Novaseaker
Explorer
Also felt this one-shot outline was worth saving from the WoTC forum. It was written for 4e, but I did a little editing to hopefully make it editionless. Hope you enjoy!
All the PCs start the session not knowing each other (or at least they don't need to). They've all booked passage on a Lightning Rail headed toward New Cyre. The first few days of the journey are normal and they can roleplay meeting each other in the dining cart or whatever.
During this beginning phase, remark on an NPC family having trouble keeping their child under control. The child is obviously adopted as it doesn't share any of the same ethnic characteristics as the parents. The child, about six or seven years old in appearance, just keeps wailing in the night. The child wont talk to strangers and just repeats "leave me alone" over and over if anyone tries to calm her down with a Diplomacy check (if they use Intimidate the child just cries harder and the parents get upset.)
After a couple of days of this, the PCS suddenly wake up in the middle of the night. If they are in private cabins, they notice after a moment (and a moderate Perception check) that the raport of thunder from the Lightning Rail engine is more frequent than normal, meaning that the train is going faster than it should be. Once they leave the cabin, they see the hallway smeared with blood splatter, covering the windows walls and floor. Looking out the window reveals a barren landscape of grey wasteland illuminated solely by the lightning of the rail's engine rocketting past them. There are no stars, moon, or Ring in the sky.
Once they enter the common carts, or if they woke up there, they see everyone else in the cart but them and fellow PCs horrible mangled and mutilated in their seats and the aisle, blood splattering the floor and windows. While exploring, describe a bone-chilling pall coming over them whenever they pass from cart to cart. No actual cold damage yet.
Once they team up to figure out what's going on, (or interrupting any argument they may be having), the sound of the child crying echos in the train.
They come upon the child in the dining cart, huddled under a table, rocking itself, facing away from them. It cries continuously. High DC Perception checks reveal something wrong with the skeletal structure of the child (its spine is too pronounced and nobby to be human). The child ignores all attempts to calm or reason with it, it just keeps wailing. Touching the child causes it initiate combat, revealing itself to be some twisted aberration.
After PCs deal with the creature, they hear the child wailing again, echoing from somewhere toward the rear of the train, even though the corpse is right in front of them. That is, until they all take their eyes off it, then it disappears.
If they ignore the wailing and head toward the front of the train instead, they open the dining cart's front-end door to reveal pitch blackness, unnatural. Cautious experimentation (poking it with a weapon, putting a hand through it) causes the darkeness to start spilling into he cart, herding the PCs toward the rear of the cart. Just walking into it causes the PC to emerge in another cart. But now the wailing child's cries echo from further up, not toward the back. (The PC has been teleported to the rearmost passenger car, and the position of the wailing relative to them has changed).
In either case, before the PCs get into the cart where the second wailing is coming from they come upon a cart where they can see humanoid-shaped beings huddled in a corner loudly and messily devouring something. They make no move to notice the PCs before they enter the cart. Ranged attacks at them from outside the cart oddly pass right through them as if they were illusions. The second a PC enters the first square of the cart, combat starts, with the creatures rushing and attacking. When they abandon their huddle it's revealed they were eating corpses of the passengers.
After the combat, the crying child's wails stop. A moment later, there is loud rumble of thunder that keeps on rolling and the PCs are jostled as they feel the train pick up even more speed. (Looking out the window will confirm it). The PCs should come to the conclusion that they need to get to the engine and stop the train. If they don't, and keep exploring aimlessly, a little while later they are thrown to the floor as the train takes on another burst of speed and flat-out tell them that if the rail goes any faster, it will likely "jump the stones" and crash, killing everyone aboard.
Going towards the front, the pitch-black wall at the front end of the dining cart is gone. However when they reach the door to the engine, it appears as a large iron vault door. (If the PCs went up to the engine while exploring the train before waking up this night, it wasn't nearly as imposing.) Remind them of the grave chill getting colder around them as they attempt to get past the door.
If the PCs attempt to pick the lock, their pick breaks in the keyhole, jamming it. If the PC rolled really well, tell them there is no way that should have happened. They didn't mess up, the door *ate* their pick. Attempting to bash the door in causes a few dents in the door... then the metal realigns itself and shifts, taking on a bluish hue (nature check = "door turned into adamantine"), then ratchets out expanding locks and bolts and fortifications, right before their eyes. If they look around, mention a vertical rung of bars to the side of the platform between the engine and the first passenger cart (or tell them about if they don't actively try to find a way around the doors). The PCs can climb to the roof of the racing train, and jump over to the roof of the lightning rail engine.
The roof of the engine sports three spires, with lightning arcing between them continuously, stray bolts striking the metal walkways around the spires, leading to an access hatch at the front-end of the engine. The PCs must make their way across the walkways which are seven squares wide (with spires extending from the central row), dealing with gale-force winds and sporatic lightning strikes. The lightning should be treated as a trap that attacks Reflex, deals Lightning damage, and pushes 3 squares. If PCs aren't in the center row of squares, they can potentially be pushed off the side of the railing. (Give them the stanadard save to not be pushed into hindering terrain, then an acrobatics check to grab onto the side if they fall. If they fail both, they're dead.)
To make things worse, onl a quarter way across the roof of the engine, roll intiative for two insubstantial undead that deal cold and necrotic damage, the source of the death-chill pall, as the PCs stayed outside long enough for them to manifest.
Once across the engine, whether or not the undead have been dealt with, the PCs are free to open the hatch to the engine. But when they open it and look in, they don't see an engine room. They see a cave with angry red Prophecy Marks (like giant aberrant dragonmarks) illuminating the interior. Dropping into the cavern, the PCs are confronted by the sight of the crying child, only it's cries are muted and whimpering now. The child looks malnourished and pale. Behind it is a horrible monstrocity out of nightmare. In fact, it is a nightmare. A Hard Arcana check tells the PCs that this is as Quori. An easy Arcana check at least tells the magically inclined PC that thing entity is feeding psychically on the child's fear.
Depending on your edition of choice, there may be no or limited options for the type of Quori foe to use. Feel free to use a demon or devil or aberration of appropriate level for the party. Make it boss fight, whatever it is. (Legendary actions in 5e, a solo in 4e, whatever)
Surrounding the child and quori are gray nearly-featureless humanoids embedded in the cavern floor. If any of the PCs have died so far, they are present among these husks (and are recognizable to the other PCs). Treat them as being at 0 hit points and Stabalized. Any healing, including a skill check such as Heal or Medicine to stabilize, causes them to rise from the floor (not prone, standing) as a free action. Their color returns, they heal to half hit points, plus any healing from whatever effect was used (+0 from a skill check) and they are inserted into the initiative order directly following the PC who healed them's turn. Let the PCs know when the fight starts that any "dead" PC stuck in the floor appears to still have a glimmer of vitality to them, to hint that they can still be saved.
When the Quori is reduced to half hitpoints, the cavern starts to split and shake. The prophecy marks become hazards that deal fire+psychic damage. The Quori boss also begins to generate lesser Quori as needed to keep the fight tense.
This battle can be won two ways. Kill the boss Quori, or wake the child. This has all been her nightmare. If the PCs have figured that out they can attempt to wake the child with a skill challenge during combat. 4 Moderate Diplomacy or Intimidate checks before 3 Failures causes the child to wake up. If the PCs are feeling particularly brutal, any combat damage to the child will do the same. Otherwise the child is not targetted by any of the quori.
If the quori is destroyed or the PCs succeed in the skill challenge, the child slowly stops crying and seems to recognize the PCs. The child smiles...
And then everyone wakes up in their seats aboard the Lightning Rail.
Session end.
(The child was a Kalashtar orphan adopted by unwitting human parents. Proximity to the Mournland along the journey caused the kalashtar child to become vulnerable to attack from Dal Quor)
All the PCs start the session not knowing each other (or at least they don't need to). They've all booked passage on a Lightning Rail headed toward New Cyre. The first few days of the journey are normal and they can roleplay meeting each other in the dining cart or whatever.
During this beginning phase, remark on an NPC family having trouble keeping their child under control. The child is obviously adopted as it doesn't share any of the same ethnic characteristics as the parents. The child, about six or seven years old in appearance, just keeps wailing in the night. The child wont talk to strangers and just repeats "leave me alone" over and over if anyone tries to calm her down with a Diplomacy check (if they use Intimidate the child just cries harder and the parents get upset.)
After a couple of days of this, the PCS suddenly wake up in the middle of the night. If they are in private cabins, they notice after a moment (and a moderate Perception check) that the raport of thunder from the Lightning Rail engine is more frequent than normal, meaning that the train is going faster than it should be. Once they leave the cabin, they see the hallway smeared with blood splatter, covering the windows walls and floor. Looking out the window reveals a barren landscape of grey wasteland illuminated solely by the lightning of the rail's engine rocketting past them. There are no stars, moon, or Ring in the sky.
Once they enter the common carts, or if they woke up there, they see everyone else in the cart but them and fellow PCs horrible mangled and mutilated in their seats and the aisle, blood splattering the floor and windows. While exploring, describe a bone-chilling pall coming over them whenever they pass from cart to cart. No actual cold damage yet.
Once they team up to figure out what's going on, (or interrupting any argument they may be having), the sound of the child crying echos in the train.
They come upon the child in the dining cart, huddled under a table, rocking itself, facing away from them. It cries continuously. High DC Perception checks reveal something wrong with the skeletal structure of the child (its spine is too pronounced and nobby to be human). The child ignores all attempts to calm or reason with it, it just keeps wailing. Touching the child causes it initiate combat, revealing itself to be some twisted aberration.
After PCs deal with the creature, they hear the child wailing again, echoing from somewhere toward the rear of the train, even though the corpse is right in front of them. That is, until they all take their eyes off it, then it disappears.
If they ignore the wailing and head toward the front of the train instead, they open the dining cart's front-end door to reveal pitch blackness, unnatural. Cautious experimentation (poking it with a weapon, putting a hand through it) causes the darkeness to start spilling into he cart, herding the PCs toward the rear of the cart. Just walking into it causes the PC to emerge in another cart. But now the wailing child's cries echo from further up, not toward the back. (The PC has been teleported to the rearmost passenger car, and the position of the wailing relative to them has changed).
In either case, before the PCs get into the cart where the second wailing is coming from they come upon a cart where they can see humanoid-shaped beings huddled in a corner loudly and messily devouring something. They make no move to notice the PCs before they enter the cart. Ranged attacks at them from outside the cart oddly pass right through them as if they were illusions. The second a PC enters the first square of the cart, combat starts, with the creatures rushing and attacking. When they abandon their huddle it's revealed they were eating corpses of the passengers.
After the combat, the crying child's wails stop. A moment later, there is loud rumble of thunder that keeps on rolling and the PCs are jostled as they feel the train pick up even more speed. (Looking out the window will confirm it). The PCs should come to the conclusion that they need to get to the engine and stop the train. If they don't, and keep exploring aimlessly, a little while later they are thrown to the floor as the train takes on another burst of speed and flat-out tell them that if the rail goes any faster, it will likely "jump the stones" and crash, killing everyone aboard.
Going towards the front, the pitch-black wall at the front end of the dining cart is gone. However when they reach the door to the engine, it appears as a large iron vault door. (If the PCs went up to the engine while exploring the train before waking up this night, it wasn't nearly as imposing.) Remind them of the grave chill getting colder around them as they attempt to get past the door.
If the PCs attempt to pick the lock, their pick breaks in the keyhole, jamming it. If the PC rolled really well, tell them there is no way that should have happened. They didn't mess up, the door *ate* their pick. Attempting to bash the door in causes a few dents in the door... then the metal realigns itself and shifts, taking on a bluish hue (nature check = "door turned into adamantine"), then ratchets out expanding locks and bolts and fortifications, right before their eyes. If they look around, mention a vertical rung of bars to the side of the platform between the engine and the first passenger cart (or tell them about if they don't actively try to find a way around the doors). The PCs can climb to the roof of the racing train, and jump over to the roof of the lightning rail engine.
The roof of the engine sports three spires, with lightning arcing between them continuously, stray bolts striking the metal walkways around the spires, leading to an access hatch at the front-end of the engine. The PCs must make their way across the walkways which are seven squares wide (with spires extending from the central row), dealing with gale-force winds and sporatic lightning strikes. The lightning should be treated as a trap that attacks Reflex, deals Lightning damage, and pushes 3 squares. If PCs aren't in the center row of squares, they can potentially be pushed off the side of the railing. (Give them the stanadard save to not be pushed into hindering terrain, then an acrobatics check to grab onto the side if they fall. If they fail both, they're dead.)
To make things worse, onl a quarter way across the roof of the engine, roll intiative for two insubstantial undead that deal cold and necrotic damage, the source of the death-chill pall, as the PCs stayed outside long enough for them to manifest.
Once across the engine, whether or not the undead have been dealt with, the PCs are free to open the hatch to the engine. But when they open it and look in, they don't see an engine room. They see a cave with angry red Prophecy Marks (like giant aberrant dragonmarks) illuminating the interior. Dropping into the cavern, the PCs are confronted by the sight of the crying child, only it's cries are muted and whimpering now. The child looks malnourished and pale. Behind it is a horrible monstrocity out of nightmare. In fact, it is a nightmare. A Hard Arcana check tells the PCs that this is as Quori. An easy Arcana check at least tells the magically inclined PC that thing entity is feeding psychically on the child's fear.
Depending on your edition of choice, there may be no or limited options for the type of Quori foe to use. Feel free to use a demon or devil or aberration of appropriate level for the party. Make it boss fight, whatever it is. (Legendary actions in 5e, a solo in 4e, whatever)
Surrounding the child and quori are gray nearly-featureless humanoids embedded in the cavern floor. If any of the PCs have died so far, they are present among these husks (and are recognizable to the other PCs). Treat them as being at 0 hit points and Stabalized. Any healing, including a skill check such as Heal or Medicine to stabilize, causes them to rise from the floor (not prone, standing) as a free action. Their color returns, they heal to half hit points, plus any healing from whatever effect was used (+0 from a skill check) and they are inserted into the initiative order directly following the PC who healed them's turn. Let the PCs know when the fight starts that any "dead" PC stuck in the floor appears to still have a glimmer of vitality to them, to hint that they can still be saved.
When the Quori is reduced to half hitpoints, the cavern starts to split and shake. The prophecy marks become hazards that deal fire+psychic damage. The Quori boss also begins to generate lesser Quori as needed to keep the fight tense.
This battle can be won two ways. Kill the boss Quori, or wake the child. This has all been her nightmare. If the PCs have figured that out they can attempt to wake the child with a skill challenge during combat. 4 Moderate Diplomacy or Intimidate checks before 3 Failures causes the child to wake up. If the PCs are feeling particularly brutal, any combat damage to the child will do the same. Otherwise the child is not targetted by any of the quori.
If the quori is destroyed or the PCs succeed in the skill challenge, the child slowly stops crying and seems to recognize the PCs. The child smiles...
And then everyone wakes up in their seats aboard the Lightning Rail.
Session end.
(The child was a Kalashtar orphan adopted by unwitting human parents. Proximity to the Mournland along the journey caused the kalashtar child to become vulnerable to attack from Dal Quor)
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