Caves Of The Mad Sorcerer
Oct 13, 2013 17:54:53 GMT -5
Post by Cecil Wathen on Oct 13, 2013 17:54:53 GMT -5
You have been travelling with your companions for several months and have accomplished much, but your journey to a new city has brought you face to face with what might prove to be your toughest challenge to date. The walled city of Lyre has been plagued by waves of creatures brought forth by a power-hungry sorcerer who goes by the name of Melosrik, and the king has issued a reward for any that might find the source of the sorcerers power and destroy it. The city is in a dire state, with taxes continually rising to fund the militia and the rich thriving while the poor, unable to defend themselves, are getting decimated by waves of monsters controlled by the sorcerer. Amongst those slain is the family of the ranger you have befriended. When the king issued the reward none of you had hesitated to sign up for the hunt. This was personal.
After days of hunting around town you managed to capture a goblin that was pillaging a home, and after 'encouraging' it to tell you what it knew it told you of an underground cave system that it believed led into the heart of the sorcerers estate. That cave system is where you now find yourselves.
The light from your enchanted sword offers a dim view of the narrow corridor you are trailing down, and many hours pass uneventfully with no signs of life other than the cave moss clinging to rocks and the odd spider scurrying away from the light.
Eventually the narrow corridor opens out into a circular cave, brightly illuminated by many everburning torches dotted all around the moss-coated walls. The cave is easily a hundred feet in diameter, and there is a roughly circular pit eighty-five feet wide that drops down into a grey-green slime. A path runs like a shelf around one side of the pit, and across on the other side of the cave you can see an archway that seems to lead into another corridor. There is just one problem.
There is an obstruction in the pathway between you and the corridor you need to get to.
On the shelf path, about halfway between you and the archway, there is what appears to be a shallow ditch in the floor that is full to overflowing with glittering coins and gems. Thousands of gold pieces rub up against rubies and sapphires the size of fists, and every now and then there is the unmistakable glitter of diamonds. But it appears that something has already beaten you to it.
Wallowing in the treasure pile is a gigantic pig the size of a riding pony. Its milky white hide seems to glisten oddly in the flickering light of the torches, and its huge lifeless pink eyes are seemingly fixated on the coins and gems it is clumsily rolling in. Every now and then its huge maw opens, swallowing mouthfuls of the riches before it returns to its frivolity, seemingly unaware of your arrival.
Listen check – DC15 – can hear a soft ceramic grating sound coming from the pig, like a pestle and mortar being ground.
Spot check – DC17 – can see what appears to be a seam line running in a straight line down the centre of the pig, nose to tail.
Spot check – DC22 – can see a tiny lever on the underside of the pigs belly.
ANIMATED CERAMIC PIG
Medium construct
52hp, +0 Initiative, 30ft speed
AC 16
Attack: Slam - melee, 1d6+3, target slides 1 square and must make a dex save DC11 or be knocked prone
Attack: Trample - melee on prone targets, 1d8+2, reflex save DC12 to halve damage
Special qualities: Construct traits, darkvision 60ft, low-light vision
Weaknesses: Hammers do an extra 1d4 damage
The pig completely ignores their presence unless they attack it or try to take anything from its hoard. If they do, it will attack. It will attempt to use its slam to push them off the shelf and into the slime. The slime is an acidic substance and will do 1d6+1 on impact, plus 1d4 recurring for each round they remain in it. Climbing out requires a climb check DC14, or they can be pulled out by another character. Prone targets will be trampled but only if there isn't a character immediately adjacent to the pig. The pig will attack until destroyed or until the party flee into either corridor. Pulling the lever on its stomach (dex DC25) automatically destroys it.
Pig and treasure pile contains:
Mixed coins to the value of 2,500gp
Gems to the value of 1,750gp, including one average quality diamond
Two potions of moderate healing
Three unidentifiable potions
One +1 shortsword
Two +1 throwing daggers
Five acid arrows
One scroll of invisibility
One cloak of featherfall
As the final blow slams into the pig's mighty hide you hear a deafening shatter as the creature splits at the seams, shattering into pieces and falling into a pile of ceramic rubble on the ground.
After gathering up the treasures you make your way into the new corridor, trudging deeper down into the underground caverns.
After days of hunting around town you managed to capture a goblin that was pillaging a home, and after 'encouraging' it to tell you what it knew it told you of an underground cave system that it believed led into the heart of the sorcerers estate. That cave system is where you now find yourselves.
The light from your enchanted sword offers a dim view of the narrow corridor you are trailing down, and many hours pass uneventfully with no signs of life other than the cave moss clinging to rocks and the odd spider scurrying away from the light.
Eventually the narrow corridor opens out into a circular cave, brightly illuminated by many everburning torches dotted all around the moss-coated walls. The cave is easily a hundred feet in diameter, and there is a roughly circular pit eighty-five feet wide that drops down into a grey-green slime. A path runs like a shelf around one side of the pit, and across on the other side of the cave you can see an archway that seems to lead into another corridor. There is just one problem.
There is an obstruction in the pathway between you and the corridor you need to get to.
On the shelf path, about halfway between you and the archway, there is what appears to be a shallow ditch in the floor that is full to overflowing with glittering coins and gems. Thousands of gold pieces rub up against rubies and sapphires the size of fists, and every now and then there is the unmistakable glitter of diamonds. But it appears that something has already beaten you to it.
Wallowing in the treasure pile is a gigantic pig the size of a riding pony. Its milky white hide seems to glisten oddly in the flickering light of the torches, and its huge lifeless pink eyes are seemingly fixated on the coins and gems it is clumsily rolling in. Every now and then its huge maw opens, swallowing mouthfuls of the riches before it returns to its frivolity, seemingly unaware of your arrival.
Listen check – DC15 – can hear a soft ceramic grating sound coming from the pig, like a pestle and mortar being ground.
Spot check – DC17 – can see what appears to be a seam line running in a straight line down the centre of the pig, nose to tail.
Spot check – DC22 – can see a tiny lever on the underside of the pigs belly.
ANIMATED CERAMIC PIG
Medium construct
52hp, +0 Initiative, 30ft speed
AC 16
Attack: Slam - melee, 1d6+3, target slides 1 square and must make a dex save DC11 or be knocked prone
Attack: Trample - melee on prone targets, 1d8+2, reflex save DC12 to halve damage
Special qualities: Construct traits, darkvision 60ft, low-light vision
Weaknesses: Hammers do an extra 1d4 damage
The pig completely ignores their presence unless they attack it or try to take anything from its hoard. If they do, it will attack. It will attempt to use its slam to push them off the shelf and into the slime. The slime is an acidic substance and will do 1d6+1 on impact, plus 1d4 recurring for each round they remain in it. Climbing out requires a climb check DC14, or they can be pulled out by another character. Prone targets will be trampled but only if there isn't a character immediately adjacent to the pig. The pig will attack until destroyed or until the party flee into either corridor. Pulling the lever on its stomach (dex DC25) automatically destroys it.
Pig and treasure pile contains:
Mixed coins to the value of 2,500gp
Gems to the value of 1,750gp, including one average quality diamond
Two potions of moderate healing
Three unidentifiable potions
One +1 shortsword
Two +1 throwing daggers
Five acid arrows
One scroll of invisibility
One cloak of featherfall
As the final blow slams into the pig's mighty hide you hear a deafening shatter as the creature splits at the seams, shattering into pieces and falling into a pile of ceramic rubble on the ground.
After gathering up the treasures you make your way into the new corridor, trudging deeper down into the underground caverns.
