The missing dragonknight

[Sunilor]

Hi! I need help and advice on my fantasy campaign.

The PCs come home to their home village after a long journey. But things have changed. They find that their home village is burned to the ground. And the once green plains surrounding it are dark like a big fire have struck the land.

A old man outside the village says that a dragon have awoken and taken over the land. Its now called the Wasteland of the dragon. He says that the villagers probably have escaped to the town Tjute just outside the wasteland like most of the others. So the PCs starts travelling towards the town.

On their way they find a body thats being eaten by "small dragon dog like creatures". They kill the creatures in defence and find that the human body is holding a letter. Its written on the outside; To the Dragonknight Thord in Tjute.

The PCs are on the way to that town so they take the letter with them. When arriving at the town they find that their loved ones from their home village are there. They want to move home and build upp their village again but they cant aslong as the dragon is still alive.

The PCs ask around in the town for the Dragonknight Thord. No one have heard of a Dragonknight but they know a person named Thord. The PCs find his house, but he is missing. A man that knew him is outside his house. He says that Thord left the town mumbling something about "finding the perfect apprentice" and since then no one have seen or heard from him. No one now where he is or where he might have gone.

The plot is; The PCs have to find the Dragonknight  becuase he is the only one who can Kill the dragon.

But I dont know how I should build the campaign. I think that the PCs somehow needs a clue to where the knight have gone so that they get a direction. I think that the search for the dragonknight itself
might be a trial and the one who finds him is the perfect apprentice. But im not sure what clues there will be.

Do u have any suggestions?

[dark_dragon]

You could have some tells in the guy's house. eg: all the winter clothing is gone. Indicating where he might have gone.

Or maybe the guy brought some books/maps from the local shop.

Looking through the house they could find the residues from a very rare plant which is helpful to surviving in the desert/marshlands/glaciers. the plant being gone, you can deduce where to go from there.

They could find a secret basement with all of his knightly stuff (the way superheros might keep their secret identities hidden, so does a noble knight.) In there could be a diary, or a talisman from a particular jungle tribe. (One of your PCs luckily knows about the tribe: use their background!)

Pehaps people with mage senses would see a magical signature, such as evidence of scrying a particular location.

Maybe he has relatives, or a past in the hero's guild (substitute as needed), and they could help the PCs find him. (cue journey companion)

The quest could be made more exciting by having the dragon morph at a particular time ( "When the stars be right, this here dragon will open the gates to the fury of the underworld. I tell thee it has been written in the prophecies"), giving a time limit to their search, and adding tension.

The player's characters should be good source of inspiration too.

One of your players belongs to the "most secret brotherhood of the violet moon"? then Thord might be affiliated with them, having worked for them in the past. Cue doing a favour fo a guildmaster as retribution for absence before the master tells about Thord.

One of your player a clan barbarian from the southern plains? Thord was raised by their rival clan! Cue diplomacy, etc... to find out more about Thord...


Example:

Maybe an ancient text has been left to be found (eg: on dislplay on a pedestal in the foyer) Which will need to be translated by a scribe in another city

cue quest no 1: Travel to a far off city. Getting Jobs as caravan guards going to the city could bring in income and trouble (read cool moments!)

Arriving at the scribe, they find that they have to do him a favour before he translates it, since they do not enough money to pay for it

cue quest no 2: perhaps doing something illegal, such as stealing a rare book from a wizard/museum

Once the scribe translates the book, it could refer heavily to an acient temple in a far off location

cue quest no 3: some more travel to exotic locations, and meeting two rival tribes who will lead them to the temple, only if they help them in the conflict.

At the ancient temple, they could find de-activated traps and an artifact of great power (tm) missing, which can only be used in conjunction with another artifact at another location

cue quest no 4: travel to a necopolis, for example: undead, dark dungeons, etc... But the necropolis is big, and they will need a guide. a local necromancer knows the way.. do they trust him?

Arriving at the Necropolis, (and having gone through hordes of undead) they find Thord and together they defeat the lich master, and aquire the second artifact of power(tm) to defeat the dragon. Thord thanks them and accept their apprenticeship, but on the return journey, they get attacked by Orcs who steal the artifacts and take Thord hostage

cue quest no 5: retreive artifact and Thord.

In fact, the great orcish shaman wants the artifacts to kill a demon which has been released by his inept attempt at magic, and the PCs could even help the tribe to kill the demon if they use diplomacy and dont go in all swords blazing. Otherwise, they will have a demon to deal with later on... Once they get Thord back, he is wounded ( by the demon, or by the orcs, depending) and will not be able to kill the dragon himself, so when they get back

cue quest no 6, return journey, where another tribe, or the demon, or anything else, could be pursuing them for the artifact.

They then have to activate the artifact of power(tm) and then kill the dragon, which could be the climax of the campaign...


just my two cents...

[Wulfhere]

If you use the structure suggested by Dark Dragon, you will want to cue the PCs ahead of time that there will be several subquests before they are ready to tackle the main quest.  Otherwise that structure can be frustrating:

"At last we have come to the scribe Jontahal!  Master Jontahal, could you translate this for us?"

Quoth the scribe, "Certainly, but I need to to retrieve something for me first..."

(Some time later...)

"We have the original texts of the Guderius Scrolls!  Now, please tell us how to find the Dragon Knight!"

"This refers to a temple beyond the Mountains of the Fur Bearers.  You will need the assistance of those cannibalistic tribesmen if you hope to find the place."

(Loud Sighs ensue...) "All right.  Let's go make nice to the cannibals..."

...and so forth.  Make sure that the prophecy (or whatever) is clear that they won't find the guy until they have endured many trials.

What is it about that Dragon Knight that makes him uniquely qualified to slay the dragon?  You need the PCs to stay the "stars" of the show, and a potent NPC could potentially steal the spotlight.

[dark_dragon]

Sorry, got a bit carried away.... You're absolutely right Wulf, it does seem to go on forever. Take with a pinch of salt...

[Wulfhere]

Dark Dragon, there's nothing wrong with your campaign outline, as long as the players don't get a "bait and switch" resolution to their early quests, where they think they've found the guy, then find out another quest (or three) will be needed.

I'd have them find the great hero about the end of the second quest, where he reveals that he just doesn't have it in him to take on another dragon:  He's in there trying, but he's too old and broken to do much more than advise at this point.

Perhaps slaying a dragon takes a spiritual toll on the one that strikes it down, something that isn't mentioned in the sagas:  It's not that it's insanely difficult to kill them, but the man that gives the dragon's death blow is accursed forever afterward.  Dragons are creatures of awesome spiritual power, practically forces of nature.  It's not hard to imagine that slaying one could involve tremendous upsets of the natural order, distortions that would center on the slayer.

[Sunilor]

Good suggestions! I have actually thought about that the Dragonknight is to old to kill
a dragon and the only way to kill it is if someone want to be his apprentice and learn
the art of dragonkilling. But it would be a problem if the PCs dident want to become
dragonknights and if i know them right it would seem abit obvious.

I agree that finding the dragonknight on the secod quest is probably best. But its a risk
that the campaign will get to short. Maybe the training itself could be the biggest part
of the campaign? But what parts could the training posses? Like killing different kind of
monsters? Collecting things? Pls come with ideas!

I also have another idea for a plot. The wisemen in the town is creating a strong poison,
the strongest of them all. The poison to kill dragons. But the right ingridiens are missing
and they are very rare and hard to find. The PCs may find the ingridiens, each ingridiens
will be a adventure. For every ingridiens they bring they will also be rewarded with 1 goldcoin.
And of course when they have gathered all the ingridiens they will be asked to kill the dragon.
I like this plot becuase its very easy and simple to base a campaign on. But one problem is
that it feels so kliche it almost makes me sick. It feels like "gather the missing pieces" plot
have been used a million times before.

What do u think?

[dark_dragon]

That would be kind of episodic in nature, and it would probably depend on the frequency/length of the roleplaying sessions as well as the length of the campaign (real life length that is). It would be nice if you have a player missing once in a while, since each session would be self contained. Simple, true,  but could be effective nonetheless.

In the campaign outline I suggested, for example, I would estimate each quest to be one roleplaying session of 3-4 hours, while the entire campaign would be about 1 1/2 months long (in real life), so I guess the type of campaign itself would depend on your group.