[3.5] Sandstorm Campaign: Any Ideas?

[esorscher]

I'm planning out a campaign that takes place in a desert setting. There is a secret organization, and the charismatic Sultan of second-highest rank in the faction is using the party to kill/ incapacitate/ whatever all the others of his rank who don't support him, then make a bid for the highest rank and replace the ranks of the organization with his puppets.

So far I have this planned:

The party either gains the respect of the Crucians or the Asherati, which they will later leverage into aid for some future event.

There are five people the party need to kill: a druid, a fire gnome (massive amounts of damage due to fireball, with some metamagic) a barbarian that specializes in taking damage, and a rogue/ ranger/ fighter that is essentially a bounty hunter, and a simple financier who is well protected.

As the party defeats each of the five targets, they gain the attention of the highest ranked member of the organization, who tells them of the Sultan's plan and the party has to choose.

Alignment Restrictions:
Non-Evil

So far I know one of the party members will be a warlock/ blood magus, and another will be a barbarian or fighter.

I guess my questions are this:

What items should I introduce? Traps? Monsters? Locales?
Are there any other sourcebooks I should be drawing from for a desert-themed adventure?
How can I best show the party dangers of the environment?
Any advice?

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Cityscape is always nice for any campaign, as it's advice applies to all campaigns that have more than 3 NPCs in one area.

You need a collapsing dungeon. Any campaign setting with something as mutable as sand needs a collapsing dungeon.

[esorscher]

Excellent! I'm using the mind-controlled sand to make fortresses anyway, I might as well use it to make underground fortresses. That collapse when the druid is killed.

And since it's underground, I'll be able to use Drow, which one of the players definitely will enjoy.

[afroakuma]

My recommendation: Hold off for a bit, go to Homebrew, check out the plans for Vote Up A Campaign Setting.

We're doing Arabic/Desert Fantasy.

[esorscher]

Okay, thank you. That looks like a useful resource.

Bookmarked.

[charl]

Buried ancient temples fit with the desert theme pretty well. They could be full of all kinds of neat stuff.

Enigmatic desert nomads (camels optional) could also be liberally applied.

[esorscher]

Buried ancient temples fit with the desert theme pretty well. They could be full of all kinds of neat stuff.

Enigmatic desert nomads (camels optional) could also be liberally applied.

Or maybe a roving caravan of merchants, who hires the party to protect them while they pass through hazardous territory. Maybe a sphinx, or other high CR creature controls bhuka that constantly harass. Or a sand dragon.

[Bonecrusher Doc]

To demonstrate the dangers of the environment, have the party encounter an NPC who got separated from his caravan - and is now dying of thirst/exposure/scorpion venom.

[charl]

Or maybe a roving caravan of merchants, who hires the party to protect them while they pass through hazardous territory. Maybe a sphinx, or other high CR creature controls bhuka that constantly harass. Or a sand dragon.

Merchant caravans of course! Sphinxes are also very deserty. Also djinns and efrits are possible cohorts for your big bad, or maybe allies. Add in a magic oasis full of wonderful fruit trees and literally magic water that is gone when the players wake up next morning. Friendly camp of said enigmatic nomads who openly share their food and talk and sing with the players that are also gone with the oasis is optional.

[esorscher]

Merchant caravans of course! Sphinxes are also very deserty. Also djinns and efrits are possible cohorts for your big bad, or maybe allies. Add in a magic oasis full of wonderful fruit trees and literally magic water that is gone when the players wake up next morning. Friendly camp of said enigmatic nomads who openly share their food and talk and sing with the players that are also gone with the oasis is optional.

Fey oases, Mirage Mullahs. Perfect! I'll definitely include that. And I'll probably include a Djinn or Efrit that offers the party wishes/ power/ etc, in exchange for a service.

[DementedFellow]

I've always liked the idea of either a Walker in the Waste/Dry Lich being worshipped in by a band of Cursed Cold Ones (Geluns). You can find them on page 145. He would provide them with the warmth and they would follow him unwaveringly.

Also a band of Asherati that attack trade caravans would be nice. They would use their Sandswim to creep up on the unsuspecting PCs, use their Body Lamp to dazzle them, grapple them, and burrow underground to suffocate them. It can even be rumored that caravans are attacked by ghosts who spirit away the corpses of their victims since no survivors are left.

I'm a big fan of oozes, especially the Lava Ooze. They can go almost anywhere too! Stick it in a dungeon, a catacomb, or leave it out in the open!

A band of bhukas are worshipping a Thunderbird to provide rain. You can go many different ways with this. 1) Thunderbird either gets put under a spell or just gets fed up with the bhukas and starts attacking or 2) it goes missing and the PCs are compelled to help find the centerpiece of their religion. Your mileage may vary.

Concerning Marruspawn. Don't go there if you don't want to stay there. Story upon story can be created with them. I personally don't like the flavor text about them, but I do like the Marruspawn Abomination. However, you can't just juxtapose him into the dungeon without explaining -what- he is. And then you have to deal with the dog-people. And who wants to do that?

The druid can really eff them up. Seriously. An Ironthorn may be just a CR of 6 but the poison has a DC of 23. You CAN fumble with that kind of DC. Then there's the gigantic cactus. Don't want that coming after you. Then there's the aforementioned Thunderbird which would surely heed the call of a druid in need.

If you're going to go with a gnomish villain - you might want to look at the Force Missile Mage and instead use a magic missile. At a certain level of Force Missile Mage you can change the type of damage of magic missile to fire if you so desired and it would up the amount of magic missiles you can cast. Which is nice with the metamagic feat contained in Sandstorm called Fiery Spell. It adds 1 point of fire damage to each damage dice. And since you are certain to hit with magic missile, it is just money in the proverbial bank. Also if you go this route, you will want to take the feat to reduce the spell level cost of the metamagic.

Hope some of these ideas help.

[ChaosDefender24]

Definitely do a lot with the desert terrain stuff detailed in the beginning of the book; otherwise, the desert is just a particularly hot dungeon.

Salt mummies and desiccators come to mind in terms of monsters. Conflagration oozes are as viable as the lava oozes in Sandstorm, and are good to shock the players once they fight the lava puddles.

The various yuan-ti monsters, including the Savage Species templates, are pretty amazing. If you don't want to work the yuan-ti into the story, the SS template isn't overtly yuan-ti, nor is the Ophidian from Fiend Folio.

Definitely have a contrast between creatures who are surviving the desert, creatures that are the desert, creatures that have succumbed to the desert, and perhaps none of the above.
Survivors can range from the desperate, such as a lost band of barbarians, to the comfortable, like the marruspawn.
Creatures that are truly at home in the desert are the oozes, the sand golems, dry liches and their ilk, and sand dragons.
Creatures that have succumbed to the desert are obviously mostly undead. Mummies and the mummified template are very traditional. You can get really creative with this, though. Bone/corpse creatures are amazing ways to make zombies and skeleton encounters memorable, and desert-themed. Angels of decay are fantastic flavor for the desert. With all the negative energy sand around, you could expect a very powerful undead to set up shop, such as a hullathoin or an atropal scion!
None of the above stems from the fact that if a hezrou got stranded in the desert, it doesn't need to eat, drink, or sleep, so it would go around beating up stuff like it would anywhere else. Throwing an evil outsider, an inevitable, or some other entity that you wouldn't associate with the desert but could survive there effortlessly at the party once in a while reminds them that even the desert can't escape the influence of the multiverse and throws them for a little loop.

[overduegalaxy]

Shining South, while a FR book, does have some good desert monsters, and a few nifty items.

[sebsmith]

This (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/environmentalRacialVariants.htm#desertRaces) might be useful.

[Seffbasilisk]

I'm assuming you're using the sandstorm book.

Try adding in a river. Water rights are a big part of life in the desert, and if they actually go TO the water, there's hippos! (And a prestige-class around defending rivers and such in the Sandstorm book I believe.)

[jcsw]

Once you reach level 15+ you should have a plotline where they start developing sand ships :P

[Mephit]

Once you reach level 15+ you should have a plotline where they start developing sand ships :P

Actually, those are already included in Sandstorm, from small row-boat sized vessels to real galleys. :smallbiggrin:

[bosssmiley]

What items should I introduce? Traps? Monsters? Locales?
Are there any other sourcebooks I should be drawing from for a desert-themed adventure?
How can I best show the party dangers of the environment?
Any advice?

Stuck on ideas for deserty stuff? Look over Dark Sun, Al-Qadim, Greyhawk's Sea of Dust, and the old FR modules set in Calimshan and/or the Purple Desert. Mucho pointers. :smallwink:

[esorscher]

Whoever pointed me in the direction of shining south, thanks.

ELEPHANT MAN.

[Deth Muncher]

Once you reach level 15+ you should have a plotline where they start developing sand ships :P

No. Nono. Outlaw sandships.

Why, you may ask?

The last time I was in a Sandstorm campaign, we had Sand Pirates. We had our own ship, and then took one from pirates.

Eventually, we had a Sand Navy. As led by Admiral Crunch.

[Deth Muncher]

Stuck on ideas for deserty stuff? Look over Dark Sun, Al-Qadim, Greyhawk's Sea of Dust, and the old FR modules set in Calimshan and/or the Purple Desert. Mucho pointers. :smallwink:

Nitpick: According to Dragon Magazine 321, Al-Qadim actually is in Faerun, in the south.