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GoriceXII 04-07-07, 04:54 PM

(This is an adventure hook--I'd like some feedback/advice on it and on how to not block the pcs' own aims while presenting it) Note: the pcs have planned to go to the City of Glasstower, occuppied by enemy forces, to try to infiltrate to find out whether or not it contains anything that will help with the war. However... As the group of you make your way down the road towards the valley there is a wood before you--according to your map this is Gaspell Wood, bordering the villages of Whiteoak and Urlen's Creek. Mist hangs soft and grey over the valley and in the midst of the trees as you advance through them. (allow for player actions) Coming closer you can see in the mist here and there birds flapping, cawing and croaking. There are many of them, in the trees and moving in the sky, occasionally visible through the greyness. Along with this now and then whiffs of an awful stench--excrement, blood and rot--strikes you. (allow for player actions) Through the trees you can see a stream weaving its way along mossy rocky banks, and here and there pallid skinned bodies of men and women in leather jack or plaids or rough homespun, hacked open or pierced with arrows or crossbow bolts. The smell is stronger and your horses do not like either the slippery banks or the smell; nostrils flaring and ears back they skitter and resist going forward. (allow for player actions) Along the forest path approaching the villages there are more bodies, half buried in brush and ferns or slumped against the trees, some shafted with arrows like porcupines, others headless or limbless--both of soldiers of the Republic, of King Cleothas' soldiers both noble and peasant. A dead horse lies astride a path, belly bloated, teeth bared, eyes gone. Black birds cawing flap heavily away as your party nears the path. (allow for player actions) In the open fields beyond the wood, near the banks of the stream can be seen other bodies and also a heap of them near a mill among the sod and straw houses that form the little village of Urlen's Creek. The smell is almost unbearably (require endurance or con to keep going without spending a few rounds retching and vomiting) Nearly obscured by the mist across the valley is the dim shape of the village of Whitetree. Here and there is a dead horse--or a wounded one as a painful and plaintive scream indicates. Black birds fly like a dark cloud through the valley--raptors, crows, ravens, descending and rising to feast on the dead. The corpses (through spyglass or magical vision or a closer look) are of King Cleothas' men, soldiers of the Republic--specifically of the 5th Cavalry--or hobgoblins of the Black Hammer Regiment. Broken spears and lances are seen here and there sticking out of bodies of men, goblinoids and horses. (Note: at this point the pcs will see some kind of movement there...and also moving towards the southern end of the wood at the other end of the valley) Near Whitetree: You can see dark plaids and leather, two men at least with longbows moving towards a longhouse at the center of the village, and through the mist a shaggy war pony. (these are enemy scouts--the pcs are likely to recognize this) (Note: if they go this way they find some scouts preparing their dead. The scouts will not want to fight but will if they have to. They have two snipers hiding in a house watching the valley and thus are using their observation to detect anyone's approach. If they do they ask for a temporary truce. There are six of them, led by a 4th level ranger named Shannow. They explain that there are undead around in unusual numbers for the region and that they were ordered not to burn or bury the dead in this area. This offends them regarding their own folk and they decided to disobey orders. However they have no intention of being around after nightfall) Near the end of the valley: (pursuit or magical detection etc determines this view:) You can see one mounted and eight dismounted New Edomite cavalrymen (chain mail, cap helms, blue surcoat with three white stars across the breast) moving wearily through the mist. One is limping badly and leaning on a spear. The mounted one is riding a horse that even at a distance is beautiful--a dappled grey with flowing mane and tail, wonderfully clean lined and muscled. The rider has a now bedragged plume of heron feathers and is slumped in the saddle of the horse, which moves slowly as though in great pain. (allow for player actions, however if they try to catch up...not that difficult but by this time the pcs will be in the woods...) You can see that it is indeed Captain Ava Shalmaneser, her golden hair now bedraggled with mud and blood, she and her troops filthy. However as you approach (call out, etc) she turns along with her troops. The stench is powerful, coming from them, like to make you retch as waves of rot and filth smells hang from them like a cloud. Her face contorts in a bestial snarl. You can see that the horse's eyes are clouded and filmed over and a great open wound is in its chest, exposing bone. She screams and she and her troops attack, howling like wild beasts. (ghasts) (note: the captain is an npc the players met several times during the siege of the city of Fineberg, known for her nobility and courage) One thing I'm trying to figure out is whether or not I should plan this adventure, which I had meant to be about some magical rite or device that creates multiple undead, to include the Tower of Glass or not. Partly because I still haven't figured out what it is.