Foiling the Orc plan, Part 1.

The warriors start out fresh from a dungeon adventure and must travel back to town to find out more about the Orc's plan to destroy the world. Once in tow, the warriors may visit any location they choose, but if any of them visit the alehouse, they will trigger an event with the mysterious prophet.

A strange man approaches you while you sit drinking your mead. His long dark cloak hides his face in shadow, but you can feel his eyes burning into the very depths of your soul.

“I know of the orc plan. The emperor will not act upon the wishes of what he sees as yet another raving mad doomsday prophet. It falls upon you to stop the orcs before the entire world is consumed by their evil. Meet me at the town gates one week from now, bring your companions. There is much to discuss. Take this as a token of my... goodwill.”

The prophet smiles unsettlingly and hands you four potion bottles, before leaving the tavern and melting away into the darkness of the night.

Allow the players to finish their shopping in the town, but make sure they meet up outside the town gates one week from the prophet encounter (have the guards eject them if necessary).

Upon leaving the settlement, the prophet will meet the warriors again.

“Hurry, there is much I need to tell you, and already the dark forces move against us. I shall explain as we travel. Long ago, there lived a mighty orc called Skar. He was gifted among orcs, being both massively built, and extremely intelligent. There are those who say he was not merely an orc, but the offspring of a union twixt Orc and Demon. Whatever the truth of the matter, Skar began worshipping chaos, and speaking with the dark gods. In secret, deep in the world's edge mountains, Skar and his followers constructed an enormous portal in order to summon forth a great deamon, which in turn would bring forth the very gods of chaos themselves. Only the actions of the brave Dwarf, Khaztrak, prevented the destruction of the world at the hands of chaos. Now the orcs have a new leader, and they are continuing the work Skar began all those years ago. Khaztrak has been missing for nearly fifty years, and it is not known how he managed to stop Skar's evil plans. You warriors must seek out Khaztrak, find out how to foil the orcs, and stop their deadly plan once and for all. I do not know where to find Khaztrak, but I know of one who may help you to find him. Seek out Magnamor, the ancient dragon. Be careful, Magnamor is as deadly and insidious as he is ancient. I do not recommend approaching him without some form of protection.”

After a few week's travel, you arrive at the entrance to Magnamor's cave. Cautiously, you step inside.

Junction.

As soon as you enter the dungeon, you feel the heat cutting into you. The path splits off into three seperate directions.

The meat locker.

This room contains nothing but dead bodies, piled up high – the bodies of orcs, goblins, beastmen, elves, humans, dwarves and centaurs, piled up all over the room. It looks like a Larder of gargantuan proportions.

Searching the bodies requires a Willpower test in order to hold the warrior's lunch down. If failed, the warrior must spend a turn emptying their stomach contents onto the floor and may do nothing else. If the warriors choose to inspect the bodies, they will discover that some of them are not entirely dead – The beastmen were just feigning death to get the drop on them! 4 Beastmen will rise up and immediately make their spear attacks. Upon defeating them, the warriors will receive a blood pulse spell scroll. Searching the bodies requires a Willpower test in order to hold the warrior's lunch down. If failed, the warrior must spend a turn emptying their stomach contents onto the floor and may do nothing else. A successful search of the bodies will yield D6*100 gold pieces.

Magical Corridor

This corridor crackles with magical energy.

The power phase roll is multiplied by 2 while the warriors are in this corridor. A roll of a 1 will still trigger an unexpected event.

Magical Teleporter

A crackling ring of energy lies on the floor in this room. Looking through the ring causes your vision to blur, and you cannot see through it properly.

The door to room 9 is secret and magically trapped. If the trap is sprung, anyone within 2 squares of the door will take D3 wounds, with no modifiers.

If the warriors step into the ring of power, they will be teleported to room 5. The disorientation this causes reduces their weapon skill to 1 for the next 3 turns.

Magical Teleporter.

As your vision slowly returns, you realise you are not in the same place you were a moment ago. The circle of power begins to fade, until it is nothing more than a dull black line on the floor.

Corridor

A dim light glows at the end of the corridor. You can hear hideous laughter.

The Ancient tomb

As you enter this room, the laughter you heard instantly ceases, and you notice a sharp drop in temperature. A huge tomb stands in the centre of a raised platform. There is an inscription on the tomb.

The inscription is marked in a strange language. Give the warriors handout 1. If the warriors manage to translate the inscription, they discover that it reads: “From beyond the grave I offer this gift. Take it if you can prove yourself worthy.”

The warriors can attempt to open the tomb. As soon as they open it, D6 Skeletons, D6 Zombies and D6 Skeleton archers rise from the ground next to them. A scroll lies inside the tomb, but powerful magic will prevent anyone from reaching it.

Once the monsters have been defeated, the warriors will receive a fanged death helm and healing potion, and a dark cload will coalesce into a strange face. “You have proved yourselves worthy,” It says, “Take what I offer, but use it wisely”.

The scroll is in fact a spell of binding. The warriors must use this to bind Magnamor the dragon in order to extract the information they need. Casting the spell takes an entire turn and if the wizard is attacked during the casting, they must start all over again.

Corridor.

As you enter the corridor, the heat returns and the sound of laughter begins again.

Corner.

The path bends round sharply. A heavy door is cut into the wall itself.

The door is still magically trapped, unless it was disarmed previously.

Corridor

As you travel further down this corridor, the heat seems to grow stronger.

Bridge.

A thin bridge crosses over a seemingly bottomless chasm. Crossing this bridge will be dangerous, especially as it's guarded by an ogre. The ogre looks at you with a sneer on his face.

“You ain't comin' across here unless you pay the toll.”

The toll the ogre asks for is in fact a body part from each of the warriors – a hand, a foot, a head... needless to say, they probably won't be too keen to part with them, so they'll probably want to fight the ogre. Fighting near the adge of the pit is dangerous – whenever a warrior makes an attack or receives a hit while standing next to the pit, make a D6 roll. On a roll of a 1, they fall in.

Once the combat is underway, 2 centaurs appear to see what all the fuss is about. When all monsters are defeated, the warriors will receive D6 firebombs and an incense of healing.

The dragon's lair.

The heat in this room is almost unbearble. A huge rift cuts through the floor, bubbling lava welling up from the very bowels of the earth to fill the gap. A rickety rope bridge crosses the gap. As you look to the back of the room, you see a huge dragon, eyeing you with evil intent.

If the warriors enter this room without the Binding Scroll, Magnamor will laugh and breathe fire at them, forcing them back out the door.

The dragon would defeat the entire party in an eye blink if it wanted to, and he knows it. This is magnamor the dragon. The dragon will not attack the warriors unless they come close to him. He will talk to them and try to convince them to come closer – try to make it obvious that there's something up his sleeve. If the warriors make Magnamor really angry, he will call on 2 minotaurs and 2 centaurs to help get rid of them. The minotaurs burst out from the walls and room 13. The warriors must use the spell of binding to bind Magnamor the dragon in order to extract the information they need. Casting the spell takes an entire turn and if the wizard is attacked during the casting, they must start all over again. Magnamor will breath fire on a single warrior each turn until he is bound, causing D3 wounds with no modifiers. Every time the binding spell fails, Magnamor gets angry and breathes fire on the warriors, each of them takes D3 wounds with no modifiers.

Once Magnamor is bound and all monsters are killed, the warriors receive the helm of possession and the Relic Blade. The warriors may now interrogate Magnamor.

Magnamor knows what happened to Khaztrak, but he will only speak in riddles. Each question will be answered with another question.

Why do you seek him?

Do you hate Skar as Khaztrak did?

What makes you sure the plan will succeed?

He will leave the warriors with this final piece of information: “When something is lost, it is found in the last place you look. Where is the last place you'd look for a missing dwarf?”

The answer of course is the forests of Loren. The warriors should Travel to Loren and speak with the wood elves.

If the warriors hang around for too long, Magnamor will break his bindings, and he's gonna be REALLY angry, so it's best they leave as soon as they know where to go.

2005-06-09T15:53:03