Campaign in Cormyr, need help [Archive] - Wizards Community

Campaign in Cormyr, need help [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
p0ntifex
01-27-05, 05:00 AM I should note that this is my first time running the Realms and my first time running DnD in many years. In my campaign the PC's are currently in the village of Dhedluk in Cormyr. In Volo's Guide to Cormyr they talk about a Magical Museum west of town. Is there any more info on this elsewhere?
Also, my PC's are kind of an odd bunch and it's been hell coming up with material. I'll give a rundown of what's going on in the game.
In the group I have an Aasimar Rogue/Paladin of Helm, a Lizardfolk Druid, and an evil Tiefling Rogue/Ranger. The Aasimar and the Tiefling are brothers but that's basically all the background their players gave me other than they are from Suzail, but the Lizardfolk has a fairly detailed background I can work with. Needless to say the roleplaying has certainly been enjoyable since it's basically one of each alignment category. So far the group has had run ins with drow and a Red Wizard and his entourage in another village. The drow and the Red Wizard were fighting amongst themselves and the players which ended up with the players exploring an ancient tomb that was beneath the inn and the druid aquiring a cursed ring. They walked through a portal in the tomb and ended up outside Dhedluk. I've tried to play up that people are scared of them because all of them are weird races which also makes my normal methods of making a game kind of hard since they can't or refuse to stay in towns most of the time. Currently though Dhedluk is using them to help fight off orc attacks from the army that got pushed from Arabel.
Since they've been here they have also seen a group of Cyric worshippers led by an Aasimar that was a former Paladin of Helm who I put in to hopefully steer the PC paladin from becoming a blackguard because the player is toying with the idea and I don't necessarily want that to happen but if it's what he decides he wants to do I won't stop him. The villagers of Dhedluk believe the Cyricists are attempting to unite the orcs again, but no one knows for sure. ;) The players also came across a note indicating the blackguard is looking for a crown and that it's located in the museum hence my interest in it, hehe. Also, the cursed ring is causing some havoc with the druid and he's considering lobbing off his hand to be rid of it. :eek:
Ok, that's the broadstrokes of what has happened. Here are my problems.
My main problem is the ideas for the main story for my campaign were kind of derailed by my PC's race choices, which is my fault for allowing them to play them. Initially I thought what they picked was cool and interesting, which they are, but they're also making planning a headache not to mention having the paladin detect evil every two frickin seconds. GRRRR! Anyway, here are my current issues.
1. The Museum, I have very few details on it which is a good thing since I can do what I want but I like to see what has been laid out in source material for most things just in case there is a really cool idea there.
2. The crown. I have no idea what it's going to do LOL. I know it will be an artifact and possibly not really a crown but maybe the top of a scepter or something. I'm at a loss. Which isn't good because we play in 4 days.
3. Getting the players involved with fighting the orc horde. I'm unsure if they should be fighting orcs every 100 feet or every 5 or hardly at all. I don't know how many orcs are there really. So far they've only had one fight with them, a camp of 25 or so with a couple of Ogre's and an Ogre Mage. It was a raid with a couple groups of soldiers with them.
4. The brothers' history, I've thought about making them abandoned children of some noble family maybe.
Any thoughts or suggestions? Flames due to me being confusing? Fire away!
p0ntifex
01-27-05, 05:09 AM I believe I may have made some mistakes handing out some magic items early on in the game. I kind of think I gave out too much. The group has a Ring of Spell Storing, A ring of Freedom of Movement, 2 +1 acidic shortswords, a +1 Falchion, a +1 unholy short sword, a ring of protection +3, a ring of protection +1, and +1 Full Plate. 2 of the PC's are 6th level and 1 is 5th. Most of it was scrambling around picking random items out of the DMG due to not being fully prepared on a couple early sessions. What do you all think? Too much magic early on? I want to avoid that because I don't want to hit the point where you can't give out anything more powerful and the PC's only be level 10 and totally decked out with magical gear.
CuttinCurt
01-28-05, 01:11 PM i am shocked no one else has given some help yet, so I will chime in.

First off, lets start with your group in the second post. Is that to much magic for those level characters? Perhaps not. The ring +3 and the Ring of Spell storing are quite nice, but other that those two, the rest is very resonable and very well could be with a group of three persons of 6th lvl avg.

Did they start 6th level? Have you had many sessions with them? Did they start higher than first? It makes no difference either way, but history of these characters seems to be in short supply for you as a dm, so I would have started them all out at 1st since no good backgrounds were created but for the lizard.

Now, as far as campaign ideas for this group, there are so many. It can start off with something as little as a random thief targeting one of the group for theft, and it could go from there and explode into waht ever you wanted... a thieves guild? a zentil agent with others in the area, characters track down the thief and kill him, only to be caught by the purple dragons and arrested for murder...

There are so many small little things you can do to get them to make decisions about thier path and then take it from there.

Cormyr has tons of goblin outposts and orc raiders in the northlands, arabel is being rebuilt. I hear the sewers need to be cleaned of dead bodies and other nasties, mercenaries are being hired to travel from Arabel to the dalelands to pick up some goods and bring them back. (That can really open things up.), or perhaps even a light evening at the tavern listening to a bard sing, turns into a nightmare when something horrible happens to a patron sitting right next to the pc's, or the bard who was singing ends up singing to a particular person, rubbing all over them for the bard is a sexy female, then after the sone is over, that patron dies mysteriously, and the bard is blamed. However, one pc might have seen something that would prove the case that the bard was innocent... but that pc was very drunk at the time....

You get the idea. There are lots of different things to do. With an evil person in the group, that makes being in cormyr that much more perilous, for they have to watch out for being judged by the law more strictly? or just more harshly. either way, you have a great plethra of possibilities in Cormyr. I hope this helped.

CC
p0ntifex
01-28-05, 04:38 PM Thank the Lord, a reply! :D

Ok first off, I started them at ECL 3 so the lizard ended up being 1st level and the other 2 were second (class level wise). I did this because they already knew each other and were traveling around conning villagers before the aasimar became a paladin. They were caught and the other two got away but the aasimar was arrested, then realized the error of his ways and what not.

I'm glad I haven't been as insanely generous as I thought I was being with magic items.

Those are some cool adventure hooks there. I'll put those to good use. Any ideas for the crown though? I want it to be strong but at the same time I worry that the evil character will try and use it and end up nuking the party or something if I make it too crazy.

Thanks,
Pontifex
A Chosen of Mystra
01-28-05, 05:11 PM Hmm... Dont know if this could help u much cause I haven't really had a campaign in Cormyr. But in my old campaign my friends needed to fight against some orcs and frost giants very high powerd campaign that led them over lvl 25. But what was so funny was that the wizard in the group got very angry after a Orc Shaman. And every time they met they had fights of their own. And when I said that they heard rumours of that an old ruined Stronghold could be used to cut down the Orcs Supply-lines in the front of the battle they went there. And they really got mad on that orc shaman and I think that if u give the players a good reason, for example if they agree that maybe some orcs of Arabel had something to do with their history / background. The one barbarian in the group his mother was a human and was raped by a orc leader and he became then a half-orc and the orc leader killed his mother after the birth. And therefor the half-orc in the group had orc as fav. enemy and has so furious on the orc leader. Did almost everything in his power to get to him. And that helped me alot, because I told in advance that they would meet orcs. And it would be smart of u if you could tell them what they might face in this adventure so they can maybe has a special reason for taking part in this... Hmm, wrote alot of stuff now... But I hope it helps, GL on the campaign ;)

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
p0ntifex 01-27-05, 05:00 AM	I should note that this is my first time running the Realms and my first time running DnD in many years. In my campaign the PC's are currently in the village of Dhedluk in Cormyr. In Volo's Guide to Cormyr they talk about a Magical Museum west of town. Is there any more info on this elsewhere? Also, my PC's are kind of an odd bunch and it's been hell coming up with material. I'll give a rundown of what's going on in the game. In the group I have an Aasimar Rogue/Paladin of Helm, a Lizardfolk Druid, and an evil Tiefling Rogue/Ranger. The Aasimar and the Tiefling are brothers but that's basically all the background their players gave me other than they are from Suzail, but the Lizardfolk has a fairly detailed background I can work with. Needless to say the roleplaying has certainly been enjoyable since it's basically one of each alignment category. So far the group has had run ins with drow and a Red Wizard and his entourage in another village. The drow and the Red Wizard were fighting amongst themselves and the players which ended up with the players exploring an ancient tomb that was beneath the inn and the druid aquiring a cursed ring. They walked through a portal in the tomb and ended up outside Dhedluk. I've tried to play up that people are scared of them because all of them are weird races which also makes my normal methods of making a game kind of hard since they can't or refuse to stay in towns most of the time. Currently though Dhedluk is using them to help fight off orc attacks from the army that got pushed from Arabel. Since they've been here they have also seen a group of Cyric worshippers led by an Aasimar that was a former Paladin of Helm who I put in to hopefully steer the PC paladin from becoming a blackguard because the player is toying with the idea and I don't necessarily want that to happen but if it's what he decides he wants to do I won't stop him. The villagers of Dhedluk believe the Cyricists are attempting to unite the orcs again, but no one knows for sure. ;) The players also came across a note indicating the blackguard is looking for a crown and that it's located in the museum hence my interest in it, hehe. Also, the cursed ring is causing some havoc with the druid and he's considering lobbing off his hand to be rid of it. :eek: Ok, that's the broadstrokes of what has happened. Here are my problems. My main problem is the ideas for the main story for my campaign were kind of derailed by my PC's race choices, which is my fault for allowing them to play them. Initially I thought what they picked was cool and interesting, which they are, but they're also making planning a headache not to mention having the paladin detect evil every two frickin seconds. GRRRR! Anyway, here are my current issues. 1. The Museum, I have very few details on it which is a good thing since I can do what I want but I like to see what has been laid out in source material for most things just in case there is a really cool idea there. 2. The crown. I have no idea what it's going to do LOL. I know it will be an artifact and possibly not really a crown but maybe the top of a scepter or something. I'm at a loss. Which isn't good because we play in 4 days. 3. Getting the players involved with fighting the orc horde. I'm unsure if they should be fighting orcs every 100 feet or every 5 or hardly at all. I don't know how many orcs are there really. So far they've only had one fight with them, a camp of 25 or so with a couple of Ogre's and an Ogre Mage. It was a raid with a couple groups of soldiers with them. 4. The brothers' history, I've thought about making them abandoned children of some noble family maybe. Any thoughts or suggestions? Flames due to me being confusing? Fire away!
p0ntifex 01-27-05, 05:09 AM	I believe I may have made some mistakes handing out some magic items early on in the game. I kind of think I gave out too much. The group has a Ring of Spell Storing, A ring of Freedom of Movement, 2 +1 acidic shortswords, a +1 Falchion, a +1 unholy short sword, a ring of protection +3, a ring of protection +1, and +1 Full Plate. 2 of the PC's are 6th level and 1 is 5th. Most of it was scrambling around picking random items out of the DMG due to not being fully prepared on a couple early sessions. What do you all think? Too much magic early on? I want to avoid that because I don't want to hit the point where you can't give out anything more powerful and the PC's only be level 10 and totally decked out with magical gear.
CuttinCurt 01-28-05, 01:11 PM	i am shocked no one else has given some help yet, so I will chime in. First off, lets start with your group in the second post. Is that to much magic for those level characters? Perhaps not. The ring +3 and the Ring of Spell storing are quite nice, but other that those two, the rest is very resonable and very well could be with a group of three persons of 6th lvl avg. Did they start 6th level? Have you had many sessions with them? Did they start higher than first? It makes no difference either way, but history of these characters seems to be in short supply for you as a dm, so I would have started them all out at 1st since no good backgrounds were created but for the lizard. Now, as far as campaign ideas for this group, there are so many. It can start off with something as little as a random thief targeting one of the group for theft, and it could go from there and explode into waht ever you wanted... a thieves guild? a zentil agent with others in the area, characters track down the thief and kill him, only to be caught by the purple dragons and arrested for murder... There are so many small little things you can do to get them to make decisions about thier path and then take it from there. Cormyr has tons of goblin outposts and orc raiders in the northlands, arabel is being rebuilt. I hear the sewers need to be cleaned of dead bodies and other nasties, mercenaries are being hired to travel from Arabel to the dalelands to pick up some goods and bring them back. (That can really open things up.), or perhaps even a light evening at the tavern listening to a bard sing, turns into a nightmare when something horrible happens to a patron sitting right next to the pc's, or the bard who was singing ends up singing to a particular person, rubbing all over them for the bard is a sexy female, then after the sone is over, that patron dies mysteriously, and the bard is blamed. However, one pc might have seen something that would prove the case that the bard was innocent... but that pc was very drunk at the time.... You get the idea. There are lots of different things to do. With an evil person in the group, that makes being in cormyr that much more perilous, for they have to watch out for being judged by the law more strictly? or just more harshly. either way, you have a great plethra of possibilities in Cormyr. I hope this helped. CC
p0ntifex 01-28-05, 04:38 PM	Thank the Lord, a reply! :D Ok first off, I started them at ECL 3 so the lizard ended up being 1st level and the other 2 were second (class level wise). I did this because they already knew each other and were traveling around conning villagers before the aasimar became a paladin. They were caught and the other two got away but the aasimar was arrested, then realized the error of his ways and what not. I'm glad I haven't been as insanely generous as I thought I was being with magic items. Those are some cool adventure hooks there. I'll put those to good use. Any ideas for the crown though? I want it to be strong but at the same time I worry that the evil character will try and use it and end up nuking the party or something if I make it too crazy. Thanks, Pontifex
A Chosen of Mystra 01-28-05, 05:11 PM	Hmm... Dont know if this could help u much cause I haven't really had a campaign in Cormyr. But in my old campaign my friends needed to fight against some orcs and frost giants very high powerd campaign that led them over lvl 25. But what was so funny was that the wizard in the group got very angry after a Orc Shaman. And every time they met they had fights of their own. And when I said that they heard rumours of that an old ruined Stronghold could be used to cut down the Orcs Supply-lines in the front of the battle they went there. And they really got mad on that orc shaman and I think that if u give the players a good reason, for example if they agree that maybe some orcs of Arabel had something to do with their history / background. The one barbarian in the group his mother was a human and was raped by a orc leader and he became then a half-orc and the orc leader killed his mother after the birth. And therefor the half-orc in the group had orc as fav. enemy and has so furious on the orc leader. Did almost everything in his power to get to him. And that helped me alot, because I told in advance that they would meet orcs. And it would be smart of u if you could tell them what they might face in this adventure so they can maybe has a special reason for taking part in this... Hmm, wrote alot of stuff now... But I hope it helps, GL on the campaign ;)