Adventure Brainstorming (Low Level)

[Gilladian]

Thanks everyone for some very interesting and creative ideas. Don't feel you have to stop! I think I like the idea of the stolen bees best so far, but I'm leaning towards something killing bees as well, with the whole "whodunnit" aspect played up pretty well.

The PCs should feel fairly important if they manage to save the monastery - it's been there as part of the village life for a long time, and they'll be mostly local folk. I like to start small and save the world-shaking adventures for later

 

[Herobizkit]

On a smiliar bent to another adventure I've played before, why not have an evil Druid hold sway over the insects and vermin in the area. Perhaps he has the insectile template himself and fancies himself *groan* Lord of the Flies.

Anyhow, perhaps the monks have built their temple on a shrine of power, but the shrine can only be operated by druids. Perhaps the druid feels that the land belongs to the animals and the clerics are the invaders. So, the Lord of the Flies directs his bees to create hjoney and then he defiles it with some sort of poison, or unholy water, or perhaps his evil nature defiles nature itself, causing the bees to become mutated and fiendish... now the honey they create is fiendish as well...

dun dun dun.

Your Druid PC realizes that the honey no longer appears "natural" and decides that something unnatural is afoot... and it'll take Druid power and know-how to right the wrong and triumph over evil.

 

[Three_Haligonians]

A quick, simple approach:

Someone has taken the bees simply because they want to sell the "elite mead" for profit. Could be anybody.. random bandits, local (or non local) bartender, maybe someone in the Lord's employ since they'd know all about it and the system.

You could have a lot of fun with that - in fact, if your group has to go out of the local area to get the bees back, you could make a neat adventure out of trying to come back to the monastary without loosing any bees! (How do you transfer a hive anyway?)

just some thoughts

J from Three Haligonians

 

[arwink]

An evil gnome aristocrat covets the Monk's land, so he's having his minions paint the flowers usually serviced by the bees with a foul alchemical ocncoction that taints the mead.

 

[Gilladian]

Here's what I've come up with so far:

Unfortunately, the farmers who used to sell them the honey have not been able to supply them this year. Something has killed off the bees, destroyed several hives, and has even caused at least one beekeeper to go missing.

The village near the monastery (Hillsboro about 1.5 miles away) is the beekeepers’ locale.

What is really going on: The baron of Denbare wants to get the monks to leave the monastery. He and his wizard have discovered that a treasure is hidden in the catacombs under the monastery. Their method of getting rid of the monks is to ensure that they cannot pay the yearly rent of 50 bottles of mead. By destroying the hives, the special local honey is not available.

The wizard used charm person on one of the beekeepers and then had him put on a collar which transformed him into a black bear. The bear’s mind is unaffected except that he is under a compulsion to eat the honey. Each night the wizard releases him and he goes out hunting the beehives. When he finds one he smashes it and devours the honey.

The players will have to go out into the half-cleared woods where the beehives are located, lay an ambush for the hive-killer, and meet the bear. It will be reluctant to attack them, and hopefully the druid will not want to kill it, either.

If they do NOT kill the bear, but instead notice the collar on it, and try to capture it, they can then use comprehend languages to talk to the bear and realize it is intelligent. It tells them that it doesn’t know WHO – but it is under an enchantment cast by some wizard, and it can help them go back to the lair where it is drawn each morning.

If they DO kill the bear, they will discover the collar and may be able to track its movements back to the lair it came from (If not, this could be the end of the adventure, leaving the PCs never knowing who, if anyone, set the bear on his way).

The lair of the wizard is (if the PCs think to ask) suspiciously close to a manor house owned by Baron Denbare about 2/3 of the way to Dene (12 miles). A small cave leads to a passage into a cellar-like room. Here the bear sleeps in an iron cage all day. A second room (door locked and barred from far side) is some sort of laboratory/study. Maps of the area indicate where the monastery lies, and a series of notes indicates that the scholar, whoever he may be, is very interested in “ the old catacombs” below the monastery. Mention of an ancient order of priests is made, and of a powerful item known as “Elanora’s Gift”. This “gift” is described as having the power to sway men’s minds when weilded by a powerful figure.

A final door exiting this chamber leads to a passage that would take the party to the Baron’s Manor house, where the wizard can be found. But the door is trapped. As soon as the door is opened without first disarming the trap, a rumbling is heard and then the tunnel collapses. This cuts off any evidence that the Baron and his wizard were involved, but should arouse PC suspicions.



My problem lies in how the collar works - my PCs are fairly easy, and will let me getaway with not knowing how or why it works, but I'd like to know how powerful a wizard it would take to make an item that can polymorph other and have some sort of "drawing power" to make the bear return to the lair each day. Or would the charm person spell the wizard is using be strong enough to both send him after the hives/honey AND force him to return to the caves each day?

 

[taliesin15]

My problem lies in how the collar works - my PCs are fairly easy, and will let me getaway with not knowing how or why it works, but I'd like to know how powerful a wizard it would take to make an item that can polymorph other and have some sort of "drawing power" to make the bear return to the lair each day. Or would the charm person spell the wizard is using be strong enough to both send him after the hives/honey AND force him to return to the caves each day?

I must say this scenario sounds pretty good--sure hope your players aren't reading on this site, Gilladian! I had another idea about a cult of bees (non-druidic) as this is something pretty prevalent in ancient history and I believe in fantasy too...

As to your question about the collar, stuff like rings or collars or other jewelry that binds the wearer to the wizard, witch or other magic-user is fairly common fare--surely something like this has already been written up, and of course Tolkien's Rings of Power have this, but technically speaking why not just a Permanency spell combined with Charm Person into the Crafting Ring or Object Skill?

 

[Mark]

Naturally, the person using the item need not be the one who created the item. The creator might be long dead.



btw, Baron Denbare? Excellent!


*edit* Provided that the polymorph other spell effect was in the collar, a first level sorcerer with his two spells being charm person and, perhaps, sleep (or, maybe, a second level wizard, but either one with a high enough prime ability score to get the bonus spell) would have plenty enough spells to charm a beekeeper each day (might need to throw the spell more than once if a save or two is made), send him out for less than eight hours to do his bidding with instructions to return afterward, then remove the collar tie the beekeeper up until the next day when he could do it again.

 

[Gilladian]

Would you believe the Baron's name was totally coincidental? But really funny
I'm glad you like the idea.

I didn't figure the Wizard was the creator - I actually think he's about 5th level, so the PCs can confront him a bit later in the campaign. Certainly, though, the item must have a permanent polymorph effect, and he can do the charming each day. Thanks!