Post by gaptooth on Feb 15, 2010 13:08:36 GMT -5
Hi! I recently started playing T&T with my wife and daughter-- you can see a report of your first two sessions on the Forge, where Vin invited me to post here. I've been looking over the threads and this looks like an excellent creative community!
Anyway, my daughter asked me for a river adventure with mermaids and stuff. It's been a long time since I prepared dungeon-delving adventures, and I wanted to ask for suggestions and advice on monsters, traps, and encounters for a river-type dungeon.
Background
Our world is heavily inspired by Norse mythology and other stories in that vein-- the earth is human-dominated, with Elves and Dwarves seething over an ancient feud. Their old war threatened to engulf the worlds until the gods brokered a treaty between them, breaking the Dwarves' Doomsday Weapon and giving each people a shard as a token of the treaty (ala Anderson's Tyrfing).
Elves are the scary twilight-dwelling Faeries of moonlit wild places, known for their powerful Glamour and power over dreams. Dwarves are Faerie lords of the Netherworld, enslaving armies of the dead to toil in their sprawling mines and hive-like tomb cities. Today, some younger Elves and Dwarves live among the humans, but the old generation regards humans as vermin, or at best, pawns in their struggle.
The Orks of this world are similar to Tolkien's in origin: fell Elves corrupted by cannibalism, bred by the old generation as proud, merciless soldiers. Goblins are human children who were stolen by Faeries or wandered into the Dreaming, like Peter Pan and the Lost Boys, unable to grow up and transformed into inconsiderate, reckless, burping marauders in need of a Mother. Trolls are the opposite: faerie children raised by humans, who grown into giant hairy, and sometimes anthropophagous, monsters. Elves and Dwarves leave Trolls behind as changelings when stealing human children.
We are also drawing inspiration (stealing) from the Legend of Zelda series (our favorite video games of all time) and Final Fantasy III (6), which I've introduced to my daughter recently.
The Player Characters
My wife is playing Skah, a female Dwarf Warrior, and Phoenix, a male Faerie Wizard. Phoenix had been a witch's familiar until the witch was kidnapped by a demon, and he enlisted Skah's help to find her. Skah may or may not be the exiled or rogue Queen Dwarf of a Dwarf colony somewhere-- I suggested that each Dwarf colony may have only one female, the Queen, who can impart life Pygmalion-style to Dwarf children fashioned out of rock by her servants --but we haven't settled on any details about her origin, which T&T doesn't demand anyway!
My daughter has three characters:
* Locke: a male hobbit thief, using the Professional class template with skills in Stealth and Stealing. Locke was a young hobbit farmer taken captive by Ork bandits while taking his family's goods to market. As the Orks' servant, he learned a lot about thieving before escaping to seek his fortune.
* Cyan: a human Warrior. Cyan's father was a knight who went away to dispatch the Wyrm of the Waste and never came back, so Cyan began training for knighthood. Now he is a pretty tough fourteen-year-old.
* Roxanne: a human healer, using the Professional class template with skills in First Aid and Herb Lore. She doesn't have an origin yet either. For first aid, I allow Roxanne to make an IQ Saving Roll (with her skill bonus) at a level equal to the number of wounds (hit points) she is trying to heal, which doesn't yield miraculous results and seems to fit in with the power level of other characters.
We're not using skills for non-Professional-class characters.
Here's what has happened so far.
The party employed a Level 1 Dragon Loremaster Albus Wormtongue in their raid on The Wyrm's Lair (pdf); a dodgy Level 1 expert of traps and poisons named Vino also offered his services to them, but they turned him down.
I statted the Dragon with a MR of 140 + Special Attack (Acid Breath, requiring a L2SR on Dexterity each turn to avoid), which I think would have been a very difficult encounter if they hadn't found The Wyrm's Curse, a very powerful dagger described in the adventure notes. Apart from not wanting to utterly destroy the characters, the low MR was also a result of the Dragon needing to eat some maidens to replenish his strength after being dead for so long. Anyway, using some clever tactics and their new item of awesome power, they defeated the Wyrm without getting annihilated, although they are pretty roughed up at this point.
As they get ready to exit the Lair with their loot, a voice calls down to them: "Is everyone okay down there?" It's Vino, the poison expert. "I came anyway. I thought you might need my unique professional services." They inform Vino that they have defeated the Wyrm, but Roxanne is unconscious from a scorpion sting after Locke successfully sucked the venom out by her instructions (requiring a SR on LK for sucking the poison out, and on CN + Hobbit Poison Resistance to avoid being poisoned). Vino says he'll bring some antivenom down.
And then he throws down a vial of knockout gas, requiring a Level 3 Saving Roll-- derived from his IQ + Poisons skill bonus + 2d (I figure he made a SR to concoct the poison). Everybody fails, and they remain conscious as Vino and one of his goblins loot their bodies, looking for the Wyrm's Curse, and taking their jewels as well. Four other goblins grab as much cursed gold as they can carry, and they leave. But true to his word, Vino leaves behind a vial of antivenom for Roxanne.
Locke revives first, and he gives Roxanne the antivenom, and the pair sneak down to the area where the goblins are loading up their Chocobo mounts in the dark. Locke devises a plan as most of the goblins ride off with Vino, and he steals the clothes off the last goblin and mounts his Chocobo. The rest of the party arrives, and two of them get on Chocobos whose goblins were thrown off, and pursue the robbers. After an intense mounted combat, the goblins are dispatched, and the disguised Locke knocks Vino off his mount in the melee (reducing him to zero hit points). One of the goblins flees amid the mayhem.
When they find Vino and recover the Wyrm's curse, Vino begs for death, mentioning that he can't face Rehnquist without delivering the dagger, and Rehnquist will find him. Still mounted on the Chocobo, Locke races back to get Roxanne to patch Vino up so he can question him further. When they get back, Vino has green foam pouring out of his mouth and an empty vial in his hand. On the body, they find a latter:
"I will contact you at the Hardy Hobbit in Khosht. —R"
Plans
The Hardy Hobbit is a riverboat, and I was planning to adapt Ken St. Andre's Riverboat Adventure as a jumping-off point for the mermaids my daughter wanted.
Alberich Rehnquist is the scion of the Nibelung, Dwarves of the old generation. I haven't statted him yet, but I see him as a high-level Dwarf Wizard or Wizard-Warrior. His angle is straight from Wagner's retelling of the Nibelungenlied: steal the magical Brinegold and create a Ring of Power.
Trouble for him is, the gold is guarded by Brinemaidens, horrible dragon-blooded mermaids. Hence, he employs Vino to get the Wyrm's Curse for him. Now Vino is dead, but I'm thinking that the party will follow up on the letter they found on Vino and meet one of Rehnquist's lackeys aboard the Hardy Hobbit. If so, Rehnquist could offer to buy the weapon, or employ the party to bring him the Brinegold. Either way, Rehnquist will move inexorably toward upstaging and destroying his rival, the Eldking.
The Eldking is a noble of the enchanted forest, one of the last strongholds of old generation Elves, a fading people. Grim and militant against human sprawl, Eldking is inspired by legends of the Alder King, a creature who haunts forests and leads travelers astray. Human settlements fear him and villages will permanently evacuate if they think he is near. He appears as a pale horseman wearing a black cloak, with long silver hair, and the horns of a stag set on his forehead. I don't know much about his plans yet.
Stealing the Brinegold: logistics
As of yet, I don't know exactly what events may lead the party into the mermaids' lair. Here are my ideas so far.
* The lair is an underwater cave hidden behind a waterfall. Parts of the complex are above the waterline, but much of it will require swimming, aided by a limited supply of potions that allow invaders to breath underwater.
* The Brinemaidens are seriously vicious foes, and will guard the Brinegold with their lives-- without it they will die, or something. I haven't given them stats, but I'm thinking of giving them siren-like powers to enthrall invaders with their beauty, requiring Saving Rolls on CH. If there is a common language, they may try to persuade the party to help them protect the Brinegold.
* There are other things lurking in the wet too.
What comes easy for me is coming up with colorful, personalized, and highly-motivated characters who want something, and a web of relationships and intrigue. This makes Story Now games like Trollbabe and Sorcerer very appealing to me. But my wife and daughter enjoy the gamist creative agenda more, and T&T delivers that in spades. I'm a bit rusty designing dungeon-style encounters, and I'd appreciate any suggestions or advice you may have! Especially if you have ideas for puzzles, traps, and other encounters in the Brine.
Anyway, my daughter asked me for a river adventure with mermaids and stuff. It's been a long time since I prepared dungeon-delving adventures, and I wanted to ask for suggestions and advice on monsters, traps, and encounters for a river-type dungeon.
Background
Our world is heavily inspired by Norse mythology and other stories in that vein-- the earth is human-dominated, with Elves and Dwarves seething over an ancient feud. Their old war threatened to engulf the worlds until the gods brokered a treaty between them, breaking the Dwarves' Doomsday Weapon and giving each people a shard as a token of the treaty (ala Anderson's Tyrfing).
Elves are the scary twilight-dwelling Faeries of moonlit wild places, known for their powerful Glamour and power over dreams. Dwarves are Faerie lords of the Netherworld, enslaving armies of the dead to toil in their sprawling mines and hive-like tomb cities. Today, some younger Elves and Dwarves live among the humans, but the old generation regards humans as vermin, or at best, pawns in their struggle.
The Orks of this world are similar to Tolkien's in origin: fell Elves corrupted by cannibalism, bred by the old generation as proud, merciless soldiers. Goblins are human children who were stolen by Faeries or wandered into the Dreaming, like Peter Pan and the Lost Boys, unable to grow up and transformed into inconsiderate, reckless, burping marauders in need of a Mother. Trolls are the opposite: faerie children raised by humans, who grown into giant hairy, and sometimes anthropophagous, monsters. Elves and Dwarves leave Trolls behind as changelings when stealing human children.
We are also drawing inspiration (stealing) from the Legend of Zelda series (our favorite video games of all time) and Final Fantasy III (6), which I've introduced to my daughter recently.
The Player Characters
My wife is playing Skah, a female Dwarf Warrior, and Phoenix, a male Faerie Wizard. Phoenix had been a witch's familiar until the witch was kidnapped by a demon, and he enlisted Skah's help to find her. Skah may or may not be the exiled or rogue Queen Dwarf of a Dwarf colony somewhere-- I suggested that each Dwarf colony may have only one female, the Queen, who can impart life Pygmalion-style to Dwarf children fashioned out of rock by her servants --but we haven't settled on any details about her origin, which T&T doesn't demand anyway!
My daughter has three characters:
* Locke: a male hobbit thief, using the Professional class template with skills in Stealth and Stealing. Locke was a young hobbit farmer taken captive by Ork bandits while taking his family's goods to market. As the Orks' servant, he learned a lot about thieving before escaping to seek his fortune.
* Cyan: a human Warrior. Cyan's father was a knight who went away to dispatch the Wyrm of the Waste and never came back, so Cyan began training for knighthood. Now he is a pretty tough fourteen-year-old.
* Roxanne: a human healer, using the Professional class template with skills in First Aid and Herb Lore. She doesn't have an origin yet either. For first aid, I allow Roxanne to make an IQ Saving Roll (with her skill bonus) at a level equal to the number of wounds (hit points) she is trying to heal, which doesn't yield miraculous results and seems to fit in with the power level of other characters.
We're not using skills for non-Professional-class characters.
Here's what has happened so far.
The party employed a Level 1 Dragon Loremaster Albus Wormtongue in their raid on The Wyrm's Lair (pdf); a dodgy Level 1 expert of traps and poisons named Vino also offered his services to them, but they turned him down.
I statted the Dragon with a MR of 140 + Special Attack (Acid Breath, requiring a L2SR on Dexterity each turn to avoid), which I think would have been a very difficult encounter if they hadn't found The Wyrm's Curse, a very powerful dagger described in the adventure notes. Apart from not wanting to utterly destroy the characters, the low MR was also a result of the Dragon needing to eat some maidens to replenish his strength after being dead for so long. Anyway, using some clever tactics and their new item of awesome power, they defeated the Wyrm without getting annihilated, although they are pretty roughed up at this point.
As they get ready to exit the Lair with their loot, a voice calls down to them: "Is everyone okay down there?" It's Vino, the poison expert. "I came anyway. I thought you might need my unique professional services." They inform Vino that they have defeated the Wyrm, but Roxanne is unconscious from a scorpion sting after Locke successfully sucked the venom out by her instructions (requiring a SR on LK for sucking the poison out, and on CN + Hobbit Poison Resistance to avoid being poisoned). Vino says he'll bring some antivenom down.
And then he throws down a vial of knockout gas, requiring a Level 3 Saving Roll-- derived from his IQ + Poisons skill bonus + 2d (I figure he made a SR to concoct the poison). Everybody fails, and they remain conscious as Vino and one of his goblins loot their bodies, looking for the Wyrm's Curse, and taking their jewels as well. Four other goblins grab as much cursed gold as they can carry, and they leave. But true to his word, Vino leaves behind a vial of antivenom for Roxanne.
Locke revives first, and he gives Roxanne the antivenom, and the pair sneak down to the area where the goblins are loading up their Chocobo mounts in the dark. Locke devises a plan as most of the goblins ride off with Vino, and he steals the clothes off the last goblin and mounts his Chocobo. The rest of the party arrives, and two of them get on Chocobos whose goblins were thrown off, and pursue the robbers. After an intense mounted combat, the goblins are dispatched, and the disguised Locke knocks Vino off his mount in the melee (reducing him to zero hit points). One of the goblins flees amid the mayhem.
When they find Vino and recover the Wyrm's curse, Vino begs for death, mentioning that he can't face Rehnquist without delivering the dagger, and Rehnquist will find him. Still mounted on the Chocobo, Locke races back to get Roxanne to patch Vino up so he can question him further. When they get back, Vino has green foam pouring out of his mouth and an empty vial in his hand. On the body, they find a latter:
"I will contact you at the Hardy Hobbit in Khosht. —R"
Plans
The Hardy Hobbit is a riverboat, and I was planning to adapt Ken St. Andre's Riverboat Adventure as a jumping-off point for the mermaids my daughter wanted.
Alberich Rehnquist is the scion of the Nibelung, Dwarves of the old generation. I haven't statted him yet, but I see him as a high-level Dwarf Wizard or Wizard-Warrior. His angle is straight from Wagner's retelling of the Nibelungenlied: steal the magical Brinegold and create a Ring of Power.
Trouble for him is, the gold is guarded by Brinemaidens, horrible dragon-blooded mermaids. Hence, he employs Vino to get the Wyrm's Curse for him. Now Vino is dead, but I'm thinking that the party will follow up on the letter they found on Vino and meet one of Rehnquist's lackeys aboard the Hardy Hobbit. If so, Rehnquist could offer to buy the weapon, or employ the party to bring him the Brinegold. Either way, Rehnquist will move inexorably toward upstaging and destroying his rival, the Eldking.
The Eldking is a noble of the enchanted forest, one of the last strongholds of old generation Elves, a fading people. Grim and militant against human sprawl, Eldking is inspired by legends of the Alder King, a creature who haunts forests and leads travelers astray. Human settlements fear him and villages will permanently evacuate if they think he is near. He appears as a pale horseman wearing a black cloak, with long silver hair, and the horns of a stag set on his forehead. I don't know much about his plans yet.
Stealing the Brinegold: logistics
As of yet, I don't know exactly what events may lead the party into the mermaids' lair. Here are my ideas so far.
* The lair is an underwater cave hidden behind a waterfall. Parts of the complex are above the waterline, but much of it will require swimming, aided by a limited supply of potions that allow invaders to breath underwater.
* The Brinemaidens are seriously vicious foes, and will guard the Brinegold with their lives-- without it they will die, or something. I haven't given them stats, but I'm thinking of giving them siren-like powers to enthrall invaders with their beauty, requiring Saving Rolls on CH. If there is a common language, they may try to persuade the party to help them protect the Brinegold.
* There are other things lurking in the wet too.
What comes easy for me is coming up with colorful, personalized, and highly-motivated characters who want something, and a web of relationships and intrigue. This makes Story Now games like Trollbabe and Sorcerer very appealing to me. But my wife and daughter enjoy the gamist creative agenda more, and T&T delivers that in spades. I'm a bit rusty designing dungeon-style encounters, and I'd appreciate any suggestions or advice you may have! Especially if you have ideas for puzzles, traps, and other encounters in the Brine.
