Here's what we have so far - 3 ECL 3 characters, one halfgiant brute who has a fascination with eating dung beetles, and tries to get lions to stop charging by putting his hands up in the stop sign (it was classic), 3rd level cleric, fire worshipper, and a 3rd level elven bard.
As of now, they're in the arena, trying to buy their way to freedom (and I wanted them to be 4th level before leaving). I have them in a small city, in the middle of nowhere.
Suggestions?
Do your players like mysteries, do your players like exploration, do your players like puzzles, do your players like strategy?
One of the great things aboud a DS campaign is that there really is something for everybody. Well except for being able to find a nice, safe place to live. :D
Also, what timeframe are you running your campaign in? Is this before the fall of Kalak, after the fall of Kalak, or after the fall of Borys? That will affect some of the options that your characters can be involved with.
Originally posted by Quarion
I'd be happy to give suggestions, but I need to know a little more about what you and your players like to do in the game.
Do your players like mysteries, do your players like exploration, do your players like puzzles, do your players like strategy?
Also, what timeframe are you running your campaign in? Is this before the fall of Kalak, after the fall of Kalak, or after the fall of Borys?
Thanks for your input. To answer your questions - Mystery would probably be the first choice under those options, with exploration as the last. They don't mind a few puzzles, and are all experienced roleplayers.
As far as timing goes (and they know next to nothing about the world), I'm setting it just before the fall of Kalak. It'll probably happen during the campaign.
Thanks again, and I look forward to your response.
This piece of art / sculpture is really a key to a riddle hiding a cache of weapons and magic from the cleansing wars. A group associated with the veiled ones, a powerful defiler, and a powerful merchant house all know about this find and are trying to get it. The players will need to figure out what it is the caravan has, why eachof the groups want it, and then decide what they want to do with what they've found.
I'll report back after I've fleshed it out and whatnot.
Thanks,
Waywreth
Maybe the raiders could be a huge elven tribe, numbering in more than a hundred elves. They loot and leave, not caring for the PCs either way. PCs can't catch up, but these elves leave some clue to who they are and where they might be found, or at least, for another elf. So the PCs could be guided (because of the item or a helpful survivor of the caravan) towards the City-State they were trying to reach, to go to the elven market and try to find out which elven tribe it is and how they can be found.
As it might be the first time your PCs enter a City-State, the experience should be impressive and unsettling, especially in the elven markets and dark alleys, where questions about an elven tribe (and perhaps word of the artefact) raises suspicion and curiosity amongst the elves. They might try to find out more, in a typical "dark alley" fashion.
Players could also try their luck in the Bard's Quarter, getting less info on the elves, but more on the artefact. The results might be the same though (and as dangerous).
When they are taking enough heat, they could then be introduced to someone which "saves" them. That person could be another elf (if the PCs have trouble with elves) which help them, or a shady human (if the PCs have trouble with bards or rogues). Now, that character would be a member of the local Alliance which helps the PCs, though he still expects the PCs to aid his organisation recover the artefact. He also warns him about a powerful defiler which is also after the artefact, and he helps them foil his plans and exit the city.
The PCs go out after the elves and the artefact, finding some way to get the item or negociate for it. The Elves would demand something in return, of course, which require the PCs to do some battle with a Athasian monster or two, and recover someone or something for the elves.
When the PCs get back, they manage to find their contact again and hand over the artefact. They are well rewarded in gems and left to explore the City.
However, a few minutes later (up to an hour), they are immediately attacked by assassins again (either elven or human), smack in the middle of some street. They win through, though some assassins escape, but then run in trouble with the local authorities, a Middle-rank Templar and a bunch guards, for the rukus they caused.
The PCs beat the guards, but are now fugitives, and have a whole lot of trouble getting out of the city, and should be encourage to go into hiding in the warrens. There they are attacked by thugs who seem intent on killing them instead of robbing them. When they defeat the thugs, they find something very troubling. These thugs have considerable riches on them. Each thug has a small gem. The very same kind the heroes were paid with...
If they haven't already figured it out, the heroes should still be encouraged to seek out the veiled one which employed them, at the same place they met him. When they get there, they don't find him, bu someone does tell him that he's been instructed to tell the PCs that their friend told him to stay there in case the PCs returned, and tell the PCs to meet him in an abandonned building.
When they get there, they find themselves in an ambush, of course, which they probably figured out, where a bunch of assassins wait for the PCs. This is when their contact makes a dramatic entrance, telling them how they've "outrun their usefulness and are a threat to him now, but won't be much longer". The battle starts as he defiles the ground to cast a spell at them.
When the Defiler and his croonies are defeated, PCs gain some interesting loot from them, as well as the artefact, which they now owe to no one. They set out to get out of this city and look for this forgotten weapon's cache...
:D
I think this is going to be my next adventure in Dark Sun!