Critique my session idea!

[Brendanicus]

So, I'm essentially a first-time DM for a group of relatively inexperienced players. I'm playing 3.5 with them and want to run the module Red Hand of Doom. However, I also want the newbies to get their feet wet before we start the actual module, so I came up with a quest of my own for a session before we get to Hobgoblinfest 2015. Naturally, any and all advice will be appreciated.

The party meets in an inn in a small frontier town. There, they will meet a wizard by the name of Sonia. Sonia lives outside of town and brews potions for a living. However, she is distraught. She has been troubled by a nearby tribe of orcs for quite some time now, but things came to a head yesterday while she was out in town. When she came back to her remote home, she found it occupied by orcs. Having no other option but to flee, she has been staying in the town's inn, trying to get the militia to aid her in expelling the orcs.* She will attempt to employ the party to kill the orcs so she can go home again.

However, all is not as it seems. Sonia has recently started experimenting with necromancy, and has been kidnapping Orcs in broad daylight to experiment on**. In retaliation, the Orcs have invaded her home in an attempt to kill Sonia, but she was in town selling her wares at the time. A group of Orcs have remained in her home ever since, hoping to kill her if she attempts to return.***

Sonia is entirely capable of killing the Orcs on her own, but after she meets the party, she decides that they would make fantastic test subjects. She hopes that the two groups (party and Orcs) will weaken each other to the point that she can finish off and animate the survivors. Sonia plans on tailing the party and attacking them a few minutes after the party engages the Orcs, with buffs and summoned monsters at the ready. She will also zombify any dead she finds on the battlefield.

*Coincidentally, the constable (Who also serves as head of the militia) has recently gone missing. He was kidnapped by Sonia, who relished at the opportunity to experiment of the only Dwarf in town. He is being held in Sonia's hidden cellar.The militia has been hesitant to do anything without their leader While the suspect the Orcs are responsible. they fear the strength of the Orc tribe too much to directly attack them.

** Sonia would normally rob graveyards for bodies, but she fears the watchful eye of the local Clerics too much. She prefers to use Orcs, who she sees as too dim-witted to catch her.

***The Orcs originally planned to burn Sonia's house down, but they want to know what happened to the kidnapped Orcs. Their skeletized remains are actually in Sonia's hidden cellar.

Anyway, the plan looks likes this:

>Party arrives in town

>Party meets each other, interacts with NPC's in town.

>Plays either finds Sonia out, or most likely goes to her house.

>Possible very light random encounter on the road.

>Players find Orcs, and fight them. One Orc tries to flee to tell the tribe what happened when they start to lose.

>Players either return to town, find and search Sonia's hidden cellar for the Constable (Skeletons attack too!), or Sonia shows up to kill them.

>Players are in town.

>If Orc escapes, the Orc tribe raids town the following night, believing that Sonia is there and the PC's are in league with her (The Orcs also figure they could use extra slaves). If Sonia somehow survives, she shows up too, with as many undead in tow as she can muster.

What do you guys think?

[Oracle_of_Void]

Seems pretty good to me. Standard beginner-type adventure: rescue a kidnapped NPC, fight orcs and skeletons, all good stuff. The main thing, to me at least, is to nail the roleplay of Sonia. She's apparently a very crafty and resourceful spell-caster who wants to graduate to full blown necromancer. Hit the notes right and you've got potential for a memorable adventure. Even have a good climax if the rest of the orc tribe comes to destroy the town.

[PurpleSocks]

Sounds like a good beginners session, I doubt this will come up if they are new players but it never hurts to be prepared, if they ask Sonia why orcs have invaded her home in particular it would help if she had a lie prepared.

Make her lie again and say something like her long dead father was a great warrior who killed many an orc back in his day with his magic sword and the orcs have come to desecrate his burial place and make off with his sword of epic awesomeness.

If you have greedy PC's the mention of the sword may make them even more motivated to go hunt orcs.

Personally I'd make sure Sonia has an escape plan which she uses and male her a reccuring villain, potentially giving her a minor role in RHD. Also leave a clue in her cabin that points towards the valley that RHD is based in.

[Brendanicus]

Sounds like a good beginners session, I doubt this will come up if they are new players but it never hurts to be prepared, if they ask Sonia why orcs have invaded her home in particular it would help if she had a lie prepared.

Make her lie again and say something like her long dead father was a great warrior who killed many an orc back in his day with his magic sword and the orcs have come to desecrate his burial place and make off with his sword of epic awesomeness.

If you have greedy PC's the mention of the sword may make them even more motivated to go hunt orcs.

Personally I'd make sure Sonia has an escape plan which she uses and male her a reccuring villain, potentially giving her a minor role in RHD. Also leave a clue in her cabin that points towards the valley that RHD is based in.Actually, I had the idea of replacing the Orcs with Gnolls, Seeing as some of the players in question have had a few confrontations with Orcs. Anyway, since the Gnolls are a new group in the area (Pushed out of their old grounds by the Red Hand), local townsfolk are suspicious that the Gnolls are going to eat them alive in their sleep (This fear is justified, but the Gnolls wont attack the village for quite some time, at least until local game and livestock has been exhausted.). Sonia will tell the party that the Gnolls occupied her house as a hunting trip to eat her.

Yeah, I don't really expect Sonia to survive, but I do have D-Door and Mount to last her at least until a more climactic encounter. ALSO: The constable will have initially left town (before being kidnapped by Sonia) to try to talk to the Gnolls and ask them why they are in the area. This is actually a pat of a series of talks, as none of the Gnools speak Common, and nobody in town speaks Gnool. As a result of these covert dalliances by the constble, people have begun to grow suspicious of his whereabouts, some even going as far to accuse him of being in league with the Gnolls. This could be a possible mini-plot twist and give the PC's more interest in the Constable.