CoD 1: Session 11: First Cave Dive (and dungeon creation)
Pre-scene Notes
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Scene setup/conflict:
The initial scene was supposed to be going for the party’s first cave dive, but…
Interrupted scene: Celebrate Adversities. I was tempted to just move last scene’s paragraph with Helena here, as it was celebrating the adversities she had in the navy to now get this opportunity, but then I remembered the unfortunate bald cripple at the Cliff’s Edge, and think it may be good to roll him into explaining more about the Cave’s features.
Scene:
“You look like you still didn’t get much good sleep despite our generous sleeping arrangements. I doubt that tavern called the Cliff’s Edge could afford much better, so you’d better get used to it.” Yankovic quipped to Zar as the party of three left Rose Garden for the Towns Square. Only some servants were with them to serve them breakfast, Elodia, Langonst and Helena all having left for the day. The party left quickly without wanting to overstay their welcome, and dropped by both the Trades House and Governor’s Office to see if there were any Cave-related missions. Both still only had continued interest in finding any cute fluffy creatures for now. As the party were to leave the Governor’s Office, they met some familiar faces.
Portrait from Fantasy Pics Inc on Pinterest
The bald adventurer dragged screaming into the tavern yesterday was accompanied by the man with the slightly grey skin that the party believed to be Osran’s second or assistant. In actual fact, the man approached the party, as he was both, and also the temporary guard captain as well. He introduced himself as Voldan Rudd and just wanted to ask a bit more about Stella, the missing Blue Horizon passenger. The Governor wanted to at least get one person himself from the incident as Rose had the remaining crew already.
No one rolled well enough to know why Voldan had slightly grey skin, and it did not look like he was someone that would be happy if asked the question out of the blue.
After asking about Stella, the party asked about the bald ex-adventurer on a crutch next to him. Voldan was just bringing Baldie to start work at the Governor’s office as an official’s aide. Baldie said although this was the end of his life as an adventurer, there was nothing left for him on the continent, and he would not have the gold to get his limbs grown back by a high class cleric anyway. The Governor got some of his paladins from the guards to get Baldie as healed up as possible, and after finding out Baldie was pretty good at maths and grown up in a merchant family, offered him a job that he could do without a leg. The two then entered the Governor’s Office, leaving the party to their business.
Filli commented maybe the Governor was not a bad person after all, and Yankovic also commented a good commander was one who could infinitely amplify one’s merits while minimising their penalties. Zar just commented the Governor did not want to lose manpower.
Baldie came back out from the Governor’s Office much to the party’s surprise as they were discussing him. Whether he heard it or not, he reached into his bag and pulled out what appeared to be a token with a spider on it. He said although the rules and mechanics were still under research, if a party were to enter the Cave holding onto some items from another plane, they might be able to revisit the plane the item originated from. There were no guarantees of course, as the likelihood was under research, but holding the token at least had a more than zero chance.
Baldie asked the party if they did happen into the plane that he had lost his leg, please retrieve a memento that he had left there. The party asked what it was and Baldie simply said it was a wedding ring. A very simple iron band, likely taken by one of the cultists. In exchange, Baldie did not have money, but could tell the party all he knew about that dungeon.
I didn’t even roll for this, as the party with Filli in it will take the request. But as a GM, other parties may not take a mission without rewards. I would tell them honestly there were no rewards, as it was just a way for me to show there was a chance of revisiting planes. If they do take it, their only reward would be info about the next dungeon.
The party agreed and Baldie explained the plane his adventuring party ventured into last time. The party already knew one could only return from a Cave dive by completing or failing to achieve whatever objective pre-determined when they first entered the Cave. Baldie’s objective and the plane he entered was very simple: Go through the dungeon and stop a cult’s attempt to summon their master to their plane. The injured knight at the entrance could tell them more, but the dungeon was infested with spiders and patrolling cultists. He told the party not to touch the water there, and they needed to destroy the spider nests as otherwise they would be overran with them. He also said their group never made it to the final room where the cultists held their ceremony, as Baldie lost his leg during one of his fights with spiders after falling into a pit, his other party members used a valuable artefact to warp them back to this plane. Baldie thanked the party, handed them the spider token, and went back to start his new job as an Official’s Aide.
The party reassured themselves they had no more preparations they could make and marched into the fog within the Cave of Dreams.
Scene close-out:
- Chaos factor remain at 4 as it was so short and really to resolve the interrupt scene.
- + party thread: Find Baldie’s wedding ring
Post-scene Notes
As this was a very short scene, I have included below my experience of dungeon preparation and creation for this first Cave dive. Spoiler alert in a way, but I’d thought explaining how I came up with the idea would be useful for those interested.
Although not the first battle, this is the first dudgeon and I had always had in mind I would just google image a nice looking map, which I did. I had basically no requirements despite needing a cultist theme, as rituals can be anywhere, but the grid alignment on Roll20 prevented a few initial ones, and settled for this map in the end:
Here are the steps I had followed:
1. Put a PC token down after grid alignment to assess size of the map isn’t ridiculously large/small.
2. Identify entrance (clear marked on map already) and exit. Ther are some waterways away I may use, but otherwise the ‘exit’ is the ‘final room’, which I’d need to find a place for it. Considering the bottom left area seems to denote so in the map already, with its paths+surrounded waterways, I considered the head cultist ceremony will be there.
Cultist Head portrait from prodigyduck.
3. Spot features/zones that may align with the party’s strengths/weaknesses. For example: cultist theme= humanoid enemies = chance for disguise/stealth; the many elevation changes means the climbing gear Zar brought can come in handy; narrow corridors has combat tactic advantages for either sides. There isn’t any uses for Filli’s Tools, but the recesses and water features on the map means I may be able to insert a water wheel / contraption for smart use of tools etc.
4. This map does not have too many defining features or zoning, mainly: water traps, rivers, ditches. Thinking how to use these features for traps/story points, I’m thinking scenarios for party to get pushed/trapped down a hole (miniboss/treasure), the water is actually acid etc.
5. Think enemies. As the theme is cultist ceremony, cultists are the grunts. Just so happens the head cultist portrait is spider-y, spiders may also appear in the cave setting. Possibly a spider mini boss or spider nests. I had randomly just copy and pasted x number of spiders and cultists for patrol, littered them about the map. I start with generic monsters and add some twists to add/decrease difficulty, eg the cultist grunt now has Ray of Frost, but I lowered their stats a bit than normal cultists.
6. Think bosses. Eg the cultist head must have a thematic spell or two, and the idea came for me to also put in a ‘oh no’ condition. If the summon ritual is completed, the cultist head gets stronger. It may not trigger, but the idea is there. The spider king I think its trigger condition I may think about instead of just fudging stats.
7. Think challenge and reward. For each enemy/trap, thinking about what does the party gain. Not just loot, but map shortcuts/quest info/or even character motivations. Where should rest points be? Mythic may help here during play through, but at this point, I can just annotate with a token to reduce pre-session planning.
8. Rounding all this together, with spiders being easy and time for going up and down the terrain, and the cultist performing a summon ceremony, this has to be a sort of time challenge. I’d initially thought about just doing the whole dungeon in initiatives, but I think that’s excessive bookkeep so to simplify, I’ll assume x minutes dependent on party decisions at each room (Eg a short rest is obviously 1hour, but maybe climbing out of a pit is 30mins, or collecting a mushroom is 10mins)
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