Post/Author/DateTime	Post
metalmayhem80110 10-20-07, 02:04 AM	Ok, as you may have noticed I also posted the Harry Potter DnD thread, but that is completely unrelated to this. I just thought I'd let you know now... As for my DnD game, last session the party left off in front of a sudo-boss type character. So the first thing that will happen is some banter, and the fight. Well that may be a couple hours at the worst... Well the party has no idea where they are, let alone what plane they're on... And the only villiage they've ever seen is a small villiage that has been run-down (You'd think I blind-folded their characters and spun them around a few times... But they did it to themselves :P (I'm not protesting that they did it)) I had one idea, the party lost a character last session (His own fault...) So he is bringing in a samurai (The oriental adventures one), and I'm thinking about using him to get the party moving. I'm not sure what he could do to get them to really go... Basically the parties main goal is to collect 10 shards that will let them escape this plane. Well, little do they know that these shards have many other abilities. The one shard they found is the "portal stone" which allowed them to enter here. Well the semi-boss has another (I had it figured out, but I lost my notes :(, so I need to figure his stone out again), and I'm thinking of using that to "push" them in the right direction as well. Right now the party is also after a kidnapped girl, but they have no way to trace her. So that is probably going to be put on the backburner....
metalmayhem80110 10-20-07, 02:09 AM	Sorry to double post, but I also needed to mention another imporant detail... Half the party has been turned evil. The druid (Now Blighter) and pally (Now blackguard) have been corrupted. Completely 100% evil :D (Watching a pally fall, made me all tingly inside)... The other party members don't know that the party is evil... (Funky evil is way more fun that regular evil :D) So I can motivate them by their true leader. The BBEG :D (The party will all work for him by the end of the campaign, mark my word)
Lokathor 10-20-07, 02:25 AM	You're saying that 10 mystical rocks are the key to escaping the prison plane, but they just don't know where the rocks are? Well that's easy. If the samurai guy is new in the party, did he grow up or spend some time on this plane? He could easily know where at least 1 shard is. If no one knows, just slip one into events as things unfold. They might be offered one as payment for a difficult task by a guy who's heard that they're trying to get home. Maybe one of the shard's extra powers is something that makes the current owner famous and they hear about him and investigate that. Failing all else, make the shard they just got have the magical ability to "locate any kidnapped girl within 60 miles".
metalmayhem80110 10-20-07, 02:31 AM	Locating kidnapped girls withing 60 miles, that is awesome :P But in seriousness, I thought about having the player know about one of them. The problem is I asked the player if he was on the plane for a long time (Or if he got here recently, there is another way onto plane I told him about). He said I don't know, we'll talk about it tomorow.... So I don't know if he will have been here for awhile, or just got here :( And I don't want to reveal much. He is a new player and kinda meta-games. So I'd rather not bring more into this (Telling him what will happen if he or if he doesn't) than I have to without him confirming what will happen.
Lokathor 10-20-07, 02:53 AM	Just say "Well, since you entered the plane from another point you've gotten to the city of Townsville from another road. A while back you remember hearing about a shard that matches the description of the ones you're looking for now, you just didn't think much of it at the time." Keep it simple if you don't want him knowing much. He doesn't even have to know exactly who had it, it might just have been rumors or an overheard conversation. Then, whatever you tell him, he tells the rest of the group and they're off to see the wizard.
metalmayhem80110 10-20-07, 02:58 AM	Hehe, that works. The problem is they've talked to a decently knowledged mage, and he was like hu? You're talking about what :P Ok, on another note. How am I supposed to reasonably introduce this character? The party is about to fight the drider (semi-boss thing for their level)... He wouldn't really have a way to trace the drider. I'm thinking about giving his character a special item that tells the person touching it which directiont he closest shard is in. I don't want to really make it that obvious though, that would take the RP and investigation out of the game... Any ideas on how I could make an item *Like* that, without actually saying hey go over ther!
Lokathor 10-20-07, 04:19 AM	Oh... well.. that part uh..... our group (both when I DM and when my friend DM's) just kinda assume the following: "If you're at the table, you magically just show up, even in the middle of a fight;; When you leave to go home, someone else will control you to finish the fight, then you're just magically gone". Sorry I can't be more help. As for finding shards, well...... *sigh* I'm reminded of Inuyasha. Long story short: hero girl breaks magic gem and it shoots all over japan, so hero girl has to adventure to collect the gem shards and fix it. She could sense where the shards were, but the feeling was fainter the farther she was, to the point where most of the time she'd just get a feeling "go north" or "go west", and then they'd investigate a village or something until she came within like 30ft of it then she could all of a sudden pinpoint it. They don't need a Dragondar, just a giger counter.
metalmayhem80110 10-20-07, 04:52 AM	Hehe yeah I've been told that this reminds people of Inuyasha. What people don't understand is that there arn't a billion jewel shards. That and my party will kill the BBEG eventually, he won't come back 10 times.... I had an idea for a side adventure I'll throw them in. Basically I was thinking of Star Trek, more specifically Deep Space Nine. Well there was an ep where they used a rifle and an eye piece to shoot people from across the station. His bullet would teleport from the end of the rifle, to the exact distance he wanted it (Usually 1 meter from the victim). I'm thinking about having somebody do this in a town. With a crossbow and an enchanted helm or something that does this. Basically I'm planning on having the new Samurai lead them to the town. Anyways, I think I'm going to have the person kill somebody each night. Making a pentogram to summon a demon to rip apart the town. The bolts will leave a ritual marking that was used in many planes for summoning a big evil. Well if the party can investigate to stop him (Hopefully not using magic), that is awesome. I'll award a bunch of RP bonuses and everything. If not, the summoned, big bad, evil, creature will be the little girl they were supposed to capture. She is evil, but doesn't radiate evil in ANY way. How do you think I can get my party to chase this plot, even though they're on things which they will think are much more important. I might talk to the supposed leader of the team, and ask him out of game to push for them to solve it a bit. Thoughts?
Grumman 10-20-07, 07:14 AM	His bullet would teleport from the end of the rifle, to the exact distance he wanted it (Usually 1 meter from the victim). For something like this, you could use the combination of brilliant energy crossbow bolts and a seeking crossbow. A level 6 Arcane Archer can do the same thing with their Phase Arrow ability. Clairaudience/Clairvoyance is a 3rd-level spell that lets you see a location as if you were there, so this could be used to spot a target in the required location. How do you think I can get my party to chase this plot, even though they're on things which they will think are much more important. I might talk to the supposed leader of the team, and ask him out of game to push for them to solve it a bit. The easiest way would be to have someone they have met be the target of the day. Finding the blacksmith face-down in the street with an enchanted arrow sticking out of them probably would get their attention.
metalmayhem80110 10-20-07, 07:56 AM	That is what I was thinking. The problem is I know one person in the party will go "Nope, little girl. Even though we have no idea where she is, how to get to her, or anything... Even though innocent people are being murdered in this town and the guards can't stop it, we have to keep moving!" This player is very stubborn and will have his character say "Ok, you guys can stay in town and do this." So I'm trying to think of something to make them all want to investigate this. I'm thinking that the arrow/bolt leaves markings all over the walls, floors, and ceiling. Something like a transmutation circle from full metal alchemist. Except we'll splash a little flavor text of the arcane and divine. The arcane - The summoning information in general. The divine - What is being summoned. That way they'll have 2 chances to make the knowledge roll to get it. Think that could work?
Grumman 10-20-07, 08:23 AM	Well... if you wanted to make sure they stayed to find out, you could make one of the PCs the target of the day. Even the least curious of adventurers is going to want to find out why a perfectly ordinary brick wall shot him in the back with a crossbow bolt.
metalmayhem80110 10-20-07, 08:25 AM	Hehe yeah, that works. Only problem with that, sniper with a crossbow that can shoot through walls shoots and doesn't kill. I think there is no way I can justify him not reloading and shooting again.
Grumman 10-20-07, 09:28 AM	Hehe yeah, that works. Only problem with that, sniper with a crossbow that can shoot through walls shoots and doesn't kill. I think there is no way I can justify him not reloading and shooting again. Each shot costs an absolute minimum of 1,007 gold pieces. It makes sense that the sniper would go after the weak, instead of spending thousands more than he has to to kill stronger bystanders. Sticking around to keep on firing also increases the risk that they'll put two and two together. For the Arcane Archer, Phase Arrow is a 1/day ability, so he couldn't fire again even if he wanted to.
metalmayhem80110 10-20-07, 09:32 AM	I like the Phase Arrow idea. That way if the party catches him they won't get a god item. One a day is really nice still, but not broken. Ok, and we'll make his arrows special ones to. We'll say he just had to try and kill the PC because that was one of the spots he needed to finish his cheesey pentogram. I think I'm going to stat him out as a rogue, and this crossbow lets him use his sneak attack from the distance. Normally I wouldn't give that kinda item out, but my party doesn't have any rogues :D
Grumman 10-20-07, 10:07 AM	What level is the party? I've got an idea for how you could perfect this character, but I'd want to know the approximate level before I work it out exactly.
metalmayhem80110 10-20-07, 11:03 AM	The party is a mix between levels 3 and 4. Almost all are 4, except for the new person. (There are 7 of them, and half of them are kinda min/maxed. That is why they're up in hard villan zone already) And thanks for the help :D
Grumman 10-20-07, 12:10 PM	If they're level 4, there's no way you should be throwing a level 6 Arcane Archer at them. Nobody except a Duskblade can even enter the class until level 7, so the players might be a bit peeved if a level 13+ character shoots them.
metalmayhem80110 10-20-07, 12:17 PM	Well I'm not actually using the Arcane Archer. I was talking about using their ability of Phase Arrow 1/day and applying it on the crossbow. I'm not that much of a killer gm to the point where I'd throw a 13th level PC at a low level group, not yet :P
Necroramo 10-20-07, 12:42 PM	Just say "Well, since you entered the plane from another point you've gotten to the city of Townsville from another road. A select few of Townsville's locals would be more than capable of finding the jewels (and mutilating the BBEG and just about anything, for that matter) It won't take long for the party to realize that the evil guys are evil though, when the blighter suddenly has no druid abilities whatsoever and takes to blowing up trees every morning and the paladin loses his auras and starts sneak attacking everything
wizarddog 10-20-07, 01:08 PM	You keep saying the PC's have no way of tracing someone or something. HOW ABOUT GIVING THEM A WAY TO TRACE SOMETHING! Allow the Druid's animal companion to track it for pete's sake! Or they follow some easily placed foot prints, follow up on a rumor, etc. They don't need the track feat all the time! You control the events and the circumstances where skills, feats, and abilties can be put in play. And you do not have to justify everything.;)
Lokathor 10-20-07, 03:11 PM	I remember that DS9 episode, that is a good episode. If you don't want the party to have the godweapon once they've killed the guy, you can just give him the stats of a 6th level arcane archer and none of the normal "requirement" classes. This archer person is already dealing with demon summoning and other nonsense, so it's not out of bounds for them to just be a 6HD demon that happens to have Phase Arrow 1/day, Seeker Arrows 1/day, and "Enhance arrow +3". As for how to link in the girl... have them find the body of the kidnapped girl as the first victim of the attacks. Except! It's actually a clone body or a copy of some other kind, and only a very close inspection (DC 22+ check in Heal, probably) is able to reveal that the first corpse is a fake. The girl of course had herself appear to be killed so that people wouldn't go looking for and she could get on with her demon-binding actions until she had enough demons to destroy and entire town at once. Until the PCs come along and stop her...
metalmayhem80110 10-22-07, 01:19 AM	I like the idea. And about the "Give them a way to track" post... They have a tracker, who ALWAYS rolls a one on his survival... IT is ridiculous