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View Full Version : Campaign idea, Help needed



stupnick
2008-06-10, 10:08 AM
Ok so I am starting up a new campaign this coming weekend in 4e. I have put together a brief synopsis of my campaign and have more fleshed out here and there. I was wondering your opinions and asking your help to make it a little better. And also looking for a few more idea's to stick into it.

It takes place on the Shining Plains in Forgotten Realms, in the city of Ormath. The city has had it's trade shut down completely. Nothing can get in or out. Sometimes they are lucky and a few lone travellers can sneak through.

It seems the city has been shut down by reptillians. The Ruler of the city, who loves to fight and fly off the hook, is blaming Surkh, a local city of Lizardmen who are civilized and living in peace with the land. He is attempting to start a war with them over this, and it is up to the PC's to stop it.

The PC's who investigate this, learn it is Kobolds and Lizardmen. They will learn it is actually a group of Yuan-ti and there Snaketongues that have been manipulating the reptilians in the area to work for them. They are wanting to extend there reach outside of Hlondeth, and take over the area.

What they are after is, it is rumored that an ancient Yaun-ti temple is housed in the Deepwing Mountains, and they are attempting to excavate it. Contained in the temple is an ancient Marilith who has been corrupting and convincing the Yaun-ti to worship her.

stupnick
2008-06-11, 12:42 PM
anyone have any opinions on this?

Wraith_Lord
2008-06-13, 08:05 AM
Hey Stupnick, the general premise seems cool, if you're looking for specific ideas as well then how about:

1. The ruler of the city who is convinced that it is the lizardmen of Surkh who are inflicting this on his people could become so paranoid and neurotic about his suspicions that he comes to suspect any who try to tell him otherwise as collaborators with the lizardfolk. The characters could get sent out into the surrounding area to find "evidence" of the lizardmen's crimes on the clear understanding that they should fabricate the evidence if it is not there.

Perhaps when the characters realise that their lord is deluded and borderline insane (maybe driven that way by the Yuan-ti) they are faced with the choice of going along with it (after all, those lizardfolk have never done anything for them, have they? Or they could return to the city and try to explain that it is not Surkh to blame. So doing would likely lead to the characters being outlawed and they would need to race against time to stop the coming war before an innocent city is wiped out. But what do they do? Warn the 'enemy' so they can annihilate their own countrymen? Perhaps they might decide that it is better to take one life (the ruler's) to save thousands - this in itself can lead to all sorts of moral dilemmas (where do they stop? What if the ruler's advisors have come to believe it too? Should they be killed? What if the whole court has fallen under the ruler's sway?)

The characters may then also have to deal with the ramifactions of having just assassinated their own ruler. Insane or not, regicide is still regicide...

2. Another smaller adventure idea could centre around desparate missions to get food supplies into the city or from the city into the surrounding settlements. Protecting caravans (or attacking them if they needed 'evidence' of the lizardmen provoking a war... ), smuggling refugees into the city (the ruler may not want to show weakness in preparing for a siege) or even fleeing the city to find a powerful enough wizard to scry on who's messing around with the trade routes...

That's all I've got for now - My lunch hour's up and I need to get back to work!