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The Lumber Consortium's Laboratory

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Hidden in the Verduran Forest near the Andoran logging town of Bellis is an underground complex owned by the Lumber Consortium. It was constructed shortly after the House of Thrune took over Cheliax, and served to keep Consortium higher-ups and profits safe from the Thrune government. When the Consortium declared for Andoran, the complex fell into disuse. Few outside the Consortium's highest ranks are even aware of the place's existence.

Recently, the Consortium has found a new purpose for the complex. After watching the supply of lumber decline in Darkmoon Vale and Arthell Forest, the Lumber Consortium has decided that it needs to investigate new avenues of production, lest the Verduran grow sparse someday as well. Under secret orders from the board of directors in Oregent, the Consortium's gavel in the Verduran Forest has begun a series of experiments in the old safe house. One of these experiments is particularly inhumane, violating Andoran's founding principle of liberty: the foreman's thugs have stolen blackwood drake hatchlings from their nests, enslaved them, and raised them as subservient wood-producing machines—machines fueled by animals and living kidnappees. To the Consortium, lumber is gold and life is cheap. In order to not raise eyebrows at home, the "loggers" involved in this experiment tend to pick their prey on the Taldan side of the border. A few Wildwood Lodge druids clandestinely cooperate with the Consortium on this front, helping to cover the kidnappers' tracks; they view this as a necessary evil to advance conservation.

Though word of the complex has yet to reach the Andoran government, Bellis locals and Taldan frontiersmen alike have begun asking questions about the slew of disappearances. Investigation is in order.

A camouflaged and locked trapdoor in the woods opens onto a tunnel leading into the complex. The first level of the safe house (B1) is comprised of seven rooms: a guardhouse, quarters for guards and loggers, a kitchen, a storeroom, and three rooms for housing Consortium directors, two of which have been repurposed as laboratories. One is an artificially lit greenhouse in which a young Wildwood druid runs experiments with plant growth and similar magics; the other is an alchemist's lab dedicated to uncovering the secrets of the blackwood drakes' supernatural poison. Assuming the PCs sneak or fight their way through the first level, they eventually find a spiral staircase down behind a hidden door at the end of the hall.

The lower level (B2), more natural cavern than manmade grotto, once served as a backup bunker in case the complex was found. Now it houses blackwood drakes and the stumps of blackwood trees.

Experimental Blackwood Lumberyard (CR 7)

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Beyond the secret door, a rough hewn spiral staircase descends into darkness. Faint light from upstairs illuminates a black tree stump that seems to have grown out of the steps. As you descend, you find a smattering of blackwood chips and small loose rocks lying on the ground.

If the players have appropriate lighting or darkvision, read the following:
At the foot of the stairs, the passageway opens onto a dank natural cavern. A steep hill in the center of the cave almost reaches the thirty-foot high ceiling. The ground is littered with blackwood tree stumps; the cavern floor is also pockmarked with holes where stumps have been removed. Moist mosses, mushrooms, vines, and other underground flora carpet the cavern floor and walls. The unfelled blackwood trees in the distance resemble gnarled humanoid statues.

Squares occupied by stumps count as difficult terrain. Treat the gaps left by removed stumps as holes with width, length, and depth of five feet. Where these holes are contiguous, they form a continuous trench. The carpet of vegetation provides no obstacle to the PCs until affected by the blackwood drakes' pollen.

The hill in the center of the cavern is steep, and PCs must make Climb checks to ascend. From the north, this check has a DC of 5. From any other direction, the approach is much steeper, and the DC increases to 15.

To the west is a strong wooden door with a superior lock leading to what was once a secure vault for the Lumber Consortium's hoarded assets. Now the candlelit room is used as a staging area by loggers who work with the blackwood drakes. A coordinator (N male human expert 3) is doing inventory in this room and jotting down observations in a journal.

Two blackwood drake siblings live in this cavern. In the southeast is a small grove of withered blackwood trees, none the healthier for their lack of sunlight and water. It is in this grove that the drakes make their nests. Beyond the nests are the semi-buried remains of another drake, presumably the third of their clutch. The cause of its death cannot be ascertained by mundane means, but the emaciated appearance of its living siblings signals the meanness of the brood's existence.

Creatures: Due to the manner in which they were 'raised' by their captors, the blackwood drakes are more domesticated than enslaved. Trained to be heartless tree producers, these drakes are subservient to their masters and cruel to any other creatures. They possess only a poor grasp of Common and none of any other languages. As the cavern is ordinarily kept dark, approaching torchlight alerts the drakes of intruders. They investigate as a curious predator might, using hit-and-run tactics to harry their opposition, taking advantage of the darkness and terrain. Should the drakes' chances in a direct confrontation look grim, they retreat to the top of the hill in the center of the cave and activate the refuse avalanche trap they've created. If more than moderately wounded, they remain on top of the hill, kicking rubble down at approaching foes (treat as an improvised thrown weapon; +5 to hit, 1d4+2 damage). Because the drakes don't know life outside this cavern, they are more apt to surrender than to attempt to flee if cornered. If they learn or sense that the PCs have injured their masters, however, they fight to the death.

The drakes are suspicious and respond poorly to diplomacy attempts, but if the PCs maintain a genuinely friendly approach (despite sustaining the drakes' initial hostilities), the drakes will eventually consider a parley.

The logging coordinator locks the door and cowers in his room while the battle rages immediately outside it. He never fights. If he finds a good moment, he attempts to sneak past the PCs in the dark and escape up the spiral staircase. Should the PCs intercept him, capture him, and leave before defeating the blackwood drakes, the drakes pursue and fight to free the coordinator.

Blackwood Drakes (2) CR 6
XP 1200 each
hp 37 each (R4)

Blackwood Logging Coordinator CR —
XP —
hp 13 (uses statistics for Shopkeep, GameMastery Guide 284)
Tactics The coordinator is a noncombatant and either hides or flees, pleading for his life if discovered.
Combat Gear The logging coordinator carries no gear.


Trap: At the top of the hill in the cavern's center is a Large ball of accumulated wood chips, rocks, and drake dung, supported by a few sticks. It is easy to spot; that it is a trap is less obvious. Should the PCs notice the trap and avoid it, or somehow prevent the drakes from activating it, disarming the trap by dispersing the debris is a simple task. The trap is triggered by the drakes whenever they deem it will affect a sufficient number of foes. By knocking out the supporting sticks, they send the ball rolling downhill (north) at alarming speed. It breaks apart as it travels, spraying all in its path with refuse.

Refuse Avalanche Trap CR 3
Type mechanical; Perception DC 20; Disable Device DC 5
----- Effects -----
Trigger location; Reset repair
Effect sickens (1 minute), knocks prone; DC 25 Reflex avoids; multiple targets (all targets in a 10-ft.-wide, 100-ft.-long area); creates difficult terrain in area until refuse is removed


Development: If the PCs manage to reach an understanding with the drakes, the drakes can provide them with information about who is behind the experiments, and might even be willing to testify about what they'd lived through in an Andoran or Taldan court. The logging coordinator, if apprehended, quickly reveals for whom he was working and that the alchemy lab upstairs has an experimental antidote for the blackwood drakes' poison (it returns tree-transmuted creatures to an unpoisoned living state with Dexterity damage equal to their Dexterity minus 1). Should the PCs fail to take either the coordinator or the drakes alive, documents found in the old vault to the west provide ample evidence of the Consortium's agenda.

A shimmer of hues on the riverbed suddenly bunches up and slithers onto the bank. This slick, multicolored ooze exudes a sickly sweet aroma and leaves a trail of silvery fluids.

Egelsee Cocktail CR 5

XP 1,600

N Small ooze (aquatic)

Init +4; Senses blindsight 60 ft.; Perception -5

Aura stench (20 ft., DC 16, 10 rounds)

----- Defense -----

AC 15, touch 15, flat-footed 11 (+4 Dex, +1 size)

hp 52 (7d8+21)

Fort +5, Ref +6, Will -3

Immune ooze traits

----- Offense -----

Speed 10 ft., climb 10 ft., swim 20 ft.

Melee 2 slams +9 (2d4+3 plus addiction and grab)

Ranged glob +10 (2d4 plus addiction)

Special Attacks fluid drain (1d2 Constitution), glob, grab (Medium)

----- Statistics -----

Str 17, Dex 18, Con 16, Int —, Wis 1, Cha 1

Base Atk +5; CMB +7 (+11 grapple); CMD 21 (can't be tripped)

Skills Climb +11, Swim +11; Racial Modifiers +8 Climb, +8 Swim

SQ addiction, amphibious

----- Ecology -----

Environment any rivers

Organization solitary

Treasure none

----- Special Abilities -----

Addiction (Ex) The fluids that comprise the body of an Egelsee cocktail are highly addictive. Any creature that strikes an Egelsee cocktail with a natural weapon or takes damage from one of its attacks must make a DC 16 Fortitude save or suffer minor addiction to the ooze. This functions just like addiction to a drug (GameMastery Guide), except that relief from the addiction's penalties is provided for one hour by ingesting or being damaged by an Egelsee cocktail rather than by drug intake. This DC is Constitution-based. Addicted creatures are immune to the cocktail's stench ability; they find the aroma pleasant.

Fluid Drain (Ex) Egelsee cocktails feed by draining their victims of fluids. This ability works exactly like blood drain except that it affects any creature with fluid content.

Glob (Ex) As a standard action, an Egelsee cocktail can spew part of itself at a target. Treat this as an attack with a thrown splash weapon (range increment: 10 feet) except it also functions underwater. Roll damage for this attack even if it misses; the Egelsee cocktail deals that amount of damage to itself. Creatures within the splash radius count as being within the cocktail's stench aura for 1 round whether or not they take damage.

Alien oils have leaked from Numeria's Silver Mount for millennia, seeping into the water table. Perhaps some of these fluids crawled already hungry from the Silver Mount; perhaps they settled into the bed of the Egelsee River, waiting for a mischievous god or wizard to animate them. As with many oozes, the origins of the Egelsee cocktail are largely a matter of speculation. Its name derives from its physical makeup: a vile heterogenous brew of alien liquids and the bodily fluids of its victims.

The mindless cocktail lurks in the Egelsee River. It is best disposed to prey on aquatic creatures but will attempt to attack any potential food. Once it has gorged sufficiently, the ooze will discharge a portion of itself. This excretion is a young cocktail in its own right. The cocktails can feed on any fluid, and there are reports of specimens that have assimilated alchemical substances and deadly toxins. Egelsee cocktails of all varieties frequently expel excess river water, preserving the potency of the foul but addictive Silver Mount oils.

Outsea Delver (Alchemist)
While the River Kingdoms are generally turbulent, stability is a requirement for Outsea's survival, and thus its first priority. Local alchemists looking to the fiefdom see not only the promise of easy work as salination engineers, but also a calm base of operations for their research. The adventure doesn't end in Outsea, though: many alchemists discover an unending trove of specimens and phenomena worth studying deep beneath the waterline. They also find acceptance—in a city with a monstrous majority, the odd alchemical tentacle or tumor is less stigmatic than elsewhere.
Class Skills: An Outsea delver does not gain Sleight of Hand (Dex) or Survival (Wis) as class skills; instead, he gains Knowledge (dungeoneering) (Int), Knowledge (engineering) (Int), and Swim (Str) as class skills.
Master Swimmer (Ex): Outsea delvers navigate Outsea's waterways just as they do its streets. At 2nd level, an Outsea delver gains a +2 competence bonus on Swim checks. This bonus increases to +4 at 5th level and to +6 at 8th level. At 10th level, the Outsea delver gains a swim speed equal to his base speed (maximum 30 feet), and the accompanying +8 bonus on Swim checks replaces the previously granted competence bonus. This ability replaces poison resistance and poison immunity.
Salt Bombs (Su): At 2nd level, when he creates a bomb, the Outsea delver can choose to leverage alchemical processes similar to those that keep Outsea salinated. Salt bombs deal slashing damage one die step lower than normal. Living creatures that take a direct hit from a salt bomb are sickened for 3 rounds unless they succeed on a Fortitude save against the Outsea delver's bomb DC. Outsea delvers can't apply discoveries to salt bombs. In all other ways, salt bombs function exactly like normal bombs. This ability replaces poison use.
Aboleth Lungs: At 4th level, the Outsea delver adds aboleth's lung (Advanced Race Guide) to his formula book as a 2nd-level extract. This ability replaces swift alchemy.
Aquadynamic Bombs (Ex): By 6th level, the Outsea delver has perfected vial designs that make throwing bombs underwater feasible. He doesn't take the normal -2 penalty on attack rolls for every 5 feet of water through which his bombs pass. Normal range penalties still apply, and fire bombs remain ineffective underwater. This ability replaces swift poisoning.
Deep Sea Delver (Su): At 18th level, the Outsea delver develops a regimen of oils and elixirs that render himself and his gear immune to water pressure damage and hypothermia. This ability replaces instant alchemy.

Gloves, Tree Frog's
Aura moderate illusion and transmutation; CL 3rd
Slot hands; Price 20,700 gp; Weight —.
Description
The fingertips of these supple leather gloves are broad and flat. The gloves' backs are decorated with stitched outlines of frogs.

Favored by woodland spies and scouts, these gloves grant their wearer exceptional agility while navigating forested regions. She benefits from a constant spider climb effect while in contact with trees, and always counts as having a running start when making Acrobatics checks to jump between tree branches and trunks.

Once per day, while in contact with a tree, the gloves can camouflage their wearer, allowing her to hide in plain sight for up to five minutes, as the ranger class feature by the same name. The wearer gains a +20 circumstance bonus to Stealth checks while this effect lasts if she remains stationary. The effect ends prematurely if she breaks contact with the tree.

Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, invisibility, spider climb, creator must have 5 ranks in the Acrobatics skill; Cost 10,350 gp

Hopefully this won't betray my submission as mine and disqualify me.

I recently attempted to almost-submit my item. I had it sitting at the 'preview' stage (displaying my formatted & word-counted entry). I did not click 'submit.' I left the page alone for a while and came back to it and I had been redirected to the landing page for the entire messageboards.

Would I know if the forums had submitted my entry for me? I still see a link to make my submission - does this mean I have yet to make my submission, or is it a trap, luring me to submit twice and be disqualified?

Sorry for sounding paranoid --
but if anyone can shed some light on this it'd be helpful (the most simple thing would be, if someone else has already submitted and no longer sees an option to submit, please tell me!!).

I like ideas involving more classes, more prestige classes, more archetypes, partial gestalt, etc., etc., but I also like simple things. I'd be interested in feedback on this, which is a system to give small bonuses to players for multiclassing. What's below actually involves a lot of bonuses: am I giving too much? Should it be decreased? Any thoughts welcome.

To be clear the issue I see (and am trying to counteract) is that single-classed characters are simply more competent than multiclassed characters, with a widening power gap especially at higher levels.

Multiclass Bonuses

Upon gaining the indicated level in a class, if you have already attained that level in another class, you gain the listed benefit. Prestige classes do not count for any of these calculations.

1. +1 to the leveling class' ability score
2. +1 to effective level in any one class
3. Bonus feat
4. +1 to effective level in any one class
5. Bonus feat, +1 to the leveling class's ability score
6. +1 to effective level in any one class
7. Bonus feat
8. +1 to effective level in any one class
9. Bonus feat, +1 to the leveling class's ability score
10. Dual focus

+1 to the leveling class's ability score: Each class has an associated ability score. When you attain the indicated level in that class, if you already have that many or more levels in another class, you receive a +1 bonus to that ability score. These increases stack and are gained as if through level advancement. The list of classes by class ability score is as follows:

STR - barbarian, fighter
DEX - gunslinger, ninja, rogue
CON - cavalier, ranger, samurai
INT - alchemist, magus, witch, wizard
WIS - cleric, druid, inquisitor, monk
CHA - bard, oracle, paladin, sorcerer, summoner

+1 to effective level in any one class: When you attain the indicated level in a class, if you already have that many or more levels in another class, you add 1 to the effective level of one of your classes for the purposes of determining level-dependent uses per day and effects of class features. This does not grant accelerated access to higher-level features, and it does not improve spellcasting.

Bonus feat: When you attain the indicated level in a class, if you already have that many or more levels in another class, you gain any one feat for which you qualify as a bonus feat.

Dual Focus: When you attain 10th level in a class, if you already have 10 levels in another class, you count your effective class level as 20 for both classes for the purposes of determining level-dependent uses per day and effects of class features. This does not grant accelerated access to higher-level features, and it does not improve spellcasting.