the return of the monsters. how?


Advice


So recently I've noticed that I want to use more classical an weird monsters in my homebrew campaign. This is not much of a problem, but the setting (or what the players know of it so far) is deeply low fantasy. Now as they are starting to explore the lands I want to do more roaming monsters and random encounters. Eventually I might introduce a quest to find out why all these mythical monsters are returning.

So what would be a good plot to explain why the monsters are returning to a world that has had mostly peace from them for the last hundreds (somewhere between 200-500) of years?

things already in the setting:
in my setting there are no evil or good outsiders, so "the devil did it" doesn't relly work.
-I actually ignore the planes in general. When I use demons, they are reskinned and refluffed as corrupted elven souls trying to claw their way back into the world. Elves are kinda the ancient big bads in my worlds history.

There is currently 4 established but hidden bad guys in the story:
the First Vampire that went south to get an artifact that will give him access a location of great power in the engame. The vampire cause undead to rise in areas he visits or stay too long.
A demon/eldren possesing a corpse and plotting something nasty and uncomprehensible (haven't decided on his agenda yet)
A rakshasha pretending to be a benevolent ruler, kills of magic users so that there is no-one around to discover him. Thereby partly responsible for the "magic dark age" the setting is going through.
An ancient body-switching sorceress that has managed to stay hidden, is mentoring one of the pc's and a associate of the thieves and assasination guild, no-one knows her secret.


Thanks for all suggestions!

The Exchange

Okay, so you mostly ignore the planes. I can work with that. Here's my idea.

These monsters aren't returning, exactly. They are waking up because of the actions of your four big bads. Much like some of the elder horrors in the Lord of the Rings, it's not that the monsters disappeared, it's that they slumber in the dark places of the world and have been forgotten. Content to dwell in their caves and pools. Now, with the Vampire, Demon, and Rakshasha stirring their own plots, these dark creatures have become active again. Hungering for souls, flesh, energy, death, what-have-you. A great idea for Orcs in this case are that they perhaps worship the elven demon and have been twisted from their human form. Perhaps the item the Vampire took has woken up and angered the goblins who mistakenly think humanity stole the item. There is alot to work with here.


Gates/Portals/Rifts which are randomly opening up in your world (not necessarily from other planes but maybe from other dimensions or times) b/c the planets are in alignment/ominous comet or other astronomical event or maybe b/c of your elven demons or maybe b/c some device which had sealed them has been stolen/destroyed

Some insane high level caster creating them in his evil layer and released them- then they've gone out and bred
- or he's creating an army and those released are his "test" subjects


@Jericho Graves: I like the way you think, the "slumber in dark places"-direction is nice and easy to implement. I'm also liking the ideas for the orcs and goblins, probably going to combine them into one race - tribal/indian orcs sound fun. maybe having a "the horde from the south"-storyline (think mongols)

@Moto Muck: I'm concidering the portals/rift-idea, but I might keep it for a later point where I feel like dialing it up a notch. on origins maybe some cult activity? (there is a lot of cultists that worship old elven bones in my game I've realized.)

Good stuff!

Grand Lodge

Monsters are not so much "returning", but awakening from within all.

They always existed, in minds and bodies of creatures, and now are manifesting physically.

From the monstrous evil that lies in many creatures, it comes forth in many forms.

Humans become Lycanthropes and Minotaurs, wolves become Worgs, and so on.

Nobody knows why, or how, and when they, or their best friend, husband, or other close one will turn.

Some have "wards" and "rituals" to protect them from the turning. Some suspect conspiracy, whilst other deny it is happening at all.


Final Fantasy 8. They fell from the moon. Season to taste.


blackbloodtroll wrote:

Monsters are not so much "returning", but awakening from within all.

They always existed, in minds and bodies of creatures, and now are manifesting physically.

From the monstrous evil that lies in many creatures, it comes forth in many forms.

Humans become Lycanthropes and Minotaurs, wolves become Worgs, and so on.

Nobody knows why, or how, and when they, or their best friend, husband, or other close one will turn.

Some have "wards" and "rituals" to protect them from the turning. Some suspect conspiracy, whilst other deny it is happening at all.

hmm, interesting but a bit to random for my tastes.

ok, so return of the savage races from the south, the giants from the SE, the "classic" monsters like sea serpents and trolls awakening in remote areas from stasis or torpor to cause havoc and despair.
And I'm thinking abberrations and more weird monsters will arrive through rifts.

not all of this will be happening at the same time, of course.

I might have the rifts be tied to the First Vampires quest and his Rod of PLOT. maybe when they stop him in the final showdown they start something worse, enter an Elven invasion and random abberrations.
I like.
Good Stuff! :)

Grand Lodge

Ah, but it only seems random.

You control who/what changes.

Spread paranoia throughout your party.

Finding out the secrets of the changes are now a mission the party must take.

Scarab Sages

Magic and monsters used to exist in large quantities. But the power behind them, the lay lines went dormant. They were recharging for centuries, and are now recharged and 'waking up', bringing that power back into the world.

With the awakening leylines, magic is returning.

Maybe the monsters are the guardians of the leylines. One of your badguys might have tampered with the leylines, making them angry and awakening before their time to protect the lines.
But the lines are now shrouded to them, making them lash out to everything in their path.


so ...
after the native american orcs invade, and the seas gets filled with sea dragons and such, and all the old statues in all the old caves return to life with a hunger. and after the players defeat the First Vampire in the ancient city of whatever and take from him the Rod Of PLOT, which he was using to breach the worlds to Do A Thing. and after his tamperings have let into this world all those beholder(-ish) creatures and brought back the evil elves hell-bent on a new war for this plane ...

*breather*

How do the players stop the world from ending/seal the rifts so no more can enter/some sort of cool quest to end that storyline or at least let them have an active part in the events causing all these abberations so they feel like they aren't just watching s&!$ hit the fan from the sidelines?

Note: the players are lvl4, this stuff and the relevations associated will not be appearing in 2014 at least and maybe not in 2015 either.
I'm just brainstorming so that I can start foreshadowing subtly early on.
-I just love the look on a players face when they start adding up small things from the last months and start a sentence with: "So THAT'S what was going on with ..." or "So THAT's why he ..."
gives me a tingle. :)

The Exchange

I like the idea of melding of planes. For years our world and the other has been out of sync. As the approaching equinox closes in our worlds become closer and closer aligned. allowing lesser evils to slip through the cracks. and as the recombining of the realms approaches gates (fissures cracks portals what have you) that allow larger more power entities to move into our world. only the adventurers can (insert quest here) to avoid the recombination of the planes (which would of course spell doom for all the goodly people of this world). then they find out this is just a part of nature and every 100-1000-10000 years this has to be done

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