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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 5637069" data-attributes="member: 59082">My group has been in the summer duldrums - we haven't played in a couple months as the current DM has been away for much of it (I was the DM for two+ years but got a case of burnout). Anyhow, I'm <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/308041-planning-new-campaign-pseudo-sandbox-ruined-city.html#" target="_blank">planning a campaign</a> to run segments in starting sometime either late this year or early next, but we're looking for a quick one-off this Friday (tomorrow) and I was thinking of using that as an opportunity to run an introduction session or two.I've linked to a thread with some initial thoughts above, but the gist of it is that the PCs hear about a vast ruined city in the jungle lands far to the south of the setting's heart. Being bold and adventurous of course, they hop on a ship and travel to the ruins. The city itself is a massive complex of ruins - maybe a hundred square miles, probably the remnant of a settlement of 1-2 million or more inhabitants (the lost civilization fell a thousand years ago and was very sophisticated, with a sort of magical Atlantean feel, so there would have been "magic tech" to support a city of that size). Attached to the city is a small adventurer's town that exists solely to support explorers and treasure hunters...I'm somewhat modeling this off of the Earthdawn city, Parlainth. Exploration of the city would take up most of Heroic tier (we're playing 4th edition, but for the purposes of this post it doesn't matter all that much). I want it to play like a sandbox, but with key plot elements and hooks thrown in that would potentially develop into a larger story in Paragon tier against an Ancient Evil that I might make the PCs unearth sometime in late Heroic tier.For now, I'm looking for ideas on an intro adventure. The other members of the group really want a session so we're thinking of playing tomorrow, so time is an issue. Given that we'd have to make characters, we'd probably only have time for a mini-adventure, maybe two hours or so, so I'm thinking of running an intro scenario that lays out the premise and gets them into a fight, as well as introduces them to an NPC that will be the "native" guide of the region, sort of a mystic jungle ranger.The city is in a jungle a day or two upriver from a city on the coast. I'm thinking of introducing the PCs to each other on the river boat, which is then attacked by some sort of river creature (any ideas?). I like this option because it is short and sweet, and relatively self contained. It introduces them to the basic idea of the campaign and would end with them arriving at the ruined city, hopefully wetting their appetite for more in a few months when I get things going in earnest.I was also considering running a first exploration of the ruins or them getting to know the town outside the ruins, but just don't have the time to pull that together.Any ideas to throw in the pot? Any river creatures that you recommend that would be challenging for 1st level characters? Any ideas on how to run a river boat combat? Any other advice?Thanks!</blockquote>

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