[OOC] The Lounge

[Midrael]

From what I hear, she's at a family member's wedding out of town at the moment, but I'm hopeful she'll make an appearance after she's returned.

[Lithium Flower]

Hi guys. This man speaks the truth! I am at a wedding out of town until Sunday night. Once I return, I do plan to get this game back on track. I'm sorry about the hiatus and thank you guys for hanging in there for so long.

[LoveBug]

I think this is where we all say:

YAY!!!

[Midrael]

Yay!!!

[FoggyKnight]

Yay!!!

Yay, I get to sleep in tomorrow! I don't have to be at work until ten, woot!

[Lint of Death]

Yay.

[FoggyKnight]

Oooh, yesterday was not a yay day after all. Only good things were that my boss didn't yell at me for forgetting my keys and having to run back for them, and finally getting fingerprinting done. Today should be better though.

[Midrael]

Yay for better days then!

[FoggyKnight]

OMG I'm glad this week is over! STUNK, except for you guys. Ended up with a major head cold on my afternoon off Wed, had to sniffle my way through work today and yesterday. Day off tomorrow, once I get done volunteering for a fundraiser. Whew.


Did Lith come close to posting?

[Midrael]

She came close! I'm not quite certain how close though.

[juxtaposition]

So I'm DM'ing a table top game for 3 of my friends. Right now we are running through the level 1-3 adventure of the Keep on Shadowfel. I'm trying to write something cool for the next leg of the adventure, but don't know if what I'm planning will work since this is so far my first successful attempt at being the DM. Keep on Shadowfel is a pretty straightforeward adventure so far, being a little bit hack and slash. it'll take us another while, probably 2 months to complete the rest of the quest line, but I'm trying to write something that is a bit more than just run through and kill bad guys. A bit more to test their minds and a bit more role play. Not a ton of role play mind you, this isn't a 'serious' group. I guess I'm just trying to think of things to do other than the standard fight a bunch of monsters.

I'm trying to switch it up a bit by adding a chase scene, a 'find the clues and interpret them' thing, an ambush at night, and encounters that they can get through without having to fight if they play their cards right. I'm just wondering if this stuff sounds cool, or if there are any other idea's you guys have that I could try to add. Here's what I've got so far. A brief summary.

The bits and pieces Inside douven’s house, him and his wife have been murdered. 3 clues: 1. satchel that was one of the killers, containing a letter that leads to a bar. The bar is a gang hideout. (perception check in the main room, DC 5) 2. A torn page out of Douven’s journal in the nightstand with only the name of a place: Cobble Castle (perception check in his bedroom, DC 15) 3. A name written in blood underneath Douven’s body: Ironbeard (the blacksmith) (inspect Douven’s body, dc 15) The bar with the gang is probably a fight encounter. They tell the group that they did it, but they only held the 2 down while their leader stabbed them. “He who must not be named”. If the group tries to get it out of them, one of the gangsters will try to say the name, but spasm into death throws and snaps his neck completely around so his head is on backwards. If they roll poorly on bluff/intimidate/whatever checks they make to weasel a name out of them, the gang won’t back down from a fight, or hesitate to get into one. If they take a hostage to question, or question the bartender who spends the fight hiding behind the bar, he will tell them the name of Morick, who is a rogue involved with all shady dealings in the town. Tells them that they just need to start asking the right people about him, the right people being the thieves’ guild, and he’ll find you. Must succeed in 3 successful checks before failing 3. DC 15? Along the lines of bluff/diplomacy/streetwise while talking to random street peasants to get the right info for the thieves’ guild. If they find the guild and ask about morick, the guild pretends not to know who he is and kicks the player’s out of the guild house. While walking away, Morick finds them. He insinuates that he wants a bribe to give them information. If the players try to force the info from him or give him a measly bribe, Morick will run to the stables and jump on a horse if the group cannot catch him and subdue him first. The group has a morality choice as to wether or not they will steal readily available and potentially unguarded horses to continue pursuit, or to try and track him on foot. If they track him, it’s a fairly easy trail to follow to Cobble castle. Morick doesn’t alert anyone at the castle because he assumes the group won’t follow. Morick is a member of the treasure hunters that are currently at cobble castle. Ironbeard is Douven’s friend and will lead them to Cobble Castle. Ironbeard is a dwarf cleric of Moradin. He will fight with them, but only if the adventurers ask him to. Douven was his friend, so naturally he would want to aid in finding his killer. He also tells that he is somewhat of a treasure hunter, much like Douven. After finding and defeating Douven’s killer, it will take some good persuading to make him leave his home for more adventure. Cobble Castle is taken over by a band that appears to be treasure hunters. They are mixed of humans and orcs, maybe goblins, who use wolves as attack dogs. There is a main bad guy who they have to fight at the end. After they kill him, they find a couple of torn out pages from Douven’s journal. 1 is a detailed map of the castle which gives a bunch of clues and a riddle to figure out where a secret room is and how to open it. Inside is a small treasure room, with a black gem on top of a pedestal. The first one to touch it has a vision of a world in flaming ruins, and 2 red eyes opening on the throne of a dark castle throne room. The vision pans out to show the castle surrounded by swamp. If they try and sell the gem, shopkeep asks to inspect it, and as soon as he touch it his eyes get wide and he shoves the gem back into the players hands and refuses to buy it. The group has to fight through the swamp, fighting various swamp creatures, swamp trolls, crocodiles, bog creatures, things like that. Make the journey take over night so that they have make camp in the swamp and ambush them with chokers. Before they sleep, make them draw the layout of their camp on the whiteboard, where their gear is, if the set up tents, etc…. Because of the choker ambush they didn’t get sufficient rest to recharge their daily spells, but their hitpoints are restored. Only let them recharge their healing surges if they don’t have enough to get through 2 more fights during the day. One more fight on the way to the castle. The castle in the swamps is in ruins when they get there, and the only thing useful they find is a stairwell leading down. The entrance to the stairs is being guarded by a group of bugbears or something. It’s kind of obvious because they have made camp right near the entrance. It is nearing dark and by the time they kill the group it is night time. They have to decide to camp outside or go in. Inside is a big dungeon, filled with misc. monsters. It has multiple levels and a bunch of encounters, and at the end, you find an undead lich human warlock who has just finished a pact with a demon (the circle of binding still glows red on the ground). If they have the black gem, it glows red hot and burns a hole through whoever’s pouch is carrying it. The demon sees it, and it telekinetically flies to the demon’s hands. He laughs an evil laugh to himself and tells the lich to deal with these mortals before opening a portal and exiting through it, the portal immediately closes, and boss fight ensues. The lich raises a bunch of skeletons and zombies and undead things to fight alongside him. During the fight, the lich lays out evil plans of how he hired the gang at the bar to kill Douven and bring his journal to him, but says he was commissioned by a higher power who he doesn’t reveal. He also says that he had the gang hold Douven down while he killed him and his wife. When he dies, the lich’s body burns to a crisp, and destroys all of his possessions except for a small pouch containing a couple more of Douven’s journal pages that will lead them further into the mystery with more stuff to do, one has a drawing of the black gem they had with a title that says “Forever Stone” or something like that. Find more treasure (the lich’s pouch is a bag of holding).

So I figure with a town encounter, a possible chase/fight, a couple of on the road fights, along with 1 castle plus 1 dungeon, maybe that's another 2 - 3 months and a few levels.

What do you guys think?

[LoveBug]

As a non-dm (well, just started with a group of about 10 who have never played before. After 2-3 weeks we're done to 7), I'm not sure if I can really offer any advice on that.

Also, Lith, if you ever do start this up again, please PM. I seem to be rather slow at checking up on it.

[FoggyKnight]

Me too. Um, is there a reason that one of the murderers left evidence at a crime scene that could implicate them?

Also, I'm not a DM, sorry. It sounds as if that's a good addition, but I'm not sure.

[FoggyKnight]

The Magic words are Squeamish Ossifrage...