Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jacob Lewis" data-source="post: 8497840" data-attributes="member: 6667921">Part V: Planning Ahead for Gardmore AbbeyMadness at Gardmore AbbeyAs I mentioned before, I want to transition Reavers of Harkenwold smoothly and seamlessly into Madness at Gardmore Abbey. So before I start working on other areas of this adventure, I will take a look ahead for seeds I can begin to plant. The players will need to find plot hooks and bits of information that will provide hints and ideas for what is to come. I'm not looking for a lot of details or specifics at this time. Just enough foreshadowing to pique their interests, nudging them in the right direction.Madness at Gardmore Abbey is loaded with quests and plot hooks. Many of them tie directly to events and non-player characters from both the setting and previous adventures in the D&D Essentials line. However, none of the quests require that the players actually participated in any of those adventures. DMs are given leeway to incorporate or embellish details as they see fit. Fortunately for me, one of the quest-givers is already a member of the Iron Circle:The majority of quests in this adventure are pretty simple. In this one, Alira asks the party to find two "ancient family heirlooms" inside Gardmore Abbey, and return them to her for a reward. She doesn't tell the characters that the items, an amethyst dagger and an adamantine rod, are actually "relics from the Infernal Bastion, sacred to Asmodeus and infused with evil power." But the adventure gives us no other details about the items or the role of the Alira. I don't know what will happen after Gardmore Abbey in my campaign. That's too far ahead for me to be thinking at this point. But finding "sacred relics infused with evil power" would be of great interest to anyone affiliated with Asmodeus, like the Iron Circle. And the Fell Court. And the Ashmadai. This is just too good to ignore.So now I have my first link to Gardmore Abbey, and a potential plot point that I can use in this adventure. The relics themselves won't make an appearance in this part of the campaign. I need them to sit in the Abbey until it is time for the adventurers to go there. But discovering their location (and their existence in the campaign) could be an interesting twist for this adventure. It has the potential to be an interesting, effective plot device that can deepen the rift within the Iron Circle and the Ashmadai, and potentially shift the balance of power in Harkenwold. And, it will most likely turn into the catalyst for some major events to come. I'll leave it at that for now.But there's one more hook I can include. And it's a big one.Madness at Gardmore Abbey is built around the assumption that the characters start the adventure with one card from the Deck of Many Things. The book goes on, offering advice about how to weave one of the multitude of adventure hooks into your own campaign, moving the party smoothly into that adventure. The book also suggests a number of alternatives, including sending the party into the Abbey for reasons that have nothing to do with the Deck, and then having them find a card in the first encounter. I'm about to do one better:Nazin Redthorn, the brigand captain tasked with seizing Harkenwold, possesses one of the cards from the Deck.This not only makes Redthorn a more interesting nemesis for the party, but it also suggests a better explanation as to how he suddenly gained control of the region so easily. The power of the card itself may not be so great; it just needed to be enough to give Redthorn an advantage. When the party faces him in the final chapter, the card is going to make things more interesting during a fight. Best of all, it won't be found lying somewhere like a worthless trinket.Once the characters obtain the card through their inevitable victory, they will immediately become aware that it is only one of a set. The Deck will compel them to find the others and make it whole, promising everything to get the party motivated. The characters may want to learn more about the artifact before deciding their next course of action. But from here on out, the road to Gardmore Abbey should become apparent.</blockquote>

Verification