I'm needing advice on how to continue my campaign. I've only started playing D&D a few months and I'm DMing for players with 10-15 years experience.
It started out as low fantasy. The two players are brothers that are undertakers for a small village. The village was much larger many years ago with many roads leading to it but now only one road that goes through. The village recently has had children disappearances but not until the child of a more prominent member of the village has gone missing that made the town go into to action. The town suspecting witchcraft blamed a woman/bookshop keeper whom recently moved there with a young woman named Zoe (still alive and now working at the local tavern) but another child has gone missing.
The brothers living on the outskirts of the village. Every couple of days they will visit the village to pick up any deceased and check up on their family general store which their half sisters Emma (age 12) and Emily (age 6) run they also have a large dog named Risky. While in the village one of the brothers saves a woman that is about to be put to death by the town militia. Before hiding her the woman tells them to speak with Zoe. One brother finds Zoe at the tavern. She reveals herself to be a kitsune and has a fairy dragon. She tells them of the towns history and that it was much bigger/richer up until about 150 years ago. There's reason to believe that that the town used to do human sacrifices but for whatever reason they stopped and the town has been slowing dying since.
Later on the night the leader of the militia and 3 young men confront the brothers. A fight breaks out and all but one dies. Realizing they need to flee the village they go to the shop for their sisters they then discover their youngest sister Emily has been taken and their dog is also gone. The eldest sister Emma is in shock and her hair is going white.
The woman they saved earlier is gone and they find Zoe to tell her they're leaving. She goes with them as a guide. There has been two sessions since then. The brothers now have a ramidreju (Bestiary Vol 5, page 201). Emma is now a level 3 oracle-Mystery - Life. The brothers have a harp of building which they used against Shia LaBeouf. Another session they hear the barks of their missing dog Risky. He is at a farm belonging to a mad woman (but a very good cook) tells them that her farm grows the best produce because every year for 25 years she would give a witch a child this same witch is also where she received the dog from. there is also the corpse of her husband sitting in the living room. She deepens her voice and talks for him. She also tells the brothers that they may have already met some of her children. She thinks that the coven is probably playing a game using the missing kids in some sort of friendly competition against each other. The brothers leave the farm taking their dog with them. And that where we left off.
I don't really know where to go from here.
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Well I assume your plot is pretty railroaded. That is not for the best but it is workable.
It seems you have been dropping hints that the witches are holding a competition with the children. Perhaps the witches could be sending them into old ruins to retrieve some objects for them. Maybe the witches can't go in because it is warded against evil.
That would explain why they are kidnapping kids. Kids are innocent while kidnapping adults that might be useless is wasteful. You could transition to a straight dungeon crawl as your party ventures into the ruins to find their sister/macguffin before the other kids can.
Also you might want to look into running a different kind of campaign if this doesnt work out. This is effectively just some players tooling about in a town with some limited roleplay. Transitioning to a more episodic style where you just have the dungeon of the week to worry about a run might be easier.
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First off... You shouldn't be the DM for these guys. It's sweet that you do it, but they have the experience, you don't. They should be taking you along the ride of fantasy gaming, not you them. But that's not really my business, so here goes.
You have a nice horror/fairytale setup. Well done. That is one of the genres in which a storyteller doesn't necessarily need a lot of gaming experience! Your challenge lies in converting your ideas to the game.
As a DM, you should not really think "what to do next?". That's a player's job. Your job is to know (make up) the why behind things, and to maintain the bigger picture. Then, when the players have considered what to do next, you can unveil what part of the bigger picture they have discovered.
For example, in your story. There is apparently a witch who gets a child per year. Why does she (or he?) need those children? What does she do with them? Eat them? I suppose one a year won't really suffice, then. Use their souls? Okay, but how? And why would she need souls so steadily? Raise them as fellow witches? Alright, but then what is her vision / bigger plan?
Also, the witch clearly has the power to affect crop yield. How? Does she cast plant growth? If so... How does she gain access to that spell? Is she really a witch? Maybe she's really a druid? Or even a skald with the expanded spell kenning feat? Or a psychic with the rebirth discipline? Hell, she might even be a Daivrat (prestige class), who sells the kids to some elemental lord.
So, considering the above, and considering the pace of your game, I would conjure up a story that goes like this.
The witch is actually a druid, who has sympathies for the nefarious shadow circle (a world-wide secret druid organization that glorifies the more feral aspects of nature, harboring quite a few evil and chaotic members within their ranks). But, being not actively malicious or destructive herself (let's say she is true neutral with some evil tendencies of ruthlessness), she has grown tired of the Shadow Circle's nonconstructive and hateful ways. She sees no need for spiteful actions against civilized races, because that doesn't really accomplish anything except fermenting more hatred. She wishes for a more complete regression towards the ways of nature, where citizen dwellers will have the opportunity to let go of their vile ways, and once again follow the teachings of nature, in a harmonious hunter/gatherer sense. Nevertheless, because of previous affiliations, she still has some shadow druid allies, who (while being a little more anarchic or malicious), would still occasionally help her out.
The children given to her by the woman have been raised in harmony with nature by the druid. They are now classed NPC's with levels of druid, witch, shaman, hunter, ranger, barbarian, bloodrager (greenrager), sorcerer (fey or verdant bloodline), or kineticist (wood element). They have grown and are now ready to teach their mentor's teachings in their own right. Some may have their own thoughts about their mentor's views, and a small number may actually have defected, but most just agree, and are ready for students. So, this is why phase two of the druid's plans has come into action: kidnapping children on a larger scale. The third phase would probably be guerrilla warfare on urban society, where even farmers are deemed 'evil' for their controlled cultivation of the land, and 'enslavement' of farm animals.
The base (or bases) of operations of this group would probably be: ruins, a cave system, a treetop village, a grove of bountiful natural beauty, or anything that glorifies nature. The enemies that the players would face would be: fey and nature spirit creatures, animals of all kind (including awakened ones, as per the spell awaken), the missing children of previous years, shadow druid allies, monsters that like nature (not excluding evil ones, such as green dragons and black dragons), but also not excluding good ones. A fairy dragon or a unicorn, for example, might very well be very hostile to the players, despite it being good.
The druid has probably seen fit to hide her tracks (including hiding her tracks literally, through magic). She might have employed some of her shadow druid allies to do the kidnappings for her, and others to provide distractions to any would-be investigators, by guiding beasts and monsters into being a menace to society. It would probably take quite some time and research for the players to find even one of the training grounds, where the kidnapped children are being indoctrinated. First, they would encounter rampaging monsters, and discover one or more kidnapping agents. Also, consider that the druid might have started kidnappings in multiple towns and villages, perhaps not even all human ones.
While the players slowly trudge through the false trails laid out by them, you can make all kinds of wonderfully creepy encounters. An evil shadow druid might have a very scary marsh for a home, with all kinds of bloodsucking or reptilian creatures. A chaotic druid might glorify strong creatures, and therefore have allied himself with some giants and pray on traveling families. The children are kept, and the parents are food for the giants. But, at the same time, make sure that the players slowly begin to grasp the bigger scheme behind all this. And it's best if they get this presented as being not so evil at all.
For example, when they finally do get to a place of indoctrination, make it a beautiful place with waterfalls and children happily playing with tamed deer. In that way, the players will have a lot of trouble justifying the destruction of it all. Also, as you've already pointed out by having the village not spring into action for less influential people's children, the village (and other civilized places) are not exactly good either. A case could very well be made for it being overly hierarchical and wealth-glorifying. Guiding the players into ethical considerations, will trap them into the story something fierce. Make the druid a charismatic person, who believes that the children are the key to a brighter future (like many authoritarian figures of history). If you need her to have appeared as a nasty old witch earlier, there is alter self to suit your every need.
Be ready for anything. Flesh out not only the druid's 'faction', but also the unsuspecting opposing civilization. Not only to give the players potential diplomatic allies, but also because the players might very well be swayed by the druid's viewpoint. They might have the idea that the druid means well, and has had to resort to evil allies. The players could be good allies, feeling that they could make a beautiful place in the world, where everything lives in harmony with nature and each other. The cities and villages need merely be converted, or, if necessary, pacified. So your fleshed out allies of society would then become diplomatic or actual adversaries. You'll have a wonderful campaign that could easily run to level 12 and beyond.
Feel free to pick and choose any of the ideas, and combine them with your own. They're all merely suggestions. I hope you now see, though, what favour you're doing them to be their DM. Being a DM is a hell of a lot of writing, and players usually only get to see about 20% of it.
First off... You shouldn't be the DM for these guys. It's sweet that you do it, but they have the experience, you don't. They should be taking you along the ride of fantasy gaming, not you them.
No way. This is a great way for a relatively new player to gain GMing experience. The most important inherent qualification for being a GM is to want to be one. Everything else can be learned.
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I suppose I might be biased because I like being a player more... I just think starting out as a GM for experienced players can be kind of overwhelming... Inexperienced players might be fine with rolling random dex checks where cmd should suffice, or have one player loot 3 bodies in the same time another player merely opens a door, but for experienced players, it can be frustrating if your DM calls for acrobatics checks when reflex saves are in order, or when no combat ever starts with a surprise round.
I suppose a friendly group could guide a fresh DM through such things, but that would still mess up some prepared encounters. Oh well, in the end it's not my business. I'm only giving my opinion.
