Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rechan" data-source="post: 5743846" data-attributes="member: 54846">Got to hand it to you for at least working the NPCs into PC backgrounds/adventures. I'm surprised you want to run encounters with MORE Goblins/Kobolds after Slaying Stone. Anyways.With the opening sequence, what you want to do is establish that the kobolds are a menace to the local area. So:1) Before the encounter on the road, the PCs spot a farmhouse burning in the distance. Perhaps a single dead livestock along the way, or some bloody chicken feathers, or a lone goat wandering around. This is a sign of kobold raidesr. 2) This encounter is absolute chaos. The PCs come in on the tail end of the kobolds attacking a farmer coming in to market. The farmer and his son are up on the top of the wagon, waging a losing battle of fending the kobolds off from all sides. The two horses that were pulling the wagon are loose and running wild around the site, being either herded by kobolds, or chasing scared kobolds. Perhaps one of the horses has been hit by a sticky pot, immobilizing it, and it is freaking the hell out. The horses are wildcards, which will trample/run through a knot of PCs/kobolds at some point in the fight before running off into the wilderness. If you want this encounter to be even more crazy, you can play up how disorganized these kobolds are, or at least how little of a real threat they are posing. The kobolds are less concerned with actively killing the farmer/son then they are, say, stealing everything off the cart while the farmer and son are busy defending themselves from one group. Some of the kobolds are sitting under the wagon, eating some of the contents right there, while others are taunting the farmer. The idea here is that the kobolds are terrorizing the locals as opposed to just killing them.To have this thing teeming with crazy kobolds, you need a bucket of minions and skirmishers, as opposed to the heavy hitting dragonshields and wyrmpriests who would make short work of the actual farmers. Although if you want them present, then the scene could change entirely - the kobolds aren't disorganized, they're just pulling their punches and acting crazy. When the PCs show up, the kobolds could put their game face on.3) Instead of Encounter 2, one of the kobolds could escape Encounter 1, reporting back to Irontooth. Irontooth responds by sending a hit squad (lead by a slyblade or something) out to hunt down the PCs. The encounter would probably involve a more involved trap. Kobolds luring the PCs into a trapped spot in the woods, where they might have a hostage, or some other clever ploy. If you do as #2 suggests, then this encounter might surprise the PCs in how on the ball the kobolds are.Alternatively, Irontooth could have sent the hit squad out only an hour before the PCs show up to kick his ass. So the hit squad, returning to base and finding it destroyed, are looking for vengeance and show up later - for instance, they come at the PCs from behind while they are in the Keep. I had originally intended to do this, the hit squad setting up their ambush in the first room of the Keep and hitting PCs as they were leaving the dungeon once Kalarel was taken care of.Just an FYI. You might have the dragon burial site actually do something. Maybe the thing in the site can be related to amping up the Slaying Stone. In any event, whatever is in the burial site should be relevant to the story.</blockquote>

Verification