Ideas? - Thanksgiving Dungeon Crawl for Grandparents

[D6Veteran]

I've got two tween girls who want to play Pathfinder with their grandparents during ThxG.

I was going to use the Pathfinder stock characters and run the four of them through a short 60-90 minute encounter.

The hook is that they are at grandma and grandpas turkey farm. They do a good business with the local townfolk, but make most of their money when the court holds a feast, and on Thanksgiving they sell 40+ turkeys to the court for the annual feast where the poor and disabled and other folks in need are invited in for the feast.

But the party wakes up at grandmas to hear there frantic grandpa tell of the disappearance of all the turkeys.

I thought they'd have to do some sleuthing to find the tracks back to a lair. Where they find a young dragon with 40 turkeys stuffed into a bag of holding - she's taking them out one by one and feeding them to herself like you'd imagine an ancient roman nobleman eat a grape.

Maybe they fight or rob or bargain with the dragon to return the turkeys.

Any ideas to give it more flavor? (no pun intended)

[Fromper]

Do you have the Beginner's Box? The dragon adventure in there could probably be adapted to this.

[Just a Mort]

Dragon should have some buddies. Maybe she has adopted a tribe of kobolds who have been stealing the turkeys in the night. To be honest, it'd would be one foolish dragon to leave tracks, they can fly off with turkeys.

Also, what level are you starting at. A young green dragon is CR 8, so if it boils down to a fight, the party will have to be lv 5+.

Maybe the dragon also celebrates Thanksgiving, and is having her friends over as well, that's why she needed the turkeys!

[Theconiel]

I have used THIS on Thanksgiving.

[D6Veteran]

Just a Mort wrote:

Maybe the dragon also celebrates Thanksgiving, and is having her friends over as well, that's why she needed the turkeys!

Oh I love that! :D

[Adagna]

Theconiel wrote:

I have used THIS on Thanksgiving.

That's totally "John Dies at the End"! Lol great movie.

[CampinCarl9127]

If the adventure is for a couple of younger girls, I would advise going more by the "rule of cool" instead of a strict RAW game. Don't bother getting into long conversations about AoOs or spell failure chance or whatever, keep it simple and fun.

Perhaps an additional evil guy could be a necromancer. So the dragon will strip the turkeys of all their meat, throw down their skeletons, and then the necromancer raises the turkey skeletons as minions!

[Just a Mort]

Assuming a Level 1 start with the 4 iconics, Valeros, Erzen, Kyra and Merisiel (please forgive any CR messes I make, I have not created an encounter before).

The PCs wake up the next morning find cart tracks from where the turkeys used to be. There are lots of turkey tracks, and some feathers.

who dun it:

The kobolds came prepared. One of their number is a druid who did a speak to turkeys and animal empathied all the turkeys get them calm. He has 5 other helpers, 4 kobold warriors(equip them with light crossbows, 20 bolts, instead of slings) and a kobold cavalier. Both animal companions - cave salamanders, have been hitched to a Cart. The cavalier helps load the turkeys into the cart. They take two trips to get all the turkeys. The kobold druid himself is pretty good at moving through the wilds unseen. Unfortunately they're in a hurry, and a cart is not what you would call inconspicuous. The druid and cavalier do their best to muddle the trail but only part of it is messed up.

The search begins:

The tracks lead into the woods, then pitter away. If someone can make a DC 15 survival track (I'm assuming iconics are Valeros, Merisel, Kyra and Erzen - none of which are particularly good at it).

If the PCs screw up:

A grig comes over and asks them about what they're looking for. He has seen the cart, but has a problem of his own. A local Charau-ku has taken over the a bridge where he and his friends used to live and has caught some of his friends to torment them.He will help the PCs if they help him.Go to the second spoiker

If the PCs don't screw up:

They find the tracks leading to a bridge. A lone charau-ku sits by a campfire, roasting,.guess what? Turkey. Beside him are several bottles containing grig.

Part 2:

The Charau-Ku demands all PCs who wish to use his bridge to pay him a toll. (The kobolds did, wanting to avoid meaningless confrontations). If he isn't given something of value, (he doesn't want trail rations, he wants live meat), he attacks the PCs. The water is swift flowing, requiring a DC 15 swim check to cross. If someone gets the bright idea of shoving the Charau-ku into the river, he is swept away, never to be heard off again.

Part 3:

The PCs catch up to the Cart with half the turkeys, the kobolds are taking a rest in the clearing. When they hear the PCs approach, the druid quickly throws an entangle on the forest that the PCs are coming from. The rest of the kobold warriors try to shoot the pcs caught in the entanglement. The druid and cavalier quickly get on the Cart with the remaining turkeys, make it off for the dragons lair.

Part 4:

The druid and cavalier make it back to the dragons lair, inform the dragon’s body guard, a kobold rogue, that they’re under attack and get them to trap up the entrance. If Merisiel is in the party, play it as if she has the trapspotter talent, and can spot the swinging log trap and pit trap. The kobolds lay in wait to ambush them in a cave, past the trapped exterior.The cavalier declares challenge, charges on his Cave Salamander, then is joined in melee by the rogues on the most heavily armored person. The druid just summons giant centipedes to give the rogues flanking, occasionally popping in to give guidance.

Part 5:

The cave leads to a large cavern. The dragon queen(she needs to be powered down, it's 1 CR too high, might want to reduce her attack rolls and saving throws by 2, and her hp by 10 - tried young simple template but didn't feel right) herself is within the chamber. If the party has managed in the earlier encounters to talk to the kobolds successfully, instead of killing them, they can start talking to her with regard to the turkey theft. She’s having a party of her own, and will be having some dragons pop over. She read somewhere in a book that it’s customary to celebrate Thanksgiving with turkeys, thus ordered the theft. If the players can suggest some nice way for her to have her party (i.e inviting her and her friends to join the Crown’s thanksgiving party, as long as they bring their own food), she will agree to give up the turkeys. However, if they have been murdering kobolds, she will attack them for their transgressions.

Kobold Cavalier:

Hp - 16
Ac - 17
Equip: Studded leather armor, potion of clw, Light pick, heavy wooden shield, Light crossbow, 20 bolts
Str 12, dex 12, con 12, int 10, wis 10, cha 10
Order of the dragon.
Melee +4(1d3+1)
Fort- +4, Ref +1, Will +0

Kobold rogue can be found on d20.

Kobold Druid:

Hp - 12
AC - 14
Equip: Leather armor, dagger, wand of CLW (4 charges)
Str 10, dex 12, con 12, int 10, wis 14, cha 10
Fort- +4, Ref +1, Will +5
Cantrips: Guidance, Create water, Detect Magic, Stabilize
Lv 1 spells prepared: Entangle, Magic Fang (x2),

Cave Salamanders Animal companions:

Hp - 15
Ac - 15 ac
Str 13, dex 12, con 13, int 2, wis 12, cha 4
Melee +3(1d6+1)
Fort = +4, Ref +4, Will +2
Equip: Leather barding ^^

Sorry, I don't have the benefit of Herolab and get to do it like this.

[I'm Hiding In Your Closet]

Maybe you find the dragon's lair, and the turkeys, but it turns out that the turkeys have actually undergone some fiendish mutation, or have chosen now to reveal that they were all secretly cultists of the Great Old Ones or something, and the dragon needs you to save IT from THEM!

Your reward afterwards is a feast of edible gold and gems.

[coldvictim]

I always wondered if an evil Halfling wizard, with rezzed Halfling zombies would be fun to have as a baddy stealing all the food for first thanksgiving, second thanksgiving, heck even third and fourth thanksgiving.