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ddude987
2015-04-02, 03:50 PM
Hello Gianters!

I am doing some planning for an adventure. It is for a campaign setting I have been working on for a long time, and is supposed to be an introductory adventure to the setting. The basis of the setting is post-golden age civilization, lots of ruins and lost technology, think late medieval times.

So far the adventure is as follows... THERE IS A TL;DR ON THE BOTTOM!


Starting location: The players begin in a small town near the eastern coast, just to the north of the black hills. The town is fed water via a creek. This creek is fed by an aqueduct several miles upstream, about 2 days journey. This creek feeds this town and several villages nearby.

Adventure:
Over the past few weeks the creek has been getting smaller and smaller. The townsfolk are worried, and there is hardly enough water to sustain the town, much less the villages further down the creek. The players are tasked with investigating this mystery.

As the players set off they pass through an old road through the woods. The road used to be paved, and cobblestone patches can be found scattered along the road. After a mile the road turns and disappears into the creek. There is no sign a bridge ever existed here. As the players continue, they can see massive stone structures in the distance among the mountains.

If the players investigate the creek further, they will find a fording several hundred feet up the river from where the road stops. The players notice this ford is not natural, and see beaver-moles creating the ford. If they backtrack to where the road should come out of the creek, they can continue following the road. This road leads towards the river mountains in the West but disappears as the forest and underbrush becomes dense. In this forest the players may come across the ruins of a once great city.

Continuing to follow the creek, the players reach the aqueducts. They see a large tunnel structure, partially in ruin, with water barley trickling out. It is very apparent that here is the origin of the creek. There is a stone service ladder that leads up to the raised tunnel. Following the trail of water and tunnel, the aqueduct releases into a cave. The players have now discovered their first dungeon.

The water is being blocked by a species of beaver-moles. These creatures build damns at underground water sources and make their homes in underground lakes. Additionally, there is an ancient ruined waypoint built into the mountain. Workers in charge of maintaining the aqueducts lived here when the area was under Minöst's rule.


Notable locations or things:
Black Hills: This is vast area of low rolling hills called such for its black soil. The plant life that grows on these hills is tinged with black vein-like weavings in its leaves. It is said crops grow exceptionally well in these parts, though this may just be rumor as the folk living here are isolated from most places.

Great Aqueducts: The aqueducts are mostly a ruin, and in many parts so destroyed there is no evidence they existed. Further West, towards the river mountains, these aqueducts are in pristine condition. They span across the mountains, connecting them like bridges as shown below.


Possibility 1: infestation
Beaver-moles not native to this area.
Merchant passing through had some, they broke free.
Bandits robbed a merchant who had them
Slowly migrating Southwest
Disruption North (or East) in the mountains
Mining or collapse there-of
Famine*
Beaver-moles were isolated in an area that was then disturbed introducing them to the area where they then began migrating through the mountains Southwestward.*

Possibility 2: change in behavior relative to short-term behavior
Beaver-moles are native
Animals sense time of dire need and are preparing for seclusion from the coming "storm"
They hibernate every 500 years
They move their home every X years and have decided to go here

They were beavers and recently uncovered an artifact/magic-item that transformed them into beaver moles*
TL;DR
PCs begin in a small isolated town built next to and sustained by a creek. Creek has been drying up slowly over the past few weeks. PCs investigate, finding an old aqueduct ruins that the follow to find a ruined waypoint that used to host workers in charge of maintaining the aqueduct and find the aqueducts waters being stopped by mole-beavers building a dam.

The help needed:
I'm having some issues further developing the adventure (and/or) dungeon. If anyone has ideas on things to add or ways to make the idea a more detailed adventure. I want the first adventure to last about 1 session (usually 6 or so hours of play time for us), captivate the players, and help them get them introduced to the setting.

Feel free to ask questions! that always helps with block. Thanks!!!

Keltest
2015-04-02, 04:03 PM
So, first question. Are the players going to be rolling their characters during the session, or are they already made? Depending on how in-depth you want to go with character backgrounds and the like, this can eat up a significant amount of time.

Now then, for the actual adventure. Your setting is set post-golden-age, which means there is going to be a LOT that the PCs don't know what it is. To that end, work on describing things in such a way that what they actually are is not immediately apparent to the players.

Secondly, vary the encounters and dangers. Traps are one way to do this, but these are ruins, there can be all sorts of weird stuff sitting around that doesn't work right. For example, breaking the dam outright releases a flood of water. How are they going to survive that?

Other things you should think about are why your beaver-moles are only moving in now. What was keeping them out before? Is that same thing going to try and keep the players out, or can it be reactivated to evict the beaver-moles? Additionally, what are the hazards between the town and the aqueduct? More beaver-moles are pretty boring. Perhaps there are other parties (not necessarily intelligent ones) who are fighting over the pools of water left from the drying stream?

Surpriser
2015-04-02, 04:11 PM
What you should also consider: What do those beaver-moles want and plan to do? If you know that, you can go further from there. Are they just some animals with rudimentary intelligence or do they have a sophisticated society and long-term plans? How are they going to approach the PCs when they first see them?

There are several possible approaches: The PCs might fight them, find another way to drive them out, help them move peacefully or even employ them as the new guardians of the aquaduct (with appropriate payment / assistance of course).

Maybe there is a reason why they had to move to this place or why they could not get here before now. If the PCs help them against whatever caused that, they can gain some allies who will ensure that the water keeps flowing for a long time.

ddude987
2015-04-02, 05:56 PM
So, first question. Are the players going to be rolling their characters during the session, or are they already made? Depending on how in-depth you want to go with character backgrounds and the like, this can eat up a significant amount of time.

We will be working as a group to make characters. This process will not be part of the first meeting, and the play group is one I play with a lot and we are all familiar with the process and as-such this isn't a current concern for a campaign.



Now then, for the actual adventure. Your setting is set post-golden-age, which means there is going to be a LOT that the PCs don't know what it is. To that end, work on describing things in such a way that what they actually are is not immediately apparent to the players.

Secondly, vary the encounters and dangers. Traps are one way to do this, but these are ruins, there can be all sorts of weird stuff sitting around that doesn't work right. For example, breaking the dam outright releases a flood of water. How are they going to survive that?

Thanks! I'll write up some descriptions. I need to think about the dungeon itself, but I prefer to style the actual mechanics of the encounters towards the party to challenge them and so each PC can contribute in a unique meaningful way.


What you should also consider: What do those beaver-moles want and plan to do? If you know that, you can go further from there. Are they just some animals with rudimentary intelligence or do they have a sophisticated society and long-term plans? How are they going to approach the PCs when they first see them?

There are several possible approaches: The PCs might fight them, find another way to drive them out, help them move peacefully or even employ them as the new guardians of the aquaduct (with appropriate payment / assistance of course).

Maybe there is a reason why they had to move to this place or why they could not get here before now. If the PCs help them against whatever caused that, they can gain some allies who will ensure that the water keeps flowing for a long time.

They may be intelligent, but they certainly will not be intelligent enough for interaction with humans. This is a more low-magic campaign. There are mostly only humans as far as sentient social species go. Think wheel of time in a way.

I have been thinking ideas about the beaver-moles. I have posted them in the OP. The lines with asterisks are ideas that I can see a clear way to link to further story in the campaign.

Gritmonger
2015-04-02, 09:54 PM
For beaver-moles, look at naked mole rats for a communal, tunneling species and its behavior (a queen, signalling, underground living, and hideous appearance)
For behavior, maybe they are normally a more deep subterranean species, driven up from their usual depths by something worse, or by earthquakes, or by mining. If something worse, maybe they unearthed it - and following collapsed tunnels might lead to where whatever was worse remains still.

While the rabble might not be intelligent, you could have the queen be semi-intelligent, perhaps quite old, from an age before.

If they are normally subterranean, one presumes they build dams and homes from mud or stone.

Maybe they are the now feral remnants of beasts of burden used to dig tunnels or mine or build underground. Maybe the queen still bears scars, a collar, a mark, or something else from this era.

Maybe they dug this way because there were other forgotten tunnels or mines or waterways dug already, and in searching their hive the adventurers come across obviously worked stone or bricks.

Surpriser
2015-04-03, 05:28 AM
If you don't know yet what type of characters your players will create, keep as many option open as possible.
That's why I recommended also including the possibility of helping the beaver-moles or some other sort of peaceful interaction - that way, if you have a social character in the group, they have something to do as well.
So, they find the dam, find out what drove them away from their original home and help them deal with this danger in exchange for the promise to keep the water flowing.
If they do not use this opportunity (or you see form their characters that they are more interested in solving this problem by force), well, they get to fight the beaver-moles and the unknown danger will find them anyway a bit later.

Some ideas as for what that could be:
- An underground (?) race that held the beaver-moles as slaves. The current tribe escaped and they are being tracked by their owners.
- Some monstrous creature that appeared in their previous lair. And now that it has acquired a taste for beaver-moles, it follows them everywhere.
- Famine or a disease that forced them to abandon their home. If the players can cure the disease/provide food, they can save the tribe (if they do not help, they risk getting infected themselves).

ddude987
2015-04-09, 01:34 PM
Thanks so much for the brainstorming help! I actually have the adventure planned out now.


The players come upon an old waypoint. The waypoint is built into the clifface next to the aqueduct. Up on the landing, they see the waypoint has a lookout tower, a soldiers quarters, and a service room that connects to the inside of the aqueduct presumably for repairs.

The cots in the soldiers quarters look freshly used, as does the large brazier on the landing. It looks like there is fresh mining work done on the mountain, following that inside the players find a cavernous space. The mine continues past the cave, and ends up at another cave. It seems the beaver-moles were stumbled upon by some people mining and have now begun to inhabit the aqueducts as it provides them an underground space to live with water.

Eventually some men come to the landing. These men are known as outlaws, local poachers, and it seems they were mining, perhaps looking for something. The players can kill them, interrogate them, just leave, et cetra.

This is by no means the entire adventure, but a rough walkthrough just for purposes of the following question

So there are 4 main areas, the mine, the soldiers quarters, the service room, and the lookout tower. The players will be level 2, and this is supposed to be a low-magic campaign.

What kind of loot should I be giving out? or just what is some interesting look that comes to mind to give here? Also, what is some in-flavor loot that makes sense why its there?

Thanks.

Lord Torath
2015-04-09, 03:39 PM
Thanks! I'll write up some descriptions. I need to think about the dungeon itself, but I prefer to style the actual mechanics of the encounters towards the party to challenge them and so each PC can contribute in a unique meaningful way.Dungeon modules S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, DA2 Temple of the Frog, and DA3 City of the Gods may be good resources for descriptions of "futuristic" devices.

Surpriser
2015-04-10, 05:00 AM
From your description, I take it that the beaver-moles currently inhabit the aquaeduct itself and the mines, while the outlaws were driven away by them but will return some time after the PCs arrive on scene.

Knowing the ruleset you are going to use would help in providing specific items to be found.

Some general ideas:
- Equipment of the outlaws which they had to leave behing. These might be mining gear, weapons and armor, provisions, journals or some minor magic items like consumable potions, camouflage cloaks, something to predict the wheather or make a fire, ... These things can be scattered in the whole waypoint or taken and used by the beaver-moles.
- Treasure that the last garrison of the waypoint left behind. Again, journals (with hints for further adventures) are an option, or some valuables like coins, gems or even better-than-standard equipment. If the old civilization was more high-magic, they might have had some sort of communication device (think Palantir). Some of these things would have been found by the outlaws, some by the beaver-moles ("shiny!") and others might still be hidden or buried in the ruins.
- Depending on their intelligence, the beaver-moles themselves could have a few things of value. To contrast with the well-made, but low-magic equipment of the outlaws and the garrison, I would picture these things as minor magical trinkets with powers connected to nature and living underground. Examples are darkvision goggles (made from amber disks), idols that purify water or food, explosives for mining or a staff that allows to shape stone like clay.

Maglubiyet
2015-04-10, 06:30 PM
Have you run this yet? How did it go?

ddude987
2015-04-12, 01:50 AM
no :( several players had a bunch of end of semester projects come up. Hopefully next week.