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The VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
[IronDM] Iron DM Returns! Winner announced!
- Thread starter carpedavid
- Start date
Zenodotus of Ephesus
First Post
You've made the front page news. 
carpedavid
First Post
Zenodotus of Ephesus said:You've made the front page news.
Awesome! Thanks Zenodotus!
The first set of ingredients should be posted today at 9:30 or slightly after (I've got a 9:00 meeting that is supposed to last half an hour).
carpedavid
First Post
Finals, Match 1: Tinner vs. Stormborn
Ingredients
Remember, contestants:
Ingredients
- Tiny Evil Overlord
- Tumbling Golden Mane
- Cow
- Fog
- Dexterity
- Unmarked Grave
Remember, contestants:
- You have 24 hours from the timestamp on this post to submit your entries. If the boards are inaccessible when your entry is due, you can send a copy to garrettdm AT ameritech DOT net.
- Do not read your opponent's entry until you have submitted yours.
- Once your entry has been submitted, NO EDITING!
- You have a suggested limit of 5000 words.
- Please include a summary of ingredients at the end of your entry. See some of the recent competitions for examples.
- You must use the special tie-breaking ingredient in at least one of your entries.
- Above all, have fun.
ThirdWizard
First Post
Now, this I can't wait to see.
Good luck to both Tinner and Stormborn!
Good luck to both Tinner and Stormborn!
carpedavid
First Post
Hodag said:
You can edit it back in (it was an interesting comment) - just make sure to enclose it in spoiler tags.
Thanks!
Stormborn
Explorer
Final Match 1
The Demon’s Herd and Whimsy
An Adventure for PCs of 6th to 8th Level
Background
The rolling highlands of the Samsmarch are green and fertile, producing in their time a series of small but prosperous villages. These villages were filled with peasant farmers and herdsmen, contented to graze their fat wooly cows across the hill sides, and occasionally sneak off to the Golden Mane, a public house near the cross roads between the villages. For the most part the outside world left them alone, and other than the occasional trip to sell their cows, or their by-products, at the town of Marchfair the villagers left the outside world to its own devices as well. That is, until the Overlord came.
The Overlord is now the unseen master of the villages. His minions, a tribe of barbarian halflings, now patrol the roads and villages collecting “taxes” and taking what they want. Meanwhile, chaotic and evil events plague the villagers, all attributed to the ever-unseen Overlord. Mysterious pits are discovered randomly scattered about the hillsides, strange fires break out, unusual accidents happen frequently, and possibly worst of all every cow that ever had to be buried because of sickness or animal attack now walks the hills as a zombie or skeleton.
The Villages of Samsmarch need help.
Hooks:
The adventure begins in the Golden Mane public house at crossroads between three of the villages: Samford, Samhill, and Marchville (the villagers are not particularly creative). There are several ways to get the PCs there:
- The PCs may have heard of the problems in Samsmarch and come to offer their help.
- The PCs could simply be passing through. The villages can be placed in any hilly and sparsely populated area in a campaign world. In this case the Golden Mane, in spite of its somewhat unstable appearance, is their best option for food and lodging.
- The mayor of Marchfair fears that the problems in the hills will spread to his town. He puts a call out for adventurers to rid the countryside of the Overlord and tells them to contact Brin, the owner of the Golden Mane, to serve as a guide to the region.
- The royal tax collector, or other note worthy official, was traveling to or through the Samsmarch. This person ran afoul of the halflings and was either lost or returned to the authorities with exaggerated tales of a barbarian invasion, undead monsters roaming the countryside, and a powerful Overlord who threatens the safety of the realm. The PCs are called in by an old contact to investigate.
The Tumble of the Golden Mane
The Golden Mane is a large two-storied tavern built long ago on a hillside in the Samsmarch. Unfortunately, the hillside has been eroding over the years, and the rear portion of the building is braced by a series of makeshift pillars of local stone and wood, making up what they lack in structural integrity by sheer number. The fact that the building is somewhat unstable is quite obvious as the PCs make the trek up a winding path that leads from the cross roads up the hill. A weathered stone monument stands at the crossroads. It reads: “On this spot Darrin the Red was executed by dismemberment for crimes most foul.” A worn date indicates that the event occurred over a century ago.
The PCs arrive just before sunset to find the tavern nearly deserted. A few old men sit around sipping beer and playing cards or other sedentary bar games. The owner, Brin, works the bar. Depending on the hook used to get the PCs to the tavern Brin and the denizens of the tavern can provide any or all of the following information:
- Darrin the Red was the servant of a chaotic evil god who terrorized the countryside for several years. He was eventually hunted down and killed by a band of paladins and clerics of a lawful good god. When he died it is said that he still possessed a powerful mystic gem given him by his god. What happened to it or him is unclear, but legend has it that he was buried in a series of unmarked graves throughout the region. One such is supposed to be near this very building. Occasionally someone will go looking for his magic gem, but so far no one has ever found it.
- The Lion Tribe Halflings have never been a problem before. On occasion they steal a cow or two, or cause some mischief, but never anything truly evil. That changed a little over a year ago. Now they wander around in force in the name of “The Overlord.” They have killed the headmen and leaders of all the surrounding villages, forcing the survivors of their raids to swear an oath of loyalty to their master. They seem to have brought in other barbarian bands, as the numbers seen roaming the roads are far greater than people would have ever guessed.
- Since the arrival of the Overlord the villagers have had many strange and seemingly random events that would almost seem like practical jokes if not for their violent, and often fatal, consequences. Pies left to cool on window sills have explosive runes placed on them. Someone will bend over to pick up a coin only to have it stick to him, permanently. It has been bad for business.
- There are zombie cows wandering the hillsides. More a nuisance than a threat.
- There are mysterious pits dug all over the place, ranging from four to ten feet deep. These present more of a hazard, especially at night or in the fog.
- The Overlord frequently issues bizarre orders. Recently he had all the men and women of one village swap clothes and go around as the other gender. In another village he demanded that the people nail fish to their doors and leave them there until they rotted, during which time they were not allowed to kill any flies. Halfling scouts watch the villages and if any one breaks these commands they are soon killed, or tortured, or worse. Many such a victim has later been seen tending the herd of undead cows as a zombie.
Brin will be happy to put the PCs up for the evening. He tells them that the fog at night is so thick it makes travel nearly impossible, especially with the dark things of the Overlord moving around. However, he is willing to take them to speak with the leaders of the nearest village in the morning after the fog burns off if they are interested in learning more. He has to go anyway to buy some supplies and he would appreciate their presence to deal with any of the Overlord’s tax collectors met on the way.
It is possible that the PCs will want to go wandering that night. Brin will try to persuade them not to go, but cannot stop them if they insist. He tells them to be back around sunrise for breakfast and he can take them to the next village in his wagon then. It is a moonless night and the fog is very heavy, minimizing even low light and dark vision. Here and later creatures and objects more than 10 feet away have concealment, while anything further away has total concealment. The road is difficult to follow as it winds through the hills. The PCs may encounter a few zombie cows in the process or mysterious holes in the ground, but nothing more than that and no real clues.
If the PCs decided to stay in for the night he provides them with a room on the second floor next to where his family sleeps. He warns them that the building creaks a lot, but tells them to just ignore it.
Just before sunrise the next morning there is a lot of creaking. Allow any PCs who are awake a listen check to give them a few moments forewarning.
Suddenly the floor rises up at a steep angle. The foundation behind the building has collapsed and the Golden Mane is sent tumbling down the hill.
PCs will need to make Reflex saves 3 times as the building begins to roll down the hill. Initially every one in the building takes 2d6 damage or half on a DC 15 reflex save. Halfway down the hill the DC is increased to 17, as objects are being broken loose and tumbling around with the occupants. Finally the building comes to rest, inhabitants making one last DC 19 Reflex save.
At the bottom of the hill the tavern is a ruin, but likely everyone has survived. Brin, his wife, their two children, a servant, and two regulars were all in the building when it began to fall. Checks can be made for them or the DM can rule that there were injuries, some severe as desired.
The PCs will likely want to make sure everyone has gotten out safely and is tended. The sun is just coming up, but the fog remains thick for about an hour. When the PCs begin to move around they attract the attention of some of the Overlord’s men.
The Lion Tribe
The Lion Tribe is composed of a large group of halfling barbarians, most with one to four class levels in Barbarian, but some with levels in Fighter and Ranger or, rarely, Druid. Once a fairly simple nomadic tribe wandering the hills and stealing livestock, the halflings encountered a mysterious force at one of their ancient burial sites, called the Cave of Souls, and were changed forever. There they met a tall figure in black robes who spoke as the emissary of the god of darkness and death. They were told that their tribe had been chosen to smite the people of the Samsmarch for their past sins. This emissary, they were told, was to be Overlord of the Samsmarch until those sins were burned away. Once several of their most powerful warriors fell to the Overlord’s magic, and were raised as zombies, the tribe complied. They gathered their far roving kin and began to serve.
The halflings go about in armed groups of six to ten, usually with at least one leader who has one or more class levels than the others. In addition to the areas noted below, they are likely to be at any crossroad the PCs come across. There is a 33% chance that one or more bands will be encountered in any of the villages of the Samsmarch. The likely hood of the PCs encountering a band increase overtime, as scouts will become aware of their activities and lead the halfling warriors to them.
The first time the PCs encounter the Lion Tribe is after the destruction of the Golden Mane. The agents of the Overlord, mostly zombie halfling and humans, were digging under the foundation of the building when they upset the already precarious building. A group of halflings was waiting nearby to retrieve anything found there for their master. When the building collapses they come to raid its remains.
How the adventure proceeds from here is based on the behavior of the PCs. Successfully interrogating one of the halflings will yield the above information about the overlord, as well as directions to the Cave of Souls. However, the halflings revere the place as holy, and a captive will attempt to lead the PCs into a heard of zombie cattle or other obstacle, such as the den of a grizzly bear or other wild beast or to a natural hazard like a ravine even if it means sacrificing his or her own life. Alternately, a PC with tracking skills may be able to follow one of the bands back to their camp outside the Cave of Souls.
If the PCs kill all the raiders or fail to force any useful information out of the halflings in the first encounter they may investigate the other villages or strike out into the countryside. In either case they will run into more of the halflings, as well as random encounters appropriate for a temperate wilderness in a sparsely populated land. Villagers can relate further horror stories about trapped items found in the fields and hillsides. In one of the villages the Overlord has recently ordered that all must go around with their faces painted blue, for no clear reason.
Disturbingly, many of the village cemeteries have been desecrated. Most of the graves are now empty, but other fresh graves were also seemingly dug and left open. This is true of every village except Marchville. Most of the graves there remain untouched. PCs who wait around at night to see what happens can encounter a zombie digging crew protected by a band of halflings.
The Cave of Souls
Surrounding the Cave of Souls is a small halfling village of hide tents. This is where the women, children, and elderly stay, tending the stolen cows, while the war bands are out serving the Overlord. This is not a usual campsite for the tribe and their presence here is solely to protect the Overlord. If it were not for this fact most observers would likely never find the Cave. It is unmarked and unadorned on the outside, and it is only the oral traditions of the Lion Tribe that allows them to find it year after year.
If the PC approach openly most of the halflings flee, possibly stirring up the cows to create greater confusion as they go. However, to enter the Cave of Souls the PCs must first deal with one remaining band of halfling defenders. These defenders will not be outside the cave, but patrolling the outskirts of the village. Every effort has been made to keep the cave hidden, but once combat is over it wont be difficult for the PCs to find with a little effort.
The cave is little more than a cleft in the side of a hill, but it quickly opens up to a naturally occurring series of chambers widened by the halflings. The halflings worship the Overlord, and their dead ancestors, in a small area near the mouth of the cave. Here a pair of Lion Tribe druids is meditating guarded by four rangers. The rangers will not leave the chamber without the druids, but are likely to be alerted by sounds of battle as the PCs deal with the defenders outside. Thus they will be waiting in ambush for the PCs to arrive.
Beyond the worship center, a wide tunnel descends into the earth. This leads to a small chamber lit by smoky torches. Here the Lion Tribe’s totem is kept, a mated pair of trained full grown dire mountain lions. They are afraid of the Overlord and give him a wide birth and are trained to allow the halfling shaman access to the inner reaches of the caves but they will attack any intruders.
Beyond this point the complex branches out into several tunnels. Each tunnel is lined with niches carved into the walls. This is where the revered dead of the Lion Tribe is buried. Many of the niches are empty, as the Overlord has turned them into zombies or skeletons to use in his excavations, but several more are full. The ones who remain have also been transformed into undead and left to deal with intruders.
The tunnel system links into smaller caverns. At many of these intersections the Lion Tribe have placed traps, which have subsequently been rebuilt and augmented by the Overlord’s magic. Poisons, both on darts and contact poisons in obvious places, such as
Malyss root paste and centipede venom were favorites of the barbarians. The Overlord has paired many of the traps with more deadly ones, such as Fireballs and Exploding Runes, which require a Reflex save so that the Dexterity reducing poison would make it more likely that the second trap would kill an intruder. The halflings that are permitted into the cave know where these traps are located and can avoid them, but would deliberately trigger one to stop an intruder.
Eventually, however, all the tunnels lead down into the lair of the Overlord.
The Overlord
The whims of chaotic evil beings are uncanny to the rest of the world. They are prone to commit the most random and evil acts for their own amusement. One such being, a demonic trickster himself, was observing the harmless pranks of a tiny but fearless grig one day and got an idea. He would take this benign little fey and turn it into something else, something deadly. It caught the grig and began a slow process of breaking it, mind and body. Feeding it vile droughts and subjecting the poor thing to demonic magics, the grig was slowly corrupted. It still loved to play tricks on others, but these tricks were no longer harmless, now they were deadly. Delighted by the grig’s transformation, the demon went a step further. It began to teach the grig magic, determining that necromancy was the greatest possible perversion of a fey.
Eventually the demon grew bored with its accomplishments and forgot about the grig. Now a being of pure evil, the grig was let loose on the material plane to amuse itself. For long years it wandered about causing trouble until one day it heard one of its former master’s names spoken in a story. In the story it was the demon that was the patron of Darrin the Red, who gave him the jewel and set him loose to work chaos and evil. The grig reasoned that if it could obtain that jewel it might be in a position to play a trick of its own on the demon.
Given the grig’s size, there was only so much it could do alone. That’s when it discovered the body of a bandit who had come to blows with his companions over distribution of spoils. The grig animated the body and hid itself inside its skull. From there the grig was able to use its ventriloquism to make the body speak, and affected the role of a sentient undead. It then hid then entered the Cave of Souls, pretending to be the emissary of a god of death once discovered by the halflings.
The grig is delighted in its joke, sending the once peaceful halflings to commit great crimes in its name and getting some of them killed in the process. It has also convinced them that its profane use of their honored dead is somehow part of a holy mission.
The whole role of being an Overlord is just an act. It collects the taxes and gives bizarre pronouncements for its own amusement, the zombie cows especially. All it really wants is to find the jewel. Unfortunately, its master taught it no divination spells and it has found it can learn none. So it must dig up every place in the hills that looks like it might have been a grave, using the zombies and halflings to do so. Frequently it finds real graves and animates the dead within, but so far it has found no sign of the remains of Darrin the Red.
When confronted by the PCs the grig remains in its zombie body as long as it can. It will cast spells and fire arrows tipped with the poison of a small monstrous centipede for as long as it can. At some point it will command the zombie to attack while it uses its invisibility spell like ability to relocate, if the zombie survives very long which is unlikely with a party of this level. The cave it makes its lair in contains some of the non-cattle “taxes” stolen by the halflings and offers abundant places for it to hide. It will use its good Dexterity score to its advantage, to Hide and Move Silently before reemerging to snipe at the PCs, sometimes laying in wait for several rounds. However, it still possesses the fearless nature of a grig in spite of all of its changes, and will not completely flee until it has spent every spell it can and fired every arrow.
If it can survive without being discovered by the PCs, or somehow convince the PCs that they have defeated the “Overlord”, it will try to hide in either the loot or on the person of one of the PCs. There it will rest and prepare its spells to attack them the next day.
Resolution
The death of the grig is all that will stop the chaos plaguing the Samsmarch. If the PCs show the tiny body to the halflings, or otherwise convince the Lion Tribe that the grig was not an agent of a god, they will repent in shame. Attempting to make restitution for their crimes and eventually disbanding and going away in small groups. The PCs may have to deal with the villagers’ desire for vengeance and must ultimately decide whether or not to punish the halflings for their crimes. While the barbarians feel like fools and know they are guilty, they will not allow their tribe to be killed, enslaved, or imprisoned in anyway. In the face of any of those outcomes the tribe will fight to the death.
With the grig dead the collected loot can be returned to the villagers, or kept by the party if they are not particularly of a good alignment. Any rewards offered will be paid, and local bards will flock to the region to learn the unusual story of the Overlord of the Samsmarch and its defeat.
If the PCs do return the money and goods collected, prevent the halflings from being slaughtered, and defeat the grig they will be heroes of great renown. Which will attract its own problems down the line.
Brin, should he have survived the fall of his business, will approach them about investing in a new Golden Mane.
Just because the grig could not find the unmarked grave of Darrin the Red, does not mean that the PCs wont if they start looking. However, without more details of the nature of the jewel and the events of the time period they cannot expect to find much. If there is a bard in the group a bardic knowledge check may reveal some detail, enough for the PCs to eventually discover an account of the villain’s death and a description of the legendary jewel. From that point divination magics, and more traditional detective work, can find Darrin’s skull and the jewel he had hidden under his tongue, buried beneath a large tree in Samford. The nature of the jewel, and what the PCs do with it if it is discovered, are a matter for another adventure.
· Tiny Evil Overlord: The Grig Necromancer. Not only a Tiny creature, the domain he seems to rule, the Samsmarch, is fairly tiny as well.
· Tumbling Golden Mane: The fall of the tavern due to the grig’s minion’s excavations.
· Cow: The primary source of income for the people of the Samsmarch, and the main form of “tax” collected by the halflings. Also a background creature in zombie form, part of the grig’s joke.
· Fog: Fog prevents or limits travel at night in the region, it also adds an extra obstacle to the first encounter with the halflings after the tumbling of the Golden Mane.
· Dexterity: Many of the saves in the adventure, as in the tumbling of the tavern and the traps in the Cave of Souls, rely on Dexterity. The traps and the grig’s poison arrows attempt to sap the PCs poison so that it can use its naturally high Dexterity and spells to combat them.
· Unmarked Grave: There are two unmarked graves in the adventure. One is merely background, the unmarked grave of Darrin the Red that the grig seeks. The other is the Cave of Souls itself, long a hidden resting place for the Lion Tribe’s dead.
Special Tie-Breaking Ingredient: War Elephant: Not used in this entry.
carpedavid said:
The Demon’s Herd and Whimsy
An Adventure for PCs of 6th to 8th Level
Background
The rolling highlands of the Samsmarch are green and fertile, producing in their time a series of small but prosperous villages. These villages were filled with peasant farmers and herdsmen, contented to graze their fat wooly cows across the hill sides, and occasionally sneak off to the Golden Mane, a public house near the cross roads between the villages. For the most part the outside world left them alone, and other than the occasional trip to sell their cows, or their by-products, at the town of Marchfair the villagers left the outside world to its own devices as well. That is, until the Overlord came.
The Overlord is now the unseen master of the villages. His minions, a tribe of barbarian halflings, now patrol the roads and villages collecting “taxes” and taking what they want. Meanwhile, chaotic and evil events plague the villagers, all attributed to the ever-unseen Overlord. Mysterious pits are discovered randomly scattered about the hillsides, strange fires break out, unusual accidents happen frequently, and possibly worst of all every cow that ever had to be buried because of sickness or animal attack now walks the hills as a zombie or skeleton.
The Villages of Samsmarch need help.
Hooks:
The adventure begins in the Golden Mane public house at crossroads between three of the villages: Samford, Samhill, and Marchville (the villagers are not particularly creative). There are several ways to get the PCs there:
- The PCs may have heard of the problems in Samsmarch and come to offer their help.
- The PCs could simply be passing through. The villages can be placed in any hilly and sparsely populated area in a campaign world. In this case the Golden Mane, in spite of its somewhat unstable appearance, is their best option for food and lodging.
- The mayor of Marchfair fears that the problems in the hills will spread to his town. He puts a call out for adventurers to rid the countryside of the Overlord and tells them to contact Brin, the owner of the Golden Mane, to serve as a guide to the region.
- The royal tax collector, or other note worthy official, was traveling to or through the Samsmarch. This person ran afoul of the halflings and was either lost or returned to the authorities with exaggerated tales of a barbarian invasion, undead monsters roaming the countryside, and a powerful Overlord who threatens the safety of the realm. The PCs are called in by an old contact to investigate.
The Tumble of the Golden Mane
The Golden Mane is a large two-storied tavern built long ago on a hillside in the Samsmarch. Unfortunately, the hillside has been eroding over the years, and the rear portion of the building is braced by a series of makeshift pillars of local stone and wood, making up what they lack in structural integrity by sheer number. The fact that the building is somewhat unstable is quite obvious as the PCs make the trek up a winding path that leads from the cross roads up the hill. A weathered stone monument stands at the crossroads. It reads: “On this spot Darrin the Red was executed by dismemberment for crimes most foul.” A worn date indicates that the event occurred over a century ago.
The PCs arrive just before sunset to find the tavern nearly deserted. A few old men sit around sipping beer and playing cards or other sedentary bar games. The owner, Brin, works the bar. Depending on the hook used to get the PCs to the tavern Brin and the denizens of the tavern can provide any or all of the following information:
- Darrin the Red was the servant of a chaotic evil god who terrorized the countryside for several years. He was eventually hunted down and killed by a band of paladins and clerics of a lawful good god. When he died it is said that he still possessed a powerful mystic gem given him by his god. What happened to it or him is unclear, but legend has it that he was buried in a series of unmarked graves throughout the region. One such is supposed to be near this very building. Occasionally someone will go looking for his magic gem, but so far no one has ever found it.
- The Lion Tribe Halflings have never been a problem before. On occasion they steal a cow or two, or cause some mischief, but never anything truly evil. That changed a little over a year ago. Now they wander around in force in the name of “The Overlord.” They have killed the headmen and leaders of all the surrounding villages, forcing the survivors of their raids to swear an oath of loyalty to their master. They seem to have brought in other barbarian bands, as the numbers seen roaming the roads are far greater than people would have ever guessed.
- Since the arrival of the Overlord the villagers have had many strange and seemingly random events that would almost seem like practical jokes if not for their violent, and often fatal, consequences. Pies left to cool on window sills have explosive runes placed on them. Someone will bend over to pick up a coin only to have it stick to him, permanently. It has been bad for business.
- There are zombie cows wandering the hillsides. More a nuisance than a threat.
- There are mysterious pits dug all over the place, ranging from four to ten feet deep. These present more of a hazard, especially at night or in the fog.
- The Overlord frequently issues bizarre orders. Recently he had all the men and women of one village swap clothes and go around as the other gender. In another village he demanded that the people nail fish to their doors and leave them there until they rotted, during which time they were not allowed to kill any flies. Halfling scouts watch the villages and if any one breaks these commands they are soon killed, or tortured, or worse. Many such a victim has later been seen tending the herd of undead cows as a zombie.
Brin will be happy to put the PCs up for the evening. He tells them that the fog at night is so thick it makes travel nearly impossible, especially with the dark things of the Overlord moving around. However, he is willing to take them to speak with the leaders of the nearest village in the morning after the fog burns off if they are interested in learning more. He has to go anyway to buy some supplies and he would appreciate their presence to deal with any of the Overlord’s tax collectors met on the way.
It is possible that the PCs will want to go wandering that night. Brin will try to persuade them not to go, but cannot stop them if they insist. He tells them to be back around sunrise for breakfast and he can take them to the next village in his wagon then. It is a moonless night and the fog is very heavy, minimizing even low light and dark vision. Here and later creatures and objects more than 10 feet away have concealment, while anything further away has total concealment. The road is difficult to follow as it winds through the hills. The PCs may encounter a few zombie cows in the process or mysterious holes in the ground, but nothing more than that and no real clues.
If the PCs decided to stay in for the night he provides them with a room on the second floor next to where his family sleeps. He warns them that the building creaks a lot, but tells them to just ignore it.
Just before sunrise the next morning there is a lot of creaking. Allow any PCs who are awake a listen check to give them a few moments forewarning.
Suddenly the floor rises up at a steep angle. The foundation behind the building has collapsed and the Golden Mane is sent tumbling down the hill.
PCs will need to make Reflex saves 3 times as the building begins to roll down the hill. Initially every one in the building takes 2d6 damage or half on a DC 15 reflex save. Halfway down the hill the DC is increased to 17, as objects are being broken loose and tumbling around with the occupants. Finally the building comes to rest, inhabitants making one last DC 19 Reflex save.
At the bottom of the hill the tavern is a ruin, but likely everyone has survived. Brin, his wife, their two children, a servant, and two regulars were all in the building when it began to fall. Checks can be made for them or the DM can rule that there were injuries, some severe as desired.
The PCs will likely want to make sure everyone has gotten out safely and is tended. The sun is just coming up, but the fog remains thick for about an hour. When the PCs begin to move around they attract the attention of some of the Overlord’s men.
The Lion Tribe
The Lion Tribe is composed of a large group of halfling barbarians, most with one to four class levels in Barbarian, but some with levels in Fighter and Ranger or, rarely, Druid. Once a fairly simple nomadic tribe wandering the hills and stealing livestock, the halflings encountered a mysterious force at one of their ancient burial sites, called the Cave of Souls, and were changed forever. There they met a tall figure in black robes who spoke as the emissary of the god of darkness and death. They were told that their tribe had been chosen to smite the people of the Samsmarch for their past sins. This emissary, they were told, was to be Overlord of the Samsmarch until those sins were burned away. Once several of their most powerful warriors fell to the Overlord’s magic, and were raised as zombies, the tribe complied. They gathered their far roving kin and began to serve.
The halflings go about in armed groups of six to ten, usually with at least one leader who has one or more class levels than the others. In addition to the areas noted below, they are likely to be at any crossroad the PCs come across. There is a 33% chance that one or more bands will be encountered in any of the villages of the Samsmarch. The likely hood of the PCs encountering a band increase overtime, as scouts will become aware of their activities and lead the halfling warriors to them.
The first time the PCs encounter the Lion Tribe is after the destruction of the Golden Mane. The agents of the Overlord, mostly zombie halfling and humans, were digging under the foundation of the building when they upset the already precarious building. A group of halflings was waiting nearby to retrieve anything found there for their master. When the building collapses they come to raid its remains.
How the adventure proceeds from here is based on the behavior of the PCs. Successfully interrogating one of the halflings will yield the above information about the overlord, as well as directions to the Cave of Souls. However, the halflings revere the place as holy, and a captive will attempt to lead the PCs into a heard of zombie cattle or other obstacle, such as the den of a grizzly bear or other wild beast or to a natural hazard like a ravine even if it means sacrificing his or her own life. Alternately, a PC with tracking skills may be able to follow one of the bands back to their camp outside the Cave of Souls.
If the PCs kill all the raiders or fail to force any useful information out of the halflings in the first encounter they may investigate the other villages or strike out into the countryside. In either case they will run into more of the halflings, as well as random encounters appropriate for a temperate wilderness in a sparsely populated land. Villagers can relate further horror stories about trapped items found in the fields and hillsides. In one of the villages the Overlord has recently ordered that all must go around with their faces painted blue, for no clear reason.
Disturbingly, many of the village cemeteries have been desecrated. Most of the graves are now empty, but other fresh graves were also seemingly dug and left open. This is true of every village except Marchville. Most of the graves there remain untouched. PCs who wait around at night to see what happens can encounter a zombie digging crew protected by a band of halflings.
The Cave of Souls
Surrounding the Cave of Souls is a small halfling village of hide tents. This is where the women, children, and elderly stay, tending the stolen cows, while the war bands are out serving the Overlord. This is not a usual campsite for the tribe and their presence here is solely to protect the Overlord. If it were not for this fact most observers would likely never find the Cave. It is unmarked and unadorned on the outside, and it is only the oral traditions of the Lion Tribe that allows them to find it year after year.
If the PC approach openly most of the halflings flee, possibly stirring up the cows to create greater confusion as they go. However, to enter the Cave of Souls the PCs must first deal with one remaining band of halfling defenders. These defenders will not be outside the cave, but patrolling the outskirts of the village. Every effort has been made to keep the cave hidden, but once combat is over it wont be difficult for the PCs to find with a little effort.
The cave is little more than a cleft in the side of a hill, but it quickly opens up to a naturally occurring series of chambers widened by the halflings. The halflings worship the Overlord, and their dead ancestors, in a small area near the mouth of the cave. Here a pair of Lion Tribe druids is meditating guarded by four rangers. The rangers will not leave the chamber without the druids, but are likely to be alerted by sounds of battle as the PCs deal with the defenders outside. Thus they will be waiting in ambush for the PCs to arrive.
Beyond the worship center, a wide tunnel descends into the earth. This leads to a small chamber lit by smoky torches. Here the Lion Tribe’s totem is kept, a mated pair of trained full grown dire mountain lions. They are afraid of the Overlord and give him a wide birth and are trained to allow the halfling shaman access to the inner reaches of the caves but they will attack any intruders.
Beyond this point the complex branches out into several tunnels. Each tunnel is lined with niches carved into the walls. This is where the revered dead of the Lion Tribe is buried. Many of the niches are empty, as the Overlord has turned them into zombies or skeletons to use in his excavations, but several more are full. The ones who remain have also been transformed into undead and left to deal with intruders.
The tunnel system links into smaller caverns. At many of these intersections the Lion Tribe have placed traps, which have subsequently been rebuilt and augmented by the Overlord’s magic. Poisons, both on darts and contact poisons in obvious places, such as
Malyss root paste and centipede venom were favorites of the barbarians. The Overlord has paired many of the traps with more deadly ones, such as Fireballs and Exploding Runes, which require a Reflex save so that the Dexterity reducing poison would make it more likely that the second trap would kill an intruder. The halflings that are permitted into the cave know where these traps are located and can avoid them, but would deliberately trigger one to stop an intruder.
Eventually, however, all the tunnels lead down into the lair of the Overlord.
The Overlord
The whims of chaotic evil beings are uncanny to the rest of the world. They are prone to commit the most random and evil acts for their own amusement. One such being, a demonic trickster himself, was observing the harmless pranks of a tiny but fearless grig one day and got an idea. He would take this benign little fey and turn it into something else, something deadly. It caught the grig and began a slow process of breaking it, mind and body. Feeding it vile droughts and subjecting the poor thing to demonic magics, the grig was slowly corrupted. It still loved to play tricks on others, but these tricks were no longer harmless, now they were deadly. Delighted by the grig’s transformation, the demon went a step further. It began to teach the grig magic, determining that necromancy was the greatest possible perversion of a fey.
Eventually the demon grew bored with its accomplishments and forgot about the grig. Now a being of pure evil, the grig was let loose on the material plane to amuse itself. For long years it wandered about causing trouble until one day it heard one of its former master’s names spoken in a story. In the story it was the demon that was the patron of Darrin the Red, who gave him the jewel and set him loose to work chaos and evil. The grig reasoned that if it could obtain that jewel it might be in a position to play a trick of its own on the demon.
Given the grig’s size, there was only so much it could do alone. That’s when it discovered the body of a bandit who had come to blows with his companions over distribution of spoils. The grig animated the body and hid itself inside its skull. From there the grig was able to use its ventriloquism to make the body speak, and affected the role of a sentient undead. It then hid then entered the Cave of Souls, pretending to be the emissary of a god of death once discovered by the halflings.
The grig is delighted in its joke, sending the once peaceful halflings to commit great crimes in its name and getting some of them killed in the process. It has also convinced them that its profane use of their honored dead is somehow part of a holy mission.
The whole role of being an Overlord is just an act. It collects the taxes and gives bizarre pronouncements for its own amusement, the zombie cows especially. All it really wants is to find the jewel. Unfortunately, its master taught it no divination spells and it has found it can learn none. So it must dig up every place in the hills that looks like it might have been a grave, using the zombies and halflings to do so. Frequently it finds real graves and animates the dead within, but so far it has found no sign of the remains of Darrin the Red.
When confronted by the PCs the grig remains in its zombie body as long as it can. It will cast spells and fire arrows tipped with the poison of a small monstrous centipede for as long as it can. At some point it will command the zombie to attack while it uses its invisibility spell like ability to relocate, if the zombie survives very long which is unlikely with a party of this level. The cave it makes its lair in contains some of the non-cattle “taxes” stolen by the halflings and offers abundant places for it to hide. It will use its good Dexterity score to its advantage, to Hide and Move Silently before reemerging to snipe at the PCs, sometimes laying in wait for several rounds. However, it still possesses the fearless nature of a grig in spite of all of its changes, and will not completely flee until it has spent every spell it can and fired every arrow.
If it can survive without being discovered by the PCs, or somehow convince the PCs that they have defeated the “Overlord”, it will try to hide in either the loot or on the person of one of the PCs. There it will rest and prepare its spells to attack them the next day.
Resolution
The death of the grig is all that will stop the chaos plaguing the Samsmarch. If the PCs show the tiny body to the halflings, or otherwise convince the Lion Tribe that the grig was not an agent of a god, they will repent in shame. Attempting to make restitution for their crimes and eventually disbanding and going away in small groups. The PCs may have to deal with the villagers’ desire for vengeance and must ultimately decide whether or not to punish the halflings for their crimes. While the barbarians feel like fools and know they are guilty, they will not allow their tribe to be killed, enslaved, or imprisoned in anyway. In the face of any of those outcomes the tribe will fight to the death.
With the grig dead the collected loot can be returned to the villagers, or kept by the party if they are not particularly of a good alignment. Any rewards offered will be paid, and local bards will flock to the region to learn the unusual story of the Overlord of the Samsmarch and its defeat.
If the PCs do return the money and goods collected, prevent the halflings from being slaughtered, and defeat the grig they will be heroes of great renown. Which will attract its own problems down the line.
Brin, should he have survived the fall of his business, will approach them about investing in a new Golden Mane.
Just because the grig could not find the unmarked grave of Darrin the Red, does not mean that the PCs wont if they start looking. However, without more details of the nature of the jewel and the events of the time period they cannot expect to find much. If there is a bard in the group a bardic knowledge check may reveal some detail, enough for the PCs to eventually discover an account of the villain’s death and a description of the legendary jewel. From that point divination magics, and more traditional detective work, can find Darrin’s skull and the jewel he had hidden under his tongue, buried beneath a large tree in Samford. The nature of the jewel, and what the PCs do with it if it is discovered, are a matter for another adventure.
· Tiny Evil Overlord: The Grig Necromancer. Not only a Tiny creature, the domain he seems to rule, the Samsmarch, is fairly tiny as well.
· Tumbling Golden Mane: The fall of the tavern due to the grig’s minion’s excavations.
· Cow: The primary source of income for the people of the Samsmarch, and the main form of “tax” collected by the halflings. Also a background creature in zombie form, part of the grig’s joke.
· Fog: Fog prevents or limits travel at night in the region, it also adds an extra obstacle to the first encounter with the halflings after the tumbling of the Golden Mane.
· Dexterity: Many of the saves in the adventure, as in the tumbling of the tavern and the traps in the Cave of Souls, rely on Dexterity. The traps and the grig’s poison arrows attempt to sap the PCs poison so that it can use its naturally high Dexterity and spells to combat them.
· Unmarked Grave: There are two unmarked graves in the adventure. One is merely background, the unmarked grave of Darrin the Red that the grig seeks. The other is the Cave of Souls itself, long a hidden resting place for the Lion Tribe’s dead.
Special Tie-Breaking Ingredient: War Elephant: Not used in this entry.
