I need your thoughts and I need them quick!

[Rel]

Ok gang, here's the deal:

I'm running a one shot adventure this weekend for my regular gaming group as well as Old One, one of the posters from here at ENWorld (creator of the world famous Faded Glory Story Hour). If perchance you are one of those players, STOP READING NOW! (I'm not too worried about this. I can barely get my players to read my own Story Hour.)

What I'm looking for is some last minute confirmation on how well you think my adventure idea will work and whether it is doable in the amount of time I've got available. The basic adventure outline is as follows...

I'm doing a sort of Return to the Dungeons of the Slave Lords (very loosely based on the AD&D module A4). The setup is like this: The party (A dwarf fighter, a dwarf cleric, a gnome sorcerer and a halfling rogue - all 5th level) has been captured by pirates and brought to their island hideout. They have been forced to work in the mines on the island and all their attempts to escape have been thwarted.

But they now have a chance at escape. An NPC Druid who was a member of the party but escaped capture has delivered a message and a few of their belongings to them. The message is that he hasn't been able to find a good way to bust them out of the mines, but they had better try something because the island is a volcano and it is going to erupt any day now. Included with the note are the cleric's holy symbol, the sorcerer's component pouch, a +1 dagger that glows and a divine scroll with three low level spells. That is the only equipment the party will have except that each of them has a canvas tunic, tied at the waist with 5 feet of rope.

The path to escape is clear because recently the dwarves have noticed that the area they have been mining has a hollow behind it - hopefully a cavern that leads to the surface. Once there, the party will need to steal the pirate's ship or one of its longboats and head for the mainland (which is fairly close by).

The path that the adventure follows is this (Please note that I don't usually design linear adventures but for a one shot with time constraints I feel I need to keep them on track.).

1- Garbage dump. This is where the slavers dump the bodies of dead slaves and other junk. The restless dead have risen as minor undead (3 skeletons and 2 zombies) which the cleric should easily turn. There is also a Common Raggamoffyn (from the MM2) that should give them a little trouble but not too much. The main treasure to be found here is some broken furniture that could be used as clubs, a broken shield and a broken breastplate (those last two could be repaired by the cleric's magic).

2 - Desperate Kobolds. These (10) Kobolds have set up an ambush from two ledges along the sides of the cavern. They only have slings and clubs as weapons, but 8 of them are Rogue 1's and there is a Sorcerer 3 and Cleric 3 among them too. This will be a tough fight, especially if the Kobolds get surprise (which I deem likely) but it should be doable. This encounter can net the party a couple suits of small leather armor and a makeshift spear made from a broken sword blade (the sword could also be repaired by the cleric if he wants to spend a spell on it).

3 - Mimic Bridge. There is a chasm here and a natural bridge spans it. But the center 10' of the bridge is actually a Mimic. This should be a tough fight for the party but they are well suited for using missile weapons and can hopefully take down the Mimic before it inflicts too much damage on its victim. I am thinking of having the Mimic (after it grabs its first victim) trying to Bull Rush the other characters off the bridge. I haven't added any useful treasure to this encounter and I'm not sure I need to. Any ideas?

4 - Myconid Caves. This is planned to be the one non-combat encounter for the party (again, I usually have more roleplaying in my full blown campaigns but this is supposed to be an action packed one-shot). The Myconids can virtually insure that the party will negotiate because there are a LOT of them and they have those "pacification" spores. The Myconid king knows that the island is going to blow up soon and that his tribe will die. He wants to help the party get free if they will bring along and protect one of the younger Myconids who is capable of making "reproduction" spores and carrying on their tribe on the mainland. Assuming that the party agrees, the Myconid king will provide them with several potions to aid their escape.

5 - Lava river. This place is hard evidence that the volcanic eruption is not far off. Here the encounter is with some (I'm thinking 3) Magmin and maybe half a dozen Ash Rats (from MM2). They must also negotiate their way across a series of stone pillars that are going to be collapsing soon. The trick with this encounter is that I can't decide whether the Magmin are going to be a total pushover or nearly kill the whole party. The Fiery Aura and Burning Touch abilities they have are pretty nasty. If the party uses lots of elemental protection magic, they should be ok but if not, things could get ugly fast. The Ash Rats will be more of a nuisance than anything. No real treasure here.

6 - Steam chamber. Some water coming in from the ocean is a sure sign that the party is getting near the exit. The water is hitting one of the lava flows and this whole chamber is full of dense, hot fog, limiting visibility to about 5'. I was planning to have a group of Grimlock Barbarians attack the party here. They will of course be able to "see" just fine and can get right on top of the party before anyone knows they are there. I see this as a rousing good fight but nothing the party can't handle (unless they are very beat down from the last encounter). The Sorcerer's Web spell will probably take a few of the Grimlocks out of the battle long enough for the party to deal with the rest. The real gain from this encounter will be the stone battleaxes that the dwarven fighter can use (he has Weapon Focus and Weapon Spec. Battleaxe).

7 - Pirate battle. The party will exit the cavern near the shore and then gain entry to the sea cave where the pirates keep their ship. The pirates aren't stupid and they know about the volcano too. They are currently loading their ship with ill gotten gains and preparing to flee the island. They are all 4th level characters (there will be 4-6 of them) and decently equipped. But they will be scattered throughout the cave, the surrounding caves and the ship. If the party takes them on piecemeal, they should be able to capture some equipment making each successive encounter easier. Alternatively, they could try to stealthily make off with one of the longboats without the pirates noticing. In short, there are a lot of ways this encounter could play out but I think it will be an exciting climax regardless. Needless to say, after this encounter, the remaining members of the party will sail off into the sunset and the adventure will end.


A couple of notes on how I plan to run this adventure:

We will have somewhere between 5 and 6 hours to complete it. My plan is that right after the group finds out about the volcano, I'm going to set a clock on the table and say, "When the clock hits 11:00 PM, the volcano erupts." and go from there.

So do you think that the party can accomplish this adventure in that time frame? Are the encounters too difficult since they don't have much equipment? Should I add in some more treasure to make the final encounter easier? Should I leave out any of the encounters to shorten things or allow them to save some hit points for the final battle?

Let me know and please do it soon. This game is going to be run starting tomorrow afternoon at around 5:00. And I need to do all final prep by tomorrow morning.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Stone Angel]

sounds a little tough to me Rel. Espicially #3 the mimic you said something about missle fire, but they have no range weapons. The magmin will probably be tough too. I am not sure how you guys do in combat. But they are going to be a lot weaker than normal due to the fact that they have no armor(besides the leather) and no dmg dealing weapons. But it does sound fun!

 

[Rel]

Thanks for your thoughts, Stone Angel. I'll add some more detail for clarification.

The Sorcerer's spells are Magic Missile, Mage Armor, Spider Climb, Endure Elements, Web and Melf's Acid Arrow. I suspect that he will use the Mage Armor several members of the party to boost their AC. Once they defeat the Kobolds, they can recover two suits of small leather armor and use them to outfit the Halfling Rogue and (if he doesn't mind taking the Arcane Spell Failure) the Gnome Sorcerer. Also, later in the adventure, the Cleric can use Make Whole to repair the Breastplate and Shield found in the garbage dump. So their armor situation won't be too bad.

As far as weapons go, they will start with the magic (+1) dagger and will soon after get access to some clubs from the garbage pile. They can all arm themselves with slings if they don't mind sacrificing some hemline on their canvas tunics. Stones will be easy to find but they only do 1d3 damage. However, the Cleric can create Magic Stones (using the 1st level spell) to create 3 stones that do 1d6+1 (or double that to undead) with each casting. Still not massive offensive power but combined with some Magic Missiles and Melf' Acid Arrows from the Sorcerer, it should get them through when missile fire is needed.

As for Melee weapons, clubs will have to do at first, but if the Cleric gets creative, he can use his Stone Shape spell to make a stone battle axe for the fighter. If not, the fighter can pick one up before the final battle when they defeat some of the Grimlocks. There is also the broken sword being used as a spear tip by the kobolds which the Cleric can repair if he wants.

The Mimic is the one encounter that worries me a bit. I like the setup, but any character in the lead is almost certainly going to get stuck by the mimic. Then he will be taking 1d8+6 damage every round until the other characters slay the Mimic (which has 52 HP). It is possible that the party could use some "Fungus Mead" found in the Kobolds lair to disolve the Mimic adhesive but I don't deem that likely.

 

[dshai527]

I think it sounds like a lot of fun as well, but I think you are leaning too much on the cleric's spells to be the equaling factor. I don't know if you make your clerics prepare spells in advance or not but if you do his selection is critical, and doesn't leave much room for healing (and what if he is the one stuck in the mimic). This is key because several of the fights can deal some nasty damage, but you have given them ample time to rest between fights. Do you plan on having a chance for random encounters during rest or between set encounters. You might give the kobolds some bows to help even things out against the mimic, but then have the bow strings melt during the lava round so that they are not of any help afterward. I always think it is fun in one shots to give out different magic items too. Things that you normally wouldn't give out or have no offensive value. See if they can find new ways to use them since they have no other weapons or armor. Like a wand of alter self (maybe to give them natural weapons) or potions of firebreath (useful until they get to the fire part, and maybe they are combustable, so they better get ride of them, you notice the potion is boiling and shaking)

I really like the idea you have to let me know how it turns out so I can use it.

 

[Rel]

Thanks for your thoughts, dshai.

Perhaps you are right about me putting too much emphasis on the clerical spells. I do make them prepare beforehand so things might be too tough if the cleric makes sub-optimal choices.

Here is the way I foresee things going from a timeline perspective:

The party finds out that they must escape. The first order of business is to bust into the hollow cavern beyond the area where they are kept in the mine. Either Soften Stone or Stone Shape is the obvious solution for this depending on whether they want to leave the way they escaped obvious or not. The Cleric has access to both of these thanks to the Earth domain.

I think it is doubtful that the Cleric will have prepared any Make Whole spells at the outset so if they recover the broken shield and breastplate from the garbage pile, they will just have to keep them until later. Same goes for the broken sword the Kobolds have.

As for missile weapons, the slings and rocks are pretty crappy but if the Cleric and Fighter (both of whom have high Str) just throw the rocks, they can at least add their Str bonus to the damage. The Halfling will have a natural gift for throwing rocks and if he can get initiative at the start of a fight, he can do +3d6 sneak attack damage with his rocks.

I have planned for them to rest only once, with the Myconids. That will give them a chance to opt to fix the shield, breastplate and/or sword if they decide to. I suppose I don't have a problem if they want to rest at other times and I wasn't planning on hitting them with any random encounters. But they had better be quick about figuring out what spells to pick, etc. because the clock will be ticking.

As far as healing goes, they will start off with a scroll that gives them an extra Cure Moderate Wounds. And the Myconid king will also give them 3 CLW, 2 CMW and 1 CSW potions (he really wants them to succeed) in addition to the other healing spells the Cleric can use.

Maybe I should give the Kobolds a few javelins. They seem less sophisticated than bows or crossbows (which goes along with the desperate feel I'm trying to lend to the Kobolds) but they would be better missile weapons than the slings with rocks.

If you have any further ideas, I'm all ears.

 

[Silver Moon]

Quick Thoughts

Sounds pretty good, but unless your group stays a lot more focused than mine, will never get it done by the deadline. I played Module A4 about 20 years ago, and really enjoyed it. Sounds like you've kept the essence of that one. Also, the prior comments about too much riding on the cleric is true. During A4 I played the party's cleric, but the party wouldn't let me do what needed to be done, and the module was prolonged as a result.

Coincidentally, a few months back my wife ran a one-nighter that involved a volcano and dealine as well. Our delaying and stalling forced her to really rush things along during the final hour. I would suggest that you plan in advance approximately where you think they should be after each hour, and keep an eye on that rough schedule, in order to modify the module for completion. If it is planned out in advance you can make any necessary changes throughout the game without making the speeded up pacing obvious to the players.

Let us know how it comes out. And if you get a chance you can offer me some advice too, for my Sunday game (Posted under "Plots" as "Boot Hill/AD&D Hybrid").

Isaiah

 

[Rel]

Re: Quick Thoughts

Coincidentally, a few months back my wife ran a one-nighter that involved a volcano and dealine as well. Our delaying and stalling forced her to really rush things along during the final hour. I would suggest that you plan in advance approximately where you think they should be after each hour, and keep an eye on that rough schedule, in order to modify the module for completion. If it is planned out in advance you can make any necessary changes throughout the game without making the speeded up pacing obvious to the players.

That is a good idea and I've decided to use it. I really think things will move along well at the beginning. If they haven't made it to the Grimlocks before 10:00, I think I'll drop that encounter. That should still leave me a fair bit of time to deal with the Pirates.

Thanks for the ideas and I'll try to go and comment on your thread in the next few days. I've got my hands full for the next 24 hours!

 

[Rel]

If anybody is interested in seeing how the adventure turned out, here's a link to the Story Hour I wrote for it:

Return to the Dungeons of the Slave Lords - One Shot Adventure Guest Starring Old One