Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 bonetti Jul 16, 2010 16:20:20	Campaign background: running a game in Mystara, specifically in Darokin.  I've linked the Feywild and Shadowfell to the good/bad magic points in Alfheim (the elven nation and forest within Darokin's borders), as well as in a few other locations.  My loose, general intention is for Heroic Tier to pretty much be uncovering influence from the Shadowfell increasing on Mystara, and that it's negatively affecting the Feywild via the Feywild/mortal world echo effects.  Then, Paragon Tier would be trying to unwind that influence. I've run a couple of things so far which have hinted that Something Dark Is Happening ("random" encounters of unusual monsters being pushed from the depths of a swamp, and some cultists of an unrecognized/unknown power performing some sort of ritual which ended up being interrupted).  The next adventure is intended to be the first real indication of where this is coming from.  The setup is that they had already encountered a father/son pair who are distilling whiskey in a particular, low population area and harvesting peat from the nearby moor.  The father disappeared one day, the son has sent a plea for help to the party. I was looking in MM3 and saw a monster (the name escapes me, but it had a level 16-18 range) that captures people for its masters in the Shadowfell, and I was thinking that might be a way to go.  However, I'm stumped beyond the rough idea of "shadows creeping into the world", and finding a way to show that this is not normal. I also toyed with the idea of pulling in a Ravenloft-style adventure via a Domain of Dread, but at 2nd level the party's a little weak to really follow through on that.  Maybe in a few levels... I'd also love to hear suggestions for later linkages (and echoes into other realms), and the intention is that the cultists are actually reaching into the Shadowfell to grab power to open doorways to the Far Realm and bring the abominations back (and that may or may not be the focus of late Paragon/early Epic tier stuff -- we shall see, that's years away!).  I don't want to reveal what's going on there for a while, though. If anyone has experimented with this, or has ideas for this particular adventure, I'd really appreciate hearing them. Thanks!
#2 hellfrozenover Jul 17, 2010 6:10:35	Seeing your party are 2nd , try throwing in a few zombies , as many corpses are raised by the Shadowfell , and describe the trees as being twisted in shape , with no leaves , if you have a town , put in a herald telling of a forecoming doom , this will give players a taste of the shadow fell As the players progress in levels , and they realise the full threat of whats happening , use that monster you mentioned and drag them into the shadowfell , were the see the source of the whole thing , and figure a way they can solve it , perhaps by defeating the person / monster who caused it Hope this helps
#3 frothsof Jul 17, 2010 10:23:01	im running something in somewhat the same vein, where the characters over time are learning more about the planes and portals. Ancient magicians created the portals, later destroying them. or so they thought. 1000s of years later, doomsday cults have over the years discovered the secret history of the world and are reopening them. the pcs dont know all of that yet of course. their first glimpse of the overall story was a dungeon delve where the miners that worked at this particular hole on the earth had cut into a much much older shaft. slowly, new horrors were gestating in the miners and the adventure culminated with pcs fighting demon like entities that peeled off the skin of the host miners, then facing a horned beast. when they finished they saw a small black altar with small animals sacrificed on it. they surmised it to be a gateway of some sort but at first level they were powerless to try to close it. so far i have had them gather information from everything form a trap laden arcane tome found in a church, to a spiritual leader of a city state that has been kidnapped as part of a coup (his dying breath is spent passing along information of the planes), to primordial slurs written in blood on the walls of a dungeon. perhaps in your scenario they interrogate a cultist to learn more. or you could just have them stumble through a portal into the shadowfell and just have to learn on the fly. or residents can tell tales of such things. in the game im running they will be required to recover artifacts related to the original magicians in order to defeat the doomsday cults and shut the portals for good (not before they get pushed and pulled through a few, although most of the material for planar adventures is not geared towards low level characters-no rush). the great thing about it is by introducing the planes that you will never run out of material to use to create adventures. good luck!
#4 bonetti Jul 23, 2010 13:52:17	Thanks for the input :-) This week got away from me, so I'm doing a couple filler "while you travel" encounters (which is also bringing a new PC into the group).  So, the actual encounter in the moor area is not yet plotted, but I'm leaning toward a small rift that has the missing NPC caught in it, an escaped critter of some sort, and some undead raised right at the rift.  No indication of how this ties in unless they find a knowledgeable sage or make some high rolls -- although it will become clearer at some point in the future. (The traveling encounters will include some creatures from deep in the nearby swamp, unusual enough to hopefully trigger some interest.  The idea is that the evil forces bubbling up are driving the regular inhabitants out...)