SoSA the 15th: Dragons and Giants and Haggis, Oh My! (Avalon Lost)

This is post 15 out of 25 in the Cygnus Series of a September of Short Adventures. It's also the 3rd post in a mini-series about the post-Arthurian Avalon Lost campaign setting.

Maps for Arthurian adventures often are cut off on top, such that Hadrian's Wall, or thereabouts, seems to be the northernmost edge of Great Britain. I think that eliminates much of the potential fun that can be had in traipsing the highlands, battling over whose tartan has been proscribed, and figuring out whether that screeching sound is a banshee or a bagpipe!

So, until TSR releases their new AD&D hardback, Scottish Adventures, I thought I'd focus on two interesting things that could be done with special Fiends from the Firth of Forth....

1. The Loch Ness Dragon

You don't need more than that header and this image, do you?

When PCs arrive in the region, they learn that, yes, there is a terrible dragon who periodically emerges from the black depths of the Loch to terrorize the people. But is that the whole story? I can think of two obvious twists:

• Actually the Loch Ness Monster is of good alignment, and is a protector of the people. The people need protecting from an even worse villain (a human, naturally) who puts the blame on that hideous beast whenever possible.
• The PCs could learn the dragon is female, and has just laid some eggs in a region of the Loch that people have been coming into to fish. There's nothing more fierce than a mama dragon protecting her babies!

Anyway, one can find just the right unique concept for the LND by using judicious choices from E. G. Palmer's awesome random dragon generator, or maybe multiple clicks on this other dragon generator. I've always been kind of partial to the Night Dragon variant from Dragon #74. (He's pretty much all "Hide in Shadows" until the breath weapon comes out: blinding white light! Perfect for the murky Loch.) I also credit some recent highbrow literature with reviving the concept of unique dragon design. :-)

2. Random Giant/Ogre Generation

Meeting a dude who's 10, 20, or 30 feet tall should be as unique an experience as meeting a dragon. Especially so in Scotland, where everything seems bigger than life and full of fresh mountain air. In that spirit, I present a random generator for these glandularly excited individuals...

Height in feet: 2d12 + 6  (i.e., a range of 8' to 30')

HD and "Standard" Damage per Attack (with giant-sized melee weapon):

If height is 8'-9', HD = 1d4+3 (4-7); Damage/attack = 1d10.
If height is 10'-11', HD = 1d6+4 (5-10); Damage/attack = 2d8.
If height is 12-'13', HD = 1d6+5 (6-11); Damage/attack = 3d8.
If height is 14'-16', HD = 1d6+6 (7-12); Damage/attack = 4d8.
If height is 17'-19', HD = 1d6+8 (9-14); Damage/attack = 5d8.
If height is 20'-23', HD = 1d6+10 (11-16); Damage/attack = 6d8.
If height is 24' or more, HD = 1d6+14 (15-20); Damage/attack = 7d8.

Armor Class (descending):  1d6 - 1  (i.e., 0 to 5).

Intelligence:  Roll 1d20...

01-06: Low
07-13: Average
14-16: Very
17-18: High
19: Exceptional
20: Genius

Gender:  Roll 1d6....  1-4: male, 5: female, 6: extremely difficult to tell...

Alignment (yoinked from E.G.'s dragon generator):  Roll 1d8...

1. Lawful Good
2. Lawful Evil
3. Neutral Good
4. Neutral
5. Neutral Evil
6. Chaotic Good
7. Chaotic Evil
8. Alignment subject to change. Re-roll per encounter

Chance to find giant in lair: (1d8)x5+10 %.  In other words, roll 1d8, multiply result by 5, and add 10.  Result is a percentage.

Skin Color:  Roll 1d12...

1. Reddish
2. Yellowish
3. Pale Green
4. Light Blue
5. Violet
6. Brownish Green
7. Brown
8. Tan
9. Dull Gray
10. Coal Black
11. Ivory/Bone
12. Chalk White

Hair:  Roll 1d20...

01-06: Similar to local Scots.
08-11: Completely bald and hairless.
12-14: Full-on Sasquatch.
15-16: Long, barbarian-style mane.
17: Dwarf-braided longbeard.
18: Buzz cut.
19: Moe from Three Stooges.
20: Achy-Breaky mullet.

Whacked-out quirks:  Roll 1d20...

01-12. None.
13. Cyclops.
14. Two heads (attacks as an Ettin).
15. Four hands.
16. Tusks as long as swords.  (Two extra bite attacks for 1d10 hp each.)
17. Undead giant. Roll 1d6 for zombie, wight, ghoul, vampire, skeleton, or lich.
18. Lycanthrope giant. Choose your favorite form.
19. Head of an animal: Roll 1d6 for: bull, goat, lion, horse, bear, or ape.
20. Not a giant human, but really a huge... roll 1d6 for: orc, goblin, hobgoblin, bugbear, troll, or kobold!

Special attacks/abilities:  Roll 1d20 (maybe roll twice or thrice on this table)...

1. Throws rocks at targets up to 20 times their height; damage is same as their regular melee damage with a giant-sized weapon.
2. Throws rocks at targets up to 30 times their height; damage is 1.5 times their regular melee damage with a giant-sized weapon.
3. Throws rocks at targets up to 40 times their height; damage is double their regular melee damage with a giant-sized weapon.
4. Can leap distances up to 20 times their height.
5. Hit only by magic weapons.
6. Catches hurled boulders 90% of the time.
7. Casts Call Lightning as a 10th level druid.
8. Casts Earthquake as a 15th level cleric.
9. Casts Summon Insects as a 12th level druid.
10. Casts Control Weather as a 20th level cleric.
11. Can polymorph to a normal human size and appearance once per day.
12. Can become invisible 1d4 times per day (for up to 30 minutes each time).
13. Can charm person 1d10 times per day.
14. Reads minds.
15. Telekinesis of items up to twice their own weight.
16. Breath is noxious; effects and cone area equivalent to green dragon breath.
17. Able to move in rapid bursts for a total of 10 rounds per day. In each of these rounds, the giant can make 3 attacks instead of the usual 1.
18. Invulnerable to a specific type of dragon breath (or similar attack). Roll 1d10 for: black, blue, brass, bronze, copper, gold, green, red, silver, or white.
19. Can summon up a number of elementals equal to giant's HD each day.
20. Can smell the blood of an Eng-lish-mun up to 100 feet away.

The above may come close to being able to reproduce the range of AD&D Monster Manual giants, ogres, ogre magi, ettins, and titans, but I guarantee nothing!  :-)

SoSA the 14th: The Feckless Fief (Avalon Lost)

This is post 14 out of 25 in the Cygnus Series of a September of Short Adventures. It's also the 2nd post in a mini-series about the post-Arthurian Avalon Lost campaign setting.

There's an interesting option for a starting player character that I neglected to mention in the previous post. If one of the players is especially jazzed about restoring honor and chivalry to this dystopic and chaotic setting, then maybe that character should be held back for a special introduction...

Once the other PCs leave their home town and enter the wilderness, they can come upon a small cave or barrow. (How? Maybe chasing a fleeing rabbit for dinner... or running away from a wolf chasing someone?) Long story short: buried in this barrow is our special PC, who was cursed to lie in a kind of suspended animation for two-score years. This was one of Arthur's knights, albeit one of the newest and greenest; just having taken his vows and been dubbed a few weeks before he was cursed. But he is now revived (somehow!) by the presence of the other PCs. Of course, being a PC himself, he bonds with them and wants to join their party. :-)

The opportunities for culture shock are obvious. Also, Sir X will likely have to hide his true identity as a knight in order to survive in this bleak time. Still, he will endeavor to keep to the laws of chivalry as he received them. (The example list of "commandments" to the right were given in an article by Robert J. Bezold in Dragon #51, on codes of conduct for AD&D paladins.)

Anyway, one of the rumors that the PCs first hear in Londinium is that there is a small kingdom (about 100 miles to the northwest) where a truly chivalrous ruler sits, and that he was once a knight of Arthur. Whether or not the other PCs want to go there, the revived knight will probably desire to do so. The kingdom is Mercia, and the king rules from Castle Tamworth. The king is known to his subjects by the royal title Cynewald, but the DM should know that this is truly Sir Bedivere, who was with Arthur until the end, and who returned Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake. He was exceedingly lucky that his kingdom was so well-protected from invaders, since nearly all of the other knights who went off to rule various fiefs did not survive so long.

Unfortunately, Bedivere's mind has gone a bit soft in the decades since the end of Camelot. Due to a combination of nostalgia and a misguided belief in the widespread existence of knights throughout the land, he forces his local community to hold sham jousts and other courtly doings, 4 times a year. To avoid his anger, his underlings manage to hire fake knights, squires, and chaste ladies who look the part, but outside their public play-acting they're not what they seem to be. Many people in the surrounding town of Tamworth enjoy these entertainments, but those who pay the high taxes to support the extravagance aren't that happy.

It goes without saying that our revived knightly PC will be outraged at the sacrilege of holy chivalric traditions. (I'm reminded of Aang's outrage at the re-purposing of the Northern Air Temple.) What happens next, only the players know....

Of course, DMs can spice things up in many ways. Jeff's Random Castle Shenanigans would serve well as a "wandering monster encounter chart" when at Tamworth. I think I've already linked to Welsh Piper's Random Noble House charts, which can flesh out more intrigue about Bedivere's family and royal court.

SoSA the 13th: Avalon Lost

This is post 13 out of 25 in the Cygnus Series of a September of Short Adventures.

This post introduces the Avalon Lost campaign setting, which will be fleshed out a bit in the next week's worth of posts. In it I've tried to mix in a bit of the post-apocalyptic feel of a Dying Earth type genre, while still keeping it tied to a quasi-historical (albeit high-mythical) version of our own Earth.

The idea is that it is now several decades after le Morte d'Arthur. The exalted age of Camelot is still remembered by many people, but after the fall of the High King, the land is in chaos. A quarter century of rising brutality, slavery, and petty kings have caused the good people of Britain to lose hope. Can a new generation of adventurers revive the lost ideals of chivalry?

It's assumed the PCs meet up with one another in a little backwater town called Londinium, circa 561 AD. King Arthur's last stand was in 536 (25 years ago), and it coincided with a mysterious climatic event that caused the Isle of Avalon to disappear beneath the waves.

Ah! my Lord Arthur, whither shall I go?

Where shall I hide my forehead and my eyes?

For now I see the true old times are dead,

When every morning brought a noble chance,

And every chance brought out a noble knight.

Such times have been not since the light that led

The holy Elders with the gift of myrrh.

But now the whole Round Table is dissolved

Which was an image of the mighty world,

And I, the last, go forth companionless,

And the days darken round me, and the years,

Among new men, strange faces, other minds.

          - Alfred Lord Tennyson, Idylls of the King

FYI, one may see some similarities with Greg Stafford's monumental RPG Pendragon. That's certainly your go-to place for the heights of Arthurian glory -- but this ain't that!  :-)  There also may be some similarities with Jeff's Wessex campaign. However, Avalon Lost aims to be less focused on one small region, and even less "fauxthentic" in its historical accuracy. After all, once you step into the pool of Arthuriana, you're treading in the same waters as Mark Twain's Connecticut Yankee, Boorman's Excalibur, and Monty Python's Holy Grail! Even a relative straight-man like T. H. White had guns and communists for Arthur to fight!

It's a grim place, but there are rumors that the candle-flame of knightly chivalry still exists... somewhere (see future post!). Most of humanity is not aware that there are things such as magic-users, or clerics that can summon miracles almost on command. There's also antipathy between these two casting classes, since most Christian clerics believe that King Arthur was cursed by his association with that devil-worshiper Merlin (who's gained similar notoriety as this guy). The few remaining secretive magic-users see things differently!

I'm assuming an absence of prevalent Tolkienish demi-humans and Gygaxian humanoids, so the choices of "race" for starting PCs are probably limited to just, well, Briton, Angle, Saxon, or Jute. There are likely to be ogres or giants in far-away remote areas (see future post!), and maybe Teutonic dwarfs over in Germany or Scandanavia. Of course, Britain is home to the Fair Folk (see future post!) and other nature spirits.

DMs should probably go with a silver standard for coins, and find a nice hexmap of Britain -- which I thought Google would provide aplenty, but I could only find one even remotely serviceable. If any one's search-fu is better than mine, please let me know. Or we can just wait for Alexis' largess to extend northwestward! Stafford has some great non-hexed period maps. Mapping out the Roman roads is good for scoping out the skeleton of (crumbling) civilization, too.

Some other tidbits for this setting include:

• The starting adventure I posted (SoSA #1) was written with this setting's Londinium in mind.
• Despite the lack of visible knights galloping around, the PCs will hear rumors that, far away, there are still places where true knighthood still flowers.
• The sinking of the Isle of Avalon wasn't the end of life in that place. It's now a thriving underwater city of mer-people. They still faithfully maintain Arthur's tomb. If the PCs ever venture in there, they'll find it EMPTY.
• Castle Camelot itself has been razed, the Round Table broken up for kindling, the earth salted, and so on. To such a degree that many nearby people don't even realize where it stood anymore. Might there be a megadungeon underneath??
• Some parts of Britain are under occupation by invaders. Saxons are in Kent, and Danes/Vikings are in the northeast. Rumors of huge slave camps abound.

SoSA the 12th: Blood for the Black Widow

This is post 12 out of 25 in the Cygnus Series of a September of Short Adventures.

(This one works best if there's a half-elf in the party.)

Long elevator pitch: There is an evil high-level magic-user, Brunhoff of Kent, who has fallen insanely in love with Lolth, the demon queen of the Drow. He yearns to call her to him with the most powerful cacodemon spell he can muster. He gets it in his head that to do this, he requires not only the blood of a human victim for the material component of this spell, but a perfect blend of human, elf, and dwarf blood.

Brunhoff employed dozens of sages to (magically) trace the genealogies of everyone within a hundred miles. He discovered that one of the human PCs had two very interesting great-great-great-grand-ancestors: one was an elf, and one was a dwarf! (*) If there is a half-elf PC, then only one remote ancestor is needed. In any case, in this person the three types of blood are "co-mingled" perfectly!

Why does he believe this will do any good? Brunhoff learned that Lolth has expanded her dominion in the Abyss. She has totally conquered the Pharisee Elves of Caer Sidi, as well as the Mountain Dwarfs of Maldev. (You know your Q1 well, right? Both are other worlds in the prime material plane connected to Lolth's extradimensional web...) Brunhoff believes that this blood will demonstrate to Lolth that he, too, has conquered both elves and dwarfs, as well as those pesky humans who are always attacking her other allies, and thus gain her special favor.

So how might this play out?

One day, while walking down the street in a town or village, a local person, commonly dressed but carrying a high-quality fencing sword, bumps into the PC with the special blood. "Why don't you watch where you're going, X?" (Please insert for X any clearly demeaning epithet that emphasizes something negative about the PC's appearance or parentage.) No matter how the PC reacts, there's a loud challenge to a duel, right here on the spot. A crowd gathers.

Brunhoff is there, too, dressed as a mild-mannered cleric pushing a wheelbarrow of turnips for his monastery. He expects his hired hand (a high-level fighter) to defeat the PC in a duel. Then he will offer to take the injured/dying PC back to the monastery to be healed. Even if he can't kill the PC, he hopes to extract as much blood as he needs at leisure.

If the PCs run away, or if the PC wins the duel, then Brunhoff will go with a Plan B. The "cleric" will make himself an innocent-seeming pest to the PCs and follow them around a bit, maybe asking for their help with some local roughnecks who are threatening the safety of his (fake!) monastery. If all else fails, he may resort to some charm or geas action when the PC isn't surrounded by his or her friends.

What will happen next? That's about all I've got on this one, unfortunately. If you like the idea, I'm curious to know where you'd take it.

(*) The story of the dwarven female who, long ago, wanted to leave the mines and explore the world is a fascinating one that shouldn't be forgotten. She fell in love with a local lad, and luckily found a magical friend who helped her polymorph herself into a gorgeous human woman, and the rest is history....

SoSA the 11th: Bzzt! Thanks for Playing

This is post 11 out of 25 in the Cygnus Series of a September of Short Adventures.

You may have noticed that many of the previous posts are kind of explicit or obvious about the dangling of an "adventure hook" before the players. C'est la vie, I suppose, but if you go this route as a DM, I'd suggest also trying to balance these with other events that are NOT necessarily going to lead to a pre-planned scenario. Thus, this post contains tables of no-hook hooks that can be used to pepper in some flavor and verisimilitude into a campaign... and which can subvert players' expectations that every event must be meaningful.

Aside: How are these different from other similar tables of random events, like Michael's or Zak's? Well, maybe they aren't... but my goal here is probably a bit more sneaky; i.e., to provide events that SEEM like "real" adventure hooks, but really lead nowhere special.

Aside to the Aside: Of course, if the players really get interested in one of these events, an enterprising DM may choose to make something more of it on the fly. It makes no sense to just cut off players with "Oh, sorry, there's nothing behind Door Number Two."  Balance and moderation be the watchwords...

Anyway, on to the tables. One for town and one for country. These can be used when visiting some place for the first time, or when returning to a familiar area.

Town/city:

1. Showmen have come to town! The town is plastered in posters for an upcoming circus, play, sideshows, etc.
2. A hobo accosts a PC and says some crazy stuff.
3. There's a going out of business sale somewhere. Why are they closing their shop and preparing to rush out of town?
4. Tomorrow is a big religious festival. The locals are VERY eager for the PCs to participate. (Is it a death lottery or something? Nah...)
5. A main building in the town burns down in a huge fire. Everyone is pointing fingers at everyone else afterwards...
6. The river is rising, and the place is about to be flooded out!
7. A major crime just occurred. (Big-time heist? Murder of prominent citizen?) An angry mob may be forming soon if nothing is done to get to the bottom of it!
8. A mysterious stranger comes to town. The dude just got out of jail, and either (a) he's looking for revenge, or (b) he don't want no trouble.
9. An NPC known to the players (an innkeeper, blacksmith, etc.) wants to leave home and become an adventurer with the PCs, but he/she is completely "hopeless" -- in personality as well as in ability scores.
10. Strange disappearances! Last night marks the 3rd person to disappear in the last 2 weeks. Rumors include a serial killer, a monster prowling the streets, and those spooky gargoyles on the church coming to life.  But it's really just a set of coincidences: one was a mob hit for owed money, another was a random stick-up gone bad, and another was a jealous boyfriend killing a dude who was talking to his woman.
11. PCs arrive to find martial law in the town! Why?  (a) An evil prisoner escaped and is on the loose. (b) The Emperor is about to visit! (c) Who was it who scrawled that horrible (but true) graffiti about the mayor's bedroom proclivities? No matter the reason, outsiders may be looked upon with greater suspicion than usual.
12. Everyone's windows are shuttered and the people are hidden away in fear.  A bad omen occurred -- pigeons pooping on the eyes of the statue of the main deity or something -- and that CAN'T portend anything good.

Wilderness:

1. There was a big battle here... yesterday. Who fought? What's left to find in the carnage?
2. An empty cottage sits in the middle of nowhere, with smoke coming out of the chimney and a fire burning in the hearth. But nobody's around for miles....
3. If the PCs get within a few yards of a certain tree, they spot an empty crystal
   potion bottle lying among the roots.
4. An absent-minded sage is found, exploring for rare plants and insects.
5. Hey... that's an ominous-looking cave. What could be in there? (Sometimes players need to be reminded that there are big bad monsters in the world that aren't guarding any treasure whatsoever!)
6. Freaky weather: Snow in July? Locusts falling from the sky? Ball lightning? Huge hailstones? Light rain, but flash flood!
7. Freaky terrain: Mudslide? Quicksand? Earthquake? Avalanche? Why is there a sulfurous smell coming from that ravine?
8. A lone horse is grazing in a field. No saddle or tack, but it's obviously well-trained as a riding horse.
9. There's a perfectly circular ring of toadstools (a "fairy ring") in a glade. Not magical at all; just naturally occurring!
10. The PCs come upon a large grassy hill, with a number of wide, chalk-like ruts carved into its side. If they move back to a point where they can see the entire hill at once, they see the overall design: a centaur!
11. The PCs find a small caravan of religious pilgrims who were just robbed. "Please help us!" But the robbers are long gone and will never be found.
12. The PCs spot some activity in a nearby hillside, and see the opening of a mine. A half-dozen grizzled, filthy dudes are working there, and they're also prepared to defend their turf if needed. Unfortunately, they bought the mine from a swindler, and there's really no gold or gems inside.

Finally, one should add to these lists the introductory hooks for all of the other SoSA adventures in this series!  (If you're not going to use them as true hooks, of course...)  :-)

SoSA the 10th: The High Priest of Quackery

This is post 10 out of 25 in the Cygnus Series of a September of Short Adventures.

There's a charismatic man, call him Humble Pymander, who comes to town claiming to be able to teach people how to access cleric spells like heal, bless, etc., but without needing to be a cleric in thrall to some capricious deity. He's a swindler, of course. However much popularity he garners amongst the rubes, the local clerics may have a thing or two to say about this person cutting in on their territory!

The PCs can encounter Pymander in several ways.  They can "randomly" come upon his revival tent and attend a performance. Or, in a tavern or inn, Pymander may approach the PCs and ask for their services, telling them his life is in danger: "Protect me from those clerics!"

The revival performance is a classic medicine show, with musical entertainments and success-story testimonials punctuating the hard-sell from Pymander himself. The climax occurs when the clients (who have paid dearly for the opportunity) line up and get a special two-handed hand-clasp from Pymander, which supposedly transfers the power to them. From then on, it's claimed, they will have the ability to heal and bless, as well as repel the undead, just like the most powerful clerics of yore.

How does he do it? Pymander once had access to a powerful artifact that gave him the knowledge to create a new alchemical potion. This viscous, clear liquid is an arcane combination of three ingredients:

1. two parts Potion of Extra Healing (for the healing oomph),
2. one part Keoghtom's Ointment (for the power do it via touch), and
3. three parts Potion of Human Control (to transfer the benefits to others).
   

He smears some on the hands of each dupe, which gives them the actual power to heal 1d3 hit points of damage on another person, via another laying on of hands.  However, this power only lasts for about 24 hours.

Pymander also claims that his power transference gives people the power to turn undead. Once per visit to a new town, he takes his star students out to a graveyard late at night to test their new abilities. Of course, he has accomplices dressed up as zombies and wights, who bust their way out of shallow graves, attack, then act appropriately frightened when the rubes "turn" them.

Some events that may spur some interesting PC activities include:

• The PCs will learn about the limited duration of Pymander's transference of healing powers. If Pymander is ever confronted about it, he will claim the person must not have been concentrating hard enough. THEN he will begin preparing to skip town as soon as possible! 
• Pymander has a couple of hulking, 18-strength goons that travel with him for protection. They will be quick to lean on anyone that comes backstage looking for the man in charge. Pymander also hired a few local 1st-level fighters for additional security, but these have low morale.
• Given sufficient advance advertising, clerics of all local denominations will certainly send agents into the audience to investigate what's going on.
• Clerics of some of the more chaotic deities may also sneak around backstage... and attempt to kidnap Pymander to wrest his secrets from him.  This is one reason that he's got the goon squad on high alert.

In reality, Pymander is is a middle-aged high-level thief who owns many different magic items. Some of these items would be found on his person, or in a Bag of Holding that he keeps in a Portable Hole... inside another Portable Hole. On his person he also has a large ornate key made of bone, with an image of a jet-black horse carved into it.

Proclaiming Pymander's secrets to the public is likely NOT to convince his most devoted followers of the truth. They will jump through hoops to legitimize his actions, and they may attack anyone who sullies his exalted name.

SoSA the 9th: The Earl of Mountebank

This is post 9 out of 25 in the Cygnus Series of a September of Short Adventures.

The elevator pitch: The PCs are hired to escort a noble family, who are traveling to a distant kingdom to marry off their son in a big royal wedding. The twist: The nobles are impostors! The caravan is attacked by people who seem to be common brigands, but they're really loyalists, led by the masked son of the real noble family.

Do I even need to include any more?  :-)

Among the impostors are two medium-level thieves (pretending to be the Earl and his adult son), plus one high-level female assassin (pretending to be the Countess, the wife of the Earl), and a few streetwise urchins (pretending to be the other younger royal children). There are also a handful of 1st/2nd level fighters (valets) and zero-level females (attendants to the Countess and children).

How are the impostors pulling this off? They intercepted some written communications that were being carried back and forth between the real Earl and another noble family from 100 miles away. (For convenience, let's call the Earl's family the Montagues and the other family the Capulets, okay?) The Montagues were in the final stages of arranging a marriage for their spoiled eldest son. Once the band of thieves started reading these messages, they hatched a plan to get themselves in on the action. They began tossing out the real messages and sending two separate sets of fake messages:

• The Capulets began receiving messages from the faux-Montagues that kept up the excitement about the wedding, but contained a desire to move up the date to something sooner -- and to hold the wedding at the Capulet's castle.
• The Montagues began receiving messages from the faux-Capulets that contained nothing but delays, delays, delays...

Thus, the impostors are traveling overland to Castle Capulet for the big nuptials. Their plan is to purloin whatever they can the first night they're safely bedded down in the guest quarters of the castle -- including the lavish wedding gifts. They thought they could use a little extra muscle (and pomp) and thus hired the PC party to escort them. The real Montagues, on the other hand, just recently got wind of this and are moving to stop the impostors.

The following set of events outlines one possible way this adventure could play out:

1. The real Montagues and their men begin attacking the caravan on the main road. It starts out with sniper-type attacks (bows, slings, thrown knives, bolos) but if that doesn't work they escalate to frontal attack.
2. The PCs may suggest leaving the main road for safety and cover. There are some other paths through the dense forest, but they would take longer to traverse -- and the impostors don't want to miss the big day! Prepare a map that gives players meaningful choices and tradeoffs.
3. At some point, the raiders kidnap one of the PCs (or otherwise separate him/her from the rest) and tell that one PC their story. The PC learns that they're led by the real "spoiled" son, who in reality isn't so spoiled! But the raiders decide the PC has now been away for too long, and the other PCs (and the impostor Montagues) must be led to assume that the PC was killed. Do they leave behind bloody clothes or a valued item?
4. Willingly or not, the captured PC has now been included into the raiding party. Now they resume their ambushes with renewed vigor. How can the PC warn his/her friends without tipping off the impostors?

Even if the PCs stay together, there will be clues that things are not as they seem. Each night, one of the thieves or urchins will attempt to steal something from the PCs. Use whatever system you have for "perception" to figure out if they get away with it, or if the PCs start to notice missing items.

If one of the PCs decides to ride on ahead to Castle Capulet for reconnaissance, they will hear some gossip about the Montagues that conveys information contrary to what they've seen from the impostors. The "son" is playing his part as a spoiled prig, but anyone who's met the real son wouldn't refer to him that way. The "Earl" is playing it very straight and proper, but the PC may hear about the real Earl's flatulence problem that everyone knows about....

See Welsh Piper's random guide to royal houses for generating additional familial flavor and intrigue.