I got into D&D a little over a year ago and progressively got more and more into. Going from having one session every 2 weeks to having 3 sessions a week. I started to make my own homebrew campaign after trying out DM'ing with a one shot. I was looking for some opinions and ideas on how to refine or change some parts of it to make it better! Even if there are things that just don't make sense, I'm very open to change, I want this to be the best it can be. Buckle up, this is going to be a long read, I apologize in advance. I'm going to try and explain most of it, without going into every single detail.
In a session 0, in order to get each party member to the setting, I set up tiny sessions revolving around their individual characters. I based the setting off their backstory, either having them be in their home, village, wandering on the roads, or even in a cave researching local wildlife. Each of them had an encounter with a quasit who appeared and tried to kill of the PC. When the PC managed to kill the quasit (either by themselves or with a little help from characters in their background, as they were only lvl 1 at this point), the quasit mentions something about "the master's will" or "the king's will be done". This is to semi-reference the evil king they will be hearing about in a little bit. They are then surrounded by magical energy, swirling and humming as the light around them begins to glow brighter and they are transported through the planes. Seeing different creatures, beings, and lands on their journey to the Purple Rocks. When they arrive, they are in in a hole in that ground that is being used as a garbage dump. There is a possible encounter with some giant rats and a scavenger beast (homebrew) if you didn't want to use the quasits at the start. When they finish the rats off, a man will appear above them, standing in the rays of light, making it very hard to see them clearly. This man is D, the mysterious benefactor who brought them there. D will explain on how he used a scroll of wish to bring saviors to the purple rocks, who were destined to save the islands and its people from the evil king.
Background Info:
D will explain to them on how the king was originally a good man named Edmaris Utherall. He was a kind and benevolent king, who protected the lands and its people from harm. Many years ago (about 50-100) the nation was attacked by an adult dragon who wanted to make the islands its territory. The king and his people waged a war against it, defending their land from the dragon. The war waged for months, the people were suffering, in one of the battles, the queen was killed by dragon fire, her body never recovered. This caused the king to turn down a dark path, looking for answers and power in places that should never be seen. He eventually found the power he was seeking, in a demon (Orcus). This demon gave him power in order to defeat the dragon (I haven't decided yet whether he beat it or trapped it), in exchange for the kings servitude.
The king is being manipulated and controlled by the demon Orcus, whose main goal is to create an everlasting portal to his layer of the abyss in the purple rocks and to turn the purple rocks into a land of undeath. He plans on using the stones to raise all of the people from the PR from the dead and to create a portal using them as well. The party must stop this from happening at all costs.
Main Objective:
The main goal of my campaign is for the party to defeat the evil king that has started tormenting the Purple Rocks. To do this, they need to collect 6 magical items that once belonged to the queen, the pearls of power (Homebrew). Each of these items gives the party a spell that can be helpful to them in the story.
Pearl 1 (town of clearview)- cure wounds/ lesser restoration
Pearl 2 (bandit hideout, between Dargan and Mournstead)- Bless
Pearl 3 (fake eye of gnoll leader, near Ipsam)- misty step
Pearl 4 (in modified wand of true polymorph, Vilkstead, Noke's Tower)- polymorph
Pearl 5 (locked away in a crypt of the royal family)- Mass cure wounds
Pearl 6 (memorial room to the queen in the castle)- revivify
The first pearl is found in the town of Clearview, when the party arrives they will be on the outskirts of town and run into some bandits attacking a lord and his guards. The party can decide to help and will be introduced to Kyle Goodbarrow. They can then meet the citizens of Clearview and learn that they are celebrating for a wedding that is happening soon. Ginnie Goodbarrow (19yo) is getting married to Lord Kyle Mournstead (20yo) soon. The party will have about a day before the wedding to adventure around town and shop and learn about the purple rocks, during this time they can learn the Clearview is protected and has not had any big incidents for about 19 years. (Ginnie's father, Green, the mayor of the town, made a deal with the fey and the dryad of the forest to trade one of his children, Garret, Ginnie's twin brother, for the towns prosperity and protection to the dryad to be trained as a druid of the forest). The protection is failing lately for some reason as the town has had to fight off some goblins and bandits recently, but they don't know why its failing (only the mayor and his sister in law know the truth). During the wedding, twig blights will come out of the tree in the center of Clearview and kidnap Ginnie, taking her to Garret in the feywild. The party will then be asked to help save Ginnie and can go into the feywild to fight Garret. If they kill Garret, the dryad will say for the protection to continue, Ginnie needs to take Garretts place as the druid of the forest, giving the party a moral decision whether to save her or save the town. If they win, they will be rewarded by the town for saving Ginnie, but the protection will fall, leaving Clearview to defend itself.
The second pearl can be found in a bandit hideout. The party has a few ways to find this one, when they get to Mournstead eventually, it will be revealed that the Mayor, Matthew Mournstead (Kyle's father) has been working with the bandits and having them rob merchants and caravans on the road and splitting the money. Or on there way to Mournstead, they can be stopped by travelrs on the road who invite them to join for dinner. These are bandits in disguise who have been robbing people on these roads for weeks. If the party kills them or talks to them, they can find clues that would lead them or be led directly to the bandit camp. Inside of here, they can find a bandit captian that is holding the second pearl. They can also find some acolytes working with the bandits. These acolytes are worshippers of orcus and are practicing ways to control the undead (ghoul in the room covered in binding runes and sigils). They can find papers talking about the necrotic stones and their placement all over the the purple rocks, the sigils and runes on the ghoul and their purpose on a desk. There is also an altar in the corner with a rotten and decaying goats head on top (first hint of orcus), there is also a tapestry behind it depicting a skeletal figure with dark wings lording over an army of the undead (religion check can reveal them as orcus). The party can choose to either trick the badits into giving up the pearl or fight their way through the hideout in order to take it. They can also find letters connecting the mayor of Mournstead to them, talking about merchants and when to rob them on the road.
The third pearl can be found near the town of Ipsam. The town itself is fairly normal, but they have had villagers going missing for the last few weeks. Little by little, more and more people are vanishing, never to be seen again. If the party stays up at night to try and find out what is going on, they may see gnolls sneaking into the town at night and kidnapping anyone by themselves or staying out too late. The party can decide to follow the gnolls that night or wait until morning to track them back to their lair (harder DC if they wait till morning). They can follow the tracks to a gnoll camp, if they go in the daytime the gnolls will be asleep, save for a few guards. And if they go at night, all the gnolls will be up and at the ready for a fight. The gnolls goal is to kidnapp and change as many people as possible into gnolls. Their leader has an ancient tome of Yeengoghu that has a ritual for changing humans into gnolls (There is also a ritual to return them back into humans if the party looks for it in the tome). The leader also has a fake eye that if the party investigates, they can find it a pearl stuffed inside of his eye socket.
The fourth pearl can be found in the town of Vilkstead. For this pearl, i've repurposed a one shot I found that is probably fairly well know. I added it in for a bit more of whimsy and lightness to the campaign. In vilkstead, anywhere the party may be, either at a bar, inn, blacksmith, or merchants shop, they will be approached by a frantic sheep. This sheep is actually a wizard named Shinebright, that has been polymorphed into a sheep, he will have a scroll of speak with animals in his mouth. He will request the parties help in turning him back to a human and stopping his apprentice, who took his wand and turned against him. The party can agree to help turn him back into a human and get the modified wand of true polymorph back. The sheep can lead the party to his wizards tower, which is now being guarded by animals turned into humans (wolves and bears). They can fight their way into the tower, where they will eventually meet up with Noke, the apprentice. He will fight and when it starts looking bad, he will run into his bedroom and use the wand to turn his bed into a Bed Dragon Wyrmling. If the party manages to beat the wrymling, Noke will attempt to polymorph himself next, if he fails he will become a gibbering mouther. If he fails, the wand will be destroyed and your hope of turning Shinebright back to human right away will be dashed. But, the party will be able to find in what's left of the wand, is a pearl of power. it had been modified to change its regular polymorph spell into true polymorph.
The fifth pearl can be found inside of a mausoleum dedicated to the royal family. The paths leads through the mausoleum into a bugbear and etins new hideout. A large group of bugbears had wandered into the area and made it their home. Near the end of this pathway, there can be found an entrance to the underdark. The group searched into it and while they were in there, the bugbear chief encountered an etin and offered to guide them out in exchange for joining their group. she is the nuclear option for the bugbears, a last resort if they can't win themselves. The party can get some nice loot and magic items from this path. If the party continues, they will encounter many undead and monsters. They arrive at a gate that seems to be meant to only allow the nobles of the family to continue onwards. the party will need to fight or find another way past groups of skeletons, zombies, minotaur skeletons, black pudding, undead bugbears, ghast, and ghouls. they can even decide to help a group of darklings escape back to the feywild or destroy them. In order to get into the final vault where the pearl is stored, the party will need to defeat a wight and their zombie soldiers, the last line of defense. There is also a trapped room just before the vault that will seal the group in and fill up with poisonous gas if they cannot figure out how to stop it.
The sixth pearl can be found under the kings castle, in a memorial room dedicated to the late queen. It appears as a lavishly decorated bedchamber, serene and untouched — flowers still fresh, the scent of lavender in the air, moonlight through stained glass windows. The queen’s gown lies folded on the bed. A music box plays softly. A statue of the queen stands at the center, serene and smiling, with the final Pearl nestled in her clasped hands. When/if the party touches or disturbs the statue, the illusion cracks — reality bleeds in, and the true nature of the vault is revealed. The room twists violently. Walls rot. The bed becomes a slab of stone. The statue becomes a grieving effigy: face contorted in sorrow, fingers bloodied and cracked, still holding the pearl. The room is now filled with shades of memory and madness: Ghostly echoes of the queen, trapped in a repeating memory loop: "Why did you let me die? Why won't you let me rest?" The party can then fight a phantom version of the king, his shadow corrupted and controlled by Orcus, or a death knight standing guard over the final pearl.
Finale:
Deep under the castle, there will be a door leading down to the ritual room where the king is waiting and performing the ritual. The party can open the door either with a key found in the memorial room or with all 6 pearls of power. When they get down there, they will be met with a familiar face, D. The man who summoned them all here and set the on the path to stop the evil king, was actually the king all along. In between bouts of madness and control, he would have fleeting moments of clarity. In those moments, he decided to plant the seeds of his own destruction summoning the people who can save the nation and stop him once and for all. The party can now attempt to stop the evil king and halt the ritual from continuing. If they are able to defeat the king and perform the raven queens rite, then the gate can be closed and the purple rocks can be saved. I haven't fully fleshed out the ending yet, but my two thoughts are that the ritual needs a sacrifice, so either one of the party members or a favorite NPC can be taken for this, if they are able to be saved, then orcus can have a backup plan. He can use the kings soul as a replacement. It won't be a perfect portal/ connection to the abyss, but it would be enough for Orcus to destroy the purple rocks as revenge for stopping his plans.
If this happens, then the party could decide to fight off the hordes of the abyss to try and protect the purple rocks, or they could flee, knowing it is hopeless right now. But I thought that this could then possibly lead into an abyssal campaign where the party decides to end orcus for good. Either going to find his wand and destroy it or by taking the fight to Orcus himself inside of the abyss.
Hints/Party Visions
As the campaign goes on, they will eventually be approached by the raven queen. giving them small hints at first at what Orcus is plotting, first giving the party a vision of the necromantic stones being placed all around the purple rocks and the undeath that they bring if allowed to sit. When the party leaves Clearview after getting the first pearl is when I would give them this first vision. On the way to the next town, they can find drag marks in the roads that look to be from something heavy (one of the necrotic stones) and they can investigate it to find a bunch of goblins and some ogres transporting the stone and placing it in the woods out of the way.
They will also have the raven queen show up to them for another vision after finding the 2nd pearl. She will come to them and explain that there is a ritual to stop the king/orcus plans, that the pearls are the key to finishing this for good and we need to continue searching for them. She tells them of a ritual known as "The Raven Queen's Rite" that can be done at unholy places (like the stones) or at a portal to the abyss (Orcus overall goal) to close it for good.
So, I know that was a lot and it took me a while to type out. Sorry for any errors or spelling mistakes, I did this as fast as I could. But i would love people's opinion on my homebrew campaign! I would love the criticism so that I can improve it and refine the story as a whole. It is my first time really DM'ing and I would like to eventually DM this campaign again when I have more experience because I think that is has a lot of potential! Please let me know what you think! I have much more written for this, but a lot is not important for the main objective. Many towns have plots and quests to do, but I figured I would leave them out of this for now, but if you are interested in hearing about the other stuff, I'd be happy type it all out!
1) as a player, having the entire plot told to me right at the beginning of the campaign is a good way to get me to not want to engage with that plot. Also, some dude kidnapped me and dragged me who knows where? I'm definitely not seeing him as a "benefactor". My first thought will be to try and get home, not save this land I have absolutely no connection to or emotional investment in just because some guy says I should
You're better off giving that lore and exposition in dribs and drabs and letting the party find it along the way (maybe Clearview was the birthplace of the queen, so the townsfolk have special reverence for her and they can tell the party about her death at the hands of the dragon, which then prompted the king's descent into madness). That way they can feel like they're putting a puzzle together as to what's going on, while at the same time providing them with reasons to want to be the heroes of Purple Rocks
The most prominent example of this sort of campaign is Ravenloft. You may want to look at that as a template of how to drop your party into this sort of situation and build engagement
2) you don't seem to have left much latitude for player creativity or exploration. This seems like a very pure railroad, even down to the order you seem to want the pearls to be collected in -- which is fine if that's what your table likes, but if not, well, there's a reason why "party ignores plot to go do random nonsense" is such a DnD trope
(Also, if your big twist/reveal is that D is the mad king... are there no portraits or statues of him anywhere in the kingdom? How does that never come up?)
3) what levels is this intended for? The pearls themselves don't seem all that powerful -- very similar to a necklace of prayer beads that's been scattered but retained its magic somehow -- but after the confrontation with the king you're open to the possibility of them invading the Abyss and going after Orcus? There seems to be something of a disconnect there
EDIT: Oh, one more thing that the party could get hyper-focused on, at the expense of your plot
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)
First off, thank you for the comment! And you are totally right, the players did immediately try to leave the island because they were like "who tf are you". The info dump at the start was honestly me trying to get them interested in what's going on as most of them were playing "hero" type characters, like most of their backstories said they always help those in need. But after playing through it like that and your suggestion, I do think not info dumping on them and slowly giving them that info would be much better.
With the railroading part, I can see how it seems like that, and part of it definitely is from my inexperience with balancing combats. I tried to make them in a way that the party could do it as a natural progression. With the stronger enemies being on the second island with the second half of the pearls that they need to get. I tried to add in places for them to do random stuff and try my best not to force them after a pearl. I have stuff going on in multiple towns that weren't listed in this for them to wander off and do if they'd prefer. But on a look back, you are right, the way the story is set up does feel very railroady. Would not worrying about balancing the combat help? not completely disregarding it, but almost waiting to balance it until the party chooses to actually go to the place or pearl?
And yeah, I actually did think about that one and wasn't sure how to handle it. When the party first met D, I did have them to investigation/perception checks to notice a shimmer on D's face. The best I had come up with was there was almost an illusion or mirage over his face. But having the chance of hints that they know beforehand would be better and make more sense. They've only been to two towns so far, so I could always start adding them in for the future!
And it was intended to start at 1 and work there way up. I genuinely had no idea what an appropriate level would be so I was kind of just winging it. I had guessed around lvl 6 through lvl 8 is what they would be near the end. The whole possibility of invading the abyss is more just me thinking it's cool than having any actual plan for it. Probably not a good idea to not have an actual end to the campaign and expect it to continue, is it? I had the pearls in more as a way to make the raven queens rite work, I thought it was a fun idea to have them search for the items they needed. But now that I think about it, they really don't know why they are going after the pearls except for because D told them too, that they were the key but not why they were the key. They don't yet have a real reason to go after them. Just above table knowing they need them but not what for.
And I hadn't thought about the dragons hoard at all tbh, I had thought about having it possible come back as a undead dragon or something though. I did say that the dragon had come this way to make the purple rocks its territory, but I doubt the dragon would've left their hoard unguarded and probably would've brought it with them if possible.
But again, thank you for the comment! This is a lot of stuff that I hadn't thought about or had the experience of DnD to know how I should do it yet!
Hello everyone!
I got into D&D a little over a year ago and progressively got more and more into. Going from having one session every 2 weeks to having 3 sessions a week. I started to make my own homebrew campaign after trying out DM'ing with a one shot. I was looking for some opinions and ideas on how to refine or change some parts of it to make it better! Even if there are things that just don't make sense, I'm very open to change, I want this to be the best it can be. Buckle up, this is going to be a long read, I apologize in advance. I'm going to try and explain most of it, without going into every single detail.
In a session 0, in order to get each party member to the setting, I set up tiny sessions revolving around their individual characters. I based the setting off their backstory, either having them be in their home, village, wandering on the roads, or even in a cave researching local wildlife. Each of them had an encounter with a quasit who appeared and tried to kill of the PC. When the PC managed to kill the quasit (either by themselves or with a little help from characters in their background, as they were only lvl 1 at this point), the quasit mentions something about "the master's will" or "the king's will be done". This is to semi-reference the evil king they will be hearing about in a little bit. They are then surrounded by magical energy, swirling and humming as the light around them begins to glow brighter and they are transported through the planes. Seeing different creatures, beings, and lands on their journey to the Purple Rocks. When they arrive, they are in in a hole in that ground that is being used as a garbage dump. There is a possible encounter with some giant rats and a scavenger beast (homebrew) if you didn't want to use the quasits at the start. When they finish the rats off, a man will appear above them, standing in the rays of light, making it very hard to see them clearly. This man is D, the mysterious benefactor who brought them there. D will explain on how he used a scroll of wish to bring saviors to the purple rocks, who were destined to save the islands and its people from the evil king.
Background Info:
D will explain to them on how the king was originally a good man named Edmaris Utherall. He was a kind and benevolent king, who protected the lands and its people from harm. Many years ago (about 50-100) the nation was attacked by an adult dragon who wanted to make the islands its territory. The king and his people waged a war against it, defending their land from the dragon. The war waged for months, the people were suffering, in one of the battles, the queen was killed by dragon fire, her body never recovered. This caused the king to turn down a dark path, looking for answers and power in places that should never be seen. He eventually found the power he was seeking, in a demon (Orcus). This demon gave him power in order to defeat the dragon (I haven't decided yet whether he beat it or trapped it), in exchange for the kings servitude.
The king is being manipulated and controlled by the demon Orcus, whose main goal is to create an everlasting portal to his layer of the abyss in the purple rocks and to turn the purple rocks into a land of undeath. He plans on using the stones to raise all of the people from the PR from the dead and to create a portal using them as well. The party must stop this from happening at all costs.
Main Objective:
The main goal of my campaign is for the party to defeat the evil king that has started tormenting the Purple Rocks. To do this, they need to collect 6 magical items that once belonged to the queen, the pearls of power (Homebrew). Each of these items gives the party a spell that can be helpful to them in the story.
Pearl 1 (town of clearview)- cure wounds/ lesser restoration
Pearl 2 (bandit hideout, between Dargan and Mournstead)- Bless
Pearl 3 (fake eye of gnoll leader, near Ipsam)- misty step
Pearl 4 (in modified wand of true polymorph, Vilkstead, Noke's Tower)- polymorph
Pearl 5 (locked away in a crypt of the royal family)- Mass cure wounds
Pearl 6 (memorial room to the queen in the castle)- revivify
The first pearl is found in the town of Clearview, when the party arrives they will be on the outskirts of town and run into some bandits attacking a lord and his guards. The party can decide to help and will be introduced to Kyle Goodbarrow. They can then meet the citizens of Clearview and learn that they are celebrating for a wedding that is happening soon. Ginnie Goodbarrow (19yo) is getting married to Lord Kyle Mournstead (20yo) soon. The party will have about a day before the wedding to adventure around town and shop and learn about the purple rocks, during this time they can learn the Clearview is protected and has not had any big incidents for about 19 years. (Ginnie's father, Green, the mayor of the town, made a deal with the fey and the dryad of the forest to trade one of his children, Garret, Ginnie's twin brother, for the towns prosperity and protection to the dryad to be trained as a druid of the forest). The protection is failing lately for some reason as the town has had to fight off some goblins and bandits recently, but they don't know why its failing (only the mayor and his sister in law know the truth). During the wedding, twig blights will come out of the tree in the center of Clearview and kidnap Ginnie, taking her to Garret in the feywild. The party will then be asked to help save Ginnie and can go into the feywild to fight Garret. If they kill Garret, the dryad will say for the protection to continue, Ginnie needs to take Garretts place as the druid of the forest, giving the party a moral decision whether to save her or save the town. If they win, they will be rewarded by the town for saving Ginnie, but the protection will fall, leaving Clearview to defend itself.
The second pearl can be found in a bandit hideout. The party has a few ways to find this one, when they get to Mournstead eventually, it will be revealed that the Mayor, Matthew Mournstead (Kyle's father) has been working with the bandits and having them rob merchants and caravans on the road and splitting the money. Or on there way to Mournstead, they can be stopped by travelrs on the road who invite them to join for dinner. These are bandits in disguise who have been robbing people on these roads for weeks. If the party kills them or talks to them, they can find clues that would lead them or be led directly to the bandit camp. Inside of here, they can find a bandit captian that is holding the second pearl. They can also find some acolytes working with the bandits. These acolytes are worshippers of orcus and are practicing ways to control the undead (ghoul in the room covered in binding runes and sigils). They can find papers talking about the necrotic stones and their placement all over the the purple rocks, the sigils and runes on the ghoul and their purpose on a desk. There is also an altar in the corner with a rotten and decaying goats head on top (first hint of orcus), there is also a tapestry behind it depicting a skeletal figure with dark wings lording over an army of the undead (religion check can reveal them as orcus). The party can choose to either trick the badits into giving up the pearl or fight their way through the hideout in order to take it. They can also find letters connecting the mayor of Mournstead to them, talking about merchants and when to rob them on the road.
The third pearl can be found near the town of Ipsam. The town itself is fairly normal, but they have had villagers going missing for the last few weeks. Little by little, more and more people are vanishing, never to be seen again. If the party stays up at night to try and find out what is going on, they may see gnolls sneaking into the town at night and kidnapping anyone by themselves or staying out too late. The party can decide to follow the gnolls that night or wait until morning to track them back to their lair (harder DC if they wait till morning). They can follow the tracks to a gnoll camp, if they go in the daytime the gnolls will be asleep, save for a few guards. And if they go at night, all the gnolls will be up and at the ready for a fight. The gnolls goal is to kidnapp and change as many people as possible into gnolls. Their leader has an ancient tome of Yeengoghu that has a ritual for changing humans into gnolls (There is also a ritual to return them back into humans if the party looks for it in the tome). The leader also has a fake eye that if the party investigates, they can find it a pearl stuffed inside of his eye socket.
The fourth pearl can be found in the town of Vilkstead. For this pearl, i've repurposed a one shot I found that is probably fairly well know. I added it in for a bit more of whimsy and lightness to the campaign. In vilkstead, anywhere the party may be, either at a bar, inn, blacksmith, or merchants shop, they will be approached by a frantic sheep. This sheep is actually a wizard named Shinebright, that has been polymorphed into a sheep, he will have a scroll of speak with animals in his mouth. He will request the parties help in turning him back to a human and stopping his apprentice, who took his wand and turned against him. The party can agree to help turn him back into a human and get the modified wand of true polymorph back. The sheep can lead the party to his wizards tower, which is now being guarded by animals turned into humans (wolves and bears). They can fight their way into the tower, where they will eventually meet up with Noke, the apprentice. He will fight and when it starts looking bad, he will run into his bedroom and use the wand to turn his bed into a Bed Dragon Wyrmling. If the party manages to beat the wrymling, Noke will attempt to polymorph himself next, if he fails he will become a gibbering mouther. If he fails, the wand will be destroyed and your hope of turning Shinebright back to human right away will be dashed. But, the party will be able to find in what's left of the wand, is a pearl of power. it had been modified to change its regular polymorph spell into true polymorph.
The fifth pearl can be found inside of a mausoleum dedicated to the royal family. The paths leads through the mausoleum into a bugbear and etins new hideout. A large group of bugbears had wandered into the area and made it their home. Near the end of this pathway, there can be found an entrance to the underdark. The group searched into it and while they were in there, the bugbear chief encountered an etin and offered to guide them out in exchange for joining their group. she is the nuclear option for the bugbears, a last resort if they can't win themselves. The party can get some nice loot and magic items from this path. If the party continues, they will encounter many undead and monsters. They arrive at a gate that seems to be meant to only allow the nobles of the family to continue onwards. the party will need to fight or find another way past groups of skeletons, zombies, minotaur skeletons, black pudding, undead bugbears, ghast, and ghouls. they can even decide to help a group of darklings escape back to the feywild or destroy them. In order to get into the final vault where the pearl is stored, the party will need to defeat a wight and their zombie soldiers, the last line of defense. There is also a trapped room just before the vault that will seal the group in and fill up with poisonous gas if they cannot figure out how to stop it.
The sixth pearl can be found under the kings castle, in a memorial room dedicated to the late queen. It appears as a lavishly decorated bedchamber, serene and untouched — flowers still fresh, the scent of lavender in the air, moonlight through stained glass windows. The queen’s gown lies folded on the bed. A music box plays softly. A statue of the queen stands at the center, serene and smiling, with the final Pearl nestled in her clasped hands. When/if the party touches or disturbs the statue, the illusion cracks — reality bleeds in, and the true nature of the vault is revealed.
The room twists violently. Walls rot. The bed becomes a slab of stone. The statue becomes a grieving effigy: face contorted in sorrow, fingers bloodied and cracked, still holding the pearl. The room is now filled with shades of memory and madness: Ghostly echoes of the queen, trapped in a repeating memory loop: "Why did you let me die? Why won't you let me rest?" The party can then fight a phantom version of the king, his shadow corrupted and controlled by Orcus, or a death knight standing guard over the final pearl.
Finale:
Deep under the castle, there will be a door leading down to the ritual room where the king is waiting and performing the ritual. The party can open the door either with a key found in the memorial room or with all 6 pearls of power. When they get down there, they will be met with a familiar face, D. The man who summoned them all here and set the on the path to stop the evil king, was actually the king all along. In between bouts of madness and control, he would have fleeting moments of clarity. In those moments, he decided to plant the seeds of his own destruction summoning the people who can save the nation and stop him once and for all. The party can now attempt to stop the evil king and halt the ritual from continuing. If they are able to defeat the king and perform the raven queens rite, then the gate can be closed and the purple rocks can be saved. I haven't fully fleshed out the ending yet, but my two thoughts are that the ritual needs a sacrifice, so either one of the party members or a favorite NPC can be taken for this, if they are able to be saved, then orcus can have a backup plan. He can use the kings soul as a replacement. It won't be a perfect portal/ connection to the abyss, but it would be enough for Orcus to destroy the purple rocks as revenge for stopping his plans.
If this happens, then the party could decide to fight off the hordes of the abyss to try and protect the purple rocks, or they could flee, knowing it is hopeless right now. But I thought that this could then possibly lead into an abyssal campaign where the party decides to end orcus for good. Either going to find his wand and destroy it or by taking the fight to Orcus himself inside of the abyss.
Hints/Party Visions
As the campaign goes on, they will eventually be approached by the raven queen. giving them small hints at first at what Orcus is plotting, first giving the party a vision of the necromantic stones being placed all around the purple rocks and the undeath that they bring if allowed to sit. When the party leaves Clearview after getting the first pearl is when I would give them this first vision. On the way to the next town, they can find drag marks in the roads that look to be from something heavy (one of the necrotic stones) and they can investigate it to find a bunch of goblins and some ogres transporting the stone and placing it in the woods out of the way.
They will also have the raven queen show up to them for another vision after finding the 2nd pearl. She will come to them and explain that there is a ritual to stop the king/orcus plans, that the pearls are the key to finishing this for good and we need to continue searching for them. She tells them of a ritual known as "The Raven Queen's Rite" that can be done at unholy places (like the stones) or at a portal to the abyss (Orcus overall goal) to close it for good.
So, I know that was a lot and it took me a while to type out. Sorry for any errors or spelling mistakes, I did this as fast as I could. But i would love people's opinion on my homebrew campaign! I would love the criticism so that I can improve it and refine the story as a whole. It is my first time really DM'ing and I would like to eventually DM this campaign again when I have more experience because I think that is has a lot of potential! Please let me know what you think! I have much more written for this, but a lot is not important for the main objective. Many towns have plots and quests to do, but I figured I would leave them out of this for now, but if you are interested in hearing about the other stuff, I'd be happy type it all out!
A few thoughts:
1) as a player, having the entire plot told to me right at the beginning of the campaign is a good way to get me to not want to engage with that plot. Also, some dude kidnapped me and dragged me who knows where? I'm definitely not seeing him as a "benefactor". My first thought will be to try and get home, not save this land I have absolutely no connection to or emotional investment in just because some guy says I should
You're better off giving that lore and exposition in dribs and drabs and letting the party find it along the way (maybe Clearview was the birthplace of the queen, so the townsfolk have special reverence for her and they can tell the party about her death at the hands of the dragon, which then prompted the king's descent into madness). That way they can feel like they're putting a puzzle together as to what's going on, while at the same time providing them with reasons to want to be the heroes of Purple Rocks
The most prominent example of this sort of campaign is Ravenloft. You may want to look at that as a template of how to drop your party into this sort of situation and build engagement
2) you don't seem to have left much latitude for player creativity or exploration. This seems like a very pure railroad, even down to the order you seem to want the pearls to be collected in -- which is fine if that's what your table likes, but if not, well, there's a reason why "party ignores plot to go do random nonsense" is such a DnD trope
(Also, if your big twist/reveal is that D is the mad king... are there no portraits or statues of him anywhere in the kingdom? How does that never come up?)
3) what levels is this intended for? The pearls themselves don't seem all that powerful -- very similar to a necklace of prayer beads that's been scattered but retained its magic somehow -- but after the confrontation with the king you're open to the possibility of them invading the Abyss and going after Orcus? There seems to be something of a disconnect there
EDIT: Oh, one more thing that the party could get hyper-focused on, at the expense of your plot
4) what happened to the dragon's hoard?
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)
First off, thank you for the comment! And you are totally right, the players did immediately try to leave the island because they were like "who tf are you". The info dump at the start was honestly me trying to get them interested in what's going on as most of them were playing "hero" type characters, like most of their backstories said they always help those in need. But after playing through it like that and your suggestion, I do think not info dumping on them and slowly giving them that info would be much better.
With the railroading part, I can see how it seems like that, and part of it definitely is from my inexperience with balancing combats. I tried to make them in a way that the party could do it as a natural progression. With the stronger enemies being on the second island with the second half of the pearls that they need to get. I tried to add in places for them to do random stuff and try my best not to force them after a pearl. I have stuff going on in multiple towns that weren't listed in this for them to wander off and do if they'd prefer. But on a look back, you are right, the way the story is set up does feel very railroady. Would not worrying about balancing the combat help? not completely disregarding it, but almost waiting to balance it until the party chooses to actually go to the place or pearl?
And yeah, I actually did think about that one and wasn't sure how to handle it. When the party first met D, I did have them to investigation/perception checks to notice a shimmer on D's face. The best I had come up with was there was almost an illusion or mirage over his face. But having the chance of hints that they know beforehand would be better and make more sense. They've only been to two towns so far, so I could always start adding them in for the future!
And it was intended to start at 1 and work there way up. I genuinely had no idea what an appropriate level would be so I was kind of just winging it. I had guessed around lvl 6 through lvl 8 is what they would be near the end. The whole possibility of invading the abyss is more just me thinking it's cool than having any actual plan for it. Probably not a good idea to not have an actual end to the campaign and expect it to continue, is it? I had the pearls in more as a way to make the raven queens rite work, I thought it was a fun idea to have them search for the items they needed. But now that I think about it, they really don't know why they are going after the pearls except for because D told them too, that they were the key but not why they were the key. They don't yet have a real reason to go after them. Just above table knowing they need them but not what for.
And I hadn't thought about the dragons hoard at all tbh, I had thought about having it possible come back as a undead dragon or something though. I did say that the dragon had come this way to make the purple rocks its territory, but I doubt the dragon would've left their hoard unguarded and probably would've brought it with them if possible.
But again, thank you for the comment! This is a lot of stuff that I hadn't thought about or had the experience of DnD to know how I should do it yet!