# Nocturnal Nightmare



## Lestat De Lioncourt (Mar 23, 2011)

Hey guys this is a campaign I'm thinking of, maybe I'm posting this in the wrong place but I am new here so please forgive me. What I need is your thoughts on this campaign and your advice and ideas. Keep in mind that I have been playing D&D 3.5 edition for a little more than a year so I'm not really experienced with some stuff. Also this is the first campaign I have thought so I know it sucks Dwarven balls so you won't have to remind me that. 

So the story I have thought goes something like this. 
When the ancient Gods where still young and formed this weird planet called Earth the first creatures they created where Dragons. As centuries passed more creatures came in existence and the Gods created the proud ancient races of the Elves and Dwarfs and species evolved and from apes came Men. Men started populating and spreading on this planet like a disease, driven mostly by instincts and stupidity they would often harm the other races and creatures around them. So after centuries as Men grew stronger they starting hunting down those big winged creatures called Dragons to take their shiny gold and valuable possessions (also because Dragons once and then would kill some humans or their cattle for food and sport). So the Dragons became extinct, or most of them did.

A gold Dragon was one of the remaining, maybe even the last of his kind. He lived for long in a Realm (haven't figured out name yet) that wasn't yet populated by any human(oid). As men slowly came to inhabit that place too the almighty, wise and kind dragon decided to give those humans a chance and be friendly with them. He would very often take the form of a middle aged man with white hair and beard and would share his ancient knowledge and power to help humans. So after a few centuries the humans that came to that Realm had builded 7 kingdoms. The wise dragon came to an agreement with 7 humans he judged to be worthy: He would offer them his guidance and help as long as they would follow his judgement on how to rule with peace justice and kindness their kingdoms. He would also offer him some of his blood yearly, which (since he was one of the first creatures ever created) would extend their lives by long. Example 50 years would pass and the 7 kings would age only a year. What the dragon asked for return as I said was obedience to his fair judgement  and a yearly tribute of 30% of each kingdoms yearly incomes (if times where hard he would  understand and ask for much less). Centuries passed the kings where still close to 30-50(real life) years old with the help of the dragons blood and ruled peacefully and fairly and all the humans on this Realm loved the dragon. But greedy and hungry for more power they where so one night after a feast with a lot of wine they murder the dragon (Julius Ceasar style) while he was in a human form. They had their wizards trap his soul in a "cage" that looked as a statue of an old man made from stone. They "locked" the cage with a round stone magical disk and broke it to (7 maybe) pieces and scattered them in the realm (some kings have kept a piece). The dragon's soul could only be freed if those pieces where put together again and placed under the statue. The kings in order to remain immortal became vampires and ever since they have been ruling their kingdoms forming (and breaking) temporary alliances with each other but always being in war since each wants to rule the whole realm himself. They are tyrrants and no one the realm has the right to speak his mind freely or stand against them. Anyone who would do that would earn a lovely place in the guilotine. Since the kings are greedy bloodthirsty vampires they take a yearly tribute(as in all of it) of gold from each village/town/city and a tribute of a few humans. Of course they wouldn't tell the people that they are vampires that suck their blood out cause that would be terrifying. Instead what they have told them is that the dragon is alive and well but now demands human flesh for tribute as well or else he will use his powers to kill them all!!! What a heartless monster! So the vampire kings have "farms" under their castles where they store and harness those humans and keep them alive with magic until the very last drop of their blood is sucked. Coincidentally the last centuries since the "dragon" went evil there have been increasing numbers of vampires and undeads walking the lands. 

The story begins with in the middle kingdom of Ravenclaw in a village(or town) called Eraldin not far from the capital city Erorn (where one of the 7 vampire kings reside). They players will all be related brothers and cousins all children of the "noble" families of the village. The villagers work as miners in the nearby gold mines and farmers and "ruled" by the 1st family of the village. Every year the "noble" famillies of the village or town pay the gold tribute to the king. But every 10 years (since there isn't much population here) they pay the flesh tribute. Players are ages 8-10 when they witness the flesh tribute. As it is usually done there are 3-4 families randomly selected to give one or two of their children (or young adults) The story starts the day before the tribute where the young players are playing on the fields each pretending to be the class they will actually be in the future. Next day their father(s) gather them with tears in their eyes as their families have been selected to give a member. That is the older sister of the players. Guards escort them in the city and then in the castle where they wait outside in the storm and cold until they are called inside. This is the first time the players will see the tyrant heartless vampire king (not knowing he is a vampire of course) kill with his own hands their uncle who refused to give away a member of his family and their father giving his daughter crying. Fast forward another 10 years(the day the tribute has to be paid) players now are ages 18-20 (level 1) and their father calls them and gives them a letter with a quest and an order. Give the letter to Jacob a man that lives in Village (haven't figured out the name of the village) and do not open the letter. As they travel to that village their father (without them knowing yet) is standing up for his village and fellow friend and refuses to pay and of course the king order the guards to slay him. As the players approach the village their father sent them they see in a nearby river dead bodies of farmers and one or two goblins. Then they hear a man cursing and sound of slaughtering. They see the man fighting goblins inside the village and asking them to help. When they clear the village he tells them to go to a nearby goblin lair and finnish them off. 

When they return he tells them he is Jacob. They give him the letter, he sign and looks sad and says something like "Well I see you father decided to rebel" and explain them that he is dead because he denied to pay. The letter will inform Jacob and advise him to gather the people and do the same. In the end he asks Jacob to give his sons something. Jacob leaves the pcs alone for a minute and returns with a sealed letter and a chest from the basement where the pcs find some items and gold to start and two broken stone pieces of something that looked to be a round disk. They read the letter telling them stuff like "I'm dead by now and you my sons s\must continue my quest" and in short that they should find the remaining pieces of this object because only then the people will be free of their torment. 

Their quest to find those pieces will cost them family member and loved ones and will have them to kill some of the kings to obtain some pieces. One is in the caslte of Erorn and they will later have to persuade the common folk to rebel with them and storm the castle. If they succed the very next day the kingdom of Ravenclaw will be under the attack of a nearby kingdom. The people will ask from the players to lead the armies and defend the kingdom. If they succed (which they will) they can be crowned kings and lords of the kingdom. Somehow, haven't figured out how yet, they will find the location of the statue/cell and in the meantime gather all the pieces to free the dragon's soul. Also they will learn somehow that behind all the vampires and undead rising and the one who made the kings vampires is an ancient vampire called Kane. Kane(cursed bu the gods for his sin) will be the first of the vampire kind and wont have gay weaknesses like the burn from sunlight. They will actually meet Kane at some point (i have this picture of the pcs returning to see loved ones and finding Kane drinking their blood and a bunch of loved ones dead around him) and Kane will of course want to kill them since the pcs have killed his children and interfere with his master plan of turning the whole world into vampires. The dragon's soul after they free him will either know about Kane or the pcs will tell him and he will tell them (something that they may have found if they have attacked Kane) that Kane is way to powerful to be killed by mortals and that's why they will have to search for an ancient artifact called The Staff Of The Gods. This artifact made by the Gods themselves is capable of killing every creature created by the gods and even the gods too maybe. The god have hidden it somewhere when they realized how powerful it was. So the dragon will somehow (maybe give a piece of his soul to each pc?) will give them some badass powers and abilities(inluding some level ups) and pcs will have to find that powerful with crazy abilities staff that will kill Kane for good and after an epic battle (I have this crazy image of the players and Kane falling in the abyss or something like that and fighting while falling inside the center of the earth) they will kill Kane and if they survive they will rule the Realm as kings. Also I have this thought of continuing the story after they become kings and they will have to save the kingdom from a threat maybe some short of barbaric race/tribe invading the kingdom or something even crazier like demons or a whole new race of dragons! 

I would love to hear your thoughts on this campaign and ideas of improving it by adding or removing stuff so I guess let me know what you guys think!


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