Freeman's Tower, Demi Plane of Oruk the Horned.
Now I've mentioned that my players are VERY 3.Xed and take full benefit and full advantage of every loophole imaginable, which I have been fine with. I am fine with it because I have confidence in the COB to create challenges and find ways to exploit weaknesses even when there aren't apparently any to be found. Not that I am trying to be a killer DM in this saga, I let the dice fall where they may. I want these guys to have a good time and I am pulling for them because none of them can actually go buy a copy and read up on what I have in store.
That said lets examinethe Freeman's Tower.
In the book, the Freeman's tower gets 2 mentions (once in a Nice Place to Stay) and in its actual description which is pretty raw to say the least. I challenge myself for this particular set of adventures. I intend to put myself into the shoes of the end user... a DM and his players who are going thru a COB campaign. So I take that keyed location and develop it. Only fair right?
In it you have the 3 elf wizards who run the top 3 levels of the tower. In the mid levels you have Oruk the Horned.. a "Mad Druid" but not much else describing him or why he is mad, or what his motivation is. We do have stats tho. In the level below we have gangs of thugs who harrass and feed off the Caravansarie.
I cook up some stats for the thugs in the lower level. I recall that we had put Corpse Orgies between the lower levels in the stair cases, and other horrors reflecting the violence of this flop house.
I dig out my stats for some of these monsters, and take a look at the gang, selecting not just NPC stats to pilfer and re-use, but also monsters I believe would be part of this other planar gang.
I go after Oruk the horned. I come up with the most henious animal companion that a druid of his level could manage, and I come up with multiple stats for this animal companion reflecting how "buffed" it could be if encountered at the peak of its nasty destructiveness. I spend a few hours on this and show up to the next weeks game night loaded for adventure.
The PCs as mentioned, take the deal with the Elves, stay for free if they clear out the lower levels of the tower. The PCs crawl down the staircase, and part way down encounter an advanced chaos beast. Luckily Ard is all rested and healed up, so between himself and Elandrin they manage to light it up pretty quickly and avoid any real threat to anyone else.
Again the party is feeling a little cocky. They wiped the floor with a Mummy Priest of Set, plundered the temple and killed the snake... woops wrong story... sort of.
Anyhow they come to a strange door. Locked, arcane and otherwise, and drawn with druidic symbols that none of them can understand because none of them speaks druish.
A nicely rolled dispel magic, and a successful open locks chest later they crack open the door to find...
A large, steaming sun lit jungle. What the hell? They get a curious feeling as if they aren't in Kansas anymore (note the location of the playtest), and furthermore aren't exactly in the Plane of Molten Skies either. They set foot on the spongy ground beyond and within minutes find themselves attacked by velociraptors.
Of course they make swift work of the pack and head out. I wish i had the terrain pictures for this one, and with luck may be able to find them or find one of the guys who had them next week. Really cool stuff that was at the Black Lyon shop used for war games and 40k.
Exploring a bit they find a couple streems, deep jungle vegetation and a substantial sized cave. They head towards the cave, not seeing any other doors from where they set out, and figuring they will have to use some sort of scrying magic to find their way back out again, since they are now too far from the door they entered to be able to see it.
Getting within a few hundred feet of the cave, they hear a huge roar and out bursts a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Hah! Thats it? Sam Quenton 2 fires an arrow at it, not a bad shot, not a crit, but hey, he's a ways away. Thats his suprise action for being a stealthy bastich.
Then the critter gets BIG. Doubling in size, it was already big, huge even but animal growth does strange things doesn't it? All of a sudden the PCs are charging up with defensive spells... wonder why. Next the creatures skin appears to ripple with muscles...more muscle than it had to begin with, and it starts scratching the floor. Konn Runs at it with his big ol two handed sword (monk speed) Course... his player DMs a lot of 3ed, guess he figured I forgot about things like reach... and the reach getting even BIGGER when your HUGE.
Gulp. Swallowed Whole. Woops.
But wait...glandril takes off at a dwarfish run... clop clop clop. He cant get nearly as close as Konn... and running past some trees.... suddenly wonders why he has taken an AOO from every stinking tree he just ran past... Jungle Treants Baby! Wap Wap Wap
Rhy... same story WAP WAP WAP.
Now Rhy and Glandril have to stop what they are doing to deal with freakin trees!
Ard fires a lightning bolt, now free of the cursed ring (as he realised his folly when none of the Jackalweres were dead that he had certainly crisped in the Pyramid of Set) has had to pay Elandrin to remove his cursed ring. Servant of Devils is NOT happy about that I can tell you. Anyhow he blinks "blink blink" when the T Rex... goes and EVADES his lightning bolt.
Gotta love animal companions with Evade.
Elandrin juices up with some more cleric goodness, getting his combat on after seeing the evaded spell, decides juicing himself up and healing the party may be in order. After big Konn got swallowed they are gonna need it. As I said this encounter is about as it 3.xed as it gets.
Rhy and Glandril are forced to chop down trees... lots of them, since the jungle treants animate all the trees around them, and now its a whole forest closing them in... and nicely lining the players up in a big fat line. Sam Q2 has to move because trees are closing him in. But lands another arrow into the T Rex... which is at this point a lot like throwing deck chairs off the Titanic. The T Rex goes into a RAGE and charges the party that is all neatly lined up... using its trample to squish them under talon and scale. Blap, decent damage, I'm a little bit dissapointed but its alright. The Druid makes his appearance at the cavern mouth, from his bleeding forhead protrude a pair of antlers, and his eyes are psycho and lost in murky pools.
Next round, most of the trees are destroyed with lots of cleave attacks, characters get up, Konn has been sawing his way out with a knife, max power attack and pops out of the critters throat, sticky, gory, confused and his sword is now 90 ft away. Sam Q2 fires 3 arrows, again decent damage. Ard, casts magic missile, decent damage. critters lost about 60 pts so far but with its buffs is in the 366 range at the moment. Chomp... Glandril goes into the gargantuan T Rex's gut. Chomp so does Konn, again.
Rhy deals decent damage, Konn and Glandril start cutting themselves out. The critter gets nobbly warty skin as it is barkskinned by the druid. SAMQ2 keeps firing arrows. Elandrin sees 2 guys in its stomach, and casts spiritual hammer instead of moving to attack. No good if the cleric gets swallowed whole. Ard casts Lighting Bolt at the Druid who is now in focus, since the druid isnt about to evade his attack, and scores some good damage. Rhy Gets swallowed, starts sawing his way out.
Konn gets an idea, takes a round fishing in his back.
Druid heals self, thus healing the animal companion, Ard grumps, casts greater dispel magic and shrinks the T Rex back to huge size. Crunch, people inside take more damage as the space gets too small, and the T Rex barfs out Rhy because there isnt enough room for him.
Druid makes his buddy Big again on his turn. Konn finds his bottle of endless water this turn. Waits for it, still searching in his pack, still taking damage faster than he can regenrate it with his mul abilities.
Battle rages on for a bit back and forth like this, i figure 6 rounds of gyser and the t rex is going to be full of water. Konn finds his soap and starts filling its guts with foam, Glandril cuts his way out.
Druid shapeshifts into a giant ape (king kong and the T rex anyone?).
Now out of the gut, glandril starts dealing damage for real, raged, and not wanting to get swallowed again. Rhy gets swallowed again. Now with a stomach filling with water and a monk/fighter. Ard continues to try to kill the druid with his spells, and Elandrin joins in with some of his holy bammies.
Couple rounds go by, and the t rex barfs out Konn and Rhy because its so full of water. Glandril's damage proves too much and the TRex finally goes down for the count, followed in short order by his Driuid/giant ape.
Great battle the guys loved the action and I loved the original ways they came up with to escape being swallowed whole!
The druid has these strange horns in his head, which pop right out in ards hands. Magical relic of some sort. Horns of Curanos. Drive a man mad, and force him to eat sentient flesh (cannibal style) in order to maintain his druidic powers. The exchange is some beefy stat bonuses. Ard pockets these. The PCs search Oruk the Horned's lair and find some decent loot. More importantly, they are now in possession of their own demi plane, a decent place to hide out and rest, albiet a steamy hot jungle, that occassionally produces a random encounter!
THIS is one of those situations/battles where the PCs DO need a rest after one battle. I stacked this one totally 3.x style on them and they came thru it bloodied but alive and tempered from their conflict. Woe be it to whatever swallows them next right?
Mainly we rested because the battle went REALLY long and the setup to get there took some time. They still had plenty of juice and cold have went down into the lower levels to take on the gangs, but not today.
Until next time.
Case