An Adventure for Every Monster - Demon, Type VI

What will happen to your party if you're successful in this adventure

(artwork from Craig J Spearing - check his stuff out here)

Frequency     Rare
No. appearing 1-3 or 1-6
Armour class  -2
Move  6”/15”
Hit Dice 8+8
Percentage in lair  20%    
Treasure type F
No. of attacks 1
Damage per attack 2-13    
Special attack  Whip and flame for 2-12/3-18/4-24 (damage dependent on size of demon)
Special defences +1 or better weapon to hit
Magic Resistance 75%
Intelligence High
Alignment Chaotic Evil
Size  L (12’ tall)
THAC0  12
XP value  3600 +12/hp

Abilities:

Cause Darkness, 10’ radius at will
Cause Fear
Detect Magic
Read Languages
Detect Invisible Objects
Pyrotechnics
Dispel Magic
Telekinese 6000gp weight
Use Symbol of Fear, Discord, Sleep or Stunning
70% chance of gating in a Type III (80%) or IV (20%)
Infravision
Darkness
Teleportation


Legends tell of a mighty battle deep in the heart of a mountain fastness, in which a terrifying demon fought the last of the Grey Wizards. Enchantments, magicks and thaumaturgical power of awe-inspiring proportions were hurled between the adversaries and finally the demon was cast into an abyss and half the mountain brought down on top of it.

The Grey Wizard knew, however, that this would not kill the demon, merely trap it and that its evil would linger there unless he found some way of destroying it forever. He set off on a quest to locate the arcane knowledge that would enable him to do this but whether he succeeded or not is lost in the mists of legend. Even the existence of the demon is now doubted by those in the know; modernist revisions of the legend now hold that it is merely a metaphor for the struggle over the resources of precious metal that surely still exist deep within the mountain’s caves.

Needless to say, this is tosh. Of course the demon still exists and, like anybody who’s spent centuries with a mountain on top of him, he’s very, very angry. You would have thought that he would be angrier still that most of his hoard of treasure, unguarded since his fall, had been looted but this, strange to say, pleases him greatly. Why might this be so?

Simply put, the treasure had been in his possession for so long that he had started to imbue it with his essence; it had taken on part of his spirit and after many years under the rubble, he found that he could see shadowy images through that link. Practising concentration (because he really had nothing else to do down there) he was able to fine tune the connection and learn a lot about the people who had looted his hoard and where those items were now. He found that he was able to send images and suggestions into their dreams and he now uses this to lure adventurers to the place where he is interred so that, egged on by the promise of more loot, they will uncover him and set him free.

The party has acquired an item that once belonged to the hoard of the demon. They don’t know this but over the course of the next few weeks, one of them (or more if the item is held communally) will start to have dreams about a fabulous treasure hoard, buried in the depths of the mountains,  just waiting to be looted. Try as they might, the party will be unable to determine the source of the dreams but like a game of ‘hot or cold’, the dreams will become clearer and more vivid as they home in on the direction of the demon.

The demon takes a philosophical view of his centuries-long imprisonment; after all, it is inevitable that at some point, a determined band of adventurers will manage to find him and free him. He has some very interesting experiences in mind for them as a special reward for setting him free.

There is one slight problem with the demon’s plan, however;  in the centuries since he was imprisoned, there has developed in the mountains a cult that has been drawn there by the evil influence and now worships at a crudely constructed shrine very near where the demon is trapped. They are savage, cunning, inbred and fond of human sacrifice to their supposed deity (the demon gains no benefit from this, alas). They also know by heart the tunnels and caves surrounding their shrine and have set up simple but effective booby traps to guard it. This is going to make getting to the demon very difficult for anything but a determined and tough party.

Team Adventure - Flame On!

The disappearance of their heavyweight fighter had discomfited the party and they quickly put their heads together to try and work out what to do. It was decided to test the fire with a second zombie (they  had used one earlier, but I’d forgotten to include this in the last session write-up). Said zombie shambled up the steps and into the fire, which had the same result; one vanished zombie.

Elysia decided that this was getting them nowhere and hit upon the solution of sending Relic through the fire. She was hoping that nothing bad was going to happen and figured that the telepathic link between them would net her more information than if they risked another member of the party. The little pseudo-dragon flew into the flames and was gone in an instant. Elysia concentrated on the connection between them and started to receive images from the other side of the flames.

Alurax was not, in fact, dead, or indeed in any immediate danger.  Relic had appeared in an octagonal room with four arches leading off it, each filled with a rusty orange mist. Beside each arch was a lever marked “Pull me”. One of the levers was up, the others down. In the middle of the room, a skeleton lay, a sword in its bony claw, pointing at one of the arches. Whilst Relic was taking all this in, he heard a call from above him and looked up to find Alurax stuck to the ceiling of the room. 

What had happened to him was swiftly deduced by Elysia, who worked out that a powerful magnetic field had been triggered by Alurax pulling one of the levers. As the only member of the party not wearing anything metal, she knew that she would have to go through the fire and having seen that Relic was not harmed, she knew it would be safe.

She arrived in the room, cast Web to secure Alurax from falling, then switched off the magnetic field. He fell into the sticky strands, whereupon Elysia cast Fly to rise up and cut him loose, lowering him safely to the ground.  While she was doing this, Ferros sent Rufus through to get information on what was happening and relayed the goings-on to the rest of the party.

One by one, the party members used the fire bowl to travel to the octagonal room. Once they were all there, Ferros realised that he would be unable to bring any of his undead army with him as he was not there to issue their commands. At least, he thought, he had two zombies with him. The party looked around the room and wondered what was through the mist-filled arches. Whilst they were pondering this, a strange growling howl came from beyond the arch to which the skeleton’s sword pointed.

It should be pointed out at this juncture that Galadeus had been the only one bold enough to touch the skeleton and take the sword. The party had half-expected it to animate and do something nasty but instead it just lay there. The strange noises, however, prompted the ranger to draw his weapons and go hurrying off into the mist to investigate. Without the rest of the party. As usual.

After ten feet or so of swirling mists which would have fuddled his brain had he not been wearing a home-made face mask, he found himself in a clear passageway. Ahead of him was another archway filled with mist; there were two more, one on each side of him. As he was taking this in, out of each archway stepped a huge minotaur, armed with a nasty-looking axe. They laid into the luckless ranger, battering him badly. He put up a valiant fight and Florin the phoenix used its fire-based ability to set the genitalia of one of the minotaurs aflame.  Enraged and in agonising pain, it attacked all the harder.

Rufus came through the mist to find out what had happened; a brief scan of the scene enabled him to flash the message back to Ferros that Galadeus was in the process of being hacked to pieces by the minotaurs. The party surged through the mist to his rescue - Alurax relieved his comrade, who was virtually finished by now, Elysia flew in and pulled the ranger to safety and Gullhor brought ten feet of furry white power with him.

I'll see your three Minotaurs and raise you a Polar Bear

Alurax finished off one minotaur and Larsh ripped the two others to pieces although he did take some damage from the axe of one.  As the party were searching the bodies and clearing up, it was noticed that there was a trail of gold pieces that led through one of the unexplored arches. Having healed Galadeus, they decided to follow it.  Another mist-filled stretch of passageway awaited them, followed by a clear passage, followed by a mist-filled one, followed by a clear one…and so on. The party soon realised that their choices had brought them round in a circle and back to the octagonal room again.

Galadeus decided to try another direction, turning right where they had previously turned left and came to a passageway that ended not in an archway but in a heavy planked door. They suspected that something interesting lay beyond and how right they were as kicking in the door revealed a large pile of hay in the centre of the room and two more minotaurs closing in on them. This time the party was prepared and able to spread out and engage their enemy on advantageous terms. The fight was swift and the two minotaurs were quickly eliminated, leaving Alurax free to search the room, discovering a large stash of electrum pieces below the pile of hay. Whilst he was doing that, he and Galadeus noticed that there was a thirty foot shaft in the ceiling, and at its top, some sort of wooden trap door. There were also three other plank doors leading off the minotaur room.

Elysia realised that she was running low on spells now and did not want to start opening more doors without being able to fend off what might lie on the other side. She set up Leomund’s Tiny Hut and the party bedded down inside – all, that is, apart from Alurax and Galadeus. The two of them had decided not to pass up the opportunity of investigating the shaft and climbed up its side to the trapdoor, Galadeus using two minotaur horns that he had hacked off the head of one of the party’s defeated opponents. They managed to get the door open, although it swung down to hit Alurax but did not dislodge him.

They emerged into a vast room, thirty feet wide and as high. The floors were covered with old prayer rugs, their patterns worn by years of use. Ahead of them against the wall was a statue of the King that reached nearly to the ceiling and in its forehead was a glimmering red gem. In the floor in front of the statue was a compass rose carved into the floor.

The lure of the gem proved too much for our heroes; Galadeus instructed Florin to fly up and take it but the phoenix could not get it free, so in an act of lèse-majesté, Alurax scrambled up the statue and used a dagger to prise the gem out of the stone.

As soon as he did so, a deep booming sound started up from the statue. Both he and Galadeus ran back to the trapdoor and climbed back down the shaft again. Elysia was rather annoyed to find out what had been going on, firstly because her rest and spell recovery had been interrupted and secondly because despite all the fuss, the gem that Alurax had stolen was revealed to be worthless cut glass. She insisted that Alurax put the gem back as she had deduced that this would stop the alarm. She was exactly right and with the gem replaced, the party bedded down to some peaceful rest.

Eight hours later, on the morning of September 14th (if anybody is actually keeping track of time; I know the party isn’t) Alurax and Galadeus woke with a keen urge to continue their investigations at the top of the shaft. Elysia was not interested in the upper level but the ranger and the fighter pressed on regardless whilst the rest of the party continued its exploration of the room they were in. Alurax had wondered if the gem, despite being glass, might shine a clue onto the compass rose, giving a hint as to the way out.

Meanwhile, Alagon had started to investigate the three other doors that led off the minotaur room. Beyond the first one, he found a leather knapsack that contained two scroll cases and a pouch with about a thousand gold pieces inside it. Elysia was very interested in the scrolls and was even more so when it was discovered that one of them was Fireball. This spell, so inseparably identified with the most powerful wizards had long been missing from her spell book and her delight at its acquisition was hard to conceal.

The second of the doors opened to reveal another misty corridor, as did the third, although Elysia used Relic to scout out what lay beyond. It was definitely pay day for the magic user as the pseudo-dragon saw a glowing ring on the floor of the corridor. Relic snatched it up before Ferros could get to it and took it to his mistress, who used an Identify spell to reveal it to be a powerful Ring of Protection. As she was unable to wear armour, the magic user thought it best if she appropriated this item.

Meanwhile, on the level above, Alurax and Galadeus had managed to find a secret door in the statue room and opened it to find beyond a passageway which they decided to explore. Thereby splitting the party but no matter. It’s never bothered them in the past!

DG note - this week was the first time that Larsh the polar bear had made his appearance on the table, courtesy of Brian at Lead Legion. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank him for all the effort he made in locating the figure and painting it up for us.

Team Adventure - Pyramid Scheme

The next morning, Elysia despatched Relic and Rufus to scout out the two roads and see what lay ahead. It was not long before the pseudo-dragons returned to report that to the north-west lay seemingly endless tracts of sand dunes, whilst to the south-west, there appeared to be rocky hills rising out of the desert. There was a brief debate within the party about the direction that they should take; some thought the city sounded worth investigating whilst others were keener on the hills; somebody remembered that many weeks earlier (or so it seemed) Benbo had mentioned mountains across a desert and thought this might be them.

I should note at this point (for it was overlooked in last time’s report) that the party had left town without Benbo. The hobbit had not been present when they started their journey into the desert and nobody was particularly inclined to search for him.

The team set off towards the hills and arrived about mid-morning. The terrain was harder going but they nevertheless reached the high places with no great mishap.

At last, a break from sand!

From the peaks, they could see down across the desert plains and far off in the distance, Alurax (with his hawk-assisted vision) was able to pick out a tiny black speck on the horizon. Thinking that this could be the pyramid about which the obelisk had spoken, the party pressed on, coming out of the hills and into the desert again. Elysia sent off Relic to see what he could find out about the distant object but the team were setting up camp amidst the dunes before the pseudo-dragon returned, very hungry and thirsty, to relate that it was definitely a pyramid, with the ruins of some sort of temple outside.

When the sun rose, the party was eager to get moving again, now that they had confirmation that they were on the right track. It was not long before something unusual happened. Alurax suddenly went rigid in the saddle, moaned, clutched his head and fell to the sand. The rest of the party gathered round, very concerned. The doughty fighter soon recovered his wits to relate that he had experienced a weird vision; he had been in a moonlit desert when he was confronted by a mysterious figure in rags, beckoning to him. When he refused to approach, the figure came to him, revealing that it was the spirit of a long-dead king, who was now cursed by the gods to linger outside the afterlife as punishment for his greed and arrogance in life. He told Alurax that he needed help; if the party could seize the Staff of Ruling and the Star Gem from the tomb within the pyramid, then his soul could move on to the afterlife after hundreds of years. He also warned Alurax to beware of somebody called Munafik, whose heart had become filled with darkness.

The other members of the party seemed to consider that Alurax had been chosen by the King’s spirit to enter the pyramid and lift the curse. They rode for most of the day, with the distant pyramid getting slowly larger on their horizon.

Hmmm...I wonder if that's worth investigating

At last, however, they arrived at the foot of the huge building. It was getting on for late afternoon by now, but the gang were undeterred and scrambled up the steps which led to the only visible entrance. 

Inside the entrance, they found a passage running to the left and one to the right. Ahead of them was a long dark hall with four thick pillars on each side. Away at the far end of the room was a statue, dim and hard to make out in the gloom but Elysia used her Wand of Illumination to light the chamber and they could make it out. Alurax recognised a similarity between the figure he had seen in his vision and the statue, concluding that it must be of the King. It was also noticed that the statue was not carved of the same material as the wall against which it stood; further examination showed that it seemed to be concealing an entrance. Alurax and Gullhor tried to shift it but it was too heavy for them so they enrolled the assistance of Larsh and with his furry strength, the statue was soon heaved aside to reveal a short passage to another room, which had another statue of the King and two passages leading off to either side.

Concluding that the statue must hide a similar door, the party soon had it shoved aside and sure enough, a long passage lay beyond. It sloped downwards and the party followed it for about seventy feet until they arrived in a large room. On the far side, facing them were three statues of the King, with two more on each side of the room. The party edged around what appeared to be some kind of altar in the centre of the room. Elysia noticed that the ceiling and walls were covered in strange inscriptions and Ferros used his Comprehend Languages spell to decipher that they repeated the name of the King in many different but archaic languages.

On examining the altar, the party noted that there seemed to be the impressions of a left and right hand on one side of it. They were reluctant to place their own hands there, and instead conducted a thorough search of the room. One of the statues on the side opposite the main entrance yielded to the power of fighters and polar bear, only to reveal a small but empty room beyond.

Not wishing to leave any stone unturned, Alurax volunteered to place his hands onto the impressions on the altar. Nothing happened when he did so; nor did it when Gullhor tried. Then Ferros and Alagon remembered that the King’s name was almost everywhere in the room and thought that perhaps uttering this might give some result. So it transpired, and with a click and an eerie grinding noise, one of the statues on the side wall slid slowly aside to reveal a passage into the darkness beyond.

With Alurax and Alagon leading the way, the party moved further on into the tunnels and chambers. The passage led them into a grand hallway – or perhaps it had been grand once, many years ago. Now, the plaster frescoes had crumbled to rubble and there were axe and hammer marks all over the walls. At the far end was a broken door, showing the signs of violence.

The party decided to investigate further and found that beyond the door was another huge room. This had carvings in the wall which, when translated by Ferros, read ‘Treasure Room’. If it had ever contained treasure, there was none there now; merely broken pots and smashed chests. An archway at the end of the treasure room led to a room inside which lay a stone sarcophagus. Its lid had been heaved off and smashed into fragments. The sarcophagus was empty apart from a thick layer of dust. On the wall behind it, there were words which read “Here lies the true tomb of the King. Know that you have arrived too late to plunder his riches”.

Gullhor speculated that even if somebody had plundered the tomb, they might still find the treasure somewhere else in the pyramid since it had been said by the man who spoke to Alurax in the tavern in Sandholm that nobody had ever returned from the desert.

Meanwhile, Elysia and Ferros had despatched their pseudo-dragons to investigate some of the side passages that the party had passed on its way to the plundered tomb. The reports came in; the two passages that they had found just inside the main doorway led to a room with a statue of the King in on one side and a similar chamber on the other side but this one had a statue which held a large bowl in which blazed flames. The second pair of side passages led to deep wells within the pyramid, one of which was filled with murky water whilst the other was fed by a fountain that came pouring out of a hole in the wall of the well.

The party decided to check out the flaming bowl room, and were soon examining the statue, which stood at the top of a flight of stairs. Alurax approached the fire and noticed that it gave out light but no heat. Curious, he put his hand into the fire and found that he was not burnt. He tried placing a small twig into the bowl and at once, the fire flared up fiercely; when it subsided, there was no sign of the twig.

It was at this point that Galadeus, who had been checking around the room, noticed that as well as the tracks of the party, there were other footprints disturbing the dust, which climbed the stairs but did not go back down again. However, this observation did not deter Alurax from clambering into the bowl of fire. As had happened before, the flames blazed up, momentarily blinding everybody and when they could see again, there was no trace whatsoever of the trident-wielding fighter. Alurax was gone.   

DG note - a shorter session than usual this time, since it was Junior Grognard's tenth birthday this weekend and after we broke for lunch, the lads wanted to do other stuff. Nevertheless, they got a long way in a couple of hours, which pleased me greatly.

An Adventure for Every Monster - Demon, Type V

Frequency     Rare
No. appearing 1-3 or 1-6
Armour class  –7/-5
Move  12”
Hit Dice 7+7
Percentage in lair 10%    
Treasure type G
No. of attacks 7
Damage per attack 2-8 & 6 varying    
Special attack  See below
Special defences +1 or better weapon to hit
Magic Resistance 80%
Intelligence High
Alignment Chaotic Evil
Size  L (7’ tall)
THAC0  12
XP value 3000 + 12/hp

Abilities:

Cause Darkness, 10’ radius at will
Create illusion
Cause Fear
Levitate
Detect Magic
Read Languages
Dispel Magic
Polymorph Self
Telekinese 5000gp weight
Project Image
Use Symbol of Fear or Discord
Gate in a demon of Type I to IV (60% chance of success)
Infravision
Darkness
Teleportation


Demons, just like everybody else, dream. However, being demons, those dreams are typically demonic. Just how much trouble this can cause, we will now relate.

Our adventure takes place in an area of neglected countryside near a small town that is experiencing an influx of settlers, prospectors and, of course, adventurers. The town has its problems, as does any frontier town, but recently, those problems include three very grisly murders; all of young, handsome men who have been literally ripped to pieces. The town constable is perturbed to say the least, as are many of the menfolk of the town. In fact, the party may well find when they arrive that the streets are a lot quieter than they are used to and many males stay behind locked doors at night.

What could be causing this wave of consternation? The answer lies several miles outside town, in an old and almost forgotten temple, once the haunt of a cult of the Snake God, now however a lurking place for another (albeit similar) cult. This one worships Lazulari, a Type V demon who, as many of her kind tend to do, has required the regular sacrifice of strong warriors. Fortunately, there seems to be a regular supply of them in the town, where her cult members have been busy as of late. They’re not, however, the ones doing the horrific murders.

Lazulari is not the demon she once was. Until a few weeks ago, she gladly accepted the offerings made by her cultists; warriors would be brought to the temple, held till the day of the sacrifice and then slain on Lazulari’s altar. She would then channel the demonic energies to her cultists and everyone would go away happy.

That is, until her cultists brought her Jerrif, a fighter who was, shall we say, rather on the handsome side, ostensibly Chaotic Neutral but with a hidden tendency towards acts of badness. Lazulari sensed the evil within him but she also found his charisma and looks rather overwhelming. In short, she fell in love with him.

She commanded him imprisoned rather than sacrificed and spent many hours trying to turn him to evil. Jerrif, however, was having none of it and although frustrated and angry, Lazulari could not bring herself to kill him. Nor indeed did she wish to Charm him. That would be cheating. She wanted him to come to her of his own free will. The new feelings she was experiencing have started to manifest in ways that she could not have imagined; romantic dreams were only part of it. She was determined to woo him and set about discovering the strange world of human love.

On three occasions, she has assumed the shape of a young girl and gone into town to see if she can find out the way to a man’s heart and use that knowledge to seduce Jerrif. That plan went badly wrong when the men she chose, although handsome, turned out to be less than gallant and laughed at her attempts at romance. Angered, she assumed her real shape and slaughtered her mocker.

After three attempts, she gave up and set about obtaining, through demonic assistance, tomes and scrolls of a romantic nature to see if they could help in her plan.

Meanwhile, obsessed by dreams of romance, her ability to grant the wishes of her cultists is starting to go decidedly off track. The cult members are now getting rather impatient, if not irritated by her lack of demonic prowess and some are wondering if perhaps they might have better luck with another Type V demon. This is almost certainly the case and it is likely that other Type V demons are already eyeing up the potential.

And what of Jerrif? The poor chap can’t help but be a little nervous of what awaits him. He had heard stories of demon love and what might work for them certainly won’t leave him in very good shape. The human frame just isn’t robust enough. He’s desperate to escape before she gets kinky. 

The party have several opportunities to enter this adventure.

The town constable may hire them to investigate the murders. Clues may well lead them to a young girl present before each murder and her trail may lead back to the temple.

The cultists may well try to hire muscle to aid in their attempt to depose and dispose of Lazulari.

Jerrif’s friends and fellow adventurers aren’t convinced that he’s dead and seek help to track him down. A mischevious DM may plant the seeds in the party’s mind that Jerrif has gone over to the dark side during his imprisonment.

Lazulari herself may be seeking an exit strategy. Knowing that her position in the hierarchy of the Abyss is imperilled by her strange behaviour and suspecting her cult of treachery, she may try to cut a deal with the party if she can approach them in a manner that is not going to cause them immediately to attack. If the party agree to help her, she will not turn on them, provided that she and Jerrif are allowed to stay together. If the party interferes with her plan, she will turn on them.

She will use her treasure either to aid her in combat or to bribe the party to assist her.

12500 gold pieces
525 platinum pieces
4 gems
1 piece of jewellery

Magic items: Any 4 plus one scroll 35%

Given that Jerrif has been reluctant to reciprocate Lazulari’s feelings, it may be that if there is another fighter in the party with a similarly high Charisma (say 16+), then the demon may transfer her sentiments to him.

If the party help her and all goes well, they will have acquired an ally, albeit one that is, like most of her swords, double-edged. The attention of the Authorities of the Abyss will also become more focussed on them with all the bother that this entails.

Ironically, the outcome of this adventure will actually be quite negative for the nearby town if the cult survives and lazulari departs, either killed or into hiding.  A new Type V demon will arrive soon and with no romantic delusions to cloud her mind, will start to wreak havoc in the area. The cultists will also be able to warn her about the party and its abilities, so they will be less likely to be able to take the new demon by surprise.

Team Adventure - Storming the Desert

The orcs had deployed with an eye to ground-level confrontation. A line of thirty polearm wielders had the job of stopping enemy cavalry, as well as screening twenty archers. On either side of the bowmen were two groups of twenty axemen. On the flanks were spearmen whose job it would be to hurl their weapons before retreating out of combat range. At the rear was the chief and the warband standard. The remaining seventy or so had been despatched to meet the advancing elves.

A perfectly good plan, were it not for the presence of the Air Force. Elysia was not about to hurl herself and her party at the orc polearms and decided to make use of the third dimension. She cast Enlarge on Florin, Eristar, Rufus and Relic, then had them carry Galadeus, Alurax, Alagon and Gullhor into battle. She used Fly to carry both herself and Ferros over the enemy lines. The Air Force was then assigned the task of circling the orcs with oil bombs, creating a ring of fire that would hem them in and prevent them redeploying to take on the party. Benbo was left behind to look after the horses (again).

Polearms, check. Archers, check. Axemen, check. 20mm anti-aircraft cannon....oh ****!

It should also be pointed out at this stage that the plan was produced with the input of everybody at the table; Galadeus’ player made some insightful observations and suggestions, as did Alagon’s player and Junior Grognard.

The plan worked quite well; granted, the orcs were not expecting such a manoeuvre, but they responded orcfully to the challenge, firing a volley of arrows up at the magic user and cleric, hitting Ferros several times (I’d ruled that Elysia was carrying him in front of her; literally, a meat shield). On the flanks where Rufus and Relic were moving in on the orc spearmen, a hail of missiles shot up from the ranks, causing the pseudo-dragons some nasty damage, but fortunately not fatal. Rufus and Relic then carried out the second stage of their plan, the ring of fire, which was soon blazing away. The fire would not stop anyone determined enough to leap across it but it might deter the orcs from trying to do so in the first place. 

The two fighters landed and leapt into action, Alagon’s oil strike taking out all five of the orcs targeted. Gullhor had less luck, his oil bomb going wide in a mis-throw that caused the orcs to hoot with laughter at the incompetence of elves. They were not laughing when Larsh the polar bear appeared from his figurine status, although the bear had the same luck as his master, failing to damage a single orc.

Still in the air, Galadeus had tried to load a bag with oil bombs, a flask of rum and light it at the same time. Needless to say, his dexterity was not up to the task and of the ten bombs he had, he dropped seven of them. He sent Florin into a low dive and used the phoenix’s Cause Flame ability to ignite the dropped oil.

Alurax was having similar luck; he dropped his bag of oil bombs but his attempt to extract, light and throw a torch to ignite it saw the firebrand go sailing off target. He landed and commenced his attack on the axemen before anything else went wrong.

Elysia and Ferros landed behind enemy lines. The orcs were turning to face this new threat but the orc chieftain suddenly realised that his previously secure position behind dozens of his hardy warriors was now a very dangerous place to be. His orc archers fired again at Elysia and Ferros but the doughty cleric returned fire with a shot that went straight through the throat of the luckless chieftain. Elysia cast Confusion and followed it up with a Fear spell which neutralised most if not all of the archers.

While Alagon waded in to assist Galadeus, Gullhor’s luck was turning on his flank – Larsh ripped an orc apart with each paw, whilst the elf stopped the smirks on the orcs’ faces. The spearmen were soon eliminated as a fighting force.

I got HOW many XP?

The paladin and ranger, despite taking some damage, had managed to kill several more orcs to add to the tally burned by the oil bomb strike. With the death of their leader and the disintegration of their centre, fear-stricken orcs ploughing through the ranks of polearm wielders, the remainder of the orc force decided to make a run for it. Elysia was more than happy to let them go, seeing no need to fight any longer if the enemy was not a credible threat. It was not long after that the elves arrived, thanked our heroes for their aid and said that they would hunt down the stragglers, now that their morale was in tatters.

The next day, the party came across a merchant caravan that was heading for Sandholm. Unsure of what other threats lurked in the vicinity, they agreed to ride with the merchants to their destination.

It's no Waterdeep

Sandholm was hardly a city of splendours. It was a ramshackle collection of timber buildings on the edge of the Shining Plains, which could now clearly be seen as desert. The entire population was little more than a few hundred, and merchants used it as a stopping point, rather than a source of trade. Nevertheless, it had a store where the party was able to restock its supply of oil bombs (I suppose there must have been a tar pit or source of naphtha nearby – might be worth checking out later).

A chance remark from Alurax in the tavern sparked a conversation which hinted at more adventure amongst the sand dunes. A man overheard Alurax mention pyramids and told the fighter (with Ferros listening in) that legends hinted at a lost pyramid deep into the desert, stuffed with treasure but guarded by a curse. Many had voyaged out into the desert to find it but none had returned. Alurax tried to enlist the man and any of his friends to accompany the party but the man insisted on equal shares of the treasure, a deal which Elysia swiftly vetoed when she got to hear about it.

Since their quest would lead them out into the desert anyway, they decided to stock up with protective clothing (Ferros would deal with the food and drink angle of things) and the next morning they rode westwards, to the curious (and pessimistic) reaction of the townsfolk. Elysia and Ferros flew out, trying to impress the good folk of Sandholm. Whether it did or not, our party never found out. 

Your new adventure starts here

On the first day, little of consequence happened; the desert is a big place, with not much in the way of life. A shower of acid rain caused problems for the horses but it swiftly passed and healing was applied to the stricken beasts. As the sun dipped towards the western horizon, the party spied ahead two weathered pillars of rock which they approached with trepidation. There was some ancient writing on them, which both Ferros and Alurax studied and managed to decipher. The writing proclaimed the pillars as the Gates of Sule, with the added message that a curse was on all who passed unbidden.

Galadeus decided that he was not going to be cursed by passing through the gate and instead went round the pillars. He had not noticed what Alurax had seen; the sands to either side of the gate were softer than the track. The ranger tossed his rum bottle onto the sand with no effect, then took one step forward. When that produced only a minor shifting of the sand, he took another step and sank into the sand.

Alurax and Gullhor were on hand with rope and soon hauled the luckless ranger out again. They realised that stepping through the gate was really the only option. Alurax went first and nothing seemed to happen to him. The rest of the party apart from Elysia and Ferros did likewise, much to the magic user’s chagrin. The mention of a curse had clearly got her spooked. She and Ferros flew over the gate and camp was made soon afterwards, the desert being a cold place at night.

Next morning, the party pressed on westwards, the sun at their backs, the shadows long on the sand before them. The silence of the desert was oppressive and they were left with each other’s company and conversation. Evening was a welcome diversion but as the desert started to darken again, they saw that ahead of them, the trail forked. One branch went north-west, the other south-west. Nearby there was a hummock in the sand, which Alurax fired at with his bow to see if it was alive and hostile. It was neither; a fallen block on which were the words

“Here lies the road to the garden city of Pazar whilst there lies the road to Terbakar, Keeper of the Pyramid”

Unfortunately, there was no way of knowing which road was which, since the obelisk was toppled and its directional arrows were weathered away. The party decided to camp down for the night and decide in the morning which road to take.

An Adventure for Every Monster - Demon, Type IV

 Frequency Uncommon   
No. appearing 1-3 or 1-6
Armour class -1
Move  9”/12”
Hit Dice 11
Percentage in lair 15%   
Treasure type E
No. of attacks 3
Damage per attack 1-4/1-4/2-8    
Special attack – bonus of +2 to hit; also see below
Special defences  +1 or better weapons to hit
Magic Resistance 65%
Intelligence Very
Alignment Chaotic Evil
Size  L (10 ½ feet tall)
THAC0  8
XP value 3000 + 16/hp

Abilities:

Cause Darkness, 10’ radius at will
Create illusion
Cause Fear
Levitate
Detect Magic
Read Languages
Dispel Magic
Polymorph Self
Telekinese 5000gp weight
Project Image
Use Symbol of Fear or Discord
Gate in a demon of Type I to IV (60% chance of success)
Infravision
Darkness
Teleportation

The King has recently managed to obtain a ring; by fair means, of course, since he is a good king. This ring, ancient and arcane is not just nice to  look at. It also has, within it the amulet of a Type IV demon, Yohozrimul.  Realising what he had acquired, the King at once began to search for ways to summon the demon, thinking that with the amulet, he could bind the denizen of the Abyss to his service and overcome his enemies (who were, at that time, manifold). The king managed to do so and Yohozrimul was bound to royal service.

However, the ability to wield power far beyond the means of mortal man was rather intoxicating to the King, who – being a nice chap – had never really thought about all the advantages that an ally from the lower planes could provide. Yohozrimul, on the other hand, was well aware of the old dictum about power corrupting. He decided to try and win the King’s soul for his demonic masters by slowly working to prise the monarchy away from light and into darkness.

He has had considerable success. The King is well on his way to becoming a sybaritic despot who prefers the pleasures of the flesh to the rewards of virtue.

This has not gone down at all well with his nobles and courtiers. The King’s increasingly erratic behaviour and his arbitrary cruelty towards those who oppose him have alienated virtually everybody except the most sycophantic. They’ve decided that it’s time for the King to go but unfortunately, the presence of the demon is complicating matters and making it very difficult to arrange a little ‘accident’ for the King.

Aware of the fact that his operations will have created bad feeling amongst the courtiers and nobles, Yohozrimul has also been courting support amongst other members of society – namely the scholars and sages. His ability to change shape, along with his infernal connections and linguistic abilities has meant he is able to obtain rare scrolls and books for them, thereby keeping them on side. As far as they know, he is just a well-read and sympathetic scholar but there are rumours of wild parties in a wing of the palace to which a select few are invited.

Suave, sophisticated, cultured, well-spoken and thoroughly evil. Yes, this shape will do nicely.

Into this nice little imbroglio come the party. There are several options for an introduction to the situation.

1. The party has been hired to steal the ring from the King. This may be at the behest of another demon who fancies his chances in becoming the King’s BFF, or perhaps somebody at court has put two and two together and identified the ring as the problem, without realising that a demon goes with it.

2. The party has been hired to assassinate the King. Their employers are not fully aware of the importance of the ring and will not think to mention it to the party. Yohozrimul is believed to be just a meddlesome human who would not be missed if he got in the way of a crossbow bolt.

3. The King has got wind of the plots that are hatching in the palace and worries that he and his new friend are short on protection. The party is hired to safeguard both the King and Yohozrimul without having the faintest idea who Yohozrimul really is.

4. In the course of his cosying up to the palace scholars and sages, Yohozrimul has inadvertently stolen a very valuable scroll and its original owners want it back. It might be the assassins’ guild, the thieves’ guild or just a powerful and angry collector. Whoever it is, they will pay the party to recover it and punish the thief.

Whichever scenario it is, the party are going to have problems because Yohozrimul has learned a great many things during his studies, including some neat psychological tricks that can probably outwit the less sophisticated parties. It will also use its many abilities to confuse and faze attackers, changing shape and causing illusions wherever will be most effective. The royal court is full of officials, functionaries and flunkies. Yohozrimul will know many of them and can use this knowledge to his advantage when causing confusion and trouble for the party.

However, all this new knowledge and intelligence have had their effect on Yohozrimul. It has firstly increased his vanity, since he now considers himself a sophisticated, urbane and well-read man about town. He is far less likely to use violence as a first resort, preferring to toy with his opponents in a way that a cat and a spider might do if they were working as a team.  He may be vulnerable to flattery and the lure of knowledge and sophistication can be used against him.

There is also the problem (for Yohozrimul, anyway) that with his immersion in the world of learning, study and academia, he is becoming less chaotic and more lawful in his evil – not a fact that is going to please his demonic masters.

Adventurer, Conqueror, King……Farmer?

Whilst checking out the stats for Owlbears in the Monster Manual during the most recent Team Adventure session, I noticed that in the third paragraph, there is the following information

“Eggs are worth 2,000gp, young under 50% grown are worth 5,000 on the open market”

The passage also tell us that there will be a 25% chance of  1-6 eggs or young (40% to 70% grown). That’s an average of 3.5 eggs (7,000gp) or young, about a third of which (let’s say 1) will be marketable – 5,000gp.

That’s a nice haul if you’re playing the females and young rules (which I’m not). But let’s take that information to the next step. Let’s suppose that a party, with its perspicacity, manages to capture but not kill the owlbears. Presuming that they’ve got at least one male and one female, they could technically breed them in captivity.   The gestation period for an owl is 4 to 5 weeks, that of a bear 215 days (grizzly). I guess an average of the two would be used for owlbears;  we’ll call it 125 days. If you work it right, you can get three clutches of 3.5 eggs per year from one breeding pair. Sell the eggs, you’ll get 21,000gp but wait until the young are hatched and then sell them before they’re 50% grown and you’re looking at 52,500gp per annum.

And that’s from just one breeding pair. A party with vision and secure breeding facilities is going to be rolling in gold.

But the owlbear is merely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to farming magical livestock. Let’s flick through the pages of the Monster Manual and see what else suggests itself.

The pelt of the badger is worth 10-30gp

Giant beaver pelts fetch 500-2,000 gold pieces each. Kits of under 8hp can be captured, subdued and sold at market for 100 to 200gp per hit point.

Blink dog pups (and good luck catching those!) fetch 1,000-2,000gp

The plates behind a bulette’s head are of course highly prized by dwarf craftsmen. They can turn them into +1 to +3 shields. That’s anywhere between 2,500 and 8,000gp – assuming that the dwarves’ creations count as magical items. Even if they don’t, just count those back plates – at least eight and possibly ten by my count, gives you at least 41,000gp – of course, you have to factor in the payment to the dwarves but half should do, which leaves you with 20,000gp per bulette.

Let us not forget that subdued dragons are worth 100-800g per hit point.  A very rough average of the hit dice of all dragons gives 8.5 hit dice, and at 4.5 hit points per die, that’s an average hit point total of 38.25.  This makes the average subdued dragon worth 17,212 gold pieces. That’s after you’ve looted its haul, of course.

Giant eagle eggs sell for 500-800gp each.

Elephant tusks have a value of 100-600gp each.

If you fancy a challenge, try capturing a pair of griffons and breeding them. The rewards are plentiful – fledglings sell for 5,000gp, eggs for 2,000gp.

The hippogriff fledglings are slightly less valuable at 2,000-3,000gp. Their eggs fetch 1,000gp.

The skin of the ki-rin is worth 25,000 gp if it can be obtained perfectly intact. I don’t recommend that you try it because ki-rin are lethal.

The eggs of the fire lizard are worth 5,000gp each, and you’ve got a 10% chance that the lair will contain 1-4 eggs. That’s not very high, but create your own lairs and you can probably up those odds.

Giant otter pelts sell for 1,000-4,000 gp.

The eggs of giant owls sell for 1,000gp, the young for 2,000gp.

Although it might seem hard to believe, pegasi lay eggs. Yes, that’s what it says on page 78 of the Monster Manual so it must be true. They’re worth 3,000gp each but if you wait till they hatch, the young are worth 5,000gp.

Remorhaz eggs (25% chance of there being 1-2 eggs in the lair) fetch 5,000gp if you can sell them.

Another creature that has a valuable pelt is the giant weasel – these go for 1,000-6,000gp each.

Following the weasel in the Monster Manual, we have the whale.  Never mind the tiny chance of coins being found in its stomach. What you’re looking for, o party on the make, is the sick whale. This type produces ambergris, which, so the book tells us, is “a stinking mess which is worth 1,000-20,000 gold pieces in a large city”. Yes, that’s right. One sick whale can get you on average 10,500gp. The whale carcass can bring in at the very least 5,400gp and the really big specimens will net you 16,200gp. Time to get a bigger boat.

The winter wolf is, the book says, “a horrid carnivore”, which is going to freeze your ass if you don’t finish it off first. When you do, make sure that you don’t damage the pelt as it’s worth 5,000gp. Alternatively, wrap up warm and capture yourself a breeding pair.

So, as can be seen, there are a good few monsters out there that can bring in cash in the thousands for those who don’t mind attracting the attention of PETMA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Magical Animals – they’ve probably got tough druids and rangers on their side, so beware).  And in many cases, breeding them in captivity means they’re the gift that keeps on giving.




CAVEAT ONE - the foregoing will probably only be of interest to parties if their DM allows XP for GP earned in such a manner.

CAVEAT TWO - none of the foregoing should indicate authorial approval for fur-farming in the real world.