forums.cubicle7.co.uk
archive

Okay, here is attempt number 2 using the Lands of the River tables

Rolling the dice gave me the following:
Adventure objective: Defend

Part One: Encounter - Beorn
Part Two: Combat - Slavers (Full of Hate)
Part Three: Journey - Great Hall (Swift Travel, Heavy Burdens)
Part Four: Combat - Orc Guards (Full of Hate, Weakened Enemy)
Part Five: Journey - Encounter - A Princely Gift (Favorable Meeting)

Part One: The Troubles of Beorn
The company while traveling through the the Beorning lands encounters Beorn (either while visiting his house or perhaps meeting him in the wild). The great man is obviously in a state of agitation. He makes a comment that he "really doesn't have the time to deal with this foolishness". If they players ask him what is troubling him he eyes them carefully as if wondering if they could help him out. If they don't think to ask, he might just outright ask them for a favor. The company must convince him that they are capable of helping him.
There have been rumors of a band of Viglunding slavers terrorizing the northern Beorning villages again. He asks that the company head north and see what is going on and if possible discourage the Viglundings from continuing their activities.

Encounter Evaluation
1-2 Successes: Beorn is not impressed but must settle for any help he can get.
3-4 Successes: Beorn Is somewhat impressed and offers the group some Twice-Baked Honeycakes
5-6 Successes: Beorn offers one of the rewards for the Befriend the Beasts undertaking
7+ Successes: The company gets honeycakes and 2 of the rewards from Befriend the Beasts

Part Two: Defenders of Freedom
Beorn tells the company that the slavers have been threatening a small settlement just south of the Elf Wood and asks them to head there. This is just a day or two journey north. On arriving at the settlement the company learns that the farmers have been told to pay tribute in gold or be taken as slaves. The Viglundings are returning that night. This is a group of people barely scraping by and they cannot pay the money that has been demanded. That night the Viglunding slavers arrive and demand their payment. When no money is handed over, they attack. The company must fight to defend the farmers.

After defeating the slavers (or driving them off) the players discover that there are several captives chained in a waggon. Most of these are Beorning men and women from the surrounding area. They give their thanks for being rescued and head back to their homes. However, in the group is a young boy. No one knows who he is or where he lives. He is reticent about his background but eventually tells the group his name is Eirik and that he needs to get to Mountain Hall. In actuality he was traveling from Dale with his mother and some body guards when they were attacked by the slavers. He does not know what fate befell the others, they were separated over a week ago during the attack.

Part Three: Escort to Mountain Hall
The company needs to escort the lad to Mountain Hall. Along the way if the boy warms up to the company he might reveal to them that his family was relocating from Dale to Mountain Hall. His father is an important figure in Dale and is working on developing trade between the two towns for minerals from the Woodmen's mines. As they rush to get the boy to Mountain Hall, they travel 5 miles farther each day, but doing so increases the fatigue from failed fatigue checks.

Part Four: A Gauntlet of Orcs
After passing south of the high pass when they near the foothills of the Misty Mountains, fate turns against the company once again. They notice that they are being followed by a company of orc guards. Despite their best attempt to outrun them, it becomes obvious that they are losing ground. They must pick a defensive point and make a stand. The orcs engage them weary from pushing so hard to catch up and full of hate for having to put out the extra effort. They attack at night when the company stops to rest.

Having defeated the orcs the company then must continue their journey to Mountain Hall.

Part Five: An Anxious Meeting

Arriving at Mountain Hall, the group gets a less cordial greeting than they might have expected. Armed Woodmen soldiers and a few bowmen of Dale surround them as they approach the Narrow Bridge. The company is asked what their intentions are. Eirik's mother and her body guards escaped the slavers, but unable to locate them or the boy, after several days continued to Mountain Hall to tell his father and gather a search party. Seeing the company with the boy, there is suspicion that they may be in league with the Viglundings and may be seeking a ransom for the boy's return.
The company is ordered to lay aside all weapons and wait. Before long a Barding man and woman are seen walking across the bridge. Upon seeing her son safe and sound the woman bursts into tears of joy. The man looks sternly at the companions. The group is ordered to let the boy go and make no effort to follow. Once he has returned safely to his parents, the soldiers step forward and take the companies weapons, then bind their hands behind their backs and escort them into Mountain Hall. There in the Great House, they are questioned about the events that lead to the return of the boy by Hartfast and the boy's father, Einar. Having heard Eirik's account, the mood had lightened somewhat and the group meets with much less suspicion than they did upon arrival. (Increase tolerance by 1) Still though, they must convince Einar that their intention was only to reunite the boy with his parents and that they had nothing to do with his capture or no desire to profit from his return. Asking for a reward will increase the man's suspicion and count as an automatic failure.


Encounter Evaluation
1-2 Successes: Einar has his doubts about their true intention. He tersely thanks them and then dismisses them
3-4 Successes: Einar is genuinely grateful and offers them 1 points of treasure each.
5-6 Successes: Einar is very grateful and gives each character 2 points of treasure
7+ Successes: Einar is eternally in their debt, each player receives 5 points worth of treasure and a note that may be used in Mountin Hall or Dale to increase tolerance in a future encounter by 3

Part Two: Defenders of Freedom
Beorn tells the company that the slavers have been threatening a small settlement just south of the Elf Wood and asks them to head there. This is just a day or two journey north. On arriving at the settlement the company learns that the farmers have been told to pay tribute in gold or be taken as slaves.

This could even be The Easterly Inn, that's under protection from Beorn. It could be a nice moment to revisit the place or to get to know it.

Good adventure, by the way!

Good stuff again Wbweather. You are setting the bar, need to see if I can match it

I look forward to writing a few myself. I have an idea for one more set of tables first, then I'm going to put my adventure making hat
on.

Falenthal wrote:This could even be The Easterly Inn, that's under protection from Beorn. It could be a nice moment to revisit the place or to get to know it.

Yes. The thing I like about Jame's wild adventure idea is that you can take information from your particular campaign and then build on that. You can either just come up with "filler adventures" or else you can include information and places to further develop or augment your campaigns plot.

Great job, Wb! You've done an excellent job of fleshing out the elements provided into an exciting narrative!

I'd recommend you include something in the final Encounter about there being Woodmen in the party. For instance, if I ran this right now with my group, they would have one or two Woodmen of Wilderland (one quite famous and well known), which I would think would lessen the chance of the party being mistook for Viglundings or being reacted to with such suspicion.

I like, too how there's a chance of the Encounter not going the players' way, if they do poorly enough (with the raven Encounter in The Missing Prince it seemed more "railroady", where no matter what the PCs did the raven would take them to where they needed to go. I prefer them done like this (which more matches the published adventures), where if the PCs do poorly things can go in a different direction.

Again, you've done an awesome job with these, and both of them so far would be easy to include in most campaigns. Right now this one would fit perfectly into ours, as the PCs have just been learning about the tensions and difficulties between the Beornings and Viglundings.

Thanks for the kind words! Feel free to adapt or rewrite as you see fit to accommodate your players.

As far as the Raven goes, I think if I were to actually run it, if the players do exceptionally poorly the bird would give up on them and just fly off leaving them to search on their own.

I am really just playing around with the adventure generating engine that James gave us (and poosticks7's tables). I plan on trying out more this weekend while I have the house to myself. I think I will try to steer away from any more abducted children however. I think that is starting to make me look a little creepy...

Wbweather wrote:I think I will try to steer away from any more abducted children however. I think that is starting to make me look a little creepy...

Ha, ha! I am laughing and smiling quietly because I am at the library, but I know exactly what you mean. I totally went there myself with my adventure Nightmares of Angmar in Ruins of the North.

Again, what a neat adventure! You are providing some great material for all of us to use. This is exactly why I created the Wild Adventures document and I'm thrilled to death that you guys are finding it exciting to use. Poosticks7 is a machine when it comes to making tables. He's giving me too much work to do Anyone can have a stab at their own tables too, however. The only major guideline I recommend sticking to is: try not to use the same titles (as best as you can) that the Hobbit Tales card game uses. Try to be unique and courteous. Hobbit Tales cards are still used in my games to generate Hazard episodes or improvisational inspiration and I think they work great in conjunction with Wild Adventures too!

Being a dad of 5, nothing gives me more of a chill than the thought of something happen to one of my kids. When I want to create an emotionally compelling story, I automatically think "Protect the children".

Wbweather wrote:Being a dad of 5, nothing gives me more of a chill than the thought of something happen to one of my kids. When I want to create an emotionally compelling story, I automatically think "Protect the children".

I hear you, Wbweather (I'm also a father of 5!)

Nothing pulls at the heartstrings of a parent like threatening a child!

Just had a thought about a minor detail of this adventure.

Mountain Hall is a long way to go for a Merchant of Dale to get minerals (what with Erebor and the Iron Hills so close).

I'd suggest one of the following things:

Einar is hidding something (a follow on plot point)

Changing their home to somewhere closer (and their names to match)

Or changing the reason they are travelling to Mountain Hall.

Or Mountain Hall has discovered a vein of a rare mineral (again could be a follow on plot point) Could be Einar's secret.

Like I said, it'ss only a minor quibble.