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<blockquote data-quote="InVinoVeritas" data-source="post: 4974439" data-attributes="member: 41485"><p><span style="color: white"><strong>Devouring the Dragon’s Heart</strong></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: white">An adventure for 4-6 characters of level 2-4, using 3e/3.5e rules. A copy of <em>Draconomicon</em> is recommended. The party is expected not to have strong transport capabilities yet, such as flight or teleportation. Furthermore, the adventure will test the party’s capabilities at survival using more common gear, such as ropes, pitons, and other such equipment. A rogue or other expert climber will be very valuable to the party. At the conclusion of a successful adventure, the party will have a powerful friend who can be a source of future adventures.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: white">The party starts in the coastal village of Balamore. The land offshore is craggy, with lots of islets, odd currents, sea caves, and a large whirlpool on the shore of a small uninhabited rocky island, called Corryvlinthax. </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: white">This can be adjusted to be any coastal location with a rocky shore and low population. </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: white">While the PCs are in town or nearby, they notice what looks like a silvery-golden cloud out over the water. The cloud approaches the shoreline, and it becomes clear that it is a swarm of flying scarabs!</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: white">The beetles involved are hoard scarabs, golden and silver beetles typically living with dragons among their hoard (See <em>Draconomicon</em>). They attack the party, searching for food. The total number of scarabs involved should depend on the party strength; a party at level 2 should face about 10 individual scarabs, while a party at level 4 should face a single hoard scarab swarm. </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: white">Upon defeat of the swarm, it becomes clear that a carrier pigeon was caught by the swarm during the battle as well. The pigeon is carrying a note:</span></p><p> </p><p></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: white">The villagers can tell the party that Galdorrow is an old fisherman who is down on his luck. He can usually be found in the tavern these days, just like now. A grizzled, white-bearded old human with what looks like a perpetual sneer on his face, Galdorrow is surprised at first, not expecting his old friend to be able to pull a group of adventurers together so quickly, but when he is told that his carrier pigeon did not make it, he swears and complains that the beetles are getting stronger. If asked about his “old friend” L, he waves it off, saying that L can’t help now, but the party can.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: white">In truth, Galdorrow is a Young Adult Bronze Dragon. He has always been a homebody among his kind, never having ventured far from his birthplace at Corryvlinthax. Having always been a taciturn sort preferring a quiet life, he has not bothered to learn magical communication techniques or added such items to his hoard. In addition, he stays here to keep guard over the terrible hoard scarab plague at Corryvlinthax. He fears getting too close to the scarabs, but also fears leaving the area and coming back to swarms upon swarms of the beetles devouring everyone and everything.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: white">He invites the party back to his home, an old fishing boat he calls <em>Dragoneye</em>. There, he explains the problem of the beetles, pulling a dead specimen beetle in a jar off the shelf to explain.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: white">Hoard scarabs are typically invited into dragons’ lairs to take up residence among their coins, Galdorrow explains. Their silver and gold carapaces make them blend in well, and since they are supposed to lack the strength to burrow into dragon hide, they are safe, and get their hide cleaned by them as well. But these scarabs are different. He doesn’t know why, but these scarabs are able to burrow into dragon flesh and kill them. That’s where the swarms are coming from—Corryvlinthax, the whirlpool. Corryvlinthax isn’t just a swirling drain next to a rock. It is a dragon. Or, was a dragon. Corryvlinthax worked out a way to keep the swarms from traveling from dragon to dragon and killing them all like a plague. Since the swarms don’t normally leave their host until after it dies, Corryvlinthax combined his transformation into a guardian with a connection to the Elemental Plane of Water. Normally, when a dragon ends his life and becomes a guardian, his body dies and turns into a large expanse of land. However, by shunting off part of his existence to the Plane of Water, he both kept his body alive but extended his existence to infinity. As a result, the scarabs would feast on his body forever, and never harm another dragon—or anything else. Corryvlinthax transformed into a small island, and a whirlpool that extends all the way past the bottom of the sea and into the everlasting ocean.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: white">Since the beetles are now escaping the whirlpool with regularity, Galdorrow needs the party to go down that whirlpool.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: white">Deep inside the whirlpool should be a chamber. Think of the mouth of the whirlpool as the dragon’s mouth, and once down the neck the area should open up before continuing into the depths to infinity. The upper parts of this chamber should be dry and filled with air, as bronze dragons always require a dry living chamber above an underwater entrance. Somewhere in this chamber should be the heart of the dragon, kept alive. Hoard scarabs aim for the heart of their host, so they should be congregating there. The heart needs to be poisoned to destroy the main nest. With the death of the heart, it will kill the rest of the living body of the dragon, but the destruction of the nest of beetles is necessary.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: white">Only recently has Galdorrow found the way to safely get into the chamber. He presents the party with a small box. Inside, there are five feathers. The first feather, he explains, is how to get to the whirlpool. Since the party must head down the whirlpool, no captain will set sail for it and lose their ship. The first feather will transform into a giant swan boat, which can take the party to and down the whirlpool. The second feather will transform into a giant fan—this will both bring the boat to the whirlpool, and disperse any swarms that may emerge from it. The third feather will then save the party’s life. While being sucked down the whirlpool, at the point where the neck meets the body, the boat will scrape against the walls of the downward tunnel. The third feather will act as an anchor, and stop the boat in mid-descent as it scrapes against the hall. The party should be able to climb down into the chamber from there. The fourth feather will poison and destroy the heart. The heart must be cut open and the feather thrust inside. There, it will transform into a giant tree, destroying anything inside the heart. Once this is done, and the beetles’ nest is destroyed, then the last feather can turn into a bird, which will fly out and let him know the beetles are dead. Galdorrow promises to come fetch the party at that time.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: white">The party can take some time to prepare; Corryvlinthax has five vials of alchemist’s fire available, which will prove useful against swarming beetles. Standard equipment from the PHB is available in the village for purchase. If anyone suspects why he has so much knowledge of dragons, he simply says that one can learn a lot listening to local legends for over 60 years.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: white">Travel to Corryvlinthax is as suggested, with the party creating a swan boat and taking it to the whirlpool. While aboard, a cluster of three swarms emerge from the whirlpool and head for whatever food they can find, especially the party. Use of the Fan Token will disperse the swarms, forcing them back into the sea to drown. </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: white">The party must prepare for the trip down the whirlpool. Everyone must find a way to brace themselves to the boat; any party member not tied or otherwise braced to the boat must succeed at a Balance or Tumbling check of DC 25 or be knocked out of the boat, into the water, and fall into the depths. The swan boat enters free fall at this point. There is then a jarring crunch as the boat strikes and slides down the wet, slick walls of the whirlpool neck. All party members must succeed a Balance or Tumbling check of DC 20 or take 2d6 damage from the jostling about. Using the Anchor Token at this point will stop the boat’s descent; they only have two rounds before falling into the chamber below. The Anchor Token will fasten the boat to the wall, allowing party members to climb down into the main chamber. Using knotted ropes and pitons will make the Climb checks easy at this point.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: white">The inside of the chamber resembles the inside of a giant, stone ribcage about 90’ in diameter. The whirlpool becomes a waterfall that descends through the center of the chamber, down about 100’, into a pool 30’ in diameter, which forms another whirlpool which continues its descent to the Elemental Plane of Water. Occasionally, a Water Weird can be seen emerging from the water, but does not attack anything on land. If anyone or anything lands in the pool, the Water Weirds attack and the whirlpool will suck anyone down forever. Also emerging from the pool are a series of glistening, greenish tubes. They lead and connect up to a large, green pendulous pulsating organ about 10’ across and hanging 20’ above the chamber floor—the still-beating heart of the dragon Corryvlinthax.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: white">The chamber is filled with hoard scarabs. They buzz around, and new ones emerge from the tubes by chewing their way out. The tubes fill with water and quickly reseal behind them, healing. The ground is covered with the bodies of dead scarabs, and the air in the chamber has an odd, acidic quality, smelling of chlorine and too many insects. The party must fend off the beetles as someone climbs up to the heart, cuts open a section (The heart has Hardness 2, 5 HP, immune to bludgeoning) and inserts the Tree Token.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: white">Upon insertion of the Tree Token, the tree sprouts into being, poking itself through the walls of the heart and sending it crashing to the floor. Thousands of beetles and larvae incubating in the heart are smashed, and the tree and heart begin to get pulled into the whirlpool. The tree stops its descent by its sheer size. There are still a few beetles around, but it should be easy to dispatch the remaining scarabs without much trouble.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: white">The party should send the Bird Token at this time. After 10 rounds, the chamber begins to fill with water, slowly. The water level will start expanding to fill the floor of the chamber over rounds 11-16, covering an additional 10’ radius per round. Then, the water starts to rise in the chamber at a rate of 1 foot per round. PCs can climb the walls or the tree to stay out of the water. Galdorrow arrives fifteen rounds after the Bird Token is sent. In dragon form, he flies down the whirlpool, introduces himself, thanks the party for their help, and helps them slip into a leather harness he wears to pull the party out of the whirlpool chamber. Any remaining beetles eventually drown.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: white">Galdorrow takes the party to a nearby island. He then explains to the party that Corryvlinthax was his grandfather. Although he is sad that he had to be killed, at least it is to end the menace of the scarabs, and that he can finally rest in peace. He explains that he had been living in Balamore as the guardian to Corryvlinthax, and that he, and all the Bronze Dragons, will regard the party well. He offers them a reward from his hoard (he keeps it on the island). He offers to fly the party back to the mainland at night when he won’t be seen, and return to his simple fisherman’s life, until the Bronze Dragons need the party’s help again.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: white">L (the person Galdorrow was originally trying to contact) can be anyone the DM wishes, from another dragon, to a master wizard, or anything else. Having Galdorrow send the party to L can be the next adventure source and tie into the campaign that the DM has prepared.</span></p><p></p><p><strong><em>Interrupted Communications </em></strong>in the wake of a <em><strong>Beetle Swarm </strong></em>attack lead the party to discover that the beetles are <em><strong>Dragon Slayers </strong></em>feeding off a <em><strong>Still Beating Heart </strong></em>in a <em><strong>Bottomless Pit</strong></em>. The party must use <em><strong>5 Quaal's Feather Tokens </strong></em>to successfully end the beetle menace.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="InVinoVeritas, post: 4974439, member: 41485"] [COLOR=white][B]Devouring the Dragon’s Heart[/B][/COLOR] [COLOR=white]An adventure for 4-6 characters of level 2-4, using 3e/3.5e rules. A copy of [I]Draconomicon[/I] is recommended. The party is expected not to have strong transport capabilities yet, such as flight or teleportation. Furthermore, the adventure will test the party’s capabilities at survival using more common gear, such as ropes, pitons, and other such equipment. A rogue or other expert climber will be very valuable to the party. At the conclusion of a successful adventure, the party will have a powerful friend who can be a source of future adventures.[/COLOR] [COLOR=white]The party starts in the coastal village of Balamore. The land offshore is craggy, with lots of islets, odd currents, sea caves, and a large whirlpool on the shore of a small uninhabited rocky island, called Corryvlinthax. [/COLOR] [COLOR=white]This can be adjusted to be any coastal location with a rocky shore and low population. [/COLOR] [COLOR=white]While the PCs are in town or nearby, they notice what looks like a silvery-golden cloud out over the water. The cloud approaches the shoreline, and it becomes clear that it is a swarm of flying scarabs![/COLOR] [COLOR=white]The beetles involved are hoard scarabs, golden and silver beetles typically living with dragons among their hoard (See [I]Draconomicon[/I]). They attack the party, searching for food. The total number of scarabs involved should depend on the party strength; a party at level 2 should face about 10 individual scarabs, while a party at level 4 should face a single hoard scarab swarm. [/COLOR] [COLOR=white]Upon defeat of the swarm, it becomes clear that a carrier pigeon was caught by the swarm during the battle as well. The pigeon is carrying a note:[/COLOR] [COLOR=white]The villagers can tell the party that Galdorrow is an old fisherman who is down on his luck. He can usually be found in the tavern these days, just like now. A grizzled, white-bearded old human with what looks like a perpetual sneer on his face, Galdorrow is surprised at first, not expecting his old friend to be able to pull a group of adventurers together so quickly, but when he is told that his carrier pigeon did not make it, he swears and complains that the beetles are getting stronger. If asked about his “old friend” L, he waves it off, saying that L can’t help now, but the party can.[/COLOR] [COLOR=white]In truth, Galdorrow is a Young Adult Bronze Dragon. He has always been a homebody among his kind, never having ventured far from his birthplace at Corryvlinthax. Having always been a taciturn sort preferring a quiet life, he has not bothered to learn magical communication techniques or added such items to his hoard. In addition, he stays here to keep guard over the terrible hoard scarab plague at Corryvlinthax. He fears getting too close to the scarabs, but also fears leaving the area and coming back to swarms upon swarms of the beetles devouring everyone and everything.[/COLOR] [COLOR=white]He invites the party back to his home, an old fishing boat he calls [I]Dragoneye[/I]. There, he explains the problem of the beetles, pulling a dead specimen beetle in a jar off the shelf to explain.[/COLOR] [COLOR=white]Hoard scarabs are typically invited into dragons’ lairs to take up residence among their coins, Galdorrow explains. Their silver and gold carapaces make them blend in well, and since they are supposed to lack the strength to burrow into dragon hide, they are safe, and get their hide cleaned by them as well. But these scarabs are different. He doesn’t know why, but these scarabs are able to burrow into dragon flesh and kill them. That’s where the swarms are coming from—Corryvlinthax, the whirlpool. Corryvlinthax isn’t just a swirling drain next to a rock. It is a dragon. Or, was a dragon. Corryvlinthax worked out a way to keep the swarms from traveling from dragon to dragon and killing them all like a plague. Since the swarms don’t normally leave their host until after it dies, Corryvlinthax combined his transformation into a guardian with a connection to the Elemental Plane of Water. Normally, when a dragon ends his life and becomes a guardian, his body dies and turns into a large expanse of land. However, by shunting off part of his existence to the Plane of Water, he both kept his body alive but extended his existence to infinity. As a result, the scarabs would feast on his body forever, and never harm another dragon—or anything else. Corryvlinthax transformed into a small island, and a whirlpool that extends all the way past the bottom of the sea and into the everlasting ocean.[/COLOR] [COLOR=white]Since the beetles are now escaping the whirlpool with regularity, Galdorrow needs the party to go down that whirlpool.[/COLOR] [COLOR=white]Deep inside the whirlpool should be a chamber. Think of the mouth of the whirlpool as the dragon’s mouth, and once down the neck the area should open up before continuing into the depths to infinity. The upper parts of this chamber should be dry and filled with air, as bronze dragons always require a dry living chamber above an underwater entrance. Somewhere in this chamber should be the heart of the dragon, kept alive. Hoard scarabs aim for the heart of their host, so they should be congregating there. The heart needs to be poisoned to destroy the main nest. With the death of the heart, it will kill the rest of the living body of the dragon, but the destruction of the nest of beetles is necessary.[/COLOR] [COLOR=white]Only recently has Galdorrow found the way to safely get into the chamber. He presents the party with a small box. Inside, there are five feathers. The first feather, he explains, is how to get to the whirlpool. Since the party must head down the whirlpool, no captain will set sail for it and lose their ship. The first feather will transform into a giant swan boat, which can take the party to and down the whirlpool. The second feather will transform into a giant fan—this will both bring the boat to the whirlpool, and disperse any swarms that may emerge from it. The third feather will then save the party’s life. While being sucked down the whirlpool, at the point where the neck meets the body, the boat will scrape against the walls of the downward tunnel. The third feather will act as an anchor, and stop the boat in mid-descent as it scrapes against the hall. The party should be able to climb down into the chamber from there. The fourth feather will poison and destroy the heart. The heart must be cut open and the feather thrust inside. There, it will transform into a giant tree, destroying anything inside the heart. Once this is done, and the beetles’ nest is destroyed, then the last feather can turn into a bird, which will fly out and let him know the beetles are dead. Galdorrow promises to come fetch the party at that time.[/COLOR] [COLOR=white]The party can take some time to prepare; Corryvlinthax has five vials of alchemist’s fire available, which will prove useful against swarming beetles. Standard equipment from the PHB is available in the village for purchase. If anyone suspects why he has so much knowledge of dragons, he simply says that one can learn a lot listening to local legends for over 60 years.[/COLOR] [COLOR=white]Travel to Corryvlinthax is as suggested, with the party creating a swan boat and taking it to the whirlpool. While aboard, a cluster of three swarms emerge from the whirlpool and head for whatever food they can find, especially the party. Use of the Fan Token will disperse the swarms, forcing them back into the sea to drown. [/COLOR] [COLOR=white]The party must prepare for the trip down the whirlpool. Everyone must find a way to brace themselves to the boat; any party member not tied or otherwise braced to the boat must succeed at a Balance or Tumbling check of DC 25 or be knocked out of the boat, into the water, and fall into the depths. The swan boat enters free fall at this point. There is then a jarring crunch as the boat strikes and slides down the wet, slick walls of the whirlpool neck. All party members must succeed a Balance or Tumbling check of DC 20 or take 2d6 damage from the jostling about. Using the Anchor Token at this point will stop the boat’s descent; they only have two rounds before falling into the chamber below. The Anchor Token will fasten the boat to the wall, allowing party members to climb down into the main chamber. Using knotted ropes and pitons will make the Climb checks easy at this point.[/COLOR] [COLOR=white]The inside of the chamber resembles the inside of a giant, stone ribcage about 90’ in diameter. The whirlpool becomes a waterfall that descends through the center of the chamber, down about 100’, into a pool 30’ in diameter, which forms another whirlpool which continues its descent to the Elemental Plane of Water. Occasionally, a Water Weird can be seen emerging from the water, but does not attack anything on land. If anyone or anything lands in the pool, the Water Weirds attack and the whirlpool will suck anyone down forever. Also emerging from the pool are a series of glistening, greenish tubes. They lead and connect up to a large, green pendulous pulsating organ about 10’ across and hanging 20’ above the chamber floor—the still-beating heart of the dragon Corryvlinthax.[/COLOR] [COLOR=white]The chamber is filled with hoard scarabs. They buzz around, and new ones emerge from the tubes by chewing their way out. The tubes fill with water and quickly reseal behind them, healing. The ground is covered with the bodies of dead scarabs, and the air in the chamber has an odd, acidic quality, smelling of chlorine and too many insects. The party must fend off the beetles as someone climbs up to the heart, cuts open a section (The heart has Hardness 2, 5 HP, immune to bludgeoning) and inserts the Tree Token.[/COLOR] [COLOR=white]Upon insertion of the Tree Token, the tree sprouts into being, poking itself through the walls of the heart and sending it crashing to the floor. Thousands of beetles and larvae incubating in the heart are smashed, and the tree and heart begin to get pulled into the whirlpool. The tree stops its descent by its sheer size. There are still a few beetles around, but it should be easy to dispatch the remaining scarabs without much trouble.[/COLOR] [COLOR=white]The party should send the Bird Token at this time. After 10 rounds, the chamber begins to fill with water, slowly. The water level will start expanding to fill the floor of the chamber over rounds 11-16, covering an additional 10’ radius per round. Then, the water starts to rise in the chamber at a rate of 1 foot per round. PCs can climb the walls or the tree to stay out of the water. Galdorrow arrives fifteen rounds after the Bird Token is sent. In dragon form, he flies down the whirlpool, introduces himself, thanks the party for their help, and helps them slip into a leather harness he wears to pull the party out of the whirlpool chamber. Any remaining beetles eventually drown.[/COLOR] [COLOR=white]Galdorrow takes the party to a nearby island. He then explains to the party that Corryvlinthax was his grandfather. Although he is sad that he had to be killed, at least it is to end the menace of the scarabs, and that he can finally rest in peace. He explains that he had been living in Balamore as the guardian to Corryvlinthax, and that he, and all the Bronze Dragons, will regard the party well. He offers them a reward from his hoard (he keeps it on the island). He offers to fly the party back to the mainland at night when he won’t be seen, and return to his simple fisherman’s life, until the Bronze Dragons need the party’s help again.[/COLOR] [COLOR=white]L (the person Galdorrow was originally trying to contact) can be anyone the DM wishes, from another dragon, to a master wizard, or anything else. Having Galdorrow send the party to L can be the next adventure source and tie into the campaign that the DM has prepared.[/COLOR] [B][I]Interrupted Communications [/I][/B]in the wake of a [I][B]Beetle Swarm [/B][/I]attack lead the party to discover that the beetles are [I][B]Dragon Slayers [/B][/I]feeding off a [I][B]Still Beating Heart [/B][/I]in a [I][B]Bottomless Pit[/B][/I]. The party must use [I][B]5 Quaal's Feather Tokens [/B][/I]to successfully end the beetle menace. [/QUOTE]
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