Go to Part 1

SPOILER WARNING!

The following thoughts contain minor spoilers for Keep on the Shadowfell. If you don’t want to be spoiled, don’t read it. And if you’re in my gaming group then you definitely shouldn’t be reading it.

DESIGN NOTES

Way back in 2001, Atlas Games published In the Belly of the Beast, a D20 adventure by Mike Mearls. This was a roleplaying-intense adventure featuring multiple factions trapped inside the belly of an immense demon. In and of itself, it’s a pretty awesome adventure.

But In the Belly of the Beast is particularly notable, for me, because of the format Mearls used for presenting the roleplaying information for his NPCs. As noted, the adventure is a complex roleplaying scenario with multiple factions each comprised of multiple characters. And yet, due to the utilitarian format Mearls pioneered, the adventure runs smooth as silk: I was able to pick up an NPC, quickly identify what the character’s goals and personality were, and then slide straight into character.

Basically, all Mearls did was break the NPC information down into six sections: Key Information, Quote, Background, Appearance, Roleplaying Notes, and Goals.

Like most good ideas, it seems simple enough… it’s just that nobody had done it before. So instead of trying to parse several paragraphs of dense text summarizing every NPC, you could immediately find exactly what you needed.

I promptly absconded with it, and have been using the format to great success ever since. For NPCs, I generally simplify it down to: Quote, Background, Appearance, and Roleplaying Notes.

(I ditched Key Information because it generally just duplicates information found elsewhere. The Goal section reappears when needed and often in different forms. For example, it doesn’t appear at all in my City Supplements because the NPCs aren’t part of any particular adventure. On the other hand, in my personal campaign, I recently ran a high society party where everyone had a Notes section just to bullet-point out particular interactions I wanted to make sure I hit. In the case of Keep on the Shadowfell, as you’ll see below, it manifests itself as Plot Points/Information, which is, once again, just a bullet-pointed list to make sure I hit particularly important details.)

In my experience, the format not only helps me when it comes to running NPCs, it also helps me to prepare only the information I need to prepare for a given NPC.

LORD PADRAIG

QUOTE: “Welcome to Winterhaven. I wish that you might have come at a more auspicious time.”

BACKGROUND: The Lord of Winterhaven, descended from a noble family that ruled this area under edict of the old empire. Folks around Winterhaven were happy with Lord Padraig’s father’s authority, and they have found answering to the rules of the new lord no more arduous. On the other hand, Padraig doesn’t have absolute power. For instance, he has been unable to raise a force from among the villagers to deal with the kobold problem.

APPEARANCE: Lord Padraig is a man of medium height and middling years. His brown hair is thinning, but he still cuts a trim and handsome figure in clothes of rural finery. His face is open and friendly.

ROLEPLAYING NOTES: Padraig is amenable to meeting with anyone, and if he knows the PCs are rune-marked he will greet them as heroes and potential allies. If he doesn’t know they are rune-marked, he will assume they are dignitaries from another village or possibly merchants scouting trade routes.
He remains friendly and open unless he believes the PCs to be mere treasure hunters or opportunistic mercenaries. In that case, his respect diminishes (although in his desperation he may still seek to secure their help).

PLOT POINTS/INFORMATION:

• Ask them their business in Winterhaven (potentially leading to finding the heir). During the time that Sir Caliban would have arrived, Lord Padraig would have been in Fallcrest attending to his education.
• Will offer a bounty for hunting kobolds; 5 gp for each right hand.
• Pays a reward of 50 gp for the location of the kobold lair; would pay 200 gp if someone were to wipe out the kobold threat.

BAIRWIN WILDARSON

QUOTE: “You young ones ought to bear a wary eye. You may have many fine weapons and the like, but the roads have grown dangerous of late.”

BACKGROUND: When he was a young man, Bairwin left Winterhaven and “traveled the world”. He didn’t get any farther than visiting the dwarves in Hammerfast a hundred miles to the east, but that does make him more widely traveled than anyone else in the village (including Lord Padraig).

When Sir Caliban died in the village, Bairwin took in his infant son (Perrien) and raised him as his own.

APPEARANCE: This weather-worn man has a deep scar running down his left cheek. His brown hair and beard are giving way to salted white, but there’s still a lively twinkle in his blue eyes.

ROLEPLAYING NOTES: Bairwin has a rough exterior, but a heart of gold. He is slow to anger, but once that anger has been roused it burns as a quick rage.

PLOT POINTS/INFORMATION::

• Bairwin took in Sir Caliban’s son, Perrien, after the knight died.

EILIAN THE OLD

QUOTE: “These troubles are not as bad as you might think. I remember back in ’72, when I was still just a wee lad and Padraig’s father was still lord here. We had an ettin come down out of the Stonemarch and go hiking up and down the length of the valley. We eventually managed to rouse the southern farms and we hunted that creature down to its cave.”

BACKGROUND: This old farmer is a regular customer at Wrafton’s. Every night, Eilian takes a seat at a table in the corner. He has a farm just a half mile outside the city’s walls. Eilian has an interest in Winterhaven’s history.

APPEARANCE: A crooked back, a wisp of white hair, and cheeks made rosy with age.

ROLEPLAYING NOTES: Eilian loves to talk.

NINARAN

QUOTE: “No offense, but I don’t trust outsiders. Particularly at a time like this. How are we supposed to know that you aren’t in league with the cultists?”

BACKGROUND: An elf hunter. Ninaran arrived in town about six months ago. Now she serves as Kalarel’s agent in Winterhaven and reports back to him about happenings in the village.

APPEARANCE: Gaunt-faced with chocolate-brown hair tied back in a long pony-tail down to her waist.

ROLEPLAYING NOTES: Ninaran drinks alone and has little interest in conversation. Stiff and bitter in demeanor.

PLOT POINTS/INFORMATION:

• Ninaran will tell them that she saw a “half dozen kobolds or so” by a waterfall to the southeast of town. She can draw them a very detailed map. (Her goal is to lure the PCs there and have Irontooth kill them.)

Continued…

Go to Part 1

SPOILER WARNING!

The following thoughts contain minor spoilers for Keep on the Shadowfell. If you don’t want to be spoiled, don’t read it. And if you’re in my gaming group then you definitely shouldn’t be reading it.

THE HEIR

When Sir Caliban came to Winterhaven, he was carrying an infant son. He left his son in the village and went to the Keep of the Shadowfell, pursuing an unknown mission. Few remember the wandering knight or the fact that his son, Perrien, was taken in Bairwin Wildarson and raised as his own.

Now a seventeen year old boy, Perrien is a member of the Warrior Guild and hopes to join Lord Padraig’s Regulars when he reaches the age of his majority.

LORD PADRAIG: Lord Padraig will ask them their business in Winterhaven (see above); if they tell him, he will make inquiries himself and find out Perrien’s identity.

THE GRAVEYARD: If they find Caliban’s gravestone in the graveyard, it says: “Survived by his son Perrien”. This makes it relatively easy to find the boy.

Continued…

Go to Part 1

SPOILER WARNING!

The following thoughts contain minor spoilers for Keep on the Shadowfell. If you don’t want to be spoiled, don’t read it. And if you’re in my gaming group then you definitely shouldn’t be reading it.

DESIGN GOALS

In Keep on the Shadowfell, the information on NPCs and information in Winterhaven is primarily organized in a question-and-answer format that will help new DMs make sure the PCs get all the information they’re supposed to. As an experienced DM, however, I found the format far too cumbersome for my purposes.

In my experience, I like to have two sets of tools available during these types of information-gathering scenarios: Guidelines for handling how much and what type of information to give out with Streetwise checks and detailed roleplaying notes for important or notable characters. I’m going to start, today, with the Streetwise checks.

I’ve also made a couple of more general changes to the general structure of the adventure. As written, the PCs are generally handed clear-cut quests with simplistic goals: “Kobolds are bad. Go to their lair and kill them.” I’ve generally tried to make things a little less clear-cut. For example, Lord Padraig wants the kobold threat eliminated… but he doesn’t actually know where the kobold lair is. (So the PCs will have to figure that out.)

Similarly, I’ve decided to make Valthrun the Seer less of a know-it-all. I’m actually quite annoyed by this character. “I have valuable information that would help solve this problem… but I won’t tell anybody until the PCs have hit level 2.” So instead of knowing everything, he knows a few things, can research a bit more, and can point the PCs in the direction of somebody who knows even more (Douven Stahl, who’s currently being held prisoner at the dragon burial site).

WINTERHAVEN – STREETWISE CHECKS

Any information coming from a specific character can be gained by simply asking the character about the topic in question. (I consider Gather Information/Streetwise checks to be a mechanic which either: (a) Lets a character find out the general “news on the street”; or (b) Get them in touch with a specific character who knows the information. In other words, I tend to use Streetwise checks to introduce the PCs to new characters and jumpstart a relationship with them.)

FOLLOWING UP WITH VALTHRUN

“The Keep was built as an outpost of the Empire of Nerath, most likely to guard against the giant tribes living in the northern reaches of the Stonemarch. Many such outpost survived the fall of the empire, but not the Keep: Only two short decades after the empire withdrew its influence from this part of the world, the commander of the garrison – a man by the name of Sir Keegan – began to systematically slaughter every resident of the keep, starting with his own wife and daughter.

“Some versions of the tale say that Sir Keegan succeeded – that everyone in the keep was slaughtered. Many such tales claim that this was a sacrifice to a dark god, and that Sir Keegan now lives in a sickly paradise within another world – a reward for his bloody gift of tribute.

But since there is, in fact, a story to be told, I suspect the other version of the tale is probably true: Sir Keegan was too skilled for any single soldier to defeat, but eventually the remaining garrison rallied an organized defense. Although many brave soldiers died, Sir Keegan was slain before his dark work could be completed. Following Sir Keegan’s death, the keep became notorious and the tales grew in the telling. The surviving guards scattered, and with the empire gone there was no one to put the keep back into service. So it was abandoned, feared for a time, and – eventually – more or less forgotten. At some point during the last century, an earthquake reportedly collapsed the upper towers and walls.

Rumors persist of great treasures buried beneath the keep, yet there are few tales of anyone daring to explore the ruins. A popular tale in the area was that old Sir Keegan’s ghost still roamed the corridors beneath the keep, wailing his grief and rage. But even this tale has faded with time, and the story of the wailing ghost is used to frighten children. Although the keep is still considered bad luck by most people in these parts, it has largely been forgotten.”

OTHER STREETWISE CHECKS

LOOKING FOR SEER (DC 10) — Valthrun the Prescient lives in the tower near the center of town.

ORCUS (DC 15) — Valthrun: “Orcus is the Demon Prince of the Undead. He is known as one of the most powerful demons in the Abyss — powerful enough, in fact, that he has threatened the gods themselves. He is even known in some texts as the Godslayer. He commands legions of followers, living and dead, and cults dedicated to him are terrifyingly widespread throughout the world. If you’re in search of a true expert, however, you should seek out Douven Stahl. He’s visiting Winterhaven from Fallcrest, and he has gone to excavate a crater just south of the city which he believes to be a burial site of a dragon.”

TRAITOR (DC 20) — (This check is only effective after the graveyard interlude.) Bairwin Wildarson saw Ninaran leaving the village about an hour before the first undead attack. The guards remember that, too, and say that Ninaran told them she was going hunting. But Perrien saw her slipping back into the village shortly after the first undead attack.

DRAGON BURIAL SITE (DC 15) —  There’s a large crater to the southeast of the city. A scholar from Fallcrest by the name of Douven Stahl passed through the village about a month ago. He mentioned something about thinking that the crater might be a dragon burial site. He left the village two weeks ago and he hasn’t been heard from since.

Continued…

Go to Part 1

SPOILER WARNING!

The following thoughts contain minor spoilers for Keep on the Shadowfell. If you don’t want to be spoiled, don’t read it. And if you’re in my gaming group then you definitely shouldn’t be reading it.

STARTING THE ADVENTURE

I’m not using the default adventure hooks for Keep on the Shadowfell because I feel they give away too much of the mystery before the adventure even starts. Basically, one of the ways in which I want to enrich this adventure is to give the PCs more freedom and more initiative. And the way to do that is to give them some mysteries to explore and some problem solving. The default adventure hooks, in general, short circuit this process by jumping them either blatantly or directly to the solutions.

Instead I’m using the following set-up and hook for the adventure:

You are known as rune warriors. Each of you was born with a runic birthmark somewhere on your bodies. The runes are believed to be marks of the gods or the fates, and under ancient Imperial Law, it was required that the runeborn be given into the care of the Order of the Rune. The Empire is gone now, but the Order still seeks out the runeborn.

You are members of a balatek. You were raised together, trained together, and prepared against the day when you would journey forth into the world and use your unique gifts and talents to fulfill the Order’s mission.

Historically, the Order’s mission has been to “help the common people”. But since the Empire’s fall, the Order has been forced to find many different patrons throughout the world. (To a large extent, the Order has fragmented just like the remnants of the Empire have fragmented.)

Which is why, as a young balatek, you find yourselves seeking Winterhaven – a tiny village on the edge of civilization. The last heir of a minor noble family has died. The heir’s great-uncle, Sir Caliban, was a knight banished for transgressions of the chivalric code. Mystic divinations indicate that the knight’s son – the current heir of the noble house – lives in Winterhaven.

You traveled more than a thousand leagues, but your journey had only just begun: It took you many months of questioning, in city after city and village after village, before you finally found someone who knew of the village of Winterhaven . They described the village as “lying in the shadow of the Cairngorms”. The ancient and (as you discovered) wildly inaccurate maps the Order had given you indicated that the Cairngorm Peaks lay even further to the west.

Now, at last, you are drawing near to your goal: You are on the King’s Road (although there has been no king in these parts in living memory), traveling west towards Winterhaven.

ARRIVING AT WINTERHAVEN

After using the On the Road: Kobold Brigands ambush to jump-start the adventure, read the following:

You continue down the King’s Road to Winterhaven. After another mile, you see smoke on the horizon. A little while later you round a corner in the road and look down into a clearing: A small farmhouse has been burnt to the ground, its ruins still sending a trail of smoke into the air.

Over the next few miles you see several more isolated farms like this one, all destroyed.

Abruptly you find yourself at the end of the King’s Road: It crosses a north-south road and then runs up a broad hill that holds a walled village that must be Winterhaven. The village is nestled in the southern foothills of the Cairngorm Peaks. The walls are weathered stone topped by defensive palisades.

To the south and the west you can see rolling farmland with small, thatched homes fronting a small pasture or crop. Beyond the farms lie dark woods and, to the north, tall mountain peaks.

LOCAL GEOGRAPHY

I have modified the map found in the adventure so that it can be used as a player handout without spoiling the adventure.

However, there is a problem with this map: According to the module, this village has a population of 977, mostly farmers living in the surrounding area. But where are the farms?

FARMS: There are a couple dozens farms in the area immediately around Winterhaven (primarily to the south and west of the city). However, most of the local farmers are located about five miles southwest of the city.

TRADE: There is a large city (Fallcrest) about a hundred miles distant along the King’s Road to the east and a smaller city (Wintermist) on the banks of Lake Wintermist on the road north out of Winterhaven. As a result, the village is something of a natural nexus for trade — the farms from the south; the fishermen from the north; and the craftsmen from Fallcrest all naturally at the crossroads in Winterhaven.

Continued…

Go to Part 1

If you own the 4th Edition Monster Manual, you can add the following encounter:

• 1 kobold slyblade
• 2 kobold dragonshields
• 6 kobold minions

This is a kobold cansatak — a “war party which hunts vengeance”. They could be dispatched to kill the PCs by Kalarel, Irontooth, or even Issitek (if he finds out the PCs are responsible for wiping out the clan).

Use this encounter when the PCs are resting or traveling. It’s a good way to jack up the energy levels at the table if things are starting to lag. The cansatak could even attack them in the ruins of the keep if you feel that the PCs are getting too complacent in the sections they’ve already cleared out.

TRIGGER: The kobold slyblade tracks the PCs, moving two hundred feet ahead of the rest of the cansatak. When the encounter is triggered, the PCs can make a Perception check (DC 23) to notice the slyblade watching them from 50 feet away. A few moments later, the slyblade slips away and heads back to the rest of the cansatak. (If the PCs attack, the slyblade will turn and run with harsh reptilian cries which are quickly answered by the rest of the cansatak.)

If the PCs don’t notice the slyblade, a few minutes later the entire cansatak attacks: The dragonshields and minions charge in and surround the PCs, engaging them in melee. Once the PCs are fully engaged, the slyblade follows (allowing it to use its sly dodge ability to maximum effectiveness).

Continued…