Trey Bright
2017-10-24, 02:12 AM
Does this sound Doe able? Any 5e DM's do anything similar yet? I'd love any feedback on this idea. What kind of levels would I be looking at here? Any adjustments I'd need to make? I've never DM'ed before, but I've wanted to run something like this soooo bad when I saw the Sons of Kyuss in Volo's. Since Zombies don't naturally pass on the disease/curse by biting, Kyuss is as close as you get to cliche zombies. I've always wanted to run a zombie apocalypse setting where kyuss is slowly taking over, and this is just me taking that idea, and running waaaaaay to far with it.
Idea for an apocalypse setting: Undead Apocalypse: A Death Tyrant, The Sons of Kyuss, are are fighting each other to rule the world. The worms of kyuss keep infesting the armies that the Death Tyrant keeps raising, so the Death Tyrant raises more to fight them. Or! For theme, Kyuss could have zombies and the Death Tyrant could exclusive use skeletons to make it harder for the worms of kyuss to infest them. Then, to combat these hordes and to survive in a now necrotic wrote world, a legendary hero (figher) and an adventuring partner wizard now a lich made themselves undead to gain resistance to the necrotic energy that now infests the world. The lich would primarily run in non-corporeal undead, summoning the spirits of the people who were killed in this war to come back and help him and the vampire. The vampire would turn any willing individuals that want to fight in to vampires to strengthen them and against the world. The heros could get shoved on to this plane one way or another, and will need to escape before they also become a creature of the undead. Maybe have this happen at later levels so that every day the party is there, at the end of every day if they aren't in an area that is blessed or sanctified they take x points of necrotic damage and gain a level of exhaust.
It would be really cool is if this plane used to be a beautiful natural plane, possible a minor extension of the Fey Wild, but far more peaceful (less chaotic and dangerous then feywild proper) As such, some individuals started using it as a burial site for important people. Then some kind of planar war occurs and the honored dead are buried there. As time goes on, more and more dead from all over the planes are brought there and burried. Eventually, the plane becomes known as the grave of a thousand planes. It's beautiful and it's protected by paladins of the ancient oath and warlocks of the fey pact. Maybe even Barbadians of the Ancestral spirits thats coming out in XGtE. Eventually though, some cultists of Kyuss ally with a death tyrant to try and break in to the plane for its necromatic resources. They successfully break in, but then turn on one another in an attempt to claim control of it for themselves. All their fighting eventually leads to the plane being perverted away from the Feywild and it starts to slowly shift towards the shadowfell.
You could drop the players in at any point in time. Maybe even run some low level quests to build up to the invasion itself happening around 5 or 10? Around that point, they have to help with a mass exodus from that plane to other planes, possibly even the material plane? Run a few adventures on material plane, then bring them back? Maybe have the Vampire an Lich be heroes that the adventures have seen before in the beginning that held off the horde while the PC's and NPC masses ran for a gate or portal? Also, maybe the fighter vampire lord and wizard lich had other party members that ended up dying and they're the last surviving two? Have the other party members be mini bosses? It would also be very interesting to convert the Worm that Walks from 3.5 to 5e and have Kyuss himself make an appearance? Maybe reveal the death tyrant is only one of two or three if you really wanna get crazy, and they're being controlled by a mama beholder? I dunno, but there just seems like there's so much fun you could have with this. Small villages are all around where NPCs originally ran small farms because the ground is so fertile from all the bodies buried there? Maybe have that be a big thing in the beginning levels is this is a really peaceful burial site and also powerful farming/natural plane? They have the best veggies and fruit in the cosmos? Whole towns of durids spring up here to live in harmony with the nature? Have a lot of the different tribal races live here as well? Peacefully with each other? Then after the invasion and everyone flees to the material plane, all of the tribal races have to deal with the same races from that plane that are more violent and war like?
Oh, maybe if the party comes to this plane to the first time/returns to it, they're attacked by undead and are saved or found by vampire spawn that recognize they aren't undead and are taken to the vampire lord. He and the lich have become these undead abominations in order to find and save the few living people who are still stuck on the plane. They have some people who are voluntarily giving their lives to preserve them (vampire is drinking from a few different individuals so as not to simply kill them outright in one go, and they trade off.) (lich has some people who were criminals or people who have lost their family members to the undead horde and have nothing left to live for or something and so they give themselves to sustain him) It'd be really interesting to have a Cleric of the Grave from XGtE, a Death Cleric from the DMG, and the Horizon Walker Ranger from XGtE here as well.
So yeah...I'll try to update this with other ideas as they come to me. What do y'all think? Sound like anything any of you would run or like to run?
Idea for an apocalypse setting: Undead Apocalypse: A Death Tyrant, The Sons of Kyuss, are are fighting each other to rule the world. The worms of kyuss keep infesting the armies that the Death Tyrant keeps raising, so the Death Tyrant raises more to fight them. Or! For theme, Kyuss could have zombies and the Death Tyrant could exclusive use skeletons to make it harder for the worms of kyuss to infest them. Then, to combat these hordes and to survive in a now necrotic wrote world, a legendary hero (figher) and an adventuring partner wizard now a lich made themselves undead to gain resistance to the necrotic energy that now infests the world. The lich would primarily run in non-corporeal undead, summoning the spirits of the people who were killed in this war to come back and help him and the vampire. The vampire would turn any willing individuals that want to fight in to vampires to strengthen them and against the world. The heros could get shoved on to this plane one way or another, and will need to escape before they also become a creature of the undead. Maybe have this happen at later levels so that every day the party is there, at the end of every day if they aren't in an area that is blessed or sanctified they take x points of necrotic damage and gain a level of exhaust.
It would be really cool is if this plane used to be a beautiful natural plane, possible a minor extension of the Fey Wild, but far more peaceful (less chaotic and dangerous then feywild proper) As such, some individuals started using it as a burial site for important people. Then some kind of planar war occurs and the honored dead are buried there. As time goes on, more and more dead from all over the planes are brought there and burried. Eventually, the plane becomes known as the grave of a thousand planes. It's beautiful and it's protected by paladins of the ancient oath and warlocks of the fey pact. Maybe even Barbadians of the Ancestral spirits thats coming out in XGtE. Eventually though, some cultists of Kyuss ally with a death tyrant to try and break in to the plane for its necromatic resources. They successfully break in, but then turn on one another in an attempt to claim control of it for themselves. All their fighting eventually leads to the plane being perverted away from the Feywild and it starts to slowly shift towards the shadowfell.
You could drop the players in at any point in time. Maybe even run some low level quests to build up to the invasion itself happening around 5 or 10? Around that point, they have to help with a mass exodus from that plane to other planes, possibly even the material plane? Run a few adventures on material plane, then bring them back? Maybe have the Vampire an Lich be heroes that the adventures have seen before in the beginning that held off the horde while the PC's and NPC masses ran for a gate or portal? Also, maybe the fighter vampire lord and wizard lich had other party members that ended up dying and they're the last surviving two? Have the other party members be mini bosses? It would also be very interesting to convert the Worm that Walks from 3.5 to 5e and have Kyuss himself make an appearance? Maybe reveal the death tyrant is only one of two or three if you really wanna get crazy, and they're being controlled by a mama beholder? I dunno, but there just seems like there's so much fun you could have with this. Small villages are all around where NPCs originally ran small farms because the ground is so fertile from all the bodies buried there? Maybe have that be a big thing in the beginning levels is this is a really peaceful burial site and also powerful farming/natural plane? They have the best veggies and fruit in the cosmos? Whole towns of durids spring up here to live in harmony with the nature? Have a lot of the different tribal races live here as well? Peacefully with each other? Then after the invasion and everyone flees to the material plane, all of the tribal races have to deal with the same races from that plane that are more violent and war like?
Oh, maybe if the party comes to this plane to the first time/returns to it, they're attacked by undead and are saved or found by vampire spawn that recognize they aren't undead and are taken to the vampire lord. He and the lich have become these undead abominations in order to find and save the few living people who are still stuck on the plane. They have some people who are voluntarily giving their lives to preserve them (vampire is drinking from a few different individuals so as not to simply kill them outright in one go, and they trade off.) (lich has some people who were criminals or people who have lost their family members to the undead horde and have nothing left to live for or something and so they give themselves to sustain him) It'd be really interesting to have a Cleric of the Grave from XGtE, a Death Cleric from the DMG, and the Horizon Walker Ranger from XGtE here as well.
So yeah...I'll try to update this with other ideas as they come to me. What do y'all think? Sound like anything any of you would run or like to run?