The adventure will start with Sendell, who comes to
Brin to hear of the destruction of the time portal, awarding the party
for a job well done. He tells of a "small" problem in the city of night
slayings. He gives the name of the head of investigation in the city
police, and referrs the party to him for information about the wave of
crimes. In reward for a sucessful mission, each party member will be
given one random mutation. These will be offered on an individual basis,
but party members can opt to trade with one another before the potion
of mutation is made (once the transformation is made, there can be no
swapping of mutations, naturally). At the end of the adventure, secret
ballot will decide which member of the party did the most to achieve
party goals. The character recieving the most votes will get a physical
mutation of choice rather than a random one. This will encourage heroic
or resourceful roleplaying hopefully. The tone of the adventure should be horror for the roleplayer
and frustration for the hack and slasher. Covelli is a slippery character,
who is hard to pin down to hit, and harder yet to hit, preferring to
go desolid in a pinch, making him very difficult to harm. He can go desolid
in one 6 second round. His preferred tactics are to get within bow range
and fire off two shots and go desolid, or if the party is far enough
away to get two volleys of safe shots off, he will sometimes do that.
His cloak of displacement means that the first hit always misses him,
and this is why he likes hit and miss scenerios. He will go desolid and
pass through a wall to attack from an unguraded area. When desolid he
can cast minor spells, but none that bring into effect anything physical
other than sounds and movement of objects and such. He will laugh maniacally
from out of reach to taunt and use cantrip sounds to unnerve the party.
This feeling of always being watched and unnerved should be emphasized
above all, to get the feel of a horror movie essentially, but with a
light edge now and then. The point will be to make the party realize
what they can become as a member of the Society For Freedom and what
their foes can be like ... deadly. Creaks, groans, laughs, bat whordes,
rats, dripping water, slimy gunk underfoot, smells of raw sewage, methane
gas dangers, and a myriad of other details will serve to add atmosphere
to the horror genre of this adventure. Also, new respect should be gained
for a mage played right, especially a mutant mage. The Police Station
The party arrives at the police station, a largish stone
building with impressive columns outside and the symbol of the Brinn
Guard, a red bulldog, in gargoyle style statues on each side of the stairs
up to the building. Once inside, the party will be directed to Chief
Quinn, a fiery tempered man with an western accent, a sort of Swedish
way of speaking. He is in his late 40's and looks to have seen his share
of action in his time. He has a large scar running almost the entire
circumference of his neck which is easily visible. His hair is red and
he has a beard, which is also auburn in color.
His office is lined with posters of wanted men with
a monster quick field identification guide on his desk opened to blobber,
complete with illustration. If any notice is taken of his desk, he will
quickly shut the book and put it away. His office is decorated in rustic
old wood made into furniture, with scenic ocean paintings framed on the
walls. He has various sea shell paper weights on his desk with a huge
wastebasket, which is full. His office chair is covered in troll hide,
a putrid green color.
Upon entering his office, the chief demands to know
what they want. When asked about the killings, he explains that mostly
winos and bums have been killed, and blames the whole thing on them irritating
people. It is far from a believable story, and upon furthur questioning,
the chief will admit that others have been affected. While explaining
this, a clerk will rush in and exclaim that another merchant got hit
last night, Milton's Cheesery. Chief Quinn will look irritated and excuse
himself. The party will undoubtably follow the chief to the scene of
the crime, a cheesemaker's shop on the north- east business hub of the
city. The Cheesery Following the chief, the party arrives at Milton's
Cheesery, a fairly small two story building with shop below and residence
above. Neighbors and bystanders mill around the entrance as guards claim
the usual,"There's nothing to see here." The cheeser's wife is sobbing
bitterly, explaining her story of what happened to the constable outside.
Her story follows:
"It was around 2:00 in the morning when we heard
an awful racket downstairs of pans clattering to the floor. Because
of all the killin's, Milty grabbed his short sword and crept down the
stairs. I heard him get down the stairs and demand who it was. Then
he screamed. I heard him rush up the stairs, only to hear him dragged
down the stairs by someone. I heard him yelling for whoever it was
to go away and then he screamed in pain. He yelled to me to lock the
door. He yelled again, and that was all that I heard."
The cheeser's body is badly mutilated, the head gone
entirely. His entire body looks to be eaten away by something. The odd
thing that the party notices is that there is no cheese in the entire
store, though the place reeks of it. The cheeser's wife claims that the
killer stole all of the cheese. She screams, "This 'ere's just like Cheeser
Johnson! Killed 'im too, they did. Whot are ye gonna' doo abowt eet?" At
this point, she breaks out in crying again, and cannot be comforted.
She heads to her room in emotional agaony, refusing to answer any more
questions.
When queried about Cheeser Johnson, the chief states
that it is just a fluke, and that the two instances are unrelated. If
the cheeser's wife is asked once she calms down, or one of the bystanders,
it will be explained that Cheeser Johnson was also found beheaded and
all of the cheese in his store gone. Chief Quinn will try to be secretive
about it, but will ask his constable on the scene to guard Cheeser Bilfrey's
home tonight, the last cheeser in town.
A constable runs up the street to Chief Quinn and shouts, "They're
hittin' Butchers too, Chief! Sam Gree in southeast hub got it last night
too!"
The chief hustles off, making it known that the party's
presence is not desired.
If the scene of the crime is scrutinized closely, it
will be seen that there is a tub of whey that has been knocked over,
its contents emptied all over the floor. Cheesecloth lies in clumps in
the liquid and cheese forms are scattered all through the mess, apparently
hastily opened and their contents taken. A stream of toilet paper seems
to run around and around all through the mess. In the privy, the toilet
paper roll on the dispenser is empty and a new roll is on the top of
the medicine cabinet. The cabinet itself has been rummaged through, the
contents of each bottle poured out, apparently into the sink, as no smell
of cologne or breath wash indicates spillage. The seat is fairly clean,
but a sharp nose will detect the smell of limburger, though the chance
of detecting that is slight.
The constable on duty covers the body and begins to
haul it out the door, where an undertaker has arrived with his wagon.
He looks very tired, as he exclaims, "Fifth today! Good for business,
but bad on my back!" He then hauls a coffin out of his wagon and he and
the constable haul the body into it and nail shut the lid. The constable
tells the undertaker that he is needed at Sam Gree's residence. "Oh no!
Not him!" the undertaker, George Gill says,"A good man he was too." He
sighs and then tips his stovepipe hat to Constable Davie and heads off
down the street, his cart pulled by a brownish pair of draft horses.
The Butcher's Shop
Nothing more can be discovered at the cheesery. If the
Butcher's place is checked out, much the same will be seen there. All
of the meat will be gone except for the ham, which is untouched. The
place will smell as if the toilet lid had been left open, a bathroom
smell throughout. The icebox has been raided, bottles on the floor with
their contents emptied, but little is found on the floor. A bottle of
tomato catsup has been smashed on the wall and drips down its length.
A neighbor will exclaim, "I wanted some veal, and when the shop didn't
open on time, I peeked through the window and saw this mess." Sam is
on the floor, his body lying on the floor, bruised and battered, kitchen
knife still clutched in his hand. The constable guesses that he was killed
the previous night as well, clubbed to death with something blunt. A
neighbor says that she heard some racket the night before, but just attributed
it to, "Im and 'is gal doin' naughty. None av mai affaer, I thunk to
meeself."
A reporter arrives, one Blath Quickfoot, arrives to
report the story for the local paper, The Brinn Discoverer. He asks questions
about the circumstances of the story, and harasses Chief Quinn as to
what is being done to protect the city from the wave of murders. Quinn
makes some lame excuses about things being out of his control, short
of men, and the like. The reporter is quite insistant that things are
not being done that could be. He asks, "What about the testimony that
that bum on southeast hub gave about his buddy being grabbed out of a
sewer access hole and dragged down there?" This makes the chief very
uncomfortable. He says that he has paperwork to do and hustles off. The
reporter queries the party to see who they are and why they are here.
He is very helpful with information. He describes the series of murders
as follows: "It all started about a month ago when folks started disappearing
in the northeast residential hub. It was mostly bums and homeless people,
but it wasn't long before town guards started disappearing as well. It
was blamed on Goblins from the woods, but I just don't buy it. They never
venture within a half mile of the city, let alone enter it, even by night.
Then we began to have a series of shops being robbed, seemingly from
within. No windows ever are broken, the doors are always locked, the
windows shuttered, and no sign at all of forced entry. It is as if the
assailant lived with the victim or something. Something very fishy is
going on here. The Chief Quinn knows much more than he lets on. Whoever
it is that is causing all this trouble has got him running scared. He
has applied for early retirement is the rumor. He has begun packing his
things, apparently to move."
Blath will tell anthing that he knows, and wants to
hear any clues that the party may come upon. He tells the party that
if they want to talk to the bum whose buddy was abducted, he can usually
be found panhandling near The Crooked Crow tavern. He says that he has
an errand to run, and excuses himself. He gives the location of the Brinn
Discoverer, southeast business hub just off the south road out of town.
The Bum (Grison Birchborn)
It is not hard to find Grison Birchborn, the bum told
about by the reporter. He is, as expected, sitting on the ground outside
the Crooked Crow Tavern looking quite pathetic (on purpose). His clothes
are tattered and torn and his shoes have large holes in the soles. He
asks the party for, "a few coppers for a veteran of the citadel conflict." He
stands as the party approaches, groaning from imaginary pains in his
back and legs. "The skeletal bastards nearly did me in, they did. I was
lucky to have come away with my life. Really!" He doesn't sound very
convincing, but spins a good yarn about the battle, "There were skeletons
on all sides! I hacked my way to the woods and escaped, but not before
they pierced my leg ..." he moans pitifully, rubbing his left leg," ...
with a deadly bolt. Oh the chill!" He coughs and pulls out a paper bag
with some alcoholic mixture in it and slogs down a belt, cringing afterwards. "Where
was I ... Oh yeah my leg." He rubbs his right leg and continues as long
as the party has patience to detail how he cannot work now and that his
family was killed in a skeleton raid on his villiage, the name of which
seems to have slipped his mind. When asked about his buddy, he tells
the following story, but not before asking for a few silver pieces for
his trouble. Upon recieving these he goes into melodramatic mode to relate
his tale, which happens to be true. As he recounts it, he becomes more
and more fearful and distressed.
"I knew him for better'n a year. He was a good
friend. We was looking through some opportunity cans (garbage) in the
northwest hub when we hear this thumping noise coming from the street,
but nobody was there. My friend Chubby points to a manhole cover and
says that is where the noise is coming from. He walks over to it just
as the metal cover flips off, knocking him to the ground. A long arm
reaches out of the hole and drags him into it, kicking and screaming.
As he was about to enter the hole, he fell silent, and that is the
last that I heard. The hand reached out and pulled the cover back over
the hole, and I heard a chuckle and then I hear nothin' at all."
"I didn't know what to think, and ran off to find
a constable. I told them all that I knew, but they did not do much
about it. They opened the cover and looked inside. One of 'em, a new
constable, began to vomit as he pulled his head out from the hole.
When they pulled Chubby out, he was missing his head, but it was definately
him, judging from his clothes and all. Queer times these are."
The Sewers
The manhole cover comes open fairly easily. Upon peering
inside, one sees nothing but darkness other than the circle of light
cast from the manhole. The stench is almost unbearable. Rats stare up
from below at the light. A small stream of filth makes its way down the
hallway of the sewer tunnel. The sewer stinks of methane, for anyone
familiar with the hazards of it. The tunnel itself, being one of the
main passages, is some 8' wide and as high. Smaller passages lead off
to other areas of the city. If one crawls down the hole with a torch,
there is a 20% per 100' travelled of a methane fire being started, which
will cause 1d6/round that one is in the flame. There is a 5% chance per
100' of travel of a methane explosion, which does 3d6 to any in the range
of it.
Entering with any light source will reveal rats scurrying
off and a 10% chance of bats being scared up. The passages of the sewers
are very slick on the floor and if running at full pace, there is a 5%
chance of falling per melee round of running, making it a dangerous place
indeed. The sewers are the home of the undertakers. There are 9 of them,
of the following hit dice: 15, 12, 12, 10, 8, 7, 7, 3, and 1. Their lairs
are fairly centralized near Covelli's magic shop. During the day they
spend much of their time asleep, bloated with the previous night's plundering
of delis and cheesemakers alike. Their lair emanates the smell of rotting
meat over the stench of the sewers themselves. There is one lair per
undertaker except for the one with young (1 hit dice). The undertakers
will warn Covelli of any movement in the sewers. Undertakers are experts
at throwing their voices and of mimicing sounds to scare off any intruders.
There are many Gelatenous Orbs that roam the sewers, feeding on rats
and mice. The tunnels are also infested with water snakes, some of which
are poisonous as well as poisonous spiders. Large grub worms crawl though
the muck, giant maggots of over a foot in length and up to four inches
in diameter.
Covelli in the Sewers
If Covelli must enter the sewers to defend his creatures,
he will be elusive in combat and will seek to not be seen if possible.
He has improved invisibility which he can use up to 5 times daily. He
also is proficient in thespell, and thus can cast it with only one half
of a spell point being used. In order to complete the mission, eventually
Covelli will have to be killed unless he escapes. He will not reveal
his true identity, due to the fact that the Society For Freedom will
come after him. He will recognise the fact that members of the party
are members, and will be afraid that they were sent to kill him. He will
send his undertakers after the party, threatening them with cutting off
their electrical supply if they don't. The undertakers will fight fiercely
for Covelli, but if he feels that he cannot eliminate the party, he will
flee with his helm of teleportation. If he does, this will be the basis
for the party's next mission, hunting him down. If so, the next mission
will probably be with the help of one of the Society members for backup.
If Covelli is destroyed, each member will recieve a mutation of choice
rather than a random one in appreciation for destroying one that the
Society sees as a real threat to their secrets.
As said before, Covelli is very slippery in battle,
preferring to do hit and run tactics rather than face an opponent in
a fair fight. He will make extensive use of his ability to go desolid
in these tactics as well as his use of invisibility. He always attacks
from long range with a bow or spell unless he has no choice. He will
attempt to cut members of the party from one another, his methood of
choice being a wall of stone or a fear spell, sending members of the
party scrambling in all directions. He will then try to kill off the
members one by one personally or by sending an undertaker after them.
He will try to make members of the party distrust one another by mimicing
their voices and creating an illusion of them which will lead them to
their downfall. He will avoid a fair fight at all costs. If he loses
half or more of his hit points, he will teleport out. The tear in the
space-time continuum that results from a teleport can be traced by the
Society For Freedom. Thus if he teleports out, they can track him to
a general location. If he teleports out, the likelihood is great that
he will go to Innlandstadt, where he has friends. He is originally from
a small town near the city located in the jungle.
Monstrous Compendium of the Sewers
----------------------------------
Ecology of the Gelatenous Orb
Frequency: Uncommon
No. Appearing: 1-6
Armor Class: 4
Move: 8"
Hit Dice: 1-3 hp (to 4 hd)
% In Lair: 40%
Treasure Type: copper
# of Attacks: 1
Dam/Attack: special
Special Attacks: poison (sleep)
Special Defenses: immune to elec-
trically based attacks
Magic Resistance: 10%
Intellegence: animal
Alignment: neutral
Size: S (6" diameter)
Psionic Ability: nil
Att/Def Modes: nil
Lvl/X.P. Val: 300 + 10/hp
The gelatenous orb is a fairly small globe some 6" in
diameter, a cousin to the blobber. It moves by rolling along the floor,
though it can hop up to 4' and bounce up to 1 1/2 times the amount that
it falls as a blobber. Gelatenous orbs are for the most part harmless, but
if attacked, they can shoot a stream of fluid which is a sort of contact
poison. Failing to save causes one to sleep for d6 turns (10-60 minutes).
They have a small mouth with sharp teeth which do d2 hit points of damage.
It will only attack something that it has caused to sleep. As with blobbers
and undertakers, gelatenous orbs gain hit points from lightning based
attacks at 1/2 the amount of damage that they would have taken by same
electrical attacks. They can sense electricity up to 100 yards away,
and are attracted to it. A gelatenous orb can gain up to 4 hit dice if
gained through exposure to electricity, but otherwise they have a maximum
of 3 hit points when full grown. They are immune to electrically based
attacks and cold based attacks only do 1/2 damage.
They prefer cool, moist regions, preferrably in dark
places. They are usually found in caves or sometimes dense forests, where
direct sunlight is at a minimum. They like water, and sometimes inhabit
deep pools, feeding upon fish. They breathe in water as well as in air.
They will sometimes attack lone fishermen, squirting their sleep potion
and then raiding the fish that the man has, but usually they mean no
harm to humankind, being on the whole afraid of men. They will only attack
a man if threatened or very hungry. They have a ravenous appetite, and
need to eat 5 pounds or more of meat a day. They sometimes attack in
packs of 1-6 and only then do they become truly aggressive.
Gelatenous orbs are good at imitating sounds, and often
will fool a party by luring them into opening doors that they cannot
open themselves or slide under, but their intentions are usually not
to harm.
The ecology of the Undertaker
Frequency: Rare
No. Appearing:1-3
Armor Class: 3
Move: 12"
Hit Dice: 5 (up to 30)
% In Lair: 50%
Treasure Type: Any
# of Attacks: 2
Dam/Attack: 2d10
Special Attacks: suffocate,
adhesion, sleep
Special Defenses: Immune to charm,
acid, electrical
Magic Resistance: 20%
Intellegence: Very
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Size: M-L (up to 30' wide)
Psionic Ability: nil
Att/Def Modes: nil
Lvl/X.P. Val: 3000 + 10/hp
The Undertaker is a curious cousin to the blobber, though
much more brutal and self serving. An undertaker prefers to remain in
hiding and attack from above, if possible. If both attacks are successful,
the Undertaker is said to have partially enveloped its victim, and within
d6 rounds can completely envelop its victim. The Undertaker has an oily
slick that always covers its exterior. This oily substance is contact
poison of the sleep variety. Failure to save results in sleep for d6
hours. Any hit that is made by the Undertaker has a chance of delivering
enough poison to affect its victim, as per the chart below:
Plate Mail 20%
Chain Mail 40%
Leather 50%
No Armor/cloth 75%
The fluid is slightly acidic, enough to blind for
d6 melee rounds if it decides to squirt the liquid, which it often does.
It can do this up to 20'. If the fluid is shot as described, it also has
the same percentage chance of working as in the chart above. One of the
Undertaker's favorite tactics is to hide on the roof of a room and drip
its poison on victims below while hiding in the shadows above. The undertaker
is 90% likely not to be noticed in dim light if attatched to a ceiling.
It has limited chameleon ability.
Attacks done by lightning or other electrical means
causes the creature to grow in size and hit points at the rate of 1/2
h.p. that would have been taken being added to its own permanently. The
creatures are attracted to any source of electricity, if such exist,
and can detect it at a range of 1 mile. The creatures are the creation
of Covelli Changecoat, a renegade mage formerly of the Society for Freedom.
The first was an accident. He was draining failed potions into his toilet
which was a hole dropping into the sewers below. Gelatenous Orbs, a very
timid relative of the blobber, infest the sewers of the elven capital.
A group of these became exposed to the genetic research potions of Covelli
and grew in size and gained powers intended for human use, though with
side effects. Covelli used some basic electrical equipment used by alchemists
of the time. At night, the Gelatenous Orbs would creep up the toilet
and attatch themselves to the electrical generating equipment, causing
them to grow. The potions began to take their toll and the creatures
became more and more malicious. By the time that Covelli discovered what
had happened, three of them had become quite powerful. He managed to
defeat them to the point that they surrendered and made a deal with him
for continued potions and electricity in exchange for doing Covelli favors
and killing his opposition. Covelli is malicious and dangerous, having
many of the powers granted to the Society for Freedom to its faithful
members. The Undertaker got its name from its ability to incorporate
parts from creatures that it kills into its own makeup. If it kills a
creature with a superior mind, it will incorporate that intellect to
enhance its own. In this way, it can become superintellegent. It can
only use up to 3 brains at a time, but continually will seek out intellegent
people to kill for their knowledge or skilled warriors for their weapons
knowledge. Any information possessed by a victim at the time of death
is passed on to the creature. As the creature grows in hit dice, it advances
as to brain capacity and number of attacking appendages that it can use
at once.
Hit Max. # Attacks/melee Fights As:
Die Brains round (level of fighter)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
5 3 2 5
6 4 3 7
7 5 4 9
8 6 5 11
9 7 6 13
10 8 7 15
11 9 8 17
12 10 8 19 + 1st Mage
13 11 9 21 + 2nd Mage
14 12 9 23 + 3rd Mage
15 13 9 23 + 4th Mage 1st Cleric
16 14 10 23 + 6th Mage 2nd Cleric
17 15 10 23 + 8th Mage 3rd Cleric
18 16 10 23 + 9th Mage 4th Cleric 1st Illus
19 17 10 23 + 10th Mage 5th Cleric 2nd Illus
20 18 11 23 + 11th Mage 6th Cleric 3rd Illus
21 19 11 23 + 12th Mage 7th Cleric 4th Illus
22 20 11 23 + 13th Mage 8th Cleric 5th Illus
23 21 11 23 + 14th Mage 9th Cleric 6th Illus
24 22 11 23 + 15th Mage 10th Cler. 7th Illus
25 23 12 23 + 16th Mage 11th Cler. 8th Illus
26 24 12 23 + 17th Mage 12th Cler. 9th Illus
27 25 12 23 + 18th Mage 13th Cler. 10th Ills
28 26 12 23 + 19th Mage 14th Cler. 11th Ills
29 27 12 23 + 20th Mage 15th Cler. 12th Ills
30 28 12 23 + 21st Mage 16th Cler. 13th Ills
As shown in the chart above, the Undertaker is a potentially
powerful creature indeed at higher levels. If a creature can find a constant
power supply, these high levels can be achieved. The new class skills
are achieved by killing mages, fighters, illusionists, and clerics as
they advance. If no such persons can be killed and incorporated, no such
skills are possessed. However, as the creature grows in strength, it
will search out those with desired skills. In addition to mental assimilation, the creature can
add physical body parts to itself which it might find useful. For example,
if it wants to incorporate the spines from a porcupine that it ingests,
it can do so. It can incorporate in itself any bit of genetic code that
it finds desireable. This can be abused, so the dm must use reason in
assigning preexisting physical abilities.
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