gareth
2009-03-01, 12:10 AM
Having played a few games online, I thought I'd have a go at writing an adventure. If I can get it into a playable state I'll try running it on these forums. This is my first attempt at creating an adventure and I haven't even been a player for that long. So I thought that as I created the adventure I'd post my material here to get feedback and suggestions from experienced players and DMs. If you're likely to play this once it gets written, you may want to skip the spoiler boxes and any replies to this post.
Requirements
I had four requirements in mind for the adventure.
1) It has to work with just the three core books and the Manual of the Planes. I don't own anything else and I don't want to involve any homebrew rules aside from tinkering with the monsters.
2) The adventure has to give natural opportunities for the players to accumulate treasure. Players expect a certain amount of loot and I don't want it to feel shoehorned in.
3) Besides the treasure-gathering, there has to be some kind of overall goal that could lead on to further adventures.
4) The adventure has to allow players to start at level 1 and level up before the end.
So, with those requirements in mind, I've created:
Claws of the Kruthik
The Disaster
Five years from now, the world will end. Every creature capable of speech, from humans to gnolls to mind flayers to vampires, will be instantly destroyed in a massive psychic cataclysm, the origin of which I haven't figured out. Only non-magical beasts survive, and a side-effect of the disaster increases their intelligence.
The effect is greatest in the kruthiks, who are already the most intelligent natural beast. Afterwards they are as smart as humanoids were, and they quickly enslave or exterminate the other beasts. Within a few centuries they've created a world-spanning civilisation even more advanced than the old human empires, building their cities above ground now that they don't fear attack.
The Timeslip
Three hundred years from now, a city of 250,000 kruthiks is transported back in time to five years years before the disaster. This catches the kruthiks completely by surprise and they have no explanation for it. I don't either, at the moment.
In the human era the kruthik city lies in an isolated wasteland, so it takes a while for the humans to notice. But the city has just been cut off from the farms that fed it. Thousands of starving kruthiks, all as smart as humans, begin to pour out of the city, desperate for fresh meat. They raid human farms and towns, while leaving the city's treasure completely unprotected from goblin and kobold raiders.
The Adventure
The PCs come in when a town is attacked by kruthiks. It's not obvious that the kruthiks are smart, and they don't know about the city yet. Their mission is to track the kruthiks back and figure out where they're coming from, and why they're attacking now. Oh, and rescue the last guy who tried this.
While tracking the kruthiks they run across the goblin equivalent of an adventuring party, carrying loot from the city. Loot like little gold statues of kruthiks, and oddly shaped armour that wouldn't fit a humanoid. This should make them thoughtful.
After a while they get a view of the city, with thousands of kruthiks streaming out of its windowless towers. A month ago there was nothing there. The PCs fight their way in through both kruthiks and looters of all species, collecting loot as they go and gradually realising that the kruthiks are in charge - there's no tieflings or devils controlling them.
They find the lost adventurer, who's being interrogated by the kruthik "mayor". The final battle has them defeat the mayor, and rescue the adventurer. They do a bit more exploring but never find out that the city is from the future. A "natural beast only" plane is probably the best they can come up with.
The PCs are about to fight their way out of the city when the timeslip reverses. They're trapped in the kruthik world, along with hundreds of humanoid looters.
That's all I'll write up at first, but the cliffhanger obviously leads into some more adventures.
Future Adventures
The next adventure involves exploring what the PCs think of as the Natural Beast plane, trying to find a way back home. Just before they succeed, they learn that they're really in the future. Once they get back, they have just five years to save every intelligent race and monster from extermination.
So, any comments?
Requirements
I had four requirements in mind for the adventure.
1) It has to work with just the three core books and the Manual of the Planes. I don't own anything else and I don't want to involve any homebrew rules aside from tinkering with the monsters.
2) The adventure has to give natural opportunities for the players to accumulate treasure. Players expect a certain amount of loot and I don't want it to feel shoehorned in.
3) Besides the treasure-gathering, there has to be some kind of overall goal that could lead on to further adventures.
4) The adventure has to allow players to start at level 1 and level up before the end.
So, with those requirements in mind, I've created:
Claws of the Kruthik
The Disaster
Five years from now, the world will end. Every creature capable of speech, from humans to gnolls to mind flayers to vampires, will be instantly destroyed in a massive psychic cataclysm, the origin of which I haven't figured out. Only non-magical beasts survive, and a side-effect of the disaster increases their intelligence.
The effect is greatest in the kruthiks, who are already the most intelligent natural beast. Afterwards they are as smart as humanoids were, and they quickly enslave or exterminate the other beasts. Within a few centuries they've created a world-spanning civilisation even more advanced than the old human empires, building their cities above ground now that they don't fear attack.
The Timeslip
Three hundred years from now, a city of 250,000 kruthiks is transported back in time to five years years before the disaster. This catches the kruthiks completely by surprise and they have no explanation for it. I don't either, at the moment.
In the human era the kruthik city lies in an isolated wasteland, so it takes a while for the humans to notice. But the city has just been cut off from the farms that fed it. Thousands of starving kruthiks, all as smart as humans, begin to pour out of the city, desperate for fresh meat. They raid human farms and towns, while leaving the city's treasure completely unprotected from goblin and kobold raiders.
The Adventure
The PCs come in when a town is attacked by kruthiks. It's not obvious that the kruthiks are smart, and they don't know about the city yet. Their mission is to track the kruthiks back and figure out where they're coming from, and why they're attacking now. Oh, and rescue the last guy who tried this.
While tracking the kruthiks they run across the goblin equivalent of an adventuring party, carrying loot from the city. Loot like little gold statues of kruthiks, and oddly shaped armour that wouldn't fit a humanoid. This should make them thoughtful.
After a while they get a view of the city, with thousands of kruthiks streaming out of its windowless towers. A month ago there was nothing there. The PCs fight their way in through both kruthiks and looters of all species, collecting loot as they go and gradually realising that the kruthiks are in charge - there's no tieflings or devils controlling them.
They find the lost adventurer, who's being interrogated by the kruthik "mayor". The final battle has them defeat the mayor, and rescue the adventurer. They do a bit more exploring but never find out that the city is from the future. A "natural beast only" plane is probably the best they can come up with.
The PCs are about to fight their way out of the city when the timeslip reverses. They're trapped in the kruthik world, along with hundreds of humanoid looters.
That's all I'll write up at first, but the cliffhanger obviously leads into some more adventures.
Future Adventures
The next adventure involves exploring what the PCs think of as the Natural Beast plane, trying to find a way back home. Just before they succeed, they learn that they're really in the future. Once they get back, they have just five years to save every intelligent race and monster from extermination.
So, any comments?