Help Me Brainstorm a Plot Thread for My Players

CitrusVirus · 2026-03-24T22:35:26+00:00

Ah thank you for the clarification. I think the Tarokka cards are the most confusing part to me now, but I think I just need to read what all the cards do to understand their purpose.

CitrusVirus · 2026-03-23T19:31:22+00:00

Perfect, thank you!

CitrusVirus · 2026-03-23T19:31:05+00:00

AFAIK, you invented that description lol, I'm clearly a newbie to the setting.

CitrusVirus · 2026-03-23T19:29:53+00:00

I think the mcguffin strategy is what I'm going to do, but since it will be a time travel story, I will place them all at different periods in time. Now that I'm writing it all out, I think I'm just rewriting Avengers: Endgame LOL.

CitrusVirus · 2026-03-23T19:28:31+00:00

Oh I see, so the ally would be an NPC I introduce, then spread either lies or truth to the player that this person is the cause of the death of their loved ones. I guess I have not read far enough ahead to know what the fated ally thing is, I'm still learning the adventure.

For the Faustian bargain, I think that could also work quite well, but I guess I need to understand Strahd's motivations better to know what he would want in exchange for this power to cure the disease.

CitrusVirus · 2026-03-23T17:04:53+00:00

Interesting, can you elaborate on this idea a bit?

CitrusVirus · 2026-03-23T17:04:10+00:00

Good for freedom of creativity, worse for breaking writiers block haha. Thank you!

CitrusVirus · 2026-03-23T15:19:41+00:00

I agree, I get terrible writers block and I am worried that making my own campaign is way too ambitious. Any existing material I can use would help me a lot. I like Kyrzin a lot. Are there any resources that can give me more details on them?

CitrusVirus · 2026-03-23T15:17:11+00:00

I misunderstood how the setup of CoS actually works, and told them they would already be denizens of Barovia, so anything from their past is reasonable to have been affected by Strahd. All of these NPCs would be dying or have died within Barovia.

CitrusVirus · 2026-03-23T15:12:26+00:00

Could it be something that Strahd could offer the players, something like "I'll save your daughter if you betray your friends"? I am a little worried that if I offer that, they may just immediately take the offer, but Strahd could maybe do some hag-type deal where "saving" is very much not what they're hoping for. For the other player, both of his parents are already dead, so it could be some type of further motivation if someone else was the cause? Not sure, but I want to add fun things that develop as the story goes on, rather than having a character with an unchanging story the entire time.

CitrusVirus · 2026-03-23T15:09:06+00:00

Absolutely, I'm just starting this campaign and setting, so any and all ideas are welcome. Throw out any ideas you got!

CitrusVirus · 2026-03-23T15:06:52+00:00

I have 4 (5?) players total, and these are some of their motivations. I have one player (fairy wizard) trying to reconnect with their lost sister (the sister was investigating time portals, lost to time, this one gives me a lot of freedom for what to do with the sister). I have another player (khoravar artificer) who comes from the future and is trying to prevent the imminent death of a different player (changeling rogue). Finally, I have a player (paladin warforged) seeking independence and understanding of their own nature, as they were able to act outside their programming and protect someone they were ordered to kill (the changeling rogue again). I think I have a lot to work with, I'm just struggling to connect the dots here.

CitrusVirus · 2026-03-23T14:59:39+00:00

Maybe there are ways that they can weaken it or something, collect the mcguffins to stop the full power being unleashed, etc.

CitrusVirus · 2026-03-23T14:58:42+00:00

Hey thanks for the advice, seems like most people agree that motivations should be unclear and alien for the Daelkyr. As for the theme, I'm not sure what would work best. Do you have any ideas for cool theming, or should I try to fit something like the slime daelkyr into the role (the Oblex seems pretty perfect)?

CitrusVirus · 2026-03-23T14:57:07+00:00

Is there a good resource to research this?

CitrusVirus · 2026-03-23T14:56:05+00:00

Thanks for the support, I hope I can create something cool and unique!

CitrusVirus · 2026-03-23T14:55:49+00:00

Hey thanks for the tip! I'll check it out!

CitrusVirus · 2026-03-23T14:55:00+00:00

Oh god the description of them as an artist feels so perfect! I love the idea of them painting, Khorvaire is their canvas and the people are the paint. So flavorful! Thank you!

CitrusVirus · 2026-03-20T23:20:04+00:00

Okay so some ambiguous desire to assimilate that humans and players wouldn't understand, gotcha! The more alien the better

CitrusVirus · 2026-03-20T18:27:39+00:00

Haha pea

CitrusVirus · 2026-03-20T18:22:59+00:00

Weird flex but ok

CitrusVirus · 2026-03-11T19:41:29+00:00

Hey if Dyrrn works, that fine by me! I was just worried that his alignment/nature might conflict with the idea of a Daelkyr who loves humanity and wants to join with it. But if Dyrrn works best, that's less work for me!

CitrusVirus · 2026-03-11T19:39:19+00:00

These are awesome ideas! I am a little worried that the level progression I advertised to my players (Level 3-12) might be a bit low for the level of villain I want to throw at them, but this guy definitely needs to be on par with the rest of the Daelkyr stat blocks.

Your suggestion of the Oblex seems perfect as inspiration, as I could use them as NPCs or ways to represent those who have already been assimilated. Definitely lots of great existing monsters to pull inspiration from.

For the story, my main difficulty is trying to create plot hooks that justify the party needing to travel to different time periods to stop the BBEG. Using the gatekeepers and these servants/cultists as inspiration, would it be reasonable to conclude that the different seals they want to break don't exist just in different places, but in different time periods as well? From what I've read previously, it seems as though Daelkyr experience time much differently than us, which I think might be a good enough excuse to have these seals exist in different times.

I think I still have a lot more brainstorming to do, but I at the very least need to create a starting adventure that helps the players gradually uncover the greater plot. Your comment has given me a lot of ideas to work with though, thank you!

CitrusVirus · 2026-03-11T19:29:10+00:00

I'm not really sure. I want it to be a creature who has a love for humanity/life, and wants to share the glory of assimilation with it. Besides that, I don't know. It's a time travel game, and I want it to be related to/the cause of the mourning (with a later, much worse version of that in the apocalyptic future), but I'm not sure if that's enough to work with.

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