Main Ingredients:
- Angry Mob
- Costume Jewelry
- Alchemist’s Fire
- Silver Dragon
- Foppish Vampire Bard
- Apparatus of Kwalish
Optional Ingredients Used:
- sharks
- elephant
- golden chamber pot
- courier
- decapitated halfling
- tax-collector
The Anger Within
A short adventure for characters level 4-7.
There will likely be only one combat within this adventure, but it will possibly be quite lethal for parties of the recommended level range, particularly the low end, as the PCs will be confronted by a large number of creatures at comparable CR ranges and what may amount to 500 at a much lower CR. If your players are not accustomed to playing intelligently in combats, you should probably wait a few levels (say, range 6-9) before running this scenario.
The History
The city-state of Polis has long held an animosity toward its neighboring city-state, Hybris. For longer than collective memory stretches, the two cities have brought armies forth to meet on the battlefield, or besieged the other city. Never has one army been able to sack the city of their rivals. The armies of Hybris are well organized, highly trained, and will not yield the battlefield to their enemies, even in defeat. If a Hybris army stands before a smaller army, with their tall spears held upright beside tower shields, most sensible generals will know that the day is lost and retreat.
Not so, with the generals of Polis. Their units are smaller, their equipment is inferior, and their training is far less focused, but the armies of Polis can hold their own on a battlefield, even against the mighty armies of Hybris, because their tactics are dirtier and their desperation is quite often much greater. Of late, however, the armies of Hybris have begun to develop their own dirty tricks.
The war has not been constant, but every generation has answered its call to arms.
Part of the problem is that the two city-states share the same river, a moderate waterway that serves as a trade route connecting several city-states and waters the farms of the lower-castes. The people of Polis rely much more on agriculture to sustain their economy than do the people of Hybris. Unfortunately, Hybris lies upstream of Polis and the city has a tendency to hamper the flow of the river during planting season.
Furthermore, both cities levy stiff tariffs against the trade-boats of the other city.
Polis believes that it holds a crucial trick in reserve; for as long as anyone can remember (much longer, actually) the Silver Poet has resided in the city. The people believe that he is a silver dragon (his fierce, almost feral features seem to suggest this, as well) who prefers to remain
polymorphed in a human form. They believe that if the city is ever
truly in danger of being overtaken, the Silver Poet will revert to its true form and rescue it. For the most part, however, the citizens of Polis know that the Silver Poet keeps to himself within his lair during the days and performs epic poems relating the exploits of the city’s ancient heroes (whom the Silver Poet may well have known, personally) in the evenings.
Nobody notices that the Silver Poet is
never seen during the day, casts no shadow, and does not cast a reflection in mirrors. Any who do become aware of these oddities are likely to chalk them up to the bard’s “draconic” nature.
Recent Events
Planting season has arrived again and, as they are often disposed to do, Hybris has cut the flow of the river down beyond the minimum level needed for the farmers of Polis. This year, they have even had the audacity to send “tax-collectors” to Polis, in an attempt to extort money from the city. For each farmer that pays the hefty “water tax,” the flow of the river is slightly increased.
This bold move has been too much for the Senate of Polis to take; they have officially declared war on Hybris. However, even while the army is mobilizing, the Speaker of the Senate (a position akin to that of chancellor), a halfling named Akhealus, stands in their way. The Speaker is quite popular among the people of Polis, but the other senators hate him. He is a self-centered, ambitious little man, who never hesitates to place his own agendas before the welfare of the city-state. His current agenda is to form an organization dedicated to collecting money from the farmers to pay the “tax-collectors” with—and to skim a portion of that money off the top. The Senate is aware of Akhealus’ motives and resent their feeling of helplessness in the matter. The halfling is the Speaker of the Senate and, furthermore, holds the sympathy of the public.
In the last month, an army was sent to greet the Hybris army on the plains between the two cities. The results of that battle are still a mystery to the city. Less than two weeks ago, the Senate sent for an oracle to aid them. That woman has already arrived.
Less than one week ago, the Hybris army reached Polis and began an assault. The greatly weakened army of Polis (the men who did not head out on the expedition toward Hybris) took to the field. Amazingly, the little group of men held the army at bay, although, by the end of the day, nothing much was left of either side. In some strange fit of anger, Akhealus has forbidden anyone from burying the dead men of Hybris, insisting that no such honor is deserved (his motives are unclear to everyone, save the Silver Poet, who actually the halfling to take this course of action). In doing so, the halfling is poisoning the land around the city.
Even more recently, the Silver Poet has been whispering suggestions to the members of the Senate (who are actually
charmed) that the Speaker of the Senate is incompetent, corrupt, and should be removed from power through violent force.
The Setup
This scenario assumes that the PCs are traveling through a relatively fertile area, with at least one river, during the spring. It also assumes that the PCs are not traveling particularly urgently somewhere, as this scenario has the potential to completely derail them and to set new courses. The landscape should be somewhat Mediterranean in feel, that is, slightly warmer than a temperate spring, olive trees dotting the countryside, etc. These elements, of course, are unnecessary for the actual scenario to work, but will help to give it a distinguishing flavor.
As the PCs are passing through the area, they will encounter a young man wearing torn scale armor, who rests, exhausted and heavily wounded, by the side of the road. He is a warrior (Level 5 Warrior) from the Polis army, sent to invade Hybris. He
was a warrior. He is currently nothing but a courier, sent to deliver the bad news that the army of Polis has been defeated on the field and the army of Hybris is quickly marching toward the city of Polis (in, fact, it is already there, but the PCs and the courier have no way of knowing this).
The courier, Philos, is on the verge of death (0 hp), and will beg the PCs to take his information to the city of Polis (if the PCs do not heal them). If the PCs heal him, Philos will insist that the PCs join him at his house in Polis for a feast of gratification, after he delivers that message. In this case, he will request that the PCs escort him to the town, as he knows well the dangers of traveling alone in the wilderness (even alongside a river).
Outside of the city walls, the PCs will be assaulted with a terrible smell. This is the smell of an army in death. The smaller forms of soldiers share the field with the massive husks of dead war-elephants—all rotting in the merciless sun; it is truly a gruesome sight. The PCs should be affected as per a
Stinking Cloud spell. If the PCs make it further (without turning back, or becoming ill), they will see a marvelous place; an “enlightened” city filled with philosophers, poets, politicians, and slaves, each going about their daily business, as they try not to breath the foul air.
As there is, essentially, no longer an army of Polis, it is good fortune that the army of Hybris has retreated.
The City of Polis
In the City of Polis, the PCs will find themselves led to the Seat of the Republic, either to report the news of Philos, or to accompany Philos, if he is with them. They will have to wait an hour or two to be seen. In the meantime, they may find themselves in conversation with the Oracle’s assistant (she gives no name), who is also present. The Oracle’s assistant is somewhat of a philosopher, herself, and may challenge the PCs to a test of wits.
If the PCs agree to converse with her, she will present a handful of obviously cheap costume jewelry and a solid-gold chamber pot, filled (which she produces from an discrete corner of the room, where it has been tucked away. She will ask the PCs which of the two are worth more. When the PCs have chosen and explained their choices, she will present her line of reasoning, which is that the costume jewelry is obviously worth much more than the gold chamber pot; the jewelry has the ability to help its wearer influence attitudes, actions, and intentions, if the wearer knows how to use it for such. On the other hand, the gold chamber pot is only, after all, filled with human waste.
Before the PCs (or Philos) are allowed to address the Senate, the Oracle will approach the PCs and speak directly to whichever has the highest Charisma, saying that she had a dream—a vision—in which thousands of sharks of all different sizes swam around a lone fisher in a small boat. With the sharks all around him, the fisher does not seem to notice that his boat has sprung a very slow leak.
The Oracle, if pressed, will explain the dream in one way, only: “Heroes of the ancient times hide the villains of our time.” If the PCs can make sense of this statement, it may clue them into the fact that the Silver Poet is manipulating the Senate and destroying the city of Polis from within.
The Oracle’s assistant has a different take on the dream, and timidly offers it. She says, “The enemy who watches from the outside is far less insidious than the enemy who takes residence within.” If the PCs can make sense of this statement (which should be less difficult, as the assistant has not yet mastered the fine art of obfuscation), it may clue them into the fact that the Hybris are more or less a distraction to the city, while the Silver Poet is its greatest danger.
Shortly, the PCs will hear the sounds of argument behind the sealed doors of the Senate Chamber. A successful Listen check made at DC 15 will reveal that the shouting voices are accusing someone of abusing the trust of the people and that that someone will be the ruin of the city, while a high-pitched voice defends itself by saying that it really didn’t see that all this is necessary and…
gurgle.
Before they get a chance to see the PCs, the Senate embarks upon a course of action with the potential for dire consequences. When the Senate exits from their chamber, they are carrying the head of the Speaker, the halfling, Akhealus, separate from the body.
As the PCs have no further business within the Governmental Seat, they are asked to leave the building. They have free reign to go wherever they would like within the city, but will find that, within 10 minutes (not likely enough time to get to the edge of town), a state of martial law has been declared and the gates are sealed. No one is allowed into or out of the city. These gates include not only the gates on the roads, but also the gates on the river, which completely seal off anything above the water-line and make travel by boat into or out of the city impossible.
The Devil’s Spell
Early in the night, the citizens of Polis will gather in the center of the city to await news of the confusing events around them and to hear the nightly performance of the epic storyteller, the Silver Poet. Tonight, the Silver Poet has something else in store, entirely. The Silver Poet has grown bored of passively controlling the government over the last couple of hundreds of years. Finally, he has devised a plan that should keep him occupied for another thousand years, or so.
By now, the PCs may suspect the true nature of the Silver Poet’s identity. He is certainly not a silver dragon—and never was. Rather, he was once human—and has been a vampire for the last few thousand years.
His new plan involves overthrowing the government of Polis, killing every living thing within the city, and founding a necropolis. Tonight.
He does not realize it, but his plans will be aided by the army of Hybris.
The Silver Poet stands before the massive crowd and begins to tell a tale much different from the ones he usually spins. This one is of deceit, betrayal, and murder. He tells of how the Senate beheaded their own beloved Speaker and he calls upon the crowd to take vengeance upon the Senate.
The mob is angry, quite ready to destroy their own government, even in this time of war.
At that moment, a large, metallic lobster crawls from the river, followed by another, and another, and another, and so on. All told, there are twenty-five of them. Each of these is an
Apparatus of Kwalish modified to launch flasks of Alchemist’s Fire and acid with range increments of 10ft (as if thrown) in a forward arc. Each is operated by two soldiers of Hybris (level 5 Fighters) and has snuck into the city by traveling along the bed of the river, beneath the river gates. Once inside the city, they attempt to burn down as many buildings as possible; killing civilians is only a secondary mission.
The Mob Rules
At this point, the PCs will be confronted with a number of options, a few of which follow, perhaps in combination with others. They may:
a) attempt to kill the Silver Poet. If the PCs have discovered that the Silver Poet is a vampire, they may attempt to kill him as they would any vampire. This should be particularly difficult, because he will have the adoration and protection of the angry mob. Furthermore, the PCs may wish to find the lair of the Silver Poet to do the job right. That lair is in a massive chamber beneath the Governmental Seat, a fact unknown to all within the City. The entrance to it (a massive, stone trap-door) can be found in the Senate Chamber on a successful Search check at DC 30. If the PCs do not realize that the Silver Poet is a vampire, but wish to attack him anyway (or neutralize him in some other manner), they will find the task quite difficult for the reasons specified above. If the PCs are successful in killing the Silver Poet, the angry mob will turn on them completely, for Polis has had no better-loved man than the Silver Poet in thousands of years.
b) attempt to neutralize the angry mob. The PCs may have a means to counteract the bardic (and vampiric) enchantments of the Silver Poet and may attempt to do so. This is probably the best course of action to take, as the crowd will be able to defend itself much better against the soldiers of Hybris in the metallic lobsters. If the angry mob is pacified, it will not be able to put up a resistance, but if the angry mob’s fury is redirected, it will still be able to put up a rather formidable defense. If the Senate survives, they will certainly reward the PCs with 3,000 gold minted in the local style.
c) try to escape the city by swimming under the river gates. This is always an option and should not be too much of a problem for the PCs to pull off in the heat of the surrounding battle. The water is very cold and the PCs suffer damage from cold exposure for as long as they are in it, in addition to being in danger of drowning. The current is fairly quick (30 ft per round), and if the PCs choose the gate downstream, they should be out of the city in very little time. This choice of action should not be very palatable for the PCs, because the city will very clearly be doomed by one faction or another; if the angry mob does not tear the city apart, the Hybris army will, or the Silver Poet will do worse.
d) fight the army of Hybris. This should be a difficult task, as the PCs would be facing a total of 50 level 5 warriors, marching (and fighting) in 25 metallic armored vehicles. This will be a tough battle, even without the angry mob getting in the way of things. The rewards of this choice of action may not be high, if the angry mob is never neutralized or the Silver Poet is allowed to carry out his plans. Otherwise, if the Senate survives, they will be perfectly willing to reward the party with 3,000 gold (in addition to any other reward they may give the PCs, such as the reward from choice “b,” above.
e) hide within the city. If the PCs choose to hide, they will never be trusted or respected by anyone in the city again, assuming that both the PCs and/or any part of the city survive. If the angry mob happens upon them, they will enact a swift punishment for cowardice in their blood-lust. If the soldiers of Hybris happen upon the PCs, they will disdainfully kill the cowardly dogs that they view the PCs as, assuming, but not caring, that the PCs are denizens of Polis. This course of action should not be palatable for the same reasons listed in choice “c,” above, but also because the only likely reward is death. The PCs may attempt to follow this course of action in combination with a more heroic choice; if this is the case, none of the above holds true, save that the angry mob will try to kill the PCs if they are caught in the act of hiding, as will the soldiers of Hybris (who will try to kill them, anyway).
The Cast
Philos is a Lawful Good level 6 Warrior. He loves his city-state and is loyal to a fault. When duty falls upon him to deliver the message of defeat to Polis, he does not hesitate to leave immediately, despite his exhausted and heavily wounded condition. This is typical of Philos. Philos could potentially become an ally or companion of the PCs, particularly if he survives, but Polis does not.
The Silver Poet is a Chaotic Evil level 5 Bard/ Vampire. He is fond of wearing flashy, gaudy, and sometimes simply feminine clothing and a great deal of adornments, such as jewelry and a
ring of mind shielding. The Silver Poet is ancient and enjoys playing mind games with people, using his vast experience in life to undermine opponents in duels of wit or banter. Even so, the Silver Poet is not jovial—and has not been for centuries. A massive boredom has set in upon the immortal. The Silver Poet performs epic poems about the heroes of Polis’ ancestors—tales that he may well have been around to witness firsthand, if they are true. The Silver Poet maintains a steady diet of slaves, which he purchases personally, so as not to arouse suspicion of his true nature. Most people assume that, as a silver dragon, he eats the massive amount of slaves that he purchases, anyway—after all, a dragon’s got to eat
something doesn’t it?
The Angry Mob is a Chaotic Neutral entity that is made up of the citizens of Polis. It should be treated as a level 1 Warrior taking up five hundred 5ft squares, which need not be adjacent. Each of these squares (individuals within the Mob) has a single attack and 4 hp. All saves, especially Will saves, are made as a single entity! Furthermore, the Angry Mob is able to assist itself in attacks, if an individual element forgoes its attack.
