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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wulf Ratbane" data-source="post: 2295487" data-attributes="member: 94">The Curse of BoccobAn side-adventure for 4th-7th level PCs. (I have set this adventure in Greyhawk, but with the the tall towers and the investigative nature of the scenario, I think it might also work nicely in Eberron.)For thousands of years, the monks of western Greyhawk have maintained the Great Library of Boccob. It is a repository of all knowledge, mundane and arcane, and its books are said to hold the answer to any question.The monastic library rises where the high wooded hills give way to the mountains. A single path, protected on one side by the rising cliffs and on the other by an impossibly high wall, leads up to the towers of a keep that rise further into the sky. The earth here is chalky and dry, and few things grow easily. Grasses and weeds (such as foxglove, which takes root easily in the aging mortar of the wall) are abundant. The slopes are most noted for the wiry, twisting trees from which the monks make darkwood. The monks here are perhaps unique in that they use darkwood for paper pulp. Within their tall towers are shelf after shelf of countless tomes of darkwood paper, illuminated and illustrated in mithril leaf. While the black pages with their silver writing are exquisite, priceless works of art, they also serve to keep the bookshelves from collapsing under their own weight, allowing the bookshelves themselves to rise impossibly high within the tower walls.When one of the monks seeks enlightenment, he will leave the keep by the back gate and continue up the mountain along the Path of 1000 Steps. Here, in the thin mountain air, in a shrine dedicated to Boccob, he will meditate and commune until he receives a vision of the answer.For a monk to ascend into the Council of Elders, he must prove his purity by stepping over the wall and descending to the ground without harm, using his slow fall ability. Only the true masters will survive. Most simply wait at the top of the path for enlightenment and return the way they came, happy to have failed the test and content to continue their instruction for a few decades more.In recent years the normal placid stability of the monastery has been thrown into turmoil. All who have ascended the Path have been struck dead, inexplicably. Enlightenment is impossible. Questions go unanswered. Books go unwritten. And the Council of Elders continue to die, as nature intends, with none to replace them. If someone does not rise to the Council of Elders before the last of them dies, the fate of the Library is uncertain.The PCs can enter this situation by a number of means, the most obvious of which is in pursuit of some sage advice, in which case they are embroiled in media res, as the Council of Elders will beseech them to find some answer. They believe that they have been cursed by Boccob, though they do not know why. Unable to provide any answers for themselves, they turn in desperation to these young outsiders. It will be clear to the PCs that the rigid hierarchy of the monastery is falling apart. They will have difficulty penetrating alternating layers of chaos and bureaucracy, and if their need is dire, they’ll have to help the monks here before they can pursue their own agenda.Otherwise, they may be here to purchase a rare darkwood spellbook, or they may be bidden to come here by the monks themselves. Any cleric of magic or knowledge, and certainly any wizard, may receive word that the monastery is in need of heroes.The Grim DetailsThe monks are the victim of one of their own brothers (of course…). Brother Gerard, a wise but lowly alchemist/herbalist, aspired to greatness with the order, but grew impatient, and set plans in motion to ensure his rise to the Council of Elders.Foxglove is a deadly poison—or so the monks believed, including Gerard, until the day of his own enlightenment. In much smaller doses, the potent digitalis within the plant’s leaves has a medicinal effect, increasing blood pressure and regulating the heartbeat. Gerard simply added this footnote to his herbalist’s opus and soldiered on for many years.But over those years, Gerard "grew" in his enlightenment. In its benign form, Gerard reasoned, foxglove could be administered to his fellows— even those among the more experienced whose bodies might otherwise be immune to poison. Gerard reasoned, rather insightfully, that this immunity did not extend to foxglove's benign medicinal effects— and he was, sadly, correct.Combined with the high altitude at the top of the Path of 1000 Steps, however, the effect is no longer so benign: blood pressure rises until the victim drops dead from heart failure. Indeed, to make matters worse, the effect is preceded by hallucinations and delirium, so even those victims who might otherwise be inclined to turn back, were instead urged on by the promise of enlightenment!Gerard’s simple plan was to ensure that he was the only monk able to ascend the Path.The InvestigationThe PCs investigation into the problem can take any number of avenues:The Bodies: You should reveal these details slowly and allow the players time to chase down red herrings until they penetrate the truth.It has been some time since the last death, but the monks have kept a fairly detailed record of each victim. Because of the burst blood vessels, the body is likely to appear bruised, as if it had fallen from a great height, but there are no broken bones or any exterior scratches to support the theory (except among those victims who died and pitched over the side of the wall, of course). The eyes, particularly, show the effects of burst vessels—bloodshot and staring as if the victim died in the midst of some horrific vision. The tongue, swollen, tends to protrude from the mouth.(If the PCs come upon this scenario as it is unfolding, or especially if you have an investigative character among the group, they may be able to examine a fresh body.)The Path: The PCs may want to climb to the top of the Path themselves. Apply—and describe—the effects of high altitude. This may be one of their most important clues. Obviously, the PCs will not die, but they will not find any other clues at the shrine to Boccob.The Poison: Players being players, they are likely to seize on poison fairly early on. The monks will of course try to dissuade them of this avenue of investigation, as many of the victims were immune to poison. Pursued far enough, the PCs may be encouraged to seek out Brother Gerard, who is the resident expert.Brother Gerard Covers His Tracks: Gerard will be helpful, but if the PCs seek his tome on herbal poisons, Gerard will have to delay them “for a day or two while I locate the book.” Finding the book, Gerard will quickly administer an alchemical solution that will dissolve his added footnote in his Foxglove entry. In his haste, however, he will leave a critical clue buried in the original text: the dagger (†) itself. It is not as literal as a dagger left protruding from the back of the victim, but it is critical evidence nevertheless. An astute reader will realize that a footnote was intended, added, or removed; a little further investigation will reveal that only Gerard has had access to this book. Cornering Gerard: Again, players being players, they are likely to confront Gerard on the flimsiest of evidence—and this is fine. There are countless ways for this confrontation to unfold. Most likely, once it seems his secret is unraveling, Gerard will seek to flee (up the Path) and the PCs are likely to pursue (barring that, they may find clues that he has ascended the mountain).Gerard should be able to outdistance the PCs, but as he enters the shrine to Boccob at the top of the Path, there will be a blinding flash of light. The Curse of Boccob has struck. Gerard will never ascend to become a being of pure and perfect energy. Instead, he will be cursed with an arcanaform that is anathema to all monks, a being of pure chaos: a chaos beast. The PCs must fight and defeat chaos-Gerard, who will struggle to control his physical instability throughout the fight. Eventually, he will dissolve into a puddle of fleshy goo.But the curse is not finished with him yet. There are other powers to be satisfied, and Gerard will rise again to satisfy the curse of all mass-murderers: he will become a mohrg. (In fact, he will become a chaos beast with a mohrg template (CR+1).)It is up to the GM whether this final battle should take place immediately, atop the shrine, or whether Gerard should ooze back down the mountain to seek revenge on the PCs as they rest and recover in the monastery.The PCs will be warmly welcomed back to the monastery keep and provided with such services as they need, free of charge, including healing and sage advice. The monks may offer darkwood weapons or shields, or offer to transcribe the wizard’s spellbook into darkwood paper with mithril ink (½ the weight and twice as cool).·    Foxglove: The poison that becomes a "medicine" that becomes a poison again.·    Darkwood Dagger: The footnote in the darkwood book that implicates Gerard.·    Enlightened Monk: Gerard, whose enlightenment regarding the medicinal effects of foxglove leads him to murder·    Mohrg: The undying fate of all cursed, unrepentant mass murderers·    Impossibly High Wall: The wall surrounding the monastery, where the foxglove grows and the crazy monks test their purity; it is the high altitude that makes the foxglove deadly again·    Instability: the chaos sown in the monastery by their inability to ascend the Path, and the literal instability of Gerard in the final battle</blockquote>

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