One of the quests in Lost Mine of Phandelver is to talk to Agatha the Banshee, who lives outside of the farming village Conyberry (sacked by barbarians a while ago and never rebuilt). The adventure text has very little to say about this area, but I felt it could be a very memorable adventuring location with the right encounters.
What encounters can you guys come up with to make venturing into Conyberry in search of Agatha exciting and memorable?
Here are some ideas I had to get us started.
read this to the Players as they near Conyberry wrote:
Personally, I would straight up GIVE this info w/o making checks.
Wisdom (Perception) check:
(DC 10) smell of rotting flesh hangs in the air
(DC 15) sound of unearthly growls can be heard somewhere nearby (direction unknown)
(DC 20) the growls are coming from the graveyard behind the temple
Intelligence (Religion) check:
(DC 7) The roses and grain symbol on the door represents Chauntea, goddess of agriculture (NG, life). This must be a Temple to Chauntea.
(DC 15) This Temple of Chauntea appears to be consecrated and would be a good place to make camp.
Intelligence (History) check:
(DC 10) Legend has it that the Barbarians that sacked Conyberry were eventually slaughtered by something terrible living in Neverwinter Wood (true, and it was Agatha)
Intelligence (Nature) check:
(DC 15) The rotting smell appears unnatural somehow (it's coming from the ghouls)
Doling it out where appropriate during play. I'd also take these one step further, tie some kind of action to the information.
For example, "Investigating the sounds (DC 15) reveals blah blah blah."
more or less I don't want to keep info like this (that builds ambiance and leads us along) behind the "knowledge-gate." For one, it seems like pointless checks (since there aren't good consequences attached), and for two I WANT to do rotting stench and creepy moaning for my undead adventure.
Historical background should either be known, or discoverable (a diary in a crypt, an inscription on a headstone).
And acting on the info can confer cool benefits. For instance, if you learn Agatha's name, you become immune to her wail. Then, learning the name becomes a kind of mini-investigation that invites exploration.
See what Im sayin?
When Drizz't and Wulfgar encountered Agatha in The Halfling's Gem, she had this cool illusory mirror maze in her lair. Wulfgar broke the illusion by smashing the real mirror with his hammer, but I think it would be potentially quite fun to have Agatha rebuild her mirror (she's had a century or more to do so after all) so that the PCs can encounter it too. My 2e FR Atlas has a neat isometric cutaway map of her lair.
On a more personal note, I'm going to make it so Agatha will answer one question per PC, rather than one question total, provided that each PC give her a gift first.
In my Western-themed version of the game, the Neverwinter Wood is a vast, petrified forest called The Hardwood and Violetta's grove is at its edge near the ruined town of Huckleberry. After winning only second prize in a beauty contest centuries ago (and 10 gp), she killed the human woman she lost to and then hung herself. Now she haunts the Hardwood in undeath. A century ago, Violetta's prized silver comb was stolen from her glade by murder-hobos and her hair been a hot ectoplasmic mess since - frizzy, split ends, oily residue, wailing dandruff. It is that very comb that Sister Moonshine of the Shrine of the Moon gives the PCs to entice her to reveal the location of Force Majeure's spellbook.
Like bawylie said, the information is good, but I'd give that out without checks. I don't see those checks tied to actions and I struggle to see any chance for interesting failure. That's in contrast to the bit about the door to the church which has definite consequences for failure. I like the tie-in with Reidoth (who I renamed Jeremiah and whose favored form is a bullfrog) and the goodies to be found for exploring. I also like the ghouls.
bawylie wrote:
iserith wrote:
pukunui wrote:
"Not all checks need to have consequences."
No. This part is wrong. And Failing Forward is the band-aid that covers the harm that rises from "not all checks need to have consequences."
(I want you to understand I see this as a blight on an otherwise cool scenario. We have an opportunity to DO something, but we're gonna do process sim because... I don't know).
I'll also add one more thing about rolling checks for information. As DM, you should know when to call for a check and when not to. For instance, a Cleric of Chauntea would not have to roll to recognize the symbol. Or perhaps just having proficiency in Religion makes that information automatic because that information is covered in Faerun Deities 101.
The Wisdom(Perception) checks to hear the Ghouls are also relative. If the characters are at the graveyard, obviously the DC for hearing the growls would not be DC 20! These DCs were assuming the characters were more or less randomly walking around the village and checking it out.
bawylie wrote:
Ramzour wrote:
Ramzour wrote:
The Intelligence (History) checks I wrote up were based on Forgotten Realms lore and history I found about the area by searching online. And isn't that pretty much exactly what the ability/skill is designed for? The idea was to play up the Ghost of Neverwinter Wood, to spook the Heroes and make it a little frightening. Barbarians sacked the village and there are ghosts hanging around! They better be careful!
An average History check reveals that the ghost might not be 100% evil since it defeated the invading barbarians. Not everyone has heard this, but some people might have. A good History check reveals that the ghost and the NPC they seek are one in the same....and a really good check reveals that Agatha is also a powerful wizard. That might give them more ideas for appealing to her vanity as a caster. "Oh my, what big spells you have!"
I wouldn't say this information is "hidden" behind checks, but rather it's not automatic. Does something happen? Let's roll the dice. D&D is all about rolling dice to see what happens. A character that invests in a particular ability and skill has a good chance of succeeding on that die roll.
Now I'm all for making things more interesting, but at the same time not everything has to be some complicated tradeoff of success and partial success and complications. Sometimes rolling the dice is exactly what the situation calls for, and there doesn't need to be a hook or a catch or a nested logic gate to determine the outcome. I don't always want some elaborate cliffhanger or specially contrived situation. Sometimes all I want is a die roll.
I'm usually the first one to say ignore the dice, the rules, and everything else....but you shouldn't always do that either. Everything in moderation, as they say. And sometimes a die roll is just a die roll.
Anyway, another thing you can do is to use "Passive History" or "Passive Religion" checks, 10+AbilityMod+Prof, in place of rolling. So anyone proficient in Religion would automatically know the symbols of all the (common) deities. However, they would have to be a little more skilled to automatically know (or conclude or observe) that this particular temple has been consecrated, as this is not very obvious from the exterior of the temple.
Anyone proficient in History has read the basic tales and myths of the Sword Coast region. That gives an automatic reward to the trained (proficient) and naturally adept (ability score), but still allows for potential success on the d20 (due to luck perhaps). Only the most studied sages (high int, high prof) would automatically know the obscure fact that Agatha is actually the Ghost of Neverwinter Wood. Alternatively, succeeding on an Investigation check after reading the lore book found in the temple might also reveal this information, because the fact becomes more obvious when all the clues are presented together.
pukunui wrote:
Ramzour wrote:
So, for last night's game, I was well-prepared for Conyberry and Old Owl Well....so naturally the players decided to go to Thundertree instead. Maybe next week!
Ramzour wrote:
This is some great stuff! Threads with actual, helpful content are far too rare.
Thanks to the OP and contributors.
I'm on the fence about what things should be given and what things should be rolled for. I'm leaning towards giving any information that is "cool" simply because the adventure isn't better without them. Having a die roll decide if something fun will be in my game seems counterproductive.
I also like the idea of giving an answer to each party member. This is a trope I've used before. Just be careful: players are players. They will ask you things that will completely take you off guard! 
Ramzour wrote:
autolycus wrote:
autolycus wrote:
bawylie wrote:
Oh, sorry, I forgot "no" is a bad word, and everything should be given a "yes"...?
For me, it always depends on what makes the most sense in the moment. If it makes sense that the information is automatically known, then there's no need for a roll. That's kind of the point of the dice to begin with....to determine the outcome when things are uncertain.
Does it make sense that the Cleric automatically recognizes a symbol for a common deity? Yeah, probably....so no roll required. (effectively, they succeed on a Passive INT Religion check).
Does it make sense that the goddless Barbarian automatically recognizes a symbol for a common deity? Maybe / Maybe not....but it's still relatively common knowledge, so the DC is somewhat low (DC 5-10 or whatever).
Does it make sense that any PC immediately recognizes that an old ruined temple is still Consecrated? This sort of thing is very subtle and thus requires a moderate check. Only the trained and talented Religious scholars would know which signs to look for....unless they get very lucky (a good d20 roll).
I don't think it makes sense to automatically assume that a character has information just because you can't think of a reason to introduce a "cost" into the situation. Not every encounter has to be a perfect trade-off. Sometimes things are skewed with no clear cost or benefit....and that's okay!
Ramzour wrote:
I'm a bit late to this party. First of all, awesome work! Secondly, I thought I'd throw in a little relevant recent history for Conyberry.
As recently as 1479 DR (a handful of years before the LMoP), Conyberry was being used as a training area for Werewolves of the Grey Wolf Uthgardt tribe. In Conyberry, they learned to behave as "civilized folk", in preparation for infiltration into local populations. Helm's Hold, in particular, was targetted, but Neverwinter was also a likely target.
The Grey Wolf tribe was allied with Netheril during this time, and they clearly abandoned the town or suffered a major setback when Netheril's schemes failed in the area. How or why they failed has yet to be revealed in 5E.
This leaves a lot of room for you to incorporate your already excellent work into the more recently established lore of Conyberry. Thay was the major foe of the Netherese. Maybe they struck with a large force of their undead when Netheril's forces withdrew from the Nevewinter region? Maybe the Gray Wolf tribesmen who were against the alliance with Netheril (there were many) duked it out with the pro-Netherese leadership, and carnage ensued.
You also gain the option of throwing in Barbarian or Werewolf Barbarian combat encounters in the region around Conyberry. I think that's the coolest part.
Good luck with Conyberry, whenever the group makes there way into town.
iserith wrote:
tallric_kruush wrote:
It's pretty cool that your own creations blend so well with the lore that 4E provided. (That was provided in the Neverwinter Campaign Setting, by the way.)
Agatha always looked out for the people of Conyberry, before the village was abandoned. I could definitely see her lashing out at the Grey Wolf barbarians if opportunity or provocation presented itself. Opportunity could definitely have been presented when their infighting took hold, and/or if Thay took action. Provocation was more than provided by their and the Netherese's meddling in the area of her grove (all part of the effort to restore and raise the Xinlenal enclave back into the sky).
Undead Uthgardt would be awesome. Nuff said on that. Even the presence of undead in the region makes a ton of sense due to Thay's involvement and efforts. They were the ones that provoked Mt. Hotenow's eruption, destroying Neverwinter and the surrounding villages precisley for massive death toll. After that catastrophe, and their cultivation of dread rings in the region, undead became a common menace.