| Douglas Muir 406 |
The PCs are hired to capture an assassin. Flavor to taste, but the assassin is a level or two higher than the PCs, very intelligent, and firmly does not want to be captured. She's the daughter of an old friend or patron of the PCs, and an accomplished adventurer in her own right. The friend or patron is convinced that something -- enchantment, some alignment-changing magical effect -- caused her to change and become evil. It's up to you whether this is in fact the case, but in any event the friend/patron is willing to go to great lengths to have her captures so that an atonement can be attempted.
The PCs discover that the assassin's next target is an alchemist who is a classic mad scientist type. He's chaotic evil. He's got oppressed Minions, who love and fear him, and who he abuses terribly. He's got various monsters and horrors locked up in and around his lab -- not locked up very well, of course; they're going to break loose once things start shaking. He's got an Ultimate Monster he's working on. And he tends to snarl, cackle, and say "FOOLS!" a lot. Roleplay him so that the PCs dislike him and will not be unhappy in the least if he gets it in the neck. Except that's not why they're here...
The Captive Horrors have CRs ranging from low to, ohhh, APL +2. Some are aberrations, some are extraplanar, some are just horrid experiments. There should be at least one swarm-in-a-jar. The laboratory should be a ghastly tangle of things that are flammable, fragile glassware, dangling flasks of acid, mysterious machines that spit sparks, and other stuff that will cause potentially deadly complications once combat breaks out. The Minions... think My Life With Master, if you ever played that. They're monstrous but not evil, and they're very oppressed; the alchemist is relentless cruel to them. The Ultimate Monster is an Arcane Ooze.
Spell Siphon (Su): An arcane ooze exerts a strange pull
on arcane spell energy. Any time an arcane spellcaster begins his turn within 60 feet of an arcane ooze, he must make a DC 25 Fortitude save or lose a random spell of the highest spell level that he has available. For every spell lost by a victim in this manner, the arcane ooze gains temporary hit points equal to 5 × the level of the lost spell. These temporary hit points are lost after 1 hour. Line of effect between the spellcaster and the arcane ooze
is necessary in order for this ability to work. The save DC is
Constitution-based.
Plot outline: PCs visit the Mad Scientist's stronghold, to warn him that an assassin is after him and/or to try setting a trap. They meet and have a chance to interact with the oppressed Minions (who are actually nice enough, in their monstrous way) and to tour the lab a little. The alchemist of course sneers at them: "FOOLS! No pathetic sneak-thief can POSSIBLY interfere with my great etc. etc."
Then the assassin attacks... not directly! She's too smart for that. No, she sneaks in and starts letting the captive horrors loose. Wackiness ensues, as PCs, minions, and alchemist scramble to react. The captive horrors should attack indiscriminately; the minions may panic. The alchemist should be an active hindrance, screaming at the PCs to do exactly the opposite of whatever they're trying to do. viz., if they're trying to kill the escaped monsters, he'll bark at the PCs that they must capture it alive! Unharmed! Because it's precious and unique! Contrariwise, if they start trying to capture something unharmed, the alchemist will shriek in terror -- it's deadly dangerous, if it escapes it will reproduce, kill it kill it! And, of course, anything the PCs do is likely to cause damage to the lab, which will drive the alchemist further into hysterics. Once chaos is well under way, the assassin will of course attempt to release the Ultimate Monster. She has (correctly) deduced that it hates the alchemist, and will do her job for her.
Victory: PCs capture assassin. This should be hard but not impossible. They should get lots of xp and a nice reward.
Marginal victory: Assassin escapes, but PCs prevent release of Ultimate Monster. They will get little gratitude from the alchemist, but a tidy story bonus.
More likely, the UM is released. It will promptly devour the alchemist, whole and howling, then ooze out into the night. (It will drop into the nearest canal, where it will become a recurring menace.) The lab catches fire (oh, come on... the lab has to catch fire), and surviving horrors flee off into the night, and the PCs are left to rescue the Minions and salvage what they can.
Plot complication: the Ultimate Monster's development is being financed by a radical splinter group within the local Wizard's Guild, which wants a Final Solution to the Sorceror Problem. Unfortunately, the beast is unfinished, and can't yet distinguish between the different sorts of arcane spellcaster. The wizards
will not be happy... I digress.
So, depending on how things go, this could end up anywhere from "tearful reconciliation followed by true repentance" to "monster on the loose, everyone is ticked at the PCs".
Season to taste.
Thoughts?
Doug M.
| Protoman |
Why do the PCs want to save the alchemist? Dude seems like the type of guy adventuers/murder-hobos would be killing anyways.