The Lair of Kane/Pit of The Swarm Speaker [Archive] - Wizards Community

The Lair of Kane/Pit of The Swarm Speaker [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Hellsbells
03-29-08, 02:25 PM This is a dungeon I am slowly but surely working on. First of the background.

The Pit of The Swarm Speakers is a vast complex of tunnels, some natural and some artificial that run underneath the forest of Quengith and its near by towns. Some say that in recent years the inhabitants of the pit have extended it all the way to distant Preyguard City but surely these are just rumors? Aren't they? Quengith Forest used to be a majestic and powerful place, one of the bastions of elven might. That is until the dragon wars. Now only small parts of Quengith still hold its former beauty. The elves now live only on the outskirts of the forest and have been forced to integrate with their shaky allies, the humans. Deeper into the forest dangerous beasts live and some say dragons sleep dormant there after their great war. In many places (and the numbers are growing) giant spiders make nests that suffocate and smother the trees that they hang from on all levels and predatory insects patrol the skies devouring any livng thing they come across.

The man responsible for the vermin that hold most of the forest under seige is a former peasent from the village of Cresent's Cross (more on that later). From a young age he had been obsessed with vermin. Three events caused this facination. The first was when he was wisiting his grandparents farm he witnessed a swarm of locusts devour almost everything they had worked for months to grow devoured in under a minute. Here he learned the power of the swarm. The second was when a fly that had been bugging him all day and that he had failed to squash suddenly was snapped from the air. It was wrapped in a bundle and its blood drained. Here he learned the cunning of the spider. The third was when while playing he watched a colony of ants eliminate another colony, utterly destroying them. This was the greatest lesson that his young mind would be pressed with by bugs. The strong survive, the weak die. Kane spent most of his time in his youth and even after he was apprenticed to an equally poor woodcarver studying, collecting and disecting insects.

He left his home when he completed his apprenticeship and travled to the distant city of Preyguard. The few people who remember Kane say he learned magic there, others that he went to an even farther distant land beyond the mountains, and still others say that he became involved with the occult magic of the dark gods. No one knows for sure but what is known is that he returned suddenly 3 years later after no contact with any of his family or friends. He found his family even worse of then before, barley keaping of the streets. Kane however returned rich. But he refused to share it with any of his relatives. He lived in luxery while his family starved and went cold. Then on the first day of summer something happened. Kane disapeared again, his estate and worldly possesion other then the few things (mostly books and scientific devices) he had taken with him were donated to a local orphanage and homeless shelter under his written instructions.

But that is not really so amazing, even when he was young Kane would often wander of for days. WHat is is what the police found the next day. The woodcarver, his family, Kanes family and many of his former friends were found all dead in one alley of the poor district. Most were tied up in spider web and their blood drained. Some had been stripped to the bone, even there clothes mysteriously gone with only bits and peices of fabric found around them. On the wall of the dead end alley written with the bones of the dead, stuck with spider webbing and outlined with blood was one word. KANE. Two months passed. Suddenly the elves began reporting to their human allies simmilar deaths. The only problem was that they appeared to be attacks by animals, non showed the fore thought or onimous planning of what happened in the alley. Quengith has always had a small population of giant vermin and small, normal bugs were unusally common in the forest. But suddenly the populatiuons sky rocketed. They began to activly attack humanoids and feast on them. Few survivers left these attacks, most claimed that bugs and spiders rose from the ground or fell from the trees and began to destroy them with tactile efficieny.

The elves launched raiding parties and scouts to try to find their unseen enemy. All failed, nothing was reported, not a single spider or grasshopper, giant or otherwise ever showed itself. And yet the attacks continued. Thick webs began to coat the ground and trees werever an attack took place. Eventually outposts and settlements were attacked, caravans and trade routes blocked. The bugs were claiming territory. After one year the attacks ceased. Any attempts to penatrate the silver curtain of webbing and goo failed. Brutally. The bones of dead left on the edge as examples. But no more attacks happened. It has been three years since the elves set up the ward stones as close to the curtain as they could get. It will warn them if any mass amounts of creatues try to peirce the elven lands and in theory hold them up long enough for defending forces to arrive. But the bugs made no more attempts.

Kane is gone now, forgoten by all but a few who knew his family or who investigated the case, but he has not been connected to the mysterious bugs except by one detective. He has been laughed at for his idea and been forbidden to try to do anything about the cold case. Kane however has not forgotten the people of Cresent's Cross and he is mearly developing his plan, bideing his time. Eventually everything from Preyguard to the Boiling river will be his and his pets. And it seems that he may succed. There are ways around the elves barrier, infact it is hopelessly futile and has done nothing (unbeknownst to the elves). Kane has been collecting, breeding and preparing his bugs, getting new more deadly ones every day as well as bringing together like minded individuals under his banner and increasing his own abilities. You see the area behind the Silver Curtain is only part of his territory, much larger and impressive is the Pit of the Swarm Speakers that lies beneath the ground. Here is at once a military base, a zoo and a school. One day they will rise, one day they will fight and one day... they will win. They are the Swarm Speakers and he is their master, he is Kane.
Hellsbells
04-05-08, 02:57 PM That is the (more or less) complete history of kane and a brief description of the Pit and surrounding area. Its a little bit rough but I think it gets the point across. Will be working on the first part of the actual dungeon either later today or tommorrow. If anyone needs or wants more information or clarification on anything just ask.
VampyresThrenody
04-05-08, 06:28 PM Its difficult to read as a giant block of text, could you break it down into smaller paragraphs? I find that people rarely even read paragraphs that are longer then 4-5 sentences due to the massive amount of distracting text.
Hellsbells
04-05-08, 07:43 PM Yah I'll usually skip big blocks myself, I was just tryin to get it all out.
Anuvrix
04-09-08, 11:16 AM I like it.

It seems like a perfect roleplaying chance at the beggining, and an excellent dungeon crawl at the end.

If you can, please post the details of the adventure as you make it.

Hell, If you play it right, or the players play it wrong, this could be drawn into an entire campaign.

Good Job.
Hellsbells
04-09-08, 08:32 PM There are two entrances into Kane's Lair. The first is a 150 foot, smooth walled, strait drop down pit that is 40 by 40 feet around. It is also hidden deep behind the silver curtain. The other is far safer but harder to find. In an old abandoned shack on the edge of the poorest part of Cresesnt's Cross is hidden a tunnel large enough for creatures of small size at its entrance but which quickly opens up to fit several creatures of large size just fine. It runs for around 500 feet north towards the prarie. A small, hidden tunnel then continues north while the rest of the tunnel cuts south west towards the woods. Once it gets roughly around the border of the woods it divides into several smaller tunnels, many of which will double back, dead end or cut across each other. Finding the right one is difficult especially since some of the tunnels are isolated from the rest of the labyrynth but the PCs should be able to use the rules for mazes inorder to find there way into the pit.

More later, I'll be updating through the day.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Hellsbells 03-29-08, 02:25 PM	This is a dungeon I am slowly but surely working on. First of the background. The Pit of The Swarm Speakers is a vast complex of tunnels, some natural and some artificial that run underneath the forest of Quengith and its near by towns. Some say that in recent years the inhabitants of the pit have extended it all the way to distant Preyguard City but surely these are just rumors? Aren't they? Quengith Forest used to be a majestic and powerful place, one of the bastions of elven might. That is until the dragon wars. Now only small parts of Quengith still hold its former beauty. The elves now live only on the outskirts of the forest and have been forced to integrate with their shaky allies, the humans. Deeper into the forest dangerous beasts live and some say dragons sleep dormant there after their great war. In many places (and the numbers are growing) giant spiders make nests that suffocate and smother the trees that they hang from on all levels and predatory insects patrol the skies devouring any livng thing they come across. The man responsible for the vermin that hold most of the forest under seige is a former peasent from the village of Cresent's Cross (more on that later). From a young age he had been obsessed with vermin. Three events caused this facination. The first was when he was wisiting his grandparents farm he witnessed a swarm of locusts devour almost everything they had worked for months to grow devoured in under a minute. Here he learned the power of the swarm. The second was when a fly that had been bugging him all day and that he had failed to squash suddenly was snapped from the air. It was wrapped in a bundle and its blood drained. Here he learned the cunning of the spider. The third was when while playing he watched a colony of ants eliminate another colony, utterly destroying them. This was the greatest lesson that his young mind would be pressed with by bugs. The strong survive, the weak die. Kane spent most of his time in his youth and even after he was apprenticed to an equally poor woodcarver studying, collecting and disecting insects. He left his home when he completed his apprenticeship and travled to the distant city of Preyguard. The few people who remember Kane say he learned magic there, others that he went to an even farther distant land beyond the mountains, and still others say that he became involved with the occult magic of the dark gods. No one knows for sure but what is known is that he returned suddenly 3 years later after no contact with any of his family or friends. He found his family even worse of then before, barley keaping of the streets. Kane however returned rich. But he refused to share it with any of his relatives. He lived in luxery while his family starved and went cold. Then on the first day of summer something happened. Kane disapeared again, his estate and worldly possesion other then the few things (mostly books and scientific devices) he had taken with him were donated to a local orphanage and homeless shelter under his written instructions. But that is not really so amazing, even when he was young Kane would often wander of for days. WHat is is what the police found the next day. The woodcarver, his family, Kanes family and many of his former friends were found all dead in one alley of the poor district. Most were tied up in spider web and their blood drained. Some had been stripped to the bone, even there clothes mysteriously gone with only bits and peices of fabric found around them. On the wall of the dead end alley written with the bones of the dead, stuck with spider webbing and outlined with blood was one word. KANE. Two months passed. Suddenly the elves began reporting to their human allies simmilar deaths. The only problem was that they appeared to be attacks by animals, non showed the fore thought or onimous planning of what happened in the alley. Quengith has always had a small population of giant vermin and small, normal bugs were unusally common in the forest. But suddenly the populatiuons sky rocketed. They began to activly attack humanoids and feast on them. Few survivers left these attacks, most claimed that bugs and spiders rose from the ground or fell from the trees and began to destroy them with tactile efficieny. The elves launched raiding parties and scouts to try to find their unseen enemy. All failed, nothing was reported, not a single spider or grasshopper, giant or otherwise ever showed itself. And yet the attacks continued. Thick webs began to coat the ground and trees werever an attack took place. Eventually outposts and settlements were attacked, caravans and trade routes blocked. The bugs were claiming territory. After one year the attacks ceased. Any attempts to penatrate the silver curtain of webbing and goo failed. Brutally. The bones of dead left on the edge as examples. But no more attacks happened. It has been three years since the elves set up the ward stones as close to the curtain as they could get. It will warn them if any mass amounts of creatues try to peirce the elven lands and in theory hold them up long enough for defending forces to arrive. But the bugs made no more attempts. Kane is gone now, forgoten by all but a few who knew his family or who investigated the case, but he has not been connected to the mysterious bugs except by one detective. He has been laughed at for his idea and been forbidden to try to do anything about the cold case. Kane however has not forgotten the people of Cresent's Cross and he is mearly developing his plan, bideing his time. Eventually everything from Preyguard to the Boiling river will be his and his pets. And it seems that he may succed. There are ways around the elves barrier, infact it is hopelessly futile and has done nothing (unbeknownst to the elves). Kane has been collecting, breeding and preparing his bugs, getting new more deadly ones every day as well as bringing together like minded individuals under his banner and increasing his own abilities. You see the area behind the Silver Curtain is only part of his territory, much larger and impressive is the Pit of the Swarm Speakers that lies beneath the ground. Here is at once a military base, a zoo and a school. One day they will rise, one day they will fight and one day... they will win. They are the Swarm Speakers and he is their master, he is Kane.
Hellsbells 04-05-08, 02:57 PM	That is the (more or less) complete history of kane and a brief description of the Pit and surrounding area. Its a little bit rough but I think it gets the point across. Will be working on the first part of the actual dungeon either later today or tommorrow. If anyone needs or wants more information or clarification on anything just ask.
VampyresThrenody 04-05-08, 06:28 PM	Its difficult to read as a giant block of text, could you break it down into smaller paragraphs? I find that people rarely even read paragraphs that are longer then 4-5 sentences due to the massive amount of distracting text.
Hellsbells 04-05-08, 07:43 PM	Yah I'll usually skip big blocks myself, I was just tryin to get it all out.
Anuvrix 04-09-08, 11:16 AM	I like it. It seems like a perfect roleplaying chance at the beggining, and an excellent dungeon crawl at the end. If you can, please post the details of the adventure as you make it. Hell, If you play it right, or the players play it wrong, this could be drawn into an entire campaign. Good Job.
Hellsbells 04-09-08, 08:32 PM	There are two entrances into Kane's Lair. The first is a 150 foot, smooth walled, strait drop down pit that is 40 by 40 feet around. It is also hidden deep behind the silver curtain. The other is far safer but harder to find. In an old abandoned shack on the edge of the poorest part of Cresesnt's Cross is hidden a tunnel large enough for creatures of small size at its entrance but which quickly opens up to fit several creatures of large size just fine. It runs for around 500 feet north towards the prarie. A small, hidden tunnel then continues north while the rest of the tunnel cuts south west towards the woods. Once it gets roughly around the border of the woods it divides into several smaller tunnels, many of which will double back, dead end or cut across each other. Finding the right one is difficult especially since some of the tunnels are isolated from the rest of the labyrynth but the PCs should be able to use the rules for mazes inorder to find there way into the pit. More later, I'll be updating through the day.