D&D 5E adventure scenario by iserith

[evilbob]

[MENTION=97077]iserith[/MENTION] - Hey! I totally used one of your adventure scenarios and wanted to let you know about it!

For those who haven't seen the link, iserith has a bunch of quick one-shots (and some longer stuff) here.

One of the one shots called Seahorse Run has some randomly inserted discussion here.

I used a different one shot called Quiet Please and thought I'd let you know how it went!

We had 3 PCs at level 3 and I knew they would have an easier time because they all have passive perception scores of 15 or 16 (bard). This allowed them to each search one bookcase per turn without failing, which lowered the difficulty - they completed the entire thing in just 4 rounds. That said, it was still rather difficult!

First, just to make things flow a little more, I had the patron who hired them (a kindly, bumbling wizard) lead them straight to Dewey's private quarters while explaining the situation - all the while getting his voice softer and softer. Finally he explained they shouldn't make a lot of noise, because there are worse things than poltergeists - which he insulted, and they threw him across the room and into the eastern chamber. This made a huge racket which resulted in a (freebie) "shhh!" and started the fire, which was raging beyond control by the time he reappeared. He then tells them they have about a minute until the fire consumes everything and he'll be waiting at the door wishing them luck - see ya!

I started the poltergeists at their corpses and decided that they wouldn't move much, but if anything was in range they'd swipe it instead of push it - that made it a little easier to figure out where they were. I also decided that a DC 15 religion check (free action) would enable the characters to know they could perform funeral rights at the corpses - another DC 15 religion check that takes one action (and may or may not make noise) - appeasing that poltergeist and instantly "defeating" it. (The players never even tried.) Still, the 3d6 damage from getting tossed around the room plus the 10 damage per smack (done with advantage if they are invisible!) was no joke! One character ended up going down and the others were both hurt; three level 3 characters taking on two CR 2s is well out of their league.

Fortunately, they didn't stick around to fight much. They quickly realized the round table in the middle might have clues in it and went straight for that. They actually used mage hand to open it (ha!) and then nailed the Int check to eliminate half the room - that was probably the biggest roll in the entire encounter, since it saved them so much time. After that, two characters started searching bookcases (hilariously it took two of them 3 turns to find it in six bookcases - they were terrible guessers) while the bard tried to deal with the poltergeists. Faerie fire was used to make one of them visible, which helped a ton since it no longer had advantage on attacks, and then otherwise the bard got beat up a bit trying to keep their attention, and eventually went down. Fortunately they did a lot of the action while getting missed; the "fling them across the room" attack is actually worse than you'd think, since it not only makes noise but also pushes them away from the area they know they need to search! Once they started getting beat up badly, they had already searched almost all the bookcases, and the last round was them getting tossed around as they were scrambling for the door (book in hand).

I didn't keep a strict noise track per your suggestion (I forgot), although if I had they would have gotten 6 marks (3 bard spells and 3 tosses). Instead, each time they got tossed they got a "shhh," which was really more about tension than anything else. 12 marks seems like a decent limit, since if you miss the big skill check it will definitely take you a while, but the whole encounter is still dicey just because of the snowball effect. Basically, the longer it takes the harder it becomes. The poltergeists do pretty heavy damage, and while you actually have a reasonable chance to kill at least one with spells, especially if you have access to faerie fire and magic missile (they're only 22 HP), each spell costs you another tick on the track. I wouldn't even bother making the "failed search" on a bookshelf cost anything, since the two poltergeists are going to be causing lots of noise really quickly anyway. Then again, like everything else in D&D, a larger party is going to have an easier time of it all, so maybe this was only hard because they were a party of 3.

Lastly, I wasn't sure what to reward the party, since you had no suggestions. They didn't defeat any of the creatures, although you could argue they defeated the banshee (within the context of the encounter). At the time I ad-hoc'd 600 XP for the party (just like the Seahorse Run) and the wizard who hired them gave them a choice of one of two level 3 spell scrolls (a fairly appropriate reward according to my understanding of the DMG - and thematic). I figured if they defeated the poltergeists, he would have given them both scrolls (and they would have gotten more XP).

Overall it was pretty fun and definitely nice to have a puzzle that's not just "murder hobo" style. The difficulty seems well-balanced; killing poltergeists can be useful but it's also going to be noisy, and I liked that a few smart skill checks can make things easier. It'd be interesting to see it played with 5 characters who all have +0-4 perception instead of these few sharp-eyed folk. Anyway, thanks for the adventure!

 

[iserith]

Wow, thanks for the excellent write-up, evilbob! I'm glad you and your players had a good time with it. It sounds like it was a very hectic scene.

My intention was that due to the time pressure and combat in this scene, any checks used to find something would be a Wisdom (Perception) check, not a passive check (see Search action). As passive checks represent the same task being performed over and over again, it's not the mechanic I would go to for resolving the uncertainty of the search in this situation - there's not enough time to do something over and over again. I intended there to be some kind of decision point here on whether to work together on one bookshelf or split up and try to hit multiple bookshelves at one time. How do you think things would have gone for your PCs if you went with normal checks instead of passive checks?

Two poltergeists work out to 1350 adjusted XP, Deadly (!) for three 3rd-level PCs. One PC going down sounds about right. That's cool to see the math work out. That it was the bard that went down is classic - perhaps Guy Lyrical doesn't like rivals! Did the PCs claim his lute as treasure before leaving the scene?

I'm surprised they didn't try to put the spirits to rest given that they knew they could do that instead of fight or run away from them. Do your players typically prefer to fight to the death? Was it normal for them to eschew the fight in favor of exploration to try and win or did this scenario get them to change their thinking a bit? I'm impressed they thought that the librarian's desk and card catalog would have helpful clues. Who of your group came up with that idea?

For experience points, I think that 400 - 600 XP for finding the book and 450 XP each for defeating or putting to rest each poltergeist is good.

What was the feedback of your players on this scenario? I'm interested to see how different groups approach the same scene, so I appreciate your insights. Thanks!

 

[evilbob]

Oh, I forgot to mention - they totally picked up on the Ghostbusters reference within seconds.

How do you think things would have gone for your PCs if you went with normal checks instead of passive checks?

It probably would have gone a little worse, but their rolls are so good it's hard to say. I see your point about the active checks, but given that my party is invested so heavily into perception - and there are only 3 of them - I tend to allow some serious liberty with passive perception just to sort of balance that out. As it was, they took just enough time to succeed and escape; any more time would have potentially snowballed out of control, as they ALWAYS try to heal when someone goes down (which takes more actions). The bard would have gone down each hit after that, and the other two had about 2 hits left. Another full round of searching might have been ok, but more than that would have gone bad fast (even without the banshee).

I didn't make the lute treasure; I figured it would have subtracted from the hectic nature of the scene to focus on treasure-grabbing, plus I liked the scroll reward idea. I don't think it would have changed much. (Also this bard doesn't use a lute. Or maybe they can, but that's not their main gig.)

I'm surprised they didn't try to put the spirits to rest given that they knew they could do that instead of fight or run away from them.

I didn't state that clearly: they didn't even try to figure out anything about the spirits. If they'd have known how to solve it without violence they would have done that, no question (well, attempted anyway - they average about +0 on religion checks), but even though the bard just got trained in religion they forgot about using it.

I think they all gravitated toward the desk as soon as it was described; I mean, we're older, so we actually know what a library is and a card catalog. (Also see: the original Ghostbusters movie.) I remember being taught that stuff in school. I'm sure now they just put kids in front of a computer and say "make it do." So it was pretty natural.

I think the players thought it was fun; they all said as much. I plan to try Seahorse Run on them in the future - I'll let you know how that goes, too!

Edit: I forgot! Another reason they went straight for the desk is because the mage's name was DEWEY. Between that and the Ghostbusters reference they were already thinking "library" and that took them straight there.

 

[iserith]

Excellent, thanks for the feedback. I forgot to ask: How long in real time did it take to run the scenario?

 

[evilbob]

How long in real time did it take to run the scenario?

I honestly don't remember; at least 30 minutes? I'm not sure.

Now we've have had a chance now to run your other one-shot Seahorse Run and I wanted to tell you about that, too! I have to admit the write-up was fun, although I probably should have given them a chance to gather more info on their own rather than hand them everything and skip straight to the action - but that's just my group. This one also went very quickly - probably less than 30 minutes again. The funniest thing was that they were all expecting to fight a grell, but then when it turned out to be just seahorses that was the biggest punchline.

Our group ended up being extremely straightforward. They immediately rolled to investigate and lacking any other obvious courses of action they decided to go with the skill check route. Since we had a bard and the statue was all about singing that also seemed to play to their strengths. They easily passed the first two checks in the first round, but getting a DC 20 is hard for anyone, even though they were assisting each other. Ultimately they got the DC 20 on the third or fourth round (whichever one it was before the 2nd wave escaped with eggs), and saved the day.

I ended up ruling that they could cast underwater with a concentration check (DC 10 + spell level, although I could have just used DC 10) and I also allowed a very high check to enable them to do non-lethal damage with spells, which normally would be pretty questionable since knocking something unconscious is supposed to be melee-only, but I figured since the spell in question was Thuderwave effectively the character was just causing a huge sound burst, and could forgo the damage portion - which basically knocked them out. It seemed like a reasonable use of the spell and the player came up with it themselves so I went with it. They ended up Thunderwaving about 10 of the seahorses (they were mercifully rather clumped), and also used Druidcraft to make a horrid smell to drive some of them away (pretty clever, I thought). Technically they also succeeded by stopping the seahorses from being able to steal more than 10 eggs (10 knocked out, 2 driven away) but they got the skill checks the same round so it all sort of worked out. Even if I hadn't allowed the spellcasting, they would have succeeded on the skill checks alone, so all that really did was give them something else to do while the bard was working on checks.

Overall this one-shot was seen as a bit sillier (the write-up was already headed in that direction so I went with it) and fun, but I don't think it was as tense or as puzzle-y as Quiet Please. This one just came down to getting some skill checks in time, and there wasn't a sense of how close to doom you were. Maybe I could have given them more information about losing 10 eggs being the end, but because I was generous with the spell casting they didn't end up losing any (the whole first wave was stunned or ran off, and the second wave didn't escape before they won). So it just ended up being a fun little diversion.

As for rewards, I ended up giving them each one healing potion (plus the XP). Anyway, thanks for the adventure!

 

[iserith]

I honestly don't remember; at least 30 minutes? I'm not sure.

Now we've have had a chance now to run your other one-shot Seahorse Run and I wanted to tell you about that, too! I have to admit the write-up was fun, although I probably should have given them a chance to gather more info on their own rather than hand them everything and skip straight to the action - but that's just my group. This one also went very quickly - probably less than 30 minutes again. The funniest thing was that they were all expecting to fight a grell, but then when it turned out to be just seahorses that was the biggest punchline.

Our group ended up being extremely straightforward. They immediately rolled to investigate and lacking any other obvious courses of action they decided to go with the skill check route. Since we had a bard and the statue was all about singing that also seemed to play to their strengths. They easily passed the first two checks in the first round, but getting a DC 20 is hard for anyone, even though they were assisting each other. Ultimately they got the DC 20 on the third or fourth round (whichever one it was before the 2nd wave escaped with eggs), and saved the day.

I ended up ruling that they could cast underwater with a concentration check (DC 10 + spell level, although I could have just used DC 10) and I also allowed a very high check to enable them to do non-lethal damage with spells, which normally would be pretty questionable since knocking something unconscious is supposed to be melee-only, but I figured since the spell in question was Thuderwave effectively the character was just causing a huge sound burst, and could forgo the damage portion - which basically knocked them out. It seemed like a reasonable use of the spell and the player came up with it themselves so I went with it. They ended up Thunderwaving about 10 of the seahorses (they were mercifully rather clumped), and also used Druidcraft to make a horrid smell to drive some of them away (pretty clever, I thought). Technically they also succeeded by stopping the seahorses from being able to steal more than 10 eggs (10 knocked out, 2 driven away) but they got the skill checks the same round so it all sort of worked out. Even if I hadn't allowed the spellcasting, they would have succeeded on the skill checks alone, so all that really did was give them something else to do while the bard was working on checks.

Overall this one-shot was seen as a bit sillier (the write-up was already headed in that direction so I went with it) and fun, but I don't think it was as tense or as puzzle-y as Quiet Please. This one just came down to getting some skill checks in time, and there wasn't a sense of how close to doom you were. Maybe I could have given them more information about losing 10 eggs being the end, but because I was generous with the spell casting they didn't end up losing any (the whole first wave was stunned or ran off, and the second wave didn't escape before they won). So it just ended up being a fun little diversion.

As for rewards, I ended up giving them each one healing potion (plus the XP). Anyway, thanks for the adventure!

Excellent! Thanks for the feedback and write-up, again! Did the sea horses get any of the kraken eggs?

Sea Horse Run is definitely meant to be a lot sillier than some of my other offerings so that it came across in play makes sense. I think difficulty might have been affected a bit (but not much) by allowing spells underwater and through clumping. On the other hand, like deciding to go for the card catalog straight away, it sounds like your players are pretty dang clever and it's their interest in exploration pillar that is giving them an edge in the scenarios. That's intentional on my part so it's really cool to see people doing it.

 

[evilbob]

Not one. Two of the seahorses managed to "get" an egg but before they could leave the ward was back up, so I ruled that just confused them and they left without an egg.

My group is definitely more about social / exploration than combat. And they are super, super clever. We played Vampire the Masquerade for years when it got re-released as V20 back in 2011? or so, so they are super-quick at navigating complex, multi-layered intrigue and can spot a villain-in-disguise a mile away. So yeah, these adventures definitely play to this group.

 

[iserith]

Cool, man. Then they'll definitely like the one I'm designing now, to be released on 4/1. And it's higher level! Thanks again for the feedback.