Captain Kablam
2019-09-14, 02:55 AM
Okay, I've hit a bot of a roadblock in how to write the next part of my campaign after the players wrap up their current adventure. The Overall narrative is that the player's are trapped in a dragon's vast lair that is home to treasures and dangerous creatures from all across existence. the basic set up is an idea I was playing with before here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?475308-The-Money-Pit-An-adventure-where-gold-doesn-t-matter)if you want a brief read. Anyways to escape this place the players have to traverse a desert of money, busting up 7 wonders from throughout the cosmos.
Now I've thought up 6 wonders so far, but I'm having a hard time with the 7th. I don't know what the players overarching goal should be.
Temple of Tahwil: A pagoda garden style temple housing death traps and a djinn macguffin ally
Castle Candlecrown: cake castle made of candy
Grand Geode: a massive geode containing an ocean, pirates, and deadly island paradises
Green Mountain A once beautiful oriental style mountain filled with temples now polluted, toxic and filled with trash due to Grey Dwarf factories
Big TV: A giant television from the realm of Order.
A Straight up Star (the BBEG's house is here)
The Phantom Forrest
The Phantom Forrest was once a fixture in the fae realms, a place of final rest for the most noble and tenacious of beasts. In ripping this sacred, once verdant forest from the fae realms has twisted and corrupted the land and creatures that dwell within into nightmarish spirit creatures, even the trees have turned blue and translucent. This doesn't bother the dragon so much sinc ehis favorite type sof mushrooms grow here, and the hunting has never been better. Good stuff.
Now to talk about the arc villain and her scheme.
Deep within the forest is an insane asylum run by a lich. Standard nightmare hospital stuff. Some of the creatures that attack the players in the phantom Forrest are The Beastmen, poor souls with the spirits of dead animals grafted onto them, turning them into horrible Dr. Moreau, David Cronenburg style nightmare creatures, Giraffodiles, actual Skunk Apes, that kinda stuff. This process is being done by one Dr. Serafine St. James, on the surface the nicest lady in the world despite being a lich, opting for a sundress and sunflowered hat over the usual rotting rags. She may enforce the dragons loose laws but she hates the beast, having learned all that she could from the dragons lair and wanting to practice her knowledge on new subjects in the outside world. She is constantly trying, and failing, to create a creature strong enough to slaughter the dragon so she can then focus on escape, actually a good match for the players, she invites them out to tea, and she and her crew actually comes in to help the player fight off some beastmen early on.
The problem comes with her philosophy. She feels that the only thing that can kill the dragon is a truly great hero. And what makes a hero, what truly pushes them to greatness, is unspeakable suffering and trauma. It is with this in mind that she goes out, using the resources available to her, helping her patients and anyone else she and her staff find and experiment on become their "best selves".
The problem I have is that I have a lot of the elements I like, creepy fairy forest full of dead animals, evil insane asylum, mad doctor antagonist, but I'm having a hard time tying it all together around a central goal or task the players have to accomplish. Usually they have to bust up either a structure or natural wonder, I don't want them to have to kill some kind of animal or something pure, and burning some kind of tree down is a no go since that's what they might have to do to a sacred peach grove on trash mountain, and repetition isn't something I like to do.
The way i usually structure my adventures is a lot like the Zelda and Sly Cooper games. I usually have 2 or three tasks that must be completed around an area before they move on to one giant dungeon, and like Sly Cooper each task usually ties back to the big "heist" or the big dungeon raid in some way.
So you guys are Dungeon Masters, how would you guys try to set things up with the elements presented and the structure I try to work with while avoiding being repetitive?
Now I've thought up 6 wonders so far, but I'm having a hard time with the 7th. I don't know what the players overarching goal should be.
Temple of Tahwil: A pagoda garden style temple housing death traps and a djinn macguffin ally
Castle Candlecrown: cake castle made of candy
Grand Geode: a massive geode containing an ocean, pirates, and deadly island paradises
Green Mountain A once beautiful oriental style mountain filled with temples now polluted, toxic and filled with trash due to Grey Dwarf factories
Big TV: A giant television from the realm of Order.
A Straight up Star (the BBEG's house is here)
The Phantom Forrest
The Phantom Forrest was once a fixture in the fae realms, a place of final rest for the most noble and tenacious of beasts. In ripping this sacred, once verdant forest from the fae realms has twisted and corrupted the land and creatures that dwell within into nightmarish spirit creatures, even the trees have turned blue and translucent. This doesn't bother the dragon so much sinc ehis favorite type sof mushrooms grow here, and the hunting has never been better. Good stuff.
Now to talk about the arc villain and her scheme.
Deep within the forest is an insane asylum run by a lich. Standard nightmare hospital stuff. Some of the creatures that attack the players in the phantom Forrest are The Beastmen, poor souls with the spirits of dead animals grafted onto them, turning them into horrible Dr. Moreau, David Cronenburg style nightmare creatures, Giraffodiles, actual Skunk Apes, that kinda stuff. This process is being done by one Dr. Serafine St. James, on the surface the nicest lady in the world despite being a lich, opting for a sundress and sunflowered hat over the usual rotting rags. She may enforce the dragons loose laws but she hates the beast, having learned all that she could from the dragons lair and wanting to practice her knowledge on new subjects in the outside world. She is constantly trying, and failing, to create a creature strong enough to slaughter the dragon so she can then focus on escape, actually a good match for the players, she invites them out to tea, and she and her crew actually comes in to help the player fight off some beastmen early on.
The problem comes with her philosophy. She feels that the only thing that can kill the dragon is a truly great hero. And what makes a hero, what truly pushes them to greatness, is unspeakable suffering and trauma. It is with this in mind that she goes out, using the resources available to her, helping her patients and anyone else she and her staff find and experiment on become their "best selves".
The problem I have is that I have a lot of the elements I like, creepy fairy forest full of dead animals, evil insane asylum, mad doctor antagonist, but I'm having a hard time tying it all together around a central goal or task the players have to accomplish. Usually they have to bust up either a structure or natural wonder, I don't want them to have to kill some kind of animal or something pure, and burning some kind of tree down is a no go since that's what they might have to do to a sacred peach grove on trash mountain, and repetition isn't something I like to do.
The way i usually structure my adventures is a lot like the Zelda and Sly Cooper games. I usually have 2 or three tasks that must be completed around an area before they move on to one giant dungeon, and like Sly Cooper each task usually ties back to the big "heist" or the big dungeon raid in some way.
So you guys are Dungeon Masters, how would you guys try to set things up with the elements presented and the structure I try to work with while avoiding being repetitive?