stumblebelly
Commoner
Posts: 2 
Favorite D&D Class: Bard
Favorite D&D Race: Halfling/gnome
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Post by stumblebelly on May 26, 2016 1:21:58 GMT
Hello. Long time listener, first time poster. So I'm in need of some assistance with my campaign. At the start of the campaign I saddled my party with a midwife who is smuggling a 1/2 Orc baby that has magical powers to the south as the child is a child of vague prophecy. The prophecy will unite all of the Orc tribes together under one banner like our histories Ghenghis Khan. Humans and the other races want to kill the child so the Orcs will never unite. Mages want to study the child and unravel its grace from it's blood to learn a new type of magic. The group is traveling with a caravan so they make frequent stops at outposts and cities. The orcs are trailing the caravan trying to catch up and one of the party is a 1/2 Orc war priest who keeps leaving bread crumbs for the orcs to find. Unbeknownst to his traveling companions.
So my issue is this campaign is a lot of overland travel. I've beset gnolls and goblins on the party trying to get the kid and even set a blood hag on them for the child's magical blood. Our dwarf warrior is constantly being scryed for by a tribe of ogres as he killed a priestess on a pilgrimage with a small entourage in a random encounter. With all of the over land traveling I have not been able to get them into any dungeon type stuff. Which I would love to do. How can I get them to take this kid into a dungeon? Should I get them into a dungeon? Should I just continue with the overland travel until they safely deliver the kid? I keep throwing stuff at them that is specifically after the kid. I'm afraid they are going to get tired of protecting him. Any thoughts? Any criticism? Any input would be appreciated. Thanks. Stumblebelly.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on May 26, 2016 3:31:19 GMT
Welcome to the block party, stumblebelly.
One idea is to have the midwife and baby secretly leave the caravan at night. Why she does this is up to you, but one plausible reason is she doesn't think the caravan can continue to protect her and her charge against the mounting threats. Some very dangerous people seem to know the magic baby is in this caravan, so the safest place for it is away from the caravan. She heads off with a few supplies, and seeks shelter for the night. It just so happens her shelter is perilously close to - or an actual part of - your dungeon.
The thing I like about this idea is that it will quickly become apparent how invested the players/characters are with this child of prophecy story. They should be able to pick up the midwife's trail very easily. Whether they care enough to follow it will tell you everything you need to know. Assuming they do, the party, midwife, and baby get stuck in the dungeon somehow, and must find a way to escape together.
If they don't, you can still run the child of prophecy plot in the background. The midwife makes it to the next plot point safely, and you can figure out how to proceed with a clearer picture of what the players want from your story.
* - I would treat the site where she finds shelter as a Schrodinger's Cat of threats. That is, it's not dangerous to the midwife if the PCs never show up... just an empty, abandoned whatever. If the PCs do pursue her, it's full of whatever dungeony stuff you want to do.
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stumblebelly
Commoner
Posts: 2
Favorite D&D Class: Bard
Favorite D&D Race: Halfling/gnome
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Post by stumblebelly on May 26, 2016 20:23:22 GMT
I like it! Thanks for the idea. Tomorrow night is our next session so I'll try to post an update. Thanks for the input! Much appreciated!
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Post by donosaur on May 31, 2016 14:02:23 GMT
You could invert the dungeon into a tower. There's a map you could use: rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/2016/02/09/the-bridge-tower/ which is where I got the idea. An ancient bridge gate tower stands over a bridge that crosses a deep, canyon river, with no other bridges for leagues in either direction. The tower seems to be in disuse, but the heavy iron gate is closed anyway, blocking their progress. The party can scale into a window of the tower and deal with whatever goblins, orcs, bandits or whatever have taken over the tower. You could build in a fun option too, where maybe they don't have to defeat the keepers of the tower but just bargain for their own passage. This will mean that anything following them will get stuck at the same gate. If they slay whatever is in the tower, they leave the trail behind them wide open. |
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keemara
Commoner
same game since 1978!
Posts: 2 
Favorite D&D Class: Mage
Favorite D&D Race: dragons
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Post by keemara on Jun 23, 2016 14:17:39 GMT
broken wheel on the wagon - done in a grassland area where there is one large tree (wood for making wagon wheel) in the distance. Of course, there is a dungeon in the roots of the tree.
Perhaps some intelligent rats who have gathered so many things from people passing through the grass lands.
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DM Rowan
Adventurer
The DM Renaissance is in full swing!
Posts: 96
Favorite D&D Class: Bard/Paladin
Favorite D&D Race: Half Elf
Gender: NB Lesbian
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Post by DM Rowan on Jul 16, 2016 22:56:12 GMT
Perhaps there are rumors of an underground crypt that could get you past a mountain range faster than going over it or around it. It's supposedly very dangerous and hasn't been entered for generations but the mountains are cold and the baby might die of exposure.
That way they will probably choose these dangerous underground tunnels because they're adventures and something you can fight is better than the weather trying to kill you.
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CRNFAllyKat
Commoner
Posts: 23
Favorite D&D Class: Seeker
Favorite D&D Race: Shifter
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Post by CRNFAllyKat on Aug 8, 2016 6:01:42 GMT
They travel next to a mountain or large hill (I'm thinking like the highways that go along the mountains) and something causes them have to stop for a time (weather, bridge that is out, rock slide, broken wagon wheel) and there happens to be a cave in said mountain/hill. As the group sets up camp in or near the cave,they the could attacked by something living deeper in the cave, or the child is stollen (by creatures in the cave) and has to be rescued, or even one of the PC could just become curious.
Also rumours heard by other travelers they meet on the road.
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