CODD (4e Quest)

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Author: Liosrakia (talk) Date Created: 08/04/2011 Status: Work In Progress Editing: Grammar Only

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Camp of Destiny (Doom)

I have found the note-pad I was searching for! Now all I need is the laptop! At this time, I present CODD!

The Camp of Destiny (Doom) is a combat oriented quest, focusing on wave based encounters. (for all levels)

CODD, or the Camp of Destiny (Doom), is a small(ish) quest with very little story base (see below), designed to test players combat skills to the limit, with maximum potential for fun. This quest is highly focused on the Power Gamer and Slayer player types, and makes use of the tactical elements in the game, including skill usage.

CODD is designed to a be a humorous quest as well, mixing crazy combat, changing terrain, and quick thinking with a load of funny references, monsters,areas, and odd NPC's with even odder dialogue-most watcher players have loads of fun with this aspect of the adventure. This adventure/quest is not recommended for an extremely serious or un-adaptable campaign.

The Setting

This quest is designed for the campaign setting Nor Galad. However, the actual adventure takes places in a single area underneath The Haven, a famous multi-dimensional inn and tavern designed by a man named "Willy". Due to it's multi-dimensional nature, the Haven can easily appear in any city, and as such, this quest is completely adaptable for any city in any setting. Of course, you may need to tweak some of the monsters to fit your setting- However, don't make it hard on yourself-It's multi-dimensional: it doesn't have to come from or fit with your setting- and your players won't mind much either.

The Threat

Most adventures have a complicated threat- like an evil villain, amassing army, or dread cult. In CODD the only threat to the characters is the chance of them being killed by monsters, and making really bad pop culture references and bad puns while they're at it. That, and the occasional fart joked- which, ufortunately can be quite deadly, as the factor that sets off the fart jokes is always an really, really, really scary version of a angry Ancient Red Dragon. That about sums up the threat of this quest.

Adventure Summary

In the most basic setup, CODD runs like this: The adventurers find out about the COD as a "training place", where they can earn Gold and XP. Eventually, after getting tips from a few NPCs, the players find the The Haven, where they promptly are directed to a wooden trap door with the words "Camp of Destiny" painted on with yellow, with a smiley face underneath. When they open the trap door and look down, it's pitch black, like a bottomless pit. If one of the character's tries to take a closer look, the wood on the trap door flashes red skull and bones where the smiley face was, and changes to and CAMP OF DESTINY DOOM- and then the "destiny" is erased, only leaving "Doom".
The group is suddenly sucked into the down into the "Camp of Destiny Doom" and wake up in a strange desert basin. This is were the main wave system starts. And ends...eventually.

Due to the nature of CODD, It is not necessary to use an introduction- you can very simply have the characters "appear" in the area where the quest takes place. This is simple and easy to use when playing with Power Gamers and Slayers, who want to start enjoying killing and tactical encounters right off the bat. Granted, this approach may be unappealing to other players, which is why there's a planned out introduction. And remember, there's always a mystical reason why you might end up in an wave based combat system in an rapidly changing seemingly out-door arena. Right? (Details below)

The Adventure Begins

What You Need to play

A group of players, the Monster Manual One and Two, and the monster statistics shown in this Quest.

Using Tactical Encounters

All of the encounters in CODD have some kind of tactical element, be it flanking, group maneuvers, or smart application of skills during combat- or maybe dropping silver chandeliers on Werewolf heads, or lighting beacons of light across the map to blind the onslaught of vampries!

Encounter Level
The encounters in this Quest are designed to be easily usable for normal sized parties, small parties, and large parties alike, with ratios between minions and normal monsters and suggested changes that you can put into action for each encounter. Each of the Waves (the encounters) are also designed to be easily scaled upwards around 3-5 levels. After every 3-5 levels of a wave, a new set of monsters are provided that follow the "Wave Theme" of that encounter.
Wave Theme is the overall feel each wave encounter is geared towards- for instance, waves 3-5 are designed around Undead creatures- a list of avilable basic themes for each wave are available in the below (unf). This is handy if you feel you'd like to add different monsters to the encounters, as you can easily fill in a theme with your pick of monsters.
Wave Themes are not necessary, however, and you can easily add any monsters to any wave- the Wave Theme's is just an easy mechanic to use for setting up encounters.

Setup
The setup, depending on how you wish to use this quest, ranges anywhere from very simple to very complex. Details on how to setup, and what to setup below.

Read Aloud Text
The read aloud text is what makes this quest come alive- even the most avid slayer aren't going to be content fighting numbers, over and over again. There is read aloud text provided for every encounter that happens during the quest. There is also Read aloud text dialogue for NPC's, which can give a basic outline of the NPCs responses to certain questions.

Tactics
As stated before, tactics are an extremely vital part of the combat encounters and overall fun of CODD- a lot of the tactics in the game also rely on quick thinking and open mindedness of players, which you should encourage throughout the game. One such example is knocking down silver chandeliers in one of the "hide outs" to pierce the ravenous werewolves below.
If your players don't use tactics, and aren't very "quick on teh uptake", as it were, take necessary action-drop more hints, encourage your players to "feel around". If you really feel your players can't handle this, or even more simple tactics such as flanking, you can easily reduce the monsters levels or numbers, or even their tactics, to accommodate your players.

Map
The Map in CODD changes continually throughout the quest- and not just because the characters are moving from map to map, but the maps themselves taking on morphic qualities. From desolate and calm Canyon, to Sand blasted, to obsidian rocked canyon- and then sneaking to strange and dimly lit side room, that light's up into a ballroom floor, shimmering silver chandeliers hanging overhead- stumbling out of the room to come to the same canyon- and the edge where there was was once sand, is now the oceans edge- walking through the water, and deposited in a huge metal room- these are the kind of map changes that occur during CODD.

Features of the Area
The features of the area varies entirely on which map the players are in, in what stage of transformation that map is in, certain areas of the map, or whatever side rooms the players can find.

Hooks

Out of Game Hooks

The simplest thing you could do to hook your players on the adventure, is by simply telling them "out of game" about an wave based combat adventure that you think the player's might enjoy. Obviously, I can't provide the dialogue for this, but mentioning it while the group is wrapping up after the conclusion of a different quest, or by email are useful options.
This approach works well for many situations, and is very easy for you, and for your players. If you use this method, it is recommended to skip straight to the action- once they know what's ahead of them, they won't want to spend fifteen minutes searching for a trap door in an Tavern- just start your player's off awakening in the beginning of the adventure, and Whabam the action has started, and everyone's having fun.

In Game Hooks

However, many DM's like to keep their players guessing even from the beginning, and many players like to be surprised. With more time, this quest can start as an "interesting side-trek" and develop into a very intriguing and unknown battle situation. There are two basic ways to hook adventurers from this point on:

XP,Loot,Gold,or intrigue: or Waking up in "The Arena"

XP,Loot,Gold, or Intrigue?

This method follows the four main interests that all players want (even if for different reasons, such as Role-Playing, the prospect of combat, etc etc), and creates a very standard "hook" into CODD that can easily be implemented in any town the adventurers happen to be at.

Waking Up in a Mysterious Arena

This is a very easy and versatile method to implement into all types of games. Currently, there is no interesting sub-plot for the reasons behind appearing there so it's up to ou to add your own. Here's a few common examples:

You should drop enough hints and descriptions that players should already be trying to uncover the connection between your antagonist, dream state, (and so on). A couple questions your players should be asking?

• Where is this?
• What is this?
• Do I get XP for this?
• Did (antagonist) lock us up here to die?
• Did (antagonist) make this dungeon?
• Is this even a dungeon?
• I didn't know there were strange fantasy worlds where monsters spawn in thin air and then disappear off the map, which is constantly changing, did you? Nevermind, ya, I knew that.

and things like that.

This quest can also be introduced as a strange reality that the PCs dream about when they sleep-the characters feel like they've been fighting all night, and they don't talk about it much. Each time they go, it gets longer and longer. This can be useful if you frequently cannot find good material, and it leaves the players in suspense about these "Strange dreams" that have, and gives you an opportunity to let them gain XP and have fun, and still be very connected to your story line. Even though CODD is designed to be scale-able, if you re-introduce the dream every time the characters reach certain level corresponding with CODD's basic level outline for waves, it can be a very fun experience.

The Arena

The Arena is the main "map" that the players find themselves unconscious in after opening the trap door of The Haven, eating the sand of the first "map" of the Arena. If you chose to use "Waking Up in a Mysterious Arena it will start just with your characters waking up eating sand, as well as the re-curing dream "hook". This is where the game starts. (For the dream hook, whenever the "dream" starts again, they should be unconscious (in dream state) where they left off the last time. )

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You wake up in the middle of a huge sand filled arena-dark, shimmering black metallic walls stare down at you as you lay on the ground- almost like adamant- and you can see a very outline of of glowing, metal that starts at the base of the walls. As you stand up, bright lights, seeming like multiple suns flicker into your vision, blinding you horrendous light-and a thunderclap that seemed to be made by the gods themselves rushes into your head-you fall to the ground wincing-even the most tested adventurers would do the same. At the top of your sand filled vision (or if you dared to look up again), the sky turns black, and your vision dims, and when you look up again, everything is gone. You now find yourself in sand filled canyon with, dark colored canyon rocks with a treacherous slope up the sides- it looks like your only way out is towards the sand dunes you see north of you. The sense of people watching them disappears. Above you all you can see blue sky and lazy white clouds- small gusts of wind surround you, and other than the occasional scurry and glimpse of an eye, completely desolate. There are some cacti up further towards the huge sand dune you see in the distance. Thevague feeling of people watching you leaving, it seems there might be... something else.

Explore Canyon As you explore either side of the canyon you notice the fauna seems to be much more lively compared to back where you were standing only a small time ago. Your senses tingle as the phrase "Almost too lively" pop into your mind- strange visions of mutant man eating lizards cross your mind. Dune North of you, you see a vast sand dune- this sand dune isn't just vast- if a normal sand dune was huge sized, this sand dune would be Gargantuan. Strangely enough, it doesn't seem to be casting any shadows in your direction, despite the angle of the sun.

Waves

^{The Good Stuff}
Currently, I'm aiming at about ten waves-I have 1-6 planned out pretty well, and 7-10 I have an idea of what monsters and tactic changes I want to use. The goal eventual is 16 waves, although it may end up climbing higher than that, but for now, I'm going to finish adding 1-6, and finish making 7-10. I'm going to make a "waves by theme" table as well.

Test Wave

The Test Wave is the first Combat Encounter in CODD. It occurs when the players are about half-way to the sand dune, when they are attacked by a group of Kobold's who spring from the sand. Read Aloud Text: As you approach what seems about a mid-way point from where you started to the sand dune, you hear a rumbling noise. The noise continues on, becoming louder and louder- you can feel the ground beneath you shaking, as the rumbling threatens to knock you to the ground-the quake seems like it will never end!

Ask the players to succeed on an acrobatics check to avoid being knocked prone

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a giant worm like creature leaps from the ground with an ear splitting screech-it arches through in the air, retaining grace, despite being at least twenty feet long and covered in acidic looking slime and with a giant circle of sharp teeth extruding from a ravenous maw-it's glowing red and evil looking eyes seem to glance at- and then the giant creatue plummets back down to the ground, it's head and body swallowed by the sand- disappearing as quickly as arrived, leaving nothing but a huge, rapidly filling, whole in the sand, and a lingering stench of rot, and acid burning flesh to mark its passing.

Ask the players to make saving throw to avoid becoming deafened

The hole starts shifting again- this time, instead of the strange, ravenous looking giant worm creature that leaped from the sand before, you see a group of small, scaly, dragon like humanoids slowly rising from the sand- the grainy substance pouring off their body in a rather dramatic fashion. With a fierce look in their eyes, the Kobolds unsheathe their weapons. It's on. A deep, base voice magically booms through the canyon: "Test Wave"

Ask the players to roll initiative for a combat encounter

The Encounter

The encounter consists of a group of mean, powerful looking Kobolds. But very, very stupid.

Five Person Party Setup: (Level One)

2 Kobold Slingers, 1 Kobold Dragonshield, 12 Kobold Minions [XP=600] (Easy) (MM pages 167-168)

Larger or Smaller than Five:

For smaller than five, only change the ratio of Minions. If the party consists of three or less characters, replace one or both of the Slinger's with Minions instead, leaving only the Dragonshield and minions for the party to deal with. If the party has limited minion clearing ability, (and any other issues that come with small parties) remember to adjust accordingly. For larger than five, adding minions is generally suitable- if the party is very very large, adding more Slinger's or Kobold dragonshields will work.

Encounter Info

This encounter is meant to be relatively bland- nothing too exciting, but it has a lot of opportunities for player tactics and minion slaying.

Change-it-up!

If you find your players are particularly enjoying the encounter and are completely decimating the enemies with superior tactics,(or, on the other hand, are completely bored with the encounter), spice things up by adding a spire top drake (MM 90) into the fray, starting combat with a fly by attack at the beginning of the next round. You can then use the Drake's initiative as normal.

Monster Tactics

Normal monsters should act on their base tactical level shown in their respective books- if you want to give your players more of a challenge, have them act at higher than their normal tactical level. In general, the minions have slightly below their base tactical level- but in a very hidden way. Have the minions bunch up in different formations- formations that won't be taken out be out fully by a at-will power, like wedges (V's), and other interesting formations. This lets you give the appearance of smart monsters, while the Players get the satisfaction of taking advantage of the monster's tactical weaknesses, while not letting the monster be too stupid and get taken out by one simple blast. The V shaped formation also limits maximum potential of close burst abilities as well, giving a realistic feel to the "ramming" groups. If you know a character specifically chose a close burst to combat enemies like this, let the character somehow become separate from the group and surrounded by minions looking at an "easy kill".

Wave X

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