im going to be running a 3.5 dwarf based adventure. i will go into the back story if anyone is interested but the charicters are part of a mercenary band sent to investigate reports of strange goings on in a major dwarven city to the north. they travel by boat along with other mercenary charicters (NPCs). there will be 6 charicters (2 for each of the players. we often play several people as our dungeons are brutal). there will be 2 other boats holding 6 people. anyways here goes.
after several days of sailing upstream through a mountain vally you see the first signs of life: two watchtowers protruding from the mountain either side of you and a large imposing stone bridge spanning the river. (DC20 spot) sudenly humanoid creatures apear on the bridge and on small fortified balconies carved into the vally wall around you. arrows thudd into the wooden hull and ripp through the sails. several small metal balls crash inot the boat giving off plumes of arid smoke. you drift through the smoke following the boats in front and see them enter a large cave to the left. you quickly follow suit and jump off the boat onto a pier, hidden in a huge cave. dwarven boddies and broken wood litter the floor. several orcs are hidden behind upturned crates and barrels.
so the pc's end up in a dwarven border checkpoint that is overrun with orcs. this first encounter ends with most of the npc's dead or wounded along with the comander so they will look to one of the pc's to take charge. from here im not sure what to do. it needs to be quite short and completable within a few hours. they have to get to the western watch tower and take out the orcs. then take the eastern tower and fight their way to the trapped dwarves holed up in a store room.
what i was thinking was room 2 is a guard room. room 3 is a rest stop with inns, markets e.c.t. room 4 is the bottom room of the tower. from here they fight to the 3rd floor. the third floor has more 'fireworks'. grenade types that shoot out sparks to set alight sails and fill boats with smoke. the second type are rockets that are used to shoot down horrible winged creatures living in the mountains above them that prey on merchant vestles traveling downstream. when they travel across the bridge they find the portcullis is closed and see a few orcs running away up some staris. while they are trying to find a way in the evil bird creatures attack. they can either shoot them with bows or use the fireworks. they need to make a check of some type but the bang blinds the birds causes them to crash. and they can kill on a natural 20 (as a direct hit). after this they can try to find a way into the tower. im not sure how i can do this and what to do after that.
so i need a type of creature to use as the bird men. some ideas for more interesting encounters and some nice 'bad guy' enemies. obviously i have orcs, goblins and bugbears and was wondering about some gnoll mercenaries or something. thanks for any replies
From the caves perhaps add a skill challendge of some sort - to break up the combats. For example, the players reach the east tower but the orcs have barracaded the door in. The players could try to bust through the barracaded door or climb around the other side of the tower to a shattered part of the wall. If they do the latter, then there could be a chance the orcs don't know they are comming (maybe steath checks). This gives the players to gain a small advantage before going into combat - making they feel good about themselves for doing something smart.
Conduct the east tower combat - I'd suggest one or two combats with monsters that match their level. Don't throw something too hard at them just yet - leave that for themain event).
Having a marketplace / inn with NPCs in there doesn't make much sense - unless they two are evil and in leage with the orcs (in which case they would probably fight the pc's). Instead maybe have a room in the tower that is lockable/barracadable, where some dewarves had previously tried to survive. That justifies the cask of water/ale and hard food, bed rolls and so on the players find there.
Your forth paragraph talks about a lot of rooms, scattered all over the place. That's confusing to read as a DM, so your players will be even more confused. Perhaps draw a small map that outlines which rooms are where and what you want that room to acomplish. I.e.
Lake (Boats) ----> Caves under tower (Combat) ----> Enter the east tower (Skill Challenge) ----> Climbing the inside of the tower (Combat) ----> Safe House (Rest for PCs) ----> Top of east tower (Combat with flying monsters) and so on.
Then you know what is supposed to happen and when.
If time is a factor (and I dare say it will be with so many encounters) then maybe run two sessions to complete this module. My local player group does that all the time - start a module one friday night and end it the following friday night.
Once the players deal with the flying monsters I would suggest having a solo brute/elite badguy encounter in the courtyard - the final battle to secure control from the orcs. You could have say a wyrmling black dragon (or whatever player level your players are at) do something like this:
"You have successfully defeated the from infesting the east tower. You look over to your fallen dwarven companions and you cannot but help wonder if the price you have paid is worth retaking the tower. You thought is stolen however when an ominous roar bellows from the courtyard of the outpost. You follow your companions to the side of the tower and look down upon a black dragon bellowing acid about the courtyard in a fit of rage. Something in its eyes suggests that the orcs were not the brains behind the overrun outpost."
This sets a challendge to the players - if they want the real glory of the tower they are going to have to fight for it.
And if they overcome said challenge, give them some proper rewards.
Hope this helps you,
DM Ragewaar Theyredon
thanks ragewaar :D. i like the idea of the hole in the wall. sounds easily doable and interesting. but finding a way of stopping the fall before they get killed might be a bit hard. one thing i didnt make clear enough is that the whole of the 'dungeon' is underground apart from a few balconies sticking out of the rock face and the two towers / bridge.
the market place would be deserted as would the inn (or maybe have a baricaded room full of civilians) and the rooms would be partly linear as in they all come off a main road i.e. corridor and are all dead ends, forcing them to re-join the road.
what im planning to do is make a day of it where we have 2 / 3 good sessions so it should get finished. if not there is always next time 
. dose anyone know of a way to make the flying encounter work? what kind of skill check or other aiming system could i use? i was looking on reaper minis the other day and loved the look of a werewolf so i might use that as a final 'boss' depending on the stats. i will have a look at the MM before deciding though.
thanks for the help. josh
Warewolves make an awesome boss because they have an exploitable weakness - vunlability to silver. If your players are roleplaying their characters may not know this, in which case you could have a skill check or a mini-quest to find this out.
Airborne combat works the same as ground combat, just note how high participants are. You don't have to be specific either - very high, high, low, on the ground, etc. would work. Of course add a little description to each to make it more interesting - very high could be "You look over the wings of your and see a small mark on the terrain where the tower is. Holding your arms together, you try to withstand the freezing winds as another shiver runs down your spine."
If your players arn't perficant with mounted combat, they'll have a negative modifier for attacking and defense. That said don't go too hard on them or else they'll never hit anything! Find ways that the players can increase their chances - like attacking an enemy by flying higher than them and swooping down. Death from Above!
RPG days are awesome - I just had one with my local group where we played Starwars Saga, Warhammer Fantasy RPG and DnD 4e (which I was DMing). Really good way to spend a day.
Continuing to work backwards through your post, held-up civies are a perfect plot point. It gives good players a chance to be good and defend something. Evil players (if you have any) will revel in the chance for mischif. Maybe the players should find a way to get the civies out safely before the entrance collapses? Smells like another quest here.
Have a skill challenge for players falling off the wall. Just because one player fails his check doesn't mean the rouge of the party can't swing a hand down to help the character up, or the wizard cast a spell (like floating disk) to save the party member. Get a little creative here and remind players to check their inventories for useful equipment (never leave home without your gear).
And cheers for the reply.
Regards,
DM Ragewaar Theyredon
cheers m8. maybe one of the civilians in the inn could be a millitia guard who saw the werewolf (maybe even got biten by it and is mid-transformation leading to a moral decision to kill him now or try and keep him out of trouble to cure him later) and tells them there might be magic / silver weapons in the armoury. or would this ruin the suprise of the boss fight? the other possible thing is having a huge hoard chase them and block off escape routs to force them to the inn wich will have a few npc's that can fight to help them hold the inn. but i tried an adventure like this once where they tried to save a village (my first dming attemp wich i have learnt much from. mainly big open spaces cause problems with mapping) and they decided to charge into the woods the attacks where coming from instead of holding the bridge while the villagers escaped. they died :D
maybe if they fall into the water i could say the dont take much damage but must make a swim check at -5 or something. and they can let go of their backpack to reduce the penalty or something.ill upload a map of what ive got in my head at the moment and see if i can upload it
edit: anyone know how to upload images? do i have to go though all the imageshack crap?
Having a civi in the inn transform while the players are there is a really good idea. It gives a hint of what may come later - and if your players are resourceful they'll ask you for ways to prepare against a werewolf threat. If not then leave them in the dark, and they'll kick themselves later when they realize the hint you gave earlier.
Try not to ruin the surprise if the big boss - if players face one werewolf they will think that more are coming. They probably won't suspect a big boss werewolf. Suspicion and suspense are excellent to have and role play out. Have the other survivors start getting paranoid and suspecting each other. Then see if your good aligned players can stop the civilians from starting a ruckus and getting hurt. Heck that seems to be a good skill challenge right there!
Cutting of routes are good to build up the threat and suspense (I'm seeing a theme here). Don't have your players engage the routes that are cut off, and suggest that the inn is probably a good idea to look for survives and bunk-up for a night. One effective way to do this is to have the players run through a couple of encounters that uses up their health, healing surges and daily powers. By then they will already be looking for a place to rest for a good number of hours - why not the inn? The dwarf could get some ale and the elf could bathe (substitute for your player's characters).
If the players try to break through a barricade, give them a reminder about what happened last time. That enough should scare them.
Having water as a break is good so long as its not too high. Remember you do have physics in your game (well I'm assuming). A 50ft drop into water is still likely to kill or severely injury just about anyone. You could also have an immediate interrupt where a character could expend an action point to try to save the character - the fighter "puts his head down and bolts over to the falling comrade. With a large slide over the rough stone surface he/she/shi/it extends one arm over the edge to catch the falling party member." Or your wizard could cast an improvised spell or a summoned creature could jump to the rescue. Also let your players have a chance to figure out what to do if that situation arises - they may surprise you. I know mine have.
DM Ragewaar
i will have a go at uploading one in a min. my origional idea was to have a guy in the cellar covered in blood and in a deep fever, too ill to do anything as the poison (is it a poison?) took hold of him. but if they keep him with them he will get better but become a werewolf at the next full moon if they don't cure him (wich is where the moral choice comes. kill him now or try and cure him at the risk of him transforming and going on a rampage. but i could have him transform while in the cellar and attack them, not tell them about the werewolf and see if they figure it out. that sounds much better acturaly. maybe in the prologue i could add something about a full moon (subtly of course). i don't really need to tell them a they can kill it without silver but it is very hard. i love the idea of trying to control the civis :D maybe a fight breaks out over water or medicen or maybe something more sinister. the werewolf could even escape and start butchering the civis. maybe a bit dark though. and too hard to take down before he slaughters them all.
i might not use the blocked routes thinking about it. just exhaust them and let them hear talking inside the inn prompting them to enter. mainly because i they are being chased they wont be let in or will have to fight the things they where just running from as well as the werewolf. or go out after to find a hundred goblins waiting patiently. cave ins might be a better way to 'rail road' them through. normally i wouldnt do this but as this is a quick one off it might be best.
maybe the wizard could find a scroll of feather falling for the bridge fight. that way a few characters might get separated temporarily but wont be permanently dead. catching depends on how close they are together though. if they are quite close it will be fine but if they decide to spread out it might cause some problems.
maybe if they get knocked off i could give them a low reflex save to grab the side or the bridge. a strength check that gradually gets harder every turn they are hanging and a climb check every turn to get back up. but if a friend helps they automatically pass. that way they will probably have a few turns to get across to him or to prepare a spell.
i was thinking of giving the creatures a sort of 'bull rush' type feat as well as ranged and melle weapons where they try to knock the characters back. is this an interesting mechanic or just silly? would a grapple check as the bird grabbs them be better? cheers