How do you prepare a village adventure? Gavin Norman recently wondered on Google+ about preparing a little city adventure interlude for his players who were on a journey of a thousand miles.
I think that brevity is essential since it’s only going to be a short interlude. I don’t think this village or city needs a map, factions, quarters, and so on. If you start down that road you’ll have material for ten sessions! This can be a good thing, or it can be detraction from what the players actually want. If they’re free to choose, they might just leave. Here’s what I wrote. Well, I added some stuff at the end.
I would just prepare *three non-player characters* (name, class, level, three adjectives), *three locales* (name, a few words), *three encounters* (who why where). Have some mini adventure ready.
Shias *boat* intercepts the party. She comes aboard and wants to inspect things. Demands x gp for all the stuff the party has. Enough to piss the players off. She’s the one who’s going to make a connection. She has four city guards aboard. Fighter 1, HD 1, AC 4, 1d8.
At the *Green Dragon* the food is good. It’s still Hare week. It’s all hares. Or cats, if you can tell the difference. Rumors: Orgon has a job for you. Benson is nice chum and will look the other way if you know what I mean. Shia is lawful stupid… Observant characters will note the people disappearing downstairs. It turns out that there is gambling going on down there. And, if you really need to, apparently children are being sold to serve amongst the Firfal, the fisher folk that live on boats out by the islands, they’re so ugly they can’t find a mate and that’s why they buy children. Or so they say.
At *Ogon’s Tower*, you can find his petrified master (including his spellbook which goes up to level 5 and which does not contain *stone to flesh*; it’s way beyond Orgon’s abilities but he guards it jealously). He also keeps a tame *carrion eater*.
On the *streets*, Benson follows the party and wants a bribe or he’ll bring the authorities down on them for gambling _ tax evasion sneaking into Ogon’s Tower, whatever. He has 10 thugs working for him. HD 1 AC 7 1d6._
Orgon’s tower can act as a *two-room dungeon*. It consists of three levels:
1. the ground level, guarded by the *carrion crawler* (eight attacks, save or be paralyzed), with the petrified master, a *love potion*
2. the second floor, with a *magic mouth* guarding the room and possibly awakening or calling Orgon; the master’s spellbook being the treasure (see below)
3. the top level where Orgon sleeps; he has 500 gp hidden by magical means (500 gp buried inside the stone walls of his tower, to be retrieved using *Colocation*, one of his spells)
Since I love creating spell books, here’s *Margadon’s Magnificent Mysteries*. Spells appropriate for a magic-user interested in petrification—in other words, *Petromancers*.
+-------+--------------------------------+ | Level | Spell | +-------+--------------------------------+ | 1 | *Read Magic* | | 1 | *Read Inscriptions* – like | | | *Read Languages* | | 1 | *Slingshot* – like *Magic | | | Missile* except shooting magic | | | stones | | 2 | *Stone Fuse* – like *Arcane | | | Lock* but anything consisting | | | of stone (floor, walls) will | | | fuse with other inanimate | | | matter (shoes, gloves, doors, | | | staffs); when the target is | | | worn or wielded, the creature | | | wearing or wielding it can | | | save vs. spells to avoid the | | | effect | | 2 | *Colocation* – like | | | *Invisibility* but merge with | | | earth or stone, cannot be | | | hit, cannot attack without | | | emerging; must emerge from | | | the same spot; can stay | | | indefinitely, can leave things | | | to be retrieved later | | 2 | *The Smashing of Doors* – like | | | *Knock* but a your fists smash | | | the door as if you’re a stone | | | golem | | 3 | *The Power of Medusa* – like | | | *Hold Person*, looks like a | | | temporary petrification | | 3 | *Earth Swim* – like *Fly* | | | but gain the ability to swim | | | through the earth; when the | | | spell ends and you’re still | | | underground, you suffocate | | | unless you cast *Colocation* | | 3 | *Stone Fist* – like *Lightning | | | Bolt* but the damage is caused | | | by a huge stone fist; the | | | broken stones remains after | | | the spell is cast | | 4 | *Earth Shift* – shifts earth | | | and stones to the plane of | | | elemental earth, creating a | | | permanent hole 30 feet deep | | | and 10 feet wide, making a | | | terrible ruckus; all living | | | things inside the hole do not | | | get shifted and just sink to | | | the bottom of the hole | | 4 | *Stone Forest* – like | | | *Massmorph* but the creatures | | | look like standing stones | | 5 | *Transmutation of Rock to Mud* | +-------+--------------------------------+
Related: The Village is a one page quickstart which works according to the same principle.
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