From a Generator

This is just random information from a generator that I wanted to keep for awhile to see if I could use it for anything later...

Theme - Horror
This type of adventure is designed to scare both the characters and the players. Just having a monster attack is not enough for a horror theme; the monster must first frighten the characters.

Goal - Protect Endangered NPC(s)
One or more NPCs are in danger, and the characters must protect them. They might be doing this for a reward, or because one or more of the NPCs is a friend or relative of the character. You need to decide what the characters are protecting the NPCs from. The NPC might be a wealthy or powerful person being sought by assassins or kidnappers. The NPC might be a whole village of peasants who are being terrorized by a bandit chieftain.

Story Hook - Dying Delivery
On some occasion when the hero is out wandering the streets or is otherwise all alone, a dying man bumps into him, hands him something, says a few words, and dies.

Plot - Accumulation of Elements
In this sort of plot, the heroes have to go from place to place -- perhaps covering very little area like a city, perhaps roaming the known world -- and accumulate elements to be used against the
Master Villain. These elements may be clues, pieces of an artifact, evidence, or allies.

Climax - Bloody Battle
This is the best Climax for an adventure involving the clash of mighty armies -- or for any adventure where, toward the end, the Master Villain and a large body of minions confront the heroes and their own troops. This finale is characterized by a monstrous clash between the two forces, with the heroes chewing through the enemy ranks to get at the Master Villain and his elite guards. It's strenuous, exciting, and classically simple.

General Setting - Exotic Distant Land
The adventure will take the heroes to some fascinating and exotic distant country, where they'll have to cope with new customs, monsters unfamiliar to them, and very colorful NPC encounters; choose one of the more fascinating foreign lands from your campaign world.

Specific Setting I - Demi-human Community
In wilderness areas, this will be a large community of demi-humans -- elves, dwarves, halflings, whatever -- or intelligent nonhumans such as orcs. If your action is taking place in a city, this could be a hidden community (such as a secret underground dwarf community) or a section of the city inhabited mostly by demi-humans.

Specific Setting II - Temple/Church
This can be either the church of some lofty and good diety, or the dark and grisly temple of some horrid deity (doubtless filled with evil soldiers and monsters), or even the temple that the madman villain has dedicated to himself for when he becomes a god.

Master Villain - Ravager
This Master Villain is like the Destroyer, except that he terrorizes a very limited area -- such as a village, island, castle, or clan stronghold. (He may want to destroy the whole world but be trapped where he is; perhaps his efforts to free himself constitute the adventure's plot.) He stays in his area and terrorizes whatever comes into it.

Minor Villain I - Childhood Friend with a Dark Secret
This Minor Villain is like the character of the same name from the Allies and Neutrals section. However, the heroes find out early on that he's really working for the Master Villain. He may
not wish to be helping the villains; his family may be held hostage, or he may just be too frightened of the villain or otherwise weak-willed to refuse. Alternatively, he could actually
be evil now.

Minor Villain II - Coward
This character is an ordinary grunt minion of the Master Villain, but he's a coward. He's deathly afraid of the Villain and the heroes. He's best used when you plan to have the heroes captured;
by his mannerisms, you can make it clear to them that this fellow is a coward and they will begin to work on him psychologically.

Ally/Neutral - Romantic Loony
Somewhere, the heroes bump into a lunatic who falls immediately in love with a player-character and won't leave him or her alone. This character may be a love-smitten village lass or nebbishy adventurer. Whatever the origin, this character must be hopelessly in love with the character but have some trait which keeps the character from reciprocating; perhaps the loony is too plain, too crazed, or too stupid. Whatever, he or she really is sincere in his affection for the character.

Monster Encounter - Foreshadowing Monster
With this monster encounter, combat may not be necessary. This monster encounter exists to alert the characters to the fact that something unusual is going on, a foreshadowing of their upcoming conflicts with the Master Villain.

Character Encounter - Press Gang
In any port city, the heroes, in a tavern or hostel, may find themselves set upon by ruffians employed by the city; these ruffians use clubs and strike to subdue. If the heroes fight and
beat the ruffians, they find themselves wanted by the law for assaulting officers of the peace. And if they fight and lose, they wake up to find themselves sailors, headed far away from
their quest! Now they must decide whether they're going to jump ship, mutiny, or just settle down to a few years of seafaring life.

Deathtrap - Mutually Assured Destruction
In this very nasty deathtrap, the heroes are bound up in such a manner that any one of them may get free of his bonds -- but when he does, all his friends perish. Obviously, the heroes' task is to find some way for everyone to get out alive. Perhaps an intricate series of cooperative rope-cutting will defuse the trap; perhaps a coordinated maneuver will get everyone free as
the trap is being sprung.

Chase - Water
Don't forget the water chase: Whether it's a battle of seamanship between naval vessels, a chase of rafts toward the inevitable waterfall ahead, a contest of canoeing ability, or a chase between the villain and his giant shark vs. the heroes and their dolphin friends, the water chase can be a distinctive and dramatic one.

Omen/Prophesy - Birthmark
One of the heroes has a birthmark that pertains to the adventure in some way. He may have a birthmark identical to some NPC -- for instance, some person endangered by the Master Villain. This mystery can give the hero his reason to become involved. Alternatively, his birthmark may mark him as a hero fulfilling some ancient prophecy.

Secret Weakness - Holy Symbol
The villain may have the traditional weakness to a specific holy symbol -- but don't choose just an ordinary one. It may be a holly symbol no longer used by the church, or may be some forgotten variation of the current symbol. (For instance, the cross may not work, but a variation -- such as the Roman cross -- might; alternatively, it might have to be a holy symbol which has
undergone some unfamiliar ritual.)

Special Condition - Time Limit
Finally, the most obvious condition to place on an adventure is to give it a time limit. If the Master Villain is going to conclude his evil spell in only three days, and his citadel is three hard days' riding away, then the heroes are going to be on the go all throughout the adventure -- with little time to rest, plan, gather allies, or anything except get to where they're going.

Moral Quandary - Ally Quandary
You set up the situation so that the heroes have a good chance at defeating the Master Villain if they get the aid of two specific individuals, probably experts in fields relating to the villains'
activities. But the two experts hate one another and refuse to work together, even if it costs them their world.

Red Herring - Lying Rumor
This is the worst and most useful type of red herring -- the interesting rumor which just happens to be false. In adventures of this sort, the best Lying Rumor concerns the Master Villain; it gives the heroes some "important" information about him which later turns out to be useless.

Cruel Trick - NPC Turns Traitor
He may alert he enemy when the heroes are planning a raid; he may steal the artifact and take it to the villain; he may stab a hero or important NPC in the back (literally) before departing.

Adventure Idea...

I had this idea a few days ago of a scene where the Players plunge the city of Avonleigh in to the Shadowfell in order to save it from an invading attack.

I pictured the general of the invading army arriving at the suddenly vanished town to find a small glowing sphere hovering a few feet above the ground at the center of where the town used to be. The general would reach out to grab the glowing sphere.

In the Shadowfell the characters would see a shadowy image of the general as though he just walked through a building. They would see him grab the glowing sphere and move it, but in the shadowfell a dark glowing sphere would be left in its place that the characters would be able to move and take with them.

If I use this idea I would have to come up with the pieces of how the characters would get Avonleigh transported to the Shadowell and then come up with and adventure and some pieces of how they would get Avonleigh back to the Natural World.

Serpents Camapaign - Sequel

During the time Sir Stewart and his group were out making Tarn Solvaney a safer place, King Barov Von Zarovich married Aurora Shadowborn. Because of the loss of the Paladins that once ruled Avonleigh (using Fallcrest from the 4E DMG), Queen Aurora appointed Lord Mayor Warren Markelhay as the new ruler of the city. A man by the name of Isten works under the Lord Mayor as his advisor and has been off on diplomatic meetings all over Tarn Solvaney and has been disposed for some time, but he’s recently returned to Avonleigh. Isten is actually Linoth returning to Avonleigh and working towards a quick way in which the Serpent Army can invade and take over ruler ship. Isten knows that something happened to his sister since she never reported back after invading Castle Ravenloft and now he hopes that taking over Avonleigh will be the nail in the coffin for him to be the ruler of Avonleigh.

Isten set a plan into motion after he returned that involved staging of a Serpent Army siege on a nearby town in which would pose a threat to Avonleigh and cause the Lord Mayor to send a group of warriors to help with defending the people of the town. Isten’s plans are generally not as straight forward as his Sister Rowan, she would have had a hidden group of fighters invade Avonaleigh after the Lord Mayor sent out his troops, but Isten has hidden a small number of Blais Boxes within a large and familiar war wagon that will be confiscated and brought back to Avonleigh. Within the Blais boxes are Yaun-Ti and Snaketongue cultists that will be able to invade the Lord Mayor’s compound once the war wagon is brought inside.

Isten has one other plan, he has a small creature that he’s paid to enter the Lord Mayor’s estate while the fight is going on to find and steal a soul sword that was found recently that Isten believes belongs to Gauntlet of the Doom Brigade. Returning the sword to Gauntlet should help Isten regain the knight as an ally.

This is where the new player characters will enter the campaign at 11th level, they are part of the warriors that are returning to Avonleigh with the captured war wagon. It will be rainy stormy night while the wagon and supplies are being off-loaded and the characters are unpacking their things and getting ready to report to the Lord Mayor when they’ll learn that the compound is being invaded by Serpent Army forces.

I want to bring Morgoroth back into the campaign by allowing the players to go by the location where his home used to be and find a mirror standing out in the middle of the field. Messing with the mirror will allow the players to see that Morgoroth has returned to the world somehow. The great battle in Castle Ravenloft between Rowan and Sir Stewart’s group as well as the two artifacts has weakened the barrier between Ravenloft (the Shadowfell) and allowed Morgoroth to escape his realm.

At this point I plan to run the Dungeon Magazine adventure Last Breaths of Ashenport while the players our out in the rainy wilderness. It would be more interesting if Isten somehow gets caught up and transported to the horrific fishing village along with characters.

From here the campaign can move into different directions, one being the character’s visiting a monastery dedicated to the Raven Queen to talk to an albino profit that is rumored to live there and trying to piece together what’s going on and what direction they need to go in. This idea comes from a Dungeon Magazine adventure called Sleeper in the Tomb of Dreams.

Hopefully more to come soon...

Sword of Serpents Campaign

The early stages of this campaign started with Second Edition, which was later switched over to Third Edition towards the end. The following is a general recap of the major events that occurred in the old campaign that I ran and then notes for the campaign’s sequel that I’m preparing to run in Fourth Edition.

Capmaign Location:
Tarn Solvaney, a land ruled by the Von Zarovich family and a renown group of paladins known as The Circle that operated out of the city / town of Avonleigh.

History:
Story began seven years prior to the first adventure using the non-player characters from the following sources A Light in the Belfry and Roots of Evil.

Player character, Sir Stewart Whiteheart, a warrior and King’s champion who was known in Tarn Solvaney for being the one King Barov and Queen Kristianna would call on because of his ability to do the work of large militia.

Player character, Blais, belonged to a large smuggling business in the small port city of Drebden about a seven day trek West of Barovia. A large portion of her business was in the transportation of illegal and dangerous creatures that were stored in stasis in small magical boxes that became known as a Blais box.

Player character, Lord Corwin Blackhawk, wasn’t really an official lord, but in his own mind he thought of himself as one. With his evil ways he really wouldn’t be caught dead with the two characters mentioned above, but circumstances unfolded around him that made him tolerate them to certain extent. He wanted to be the boogieman of the region and didn’t like anyone but himself being the one the people of the realm feared. Blackhawk always kept his word, mostly because he was haunted by tortured dreams, sleepless nights, etc. whenever he didn’t.

Campaign Story:
King Barov Von Zarovich calls Sir Stewart from his home to the East of Barovia. He sends Sir Stewart on a mission to find Queen Kristianna’s sister Aurora Shadowborn who has gone missing along with the paladins of The Circle and the Queen’s brother Ferran Shadowborn.A group known as the Cult of the Serpent pulls Blais aside and tells her that they haven’t received a delivery of an important package that was supposedly under her supervision so they threatened her to go out and find it. Investigation into the shipping records placed the package coming from Morgoroth who was located in Avonleigh, so Blais personally took it upon herself to ride out and get the parcel.

Blais and Sir Stewart run into one another at Morgoroth’s estate where they both find that the house is gone along with Morgoroth, Aurora, and Ferran.

Lord Blackhawk has been struggling with troubled dreams and has a feeling that something terribly wrong has occurred but doesn’t know what it is until Sir Stewart and Blais show up at his house one evening and mention that they’re looking for Aurora Shadowborn and were told that the locals mentioned a Lord Blackhawk. Corwin’s past intertwined with Aurora Shadowborn many years ago when he had found Aurora and her mother traveling on an isolated road and he imprisoned them belkow his mansion. Later he would kill the mother but found that he for some reason couldn’t kill Aurora and let her go, giving his word that no harm would ever come to her. An old promise he now had to complete.

Earlier… Morgoroth came to Avonleigh to escape the evils of his ways in a distant land, he met with Ferran and told him of history and the paladin granted him a piece of land and offered to help him repent his ways. Morgoroth and Aurora were attracted to each other but never spoke of their feelings. Years went by and Morgoroth became Ferran’s advisor and was changing his ways until one day a knight of his distant homeland arrived and told Ferran he was searching for an evil mage and Morgoroth knew it was only a matter of time before the paladin’s knew it was Morgorth that the knight was looking for.

The knight caught Morgoroth and the mage killed him with deadly evil magic. Ferran set out to talk to Morgoroth and council him but he was never seen again. Soon afterwards Morgoroth teleported into the church, grabbed Aurora, and then teleported back home. The paladins quickly responded and rode off to drag Morgoroth from his home. That night a storm raged across the land and in the morning a mob of people went the wizard’s estate to find that the paladins, Aurora, Morgoroth, and the wizard’s home were gone. Morgorth was now imprisoned in Ravenloft and Aurora held in stasis in a glass coffin that Morgoroth could not break.

Sir Stewart and his group were soon transported to Ravenloft to rescue Aurora from Morgoroth. A previous fortune telling and a new dream made Sir Stewart realize that the Queen would die if he saved Aurora. Sir Stewart tried to kill Aurora but Corwin wouldn’t allow it and then they were all transported out of Ravenloft where Stewart didn’t arrive in time to save the queen.

A year had gone by while the group was in Ravenloft rescuing Aurora, only a day or two had gone by for the adventurers. They came back to find that the Serpent Cult had gained access to a magical artifact called the Sword of Serpents that had increased their power greatly.

The Serpent Army’s main leader was a woman called Rowan and her brother Linoth was her first in command. The heroes ran into Linoth a few times during the adventure and would usually allow him to escape. He became the comical villain, always in the wrong place at the wrong time and usually lucky enough to get away when he surely should have been killed or imprisoned.

The heroes traveled all over in search of an artifact that was said could destroy the Sword of Serpents. At one point while searching out motives of the Serpent Army a portal was found and the group was able to steal the Sword of Serpents from the evil army, but it was a little too late since the Serpent Army was preparing to invade many cities from the inside using magical portals while Rowan used a similar portal to travel to Castle Ravenloft and establish herself as ruler of Tarn Solvaney.

Lord Blackhawk went to a city to the south called Talor and used the Sword of Serpents to stop time and use a creature he found in his travels to infect the whole town and create his own army in which to defend the Castle and the lands of Tarn Solvaney. (The creature was a facehugger from aliens and with it Corwin made warriors out the city of Talor)

The story ended with the characters in a final battle in the chapel of Castle Ravenloft, both artifacts animated into large animals that began tearing the chapel apart while Sir Stewart, now a Black Guard because of his constant closeness with Lord Blachawk, battle with the Serpent Army’s leader Rowan.

We never finished the last combat, but Rowan was pretty much outnumbered and would eventually fall or driven away.

I want to continue the campaign and convert it over to Fourth Edition having the same players using new characters in the fight against the invading Seprent Army, with Barovia and Castle Ravenloft overridden with alien creatures and their controller Lord Blackhawk and his companions vanished during a storm assaulted the castle in the midst of the last battle.

Linoth is secretly a chief advisor to the new Lord of Avonleigh and no one except Sir Stewart and Corwin know of him as anything different leaves him with a place to lay low while he gives the Serpent Army his commands from their invasions all over Tarn Solvaney.

The adventure is starting with the characters arriving in the town of Avonleigh after dealing with a group of Sepernt Army warriors invading a town to the south. Linoth will personally greet the arriving group and show them to their quarters. What the players won’t know is that Linoth had hoped the group would take one of the Serpent Forces large war wagons (a wagon that was encountered in a previous battle with the old characters) and return to Avonleigh with it. Hidden inside the wagon are multiple Blais Boxes (as described above) and within those are hidden two groups of Serpent Army forces that intend to invade the Lord’s home, killing him and taking control of Avonleigh.

Additional Sub-Plots:
A few of these are possibly going to resurface in the following campaign sequel.

An old Dungeon Magazine adventure had a group of evil mercenaries in it known as the Doom Brigade, I took the group and modified it a little to fit the story. The Doom Brigade worked for Rowan of the Serpent Army in finding anything useful to aid in making her Army more powerful. The Doom Brigade was led by a death knight, named Gauntlet, in which I worked into the story as being Count Strahd’s right hand man back when Strahd was a retired admiral and ruler of Tarn Solvaney. Gauntlet’s ultimate goal was to slay Strahd and Rowan promised him that once she was ruler of Tarn Solvaney she would grant him that wish.

If I remember correctly, the players heard rumors around the land of the Doom Brigade early in the campaign and they ran into them two or three times later in the campaign. Gauntlet had a helm of teleportation that had a contingency built in that would teleport him away from combat when his hit points reached a certain point. He was tied closely with his weapon and in the last combat the players had with the Doom Brigade, Sir Stewart disarmed Gauntlet of his sword and the next blow caused Gauntlet to teleport away. Gauntlet became a loose end, he’s now looking for his weapon that Sir Stewart began wielding once his alignment shifted towards evil and he became a Black Guard.

The most memorable battle was with a group of Serpent Cultists led by Linoth as they were transporting a young platinum dragon out of Talor inside a large war wagon pulled by four large undead beasts. These beasts had the ability to hit an enemy with such power that they flew through the air many feet away. Sir Stewart wasn’t familiar with the ability until after he charged onto a big a bridge the wagon was traveling over and was hit by the beast, flying back over the rest of the party and into the trees some distance away. The group rescued the platinum dragon who flew off to join his mother back in Talor, she was one of the rulers until she became part of the plot and Corwin gave her a Necklace of Strangulation as a gift.

Corwin used parts of the platinum dragons to construct large abominations that he entered in an illegal underground fighting tournament of creatures where the prize was a an item called the Key of Finding that could find and person, creature, or object in the world and then vanish once it had shown the location to the person. The key actually would show a large portion of the world, like map, and then zoom down until the thing requested was shown to the user. This key was used by the players to find the artifact that was rumored could destroy the Sword of Serpents and now the key has moved on to another location in the world.

The illegal tournament of creature against creature took place in the underground city of Skullport (from Forgotten Realms) located below a coastal city to the north called Gorak. Lord Blackhawk transported his creatures to the tournament using the magical Blais Boxes.

The characters left Skullport using a long winding passageway that exited some distance from Gorak. The characters then traveled to Gorak and found Linoth and a group of Serpent Cultists causing trouble. They quickly dispersed the cultists and captured Linoth who, after being promised he’d be allowed to live if he provided some useful information, told Corwin everything he knew about an impending invasion that was going to occur using a portal hidden below the main government spire at the center of the city. Corwin then promised that the next time he saw Linoth would be the last time.

The portal below Gorak was destroyed but not before Corwin used it to steal the Sword of Serpents out from under the Army’s nose. The portal’s destruction caused many troops to be killed that were gathered in a large cavern preparing for the invasion. Unknown to the characters, the portal’s explosion also took out other portals close by that were tuned to other cities, one of them being Avonleigh.