Post/Author/DateTime	Post
yossarius 02-04-07, 03:29 PM	I am getting ready to start a group on a new sharn-based story arc. I've already run all the published Eberron adventures with a couple of these players (a different party), so I need new ideas. Once the characters reach 4th-5th level, building adventure ideas becomes much easier. What can I have a group of 1st level pc do without accidentally killing them? One idea I've had was to have a wealthy npc hire them to clear out all the rats (a few swarms, some dire rats, some stirges, a small group of kobolds) from a tower he has recently purchased. A couple of levels later, maybe he can have them do more complicated stuff. Any other ideas?
Pawndream 02-04-07, 05:12 PM	The wealthy NPC part is a good start. "Cleaning Out the House" missions are a fantasy staple. It's the stuff low-level adventurer's cut their teeth on. Rats, kobolds, stirges are always available, but how about throwing something more... umm... interesting their way. How about Jermlaines! These guys look like a lot of fun, and they can be a royal pain without being able to kill the PC's off real fast. It will be more of a war of atrition. Here is a sketch for you: A local merchant has recently inherited a small fortune in funds after a distant relative passed away. In addition to the small fortune in gold, a piece of property has landed in his hands. A fixer-upper tower "mansion" in one of the formerly upper-class sections of town (maybe Broken Arch - Lower Dura). Apparently this property had been in the family for a long time, but has been unoccupied for as long as anyone can remember. The local merchant inheritor checked out the property briefly, and found what appeared to be a nice set-up (albeit in a run-down neighborhood), but the property definitely had potential. Only one problem. It's apparently haunted! Strange noises were heard in the manor, and he even thought he saw darting movements under the dust and debris. There were also odd, tiny altars of some sort scattered throughout the manor. He hasn't been back since, but he wants desperately to move in... if only he could get to the bottom of whatever is haunting his newly acquired property! Enter the PC's. The merchant has a small amount of coin to pay them for their services, and perhaps he is willing to even throw in the deed to his old apartment once the job is finished. Afterall, who needs a crummy apartment, when you have a mansion! Don't let the PC's know what they are in for. Have them expect rats and the like. Then slowly reveal that there are more than rats at play. A clan of Jermlaine. Rat, Bat, and Stirge-riding Jermlaine! And they have no intentions of giving up their claim.. without a fight! Take a look at this and tell me this could not be GREAT for Sharn! http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/mm2_gallery/88268_620_74.jpg There is even some advice about running jermlaine against PC's on the Wizards site: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sg/20070105
Neutronium_Dragon 02-04-07, 06:00 PM	If you tell them to kill rats, they're probably going to want to kill you. It's so overdone that it's painful. ;) A much more Eberronish tack would be to have them arrive at the shop of the artificer they're visiting (for some unrelated reason) only to find that it's being torn up by Tiny animated objects that got out of control! The artificer tries to pin the blame on a bitter rival - but was the rival responsible, or is the artificer trying to cover up his own mistake (or illegal activities)? The plot thickens...
Alex_ 02-04-07, 06:16 PM	Gopher missions are always good for low level characters. Have them running around doing menial tasks like delivering packages, escorting important individuals, and other mundane tasks. However, make sure they face unexpected complications, like coming into conflict with thugs, low level minions of other organizations, or interactions with other prestigious NPCs. Then try to find a way for these encounters to relate to the PC's eventual adventures.
ornitholestes 02-04-07, 09:10 PM	One idea I've had was to have a wealthy npc hire them to clear out all the rats (a few swarms, some dire rats, some stirges, a small group of kobolds) from a tower he has recently purchased. A couple of levels later, maybe he can have them do more complicated stuff. Any other ideas? Classic mission, good start but you should give it a twist for the Eberron touch. After the players fight through the tower and kill the little monsters they entire the last room only to find. . . . . . the real owner of the house dead and recently murdered! At that very instant they hear the watch arrives, pound on the door and demand entry. And here are the players, standing over the body with bloody weapons, their prints (and probably blood and sweat) all over the place. Do they give in to the watch and try to fight it out in the courts, stand their ground and prepare for a fight, or sneak out the window and go on the run? Who framed them and where they deliberately being targeted or simply convenient scape goats?
androkguz 02-04-07, 09:59 PM	Classic mission, good start but you should give it a twist for the Eberron touch. After the players fight through the tower and kill the little monsters they entire the last room only to find. . . . . . the real owner of the house dead and recently murdered! At that very instant they hear the watch arrives, pound on the door and demand entry. And here are the players, standing over the body with bloody weapons, their prints (and probably blood and sweat) all over the place. Do they give in to the watch and try to fight it out in the courts, stand their ground and prepare for a fight, or sneak out the window and go on the run? Who framed them and where they deliberately being targeted or simply convenient scape goats? This is my favorite, I must say. Seriously, didn't you learned from the publishes adventures you said you played that you should have a real plot?? I mean, killing rats? rats can't do anything but attack you and not even that is funny. I would like to know what are your PC, sometimes not every party is likely to do an adventure (a couple of blood of vol cultist wouldn't take the "help the Flame" adventure, unless there was a lot of money, not my favorite incentive) Ohh, and I would also like to know whether your PC like mistery, exploration, the evil mastermind or wtf adventures. That really helps. Anyway, in that same building where the party found the real owner dead they could also have found (before) an adamantine door hidden on the basement. There is also a green light glowing inside and/or some very creapy sounds, but the party can't open it... yet.:D
SiouLubb 02-05-07, 01:57 PM	The rats are sterotypical. Always nice to take their expectations and sucker-punch them though. Try this- they get the same mission to clear out the rats, only what they don't know is that their patron is connected to Merrix D'Cannith. He's been using this as a standard ploy to get a small group of adventurers alone and isolated as adversaries for his new warforged models. So, the PCs go to this warehouse/mansion what have you and encounter a few dire rats or perhaps horrid of magebred rats. (Magebred would be a tip-off that things are not as they seem) Then Merrix's new warforged start attacking. May I suggest a pair of lvl 1 warforged ninja or 2 lvl 2 ninja attacking individually? Perhaps the warehouse's security is more like a trap once they're inside. Of course, the battles will be observed via clarivoyance. If the PCs win, a good way to have Merrix take note of them for future..... Depending on how obvious you want things to be, you can set things up accordingly. If you want the person who hired them to have deniability, have a camp set up for the warforged and signs of forced entry at some point. "Hmmmm. These warforged who attacked you must have been hiding out there.... Yes. Thank you for taking care of this problem for us. Here's an extra 100 gp for the trouble..."
Vharuck 02-05-07, 05:11 PM	Here's one my group liked: A Morgrave professor hires the PCs to escort him to the dean's office at the university. He seems very nervous and jittery, as if he knows he'll be attacked. If prodded any amount as to why he feels threatened (he's a blabber mouth and more so when frightened), he'll explain that he stole the thesis of one of his students and passed it off as his own work. He then threatened the student with failure (which carried weight, as he was this student's main professor and mentor for graduate studies), but realized his mistake when the student countered with a threat that he'd use his familial ties to House Deneith (though not marked, the kid's the son of a prominent member) to kill the teacher. The professor's now attempting to explain everything to the dean first so that the student can no longer carry out his threat without anyone connecting him to the murder. Along the way, the PCs encounter a deneith swordsmen using his position in the Sharn Watch to intercept the professor (I had them fight on a bridge in the rain). After the professor's confession, the PCs walk him back to his room (he offers them more gold for doing so) and are attacked by a dire badger immediately upon opening the door. It worked well, you might want to throw in some other encounters to give them more XP, but my group enjoyed it.
Evilmonster 02-05-07, 07:09 PM	One simple way to do it would be a lowly street gang useing fists, clubs and saps dealing subdual damage. You could make it "the law of the street" that fights are resolved in this way. That way, even when the PCs lose a fight they can still get up for the next one. At around level 5 they'll be tough enough to gain the attention of the bigger fish in the pond who don't play as nice. But for 1st-4rd level let them be kids who think they're on to something but have no idea how dangerious the world can be. Just make sure you give them a home and some friends worth fighting for.
Cabral 02-05-07, 07:11 PM	The rats are sterotypical. Always nice to take their expectations and sucker-punch them though. Try this- they get the same mission to clear out the rats, only what they don't know is that their patron is connected to Merrix D'Cannith. He's been using this as a standard ploy to get a small group of adventurers alone and isolated as adversaries for his new warforged models. That has good chance of masacring a 1st level party. Particularly if you go cheesy and give the warforged adamantine body and/or have the PCs face multiple warforged at once.
SiouLubb 02-06-07, 07:46 AM	That has good chance of masacring a 1st level party. Particularly if you go cheesy and give the warforged adamantine body and/or have the PCs face multiple warforged at once. True, the DM would have to be creative in order not to TPK. Let the Warforged come individually or in small groups and stay away from the stuff that will wipe out the PCs, like as you mention, Adamantine body (to be fair, the Forgotten Forge adventure included in the ECS does include a WF with that particular feature vs 1st lvl characters). As long as the attackers "pace" the PCs for a bit in order to string out the "test", it shouldn't be a problem. I figure a bit of hit and run by a lone Warforged, perhaps a few Summon Monster I by a Warforged wizard, etc. It might be fun to have the Warforged belong to some of the newer PC classes out there, such as a 1st level Warforged Swashbuckler or warmage, etc. I prefer the Ninja warforged for a few reasons- the hit and run ability, the lack of heavy-hitting weapon proficiencies (no greataxes) and the ability to set a few traps (assuming the WF has a few ranks in Craft(trapmaking) and I'd be sure he did.) Make it a small sized model and that will help it hit and run, make the weapons less damaging as well.
yossarius 02-06-07, 10:32 AM	Well, here's the thing. if I do go with the "cleaning house" routine, my intention is that the npc who hires them becomes their patron at levels 4-8 or so, and it's only until level 9 or so that they find out that their patron is the real bad guy. So, although turning the tables early (like how ornitholestes suggested) does have some Eberronian spice, I don't want to do that yet. I want the PCs to trust the guy before he lets them down. Also, in a previous story-arc I made Merrix one of the major villians, so I'm trying to avoid that now. One glance at a group of unusual warforged will send 2 of my players (the ones that were in my previous group) running for their lives. Using jermlaines is a good idea; I haven't used them since 2nd edition. I may use them instead of kobolds. I think using them will also clear up any problem with being charged with murder, like kobolds might. What's more, I really can't wait to see the look on my players faces when I describe jermlaines riding stirges. It should be priceless. Vharuck's idea of acting as bodyguards for a Morgrave U. prof for a few days has some merit, too. I may set that up as a runner-up adventure, just in case the group refuses to jump on the 'cleaning house' plot wagon. Thanks, everyone, for your input.
SiouLubb 02-06-07, 11:29 AM	Also, in a previous story-arc I made Merrix one of the major villians, so I'm trying to avoid that now. One glance at a group of unusual warforged will send 2 of my players (the ones that were in my previous group) running for their lives. . Isn't that the best reason to do something? Sending your players running for their very lives?
Edymnion 02-06-07, 06:13 PM	Remember that just because people do certain kinds of adventures at higher levels in other settings doesn't mean that they can't be done at lower levels. Lvl 1 in Sharn, with a good plot? Jack the Ripper. There is a murderer loose in the streets of Sharn. Prostitutes in the Firelight district are turning up dead at the rate of one or two a night. Is this the work of a religious zealot striking out against immoraility? Is the fact that three quarters of the "women" killed were actually changelings (actual base gender is irrelivant) important? Perhaps the killer has something against changelings, and is targetting prostitutes because of the high percentage of changelings in that "profession". Is he killing changelings in general, or could he be looking for a specific one, who's real face will only be revealed upon their death and reversion to their true form? If so, why does he want this changeling dead? Is it revenge for something the changeling has done, which warrents death, or is the changeling being targetted for a reason that only the killer knows? Since 99% of everybody in Sharn is going to be a lvl 1 commoner, a single dagger hit is generally going to be enough to kill, which means "Jack" can also be a lvl 1 opponent, with the bulk of the adventure being trying to piece together the clues to find out who he (or she, Jill the Ripper?) is, and then deciding to take justice into your own hands or turn them over to the authorities.
doublereedkurt 02-06-07, 06:25 PM	The PCs are walking to home/the inn where they are staying (assuming this is one of the poorer and therefore lower districts since they are 1st level). Out of nowhere BAM, someone lands flat on his face in the street in front of them from a great height. A sack he was carrying has smashed and torn open, and some coins spill out (PC bait). Assuming the PCs examine the corpse, they find that he had an aberrant dragonmark. A few minutes later, a student from morgraive university is going to show up. A few hours later, some thugs from the local crime syndicate are going to show up. The prize the man was carrying was an "infected" dragonshard. A focus item left over from the War of the Mark, the item empowers aberrant marks. The dead thief had betrayed a group of aberrants who had searched for the item in the cogs beneath Sharn, where it was lost when the city was destroyed at the end of that war. The thief's aberrant mark gave him feather fall. He had already used the dragonshard focus item on his former allies that day however, kicking off an ambush. The criminals who were paying him for the item had a falling out with him, things were getting a bit dicey. So, he decided to jump down and feather fall then get the hell out of Sharn. Only, his mark was all used up from the focus item. Oops. The student wants to study the item. The criminal organization has a vague idea that it might be valuable, but doesn't know the specifics. Perhaps it should be destroyed.