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The DM of my group told us that due to his unexpected (temporary) promotion he doesn't have time to prepare for DMing right now. I volunteered to take over and I'd like to convert a 4e D&D adventure for this purpose. I'm considering changing any encounter into something that fits the theme/my taste. Here's a synopsis of the plot:
The players discover a cult worshiping some kind of worm. This is mostly foreshadowing, but the players will end up disrupting the ritual in some kind of ruined keep. The players will then find themselves in the same keep, except it's no longer ruined. What happened here is that they accidently planeshifted. (Thanks to a disrupted ritual.) The demiplane contains another version of that same keep stuck in a timeloop. (Yes, like Groundhog Day.) Centuries ago, a group of Eladrin/High Elves tried to transport their keep to a demiplane to prevent a horde of proto human barbarians from attacking them. They failed as they planeshifted all the barbarians along with them and got stuck in a timeloop. Now they get to relive the destruction of their keep over and over again. Somehow, a strange worm is responsible for all of it, but the Eladrin can't reach the worm. The Eladrin made a sword that would be immune to the cycle and could end the curse by killing the worm. The sword was lost in one of the rooms under the keep. (Near the worm.)
I'm aware the adventure is very railroady. I already informed the players about that fact.
I'm aiming to keep this adventure as low level as possible, as one of the players suggested that
I want to keep the Eladrin as Elves. There's an Eladrin Witch in the first part of the adventure and I'd like her to use the Divination spell to foreshadow the second part of the adventure. This means I need a cryptic rhyme. So far I know that I'll have to refer to the sword as a double edged blade. (It lifts the curse for everybody near it, which means if you die near the blade, you don't return in the next cycle.)
I like the image of the worm as the cultist are using an Ouroboros like symbol to represent both the worm and the timeloop. (Though the cultists don't know this. And yes, more foreshadowing.) I need some suggestions for worm-like creatures that are at least large. Any kind of worm, snake or dragon would fit.
I don't like the barbarians. I think at some point they would stop fighting and start working together with the Eladrin. This means I need something to replace them with. In this case I'd need something that you just can't negotiate with. I was thinking of either Qlippoths or Daemons as they seem crazy enough to deal with this. There are probably other options out there, so I'd appreciate any suggestions.