I've been building a horror campaign using the framework of the Strange Aeons line (Starting in an Asylum is just too cool). I'm using the first two books with some heavy modification then moving into adaptations of From the Shore to the Sea followed up by Carrion Hill with a lot of my own work woven in.
The synopsis of the story is the party was part of a Pathfinder Society team that ended up getting betrayed, manipulated and used into wakening several elder entities and paving the way for a few Great Old Ones who have been growing there cults ever since. The players have been in the Asylum for six years and are only given their sanity back when they are exposed to the dream world which reunited them with part of their mind which has been trapped for the last six years. Unfortunately they "awaken" with no memory of the past eight years, there minds too unwilling to grasp the true horrors they witnessed and even took part in.
The first Act: The players venture into the world and slowly start getting a sense of how screwed everything has become as they track down thirteen tomes in order to understand and maybe reverse (in part) the current apocalypse. I have the first four tomes done (Dreamlands, Negative Energy, Positive Energy, Necronomicon) and that will bring them to about level 7-8 for a 4 person party.
I just need to come up with ideas for:
The four books of the four Elemental planes
The book of the plane of Shadows
The three books of the three Evil planes
A copy of the Chronicles of the Righteous (Elizium)
The books I have planned out are located with two cults (Hastur and The Carrion King), a paladins crypt, and a haunted manner. Any suggestion of where to put the remaining nine would be appreciated. I want the players to get to approximately 15th level by the time they get all thirteen tomes at which point they are going to have to deal with a harsh truth.
If they perform the counter rituals (no small task) they will fix the alignment of the planes but things will get much much worse in the immediate future and millions of people will die as unmentionable horrors are manifested on the material plane. (Also the world wound will go haywire for about a week but that's small potatoes) If they don't the material plane will merge with the dream lands before inevitably being cast into the void where the Outer Gods reside awakening Azathoth.
How did these tomes get moved about or created? Was it machinations of these cults, or did they have independent origins and they just happen to be useful to the PCs? It would make a big difference as to where they might be found.
How about at least one tome on an island in the middle of the ocean. When they get to the island and find the tome, the island turns out to be a slumbering Cthulhu.
How did these tomes get moved about or created? Was it machinations of these cults, or did they have independent origins and they just happen to be useful to the PCs? It would make a big difference as to where they might be found.
The books I'm using are all in game artifacts. The books are not unique just rare, with only a few dozen copies ever made.The original ones used in the ritual were scattered when the castle being used for the ritual was torn apart by a lesser old one when the ritual finished. But the players don't have to track down those specific copies. They just need the knowledge they provide.
The three Evil plane books are copies of their respective Book of the Damned versions (Daemonic, Demonic). The book for the Good planes is just a copy of the Chronicles of the Righteous. As these are all major artifacts and have started surface among the faithful and the desperate as they look for a way to protect themselves from the unpredictable horrors that have become common place.
The air tome might attract storms. No one likes having those near so it might get shipped off to an isolated island. Getting there, getting past some elementals and djinnis attracted to it, and beating a group of ruthless storm kindlers also seeking the tome seem like usable obstacles. Adding coldvictims' suggestion is of course optional.
The fire tome could be in a dwarven forge lost to darklands invaders. Whatever nasty aberrations you like, and probably some dwarven haunts too. The earth tome might be there as well if you want to have more than one in a location.
Water could be in a place which was once good farmland but is now a swamp. There's any number of swampy monsters. Maybe a black dragon considers it part of her treasure.
Shadow could be in the hands of a fetchling thief. Getting it would be more about tracking him down than fighting.