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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nickolaidas" data-source="post: 6822457" data-attributes="member: 6803584">TERROR FROM THE DEEPAn Aboleth is freed by a Mind Flayer party and their Kuo-toa slaves. It seeks vengeance against Melora [Goddess of the Wilderness and the Sea] and her worshippers' descendants for imprisoning it ages ago. It begins to grow a cult of shrewd fanatics and plots a way to make the people of the town of Nestell reject Melora and worship it instead, referring to itself as 'The Deep One' (hiding the fact it's an Aboleth).The Aboleth has its Mind Flayer lieutenants murder the chief Priest of Melora, then replaces her with a doppleganger. Then, it has its pawn slowly destroy Melora's clergy - in both social image and organization via various ways. All the while trying to make the church of Melora appear incompetent, manipulative and demanding, with the chief-priest subtly enforcing these aspects. The Aboleth cannot grant spells, so it tries to have its 'church' portray it as a spiritual way of thinking, rather than a true deity.So, the adventure begins with a priest of the Deep One coming to the PCs and asking their help in locating the antidote for a plague that has appeared in the city, a plague the clerics of Melora have difficulty curing. They (the Deep One's priests) had sent a group of their own clergy to retrieve it, but they never returned. They seek brave adventurers to locate the missing group, and their cargo. However, it's all a set-up by the Aboleth.The PCs go to a cave and find the 'group' (which are dead Melora clerics with their bodies dressed as Deep One's clerics), and a fake note which implies they were slain by Melora's clerics (framing the doppleganger's second in command, who is unaware of his superior's true nature). The note also says that they hid the antidote in order to 'keep it safe' from Melora's 'evil hands' (while actually they had the antidote made all along and merely hid it there for the PCs to find). The PCs present the evidence to the doppleganger, effectively giving him the authority to disband and imprison his second in command (who shouts that he was framed every step of the way). The townsfolk are displeased with Melora's clergy's actions and praise the Deep One's clergy.A couple of weeks later, orcs attack the town. As the PCs go to their settlement for a (perhaps not so) diplomatic solution, they learn that a 'cleric of Melora' (who was a minion of the Aboleth in disguise) gave them poisoned food and has the orcs' chieftain's son on his death bed. As they present the evidence to Nestell, the (doppleganger) chief priest says that due to the plague, he wanted to make sure the orcs wouldn't threaten them in their weakened current state and thought it was prudent to poison the orc chieftain's family to disable them. As the orcs wage war to the city, a priest of the Deep One asks the PCs to give an antidote to the Orc Chieftain's son. The orcs either back down or are defeated with mass combat (depending on the PCs' approach). But in either case, the people of the city are seriously displeased with Melora's Church's actions thus far, and think even higher of the Deep One's clergy.Realizing that their worshippers are slipping away, the Doppleganger asks the PCs to find an artifact which will help them raise the dead and improve the church's standing with the citizens, only to have the PCs bring an artifact which raises the recently slain as zombies, skeletons and other undead horrors. The PCs and the Depp One's clergy help the town guard fight off the undead horrors, while the doppleganger disappears, leaving a note which basically says he wanted to kill all the people of this town because Melora wished it so (basically the final nail to the Melora's coffin). This causes the people of the town to witch-hunt all remaining Melora clerics while the Deep One's clergy becomes the dominant religion of the town.At this point, there are subtle clues which might hint at the PCs that the Deep One's clerics aren't as nice as they portray themselves to be. If they figure it out, they can go to their temple (or maybe chased out of the city if the Deep One's clergy frames them for unleashing the undead - depending on the PCs standing with them), find a hidden entrance and venture underground to the Aboleth's lair, killing it in a final confrontation, alongside with its Mind Flayer minions and Kuo Toa slaves. If they fail to discover what happened, the adventure ends happily with the Deep One's clergy thanking the PCs for their valuable help in 'saving this city from its vile god'.What do you guys think? Does it have potential?</blockquote>

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