GRACE UNDER PRESSURE
For 4-6 characters of levels 7-8
Ingredients:
angry halflings
kazoos
wishing well
cavalry
hat of disguise
hydra
Background:
Our story begins some four hundred years ago. An adventuring halfling cleric, named Rudyard Thorngage, recovered a powerful magical item from a very nasty crypt. This item, actually a rod of absorption, quenched the cleric’s wanderlust, and he decided to return home to establish a temple to Yondalla. On his arrival, Rudyard was dismayed to find that an order of priests devoted to Olidammara, through trickery and deception, had gained substantial influence within the city of Gladwin. Rudyard spent a short time gathering the necessary resources to vanquish the chaotic clerics, eventually leading an assault on the rogue priests. Yondalla’s disciples were victorious, not in any small part thanks to the rod of absorption. Only one cleric of Olidammara managed to escape with her life, Janna Winterbough, a young elvish Initiate, who fled into the surrounding wilderness seeking refuge and swearing revenge.
Janna bided her time, as only elves can, and eventually Rudyard and his contemporaries died. The temple of Yondalla largely forgot about the battle that established its foothold. Janna found a wayward soul, a young disfigured human boy, who had been abandoned due to his grotesque visage. Janna took the boy, Zentras Grace, under her tutelage, and taught him that her order had been terribly wronged by Rudyard and his fellow clergy. She explained to Zentras that the ill-gained victory was solely the result of a powerful item wielded by the halfling high priest. But her years of careful observation revealed that those in the temple of Yondalla were unaware of the item’s power, and cared for it only as a significant reminder of their temple’s founder. Zentras enthusiastically immersed himself in the divine study of Olidammara with Janna’s warped guidance, and began to display a special affinity for animating objects. Upon her deathbed, Zentras swears to Janna that he will fulfill her quest to obtain the rod, and thoroughly undermine the church of Yondalla in the eyes of all.
…Flash forward another 15 years…
Grace has honed his craft as an animator, and has begun to ply his skills as a toy maker of some renown. He has set up shops in different towns and villages around Gladwin, never staying in one place long enough to attract any serious attention. What he really wants is to serve his deity through the mischief his toys propogate…and to exact some small measure of revenge for all of the unpleasant stares his disfigurement has caused him to endure. Wanting to be certain that every child can take home one of his toys, Grace offers children his toys in exchange for any item that has a personal value to them. A drawing, a marble, a piece of yarn, whatever the child holds close to heart makes the perfect payment for one of Grace’s creations. The toy maker uses the personal items that the children trade him to make his scrying attempts easier, and looks for items of value or interest in the kids’ homes. Grace has enchanted his toys to animate a week after leaving his shop, and these dolls, figures, and puppets dutifully serve their master by providing some means of entry into the child’s home. Once that is done, the way has been paved for Grace’s prized possessions, his cavalry, a set of one dozen exquisite miniature figures (toy soldiers on horseback), which he has animated to infiltrate the homes and retrieve the items of interest therein.
But Grace and his toy minions are discovered by and elvish wizard named Malandoc D’Lanashae, whose keen eyesight spots the cavalry infiltrating the home of a neighbor and follows the soldiers back to the toy maker’s shop. Malandoc begins to formulate his own plan, a plan which will allow him to effectively control the five-headed hydra that he’s polymorhped into a toad. Malandoc threatens to reveal Grace’s activities to the local authorities unless the toy maker agrees to design a vessel for the hydra which would function like a Figurine of Wondrous Power. To facilitate cooperation from Grace, the wizard offers something in return. Undrestanding that Grace will be more successful in luring children into his store if he appeared as a kindly old man, the wizard offers to create a Hat of Disguise for the toy maker thereby hiding his facial deformities. Malandoc assumes the role of an apprentice toy maker (like Santa’s elves...had to make a holiday reference) and the two soon set up shop in Gladwin.
Grace and Malandoc have been in town for almost three months, during which time Grace reveals to Malandoc his plans to steal a rod of absorption kept within the church of Yondalla. He figures it will take another month or two to effectively infiltrate the temple with his toys, but the mage has no intention of waiting that long. Without informing Grace, the elf adopts gaseous form and steals the rod from within a sealed chamber in the halfling temple. He then uses the rod as a means of establishing greater influence over Grace, who immediately recognizes that his divine spells will no longer be of use against Malandoc now that he possesses the rod. Grace’s toy shop is strategically located along a merchant’s row which looks out on a city plaza, at the center of which is a wishing well. In describing Gladwin to Zentras, Janna indicated that the priests of her Order knew the well to be a central hub positioned above old mining tunnels. The toy maker has been sending his cavalry down the well at night, where they access the abandoned old coal tunnels. Most of the buildings in town have coal chutes in their cellars, which allow the toys to enter and pillage under cover of night.
Grace has been casting the shadow of guilt upon the halfing portion of Gladwin’s population. He knows that the access doors, and the well itself are not large enough for access by anything larger than a halfling. Therefore, the halflings have been brought under suspicion by stolen items Grace’s cavalry have intentionally left placed near the well, and coal chute doors. While this limits their ability to operate going forward, Grace is more concerned with discrediting worshippers of Yondalla, and figuring out a way to get the rod away from his “apprentice.”
Needless to say, the halfling priests and population (approximately 35% of Gladwin) are very angry at the aspersions being cast their way. And they're even more incensed by the disappearance of Rudyard’s scepter, which they attribute to human retaliation for the burglaries. Relations with the humans have become very tense, and certain proprietors have taken to only serving their own race to avoid open conflict.
The humans are also concerned by the mounting tensions, and the city mayor, Gregor Scrote, sent his chief investigator, a paladin named Devon Nordfal, to uncover the truth surrounding recent events. During his investigations, Devon finds several broken toy parts including a small saddle and a spear. He pays a visit to Grace and Malandoc, whereupon he’s ambushed and made captive. Devon is placed under the effects of a bestow curse spell that causes dysphasia, which makes everything he says come out jumbled and nonsensical. His thoughts and memories are totally clear – he’s just unable to communicate. He’s being held in a cage within a small room underneath the toy store.
PC Hooks:
1) The mayor is seeking to hire adventurers to track down his missing esteemed investigator and hopefully determine the root of Gladwin’s recent problems.
2) The halfling clerics are offering a reward to anyone who helps recover their lost artifact, and clear their name as a race with respect to the recent burglaries.
3) PCs may pass through Gladwin on their way to other adventures, and any time spent in town is likely to reveal the mounting tensions and discourse involving recent strange events. Curious characters will have no trouble gathering information, and accumulating stories.
Encounters:
1) Nat Bundungle, a first level gnome bard specializing in the entertainment of young children…and annoying just about everyone over the age of eight or nine, whose instrument of choice is the kazoo. In fact, he wears a vibrantly dyed linen vest that bears seven velvet kazoo pockets holding seven kazoos. These instruments were sold to the bard by Grace, who convinced him that each one is tuned to a different key. Bundungle entered the toy shop seeking minor "tuning adjustments" for his 'F' kazoo, just as the paladin was being subdued. Grace took the time to cast bestow curse on the gnome, but did not harm him otherwise, because local children had seen the loud and annoying gnome entering the store. Bundungle will seek out PCs attention and aid. He will attempt to explain what he witnessed, but is suffering from dysphasia, and the PCs will need to either magically remove his curse or otherwise decipher Bundungle’s gibberish and gestures (fun for the DM).
2) A minor Xorn lives in the tunnels at the base of the wishing well. He feeds upon the precious metals tossed down. If PCs are capable of entering the tunnels (if a character is or can become halfling-size or smaller), they will encounter the Xorn. If the PC offers him precious metals and can speak with it in Terran (it’s common is kinda rusty), the creature will tell the character that it has sensed many small feet traveling through the tunnels at night.
3) A secret door in the toy shop leads to a stairway down to a cavernous room. In the center of the room is a table, upon which sits a jar containing a toad (the polymorphed hydra). Some parchment containing arcane writing sits next to the jar. A knowledge arcana check (DC 15) will let the PCs know that the writing has something to do with an alchemical means of turning toads into gold. An alchemy check (DC 15) will reveal that the writing is nonsense. There are some shelves with toy parts, and some books. Beyond this room is an alcove which now serves as the cell in which the paladin investigator is caged. Grace has cast a glyph of warding on the doorway, so that if the paladin crosses the threshold, dispel magic will be cast upon the polymorphed hydra in the next room. The paladin knows about the glyph, but he cannot speak clearly due to the curse upon him.
Conclusion:
Opportunites abound for investigative roleplaying, but limited combat encounters. Grace (11th level cleric of Olidammara; Domains -- Trickery and Chaos) has no real wish to fight, but may be cornered since many clues point to him as the primary evil-doer in Gladwin. In the characters manage to flesh out Malandoc’s insidious plans, they’re in for quite a battle. He’s an 8th level wizard, but wielding the rod of absorption makes him difficult to effectively assail in combat for the party’s spellcasters. Malandoc is very likely to release the hydra from its polymorphed state (if that hasn’t already happened from the glyph noted above) if things start going badly for him, then escaping via gaseous form or other spells. He presents a lovely recurring nemesis (assuming he escapes), and it’s possible Malandoc may haunt the party in future adventures.
Edit note: I corrected a botched BOLD highlighting one of the story elements.
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