[3.5]Emergency session (possibly) tomorrow - please help

[Katrascythe]

Hey,

I have a small dilemma. My group alternates DM's and games every other week to take the pressure off one DM and let them play. This is supposed to be the other DM's week to run, and I was going to *begin* my campaign next week.

Problem - one of the players is in the other DM's game only. This week is his sister's anniversary so he can't play. We might be running my game tomorrow and I have little to no material plus a test that I need to do some work for so I can't focus on building up the setting.

Does anyone have any suggestions on little side quests I can run that don't require much prep so that I can keep people entertained for about 12 hours?

Any help would be appreciated.

FYI:
Setting is fairly low magic.

We have diviner/arcanist dvati twins, a fighter, and a warmage.

[MeklorIlavator]

What level? Does it matter if it's a little contrived? Do you have a stash of old characters(either by saving the sheets, or by using a profiler, like mythweavers)?

[Katrascythe]

They're level 9. It can be really weird, I don't mind.

I don't have any old characters. I have one old BBEG. Most of the other time I just use modded version of the tables in the DMG. I also have all of my personal characters (mostly mages, then an archer and a couple of rogues).

[Oracle_Hunter]

Two Words: Dungeon Crawl

Find yourself a random dungeon generator and go with it. Roll on a level-appropriate monster generator and roll randomly on the treasure table for loot.

Here's the first random dungeon generator I found. It looks like it uses 3.5 rules and seems pretty nifty.

Easy as pie.

If you need a reason for the Dungeon Crawl, the ever-popular "found a treasure map" excuse is a good one. Or the "rescue my significant other" excuse. Or use Wizard's Eberron Adventure Hook Generator - I'm sure some of them aren't that setting specific.

[TheLogman]

Ummm, that or you know, if they're level 9, TOMB OF HORRORS. I ran it in one day, and we had only 2 casualties with very few hints. If you aren't a draconian DM, and you reward creative thinking, go ahead and download the Tomb of Horrors and let them play that. It's terribly deadly though, so tell them to bring extra characters or let them have Free Resurrections.

[MeklorIlavator]

Well, this comes from experience (last week two of the people in my campaign couldn't make it, though they didn't inform us till everyone else was there). I just took out some old characters and ran a "clearing out a powerful group of bandits". It worked pretty well, too.

Essentially, I had a group of 4 bandits on the road near the camp, then a some at the camp itself, and finally a few more groups out at different places. Not sure if it'll last 12 hours, though depending on the classes involved it might very well.

[Katrascythe]

Ummm, that or you know, if they're level 9, TOMB OF HORRORS. I ran it in one day, and we had only 2 casualties with very few hints. If you aren't a draconian DM, and you reward creative thinking, go ahead and download the Tomb of Horrors and let them play that. It's terribly deadly though, so tell them to bring extra characters or let them have Free Resurrections.

I like the Tomb of Horrors, don't get me wrong... but the players have the IQ of melons. Or at least a couple of them do. They don't think before doing stuff and get themselves killed on a regular basis. They spent several days on their characters so I would prefer not killing them in the first 2 hours.

I might do that with some thrown together characters though!

[Olo Demonsbane]

The Tomb of Horrors is fine, just give them each a ring of two true ressurections. This will let them go through it with minimum character loss, though, if they truly are as stupid as you say, you still might manage to kill some

[BobVosh]

I like the Tomb of Horrors, don't get me wrong... but the players have the IQ of melons. Or at least a couple of them do. They don't think before doing stuff and get themselves killed on a regular basis. They spent several days on their characters so I would prefer not killing them in the first 2 hours.

I might do that with some thrown together characters though!

Melon heads don't really matter much in ToH. There are parts that you simply have to know, no amount of thinking can solve. Action there will solve it.

[Katrascythe]

The Tomb of Horrors is fine, just give them each a ring of two true ressurections. This will let them go through it with minimum character loss, though, if they truly are as stupid as you say, you still might manage to kill some

One of the player's main strategies is... "I walk around the corner and charge it."

He's said himself that he likes doing stupid stuff and doesn't mind dying all the time. Thing is, *I* don't want to have to wait for him to make a new character every time he walks around a corner...

I might try to do a dungeon or the bandit clearing that MeklorIlavator. I would say those ideas are more fool-proof, but then I remember they're PC's...

[Rhiannon87]

A collection mission is also good-- someone hires them to go get powerful item X, they go fetch it, they get a pile of gold as a reward. If nothing else it's a reason to go through the dungeon/bandit camp/etc.

[hewhosaysfish]

The Tomb of Horrors is fine, just give them each a ring of two true ressurections. This will let them go through it with minimum character loss, though, if they truly are as stupid as you say, you still might manage to kill some

What's the Sleight of Hand DC to switch a ring from someone's hand?