Brother Thomas, the cleric of Boccob, learned that
he may inherit a mysterious “tower” located somewhere in the
heart of Ambog Swamp. That residence belonged to his uncle, Anupar, a
powerful mage with a life-long fascination for the unidentifiable
ruins scattered throughout that vast swamp. But the place is now
occupied by an old witch, Jezi Béthorm, and her Goblin cleric
husband, Henxuk. If Brother Thomas wants to inherit, he must
officially
evict those squatters – with the help of his friends, naturally.
This adventure was actually spread across three
game sessions. We played the first session in December of 2017, with
3 players. It was role-play heavy, with no combat whatsoever – a
rare thing. We played a second session in March of 2018, with 5
players. The level 5 ranger and the level 6 magic-user joined the
party. That one was combat heavy. Orcs. Dire Wolves. Winged Lizards.
Hunting Drakes. But the PCs finally got their hands on two
interesting magic items: a ring, and a quarterstaff. They missed out
on a tome, a weird skull, and an ever weirder talisman. Towards the
end, just when they thought they’d located the mysterious tower –
a Giant Troll and a Velociraptor attacked them. The ranger really
made a huge difference there.
Fast forward almost a year – because of
scheduling problems, a cancelled game session, and
my birthday game that couldn’t be pushed back – and at long last
we got together again and played that third and last act. The party
returned
to Gatormouth (an Orlane-esque swamp-adjacent small town) with a new
lead: a swamp lad who apparently knows exactly when and where the
“wizard’s
tower”
rises from the murky waters.
And guess what? The
lad is right.
So the party followed the kid’s directions all
the way to Moth Lake. When the enchanted
lair emerged, it generated a mini tidal wave – and then, from the
lone entrance of the edifice, water came pouring out – a
lot of water.
Inside that tsunami, floating undead!
I
had a little chart prepared especially for that purpose. Each PC had
a different die roll to make, depending on Strength, Dexterity, and
type of armor worn.
The thief and the barbarian were the lucky ones:
that mini
tsunami actually carried them towards
the magical lair. Heir the magic-user was pushed back to the left of
the mat. Brother Tom was swept off his feet and carried over to the
right side. Landa ended up in deeper water, close to the middle and
slightly to the right.
Nine ghasts and three ghouls “vomited” by
the emerging structure also ended up in random spots: either
neck-deep in the swamp or further away inland, up to 60 feet east or
west.
The water finally subsided, and we rolled
initiative. The two clerics attempted to turn as many undead as they
could. Brother Tom successfully turned six of the nine ghasts, but in
doing so he was attacked by a ghoul and failed his Save vs
Paralyzation.
Catastrophe further
developed as
Landa rolled a 2, not turning any ghoul at all on the first round.
As I said in some previous posts, I am always
looking for ways to break up that solid cluster of characters on the
battle mat. The emerging structure / emptying ballast device is
certainly one of the most interesting ways I have managed to do so.
There was also a giant gator nearby, just because it’s cool to have
a giant gator in a swamp!
That enormous beast ambled around and
stressed the party, but in the end it did not attack. It was quite
confused after that colossal stone structure just rose from the
tranquil depths of the swamp. There was a scenario option in which
one character could have been dragged underwater by the gator and
then released as the structure sank back down a
minute later – and that one character
could’ve actually entered the dungeon through a submerged back
door. But I didn’t use that option.
Heir blasted one ghast with 3 magic
missiles and then jumped
50 feet in order to rescue the paralyzed Brother Tom. Landa succeeded
in turning all three ghouls on round two. The thief swam towards the
entrance, while the barbarian quickly clambered on top of the slimy
structure. Once he was up there, Huthak shot the two closest ghasts
with several arrows. Heir carried Brother Tom all the way to the
entrance, with some help from Landa at the end. Landa
cured Brother Tom’s paralysis with a bead of curing taken from
Tom’s Necklace of Prayer Beads.
They entered the “tower”
just as it slowly begun to sink down again,
and went down six flights of stairs to a
rather large room
with round corners containing a rich
assortment of undead creatures – one sleeping
revenant, one wight, one ghoul, one ghast,
two skeletons, and two teenage zombies (25mm zombies in a pack of
28mm undead: let’s be creative here).
There were also two shadows, but the party
failed to detect them at first. The
room was so cluttered with furniture, crates, a small raft, debris
and rotting clothes. Three crystal balls were sitting
on a large console
in the center of the room. The larger crystal ball was
actually mage Anupar’s spelljammer helm. The two lesser crystal
balls displayed scenes from the outside, exactly like the screens in
a Tekumel tubeway car.
Each of the two clerics could only attempt to turn
one specific undead type per round. Landa first turned the wight, and
Brother Tom failed to turn the two skeletons. All these undead were
harder to turn because of the evil Goblin cleric hidden nearby, who
channelled dark power through his Amulet of Controlling
Undead.
The two shadows surprised the party, and there was
melee. The barbarian clashed with the 28mm shadow, and Brother Tom
battled the 25mm shadow
– yep, that is how I distinguished between the two.
Heir cast his first fireball at the revenant, also engulfing
the ghoul, one zombie, and one skeleton. This is when my cool
homemade necrophidius appeared through a gaping hole in the floor and
performed its Hypnotic Dance. Heir, Huthak, and unlucky Brother Tom
all failed to save vs Spell. Six seconds later the necrophidius
retreated inside its hole. A hulking flesh golem climbed up the
stairs, and made to join the fight. Landa was now battling an armored
skeleton and a shadow, while Grimbald the thief tried
everything he could to snap the two level 6 characters – Brother
Tom and Heir – out of their hypnotic trance… As I said earlier:
catastrophe!
Slapped hard in the face by Grimbald, Heir snapped out of it, and
proceeded to cast his second fireball at the revenant (again)
and the two zombies. He rolled an impressive 28 points of damage on
6d6. That’s definitely a hell of a good fireball. All three
targeted undead failed to save and were deep-fry carbonized.
The brazen Hobbit wasn’t there that day, and of course nobody
else dared crawl inside that hole in the floor which was full of
surprises – including a talkative penanggalan – and could
eventually get someone right behind the witch / boss, without her
knowing. Oh, and there was also a slight chance of drowning...
As a DM, you want at least one character like the Hobbit bard in
your lineup of players. Every scene, he looks at what’s at hand and
seems to think, “Now what
can I do to make things even crazier?”
Still, and
even without a whistling
hillbilly Hobbit
crawling down a necrophidius-haunted
rabbit hole, the entire
game was far from being as dull and static as some of the games we’ve
had in the past five years. The focus of the action actually shifted
from the upper room to the staircase, and then from the staircase to
the lower room. I call that success.
It was
crazy enough for my taste. Huthak the barbarian boldly jumped down a
whole flight of stairs and found himself literally face-to-face with
the Goblin cleric. Heir was all out of spells except for mirror
image, and instead
he decided to drink a
Potion of Polymorph; he transformed
into a cave bear, and
barrelled down the stairs to close with Jezi the witch and her
dreaded necrophidius.
The four other
PCs had to pass through a stinking
cloud: all but
Grimbald failed
their Saving Throws, and
lost one round. Landa was
struck with
a lightning bolt.
Huthak was hit with cause
serious wounds. “Bear
Heir”
was slammed with
several minute meteors,
and everyone
was affected by the Goblin’s sneaky
disrupt life.
Landa cast guidance
on Bear Heir, and then cast
entangle
on a lone wraith.
Grimbald vaporized that wraith with his Mind Flayer ray gun. That
was cool.
Huthak and Grimbald fought the
Goblin while two clerics and a
bear took care of the witch and her
necrophidius. Jezi Béthorm
died, but her Goblin husband fled the scene with a well-timed
plane shift,
vowing to return and avenge his dear old wife’s death.
My biggest fear was to see the
party remain in the upper room and “wait it out” until the end.
Very static indeed. I put a lot of work into that Y-shaped staircase
– but in the end,
yes, they did
go down those
stairs, and even used both sides of the “Y”
fork. I was a very happy DM. I recently wrote a blog post about this
– getting it just right. This time, we did!
Brother Tom and his friends
now have a magical lair that travels underwater all around Ambog
Swamp, but that’s not all: if they ever learn to steer the thing,
they could follow the bayous all the way down to Blackmoor and the
sea – and then go just about anywhere they choose.
It is the biggest magic item
that I have ever given out in any role-playing game. I’m very happy
for them. Well done, guys!