I ran the Isle of the Abbey as a one-shot a few months back. It was a fun little adventure.
Paul - that sounds like a fun time. I'll keep it in mind if a similar situation arises.
I feel like I'm getting better at planning sessions on the fly. I came up with a bare bones outline for last night's session earlier in the week, and drew a map in about 20 minutes before the session started, and everything went really well.
The party was seeking out a priest to help calm down rampaging Earth Elementals. Last session one of the players took over DMing and ran a little adventure on the road, and this week I had them arrive at a location where they might be able to find a priest.
On the way they started noticing random stone walls all over the place. They were created haphazardly and seemed to be getting denser to the south. Keeping to the path, they arrived at a river crossing, where the bridge had been burned down, but then replaced with a stone bridge. Finally, they arrived at the settlement, a small town around the Hobgoblin Academy of Devastation. In town they found 1) a few statues of hobgoblins in odd places, 2) the academy entrances blocked with stone doors with runes on them, and 3) Hobgoblins that were unable to speak within 300 feet of the academy. After doing a bit of research and talking to a Hobgoblin at a distance from the town they discovered that this is all the work of the Dwarves, who have another large camp nearby. The stone walls were remnants of the war, Dwarves had magically created them as cover as they approached and retreated from the Academy Wizards. They finally got the upper hand when they started creating areas where Hobgoblins were unable to cast spells (the party doesn't know, but it's a variation on the Hallow spell). And, they have a staff of petrification they they used on a few powerful wizards and the local Knowledge Cleric. The current residents of the town are either very young or old, and can't cast spells in town or near Dwarf settlements.
At this point, the party was itching to storm the Academy (which is occupied by Dwarves, who are able to bypass the stone doors at will). But, the Hobgoblin who they talked to, and old lady named Log, convinced them to take a stealthier method. There is a place in the nearby mountains that Hobgoblin children would dare each other to visit; a gallery of stone statues. It's obvious that they are actually adventurers and creatures that had been turned to stone. She doesn't know what type of creature did it, but it's well known that the blood of a creature that causes petrification can be used to cure petrification. They left my character, the Artificer, to try to find a way to open the back entrance of the Academy while they went off to the mountains with Log to kill this mystery creature.
On the way into the mountains they found some areas where the earth had been torn up, and shortly after they were attacked by a pair of Bulettes (very fun to run as a DM). They found the statue gallery, and the Ranger was able to get the party from there to the creature's cave, even though they had covered their tracks. We stopped right in front of the cave entrance, and we're going to pick up there next week. I have a
great map for the cave, and ones for the
lower levels and
upper levels of the Academy. They are really curious about what the creature is (it's a pair of Medusas. Their strategy is to try to have one sneak up behind the party, so that if they look away they get petrified by the other one), and what is inside the Academy (lots of Dwarves, a stone defender, and a few aberrations in the basement).
For the first time this campaign the party is 100% on board with following my hooks, and they actually like Log. I think it's because she's a jerk to them, and also came up with a better plan then they did so she seems competent.
