Iron DM 2009 - all matches

[Wik]

Where Bastards Go To Die

Where Bastards Go To Die
A 4E D&D Adventure for Five 9th-Level Characters

Background:

Thirty years ago, a githyanki raiding skiff slipped out of the astral plane and rampaged the northern hills, taking many human slaves destined for forced labour - or worse. However, the captain of this foray found his authority challenged by several of his lieutenants, who sought to seize power for themselves. The leader of the mutineers, a heartless schemer named Ylarr, battled the captain for control of the ship. And lost.

However, Ylarr was not killed by the captain. Instead, the captain threw Ylarr off the deck of the skiff, along with his fellow mutineers. "You are not fit to call yourselves Githyanki," the captain sneered. "And you will suffer now among beings almost as worthless as yourselves."

Ylarr and the mutineers found themselves stranded on the material plane, unable to find a way back home. While any of them could have found a gate to the Astral (and indeed, a few did just this), the exact path back was unknown to them. Most abandoned Ylarr, except for a fairly meek Githyanki Navigator named Semou. The two companions wandered the land for years, hoping to find a way home. Semou just wanted to be among his fellows once more; Ylarr wanted vengeance.

They had almost given up hope when an earthquake hit the shores of the quiet fishing village of Aierre. Afterwards, dark red coral erupted from the waves, and a crooked tower, covered in kelp and barnacles, was seen on the distance. Word of this tower spread through the land, soon falling upon Semou's ears. He knew of the tower... an ancient Githyanki gateway to the astral sea. And a way back home.

Synopsis:

The PCs make their way to Aierre (recently flooded by adventurers, fishermen, and profit-seekers) in the hopes of exploring the crooked tower in the centre of the reef, though they soon learn that the coral is nearly impossible to cross. Trying to find a means of bypassing the coral, they learn of a wizard’s ritual that may help. But upon searching the wizard's hut, they find he has been killed. The PCs learn that he’s created a ritual allows the reader to cross the blood-draining coral, but at the cost of agreeing to life-draining magicks.

A few days later, they are approached by a healer woman who begs them for help - many people have been found completely catatonic, wandering the streets. As the PCs investigate, they find that two Githyanki are rounding up people in order to use their souls to power a ritual to cross the coral. The PCs storm the Githyanki's lair - an old crematorium - and confront Semou, who tearfully reveals his part in the plan to "go back home".

The PCs are given magical cloaks that allow them to cross the blood coral in the hopes of catching Ylarr, using the souls of captured victims to prevent their dying from the coral's effects. The PCs eventually chase Ylarr into the tower - and from there to a Githyanki Astral Fortress known as Journey's End - with the hope of retrieving Ylarr's ritual cloak and freeing the trapped souls within.

Introduction:

The PCs can hear of Aierre's plight from a variety of sources best left to the individual GM. Whatever the source, they learn that a recent Tsunami hit the coastal village of Aierre, and that after the quake a huge patch of blood-red coral had risen from the waves. And in the centre of this coral was a Leaning Tower.

Naturally, PCs will want to investigate this newly-discovered ruin. They are, after all, PCs.

When they get to Aierre, they find the village is swarmed with people. Many are adventurers trying to find ways of crossing the coral, while others are vendors and tourists, awed by the coral and the winds that seem to emanate from the tower. Others still are fishermen, who brave the waters in search of fish, which are found in abundance (the blood-draining effects of the coral are weakening many fish; this attracts predatory fish, which are soon weakened, which draws in even more fish).

PCs get a chance to explore the village, during which they can learn:

The Coral: The Coral is blood red, and rises at most a metre from the water. It is uneven, very sharp, and riddled with tide pools and the rotting bodies of fish. When the high waves strike, they blast up a dozen metres into the air along with the collected blood on the rocks. Any who get within a few feet of the coral feel a pulsing under their skin... and any who actually step on the coral find their blood begins to seep through their skin, being pulled towards the coral like a piece of iron is to a magnet. (Game effects can vary; it is suggested that every minute on the coral requires an endurance check at DC 23... failure drains a healing surge from the victim). As of yet, no one has been able to make it more than a couple of hundred yards into the coral.

The Tower: The tower is surrounded by nearly a kilometre of coral in every direction, and is roughly a half kilometre from the shore of Aierre. Even from that distance, though, the viewer can clearly see that the tower tilts ominously to the north, jutting from the ground at a 70 degree angle. Those with knowledge of the seas point out that it leans in the same direction as the ocean's currents, and suggest that centuries of being pushed have caused it to tilt in the sediment. Indeed, viewers with a spyglass note that the tower is covered with rotting seaweed, and is completely blanketed in layera of barnacles, oysters, and clams.

The Winds: The Tower is surrounded by a vortex of winds (caused, in part, by the open gate in the tower's heart; air is moving from the material plane into the Astral, creating all sorts of weather disturbances). This vortex creates very strong winds that cause massive waves and bizarre weather effects. In addition, they make flying a very difficult endeavour. Those that try are buffeted and thrown by the gales, and many are eventually pushed to the blood coral below, with disastrous results.

The Search:

Around this point, the PCs will most likely be searching for a way to cross the blood coral. Flight is obviously out of the question, due to the strange winds, and most PCs of this level probably lack long-range teleportation powers. The only way to the tower is through the coral... which is impassable at this point.

After some asking around, the PCs learn of a hedge wizard who has been developing a ritual that will allow the crossing of the coral. However, when the PCs get to the wizard’s home, they find the window broken and his dead body on a bed. There is no trace of the ritual he had been working on, save for some scratch notes. These notes describe the basics of the ritual – a spell that allows the creation of a magical cloak that absorbs the blood-draining necromancy of the coral. Unfortunately, the notes suggest there’s been a problem – the cloak needs an energy source to provide that protection, and this energy source is currently the soul of the cloak’s wearer. In essence, the wearer is protecting his physical body by sacrificing his soul – obviously not much of a solution.

The Healer Woman:

The PCs probably do not want to use the ritual notes, but these notes could provide the groundwork for creation of a ritual of their own. If the PCs decide to do this, they undertake a skill challenge. Devised by the GM, the PCs perform arcane research, ask questions on the street about the wizard, and perform endurance tests in arcane trials. This challenge will take a few days, and will probably be interrupted by the healer woman (described below), but if the PCs are able to finish the challenge, they may wind up with a ritual that will create cloaks of soulbound resistance of their own... only these cloaks would not require the steep cost of the cloaks created by Ylarr, described below.

A few days after the PCs enter Aierre, they are approached by a local healing woman. She takes the PCs to her healing house, and shows them five catatonic men and women – they were all found in the street, unable to do anything beyond draw breath. They have remained catatonic for days, in some cases. Careful questioning reveals that the first catatonic soul was found roughly a day after the wizard was killed.

What’s Going On:

Ylarr killed the wizard and stole the incomplete ritual. Rather than seeing the soul cost of the cloak as a hindrance, he saw it as a benefit. Ylarr knew of another ritual, learned during his time in the nefarious Githyanki fortress of Journey’s End, which allowed a warrior to link his soul to that of a bound victim – injuries on the warrior would first appear on the bound victim.

Ylarr was able to create a cloak (the Cloak of Soulbound Resistance, below) that was powered by the souls he trapped. However, to do this, he needed victims who were calm at the time of the ritual’s casting – agitated souls were naturally more defensive, and resistant to the binding effects.

This was where Semou came in. Ylarr is an intimidating figure (not just because he’s a Githyanki; his recent forays into the Blood Coral have caused his skin to porously leak blood). The younger Githyanki has long had some minor shape-shifting powers, granted by a magical amulet. Semou also has a rapport with “lesser” mortals, and secretly, he’s even come to admire many of them.

Semou’s desire to get home overweighs his empathy for others, and so he has been rounding up humans (both locals and visitors), chatting them up and plying them with alcohol, before taking them back to the abandoned crematorium outside of town where the Githyanki have been holed up. There, over a “friendly game of cards”, Ylarr would secretly cast the ritual and bind the souls to his cloaks (Ylarr has made one cloak for each Githyanki of his “crew” – only Semou has responded to the call, however).

Investigation:

Next comes an investigation portion of the adventure (or, optionally, a skill challenge), with the possibility of combat encounters with rival adventurers (“get off my turf!”), thief gangs, Lacedons (Aquatic Ghouls) from the blood coral, wind elementals, or whatever other fiendish encounter the GM can dream up. As the PCs investigate the catatonic victims, they uncover more and more of Ylarr’s plan.

How exactly this plays out is beyond this outline, but it should involve discussions with the family and friends of victims, references to the disguised Semou, along with mention of the crematorium. Eventually, the PCs learn that the victims were last seen heading towards the Crematorium with a strange-looking human (the disguised Semou).

The Cloak of Soulbound Resistance:

The Ritual Ylarr has created consists of two fused rituals. It causes the captured souls to be linked to the wearer of the cloak – damage the wearer suffers is transferred to the victim instead. However, because of the Wizard’s original ritual, the only damage that is transferred is the damage effect of the blood coral. But that is enough for Ylarr.

Were he to enter the blood coral, the vampiric effects of the rock would be drained from the souls (and bodies) of the catatonic victims. But there are two additional effects:

First, the connection to numerous souls at once is heady and intoxicating. The wearer of a cloak connected to perhaps four or five souls at once finds his senses overwhelmed, his mind moving in multiple directions. The power the wearer feels is immense. The result is the wearer, for all intents and purposes, is drunk.

Second, due to a quirk in the ritual, should one of the souls die, the wearer of the cloak will feel a sudden increase of personal power. Because of this, it is Ylarr’s intent to widen out the damage to all the souls at once, so that when they die, he can use the power boost to help in his goal of killing the Githyanki of Journey’s End.

The Crematorium:

When the PCs get to the Crematorium, they will naturally have to fight their way through undead guardians (who have allied with the Githyanki due to Semou’s gilded tongue). Eventually, they find the Githyanki lair, along with Semou (and nearly two dozen more catatonic victims).

Semou drops his human disguise, and puts up a half-hearted battle (his powers should be charm-based). He is clearly outmatched, and offers a deal. He tells the PCs much of the story given above (perhaps revealed through a skill challenge?), revealing at the end that he got into an argument with Ylarr when he found out Ylarr’s true goal (to destroy Journey’s End), and Ylarr soon left in a drunken haze. Semou tells the PCs of the Cloaks’ effects, and how Ylarr plans to keep the souls alive until he gets to Journey’s End for the power rush. He honestly seems to regret his role in this affair, and repeatedly tells the PCs “I just wanted to go home...”

How the PCs eventually decide to deal with Semou is their affair.

In any case, they find that Ylarr has produced multiple cloaks (he had hoped that some of his fellow Githyanki mutineers would show up and join him in his quest for revenge). Knowing the effects of the cloaks (wearing it could cause catatonic victims to die), the PCs also know that if they don’t don the cloaks, they won’t be able to track Ylarr down through the coral (leaving those trapped souls to a fate worse than death). Furthermore, Semou tells the PCs that if they are fast, they should easily be able to reach the tower before permanently harming any of the catatonic victims.

The Blood Coral, part two:

The PCs make their way through the blood coral. If at all possible, try staging this during the night. Because of the wind, there’ll be a rainstorm, and possibly lightning. The coral tries to drain the blood from the PCs, but the cloaks protect them. (as a staging device, give each PC a list of four NPC names – possibly NPCs you’ve introduced earlier in the adventure – and how many healing surges each NPC has. Whenever a PC would lose a surge from the coral, let them choose which NPC instead loses a surge). Naturally, the PCs will be slightly drunk from the cloaks’ effects... however, they do not feel the rush as strongly as Ylarr does, due to differences in the physiology of githyanki and others (perhaps the xenophobia of the Githyanki makes the association with other minds all the more unsettling?)

As the PCs move through the coral, they should fight a pack of Lacedons (aquatic ghouls – adventurers who have already died on the coral trying to reach the tower), and possibly a maddened aquatic monster of some sort (taking ongoing damage from coral). Along the way, they catch glimpses of Ylarr, lurching back and forth drunkenly, speaking to the spirits around him.

However, Ylarr gets to the tower first. Before he does, though, the PCs see him cut off a chunk of Blood Coral, throwing it into his pack. When lightning strikes, they get their first good glimpse at the Drunken Githyanki – his face contorted in a haze, and bloody red streaks running throughout his skin. His eyes, fingernails, and the corners of his lips are caked with clotted blood. He carries a silver greatsword that has long ago tarnished to near black. He enters the tower blearily speaking to his spirits.

The Leaning Tower:

The Leaning Tower is a gate to the astral plane. It is leaning at a seventy degree angle, and much of it is filled with barnacles, seaweed, and the rotting carcasses of fish that were trapped in the building when it arose from the sea.

However, the tower is also home to astral ghosts, flickers of slaves sacrificed in Journey’s End. Many seem to treat the PCs as if they were the Githyanki overlords, and whimper and plead. Some beg for their captors to spare the lives of their children; others offer to sell out fellow captives “if you’ll just let me go”. As the PCs ascend the tower (which is difficult to do – it is tilted, uneven, and the slippery floor makes it all too possible for poor footing to cause a victim to slip right out the side), they are stopped by these astral flickers.

All the while, they can hear Ylarr above. He begins to chant a ritual of opening. When the PCs burst in on the top room - buffeted by rain, the sound of the crashing surf, and howling winds- the ritual reaches a climax, and the PCs (with Ylarr) are flung to the Astral Plane...

Journey’s End:

The PCs find themselves in Journey’s End, with Ylarr drunkenly lurching about.

Journey’s End is a Githyanki stronghold. Red Dragon whelps run in the streets, odd gecko-like lizards scuttle along walls, and the flayed corpses of humanoids twist on gibbets. The whole fortress is built in the heart of the astral, and floats on the inert body of a dead god. It has many narrow streets, and massive defensive fortifications are tended to by captured slaves.

The PCs emerge on a battlement overlooking much of the city... and Githyanki are closing in. The heroes have to get the cloak off Ylarr (who is attempting to use his blood coral to drain the nearly-dead captive souls to gain a power boost before Githyanki soldiers arrive) and escape the city.

Whether through role-playing, a skill challenge, subterfuge, outright combat, or something else, the PCs should eventually receive Ylarr’s cloak. Whether they decide to fight Ylarr, or leave him to his fate of killing as many of his fellows as he can before dying, is their choice. However, the PCs have to find a way back through the portal before Githyanki soldiers arrive.

Denouement:

When the PCs return to the tower, they may wonder how they’ll get back. After all, their cloaks are nearly drained, and they have to cross the blood coral. Luckily, the tower, having long been dangerously close to toppling, crumbles from the strain of the portals. Barely able to escape in time, the PCs survive the tower crashing into the coral. This crash naturally opens many large rifts in the coral, with the forced aquatic shockwave further cracking open rifts.

These rifts allow the PCs to return home while passing only a few patches of blood coral.

The PCs reverse the ritual and stop the catatonia from gripping surviving victims. Victims will have large bruises due to blood loss, but these will heal over a few weeks, quicker if the healer woman tends to them.

PCs might not receive much in the way of rewards in this adventure, though individual victims could well give PCs family heirlooms, monetary donations, or even future favours as thanks.

The Coral, exposed to open air, begins to die a week after the tower falls. Within a month, it is simply an island of red rock. The ruins of the fallen tower are combed over by treasure hunters, who soon abandon it when they learn it has little value (it no longer functions as a gateway to the astral).

Semou, if he still lives, is chased out of town, and finds himself walking the road, searching for a place to call home.

Ingredient Summary:

Quick note: I was going to suggest how each ingredient relates to the others, but that’d make a long post already longer. And if I have to explain the connections, I obviously didn’t make them strong enough. Hopefully, you can see how each ingredient is connected with the others.

Inebriated Githyanki: Obviously Ylarr. While he is only inebriated when he dons the cloak, he is not revealed to the PCs until this event, and will only cease being inebriated when the cloak is removed – at which point, the PCs will probably abandon him to his eventual death.

Con Artist: Semou, who has been rounding up victims for Ylarr.

Journey’s End: While the location is obviously a stand-in for this, I actually see “Journey’s End” as more of a theme for the adventure itself. Both the major NPCs are seeking an end to their “journey” on the material plane (one wants revenge, the other just wants companionship). The coral causes death (one form of “Journey’s End”), and the tower itself is a journey point. Even the crematorium can be considered a journey’s endpoint.

Blood Coral: Obviously the coral that surrounds the tower.

Leaning Tower: The tower in the centre of the coral. Leaning is defined in the text, and utilized both in ascending the tower, and in eventually escaping the coral.

Cloak of Soulbound Resistance: A bit different from the 3e Item, but I think it has some flavour. It obviously grants “resistance” to the coral, through the binding of souls.

 

[Atras]

The Floating Mines of Journey

The Floating Mines of Journey

Our heroes find themselves on guard duty at an annual local farmer's convention, taking a simple and boring task in between dangerous adventures. When they are sent to evict a drug-addled foreigner, they find that even the boring tasks can be rewarding, and dangerous. A short 4th Edition adventure for five players of level 5.

Background

Grathik, a Githyanki artist of some renown has nearly hit rock bottom: resorting to fooling adventerous and/or brave people into feeding his blood coral addiction. To do this, he is looking for a big score - the floating hunk of land called Journey. By removing the artifact, the Cloak of Soulbound Resistance, worn by the drug lord Valda, the tower that sits atop the largest blood coral mine will topple, leaving the mines to whomever is well equipped to empty them. Grathik has already prepared some of Valda's men for positions of power, as well as hired a group of former prisoners to work in the soon-to-be-opened mines, he just needs the current authority in power.

Players Introduction

You have still to be fully recognized as a major force in the area, but as long as the jobs and the money keep coming in, you can wait for a real chance to show the world that you are destined to be a group of heroes of legend. Of course, sometimes the jobs are just pathetic, like today's: Keeping the locals at the annual farmer convention from getting too rowdy. Two gold a day, with rooms in the largest tavern for five days will pay the bills, and there really isn't risk of anyone getting hurt.

Joghost's Annual Farmer's Convention is an exciting time for the locals: there are livestock competitions (Farmer Bettencourt has won the best looking sow competition every year for the last twenty years, but has always come in second or third in the egg-laying chicken contest); there are plowing contests, limited to 4 oxen teams only; there are rides for the kids, and vendors of all sorts of items for the whole 5 day event. The event is timed at the end of harvest-time, so most farmers are present with carts of food to trade or sell, and the town has the benefit of Journey's Passing the day after the convention finishes. Journey is a medium sized earthmote that circles the surrounding 100-mile landscape at a regular interval. No one remembers if the convention was timed as it is because of Journey, or if Journey's Passing was just lucky timing. Journey was said to have been ripped out of the ground over 100 years ago, and has been circling the area ever since. There are around 600 people who live on the island, and they trade in ore harvested from the small mountains on the island and some rare plants that grow especially well on the floating land. You are welcome to trade with them, and there are likely adventures to be had if you take up with the island after the convention, but your job is to keep people safe at the convention, starting 5 days before, and lasting until Journey's Passing.

The first two days passed without incident, the third day was the drinking festival - so removing a few drunks was no suprise. Yesterday, a githyanki of all things, had to be escorted out of the convention for starting a fight - something about a customer not paying what they agreed to for a caricature. You remembered him from the day before as well, he still smelled of ale, and slurred his words, it's not often you see a githyanki in a farming community like Joghost, and even less common to see a githyanki artist, let alone a drunk githyanki! To say he stands out in your memory is a dramatic understatement. He seemed harmless enough, and didn't put up a fight as you escorted him out, and you were assigned to guard his artist stand at the convention until he was allowed back in after closing. While he cleaned up, he engages you in conversation:

Encounter 1: Meeting Grathik

"I see you are not accustomed to such... low work. As you must know, my people have explored the universe, sailing the Astral Sea, earning a reputation for conquerers. I can see much more in you than farmer's guards."
Grathik is an upfront man, his tongue loosened by too much drink. He thanks the players for their work in town, and admits that he was in the wrong when he nearly started a fight. He explains his situtation as this:
He grew up the third son of a well-respected Captain, but he never had much of a mind for military matters. Instead, he focused on painting, and was known as quite an artist among his people. However, he battled with his place in society, never feeling a connection to his military minded family, and so he connected with drink and drugs. Now an outcast from his people, he works in the mortal realm scraping by a living doing protraits and some commisioned work.
Much of this is true - however he is an expert liar, and it takes a DC 27 Insight check to see that his drug addiction is not the whole reason for his outcast status - he was trading in drugs which got him sent away. He is also not poor, he lives simply, saving his coin for a big score.
He implores the players to help him when Journey arrives - he was cheated by a drug dealer who lives in a tower on the edge of the earthmote, and while he gets by, he could be a wealthy man if this drug dealer, named Valda, would either pay him the 5000 gold for the landscape of the Astral Sea that he painted (A History check of 15 reveals knowledge of this painting - 5000 gold is a low price for this famed piece of art) or give it back. He tells you that the painting was given, but neither the gold nor the "other compensation" was given - he was lucky to escape with his life. If you can make this Valda pay, or reclaim the painting, he will give you 500 gold.

Conclusion: You are working the convention for its final day, as Journey comes into sight. Get paid your 10 gold for guard duty, and Journey comes into sight before sundown.

Encounter 2: Skill Challenge Get to Journey

You must find a way to get to Journey and find your way to the leaning tower. This is a short skill challenge that helps steer the rest of the adventure. Each player must gain a success to count for 1 group success. After 1 group success, the players move to Part 2, having a found a way onto the Earthmote. Allow the players to make as many checks as they want to learn more about the Tower. If they gain 3 successes in part 2 before 3 failures total, they succeed in the challenge, and are able to avoid fighting in either the Tower entrance or the mines. If they fail the skill challenge, than any approach will force a battle.


Part 1: Getting to the Earthmote

• Arcana - devise an obscure levitation ritual
  
• Diplomacy - hire a ride to the island
  
• Thievery/Stealth - stowaway a ship to get up there
  
• Endurance/Athletics - work with various farmers to move goods - lose a healing surge, but give all other party members +2 to part 1 checks.
  

Part 2 - Find information about the area

• Streetwise Easy DC - learn about drug-like nature of Blood Coral - it is crushed and inhaled and gives the user +2 to Reflex and resist 2 to all damage for 5 minutes. After that, the user gains Vulnerable 3 all and -5 Will and Fort until they take an extended rest.
• Streetwise Hard DC - Learn about Valda - the man took posession of the Tower after it was abandoned when it started to tilt. He has a magic cloak that he never removes.
• History - Learn that the mining of blood coral led to the tower's tilting - it was sold shortly after the first shift, and the mines were supposedly closed. This also opens up the Hard Streetwise check.
• Insight - Learn that the mines are still active - digging up Blood Coral.
• Thievery - Watch the guard patterns to see an easier way in.
• Arcana Moderate DC - The tower is held up by magic.
• Arcana Hard DC (available only after hard Streetwise)- the magic is associated with the cloak Valda wears - he is soulbound to the cloak, which allows him to make it resist falling off the earthmote.
• Nature/Perception - The earthmote is unstable, and a significant shock could cause it to crash down.

Once the players have gathered information, they can either attempt to enter the Tower through the direct route (or sneak around to gain entrance if they succeeded in the skill challenge) or by going through the "dormant" mines. If they have succeeded in the challenge, they are able to avoid workers in the mines.

Encounter 3a: Mines

Level (Party level +2) consisting of dwarves and kobolds with humans.

Encounter 3b: tower entrace

Level (Party level +2) consisting of guardian constructs and a human mage and 2 dwarves

Encounter 4: The Leaning Tower of Journey - Steal the Cloak or Kill/arrest its owner.

Fight/confront Valda (level 7 solo controller). Every round he calls for 2d4 minions to assist. Valda takes a -2 to all defenses when wearing his cloak. If the party negotiates with him to get the painting, he inhales Blood Coral and attacks as they try to leave.

Encounter 5: Escape Journey's End

As the earthmote falls to the ground, you must battle the miners and guards that blame you for the downfall. Move terrain 1d6 squares in a random direction (1d4: 1=N, 2=E, 3=S, 4=W) as players make their way to the airship ports where people are being evacuated. This is a moving battle, through either mines or overland. Use fallen trees, dislodged mine debris or mining equipment as traps, +5 vs Reflex. The Earthmote should be collapsing from the end, near the tower.

Resolution

Should expose the Githyanki as a con artist and drug addict, not to mention potential drug lord.

Blood Coral - it is crushed and inhaled and gives the user +2 to Reflex and resist 2 to all damage for 5 minutes. After that, the user gains Vulnerable 3 all and -5 Will and Fort until they take an extended rest.
​

Ingredients:

• Leaning Tower - Valda's HQ <
• Blood Coral - Mined substance that caused tower to lean, also motivation for Grathik
• Con Artist - Grathik
• Journey’s End - the Earthmote Journey crashes to the ground <
• Inebriated Githyanki - Grathik
• Cloak of Soulbound Resistance Valda's item that keeps his tower standing

Leaning Tower is the scene of the battle, at the edge of an Earthmote called Journey. Like it sits at the End... Also, the final battle brings the moving earthmote crashing to the ground, Ending Journey.
Con Artist - go for double meaning - painter at a convention and Githyanki who gives false information to get the heroes involved.

 

[phoamslinger]

Judgement Round 2, Match 3, Wik vs Atras

these were a much tougher set of ingredients than the round 1 sets (just wait till round 3!) and the connections between some of them started to feel a little stretchy and forced, but that’s to be expected, (expected, but not allowed to pass unnoticed).

Leaning Tower
Atras had his tower lean because the rock underneath was being mined away.
Wik’s tower leaned in the direction of the sea current after many years.
both of these were ok. at least there was a rationale for why they leaned…

Con Artist
Atras had his githyanki play the part of the con artist who gives the party the mission under false pretenses for his own gain.
Wik had Semou, who is more of a follower obeying orders than someone (professionally) deceiving others for a monetary profit.

both usages of the Con Artists seemed a bit weak to me. I much rather would have seen an independent story element interacting with the other ingredients and weaving an immense con throughout the story than a blending of the gith into the Con Artist. one is just a clichéd story hook and the other is just following orders. I’ll give Atras the better point on that one, but not by much.

Journey’s End
Atras named the area Journey, put the tower on one End of it, and crashed it into the ground, Ending it.
Wik gave us two NPC’s looking to End their Journeys, and a few other weaker connections.

neither very strong. again mild point to Atras.

regrettably, beyond these first three, the differences started getting more pronounced.

Inebriated Githyanki
Wik gave us a gith who is intoxicated by the power of the souls that he’s wearing, so he staggers as he heads towards the tower.
Atras’ gith was drunk the day before, and is introduced to the characters as a drunk artist.

but Inebriated is only a part of the ingredient; the other half being Githyanki. Githyanki are violent extra-planar xenophobes. Wik’s character’s casual disdain for the souls of the townsfolk that he’s stolen, as well as his odd quest to kill his former employer was a lot more believable in context than Atras’ Con Artist whose racial descriptor could have been swapped out with an elf, orc, goblin, etc without impacting the story in any real way. this point goes to Wik.

Blood Coral
Atras gave us a drug, mined from the earthmote beneath the Leaning Tower, while Wik gives us a huge vampiric coral.

btw, I was just stringing random words together, but it turns out that blood coral is the most expensive coral to make jewelry from (it’s ox-blood in color). I was wondering what you would do or find with it.

the red coral that drinks blood coming from the ocean depths and making the sunken tower available for access came closer than the drug that, again could have been replaced with some other substance without a major change in the story. point to Wik.

Cloak of Soulbound Resistance
again, I liked Wik’s Cloak of Resistance that had Souls Bound into it more than Atras’ Cloak that Bound the Souls of his defenders allowing him to call them to his defense.

(remember what I said about stretching? we really need a little more detail on this sort of stuff Atras, because that’s a HUGE intuitive leap that I really didn’t have any reason to reach for, other than to be nice. without that leap, your badguy wore a cloak with a name tagged onto it that would otherwise be indistinguishable from another cloak.)

point again to Wik.

Looking for connections, what I saw was

Wik’s Githyanki is Inebriated from wearing the Cloak of Bound Souls allowing him to cross the Coral to reach the Tower so that he can End his Journey. as mentioned above your Con Artist was the weakest ingredient. if the entire adventure had been a Con of some sort (a different NPC who lied to the Githyanki to get him to accomplish all these things to serve some other purpose than what he was seeking?) then you would have been six for six.

Atras’ Githyanki Artist is running a Con to get the adventurers to go to where drugs are mined beneath a Leaning Tower to fight a guy wearing a Cloak

well.

Atras, you mentioned on the other forum that you ran into a time crunch. regrettably, it showed. while I was reading your entry, I saw several places where that three hours you said you didn’t have could have shored up a lot of holes in your story and made for a better overall entry. while I liked the play on words of an Artist doing a Con, it just didn’t fit in well with finding a Githyanki at the county fair trying to hire the party. it just wasn’t that strong a hook and without that hook, the whole idea behind the adventure started to collapse. if I’d been playing, I would have been distrustful of the whole setup and wondered why we were killing the miners and their boss in the first place?

Wik, just on the basis of just the ingredients, your’s was the stronger of the two entries and your connections were better. however, I would not have named the githyanki fortress “Journeys’ End” since just naming something after a potentially difficult ingredient can be a very distracting attempt to bypass a difficult ingredient by inexperienced Iron DMs. if you hadn’t drawn your connections in the Ingredient Summary for Journey’s End and pointed out the other interpretations, I would have tossed that one out of your lineup completely and that ingredient (and likely the match) would have been Atras’ as well. what would have been better would have been to emphasize those “End of Journey” connections as they came up inside the entry. they would have carried a lot more strength that way. I also would have tried to make some of the extraneous stuff less significant (stuff like the wind vortex that only really only blocks flying, the crematorium or the healing woman).

Wik’s Where Bastards Go To Die advances him to Round 3.

 

[Nifft]

Sparky v Iron Sky

Artist Studio
Vat of Poison
Frightened Seaman
Dream Sequence
Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
Singing Battleaxe

May your muses be kind.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Frightened Seaman

 

[Iron Sky]

The Dreaming Lords

This adventure is designed to for a party of 12th level PCs. It takes place somewhere deep in the Feywild.

Introduction
While traveling through the Feywild, the PCs sleep becomes troubled by vivid, compelling dreams that call them to aid the Artisan of Dreams, an ancient Fey spirit who was cursed by a neighboring spirit, the Wolfang, when the Artisan stole a powerful magical axe from him. The PCs are drawn into the dispute by the Artisan's manipulation of their dreams and soon find themselves caught up in a surreal dream world to hunt down one of the Wolfang's servants who has stolen the axe back for his master.

Background
The Artisan and the Wolfang have been uneasy neighbors in the Feywild for centuries, both powerful spirits, and neither powerful enough to defeat or drive the other away. When the Wolfang found a powerful weapon, the Singing Battleaxe, in an long-abandoned Eladrin ruin, the Artisan both coveted it and feared that it might shift the balance of power and allow the Wolfang to threaten the Artisan directly.

Using her powers over dreams, the Artisan manipulated one of Wolfang's servants, a wolfen-shapeling named Bebadolf, into pretending to still serve Wolfang, then gaining his trust and stealing his master's axe to bring to the Artisan. The Wolfang caught onto the Artisan's plan at the last moment and, while not able to stop Bebadolf from escaping with the Axe, he did place a curse on it that inflicted the Artisan when Bebadolf delivered it to her. The Artisan, whose powers to manipulate others dreams are greatest when she sleeps, is now unable to sleep except when she is in the presence of the clear, ringing tone of the Singing Battleaxe.

Not long before the PCs arrive on the scene, Bebadolf, free of the Artisan's dreaming compulsions and once again under the sway of Wolfang, repaid the favor, claiming to be bringing word of Wolfang to the Artisan, then slipping away with the Axe. The Artisan realized the deception too late and failed to catch Bebadolf, but was able to trap him somewhere in the Dreaming Realm itself, where he remains trapped. Unable to sleep without the Axe, she cannot enter the Dreaming Realm and so seeks others that she can send there to retrieve the Axe for her.

The Artisan of Dreams
The Artisan appears as a beautiful elven-featured woman whose robes and hair trail away into pale blue strands of glowing mist. Her skin too has a faint bluish tinge and when she moves, she seems to fade slightly into the mist swirls that about her. Her lands are a small section of the Feywild scattered with dreamstone, a pale blue rock that pulls the Feywild around it closer to the Dreaming Realm.

She lives in a small two-story wattle-and-daub house that seems out of place amidst the lush wilds of the Feywild. The woods nearby are littered with rune-carved pinnacles of dreamstone and a faint bluish mist drifts through the area.

If not for Wolfang's aggressive territoriality, she would be content to live her days in her small house, drifting in and out of dreams, but Wolfang's creations constantly prowl about the edges of her lands, kept away only by the terrible, vivid nightmares and compulsions she sends to those who come too close. With Wolfang's curse and the loss of the Axe, her powers are greatly weakened, allowing her only minimal contact with the Dreaming Realm.

Normally, her powers of dream manipulation – especially when her targets are near dreamstone – are immense, but in her cursed sleepless state, she can only barely touch the dreams of others and only when they touch dreamstone. Her dreamstone-littered studio has an enchantment, however, that can send others into dreams of whatever she paints on an easel.

Bebadolf
Like his master, Bebadolf is a wolfen-changeling, a changeling capable of taking the forms of man and beast, though most comfortable in the guise of a wolf or a human. In wolf form Bebadolf is a large black-furred wolf with traces of red in his fur. In human form, he is a large black-bearded man with a shaggy main of hair, both traced with touches of red. Caught up in the Dreaming Realm, he is stuck repeating the same few dreams and, while trapped within them cannot remember the waking world, believing his is what he dreams.

Wolfang has two forms. In human form he is a level 14 solo brute, in Wolf form, he is a level 14 Solo skirmisher.

Hooks
1) The PCs have been sent by a powerful ally of theirs has been plagued by night-terrors and so sends the PCs to find the so rumored Artisan of Dreams to see if she can banish the nightmares.
2) The PCs themselves have been cursed with nightmares and have heard of the Artisan. They seek her out in hopes that she might help remove the curse.
3) The PCs, while traveling through the Feywild, pick up a small piece of dreamstone or touch a larger dreamstone vein, rock, or boulder in passing. This allows the Artisan to send vivid dreams calling for the PCs help, the magical compulsion causing thoughts of the dreams to constantly be at the backs of the PCs minds and they find themselves distractedly walking in the direction of her lands as they travel.

Bullet Point Adventure Summary
0. Hooks
1. Players travel to the Artisan's abode.
2. The Artisan convinces the players to assist her
3. Dream Sequencing
4. Resolution

1. PCs Gone Feywild
How the PCs travel to the Artisan's house is up to the DM and in part depends on the Hook(s) that bring the PCs there. If the PCs have been sent, a skill challenge to find it (with bonuses to checks of any PCs that have touched dreamstone) might be appropriate, with a failure taking more time/leading the PCs to hostile Feywild creatures/etc.

The DM might just rule that they find it, especially if the PCs are just passing by and have received the Artisan's compulsion via dreamstone.

In either situation, the party might catch glimpses of huge feral looking wolves or shaggy, wild looking men watching them and then slipping away before they can be confronted.

When the PCs reach her house, she opens the door as they approach, tells them she's been expecting them and lets the party in.

2. Mind if I Axe You a Few Questions
Once at the Artisan's house, the Artisan tells the players a bit about her powers over dreams, the hostility of the Wolfang, the Wolfang's curse upon her that doesn't allow her to sleep without the Axe and the resultant weakening of her powers, the Bebadolf's theft and entrapment in the Dreaming Realm, and her plea for the PCs to help her.

Note: she leaves out the choice bits about her manipulating Bebadolf and stealing the Axe in the first place.

She offers material rewards (up to 2-4 treasure parcels worth), years of pleasant dreams, her deepest gratitude, and/or an unspecified favor that they may claim at a later date. She won't reveal how desperate she is unless she thinks it might convince the players to help.

Once they agree to help, she leads them to her studio where she tells them that she only is sure of one of the dreams that the Bebadolf is trapped in and that she will send them to it in their sleep so that they might find Bebadolf and/or the Axe. She explains that when she paints something, it becomes a dream that they can access via a door in her studio that otherwise leads to nowhere.

She tells them that when she sends them into the dream, they may bring some dreamt objects to the waking world and back to the land of dreams and that those objects might take on slightly different forms from one dream to the next, but they are often important and will stand out. She also explains that the rules of the Dreaming Realm are not the same as the waking world and that many things that seem logical in the actual world will not work.

3. To Sleep: Perchance to Dream: Ay, There's the Rub
In the following series of encounters, the PCs must go from dream to dream, attempting to find the correct sequence of dreamt objects and dreams to enter in order to eventually find the Axe. Each dream has a “success” and “failure” result listed, depending on the dream. A quick chart of the sequence is available below.

In any dream, if the PCs try to explore beyond the “bounds” of the dream, they find themselves wandering back towards the main features of it. At the completion of every dream, success or failure, they find the door to the Artisan's studio somewhere. When they pass through, they awaken and 6 hours have passed and the Artisan questions them about what they have dreamt. If the PCs didn't have any combat in the dram, the 6 hours counts as an extended rest.

If they have gotten the "key" to another dream - locations mentioned in the dreams that lead the PCs to other dreams in the sequence - she can then paint the location for the PCs, allowing them to do whichever enter the dreams in any order they chose.

If they aren't figuring it out, the Artisan might have ideas (give hints) about the key objects and/or "dream keys," at the DM's discretion. If the DM wishes to apply time pressure, when the PCs wake from their various dreams, the DM can have the Artisan mention seeing Wolfang's minions prowling closer and closer, play up her worry, mention her increasing exhaustion, etc.

Key dream objects and "dream keys" are in bold. If the PCs reach a result that has a dream object, the PCs may then carry that object to their next dream(s) or until they use it, at which point it is gone unless they return to the dream where they got it originally to get it again. If the PCs learn of a "dream key" and the PCs mention it to the Artisan, she can then paint that dream and send them to it.

In any of these dreams, the DM may require that the PCs make some sort of appropriate skill check for the “successful” results to be applied. Note, though, that if they then fail, they may have to repeat dreams several times.

Key Items:
Wool: When PCs enter a dream carrying the Wool, it appears as a small bag full of wool.
Alcohol: When PCs enter a dream carrying the Alcohol, it appears as a pony keg. It is still full of wood alcohol in whatever form.
Axe: Once the PCs have the Axe, the dreams end the next time they go through the studio door. Note: the other axes mentioned aside from the singing axe that the wool merchant brings out in the Town dream are red herrings.

Read anything in italics to the players.

Dream A(Boat) – Alcohol a Party-Time Necessity
The Artisan paints the image of a man at sea in a small boat. Sitting in the center of it is a massive open-topped barrel. A sailor stares down at the barrel, an axe in his hand and a fearful expression on his face. In the distance is what looks to be a small port town. You fall asleep and you awaken in the room next to your own sleeping forms. As you pass through the studio door, you find yourselves standing in the boat beside the seaman.

The sailor will explain his predicament, shaking as he does so. He was hired by “a man with an axe” to smuggle in a vat of alcohol. It is larger than he thought and now, as the current is pulling him inexorably towards the port, he realizes he has nothing to hide the barrel with. If he doesn't hide it, he will be arrested and executed. If he hacks it apart with his axe and tosses the remains overboard, he won't be arrested, but “the man with the axe will come for me."

If the PCs haven't gotten the Wool(see below), he nay-says anything they say, chops apart the barrel and dumps it overboard(failure). As the contents of the vat spill overboard, the PCs will recognize it as wood alcohol, poisonous for most creatures to drink.

In a dream-style jump, they are then standing on the dock beside him as he looks about a hazy gray town. “I'm no smuggler. I'll have to go become a Shepherd in the hills like my sister. Then the man with the axe won't find me.”

If the PCs have gotten the Wool, they can pull bags of wool out of nowhere, covering over the barrel (to the sailor's delight). When they are satisfied it is hidden, they suddenly are in port, an official looking man with an axe at his belt is standing on the dock and filling out a form. He says “carry on” and vanishes.

The PCs then find themselves standing on the dock with the sailor and the barrel(success). He opens the lid of the barrel, scoops out a tiny keg of it, and hands the Alcohol to the PCs, saying “thank you, the man with the axe will reward me handsomely. Enjoy yourself here in Town.” The town becomes slightly less hazy around you as the seaman fades away.

Dream B(Shepherd) – A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
The Artisan paints the image of a meadow filled with grazing sheep, a young shepherd girl with an axe in her hand watching over them. You fall asleep and you awaken in the room next to your own sleeping forms. As you pass through the studio door, you find yourselves standing in the meadow beside the shepherd.

She seems unsurprised by their arrival, but is crying.

“I tend my sheep, but as soon as I sit down to shear one, suddenly there is a wolf amidst the flock that begins killing them. I chase it off, but as soon as I sit down again, it returns. Can you help keep watch over my sheep while I shear them? If you do, I will give you some of the wool!”

Presumably, the PCs will watch over the flock. When they do, they make Perception or Insight checks opposed to Bebadolf's Stealth or Bluff checks. If they succeed, they notice that one sheep(Bebadolf) is acting strangely and is sneaking through the flock. Roll initiative at this point.

If a PC hits Bebadolf before he hits a sheep, he turns on them, fighting until he is bloodied then fleeing(success).

If the PCs have already killed him in human form(see the Town dream below), he fights differently. For one, he uses a power to make himself appear exactly like the sheep around him then teleports into the flock. The PCs must make Insight checks to know which one he is until he attacks again. He also fights to the death. When he dies, his body transforms to his human form and has the Axe.

If they kill him or drive him off, the shepherd gives them a small bag of Wool.

Otherwise, he kills a sheep(failure). The PCs must leave, wake up, and try again.

Note that in any of these situations, the sheep simply mill about grazing, unconcerned by the wolf in their midst or even their fellow sheep being killed.

Dream C(Town) – I'll Drink to That
The Artisan paints the image of a cozy port town. It looks practically idyllic, except near the docks is the smoldering ruins of a warehouse. A large man with a shaggy black beard and hair stands at edge of the smoky remains staring at it blankly. You fall asleep and you awaken in the room next to your own sleeping forms. As you pass through the studio door, you find yourself standing beside the man in the painting.

“All of my merchandise, lost in the fire? What will I do now?” the man says. “What is a merchant without a thing to trade?”

If they ask, they learn that he is a wool merchant and that some sailor accidentally burned down the warehouse and fled in terror. He is also Bebadolf, but does not remember his name.

If they do not have Wool, he shrugs off any attempts to help or console him(failure). “I'm not fit to be a merchant, I'll go back to being a hunter, go back to my family's grove in the Forest. But I'll hunt down that sailor first!” He then disappears, leaving you alone in the suddenly hazy town.

If they have Wool and give bags of it (again appearing from nowhere) to him, he shakes their hands and runs around in excitement, then invites them to his house to celebrate(success). Suddenly, they are in his house, that looks exactly like the Artisan's, except there is a detailed painting of a sheltered Forest grove on the ceiling of the main room.

He grabs a keg and sets it down on the table, then says, “just a moment, need something to open it with.” He then leaves the room for a minute.

If the PCs have the Alcohol, they may switch it with the keg on the table.

When Bebadolf returns, he has the Singing Battleaxe, a large emerald-bladed axe that hums continuously with power, the tone shifting subtly and harmoniously as you listen.

He uses it to chop open the keg and pours them all wooden tankards full. He drinks first, taking a huge drought.

If it is his keg, then the alcohol has no notable effects.

If it is the Alcohol keg however, he gasps “what type of drink is this? Poison!”. He then starts swinging wildly with his Axe and is blind for the duration of the encounter that ensues.

If the PCs defeat him and have not killed him in wolf form, he clutches the Axe to his chest, snarls, “you are sheep to the slaughter!”, and falls to the ground, his body transforming into that of a massive wolf, identical to the one in the Shepherd dream. If they have killed him in wolf form, he remains in human form and drops the Axe, which will return with them to the real world.

If the PCs do not fight him, eventually he and his house fade away leaving only the studio door.

Dream D(Forest) – Wood'ent You Know It
The Artisan paints the image of a sheltered forest grove. Standing in the middle of it are two trees that seem to have sorrowful faces, as though they are weeping. You fall asleep and you awaken in the room next to your own sleeping forms. As you pass through the studio door, you find yourself in the grove with them.

The trees are a pair of treants, the smaller one is the “husband”, the larger the “wife”. Both are mourning the loss of their sapling, cut down by a brutish man with a singing axe. “Oh If only we trees could drown our sorrows with drink the way you fleshlings do!” she wails.

She will tell them nothing except her hatred for the man with the axe. If the “husband” tries to say anything she shouts him down, telling him its all his fault and cowing him into submission.

If the PCs have the Alcohol and offer it to her however, she drinks it down(success). “Alcohol that a treant can drink! If you can find this, maybe you can do more for me! Hunt down and kill this man – no, he is more than a man. He can take the shape of man or beast and must be killed in both forms to truly die. But be warned, if you kill him in one, he will fight to the death in the other!

The PCs gain a +1 bonus on their attack rolls against Bebadolf after this point.

If they don't have or don't offer her the Alcohol, she becomes more and more upset and inconsolable until, over her “husbands” attempts to restrain her, she attacks the party, which may either stay and fight or flee through the convenient studio door(failure).

To complete the Dream Sequence, the PCs must kill Bebadolf in both his forms. Which ever they kill second drops the Axe.

Dream Sequence Quick-chart
Dream A(Boat) → Fail(no Wool) = “Unlock” Dream B(Shepherd)
Dream A(Boat) → Success(used Wool) = “Unlock” Dream C(Town), get Alcohol
Dream B(Shepherd) → Fail(don't stop Bebadolf) = nil
Dream B(Shepherd) → Success(stop Bebadolf) = fight Bebadolf in Wolf form, get Wool
Dream C(Town) → Fail(no Wool) = “Unlock” Dream D(Forest)
Dream C(Town) → Success(used Wool) = “Unlock” Dream D(Forest), may use Alcohol and/or fight Bebadolf in Human form
Dream D(Forest) → Fail(no Alcohol) = nil
Dream D(Forest) → Success(used Alcohol) = learn how to kill Bebadolf, gain attack bonus

Final Success: Kill Bebadolf in Wolf form in Dream B(Shepherd) and in Human form in Dream C(Town) to get the Axe.

4. Resolution - Wake Me When It's Over
When the PCs exit the dream with the Singing Battleaxe, the Artisan thanks them profusely and sets about honoring her side of whatever their arrangement was earlier. If they came on Hooks 1 and/or 2, they can then set about resolving that business as well.

Further adventures might involve helping the Artisan remove the curse, attempting to make peace with Wolfang and/or combating him, and/or stepping into the nightmares of the PCs and/or whoever hired them to “combat” dream creatures(if they PCs came on hooks 1 or 2).

Ingredients

Artist's Studio - The studio is the Artisan's house. Also, the studio door is the means by which the PCs enter and leave the Dream Sequence and bring back items such as the Alcohol(Vat of Poison) and the Singing Battleaxe itself.

Vat of Poison - The vat is a literal vat of wood alcohol in the boat dream, that is used in the forest dream to learn how to defeat the Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, Babadolf, and can also be used to poison Babadolf in one of his forms.

Frightened Seaman - The sailor in the Boat dream that's attempting to smuggle the Vat of Poison. Also the sailor who burned down the wool merchant's warehouse in the Town dream.

Dream Sequence - The series of dreams the PCs go on, each entered by the door to the Artist's Studio. In the dreams, the PCs use get the Vat of Poison from the Frightened Seaman, and use it to get information on and potentially to poison the Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, all to get the Singing Battleaxe for the owner of the Artist's Studio. Also, they must do the dreams in the correct order, i.e. the correct Dream Sequence.

Wolf in Sheep's Clothing - Bebadolf, the Wolfen-shapling, a shapeshifter capable of taking on many forms, including that of a sheep, a wolf, and wool merchant. He is a Wolf in Sheep's Clothing figuratively, literally and/or a bit of both at different points. He has the Singing Battleaxe. He is the main target of the PCs during the Dream Sequence because of this.

Singing Battleaxe - The main objective of the PCs in the Dream Sequence. The PCs seek it on behest of the owner of the Artist's Studio since it has been cursed so she may only sleep while it is around. Also, the overbearing treant wife("battleaxe") can be made to talk("sing") about the Wolf in Sheep's Clothing if given the Vat of Poison to drink.

 

[Sparky]

Iron DM 2009, Round 2, Match 4, Iron Sky vs Sparky

Iron DM 2009, Round 2, Match 4 – Iron Sky vs. Sparky

Still Life
A 4th Edition D&D Adventure for 3-5 Players of levels 8-10. Ideally, the party should include a Bard.*

Artist Studio
Dream Sequence
Frightened Seaman
Singing Battleaxe
Vat of Poison
Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing


Adventure Background
Recently, Maskim (a soulrider) arrived in town after surreptitiously hijacking a merchant and his smuggled shipment of Dreamtrap. After using the Dreamtrap to poison and possess a seaman aboard the ship he was on, the soulrider set about finding a victim well-placed to screen further victims. He settled on the court artist, Skal, a reclusive eccentric with access to the upper echelons of power in the city. He has now infiltrated the court of the Crown (or a suitably high-ranking noble) by taking over Skal’s identity.


Adventure Synopsis
The PCs’ exploits have come to the attention of the Crown who requests that they attend a banquet in their honor. At the banquet, Skal, the Artist-in-residence, a Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing, feigns being stricken by one of the PCs (the Bard) and requests that the Bard come to the Artist Studio the following day to sit for a portrait. Observant PCs may note that the artist’s admiration is pretense (Insight, Difficult DC). Attract your Bard with whatever indulgences he desires, fine spirits, delicacies, scented baths, massage, a fancy new outfit or instrument for the sitting. Ultimately, the banquet’s host insists on paying the sitting fee and would be offended if the Bard does not accept.

Once at the studio, Skal makes the Bard welcome and, after enjoying whatever enticements were promised, the Bard is escorted into a bath for a long soak in a Vat of Poison (described below) that will make him vulnerable to the soulrider’s possession. If possessed, a side effect of the Dreamtrap is that his soul is displaced into a fey dreamscape. (Encounter – Nothing Like a Good Soak)

On the day the Bard will take his poison soak, the other PCs will be approached by a Frightened Seaman, Manfred. He tells the PCs that his friend, Jernin, has gone missing and he can’t report to the authorities that he suspects foul play because he’s afraid of drawing the wrong kind of attention to his questionably legal business (he’s one of the smugglers that brought the soulrider and the Dreamtrap into town). He is earnest and worried. He asks for their help and offers a reward in goods or service, their choice. (Encounter – I Failed the Buddy System)

If they search successfully, the PCs find Jernin unconscious, but not in very good shape (certainly he’s been robbed, possibly had his extremities nibbled by rats or other vermin). Worse, his soul is trapped in a fey dreamscape. It is possible to administer an antidote to the poison, but it will go better if the PCs themselves ingest the poison and undergo a ritual to enter the fey dreamscape and rescue the lost seaman through a Dream Sequence. If they are reluctant, Manfred negotiates a new price (he is a good negotiator). If they rescue him, then Jernin can indentify Skal as the soulrider’s next target. (Encounter – Dreams and Lightning)

Meanwhile, the Bard is likely to have succumbed to the poison and/or Maskim’s attacks. He is transported to a fey dreamscape, but being a wily PC, he can attempt to navigate the Dream Sequence and get out. And get out he does, though, the Feywild is a strange place… out is relative. He escapes into a battleaxe. If he failed the skill challenge, he is stuck in the battleaxe and can only sing to communicate. He has become the Singing Battleaxe. The Bard’s player should get extra XP if he makes a go of roleplaying this. If he is reasonably successful in the challenge, he can sing to communicate and also has access to his Bard powers and abilities. If he is has perfect success he can sing to communicate, has access to his Bard powers and abilities and is also a Singing Battleaxe with a variety of fiery ‘singe’ powers - melee, ranged and area attacks. Though he must be wielded to use any Attack powers. (Encounter – Fleeing the Feydream)

The rest of the PCs, whether out and about or searching for or helping Jernin, eventually spot Maskim-Bard doing something suspicious…
· Near the Docks booking passage on a ship
· Ducking down an alley (he’s going to clean out his stash of Dreamtrap before leaving town)
If he catches sight of them he bolts and tries to lose them, he makes his way back to the studio and prepares to defend and hopefully kill the PCs. If pressed, he will try to flee by other means. (Encounter – The Devil of It)

If the PCs are successful at taking down Maskim/Bard, they can attempt to reunite the Bard’s body with the Bard’s soul, if that’s what the Bard wants. (Encounter – Fallen on Bard Times)

It might occur to the PCs that Skal is now somewhere, possibly trapped in a fey dreamscape. (Encounter – Naked!)

The Quests
Minor Quest – Find and Save Jernin, the Seaman’s friend (optional)
Major Quest – Find and Save the Bard


Starting the Adventure
The PCs are to be the guests of honor at a banquet thrown by the Crown (or a noble of sufficiently high rank). Promises of gifts, excellent food and the continued good will of the Crown should be more than sufficient to draw the PCs to the capital city.


Setting
Drop this adventure into any capital city that has a Port.

If you are in need of a capital city, welcome to Barrowdon in the kingdom of West Dorn. The city is divided into several wards spread over 3 hills and the valleys between. The city is growing towards a 4th hill.

The Tops - The wealthy live on the tops of the hills in wards referred to as Tops. Their shops, tavern and manors clustering thickly, but the limited space means the wealthy of Barrowdon have taken to building upwards or out in the suburbs instead of the unthinkable option of expanding into the city’s Bottoms. The city’s 3 hills are festooned with towers. There are a number of broad raised boulevards that connect the Tops with one another like bridges.
· Crown Hill, this is where the nobles of Barrowdon live. It houses the royal palace (a tower that is – by royal edict – the tallest building on Crown Hill), the homes of Barrowdon’s nobility, gardens and the civic offices under direct supervision by the Crown or nobles. The PCs attend a banquet on a high floor of the royal palace.
· Shining Hill, this Top is where the city’s faithful go to worship. Amongst the Tops, it is the one that flirts most with expanding into the Bottoms, though, in fact, there is still distinct separation between the denizens of the Tops and the denizens of the Bottoms. Shining Hill is home to several temples and the civic offices overseen by the various religious Orders.
· Fortress Hill, this is the Top closest to Barrowdon’s bustling port. It is a cliffside promontory where the city’s original rulers once lived and is home to a working Fortress which currently acts as the seat of the military and certain civic offices overseen by the military. The city’s wealthy non-nobles live here. Fortress Hill is the chief gateway to the other Tops.

The Bottoms – the Bottoms, unlike the Tops, is a horizontal sprawl of buildings, with some green spaces that are the last remaining remnants of the lawns of the cemetery that used to cover the area. Scattered throughout the Bottoms are intact remnants of the city’s namesake Barrows (Note: they’re not barrows, but rather above ground crypts, the name ‘barrow’ stuck, however). Most of these crypts have been emptied, given over long ago to the needs of the living. In the Bottoms, it is considered lucky to live in a crypt. The wealthy of the city are trying to direct the city’s growth to engulf a nearby 4th hill (so that they can have a new Top to occupy). Skal’s studio is one of the first buildings on the lower slopes of this new 4th hill. Skal’s studio connects a number of impressive crypts in which he lives, works and entertains.


NPCs
Skal – Red-haired and wild-eyed, Skal is the reclusive and cranky Artist-in-residence to the King and his Court. Skal does portraiture for the city’s well-bred and wealthy. He is notoriously eccentric, requiring that sitters who visit his home endure an exquisite ritual of hospitality and hygiene for each day of the sitting. For most, this is pleasant for a few days and then it quickly grows tiresome. But anyone who wants to have ‘a Skal’ hanging in their salon comply with the strange man’s demands. And everyone wants ‘a Skal.’

Maskim – a soulrider devil who uses Dreamtrap poison to subdue his victims so that he may possess them in safety. Soulriders are foul looking devil parasites that move from victim to victim. Most victims possessed by a soulrider are obvious, but Maskim has mastered the art of staying unseen while occupying a host. As long as he only uses his victim’s powers, he can remain camouflaged.

Manfred – a seaman and smuggler whose friend has gone missing. He approaches the PCs who aren’t sitting for a portrait to enlist their aid in finding his friend Jernin. He is nervous about doing so if he learns that they are guests of the Crown.

Jernin – is another seaman, a friend of Manfred’s. He was attacked, poisoned and abandoned by Maskim. He knows that his body was possessed, though he doesn’t know who did it, and that he – while possessed – attacked some painter (Skal).

“The Crown” – If you haven’t created a Monarch for your PCs’ homeland, then meet King Rodulus VI. His Queen, Vashna, is just oozing with pride over the recently finished ‘Skal’ hanging in the main hall of the royal residence (whether castle or palace) and suggests throwing a gala so that she can show it off. The PCs have done a number of impressive deeds and the King wants to meet them so that he can gauge their character and bring them closer to him either to watch them because they bear watching or to ally with them because they seem aligned with his royal agendas.


Encounters

Non-Combat: Nothing Like a Good Soak
The Bard arrives at Skal’s studio and is greeted by his assistants. He is ushered to a well-appointed sitting room where Skal joins him, showing him a variety of curiosities he’s collected (including a handsome battleaxe). He is entertained, wined, dined. After the pleasantries he is escorted to a bath (if you’re using Barrowdon, the bathhouse is in a crypt and if you think your players/PC won’t bolt, make the vat out of a sarcophagus).

The bath contains hot water and an attendant puts in 3 scoops of strongly scented salts (crystalline Dreamtrap). The attendant will stay or go as the Bard wishes, and if asked to scrub, will do so with a long-handled brush. The attendant doesn’t know about the poison, only that they are under strict orders not to contaminate the Bard’s bathwater. Skal is strange and such orders are not unusual.

The Dreamtrap poison is in the bath and gets 3 attempts to overwhelm the Bard. If the poison is unsuccessful, the Bard may feel a little light-headed (from the heat and steam, of course) and is ushered off to finish the pre-sitting rituals – massage, wardrobe, coiffure. Maskim is in attendance for the wardrobing and hairstyling.

If the Bard succumbs to the poison, Maskim possesses him as soon as possible, displacing the Bard’s soul into a fey dreamscape. (NOTE: If your players or the PCs are suspicious types, make the vat poison-free for the first few sessions, then spring the poison). If the Bard does not succumb to the poison after the third time he is in the vat, then Maskim will attempt to possess him while the Bard is being dressed and then coiffured (the Bard is admonished to ‘Sit still!’ if he attempts to move or look at what is pinching or poking him). The Bard, though he shook off the poison’s effects, is still tainted by the fey poison and when Maskim takes possession of his body, his soul seeks refuge in the fey dreamscape.

NOTE: If you would rather handle this element of the adventure without rolls and it may be more elegant to do so – then do away with them all together. Keep the pleasantries light-hearted an unsuspicious then tell the bathing Bard that he drifts off into a dreamy doze…

…and switch to the other PCs.


Skill Challenge: I Failed the Buddy System
The PCs who are not at Skal’s studio will be approached by a frightened and nervous seaman, Manfred. He is worried about his friend Jernin and is afraid to take the matter to the authorities. He offers a reward, worth 1 treasure parcel, or a service (he’s a smuggler, not a bad friend to have). If the PCs negotiate and outdo Manfred (Difficult DCs) he will offer 2 treasure parcels. He can’t accompany the PCs but directs them to a likely locale to start the search.

Level 8 (Moderate DCs), Complexity 2 (6 successes before 3 failures)

Primary Skills: Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate and Streetwise

Bluff, Diplomacy or Intimidate (easy DCs): Your smooth talking, charm or bullying get you pointed at someone who knows something. Each skill may be used once to generate 1 success per skill. Thereafter Bluff, Diplomacy and Intimidate (hard DCs) may be used to grant +2 to Streetwise checks.

Streetwise (Moderate DCs): You ask around and learn that a man of that description was seen at the Slate & Silk. Once at the Slate & Silk another successful Streetwise check will reveal that Jernin was seen in the warehouse district. Once in the warehouse district, another successful Streetwise check will get the PCs to a specific warehouse unit.

Success: The PCs find Jernin in the warehouse unit, a small, locked facility. If they aren’t able to get him out, Manfred can.

Failure: The PCs find Jernin in the warehouse unit, dead.


Skill Challenge/Combat: Fleeing the Feydream
The Bard awakens standing poised on a blades edge. The blade must be as big as a mountain. The edge curves down and away from him in both directions, straight as a razor. Walls of fire follow the blade on either side and down. Above and behind him, the Bard sees sees Skal’s face wreathed in red, bloody hooked tentacles. Skal is singing one part of a duet that the Bard knows well. Without meaning to the Bard takes up his part of the duet. As soon as he begins singing, he feels a searing pain in his feet and begins sliding forward on the blade away from Skal, leaving a smear of blood behind as he ghosts forward. Scenes of what Maskim-Bard is doing with the Bard’s body flash across the sky.

Level 9 (mostly Moderate DCs), Complexity 1 (4 successes before 3 failures)

Primary Skills: Acrobatics, Arcana, Athletics, Insight

Insight (Moderate DC): Skal’s singing voice is poor, but the Bard attempts to salvage something reasonably pleasant sounding by adjusting his harmony. A successful Insight check earns a +2 bonus to the next check. This bonus can only be granted twice.

Acrobatics (Moderate DC): Flames dart across the blade and the Bard attempts to quickly lean back under them while still balanced on the blade. A successful Acrobatics check earns 1 success. After a success, Acrobatics can no longer be used.

Athletics (Moderate DC): There is a notch in the blade, it will have to be jumped. A successful Athletics check earns 1 success. After a success, Athletics can no longer be used.

Total Success (no failures): Skal’s face falls away, howling his dismay, the fires subside, and the blade turns slowly flat. The Bard comes awake…

Success (up to two failures): Skal’s face roars by and the flames surge in answer. The blade jerks abruptly sideways and the Bard falls down onto the flat of the blade’s surface. The Bard comes awake…

Failure (3 failures): Skal’s face flies forward and knocks the Bard off of the blade, he falls endlessly into the flames, screaming. The Bard comes awake…

…and is a Battleaxe. A Singing Battleaxe (+2). Or possibly a Singing Singing Battleaxe (+3 Singing Battleaxe with an At-Will Scorching Burst). The Bard can feel his attack powers (if he has any) at the ready, but needs to be wielded to bring them to bear. In combat he will have his own initiative, but will not be able to make any Movements.

The Bard is now conscious and aware, but he is trapped in a Battleaxe in Skal’s sitting room. One last call-and-response refrain echoes in his head and the Bard sings out his part. A curious servant sticks her head through the door and blinks before moving away. The Bard can only communicate by singing (Bonus XP to the player that makes a go of roleplaying this). If he calls (sings) for help, Maskim’s servants peer curiously in the door, but will not touch anything.

The Bard is also aware of what Maskim-Bard is seeing and hearing.

From his vantage point he can see the entrance hall of Skal’s studio. He will have a ringside seat for Skal’s arrival pursued by the PCs.


(Optional) Skill Challenge: Dreams and Lightning
The PCs have discovered Jernin in a small warehouse unit. The unit is leased to the merchant that Maskim had possessed on his way into the city. His stash of Dreamtrap is here (Difficult DC to find).

If Jernin is alive, a successful Nature check will reveal that Jernin has been poisoned, a successful Heal check will reveal the same and also that he is in stable condition but is weak in failing health (he needs help fast), a successful Arcana check (trained) will reveal traces of planar magic.

Manfred will ask the PCs to help him take Jernin to a nearby atelier (a wizard or alchemist’s workshop). The apothecary is very curious about Jernin’s condition and offers to help, for a reasonable price, of course (Manfred pays this). In order to help Jernin the PCs must take Dreamtrap while under a ritual that will render them safe for the duration of their foray. Taken under the influence of the ritual, the Dreamtrap is reasonably safe. If the PCs are reluctant, Manfred offers to double his payment (which might mean 4 parcels if the PCs played hardball earlier). If the PCs undergo the ritual and ingest the Dreamtrap, they awaken on the deck of a storm-tossed ship…

…it is cold and the wind is howling. Rain lashes the deck, it stings the eyes (a Perception check reveals the rain as alcohol). A man’s face, looms out of the clouds reaveled in flashes of red lightning that streak from his eyes and mouth (the PCs don’t know it, but it’s the Merchant’s face). Where the lightning strikes the ship erupts in red, grasping tentacles with nasty looking hooked spikes instead of suckers.

Jernin is at the helm, squinting into the gale. He is shouting orders at the PCs.

Level 8 (mostly Moderate DCs), Complexity 1 (4 successes before 3 failures)

Primary Skills: Acrobatics, Athletics, Insight, Nature

Insight or Nature (Hard DC): The PC anticipates Jernins next command and gives a +2 to the next skill check. This bonus can only be granted twice regardless of the skill used.

Acrobatics (Moderate DC): Jernin barks a command to a PC who suddenly finds himself in the rigging. A successful Acrobatics check earns 1 success. After a success, Acrobatics can no longer be used.

Athletics (Moderate DC): Jernin barks a command to a PC who suddenly finds himself at a winch. A successful Athletics check earns 1 success. After a success, Athletics can no longer be used.

Other: Jernin Barks a command for a PC to attack one of the tentacles who suddenly finds himself next to a seething, grasping hooked tentacle armed with a dagger. Basic melee attack vs Moderate DC. This may be used multiple times.

Success: The stormy skies clear and the PCs sail into a cave in the side of a cliff. The cliffside is carved in Skal’s likeness with the mouth of the cave as Skal’s mouth.

Failure: The ship wrecks into a cliff and the wreckage is battered into a cliffside carved with a gargantuan likeness of Skal. Each PCs loses a healing surge.

Jernin wakes and is terribly weak, but is able to reveal that the merchant on his ship paid him in drinks to transport a parcel to a warehouse (where the PCs found him). He felt weird after the drinks and then was stuck on the ship, but still aware of what

Skill Challenge: On the Devil’s Tail
After helping (or not helping) Jernin and Manfred, the PCs are on their way to their next destination when they see the Bard out and about. This is Maskim-Bard. He spots the PCs and flees with the PCs (presumably) in pursuit. The PCs chase Maskim-Bard across the city to Skal’s studio. This skill challenge is the Urban Chase from the DMG, pg 78.

Level 10 (mostly Moderate DCs), Complexity 3 (8 successes before 3 failures)

Total Success: If the PCs succeed in chasing Maskim-Bard without a single failure, they are hot on his heels as he enters Skal’s studio.

For each Failure: Add an additional Legion Devil Hellguard to The Horns of a Dilemma to represent the extra time Maskim had to prepare his minions.


Combat: The Horns of a Dilemma
In this encounter the PCs are facing Maskim-Bard and his devilish and mortal lackeys. Maskim doesn’t want to risk his new body, but he will if it means his life. The PCs are likely to be reluctant to seriously injure their friend (but remember that a killing blow can be rendered non-lethal at the option of the PC making the attack). The relative success of the PCs in On the Devil’s Tale will determine the level of this combat encounter.

Maskim-Bard is not aware of the Bard’s soul in the battleaxe in the sitting room of his studio. The Bard is aware of what Maskim-Bard sees and hears, so he knows the PCs are on their way to the studio. He should probably reveal himself to them then, but he may not. He can only bring his attack powers to bear if wielded by another. Maskim-Bard becomes aware of the Singing Battleaxe, he will attempt to keep it from the PCs, but really, the axe should fall into PCs hands.

The final battle takes place in Skal’s actual studio amidst canvasses and tables and a surprising amount of space.

The Enemies 2150 XP – 2600 XP

Maskim-Bard - Soulrider Devil Bard, Level 11 Atrillery, 750 XP (see below)
Succubus, Level 9 Controller, 400 XP
Cambion x2, Level 8 Brute, 350 XP each
Legion Devil Hellguard x2, Level 11 Minion, 150 XP each

For each failure in On the Devil’s tail add 1 Legion Devil Hellguard.


Skill Challenge: Fallen on Bard Times
If the PCs are successful in defeating Maskim-Bard they now have to decide whether to reunite the Bard’s body with the Bard’s soul. If they decide to do so (after extorting something from the Bard of course).

The PCs (Bard included) enter the dream and are falling. Falling, falling. Surrounded by burning smoke, flame and the shattered remains of the Singing Battleaxe.

The Skill challenge involves collecting shard of the Bard’s soul and dodging the shattered giant battleaxe debris, also using that debris to hide behind when storms occur in the dreamscape. See http://www.penny-arcade.com/2009/8/3/”]Gabe’s Free Fall Rules for how this should play out.

Success: The PCs alight on the earth and the battleaxe debris lands gently around them. It forms up into into a battleaxe once more before disintegrating into a glowing ball the flows into the Bard. The PCs… awaken…

Failure: The PCs hit with a terrible impact and lose 1/2 of their remaining healing surges and are dazed until the next day. The PCs awaken…
…and it’s all over. And it wasn’t just a dream at all.


Concluding the Adventure
The PCs may wish to find and help Skal, they may also wish to find and help the Merchant if they can. The King would like Skal returned to himself. The PCs are allowed to keep the Battleaxe and the King commissions a tale or song from the Bard about the whole thing. And then there’s another party, at which Skal requests to do a proper portrait of all of PCs. For free.


Further Adventures
Major Quest – Find and Recover the Bard’s body (if Maskim flees while still in possession)
Minor Quest – Find and Save Skal (if the PCs care Skal is still alive somewhere in the studio (The Bard knows where, because he remembers seeing where Maskim-Bard stashed Skal.
Minor Quest – Find and Save the Merchant (if the PCs learn and care, the Merchant may still be alive somewhere on Skal’s property or somewhere in the city.


Dreamtrap
This is a relatively obscure poison of extraplanar origin (the Feywild) that saps its victim’s ability to shake off its effects. It has been reported to transport its victims to dreamscapes within the Feywild itself
(and always does so when a soulrider successfully attacks a victim). Dreamtrap has a strong flavor and odor, so is most effectively administered as a contact poison or, as Maskim has discovered, a soothing bath salt. Administered in this way, Dreamtrap may make 3 attempts to poison its victim.

The plant, Dreamwort, can be smoked or ingested in small quantities to produce mild euphoric and psychedelic effects.

Dreamtrap; Level 10 Poison
Distilled from the Dreamwort plant that grows in the Feywild, this poison induces a mild sleepy euphoria that deepens until the victim falls unconscious.
Poison; 1,250 gp
Attack: +13 vs. Fortitude; the target takes a –2 penalty to Saves (save ends).
First Failed Save: The target is weakened and the Save penalty increases to -4 (save ends).
Second Failed Save: The target falls unconscious for and experiences vivid dreams of the Feywild.

Soulrider Devil Skal
(see attached picture)


Soulrider Devil Bard
Use the Bard PC’s abilities and powers. Add the Black Chill Blast, Acid Flame, Soulrider Sacrifice and Fey Step as above.

Unatached Soulrider Devil
(see Dragon 370, pg 43)

Ingredients
Artist Studio
· The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing’s home base; site of the Vat of Poison and the portrait sitting
· The atelier (the workshop of a wizard or alchemist) where the PCs learn of a ritual that will let them attempt to enter the fey dreamscape and attempt to navigate a Dream Sequence to rescue a Dreamtrap victim
Dream Sequence
· The PCs’ attempt to rescue Jernin, Skal and/or the Bard
· The Bard’s skill challenge to escape the fey dreamscape into the Singing Battleaxe
Frightened Seaman
· Manfred is part of crew of smuggling vessel that delivered illicit shipment of poison (and unwittingly, the soulrider); he is frightened of being found out by authorities
· Manfred’s friend Jernin has disappeared, he’s afraid for his friend
Singing Battleaxe
· Battleaxe with PC inside
o The PC can only communicate by singing
o Also, if the PC is very successful in his skill challenge, he gets ‘singe’ powers
Vat of Poison
· Spa treatment that is laced with Dreamtrap so that Maskim can possess his victims.
Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
· Maskim is a soulrider devil who masquerades as a normal citizen


*If a Bard is not available, a PC with fiery powers or a fiery personality will suffice (preferably one whose class doesn’t focus on Fortitude, like a Cleric, Warlock or Wizard) and especially one who can be bribed with the finer things in life.

 

[Nifft]

Let's start with ingredient use.

Artist Studio: Iron Sky's studio is part of the setting, and the visual images brought back from the dreams help the PCs decide where to go, so there is some artist-ness in it. Sparky's studio is a plot hook, and could be replaced with something else that serves as a luxurious lure. Edge to Iron Sky.

Vat of Poison: Very creative poison use by Iron Sky, but that little tankard doesn't sound much like a vat, dreamscape physics notwithstanding. Sparky nailed this one. Edge to Sparky.

Frightened Seaman: Both are certainly frightened, but Iron Sky's sailor has only some minor window dressing for his sailor-ness: his essential, irreplaceable quality is that of a smuggler. Sparky's sailor is also a smuggler, but the skill challenge to rescue him is decisively nautical (though it's also a series of orders barked by an NPC, which I dislike, but that's neither here nor there). Edge to Sparky.

Dream Sequence: Good use to both here, though some of Sparky's best dreams may not see use if the PCs aren't good at Streetwise. The sequence of dreams dreamt up by Iron Sky, though, are superb. You've managed to capture the cool parts of a Groundhog Day effect, but quick and simple enough that it's not going to annoy the players. Point to Iron Sky.

Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: Sparky, you've put a predator in an innocuous form. That's good. Iron Sky, you've put a wolf the wool of a sheep. That's better. Point to Iron Sky.

Singing Battleaxe: Both are tolerable. Neither has much "axe-ness" to it, but the singing-ness is fine. Iron Sky, I was worried yours would only be used as a plot-point, but it's also used as a dream-clue, so that's fine. The tree-wife's personality Sparky, the "singe" thing is clever, but I don't see how it ties in to anything that "sing" didn't already cover. Neither is perfect, but I liked Sparky's a little better, while I felt Iron Sky's was better connected to the other ingredients. Point to Sparky.


Now, on to usability. Iron Sky, let me again say that the dream sequence was simple enough to be utterly usable. Sparky, your scenario relied on the players willingly splitting the party, and their reward is having the Bard possessed by a critter that will kill him dead as a minor action, no save. [sblock]Soulrider Sacrifice (minor; at-will)
The soulrider devil takes 10 damage and recharges black clill blast or acid flame. If the soulrider devil would be killed by this damage, it instead kills its host and becomes unattached (see the stat block above), and it shifts 3 squares as a free action.[/sblock]

Sparky, your dream scenarios lead to some interesting skill challenges, but they require player buy-in to doing some risky stuff... essentially, from the player's perspective, you ask them to submit to the same treatment that the Bard underwent when he lost his body. You're asking for a certain trust, when you just punished someone for that exact trust.

Once again, mandatory splitting of party, compounded making the Bard sit out until the big fight, when he may or may not be noticed.


In terms of plot, I'd've liked to see more ambiguity from Iron Sky's Artisan vs. Wolfang setup, but there's nothing really lacking in the scenario. Sparky, though: what happened to Skal? Why did the devil want the Bard's body, and if it was a creature well practiced at stealing bodies, why didn't it have a plan for coping with his allies?


Evocative writing: both were good, especially the dream sequences. Sparky, I felt a lot of evocation in the air around your city & crypts, but those weren't ingredients, so some of your better writing went without credit there. (Not that I won't steal from it -- because I will -- just that it won't help you in this round's judgment.)


This round goes to Iron Sky, for great ingredient use, good connectivity, and a very usable scenario.

 

[Nifft]

Round 3, Match 1 - Wulf Ratbane vs. InVinoVeritas

Exhumed Grave
Tail End
Unmentionable Services
Unhappy Goatherd
Cross-Eyed Beholder
Gloves of Arrow Snaring

 

[Iron Sky]

<Had the wrong window open when I tried to reply to another thread, ignore this>