The Three Ogre Brothers is the introductory scenario for BEOWULF: Age of Heroes. It’s a bit unusual as such scenarios go, since it’s a more complex situation than a typical BEOWULF adventure. But we wanted to give players a good result for their investment and also build off of The Hermit’s Sanctuary, our free adventure.
The adventure begins with a prologue, suggested by Jon, that sets the mood. The Ogre Lands were once the kingdoms of men, and rightfully belongs to them. The Hero meets the ghost of the dispossessed king and his slain sons in a church near to the starting location for the adventure.
The Ogre Lands themselves are split between three ogre brothers, none of which is strong enough to lay claim to the entire kingdom. This division allows the Hero to take a divide-and-conquer approach to the adventure, which is likely necessary for victory.
In each land, the Hero will find an ogre, its various minions and allies, and regular folk, some of which can serve as allies against the ogres. It is likely that the Hero may spend some time exploring the lands and meeting folk before choosing to make an attack against one of the ogres. With a bit of luck, the hero can take each ogre as its own challenge and gain some power and experience before having to face all three of them.
The repeating nature of the challenges and the aid are designed to create a fairy-tale like environment, where the player essentially learns how to be a hero by observing the situations for each of the ogres and dealing with them.
And, finally, there is the power vacuum that the Hero will be leaving behind. That’s not necessarily important for a first adventure of going forth and slaughtering monsters, but it’s something interesting and worth thinking about.