Worldwide Adventure Writing Month

[Username17]

Here.

Discuss.

-Username17

[shirak]

I am way too lazy to actually write anything but I fully support their goal. Btw, who's doing Quality Control? Anyone we know or should I just despair now and save the hassle later?

[Amra]

Oh, the temptation to send an utter spoof that LOOKS plausible right up until the point when you try to run it... It'd be one way to find out if there was any quality control!

[MrWaeseL]

That would actually be hilarious. Let's do that.

[Username17]

13: The Grand Piano Room - EL 12

• This is where the baroness' grand piano sits on its pedastal of stone. In addition to the piano, the room currently contains a hobgoblin janitorial group (4 Hobgoblins - MM p. 153), who are removing the debris from last night's party with judicious applications of green slime, which they carry in stone buckets and apply with stone mops. One of the Hezrou's pledged to the Baroness is also in the room when the players arrive (Hezrou - MM p. 44).
  
  Tactics: For the first three rounds of combat, the Hezrou will use its blasphemy spell-like ability and move to within 10 feet of the player characters. After that, it will attempt to summon another Hezrou. Whether it succeeds or fails, it will then close to melee, attempting to trip players into green slime pits if possible. Should it be severely injured after using at least one blasphemy, it will greater teleport to the Baroness and tell her everything (she will heal him).
  Meanwhile, the hobgoblin janitors with dump the contents of their green slime buckets on the players and then fight with the granite mops. Each bucket can be used as a touch attack on a player to deliver one patch of green slime (see DMG, p. 76). A miss deposits the patch onto the floor of the square the character is in, whereupon it will then attach to any character who falls prone in that square or to any character who stands in that square for 3 consecutive rounds.

-Username17

[Fwib]

Ow! that is horrifically nasty. But it sounds so plausible until you look at it.

[MrWaeseL]

Hope you like 1d6 con damage/round

[Cielingcat]

Holy shit, there's no save against it either.

[MrWaeseL]

I can do this too by the way.

5 - Warehouse (EL 7)

This is where the thief has retreated after being uncovered by the PCs. The warehouse is filled with lots crates barrels, coils of rope and other things you can expect to find on a shipyard, making moving in a straight line often a matter of climbing. Lucky for him, the thief has pilfered some sandals to give him an advantage.
When the PCs enter, the thief has used his Sandals of Spider climbing to climb to the ceiling above the entrance, and his Scrolls Summon Monster III and II to summon several critters. He immediately drops a Dust of Sneezing and Choking on them and snipes using his crossbow. If his animals have engaged the PCs in combat, he will move down to a flanking position to sneak attack.

[Neeek]

1181348023[/unixtime]]I can do this too by the way.

5 - Warehouse (EL 7)

This is where the thief has retreaded

you meant "retreated", right? Just doing some cursory editing in case we actually decide to submit this.

Dust of Sneezing and Choking

One would hope they'd know that anything involving Dust of Sneezing and Choking is probably messed up.

Note: I'm fairly positive our hopes would be dashed in this case.

[Maj]

Oh, the temptation to send an utter spoof that LOOKS plausible right up until the point when you try to run it... It'd be one way to find out if there was any quality control!

Why do we want to be more like WotC?

[the_taken]

1181361211[/unixtime]]

Oh, the temptation to send an utter spoof that LOOKS plausible right up until the point when you try to run it... It'd be one way to find out if there was any quality control!

Why do we want to be more like WotC?

Werd!

[RandomCasualty]

Adventures to showcase broken rules would be kind of nice if you were trying to convince more people that something is broken.

[Modesitt]

If we're serious about this, we should establish what ELA this is for. I personally vote for one of two:

A. About 4-5. This is low enough that a lot of people will run it, yet has room to slip in some real nastiness. If we go much lower than that, we just don't have enough abilities to work with.

B. 10-11. This is the top end of where many, if not most, campaigns end. The amount of sheer evil we can slip in is without limit.

Edit: A thread of ideas.

[Neeek]

If we go low-level, do we get to include a bunch of Giant CRABS?!?

[the_taken]

Oh Gawd! The Horror. The Horror.

I think I'll let a druid PC I'm DMing have one of those.

[shirak]

(Inspiration CDG's Laziness)

2. The Island

The old man led the PCs straight to the small, barren, rocky island and revealed the cave he found. He insists he is too old to come with them and would rather stay in the boat. The cave goes down for a while and at the end the PCs can see the missing ring among several bones lying on the floor. The end of the tunnel is actually a Gelatinous Cube that has been trapped here by the choke point a while back (only one PC can pass through the chokepoint at a time and it takes a full-round action to squeeze through the tight opening). The ring is a fabled Ring of Spell Storing. Should the players walk back, they trip a Contigency Planar Binding that calls an Avalancer (MM3, page 13) at the top of the cave. The Avalancer's best option is to simply use his ability all three times and then Transmute Rock to Mud the ceiling above the PCs. It will then go outside to explore. If the PCs let this happen, the old man dies and his boat is destroyed. This is a good time for PCs to use the Craft rules and repair it!

[MrWaeseL]

One would hope they'd know that anything involving Dust of Sneezing and Choking is probably messed up.

Note: I'm fairly positive our hopes would be dashed in this case.

Eh, noone reads the cursed items.

(And yes that's a typo)

[Neeek]

Frank and I were hanging out, and we made up an "adventure" that should take a party of four from level 3 to level 4. There are 11 CR 3 (or less) encounters, all of which should TPK, and one CR6 encounter which any moderately competent 3rd level party should run over. We were hoping people could help with some of the details.

Here's what we've got so far:
Set-up: A wealthy family in a coastal town offers to pay the party to find their kidnapped daughter. The daughter was taken by some pirates who have been extorting goods/money/etc from the town. If the party asks about the pirates, the villagers report that the pirate king uses fire.

Encounter #1: One of the Pirates, a half-green dragon 2nd level warrior Dwarf, demands tribute from the town. If the party tries to intervene in any way, the dwarf breathes on them, then attacks.

Encounter #2: A low DC Gather Information check reveals that the pirates have a bunch of rowboats they use to go to and from the island. If the party takes one of the boats, on the way to the island (about 2/3s of the way there), a wyrmling black dragon attacks from underwater, breathing acid on the party and attacking their boat when it's breathe weapon is unavailable, so they will have to swim the rest of the way to shore.

Encounter #3: Once on shore, en guard, bitches. I will assume you know what I mean.

Encounter #4: There is a main door to a tower built against a cliff face, it's about 2 stories high with a main front door and a platform on the roof with a staircase leading into the tower. If the party enters the front door, it is attacked by a 3rd level Tiefling wizard that has a silent image of a big rock over it. The Tiefling casts Web, then Cloud of Bewilderment, then Shadow Spray on the party. His familiar, a monkey with a little hat (the hat has 2 feathers), will juggle Quaal's Feather token whips to hit the party. If the party came in through the roof, the Tiefling will attack them when they come down the staircase from above. In this room is a captive that will tell the party about the Rod of Water Breathing in the room in Enounter #5, and the location of the kidnapped girl.

Encounter #5: If the party entered through the roof, a bat swarm attacks as they go down the stairs. In this room is a Rod of Water Breathing, that allows full speech underwater. If they came from below, the bats will attack them on that staircase instead.

Encounter #6: Behind the room in encounter #4 is a storeroom, with food in it, and a pool in the back. If the party is in the room for more than 3 rounds without saying the command word, a magic trap will begin casting Power Word, Pain and Power Word, Fatigue on a random person in the tower once a round (both are cast every round).

Encounter #7: The pool of water leads to a water-filled tunnel about 300 ft long. Halfway in, an Allip attacks the party if they don't say the password.

Encounter #8: 2 bound Lantern Archon shoot at the party as they climb out of the water, then climb the stairs to the balcony where the Archons sit. IT should take 4 or 5 rounds at full speed to reach them.

Encounter #9: In a large courtyard, a Kobold Sorcerer, a Kobold Cleric, a Hobgoblin Swashbuckler, and a Hobgoblin Rogue, all first level with Improved Initiative and armed with Amber Amulets of Vermin (Huge Monstrous Scorpion), are having tea and playing cards. The party interrupted their, uh, party. They use their amulets as their first action.

Beyond the courtyard a barracks with Encounter #9's treasure, and a hallway that ends with a locked door.

Encounter #10: Beyond the locked door is a thin passageway that the party must squeeze through. The walls are covered i Brown Mold.

Encounter #11: At the end of the passage way is a door. In the room beyond the door curtains blocking sight to the sides of the room. Waiting behind the curtains are zombies (3 CR worth), one of whom throws Dust of Sneezing and Choking as his first action, another bars the door back, if the party doesn't give the password in 3 rounds, or touches the curtains. There is a locked door on the other side of the room.

Encounter #12: Beyond a long hallway is a wide opening, right after a corner, into a smallish room. In the room is the kidnapped girl and the Pirate King: A 4th level Swordsage Afflicted Werewolf who is currently stuck in human form. His maneuvers are: Blistering Florish(not readied), Mighty Throw(not readied), Counter Charge, Wolf Fang Strike (not readied), Sudden Leap, Clever Positioning, Action Before Thought, Burning Brand, and Shadow Jaunt (not readied). He wields a light mace, and has the Desert Wind Dodge, Mobility, and Spring Attack feats. He has Weapon Focus (kukri) from his Swordsage levels, and Insightful Strike(Tiger Claw). He also has a cold resistance ring to protect him from the brown mold.

[tzor]

Due to Script Frenzy being also in June I was unable to work on an Adventure until I finished my play. Even after finishing my 20K word play in 16 days having less than a 1/2 a month to write an adventure would be hard. So I'm going to just do it in July instead. (One contest per month please.)

I have always been a fan of the old Lankhmar scenario. (Well not what they did to magic, but otherwise everything else in the scenario.) Especially the notion of sentient rats forming a Lankhmar below. I've have dabbled on and off with the idea of what if using 3E rules and a Lahkhmar below. Things don't get as small as they did in the 1E 2E settings. Wererats only go down to dire size which is small. Regular rats get to go to tiny. Unless you are running a hobbit campaign you can only go one size down anyway so even with magic one has to only think small. Given this here is the brief outline of the adventure.

1) Intro: A sorcerer's or wizard's apprentice approaches the party with a tale of his/her master being taken captive by a number of wererats. (Some parts of the story seem odd.) It is discovered that the best way to proceed is through the temple of the Rat God in the seediest part of the city.

2) Rat God temple: Some fun may be had here as the low level grunts are mostly LE, but eventually the LN druid of the temple comes onto the scene. Once he is informed of their quest for wererats he tells them of a pair of wererats; one a LE druid and the other a LE sorcerer. While he doesn't know of their location he does know of a small tribe/band of awakened rats who might know the whereabouts of the wererats.

3) Tribe of awakened rats: Basically these rats through a miracular wish are the descendants of awakened rats. This adds a dimension of tiny/small to the adventure because things really get interesting when you talk about tiny characters.

4) The druid, the sorcerer and the dire rats: Basically the wererats have captured several wizards in order to produce potions of enlargement. Combined with his staff of awakening, they plan on having a large force of awakened enlarged dire rats attack the city. The characters must rescue the wizard (who is currently suffering from level drain due to all the potion making and filth fever) and annoy or outright thwart the plans of the two wererats.

[erik]

1181365794[/unixtime]]If we're serious about this, we should establish what ELA this is for. I personally vote for one of two:

A. About 4-5. This is low enough that a lot of people will run it, yet has room to slip in some real nastiness. If we go much lower than that, we just don't have enough abilities to work with.

B. 10-11. This is the top end of where many, if not most, campaigns end. The amount of sheer evil we can slip in is without limit.

Edit: A thread of ideas.

Ooooh, I'd either missed that thread or forgotten about it. Probably didn't register as well since I didn't play or know of Living Greyhawk at the time.
I would have said that I actually played in the mod with the 12 HD white dragon over a chasm at party level 4... except that thread is from 3rd edition era and way before the mod I played was ever written. Apparently they decided to resurrect that battle for repeated play. The ice octopus Living Greyhawk bit reminded me of a more recent mod that is fairly hilarious.

Apparently there is a door or trap or somesuch which must be deactivated that is set underwater, and the PCs take damage for the extreme cold since the water is at -50 degrees celsius.

Yeah, Living Greyhawk writers are still going strong.

(I will say there are good writers in LG, but there are sooo many bad writers also)

[User3]

Maybe the water is verrrry salty. Salty enough that the PCs float!

[shirak]

Frank and Neeek: You guys are nuts. I like you. What kind of help where you looking for? Flavor text? Playtesting? I'm game

Clickml: You know, if they had said -40 I could buy it being supercooled. It would even make an awesome encounter where you fall into the water and it turns into ice encasing you. But, yeah, -50 is bogus and stupid

[Neeek]

1182776859[/unixtime]]Frank and Neeek: You guys are nuts. I like you. What kind of help where you looking for? Flavor text? Playtesting? I'm game

Mostly flavor text. We just didn't feel like writing the whole thing. Pick an encounter and do whatever you want.

Play-testing seems unnecessary. I mean, we're trying to kill the party with every encounter, so we don't need to worry about it being too hard, and if they survive a few parts, we won't be too beaten up about it (the first encounter is survivable with good rolls currently, for example. We were thinking of giving the half-dragon the Extra Exhalation feat so he could breathe again to make it more dangerous).

[Username17]

The important thing to note about this idea was that we put it together while preparing the "Iron Chef: Rum" meal rather than after having eaten it. So that while it certainly has the air of "people who are in the mood to drink" we had not actually gotten drunk yet when it was made.

Also:

Encounter #8: 2 bound Lantern Archon shoot at the party as they climb out of the water, then climb the stairs to the balcony where the Archons sit. IT should take 4 or 5 rounds at full speed to reach them.

The whole point of this one is that they are floating off the edge of the waterfall so they are more than 40' from anywhere the PCs can stand. They just fire laser beams at the party until they give up or get their way through the locked iron door at the top of the stairs.

-Username17