Transition Harrowstone -> TotB! Clovers Crossing - Adventure Ideas for Newbie DM?

[divby0]

Helly everyone!

I am a newbie DM and we are playing our first Campaign with CC.
The players just finished Harrowstone and are about 1500XP each short of LVL 4.

I was thinking of putting in one session of travelling from Ravengro to Lepidstadt and built one session on my own with about 6000XP for the 4 players by using the "Clovers Crossing" incident.

Also on Character died fighting the SM and I will have to bring in his new Char.

Do you have any suggestions? some more Story on Clovers Crossing or how to structure it? The only information Rule of Fear has is that the ground sank away and destroyed several buildings and Ghouls are causing trouble there now.

Maybe another idea of a short fitting theme for this in-between-travel trip?

Thank you
Markus

[archmagi1]

Here are a few of my ideas:

A few wyrmling green dragons (CR4 each) are terrorizing the local livestock.

Roving band of orcs from the Belkzen.

The Way left behind a little fun during their journey from Ravengro to Lepidstadt... Ghoul fever has been spreading in the area, with a ghast cleric to orcus (also a Way member) being the culprit in the area. The one I'm planning on running against my level 4 party is Ghast CLR3 with 4-6 Orc FTR 1&2's. Balances out to a good CR6 encounter.

[divby0]

archmagi1 wrote:

Here are a few of my ideas:

A few wyrmling green dragons (CR4 each) are terrorizing the local livestock.

Roving band of orcs from the Belkzen.

The Way left behind a little fun during their journey from Ravengro to Lepidstadt... Ghoul fever has been spreading in the area, with a ghast cleric to orcus (also a Way member) being the culprit in the area. The one I'm planning on running against my level 4 party is Ghast CLR3 with 4-6 Orc FTR 1&2's. Balances out to a good CR6 encounter.

I have never created my own monster & encounter. Just used pre-made adventures and monster up until now.

Could you maybe give me some more infos or direct help ? is there a way for direct communication on here? if not maybe by mail or facebook?

[Ice Titan]

As far as encounters go, check out the Gamemastering part of the Core Rulebook-- chapter 12-- and read through it. It's all pretty much there.

If you want to write more of your own things, check out the Gamemastery Guide.

[MartinB]

divby0 wrote:

I have never created my own monster & encounter. Just used pre-made adventures and monster up until now.

Could you maybe give me some more infos or direct help ? is there a way for direct communication on here? if not maybe by mail or facebook?

As Ice Titan mentions the core rulebook is a good start to check over encounter design. The Gamesmastery guide has a good cross-section of NPC stats ready to go in chapter 9. Of course, the Bestiaries have lots of creatures.

If you want to modify standard creatures, check out the appendices (1 & 2 primarily) in the Bestiary - this tells you how to modify creatures from their base stats (apply templates, class levels, etc) or create them from scratch. Look through the creatures in the adventure path and you will see some that have been modified from their base stats.

The start of the Bestiary section in TotB (page 83) has some random encounter tables for Canterwall and Vieland - with some "Doom between Destinations" ideas.

Hope the above helps and gives you a few ideas.

[King of Vrock]

MartinB wrote:

The start of the Bestiary section in TotB (page 83) has some random encounter tables for Canterwall and Vieland - with some "Doom between Destinations" ideas.

Oddly the Vieland encounters are more likely to have ghouls than Canterwall.

The way I read it was the local church in village of Clover's Crossing got swallowed up by a sinkhole. Now IMC the sinkhole opens into an underground chamber where a gang or pack of ghouls were garrisoned back during the Shining Crusade.

My group is more than likely going to investigate the village as well and since they have a lot of melee types I'll be giving them plenty of ghouls to bash seeing as Harrowstone was so light on corporeal foes. They will know going in it's a nest so they'll be ready. I figure an encounter with a ghoul or two on the road then they can explore what's left of the abandoned village and go down into the pit to explore the ruined church. It'll make a neat 5 room dungeon. If you've seen the movie Priest, picture it like the caverns the new vampire nest rested in (only smaller).

--Vrockslide

[divby0]

King of Vrock wrote:

MartinB wrote:

The start of the Bestiary section in TotB (page 83) has some random encounter tables for Canterwall and Vieland - with some "Doom between Destinations" ideas.

Oddly the Vieland encounters are more likely to have ghouls than Canterwall.

The way I read it was the local church in village of Clover's Crossing got swallowed up by a sinkhole. Now IMC the sinkhole opens into an underground chamber where a gang or pack of ghouls were garrisoned back during the Shining Crusade.

My group is more than likely going to investigate the village as well and since they have a lot of melee types I'll be giving them plenty of ghouls to bash seeing as Harrowstone was so light on corporeal foes. They will know going in it's a nest so they'll be ready. I figure an encounter with a ghoul or two on the road then they can explore what's left of the abandoned village and go down into the pit to explore the ruined church. It'll make a neat 5 room dungeon. If you've seen the movie Priest, picture it like the caverns the new vampire nest rested in (only smaller).

--Vrockslide

Thank you! I will do that!

I can see the Ghouls in the Bestiary. How could I make their leader a stronger Ghoul? Or what kind of creature could be the BBEG? I dont want to just throw Ghouls at them. What could be a good mix?

[Spacelard]

divby0 wrote:

I can see the Ghouls in the Bestiary. How could I make their leader a stronger Ghoul? Or what kind of creature could be the BBEG? I dont want to just throw Ghouls at them. What could be a good mix?

Stick on the Advanced template found in the Bestiary, give him a few levels of Sorcerer or rogue

[King of Vrock]

Well Shadows of Gallowspire has an unhallowed creature template that could toughen up an advanced ghoul further...

Unhallowed Creature:

Quick Rules: +2 deflection bonus to AC vs. good creatures; +2 resistance bonus on saving throws vs. good creatures; +4 profane bonus to DC to resist channeled negative energy.

Just be sure to add the additional spell effect of the unhallow spell in the ruined church or the ghoulish cycst. I like darkness or silence.

--Stat Vrock

[F. Wesley Schneider]

It's not much, but the opener to the section on ghouls in (the ENnie-award-winning) Classic Horrors Revisted presents a survivor's account of the Clover's Crossing incident. I don't think there's much more than that, but that's where the town and it's doom were born.