iserith
Magic Wordsmith
Originally posted by iserith:
T H E S I T C H
The sun... searing like a red hot ember held close to your face. It takes from you. Heat radiates from the ground, a stifling wave. For every two steps forward, the ragged terrain steals one.
The Crimson Siltstorm draws nearer. It will last days by the size of it and all who are not prepared will be well-polished bones by the time the foul magic that fuels it has gone. Praetor Vicius' stratagem no doubt, enacted by his lickspittle Malifex, a twisted defiler secretly in his service. Long have you evaded them in the mudflats and dust plains outside of Balic. This looks to be their last attempt to kill you before giving up the chase.
The intense focus of grim certainty makes things clear. Having secured your shelter - a hole in the ground barely large enough for half a kank - you now need water. Without it, you will die before the storm passes. And there's precious little time to acquire it before this place is buried in silt. Ahead amid a circle of tall rock formations is a huge bulbous cactus topped with a red flower, sitting in a dark patch of mud... no doubt full of the water you need.
Do what you must to survive. Or consign yourself to being dust in the wind.
F E A T U R E S O F T H E A R E A
Mud: The dirt immediately around the cacti is dark with moisture. It is also difficult terrain.
Psionic Field: The cactus emits a psionic field that can induce hallucinations in creatures that come within the area bounded by the standing stones. (Thri-kreen are immune to its effects.) When a creature starts its turn in this area, it must succeed on a DC 12 Wisdom saving throw or hallucinate for 1 minute. If the number on the die was even, the creature is incapacitated as it sees the world transformed into what it looked like during the Blue Age. If the number on the die was odd, the creature is restrained as it believes its lower body is transformed into a rooted cactus. The creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. The DC of the saving throw is reduced by one if a small cactus is destroyed and 10 if the large cactus is destroyed.
Standing Stones: What appear to be natural rock formations are clearly not natural when the uniform nature of their position in a circle and the faded runes on its surface becomes evident upon close inspection. These columns of rock are part of a psionic amplification device partially buried in the ground, connected to a series of ruins that date back to the Blue Age and is yet undiscovered by Brown Age scavengers. These stones are 15 feet tall.
Visionary Flowers: The flowers atop the cacti can be dried and smoked to produce a powerful visionary effect. Treat this as a commune with nature spell and a legend lore spell, the latter being limited to information related to the ruins of the Blue Age above which the cacti grow.
T H E C O M P L I C A T I O N S
Two thri-kreen (Monster Manual, page 288) - Krikkik and Nnn'tkk, part of a dwindling clutch to the south that venerate these cacti as sacred, visionary plants - guard this area with their lives. They are willing to trade with other creatures as long as they and the cacti are treated with respect. The thri-kreen will allow the PCs to tap enough water to sustain them in exchange for elf flesh, a psionic relic, or a kreen who willingly agrees to go with them back to their clutch for mating season. Any other offers may be rejected outright or have a possibility of success as determined by the DM (and the dice as appropriate). That said, there's the small matter of the storm.
By the time the PCs have arrived in this area, the siltstorm is barreling down upon them. The thri-kreen will bury themselves in the dirt near the standing stones to weather it, but the adventurers don't have much time to get the water and get back underway toward their shelter. In 10 rounds, there will no longer be enough time for the PCs to get back to their shelter and they will thus be caught in the storm. (Adjust this countdown upward or downward to decrease or increase the scenario difficulty.)
Should a fight break out, the thri-kreen try to use the psionic amplification device against the PCs. In order to do this, they leap to the top of a stone and use an action to activate it with a series of chirps and clicks. They can activate a single stone per round in a particular sequence: North, South, East, West, Northeast, Southwest, Northwest, Southeast. Each stone that is activated increases the DC of the saving throw to avoid the hallucinatory effect created by the cacti by one. While one is activating a stone, the other is getting into position for the next stone and letting fly with its chatkchas. (Increase the difficulty of this scenario by adding another thri-kreen or giving the thri-kreen innate psionic abilities.)
Meanwhile, the cacti are able to react to stimuli and resist any attempt to pierce their flesh to get at the life-giving water within. The huge cactus uses the statistics for an awakened tree (Monster Manual, page 317) except it has 0 speed and piercing damage for its Slam attack. The smaller cacti use the statistics for an awakened shrub (Monster Manual, page 317) with the same changes. The small cacti contain no appreciable amount of water. Water can be taken from the huge cactus when it has be reduced to half its hit points. If it is reduced to 0 hit points, its water spills out onto the desert floor and is wasted. A prepared adventurer can grab enough water to weather the storm with an action.
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And... scene! I hope that hit the right Dark Sun notes and presents a tough challenge for your desert scavengers. Success here relies upon the PCs managing to socially interact with the thri-kreen or getting at the water and escaping before the DCs of the hallucination effect become to high to overcome.
How would you approach this situation if you were a player? How would you run it or make changes to it if you were the DM? As always, constructive feedback is welcome!
Thanks again to bawylie (@bawyliecoyote) for workshopping some of the ideas for this scenario over Twitter.
T H E S I T C H
The sun... searing like a red hot ember held close to your face. It takes from you. Heat radiates from the ground, a stifling wave. For every two steps forward, the ragged terrain steals one.
The Crimson Siltstorm draws nearer. It will last days by the size of it and all who are not prepared will be well-polished bones by the time the foul magic that fuels it has gone. Praetor Vicius' stratagem no doubt, enacted by his lickspittle Malifex, a twisted defiler secretly in his service. Long have you evaded them in the mudflats and dust plains outside of Balic. This looks to be their last attempt to kill you before giving up the chase.
The intense focus of grim certainty makes things clear. Having secured your shelter - a hole in the ground barely large enough for half a kank - you now need water. Without it, you will die before the storm passes. And there's precious little time to acquire it before this place is buried in silt. Ahead amid a circle of tall rock formations is a huge bulbous cactus topped with a red flower, sitting in a dark patch of mud... no doubt full of the water you need.
Do what you must to survive. Or consign yourself to being dust in the wind.
F E A T U R E S O F T H E A R E A
Mud: The dirt immediately around the cacti is dark with moisture. It is also difficult terrain.
Psionic Field: The cactus emits a psionic field that can induce hallucinations in creatures that come within the area bounded by the standing stones. (Thri-kreen are immune to its effects.) When a creature starts its turn in this area, it must succeed on a DC 12 Wisdom saving throw or hallucinate for 1 minute. If the number on the die was even, the creature is incapacitated as it sees the world transformed into what it looked like during the Blue Age. If the number on the die was odd, the creature is restrained as it believes its lower body is transformed into a rooted cactus. The creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. The DC of the saving throw is reduced by one if a small cactus is destroyed and 10 if the large cactus is destroyed.
Standing Stones: What appear to be natural rock formations are clearly not natural when the uniform nature of their position in a circle and the faded runes on its surface becomes evident upon close inspection. These columns of rock are part of a psionic amplification device partially buried in the ground, connected to a series of ruins that date back to the Blue Age and is yet undiscovered by Brown Age scavengers. These stones are 15 feet tall.
Visionary Flowers: The flowers atop the cacti can be dried and smoked to produce a powerful visionary effect. Treat this as a commune with nature spell and a legend lore spell, the latter being limited to information related to the ruins of the Blue Age above which the cacti grow.
T H E C O M P L I C A T I O N S
Two thri-kreen (Monster Manual, page 288) - Krikkik and Nnn'tkk, part of a dwindling clutch to the south that venerate these cacti as sacred, visionary plants - guard this area with their lives. They are willing to trade with other creatures as long as they and the cacti are treated with respect. The thri-kreen will allow the PCs to tap enough water to sustain them in exchange for elf flesh, a psionic relic, or a kreen who willingly agrees to go with them back to their clutch for mating season. Any other offers may be rejected outright or have a possibility of success as determined by the DM (and the dice as appropriate). That said, there's the small matter of the storm.
By the time the PCs have arrived in this area, the siltstorm is barreling down upon them. The thri-kreen will bury themselves in the dirt near the standing stones to weather it, but the adventurers don't have much time to get the water and get back underway toward their shelter. In 10 rounds, there will no longer be enough time for the PCs to get back to their shelter and they will thus be caught in the storm. (Adjust this countdown upward or downward to decrease or increase the scenario difficulty.)
Should a fight break out, the thri-kreen try to use the psionic amplification device against the PCs. In order to do this, they leap to the top of a stone and use an action to activate it with a series of chirps and clicks. They can activate a single stone per round in a particular sequence: North, South, East, West, Northeast, Southwest, Northwest, Southeast. Each stone that is activated increases the DC of the saving throw to avoid the hallucinatory effect created by the cacti by one. While one is activating a stone, the other is getting into position for the next stone and letting fly with its chatkchas. (Increase the difficulty of this scenario by adding another thri-kreen or giving the thri-kreen innate psionic abilities.)
Meanwhile, the cacti are able to react to stimuli and resist any attempt to pierce their flesh to get at the life-giving water within. The huge cactus uses the statistics for an awakened tree (Monster Manual, page 317) except it has 0 speed and piercing damage for its Slam attack. The smaller cacti use the statistics for an awakened shrub (Monster Manual, page 317) with the same changes. The small cacti contain no appreciable amount of water. Water can be taken from the huge cactus when it has be reduced to half its hit points. If it is reduced to 0 hit points, its water spills out onto the desert floor and is wasted. A prepared adventurer can grab enough water to weather the storm with an action.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And... scene! I hope that hit the right Dark Sun notes and presents a tough challenge for your desert scavengers. Success here relies upon the PCs managing to socially interact with the thri-kreen or getting at the water and escaping before the DCs of the hallucination effect become to high to overcome.
How would you approach this situation if you were a player? How would you run it or make changes to it if you were the DM? As always, constructive feedback is welcome!
Thanks again to bawylie (@bawyliecoyote) for workshopping some of the ideas for this scenario over Twitter.
Last edited by a moderator:
erhaps the 10 round countdown never begins until combat starts (if it does at all), reason being that the interaction lasted until just a minute before the storm arrives.
