| Douglas Muir 406 |
Setup: near TPK, 3/5 PCs killed. (It was the end of Call Forth Darkness, Book Two of Way of the Wicked.) Now the party must rebuild with three new PCs.
Way of the Wicked is an evil campaign, and for the first 2/3 of the AP the PCs are working for an evil patron: Cardinal Thorn, high level evil priest of Asmodeus. In the first module, Thorn runs the PCs through a gauntlet of tests to make sure they're worthy. Since they're first level, the tests are not that hard. But these replacement PCs will be 9th level, so I need to ramp things up a bit.
The easy solution is to just throw a few rooms of CR 9-10 monsters at them. And I can do that. But I'd like to make it a bit more interesting. Some encounters should have clues that make them easier if the PCs are paying attention. Some should involve puzzles or tests of character. I'd like this to be interesting and memorable, if possible.
Thoughts, anyone?
Doug M.
| Meirril |
Have the Cardinal send a group of candidates (at least 4) into a vault to check for disturbances. The vaults contain all sorts of mundane wealth. Coins, jewels, pieces of art. Some perception checks will find a spot where bags of coins have been disturbed. A hole carved from the vault walls leads into a nest of some unintelligent beast.
Afterward the Cardinal has the canidates gather in a small courtyard. From a balcony overlooking the courtyard the Cardinal informs the group that they have performed their duties as expected. However, some items have been taken from the vault. The Cardinal drops a great axe into the courtyard and walks away only saying "do what must be done".
This is the moral and intelligence part of their testing. All of the other candidates have items on them that may have come from the vault. No one has seen anyone take anything. All of the NPCs start off at Threatening moral. If any NPCs survive this 'trial' add them to the party as well. The Cardinal plans on using any crimes committed here as blackmail against the PCs later.