you just need and encounter, something that happens, could be used as a random encounter or worked into the plot of a campaign.
Just one thing, all fluff, no crunch.
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1) The BBEG out of pure boredom decides to play with the PCs, it pretends to be saved by the PCs and then pretends to fall in love with one of PCs. The BBEG will get as much entertainment following the PCs around as it can until the PCs discover it. Whatever happens then will depend on the role play.
Inspiration
2)A caravan of merchants are attacked by goblins. The merchants have one covered Wagon made out of metal and three, empty, open wooden wagons. The halfling merchants are really kobolds under an illusion spell. The metal wagon contains jewelry and some other luxury goods produced in the kobold warrens, once they sell the merchandise they will buy foodstuff to fill the wooden wagons and return home.
4)A rift opens to one of the elemental planes letting loose some monsters from that plane. Find it, kill them, close it.
6) A devil is fighting a Red dragon and they are evenly matched. If you help one you will tip the balance to the victory of the other, but which do you help?
8) What happens when flying citadels meet? Generally, if piloted by gnomes, they crash. From the ground, it's like this: "Hey, check out that huge flying mountain -- hey, there's another one! What are the odds? They're trying to get closer together ... hmmm, that may not be wise. They're not steering very well. And they're directly overhead. Oh, no! They've crashed! Bits of rock and debris are cascading down upon ..." SPLAT.
10) The Bone Weaver. A series of walls, crafted of bones, creating a maze filled with various abomination skeletal creatures. Upon reaching the end, the players find "The Bone Weaver", a towering corpse 40 feet tall, hanging by massive chains through holes in several stories of the keep, over a pit filled with bones heaped deeper than anyone can tell.
The Bone Weaver cannot move on his own, however he can manipulate the bones to form mazes of walls, creatures, and occastional projectiles. The walls are only placed a few 5 foot lines at a time, and the players have to keep on the move to not become enclosed or to find openings to attack, eventually forcing them to higher floors to continue battle with BW and his creatures.
edit: mispelled a word
13) While talking with an NPC, some or all of the group falls through a hole in the ground and finds a new natural source of iron. Right after that they fall into another hole in that room leading to a den of underground beast dwellers.
16) The PCs find a Great Wyrm Sleeping in the middle of the road. Those who are brave enough to venture forward find it smell heavily of alcohol. The PCs have, indeed, discovered a drunk dragon.
16) The PCs find a Great Wyrm Sleeping in the middle of the road. Those who are brave enough to venture forward find it smell heavily of alcohol. The PCs have, indeed, discovered a drunk dragon. Once a minute it burps its breath weapon - roll reflex. ;)
Nice
17) The road collapses beneath the PC's feet. Once they regain their senses they notice that they are surrounded be many, surprised, kobolds. One kobold pops out of the rubble beneath the PCs and runs up to a larger kobold. The larger kobold starts hitting it and yelling profanities at it. The collapse was clearly not planned.
Crunch Note: Give the detective Improved Trip, Exotic weapon proficiency(Whip) and weapon focus/specialization on the whip, then keep the PCs on the ground using trip attacks with the whip for most of the fight for a pretty unique and memorable battle.
23. Villain is in love with a Hero, and knows that they can never truly be together. So the Villain keeps on fighting the Hero so that they can at least in this perverse way be together. Alternatively, the Villain tries to make sure that no one else can love the Hero.
24. In order to die, the Villain must kill 100 sinners. The Villain cannot rest until this is completed, and lives in torment until that day. See "Blade of the Immortal" comic books.
25. Villain is obsessed with becoming stronger, and constantly fights/challenges heroes.
26. Villain(?) sees future, and preemptively kills or disables people who are likely to kill in the future. See "Minority Report" movie.
27. Villain believes he is the rightful ruler of (somewhere). Perhaps his claim is legit, perhaps not. But he starts a military campaign of conquest.
28. Villain(?) is tormented by [individual X, government organization Y], so the villain goes on an expansive quest of vengeance.
29. Villain(s) is accused of a crime, and accidentally commits crimes while trying to prove they're not guilty of the previous crime! So...they're in a big mess, and they have enough rationale to say it's not their fault...And they don't have to necessarily blame themselves for the crimes that they were "forced" to commit...
30. The Heartstone
A young girl kidnapped has managed to escape into the hands of the heroes. Villains took her as they believe she is the key to finding the Heartstone - a stone that will bring love to it's owner. The villains think they can use it to gain control over the emotions of love. Unbeknownst to everyone, the stone is the girl's actual heart - she is lacking an organic heart. As a second twist, there is a second batch of thugs out to get the stone because their hapless and misguided [but not really evil] leader desires true love. This group also knows the girl has some connection, but not the true nature of that connection nor the fact that the girl is actually their leader's lost daughter [and thus the true love he/she actually seeks].
Potential Scenes:
Scene one: Girl finds heroes just as villains catch up to her.
Scene two: At a place the Heartstone was rumored to be, a three way battle to get the girl [who was the only one able to open some seal to grant entry to this place].
Scene Three: Heroes must team up with one villain group to get the girl back from the other. If this was the wrong alliance to make [bad villains] betrayal will occur at some point.
32) A group of pilgrems pass by the PCs. Declare them heretics and attack with blind fury.
"Care bears" the party sage whispers "By the Gods." He/she then explains to the rest of the party that the carebears are a race of purely pacifistic treehuggers and that Elysium is, in fact, a plane where time does not run the same as the Material plane. While in your minds, the missing PC has been gone for a day, he has in fact been there for three years.
As the party begins to treck through the carnage, they come upon a sole living care bear, a grizzled, embittered ranger whose tummy symbol is that of a skull with criss crossing machetes behind it. He lights his cigar as he eyes you with his one remaining eye.
"So," He growls, pulling his impressive greataxe from his shoulders "which one of you hairless freaks is first"
BEGIN!
During the fight, the burly wagon driver returns with feed for his horses.
out of a goblin cutter, you come to a crossroads. one is broad and has moldy cookies at the end. the other one is narrow and has a cake at the end. Broad: the cookies turn to mush as a garden gnome beats the
out of you. +400 vs ac:200D20s damage +3 shrapnel damageNarrow: you come to the end of the road, thin and long, to find it was a treadmill on the road that lost power. as you approach the cake, It bursts into flames as the treadmill regains power at speed 30... in reverse. several garden gnomes appear out of your backpack and beat the living s
out of you as described above...Don't you know the cake is a lie?
Your journey has come to an end... please insert a quarter to continue...
Continue?->0
Insert $30 to begin.
40) A king's sword must be transported from one church to another. A new king awaits the sword to be ritually crowned the kingdom. Afterall, he who controls the sword controls the kingdom.....
41) A powerful Necromancer's dying curse effects a party of adventuring heroes. A whole down is turned into zombies and those who are biten also die and become zombies. Can the PCs contain the curse before it spreads throughout the kingdom?
42) The king needs his young daughter "tamed" before her royal marriage in one week, or relationships could be ruined between two rival kingdoms. Do the PCs have what it takes to "domasticate" the princess before she starts a war?
43) Your quest/campaign employer has declared a holy war against your Cleric PC's church.
44) PC's must defend a much needed bridge that is being built and assulted.
42) The king needs his young daughter "tamed" before her royal marriage in one week, or relationships could be ruined between two rival kingdoms. Do the PCs have what it takes to "domasticate" the princess before she starts a war?
except the princess is a where-shark... she was infected on a vacation, and must be kept near a tub of salt water for several days each month. But the other kingdom REALLY HATES LYCANTHROPES. Luckily she cant take hybrid form unless she is conscious. (0 ranks in control form)
46) the PCs meet the avatar of the insane goddess of insanity. Patron of madmen and torture victims, she is as likely to jump off the bridge as set it on fire, and quite likely to violate the laws of logic. Think: what if the heart of Gold was sentient?
47) The PCs visit a town recently visited by the avatar mentioned above. Things are very strange.
48) a spot check reveals that the plot of land across the road from the PCs objective is for sale. This has nothing to do with the story.
49)Level 1 rogue pickpockets a PC
50)City guard attacks a cult across from the PCs favorite tavern
53) The PCs are portaled to another realm and must compete in life and death at Fort Bouyard!
55) The PC's run into a troupe of bandits, who turn out to be entertaining.
56) PC's meet a bard named Jimi Danger who procedes to sing them the tale of the joker, the thief and the watchtower.
57) The PC's meet a prophet, who performs miracles that tend to reverse with time... hmmm.
58) A PC has a nightmare of a turtle with the world on it's back being plagued, killed and picked clean by a legion of spiders: Precurser to a drow resurgence?
59) Bridge + Monster + Riddles. Party on.
Don't you know the cake is a lie?
You Pass,
61) The party awakens mysteriously in a dungeon. A voice comes from nowhere directing them to complete tasks. Halfway through the dungeon the voice begins to tell them to do things that are bad for the players. To complete the quest and escape from the dungeon the players must ignore the voice and figure out the problems on their own. In the final chamber the players must defeat a three headed "dragon" ;)
62) Walking down the road or through a dungeon there is a single gold piece lying on the ground. Anyone holding the coin suffers 3d6 fire damage per round. If they are immune to fire holding the coin allows them to deal 3d6 fire damage with their unarmed strikes.
63) The PCs are traveling overland and are overrun by migrating beasts. Dragons, Trolls, or Fire Ponies - or the like. They have no chance of "defeating" the herd - the challenge is to stay alive.
65.) A mysterious artifact is found (insert random dungeon or encounter) and if a PC touches it he travels 10 seconds into the past and must battle the Timeaters, creatures that clean up or eat the past so the present can be created, to return the artifact to a sacred place before it is eaten as well. REFERENCE: Stephen King's the Langoliers.
67. If your party is missing someone for the session then have rock fall on one of the PC's and let him have a crazy dream. This is a great time to let loose make them fight carebears and barney. Try to focus on interesting puzzles and NPCs( I used a warlord who couldn't use inspiring word of commanding strike because he stuttered to badly, the PCs traveled all over gumdrop forrest to cure him) this is important because who care if you die in a dream sequence.
67 b. Then after the PCs wakeup they hear rumors of talking grizzily bears in a distant valley and when they get there find a purple T-rex is trying to wipe them out.
69.A merchant in town is selling strange fruit. This turns out to have hallucinogenic properties and the town stars acting strange. The party has a bewildered and delusional mob on there hand.
70.one word “festival”. or if you despite two word “prune festival”.
71.A mysterious shop that was always there shows up one day containing many strange and dangerous items even if the pcs don’t get anything if they are mad aware of it something will come of it. This could easily lead to any number of problems from people tuning into farm animals to a farmer being possessed buy an ancient demon the possibilities are endless.
72.Dryad vs. city development comity do I have to go further.
73.Strange necromantic experiments, a death colt, and an inn with free rooms.
The "demon" is in fact a cambion that was once a psycho for hire(http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PsychoForHire) but attacked the wrong chosen and ended up on the recieving side of a Sanctify the Wicked spell (changes evil monster into good). Overcome with feelings it is NOT familiar with (guilt, niceness), it has chosen to isolate itself until it can figure out just what the hell is happening to him. (having grown in hell, it doesn't understand the concepts of good)
Go Team Go! It is a cursed item dumping ground.
78-87
Variations of falling though a portable hole and what to do with yourself then.
Variations of falling though a portable hole and what to do with yourself then.
The city had it's share of problems before, but now it's getting worse to live there. The Thieves Guild just can not get a handle on them. They have thwarted the assassins. City Law and local nobles can never have enough evidence to arrest/convict them. Lords always seem to be one step ahead; they are pretty sly, and their influence is expanding and corrupting.
City has announced a call heroes to help them.
Little do the PCs know that the Medusa has a daughter, as well as a pet Basilisk. ^^
93. PCs wander near an unattended barn and see a swarm of stirges (or rats, or whatever) attacking a horse. With that many creatures close together, who can resist a bit of fire AOE? The dry hay becomes a Hazard and the barn burns down in X turns. The horse is the treasure, if they can save it. Stirges' immobilize combined with a growing fire can make a fun encounter.
Fire Hazard
If you start your turn in fire, you take X fire damage (see generic damage by level tables)
The fire starts as 1x1, then grows in every direction each round (3x3, 5x5, 7x7...)
When our Cleric missed with Sacred Flame I started the fire. Sure it's a Radiant power but close enough for funsies. The mage did two back to back Rays of Frost (burned an AP, rolled high on both) which I allowed to reduce the size of the fire on each hit. So he put my fire out ... but everyone enjoyed the threat.
95. The party walks into a room that is bare save for a small button on a pedestal and a spiked ceiling. As soon as the last party member enters, both exits lock and bar themselves. If a person moves within one square of the pedestal, the ceiling begins to fall. Pressing the button resets the ceiling for one round, before it starts to fall again. There are no secret doors or mechanisms in the room. However, if the players simply wait for the ceiling to collapse, it will withdraw inches before hitting them, and both doors will unlock and open.
96. The party encounters your mum. She wields a vorpal rolling pin +15 and does not seem happy. She is also a level 30 fighter with weapon focus (rolling pin).
97. The party finds an eldritch circle drawn in blood around a single candle. The candle has no significant properties whatsoever. Neither does the circle.
99: Behind him romps a defiled and animated temple of Bane, only a few of the walls, the floor and the massive pipe organ are still intact. A public latrine has been built over where Bane's holy symbol was engraved into the floor.The organist is a gnome.
100: The titan Drummer walks up next. A famous necromancer's keep has been cut up and used to make the drums, topped Dragon skin.
101: The lead singer is Rob Zombie; He is driving the Dragula.
*Miura Kentaro makes Bosch's work look like prime time cartoons.
Except, when the PCs approach, the reflections change and step through the mirror and they attack the PCs on sight.
The Mirror PCs are living reflections of the PCs and have the exact same stats as the PCs; the only difference is that they are opposite-handed (ie: left-handed instead of right), and have the opposite alignment.
Once the Mirror PCs are defeated, the exit to the room is actually through the mirror itself.
Party enters a square room, door locks behind them. In the center of the room there is a small one minute timer with a lever, when the door locks the timer is tripped to count down. Party can pull lever to restart timer. Party can't unlocked metal door on the other side, (spend an hour or so in the room), Party gives up and lets timer count to 0:00, metal door unlocks and party can move on. (gave my group a headache when it happened lol They just couldn't figure it out for some reason )
That. Is. Awesome.
104. Knock-Knock Knock-Knock. "Who's there?" "Uhm... Not ettin!" "Uhm... Not ettin!"
It's an ettin.
105. Having just defeated Random BBEG #34934823948293, the PCs are happily making their way out of the dungeon, laden with sacks full of phat lewtz. Upon ascending the tunnel/staircase leading up and out, they step out of the dungeon, and into... chaos. The sky is red, blue lightning flashes from brown clouds, and all around them, a battle rages. On one side, an army of elf barbarians. On the other... orcs in gleaming plate mail, with shields bearing the symbol of Bahamut. The orcs are badly outnumbered.
Party fights Goblins above Ruins of ancient building. Last goblin uses explosives to blow himself up and take the party with him (fails of course) after explosion ground below party collapses and party is sent into underground overgrowth mansion/villa. (makes it nice to continue the storyline, and you can do pretty much anything leading past that point.
A high ranking politician (that the party needs a favor/blessing from) wants to eat an apple, so he send the medium-high level party to go across the country to get one (1) for him. The only problem is that he believes that teleportation and similar magic make the apples taste bad, so the party must travel cross country the old fasioned way.
Fighting on fifth floor of the castle, a deadly mage destroys the main column holding the floor up. Party must reflex while fighting the mage and remain on their feet as the building collapses below their feet. They must maneuver around stones falling and sliding down on them, and make it to another safe spot on the floor, each section of the building slowly moves and slides until it falls apart. Eventually the party should make it to the vault room which is suspended by its own magic, the mage attempts to lock them out and be crushed by the building, the party must defeat him and enter the vault to be saved.
110. The PC's entered a town and were soon approached by a local magistrate. He offered the PC's a handsome reward to investigate the disappearance of a local group of Bards known as the Black Roses. They hadn't returned to the town in weeks and want to know what happened. A string of clues lead PC's to a shambled old redoubt inhabited by Orcs. There are only a few Male Orcs on guard duty, which the PC's over came easily, the rest of the Orc's were women and children which ran away screaming. The PC's find the troupe of Bards gagged and bound in a room and free them, but before they can leave, the rest of the Orc contingent returns and are mad. The PC's barricade themselves in the redoubt and hand weapons over to the Bards so they can help...
...but the Bards just look at them with an inquisitive look and tell them that they do not know how to fight. This is when the PC's learn that the Black Roses are Bards in the professional sense, not the actual class, and that they are on their own against an entire Orc community.
However, if the PCs at any time insinuate that there has been a "cave-in", during about a dozen drunken dwarfs will urinate over all the party's belongings.
Draven work does not cave-in.
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Yay, my thread is alive!