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Keep on the Borderlands - How do you run the Wilderness?
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<blockquote data-quote="ezo" data-source="post: 9290234" data-attributes="member: 7037866"><p>Personally, I LOVE the wilderness section! Last time we (co-DMed with [USER=6987520]@DND_Reborn[/USER]) ran KotBL:</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]351741[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>[spoiler="1. Mound of the Lizard Men"]</p><p>I used a rumor from the Keep that some fisherman had gone to the river, but not returned in two days, and the people are worried. A patrol found their boat washed up on the shore. Fearing the fishermen may be lost in the swamp, the Castellan asks the PC if they are willing to go into the swamp and look for any signs of survivors.</p><p></p><p>The PCs search, and are confronted by a group of lizard men. Now, the players have to decide how to handle it as the lizard men are cautious, but not aggresive. If the players attack, the lizard men will fight back. If the players try to parley, the lizard men will take them to their village. The lizard men are not "evil" (as the module says), but are more on guard because of a neighboring tribe of bullywugs that has moved in the eastern part of the swamp. The lizard men know the fisherman were captured by the bullywugs and if the PCs want, they will help them rescue the fishermen <em>if</em> the PCs will help the lizard men drive the bullywugs from the swamp.</p><p></p><p>We had a paladin in the party who wanted to test his strength against the lizard men, so after a series of physical contests, the PC won (barely), was honored by the tribe, and given one of their "home-made" spiked shields.</p><p></p><p>Anyway, the PCs agreed to work with the lizard men, had to navigate a "reed-maze" patrolled by bullywugs (the rogue-assassin was <em>awesome</em> during this, taking out bullywug guards!), found the bullywug encampment, defeated them, and returned the fishermen to the keep. At the same time, their assistance fostered a "peace/ loose alliance" with the keep and led to trade between the lizard men and the keep.</p><p>[/spoiler]</p><p></p><p>[spoiler="2. Spiders' Lair"]</p><p>While clearing the caves, the PCs found evidence of a dragon living south of the river, perhaps in the woods. This led the PCs to searching these woods later on. The ended up finding the spiders, but at their current level I added an Ettercap to the encounter IIRC. They didn't find any signs of the dragon, but found a ruined temple that was centuries old. This was where the spiders made their lair.</p><p></p><p>Inside the temple they also found ancient texts about the history of the region, including the founding of the keep by a past warrior, Rogahn the Fearless (from B1). This is the first hint of a major plot point later on.</p><p>[/spoiler]</p><p></p><p>[spoiler="3. Raider Camp"]</p><p>This one is fairly basic. The raiders attacked a caravan and a merchant at the keep is offering a reward for the recovery of his goods. The survivors of the raid can tell the PCs which direction the raiders came from (the south), and the PCs have to find the camp if they want to recovery the goods and get the reward. The reward inclues a writ from the merchant's guild, waving exchange fees, etc. for one year.</p><p>[/spoiler]</p><p></p><p>[spoiler="4. Mad Hermit"]</p><p>The hermit will approach the PCs during one of their forays to the caves, asking for help because his "pet" is hurt. If the PCs don't help, he leaves them, but later on will seek revenge with his healthy "pet" later on. If the PCs help, he leads them to his home. The mountain lion has been wounded by fighting another creature in the woods. In exchange for their help, the PCs will learn more about the history of the region, including Zelligar the Unknown and his hidden lair (at the Caves of the Unknown). He can lead them there, but warns them it is a very magical and dangerous place!</p><p>[/spoiler]</p><p></p><p>[spoiler="5. Dragon's Lair* NEW"]</p><p>When the PCs were 5th level, some captured kobolds led them to finding, after some searching, the dragon's lair: a 20-foot wide sinkhole which led to an underground lair. The PCs <em>thought</em> it was a young green dragon and maybe a wyrmling. But were shocked to learn a young black dragon had moved in, killing the two younger green dragons. It was an incredible fight when they finally searched the stagnant pool. Too much to really go into detail here.</p><p>[/spoiler]</p><p></p><p>[spoiler="Caves of the Unknown"]</p><p>This ended up being the tombs of Rogahn and Zelligar. Series of traps and magical challenges, a few animated foes, etc. Here they inadvertantly released Zelligar from his stone-statue prison. Zelligar was a weakened archmage (few spells, low hp), and the PCs <em>nearly</em> killed him (literally the last attack missed!), and he was able to flee.</p><p></p><p>This led to another encounter near the southern river, when the PCs were looking for a friendly guardian naga. Earlier in the adventure, the PCs defeated a spirit naga and the guardian naga it was fighting agreed to help them if they needed it.</p><p></p><p>Anyway, the next day, fully recovered, Zelligar returned and fought the reduced party (one PC died in the previous fight), killing them all but the rogue-assassin who managed to hide and flee. After Zelligar left to go to the keep and drive out all the inhabitants, the rogue found the guardian naga, who after a few days, raised all the killed PCs.</p><p></p><p>Realizing the Keep was taken by Zelligar, the PCs fled the area.</p><p>[/spoiler]</p><p></p><p>[spoiler="Return to the Beginning"]</p><p>At 18th+ level, the PCs returned to finally defeat Zelligar. After they arrived at the Keep, they were magically transported to Zelligar's hidden island, where they had dozens of encounters with powerful foes Zelligar had conquered over the centuries. They eventually made it to his stronghold, defeated Zelligar, and returned heroes.</p><p></p><p>Unfortunately, the players never realized that they didn't <em>actually</em> defeat Zelligar--just his simulacrum. They did everything else, so thought it was over, but [USER=6987520]@DND_Reborn[/USER] wanted to keep the truth hidden in case we ever played those PCs again.</p><p>[/spoiler]</p><p></p><p>Of course, none of this includes the <em>actual </em>adventures in the Caves of Chaos, which were extensive, and the blocked tunnel (area 51 LOL) led to more adventures leading into the Underdark, but the PCs never went all the way.</p><p></p><p>We played in this region (or launching from it) until 7th level. It's wide open IME to create so many adventures!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="ezo, post: 9290234, member: 7037866"] Personally, I LOVE the wilderness section! Last time we (co-DMed with [USER=6987520]@DND_Reborn[/USER]) ran KotBL: [ATTACH type="full" width="351px"]351741[/ATTACH] [spoiler="1. Mound of the Lizard Men"] I used a rumor from the Keep that some fisherman had gone to the river, but not returned in two days, and the people are worried. A patrol found their boat washed up on the shore. Fearing the fishermen may be lost in the swamp, the Castellan asks the PC if they are willing to go into the swamp and look for any signs of survivors. The PCs search, and are confronted by a group of lizard men. Now, the players have to decide how to handle it as the lizard men are cautious, but not aggresive. If the players attack, the lizard men will fight back. If the players try to parley, the lizard men will take them to their village. The lizard men are not "evil" (as the module says), but are more on guard because of a neighboring tribe of bullywugs that has moved in the eastern part of the swamp. The lizard men know the fisherman were captured by the bullywugs and if the PCs want, they will help them rescue the fishermen [I]if[/I] the PCs will help the lizard men drive the bullywugs from the swamp. We had a paladin in the party who wanted to test his strength against the lizard men, so after a series of physical contests, the PC won (barely), was honored by the tribe, and given one of their "home-made" spiked shields. Anyway, the PCs agreed to work with the lizard men, had to navigate a "reed-maze" patrolled by bullywugs (the rogue-assassin was [I]awesome[/I] during this, taking out bullywug guards!), found the bullywug encampment, defeated them, and returned the fishermen to the keep. At the same time, their assistance fostered a "peace/ loose alliance" with the keep and led to trade between the lizard men and the keep. [/spoiler] [spoiler="2. Spiders' Lair"] While clearing the caves, the PCs found evidence of a dragon living south of the river, perhaps in the woods. This led the PCs to searching these woods later on. The ended up finding the spiders, but at their current level I added an Ettercap to the encounter IIRC. They didn't find any signs of the dragon, but found a ruined temple that was centuries old. This was where the spiders made their lair. Inside the temple they also found ancient texts about the history of the region, including the founding of the keep by a past warrior, Rogahn the Fearless (from B1). This is the first hint of a major plot point later on. [/spoiler] [spoiler="3. Raider Camp"] This one is fairly basic. The raiders attacked a caravan and a merchant at the keep is offering a reward for the recovery of his goods. The survivors of the raid can tell the PCs which direction the raiders came from (the south), and the PCs have to find the camp if they want to recovery the goods and get the reward. The reward inclues a writ from the merchant's guild, waving exchange fees, etc. for one year. [/spoiler] [spoiler="4. Mad Hermit"] The hermit will approach the PCs during one of their forays to the caves, asking for help because his "pet" is hurt. If the PCs don't help, he leaves them, but later on will seek revenge with his healthy "pet" later on. If the PCs help, he leads them to his home. The mountain lion has been wounded by fighting another creature in the woods. In exchange for their help, the PCs will learn more about the history of the region, including Zelligar the Unknown and his hidden lair (at the Caves of the Unknown). He can lead them there, but warns them it is a very magical and dangerous place! [/spoiler] [spoiler="5. Dragon's Lair* NEW"] When the PCs were 5th level, some captured kobolds led them to finding, after some searching, the dragon's lair: a 20-foot wide sinkhole which led to an underground lair. The PCs [I]thought[/I] it was a young green dragon and maybe a wyrmling. But were shocked to learn a young black dragon had moved in, killing the two younger green dragons. It was an incredible fight when they finally searched the stagnant pool. Too much to really go into detail here. [/spoiler] [spoiler="Caves of the Unknown"] This ended up being the tombs of Rogahn and Zelligar. Series of traps and magical challenges, a few animated foes, etc. Here they inadvertantly released Zelligar from his stone-statue prison. Zelligar was a weakened archmage (few spells, low hp), and the PCs [I]nearly[/I] killed him (literally the last attack missed!), and he was able to flee. This led to another encounter near the southern river, when the PCs were looking for a friendly guardian naga. Earlier in the adventure, the PCs defeated a spirit naga and the guardian naga it was fighting agreed to help them if they needed it. Anyway, the next day, fully recovered, Zelligar returned and fought the reduced party (one PC died in the previous fight), killing them all but the rogue-assassin who managed to hide and flee. After Zelligar left to go to the keep and drive out all the inhabitants, the rogue found the guardian naga, who after a few days, raised all the killed PCs. Realizing the Keep was taken by Zelligar, the PCs fled the area. [/spoiler] [spoiler="Return to the Beginning"] At 18th+ level, the PCs returned to finally defeat Zelligar. After they arrived at the Keep, they were magically transported to Zelligar's hidden island, where they had dozens of encounters with powerful foes Zelligar had conquered over the centuries. They eventually made it to his stronghold, defeated Zelligar, and returned heroes. Unfortunately, the players never realized that they didn't [I]actually[/I] defeat Zelligar--just his simulacrum. They did everything else, so thought it was over, but [USER=6987520]@DND_Reborn[/USER] wanted to keep the truth hidden in case we ever played those PCs again. [/spoiler] Of course, none of this includes the [I]actual [/I]adventures in the Caves of Chaos, which were extensive, and the blocked tunnel (area 51 LOL) led to more adventures leading into the Underdark, but the PCs never went all the way. We played in this region (or launching from it) until 7th level. It's wide open IME to create so many adventures! [/QUOTE]
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