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dailyadventureprompts · 1 year

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Drafting an Adventure: A death at dawngrace

The rampage of some winged beast has brought you into the service of Syr Volias, an experienced knight errant who has sought you out in hopes of putting an end to its far ranging carnage. It is early spring, and your party follows the thaw up the side of the mountain to an old ruin which surveils the surrounding valley. So far the ruin, and your quarry, remain beyond sight.

A new DM asked me if I could walk them through the creation of an introductory adventure; combining not only a solid first questhook but also incorporating my advice on session zero, party formation, and the fundamentals of dm storytelling. This adventure prompt is the result, serving not only as a tutorial for newer players, but a teaching example for new DMs as well. It can easily be run as a oneshot, used as a launching point for a greater story, or (for those of you who have some adventures under your belt) seeded into an ongoing game as a sidequest. The structure of the adventure is fairly simple, so rather than slathering on extraneous detail I’ll be going in depth about WHY each section of the adventure happens the way it does, and what purpose it serves in turning a group of scattered players into an invested adventuring party.

We begin with the party already gathered and on their way up the side of the mountain, providing everyone (including the DM) with a clear direction for the action. What are we doing? we’re heading towards the ruin, and all we need to worry about at the moment is taking actions that lead us closer to it. Similarly, this adventure provides the players with direction during session zero, as they know vaguely what they’ll be doing on this outing (hunting a beast alongside a knight) and what sort of characters they might be playing: who would sir Volias seek out for aid? What have they done to earn themselves reputation as monster hunters? Why did they say yes? Using these sorts of ideas to guide character creation gives you a cohesive group identity right from the get go without having to bend over backwards to get the party together.

The mountain itself is a series of easy challenges intended to show off the game’s basic mechanics: as well as brief problem solving challenges like: the old bridge is out over this frozen stream, how do we cross? Do we take the high road or the low road, and can we make a survival check to get more information? Throw in some low stakes combat against some woodland critters freshly woken from hibernation and you’ve got yourself a solid tutorial.

Travelling up the mountain also lets you start laying down the emotional foundation of the adventure: Character introductions can be made as in-depth as your group feels comfortable with, rounding off with the reserved but jovial Syr Volias. Wishing to foster a spirit of camaraderie, the knight errant is quick to defer to others in situations where their skills or abilities would take prescience ( and thus giving you as the DM an in-canon method of spotlighting different players). A shadow will be cast over the proceedings when the party finds the remains of a hunter lodged in a tree, a victim of their quarry thoroughly savaged and partially devoured, a prelude to more devastation should they fail. Bonus points if the hunter is someone known by at least one of the partymembers (perhaps providing the backdrop for a character introduction on its own), with EXTRA bonus points if the hunter has a family back in town that the party has to inform. This pulls double duty of giving the party something to care about early, along with a reason to check out the town later on.

Once they reach the overlook, the party is in for a chance of pace: The ruins of Dawngrace were once the towerhome of noble family that ruled the region before the current war, and Syr Volias aims to use them as cover during his ambush of the beast. That of course requires the party to partake in a bit of dungeon delving, which gives you the chance for some structured exploration as they make their way through locked chambers and fight off whatever critters happen to be squatting within. Paint the dungeon as an escape room, a sequence of challenges to be faced to get to the ultimate goal, with a few hidden secrets and bits of treasure for them to discover along the way. If they start to develop a taste for lore, splice in a few hints about the family that used to live here, and the war that pushed them off of their land some two decades ago.

Then comes the night, the party’s first introduction to the long rest mechanics and a refresh of all their capabilities. Use this time to do some more character/roleplay work by asking them how they spend the night, what they’re feeling on the eve of battle. Mention the chance for a couple characters to go hunting and maybe snag some dinner, or pass around a flask. Likewise mention that after his late hour Prayers, Syr Volias removes his helm and starts preparing his gear for the next morning, signalling to the party that this might be a good time to approach him and ask about his whole deal, now that he seems to be less on guard.

The knight errant is happy to talk about his previous adventures and his plans for the coming confrontation , but Making a proper persuasion or insight check ( good to give those social characters something) will reveal their chivalric escort has much more to say. As it turns out, the older warrior was hungry for glory in his youth, and the Kaeriellas, the noble family that plundered the lowland settlements and installed themselves as the new powers of the region. Volias is sparse with the exact details, save that he did many things that he regrets during those bloody years, and has spent the decades since trying to atone. He’ll mention that his shield was gifted to him by an elder of the temple of Pelor, a sign of the new beginning he made on his quest for redemption, and a weighty reminder of the past for which he must atone.

Having fought many a beast of the wing, Volias is prepared for tomorrow: shelter the more vulnerable characters inside the ruin and prepare bait for their target within striking distance. Run ropes between the trees and various pitons to restrict its arial movement, draw it in as the dawnlight crests over the ridge and reflect it back with his sacred shield, potentially blinding it and causing it to crash. The battle will go well enough, but the beast the knight has set to fight is no mere drake as he expected, but a wyvern, which will bring it’s deadly sting to bear on the party… and the valiant knight who will intercede between them and a killing blow.

After the battle is done, it’s time to ham up the death scene: Players often enter a campaign with different levels of investment, and it’s shared experiences (Both good and bad) that help them tune in to eachother and turn a gaggle of friends or random aquaintances playing together into a cohesive adventuring party. Its the clarity of the scene that’ll help sell it: a beautiful dawn lit morning, the chill of the mountain air, and the bitter sting of martyrdom that the party will need to come to terms with as Syr Volias chokes out his last. This knight could have been a mentor to the party, he could have been a friend, and now they have to watch him die as the poison eats him from the inside out. He’ll congratulate them on their victories, offer a few memorable pieces of advice regarding their failings, and tell them to take the beast’s head to his onetime patron to ensure they get their reward.

As one final request, Volias asks them that whatever they decide to do with his body or the rest of his possessions, if they could carry his shield to a particular temple several towns away and return it to the high priestess there, with an apology about not being able to keep his promises. This provides you with one of your first early game quest hooks to not only encourage the party to go out and see your world, but also gives them something precious to protect, something both emotionally charged and mechanically useful that might be stolen or lost if they’re not careful.

You also might have noticed that we’ve been building up an early game antagonist in the form of the Kaeriellas noble family, who seized this region in a war of territorial aggression a generation ago. No great world conquering villains, they exist to give your party someone to resent early game, especially after the heroes jump through several hoops (travel, talking their way into an audience, bringing the head if a wyvern to whatever Kaeriallas cousin serves as local magistrate) only to have their trophy plucked from their hands and their promise of payment revoked. The Magistrate will insit their agreement was with Syr Volias, reward to be delivered when he delivered proof he’d slain the beast, and since Volias is not there to collect, there is no contract to pay out. This is going to drive your players up the wall, but that’s exactly what we want, getting them to dislike the Kaeriellas is not only another strong feeling they have about the world, but is also a stepping stone to getting them to dislike anyone the noble bastards work with in the future, a great way to set up new villains who come into the story as the party adventures and levels up.

I hope this has been useful to you, and if it seems like a lot of prep work for a simple adventure of “ go here and kill this thing” understand that a lot of these steps are me over-explaining a lot of DM storyteller skills that usually become subconscious when mastered.

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