A low-level system-agnostic adventure intended to induce paranoia and careful thinking in the PCs set in the icy north. The promise I made in this post borne out.
BACKGROUND
Long ago, atop the Ice Cliffs, the Kingdom of Kode (KOAD-uh) reigned
This empire was literally and figuratively built on the back of a creature called the Hunger
The Hunger dwells below, or perhaps is, the Ice Cliffs
They are a truly eldritch entity… they do not understand us
It has mastered life and death after all these years
It has mastered cold, but it seeks to know heat
If it learns of heat, it may well fall
The Hunger is too vast to be permanently killed without a campaign spent to do it
The Kingdom fell when the Hunger grew too hungry and commanded the king to send thousands upon thousands of citizens into its maws
Its appetite is insatiable, and it will eat anything…
Corpses? Magic? Coins? Memories? Dreams?
The last king of the Kodens still lives, an undead thrall of the Hunger
The Hunger’s maw was contained in the Koden Crypts… that is, until now
An archeological expedition broke into the Crypts and re-awakened the dormant Hunger
Can the PCs get to the bottom of the strange things happening in the Crypts, save the team, and perhaps abate the Hunger for a short while?
THE MIST IN THE TOMB
The mist in the Koden Crypts are unnatural… it carries the Chillplague
The Chillplague is a successful experiment from the Hunger
It’s sort of a psychic link that activates after death
Those who are infected have pale skin and ice blue irises
The irises are horizontal slits, an eerie and unseemly sight
The Chillplague is transmitted through the mists or a bite from the infected
Make a roll upon entering the mists or upon getting bitten, else be infected
Again, no signs of anything until death
Those who are infected keep as many memories and impulses as they did when they were alive as the Hunger sees fit
At any point, the Hunger can do ANYTHING to the mind of the infected
Make a mindless zombie, restore their mind to how it was when they were alive, whatever
In addition to all of that, it obscures things and makes things eerie
THEMES TO EMPHASIZE: Resource scarcity, danger of the natural environment and features of the Crypt, betrayal and untrustworthiness, offputting politeness and helpfulness from enemies, a connected web of unknown variables to discover the connections between
--Exposition complete. Initializing adventure.--
OUTSIDE
Bedraggled sled dog shows up
Looks to be severely frostbitten and exhausted
In its mouth is a crinkled and bloodstained journal page
On the back of the page is “HELP US” smeared in charcoal
Looks genuine upon inspection (because it is)
It looks to be archeological notes about a tomb from an ancient empire
Dog wants to take the PCs somewhere
Takes them an hour and a half’s walk to the Ice Cliffs nearby
The Cliffs have a small aperture cut by a pick into a faintly fire-lit space (Campfire)
The dog REFUSES to enter, even to the point of violence
CAMPFIRE
In this room is a small campfire on its way out and two lean-to tarps, meager supplies scattered
The campfire is on its way out… on current supplies, there’s a day and half’s worth of light and heat left. If not replenished, resting and replenishing is impossible
There are two people in this room
Krys, NB Human. Krys is getting a little stir-crazy and desperate. They have a dagger in their bedroll, and after the fire goes out, plans to kill and eat/use MacMurdough’s body. Are they mad, or just pragmatic?
MacMurdough, M Human. A jovial fellow native to the region. His optimism is flagged under the current conditions, but he tries to see silver linings. He was the one who sent the dog (Scrapsy) out into the blizzard.
There are two members of the expedition that are NOT in the room.
Talis, F Elf. She went off to explore in the misty hallway and has not returned. (She was killed and infected by the Chillplague Cadavers in the Koden Crypts.)
Ivandor, M Dwarf. After Talis vanished, he went to brave the blizzard outside of the Crypts to get supplies. His body is buried under the snow.
They ask about the storm outside… how strange, there was no storm!
When they look at the way in, there’s a massive blizzard!
If they try to leave, the cold will likely strip their flesh from their bones (make death likely)
The blizzard goes for about 30 feet of the worst cold imaginable, then suddenly stops. Turning around, there’s no blizzard at all, just the cave opening…
The room has two exits
One leading into a dark, mist-filled hallway, leading to a fork in the hall (left goes to the Ghost Lights, right goes to the Koden Crypts)
The other exit leads to an unmisted room with a strange, shadowy shape sticking out of the wall (Kodens in the Walls)
And then the entrance, but we already went over that
KODENS IN THE WALLS
GHOST LIGHTS
This room is FILLED with the Chillplague mist
Behind the walls of black ice float pinpricks of light, floating in patterns
Roll 1d6 to see what they might be, or choose/make up something interesting:
1 Probes and communicators from the Hunger
2 Lost souls that died in the caverns
3 Valuable, yet venomous, Glow Maggots
4 The patterns are utterly random, the lights are nothing at all
5 An imprisoned eldritch celestial who opposes the Hunger
6 A tracker that points to every non-Koden
This room leads from the fork to the Frozen King’s Hall
KODEN CRYPTS
This massive, Chillplague-mist-covered room is filled with sarcophagi inscribed with ancient Koden designs (icicle-wielding spearmen of the dead guarding a flaming heart)
The first sarcophagus the players open is empty, with faint scratch marks implying an escape from within and a coat of frost lining the icy stone
Past there, roll a d4 every time they open a sarcophagus, increasing the dye type each time. A 4 or higher means all the sarcophagi open.
In about 60% of the sarcophagi are slavering, long-dead Chillplague Cadavers
On the far side of the room is a spire of ice, on which is skewered an elvish corpse
This is Talis, the expedition leader. If anyone gets too close, she animates with a violence and starts slinging spells willy nilly
There may be treasure scattered about this room from the ancient and now-mutated Koden soldier-priests buried here
In the far corner of the wall is a secret door leading to the Priest and the Pyramid
Detectable only through thorough searching (an hour or more) or noticing that the mist seems a little thicker, as if pouring out from some unseen vent
FROZEN KING’S HALL
This massive vault is lit by a cold, white light from behind the ice
Massive spires of water-filled ice contain strange fetuses
These are the products of the Hunger’s experimentations on life
Are they animate? What do they do?
A massive throne sits around an utterly empty pastiche of a fire pit
On the throne is sitting a huge, 10-foot tall figure clad in mouldering and frosty noble robes, icicles dripping off a bushy beard, a horrifying skeletal grin permanently stretching literally from ear to ear
This is the Frozen King, the last monarch of Kode, now a Chillplague Cadaver under the command of the Hunger
The Frozen King can take two actions a turn
Create a wall of ice
Hurl a rime-crusted javelin
Call in 2 Chillplague Cadavers from another room
The Frozen King acts congenial, asking about heat and fire- it seeks to learn, perhaps by force
It will protect the Maw, or perhaps it will try to provide the Hunger with a meal of living flesh, a delicacy untasted for decades...
THE MAW
A massive, fanged mouth dominates the room
Chillplague Cadavers push each other into the fanged mouth, chant incomprehensible prayers, or lunge forward to pull the living flesh into the pit
The Hunger can speak!
It is willing to be non-hostile, if not dismissive and aloof
After all, it is talking to ants about how to carry crumbs
It seeks to learn of fire, offering the Chillplague Corpses as test dummies
If it grows displeased, it can initiate a cavern collapse
The more teeth the Hunger has intact lining the pit, the more damage they can do…
Break the teeth to render the Hunger impotent until they regrow?
What about the stomach acid?
The Hunger doesn’t understand fire, and as such, fire can seriously hinder it
Throwing fire into the maw is one of the more surefire ways to stun it for a few rounds, enough to make a hasty retreat
Other strategies might work, and the party might not even have to fight; this room is very dependant of how the PCs have played it thusfar and how the Hunger feels about them
Perhaps there are piles of inedible treasures lining the toothed and jagged wound in the earth for the taking...
THE PRIEST AND THE PYRAMID
In this secret Chillplague-Mist-filled back room, the High Priest was buried in ceremony
The priest is now an animate, hostile, evil undead monstrosity, more resembling a Chillplague Cadaver than a high-functioning Chillplagued like the Frozen King
Also in this room is a tidy pile of coin, offerings, and magic items
In the far corner of the room is a pyramidic structure of black glass about 3 feet tall set into the floor
It can be opened with a sufficient amount of blood, heat, or mechanical jiggering
Below it is a beating and writhing mass of ice-cold flesh
The closest thing the Hunger has to a heart, burning it away, stabbing it, or otherwise damaging it could anger or incapacitate the Hunger, at least for a time
If the pyramid is opened with fire, the Hunger learns much from it… does it even need the PCs to teach it anymore?
Insert loot, mechanics, monsters, and a healthy dose of improv and you have a night or two of paranoid gaming! This doesn’t have to be a fantasy campaign. It would work in any setting, I guess. I could imagine sci-fi people going through the Crypts of Koden just as much as I could a pack of cavepeople. Have fun, and I hope this is useful to you somehow!
Also, tell me what you think of the condensed, bulleted format. I like it, and if I were running a published adventure this is how I would want that information, but I want to know if I could do it differently/more efficiently!
Gonna add my map soon.
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