Post/Author/DateTime	Post
DicipleofLolth 06-21-06, 11:03 PM	I promised my friends and adventure to start a plot this weekend, and im drawing a complete blank besides damn kindergardener songs (work). The plot involves a plot to destroy Faerun, from the other continent to the west. Any ideas how to start would be helpful
Hola 06-21-06, 11:10 PM	start small, don't map out the full plot yet just throw in an adventure that has seemingly little to do with the plot..at first and then develop the masterminds who caused the minor events at the beginning as you go. Dont develop ypur whole campain in one sitting, it takes time, like wine just start with a bandit raid or two or some missing documents then expand. (I'll slap a big sp? on the whole paragraph)
Karl_Breistein 06-22-06, 08:28 AM	Have the party be hired to protect a caravan which comes under attack. But things get twisted when it becomes obvious the attackers are good guys, the merchants are trasnporting something nasty, perhaps a creature which gets loose, perhaps some bones - spooky bones mind you! The party then move on and investigate who hired them leading them closer and closer to something WORLD THREATENING.
dunehunter 06-23-06, 08:02 AM	I too would suggest starting small. You interrupt a bandit attack, which you then find out was just a small part in a larger plot to get someone money. When you finally attack that person, you find out that even he/she is only a smaller part in a larger plot, until in the end, you get to see the whole thing. And then all of a sudden, after a relatively slow build-up, make things go a lot faster. If you can, a marathon session, in which the heroes rush to location x (a dragon graveyard, a portal to another plane, a spell that is slowly gathering power so it can wipe out all of Faerun in one go) where they have to use everything they have to stop the badguys. You could make this the backbone of your campaign, having shorter story arcs running through it, so that when you reach the final confrontation, they're level 20 or something like that.
kiesloth 06-23-06, 11:02 AM	Dont start small! Take their breath away!!!!!!! Throw them in a HUGE castle demi-plane of an evil wizard as slaves captured after a fight. Then let them find their way and escape out of the HUGE castle of the Evil Overlord Maurpeth Saggoth... Theyll get the idea that we re talking way hard on faerun and they ll have to run and warn the higher lvl characters. But where to run???? The portal they took to save themselves led to Underdark where they survive thanks to a Gloura! After a couple of levels they reach the sun and breath clean air . The passage they used led to Lantan so they have to find a way to convince the Gnomes to help them,well of course they will since they are the only ones who can in so deep s*** to actually go kill the Dragons eggs while he is battling the city of "something". They finaly reach Waterdeep but Laeral is too busy rescuing Khelben and the rest of the GOOD guys are way too far to walk there since the f@#$@!%$ Wayferers have stoped the teleportation travels due to inside arguments and conflicts on whose the Chief Boss Teleporter???? (i am-no its me you s**4%^ elf-look whose talkin! wasnt you that teleported those poor wizards near Hellgate?-No you $&^$&! it was that $%$#%6 halfling over there!- Watch your words s%#5 human!) U get the picture that something is wrong with me and your players that somethins is wrong in Faerun.... What i mean is give them a hard time but let them win or escape at the last moment, carefully not to make it seem you let them win, they have to prove they re the BEST!
Mauther 06-23-06, 04:49 PM	said you wanted to use the continent to the west of Faerun, this would either be Maztica or the large un-named section. If you want to use the un-named continent, you've got a blank slate to work with. If its Maztica, there's a lot of second edition source material to help you out. I like starting out with a change-up, so start the players out with a standard adventure, then rip the carpet out from under them. Start with a standard, everyones gathered at the tavern, have a minor noble request their help catching bandits or clearing out a nearby dungeon. Let them find out in passing the noble was only recently granted the land, that he's only recently struck it rich off trade from Maztica (Sembia would be a good setting for this, but you could put it anywhere that's merchant based). After succesfully creating this mission that are rewarded with cash and a seat at his banquet. Make sure to play up his wealth, especially the rich jewlery his young wife is wearing. During the banquet, mysterious raiders overwhelm the guards and attack the dinner guests and kidnap the noble's wife as well as capturing some servants. This should be an opportunity for an entertaining fight as the PCs should be essentially naked (no armor, no real weapons or offensive magic items) so only have them fight lackeys while the raid leaders go straight for their target. The raiders don't surrender and don't speak, and their leaders appear to be were-jaguars and were-eagles (neither of which the PCs should ever have seen since they aren't a part of FR). Don't describe them as were-creatures, rather they are just anthropomorphic beast-men. The players will probably not be in a rush to pursue the escaping raiders since I would assume they would want to armor up (get their gear, heavy weapons, magic items, etc). So they will have time to gather up while the remaining guards and other guests chase the raiders up to the top of the keep. Let the players gear up for a real bloody fight to finish off the raiders and recapture the hostages, until they storm the roof. There they will find nothing but a pile of corpses (servants and guards) with their hearts removed, the wife is not among the dead. After some investigating, the PCs will discover the wife was wearing a magic charm brought back from Maztica, and the raiders were warriors from that far off land sent to retrieve it. The noble can hire the players to go to maztica and recover his wife. Along the way, the players will discover that the Mazticans use human sacrifice to fuel their magic and that they are attempting something big in Faerun to try and stop the invasion of their country. Eventually, the PCs will discover that the Mazticans have setup a base in the jungle of Chult where they are gathering slaves they are buying from the Zents and Thayans, providing a money trail the players can follow (plot arc: merchants in Waterdeep are selling Maztica treasures for gold, where'd they get it? From Thayans, where'd the Thayans get it? Won't get an answer without doing something for Thay. Thay got it for delivering slaves to the jungles of Chult, odd since usually the slave trade is slaves coming OUT of Chult, why would anyone take the effort of bringing slaves IN.). Eventually the players will discover that Maztica is gathering enough subjects (thousands) to sacrifice to awaken the doom of the world located under the Peaks of Flame (described briefly in the FRCS and under Ubtao's section of the sourcebook "Faiths and Pantheons") to destroy Faerun. You've now got a an epic quest starting in Faerun, ranging to Maztica, back across Faerun and ending in Chult that has human sacrifice, Ubtao (the least used god ever!), Chult (the least used land ever!), were-jaguars (the least used lycanthrope ever!) and THE DOOM OF FAERUN!!! Everything you need for a successful campaign.
Mauther 06-23-06, 04:53 PM	To give credit where due, the initial part of my plot (the raid and kidnapping) are stolen flat out from Dave Duncan's King's Blades book The Jaguar Knights. Everything else is relatively original.
DicipleofLolth 06-25-06, 12:43 AM	thank you all for all the help, i think i can get something together now. They are all really great ideas