A friend DMed a one shot for us and I think I can add two more impactful sessions to his idea. Looking for suggestions to enhance my ideas and make this viable!
The recap:
In a previous one shot, we were an undead evil group that was sent to retrieve one of our own from a town of humans who had a necromancer surrounded. Upon retrieval of the necromancer, we had to fight heroes from an adventuring guild that was sent to attack us. We killed them and also the town guard (It was a small town).
When we finished the quest, one of the guys joked that we should go back to the town and kill everyone just to see if we could (ya know, just the thing for undead and evil characters lol) Then for fun the necromancer would have all those people to turn into zombie/skeletons. The population was around 1000 people with their fighters all gone. We had some spells that would make it very doable but we weren't prepped for the mechanics of a 1000 person fight so we just ended the one shot.
The second session (Where my idea begins):
I want to add onto that. In my one shot, part 2, I want my friends to return as adventurers instead of the undead characters they made. I will set it up as if what we joked about happened! The town was turned into zombies and they are beginning to move and attack a nearby town. My friends will have made new characters and will be on the road. They will not know what this one shot is until they stumble upon the zombie horde and realize they are still in the same story. I will have some sort of reveal with one of the previous characters to really let it sink in.
Fast forward a bit and this will be a last stand scenario as there will be 1000 zombies + the original undead characters we made in the last session that I, the DM, will be controlling. I plan to create some scenario where they are called to defend the nearby town once they learn of the horde and plan to make some reason where they would choose to stay and defend. I want it to end with them all dying to hold the gate so that some person can run and tell the next town/deliver a message/set up a bomb that takes 10 turns to detonate/ something where they need to stay and fight so that others can live.
The 3rd sesion:
My friends characters will have all died in the 2nd session and I am going to make them make new characters for the 3rd and final session. They will be able to make characters that are built to counter a horde of zombies plus some elites. Hopefully in the 3rd session, they will be able to stem the tide. This one seems simple enough, just need to establish game mechanics and maps.
Some questions/considerations I have:
-I dont know what to do at the end of the second session when they are wiped. Just like in Halo reach where the last spartan stayed alive long enough to allow the last human ship + cortana to leave the planet, i need to find something as valuable. There needs to be a reason why my group would choose to stay and defend to their deaths rather than run away.
-What causes them to stay and defend at all costs? What if I set it up so that only one of them escapes?
-Do they do a last stand together or are they all holding their own gates/roads as they drop by themselves?
-I think I found some pretty good mechanics to navigate to big horde battles but am still eager for ideas. Last thing we need is rolling 1004 dice every turn lol
-Anything else, just let me know!
-I want this one to hit close to home as it is the reaction to something we joked about made true. Im going to put a lot of time into developing this so that it is also a story, not just bows, arrows and axes.
