Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 wildboar Jun 22, 2015 6:57:41	Ok, I'd like some help on how to wrap up this adventure in a fun and non-cliche way.
#2 BajiNaji Jun 22, 2015 8:12:33	Fast forward a year and the undead apocalypse has become widespread.
#3 Wuzzard Jun 22, 2015 8:51:19	Wrap it up?  This story is just starting.  Why did the magistrate want this translated?  How is it connected to the undead? What power and motivation is behind it all?   1) scooby-doo solution -  There is a necromancer hiding out in the woods/hills/abandoned-tower nearby, trying to scare the townsfolk away so he can excavate/gain-access to a lost mine/ancient-ruin/mausoleum that contains the secrets he needs to up his game.  Can the meddling adventurers stop him?   2) independence-day solution - The translation of the religeous text was the next to last step of an elaborate ritual that the magistrate (a disguised outcast demon) needed to open a portal to the abyss in order to let his ravenous followers through to devour the country-side, power-up and lead him back to victory. The existence of the undead was a portent of things to come, risen by the negative energy of the almost completed portal, and wild with panic, because they know that an even greater evil is about to follow.  There is just one more thing he needs to open the portal and complete his destiny, the withered souls of mighty adventurers!
#4 Noon Jun 23, 2015 1:13:50	A lot of stories hinge on how the characters are morally/emotionally tied to the event.   But I've seen a lot of gamers turn up to games with a blank expression, like they'd expected to watch TV. Their character is about as tied to the events as the players blank expression - which kills traditional story.   So are they all mercenaries with no commitments?
#5 shintashi Jun 23, 2015 16:14:06	have the magistrate be a recurring villain necromancer who uses illusions and alter self to travel 50-500 miles away at a time, popping up, setting up zombie plagues, and eventually gets foiled again by the PCs, then come up with something else for him to do, like clone shadow dragon wyrmlings or some other thing you aren't supposed to be able to do. Have him appear somewhere in a major city with a large castle, replacling all the nobility one by one with brain worm controlled zombie slaves who divert taxes and waterways haphzardly enough that an uninfected noble gets suspicious and hires the merc PCs to investigate.   When the PCs are on the outer planes at a trading post, have him using prestidigitation to swap identical cover copies of Tomes of Thought or Wisdom/cleric books with a variant on the Necronomicon. When the PCs kill him, he's a clone. He's an illusion. He's displaced. He's dead but his spirit travels like a lich to find a new host. He dies, but his spirit Mind-Seed's one of the PCs without them knowing it for the first 3 adventures, and then describe good things as bad and bad things as good to that PC without letting on until it's too late.   You know.. fun.