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AuthorGirl
2018-07-26, 12:32 AM
As it was suggested, so it has become a wall of text!

Please be gentle.

The setting is homebrewed.

The entire world is the site of a territorial conflict. Various nasty things (demons, dragons, beholders, lichs, aboleths, really anything - I deliberately left myself some leeway there, with the idea that I could use it for side quests whenever I needed to) are vying for power and territory.

Here's the handout I made for my players:

Edelea
Note: this is intended to be a very quick introduction to the wider setting of the campaign. I’ve described the starting area in more detail in another document (“Haven”).

Imprisonment
As bad as Edelea is, no one leaves. That’s because they can’t. Anyone who tries to sail away will wash back to shore in a few days, completely dead.

The Kingdoms
Aipera
This is an absolute monarchy. The royal family is believed to communicate directly with their god (Lentrihx, the All-Seeing Eye). Aipera is currently ruled by Queen Adelisa, and the line of succession is very secure.

Aipera has a very large and well-trained army that it maintains through conscription. This army is used for the near-constant territorial fighting between Aipera and Eran, as well as for claiming pieces of the Wild Lands.

The laws here are draconian and all-encompassing, to the point where it is almost impossible to avoid being a criminal. Convicted criminals are sentenced to either slavery or conscription; those who try to escape their sentences are sacrificed to the All-Seeing.

Audran
Audran is governed by a council of immortals. No one knows who these beings are, how many there are, or how they gained immortality – let alone why they are interested in governing Audran. The Order of the Tainted Sigil claims that Audran has only one true ruler, and the Council of Immortals is only a façade . . . but they can’t provide any details on who or what that ruler might be.

Audran’s resources are somewhat sparse, but its population is low enough that there are no major shortages. Slavery and conscription are illegal; the roads and borders are maintained by golems.

All those nice things are, in some way, tied to the annual Harvest. During the Harvest, golems show up in every population centre and round up all the people who have been declared burdensome by the Council. These people are taken to the City of Spires and never seen again. The Harvest’s purpose is unclear, but it is very useful for keeping the population at manageable levels.

Audran is the only kingdom in Edelea that is not trying to expand its borders.

Eran
This is an unconventional sort of nation. It is ruled by the priests of Iridia, Lady of Chaos: an evil deity who is not acknowledged by any other religious group. These priests do not concern themselves with imposing laws on Eran’s inhabitants; instead, they focus on carrying out Iridia’s will. This usually means one of two things:

1. Conquer a piece of land that Iridia took a fancy to. These attempts at conquest tend to be spur-of-the-moment,
disorganized things, and as such are not very effective.

2. Attack and terrorize any towns in Eran that are displeasing to Iridia (she prefers for them to look pretty and perfect; Eran is supposed to be a jewel in her hoard).

Eran’s inhabitants make their own laws, and these vary from town to town. Here are the common ones:

1. Do not do anything to attract the Lady’s attention.

2. Do not murder.

3. Do not steal.

4. All crimes are to be punished by death.

The Wild Lands
This is an area of land that cannot be claimed by any of the kingdoms (despite their best efforts).

The Curse
No one knows if the Lands are really cursed – that’s just a handy way to describe what always happens. Within a few years of their establishment, most settlements are wiped off the map by a combination of raiders, crop failure, and mysterious disappearances. Priests and magic-users say the Wild Lands are constantly under a haze of magic, but its source and purpose are undiscernible.

The Villages
Curse or no Curse, the Wild Lands are the best place to live in all of Edelea. You won’t be enslaved, stolen, or even killed for sport . . . well, at least those things are less likely than in any of the Three Kingdoms. The Wild Lands are sprinkled with villages, encampments, and monasteries; the monasteries tend to last the longest, though a lot of them do still fall.

This adventure starts in a village called Haven, just outside the Aiperan border.

The Tribes
There are several barbarian tribes in the Wild Lands, and most of them survive by raiding villages. They seem almost totally immune to the Curse, perhaps because they’re part of its function.

The Isles of Exile
The Isles are visible from Edelea’s north shore. No one knows if they’re livable or not; many people have gone over the years, but no one has come back.

Organizations of Note
This is incomplete, but it will do for now.

Religious Orders

Order of the Mantis
An order of monks worshipping Majere. They refuse to live in any of the established kingdoms; their monasteries are established in the Wild Lands. These monasteries often avoid the Curse for quite some time, and some of them even protect other settlements from it. See the “Order of the Mantis” document for more information.

Order of the Tainted Sigil
A collection of smaller religious orders dedicated to destroying every evil power in Edelea. For more information, see the document titled “The Order of the Sigil.”

Solinari’s Vigilant
A loosely organized, intensely secretive group of wizards serving Solinari. They are most active in Aipera; many noble families are loyal to the Vigilant, though of course they would be executed if anyone knew.

The Blue Mendicants
An order of monks and nuns serving Mishakal by giving food, education, shelter, and healing to the needy in each village they travel to. Commonly called the “angels of mercy.”

The Holy Artisans
A group of artisans serving the various gods of creativity and learning.

The Gods

Deities Unique to Edelea

Iridia, Lady of Chaos
The black dragon who rules Eran. She is commonly associated with other evil deities, but her followers contend that Iridia is the one true deity and the only way to survive in her world is to bow to her will.

Lentrihx, the All-Seeing Eye
The deity officially worshipped in Aipera. No one knows much about the All-Seeing – just that he is in fact all-seeing and does not take kindly to lawbreakers.

Other Deities
And here we have a giant list of Dragonlance deities with slight modifications. Truly, it's not necessary to bore you guys with it.

Why yes, most of those names were pulled from random generators. Why do you ask? :smalltongue:


Prologue
About seventy years ago, a group of Aiperan fugitives established a village in the Wild Lands. They named it Haven and relied on a group of monks for protection from the Curse. The monks were part of the Order of the Mantis. They established a monastery for themselves just outside the town walls.

Things started to go wrong when Brother Aldebrand disappeared. The monastery sent out a group of five monks to find Aldebrand and return him safely home. Their names were Eldred, Theodore, Benedict and Gary (see if you can spot the PC). Unfortunately, these monks were ambushed.

Enter Alisteren Valius, disgraced inquisitor, stage right. He found one unconscious monk in a puddle of blood by the side of the road. One healing potion later, Gary was awake and babbling about his missing brothers (okay, you should definitely be able to spot the PC now).

Session 1
Alisteren and Gary headed to the local tavern (let the tropes begin) to discuss what had happened and what to do. Gary asked for help in finding his missing brothers; Alisteren was happy to assist. While in the tavern, they met several other people who agreed to help them: Beak (kenku rogue), Lo (goliath fighter), Shadowblade (human edgelord homebrewed ranger thing), and Cassarola (gnome wizard). After some discussion, the newly formed party went to investigate the ruins of the nearby town of Sunbright.

On their way to Sunbright, the party encountered Godfrey the necromancer and his zombies. Under duress, Godfrey told the PCs that a shadow demon was responsible for the monks' disappearances.

Once inside Sunbright's walls, the party discovered several newly built structures: a small temple, a storehouse and a workshop. They went inside the temple, fought some cultists and discovered that the missing monks had accepted a pact with the local demon (Aldebrand had done so willingly; the other three had been threatened with death).

Beak and Shadowblade sacrificed Aldebrand to the demon. They were both offered a warlock's pact; only Beak accepted.

Session 2
There were some shenanigans with Beak trying to sacrifice other PCs in exchange for the power of flight. Eventually, the PCs found the demon in its lair and "killed" it (at that point, Alisteren discovered that his axe has magical properties).

Beak tried to save the demon's amulet while the rest of the party tried to purify it with fire.

Session 3
The shenanigans with the amulet were interrupted by the appearance of some cultists and a golem. The golem was a terrible, last-minute "solution" to the problem that Beak's player hadn't shown up so we couldn't play as planned. Everyone nearly died because I didn't use CR correctly.

One sloppy transition later, Alisteren was interrogating Brother Eldred and one random cultist. He found out some stuff about how the demon had promised stability and safety (rare commodities in the Wild Lands).

The PCs explored Sunbright's ruins for a little while. Cassarola found some potions and a spellbook in the workshop.

Near the end of the session, a pair of druids showed up (I was running out of stuff for the PCs to discover). They had been curious about what was going on in the area (demons and so forth are fairly disruptive to the balance of things, I guess). After talking to the PCs, they suggested that Beak retrieve a flight charm from a dragon's hoard and repair the charm. The idea was to take away his motivation for doing crazy things like signing pacts with demons (actually, the idea was "help, I need a side quest and a reason for the PCs not to kill each other"). The druids also mentioned to Alisteren that the Inquisition was looking for him.

Session 4
The game picked up with the PCs back at the tavern, eating and figuring out what to do next. They ran some errands (acquiring crossbow bolts, bear traps, holy water and a new spell). Then Cassarola ran back to the tavern, got drunk and talked loudly about her newly-learned necromancy.

The party set off along the forest road (the direction the druids had pointed them in). They fought an ettercap and some spiders.

Then they came to a desecrated shrine. Entering it, they found that it was still inhabited by the ghost of its keeper; he was waiting for someone to take the shrine's holy relic to an appropriate resting place. The ghost asked them a riddle and entrusted them with the relic (the holy symbol that had been worn by a very important dead person from a particular religious order).

The PCs fought some more spiders.

Yes, there were only four sessions. Yes, the campaign has been "running" (limping) for several months.

As explained in another thread, planning is difficult.

So. Tacky as it is, I'm thinking of literally dropping the PCs into a pre-made dungeon module. Specifically, dropping them through a hole in the forest floor and into an abandoned dwarven city.

I have two days to find a good map with traps and monsters appropriate to Level 3 characters - I don't think I can make my own, considering that all my encounters have been either impossible or ridiculously easy so far.

This should let the PCs level up to the point where they won't die if they fight a dragon. If it doesn't, I can graft more layers onto the dungeon.

Hopefully, it should also give me a few sessions' worth of breathing room - I can make plans, learn rules and hopefully get less scared.

The only issue is that I can't seem to find any big, complicated dungeons full of things. A few modules look promising, but they cost money (and I don't have a means to buy things over the Internet). Does anyone have suggestions for where I could look?

Calthropstu
2018-07-26, 01:37 AM
You forgot to mention some things.

Pc level, optimization level etc. From what I read, I see nothing wrong with your story. An adventure of "finding enough power to prevent the curse from wiping out Haven" seems to be the overall goal here yes?

Where do you want this to go? Establishing Haven as a new nation dedicated as a sanctuary rivaling the other nations by virtue of the power of the PCs protecting it sounds like a good way to go... Enabled by wiping out the major threats that would threaten it in the immediate vicinity.

As for getting preprinted scenarios, you could probably find some for pathfinder and adapt them to your chosen system.

Florian
2018-07-26, 02:22 AM
Next time, sit down for a session zero, talk about the campaign and goals, then create characters together. I bogs down gameplay when one player starts doing disruptive stuff like the whole sacrifice for power thing and you have to include more "quests" to keep them distracted.

Ok, so you're basically railroading them from quest to quest. That's fine and a functional method for running a game when your players are ok with it. What you should do is sit down and formulate an overall plan for how you want the whole "Haven Campaign" to develop, then break that down into story arcs, break those down into thematic episodes and again break those down into quests. Personally, I feel that your pacing is either too brisk or your quests don't contain enough content to stretch them out a little bit longer.

You could also tie in both, a partial sandbox and a megadungeon to keep your players occupied and such.

But first, system and such, please.

There's a couple of Free RPG Day adventures available for free by Paizo, so that's a start, or use one of the generators listed here: http://therustybattleaxe.blogspot.com/p/megadungeon-links-ii-maps-tables.html

Kaptin Keen
2018-07-26, 02:26 AM
If you do a simple google image search, there are literally hundreds of maps. Some, but not all, contain encounters - but building encounters for a 3rd level party isn't all that hard. If it's an ancient dwarf city, I suppose there could be some undead dwarves, along with two factions in ongoing hostilities over the territory. These could be a goblin tribe and a gang of demihuman bandits. Elves work best, everyone knows they're evil (despite being pretty), and they hate goblins.

meschlum
2018-07-26, 03:27 AM
Lots of options, depending on how you want to go at it.

Maps: Dungeon Tiles

Create, copy, or obtain some tiles with reasonably complex maps on them - a few rooms, perhaps, some corridors, and a lot of curves. Ensure that each side of the tile has two entrances (which could be doors, passages, or even dead ends). Shuffle the tiles, rotate them, set them down. It'll look like a complex maze and you can keep on building it by adding more tiles to the places the adventurers go to!

If you're feeling creative, make the tiles themed - some look like unworked caves, some look like bots of a city - and you can have the area the adventurers go through change as they travel.

If you want to do this, a suggestion (which is useful in any case) would be to check drivethrurpg, for instance a little browsing got me this (http://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/5371/Heroic-Maps?test_epoch=0&page=1&sort=3a), which you could do a lot with using the Minotaur map and the Torchlit Dungeon 1 (both free) and combining them.

It is very important, no matter what you do, that the party always have more than one way to go. They might decide that the Chasm Of Fiery Doom is too dangerous, and waste a few sessions looking for ways to avoid it when you thought it was just nice decoration - instead, let them find the Secret Goblin Caves, which avoid the Chasm, and get them into a different kind of trouble. And be prepared for them to try going where you didn't expect. They may want to explore the bottom of the Chasm rather than bother with trying to get out!

Maps: Maps

Get a city map off google. Remove bits because parts collapsed. Done! Ideally, pick an old city with twisty streets and the like. A suggestion? Something European. How about Mont Saint Michel (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mont_Saint-Michel) and the abbey, which packs a lot of living space into a small island? Plus, neat maps if you browse from there and into the Abbey section.

Traps: Trouble

You have one rogue in the party, so traps are not going to be a lot of fun as standalone events. Partly because your party does not seem to want to go through a resource tight adventure (i.e. they don't ask each other things like "Can we take the time to heal before things go Wrong?" "Did you keep track of how many torches we have?" "Should we try to figure out the safest route?"), so a trap that does damage will just mean they rest early to heal, or not. Plus, your rogue already seems to want the spotlight and should not be tempted to set off the traps on the rest of the party by 'accident'.

Instead, make them meaningful. Since they're going underground, there are a few ways to do this.

- Change the setting. An ancient bridge crossing a deep chasm - if the party can pass it, they'll be closer to the exit (or have a chance to get at the abandoned treasury). Of course, it's unstable and likely to collapse on the party side, so no one can get across alone. Working together to reinforce it (and finding the materials, or being creative with spells and so forth) can work, but it takes time and draws attention. You can replace this with a potential cave-in, flood, or other options. As a variant, it's possible to get across no matter what, but if the party works together rather than individually, they'll get across faster. Important if there is trouble behind...

- Combat applications. The large chamber in which the party faces off against the underground horde (kobolds, goblins, whatever appeals) is rather messy. Especially since some squares are trapped, and have pits. If you're nice, the enemy doesn't know where the holes are. Otherwise, they can try to trick the party into charging, try to push adventurers into the pits, and so on. A rogue who can prevent the pit from opening (or find it before falling in) will be valued. A fighter who can push problems into the holes will have fun too. If the party got there early, by crossing the bridge cleverly, they might know where the pits are while the enemy does not...

- Time pressure. The tunnels are flooding and it might not be the adventurer's fault. If they carefully test the terrain ahead and take the long way around any trapped zones, they won't be able to get out before drowning (or being caught by the undead horde, or some such). Less likely to work with your party, as the rogue will simply run ahead and let the others serve as speed bumps for whatever is coming.

Traps: Threat

Against a third level party, a CR 3 trap would, in theory, disable one party member (costing them all their hit points and some healing). This isn't fun. The trap guidelines are all more or less incoherent anyway. So...

Pit Traps! DC 15-20 to spot (clerics and rogues have a decent chance of noticing them at DC 15, and can manage at DC 20, others have a chance at DC 15 and are oblivious at DC 20). Reflex DC 15 to avoid falling in (rogues have a fair chance of avoiding a fall, others are in trouble). Damage 2-3 D6 (at 3D6, wizards are in trouble, rogues are badly hurt and others are feeling it. At 2D6, it's survivable but not fun). Once the pit is found, it can be avoided. 10 foot poles work well for detecting these.

Arrow Traps! Work like pit traps, except a bit harder to find (trigger wires, pressure plates), target AC (give them +5 to hit and the warriors in the party are feeling fairly safe) and damage is 1D6+2. Much less trouble alone, so use more of them and do it somewhere the party wants to hurry.

Pendulum Traps! Like arrow traps, but easier to find (a huge swinging axe is easier to notice), a better chance of hitting (not much room to avoid them - call it +8 or so) and more damage (2d6 + 4, meaning it hurts. And critical hits are allowed). Keeps a corridor largely impassible as unlike a pit trap it can't be jumped. Time for the rogue to shine or lose a few fingers. Also a good incentive for the party to look for an alternate path.

Alarm Traps! The most fun of all! These can be anywhere from DC 10 (or less) to 20, depending on the trap (pile of rusty metal to magical alarm). They make noise, warn monsters the party is coming, and are more or less difficult to avoid. Something the rogue wants the whole party to avoid until everyone is in a good position to ambush the incoming monsters.

Monsters: Mayhem

Being underground, the party will be able to avoid archery barrages, which is very helpful. I'd suggest groups of 3-4 orcs, or perhaps a few more goblins or kobolds as a possible foe. Their strategy is 'throw axes or rocks at the party, then charge'. They'll tend to try to run away if only one or two are left, possibly bringing in allies - if allies happen, make sure there are not too many at first so the party can realize that they have a problem and run away (or decide to fight them all, in which case stick to 'tribes' of 20-40 individuals so you don't have infinite hordes but still enough to be a major threat).

If the fight happens somewhere with traps, they'll refrain from charging and try to draw the party into the traps. or throw missiles for a few more rounds before getting close.

Go for undead! Anything from 4-6 skeletons or zombies is a way for the clerics to show off, and they are mindless so can be avoided if the fight goes wrong.

Try 1-2 ghouls - paralysis is scary, so don't use to many and have them willing to run off if hurt. They can always come back later, or follow the party and eat their leftovers.

An ogre would be a nice leader for the orcs, and work as a boss monster of sorts. It's stupid enough to be tricked into running into a hidden pit, and can be fired on and subject to sneak attacks, so it's a chance to show off. Be prepared for the wizard to knock it out with Sleep or some such - maybe two ogres, with a respite between them?

A major enemy would be a somewhat hobbled Bearded Devil. Prevent it from teleporting and summoning (easy: Dimensional Anchor in the area) and it's still a major threat capable of wrecking the party. Make sure they find some silver weapons (or alchemical silver), and have a few traps and hiding places. This works best as a guard over some rare treasure or plot device, so it can avoid being shot to pieces but also can't chase the party down.

You could try one or two Dretch. Much more fragile than the devil, but they have spellcasting powers so the party will get to be on the receiving end for a change. Rather stupid and aggressive, so can be brought down.

A minotaur is traditional and is essentially an improved ogre.

A few cultists / evil wizards could work well. Say a sorcerer 1 with Burning Hands and Shield to try and fry multiple party members who get close, a Sorcerer 1 with Magic Missile and Hypnotism to keep the party members who are further away distracted or ducking for cover, and a level 5 leader (cleric or wizard) with Summon Monster III for a Hell Hound, followed by Shield, Armor, Bull's Strength and Mirror Image to become a melee brute. The Sorcerers distract the party while their leader powers up, and the faster they die the less dangerous the leader will be! If the party is stronger, have the minions be level 2 or 3 (a few more level 1 spells, more hit points) and add a few more.

Florian
2018-07-26, 04:24 AM
Some idle musing and brainstorming.

The "Curse" is the insane remains of the original creator deity. It used to be all powerful, but alone in a void, so it started shearing chunks off of itself and created the world. Then it used even more chunks to create the elementals and the setting deities to help it create true life. They did so by ripping even more chunks out of it, nearly killing it and driving it insane. There's nothing beyond the world, no outer plane, no outside universe, this is why it seems that everything is trapped on the world. In truth, the curse is the source for all the monsters, magic and aberrations because it wants to kill everything in creation and end the gods and the world, reabsorbing the souls of everything to recreate itself... and the cycle begins anew. So, campaign goal: Kill god at the heart of the world.

This is how I´d structure the "Haven Campaign":

End goal should be around level 15. High level D&D/PF is too much of a chore beyond that.

Rough structure: Wilderness Exploration (1-7), Dungeon Crawl (8-13), Underworld (13+).

Map Setup: Haven at the center, roughly four "adventuring regions" surrounding it, each connected to a semi-megadungeon. Each region comes with a strong theme attached, so it´s easy to dumpster-dive the monster manuals and such.

NowhereMan583
2018-07-26, 04:42 PM
I assume that, as the author of this setting, you know the various secrets that your document hints at? That is, you know what the 'Curse' is, you know who these council of immortals are and whether they eat people at the Harvest or what, you know why no one can leave and whether anyone lives on the Isles of Exile, &c. &c.

So if you don't already have an overarching plot, there's probably a hook for one in there somewhere; maybe you could share some of the background you didn't give your players and we could help you work up something off of that?

As for the immediate "fall into a dungeon" thing -- sure. That actually might be a great place to put some handy plot hooks, like broken clay tablets with fragmentary-yet-ominous inscriptions.

And designing the dungeon itself... have you considered using "How To Host a Dungeon"? It's basically a pen-and-paper game you play on your own that results in a fully-designed dungeon in a couple hours, and the default option is a dwarven city. There used to be a free, limited-content version (the "full" version is a $5 PDF)... it looks like it's vanished from the official page since the new edition was written, but it's probably still floating around the internet somewhere if you Google it.

AuthorGirl
2018-08-01, 12:58 PM
Well, thanks everybody - I'm sure I could have made something with these suggestions - but the whole thing's called off. Awfully sorry to waste your time.

Andor13
2018-08-06, 10:40 AM
Well, thanks everybody - I'm sure I could have made something with these suggestions - but the whole thing's called off. Awfully sorry to waste your time.

Don't be. Gamers love kicking this stuff around. You know those old GMs who seem to be able to pull a complete campaign out of their hat on a moments notice? It's because they've been having these discussions for years and have lots of other peoples ideas fermenting in the back of their heads.