Harry-Potter Like 4e Game - Need Ideas for Challenges

[Mistwell]

I am about to run a Harry-Potter like game (I've run this before in 3e, and it worked pretty well).

Players will play students at Mistwell University, a point of light that attracts some of the most promising younger people, to study the martial, divine, and arcane disciplines. I have a full University map, list of professors, what they teach, their personalities, class schedule, etc.. Last time adventures usually centered on various detention missions the students were given by their house professor.

The first adventure will involve The Testing Grounds as a mid-term exam. The Testing Grounds are a series of dungeon-like rooms, administered by a professor who will accompany the party (but not intervene except in accordance with the exam rules). The rooms are intended to challenge the students as individuals and as a group, and their scores will be compared to other individuals and groups from their class to assign a final grade for the exam.

Rooms should involve Skill Challenges, Traps, Puzzles, and Combat. The Testing Grounds are intended to be non-lethal in nature (though accidents can happen). The professor assigned to oversee the exam will give the students instructions for each new room, provide any equipment that the room may require, and offer hints if the challenge allows for such hints.

I intend to draw heavily on the excellent series of adventures by author Jonathan Richards in various Dungeon articles over the years, such as the Challenge of the Champions adventures. Sadly I cannot use the great "Gorgoldand's Gauntlet" from Dungeon #87, because my players have already been through a variation on that adventure. Challenge of the Champions includes:

Challenge of Champions 1 (Dungeon #58, March 1996, AD&D-2nd)
Challenge of Champions 2 (Dungeon #69, July 1998, AD&D-2nd)
Challenge of Champions 3 (Dungeon #80, May 2000, AD&D-2nd)
Challenge of Champions 4 (Dungeon #91, March 2002, D&D-3E)
Challenge of CHampions 5 (Dungeon #108, March 2004, D&D-3E)
Challenge of Champions 6 (Dungeon #138, Sep 2006, D&D-3.5E)

Of course, a lot of that will take some serious adaptation efforts to make them playable in 4e.

What I'd like is some ideas for additional challenges (or adapting anything from those Challenge of the Champion articles to 4e). The setting is pretty light-hearted (at least at this point), and fantastical. Any kind of high-magic "color" for the rooms is acceptable (and a good idea).

Anyone have some ideas?

 

[Mistwell]

OK, maybe that was too broad a question, what with 50 views and 0 responses

So here is a more specific question.


I have an encounter I want to introduce to the party, and a setting for the encounter, but I need to link the two and come up with a convincing means to get the party from the setting to the encounter.

Here is the background on the setting for this "episode". It's a bit long, so you may be able to just skip to the bolded area.

Biggest Tailor Shop EVAR

Party is told to go to a Wayport location already scouted briefly by a guardsman group and deemed to be relatively safe and civilized. Villagers said something about a clothing manufacturer based there, and the party is asked to establish friendly relations with this trade group, since cloth is used for a variety of war-time efforts such as sails, uniforms, carrying sacks, backpacks, shoes, etc..

The party is sent through and told the gate will re-open in 24 hours, and it is expected the party will spend the night with the locals. In case of emergency they are given residuum that allows them to open the gate again, but warned not to use it unless matters are dire.

When the party arrives in the village on the other side they are directed down the road to the Zah'keys Cloth Emporium.

Zah'keys is a grand building, 25 stories tall (think similar to the bath house in the movie Spirited Away):

It serves as a common destination for travelers from many worlds to purchase fine and specialty clothing and other cloth items, and they are always happy to welcome guests from a new world.

The complex is full of fanciful creatures. They are greeted by an animal-humanoid (frog man maybe?), and initially shown to their rooms by some Lumpus, which are white fluff balls about two feet in diameter that roll on the ground and sprout eyes and appendages seemingly at random, and communicate by vibrating such that their high-pitched squeak seems to emanate from all over their bodies.

After being shown to their quarters, the party is given a tour of the facilities:

a) a massive boiler room, b) Silkworm room, c) greenhouse room for growing plants used for clothing (like cotton), d) spinners room, e) weavers room, f) dyers room, g) threaders room, h) hand stitcher's room, i) sewers room, j) cutters room, k) pleater's room, l) steaming and pressing rooms, m) specialty room like fluting and collars, n) embroidery room, o) guest rooms with visitors there to choose styles and fabrics and colors and to be measured and fitted, p) management rooms, q) employee private rooms, r) break room, and cook, s) packers room, t) inventory room and warehousing, u) salesmen, v) engineer, w) laundry room, x) bug room for breeding bugs for dyes, etc.

That's the setting. Now I am working on establishing the challenges, and this is where I could use some help.

LAUNDRY ROOM ENCOUNTER

One encounter I would like to work in here is the laundry room. I need to get the players to fall down a twisting long laundry shoot and be spit out into the laundry room. The laundry room is full of soiled and clean cloths (in different areas) and filled with giant slugs. The slugs swallow the dirty clothing, and their digestive juices consume all dirt and grime on the clothing, and then they spit the clothing back out in pristine condition, and someone comes to collect it and bring it to the steam/press room.

The players will have to fight off the giant slugs (hopefully they choose to knock them unconscious rather than kill them, as killing them will upset the proprietors).

So, how do I get the players to fall down the shoot to the laundry room? I do not want the proprietors to be secretly evil or anything.

One possible link may be found with a later encounter, so I will outline some of the encounters in case it's helpful. But, the link does not have to come from those encounters, as long as it's a decently convincing way to get them down the laundry shoot.

One encounter may involve joining the workers in their time off as they play a game, possibly a riddle or puzzle game, possibly wrestling, I am not sure. Not sure how I could work that into the laundry room problem I have, but just in case someone has an idea I thought I would mention it.

The next series of encounters is more likely to have a decent link to the laundry room.

At some point the party will learn that a large group of wealthy giant-beings are also guests that night. Not sure if these are actual giants or just something big and fanciful, but whatever it is it's something that would require a lot of cloth in their clothing (enough to excite the proprietor of the Emporium that he is going to make a good deal of money from these clients, and will treat them well and give them good rooms).

In the middle of the night (actually near morning), the place will go crazy. Common objects in the Emporium will animate and attack everyone. Workers will run around made trying to fend off tea pots and brooms, sewing needles and irons, scissors and cloth, and every sort of every day object you might find in such a factory.

While the party is fending off the animated items, one of them will note that perhaps the chaos is a cover for theft. The giant creatures will try and slink away with magic cloth, and perhaps they are no longer giant anymore but merely had been hiding behind an illusion or shapeshifting?

Regardless, the next encounter after the animated objects will be a chase scene. I am thinking a run through the factory, down (or up) some big wooden stairs along the outside of the building, possibly through some rooms that would pose a challenge like the bug room and the steam room, etc.. Give the party the opportunity to catch some of the fleeing thieves, but make sure at least one gets away by flight (perhaps they have natural wings, jump on board a flying creature, or perhaps they steal a flying contraption to make their escape).

At this point the Emporium owner will offer the party a generous reward if they are willing to pursue the thieves and retrieve his magic cloth. He will loan the party his flying machine for the pursuit (and piloting the machine and chasing after the thieves will be the next encounter).

I have a lot more after that, but it's outside the Emporium so not helpful for getting the players into that laundry room.

If someone can think of a way to work the laundry room encounter into that, cool. However, the encounter cannot take so long that it lets the thieves get away completely - I need the party in hot pursuit so they can follow the thieves in the air.

In addition, if someone can think of a link to the laundry room encounter aside from the animated objects and chase scene (or the workers game), that would be great too!

 

[Dracollich]

It sounds like you need a protagonist. Here is a rough idea on how to get them into the laundry room.

Have them meet a seemingly friendly enough fellow of the same age as they are. If questioned, he lies and says he's a son of one of the managers. He knows of a cool, secret room known only by those on the inside. Make it so it appears he's trying to impress one or the whole group. He leads them inside a closet and then remembers that he forgot to activate to door from the outside. Which is when he runs out, closes the door, and pulls the lever which open the trap door in the "closet" which is actually the laundry shot.

Why would he do this? He is either part of a group from the same university sent to complete this challenge. Both groups were not told about the other but he found out. Or, he could be from some other place looking to get the business connecting that the university is looking to establish. In either case, having his competition look bad by killing the host's slugs suits his purpose.

 

[Mistwell]

It sounds like you need a protagonist. Here is a rough idea on how to get them into the laundry room.

Have them meet a seemingly friendly enough fellow of the same age as they are. If questioned, he lies and says he's a son of one of the managers. He knows of a cool, secret room known only by those on the inside. Make it so it appears he's trying to impress one or the whole group. He leads them inside a closet and then remembers that he forgot to activate to door from the outside. Which is when he runs out, closes the door, and pulls the lever which open the trap door in the "closet" which is actually the laundry shot.

Why would he do this? He is either part of a group from the same university sent to complete this challenge. Both groups were not told about the other but he found out. Or, he could be from some other place looking to get the business connecting that the university is looking to establish. In either case, having his competition look bad by killing the host's slugs suits his purpose.

Thanks! I think I will use most of your proposed scenario, but a slightly different protagonist suggested over at CircvsMaximvs from Nareau:

They meet the thieves early on. The thieves realize the PCs are from an important magical university, and must be dealt with before the robbery occurs (lest they thwart it). So the thieves use their illusions to lure the PCs into a trap.

 

[Mistwell]

Next I am going to need to work out the details of the chase challenges. I run a clothing manufacturing company in real life, so I have some ideas for exaggerated fantastical versions of things I know a bit about. Here are some ideas I have so far:

Vats of boiling dyes
Giant laundry wringers
Giant tumble dryers
Massive steam presses
Automated cutting tables
Conveyor belts and aerial conveyances
Clothing folding machines
Animated thread shooting quilting needles like a bow and arrow
Animated flying attacking scissors
Animated steam irons
Animated sewing machines that machine-gun smaller needles
A warehouse with stacking equipment and huge stacks of shelving and heavy boxes on them that come tumbling down the narrow paths between them
A bug-room used for dyes

If anyone has other suggestions for things you might challenege players with in a factory such as this, I would love to hear them

Also, I need to come up with a justification for why stuff is animating. If could be the thieves, who have illusion abilities, have object-animating abilities as well. More likely the objects were always animated and are aggravated by the chase, or attack anyone who is in an unauthorized area? Or the thieves have some way to aggravate the animated objects? I could use some additional suggestions in this aspect as well.

I'll also need to start working up stats on some of this stuff. The party is first level, and I think I can adapt some traps to things like the giant wringers, but I am not aware of any animated object monster in the MM. I'll probably need to set up some artillery (needle attackers) and brutes or soldiers (the irons and scissors?)

 

[Set]

Also, I need to come up with a justification for why stuff is animating.

The mage(s) who created this stuff in the first place 'cut corners' by binding spirits to the various machines, rather than animating them with costlier and more complicated magics. The machines, with simple animalistic spirits, are increasingly likely to 'freak out' in the prescence of unauthorized personnel, or unfamiliar magical forces, and the PCs might have to not merely fight them, but 'talk them down' and try to soothe the panicky multi-ton clothes press, before it can be convinced to release the party member it just engulfed...

 

[Mistwell]

The mage(s) who created this stuff in the first place 'cut corners' by binding spirits to the various machines, rather than animating them with costlier and more complicated magics. The machines, with simple animalistic spirits, are increasingly likely to 'freak out' in the prescence of unauthorized personnel, or unfamiliar magical forces, and the PCs might have to not merely fight them, but 'talk them down' and try to soothe the panicky multi-ton clothes press, before it can be convinced to release the party member it just engulfed...

Nice one, that might work!

 

[Mistwell]

I am working on this project again, so if anyone has advice I would love to hear it.

 

[Gilladian]

I was thinking that to aggravate the spirits/automatons maybe the theives (or the PCs by accident) could release some sort of toxic chemical into the air. Like pepper, but stronger. It makes all the creatures testy, irritable, sneezy and prone to overreacting to intruders. So as the PCs do things that get noisier and more violent, the automatons respond in a like manner, escalating things to massive confusion in short order.

 

[ajanders]

The best way to get the PC's into the laundry room is probably to have the animated machines press them so hard they need to flee:
"Quick! Into that laundry chute! It's our only escape!!"


Ideas for skill challenges:
The factory poker game (Bluff+Insight+Thievery, but if you get caught using Thievery, you're going down the laundry chute)

Identifying the item that disrupts the animated objects (Perception+Arcana)

Fighting in the Steam Room (Endurance checks to keep from being overheated, Perception checks to see targets not in melee range, Athletic checks to keep from slipping in the condensation)

You might find it simpler to treat most of the animated factory bits as traps or hazards, rather than monsters...in which case they could be disabled with Thievery checks and detected using Perception)