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Wednesday, June 1, 2016

The Typical Fantasy Campaign Takes Shape

I posted last night about what peoples favourite version of fantasy is.
https://plus.google.com/u/0/113598345409044633851/posts/1zmyeRmEUPk

The reason was mostly out of curiosity.  I find that when I start writing things tend to fall into a very specific place.  The evil wizard, the war hungry orcs, fire breathing dragons, good hero's!  You get the picture.  Regardless of the books I read (appendix N type stuff), I tend to just naturally go with the above.  Here is the outline for my current campaign.

War!  Orcs have been pillaging the general populace, they come from the north and something drives them.  Originally I thought super evil black dragon, and now I'm thinking a human warlord who's character is based on Cobra Commander.

Enter the hero's.  Just a few "almost not quite peasants" out to save the countryside.  At some point they may run into "the order the magi" cue major LOTR plot device.  The quest as such is to find 4 elemental stones of great power (really shane? that's totally elemental evil with a generic twist).

Of course this is the overarching storyline.  Within the hex crawl I'm writing there's a pile of side adventures.  I plan to include a lot of the Adventure Anthology within the world.  Check www.basicfantasy.org for more info on the adventure anthology.

In this recent post I set out a few clues to further adventures for the PCs.  http://3toadstools.blogspot.ca/2016/05/players-newsletter-1.html

Last night I wrote about the 3 headed beast, and the twist is that it is the thing that sunk the merchant ship.  If the PC's defeat the beast, and or get on the ship they will find a letter written by a prisoner in the brig.  The letter details a long forgotten island.  (monkey isle or isle of dread).

Of course the PC's may decide to make their way to Elerd's Keep.  The twist of course is that Lord Elerd is in fact a very old vampire.

I haven't quite decided if it will be the morgan's fort campaign, or keep on the borderlands at this point.

I also sat and wrote a few encounters if the PC's decide to make their way to morgansfort.

There are a lot of balls in play on this, I am guessing that spears will be broke, shields will be shattered, PC's will die thruout the whole thing.

Here is the letter:

I’ve been trying to get this damn merchant captain to understand, but he just doesn’t.  This is the last time I write this story, if you are reading this I hope that you believe me.  You see I was a pirate first mate.  We had been trailing this merchant ship, easy pickings!  All of a sudden the winds started blowing, a huge storm cropped up.  The sea’s spewed forth, knocking us backwards and forwards.  We barely made it thru the night.  We found the island, but just barely. Searching the shores with a lantern we stumbled upon a small village.  It was near the southern shore, nice humans that took care of us for a few days.  The captain decided that we would try a bit of pillaging while we were here.  We were met with some maniacs all covered in paint!  The temple we looted was ancient!  I’d never seen stone work like that.  We saw another high mountain and what looked like a Volcano smoking in the distance, we decided it was best not to go to shore.  We saw strange lizard’s that we had never seen before along the shore.  Huge gargantuan creatures!  We also saw a dragon, or what looked liked a dragon.  The captain decided that it was best to leave the island alone and we soon left.  I want to go back, I know there is more to explore.  I found a coin with a human face and a sheaf of wheat on it.  I talked to a wisened man in a tavern about it, he’d never seen anything like it.  Possibly a elder civilization.  

A.D.C.  
The 2nd day of the melting.

And here is the possible encounter list on the road to Elerds Keep.

The Road to Elerds Keep
Its 36 miles to Elerds keep, straight shot.  The PC’s can travel 12 miles per day, 2 hexes.  The journey should take 3 days to get to Elerds Keep.

Daily encounters
Day 1 - Barbarian Encounter - The PC’s notice off in the distance a battle going on between a few individuals and a giant!

5 barbarians - Fighter Level 3 - HD 3, Great swords, etc 1d12
Hill Giant - AC 15, HD 8 (attack +8, 2d8 damage)

If they talk to the barbarians, one of them is the leader of the Elken tribe, Haz Halack, he wants to off his brother who leads an opposing tribe called the “Skulkers”, his brother’s name is Grim Halack

Day 2 - Nothing happens during the day however, in the evening roll on the pestilence table.
1.  Bedbugs keep you awake, loose one point of Constitution until you have a decent rest.
2.  Provision's get rot from Insects, they are inedible.
3.  Stung by a wasp, and it turns out your allergic! - 2 Constitution -1 Strength, - 1D4 HP's
4.  A large swarm of Insects circles your head, making it difficult to sneak and remain hidden. - 15% on all sneak rolls.  Chance of being seen becomes 3 in 6.
5.  FIRE ANTS! Swarm the campsite, lighting anything remotely flammable on fire.  AC 7, HD 2.
6. A butterfly appears out of nowhere, it leads you to a location where there is a small sack of gold.  
7.  Strange worm burrows into your sack/backpack, before you realize it all of your stuff has fallen out on the ground.  
8.  Insects lay eggs in your ear while you are asleep, In 1d6 days you will suffer from a delirious state, stumbling about.  - 3 Intelligence, - 2 Dexterity.   
9.  Termites! have struck, any chest/wooden object you are carrying has holes in it.  
10.  Luminescent moths fly around campsite, lighting up the surrounding area. - 15% on all sneak rolls.  Chance of being seen becomes 3 in 6.

Day 3 - (Close to water, 0308) There is a small wood mill located along the river here.  The millwright Leeland Stonesand has been having trouble with a local bandit gang, he sent off his wife & daughter to bring wood to Elerd’s keep, but has not heard from them in a fortnight.

The bandit gang is not normally humans, but werewolves!  It will take a day or so to search the lands surrounding the mill to find their lair.  The PC’s will be able to find the 2 ladies tied up in a small cottage.  They will also find or hear evidence of the werewolves, but will probably not encounter them.  Bandit werewolf gang name?
Gang is located at 0209

Random Sighting - At some point if the PC’s are close to the forest they will see smoke rising.

Elves
If the PC’s attempt to go along the forest they are met with Elven mercenaries patrolling the outside of edge of autumn shade.  1HD 1d6 short swords, bows.  
The Elven village is located at 0405.  King Kendel Krisnorin is the leader.  The village has been sacked by an Orc tribe, it lies in ruins.  

Witches
0305 Hills - There is a coven of witches, they have been plaguing the countryside sacrificing animals & farmers to Loki.  They have been trying to bring him back into the world.  The witches have one stone of elemental power, that of Fire, and it can bring forth a powerful fire elemental. - Treat as 2HD humans, 2 1st level spells each.

0306 Forest - A small group of mischievous fairies live within this part of the forest.  They will play tricks on adventurers and attempt to charm them to steal their gold.









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