Centered next session around stuff a player likes. Player can't make it!

[The Cats]

I have a player who is crazy for riddles and puzzles and her character is crazy about discovering new forms of magic and magical beasts. There hasn't been any focus on those things so far in the campaign so I designed the next session to be all about them. Now she can't make it, so I'm going to save that dungeon for a later session. Low-key panicking a bit for what I should do for tomorrow's session now though since I spent all of the last two weeks planning the now-scrapped one!

Current questline: The players were investigating an island where an insular fishing village lies. They went there because of a clue that it might be connected to the druid's backstory (druid is not the missing player. She's the wizard). They discovered the people used to worship an enigmatic spirit who is somehow connected to the druid's tribe (who were killed by a force looking for an amulet the druid now carries) but that worship has been usurped by worship for 'The Ever-Loving One' who I planned to be a kraken, but haven't revealed that yet so that can change. Only one worshipper of the old ways remains on the island and she has asked the party for help.

Things came to a head and the party battled it out with fish-people and kraken priests in the church. As he died the head priest initiated a ritual to summon the ever loving one. That's where the session ended.

THE PLAN WAS: Kraken appears and, not receiving a sacrifice, proceeds to drag the island down into the rift to the water elemental plane it came from. The last remaining worshipper of the old ways leads the party to a hidden shrine as the island is being torn apart that she hopes will protect them. Druid's amulet opens a door to a riddle room, solving it opens a portal to a hidden, underwater research lab now inhabited by a nothic. Riddles and puzzles and weird magic ensue.

THE PLAN NOW: Um... Maybe the wizard gets caught by the ever loving one and the party has to race to save her? The remaining players all enjoy a good mix of combat and RP (except one who is all about combat) but last session was RP heavy so just heavy combat is an option.

Could you please throw whatever ideas you have at me? I'm brainstorming as hard as I can but it's a busy couple days so I could really use your help.

Oh, party is level 7. The kraken was never going to be something they'd fight. Just a dangerous setpiece.

[Tiadoppler]

THE PLAN WAS: Kraken appears and, not receiving a sacrifice, proceeds to drag the island down into the rift to the water elemental plane it came from. The last remaining worshipper of the old ways leads the party to a hidden shrine as the island is being torn apart that she hopes will protect them.

Can you split the session into a two-parter, with this part as the main focus of the first, Wizard-less session?

A party races across a disintegrating island being actively torn apart by a variety of Water-themed level appropriate encounters, using skills to bypass obstacles that appear in their path. Their goal: to find the entrance of a hidden shrine and awaken their gibbering comrade, whose mind has been addled by exposure to a Kraken's telepathy.

Then pick up the shrine/puzzle aspect next session?

[The Cats]

Can you split the session into a two-parter, with this part as the main focus of the first, Wizard-less session?

A party races across a disintegrating island being actively torn apart by a variety of Water-themed level appropriate encounters, using skills to bypass obstacles that appear in their path. Their goal: to find the entrance of a hidden shrine and awaken their gibbering comrade, whose mind has been addled by exposure to a Kraken's telepathy.

Then pick up the shrine/puzzle aspect next session?

The island is established as being barren and very small. The party walked from one end to the other in less than an hour. This might work? But I can't really see how right now. Could you give some examples of encounters they might face, besides generic combat with chuuls etc.?

[Dirty_toes]

I have a player who is crazy for riddles and puzzles and her character is crazy about discovering new forms of magic and magical beasts. There hasn't been any focus on those things so far in the campaign so I designed the next session to be all about them. Now she can't make it, so I'm going to save that dungeon for a later session. Low-key panicking a bit for what I should do for tomorrow's session now though since I spent all of the last two weeks planning the now-scrapped one!

Current questline: The players were investigating an island where an insular fishing village lies. They went there because of a clue that it might be connected to the druid's backstory (druid is not the missing player. She's the wizard). They discovered the people used to worship an enigmatic spirit who is somehow connected to the druid's tribe (who were killed by a force looking for an amulet the druid now carries) but that worship has been usurped by worship for 'The Ever-Loving One' who I planned to be a kraken, but haven't revealed that yet so that can change. Only one worshipper of the old ways remains on the island and she has asked the party for help.

Things came to a head and the party battled it out with fish-people and kraken priests in the church. As he died the head priest initiated a ritual to summon the ever loving one. That's where the session ended.

THE PLAN WAS: Kraken appears and, not receiving a sacrifice, proceeds to drag the island down into the rift to the water elemental plane it came from. The last remaining worshipper of the old ways leads the party to a hidden shrine as the island is being torn apart that she hopes will protect them. Druid's amulet opens a door to a riddle room, solving it opens a portal to a hidden, underwater research lab now inhabited by a nothic. Riddles and puzzles and weird magic ensue.

THE PLAN NOW: Um... Maybe the wizard gets caught by the ever loving one and the party has to race to save her? The remaining players all enjoy a good mix of combat and RP (except one who is all about combat) but last session was RP heavy so just heavy combat is an option.

Could you please throw whatever ideas you have at me? I'm brainstorming as hard as I can but it's a busy couple days so I could really use your help.

Oh, party is level 7. The kraken was never going to be something they'd fight. Just a dangerous setpiece.

The spell begins to take form over the broken form of the priest. Winds rise, the skies darken, the church bell rings louder and louder... A glow rises from all around you and then... Nothing. The winds are still blowing at gale force, the skies still dark and the glowy church is still... glowy. But the spell has failed to complete. The life force of the priest that was to power the spell left his body at the precise instant the spell was to complete, and now the spell is stuck halfway between being and not being. (Any spellcaster in the group can explain this as a scenario that has been long theorized, but never seen.) The timing required for this is beyond precise and even evil wizards who tried to actively make this happen (with perhaps less than willing participants) have never been able to achieve it. It was just horrible luck that allowed it this time.

Although just a theory, there has been much debate about how such a spell would resolve itself. Some say that the energy already put into the spell will eventually bleed away into nothing. Others say that the spell will stay as it is until it receives the energy it needs to complete - perhaps via a lightning bolt or even a living sacrifice. But there are a small number of sages who believe that the spell will draw upon the energy of the world, but still be unable to resolve. It will keep consuming the energy of the world until nothing is left of the world but this unresolved magical force, hungry for more energy.

Based on the storm around them, it seems clear that the spell will not resolve on its own. Faced with a runaway spell that may consume the entire world, the players must find a way to feed it the energy it needs to complete. The Druid steps forward, thinking that perhaps an energy based spell cast at the center will resolve it. She casts Call Lightning, centered on the spell's core. The spell calms for a moment and seems to be resolving, but suddenly shakes violently, issuing forth a blast wave which strikes the players for a small amount of bludgeoning damage (d6 - con save for half) and knocks everyone prone (dex save to avoid). The lightning bolt was the right idea, but not enough energy. But what would satisfy it? What spell, what life force, would be large enough to resolve the spell.

Why... the Kracken, of course.

The mission now? On the island is a tomb that contains another means to summon the Kracken. The players must find this means and use it to summon the Kraken and lure him into the wayward spell - in hopes that his life force will be enough to allow the spell to complete. Of course, the spell itself was intended to summon the Kracken, and even so sacrificed, the Kracken is eternal and cannot die, so even as he dies, he will be summoned, reborn to the exact spot of his own sacrifice - horribly weakened perhaps, but certainly angry....

I dunno. That's what I got. It gives them something interesting to deal with, gives you the chance to throw some undead fish people at them in the tomb, and then puts you back on track to summon the Kraken.

Good luck. :)

[Cynthaer]

Things came to a head and the party battled it out with fish-people and kraken priests in the church. As he died the head priest initiated a ritual to summon the ever loving one. That's where the session ended.

THE PLAN WAS: Kraken appears and, not receiving a sacrifice, proceeds to drag the island down into the rift to the water elemental plane it came from. The last remaining worshipper of the old ways leads the party to a hidden shrine as the island is being torn apart that she hopes will protect them. Druid's amulet opens a door to a riddle room, solving it opens a portal to a hidden, underwater research lab now inhabited by a nothic. Riddles and puzzles and weird magic ensue.

THE PLAN NOW: Um... Maybe the wizard gets caught by the ever loving one and the party has to race to save her? The remaining players all enjoy a good mix of combat and RP (except one who is all about combat) but last session was RP heavy so just heavy combat is an option.

I think you're on the right track. Last session was RP-heavy, next session sounds like it's going to be exploration-heavy, so this is a great time to stall with combat.

Plus, the wizard player's absence is a perfect excuse to do a nice little plot cul-de-sac by rescuing her just so the party can get back to where they basically were already: Headed into the hidden shrine as a full party.

So, just gotta come up with some content to suck up some time. Some ideas:


The kraken itself doesn't kidnap the Wizard, but its minions do. I know you already fought a cult of kraken worshippers, so let's keep it simple and make them mindless water elementals?
The island is being torn apart. This creates a series of time-constrained obstacles to overcome while chasing the water elementals. Running, jumping, squeezing, whatever.
Check out page 252 of the DMG for the section on running chase sequences. I don't have it, but I've heard good things about it!
Once the chase sequence is over, then reach the hidden shrine (unconscious Wizard safely retrieved).
Instead of a riddle room opening the portal, let the amulet open the portal, but a handful of particularly nasty and/or unique elementals (or whatever) follow the party through before the portal closes.
This is the big setpiece battle. To keep it from just being "the water elemental session", throw in another group of creatures that was already in the research lab entrance. If the nothic's presence is a twist or surprise for next session, make them unrelated—malfunctioning golems or escaped experiments (not sure what kind of lab this was), or just mindless deep-sea scavengers that have made their way into the lab over the years.
Three-way battle commences with the party in the middle.


I think that should be enough to fill a whole session of time without getting boring, and both the chase sequence and the final battle can be extended or compressed if you badly miscalculate the timing because your preparation was rushed. (For instance, you can have the elementals and the lab creatures attack each other more or less, depending on how much time is needed.)

EDIT:


The island is established as being barren and very small. The party walked from one end to the other in less than an hour. This might work? But I can't really see how right now.

Sure, they walked across the island's surface. But they didn't try to navigate the extensive and complex underground catacombs, now did they? :smallwink:

[Tiadoppler]

The island is established as being barren and very small. The party walked from one end to the other in less than an hour. This might work? But I can't really see how right now. Could you give some examples of encounters they might face, besides generic combat with chuuls etc.?

Well, if the island's around 2-3 miles across, fighting your way back across it would take far longer. Are there any other features of the island? Buildings, ruins, hills or anything? When it starts being torn apart, the party might have to climb down a cliff, swim across to the next fragment of island, then climb up the cliff while being attacked by water elementals or sharks/giant squid/etc. Are there any surviving cultists on the island whose minds might also be corrupted/turned hostile by the Kraken's simple presence?

Is your party pretty combat oriented? Do they have flight? Would they suffer badly if they had a combat-heavy session with no Short Rest opportunities? I could see 3-4 combat encounters and at least one major physical obstacle in a session like this.

1: The Kraken appears and speaks ominously to the party through the wizard's mouth, acting as a puppeteer. Some sort of enemies appear (fish-people, undead, ghosts or spirits of the cultists) and attack the party. Goals: grab the wizard (who's still under the Kraken's influence but not attacking or moving on their own) and escape.

2: A canyon opens up, splitting the island in two, and the sea rushes in, pulling many hostile water creatures with it. Suddenly standing on the edge of a hundred foot cliff, the party must figure out how to cross (while still holding a non-functional wizard), and dealing with the hostile sea creatures. Maybe a near escape from a Dragon Turtle?

3: The party has reached the top of the island fragment with the shrine on it, but many of the kraken's slave elementals have been attracted to it as well. Fight your way to the entrance. The wizard begins to regain lucidity as the party reaches the warded interior of the shrine.

[Cynthaer]

[snip]

I like all of this too.

The key here, IMO, is that setting up combats against different types of enemies on interesting terrain where each side has specific goals is pretty fast for the DM, but takes players a while to work their way through.

[The Cats]

Ok ok ok so the wizard gets taken out by some kinda psychic feedback and the party has to drag her around.

The kraken's minions are swarming the island and it's a race against time to get to the hidden shrine (which is in the underground caverns within the island, the entrance on the opposite end from where they are.)

If they win the race, focusing just on getting past the enemies and obstacles, they make it to the caverns. The race continues and at some point the caverns start to tilt as the kraken has dislodged the island and is pulling it underwater. They have to make it to the end and open the portal (using the druid's amulet) to escape. Might lead to a 3 way fight between the party, the kraken's minions, and the lab's guardians.

If they lose the race, taking too long to defeat enemies and obstacles, they get pulled in to the water plane. The have to escape the kraken's nest (luckily it's more interested in the cultists than in the party), then figure out how to escape. The worshipper of the old ways they met has a bit of magic so can help them with water breathing if the druid doesn't have it prepared.This will lead to another session or two in the water plane experiencing crazy stuff and trying to get home.

If they just straight up flee the island (I don't see how but I'm sure they could somehow figure it out), they see a massive tsunami heading for the coast, which happens to be where their home-base town is. Cue disaster relief.

A good skeleton I can work with. Still open to hearing more ideas for specific encounters or whatever if anyone still wants to share.

[Cynthaer]

Out of curiosity, how did it go? I'd be interested to know what you settled on as the final set of encounters.

[The Cats]

Went very well. The party was saddled with 3 useless villagers they also had to save so first reaction was conjure giant eagles and wildshape to just fly off. Massive windy storm, giant tentacles wooshing through the air, and poor rolls squelched that plan, so it was a race across the island to find the hidden shrine that the crazy lady who lives in a shack claims is a portal to another world. The wizard whose player wasn't there grabbed the ten year old villager and dimension doored the two of them to the shrine ahead of the group.

I don't think they actually realized it was a race against time. I made it pretty clear that the giant tentacle monster was trying to pull the island under but I think they all assumed they'd make it to the shrine in the nick of time no matter what. After the session I showed them the race table where I was ticking off distance traveled vs. turns spent and that they had made it through with 2 turns to spare before the would have been sucked to the bottom of the ocean (and into the plane of water).

I had the race set up so certain encounters triggered depending on how far they'd gone, and how long they were taking. Things like sahuagin swarming them, giant tsunami waves knocking them down and sucking them back a couple turns worth of movement, etc.

They had made it into the caves that lead to the shrine by the time the climax happened: The kraken finally managed to tear the island off its foundation and started dragging it down. Since they were in a tunnel it played out that the floors were slowly becoming the walls. Lead to an epic moment where the party rogue just running pounced at a big nasty sahuagin and used a combo of sneak attack and fall damage as the tunnel went for horizontal to vertical to OHKO him.

They figured out how to activate the teleporter (Druid's heirloom amulet. They're kinda following his backstory quest right now.) and... I had to take ten minutes to figure out what happens next because we still had 2.5 hours of game time left XD. Probably should have mentioned our sessions usually run 5-6 hours and my players are very quick with combat.

Came up with a viewing-hall for the research lab where they met the ghost of one of the researchers, who fed them some new info about the ancient civilization they were investigating (This campaign is actually Rise of the Rune Lords that has gone so damn far off the rails man...). Also a braggardly mithral dragon who teleported in to find treasure 400 years ago but is now stuck because of a strong anti-teleportation enchantment on the place (the bit stopping entry has weakened over time. Leaving not so much).

So the dragon forced the party spellcasters to help with a ritual magic circle. When that failed he was about to throw a temper tantrum but the rogue convinced him it only failed because he was so hungry, not having eaten in 400 years, and they should try again when he has a full belly.

Not one to ignore when my players helpfully provide their own side quests, I had the dragon demand they find him some food, and the ghost inform them of an 'endless pantry' in one of the lower levels of the lab.

After a frustrating encounter against a bunch of invisible guardians (who would have been much easier if they had thought to take the Gem of Truesight I had left in the previous room. No, guys, not EVERYTHING is a trap.) and a creepy Nothic who could dimension door all over the place at will and kept bringing up things in their past it had no way of knowing, they found the endless pantry, along with a flooded stairwell to the next level, and a hidden room containing a strange looking staff on a pedestal and every inch of floor, walls, and ceiling etched with magical runes (they decided to leave that one till the wizard came back.)

So yeah. Pretty good session.

[Cynthaer]

Good to hear, it sounds like a lot of fun. :smallbiggrin:

[The Cats]

Yeah, I was planning on using your three-way battle idea at the end of the race too. I just kinda forgot about it by the time they got to the portal. Had all the stats and minis ready and realized it halfway through the conversation with the ghost. *shrug*