After this will come adventure change suggestions.
Then I will be posting an "DM's/adventure Guide" and a "Player's Guide" for the pre-gens as I have altered them as soon as those get finished.
The original post I made came off more like an argument with Smeelbo than my opinion on it. To make this post more friendly I have removed the pointers to my case-by-case critique to Smeelbo's suggestions. I will say up front, although there are many points I don't agree with on Smeelbo's suggestions, he gave me a great starting point to find issues in the characters and I thank him for his attention to detail.
P.S. If you read the original thread you will find I plagiarized some of the points without doing a proper reference to Smeelbo. Just know he did ½ this work and once again I give him thanks. Check out the original thread for what is my original content and what I may have stole from Smeelbo.
The original thread:
smeelbo;18230962 wrote:
P.S. Again this is firstly built off of what Smeelbo has done before me and I added a bunch of stuff.
BACKGROUND:
The writer has left the "how the party got set on the quest" very open to interpretation I really think it best for each DM to fit this as they see best into their playing style. As this is a Game Day I have a feeling many of the adventures will start like this.
You have been hired by local mystics from a nearby fortress to retrieve a book of prophecy stolen from them by a kobold priestess named Sarna. They have promised you 150 GP and given you the sequence of sigils that open the teleportation circle in the fortress.
Chasing the kobold to a cavern here is what you see:
That is perfectly fine, especially if you are just playing with some new people who look eager to roll some dice and are getting bored with your intro description.
Personally here is how I would tie the characters together and into the story in a more fleshed out fashion.
ADVENTURE HOOK:
The fortress of Albura has been a welcome supply stop and resting spot for your group of friends for about the last year. And ever since you were here to hold back that invasion of orcs about a year ago your party has been welcome to rest for free and get a slight discount on any general goods sold at the fortress.
In the last year the orc raids have lessened as using Albura as a base you have been rooting out wandering tribes of orcs and lessening their impact on the surrounding land. You know that the keep is protecting the small community surrounding the fortress on the hill at the crossroads along with it being the resting place of the Book of Erithon.
The Book of Erithon is a collection of dreams, prophecies, and knowledge collected over the lifetime of a silver dragon who died a century ago. The mystics, oracles, and historians that study the book say that it reads of a divine champion who will once again take control of Erithon's power and once again rule the Silver Caverns.
As your party returns to the fortress from an uneventful overnight patrol you are able to quickly discern that not all is right. Everyone seems to be in a hurried frenzy and the guards on the walls of the fortress are facing the inside courtyard instead of attentively scanning the surrounding countryside.
It is here I will explain that the kobold wyrmpriest has already found an ancient clue in the hoard of the Erithon that allowed her to use the teleportation circle and gain access in to the interior of the keep to steal the Book of Prophecy. (Here after referred to as the Book of Erithon.)
But after stealing the book and returning to the circle she realized she did not have the sequence that would unlock the access back to Erithon's lair and was thus forced to escape through the mundane method of sneaking out the front gate. (I picture teleportation circles like Stargate. The combination of runes is for your destination so it is possible to walk through the gate and not have the combination on how to get back.)
By the time the party returns to the fortress they are informed on how the book was stolen in the night and the guards saw an orc patrol hurriedly running back towards the Silver Caverns that morning when the gates were first opened. Since the orcs were fleeing from the town they saw no reason to chase them until an hour later when they noticed the Book of Erithon was missing. Now the people of the fortress beg that the party give chase and get their book of prophecy back.
If this is your one-shot, offer whatever you want for a reward if you feel the 150 is too low. If you are dealing with RPGA members they know rewards on adventures are restrictive and they will get their 150 GP so they feel like it is any other game day.
Since stats are given for the rickety bridge, the "narrow chasm" beneath should be assigned a depth and a Climb DC to get back out of.
I will assign it a DC 15 Athletics check and depth of 10 feet just like you find later in the adventure.
6) Failed Escape seems weak.
Maybe there is a better way to account for these possibilities.
Agreed. In fact since they have the stats and XP calculated and there is already the option for the harpy to be killed off here, and you don't see the harpy later in the game let's just kill two birds with one stone and re-write the tactics.
Change it so that Sarna has already been carried off to gain a head start then harpy returned with a kobold wormpriest to stop or slow down pursuers by fighting to the death.
I will also create a letter to drop off with the new dead kobold. It will describe the plan and give back-story to the whole plot along with creating a feeling of urgency if the party knows that Sarna is trying to turn herself in a vessel of Erithon.
Does it make sense to at least sometimes have the Scarabs hit and run: pop out, attack, and burrow away? Since Stone Trap is a standard, and they have a Burrow speed, they can pull it off. Hit and run was very effective for the Quickling Jack in the last adventure, it could be useful here. I know they're dumb beasts, but my job is to challenge the players.
I also would want to make sure that it is a challenge, not a frustration. I will play their tactics as if the scarabs were trained that way. If the players are in the guarded area of the arbalester then the scarabs keep them there with stone trap or just by luring them there by being in the open letting the arbalester double attacks on the group.
If the players move out of the guarded area they will use hit and run tactics to move them back into the guarded zone.
9) Treasure
The Rust Monsters failed to consume those 40 GP? I think not. Also, because they are so annoying, I think I will reward the players with extra residuum from the rust monster corpses.
I like to think of rust monsters in the old 2nd Edition flavor instead of the RAW as they are now. In 2nd Edition they only rusted ferrous materials. So gold, silver, and platinum were all safe from the iron rusting attack of the rust monsters. But summed up, for this one-shot I don't plan on thinking to deeply about this. If you really want to get technical, change out the gold for gems.
What does the recovered residuum look like? I am imagining spherical nodules. How long does it take to recover the residuum? How does that time impact the following skill challenge?
Personally I like to think of it as a luminescent mercury substance. Not enough to grant a large light source but the equivalent light to a candle, or a cell phone in modern terms. You can use to light up 5 feet of darkness. But that is only if you had it in a crystal vial that allowed light to escape. If you carry it in a wine skin, which would be much more common, light can't get out. The liquid and metallic properties also appeal to the sense that only alchemists and wizards would usually be carrying this fragile valuable substance around.
Recovering residuum I am ruling takes one minute and a successful nature check. Because I don't want to punish the players, I just want to make them nervous I will have a skill check of 15 for this game but I would make it a DC 20 in my home games. I tend to be easy on people new to the game. No need to make them dislike D&D by hurting their character.
10) Encounter 3, Skill Challenge: Rushing River Passage
No changes until they reach…
11) Guardian Ghosts
A successful diplomacy or bluff check will get the ghosts to restore any magic items lost to the rust monsters. This prevents you from having to re-calculate a bunch of combat stats in mid-game. If the players don't think to use diplomacy on their own, give them a hint with the hint club. (i.e. beat them over the head with the hint.)
12) Lair of Erithon
Mistake 1: Staff or Spear?
Both in the description and the figurine Sarna is wielding a staff yet it is a spear in her stat block. I will just use the same stats and call it a staff, not a spear.
Mistake 2: The kobold forgets energy orb?
This is easy enough to explain away because I separated the wormpriest kobold and Sarna earlier. Sarna just never knew energy orb.
Mistake 3: And it flies?
The tactic of wading into a melee with a flying creature does make one pause and wonder. What I am planning on doing is tying her fly speed into her bloodied transformation. When bloodied read the following description.
With a scream of agony in a serpentine sounding curse Sarna curls over and you feel a wave of terror. (Have players make save vs. fear from Bloodied Transformation here.) Through clenched eyes and ringing ears you see a sight that makes you wonder if you will leave this cavern alive. Something ripples below the scales and cloth across the back of the kobold and finally with another soul rending screech two large bloody wings explode through the back of the wormpriest. With a single powerful beat you see your opponent rise into the air before you.
From here the players will not have as much as a challenge to drop the big bad end guy with their mostly non-magical ranged weapons when it takes flight as Sarna will be at ½ life.
And because there is no listing for how high the ceiling is I will put it at 50 feet. That makes it respectfully large but yet there are no range penalties for the players. Also remember, anyone who has a magic weapon with the thrown key word, that weapon is also returning. So remind your rogue to throw their sacrificial dagger at the kobold.
Introduction
ADVENTURE HOOK:
The fortress of Albura has been a welcome supply stop and resting spot for your group of friends for about the last year. And ever since you were here to hold back that invasion of orcs about a year ago your party has been welcome to rest for free and get a slight discount on any general goods sold at the fortress.
In the last year the orc raids have lessened as using Albura as a base you have been rooting out wandering tribes of orcs and lessening their impact on the surrounding land. You know that the keep is protecting the small community surrounding the fortress on the hill at the crossroads along with it being the resting place of the Book of Erithon.
The Book of Erithon is a collection of dreams, prophecies, and knowledge collected over the lifetime of a silver dragon who died a century ago. The mystics, oracles, and historians that study the book say that it reads of a divine champion who will once again take control of Erithon's power and once again rule the Silver Caverns.
As your party returns to the fortress from an uneventful overnight patrol you are able to quickly discern that not all is right. Everyone seems to be in a hurried frenzy and the guards on the walls of the fortress are facing the inside courtyard instead of attentively scanning the surrounding countryside.
It is here I will explain that the kobold wyrmpriest has already found an ancient clue in the hoard of the Erithon that allowed her to use the teleportation circle and gain access in to the interior of the keep to steal the Book of Prophecy. (Here after referred to as the Book of Erithon.)
But after stealing the book and returning to the circle she realized she did not have the sequence that would unlock the access back to Erithon's lair and was thus forced to escape through the mundane method of sneaking out the front gate. (I picture teleportation circles like Stargate. The combination of runes is for your destination so it is possible to walk through the gate and not have the combination on how to get back.)
By the time the party returns to the fortress they are informed on how the book was stolen in the night and the guards saw an orc patrol hurriedly running back towards the Silver Caverns that morning when the gates were first opened. Since the orcs were fleeing from the town they saw no reason to chase them until an hour later when they noticed the Book of Erithon was missing. Now the people of the fortress beg that the party give chase and get their book of prophecy back.
If this is your one-shot, offer whatever you want for a reward if you feel the 150 is too low. If you are dealing with RPGA members they know rewards on adventures are restrictive and they will get their 150 GP so they feel like it is any other game day.
Encounter 1
Terrain:
If you are knocked off the bridge the Athletics Check DC to climb back up is 15.
Timeline:
Since I am having the harpy return after dropping Sarna from a safe distance I will slightly increase the time it takes her to get back to the fight so potentially a few of the enemies will be dropped. She will return in 1D4+3 rounds or when I feel the party has a good handle on an upper hand on this battle.
Tactics:
For the most part these will stay the same other than this is a fight to the death so we don't have to worry about what happened to the harpy later in the adventure. Second this also gives the satisfaction to the player's that no one got away.
Enemy Abilities:
Sarna (or the fake one we use.)
- Can do an extra shift every round.
- Dragonbreath is usable once, make it count.
- Most common tactic, Shift (out of opportunity attack), Energy Orb, Shift (minor action usable every round).
Orc Terrorblade
- The falchion is a High Crit weapon. If you get a natural 20 it is a total of 2D4+18, do not add the 2D4+18 to the normal damage hit of 3D4+6. (Which totals the 18 of a max damage hit plus 2D4 from the high crit property.)
- Remember to keep track of if the Orc is bloodied and if their target is bloodied so you can either activate attacks or defenses that require the bloodied key word.
Harpy
- Pulling – The dwarf can lessen this by one square
- Immobilized - You can’t move from your space, although you can teleport and can be forced to move by a pull, a push, or a slide.
- Dazed - You grant combat advantage. You can take either a standard action, a move action, or a minor action on your turn (you can also take free actions). You can’t take immediate actions or opportunity actions. (No triggers.) You can’t flank an enemy.
- You check for enemy recharge at the beginning of their turn.
Bloodseeker Drake
- Like the orcs, keep track of bloodied targets. The Drakes have two abilities that rely on bloodied targets.
Development:
The note on the wrympriest reads:
The priesthood has located the dragon's teleportation circle and within found runes to open a passage to Albura. We shall follow the path of the mighty Erithon to retrieve her book and grant power to mighty Sarna. Once Sarna becomes the vessel of Erithon the Silver Caves will once again be home to the true ruler of this land.
Encounter 2
Terrain:
The heavy stone terrain is the rocks to the far west.
Tactics:
Since there is no realistic way that the arbalester is going to use the heavy stone rubble for cover I will just have him move to the edge to use the wall for cover. Then the area he is guarding is highlighted in the picture below.
Also in this picture I moved him to his new position. I will leave him in the open for the start of the encounter so players can get a good look at him and then have his first action be to move to the new location and fire. That lets the player's know what they are up against and gives them the creepy feeling that a giant animated ballista is attacking them.
Tactics are changed just slightly. The rust monsters are crazy with hunger, they just attack the first thing they see. The scarabs on the other hand are magically compelled to work with the arbalester and will attempt to lure and immobilize PCs in the guarded area. The scarabs will use hit and run tactics if a PC leaves the guarded area but will stand their ground if the PCs do so in the highlighted area.
Enemy Abilities:
Arbalester
- You check for enemy recharge at the beginning of their turn.
- The thing has a slam attack. (This may catch players off guard.)
- Double shot must be two different targets.
Stonetrap Scarab
- Immobilized - You can’t move from your space, although you can teleport and can be forced to move by a pull, a push, or a slide.
Rust Monster
- Their basic bite attack will start a rust attack ONLY if it is heavy armor. And only ARMOR. The only character vulnerable to this attack is Eomer. Guess who is getting all the attacks by the rust monsters?
- Weapons can only be rusted if a PC uses them in an attack on the creature.
RAW the rusting defense affects any item that made the attack. Be it a wooden staff or even a wooden wand at 10 squares away. - The instant destruction of Dissolve Metal is a once per encounter thing. So in this battle only two items can be destroyed and all other items will only be affected until the end of the encounter.
- IMPORTANT: The Dissolve metal attack that is usable once per encounter ALSO has the Reliable key word. That means if the attack misses, it is not expended. You get to keep swinging round after round until you take an item.
- Residuum Recovery – See larger description below.
Residuum - Personally I like to think of it as a luminescent mercury substance. Not enough to grant a large light source but the equivalent light to a candle, or a cell phone in modern terms. You can use to light up 5 feet of darkness. But that is only if you had it in a crystal vial that allowed light to escape. If you carry it in a wine skin like most people would light can't get out. The liquid and metallic properties also appeal to the sense that only alchemists and wizards would usually be carrying this fragile valuable substance around.
Recovering residuum I am ruling takes one minute and a successful nature check. Because I don't want to punish the players, I just want to make them nervous I will have a skill check of 15 for this game but I would make it a DC 20 in my home games. I tend to be easy on people new to the game. No need to make them dislike D&D by hurting their character.
Development:
No change.
Sorry, out of time today. Will continue to update hopefully tomorrow and will then add the DM Guide to my .zip file once I am done.
In 4th Edition combat the first thing you need to know is that you have Encounter powers. These are indicated by the red card. You can use these once a fight and it is good combat sense to make sure you use as many as you can, if not all of them, before the end of the fight. At the end of the fight you get all your red cards back.
Second you have At-Will powers. These are green cards. You will use these cards if you cannot or don't see a good place to use an Encounter card. The green cards you can keep using over and over.
Next you have gray cards. These are Daily powers. You can only use these once and then you have to sleep for 8 hours to get it back. These are your most powerful attacks. You want to use these on the big bad end guy or use it if your character gets into trouble and you need a way out.
Next is your blue card. These are called utility powers. Usually they are powers that work just as well outside of combat as they do in combat. There is a green, red, and black box at the top of this card. Check which one is checked to see how often you can use it.
Finally are the yellow cards. These are your magic items. A few of these items will have magical effects like causing your enemy to become weak on a successful hit. If your magic item has a useable power, like the blue card, it will have a check box on how often you can use it.
Chance
Quick Character bio:
You are the leader of a very unusual group of friends. This is most evident by the fact that as the leader, you have the stigma of demon blood running through your ancestry. Although people in society may fear or revile you at times in combat you are a natural leader. Your ability to maneuver and coordinate the attacks of your fellow adventurers has led to people overcoming their natural fear of you and turn that into respect.
Abilities and powers to remember:
- You and allies within 10 squares gain +2 initiative. Yours is added in, theirs is not.
- Allies that can see you and spend an action point regain 7 hit points.
- You gain a +1 to attack bloodied foes.
- Wolf pack tactics will be your most common attack. It allows an adjacent ally to shift on a successful hit.
- Inspiring word, unlike most encounter powers, can be used twice an encounter.
- Your healer's brooch adds +1 hit point to any healing power such as Inspiring Word and Fearless Rescue.
- TRIGGER: Shielding Retaliation – Once per encounter: When an adjacent ally gets hit with an Opportunity attack, it instead hits you, you get to hit the enemy back, and the ally you saved gets to shift two squares.
- TRIGGER: Fearless Rescue – Once per day: When an adjacent ally is reduced to 0 HP by an enemy, BEFORE the attack you can move to the nearest square you can then attack the enemy from, your ally gets to use a healing surge and if you provoke opportunity attacks while moving he recovers additional hit points. You can then attack the enemy who attacked your ally with the bonuses listed on this card.
Eomer
Quick Character bio:
Dwarves tend to stick around with other dwarves. This especially holds true for those that are part of the dwarven clergy. But since the day you left the mountain home of your people you have been breaking stereotypes. Many of your fellows would not be caught dead seen traveling in the company of a tiefling or an eladrin. Yet the leader of your party is a tiefling and you have found a strange friendship with the eladrin, Althaea.
You believe that it is your duty to show those outside of dwarven kingdoms that dwarves can co-exist and get along with other races. Even the fact that you carry a symbolic longsword instead of a more traditional dwarven weapon shows your willingness to understand other people's ways.
Abilities and powers to remember:
- Can move one less when forced to move; immediate saving throw to avoid being knocked prone.
- Add +4 hit points to your Lay on Hands.
- Your Craghammer is brutal 2. That means reroll all one's and two's on damage.
- Divine Challenge every round you can.
- Divine Mettle and Divine Strength are a one or the other power, can't use both in the same fight.
- If you use Second Wind, don't forget your Cloak of the Walking Wounded.
Althaea
Quick Character bio:
(This description changed once I saw the figurine since now she is definitely female. Previously I played on the fact that her character sheet did not have a gender defined.)
It has been about a century since you last walked the Feywild and ancestral lands of your people. You constantly think to yourself that it is time for you to return but a friendship with the dwarf holds you to this strange group. A few decades ago you were in the process of arguing with a dwarven governor on a trade agreement when a dwarf stepped up to try and alleviate the obvious danger of the situation and potential fight. Even though you were internally annoyed at the dwarf for interrupting your bargaining for the trade goods you surprised even yourself by becoming best friends with the paladin during the course of the remainder of the trade negations. Now for the last 20 years you and Eomer are constant companions.
Abilities and powers to remember:
- +5 to savings throws against charm
- You have four daily powers and two utility powers but can only choose two daily and one utility so ask your DM for advice on which ones you will choose for that day.
- TRIGGER: Parrying Longsword – Once per day: When an enemy makes a melee attack against you, make a melee basic attack with a +6. If this roll exceeds the attack against you, the enemy's attack misses.
- TRIGGER: Cape of the Mountebank – Once per day: When you are hit by an attack, teleport 5 squares and gain combat advantage against your attacker unitl the end of your next turn.
Your ritual spells:
You have 300 GP in residuum.
- Tenser's Floating Disk – Time: 10 minutes – 10 GP residuum – Creates a floating disk to carry stuff. See ritual description for needed arcane check to determine weight carried.
- Travler's Chant – Time: 10 minutes – 10 GP residuum – For 8 hours you increase your slowest party member's speed by +2 when determining how far you can move over an hour or a day.
- Make Whole – Time: 10 minutes – 20% cost of item repaired in residuum – a single object that can fit in a 10 foot cube is completely repaired
- Detect Secret Doors – Time: 10 minutes – 25 GP residuum – Make an arcane check and use that as a bonus to perception to find secret doors within line of sight.
- Water Walk – Time: 10 minutes – 20 GP residuum – You or an ally can move on water as if it were solid for one hour. Rapids or choppy water is considered difficult terrain. The target can choose to swim or immerse itself in water without ending the ritual.
Arjhana
Quick Character bio:
To a race that places honor more important than life itself you are a definite outcast. Or at least would be if you let other dragonborn know how little you care for their sense of honor. Orphaned at an early age and raised by society you quickly found that you did not care for the dragonborn's rules of life and felt that since life had never given you a free ride, then why would you owe this world anything in return?
Leaving the other orphans and the dragonborn to their strict world you struck out on your own to make your fortune and fame. When you saw a dwarf, an elf, and a tiefling all enter the bar the first thing you said was, "Is this some kind of joke?" But only with the strangest of companions did you finally feel like you found a place that you would fit in perfectly.
Abilities and powers to remember:
- Plus +1 to attacks when bloodied
- Ranged attacks against you from more than 5 squares suffer a -5 penalty to the attack roll.
- Try to flank your opponents to gain combat advantage for sneak attack damage.
- TRIGGER: Shared Suffering Leather Armor – Once per encounter: When an attack gives you ongoing damage the attacker gains an equal amount of untyped ongoing damage (save ends).
Uthal
Quick Character bio:
You are the only stereotypical member of your group of friends. But you have never been concerned with appearances only actions. And in your group of fellow adventurers you have found ready friends willing to accept your mantra of, "if it talks too much, hit it." You have known the dwarf Eomer for years and followed him out of the mountain regions of your home. Since then he has been leading you on such great battles and adventures that you rarely miss the solitary peaks you once called home.
Abilities and powers to remember:
- Roll twice and take highest roll when making a climb or jump check.
- When you roll a natural 20 on a barbarian power make an additional free basic attack.
- Gain +1 hit point each time you spend a healing surge.
- A rage power allows you to enter a rage specified in the power. A rage lasts until you enter a new rage or until the end of the encounter.
- TRIGGER: At-will: You reduce an enemy to zero hit points, you gain 3 temporary hit points.
- TRIGGER: Swift Strike – Once per encounter: You reduce an enemy to zero hit points, you can do a charge attack.
If not, mebbe this should go in the general RPGA board?
-karma
Anyways, any feedback would be welcome. I am curious to know how others feel about my suggestions and what changes if any they may make to their Game Day play.
As an side note, here was the original Althaea I had written before I found she was female.
Alternate Althaea
Althaea (This description changed once I saw the figurine since now she is definitely female. Previously I played on the fact that her character sheet did not have a gender defined.)
Among other eladrin your gender is very evident. Once outside of the fey lands of the golden elves no one seems to be able to tell if you are male or female. Personally you find great personal amusement in this but outwardly play it as anger. You have found if you can make people uncomfortable or place them off their guard they become more pliable to your manipulations.
Even your own companions are not entirely sure as to what your gender is; they just refer to you as Althaea, not as he or she. It was during one of the those moments long ago where you were in the process of talking down the innkeeper for a lower price on the room when a dwarf stepped up to try and alleviate the obvious discomfort of the situation. Even though you were internally annoyed at the dwarf for interrupting your bargaining for the room you surprised even yourself by shortly becoming good friends with the paladin thereafter.
A lot of this idea came from Order of the Stick and Vaarsuvius.
.
...Anyways, any feedback would be welcome. I am curious to know how others feel about my suggestions and what changes if any they may make to their Game Day play...
Overall I like most of the recommendations both you and Smeelbo have made. I agree with his sentiment that shopping for gear can be a big a time waster for an event like this.
As such, I would recommend buying even more gear for the pre-gen characters then what you already have done. Potions of Healing come to mind, but any of the lower level consumables would be appropriate for a one-shot like this. Also, adding a Climbers Kit or Thieves Tools to characters who are trained in the appropriate skills wouldn’t be a bad idea.
Also, any chance of getting up that DM guide?
Sorry about the delay, I did want to have something up before this time now.
Wizards people, if you feel anything I posted is in violation of copyright please let me know and I will pull my files post haste. (I don't know if it is OK to post the .dnd4e files. I am not posting my Character Builder, just the output files.)
http://www.vaillife.net/assets/copper/GameDay20090523.zip
http://stirgessuck.wordpress.com/2009/06/03/river-map-for-the-mm2-gameday-adventure-2009/
Cheers,
Roger
I created a map which might be useful for running the skill challenge:
http://stirgessuck.wordpress.com/2009/06/03/river-map-for-the-mm2-gameday-adventure-2009/
Cheers,
Roger
You do know that the event was a one-day event, and that that day was back on May 23rd?
You do know that the event was a one-day event, and that that day was back on May 23rd?
Yep; thanks.