Save Our Hydras! (level 7-9)
Ingredients
Single Combat: Luan Ti's driving desire, and a situation the PCs may find themselves in.
Cycle of Life: The locale for the scenario; part of the basic conflict.
Brass Ring: Both a ring from the City of Brass, and from its definition, "A person or thing worth catching"; as a prize.
Frenzied Elven Monk: Luan Ti, one of the motivating forces for the action, combined with his ring.
Hidden Agenda: Luan Ti's reason for being at the Manaen Academy; Wolfwood's reasons, period; possibly the PC's reasons for being at the zoo; every reason for the action that ensues is a hidden agenda.
Lernaean Hydra: The
real brass ring for Luan Ti, and possibly a second (or first) really nasty fight.
Summary: Rescuing a hydra from murderous intent, with a few fights, a possible chase scene, and a few lying scumbags. This is a
minor scenario, meant to be inserted into the cracks in a larger campaign, but still creating some of the alliances, enemies and loose ends that are the hallmark of an adventurer's career.
Note: I typically enjoy having very political situations, and most of my scenarios involve hidden agendas for
someone. Heck, I hardly call something an agenda iffen it ain't hidden
. So when I saw "hidden agendas" as an ingredient, I decided that I had to go with a fairly straight-forward pair of fight encounters, with hidden agendas driving the action instead of
being the action. The actual "action" is fairly straightforward, if unusual (subduing a hydra rather than killing it; a three-way battle between party, monk and hydra; possibly chasing down a ranger through "planned wilderness").
Background
The Manaen Zoo
Just outside the city limits, where ordinances against magical beasts and their ilk do not apply as strongly, the Manaen Academy rests its ancient foundations. Equal parts scholars, naturalists and followers of Obad-Hai (or insert your neutral nature diety of choice), the academy is a bastion of knowledge about the natural world, its methods and uses. As a niche academy, it tends to attract individuals from a variety of fields, so long as they are nature oriented.
The Manaen Zoo is less of a zoo and more of a guided preserve, but most folks refer to it as a zoo due to its "caged" nature. Covering a 5 mile radius, the zoo has been carefully rebuilt with a variety of spells (
move earth and
stone shape high among them) and manual labor to produce a series of micro-ecologies that are somewhat, but not entirely, walled off from each other. Each ecology ranges from a few acres to a few square miles, depending on what they contain, and is maintained constantly by wary wardens. The stated purpose of the zoo is to provide an area where the cycle of life can be rigorously studied, and also to provide non-followers of Obad-Hai with some of the majesty of nature in a more acceptable manner than simply tossing them into the wilderness.
Roughly five years ago, a 5 headed lerneaen hydra baby was found orphaned by a company of mercenaries working for the city to "clear out the wilderness". The academy helped raise it and rebuilt an area of the preserve to house it, where it is now the prize "exhibit" of the Manaen Zoo. It's been a monster for upkeep, and is easily the deadliest predator in the preserve, but has also provided fascinating insights into the nature of specialized regeneration... and has brought the academy a lot of money from nobles who want a glimpse of the beast.
For the most part, the hydra is mild-mannered and, since it is rarely starving, actually safe to be around. Many of its visitors affectionately call it Mouth for a charming tendency to open its mouth as wide as possible and stretch its neck when it's hungry... which is almost all the time for at least one of its heads.
Efreet's Wrath
A ring from the City of Brass, this unassuming brass ring provides its wearer with the ability to
frenzy once per day for 5 rounds. A
frenzy works just like the barbarian
rage ability, but also has the effect of altering half of the wearer's melee damage to fire damage. The ring is worth about 10,000 GP. It is owned by Luan Ti, below, and is how he intends to fight the hydra.
Luan Ti
Luan Ti is a LE elven monk/11 (CR 9), and a "great white hunter". To prove his innate superiority, and to hone his formidable abilities, he seeks out challenging creatures to defeat in single combat... and he's not above taking on adventurers of various stripes to prove himself, either. In short, he's an adrenaline junkie, seeking ever-greater challenges.
Luan Ti should have normal equipment for a monk of his level, but his prize possession is
Efreet's Wrath, a brass ring which allows him to
rage and simultaneously alters half of his damage to fire damage.
His favored saying, oddly, is "It is not enough to reach for the brass ring; you must also enjoy the carousel", usually said in regards to living a full life and testing his own limits.
Luan Ti recently heard of the lernaean hydra, and has decided that it will be his next foe in single combat. To that end, he has entered the academy in the guise of a nature lover, using his excellent knowledge of monsters and beasts of all kinds for admittance. He has been at the Manaen Academy for a month now, plotting his route to provoke the hydra into battle with him, without arousing suspicion; his plans for afterward are to pretend great grief over the hydra's death and "leave in shame".
A Hidden Agenda
Luan Ti has a secret ally... a ranger/6 named Wolfwood who (unknown to the monastery) has hydras as one of his favored enemies. It is known that he is not fond of Mouth, but he has studiously avoided the creature and does not otherwise seem impassioned about the matter. He justifies his hatred of the creature by the cost of upkeeping it, and the danger it presents to the surrounding countryside.
Wolfwood is the one who made Luan Ti aware of the hydra, while on a business trip for the academy, and has arranged for an event during one of the big "visitor days". He's arranged for Luan Ti to be on 'hydra duty' for that day, and spiked the meat with foul-tasting herbs so the hydra won't eat it... when the visitors come, he's hoping it will go mad with hunger (he's right) while Luan Ti is on duty.
Luan Ti is unaware of this, and is still trying to work out a way to provoke the hydra. He'll be fairly relaxed on the day of the event.
Note: the reason for the deviousness is that Wolfwood knows he can't take the hydra himself, and he can't convince the others that the hydra would be a threat. Luan Ti is a fortunate happenstance who is both willing and capable of killing the monster.
A Kink in the Plans
Unfortunately, some members of the academy noticed Mouth's lack of interest in his food, and discovered the herbs in the meat. They don't yet know how did it, so they intend to try to find out.
To achieve this, they have hired some adventurers to pose as tourists (who can defend themselves). They will then sit back and observe events carefully, to find out who behaves in a way that implicates them. They have no reason to suspect Yuan Ti, but they will when he first uses lethal force on the hydra (Manaen handlers always try subdual damage first).
Once they are fairly certain of who it is, they will come down hard.
Hooks/Setup
The key with this scenario is to get the PCs hooked early into the action, so they have some background before going in. Setup items:
- Luan Ti should be known to them from earlier encounters, and they might find themselves wondering what a beast hunter like him is doing in a nature-lovey place like the Manaen Academy (he will pretend, however briefly, to have "changed his ways", and will then try to get them out of the academy before they can talk).
- Wolfwood should have met them while they were on their way to the academy (for whatever reason, see below). Depending on how that meeting went, he may even offer to hire them to help provoke the hydra! In this case, they will likely know why Luan Ti is there - this could be an interesting, different encounter, in which the PCs
provoke a monster with the express purpose of getting someone else to draw a bead on it (however, see the Action section below).
- If at all possible, having the party be the ones who killed the hydra's parents (by having had them fight a weaker lerneaen hydra years before) could make for an interesting "reunion". In this case, Wolfwood doesn't need to hire them, as the hydra will berserk as soon as it scents them. Luan Ti will try to get them to run away while he takes care of it (see Action, below).
- Don't kill the beasts, even the hydra! This should be emphasized throughout their visit by the people operating the academy. The animals are valued, and killing them really puts the hurt on the academy... to the point that the academy's enmity will be very near terminal hatred. Not all PCs will listen, of course, in which case you may have an additional fight/chase as the PCs try to get out of the zoo alive.
Hook #1: One good motivator for the PCs to be heading to the zoo is to simply hear about it. Mention that a lot of adventurers visit the zoo to get an idea of the kinds of things they might face, and mention the tame hydra as a behavioral study.
Hook #2: The PCs are hired by Wolfwood. See above for some detail on this one.
Hook #3: The PCs are after Luan Ti. He can be a real bastard when he's looking for a fight, so they may have a grudge to settle with him... or maybe he acquired the brass ring by taking it out of a horde they "earned". They've heard he's come this way, and someone matching his description has been seen wearing the ruddy robes of the Obad-Hai worshippers. In this case, have the hydra attack Luan Ti as they arrive, and if they help kill him, then it turns on them.
Hook #4: The academy has hired the PCs to pose as tourists (see Kink in the Plans, above). They are to be obnoxious, nosy, tourist-y. Wolfwood, having seen them in non-tourist garb, will have some idea of what they are doing, and will try to keep them away from the hydra pen. The meeting with Luan Ti will be interesting... as they will likely realize immediately why he is there, and he'll know why they are. See #3 for how the battle might go.
Action
As mentioned above, this scenario is meant to be blended with earlier events. Some roleplaying with Luan Ti and Wolfwood, some background on the academy inserted into everyday events, and then visiting the hydra should help this blend into the campaign as a whole and not seem like a contrived situation where the PCs have to try to subdue a big cuisinart lizard. Once it gets into motion, however, several fights can and should break out...
The fight with Luan Ti and the hydra should be a 3-way. Luan Ti will be trying to kill the PCs (so he can fight the hydra himself), the hydra will be trying to kill everyone, and the PCs will likely be trying to kill Luan Ti and subdue the hydra... or even subdue both, if they don't really hate Luan Ti.
In all likelihood, Luan Ti will go down first, in which case the hydra will focus its attention on them. At this point, various low-level members of the academy will have arrived and will be shouting/begging them not to kill it; if they do kill it, there will likely be yet another fight, and the PCs should be severely reduced in resources at this point.
When this seems to be getting stale, have a higher-power member of the academy come in and call a stop to the fighting: "There is a bigger issue. Wolfwood was the source of the problem, and he has escaped into the zoo. We can't afford any more loss of life - can you capture or kill him?" A few quick negotiations on the exact amount of gold, and the chase is on.
Wolfwood is fast, stealthy and cunning. He should make a good chase scene, and the beatdown should be cathartic enough to make up for having to subdue the hydra.