For the kids, I'm running the adventure right out of the box - I have made the mistake in the past of trying to develop 'cool alternatives' for noobies, only to find they don't find them all that cool because they have no baseline to compare them to: a skeleton rising from bones on the floor is a scary novelty for a first-timer.
But the adult group will soon tire of the storyline. They will get a kick out of the souped-up tactical combat, but the battles will lose their edge without a good, solid storyline. I would like the whole experience for them to be darker. I don't want a wholly benign 'point of light' with trustworthy and noble inhabitants; I like the idea that some of the inhabitants are in cahoots with the cult, and might even like to include Lord Padraig in this group. I would also like to involve Kalarel and his machinations earlier in the storyline and give the PCs a reason to hate his Orcus-worshipping guts.
Anyone have any ideas for me to employ? I like a good brainstorming session before I set about a first draft!
I play with a 30ish crowd (I am at high end at 40 and the youngest is 25).
What I have done so far,
1> Dropped the given hooks. I don't like how they give away too much of the plot.
1a> Initial replacement hook was players were doing caravan duty (inserted a cart with two halfling merchants that took no part in the fight) in the initial Kobold Ambush.
2> Winterhaven arrival was changed to set the mood.
2a> Players notice damage to some of the surrounding farms as they approach Winterhaven.
2b> Players arrive and see a fresh grave being dug.
2c> Players see a procession of the town guards led by the town priest carrying out a dead guard for burial.
2d> People are excited at the arrival of the merchants as this is the first cart that has made it through in many weeks.
2e> Winterhaven is under rationing. The inn serves suppers of boiled potatoes with small amount of fatty bacon, breakfasts of boiled oats with small amounts of fatty bacon, lunches of thin barley soup with bits of fatty bacon in the soup and a quarter crust of a small loaf of bread.
2f> The sage will initially play more the absent minded fool to conceal what he knows and can offer.
3> Next job was bounty hunting kobolds at 10gp per right hand.
4> Plan is that after the A1 ambush the players will have the symbol of Orcus. I plan to have the players ask some questions and be directed to the sage who will give a bit of help but will tell them that the 'real' expert would be Douven Stall. The players will be told that Douven Stall left a week or two previously to dig at a possible dragon burial site. This should lead players to the events of A4.
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Those are the immediate plans.
I am thinking that the players could have the gravesite battle in Interlude 3 followed by complications in the keep.
I am also planning on when Ninaran leaves the keep to have him set fire to the grain storage.
I am thinking that it may turn out their is a small seed cult within the walls of Winterhaven (possibly the source of the berserker humans and human rabble that appear in the module). I will need the 4e books to better flesh this out.
I am though thinking that some homes might have something hung in their homes that might seem ordinary without a careful check by a cleric making a religon check. An example might be the use of goat horns on the wall that look like coat or hat holders.
I'm seriously considering having Padraig in cahoots with Kalarel. Perhaps Kalarel has promised him that the ritual will bring great wealth and status to Winterhaven. Perhaps Padraig enjoys having the villagers on a tight leash, and being the Lord of the area, doesn't suffer all that badly from the sudden turn of events.
Why does he send them to take out the kobolds? Because he doesn't think they'll survive.
Only problem being, why aren't the critters in the Keep ready for their arrival? And what will the upshot be of the adventurers discovering his collusion?
Hmmm... maybe the entire village has been corrupted by Orcus. I don't know. But I'm starting to have a much clearer idea of the atmosphere I want to create.
It strikes me as odd trying to explain how creatures like rats and kruthic got into the castle originally and what they are feeding upon.
I have decided that if the players search the surroundings of the castle ruins then they can go through a skill challenge based on skills like nature, dungeoneering, history, and perception. It will likely be something simple like a 6 to 4 test with DC 15 to 20 depending on the skill chosen. History might be a 20.
Success will indicate locating a natural cave entrance that leads to the spot between area 9 and area 10. I will say this is how the goblins first moved into the area and why they became immediately aware of the dangers in this section and built their barricade.
The goblins trust that the creatures here will guard their flank. Keeping the cave entrance open also encourages the creatures to go out the tunnel entrance to hunt instead of coming up the stairs to the goblin area.
Does dealing with the 'pests' first create any problems with the running of the adventure?
Still - another neat idea. Thanks.
Oh, another change I'll be making: 'Splug'.
Even for the 12-year olds. They hated Meepo; I don't think they'll like Splug any better. I'll still have a goblin captive they can interact with, but the name with change and he'll be a little bit weirder: maybe like Fiver out of Watership Down: a weak goblin who has visions of a coming 'doom'. The others stuck him in the jail cos he freaked them out. They only put up with him before because Irontooth was his brother. But now Irontooth is dead...A couple more thoughts.
First, yes, if the players do a search of the area around the keep and find the cave entrance then I would allow them to enter that way. It actually makes it more likely the players will get usage of the three encounters that are in this section by allowing them to enter this way.
I think it will only make a bit of differance with the trap room if they explore that area as they may have encountered the neighbouring guards prior to the trap. Not a big thing really in my thoughts on the adventure.
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I am thinking that inside of the Kobold cave to have set up on the wall a few sets of ram horns.
The point will be that if the players go looking in homes of some of the people in Winterhaven and see a similar decoration then they will start to make a connection.
This just provides a nice way to tie in the ideas.
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I am also thinking that if they search the bodies of the human rabble in the Dragon dig that they could find branding marks on the rabble on the back of the left shoulder that matches up to the symbol of Orcus.
Again, this is just a small clue that allows players to tie things into the possability of rooting out the cult and gives them something to go on a witch hunt to search out.
It should also cause some problems if they go back to Winterhaven and demand that people start disrobing and showing parts of their flesh to check for branding marks (which might not be in the same spot on all people).
I figure the berserkers will have branding marks or tattoos as they are more 'committed' to the faith.
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The area with the cube, I am thinking of changing the sign slightly from 'Stay Out' to 'No treasure this way' in a suitable goblin language.
I might add some wolves or something (We are doing the module from scratch with new characters after the Core books arrive) which will add a sense of urgency to drive the herd down to the village and get the pick-up encounter.
I know that's mean, but they'll thank me in the long-run.
That could be another motivator to get the heroes back to the village.
I have taken some of your ideas (Thanks, BTW!), but I have also added livestock theft. I also liked the cavern entrance idea, but I want it to lead out to some pens where the livestock is, some of them half-eaten corpses. This will help motivate the players to go back to town for the graveyard scene, which I have a problem with.
I might add some wolves or something (We are doing the module from scratch with new characters after the Core books arrive) which will add a sense of urgency to drive the herd down to the village and get the pick-up encounter.
I think I'd have the kruthrik doing the cattle-raiding. You can get a bit grotesque with it, perhaps fooling PCs into thinking there may be a werewolf problem or something similar ("Whatever it was, it tore that poor cow apart...from the inside. And from these strange tracks, looks like it went off North.")
I think I'd have the kruthrik doing the cattle-raiding. You can get a bit grotesque with it, perhaps fooling PCs into thinking there may be a werewolf problem or something similar ("Whatever it was, it tore that poor cow apart...from the inside. And from these strange tracks, looks like it went off North.")
Not a bad idea. However, my biggest problem is motivating the party to go back to town to rest, especially in order to start the graveyard encounter. I thought to have a starving town and find their livestock (or what's left of it) outside the level 1 cave section would be a good choice to kill 2 birds.
I could substitute the kruthriks for the wolves I was thinking of.
I think that a heavy Cthulhu influence will also benefit the storyline, tying in that Thing in the final encounter to earlier encounters. Somehow. Maybe tying it to the Blue Slime encounter.
I'm actually thinking of going with the Far Realm as the problem here instead of the Shadowfell and using some of the excellent ideas above: abandoned farms, burial of a family killed by a loving parent who suddenly went crazy, a kobold in the first fight berserks and starts attacking his own, a hushed (paranoid) atmosphere in town, the mayor barricading himself in his manor. In effect, waves of madness are being sent out from the "Thing" as it draws closer to reality; perhaps use this as a stepping-stone to a much grander campaign where this new cult of madness is gathering artifacts/power and this is but the first of them.
That would also reinforce Sir What's-His-Name's diving into madness. Which, by the way, I have changed his story as well. After his insanity and subsequent slaughter of the guards, a group of clerics tracked him down in the depths and vanquished him. They built his crypt, but performed a ritual that freed his soul from the madness, but bound him to a magic circle in the room. Everything else is basically the same. The clerics took the bodies of his soldiers and put them in their sarcophagi in the hall to make sure he would never return, and prevent anything from the depths from escaping. They then brought down the last tower over the entrance and left. The goblins cleared away the entrance when they moved in.
At that point, I'd have another merchant, a tiefling warlock come into town with 4 charmed Ogre Savages's as his body guard. That day, someone breaks his control on the Ogre's and they rampage through the town, in two pairs, allowing them to be handled as two encounters. But no one would know if his control was broken, or if he arranged the attacks.
It would be good if an a vocal critic of the Noble's was slain in the rampage, bringing him under suspicion. (though he's innocent)
The Noble's wife is a secret member of the cult, and she has recruited several of the guards. They make sure that the cult opperates unhindered. She is a warlock and it was she who broke the enchantments on the ogre's and directed two of them to attack her husband's critic.
She will also secretly direct the guards to arrest the tiefling merchant/warlock.
You could even introduce Kalarel as a guest within the nobel's home, perhaps a visiting relative of his wife's, or a tutor of some sort?
I think the opening fight and story will allow me to set the tone for the campaign. Since I have new to gaming players I think its important to use undead who are clearly evil as the first adversaries. I also want to give them some minor magic items that will be useful in the future that they will need to unlock as they play.
One of the main changes I am making is to have the Kobolds me slavers. These raiding parties are to get slaves - I'll make a net trap - which are then later taken to the keep so sale for sacrifice or to the next adventure in this series.
When players examine the body of say the Wyrmpriest (give the priest an eyepatch) in A3 (or A1 if you remove the priest from A3) have them find a compound bug eye under the eyepatch.
Give a kobold skirmisher a possible third eye in the back of their head. Add in the little bit that that skirmisher does not grant combat advantage if flanked.
Give a few mutations to some of the goblins and hobgoblins inside the keep.
Good options are things like a carpace shell, extra limbs (tentacle or insect like), give insect wings, have slimy skin, have a body explode when it reaches 0 hit points and be replaced by a colony or two of Kruthik Hatchlings.
Most of these things do not have to do anything but they could add a minor variation to one or two monsters in encounters to break up the feeling of the monsters being too similar.
Great ideas Smerg, thanks. One of the kobolds in A1 was oozing slime & twitchy during the fight, when the killed him he exploded in caustic slime. One of the farmhouses had a family slaughtered by the father and had his dagger held buried in his stomach. The mood in the town is very somber. The players are a little freaked.
The Stars are Right.
:coolcthul
:evillaugh