"The maester and his students were due back three days ago, and we have to leave! Do what you can to find them and bring them back!"
An adventure seed for characters of approximately 4th-6th level. Arriving at the base camp, on the foothills of the smoking Mount Winderval, you have had time to reflect on the journey that brought you here. You have travelled in search of Maester Weir, an elven sage, and his students who came to study the mighty volcano in the weeks before its eventual eruption. Already, smoke thickens the sky above, and streams of radiant magma drip from the high peaks. The villages and towns within a week's travel have evacuated to safer lands for the next few weeks or months, and you have been tasked with finding the maester before the volcano's eruption. Base Camp The base camp itself is deserted, the canvas tents cracking and flapping in the hot, thick winds. The expedition's wagon is clearly missing, and with some survival skills, you can tell that the wagon headed up the mountain along one of the trails. The ash fall makes it hard to track, although you can tell that it travelled some time ago. In the abandoned tents, several journals can be found, wrapped in wax-paper and weighed down with stones. They tell of Maester Weir's intense study of the volcano, and his discovery of the Nurn Khaldur ruins, a little further up the mountain, as well as the location of the Coalrain Mine, designated as the team's rendezvous point if anything went wrong. The foothills themselves can also be explored. Foothills The regions around the volcano show signs of ancient lava-flow, long since hardened over centuries. It looks like there may once have been villages closer to the mountain, as well as roads crossing the plains, but only traces of them remain. A hungry Manticore, most of its prey fled to escape the imminent eruption, will prey on adventurers spending too long in the open. Coalrain Mine This ancient diamond mine played out its seam decades ago, and has been abandoned for some time. The doorway has been disturbed, and scrape marks can be seen in the ash. A small cache of crates can be found just inside the door, as well as ashy footprints leading further into the mine. There, more bedrolls can supplies can be found, as well as one of the Maester's students- a young scholarly expert named Beringin. He is terrified, but relieved if things can be explained to him. He says he's heard whispers and seen spirits emanating from a lava flow deeper within the caves. He says he fled after the Maester wanted to lead the other students further up the volcano from the temple ruins, and has been waiting for them here desperately. If persuaded, he will leave, and meet any other survivors further away. Deep in the mine, six Magmins can be found, gleefully incinerating all the rock they can find and reshaping it to their desire. If vanquished, the magma they have created sloughs off a few raw chunks of diamond, able to be broken free and turned into nearly 1,000 gp worth of cut diamonds, with some skilled work. Nurn Khaldur ruins This ruined temple of glossy black rock juts from the side of the mountain about halfway up its slope. Its walls are heavily worn, and many of the stones have tumbled down. The ash here is thick on the ground, easily an inch or two and powdery like soft snow. The air is thick and smoky, but able to be breathed. The ground shakes violently every hour or so, causing most people to be knocked prone. The expedition's wagon can be found outside, the harness straps slashed and the mules long since fled. Within the temple, recent traces show that the Maester and his students were taking rubbings of some of the wall reliefs, and a few more journals have been wrapped and left outside the central hall. These journals are written by Orpah, one of Maester Weir's students, and detail the Maester's fireside chat one night where he disclosed his own history- he was born in one of the villages directly below the volcano centuries ago, and only barely survived the lava flow that killed everyone else in the village. They speak of his driving desire to climb the volcano's peak and meet the 'imprisoned empyrean spirit' that has caused its violent rumbles and lava flows, as well as his promise they if they can reach the right point, they will be safe from the volcano's eruption. Within the main hall, there are about thirty terracotta statues, many fallen and shattered by the temple's rumbles. The wall reliefs here depict a vast humanoid figure beneath the mountain, and a building that looks much like this temple, but atop the very edge of the volcano. They show a person being pushed from the edge into the caldera, and the figure below resting again. Accidentally pressing on any part of the figure animates the terracotta warriors as a dozen suits of Animated Armour, which will attack intruders. In ancient times, these would have been deactivated by ritual words, but only careful study of the reliefs and knowledge of arcana might reveal this word now. Magma Fields Attempting to climb further up the mountain means crossing the magma fields, where the smoke is thick and choking, as well as the ground being lit by massive rivers of glowing lava. A trio of Magma Mephits, a pair of Smoke Mephits, and a Salamander which have crossed the planes makes their home here, splashing happily in the dense liquid. They attack those who cross their territory and attempt to head upslope. Upper Slopes Reaching this area will be a trek through intensely hostile territory- not only up a mountain slope in belching volcanic smoke, but also intense and exhausting heat. Characters travelling this high should be forced to make at least two Constitution saving throws, with each failure conferring a level of exhaustion. Resistance to fire damage, and useful survival skills, grants advantage on one of each of the saving throws. The ground continues to shake, the tremors growing stronger and more frequent. It is clear that the volcano is in imminent danger of full-blown eruption, and that continuing will be intensely dangerous. Kagh Baduhr ritual site At the volcano's very peak, the heat is like standing next to a blast furnace, and the air is thick with ash. An ancient temple can be found overlooking the roiling caldera, built of the same angular black stones as the previous ruin. More of the terracotta warriors are arrayed guarding the doors as if against intruders, four per door, and violently resist any efforts to enter. The temple itself is strangely whole and free of ash and damage. Within the ritual site, a wide gallery open to the elements can be found. Maester Weir, his skin covered in ash and his face streaked with clay adornments, is deep in the throes of some ritual. His students are huddled, starving and terrified, and tell that he will not let them leave. Although he promised to make them safe, he has clearly gone mad, and says he needs to sacrifice all of them to free the spirit beneath the mountain and make the entire region safe. At this point, Maester Weir, who has become an Embermage, turns on the party and decides to add them to his sacrifice, too. He and the three Magma Mephits he has called launch an all-out attack, hoping to slay them and cast their bodies into the caldera as offerings for Prometheon, a primordial spirit vanquished and sealed away during the Titan Wars. Only then can this region be free of the empyrean's struggles against his binding. If Maester Weir is vanquished, the clock begins ticking, and the PCs and the surviving students will have to flee the volcano as its fury begins to vent. Escape Fleeing the volcano's slopes will be no less dangerous than its ascent, and periodic checks against the oppressive heat, magma flows, and tumbling boulders launched by the eruption. Escaping the mountain's immediate vicinity halts the immediacy of the danger, however. The volcano continues its eruption over the course of the next month, bringing smoke and ash across half the continent and smothering the nearby valleys in molten rock again. However, if you prefer, the Empyrean Prometheon might actually loose his bindings and slip free for some time to threaten cities nearby, or hide away to become a danger again later. That's all up to you! Comments are closed.
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AuthorI'm Luke. He/him pronouns. Archives
May 2022
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