Underworld Adventure Encounter, Puzzle, Riddle HELP
Mar 29, 2018 19:32:47 GMT
randosaurus likes this
Post by dmrugged on Mar 29, 2018 19:32:47 GMT
Hey DMs!
One of my two adventuring parties has its next session on Sunday, which is Easter. So, I thought I would kill them all, send them to the underworld, and resurrect them. I am hoping to get this accomplished all in a 4-5 hour session, but I think it would be fine if it went into two sessions.
A little background:
The adventure party are all level 4, and consist of a stout Halfling barbarian, Human fighter, High Elf Cleric, Human Ranger, and a Dark Elf storm sorcerer (they are not evil and are nocturnal desert nomads in my homebrewed world of Forsia) They are about to battle a coven of hags (against the warnings the DM has dropped repeatedly through NPCs that it is too soon to do so). If they somehow manage to beat the DM and kill or drive off the hags, then I will reward them and make them level 5, if they die they will remain at level 4. Either way, whether they are killed or they impress the gods with their heroism, the gods will give them the main quest of the campaign (to rescue the god of storms and seas who is the true father of the dark elf and was kidnapped and has been made a slave of the BBGE Litch-Priestess). To progress in their quest, and appease the Goddess of Birth, Healing, and Death (especially if they die in battle), they must first find and return the soul of a bard back to the living (its also the means to bring in the PC of new player joining my table) that the Goddess of Justice, Reason, and Hardship (she decides where you go in the afterlife and for how long) mistakenly placed in hell instead of reincarnating him (The goddess of death was the bard's BIGGEST FAN, but the Goddess of Death HATED his songs).
I have 6 realms in my underworld, the first of which is the home of the gods and where souls await judgement, or rest before being reincarnated. The other 5 realms are where souls are purified of the cruelties they have committed in previous lives (self-centeredness, avarice, anger/fear, pleasure-seeking, and ignorance). Each is ruled by either a god (e.g. the god of destruction and war for avarice) or goddess (e.g. the goddess of madness for self-centeredness or anger/fear undecided on this), or a demon prince.
I have some ideas on what a few realms will be like. For example, the realm for avarice will be a huge city in which new souls are perpetually stuck in traffic, must endure laboring in huge corporations, attend orientation classes/training videos for ions, and endure other unpleasant aspects of mode. Other ideas include the other realms include the realm for self-centeredness could be a frozen expanse with mirrors or filled with demons with selfie sticks, the realm for anger/fear is a perpetual hunt in which the souls are game hunted by demonic or outsider or fey adventuring parties; the realm for ignorance be a forest shrouded in trees that try to eat them.
I am a relatively new DM (playing D&D for 14 mos, started DMing for 9 months) and have been re-skinning or using portions of published adventures. For example, the current adventure is a heavily modified version of "Days of Blight." I cannot find any published adventures so here's where I need your help. I am looking for ideas of what the party must do to pass successfully from each level to the next. I was thinking that they 1) successfully make their way to the palace/HQ of the ruler of each realm and then persuade him/her to allow the party to pass to the next realm with the soul of the bard in tow, but am drawing blanks on tests, puzzles, small quests, riddles, etc. Any ideas or sources to check out would be SUPER helpful for me.
Thanks in advance everyone!
One of my two adventuring parties has its next session on Sunday, which is Easter. So, I thought I would kill them all, send them to the underworld, and resurrect them. I am hoping to get this accomplished all in a 4-5 hour session, but I think it would be fine if it went into two sessions.
A little background:
The adventure party are all level 4, and consist of a stout Halfling barbarian, Human fighter, High Elf Cleric, Human Ranger, and a Dark Elf storm sorcerer (they are not evil and are nocturnal desert nomads in my homebrewed world of Forsia) They are about to battle a coven of hags (against the warnings the DM has dropped repeatedly through NPCs that it is too soon to do so). If they somehow manage to beat the DM and kill or drive off the hags, then I will reward them and make them level 5, if they die they will remain at level 4. Either way, whether they are killed or they impress the gods with their heroism, the gods will give them the main quest of the campaign (to rescue the god of storms and seas who is the true father of the dark elf and was kidnapped and has been made a slave of the BBGE Litch-Priestess). To progress in their quest, and appease the Goddess of Birth, Healing, and Death (especially if they die in battle), they must first find and return the soul of a bard back to the living (its also the means to bring in the PC of new player joining my table) that the Goddess of Justice, Reason, and Hardship (she decides where you go in the afterlife and for how long) mistakenly placed in hell instead of reincarnating him (The goddess of death was the bard's BIGGEST FAN, but the Goddess of Death HATED his songs).
I have 6 realms in my underworld, the first of which is the home of the gods and where souls await judgement, or rest before being reincarnated. The other 5 realms are where souls are purified of the cruelties they have committed in previous lives (self-centeredness, avarice, anger/fear, pleasure-seeking, and ignorance). Each is ruled by either a god (e.g. the god of destruction and war for avarice) or goddess (e.g. the goddess of madness for self-centeredness or anger/fear undecided on this), or a demon prince.
I have some ideas on what a few realms will be like. For example, the realm for avarice will be a huge city in which new souls are perpetually stuck in traffic, must endure laboring in huge corporations, attend orientation classes/training videos for ions, and endure other unpleasant aspects of mode. Other ideas include the other realms include the realm for self-centeredness could be a frozen expanse with mirrors or filled with demons with selfie sticks, the realm for anger/fear is a perpetual hunt in which the souls are game hunted by demonic or outsider or fey adventuring parties; the realm for ignorance be a forest shrouded in trees that try to eat them.
I am a relatively new DM (playing D&D for 14 mos, started DMing for 9 months) and have been re-skinning or using portions of published adventures. For example, the current adventure is a heavily modified version of "Days of Blight." I cannot find any published adventures so here's where I need your help. I am looking for ideas of what the party must do to pass successfully from each level to the next. I was thinking that they 1) successfully make their way to the palace/HQ of the ruler of each realm and then persuade him/her to allow the party to pass to the next realm with the soul of the bard in tow, but am drawing blanks on tests, puzzles, small quests, riddles, etc. Any ideas or sources to check out would be SUPER helpful for me.
Thanks in advance everyone!