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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 8621722" data-attributes="member: 6877472">Any help the DM gets when it comes to troubleshooting problems is well received, in my books.  I've seen some adventures that take the time out to do this, but not many.Ok, here's a sample timeline:Week -2: a new gang of bandits has begun to more brazenly attack merchants and pilgrims along the King's Road.Week -1: a heavily armed caravan, along with an escort of mercenaries, is attacked by bandits, along with ogres.  The merchant's daughter is kidnapped.Day 0: having heard about the reward posted for the return of the merchant's daughter, as well as a bounty placed on bandits, the players have come to the village of X.Day 1: the village is attacked by the bandits.  This is actually a cover for the real culprits, a group of drow, to steal the town's sacred treasure.Day 2: the mayor announces the loss of the treasure, which the locals believe will cause them misfortune.  A reward for it's return is posted.The players now have two hooks, and an overall goal to collect bounties on bandits.  They can investigate the caravan, and hope to track the bandits back to where they are keeping the girl, OR head to the east, where the thieves who took the treasure were spotted.This opens up Objectives A and B.  Objective A gives the players the opportunity to find an old watchtower, where some bandits are holding the girl captive, this is Objective C.  Objective B will lead the players to a group of bandits, who, when defeated, have clues about Objective D (the bandit camp) and E (the drow cave).Completion of Objective C gives a clue about Objective D.  And completion of Objective D gives a clue about the drow's overall goal.Day 5: if the girl isn't rescued, she is taken to the caves the drow have set up as their base.Day 6: the drow begin a ritual to defile the sacred treasure and offer up the girl as a vessel for Lolth to possess.  Day 7: the ritual is complete, and the girl is possessed, not by Lolth but by one of her servants, a Marilith.  She is confused by only having 2 arms and is weakened.  If the original sacrifice was rescued, the drow use a backup, but this angers Lolth and she turns the priestess into a Drider.  The Marilith will have reduced statistics to compensate for having to make due with the body of a peasant girl.Day 8: having regained some of her strength in her new body, the demon has become a Demi-Marilith, that possesses two additonal arms and some of her old powers.  In this form, she rallies whatever bandits remain and attacks the village.  If the bandits are dead, she will raise them as zombies, and attack on Day 9.Either way, Objective E is to defend the town until...Day 10: the King's soldiers will arrive and put an end to the threat, as long as the village was not destroyed.  The town priest offers the players Objective F, to journey to a forest shrine and attempt to purify the town's treasure...</blockquote>

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