My players retreated from a hive full of wasp-men and are now seeking out a dwarven steading in hopes of finding smoke-generating machinery. By Thursday, I need to figure out what the hell they’re going to find…Whee!
My players retreated from a hive full of wasp-men and are now seeking out a dwarven steading in hopes of finding…
My players retreated from a hive full of wasp-men and are now seeking out a dwarven steading in hopes of finding…
Communist Dwarves of course!
The dwarves are under seige from an underground lake species of fish-men and they need help getting rid of their fishy foes before they can spare the resources for the smoke machine. That’s what I’d do.
The dwarf machinery generates smoke, but only as a byproduct of its primary ore crushing function.
Now the PCs are getting in between dwarves and a source of gold…
You peer down into the crater of the stratovolcano. Just inside the crater, which dips inward at about a 30 degree slant, the ground is several feet deep in loose silt and rubble. Another fifty feet in it drops off almost vertically, the edges almost polished with a dark, forbodeing obsidian sheen. From here on the lip you can’t see the bottom, although you can see easily half a mile down. You could just shoot an arrow across the gap the crater makes. Down below, distantly, you can hear the pinging of steel hammers on steel anvils. What do you do?
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Later :
“Sure, we’ve got one of those. Goblins made it, tried to smoke us out of our Mountain Home. We took it after we killed’em and fixed up all the katawhompy twist-ups they built into it. Why, by the seven shades of silver, would we give YOU a weapon designed to kill US?
What, you going to clear out the Damned Tunnels we had to seal five generations ago so we can air the place out if you did turn it on us? Well, give it a shot by-drow. Older demons are pretty tough, but demons probably do die eventually, and they’ve been in there a’while.”
Things are very tenuous as well intention-ed politicians from the Wasp Tribe and the Dwarves are close to a peace treaty. The peaceful minded members on both sides are not happy about the murder hobo adventurers disrupting things. Vengeance seeking members on both sides are more than happy to manipulate the murder hobos to do their dirty work for them and disrupt the peace talks.
No need for YOU to figure things out. Just think of good questions to ask your players:
What can you do to earn the Dwarves’ trust?
What does the smoke machine use for fuel?
Why is it difficult to obtain?
Why are the Dwarves wary of strangers?
Who are the Wasp Tribe at war with?
etc…
Eric has a great point! And better questions.