Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 forgelord Sep 30, 2009 21:38:33	I'm building an underwater campaign in which players recieve a summons from a far away land called Greece begging any able bodied heroes to keep the growing kuo-toa tide at bay. The players must go underwater and stop the maddened fish people from summoning Oceanus, titan of the sea. They start out by using underwater potions looted off of slain cultists and then steal a magic conch, a treasure kuo-toa artifact, that allows them to breathe and swim easily underwater for 24 hours, and the conch never runs out of magic. This way, the players can play normally without worrying to much about suffocating or failing an athletics check to swim. Aside from getting captured and being made slaves and eventually sacfrifices for Oceanus, I can't think of any good plot hooks. Ideas, anyone? EDIT: As well as needing ideas for plot hooks, I also need suggestions for aquatic adversaries. I can't find many enemies that are aquatic and fit in with the theme, aside from kuo-toa, aboleths, chuul, and maybe sahuagin.
#2 amanodel Oct 01, 2009 0:19:09	So, that sounds like a semi-heroic tier campaign.  I think we should break it down better.  I prefer campaigns that are morally complex and not hack and slash, so here are some ideas I have: Heroic Tier Kua Toa are attacking Greece for unknown reason.  These beasts are new to Greece and as such they do not know how to fight them.  They call for adventurers and the story begins. Cultists near the dock where the PCs start accidentally lead clues to their where abouts.  Something in a PCs background would be a great starting place to give cause for why the characters attack the cultists and gain the artifcat. They travel by Sea to Greece.  BUT, they unknowingly opened a portal to another plane.  This plane is a reflection of the current world like the Fey realm or Shadow Realm, but instead it is Earth, more specifically Greece in an ancient time. The Heroes then must help protect Athens from the Kua Toa on land Maybe the heroes find the location fo the Kua Toa's secret headquarters undersea and go there to strike down an important general. There are also human politics involved.  You can work in some altered history of Greece by seeing the interaction of the Greece city states.  I suggest one topic be Sparta vs. Athens.  The heroes could first ally themselves with Athens and then have to convince Sparta to help protect Athens.  Of course, Sparta has its own agenda and sees Athens demise as its benefit.  Also, Sparta believes that the Athens city rulers are being paid off by the Kua Toa and that's why Athens sought heroes instead of dealing with the situation themselves.  On the other hand, Sparta could also have leaders being paid off by Kua Toa agents, making them untrustworthy.  Do as much of this type of intrige as you want When the PCs do venture to fight off Kua Toa in the sea, you could have them interact with Kua Toa factions.  This incursion into a foreign plane is because the Kua Toa worship Oceanus and Oceanus' Emissary commanded the conquer all of Athens so that Oceanus and his brethren can be released from the Elemental Chaos.  Some factions have grown weary of this zealous obedience  and question whether they should fight at all.  Others seek to gain control over the Kua Toa army.  And others - such as Demons - want control of the army itself for different reasons. In the end, the heroic tear should end with the Kua Toa army falling back across the sea, to their and the adventurer's original plane.  BUT, Kua Toa stepped into every major city state in Greece.  This is important beause of the paragon tier outline. Paragon Tier The tier's main focus is dealing with Oceanus' Emissary and the demons who helped him create the planar gate between the material plane and Earth. Oceanus' emissary main goal is to release Oceanus and the (3-12) other major titans or primordials who are imprisoned with him. The Titans or primordials - their name doesn't matter - are universal creatures.  They created not only the Elemental Chaos, The world, Shadowfell, Fey Realm, and Astral Sea, but also all the other multiverse realms, such as Earth.  The Olympians from Earth, the Astral Gods from this material plane, and the other gods from other planes agreed that they must be imprisoned in one world to prevent their chaos from spreading.  They were imprisoned in the elemental chaos since its Astral Gods were the first to overpower the Primordials. However, their prison key is hidden in the other (3-12) additional universes.  The "keys" are actions - such as the Kua Toa stepping foot into each of the Greece States.  I suggest you let an NPC or PC divine a prophecy that gives in riddle the details of how the keys are accomplished. Ultimately, this tier is spent figuring out what actions will release the Primordials and preventing them from happening.  If the PCs succeed at preventing primordials from being released, this will have a big impact on the next tier. Also, Oceanus' Emissary is a key player.  He advocates for Oceanus and the Demons.  At the end of this tier, he will die, but that will be the final key that will release every Primordial whose specific key has been found.  For instance, Oceanus will be released at this point, because his specific - the Kua Toa walking on Greece - has been satisfied. Epic Tier The Heroes discover why the demons are involved: They wish to release the Primordials because this will frighten the Astral Gods.  Big battles between the Astral Gods, Olympian Gods, and any other society you decide to include in the Paragon Tier will battle here. Ultimately, the battle is tipped in the favor of the Primordials, since the Demons fully support all of the Primordials actions.  Universes completely fall to the power of the Primordials. Their looming defeat in sight, the Astral Gods seek drastic measures.  They ask the PCs to help them release the Chained God. As a side note, he is the First Evil.  He is the God who was corrupted by some evil and imprisoned in the bottom of the Elemental Chaos by the other Astral Gods.  He has grown even more powerful there - becoming both a primordial and an Astral God.  He is the unknowing creator of the Demons (he doesn't actually care about their fate).  He is absolutely the strongest being in the universe - and the most evil. The Demons have been involved since the beginning because they wanted to see the destruction the Chained God would cause.  The demons forgot about the Chained God but were reminded by ... (I suggest something very simple in a PCs background unknowingly reminded the Demons of the Chaos, but if you dislike this, make up some other reason).  So they enacted their plan because they wanted to see his fury and they're demons, so that's a good enough reason since they love to bring Chaos. However, the Chained God caused chaos and showed no respect for the demons domain.  Now, all parties - including all Gods, Primordials, and Demons - must ban together to defeat the Chained God forever.  His defeat ends the campaign.
#3 forgelord Oct 01, 2009 11:01:58	Yeah, I know who the Chained God is. Touched shard of evil, made Abyss, etc., etc. Thanks for these great ideas! I'll definetely use them overhearing cultists at the dock as a plot hook, but I don't think I want to get into the alternate universe thing. However, your "key" idea did give me an idea of my own. The kuo-toa will need "keys" which are certain objects like a certian sea shell, seaweed, etc. The PCs will have to go around and destroy them so they can't be used to summon Oceanus. I'll also probably use the Chained God idea. Thanks! EDIT: Any other ideas?
#4 Tovec Oct 02, 2009 8:52:26	What if the keys are the conchs? That way there is always the threat of getting their protective items stolen, and they could lose more than just their air supply. Also, why not have places they wouldn't need them? Isn't there anything else in the sea except monsters, as I recall there might also be Merpeople, seafolk, maybe even an underwater civilization. It would be an interesting turn of events if they were stuck in an underwater temple and their conches stolen so they can't escape. Also what happens if they are captured by the (for lack of a better term) Atlantians and forced to stay in their city to keep the secret hidden?