(3.5)Having Trouble w/ Starting Zone of Campaign

[Brennan]

Well, I've been planning this D&D campaign out for my friends to delve through in a five-man group for quite awhile, but I can't quite formulate a way for them to get started with the main story of the campaign without making it feel forced and gamy.

The story is thus: The town of X has been having strange disappearances under the cover of night. People seem to be getting up out of their beds of their own accord and heading out into the Dark Woods to the east of town, never to be seen again. It turns out that a necromantic cult has an insurgent placed in the town to bewitch the villagers into unconsciously walking right into the necromancers' hands once the clock strikes midnight. Somehow, (I need help deciding how the players all meet up and decide to help the town) five skilled individuals (the PC's) decide to go into the forest and save the townsfolk from the necromancers' experiments. At first this seems simple, though the delve into the necromancers' lair housed in ancient ruins is fraught with peril in the form of traps, undead, and magical enchantment, but once they dispatch the final minor necromancer, they head into a room with the leader who proves to be only a slight challenge. (He is actually allowing himself to be killed, knowing that his phylactery is safe and he will be resurrected as a lich.)

Having (seemingly) killed all of the necromancers, the players must handle a black grimoire held by the leader of the necromantic sect. Whether they choose to keep it, trade it, get it appraised by a scholar, or whatever they choose, it eventually falls back into the hands of the cult. The players then, later, realize that the grimoire is the key to summoning an ancient god's remains hidden under the earth. A force strong enough to decimate any resistance and take over the world in the course of a week. Now, charged with the duty of finding the grimoire and stopping the necromantic cult from exacting their god unto the world, the players embark on a quest- blah blah blah.

I'm having problems figuring out how to get them together and how to get them started on their quest. Should I have a few dungeon delves before the campaign starts? The players are going to include:
-A heroic female paladin
-An honorable female fighter who believes in justice ruling over all. (Good, but not straight enough in her methods to be a paladin.)
-A bard along for the ride, wanting to write music of their deeds.
-A renegade from a race of elves known for evil magic. He seeks redemption and joins the PC's in the quest to find and destroy the grimoire. (Perhaps his people created it? I haven't decided yet.)
-Aaaanddd.... One character that the player of hasn't decided what she will be.

So, Giant in the Playground... How do you suggest I set this campaign off? How should I motivate the players to help the village? How should I get all the players into the village at one time without making it seem forced? Please help me, as I've been thinking this through thoroughly for weeks and am at a loss as of how to start.

Thanks in advance!
-Brennan

[JeminiZero]

Easy Way: Money. Village head has puts up a reward to uncover the mystery. It does not need to be the motivation of all the PCs, the Good-ish members sound like they might investigate it regardless of reward, or might get sent by their church/guild/whatever to do so. But that should be enough to get them all in the place.

Harder Way: Give each PC a different reason for wanting to uncover the mystery. Money is one possibility. As is a church/guild/whatever ordered excursion. But there are others: Perhaps a distant cousin of one of them resides in the village (and may have been spirited away). Or for the repenting mage, perhaps the closer family of someone he has hurt in the past and wants to atone to, has been taken.

Now the bigger question is how did they get to be working together, once they are in the village. Perhaps a starting DMPC may help here- a local ranger who has lost a family member, and offers to guide the would be adventurers into the forest. He may or may not survive the adventure, but his role is basically to gather them together.

[Brennan]

Easy Way: Money. Village head has puts up a reward to uncover the mystery. It does not need to be the motivation of all the PCs, the Good-ish members sound like they might investigate it regardless of reward, or might get sent by their church/guild/whatever to do so. But that should be enough to get them all in the place.

Harder Way: Give each PC a different reason for wanting to uncover the mystery. Money is one possibility. As is a church/guild/whatever ordered excursion. But there are others: Perhaps a distant cousin of one of them resides in the village (and may have been spirited away). Or for the repenting mage, perhaps the closer family of someone he has hurt in the past and wants to atone to, has been taken.

Now the bigger question is how did they get to be working together, once they are in the village. Perhaps a starting DMPC may help here- a local ranger who has lost a family member, and offers to guide the would be adventurers into the forest. He may or may not survive the adventure, but his role is basically to gather them together.

Ah, yeah. I was thinking of some kind of DMPC mechanics working toward it, but it wasn't really one of the main things on my 'mental palette' at the moment. Great ideas, though, really. As inclined as I am to immediately go with these suggestions, I'd still like to hear other peoples' thoughts to help my brainstorming process.

[Rhydeble]

You could start out with a detective show. The paladin and the fighter seek justice for the family's of lost people, and the bard, using his genre savvyness, starts to chronicle their findings, beleiving it to be a great detective story to tell. Going into a bar of semi-ill repute, hoping to find clues (the pally and fighter asked the bard where to find information) they meet a wizard who knows a little too much to be just a bystander. So the Paladin, fighter and bard ask for some plot exposition, and there the real adventure starts.

Paladin -> I WILL AVENGE THYNE LOST FAMILY
Fighter -> JUSTICE HAS COME
Bard -> I'M A MEDIEVAL CAMERAMAN
Wizard elf-guy -> IF I CAN GET HELP IN ERASING THE SINS OF MY SPECIES, I WILL TAKE IT.

[Brennan]

You could start out with a detective show. The paladin and the fighter seek justice for the family's of lost people, and the bard, using his genre savvyness, starts to chronicle their findings, beleiving it to be a great detective story to tell. Going into a bar of semi-ill repute, hoping to find clues (the pally and fighter asked the bard where to find information) they meet a wizard who knows a little too much to be just a bystander. So the Paladin, fighter and bard ask for some plot exposition, and there the real adventure starts.

Paladin -> I WILL AVENGE THYNE LOST FAMILY
Fighter -> JUSTICE HAS COME
Bard -> I'M A MEDIEVAL CAMERAMAN
Wizard elf-guy -> IF I CAN GET HELP IN ERASING THE SINS OF MY SPECIES, I WILL TAKE IT.

That would probably work, but they're all first timers. I don't want to risk them getting bored.

[Zore]

Start in Media Res, like the first combat/encounter/confrontation with something and have them flesh out their relationship between them. The details of their first meeting probably won't be important and if they are newbies a strong start might get them interested and involved. Maybe roleplay a flashback to the first meeting later.

[Brennan]

Start in Media Res, like the first combat/encounter/confrontation with something and have them flesh out their relationship between them. The details of their first meeting probably won't be important and if they are newbies a strong start might get them interested and involved. Maybe roleplay a flashback to the first meeting later.

A flashback... Nice, nice. That would probably work quite well, considering my audience. My only issue with that is that it would bring me right around to my initial problem: How do they initially meet up? I'd have the same problem, but I would have to flesh it out even further to explain why they continued to go to the town.

I'm thinking I'll go with a somewhat omnipresent force 'guiding' them to the town. Like, a god who knows what's going down and seeks to stop it with the use of five individuals he/she sees as future heroes. I could start the game off with, "You all came to this town of your free will, though it almost seems as if you were pulled, silently tugged if you will, toward it all at the same time... But that would be just crazy, wouldn't it? Though you have all come here for the same nonexistent reason, you find different motives upon your arrival. Revenge, *look at female fighter* Justice, *look at female paladin* Repentance, *Look at elf mage* _______, *looks at character that hasn't been designed yet... She really needs to get on the ball.* or perhaps just a story to tell for the bread innkeepers put in your belly? *Looks at Bard* But things are never all that simple... Now are they?"

I would start it with, "You find yourselves in the Green Galley, an upstanding, though rather seedy tavern and inn. You have all come into the only inn in this small forested town in order to get shelter from the cold and the rain. *Bard's name*, a talented musician and performer from the Halfling Lands to the north, (in my game, halflings are more like hobbits from Tolkien's universe)
will be your night's entertainment. Among the crowd inside the inn, four other characters of importance might be seen. Adorinda, a female half-elf fighter who- *describes Adorinda, then Alyssa (the paladin), then the non-existent character, and then...* But in the corner, away from everyone's view with a hood drawn over his dark-skinned face, an elf. Not any sort of elf, but one of the blackenfolk from the swamplands to the east, in a province known as Blackenbog to those not of the blackenfolk. His people are known for their evil, necromantic ways and are often mistaken for Drow, though their skin pigmentation is more blue than brown, and their hair is black rather than white. This elf's hair- blah blah blah.

----

After all that, and after the bard's performance, a local villager-man (I'll name him Derrick Direson) slams open the doors to the tavern, causing the strangest quiet amongst the loud and bustling patronage of the Galley, and screams "My son! My son! He's gone! Taken in his sleep! My little boy is gone!" The players can hear people muttering things such as, "Oh, no... Another one?" or "I hear there are wood nymphs spiriting people away to be eaten by the hungry wildlife." After the Galley empties, the only people not up in their rooms for the night or off on their way are the five heroes. The story begins as thus.


Do you guys think that works? After that, they'd question around the village and meet up with Claryssa, a second level Cleric from the town's chantry who thinks she knows where the people are heading off to. She would lead them to the ruins and most likely (might change based on player actions) sacrifice herself to try and save the villagers.