iserith
Magic Wordsmith
Originally posted by iserith:
T H E S I T C H
You stand at the base of the Temple of Bazim-Gorag, an ancient ziggurat on the highest plateau of the Island of the Frog, higher even than the canopy of the treacherous jungle that covers all.
The pained, rasping screams of your fellow adventurer, Draco Jones, echoes from within the ziggurat. He is one of four expedition team members - missing for three days - that you have been sent to find and recover. If you don't get to him soon, Draco's a goner.
Blocking your way into the temple is a band of indigenous tribesman whose taboos forbid anyone entering the ziggurat. They will do you no harm as long as you do not try to enter the structure. But they will not permit Draco to leave, claiming he is cursed and cannot be allowed to spread bad juju beyond the confines of the temple.
Your goal is to find the missing expedition team, rescue them, and recover the Great Treasure said to rest in the belly of the temple.
What do you do?
T H E N A T I V E S
Acamapichtli, shaman of the Necahual tribe (druid, MM pg. 346)
Citlalmina, daughter of Chief Quauhtli, expert tracker (scout, MM pg. 349)
Teyacapan, Xoco, Tlaco, Teicuih, Cualli, Etalpalli, Eztli, Ichtaca, male and female warriors (tribal warrior, MM pg. 350)
The natives guard the calli (uppermost chamber) of the ziggurat where the only entrance to the Temple of Bazim-Gorag may be found. Said entrance is a wide-open mouth lined with rows of teeth and a gullet that drops into darkness. The way it is carved is disconcertingly lifelike and it is even articulated, opening and closing with some effort.
The people of the Necahual tribe have long lived in the shadow of the ziggurat, being survivors of a civilization that once thrived on this island hundreds of years ago before its debauched leadership class abandoned their old gods in favor of a new one - Bazim-Gorag, the Frog God - whose spawn spread chaos and slaughter to every corner of the island. This destroyed the civilization and only a handful of survivors remained to slowly repopulate. Since the fall of their ancestors, the tales have warned that death followed anyone who entered or left the great ziggurat.
In truth, Bazim-Gorag is a slaad lord and this temple is an incubator for slaadi. The lost expedition team fell victim to the ziggurat's purpose. Three have died and only the dragonborn Draco Jones clings to life. But within 30 minutes or so, he too will die, a slaad tadpole burrowing its way out of his chest.
It's up to the adventurers to see what they can do to get to Draco Jones before he dies so as to learn the dreadful secret about the Temple of Bazim-Gorag. Will they manage to get past the natives in time?
D O W N T H E G U L L E T
Draco Jones, dragonborn expedition team member (veteran, MM pg. 350)
Slaad tadpole (MM pg. 276)
On a level of the ziggurat 20 feet below the calli, three dead adventurers - Lucida Blackletter (an eldritch knight), Red Creek Rufus (a ranger), and Shiv Palmer (a rogue) - lay dead on altars of bone and skulls, their chests torn open from the inside. Trails of blood streak from their corpses to another open mouth on the floor. Four pillars support the ceiling. Piled around them are the bloody, casually discarded skeletons of past victims of the ziggurat. Carvings on the walls show ritualistic practices involving the baptism of willing sacrifices and their gruesome deaths in honor of Bazim-Gorag.
If Draco Jones is alive by the time the PCs reach him, he can tell them what happened. While trying to acquire some priceless gems embedded in statues on the lowest level, four red toad-like monsters sprang out of nowhere. They croaked words of pure insanity but made their intention clear by intruding upon the minds of Draco and his comrades: "In the name of Bazim-Gorag you shall be baptized and receive his great gift." A ferocious battle ensued - all Draco recalls through the haze of pain is that at some point he was tossed into a great pool of black fluid and when he awoke, he was here on this altar of skulls with a terrible pain in his abdomen. He didn't see what happened to his friends - they were dead when he regained consciousness - but something tells him he will meet the same fate.
Thirty minutes after the PCs arrive at the base of the ziggurat, the slaad tadpole bursts from Draco Jones' chest, killing him unless the adventurers can cure him of his disease (see below). The tadpole, if it can, tries to escape down the open maw and splash into the baptismal pool on the lower level. It fights only if cornered. Will the adventurers be able to save Draco Jones from a terrible fate?
T H E G I F T O F B A Z I M - G O R A G
Balathu, Ahimelek, Urhammu, and Kir-Shamash, red slaadi (MM pg. 276)
Three or four slaad tadpoles (MM pg. 276)
Another twenty feet into the depths is the final chamber of the Temple of Bazim-Gorag where the great baptismal pool awaits new victims. An ornately carved cistern contains an unidentifiable dark liquid straight from the chaotic gonads of Bazim-Gorag himself. Flanking the pool are four grotesque statues - distorted likenesses of man and toad combined into a single twisted being. Spilling forth from cracks in their gut is a puddle of viscous steaming ichor that bubbles and burps up a foul stench.
The good news is that each of these statues contains huge gems for eyes - two per statue - that can be pryed away fairly easily. The bad news is that the four puddles of goo are portals to Limbo and as soon as an adventurer steps foot into the pool or onto the floor of this chamber, four red slaadi emerge to give the PCs the gift of Bazim-Gorag - that is, implantation of a slaad egg and a baptism in the great spawning pool.
The red slaad have two goals in this scene. First, they need to implant an egg in each viable host. ("Viable host" to the red slaadi is anyone who is not immune to disease.) As soon as any PC is infected with an egg, the slaadi attempt to push the adventurer into the baptismal pool. The foul fluids therein accelerate the gestation period from three months to a mere three days. What's more, only greater restoration or similar magic can cure the disease with certainty once a PC has been immersed - all other magic that cures disease only allows another saving throw. When an adventurer has been infected and baptized, the red slaadi will not willingly doanything to harm that person, even if it means their own death. If all the adventurers are infected and baptized, the red slaadi return to Limbo by way of the ooze portals if they can.
Three or four slaad tadpoles are swimming happily in the baptismal pool and will become fully-formed blue or green slaad in 2d12 hours. They will emerge to wreak havoc upon the Necahual people and will spread chaos to other parts of the world given half a chance.
Will the adventurers be able to defeat the slaadi, steal the priceless gems, and avoid becoming infected with a slaad egg?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
And there you go - one twisted little adventure location to stick in some remote location in your campaign world. Watch your players squirm in their seats as their character carries a slaad around in their stomach for a few days...
As always, constructive feedback and comments welcome. (Thanks go to bawylie for being my sounding board.)
T H E S I T C H
You stand at the base of the Temple of Bazim-Gorag, an ancient ziggurat on the highest plateau of the Island of the Frog, higher even than the canopy of the treacherous jungle that covers all.
The pained, rasping screams of your fellow adventurer, Draco Jones, echoes from within the ziggurat. He is one of four expedition team members - missing for three days - that you have been sent to find and recover. If you don't get to him soon, Draco's a goner.
Blocking your way into the temple is a band of indigenous tribesman whose taboos forbid anyone entering the ziggurat. They will do you no harm as long as you do not try to enter the structure. But they will not permit Draco to leave, claiming he is cursed and cannot be allowed to spread bad juju beyond the confines of the temple.
Your goal is to find the missing expedition team, rescue them, and recover the Great Treasure said to rest in the belly of the temple.
What do you do?
T H E N A T I V E S
Acamapichtli, shaman of the Necahual tribe (druid, MM pg. 346)
Citlalmina, daughter of Chief Quauhtli, expert tracker (scout, MM pg. 349)
Teyacapan, Xoco, Tlaco, Teicuih, Cualli, Etalpalli, Eztli, Ichtaca, male and female warriors (tribal warrior, MM pg. 350)
The natives guard the calli (uppermost chamber) of the ziggurat where the only entrance to the Temple of Bazim-Gorag may be found. Said entrance is a wide-open mouth lined with rows of teeth and a gullet that drops into darkness. The way it is carved is disconcertingly lifelike and it is even articulated, opening and closing with some effort.
The people of the Necahual tribe have long lived in the shadow of the ziggurat, being survivors of a civilization that once thrived on this island hundreds of years ago before its debauched leadership class abandoned their old gods in favor of a new one - Bazim-Gorag, the Frog God - whose spawn spread chaos and slaughter to every corner of the island. This destroyed the civilization and only a handful of survivors remained to slowly repopulate. Since the fall of their ancestors, the tales have warned that death followed anyone who entered or left the great ziggurat.
In truth, Bazim-Gorag is a slaad lord and this temple is an incubator for slaadi. The lost expedition team fell victim to the ziggurat's purpose. Three have died and only the dragonborn Draco Jones clings to life. But within 30 minutes or so, he too will die, a slaad tadpole burrowing its way out of his chest.
It's up to the adventurers to see what they can do to get to Draco Jones before he dies so as to learn the dreadful secret about the Temple of Bazim-Gorag. Will they manage to get past the natives in time?
D O W N T H E G U L L E T
Draco Jones, dragonborn expedition team member (veteran, MM pg. 350)
Slaad tadpole (MM pg. 276)
On a level of the ziggurat 20 feet below the calli, three dead adventurers - Lucida Blackletter (an eldritch knight), Red Creek Rufus (a ranger), and Shiv Palmer (a rogue) - lay dead on altars of bone and skulls, their chests torn open from the inside. Trails of blood streak from their corpses to another open mouth on the floor. Four pillars support the ceiling. Piled around them are the bloody, casually discarded skeletons of past victims of the ziggurat. Carvings on the walls show ritualistic practices involving the baptism of willing sacrifices and their gruesome deaths in honor of Bazim-Gorag.
If Draco Jones is alive by the time the PCs reach him, he can tell them what happened. While trying to acquire some priceless gems embedded in statues on the lowest level, four red toad-like monsters sprang out of nowhere. They croaked words of pure insanity but made their intention clear by intruding upon the minds of Draco and his comrades: "In the name of Bazim-Gorag you shall be baptized and receive his great gift." A ferocious battle ensued - all Draco recalls through the haze of pain is that at some point he was tossed into a great pool of black fluid and when he awoke, he was here on this altar of skulls with a terrible pain in his abdomen. He didn't see what happened to his friends - they were dead when he regained consciousness - but something tells him he will meet the same fate.
Thirty minutes after the PCs arrive at the base of the ziggurat, the slaad tadpole bursts from Draco Jones' chest, killing him unless the adventurers can cure him of his disease (see below). The tadpole, if it can, tries to escape down the open maw and splash into the baptismal pool on the lower level. It fights only if cornered. Will the adventurers be able to save Draco Jones from a terrible fate?
T H E G I F T O F B A Z I M - G O R A G
Balathu, Ahimelek, Urhammu, and Kir-Shamash, red slaadi (MM pg. 276)
Three or four slaad tadpoles (MM pg. 276)
Another twenty feet into the depths is the final chamber of the Temple of Bazim-Gorag where the great baptismal pool awaits new victims. An ornately carved cistern contains an unidentifiable dark liquid straight from the chaotic gonads of Bazim-Gorag himself. Flanking the pool are four grotesque statues - distorted likenesses of man and toad combined into a single twisted being. Spilling forth from cracks in their gut is a puddle of viscous steaming ichor that bubbles and burps up a foul stench.
The good news is that each of these statues contains huge gems for eyes - two per statue - that can be pryed away fairly easily. The bad news is that the four puddles of goo are portals to Limbo and as soon as an adventurer steps foot into the pool or onto the floor of this chamber, four red slaadi emerge to give the PCs the gift of Bazim-Gorag - that is, implantation of a slaad egg and a baptism in the great spawning pool.
The red slaad have two goals in this scene. First, they need to implant an egg in each viable host. ("Viable host" to the red slaadi is anyone who is not immune to disease.) As soon as any PC is infected with an egg, the slaadi attempt to push the adventurer into the baptismal pool. The foul fluids therein accelerate the gestation period from three months to a mere three days. What's more, only greater restoration or similar magic can cure the disease with certainty once a PC has been immersed - all other magic that cures disease only allows another saving throw. When an adventurer has been infected and baptized, the red slaadi will not willingly doanything to harm that person, even if it means their own death. If all the adventurers are infected and baptized, the red slaadi return to Limbo by way of the ooze portals if they can.
Three or four slaad tadpoles are swimming happily in the baptismal pool and will become fully-formed blue or green slaad in 2d12 hours. They will emerge to wreak havoc upon the Necahual people and will spread chaos to other parts of the world given half a chance.
Will the adventurers be able to defeat the slaadi, steal the priceless gems, and avoid becoming infected with a slaad egg?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
And there you go - one twisted little adventure location to stick in some remote location in your campaign world. Watch your players squirm in their seats as their character carries a slaad around in their stomach for a few days...
As always, constructive feedback and comments welcome. (Thanks go to bawylie for being my sounding board.)
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Reading about the 'implanted' eggs and chest-bursting reminds me so very much of the Aliens movies! 
