How to make this quest?

[Gerner]

My players have been given a quest to return an artifact, the first clue they will find is a text telling the story about the creation of the scar in Scardale (with some creative correction to make it match the story), the story ends with Corellon Larethian gives this artifact to an elven priest. The artifact is to be used if the dale comes in danger.

The story tells that the priest constructs a temple there he places the artifact, when the Players located there the temple should be they find hills instead, as the temple have been swallowed by the hills so it is now place inside the hills in a cave.

When the players find the cave there will be a city of I think goblins or kobolds or something similar outside of the temple as they are scared to enter the temple. Inside the temple I wanted to place the elven guardians of the artifact but as the temple is so old that any elf trying to live there should be dead by age. So I wanted to make them as ghosts and the high priest as a vampire (CG) obsessed with protecting this artifact.

I want the team to have the solution of getting the artifact with or without making a fight.

Do this sound good or is it rubbish?

[supermonkeyjoe]

No that sounds pretty good to me, sounds like there are plenty of different ways of bypassing all of the obstacles.

Just make sure it's obvious that the temple is now underground, I know a lot of players who would automatically assume that the directions are wrong and go look elsewhere.

[Kol Korran]

sounds like a nice adventure to me. has some solid progress. As supermonkeyjoe said, leave some more cluesthat the temple is under the hills.

For the elven guardian, I suggest you look at the Deathless template from Eberron Campaign Setting- basically these are "good undead", charged with positive energy. the elves may transcened into them if they are worthy enough or some other stuff.

the book present but 3 forms of Undying: Undead soldier (CR2) councilor (CR 9 I think) and Ascendent (about 20?) But you can use the basic stats and just reverse them from regular undead to create your undying. might feel better than fighting the "regular" undead.

also from the same book- living spells. these might be an interesting sort of challenge. (I think they are also in the MM3?)

good luck! it sounds promising!

[holywhippet]

Instead of a vampire I'd use a Baelnorn: http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Baelnorn_lich since they are meant to be good aligned elven undead.

[Gerner]

Thank you for the feedback, I will have a look at the Living spells and the Baelnorn as I do not have access to the Eberron campaign setting.

I will make sure to leave some good clues regarding the placement of the temple.

[bbgenderless100]

My players have been given a quest to return an artifact, the first clue they will find is a text telling the story about the creation of the scar in Scardale (with some creative correction to make it match the story), the story ends with Corellon Larethian gives this artifact to an elven priest. The artifact is to be used if the dale comes in danger.

The story tells that the priest constructs a temple there he places the artifact, when the Players located there the temple should be they find hills instead, as the temple have been swallowed by the hills so it is now place inside the hills in a cave.

When the players find the cave there will be a city of I think goblins or kobolds or something similar outside of the temple as they are scared to enter the temple. Inside the temple I wanted to place the elven guardians of the artifact but as the temple is so old that any elf trying to live there should be dead by age. So I wanted to make them as ghosts and the high priest as a vampire (CG) obsessed with protecting this artifact.

I want the team to have the solution of getting the artifact with or without making a fight.

Do this sound good or is it rubbish?

Meh sounds fine.

[Lord Torath]

...when the Players located there the temple should be they find hills instead, as the temple have been swallowed by the hills so it is now place inside the hills in a cave.

Let me just advise you to use the Rule of Three for this part. Make certain there are at least three clues that will tell the PCs that the hills are now covering the temple.

Maybe the locals can tell the PCs about an earthquake years ago the caused a huge landslide.

The trees around the hill are hundreds of years old, while the trees on the hill are much younger.

An old map that shows the surrounding terrain perfectly, but shows the temple instead of a hill.

You get the idea. I'm sure you can come up with better clues than I can.