I have a 7-day adventure to line up for my players, where they will be travelling over "the crags" a set of canyons and gulleys which once housed a dragon-ruled kingdom, now in ruins. They are aboard a skyship.
I have some key locations lined up, but I want to give them some cool side adventures en-route which don't alow them down overly much, just makes it feel like the 7 days of travel.
I'd like to open the ideas to the hive-mind - they're a party of 5 level 13s, and I've already got some ideas lined up - what thoughts might you have? The area is unpopulated due to the dangers of the wilds, so I need to hold that dangerous vibe. Maybe seeing things on the ground which makes them happy that they are in the air?
They notice a plume of smoke rising from a peak. Upon closer inspection they realize that there are a bunch of standing stones and a lot of figures in animal masks. And an alter. And a dude with a big knife waving his hands above the alter. And some poor dude being led to the alter with his arms tied behind his back. If they act quickly maybe they can stop the human sacrifice and gain a new and potentially interesting passenger.
Some sort of giant caracal-like creature that leaps from hidden spots in the gulleys to take down flying creatures and possibly airships from below.
A giant snapping turtle that looks like a rocky outcropping. Just like snapping turtles wiggle their tongues to look like worms to lure in fish, this snapping turtle projects an illusion that draws in adventurers like chests full of gold, damsels in distress, or ancient, gem-ridden statues.
They fly over a large circular "crag" unlike those they have seen before scattered with bones, a dozen slightly homebrewed Wyverns (give them some kind of breath weapon) that are gaunt and covered in scars fly up and attack them - these wyverns are the stunted descendants of the former dragon ruler now little more than scavengers that hunt and kill anything they can.
A stampede of rhinoceros-like creatures barreling through the narrow crags, being chased by a pack of Hellhounds that are trying to chase them over a cliff to kill dozens of them at once (or have them corner a mother and baby rhinoceros creature). If the party look closer they can see a few Abishai flying over the hounds, directing them, and/or a druid wearing a strange helmet trying to save the rhinoceros-like creatures. The abishai are the remnants of a dragon-cult that worshiped the former dragon ruler and seek to find the nest in #1 so they can raise a new healthy dragon to worship once more - they may have already done so and are hunting the rhinoceros-like creatures to feed their new young dragon they hope will take over rulership of the area. The druid is the remnants of the people who lived here before it was overrun by monsters, and are members of a circle who care for monstrosities like normal druids care for normal animals.
A plateau between the crags has many visible round holes, if the party investigates the holes are created by some version of a purple worm that will burst out to ambush the party if they get too close.
Ruins of a city, half above a crag and half at the bottom of a crag. On the lip of the crag is a mountain of treasure surrounding statues of strange gods. This could either be the main base of the abishai where they have collected all the wealth of the city into a "horde" dedicated to a dragon-like god they hope will send them a new dragon-ruler. They could also be sacrificing humans (i.e. the druids) that they have captured to this dragon-god as well.
Pools / rivers of whatever element the previous dragon ruler was associated with filled with elementals and/or oozes of a similar type the boss of which is a genie (choose a efeeti, djinn, dao, or marid statblock and modify it for the correct element) of that element. They are protecting & expanding magical portals that sustain the elemental river/pools. This should be at the bottom of a crag, and strange mist/smoke should be rising from the crag to signal this is happening.
Why not throw in a Tarrasque that is responsible for tearing open the crags that wanders around creating new crags?
The skyship could hit a Dead Magic zone, which upon stalling their skyship midair, would cause a skill challenge to maneuver the crashing vessel as best as they can after coming out of the zone, resulting in some ammount of damage during emergency landing at the bottom of the crags. While the party and crew make necessary repairs, some creatures could come out of crevasse leading to a social or combat encounter.
During flight, those on deck could see below a rare draconic phenomenon called Rhogur--Hrawr, meaning Lasting Breath, a permanent Dragon Breath, composed of [insert damage type] energy hanging in the air or even moving.
The spirit of a dragon could reach out to the skyship seeking help to drive malvolent creatures haunting a dragon sacred ground or resting place in the crags depth.
Pay tribute to the Dracolich Queen for safe passage or face a serie of Living Spells and other attacks from her minions.
You could add an encounter with Wyvern riding bandits or giant eagles at lower levels, attack the ship, attempting to sabatoge the propulsion of it, which if they take to long at killing them, succeed force the ship to land for a couple days for repairs, which you could have a side quest to find something like an elemental crystal from an abandoned dragons Lair to fix the ship.
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Hello all!
I have a 7-day adventure to line up for my players, where they will be travelling over "the crags" a set of canyons and gulleys which once housed a dragon-ruled kingdom, now in ruins. They are aboard a skyship.
I have some key locations lined up, but I want to give them some cool side adventures en-route which don't alow them down overly much, just makes it feel like the 7 days of travel.
I'd like to open the ideas to the hive-mind - they're a party of 5 level 13s, and I've already got some ideas lined up - what thoughts might you have? The area is unpopulated due to the dangers of the wilds, so I need to hold that dangerous vibe. Maybe seeing things on the ground which makes them happy that they are in the air?
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!
They notice a plume of smoke rising from a peak. Upon closer inspection they realize that there are a bunch of standing stones and a lot of figures in animal masks. And an alter. And a dude with a big knife waving his hands above the alter. And some poor dude being led to the alter with his arms tied behind his back. If they act quickly maybe they can stop the human sacrifice and gain a new and potentially interesting passenger.
Some sort of giant caracal-like creature that leaps from hidden spots in the gulleys to take down flying creatures and possibly airships from below.
A giant snapping turtle that looks like a rocky outcropping. Just like snapping turtles wiggle their tongues to look like worms to lure in fish, this snapping turtle projects an illusion that draws in adventurers like chests full of gold, damsels in distress, or ancient, gem-ridden statues.
The abishai are the remnants of a dragon-cult that worshiped the former dragon ruler and seek to find the nest in #1 so they can raise a new healthy dragon to worship once more - they may have already done so and are hunting the rhinoceros-like creatures to feed their new young dragon they hope will take over rulership of the area.
The druid is the remnants of the people who lived here before it was overrun by monsters, and are members of a circle who care for monstrosities like normal druids care for normal animals.
Thank you both for the excellent ideas! I will definitely be making use of some of these!
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!
The skyship could hit a Dead Magic zone, which upon stalling their skyship midair, would cause a skill challenge to maneuver the crashing vessel as best as they can after coming out of the zone, resulting in some ammount of damage during emergency landing at the bottom of the crags. While the party and crew make necessary repairs, some creatures could come out of crevasse leading to a social or combat encounter.
During flight, those on deck could see below a rare draconic phenomenon called Rhogur--Hrawr, meaning Lasting Breath, a permanent Dragon Breath, composed of [insert damage type] energy hanging in the air or even moving.
The spirit of a dragon could reach out to the skyship seeking help to drive malvolent creatures haunting a dragon sacred ground or resting place in the crags depth.
Pay tribute to the Dracolich Queen for safe passage or face a serie of Living Spells and other attacks from her minions.
You could add an encounter with Wyvern riding bandits or giant eagles at lower levels, attack the ship, attempting to sabatoge the propulsion of it, which if they take to long at killing them, succeed force the ship to land for a couple days for repairs, which you could have a side quest to find something like an elemental crystal from an abandoned dragons Lair to fix the ship.