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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Neurotic" data-source="post: 8388220" data-attributes="member: 24380"><h2 style="text-align: justify">IRON DM 2021</h2> Round 2, Gradine vs Neurotic Ingredients: <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Lost Boys </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Buzzing Monastery </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Wicked Grin </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Winter Court </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Salacious Homunculus </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A Void </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Innocence Gained </li> </ul> New beginnings <h4 style="text-align: justify">Adventure Synopsis:</h4> PCs need to stop a mad sorcerer/fey warlock Atlantes and free the innocent friar. The sorcerer needs the children to rejuvenate and his…improper…urges were pushed out into minor construct he uses to spy on the city and lure his victims to their doom. He devoted his life to the Fey Court and their wicked queen, intending to sacrifice the city and gain immortality in the process. <h4 style="text-align: justify">Background story:</h4> In the mountain kingdom of Velebit, a religious tradition is kept where the last week of the year is spent in preparation for the New Year festival. There are gifts, goodwill, and people trying to cleanse themselves from the sins of the past. People congregate in temples, pray, and in general act nicer than during the rest of the year. At Knin, the capital, the city of kings, The Court prepares for the transition of the years. And in the nearby monastery, the friars prepare the rituals of cleansing. But this year…this year is different. The acolytes in the monastery, the ministrants in the city temples, and the choir boys started disappearing. At first, it was minor, a boy fled the monastery for the wider world. The boy runs away from home. But as The Watch got more and more reports they started the investigation. The monks at the monastery assigned brother Matthias to investigate. At the same time, reports of the strange little creature started circulating around the city. Pink-red, small, with pointed ears and phallus-like appendage forever pointing forward, the creature was seen lurking around bathing pools, peeping through windows into the bedrooms and all over the House of Easy Virtue. The apparition is said to grin constantly, wicked grin people from the court describe as vaguely familiar. This salacious homunculus was seen in more than one scene where the boys were lost, but no traces could be found of the creature or the boys. At least until the winter fell. In the snow, it was easier to track and one fortuituous night, a watchman happened to notice a boy, inadequately dressed for the winter, following the path through the snow. He followed the boy to the monastery and into the side catacombs before losing them behind the closed doors. The watch stormed the sanctuary and in the room of brother Matthias, the very same investigator found the boy, shivering from the cold. Worse, they found traces of ritual components and few minor items from the lost boys. <h4 style="text-align: justify">The adventure</h4> PCs are involved by blood relations orfriends to Matthias or employed by the abbot. They are charged with proving his innocence. Given that the bodies aren’t found, the case isn’t clear cut, as Matthias maintains he was returning from his duties in the catacombs and found a boy, dazed and half-frozen so he brought him up to help. The trial is set two days hence, on the very Eve of the Year at the monastery. PCs need to interrogate Matthias who can point out the sexual fixation of the construct; the parents (most of whom want to see Matthias thrown down the mountain); talk to the friars (who can direct PCs into the catacombs where strange smells and sounds happen if one goes too deep); track the homunculus and sit on the trial as the evidence is presented. And all that in couple of days. Parents can give little, but the thing that binds everything together is that the boys were out in the evening. Bathing. Cleaning the monastery. Helping the old sorcerer. Some of them know of the homunculus, some have seen it and some comment on its features being vaguely familiar. Some are noble, others common, oldest barely in midteens. The homunculus can be captured fairly easily with some bait (young ladies in the pools) in the evening. The monastery is buzzing with the activity, normaly subdued with only small number of friars inhabiting it, now there is an army of servants preparing for the arrival of the king and his Winter Court. PCs must navigate various functionaries and noble representatives or nobles themselves to have free access to the building. Same goes for Investigating the catacombs yields some clues. Discarded clothes can be found in the alcoves with the dead monks. Tracks of wet feet, dried now. Clawed feet of the homunculus can be found in the dust in the deepest recesses of the monastery. One arcane spell pouch is found as were traces of powdered black onyx and almost erased ritual circle. Some clues point to the arcane caster, others to the divine. Following the clues, they could deduce there is a connection to the sorcerers abode. Assuming they find the secret passage into Atlantes house, they have to contend with undead made from the friars bodies, soulless, yet still living bodies of the boys and weirdly, fey guardians. If PCs prevail, they find the ritual circle with black flame burning in the center, black flames licking from the utter Void in the middle. Black gems, one for each boy missing, surround the circle and each flicker occasionally, the small flame joining the conflagration in the middle before being sucked into it. Careful examination will show the boys within gems, screaming in the darkness of their prisons, faces twisted in agony. The boys, if not killed, can be returned to their bodies once the ritual is undone. For that the homunculus needs to be captured, doused in holy water and thrown into the black flames. If the circle is broken without homunculus, the void will expand suddenly engulfing all living in the room, trying to suck the life out of them (Con save to resist). With each attack it grows, threatening the city itself. With the evidence gathered, PCs can crash into the trial, Atlantes being one of the judges of The Winter Court. If the homunculus is captured and presented, the old man grins wickedly and calls out. The fey of The Winter Court, cold and merciless attack those present, mostly nobles of the city. The sorcerer tries to free the homunculus by charming the captor(s). If he succeeds he runs away followed by the fey. Vaguely recognizable features are obvious once homunculus and Atlantes are together. It is obviously twisted face of the sorcerer. If the PCs capture the homunculus and free the boys, THEN appear at the court, the wizards sags in his seat. His eyes widen at something “No, no, no, nooo!!” he screams before the image of the queen of air and darkness appears seated in her Winter court appears in front of him. The Void between the worlds swells and engulfs him, leaving no trace of the former judge. The court dismisses the charges against Matthias and innocence regained he joins his brothers in the ritual cleansing of the sin. Assuming the lost boys are saved, the families are reunited, much joy is to be had. Otherwise, a somber ceremony for the lost is held, as the sins are forgiven and innocence regained for another year. The Void: attacks creatures within 10', does 1d10 necrotic damage (Con save for half) for each 10hp thus gained its radius increases by 1square. for each 2 squares radius, its reach increases by 5 feet</blockquote>

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