Throne of human fat
Rousing music
Fragile mechanical clock
Salamander couriers
Betrayal
1/2 Fiend Xorn
I really apologize for the length of this. The scenario got out of hand at about 2am this morning, and I just couldn't stop writing. If I lose for that, "I regret nothink!"
The Clock of Elemental Evil (level 18-20)
Adventure Summary: The PCs stumble onto the plot of a powerful fiend, and must set it right. A scenario that can easily be used for a Kick In The Doors campaign or an Intrigue & Puzzles campaign.
Background
The majority of the adventure will be taking place in the Clock Tower. The clock itself was constructed by a somewhat mad wizard as a gift to the local community... so the local community can be anyone he would have felt indebted to, from a small village he was born in to a major city that sponsored him in its wizard university. It doesn't much matter, so cut and paste into the world and location of your choice.
If he'd known this adventure would stem from it, of course, he might never have built it in the first place.
The wizard was Urgid the Great, and he died fifty years ago, a decade or so after building the tower. Now referred to as Urgid's Clock (originally The Elementastic Clock Tower), it is considered the last marvel of his career, and the best.
The basic tower is a six story structure built around a single, massive water clock, and into which a thriving community of elemental creatures has been brought into service. Tours through the clock tower are a weekly occurrence, starting at the bottom and going up through the tower on a solid spiral staircase, coming out in the gardens at the top, and then following a second spiral staircase down the outside of the tower.
Every few days, the denizens of the tower put on a music production of some sort. The show is usually produced by the salamanders, but xorns have been known to add a bass element to the chorals, and the water elemental at the center of the clock has been known to sing in a surprising soprano when she can be bothered.
The Elemental Community
Xorns (of all sizes) form an industrious society near the base of the tower. Urgid has set up a rather unique enchantment for them, which alters their waste byproducts into rare ores, minerals and gems... so long as they remain working in the tower. It only works for wastes produced by xorns (it merely reassembles the components, it does not create them). In return, the xorns spend a chunk of each day swimming through the tower and making sure everything is working. They can generally be considered skilled laborers, capable of replacing parts, replacing masonry, and so on. The xorn society in the base of the tower rather resembles industrial age, blue collar rural - a typical xorn spends 4-12 hours a day doing a bit of labor, comes home to family, spends Friday nights playing poker with the buds... Xorns are all of average intelligence, and generally apathetic towards anything that is not
doing their job or
taste testing vanadium/corundum/etc.
Mabilan, an elder water elemental (Huge, 40' tall in wave form) is actually the entirety of the water in the clock. Originally the 'goddess' of a small stream when Urgid found her, she now considers herself the 'goddess' of the flow of time. She's not insane, per se, but she definitely has a powerful opinion of herself. For the most part, Mabilan does not interact with the others but contents herself to flow up and down the water clock much as she did in the stream. When she does detect a problem (clogging in the flow, a leak, etc.), she usually taps on the walls near the xorns, who have an appropriate level of awe for her raw power.
At the top of the tower, there is a kind of aerie garden, intended for use by sylphs and their like. In general, however, it is unpopulated - the airy kind are too flighty to be bound to a particular place, and Urgid prefers willing servants. Occasionally a sylph (I'd use the dryad stats, but with air-related spell abilities) can be found in the garden.
Inside the main body of the tower is a small community of salamanders, led by Ur Shannar (a noble salamander and level 10-15 fighter), a tempestuous aristocrat with a strict code of honor. Ur Shannar serves in the tower as a matter of life debt to Urgid, but has come to enjoy the simplistic lifestyle that is required of her. The other salamanders are of all types, and are Ur Shannar's subjects. She and Mabilan have something of a petty feud going on, but it is not particularly real. The salamanders are the primary craftsfolk of the clock tower, producing gears when the xorns need replacements, creating and setting off pyrotechnics for special occasions on Urgid's calendar, and so on.
Two of the noble salamanders, in particular, have become enamored of entertainment as its own pursuit, and have gained levels in bard (in the recent past, they have been producing choral theatre productions). Their names are Maur Umisan and Ki Thanal. They're a bit bubble-headed, but the most friendly with all of the various denizens of Urgid's Clock and with the outside world.
Enter The Fiend
Fathashick is a fiend whose forte is necromancy. He is a Huge humanoid of corpulent dimension, vicious demeanor, and a subtle and cunning manner. His symbol is a throne of human fat, and has been mimicked occasionally by necromancers wishing to draw on his power. His stats are unimportant - if he ever actually shows up, it needs to be an epic level game anyway.
Regardless, his goal is to spread as much misery as possible, and to that end, he has taken an interest in Urgid's Clock, which easily represents one of the more powerful elemental factions in a single location on the Prime Material. Acquiring it, however, looked to be rather difficult.
So he created an
agent, impregnating one of the xorns with his own foul essences, to birth Xiang, a half-fiend xorn of unusual intelligence (INT +4 for being a 1/2 fiend). Xiang, separated from his kind by his comparative brilliance, seduced by dreams sent from Fathashick, and spurned by the salamanders he thought he belonged with ("What does this earthy body of mine matter? Is it not our minds that matter?"), Fathashick gradually became a cleric of Fathashick (domains Death, Evil and Healing). Xiang has been Fathashick's agent now for a decade, and with Fathashick's aid, has gradually worked his way into the salamander's good graces. Recently, he has gained enough of Ur Shannar's respect to become her advisor and confidante.
Over the past year, he has been slowly persuading Ur Shannar to decide that her life debt to Urgid has been abused by Urgid, and that the region must (a) pay for the abuse and (b) bow down before Ur Shannar's might.
Current Events
Although honorable, Ur Shannar is still a salamander, and sometimes weak. Recently, she came to the conclusion that she would do these things... but still maintain the tower as she had promised.
Xiang, now confident of his position, has presented her with a means to the end. By creating a temple to Fathashick, Xiang will bring about the power Ur Shannar needs to rule a large area from inside the clock. The core of that temple will be a throne altar made of human fat tallow.
A few weeks ago, three tours went in to the tower and were reduced to a waxy tallow by salamanders under fear of Ur Shannar. A few more humans came in to investigate and were similarly transformed. The elementals in the clock tower are not very familiar with the world outside, and are not sure
why humans come in every week like clockwork - they just do, just like the clock hands always comes around to the top. The tours have stopped coming, however, and Ur Shannar and Xiang want to know why.
They will be sending out flame brother scouts (flame brothers are a type of lesser salamander) to acquire more humans to finish the throne. The flame brothers, however, are working for Maur Umisan and Ki Thanal. They don't know why Ur Shannar has suddenly changed, but it doesn't sit well with their own beliefs, so the flame brothers are carrying messages (engraved in small steel plates, in the Ignam language) from the two bards (left behind when they take each victim - they don't dare not take a victim). This is the only current contact between the clock and the outside world, as Ur Shannar, possibly suspecting betrayal from the two, has declared a moratorium on choral productions.
Hooks
Hook #1: The obvious - the tours into the tower disappeared, and the townsfolk want to know why. The clock itself seems to be working perfectly otherwise. And now, recently, steel plates in an unknown tongue have been appearing... while citizens who are particularly fat have been disappearing. The PCs are hired to investigate.
Hook #2: The angsty - the PCs were on their way through town when a valued friend or henchman was taken. In his/her place is a steel plate written in Ignam.
Hook #3: The oblivious - the PCs need something from Ur Shannar or another elemental subtype. Salamanders are known as being among the world's best forgers of steel, and a artifact-level Flamebrand might need something made by them. Or perhaps they want to hire her (or even Mabilan) to assist them in a fight elsewhere. Or they might wish to steal the xorn's gem collection. Regardless, they want in the tower for their own purposes, and may or may not know about the current attitude towards humans.
Hook #4: The evil - the PCs are evil, and have been approached by Fathashick to assist Ur Shannar, in return for granted lands and powers within her future domain. Of course, the PCs may or may not suspect that Ur Shannar will just add them to her throne when she's done with them, or that Fathashick is intending to use Ur Shannar to take those lands for himself.
Goals
Oddly enough, this entire scenario can be completed with only one more death: Xiang's. Ur Shannar can be talked down and shown that her honor has not been abused, or Mabilan can be persuaded to cool things down and talk to her, the xorns could be convinced to help (the PCs would need to know how Xiang came about, though, or else they won't be bothered with it), etc. It's unlikely that Xiang can be talked down, however... he's spent a lifetime outside of society and developing his personal brand of smouldering hate for those who reject him.
However, it's likely that there will be a lot of beatdown and death anyway.
Stop the Throne's Completion: The real goal of the throne is to allow Fathashick to manifest in the tower. Once that's done, he's going to destroy the noble salamanders and any xorns that Xiang does not specifically request protection for, and establish a temple to spread his obscenity with. Depending on your campaign, the throne may be near or far from completion.
Stop Ur Shannar: Ur Shannar is powerful. She's a noble salamander with enough levels of fighter to pose a serious threat to your PCs. She can be stopped by killing her, persuading her that her honor has not been abused, persuading her that Fathashick/Xiang will betray her, or by persuading Mabilan to talk to her. There are also two bardic salamanders in her retinue who may be worth talking to - they have her ear somewhat better than the rest, although still not as well as Xiang.
Stop Xiang: If the PCs kill Ur Shannar, he will pose as her helpless servant unless he thinks the PCs know the truth. If the PCs attempt to attack him, he'll make a run for it, swimming into the earth itself. If the PCs have already talked to the xorns and explained to them what Xiang is (and who his father is), they will try to help stop him, mostly by blocking his immediate egress into the earth. Regardless, if he gets away, he can make a real dandy long-term villain. Give him enough levels of cleric to matter, but his real strength lies in his ability to persuade others to do bad things.
Save Urgid's Clock: It may seem silly, but Urgid's Clock is very important to the local people, and to numerous scholars, historians and fans of the mad old tinkerer. The xorn community and Mabilan can repair minor damage, but a real knock-down, drag-out fight could well destroy the clock. Refraining from its destruction should be worth some roleplaying XP.
Also, since it's not as blatant as the others, I thought I'd point out the various betrayal elements
:
Xiang betrays everyone but Fathashick
Ur Shannar betrays her own honor (with potential redemption)
Maur Umisan and Ki Thanal betray Ur Shannar
Fathashick betrays everyone but Xiang
very good stuff! 
