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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FitzTheRuke" data-source="post: 8153446" data-attributes="member: 59816">OUT OF THE BLUECold LavaBefuddled WerewolfDespondent MarineWoods: Sunlit and ShallowJumping CoinsCheating DeathThe PCs are travelling on a road through the woods toward a mountain pass, when out from behind a soft cloud flies an airship. Not the majestic, glorious ship of the paintings and lore, but an ugly rugged thing with a poorly inflated balloon and a stack of tubes billowing blue smoke. Clearly in some distress,  it suddenly lurches to one side. Objects fall from the deck, as does a humanoid that plummets toward the ground. Dangerously low, she manages to twist in the air and opens two small parachutes and a rapidly inflating balloon. Narrowly Cheating Death, she lands roughly in a nearby clearing.The ship goes on to crash spectacularly in the foothills of the nearby mountains.“Gabby” Gabbagrue, a friendly, talkative gnome airship captain, will introduce herself and offer to pay handsomely for help getting to her ship, offering a magic item, if necessary. She talks much, but offers little important information, not because she’s deceptive, but because it doesn’t occur to her. She will divulge facts (one at a time) only if pressed, or when it is already obvious: 1) The airship is the Cloudcatcher; 2) a prison transport; 3) delivering to a prison beyond the mountains; 4) Its flight is powered by “Fickle Phlogiston”; 5) an unstable substance of wild-magic; 6) which was damaged in an escape attempt; 6) by their prisoner; 7) an Ettin; 8) infected with lycanthropy.There are two routes to the ship: - The Safe Way is to travel a circuitous path around the outskirts of the Woods, where frequent logging has kept them Sunlit and Shallow. This way they will arrive at the ship near dusk after two random wilderness encounters. - The Quick Way is to follow a creek through the deepest part of the woods. They will arrive at the ship with some daylight to spare after four random encounters.Either way, when they get to the foothills, they will find a survivor - Dolgar Drumlin, a miserable dwarf soldier with a head wound. Having failed his duty, the Despondent Marine will tell them dejectedly, if brought out of his funk: 1) He jumped before the crash; 2) he’s the only survivor (maybe); 3) ship is destroyed (true); 4) Fickle Phlogiston makes it too dangerous to approach (maybe); 5) the prisoner is dead (incorrect); 6) or escaped (correct).Continuing uphill to the crash-site, they will find the ship with its hull broken open and dead crewmen scattered about. The “engine” – a heavy cast-iron thing is half-buried in the ground. From a broken pipe leaks blue goo that flows like lava down the slope, but when contacted deals cold damage. Occasionally this Cold Lava erupts in a damaging spray, and it lays in hazardous pools about the site.The strange nature of the stuff – the Fickle Phlogiston – has over time caused dead crewmen to reanimate as Chillborn Zombies. 3d4 of them will rise and attack if the party travelled the Safe Way, or 1d6 if they travelled the Quick Way.As they later scavenge the wreck for valuables, 1d6-1 survivors can be rescued from the twisted heap. A PC or Gabby can find her captain’s lockbox. When opened, 200 loose silver coins leap out. As a side-effect of the crash, these Jumping Coins have been suffused with the magic that once held the ship aloft and can be gathered with some effort. Anyone trained in arcana will know that the magic will fade in 1d6 days.The party, having been given their reward, can choose to help to search for the escaped prisoner. If they do, Gabby, Dolgar, or another surviving crewmember, will give them 1d4 “whizbangs” – a grenade-like magic item that can cause the effect of the confusion spell, and a pair of oversized, extra-strong manacles. Alternately, the players may choose to make camp, or make the return trip to the road, by either route.Whatever they choose, before dawn, they will find (or be found) by the prisoner, who is hungry and desperate, and will attack. It should be a deadly combat for the PCs against a giant, two-headed werewolf. The whiz-bangs should help. Also, a clever player may use a sling to throw the silver coins, or simply spill them, where their jumping will create an area confusing and hazardous to the vulnerable-to-silver lycanthrope. If all goes well, the Befuddled Werewolf will surrender when at half its HP, and the PCs or a survivor can place him in manacles, ending the session.</blockquote>

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