The Trial of the Rings in Dungeons and Dragons Campaign Brainstorming

So my PC’s finally got into the trials after trying everything they can to try and avoid it or not race against the other team which is kinda frustrating like “Do you not want to go through this?, do you not want a challenge?”

And that part is starting to get at me, I’m not sure how to adjust for it, the whole thing is a learning experience so I gotta learn to adjust on the fly. I also feel like some of my characters are falling a bit flat so I gotta work on that too.

I think if I build them out a bit more with actual 1 page stories or a character questionnaire or something that tells me what really motivates my characters. Maybe I’ll just start basing them off of y’all 😂

Moving past that, they got the Ring of Purity beating out the other team for the Ring of Power. They (each team) had to go through a set of 4 trials for Body, Mind, Soul, and Spirit - There was actually 5 but one of the player perma-bailed so I had to adjust. The other team (NPC’s) Came out missing limbs, memories etc etc (because power comes at a cost!) They beat the team and managed to subdue (they actually left one alive!) a Derro who was leading the party.

The Derro (Who needs a name, maybe I’ll name him Aderrio Williams like the CBC host) is a member of the Assassins Guild - Formerly the thieves guild (Of which one of the players is exiled from) The Assassins guild is being ran by Nito, the self proclaimed God of Chaos, and his buddy Caldor who is responsible for the death of the Exile’s wife (Trislea)

So there’s two major story arcs that are going to pop off next session. So lets go back to the start here, the PC’s:

Vekrish - A rogue, formerly of the Thieve’s (should their be an apostrophe there?) Guild, lost his wife, Trislea, after Vekrish stole from Caldor an artifact of great importance and gave it to his wife. Caldor called out Trislea for breaking the golden commandment of the Thieves guild and got both Vekrish and Trislea exiled but going the extra step to turn Trislea in to the local authorities. What Vekrish doesn’t know is that Trislea has a child that she was sending money off to for her well being (Shades of Les Mis anyone?) Vekrish has taken up sending money away but has no idea why he’s sending this money away.

Fun Vekrish Fact, he thinks the world is flat.

Yerin: A Ranger, Living that ranger life, borderline mercenary taking jobs where he can find them to continue living life out in the wilds of the world. His greatest triumph is defeating a dragon that was bothering a local village (at level 1? Wat) but unfortunately, at the peak of his success, him and his buddy Nito took a bounty on a chimera. After defeating the chimera Nito stabbed Yerin in the back and took the prize money for himself, leaving him there to die. At which point Yerin summoned the embodiment of revenge (Ember or Ash? I think it’s Ash. It changes several times in his notes) and they’re working together to chase down Nito, wherever he may be… Which is apparently running the assassins guild and calling himself the God of Chaos.

Fun fact about Yerin: He lives in fear of another betrayal.

Lilea: A Caster, and the biggest pain in my ass as a DM. She’s a 17 y/o girl played by a 19 y/o boy and master of DnD. He can unravel anything I have planned and he often tries to avoid doing anything the way I have it planned. She lost her sister to a sickness at a young age, a sickness that she had as well but got over. When she went to tell her sister that she got over it, her sister was already dead. The team (for some reason) have named her the leader of the group and that has lead to several disasters because, although the player is the most experienced, that also means they play their character like a 17 year old girl. Not someone you really want to be the leader.

Fun fact about Lilea: She has a feline familiar that she named Purrsephonie. Purely for that joke. That she brings up every time.

Umber: A Paladin, the moral linchpin of the group. If it weren’t for him I’m pretty sure they’d try to kill everyone who disagrees with them. Really they’re kinda trying to do that now. But Umber stops it as he realizes the value of friendshiiiiip (I’ve been watching too much My Little Pony lately…) He’s a Genasi - which is like, a rock genie/elemental - He worships Roko, God of Battle, The very same Roko that was seen in the dream destroying everything. He’s on a quest to stop his god from becoming the destroyer of the world.

Fun Fact about Umber: He’s gotta sweet spot for Mari, one of the priestesses of the Temple they’re currently at.

I’m stopping there because I was typing this on my laptop and now I’m on my desktop, it’s a day and a half later and I have no idea where I was going with this. I’ll be back!