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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 8086635" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/cmlNhjz.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> Drowned Souls of the Hidden StreamThis adventure is for 4-6 1st level PCs. It takes place entirely within Songxi, a low lying village near a bridge-dam known as the Hidden Stream. The avaricious Emperor Xie desired to build canal projects from the local river to create more farms and villages to exploit and tax the natural resources in spite of the risks, but fatal construction errors resulted in the flooding of Songxi. Those unable to escape the sudden rushing waters in time became caught between the realms of the living and undead, existing as semi-aware husks that seek to drown the living.The solution to the woes of the flooded village lie in a dearly-departed couple. Leping was guardian to the local temple which housed the legendary Sword of Jixia, which he tried and failed to save from the flood. His wife, Duan, climbed to the temple’s roof to await her beloved but died of dehydration. Both became undead, and depending on how the PCs deal with them may determine whether or not the rest of Songxi’s souls will find true rest.The adventure opens up with the PCs heading to Songxi for whatever kind of business would summon them to such a town (4 sample hooks are provided). Their first obstacle is the bamboo forest known as Fanyang which smells of rotten mulberry that a Religion check associates with an omen of flooding.* Survival checks are necessary in order to avoid natural hazards, which range from Exhaustion-generating dehydration to visibility-reducing heavy rain.*the author notes that the phrase “mulberry fields” is an historical Chinese term associated with unstoppable changes to the world and how nature is beyond man’s control.The village itself is thoroughly flooded, with only multi-story buildings poking up from the waterline. The stench of corpses and the faint sounds of crying in the surviving vine-choked structures can be heard. Proper skill checks will notice an absence of aquatic life, as the magically-enhanced plant growth catches fish and feeds upon their bodies once they starve to death. The PCs can traverse the village via jumping and climbing between the taller structures or swim, although a group of drowned souls will stalk the party throughout their travels. Said monsters number 4 to 10 depending upon the size of said party and how merciful the DM’s feeling. Exploration and the proper skill checks in some places can uncover minor belongings such as a Wand of Frost, and also uncover the sense of spiritual unease in the form of phantom noises of those in their final moments.The Drowned Souls are new undead monsters in this adventure. They are not very strong, but they can cause an adjacent target to drown via 1d10 bludgeoning damage on a failed Constitution save instead of a normal slam attack which is quite deadly to level 1 characters. Although they can swim and fly, they must remain within 30 feet of a water source which can limit their mobility if PCs can reach a sufficiently tall building.Exploring Songxi Temple will attract the attention of Duan, who is not immediately hostile and if approached nonviolently will tell the characters of what happened; they can also gain visions of those who died in the village via her Aura of Sorrow on a failed save. She’ll also add that the imperial rangers betrayed the people, slaughtering fleeing survivors under a hail of arrows. She begs the party to retrieve her husband and perform the proper funeral rites to lay him to rest. The rite involves the use of food offerings, cremation, incense, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_money" target="_blank">joss paper</a> which is automatically part of a Priest Pack for characters from a Chinese setting, but can also be found as items elsewhere in the temple.Leping’s corpse can be found underwater, pinned beneath a pillar as it grips a sword wrapped in fine silk. Unfortunately he’s not as reasonable as his wife and will attack the party as a spirit on the first round of combat. He will then possess his own corpse on the second round, lifting the pillar off of his body effortlessly. He is a pretty tough ‘boss encounter’ for 1st-level PCs, being Resistant against nonmagical bludgeoning/piercing/slashing damage and against a variety of common energy types (acid, fire, lightning, cold, thunder). In ghost form he has a 1d8 necrotic touch attack that can grant half its damage as restored hit points. He’s actually less powerful when inside his corpse, although he can unleash foul gasses and fluids that impose the poisoned condition to nearby targets on a failed save whenever struck by an attack. Leping cannot move more than 50 feet from this corpse as a ghost, but both forms can fly meaning that a tactical retreat is unlikely.If properly laid to rest, the remaining undead become inanimate corpses. The party may claim the Sword of Jixia as loot, which while it’s non-magical it ignores damage resistance that blocks against slashing attacks. Future plot hooks are hinted at in the conclusion, such as finding the sword’s paired dagger to “form a key to heaven,” or finding some incriminating orders upon the corpse of a ranger implicating Emperor Xie.Thoughts So Far: I’m not as fond of this adventure as I am of the previous two, although that is more due to my biases against level 1 play. Beginning PCs are notoriously frail, where every attack can spell defeat. Although death saves and the Healing Word spell mute this lethality a bit, it is very possible for players to TPK from the Drowned Souls and unlike Through the Dragon’s Gate there’s not really a non-violent solution to bypassing the undead menaces save for Duan. Duan herself has stats and is tough yet manageable at this level, but I can see most PCs choosing to parley with her.But overall the encounters in question are brief and there’s more emphasis on exploration and atmosphere, which is a good way to go about things.Join us next time as we pull off an artifact auction heist in Bamboo in the Dark!</blockquote>

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