The party made friends with a cyclops named Alekos (who can only count to six). They asked him many questions about the numbers of things to which he answered "probably about six, maybe." They met Hox Longfeather, and his main crew. Hox is open to allying with them against Zal Esarus, but needs them to prove themselves (less to him and more to his underlings).

Hatching A Plan

Hox wants to fly. To that end he's going to ask the party to retrieve a Wyvern's egg(s) from a nearby clutch. He's also sending Quesh and Krebz to collect more eggs. That way he gets a powerful tool (skyborne goblin light cavalry) and the party can prove themselves worthy.

Once they find the entrance of the Wyvern's lair, if they wait an hour or so, they'll see one of the parents leave which will give them a better chance, otherwise there will be both in the lair, which would be a bad encounter.

As they get back, the party will find the camp attacked by bounty hunters, if they help the goblins, it will ingratiate themselves even more to the goblins.

Assuming their success, there will be a feast and ritual where one of them (their "chief") will become Hox's brother/sister and a goblin under their customs.

A Bit of Background

The party recently was assaulted by a group of bounty hunters. They found a "bingo book" which listed each of them as well as several other individuals/groups wanted by a familiar name: Zal Esarus (Big Bad Evil Guy). Here's the list:

• Silas Gorian [500/1000] Pale, long dark hair. Tall man with a powerful build, likely in the southern Duskwood. Known to have escaped Dentura Morbum. Vampire likely.
• Barlow Hatcha [500/750] A Swarthy man with dark blond hair, he wears a thick mustache, red armor with an emerald plume. He carries a flaming sword and rides under the device of a Rooster.
• Mirek Golovin: [500/750] An undead knight, made by the secrets of the acolytes of the god of Death. It has a doubled arm and Flamberge. It is accompanied by a gray-eyed woman and devil-skin with long horns.. Last seen at the Temple Ruin near Jagged Edge Hideaway.
• Axius Astramind [1000/1500] Powerful mage, his mark is fire, most of his left side is charred from long service. White-blonde hair, shorter build. Whereabouts unkown.
• Magnus the Red [500/750] Red Dragon Knight, short for the knights but wide. Prefers glaives and polearms. Whereabouts unknown.
• Georg Alhund: [alive only 2000] Young boy, likely tall for his age. Keeps a thick gold signet ring of a hound grappling a dragon. Likely accompanied by Magnus the Red. Whereabouts unkown.
• Any Quick-Tooth Goblin Deserters: [dead only 20]
• Hox Longfeather [50/75]: Goblin sniper, leading the last of the Quicktooth Goblins that rebelled against Esarus after the fall of Queen Bargnot. Last seen in the northern duskwood, near the Ghostcliffs.
• The “Face Eater”: [alive only 200] Three toed beast. Likely undead, ambush predator. Its hunting grounds are believed to be north of Nighshade Clearing.
• Armored Blond Man: [100/150] taller than average, scar near his eye. Wears the sign of a flower over breastplate. Last seen at the Temple Ruin near Jagged Edge Hideaway.
• Tan, Redheaded magician: [100/150] average height. Carries a deck of cards. Green eyes. Last seen at the Temple Ruin near Jagged Edge Hideaway.
• Braided haired woman: [100/150] she has many trinkets in her hair, swarthy but may be able to wear animal shape.
• Stout Hunter [50/100] with long greasy hair. He wears deerskin boots and hunts with a bow. Known to live in Anton’s Mill

The [X/Y] is the reward (in gold crowns) for Dead/Alive. The party has met Mirek Golovin and its group, Axius Astramind currently lives in their stronghold, they've fought the Quick-Tooth Goblins before, killed the "Face Eater," they are themselved the Armored Blond Man, Tan Redhead Magician, and Braid-Haired Woman. The Stout Hunter is their friend Lars Bailey, who even if his stories are twice as tall as reality is still the best hunter Anton's Mill has seen in 80 years.

They've decided that this might be a good list to find "enemies of my enemies." They are planning on seeking Hox Longfeather and his rebel goblins next.

Politics

There are tensions that the party hasn't really bothered to look for: Zal Esarus has raised an army of the dead (Zal is a title reserved for very powerful necromancers, which aren't inherintly evil in my setting). He has additionally gained the use of a well-educated and formidible general in Khazran the Warbreed (Warbreed are what I call Half-Orcs, and are magically created beings, not literal half-breeds) who won the respect of the local Orc tribes and brought them into Zal Esarus' army. That left the local goblins, who they strongarmed into doing their bidding, an arrangement most of the goblins resented. Hox and his band were such members of the Quicktooth tribe and disagreed with Queen Bhargnot about whether to stand up for themselves now or bend to the might of Zal Esarus and bide their time for rebellion. That rebellion ironically saved their lives, as they were banished from the Jagged Edge Hideaway (the capital warren of the Quick-tooth Tribe) when the party busted in and killed most of them.

Of course all of these leaders and factions have desires of their own that could be played against each other. Khazran is being "lent" to Esarus, and doesn't care for or about him personally. The Orcs don't like the undead and find them a distasteful way to fight. They are more loyal to Khazran for his obvious strength and tactics than to Esarus' wizardry and cunning. They don't typically marshall themselves to war, just to raid, so the idea of ranks, files and maintaining discipline is foreign. Esarus has a pupil (Arlen) who might stab him in the back for his own ambitions, the different tribes of Orcs don't always get along. The whole thing could be peeled apart, but we'll focus on the goblins and Hox's Gleeful Band of Free Greens.

At the Ghostcliffs

The Ghostcliffs are beyond the north eastern edges of the Duskwood (the party's main stomping ground). That's where the goblins went into hiding. It's tough mountain country with steep walls hiding many caves, perfect for a subterranean gang going into hiding. It helps that Hox is pretty sure of where Zal Esarus' stronghold, Dentura Morbum, is. Even though they're in the same region, he's posted watches and scouts to make sure they don't catch unwanted attention from the necromancer.

We'll have a few days of travel inside the Duskwood, perhaps a few random encounters.

The familiar ancient pine forest reluctantly gives way to mountain country. The Ghostcliffs loom above you, sheer and pale. Spears of rock spread like wings from the foreboding stone formation. Wind howls and moans down from the tall peaks above you, giving these hills their name.

The trail continues ahead as a narrow path cutting back and forth, too steep and treachourous for any mule or horse. Scanning the way before you, there are many ravines and steep places. In a few areas, small waterfalls pour down near the switchbacks. Clouds and mist seem to settle down, undisturbed by the occasional gusts of air. In spring this place may be entirely impassable, but in summer it is merely difficult and dangerous.

As far as how they might find the goblins, they have a starting point from the bingo book, Winora can speak with animals and Armond can use his familiar. I'm sure they probably have some other skills or ideas that I haven't thought of yet.

The Trail

The party continues up the Ghostcliffs for several hours, eventually the trail comes to a rope bridge.

The trail ends abruptly at a narrow rope bridge spanning a gulf about 150 feet across. The bridge creaks as it sways and bucks with the occasional gust of air.

Terrain Encounter I think a rope bridge between cliffs would be good. If they overload it, it could break. Even if they don't we'll have Dex Checks to stay on as it swings in the wind. If the party uses some creative thinking we can skip over it. Perhaps they will be accosted by harpies instead.

As they continue in the Ghostcliffs for another hour or two, they'll find dead bounty hunters to show they're on the right trail. They were killed by Hox's scouts in an ambush, picked over, and dumped into a ravine. The hunters have cursed red gold (Zal Esarus pays in cursed gold, it's how he finds bodies for his undead army) in their pouches, but otherwise nothing of much value or interest.

I like the idea that they get close, maybe have a "random" encounter with a monster (cyclopes, hill giants, ettins, wyverns), some goblins show up during the fight and they have a chance to roleplay a bit.

Hox's Crew

The Band consists of a few dozen goblins, most of whom are "uneducated" (can't speak Giant). The following are his core council, who he consults and delegates to. Languages are in the order that they prefer speaking (giant is a lingua franca in my world). Titles in goblin society are typically in giant, but are translated here (because I didn't want to make up more words in giant). Among goblins, if you are a great/important person your title will likely be a point of pride or something to brag about. On the other hand, if you're lowly you might have no title, or a sarcastic one.

The Officers I'm not planning on needing them in combat really, but decided to link some statblocks as starting points. Most of the officers probably need bumped up a little

• Hox Longfeather [goblin, giant, common] male: he wears a hunter's cap with the titular griffon's feather over a scalplock. In his ears he wears a few earrings. He is tall for a goblin and build like a whip. He's clever and proud, unwilling to bend a knee. Around his men his is charismatic and jovial, but behind closed doors, he's a hardnosed negotiator.
• Thexni Wiitherose [goblin, giant, abyssal, common] female: an older cursespitter (demon worshipper) and spiritual leader of the group. She wears many pieces of bone jewelry and tattoos cover most of her body. Her staff is topped by a three-eyed "human" skull with deer horns and fangs. Hox knew he'd need someone to reassure the spiritual base of his group so he strongarmed her into his group. She doesn't appreciate what happened but has nowhere to go.
• Tozg Venomfang [goblin, giant] male: an assassin. He assumed everyone wants to kill him, except Hox, who he loves with extreme devotion. His ear is clipped and he wears a golden ring on a leather thong around his neck. He has deepset dark eyes and doesn't blink much. His dagger is of course, magical. He funcitons as Hox's spymaster and tactician.
• Krebz Stonefist [goblin] male: brute. Almost as tall as a man, weilds a maul, doesn't talk much.
• Qesh Sparrowtail [goblin, giant] female: archer. She is Hox's lover and prodigee. She is slight of frame and short, even for a goblin. She wears a few small earrings, but not any specific piece. She might become jealous of the party if they spend too much time with him.

Emergency Names

Male: Grikx, Helk, Slummex, Yalb, Triq

Female: Srift, Imzonee, Ilmea, Ifsi, Pronx

The Spring of Midnight Oil

The Party made their way through the Ashfens. My favorite way to run travel is as a skill challenge. If you're unfamiliar, the synopsis is you think about how to fail forward and ask your group to pick what skills/spells/class abilities they want to use to accomplish the task. So in this case, I thought of a couple of monsters they could encounter and if they fail the skill challenge, they'd have a bit of a fight, but still get to the destination. Turns out I didn't need to think about fail-cases since they aced the challenge.

The Ashfens grow quiet as you approach your destination. Ahead, you see a clearing at the center of which is a circular pool surrounded by stone monoliths. The pool bubbles and hisses lazily as cold black liquid occasionally laps at the mundane world. Mist gathers at the edges of the clearing, like shy party-goers awaiting an invitation to dance.

The party debated what to do with the pool for a long time. I think they'd forgotten a few things Mother Leondra had told them last time. That she believed it was a portal to the Sea of Midnight Oil in the Fey Wild, and that Iron, Fire and Salt repel Fey influences. So they threw torches at the oil (which would sit just above the oil and sputter, floating in the air as if suspended by magnets). Small pieces of iron would float and spin (they thought about using the Forge Cleric/Artificer's ability to pray a cage for the oil into existence). Salt would sizzle like a snail. As they were messing with the pool I would roll for it to occasionally geyser, and they got splashed a couple times (Winora was notably splashed, but was cured of the effects before they became much of anything).

The key that I think they forgot and I realized I needed to remind them about was that Fey Portals require a circle. Most commonly a ring of mushrooms for small portals, but more permanent portals can be made. Once they remembered that, Armond cast shatter, broke the stone monoliths and made enough sound that Old Jed heard them.

Mother Leondra described Old Jed as a "scion of death, and a particularly un-neighborly one." This is his area of the swampland. Until he was exposed to the Midnight Oil, he could be reasoned with (especially after his tea-time meeting with the aforementioned witch), but the Oil twists the psyche (some inspiration was taken from Phyrexian Oil from Magic: the Gathering) and makes them more rabid. It is possible the party could have removed curse/lesser restorationed him back to his old self and perhaps gotten a reward for returning him to his better self, but that wasn't what happened.

Mechanically he was a Bodak. Originally I was going to drop its hit points a bit but the party managed the fight very well and I didn't have to do that. They took some decent damage, and managed to bully my monster and kill it in I think 3 rounds.

The one snag in the encounter was the wizard cast a new spell: Flock of Familiars and assumed that I would be fine with Grinning Cats as the creature choice. Normally I default to let the player do the cool thing (and maybe talk to them after combat if that's not how the spell or ability is actually written), the problem was this added 3 level 4 Fighters swinging greatswords with some extra hitpoints on top to the encounter. Which wasn't going to work. We talked about what creatures were okay for find familiar, and settled on any creature that has rules for "if this creature is your familiar." The problem I had wasn't them spanking my scary monster, I honestly don't care. The problem comes from how can I balance any future encounter for the party. I need a monster that can deal 135 points of damage in 2-3 rounds (typical monster lifespan) to compete with that spell. That just means my monsters have to be so deadly that unless you cast flock of familiars, you're going to die, which makes combat more deadly and less fun.

The Return to Anton's Mill

After rudely beating my fun-scary Bodak to redeath and breaking the portal to the Feywild (making sure to collect a vial of oil on the way out), the party headed back to the happy (if troubled) town of Anton's Mill. We short-cut a lot of the travel sequence. Destin's player and I hashed out what exactly it means to "give your dreams" to a witch. Basically he doesn't dream anymore, so there's a slight chance each night that he doesn't fully rest. The chart may get a rework if it turns out to be more annoying than it is fun.

The party was taking a well-earned rest at the inn when Finbar Hane (the blacksmith's son, and well-known to the party) dragged in a colorfully dressed vagabond, claiming he'd lost his animals and they were wreaking havok on the town. I had decided to run my recent favorite one-shot adventure Wild in the Street if we finished up in the Ashfens early. I've gone over it in another article (here) so I won't go over it in great detail here, it's quick to run, you can find it for free in Dungeon Magazine #062 and it's a great adventure without relying on combat. The quick synopsis is: this party decided not to return the animals. Armond kept the displacer kitten (so he can ride it around), the anklyosaurus is going with Winora to eat the apples in her druid grove, and the rust monster will happily gnaw on Destin's magically reinforced armor and whatever scrap metal he produces at the forge.

Lessons Learned

I should have maybe reinforced the Fey portals need circles, might not have been an issue if we'd played week-to-week.

I think I could have done better building Old Jed. Like make his area of the swamp clearly marked in some way (probably by the local lizardfolk, who do not go there). I also could have maybe found a way to draw the players into the possibility of curing the madness of the Oil.

I think talking with Armond's player about the find familiar spell and that it isn't "all creatures CR1 or lower are good to be familiars" ahead of time would have been wise. What threw him off is that Imps are included as an option and are CR1.

Game 1: The Book

The first game I played was a continuation of a campaign that started a few years ago (at this same cabin) at the start of the game with my older nephews (I think they were 5-9 at the time if I remember). To summarize the campaign so far: they were betrayed by a warlock named Malgrith during their first adventure, and he's shown up a few times since. Most recently they saw an illusion of him speaking with the Goblin Queen, telling her to "Find the Book if you know what's good for you." In that illusion they noticed a distinct change in him, he was missing his left eye (well-informed readers will know what this portends, others may wish to read on and be informed).

The party found a map in the Goblin Cave which had a few locations marked and crossed out. Notably, the Old Orchard Manor was circled and they decided to head there. They burned the house to the ground (because they are hooligans), defeated the specter, and found a Black Book in the ashes of the library. They briefly looked inside the book and were disgusted by its contents. This was the last session we played before regrouping at the cabin. I thought they had decided against reading the book, but I was wrong.

The first thing Louther the druid did once they got to town was read the book. If you haven't guessed yet, this is the Book of Vile Darkness. We rolled for his effects, notably aged 20 years, died from the shock, and came back as a Wight. So I had him sit by me behind the DM Screen. The other party members (Bob the Barbarian, and Lex the Archer) heard rumors of sounds coming from the crypt and went to investigate.

They went two rooms in and found some ghouls, fought them, and decided to turn back ignoring the newly dug tunnel. However, Louther had already gone down that road. There was a team sent by Malgrith to search for the eye of Vecna, which they found at the bottom of the dungeon. When one of the goblins grabbed the eye, a glyph carved into its shoulder began to glow and Malgrith burst out of his chest, grabbed the eye, and sighed happily. Louther witnessed this while hidden.

I decided to call the session there and pulled aside Louther's player to talk about what he learned in the book. So I taught my nephew about Vecna, the Eye and Hand, and why Malgrith wants them. We're deciding whether he's going to return to the party to try to use them to acquire the Hand and Eye or try to join Malgrith.

Game 2: Serpent's Isle

This is the game that I did a Let's Prep for. Look into that for a few more details. The party was my young niece and nephew. She decided to use one of the pre-made characters (elf fighter), he decided to be a dwarf barbarian.

They arrived at the jungle island, and as they approached they saw a trail of smoke from Covewatch Point, or the rock formation, Devil's Spire. They decided to push through the jungle toward the Spire.

As they traveled the barbarian got stuck in quicksand, and while they were trying to get him unstuck, a boa dropped from the trees overhead onto the fighter. They managed to take care of the snake and dig the dwarf out of the mud.

Eventually, they made it to the spire fought the Spined Devil, and killed it. The fighter ended up at 1 hit point for a round until she remembered her Second Wind ability. They pushed into the spire, fought the Lemures, and then wanted to take a break and play with cousins.

Game 3: Wild in the Street

My cousin (16) wanted to play D&D the whole weekend, but I prioritized the kids' games first (partly because I had already prepped before the vacation). So I went to Adventure Lookup and found this one-shot adventure to play. Another cousin was interested and I roped my brother-in-law in, but that night we started pretty late and they had to get to bed and couldn't make it. It was one of my first times running a solo adventure and it went pretty well.

He said he wanted a strong character, so I had him roll 4d6, re-roll 1s, and drop the lowest for stats. I had him roll 7 times take the best 6 and place them where he wanted. He didn't roll over a 13. So that character was eaten by a red dragon during character creation. So we tried again, as the son of the original character. Same result. So that character was likewise eaten by the same red dragon during character creation. The third time's the charm, the twin brother of the second character. He finally rolled a couple of 14s and ended up with a playable character: Forson the Rogue.

He was at the tavern in the border town of Thenwick (an Ilitian town near Idreal in my world) enjoying a mug of ale out of the rain. The door burst open and three men entered, one colorfully dressed man was dragged in with his arm behind his back. The leader of the group steps forward and introduced himself as the captain of the Thenwick guard. The colorful man (whose name is Jeggard) owned a menagerie and crashed his wagons. The captain was offering gold in exchange for collecting the animals before they could cause too much of a disturbance.

Jeggard described his animals as a black panther cub (displacer beast), a dire armadillo (anklyosaurus) and a manticore (rust monster). Forson found the "panther" quickly as it chases a series of stray cats out of a nearby alley. He rolled very well to grab it and managed to bring it back to the inn as Captain Bulrick took Jeggard to the guardhouse.

The "dire armadillo" was also pretty easy to find, it had broken into a barn and was eating the feed. He went back to town and bought some apples to entice it back. It worked too well. The dinosaur almost trampled him in its exuberance for apples. Forson ran all the way back to the guardhouse, with a giant vegetarian puppy nearly trampling following him. At the last second he scattered the apples into the air to distract the anklyosaurus long enough that the guards could help contain it.

Then he heard a disturbance at the town smithy and rushed to it. There he found the smith pushing back an insectoid monster with a stick (the destroyed remnants of a sledge hammer). Forson stabbed it, rusting his short sword and chasing it off.

He chased it into the dark night. I ran it as a skill challenge, which he failed so the monster was going to find him when he was unprepared. During the chase he realized that even though it couldn't see or hear him, it could smell the metal he was carrying. So he decided to cook up something with a string smell to cover his tracks (he took proficiency in chef's tools).

While making his stinky soup the rust monster smelled the soup pot and burst into the kitchen attacking him. Forson scored a critical hit and dropped it. He went back to the guard house and collected his bounty and we wrapped up the adventure.

This is from the 10th session of my #DnD game, we play around every other week, sometimes with longer breaks. The party (Wizard, Druid, Forge Cleric/Artificer) just reached 4th level and has a Stronghold (the Manor at the Old Orchard Hill).

The party has been chasing rumors over the game, and decided to investigate the caustic black ooze local hunter Lars Bailey has seen on a few animals in the southern edges of the Duskwood. They consulted with the medicine woman in the town (Anton's Mill) and got general directions and
advice, including a warning about the Witch of the Ashfens: Mother Leondra.

Mother Leondra is known to the villagers, but doesn't make herself a nuisance, typically only concerned with her domain in the marshland south of the mill town. The party decided to seek her advice.

They made their way into the Ashfens, and were met by two crows, their eyes sewn shut with red thread. Winora the druid spoke to them (queue the goofy voices) and asked if they knew Mother Leondra, of course they do. That's their mother.

After some convincing (and bribery) the party successfully persuaded the crows to guide them to the witch's home. On the way they ran into a Catoblepas afflicted with black ooze. They fought the monster, realizing that if it takes damage the ooze scatters dealing acid damage. After they defeated the monster, Destin the Artificer collected the tusks, tail and eyes.

They established camp, and watches. Wizard Armond got distracted by Will-o-the-Wisps during his, wandered out into the swamp and abandoned. He ended up spending the night sleeping rough, the party went without a watch the rest of the night.

The next day the party regrouped and made it to the witch's hut. A sign in giant (the lingua franca of my world) reads "No Soliciting" and in the clearing beyond a hut stood on a giant bird leg, moving slowly like sleeping breath.
Armond knockef on the door, a voice inside asked if he'd read the sign, once he promised he wasn't here to sell something the door opened to reveal a middle aged woman working on some knitting in the far side of the hut. They talked for a while, the party joined them, Leondra made some veiled comments implying that she was going to eat them. Leondra snapped her fingers and the cookware began preparing lunch.

While waiting, several crochet poppets came and inspected the party, one observed Destin, then came back with tin armor, he gave it a bell which it wore as a helm. Another surveyed Winora and found a mop of yarn dreadlocks to wear, Winora gave it a feather from her hair to wear. A candle lit itself in blue flame and a third doll, red-haired, chased it. As it got close to the candle it extinguished and another lit. The doll chased the "Will-o-the-Wisp" for a minute or so until Around gave it a playing card (thematically his spells draw inspiration from card tricks). It parachuted down from the shelf with the card.

The party has lunch with Mother Leondra, she gives more specific directions to the well of black slime. She thinks it's leaking from the Lake of Midnight Oil in the Feywild (the barriers between the mundane world and Feywild have been blurring in the region, it's one of the larger themes of the campaign so far). She said to look for a fairy ring around the source of the ooze, perhaps breaking it would help. She told them iron, salt and fire can be useful for pushing back fey magic. Lastly she cautioned them to be careful of "Old Jed" a "Scion of Death" and unfortunately unneighborly resident of that region of the Ashfens.

The party headed out again with bellies full, guided by one of the crow-familiars of Leondra. As they go, they run into a pair of Ettercaps. This was supposed to be a random encounter to give Winora a monstrosity to transform into (being a druid with a Stronghold has its perks). The flight went pretty south pretty fast, and before long, Armond was dead. After they dispatched the Ettercaps, the crow stood on Armond's chest, it's mouth opened and Leondra's voice emitted from it's mouth. "What is he worth to you?" After some discussion, Destin decided to give up his dreams to bring back his friend (Destin has seen many PCs die, mostly due to low levels and poor rolls). A red thread ties itself around his finger and then turns invisible, sealing the deal. The crow began to hack and cough, eventually it vomited up the poppet Armond gave the card. The doll doubled, then tripled in size, rapidly changing and taking on more of Armond's features, if still in knit form.

That, my friends, is how my party's wizard became a puppet.

With that as background, there are two things I think I need to focus on. 1 Keep Moving Maintaining focus for young kids for more than 20 minutes is hard. Combat encounters need to be relatively straightforward (since they're new and combat can be overwhelming with options) and 3 rounds or less. Don't Kill Them Making them scared of dying in the game can be a good way to build tension/buy-in. Killing them in the first session does the opposite. They'll probably never want to play again. In light of this (and the fact that the party is two kids) I'm probably going to be scaling back combat. I'll do that by chopping off hitpoints (which I can usually do on the fly pretty well. I run combat until I think this is going to go too long/poorly and decide this monster will die the next time they hit it), and by reducing damage (which I'll accomplish by omitting the bonus, instead of 1d8+3 slashing damage, simply 1d8). Of course, these modifications won't be necessary all the time, but they are very easy to modify while running combat and don't take a lot of processing power.

Pick an Adventure

Beware the Shadowed Shores In a land few have heard of, and fewer still have visited, lies untold adventure, treasure, and fame. The renowned Captain Farsail has sent out word that she will undertake an expedition to Serpent Isle, but is in need of a crew. Anyone able to hold a sword or cast a spell is welcome, but be warned, the island is as deadly as it is beautiful.

Picking an adventure can be tricky, for now, I just want something short, with maps. I used AdventureLookup and filtered down to early levels and less than 100 pages to find Serpent Isle (to follow along, you might want to pick it up). I wanted something a little different, I'm already running two games set in the same area (not having them interact with each other) and I'd rather not add a third. A jungle island with fiendish snakes sounds like a good change of pace.

I read over the overarching structure of the adventure, it starts with three potential points of interest. Perfect. If needed there are hooks to guide my players in a direction, and a few random encounter tables for creatures and environments.

For this adventure, I think the quicksand would be a good first encounter for a new group. Perhaps give them a chance to reenact The Princess Bride. Later I can use the quicksand as a terrain feature for other random encounters.

An Aside on Random Encounters

I often pick a random encounter that I like and put a little more design into that encounter. Then if/when we roll a random encounter it's a well-designed experience that is genuinely unexpected (the what was prepared, the when was not). Here's a map for the quicksand encounter. The characters might find themselves in the quicksand and need to pull themselves out, as they do maybe a boa will drop on them (if the quicksand isn't dramatic enough). So I drew up this battle map (I'll use small tape measurers and minis on card stock for this weekend since I don't want to travel with my vinyl grid). Thornbushes are either difficult terrain, or you can ignore the movement penalty and take some damage (current thought is 1d2 for every 5 feet you travel in it).

Another note on random encounters: you can push them. You can throw a monster that is way too scary at your party. Treat it like it has half to two-thirds the health. The griffon doesn't want to die, and if its prey is too much bother, it can just leave.

Main Encounters

There are three paths in the adventure: Covewatch Point, Serpent's Lair, and Devil's Spire. The encounters listed here are fairly sparse. Typically I'll prep with a map and a couple of notes and that's plenty. Easily the most complicated encounter is the last, so let's talk about it.

The Covewatch Point is a simple encounter with a few tribal warriors and a lurking tiger.

Serpents Lair is another simple encounter with a charmed crew member and a hypnopython.

There's a spire in the jungle where a devil-worshipper is trying to summon infernal allies from the Hells. The spire has 4 levels, and there's a Spined Devil on a ledge outside. There's a pretty simple dungeon, no need to change it too much. I might drop the damage on the Spined Devil and run the Lemures with minion rules (which you can find in the minions section of this pdf).

Characters

Since I have new players, I'll be pre-making a few characters if they don't want to go through character generation (which is usually where I lose new players). I think options for Cleric, Fighter, Rouge, and Sorcerer would be good. Likely they will decide they want to make their characters from scratch (maybe out of a sense that that's how "real" D&D is played, whatever that is).

When making pre-gen characters, I only fill out the mechanical portions, and I use the "standard array" method in the Player's Handbook: assign the numbers [15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8] to whatever abilities you wish, then apply bonuses. I don't include backgrounds, but ask the players "what do you think you were doing before the adventure?"

The Cleric

Life Domain

Proficiencies

Saving Throws: Wisdom, Charisma

Skills: History (+3), Medicine (+6)

Weapons/Armor: Simple Weapons, All Armor, Shields

Senses: Perception +3

Languages Common +1

Feats

Warcaster
You have practiced casting spells in the midst of combat, learning techniques that grant you the following benefits:

• You have advantage on Constitution saving throws that you make to maintain your concentration on a spell when you take damage.
• You can perform the somatic components of spells even when you have weapons or a shield in one or both hands.
• When a hostile creature's movement provokes an opportunity attack from you, you can use your reaction to cast a spell at the creature, rather than making an opportunity attack. The spell must have a casting time of 1 action and must target only that creature.

Spells (+5, DC 13)

Cantrips: Light, Thaumaturgy, Sacred Flame

Level 1 [2-Slots]: bless, cure wounds, detect magic, guiding bolt, inflict wounds, shield of faith

Actions

• Mace: Action +4 to hit, 1d6+2 bludgeoning damage.

The Fighter

Two-Weapon Fighting

Proficiencies

Saving Throws: Strength, Constitution

Skills: Actobatics, Survival, Perception

Weapons/Armor: All Weapons, All Armor, Shields

Senses: Perception +4, Darkvision

Languages Common, Elvish

Abilities

Mask of the Wild
You can attempt to hide when you are only lightly obscured by foliage, heavy rain, falling snow, mist, and other natural phenomena.

Fey Ancestry
You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can't put you to sleep.

Trance
Elves don't sleep, instead, they meditate for 4 hours daily.

Second Wind
On your turn, you can use your bonus action to regain 1d10+LVL hit points. Once you use this, you can't until you finish a short or long rest.

Two-Weapon Fighting
When you engage in two-weapon fighting, you can add your ability modifier to the damage of the second attack.

Actions

• Shortsword: Action +5 to hit, 1d6+3 slashing
• Off-Hand Shortsword: Bonus Action +5 to hit, 1d6+3 slashing
• Longbow: Action +5 to hit, 1d8+3 piercing

The Rogue

Proficiencies

Saving Throws: Dexterity, Intelligence

Tools/Skills: Thieves Tools (+7), Acrobatics (+5), Intimidation (+4), Investigation (+4), Stealth (+7)

Weapons/Armor: Light Armor, Simple Weapons, hand crossbows, longswords, rapiers, shortswords

Senses: Perception +2

Languages Common, Halfling

Abilities

Lucky
When you roll a 1 on a d20 for an attack, saving throw or ability check, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll.

Brave
You have advantage on saving throws against being frightened.

Halfling Nimbleness You can move through the space of any creature that is medium or larger.

Expertise
Double your proficiencies with two skills (stealth, thieves' tools)

Sneak Attack
Once per turn, deal an additional 1d6 damage on an attack. To use this benefit you must use a finesse or ranged weapon and either have advantage on the attack or have an ally within 5 feet of the target.

Actions

• Rapier: Action +5 to hit, 1d8+3 piercing damage.
• Shortbow: Action +5 to hit, 1d6+3 piercing damage.
• Dagger: Action +5 to hit, 1d4+3 piercing damage.
• Off-Hand Dagger Bonus Action +5 to hit 1d6 piercing damage

The Sorcerer

Brass Dragon Bloodline (Fire)

Proficiencies

Saving Throws: Constitution, Charisma

Skills: Arcana, Persuasion

Weapons/Armor: Daggers, darts, slings, quarterstaff, light crossbows

Senses: Perception -1

Languages Common, Draconic +1

Spells

Cantrips: Fire Bolt, Dancing Lights, Mage Hand, Prestidigitation

Level 1 [2-Slots]: Burning Hands, Magic Misile

Actions

Quarterstaff: Action +2 to hit, 1d6(8) bludgeoning damage.

Music

Last but most importantly is prepping some ambiance. I made this playlist. It has a few different vibes, from peaceful interlude to stressful jungle exploration.