I have a solo campaign running where the PC is escorting a caravan through a forest to a harbour town on the coast.
I have broken the adventure down into days and I have inteded for this to be fairly quickly covered rather than a prolonged section of the world, and I wanted it to be heavy on the worldbuilding and showing that the world isn't all combat and life-or-death. But I need some ideas.
The PC is level 6, probably as powerful as level 8 though, and there are 4 other guards and a few more combat-capable people in the caravan.
Thus far I have run:
Day 1: safe travels, introduction to the caravan. Day 2: Found a gutted elk carcass, all signs point to owlbear. Gathered a group and then hunted down the 2 owlbears, the nfound a cub and adopted him. Day 3: Weather turned rough, had to find shelter for the caravan. Found a wishing tree in a fey circle, made a wish, then when she returned, the tree and magic were gone.
Current planned days for next session are: Day 4: Discover the bridge is down, have to go upriver for a different bridge Day 5: find the bridge, with an encounter with 2 very different inns on opposite sides - one traditional food, the other all magic and fanciness, the inns are run by a father and his daughter, who have stopped speaking because he won't try her food (he thinks food should just be good food, none of this fancy stuff). It's a potential roleplay encounter which can just be ignored if she feels like it. Day 6: Return past the other side of the broken bridge. Need an encounter for here! Day 7: Another Inn, this time with a sad and magical twist Day 8: safely exiting the woods, and seeing the harbour town of Preen.
This all seemed like a good approach, but I get the feeling that my fiancee (the player) is itching for some more combat. I would like to inject a few extra combats which don't feel like they are just throwaway ones. My ideas are:
1: Hunting trip - perhaps the daughter in the inn has a recipe planned but needs a specific ingredient - the meat from a magical animal. So somethign which a level 7ish solo player could deal with. This might hel pto bridge the gap between father and daughter too, for the warming of hearts. 2: someone on the other side of the downed bridge, who brought it down. I'm thinking goblins, they strike me as the sort to drop a bridge just to hear it fall! 3: perhaps something as they exit the woods - something in the valley which leads to Preen, which has a large cliff rising on one side. Maybe some cliff-crawling beasty, that could be cool...
Anyway, I'm taking suggestions for these 3 encounters! Any ideas most welcome!
My DM once (I didn’t play this, only heard about it) had there be a cat sitting in the road. That was it, just a regular cat. The players took about an hour trying to figure out if it was some magical-fey cat or polymorphed dragon or message from an angel or what have you. But it was just a regular cat sitting there, wandering around, licking itself. To me this was 1. Kind of hilarious. And 2. A great way to keep the players honest and realize that sometimes a cat is just a cat.
You want more combat options that worldbuild a bit, so here's some ideas:
1. The caravan discovers why the bridge is broken - a plant monster (corpse flower, tree blight, treant, couple of shambling mounds) has destroyed it and the caravan must fight to get past it.
2. The caravan discovers how the bridge is broken - something magical (planar rift opened up underneath, there's a fritzing magical device nearby, a kooky mage is tripping acid) shattered the bridge and the party has to fight some wild magic or shut something/someone down to travel safely.
I've been running HotDQ with my group and a large part has been chapter 4 on the road
I found it rather difficult probably because I couldn't let go of the feeling there is something wrong with being hired to escort a caravan and wonder off on side quests or even as a passenger to expect the caravan to hang around while your off doing stuff... so even though my players say they had fun I felt rather uncomfortable how I ran it...
Regarding caravan escort stuff definitely worth looking at HotDQ chapter 4 on the road related stuff on the net
One particular caravan encounter that was cut from the HotDQ which was rather fun was High Holy Day - Steve Winter describes it in the Tome Show podcast at 43 min in.
Slyflourish also describes it and other HotDQ chapter 4 caravan related stuff -> here
“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
A Catoblepas might be a fun nod to a Dragon Age and FF penchant for Catoblepas Meat. Granted you'd have to re-balance the monster so as to make it challenging, not deadly. (still don't know why everyone wants this stuff...)
Closing off an avenue of approach, in this scenario, provides for traffic to be diverted to the Inns described. On the outside looking inn <pun, sorry>, if the bridge between the inns had collapsed, neither would get as much business. The owners have a stake in controling traffic flow to draw customers to their business.
If there is an opportunity for the caravan to travel through a mountain valley you could throw any manner of beasty at them. Bulettes might be a fan favorite, or maybe even an Ettin. A Cyclops would be memorable, however a bit heavy handed.
2(b). Goblin take is indeed workable. There's even a spot at the other end of the bridge for the Fortress of Dib.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
An easy encounter for your broken bridge could be that there is a family of trolls who live under it. Perhaps they capture a few members of your caravan who wandered off into the night for whatever reason, and you have to go rescue them Add some amusing dialogue to the trolls (The Hobbit would be a solid source of inspiration) and you can make a relatively fun little nighttime encounter.
Gnome building crew is rebuilding the bridge. They seem well underway.
Caravan is stopped and questioned about why the bridge is out. How long ago were you on the other side? Did you see anything? Etc.
In the midst of questioning, the monster/event that broke the bridge happens again. Thus rebreaking the bridge and undoing the gnomes hard work. Caravan and PC can decide to help or flee.
Suitable cursing from gnomes, while a battle is occurring, about the situation.
Now if you want something to **** with players do this one
An old elf maybe 690-730 is seen in a little tent on the side of a road.when the caravan approaches he exits his tent with a cane in hand. and approaches any female member of the caravan (player if that is an option) and hugs them telling this woman how long he has been looking for her and how much he misses her. he says this with tears in his eyes. It turns out the man is senile and mistakes a woman for his dead wife. The man is also not long for the world as he looks pale. If the party offers to take him with them then he will die peacefully in his sleep during the night.
Throw in something sad. it brings some realism to the game and can make for some special moments in game. i did this in one of mine and the players talked about it for the next few months
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I have a solo campaign running where the PC is escorting a caravan through a forest to a harbour town on the coast.
I have broken the adventure down into days and I have inteded for this to be fairly quickly covered rather than a prolonged section of the world, and I wanted it to be heavy on the worldbuilding and showing that the world isn't all combat and life-or-death. But I need some ideas.
The PC is level 6, probably as powerful as level 8 though, and there are 4 other guards and a few more combat-capable people in the caravan.
Thus far I have run:
Day 1: safe travels, introduction to the caravan.
Day 2: Found a gutted elk carcass, all signs point to owlbear. Gathered a group and then hunted down the 2 owlbears, the nfound a cub and adopted him.
Day 3: Weather turned rough, had to find shelter for the caravan. Found a wishing tree in a fey circle, made a wish, then when she returned, the tree and magic were gone.
Current planned days for next session are:
Day 4: Discover the bridge is down, have to go upriver for a different bridge
Day 5: find the bridge, with an encounter with 2 very different inns on opposite sides - one traditional food, the other all magic and fanciness, the inns are run by a father and his daughter, who have stopped speaking because he won't try her food (he thinks food should just be good food, none of this fancy stuff). It's a potential roleplay encounter which can just be ignored if she feels like it.
Day 6: Return past the other side of the broken bridge. Need an encounter for here!
Day 7: Another Inn, this time with a sad and magical twist
Day 8: safely exiting the woods, and seeing the harbour town of Preen.
This all seemed like a good approach, but I get the feeling that my fiancee (the player) is itching for some more combat. I would like to inject a few extra combats which don't feel like they are just throwaway ones. My ideas are:
1: Hunting trip - perhaps the daughter in the inn has a recipe planned but needs a specific ingredient - the meat from a magical animal. So somethign which a level 7ish solo player could deal with. This might hel pto bridge the gap between father and daughter too, for the warming of hearts.
2: someone on the other side of the downed bridge, who brought it down. I'm thinking goblins, they strike me as the sort to drop a bridge just to hear it fall!
3: perhaps something as they exit the woods - something in the valley which leads to Preen, which has a large cliff rising on one side. Maybe some cliff-crawling beasty, that could be cool...
Anyway, I'm taking suggestions for these 3 encounters! Any ideas most welcome!
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My DM once (I didn’t play this, only heard about it) had there be a cat sitting in the road. That was it, just a regular cat. The players took about an hour trying to figure out if it was some magical-fey cat or polymorphed dragon or message from an angel or what have you. But it was just a regular cat sitting there, wandering around, licking itself.
To me this was 1. Kind of hilarious. And 2. A great way to keep the players honest and realize that sometimes a cat is just a cat.
You want more combat options that worldbuild a bit, so here's some ideas:
1. The caravan discovers why the bridge is broken - a plant monster (corpse flower, tree blight, treant, couple of shambling mounds) has destroyed it and the caravan must fight to get past it.
2. The caravan discovers how the bridge is broken - something magical (planar rift opened up underneath, there's a fritzing magical device nearby, a kooky mage is tripping acid) shattered the bridge and the party has to fight some wild magic or shut something/someone down to travel safely.
Hope that sparks something!
I've been running HotDQ with my group and a large part has been chapter 4 on the road
I found it rather difficult probably because I couldn't let go of the feeling there is something wrong with being hired to escort a caravan and wonder off on side quests or even as a passenger to expect the caravan to hang around while your off doing stuff... so even though my players say they had fun I felt rather uncomfortable how I ran it...
Regarding caravan escort stuff definitely worth looking at HotDQ chapter 4 on the road related stuff on the net
One particular caravan encounter that was cut from the HotDQ which was rather fun was High Holy Day - Steve Winter describes it in the Tome Show podcast at 43 min in.
Slyflourish also describes it and other HotDQ chapter 4 caravan related stuff -> here
“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
My 2 cp.
2(b). Goblin take is indeed workable. There's even a spot at the other end of the bridge for the Fortress of Dib.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
An easy encounter for your broken bridge could be that there is a family of trolls who live under it. Perhaps they capture a few members of your caravan who wandered off into the night for whatever reason, and you have to go rescue them Add some amusing dialogue to the trolls (The Hobbit would be a solid source of inspiration) and you can make a relatively fun little nighttime encounter.
Gnome building crew is rebuilding the bridge. They seem well underway.
Caravan is stopped and questioned about why the bridge is out. How long ago were you on the other side? Did you see anything? Etc.
In the midst of questioning, the monster/event that broke the bridge happens again. Thus rebreaking the bridge and undoing the gnomes hard work. Caravan and PC can decide to help or flee.
Suitable cursing from gnomes, while a battle is occurring, about the situation.
Now if you want something to **** with players do this one
An old elf maybe 690-730 is seen in a little tent on the side of a road.when the caravan approaches he exits his tent with a cane in hand. and approaches any female member of the caravan (player if that is an option) and hugs them telling this woman how long he has been looking for her and how much he misses her. he says this with tears in his eyes. It turns out the man is senile and mistakes a woman for his dead wife. The man is also not long for the world as he looks pale. If the party offers to take him with them then he will die peacefully in his sleep during the night.
Throw in something sad. it brings some realism to the game and can make for some special moments in game. i did this in one of mine and the players talked about it for the next few months