Scalenex
2022-10-13, 05:49 PM
I have been gently criticized that I put too much emphasis on making combat challenging so rather than loading the climatic battle of this next story arc with a bunch of powerful villains, I'm going to focus on the journey not the destination.
So the basic plot is that the villain or villainess is a evil cannibal witch is planning to ritually eat a proverbial princess on the first day of the new calendar year on a ritual date to increase his/her mystic power.
This gives the heroes a ticking clock to track the bad guys down and save damsel before the ritual date. I am planning to give the PC party two temporary members, an expert dwarf ranger (because the PC party lacks a good tracker or someone who knows the basics of the Underdark ecology) and a captured gnome cannibal (https://www.worldanvil.com/w/scarterra-scalenex/a/collme-the-ollum-person) who has promised to lead the heroes to her former compatriots in return for clemency very much inspired by Gollum from LOTR.
Human cannibals gradually turn into ogres. Dwarf cannibals turn into morlocks. Gnome cannibals gradually turn into ollums. They are like Gollum from LOTR, but they are gnomes so the "g" is silent.
The proverbial princess is an adolescent female dwarf named Kroglesli who is a budding favored soul of the sun goddess Khemra. It just so happens the PC leader is a holy warrior of Khemra that specializes in slaying evil mages and he is currently visiting the dwarf branch of his organized Khemra religion at the time the time of Krogresli's abduction.
The cannibal mage hopes to gain mystic power by stealing a portion of Khemra's blessing. Ritual cannibalism is one way evil witches can cheat their way to greater power in my setting.
I haven't developed my equivalent to the Underdark yet. My world explicitly does not have Drow in it. Between A the dwarf village and Point B the climatic fight with the cannibals, I'm hoping to create some memorable encounters with natural hazards and various monstrous as the PCs treacherous guide tries to escape her chains and/or trick her captors into walking to their death. Also, the cannibal witch has a morlock minion that is going to be setting traps behind them.
In the past I had a tendency to fast forward to the big fights, but I don't want to do that this time. I want to make the chase long and interesting.
So the basic plot is that the villain or villainess is a evil cannibal witch is planning to ritually eat a proverbial princess on the first day of the new calendar year on a ritual date to increase his/her mystic power.
This gives the heroes a ticking clock to track the bad guys down and save damsel before the ritual date. I am planning to give the PC party two temporary members, an expert dwarf ranger (because the PC party lacks a good tracker or someone who knows the basics of the Underdark ecology) and a captured gnome cannibal (https://www.worldanvil.com/w/scarterra-scalenex/a/collme-the-ollum-person) who has promised to lead the heroes to her former compatriots in return for clemency very much inspired by Gollum from LOTR.
Human cannibals gradually turn into ogres. Dwarf cannibals turn into morlocks. Gnome cannibals gradually turn into ollums. They are like Gollum from LOTR, but they are gnomes so the "g" is silent.
The proverbial princess is an adolescent female dwarf named Kroglesli who is a budding favored soul of the sun goddess Khemra. It just so happens the PC leader is a holy warrior of Khemra that specializes in slaying evil mages and he is currently visiting the dwarf branch of his organized Khemra religion at the time the time of Krogresli's abduction.
The cannibal mage hopes to gain mystic power by stealing a portion of Khemra's blessing. Ritual cannibalism is one way evil witches can cheat their way to greater power in my setting.
I haven't developed my equivalent to the Underdark yet. My world explicitly does not have Drow in it. Between A the dwarf village and Point B the climatic fight with the cannibals, I'm hoping to create some memorable encounters with natural hazards and various monstrous as the PCs treacherous guide tries to escape her chains and/or trick her captors into walking to their death. Also, the cannibal witch has a morlock minion that is going to be setting traps behind them.
In the past I had a tendency to fast forward to the big fights, but I don't want to do that this time. I want to make the chase long and interesting.