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So I am starting an island ship-wreck campaign. The basics are:
*Island is almost all jungle
*Island is composed of 2 parts, and upper and lower
Lower is mostly monster free and is the location of the only village on the island. Village is inhabited by 4 monster races typically evil but that live together peacfully
Upper is completely ringed by a towering cliff. Cliff face is full of Roc inhabited caves.
*Four fortresses (loooooong abandoned) rest at the compass points atop this cliff.
*Big volcanoe in the middle of the island, it is dormant.
*Secret tunnel known by the villagers leads up to the top of the cliff
Said tunnel is now the lair of some imposing beast
*Another "ship-wreck survivor" is already living among the natives and serves as a form of communication between party and village
*All the trees are "dense wood", so they can't just build a boat and sail away
*PC's must collect something from each of the four forts, and then take them to the volcanoe for some reason I have yet to actually determine
The reason for this thread is to see if anyone else has any ideas to mix in here. Things that have actually been used in other ship wreacked adventures would be appreciated.
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The "dense wood" business sounds like something you made up to keep characters from doing the obvious, and also is easily defeated with a rudimentary knowledge of boat building: You can build a boat out of concrete if you feel like it. The fact that the substance is heavy just means you need less ballast.
Let the islanders be competent and let them occasionally take their canoes out to other islands a long ways away. Let them also tell the adventurers where they could go from here, but why they shouldn't go now: Monsoon season is starting and only an idiot would go out on the seas now. Why do you think the boat was sunk in the first place?
Weather is more believable than the business with the trees. But give the island nothing but palm trees suitable only for canoes, rather than the long timbers you'd need for long distance voyages.
Presumably the four fortresses were built or at least used by the four races when they were at war. As they're now at peace, they've abandoned the old fortresses as symbols of the bad times.
Since the fortresses are at compass points, they were likely originally temples from some ancient lost civilization who still liked doing the four elements shtick. There's a widget housed in each temple which must be gathered together for a big ritual at the volcano to do something. You need water from the sacred spring in the water temple, fire from the sacred gas jet in the fire temple, dirt from the earth temple, and something airy from the air temple. Maybe a souffle. Then you assemble the plot tokens and do something nifty with them.
Another way to get the plot tokens is to have them be the chieftain's weapons of the four tribes. Air could be a blowgun. Earth could be a club with a big rock. This would mean not only divining the appropriate item from paintings in the temples but obtaining the widgets from the current owners.
Try to make it fun, whatever the quest is.
Maybe the volcano isn't dormant, and the objects from the forts are needed to prevent an eruption?
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For the FLY spell, that is part of what the Rocs are for. That way anyone who tries to get up there violates thier territory.
Kevin Murphy: I like your idea about Monsoon season and the palm trees. That seems like a good idea and is much more believable. But other than that, the flavor I want just isn't there.
I want the tribe to be primitive, and un-knowledgeable about the other forts. In fact, I don't even want them to be anything more than aware of the existance of the one they can see atop the cliff. I'm trying to give an impression of THERE IS MORE TO THIS THAN YOU THOUGHT sort of thing. But I do like the boats idea.
Bumborro: I thought about the eruption idea, but it seemed to easy for me. Having thought more about it, I was hashing out this idea, tell me what you guys think. A lich goes through an even more absurdly difficult ritual than before and splits his phylactery up into 4 differant parts (or creates 4 from the get-go), and one is in each fortress/temple. The last one is some sort of holy object stained with blood from an innocent spilled by an innocent (probably 2 siblings from the village), and actually trapped a god of good in human form (the other survivor). You need to get to each fort, get the phlyctary and the key to the next fort, take all the phylacteries to the volcanoe to destroy them. This is where/when they fight the Lich.
Sure, the Volcano goddess is stuck in human form and is helping the PC's, but the local kobold, goblin, hobgoblin and human tribes are all unable to do much and the Island is too big for them to know the whole of it :) The tribes are very primitive and have only crude spears and such, and grass huts and thier mages are only Adpets(Witch Doctors), in fact the only actuall Character classes they have are Witch and Sorceror. Otherwise its Adepts, Aristocrat (Tribal Chief), Commoner, Warrior, and Expert for fishermen and craftsmen etc. Most of these would be for color anyway as the real combat would be for the Monsters and the Litch :)
Thats my take anyway :)
You may need to revise your "low is safe" idea. If nothing stops the villagers form wandering around the low area of the island then they will have explored the whole of it.
This is where guardian undead can be useful. Spirits and specters that are bound to specific territory and thus can't free roam into village. This also keeps the poplulation area small and thus limited in development.
Other limiting factors to boating would be currents and tidel forces, which either the villagers or the contact NPC can explain.
The other thing is a carrot is often times better then a stick. If the PCs have a good reason to stay and explore they won't even bother trying to leave right away. Make it, "how do we get the pirate loot" not "how do we escape backwoods island".
Have you considered having your four fortress guardians being four nagas, one of each sort? It would have a nice symmetry and would explain why the villagers don't mess with the forts.
Search for Shipwreck Start. I started a game by having the characters wash ashore, along with wreckage from several ships. Beachcomber items should be tied into the campaign and gameworld. I would seriously consider a wooden coffin that contains a bard that died of old age looking for this legendary island, and his diary, charts, and maps cobbled together from legends. A Dragon Turtle worshiped by the lizardmen would be cool.
You need a full ecology for the cliffs. Add Gargoyles and Harpies for starters. The thing in the tunnel could be my Purple Dragon idea. Purple dragons have a cone shaped wave of sound breath weapon. They are very vain and probably lawful evil. Have her wear a crown she made of coral and refer to herself as Empress. She should have blur at will. Having her dispute who rules the island with the Dragon Turtle would be fun.
A lot of people don't seem to be grasping one concept I deem as essential. There is only ONE village on the island. Just ONE. It is to be viewed as a safe-haven and resting spot. And it is on the lower part of the island.
I do like the idea of a former adventure or two being dead there, but I'll probably have them already buried by the villagers, and have the party recieve their things as the villagers won't need them.
The cliffs, as previously mentioned, are full of ROCS. Fiercely territorial giant birds of prey. Should work out fine, especially since I intend to boost the INT on them to make them somewhat more like the ones from LOTR, or maybe the Shannara series.
But keep them coming, I'm getting some ideas here.
Each keep has various links to their counterpart on the pane of shadow. These shadow versions of the keeps are likewise connected with each other, so when they return to the PM keep, they may actually find themselves at one of the other 3 keeps.
Additionally, these Shadow keeps are also connected to a 5th keep located inside the caldera of the Shadow volcano where the BBEG is seeking to cause the PM volcano to erupt. Creating an active rift between the two planes where he plans on launching his attacks upon the PM. Perhaps with the goal of conquering the world.
Rocs are gargantuan. Giant Eagles are just large.
An island could support just one family of Rocs, unless you are talking Hawaii's main island.
Rocs are gargantuan. Giant Eagles are just large.
An island could support just one family of Rocs, unless you are talking Hawaii's main island.
+1
Rocs carry off elephants.
Unless your island is abundant in elephants, or is very conveniently located to the sperm whale and kraken migratory routes (meaning it's a fisher roc, which is kind of interesting) I don't see this really working.
Do the islanders hunt wild pigs or fish or do they wait for large hunks of whale blubber and spare kraken tentacles to rain down from the cliffs as the great "provider birds" choose the daintiest bits for their young? Do they worship the rocs as gods, having a sort of cargo cult thing going? Are rocs migratory and are they only here during the nesting season which coincides with the sperm whale migration and coincidental kraken feast?
OR,....
if you don't want diplodocus, brachiosaurus, or other sauropods on your island, you could have another "Island of the Mountain Lizards" within a roc's flying range to explain their ecological niche or whatever.
The rocs roost on this specific island; if there ever were dinosaurs, well then the rocs pretty much ate them all. So they hunt at the "Island of the Mountain Lizards" about 100 miles away.
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Please run (or at least consider running) the shipwreck itself part of (or all of) your first game. It can be a lot of fun to see how much of the ship they can keep intact through the storms.
If they do a particularly good job, they might wreck with a mostly-intact ship in shallow water, allowing them to salvage their gear and some cargo.
If they do a poor job, they get washed up with nothing.
Please run (or at least consider running) the shipwreck itself part of (or all of) your first game. It can be a lot of fun to see how much of the ship they can keep intact through the storms.
If they do a particularly good job, they might wreck with a mostly-intact ship in shallow water, allowing them to salvage their gear and some cargo.
If they do a poor job, they get washed up with nothing.
Okay, I also really like this idea.
For some of the other questions, the party will be starting off at level 5.
And the Rocs will be fine. This is quiet a large island (later to be found out that it is protected magically due to a God's curse), and the upper part of the island is full of dinosaurs. This is not due to Spanky's suggestion (sorry), and I thought I had put it in the OP. My bad on the over-sight.
Dinosaurs handily solve the ecology problem for the Rocs.
If you want extra fun, make it a village of mostly saurians.
There were 4 basic types of them, one was the triceratops ones called Hornheads. I think they were clerics.
As long as you have a Land of the Lost feel, maybe the red stones have fire power, the blue stones have water power, the clear stones have wind power, and the grey stones have earth power. When the right stones are placed correctly in each temple, the curse is lifted and anyone can leave the island. :)
Kallisti!
"To the Fairest"
The word ; (Ancient Greek: kallistē, Modern Greek: kallisti; "for/to the most beautiful")[4] was inscribed on the Golden Apple of Discord by Eris. ; is the dative singular of the feminine superlative of beautiful. In Latin sources, the word is pulcerrimae.
Kallistei inscription in the Cumae alphabet
Since the wedding of Peleus and Thetis was held on Mount Pelion in Magnesia, the inscription would have been in the local Cumae alphabet. Nestor's Cup provides a close example.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_of_Discord
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Kallisti!"To the Fairest"
The word ; (Ancient Greek: kallistē, Modern Greek: kallisti; "for/to the most beautiful")
[4] was inscribed on the Golden Apple of Discord by Eris. ; is the dative singular of the feminine superlative of beautiful. In Latin sources, the word is pulcerrimae.Kallistei inscription in the Cumae alphabet
Since the wedding of Peleus and Thetis was held on Mount Pelion in Magnesia, the inscription would have been in the local Cumae alphabet. Nestor's Cup provides a close example.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_of_Discord
But, bubububut,
When you explain it, you take all the magic away!
Hail Eris!
Kallisti!"To the Fairest"
The word ; (Ancient Greek: kallistē, Modern Greek: kallisti; "for/to the most beautiful")
[4] was inscribed on the Golden Apple of Discord by Eris. ; is the dative singular of the feminine superlative of beautiful. In Latin sources, the word is pulcerrimae.Kallistei inscription in the Cumae alphabet
Since the wedding of Peleus and Thetis was held on Mount Pelion in Magnesia, the inscription would have been in the local Cumae alphabet. Nestor's Cup provides a close example.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_of_Discord
But, bubububut,
When you explain it, you take all the magic away!
Hail Eris!
The magic is in your heart soul trooper - keep on dancing to the disco beat...
I don't know, does the OP want an apple that causes anyone who fails a will save 20 to fight over it, on the island?
Saurial. Monsterous Compendium Anual Volume 3. Pages 90-92.
First quote: "All four races have brightly colored scales, sharp claws, and tails, but their body shapes otherwise vary considerably. A finhead is nearly human in shape, though shorter than most humans, with a tail just over half it's body length and a pronounced fin on it's head. A bladeback is taller and stockier with a series of large, sharp scales which extend from the top of his head, down it's head, down it's spine and along it's nearly body-length tail. A flyer has a delicate frame, with smaller legs, a shorter tail, and a flap of scale-covered flesh beneath each arm which serve as wings. So although ungainly on foot, a flyer is extremely graceful when airborne. A Hornhead is a giant beast with a tail longer than it’s own body and sharp horns protruding both from it’s head and the great bony plate which protects it’s neck."