1 year of side quests - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

1 year of side quests

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
alyflex
Oct 02, 2008 7:16:49 I'm making an adventure where the following will happen:
The heroes will be caught by the BBEG will be subject to a ritual/divine curse, which will impart a fraction of the trapped god aka. "the chained one" inside the heroes. The heroes will then escape and be told that the only cure is in a hidden temple of some good god, but the only clue they get to finding this temple is something along the lines:
"The road to the hidden temple is long and hard
only the bravest will find the right place to start
On the first day of spring a new season begin
be then where..."
So the heroes get the first clue and now has a specific time frame to get to the first part of the test to find this hidden temple. I'm planning of making 5-7 test before they find the temple. These test should reflect that only the bravest, brightess and most capable should ever find this temple.
The heroes will know that this curse will eventually kill them, meaning that in approximately 1 year they will die, if not cured before.

The searching is meant to take close to 1 year, which also means that I'm gonna need a lot of side quests. In fact it is my intention to throw so many side quests after them that they will realise that it will be impossible to do them all, and they will hence have to choose which - if any they wanna do. Here i wanna have some side quests that will promise wealth and power, while others will be for the greater good.

What I need from you guys, are ideas for these tests. Some clever way to combine mindpuzzles into the game without it just being a metagame that they sit around doing.
And finally some cool sidequests which will face the heroes with some moral and etic dilemmas.

What i have written above is just the plot in very large steps, a lot of the twists and turns have been left out in favor of clarity. Another reason why I dont just give you the full plot is that it is written in danish. But if you feel like you need more details just let me know.
#2
athistaur
Oct 02, 2008 8:50:02 A Sidequest my players loved was basicly a tough logic puzzle.

The setting was an basicly abandoned fortress of a lich. The lich was still there, but didn't cared the least what happens outside the laboratory and the library as long as he could study.
The fortress was once a human fortress and outpost. There were 12 Knights, which were converted to Deathknights by the lich. The Deathknights were tough foes, but even worse, if slain the reformed without fail, soon after.
The players found ghosts all over the place, repeating the last moments or hours in their live, about the time the court mage entered lichhood.
They further found several chambers, like the round knights table.
Through some books the player stole from the library, they learned that they could put the Deathknights to their final rest.

The puzzle was the following:
Each Deathknight had a personal weapon, 12 weapons total. Each Deathknight was in live a knight of the fortress and had his chair at the round table.
Whenever the Knights gathered around the table to feast, the laid their weapons on the table, pointing inward. It was strongly suggested that when the weapons of the Knights will be placed upon the table as in old times, they would take a seat again and find rest in the afterlive.
But with 12 chairs and 12 weapons the players not only had to fetch the weapons from all the Deathknights, but more important, they had about 500.000.000 possible combinations to place the swords on the table.
Then the players soon realized a servant in the chamber, who as part of his "Death-szene" always brought the wine to 'Sir Lionhair'.

The players had to overhear the conversations of the ghosts to find out which knight sit next to another. And they had to find out which Deathknight was which Knight in live.
Some examples of hints were:
'Knight a had an axe as favored weapon'
'Knight B sat next to C'
'Knight C was able to reach to the left to give something to D'
'Knight D sat opposing to Knight E'
'Knight E was the only Dwarf of the Knights'
'Knight F had a certain inscription on his sword'
'Knight G did not fought with a sword'
and so on...

Finding the clues, and slowly puzzleing out who sat where. Occasional fights to retrieve a soulbound weapon. Spooky flavor. Impending Doom with the "not-yet-caring" lich in the basement. They loved it...
#3
nowiwantmydmg
Oct 02, 2008 9:26:04
A Sidequest my players loved was basicly a tough logic puzzle.

The setting was an basicly abandoned fortress of a lich. The lich was still there, but didn't cared the least what happens outside the laboratory and the library as long as he could study.
The fortress was once a human fortress and outpost. There were 12 Knights, which were converted to Deathknights by the lich. The Deathknights were tough foes, but even worse, if slain the reformed without fail, soon after.
The players found ghosts all over the place, repeating the last moments or hours in their live, about the time the court mage entered lichhood.
They further found several chambers, like the round knights table.
Through some books the player stole from the library, they learned that they could put the Deathknights to their final rest.

The puzzle was the following:
Each Deathknight had a personal weapon, 12 weapons total. Each Deathknight was in live a knight of the fortress and had his chair at the round table.
Whenever the Knights gathered around the table to feast, the laid their weapons on the table, pointing inward. It was strongly suggested that when the weapons of the Knights will be placed upon the table as in old times, they would take a seat again and find rest in the afterlive.
But with 12 chairs and 12 weapons the players not only had to fetch the weapons from all the Deathknights, but more important, they had about 500.000.000 possible combinations to place the swords on the table.
Then the players soon realized a servant in the chamber, who as part of his "Death-szene" always brought the wine to 'Sir Lionhair'.

The players had to overhear the conversations of the ghosts to find out which knight sit next to another. And they had to find out which Deathknight was which Knight in live.
Some examples of hints were:
'Knight a had an axe as favored weapon'
'Knight B sat next to C'
'Knight C was able to reach to the left to give something to D'
'Knight D sat opposing to Knight E'
'Knight E was the only Dwarf of the Knights'
'Knight F had a certain inscription on his sword'
'Knight G did not fought with a sword'
and so on...

Finding the clues, and slowly puzzleing out who sat where. Occasional fights to retrieve a soulbound weapon. Spooky flavor. Impending Doom with the "not-yet-caring" lich in the basement. They loved it...

Shamelessly stolen.
#4
alyflex
Oct 04, 2008 1:49:00 I love that puzzle, that will make an excellent test of the heroes brightness and courage, very nice!

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 alyflex Oct 02, 2008 7:16:49	I'm making an adventure where the following will happen: The heroes will be caught by the BBEG will be subject to a ritual/divine curse, which will impart a fraction of the trapped god aka. "the chained one" inside the heroes. The heroes will then escape and be told that the only cure is in a hidden temple of some good god, but the only clue they get to finding this temple is something along the lines: "The road to the hidden temple is long and hard only the bravest will find the right place to start On the first day of spring a new season begin be then where..." So the heroes get the first clue and now has a specific time frame to get to the first part of the test to find this hidden temple. I'm planning of making 5-7 test before they find the temple. These test should reflect that only the bravest, brightess and most capable should ever find this temple. The heroes will know that this curse will eventually kill them, meaning that in approximately 1 year they will die, if not cured before. The searching is meant to take close to 1 year, which also means that I'm gonna need a lot of side quests. In fact it is my intention to throw so many side quests after them that they will realise that it will be impossible to do them all, and they will hence have to choose which - if any they wanna do. Here i wanna have some side quests that will promise wealth and power, while others will be for the greater good. What I need from you guys, are ideas for these tests. Some clever way to combine mindpuzzles into the game without it just being a metagame that they sit around doing. And finally some cool sidequests which will face the heroes with some moral and etic dilemmas. What i have written above is just the plot in very large steps, a lot of the twists and turns have been left out in favor of clarity. Another reason why I dont just give you the full plot is that it is written in danish. But if you feel like you need more details just let me know.
#2 athistaur Oct 02, 2008 8:50:02	A Sidequest my players loved was basicly a tough logic puzzle. The setting was an basicly abandoned fortress of a lich. The lich was still there, but didn't cared the least what happens outside the laboratory and the library as long as he could study. The fortress was once a human fortress and outpost. There were 12 Knights, which were converted to Deathknights by the lich. The Deathknights were tough foes, but even worse, if slain the reformed without fail, soon after. The players found ghosts all over the place, repeating the last moments or hours in their live, about the time the court mage entered lichhood. They further found several chambers, like the round knights table. Through some books the player stole from the library, they learned that they could put the Deathknights to their final rest. The puzzle was the following: Each Deathknight had a personal weapon, 12 weapons total. Each Deathknight was in live a knight of the fortress and had his chair at the round table. Whenever the Knights gathered around the table to feast, the laid their weapons on the table, pointing inward. It was strongly suggested that when the weapons of the Knights will be placed upon the table as in old times, they would take a seat again and find rest in the afterlive. But with 12 chairs and 12 weapons the players not only had to fetch the weapons from all the Deathknights, but more important, they had about 500.000.000 possible combinations to place the swords on the table. Then the players soon realized a servant in the chamber, who as part of his "Death-szene" always brought the wine to 'Sir Lionhair'. The players had to overhear the conversations of the ghosts to find out which knight sit next to another. And they had to find out which Deathknight was which Knight in live. Some examples of hints were: 'Knight a had an axe as favored weapon' 'Knight B sat next to C' 'Knight C was able to reach to the left to give something to D' 'Knight D sat opposing to Knight E' 'Knight E was the only Dwarf of the Knights' 'Knight F had a certain inscription on his sword' 'Knight G did not fought with a sword' and so on... Finding the clues, and slowly puzzleing out who sat where. Occasional fights to retrieve a soulbound weapon. Spooky flavor. Impending Doom with the "not-yet-caring" lich in the basement. They loved it...
#3 nowiwantmydmg Oct 02, 2008 9:26:04	A Sidequest my players loved was basicly a tough logic puzzle. The setting was an basicly abandoned fortress of a lich. The lich was still there, but didn't cared the least what happens outside the laboratory and the library as long as he could study. The fortress was once a human fortress and outpost. There were 12 Knights, which were converted to Deathknights by the lich. The Deathknights were tough foes, but even worse, if slain the reformed without fail, soon after. The players found ghosts all over the place, repeating the last moments or hours in their live, about the time the court mage entered lichhood. They further found several chambers, like the round knights table. Through some books the player stole from the library, they learned that they could put the Deathknights to their final rest. The puzzle was the following: Each Deathknight had a personal weapon, 12 weapons total. Each Deathknight was in live a knight of the fortress and had his chair at the round table. Whenever the Knights gathered around the table to feast, the laid their weapons on the table, pointing inward. It was strongly suggested that when the weapons of the Knights will be placed upon the table as in old times, they would take a seat again and find rest in the afterlive. But with 12 chairs and 12 weapons the players not only had to fetch the weapons from all the Deathknights, but more important, they had about 500.000.000 possible combinations to place the swords on the table. Then the players soon realized a servant in the chamber, who as part of his "Death-szene" always brought the wine to 'Sir Lionhair'. The players had to overhear the conversations of the ghosts to find out which knight sit next to another. And they had to find out which Deathknight was which Knight in live. Some examples of hints were: 'Knight a had an axe as favored weapon' 'Knight B sat next to C' 'Knight C was able to reach to the left to give something to D' 'Knight D sat opposing to Knight E' 'Knight E was the only Dwarf of the Knights' 'Knight F had a certain inscription on his sword' 'Knight G did not fought with a sword' and so on... Finding the clues, and slowly puzzleing out who sat where. Occasional fights to retrieve a soulbound weapon. Spooky flavor. Impending Doom with the "not-yet-caring" lich in the basement. They loved it... Shamelessly stolen.
#4 alyflex Oct 04, 2008 1:49:00	I love that puzzle, that will make an excellent test of the heroes brightness and courage, very nice!