"Battle for the Undercity" is what I used part of recently - the Hobgoblin Revenant part, although there are two other components too, on a shared map. I believe it's free on DM's guild, or at least it was a while back via Dragon+. It's pretty rough, but served my needs well in terms of maps and fights, as usual I just made up most of the "fluff" stuff to suit the campaign.
D&D 5E Enhancing "Storm King's Thunder"
"Battle for the Undercity" is what I used part of recently - the Hobgoblin Revenant part, although there are two other components too, on a shared map. I believe it's free on DM's guild, or at least it was a while back via Dragon+. It's pretty rough, but served my needs well in terms of maps and fights, as usual I just made up most of the "fluff" stuff to suit the campaign.
pukunui
Legend
Ah, is that what we played? I'll give it a look-see, but I'm not sure it's the best fit in the circumstances.
FWIW I've started a new thread on the topic: Need a Short Dungeon for a Ranger's Tomb.
As an aside, the way this Zhentarim side quest reads, the PCs are set up to fail the test: They get asked to escort a wagon-load of beer to a distant village. If they succeed, they'll be owed a favor, as long as they don't do anything to upset the Black Network. And yet, when they arrive at their destination, they encounter a group of Zhentarim who are very obviously acting like bullies and are basically asking to be run out of town by the first group of heroes that shows up.
It's hard to see how the PCs could actually get the reward for successfully escorting the wagon of beer.
OK, I suppose the PCs could just murder all of the thugs and bury the evidence, but there are quite a few of them, and they're all veterans, so if at least one of them gets away, word will get out, and the PCs will forfeit their reward.
Speaking of which, what is a bronze dragon doing on the Zhents' payroll in the first place?! She's an adult dragon, so she's been around long enough to remember the old Zhentarim. I suppose maybe she's spying on them rather than actually working for them?
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Eltab
Lord of the Hidden Layer
The dragon wants to determine (to her own satisfaction) if the Old School Zhents have really been driven out of leadership and destroyed for permanent.
She is of course aware that the Zhents have had a half-dozen leadership overhauls (or coups) in their history; she suspects Manshoon or Bane is biding time, allowing these rival leaders to expose themselves for easier removal at a future date.
Maybe the gang of bullies is fake Zhents that the real Zhents tolerate because they are useful as 'hero magnets'?
Say these are some Zhents who failed their loyalty / promotion tests but weren't told about it; now The Organization wants to get rid of them and the heroes just happen to arrive at a convenient time.
She is of course aware that the Zhents have had a half-dozen leadership overhauls (or coups) in their history; she suspects Manshoon or Bane is biding time, allowing these rival leaders to expose themselves for easier removal at a future date.
Maybe the gang of bullies is fake Zhents that the real Zhents tolerate because they are useful as 'hero magnets'?
Say these are some Zhents who failed their loyalty / promotion tests but weren't told about it; now The Organization wants to get rid of them and the heroes just happen to arrive at a convenient time.
pukunui
Legend
On the way to Mornbryn's Shield, the PCs stopped in Triboar. I decided not to run the attack at that point because I wasn't really prepared for it, but I introduced a few of the NPCs and let them explore the town a little. The ranger PC went and spent the night in Gwaeron's grove, hoping for a prophetic dream. I initially told her she didn't have one, as I wasn't able to think of anything on the spot, but now I'd like to retcon something in, as I feel it's the perfect opportunity to give the PCs some backstory and foreshadowing.
I'm thinking she'll have a dream similar to Rey's vision when she touches the lightsaber in The Force Awakens. That is, a jumble of images from the past, present, and future that may or may not make much sense without any context.
Now I just need to figure out what to include!
Anyone got any suggestions?
As an aside, I think the oni posing as Gwaeron in the woods is a cool idea, but I don't see how to actually work it into the game. The oni's modus operandi is to kill and eat lone rangers. If the ranger PC sleeps in the woods alone again, and I have the oni attack, it'll probably succeed in killing and eating the ranger. But if the whole group sleeps in the woods, why would the oni show itself?
I'm thinking she'll have a dream similar to Rey's vision when she touches the lightsaber in The Force Awakens. That is, a jumble of images from the past, present, and future that may or may not make much sense without any context.
Now I just need to figure out what to include!
Anyone got any suggestions?
As an aside, I think the oni posing as Gwaeron in the woods is a cool idea, but I don't see how to actually work it into the game. The oni's modus operandi is to kill and eat lone rangers. If the ranger PC sleeps in the woods alone again, and I have the oni attack, it'll probably succeed in killing and eating the ranger. But if the whole group sleeps in the woods, why would the oni show itself?
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pukunui
Legend
My group has stopped in Noanar’s Hold on the way to find Shadowtop Cathedral. The players are intrigued by the story of the Hunt Lords and think they might be vampires. When we ended for the night, they expressed an interest in “liberating” the villagers from their undead overlords.
By the book, the Hunt Lords are five wights. Kinda boring and probably not much of a challenge for four 7th level PCs.
I decided to have a look at the lore from previous editions. It seems like the Hunt Lords have changed quite a bit over the years.
According to the 2e-era Volo’s Guide to the North, they were “lazy” wizards originally from Waterdeep. Volo claims that they were running a sort of scam involving a deepspawn, a monster that can create more of any living creature it eats. His discovery of this meant he had to leave town in a hurry.
In the 3e-era Silver Marches, the Hunt Lords morphed into a variety of leveled NPCs (a wizard, a cleric, a ranger, a ranger/rogue, and a fighter/sorcerer). They used magic to disguise themselves to keep their identities secret.
In SKT, they’re now 200 year old wights. No mention of any of them having been magic users. Just old guys who made a pact with Orcus.
I’m debating whether or not to swap out one or more of them for a deathlock or deathlock wight (MToF). I’m also thinking about giving them the Mounted Combat feat. I might also give them max HP (and their skeletal warhorses too). Just want to make them a little more formidable / interesting.
Thoughts?
By the book, the Hunt Lords are five wights. Kinda boring and probably not much of a challenge for four 7th level PCs.
I decided to have a look at the lore from previous editions. It seems like the Hunt Lords have changed quite a bit over the years.
According to the 2e-era Volo’s Guide to the North, they were “lazy” wizards originally from Waterdeep. Volo claims that they were running a sort of scam involving a deepspawn, a monster that can create more of any living creature it eats. His discovery of this meant he had to leave town in a hurry.
In the 3e-era Silver Marches, the Hunt Lords morphed into a variety of leveled NPCs (a wizard, a cleric, a ranger, a ranger/rogue, and a fighter/sorcerer). They used magic to disguise themselves to keep their identities secret.
In SKT, they’re now 200 year old wights. No mention of any of them having been magic users. Just old guys who made a pact with Orcus.
I’m debating whether or not to swap out one or more of them for a deathlock or deathlock wight (MToF). I’m also thinking about giving them the Mounted Combat feat. I might also give them max HP (and their skeletal warhorses too). Just want to make them a little more formidable / interesting.
Thoughts?
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Eltab
Lord of the Hidden Layer
I like this idea, but in an away-from-table Evil kind of way: I want to use you and your group as 'guinea pigs' to see if the mounted combat rules lead to cool scenes, or if they fall short of the imagination.
Have the PCs complete the delivery to the lords, make both groups' presence known to each other, and let the PCs leave (or kick them out).
The lords come out to have a 'fox hunt' - with the PCs as their targets - around midnight.
Hounds, horses, horns, all of it.
pukunui
Legend
They have potential, but don't make a difference when a PC casts fireball on the mounted enemies. Horses just don't have enough hit points.
The thing is, they're not actually doing the delivery quest. They're just passing through the Hold on their way to Shadowtop Cathedral. But they were intrigued by the story of the Hunt Lords and are contemplating "liberating" the village. But they think they're up against vampires, so they may change their minds at the beginning of the next session (like they did in Mornbryn's Shield).
As an aside, Ed Greenwood gave me a good idea: he said that the Hunt Lords are wont to use novice adventurers as cover. So I'm thinking I might stat up a lower-level anti-adventuring party to use as fake Hunt Lords. If the PCs defeat them and go after the real Hunt Lords, I'll make them beefier wights. Maybe even deathlock wights whose patron is Orcus, since he's the one who helped them become wights in the first place.
Sadras
Legend
Running SKT and RoT concurrently. Nightstone takes place during the time of the First Council. So I had Zephyros's tower attacked by the Cult of the Dragon instead of Air Cultists.
With regards to Zephyros's Communes I explained he would see visions, a chessboard, where one side was shrouded in darkness (the enemy) and the other in light (allies). Many of the chess pieces would change each time he Communed, except for a few (the PCs). The chess pieces were sometimes represented by sigils, insignia's (factions), riddles and metaphors. He realised early on that direct action on his part would yield negative consequences because when he once tried to lift/grab an allied piece, the piece itself transformed into gas/smoke in his hands and was never again represented on the board.
What little he has delved into the identity of the enemy has yielded images of dragons, which he believes is associated with the Cult of the Dragon.
We recently ran the Goldenfields section.
The character who had the opportunity to play Lifferlas during the humanoid attack had a blast, he slew three bugbears fairly easily, the last one wolverine-style with his branches tearing straight through the flesh of the humanoid. He then found himself surrounded by just under a dozen or so goblins with torches between the residential longhouses. He used his incredible size to roll/climb over an adjacent long house, damaging it some, only to come face to face with a hill-giant who was scooping up corpses (humanoid or residents) and using them as a makeshift clubs, every once in a while refreshing his club with a new corpse.
At this point the humanoid attack was failing and there was a general call for retreat. The hill giant was doing minimal damage against the Awakened Tree and so attempted to make a run for it. And that is when the player said Lifferlas was going to grapple the Hill Giant and that he did, grappled and restrained him till the cavalry arrived.
Needless to say, everyone had fun playing the NPCs. I allowed them to use Inspiration with the additional characters if they could link their actions to any of the Ideals, Bonds or Flaws as stipulated on the NPCs. One Inspiration use per each during the encounter.
So far this AP has been nothing but spectacular.
Some additional notes:
(1) I had the tressym become attached to the elven ranger character in the group, funny enough he was the one that encountered the winged-cat first;
(2) Introduced Felgolos, as others have advised, who took an instant liking to the sibling, Bahamut-serving characters (Paladin + Divine Warlock);
(3) Had Kella Darkhope, Xolkin and one of his Snakes survive by fleeing the battle for possible re-occurring villains;
(4) Had the orc tribe, Long Ears, hide out in Nightstone's inn when the PCs made a foray into the caves. When the PCs returned and discovered the orcs - the party was torn between burning the inn or negotiating the orcs's peaceful withdrawal from the town. In the end cooler heads prevailed and the withdrawal was agreed to. This was a terribly bitter move for the elf in the party who recognised an Eye of Gruumsh amongst the withdrawing orcs.
With regards to Zephyros's Communes I explained he would see visions, a chessboard, where one side was shrouded in darkness (the enemy) and the other in light (allies). Many of the chess pieces would change each time he Communed, except for a few (the PCs). The chess pieces were sometimes represented by sigils, insignia's (factions), riddles and metaphors. He realised early on that direct action on his part would yield negative consequences because when he once tried to lift/grab an allied piece, the piece itself transformed into gas/smoke in his hands and was never again represented on the board.
What little he has delved into the identity of the enemy has yielded images of dragons, which he believes is associated with the Cult of the Dragon.
We recently ran the Goldenfields section.
The character who had the opportunity to play Lifferlas during the humanoid attack had a blast, he slew three bugbears fairly easily, the last one wolverine-style with his branches tearing straight through the flesh of the humanoid. He then found himself surrounded by just under a dozen or so goblins with torches between the residential longhouses. He used his incredible size to roll/climb over an adjacent long house, damaging it some, only to come face to face with a hill-giant who was scooping up corpses (humanoid or residents) and using them as a makeshift clubs, every once in a while refreshing his club with a new corpse.
At this point the humanoid attack was failing and there was a general call for retreat. The hill giant was doing minimal damage against the Awakened Tree and so attempted to make a run for it. And that is when the player said Lifferlas was going to grapple the Hill Giant and that he did, grappled and restrained him till the cavalry arrived.
Needless to say, everyone had fun playing the NPCs. I allowed them to use Inspiration with the additional characters if they could link their actions to any of the Ideals, Bonds or Flaws as stipulated on the NPCs. One Inspiration use per each during the encounter.
So far this AP has been nothing but spectacular.
Some additional notes:
(1) I had the tressym become attached to the elven ranger character in the group, funny enough he was the one that encountered the winged-cat first;
(2) Introduced Felgolos, as others have advised, who took an instant liking to the sibling, Bahamut-serving characters (Paladin + Divine Warlock);
(3) Had Kella Darkhope, Xolkin and one of his Snakes survive by fleeing the battle for possible re-occurring villains;
(4) Had the orc tribe, Long Ears, hide out in Nightstone's inn when the PCs made a foray into the caves. When the PCs returned and discovered the orcs - the party was torn between burning the inn or negotiating the orcs's peaceful withdrawal from the town. In the end cooler heads prevailed and the withdrawal was agreed to. This was a terribly bitter move for the elf in the party who recognised an Eye of Gruumsh amongst the withdrawing orcs.
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Eltab
Lord of the Hidden Layer
FR Loremasters take note:
Kella may be related to Scylla Darkhope, a major Zhent lieutenant of the pre-Spellplague era*. Scylla appears in the Scouring of Shadowdale adventure (these Cormyr/Shadowdale/Anaurach connected adventures were just about the last thing published for 3.5e), wherein those PCs got a chance to take her out. Perhaps Kella has a secret motivation to prove she's not going to fall into the same traps as her
?grandmother? did. She could have a chip on her shoulder about Adventuring Parties.
* SKT says nothing about this either way. I'm working off the name alone.
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pukunui
Legend
So the PCs assaulted the Hunt Lords in their keep tonight. It went about as well as I expected. That is to say, the PCs utterly destroyed them without really breaking a sweat.
I kept them as wights, but gave them max hp, Turn Resistance, and Keen Hearing and Smell. I also added a pack of four shadow mastiffs (including one alpha). Since the PCs attacked the lords in their home, I didn't have them bother to summon up their mounts, as I didn't think there'd really be enough room in the banquet hall to maneuver on horseback. I don't think it would've made much of a difference anyway.
Despite the Hunt Lords and the mastiffs having passive Perceptions of 18 vs sounds, the PCs managed to sneak up on them. The sorcerer used two fireballs and a wall of fire, and the cleric pulled out a driftglobe to fill the room with bright light (and also pulled out spirit guardians) and that was pretty much it.
I kept rolling really badly for the Hunt Lords' attacks as well, which didn't help. The shadow mastiffs got a few good bites in, and two PCs were frightened by the alpha's howl, but once the driftglobe came out, they couldn't turn invisible anymore (and no longer had their damage resistance).
I had Amrath the dwarf surrender once all the lords were dead and the dogs were cowering under the table. I did have all the fire spells set things on fire, but the sorcerer just pulled out her gust of wind scroll and put out all the flames in order to save the treasure chest. I had randomly rolled a brooch of shielding and an animate dead scroll. They kept the former and burned the latter.
They also gave Amrath some of his ex-bosses' money and told him he could have the keep and even set himself up as the new lord of the village! (I was most surprised that they didn't want to keep the manor for themselves!)
It's off to Shadowtop Cathedral next. I found what could have potentially been a nice enhancement for this segment of the adventure on the DMs Guild but it wasn't at all what I wanted. There was a sad unicorn that the PCs could rob from, and Aerglas the druid attacks Turlang because he's been mind-warped by Slarkrethel ... and meh.
I also found a supplement for the High Forest in general on the DMs Guild, which looked like it had potential, including random encounter tables for different sections of the forest, but the formatting was so bad I couldn't bring myself to actually read it.
So I guess I'm just stuck working on it myself again.
I'm trying to figure out how to make it fun. The group includes a ranger with the Outlander background. I don't like to read the Wanderer feature as meaning that the PC can't ever get lost, especially if they're in a forest where landmarks and geography aren't easy to see. Plus, forest isn't one of the PCs favored terrains, so she doesn't get her Natural Explorer bennies. So they just might get lost, especially since they have disadvantage on their Survival checks thanks to the shifting foliage!
I kept them as wights, but gave them max hp, Turn Resistance, and Keen Hearing and Smell. I also added a pack of four shadow mastiffs (including one alpha). Since the PCs attacked the lords in their home, I didn't have them bother to summon up their mounts, as I didn't think there'd really be enough room in the banquet hall to maneuver on horseback. I don't think it would've made much of a difference anyway.
Despite the Hunt Lords and the mastiffs having passive Perceptions of 18 vs sounds, the PCs managed to sneak up on them. The sorcerer used two fireballs and a wall of fire, and the cleric pulled out a driftglobe to fill the room with bright light (and also pulled out spirit guardians) and that was pretty much it.
I kept rolling really badly for the Hunt Lords' attacks as well, which didn't help. The shadow mastiffs got a few good bites in, and two PCs were frightened by the alpha's howl, but once the driftglobe came out, they couldn't turn invisible anymore (and no longer had their damage resistance).
I had Amrath the dwarf surrender once all the lords were dead and the dogs were cowering under the table. I did have all the fire spells set things on fire, but the sorcerer just pulled out her gust of wind scroll and put out all the flames in order to save the treasure chest. I had randomly rolled a brooch of shielding and an animate dead scroll. They kept the former and burned the latter.
They also gave Amrath some of his ex-bosses' money and told him he could have the keep and even set himself up as the new lord of the village! (I was most surprised that they didn't want to keep the manor for themselves!)
It's off to Shadowtop Cathedral next. I found what could have potentially been a nice enhancement for this segment of the adventure on the DMs Guild but it wasn't at all what I wanted. There was a sad unicorn that the PCs could rob from, and Aerglas the druid attacks Turlang because he's been mind-warped by Slarkrethel ... and meh.
I also found a supplement for the High Forest in general on the DMs Guild, which looked like it had potential, including random encounter tables for different sections of the forest, but the formatting was so bad I couldn't bring myself to actually read it.
So I guess I'm just stuck working on it myself again.
I'm trying to figure out how to make it fun. The group includes a ranger with the Outlander background. I don't like to read the Wanderer feature as meaning that the PC can't ever get lost, especially if they're in a forest where landmarks and geography aren't easy to see. Plus, forest isn't one of the PCs favored terrains, so she doesn't get her Natural Explorer bennies. So they just might get lost, especially since they have disadvantage on their Survival checks thanks to the shifting foliage!
