IRON DM - Round 1
An adventure for characters of 5th or 6th level
Ingredients
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Claustrophobic mind-flayer
Sinking ship
Empty chest
Sacrificial altar
Pleasant villa
Insane mentor
What follows may be a little fragmented (I wish I had had time to edit and organize) - but basically what I’ve written here is how I write adventures for my own campaigns (minus the stat blocks). I like to create places and events and the people that live there and do them for the party to interact with and kind of let them create their own adventure - the action moves on with or without them, but thy can effects it outcome, or just ignore the whole thing and go on the their way - but knowing the setting is a dynamic place where things “happen” whether or not they are involved or related. The action is created through the relationships of NPCs to each other and to the PCs, and more and more elements are added as their knowledge of the situation grows.
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The party comes upon the idyllic little town of Lunmar on a sparsely forested cliff above the sea. The air here smells and tastes of salt and is refreshing, the sound of waves crashing at the bottom of the cliff canb e heard faintly throughout the town. The town is ruled by a local lord who lives in a pleasant villa at the edge of the cliff, standing atop slightly higher ground and facing the town itself and surrounded by a vineyard.
This adventure is meant to be a sidetrek between larger adventurers or as a stopping point in the midst of a much long or more epic type of adventure - a place where the party can rest a few days and re-supply and move on. Perhaps bad weather can be used as a means of keeping the party around long enough to meet and get to know some of the friendly locals. Other reasons that might keep the party around are waiting for the local smith to make or repair weapons, armor or other equipment, or perhaps they can be doing some information gathering for some other adventure or series of events the PCs are embroiled in - It is up to the individual GM as to whether or not the party's arrival here is a red herring or related to some larger campaign plot.
The people of Lunmar are increasingly festive while the party is there, as the full moon approaches and they all seem to be worshipers of some local moon deity or saint - and they celebrate a festival every year, which includes colored lanterns, music, food and bonfires, and unknown to the party the sacrifice of a local young person every full moon for four months - designated from birth to appease "the sea spirits"
Due to some fluke of the location of the cliff and the time of year, for four months each year every time the moon is full, the water at the bottom of the cliff recedes enough to reveal a jutting protrusion of basalt with a flat top, atop of which have been bolted a set of chains and shackles and a large chest. There are wooden stairways and walks that lead down the face of the cliff - which are frequently repaired, as they get soaked and in many places are swollen and bowed, threatening to fall into the jagged submerged rocks below. At the bottom, is a small dock with a few boats tied there for use for fishing, but also used when the sacrificial time comes.
Every 28 days the designated person (during this period) is chained out there and left for the water to rise over their head. The next time the water subsides the chest is filled with precious gems, gold and other valuable items.
At the time the PCs have come three people have already been sacrificed this year and there is only one to go, Trina Delfast.
Timing and Characters
The GM should come up with a good number of fleshed out NPCs to give the town a friendly and real feeling - the kind of place the PCs would think about returning to some time in the future - if they were not about to discover its dark secret - but along with other residents of the town - Ideally, the whole town of Lunmar should be detailed to create the backdrop for this adventure. The GM should be careful to not raise the PC's suspicions too early - among those they should definitely meet are:
Trina Delfast - Com2/LN - Trina is the miller's daughter, and the next to be sacrificed, which she will do willingly (most of them do) as she understands how this ritual keeps the town safe and prosperous and does not see her individual life as more important than the group's well being. She has had a good and pampered life, getting the best that not only her parents could offer - but the town as a whole is always extra friendly and generous to those who are designated sacrificial victims. The last few days leading up to festival and sacrifice, are particularly debaucherous, and Trina will be seen eating lots of rich food, dancing, drinking and might even take off for a private snog with an attractive young man. If at all possible the GM should have her appear are appealing and attractive to a party member. It will add that much more drama if a PC comes to care for her, and she is willingly going to her death.
Boris & Felda Delfast - Trina’s parents are very proud of her, and her mother always cries because of this. She also has a sister, Morla, aged 14,that resents her sister’s privilege. Morla might be convinced to go along with a plan to disrupt or stop the sacrifice just for the sake of mischief, as long as no one is hurt in the process.
Ayman Noss - Rog2/N - Ayman was Trina's sweetheart growing up, and until about a year ago was considered her beau. He feels the sacrifices are wrong, but as long as they were no one he cared about too much he never complained. However, about a year ago he began to try to convince Trina to run off with him and avoid her fate. She balked, and their relationship soon ended. Depending on the PC's attitude and how they present themselves, he might approach them for help and present what goes on in his town in the worse possible light. (He doesn't know what is down in the water, so cannot make a suggestion for a course of action more specific than go down into the water and investigate. However, if pressed for an idea - he suggests some kind of distraction might keep people from fulfilling the sacrifice (a fire at the villa for example). If the party is unwilling to help him, or are acting like the typical arrogant and self-centered adventurers, Ayman will attempt to investigate the sea spirits himself and his brainless corpse will be found on the jutting rock when the water recedes. He would offer Morla as an example of someone who would be against the sacrifice, but only if pressed because the idea to involve her would not occur to him.
Warren Farkrieg - Rogue2/Bard4/N - Crazy old Farkrieg spends most of his time at the town’s pub, drinking and eating from the generosity of strangers. Eleven years ago he worked aboard, the Dulcinea, a privateer vessel bring a cargo of gold, gems, silk and other precious items form the south. The ship was driven into rocks during a horrible storm, and Farkrieg was the only to survive because of his ioun stone that allows him to live without air and skill as a swimmer. He begins drinking first thing in the morning and drinks steadily all day growing increasingly inebriated, but keeping his placid veneer, though his information will be increasingly unreliable and confabulated as the day wears on. He calls the full moon sacrifice “the monthly trawling”. He began to call it this when he heard a description of a pendant that had been gotten in return, and he knew that the pendant in question had been aboard the Dulcinea. When his mind is not too fogged he has been able to piece together that some monster must be providing things from the treasury of Davey Jones’ Locker, and there were no sea spirits at all. His increased drinking and the growing horror that the town was not appeasing a divine power, but just some sea monster helped to bring his mind over the edge.
Talloway Quick - Rog1/NG - This young man is Warren Farkrieg’s only friend, the elder man, though crazed, served as the younger’s mentor in terms of telling him stories of the sea and teaching him swimming strokes and breathing techniques. He can swim farther and deeper than anyone else in town, but still has not ventured to where the natural sacrificial altar lies beneath the waves, because of the taboo of his home town, but he gets closer every time. He has been able to tell that there is some grotto down there, and that the wreckage of the Dulcinea is nearby. However, recently Farkrieg warned him off of getting too close. Talloway might approach the party, if he sees them talking with Warren, or if they begin to investigate the water on their own. He might suggest sharing whatever treasure they find, if they aid him in searching the wreck and the grotto.
Lord Burton Langonel - Arist6/LN - Lord Burton Langone lives in the lovely and large villa overlooking both the town and the sea. It is surrounded by a vineyard and sheep can be seen gathering around it, as the grounds are used for local grazing. The PCs may try to focus the guilt for this horrible thing that has been going on for so long on the Lord, but the truth is all in the town are equally as culpable. Actually, getting the interest of the Lord is a bad idea, as he will use his men-at-arms to detain the PCs, arresting them for trespassing, assault or any other “crimes” they might commit while investigating the rumor of sacrificial ceremony or great treasure. He leads the ceremony of the sacrifice along with Brother Thom. A gather info roll against DC 12 after some time is spent around town or in the pub will allow a PC to learn that the Lord handles the wealth that comes from the sea (the gifts of the sea spirits), but that he shares and applies them fairly (this is true, the Lord is a very fair man - and even had one of his own children sacrificed a dozen years previously).
Brother Thom - Rog2/Mk4/LE - This monk has decided to dedicate himself to the worship and satisfying of the spirits of the rocks below the sea at the foot of the cliff. He believes it a powerful, perhaps fiendish, entity that can give him power and control over his environment. Brother Thom has become the lord’s right hand man, and follows around Trina for the last three days (during the festival) guarding “he gift of the spirits”. He fights with a masterwork three-piece rod, and owns slippers of spider-climbing.
The Grotto & The Sacrificial Altar - The grotto is home to Mwey-Mwey-thisp’ch, a water elemental illithid (use “water creature” template from MotP). The grotto is only partially covered, but basically is just a moss covered set of stones leaning to shield an area from tides and from from being viewed when approached from the direction of the shore. The remains of sunken boats also helps to create a maze down there.
Mwey’s origins involved a spell gone awry, and the flooding and collapsing of the subterranean lair of an entire colony of mind-flayers. The great wave of water from the elemental plane burst forth, blasting out the side of the underwater mountain the colony was in and mixing with the amniotic fluid of the mind-flayer birthing pool. Thus was Mwey-Mwey born. He only once explored the flooded chambers of his former people, but left hurriedly. He hated the oppression of the place, and the floating rotting bodies, and the cramped architecture, associating them with death and his solitude, feeling a palpable fear when swimming near them. Instead this claustrophobic mind-flayer inhabited the submerged grotto below the cliff upon which Lunmar sat. While like all illithids he hates direct sunlight, he actually enjoys the diffused and dazzling light that dances neart the surface of the water - feeling its warmth through his watery membranes. Using his emerging mental powers, he enchanted the town’s lord at the time and some key figures and drew up the religious trappings to disguise it in. For a time Mwey repaid them for his meals with things he gathered from the ocean floor. He enlisted the aid of a rare variety of aquatic mimic that takes the form of the chest on the sacrificial stone and guards the entrance to the grotto. The mimic attacks anyone approaching the stone while it is still submerged. It take advantage of the fact that you cannot effectively use slashing or blunt weapons underwater (w/o freedom of movement), and makes grappling attacks. You should advance it up to 10 or 11 hit dice and give it an extra attack.
The grotto itself can be as simple or complex a place to search as the DM wants. There could more creatures down there, or more remains of ships to explore. The grotto could have a dire pike, or a shark or two are guardians However, there is little or no treasure left (see the night of the sacrifice). The source of the Dulcinea, and things blown out of the former illithid colony have begun to dry up and Mwey-Mwey will no longer be giving gifts for his sacrifices. He does have a few small and valuable things - but he instinctively holds on to them for use or trade at a later date.
Imagine Mwey-Mwey as a kind of feral mind-flayer, blessed with incredible intelligence, but still using it for basic purposes for collecting food. He is a villain in training, something that could eventually be an even greater threat as he learns more about the outside world (the PCs might be his first big taste of it). I envision Mwey-Mwey as a sea green and teal color, with a fin-like membrane about the perimeter of his body, growing to translucence at the edges.
The night of the sacrifice: Assuming that the PCs allow the sacrifice to go on, on the night of the full moon, about three score men and women in navy blue robes with green trim. You can treat the townsfolk all as first level commoners, they all have cudgels (treat as club), if it comes to combat against them - but they fight reticently, leaving it to the monks and the men-at-arms - mostly making rings to keep PCs from getting away.
As the moon rises the water dramatically recedes, revealing the squarish stone and three nearby pylons for mooring.
The robed townfolk climb into two small sailboats. Lord Langonel, Brother Thom and his two neophytes (Mk2), along with Trina and her family, are brought out in a longboat with townsfolk doing the rowing. (Morna may or may not be there). In a way, Brother Thom is also a crazed mentor.
If the party is not working with Ayman Noss, his unrecognizable remains will be discovered when the boats arrive. There will be an uproar. The body looks like it was chewed up and spit out, but huge chunks are missing (he was killed by the mimic). The uproar will increase after Trina is chain to the altar. According to tradition, it is only then that chest may be opened to take out the gifts from “the sea spirits” - however it is empty (remember, Mwey-Mwey and the mimic can’t find anything anymore without expanding their area of looking). At this point, a great debate should rise among the townsfolk and the Lord about how to interpret his. Trina will start looking nervous.
It is wholly possible that only some or none of these events may come to pass depending on the actions taken by the PCs. The best thing to do is to get a hold of the main NPCs personalities and motivations and be ready to play them according to what begins to happen. All sorts of things could happen differently: The party could fight the mimic underwater during the day, forcing it to flee or killing it. The lack of a chest altogether will cause a huge uproar. The party could be arrested, or could attack the townsfolk before they get out there, or damage their boats during the day.
If they seek to go out after the townsfolk, there is only one sail boat left tied at the base of the cliff (note even though the water recedes it is still over forty feet deep), and it is in such bad repair (pulled up on a huge sand-covered rock) that it will begin to sink quickly as they make their way across. It is about two hundred feet from the base of the stairs/dock to the sacrificial stone. To simply you can rule that the party can get to the stone or the other moored boats, but not make it back. If half the party boards the decrepit, they are still stuck with what is a sinking ship, that will be useless by the time any combat at the sacrificial stone is done. Of course, if the party has access to the fly spell this makes it much easier.
The stone itself is about four feet off the surface of the water, and about 10 feet by 15 feet. Thus, whatever combat might happen out there would like be from boat to boat -w hich should make for an interesting combat environment - which will likely include some jumping, balance and climbing checks, and perhaps some swimming if folks are unlucky. The use of environemnt in a combat encounter can increase the difficult, fun and dramatic tension a great deal - and helps to avoid boring dice-rolling fests where foes simply face off and trade blows. If the GM wants to make it more interesting, blood in the water could attract sharks, making any missed checks that much more dangerous for those who fail them and fall into the water.
It is completely possible that the PCs will not bother to search the grotto and learn what the monster is, and be happy to “break up” the tradition of the sacrifices somehow.
It is also possible that the lure of treasure, or the ramblings of a drunken man, or the moral idea of saving someone who wants to die will not be enough to draw the party into the adventure; Let them go. In time Mwey-Mwey will be able to create his own birth pool to spawn more of his kind and they will begin to become a greater threat to shipping lanes and other aquatic creatures - possible drawing the PCs back to the villain at a later date when the learn that they might have stopped it. Another possibility is that combat erupts before the townsfolk reach the boats-the wooden starways down to the mooring at the bottom of the cliff are very narrow - meaning that at place where the platforms turn back on themselves to lead down staris only one person may pass - trying to pass someone at these tight spots will require a balance check against DC 12. Failing requires a Reflex check against DC 13 or fail to grab the rotten rail and actaully fall through it to the rocks below. The sharp rocks add +1d8 to any fall per 10 feet fallen.
Final Suggestions/Guidelines: You should try to run this adventure in a cthulhuesque way (it was partially inspired by "Shadow Over Innsmouth"), with the infornation coming to the PCs slowing and the hrorrific realization dawning on them on the day of the sacrifice. However, do note that while the people of Lunmar do not openly discuss the sacrifice and will avoid the topic, they do not go out of their way to hide it either - as they feel they are perfectly in their rights to do it.
If there is n sacrifice, Mwey-Mwey (who makes do most of the year with shark brains) will still be hungry and the next night he will come to town by night and using his charm monster power force the Lord to bring him a fresh young brain, while he waits in the villa. The monks will aid the illithid out of fear and awe.
The levels for the NPCs in this adventure can easily be raised to raise the difficulty. Brother Thom could be bumpd up two or three levels, and his two students could be bumped up a level or two. Sharks could be added to the waters around the sacrificial altar, and you can add some warriors or experts or rogues to the townsfolk on the night of the sacrifice. The Lord's men-at-arms could also be made a more even match of the PCs or you can introduce a captain of the guard.
) . If this is not the case, it'd be easy to adapt. Furthermore, it seems easy to adapt the psionics involved to magic if your d20 modern campaign doesn't support it.
