Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Nyronus Dec 22, 2008 22:42:24	I've been batting around a campaign idea. I am somewhat new at DMing, but I am a competent story-teller and actor, so I think I can pull this off. This campaign is designed to run from level 1 to an undetermined end. Now, without further ado. A group of wandering adventurers (The PCs) united by a previous trial (A generic first level adventure), are caught unawares by a fierce storm. The storm seems to manifest suddenly and in a manner of hours howls with the force of a hurricane. The PCs are forced to take cover or buffet the storm. At the height of the storm, the sky suddenly turns a horrid blood-purple as a burning comet rips through the clouds and streaks across the sky, crashing into a far mountain along the PC's path. The storm weakens, but continues for at least two more days. If the PCs decide to travel during the weakened storm or to wait it out, it should take them four or five days to reach the mountain. Within the slopes of the mountain lie a formerly sleepy hamlet. Most of the buildings have survived, but a few, including the shrine to Avandar, have collapsed during the storm. Most the townsfolk seem distraught and wary. The town is mostly human, although there are two Dwarven traders in town, along with a trio of Gnoll mercenaries who were passing through and have been since trapped by the storm. If the PCs can poke around and find a friendly face, they will learn that no man in the town has slept well since the storm. Most nights are filled with horrid nightmares filled with carnage and death. If the PCs can weedle deeper, they will learn that these grotesque dreams often have an edge of sadistic joy to them. If the PCs choose to move on and explore the crash site of the comet, than they leave town and continue down the road. If the PCs choose to stay the night they also suffer horrible nightmares. When they wake up, they find that there has been a murder in the town overnight. The tracks from the scene lead farther up the mountain, to where the comet struck. If the PCs leave, they become assaulted by roaming undead whose tracks also lead to the crash site. In any way, the townsfolk will tell the PCs of a monastery devoted to Pelor down the path. Perhaps they could lend a hand in solving the murder/killing the undead/exploring the crash-site. Once the PCs begin along the path to the monastery, they become attacked by increasingly larger and larger swarms of undead. All mindless. They eventually find that monastery besieged by skeletons, wraiths, ghouls and zombies. The PCs clear it away. If they look, they see that the graveyard looks as if it has been completely upturned and torn apart. When they finally break the door and enter the main shrine, they find what appears to be a lone and elderly cleric attending to a large and shrouded form. If the PCs try to interact with the cleric, he will ignore them, muttering under his breath a constant litany of helping the weak. The cleric will often stop and begin to shudder and twitch, start wailing in helplessness, or mutter fearful curses in what the PCs may or may not know is Abyssal. Eventually if the PCs do not attack the cleric, the figure under the shroud will begin to stir. In response, a horrid and diseased sore grows out rips open across his cheek, leaving a rotten red wound. The cleric continues his insane gibbering and healing as the figure awakens. More sores appear and open as his body begins to rot alive. The cleric turns to the PCs, and in a last act of sudden sanity, tells them to run. He then falls shrieking as his eyes and flesh rot away. If the PCs try to run the door to the shrine slams shut. Wraiths appear and block and attempted exit from the windows. The figure under the shroud rises from its broken makeshift cot, tearing the now rotting cloth from its face revealing none other than Orcus. The PCs can attack Orcus. If they do, they find that while he appears to be to in a severely weakened state, his very presence is enough to suck the life from them. Eventually Orcus calls them to a halt, perhaps violently. When he does, he contemplates killing them shortly, but then appears to latch onto a better idea. He reveals to the PCs that he was attacked and cast from his throne in the Abyss by a heretofore unknown power. During their battle, this usurper took the Wand from Orcus, and used it to strike a blow which cast Orcus from the Abyss and into the Astral Sea and leave him within an inch of his life. He eventually crashed onto the Material Plane. He should have died, but as Orcus smugly remarks, he is a master of avoiding death. When he landed, his body had been reduced to almost nothing, but the clerics found him and and begin to heal him, thinking him a mortal in his reduced state. As his strength returned, his body began to grow larger as he also began to exert an unconscious influence on the surrounding areas. Hence the nightmares and rampant undead. He explains that he is still weak. He can't risk leaving the monastery as of yet, nor can he risk attempting to magically contact any of his servants. The whole universe thinks he is dead now. If he uses anymore power than he has been, he would risk letting every God, devil, and demon who has ever wanted him dead know exactly where he is and exactly how weak he is. He needs someone to go out into the world for him. Someone strong and smart. Someone to help him return to power, and someone to monitor the growing power of this unknown Adversary. Someone like the PCs. From this point the PCs can go any number of directions. They can bargain with Orcus and become his unwilling servants. They can attempt to flee again, leading the campaign in a whole different direction. This is not meant to be an "evil" campaign, so the PCs would try to maintain some form of balance between avoiding the wrath or their tyrant patron and sinking into evil, although there would be no way to avoid the fact that they would still be serving Orcus. Orcus would also attempt to subvert the player characters to truly worship him. Hopefully, they'll eventually break away from his control, mostly because as time would go on, they would become more and more valuable to the weakened Orcus, and as they gain power, Orcus runs and greater and greater risk of alerting his enemies if he exerts any amount of power in trying to kill the PCs. The game would be fairly open ended. So, thoughts on the premise? Tips? Advice? Ideas?
#2 earanhart Dec 23, 2008 14:02:36	Off topic: do you remember the old lore on Orcus? he was dead for a while, and came back, maybe undead, maybe not, but as the Demon Lord of the the Undead. This could fit easily into that slot. On topic: what if the PCS listen to the mad cleric and run away? What I might do is not have Orcus regaining size, nor have him immediatly reveal himself, rather, have him be the only one left sane, and ask the players to help him find his way home. Once at some destroyed town have Orcus fake some demon activity(easy enough) and claim that he was the keeper of a shrine/temple in this town, and a holy relic has been stolen, and would they be so kind as to go into the abyss and get it for him? As they go on their way, they begin to get attacked by some good guys and start to ask questions, open ended, and they never know they are the bad guys. When they return to the town, if ever, have more undead, no reconstruction, but Orcus just looks better than he did before. more muscular, ect. my two cents. its afun idea, I may steal this one year.