Outlands Campaign/Adventure Ideas

If I recall correctly, there's a war brewing between Rigus and Ribcage that your players could get stuck in. Perhaps if they were to be drafted into the army during a buisness visit to Rigus.

Doublydoubledubletdobbel post.

The story at the beginning of chapter 5 of Planewalker's PSCS releases has a lovers' feud spreading, putting a village at risk of sliding.

Each of the gate-towns has a "counterculture" which helps keep it from sliding into the plane it's near. For example, Automata has an organized crime syndicate called the Council of Anarchy -- very well-organized, but breaking the law nevertheless. Hopeless has the Chapterhouse of the Sisterhood, which is fairly weak, and Plague-Mort doesn't have one at all. When these weaken, the town is closer to slipping into the plane. Adventurers could be hired to support or establish these countercultures, since some of the townsfolk like being on the Outlands rather than living on the actual plane.

* Plague-Mort is getting close to slipping over. Several foreign groups would rather not see it happen, some of them working on the theory that doing so would empower the Abyss and others concerned about the inhabitants, or just seeing their investments protected. The PCs are recruited to infiltrate the town and set up an organization concerned with good and law. Any overtly charitable acts will instantly attract the attention of the local authorities... and how do you inculcate a respect for rules when the rulers don't respect rules? (For players who enjoy thinking up their own plans, let them come up with an idea and deal with the GM's response from the paranoid officials who want the burg to become thoroughly lawless and evil. For players who'd rather deal with a better-defined mission, have the group assigned to set up a trade office dealing in inexpensive, useful magical items: in addition to selling standards such as basic +1 arms and armor, potions of curing, and holy water, the office will sell magic weapons and ammunition -- mostly flaming, icy, holy, and disrupting. The office is to be scrupulous in its dealings and do business with all comers... fiends will find few of the office's wares to be of comfortable utility to them!)

* The Council of Anarchy would like to strengthen its position in Automata. PCs serving groups with a chaotic bent, such as clerics of gods on the wilder side of the Great Ring, or thieves' guilds established in other burgs, could be contacted about setting up a meeting between their higher-ups and a member of the Council to organize a lane of fencing and money-laundering for the groups' mutual profit. The various emissaries will be escorted (by the semi-anonymous PCs, of course) in a small, mobile group to a neutral site somewhere on the Outlands for negotiations. For extra spice, an ambush or double-cross has been planned.

* Vice versa, the Council of Order could tire of the Council of Anarchy's activities, and decide that their opposite numbers have hidden in the legal authorities' blind spot for long enough. Some outsiders are hired to track the group down and put an end to them. In order for the mission to work, the attack must be strictly by the books: Automata has laws on entrapment, the permissible use of force in law enforcement, and arrest procedures which must be followed if the Council of Anarchy is to be dismantled without provoking a backlash of protest.

* Exploring the Hinterlands: this part of the Outlands is almost totally undeveloped in supplements. It could connect to the Far Realm or have a completely different nature, able to set almost any wild Outlands adventure.

* Blue sky research: a thought I had a long time ago. Ribcage is attached to the Mountains of the Spine -- the spine being toward Baator. There's a line of previous gate-towns inside Baator, which have added to the size of the plane. The one before Ribcage is called Darkspine. Ribcage itself looks a lot like a ribcage. A lot like a ribcage. ... What if it is one? What if the ancient body of some enormous being -- a power, or something of equivalent potency -- is slowly being pulled into Baator by the devils, who are manipulating the gate-towns to sit atop it, and then corrupting the gate-towns in turn, so that they can make this corpse part of Baator piece by piece? Sounds wild, but there's an easy way to check: look for a town-sized skull a bit Spireward of Ribcage, probably buried in the ground, but still attached to the 'neck' of Ribcage. If there is, then, whatever the baatezu are trying to do with it, it can't be good. (And they'll probably have spies or scryers keeping an eye on any investigators getting nosy.) To put a stop to it, one might recruit the Heliopolitans. Servants of Osiris from Arcadia might be willing to organize a large effort to excavate the skull, disconnect it from the neck, transport the whole thing to Arcadia, and there give it a proper burial with the rites necessary to see that it can never be put to evil use. All the while, of course, the expedition will be having to fend off baatific attack both armed and infiltrative, and possibly attempts to hastily complete whatever ritual the devils were trying to do. All in all, an adventure for some pretty high-level characters.

* Valentine's Day: Put some Dustmen or evil characters on the spot and watch 'em squirm. Hades, dark god of the Greek underworld, has at least one soft spot in his heart, for his wife Persephone. The daughter of the goddess of agriculture spends half the year pining away in his halls, and outside the orchards sag listlessly in the land of the dead. News has come to Hades' ears of a wondrous fruit that banishes sadness when eaten and even lifts spirits by the odor of its vines: it has been bred in the Outlands garden of Sheela Perryroyl, halfling goddess of agriculture. His priests have been ordered to bring several living cuttings to Hades' realm for planting, to please Persephone. Personally, they wouldn't be caught dead in the green acres, so they've passed the word to hire some living berks who are willing to make a journey first to Sheela's realm with enough coin to buy a few of the things and then to some representatives in Hopeless to pass the goods on (or to Hades itself, if you like -- money's no object for the god of wealth). The interplay between the feisty, nature-loving halflings and the death-embracing types ought to be fun. Then, they can either deal with the annoyingly uplifting effects of the plant and theft attempts as they bring it back to Hopeless or the Waste (oh yes: and it's very brightly colored), or learn that the rumors are screed... but Sheela pities Persephone and could make such a plant, if the PCs would be willing to undertake a certain mission they're a tad more suited for than her usual followers...

I second the motion!

They're all great - but especially the last two.

Should the Illuminated sect in Plague-mort count as a counterculture?

That sounds almost like a challenge. At any rate, I have a few more:

*The Fraternity of Order has just released a new report stating that the Dead Magic zone around the Spire is growing, and at an alarming rate. The report has caused panic among some Outlanders, and the Rilmani and petitioners are acting stranger still. It is up to the PCs to figure out how to fix things before the plane dies. (This happens to be the rough basis of a campaign I'm currently running, which, incidently, needs a couple players. Follow the link in my signature if you're interested.)

*The recently emergant kobold state (the one from my last post) has taken control of a key road linking Rigus to points Soupward, and the millitant powers that be within Rigus have taken offence and are raising an army of mercenaries to crush the kobolds once and for all. The kobolds meanwhile, are far stronger than the soldiers from Rigus have given them credit and are, in fact, laying a trap for the soldiers, hoping slaughter them and march on Rigus. Somehow, the PC's catch wind of the trap and have to get to the Rigusians in time to warn them, while dozens of other groups are trying to maneuver the PC's to serve their own interests.

*A band of renegade Athar have discovered a way to teleport to and from the Spire, and are using it to mount a series of terrorist raids on various temples and churches within the various gatetowns. Several churches have put up bounties on the renegade Athar, and the PCs, for whatever reason, intend to collect. First, however, they have to figure out how to find the renegade Athar, and then they have to destroy whatever magic they were using before the other Athar catch wind.

They're neither lawful nor good, but I don't think they're allied with the Arch-Lictor, either. It's enough, perhaps, for them to be determined to keep Plague-Mort in the Outlands and out of the hands of the Abyssal Lords.

Kind of like how the Seven Spiritors of Sylvania help keep that town out of Arborea, though they're not remotely lawful or evil. They just have a vested interest in the status quo, so they do what they can to make sure things don't get too chaotic good there.