Yora
2020-04-30, 09:59 AM
I found a great adventure idea that fits perfectly into my Isle of Dread campaign, in which the reclusive priests tending to the off-limits crypts under the village have disappeared. There are actually no undead involved and they have fallen victim to an infestation of russet mold, that is turning the dead heroes of the tribe into vegepygmies.
Unfortunately, the party probably won't get there before most of them are 4th level. It might even be a full group of six fourth level characters.
CR 1/8 cultists don't even scratched them at first level, and CR 1/4 vegepygmies will have a hard time to threaten them in a direct fight. So they will have to rely massively on tactics and using the environment. They don't have much intelligence, though, so it can't be anythingn too fancy.
Since they are growing in a crypt full of corpses and the crypts can be really big, using them in huge numbers is completely justified, so at least that's a start. And the other main thing they have going for them is their regeneration unless hit by fire, cold, or necrotic damage. The wizard in the party knows fire bolt, so they have the ability to kill all the vegepygmies and burn away all the ruset molt from a distance with magic, but that would be slow and take a long time. Even if the wizard kills one every round, that alone won't save them from 10 vegepygmies swarming them.
If the players go into the dungeon expecting to fight vegepygmies, they should be able to slowly slash and burn their way through the crypts with torches and a lot of oil. So I think that dungeon should be more about getting out to get more oul once the vegepygmies are discovered. Keep them out of sight until the party is deep into the crypt and then swarm them.
Vegepygmies have darkvision, which no character races in my setting have. But with the huge light radius of torches and lanterns, I am not sure if that would have any impact in cramped crypt tunnels. There rarely would be any places where they could watch the party from outside their area of illumination. The only aspect that I can think of is that the vegepgmies won't be having light sources if their own that would give away their presence.
The crypts will have a lot of tree roots growing from the ceiling, which will provide opportunities for the vegepygmies to get their advantage to Stealth checks at +4.
Thornies are only bigger vegepygmies, but adding a few chieftains that try to poison the party sound like they would be fun.
I think all of this makes for a great setup to reenact Aliens. But do you have any further suggestions on making this a good battle adventure for 4th level PCs?
Unfortunately, the party probably won't get there before most of them are 4th level. It might even be a full group of six fourth level characters.
CR 1/8 cultists don't even scratched them at first level, and CR 1/4 vegepygmies will have a hard time to threaten them in a direct fight. So they will have to rely massively on tactics and using the environment. They don't have much intelligence, though, so it can't be anythingn too fancy.
Since they are growing in a crypt full of corpses and the crypts can be really big, using them in huge numbers is completely justified, so at least that's a start. And the other main thing they have going for them is their regeneration unless hit by fire, cold, or necrotic damage. The wizard in the party knows fire bolt, so they have the ability to kill all the vegepygmies and burn away all the ruset molt from a distance with magic, but that would be slow and take a long time. Even if the wizard kills one every round, that alone won't save them from 10 vegepygmies swarming them.
If the players go into the dungeon expecting to fight vegepygmies, they should be able to slowly slash and burn their way through the crypts with torches and a lot of oil. So I think that dungeon should be more about getting out to get more oul once the vegepygmies are discovered. Keep them out of sight until the party is deep into the crypt and then swarm them.
Vegepygmies have darkvision, which no character races in my setting have. But with the huge light radius of torches and lanterns, I am not sure if that would have any impact in cramped crypt tunnels. There rarely would be any places where they could watch the party from outside their area of illumination. The only aspect that I can think of is that the vegepgmies won't be having light sources if their own that would give away their presence.
The crypts will have a lot of tree roots growing from the ceiling, which will provide opportunities for the vegepygmies to get their advantage to Stealth checks at +4.
Thornies are only bigger vegepygmies, but adding a few chieftains that try to poison the party sound like they would be fun.
I think all of this makes for a great setup to reenact Aliens. But do you have any further suggestions on making this a good battle adventure for 4th level PCs?