Thursday 1 December 2016

The Call of the Light

As some of the others have done, this adventure started out as a stubborn visual I couldn't get out of my mind: a massive heap of automaton parts under the baleful light of a lamppost.


What brought them there? Why, the call of the light.


As always, thanks to my generous patrons, the art and text for this month's adventures are free for non-commercial use under the CC-BY-NC creative commons license. Enjoy!

4 comments:

  1. So I just ran this for my kids and their friends (5, 9, 9, 11 years old) in a D&D 5e game. They'd come here because the rogue tried picking the pocket of a rich lady in Lastfort who turned out to be the head of a crime syndicate. The rogue, Ilenia was offered a choice between getting thrown into an illicit pit fight against a kamadan (near certain death) or to run an errand to this place. Faydan Ioni (the crime boss) told her there were Seree relics - mechanical people - in this place and that if she could find and return a Seree fighting machine, she'd forgive her.

    So the druid turned into a giant spider, climbed down and wrapped the lantern in webbing and trailed a rope up which it then tied to the statues outside. Then the wizard used acid cantrips to melt the lamp post holding the lantern up. Then the druid turned into a draft horse and together they all pulled the lantern out of the hole and fashioned a sled they lashed it to. They pulled the spear out of the giant automaton, and using more spider silk and baskets and the move earth cantrip, spent the better part of 2 days filling the pit with rocks and dirt until they were able to get all 40 of the automata out and lead them like pied pipers back to Lastfort, where they smuggled them into town in wagons under blankets.

    The giant robot got lead north under cover over darkness to a smuggler's barge where it and the lantern got loaded and slipped into the warehouse Feydal runs her operation out of. She paid them 4,000gp for going so far above and beyond the call of duty (and I'd imagine 40 working Seree automata could probably fetch a lot more than 4k). They immediately spent 1,500gp buying the Kamadan from her so the Monster Tamer Ranger could eventually bond it as an animal companion.

    Anyway, it was a blast, and turned out to be a really unusual use of the location.

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ben, that's hilarious, and also commendable. I love the opportunism!

      Delete
    2. These kids also tried to fill a bunch of barrels with the healing water from In the Care of Bones. "We'll be rich!" I decided it lost it's power when taken away from the spirits because... yeah.

      Delete