My son loves to think about the Tarrasque. (I mean the Tarrasque of D&D, not the "real" Tarasque.) The Tarrasque's monstrous invulnerability to practically everything makes it an interesting thought experiment. He keeps asking about battles between different creatures from the Monster Manual. Who would win? A Pit Fiend or a Solar? That kind of thing. The Tarrasque comes up a lot.
These questions inspired the following idea for a campaign. Feel free to use it, but please credit me.
It goes like this.
You have a regular D&D world. You know, generic fantasy, elves and druids, dwarves and orcs, halflings and wizards. Monsters threaten, heroes go into dungeons, kill monsters, take treasure. The usual.
But then...
A powerful creature organizes major monster factions in a loosely coordinated attack on the "good species." The defense collapses and THEY WIN. The monster coalition wins completely.
Kuo-Toa unite under Aboleth lords and overrun the port cities. They destroy all human boats and take over the seas. Sahuagin are with them and other sea monsters, too.
Orcs overrun the Shire (or the equivalent). A massive halfling genocide takes place. All halflings are killed systematically and turned into sausage, so any player who chooses to play a halfling is playing the very last one. There literally are no other halflings in the world but those played as the PCs. Otherwise they are all dead.
One human kingdom is conquered by undead. Zombies everywhere biting and spreading a zombie plague.
Another kingdom is destroyed by Mind Flayers and their minions.
The elf woods are burnt to the ground by marauding monsters of another kind led by a powerful Hag. Think of the future of the Terminator. Roving flying creatures execute any elf they catch.
You get the idea. The point is that all "good" civilization is destroyed by monsters. Humans and their pointy-eared and bearded friends survive only in hiding, in small scavenger bands.
The game begins after the trauma of this devastating apocalypse. Player characters are on the run, some of the last survivors. Everybody they know has been killed. They're hiding in a small dungeon, hoping to keep their existence concealed, when a monster band learns of their presence. The first session is a monster attack on the dungeon of the PCs.
So what is the adventure about after that? First of all, survival. The player characters cannot go anywhere without high risk. But there is a quest. A wise old man, maybe a dying cleric or something like that, reveals an ancient secret. Yes, the legends are true. There is such a thing as a Tarrasque. It is invincible and destroys everything in its path. It has the power to overcome any opposition, even these terrible monsters.
Your characters are given the key to awakening the Tarrasque. They have to assemble an artifact that is broken, its parts entrusted long ago to each of the good Realms now destroyed. If they can assemble that artifact, piece by piece, they can use it in a ritual at a volcano (or wherever) to awaken the Tarrasque. Then they can attempt to lead the Tarrasque into the lair of the Great Lich that has coordinated all the monstrous forces. There is no way that the Lich can withstand the Tarrasque. When the Lich is destroyed, the monster coalition will crumble without its organizer. Humans and demi-humans will then have a fighting chance.
Can you destroy the kingdoms of the monsters that destroyed the world? And what will remain afterwards, when the monstrous factions fall to fighting amongst themselves? Maybe, just maybe, the few humans and demi-humans left will have a chance to start again--even though the Tarrasque is on the loose!
These questions inspired the following idea for a campaign. Feel free to use it, but please credit me.
It goes like this.
You have a regular D&D world. You know, generic fantasy, elves and druids, dwarves and orcs, halflings and wizards. Monsters threaten, heroes go into dungeons, kill monsters, take treasure. The usual.
But then...
A powerful creature organizes major monster factions in a loosely coordinated attack on the "good species." The defense collapses and THEY WIN. The monster coalition wins completely.
Kuo-Toa unite under Aboleth lords and overrun the port cities. They destroy all human boats and take over the seas. Sahuagin are with them and other sea monsters, too.
Orcs overrun the Shire (or the equivalent). A massive halfling genocide takes place. All halflings are killed systematically and turned into sausage, so any player who chooses to play a halfling is playing the very last one. There literally are no other halflings in the world but those played as the PCs. Otherwise they are all dead.
One human kingdom is conquered by undead. Zombies everywhere biting and spreading a zombie plague.
Another kingdom is destroyed by Mind Flayers and their minions.
The elf woods are burnt to the ground by marauding monsters of another kind led by a powerful Hag. Think of the future of the Terminator. Roving flying creatures execute any elf they catch.
You get the idea. The point is that all "good" civilization is destroyed by monsters. Humans and their pointy-eared and bearded friends survive only in hiding, in small scavenger bands.
The game begins after the trauma of this devastating apocalypse. Player characters are on the run, some of the last survivors. Everybody they know has been killed. They're hiding in a small dungeon, hoping to keep their existence concealed, when a monster band learns of their presence. The first session is a monster attack on the dungeon of the PCs.
So what is the adventure about after that? First of all, survival. The player characters cannot go anywhere without high risk. But there is a quest. A wise old man, maybe a dying cleric or something like that, reveals an ancient secret. Yes, the legends are true. There is such a thing as a Tarrasque. It is invincible and destroys everything in its path. It has the power to overcome any opposition, even these terrible monsters.
Your characters are given the key to awakening the Tarrasque. They have to assemble an artifact that is broken, its parts entrusted long ago to each of the good Realms now destroyed. If they can assemble that artifact, piece by piece, they can use it in a ritual at a volcano (or wherever) to awaken the Tarrasque. Then they can attempt to lead the Tarrasque into the lair of the Great Lich that has coordinated all the monstrous forces. There is no way that the Lich can withstand the Tarrasque. When the Lich is destroyed, the monster coalition will crumble without its organizer. Humans and demi-humans will then have a fighting chance.
Can you destroy the kingdoms of the monsters that destroyed the world? And what will remain afterwards, when the monstrous factions fall to fighting amongst themselves? Maybe, just maybe, the few humans and demi-humans left will have a chance to start again--even though the Tarrasque is on the loose!
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