The Brides of Fangthorn By John Finnegan Disclaimer: Any coincidence in the name "Fangthorn" and "Frankenstein" are completely coincidental. The author has in no way read this Mary Shelly classic, but has seen several movies, and an episode of of Scooby Doo where Fred dressed up to look like Frankenstein. Background: Well the basic scene after the destruction of their newly restored idle, Fangthorn, the trolls of the Tower Hills have fallen into disarray and are even now fighting among themselves - looking for some leader to take the place of their great and lendendary hero. Soon after Fangthorn's restoration, let's just say he was ... uh horny and chose several of the most beautiful blossoms of Troll kind to become his wives. These women were gathered from across the Duchy, in the deepest caves and under the slimiest rocks and presented for the possibility of wedding the great and powerful Fangthorn. Many were weeded out because they "looked to ogrish", "had the coloration of a human", or "smelled like an Aldin Mirk elf". In any cases the most beautiful candidates of the empire won their way to the semi-finals and were lucky enough to engage in the amazing "Pagent of Sampling" where Fangthorn judged their most important attributes. (Largest warts, Hairiest Back, "Entertainment", and of course the swimsuit competition, and combat necromancy) Just before Fangthorn was to choose his wife to be, the evil citizens of Ashbury killed him and many of his prospective "wives" were heavy with child. Many tribes of Trolls consider this to be a great honor, for their prospectively might host the next King of the Trolls. Now in many cases, protecting these wives from the harms of life (Humans, elves, etc.) is a great burden, but combatted by the burden of protecting their candidate from the other Troll women in the contest is much more important! The Deep Trolls of the Sunless City have of course decided that now the time is right to unite the surface trolls under the banner of their New Emperor, Makelnar the Unifier. Emperor Makelnar, younger brother of the former Emperor whose soul was weaken by the powerful Fangthorn - as taken over the empire as the result of his brother's unfortunate death in a "cave-in" and failure to ressurect. Makelnar intends to use his brother's initial peace proposals with the Surface Races in order to obtain Fangthorn's progeny to create an elite guard to serve him. He has sent an ASPECT warrior (specially trained Troll Bodyguards who guard to emperor) to hire Ashburians to obtain these children. Some wrinkles in the Plan: 1) The Aspect Warrior that the emperor sent is a member of a secret anti-necromancy cult who call themselves "Kagar-Noganti" or "Earth Brothers", being of the mind that Fangthorn's children will be tainted with Chaos are out to KILL Fangthorn's children so they will not be a future threat to the empire. 2) Fangthorn's wives are offerring to trade various things to the Unseelee court in order to obtain the full growth and teaching of their children in the realm of the fey (where they individually believe that they will be out of reach of their competitors). Just as the players arrive to (in essence kidnap) the child, they run into an ambassadorial entourage of the Unseelee Court. 3) Fangthorn's wives themselves are quite adept necromancers themselves but are in various stages of development and training. They will prevent the taking of their children at all costs. Each of them was given a token of Fangthorn by Fangthorn himself to his vaults (which is a ward key for a someday to be made module into the hidden treasure vaults of Fangthorn). Most of the wives have been taken into protective custody by unknown benefactors bearing the writs of Fangthorn himself. Taken to hidden safe areas, the wives are virtually prisoners, their only chance to escape being the minions of the Unseelee Court - the problem is what they have to trade is either themselves or the child. 4) Minions of the Sorcerous Six of Jhivante are also attempting to obtain the child, and in an effort to prevent the mother of the children the Sorcerors of Jhivante have placed minions of undead sporadically around the lair in an effort to alert intruders. There is one servant/necromancer assigned to guard the woman until more minions arrive to insure a safe transference to Lake Hollym and to the SOLD (another module I would like to run someday soon SOLD stands for "Subway of the Living Dead"). As you can see this plot has enormous potential for interesting roleplaying chances as the players are pulled between many different possibillities for resolution. What do you do with the child (and the mother) of Ashbury greatest enemy? Possible resolutions: 1) Give the child to the Aspect Warrior: The child is killed. 2) Give the child and the mother to the Dark Fey. 3) Raise the child to love and like humans. Raising this child as their own. 4) Allow the child to fall into the hands of Jhivantane Sorcerors (who will make it something very nasty). 5) Release the troll woman and the child. 6) Something I haven't even thought of..... Introduction: The Aspect Warrior enters the tavern with a note from Emperor Makelnar, looking for prospective adventurers to hire. The Aspect warrior will accept offers to aid the Sunless Empire and offer to compensate them for their help. Should for some unknown reason the players decide not to be hired by the Troll, a second individual appears (a human) who intrigued by the Trolls mission offers to compensate them also. The Troll accidentally drops the map to the lair, and a note from the "Earth Brothers" instructing their member to kill the child. The Aspect Warrior has been instructed by the Emperor to not attack anyone while in Ashbury, even if defending himself. The Aspect Warrior will not violate this intruction - but will take the child outside of the borders of the town and kill it. The human will attempt to grab one of the players while this bargaining with the Aspect warrior takes place, and convince them that they can offer a better sum in exchange for giving the child to him. This individual is an agent of Jhivantane. If asked what he will do with the child he will raise the creature justly in his circus where he will be trained and raised for the carnival's main attraction. The "Son of Fangthorn" will be a major money maker. Aspect Warrior: (Deep Troll) Granak: Body: 80 Str: +10 Threshold: 5 Offensive: Skills: Proficiency +2, Critical Slay, Read/Write Defensive: Resist Fire x3 Vulnerabilities: None Agent of Jhivantane: Meirt: Level 2 Scholar Body: 3 Full Boat Spells:54321 Read/Write, First Aid, Healing Arts Encounter One: The Players enter a room where they are confronted by trolls. These trolls will grunt out something like "More Humans, the Chieftain will be angry if he hears of this". The trolls, becoming desensitize in seeing humans are not immediately aggressive. Their leader asks, "What is the Password?" No password is available to the players but if someone starts ordering the Trolls around, like the necromancers of Jhivantane usually do the Trolls ignore them and let them past. This is a straight combat encounter for the players to work out their beginning aggressions and get right into the fun of the roleplaying. Five Trolls or Similar Monsters: Level 1-2: 2 Hill Trolls, 2 Hobgoblins, 1 Goblin Scholar (Earth with a 321 pyramid - necro okay level 2) Level 3-4: 1 Stone Troll, 3 Hill Trolls, 1 Orc Scholar (earth with a 54432 pyramid necro okay level 4) Caster has a magic armor and spell shield. Level 5-6: 3 Stone Trolls, 1 Hill Troll, 1 WarOrc Scholar(earth with a 654431 necro okay level 6) Caster full boat, all trolls spell shield. Level 7-8: 4 Stone Trolls, 1 Stone Troll Caster 7654321 Celestial All trolls have a spell shield and magic armor, caster has a reflect. Level 9-10: 3 Bone Trolls, 1 Stone Troll Caster 76554442 Celestial, 1 Elite Bone Troll (+2 Prof, Critical Slay) All Trolls have spell shields, magic armors, bless, greater bless, shield, and greater shield. Caster has a Bane vs. Binding and a Cloak vs. Fire (a gift from Fangthorn) and a Reflect Magic. Level 11-12: 3 Bone Trolls (Prof +2, Critical Slay) 1 War Troll Caster 444444421 Earth (Necro and death okay on level 12), 1 Bone Troll (Prof +4, Critical Slay x2). Full protectives with a spell shield, caster has a bane vs. Fire x2. Level 13-14: 4 Bone Trolls (Prof +4, Critical Slay x2) Bone Troll Wizard: 6666665443 Celestial All trolls have full protectives and one cloak vs. fire. Level 15: 3 Bone Troll (Prof +6, Critical Slay x2) 1 Bone Troll Earth Wizard 666666544 1 Bone Troll Celestial Mage 666544432) All trolls have one bane vs. fire and a cloak vs. command as well as full protectives and reflect magics. Encounter Two: A helping hand In the waiting room is a gentleman Drae calling himself Dilynjeer A'Thereal, who careful monitors the situation with the trolls in the next room. If the party looses the fight he stops the trolls from searching them too much, and chastises them for attacking his body guards. Previously, Dilynjeer had talked his way past the Trolls and they trust him a little bit. Dilynjeer heals or lifes people who need his help and he tries to heal them as much as he can. He tells the party that he just wants to talk with the bride for a minute and have her sign a peace treaty between her trolls and the Drae. Anyone who accepts his aid, owes Dilynger many favors. He writes up a little bill for the end of the module where the party gets a tally of the amount of favors that he is going to come back and collect. Dilynjeer is currently waiting for someone to figure out how to get past the room later on with the strange necromantic devices (he isn't up on this cutting edge technology)and such. He is unable to pass through this room do to an oath he made a long time ago - he promised his mother he would never knowingly hurt undead if at all possible. He cannot control them (he already tried) and there are just too many of them. If anyone asks him why he is here, he is an ambassador from Drinaihveh (a small Drae village under the Tower Hills) responding to a request to discuss a trading venture. Seeing how he has worked closely with Trolls in the past, he has no problem dealing with them. He is also a celestial scholar of a small worth. He is in fact a minor functionary of the Unseelee Court, who does his best to hoodwink players into running up huge bills with members of the Unseelee court. His favor gathering skill has been very successful and his fame among his peers in making critical acclaim. Dilynjeer is totally harmless unless attacked, as he considers himself to be a lover - not a fighter. He attempts to get close to the Bride of Fangthorn and talk her giving her child to the Unseelee Court. He brings her a gift (a piece of jewelry from the treasure bag) and offers her sanctuary among his people. Dilynjeer uses these typical ploys to gather favors: "Do you want my opinion?" "Here let me help you with your armor, pick up a weapon" "Look I found something for you, would you like it?" "Would you like me to read that for you?" "Should I straighten that tabard for you?" "Would you like to hear a story I wrote" Dilynjeer does his best to be a nuisance but is very helpful until the players get his bill. In general he is harmless and because he has some life spells the party might want to keep him around. He always claims to have a life spell and offers to help the party when he can. In general the NPC should be doing their very best to be helpful and asks the party to give him the chance to speak with the Bride and offer his homage to her. There is a Fairy door to the land of the fey set up in the module, to go through this door you must make a three count. This is your escape route, good luck. READ THIS BEFORE READING STATISTICS: Your main goal in this module as this NPC is to roleplay, you will attack NO-ONE unless attacked. They can abuse you, lie to you, treat you like dirt, but you will not attack them. You are an ambassador not a fighter. Help the party, keep them alive and take note of the tally of favors they build up. Always get their names and remember what you did for them. If they attack you, defend yourself do some damage and run! Attacking a member of the Unseelee Court is NOT nice, and this will come back and haunt them. You do not start with a weapon, but may pick one up if the oppurtunity presents itself. This character is built so that you can help the party and get away if attacked. The only person you are allowed to Vampire Charm is the Bride of Fangthorn and your command to her is the following: You will be able to trust me let us go home. Dilynjeer: Note: Iron Weapons to Harm means that anything that does not swing normal, but instead silver, magic, or fire do not affect Dilynjeer. Obvious wooden weapons do not work either. Level 1-2: Body: 30 Str: +2 Threshold: 2 Resist Magic x2 Iron Weapons to harm Dodge x1 Vampire Charm Spells: (Earth) 65432 Life Spell x1 First Aid, Healing Arts, Read/Write Level 3-4: Body: 36 Str: +4 Threshold: 3 Resist Magic x3 Iron Weapons to Harm Vampire Charm Dodge x2 Spells (Earth) 654432 Life Spell x2 First Aid, Healing Arts, Read/Write Level 4-5: Body: 40 Str: +6 Threshold: 4 Resist Magic x4 Iron Weapons to Harm Vampire Charm Dodge x2 Spells: (Earth)654432 (Celestial) 4321 Life Spell x2 First Aid, Read/Write Read Magic, Healing Arts Level 6-7: Body: 46 Str: +8 Threshold: 4 Resist Magic x4 Iron Weapons to Harm Vampire Charm Dodge x3 Spells: (Earth)6544432 (Celestial) 54321 First Aid, Read/Write, Read Magic, Healing Arts Level 8-9: Body: 52 Str:+8 Threshold: 5 Resist Magic x4 Iron Weapons to Harm Vampire Charm Dodge x4 Spells: (Earth) 444444432 (Celestial 654321) First Aid, Read/Write, Read/Magic, Healing Arts Level 10-11: Body: 58 Str:+10 Threshold: 6 Resist Magic x4 Iron Weapons to Harm Vampire Charm Iron Weapons to Harm Dodge x4 Spells: (As Above level 8-9) Level: 12-13: Body: 64 Str: +12 Threshold : 7 Resist Magic x5 Iron Weapons to Harm Vampire Charm Dodge x4 Spells: 444444444 Spells: 765432 Level: 14-15: Body: 70 Str: +14 Threshold : 8 Resist Magic x6 Iron Weapons to Harm Vampire Charm Dodge x4 Spells: 444444444 Spells: 444444444 Encounter Three: The Liche Gate Props: Treaty between Drae and Trolls for Bride to sign