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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EP" data-source="post: 6154858" data-attributes="member: 41744">CURSE OF THE UNWANTEDWritten by the WardenThe IngredientsIntroverted Aboleth: Decades ago, an aboleth was summoned by the royal wizards of the Faelien Court in an effort to rid their king of his madness. Whether it was due to arrogance or ignorance, the wizards assumed they could control the creature and harness its powers to cure King Jotar and it backfired horribly. During the fall of the Faelien Court, many brave adventurers entered the sewers to confront and eliminate the aboleth, but to no avail. The beast has, however, suffered many horrible wounds, including a severe gash to its brain, and now remains locked in isolation within the deepest levels of the Faelien sewers. Fork in the Road: Despite its name to the outside world, there are many creatures calling this place home. Under the guidance of the Keeper (see the Changeling ingredient, below), they have reached a metaphorical point in their lives where they must decide if they will continue to be this world's monsters or turn over a new leaf and build a proper life for themselves and their families. Throughout the course of this adventure, it is a similar choice undertaken by the aboleth – to remain fearful and intimidated by the world away from its natural home or to confront its fears and challenge them directly in confrontation. One might also hope this is an awakening for the PCs and their understanding of the monsters of their world... Lonely City: Before the arrival of the aboleth, the city of Faelien was a jewel of the northern coast and a beacon dividing the savage arctic wastelands from the civilized plains and valleys under King Jotar's rule. After that dark day when the people were driven from their homes by the aboleth's dominated minions and horrific visions, the city was abandoned and gained its new name, the Lonely City. Point of No Return: King Jotar's son, Yan, has begun to show signs of his father's illness and is desperately seeking a solution before the insanity claims his mind. Without any proper understanding of this condition, Yan has ordered a new expedition into the Lonely City to claim some of the aboleth's blood and perform a ceremony to rid the confused prince of his inner demons.Inspirational Sermon: When the PCs arrive in the Lonely City, they discover the Keeper (see the Changeling ingredient, below) preaching to the huddled masses who now call this place their home. Changeling: Perhaps because she is a bit mad herself, the changeling known only as the Keeper has taken refuge within the Lonely City and seeks to offer shelter and dignity within these battered stone walls. Herself an outcast, the Keeper is the self-proclaimed protector of numerous creatures hindered by genocidal adventurers looking to kill solely based on their race or past deeds. She has spent many years trying to help the aboleth heal its wounds and regain its dignity... despite the possible consequences. An Insane OfferThe PCs are approached by representatives of the Jotar family, now living in exile far from their original homeland. After the devastation in the Lonely City, King Jotar's insanity and the actions of his Court made them fugitives and so they have gone into hiding. While the King has long ago succumbed to his madness and ended his own life, his son, Yan, has begun to show signs of his father's illness and is desperate to rid his mind of the torturous visions and inane ramblings that wracked his father to his dying days. After initial discussions and negotiations, the PCs are taken to meet with the exiled prince in person. As the prince meets with the adventurers, there are subtle nuances revealing the oncoming madness. At various times, Yan turns suddenly towards nearby windows that have been boarded up and continuously shushes people who are not present (at one point, it seems he is speaking to his deceased father). Regardless of the prince's current condition, the payment offered is real: a chest of jewels and family heirlooms salvaged from the Lonely City prior to the evacuation. If the PCs return with the aboleth's blood, the chest is theirs for the taking. Maps, horses, and travelling supplies are provided upon request, but Prince Yan is insistent the PCs leave at dawn's first light. The KeeperThe journey to the Lonely City is brief, yet harsh, for this landscape sits along the border with the arctic tundra and winter is fast approaching. It will take the PCs four days to reach the City by horse and there will be few encounters along the way. As the PCs climb to the top of a crest overlooking the Lonely City, read the following out loud. Past the jagged rocks marking the tip of this dangerous ascent, you can see a white spiral tower rising to greet weary travellers and designate this as the location of the Lonely City. Blasting snow has pelted the trio of towers marking the edges of the abandoned kingdom's once great domicile, their windows blown open long ago to create a wicked howl as the sharp winter winds whistle through these tiny openings and echo across the valley before you. A triangular wall that surrounded the regal sections of the city lay in ruins as something monstrous must have brought it crashing down, spewing its debris over and through the common homes once occupied by an unsuspecting people. Past the howling cry of the snow-capped towers, the powerful boom of an orator's voice catches hold of the wind and finds its way to your ears. It is hard to tell what the words are saying, but there is no mistaking the clear connotations of someone charismatic giving a speech within the remains of what lies below. If anyone attempts to spot the source of this speech from such a distance, the most they can make out is a gathering of humanoid creatures assembled around the crumbled gates of the City. When they complete their descent and get closer, they can see these creatures are a goblinoid tribe (goblins, hobgoblins, bugbear) standing around a lone speaker perched atop a large boulder that was once the main gate. The speaker looks like a female hobgoblin dressed in thick furs raising her spear in the air as she preaches to these refugees in their own tongue. If anyone knows the goblin tongue and can get close enough to hear the speaker's words clearly, read the following out loud as a rough translation. “You are only lost, my brothers and sisters, but are now found. The world has not turned its back on you, only those with pink skin who worship false kings and prophets. They have declared you their enemies and forced you to live within the crevasses of their lives, outcast and sentenced to a harsh death. There is no honour seeking out a life within their shadow, so we have claimed a home on the surface they dare not enter. The gods have made you struggle for a reason, brothers and sisters. To find this city and call it yours as we have called it ours. Find peace as your own people, not as the bastards of the pink skins who say their heart is as warm as the sun, for their actions are as cold as the snow on these mountains. All we ask is that you live in peace with your fellow brothers and sisters, no matter their breed or origins. Together, we will rise above the pink skins and make a home for ourselves!” The goblinoid's attention is so fixated on her passionate speech that they will not notice any approaching intruders until they approach the back of the formation or interrupt the speech with any other action. When this happens, the goblinoids (there are approximately fifty of them) will turn and draw their weapons, eager to draw blood. The speaker will seek to calm them down. If a fight should break out, she will race through the crowd and interject, suddenly assuming the form of the most common race within the party (or a human, if everyone is different) and plead with the PCs to lower their arms. She introduces herself as the Keeper, a changeling elementalist and guardian of the Lonely City. While she does not want bloodshed within these fallen walls, she cannot allow them passage inside, regardless of their reasons. “You come from the southern lands of hospitality and respect. This is a place for the unwanted and the damned, therefore you in turn have no place here. Go back to your homes and tell them we seek only the isolation we deserve. If you do not, I cannot be held responsible for your fate.” As if on cue, the horde of goblinoids standing at her side raise their weapons to the ready and snarl their eager need to inflict generations of revenge against you and your comrades. So long as the PCs demonstrate respect and compassion, the Keeper will return the favour and can offer them shelter from the elements within one of the remaining gatehouses, but they are not granted access any further than this point. If violence ensues, she will use her elemental mastery to summon two earth elementals from the rubble of the City's gates to crush these intruders.  If anyone enquires about the aboleth, the Keeper's answer is harsh and ominous. “She is not to be disturbed. Your kind has done more than enough harm and I will not allow anyone to shatter her fragile world, do you understand me?” If they mention Prince Yan's plight, she scoffs and cares even less for their mission now more than ever. “Your kind's ills are the result of your greed and avarice. It is penance for your actions and those of your ancestors, a lesson that invoking genocide brings consequences. And only someone inflicted with madness would believe an aboleth could cure them of their insanity.” Now that she is aware of their intention in her City, there is no chance or opportunity for the PCs to take refuge or even step past the crumpled gates.  If a peaceful solution is never placed on the table by the PCs, the Keeper, the earth elementals, and her wards (the goblinoids) will return the favour and fight to the death. If the Keeper's life is spared and efforts are made to force her co-operation, she will abide and escort them into the sewers to meet with the aboleth. Entering UndetectedThe PCs may wish to avoid a direct confrontation at the main gate of the Lonely City and find a more secretive way inside. That shouldn't be a problem as the only protection offered by the city is its isolation in this harsh terrain. There are random patrols of various residents calling this place home, including cambion, various giants, drow, and githzerai, though not all of them are armed and dangerous. There is plenty of evidence indicating these creatures are attempting to live peaceful lives in gatherings of their own kind, surviving off the refuse of this city that once was their enemy's. Into The SewersThere are numerous entrances to the sewers that is now home to the aboleth, each of them sealed over with heavy iron grates designed to keep curious residents out at all costs. If the PCs were able to “convince” the Keeper to lead the way, she will take them to a particular opening used to gain access to the beast during her therapy sessions. As they pass through the city, the Keeper will explain the fragile nature of the aboleth and why their intrusion is so dangerous for both them and the creature itself. “She has been torn from her home realm and placed somewhere where nothing makes sense and everyone tries to kill you on sight. When the King's wizards summoned her here, she was immediately sentenced to death for her blood and organs, hacked at by eager mindless servants like yourselves. She may have been able to fight them off, but at a great cost. She has suffered a serious wound and can no longer control her powers with great accuracy, nor can she comprehend reality from illusion. When you enter her home, do not be surprised you become mad yourselves by what you see.” Once the PCs enter the sewers, the aboleth senses their arrival and lashes out in a furious roar of fear and anger, causing the very walls to shake and dislodge loose stones into the fetid waters at their feet. The walls begin to drip blood and echoing voices bewilder the PCs at every turn, sometimes calling out to them by name or re-enacting horrific crimes from their past. The deeper they travel, the more these sewers begin to transform into a slimy natural cavern featuring quivering sacks of unborn larvae and the screams of the aboleth's victims when the Lonely City fell. If the PCs entered these sewers with the Keeper, she does not seem to recognize these horrors because her mind is not being inundated with them – the aboleth knows to trust her. To a point. As everyone reaches a large opening to a central canal under the main castle, the Keeper suddenly convulses with such intensity that her spine snaps and her lower body goes limp without collapsing. Appearing to hover in the air, the changeling is suddenly possessed by the aboleth's uncontrollable power with such ferocity that every unnatural movement causes bones to break and her jaw widens beyond ordinary means, yet the voice seeping from her mouth shrieks out the words of an anxious aboleth.“NO HUMANS!! NO MORTALS!! WE WANT PEACE!!!!”The aboleth then uses the Keeper's possessed body to hold back the PCs in an effort to block them from going any further. If the Keeper did not come with them, it will instead target the PC with the weakest Intelligence score and cause 1d10 damage whenever they attempt to fight off the mental invasion. Only by making a successful opposed Intelligence check against the aboleth can a possessed character hope to free themselves of the creature's grip. When the Keeper's hit points are reduced to 20 or less, she is suddenly sucked into a vortex, unnaturally contorting and squeezing her body through the imaginary pinhole until she is no longer standing before the PCs. To reach the aboleth's lair, the PCs must pass through three random challenges. At the start of each challenge, roll 1d6 to determine the danger they face. Each challenge is an illusion created by the incredible panic of a seriously ill chaotic creature and can be disbelieved using the standard rules of whichever edition you play, but the difficulty is increased by 3. Any PC who has successfully disbelieve can use their turn to aid another in their attempt. Anyone who “dies” in these illusions remains out of action for the remainder of the adventure until the aboleth has been defeated. 1: A tidal wave of rancid sewer water and humanoid skulls rushes towards the PCs, threatening to wash them out of the City or drown them. Everyone must make successful Strength checks for three rounds before the tidal wave passes or else become caught up in its powerful force and forced further away from the aboleth's lair (2d6 damage per failed roll). 2: The PCs are attacked by illusionary undead created by the aboleth's fearful rage. Able to pass through the sewer walls with ease, they attempt to drag a PC through with them and bury them within the walls.3: The PCs are suddenly unable to breathe, as if an unseen weight was pressed against their chest. Only by successfully disbelieving the illusion can they begin to breathe again. 4: The PCs enter a large submerged chamber and discover the rotting hulk of the aboleth... or so they think. This is another desperate attempt by the panicked aboleth to be left alone. Once disbelieved, the PCs realize they are standing in simply another narrow tunnel under the City. 5: The tunnels suddenly tilt 90° on its side, causing the PCs to feel as if they're falling away from their objective. Until this illusion is disbelieved, they must try to climb their way further and will take falling damage equal to the length of any tunnel whenever they fail. 6: A high-pitched mental shriek threatens to deafen the PCs, forcing them to make Constitution rolls to avoid a cumulative -2 penalty to all actions until the illusion is disbelieved. The Aboleth ItselfAfter enduring the psychic torture and torment of the aboleth's panicked efforts to stop them in their tracks, they finally arrive at the final scene. Read the following aloud to the players. Walls of mossy stone are no more, instead morphing into a bulbous and throbbing organic tissue that glows a deep red with every pulse. A deep pit of swirling sewer water stretches out to 50' in all directions with sticky tentacles of dried slime creating a concealing canopy within this dim locale. Other than the deep throbbing of the inner walls, there is no other sign of life until a lone figure rises from the water. It is the mangled and bloody form of the Keeper. She does not speak, only weeps uncontrollably and pleads with you for peace and isolation.There are two choices for the PCs at this moment: sympathy or aggression. If they want to try and sympathize with the aboleth, perhaps even offer to put her out of her misery, their offer will be met with hesitant curiosity. If anyone breaks their word at any point and time, the aboleth will respond with aggression. In either case, it will rise from the swirling waters to reveals its true form. The sickly form of this hulking creature floats to the surface of the pool and what you notice at first is the large gash on the side of its head, exposing the sinewy strands of its massive brain. Puss and a black viscous liquid continuously seep from the wound and into the water. It is now you can see the Keeper – secured to the aboleth's head as if she was grown from its very body – caresses and kisses the sore wound affectionately before looking back up at you with pleading eyes. If the PCs simply decide to charge in and kill the creature outright, she will respond in kind and become panicked, gaining +2 to all attack rolls and defences until either her attackers are killed (in reality) or she is removed from this life. If the aboleth is struck by a critical hit, roll 1d6 and apply one of the random effects from the previous section. When the fight is over, the symbiotic form of the Keeper detaches from the aboleth's body and shrivels into a sack of dried flesh. Any surviving PCs can take a sample of the aboleth's blood and return to Prince Yan with his hopeful cure. Whether or not it works is up to you...END</blockquote>

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