Adventure Comments?

[jjordan]

Adventure for 4th level party of 4 characters (Knowledge Cleric, Astral Self Monk, Druid, Ranger). Depending on the choices they make they can arrive at this location pretty much at full strength. If they're crushing it I can bring in a reinforcing party of druids but my hope is that they are going to rush from this location to a second location on a time crunch (to save the brother of one of the characters).

Not an adventure for publication, these are my notes for a game session. The map was created in Dungeonfog for use in our virtual game sessions.

Thoughts?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/13oBp-ifAi6OvKWTVv6BmTUkfX27xwt_E/view?usp=sharing

[Kol Korran]

Hey. First of all, I'm fairly new to 5e, so I am not that good about balancing mechanics, so take my comments with that in mind.

General comments:
1- On the whole, I liked it! A bit linear to my taste, but that can work as long as the entire adventure isn't.

2- These druids... sounds more like alchemists than druids... Their connection to nature sounds more about utilizing it, rather than revering/ respecting/ drawing power from it. But if it works with your campaign, so be it! It just feels... odd. You keep mentioning Abyssal influence through out the adventure. I think these could be some sort of corrupted druids, something that may have been more natural, but slowly turning fiendish. I assume this is what toy intend, but it isn't that clear... If you stated these druids somewhere, I'd suggest to make it apparent they are no longer fully druids, but losing their druidic powers, and turning into fiendish cultists.

3- As I said, I am no expert in 5e, but I understand they simplified skill DCs to a great extent, basically 10/15/20/25/30, right? All over the adventure you give far more specific DCs, but they are mostly in a similar range (About 12-16). I'm not sure what these rely on, or why this level of adjusting skill DCs.

4- What is the goal of the PCs here? It ia unclear to a reader who is unfamiliar with the situation. Are they just looking for info on the missing brother? (Is that the dwarf?) Are they looking for the bandits? The drow? Do they seek to destroy the druid's operation, or just explore it? This can greatly affect how they approach this adventure, or if they even finish it. (For example, if they are just looking for info on the brother, they might waltz out right after getting the info in the sleeping quarters.

5- The red mushrooms described at the beginning:
You mention their affect (the choke inducing cloud) but later on it's unclear where they are in the cave system...

6- The map:
Will it be used for actual grid combat? Or just as a guideline for the locations? It is very nice, but it lacks a measuring scale. This is important for some effects, most notably the Trees powers for example.

More specific notes, by site:
1- The blood pool:
I liked it! Gives a good theme, there are clues to how to bypass it and several ways to deal with it. As to the bloodsuckers themselves- their number (and hit points) is random? Why? Never mind. How much space do they occupy? (Specifically for AoE effects), and while you mentioned they can poison the DC and for how long, you didn't specify what the poison does...

2- Shriekers room:
A nice alarm system. How do the druids bypass them? Also, whil you mentioned they can raise an alarm, you didn't specify how the complex will react. There are 3 druids in the last room... How will they investigate?

3- Sleeping area:
A sort of living quarters/ great hall? All in all, its ok, but some odd things:
- You mention there are snakes and spiders in the roots. But you don't mention how many, give any stats, or if they are treated like a trap.
- Again, for druids who know well how to live in the wild, their accommodations sound... non druidic. Why do they have their latrine full of sh*t inside their sleeping quarters? The place sounds very uncomfortable, very unhygienic. Druids live in the wild, but they do so WELL and in relative comfort.
- This is the first place where the party can choose where to go, the only place that isn't linear, but other then the light conditions of the branching corridors, there is nothing to help the characters make an INFORMED choice. It's basically a coin toss. I'd suggest adding some clues as to what may await them on each corridor.
- I think the documents detail TOO much. an info dump, but who do the druids write all of this for? And why do they write so much? I'd expect they know most of this, so why write it? And if they left their home, wouldn't it be wise to stash ALL of their secret plans someplace safer? A secret compartment? A trap? a guardian? In their lab? I fully understand you want to give the party the info, but you run the risk of making the druids look negligent, incompetent and dumb, especially if they try to keep their work secret. Personally, since this is such a huge and vital info source, I'd put it after a major guardian, such as... The Gulthias Tree...
- Last important thing, which correlates to the general comments- Once the PCs find the documents, do they have a good reason to continue to search the druid caves? Or would they grab these, head to save the missing brother/ warn the city he druids seek to attack/ anything similar?

4- Storage area:
Boxes of Cloudkill? How do they work? What do they do? Can they be deactivated? Can they "detonate" (or whatever the right term is) by accident? Can they be destroyed? How much do they weigh? Can they be carried? I'm asking, because I'm sure the players might, if they realize what they are... They may seek to examine them, disable them, destroy them, or... (What I expect most players will at least try) find a way to weaponize them.

5- Prison workshop:
I liked the trap idea! It can easily be dealt with (You just need to stay away farther than 5 ft) but it's a cool, thematic trap.

But... about the imprisoned sorcerer. He is the one making the cloudkill boxes? How is he imprisoned? (If it's just the door, he would either be dead, or could dispose of it easily). Of he can cast cloudkill, he is a fairly powerful sorcerer! How do the druids make sire he doesn't wipe them with his spells?

Can he help the characters disable/ destroy/ utilize the cloudkill boxes? (He made them after all!) And can he join the party, perhaps help them against the Gulthias tree, or attack on the bandits and such?

6- Alter/ Gulthias tree:
Nice callback to the Sunless Citadel! I do like the monster- a great and thematic "Boss fight"! And a creepy one to boot!

But... while remembering that I am very new to 5e, I think the battle is immensely powerful for a group of 4th level PCs... With the darkness conditions, the high HP, 4 attacks+ legendary actions+ Lair actions, and with LOTS of battlefield control powers (grasping roots, psychic touch, blood mist), I think half or more of the party will.be out of the fight on most rounds, and the other half will either try to break them free, or deal with the other hazards, so it's unlikely they will manage to deal enough damage to kill it off before it kills them. If the party is smart enough, they will retreat quickly, and deal with it after recuperating, but that may not be an option if they are on a time crunch.

Also, some other comments:
- The tree doesn't have resistance to slashing weapons? And the twigs even have vulnerability to it?
- Won't the druids in the next cavern join the fight if they here the commotion? (Even if the shriekers didn't alert them)

7- Lab & Greenhouse:
Again- "force growing plants amd creatures" sounds very NON druidic to me, more like alchemists and general mad/ fiendish nature science. A few comments on this room:
- It comes after the Gulthias tree. I assume this is due to the loot (You want to make the parry earn it), but it feels... anti climactic after that room/ battle. "We fought some crazy powerful evil tree alter! And now... some bees and minor druids?" I'd either put this at another side intersection, near the storage or the like, and put something else of significance in the Gulthias tree room. (Like the info notes, possibly expensive art/ loot? Possibly a magical item?)
- It really isn't apparent that there are ANY real guardians here at first. I almost missed the line noting here are 2 druids here, which was at the end of the description. It also isn't apparent the bees are fiendish. I only realized this when I read their stats. While this isn't for publishing, if you want people to comment on this, better note those more at the start of this room.
- Stats for the druids? Their tactics? They may utilize the bees, draw characters into patches of dangerous plants, and more!
- I simply LOVED the descriptions of the plants, animals, and various creations (including interesting poisons!). Similar to the Cloudkill boxes, prepared to answer questions about disabling/ destroying/ utilizing these (Or selling them?). I can easily see players seeking to take most ingredients, including plants and animals, with the druids notes, and make their own lab of poison making.

Summary:
All in all, despite my many comments, I think this can be a really fun adventure. And it is evident you put a lot of work into it! I'd add some info, perhaps change some places of stuff, and maybe think of some major questions (Druids or fiendish alchemists? Cloudkill boxes? Imprisoned sorcerer?), but the only really major thing that worries me is the Gulthias tree... I'd suggest to at least pepper some warnings/ build up/ clues about this encounter, before they reach it (Perhaps a drawing of a bloody tree above the cave entrance, some warnings above the opening to the corridor leading to it, perhaps some ritual items at the druidic lodgings which can give a clues that sort of a thing), and perhaps tone down some of it's many battlefield control abilities.

I hope my comments may help, and would love to hear how it went! Good luck, and kudos for the effort and cool adventure site! :)

[jjordan]

First, Wow! Thank you for the very specific comments. You obviously did more than scan the document and I really appreciate your time.

And now on to answering questions. This is an upcoming setting that's part of an ongoing campaign. It is intended to give the players information they need to move on to the next portion of the adventure as they seek to rescue the dwarf/brother in this arc driven by one of the player's background.

The druids used to be the rulers/administrators of a large forest realm that has been conquered by a neighboring kingdom in a bitter war. Some of the druids have formed an extremist faction aimed at driving the kingdom out and some of those have turned to abyssal sources of 'help'. The corruption and their needs are driving them out of balance with nature.

Skill levels are set to what I thought was appropriate based on several factors.

There are a lot of goals in play. The knowledge cleric and the astral self monk are pretty insatiable when it comes to knowledge and have a hard time leaving any place without fully exploring it. The ranger and the druid are borderline murder-hoboes and won't want to leave while there are still creatures to kill and treasure to find. Finding the brother/dwarf is the primary goal but they have also been hired to recover two kidnapped merchants (who aren't here but are in the bandit cave complex). The party has history with the drow, in general, and that might motivate them. And they fought one of the druids back in the nearest city and have been pursuing her towards this cave complex; there's bad blood between them.

The red light mushrooms show up clearly on the full size map and the players can easily avoid them if they choose to do so. The map is indeed the battle-mat for this encounter and comes with a grid (and tokens and line of sight and so on).

Good point on the bloodbloaters, I'll write that down. It's a 10ft swarm.

The shriekers (this particular variant of them) are easy to avoid and pretty much rely on intruders being spooked by the bloodpool they just encountered to want to avoid the puddle they have to walk through (or jump across) to go around the shriekers.

The snakes and spiders are generic and I pull their stats from the MM (or PHB, I forgot where they are located). Unless someone is being very careless they've all got passive perception scores high enough to notice these creatures so they are mostly there to slow down any searches and reinforce the atmosphere of the room.

The room is corrupted nature. It will also give me an opportunity to suggest movement of the roots (whether or not this is just a trick of the light) which will hint at the gulthias tree ahead. I had the route to the storage area lighted and the route to the altar room in darkness as a way to suggest to players that one was more used and possible less dangerous. It may not be enough of a hint but I don't want to put up signs and these players pick up on a lot.

The documents are pretty much the treasure as far as these players are concerned. The cleric and the monk will spend a bunch of time (hopefully out of game) going over the information. The confirmation that these druids have been corrupted will horrify the druid and probably set a new character goal for her. The information about the brother/dwarf will spur the ranger to urge the party to quickly go after him. The party might leave at this point and it's fine if they do. I'm not hiding the documents because then the party might not find them.

The cloudkill boxes are already weapons and identifying them (knowledge cleric) or just asking the sorcerer will give them that information. The boxes are fairly small and the players will probably scoop a bunch of them into their bag of holding. Because the boxes are essentially magic bombs they take a while to detonate after activation which will make them less useful to the players.

I didn't put the sorcerer stats in because I'm making them this afternoon. :) He's imprisoned by a blight exoskeleton and kept drugged (poisoned) to make him manageable. The druids feed him antidote to the poison (which alleviates his pain) when he gives them a completed box. A good social interaction will see him willing to help them, up to a point.

I worried a little about the altar encounter myself but I think the party will probably have a fairly easy time of this. The party all has darkvision, several of them have magic items that will allow them to see through the mist. They've got a lot of healing capabilities, including the ability to deal with several conditions. They tend to be stand-off fighters and they've got some good abilities to deal damage at range. I think this will be a three or four round fight with maybe one character getting reduced to unconsciousness. The tree is going to spread it's attacks so the action economy and damage rates will work in favor of the players and they have a couple of tools they can choose to use which will pretty much destroy the altar without any personal risk to them (but might make it impossible for them to access the lab). And the players have dealt with these kinds of druids and their hostile plants before so they aren't going in blind. And they have the option/possibility of completing avoiding this encounter by sneaking past.

The lab was located behind the altar room largely by mistake. I ended up leaving it that way because I didn't want the druids trotting sacrifices through their lab. The monk comes from an alchemists background and is going to want to spend a lot of time there (hence my inclusion of so many details) which is going to conflict with the ranger's desire to go get her brother and may keep them in the complex long enough for the other druids to return which will set up another fight.

[Kol Korran]

Well, your answers do clear things up!
I'll be glad to hear how it all went down in real play, after the session, if you'll be willing to write a recap. Sounds fun!

[jjordan]

It took them a little while and a couple of them were sweating but they were never in any real danger. Back to the drawing board.