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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zappo" data-source="post: 531819" data-attributes="member: 633">I looked at Cavalry, Angry Halfling and Kazoos, and I immediately got a mental pictures of a horde of mounted Raging halfling barbarians, with some sort of epic music being played in the background. The fact that it was being played on the kazoo added a silly element that I found kinda funny. When the wild idea evolved into halfling valkyries being called by Wagner's music, I just couldn't get it out of my head - the look on the face of the kazoo player!This implied some sort of large-scale battle, which in turn implied nation-scale resources, so I had the PCs being hired by a King to retrieve the magical kazoo. A classical go-and-take-the-item-in-the-dungeon quest, with a comedic low tone (a powerful halfling archmage?), a last-minute surprise, and a large scale final battle. No particular roleplaying ambitions, just fun.The first big problem was designing an interesting dungeon. The ancient halfling house was a no brainer, but then I met the barrier: can't make a big dungeon in a short adventure. Can't even make a medium dungeon, not without going way too far from the ingredients. So I just figured what kind of creatures would make their lair in a cave and placed a den of wolves, and then went on to the big encounter. The hydra is fairly suitable as a "guardian of the artefact" creature. It is stupid and immediately hostile, and fairly predictable. So I had it be the stage boss, and specified that it could squeeze through the tunnels, though barely (fairly big snakes can crawl through fairly small tunnels, after all *cough*harrypotteranddachambaofsecrets*cough*). This also enabled the PCs to devise some tactics to help them against the high CR monster. Originally, it had a paragraph saying that it occasionally crawled away to get something to eat, and the wolves would cower in the bottom of their den, but I edited it out for brevity (is there anyone at all who actually respected the 500 words limit btw?).At this point, while I already had an idea forming for the hat, I was completely stumped with the wishing well. The thought of a non-magical wishing well, which just sits in the middle of a village, and gets tossed some coins every now and then, never crossed my mind (besides, I wouldn't have known where to place it). But a well of wishes? You could make an entire adventure around a well of wishes. In fact, for all of five minutes I wanted to make the armies of two nations clash for the control of a real well of wishes. Nah, too powerful, better have it do something wishy but not too wishy. It had to be in a separate encounter, or in the dungeon. Again for brevity, I went for the dungeon. A wishing well in a halfling house, what could it do? I thought about The Hobbit and LOTR's big hobbit parties, and figured that a well which did something good for the wizard's guests would be appropriate. Plus, it was a pun on "wishing well", ya know, like, wishing well on someone, that sort. Hah. But yeah, in the end, it was hammered in.On to the final bit. It wasn't trying to insert intrigue; the battle is imminent, no time for that. This is a mostly hack'n'slash adventure, make no mistake. What it was trying to do, is to set up a final surprise when everything seems to be going well. With a hat of disguise, the choice was between having an orcish spy, and having Riker be an orcish spy (I started out with Riker having a flamboyant hat, and refusing to take it away even in presence of the king, then decided against it). The unsurpassable problem here was: the hat only gives +10 to disguise. It isn't automatic. What if a PC notices it? Yeah, I could plan for it, but that would have made the whole thing a bunch longer. So, instead, I arranged things so that the orcish spy only had to fool NPCs. I rewrote three or four times the final bit, first having Riker kidnapped to come back later, then realizing that any orc would just kill him, then toying with the idea of having him resurrected, then having the king deliver the kazoo himself, then using a lieutenant, until I decided that the orc would not have even tried attacking the bard, and would just rely on speed instead. He would simply meet the lieutenant carrying the kazoo before Riker. This of course only gave him a few minutes before being discovered, which was just what I needed. The finale was easy then.Odd enough, I don't see some of the flaws nemmerle pointed as big issues, but I dislike this scenario for other reasons. For example, the orc is standing on a hill, surrounded by mounted goblins, but the whole scene is near the King's encampment. No way he can escape, and the PCs aren't alone; any number of soldiers from the army can come to their help. The orc will die, provided that the PCs use their superior fighting ability to get to him quickly (before the horde arrives). Riker as I said was a problem, but I just needed him missing for a few minutes.I completely agree on the dungeon, though. Being the meat of the adventure, it badly needed more encounters. As it stands, it looks like a D&D-the-movie dungeon. The well, intended to give a ooh-this-is-a-hobbit-home-full-of-friendliness feeling, fails miserably due to its lack of an explanation.That, and that the aim of a funny/silly undertone was vastly missed. The final scene with the halfling valkyries and the music was completely non-interactive; if the adventure was a videogame, it would have been the ending full-screen video.</blockquote>

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