Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="LazerPointer" data-source="post: 1564602" data-attributes="member: 16131">Just finished my third session as a DM, had about 1.5 hrs. prep time, (lotsa flying by the seat of my pants) and I wanted to pick your fine minds for ways to give an undead hunt in the forest more lively.There are five 2nd level characters, and one lvl. 1 priest NPC tagging along.So far:  characters met during a town festival, saved a local druid and hunted down the goblins that accosted her.  They were travelling to a nearby fiefdom when they stumbled across an outbreak of undead in the forest.  The kobolds in the area 'bury' their dead in trees; one of these trees had been chopped down, all the bodies had been laid out, and a large circle of black dust was part of a ritual that was turning them all to zombies.  They have discovered that there is a barrow in the vicinity with one sentient undead 'priest' very active in raising as many undead as possible.As I DM off the cuff, I find I'm very good at making lively NPC's and conversation, but I need to work on my adventure pacing.They're going through the forest.  I'm throwing random, small challenges at them, one zombie here, a small group of skeletons there, as most of the undead raised in the forest amble about without a unified purpose.  It was very satisfying to see them blow resources on these lopsided fights.Eventually they will find the barrow, where I'll throw a lot more weight at them, including ghouls.  (and at the heart of the barrow, the sentient zombie-like undead who will stab himself with his dagger before lunging at his foes.  good ol' fear of fortitude saves)  As I think about this, I guess the barrow should have a big enough expanse of rooms to set up a nice progression of fights before they reach the Sentient.So how do I make the hunt through the forest for the barrow interesting?  (and what would you use to spice up the barrow itself?)  If the session had gone on tonight, they would have found it by following the trail of a few skeletons towards the "darker" area of the forest where the trees are a bit gnarlier.  Basic clues, I know.I wanna make 'em work to find it, and have a nice build-up of tension.</blockquote>

Verification