WoW RPG: Starting the first Adventure

The Ironforge Dwarf Hunter Uldihm Frostfavor is ready to start his adventures by trying to track and tame a bear as his animal companion.

Dun Morogh Panorama View by Dreamwalker

The Premise

Uldihm Frostfavor, the hero of this story, has finally earned the right to tame an animal companion. The last test in his training to be a Ranger of the Mountain Watch is upon him. Can he survive the cold and harsh landscape of Dun Morogh on his own? Can he endure the hardships before him? The local animals are cunning and don't trust easily, so this will be a challenge of wit as well as strength. Uldihm has dreamt of this moment for as long as he can remember. Failure is not an option.

GEMulator

I start by writing down the initial adventure hook. As mentioned in the previous post, I'm only going to fill out the campaign log after the first adventure. The initial list entries are going to be minimal because I imagine the beginning to be quite focused and short.

• Quest: Track and tame a bear as an animal companion
• Giver: Mountain Watch
• Reason: Tradition
• Location: Dun Morogh Wilderness

Active Lists

Characters

Uldihm Frostfavor
Local Wildlife

Factions
Mountain Watch

Locations
Campsite
Dun Morogh Wilderness

Goals
Track a potential animal companion
Tame a bear as an animal companion

The First Scene

I envision the story starting in the snowy mountains west of Ironforge (see map below). The tradition of the Mountain Watch required Uldihm to travel deep into the untouched wilds of Dun Morogh's mountains. We meet him in his improvised campsite in the early hours of his third day. He is about to embark on an attempt to find bear tracks.

 

Let's roll for Scene Transition to find out if anything changes about that Scene. No modifier, as the Campaign Parameters aren't defined yet.
Transition: Negative Interruption | Focus: New Character
Is it a humanoid? Unknown: No | Ok, so it's an animal.
Is it a bear (potential animal companion)? Unknown: No

I guess that would have been too easy. Thinking about the zone in the MMO, it's probably a wolf or a boar. I'm going to look through the Monster Guide and see what kinds of options there are.

What animal is it? 1d6 (Wolf, Boar, Wolf (giant), Battleboar, Dire Wolf, Dire Boar): Wolf
Lucky. A simple Wolf is the easiest option. The stats are from the Horde Player's Guide.

A lone wolf approaching a campsite must be really desperate. Probably starving and after the rations in Uldihm's backpack.

Adventure Log Scene Entries
Transition: Starving Wolf interrupts Uldihm's breakfast
Location: Campsite
Goal: Survive the encounter with the starving wolf.
Start: Uldihm is sitting in the camp and eating breakfast.

Does Uldihm hear the approaching wolf? Contested Listen/Stealth check: 19vs14 Uldihm hears it.

The biting early morning cold robbed the trail rations of any taste. Uldihm sat on top of his bedroll and nibbled on the rock-like food. He was planning his route to increase the chances of encountering bear tracks when he heard the all too familiar crunch of snow nearby.

The cliffside that protected him from biting wind during the night suddenly became a dangerous platform for whatever creature was lurking around up there. Just as he grabbed his long rifle, the silhouette of a gaunt gray wolf appeared on the high ground above.

Can Uldihm scare the wolf and get it to run away? DC15 Handle Animal check (-2 because the wolf is desperate): 11, fail.

Uldihm raised his rifle into the air and bellowed a loud challenge toward the wolf. Slowly crouching down, it almost looked like the wolf was afraid - until it lunged toward the dwarf below.

Combat

Writing out every dice roll in a system like this sounds like the opposite of fun and torturous to read, which is why I'm going to heavily summarize combats for this campaign.

I'm using FoundryVTT for battlemaps and token movement, but everything else is done with pen&paper and physical dice.

Uldihm was quick to the draw and managed to shoot the wolf in mid-leap, gravely wounding him.

The momentum carried the wounded wolf straight toward Uldihm, who only narrowly managed to escape its deadly bite.

Dropping his long rifle, the dwarf quickly drew his waraxe and buried it in the wolf's skull.

Scene Conclusion

Goal achieved: -15 to next Scene Transition roll

Winning the initiative is very important in 1v1 encounters like these. The first shot almost killed the wolf in one hit, which reminded me how extreme the power difference between challenge levels is in 3.5e games.

Only 9 rifle bullets left. Hopefully, that will be enough to get Uldihm through this Adventure. Resupply is far away and would mean failure to join the Mountain Watch.

Stay tuned for the next post, where we'll get to see how Uldihm fares when it comes to tracking a bear.