Lost Mines, leading to a longer campaign, hopefully:
I have a player who's character is a Goliath. Her backstory is the usual trope of family murdered. To be more specific, her clan was sold cattle and shortly after, everyone started getting sick and dying. In their weakened state, her clan was attacked by a group of humans. The survivors were taken as slaves. Her character was able to escape with a few others. Tragic escape montage ensues where only her character survives. She mentioned a strange symbol on the one of the humans. This is a boiled down version of events.
I've planted the seeds of the "symbol" being a Zhentarim marking. I'm thinking the Zhentarim were hired to eliminate the tribe. I haven't fleshed out the reason or who. Would any of you amazing DMs/GMs want to throw out some ideas? Even scrapping the Zhentarim would be fine by me. Thoughts?
Nothing wrong with being the Zhents, and it could be for any number of reasons from them wanting to clear the tribe from the land so it could be claimed for a secretive purpose or some rival tribe trying to eliminate the competition. It could be some big bad has had it foretold that a member of the player's tribe would stop whatever scheme they had going and opted to kill off the tribe to make sure the prophecy didn't come to pass....unfortunately, they missed one.
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
How much work do you want to do? Easiest way is making it the LMoP big bad. Or, if you want to hold off on resolving it until later, when you extend to a longer campaign, give some mid-tier bad guy a note that implicates someone in the next portion after LMoP.
I was leaning toward the "clear the tribe from the land" concept. Perhaps some powerful artifact in long lost ancient ruins. Maybe something more mundane like some valuable resource. I do like the prophecy concept as well. Although it could lead to main character synrome (not that my player seems to be that sort of person) or be difficult to incorporate into the larger campaign.
I was thinking of setting up an encounter with some Zhentarim where she would recignize their emblem. Since Glass Staff escaped early on, maybe he could turn coat to the Zhentarim. He wouldn't be involved with her story but... Perhaps he went to Halia in desperation. What if Halia recognized our heroine by her markings? Hmm.
I was leaning toward the "clear the tribe from the land" concept. Perhaps some powerful artifact in long lost ancient ruins. Maybe something more mundane like some valuable resource. I do like the prophecy concept as well. Although it could lead to main character synrome (not that my player seems to be that sort of person) or be difficult to incorporate into the larger campaign.
What class is the character? The more magicky they are, the more it might make sense to have the motivation for getting rid of the tribe lean toward the arcane/divine. If they're a goliath barbarian or the like, then keeping the villain's motivation simpler and simply giving them lots of mooks for the melee character to bash and take revenge on could work better
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Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
She went with a Goliath Light Cleric (who is pretty derelict in her duties, by the way). I think she is going to end up being more of a "learns to accept help from her friends" type.
Goliaths are a misunderstood race. Their size is intimidating, which leads to prejudice and fear among the races that border their lands. The recent raids on their lands have dispersed their population, and the diaspora has left them in need of a leader who can reunite the tribe. Goliath NPC 1 was a trusted leader, and now he/she has been captured and is in need of rescue. NPC 1 has valuable intel on where the Golaith Magical McGuffin Artefact is hidden. Goliath NPC rescue party set out to rescue NPC 1, and they had a good lead on NPC 1's whereabouts, but the party has vanished after setting out for the Zhentarim hide-out.
Goliaths are a misunderstood race. Their size is intimidating, which leads to prejudice and fear among the races that border their lands. The recent raids on their lands have dispersed their population, and the diaspora has left them in need of a leader who can reunite the tribe. Goliath NPC 1 was a trusted leader, and now he/she has been captured and is in need of rescue. NPC 1 has valuable intel on where the Golaith Magical McGuffin Artefact is hidden. Goliath NPC rescue party set out to rescue NPC 1, and they had a good lead on NPC 1's whereabouts, but the party has vanished after setting out for the Zhentarim hide-out.
This is a quality story arc. Unfortunately, the backstory has it that the only survivors (that she knows of) were her brother, sister, and an old warrior. All of these were killed later by the slavers who had taken them captive. I think the arc will need to be a revenge tale.
I'm thinking that I will go with something like this:
The Zhentarim were hired by a rich noble (likely a wizard) to remove the tribe from the area to gain access to an ancient ruin. The noble's goals are in line with the Kraken Society who want to bring war between the giants and dragons (part of the SKT campaign). It's a sad irony that the ruin was not even what the noble was looking for. The tribe was exterminated for no reason and the noble could care less.
There will be a few run ins with Zhentarim that will lead the party to the Grand Dame in Yartar. This will be a good diversion during chapter 3 of SKT. The noble's finger prints will be all over this quest. Everything will lead the party to The Eye of the All Father (since the party needs to go there anyway). The player will have her first chance at revenge but everything will come apart as the BBEG in SKT will make their first appearence. This is a very boiled down version of what I'm thinking at this point.
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Lost Mines, leading to a longer campaign, hopefully:
I have a player who's character is a Goliath. Her backstory is the usual trope of family murdered. To be more specific, her clan was sold cattle and shortly after, everyone started getting sick and dying. In their weakened state, her clan was attacked by a group of humans. The survivors were taken as slaves. Her character was able to escape with a few others. Tragic escape montage ensues where only her character survives. She mentioned a strange symbol on the one of the humans. This is a boiled down version of events.
I've planted the seeds of the "symbol" being a Zhentarim marking. I'm thinking the Zhentarim were hired to eliminate the tribe. I haven't fleshed out the reason or who. Would any of you amazing DMs/GMs want to throw out some ideas? Even scrapping the Zhentarim would be fine by me. Thoughts?
Nothing wrong with being the Zhents, and it could be for any number of reasons from them wanting to clear the tribe from the land so it could be claimed for a secretive purpose or some rival tribe trying to eliminate the competition. It could be some big bad has had it foretold that a member of the player's tribe would stop whatever scheme they had going and opted to kill off the tribe to make sure the prophecy didn't come to pass....unfortunately, they missed one.
How much work do you want to do? Easiest way is making it the LMoP big bad.
Or, if you want to hold off on resolving it until later, when you extend to a longer campaign, give some mid-tier bad guy a note that implicates someone in the next portion after LMoP.
I was leaning toward the "clear the tribe from the land" concept. Perhaps some powerful artifact in long lost ancient ruins. Maybe something more mundane like some valuable resource. I do like the prophecy concept as well. Although it could lead to main character synrome (not that my player seems to be that sort of person) or be difficult to incorporate into the larger campaign.
I was thinking of setting up an encounter with some Zhentarim where she would recignize their emblem. Since Glass Staff escaped early on, maybe he could turn coat to the Zhentarim. He wouldn't be involved with her story but... Perhaps he went to Halia in desperation. What if Halia recognized our heroine by her markings? Hmm.
What class is the character? The more magicky they are, the more it might make sense to have the motivation for getting rid of the tribe lean toward the arcane/divine. If they're a goliath barbarian or the like, then keeping the villain's motivation simpler and simply giving them lots of mooks for the melee character to bash and take revenge on could work better
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
She went with a Goliath Light Cleric (who is pretty derelict in her duties, by the way). I think she is going to end up being more of a "learns to accept help from her friends" type.
Does this need to be the next adventure or can it be a slow burn?
I've established that the arc will go into the next campaign. I am currently working story beats into the campaign we are playing.
Goliaths are a misunderstood race. Their size is intimidating, which leads to prejudice and fear among the races that border their lands. The recent raids on their lands have dispersed their population, and the diaspora has left them in need of a leader who can reunite the tribe. Goliath NPC 1 was a trusted leader, and now he/she has been captured and is in need of rescue. NPC 1 has valuable intel on where the Golaith Magical McGuffin Artefact is hidden. Goliath NPC rescue party set out to rescue NPC 1, and they had a good lead on NPC 1's whereabouts, but the party has vanished after setting out for the Zhentarim hide-out.
This is a quality story arc. Unfortunately, the backstory has it that the only survivors (that she knows of) were her brother, sister, and an old warrior. All of these were killed later by the slavers who had taken them captive. I think the arc will need to be a revenge tale.
I'm thinking that I will go with something like this:
The Zhentarim were hired by a rich noble (likely a wizard) to remove the tribe from the area to gain access to an ancient ruin. The noble's goals are in line with the Kraken Society who want to bring war between the giants and dragons (part of the SKT campaign). It's a sad irony that the ruin was not even what the noble was looking for. The tribe was exterminated for no reason and the noble could care less.
There will be a few run ins with Zhentarim that will lead the party to the Grand Dame in Yartar. This will be a good diversion during chapter 3 of SKT. The noble's finger prints will be all over this quest. Everything will lead the party to The Eye of the All Father (since the party needs to go there anyway). The player will have her first chance at revenge but everything will come apart as the BBEG in SKT will make their first appearence. This is a very boiled down version of what I'm thinking at this point.