The Demise of Watchman Island

Transcription

1 The Demise of Watchman Island, a MYFAROG play-test adventure The Demise of Watchman Island The First MYFAROG Play-test Adventure (v. 1.1) By Varg Vikernes & Marie Cachet All Rights Reserved 1

2 The Demise of Watchman Island Designer's note: This adventure is a bit more linear than what I usually appreciate, but for play-testing purposes this is an advantage. You are welcome to design your own adventures and continue play-testing using those as well (or even instead) for as long as play-testing takes place. Designer's note: Watchman Island is based on a real island in Norway, the Gisløya. The scale has been changed (Watchman Island is about ten times larger than Gisløya) and forest has been added to the island. The GM can find out more about how Watchman Island looks like (without trees and in another scale, of course) by using Google Maps ( ll= , &spn= , &t=h&z=13). An outpost on Watchman Island (in Troskenia) will soon be swallowed up by the growing Etunakaimas, the world of the ettins, and be lost to man unless someone is able to halt the ettin power. The outpost has run out of men able and brave enough to venture into Etunakaimas in search for what causes it to grow, so they have sent arrows 1 to the nearby settlements with request for aid, and the heads of the families of the player characters have decided that this is a good opportunity for them to prove themselves as real men. 1 A written message on a parchment attached to an arrow carried by scouts or travellers is commonly used for sending urgent messages in Þulê. Check for weather, wind and temperature, ideally before you start playing. See Weather & Wind (The Land of Þulê). The date is Sunday the 8 th of Gladskaimas. Etunakaimas has grown into the ocean in areas around the Watchman Island peninsula, making sea travel too hazardous, so after having equipped themselves for the quest the party arrives on foot along the path to Watchman Island. The game starts when they arrive (Map Location 1) and see the path submerged and disappearing into a reeking bog. Apparently Watchman Island has already been cut off from the rest of Troskenia. To get across the player party must cross 2 miles of what would be equivalent to bog. See Travel & Survival (The Land of Þulê). Encounters in MYFAROG are very often extremely dangerous to the player characters, but naturally creatures don't just appear from nowhere, so the GM should, whenever it makes sense to do so, give the players a fair chance to see the encounter coming. E. g. a pack of cave hyenas might openly follow them for some time before they actually attack (in this example perhaps not before nightfall), or a giant eagle might fly over them for some time before it decides to attack. 2

3 The Demise of Watchman Island, a MYFAROG play-test adventure influenced the island; they see twisted and dead trees, trees moving in wind stronger than the wind the party members are exposed to, rain falling even if there is no rain where the party members are and occasionally loud shrieks from tormented creatures. The sky in Etunakaimas is always changing, it has a strange glow and is usually covered by dark clouds. Then Etunakaimas crosses the road (ML ML 3) and covers all the land in front of them to the East, where they are supposed to go. The road enters into Etunakaimas and there is no other way for the party to go other than through this dark and foreboding place. The GM must now remember that he not only has to check for random encounters at If the party safely crosses the bog they arrive a few miles South of Etunakaimas the start of every half hour, but when in areas eaten up by the ettin power) on check for ettin phenomena. See Random Etunakaimas he also (and first of all) has to (remember; Etunakaimas is just a name for all Watchman Island, but they can see it even Encounters (The The Land of Þulê Þulê). from where they stand; dark clouds hover The party has to travel 9 miles along the over the tree tops and a strange darkness path, through Etunakaimas, before they hides what is below. (hopefully) finally emerge on the other side, Watchman Island is clad in forest, so unless some 6 miles from the outpost. the party intends to spend a lot of time getting to the outpost they have to travel on If they are affected by the Mara (ettin the path. 3 miles further up the path (ML ML phenomena) they will flee towards the old 2 ) there is an old stone hunting cabin, with a hunting cabin, but if they (at a later stage) partly intact roof (so half the cabin is dry). have been to the outpost, and the outpost is The next 3 miles the party can still follow known to them to be nearer than the old the path, and the closer they get to hunting cabin, they will flee towards the Etunakaimas the more they see how it has outpost instead. 3

4 The outpost (ML 4) is made up of a few wooden houses and a stone tower and is populated by some women and children, old men and old women, and the outpost commander, Chociemir Archytason af Liburnianii auk Troskenia (Noble Warrior PL 10, with a Selenic alignment, equipped with iron mail, feathered iron cap, knife, short sword and large wooden shield). See Human NPCs (The Creatures & Phenomena of Þulê). Chociemir is happy the player characters have answered his call for help, so when the GM is to determine his relationship to the player party he can modify the result by +3. See Human Encounters under Random Encounters (The Land of Þulê). Supplies and equipment that can be assumed to be present in such an outpost are of course available for the characters, if the players feel their characters lack something. See Trade (The Land of Þulê). There are no smiths present, though. All the other able male tribesmen are gone, after having travelled into Etunakaimas to find the source of or a reason for the ettin power growth. Only one of them returned alive, but he had gone completely mad and had to be locked up in one of the buildings, to prevent him from injuring anyone. After a few days of metamorphosis he turned into something unnatural, and was then killed by Chociemir himself. If questioned about what he turned into Chociemir will not want to talk about this unless a player character manages to talk him into doing so (using Social Skills against DD 12). If he agrees to talk about this he can tell that the madman had tentacles growing out of his head, claws from his hands and fish-scales on his darkened skin. The body of the metamorphosed man was burned and the bones thrown into the sea. If the players want Chociemir to join them into Etunakaimas they must succeed with a Social Skills test against DD 15 to convince him to do so. If he joins them he will assist them as best he can. Chociemir will advise the party to go seek the village sage, Vaefar Leofwinson af Liburnianii auk Troskenia, residing in one the house farthest to the East in the village. If they do he will advice them not to just wander into Etunakaimas hoping to find clues on how to deal with the problem, like the able village men did (with little known positive effect). The party should, he advices, try to first and foremost find the able men of the village or at least their remains, if they have met their doom out there. If his relationship to the player party leader (or to the one he thinks is the leader if the party has no leader) is Welcoming or better he also offers the party members to each have a sip from a powerful brew that he 4

5 claims will boost their strength (that he happens to have only in such a quantity that each party member can have one dose each), but only if they successfully bring back his son (=one of the able men assumed to have perished in Etunakaimas) alive or his short sword, helmet, mail and shield. He can be identified by Chociemir, if he comes along, or from his large wooden shield (adorned with a picture of a golden Sun wheel against a black background). If by any chance Vaefar's relationship to the player party leader is Affectionate he will also offer to cast the spell Fire Bolt (with a proficiency of 4) on 2 different missile weapons (or 2 pieces of missile ammunition). Vaefar is too old and weak to offer any other help than this. See Spells. The ancient brew of Vaefar is a potion that will strengthen the poison resistance of the drinker (giving him a +2 S-mod to Poison Resistance for one full year and one day), but if a person drinks two doses it will instead make him feel terrible and potentially poison him (test Poison Resistance against a Poison with PL 10). The potion tastes like muddy water (assuming all GMs and players alike know perfectly well what muddy water tastes like...) Whether Chociemir joins the party or not he will lead them to the edge of the forest, where Etunakaimas starts and where the able villagers entered the forest (ML 5), 8 miles from the village. A dozen villagers entered three days earlier and walked along an animal track into Etunakaimas. The DD to track them is 8 (= 15 for trail [rather than 9 for Forest, because they followed a trail in the forest], -2 because it rained the day before the tracks were made, +3 because it has rained for three days after the tracks were made, +3 because the tracks are three days old and finally -11 DD for following a party of 12). See Tracking (Skills Skills). After 2 miles (ML 6) the party discovers the bodies of 5 of the villagers by a lake. None of them are Vaefar's son. They are each equipped with a short sword, mail, iron cap, knife and (2 of them) a large or (3 of them) a small wooden shield. A party spending a minute searching the nearby area will find 1 large shield and1 angon (if the best Perception result is 8) or (if the best Perception result is 9-10) 2 angons. If the Perception result is 11 a short sword will be found as well (dropped by the villager taken by the Nix). (For every extra minute spent searching the searcher will receive a +1 mod to his Perception test). It appears that the able village men met a large creature and after losing 5 men fighting it they seem to (correct) have followed the creature, or to (wrong) have scattered. A Tracking result of 11 will allow the players to know that the survivors didn't scatter, but all (?) continued along the path. If the shield and/or the short sword is found as well it can 5

6 be that one of the assumed 7 surviving men dropped some of his equipment, but naturally the players might come to any conclusion they want, based on the information they have gathered. Test Tracking against DD 7 to determine how much information the player party is able to gather from the tracks; the tracks in reality show that the 6 remaining men have followed 1 Nix along the trail 3 days ago). The Tracking DD to follow the remaining men and the Nix changed to 7 (+6 because the villagers lost 6 men, but -1 because there is now also a Nix making tracks, and finally -6 because of the size of the Nix). After another 2 miles following the tracks along trails the party arrives by a small lake (ML 7). A Perception test against DD 6 can reveal that 2 iron caps, 3 short swords and 3 large shields lie by the lake, everything smeared with some dried and dark liquid (that one can assume is the blood of the Nix). If the party arrives during the night they will in any case soon be attacked by a Nix (already suffering from a Medium injury, after fighting the able village men). If the party arrives during the day the weather determines whether or not the party will be attacked (GM decides). Remember; this is Etunakaimas, so the Sun is not very likely to shine. A quick witted party can set up a trap for the Nix or at least prepare some sort of defence, although it can most likely already smell them (with its Troll Nose); they can find good defensive positions for their archers and such on the flanks and let their fighters form a line formation close to the lake to draw the Nix out. With archers firing from both sides and a few men fighting defensively in mêlée in the centre the archers will probably have the time to slay the ettin before the ettin slays the fighters... The Nix will fight until dead and will follow fleeing characters. An Ettin Stone Heart can be found in the reeking and melting remains of the Nix and also some aurichalcum (see Ettins [The Creatures & Phenomena of Þulê]). Shortly after (a few minutes or perhaps an hour) the Nix has been slain, 2 surviving able village men (Velsys Vaefarson af Liburnianii auk Troskenia & Rutilius Surinuson af Liburnianii auk Troskenia) emerge from the forest and approach the party, after having wandered around in the forest for a few days, looking for causes to the spread of Etunakaimas. One of them is the son of Vaefar and is a very skilled healer (First Aid 12). If the party is losing the battle with the Nix the GM can allow them to rush to the aid of the players instead (both are Warrior, PL 8). Both Velsys and Rutilius claim that 6

7 Etunakaimas first spread from the lake of the Nix, judging from the reports of the villagers roaming the forests before it all started to happen. So they argue that the Nix itself was causing it to spread (or did it actually appear or rather wake up when Etunakaimas appeared?). They have found no other clues suggesting any other reasons for the spread and presence of Etunakaimas on Watchman Island, and advises the party to join them in their return to the outpost. The two surviving men know nothing about the third survivor, who returned to the outpost raving mad. The madman was lost to them after their first encounter with the Nix. When (if...) the player party returns to the outpost it has been attacked (from the sea) by a number of Small Krakens equal to the number of player characters +1 (and another +1 if Velsys and/or Rutilius are still alive). The GM must determine who spots who first, but can give the player party a +2 bonus to the die roll because the Small Krakens are standing with their backs towards them. Whether or not Chociemir joined the party all the surviving villagers have sought refuge in the stone watch tower and have barred the powerful doors. The Krakens are apparently unable to get in, and if spotted first seem to just stand there, near the tower, as if in a trance, waiting for the humans to come out. If Chociemir didn't join the players on their quest he will exit the tower and help them fight these Krakens, if the party attacks them. Another Kraken is busy consuming a half-devoured female victim just behind Vaefar's hut, and is oblivious to what happens near the tower. The player characters can (if they spot the Krakens first) use their Stealth skills to get close or perhaps just closer to the Krakens, if they want to. It is perfectly possible to use the terrain and cover to perhaps wake up and engage only one Kraken at the time. Remember their Troll Noses, so check for wind direction! Vaefar has been killed by the Krakens (and is already consumed), but his son can help the players to the potion he promised them (if he did). If Chociemir is still alive he will order the abandonment of the outpost. If not the surviving women will demand that they be escorted to safety, off the island. If the party decides to stay the others will leave on their own (but will all be killed only D6 miles up the road [by ettins?]), Etunakaimas will spread to the entire island, and 2D6 Small Krakens will emerge from the sea each night thereafter to attack them until they either leave or are killed. If they decide to escort the survivors of the outpost they must travel the 6 miles to where Etunakaimas begins, then the 9 miles through Etunakaimas, then the 3 miles to 7

8 the hunting cabin, then the 3 miles to the bog and finally the 2 miles across the bog. All the women are Bûandi PL 5 and are equipped with knives. Aftermath Etunakaimas consumed the entire peninsula, but for unknown reasons then retreated back into the sea after only one week. Nobody knows what caused it to consume the island, nor why it disappeared. The outpost was then rebuilt and slowly it was populated again. The forest continued to grow normally, but some new creatures appeared; giant rats and spiders, more insects than what was normal before, and the bogs became even more foul smelling. 8