Post/Author/DateTime	Post
lifespeed 03-15-05, 10:07 AM	Okay, I've got the basic idea for an adventure. A wizard of indeterminate alignment (as in I don't know if he's good or evil yet) is building a tower off in some bit of unpopulated land. He has a whole crew working on it so far, but for whatever reason, he needs more people to build it. So he sends an assistant and some thugs to a nearby inn located on a road, and has the assistant smoke some sleepy weed in his pipe, only he doesn't smoke it so much as simply breath into the pipe to pump it out. The plan is to put everybody to sleep and then steal them away to the tower to help build it. Unfortunatly the PCs are there and they don't so much fall asleep as pass their Fortitute checks (at least they'd better), and when the thugs show up they can wail on them. Now, some of the thugs and hopefully the assistant will escape and flee back to the tower. The druid has Track and some decent Survival and he has an eagle companion (Franklin, Destroyer of Worlds). The PCs should follow the trail to find out what in the hell just went on, and find a little camp around the tower. I figure they can fight some monsters on the way, and perhaps thats why the wizard needs more labor, because he lost some to monsters. Now I've got a few holes in the plot to deal with. For one, this wizard, isn he good or bad? I really like the idea of a battle against the wizard and some of his minions atop the unfinished tower, possibly in a storm but that might be pushing it. I also really like the idea of the wizard being a good guy, and the bulk of the people at the camp being their of their own free will, payed relativley well and everything. A thought that just struck me is that maybe the assistant is a more powerful wizard then his master thought, and is planning on killing his master and taking over the tower when it's completed. I just really like the idea of the PCs getting to this tower to find a little camp that they have to deal with like a town, there's a little smithy, a mess tent and a bunch of innocent laborers hanging out. I also want them to have to deal with some internal security measures the wizard is working out that he hasn't quite got set up yet. Keep in mind that this is only the second adventure and that the PCs are only level 2, there's a sorceress, a druid, a rogue and a dwarven fighter. So then, I'm wondering what the other DMs think and if anybody has any suggestions.
nghtsngr 03-15-05, 10:21 AM	Sounds like you've got a good climax adventure planned, but I'm not sure the players can handle the difficulty. They are lvl 2 after all. However, the ambush in the inn has possibilities (I might steal it myself), especially as an introduction to a BBEG that they'll be dealing with later. Consider making the uber-mage abscent from the scene. The foreman is behind on his work, maybe from embezzlement, or just bad luck. Thats the way construction goes. So, instead of going to his extremely powerful and bad-tempered wizard boss, he goes looking to press innocents into forced labor. Enter the PCS. Now you have some appropriately leveled guards keeping the workers in line that the PCs can fight through to whack the evil Foreman. Naturally this causes much longer term delays in the construction which may annoy certain afforementioned short-tempered powerful mages. But the characters may have some time to level up before they deal with him. That allows you to beef up the mage so they'll really remember the encounter. Just some thoughts.
Kalithor 03-15-05, 10:35 AM	I did something similiar as a climax in my last campaign to the tower-top fight. I had an intelligent musical instrument in the hands of an unwitting virtuoso lure a couple thousand bards to the coast of Lake Ashane for a concert. There, a Stormlord of Talos was ready to ready to raise a long sunken temple from the lake, and was going to use the mass sacrafice as fuel for the ritual. The whole thing ended with the PC's fighting him on the top of the tower during a hailstorm. It was pretty cool. But anyway, sorry for babbling. As far as the alignment of your antagonist, I think it would be neat if he were Lawful Neutral. Evil would be the obvious choice, but I think its cooler if he's just one of those militant types who thinks people of lesser power should be honored to serve him, without being all-out tyranical. Aside from breaking up the predictability of an evil enemy, it also gives your PCs more of a reason to consider their actions. This could make an interesting series of events if they decide not to kill him. Perhaps they just "spank him" for his chosen method of hiring new labor, but realize he could do well to watch over the region as a protector. Ya know, kinda like putting him on probation rather than killing him outright.
Ilium 03-15-05, 10:35 AM	Wow. Great suggestions from nghtsngr! :clap: The evil foreman of a good or neutral wizard is a great device. The PCs might expect the wizard to be evil if they run into him later and actually cause problems they might have avoided. That's always nice. :) Presumably the people at the inn (and their officials) are going to be pretty annoyed at an attempted mass kidnapping! If the PCs can figure out that the foreman is the real problem and most of the people there are just trying to earn a living, they can do a stealthy raid to arrest him and bring him back to town for trial. Justice and reward money! That's a win-win scenario. :) Sounds like a fun game.
Aurum 03-15-05, 10:49 AM	Well, it sounds like you have a decent outline prepared already. 1) PCs gather at the inn. This gives you a chance to drop story hints about the wizard, conduct a little foreshadowing, maybe let people make use of their Gather Information checks to know that a few hunters/loggers have gone missing and not been found (they were actually abducted to work on the tower) 2) Thugs show up late and put guests to sleep. PCs make Fort saves, or happen to be outside the inn. a) Battle a few rowdies in the inn b) Surprise the lookouts outside the inn 3) Track a fleeing group of thugs through the woods. a) Knowledge check to set up/avoid an ambush. b) Survival check to follow the trail back to the tower under construction 4) PCs find the tower a) Party either battles guards or frees laborers who battle guards b) Party confronts Wizard in running battle up the unfinished tower. One problem seems to be the motivation for constructing the tower where it is. Is there something that makes that particular parcel of land remarkable? I'd settle that when you are looking at what the camp would look like. There's all kinds of different ways you can take the story. If you are having trouble deciding which way to take the story, I'd suggest the following simple exercise: Decide on which NPCs are the ones in charge of the tower. Try to keep the number small, no greater then the total number of the party. An example might be the Wizard, a Trusted Apprentice, and the leader of the Heavies who are rounding people up. Assign an alignment to each of those NPCs. Then, using those alignments, try to figure out what their goals are and how they interact with each other. Here's a possible example, where establishing alignments then brainstorming motivations leads to a simple plot. 1) The Wizard: Lawful Neutral. The wizard is formerly from a nearby city, and he is building the tower because he craves privacy to continue his studies into a new and complex magic item. He cares little for how the tower is built, and trusted his apprentice to get it done, providing him ample resources to do so. The Wizard actually thinks he is doing good, hoping his little construction project will bring wealth to the community, but he's invested too much trust and not enough attention. 2) The Apprentice: Neutral Evil. The apprentice was entrusted with a formidable sum of money to construct the tower. Rather then use the money to hire people, the Apprentice instead decided to pocket the money and enter into an alliance with some local bandits and thugs. He's secretly planning to use the money to off his master and lay claim to his resources. The Apprentice is actually the BBEG. 3) The Heavy: Chaotic Evil. The leader of the local thugs has been running extortion, smuggling, poaching, and other minor schemes on and off for several years. This tower and its new master may be his shot at the big time, offering him a front for further schemes and an ally who can provide magical aid. He doesn't trust the Apprentice, but he stands to gain a lot short-term, as the Apprentice seems to have deep pockets. The battle with the Heavy should take place before the battle with the Apprentice, and should provide insight to the players about what is going on.
lifespeed 03-15-05, 11:06 AM	All good suggestions. I like the idea of a Lawful Neutral wizard, and I like the idea of him being gone from the proceedings, I had simply assumed he would be low level but this is better. Maybe they'll see him take off on a flying mount of some sort as they near the tower, that way when he's not there it won't seem hackneyed. The evil foreman could still be a magic user of some type, and the assistant simply a rogue or fighter or something, maybe even a bard who got hired on to entertain but took on some extra work. I like the idea of them tracking the baddies to the tower and finding a number of normal people who mean well and need the money, not the crazed kidnappers they'll likely be expecting. Having commoners who aren't eveil is great too because the group has a couple of pretty decent Charisma scores and they like Sense Motive. I'm thinking something like this for the general flow of the adventure. First the PCs are hanging out at the inn, listening to the bard play. Once his song is over he decides to have a smoke and proceeds to billow out the sleepy gas to everyone in the room. The PCs (and the bard) make a DC 12 or so Fortitude save, which everyone else in the inn just fails (they're mostly commoners afterall), then a minute later some thugs roll in to start throwing people on the wagon. A fight ensues as the PCs come to the aide of the hapless inn patrons, and the bard escapes from the inn, headed for the tower (he's not one for combat). Any thugs that manage to will also try and bolt. The thugs aren't there to kill anybody, obviously, so they're armed only with blackjacks or clubs, of anything, so hopefully the PCs will get the idea and not kill them outright. The PCs then track the bard and any surviving thugs to the construction site, secreted away in a nearby forest. While in the forest they have to contend with some monsters of some sort, probably the same ones that have been harassing the construction site. Maybe they'll even run across some kinf of sylvan creature who can tell them about the tower and heal them up some. The PCs arrive at the clearing that houses the incomplete tower and find a camp full of laborers, some lounging around on their break, but the place generally bustling. Anybody that sees them tends to greet them warmly, as they know they've got nothing to fear (they know the wizard is pretty cool but they don't know that the foreman is a bad guy). The PCs spend some time in the camp, learning about the wizard, the tower, the recent monster attacks and other delays, as well as the traps the wizard has set up to help safeguard the tower itself. This is where they learn that the foreman is in charge in the wizard's absence (he's been away for a bit now). The PCs enter the base of the tower and have to bypass a few traps and perhaps get lost in it before they reach the third floor which is still under construction. There they learn that the foreman is on the fourth floor with the bard and a few others (his guards). The fourth floor is totally unfinshed, and is basically the top of the tower for now, the wall only waist high in some spots. Here they find the foreman and he's none to happy with the fact that the PCs are there. There's some chance for parlay, but the foreman is certainly unfriendly, and will likely prefer to just kill them and be done with their meddling. He'll probably have a couple guards with him and the bard will probably help out at first, but once things go sour he'll either run for it or try to get on the PCs good side. The PCs will have some explaining to do, but as long as their still getting paid and somebody who knows what they're doing is in charge, the laborers don't really care about the foreman, he was kind of a jerk anyway. Chances are the PCs will end up capturing him anyway. Now I need to figure out what kind of monsters they should fight in the woods and think up some traps. I'm thining of having a healer in the camp (like a 1st elvel cleric or so) in case they get too beat up in the woods. I was also thinking a trap that triggers a Summon Monster spell would be good as it'll put a little fight into the tower. Oh, and puzzles, of course, so that the PCs will have to actually think and make some checks other that finding traps. Any more suggestions?
lifespeed 03-16-05, 10:38 AM	Okay, I'm thinking that the wizard who owns the tower (one Quirin Torr) is around 10th level, but as he won't actually be in this adventure (unless the PCs wait around for him to come back from whatever business he's on) he doesn't really matter. Oskar Stoneheim, the foreman, is a level 4 dwarven wizard and he has two level 1 fighter guards with him at the top of the tower. The bard is level 3, a half-elf named Carmine Lute, and he won't be contributing much in the way of damage in the final battle, but he will be a bit of a pain in the tucas. Hopefully they won't kill him. If it comes to it, he can fight though, he just doesn't like to. Anyway, I figure unarmed Warrior 1 thugs for the begining. Then I have a couple encounters in the woods, perhaps something that the druid can get them out of. Once they get to the camp they have to talk to people and such. The first level of the tower I think should have at least two traps and a puzzle to allow them access to level 2, and maybe an animated object or soemthing to guard the place. On level two much the same, couple traps and then a puzzle, maybe a Summon Monster spell getting triggered by something. Level three is just some workers installing things in level three, so there's no fighting to be done, then they get to level four. Any suggestions for traps that would make sense in the tower, or for encounters in the woods? There needs to be an encounter in the woods that deals with the monster(s) that have been attacking the camp too. I'm thinking of having some kind of slyvan NPC in the woods to heal them or at least give them some clues.
Morka 03-16-05, 11:30 AM	Encounters in the forest: - ghouls - wolves (with a worg leader) - A crazy druid (Neutral Evil) who doesn't want the tower be built, because the workers are destroying the nature. At this level, it could be just some animals more aggressive than usual. - The PCs could meet this druid, who will be willing to help them when he figure they are tracking some of those who are building the tower. When they figure out the 10th level wizard is not evil and the tower is actually a good thing for most of the workers, the druid will feel the PCs have betrayed him. For the traps, they shouldn't be too lethal yet, since the tower is still under construction (workers need to go to third floor without facing traps everyday). Unless there is another mean to go to the third floor; in this case, will the PCs be able to use this other mean? Unless there is a secret staircase going directly from floor 2 to floor 4, and it's impossible to go from floor 3 to floor 4? The PCs should now be able to go until 3rd floor without a problem, but they see only worker who tell them they don't know how to go to floor 4... Now they have to explore the two first floors (and possibly the basement), which should lead them to traps and puzzles...
lifespeed 03-16-05, 11:42 AM	I had intended for the workers to know how to get around/past the traps, but if this is the case then any of them could just come and rob the tower once it's completed without trouble. Perhaps there is normally a ramp up the the levels under construction, but it was destroyed in the last monster fight (a freak fire or even the monsters doing, I was thinking about gnolls). The foreman and the bard know how to bypass the traps without setting them off, and not wanting to get even further behind, his brought his guards and a couple of workers through as well so they could get some work done while others rebuild the ramp. Perhaps all the workers are working on the ramp and only the foreman, bard and guards are at the top, overseeing things and working at the blueprints and such.