Dungeon: Troglodyte Cave

Okay. Really long post this time, to completely go over the first dungeon that I described in the Session One Outline. Again, this is the first post that I've done about a dungeon, so the formatting is not finalized. Also, the pictures came out a little weird, so I'll try to fix it if they are off-center. No promises though. Pictures this time are credit to...me! I made and painted this dungeon by hand using techniques I learned from watching theDMscraft on YouTube. All of it is made out of cardboard, and I think it came out really well, considering that I have no artistic talent whatsoever.

Theme: Introductory

Type: Cave

Challenges:

•                Combat

•                Skills

•                Traps

Adversaries:

•               Kobolds

•                Troglodytes

•                Ooze

Boss:

•                Large ooze

•                Troglodyte Cleric

Loot:

•                Gold and gems

•                Rudimentary weapons and armor, no value

•                Hidden stashes include small amounts of treasure

Goals:

•                Kill inhabitants of the cave

•                Destroy the ooze

Info:

            This is the first dungeon that my group will be delving into. It's meant as more of an introductory challenge, since they are all very new to the game. As such, I want to gauge their interests by throwing a lot of different things at them in very basic capacities. This dungeon includes a lot of different types of combat - elevation, cover, traps, and special abilities are all at play. There is one spellcaster that acts as a complement to the boss. There is also a skills challenge towards the end of the dungeon.

            Since I don't know what the players are expecting out of the game, this dungeon is built to have a little bit of everything. What they react positively to will occur more frequently in future sessions. If they don't like something, then it will not reappear in other dungeons or encounters.

            The cave has a mix of ranged and melee fighters. Kobolds serve to swarm the PCs in melee but die in one hit. The troglodytes have some small ranged capability but also tend to be melee bruisers. Their stench introduces the party to special abilities of monsters, without it being too terribly punishing.

            The addition of ooze serves to introduce the party to non-standard monster types. Ooze are highly underrated in my opinion, and it will make the party understand that D&D can be a weird place sometimes. The lore here is that the troglodytes are worshipping the ooze as a manifestation of their deity. Whether or not this comes into play further down the line remains to be seen, as it depends greatly on how receptive the players are to it.

Layout:

The dungeon is fairly small. Only a few rooms, and most of them are very basic. Each has one element that is different from the others, to show the party how dungeon tiles can be unique.

Entrance:

The entryway has an elevated platform with one archer on top of it. That archer is difficult to reach, and requires a Climb check for a PC to get up to him. There are also going to be a few kobolds in the room pestering the party, but they should be dispatched quickly.

Side Chamber:

This is adjacent to the entrance and has no other exits. The colored splotches are puddles of ooze, and provide the party with their first encounter of an ooze. It is easily dispatched. There is a hidden stash with a small amount of gold in here.

Corridor:

Just a basic corridor. The brown spaces in here are difficult terrain, which the archers on the other side use to delay the party.

Armory:

This room has a collection of clubs and rough leather that serves as armor. There are two troglodytes in here that are ready for battle. Once the PCs approach, the two of them immediately attack and try to surprise the party as they come for the archers in the corridor.

Prison:

This small room is a prison. The detached piece at the bottom is the actual cell, though it is empty. The red splotches here are meant to be blood, and the PCs can see dead bodies lying in them. Ooze also rises out of other colors and attacks. The purple ooze inside the cell has a human skeleton disintegrating inside of it.

Skills Challenge:

No picture for this one. After the corridor but before the boss, the PCs have a skills challenge. The room is filled with traps, and they have to navigate to the other side. This is a purely free-form challenge, whereupon I will let the players describe the traps and how they avoid them while getting to the other side. If they don’t bite the bait, then I will prompt them and ask how they get across. This can either go very well, or fail spectacularly.

If the PCs succeed, they get into the boss room undetected and get the advantage of a surprise round.

If the PCs fail, the troglodytes are alerted that they have survived up to this point, and the boss room will be more heavily defended.

Boss:

This is the final room. There are troglodytes standing on the altar sacrificing humans into the pit to the oozes. There is one cleric standing in the very center, summoning forth the large ooze that acts as the main boss. There is a large number of kobolds standing inside the room, ready to attack the party. If they managed to succeed at the skills challenge, they can enter the room and have a full round of surprise to attack the disorganized forces. If, however, they failed the skills challenge, then the kobolds will be arranged in a more defensive position to delay the PCs and there is no surprise round.

            The troglodytes sacrificing the humans take time. If the PCs can interrupt the ritual within 3 rounds, the humans are not sacrificed. If they kill a troglodyte about to sacrifice someone, that human escapes and is not present for the rest of the fight. After 3 rounds, the boss ooze emerges from the pit regardless of the interruption. He will have 5 less hit points for each troglodyte interrupted, including the main Cleric who is not sacrificing anyone.

The boss itself is mostly the combination of the cleric and the ooze. The ooze will actually engulf any kobolds on the way towards the party, and engages them in combat. The ooze is still fairly weak, but is a potent melee threat as it divides while attacked. The cleric is a minor spellcaster who casts Bless right at the start of the fight. After that, he has a Masterwork Morningstar and a Masterwork Chain Shirt which the party can loot once he is defeated, assuming he is not eaten by the ooze.

When the dungeon is cleared, there may be survivors. They will obviously be grateful. I would assign a small gold increase to the loot for each person saved, representing their gratitude when the PCs return as triumphant heroes. The loot consists only of gold and gems, as the troglodytes have nothing else of value. Most of their gear is just clubs and ruined leather. 

Session Outline: Session One

So the campaign taking place in Fomor is beginning this week, probably. We're not that great at planning this stuff out. So I made an outline for the first session, just to show my though processes here. I addressed this in the post itself, but I do feel the need to say it up here as well: this session will be somewhat railroaded. Everybody but myself in this game is a newbie, and is not necessarily comfortable with roleplaying yet. So a lot of things that happen are going to be scripted, unless the PCs express interest in straying from the main path. But we've worked it out that at least at the start, they'll go along with what is obviously the plot. Things will open up after the first couple sessions for them to make the game truly their own.


Theme: Introduction
Planned Encounters:

• Each other at Bicka (main city)
• The players need to introduce their characters to each other. This is somewhat railroaded.
• Two of them meet up outside the city. They should then proceed inside.
• The third one is actually an apple merchant that accosts them.
• There are so many ways for this to go wrong. But in this case, most of this is already planned between the players. Hopefully they'll stick to that.
• Some random NPC.
• Barkeep, tavern wench, guardsman, whatever. 
• This is to get the typical "fishing for rumors" or job offers. 
• Really, no matter what they do will have roughly the same outcome.
• The NPC will direct them to speak with the captain of the guard, to look for work. They will be enticed with many shiny gold pieces.
• Captain of the guard
• Mentions the issues plaguing the city
• Bandits, troglodytes, and war.
• Since the PCs are unproven, they'll be sent up to clear troglodytes near the town of Ghet.
• Hints that the troglodytes are "Always finding some random thing to worship. Just go kill it and come back."
• This is mostly a disinterested conversation. The captain is a bland person.
• On the way to Ghet
• Ambush
• Kobolds in trees and jump out on the road.
• Not a difficult fight.
• Ghet
• Takes about a day to get there - provides an opportunity to refresh spells and hp.
• Cave nearby has troglodytes.
• Cave
• First dungeon
• Almost non-stop combat.
• Troglodytes and kobolds mixed together. Mostly kobolds.
• A few oozes are present, just to be weird.
• Skills challenge towards the end.
• Final boss is a large ooze and a spellcaster
• Return to Bicka
• Again, at least one day has passed. 
• The town is under attack. PCs can see smoke rising from a few hours away.
• If we are out of time, I plan to end the session here.
• If we have time, there will be a minor skirmish which ends with them getting inside the city. The session will likely end there.

Info:
This is meant to be more of an introductory session. All of the players are pretty new to RPGs, and I want to ease them into things. The first part of the session will be them mucking about in town, with some railroading towards the plot. The whole troglodyte quest will introduce them to combat and the way Pathfinder works mechanically. Most major elements are covered in the dungeon I have prepared: Melee, ranged, cover, elevation, traps, and magic. The skills challenge is a free-form exercise. I want to let the players get into the narrative. It's a trap-based challenge, and I'll go into it more when I make a post about that dungeon.
I want this session to be more about roleplaying and letting them get into their characters. The characters have never met each other, but they've sent me their backstories. So I also have plot points for each of them planned out. I like to run things in a sort of non-structured way, but with new players I think it's okay to railroad a little bit. Most of my sessions won't have an outline quite like this, but rather a few scenes that I want to happen and then the rest is completely improv. But here, I want to introduce them to the game in a much more controlled fashion. Once they have completed the first few quests, I fully intend the world to open up. There are plenty of places that they can go adventure in once they have outgrown this little city. 

Encounter: Sandstorm

This is another idea I've had for a while that I just kind of like, but I'm not sure that I would ever use. I like when combat includes a random element that affects the environment, but I can see how the dice could make such an encounter completely unwinnable. That in and of itself is not always a bad thing, as the PCs should be challenged with "impossible" situations that they can puzzle their way through. But I think I'd have to refine this a little bit more before I considered it anything more than a half-baked idea I had for such an encounter.


Environment: Desert, Wasteland
Theme: Limited visibility, Difficult terrain

Characteristics:

• Sight range reduced
• Ranged weapons' range reduced
• Movement is in random directions
• Movement is slowed
• Phases of severity

Uses:

• Dramatic confrontation
• Antagonists likely are not impaired
• Hectic battle, where friend and foe are indistinguishable

Info:
Allow me to preface this by saying that sandstorms are also very good skills challenge. However, they're run very similarly to how the forest fire I wrote about earlier is run, so I decided not to just make that same idea happen again. Instead, this is to talk about this kind of disaster during a combat. Mostly this is to make an otherwise straightforward fight very interesting, by manipulating some factors that most fights assume to be givens. If the PCs cannot see their enemy, and can't even control their movement correctly, then a battle can quickly become more involved.
First off, the sandstorm should not be a permanent condition. Rather, it should come and go in phases. If the PCs are caught blind and flat-footed for the entire fight, then it's just flailing about aimlessly in the sand. Instead, every few rounds the sand should blind them completely and cause the PCs to lose their sense of direction. The DM should roll a die to randomly determine when the next wave of sand should come, so the PCs are kept on their toes. This makes it very unpredictable.
The antagonists should all be expecting this kind of sandstorm. Presumably they live in this kind of area, and so are used to the limitations. Perhaps they have trained ground-dwelling desert beasts to ambush the PCs during the fight? Or they have special crossbows designed to fire bolts during a sandstorm, while the PCs only have arrows that get knocked about. At the very least, the enemies should be able to reposition and get into an advantageous position during the sand phases. This provides the PCs with a tactical challenge that may be very difficult to overcome without having planned for such an occurrence.
The goal here is for there to be a large-scale battle in the midst of the storm. The idea that I have in my head right now is for there to be a wall with archers on top, and riders on the ground atop desert-dwelling beasts. The PCs are attempting to assault some sort of fortress, and so have to brave through the arrows while the storm is raging. The melee with the riders would be intense as it is, as most combats are when one group is unmounted and the other is, and the storms only make it that much worse. Should the PCs break through, they enter into a courtyard where they are further surrounded by archers. Only once they battle their way indoors does the storm cease to have any effect. And depending on the type of storm, it could continue to impact the battles; the ceiling caves in and the room begins to fill with sand, sand elementals start attacking the fortress out of the storm, the evil wizard that summoned the storm descends upon the PCs for an impromptu boss battle. The possibilities are endless.

Encounter: Dungeon Crawl

This is possibly the most uninspired and unoriginal post yet. This is a very simple idea, and honestly I considered not even doing it. The problem is that I really don't have a whole lot to say on the topic because it's so bland and straightforward. That all being said, the dungeon crawl skills challenge is so basic for a very good reason. It's a normal thing that most parties should have to do at least once, to get a feel for how a dungeon crawl would work instead of just pure combat. So as much as I like the idea, and really like using it...there's just not a whole lot to say about it as a skills challenge.


Type: Skills Challenge
Theme: Exploration
Goals:

• Delve into the dungeon
• Navigate in and out

Outcomes:

• Succeed: Be able to physically enter the dungeon
• Succeed: Be able to enter and exit
• Failure: Get lost 
• Failure: Potentially be ambushed or captured

Description:
Dark hallways loom around you. The cobbled stone looks exactly the same everywhere you lay your eyes. There is no light to be had, and a dank smell permeates every room.

Applicable Skills:

• Acrobatics (squeeze through tight areas or make difficult tumbles)
• Climb (get up sheer walls and spelunk)
• Disable Device (disable traps)
• Escape Artist (it is easy to get snagged when it's hard to see - and you need to get unsnagged)
• Knowledge (Dungeoneering) (more like Duh-ngeoneering)
• Perception (it's dark and hard to see, more reliant on other senses)
• Survival (it's still a hostile environment with all kinds of natural traps and pitfalls)

Info:
This is the typical dungeon crawl skills challenge. It's one of the basics, but that doesn't mean that the idea doesn't warrant it's own post. A party of PCs is likely to, at one point or another, enter a dungeon. Or a crypt. Or an abandoned mine. One thing that's almost always overlooked is: how did they get there? It's hard to navigate those areas, to go underground and then get back out. Especially if they have twisting passages and obscured entrances.
The main goal of the skills challenge here is to not only get into the dungeon, but back out. This can involve all kinds of dangers based on the type of dungeon. Are there a significant number of traps? Do the PCs have to stealth around the monsters that patrol this area? Do they have to woo the animals that live nearby so they aren't attacked? There are lots of different options that can make this a skills challenge for many different dungeons. The important thing is to flavor it based on what you're looking for.
Example: The party wants to investigate the tomb of an ancient nobleman. First they have to find the underground crypt, and then navigate to the exact tomb they're looking for. Even once they get there, they have to get it open, get in, and find the chamber they need. Depending on how well they do, the PCs might get the jump on the enemy. Or they may avoid the monsters entirely. Or, if they fail, the monsters track them and attack before they're even ready.

Encounter: Bridges

I like making fights interesting by making them take place in odd spots. Fighting on a bridge is one of those things that seems so very mundane, but can have so many interesting consequences. Credit for the image to Reddit user TopdeBotton.


Environment: Forests, Rivers
Theme: Restricted movement, Dangerous boundaries

Characteristics:

• Narrow path to the other side
• Easily blocked off
• Edges are open, people can be knocked off into the water
• Bodies pile up

Uses:

• Choke point for a critical area
• Many mooks block off the bridge, preventing passage
• Aquatic monsters jump on and off the sides

Info:
Fighting on a bridge isn't the same as having an open area, or even a corridor of a dungeon. Falling off is a very real possibility, and potentially a lethal one if the bridge is up high enough. In other cases, falling off would slow someone down immensely, allowing them to be shot with arrows or gutted with spears. 
The main problem with fighting on a bridge is how narrow it is. Like a dungeon corridor, it's easy for one or two monsters to completely block it off, forcing a party to engage in combat. That combat is going to be different from a more open area, and even different from a dungeon. In a dungeon, monsters in the next room are blocked by a wall. With a bridge, that is not the case. Ranged attacks from the other side onto the party are still an option, and the PCs don't have too much they can do about it. There will be a melee combat occurring where the two sides meet somewhere on the bridge, and the PCs will have to consider whether or not they even want to risk shooting bows and spells into it.
Aquatic monsters can add another level of intensity to the fight. If tentacles writhe beneath the party and begin attacking while they're stuck on the bridge, they will be forced to use unusual tactics to survive. If other monsters leap up out of the water and engage in melee combat on the edges of the bridge, only to then jump back in and reappear the next round, then the combat becomes that much more hectic. Non-aquatic monsters may still hang out underneath the bridge, and should be focused on ways to grapple people and drag them off the side.

NPC: The Vendor

This post is inspired partially by Diablo 3, and its Treasure Goblins. I like the idea of an NPC that's not necessarily helpful nor antagonistic, but is purely out for its own interests. While that may describe most NPCs at first, it's sometimes very hard to actually roleplay, since PCs like to rationalize their way out of anything. But this NPC has only one thing that it's after, and that motivation drives its every action, vastly simplifying the way you actually play it out. Credit for the image to Shreya Shetty.

Name: The Vendor
Race: Demon
Alignment: Lawful Evil

Appearance:
The creature is bloated and massive. It has thick grey skin with countless folds, leading up to a face that resembles a furry spider. It has arms protruding out of it's sides, each with long slender claws or tentacles grasping at various items and coin.

Profile:
The Vendor is a demon that resembles Greed. It has an unquenchable thirst for wealth, and the procurement of valuable items. It is almost immobile, but has powerful magic alongside a slew of magical items that make it fearsome in combat. It mostly acquires wealth by making heavily lopsided deals with mortals. Whenever it finds a mortal with sufficient wealth to catch its interest, The Vendor will manifest to them and attempt to broker a deal. These deals almost always favor The Vendor. It is also open to trade, so long as the potential buyers have something that it deems valuable.
The Vendor has servants that go out and actively search for wealth. These creatures range from lesser demons to mortals, with no consistency between them. Their minds have been corrupted by greed, and The Vendor uses them to go where it can not go easily. Unlike most demon lords, The Vendor can pass into other planes relatively easily. It calls on the greed in every mortal's soul to bring itself forth, and is oftentimes intentionally summoned when a foolish mortal or fey lord wants to purchase something incredibly rare.
The Vendor has existed for thousands of years, acquiring numerous artifacts and magical items in addition to it's endless store of gold and jewels. It also has currency in every conceivable form, from hard coin to promissory notes, from seashells to barter goods. Every civilization with any form of currency has had at least some dealings with The Vendor -- that much it has made sure of. 
The intention for this NPC is to be an inevitable encounter to the PCs. At some point or another, they will be involved with a quest that requires something incredibly rare or even unique. The Vendor will of course have what they need, but will also have a price. It deals both with physical and spiritual currency, and may make several different demands of each member of the party. One may owe The Vendor a favor, one may owe The Vendor their soul upon death to become one of it's wealth-seekers, or even just hard cash should they have it. The Vendor is, while intelligent, very predictable. It has ha

d almost an eternity to know how to swindle mortals, but it will always pursue wealth. If the PCs can offer it something that it could never get anywhere else, its own greed would make it immediately want to pursue that deal.
The Vendor doesn't like combat. Even if it is attacked, the demon will likely just pull itself back into the ground and shift to another plane to conduct further business. If it is absolutely forced to fight, it is an immobile creature. It has many limbs, though most are underground. It has dozens if not hundreds of combat-applicable magic items, so it has virtually any options on the table. Mostly it only wants the wealth of its attackers, and so may only paralyze and rob them. It prefers not to do this when a deal is possible, but The Vendor has been known to do such things in the past.

Quotes:

• "And what do you have to offer?"
• "Your greed…it calls to me….we are not so different."
• Slobbers and fondles gold pieces whenever it receives them.

Location: Monument Valley

Shoot. So I realized yesterday that I completely forgot to update on Tuesday...and them promptly also forgot yesterday. I am kicking myself so hard, so I decided to get these posts up first thing in the morning. I do apologize for this. This post is more of a specific idea I had for an adventure revolving around this area, though it can be modified in any number of ways. I'm still experimenting with how exactly I want to make the posts here. Credit for the image to Reddit user Errorless Gnome.


                                                                     Description:
Three mountains rise from an otherwise flat plain, each having a gigantic altar carved into the top of it. The stone looks worn and ancient. The slopes are steep and treacherous, but you're not sure if these were ever meant for someone of your own size.

Associated Knowledges:
History:

• These monuments have been here since the earliest humans came to settle.
• You have heard that titans used to come here.
• Long ago, titans and giants would hold their moots in this valley.

Geography:

• These plains are massive and flat.
• Mountains are unusual around here.
• The "mountains" are artificial, not formed through natural means.

Info:
The mountains in Monument Valley were formed a long time ago by titans and giants. The altars are shrines to the ancient Titans, whom they revere as deities. The valley between the mountains was used to hold their moots. For the last several hundred years, these creatures have not been been there, as there have not been any moot-worthy events to happen. Humans have set up a small town between the mountains, in the center of the valley in the meantime, completely oblivious to the place's purpose.
The obvious intent here is that the Titans and giants all return suddenly and begin terrorizing the humans that are desecrating their sacred place. The reasons for their sudden moot can vary depending on what has happened in the campaign. Ideas I have so far:

• Celestial alignment. Titans and giants live for a long time, it could be several centuries before the stars are right.
• A great beast was slain. Perhaps even the party was involved.
• A new king must be chosen.

All of these can have different ramifications for the PCs, should they choose to intervene. However, they should all at some point have the party need to scale at least one of the great mountain-shrines. These are supposed to be fairly standard dungeon-crawl areas, only with a gentle crawl to the top rather than the bottom. This can be done either to appease the Titans of old during the moot (and thus make the giants like the PCs) or to further desecrate the holy ground to antagonize the giants away from attacking the town. 
Getting the giants to stop killing people should be the priority, and there are a number of ways to go about it.

• Confrontation. The PCs can attempt to slay all of the attackers, though this will be very difficult.
• Persuasion. The giants may be convinced that the townspeople should be allowed to simply leave, provided the PCs are capable of doing so.
• Appeasement. If the PCs help the giants perform their moot by ascending the shrines, the town may become an actual addition to the valley and, therefore, be sacred along with everything else.

Should the PCs choose to attack the giants, they'll soon see that they are heavily outmatched. Scaling the shrines would attract attention and, potentially, make the whole valley become desecrated by their actions. This could cause the giants to leave out of shame that they were unable to defend it, provided that the PCs choose to spin it that way. There are, as always, an infinite number of options and it is impossible to plan for them all.

Meta: Recurring Villains

Another meta post for today. This time on recurring villains! I like the idea of recurring villains, but all too often they seem very contrived in games. This is just a write-up of how I think they should and should not be done, and to what ends they should be used. 

Recurring villains are something that's pretty difficult to have in D&D games. The party expects to kill any boss, and the way the dice fall can completely mess up any plans that a DM lays. You should never script that an NPC escapes from the party, at least not without giving them the chance to intercept and cut them down. So it's very disheartening to have a big bad guy and expect them to return, only to have them die in the first round to a lucky crit. You spend all this time developing rich backstories and interesting campaign arcs with adventure hooks, and then it's all cut short before any of it has the chance to get off the ground. 
The important thing to remember is that sometimes it's okay to make the arbitrary decision to just not let an NPC die. You can have them resurrected, you can have them use a one-time magical ability that you just invented, on the fly you can adjust their hit points to survive long enough to enact their evil plan. The trick is to not overdo it and make your players feel like they aren't accomplishing anything because the bad guys are always getting away.
So first what I want to talk about is: what kinds of villains should be recurring, and which ones should die without any big entrance? In my opinion, recurring villains should be like Bowser. You fight them multiple times, and each time they add new mechanics. They have the same basic theme, like fire or undead or whatever. But they gain new spells and abilities each time the players fight them. That adds a new level of knowing roughly what they're getting into, but the players always know that something may surprise them.

Villains with a good reason to recur:

• They contribute to the plot of the characters
• They can be woven into the backstories, or have been encountered during play
• They should have a personal reason to antagonize the party
• They have the means and determination to have plans to ruin the party
• A campaign-driving villain
• The elder being from the depths, the agent of chaos, the lord over all undead. For lack of a better term, the Big Bad Evil Guy.
• They should start out stronger than the players. This gives a way to realistically have them not be defeated when first encountered.
• They have big plans. Most times they won't even be encountered. Their lackeys can die easily while the plan still follows through.

Villains with a bad reason to recur:

• Your personal favorite
• I know that I have some really cool concepts that I would love the party to deal with forever and ever. But that gets really boring, really fast. If they don't contribute anything other than scratching an itch for you, it's not worth it.
• NPC favoritism is toxic. If you make the whole story about your favorite NPC (which I know I at least am guilty of) then the whole thing suffers. If the players aren't interested, move on.
• A minor villain
• Most minor villains are minor for a reason. Let them have their fight and die, and then move on.
• Sometimes it might make sense. They may swear a vendetta against the party, but let it wait for a long long time before they resurface.

Good ways for villains to recur:

• The PCs are actively fighting against them
• This means that the villain is orchestrating some evil plan which the PCs are thwarting at every turn.
• This gives the villain a plot-fulfilling reason to exist, and enough wiggle-room for them to recur.
• They are intelligent and plan for every outcome
• This one's a little more tricky. You don't want to fall into the trap of making up reasons for them to survive, but if a villain is reasonably intelligent and powerful, they should have some fallback plans. 
• If the villain is aware of the party's intentions, they can obviously prepare for an inevitable showdown, and plot their hasty retreat.
• A wizard did it, with context
• If an evil sorcerer is slain and comes back later as an evil lich, that makes sense. If an evil dragon becomes a Dracolich, that makes sense. If a fallen Paladin returns as a Blackguard, that makes sense.
• Magical reasons for reanimation and a fall towards evil are perfectly okay as long as it fits the plot of that villain, and is rare.

Bad ways for villains to recur:

• "You never searched for the body!"
• This is awful. If the PCs kill someone that you liked, don't just bring them back with no good reason.
• This sets the precedent that nothing the PCs do is final, and out of their control. Bad.
• A wizard did it, without context.
• There's a reason that "A wizard did it" has such a negative air about it.
• Again, inventing random magical reasons is almost never a good idea.

Meta: Boss Fights

So I completely forgot to update on Friday. That is totally my bad, and I apologize. So instead of making a boss fight for The Black Forest, I instead decided to just write up my thoughts on making boss fights and how they should be done. I like this approach better, because it allows me to break down and think about how to make a boss fight quickly while accomplishing what I want.


Boss fights are supposed to be interesting. They're the final exam for an adventure, and should encapsulate everything leading up to that point. The fight should be interesting, memorable, and dangerous. I'm a huge fan of using terrain and unique powers to make the fights interesting. The biggest thing to remember is that the purpose of a boss fight is to make the players feel like heroes, and that can't happen if they don't do something genuinely heroic. So the elements I always try to include:

• Terrain
• Difficult terrain limits mobility of PCs
• Different terrain types can hide specific monsters. Pools of water concealing aquatic ambushers, for instance.
• Natural fortifications to provide an advantage for the boss and its minions. 
• Boundaries
• Is there just a wall containing the PCs and the boss?
• Different areas may have different boundaries. Gouts of flame, shield golems, etc.
• Mostly for indoor fights with an arena of some sort, but outside areas may still have some sort of boundary to contain the fight.
• Traps
• Most bosses may anticipate a fight, and will prepare accordingly
• Pots of boiling oil, fire traps, nets with tripwire, anything.
• Collapsible terrain for makeshift fortifications\

These change dramatically based on what the fight is supposed to be. Most adventures I plan scale up towards the end boss. Different monster types and traps will be present at different points, and all should be present at the boss fight. Monsters as bodyguards, traps there as elements in the battlefield, and all of the thematic elements of the adventure. 

The boss itself can have completely different mechanics. A bandit leader might be focused on slashing away with swords while his lackeys fire with crossbows. A mind flayer would use magical artillery to blast the party while his brainwashed minions swarm over them. An evil druid might command plants to entangle the party and shapeshift into different forms to cover different tactical situations. But there are still some themes that most fights should fall under.

• Straight Confrontation
• The PCs kick down the door and charge.
• Based entirely on combat.
• Usually in an enclosed arena, and all mechanics are just for combat purposes
• Countdown
• The boss is protecting a time-sensitive event.
• e.g. a portal to a demonic plane that needs time to open.
• Most mechanics are focused on delaying the PCs instead of outright killing them.
• Chase
• The boss wants to escape the PCs, or for someone important to escape the PCs
• This is similar to the Countdown in that the focus is on delaying the PCs
• More about misdirection and decoys

There is a difference between magical and mundane boss fights. To cite earlier examples, a bandit camp would have a mundane boss fight and the mind flayer would be a magical boss fight. While the magical ones may have more immediately interesting effects, mundane fights are more open to actual tactics. Magical boss fights tend to involve a singular master and their minions, while the mundane bosses are usually large and capable of combat themselves. Their minions would be more competent than just dominated creatures or magical constructs that blindly follow orders.
The main point that I want to make about a mundane boss fight is that the boss should be more than just a monster with more hit points and does more damage. They should be noticeably different in combat. If the bandit leader has a spiked chain while all the other ones have crossbows and daggers, the party will have to watch out for the new type of fight. They should have different powers to the ordinary mooks, beyond just being "better." 

I'll add more about changing the dynamic of the fight another day. But I'll give a few examples of ways to spice things up beyond my other guidelines for boss fights: 

• Aerial fight on the backs of giant eagles.
• Mine carts racing down to the depths of a mountain.
• Atop a rickety wooden bridge hanging above an active volcano.
• A torrential downpour limiting visibility and making the terrain unstable.

…and more to come!

Encounter: Infected Mushrooms

I had a completely different idea for what to post today, but I couldn't pass up this image. It was just too perfect for The Black Forest. The image is from an album cover for Infected Mushrooms, but it was made into a wallpaper by Reddit user binjinpurj. 

Name: Infected Mushrooms

Environment: Magical Forests

Type: Plant

Description:

The mushrooms vary in size from smaller than your finger to the size of a small house. They all have pulsing fibers and a wooden texture. They also have large, dead eyes and a gaping mouth in a permanent image of rage and bloodlust.

Characteristics:

• Stationary
• Aggressive
• Melee
• Reach
• Spores
• Aura of Fear

Tactics:

• Lie in wait for an ambush
• Use spores to disable enemies
• Fibers are tentacles that can grasp

Info:

The Infected Mushrooms are stationary trap-creatures. They sit still waiting for prey to come near, and then attack with spores. Once the enemy is disabled, they are grabbed by the mushroom's tendrils and eaten. If the prey manages to avoid being disabled, the mushrooms still continue to attack. They are inherently evil and driven to violence. 

The mushrooms are very patient, but sometimes have a hard time hiding. Their giant and terrifying face gives them away very readily. In dark places, they can sometimes go unnoticed until it is too late. They tend to grow in large groups, so any combat would involve several different spores and attacks. They do wait until their prey is too far into their group before attacking, unless they are detected. 

The goal here is to have avoidable but deadly encounters. The mushrooms are easy to sneak around, as their faces are only on one side. They are also stationary, though their tendrils can have impressive reach. Stealth and awareness would be rewarded, as they could be avoided entirely after one or two chance confrontations. They would also be present at larger fights, namely the final boss. The idea I have is that the mushrooms would make up the ring of the arena, and would attack anyone who strayed too far from the fight. That would introduce an element of restriction and danger, as well as having different areas affected by the different spores.

Adventure Outline: The Black Forest

Another post for The Black Forest. So this is another new type of post that is also my method to actually creating an adventure. I list out the important themes and dangers of the area, and then plan out the possible encounters. Normally I start out with simple encounters to introduce the players to the area, and then ramp up towards more complex and difficult ones. In this case there were two main elements that I wanted to include - the traps and the monsters. So it starts out very basic, and then becomes more difficult as they start working together. It also ends in a boss fight that has all of the elements of the adventure, plus a difficult boss to deal with. I like these outlines because it gives me an idea of exactly what I need to prepare, and a general philosophy on how to approach each encounter. This is another short post as it is just an outline.


Theme: Exploration, Extermination
Dangers:

• Trap flowers and plants with various magical effects
• Mutated monsters rampaging about
• Undead creatures wandering aimlessly
• Antagonist that created the corruption

Encounters:

• Shambling undead on the outskirts of the forest.
• Basic combat encounter. No coordination among enemies.
• RP-wise, this is more of an alert that the PCs are in the right area.
• Areas where many different flowers are concentrated.
• An intro to the traps. 
• Many different flowers should be in the same area, to introduce them all.
• I imagine this as being a skills challenge.
• More dangerous monsters.
• Swamp creatures and animated plants.
• Deeper into the forest, the mindless undead are probably all dead, killed by more dangerous things.
• At this point, different tactics are in play - the creatures either charge forward, or are dangerous ambushers.
• Stealth should be encouraged.
• Monsters and traps.
• This introduces more complex combat encounters, with the possibility of stealth.
• The encounters here can vary wildly, and should based on what the party is capable of
• Boss fight
• The Black Forest should end with a large combat involving the creature who corrupted the forest to begin with. 
• Heavy use of flower-traps, and they should be empowered versions of the normal ones.
• Monsters should be used as guards.
• The boss is a powerful spellcaster, and has an underground lair to use as an arena.