Very nice! But, I think my group is suspicious enough that the sudden appearance of helpful NPC might be too obvious. I think they need two NPC's to really sell it -- perhaps Delphinia on her way back from collecting flowers. Hmmm, she happens on the scene as Ninaren drops the last kobold, suspiciously appearing at the last moment. Yes -- she can accompany the girl safely home, "guarded" by Ninaren. That Delphinia, she seems pretty comfortable around those goblins up at the old Keep, ya know.
Beefing up KotS's Story: 1st encounter (SPOILERS)
Dracollich
First Post
Alternative Story line for first KotS Encounters
The stumbling upon a helpless victim is a classic. Used it for my first pre-4E demo game I ran.
I started to DM a campaign of KotS after playing in a 1-shot FLGS demo of the adventure. 2 players of the that day joined my group so I decided to change things up a bit.
[Spoiler Alert] - I used the same hook that was used during the demo, ie. The meeting the mentor. The only change to the first encounter was the addition of a ruined wagon (provided cover) that was in my Dungeon Tile collection.
When the pcs get to town, they learned that the mentor never made it. It was left up in the air if a) he was captured by the Kobolds or b) he went to the dragon grave with out stopping at the town. They acquired directions to both locations.
I sprang the kobold ambush on them (they rested the night so it I felt it worked well) on their way out of town while the group was still deciding where to go. After the encounter, they found on the dead kobold magic user the mentor's locket. They decided to head to the kobold lair first after this.
Were we left off was half way through the inner part of the kobold lair. They'll find a note indicating that the mentor was captured by the kobolds and handed over to the gnome to help at the dig site. In a classic cinematic moment, when they arrive at the dig site, the gnome will have just found the mirror, and the mentor will be disposed of at the begining of (or just prior to) the encounter.
The stumbling upon a helpless victim is a classic. Used it for my first pre-4E demo game I ran.
I started to DM a campaign of KotS after playing in a 1-shot FLGS demo of the adventure. 2 players of the that day joined my group so I decided to change things up a bit.
[Spoiler Alert] - I used the same hook that was used during the demo, ie. The meeting the mentor. The only change to the first encounter was the addition of a ruined wagon (provided cover) that was in my Dungeon Tile collection.
When the pcs get to town, they learned that the mentor never made it. It was left up in the air if a) he was captured by the Kobolds or b) he went to the dragon grave with out stopping at the town. They acquired directions to both locations.
I sprang the kobold ambush on them (they rested the night so it I felt it worked well) on their way out of town while the group was still deciding where to go. After the encounter, they found on the dead kobold magic user the mentor's locket. They decided to head to the kobold lair first after this.
Were we left off was half way through the inner part of the kobold lair. They'll find a note indicating that the mentor was captured by the kobolds and handed over to the gnome to help at the dig site. In a classic cinematic moment, when they arrive at the dig site, the gnome will have just found the mirror, and the mentor will be disposed of at the begining of (or just prior to) the encounter.
Irda Ranger
First Post
Heh. Instead of a ruined wagon, I introduced all the PCs as traveling to Winterhaven together with a peddler looking for safety in numbers, so they had an intact wagon and 0th level human to protect.Dracollich said:
I like this. When I started each PC rolled a d3 to determine their personalized hook (2 got Map, 2 got Cult and 1 got Mentor). This is a good way to tie the PC with the Mentor quest into being interested in clearing the Keep. The fact that the PC with the Mentor quest is the Tiefling makes it better. Revenge!Dracollich said:
Last edited:
If anybody's interested in an update, here's what happened:
My intent was to play light and show the kobold's as incompetent trap-setters. I was even looking forward to one of them trying to bullrush a PC into the 4' pit.
What came across, though, was "this pit is obviously bait for another trap" and my players did everything they could not to "walk into it". I failed to get across the impression of levity I'd wanted, having completely forgetting how completely paranoid my players are when they game.
My intent was to play light and show the kobold's as incompetent trap-setters. I was even looking forward to one of them trying to bullrush a PC into the 4' pit.
What came across, though, was "this pit is obviously bait for another trap" and my players did everything they could not to "walk into it". I failed to get across the impression of levity I'd wanted, having completely forgetting how completely paranoid my players are when they game.
