Help me set up a village, dungeon, and castle

[BOZ]

I am working on a scenario for a D&D-esque RPG that I made for my daughter. My goal is to have enough material that we could play a scenario this weekend, and continue it next weekend at GenCon. The idea ist that the PCs come to a village where the inhabitants have been plagued by monsters coming from out of the mountains. The PCs would investigate and find that there is a (supposedly) abandoned castle built up into the mountainside, with no apparent entrance but there is a large cave mouth below it. The cave would lead to a dungeon - the basement of the castle - where a mad wizard has been conducting monster-creation experiments, thus leading to the owlbears, gricks, shambling mounds, etc that have escaped and menaced the village. That's what happens when you have orcs and goblins doing your bidding! I have a bunch of ideas on what to stock the locales with, but what I need are more ideas on what I can throw in there. I envision the castle as being reminiscent of the classic
original Ravenloft adventure; the PCs won't find the wizard in the dungeons, as he will be waiting for them in the castle.

Ideas? Any and all will be taken into consideration. I have the maps for the village and dungeons already, just need to populate them.

 

[Quickleaf]

When in doubt I use kobolds ...bearing gifts (75% trapped)

 

[GMMichael]

Village:
swarmed by ogres. They're pudgy, wearing over-alls, and have red skin on the backs of their necks and forearms.

Dungeon:
Bird-men without wings. Their pointy noses look like beaks, and they wear suits that make them look like morticians. Their hair is grey, they're stooped and evil, and their favorite curse is "zo-shul-isst, zo-shul-isst."

Castle:
Strahd himself. He's young, good-looking, well-dressed, rich, and sucks blood without concern for his victims.

 

[BOZ]

When in doubt I use kobolds ...bearing gifts (75% trapped)

Hah, neat.

Village:
swarmed by ogres. They're pudgy, wearing over-alls, and have red skin on the backs of their necks and forearms.

Dungeon:
Bird-men without wings. Their pointy noses look like beaks, and they wear suits that make them look like morticians. Their hair is grey, they're stooped and evil, and their favorite curse is "zo-shul-isst, zo-shul-isst."

Castle:
Strahd himself. He's young, good-looking, well-dressed, rich, and sucks blood without concern for his victims.

I forget if I was going to put an ogre in there somewhere (I do have a Cyclops), but that is a nice touch. Birdmen is a neat touch. I wasn't going to use Strahd per se (despite my Ravenloft reference above), but he is definitely going to be a wizard, and you visual

 

[Herobizkit]

3.0's first module, The Sunless Citadel, is pretty close to what you're looking for.

* it's got a fort that sunk into the ground, so instead of a cave, you actually go underground to get at it.
* there are goblins and kobolds and (surprise!) a dragon.
* there's a mad someone doing Bad Things and making monsters.
* while the module is 'only' 36 pages, it's got enough material for several sessions.

Nothings 'feels' as right as making your own stuff, but it's one of the best 1st-3rd level adventures I've ever run.

 

[Gilladian]

You might also pick up "to slay a dragon". It is a nice module with two villages, a moor, some surroundings, and a lot of small adventures that feed into a larger plot, but you can easily repurpose them.

 

[BOZ]

That sounds useful, thanks!