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[Let's Read] Turning the Tables Vol. 1 (7 one-shot adventures starring monstrous PCs)
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<blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 8993497" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/B9jvdzJ.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>This adventure takes place in a remote halfling village located within a forest. Miss Blue is a mage whose magic item creation hobby has had side effects in the local spring, where her experimental Awaken potions got into the water supply. A few animals drinking from it gain self-awareness, and the PCs are among such newly-awakened animals. They start to look into their newfound status and the greater mystery around the village.</p><p></p><p>For character creation the players choose the stat blocks of nonmagical Challenge Rating 0 animals which would plausibly be native to a forest or halfling village. The major changes are that they have Intelligence of 8 if said stat is lower by default, it’s encouraged to roll for hit points in order to ensure they start play with more than 1 hit point, they choose two additional skill proficiencies, and they begin play with an unconventional piece of equipment such as a pair of clean socks (absorbency can be used to stabilize bleeding), a wooden spoon (improvised weapon that deals 1d4 damage),or a skein of knitting yarn (can be used for a variety of ropelike tasks with advantage).</p><p></p><p>The adventure begins with descriptive boxed text of the PCs experiencing the Awaken effect, and also that a mysterious hawk with a blue spot on her forehead has been monitoring the party before flying off to the top of a hill near the village. The hawk is Briarwing, Miss Blue’s familiar who has been scouting to oversee the animal population in order to learn further about the situation.</p><p></p><p>The adventure is mostly skill-based and noncombat. The PCs cannot speak with the halflings (barring Miss Blue and one half-elf druid who have spells to communicate), but they can speak with other animals. Each major location in the village has characters and events that can help the party, such as befriending a girl in the village square via a Charisma check to gain 1d4 bardic inspiration, or a bakery with magic sticky buns that gives those who them eat temporary hit points. The animals can gradually point the PCs to Miss Blue and her familiar, who is fond of using a blue spiral motif on the various gifts and items she gives to others around the village. Some of these magic items can be obtained as equipment by the PCs, such as a bracelet that can cast a simplified version of Color Spray that affects 3d10 hit points worth of targets rather than 6d10.</p><p></p><p>The next portion of the adventure has the PCs go up the hill, where they encounter obstacles such as finding a way past the wooden gate blocking their progress, or rescuing a dog named Wiggles from an awakened wolf who is wrestling with the morality of his carnivorous nature. The final area of the adventure is in front of Miss Blue’s cottage, where four other awakened animals believe that they have great power and painted blue spirals on their foreheads to emulate Briarwing. Daffodil, the chicken, wants to become a familiar and views the PCs as dangerous rivals. The other animals fearfully follow her orders, and while combat is possible these animals (save Daffodil) can be convinced to surrender via a Charisma check. Briarwing will watch the combat, and depending on the prior actions of the PCs Miss Blue may aid them via her familiar and touch spells.</p><p></p><p>After four rounds of combat or after its end the mage will appear, stopping the fight with the sleep spell if necessary. She will explain to those present the effects of her awaken potion getting into the water supply. She will give PCs who displayed upstanding moral behavior during the adventure a choice: to return to their prior self, or keep their newfound intelligence. PCs who have acted cruelly or sought to kill Daffodil’s team will have her dispel the awaken effect without a choice.</p><p></p><p><em>Thoughts:</em> A rather cute, short, and simple adventure. I will say that the measly hit points the PCs have can make combat over way too soon, although as by nature a TPK is impossible (the wolf will run off with the first slain PC rather than killing any more than needed) unless the PCs end up taking falling damage or some other unaccounted for hazard, it doesn’t exactly have any real stakes beyond being an interesting story to tell.</p><p></p><p>[spoiler]<p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/o4cEJlT.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p>[/spoiler]</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><strong>Some Assembly Required</strong></p><p></p><p><strong>Content Warning:</strong> Arachnid in image above</p><p></p><p>This adventure is designed for 3-4 5th level kuo-toa PCs. The hook is that the party are of the monitor social class of kuo-toa, servants of Hall’cthunk the high priest and through him the god Shmeepshmorp, who also shares the same name as their village. The god was murdered by an adventuring surface dweller who sneaked into their settlement, and Hall’cthunk has called an emergency session for the party to scavenge the surrounding Underdark to build a new god. The PCs must gather 3 body parts from 3 different creatures: a head, upper body, and lower body. The various monsters in this adventure can be harvested for such parts, and depending on what parts are used determines the powers and personality traits of the new god. They have 24 hours to assemble the parts, lest Shmeepshmorp descend into violent chaos from godlessness.</p><p></p><p>For character creation, things are similar to the ettercaps from the first adventure. There is a default race with basic traits which are equivalent to 5th level characters, and 6 Monitor Paths reflecting their more specialized powers. The default kuo-toa use the stats of a whip, minus the spellcasting capabilities but with a +3 proficiency bonus. The six Paths are Aquira (telekinetic powers such as a higher AC of invisible force, a ranged telekinetic toss attack, and a rechargeable telekinestic blast AoE cone), Fish Fist (can dash as a bonus action, add Wisdom modifier to unarmed strikes and AC, unarmed strikes deal bonus lightning damage and can let the PC learn one resistance/weakness of the target), Gourmand (slow but larger, can regain spend Hit Dice by eating corpses, resistance and advantage to poison damage and poisoned condition, can perform a multi-target rolling charge attack), Mumbler (aware of unknown horrors, higher Charisma and proficiency in several Charisma skills, bite attack can impose a delirium die on a target where they subtract a d8 from a d20 roll with the PC’s reaction, a rechargeable hysterical mumbling that has a confusion-like effect on nearby targets), Sticky Brawler (lose the slippery trait, gain spider climb, proficiency in athletics, nature, and survival, and can make two unarmed attacks and a bite with multiattack), and Supplicant (divine caster, higher Wisdom and proficiency in priestly skills, can cast cleric spells up to 3rd level, can fall prone to supplicate a nearby willing creature to giant them a bonus to their attack bonus or AC equal to your Wisdom modifier).</p><p></p><p>Much like ettercaps, there is some variety among the choices. The Supplicant is a strong option as while their cleric spells are predetermined, they gain access to some good spells such as Spiritual Weapon and Spirit Guardians. Their Supplication is good for a boost, but as they cannot concentrate on spells and remain prone while doing so it is a tactical trade-off. The rechargeable abilities are pretty useful as they aren’t limited by short or long rests, and while their use in combat is rather random it can be assumed they’re regained between fights so PCs can afford to use them liberally throughout the adventure. There’s quite a few options for battlefield control, which I like, such as the Aquira’s telekinetic blast or the Mumbler’s pseudo-confusion.</p><p></p><p>The adventure is semi open-ended in that there are several places to explore with a variety of monsters to harvest. The beginning takes place in the kuo-toa settlement of Shmeepshmorp, where a Charisma Investigation check can give some tips for their quest. Loobloop is the Grand High General of the town militia who has maps of the surrounding areas, but as she secretly hates the high priest will attempt to sabotage the PCs’ efforts with bad advice and maps. Loobloob is secretly plotting a coup against Hall’cthunk, and if the PCs convince her that they aren’t fond of the current leadership she will entrust them with a bag of green gems to insert into the monster parts. It will grant Loobloob total control of the deity, which she will use to kill Hall’chunk and gain rulership. PCs who report this treachery to the priest will have him thank the PCs, but won’t act against her yet.</p><p></p><p>The surrounding Underdark contains three broad regions: Deep Lake, Fungal Forest, and Twisting Tunnels. Each region has two smaller encounter areas, and using the false maps or poor survival checks with no maps will cost the PCs additional hours on their journey.</p><p></p><p>Deep Lake contains a crashed illithid nautiloid, and a chuul is in the cargo deck along with a tentacle rod as treasure. There’s also a lair of a lake troll who has troll stats but with a swimming speed, resistance to cold damage, and is amphibious. A third party are a group of piercers on the cavern ceiling who will drop onto anyone wandering beneath them.</p><p></p><p>The Fungal Forest has a section where a phase spider lives, which has captured a duergar woman alive and has cocooned her for a later meal. PCs who free her during combat will have the duergar aid them in the fight, and one of the cocooned corpses has a wand of web as treasure. A Persuasion check can convince the duergar to join the party for 1 more encounter location. The other location in the forest is a grove where a pixie known as Fluffertwinkle is seemingly trapped in a cage on the tree. She is pretending to be a damsel in distress, and is on top of a shambling mound which will come to life and attack anyone who gets near enough. Fluffertwinkle has developed a hatred for other Underdark denizens and will use her magic to aid the mound in combat.</p><p></p><p>The Twisting tunnels are home to a Drow Encampment. Four drow have captured 3 kuo-toa and are forcing them to sing and dance for their lives, and being thus distracted the PCs have various opportunities for an ambush. They can also roll a conveniently-placed boulder which can kill both the drow and captive kuo-toa, but will also destroy their equipment and has a chance to make harvesting one or more of their body parts impossible. The kuo-toa, if freed, will accompany the party for the rest of the adventure. Which is a really nice benefit as it practically doubles the party size. The other location is a trail of blood leading into a cavern where an injured mind flayer by the name of Orloka has been exiled from its people due to researching arcane magic. It does not wish to fight and will put up an intimidating deception to try and convince the party to leave.</p><p></p><p><strong>Content Warning: Attempted Suicide</strong></p><p></p><p>[spoiler]If at any point Orlaka is reduced to 20 hit points or less in combat, it will use a scroll of fireball to target the ceiling above, causing a cave-in which will kill the mind flayer and injure nearby PCs. As the illithid has read the party’s minds by the time they arrive, it will seek to rob them of what they seek even in death.[/spoiler]</p><p></p><p>If the PCs come back home with 3 required parts in time, the high priest and remaining monitors will stitch the new deity together, and the PCs will have the honor of naming it. If the PCs inserted the gems at Loobloob’s orders, she will take control of it and command it to kill Hall’cthunk and his supporters, including the party. This will most likely be a TPK if the PCs seek a straightforward fight, as in addition to Loobloob and six of her whip allies, the new deity has a huge amount of hit points (350) and deals a punishing slam attack. However, Loobloob is using a control rod which if wrested from her will obey whoever holds it. If the rod is destroyed, the deity will go berserk and seek to destroy everyone in the settlement.</p><p></p><p>If the PCs do not return in time, the commoners of Shmeepshmorp are leading a violent revolution, and Hall’cthunk is dead. Loobloob is attempting to seize control but with little progress without a divine backing. Even in this case the PCs may be able to assemble a god in time, but it has an 85% chance of going berserk and trying to kill everyone like in the above scenario.</p><p></p><p>As for the god and its desires, the head determines the god’s greatest goal: for example, a chuul will seek to rebuild the Aboleth Empire, while a troll will merely wish to remain fed and happy with large tributes of food. The upper body determines what race it longs to destroy; for instance, a phase spider’s upper body will demand its followers to declare war on the duergar, and a drow’s will be the same but for all surface dwellers instead. The lower body determines how it regards its followers; for example, a mind flayer’s lower body encourages the god to turn their followers into mindless servants via mental domination, while a phase spider’s will be nurturing and mothering, treating them like its own children.</p><p></p><p><em>Thoughts:</em> This is a rather neat adventure with a variety of challenges, and I like that in addition to the variety in harvested body parts virtually each encounter has some kind of treasure or benefit like NPC allies. So even with a one-shot there is still a visible sense of progression, and the time limit plus the variables in travel helps encourage resource management. The party can get away with one long rest hopefully, but depending on the quality of their maps and Survival checks (along with the encounter results themselves) may rob them of needed short rests.</p><p></p><p><strong>Final Thoughts:</strong> Turning the Tables is a criminally underrated sourcebook, judging by the fact it doesn’t even have a Best Copper status on the DM’s Guild (copper meaning that it sold at least 50 copies). The monster-themed one shots are an interesting, diverse assortment of neat scenarios with enough variety that they all feel sufficiently different from each other. The fact that their events and themes tie strongly into the nature of the playable monsters is an added bonus. This shows that the writers have good heads on their shoulders for what makes these creatures iconic. It is for these reasons that I’m hoping a Volume 2 is released someday.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Libertad, post: 8993497, member: 6750502"] [CENTER][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/B9jvdzJ.png[/IMG][/CENTER] This adventure takes place in a remote halfling village located within a forest. Miss Blue is a mage whose magic item creation hobby has had side effects in the local spring, where her experimental Awaken potions got into the water supply. A few animals drinking from it gain self-awareness, and the PCs are among such newly-awakened animals. They start to look into their newfound status and the greater mystery around the village. For character creation the players choose the stat blocks of nonmagical Challenge Rating 0 animals which would plausibly be native to a forest or halfling village. The major changes are that they have Intelligence of 8 if said stat is lower by default, it’s encouraged to roll for hit points in order to ensure they start play with more than 1 hit point, they choose two additional skill proficiencies, and they begin play with an unconventional piece of equipment such as a pair of clean socks (absorbency can be used to stabilize bleeding), a wooden spoon (improvised weapon that deals 1d4 damage),or a skein of knitting yarn (can be used for a variety of ropelike tasks with advantage). The adventure begins with descriptive boxed text of the PCs experiencing the Awaken effect, and also that a mysterious hawk with a blue spot on her forehead has been monitoring the party before flying off to the top of a hill near the village. The hawk is Briarwing, Miss Blue’s familiar who has been scouting to oversee the animal population in order to learn further about the situation. The adventure is mostly skill-based and noncombat. The PCs cannot speak with the halflings (barring Miss Blue and one half-elf druid who have spells to communicate), but they can speak with other animals. Each major location in the village has characters and events that can help the party, such as befriending a girl in the village square via a Charisma check to gain 1d4 bardic inspiration, or a bakery with magic sticky buns that gives those who them eat temporary hit points. The animals can gradually point the PCs to Miss Blue and her familiar, who is fond of using a blue spiral motif on the various gifts and items she gives to others around the village. Some of these magic items can be obtained as equipment by the PCs, such as a bracelet that can cast a simplified version of Color Spray that affects 3d10 hit points worth of targets rather than 6d10. The next portion of the adventure has the PCs go up the hill, where they encounter obstacles such as finding a way past the wooden gate blocking their progress, or rescuing a dog named Wiggles from an awakened wolf who is wrestling with the morality of his carnivorous nature. The final area of the adventure is in front of Miss Blue’s cottage, where four other awakened animals believe that they have great power and painted blue spirals on their foreheads to emulate Briarwing. Daffodil, the chicken, wants to become a familiar and views the PCs as dangerous rivals. The other animals fearfully follow her orders, and while combat is possible these animals (save Daffodil) can be convinced to surrender via a Charisma check. Briarwing will watch the combat, and depending on the prior actions of the PCs Miss Blue may aid them via her familiar and touch spells. After four rounds of combat or after its end the mage will appear, stopping the fight with the sleep spell if necessary. She will explain to those present the effects of her awaken potion getting into the water supply. She will give PCs who displayed upstanding moral behavior during the adventure a choice: to return to their prior self, or keep their newfound intelligence. PCs who have acted cruelly or sought to kill Daffodil’s team will have her dispel the awaken effect without a choice. [I]Thoughts:[/I] A rather cute, short, and simple adventure. I will say that the measly hit points the PCs have can make combat over way too soon, although as by nature a TPK is impossible (the wolf will run off with the first slain PC rather than killing any more than needed) unless the PCs end up taking falling damage or some other unaccounted for hazard, it doesn’t exactly have any real stakes beyond being an interesting story to tell. [spoiler][CENTER][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/o4cEJlT.png[/IMG][/CENTER][/spoiler] [center][b]Some Assembly Required[/b][/center] [b]Content Warning:[/b] Arachnid in image above This adventure is designed for 3-4 5th level kuo-toa PCs. The hook is that the party are of the monitor social class of kuo-toa, servants of Hall’cthunk the high priest and through him the god Shmeepshmorp, who also shares the same name as their village. The god was murdered by an adventuring surface dweller who sneaked into their settlement, and Hall’cthunk has called an emergency session for the party to scavenge the surrounding Underdark to build a new god. The PCs must gather 3 body parts from 3 different creatures: a head, upper body, and lower body. The various monsters in this adventure can be harvested for such parts, and depending on what parts are used determines the powers and personality traits of the new god. They have 24 hours to assemble the parts, lest Shmeepshmorp descend into violent chaos from godlessness. For character creation, things are similar to the ettercaps from the first adventure. There is a default race with basic traits which are equivalent to 5th level characters, and 6 Monitor Paths reflecting their more specialized powers. The default kuo-toa use the stats of a whip, minus the spellcasting capabilities but with a +3 proficiency bonus. The six Paths are Aquira (telekinetic powers such as a higher AC of invisible force, a ranged telekinetic toss attack, and a rechargeable telekinestic blast AoE cone), Fish Fist (can dash as a bonus action, add Wisdom modifier to unarmed strikes and AC, unarmed strikes deal bonus lightning damage and can let the PC learn one resistance/weakness of the target), Gourmand (slow but larger, can regain spend Hit Dice by eating corpses, resistance and advantage to poison damage and poisoned condition, can perform a multi-target rolling charge attack), Mumbler (aware of unknown horrors, higher Charisma and proficiency in several Charisma skills, bite attack can impose a delirium die on a target where they subtract a d8 from a d20 roll with the PC’s reaction, a rechargeable hysterical mumbling that has a confusion-like effect on nearby targets), Sticky Brawler (lose the slippery trait, gain spider climb, proficiency in athletics, nature, and survival, and can make two unarmed attacks and a bite with multiattack), and Supplicant (divine caster, higher Wisdom and proficiency in priestly skills, can cast cleric spells up to 3rd level, can fall prone to supplicate a nearby willing creature to giant them a bonus to their attack bonus or AC equal to your Wisdom modifier). Much like ettercaps, there is some variety among the choices. The Supplicant is a strong option as while their cleric spells are predetermined, they gain access to some good spells such as Spiritual Weapon and Spirit Guardians. Their Supplication is good for a boost, but as they cannot concentrate on spells and remain prone while doing so it is a tactical trade-off. The rechargeable abilities are pretty useful as they aren’t limited by short or long rests, and while their use in combat is rather random it can be assumed they’re regained between fights so PCs can afford to use them liberally throughout the adventure. There’s quite a few options for battlefield control, which I like, such as the Aquira’s telekinetic blast or the Mumbler’s pseudo-confusion. The adventure is semi open-ended in that there are several places to explore with a variety of monsters to harvest. The beginning takes place in the kuo-toa settlement of Shmeepshmorp, where a Charisma Investigation check can give some tips for their quest. Loobloop is the Grand High General of the town militia who has maps of the surrounding areas, but as she secretly hates the high priest will attempt to sabotage the PCs’ efforts with bad advice and maps. Loobloob is secretly plotting a coup against Hall’cthunk, and if the PCs convince her that they aren’t fond of the current leadership she will entrust them with a bag of green gems to insert into the monster parts. It will grant Loobloob total control of the deity, which she will use to kill Hall’chunk and gain rulership. PCs who report this treachery to the priest will have him thank the PCs, but won’t act against her yet. The surrounding Underdark contains three broad regions: Deep Lake, Fungal Forest, and Twisting Tunnels. Each region has two smaller encounter areas, and using the false maps or poor survival checks with no maps will cost the PCs additional hours on their journey. Deep Lake contains a crashed illithid nautiloid, and a chuul is in the cargo deck along with a tentacle rod as treasure. There’s also a lair of a lake troll who has troll stats but with a swimming speed, resistance to cold damage, and is amphibious. A third party are a group of piercers on the cavern ceiling who will drop onto anyone wandering beneath them. The Fungal Forest has a section where a phase spider lives, which has captured a duergar woman alive and has cocooned her for a later meal. PCs who free her during combat will have the duergar aid them in the fight, and one of the cocooned corpses has a wand of web as treasure. A Persuasion check can convince the duergar to join the party for 1 more encounter location. The other location in the forest is a grove where a pixie known as Fluffertwinkle is seemingly trapped in a cage on the tree. She is pretending to be a damsel in distress, and is on top of a shambling mound which will come to life and attack anyone who gets near enough. Fluffertwinkle has developed a hatred for other Underdark denizens and will use her magic to aid the mound in combat. The Twisting tunnels are home to a Drow Encampment. Four drow have captured 3 kuo-toa and are forcing them to sing and dance for their lives, and being thus distracted the PCs have various opportunities for an ambush. They can also roll a conveniently-placed boulder which can kill both the drow and captive kuo-toa, but will also destroy their equipment and has a chance to make harvesting one or more of their body parts impossible. The kuo-toa, if freed, will accompany the party for the rest of the adventure. Which is a really nice benefit as it practically doubles the party size. The other location is a trail of blood leading into a cavern where an injured mind flayer by the name of Orloka has been exiled from its people due to researching arcane magic. It does not wish to fight and will put up an intimidating deception to try and convince the party to leave. [B]Content Warning: Attempted Suicide[/B] [spoiler]If at any point Orlaka is reduced to 20 hit points or less in combat, it will use a scroll of fireball to target the ceiling above, causing a cave-in which will kill the mind flayer and injure nearby PCs. As the illithid has read the party’s minds by the time they arrive, it will seek to rob them of what they seek even in death.[/spoiler] If the PCs come back home with 3 required parts in time, the high priest and remaining monitors will stitch the new deity together, and the PCs will have the honor of naming it. If the PCs inserted the gems at Loobloob’s orders, she will take control of it and command it to kill Hall’cthunk and his supporters, including the party. This will most likely be a TPK if the PCs seek a straightforward fight, as in addition to Loobloob and six of her whip allies, the new deity has a huge amount of hit points (350) and deals a punishing slam attack. However, Loobloob is using a control rod which if wrested from her will obey whoever holds it. If the rod is destroyed, the deity will go berserk and seek to destroy everyone in the settlement. If the PCs do not return in time, the commoners of Shmeepshmorp are leading a violent revolution, and Hall’cthunk is dead. Loobloob is attempting to seize control but with little progress without a divine backing. Even in this case the PCs may be able to assemble a god in time, but it has an 85% chance of going berserk and trying to kill everyone like in the above scenario. As for the god and its desires, the head determines the god’s greatest goal: for example, a chuul will seek to rebuild the Aboleth Empire, while a troll will merely wish to remain fed and happy with large tributes of food. The upper body determines what race it longs to destroy; for instance, a phase spider’s upper body will demand its followers to declare war on the duergar, and a drow’s will be the same but for all surface dwellers instead. The lower body determines how it regards its followers; for example, a mind flayer’s lower body encourages the god to turn their followers into mindless servants via mental domination, while a phase spider’s will be nurturing and mothering, treating them like its own children. [I]Thoughts:[/I] This is a rather neat adventure with a variety of challenges, and I like that in addition to the variety in harvested body parts virtually each encounter has some kind of treasure or benefit like NPC allies. So even with a one-shot there is still a visible sense of progression, and the time limit plus the variables in travel helps encourage resource management. The party can get away with one long rest hopefully, but depending on the quality of their maps and Survival checks (along with the encounter results themselves) may rob them of needed short rests. [B]Final Thoughts:[/B] Turning the Tables is a criminally underrated sourcebook, judging by the fact it doesn’t even have a Best Copper status on the DM’s Guild (copper meaning that it sold at least 50 copies). The monster-themed one shots are an interesting, diverse assortment of neat scenarios with enough variety that they all feel sufficiently different from each other. The fact that their events and themes tie strongly into the nature of the playable monsters is an added bonus. This shows that the writers have good heads on their shoulders for what makes these creatures iconic. It is for these reasons that I’m hoping a Volume 2 is released someday. [/QUOTE]
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[Let's Read] Turning the Tables Vol. 1 (7 one-shot adventures starring monstrous PCs)
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