I play with family and old friends who live all around the country now, and I'm trying to think of a good way to set up part of my next campaign session. Basically after orcs attack and try to overtake an elven town, the party is going to be looking for a sacred site, which basically has a curse over it that prevents anyone from remembering or knowing its location. One of the character's sister is the only one who has any idea where it is because she was (unwillingly) present when the curse was laid down. I don't want them to just be running into combat the whole way there, but I don't want to just have an incredibly boring skill challenge or just have them led straight there by the NPC. I've been kind of stuck on this part for weeks trying to thing of a neat idea. I know what I want to happen when they GET there, I just don't know how to get them there. Creative powers go!
Looking for some creative DnD session ideas!
- Thread starter Dei
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But... that's exactly my idea for my campaign!!!!
No seriously though, I wish I could help but I'm keeping the dozen or so storylines I have come up with close at hand, they do after all, read this forum.
I do have a single interesting swerve.... what if they were to stumble upon it, after performing a particularly oppositely aligned errand that had to test their morals? :bush:
No seriously though, I wish I could help but I'm keeping the dozen or so storylines I have come up with close at hand, they do after all, read this forum.
I do have a single interesting swerve.... what if they were to stumble upon it, after performing a particularly oppositely aligned errand that had to test their morals? :bush:
Introduce a nemesis who is (for some reason) also looking for that site and who is competing with the PCs to get to the site first?
Example:
Orc Shaman Grok'zuum has sent spies to the elven town to oversee the pillage and learns of the plans of the PCs to find the sacred site. Knowing (he's a shaman, he knows his sacred sites) that there's a powerful artifact hidden there, he follows the PCs from a distance while sending an occasional raiding party to whittle them down. Then, when they finally find the sacred site, he charges in with the remainder of his warband - epic fight for the artifact.
Maybe?
Example:
Orc Shaman Grok'zuum has sent spies to the elven town to oversee the pillage and learns of the plans of the PCs to find the sacred site. Knowing (he's a shaman, he knows his sacred sites) that there's a powerful artifact hidden there, he follows the PCs from a distance while sending an occasional raiding party to whittle them down. Then, when they finally find the sacred site, he charges in with the remainder of his warband - epic fight for the artifact.
Maybe?
doomdragon6
Staff member
You could have some kind of mount temporarily given to them-- like some sort of flying mount. This would get rid of a lot of potential encounters, but you could throw in an aerial encounter somewhere. It'd be a change of pace and possibly be interesting. Or make the fight unwinnable or very difficult to promote use of environment and tactics.
Or something simple. "You come across a river. Use your individual abilities to cross it!"
Or if you want interesting encounters, I can help you with that too. I've never DMed, but I've had lots of interesting single fights mulling in my head for a while.
Or something simple. "You come across a river. Use your individual abilities to cross it!"
Or if you want interesting encounters, I can help you with that too. I've never DMed, but I've had lots of interesting single fights mulling in my head for a while.
your storylines read this forum?SeriousJay said:No seriously though, I wish I could help but I'm keeping the dozen or so storylines I have come up with close at hand, they do after all, read this forum.
orc leader was there when the curse was cast. maybe not one of the casters, but accompanying one of them. had some orcs attempt to overtake the elf town so orc leader and a small band of loyal warorcs could go to this sacred site.
give the pcs an easy encounter with the orc leader and loyal orc followers midjourney. among their stuff is the orc leader's journal. they get a little story about the place and/or why it was cursed and haven't fought anyone important enough to make it seem like an end-of-adventure thing.
the npc leads them there, it's broken up by an easy encounter, everyone loves free gold and experience, the npc continues to lead them there, and then you can spend the rest of the time focusing on this sacred site.
Well basically what happens when they get to this site, is they find the skeleton of an eladrin cleric bound to a stake, whose soul has been twisted and bound to the site in order to maintain the curse. The party isn't going to be able to lift the curse at this point of the story. They are heading here to "clean up" any orcs that didn't die in the city assault basically, but like I said, I don't want it to be an endless forest of orcs. I already have one orc encounter set up near the holy site. An idea I just came up with involves all their minds getting warped by the curse the closer they get, which could spark fights between the party. There are points in the back story of the 2 Eladrin in the party that could easily set them against each other, for example.
Also, people in the party have a reason to go to this holy site beyond just the orcs. One characters father was killed there, and another, like I said, is the sister of the NPC who knows how to find it.
Also, people in the party have a reason to go to this holy site beyond just the orcs. One characters father was killed there, and another, like I said, is the sister of the NPC who knows how to find it.
Their research/knowledge of the shrine, reveals that a famed historian would know where it might be located.
Setting out to find the historian they arrive in time to find him dead, killed by the BBEG henchmen. His daughter has an item/talisman/symbol/scroll that when researched reveals they must travel to an ancient elven metropolis and consult the historic Challenger Map using the item. This will reveal the lost location of the shrine, but the Challenger Map had a strange effect. If leaves the person blind, so they don't know where they are goind and all their comrades forget that they are searching for the lost shrine.
The blind PC leads the forgetful PC's through a series of dangerous lands and dungeons to emerge in a sacred mountain valley containing the shrine.
Then the orcs attack!
Setting out to find the historian they arrive in time to find him dead, killed by the BBEG henchmen. His daughter has an item/talisman/symbol/scroll that when researched reveals they must travel to an ancient elven metropolis and consult the historic Challenger Map using the item. This will reveal the lost location of the shrine, but the Challenger Map had a strange effect. If leaves the person blind, so they don't know where they are goind and all their comrades forget that they are searching for the lost shrine.
The blind PC leads the forgetful PC's through a series of dangerous lands and dungeons to emerge in a sacred mountain valley containing the shrine.
Then the orcs attack!
I always try to mix up my combat encounters to keep things interesting for my players. This is probably because there are 6 of them, and any straightforward "kill everything in sight" tends to get boring pretty fast.
I like to make things interesting:
- Add in environmental factors or threats (last session my party fought on the edge of a tall seaside cliff. It was fun for them to run goblins off the cliff to their dooms, but became less exciting when the goblin shaman summoned a Large Air Elemental who turned into a raging tornado.)
- Add noncombatants that the PCs either need to keep alive, would strive to protect due to alignment, or can use as hostages.
- Consider that the enemies might have ulterior motives in combat (in my most complicated encounter ever, a group of mafia halflings paid a tribe of lizardmen and their pet raptors to stage an attack on an elven village, so that the mafiosos could play the heroes and protect the town in order to gain power there that they could exploit. So I had lizardmen who didn't come here to actually be attacked, their raptors who were trained to attack only elves and NOT halflings, the halflings who were supposed to run the lizardmen and their pets out of town, a couple incapacitated elf civilians, and the hapless party who threw a monkey wrench into the entire scheme merely by being there.)
- Maybe have an item that greatly assists either the enemies or PCs in combat; a "gamebreaker", so to speak.
I like to make things interesting:
- Add in environmental factors or threats (last session my party fought on the edge of a tall seaside cliff. It was fun for them to run goblins off the cliff to their dooms, but became less exciting when the goblin shaman summoned a Large Air Elemental who turned into a raging tornado.)
- Add noncombatants that the PCs either need to keep alive, would strive to protect due to alignment, or can use as hostages.
- Consider that the enemies might have ulterior motives in combat (in my most complicated encounter ever, a group of mafia halflings paid a tribe of lizardmen and their pet raptors to stage an attack on an elven village, so that the mafiosos could play the heroes and protect the town in order to gain power there that they could exploit. So I had lizardmen who didn't come here to actually be attacked, their raptors who were trained to attack only elves and NOT halflings, the halflings who were supposed to run the lizardmen and their pets out of town, a couple incapacitated elf civilians, and the hapless party who threw a monkey wrench into the entire scheme merely by being there.)
- Maybe have an item that greatly assists either the enemies or PCs in combat; a "gamebreaker", so to speak.
Come up with a couple puzzles.
Deceive them.
Deceive them.
I reeeeally need to come up with like 6-7 puzzles. Next week I want my party to investigate an underwater temple in order to find a diamond they need to resurrect a local town official with important information. I'm looking to make the dungeon mostly problem solving and not so much combat. Preferably with some bonuses where if they complete the puzzle in a certain way they could also find some nice gear/items.escushion said:
Any help would be sweeeeet.
Sister gets kidnaped/ wanders off guided by some magical force, Sister can't quite remember where the site is so the group needs to find some artifact that will allow her to clearly access the memories. Sister falls unconcious and can't be woken up so the group has to find a way to heal her.
Site can only be approached by a very particular route due to the curse so the group needs to find a local woodsman or cleric who can tell them the correct way to approach the site.
Try to make the sister as cute and sweet as possible if you want to do more than 1 of the save the sister routes otherwise the players will hate her.
Site can only be approached by a very particular route due to the curse so the group needs to find a local woodsman or cleric who can tell them the correct way to approach the site.
Try to make the sister as cute and sweet as possible if you want to do more than 1 of the save the sister routes otherwise the players will hate her.
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