My players are beginning to play in the town of Krieg, near the city of Zerlin in the human Kingdom of Zallachia. The kingdom is plagued by warbands of orcs and ogres, and one of these warband, the Burning Eye Horde, has taken the habit to raise black dragons as warmounts and is beginning to pose serious threat to the kingdom. My players will follow roughly this path
Lvl 1-3: Krieg and near: the pcs will undertake various quest to help the citizens of the town, battling with the orcs but also with a lot more of the common monsters in the way (ex: gnolls, goblins, maybe end up in a skirmish with elves, etc).
Lvl 4-5: The Dragon Pits: To this point, my players have caught the attention of a human noble whishing to deal with the orcish threat. He will give them the task of sabotaging the pits and also slaying the ones in charge there.
Lvl 6-8: The work the pcs have done has prompted the orcs to launch sooner their attack on Zerlin. Needing allies, the King ask the pcs to seek out the dwarven king of the Under-Kingdom of Zargark. To do this, the pcs must enter in the sub-level of the Underdark, battle troglodytes and duergars, and negotiate with the capricious King.
Lvl 9-10: The players are asked to participate on the assault of the Red Spire Bastion, the stronghold of the enemy. The players will first lead the assault, and then infiltrate the bastion to deal with the orcs boss, who reveal himself to be a deadly Beholder.
If the players suceed in surviving all of this, they will become heroes of the state and receive nobility, which will set the stage for the second arc. So, what do you think of it?
Also, keep a few random mission that have nothing to do with the campaign or orcs around, and use them. Unless your group only likes combat, they will probably want to see new environments and face a lot of different enemies (and for different reasons).
Also, why is the beholder leading this orcish army. If you wanted to, you could tie in the villain from your heroic, second arc, and have them be the ones commanding the beholder. If you leave subtle clues, or create characters that show there is something else at work behind the beholder, then you can increase the intrigue of the second arc.
(I did this with a drow and illithid invasion, dropping the name of the drow house and the name of a substance that the thoon wanted here and there, so when my PCs heard the name and the substance uttered by the drow and illithids, they knew that this was going to be an intense battle...)
Basically I suggested that you consider mixing it up with your plot. Dont be afraid to have the orc leader offer them an alternative to the war between their respective chiefs. Perhaps throw in the idea that a number of sites where the Orcs have been holding up have Traditional orcish artworks/rock art/stone carvings proving that these are orcish traditional lands and that they might be open to negotiation and peaceful relations if the PCs and the Community of Krieg are prepared to recognize the native title of the orcs to their traditional sites they are willing to trade with/establish a relationship with the community of Krieg.
Certainly the King would not be interested - looking to exterminate the orcs - but perhaps the PCs might look to establish a 'third faction' with the Orcs and oppose any other less peaceful intruder who want the locals gone so they can move in and mine gold and farm sheep.
Unless you want the PCs to have dragon mounts at level 5, you might want to consider modifying the dragon pits adventure. Otherwise they will keep some dragons for themselves, or steal dragon eggs t raise/sell.
If you change them up to skeletal dragons, or zombified dragons, PCs won't be welcome in too many towns if they take them. Plus all the moral "I won't ride a zombie" stuff.
Unless you want the PCs to have dragon mounts at level 5, you might want to consider modifying the dragon pits adventure. Otherwise they will keep some dragons for themselves, or steal dragon eggs t raise/sell.
Think of the difficulties of raising dragons. After a adventure or two revolving around raising the chicks that will not be mature for twenty or so years the pc's will probably give up. Selling them is a issue I admit.
Think of the difficulties of raising dragons. After a adventure or two revolving around raising the chicks that will not be mature for twenty or so years the pc's will probably give up. Selling them is a issue I admit.
WHy would you steal hatchlings? You steal the biggest ones the place has. They are intelligent. "Hey dragon, I was sent to stop the goblins from having dragons. They implied kill you. I am thinking of setting you free. If you do, would you mind paling around with me. I won't beat you, and I will look out for you in exchage for you carrying me into battle. Or I can leave you here with these goblins who aren't the nicest to you".
really though, looks good. great work.
And I agree with UbberSheep on the idea to lead into the next arc with a series of more mysteries waiting to be solved onto the next arc (if you are planning to go that far).
Otherwise, great job