I'm currently working on a lv. 10-20 campaign immediately following Tomb of Annihilation. The seed I'm working with is that the death and suffering caused by the Atropal and Acererak's Soulmonger attracted the attention of the Atropal's "father", Atropus, the World Born Dead (for those unfamiliar, it's a massive, undead moon said to have been the head of an undead primordial killed in the Dawn War). The problem is that, though I have a few storybeats, they are still very disparate.
Storyarc one: The yuan-ti of Chult try to use the Black Opal crown to summon Dendar the night serpent. How they get the crown might be an adventure in itself, depending on the actions taken by the players at the end of ToA. Turns out the crown is not connected to Dendar, but rather Shar, goddess of night, nihilism and darkness (I want to include Shar, Selûne and Chauntea for that sweet sweet deific family drama.)
As atropus draws nearer, necromancy gets stronger. This is of course bad for almost everyone, except Thay, who launches an invasion of whatever region the players are in. Valindra is most likely involved.
Artus Cimber is kidnapped by frost giants to bring about eternal winter. Epic rescue ensues.
I'm inclined to drop that last one, since it's pretty disconnected to the overall plot (and could make a great apocalyptic campaign on its own), but my overall problem is how I'm going to tie these events together, and have them lead up to Atropus' arrival.
I also need to find a reason the gods wouldn't get involved. They can't kill Atropus directly (He's a primordial, his undead fortitude trait is buffed to ridiculous levels), but they can throw him straight into the Astral or Ethereal plane and leave him there to be someone else's problem, so why wouldn't they do that?
I'm currently working on a lv. 10-20 campaign immediately following Tomb of Annihilation. The seed I'm working with is that the death and suffering caused by the Atropal and Acererak's Soulmonger attracted the attention of the Atropal's "father", Atropus, the World Born Dead (for those unfamiliar, it's a massive, undead moon said to have been the head of an undead primordial killed in the Dawn War). The problem is that, though I have a few storybeats, they are still very disparate.
I'm inclined to drop that last one, since it's pretty disconnected to the overall plot (and could make a great apocalyptic campaign on its own), but my overall problem is how I'm going to tie these events together, and have them lead up to Atropus' arrival.
I also need to find a reason the gods wouldn't get involved. They can't kill Atropus directly (He's a primordial, his undead fortitude trait is buffed to ridiculous levels), but they can throw him straight into the Astral or Ethereal plane and leave him there to be someone else's problem, so why wouldn't they do that?
I haven't played Tomb of Annihilation yet, but the first seems the most fleshed out. It also seems pretty cool, so I'd suggest that one.