So my wife is going to be gone to a weekend summer music camp this weekend - Thursday afternoon thru sometime Sunday afternoon. To help the kids not think about mom being gone, we'll be gaming. This is going to be the youngest girl's first game with a character of her own.
They have very little idea of what is going on. I told them I want equipment lists for 3rd-level characters, classes, and whatever feats/flaws/traits/class-variants they may want. I'll handle making the final characters myself. Looks like we'll have a Scout, a Fighter, and a Warlock. (I figure the few tricks a Warlock can pull off every time works well for a 4-year-old to remember.) All they know is "underground classic dungeon.
I'm going to put them thru an adventure I devised some time ago (ie: just about the time 4ed was announced) but never pursued. However, I'm going to rethink that and may well develop it into a retail adventure. Depends on how it plays this weekend.
Here's the intro:
Panic in the Pantry!You are a Kobold, of the Moonscale tribe. Your tribe has worked hard all summer to be sure the tribe's pantry is well-stocked for the coming winter. Everything was going well until the chef happened to go into the lower pantries looking for pickled Goblin guts to make a meat pie for the chieftain. That's when the panic started.
Someone has pilfered the entire stock of Goblin guts! To make matters worse, almost all of the sacks, crates, and barrels the tribe spent the summer so assiduously filling with winter storage are EMPTY!! It has fallen to your small band to find out what has happened to the tribe's food-stores...
...the bad part is, you know exactly where some of them went, because you carried them off. Even worse, you can't tell anyone what you did or why. See, while exploring the tunnels one day, you encountered a very young red dragon who called himself Bristle. He asked you to help him stock his pantry by bringing him the occasional haul from the Kobold pantries and the occasional item to furnish his lair. In return, he promised to not make you or any others of the tribe part of his larder. He begged you to not tell anyone about him, or the entire tribe would never do anything but beg him for favors. He has promised to help the tribe out later, after he grows some. This made an enormous amount of sense, so you readily agreed. But now, someone is threatening the survival of your tribe, you, and your dragon friend...
What they don't know is that the dragon they each encountered was the work of a Minor Image and Ventriloquism spell cast from items by a Halfling Rogue. Throw in the Charm Person wand he had and you've got a bunch of Kobolds all secretly emptying out their pantries to feed the Halfling, tripping all over themselves to avoid looking suspicious to each other and not asking each other for help - everyone knows about the "dragon," but no one knows anyone *else* knows about him. The Halfling is loving the idea that he has an entire tribe of Kobold minions working so hard to keep him in the lap of luxury with him having to do nothing any more than to barely maintain the illusion of a local Dragon.
So far, my outline is something like this:
"Room" One:
Goblin band intercepted roaming into the tribe's territory. This is, of course, an excellent short-term fix for the loss of the pickled Goblin guts. The entire tribe is ready to turn out and take on the Goblins in a fight a little less than the Kobold's norm. The tribe will win, but with many wounded and lots of Goblins to process into the pantries. I want to revisit something I did once, but this time with Goblins - the Phalanx. That was a naaaaaaasty time of a fight!! I want to see how they handle it this time. Maybe some of their own can form one, as well, for the PCs to hide behind.
I think I may sow the seeds of confusion here by having the Goblins yell things like "We'll feast from your kitchens tonight!" or "Winter won't be so hard with us living off the fruits of your labors!"
"Room" Two:
While helping with the rendering, they catch a fellow Kobold trying to slip away with either food or goods, heading to Bristle's lair. Since the party has a Scout, they may opt to track him to find out where he is going. I may suggest to at least one of the players that during this confusion, they might be able to slip some food or loot into one of Bristle's receiving areas. (He has taken to having them drop stuff off in certain areas "in case anyone follows you, they won't see me" - basically, he's reserving the last few charges in his wands for an emergency. I may also make sure one of the PCs sees another one stashing some extra food, just to increase the suspicions.
They may opt to confront the "skizzer," either publicly or privately, about his attempt to sneak away with loot. This should get interesting as he tries to wriggle off the hook without mentioning Bristle and with the PCs trying to pin him down without mentioning Bristle. I'll be brushing up on the Charm Person spell, to see how this should play out.
"Room" Three:
I may toss a Goblin raiding party into the tunnels, just for some dungeon combat, since the Scout wants to have the Dungeon Specialist variant feature from PHBII. Perhaps have them actually penetrate into the lower pantries that were looted so as to mess up any chance of an easy tracking check to discover that only Kobolds have been in there. Maybe a rat swarm in the pantries would be a better idea. With the Goblins taunting them in Enc-1 and ending up in the pantries here, they should be wondering if maybe someone else really is stealing their food. At any rate, they end up in the pantries and have to fight something there.
"Room" Four:
Dunno yet...
"Room" Five:
They finally end up in Bristle's lair. I'm not real sure yet how and why they get here. But - I do know I'd like for them to fight the Halfling thinking he has killed their beloved Bristle!! Something I want to work with is summoned monsters, with the PCs having to face them in waves (as was discussed in the BBEG thread this week) as the bad guy tries to make his escape.
So that's what I have so far. If anyone has any ideas for believable slapstick to use to connect the dots, I'm all ears. I'm trying to stick to a "5-room dungeon," partly so that we actually finish it, partly to try out a bunch of new ideas for how to prep a game session, partly so that it holds their attention and partly to see if I can do it. With a party of 3 Kobolds of 3rd level, I think I can justify throwing a 5th or 6th level Halfling Rogue at them as a bad guy. He doesn't want a fight, after all - he's LAZY and wants minions to serve him. He'd rather drink a potion of invis and sneak out while they fight 2 waves of 1d3 Fiendish Badgers, picking up his bug-out bag on the way out to start up the scheme somewhere else. Sure, he'll lose a chunk of goodies, but rather lose goodies than flesh.
So, given the Halfling propensity for gluttony, his larder is nowhere near equal to the sum of what the tribe "tithed" over the weeks. But they will manage to eke their way through the winter, earning the PCs a place in the tribe as heroes for having vanquished the foul beast that killed their beloved Bristle, whom the tribe all feel they can now talk about openly.
And hopefully, a great time will be had by all. Players are my kids - 15, 8, and 4. The older two already play and the younger normally falls asleep watching us play. Comments and suggestions welcome - flames, well... ;)
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I know you have found the answer to your "5 room dungeon" question, but while surfing around the web, I stumbled upon this...
Someone had linked the main page to your other thread, but I did not read the whole page (nor follow all the links)...
Anyway...
It was by complete accident I found this particular PDF entitled aptly enough, "5 Room Dungeons"...
Just thought I'd float the link your way...
-That One Digitalelf Fellow-