Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wicht" data-source="post: 451352" data-attributes="member: 221">The Arena of GarmoThis is a 3e adventure for characters of 10th level though it can be adjusted fairly easily for other levels, particularly the low ones.  As it is set in a gladiatorial arena, it is quite possible for the adventure to feature numerous fights and action sequences, however the actual meat of the story is intended to be mystery and horror (in fact this adventure would do well as a mix of CoC and D&D).  The city of Garno can easily be changed to fit any campaign world.Synopsis:  The PCs are made aware of something sinister at the local arena.  Several strange deaths have occurred and the arena, on the surface devoted to law and justice, is possibly becoming a more sinister and evil place.  One of the priests in the arena has been corrupted by occult readings and he plans on summoning forth a hideous entity.  To do so he needs to discover the hiding place of an evil sacrificial dagger, a dagger that must then be used to shed the blood of ten stalwart men.  The PCs learn of his plan and arrive to witness the beginning of the summoning, a summoning that occurs in the middle of a gladiatorial tournament.  The PCs must stop him before it is too late.Overview:  The Arena of Garno is run by Lawful Neutral priests who serve a god of law and justice.  The arena thus serves two functions, it provides entertainment and it gives a place to which hardened criminals can be sent.  There are therefore also two types of gladiators who fight and die in the arena: entertainers who are treated well and make good money, and convicts who, when not fighting, are kept tightly locked up.   The arena is a very profitable enterprise for the church and they want to keep it that way.The head of the arena is an old and hardened priest, Agris Flint, who in ages past was a renown warrior of justice.  Now he is old and filled with nostalgia for the glories of his past.  This makes him often cold and short with others.  Nothing modern seems as good to him as how things used to be.  This grim man is served by four other priests and below them is a host of nearly a hundred guards, animal handlers, weapon masters, cooks and slaves.  At any one time there are approximately twenty professional gladiators living in the arena and between fifty and a hundred prisoners.  The arena was built to hold upwards of two hundred prisoners, so many of the arena cells naturally stand empty.Targio Rendisti is a level 10 cleric who has been corrupted away from law and justice to the service of a god of chaos and destruction.  Always an avid bibliophile, Targio had the misfortune of collecting three rather obscene manuscripts which warped his mind as he studied them.  They are the Book of the Restless Dead, The Tome of Hushed Rumors and the Book of the Mindless Tentacle.  His sanity gone, Targio pledged himself to the service of chaos and secretly renounced his god.  Now he plans to bring chaos and ruin to the arena and then to the city of Garno.  The Book of the Mindless Tentacle contains an evil ritual which will bring forth a great demon of destruction and chaos.  Targio plans on unleashing this demon upon the arena.  To complete the ritual he needs a special dagger.  This dagger has been lost for many years.  However a study of the Tome of Hushed Rumors has convinced him that it was his own former church which hid away the evil dagger and in fact it is likely in possession of his own superior, Agris Flint.  But he needs to find out where the dagger is.The dagger is hidden in a magical storage box shaped like a miniature keep.  The keep itself is the storage area for several cursed and evil relics, of which the dagger is only one.  Agris, as the keeper of this prison for evil magic has taken the extra precaution of placing the keep in a glass ball filled with water and fake snow.  Thus a prison for evil magic is disguised as a simple knick-knack, one which Agris keeps near him.  Hooks:  There are at least three ways for the PCs to become involved in the events of this story.  1) The PCs are hired by Agris, or even by his superiors, to find out who is behind the mysterious disappearances and deaths plaguing the arena of late.  Divination has failed to reveal a name and there is a suspicion of something sinister afoot.2) The PCs are tempted by an offer of a great deal of money to participate in the soon to be held Grand Tournament of Justice.  They arrive early at the arena and become enmeshed in the events and people3) The PCs (or one of them) are found guilty of a crime and are sentenced to serve for a time in the arena.  They are notified that the winner of the Grand Tournament of Justice is promised his freedom.Atmosphere:  The atmosphere in the arena should be one of cold justice, grim men and a certain sense of impending doom.  Of all the priests, Targio seems the most likeable and Agris seems the most callous.  The gladiators are hard and feel the certainty of their own deaths.  They have little time for the problems of others.  The workers around the arena recall better days and feel like the arena is slowly dying.  Some of them hope the coming Grand Tournament of Justice will help revive things but many doubt it.A chain of events:  When the PCs arrive at the arena, Targio is already well on his way to achieving his desires.  He is an avid potion maker and has used potions of glibness to escape the detection of his superior’s detect lies spell.  He is slowly torturing and killing those whom he thinks might know the location of the dagger.  In the meantime he is preparing certain individuals to help him complete his ritual.  Besides a small group of cult members, Targio has also recruited a group of ogre fighters who are powerful gladiators.  They do not know of his plot but they are key to him achieving it.Targio will discover the location of the dagger twelve hours before the Tournament starts.  Agris himself will accidentally let it slip at a meal.  A few hours later Targio will have killed Agris and entered the magic keep.  Retrieving the dagger, he will then give it to his ogre champions, telling them that it is magical and will help them win in the arena.As soon as the ogres kill ten men with the dagger the ritual will have commenced.  From a station high above the arena Targio will chant and wail and bring forth a horrible demon which will kill all in the arena.This is how it will work unless the PCs interfere.Encounters:The DM should begin the adventure only a few days before the big tournament.  The PCs should only just be beginning to learn who is who when things start happening.  Furthermore, the DM can use matches in the arena to give the PCs a distraction (and down time).Ordinary footwork and divination spells will reveal little except that there is something evil growing in the arena.  A few cult members may attack the PCs, but they will die before speaking and even then they have never actually seen the face of their leader.  They do however know that something big is about to happen at which the faithful will receive justice.  Targio’s own mechanisms will eventually give him away.  A demon, a Zoyvut, burst out of Targio’s room and starts attacking people.  It had been imprisoned by Targio and has managed to break free.  A search of Targio’s room will reveal the evil tomes and many other foul secrets as well.  There is a drawing of the sacrificial dagger on Targio’s desk.  Unfortunately all this happens just as Targio has entered the keep.When the PCs go to tell Agris (presuming this is their action), they find him dead, in his room, with smashed glass and water on the floor, the miniature keep from the globe on a desk.  When the PCs figure out how to enter it, they will find that the keep is well guarded.  Those guards, the ones who have some measure of intelligence, are pretty angry at how Targio had just lied to them and stole an item and they therefore attack on sight. In addition to these intelligent constructs, clay and stone golems patrol the halls, attacking any they see.  The PCs must figure out methods of dealing with these many guards.The PCs should be able to eventually discover that an evil knife was taken out of the keep.  But even as they leave the keep the tournament is starting.  Arriving at the arena, the PCs will see a fight between the ogres and a group of about twenty men.  The men are doomed but the crowd is cheering and loving every minute of the fight.  If the PCs can stop the ogres from killing ten people with the dagger (which they should recognize from the picture in Targio’s room) they will disrupt the ritual.  If the ogres manage to kill ten people, tentacles will erupt from the arena floor and begin attacking people.  These huge rubbery tentacles are mindless and will kill indiscriminately.  Fighters and spectators alike will be attacked.  They, however, are just a distraction.  Walking on Air over the arena is a chanting, wailing Targio.  If the PCs get distracted and fight the tentacles Targio will complete the ritual and bring forth a huge and unique demon of destruction.  If the PCs get to this point they are in bad shape and will be witness to tremendous amounts of destruction. Conclusion:  Ideally the PCs get to the arena in time to stop the madman’s ritual from being completely finished.  But if they do not stop the ritual and wisely flee, a subsequent adventure could easily be created around a search for a weapon with which to kill the huge demon of destruction.  If they stop the ritual, any imprisoned PCs will have earned their freedom.  Likewise if the PCs were hired, those hiring them will honor their obligations and richly reward the PCs for a job well done.  Completion of the adventure will leave two loose ends – what to do with the books Targio owned and what to do with Argis’ magical keep.Notes:  This is an adventure that really needs to be better fleshed out with layers of intigue, subtle hints and a few maps to do it proper justice.  Any DM wanting to use it is encouraged to spend the time to create a couple of foreshadowing events, one or two red herrings, a few meaningless gladiator matches and a more detailed overview of the magical keep.  However I think the idea as is is fairly solid and should provide a fun outline for the right group.</blockquote>

Verification