An undead creature is trying to communicate something but it has no tongue. One of the necromancers is doing horrible things to it and it wants to die.
A good-aligned novice has just joined the guild. He believes that he can create an army of undead to serve the people. Can he be dissuaded from taking this dark path?
A man with terrible debts has agreed to sell his body to the guild in exchange for the money his children need to survive. He is trying to persuade them to give him some in advance but they refuse. If the players do not intervene he will kill himself.
The necromancers have something locked in a basement that they won't talk about. Could it be the missing vagrants? No: it's an experiment gone wrong, a chained up undead monster with the ability to cause temporary insanity with its gaze.
A distraught grieving mother wants her dead child brought back. She can't afford to pay. The necromancer's guild are her only hope.
Two factions exist within the guild. One believes that undead can be a genuine force for good (or at least for Neutral). The other side is unapologetically evil, but discrete about it. They each have enemies in the other part of the guild that they want defeated (perhaps by planting evidence on them). By playing the two factions against one another, the PCs might be able to provoke them into destroying themselves.
An undead creature is trying to communicate something but it has no tongue. One of the necromancers is doing horrible things to it and it wants to die.
A good-aligned novice has just joined the guild. He believes that he can create an army of undead to serve the people. Can he be dissuaded from taking this dark path?
A man with terrible debts has agreed to sell his body to the guild in exchange for the money his children need to survive. He is trying to persuade them to give him some in advance but they refuse. If the players do not intervene he will kill himself.
The necromancers have something locked in a basement that they won't talk about. Could it be the missing vagrants? No: it's an experiment gone wrong, a chained up undead monster with the ability to cause temporary insanity with its gaze.
A distraught grieving mother wants her dead child brought back. She can't afford to pay. The necromancer's guild are her only hope.
Two factions exist within the guild. One believes that undead can be a genuine force for good (or at least for Neutral). The other side is unapologetically evil, but discrete about it. They each have enemies in the other part of the guild that they want defeated (perhaps by planting evidence on them). By playing the two factions against one another, the PCs might be able to provoke them into destroying themselves.
:O ... how do you do this ? ... it would have taken me days to come up with something like this
Thanks. If you genuinely want tips on coming up with plot ideas, you could try:
Copy ideas from similar things and modify them to fit. (That quest in that Star Wars game when I had to infiltrate the Sith guild... What could I steal from that and add undead?) Or: A necromancers guild might be a bit like a mafia organisation; what can I steal from gangster films?
Make logical extrapolations from your fantasy elements. Where could I legally get dead bodies? What would I do if I could control zombies? Put them on a treadmill and use them as a power source? Have them carry me around everywhere? Turn them into a sports team and have them compete with rival necromancers' teams? And what would I do if I was cunning and evil? How might my plans backfire?
Ask what would it be cool for the players to do. Maybe they need to get some concrete proof that the enemy leader is planning something monstrous, after patiently putting up with his evil ways, and then having got it they can let loose and kill him and any of his minions who stand in your way, then burn down the guild. If that's your goal, work backwards to see how they could get there.
Look for sources of conflict. Lawful versus chaotic. Science versus religion. What philosophical differences might exist on the subject of undead? If undead aren't believed to be innately evil, why shouldn't anyone who wants become a vampire? If a necromancer needs help attaining some legal but rare item and is willing to pay, should the PCs be willing to help if he might be using it for evil ends?
Another idea: the necromancers are more likely to share their secret information with someone who is a necromancer themselves. So have (at least) one of the players pose as a necromancer, using spellcraft, bluff, etc to fake necromantic knowledge, and (at least) one of the players pose as a zombie under the fake necromancer's control.