Darcand
2014-12-06, 02:37 AM
I have an adventure idea that has been cooking in the back of my mind for a long time now as an opener for a low level campaign.
As part of reclaiming an abandoned Dwarven city the PCs must summon and bind an Elder Fire Elemental by performing a ritual at 3 points around a central pyre, 4 if they opt for a sidequest (which involves performing an additional ritual to enable a Sorcerer with the Fire Elemental bloodline to tap into the Elder Elemental's power) or lack a party member capable of performing the rituals (in which case said Sorcerer would conduct the rituals for them, but automaticly conduct the extra ritual too, out of self interest). Each ritual requires a skill check and a full round action. The spacing of the ritual points is set so that it would take a single PC a minimum of 6 rounds to complete them all, 3 rounds if the party has 3 PCs capable of each performing one part of the ritual, 7 if they need an NPC to do it for them or if they opted for the sidequest.
The Elder Elemental appears as the first ritual is completed and takes it's first action on the following round. The elemental cannot leave the pyre, but attacks by scooping out small fire elementals from itself and hurling them into combat against the individual currently performing the ritual. The party's task is to protect the individual conducting the rituals from these elementals until the final ritual is completed and the Elder is fully bound.
This is the only real combat encounter in this adventure unless the PCs wander too far, but my concern is how frequently to hurl an elemental to keep the pressure on, while avoiding overwhelming the PCs with mobs.
And for anyone who is curious, binding the Elder powers the Everburning Torches which line the hallways, making the rest of the campaign must easier to navigate.
As part of reclaiming an abandoned Dwarven city the PCs must summon and bind an Elder Fire Elemental by performing a ritual at 3 points around a central pyre, 4 if they opt for a sidequest (which involves performing an additional ritual to enable a Sorcerer with the Fire Elemental bloodline to tap into the Elder Elemental's power) or lack a party member capable of performing the rituals (in which case said Sorcerer would conduct the rituals for them, but automaticly conduct the extra ritual too, out of self interest). Each ritual requires a skill check and a full round action. The spacing of the ritual points is set so that it would take a single PC a minimum of 6 rounds to complete them all, 3 rounds if the party has 3 PCs capable of each performing one part of the ritual, 7 if they need an NPC to do it for them or if they opted for the sidequest.
The Elder Elemental appears as the first ritual is completed and takes it's first action on the following round. The elemental cannot leave the pyre, but attacks by scooping out small fire elementals from itself and hurling them into combat against the individual currently performing the ritual. The party's task is to protect the individual conducting the rituals from these elementals until the final ritual is completed and the Elder is fully bound.
This is the only real combat encounter in this adventure unless the PCs wander too far, but my concern is how frequently to hurl an elemental to keep the pressure on, while avoiding overwhelming the PCs with mobs.
And for anyone who is curious, binding the Elder powers the Everburning Torches which line the hallways, making the rest of the campaign must easier to navigate.