The Village
The adventurers will need to fight for control of the
village. The village is controlled by a
warlord and his troupe. The warlord has
as many officers as the PCs, but they have two units per officer. Anyone that asks will be told this, it is
common knowledge. It is also common
knowledge that they have two allies, pirates in the lake and an encampment of
Orcs, they will supply and additional 2 units.
The Warlord has 6 units of light infantry, 4 units of light
archers and 2 units of cavalry. The Orcs
supply 2 units of medium infantry and the pirates one unit of light infantry
and one light archers. If they attack
the Warlord right away, they will fight 750 units vs 275. So, the goal is to gain troops or remove
allies.
The PCs must aid the locals to acquire local units
Village level 1 establishment, lv; 1 temple; ruined keep,
ruined temple, 16 artisans, 82 families, pop 460, GDP 64,800gp, militia: 50
light infantry, 50 levy Temple to Lamatur God of friends and family
The Forge is located half a day’s travel from the village,
too far to attract notice but too far to stay and commute to the village every
day.
There is an bar in the village Griffon’s Tail. It has no rooms to rent but it does have a
stable and there is a cottage beside the inn that is vacant, the keeper will
rent out the cottage for 10gp a night.
He will not budge at all until the town becomes more than hostile to the
PCs. Hostile, Unfriendly, distrustful,
trusting, friendly,
but can be talked down to 5gp. Over the course of conversation, it will be
known that the keeper has a son who has not been seen in months, but the keeper
is acting like he knows where he is. The
blacksmith is distraught as his daughter has been missing for a few days. As the
renown of the party improves the villagers warm up to them, they will be talked
to more and favourably received.
While the PCs are in the bar a farmer will burst
through the door and announce that another attack has occurred in the north
field, Ned has been carried off!
Everyone needs to come or more farmers will be lost. There are two ankheg that have moved into the
fields and if the players take care of it, they can farm without fear. The prize is the use of the militia. If the Players attack with haste, they can
rescue farmer Ned. If they rescue him
and treat his injuries the villagers will go from hostile to unfriendly, and to
distrustful. The keeper will look at the
players and tell them that Ned is his friend, and he will refund the players
3gp. 900xp, 150/PC
The woodsmen will here how the players helped the
farmers and will approach them warily, telling them that a team of theirs had been
surveying a new stand of trees for harvesting they have been overdue by two days,
and they wanted to know if the PCs would help them out. There are five ettercaps inhabiting the
forest with ten giant spiders and a dozen spider swarms. The ettercaps approach in groups of 2 with 4
giant spiders and four swarms, the
battle with the ettercaps starts with one Ettercap and one spider swarm per
round until all four have arrived, then one giant spider, the last Ettercap
comes after the first is defeated. There
are two such encounters and before the last encounter at the deepest part of
the forest the mother is present. She
does not move very fast and will never stray from her dozen eggs and the
restrained and alive woodsman whom she is keeping for her children. The remaining spiders and swarms will also be
present here. Encounter value for
adventure 10,000 1,666/PC, and a unit of light axe men infantry. Ettercaps have 500gp
Travelling through the forest the PCs will encounter wolves
in pens, bears in pits and birds caught on nets. If they free 5 of them, a druid will show up
and explain that there is a encampment of orcs in the woods who is gathering
animals for the city’s gladiator pits.
If they stop them the druid will aid them as much as he can. There are 10 orcs there with three orc
rangers, 2 are 1st level and one is a gloomstalker. If they defeat them, they will get a
+1longbow, 1000gp and the services of a Swarm of Birds and 1 5th
level Druid. 50xp/trapped animal and
3500xp
While looking for the Ettercaps or the Poacher’s camp they
find a small group of 5 outlaws in the trees near a clearing. They interrogate asking if they are aligned
with the Warlord and when they determine that they are not they ask if they
have seen their leader. Wilfred the
Strong, he has been missing for a week and they are worried about him. He was last seen wandering in the forests
near where the ettercaps haunt. They do
not like that region as there are weird sights and strange folk near
there. (fey creatures). If they happen upon the dryads before the
ettercaps they will release him on condition that they remove the ettercaps
first. If they have already removed the
ettercaps they will be favourable and release him. 500xp. A unit of archers and area knowledge
of the valley
There is a small mineshaft that has been invaded by
duergar dwarves and has killed the dwarves there. The duergar were trapped when the mineshaft
collapsed and are trapped here. A total
of 15 are present, 5 in each encounter area.
The corpses of 10 dwarves are also found. When they players have defeated the duergar,
a resupply party will arrive and thank the party for avenging their comrades. The Dwarves will aid the party with supplies
that raise two groups of Infantry to Medium or one to Heavy, and they will get
+1 to resources. 5000xp
After helping the village, the PCs will have a better
reputation in the town and the townsfolk will start asking the PCs for
favours. The children will ask if you
are going to bring back Danny. The kids
will say they have not seen Danny in a few weeks and Danny’s father keeps
telling them that he is sick and in bed and he can’t disturb him. The boys father turns out to be the barmaster
and a quick search through the place discovers rooms for the parents, and rooms
for the 3 daughters and an empty room filled with things a young boy might
like. If confronted, he will tell the
players that they kidnapped him week before the PCs arrived and he was told
that he would inform on the goings on in the village or they would kill his
only son. He tells them that if they
promise to save him, he will give them erroneous information instead.
Additionally, the lone priest will tell them that the local
graveyard has been plundered several times this year and he knows that if he
should bury anymore people they too will be stolen. Can the PCs find the source of the problem
and eradicate it?
The Blacksmith approaches you and tells you that his
rebellious daughter has been sneaking off on her own for a year or more and
spending the night out and sneaking back in just before dawn. He caught her once or twice, but says that
that is normal, he and his wife would often meet out under the stars before
they were allowed to marry. But he
canvassed the area and none of the locals know who she could be meeting and
this time she has been missing for more than a week. If the PCs could find her, he would try to
find an appropriate reward.
***
Finale as soon as the players attack the Warlord directly or
eliminate both their allies the warlord will attack them in the town. If the players free the Innkeeper’s son, they
will attack the next turn. Delaying the
Orcs does not count as attacking them
Make it clear what events will end this area and start a
battle, attack the warlords directly and they will move against your forces,
attack their allies the pirates or the Orcs and they will also move against
you, negotiate with their allies will not.
The goal of the play is for the characters to win, and they are more
likely to win if they do all or most of the things in the area. The Warlords have a large army equal to the
number of PCs+2 and they have two allies as well. If they join the battle that will mean they
will be facing the number of PCs plus 5 units: One Orc Skirmisher and One
Pirate with artillery and one landing crew of pirates. The Pirates can not be negotiated with, but
they can be attacked, if they are successfully attacked, they will be removed,
but the PCs will still be out manned unless they have gotten the aid of some of
the others. Remember, if they save the
Orc leader’s son, they will sit the battle out, if the orc leader’s son dies,
they will not join the battle until late, and that may give them an advantage.
Some of these encounters will only be accessible if the PCs are in the right spot, for example, the players will encounter the dwarf mine shaft in the forest as smoke rising from a ridge in the forest. The bear in the dead fall, the birds caught in nests can be encountered in the forest as random encounters but also the druids looking for the animals, if the druids catch the PCs freeing the animals they will tell them more, otherwise they might just fight the PCs. The Outlaws are hiding in the forest too so they will have to be found too, perhaps the Druids will mention them, suggesting that if they can get them out of the forest they would offer additional aid, perhaps better communication with animal spies. But they were in the forest to find the spiders and free the woodsmen, or on the way to seek the Orcs to treat with them.
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