The Dead Forest

Let me share a thought on a design of a future dynamic event.

- an area surrounded by high canopy trees
- the setting is a dark forest where normally, locals that have used a nearby road have been beset by bandits but recently there have been kidnappings and other foul magic
- the prince has set out for glory with an entourage of elite knights, but only a bedraggled survivor makes it back to ask for help
- as the adventurers venture deeper in the forest, the fog thickens and arcane symbols are sketched into the trees and rock

The goal of the first stage of the dynamic event:
- scattered around the outskirts of the forest are bandits and survivors, the hero's job is to kill X amount of bandits and heal the survivors/escort them back to camp which has been made on the other side of the road
- the bandits consist of weak ranged mobs with better melee abilities
- additional influence can be gained by destroying/disabling bear traps

In the second stage of the dynamic event:
- the heroes need to move deeper in the forest where strung up Elite guards of the prince is being tortured by evil cultists
- the cultists are powerful magic ranged mobs that have the ability to summon zombies and undead
- the cultists have stronger melee bandits to protect them
- the goal is to defeat the cultists and rescur X Elite guards and escort them back to camp while being beseiged by bandits on the way

The last stage:
- there is a massive dead tree in the middle of the forest with the prince bound to the tree as well
- the cultists summon a lich which is able to in turn summon hoards of zombies
- the lich draws power from the cultists and the cultists get their power from the life force of the prince
- the lich is invulnerable until the cultists are defeated; the heroes must wade through the throngs of zombies and attack the cultists at the same time
- all the while, the Prince is slowly losing health; there is a timer which counts down
- if the cultists are killed, the Prince joins you in a fight with the lich, and though the lich isn't able to summon as many zombies now, it is able to cast devastating single target spells and cause fear in it's targets
- if the prince dies, he becomes a Death Knight; he kills the cultists but sides up with the lich to defeat the adventurers, he's fast, tough and does alot of aoe swipe damage with his great sword

With either outcome, the hero is awarded by:
Magic users: looting the lich
Melee users: looting the Death Knight
Hybrid users: looting a treasure pile by the base of the tree