I'm a new DnD player. We're with a group of 5 and 3 of us usually DM (i'm not 1 of those). I'm casually writing a story which should take 1-2 sessions for my first time DM'ing and I need some help on the story.
We have like this main city hub where the adventurers are informed (either by some note on the job board or some "old acquintance" of 1 of the players informing them about an island that is in need of aid. The details are vague but for some months people have gone missing. Fast forward to the island where the party will discover that there's werewolfs active on the island that once a month bite new people to join their werewolf pack. However, without knowing actually this werewolf pack is brainwashed by an illithid in a temple on the island who's making the werewolfs into minions unbeknownst to themselves so they have no recollection of serving an illithid but they dó know they're a werewolf pack. The aim of the illithid is maybe to turn some dragon corpse into a mindflayer dragon but i'm not planning in any way on having that plan coming to fruitition as that's a bit too much for our party.
My question, does this sound in any way viable/believable within the DnD setting? And is this a do-able story for a first time DM? My players usually don't need to be railroaded much as we usually just play along with the story the DM made up as we know that will likely be the best story :)
Please let me know what you think. the players will at this time be level 6 or 7 so i may need to change the CR's of the combat slightly.
I think this is a good setup for a story. Illithids are known to take servants, and a single Illithid might prioritize a more subtle method of manipulating minions in a situation where they don't have an entire mindflayer colony to support them. I think it would be good if your party can be given hints that the way the werewolves are acting is unnatural, so that they don't focus all their energy on just wiping out this werewolf pack, rather than dealing with the Illitihid.
I love this! It kinda gives me Bloodborne vibes. Have it start as a very obvious and typical werewolf story, but keep dropping hints, starting subtly and working more and more obvious, that something is abnormal and alien. It'll kinda give a horror-y vibe, but I think it would be awesome! (in fact, I may steal for my own campaign lol)
So do you guys have any advice on how to drop hints? I had the idea of dropping 1 or 2 hints from a shady acting inn owner/someone in the inn that makes it clear there's werewolves (cause the job advertisement won't say "yo there be werewolves here") but how do i drop hints that there's an illithid or that the Werewolves are mind controlled?
I was thinking having 1 werewolf going into a slightly recognizable hybrid form and make sure he succesfully flees, witht he party confronting him the next day and have him genuinely have no idea about parts of the night? but none of my party has something that forces people to tell the truth, and if they make an insight check and fail that, they need some other hint or hints.
Strange architecture of buildings (mostly right but slightly off)
the landscape is unnatural (too many right angles to be natural, finding out something was actually made of metal?)
Illithid use a big squiddy ship called a nautaloid, maybe there's a bit of it exposed above ground while the rest is buried (Like a tentacle or something)?
If observed from hiding, the werewolves seem to be organized and communicate without speaking (illithid telepathy)
break through a hole in the floor of an ancient temple to find an underground section thats a bit more Sci-fi (or gross and fleshy like a bio-machine)
The party suffers migranes the whole time (from the psionic presence)
Visions in their rests(Bonus if you have a Great Old One Warlock!)
There's a lot that can be gained from reading Lovecraft horror and applying it to illithids and other aberrations (If you can stomach it. the writing is annoyingly dense and convoluted and significantly racist most of the time, but the horror and motifs are cool!)
Idk how long your party will be on this adventure, but if I had to make a suggestion, don't start dropping illithid hints right away, lull them into thinking it really is just a werewolf adventure and slooooowly leak in the illithid stuff!
Ait, i'll have a look at that, thanks! I'm not sure i'll use the take on the nautaloid but possibly I'll use the migraines and have them dream weird and work with the aforementioned memory loss of the werewolves.
I might also leave the 'fast forward to the island' out perhaps? Is it possible that the campaign starts at the island, or is the location of the main hub already set?
Going to the island needs otherwise a lot of railroading.
Our sessions are usually 3.5-4 hours so railroading them to the island shouldn’t be too hard or take too long. And I’ll likely make it a 2parter. I’ve got some good pretty good ideas for the set up, thanks guys!
Hey guys,
I'm a new DnD player. We're with a group of 5 and 3 of us usually DM (i'm not 1 of those). I'm casually writing a story which should take 1-2 sessions for my first time DM'ing and I need some help on the story.
We have like this main city hub where the adventurers are informed (either by some note on the job board or some "old acquintance" of 1 of the players informing them about an island that is in need of aid. The details are vague but for some months people have gone missing. Fast forward to the island where the party will discover that there's werewolfs active on the island that once a month bite new people to join their werewolf pack. However, without knowing actually this werewolf pack is brainwashed by an illithid in a temple on the island who's making the werewolfs into minions unbeknownst to themselves so they have no recollection of serving an illithid but they dó know they're a werewolf pack. The aim of the illithid is maybe to turn some dragon corpse into a mindflayer dragon but i'm not planning in any way on having that plan coming to fruitition as that's a bit too much for our party.
My question, does this sound in any way viable/believable within the DnD setting? And is this a do-able story for a first time DM? My players usually don't need to be railroaded much as we usually just play along with the story the DM made up as we know that will likely be the best story :)
Please let me know what you think. the players will at this time be level 6 or 7 so i may need to change the CR's of the combat slightly.
I think this is a good setup for a story. Illithids are known to take servants, and a single Illithid might prioritize a more subtle method of manipulating minions in a situation where they don't have an entire mindflayer colony to support them. I think it would be good if your party can be given hints that the way the werewolves are acting is unnatural, so that they don't focus all their energy on just wiping out this werewolf pack, rather than dealing with the Illitihid.
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I love this! It kinda gives me Bloodborne vibes. Have it start as a very obvious and typical werewolf story, but keep dropping hints, starting subtly and working more and more obvious, that something is abnormal and alien. It'll kinda give a horror-y vibe, but I think it would be awesome! (in fact, I may steal for my own campaign lol)
So do you guys have any advice on how to drop hints? I had the idea of dropping 1 or 2 hints from a shady acting inn owner/someone in the inn that makes it clear there's werewolves (cause the job advertisement won't say "yo there be werewolves here") but how do i drop hints that there's an illithid or that the Werewolves are mind controlled?
I was thinking having 1 werewolf going into a slightly recognizable hybrid form and make sure he succesfully flees, witht he party confronting him the next day and have him genuinely have no idea about parts of the night? but none of my party has something that forces people to tell the truth, and if they make an insight check and fail that, they need some other hint or hints.
Writing in an unknown language.
Strange architecture of buildings (mostly right but slightly off)
the landscape is unnatural (too many right angles to be natural, finding out something was actually made of metal?)
Illithid use a big squiddy ship called a nautaloid, maybe there's a bit of it exposed above ground while the rest is buried (Like a tentacle or something)?
If observed from hiding, the werewolves seem to be organized and communicate without speaking (illithid telepathy)
break through a hole in the floor of an ancient temple to find an underground section thats a bit more Sci-fi (or gross and fleshy like a bio-machine)
The party suffers migranes the whole time (from the psionic presence)
Visions in their rests(Bonus if you have a Great Old One Warlock!)
There's a lot that can be gained from reading Lovecraft horror and applying it to illithids and other aberrations (If you can stomach it. the writing is annoyingly dense and convoluted and significantly racist most of the time, but the horror and motifs are cool!)
Idk how long your party will be on this adventure, but if I had to make a suggestion, don't start dropping illithid hints right away, lull them into thinking it really is just a werewolf adventure and slooooowly leak in the illithid stuff!
Ait, i'll have a look at that, thanks! I'm not sure i'll use the take on the nautaloid but possibly I'll use the migraines and have them dream weird and work with the aforementioned memory loss of the werewolves.
I might also leave the 'fast forward to the island' out perhaps? Is it possible that the campaign starts at the island, or is the location of the main hub already set?
Going to the island needs otherwise a lot of railroading.
Our sessions are usually 3.5-4 hours so railroading them to the island shouldn’t be too hard or take too long. And I’ll likely make it a 2parter. I’ve got some good pretty good ideas for the set up, thanks guys!