Help me flesh out my very first adventure

[dreaded_beast]

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions so far from all the threads I started! They're great and I can feel the creative juices flowing.

Here is what I got so far, so please make any suggestions.

Here is a hopefully short summary of what I got so far. Mind you, the party consists of 1 Monk PC and 1 NPC Cleric. My DND consists of just me and my friend. Some of this is based from input from my player: what kind of adventures to go on, what the character wants to do, etc.

(I may change a few things here and there, but plotwise, this is basically it. Hopefully, this is how the adventure will go.)

The local wizard setup a tower decades ago, but has been gone for quite some time, leaving the upkeep of the tower in the hands of his apprentice, a 1st level wizard. This is unknown to the general populace of the nearby village, who give the tower a wide berth.

An evil sorcerer (3rd level) has taken up residence in some small dwarven ruins, relatively close to the tower. The sorcerer is a member of an evil cult and receives his orders from a 5th level cleric (who doesn't make an appearance in this adventure, but is used for background.) The evil cult has discovered the absence of the wizard who built the tower and has tasked the sorcerer to gain access to it and steal the valuables within. Among the valuables is an item which the evil cult can use to further their goals (the item, nor the interior of the tower appear in this adventure, this is just background ATM.)

Using "sleep" spells, the sorcerer captures the wizard, to force the wizard to allow the wizard access to the tower. However, the apprentice only has access to his bedroom and the main entrance of the tower, with all the other areas magically sealed off. The sorcerer is enraged and decides to sacrifice the wizard to the evil being his cult worships, then ask his cult for help to gain access to the tower.

Meanwhile, the PC monk visits the tower to speak with the "wizard" to learn more about his past. He is an orphan and raised at the nearby monastery. He has heard rumors that wizard is a great diviner and sage who can tell him about his past. At the tower, he meets the NPC cleric from the local temple.

(This is where it gets bad) Together they discover the "wizard" has been taken.
The NPC Cleric suggests that they start searching the nearby dwarven ruins. This is where the dungeon-crawl starts. (I haven't been able to think of a good way to get the PC from the Tower to the Dungeon yet)

The adventuring party is 1st level (1st level Monk PC and 1st level NPC Cleric). Here are the resulting encounter levels along with their areas (not sure what the areas are yet):

Wolf - EL 1 (Guarding entrance)
2 Medium Zombies - EL 1 (First room / entrance or supply room)
1 Large Skeleton - EL 1 (Second room / wizard lab or supply room)
1 Lemure (Devil) - EL 1 (Third room / cavern and summoning room, trapped in magic circle, gets free once sorcerer is killed)
3rd Level Sorcerer - EL 3 (Fourth room / bedroom or in the cavern)

If my calculations are correct, the experience from these encounters should be enough to get the PC and NPC to level 2. I want to speed up the gaining of levels a bit, so that is why I want the first adventure to get them to level 2.

I have plans and some tactics for each of the encounters and a generally idea what to do if the sorcerer dies, escapes, etc. But this is it for the most part.

 

[Liolel]

A few pieces of advice. With only 2 party members the party is going to have a good challenge with the el 1 encounters even more if the monster has high hitpoints. Give them lots of opportunities to rest . Also remember that skeletons and zombies have no intelligence. Give them a set of commands and then have them follow those commands to the letter and do nothing else. From my estimate of the encounters the party even if the rest a lot is going to have to rely on their brains as well as their brawn to triumph.
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1 question as well: are you using 3.0 or 3.5. The encounters you posted look like 3.0 as in 3.5 skeletons and zombies no longer divided by size, but by what they were animated from.

 

[Rel]

I like your plot. It has great room for expansion and can be evolved in lots of directions based on what your player enjoys most about the game. Also note that, in many ways, GMing for a single player can be a lot easier than for a group.

I think your encounters are nice and diverse and you should feel free to stick with them and ignore my advice below. But I'm a bit of a stickler for internal consistency so some questions were raised:

1) Why is the wolf guarding the cave entrance? Is he captured (and therefore I would presume, chained to a post or something)? Is he a "pet"? If he's a pet, I might lean more toward a pair of guard dogs rather than a single Wolf.

2) Where did the undead come from? A 3rd level Sorcerer couldn't make them by himself (without the help of a magic item of some sort). Did the Evil Cleric make them? How did he get them to tag along with the Sorcerer? Were the undead already existing in the caves?

Here I have a small suggestion: I'd make the Evil Sorcerer a Sorcerer 2/Cleric 1. This will boost his spell selection slightly and let him wear some armor (albeit with the chance that it'll mess up some of his Sorcerer spells). It will also mean that he has an easy way to circumvent the undead (assuming that they were already in the caves before he got there) thanks to Invisibility to Undead.

3) Did the Sorcerer make that magic circle that is trapping the Lemure? How? Some sort of magic item?

These questions are leading me toward a slightly altered story that still mostly sticks to your plotline:

The Bad Guy (Sorcerer 2/Cleric 1) comes to town and wants to get into the Tower. He goes skulking around the place one night but makes a little too much noise (he's a Sor/Clr, not a Rogue). The Apprentice hears this and sends his familiar (a bat) to investigate. The bat follows the Bad Guy back to the cave entrance but does not go inside.

The Apprentice is supposed to be spending time scribing a few scrolls into his spellbook but he's concerned about the interloper. He goes to town and offers a small reward to some local farmhands if they can find out who it is who's hiding in the caves. Two local boys decide to take up this task. (The PC may hear about this but consider it largely unrelated to his main desire to find out about his own history.)

The farm hands venture to the cave and go inside. Unfortunately for them, they run into the Large Skeleton (an Ogre who died here long ago?) and are killed, rising from the dead as Zombies. They mindlessly meander around the caves and wind up in a different area than the Skeleton. The Bad Guy learns of this but isn't upset since he can still get around them using his Invisibility to Undead. If anything, this bolsters his defenses a bit. But he is concerned that if too many townsfolk go missing, people may grow curious. He heads to a nearby farm where he saw some dogs stalking around and purchases two "Guard Dogs" and places them at the mouth of the caves.

He then decides to go get the Apprentice as you've described. Once the Apprentice is subdued and in hand, he discovers most of the tower to be locked up tight. Frustrated and seeking any clues he can find, he scans the whole tower with Detect Magic and does find one tidbit: A magical piece of chalk. When used to create a "Magic Circle" (this takes at least 10 minutes), it allows a Summoned Creature to be held within it indefinately until the caster gives them a command. At that time the duration starts normally.

Still frustrate, the Bad Guy hauls the Apprentice back to his cave and experiments with the chalk. He summons the Lemure and decides that when the Apprentice wakes up, he'll threaten him with the Devil and that should make him divulge anything else he knows about the Tower.

Meanwhile as you say, the Monk visits the Tower and runs into the Cleric. The Cleric is there because the parents of the young Farmhands went to the local temple hoping that they would help them in finding their sons. The Cleric knows that the Apprentice hired them to check out the dwarven caves but stopped to ask the Apprentice if he'd heard from them (depending on how much the Monk pokes around town, he may have heard some fo these rumors). From that point he and the Monk decide to join forces to find the Apprentice and Farmhands respectively.

So then your encounter list looks like:

2 Dogs
2 Zombies (the Farmhands)
1 Large Skeleton
1 Lemure (trapped in the circle until the Bad Guy orders it to attack our until he is killed)
Bad Guy (whom I propose is a Sor 2/Clr 1)

Also consider your treasure:

Dogs - None
Zombies - Only whatever the Farmhands were carrying (i.e. not much) though the Cleric may insist these items be returned to their families.
Large Skeleton - Whatever treasure an Ogre might have had. Perhaps some coins of an older mint or a small gem or two.
Lemure - None
Bad Guy - Will likely have some gold for bribes and buying supplies. A masterwork simple weapon and maybe some masterwork armor. A potion or a couple scrolls and whatever minor scrolls the Apprentice may have had. And the piece of magic chalk (1 or two uses left?). Make sure he has a Holy Symbol to the Evil Being he worships as this will likely be a good plot hook for further adventures.

Hope that helps a bit.

 

[dreaded_beast]

Thanks for the great ideas Rel! I'm definately going to be using some if not most of it!

Liolel, I have the 3.5 PHB, but only the 3.0 DMG. I want to run 3.5, so I'm gonna check the SRD for those monster stats, thanks!

 

[FireLance]

Just some suggestions:

When running a solo adventure, it is usually a good idea to play to the PC's strengths. Currently, the cleric is likely to shine in the undead encounters, so you should have no more than one.

Assuming the monk will fight unarmed, avoid creatures with damage resistance that the monk will find difficult to penetrate. This includes the zombies (DR 5/slashing) and the lemure (DR 5/good or silver). Skeletons are OK (DR 5/bludgeoning).

Add encounters with many weak, low-AC creatures such as Small Monstrous Centipedes and Tiny Monstrous Spiders (look under Vermin) so that he can make good use of his Flurry of Blows. His good saves should also protect him from their poison.

Add traps that he can avoid or minimize the effect of due to his good saves, e.g. a CR 2 Burning Hands trap or a CR 2 Inflict Light Wounds trap (see the Traps section of the SRD).

Require him to push buttons, pull levers, etc. in order to open doors. Have obstacles guarding these buttons and levers that require him to use his monk class skills to traverse. Examples: An narrow bridge across a chasm that he must use the Balance skill to cross, a gap in the bridge he must Jump over, a wall he must Climb, a corridor of whirling blades that he must Tumble through, magical sentries that he must Hide and Move Silently to bypass, etc. You can assign an ad-hoc CR of 1/2 for each obstacle overcome. The NPC cleric need not come along as only one person needs to manipulate the button, level, etc.

This way, the NPC cleric is just there to provide healing and combat backup, while the PC does most of the work.

 

[Rel]

Just some suggestions:

When running a solo adventure, it is usually a good idea to play to the PC's strengths. Currently, the cleric is likely to shine in the undead encounters, so you should have no more than one.

I think FireLance makes a great point here. On further consideration, what if you forget about having the Farmhands be zombies and simply be dead. BUT, they've been laying around long enough for thier bodies to have attracted some Giant Centipedes or other vermin.