Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Naragonth 01-24-08, 10:14 PM	Hey, I am a somewhat experienced DM, and I have been playing for several years, but I have never gotten a party above 3rd level, mostly due to availability constraints. I am currently working on a campaign which I hope will go for a little longer, and I was looking for a little advice on challenges that I can give the characters. The overall story of my campaign is vaguely based in the Scarred Lands setting, using its gods and many of its monsters. The world is still recovering from the war 1000 years ago between the titans and the gods, the titans all ending up dismembered in some way. Now Belsameth, one of the evil gods has decided to try extending her control. She has a type of goblin at her command that turns into a stone when the moon is down, and turns into a goblin which is invisible by moonlight when its full. She has the head of one of the titans, and has made a deal to restore it to life if it lends her its powers, which she will use to make the moon stay full for weeks on end during the invasion. They both know that she won't fulfill the bargain, but the titan is trying to figure out a way around this. She is shipping these rocks in by the thousands in smugglers ships in preparation for the invasion. The characters grabbed a bunch of rocks on their second mission, and are just about to find out that they are monsters. So, my question... there final goal will be to infiltrate the goddess fortress and get the titan's power away from her. But what is some of the stuff they can do until then?
AntontheDM 01-24-08, 11:13 PM	So they are either visible rocks or invisible goblins, do they turn visible when they die? Do they turn into stone like a statue, or do they look like a rock? Will detect magic work on them? Usually it's just easier for an evil god to dominate all of the goblin tribes in an area and get them to do her bidding, then teleport them into key areas of a city to attack it or cast invisibility. How do a bunch of rock-goblins work into her plans? Where did she get them? How does she make them? Gods don't just pulls armies out of their butts(if she could just speak them into existence, she may be too powerful), they usually have to build up followers. They need their own clerics and churches. I figure a goddess fortress would have some pretty good security, detect magic at the gate, detect alignment, and an anti-magic area just for security. And high level NPC clerics and paladins. Is there a relic or a part of a god in the fortress vault? How far away are they from the fortress? Will they find out about the plot in time to do something about it? How will they find out about it? Are there any towns on the way there? Usually going after a god may not be the best thing to begin an adventure with. Maybe have run-ins with her clerics doing the usual evil-cleric things to innocent villages. And then stumble upon the plot eventually. Maybe she needs certain relics to negate the defenses of the goddess's fortress and the PC interfere with these operations. Maybe a good goddess chooses the PC's as her "chosen one's" and sends them on a quest the stop the evil goddess.
Naragonth 01-25-08, 12:18 AM	The evil goblins are a natural species (well, all the gods created species, and she created them at the beginning), that turn into fist sized pieces of basalt when the moon is down. When they die, they make bodies, unless they were in rock form, in which case they look like broken rocks. This is a long extension plan. It will take the goddess a while to make the moon permanent in the sky, each night the moon will stay in the sky a little longer, and it will be an invasion. Depending on the characters actions, they may or may not hold off the invasion (one of my questions, how can they hold off the invasion, what way can they help), and then like level 8< they will be assigned to infiltrate the other continent for information. Then they will find out what's going on over there (causing as much havoc in the goddesses armies before those forces even can cross over.) Then they will find out what's going on and try to stop it. I wouldn't have them fight the goddess, she would be distracted by the war amongst the gods.
AntontheDM 01-25-08, 12:40 AM	So I take it that there's not a moon god/goddess? And having thousands of invisible enemies can be tough, do you intend to give the PC's goggles with infravision/darkvision/true-seeing crafted for them? Maybe while on an adventure, they face a moral question, like helping a defenseless family fight off bandits and ask for no reward, and it turns out to be a test by a good god to recruit the heroes for it's team. And then sends them on a quest for relics, the same relics that the evil god needs for her own rituals. They will constantly be running into agents (knowingly or unknowingly) of the evil god, maybe she's built up secret cults in all of the major towns. The PC's can either wind up seeing themselves as champions for the good guys or powerless pawns in a holy war. How about another race of goblins with chameleon like abilities to be the first scouts the PC's encounter? A race of goblins which can only move around during a full moon lack the ability to give up-to-date intelligence to the evil god. But stealthy ones which blend into the background, might be easier to take on at lower levels or make great assassins to go after the heroes. Heck, maybe let them shadow-jump. And why are the PC still carrying these "rocks" around with them? Have they had them analyzed (physically and magically)?
Naragonth 01-25-08, 01:40 AM	They found one of the smuggling caravans load of rocks. They decided to take some with them XD. Relics... hmm... that is a good plan. Except, she needs more pieces of the titan, so he can give her more power... I even have one placed already for them to find... The goblins are an imported army, but maybe they don't move around on-mass, until they can move around freely, because otherwise they would masecure one army, and then the next morning the soldiers would play Smash the black rocks.
AntontheDM 01-25-08, 08:18 AM	Then the relics have pieces of the titan inside them, to keep him from coming back to life. Like how Samiel was kept in a jar with the salt from angel's tears IIRC. And if no one knows about the goblins, they don't know which rocks to smash. If they hide in hilly/ rocky terrain, they'll never get them all.
Empirate 01-25-08, 08:44 AM	The Titan might have his own followers: Few, ancient and powerful, hidden away in long-forgotten places. The PCs will become the Titan's catspaws in a bid to gain his independence from the evil Goddess' enslavement of his powers, and they'll have to find, wake and enlist the aid of the Titan's ancient vassals. This won't be easy, since these powerful beings have a) never seen a mortal, b) no intention to serve a mortal, c) not that strong a sense of obligation to a dismembered Titan head as to the whole, and d) need some stuff done first. This gives you enough quests for the middle levels. The start should probably be about smugglers, small cult cells of the evil goddess, and slowly getting information and reputation so the Titan (good for your story) and the goddess (uh-oh!) recognize the PCs are a force to be reckoned with.
Naragonth 01-25-08, 11:20 AM	The characters are about to find out that the goblins of rocks, if they have any reasoning skills at all, at the start of the next adventure. Also, yes, the titan does have his own followers who would want to free him from the control of Belsameth. So they might contact the PC's for help, though not necessarily revealing their true nature. Yeah, I think I'm good, thanks for the help :D