Part 1: Probably an Owlbear

Just got back from The Gamer's Wharf where I ran the first of two D&D adventures to cover the game slots usually occupied by Brett and Mike. They're both at GenCon and this seemed like a good time to show the group what my style of DMing looks like. I overpacked and under prepared, couldn't find half my notes, and just ran things the way I thought would be most enjoyable. I had fun. The players seemed to have fun. I think it went well and I feel like I set things in place for more adventure tomorrow.

It wasn't really certain how many folks were going to make it to the game today. At minimum there was going to be three players, but attendance could have been as high as seven players. That would be a big, hard to manage group, but I prepared accordingly. We ended up with a very reasonable four players; Bob, Brent, Caroline, and Joshua. I made adjustments and things went well. No characters died. 

So what happened and how did it go? For starters, that title "Probably an Owlbear." It wasn't an owlbear!

I used the reliquary terrain I built for DougCon a couple years back, only this time there was no Halloween theme to the adventure. I also reused the stirges + piercers opener. Here's the story of the day.

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Like so many damn fools, this group of adventurers has come to scavenge a fortune from the fallen capital of the Saffron King, Larethon. Only to find that the ruins of the city have been picked clean by five-thousand years of looters, jackals, and fortune seekers from two different ages. The only treasure left is in the canyon, in the tombs of the long dead noble court, and those wonders are protected by death herself.

They found themselves in Deadwood camp, on the south rim of the canyon, looking for news and opportunity, just like everyone else. Owing favors and out of luck, the characters took an errand from Glonkite Drustall, proprietor of both the saloon and trading post and one of the three most important people in camp. A big owlbear, known locally as Wyvernbane, has been killing livestock and creating night terrors for the locals. Go take care of that and then we'll take a second look at your tab.

The locals pointed them in the right direction and the trail of offal and scat left by the creature lead them right to the entrance of a wretched reliquary tucked into the wall of a lesser canyon west of camp. The place was befouled by a necrotic miasma, but the company entered bravely in order to find their quarry. The engravings and etchings within identified it as a Fourth Age ruin of the Sarmodath faith, a shrine, temple, or reliquary of that long forgotten religion. The place itself held but a remnant of its former glory. Gilt columns and buttresses now black and ruined, ornate stonework decaying and crumbling to the touch... everything diseased in its way.

The sunlight did not penetrate more than 20 feet into the foul place, the floors were pockmarked with crater-like pits that disappeared into dark tunnels, and the place had been partially collapsed by earthquakes. The entire place was engulfed in a viscus slime, dense patches of mold, and a film of mildew. As they explored deeper into this nightmare, piercers began to drop from the ceiling above and in response to the echoing call of the owlbear that had led them here, stirges began to swarm from the jagged tunnel at the back of the great hall. With luck, perseverance, and skills both martial and arcane, they fought their way through the place.

They ignored the cave from which the stirges had issued and focused on a door that led from the hall. Defeating the trap embedded in the door they found an adjoining statuary containing the statue of some long forgotten Sarmodath icon and a tall obelisk carved with once sacred runes. The statue was deformed and twisted by the foul, shimmering energies radiating from the obelisk. A stairway rose behind a green slime covered gateway. The slime thriving in the aura of the monolith which left the gate rotted and the statue with a half-melted and horrific visage. The slime was burned away and the gate pulled from its anchors so that the stairs could be ascended. 

The exposure to the magics flowing from the obelisk seemed to have enchanted their weapons and left everything with a foul, cancerous aura that empowered and slowly devoured their equipment. 

The chambers above showed further signs of earthquake damage and something more dire, enormous clawed footprints were everywhere amid the detritus of mold, moss, and scared stone tile. Another door and a long hallway brought them to the reliquary proper. The smell was awful, the carnage intense, and a glimpse of something large and pale was seen slipping from the room as they entered.

Within, they found the floor collapsed, the reliquary sarcophagus destroyed and empty, claw marks gouged in the stone, and perhaps most disturbing, two untouched tarnished silver coffers that radiated a feverish warmth and pulsed with unwholesome energy. Even as they decided to leave those two items untouched a sound was heard from the chamber behind them. A large, slithering sound accompanied by the huff of a monstrous inquisitor. They could do little but investigate what horror was behind them.

What they found was a huge, 12-legged monstrosity. Some sort of Tomb Worm. It was a sickly pale thing with rubbery, slime coated flesh, an enormous red mouth, beady black eyes, and a rancid smell. Was it a living creature or some sort of undead guardian. The monstrous thing was slinking around the ruins utilizing the faults and fissures created by the earthquake to remain unseen but not unaware. And now that the warded doors had been breached, it was free to move about, free to hunt, and free to devour everything in its lair.

The company engaged it in the upper chambers, smashing it with spell and steel, driving it back into the crack it had emerged from. They heard it emerge in the great hall and raced down the stairs to engage it before it could turn the tide of battle to it's favor. Blasting aside the warded double doors, they unwittingly gave the monster access to the monolith and as it became fascinated by that dark magic, they fell upon it and slew it. As it lay dead at their feet, the great beast shrunk in upon itself until it was little more than a elf-sized, dried maggot of a thing. The obelisk flared brightly as the monstrosity reached it's end and then went dark as the scavengers braved the emanations to pull the gold capstone from the top of it. But the coffers in the reliquary, they left those be and the world is a better place for it.

They emerged from the reliquary with the gold capstone from the obelisk, a curse upon their equipment, and a story about a clever beast that led them into an ambush with a thing that was certainly not an owlbear.

Stay tuned for Part 2: The Anchorite Crypt