Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Death_Jester2166 02-26-04, 11:20 AM	Greetings Everyone, In the next few weeks I will be starting a new campaign set in the Forgotten Realms (Silver Marchs/Silverymoon area). I have this idea for a series of adventures for the first few games being around collecting some books that were lost. The books used to belong to a Wizard on the path of Lichdom and while he was out getting the ingredients for his transformation, his tower/home was raided by a local adventuring group. These are the players mentors not the players themselves. The mentors are about 5th level and the players will be starting out at first level. The mage will show up later in the game but for now he is out of the picture and has no way to knowing about what has happened to his books. So he will not be part of this little series of adventures either directly or indirectly. His apprentice however is acutely aware of the problem. It is because of his appetite that the adventures (The fifth level mentors not the players) came to the tower in the first place. He is a vampire mage that was seriously wounded in the fight and is laying low as the adventures believe that they killed him. He will only act indirectly though charmed people/vampire thralls(or whatever they are calling the lesser vampires these days). As he wants everyone to contiune to think he is dead because the adventures almost killed him last time. He needs time to plan and get ready for a the next confrontation so he will not risk his life directly. He is very intersted in getting the books back befor his master shows up but he is also scared of dying. The books were taken, when the adventures were busy with something else, by some kobolds and traded for weapons. The person that took the books would have sold/traded them to certain people to recoup the money for the weapons and made a killing on them in the process. The person that sold the books would have the kind of contacts that would make sure that he got top gold for them. She is a rogue weapons dealer type of character that has lots of contacts. My question to the board is do you have any suggestions for adventures set around collecting books? To make things easier I don’t have a number of books in mind that the players have to get back. Also the players will be level one and should go until about level three with these quests. What can the players do in order to find out who has the books and or how do they get the information from the Rogue? I would ask what kinds of books would be important to a mage on his way to lichdom, other then spellbooks which is pretty much a given in this situation? Why are they valuable to this mage? I would like to make collecting some of the books a mini sub-quest kind of adventure like a two or three adventures to get one book back. Others more role playing related to getting the books back. Example: One of the books is an old text related to funerary rites of the rulership in Mulhorand. The current owner is a merchant that wants to be buried in the manner of an Old Mulhorandie Noble. This put the players in an awkward situation as they cannot kill the person and just take the book but must figure out a way around the situation without resulting to brute force. Not all of the suggestions should be like this but it should help illistrate what kind of help I’m looking for. By the way the book are important to the players because they might block the path of Lichdom from this mage. They are hoping to get the books to a place like Candle Keep or some place else safe. Thanks in advance for your help.
Dirk_Nightbreese 02-26-04, 11:54 AM	So if I understand this correctly, the Mentors of this party has no idea about these books? If that's the case, getting the PCs on the trail could be difficult. I would suggest that the kobalds did not sell ALL the books. Perhaps one of the kobalds (leader, sorceror, etc) found a book that increased their power some how. Now the kobalds are getting more aggresive, etc, etc and the PCs have to go out and put them down, finding the book and getting some info about where the book came from (either a section of the book or from the kobalds). The PCs can also find out about who the Kobalds sold the rest of the books to. Finding that fence could be an adventure in and of itself. Some likely buyers for the books: A wizard (any align), a cleric (any align), a sage/collector, maybe even one of the books was a "family heirloom" and some noble family has bought it back. My only reservation here is: depending how many books you put into the game, the PCs could go up in lvl too fast. I mean, after a few adventures looking for books, they will quickly reach 3rd, if not surpass it. So if you're set on them reaching 3rd by the time all the books have been assembled, I wouldn't put in more than three or four. As for why these books would be important to the mage, they'd all hold some secret that would help him on the way to lichdom. Maybe they hold a route to some item he needs, or some ritual that he needs. Hope this helps, Cheers.
gustav 03-02-04, 10:30 AM	Well, one of the books could have been transported in a box abroad a ship on its way to the new owner, but the ship was lost at sea. The player will not know this before they find the merchant who brought the book. He is prepared to offer a deal. They can have the book, if they are able to salvage the box from the shipwreck and if they bring him a box with rare maps ... which was lost in the same shipwreck.... The players manage to find the shipwreck, but it has already been plundered by the local peasant population ...
CaineTheInsaine 03-02-04, 11:45 AM	IMC my players recently came across a journel written by a lich who after further research discovered that he was from the time of the Nethril, he was a very powerful archmage who sought true immortality. Even the gods can be killed on their home plane, but a lich can be destoried over and over and always return hours or just a few days later. This Nethril lich sought to take the steps into lichdom after discovering a way to sever the need of a phylactory. To retain a lich's power and stregth but not his one true weakness, to longer need to the phylactory. But he was forced to become a lich when "that foolish boneheaded thug of a wizard Karsus" pulled his little trick. Trapped the wizard, Baulis, took the steps to become a lich, and now seeks to be rid of his phylactory. I could see where books written, or supposidly, written by Baulis might be of value to a younger mage seeking the same path might be very important. Hiding clues as to how to gain this True Immortality. Baulis is actually a on going background plot, and might end up being the BBEG. Just a suggestion as to what kind of books might be so valuable to a lich, lich's value power, and immortality, books that might have clues as to how to improve both would be of great importance.
Rick Day 03-02-04, 12:36 PM	There is an old dragon or dungeon magazine adventure that was set in a lost library. It was wonderfull but I can tremember the name and it was a great sourse for books and book trapping. :)
Lashan 03-02-04, 06:08 PM	I can recommend a few things. First off, one plot device I would add in is to have the vampire charm one of the players. I would pick whichever player you trusted the most to roleplay things. Take them to the side or talk to them between games. Have them charmed by the vampire to get the books back. The character will work with the party and care about the party, but just cares more about the vampire. He/she might not even know that that person is a vampire. It can cause some interesting role playing down the road when one of the players turns out to be a traitor (yet once the charm is broken, that character is still able to stay in the group). Personally, I like creating a little in-party turmoil. Not enough to tear the group apart, but enough to have some sneaky fun. Also, if you are interested in the types of books, I like the Mulhorandi funeral book idea. Another book could be a study about the negative material plane that was written by a mage. While not directly involved with becoming a lich, it could hint at something foul and necromatic. Perhaps each book points closer and closer to the wizard wanting to become a lich. Another book idea is about transmutation and necromatic experiments on living creatures by a twisted wizard. The next book could be about using negative energy in various ways to get different results. Another book could be directions on how to create a phylactory. I had an adventure where a valuable book that the party had found was stolen from them. The whole adventure was about them trying to track the book down through the underworld. The owner kept either selling it or turning up dead. The book passed from owner to onwer, and the party was always one step behind. Finally, they were able to catch up to the book, but the book itself ended up creating a problem down the road..... If you wanted to add in pirates, you can have the book on a ship that is taken by pirates. The group will have to hunt the various pirates down....or at least figure out where they sell their loot. Perhpas that might be more interesting then just fighting the pirates. The party might have to wrestle the information from Immuruk's Eyes spy network for pirates. Any books that deal with undeath can always be bought or acquired by the church of Lathander, in an attempt of preventing that material from being used for evil. In fact, the party might have to steal the book back from the church! Kelemorv could be used as well, if the party has issues with stealing from a good church. Hope these ideas might help.
Gaidzin 03-04-04, 08:29 AM	I can recommend a couple of things: *There is such
Gaidzin 03-04-04, 08:40 AM	As I was going to say, when things got a little fuzzy; * There is such a place as Candlekeep, where literally thousands and thousands of valuable tomes are stored. * The books could be journals of other mages who aspired to become liches themselves. There is valuable information in these, from both a succes and failure point of view. * The Kobolds might have sold the books to another mage who wants to become a lich him/herself. * The mage might wanted to test the PC's by putting them to a challenge in finding out who stole books. He knows what happend to the books of course ;)