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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 9156658" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dungeon Issue 87: Jul/Aug 2001part 3/6The Cradle of Madness: Straight away, here’s another adventure they would never have published under the previous edition, but for much more interesting reasons. It’s time for an incest plotline, and not a “they’re step-siblings so you can use it as masturbation material guilt-free” one either. Two twins separated at birth have been chosen by Tharzidun to bear his prophet. They have matching birthmarks that made them susceptible to his whispers and both grew up thoroughly sociopathic, with a lengthy backstory of what happened in their past filling the first few pages, but things didn’t really get going until they found each other and got it on. Now she’s approaching labor and has disappeared to the temple to give birth, pretending to be kidnapped and leaving a ransom note to bilk money out of her adoptive daddy dearest. Dad decides to hire adventurers to rescue her rather than paying up and here you are. Go to the ransom site, where the cultists prove they were never bargaining in good faith by trying to kill you and take whatever loot you have. Hopefully you’ll leave one alive to interrogate, or failing that have someone with the tracking feat and can trace them back to the temple. Once you’re at the temple you have a fairly typical little dungeoncrawl, albeit one that’s easier than normal to get through via stealth or disguise rather than fighting everything, due to the mechanical effects insanity has in 3e. Due to the miracle of dramatic timing, you’ll arrive at the final chamber just as she’s about to give birth and the clerics intend to perform a ritual binding the baby permanently to Tharzidun. Hopefully you’ll manage to disrupt it one way or another and save the day. However, there’s multiple stings in the tail of this tale. If you don’t realise that mommy was an enthusiastically consenting participant in the spawning process and kill her as well she’ll sneakily seek revenge later. If you leave the baby in her care or as an orphan without taking a personal interest in its upbringing there’s a decent chance it’ll also turn out evil and be back with further diabolical schemes as soon as it’s old enough. So this is one that definitely rewards players who are suspicious of the info the DM gives them and will engage in investigation and roleplaying rather than just going straight in the direction they’re pointed in and hacking their way through any obvious monsters they see. It has a dramatic story that gives interesting results whichever way the PC’s choose to react to it rather than railroading them into one choice and has the potential to have a significant impact on the direction of your campaign long after the adventure itself is over. it would be a well above average adventure on those grounds alone, but earns extra significance by seeing them completely depart from their usual family-friendly writing. WotC may have got rid of the Code of Conduct a few years ago now, but it’s taken a while for them to really get comfortable with the idea of pushing the boundaries. But it looks like the time has finally come to put on those nipple clamps of exquisite pain, get to meeting the prerequisites for the lichloved feat and then write it all up in the book of vile darkness for release next year. That’s one way to spice things up and keep from repeating yourself 15 years into the magazine. This is definitely one I’d delight in using with the right group.Nodwick’s party have faced many monsters successfully, but handling childbirth proves well beyond their skills.</blockquote>

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