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Lately, I've acquired a taste for intense, deadly survival stories. Probably has something to do with playing through Metroid Fusion and watching Cloverfield within the space of a month. As they often do, my thoughts eventually turned to D&D, and how to make an adventure that's less about saving the world and more about saving yourself and your loved ones. I mentioned these ideas to a friend of mine, and he suggested Lost as another possible source of inspiration. I saw his point.
The Setting
The village of Cengor is a small fishing community, nestled along a minor trade route that runs through the jungle. Home to around 200 humans and halflings, this isolated village is surprisingly prosperous, considering the hazardous jungles and swamps that surround it. Despite the many dangerous beasts nearby (including kruthiks, giant spiders, and other nasties), and the jungle's habit of breeding disease, the town is practically free of hardship.
The reason; someone else has a vested interest.
For centuries, malign, aberrant beings have periodically emerged at night in this region to hunt for things of interest. Shortly after its construction, Cengor Village drew the attention of three mind flayers. Free and healthy beings provide the best brains; all those experiences and vitality make them so much more nourishing than a thrall's brain. The isolation of Cengor made it vulnerable, and the harshness of its surroundings made it insular. The illithids saw a brilliant entrepreneurial opportunity.
For the fifty years since its foundation, Cengor has been secretly protected by the mind flayers. Taking up residence in some old ruins in the nearby jungle, the mind flayers turned the village into an unwitting brain ranch. Every few months, an older villager-one who has lived a full life and already had children-dies mysteriously. When the town has more children, more elders dissapear. When there are fewer children, no one is unaccounted for. The population of Cengor has remained static since its beginning, and the denizens have grown used to it. A combination of willful ignorance and manipulative, alien telepathy has prevented the villagers from dwelling too much on it.
The three illithids have been using brain canister devices (from the 3.5 Lords of Madness supplement) to keep the brains of their victims alive while they are delivered to the underdark. Here, they are sold as delicacies to the city's wealthiest mind flayers, who will dine on only the best. The three hunters have become quite wealthy as a result of their little business.
The Catalyst
This would all be well and good. Unfortunately, some months ago, a tribe of kobolds migrated into the nearby swamps. These kobolds have just had a regime change; their former leader was overthrown by Dakrish, a powerful kobold warlock who secretly conspired with devils to gain his throne. The kobolds pose an obvious threat to the village of Cengor, and they have too much magic at their disposal to be manipulated like the villagers. Thus, the illithids decided to drive them away.
Being cowardly, the mind flayers did not wish to attack the kobolds in person. Rather, they used their unearthly knowledge and intelligence to build a mechanical warrior, a construct powerful enough to chase away the pests even with their diabolical leader.
The Spark
Dakrish, the kobold warlock, was forewarned of this plot by his imp companions. Knowing that tackling the mind flayers directly would be a bad idea, he decided to carry out some poetic justice. Last night, he and his two apprentices snuck into the mind flayer compound, and tried to subvert the construct and turn it against its creators.
Dakrish was a fool, who greatly overestimated his understanding of this magic. He managed to infiltrate the ruins and activate the construct, but, rather than controlling it, he sent it into an violent, indiscriminate rage. The construct broke out of the ruins and tore away into the jungle, killing every living creature that got in its way. The commotion allowed the mind flayers to detect the intruders. Dakrish and one of his students were killed, as was one of the illithids. Only one of the kobolds escaped back to the kobold village. He has been a bit insane ever since.
The survivng mind flayers decided to lie low, devise a way of getting their golem back under control, and then seek revenge on the kobolds.
Unfortunately for them, it was mere hours before the construct happened to stumble into Cengor Village.
The Fire
The PC's arrive in Cengor just ten minutes after the mad golem passes through. They are shocked to find the village in ruins; buildings crushed or burned, people dead, wounded, or gibbering in mad terror, and strange, geometric footprints burned into the ground.
The goal of the adventure is, basically, to stay alive long enough to figure out what's going on. If the PC's try to leave, there's a good chance the golem will find them in the jungle...not to mention they'll have the would-be survivors of the village on their conscience. The heroes must find a way to keep everyone alive, ward off the various threats that the mind flayers had formerly suppressed, and piece together the origins of the unstoppable monster in hopes of...well...stopping it.
DMing
Obviously, there needs to be a lot of focus on character development for this to work. For that reason, most of the PC's are already tied to the situation through their backstory. For instance, one of them has friends in Cengor (some of whom are still alive), one of them is an escaped mind flayer thrall with no memory, and one of them is an exiled kobold who opposed the new leaders. This little, flickering point of light in the wilderness is all they have, and they must spend every drop of resourcefulness and willpower they have to keep it from going out.
For the monster (which I've dubbed the "thoon mecha"), I've taken a leaf from JJ Abram's book. There are certain sounds, smells, and other signs that the PC's will quickly learn to associate with the mecha, but they don't get to see the golem itself until a few levels later. In the meantime, they'll just catch occasional glimpses of a shadow, a leg, or just a towering outline crashing through the jungle, knocking saplings out of its way. When they actually see it, its mechanical nature should have their minds racing.
Finally, NPC's are very important here. The village of Cengor and the nearby kobold town contain many, detailed characters, some of whom have closely-held secrets that (once learned) will help the player's figure out the big puzzle.
Excellent idea!I would ask, how are the players going to level for the few levels the creature is just a fleeting shadow? My initial thought was they'd find the kobolds assume they had something to do with it and then go find out. That could lead them to the mind flayers etc.
I'm still in the process of fleshing this all out. Here is an outline of what sort of encounters and quests the PC's should have ahead of them, and at what level. So far, I have the first one or two sessions figured out. Any more ideas would be appreciated.
Level 1
Damage Control: The PC's find what's left of Cengor a few minutes after the monster leaves it. They have a number of skill challenges related to digging people out of the rubble, stopping a damaged church from collapsing into the swamp, and putting out the remaining fires. Each such skill challenge will help them in the long run; for instance, each savable NPC will be able to help the PC's in some way later on. Mount Dilemma and Watery Ambush are both part of this (they are mentioned seperately because they also include combat).
Mount Dilemma: One of the NPC's the party can help is Yona, the stablemaster. When the thoon mecha attacked, its unnerving presence drove the horses insane; one of them kicked Yona in the chest, knocking him over and breaking several ribs. He then crawled out into the street, and was quickly buried by a collapsing house. After nursing him back to health, the PC's are told that they need to calm the horses down (they are still berserk) before they break out of the stables and hurt someone else. If the PC's are able to subdue the horses without killing them (skill challenge), they will now have mounts.
Watery Ambush: The only surviving villager who got a good look at the mecha using all its abilities (and thus knows the most about what it can do) is Telin, a ten year old halfling girl. Telin (who was orphaned in the attack) is floating on a piece of wooden debris in one of the fish-ponds. One of her legs is broken. The PC's can save her either by throwing a rope and coaxing the traumatized girl into pulling herself to safety (skill challenge), or by swimming out after her. In the later case, the PC's will be attacked by a vicejaw crocodile (from the Monster Manual) that was attracted to the village by the smell of blood. A battle with the crocodile could be very dramatic, as the PC's may mistake it for the monster at first. If they save Telin, she will be able to describe the thoon mecha and warn them about its abilities.
Looters: While the PC's are busy with Damage Control, a small band of kobolds enter the village. These kobolds do not know what happened; all they know about the situation is that their new leader ran off to do something important last night and didn't come back, and that there now seems to be a giant monster of some kind in the area. They came to Cengor in hopes of trading for food (the mind flayers have been chasing fish away from the kobolds, hoping to deter their settlement of the area). Upon finding the village in ruins, they-being typical kobolds-decide to loot the place instead of trading. The PC's can either fight the kobolds, or try to befriend them. This decision will have drastic implications later on, when the PC's visit the kobold village.
Cleanup Crew: An hour after the PC's arrive, a swarm of kruthik larvae will spill into the town. The kruthiks have been following the thoon mecha at a safe distance, eating its kills. The PC's will have to kill or scare away the kruthiks before they eat all those NPC's they just went through the trouble of saving. If the PC's are negotiating with the kobolds at the moment the kruthiks show up, this can be an opportunity to earn their trust by fighting alongside them. Later on (at level 3 or so), the PC's will have to exterminate the kruthik hive to stop them from repopulating.