Right. My players... shoo.
So, working up the next adventure for my group, and I think its going to send them heading towards the *other* type of dungeon. The one where they keep prisoners.
Basically, the airship that's the PCs primary mode of travel is going to be stolen by Karrnathi agents... stranding the PCs (who want to get back to Aundair) on the Talenta Plains... with Karrnath, Thrane, and the Mournland between them and home. Along with the airship is most of its crew, an NPC they'll be meeting shortly, and quite possibly a magic item about which they know nothing except "its probably powerful, and the Karrns wanted it."
This is all going to combine to send them racing in to Karrnathi to recover the ship, their allies, and the magic item (in one order or another...). Which will probably mean breaking in to a well guarded Karrnathi dungeon, attempting to break out the prisoners, recover the magic item and the airship, and escape to Aundair with their lives.
What I could use some help on is how to make sure this ends up being really exciting. Some interesting monster guards, giving them a variety of entrances and exits, other people or things they could encounter, that sort of thing. I'd prefer it be more than "You guys sneak in, beat up a bunch of skeletons and zombies and some human guards, spring the prisoners, fight the high-level warden, and escape on the airship". I expect a lot of that stuff to happen anyway, but how can I make it better?
The party is all 6th level but, due to a number of house rules, they tend to operate somewhere around ECL 8. They consist of a half-orc druid (who, with shape-shifting, can be a major damage dealer and has quite a few hit points), a half-elf cleric (uber healer with a few buffs and a love of hold person), a gnome rogue (crossbow sniper type) and a kobold sorcerer (very fond of acid-based spells, with both AoEs and single-target blasts). All the spellcasters have 3rd level spells at their disposal.
So... what would you have guarding this dungeon? Who - or what - is the 'warden'? Who else is imprisoned here, and how might they interact with the party? I'm open to suggestions!
So, working up the next adventure for my group, and I think its going to send them heading towards the *other* type of dungeon. The one where they keep prisoners.
Basically, the airship that's the PCs primary mode of travel is going to be stolen by Karrnathi agents... stranding the PCs (who want to get back to Aundair) on the Talenta Plains... with Karrnath, Thrane, and the Mournland between them and home. Along with the airship is most of its crew, an NPC they'll be meeting shortly, and quite possibly a magic item about which they know nothing except "its probably powerful, and the Karrns wanted it."
This is all going to combine to send them racing in to Karrnathi to recover the ship, their allies, and the magic item (in one order or another...). Which will probably mean breaking in to a well guarded Karrnathi dungeon, attempting to break out the prisoners, recover the magic item and the airship, and escape to Aundair with their lives.
What I could use some help on is how to make sure this ends up being really exciting. Some interesting monster guards, giving them a variety of entrances and exits, other people or things they could encounter, that sort of thing. I'd prefer it be more than "You guys sneak in, beat up a bunch of skeletons and zombies and some human guards, spring the prisoners, fight the high-level warden, and escape on the airship". I expect a lot of that stuff to happen anyway, but how can I make it better?
The party is all 6th level but, due to a number of house rules, they tend to operate somewhere around ECL 8. They consist of a half-orc druid (who, with shape-shifting, can be a major damage dealer and has quite a few hit points), a half-elf cleric (uber healer with a few buffs and a love of hold person), a gnome rogue (crossbow sniper type) and a kobold sorcerer (very fond of acid-based spells, with both AoEs and single-target blasts). All the spellcasters have 3rd level spells at their disposal.
So... what would you have guarding this dungeon? Who - or what - is the 'warden'? Who else is imprisoned here, and how might they interact with the party? I'm open to suggestions!
