Here's an idea.... Sleep Gas the entire Tavern and loot them all! Traps would have to be placed every 5 feet in a tight pattern, set off by one central trigger, leaving no spaces untouched. It would take at least 4 people to loot everyone and one guard out front. Start: Meet a traveler. A middle aged man [4 BP, bless active, 4 AP leather clothing] dressed in merchant's clothes comes to the tavern carrying a pack (travel items, clothing, a cure light wounds potion, a cure disease potion separated into 3 doses (1 dose is strong enough to ward off a cold, 2 is strong enough to cure his horse of a normal ailment, all 3 needed to "cure disease") He had been traveling from The College of Magical Arts in Sardonia with his pack mule. In the middle of a large marsh (with raised trails b/c it is a well traveled road he stopped and heard a howling noise like he has never heard before. It started very low and slowly ascended into a high screaming, then went back down. His mule was so spooked by the scream that it ran off the path into the marsh. He couldn't follow fast enough so he went to Ravenholt for help. Inside one of the saddlebags is the ward key to his warehouse in Ravenholt containing ******. Looking for the origin of the Brood. Going to a marsh. Its a wild Brood chase! themes: man vs nature SLIGHTLY exaggerated the story. The Sage has realized that the Brood might have been caused by natural forces combined in odd ways. The point equidistant between Ravenholt and the Magic College in Sardonia is in a large swamp with raised paths for travel. Most of the paths are well traveled by merchants and traders but there are almost no marketable animals or materials in the swamp. Since before the broods' apearance, travelers had noticed, but avoided, a voice that they would sometimes hear while passing the center of the swamp. Entrance into Module: beetle: If the party sits down in the swamp for more than a few seconds. One of them stands up screaming to find a large beetle (3 AP 1 BP, a rubber bug) under his armour. He has to physically take off his armour and pull it off to stop it from doing 1 point of body damage every 15 seconds. Tearing it out of his skin will do one more body point damage. The one bitten will feel sick immediatly (he is diseased) anyone touching it will feel sick in 5 minutes (also diseased) quicksand: walking on a path. The path comes to what seems to be a silty, dry riverbed (another path crossing it at least 5 feet wide) The edge is soggy, covering toes. 2 feet out it sinks immediatly up to the victim's knees and he can't move his legs. Anyone 5'6" deep can keep their head above by standing on the bottom. If a heavy weapon (not a staff or club etc..) is left on the quicksand, it will be lost in 5 seconds. if the victim empowers/endows an escape, he will sink much faster. They can get across safely by jumping it, going upstream 25 feet, or any normal means. Searching the bottom will reveal a person with 2 potions in old containers labeled cure light wounds but they have been there so long that they smell awful if opened and do 1 BP damage as poison. Cave: a storm comes up suddenly from the center of the marsh. They are forced into a shallow cave next to a mountain by the rain and lightning that is starting to look dangerous..people in metal armour feel tingly! The cave smells like rotting meat and "something else that smells sort of like decaying flesh" There are 2 trolls in the back of the cave disguised by the darkness. Just when they see the Trolls, the wind and rain picks up outside and they hear a howl, starting low at first, getting higher and higher to almost a scream and then going back down slowly, coinciding with the wind. In front of the Trolls is the remains of a horse they have just eaten. If they are at least reasonably quiet, the Trolls will never wake up... they have just eaten a good lunch! There are pieces of saddlebag, 50 copper and 3 silver lying in the cave under just enough dirt to not be shiny. If they wake the trolls, they will see a passage just behind where they were lying man sized... 5 feet high, 2 feet wide, not large enough for them to fit through. If they all make it inside, they need a light or going will be VERY slow for 15 feet. The passage looks like a natural fissure. 30 Feet inside, there is a fissure in the ceiling rising straight up 100 feet to a small hole with daylight breaking through and rain falling into a puddle in the center. The horizontal fissure continues straight ahead. T -------------- module idea hobbit kinda thing Gux Unfado has been up to something under the hills of Westmarch. We know this only because Collanis and Diodotis (the only 9th level ritual casters) have felt some great magical force collapsing. According to their predictions, whatever experiment he was performing will only last another few days. We want you to go there and find out what he was doing. All Collanis and Diodotis can say is that is that it is some odd variation of a high level ritual spell. Golum's cave is magically active and strange, any magics cast in it do not fade! anything that dies from magic stays frozen with that magic floating on their body. IE if you were killed by a lightning bolt, you stay standing and your body is covered with glimmers of lightning; anyone touching you will be hit AGAIN by a lightning bolt, dispelling it. Walls of force last indefinatly (yes they are dispellable). the ring is a wall item so he made a maze out of them of course all odd effects are "dispel"-able - unchanged spells: line of sight spells, mind affecting - damage spells that bring the receipiant to -1 body are touch cast onto the next person that touches the dead person - your last remaining endow/delayed endow/enchanted blade remains with you permanently (only while in the cave of course) - 5 second spells last 10 minutes (disarm) - 10 minutes spells last 1 hour (silence, sleep,turn undead) - 1 hour spells last 1 day (circle of power, imprison) - 5 day spells are permanent (not as per permanent items, just extended duration) (wall of force, ward, wizard's lock) the ring has these attributes: permanent until brought out of the cave extended temp item after out of the cave wall of force 1 x per day imprison 1 x per day need silver/magic to hit wearer the ring is to be destroyed ina volcano. up the path to the volcano, there are string traps, they represent volcanic magma shooting out of the volcano or falling down from above. --------------------------- The party is mistaken for great evil powerful people. The populous can't be convinced that they aren't great and evil. They are so great and evil that everyone shivers in their boots and does exactly what they say. the party is in a swamp, the party is surrounded quickly by creatures growing out of the swamp. Gisl has promised his daughter Aino as the wife of a Swedish prince. The wedding is to be held at Visby, Gotland at the end of the summer. One minor problem remains: The daughter is missing. According to some eye wittnesses, a strange looking man, perhaps an enchanter, was seen in the company of Aino. It is believed that the stranger has captured her to be sold as a slave. Some others, however, are gossiping that Aino has run away from his family in order to avoid marriage with the supposedly ugly prince. Anyhow, the shamans of Kvenland and Finland have discovered, that Aino is captured in the eastern Lapland, somewhere near the domain of Bjarmia. Bjarmia is a mysterious kingdom of fearsome sorcerers and mages. It is also full of treasure and superior fighters. The exact location of Bjarmia is hidden by magic. It seems that only one route towards Bjarmia exists - the route from river Kemijoki to river Suomu-Lutto, which flows to the Arctic Sea. The Bjarmians have summoned giant beavers to block the way to their kingdom. The route from Lake Lokka towards river Suomu is not known any longer because of the harm done by the giant beavers. (This information is based on rumours). However, the great shaman Logi was able to take the form of an eagle and fly to the top of the Finnish sky. On his journey he detected a possible route towards Bjarmia and drew a map for the rescquers of Aino (PBRUSH-file).