u/OldElf86

I am an amateur musician and a Scout leader.

I encourage my scouts to pick up NAF as a hobby so they can learn the joy of music.

To make the most of it, I teach them the "cross-fingerings" so they can play contemporary music along with NAF and NAF inspired melodies. But the next step is to get flute players playing together.

You might quickly have problems if you stick with only one voice, so using multiple voices together is part of entering that next level.

I have learned that it is handy to combine flutes in specific keys or voices to expand the dynamic range of music you may enjoy. The combination I favor is pairing Gm flutes with Dm flutes. This opens up the note range and the flutes natural fingerings compliment each other very well. In fact, you can play the Gm flute using the NAF scale covering the third hole from the top, and you overlap the same notes playing the Dm flute covering the fourth hole from the top. This allows a very simple pairing of the flutes.

If anyone else is interested in pairing flutes with different voices, I recommend this interval. If you want to adopt many SATB harmonies, often using this combination works well. For example you may put two Gm flutes on melody and tenor (one on each) and the a high Dm on alto and a low Dm on bass.

I am building my Medieval D&D setting in a Feudal country called Calanthi.

Calanthi spun off from another Human dominated nation called The United Kingdom of Men and Dwarves, usually just called the United Kingdom now. Calanthi adopted many of the societal institutions from The United Kingdom, but they are sufficiently new to allow innovation and to embrace new cultural norms.

So, Calanthi has a feudal structure with a king, dukes, marquis, earls, counts, and barons. It has a large number of landed nobles that are knights that oversee Manors and Hamlets.

I built the agrarian economy from as much real world stuff as I could find while simplifying it so it wouldn't become too much of a chore to track.

Now, I am adding the benefit of magic to the economy where D&D suggests there is applicable magic to help.

I started with Plant Growth, which when cast as a ritual doubles the productivity of the land for the next year. To do this, I had to create a permanent group of Druids so there would be enough druids that this could be accomplished in one month. The king had to offer the druids something in exchange for this service, so the druids get 1000+ acres in each barony as their own land. The druids move their families to the preserves and a small number of non-druids so they have their own self contained hamlet inside the forest.

Next, with the harvest, we needed to be able to move the surplus to the cities for long term storage and because the cities don't have adequate land to support their populations on the grain from the local farms. For this, a process of teleporting the grain was needed. Likewise, the remaining grain has to be stored near the locals so they can get it ground into flour before they can use it. Both these problems were solved by creating extra-dimensional granaries.

The Extra dimensional granaries allow grain to be stored in an airless environment so all the problems of storing grain; insect and rodent attack, rot, mold, mildew, moisture damage, doesn't exist. Two types of granaries were made. One where input and withdrawal takes place locally, and a second where input happens locally, but output happens in a city somewhere else. With these granaries, much of the need to travel to get crops in and stored is eliminated.

Another problem is water. Cities must have abundant water, but large rivers don't always exist where you want them. Every city has a creek or small river, but often not sufficient to supply a population like a city. The Wizards learned how to make certain blue gems into links to the elemental plane of water. These gems are placed in cisterns, and the gems keep the cistern full of water. A few of these gems can supply a city with the water they need.

What other tasks can I make magic to perform creating essentially an industrial solution to a medieval problem?

My players have accomplished an objective and are traveling back to civilization to collect their reward.

They are being pursued by Gnolls and spied upon by Orcs.

They have a guide from the Ranger Corps.

As they are leaving the Savannah and entering a broken forest, the gnolls will get within visual range. Their guide knows about an old "cave" (it is really a sink hole) where they can hole up to defend. I wanted to make this an encounter like Thermopolis.

Now, I was thinking to add some spice.

Inside the cave, I want to place some zombies. The players have to manage a fight with zombies and gnolls, where they think it's just going to be gnolls.

What thoughts do you have about this?

The Ranger knows how to get down in the cave and back up again using rope.

My campaign theme right now revolves around an impending raid by a Nation of Gnolls. They have split up into war parties with additional scout parties.

My players have crossed paths with a scout party and killed them all.

They are now all level 5: Battlemaster Fighter, Lore Bard, War Cleric, Circle of the Land Druid, Vengeance Paladin and a Beastmaster Ranger. This is a 5e (2014) campaign.

What ideas do you have for the encounter? What mix of Gnolls should they face? They are turning to "civilization" from their current position in the northern Savannah. They will enter the Broken Forest in one day traveling south. Three days through the forest they will reach the Ranger Pass through the hills and then another two days to the edge of the Duchy of Orion.