So, my group recently finished LMOP, about 4 weeks back, and want to continue on, other than let their characters give up a life of advenuring to settle in Phandelvar.
The party consists of the following;
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Firthgar the Barbarian 4th-Level Half-Orc Hermit.
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Gildeas the Rogue 4th-Level Half-Elf Noble
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Bharash the Monk 4th-Level Dragonborn Soldier
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Draziw the Wizard 5th-Level Human Sage
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Solomon the Paladin 5th-Level Dwarven Wanderer
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So.. I devised a... Quest? Gildeas ended up becoming a Harper out of LMoP, and was tasked with investigating a farming village in Cormyr. There had been reports of a sickness that was beginning to fester, a potential plague, and reports of disappearances from neighboring villages, particularly women and children.
At our last game night, the Adventurer's set out for the Farming Village, to investigate the reports. What they discovered was that the entire area is rotting, decaying. They discovered a blight has destroyed most of the crops, leaving nothing but fields of corn as far as the eye can see.
When they make it into town, they discovered a small Temple had been erected in the village, but there had been no mention of a new temple having been built to honor any deity. What was weird to the party, was that the village seemed to be deserted. Even weirder was that when they explored the village, they kept finding "Pots of Foul-Smelling Stew simmering over a low-fire,".
After having spent most of the day exploring the deserted village, as night approached, the party began to notice people coming from the corn fields. There was something different about these people though, the way they walked, limping, dragging themselves from the corn rows almost seemed disturbingly morbid. The party kept out of sight and observed the villagers come back into the village and towards the temple, which began to fill the surrounding area with the noise of a large brass bell, as if calling them.
From what the party could tell, some villagers looked alarmingly sick, as if ravaed by disease, others seemed confused and only barely managed to follow the progression into the temble.
It was after the sun had set, that one of the party members had pointed out, "Did anyone else happen to notice a lack of children? We come to the village and it seems deserted, but then the adults come in from the fields. I didn't see any children though, did any of you?"
And that's where I ended the game session.
I have an idea in mind, how I want to progress with the campaign, and I already have a skeleton of an idea for the plot, but here is some of my questions..
Would Scarecrows be a bit cliche'd at this point? What about crows? I've got encounters written for diseased dobermans (reskinned mastiff) and diseased Commoners (altered the Commoner Template). I was thinking of tossing in Crows as well (reskinned Ravens).
I even thought about tossing in a nest of Giant Spiders at some point, but I'm not sold on the idea.
I wouldn't mind if the party stumbled on the lair of a Dracolich (Adult Green) at some point. I know the BBEG is a pair of Priests, one of Bhaal and the other of Talona.
I wouldn't mind some suggestions though from other DM's, see what another DM would think. I'd like to eventually self publish the campaign if all goes well down the road. Right now, it is set for Level 5 - 11.
Has the party encountered Scarecrows yet? It can't be cliche if they have never experienced it... I think all of your ideas work - I like a variety of opponents for my group so they do not get bored
The Dracolich might be a bit over the top though. CR 17 - it might be possible toward the end of the campaign, closer to level 11, but still looks like a mighty tough situation.
Since the theme is strongly tied to murder, I envision some sort of giant, stocky, humanoid Executioner with a bloody axe. He somewhat looks like a butcher, and is the one who physically carried out the murders of the towns children.
I agree that a Dracolich might be a bit tough. But it doesn't have to be a fight to the death, it might be held together by a MacGuffin that the PCs can destroy.
On the other hand telegraphing its presence clearly and leaving it as an optional 'boss fight' would be cool.
Scarecrows and Crows sounds good to me. I'd probably use one of the 'swarm' statlines for the birds.
I can also imagine the tolling bell really getting to the PCs after a while. Maybe it rings hourly, and each time it does the party needs to make progressively harder wis/cha saves to resist its allure.
It would put a timer on the problem and create some escalating dread. If I was running this (and i think I might steal some of it :P) I would straight out tell them the DC each time, so they know it's getting harder. "Roll a charisma save vs DC 5." One hour later... "Roll a charisma save vs DC 10" *players start freaking out*
Murdering children is waaaaay too dark for me. I play to have fun, not be disturbed... I would probably get up from the table and not come back.
Well I never actually said anything about anyone murdering children. I ended the game night on that note though, and left them to think about the stew. I liked the Resident Evil picture up there and I will admit, I drew inspiration from a mix of sources, Children of the Corn being a somewhat large one, but there is a few Asian/ South Pacific centered movies like that too.
The Bell, I will admit from taking from a 2012 action/ horror movie that was set on a south pacific island, where the children heard a song or a noise and started murdering adults. They ended up able to reproduce the noise because the movie ended on the note of the killing spreading.
Some of the inspiration came from a 2012/2013 movie about a town in middle-america where people were suddenly affected with a neuro-agent that compelled them to kill indiscriminately. Also.. Resident Evil 5, yo.
You start out with Chris Redfield in an african village. A bell sounds and then the villagers disappear. Then you keep finding pots of foul and rancid meat, but never once do you see a kid (like most Rated-M violence video games because murdering adults in games is ok but not kids.)
Anyways..
No, the party has never fought or so much experienced a scarecrow or crows for that matter.
I do like the bell idea though. I think If I was to raise it by a DC of 5 though, I would only ring it once every 24 hours, that way by DC 20, they have been there 4 days. I know I said level 11, but I think I might cut it down to level 7 or 8.. I have something else in mind for 8 to 12 though.
Originally, this idea was meant to be done for Dread RPG, slightly altered, for our Halloween game (we ended up playing zombicide instead), so I figured that since my group finished LMoP and did our one-shot for Christmas, than I would do this adventure for them.
akr71, This campaign is meant to be disturbing, dark and morbid. One scene I have written out, I cannot wait to implement for them. I don't know how I will introduce it, but it is very gruesome. I'l put it into a Spoiler Tag.
The scene is the Priest of Bhaal taking a rusted sickle, and digging it into the stomach of a pregnant Teifling, killing her as they pull the unborn child from within to sacrifice over the Altar of Bhaal, to give Bhaal the strength to create a new physical form in the realms.
Phwoah... Gross!
I figure you know your group and that they'll have the appropriate reaction to this.
I probably wouldn't spring it on my players, they're a little less ironcast than yours must be. :P
The worst thing they've seen so far was a malnourished and wing-clipped griffon in a Slaver's menagerie and that alone really got to one of them.
Of my players, 3 of them are girls and the biggest Gore nuts I've ever met. One of them, has her room decorated to look like a crime scene, with dried fake blood splattered across the wall and everything.
Echamil wrote:
Since Talona is one of your principle deities, it occurs to me that the plague which is ravaging the town could be a mutated form of the Chaos curse (which was created by Talona):
http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Chaos_Curse
If that’s the case, the PCs may find an imprisoned Druid whom they help. They may find displacer beasts who are part of the alchemical ingredients. Or they could find even find a vampire lord who is working with the priests and told them how to make the curse/blight.
Echamil wrote:
I was actually originally thinking that, NamelessOne, I quite liked the Cleric Quintent and the damage the Chaos Curse did to be honest, but I also liked the Moonshae Isle' Trilogy and the corruption that Bhaal brought to the realm with polluting the Moonwells, as well as with Kazgoroth's heart.
Bhaal is definitely the end portion of the quest. I hope my players can manage to keep Bhaal from being resurrected to the Material Plane..
I am tossing arounf a few encounter ideas though, We have another meet up soon, so I am curious what will happen.