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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kaomera" data-source="post: 5521599" data-attributes="member: 38357">Each section (not including the lower levels of the keep) should work out to about 4000 XP. With quests, etc. I'd figure that would get the PCs to second level, probably. And if not they can always pick up one of the other threads. My idea was to do something a bit more "sandbox", in that there are basically three ways the PCs could go, and then some... The next "step" would most likely come up between levels 2 and 3 (depending on if the PCs went on to another one of those listed and/or got down to the vault). But that would be optional as well.This was kind of just an experiment, and I think I got some interesting results. All of the above took me just slightly longer than it usually takes me to work up an encounter. Now to be fair there's a lot more stuff I would usually do for an encounter - maps, nice pretty stat blocks, etc. But I'm also seeming to find that not spending as much time on encounter design may be giving me better results overall. (Maybe less over-thinking things? idk, I'm trying it out...)Ideally I would draw maps for this and pick which specific creatures go in which encounters on the fly. I'm a bit concerned with the redundancy among the monsters, but I'm not sure that's entirely a bad thing. It may give the players more reason to pay attention to what they can do (so that they can better handle them the next time they see the same critter?)As for the Overlord Of All Evil Everywhere I do have some ideas...[sblock="Some mini-background"]This first part of the campaign (probably through the end of heroic tier?) deals with an area that was a newly-settled frontier just before the last big incursion of the OOAEE's forces, several hundred years ago. Afterward it was left pretty much to it's own devices, and there has been no big settlement push since. So: Points of Light. You have a lot of wilderness areas still unsettled between various mostly self-contained cities, towns, etc.So the OOAEE was driven back across the Northern Chaos Wastes several hundred years ago, and several hundred years before that, and several hundred years before that, etc. So, clearly, he isn't coming back any time soon... Or at least that's what the leaders of the Northern Kingdoms (off to the west of the starting area - let's call it the Eastern Frontier...) would like to believe.Now, about fourty years ago there started to be raids launched across the Chaos Wastes every several years (typically 3 to 4 years apart) by various humanoid tribes, ogres, trolls, miscellaneous giants, and other monsters. At first there was some serious panic, as it was expected this heralded the return of the OOAEE. However, these raids, while not really "small" where nothing on that scale. The leaders of the Northern Kingdoms managed to arrange a suitable defense, rebuilding a series of border forts and making troops available to hunt down any monsters that got through. Things settled down into a routine.At the same time, smaller groups of humanoids started infiltrating into the eastern reaches of the Eastern Frontier, via a large series of underground tunnels deep beneath a spine of mountains there. These monsters where less well organized and far less numerous than the raids from the north, and so they where left to local militias etc. to deal with. These forces have been able to deal with them, but there is a tendency to chase them off rather than annihilate them which is leading to the establishment of various humanoid populations in the area.The general consensus among the military and civilian leaders in the Northern Kingdoms is that a real resurgence of the OOAEE would necessarily lead to a significant lull in the raids as he musters his forces; it is generally expected that a period of ten or more years without an attack would be a sign for alarm...The last raid, three years ago, was one of the largest and fiercest, but also one of the more poorly organized. Soldiers at several of the border forts actually watched from the walls as various humanoid tribes annihilated one another in internecine squabbles. However there was one notable action (notable to the reader, the leaders of the Northern Kingdoms have mostly ignored it)...A small auxiliary unit encountered a remarkably well-organized and well-equipped force of hobgoblins trying to sneak down into the kingdoms, accompanied by a sizable group of cultists. Fortunately this unit had become a kind of dumping ground for "malcontents" - in this case mainly meaning those soldiers and officers who had argued that their commanders where not taking the threat from the north seriously enough. The engagement was fierce and bloody, but in the end the good guys won (mostly by using dirtier tricks than the bad guys, mind you).Several Northern leaders who do take the threat a bit more seriously have organized the survivors of this unit, along with various new recruits, etc. into the "Silver Companies". The Silver Companies are to be sent into the Eastern Frontier to deal with this year's crop of infiltrating humanoids (hopefully both more quickly and more thoroughly than the locals could manage) and try and wipe out as many of the humanoid tribes that have taken hold in the area as possible. It is expected that this mission may take a few years, and the leaders behind the formation of the Silver Companies hope to use this time to quietly build them up away from other leaders who might object at what they see as an unnecessary force buildup. There is also the expectation that if the forces of Evil launch a major offensive in the meantime then the Companies can act as a reserve force.Of course, the OOAEE has other plans...[/sblock]</blockquote>

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