Post/Author/DateTime	Post
narack 02-04-08, 08:44 AM	What i need is a couple of idea's right now. My players when some place i never expected, first time that happen, usually i plan all their possibility and they always decided to go a way i had planned. Not this time. I have general idea that was ready for the part they are but i would like to make it longer (a full game) instead of a 2 hours quest. The back story is about the Book of dead lost by Nerull trapped by good gods over 3000 years ago. Long forgotten, someone discovered recently a piece of artifact that can lead to the hidden place of this book. Tiamat heard about it and start sending troops over material place to find it out. Players fall in something they couldn't expected, the place where they were training was pretty close to hidden ruins where the artifact was found. now the artifact gone they got mistaken as party member of the guy who found it. So there start the chase. They leave their island and start trying to find a spot to hide them self couple time until everything cool down a bit. Unfortunately Tiamat follower wont stop there, they got chases for a while now. The guy who have the artifact wanted badly to excuse himself for the problem he cause to them. He offer them to find the origin of artifact so he can sell it and share with them. At a point they find out a secret area within the artifact. Inside that area a little piece of parchment with an enigma on it. one in common, one in unkwon dwarf/orcish base language. so they start searching libraries around to find information about the text and weird word they find in it. and finally they found book of dead passage but nothing more. They found all the informations in one of the biggest library in the country. In that city it was the summer festival, 2 weeks of events, magical aptitude contest, fighting contest and the well know : Dungeon of never end. they participate in most of them and the last one the dungeon also. winning price, a Philosopher stone. the entrance of dungeon is in the middle of the coliseum. From there they enter a portal which bring them to a randomize dungeon base on their challenge. The goal is to finish it in the shortest time. So level 5 party face level 6 dungeon for challenge and level 15 for example face level 16. Which is kind of balance. one day in that dungeon is actually about 10 mins in real life. So in the coliseum there is kind of screens that show the "best of" the dungeon. Something turn bad in the third day inside the dungeon (30 mins) . player don't know but nerull,tiamat follower teleported in the coliseum and took over the dungeon to trap the player. They then modified the circle of teleportation location so they teleport elsewhere they decided. Since they don't know they go out the dungeon by the teleportation circle without knowing what happen. Bang they appear in a lair where 2 characters are there killing the guy who found the artifact by asking where it is. Anyway, they 2 people there were not challenging for them so they decide to run instead of fighting but releast Blue spawn guard that they had. They manage to get out but 1 player died. Now they ressurected the person and hide in a huge city for couple of weeks. they decided isntead of goign to fidn back the artifact the other had hidden to go decifer the last part of the message. So i lead them to the dwarf city of Redpike Fortress. Last defense of heavenly mountain. This place would be the only place where they could found books that are old enough to decipher this. So they are now arriving at the point they see the mountain and few fortification from far. Now i have 2 choices. First the only old book are in and old unstable section of the mine which is full of monsters and not used any more. But that would be stupid since old book like that would have been recovered by the dwarf. Second is to make a quest around that. Like exchange of service. They received help from the moradin priest in exchange of doing X. My players are Druid 5th, fighter (duelist) 6th, sorcerer 6th, cleric 6th, ranger 6th. fighter 7th (npc they free from the lair and he is in debt of them until is save their life again)
Delfedd 02-04-08, 10:45 AM	Alright... A few beefs with this. Why Tiamat? is she being controlled by Nerull? Do you just want to have a crapload of dragons? It seems like this should've been a plot for after the players reached 10th level and fighting dragons wouldn't be a joke. Also... Why is the NPC traveling with the party more powerful than all the other PCs? Anyhow, I'm not really sure where the filler is needed. You've unfortunately set yourself up with an epic quest, which is good and all, but leaves you little room for fun sidequests.
Orchomenos 02-04-08, 12:20 PM	I guess Tiamat because the OP want to use the crapload of Dragonspawns of Tiamat, from MMIV... If I understand you well, the players are visting the Dwarven city to find a book that holds some hints about the enigma in the artifact, which will lead them to the Book of dead lost by Nerull? As pretty as the PCs are, I don't think the dwarves will allow the first adventurers entering their fortress to access this forgotten knowledge. They apparently received a secular mission: to protect this knowledge. I don't see any way they might allow level 5-7 adventurers to access this. Unless they proove they are on some divine mission, which unfortunately the PCs doesn't seem to be...
narack 02-04-08, 12:50 PM	Actually they face spawns of Tiamat. Tiamat come to hear about the artifact and want to get a hold on that book also. Since few events 1500 ago, the god decided to left off the material plane because it was real crysis and it was coming to an end. Finally couple of adventurer (my players) in that other campaign i rolled last year manage to stop a good part of this crysis and everything calmed down. Since all connection between material plane and other were close some plane were not able to reconnect to the material plane. Tiamat want the book which contain more than the dead. It also contain ancient god rituals which could give her the power to kill some gods, including Bahamut as the first. Now they face the only spawns that Tiamat follower can conjure. Unless they get hold on powerful artifacts they wont really be able to conjure bigger tiamat spawns. With the book they plan to satisfy Tiamat and get special place to her side. They also want to use it as a super focus to reopen some plane door which shouldn't be open. The campaign will certainly go epic if they go far enough. Since Bahamut just started to hear about that, good dragons are watching more their territory than usual. And some place where dragons are in pacts are really dangerous because of continual fights. My players aren't stupid enough to go there. When they will start hear about the tiamat full story and dragon fights they wont put their nose yet. Their main goal is to find back the artifact that according to what they also found, would be the key to open something important which is not the book location for sure. It's more like a treasure hunt but with bad ass following them. If they stay low they shouldn't have to much trouble. But once some of the Followers will gain power over territory they will be able to enroll some low dragons which gonna increase the Challenge. By that moment they will be around level 15th. For the question about the NPC, he level 7th and character level 6th are 800-900 xp from level 7. i just didn't feel like creating level 6 and level him up in the middle of the game. Anyway he's not there for long. He is just filler for 1 more game after that I'll have made him fulfill is debt. He will become a good NPC to get some information from, and also going to be really useful later. the book is not really lost. here what i posted couple months ago. couple of thing changed but it's kind of accurate. I made a unique Artifact Called the Book of Death. Was hold by Nerull himself and captured by Kas. Kas was Vecna subordinate. their battle in which Vecna loose his hand and eye was about what they do with the Book Kas steal from Nerull under the order of Vecna. Since Kas ran away other deity heard about the book. They didn't know anything about such a powerful book. So the good gods tried to get the book from Kas and were not able to do so because the book could never leave the material plane if not in the hands of Nerull or true follower of his order. So the Good gods send an order to the priest of material plane to get the item and protect it somewhere not to be found. Alot died in the battle but they manage to get the book and hide it where no one will ever find it. With century advancing not a living creature remember those days. Tiamat learning about a piece of information recently that could lead to the book location has made him sending his spawn and other followers to it research. And this peice of information is unknowingly under the PC hand. Ok so that's a small description of the back story of that book i made. Now i need to make it worth being wanted by evil and destroyed by the good. here what i have for now. Book Of Dead - Write a name of person in it and he die instantly (use Death Note anime death rules in term of not messing people with another person with same name) - Aura of pure evil 100' radius center on the book and aura of evil is emitted giving all evil character within the radius a +4 divine bonus to all saves, attack roll, competence roll. Also giving -4 to all the same to good character Good character are also bestow a -2 character level within the radius and -1 if the character is neutral - True Divination the book as a semi-intelligent being can answer a question once/week .The precision depend on the alignment Evil = precise answer of a very complicated or specific answer Neutral = Understandable answer of a normal question Good = non-understandable answer (seem alot cryptic, good chance you never understand the answer) simple question only. So those are the 3 effect i have so far but i really need more. Evil is pretty much set because True Divination answer to their question is more powerful than a comparable answer received by the same question ask to a Wish spell just to give you an idea of how precise it could be. there is also the Plane shift to Nerull place but only when you are a true follower of his religion.
Orchomenos 02-04-08, 01:48 PM	The dwarves would never give this book to a group of level 7 adventurers!
narack 02-04-08, 07:45 PM	That book is the one they want to found and destroy. But the one cleric has is something that can decipher the piece of paper they found inside the artifact which lead to a another item that will bring them to another one and so on.
Orchomenos 02-05-08, 09:44 AM	Hey, what if the dwarves forgot about this book? That Redpike Fortress might have initially be built to watch the book, but then many other dwarves have settled there, generations have followed, and that book is now just a legend. Now only a secretive order of dwarves know about it; the population became so high they even do not trust the other dwarves. You could even include other races who have settled there: goliaths, raptorans, etc... Take a look in the Online Adventures (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/oa/20030530b), and check the Legend of the Silver Skeleton. It occurs in an aqueduct built by dwarves a long time ago, and features some redeemed demon trapped there by an higher demon, you could include them in your long-term story arc...
narack 02-05-08, 12:40 PM	Hey, what if the dwarves forgot about this book? That Redpike Fortress might have initially be built to watch the book, but then many other dwarves have settled there, generations have followed, and that book is now just a legend. Now only a secretive order of dwarves know about it; the population became so high they even do not trust the other dwarves. You could even include other races who have settled there: goliaths, raptorans, etc... Take a look in the Online Adventures (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/oa/20030530b), and check the Legend of the Silver Skeleton. It occurs in an aqueduct built by dwarves a long time ago, and features some redeemed demon trapped there by an higher demon, you could include them in your long-term story arc... That a good idea, i haven't found a place for the book yet but this could be it. would be the first point where they try to decrypt a message about it's location or the location of the next tip while the book is actually right where they are. I just have to find a way to make them waste a game around that area to decrypt the message and lead them somewhere else. They first need a kind of quest to acquire a book or someone that have the book that could help them decrypt the message which is made of long forgotten language. This book for translation should be in a Moradin temple and only high priest should have access to hit. I just need to find a way to tell the player they can't have a look at it yet or no one would help them They have a Moradin Priest in the group so it would be difficult to hold it without a good reason.