For the next leg of my home-brew campaign the adventurers need to locate a hidden "fort" in the middle of a forest. The fort is occupied by thieves who have been terrorizing local traders and have stolen an item of importance that needs to be recovered. I'm trying to think of ways to make the search interesting. Here's what I've got so far:
1. Following the Thieves or Getting Kidnapped by Them. There is an unused wagon track that goes through the forest. It's unused because it's become commonly known that wagons who travel thereby are waylaid by the thieves. The adventurers can take a wagon on this trail or pay another to drive a wagon while they stealthily lurk behind. The presence of a wagon will instigate the thieves to appear who can then be followed back to their hideout. I would be sure to add a large amount of strong thieves to discourage the party from trying to kill them.
2. Relying on dice rolls and tables. Another idea is to allow the characters to engage in a tedious search of the wilderness. Perhaps they don't find reliable tracks unless they succeed on a DC 20 survival check. Anything less than a 20 will require them to roll a d20 on a wilderness encounter table which might include monster encounters, dangerous plant life, or sites of interest such as forgotten monuments or fountains. Perhaps some items on the table provide clues that help reduce the DC for finding reliable tracks. Adventurers try again to locate tracks after each encounter.
What do you think of those ideas and what other ideas would you suggest?
Your ideas are great already! If you're also looking for some other ideas in how they can get there to prepare for in case they decide on something entirely different...They could:
Cast a locate object which could point them in the direction of where the fort is/item is being held. If none of them know this spell, maybe they seek out a local wizard or cleric that they could pay and recruit to help find this. They could always try many other divination spells that could produce the same or similar outcomes.
Gather clues from locals/ask traders that have maybe been harassed by the thieve gang, so they can get a better idea on the fort's general locale.
Expanding on your first point, they could always kidnap a thief themselves and persuade/torture them to take them to the fort/give away it's location and secrets.
The fort could be an old "abandoned" military fort depending on your campaign, so maybe there are some books/history about it that the party could look for/inquire about that could give a general idea of where it is and what is contained in its structure.
If you go with your #2, I'd recommend having several "wildness encounters" on the table you make be encounters where they'd encounter various sized/purposed groups from the thieves gang, so regardless of how long they are out there rolling, eventually, even with a ton of bad rolls, they will get the information they need.
There are a million different ways to get from point A to B in D&D, which is part of the reason the game is as great as it is. I am sure your party will probably even come up with ways to find the fort that you, and the others who reply, don't even think of. Hopefully this short list helps you prepare and help them have a fun time!
Thanks for these suggestions. All of them are good to prepare for but I especially like (3) and (4). I will definitely add those to my list of things to prepare for!
If they find and torture a thief for information I think I might want to make his information somehow unreliable. I plan to have the perimeters of the thieves hideout booby trapped anyway. Perhaps the tortured thief does not alert them to the presence of the traps.
You could also go down the path of "known associates". Thieves are still people. They have parents, brothers, sisters. Maybe someone from the town approaches the adventurers, hoping that they can get their son out of the "bad bunch of friend's he's got involved with". Or something along that line.
If they find and torture a thief for information I think I might want to make his information somehow unreliable. I plan to have the perimeters of the thieves hideout booby trapped anyway. Perhaps the tortured thief does not alert them to the presence of the traps.
Or directs them into the booby trap. If one of the players doesn't like this idea, you can have them make a DC 15 Wisdom (Insight) roll. If they succeed, they catch a tell that the thief is making while giving directions. Have the DC for the perception roll for the traps be at least DC 15 and not discoverable by passive perception.
Edited because my phone hates me or I was too tired and plants showed up instead of traps.
You could also go down the path of "known associates". Thieves are still people. They have parents, brothers, sisters. Maybe someone from the town approaches the adventurers, hoping that they can get their son out of the "bad bunch of friend's he's got involved with". Or something along that line.
Along this line, background abilities could be very helpful here. Urban Bounty Hunter has an applicable feature, and criminals might know a guy. Perhaps that guy used to be the head of the thieves and was ousted by the new guy.
There is the possibility that someone has find familiar, which could help. Also, some of the spells dealing with animals could give some impressions to druids, rangers, or the like.
If the item is magical in nature, check to see if there is anything in the spell that might make it not work for tracking purposes. Same with detect evil and good, though I think that's probably not appropriate due to creature type. Consider all of these things before hand so you know the ruling you'll make for them, and whether the thieves might have something in place to counter some, like a secondary entrance with a trap door that has a 20 or 30 ft fall and some undead chained up in the bottom to foil detect evil and good (even if it wouldn't work normally, the thieves would want to think of these things if they are somewhat knowledgeable about magic and fairly clever).
If they find and torture a thief for information I think I might want to make his information somehow unreliable. I plan to have the perimeters of the thieves hideout booby trapped anyway. Perhaps the tortured thief does not alert them to the presence of the traps.
Or directs them into the booby trap. If one of the players doesn't like this idea, you can have them make a DC 15 Wisdom (Insight) roll. If they succeed, they catch a tell that the thief is making while giving directions. Have the DC for the perception roll for the plants be at least DC 15 and not discoverable by passive perception.
I like that.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
For the next leg of my home-brew campaign the adventurers need to locate a hidden "fort" in the middle of a forest. The fort is occupied by thieves who have been terrorizing local traders and have stolen an item of importance that needs to be recovered. I'm trying to think of ways to make the search interesting. Here's what I've got so far:
1. Following the Thieves or Getting Kidnapped by Them. There is an unused wagon track that goes through the forest. It's unused because it's become commonly known that wagons who travel thereby are waylaid by the thieves. The adventurers can take a wagon on this trail or pay another to drive a wagon while they stealthily lurk behind. The presence of a wagon will instigate the thieves to appear who can then be followed back to their hideout. I would be sure to add a large amount of strong thieves to discourage the party from trying to kill them.
2. Relying on dice rolls and tables. Another idea is to allow the characters to engage in a tedious search of the wilderness. Perhaps they don't find reliable tracks unless they succeed on a DC 20 survival check. Anything less than a 20 will require them to roll a d20 on a wilderness encounter table which might include monster encounters, dangerous plant life, or sites of interest such as forgotten monuments or fountains. Perhaps some items on the table provide clues that help reduce the DC for finding reliable tracks. Adventurers try again to locate tracks after each encounter.
What do you think of those ideas and what other ideas would you suggest?
Your ideas are great already! If you're also looking for some other ideas in how they can get there to prepare for in case they decide on something entirely different...They could:
There are a million different ways to get from point A to B in D&D, which is part of the reason the game is as great as it is. I am sure your party will probably even come up with ways to find the fort that you, and the others who reply, don't even think of. Hopefully this short list helps you prepare and help them have a fun time!
Thanks for these suggestions. All of them are good to prepare for but I especially like (3) and (4). I will definitely add those to my list of things to prepare for!
If they find and torture a thief for information I think I might want to make his information somehow unreliable. I plan to have the perimeters of the thieves hideout booby trapped anyway. Perhaps the tortured thief does not alert them to the presence of the traps.
You could also go down the path of "known associates". Thieves are still people. They have parents, brothers, sisters. Maybe someone from the town approaches the adventurers, hoping that they can get their son out of the "bad bunch of friend's he's got involved with". Or something along that line.
Or directs them into the booby trap. If one of the players doesn't like this idea, you can have them make a DC 15 Wisdom (Insight) roll. If they succeed, they catch a tell that the thief is making while giving directions. Have the DC for the perception roll for the traps be at least DC 15 and not discoverable by passive perception.
Edited because my phone hates me or I was too tired and plants showed up instead of traps.
Along this line, background abilities could be very helpful here. Urban Bounty Hunter has an applicable feature, and criminals might know a guy. Perhaps that guy used to be the head of the thieves and was ousted by the new guy.
There is the possibility that someone has find familiar, which could help. Also, some of the spells dealing with animals could give some impressions to druids, rangers, or the like.
If the item is magical in nature, check to see if there is anything in the spell that might make it not work for tracking purposes. Same with detect evil and good, though I think that's probably not appropriate due to creature type. Consider all of these things before hand so you know the ruling you'll make for them, and whether the thieves might have something in place to counter some, like a secondary entrance with a trap door that has a 20 or 30 ft fall and some undead chained up in the bottom to foil detect evil and good (even if it wouldn't work normally, the thieves would want to think of these things if they are somewhat knowledgeable about magic and fairly clever).
Any animosity between the thieves and a rival group? Will the rival group assist for a cut of the findings?
If you can't understand it, it's intuitively obvious.
Sinnikal
I like that.