Intermission home brew feedback, what do you think?

[Demnok]

So I have a group of 5 players who will be completing the Sunless Citadel (5e) shortly. I am wanting to do a small home brew one shot between this and the next module forge of fury. Mainly I am wanting to get back into home brew and figuring out how to do it in FG (maps, encounter points etc). What I am looking for is if I have a strong enough character hook.

So the town outside of sunless Citadel is Oakhurst, it's a pretty static town without a lot in the way of dialogue designed (unlike Phandalin) so the party spent very little time there. Just met the main person who sends them into the Citadel, promising them a reward.
Basically the set up is they emerge from the Sunless Citadel at night as the full moon is starting. Basking in being out of the cave system, cool breeze crickets chirping a few wolf howls in the distance. They decide to wait for dawn to make their way to town. At dawn they see buzzards circling, as they make the four hour walk more birds are flocking to the town. When they arrive they find all of the inhabitants brutally slaughtered. Blood and gore everywhere. They go to the few places they had been in (inn and merchant house) and find especially mutilated and partially eaten remains of the people they talked to. It's pretty easy to see the wolf tracks and the claw marks. It won't take them long to figure out that the town was sacked by werewolves.
Though the main town was sacked the outlying farms fared better as people hearing the screams barricaded themselves in cellars etc. through these npcs the plays can easily find out where the werewolf bandits make their base, an abandoned keep a few days walk from town.
My question is, would that be enough to drive you as a player to the keep? Or would you need further goading? I have thought that the lord of the area could promise the party the keep (which is almost completely destroyed except the first level) as a payment, but at level 3 is that too much? They would need to rebuild the keep during down time and have to build up the townships around it before they would ever be Barron's or anything, basically the would have a place to camp that they owned until then.
Just looking for thoughts. Thanks.

[Ram Tyr]

So, you are not sure that the players will elect to wait for dawn to make their way to town, right?

There are a couple of points where you could rely on placing hooks...

If they decide to wait until dawn... during the night their camp can come 'under pressure' from something escaping the werewolves... (I say under pressure because whatever these are they do not necessarily have to be attacking the camp as much as running through the camp to gain distance from the werewolves.) In the morning the characters find bodies... at first from the things fleeing the werewolves and then eventually from the defenders of Oakhurst as they approach Oakhurst. They should probably find some of the survivors (in the cellars you mentioned). They might also be attacked on their way into Oakhurst. Any and all of that could allow you to sprinkle your hook.

If they do not wait until dawn, their travel should be significantly impeded by attacks (either from werewolves or from things fleeing the werewolves). (Surely, something in the area is dangerous to the characters and not friendly with the werewolves?) This allows that the attack in Oakhurst is complete (and the important NPC killed) when the characters arrive. You might also sprinkle an opportunity to save one or two pockets of survivors (some that didn't have a secure enough cellar, maybe?).

All of that should create enough of an incentive for most good parties to go get 'em. If not, as the characters make their way out of Oakhurst, they should continue to see signs of the werewolves. The next place they might reasonably go might also be feeling the impacts of the werewolves community. This allows for the danger to persist and maybe even grow depending on how much leeway you are providing the group. (I know you wrote you want to get to Forge of Fury.)

If that still fails to get the job done (or you at whatever point you deem that their wandering must end) you could always dangle a carrot by introducing an NPC to offer a reward. (Maybe someone looking for them because they heard how the characters saved their neighbors (the people with the insecure cellar) during the attack?)

You might also consider whether the actions of the characters can be blamed for the werewolves aggression. Did the characters do something that opened the werewolves up to attacking Oakhurst? If so it might be a good motivation for the characters to learn about it.

Finally, perhaps consider that the NPC that gave them the quest was conspiring with the werewolves... is a werewolf... and won't be paying them their reward now, thank you very much for helping out the werewolf community. So, they could meet the NPC in Oakhurst and find him saying something like... 'Move along now before I decide I'd like you even better on team werewolf not just working for team werewolf.' (He might even pay them the reward if you think that they are a 'good' enough group that the knowledge they assisted in the sacking of Oakhurst will leave them plotting the rebellion against the werewolves.)

As to the keep as a reward... that is going to depend on a lot of stuff very specific to your group... how much time are they going to spend managing the keep? How long before the keep is up and running... they could hit level 10 before they have any benefit from this reward depending on how you run administering the keep's repairs and then it's growth. The local lord is going to expect ongoing taxes from the keep... (at least as much as the werewolves were paying her... oooohhhhh....) Anyway, you get the idea. (If you aren't really interested in running a campaign with that kind of settlement management you might want to reconsider the keep as a reward.) Level 3 is too early to be benefiting from running the keep in most campaigns I've been in, but it could take awhile for it to pay off... so...

Good luck.

[Demnok]

Thank you. Having them harried by the werewolves is a good motivator. My main concern is that they arrive in town see its sacked and are like, "well so much for this place," then mosey off.
One of the players is looking for his brother so I also thought that he could be captured by the werewolves and when they rescue him, oops he loses his fight with the curse and transforms. Leaving the party with the choice of killing or restraining then getting him to a city and curing him.
I like the idea of them getting a keep because I would like that if I was a player. It's multiple floors so at some point each of them could design their own floor as it's rebuilt. It would take them until they are level 6-8 before they would get any benefit. But I think instead of them getting it right away they might get offered it later after the forge of fury. a lord offers them the now cleared keep (thanks to them) for yet another favor.
But before that they will need some retainers. So that someone could run things for them and make things happen while they are out. If Erky (gnome NPC in Sunless Citadel) makes it out alive he might be a good manager for the keep.

Thanks again two brains are better than one!

[LordEntrails]

You can lay the hooks, but I don't recommend you drive them in with a hammer. If the players don't bite, so be it. They leave a slaughtered town and a bloodthirsty band of werewolves behind them. Maybe the next time they emerge into civilization they hear of another town being slaughtered. Maybe they never take the hook, and that should be ok.

Maybe the werewolves keep getting stronger as they kill more people and grow their pack. Maybe they become the nemesis of the party, maybe they don't.

As for a keep at 3rd level. Seems pretty big of a reward. But, maybe not. After all they won't have the money to do anything with the title until they are higher level. And right now it will not be more than an abondoned ruin. Which doesn't really matter if they have the title to or not since possession in 9/10ths of the law :) Then, when they do have the money to rebuild it, they are going to have to worry someone (maybe an escaped werewolf) wanting to take it away from them.

[Demnok]

Yeah I agree with not hammering them. It will be a shame to pour into this and have it fruitless but I have to remember it's their game not mine ><.

I think you are right they shouldn't be given the keep yet. Maybe I just make them really like it. But reserve it for later in the campaign.

Keep the ideas coming. You are doing all the hard work for me lol.

[LordEntrails]

There is a link on this post here (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?36014-GM-Advice)to the Alexandrian. He has several articles on Don't Prep Plots, Prep Situations. I highly recommend them.

[SirGraystone]

Here's a few suggestions of how I would do it, (and they are only that suggestions).

First I would not use Oakhurst, I would make a new village on the way to Sunless Citadel. I would have then stop for the night in the inn, and have someone give the warning to leave town before it's too late but not explaining why exactly.

Then in the night have the werewolves attack the town, kills a few peoples, have one burst into the inn for the PCs to fight.

In the morning the PCs are already involve, have someone ask them to save their kidnapped daughter. Let them use survival to tracks the werewolves to their lair, if they arent good tracker have a local hunter help them. He can explain the story of the Keep once they see it.

About owning the Keep, if you plan more adventures around it then go ahead and let the mayor give them it to them or sell it cheap to them. Having a group adventurers close to the village is good protection after all. Some lord can show up later claiming its his or something. But if you plan to move them away don't bother with the Keep.

For the missing brother, I would have him be the werewolves leader, then they have to choice between killing him or try to find a way to remove the curse.

[JohnD]

This doesn't sound like an "intermission" but rather a whole campaign kicking off.

[Demnok]

It will eventually be the start of the campaign as long as I have enough time. But what I wanted was a small test of map design, how to create encounters and parcels etc in FG. Basically it's just two floors of the keep that are able to be walked around in the rest are collapsed so it's a small test for me. I do think of the attack happened while they were in town it would be a better hook. Thanks.