I'm putting my DM hat on again

[Koumei]

So, though I've been pretending to run a Sigil Prep game (see: I keep forgetting to update), and run a few 1-on-1 games on Elliquiy, I'm starting up a traditional D&D game online (play-by-post).

It's a four person group, and in accordance with my "I hate low level games" policy, begins at level 5. They voted on actually having the plot be fairly traditional - they all meet, possibly in a tavern, and notice that they're all PCs. They then go on a few adventures/quests, doing cool things, and then an actual plot emerges during one of these. From there it escalates until there is a climatic battle between good, evil and the other guys.

I have encouraged them to read the Tome stuff, but I don't yet know what they'll be choosing.

So, in my grand tradition of getting other people to do the work for me , does anyone have any suggestions for memorable first quests?

I'm tempted to, later on, send them on the greatest beer quest ever. Something along the lines of "We need more Ale. Specifically, this stuff brewed in the fifth layer of Hell. Here's the address."

Or perhaps, does anyone have a specific monster that they love to see used? I'm sure I could base a good adventure off a monster or two.

[Cielingcat]

1193848571[/unixtime]]I'm tempted to, later on, send them on the greatest beer quest ever. Something along the lines of "We need more Ale. Specifically, this stuff brewed in the fifth layer of Hell. Here's the address."

Can I play?

[SunTzuWarmaster]

As mentioned in my previous postings for the Trenches, I am extremely partial to Demons (Fiends). The random assortment of abilities is enough to keep anyone on their toes (holy crap, why does it fight with 4 swords and a scorpion tail?!).

That being said, I try to work Babau Assassins into any campaign high enough level to handle the teleporting, hiding, Power Attacking, Sneak attacking, slimy monster that also has DR, SR, immunities, resistances, and SLAs.

[Judging__Eagle]

Actually, you could have them quest in the lower planes right away.

Read the Tome of Fiends again. There's material on what to do on the lower planes. From levels 1-20, for each major type of lower plane.

[Koumei]

Oh, I know that, I just want to actually start them off adventuring in the Prime.

Note to self: Ceilingcat is an alcoholic

[tzor]

1193848571[/unixtime]]I'm tempted to, later on, send them on the greatest beer quest ever. Something along the lines of "We need more Ale. Specifically, this stuff brewed in the fifth layer of Hell. Here's the address."

You know, now I have this image in my head of a bunch of dwarves in a tavern in Sigil singing "In heaven there is no beer. (That's why we drink it here.)" It's not going away and I blame you for that.

[the_taken]

At the Battle of Midra'Noth,
I led my troops into melee
And though we had slain the Dreadful Lich,
Lovely Valkyries had come for me.

In the halls of Valhalla,
I was seated among the fairest maidens,
Honored and Praised for my Courage and Skill
I was fed a feast of Roast Beats and Goats Milk
(Crowd: No?
Viking: Yes.)

As..
There are no ales from a Celestial realm
Enlightenment and Sobriety
Oh, there are no ales in Celestial realms
Said the Angels and Deities

[Username17]

Personally, I always set prime games in a fantasy Earth. One campaign for example, took place in what was essentially the Karakhanid empire. They were orcs, kobolds, and goblins mostly and the emperor in Kashgar was also an orc. They were trouble shooters for the empire and had to deal with cort intrigue in a monster-run empire. There were two distinct organizations in charge of enforcing the law for example. One run by a medusa and another run by an ogre, and the two organizations had similar but slightly different mandates. One prominent court magician was a hag.

About the most memorable early mission they were sent on was to fix the problems at a necromantic tannery. There was a college of necromancers which operated on top of the ruins of an ancient city and had skeletons taning leathers and other skeletons mining for more corpses. Unfortunately, they had dug deeply enough to break into an aboleth warren and the whole thing started going Ghosts of Mars.

--

Another classic was a campaign set in Lithuania where the initial plot hook involved a salt caravan not showing up on time. A trip there notedthat the place that sent the salt caravans was burned to the ground. The dead had been dragged away by gnolls, and it was off to have 13th Warrior style combat in the fog with canibalistic hyena men. After some more investigation it is revealed that the initial attack had been carried off by a dragon, and that the gnolls had simply opportunistically killed and eaten everyone left alive.

That campaign went on to have the characters go back in time several times and ended up with them causing their own plot hooks and even character backgrounds. But at the beginning it was mostly detective work punctuated by fighting gnolls in rugged ravines in thick fog.

-Username17

[Koumei]

Well, for their first series of things to do, I decided to rely on trickery. They are going to be informed of some generic bad shit happening in the forests (it's Forgotten Realms, the forest is... that spooky place that I can't be bothered remembering the name of).

They will be offered some horses that were being used for a show at the fair. One is going to be big, black and strong. It also has a great Disguise modifier (only -2 for "emulate a different race"), so they hopefully won't notice that it's a Nightmare. Seriously, this thing has the Int and SLAs to actually be a BBEG without them ever knowing.

Anyway, there can be some encounters and stuff, but for a while, they're going to get stalked by a Pseudodragon with some extra racial hit dice and levels in Dragonfire Adept, CR 4. It will look like a Wyrmling Red Dragon, except smaller. It might even act like one, to intimidate them a bit - and should it notice one PC is Evil, it'll even do the "Serve me and when I'm older and bigger you'll get awesome rewards!" and send them on a pointless quest.

If they attack it, it has a weak breath weapon, flight and Darkness at will. Alternatively, if they're polite, it can direct them to the actual problem. At some point though, the "horse" is going to strike, and that will be the boss encounter for the quest. The actual villains will be crappy little kobolds or something.

I intend to basically throw them some surprises without punishing them for not figuring things out ahead of time.