Looking for low-magic, celtic (starting) adventures

[Herzog]

I'm preparing to start a Celtic fantasy setting, and I'm looking for some adventures to run.

I'm mostly looking for free adventures, but suggestions for ones I have to buy are welcome too.

The adventures should fit into a very low-magic, low-fantasy setting (no dragons, hordes of undead, etc.) although I can always replace 'orcs' by certain tribes of humans.

I'm also mostly looking for adventures that don't assume the PC's are adventurers. Simple townfolk based in their hometown should be the/a starting situation.

I'm currently considering writing my own adventure, although I've come to rely heavily on existing material the last couple of years, so I'm a bit hesitant to try that.

Any suggestions welcome!

 

[Dandu]

Perhaps you could have a campaign centered on driving all the Yuan-Ti off of an island?

 

[Herzog]

Thank you for that Dandu!

Any relevant suggestions welcome!

 

[Hunter99]

A mind flayer, with his pet imp have taken control of the food and water supply of a town.

They threaten to starve the town and it's inhabitants should they disobey.

They demand as tribute all the beautiful women of the town.

The aging, ruling prince of the town has one daughter of exceptional beauty whom he does not want taken away from him.

The mind flayer is due to return in three months to demand tribute.

The old prince has promised the hand of his daughter in marriage to anyone who can defeat the mindflayer along with inheriting his position as ruling prince of the town. (I suppose you could have the princess choose one of the party members whom she wants to marry, and the other party members could be given an equivalent reward.)

 

[Sekhmet]

As for as "low fantasy" go, you might try looking at some of the Hyborian Age adventures featuring our favorite Barbarian King Who Isn't Really a Barbarian and is Actually a Fighter Rogue, Conan the Conqueror.

As far as I recall, it's fairly low fantasy, low magic, and very deadly (your players are treated much more like humans than superhumans, like in regular D&D).

It should help you get your mind in the right place, if not able to outright use their adventures without too much modification. I believe it's done by Mongoose Publishing now, and you may be able to find them online as reference material.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

As for as "low fantasy" go, you might try looking at some of the Hyborian Age adventures featuring our favorite Barbarian King Who Isn't Really a Barbarian and is Actually a Fighter Rogue, Conan the Conqueror.

As far as I recall, it's fairly low fantasy, low magic, and very deadly (your players are treated much more like humans than superhumans, like in regular D&D).

It should help you get your mind in the right place, if not able to outright use their adventures without too much modification. I believe it's done by Mongoose Publishing now, and you may be able to find them online as reference material.

I second that suggestion, and encourage you to talk to @Water Bob, our resident Conan expert, for more info!

 

[MadLuke]

Few years ago, I also wanted to masterize a low magic campaign, so I used these simple rules and variants:
- no wizard (but sorcerer are ok);
- no metamagic or magic craft feats;
- ranger and paladin only with their no spell casting variant class (see Dragon Magazine for that);
- bard only with his savage variant class (Unearthed Arcana);
- no magic object except legacy weapons ("Weapons of legacy" handbook), artifacts an portals;
- clerics got no churches, they are just pious and devots solitary rare men;

Bye, MadLUke.

 

[Ettin]

A mind flayer, with his pet imp have taken control of the food and water supply of a town.

They threaten to starve the town and it's inhabitants should they disobey.

They demand as tribute all the beautiful women of the town.

How does this fit into low-fantasy celtic?

 

[Dandu]

Yes, there should be something about stealing cattle at the very least.

 

[Hunter99]

This is a PM that stoutfish sent me. I thought it was relevant to the discussion so I thought I post it with my response here.

Hi! I'm wanting to use your plot hook in my upcomming campain. i have a question, what level would you recomend this task being? What would you consider to be "an equivalent reward?" Should that rewards scale with level?

I would appreciate a response.

Hi Stoutfish,

The basic pattern of the adventure is that a bad guy has established a coercive monopoly on the essentials necessary to sustain a village/town/castle’s life and threatens to starve them if they don’t pay tribute, in this case their beautiful women.

You don’t need to have a mind flayer and an imp establish the monopoly. You could change the monsters to suit different levels although the monsters should be tough enough to actually be able to coerce the townsfolk. A band of kobolds might not be able to establish such a monopoly. A band of trolls could probably do so.

Depending on the CR of the monster I would say lvl. 4-7. If you decide to have trolls establish the coercive monopoly, then 4-5.(If you have the MM3, you could use trolls from there in which case the level would probably be bumped up.)

By “equivalent reward” I meant a beautiful woman and a position. Since one party member would be marrying the princess, the other party members might feel left out if they didn’t get to marry a beautiful woman and receive some position.

Depending on the level of civilization, if it was a castle whom the adventurers saved, each party member could receive a title of nobility (perhaps a knighthood? ) which provides them with a fixed income monthly or weekly.

Hope this helps.

Ettin, a mind flayer and an imp was a suggestion.

The bad guys could be replaced by other monsters such as trolls which would fit with low-fantasy celtic.