IRON DM 2014 Tournament

Iron DM Round 1, Match 2- Waylander vs Deuce

The Ingredients
Endless Quest - The Otyugh Murthag’s Journey. The PC’s quest for the cure.
Dicey Situation - What to do with Alloric/Friends/ those infested. What to do with PCs infested
Obsessive-compulsive Otyugh Murtag, who continues his sojourn through the warrens infecting people
Void Adventure location; both within and without
Suspiciously Nice Village Those Villages cured of the Void Plague
Wolf in sheep's clothing Alloric; a sweet six year old

The Void Plague
A mid to high level fantasy adventure


Not by my own will but the shepherd's folly.
The beast reared by me will make me his prey,
For gratitude cannot change nature.

Father Phineas, Priest of St. Cuthbert, was appalled at what he was witnessing- So called adventurers about to slaughter a small babe- ravening about prophecy and the child being touched by the Old Ones themselves. “Stop,” he commanded, his cudgel stopping the descending blade. ”No one will harm the babe. I will raise him myself to be a good man, prophecy or no.”

Introduction
The void plague ravages village after village on the Old Coast; the onset of the disease identifiable by nausea, diarrhea and high fevers. Thankfully, a savior has been found; a young child of six, Alloric, who appears to be able to cure the disease but with a touch. Those healed also seem to go through a wondrous transformation where they are peaceful, calm and positively nice at all times! What could be wrong?

Adventure Background
Six years ago Alloric , as he was subsequently named, was saved from being killed by Father Phineas. The boy’s now dead parents were cultists to Tharizdun, and had already completed the ritual through an artificial known as the Void Stone dedicating the child, as prophesied as the avatar of the Old One himself, to the Father of Elder Evils, the Author of Wickedness, the Eater of Worlds, the Despised.

The boy is an exemplar of goodness to all outward appearances, and with great magical powers manifesting quickly. But unbeknownst to all; great evil blossoms in his heart, along with a devious plan to subjugate all that is being put into motion.

Vast swaths of the Old Coast sits on the remnants of the wicked city of Phadera; destroyed long ago in a cataclysm. Now, the ruins create a warren of catacombs and passages that interconnect the entire area, though few if any are brave to venture into this maze, including underneath the church of St. Cuthbert. Alloric met his first servant, perhaps sent to him by the Despised himself here; the revered Otyugh Murthag the Plaguebearer. A touch from the blessed child manifested the Void Plague in Murthag- an infestation of undetectable void worm eggs. The beast’s nature was the perfect incubator and carrier- now compelled to travel through the warrens, infesting village after village.

The plague spread from village to village, with priests and healers befuddled by the disease. Thankfully, the touch of Alloric appears to heal the sick, even removing other “taint” from their nature. However, what is truly happening is that Alloric’s touch is hatching the void worms by creating a “void” inside each person’s brain, and thus hatched the worms embed themselves within each person’s brain, controlling them, as well as being psychically commanded by Alloric as needed.

Hooks
- The PCs are approached by a relative of those “cured” claiming odd and very unnatural/nice behavior
-One of the PCs themselves are infested, and have to travel to Alloric to be “healed.”
-The PCs home village/base was infested and cured, during the PCs absence (the rest of the scenario assumes this hook).

Event 1- A Surprisingly Pleasant Homecoming
Clean streets, everyone going about with a smile, the suspected brigands/robbers/cultists/angry bakers all being rather pleasant, formal, helpful and nice!
Encounters
GMs are encouraged to play it up. Potential encounters include:
- Jilted lovers being sweet and loving.
- Nasty family members now being very nice and pleasant
- Store owners not bargaining
- Everyone working together!
PCs, as paranoid as they are, will naturally think that it is a set up! Enquiry will easily reveal recent facts, including the sudden onset of the Plague and the magical cure by the blessed child Alloric of St. Cutbert.

If the PCs investigate further, they can follow the following suggested clues (DCs etc. as appropriate):
- The more powerful members of the town seem missing. If asked, others will say that they have left to help with the plague (pretty true- see below)
- Examining Poop/Vomit remnants indicate signs of parasitic infestation and also a strange substance; related knowledge checks reveal that the substance is really a “mini-void” and absence of matter.
- Cutting someone open/killing them and opening up the brain cavity reveals a mini void in the brain with strange floating worms. Such exposed worms will lunge for the nearest PC and try to burrow into their brain.
- Following the Spore Trail lead to the warrens under the village.
- General information gathering about the plague can reveal a pattern of infestation from village to village, that can be backtracked to the Village with the temple of St. Cuthbert.

Event 2- The Endless Quest of Murthag the Blessed
Murthag’s compulsion makes him continue on without recourse, following the warrens from village to village (and town or city if so evilly predisposed). Murthag also attracts other Otyugs who see the beast as being blessed and chosen, and follow/protect guard him.

Additional “followers,” especially those of adventuring ilk previously infested also now guard the Otyugh to ensure his safety. This include friends/lovers/former associates of the PCs who are now controlled by the “curing” of the void plague. Also, the longer the PCs delay confronting Murthag the greater his retinue will be.

Encounters
- With a clutch of Otyughs now guarding Murthag’s vanguard
- Other former PCs and NPCs who defend Murthag to the death. The PCs can chose to not kill them, making the combat that much more difficult.
- Battle with Murthag itself poses a high risk of the PCs being infested with the void plague.

Event 3- The Chosen of St. Cuthbert
Following the trail of Alloric is easy and the PCs can find the child in an infected village healing the sick, along with the proud Father Phineas. If confronted, the poor child will cower in fear, and not take any direct assertive action.

Encounters
- An irate Father Phineas and his retinue of Cuthbertites who are appalled at the PCs behavior
- The villagers who will aggressively defend the poor little child
- The “cured” villagers who as compelled by Alloric will aggressively defend the poor little child

Event 4- Possible Cure- Into the Void(One suggested ending only- see event 5 for others) The cure to eliminate the void worms can be found in their natural habitat- an asteroid in the great void, accessible either through a spell jamming ship or gate found deep in the ruins of Phadera (either a substance or plant found in void space).

Encounters
- Gith and others; including social encounters and research on the nature of the creature
- Followers of Tharizdun who actively attempt to thwart the PCs
-Other Cultists/creatures/void tainted found in the remenants of Phadera

Event 5- Conclusions
A lot depend on how the PCs handle themselves in these very tricky situations. A real cure for the Plague is left open ended. Perhaps it is as easy as a higher level healing spell; but even here, it will be a difficult decision in who gets healed. The same goes with how to handle Alloric, as the boy does not detect as evil and will not physically engage the PCs at any time, and will plead for his life and for their kindness. How to “kill” a six year old boy is also left to the GM.

Potential templates to build on for Alloric & Murthag

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/aberrations/veiled-master
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/aberrations/otyugh/otyugh-plaguebearer

Iron DM Round 1, Match 2- Deuce vs Waylander

Ingredients:

Endless Quest=> The endless quest of the villagers, always having to offer sacrifices to an elder god in order to maintain their survival.

Dicey Situation=> The infernal machine used to experiment upon the body parts of new victims, and choice parts separated from food and trash.

Obsessive-compulsive Otyugh=> Scavenger that the aberrations use as a method of clean-up underneath the settlement. Has several personal habits that alert others to its activities before feeding.

Void=> The realm of the elder god that the village is cursed to travel into at night and can be stumbled into if the characters travel far enough through the wood.

Suspiciously Nice Village=> The setting, a planes-travelling village that hops into different realms looking for victims. Filled with guilt-ridden, immoral villagers intent on entertaining and providing pleasures to visitors.

Wolf in sheep's clothing=> The mayor (and elder god priest) presiding over the village. He is a small, bookish man with a pleasant demeanor and squeaky voice. Actually an intellect devourer and worshipper of the elder god.

The Happy, Hapless Honoraries’ Horrific Happenstance

An interlude adventure for mid-level characters. It can be used for any fantasy campaign setting that uses Dungeons and Dragons type rules, such as Castles and Crusades, Pathfinder, OSRIC, etc. With some tinkering, it could also be adapted to a more modern setting such as Call of Cthulhu.

Hook:

After a long journey, the village of Hapville is a welcome and idyllic settlement nestled in enticing woods with small dirt paths leading in and out of it. The people are jovial and are celebrating a long-running festival. However, no one familiar with the local area can ever recall where the forest or the village had come from. Characters who are new to the area might not think the village’s location to be strange, but they may notice that the trees surrounding it are a bit out of place from those outside a two-mile ring around the village center. It’s the little details like this that adds to the weirdness. The people are overly friendly and inviting, the food wonderful, and the town perfectly kept and clean, but small details like the trees, the festival’s hedonistic abandon, Mayor Slump Beedlebottom’s insistence on making visitors the ceremonial guests of honor, and the excessive and nearly frantic generosity are suspicious. Still, the player character’s might take the villager’s up on their invitation and stay awhile for an inexpensive place to rest and feast. It is hours after night falls that they rudely find the horrible secret of Hapville.

Background:

The people of Hapville are cursed and they live on a plane-shifting, semi-sentient piece of the Void. The original crimes of Hapville’s ancestors are unknown, but among them once lived several mad cultists of the Void god Rotund’jere; an elder evil of undead and corruption that had long ago been imprisoned. But this elder evil influences reality in subtler ways, such as through his ever travelling village of Hapville. Each day, Hapville slips onto another world at a location far enough from civilization to escape large scale interest, but close enough to attract small bands of travelers. At midnight, Hapville shifts back into the Void and the villagers hurriedly turn in for the night for soon after the denizens of the Void enter into Hapville in order to conduct their experiments, create their aberrations, and feast. If the villagers are able to lure and keep over 750 pounds of human material (about 4-6 people), they find themselves safe. But if they go too long without satisfying the Void’s denizens, they themselves are apt to become victims.

Generations of villagers have lived this way, and the Void provides food, medicine, and raw materials enough for them to live an easy life. But with horrible and tortuous death a constant reality unless the villagers trap visitors, every night of their existence takes on an endless carnival atmosphere. Visitors are plied with physical contests, alcohol, sex and food in order to put them at ease and encourage them to exhaust themselves onto rest. At midnight everyone hurries to turn in as a cloud quickly blots out the sky, causing the temperature to drop (due to the Void’s influence) and giving a reason to quit until the next day. In truth, several destrachans (large aberrations) lumber into the village and approach the village inn, where visitors are usually put up to stay. The destrachans will overpower the guests and drag them to the caverns below the village (accessed by the mayor’s home or a nearby cave). Guests will be strapped to a conveyor with an infernal machine at the end wielding blood encrusted blades. The machine slices up the victims into smaller pieces of organs and limbs, keeping the victim in intense pain, but alive and fully conscious through necromantic magic. From there the destrachans conduct their experiments on the body parts, mostly in scientific observation, but sometimes in sadistic, chuckling enjoyment of watching limbs kick and organs twitch. The body pieces are then tossed as trash to a nearby otyugh for clean-up, ghoulishly eaten at random by a suddenly hungry destrachan, or thrown into a nearby pool where they later will emerge as a gibbering mouther to be released upon the next visited plane the following morning. The reasons that Rotund’jere finds these activities so important are inscrutable to the villagers. They are just happy to live another day.

Involving the characters:

The characters may discover that something is wrong through a number of ways.

First, they may be alarmed by Mayor Beedlebottom’s odd behavior. The slight, bookish man with a pleasant smile and squeaky voice is actually an intellect devourer and worshipper of Rotund’jere. Although he claims to speak for the village, only the most decadent of the other inhabitants seem to be at ease when they approach him. Like most intellect devourers, Beedlebottom is a hedonist and overly enjoys food, wine, pleasure and pain. He gravitates towards any newcomers he feels can most provide for his appetites. Also, he is always on the lookout for a new body, and interested in any newcomer that shows squeamishness and sensitivity to pain. He prefers smaller human bodies to inhabit, as strangers are less prone to see him a threat when he appears diminutive. He has on very rare occasions ensured a visitor survived when he (her) found them entertaining and immoral enough to keep around. Because of this, his small entourage of handlers is quite varied in physical appearance as they come from different birth worlds, unlike the rest of the villagers who have lighter skin and hair. Beedlebottom becomes a little more aggressive and touchy as he drinks through the evening and night. He is also distracted often, as part of his mind transmits information about the current world he is in to his masters in the Void.

Second, the villager behavior towards visitors might alert the characters that something is amiss. The villagers are completely in the dark to the goings-on of the campaign world and nearby towns and cities, and will try to play off their lack of knowledge while prodding the characters for news. Also, they act oddly towards even non-charismatic visitors. There are three other visitors in the village besides the characters: a fat, pedantic merchant, his spoiled daughter, and their bloody-handed bodyguard. Despite the rude behavior of the three, the merchant has a buxom lass on his lap, his haughty daughter is distracted by the villagers plying her with wine and pearls (jewelry uneaten from the oytugh’s past victims), while the bodyguard is drunk and fondling his second or third lass of the day. The three are crude and conceited, but the villagers rush to sell them wares and laugh constantly at even the flattest of jokes. The villagers see visitors as sacrifices towards their own survival and feel an odd sense of duty in making the visitors’ final day of life worthwhile.

If the village is going beyond its quota of 750 pounds of human material, any charming characters with a charisma of 17 or higher might be pulled away by whatever villager they are with and warned to flee. The villager will not say why even if threatened with violence, but will insist that the character must leave before midnight for his or her own safety. If a character physically forces a villager out of the surrounding forest, or takes an item from the village, the villager or item will quickly turn into vapor after one hour of exposure to ‘reality’. Anyone who stays in the village, breathes its air, and eats the food provided for more than three days becomes a being of the Void and will suffer the same fate if they ever leave.

Third, after midnight it is the sleeping merchant, daughter and bodyguard that are grabbed and dragged away by the destrachans. Despite his drunken state, the strong bodyguard is able to slip the clawed hand off of his mouth long enough to shout a shrill, ear-shattering scream. He also kicks a vase in his room on his way out. The destrachans move swiftly, but if a character is awake and reacts quickly he will see large humanoid shapes carrying off three people into the shadows and towards the mayor’s house. If the character instead waits to ready equipment and gather his allies, he will find a trail of pearls left behind by the daughter’s broken necklaces. Finally, if the party members were all in exhausted sleep, the otyugh’s mealtime song may wake them (see next paragraph).

If the party acts fast, tracks the creatures to the mayor’s home, and quickly discover the hidden passageway into the tunnels below, they may be able to save all three bound prisoners before they are placed on the conveyor and diced up by the infernal machine. If they take too long to figure out where to go, it is likely that all three of the prisoners meet a gruesome fate. The strong fists of the bodyguard are chopped off and turned into animated disembodied hands, various pieces are eaten by the otyugh and destrachans, and the remainder of the parts tossed into the pool and combined into a gibbering mouther that will be set loose upon the next visited world to act as a probe of sorts for the consciousness of Rotund’jere. If the party still has trouble finding a way into the tunnels below, the otyugh kept to clean up the nightly mess suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder, and conducts an odd wailing song as it stretches before mealtime, and again after. The loud, haunting sound echoes through the tunnels and can be heard throughout the village, likely waking even the deepest sleeper. Following the sounds will lead PCs to either the mayor’s house or a nearby cave connected to the chamber with the infernal machine. Villagers will not attempt to stop the characters from entering the tunnels below, since it matters little to them whether the characters are drug or walk to their doom.

If the characters decide to turtle up and not investigate any of the disturbances, the destrachans go to find them after finishing up with the merchant, daughter, and bodyguard. They will attempt to separate the group if they can with sonic attacks, in order to make the task easier on them. They do not care what structures they destroy or villagers they kill in the pursuit of the player characters. Captured characters will find themselves bound and placed on the conveyor, hoping to be rescued before being diced by the infernal machine…

Goals:

The goals of the characters should be simple survival, though this will be very difficult after midnight. If they stay within the village and its forest, they could attempt a series of ambushes against their pursuers (Beedlebottom, destrachans, gibbering mouther, etc). If they attempt to escape the village, they will find themselves in the Void where the chances of survival are severely lessened. The best bet they have is to survive until the morning jump out of the Void. Whether or not the characters will find themselves in a different region of their initial world or a different plane entirely is up to the dungeon master.

Future Plot Threads:

Once the characters know about the danger of the village, the DM may use it and the Void as further plotlines. Maybe the characters decide to end the curse of the village and disrupt whatever inscrutable plan Rotund'jere had in store. Such would likely require plane hopping, research and the collection of rare magical and mundane items. Or perhaps the solution is simpler, though difficult in execution; where the characters have to bring normal food to the villagers to eat during the day instead of 'Void food', then protect the village from a siege when it leaps at night back into the Void for enough weeks that the villagers are returned to normal and can flee into a normal plane. Or maybe the characters have to fight the semi-sentient 'village' itself and 'kill' it before it hops. An imaginative DM can take this in many different directions.

Wow. I'm glad I'm not the guy judging this match-up. Well done, gentlemen.

I'm definitely gonna have to bring my A game to get past y'all...

Iron DM round 1 match 2: Waylander the Slayer vs Deuce Traveler

Well, Damn it, I'm starting off with a tough one. Two masters going at the ingredients hammer and tongs. So, rather than goof around with too much preamble, lets get down to brass tacks and try to pick a winner.

Okay, I lied, one preamble (since this is my first judgement this year): I make an effort to refer to the entry, not the DM: IMO it's important to be clear that I'm evaluating the entry, not the person who wrote it. So, this is a match between The Void Plague (VP) and The Happy, Hapless Honoraries' Horrific Happenstance (Hx5).

First Stop, Ingredients.

Obsessive-Compulsive Otyugh - In VP, the Otyugh is given a name, and a special role -- it roams the countryside infecting villages and somehow seeding a religion for otyughs in the process. Murtag is a lot of fun, and I like him better than the wailing otyugh that appears in Hx5 in a very minor way. So +1 for VP

Endless Quest - In VP, this is Murtag's compulsion to infect the countryside. I find this use weak -- he's not questing for something specific, not trying to infect a specific town, he's roaming and spreading the worms as a compulsion, but does that make it a quest? I don't quite think so. At the same time, the endless quest of the void-trapped villagers isn't really any better. They're both gestures in the right direction, but I don't think either quite works.

Dicey Situation - in VP, the PCs have to cut people up to remove the worms -- this feels like an ingredient is being slapped on something that it doesn't quite fit. In Hx5, the void monsters cut people up with a nightmare machine (going to give me nightmares, for sure). Hx5 is a little better on this one, I think. +1 for Hx5

Void - Both used this fairly well. I chewed on the VP voids a bit - I have to remind myself that the "voids" in that case are small v voids -- cavities -- not the extraplanar big V Voids.It’s also usually a warning sign when an entry comes up with multiple uses for an ingredient — usually that means they’ve come close several times but not really done it well once, but in this case it was serviceable. Hx5 uses the void as the sort of macro setting -- it's not really as integral to the story as the VP voids, but at least I don't have to stew about them. Call it a wash.

Suspiciously Nice Village - Again, both played well with this one.

Wolf in Sheep's Clothing - While I'm disappointed no one tried to use the actual WiSC monster, both used this one fairly well as a concept. So, again, no advantages.

SO, awesome. Ingredients are no help at all.

Playability

So, some of the good stuff here is that while both adventures rely on some backstory, neither relies on it a ton to include the ingredients, and there's plenty of action in both for the players to engage in.

Both put the PCs at unusual risk -- the idea that a PC might become infected, then cured in VP is interesting (and terrifying). They would both be interesting, and perhaps frightening to play.

Creativity and Rat Bastardy

In VP, the players wander into the plague zone, perhaps get infected, meet the stepford people who are left behind cured, get on the trail of Murtag and wind up ... finding a spelljammer, jaunting off into the void to fight the Gith? There's a sudden tone shift in the adventure, where it goes from a very grounded, spooky plague story in town squares and all of a sudden you're sailing off into the ether on a completely conveniently parked ship. That bothers me a bit.

I also struggle a little with how Murtag is spreading the disease — clearly, if he’s the carrier, it must not be spread by touch — so it must be airborne. He roams through the warrens spreading the disease to the villages above them — how does that work? Wouldn’t he need to get closer?

At the same time, the idea of the pursuit seems really interesting. PCs get on the trail of the nice people, get to the kid “healing” them; once they get ahead of the kid on the trail they can start to follow in the path of the plague. They probably track it above ground until they get the idea that the carrier might be traveling underground, then they have to take on the pursuit underground, fighting past a readguard of religiously-inspired otyughs? Could be a great time.

Hx5 feels a little less colorful, a little less concrete to me, but at least the tone seems to be consistent through the whole adventure -- even if the players must discover the horrible truth of the place, at least that truth doesn't feel like a complete left turn. Don’t get me wrong — Hx5 could be a lot of fun to play — the sinister carnival atmosphere, and the hints of Something Wicked This Way Comes, etc. But why 750 pounds of "human material”? What’s special about that number? Why is it determined by weight?

There’s a lot to like about Hx5. Beedlebottom will be an interesting villain, and the scenes of entertainment and debauchery could also be a lot of fun to play out. Another thing I like about it is the very thematic horror feel of the game — the PCs don’t necessarily have to kill everything there — the important thing is to figure out what’s going on and survive until morning so they can escape.

The alliteration of the name is cute, but feels out of place to the tone of the rest of the piece, but that's a petty complaint.

Final Judgement

So, yeah. This is a tight one. Both entries are really strong. Both could seriously win this round and move on to the next, but only one can. So, how do I try to make a distinction?

For that, I’m going to go back to….

[sblock]

…..major personalities. In VP, the two major personalities are Alloric and Murtag, and each one is an ingredient in the challenge. Alloric is the wolf, Murtag is the OCD Otyugh. They come directly out of the ingredients in the challenge. The dilemma of having to figure out what to do with an apparently innocent 6 year old who is causing a lot of harm could be a fun challenge for a group that digs into good RP.

In Hx5, the major personalities are Beedlebottom and the unnamed merchants, and the army of destrachans, Beedlebottom is the Wolf, but the other characters don’t really tie to ingredients as well — the destrachans are perhaps creatures of the void, but that’s at best a weak tie to an ingredient. The merchant and his crew are just hapless victims, not ingredients. So, in a very important way, Hx5 is a little weaker than VP — it has used important elements that are not as well tied to ingredients than VP did.

So, I’ll award this nail-biter decision to Waylander the Slayer. Thank you both for such terrific entries.

[/sblock]

Radiating Gnome said:

Wolf in Sheep's Clothing - While I'm disappointed no one tried to use the actual WiSC monster, both used this one fairly well as a concept. So, again, no advantages.

Click to expand...

I too was hoping for a scenario with the Wolf in Sheep's Clothing as a monster. I've always loved those things. So I join in your disappointment.

Great battle Deuce. I had a hard time, upon reading your entry, deciding which was better. I considered our ingredient use a split, and the strengths of the adventures were very different (yours I find to be very tightly bound and mine more sprawling), and both would be fun to play!

Frankly the inspiration came to me when I was writing to make Alloric a child, ala Omen, and everything cascaded from there (Murtag organically grew out of that, similar to Damien's hound). Putting the PCs in all sorts of moral quandaries; what to do with their infected friends, how to deal with an apparently evil yet benign child, the Church of St. Cuthbert and how they would react etc. was absolutely what made this a blast to create.

How Murthag spread the Plague was definitely a weak point, and something I wanted to spend more time thinking about- my initial thought, kind of embedded in the adventure was some sort of spore releasing mechanism which spread the void worm eggs (Murthag being some sort of an incubator).

As mentioned in the entry, the trip to the void/spelljamming was simply one option (as RG astutely observed, added on to increase the "void" use); i'd probably have gone with no easy solutions and the PCs having to design a way to return all these folks back to normal (would be difficult considering the politics of that alone).

Wicht said:

I too was hoping for a scenario with the Wolf in Sheep's Clothing as a monster. I've always loved those things. So I join in your disappointment.

Click to expand...

I so did consider using a tree stump with a lil bunny being all friendly....

Waylander the Slayer said:

I so did consider using a tree stump with a lil bunny being all friendly....

Click to expand...

My son had a second complaint - that no one used giant polyhedrals for the dicey situation.

I suggested Modrons might have been appropriate.

Wicht said:

My son had a second complaint - that no one used giant polyhedrals for the dicey situation.

I suggested Modrons might have been appropriate.

Click to expand...

Those unrelenting Modrons on a never ending march stumped by the cute bunny rabbit sitting on a tree stump, offering to play dragon dice...

I'm swamped, so can't write too much now. Just wanted to say congrats to Waylander and a thank you to Radiating Gnome.