My new first level adventure: Who, What, When, Wererat?

dragonis111

First Post
Hello this is my first 4th edition adventure.

As the title states this adventure includes wererats, Because they are first level and cannot afford silvered weapons, I'm having the npc who send the pcs on the quest lend them each a silver dagger, silver longsword, silver battleaxe, or 20 silver arrows/bolts/sling bullets, what ever each pc picks.(There is an attached image of a floor plan of the dungeon).

The story starts out as the pcs pass through town the town guard captain needs help trying to find out who has been stealing food and killing livestock(Hence the title). As the pcs ask questions they will come across someone who knows it has all been caused by wererats, and will be sent on a quest to find and kill them. BTW the dungeon is an old abandoned mine right outside of town, coveredup by a collasped entrance the pcs must search for, with an old faded map.

But I have a few questions, The leader of the wererats is a level 2 drow warlock, but what powers should I give him, also, would letting the pcs borrow silver weapons be too easy, so should I only let one pc have a silver weapon or none of them? lastly what treasure could I have for the pcs, I was thinking a magic item and some gems.

Also give me any suggestions for my dungeon, as what I should put where. For traps I was thinking just some collasping walls and ceilings, and unstable floors, since it is just an old abandoned mine.

EDIT**: the room numbered 5, is right to the right of the entrance stairs, so it is techinically the first room.
 

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Sounds like a quite workable basis for an adventure.

The wererats of course can take human form, so they could easily infiltrate into the town, spy on the PCs, ambush them, etc.

There could be some unlikely allies in the town for the PCs to hook up with as well. Perhaps the local thieves guild is maybe not too happy about the prospect of the town's fortunes going downhill. There could be an interesting sort of dynamic there where the merchant's/law would love to do in the thieves, but can't afford to get into a fight with them while the town is threatened. That could lead into a follow-on or side adventure to resolve the power struggle.

The ruler of the town could also be a bad guy, but one that will happily utilize the players to solve his wererat problem. Of course if the PCs do solve it and become popular then he might decide he needs to make sure they don't become rivals to his authority. The ruler (or some other NPC) in the town might also be coerced by the wererats into helping them. Maybe the NPCs daughter has been kidnapped by them.

If the wererats become aware of the threat from the party they might also imploy various devious tactics (besides the simple one of just trying to sneak into town and assassinate PCs). They could leave a false trail out of town that leads to the lair of some other nasty monster in the hopes that the PCs will end up fighting it and get killed.

There could be a minor side quest involved in getting the silver weapons, or even just in learning exactly what the threat is so they know what sort of weapons they need.

Several of these various things could involve skill challenges. Learning the nature of the threat could involve researching the location of the mine, what sorts of things live there, etc. Negotiating for help could be a factor, so a successful skill challenge might result in getting some nice silver weapons, wheras failing might still get them a small number of silver weapons, but not as many or only daggers or something. Bargaining with the thieves might get other information, such as the existence of a Drow, or some protection from an ambush while they are in town, or the thieves could create a diversion of some kind, like pretending the PCs left town so the enemy lowers its guard or sends some wererats out of the lair while the party conducts a raid.

As far as treasure goes, I would go generally with the parcels in the DMG. Those tend to provide a good progression of magic items that should give the characters level appropriate bonuses as they advance. In terms of monetary treasure there are a couple of basic choices. Either the party can find treasure in the lair, or the treasure can be in the form of a reward from the town if they wipe out the monsters. It can be a mix of both. Magic items could also be part of a potential reward.

The only other thing you may need is a 3rd type of monster. Wererats are level 3 monsters, which is something the party can handle, but a level 1 type of 'grunt' monster would be good as well. Maybe some type of humanoid like some goblins or something, or even some humans. Spiretop Drakes or a Guard Drake or two would be a possibility. You could also make a leveled down version of the deathjump spider (I think there are a couple of stat blocks on this forum for things like that). Stirges are another staple level 1 monster. Any of the rats are of course obvious choices, with the giant rat making a perfect minion.

The various rat's disease power is also a possible plot hook. It is quite likely PCs will manage to contract filth fever. Making nice with a local cleric or somehow acquiring a ritual scroll for cure disease would be useful.

Generally I'd say you have 6 rooms, so figure that will provide you with about 6 combat encounters. Getting to level 2 should take around 10 encounters. One could be the 'quest' of getting rid of the rats in general, so that leaves 3 or so slots available for things like skill challenges. Of course if you want to elaborate the in-town parts a bit and maybe have another small monster lair (possibly just one encounter, maybe 2) then the whole scenario can easily provide you with a couple of levels of play.
 

Thank you alot abdul, I like your idea for getting filth fever, but to get cured of it, the pc's will have to bargain it from the thieves, which will ask that the pcs kill the corrupted town leader. Secondly, for a level 1 minion I was thinking possibily a mix of giant rats in the open wilderness and dire rats in the caves. Thirdly, I also plan on using your idea of a fake trail, in my adventure it will lead to a nest for deathrattle vipers(found in the MM), I also like your idea of the wererats infiltrating the town, I will have one wererat change into human and join in on the town meeting of dealing with the problem, so the wererats will be prepared for the raid, lastly since the level 2 drow warlock will be their leader, he will also have a cure for filth fever if the pc's manage to track him down after he flees during the final encounter with the pc's, the more lawful good choice than assassinating the town lord.

Once again thank you abdul!!!
 

Yeah that was a lot of good advice. I like the silvered weapons as rewards for a skill challenge. Another idea is that there could have been a group of adventurers or militia before who came after the wererats, so they had silvered weapons. However, they were defeated at different parts of the mines. As the players overcome encounters, they find more of these weapons that are scattered around. Perhaps one encounter begins with the weapon visible across the room, and the player whose weapon type it matches might be enticed to get to the other side of the room [past the wererats] in order to get the upgraded weapon.

As for the drow warlock, I'd probably be tempted to give him eyebite as his at-will power to push the drow deceptive thing, and maybe give him the poisonish power that gets bonuses from combat advantage. It's from the dark pact, in the Forgotten Realms Player's Guide. You could even give the drow 'multiclass' as a rogue for more combat advantage abilities (like sneak attack) to maximize his dark cloud.

~
 


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