The Dungeon Master's Journal of the Unquiet Lands

There's always something to reflect upon after launching a new effort.

I like the name, but it's become obvious to me that focusing on The Unquiet Lands is too narrow for my tastes. I have a few other projects waiting in the wings that I would like to talk about in this blog. The name stays, but the scope is going to be expanded to my rpg projects in general.

Second, I had an initial conceit that I would present material in some kind of chronological order. I've decided I really don't want to do that. Also, I think posting whatever comes to mind will provide for an increase in the variety to look forward to. At some point, my intention is get to everything worthwhile.

Finally, I probably shouldn't promise what the next post will be about. My feelings concerning what I want to write about will often change from what they were when I wrote the previous post.

However, I did say I would write about the next part of A Rendezvous on High Hill for this post, so here it is:

A Rendezvous on High Hill, Part Two
Background
The party has been hired to find the local elves and inform them of the arrival of the first trading caravan since winter.

Last post, I mentioned that the payment was a "pouch of silver." That would be 50 sp. Players in most of my adventures are familiar with the fact that I use the "silver standard." In short, in the majority of my settings, a silver piece has the buying power of a standard D&D gold piece.

50 gp isn't going to let the party retire, but it's suitable for a two day journey that doesn't hold the expectation of danger. Of course, the players know full well there will be copious amounts of danger, but they were too polite to let their characters in on the secret.

Encounter Area A: The Deep Woods
A1 - Locating the outpost. (Skill Challenge)
This Skill Challenge begins fifteen minutes after the party enters the forest.

Normally, I wouldn't bother to specify "fifteen minutes," but the party has less than forty-eight hours to accomplish their quests, so keeping track of time is important.

Area Description
Shortly after entering the forest, the trees quickly begin to crowd together. Half of them are pines, and the rest are trunks with tangled, leafless canopies, except for once in a while, when you spot a tree ablaze with violet blossoms. The ground is difficult to negotiate, a combination of pine needles, underbrush, snow, and mud. The trees do provide some protection from the wind, which is causing the clouds to race past, overhead. Every now and then, you hear or catch glimpses of animals: deer, birds, dormice, and so forth. Once in a while, the howling of wolves carries on the wind.

I probably say some variation of this whenever a party enters a forest in my games, I'm afraid. The important point here is to convey that it is the beginning of spring, and to note the presence of wolves. Early spring + wolves = hungry wolves.

Goal and Context: The party enters the Deep Woods, attempting to locate the hidden paths and find the elven outpost.

Level and Complexity: Complexity Two - Six successes before three failures.

Skills Used:
Acrobatics
Athletics
Nature
Perception

Explanation
The outpost is said to be two leagues due west of High Hill, but locating it in this pathless forest is easier said than done. You will need the Nature Skill in order to find your way of course, and Perception will help you locate clues as to where it might be. Acrobatics and Athletics will be useful for physically traversing the dense and treacherous woodlands.

This was my very first skill challenge.

Procedure
A) Players decide their turn order, or agree to make Initiative Rolls and/or Charisma Checks to determine the order.

Subsequent errata has removed the idea of player initiative in skill challenges. If I were to run this adventure again, I would probably just go clockwise around the table. Nevertheless, I have found it useful to rely on initiative for some skill challenges.

B) Every player must either use a skill, use the Aid Another action (at DC 10), pass, or do some other action.

C) You can use one of the skills I listed, or you can try to justify the use of another skill.

D) One Nature check must be successfully made each turn to keep traveling in the correct direction.

E) If the party encounters a hazardous obstacle, they can make an Acrobatics or Athletics check to progress through the obstacle, or a Nature check to bypass the obstacle.

F) Perception checks can be substituted for Nature checks, but it is more difficult to do so.

G) Failing a skill check may have immediate and/or longer-term consequences.

Nature (DC 15) A successful Nature check means that the party will spend one hour traveling in the correct direction for the first three checks. The final successful check means the party discovers a path leading westwards. A failed Nature check means that the party will spend two hours lost.

After the first and third Nature checks, the party encounters an obstacle: 1- a swift stream flowing along a ravine 2- an area of mucky swamp.

Again, errata changed the DCs for skill challenges. This was intended to be a moderate challenge for 1st level adventurers. Therefore it and all subsequent DCs in this section would be reduced by 5 if I were to run the adventure again.

Negotiate the Obstacle:
Acrobatics/Athletics (DC 20) Failure indicates the players lose one healing surge each. Rope or other useful equipment gives a +5 bonus on the roll, but failure indicates the equipment is lost.

Bypass the Obstacle:
Nature (DC 15) Success indicates that the obstacle was bypassed in one hour. Failure adds 1d4 hours to travel time.

I didn't specify it in my notes, but negotiating the obstacle would mean that every character makes the check, while bypassing the obstacle only requires one check.

Some groups would prefer to come up with a specific plan for dealing with such obstacles. The above description presumes a group, like my offline players, who are accepting of that level of abstraction.

Perception (DC 20) A successful Perception check replaces any Nature check.

Six successes: the party finds a path towards the outpost.
Two failures or five successes: it begins to rain.
Three failures: the party is lost for the rest of the day (or until morning) and everyone loses another healing surge, after which, proceed with Encounter A2.

Some GMs would entertain a philosophical objection to having weather dependent upon the party's performance in the skill challenge. I am sympathetic to that viewpoint, but here is a case where I made an exception. The point of the rain is that I want it to rain before the party completes the skill challenge as a matter of atmosphere. That is why the rain occurs after five successes or two failures: in either case there is still at least one more piece of the challenge to accomplish.

Experience:
200 XP (50 per) if the skill challenge is successful.

Maybe I didn't mention it before, but this was an adventure for four PCs. The party consisted of a dragonborn warlord (I sure seem to get a lot of those), a human fighter, a human wizard, and a tiefling warlock. I just realized that even though they each made a character without knowing what anyone else was doing, the party wound up perfectly balanced.

A2. Lean Wolves
The party encounters the wolves after they discover the westward path, or in the late afternoon after becoming lost.

Description
Bounding out of the trees behind you leap a pair of gray wolves. A moment later, two more walk out into view in front of the party. Lean, nearly gaunt, they stare at you and bare their teeth.

Foreshadowed earlier, the past harsh winter means these wolves are looking for a meal, and will risk everything to take down a group they normally would steer clear of. That spells tragedy for the wolves, and experience points for the adventurers. This encounter itself serves to foreshadow events at the end of the adventure.

Hungry Wolves
Four Level 1 Skirmishers

I used the Gray Wolf from the Monster Manual and reduced the level by one according to the rules in the Dungeon Master's Guide.

Detection
Neither party achieves surprise.

Tactics
The wolves will attempt to flank if possible. If one or more wolves are slain, the rest will flee when bloodied.

Terrain
The encounter takes place in daytime, so there is plenty of lighting.
Most of the ground is difficult terrain, including small trees, which also provide cover. Large trees are blocking terrain that provide cover. Bushes are concealing terrain and difficult terrain.

I have a fair number of geomorphic dungeon tiles, now collecting dust, which I used for the various combat maps.

Conclusion
If the party was lost, proceed with encounter A3 immediately after the last wolf is killed or flees.

Experience
400 XP (100 per)

A3. Elven Patrol
If the party is lost, then immediately after the wolf encounter, the following occurs:
Two cloaked figures are standing in front of the party. One is an eladrin, with long bluish-white hair, holding a spear. Next to her is a muscular figure wearing chain mail. He's carrying a sword sheathed at his side and raises his hand in greeting.

At this point, the party has successfully completed the first of the two quests: they've met the elves.

Encounter
Eladrin Mage: Nomiri
Half-Elf Paladin: Aenje, fair-haired and strongly built
2 Elven Scouts: Abatag, Onahouh
4 Elven Archers: Rihsian, Benarsnar, Notasne, Sahethin

I would describe any individual NPC more if the players inquired. These days, I would prepare more description in advance. I seesaw back and forth on the topic. In the late '80s, I could pretty much describe the childhood, relationships, and defining life events for any NPC the party ran into, short of a horde of kobolds.

The eladrin mage was an Eladrin Twilight Incanter, along with the Elf Archers and Scouts, they were all from the Monster Manual. The half-elf paladin was a PC I made when I first bought the fourth edition rulebooks, so that I could get a hang of the character creation rules.

Attitude
If one of the party is badly injured, Aenje will use his Lay on Hands power to help them. The patrol is curious why one of their scouts, Fopina, didn't send word of the approach, even though the scout was encamped on the High Hill, but is otherwise friendly, and agrees to take them to meet Lahenn, the leader of their group.

Fopina's sad fate will be dealt with in the final part of the adventure.

Detection
The other members of the patrol are in hiding around the party. They need to make a stealth roll at +9 to beat Lilith's passive perception score of 17, or she will notice that six figures armed with longbows have quietly taken up positions around them.

Otherwise, they will encounter the patrol as they come within sight of the outpost, and the archers and scouts will be spread out in the woods in front of the party.

Lilith was the tiefling warlock. Since I wrote this adventure before I knew what the characters were going to be, I imagine this part was written in after the fact to save myself the bother of looking up the highest passive perception in the party. If I were writing the adventure these days, I would have just made the Stealth Check in advance, too. However, running things offline gave me more of a reason to throw dice in front of the players.

The NPCs had stats available, but this wasn't going to be a combat encounter. It's hard to imagine a rational group getting into a fight with these guys, and if I did have a party that wigged out and attacked them, the real problem would be getting me to run any more gaming sessions with them in the future.

A4. The Outpost
The group arrives at a gate of forest iron. Beyond the bars, in whatever light is available, tall trees, then houses and slender towers can be spied. The outpost is no encampment, but a full, walled town and fortress built of wood and stone.
The party of elves stands silently at the gate, and after a few moments, it swings open to admit them.
Inside, the streets are empty, and the buildings show no signs of habitation, but a faint smell of smoke lingers in the air, a telltale sign that there are occupants here.

It never came up, but the fact that there are only sixteen elves in this small city would be something that might make sense to the players later, had this been expanded into a campaign. In any case, I liked the idea of a small band of elves living in a largely abandoned forest town.

Inhabitants
1 Elven Warlord: Lahenn, jet black hair, unblinking, vaguely anxious expression
1 Elven Priest: Avefe
2 Elven Scouts: Orote, Eyatufo
4 Elven Archers: Oyid, Duvek, Orufya, Rubuon

I'm pretty sure I didn't even bother with stats for the warlord and priest. The scouts and archers are more of the same from before. Oh and look, there's Duvek! Not the same as Duvek the elven bookseller from Beilston Mound, of course.

The elves are amenable to trading, and present the party with a package of bright blue and green silks to present to Rassus Caw as a token of their interest. They encourage the party to dine and rest with them.
Lahenn, their leader, asks the party to look for the scout, Fopina. If they agree, she gives them two flasks containing frothy pink liquid.

For some groups, it would probably be a good idea to prepare what the elves know about their home, and other suitable conversation topics. In this case, I just improvised.

Treasure:
Two Potions of Healing, if the party agrees to search for Fopina.

Event: The Storm
The rain grows steadily worse. During their rest or shortly after the party leaves, if they decide not to rest, they are drenched with cascading sheets of sleet and icy rain. Thunder and lightning light up the sky at regular intervals.

This is right on the border of weather that would be detrimental to the health of the PCs. I believe the reason I didn't pursue that line of thinking was the knowledge that they were probably only going to be out in it for half a day.

If the party wishes, the elves will let them stay another day, during which time, a patrol will investigate High Hill and not be able to locate Fopina. In the morning of the second day, the rains will be slightly lessened, and Lahenn will encourage them to head back to the village. She suggests that the beacon can be used to send a signal to Whitethorn, now that the clouds are higher up.

Of course, the party might decide that they don't need to send a signal to Rassus at all. This is when knowing your group comes in handy. Really though, it would take a pretty strange combination of reasoning and paranoia to come to a contrary decision.

So what happens if the party decides they don't go up High Hill? Nothing. They don't go up High Hill.

I often rail against the so-called "sandbox" method of game mastering, but it is a fundamental error to become too enamored of any given storyline. If I force the PCs to High Hill, that could impact the entire game. If I shrug and let them go on their way, the worst thing that happens to me is that I don't get to use what I wrote for High Hill, and I've had many years to get used to that sort of occurrence.

In that circumstance, measure the time it takes for them to get back to Whitethorn, and use that to determine if they get their reward or if Rassus Caw has already packed up and left. I had another adventure in my pocket after this one, anyway. That said, if the party got lost in the woods, or if they dallied too long at the outpost, they would almost certainly need to use the beacon on High Hill to retain any meaningful chance of collecting their reward.

Outpost to High Hill: 5 hours in the stormy weather


No promises for the subject of the next post, this time. However, the next time I return to A Rendezvous on High Hill, it will be for the conclusion of the adventure.