whats your favorite plot thread youve either used or never gotten to use? your favorite BBEG motivation? your favorite secret your players never uncovered?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Pronouns: Any/All
About Me: Godless monster in human form bent on extending their natural life to unnatural extremes /general of the goose horde /Moderator of Vinstreb School for the Gifted /holder of the evil storyteller badge of no honor /king of madness /The FBI/ The Archmage of I CAST...!
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Fun Fact: i gain more power the more you post on my forum threads. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
This requires some slight background information, but is certainly one of the more fun story threads I've have the pleasure of tugging on in a game.
I was running a group of friends through the Dungeon of the Mad Mage. Three of the players had decided to make sibling characters (an older sister and a sister/brother twin pairing) that were children of two of the players' previous characters from another adventure, who had settled down after their adventuring days had come to an end and started a family and minor adventuring guild together.
Anyway, the three siblings and a couple of their friends wandered off to Waterdeep and eventually end up exploring the Dungeon of the Mad Mage. It is rather early in the adventure when the player who is playing the twin brother has some changes to his work schedule and needs to bow out of the game. He tells me his plan is just to get his character killed, so during a long rest he sneaks off to go pick a fight with one of the named NPC-run factions of the early floors. The party wakes up with him missing and goes to investigate, finding a neatly wrapped box with the hand of the brother and a cryptic note inviting them deeper into the dungeon where they can collect the next piece. The sisters are horrified for a variety of reasons, but strangely, the most important thing that rings true to them is that they need to get the parts of their brother back and get him brought back to life before their parents found out, because otherwise they would be in very much trouble (the twin sister was apparently terrified of being seen as a disappointment to her parents).
Anyway, with that setup, I was able to craft a macabre scavenger hunt through many of the dungeon's floors, giving the party reason to dive deeper, and even got to introduce one of the Warlords of the Nine Hells from the Avernus book as the end-acquirer of the brother's soul in a [magic item]soul coin[magic item]. She was a guest speaker at the magic academy, Dweomercore, on the ninth floor of the dungeon. In the end, the warlord managed to craft a deal for the coin that got the twin sister, who was a Divine Pact Warlock, to turn against her god and her pact and slightly change over to an Undying Pact Warlock with the Warlord as her new Patron.
It was a tale of tragedy from beginning to end and I rather enjoyed it.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
whats your favorite plot thread youve either used or never gotten to use? your favorite BBEG motivation? your favorite secret your players never uncovered?
Pronouns: Any/All
About Me: Godless monster in human form bent on extending their natural life to unnatural extremes /general of the goose horde /Moderator of Vinstreb School for the Gifted /holder of the evil storyteller badge of no honor /king of madness /The FBI/ The Archmage of I CAST...!
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Fun Fact: i gain more power the more you post on my forum threads. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
This requires some slight background information, but is certainly one of the more fun story threads I've have the pleasure of tugging on in a game.
I was running a group of friends through the Dungeon of the Mad Mage. Three of the players had decided to make sibling characters (an older sister and a sister/brother twin pairing) that were children of two of the players' previous characters from another adventure, who had settled down after their adventuring days had come to an end and started a family and minor adventuring guild together.
Anyway, the three siblings and a couple of their friends wandered off to Waterdeep and eventually end up exploring the Dungeon of the Mad Mage. It is rather early in the adventure when the player who is playing the twin brother has some changes to his work schedule and needs to bow out of the game. He tells me his plan is just to get his character killed, so during a long rest he sneaks off to go pick a fight with one of the named NPC-run factions of the early floors. The party wakes up with him missing and goes to investigate, finding a neatly wrapped box with the hand of the brother and a cryptic note inviting them deeper into the dungeon where they can collect the next piece. The sisters are horrified for a variety of reasons, but strangely, the most important thing that rings true to them is that they need to get the parts of their brother back and get him brought back to life before their parents found out, because otherwise they would be in very much trouble (the twin sister was apparently terrified of being seen as a disappointment to her parents).
Anyway, with that setup, I was able to craft a macabre scavenger hunt through many of the dungeon's floors, giving the party reason to dive deeper, and even got to introduce one of the Warlords of the Nine Hells from the Avernus book as the end-acquirer of the brother's soul in a [magic item]soul coin[magic item]. She was a guest speaker at the magic academy, Dweomercore, on the ninth floor of the dungeon. In the end, the warlord managed to craft a deal for the coin that got the twin sister, who was a Divine Pact Warlock, to turn against her god and her pact and slightly change over to an Undying Pact Warlock with the Warlord as her new Patron.
It was a tale of tragedy from beginning to end and I rather enjoyed it.