Hi, I run a high-level homebrewed campaign in a setting I created. It's an open-world adventure, and they can basically go do whatever. Still, they have a mission, at the moment all they know is that they need to find the "Gate to Valhalla".
I have just put them in a town that came into existence yesterday because of the players actions. The town is in lockdown, noone in or out. The players need to do stuff and help the Chief, so that he lift the lockdown. Ny doing this they will get some info, and have a couple of dreams that they need to understand where to go. They decided to spend their first day in a 2 week lockdown asking around about this gate to Valhalla, and after a bit they met the Priest of Thor that happend to also be a scholar specializing in the story of Ragnar, the man who the Gate of valhalla was created for. He thinks the gate is in one of two locations: Fjellr Veis Endr, or Taakfjellr. Both are mountainranges, NOT 1 mountain. They have absolutely no idea where in the mountains the gate potentially is. This is basically just the first clue and any normal person would realize this is way too little to go on.
Now they have decided to Plane Shift to one of these places in the next session to find the gate. This is basically like going to the Rocky Mountains to find a cabin that you have absolutely no idea where is other than it might be in Rocky Mountains or the Himalayas.
Do anyone have any tips or suggestion to help me here? I am afraid we will spend one or two sessions doing basically nothing but kill Ice-bears and perhaps a Moose, cause I really do not find it plausible that they Plane Shift to whole ass MOUNTAIN RANGE and just happens to find the one GATE they are looking for. Read: This gate is basically 3 meters wide and half a meter deep, and 3 meters high! The mountainranges in questions are both several hundred kilometers wide and long!
They need more info, but I don't want to force them to realize this, by for example denying them to use Plane Shift. The world is also low on magics, so I don't think it's plausible to block it in-world as there is just no reason to block it other than stopping them from doing something that might make our sessions very boring... Tips for good stuff to do up in those mountains that occupies them while they are NOT finding what they are looking for is also appreciated!
A Survival skill check should alert whoever is their "outdoors" person to the fact that you won't be able to find a 3 metre doorway simply by flying around. It could be in any crevice of the mountains.
Yeah, call for a few skill checks. An Arcana check where a low result tells them they have insufficient information to plane shift to such a generalised area as that mountain range. A nature or investigation check to guesstimate the time taken to search an area of that size - perhaps a character would estimate the manual search would take 3 years. A survival check to remind the players that there is insufficient food to be found, and freezing conditions that could endanger their life and they would be forced to return often to recover. A history check to remember the tales of many expert explorers who have died wandering around in those mountains. An insight check to realise some more information about that priest's opinion on the gate - that the gate is impossible to find and that they would be foolish to go looking for it without more guidance.
If they insist still on traveling, then have them go there, learn something minor, then have an approaching blizzard force a return and further preparations. If they start facing increasingly difficult con saves that start inflicting cold damage and exhaustion then a return will become increasingly tempting.
I was a bit tired and frustrated when I wrote this, and these were all very elegant solutions to my problem! Especially thanks to you RegentCorreon for the many good tips!
I forgot to tell you, but Taakfjellr is a mountain-range completely covered in dense fog. So dense in fact that the only reason people think it's a mountain-range is that it is possible to see some mountain-tops over the fog sometimes. Almost everyone who enters never come out, because they get disorented, starves, freeze to death or something else. Noone knows, as it's a place completely mystefied. Fjellr Veis Endr is rumoured to be the summer-retreat of Jotnene from Jotunheim, as it is usually only 20-30 minus celcius there. Basically, both mountain-ranges will be hard to survive in.
I believe this time it's actually the players that are stupid, I don't find it believable that the characters - hardened and experienced adventures, one of them spesifically with a backstory as a guy who collects and finds rare stuff - would act on so little info.
Yeah, gonna try use some check to make them realize they are stupid, and if that's not working have them learn by experience that they need more info to find a gate that might be hidden in a crevice, a cave, or simply just be another place alltogether, before hitting them with a blizzard. Thanks guys!
Hi, I run a high-level homebrewed campaign in a setting I created. It's an open-world adventure, and they can basically go do whatever. Still, they have a mission, at the moment all they know is that they need to find the "Gate to Valhalla".
I have just put them in a town that came into existence yesterday because of the players actions. The town is in lockdown, noone in or out. The players need to do stuff and help the Chief, so that he lift the lockdown. Ny doing this they will get some info, and have a couple of dreams that they need to understand where to go. They decided to spend their first day in a 2 week lockdown asking around about this gate to Valhalla, and after a bit they met the Priest of Thor that happend to also be a scholar specializing in the story of Ragnar, the man who the Gate of valhalla was created for. He thinks the gate is in one of two locations: Fjellr Veis Endr, or Taakfjellr. Both are mountainranges, NOT 1 mountain. They have absolutely no idea where in the mountains the gate potentially is. This is basically just the first clue and any normal person would realize this is way too little to go on.
Now they have decided to Plane Shift to one of these places in the next session to find the gate. This is basically like going to the Rocky Mountains to find a cabin that you have absolutely no idea where is other than it might be in Rocky Mountains or the Himalayas.
Do anyone have any tips or suggestion to help me here? I am afraid we will spend one or two sessions doing basically nothing but kill Ice-bears and perhaps a Moose, cause I really do not find it plausible that they Plane Shift to whole ass MOUNTAIN RANGE and just happens to find the one GATE they are looking for. Read: This gate is basically 3 meters wide and half a meter deep, and 3 meters high! The mountainranges in questions are both several hundred kilometers wide and long!
They need more info, but I don't want to force them to realize this, by for example denying them to use Plane Shift. The world is also low on magics, so I don't think it's plausible to block it in-world as there is just no reason to block it other than stopping them from doing something that might make our sessions very boring... Tips for good stuff to do up in those mountains that occupies them while they are NOT finding what they are looking for is also appreciated!
A Survival skill check should alert whoever is their "outdoors" person to the fact that you won't be able to find a 3 metre doorway simply by flying around. It could be in any crevice of the mountains.
Yeah, a simple "by the way guys it is 1 gate in a big mountain range," should give them the idea that they need to narrow down the location.
Yeah, call for a few skill checks. An Arcana check where a low result tells them they have insufficient information to plane shift to such a generalised area as that mountain range. A nature or investigation check to guesstimate the time taken to search an area of that size - perhaps a character would estimate the manual search would take 3 years. A survival check to remind the players that there is insufficient food to be found, and freezing conditions that could endanger their life and they would be forced to return often to recover. A history check to remember the tales of many expert explorers who have died wandering around in those mountains. An insight check to realise some more information about that priest's opinion on the gate - that the gate is impossible to find and that they would be foolish to go looking for it without more guidance.
If they insist still on traveling, then have them go there, learn something minor, then have an approaching blizzard force a return and further preparations. If they start facing increasingly difficult con saves that start inflicting cold damage and exhaustion then a return will become increasingly tempting.
I was a bit tired and frustrated when I wrote this, and these were all very elegant solutions to my problem! Especially thanks to you RegentCorreon for the many good tips!
I forgot to tell you, but Taakfjellr is a mountain-range completely covered in dense fog. So dense in fact that the only reason people think it's a mountain-range is that it is possible to see some mountain-tops over the fog sometimes. Almost everyone who enters never come out, because they get disorented, starves, freeze to death or something else. Noone knows, as it's a place completely mystefied. Fjellr Veis Endr is rumoured to be the summer-retreat of Jotnene from Jotunheim, as it is usually only 20-30 minus celcius there. Basically, both mountain-ranges will be hard to survive in.
I believe this time it's actually the players that are stupid, I don't find it believable that the characters - hardened and experienced adventures, one of them spesifically with a backstory as a guy who collects and finds rare stuff - would act on so little info.
Yeah, gonna try use some check to make them realize they are stupid, and if that's not working have them learn by experience that they need more info to find a gate that might be hidden in a crevice, a cave, or simply just be another place alltogether, before hitting them with a blizzard. Thanks guys!