realize that in towns they go to, corpses are being robbed left and right. People are being killed. Perhaps they find a city that has a lot of "surplus labor" for purchase. A cult that makes tons of undead won't stay hidden forever. If the players ignore it, let the natural consequences of that happen. The cult gains more power, making possibly more powerful undead, or an undead army that sacks a city, or more.

You could always abandon it and run a totally different game, saving this campaign for another day. Or when you need a fresh story arc, the players come across an island...

It's not that they're not compatible per se, it's just a bit tricky to have them engage in that particular plotline. Besides, they always end up doing more or less the same kind of character, and I don't like to force them to play a persona they don't like just because one of the plotlines (which, may or may not be the main one depending on how things work out).


The idea is for them to begin ashore, yes, but near(ish) the city they were going to. I would have them later gather clues and discover stuff leading them to the island. If that's what they want to do.

I'd really not run a different game, or abandon the plotline at this point. I'd rather have the cultist destroy the ship because they were getting too close, like you said.


My normal stance is open communication:
tell the players the issue, and see if you can all come up with a satisfactory reason to justify it. It's easier if the players know and are willing to fudge an excuse plot for a campaign to work.

Is slavery legal or illegal in the local area? And what about the creation/use of undead?
If the cult is trying to make money selling undead there has to be a market they're selling to, and hiding a large amount of undead slave labor wouldn't be easy.
Does the cult have any more nefarious plans?

I'd rather not tell them, it would give away a bit too much. I want to see what they can figure out as I lay down hints for them.

Slavery is legal, or at least it is in the city where they're traded and the neighbouring reigns. Creating and using undead isn't against the law, but more because it has never occurred to the rulers than anything else.
The undead will be ah, disguised magically. The slave collars are already supposed to be magical so an additional enchantment should pass mostly unnoticed. The cult's plan is to spread out a large enough number of undead amongst the population for a 'we're all going to die' kind of ritual.

[zlefin]

in that case, until the PCs find evidence of the cult's actual plan, what the cult seems to be doing is mostly a low-grade unimportant thing.

Maybe the cultist's took the corpse of one of the PC's dead relatives?

[denthor]

Start them working for the cultists if they all come up evil. Robbing grave yards for fun and profit. Then your baddies are the adventures that show up to stop them. Have grave digger find them can they make a friend? Is guy evil neutral good? Do they charm him. Maybe they overthrow the cultists for the gain.

I can think of some different things . The grave of a family has been taken over by ghouls ghast run by a vampire.