Greetings,
I have a player with a busy travel schedule who won't be available to play in our first three or four sessions. I'd like to conduct some sort of a solo adventure for him, either via IM or email, so that when he can make it to our regular sessions, his PC will have roughly the same level of XP as the rest of the party.
He's playing a chaos gnome chain fighter from Cauldron, who was an occasionally hired enforcer for the Last Laugh but has recently found religion (St. Cuthbert, incidentally).
I'd like to hear ideas for a side adventure to either foreshadow future events or that will somehow else tie in with the story. Any thoughts?
Cheers,
Ully
|
I had a player join the campaign just before I ran Flood Season. I ran him through a short solo prior to that which involved Alek Tercival hire him to help explore some cult activity in the area that he was investigating (turned out to be a recently abandoned - but not entirley deserted base of an Ebon Triad cell).
Basically just a short, simple dungeon crawl, but introduced Alek Tercival who I hadnt really introduced to the rest of the party, gave some hints at the Ebon Triad and some subtle clues to the creaton of Soul Cages.
I had a player join the campaign just before I ran Flood Season. I ran him through a short solo prior to that which involved Alek Tercival hire him to help explore some cult activity in the area that he was investigating (turned out to be a recently abandoned - but not entirley deserted base of an Ebon Triad cell).
Basically just a short, simple dungeon crawl, but introduced Alek Tercival who I hadnt really introduced to the rest of the party, gave some hints at the Ebon Triad and some subtle clues to the creaton of Soul Cages.
That sounds interesting. It's likely that this PC would know (or have met) Alek, so that's an easy pair to hook up. I'm assuming that you didn't have Alek accompany your player's PC. Is that right?
|
|
I had a player join the campaign just before I ran Flood Season. I ran him through a short solo prior to that which involved Alek Tercival hire him to help explore some cult activity in the area that he was investigating (turned out to be a recently abandoned - but not entirley deserted base of an Ebon Triad cell).
Basically just a short, simple dungeon crawl, but introduced Alek Tercival who I hadnt really introduced to the rest of the party, gave some hints at the Ebon Triad and some subtle clues to the creaton of Soul Cages.
That sounds interesting. It's likely that this PC would know (or have met) Alek, so that's an easy pair to hook up. I'm assuming that you didn't have Alek accompany your player's PC. Is that right?
Actually I did. Wasn't sure about it at first, as I didn't want to steal the limelight from the player (Alek being higher level). On the other hand I wanted a stronger bond to develop between Alek and the PC if possible than just "this guy hires you to do a job". So I ended up dropping Alek a few levels and running him as NPC. As the PC was a rogue they actually made a pretty good team, complimented each other well. The hook I used was that this abandoned lair was protected by a number of traps, Alek figured it was a better idea to call in a professional rather than blunder through them himself.
We worked into the PCs background that he was a former junior Last Laugh member gone straight who had become a member of the congregation of the church of St Cuthbert in an effort to mend his ways. He was now using his skills as an adventurer rather than a thief, and Alek had sort of taken him under his wing.
What level do you want the character to reach using these solo adventures? What adventures will they miss?
I like Mothman's idea. It seems to match the character you speak of well but here are a few more just in case.
Here are a few options -
1
aHave the gnome be contacted by Jil to join a team to despose of a warrior who cowardly ambushed and killed a LL member in a nearby alley. This person is Krylscar Endercott a 2nd level warrior with 14hp points (pg 68 of the HC) who the party may rescue later assuming this 'capture' goes to plan.
Krylscar and his troop are holed up in one of the rooms in the Slippery Eel Tavern, the establishment which hides the LL Guildhouse beneath it. He and his troop made the miscalculation of ambushing a member of the LL after the rogue took a sizable chunk of his money while gambling in the den. The LL rogue who relays the story ommitts the truth that the thief cheated during the game and was the real reason why the headstrong and arrogant troop attacked him.
Krylascar and his troop consist of the leader and 4 1st level warriors.
The character is accompanied by 4 1st level rogues for the attack nad the floor is conviently emptied before the incursion. After the attack, assuming the character is successful, Krylascar is found to still be alive and is taken beneath the tavern for 'questioning' but in reality added to the slaves.
b The gnome is then requested to join a team to convince a cleric to stop prying into LL business who was overheard by a LL informant stating that he will be 'investigating the attack on Krylascar in an attempt to find the rogues responsible and bring them to the proper authorities'.
This is of course another twisted truth but the character may fall for it and join the assult on Rufus from Event One (pg 35). If the player asks which Church the LL leader may say 'Does it matter!' or even lie outright. The gnome is asked to act as lookout from the nearby rooftop where the 'convincing' will occur.
The character will undoubtly remain hidden but will witness the parties attack on the LL members from the rooftop and may even attack them before Jil commands him to retreat.
cFinally the gnome could be asked to travel beneath the LL headquarter and into the underdark alone to act as a messenger to a Slaver known as Kazmojen, a powerful half-orc/half troll. He is given a special standard which is easily recognisable by the Kazmojen and his minions and will allow him safe passage when he reaches the Malachite Hold.
The journey into the underdark may require a few encounters and sneaking about but eventually he will reach the hold coming across the bridge (M8 pg 66).
When he arrives Kozmojen is angered by the message and refuses to pay the extra money he has been demanded of by the LL. He locks the character to the slaves platform while he attend to a more pressing matter, the sale of Terem to Pyllrak, only to have the whole thing interrupted by the same adventurers from the alleyway again.
How the players handles things from here would be very interesting and where his loyalties would sit, even more fascinating.
If the player refuses outright any or all of the missions the LL will begin to lose faith in his loyalty to them are be more wary of what they request of him in future. Conversely though the player will gain a good insight into the motivations and alignment of the thieves guild they belong to.
Being part of the 'otherside' would be an interesting twist and reveal a great deal of the motivations of the initial villians of the adventure, assuming the player wishes to eventually share these insights.
2 Another option would be to have the character contacted by Ghelve (relative?) to assist him in gaurding his shop from vandals. These vandals have been regularly targeting his shop at night and Ghelve is getting tired of the contant clean up.
These vandals are of course goblins which are under the sway of Drakthar. The players may even follow a group of the goblins to a old abandoned house where a few goblins lead by a Goblin Adept and depending upon the level of the character, a couple Goblin Sneaks.
3 Similiarly Skie needs so contact Maavu to arrange a time to look over his new goods but he has been hard to track down laterly. Skie hasn't got the time to look for him herself so she asks the character to find him and ask him to contact her straight away.
Skie says to start at his Warehouse, but he is sometimes seen at the Tipped Tankard or Coy Nixie.
The investigation throws a player a few encounters along the way - alleybashers attempting to break into Maavu's Wearhouse, a half-orc's looking for trouble in the Tipped Tankard(who later turn up beneath Drakthars Way) and Todd Vanderbourn taking a dislike to the character in the Coy Nixie during a dice game ('Want to know where he is peasant?! Then sit down with your coin and after a few games I'll certainly tell you!')
Eventually the trail leads to the Cusp of sunrise where he has been kindly put up for the night by Lady Knowlern after giving her a sizable discount on his wears.
Maavu reward the character for his help with the robbers and Skie gives him a large discount on her goods for the day for him to immediately use the money on :)
A few other options anyway
Delvesdeep
Wow! All excellent suggestions, delvesdeep. Thank you.
I'll have to keep this player's PC away from the others, since most of them were all together on the road to Cauldron prologue adventure.
Since I don't know how long it will be before this player rejoins the group, or where the group will be in the campaign at that time, I may be able to use several of the options in this thread. I'll let you all know what I end up doing.
Thanks again,
Ully
I said I'd let you all know what I decided on, so here it is!
The player in question wanted to play a PC who would be living a life of redemption. In his background, his little chaos gnome was a collector for the Last Laugh. He'd make visits to collect protection payments and such for the guild. Drunk one night, after a particularly "difficult" collection from a widow in a poor gnome quarter of Cauldron, our future hero decided to mug someone coming out of the Cusp of Sunrise following the evening meal.
He chose his mark, but killed the man by accident. Before he expired, the mark handed a bag of gold to our PC and asked him to take it to the Church of St. Cuthbert--it was for the orphanage. The PC was so moved by this horrible act that he dragged the body to the temple and confessed his murderous act. After somehow being spared a lifetime of incarceration, the player decided that his character would live his life doing good.
I decided to start the solo session with the killing of the man coming out of the Cusp of Sunrise and the transporting of the body to the Church of St. Cuthbert.
After wrestling to get the body up the stairs and into the narthex, the PC was greeted by a shocked acolyte who immediately ran to get Jenya. She identified the body as that of Ruphus Laro, the young priest of St. Cuthbert. Jenya thanked the PC for bringing him to the temple and asked if he saw what happened. He said yes, that he killed him. Shocked looks all around.
More acolytes came and took the body away, and the PC was brought to an anteroom with some chairs and a fire, where he was questioned. Sarcem Delasharn, the high priest, then arrived and continued the interview. He could see something in this gnome, some capacity for great good, so he decided that the regular punishment would be suspended, providing that the PC took an oath. Delasharn explained that St. Cuthbert himself was aware every time someone told the truth at great personal cost, and that this was one of those cases.
Alek Tercival was summoned and ordered to take the PC in, to have him swear an oath to learn and uphold the Word of the Cudgel and to teach him what it meant to live a life of righteousness. Tercival begrudgingly did as he was told. In fact, the paladin called the PC "killer," instead of his name.
Fast-forward about six weeks, just a few days before the events in Chapter One. Life's Bazar.
Tercival summons the PC, who he now calls "Pious," to his small, spartan office. He congratulates the gnome and tells him that he is to be sent on his first mission for the church. High Priest Sarcem Delasharn is taking an extended trip to Sasserine, and Pious is to accompany him, to help ensure a safe arrival in the port city. On the way back, Pious is to stop at the Lucky Monkey and there assist the caretaker of the shrine to Fharlanghn, one Shensen Tesseril. He is equipped with a hardy pony and sent to join the traveling party of Delasharn, his assistant and one acolyte.
Upon reaching the Lucky Monkey that night, the party is greeted by Tesseril, who informs Delasharn her need for help is more urgent, and asks if the one the paladin agreed to send can remain with her now, instead of waiting for his return to the Monkey a few days hence. Hobgoblins have been attacking travelers on the road, and she has discovered their camp. Delasharn agrees and introduces Pious. Needless to say, Tesseril is somewhat shocked to see that the she has been sent a 34-pound gnome on a pony!
The next day, High Priest Delasharn and his remaining aides set out for Sasserine, while Tesseril and the PC rode back towards Cauldron for an hour before taking a barely-visible trail into the jungle and towards some hills. After an hour or so (and sharing of personal stories), they came upon the shattered remains of an ancient tower atop a hill. The hobgoblin tracks led into some bushes at the base of the hill. There, a once sturdy stone door lay in pieces and a passage went into the hillside.
For this part of the adventure, I stole the map and many of the features from the downloadable adventure, "A Dark and Stormy Knight," found on the WotC website. Inside, the PC and Tesseril came across three dire rats, a couple of hobgoblin raiders and a bugbear zombie. One of the hobgoblins had a map to a lava tube entrance into the mountain a couple of miles from Cauldron, leading to an unknown location. That location on the map will be the bridge outside the Malachite Fortress; these hobgoblins were going to work for Kazmojen.
For this adventure, I lowered Shensen Tesseril's class levels to Monk2/Druid1. That seemed to work out pretty well. As a chaos gnome, the PC is ECL2.
This player will have more solo adventures before he's able to join the rest of the group. My plan is to keep his side stories related to the adventure path and his experience roughly equivalent with the party average, so when he is able to join the rest of the group, his PC will be just as involved in the goings on in Cauldron. As a result of this adventure, he has already developed strong ties to a number of NPCs, two of whom will eventually die. Should be interesting!