Eye of Myrkul - Dungeon Magazine 73

I was going to skip this one due to the amount of work needed to convert this for use in Ptolus, but decided to give it at least a cursory try. This adventure is the 5th and final episode in the Mere of Dead Men series that were published in Dungeon Magazine during the 2nd edition period, and it is an adventure that I particularly enjoy reading. The module is extremely wordy, filled with a ton of backstory and history before you even get to the adventure itself, fortunately this information is not needed to convert the scenario. 

There are twin brother adult black dragons that make a well coordinated effort to leave the impression that there is only a single dragon involved. They are after the bones of a long dead ancient black dragon who had become a dracolich. 

The brothers have located the tomb complex and now need to manipulate someone into going in and bringing the bones and remaining ghost, out to them.

Worshippers of Father Claw are also after the bones of the Ebondeath, and powerful magic items within the mausoleum, and while the brothers have been manipulating the worshippers, they would prefer their own team of delvers get there first.

In the module as written the adventure takes place in a vast swamp with all sorts of obstacles and nasty encounters before reaching the tower and mausoleum site. Placing the adventure in the dungeon and caverns below Ptolus is the obvious thing to do, and requires quite a bit of effort.

Starting at the beginning . . . A group of religious soldiers have been below the city trying to make an area safe for travel. Maybe we should change their objective so that their expedition was to prevent anyone from getting to the tomb. I'm tempted here to make these a group of mercenary delvers led by Ralelle Noramar, a knight of the Golden Cross. The knights of the Golden Cross were once dragon slayers. One of the dragon brothers attacked this group and has taken the survivors hostage.

Getting the player characters involved may be as easy as the Knights hiring the party to take supplies down in to the dungeon for the other delvers and to re-enforce them. They would arrive only to encounter the dragon and learn of the hostages. That's when the dragon offers them a "deal". Get what I want and you get your people back as well as most of the hoard of Ebondeath.

There happens to be a celestial event tied to the timing of getting into the mausoleum in the adventure as written. Perhaps this could be altered to be a double lunar eclipse of Lunas and Rogue, I don't know if the event should have any actual effect since the happenings are all under the city, but you could still keep it as relevant. Maybe the Knights of the Golden Cross are aware of the significance of the event to worshippers of Father Claw and are playing it safe by sending an expedition below. The idea for the celestial event itself is interesting and plays well with the setting.

It should be possible to keep some of the feel of the difficult trip through the swamp by having many of the cavernous areas partially flooded. 

Keep the undead encounters, but change them to be more appropriate for the caverns, instead of having undead horses involved maybe skeletal lizards ridden by skeletal Drow.

Replace the shipwreck with something else of interest. Consider making the encounter take place in a former Kuo Toa outpost with zombie Kuo Toa.

There is a major encounter with a Dark Tentacles and some of its monster servants right by the tomb's location. This is going to be a tough battle on the shore or in a small underground lake. Depending on what system you are playing you made need to create the Dark Tentacles and its monster pals from scratch.

Finding their way to the tomb of Ebondeath will have been made possible by the party being given a few rings by the dragon. These rings in the adventure are needed to call the tower and mausoleum up from below the swamp. In this case they should cause the water flooding the cavern to recede, revealing these structures for a good number of hours after the celestial event. Another advantage of the rings is that the wearer is Invisible to Undead (minor ones at least). The rings also give the wearer some nasty powers, but making use of them can bolster the power of the temple, and potentially harm the user by reducing their maximum hit points by an amount permanently.

Keep the mudmen encounter (they can be called muckmen if that suits). 

Father Claw's followers are also on the way to the location. The dragon brothers are trying to ensure they get what they want so there are rival delving teams. One of the brothers is sneaking along, hidden from both groups. It doesn't matter to the dragons which team gets what they are after as long as the bones of Ebondeath and a special crown become dragon property. Player characters have a two hour lead on the worshippers, so it is important to keep track of time spent exploring in case of a possible encounter of the teams.

The Uthtower should be converted to a large column that has been hollowed out to make rooms. 

In the event the cultists get the bones and crown, one dragon will side with the PCs since the hostages are a hold on them that guarantees the dragons get their desired items.

All undead in the structures are either resistant or immune to turn undead do to the unholy nature of the place. Undead and worshippers of Father Claw also gain Protection From Good.

There are markings relating to Father Claw through the place. If PCs decide to deface these markings it will have an effect including shaking similar to a minor quake. It is possible to cause the structures to collapse if enough destruction is wrought against these markings and other items holy to Father Claw.

The rooms within the tower/column have standing water in them that rushes out when doors are opened, and this can be used for a moment of entertainment if someone gets swept off their feet and down a flight of stairs, but shouldn't be overplayed.

In the library the only undamaged tome remaining is a Book of Vile Darkness. 

In the catacombs below the tower, the water level in the rooms drops by 2 feet per hour meaning the party has that obstacle to deal with if they try to explore downward before exploring the tower portion.

Originally these structures were used by royalty of some type and there are remains in the crypts for various noble houses. Maybe these were the crypts for an ancient settlement of Drow. Alternately it might once have housed dwarves.

There are undead down here to deal with.

Among the treasures discovered in the Ebondeath's remaining hoard is a means to destroy the dragon's bones, a Wand of Obliteration, but the PCs would need to figure out the command word which was lost ages ago.

Getting the bones out of the mausoleum and to the surface is a challenge. The bones are big and heavy, weighing a total of 3,000 pounds. There's a listing of the number of man hours it will take to remove them. Fortunately one of the worshippers of Father Claw has a Bag of Holding that will make it easier.

If the PCs uphold their end of the "bargain", the hostages are released.

There are plenty of plot ideas that can spin off from this adventure. The bones of Ebondeath may be able to take over control of one or both dragons and down the line that could mean more trouble. Giving the bones and crown to the dragons will free the hostages, but might in the long term make the Knights of the Golden Cross unhappy. 

Do Dragons Shit in their Hoard? (Things you can't unthink)

I was recently treated to a surprise party and the cake was D&D themed. The main cake was a DM's Guide book upon which sat a dragon's hoard and a black dragon with eggs sleeping atop it. The hoard was created from chocolate coins wrapped in gold foil. When removing the hoard of coins from beneath the dragon, some of them were coated with bits of the caramel icing from the book cake below, and this got me thinking.

In the real world (you know, the crutch for people that can't handle fantasy) hibernating creatures do indeed defecate and urinate during their long sleep. In fantasy, dragons are said to sleep sometimes for centuries between rampages. While it doesn't really matter for telling stories it might be fun for DM's that like to gross-out, inconvenience, or otherwise poke fun at the players and their characters, to add dragon feces to the list of things found in a hibernating dragon's hoard.

While nearly all fantasy stories completely ignore the unclean aspects of reality, unless we're talking about Game of Thrones, it might be fun to explore how much more difficult for our adventurers these things can make recovering treasure from lairs. Over the dragon's lifetime it has accumulated wealth during each rampage and then hibernated upon the pile creating strata of secreted waste that a geologist could use to determine the age of the beast and maybe when each rampage began and ended. The collection of filthy lucre would have things glued together, stuff that is a challenge to identify, and would add weight and bulk to what is collected.

"You're trying to pay for a room at my inn using shit caked money?! Bunch o' fuckin' murder hobos, get out of my tavern!"

Admittedly, walking around with packs full of loot reeking of dragon waste may keep some creatures away from the party, it is just as likely to draw others to camp. "Do you want assassin bugs? 'cause that's how you get assassin bugs." Imagine crossing through another dragon's territory leaving a trail of scent along the way. Will the offended dragon follow the scent trail to the party or back to the rest of the hoard? If to the hoard, will it be there should the party return for more treasure, or maybe to the town where they carried the loot? The odor of dragon waste might make for an interesting problem to overcome.

If any reader has done this or does do something like this please come and comment a brief bit about how the players reacted. Hopefully it's some funny shit.

Winter Wolves and Surprise Elves

The most recent episode of CaptCprajus' D&D campaign saw the party traveling further north through desolate and game depleted territory. A large wolf pack was stalking them at a distance until hunger, and the urgings of their Winter Wolf leaders drove them to attack the party just miles from the elven city they sought.

The pack leader, a large snow white creature, moved into our path and stood snarling, daring us to come closer. His pack mates then began to close in from the sides and rear, revealing two other winter wolves and a dozen or so common wolves, all of them leaner than normal. 

Torul advised the party stay close together and move toward the pack leader so the other wolves could be drawn into a tighter formation to make the party capabilities, especially those of the wizard, more effective.

The fight began and Sophia shut off the right rear flank with a web spell trapping two enemies and redirecting the rest to the left side of the party.

Hungrier members of the starving pack rushed to the attack and were swiftly cut down by a combination of Roysen's Spirit Guardians prayer, lethal crossbow fire from Mulva, and Torul's sword.

When most of the pack were in a very tight formation Sophia unleashed her newest toy, a fireball spell, killing most of the pack and seriously damaging the remainder. Those in the web suffered even more damage due to the web igniting.

A few of the wolf pack ran off to lick their wounds and find less dangerous prey.

And that is when the Surprise Elves showed up, crossing between realities to partially surround the party. In the ensuing conversation they admitted to having observed our fight, but decided not to help us because we seemed to be doing fine on our own. Surprise! (Translated from elven - expend your powerful resources before we show up so we're less likely to get killed if we decide you aren't welcome on our snowy turf - foreigner.)

Would they have been more inclined to help if we were fighting a dragon? Somehow that seems unlikely.

Sophia revealed the artifact she carried and the surprise elves suddenly became much more welcoming. (Oh crap, they brought back our happy fun ball!) Surprise right back at you!

The party was led into the heart of the elven city and presented to their queen, to whom Sophia presented the magic Snow Flake of That's Right, We Recovered What You Lost.

The elves became sincerely friendlier now that they understood that the party were trustworthy despite being a foursome of murder hobos. In fact they became so much friendlier that they presented deli counter numbers 4 and 5 together.

You want us to what?

Ok, so we were very close to a portal that would get us back to the surface world and out of the Hollow World. But . . . there's always a catch.

It turns out that about 100 years ago, the elven garrison near the portal was attacked and driven off by a dragon which is believed to lair in the attached cave complex. Sometimes you just cannot choose your neighbors.

We were asked to investigate the ruins of the keep and see if it could be returned to elven control.

 Long story short (too late!), the party and a small detachment of elite surprise elves, went to the icy rift that the portal was hidden within to determine the situation. Mulva, invisible and very stealthy, crept close enough to Hailstorm Tower to witness and overhear some frost giants that now inhabit the ruins.

She saw a male and female embrace, obviously in love, and then saw another male come around a corner and start a discussion. Could there be an exploitable love triangle among some of the giant tribe? Would they be friendly enough to allow the party safe passage through the portal? Would a toll be charged? Had the giants killed, cowed, or allied with the dragon whose lair entrance was only 100 yards away?

Surprise!

New Monsters: The Horologe, Clockwork Devils, and Corrupted Modrons

Schedules are inherently Lawful. They may be malleable, changeable, or in some aspects vary, but inevitably they pin people down to behaving in predictable manners. Unless that schedule happens to be the one for the date and time of the game session, in which case the one highly attributable law is that no mater how far in advance a game session is planned and agreed to by everyone, those commitments don't mean squat.

Why doesn't the game schedule matter? Because more powerful devils (schedules) take precedence. Be it a family emergency or event (excusable), or work (uhm yeah, we're going to need you to come in on Saturday), or a spouse declaring that you can't go to the game (you know who you are).There is almost always a greater devil pulling the strings.

In game terms perhaps we can affix blame to a greater devil known as The Horologe.

This greater devil is assigned to diplomatic duty outside of the Hells, specifically, to Mechanus, home of the most regimented of beings, the Modrons.

Originally assigned as part of a diplomatic mission requested by Primus in a attempt to bargain safe(r) passage through the Hells for the Modrons great march every cycle, and to balance the diplomatic mission of good, The Horologe has found the position comfortable if a tad frustrating.

Corrupting Modrons is not as simple as it seems when the concepts of evil and good are equally valid and invalid to their ethos and function. Of the Modrons presently serving the local needs of Hell's diplomatic mission, less than two dozen may actually have become corrupt and truly evil, though how could anyone, even the Horologe be certain.

The Horologe decided to expand reach outside of Mechanus and into the material plane. This required new servant devils whose purpose is to corrupt through the pressure of ever tighter schedules and deadlines, and tempting victims to cheat, lie, and commit other offences in order to make deadlines or appear to have met goals. This also works on other souls by convincing them to bully their subordinates, through time pressure, creating a domino effect of corruption.

The Horologe
Unique (undergoing promotion to arch-devil)
HD 18, HP 99
Saves as F18
AEC page 115 - standard arch/greater devil abilities
Only harmed by magic weapons
Timestop 1/day
Slow 3/day
Haste 3/day
Chance to gate in 1d6 Pentadrones (Modrons) or 1d6 Clockwork Devils (65% chance of success for either). Flip a coin or choose.

The Horologe is a 9' tall humanoid devil with brass mechanical clockworkings intermixed with the organic majority of its body. The right arm appears to be mostly mechanical. The left eye is replaced with an ornate time piece. A whirring and clicking sound always accompanies The Horologe.

In addition to spell and melee damage, 3/day The Horologe can release a scalding burst of steam in a 30' radius centered upon itself. All creatures not immune or resistant to fire/heat damage take 9d6 damage (half if save). The cloud of steam also provides half cover for everything within it until the end of The Horologe's next round.

The Horologe attacks twice per round with the right arm as a +3 weapon of wounding. Damage: 1d8+5 and 1 additional damage per round (per wound from this weapon) until healed.

If The Horolge feels seriously threatened the order of events will be: Time Stop - move to include as many enemies as possible and use the steam burst, move to include others left out and repeat, then teleport without error to safety.


Clockwork Devil
Lesser Devil
HD 5, HP 33
Haste 1/day
Slow 1/day
Save as F5
Attacks: 2 claws  1d6 each, or 1 weapon with bonus +2 to hit and damage (non-magical).

Clockwork Devils are human sized mechanical appearing lesser devils with whirring gears, and pistons, and various types of timepieces for a head in their natural form. They are able to assume a human appearance when attempting to fulfill their purpose of corruption through time pressure.


Corrupted Modrons:
Corrupted Modrons will have a physical trait that may clue PCs in on their unusual nature. Maybe small horns, or red eyes, or their choice of weapon, etc. They also have a feature common to devils (DM's choice).


Note: Any artist out there feel like tackling the art for The Horologe and Clockwork Devils? I can't pay a lot, but I am willing to pay. No art for Modrons since those are WotC property to my knowledge.