Then you find...

[DireSickFish]

I'm planning my first D&D session of a new campaign that I am running. This forum has been a great brainstorming center so I'd like to use it for that again. No idea is to wild.

The premise is that a 15 year old peace treaty with the local Hobgoblins has been broken. The city is sending the PC's out to an abandoned tower a week or so into the mountains to act as an early warning system if the hobgoblins march. They will have a small crew of builders with them to enact any necessary repairs. I figure the first session can be killing some bugbears or orcs that have taken over the tower.

When the tower was abandoned a safe was hidden in the wall of the well in the basement of the tower. The Commander will give them the key and the location mentioning that there should be some supplies but records are lost of what is actually in it. When they open it I plan on giving them some healing potions for sure. What I'm stuck on is this seems like a good place to throw a plot hook item or a side-quest journal or something. What is a cool thing the PC's could find that would make sense (or wouldn't make sense out of context but you have a good explanation for)?

Thanks in advance!

[JellyPooga]

Plot-hook item, for sure! Here's one idea:

- A gilded fang : Is it the tooth of Garlak Dwarfbreaker, Hobgoblin Warchief of legend and part of the until-now-thought-to-be-mythical Black Crown, the artifact that a thousand years ago united the bestial races (orcs, goblins, ogres, hobgoblins, etc.) under a single mysterious leader who, with the power of the Crown, ravaged the land for a century before being defeated and the crown disassembled to stop the same happening again? If it is, where are the other pieces? Why, now, has the peace been broken? Are the Hobgoblins looking for this very thing in an attempt to recreate the Crown and once more dominate the land? If so, who told them about it and mobilised them to war?

Do the PC's find out about the Hobgoblins motivations? Do they go in search of the other pieces of the Crown? Do they just sell it to some passing tinker and forget about the whole thing? Do they delve into research about the "mysterious leader" and find out that he has returned, once again, to stretch the iron-clad fist of his dominion over the kingdom?

Tune in next time for this campaigns thrilling second episode!

[coredump]

Turns out the tower wasn't 'abandoned' so much as 'wiped out'. They find the journal of the previous commander, talking about strange noises, missing sentries, etc.

The PCs need to decide if they investigate this 'new threat', and how many resources to use. Or do they ignore that (heck, it probably went away anyway....) and prepare for the hobgoblins.
Or... maybe they can use one to fight the other...??

[Shining Wrath]

Along with the potions, the commander's journal describing the last months of the previous occupation. The tower was abandoned because the commander was convinced it could not be held safely due to a threat his scouts had uncovered. The threat was communicated to his superiors via secure messaging and he received permission to evacuate. Only vague hints as to what the threat was can be found in the journal, but whatever it was was something that more troops would not address. The commander felt he could hold the tower for several weeks against a siege by hobgoblins (until they managed to construct trebuchet or equivalent), but against the mysterious threat, there was no hope for ordinary troops.

Once you decide what the threat was (or IS ...), you can throw in some additional clues, e.g., if it's a vampire the chaplain of the tower was consulted and recommended caution, et cetera.

[DireSickFish]

Along with the potions, the commander's journal describing the last months of the previous occupation. The tower was abandoned because the commander was convinced it could not be held safely due to a threat his scouts had uncovered. The threat was communicated to his superiors via secure messaging and he received permission to evacuate. Only vague hints as to what the threat was can be found in the journal, but whatever it was was something that more troops would not address. The commander felt he could hold the tower for several weeks against a siege by hobgoblins (until they managed to construct trebuchet or equivalent), but against the mysterious threat, there was no hope for ordinary troops.

Once you decide what the threat was (or IS ...), you can throw in some additional clues, e.g., if it's a vampire the chaplain of the tower was consulted and recommended caution, et cetera.

Could you recommend a threat? And clues I could leave for it The party will be level 3 starting off and should hit 4 after the first session. Thanks for the idea.

[Shining Wrath]

Could you recommend a threat? And clues I could leave for it The party will be level 3 starting off and should hit 4 after the first session. Thanks for the idea.

It's got to be something malicious and magical; something that can't be killed just by hitting it enough times with a physical weapon. Something that's capable of fleeing at will when damaged, and regenerates quickly. Troll? Wraith with some shadows for backup?

A portal that opens to the plane of Shadow and lets through nasty creatures when first moon and second moon line up with the 'belt' of the constellation Giam the Giantslayer - which is going to occur in a week?

[Ninja_Prawn]

It's got to be something malicious and magical; something that can't be killed just by hitting it enough times with a physical weapon. Something that's capable of fleeing at will when damaged, and regenerates quickly. Troll? Wraith with some shadows for backup?

A portal that opens to the plane of Shadow and lets through nasty creatures when first moon and second moon line up with the 'belt' of the constellation Giam the Giantslayer - which is going to occur in a week?

Wraith/Shadow/Invisible Stalker was what popped into my head when I read Shining Wrath's first post (and Coredump's). Therefore, it's a good opportunity to counter-metagame a bit by making the first few hints ambiguous in a way that could be interpreted as pointing to a wraith, but then having the threat be something else. Maybe even give them a scroll of See Invisibility, if your players are keen metagamers.

Some alternative threats:

Ochre Jellies can be scary, with the way they multiply. And it's easy for them to be locked away in a basement or something.
Something that comes out every night and assaults the tower if it's occupied, like ghouls, zombies or twig blights.
Some kind of ancient curse that dominates people who sleep in the tower and makes them kill their friends.
Heavy metal contamination in the tower's water supply. You wouldn't notice it at first, but then people start failing unexplained CON saves and getting sick... just like what happened in the journal... Make sure there's a Dwarven scout attached to the party who refuses to drink anything but booze!

[DireSickFish]

Some alternative threats:

Heavy metal contamination in the tower's water supply. You wouldn't notice it at first, but then people start failing unexplained CON saves and getting sick... just like what happened in the journal... Make sure there's a Dwarven scout attached to the party who refuses to drink anything but booze!


I do plan on saddling the party with 3 dwarven builders that are sent with them to repair the tower. Having the water supply be poisoned would be super nasty as I was giving it to them to make the place super defensible. It'd make holding out inside it near impossible.

[GiantOctopodes]

I do plan on saddling the party with 3 dwarven builders that are sent with them to repair the tower. Having the water supply be poisoned would be super nasty as I was giving it to them to make the place super defensible. It'd make holding out inside it near impossible.

Depends on the party makeup. If someone has purify food and drink, especially if they're a ritual caster, it can be workable. In fact, figuring out how to get fresh water (tarps and rainfall being the most obvious one, boiling the water and collecting the condensation using more tarps, etc) can be a fun challenge in and of itself.

Speaking of which, what is the party makeup?

Oh, and one more idea for the safe-

"You find a small silver mirror. Upon initial inspection it appears to be an ordinary, albeit ornately crafted, mirror. However, something about its designs catch your eye. There are dwarven markings and iconography around it. (Should they know dwarven) It reads 'That which initially is hard to perceive can sometimes become apparent upon careful reflection'. Make a Religion test. (If successful) You identify some of the iconography as belonging to Dumathoin, the keeper of secrets under the mountain. Oh, and by the way, as you peer into it, you eventually realize your reflection is not in it. All the objects in the room are properly reflected, but you and the other party members fail to appear in the mirror's surface."

In actuality, it's a mirror that only shows creatures if they are invisible. Anyone using it still has disadvantage on attacking the creature (it's hard to fight effectively while peering into the hand mirror, after all), but unless the invisible creature is hidden behind cover or otherwise obscured from sight through non-magical means, no perception checks are needed to detect the presence of the invisible creature or identify the square holding its location. If you're worried about such an item being OP at this point in the campaign, you can further make it work only with invisible creatures of a specific type, of whatever kind is appropriate for the encounter to come.

[Sigreid]

This could easily be the tail wags the dog situation. The hobgoblins didn't break the treaty, but unknown to the party the greedy king did and then claimed the hobgoblins were the aggressors.

[DragonLordIT]

In the safe there could be the maps (may be ruined and not complete) of the secret passages of the tower that were used for a quick retreat; their initial mission, while the dwarves work to make the tower useful again, could be to complete those maps in the missing parts and get rid of the monsters that now live there (oozes, gian insects and nasty things like that)

[Kurt Kurageous]

This could easily be the tail wags the dog situation. The hobgoblins didn't break the treaty, but unknown to the party the greedy king did and then claimed the hobgoblins were the aggressors.

And if the hobgobs have a small patrol in the area doing a routine walkabout, do the overzealous party members attack and be the ones who actually start the war? The end of a peace treaty does not automatically mean a war. What does either side have to gain? Long term war is really really bad, and the hobbos know this as well as any.

I like a lot of the things here, great hooks/twists. The water crisis seems good.

Add a hermit with dubious sanity who is hiding out in the ruins. (S)he is helpful and forthcoming, describing their delusions and hallucinations as reality, while dismissing their reality as a delusion. Perhaps they were right all along?

And the location is now the site of a yearly county fair and fertility festival.

[MrUberGr]

Heavy metal contamination in the tower's water supply. You wouldn't notice it at first, but then people start failing unexplained CON saves and getting sick... just like what happened in the journal... Make sure there's a Dwarven scout attached to the party who refuses to drink anything but booze!
[/LIST]

Maybe a wailing soul would appear and sign a dire and foreboding song, about how they will all face a great evil soon enough.

It starts as a low cant, speaking fast and consistently


"Woe to you, Oh Earth and Sea, for the Devil sends the
beast with wrath, because he knows the time is short...
Let him who hath understanding reckon the number of the
beast for it is a human number, its number is Six hundred and
sixty six."

And then it starts screaming


In the mist
dark figures move and twist
was all this for real
or just some kind of hell
6-6-6 the Number of the Beast
Hell and fire was spawned to be released

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mHe6FMs46o

[DireSickFish]

This could easily be the tail wags the dog situation. The hobgoblins didn't break the treaty, but unknown to the party the greedy king did and then claimed the hobgoblins were the aggressors.

Well since it was the PC's from the last gaming session that broke the treaty this might be hard to pull off. Still a great idea! I could have the high priest in town collaborating with the hobgoblins, I was trying to figure out how to turn him into a badguy. Since the hobgoblins and the city worship the same diety this would be a god tie in.

The Hobgoblins wouldn't normally throw themselves against the impenetrable wall, but with an inside ally they might not have to.

[Whyrocknodie]

The walled-up remains of dozens of hobgoblin prisoners, part of a growing chain of evidence of past atrocities done to the hobgoblin peoples.

[Kerilstrasz]

Along with the provisions you planed & previous commander journal, they find a single page , reading the following:

"23.17.8

Only Truth
Hard Lies

Through the weave you shall know for real"

so.. to break it down if you haven't allready figgured it out.
the 1st three numbers are the cypher to decode the message (feel free to adjust it to be easily mistaken for a date).
Sentences starting with a vowel are true, lie for consonant.
In plain translation "weave=magic" & "real=true".. need to use true sight or somthenig similar to read the actual message written on the journal..

now.. the message..hmm.. dunno.. use something another playgrounder may suggest

no need to prepare a text and have them decypher it ofc.. when they realise & tell you what the above means, and say they will do it, just read em the message.

[Sigreid]

Well since it was the PC's from the last gaming session that broke the treaty this might be hard to pull off. Still a great idea! I could have the high priest in town collaborating with the hobgoblins, I was trying to figure out how to turn him into a badguy. Since the hobgoblins and the city worship the same diety this would be a god tie in.

The Hobgoblins wouldn't normally throw themselves against the impenetrable wall, but with an inside ally they might not have to.

Well, what were they doing when they broke the treaty? Were they working for someone who could have set them up?