Holiday Iron DM!!!! {Final Judgment Posted!}
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Wicht
Hero
and noe ladies and gentlemen, ghost and ghouls, give a hand to...
Trixie Twisted and her Terrible Trio of Terror
This is an adventure for characters of at least eighth level. Groups of up to eleventh or twelfth level may still find the final scene of the adventure quite challenging if the DM plays the NPCs well.
PC Introduction
The PCs, have for some reason, been recommended to the authorities as a group that can get a difficult job done. Someone even thinks that the PCs can be discreet. The PCs are offered a whole lot of money if they can journey in secret and meet with a foreign diplomat in an obscure village and retrieve a series of documents, including a message of friendship from a semi-powerful city-state. The whole thing is very important politically but must also be kept strictly secret until the treaties in question is finalized. (DMs should feel free to alter this to best suit their campaign – the vital thing is that it’s important and it’s secret.) If the PCs are less than reputable, DMs should alter the hook a bit to include a promise that the powers that be will agree to ‘forget’ certain past troubles if the PCs will do the job for them.
The diplomat they are to meet is an unknown to those hiring the PCs, but arrangements have been made for the PCs to locate him. They are first to travel to the village of Hamsburg where the local blacksmith will give them a password that they will deliver to a certain barmaid in the village of Trangor. The barmaid in Trangor will then give a description to the PCs of the diplomat. They will then meet the diplomat in the village of Rumsdale in a tavern called “The Bottle.”
The PCs are cautioned to keep a low profile and stay out of trouble. No one must know of their mission and they are to avoid being conspicuous in any way. Payment will be made in full when the PCs return with the documents.
The Problems
The PCs encounter three specific problems on their journey to Rumsdale.
First of all, they are attacked by a group of “bandits” before they reach Hamsburg. These attackers first warn the PCs to turn around and keep out of business that does not concern them. The bandits know nothing however. They were given a description of the PCs and told to keep them from getting far.
Secondly, the PCs begin to notice they are being followed after leaving Trangor. Small clues give it away, but the duo following them, an evil ranger and an evil rogue, are very professional and are hard to hunt down. The PCs may be able to smoke them out, if they devote about a week to it, but that will keep them from finishing their mission.
The main problem however is that everyone in both Hamsburg and Trangor is dead. Flesh eating zombies are everywhere and if the PCs spend a night in either town they are attacked by vampire spawn. Investigating will reveal that in the main taverns in both towns there are flyers for “The Terrible Trio of Terror (featuring Trixie Twisted).” The flyer is apparently for a band, but it is rather a strange advertisement. The illustration is of a trio of skeletons playing instruments. A speak with dead spell will reveal that the last thing anyone remembers is going to the concert at the Tavern and listening to the band. They each died during the final song (except for those who did not attend the concert and were instead killed and partially consumed by the zombies). The vampire spawn might be able to reveal that they were created by a vampire named Hershwine, a musician in the band, but gaining such information will be difficult as they are not inclined to share this information due to a prohibition from Hershwine.
The upswing of this is that the PCs will not be able to find out who the diplomat is or what he looks like. Their only recourse is to head to Rumsdale and hope for the best.
Trixie Twisted and her band
The Terrible Trio of Terror actually has nothing to do with the PCs mission, but if the PCs try to complete their mission, the two groups (the Trio and the PCs) will run smack dab into each other.
Trixie Twisted is a female halfling wizard, a necromancer (9th level) to be exact. Her father was slightly insane and raised his daughter with the sole goal of making her an arch villain. He was determined that it would be she who conquered the world. His plans were set back by two things. First, he was killed before fully filling her in on his plan for her path to world domination (a group of do-good adventurers burst into his lair one day and cut him down – after which they stole the family fortune). And secondly what Trixie really wanted to do with her life was sing in a band. She had a good voice and could write halfway decent music but her father would not hear of it. After her father was killed she tried her best to be an evil villain. However she kept being chased out of town before accomplishing anything especially sinister and no-one seemed to take a halfling necromancer that seriously anyway, especially not a female one.
All that changed when she met Hershwine and Lilly. She met Hershwine first. Hershwine was a vampire bard (6th level) but he had no real talent for it. His name was against him for one thing, no-one would take him seriously with a name like Hershwine. On top of that, he was constantly being beaten by adventuring types. He had yet to be permanently killed but he doubted his ability to be a fearsome member of the undead community. He could however, play his instruments better than ever and was in top musical form. He and Trixie hit it off at once. And then they met Lilly. Lilly was a ghost motivated by two things: a tragic love affair and a life-long musical career. This meant that as a ghost she hated all living men on principle, and she longed to make music. The three of them quickly saw their way to forming both a band and a plan.
Trixie studied long and hard (harder then she had ever studied anything before) and succeeded in devising a ritualistic spell-song which harnessed the powers of all three performers. The spell required a willing audience, but any willing audience listening to the song-spell would be struck by a powerful death spell. Those killed would rise within a few hours as zombies driven by the desire to kill the living. The Trio began traveling to remote villages where they habitually invite the whole village to a spectacular one night only show. Illusions and props hide the true nature of the two undead performers and the three are good enough that they can hold a crowd. Trixie sings, Lilly plays the harp and Hershwine plays the other instruments. In addition to the music Trixie adds illusional affects and some very real undead (which the crowd habitually mistakes for other illusions). Then the final song is played and the arcane spell-song strikes the crowd dead. The band then robs the town blind and moves on, leaving a town filled with flesh-eating zombies. Trixie is in heaven (in her mind anyway), she is becoming the villain her father longed for her to be and she gets to play in a band at the same time.
Rumsdale and the Festival of the Dead
The PCs arrive in Rumsdale in time to find that the whole town is celebrating a festival of the dead. Everyone is in costume, dressed as skeletons, vampires, zombies, ghosts and ghouls. Drink is everywhere, especially in “The Bottle,” the most popular tavern in town. As well, the Terrible Trio of Terror (featuring Trixie Twisted) will be playing as soon as the sun goes down.
The PCs should have little time to do anything in town before nightfall but observe there is a festival and be attacked. The evil rogue and ranger following them finally move in and try to attack the PCs one by one. Regardless of how the PCs deal with their pursuers, when the sun goes down everyone in town heads to “The Bottle” and the concert starts. The diplomat, a female elf actually, is also at “The Bottle”, waiting for the PCs. She is dressed as a rather doubtful looking vampire and is looking cautiously for the ones supposed to meet her. She has no idea who her contacts are to be and will be very, very hesitant before actually admitting to being who she is. The PCs should not have an easy time spotting her.
In the meantime the show is going on. Illusions fill the stage and skeletons at time dance to the music. During one song a vampire spawn actually spider climbs the wall behind the band and dances to the music. The audience, believing it all to be illusion and magic, think it is only spooky fun. Lilly plays her harp behind a fluttering white sheet, unseen except as a ghostly outline. DMs should play up the descriptions of each number. Whether the PCs do anything about the band is up to them, but if the band is not stopped they will eventually play their final song, called aptly enough “Curtain Call.” At the climax of the song the death spell is released (doing 9d4 points of negative energy damage to all who hear the song and fail a Fortitude save). Any left alive are immediately attacked by the three members of the band.
Conclusion
There are any number of ways the adventure can go. The PCs may turn around before reaching Rumsdale, concluding their mission to be impossible. If so they later hear of the tragedy that befalls the town and may encounter the Terrible Trio of Terror later. The band may flee if the PCs attack before their final number and become a thorn in the side of the PCs and the whole region for that matter. The PCs may intervene too late and defeat the Trio only after the townsfolks of Rumsdale are slain (the elvish ambassador with them). Or they may, by extraordinary skill and luck save the town, identify the ambassador and return the papers to their employers. Regardless, as long as they return home with the documents they will be paid, though it is likely the events in question will be hard to hush up for very long. Bards will doubtlessly sing the tale of the Terrible Trio of Terror for many years.
Trixie Twisted and her Terrible Trio of Terror
This is an adventure for characters of at least eighth level. Groups of up to eleventh or twelfth level may still find the final scene of the adventure quite challenging if the DM plays the NPCs well.
PC Introduction
The PCs, have for some reason, been recommended to the authorities as a group that can get a difficult job done. Someone even thinks that the PCs can be discreet. The PCs are offered a whole lot of money if they can journey in secret and meet with a foreign diplomat in an obscure village and retrieve a series of documents, including a message of friendship from a semi-powerful city-state. The whole thing is very important politically but must also be kept strictly secret until the treaties in question is finalized. (DMs should feel free to alter this to best suit their campaign – the vital thing is that it’s important and it’s secret.) If the PCs are less than reputable, DMs should alter the hook a bit to include a promise that the powers that be will agree to ‘forget’ certain past troubles if the PCs will do the job for them.
The diplomat they are to meet is an unknown to those hiring the PCs, but arrangements have been made for the PCs to locate him. They are first to travel to the village of Hamsburg where the local blacksmith will give them a password that they will deliver to a certain barmaid in the village of Trangor. The barmaid in Trangor will then give a description to the PCs of the diplomat. They will then meet the diplomat in the village of Rumsdale in a tavern called “The Bottle.”
The PCs are cautioned to keep a low profile and stay out of trouble. No one must know of their mission and they are to avoid being conspicuous in any way. Payment will be made in full when the PCs return with the documents.
The Problems
The PCs encounter three specific problems on their journey to Rumsdale.
First of all, they are attacked by a group of “bandits” before they reach Hamsburg. These attackers first warn the PCs to turn around and keep out of business that does not concern them. The bandits know nothing however. They were given a description of the PCs and told to keep them from getting far.
Secondly, the PCs begin to notice they are being followed after leaving Trangor. Small clues give it away, but the duo following them, an evil ranger and an evil rogue, are very professional and are hard to hunt down. The PCs may be able to smoke them out, if they devote about a week to it, but that will keep them from finishing their mission.
The main problem however is that everyone in both Hamsburg and Trangor is dead. Flesh eating zombies are everywhere and if the PCs spend a night in either town they are attacked by vampire spawn. Investigating will reveal that in the main taverns in both towns there are flyers for “The Terrible Trio of Terror (featuring Trixie Twisted).” The flyer is apparently for a band, but it is rather a strange advertisement. The illustration is of a trio of skeletons playing instruments. A speak with dead spell will reveal that the last thing anyone remembers is going to the concert at the Tavern and listening to the band. They each died during the final song (except for those who did not attend the concert and were instead killed and partially consumed by the zombies). The vampire spawn might be able to reveal that they were created by a vampire named Hershwine, a musician in the band, but gaining such information will be difficult as they are not inclined to share this information due to a prohibition from Hershwine.
The upswing of this is that the PCs will not be able to find out who the diplomat is or what he looks like. Their only recourse is to head to Rumsdale and hope for the best.
Trixie Twisted and her band
The Terrible Trio of Terror actually has nothing to do with the PCs mission, but if the PCs try to complete their mission, the two groups (the Trio and the PCs) will run smack dab into each other.
Trixie Twisted is a female halfling wizard, a necromancer (9th level) to be exact. Her father was slightly insane and raised his daughter with the sole goal of making her an arch villain. He was determined that it would be she who conquered the world. His plans were set back by two things. First, he was killed before fully filling her in on his plan for her path to world domination (a group of do-good adventurers burst into his lair one day and cut him down – after which they stole the family fortune). And secondly what Trixie really wanted to do with her life was sing in a band. She had a good voice and could write halfway decent music but her father would not hear of it. After her father was killed she tried her best to be an evil villain. However she kept being chased out of town before accomplishing anything especially sinister and no-one seemed to take a halfling necromancer that seriously anyway, especially not a female one.
All that changed when she met Hershwine and Lilly. She met Hershwine first. Hershwine was a vampire bard (6th level) but he had no real talent for it. His name was against him for one thing, no-one would take him seriously with a name like Hershwine. On top of that, he was constantly being beaten by adventuring types. He had yet to be permanently killed but he doubted his ability to be a fearsome member of the undead community. He could however, play his instruments better than ever and was in top musical form. He and Trixie hit it off at once. And then they met Lilly. Lilly was a ghost motivated by two things: a tragic love affair and a life-long musical career. This meant that as a ghost she hated all living men on principle, and she longed to make music. The three of them quickly saw their way to forming both a band and a plan.
Trixie studied long and hard (harder then she had ever studied anything before) and succeeded in devising a ritualistic spell-song which harnessed the powers of all three performers. The spell required a willing audience, but any willing audience listening to the song-spell would be struck by a powerful death spell. Those killed would rise within a few hours as zombies driven by the desire to kill the living. The Trio began traveling to remote villages where they habitually invite the whole village to a spectacular one night only show. Illusions and props hide the true nature of the two undead performers and the three are good enough that they can hold a crowd. Trixie sings, Lilly plays the harp and Hershwine plays the other instruments. In addition to the music Trixie adds illusional affects and some very real undead (which the crowd habitually mistakes for other illusions). Then the final song is played and the arcane spell-song strikes the crowd dead. The band then robs the town blind and moves on, leaving a town filled with flesh-eating zombies. Trixie is in heaven (in her mind anyway), she is becoming the villain her father longed for her to be and she gets to play in a band at the same time.
Rumsdale and the Festival of the Dead
The PCs arrive in Rumsdale in time to find that the whole town is celebrating a festival of the dead. Everyone is in costume, dressed as skeletons, vampires, zombies, ghosts and ghouls. Drink is everywhere, especially in “The Bottle,” the most popular tavern in town. As well, the Terrible Trio of Terror (featuring Trixie Twisted) will be playing as soon as the sun goes down.
The PCs should have little time to do anything in town before nightfall but observe there is a festival and be attacked. The evil rogue and ranger following them finally move in and try to attack the PCs one by one. Regardless of how the PCs deal with their pursuers, when the sun goes down everyone in town heads to “The Bottle” and the concert starts. The diplomat, a female elf actually, is also at “The Bottle”, waiting for the PCs. She is dressed as a rather doubtful looking vampire and is looking cautiously for the ones supposed to meet her. She has no idea who her contacts are to be and will be very, very hesitant before actually admitting to being who she is. The PCs should not have an easy time spotting her.
In the meantime the show is going on. Illusions fill the stage and skeletons at time dance to the music. During one song a vampire spawn actually spider climbs the wall behind the band and dances to the music. The audience, believing it all to be illusion and magic, think it is only spooky fun. Lilly plays her harp behind a fluttering white sheet, unseen except as a ghostly outline. DMs should play up the descriptions of each number. Whether the PCs do anything about the band is up to them, but if the band is not stopped they will eventually play their final song, called aptly enough “Curtain Call.” At the climax of the song the death spell is released (doing 9d4 points of negative energy damage to all who hear the song and fail a Fortitude save). Any left alive are immediately attacked by the three members of the band.
Conclusion
There are any number of ways the adventure can go. The PCs may turn around before reaching Rumsdale, concluding their mission to be impossible. If so they later hear of the tragedy that befalls the town and may encounter the Terrible Trio of Terror later. The band may flee if the PCs attack before their final number and become a thorn in the side of the PCs and the whole region for that matter. The PCs may intervene too late and defeat the Trio only after the townsfolks of Rumsdale are slain (the elvish ambassador with them). Or they may, by extraordinary skill and luck save the town, identify the ambassador and return the papers to their employers. Regardless, as long as they return home with the documents they will be paid, though it is likely the events in question will be hard to hush up for very long. Bards will doubtlessly sing the tale of the Terrible Trio of Terror for many years.
arwink
Clockwork Golem
Nemmerle, Quickbeam.
If it's not to late, can I organise a beginning of my round two match against Quickbeam on Saturday? I have a x-mas lunch that day, but with the time-zone difference I should be on-line around the same time as Quickbeam when I get home, so we could start the round then.
If it's not to late, can I organise a beginning of my round two match against Quickbeam on Saturday? I have a x-mas lunch that day, but with the time-zone difference I should be on-line around the same time as Quickbeam when I get home, so we could start the round then.
Last edited:
Quickbeam
Explorer
arwink & nemmerle:
I'm ready any time today or tomorrow for our Round #2 battle. If the match is to commence tomorrow (Saturday), I'd like to agree to a rough starting time beforehand...then I can check for the ingredients at my leisure thereafter. We have folks arriving in town for the holidays, so I'll only be at the computer intermittently. My hope would be to just check this thread after the designated "start" time, and work from there. If it costs me a few hours that's my problem, but it will avoid trying to get all three of us online at the same time during a busy weekend.
Let me know what you both think, and good luck to Wicht, mirthcard, and of course yourself arwink
.
I'm ready any time today or tomorrow for our Round #2 battle. If the match is to commence tomorrow (Saturday), I'd like to agree to a rough starting time beforehand...then I can check for the ingredients at my leisure thereafter. We have folks arriving in town for the holidays, so I'll only be at the computer intermittently. My hope would be to just check this thread after the designated "start" time, and work from there. If it costs me a few hours that's my problem, but it will avoid trying to get all three of us online at the same time during a busy weekend.
Let me know what you both think, and good luck to Wicht, mirthcard, and of course yourself arwink
.
howandwhy99
Adventurer
Great job Wicht!
Just wondering if we should rename the band, though to:
Dixie's Midnight Plunders
Performing "Got some Benzene?"
[Dexie's Midnight Runners... anyways...
]
Just wondering if we should rename the band, though to:
Dixie's Midnight Plunders
Performing "Got some Benzene?"
[Dexie's Midnight Runners... anyways...
]
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