2019 IRON DM Tournament

[Rune]

Evocative!

 

[Psykick]

Ingredients:

Secret Admirer
Serene Coven
Belt of the Copper Dragon
Hurricane Recovery
Funeral Rites
Shadow Couatl

Spoiler: Sacrifice

Sacrifice​

The party has received a missive from the Yawning Portal, inviting them to participate in a hunt into Undermountain to deal with a Stirge infestation. They are heading to the port of Rascalin to secure passage to Waterdeep.

Upon reaching Rascalin, they discover that a hurricane has hit the city. Repair efforts are underway, but it’s clear that this happened very recently. A pair of soldiers on patrol hail the group and explain that the Mayor, Magale, has promised gold for those who help in the recovery. Those willing should report to the Burnished Dragon Inn.

The Burnished Dragon is a stone structure in the center of the city, it is banded with copper shaped in the form of an ouroboros encircling the inn. Close examination reveals ancient runes of protection expertly engraved into the design.

Magale - wearing a copper chain ouroboros belt matching the inn’s - is organizing repair efforts with several townsfolk. The party is asked to run supplies to the triage tents across the city. On the way to do so they will need to complete some challenges:

• Rescue a trapped family from debris (DC 12)
• Stabilize an injured member of that family
• Find a way through or around a street filled with rubble (DC 16)
• Defeat a pair of looters

Surviving family members and townsfolk at the triage tents talk of a nearby witch coven that they think is responsible for the hurricane. The coven is blamed for unusual circumstances that occur locally such as:

• Forest paths turning into endless circles
• Trees moving into the middle of fields
• Entire harvests changing from corn to rice overnight
• Doors disappearing from houses leaving solid walls

Though frustrating, all fairly benign issues. More recently the occurrences have gotten worse:

• livestock dying horrifically
• Important roads disappearing
• a low tide that lasted for a month and disrupted trade

Upon their return, Magale will enlist assistance with a task. Magale was secretly the leader of the Coven of the Copper Dragon. Magale fell in love with the Inn’s former owner, Jayal. Tragically Jayal drowned rescuing children from a flash flood, and in their grief, Magale left the coven and took over the Inn as a way of desperately clinging to the love she lost.
Like their namesake, the coven’s witches are tricksters but ultimately good. Long ago, the coven created the Burnished Dragon in a feat of legendary magic, afterward their role has been to periodically create minor chaos - the energies created by this chaos are a cosmic balance to the field of protection and prosperity generated by the Inn.

Magale recognizes the coven’s hand in the hurricane, and believes that they are corrupted by an ancient shadow couatl foe, Noxical, that the original coven magically sealed long ago. As much as it pains Magale, they ask the group to end the corruption by eliminating the coven and performing a funeral rite binding Noxical’s power back on itself, thus neutralizing its dark influence. The group is given the location, a ritual scroll to accomplish the rite, one of Magale’s Earrings of Sending to communicate, and promises of gold and potions.

Upon arriving at the coven’s dwelling, they are met by a trio of witches performing a ritual. One witch has a belt similar to Magale’s except it is dark, tarnished, and looks like a couatl. The group can fight or attempt peaceful resolution - Noxical’s corruption is not absolute:

• Fight: One witch will stop casting to fight, and when they are dead or downed, the other two will abandon the ritual and fight. Once the battle is complete, the funeral rites go off without a hitch, and the party can return to Magale for their reward.
  • The witches carry an assortment of gold, gems, and valuable spell components - as well as a journal found on the belted witch.The witch, Sariah, was a member of the coven and secretly loved Magale. When Magale left, Sariah fell into a dark despair that allowed Noxical to influence and corrupt. It has been slowly breaking the bonds of its imprisonment through the corruption.
• Peace: Sariah will share their story if negotiated with and Magale suggests the funeral rites can be completed, but will require Sariah’s “death” in the form of sacrificing all of their memories permanently. The rite will break the link to Noxical and allow the binding magic to work as well as cleansing the other witches who are in Sariah’s thrall.

 

[Iron Sky]

Ingredients

• Secret Admirer
• Serene Coven
• Belt of the Copper Dragon
• Hurricane Recovery
• Funeral Rites
• Shadow Couatl

The Storm Prophet
A 3-5th level 5e D&D adventure.

Tempest
Out of a clear sky, a furious storm strikes without warning. The party's ship capsizes. Awakening on a beach, the PCs discover NPCs and/or items of import missing. Exploring the rocky island reveals a harbor town flooded and broken, anchored by a rocky crag jutting fang-like over the remains.

A long, winged shadow passes. Skyward glances reveal only dark, churning clouds. A sibilant female voice whispers in their minds:

"This storm was evil-wrought, Havershorn-town now coven-claimed. Its dragon guardian slain and skinworn, Havershorn's people tricked by witch-word and hag-glamour. Your storm-lost treasures stolen by a false dragon lurking within yon looming pinnacle."

Silence meets any questions.

Devastation
Havershorn slowly rebuilds, wracked with sobs, clogged by debris, reeking of salt and rot. Tired hands wrap burial shrouds about bodies dredged from the sea.

The town barber approaches the party, ordinary but for a large amber monocle from which a cloudy eye peers. He offers baths and grooming. Passing townsfolk cry "hail the Storm Prophet!"

If questioned: in visions he foresaw the hurricane. Under blue skies, none listened to unlikely warnings with all energy directed towards completing Havershorn's yearly ritual.

The Prophet now oversees reconstruction at the behest of the guardian dragon, Titian. Normally new arrivals would meet Titian, but the switchbacks to his lair were obliterated.

The Prophet offers aid gathering bodies of lost ship fellows for burial, promising passage once docks repairs are complete.

Clues
About Havershorn:

•Most blame the storm on sea hags who've plagued the town for years.
•Glimpses of Titian gazing down from crag-top.
•Nahutai, “our spirit-serpent protector" is missing, though many claim sight of her shadow.
•Reports of troubled dreams and Nahutai's bodiless voice whispering.
•Changeable funerary directions from the Prophet: first excarnation near the crag that the storm gods might claim the bodies, now instructions to instead wrap effigies for the gods and turn the now-flooded ritual cavern beneath the town into a mass tomb.

Inaction
If the players do nothing, the townsfolk place effigies about the crag, drain the ritual cavern, and lay their departed within. The following day the "dragon" and “his” two new beautiful female attendants march out of the crag to confront the Prophet over the fake excarnations just as storm-drowned Havershornians flood from the ritual cavern as undead shadows, led by Nahutai's shade.

Chaos and carnage.

Why?
Nahutai - guardian of the secret shadow rift below the town - urged the townsfolk to complete their ritual as storm surge flooded the cavern. When they fled, she tried to finish it alone only to be consumed by shadow, her corrupted shade sent to manipulate the Prophet with false dreams.

The barber secretly promised the coven his eternal love and devotion after spotting their illusory beauty from a distance, becoming their (Hag's) Eyes and ears while leaving bundles of hair and fingernails to aid their Scrying. In turn, they imparted Planar Contact-divined forewarning of the storm, betting none would believe but he'd gain credibility after.

What they didn't realize: their Planar Contact was the very shadow god seeding the storm.

As Titian rescued townsfolk washed to sea during the tempest, the coven ambushed, killed, and skinned the young dragon, crafting his hide into a girdle allowing their illusory forms to mimic his own. After looting the PC's shipwreck, they skulked through the crag's (Scryed) secret entrance, instructing their Prophet to extol excarnation: a feast of human flesh arrayed on their doorstep. Victorious, they sank into relaxed complacency in Titian's comfortable abode.

With unquestioning devotion, the Prophet unhesitatingly accepted “new visions” wherein an alteration of funeral rites led to final consumation of his long-anticipated tryst. How could he know Nahutai's shade was Dreaming them?

Resolution
If the PCs invade the lair, they face a daunting climb to a copper-dragon-crafted labyrinth of tricks, traps, and riddles lying dangerously damaged and partly flooded. Navigating carefully, quickly, and quietly, they might ambush individual hags sleeping or relaxing. If reckless, slow, or loud they confront a full coven spell onslaught and acid/slowing dragon breath from whichever hag wears the belt.

Victorious, they reclaim whatever was lost in the shipwreck plus a dragon trove, but return to find Havershorn overrun by swarms of shadows following a shadow couatl.

Unless...

...if they uncovered Nahutai's shadowy plans through magic, investigating the flooded ritual chamber, and/or questioning townsfolk they might halt the mass entombment then ward off attacks from Nahutai's shade while the townsfolk complete the ritual before infiltrating the crag.

 

[Rune]

Spoiler: Commentary on the R1M4 entries

Sacrifice has some hauntingly tragic characters. I wonder if the PCs can convince Magale to confront her coven with them and whether that would help free Sariah from Noxical or she would still need to be memory-wiped.

The Storm Prophet: Wow! That’s got a lot of complications for 750 words! Looks fun!

 

[Radiating Gnome]

Iron DM 2019 Round 1 Match 3 Judgement

I love it when the decisions are difficult. The two entries provided by our worthy contestants are evocative, interesting, and at first blush appear to be making reasonably good use of the ingredients. So we're going to have to look closely.

We have Sacrifice (by Psykick), the tale of a town beset beset by a coven with a hurricane. In this adventure the party is asked to help in the recovery efforts by Magale, Mayor of the city and lynchpin to the story, and the big bad is a coven of witches that Magale was once the leader, but has left after some personal grief.

And we have The Storm Prophet (Prohpet), in which the party is shipwrecked by a storm in a coastal town, where the town barber and recently-dubbed Prophet is rebuilding the town, despite his secret connection to a coven of pretty nasty witches.

Lets jump right into examining the use of ingredients.

Secret Admirer. This is an ingredient that I imagined would be very difficult to integrate into an adventure in a meaningful way -- making it a meaningful part of the player experience. In Sacrifice, at first I thought that Magale's romantic connection to the dead inkeeper was how the entry was handling the secret admirer, but then in the very end there is the revelation that Sariah, one of the witches, was secretly in love with Magale -- and her thwarted love for Magale was how the big bad, Noxical, to influence the coven. This meets the need to include the ingredient, but it's not particularly good use of the ingredient because, while it's part of the motivation behind the adventure, it's not something that the players discover until the adventure is over. Meanwhile, in Prophet, the secret admirer is Titian the barber prophet who has secretly pledged his love and support to the coven. In this case, his love and devotion isn't hidden from the object of affection, which is a core part of the 'secret admirer' trope. So, I don't see this as quite meeting the needs for the ingredient. So, Sacrifice is stronger on this one.

Serene Coven. So, this is another challenging ingredient because of the adjective "serene." We typically imagine that covens are a source of twisted evil, and anything but serene. So I'm looking for a use that makes that modifier an important part of the story. In Prophet, the coven is the big bad of the story, and doesn't even appear to be a serene influence at any point along the way. In Sacrifice, the coven was at one time ultimately good, but were tricksters like their namesake dragon. I don't think either use is particularly good, but there is a whisker of an advantage to Sacrifice here.

Belt of the Copper Dragon. This is an important item in both adventures. In Sacrifice, it's worn by Magale, and never really is something that the players interact with. In Prophet, it's an item that the coven uses to impersonate the copper dragon protector of the town, and that falls into the player's hands at the end of the story. So, that gives Prophet the better interpretation of this ingredient.

Hurricane Recovery. This ingredient is another one that is easy to include, but the distinctions are in how well it's integrated into the story of the adventure. In Prophet, the recovery from the hurricane is tied directly to the funeral rites, to the through-line of the adventure. In Sacrifice, the hurricane recovery is a significant part of the early activity in the story -- the players are asked to take on a lot of skill challenges and other activities which gradually reveal some of the trickster/fey magic that is involved. Both use it pretty well. But I think in the end the use in Prophet is stronger -- Sacrifice's recovery feels like a lot of busy work, while Prophet's is a bit more intrinsic to the story.

Funeral Rites. This one is probably the most straightforward and direct ingredient in the list. In Sacrifice, the usage feels tacked on -- the ritual that the party must complete a "funeral right binding" the big bad's evil energy back on itself after killing it. While I really dig the way that feeds the ouroboros theme of the adventure, the ritual isn't quite a funeral rite (in that it's not honoring or protecting the subject of the rite). In Prophet, the funeral rite is a clue (because of the way the funeral rites change after the Prophet is being influenced) and it is part of the coven's plan to make the villages feed them unknowingly. Prophet's use is stronger.

Shadow Couatl. In an adventure in which we have two creatures whose alignments are apparently flipped (the Coven and the Couatl) this one I expected to be the big bad as things played out. In Prophet, the couatl is the town's missing guardian. There are pieces of the Nahutai thread that I find confusing. Nahutai is the guardian of a secret shadow rift near the town, but the rift doesn't appear to be an important part of the story. The proximity of the rift makes Nahutai also a protector of the town, and she even tried to finish the funeral rites herself, but was consumed by shadow in the process. There's a piece of this I find a bit confusing -- if the funeral rites were for people who had been killed by the storm (and part of the hurricane recovery) then the rite must have been taking place after the storm had passed, when I would have expected the storm surge to be receding, not rising. But, even with that weakness, this couatl is shadowy and dark and an importantly bad influence on the story. In Sacrifice, the couatl Noxical is the big bad behind the coven and the thing that needs to be contained after the coven is defeated. The usage doesn't confuse me the way it does in Prophet, but it's also a detail that could be anything. In both entries, frankly, the couatl-ness of Noxical/Nahutai isn't a significant part of the story, although in Sacrifice the ouroboros theme does connect nicely to the imagery of the couatl. I have gone back and forth on this one, and I find both uses of the shadow couatl interesting but problematic, and I can't find that I prefer one over the other, so we'll call this ingredient a wash as well.

So that means that Sacrifice has stronger use of Secret Admirer and Serene Coven, while Prophet is stronger on Funeral Rites and Hurricane Recovery. So, again, a very tight competition.

Creativity and Playability

They're both strong entries, I think. I think the hooks are reasonable, but not great. The use of ingredients wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but were satisfying. The overall story of a former-coven-member mayor and tavern-keeper is good, and while the skill challenge activities seem a bit like busy work, there are clues there about the nature of things to come that the players can interact with. And the story of the barber/prophet/betrayer is a mix of cliche and unusual, I find that I'm intrigued by this interpretation of the belt of the copper dragon more -- and the belt that allows the wearer to become a copper dragon seems like an awesome item to put in the hands of players at the end of the adventure.

At the same time, the idea of the players having to pick their way through a recently defunct copper dragon's trap-filled lair sounds like some good fun, too.

Spoiler: Final Judgement

In the end, given how close the two entries are in many ways, I find that the ideas and interpretations in Prophet are slightly more interesting and memorable than the ones in Sacrifice. In Sacrifice, the skill challenges and traps are very much business as usual, while the final battle in Prophet seems more epic, and the rewards are more unique and interesting.

So, Prophet wins, and Iron Sky advances.

Thanks, and congrats to both of you for such strong entries.

-rg

 

[Rune]

Another two entries of quality. And, yet...

Congratulations to

Spoiler

Iron Sky

for advancing.

 

[Iron Sky]

Whew. You'd think after decade-ish of doing this I wouldn't get shaky reading judgments, but here we are.

For my entry, I tried to differentiate the town's yearly ritual to keep the shadow rift sealed and the funeral rites that happened after the storm, but with the limited word count and stylistic reveals it necessitated it appears I wasn't able to make it as clear hoped.

As for the coven, serenity was admittedly weak as I focused on them relaxing after "victory". I'll admit they weren't spreading peace and calm even if they felt it for a while but by the time I realized the degree of indirectness it was far too late to change things.

I also tried to use hurricane recovery as a hook - the PCs being missing important people or things after the shipwreck that they need to recover, but wasn't able to flesh it out as much as I'd have liked.

@Psykick , I really loved the ouroboros-coatl belt unity from the story and was impressed at your ability to inject meaningful interpersonal drama into such a tight word count. I also loved every one of the "minor chaos" bullet point events and I'll steal those to stuff into my "GMGooder.txt" I've been compiling for years if it's okay with you.

Thanks for the challenging competition Psykick and the judgement @Radiating Gnome , looking forward to the next round (and more words to spend!)

 

[Psykick]

Oof, sorry for the later response - work has kept me busy!

Can't say I disagree much with the assessments! I definitely initially had Magale as a secret admirer of Jayal, but cut that piece down to its current form in favor of keeping Sariah's secret admirer status to link it all together. Similarly I wanted Noxical and the Copper Dragon to be in some kind of balancing conflict with more depth, including more back story on the significance of the belts, including a fun twist about the inn...but sacrifices (pun very much intended) had to be made for the word count.

All in all, I'm pretty satisfied with how it worked out and fully intend to continue working on this for that magical day when everyone's schedule works out to play D&D

@Iron Sky fantastic work! I thoroughly enjoyed your hook (I love a good "best laid plans turned chaos" intro). I also liked the (tragic) fate of the dragon and how that was used to influence.

Solidly done, and congratulations on your well earned victory!

@Radiating Gnome thank you for the ingredients and the judging! Looking forward to the next 2 rounds. Make sure you throw in some more curveball ingredients Hurricane Recovery and Secret Admirer were really fun to work with!

 

[Deuce Traveler]

Round 2, Match 1: @Iron Sky vs @Wisdom Seeker

@Iron Sky and @Wisdom Seeker, we are now on Round 2 where your time limit, word limit, and number of ingredients have increased. You have 48 hours to post your entries to this thread. Please limit your entry to a title, a list of the ingredients used and 1500 additional words. Please include your list of ingredients at the beginning of the entry and please do not edit your post once it is submitted. Please refrain from reading your opponent's entry until after you have posted your own. You are on your honor to do so.

Entries that are between 1 and 59 minutes late will have their word-limits reduced to 1350. Later entries that are at less than 1 day late will have their word-limits reduced to 1050. Entries that are at least 1 day late will have their word-limits reduced to 750. In addition, entries that are at least 2 days late may be disqualified at the discretion of the judge with consent from the match's opposing competitor. Entries that exceed their word-limits will be considered to end once they reach that limit; I will ignore everything after.

A note about how I will score. 2 max points for timeliness, 2 max points for grammar and readability, two points for each ingredient that is used correctly and is integral to the narrative, and finally two max points for how employable the overall entry would be for a game master. Keep in mind that in case of a tie, I'll also give special considerations for entries that have ingredients that are integral to one another.

Without further ado, here are the ingredients:

Laconic Sphynx
Thieving Caravan
Astral Jaunt
Last Crownbearer
Affluent Troll
Crystal Seal
Fountain of Love

 

[Iron Sky]

Ingredients
Laconic Sphynx
Thieving Caravan
Astral Jaunt
Last Crownbearer
Affluent Troll
Crystal Seal
Fountain of Love

Arrow, by Versace
A modern supernatural adventure.

Introduction
The gods are dying, entire pantheons eliminated as Ragnarök nears completion. Though skewed by interaction with other faiths and mythologies Ragnarök proved the Twilight of the Gods, but not of mankind. Our world hosts proxy battles in the shadows; echoes of the real war ravaging realms perpendicular ours.

The PCs play agents at the periphery of the struggle, whether freelancers or working for some faction.

They have a job to do and it starts in Athens.

Attica
Inside a dead-dropped manila envelope: an Attica Zoological Park visitor's guide, Angola Lion circled. Underlined variously throughout: 1 3 0 a m. Also, a flier for a poetry reading in two days, the address smudged out.

After breaking into the zoo and arriving at the lion pen at the date and time, their contact is late. About the time the PCs begin to expect a setup, the huge lion "sleeping" on a rock in the pen raises its head and unfurls its wings. The sphinx says:

"Your contact, Phix, am I
Listen close lest you die.
In riddles must I speak ever on
Cursed legacy of my father Typhon,
From my words your answer must flower
Lest part of you must I... (devour)."

Phix can only speak in riddles, leaving out the word in (parenthesis) for the PCs to answer. First wrong guess or too long without an attempt, she raises an eyebrow. Second, she unsheathes her claws and snarls, her canines growing. Third, a furious attack, unceasing until she's has devoured part of an involved PC or is beaten unconscious. She'll try for an ear or finger, if possible, but generally speaks as little as possible in hopes of avoiding such working complications entirely.

As a supernatural being, she'll regenerate from anything short of dying.

"Ragnarök hit Greece harder than Kratos of Playstation,
Once twelve now zero; the pantheon of our nation.
So desperate we for a deity near us
We resort now to your Cupid, our (Eros)."

"Last resort am I, all previous failed,
Seeking to uncover how Hellas' last Scion's jailed.
Unknown prisons contain our lost divinity
Though in visions a crystal seal is (key)."

Pushed for more detail, she adds:

"When a vision visits from the great RNG
It comes as .txt, not (.png)."

...or (.jpg) as alpha channels lie outside sphinges' purview.

Phix absolutely insists on accompanying the group wherever they go, thus largely restricting the PCs' travel to vehicle convoys since she lives and travels in a large, heavily-modified RV. Additional challenges arise from satisfying her ravenous hunger for meat. “Redder is better, but living's the (thing).”

The saddlebag always slung over her side blazes like a beacon to arcane detection, radiating from a Zeus' vacant olive-wreath crown.

Clues
Digging for info about crystal seals and/or Eros reveals clues. Each has a difficulty and is related to one investigation:

• Investigation Alpha.
♦ Investigation Beta.
▲ Investigation Kappa.

Casual
•Recent art exhibits all over the world feature exquisite crystal animal and human sculptures – complete with “3d etched” layers of bone, muscle, skin, and organs.
•The sculpturist, "Gorgo," has never been seen or photographed.
•Gorgo Artwork Incorporated offices reside in Ayvalik, Turkey.
♦Numerous ancient gem seals called intaglios exist in museums and private collections.

Moderate
•A fur seal sculpture stands out in the background of a few, rare pictures from inside Gorgo's workshop.
•It's not in any of the exhibits.
•Any first-hand arcane analysis reveals sculptures are victims of petrification.
•By medusa curse.
♦On display at the Louvre: an intaglio featuring Eros, carved by Dexamenos of Chios.

Arduous
•Gorgo's actual workshop address... in Sadha, Libya.
▲Eros ran Catch Cupid, Incorporated(CCI) until a few months ago when he vanished.
▲CCI runs dating websites, porn rings, and sells adult toys.
▲In a partnership with Versace, CCI just released “Arrow” perfume and cologne.
▲Early reviews report legit aphrodisiac effects.
▲CCI recently started making huge donations to the Norwegian Polar Institute.
▲Which funnels into “Troll”, an NPI research station in Queen Maud Land, Antarctica.
▲Eros dealt and dabbled with hard drugs.

•Alpha
If the PCs head to Ayvalik, they must first get their vehicle caravan into Turkey. Finagling a meeting with Spheno – the reclusive head of Gorgo Artworks – takes effort and finesse.

In person, Spheno appears as a olive-skinned woman of indeterminate age wearing a hijab. If accused of being Medusa, she laughs: “everyone knows Perseus' story”. She admits to being one of Medusa's sisters; Spheno runs the business while her other sister, Euryale, handles “sculpturing” in Sadha, Libya where she can “utilize” imported animals and human subjects from Sabha's slave market.

If shown pictures of the seal sculpture: “you'll have to talk with Euryale in person about that.”

If she's attacked, deadly-venomous scarlet snakes writhe out of Spheno's hijab. She's also a demigod with millennia of wile and cunning, but no petrification ability.

Bypassing some solid security to break into Gorgo Artwork's warehouse proves the the seal's not there. Cargo manifests list Libya as country-of-origin.

Libya
A drive to Sabha across a country in ruins after a nearly-decade-long civil war. If PCs don't ship their vehicles in, they face border crossings or smuggling their convoy across Syria, Jordan, and Egypt.

Navigating militia roadblocks, IEDs, extremist hostility, destroyed infrastructure, and harsh deserts takes them to Sabha. Deep in the ruins of the oasis city, Euryale's workshop proves a hardened compound complete with guard dogs, concertina wire, paid local militias and private security forces.

Euryale – a loud, confrontational version of Spheno – meets with them but won't part with the seal for any reason as it was first “sculpture” she made after learning to crystallize instead of petrify.

Phix pushes for theft.

Security: vaults, arcane and physical security systems, guards, a hostile demigod with a deadly gaze.

If/when they secure the sculpture, it's useless though its ear tag reads "NPI, Trl, AQ".

♦Beta
Driving their vehicle caravan across Europe to Paris is the easy part. Lifting the intaglio, however...

Casing the exhibit at the Louvre reveals the exhibit bears supernatural wards buttressing extensive physical security befitting a Treasures of Antiquity exhibit.

The finely carved rock crystal definitely bears arcane ties to Eros. Experimentation (and/or dangerous hints from Phix) after stealing it determines that stamping a wax imprint from the ring onto paper sends it flying towards Eros – towards Antarctica.

▲Kappa
A trip to Antarctica. Complications: hostile weather, attacks by Somali pirates, a black helicopter assault by Them.

Reaching Antarctica's shores enables the next step: driving a convoy of tractor trucks 235km to Troll research station. Though small, much more lies under construction. They are met by Jötunn Risi, head of Antarctic Research for NPI and also the new CEO of CCI.

Having tracked their progress online, he invites them to tour the luxuriant office-cum-palace below. The blinged-out Jötunn takes delight in subtly mocking them and asking provocative questions while showing CCI's extravagant new HQ.

The glass-walled hub of the wheel-shaped facility: a tall chamber featuring a fine jet of water aerosolizing to swirling mist. Jötunn brags the room performs commercially and aesthetically: genuine Antarctic meltwater mist in every bottle of Arrow.

Savvy PCs – or those he finds entertainingly reactive – find themselves invited to party later with Jötunn. As they part: "Wash up first.” A baggie of crystalline fragments slips to them during a handshake.

The Truth
Jötunn is a troll capable of taking a human form; also the “netorious” hacker [Goon]Grendel.

While waiting out Ragnarök in Antarctica (he also chaired the station's naming committee), Jötunn uncovered Eros' narcotic predilections while harassing him on the internet. His extensive Internet contacts led Jötunn to a strain of crystal meth so strong that consciousness blasts amps up into the Astral.

Hooking the God of Desire wasn't difficult, nor was signing the now-junkie god out of his corporation.

Eros now floats in a special bath below CCI's offices. Circulating water sluices essence of desire from the god while he Astrally trips, his constant meth IV-drip trapping blocking his attempts to find his way back to reality.

Completion
Freeing Eros:

○Assault: If security is tripped, Eros' intoxicating mist swirls into the compound while filter-masked guards converge. Add an ancient, rapidly-regenerating troll in true form accompanied by swarms of drones piloted by internet cronies taunting PCs and loudly broadcasting their locations.

○Theft: freeing Eros during the party first requires distracting Jötunn – he's especially fond of arguments and mockery, even if aimed at him – then quietly bypassing security to Eros' room and covertly extracting him.

○Awakening: “bumping” the meth briefly jaunts the user into the Astral. There they might track down Eros, guiding him back to his body. This is the quickest, easiest option, but regular meth addiction's a horror and this stuff hooked a god.

Jötunn, no dummy, immediately flees by snowmobile if the PCs awaken Eros, likely culminating in a chase across storm-blown Antarctica towards Jötunn's waiting boat.