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<blockquote data-quote="Thasmodious" data-source="post: 4969894" data-attributes="member: 63272"><p style="text-align: center"><strong><span style="color: DarkRed">Master of Puppets </span></strong></p><p> A site-based adventure for 4-6 mid to high Paragon tier PCs. </p><p> Notes on the Presentation: This is mostly a site driven adventure, not a plot driven one. It is intended for the PCs to have different avenues to complete the adventure and the DM is encouraged to flesh out various areas of the city for the PCs to explore, rewarding them with information and clues that can help them when they finally confront the villain. Notes on expanding the adventure are covered under the relevant sections below.</p><p> </p><p> <strong>Background</strong></p><p> Ley lines spread across the world, binding all things together. Great magical power exists where these lines meet and cross. At some of these intersections grow the First Trees, the World Trees, which bear the Fruit of Life and root the conterminous planes. It is at such an intersection that the Eladrin city of Tir Tara was raised, a sacred First Tree at the city's very heart. Ancient texts speak of the Crystal City as a hall of learning, a jewel of the Feywild. For centuries scholars from the mortal races were welcomed within its sacred halls and the city was a testament of peaceful cooperation between elves, Eladrin and the mortal races. Then, inexplicably, the city disappeared, as if torn from the world. The fate of Tir Tara remains one of the great mysteries of the Age. The site where the city stood remains a blight across the parallel planes of the Feywild, the Shadowfell and the material world. No plant or living creature can thrive there and every effort to restore the once hallowed ground has failed. Worse, a foul taint lies at the heart of where Tir Tara once stood, spreading its corruption slowly along the ancient ley lines that was once the source of the city's ancient and powerful magic, birthing aberrations and other nightmares and twisting the natural order. </p><p> </p><p> <strong>DM Background – the Fate of Tir Tara</strong></p><p> The fate of Tir Tara is a secret known only to the denizens that have been trapped within the city since its doom. A number of the city's prominent citizens fell under the thrall of the Illithid Malfannen. With pawns in place, he replaced the mayor of the city and took possession of the Mace of the First Willow, the artifact of rulership. Corrupting it and poisoning the sacred First Tree with foul, aberrant arcane rituals, he severed the tree and the city bound to it from the natural world. Tir Tara exists beyond space and time, the tree rooting it to the Far Realm and twisting everything within its borders. Malfannen sees this as an eternal paradise where he rules as a god and the people of the city are his thralls, slaves and playthings. </p><p> </p><p> <span style="color: Orange">The skeleton plot of this adventure is summarized below:</span></p><p> <span style="color: Orange">1. The PCs meet Aradon and agree to help</span></p><p> <span style="color: Orange">2. The PCs travel to Sigil and seek out the portal to Tir Tara</span></p><p> <span style="color: Orange">3. The PCs face a nightmarish journey to reach their destination.</span></p><p> <span style="color: Orange">4. The PCs explore the city and attempt to solve its mysteries.</span></p><p> <span style="color: Orange">5. The PCs confront Malfannen at the corrupted heart of the city.</span></p><p> </p><p> <u><strong>The Hook</strong></u></p><p> For centuries Aradon, the former mayor of Tir Tara, was tormented into madness as the plaything of Malfannen. When Malfannen grew bored of him, Aradon was imprisoned and forgotten. He escaped and found a way out of the city, a portal to Sigil, City of Doors. From there, he found his way back to the material plane. Even insane, Aradon feels the connection to the ancient city at his core and will do anything to wrest it from the clutches of the Ilithid. He has spent some time gathering fruit from another of the First Trees (he has 20 pieces). He believes these can restore the poisoned tree at the heart of the city. He comes to the PCs for help in one of the following ways:</p><p> 1. If the group has any elves or Eladrin (or other fey origin), Aradon has learned of these powerful heroes and sought them out to aid him. He can approach the party in a town or, more likely, the wilderness. If the PCs are already involved in planar adventures, he could seek them out in Sigil. Any PC with a connection to the fey knows the background presented above with a successful (easy) Knowledge: Arcane check.</p><p> 2. If the group has no PCs of fey origins, the meeting is more random, but Aradon can see the PCs are powerful and tries to enlist their aid. Here he would be most likely to find them in Sigil or stumble upon them in the wilderness. </p><p> </p><p> If the PCs agree to help, or follow out of curiosity, he will lead them first to Sigil, then to Tir Tara. If the PCs do not have the means to reach Sigil, Aradon can lead them to a site that does. This could be a nice side-trek itself. The PCs may have to negotiate with a cabal of druids guarding an ancient grove, or traverse a dangerous cavern to reach the portal. </p><p> </p><p> <strong>Roleplaying Aradon</strong></p><p> The former mayor has been driven insane by centuries of torment. He babbles incessantly, his flies wildly from mood to mood, raging in anger one moment and whimpering in fear the next. The scariest moments are those of complete sobriety. For short moments of time, he appears rational, explaining parts of what happened and pleading with the PCs to save his (or their) people from their horrible fate, before crying or breaking into some mad song. His ramblings can provide a number of clues to the PCs and help nudge them in the right direction when needed during parts of the adventure.</p><p> </p><p> <u><strong>The City of Doors and the Stellar Pathway</strong></u></p><p> Once in Sigil, the PCs can take the time to buy equipment or explore the city. The time spent in Sigil can be as short or long as the DM wishes. Aradon could lead them straight to the location of the door or they could face some challenges along the way. They might lose Aradon and engage in a skill challenge to chase after him as he bounds madly through the city. The door they need may have guardians or puzzles that need to be overcome. </p><p> </p><p> Eventually, they arrive at a black, rune covered door tucked away at the end of a dark alley in some near abandoned corner of the city. The magical runes shift and writhe and a mad whispering tugs at the edges of the PCs’ consciousness. Aradon explains in riddle that they have to consume a piece of the fruit he gathered from a First Tree to be able to enter the portal (so they are connected to the First Trees, including the poisoned one). The fruit is powerfully magical and a PC consuming the fruit gains the benefits of an extended rest. Consuming the fruit also grants Aradon a moment of lucidity, where he explains in flat, deadened terms the horrors that await the PCs on the other side of the portal. He gives them each another piece of fruit, warns that it won’t have the same effect on them again, and tells them he thinks it is the key to curing the First Tree.</p><p> </p><p> <strong>Stargate Jump</strong></p><p> The PCs are hurtled seemingly beyond the cosmos, sights and sounds both beautiful and nightmarish flash past them as if they were falling through an expansive tunnel. Maddening, impossible monsters seem to coalesce out of nothing or float through the cosmos devouring worlds. The journey seems like it may never end, like they may fall forever when they see that they have gained the notice of a menagerie of nightmarish creatures. </p><p> </p><p> <strong>Face the Things That Should Not Be</strong></p><p> The DM should build an encounter with level appropriate aberrant creatures of impossible shapes (gibbering mouthers, chuuls, carrion crawlers, etc., but more warped). There are two facets to this encounter – a maddening, alien battlefield (the fight takes place in a shifting 3D environment) and the combat itself. The PCs feel as if they are hurtling across the cosmos, yet their ability to maneuver in this environment is limited. At the start of the encounter, when initiative is rolled the PCs are limited by the following negative effects:</p><p> * ½ movement rate, no double moves.</p><p> * No action point use.</p><p> * -2 to all physical actions, attacks, and damage.</p><p> </p><p> By engaging their environment (initiating a skill challenge) they can try to overcome these limitations. This skill challenge runs concurrently with the combat, a PC can use their actions to fight or to try and advance the challenge. The SC is a complexity 2 (6 successes before 3 failures) utilizing their physical skills to overcome and master the alien physics of the battleground or their knowledge and mental skills to perceive the impossible geometry. Any critical hits scored during an attack count as a success in the skill challenge, scoring such a hit results from the PC gaining a bit of control in the confusing melee and delivering a perfect strike. Success ends the negative effects, failure does not. Aradon fights alongside the PCs and shouts puzzling encouragement or advice on how to deal with the twisted battlefield. When the fight ends, everything suddenly stops and the PCs are standing in a luxurious bedroom, with beautiful, but darkly twisted crystalline architecture. They have arrived in Tir Tara in the bedroom of an anonymous, and abandoned manse. Aradon cackles insanely then shrieks in fear and runs off into the perpetual night. If the PCs give chase, they quickly lose him. </p><p> </p><p> <span style="color: DarkRed"><u><strong>The Mad City of Tir Tara</strong></u></span></p><p> The city was once a glorious example of fey craftsmanship, its buildings worked from crystal structures rising from the grown, blended flawlessly with wood and stone. It was a magnificent sight. Now, its architecture has been twisted into a nightmarish mirror of its former self, the crystal is black and twisted, darkness pulsing from its depths, the stonework cracked and menacing, the wood twisted and rotting. The city is cloaked in a devilish fog that seems to be trying to coalesce into impossible shapes and take form. Everywhere in the city, the PCs are followed by insane whisperings. The servants of Malfannen walk the streets – elf and Eladrin thralls, foulspawn, and other creatures. </p><p> </p><p> The city is rife with adventuring possibilities and the DM can spend as little or as much time letting the PCs explore the city as he likes. If the DM wishes to advance towards the end, Aladon can return and guide the PCs to some degree or if the PCs state their intention to find the First Tree and try and solve the puzzle, a skill challenge could stand in for a slower paced exploration of the city, with success leading them to their desired location and failure leaving them lost, down a dead end and faced with some foulspawn intent of bringing them to Malfannen. Some ideas for exploring the city:</p><p> * The PCs explore ancient libraries. If they can overcome the challenges and decipher the twisted, maddening lore, they can learn some of the secrets of the city, the First Tree, or the Mace, and get clues to how to restore them.</p><p> * The PCs could meet a group of rebels trying to oppose Malfannen and reclaim the city.</p><p> * They could tangle with a cabal of lesser mind flayers and their minions and find a secret pathway to the heart of the city.</p><p> * The PCs could try and uncover some of the ancient magic of the Eladrin, finding some deep treasure trove or repository of ritual magics.</p><p> </p><p> <u><strong>At the Heart of the Matter</strong></u></p><p> Eventually, the PCs will confront Malfannen and attempt to solve the puzzle of the city. This final encounter can be approached from a number of different avenues with a number of different outcomes.</p><p> </p><p> <strong>Tatharen Mintaurë (Willow of the First Forest)</strong></p><p> The sacred First Willow and the heart of Tir Tara. Everything in the city is bound to the tree, as it is to them. The tree defends itself with powerful guardians and as a last resort can uproot itself and fight as a treant. Malfannen poisoned the tree, using that connection to corrupt the city itself. The fruit the tree once bore, healing, restorative, magical, became black and twisted, and Malfannen used the poisonous fruit to extend his dominion over the denizens of the city, as any who consume it become thralls to the one who wields the corrupted mace. </p><p> </p><p> <strong>Sapling Puppets</strong></p><p> When threatened, the First Trees have a powerful defense. The tree twists its own branches and foliage around a piece of the trees fruit into the shape of a creature. These saplings act as puppets of the tree, tethered and controlled by long vines that extend from the upper reaches of the tree . </p><p> * Tree can create up to 20 such guardians at a time. 5 can be unleashed the first round the tree is threatened. 1d4+1 each round after. Any guardians slain can be replaced, up to the maximum of 20 and at the rate stated above</p><p> * Must remain within 50’ of its tree</p><p> * Resistant to all forms of damage except magical fire</p><p> * Critical hits with magic items or spells strikes the heart of the creature (the fruit), and destroys that guardian. Puppets killed in this manner cannot be replaced. </p><p> *The malicious saplings will converge on a downed foe and tear it to pieces, attacking until the enemy is thoroughly dead.</p><p> </p><p> <strong>Pauren Mintathar (Mace of the First Willow)</strong></p><p> Carved from the wood of the sacred willow tree that grew at the heart of Tir Tara and infused with life from its sacred fruit, Pauren Mintathar is an artifact of the ancient Feywild. It is inexorably bound to the willow and has always been wielded by the mayors of Tir Tara, binding the sacred tree to the city and its people. To corrupt the mace, Malfannen fed the artifact with Eladrin blood through ritual sacrifice. With it, he is bound to and master of the tree, and its guardians. The corrupted artifact feeds on blood now and has a twisted set of powers:</p><p> * Crit on 19-20</p><p> * Crit deals maximum damage and drains 1d3 healing surges from the target. If the target is out of healing surges, it deals extra damage equal to the healing surge value of the target.</p><p> * A creature slain by the mace becomes a thrall to its wielder in 1d4 rounds, with ¼ hit points.</p><p> </p><p> <strong>Malfannen</strong></p><p> The Ilithid can sense when the tree is threatened and, bound to it, can teleport from anywhere within the city to its base as a free action. Facing organized foes in this location, Malfannen fights to kill and enslave and does not toy with his opponents. He will fight to the death to protect his paradise as long as the city remains as it is. If the PCs manage to begin to heal the city, Malfannen will flee when he feels he is bested. He is master of this place and it bows to his influence in any number of ways. The DM should give him dramatically appropriate bonuses or abilities to simulate this effect.</p><p> </p><p> <strong>Aradon</strong></p><p> If he is not with the PCs now, he shows up at a dramatically appropriate moment, lending some aid, shouting cryptic hints, bearing more fruit, or trying to wrest the mace from Malfannens hands. </p><p> </p><p> <strong>The Fight for the City</strong></p><p> Tatharen Mintaurë stands at the center of a ring of crystal arches in a wide courtyard inside the Palace that was once the seat of the nobles of the city. The tree is huge and can be seen from a number of vantage points around the city. The Tree will defend itself when approached by anyone not under the control of Malfannen and the mind flayer will come to its defense as well. The fight will be shaped by the PCs actions:</p><p> </p><p> * If they can wrest the mace away from Malfannen it can be restored to its full glory by “feeding” it one of the fresh fruits Aradon had gathered. The change takes a round as Pauren Mintathar emerges from its corrupted slumber. It allows itself to be wielded by the PC who healed it, or any elf or Eladrin in the party. Once healed, it begins to restore the First Tree, a process that will take 5 rounds (as if feeding the fruit to the tree, see below for effects). As itself, it grants these powers to its wielder:</p><p> -The sapling guardians will not attack the wielder</p><p> -A hit with the mace scores an automatic critical to any aberrant creatures (it does not drain) </p><p> -An enthralled creature struck by the mace will be freed from this state</p><p> -The mace can be used as an implement by the wielder, regardless of what he normally uses</p><p> </p><p> *Fighting the First Tree</p><p> If the Trees guardians are all defeated or Malfannen slain without the mace being restored, the Tree will uproot itself and fight as a Blackroot Treant, wielding the corrupted mace. The Tree fights to the death in this form, but will still consume fruits if offered. The fruit has the same effect on the treant as it does its guardians (see below)</p><p> </p><p> *Healing the First Tree</p><p> If a PC reaches the base of the tree and offers a piece of the fresh fruit to the tree, it will consume it and the tree will begin to heal. </p><p> 1st piece – the guardians become slowed</p><p> 2nd piece – the guardians become weakened and immobilized</p><p> 3rd piece – the guardians collapse, the corrupted fruit rots and falls from the tree</p><p> 4th piece – the tree is restored and transforms in the space of a round to its former glory. </p><p> Once restored, the tree builds new guardians to fight with its healers and the mace is restored the following round, falling from Malfannens hands. It can be wielded by a PC, as above.</p><p> </p><p> <span style="color: DarkRed"><u>Resolution</u></span></p><p> If the PCs are victorious, Tir Tara is restored to the material planes, and the Fey Court recognizes and rewards the PCs as heroes as they lay plans to rebuild and restore the once great city. The fate of the denizens of Tir Tara depends on the manner in which the PCs are victorious. If they heal the mace and the tree, the citizens are freed from their nightmares, although many of them are insane from centuries of torment. Healers will be able to help many of them. If the PCs instead slay both Malfannen and the corrupted First Tree, every resident of the city dies. They are bound to the fate of the tree. This includes Malfannen if he was not slain before the tree. The loss of life is terrible and leaves the PCs scarred in some way (up to the DM), but the Eladrin are grateful nonetheless that the torment of their kin has ended and a hole in the natural world has been restored. A new tree begins to grow at the heart of Tir Tara. </p><p> </p><p> <strong>Ingredient recap:</strong></p><p> Evil Puppets: the sapling guardians. Also, the mind flayers thralls (although not evil, but mindless)</p><p> Stellar Pathway: the nightmarish passage to the city</p><p> Mace of Blood: the corrupted artifact feeds on blood now</p><p> Critical Hits: several uses – a success in the skill challenge in the Pathway, the only way to destroy a guardian from the tree, an ability of the mace both in its corrupted and restored forms</p><p> Magic fruit – the fruit of the First Trees – used by the PCs to link themselves to the line and so navigate the passage to the city, also used to restore the tree or the mace. The corrupted fruit was used to extend the mind flayers dominion of the city</p><p> Elvish mayor – serves as the hook and guide to the adventure, fights with the PCs to save the city.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Thasmodious, post: 4969894, member: 63272"] [CENTER][B][COLOR=DarkRed]Master of Puppets [/COLOR][/B][/CENTER] A site-based adventure for 4-6 mid to high Paragon tier PCs. Notes on the Presentation: This is mostly a site driven adventure, not a plot driven one. It is intended for the PCs to have different avenues to complete the adventure and the DM is encouraged to flesh out various areas of the city for the PCs to explore, rewarding them with information and clues that can help them when they finally confront the villain. Notes on expanding the adventure are covered under the relevant sections below. [B]Background[/B] Ley lines spread across the world, binding all things together. Great magical power exists where these lines meet and cross. At some of these intersections grow the First Trees, the World Trees, which bear the Fruit of Life and root the conterminous planes. It is at such an intersection that the Eladrin city of Tir Tara was raised, a sacred First Tree at the city's very heart. Ancient texts speak of the Crystal City as a hall of learning, a jewel of the Feywild. For centuries scholars from the mortal races were welcomed within its sacred halls and the city was a testament of peaceful cooperation between elves, Eladrin and the mortal races. Then, inexplicably, the city disappeared, as if torn from the world. The fate of Tir Tara remains one of the great mysteries of the Age. The site where the city stood remains a blight across the parallel planes of the Feywild, the Shadowfell and the material world. No plant or living creature can thrive there and every effort to restore the once hallowed ground has failed. Worse, a foul taint lies at the heart of where Tir Tara once stood, spreading its corruption slowly along the ancient ley lines that was once the source of the city's ancient and powerful magic, birthing aberrations and other nightmares and twisting the natural order. [B]DM Background – the Fate of Tir Tara[/B] The fate of Tir Tara is a secret known only to the denizens that have been trapped within the city since its doom. A number of the city's prominent citizens fell under the thrall of the Illithid Malfannen. With pawns in place, he replaced the mayor of the city and took possession of the Mace of the First Willow, the artifact of rulership. Corrupting it and poisoning the sacred First Tree with foul, aberrant arcane rituals, he severed the tree and the city bound to it from the natural world. Tir Tara exists beyond space and time, the tree rooting it to the Far Realm and twisting everything within its borders. Malfannen sees this as an eternal paradise where he rules as a god and the people of the city are his thralls, slaves and playthings. [COLOR=Orange]The skeleton plot of this adventure is summarized below:[/COLOR] [COLOR=Orange]1. The PCs meet Aradon and agree to help[/COLOR] [COLOR=Orange]2. The PCs travel to Sigil and seek out the portal to Tir Tara[/COLOR] [COLOR=Orange]3. The PCs face a nightmarish journey to reach their destination.[/COLOR] [COLOR=Orange]4. The PCs explore the city and attempt to solve its mysteries.[/COLOR] [COLOR=Orange]5. The PCs confront Malfannen at the corrupted heart of the city.[/COLOR] [U][B]The Hook[/B][/U] For centuries Aradon, the former mayor of Tir Tara, was tormented into madness as the plaything of Malfannen. When Malfannen grew bored of him, Aradon was imprisoned and forgotten. He escaped and found a way out of the city, a portal to Sigil, City of Doors. From there, he found his way back to the material plane. Even insane, Aradon feels the connection to the ancient city at his core and will do anything to wrest it from the clutches of the Ilithid. He has spent some time gathering fruit from another of the First Trees (he has 20 pieces). He believes these can restore the poisoned tree at the heart of the city. He comes to the PCs for help in one of the following ways: 1. If the group has any elves or Eladrin (or other fey origin), Aradon has learned of these powerful heroes and sought them out to aid him. He can approach the party in a town or, more likely, the wilderness. If the PCs are already involved in planar adventures, he could seek them out in Sigil. Any PC with a connection to the fey knows the background presented above with a successful (easy) Knowledge: Arcane check. 2. If the group has no PCs of fey origins, the meeting is more random, but Aradon can see the PCs are powerful and tries to enlist their aid. Here he would be most likely to find them in Sigil or stumble upon them in the wilderness. If the PCs agree to help, or follow out of curiosity, he will lead them first to Sigil, then to Tir Tara. If the PCs do not have the means to reach Sigil, Aradon can lead them to a site that does. This could be a nice side-trek itself. The PCs may have to negotiate with a cabal of druids guarding an ancient grove, or traverse a dangerous cavern to reach the portal. [B]Roleplaying Aradon[/B] The former mayor has been driven insane by centuries of torment. He babbles incessantly, his flies wildly from mood to mood, raging in anger one moment and whimpering in fear the next. The scariest moments are those of complete sobriety. For short moments of time, he appears rational, explaining parts of what happened and pleading with the PCs to save his (or their) people from their horrible fate, before crying or breaking into some mad song. His ramblings can provide a number of clues to the PCs and help nudge them in the right direction when needed during parts of the adventure. [U][B]The City of Doors and the Stellar Pathway[/B][/U] Once in Sigil, the PCs can take the time to buy equipment or explore the city. The time spent in Sigil can be as short or long as the DM wishes. Aradon could lead them straight to the location of the door or they could face some challenges along the way. They might lose Aradon and engage in a skill challenge to chase after him as he bounds madly through the city. The door they need may have guardians or puzzles that need to be overcome. Eventually, they arrive at a black, rune covered door tucked away at the end of a dark alley in some near abandoned corner of the city. The magical runes shift and writhe and a mad whispering tugs at the edges of the PCs’ consciousness. Aradon explains in riddle that they have to consume a piece of the fruit he gathered from a First Tree to be able to enter the portal (so they are connected to the First Trees, including the poisoned one). The fruit is powerfully magical and a PC consuming the fruit gains the benefits of an extended rest. Consuming the fruit also grants Aradon a moment of lucidity, where he explains in flat, deadened terms the horrors that await the PCs on the other side of the portal. He gives them each another piece of fruit, warns that it won’t have the same effect on them again, and tells them he thinks it is the key to curing the First Tree. [B]Stargate Jump[/B] The PCs are hurtled seemingly beyond the cosmos, sights and sounds both beautiful and nightmarish flash past them as if they were falling through an expansive tunnel. Maddening, impossible monsters seem to coalesce out of nothing or float through the cosmos devouring worlds. The journey seems like it may never end, like they may fall forever when they see that they have gained the notice of a menagerie of nightmarish creatures. [B]Face the Things That Should Not Be[/B] The DM should build an encounter with level appropriate aberrant creatures of impossible shapes (gibbering mouthers, chuuls, carrion crawlers, etc., but more warped). There are two facets to this encounter – a maddening, alien battlefield (the fight takes place in a shifting 3D environment) and the combat itself. The PCs feel as if they are hurtling across the cosmos, yet their ability to maneuver in this environment is limited. At the start of the encounter, when initiative is rolled the PCs are limited by the following negative effects: * ½ movement rate, no double moves. * No action point use. * -2 to all physical actions, attacks, and damage. By engaging their environment (initiating a skill challenge) they can try to overcome these limitations. This skill challenge runs concurrently with the combat, a PC can use their actions to fight or to try and advance the challenge. The SC is a complexity 2 (6 successes before 3 failures) utilizing their physical skills to overcome and master the alien physics of the battleground or their knowledge and mental skills to perceive the impossible geometry. Any critical hits scored during an attack count as a success in the skill challenge, scoring such a hit results from the PC gaining a bit of control in the confusing melee and delivering a perfect strike. Success ends the negative effects, failure does not. Aradon fights alongside the PCs and shouts puzzling encouragement or advice on how to deal with the twisted battlefield. When the fight ends, everything suddenly stops and the PCs are standing in a luxurious bedroom, with beautiful, but darkly twisted crystalline architecture. They have arrived in Tir Tara in the bedroom of an anonymous, and abandoned manse. Aradon cackles insanely then shrieks in fear and runs off into the perpetual night. If the PCs give chase, they quickly lose him. [COLOR=DarkRed][U][B]The Mad City of Tir Tara[/B][/U][/COLOR] The city was once a glorious example of fey craftsmanship, its buildings worked from crystal structures rising from the grown, blended flawlessly with wood and stone. It was a magnificent sight. Now, its architecture has been twisted into a nightmarish mirror of its former self, the crystal is black and twisted, darkness pulsing from its depths, the stonework cracked and menacing, the wood twisted and rotting. The city is cloaked in a devilish fog that seems to be trying to coalesce into impossible shapes and take form. Everywhere in the city, the PCs are followed by insane whisperings. The servants of Malfannen walk the streets – elf and Eladrin thralls, foulspawn, and other creatures. The city is rife with adventuring possibilities and the DM can spend as little or as much time letting the PCs explore the city as he likes. If the DM wishes to advance towards the end, Aladon can return and guide the PCs to some degree or if the PCs state their intention to find the First Tree and try and solve the puzzle, a skill challenge could stand in for a slower paced exploration of the city, with success leading them to their desired location and failure leaving them lost, down a dead end and faced with some foulspawn intent of bringing them to Malfannen. Some ideas for exploring the city: * The PCs explore ancient libraries. If they can overcome the challenges and decipher the twisted, maddening lore, they can learn some of the secrets of the city, the First Tree, or the Mace, and get clues to how to restore them. * The PCs could meet a group of rebels trying to oppose Malfannen and reclaim the city. * They could tangle with a cabal of lesser mind flayers and their minions and find a secret pathway to the heart of the city. * The PCs could try and uncover some of the ancient magic of the Eladrin, finding some deep treasure trove or repository of ritual magics. [U][B]At the Heart of the Matter[/B][/U] Eventually, the PCs will confront Malfannen and attempt to solve the puzzle of the city. This final encounter can be approached from a number of different avenues with a number of different outcomes. [B]Tatharen Mintaurë (Willow of the First Forest)[/B] The sacred First Willow and the heart of Tir Tara. Everything in the city is bound to the tree, as it is to them. The tree defends itself with powerful guardians and as a last resort can uproot itself and fight as a treant. Malfannen poisoned the tree, using that connection to corrupt the city itself. The fruit the tree once bore, healing, restorative, magical, became black and twisted, and Malfannen used the poisonous fruit to extend his dominion over the denizens of the city, as any who consume it become thralls to the one who wields the corrupted mace. [B]Sapling Puppets[/B] When threatened, the First Trees have a powerful defense. The tree twists its own branches and foliage around a piece of the trees fruit into the shape of a creature. These saplings act as puppets of the tree, tethered and controlled by long vines that extend from the upper reaches of the tree . * Tree can create up to 20 such guardians at a time. 5 can be unleashed the first round the tree is threatened. 1d4+1 each round after. Any guardians slain can be replaced, up to the maximum of 20 and at the rate stated above * Must remain within 50’ of its tree * Resistant to all forms of damage except magical fire * Critical hits with magic items or spells strikes the heart of the creature (the fruit), and destroys that guardian. Puppets killed in this manner cannot be replaced. *The malicious saplings will converge on a downed foe and tear it to pieces, attacking until the enemy is thoroughly dead. [B]Pauren Mintathar (Mace of the First Willow)[/B] Carved from the wood of the sacred willow tree that grew at the heart of Tir Tara and infused with life from its sacred fruit, Pauren Mintathar is an artifact of the ancient Feywild. It is inexorably bound to the willow and has always been wielded by the mayors of Tir Tara, binding the sacred tree to the city and its people. To corrupt the mace, Malfannen fed the artifact with Eladrin blood through ritual sacrifice. With it, he is bound to and master of the tree, and its guardians. The corrupted artifact feeds on blood now and has a twisted set of powers: * Crit on 19-20 * Crit deals maximum damage and drains 1d3 healing surges from the target. If the target is out of healing surges, it deals extra damage equal to the healing surge value of the target. * A creature slain by the mace becomes a thrall to its wielder in 1d4 rounds, with ¼ hit points. [B]Malfannen[/B] The Ilithid can sense when the tree is threatened and, bound to it, can teleport from anywhere within the city to its base as a free action. Facing organized foes in this location, Malfannen fights to kill and enslave and does not toy with his opponents. He will fight to the death to protect his paradise as long as the city remains as it is. If the PCs manage to begin to heal the city, Malfannen will flee when he feels he is bested. He is master of this place and it bows to his influence in any number of ways. The DM should give him dramatically appropriate bonuses or abilities to simulate this effect. [B]Aradon[/B] If he is not with the PCs now, he shows up at a dramatically appropriate moment, lending some aid, shouting cryptic hints, bearing more fruit, or trying to wrest the mace from Malfannens hands. [B]The Fight for the City[/B] Tatharen Mintaurë stands at the center of a ring of crystal arches in a wide courtyard inside the Palace that was once the seat of the nobles of the city. The tree is huge and can be seen from a number of vantage points around the city. The Tree will defend itself when approached by anyone not under the control of Malfannen and the mind flayer will come to its defense as well. The fight will be shaped by the PCs actions: * If they can wrest the mace away from Malfannen it can be restored to its full glory by “feeding” it one of the fresh fruits Aradon had gathered. The change takes a round as Pauren Mintathar emerges from its corrupted slumber. It allows itself to be wielded by the PC who healed it, or any elf or Eladrin in the party. Once healed, it begins to restore the First Tree, a process that will take 5 rounds (as if feeding the fruit to the tree, see below for effects). As itself, it grants these powers to its wielder: -The sapling guardians will not attack the wielder -A hit with the mace scores an automatic critical to any aberrant creatures (it does not drain) -An enthralled creature struck by the mace will be freed from this state -The mace can be used as an implement by the wielder, regardless of what he normally uses *Fighting the First Tree If the Trees guardians are all defeated or Malfannen slain without the mace being restored, the Tree will uproot itself and fight as a Blackroot Treant, wielding the corrupted mace. The Tree fights to the death in this form, but will still consume fruits if offered. The fruit has the same effect on the treant as it does its guardians (see below) *Healing the First Tree If a PC reaches the base of the tree and offers a piece of the fresh fruit to the tree, it will consume it and the tree will begin to heal. 1st piece – the guardians become slowed 2nd piece – the guardians become weakened and immobilized 3rd piece – the guardians collapse, the corrupted fruit rots and falls from the tree 4th piece – the tree is restored and transforms in the space of a round to its former glory. Once restored, the tree builds new guardians to fight with its healers and the mace is restored the following round, falling from Malfannens hands. It can be wielded by a PC, as above. [COLOR=DarkRed][U]Resolution[/U][/COLOR] If the PCs are victorious, Tir Tara is restored to the material planes, and the Fey Court recognizes and rewards the PCs as heroes as they lay plans to rebuild and restore the once great city. The fate of the denizens of Tir Tara depends on the manner in which the PCs are victorious. If they heal the mace and the tree, the citizens are freed from their nightmares, although many of them are insane from centuries of torment. Healers will be able to help many of them. If the PCs instead slay both Malfannen and the corrupted First Tree, every resident of the city dies. They are bound to the fate of the tree. This includes Malfannen if he was not slain before the tree. The loss of life is terrible and leaves the PCs scarred in some way (up to the DM), but the Eladrin are grateful nonetheless that the torment of their kin has ended and a hole in the natural world has been restored. A new tree begins to grow at the heart of Tir Tara. [B]Ingredient recap:[/B] Evil Puppets: the sapling guardians. Also, the mind flayers thralls (although not evil, but mindless) Stellar Pathway: the nightmarish passage to the city Mace of Blood: the corrupted artifact feeds on blood now Critical Hits: several uses – a success in the skill challenge in the Pathway, the only way to destroy a guardian from the tree, an ability of the mace both in its corrupted and restored forms Magic fruit – the fruit of the First Trees – used by the PCs to link themselves to the line and so navigate the passage to the city, also used to restore the tree or the mace. The corrupted fruit was used to extend the mind flayers dominion of the city Elvish mayor – serves as the hook and guide to the adventure, fights with the PCs to save the city. [/QUOTE]
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