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View Full Version : [3.5]Can anyone help with this campaign?



DemonSlayer
2008-06-28, 10:08 AM
Hello everyone,

In a week's time I'm starting a new D&D campaign (3.5), but I'm having some problems with one of the quests I've prepared.
The campaign will go as follows: the PCs will start in a port, where they discover some gnome terrorists are causing trouble.Their leader is a gnome wizard who keeps using conjurations of all kinds to attack the city (sending in lemures, swarms of vermin etc).
Now, after some time the PCs will discover the wizard, and he will escape (though his warrior lackeys won't). There's a chase to a nearby city which lies at the base of a mountain. On top of that mountain is the human king's palace. The mountain itself is full of gold and other valuable metals.
The wizard's plan is to activate another sleeping cell of gnome terrorists, and, with them, attack the city, the mines and eventually the palace itself.

I've already decided that the wizard will summon a number of minor Xorns to attack the mines, some devils to attack the city, and a Delver to dig a way through the mountain to the castle (he has access to scrolls and items no ordinary lvl 2 wizard has access to- that might tip the PCs off to the fact that something bigger is going on here).

However, I don't want it to be anything like "oh noes the town is under attack! *PCs rush to kill the devils* - oh noes the mines are being attacked! *PCs rush to defend the mines* - hey look here, a tunnel! wonder where it leads... *PCs go up and kill the gnomes*.
That's just too easy. Ideally the city would already hold a suspicious gnome captive, and the PCs will (or won't) find out just in time where the devils, xorns and delver will strike.
I just want it to be a bit more than killing monsters and making intimidate-checks...

So, does anyone have any suggestions?

(by the way, the PCs will be about level 4 at that time. There's going to be either 4 PCs or 3 PCs and one of my NPCs filling the gap).

ColonelFuster
2008-06-28, 12:31 PM
Start it off with making the players curious. I, myself, would wonder "why are these gnomes attacking? aren't they supposed to be jolly?" or something like that. If you start off with a (minor, subtle) hint as to why the gnomes became terrorists in the first place, you will find your players wanting to investigate it. It would be after they're interested that the :smalleek::smallmad::smallyuk::smallfrown: would hit the fan.

kirbsys
2008-06-28, 12:35 PM
How do the PCs find out about this? What happens if they foil his escape plan?

As for the idea of defending the area, I like your idea of having a captive. Perhaps the Lord of the city gives them control of the defences so that they can send troops to defend the mine, set up barriers around the town and have the militia hold that, then go after the terrorists themselves or something to that effect.

DemonSlayer
2008-06-28, 02:02 PM
Well, gnomes are generally speaking not as jolly as they usually are. The kingdom of humans founded a really important port some centuries ago, close to both elven and dwarven lands, and the resulting trade routes have become the most important ones in the world.

Unfortunately, the port couldn't possibly be further from the gnomes. There's a lot of land between the gnomes and the port (namely the human kingdom). They can't reach the port by sea either- they've only got access to one inland sea, and trust me- they don't wanna trade with what's on the opposite coast.

Basically, gnomes are screwed. They're hundreds of miles away from any large economy, so they only have themselves to trade with. All because the humans founded a port they can't access.

Gnomes are much impoverished and they've grown resentful of the other races that flourish. Of course, that in turn makes the world trust them a bit less, which further deteriorates the position of gnomes in other kingdoms. Over the course of centuries they've become second-rate citizens, and some are just fed up with it. So they're attacking the port and the humans who are responsible for it all.

All except the fact that there actually are organized terrorists is common knowledge. That's what the quests up to this point are good for; to show that the gnomes are organized.

And, well, if they foil the wizard's escape plan and capture him, he'll break out of prison. If he's killed, then the PCs will still find his documents detailing that he went to the capital city.

@kirbsys: Your ideas are good, but I'd really like some way to give the PCs an opportunity to stop the creatures from being summoned in the first place (except the delver). They have the prisoner to work with, but they don't even know what the gnomes are planning.

How can the prisoner (or anything else) lead the PCs to the main terrorists and the Delver, who are tunneling their way to the castle, before it's too late (with more than a good intimidate roll)?

What would Jack Bauer do :smalltongue:?