Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Schandmaul 01-05-08, 05:56 AM	Hi folks, I hope you have some time to help me a little bit with my adventure. I am a little stuck with my adventure and no furthere good ideas come up in my mind. Maybe you can add some new spice with some cool encounter ideas. My group is on the continent Xen'Drik and I use the destiny arms from SoX for my campaign. They found an ancient giant civilization beneath the eastern shores of the continent living under a giant magical sphere. The adventureres were in search for a giant harp for them who belonged to an old bard of older days. This harp - as a intelligent item - knows where the PCs have to search for the clues of the legendary weapons. It was some sort of an incomplet phrase: "You have to travel like a x to y for z days". So they traveled to three places. At the first place they found the stars formed like a dragon at the nightsky thus x = dragon. Second they traveled to Everice to find an old frostgiant outpost. There they had to look in the direction of the thron of the former ruler to find out y = direction. Third they had to travel to some waterfalls where they found a petrified tree and count his branches while not getting killed by a drowned. z = 13 That is how far we are. Now this shall lead them from Stormreach (as the Point of origin) to the Ring of Storms. And this is were I have my little problems. I have to idea to let them first encounter some lizards who were meant to prevent adventurers from further entering the area. But they lead them to some sort of guide to have a chance in the dungeons beneath the Ring of Storms. This is some sort of magical skull (yeah, I loved Monkey Island 1 :D ). But then I have no idea what should await them under the Ring of Storms. How shall the dark elves prepare for intruders? How should the caves look like? Thank you in advance. Cheers, Crazy DM
Shiftkitty 01-08-08, 03:59 PM	I play the Xen'drik drow against intruders by having them do what the American Indians should have done: concentrated effort to repel invaders. Outsiders in my Xen'drik can expect to be ambushed eight ways to Sunday by dark elf Apaches. Heavy ambush and hit-and-run tactics (so effective against the British during the American Revolution) wear the party down to their bare bones, then close in for the kill. Trap them in canyons and rain death from above down on them. Close off their only escape and show no mercy. As far as the lizards go, even the Xen'drik drow PCs in my game hate encountering velociraptors. Maybe they're running for their lives from this pack of raptors when the guide shows up. With some magical trick or sound, the raptors stop their pursuit and scram for parts unknown. As far as what the caves should look like, I tend to mix architectural elements from Angkor Watt, Central America, and the video game Morrowind via the old Dunmer ruins that dot the game map. (Hee hee, I even use some of the Dunmer vocabulary just to flavor things up!)
ChaoticGood 01-10-08, 12:25 AM	I agree. The drow should attack with ranged weapons, from above, from cover, and at night, when the PCs (except the dwarves, of course!) will be hard-up to even see their attackers, much less reach them. The second the PCs are able to effectively counter-attack, they will disengage and retreat. Use the same drow party two or three times in a single night, changing their tactics a bit each time to account for the party's strengths and weaknesses. For example, did the arcanist cast a flashy area spell? Next time the drow will be careful not to stay too close together. Did the fighter draw a flaming weapon? The drow sorcerer might just come ready to dispel magic in the second fight. Is one character obviously healing the others? In the second fight, the drow try to poison or paralyze that character. I also like the velociraptor idea, but even a herd of more docile dinosaurs like protoceratops, would be an effective weapon if driven straight through the PCs' camp. Be sure to use Bull Rush and Trample and so forth to make the PCs run for their lives. Perhaps your guide is a halfling dinosaur wrangler, a Thunder Guide who specializes in bringing new dinosaurs back to his tribe in the Talenta Plains. He could know how to how to head them off, and maybe even wrangle a few into service as pack animals.
Shiftkitty 01-10-08, 03:29 PM	And if the drow just happen to come in right behind the protoceratops stampede, which they might do if they caused it to begin with, you'll be hard-pressed to avoid a TPK! And thinking to climb a tree to avoid a stampede can be just as lethal. There you are, hanging on for dear life, hoping the tree stays upright. No sooner does the shaking and thundering quit when a venemous voice calls out from below "N'wah!", and the arrows start flying all around. To make matters worse, the drow aren't going for lethal hits. They're targetting your arms. They clearly want you to fall to the ground, where who knows what they've got planned...