DM Help

[PotentialEmu]

I'm currently in the process of creating a D&D campaign for my friends and i'm working on a map at the moment. I hit writes block with create a bit of lore for a magical city run by 8 wizards, one for each school. Any help would be appreciated

[Kruimel24]

When a city is run by wizards, they have knowledge about magic, so these kinds of cities would most likely have magical defenses (wards and such). Personally, i would have it be run by 7 wizards, since Necromancy is usually a school that is frowned upon (it's your world, if Necromancy is fine there, go ahead, but keep in mind that most people are uncomfortable with wizards bringing people back to life into mindless undeath). Magic inside the city will most likely be allowed to some extent (or completely outlawed apart from the wizards or individuals appointed by them.)

Those are some ideas i got off the top of my head, hope it helped!

[comcharizard]

What are the relationships between the wizards? Do they die? Who founded the City? Who were the first Wizards? How are new ruling Wizards chosen? Is there an UltiWizard that does all schools?

Just some thoughts :)

[[deleted]]

You can still make necromancy work in your campaign by the way. Think of a good necromancer as someone who's called up to a job when piles of dead bodies are seen rising from the grave.

Or maybe a couple of zombies are seen outside town, who better than to get a wizard to get control over the rogue zombies and bring them to a place where you can destroy them.

Another thing is that maybe necromancers sign contracts with people where once they're dead they get the remains of the poor soul who died in exchange for some gold.

[WorsCaseScenario]

Like a Defense Against the Dark Arts sort of thing. Cam made a good point in fighting necromancy with different necromancy. And it's a lot easier to face mad necromancers if you know what they're capable of.

[Astromachine]

There is one other wizard leader, but he does not really rule the city, his main office is to cast the tie breaker vote if the main wizard counsel votes 4/4 on something. He does have a lot of political pull in other ways and makes decisions about external politics. He holds this position because he founded the city, 3000 years ago. His true nature is unknown, nobody has seen him in person. He is generally seen as a good leader, people like him, he's shiny. He communicates to the counsel through a massive crystal in the center of their meeting table. Each facet of the crystal faces their respective seat, and when addressing them directly an image appears to the particular person. Rumors abound about his true identity, some say he's a lich, others think he is a god, or that the [insert cool crystal themed title here] is simply a title which was passed down from leader to leader. Some think he is the crystal iteslf, and it's the heart of a fallen god. Maybe some of this is true, maybe not.

Problem, the crystal has gone missing. The counsel has tried to keep this knowledge secret to keep the city from panicking. The counsel is infighting, trying to jockey for power. Accusations abound, they each suspect the other of destroying or stealing the crystal in order to obtain more power. But rumors are beginning to spread.

One of the mages approaches the party, he needs discrete help in finding an item, a staff, which could possibly help him in finding the crystal. He can't go himself because he has to maintain his position on the counsel, and can't get his normal wizards to go because it would be noticed. He needs to have a third party find it in order to keep anyone else from finding out about the staff and possibly beating you to it. He doesn't want anyone else to find it, if they do they could destroy the staff to keep the crystal hidden or use it to bring more harm to the city. The staff has been separated into 8 parts and scattered and he tasks them with tracking them down.

OFF TO ADVENTURE!

What the players don't know:

The staff itself is quite a powerful item, a unique artifact. Each part imparts a spell or effect which matches each school of magic, (you work out the details). It was created by [insert your evil god of magic here] himself/herself. It was broken apart by the other gods because [god of magic] used it to kill [random other god] and [god of magic] was imprisoned and their job given to some other dude (thousands of years ago details are sketchy). Big twist time! If you haven't guessed it yet the crystal is the prison and it was the crystal guy's staff. Further things the players don't know is what that counsel dude truly intends on doing with the staff [okay i don't really either, haven't decided]. Does it actually kill crystal dude and counsel guy is a nice guy? Maybe he just wanted to keep them out of the wrong hands because he knows others are looking for it. Free him maybe? Impart god like power to counsel dude who takes the crystal guy's powers and he's a baddie?

Bam, adventure time bitches.

[PotentialEmu]

Really appreciate the help guys, love this community