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Odysseus
Seeker
USA
51 Posts |
 Posted - 23 May 2007 : 20:19:37
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My current campiagn will becoming to the end of an adventure arc soon.
And I'd like to hear if anyone has some inspiring ideas for me.
The plot arc will have the party trying to rescue fifty plus prisoners from the Lair of a vampire Rakshasa. Who specilizes in alchemy and magic diseases. And has been using the prisoners to experiment on.
The Rakshasa lair is located near to Karsoluthiyl, a drow city in the underdark. The party will probably arrive via a portal near to the Rakshasa lair.
The party will be around 12th level(3.5 ed)
I'd like to make this section of the adventure as exicting and as climatic as i can. So any ideas , please post.
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“Anybody can become angry, that is easy; but to be angry with the right person, and to the right degree, and at the right time, and for the right purpose, and in the right way, that is not within everybody’s power, that is not easy.” —Aristotle |
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Rinonalyrna Fathomlin
Great Reader
USA
7106 Posts |
Posted - 23 May 2007 : 23:37:51
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| Do you plan to have your players visit the drow city? Or end up there by chance? |
"Instead of asking why we sleep, it might make sense to ask why we wake. Perchance we live to dream. From that perspective, the sea of troubles we navigate in the workaday world might be the price we pay for admission to another night in the world of dreams."
--Richard Greene (letter to Time) |
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Darkmeer
Senior Scribe
USA
505 Posts |
Posted - 24 May 2007 : 04:52:10
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quote:
Originally posted by Odysseus
The plot arc will have the party trying to rescue fifty plus prisoners from the Lair of a vampire Rakshasa. Who specilizes in alchemy and magic diseases. And has been using the prisoners to experiment on.
The Rakshasa lair is located near to Karsoluthiyl, a drow city in the underdark. The party will probably arrive via a portal near to the Rakshasa lair.
Vampire plus Rakshasa might just be a bit too much, but to each their own.
Okay, to make this climactic, I might suggest that the party face many things carrying diseases. Perhaps a theme for the lair, even. An otyugh, summoned diseased dire rats for traps (they can still be deadly, especially with the right disease). What you will end up with, after defeating the rakshasa, is a wounded warriors scenario. The primary battle will be climactic, swords swinging, death to the tyrant, rescue the victims.
While transporting the victims/test subjects, as well as from wounds taken in the fortress, the party will begin to feel the effects of magical diseases. This may not be much with a cleric in tow, but perhaps these are diseases with Spell Resistance. It can happen, and your players will immediately become nervous. Perhaps one of the diseases causes a character to phase out of reality (will save when struck, or character drops held items initially... moving on to "must have ghost touch goods" or will drop EVERYTHING 1/hr, etc.). Magical diseases can be just about anything you can imagine, and hauling a crowd of magically induced and damaged people through a Drow city while injured/diseased themselves could prove to be a very exciting section of adventure.
Just some random thoughts.
/d |
"These people are my family, not just friends, and if you want to get to them you gotta go through ME." |
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MerrikCale
Senior Scribe
USA
947 Posts |
Posted - 24 May 2007 : 21:18:41
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| kill them all in a freak halruuan airship accident |
When hinges creak in doorless chambers and strange and frightening sounds echo through the halls, whenever candlelights flicker where the air is deathly still, that is the time when ghosts are present, practicing their terror with ghoulish delight. |
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Odysseus
Seeker
USA
51 Posts |
Posted - 24 May 2007 : 21:53:44
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quote:
Originally posted by Rinonalyrna Fathomlin
Do you plan to have your players visit the drow city? Or end up there by chance?
I think they'll intially try and try and avoid the city, and try to sneak into the lair somehow. But they may want to visit the city to try and obtain information about the BBEG.
Darkmeer ideas about the diseased monster theme could be an useful idea. |
“Anybody can become angry, that is easy; but to be angry with the right person, and to the right degree, and at the right time, and for the right purpose, and in the right way, that is not within everybody’s power, that is not easy.” —Aristotle |
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Rinonalyrna Fathomlin
Great Reader
USA
7106 Posts |
Posted - 24 May 2007 : 22:47:12
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quote:
Originally posted by Odysseus
quote:
Originally posted by Rinonalyrna Fathomlin
Do you plan to have your players visit the drow city? Or end up there by chance?
I think they'll intially try and try and avoid the city, and try to sneak into the lair somehow. But they may want to visit the city to try and obtain information about the BBEG.
No doubt they have good reasons for wanting to avoid the city, but heading there anyway (willingly or no) is likely to be interesting, for the same reasons.  |
"Instead of asking why we sleep, it might make sense to ask why we wake. Perchance we live to dream. From that perspective, the sea of troubles we navigate in the workaday world might be the price we pay for admission to another night in the world of dreams."
--Richard Greene (letter to Time) |
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Darkmeer
Senior Scribe
USA
505 Posts |
Posted - 25 May 2007 : 02:26:17
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quote:
Originally posted by Odysseus
quote:
Originally posted by Rinonalyrna Fathomlin
Do you plan to have your players visit the drow city? Or end up there by chance?
I think they'll intially try and try and avoid the city, and try to sneak into the lair somehow. But they may want to visit the city to try and obtain information about the BBEG.
Darkmeer ideas about the diseased monster theme could be an useful idea.
I think that most monsters you come across can have a disease, although things of a "plant" nature could be carrying things that they would be immune to, but fleshies wouldn't. So there's "Underdark Fungal Malaria" or some such.
Living creatures can have all manner of foul diseases. From devil chills to other things. For a CLERIC, to help prevent those pesky "remove disease" spells: Wisdom Damage, to a minimum of 4-5. Sure, the cleric gets a bit loopy, but 1d4 Wis Damage daily for a couple of days, then the recovery begins. Mean: Probably. Does it mean that the player will have to become more resourceful with his/her spells? Yep. If you have a paladin, make a "peaceful" encounter with an Erinyes or similarly minded evil outsider. The trick of diseases of the flesh and consorting with evil removes the paladin from the picture very quickly, and creates a wondrous grey area that may or not be suited to your style of play.
For rogues and fighter types: Anything that does dexterity or strength damage. I don't see many high fortitude characters failing saves, but these are "germ warfare" type diseases, so the DC's can skyrocket (I'd cap them around 24-29 depending on your preference), as well as requiring will saves for "Mental damage" of some sort.
Really, this is about creating SHORT term penalties to overcome.
"Sure you defeated a drow raiding party of 25, but did you do it half blinded from fevers from Devil Chills and a magically souped up Filth Fever?" No reply, seeing slack-jawed adventurers: "yeah, that was me."
Heck of a story. MAKE SURE your players are going to be okay with this, and the theme in the place is going to be harsh on them medium-term, so they will have to do something about it and overcome normal challenges in different and creative manners.
/d |
"These people are my family, not just friends, and if you want to get to them you gotta go through ME." |
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Odysseus
Seeker
USA
51 Posts |
Posted - 25 May 2007 : 20:22:18
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quote:
Originally posted by Darkmeer
If you have a paladin, make a "peaceful" encounter with an Erinyes or similarly minded evil outsider. The trick of diseases of the flesh and consorting with evil removes the paladin from the picture very quickly, and creates a wondrous grey area that may or not be suited to your style of play.
There is a Paladin in the party. And the player is someone who likes dealing with moral dilemmas. So that is something I definatly want to put in.
quote:
Originally posted by Darkmeer
Heck of a story. MAKE SURE your players are going to be okay with this, and the theme in the place is going to be harsh on them medium-term, so they will have to do something about it and overcome normal challenges in different and creative manners.
The party have already encountered a number of attribute reducing , partially becasue of the BBEG skills. Although they don't know its him yet. So further challenges along this theme should be fine with them.
quote:
Originally posted by Darkmeer
Vampire plus Rakshasa might just be a bit too much, but to each their own.
I'm not locked into this yet.
The requirements for the BBEG are access to arcane spells. Be very robust, probably with a very high DR, and be around 14 to 16 CR.
The vampire Rakshara fits the bill. with access to low level sorcerer spells, plus shape changing. There's quite a bit of room for trickery. And with no really high level spells, theres no save or die situations. And he'll be very hard to kill. But I am open to other suggestions.
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“Anybody can become angry, that is easy; but to be angry with the right person, and to the right degree, and at the right time, and for the right purpose, and in the right way, that is not within everybody’s power, that is not easy.” —Aristotle |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11809 Posts |
Posted - 25 May 2007 : 20:31:35
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Very nice ideas Darkmeer. It sounds like I'd have a lot of fun in one of yours and Knight's games.
Some other things to consider. The party is there to rescue some people. Another good way to kind of stretch the cleric thin would be that his god realizes that some people (who follow the worship of the priest's deity) are going to DIE without the cleric's aid, wherease some party members are just going to be weaker than they would have been. If the cleric still goes ahead and heals his party members over the innocents, then have those people raised as undead (I know there's got to be some kind of undead that results from death by disease). Those people's souls are now lost to his deity. Even moreso they are lost to their families, who are probably still alive amongst the refugees and cursing the priest for his unwillingness to serve his flock. Puts a little moral quandary to things. Of course, only do this if you know it'll ADD to the gameplay and not just piss off your group. |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
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Darkmeer
Senior Scribe
USA
505 Posts |
Posted - 26 May 2007 : 02:22:18
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quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas
Very nice ideas Darkmeer. It sounds like I'd have a lot of fun in one of yours and Knight's games.
Some other things to consider. The party is there to rescue some people. Another good way to kind of stretch the cleric thin would be that his god realizes that some people (who follow the worship of the priest's deity) are going to DIE without the cleric's aid, wherease some party members are just going to be weaker than they would have been. If the cleric still goes ahead and heals his party members over the innocents, then have those people raised as undead (I know there's got to be some kind of undead that results from death by disease). Those people's souls are now lost to his deity. Even moreso they are lost to their families, who are probably still alive amongst the refugees and cursing the priest for his unwillingness to serve his flock. Puts a little moral quandary to things. Of course, only do this if you know it'll ADD to the gameplay and not just piss off your group.
I like the cleric idear. I hadn't thought about the flock yet, I was merely thinking of the party and how they would be affected by the diseases. The undead soul-stealing disease is an amazing idea. This could put some normally "good" citizens into the "I don't like the party" status pretty quick, and makes for some rich RPG experiences.
(Off Topic)
Oh, and many thanks for the compliment. KnightErrantJR & my campaigns tend to be a bit convoluted, and experimental in my case, but we always have a great time. Lemme know if you get stuck in the middle of BFN (A.K.A. Central Illinois), I might be able to help with getting that game together.
(/off topic)
/d |
"These people are my family, not just friends, and if you want to get to them you gotta go through ME." |
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Odysseus
Seeker
USA
51 Posts |
Posted - 30 May 2007 : 19:43:56
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I believe I've pretty much decided what I'm going to do.
Thanks you all for your suggestions.
I'll have the party start off dealing with the Raksharas discarded experiements, diseased creatures, and various aberations.
Then move onto a blood fountain, prisoners being drained of their blood. Something like the thing from predetor vs alien, or Blade. Where the party will encounter some of the Raksharas spawn. Including to of the prisoners the party will know. Which will give the party a choice about how to handle the prisoners turned vampire.
Then i'll add the Rakshara , how'll be monitoring the situation, and pick the most best moment to pounc eon the party. |
“Anybody can become angry, that is easy; but to be angry with the right person, and to the right degree, and at the right time, and for the right purpose, and in the right way, that is not within everybody’s power, that is not easy.” —Aristotle |
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Any ideas for the End of an Adventure Arc
