My PCs are currently lost in the swamp in the Border Kingdoms. They were lead there on the trail of a demon, but the warrior who lead them was dragged into the murk by beastmen and they have lost their heart for demon-fighting after the damage they saw the thing do in the last session. The party currently all 2nd level, and is made up of a Zingaran Soldier, a Bossonian Borderere, a scholar from Khitan, a Zamoran thief, and a Hyrkanian Nomad. This is just going to be a general outline of what I have planned, I have not worked out all the details yet. I'm looking for feedback and ideas.
While trying to find there way out of the swamp, the PCs will happen upon a dry patch of land that has a strange rocky mound on it. There will also be a couple giant lizards (or maybe giant poisonous toads) that hang out here and will vigorously defend the mound from any PC investigation. If the PCs dispatch the reptilian defenders, they will realize the mound is man-made is beneath it is the tomb that apparently holds the body of some important members of an ancient lizard-worshipping cult. I would like to have some traps of some sort in the tomb, but I'd also like the idea of some sort of creature to fight within. Maybe a golem of some-sort, a statue of a lizard man which comes to life? I don't really want to use undead. So then the PCs will find some mummies and some trinkets including a golden idol of a 3 eyed lizard which I may make more important down the line. They will also find a tunnel beneath the tomb which leads out of the swamp...
When they exit the tunnel hours later, they will quickly realize they are covered with a weird residue. The scholar will probabl realize it is poisonous in nature. The poision is so old that it is no longer fatal, but it will slowly incapacitate the party, leaving them sick and alone in the cold wilderness...
A lucky coincidence happens now, a group of Aesir with a Nemedian merchant happen upon the party. These aren't strangers, but actually a group the party had met at a festival a few weeks ago and had befriended. The Aesir are on the way back home (they were only so far South because the chief of their clan wanted to participate in a competition of strength with the "weak" southerners). The aesir are in a good mood, and they decide to help the poisoned party out rather than rob them, and the chief figures he can always use some extra swords when he gets back North. So the whole group travels North through the mountians into Asgard, near the Hyporborean border...
When they arrive at the settlement the Aesir call home, they find it destroyed. Think of Conan's village in the opening scene of the Conan the Barbarian movie. This is both suprising and devastating to the Aesir chief, his people had been in a time of great prosperity and peace. How else could he take the time to travel South with a merchant just to show off his great strength? He has no idea who did this, so he proposes that they travel to a nearby village which is known to have a wise old man that sees things from both the past and the future...
They get to the village with the wiseman, but the village's chief is on a hunting expedition and has left his son in charge. Nobody is supposed to see the wiseman without the chief's permission, but the Aesir chief won't take no for an answer. He goes up the hill to see the wiseman anyway, assuming the son won't have the guts to start a bloody battle over something so small with his father away. The chief and the party meet the wiseman, and he tells them the village was destroyed by Hyperborean raiders who serve an sorceror who lives in a palace of ice on the border of Asgard and Hyperborea. The captured people have been put to work digging deep into the icy earth, but the wiseman knows not why they dig.
Anyway I'll try to make this a bit shorter so that someone actually reads it. The son from the village actually has some guts, and he and his men ambush the party on their way down the hill from seeing the wiseman. Assuming they are victorious, they will head off into the cold mountains,searching for the lost villagers a a sorcerous foe.
Does this all sound okay? Too much railroading?
While trying to find there way out of the swamp, the PCs will happen upon a dry patch of land that has a strange rocky mound on it. There will also be a couple giant lizards (or maybe giant poisonous toads) that hang out here and will vigorously defend the mound from any PC investigation. If the PCs dispatch the reptilian defenders, they will realize the mound is man-made is beneath it is the tomb that apparently holds the body of some important members of an ancient lizard-worshipping cult. I would like to have some traps of some sort in the tomb, but I'd also like the idea of some sort of creature to fight within. Maybe a golem of some-sort, a statue of a lizard man which comes to life? I don't really want to use undead. So then the PCs will find some mummies and some trinkets including a golden idol of a 3 eyed lizard which I may make more important down the line. They will also find a tunnel beneath the tomb which leads out of the swamp...
When they exit the tunnel hours later, they will quickly realize they are covered with a weird residue. The scholar will probabl realize it is poisonous in nature. The poision is so old that it is no longer fatal, but it will slowly incapacitate the party, leaving them sick and alone in the cold wilderness...
A lucky coincidence happens now, a group of Aesir with a Nemedian merchant happen upon the party. These aren't strangers, but actually a group the party had met at a festival a few weeks ago and had befriended. The Aesir are on the way back home (they were only so far South because the chief of their clan wanted to participate in a competition of strength with the "weak" southerners). The aesir are in a good mood, and they decide to help the poisoned party out rather than rob them, and the chief figures he can always use some extra swords when he gets back North. So the whole group travels North through the mountians into Asgard, near the Hyporborean border...
When they arrive at the settlement the Aesir call home, they find it destroyed. Think of Conan's village in the opening scene of the Conan the Barbarian movie. This is both suprising and devastating to the Aesir chief, his people had been in a time of great prosperity and peace. How else could he take the time to travel South with a merchant just to show off his great strength? He has no idea who did this, so he proposes that they travel to a nearby village which is known to have a wise old man that sees things from both the past and the future...
They get to the village with the wiseman, but the village's chief is on a hunting expedition and has left his son in charge. Nobody is supposed to see the wiseman without the chief's permission, but the Aesir chief won't take no for an answer. He goes up the hill to see the wiseman anyway, assuming the son won't have the guts to start a bloody battle over something so small with his father away. The chief and the party meet the wiseman, and he tells them the village was destroyed by Hyperborean raiders who serve an sorceror who lives in a palace of ice on the border of Asgard and Hyperborea. The captured people have been put to work digging deep into the icy earth, but the wiseman knows not why they dig.
Anyway I'll try to make this a bit shorter so that someone actually reads it. The son from the village actually has some guts, and he and his men ambush the party on their way down the hill from seeing the wiseman. Assuming they are victorious, they will head off into the cold mountains,searching for the lost villagers a a sorcerous foe.
Does this all sound okay? Too much railroading?
