First time campaign writer here, I'm writing a bunch of encounters into the larger journey of the party, about a two week trek to a city. They are traveling up a rivers edge and after a week or so the surrounding forest starts to appear decaying and poisoned. When the party takes a rest, a dryad emerges from the a tree; she looks old and decrepit reflecting the state of her tree. She explains that a group of Drow Clerics have blighted the forest, and begs the party to put an end to them. Should they choose to do so they wouldn't find any Drow but instead a mining operation. The foreman says that they have been forced to mine under the forest rather than under the river because of a Grick Lair in the way. The party could clear the Grick lair to let the miners mine where they wouldn't kill the forest, or by threaten the miners to leave, or any number of options. Since the Grick Lair is under the river a creative solution would be to flood it, but that would also flood the mining operation.
Does this sound like a decent encounter? It is a mix of negotiation, combat, investigation, and leaves a wide variety of options for the players.
It seems okay, but when would the Dryad lie to the party about the Drow? That just seems like and odd red herring that won't get wrapped up by the end of the encounter.
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
Seems needless though. She could easily just be vague about the problem. Something along the lines of "There is a terrible ravaging beneath the ground, destroying the roots of my forest and poisoning the soil. Please find its cause and save my forest." or some such. Then the party goes to investigate and finds the miners. They talk to the miners and learn about the gricks. They deal with the gricks and both the miners and the dryad end up happy. If you want to throw some more conflict in there, maybe Blights are forming underground in the mines as a consequence of the miners operations under the forest and the miners can't help the party with the gricks because they are busy with the blights.
I'll second what Metamongoose has said, and add a further point of caution:
If your players figure out that an NPC of some sort has outright lied to them, how are they likely to respond to that NPC? How will this deceitful NPC color their interactions with other NPCs? Often, in the collective gaming experiences I've had and heard of, the answers to those questions involve exacting over-blown vengeance against the NPC that dared deceive them (unless the players know for certain that their characters had a legitimate chance to realize the deception and failed, i.e. they made their Wisdom (Insight) checks against a reasonable DC and did not roll well enough), and treating all future NPCs as if they are all just as, or more, deceitful and manipulative.
Yeah, if your Dryad lies to your party for what appears to be no real reason, there's a good chance that after they solve whatever problem, the party will just go back and demand to know why they were lied to and end up fighting the dryad....or at the very least, no longer accept missions from lying dryads.
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
To be fair, Dryads are very deceptive. They are basically the mermaids of the forest, luring adventurers to their deaths using beauty, illusion and charm. However, I do agree that the deception ought to have some kind of end-game to it...
For instance, there is a settlement of drow nearby who hunt the Dryad... so that it's still a red-herring, but it's a red-herring with teeth, so to speak. The dryad's deception was necessary to preserve her life! The Drow hate the Dryads because they are lying forest trixters. Perhaps the death of the forest spirits is, at least in part, responsible for the death of the forest, and not just mine-rot. (after-all, they aren't fracking, are they?)
First time campaign writer here, I'm writing a bunch of encounters into the larger journey of the party, about a two week trek to a city. They are traveling up a rivers edge and after a week or so the surrounding forest starts to appear decaying and poisoned. When the party takes a rest, a dryad emerges from the a tree; she looks old and decrepit reflecting the state of her tree. She explains that a group of Drow Clerics have blighted the forest, and begs the party to put an end to them. Should they choose to do so they wouldn't find any Drow but instead a mining operation. The foreman says that they have been forced to mine under the forest rather than under the river because of a Grick Lair in the way. The party could clear the Grick lair to let the miners mine where they wouldn't kill the forest, or by threaten the miners to leave, or any number of options. Since the Grick Lair is under the river a creative solution would be to flood it, but that would also flood the mining operation.
Does this sound like a decent encounter? It is a mix of negotiation, combat, investigation, and leaves a wide variety of options for the players.
Thank you!
It seems okay, but when would the Dryad lie to the party about the Drow? That just seems like and odd red herring that won't get wrapped up by the end of the encounter.
Perhaps to get the party to do as she wished? Most people tend to dislike Drow more than miners.
Seems needless though. She could easily just be vague about the problem. Something along the lines of "There is a terrible ravaging beneath the ground, destroying the roots of my forest and poisoning the soil. Please find its cause and save my forest." or some such. Then the party goes to investigate and finds the miners. They talk to the miners and learn about the gricks. They deal with the gricks and both the miners and the dryad end up happy. If you want to throw some more conflict in there, maybe Blights are forming underground in the mines as a consequence of the miners operations under the forest and the miners can't help the party with the gricks because they are busy with the blights.
That's actually really helpful. Thank you so much!
I'll second what Metamongoose has said, and add a further point of caution:
If your players figure out that an NPC of some sort has outright lied to them, how are they likely to respond to that NPC? How will this deceitful NPC color their interactions with other NPCs? Often, in the collective gaming experiences I've had and heard of, the answers to those questions involve exacting over-blown vengeance against the NPC that dared deceive them (unless the players know for certain that their characters had a legitimate chance to realize the deception and failed, i.e. they made their Wisdom (Insight) checks against a reasonable DC and did not roll well enough), and treating all future NPCs as if they are all just as, or more, deceitful and manipulative.
Yeah, if your Dryad lies to your party for what appears to be no real reason, there's a good chance that after they solve whatever problem, the party will just go back and demand to know why they were lied to and end up fighting the dryad....or at the very least, no longer accept missions from lying dryads.
To be fair, Dryads are very deceptive. They are basically the mermaids of the forest, luring adventurers to their deaths using beauty, illusion and charm. However, I do agree that the deception ought to have some kind of end-game to it...
For instance, there is a settlement of drow nearby who hunt the Dryad... so that it's still a red-herring, but it's a red-herring with teeth, so to speak. The dryad's deception was necessary to preserve her life! The Drow hate the Dryads because they are lying forest trixters. Perhaps the death of the forest spirits is, at least in part, responsible for the death of the forest, and not just mine-rot. (after-all, they aren't fracking, are they?)