A Thousand And One Nightmares

[InVinoVeritas]

Hello! I'm working on a new campaign. I'm making it Arabian Nights style adventures, starting in Katapesh and spanning the Obari Ocean (and beyond). The central premise of the campaign involves the Bottle of the Bound. The fiends and horrors contained in the bottle are released in the first adventure, from where they scatter far and wide, and it will be the PCs' task to track down these abominations, and return them to the Bottle.

So I will need fiends. Lots of fiends. Lots of cool, bizarre, thematic horrors to unleash on the PCs. As I come up with ideas, I'll share them here, but do you have anything you'd like to share? Or any thoughts about the campaign as a whole?

[Ringtail]

You could start here.

But seriously though, sounds interesting. I eagerly wait to see what you come up with.

[Nickademus42]

If you can get your hands on an Al-Qadim Arabian Adventures book (2nd Ed of you-know-what) it will have a lot of awesome advice for the flavor of the campaign, especially the idea of enlightenment.

As for horrors, try the Tome of Horrors if you've got the $.

[InVinoVeritas]

Nickademus42 wrote:

If you can get your hands on an Al-Qadim Arabian Adventures book (2nd Ed of you-know-what) it will have a lot of awesome advice for the flavor of the campaign, especially the idea of enlightenment.

I have Al-Qadim! So that's definitely going to be a source of ideas.

My first challenge will be to run an adventure where the Bottle is unstoppered--how can I get the PCs involved? Gotta think about that.

I'm thinking one recurring villain is an evil wizard who acts to unstopper the bottle, with a cythnigot familiar.

[Kierato]

Use synthesist summoners as some of the demons, but make it so they are always outsiders or let it represent possession. Limitless demon possibilities.

[Hexcaliber]

Al-Qadim is one of my favorite settings from 2nd Ed. I ran so many complex adventures there I've been tempted to write about them!

Glad to see someone is keeping the lamp lit so to speak. As far as getting the players involved, that can be tricky. You should never try to force them into accidentally doing something, but if someone else does it and they get blamed, well, that's how alot of great stories begin.

Just something to consider.

:)

[Lincoln Hills]

If you get tired of presenting various muscular outsiders, one neat twist would be evil djinn that infest places - much like haunts, except that these would follow "outsider" rules instead of "undead" rules (so dismissal, etc. would be the weapon of choice.) And you might look at the Shoggoth (presumably toned down a lot, power-wise) as inspiration for a number of weaker djinn fused by their long imprisonment and insanity into a single shrieking mass of hatred for all mortals...

When I consider the power of genies (in literature), you could do a lot with these evil djinn once they've found a foolish mortal to exploit - giving him "exactly what he wished for" and sending the PCs into a number of Twilight Zone-style adventures in pocket dimensions or illusion-blanketed dungeons...

[Shadowdweller]

The Shargrim (or insert random name): A faceless creature that dwells on the ethereal plane, but partly manifests on the material plane. The creature is normally untouchable and invisible without appropriate plane-spanning magic and weapons, but can be seen through reflective surfaces - such as mirrors, water, or polished metal. The creature normally otherwise cannot affect the material plane, but can reach through reflective surfaces to attack. Its usual form of attack is to try and pull victims through the reflective surface on to the ethereal plane. Once it has done so, the creature places a special curse upon the victim that allows it to feed upon the victim's psyche.

The victim is left trapped upon the ethereal plane, unable to return unless they should possess some magical means of doing so. Furthermore, while under the effect of the Shargrim's curse, the victim suffers 1 point of charisma damage (which cannot heal as long as the curse persists) per day as the Shargrim slowly devours the victim's identity. The curse causes the trapped victim to become visible through any nearby reflective surfaces on the material plane.

So basically the thing leaves empty dwellings behind...where observant investigators can find the reflections of former occupants clawing to get back as they slowly (and in a suitably agonizing fashion) lose their distinctiveness.

[Ravingdork]

I suppose this is as good a time as any to show off my own work: The Bloody Tongue, complete with picture.

[InVinoVeritas]

Oh, wow, gorgeous stuff guys, thanks!

I'm working on campaign traits. I'm thinking that all the PCs will have a link to Yin Hu, a vulpinal who is the present owner of the Bottle of the Bound. The idea for the first adventure is that the Bottle is stolen by the wizard villain mentioned above (Think Jafar from Disney's Aladdin worshipping Rovagug and consorting with qlippoth). His goal is simply to free the fiends trapped inside, solely to wreak havoc and destruction, increasing the power Rovagug can wield to break free of the Pit of Gormuz.

I'm placing an additional powerful magic on the Bottle: namely, it cannot be teleported or scried, and outsiders (maybe just fiends) dare not touch it. This should serve as a way for the PCs to retrieve the emptied Bottle at the beginning of the adventure--it can't just be spirited away by folk more powerful. I'll have to make sure travel remains an enjoyable and exciting experience throughout the campaign, but that should be pretty easy.

But back to traits. I'm looking for ideas for campaign traits that will lead everyone to find Yin Hu's stall. Here are some basic ideas:

Tomb Raider: Experienced with entering catacombs and abandoned temples, for finding treasures and bringing them to Katapesh for sale. Has heard Yin Hu will pay a good price.

Stall Guard: In Yin Hu's employ, tasked with protecting her and helping her change locations in Katapesh when necessary.

Pactmaster Bureaucrat: Works for the city of Katapesh, tasked with trying to keep tabs on Yin Hu and her sojourns across town.

Seeking Enlightenment: Has heard the rumors surrounding Yin Hu and hopes to find her store to uncover mysteries about the seeker him/herself.

Blessed by Fate: Lives by scrounging and odd jobs around Katapesh, but has a knack for being in the right place at the right time. Like now.

Any other ideas? I'm thinking about the story connections first, the mechanics will come afterward.

[Son of the Veterinarian]

Summoners were mentioned earlier, and one idea is that several of the Djinn could have bound themselves to various people, willingly or unwillingly.

Some of the new Summoners could revel in their new power, while others might live in terror of what the creatures who've been bound to them could do to them or their families.

"I can carry you child. You don't actually need your legs."