Plot and Background for my very first adventure!

Thanks to everyone on the boards for helping me with ideas and suggestions for my very first adventure. This is basically it, minus names, which I have not chosen yet. I have not added the technical details, like levels and such. Please let me know of any obvious plot holes or mistakes.

This is a Solo Adventure for a 1st Level PC Monk and a 1st Level NPC Cleric, to provide healing and support.

BACKGROUND
The area is composed of light forest, small foothills, and a nearby river. Dwarven Ruins are within the foothills, which the residents of this area have harvested for stone to build their buildings.

The residents of this area have chosen to live here for the relative solitude and isolation from the outside world, allowing them to focus on their studies or interests uninterrupted. The nearest town is roughly a day or so away.

There is a Monastery near the river composed of a Master and 5 Student Monks. A Shrine lies by the foothills, tended by a Priest and Initiate. A Wizard’s Tower also is within the area, watched over by an Apprentice Wizard. The true owner of the Wizard’s Tower has been away on business for quite sometime.

PLOT
A tiny Monastery is in the area, composed of 1 Master and 5 Student Monks, including the PC Monk. The Student Monks occasionally leave their Monastery for a few days to train and meditate in solitude within the area. The Student Monks with seniority choose their locales first, resulting in the PC Monk choosing the outskirts of the forest over a mile away.

During this time, followers of Orcus, a Sorcerer and Cleric, have made the local Dwarven Ruin their home base. They have arrived in the area to break into the supposedly abandoned Wizard’s Tower and to also seek the treasures of the dwarven ruin. Under the cover of night, they arrived within the area.

The entrance of the Dwarven Ruin stops at a cave-in after 20 feet. During the first night, the Cleric has an Ogre Skeleton clear the rubble, revealing the first room of the Dwarven Ruin. During the following days, the Cleric has the Skeleton continue excavating the ruin, while the Cleric and Sorcerer begin to scout around the Wizard’s Tower.

They capture the Apprentice Wizard, who has been left to housekeep the Wizard’s Tower, using a combination of the spells Sleep and Hold Person. However, they discover that the Apprentice has limited access to the tower and the magical defenses are beyond the power of the Cleric or Sorcerer to defeat. They keep the Apprentice a prisoner for future questioning.

Seeking sacrifices for Orcus and opportunities to create undead for labor and defense, the Sorcerer sends a Bat familiar to scout out the tiny Monastery. The Sorcerer discovers that the Student Monks are training in relative isolation. The PC Monk is outside the 1-mile radius the Sorcerer needs to maintain to control the familiar and is not discovered as a result.

After waiting a day and seeing that the Student Monks are still in isolation, the Sorcerer and Cleric begin to capture the Student Monks using a combination of Sleep and Hold Person spells. During the following days, all 4 Student Monks are captured and sacrificed to Orcus, then turned into Zombies by the Cleric. The Master of the Monastery is unaware of this, believing the Student Monks to still be training.

With the assistance of the growing number of zombies, the excavation of the ruin continues at a greater pace, revealing more areas. Seeking more assistance, the Cleric and Sorcerer create a Magic Circle and use a scroll of Lesser Planar Binding to summon an ally of Orcus. They summon a lowly Mane, which they are unable to bind to service.

The Cleric leaves to acquire more help from the Cult of Orcus and orders the Ogre Skeleton to attack all intruders. The Sorcerer stays behind to guard the Dwarven Ruin as well. However, the Cleric has grown cocky with the relative success at capturing the Apprentice and Student Monks and leaves during the day instead of at night. This allows the residents of a nearby Shrine, a Priest and initiate NPC Cleric to make note of a stranger leaving from the direction of the Dwarven Ruin.

The Priest sends the NPC Cleric to inform the Master of the Monastery and investigate the Dwarven Ruins, while the Priest stays behind to watch over the shrine. During this time the PC Monk returns to the Monastery and discovers that the remaining Student Monks have not yet returned. After hearing the news of the stranger leaving the Dwarven Ruins, the Master sends the PC Monk to the Dwarven Ruins to investigate what is going on.

Sounds really good! You've obviously thought about this a great deal. I'll be interested to hear how it goes.

Yeah, I read your earlier thread and the small revisions you made seem really well thought out.

I'm working on my first adventure right now too; it's interesting how you have to develop both the actions of the villains, and possible ways the PC's could learn about them....

Are you sure this is your first?

This sounds very good. There's certainly lots of potential in the set-up you have described. Good luck with running it.

The biggest problem I can see at the moment is the Ogre Skeleton. By the rules, it has 4HD, an average of 26 hp, AC 11, a 10-foot reach, and 2 claw attacks hitting at +6 melee and dealing 1d6+5 damage each.

A tactical error, bad decision, or unlucky die roll could put an untimely end to your PC monk's first adventure.

It seems to me like you are forcing the player characters into the adventure and into a course of action*. Especially with phrases like "the PC Monk returns to the Monastery", "and discovers that the remaining Student Monks have not yet returned". How do you even know what the PCs will do? (Unless you railroad them).

*The best games are those with choices, open-ended games where there are many possiblities, courses of action and potential outcomes. The more linear and more forced or "railroaded", the less enjoyment players experience. This is not subject to variation, based on playing style or personal opinion; it is a simple fact.

Joe123 said:

It seems to me like you are forcing the player characters into the adventure and into a course of action*. Especially with phrases like "the PC Monk returns to the Monastery", "and discovers that the remaining Student Monks have not yet returned".

Click to expand...

I had assumed that the game would start with the DM saying "After having spent time in the wilderness meditating, you have returned to the monastery to find that your fellow student monks have not returned." This isn't a railroad, but a plot hook. A new campaign has to start somewhere, and dreaded_beast has detailed the area around the monastery well enough that the PC has several options.

It would probably be a good idea though, for dreaded_beast to know where the nearest community is, and what it is. The PC might possibly decide to strike off on his own.

Rather than assuming what the DM says, let us consider what he actually reveals in his post. That is, “the PC Monk returns to the Monastery.” Likewise, “the Master sends the PC Monk to the Dwarven Ruins”. Therefore, the PC has no option but to pursue these. These two events comprise the PC’s initial adventuring. They are specific and linear. They offer no choices as to original action but, rather, force the player onto the path.

Neither are the epitome of free choice and voluntary PC action. In addition, they are dependent on the DM’s assumption that the PC will indeed investigate both locales. It is usually dangerous to plan a PC course of action/events, because often what PCs intend doing varies from what the DM envisages.

I think you're nitpicking. I read it simply as this is what is most likely to happen. Heck, I write my plots up the same way and then have contingency plans for when they don't. No big deal. The ideas are great particularly for his first adventure.

Lets not put words in the DM's mouth here or second guess how he's going to run it.
Its easier to put "the character returns to X" or "goes to investigate X" to give us an indication have potential outcomes. Read between the lines in these cases.

Sounds like a nice intro scenario, although I agree about the ogre skeleton. I recommend dropping it down to two (or three) human skeletons.