I’d like some advice and commentary on an adventure idea I’m working on. I’ve never GM’d before, and it’s unlikely that I’ll ever use this, but the tools for adventure burning in Torchbearer were just too cool to pass up. I started going through the questions, and we came up with the idea of a ruined fortress that was originally built to prevent oni and dragons from entering the world. I’ve since toned it down to something less epic for a beginning adventure: a ruined orcish hill-fort, built to keep the giant spiders in the limestone caves below from preying on the orcish communities nearby. However, kobolds have found another way inside, and have begun a rather terrified worship of the spiders.
The hook is pretty flexible; I wrote this with a basic “free the kidnapped villagers” hook, but it could be just about anything.
As it stands, the party is hired by a human village to find their missing villagers. Everyone suspects they were kidnapped by the orcs from a fort rumored to be a little ways off, though they admit that they’ve never been troubled by them before. The party has several options. It would be a fairly easy Pathfinding test to find the fortress, or a moderate Scout test to follow any tracks they can find (which will actually lead them to the kobolds’ secret entrance, within distant sight of the fortress). A woodsman claims he knows where the fortress is; the party could hire him as a Guide, or convince him to help them for free.
KEY:
[ol]
[li]Lower Bailey. The entrance to the hill-fort, this area is guarded by a watery moat with a small wooden bridge across it, as well as a wooden palisade. None are in great repair, and an Ob <X> Scout test will allow the party to find an area where the ditch is at least partially-filled and the palisade sagging.
[/li]
Inside, the bailey serves as a village camp for the orcs. There are several guards here, as well as the elderly, sick, and women. The camp is generally bustling with activity.
[li] Hill Fort. Entrance to this area is difficult: gaining entrance must be done either by breaching the palisade and climbing the steep motte, or by traversing the elevated wooden bridge. The orcs above will retract the bridge at the first sign of trouble. Even if it isn’t retracted, the bridge is not in good repair, and requires <test> to cross.
[/li]
Inside on the lower floor are a host of orcs, all warriors. A heavy trapdoor in the center of the floor is barred from the inside, and opens onto a shaft with a ladder leading down into the caves.
[li] The upper level of the keep is inhabited by a colony of Giant Bats. The accumulated guano can be used as a Spell Ingredient for any fire-based spell (providing +1D to the check). <Describe smell, etc.>
[/li]
[li] The ladder into this room has been carefully weakened by the kobolds that inhabit the caves. The room is otherwise as safe as any in the caves, as the kobolds tend to avoid it for fear of orc patrols.
[/li][li]
[/li][li] something
[/li][li]
[/li][li] This room has a trap to protect the kobold’s entrance.
[/li][li]
[/li][li] This room has a pool with (clean?) water where the party can fill waterskins, etc.
[/li][li]
[/li][li] Kobold den
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[/li][li] Guard room. This room has lots of pillars, stalagmites, etc. A small party of kobolds will be on guard here, and will attempt to ambush any party they hear coming, but they are there mostly to prevent any prisoners from escaping room 10.
[/li][li]
[/li][li] Shrine. A crude shrine is set up here, and anything shiny the kobolds find tends to find itself made into a mural resembling spider eyes set into every available surface. Most are worthless bits of broken glass, but coins and actual gems can be found with a bit of searching as well (Scout test to find, some other test to pry loose? Suggested twists: someone hears the sound of excavation and comes running–either a kobold patrol or spider, looking for prey). A ledge protrudes into the room far up one wall–this is where the spiders come to collect their offerings. The cavern opening is not visible from the ground. Hidden among the rubble is a crude ladder. A steep chimney-like crevasse leads downward, and is coated in spiderwebbing (test to avoid)
[/li][li]
[/li][li] Ledge. This room is generally empty, but halfway through the cavern the floor ends in abrupt drop into another, larger cavern. The party may notice if they ask that the edge appears to have been made at least partly with tools.
[/li][li]
[/li][li] Prisoner Pit. This cavern has been modified by the kobolds to hold prisoners (mostly by making the entrance into the cavern above a sheer face). A small brackish pool of water sits in one corner. The lower entrance is barricaded with <whatever>.
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[/li][li] Trap–something to affect spiders
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[/li][li] Chimney. A vent in this chamber leads to the surface. The stairs leading to this chamber are blocked off with rubble, piled here by the kobolds (Ob X Health test or Ob X Laborer test to remove)
[/li][li]
[/li][li] Food Storage. This is where the spiders keep their victims: numerous humans (and the occasional elf, dwarf or halfling) is encased in webbing and stashed somewhere–some hang from the ceiling, while others are lashed to the wall with webbing, or secured to the floor. Most have been sucked dry (spiders tend to inject a venom that liquifies their victims from the inside, then suck out the resulting fluids), but a few may still be alive, should the party decide to check. If they are, they almost certainly have either the Sick or Injured conditions (or both).
[/li][li]
[/li][li] Sleeping Chambers. These chambers are the abode of spiders.
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[/li][li] Spiderlings
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[/li][li] Queen
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[/li][li] Egg Chamber. This chamber contains the egg pods laid by the queen. They are encased in a sticky goo, but are worth quite a bit to the right person (generally an alchemist or arcanist).
[/li][li] Garbage Chute. The kobolds use this shaft for disposing of garbage. Most coins and gems find their way to the shrine, and other useful bits are generally used by the kobolds or worked into traps, but some useful gear may be found here. Suggested twists: Sick (from the garbage) or Injured (from something sharp).
[/li][/ol]