So my players have decided the troglodytes are the most pressing problem that Far Shore has, sigh. Anybody with a good map for a trog lair or a trog adventure?
So my players have decided the troglodytes are the most pressing problem that Far Shore has, sigh. Anybody with a good map for a trog lair or a trog adventure?
A trog adventure no, but there was a lizard folk adventure in one of the later issues of the STAP. For a map use one they have already been through-Parrot Isle or Kraken's cove, but mirror image it. See if they notice *grin*
Wait a minute--don't you have Dungeon 144? That has a lizardfolk lair in it that would be perfect if you haven't run it already.
I had kind of been planning out this side trek in case my players showed an interest, but it never really happened.
I wasn't too worried about maps because I was just going to go a cave complex and can pretty much map out the details of such locales on the fly as long as I have an idea of what I want it to feature.
In terms of the trogs: they were going to have a pretty tough barbarian chief, a shaman, and there would be lower cavern level that would be filled with milky mineral infused water that would be home to a deepspawn, which they would pay tribute and worship to. The trogs would have some digesters as pets (acid spit is fun). The trogs themselves wouldn't be that tough, but the digesters, the leaders and the deepspawn would make for nasty encounters.
As for the lair it would be pretty simple. I had intended the trogs to be in the service of Loagozed, and there would be a bottle neck entrance that could easily be defended. There was to be small chasm with a log spanning it near the entrance that would help make it more defensible. Beyond that would be a common area (the largest cave in the complex). branching off the common area would be the shrine room and a hatchery area for their eggs. Near here would be the pit that would lead to the lower caves of "milk" that would house the deepspawn. The chief and his personal guards would have their own cave area and it would be off the common cave. Overall, a pretty simple design, but for a side trek I didn't want anything too complex. Though the lizardfolk lair map in the AoW Blackwall keep issue is a great potential trog lair. I think it is the one being reffered to above.
In the end I did use these ideas, but as an expansion to Loagroat in the Lightless depths.
I set it up to do a little foreshadowing:
I put about 20 trogs, 6 cave lizards and a shaman/leader (a leper from next adventure). They were total mooks, my players ambushed their above ground watch in the valley and slaughtered their way to back of their cavern system.
When they saw the last of the warriors and the leader making a last stand over the elderly and children, they pulled pulled back to regroup (the good aligned group realizing they were basically slaughtering an entire a village.)
After a few rounds as they were coming back to negotiate they felt a huge tremor. They rushed back only to find to the trogs had they had sacrificed all the elderly and children to Laogzed and the shaman standing in front of a new cave-in having just pulled a lever.
They dispatched the rest of trogs and found the lever seemed to be connected to a long system of now buried chains and supports. The now impassible and totally collapsed tunnel seemed to have headed under the waters to somewhere deep under the Isle of Dread...
Forgot about the trogs in Lightless Depths, thanks. I figure this group of trogs is one that is fleeing the disease of the other group. They've arrived by crude canoe and setup camp close to Farshore. A small stream leads back into their cave, using this map:
http://www.dunjinni.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=4680&KW=Cave
Used the trog leper from 144 as their leader, used minotaur stats as the tribe's brute, and then threw in another dozen trogs for fodder.
(Muster of Morach Tor would be good map but I already used that as sidetek for Fort Greenrock.)
Pity--I never got to use Muster at Morach Tor so I'm definitely using it for Savage Tide.
In my campaign, the Troglodytes turned out to be kobolds and the maps and plot came from Depths of Rage (Dungeon 83). My players were itching to fight some arcane spellusers, so I had mook-level flying kobold sorcerers with lightning bolts - good fun was had by all.
There might be a point in running the encounter as written too. Sometimes heroes need to do things that are too easy for them. This is especially true if they did something similar a few levels back, and it was then a terrible trial. Besides the cheap revenge angle, it really gives the players a feeling that their characters are progressing.
Also, if you make it clear beforehand that it is really too easy for them, it encourages heroics like in the post above.
Fully agreeing with Carl Cramer here. The troglodytes should be a nuisance to the characters, something that the heroic protagonists can resolve easily in one afternoon as an aside, while the less powerful Jade Ravens etc. stand stupefied and debating tactics. Makes the players realize the grown power of their characters rather nicely, since most of their usual opposition seems to grow in challenge to their capabilities after all.
