Cross-posted from another forum:

I'm starting a campaign this Saturday and I was hoping to use some crazy awesome cosmology with the Far Realms, the Dreamscapes, and the Spirit world. Aside from that I suck at starting campaigns, there is way too little stuff out there for a campaign like this. Please help!

The Cosmology: You've got the basics. I'm using the aforementioned planes plus the material, shadow and ethereal. I want to make this stuff a bigger deal. I want templates for the denizens of each plane (there is already pseudonatural; we need something like that for spirits and dreams). I want help with outsiders for each plane (new varieties of Quori, lesser varieties of Daelkyr, greater varieties of Kaorti, and just about anything for spirits) and where these might fit in summoning lists. I want to know how existing monsters are involved in the cosmology (are they native to or descended from another plane? what still fits better with the material plane? aberrations? yuan ti? anything?). Also, updates of stuff from oriental adventures, updates of psionic stuff from Fiend Folio (because they never updated those psionics), and updates of ghostwalk stuff would all help. ALOT.

The campaign: We're using pregen characters. We've got an archivist loaded down with dream related feats from Heroes of Horror. We've got a slyth (from Underdark, with an oozelike alternate form) dread necromancer. We've got a half-giant monk. We've got a gloaming bard. And we'll probably have a telepath or other psion and a spirit shaman. Plus maybe a fighter and some stuff.

My idea is that the archivist works interpreting the dreams of the royal family, and is one of several mage advisors to the royal family. He sees that something bad might soon happen to the king's nephew. The other diviners prophesy that [the adventurers, all of whom are in some way down on their luck] will be the ones to fix this by first [first adventure... I was thinking to consult a dusk hag, who would send them to retrieve her eye or some artifact from a nearby dungeon]. Also, the necromancer got put in a bottle for his crimes against humanity 300 years ago, and was only released on the condition of a near total memory wipe.

I need to know a bunch of stuff. Like what dungeon the hag sends them to, what the artifact is that she wants back, what mosters are at the dungeon, and why they want the same artifact. Also, what the hag will say and what danger the king's nephew is in. Also, more backstory for the other characters. ALso, how to tie in the cosmology (ESPECIALLY the plane of dreams).




Also, not mentioned on prior thread: Normally, I change the rules with UA to resemble SWd20, but not this time around. Got a noob I don't want to scare off. For the same reason I'm not gonna use taint rules or any of that. I know not everybody here is such a big fan of DnD or D20 as I am, so I can expect less help on the crunch, but I'm having just as rough a time with plot (hooks and stuff) and setting.

The dungeon is built around the calcified skull and brain of a long dead dragon. It, while dead, is still somewhat conscious. As they near it, pick a plyer (roll will saves, random choice, person with highest charisma, or whatever). That person becomes the dragon's tie to this world, and while he's near the dragon can talk with him in small snippets. How useful those snippets are is up to you. If they're few but useful you can develope fear of the creature quick if you've got paranoid players. If they're frequent but useless you increase the creepiness of the area.

The artifact allows one to control their dreams, and thereby acts as a gateway to the dreamscape. How easy or difficult it is to use will determine how much they learn of the place by visiting.

The "monsters" could be a cult built up around the artefact. Their rites of leadership are based on a duel to the death using the artifact to enter the dreamscape. This would offer the PCs a chance to win control of the artifact without having to fight and klil every cultist.

Holy crap.


That idea? Consider it stolen. I'm thinking dream cultist yuan-ti or lizardfolk or something.

The idea for the dragon brain was itself stolen, so I can't take credit for it. It's from an old d20 module whose name escapes me. I wish I could remember it though, because I'd recommend the heck out of it.

The module was more psionic oriented, with the dragon (an Amethyst IIRC) being stuck in a gem. My players suffered a TPK really early on due to some bad luck against some zombies, so didn't get very far. The cult inside was taking shards of this gem and inserting it into animals to experiment. It was giving them low level psionic powers, intelligence, and driivng them insane.

Fragments idea is cool too. If I can ever get the psionics for it updated, I think it would be a cool way to make use of the ti-khana template from the Fiend Folio.

Of Sound Mind

Really cool adventure. Really tough one too, if you're queasy about character deaths avoid it or modify it greatly.

Sweetness. There is a shortage of psionic adventure. I'll have to check this out in greater detail later.

That company and author did a nice little spurt of psionic games and accessories when the Psionics Handbook first hit the SRD. None of it is 3.5 though, so might take a bit of conversion.

Bruce Cordell had a hand in a lot of their psionics stuff, so if you like the XPH that might be another plus for the line.