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Setting: Stormreach, Xendrik Eberron
System: Pathfinder RPG
Frequency: Monthly group 5pm - 1am
Character Level: 6 players all at level 4
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Question: Here's tonights game outline with brief description. How could I make the storyline more compelling, or am I good to go with improvisation based on this general plan?
I. Characters in Stormreach, few weeks downtime from last adventure. Exposition: characters contacted by a group of "widows" who grieve that their significant others haven't returned from an expedition in Xendrik jungles heading to the fabled ruins of the ancient giants Pra'Xirek. PCs must front 1000-2000gp for an airship to the drop off point where the previous party headed.
II. Undead horrors, hook horrors, trolls, drow, jungle beasts. Set up the setting with an overnight climate/terrain change typical of Xendrik. Remorhaz in sudden winter?
III. Trail to Drow infested temple/caverns beneath. More drow, monsters, traps, etc. Mini-dungeon. Discover part of the party is dead. Find map to Pr'Xirek, and legend of fabled treasure beyond belief. Learn that 1 drow knows how to get into the floating citidel of Pra'Xirek - maybe take him captive?
IV. Approach Pra'Xirek; hill giant infested. Undead giant skelletons; floating building in air above harbor ruins. Navigate way to floating citidel. (or stop short if not able to get up there) 1 drow knows a portal to the floating citidel.
V. Floating citidel. Primarily empty major room with stairs up. Use Paizo AoW map insert from dungeon mag for 6 pivoting cannith crystals numbered 1-4 each. Final battle room houses tomb of the giant king of Pra'Xirek. Discover remains of the rest of the adventuring party here.
Turning crystals following a numberical riddle on tomb will open portal to Stormreach, but also awaken Skeletal guardians. Big battle, big treasures!
VI. Return to Stormreach, sell, trade,bring news of the party's deaths to the widows. No rewards, but the characters will have found riches beyond belief in the king's tomb.
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So, how does that sound? Is there anything I should consider during the hook portion to ensure the adventure occurs/players accept the mission? Thx.
Make the missing persons personal. Either a group of rivals, relatives, their spouses/children/other expendable family members, enemies that escaped their wrath in the past that you don't have future plans for.
Or play up the down time getting heckled by new rivals. Maybe play it up like the new Mummy movie where the two groups are in a race or have bets or whathaveyou. Two groups competing can also = higher CR encounters.
What motivates the characters? I have had players run greedy and altruistic characters.
Turin beat me to the punch with the rival group idea. I would have them sabotaging instead of a direct conflict at least until the end anyway. They can try to steal party equipment, frame them for things they did not do which makes a drow tribe want to kill them, or anything else to hinder the PC's.
Maybe one of the missing husbands has something the PC's want or need.
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Raging Swan Press
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If the PCs find the remains of the party they are looking for, they might want to return them to the grieving widows for proper burial. If they also find vast amounts of treasure, you could roleplay one of the widows as particularly desperate to get her husband back. It transpires that she is pregnant with their first child and without she will be destitute/thrown out of her home/or so on. When she sees how much treasure the party have retrieved she begs them to get her husband raised from the dead. If they do so you could provide a nice XP bonus or have the raised NPC pop up in a later adventure with a vital clue, piece of equipment (or so on). (of course as the PCs' reputation for genorosity becomes known, you can also deluge them with people begging for their aid or largess.