In less than two months, it will be my birthday and I will receive the book "Princes of Apocalypse" (almost $60 CAN, it's for the kind of stuff you should save for special occasions). I took this campaign because one of my players has a homebrew race closely related to elementals. So I have two months to mentally prepare myself and come up with scenarios that fit my players (and my interests *cough*cloaker*cough*). I'd love to get some advice from more experienced DMs (I play with my siblings, so you can see how far I have to go).
First, the elemental story. Here are the specifics of my world with the elementals. First, one of my PCs is a "thermosaurian", a reptilian who has had contact with fire and earth elementals, providing them with great resilience and immunity to fire (but, in return, a weakness to cold damage). More importantly, this character comes from the past and lived at a time when the elemental gods were in conflict and the thermosaurians were still the flesh soldiers of the earth and fire elementals. As they later rebelled, the earth and fire elementals have a grudge against the thermosaurians and my PC is kind of "wanted". I'd like to know how to effectively include this particular status, or even how I could include some of this character's history. Second, the Elder Elemental Eye. In my world, there is already a superpowered entity for each element, so I imagined a known legend talking about it, but that in reality, the elemental eye was an illusion, only the collaboration of the 4 elemental entities. Or, the elemental eye is the evil and corrupted version of the 4 entities. If you have a better idea, you can give me some ideas.
Second, while wandering around DnD Beyond, I found a glimpse of an encounter with a cloaker in the Tyar-Besil Shops. Surprise, there is a cloaker in Princes of Apocalypse. Being a exagerated cloaker fan, I have to go further than the little encounter in front of the store. A nest of cloakers? An invasion or worse? A conspiracy? I'm playing with two level 6 PCs, and I really want to include a subquest with this cloaker, but I don't know how. That's why I made this topic. Do you have any ideas how I could exploit this encounter?
A wanted character is an opportunity and obstacles. Perhaps there are some places that they aren't allowed into so they have to sneak in. Maybe they cross paths with some bounty hunters. You don't want it to stop them from doing things but you don't want to just forget about it. Don't have something every session as it may feel a bit frustrating but something now and again should help ground it.
Monsters like cloakers are great for adding a little bit of horror to your games. You want to build up tension, your players could be in a dark or foggy area. Perhaps they start to hear strange noises or catch a glimpse of movement. If you want to more of them in your campaign an area they need to travers is infested with them. Setting things at either end of this area will mean your players will have to go through it. They will have to do their best to sneak through and attract as little attention as possible but let them know they are very likely to stumble across one and sneaking through is a way to make sure they aren't swarmed. If your players seem to be doing badly against it and you are worried it will kill them, then they can always chase it off once they get it to a certain amount of health.
With this elemental eye, consider what tone and depth of story you want. A purely evil entity is simple and effective. It is good for a classic adventure but if you want a bit more then you need to consider other elements. Perhaps the eyes motivations are justifiable, even if they are wrong. Maybe it is evil because of evil done to it, a sadder story in a bleaker world. The illusion idea is interesting. I can't really help you with much more because I have no idea what this elemental eye is.
In less than two months, it will be my birthday and I will receive the book "Princes of Apocalypse" (almost $60 CAN, it's for the kind of stuff you should save for special occasions). I took this campaign because one of my players has a homebrew race closely related to elementals. So I have two months to mentally prepare myself and come up with scenarios that fit my players (and my interests *cough*cloaker*cough*). I'd love to get some advice from more experienced DMs (I play with my siblings, so you can see how far I have to go).
First, the elemental story. Here are the specifics of my world with the elementals. First, one of my PCs is a "thermosaurian", a reptilian who has had contact with fire and earth elementals, providing them with great resilience and immunity to fire (but, in return, a weakness to cold damage). More importantly, this character comes from the past and lived at a time when the elemental gods were in conflict and the thermosaurians were still the flesh soldiers of the earth and fire elementals. As they later rebelled, the earth and fire elementals have a grudge against the thermosaurians and my PC is kind of "wanted". I'd like to know how to effectively include this particular status, or even how I could include some of this character's history.
Second, the Elder Elemental Eye. In my world, there is already a superpowered entity for each element, so I imagined a known legend talking about it, but that in reality, the elemental eye was an illusion, only the collaboration of the 4 elemental entities. Or, the elemental eye is the evil and corrupted version of the 4 entities. If you have a better idea, you can give me some ideas.
Second, while wandering around DnD Beyond, I found a glimpse of an encounter with a cloaker in the Tyar-Besil Shops. Surprise, there is a cloaker in Princes of Apocalypse. Being a exagerated cloaker fan, I have to go further than the little encounter in front of the store. A nest of cloakers? An invasion or worse? A conspiracy? I'm playing with two level 6 PCs, and I really want to include a subquest with this cloaker, but I don't know how. That's why I made this topic. Do you have any ideas how I could exploit this encounter?
My favourites creations :
Half-Cloaker, Cloaker Lord, Potion of the Cloaker
I am looking for advice to upgrade my campaign.
There are troglodytes in my living room and cloakers in my basement.
A wanted character is an opportunity and obstacles. Perhaps there are some places that they aren't allowed into so they have to sneak in. Maybe they cross paths with some bounty hunters. You don't want it to stop them from doing things but you don't want to just forget about it. Don't have something every session as it may feel a bit frustrating but something now and again should help ground it.
Monsters like cloakers are great for adding a little bit of horror to your games. You want to build up tension, your players could be in a dark or foggy area. Perhaps they start to hear strange noises or catch a glimpse of movement. If you want to more of them in your campaign an area they need to travers is infested with them. Setting things at either end of this area will mean your players will have to go through it. They will have to do their best to sneak through and attract as little attention as possible but let them know they are very likely to stumble across one and sneaking through is a way to make sure they aren't swarmed. If your players seem to be doing badly against it and you are worried it will kill them, then they can always chase it off once they get it to a certain amount of health.
With this elemental eye, consider what tone and depth of story you want. A purely evil entity is simple and effective. It is good for a classic adventure but if you want a bit more then you need to consider other elements. Perhaps the eyes motivations are justifiable, even if they are wrong. Maybe it is evil because of evil done to it, a sadder story in a bleaker world. The illusion idea is interesting. I can't really help you with much more because I have no idea what this elemental eye is.
I hope this helps.
Thanks !
My favourites creations :
Half-Cloaker, Cloaker Lord, Potion of the Cloaker
I am looking for advice to upgrade my campaign.
There are troglodytes in my living room and cloakers in my basement.
No problem.