Hi Chris,
The premise you propose sounds good.
**SPOILERS**
I'm not sure you can raise someone if their dead body is intact in another location, and this would be problematic for Agath and Manzorian as they would likely (and later do) resurect Eligos.
Maybe his body was sold to worshipers of Kyuss whom plan on turning his body into an undead. Doing so requires a ritual, and now for the PCs its a race against time.
To me it sounds like an excellent idea to have your players part of the back story on Eligo's revival.
I'm going to guess that your players are level 10...
With that in mind,I would suggest Chains of Blackmaw from issue 135.
It's not exactly a city-based adventure, but it's no stretch to move the party into it from the Free City and from there onto A Gathering of Winds.
I don't know that you could marry it to the idea of recovering Eligos' body, though. Otherwise, it's a good adventure with an original premise that would be worth the effort to run anyways.
We did a scenario with a small village fairly close to Diamond Lake being overrun by a Kyuss-priest doing a dry run for one of the big rituals. Priest about the PCs' level, some morgh, a lot of Kyuss-spawn, vulnerable villagers as hostages, an insane druid hunting the Kyuss-spawn as a vengeful supernatural hound.
We also did one where an Ebon Triad temple on the Shadow Plane started sending nightmares and madness into Diamond Lake via the black pool in Dourstone Mine. The PCs hunted it down on the Shadow Plane and wiped it out. (Erythnul had vrock and a blood-spitting oracular fountain; Vecna had a lesser form of the sorrowsworn demon and a priestly oracle encased in a gelatinous mound; Hextor had fire giants guarding a warrior oracle with an artifact weapon.)
The second one was more interesting. Having them receive increasing stories of nightmares, fights breaking out, the flagellation activities of Cuthburt cult intensifying, etc. made a nice lead-in to the dungeon. And one of the PCs has an apprentice who is apparently fated to be an Oracle of Vecna, so the interaction with the oracles was especially interesting. (The warlock ended up, via a strange set of events, having the chance to cast Commune to a god of her choice; that was fun.)
Mary
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My players did the following side quest--among others--preceding the Champion's Games, though it could just as easily be adapted to occur after. The "Midnight's Muddle" backdrop (Dungeon #128, pgs. 64-71) was a treasure trove of potential side quest material, not to mention that unnamed larger building at the north-eastern corner of it, which I used to make my own locale. I originally divided up the side quests to be run as a "single-PC"-styled adventure, though, again, they can be adapted easily.
The first side quest featured an NPC that I had planted early on, a half-orc barbarian (dire flail and whirling frenzy variant) named Awlmont Hog, who was the illegitimate half-brother of none other than Forwell Hog of Midnight's Muddle's Shrine of the Weeping Woman (Area 20). Awlmont, who had been found wandering through Mistmarsh, was taken in as a traveling companion, explaining that upon his--and Forwell's--mother's death (located in a shack in the Mistmarsh), she had asked him to find out his estranged brother to make amends.
In my own campaign, Awlmont was a lot swifter in his efforts to track down his brother--though he could just as easily make the scene now, explaining his plight to a party prior to their departure from Midnight's Muddle.
This side quest was a little unusual in it's structure, in that it plays out a bit like a detective story. Awlmont and his dear friend (one of the PCs, an elf by the name of Slade) went directly to the Shrine of the Weeping Woman. It was notable that there was a good deal of traffic of old women coming in and out of the shrine. Awlmont and Slade entered the shrine, and Awlmont approached his half-brother, who remained aloof and cold to the half-orc. (As a DM, read the paragraph preceding the stat block--yep, he's statted out, too--to get an idea of what skills will be useful to determine that Forwell's up to something fishy.) I also gave him a verminous graft (Dragon #336, p. 108) for added flavor, though covered up by a long, black glove. Trigger happy PCs might try to attack him at this point alone for being suspicious, but it stands to reason that even in Midnight's Muddle, the citizens of the Free City are still protected by the law, and that the law would surely frown upon anyone bearing arms against a clergyman of a shrine to Heironeous, if only an obscure aspect of one.
Awlmont was determined to find out what caused such a sudden transformation in his brother. He encouraged Slade to ask around at local shops adjacent to--or in--the alley the Shrine of the Weeping Woman was located in. (From a side quest perspective, a party looking to explore the hidden motivations of Forwell could just as easily reach the same conclusion.) With a Gather Info check (DC 15) at Horatio Rib's, the unusual gnome reveals that he has seen unfamiliar ladies come in to the shrine, with increasing frequency, but that after a week, he stops seeing the same ladies. More come, with increasing frequency, still. Likewise, a Gather Info check (DC 15) at Meply's or Din Danly's--depending on the time of day (read descriptions on p. 69 for a laugh), maybe both at separate times--reveals that Forwell only rarely goes out, but that he was out late last night a few weeks back, and also two nights back (Gather Info DC 25) Forwell was walking through the streets, talking to himself, and crawling around on all fours. These encounters serve to reinforce that Forwell is worth attention as someone suspicious. They might be skipped if the PCs find Forwell genuinely untrustworthy in any regard, or a potential threat.
Later in the evening--perhaps by chance, or a whisper on the wind--the PCs pass by Location 14: Burnt Shop, a place in close proximity to the Shrine of the Weeping Woman. (My own player came back after seeking out Din Danly in the late evening, having already talked with Meply.) A flicker of movement, noticeable with a Spot check (DC 5 or 10), gives the PCs a quick glance at a mysterious presence. Whispers can be heard, of increasing audibility. No one in the street is present, and the faint illumination of a distant streetlight casts the deepest of shadows. The wispy ectoplasmic force of something beyond the grave seeps across the room. The sound of sloshing water is faintly heard, as are tears being cried. Soon after it notices the party, a wretched ghost, looking as though it had been pickled, floats toward the PCs. While combat might be the expected follow up to such a scene, a diplomatic effort to engage the spirit reveals its motivations. (Sense Motive DC 5 reveals that it is making no aggressive action in the direction of the PCs.) The ghost is none other than that of Laslo, the former shopkeep of the establishment which once stood in this locale. Laslo precedes to moan about his fate:
“Woe is me,” he cries. “I stumbled into something beyond my capacity. I pray my family forgives me for my self-destruction! Woe!” He raised his fists, then subsides, to tell his story. “It was seventeen nights ago, when I saw Forwell Hog, that liar, crawl along the alleys under the veil of a misty night. The moon was put away, and the dim, semi dampened fires only cast the bitterest of shadows. He crawled like a spider, and even with his false arm, seemed more natural that way. Vermin, like spiders and ants trailed him, and he clamored over and up the walls of Varda’s shrine to Heironeous. I followed behind—I was so foolish not to alert the police—and saw him sneak into Varda’s. His spider spun a wicked web over the windows, and Forwell shot fire from his fingers. The whole place went up in minutes, and the fire spread violently to both the Queggens' home, killing their twin daughters, and then to my shop! I was so close to making something for myself! I couldn’t bear the strain, and I couldn’t return to my desperate family with nothing but debt. I ended my life that night in the Millstream near the shrine to Obad-Hai. Heaven forgive me!” With that, he vanishes in a fiery mist. (For reference, Varda was the only priest of the now Ruined Shrine--area 12--of Heironeous, and the Queggens'--and their twin daughters--are inventions of my own, used to fill in the gaps for Area 13: Burnt Hovel, also taken in the same fire that claimed Laslo's shop.)
This ghostly encounter was enough to shake up my player, and infuriate my NPC, Awlmont, so as to force him to race down the alley--a span of ninety feet--to confront his corrupted brother. Slade barely kept up behind him, though his efforts to subdue the enraged barbarian fell on deaf ears. Awlmont went ahead, and Forwell, who had been spying on the two courtesy of his vermin servant, had smashed Awlmont over the head with the very statue of the Weeping Woman that attracted his followers in the first place. Forwell, who had prepared himself for confrontation following Laslo's spirit's appearance, was assisted by two medium monstrous spiders (courtesy of giant vermin), as well as his own small monstrous spider vermin servant. While the spiders drained Slade's strength, Awlmont desperately tried to subdue his brother. However, when he posed such a threat with his verminous allies on his new friend's life, he was forced to slay his kin. (Depending on preference, some DMs may find Forwell redeemable.) However, with his dying breath, Forwell cursed Awlmont, claiming he had already brought his master, The Festering One, to the Free City, and he was below if they dared face him.
Below the shrine, a secret passage opened into a descending dirt cavern, the heavy scent of perfumes and flowers arise from below, a faint undercurrent to it. White flower petals litter the dark cavern floor. As the PCs descend deeper into the subterranean lair, the scent of flowers and perfume grows even more intense, but too does an undercurrent that is the scent of decomposing flesh; for below the Shrine of the Weeping Woman is where the Festering One has made his lair, satiating his depraved hunger for the flesh of the naive elderly for many months. In a chamber approximately forty feet wide, looms a phase spider, all black and green, waiting. Torn apart bodies of old women litter the room like garbage. It speaks, tauntingly telepathically, saying, “Forwell failed me, indeed, to let scum like you through. You will be a feast for the Festering One.” It then proceeds to blink in and out of the Material and Ethereal Planes, relying on positioning itself in as safe of a position as possible, observing readying PCs from the Ethereal Plane safely. It will even wait for rounds at a time, in the hopes to get the PCs to drop their guard, and fire off chained eldritch blasts, or hideous blows with it's bite, hoping to mix the poison into its unholy arcane power, upon materializing. This can be a challenging fight if the Festering One plays the waiting game, but is appropriate as such, considering the horror-like intensity of the final confrontation.
(Thanks to Richard Pett for the awesome backdrop!)
Well, give it a whirl, and if anyone else does, by all means let us know how it went down.
The Festering One (Large Magical Beast) w/warlock 6 CR 9
HD: 5d10+15+6d6+18 HP: 75 Initiative: +7 Speed 40ft, climb 20ft.
Armor Class: 15, touch 12, flat-footed 12 Base Attack: +9/+4
Attack: Bite +11 (1d6+4 and poison) Ranged: Eldritch Blast: +11 (3d6 +effect)
Full Atk: Bite +11/+6
Space/reach: 10ft/5ft SQ: Darkvision 60ft, lowlight vision, Ethereal jaunt
Str 17 Dex 17 Con 16 Int 10 Wis 13 Cha 16 Fort +9 Ref +9 Will +7
Skills: Climb +11 Move Silently +11 Spot +4 Knowledge (arcana) +11 Intimidate +11 Knowledge religion +10 Concentration +8
Feats: ability focus (poison), improved initiative, empower spell-like ability (least), ability focus (eldritch blast)
Poison fort DC 17; 1d8 con init + secondary
Invocations: Least: Sickening Blast (2nd) DC+2 for focus, Hideous Blow (1st)
Lesser: Eldritch Chain (4th), Charm (4th)
The Styes! Or the Weavers!
I'm working on building TFO as a witch, or maybe a converted warlock. Because the party is quite powerful (six-man Pathfinder party of 8th-levelers), and witch and phase spider don't exactly synergize even if I take some liberties with the Intelligence score, he'll be built to reflect that.
Maybe a reskinned scarred witch doctor...
Alright, here's what I did:
- Gave Forwell a reskinned and somewhat reflavored Worm That Walks template. Hey, he's eligible as a caster. Revealed to the players here.
- Put the Festering One underneath Forwell's shrine, in a blocked off sewer chamber recently expanded by the industrious druid. It is filled with crushed bones and suffused with the smell of death.
- Added a human minion of Forwell—an old but still highly competent swordsman who's slightly less duped than the rest of Forwell's cult. He knew the people who went below were dying, but had grown bitter with the world and believed Forwell was cleansing a corrupt faith. Varda was just another link in a rusty chain that needed to be purged and re-crafted. That said, he had no idea that Forwell was a charlatan and would have been anguished had he realized what he'd really been feeding. He was kinda a racist a~$@#+!, though, so nobody gave him a chance.
- The Festering One himself never got the chance to buff or prepare, since the party teleported in, but he did manage to badly poison the summoner before being put down. Under ideal circumstances, Forwell would have fled down to join him before the battle began.
For months, the phase spider wandered. He couldn't go back. He wouldn't go back. The last image he had caught of his home plane was that of his birth father, eyes wide in a silent scream as an ovipositor was forced into his cut-open back.
The phase spider himself had been badly injured. His abdomen had been cut into during the fight, then cut into more in preparation for the ovipositor. So he was when he stumbled into a hut, ate the owner's cat, and drifted off into sleep.
He dreamed of worms. Of wasp larvae, of things burrowing and festering beneath his carapace, tearing into him and hollowing him out. He dreamed of an end—the end of all, for both the Ethereal Plane and its close cousin, the Prime. The end of what was, and the beginning of its decay.
Over those months, constantly half-starved and suffering from an agonizingly infected wound, the spider slowly began to go mad. The dreams kept coming, faster and more brutal.
The phase spider didn't know it, but he had chosen a nest perilously close to the Wormcrawl Fissure. In his madness, he saw the Age of Worms. He saw that the end was truly coming, and saw that it would have no place for the living.
But he was not weak. He was not eager to give up his life after all he'd been through. No. He would live. The vermin could not survive without a host, after all.
Embracing his pain as a sign that he was not yet dead, the spider began to move once more, to prey actively on whatever he could catch. he grew stronger. He fought off the infection, and took to wearing a plate of ivory as a "second shell" over his cut-open abdomen.
Journeying from dungeon to cairn to crypt to tower, the phase spider learned all he could about what was coming. He deliberately carved and painted his own flesh and chitin, turning himself into a sick, twisted canvas. He began to call himself "the Festering One".
On one of his excursions, he ran into an old friend of Nogwier's, Forwell Hog. Forwell had been sent by Diamond Lake's druid to seek more information on the Age of Worms, and he'd made a fatal error in approaching the strange creature in the cairn.
The phase spider ate the druid's companion, but decided to "spare" Forwell. He captured the human instead, and spent the next few months strategically torturing him, removing almost all that had been Forwell and replacing it with foulness through rituals unspeakable. At last, when Forwell had been reduced to a pitiable shadow of his former self, he heard the voice in his mind once more.
You will be my eyes in this world, stepping where I cannot tread. You will bring me food, secrets, and make me a new home among the humans. Together, we will eat away the rotten flesh of this great corpse, until there is nothing for Him to claim. Together, you and I will learn to walk where once our kind could only crawl.
The Festering One
Genderless phase spider scarred witch doctor 9*
N Large magical beast
Init +7; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +6
DEFENSE
AC 23, touch 13, flat-footed 18 (+5 Dex, +9 natural, –1 size)
hp 163 (6d10+9d6+75+9+15) +20
Fort +13, Ref +13, Will +8
Defensive Abilities ethereal jaunt
OFFENSE
Speed 40 ft., climb 20 ft.
Melee bite +14 (2d6+7 plus poison and grab)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Special Attacks ethereal ambush
Spells (CL 9th, Occult Patron)
5th—Evard's black tentacles, Rary's telepathic bond
4th—twilight knife, cure serious wounds, charm monster, lesser geas
3rd—cure moderate wounds, twilight knight, screech, cup of dust, pain strike
2nd—see invisibility, cure moderate wounds (2), vomit swarm, hold person
1st—cure light wounds (2), mage armor, sleep, hypnotism, command
0—detect magic (3), light, read magic, virtue
STATISTICS
Str 20, Dex 20, Con 20, Int 12, Wis 11, Cha 12 (18)
Base Atk +10; CMB +16 (+20 grapple); CMD 29 (41 vs. trip)
Feats Ability Focus (poison), Improved Initiative, Skill Focus (Stealth), Combat Reflexes, Spell Focus (enchantment), Toughness, Endurance, Diehard
Skills Climb +18, Perception +6, Stealth +7
Languages Aklo
Gear Fetish mask of +6 Charisma
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Hexes (Su) Charm, Blight, Healing, Tongues, Fortune
Ethereal Ambush (Ex) A phase spider that attacks foes on the Material Plane in a surprise round can take a full round of actions if it begins the combat by phasing into the Material Plane from the Ethereal Plane.
Ethereal Jaunt (Su) A phase spider can shift from the Ethereal Plane to the Material Plane as a free action, and shift back again as a move action (or as part of a move action). The ability is otherwise identical to ethereal jaunt (CL 15th).
Poison (Ex) Bite—injury; save Fort DC 20; frequency 1/round for 8 rounds; effect 1d2 Constitution damage; cure 2 consecutive saves. The save DC is Constitution-based.
Notes: The Festering One's fetish is worn over its abdomen—giving it a terrifying "second face". Here is the image I'll be showing my players, which also inspired this idea. Notably, this "mask" cannot be worn by PCs and must be sold for one-quarter price (there aren't many phase spiders in the Free City marketplace). This is deliberate, since it's obviously way too powerful for their level to have access to.
The Festering One always tries to start combat by casting Rary's telepathic bond and chatting with the heroes. He has a childlike, heavily curious demeanor ("Hello! Who are you? How did you get in my cave?"), and one could be forgiven for assuming that the power dynamic between him and Forwell in fact runs in the opposite direction—especially since the Festering One denies any involvement in Varda's death (this is relatively honest—though the Festering One would not have objected had he known, Forwell acted on his own initiative).
Certainly, the Festering One does not see his efforts as evil. In truth, he's just another aspect of the world's growing sickness. Some, like Loris Raknian, choose to join the problem rather than seek a solution. Others, like the Festering One, are driven insane by despair and turn against mere symptoms of the true disease. Only a rare few are destined to rise up against the great Herald itself, providing the sorely-needed cure to Oerth.
Hopefully, your PCs are those rare few.