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farinal
Learned Scribe
Turkey
270 Posts |
 Posted - 13 Feb 2017 : 16:45:46
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Greetings wise sages of the Realms! I am currently running an Amphail based campaign for my 5E group and I had the idea to maybe make this into a full product with maps, dungeon layouts, npcs and items and publish it on DMGuild as a 5E small sandbox campaign set in the region. So I wish to both get some ideas on that and also share my campaign with you to get some much needed comments and criticisim.
(I use heavily the Volo's Guide to North so check it out if you like. I tried to summarize it as easy as possible and I left out the small encounters and small tasks so this is only the main story. I hope its easy to read and understand.)
For the first session the players got a task from the Stag-Horned Flagon Tavern's patron to clear out the ruins of the Laughing Bandit Inn and see if there are anything dangerous or important there. The old tavernkeeper wishes to also rebuild that inn and expand his business. The Laughing Bandit Inn was destroyed in a wizard duel (with a drow) some years ago so my players enter the ruins, they find a small staircase going under the ground and they follow. The first session was a short one also aimed to teaching the new edition so it was just a small dungeon with mostly rats and spiders and they found some sign of an alchemy lab and a spellbook down there but there wasn't any sign of anyone living.
For the second session the players received a task from a noblewoman belonging to the Eagleshield family. Noblewoman was finally tasked with taking care a portion of the family farms and she was having some troubles lately. First her horse was stolen, then her crops burned and the last drop her dog was killed. She wants to prove her father that a woman can also take care of a farm so she discreetly hires my players to deal with this instead of running to her father.
My players investigated the site and tracked some footprints into the forest. They found a cave and after a little nasty bug cleaning they found a half sleeping half intoxicated satyr. Satyr was the one who is responsible for all the attacks but my players arrested him instead of killing him and he confessed to be a junkie, an addict to certain herbs and plants. My main big bad, a forest Hag, actually turned this hedonistic Satyr into an addict by supplying him strange herbs and medicines and made him a pawn of hers. The hag is super jealous of the beauty and youth of the Eagleshield noblewoman so she stages this kind of attacks into her farm.
My players went back to town just knowing that there is a hag out there messing with the town. They also hear here and there that there are strange happenings in the forest. The hag is secretly attracting darker things into these parts of the world.
My players also accidently entered an old tomb belonging to the Ammakyl family while searching for special mushrooms for the Stag-Horned Tavern. There they slayed a restless old Ammakyl ancestor's Spectre and take the loot. This might cause some trouble to them with the family in the future. Due to some trap one of my players polymorphed into a giant goat so there was a task of curing him too... They found help from a beautiful priestess of Sune working at the Mother Gothal "pleasure house". She is actually a Harper's agent disguised as a priestess.
This is all the stuff we played so far, and now I wish to lay out the game with the following stuff:
The players are staying at the inn where there is a ghost haunting it. The ghost is actually a wizard trapped in another plane so she needs some stuff brought to her to finally return to the material plane. She was cursed by a Red Wizard (who is still also in the same inn but trapped in an orb if I remember right) so I thought to place this artifact requiered into the local dungeon of the Tomb of the Maiden King. The players will have a nice big dungeon to clear in a classic way to find this item. Second I will have her spellbook stolen and they also need her spellbook to finish this ritual that will bring her back to the material plane. The spellbook was stolen by mongrelfolk. These mongrelfolk was test subjects of a necromancer living in the town some years ago and one night they managed to escape. They also stole all the wizardy items they can find with the hopes of finding a spell to change their shape back... they failed of course but now they have the spellbook we need. So the party will also need to travel to the nearby hills to find the mongrelfolk and maybe work for them to earn the spellbook or kill them and take it.
In the meantime the Harper Agent wants to rescue the Satyr who was an ally of the Harpers before he become a troubled addict, from the dungeons of the Eagleshield family. So she will approach the players with this plea. If they agree it will be a stealth mission to break the satyr out and also they will find a female drow in the dungeons and they will need to decide what to do with her. She is in my notes a follower of Eilistraee living in the Ardeep forest. I haven't decided if she should be connected with the drow who destroyed the Laughing Bandit Inn or not. So this part is a bit still under planning. Afterwards they will meet with a ranger Harper outside town and he will put together all the information and his own observations and figure out about the hag in the woods and recent disturbances and probably move this hag plot forward for PCs with a Harper theme.
The players will also receive a messenger from the Ammakyl family asking for an audition before they enter the Eagleshield dungeons. The Ammakyl family also wishes to get some information on the task they have performed for the Eagleshields and they also suspect that there is a Knight of the Shield operating secretly in Amphail and they want to know who is it. It's actually the Shrunedalar who owns the Boutique of Shrunedalar's Secrets. She is a neutral aligned person with no knowledge on the details of the Knights of the Shield but she just joined to make some extra money and the Knights wanted her to have an agent in Amphail near Waterdeep. The players also need to becareful around Ammakyl family because they don't know that the players disturbed one of their tombs and actually took a broken sword hilt from the tomb. The smithy of the town will recognize the hilt if asked and tell the players that the second part of the sword is in another Ammakyl tomb and if they can manage to get the two together it will make a strong magical sword. Which can be another quest to craft the sword.
Another quest that the Ammakyl can give the players is a simple caravan escorting mission, they require more guards these days since the Hag is stirring up trouble in the woods.
So far these are my ideas, notes and our actual played stuff. Let me know what do you guys think and I welcome any ideas to combine these plotlines together or get something bigger going on with the Hag.
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Edited by - farinal on 13 Feb 2017 21:07:47
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Kentinal
Great Reader
4685 Posts |
Posted - 13 Feb 2017 : 21:55:14
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Hi there, Not sure about what you edited. I had a few thoughts before drafted a response, however decided to wait.
One thing I was interested is is level of play and level advancement expected?
A jail break has risks of detection, by magic if not by mundane detective work. A hazard for the Party.
The female Drow in the jail most likely Priestess, however not all female are. It strikes me as unlikely related to the male Wizard destruction of the Laughing Bandit Inn, unless she sought to prevent the event. Eilistraee followers seek to help , protect and make friends. They do seek to destroy Evil quickly only if that is best answer, a follower would seek to prevent a spell battle not aid one.
The Hag attracting followers certainly can become a problem. The more you gather, the higher the party must grow to defeat them.
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"Small beings can have small wisdom," the dragon said. "And small wise beings are better than small fools. Listen: Wisdom is caring for afterwards."
"Caring for afterwards ...? Ker repeated this without understanding.
"After action, afterwards," the dragon said. "Choose the afterwards first, then the action. Fools choose action first."
"Judgement" copyright 2003 by Elizabeth Moon |
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farinal
Learned Scribe
Turkey
270 Posts |
Posted - 14 Feb 2017 : 00:21:13
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The level started was 1 and currently they are 3. My party right now only consists of 2 players and with maybe a +1 guest player so I try to keep the power level down.
On the Eilistraeen drow, perhaps she heard that the drow wizard who was involved in the duel was back or living under the ruins of the inn and wanted to investigate it. Yet she was caught by the Eagleshield guards and mistakenly thought to be the one responsible for the duel that happened years ago. Not sure about this, feels a bit weak but I will think more about it.
One thing to consider, why would a human noble family keep a drow in their dungeon as a prisoner instead of directly killing her? They were torturing the drow to get information on drow activities? Would these people even know about Eilistraee? |
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Kentinal
Great Reader
4685 Posts |
Posted - 14 Feb 2017 : 00:39:30
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Well keeping a Drow alive if captured after the event. Could be held for public execution, coud be held for information.
It does feel weak to arrest on sight. Mybe a reward for living Drow to be paid by some other person/lord. Maybe write the Drow out of the Dungeon. I can not come up a good reason to keep one captive.
The party does not know about the Drow as of yet. You are talking about future play. If you want her, maybe have her also rescuing the Satyr. Also a little contrived, however the same series of events that allow party to try a jail break might be the same as she would use. Moonless night, festival in Town etc.
There of course clearly can be other ways to introduce the female besides jail. |
"Small beings can have small wisdom," the dragon said. "And small wise beings are better than small fools. Listen: Wisdom is caring for afterwards."
"Caring for afterwards ...? Ker repeated this without understanding.
"After action, afterwards," the dragon said. "Choose the afterwards first, then the action. Fools choose action first."
"Judgement" copyright 2003 by Elizabeth Moon |
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farinal
Learned Scribe
Turkey
270 Posts |
Posted - 14 Feb 2017 : 10:08:54
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Also to make this a more sandbox game I wish to counter the Eagleshield quests with Ammakyl quests. So the players can choose which family they can get close with along with the third Harper faction and possible others.
To expand upon the previously mentioned Knight of the Shield plot, the Ammakyl family will task the players to sort of spy on a meeting they suspect will happen. The meeting will be between the hidden Knight of the Shield in Amphail and her superior from the organisation.
I want the players to start as spying this meeting and then feeling compelled to intervene as something happens. I am not sure what.
Perhaps the superior Knight asks some daring task and the initiate member gets scared. Perhaps the Knight asks something for the Gargauth and tells more about the secret nature of the organisation to the initiate and she gets scared/aggressive and her life is now at the risk so the players must intervene to save her. What do you think? I need some ideas on this.
For the Mongrelfolk tasks, what do you think this hillbillies of mongrelfolk can ask from the players? Also a novice Red Wizard of Thay will appear at some point as he is trying to recover the same spellbook and find the now trapped Red Wizard in Amphail in order to gain some standing among his order.
On an unrelated note, since this is specific to my own players, one of the characters is a wanted thief from Luskan and he is wanted so badly because he stole a spellbook from a member of the Arcane Brotherhood. I also plan to have some encounters with possible bounty hunters. Which is always a fun thing. |
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Mankyle
Acolyte
Spain
42 Posts |
Posted - 14 Feb 2017 : 10:18:22
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If I remember well in one of the 4e Waterdeep novels appears a character, Lord Vescaras Ammakyl or something like that, who is aHarper Agent that uses his family bussinesses of wine and vegetables production as a cover for his Harper activities.
You could use that to tie the Ammakyls missions to the Harpers.
In Amphail, in 1492 DR there will be a change in government from the Eagleshields to the Roaringhorns if I remember well. That is something that appears in SKT in chapter 3, in the Amphail entry.
Me I'm summarizing all info I can find about the late 4e and 5e state of Waterdeep and its environs so I will follow your Amphail campaign carefully.
Looks very good for the moment IMHO |
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farinal
Learned Scribe
Turkey
270 Posts |
Posted - 14 Feb 2017 : 10:39:33
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I didn't know about that Lord Ammakyl being an Harper Agent. Then I can actually change the story as the fake-Sune priestess Harper agent could actually be a real Sune priestess but working as an informant for the Lord Ammakyl. As she hears about the satyr story she informs the Lord and this could be the reason the Lord request for an audience and he gives them the task to break out the satyr prisoner. It will be a very delicate mission as if its found out that Ammakyl family is behind this operation against the Eagleshield it could cause a lot of problems. I like it. I also introduced a ranger figure who was in town to visit the Mielikki "shrine" in the tavern so he can be the contact that will smuggle the satyr out of town.
As for 1400s I actually run the game back in sometime between 1360s and 70s.
I still want them to find someone in the dungeons that will make them think very hard on what to do with. My first idea as above was a drow who claims to be good since it will cause the party to think hard if they should release her or not. But I am also open to suggestions. Who can they find in an Eagleshield dungeon that will give them a hard choice on what to do? And perhaps possibly cause some problems with the Lord Ammakyl who even gave them this task but doesn't like the fact that they released also this person?
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farinal
Learned Scribe
Turkey
270 Posts |
Posted - 06 Mar 2017 : 22:53:03
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The mongrelfolk tasked my players with a quest in exchange of giving back the spellbook of Phelansheene. They need the spellbook and a powerful gem from the Tomb of the Maiden King to resummon Phelansheene into the material plane before a visiting curious novice Red Wizard handles the situation.
The mongrelfolk wanted my players to investigate the strange chanting sounds from the nearby hills. It turned out the chanting was coming from a nearby ruined tower. A cult of Ghaunadaur took up residence in here and they were conducting some kind of ritual with a sacrifice on the altar being consumed by an ooze. The players infiltrated the tower and slain the members of the Cult and successfully get their reward from the Mongrelfolk.
I am thinking to connect the cult with my earlier idea of a drow prisoner in the dungeons of Eagleshield family. The drow prisoner will pretend to be a good drow follower of Eilistraee, (I will feed some information to my players on Eilistraee before hand in the form of rumors of dancing drow in the woods, etc) but in turn she will be an outcast follower of Ghaunadaur who was actually the leader of this cult. The cult was an offspring from a larger Underdark group, travelled up to the surface for a reason (will stay unknown, but could be about looking for the drow wizard that destroyed the old tavern in Amphail years ago). So if they free the drow, there will be a lot of interesting follow up story as they will free an evil follower of Ghaunadaur back to create what mischief she wants but they also killed her fellow cult members while conducting a religious ceremony so some revenge might come up. |
Edited by - farinal on 07 Mar 2017 02:06:47 |
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My Amphail Campaign - Comments Welcome
