Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Xeviat-DM May 28, 2015 22:45:31	Hey everyone. Last Sunday, I started what will be my last campaign with my longterm group before my wife and I move. We only have 5 more weeks to play through this campaign, so I want to make it a good one. Because we have a new player, the group wanted to start at level 1.   Here's our group:   Human Warlock (Old Ones, aiming for pact of the tome): A guild artisan, he formed his pact after being hired to illuminate (make fancy drawings) in an ancient book. Even though he couldn't read the language, it began to speak to him, driving him to delve into the powers he now commands. CN.   Half-Elf Paladin (aiming for oath of vengeance): A paladin of Helm, she currently assists bounty hunters and adventurers on completing bounties. She is of noble birth, and has a detatched attitude towards people. She hired the warlock (not knowing his power) to work on a book of her's, and he ended up following her on the adventure. LN.   Half-Elf Druid (aiming for circle of the moon): Raised by a tiger in the wild, she developed a strong independent streak. After striking out on her own, she was taken in by an orc druid where she learned the ways of the Old Faith. After leaving his tutilage, she spent a brief time in the city trying to connect with her half-elven heritage, but she ended up heading back into the wilds. She once met the Paladin while she was learning to read, and has taken to traveling with the Ranger recently. She's looking to make money to purchase the local forest and create a nature reserve. CN.   Halfling Ranger (aiming for hunter): A wanderer, he wishes to protect civilization even though he doesn't consider himself a part of it. Driven by gold, he's taken to bounty hunting. N.   Here's the adventure:   Recently, an earthquake hit the region. Shortly after it, kobolds began increasing in number in the local woods. Caravans, which used to take the forest trail as a short cut between towns, were being waylayed, so the church of Helm (the strongest authority in the region) put out a bounty on kobolds. The druid and ranger were answering the bounty for the gold, while the paladin was doing it because it's her job; the warlock tagged along when the voices in his head told him to practice his magic on the kobolds (no one minds when you kill evil things ...).   Being the smart people that they are, the group set about tracking down the kobold's lair. They tracked the kobolds to the foothills of a mountain range that starts in the forest, where they found a seemingly newly opened crevasse that had an obviously manufactured doorway in it. They found the kobolds inside, where they had set up camp for a small tribe (and even had their very own crocodile pet that was seemingly being fed tribute as if it was a god). The complex was obviously well crafted, not by the kobolds, and the walls were adorned by macabre skull carvings that didn't seem to be indicative of any particular faith. They found a locked library (the books destroyed). They found a locked chamber full of broken constructs and crushed zombies. They also found a boarded up hallway that was filled with crushed kobolds.   Following the hallway, they found an altar room. Now the paladin recognized the symbol of Myrkul, and they found a golden skull upon an altar. Before it was a kneeling armored figure, which proved to be a suit of animated armor. They defeated the construct and the warlock swiped the skull before they left. When they got back to town, they leveled up and divied up their loot, but the warlock hasn't sought an appraisal of the golden skull.   What the players don't know:   I rolled up the dungeon randomly using the rules in the DMG. It said the dungeon was a stronghold made by a lich. As they're only 1st level, I didn't want them to be fighting a real lich, so the idea is that it is a lich from a long ago age. It was destroyed and its soul somehow sealed, leaving it's phylactery to lay hidden away in its stronhold. Time erroded the magical protections of the stronghold, the lich's followers abandoned it after generations, and the entrance was burried in the foothills. The recent earthquake uncovered the entrance, and it also destroyed a cave being used by the kobold tribe. They found the lich's stronghold and holled up. As they delved deep into the stronghold, they encountered the last functioning construct and sealed it off after failing to defeat it.   But now I don't know where to go. The group likes social games, and they like horror. Horror is easily supported by this, especially with the warlock in the party and the party's neutral bent; two of them strive to do the right thing (the paladin and ranger), but their methods are not the most virtuous.   So, my thought is that with the lich's phylactery out in the open, it could come under the attention of a dangerous group. Maybe a religious order wants the phylactery to destroy it for good. Maybe the warlock will investigate it and release some bound evil (it doesn't have to be a lich's phylactery, it just has to be related to death). A zombie outbreak is always fun. I also love aberrations, and so does the warlock's player.   But I want it to go somewhere cool and memorable. I'll be leveling the players up once a week, so they'll be level 5 or 6 at the end (I want to reach at least 5, since everyone will get a cool new toy then). A party of level 5s could handle 4,400 xp or so for a big final fight (lowest xp for a deadly encounter).   A young green or black or white dragon? I like dragons, but why? A spirit naga? Nah ... A hydra could be fun, and could be refluffed into a tentacled horror ... hmmm ... Drow priestess of Lloth and some followers? Mind Flyers fall into here. Blue or Green slaad ...   The hydra sounds like it could be a fun final fight. At 3,900 xp, it's a hard fight (3,000 to 4399) for a party of 4 level 5s. If they don't know it's a hydra, figuring out how to deal with it could be interesting. I can toss in some cultists and make it a big memorable fight ...   Thoughts? Advice? Ideas?
#2 BRJN May 29, 2015 20:26:38	You could do a sort of Terminator plot if the construct got out, made it through the kobolds, and headed down the road to the nearest village.  - It just so happens that the construct is weak vs Fire, but the Druid and Ranger won't willingly set a forest fire to destroy the thing, will they?  - The construct could carry instructions from the lich to avenge the damage to his abode.  - The construct has instructions to repair the damage to the lich's lair and it has decided to use the stone buildings in a nearby town as raw materials. - If the construct can be Petrified it turns into a statue of some famous person; the statue is famous and has been long-lost.  (In life, the lich was jealous of its sculptor.) - The construct contains a poison or plague capsule which cannot be allowed to contact drinking water. - The construct used to contain a poison potion but it's so old that it actually contains a mold / mildew - which makes Myconids &c sprout up after it is spilled in the forest. - The construct makes a bee-line for a cemetary and right after dark it starts performing a ritual to raise undeads, which will become servants of the lich. - The construct begins building rough copies of its own body using mason's tools on a stony cliff.  Deeper inside the lich's lair are amulets that animate rock into constructs. - The construct makes a sharpened stick and asks everybody who it passes, "Where is Sarah Conner?" before attacking and killing them.  It IS heading for a town.
#3 Imaculata May 30, 2015 3:17:44	Maybe they are dealing with a Mindflayer Lich? An undead mindplayer! While his body is broken, his will still survives and influences people with weak minds. Obviously he'll want to construct a new body for himself, but how would a dead Mindflayer Lich go about doing that?   What is the purpose of the golem? Was it created to guard, and contain the Lich? Will it pursue the skull, to seal it away again? Maybe the golem is able to project a distorted image of its original creator, and speak to the players that way.
#4 Xeviat-DM May 30, 2015 21:55:26	It wasn't a golum, it was an animated armor; weak stuff really. Also, it's dead; the background up there was what happened in the first session. Now the warlock has the skull on his person. I'm going to go with it starting to summon little horrors that start causing chaos nearby wherever he is staying. He's not the adventurous sort, so it will force him to respond.   I'm dealing with level 2 characters, who will only reach level 5 or 6.
#5 Qzoo Jun 01, 2015 9:31:17	The lich opened a portal and departed his old home, and took most of his powerful magic and treasures with him...that was a thousand years ago.    The portal was closed, but the kobolds stumbled their way around and somehow managed to reopen the portal.  Perhaps an overzealous kobold sorcerer dabbled in some old laboratory with lots of arcane nick-nacks.   What came out of the portal is anybody's guess.  I like the tentacle/hydra creature idea, but perhaps the portal is inside a magic circle, and the party has to decide to go into the circle or not...and you can decide what exactly it was intended to do.  There are always a lot of cool ideas possible when it comes to magic circles and portals.   What I would add is an intellect devourer that might have taken over the kobold sorcerer's mind, and is working toward trying to rebuild the lab into something capable of summoning a mid-tier demon, and create a warlock pact with him.  The kobold would then become a sorcerer/warlock and could possibly recruit a few low-level demons to also aid him throughout the dungeon.   While the party is stumbling through the dungeon, the intelect devourer discovers their intentions, and decides to leave his weak host body for the party's caster.  It's ultimate plan is to try and separate the caster from the others and then implant itself into the PC caster's body.  This only works if you trust your player to, "play along," if he does get taken over.  Once the PC caster is taken over, perhaps they start to show a few key warlock powers that they didn't have before [I would attach the warlock levels as part of the intelect devourer].  Also, if the party stumbles upon a dead kobold sorcerer with a hole in its skull, it should make them wonder just a bit.    Yeah.  I think that works.   Good luck!
#6 Mad_Jack Jun 01, 2015 15:05:19	Some sort of curse on the skull seems appropriate, along with the dilemma of how to deal with a cursed skull you can't get rid of because insane cultists are flooding the area looking for it.   Maybe a different Great Old One than the warlock made his pact with has something (however indirect, and for an Old One that could be very) to do with the skull, and the warlock's master sent him to interfere whith those plans.   Perhaps throwing in a small undead dragon or something dragon-like but clearly abberant might be good as well.   Horror is all about good description, and the uncanny valley - generating unease by having things be just subtly off what the party expects and having everyday things behave in strange ways.   Perhaps you could have the party attacked by more kobolds or cultists who start the combat by drawing daggers or using their  hands to start peeling their own flesh off, revealing horrors underneath.
#7 Xeviat-DM Jun 01, 2015 17:56:39	So, session 2 passed. I prepped 4 hard encounters to spring on them as they went about their business. Having just gained her wildshape, the druid stayed outside of town and frolicked around now that she could be a tiger. The ranger hung out nearby, having nothing else to do. The paladin stayed at the Helm temple, and the Warlock got a room at the inn to work on the Paladin's book some more. He had the skull with him, and was intrigued by it's design. He decerned that it is likely an actual gilded skull, but he also found that he couldn't scrape off the gold.   While the druid was in the wilds, a giant cloud of wasps came rushing through. She thought they were after her for some reason, and started running to town, tripping up on some branches along the way and got stung a little. She reached town and started running for the temple to find the paladin for backup. Knowing her claws would be ineffective against a swarm, she turned humanoid and started casting spells. Townies screamed and the knights of the temple rushed out to defend. The warlock urged people to run into the inn for protection, but suddenly found that the inn was where the wasps were headed. When confronted, they'd stop and fight, but otherwise they made a beeline (hahahahaha ... sorry) for the inn. They crawled under the door and headed upstairs while the warlock closed himself in the room. Then he heard the skull buzzing. Going to check on it, he found himself transfixed on the skull, and the wasps got into the room. He dispatched them with a poison spray, then went back to stairing at the skull.   So, the group figured out that the wasps were going for the skull. Or the skull was calling them. Either way, they took it straight to the church to see if the resident cleric could offer them any advice. Well, he didn't know what it was either, but suggested that it must be magical (duh) due to the properties they told him. The cleric wasn't familiar with the story of the lich, but as a cleric of Helm he wanted to protect people from the item. He gave the group some resources to take it away to a Helm Stronghold where it could be sealed.   That's when they heard screaming. Undead rose from the graveyard, zombies (I wish I had paired them with some skeleton archers or something, the fight ended up being tense at first but turned boring when the zombies could hardly hit and weren't dealing much damage; I miss their graps from 4E, and will be adding them). The skull was turning cold in the warlocks pack, and the paladin was confused as to how zombies were rising from a consecrated graveyard. Either way, the priest didn't want them to stay at the temple, so they went back to the inn to rest for the night (they still hadn't gotten even a short rest yet).   Well, an hour into their sleep (so they'd at least have a short rest), my players were ready to call it in for the night. I left them with the horrific sounds of wet squelching outside of their rooms, and will be springing a gibbering mouther upon them next session. I had also planned an ambush by a quasit, a dretch, and some manes who were sent to steal the skull, which I'll get them in their sleep with or when they're on the road if they decide to leave in the night. Mostly, I wanted this day to be one where I hit them with 4 hard encounters as they were doing their business, to get a feel for how that felt compared to the mix of medium, easy, and hard encounters last time.   So now we have a mission. They're to take the skull to a stronghold. There's now a cult who knows of the skull, and wants to use it to get to far realm. Maybe the lich went there instead of becoming a demi-lich; I like that, it's different.