WarKitty
2012-02-03, 02:42 PM
So I'm running a commoner deal as a sort of back-up campaign to our regular ones. It's basically a stand-in for when our regular DM is sick or too busy, or if we have too many people missing to play. This means that I'll need each session to be a self-contained unit; a session lasts 4-6 hours. I'm making some simplifications to 3.5 for the sake of faster chargen and ease on my players.
Here's the basic setting:
You are a resident of a small human farming village on the edge of the mountains. While nominally a part of Alrion, the kingdom takes almost no interest in your area, not considering it worth the effort to send someone out to collect taxes. The only contact with the wider human world is the occasional trader that takes goods (mostly furs and hides) to the local town and returns with
For as long as anyone can remember there has been a goblin mining village in the mountains across the river from you. Relations have been fairly peaceful, despite the goblin's nature - the village pays a yearly tribute of food to the goblins, and the goblins keep bandits and the far weirder monsters of the mountains away. It's an unusual situation, but probably not far different from what would occur if the kingdom actually took an interest in the area.
Recently, however, there have been unusual events happening. Several villagers have gone missing, typically those that were out in the forest by themselves, or out alone at night. Though no one has observed the goblin village closely, there appear to be an unusual amount of smoke coming from it for the past few weeks.
The plot:
[spoiler]Deep in the mine, a strange purple iron ore has been found. When refined, it produces a blueish iron with strange properties. When forged into a slashing or piercing weapon, it causes creatures killed by the weapon to rise as undead. A necromancer has discovered this and taken over the goblin village, using the kidnapped humans as fodder for experiments.[spoiler]
Sample encounters:
- find out what is going on, obviously. I'm probably going to wing this one a bit based on what the players come up with. (I've found investigation type stuff often works best if you let the players come up with plans and then arrange for them to work.)
- Fairly early on, the players should encounter the undead form of one of their friends. This should be both an early challenge, a way of frightening them nicely, and a good clue that something's up.
- There is a room in the mine that contains several cages, containing various creatures. At least some of the missing villagers should be among them.
- The main entrance to the mine is guarded by a pair of goblins. They may be bribed or tricked.
- At some point, further access is blocked by an insane bugbear. The creature is restrained by a heavy chain, so it cannot follow the PC's. However its chain allows it to reach anyone who attempts to cross the door. The chain originates inside an open cage, which appears to have an auto-locking mechanism.
Here's the basic setting:
You are a resident of a small human farming village on the edge of the mountains. While nominally a part of Alrion, the kingdom takes almost no interest in your area, not considering it worth the effort to send someone out to collect taxes. The only contact with the wider human world is the occasional trader that takes goods (mostly furs and hides) to the local town and returns with
For as long as anyone can remember there has been a goblin mining village in the mountains across the river from you. Relations have been fairly peaceful, despite the goblin's nature - the village pays a yearly tribute of food to the goblins, and the goblins keep bandits and the far weirder monsters of the mountains away. It's an unusual situation, but probably not far different from what would occur if the kingdom actually took an interest in the area.
Recently, however, there have been unusual events happening. Several villagers have gone missing, typically those that were out in the forest by themselves, or out alone at night. Though no one has observed the goblin village closely, there appear to be an unusual amount of smoke coming from it for the past few weeks.
The plot:
[spoiler]Deep in the mine, a strange purple iron ore has been found. When refined, it produces a blueish iron with strange properties. When forged into a slashing or piercing weapon, it causes creatures killed by the weapon to rise as undead. A necromancer has discovered this and taken over the goblin village, using the kidnapped humans as fodder for experiments.[spoiler]
Sample encounters:
- find out what is going on, obviously. I'm probably going to wing this one a bit based on what the players come up with. (I've found investigation type stuff often works best if you let the players come up with plans and then arrange for them to work.)
- Fairly early on, the players should encounter the undead form of one of their friends. This should be both an early challenge, a way of frightening them nicely, and a good clue that something's up.
- There is a room in the mine that contains several cages, containing various creatures. At least some of the missing villagers should be among them.
- The main entrance to the mine is guarded by a pair of goblins. They may be bribed or tricked.
- At some point, further access is blocked by an insane bugbear. The creature is restrained by a heavy chain, so it cannot follow the PC's. However its chain allows it to reach anyone who attempts to cross the door. The chain originates inside an open cage, which appears to have an auto-locking mechanism.