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  1. - Top - End - #1
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    The Cats's Avatar

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    Default My party is splitting up to do two separate adventures. Anyone wanna brainstorm?

    If members of Heroes Inc. frequent this forum, please don't read further.

    Because of in-game time constraints the party decided to split up to cover more ground. (Players whose main characters are on the other adventure will join with new characters so everyone's still playing).

    I have a good idea of the themes and major challenges of each adventure, but I love asking for ideas for encounters and stuff here because I always come away from it with a bunch of really cool stuff I would've never considered on my own.

    So if anyone wants to brainstorm some cool ideas for encounters, mechanics to make things unique, stuff that the party (or I) would want to pay attention to to help the theme, or even if you know of some pre-written content that sounds similar I could take things from... uh, that's why this topic.

    The party is a group of 4 and have just reached level 12.

    The adventures will be:

    A: Infested Citadel The cleric, bard, monk, and 1 new character are going to a dwarfish citadel to help the ruler, a former PC. The citadel has been overrun with undead, with only small pockets safe from the horde. The ruler and a few subjects have been separated from the rest of the survivors when the undead forced them out of the forge area.

    I want to run this like a DotMM dungeon crawl. So 'classic' but with more opportunities for fun roleplay than an actual classic (with some horror elements since, y'know, undead).

    A few things I already know:
    The old ruler was killed when he underestimated the threat a few weeks ago and went in to deal with them with only a small strike force. That's when the dwarfs learned the undead aren't just mindless zombies. There are undead creatures of all kinds, and even the mindless ones are being led by some unknown intelligence.

    The current ruler wants to get to the rest of the survivors and evacuate the city. A lot of the high ranking survivors are against this and would rather fight to the death to try and reclaim their home. Party may decide rescuing the other survivors and getting out of there should be their goal.

    The undead started festering in the poorer parts of the citadel, then spread (the mass of the horde are the kind of zombies that make more zombies out of corpses so the more dwarfs die, the more undead to deal with). The horde currently holds the poorest districts, as well as the forge, and the 'ironwall' area adjacent to the citadels main gates. The horde then mysteriously stopped its expansion ad just became super territorial.

    Unbeknownst to the dwarfs, the horde was created and controlled by a necromancer who the party has met and doesn't like much. They were tenuous allies previously because they both oppose the greater-scope BBEG. If they learn he is involved they will likely want to find and kill him.

    The necromancer took the city to stop the BBEG from doing so himself and getting his hands on the powerful artifact at its heart. A big chunk of BBEG's army sits outside the city gates (the actual reason the party went to help their friend, until they learn about the undead) but are making no moves to assault, since the undead destroy the souls of those they kill, and BBEG needs his soldier's souls intact (the party knows both these points).

    B: Horrors hunting Horrors The wizard, rogue (monk's old character he swapped out), and two new characters are going to see the rogue's noble father who has asked for assistance with something. (Couple party members asked for an underdark adventure so this is it). An emissary from Menzoberranzen is seeking aid and refuge for his people: The city has been destroyed by a Nightwalker and their people are being hunted by mind flayers and shadowspawn. They believe the mindflayers opened a gate to the shadowfell, but don't know how they're controlling such powerful shadowspawn and nightshades. The noble father can't send aid since BBEG has part of his army on the way to attack his city, and he's already weak on military having sent a force to the dwarf citadel to help already due to their alliance.

    I want to run this as not quite so dungeon crawly and more of a sandbox-with-constraints, with a lot of roleplay tactics to navigate the surviving drow courts, and exploration of the underdark.

    Some things I know:
    The emissary is the wizard's ex-husband. She escaped the drow in her backstory.

    Drow society was already shaken up before the nightwalker attack because a new matriarch had just taken the throne. An ancient warlord recently awakened, from the same civilization as the BBEG. The party will recognize the name and probably be real spooked, or maybe hopeful of a new possible ally against BBEG.

    The shadowfell gate was opened, and the shadowspawn controlled by, a powerful, negative-energy infected simulacrum of the wizard (long story) that they haven't heard from in a long time. It inherited its creator's hatred of drow, and is taking it to its logical conclusion: Hunt them to extinction.

    The party actually knows about a possible shortcut, to get behind the lines of shadowspawn and mind flayers, following the shadowlacrum's path into the underdark. I'll be dropping hints, but its not super obvious. If they go for it it'll be a 'journey to the center of the earth' kind of thing.

    I'm involving mind flayers because they're cool and because I've foreshadowed githyanki involvement. The bard ended up on a githyanki orbital surveillance platform temporarily after a teleportation mishap.

    The nightwalker appears intermittently. It's whenever the shadowlacrum has built up the strength to plunge back into the negative energy plane again, thus summoning the nightwalker. She then returns to the materiel before the negative energy destroys her, and the nightwalker is sucked back into its home plane.

    The wizard has a magic tome that a number of other wizards have copies of. Anything written in one appears in all of them. In a previous adventure the party found and destroyed a soul monger machine that trapped the souls of the recently dead. Before destroying it the wizard made schematics in the tome. The shadowlacrum has a copy of it. Just seems like she'd want to do something with that right?
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  2. - Top - End - #2
    Troll in the Playground
     
    Lacco's Avatar

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    Sep 2013
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    Slovakia
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    Default Re: My party is splitting up to do two separate adventures. Anyone wanna brainstorm?

    Quote Originally Posted by The Cats View Post
    So if anyone wants to brainstorm some cool ideas for encounters, mechanics to make things unique, stuff that the party (or I) would want to pay attention to to help the theme, or even if you know of some pre-written content that sounds similar I could take things from... uh, that's why this topic.
    No response? Well, let's see...

    ...disclaimer: system/setting agnostic ideas, please apply whatever filters necessary.


    Quote Originally Posted by The Cats View Post
    A: Infested Citadel The cleric, bard, monk, and 1 new character are going to a dwarfish citadel to help the ruler, a former PC. The citadel has been overrun with undead, with only small pockets safe from the horde. The ruler and a few subjects have been separated from the rest of the survivors when the undead forced them out of the forge area.

    I want to run this like a DotMM dungeon crawl. So 'classic' but with more opportunities for fun roleplay than an actual classic (with some horror elements since, y'know, undead).
    The horde is actually several smaller hordes that cooperate on basic understanding (e.g. "let's kill those living guys first) but the intellects that operate the hordes are different and the difference should be noticeable (in tactics, overall approach, type of undead). Give the players chance to turn some of them against the others ("enemy of my enemy").

    If there was enough time, I'd suggest taking How to Host a Dungeon and creating the whole mess.

    Encounter ideas:

    The whole place is on lockdown, which is something we all know something about. So implement few dwarves that just refuse to believe the players that there is actual horde - "it's just a few skeletons, nothing major".

    Spoiler: Dwarven Brewery
    Show

    Dwarven Brewery
    - lots of beer, spirits, anything. Some of the stuff highly flammable, some just sticky and some downright acidic.
    - dwarves need their drinks otherwise they won't decide on anything. And they are already running low.
    - lots of catwalks; barrels, vats, large cauldrons.
    - some zombies still perform the duties. Did they just revert to what they remember? Or is it a part of nefarious plan?


    Spoiler: Cameo
    Show

    A lone dwarf on top of armory. Has a heavy crossbow, is perfectly barricaded and takes potshots at local undead. When he notices the party, helps them - and then holds large sign that says "Hungry".


    Spoiler: Walk in the Park
    Show

    Mushroom park, actually. Large mushrooms, edible, human-sized and larger. A whole forest of them. Used to be a source of food, but it's sporing time - so insert dusty/fog and enjoy low visibility.
    Good news is, if they manage to climb those, they can basically run through.


    Spoiler: Gate of Ancients
    Show

    Nobody remembers what is beyond - but there is a book in the library that says how to open it. Add in a sprinkle of prophecy ("will be opened when everything ends").
    The book is actually a stone slab, covered in runes. Manual of sorts.


    Spoiler: Hall of Echoes and the Other One
    Show

    There is a Hall of Echoes they need to pass at certain point. It leads to a spire that contains its sister, the Hall of the Other Echo.
    Hall of Echoes repeats everything they say multiple times.
    The Other One repeats everything, but changes it.


    Spoiler: Show Me the Sad Bunny
    Show

    If they carry lights, their own shadows start attacking them at certain point.
    A spell? A curse? Their own psyche? Or just monsters that decided to have some fun?


    B: Horrors hunting Horrors The wizard, rogue (monk's old character he swapped out), and two new characters are going to see the rogue's noble father who has asked for assistance with something. (Couple party members asked for an underdark adventure so this is it). An emissary from Menzoberranzen is seeking aid and refuge for his people: The city has been destroyed by a Nightwalker and their people are being hunted by mind flayers and shadowspawn. They believe the mindflayers opened a gate to the shadowfell, but don't know how they're controlling such powerful shadowspawn and nightshades. The noble father can't send aid since BBEG has part of his army on the way to attack his city, and he's already weak on military having sent a force to the dwarf citadel to help already due to their alliance.

    I want to run this as not quite so dungeon crawly and more of a sandbox-with-constraints, with a lot of roleplay tactics to navigate the surviving drow courts, and exploration of the underdark.[/QUOTE]

    For this one I have only one advice: Drow En Garde!

    I have already thought about running En Garde in Menzoberranzan and this looks like exactly the beast. To survive at drow court, you need to get certain social standing - and unless you are recognized, you can have golden statues in Waterdeep, but to drow you are nobody.

    Otherwise no idea

    Hope this helps at least a bit.
    Call me Laco or Ladislav (if you need to be formal). Avatar comes from the talented linklele.
    Formerly GMing: Riddle of Steel: Soldiers of Fortune

    Quote Originally Posted by Kol Korran View Post
    Instead of having an adventure, from which a cool unexpected story may rise, you had a story, with an adventure built and designed to enable the story, but also ensure (or close to ensure) it happens.

  3. - Top - End - #3
    Pixie in the Playground
    Join Date
    Mar 2021

    Default Re: My party is splitting up to do two separate adventures. Anyone wanna brainstorm?

    Run two sessions. It's best if you don't keep players waiting, so you might need to run them on different days or times. I mean, unless the other party is cool playing games or whatever. But the important part is that the adventuring party gets main attention.

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