Modifying I Smell A Rat for two PC's (Swashbuckler and Cleric)

Almenac · 10-07-2019, 01:49 AM

I'm going to run I Smell a Rat next week, but I only have two players. Their characters are a Swashbuckler and a Cleric built according to the Adventurers templates.

I know the adventure is designed with six delvers in mind so I'm asking for your help to tone it down. I don't mind it being a little bit of challenge, but I don't want it to be a killer dungeon it seems to be based on reading it.

Some things I've thought about:

- Add more actual rats
- Reduce the number and size of the spiders
- Tone down or remove the evil runes from the passage the characters can't avoid
- Replace the peshkali with something easier or use a two-armed version
- Replace the armored golem swordsman with something easier
- Remove toxifier/replace with something easier
- Tone down Merle's ranged attack (see below)

As a background I'm dropping the adventure into my own homebrew fantasy world. I was thinking that Merle's circle found an encased demon during their excavations and tried to bind it to their will. They failed and were all killed. Merle however was able to imprison the demon inside a circle he made with his own blood. The demon would possess Merle's body and would try to convince the adventurers to break the circle and release him, making it all seem like a simple arcane mishap.

What do you think? Is this a workable idea? What else would you suggest?

10-07-2019, 01:49 AM	#1
Almenac Join Date: Dec 2018	Modifying I Smell A Rat for two PC's (Swashbuckler and Cleric) I'm going to run I Smell a Rat next week, but I only have two players. Their characters are a Swashbuckler and a Cleric built according to the Adventurers templates. I know the adventure is designed with six delvers in mind so I'm asking for your help to tone it down. I don't mind it being a little bit of challenge, but I don't want it to be a killer dungeon it seems to be based on reading it. Some things I've thought about: - Add more actual rats - Reduce the number and size of the spiders - Tone down or remove the evil runes from the passage the characters can't avoid - Replace the peshkali with something easier or use a two-armed version - Replace the armored golem swordsman with something easier - Remove toxifier/replace with something easier - Tone down Merle's ranged attack (see below) As a background I'm dropping the adventure into my own homebrew fantasy world. I was thinking that Merle's circle found an encased demon during their excavations and tried to bind it to their will. They failed and were all killed. Merle however was able to imprison the demon inside a circle he made with his own blood. The demon would possess Merle's body and would try to convince the adventurers to break the circle and release him, making it all seem like a simple arcane mishap. What do you think? Is this a workable idea? What else would you suggest?