I’m trying to come up with a couple ideas for adventures so the players have some choices after our first adventure. One idea I have so far is a pirate type adventure, lure the players in with a classic treasure hunt as a red herring but when they finally find the treasure and open it, that’s when the REAL adventure begins. But I’m having trouble coming up with what could happen next. Opening the treasure chest unleashes an ancient curse and the actual adventure is undoing the curse, but I can’t think of what the curse would be. Or the treasure inside is cursed, but once again, same problem as before. The treasure chest is a doorway to another plane, but why? Space pirates, that’s why. I Just don’t know, I feel like there is something here I just can’t put it together.
They are coming off an undead themed adventure prior to this, and I have an idea involving dragons already. Something Pirate/Sea/Ocean themed is calling to me right now. Or even just an idea for a new theme of an adventure would be great, perhaps that could spark my creative juices better. For some reason my brain is just stuck on pirate and I can’t think of anything else.
OK - once upon a time there was powerful Githyanki astral pirate captain, who grew in power and reputation, until she over-extended and drew the ire of some major power/faction ( "The Enemy" ) which rose up, destroyed her fleet, and hunted her. With the help of her most loyal subordinates she fled to the prime material plane. The plan was that her subordinates would go into hiding in the Astral realms, monitor the activity of "The Enemy", and eventually recall her, once the danger had passed.
Eventually cryptic clues found their way into her hands that her underlings had created a means for her to return, and that it was now safe to do so. She needed to bring an activating key to an interplanar gate, on a remote island, to pass back to her strongholds in the Astral sea.
Sadly
All her underlings had actually been destroyed by "The Enemy"
The message/means of return was a trap sent out by "The Enemy" to lure her back, and finally destroy her
She was killed on the Prime Material Plane before she could attempt to travel to the gate and return to the astral sea. If you like her remains can be encountered in the "undead themed adventure" you're coming off.
In the centuries that have passed since, the mechanism of the key has been broken up and worked into a number of other artifacts, scattered over the islands.
So - the Party needs to:
Find the story, and the first part of the activation key on the Captain's corpse - possibly animated undead encountered in the tail end of the "undead themed adventure" you're wrapping up.
Travel the seas, seeking the other parts of the key - where finding each artefact is, in itself, a sub-adventure.
Assemble the key, and find the gate ( possibly fighting their way through the strange beasts that have evolved under the otherworldly influence of the extra-dimensional energies of the gate ).
Activate and travel through the gate only to discover ...
It's a Trap! Now they have to fight their way out of the trap intended for the Captain, and find a means to get back home - which can be a whole different set of adventures.
It's not terribly original - but it might spark some of your ideas :)
Good luck !
Addendum: I'd also give the Party an opponent on the prime material plane who is also trying to recover the fragments of the key. That gives them an enemy to defeat - who will probably harass/compete-with with the Party in each sub-adventure, and will probably make a "last stand" to try and prevent the Party from activating the gate & take the key from them, and thus constitute an "end boss" for the first adventure arc.
Once through the gate, they can fight their way through the largely automated trap/prison/oubliette The Enemy built for The Captain ( if it's mostly based on traps and constructs, you can - optionally - also have The Enemy lost in the passage of the centuries ). That makes a transitional classic dungeon slog for the Party.
Then they're loose in the Astral plane. Whatever conflict you want to entangle them in on the Astral Plane - say, a war where their allies can only help return the Party to the prime material plane if the war is ended in their allies favor - constitutes the next major adventure.
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If you're feeling for an Ocean/Space type of adventure, and you need a curse to put in the treasure chest, why not something very eldritch? Perhaps one of the party members gets cursed by something like the Aboleth's mucous cloud, so now they have to find a way to reverse the curse while also trying to lug their now seaborne party member around. Of course, such a reversal would require the help (or defeat) of an even more powerful Elder Evil.
Nice! that’s really good. Maybe they could encounter her as a ghost, she doesn’t know she has died and is still trying to get back after receiving the signal it is safe to return.
The Astral Sea sounds like an awesome place for a classic pirate adventure and didn’t even think of that until now. Pirates of the Astral Sea.
If you're feeling for an Ocean/Space type of adventure, and you need a curse to put in the treasure chest, why not something very eldritch? Perhaps one of the party members gets cursed by something like the Aboleth's mucous cloud, so now they have to find a way to reverse the curse while also trying to lug their now seaborne party member around. Of course, such a reversal would require the help (or defeat) of an even more powerful Elder Evil.
Yes, eldritch is absolutely the type of vibe I’d be going for. Perhaps defeating the aboleth in itself could reverse it. They are at the level I think that could make a solid enemy. I could maybe tweak it a little bit and have the curse tether them to the astral sea instead of only being able to breathe underwater...hmmm, I don’t know but I’m definitely starting to put some stuff together.
The chest could belong to a marid. When the PCs open the chest the marid gets angry and decides to enslve them. Encourage you characters to play scholars and artisans, which are a marid's prefered slaves. The characters woyld be put to work in an underwater palace in the plane of water. After some time passes the characters could be approached by a group of pirates who offer to help the characters breakout in exchange for joining there crew. Maybe after the party escapes the marids palace that the crew is trying to steal artifacts that would let the rule the elemental planes. The party could side with them or try to stop them.
Nice! that’s really good. Maybe they could encounter her as a ghost, she doesn’t know she has died and is still trying to get back after receiving the signal it is safe to return.
I like that; it lends an air of the tragic to her.
If it were me, I'd still like to put her journal, and the first part of the key, in the hands of the Players ( printed physical excerpts from it would make good physical props for your Players, as well as being a means for getting clue and exposition notes to them ) - so I'd keep her physical remains nearby. Convincing her that she's dead might require showing her, her remains - and that's how the Party gets hold of the physical artifacts. You could really play her up as a tragic sympathetic character if you so wished.
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Yeah I feel like there would need to be a journal on her dead body, perhaps she died trying to recover the first part of the key.
Do you think a two way journal could work for this? Kinda like Tom Riddles diary from Harry Potter? I don’t know if I could use that for exposition though, which would be necessary. One of her crew members has another journal that can communicate with that one, but is now in possession of her enemy. Hmmm.
also, thanks for the ideas, it has already helped me break through the creative wall.
From a GM'ing perspective, It could be a way to feed the Party clues about the elements of the key, if they need a boost. The enemy wouldn't know where the fragments of the key are, but it would know what the assembled key would look like, what parts are missing, and the nature of those parts. One possible complication is: what happens if/when the enemy figures out it's not the Captain on the other end of the line? Would they break off communication? They would need a reason to want the Party to come through, even if the Captain was available.
Maybe the reason they're hunting her so hard, is because she has taken something they really want back, and they don't really care if it's her, or the Party, they lure back with it, so long as they get it back?
If you're going to have the enemy play cat-and-mouse with the Party - putting in clues that would allow the Party to ( maybe ) figure out that something is amiss, would be sporting of you :)
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I’m trying to come up with a couple ideas for adventures so the players have some choices after our first adventure. One idea I have so far is a pirate type adventure, lure the players in with a classic treasure hunt as a red herring but when they finally find the treasure and open it, that’s when the REAL adventure begins. But I’m having trouble coming up with what could happen next. Opening the treasure chest unleashes an ancient curse and the actual adventure is undoing the curse, but I can’t think of what the curse would be. Or the treasure inside is cursed, but once again, same problem as before. The treasure chest is a doorway to another plane, but why? Space pirates, that’s why. I Just don’t know, I feel like there is something here I just can’t put it together.
They are coming off an undead themed adventure prior to this, and I have an idea involving dragons already. Something Pirate/Sea/Ocean themed is calling to me right now. Or even just an idea for a new theme of an adventure would be great, perhaps that could spark my creative juices better. For some reason my brain is just stuck on pirate and I can’t think of anything else.
thanks.
OK - once upon a time there was powerful Githyanki astral pirate captain, who grew in power and reputation, until she over-extended and drew the ire of some major power/faction ( "The Enemy" ) which rose up, destroyed her fleet, and hunted her. With the help of her most loyal subordinates she fled to the prime material plane. The plan was that her subordinates would go into hiding in the Astral realms, monitor the activity of "The Enemy", and eventually recall her, once the danger had passed.
Eventually cryptic clues found their way into her hands that her underlings had created a means for her to return, and that it was now safe to do so. She needed to bring an activating key to an interplanar gate, on a remote island, to pass back to her strongholds in the Astral sea.
Sadly
In the centuries that have passed since, the mechanism of the key has been broken up and worked into a number of other artifacts, scattered over the islands.
So - the Party needs to:
It's not terribly original - but it might spark some of your ideas :)
Good luck !
Addendum: I'd also give the Party an opponent on the prime material plane who is also trying to recover the fragments of the key. That gives them an enemy to defeat - who will probably harass/compete-with with the Party in each sub-adventure, and will probably make a "last stand" to try and prevent the Party from activating the gate & take the key from them, and thus constitute an "end boss" for the first adventure arc.
Once through the gate, they can fight their way through the largely automated trap/prison/oubliette The Enemy built for The Captain ( if it's mostly based on traps and constructs, you can - optionally - also have The Enemy lost in the passage of the centuries ). That makes a transitional classic dungeon slog for the Party.
Then they're loose in the Astral plane. Whatever conflict you want to entangle them in on the Astral Plane - say, a war where their allies can only help return the Party to the prime material plane if the war is ended in their allies favor - constitutes the next major adventure.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
If you're feeling for an Ocean/Space type of adventure, and you need a curse to put in the treasure chest, why not something very eldritch? Perhaps one of the party members gets cursed by something like the Aboleth's mucous cloud, so now they have to find a way to reverse the curse while also trying to lug their now seaborne party member around. Of course, such a reversal would require the help (or defeat) of an even more powerful Elder Evil.
Nice! that’s really good. Maybe they could encounter her as a ghost, she doesn’t know she has died and is still trying to get back after receiving the signal it is safe to return.
The Astral Sea sounds like an awesome place for a classic pirate adventure and didn’t even think of that until now. Pirates of the Astral Sea.
Yes, eldritch is absolutely the type of vibe I’d be going for. Perhaps defeating the aboleth in itself could reverse it. They are at the level I think that could make a solid enemy. I could maybe tweak it a little bit and have the curse tether them to the astral sea instead of only being able to breathe underwater...hmmm, I don’t know but I’m definitely starting to put some stuff together.
The chest could belong to a marid. When the PCs open the chest the marid gets angry and decides to enslve them. Encourage you characters to play scholars and artisans, which are a marid's prefered slaves. The characters woyld be put to work in an underwater palace in the plane of water. After some time passes the characters could be approached by a group of pirates who offer to help the characters breakout in exchange for joining there crew. Maybe after the party escapes the marids palace that the crew is trying to steal artifacts that would let the rule the elemental planes. The party could side with them or try to stop them.
I like that; it lends an air of the tragic to her.
If it were me, I'd still like to put her journal, and the first part of the key, in the hands of the Players ( printed physical excerpts from it would make good physical props for your Players, as well as being a means for getting clue and exposition notes to them ) - so I'd keep her physical remains nearby. Convincing her that she's dead might require showing her, her remains - and that's how the Party gets hold of the physical artifacts. You could really play her up as a tragic sympathetic character if you so wished.
I think it could be a lot of fun :)
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
Yeah I feel like there would need to be a journal on her dead body, perhaps she died trying to recover the first part of the key.
Do you think a two way journal could work for this? Kinda like Tom Riddles diary from Harry Potter? I don’t know if I could use that for exposition though, which would be necessary. One of her crew members has another journal that can communicate with that one, but is now in possession of her enemy. Hmmm.
also, thanks for the ideas, it has already helped me break through the creative wall.
The two way communication book is a cool idea.
From a GM'ing perspective, It could be a way to feed the Party clues about the elements of the key, if they need a boost. The enemy wouldn't know where the fragments of the key are, but it would know what the assembled key would look like, what parts are missing, and the nature of those parts. One possible complication is: what happens if/when the enemy figures out it's not the Captain on the other end of the line? Would they break off communication? They would need a reason to want the Party to come through, even if the Captain was available.
Maybe the reason they're hunting her so hard, is because she has taken something they really want back, and they don't really care if it's her, or the Party, they lure back with it, so long as they get it back?
If you're going to have the enemy play cat-and-mouse with the Party - putting in clues that would allow the Party to ( maybe ) figure out that something is amiss, would be sporting of you :)
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.