Protato
2018-03-26, 12:13 AM
For a few months I've DM'd a game where, rather than using a premade adventure or making my own, I had simply used adventures written down in some Kobold Press books. The Book of Lairs, Prepared!, and Prepared! 2 were the books I've used so far. However, the party has gotten a sort of home-base after defeating a Wyrmling some time ago, and they're now moonlighting as a local guild of mercenaries. While I like weekly dungeon crawls with no real theme tying them together, I'd like to tell a proper story again but am having trouble tying disparate elements together.
The group consists of a Thri-Kreen Sorcerer with high Con (Quuki), a Soul Sun Dragonborn Monk (Stella), a Death Cleric (Jun), a half-gnoll Paladin (Voya), Satire Bard Bard (Peri), and an Arcane Trickster Rogue (Snake). Officially, there's also a GOOlock (Arturia) but she hasn't showed up for a month or so. Quuki and Voya's subclasses are homebrew from Middle Finger of Vecna, with Quuki being a Reincarnated Hero (http://mfov.magehandpress.com/2017/03/reincarnated-hero.html) (she was a gnoll in the past) and Voya being a Seeker (http://mfov.magehandpress.com/2017/04/oath-of-seeker.html). Stats were allocated from an array of 18 16 14 12 10 8. The party is Level 5 after starting at Level 1. Snake and Peri are both played at once by the same person due to Arturia's absence.
While I won't list all my party's exploits, I'd like to list a few NPCs and events that might be important in future. One of the more important NPCs is named Polla Everforge, operator of the Everforge. This forge is very large, well-staffed, has magical properties, and Polla herself is a mechanical genius. For example, she's capable of adding pitons to gloves to allow for climbing and creating swords that can retract like a switchblade knife. Another important event was the time a party cleared out a clocktower and obtained some clockwork beings fueled by soul-gems. After destroying the gems, the constructs were brought back with us. A goal of the party is to one day repair these constructs enough to take them on missions or guard the guildhall while the party is away. Some less-developed NPCs include Gessel, an apothecary/alchemist that was kidnapped to manufacture narcotics for a crime gang, and Pallon, the ghost of a reformed pirate.
Perhaps the most important place is Yggdrasil, the Tree of Life. On Yggdrassil there grows the Lifecurrant, a fruit that can grant true biological immortality (not dying of disease or aging) and bring the dead back without side effects, and this fruit is the only thing that can do either of these things. The party has actually taken, and even bottled, juice from the Lifecurrants.
Last session, a Skeleton Minotaur, named Harvey, was brought back to life via Lifecurrant juice. After being brought back, Harvey told the party that the rare fruit was the only way to bring him back, and since they weren't at Yggdrassil, that meant they had bottled the juices. The problem is, these juices being bottled means that a dangerous group will be looking for the party, and might have already found them. I'm just having trouble thinking of anything beyond that, other than "dangerous group hopes to attain immortality".
Is there any advice for plot hooks from here? I'm not wanting to do a ton of prep work each week as I'm in school, but I'd still like to tell a compelling narrative to my players, who're generally good to be around. Additionally, if there's any additional information about my campaign, players, or their characters, I'll do my best to update this post or make a reply explaining the information
The group consists of a Thri-Kreen Sorcerer with high Con (Quuki), a Soul Sun Dragonborn Monk (Stella), a Death Cleric (Jun), a half-gnoll Paladin (Voya), Satire Bard Bard (Peri), and an Arcane Trickster Rogue (Snake). Officially, there's also a GOOlock (Arturia) but she hasn't showed up for a month or so. Quuki and Voya's subclasses are homebrew from Middle Finger of Vecna, with Quuki being a Reincarnated Hero (http://mfov.magehandpress.com/2017/03/reincarnated-hero.html) (she was a gnoll in the past) and Voya being a Seeker (http://mfov.magehandpress.com/2017/04/oath-of-seeker.html). Stats were allocated from an array of 18 16 14 12 10 8. The party is Level 5 after starting at Level 1. Snake and Peri are both played at once by the same person due to Arturia's absence.
While I won't list all my party's exploits, I'd like to list a few NPCs and events that might be important in future. One of the more important NPCs is named Polla Everforge, operator of the Everforge. This forge is very large, well-staffed, has magical properties, and Polla herself is a mechanical genius. For example, she's capable of adding pitons to gloves to allow for climbing and creating swords that can retract like a switchblade knife. Another important event was the time a party cleared out a clocktower and obtained some clockwork beings fueled by soul-gems. After destroying the gems, the constructs were brought back with us. A goal of the party is to one day repair these constructs enough to take them on missions or guard the guildhall while the party is away. Some less-developed NPCs include Gessel, an apothecary/alchemist that was kidnapped to manufacture narcotics for a crime gang, and Pallon, the ghost of a reformed pirate.
Perhaps the most important place is Yggdrasil, the Tree of Life. On Yggdrassil there grows the Lifecurrant, a fruit that can grant true biological immortality (not dying of disease or aging) and bring the dead back without side effects, and this fruit is the only thing that can do either of these things. The party has actually taken, and even bottled, juice from the Lifecurrants.
Last session, a Skeleton Minotaur, named Harvey, was brought back to life via Lifecurrant juice. After being brought back, Harvey told the party that the rare fruit was the only way to bring him back, and since they weren't at Yggdrassil, that meant they had bottled the juices. The problem is, these juices being bottled means that a dangerous group will be looking for the party, and might have already found them. I'm just having trouble thinking of anything beyond that, other than "dangerous group hopes to attain immortality".
Is there any advice for plot hooks from here? I'm not wanting to do a ton of prep work each week as I'm in school, but I'd still like to tell a compelling narrative to my players, who're generally good to be around. Additionally, if there's any additional information about my campaign, players, or their characters, I'll do my best to update this post or make a reply explaining the information