[FR] Need ideas for road trip between Silverymoon and Waterdeep

[Jürgen Hubert]

Well, after some recent encounters with half-fiendish silver dragons, yuan-ti explorers, and a member of an ancient race of snake people and his psionically powered habitat in the middle of the Endless Ice Sea, the PCs are now back in Silverymoon and recovering from their ordeal.

Soon they will travel to Waterdeep, a journey that shouldn't be underestimated. And I need some ideas for some cool, flavorful encounters, which should provide both the opportunity for some combat and interaction with colorful NPCs.

You see, two complete RPG newbies want to watch the next session so that they can see what this "role-playing" is all about, and I want to provide them with some good examples...

The party consists of:

- An NG aasimar druid5/shifter1 with a celestial wolf animal companion.
- An NG ranger2/cloisered cleric of Oghma 3 (from Unearthed Arcana)/sensate 1 (from the Planar Handbook).
- A CG elan psionic warrior1/psion (kineticist) 5.

Any suggestions are welcome!

 

[Ryltar]

Any way to tie in the encounters that they had in the past? E.g., did they make enemies of someone? At least one encounter, then, might be agents of that (someone) trying to thwart their plans. Maybe you could provide us with details, there .

 

[NiTessine]

Well, it's a cliché, but they could always find an overturned carriage that was attacked and robbed. Human and orc corpses are strewn about everywhere, and there's only one survivor, a young kid, grievously wounded and traumatised by the ordeal, who can give the PCs one or two ambiguous statements as to who really did it. Insert your favourite intelligent evil organisation. Eldred Veluuthra, the Zhentarim and the Kraken Society are all fairly active over there. Dead orcs are cheap and easy to plant.

OR one I nicked off a module...

They walk along the road in the early morning mist, and suddenly hear a horse galloping behind them. In a moment, the horse and rider come into view and ride past without slowing down, disappearing in the mist. The PCs go on for a couple of minutes, and then they hear voices in the mist ahead, perhaps see the outline of a person standing in the distance.

The people standing ahead are bandits who just killed the rider - a messenger for whoever you want - and are currently looting his body, and just found the message he was carrying. If the PCs tarry and observe how the situation develops, the bandit leader will tear it up, go bury the corpse and then proceed to ambush the next hapless travellers.

For the message, have a handout prepared. If it gets torn up, let the players make a puzzle. This can lead in to a side trek or the group's next adventure, or the message can be something totally meaningless or uninteresting.

OR they could always meet Drizzt or some other known FR adventurer coming the other way. Short encounter, no combat, just adventurers exchanging greetings and showing a degree of mutual respect, chatting a bit before continuing on their way. Maybe Drizzt has even heard of the group and their exploits.

Personally, I think that is really the only way to use a famous NPC who just happens to be a free-roaming combat monster without him stealing the spotlight from the PCs. Other suggestions for the adventurer would be Arilyn Moonblade & Danilo Thann, or maybe Elaith Craulnober.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Any way to tie in the encounters that they had in the past? E.g., did they make enemies of someone? At least one encounter, then, might be agents of that (someone) trying to thwart their plans. Maybe you could provide us with details, there .

Well, in their earliest adventure they fought some agents of Luskan who thought that they were actually working for the Zhentarim...

Basically, the Arcane Brotherhood (I think that was the right name) is trying to stir up trouble in the Silver Marches, and for this purpose they have been recruiting Zhent settlers from that new settlement (forgot its name) who are down on their luck. These people believe they are actually working for the Black Network, but they are only patsies. They have been involved in smuggling various Thay drugs into the Silver Marches.

And come to think of it, the last time the PCs tackled with these people (or rather, ran away from them) was in Everlund - which is on the way between Silverymoon and Waterdeep. Hmmm....

 

[Numion]

Remember to include some elements that aren't essential to the adventure but still create atmosphere, like wayside shrines to god of traveling, monuments to some ancient civilizations, messages from other travelers inscribed in stone, etc.. But don't overdo it to make it boring.

As for true combat encounters it might be a good idea to create a sense of foreboding, like seeing fires in the distance and hearing howling or other bestial sounds at night, then the next day have them arrive at a circle of human and animal tracks with a burned out bonfire in the middle. Then a bit later introduce a some lycanthropes of the cult of Malar (People of the Black Blood, iirc), or something. Their 3-day hunt is on, and the PCs have happened on the path. After an encounter, if they dont just avoid it, they could follow tracks to some holy place of Malar.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I would just do other travellers but some ideas:

Night with the gypsies: Party meets a small troupe of gypsies as the sun is getting ready to set, following the rules of the road they offer to share food and and camp site. The food is good, music and stories are shared BUT then the curse...yep werewolf...has been hunting the gypsies!

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

I've done the People of the Black Blood before - and rather recently, at that. I'd rather wait a bit before using them again...

 

[Thanee]

Traveling from Silverymoon to Waterdeep will have them journey along the border between the Evermoor and the High Forest, so I would propose a meeting with a Wood Elf hunting party, which is out to retaliate against an attack from a band of Trolls, that recently rampaged through their home. Being not entirely happy about entering the swamp, they might seek out the traveling adventurers for help.

This could turn out to be an alien-like "who's the hunter" while wandering around in the mist, or they could actually find out, that the trolls have trouble themselves with the recently arrived giants, and it could actually turn into a mission to help them fend off the hill giants together in order to create peace, as they offer to stay in their region as their part of the deal.

Bye
Thanee

 

[WampusCat43]

Meet a small caravan of Red Wizards heading for Silverymoon, with their entourage. Such a group is outlined in Lords of Darkness, and be scaled so that if hostilities break out, the PC's would have a chance. Makes for a tense encounter that could potentially be resolved peacefully, even to the party's benefit.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Meet a small caravan of Red Wizards heading for Silverymoon, with their entourage. Such a group is outlined in Lords of Darkness, and be scaled so that if hostilities break out, the PC's would have a chance. Makes for a tense encounter that could potentially be resolved peacefully, even to the party's benefit.

Oh, I doubt that hostilities would break out. After all, the Red Wizards want to trade, and are thus unlikely to start the hostilities.

And this party has dediced last session by a majority vote that it would be unethical to slay a half-fiendish silver dragon as long as it isn't clear that it was about to try to kill them or others.

Oh, and the psion has acquired a yuan-ti as a mentor in psionic matters...