My "poisons" campaign is going great, but for this one instance.
The majority of the party is going to be land locked during the winter. It seems that the PCs are intending to take some down time to train up some feats and skills, level up and craft. However, I'd hate for them to get too bored, and I really hate the idea of skipping over the months.
A good bulk of the party seems to want to board with the dwarves under the mountain... so here's my question.. what, (excluding small war skirmishes and abberation cleansings) can a group of 12th lvl PCs (est.) do in the underground, close to the underdark in the middle of winter?
Any suggestions?
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My "poisons" campaign is going great, but for this one instance.
The majority of the party is going to be land locked during the winter. It seems that the PCs are intending to take some down time to train up some feats and skills, level up and craft. However, I'd hate for them to get too bored, and I really hate the idea of skipping over the months.
A good bulk of the party seems to want to board with the dwarves under the mountain... so here's my question.. what, (excluding small war skirmishes and abberation cleansings) can a group of 12th lvl PCs (est.) do in the underground, close to the underdark in the middle of winter?
Any suggestions?
That depends on the party's likes and dislikes. Political Strife, perhaps? This can get especially interesting if there is no clear bad guy among the Dwarves, and those who are causing the trouble are being manipulated by some enemy in order to soften their infrastructure and sew distrust as a prelude to an attack.
Just a few ideas....
A dwarven mining operation breaks into a previously unknown series of tunnels. Because of some perceived threat to the dwarven stronghold, and an unwillingness on the part of the dwarven leaders to spare any dwarf power, the PCs are charged with exploring the new passages. Perhaps they discover the base of an evil cult, they find a reclusive civilization of choice and have to open contact and negotiate trade, or they stumble upon a great underground sea and have to organize a mapping party across its dark waters.
Dwarven guards patrolling the outlying reaches of the realm find a dead dwarf wearing archaic armor and bearing the trappings of a long lost clan. A letter found on him, pleads for help from the dwarves of the PCs current bolt house. Some kind of blight has struck the food source of the neighboring dwarves and they are starving and snowed in with no hope of sending out caravans over land to human realms. Further confusion erupts as none of the dwarves recall corresponding with a nearby dwarven nation for generations. Maybe records speak of a fallen citadel that succumbed centuries ago. The players are charged with leading a relief force and using out dated maps they forge ahead. Harrowed by enemies, do they find the hold of the long lost dwarves or was the dwarven corpse bait left by something else entirely?
An outsider trading mission reaches the dwarf stronghold days before the season’s major snows block the routes out of the mountains. Stranded, the dwarves offer them berths. Being of the same race as the majority of the PCs, they soon become quick friends. Maybe they train together at the dwarven fighting school, or they lead a joint operation to rescue a stranded team of miners. Soon the PCs learn that this was no ordinary trading mission. Their friends are mapping the dwarven defenses, marking the location of key dwarven figures, and making detail drawings of the gate that protects the dwarven realm. What are their intentions and whom are they working for?
And finally... a charismatic dwarven speaker is rousing the dwarven workers against their leaders. Working conditions in the mines, pay, housing, rights, it's all on his agenda. When this figure is killed under mysterious circumstances, the dwarven workers strike. The miners cut the lifts and seal themselves in the mines demanding reforms. Because the working class is angered with the nobles, the neutral PCs are requisitioned to lead a mission into the mines. Scaling down the shafts into the deep mines, they are ambushed by fanatics the PCs saw preaching with their dead charismatic leader. Who wants to keep the miners from negotiating? And why are there reports that the corpse of the workers rights movement leader was seen attacking members of the dwarven council?
ah and one last idea....I've always wanted to run this but I have never been in the position to do so. It's a little out of the scope of your campaign but maybe someone would want to put it to use. The PC's lead the relief expedition to the lost dwarven citadel as mentioned above only to find the gates sealed. The massive gates hold but are severely bowed as if something was trying to push its way out of the dwarven cavern. The PC's circle the area to locate other avenues of approach only to find the fairly fresh corpses of several dwarven knights lying in a side passage. The knights' armor are splattered with blood, and their battered bodies are covered in seemingly minor flesh wounds but each has been systematically decapitated. Footsteps lead away in the dust indicating that someone survived the ordeal. Further exploration ends with the PCs discovering a rift in the floor of a main tunnel. Below is an ancient temple. On the walls, reliefs depict dwarven cannibalism and gruesome attacks..... of course this slips into some kind of Dawn of the Dead styled zombie attack.... The PCs either end up bringing the infection back with them or the original corpse that started the whole adventure and was unwittingly brought into the dwarven home cavern rises and starts the ball rolling. The PCs return to report only to find the infection spreading out of control. Desperate, the dwarves try to seal themselves in the cavern hoping to spare the out lying dwarven communities. The PCs have to fight their way out or risk becoming entombed with the stoic dwarves.