Melkor
Explorer
If you have read any of my recent posts, you know that my gaming group is getting together in August for a 2 1/2 day D&D marathon. It will be the first time we have played in a year.
I'm tasked with being the DM (one of the reasons we stopped playing a year ago was our previous DM burned out). I'm going to use the Forgotten Realms campaign setting - but I don't know much about it (Couldn't get my hands on the Dragonlance book in time to plan). Feel free to offer any advice you might have on the first adventure:
The Player Characters:
Male Human Cleric
Male Dwarven Paladin
Female Human Rogue
Male Gnome Wizard
Male Drow Ranger
(all will start at 3rd level)
Here's the background for the adventure:
The Human Cleric was born in Dagger Falls. When he was young, his parents were killed by the Zhentarim while the occupied the town out of suspicion of aiding Randall Mourn's forces. He was hidden by a local well-known Human Wizard. The wizard's Elven wife had also been killed during the Zhent occupation and his two Half-Elven daughters grew up being freinds with the cleric.
The Wizard sent the Cleric to live with friends in Ashabenford to avoid being found by the Zhents, and he spent his youth and early childhood studying to be a Ceric. Since the Zhent's were kicked out of Dagger Falls, he has been heavily involved in his clerical studies and has not made the trip to Dagger Falls to visit the Wizard, or his childhood friends, the Wizard's daughters.
The character gets a letter from one of the daughters that states she will be accompanying a merchant caravan from Dagger Falls to Ashabenford to visit him in a weeks time.
The Dwarven Paladin is a Shield Dwarf who wanders from place to place spreading word of his god. He has heard of an ancient Dwarven shrine near Dagger Falls, and has stopped in Ashabenford on the way to the shrine.
The Human Rogue is a childhood friend of the Human Cleric.
The Wizards' daughter fails to arrive on the date stated in her letter, and rumors from other travellers mention that Zhentarim soldiers are roaming the areas between Ashabenford and Dagger Falls. The character is worried and wants to check it out. The other characters will accompany him for various reasons.
The best way to travel is the river ferry. When they arrive, the ferry master tells them that one of his ferrys never arrived. The wreckage of that ferry is down river. The character's find Zhent bodies in with the merchant caravan, but their friend is not among the bodies. Tracks lead into Cormanthor. They also find a document on one of the Zhentarim agents that looks like a plan for a fresh Zhent attack on Dagger Falls.
Here's where the adventure will start.
Within Cormanthor, they are stalked by the Drow, who actually rescued the character's friend from the Zhent attack. She is wounded, but stabile, and in the Ranger's care. When they meet, and are taken to see their friend she will want to report the attack plan to her father in Dagger Falls.
The trip to Dagger Falls will be uneventful (Random Encounters only), but when the characters arrive, the will find that the wizard's other daughter is missing. Some investigation will turn up a townsperson who claims to have seen a local shopowner having dealings with 'shadowy figures' on the evening prior to the girl's dissapearance. This leads them to a demonic cultist who lives in Dagger Falls.
They will find out from the cultist about a nearby dungeon where the girl was taken for as part of a ritual. This is a small Fiendish Gnoll lair that the character's will have to fight their way through, only to find a magical portal to another location.
If the character's take the portal, they end up in a set of icy caverns (they won't know this, but it's in the Silver Marches near Dark Arrow Keep). After exploring the caverns, they will have to confront an evil sorceror who needed 'the blood of an innocent elf' (and thought the half-elf woman would do) to summon a demon to aid the Zhent's attack on Dagger Falls.
Once this is completed, they will have to find their way back to the dales....By the time they return, I'm hoping to have them at or near 10th level so I can spring City of the Spider Queen on them....
From there, I'm going to make all of Faerun at war.
Like I said, I don't know the Realms very well, and I haven't DM'd in a very long time. Any advice or ideas would be appreciated.
Thanks.
I'm tasked with being the DM (one of the reasons we stopped playing a year ago was our previous DM burned out). I'm going to use the Forgotten Realms campaign setting - but I don't know much about it (Couldn't get my hands on the Dragonlance book in time to plan). Feel free to offer any advice you might have on the first adventure:
The Player Characters:
Male Human Cleric
Male Dwarven Paladin
Female Human Rogue
Male Gnome Wizard
Male Drow Ranger
(all will start at 3rd level)
Here's the background for the adventure:
The Human Cleric was born in Dagger Falls. When he was young, his parents were killed by the Zhentarim while the occupied the town out of suspicion of aiding Randall Mourn's forces. He was hidden by a local well-known Human Wizard. The wizard's Elven wife had also been killed during the Zhent occupation and his two Half-Elven daughters grew up being freinds with the cleric.
The Wizard sent the Cleric to live with friends in Ashabenford to avoid being found by the Zhents, and he spent his youth and early childhood studying to be a Ceric. Since the Zhent's were kicked out of Dagger Falls, he has been heavily involved in his clerical studies and has not made the trip to Dagger Falls to visit the Wizard, or his childhood friends, the Wizard's daughters.
The character gets a letter from one of the daughters that states she will be accompanying a merchant caravan from Dagger Falls to Ashabenford to visit him in a weeks time.
The Dwarven Paladin is a Shield Dwarf who wanders from place to place spreading word of his god. He has heard of an ancient Dwarven shrine near Dagger Falls, and has stopped in Ashabenford on the way to the shrine.
The Human Rogue is a childhood friend of the Human Cleric.
The Wizards' daughter fails to arrive on the date stated in her letter, and rumors from other travellers mention that Zhentarim soldiers are roaming the areas between Ashabenford and Dagger Falls. The character is worried and wants to check it out. The other characters will accompany him for various reasons.
The best way to travel is the river ferry. When they arrive, the ferry master tells them that one of his ferrys never arrived. The wreckage of that ferry is down river. The character's find Zhent bodies in with the merchant caravan, but their friend is not among the bodies. Tracks lead into Cormanthor. They also find a document on one of the Zhentarim agents that looks like a plan for a fresh Zhent attack on Dagger Falls.
Here's where the adventure will start.
Within Cormanthor, they are stalked by the Drow, who actually rescued the character's friend from the Zhent attack. She is wounded, but stabile, and in the Ranger's care. When they meet, and are taken to see their friend she will want to report the attack plan to her father in Dagger Falls.
The trip to Dagger Falls will be uneventful (Random Encounters only), but when the characters arrive, the will find that the wizard's other daughter is missing. Some investigation will turn up a townsperson who claims to have seen a local shopowner having dealings with 'shadowy figures' on the evening prior to the girl's dissapearance. This leads them to a demonic cultist who lives in Dagger Falls.
They will find out from the cultist about a nearby dungeon where the girl was taken for as part of a ritual. This is a small Fiendish Gnoll lair that the character's will have to fight their way through, only to find a magical portal to another location.
If the character's take the portal, they end up in a set of icy caverns (they won't know this, but it's in the Silver Marches near Dark Arrow Keep). After exploring the caverns, they will have to confront an evil sorceror who needed 'the blood of an innocent elf' (and thought the half-elf woman would do) to summon a demon to aid the Zhent's attack on Dagger Falls.
Once this is completed, they will have to find their way back to the dales....By the time they return, I'm hoping to have them at or near 10th level so I can spring City of the Spider Queen on them....
From there, I'm going to make all of Faerun at war.
Like I said, I don't know the Realms very well, and I haven't DM'd in a very long time. Any advice or ideas would be appreciated.
Thanks.
