Take 2!

Take 2!

Take 2!

This is an adventure location that +Michael Prescott and I put together as the first installment of a four part seasonal adventure series.  He did most of the heavy lifting!

It’s an arctic observatory, built by the Vinteralf, that was destroyed by a dragon.  A Vinteralf expedition sent to reclaim it disappeared.  What waits for YOU in the Stellarium of the Vinteralf?

System agnostic, you can easily plug this in to any game you’re running – Pathfinder, DnD, Dungeon World, Torchbearer…

Comments and criticism welcome!

http://blog.trilemma.com/2014/01/stellarium-of-vinteralf.html

17 thoughts on “Take 2!”

  3. Were you thinking of sample fronts for this location, or moves? It might be nice to get a “variant second page” of those (and monster write-ups) for Dungeon World, Torchbearer, even Fate.

  4. Yeah, actually, I’m working on some DW ones right now instead of doing real work =)  I’ve got some custom moves and monsters already statted up.  I imagine Michael Prescott or one of our group might do the same for Torchbearer, but as much as I like Fate, none of us have much experience with it.

  5. For Torchbearer, I figured I’d use Gnoll stats for the Vinteralf, and Black Dragon stats for the Wyrm. But, in terms of dungeoneering logistics, I actually don’t get much more detailed than this when I plan for Torchbearer. I prefer to think of the dungeon on its own terms and then look up obstacles in the rulebook as the players decide on a course of action.

  8. I’ll have a chance to run this in a local Con this weekend. Any chance you guys could release the art? Would make a great handout without revealing anything of the adventure; I kind of want to surprise people with the reflectors!

  12. I realize I owe you an after-action report.

    The party approached the site with caution. They decided to enter via the carved passage as opposed to the cave opening beneath. In the first chamber, I described the heck out of the “alien” design, since Vinteralf are described as strange and aloof from other races. The party then went north, found some valuables, and then sent the rogue up to investigate the ruined Hall of the Orrery. He was cautious (because of my description of the ruination around him) and drank a potion of invisibility. He didn’t end up waking Jokun, but he didn’t see her because I had her sleeping in the cracked-open central globe. Then he went up and actually looked into the globe, and I rolled the wyrm awakening; the rogue saw nothing, and then suddenly a single gigantic eye opening. The rogue successfully got the heck out of dodge, because even though the wyrm had heard him. she didn’t see him – she was unable to find what had awoken her and decided to hunt around.

     

    The party opted not to wait for her to go back to sleep, and went to the Meditation Chamber then the Stores. They then went back and discovered the still bodies of Thavir and his men (I added a PC, a latecomer to the session – he was a dragonborn barbarian, who I ruled Thavir had hired as a guide) in Last Stand. When the NPCs awoke, the party played along with Thavir and “joined forces” for the moment. They went next to the Forge Room, and there was the big fight people had been expecting from the first room. They managed to beat the denizens (barely) and find Gugnir, and then we ran out of time.

     

    The players had a blast. This was their introduction to D&D Next, and they were pleased with how much faster the fights were than under 4E; they are 13th Age fans, and said they expect to eventually play both regularly. When I run this scenario in the future, I think I’ll need to add more encounters in the other rooms for more combat-heavy groups; that was the only thing they expressed any ideas about.

  13. Thanks so much for the feedback!  We’re working on some stuff behind the scenes, and will definitely take the suggestion of more encounters for fighty folks under advisement!

  15. Thanks, Roland Volz, that’s great.  D&D is definitely more combat-hungry than Torchbearer or BW, and those games have been influencing my thinking a lot with these adventures.  As Michael Atlin says, we’ll definitely bear that in mind.  In the meantime, Midden and Sorg should have plenty to keep your swords a-choppin’!

  16. Hey, I wasn’t saying there need to be more fights? That was more a reminder for me. The one-pager you put together is fine; any GM who can’t adjust on the fly needs more practice. My problem was I hadn’t had enough time to prep for that particular group.

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