Help Me Build A Short Campaign

[Genoin]

So, I am going to be running a campaign for a party of 3-4 level 5 adventurers over the course of a weekend. It is not mandatory that the campaign be able to be finished in this weekend however. I have a rough idea of a concept for the overall game. It is as follows:

At the beginning of the campaign, the adventurers are going for a well deserved vacation to a luxurious cabin in the mountains with nearby hot springs. When they arrive, the clerk managing the cabins in the area regretfully informs them that the cabin they had reserved had burned down just two days before. However, fortunately they do have one more available property, a palatial multi-story cabin with its own private hot spring. To compensate for the inconvenience, our heroes will be upgraded at no extra cost to them. When they reach the cabin, they realize that this cabin is practically a resort on its own, including a private hot spring and a garden, nestled in a large expanse of flat land between two mountains. Upon entering the cabin, everything seems too good to be true, and upon careful examination of the first floor, the adventurers should begin to sense that something is off about this place. Why is all the decor, which seems like normal cabin fare at first glance, so ominous on closer inspection? Why is no one able to muster the courage to go to the second floor? And why does it sound like tiny creatures are scurrying through the walls and ceiling? Little do our heroes know, the cabin they stand in now is not the cabin they entered in the mountains. Instead it was a gate to another dimension. This cabin is even larger, with private (or not so private) boiling hot springs, a menacing hedge maze, and untold other dangers. The only way out? Collect seven artifacts that have been hidden in the mansion and around the estate. That is, if they can defeat the guardians that protect these objects. Currently I have planned for each of the two main floors to hold two of the artifacts, with one each being in the hedge maze in the garden, in the hot spring area, and in the basement. When and if the players collect the 7 objects, they will be given the opportunity to leave freely, or to stay and attempt to confront the entity that trapped them here. Should they choose to stay and manage to defeat that entity, I am going to reward each player with a one time reward that can be cashed in on any future game I run, though the exact nature I have not decided.

The help I would love to see includes, but is not limited to:

1. Ideas on how to ensure that the party maintains a reasonable pace, and does not feel they have time to stop and rest after every encounter (Thinking that if they don't collect the artifacts in a certain amount of time, they will be trapped forever).
2. General or specific ideas about encounters, both combat and puzzle. One I had involved a substantial number of kobolds in the walls, but haven't figured out the best way to implement it yet.
3. Any ways that I could include some role playing opportunities.
4. Cool ideas for what the aforementioned big reward might be.

Thanks for any replies!

[EggKookoo]

First, why is the entity trapping the players? You should work that out.

Since you have 7 artifacts, maybe the challenges are based on the seven deadly sins? Don't outright tell your players that, but base one each on greed, gluttony, sloth, wrath, envy, lust, and pride. That might help you work out why the entity is doing all of this in the first place and perhaps why collecting the items is part of the escape process. Maybe the entity is trying to escape and is tricking the party into unlocking its cage?

[Genoin]

Ooh, I like that idea, regarding the entity being trapped there as well and tricking the players into helping it escape. I think I will use that one.

[Tawmis]

First...


First, why is the entity trapping the players? You should work that out.

^ This.

Should the party reach said entity - they may have some discussions - which include, "Why have you done this?"
You, as the DM, had best have an answer without stammering, because it all boils down to that concept - why is this happening?

Second...



Since you have 7 artifacts, maybe the challenges are based on the seven deadly sins? Don't outright tell your players that, but base one each on greed, gluttony, sloth, wrath, envy, lust, and pride. That might help you work out why the entity is doing all of this in the first place and perhaps why collecting the items is part of the escape process. Maybe the entity is trying to escape and is tricking the party into unlocking its cage?

This is a pretty great idea (although, in the D&D Realm the "7 Deadly Sins" don't probably exist as it would be known to the characters - but the players could begin to piece it together).



The help I would love to see includes, but is not limited to:

1. Ideas on how to ensure that the party maintains a reasonable pace, and does not feel they have time to stop and rest after every encounter (Thinking that if they don't collect the artifacts in a certain amount of time, they will be trapped forever).
2. General or specific ideas about encounters, both combat and puzzle. One I had involved a substantial number of kobolds in the walls, but haven't figured out the best way to implement it yet.
3. Any ways that I could include some role playing opportunities.
4. Cool ideas for what the aforementioned big reward might be.

Thanks for any replies!

1. The players/characters shouldn't feel the need to finish this super quick. There's no timer, by the sounds of it. It's not like, you're saying, "Get out of this place in 24 hours time, or be forever trapped..." So the players should not feel rushed.
2. You could do riddles... where if they get it wrong, it triggers a fight (this way they don't need to technically know the answers; they can just go for the fight instead)...

greed:
I am an empty void. Throw all the gold in the world and not a single inch of me will be filled. I resound in everything, everyone... release me, if you can, and you will reach peace.

gluttony:
Empty inside; I crave something to fulfill me. Never satisfied with what I've had, I dig my grave with my teeth.

sloth:
I stand still, time ticking away. Do you what you will, I will stay. This is what I will be, moving ever so slowly.

wrath:
I am the storm that pounds the waves and sends fathers to their graves.

envy:
My eyes are green, as I stare back at you. Everything I've ever seen, burns with jealousy when I see you.

lust:
I am in your veins, coursing through your heart. I am not love, and if you're not careful I will tear that apart.

pride:
I am the lion's mane, I am the lion's eyes, I am the lion's claws, and his paws. I am inside of you carefully balanced.

3. There's opportunity to roleplay if you have the characters encounter others who have been thrown in the cabin - maybe find out the Clergy is part of a cult.

[Nidgit]

I would flesh out the clerk and how they got to the mansion in the first place. How is the entity acting outside this demiplane? If it has a servant or servants, what are they promised? Or is there another party manipulating your group for petty or grand reasons?

I'd also potentially include ghosts or lingering effects of past guests who were trapped there.

[Chugger]

Pacing to stop them from resting all the time: Have them enter a dangerous cave or lair or forest or we. "Can we long rest now?" You: "You could, but you feel this place is very dangerous and busy - i.e. tracks you see suggest a great deal of monster traffic in this area." If they try to hide and rest, anyway, hit them with a wandering monster encounter, or several.

If they use Leomund's tiny hut to long rest, they could get spotted (the hut gets seen) and as they come out they are ambushed by creatures that have been waiting for them to come out.

They can be chasing someone - if they even short rest there is a risk the person will get away with the clue they need.

There are many other ways to inject time pressure (to get the clue for artifact #3 they need to save someone's wife or kid or cousin or w/e - they have to gather 3 antidote ingreds in a forest as fast as they can - if they rest the sick person will die).

Or today is the one day in the year that the box opens, the box that holds artifact #6 - so you must get there by sunset or you won't get it - so maybe they can do one or two short rests, but any more than that and they risk simply running out of time.

There are many other ways to do this.

Or just let them rest, and make the next encounter twice as hard. You got a track you can do with no rests but easier fights designed to drain their resources (which is a challenge) followed by one hard fight at the end. Or if they rest a lot, just make the fights they do have ultra- hard maybe.

[opaopajr]

Sounds like you want to do a classic Ravenloft "Weekend in Hell." :smallcool:

Best advice is don't make it seem forced, otherwise it will feel contrived as it raises unconfortable questions. So spend more time in the setup so that it feels incidental. My advice is a Wild Portal that Seems Unstable: it removes the need for 'knowns' (who did this, why, how, and where to?) and simultaenously provides time pressure.

You can still use the cabins this way, without even worrying about burning it down -- random portal is random! :smalltongue: You could also have an overbooked cabin and then offer this unused luxury suite as a compensatory upgrade. Either way there is less rhyme-or-reason demands on "a portal did it!"

Then you can just end the adventure back at said resort cabin for the downtime close of the adventure.

If you have ever seen some horror movies, like "Waxwork" you can glean some inspirational ideas.