Yesterday was the second post-COVID Dungeons & Dragons adventure I was able to host at my library. Unfortunately, everyone from last month had a schedule conflict. I don't think it's so much a hint that I am a bad DM as proof that I need to see what 4H, craft fairs, and other random stuff is going on that same day. Oh, well.
I did, however, have a couple kids who wanted to play, so I went ahead and had a parallel adventure. I have now drawn a rough map of the entire island, and I used the tables from Xanathar's Guide to Everything to determine encounters. I do have an overarching plan, but the players need to explore the island and discover the points of interest, and this gives me the opportunity to randomly generate some landmarks along the way. Since there were only two players, I just halved the monster count the dice told me to include.
The duo, Mark the Paladin and Krieg the Fighter, decided to explore the northern coast of the island. There was an older shipwreck partially buried in the sand. They found a ghoul gnawing on a long-rotted corpse amidst the wreckage and dispatched it easily. When they investigated the corpse, a d100 roll and the trinket table from the Player's Handbook said they found a strange brass sphere etched with runes they could not decipher.
They then decided to explore the hilly peninsula to find a vantage point from the highest hill. Time for the hill encounter table instead of coastal! They first saw a troll, and wisely decided the second-highest hill was good enough. There, they found a slightly sun-crazed dwarf whittling on a piece of wood. He said he was a survivor of the wreck, and everyone else on board had succumbed to some kind of cannibalistic madness. Thus, I neatly explained how a dwarf was on a desert island, and why they had found a shipwreck with a ghoul. Neat!
The dwarf decided if the players weren't also cannibalistic lunatics, he might like to join the camp. On the way back, he dug around the wreckage until he found his dwarf treasure hoard and promised the two players a gem each if they helped carry it to camp. On the way back eastward, one more coastal encounter was rolled. They got crabs! Eight of them! I decided instead of a boring attack, I'd make it a bit humorous, and said the crabs looked almost like they were dancing toward the trio.
They responded by dancing as well. OK, then. Suddenly one of the crabs is a literal fiddler crab, and we had our own little D&D Crab Rave.
Since they, and even the NPC dwarf, all rolled well on their Performance checks, I decided one of the crabs would try to communicate danger from the old wreck they had just explored. A natural 20 on an Insight check ensued, so they managed to glean the warning sign from the oddly communicative interpretive dance crustacean.
But was the warning about the wreck, the ghouls, or the orb they pocketed? No one has asked yet... Mwahahahaha...
The fighter is also the ship's cook now, so when I said the crew was preparing their noon meal when the duo got back to camp, Krieg went full Gordon Ramsay. It was an amusing bit of role-playing.
In the afternoon, they decided to venture through the mile or so of forest to reach some plains and then the foothills of the central volcano on the island. On the way, they observed some giant lizards and remembered lizardfolk were known to use them as mounts and beasts of burden like we use horses, if only they could find a way to capture and domesticate them. They decided discretion was the better part of valor, though, and carried on.
Before they could get through the forest proper, they were caught by a vine blight and some twig blights. Krieg was ensnared and wounded to unconsciousness, but Mark valiantly slew the shrubbery despite being nearly overcome himself, rendered first aid, and fireman-carried his compatriot toward camp.
On their way back, though, I had to roll on the forest encounters table one more time... Fortunately, it was a dryad. She revived Krieg and fed them Goodberries, noting that they had encountered some rot in the forest. I think I have my story hooks for links to the Feywild and the Shadowfell now! When they find the standing stones and the abandoned village, real adventures can start!
At any rate, that's my story. I think they enjoyed it so far. We'll see whether they return for the next session or not.
Keep calm and game on!