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View Full Version : DM Help Halp! Need some dungeon setpieces for tomorrow



Yora
2014-06-27, 02:13 PM
I assumed we wouldn't play our game this weekend since we're all on a birthday party party tomorrow, but I've been asked to bring all my stuff so we can play later after we're done eating. I hadn't yet prepared anything and I don't know what new players might be joining us (and might perhaps become regulars), so I have to quickly assemble something simple that is enjoyable as a one-shot for completely inexperienced players.

My idea is to have a merchant being attacked by bandits who want a relic he bought a few weeks ago. While taking his cart back to their camp to search thoroughly, they passed an abandoned village dug into the side of a gorge, which happens to be the home of a nonevil clan of kobolds. The kobolds attacked the wagon and the merchant managed to escape into the caves.
The PCs village has send out scout to search for the missing merchant, and when a trail was found the PCs where sent as a rescue team. When they arrive at the gorge, the mercant is trapped in a cave by giant spiders and the surviving bandits are searching for him, but the kobolds are trying to get them out of the caves. Which means there are three factions in the caves right now: Kobolds, spiders, and bandits. The PCs only have to get the merchant out and don't have to fight the kobolds, but they don't want any intruders in their village and are likely to consider them bandit reinforcement until the PCs can show they have a common enemy.

Populating the place with creatures is easy, but I don't want it to be a slaughterfest and would instead prefer to have them overcome other obstacles. We're playing a version of AD&D and the five existing characters are 2nd level with two priests. They shold be able to handle quite a lot of low level creatures and might have some additional 1st level fighters as backup. (No sense in thieves and wizards for a single game).
The most prominent feature of the area is the central gorge which has a river at the bottom and a couple of bridges connecting the caves in both walls. Kobold archers could be securing one bridge and some beasts in the water could attack anyone who falls in or tries to swim through. The kobolds also have some pit traps which they cross with wooden planks. An old shrine could also be an interesting room, but I don't have an idea how to make it so.
I need a few more ideas for obstacles that the group can overcome with smart solutions, and rooms with an environment that spices up simple fights. Can anyone help me out?

draken50
2014-06-27, 02:26 PM
An area that has water running through it that has caused it to become slimy, making it harder for the pcs or other humanoids to keep their balance. Spiders may rest in the upper areas, and could have less problems keeping balance due to have a lower center of gravity comparably and 8 legs.

Plain booby traps, thing like tripwires, or the like that give small advantages or alert Kobolds to the presence of the pcs.

The caves could regularly connect to the gorge wall allowing the players to keep track of location, provide different areas of lightning and deal with threats from the other side. (oh yeah, you were already planning something similar.

Small hand/footholds in the walls could allow the Kobolds to move about in ways the pcs may be too big to use.

The kobolds should probably have some traps/barricades set up to keep the spiders away from them.

I probably wouldn't use monsters in the water so much as a swift current, enough to make it dangerous or unpleasant, but avoiding insta/kills or the like were someone to fall in. Could be used as a quick escape by the players if necessary too.

I would have the shrine exist either deep in the tunnels or in an illuminated area, perhaps the sun reflects off the water of the current, and the stones are oddly shiney or the like to provide strange illumination. Offerings of things dear to the Kobolds would probably make sense.

Perhaps the merchant could be trapped in the spidery part of the cave, the Kobolds fear the spiders, but are able to keep them back, and would also be loathe to dismantle their barricades/traps. The merchant may have fallen down an old mining shaft or the like, that would be difficult to spot in undergrowth and the like, if you they would have a way of climbing back out once finding him to avoid traveling back through the caves.

Kolbolds might also try scare tactics. Disguising themselves using cloaks, or animal parts and the like to try to give the impression that there are larger, more fierce critters living with them, maybe using basic alchemy or just flamable stuff to appear to breath fire, and magic or simple tools to create roaring noises and the like.

Yora
2014-06-27, 02:43 PM
Great ideas so far.

One big flaw I just noticed is that it's a waste of time to break through the kobold defenses at all if the merchant can be found by going around it. If the players decide to make it inside the kobold village, there should be some kind of benefit.
A simple solution might be that they can take a significant shortcut by breakig through the first defense line, but encountering much heavier defenses at the main living cave.
The players have been pragmatic and sensible so far, I doubt they would even try to assault a humanoid village unless they are certain it's the only way to their goal.