#1 Voice in the Well
The party comes across a derelict well from which emanates the unmistakable sounds of feeble splashing and raspy moans. The well is too deep and too dark to see down at a glance, even with enhanced vision. With no other aides, one needs to peer deeper or climb in should they wish to determine the source.
When making this check, a creature drops from the roof of the well onto the onlooker, grapples, and attempts to drain the onlooker of all its blood.
This is a rare species of Leech called the Double Jointed Leech, or more commonly the Drop Leech. A small, slimy, vicious creature, this species appears as if two leeches were joined at the tail, creating one single gnashing tube of bloodsucking terror. Designed in such a way that no end can be kept at bay, each leech operates symbiotically, yet independently. In cases of extreme hunger, it has been observed that one end severs the other as bait. The severed end rolls and screeches, inadvertently drawing prey.
#2 Monty’s Door
A large oak door confronts the party. Three levers are set around its sides, two on the left, and one on the right. Silver numbers vertically adorn the centre of the door, reading “3 1 2” top to bottom. There is no keyhole to pick, only the most ingenious of the group may figure out the way through.
The contraption has long rusted away. The traps for incorrect inputs have failed, and even the opening system has crumbled away. Each combination of 3 pulls produces nasty grinds and rusted squalls, but no cogs catch and no mechanisms activate. The only way through is to destroy the door. Each silver number is worth 1 gold piece and are miscellaneous in size.
#3 Dinner Party
Several large boulders rest stoically in a clearing, standing guard for a camp long since abandoned. Whoever left did so in a rush as several weapons and some rusted armour plates lay scattered around.
***Boulder Crabs*** have nested in the area and consume any party who falls asleep by the fire.
#4 The Anal Alchemist![
An old alchemists office lies in a peculiarly clean yet messy state. Despite the rows of old cracked phials, reams of papers, the stacked bookcase, anatomical posters plastered in cipher text, there lies not a single spot of dust or grime in the room. Magic has its perks. As you enter the room a skull in the corner of the bookcase comes to life. A petulant soul now inhibits this polished cranium and reveals the old alchemist hasn’t been back in quite some time, something about going out to harvest dragon's breath. That was 15 years ago. Hating his old master, he tells the party there's a hidden room behind the bookcase but the puzzle must be solved, as the room is rigged to blow if someone forces their way in. Not wishing to give away too much he offers only a meagre hint, and coyly suggests any additional hints will come at a great cost.
The solution is to rearrange all the books in alphabetical order.
The first hint for free is “Oh I bullied him mercilessly, unending, what could he do? Kill me? A mercy. My particular favourite was calling him the Anal Alchemist. Used to drive him right up the wall that one did … I miss him.”
Upon asking for a hint the players will hear a small explosion behind the bookcase as items from the loot list explode in order listed.
The second hint is “The books are out of order!”
The third and final hint is “Alphabetical. Actually that's not even a hint is it? It's just the answer. Oh well, it was hard watching you struggle and the good stuff is already gone I bet.”
The loot: An enchanted great sword that makes it lighter than a feather, a pristine advanced alchemist's kit, a medium chest full of mostly common, some rare, and one exceptionally rare ingredients.
#5 20 Goblins
Holy fucking shit it's 20 goblins, and they're pretty pissed!
#6 Make Ends Meet!
Your party comes across a mysterious merchant in the most unlikeliest of places. In fact, you aren’t even sure how he made it with all of his supplies, let alone survived. Either way, he has plenty to sell. The area he has set up in is pitch black save for the pale blue glow of his angler lantern. All light sources extinguish safely when near his light.
He sells the entire matching outfit, armour, and equipment of 1 party member at full cost in pristine condition. He cannot be bargained with and is not openly hostile. If attacked, the area is plunged in darkness, regardless of any sight enhancements, and he disappears.
#7 Poor Souls
With Bloodrust plaguing the land and so many violent infected escaping doctor care, medical restraints have been made readily available to practitioners and healers across the country. Though in dark woods, dank alleys, and riddled sewers, you’ll soon find out that no lock is fool proof.
#8 Mad Men
Mad men are taking advantage of the country's discourse and capitalising on poor government oversight. Too many labs are being created in secret, too many exotic materials being imported with impunity, too many untested theories are being applied with wanton abandon.
One such lab has been abandoned and torched, all that remains are a few rows of broken vats with one remaining intact. Inside are 2 leeches, one of tremendous size covered in scars. Writing on the plaque indicates at least 30 leeches lived in this vat at one point. It looks like someone was trying to farm leech saliva.
Searches for information will reveal this experiment sought to create leeches that produce excessive amounts of saliva. Recoverable from the one functioning vat is a small near drained shard of Erudite.
If a player comes too close to the vat the leech will attack the vat, rolling 1d4 breaking the vat on a 4, each subsequent roll lowers the check by 1. This leech has 2 extra HD than normal and its maw produces 1d4 phials of saliva once when harvested dead, or 1d4 daily if harvested alive.
#9 Skeleton Crew
A dying necromancer's hideout is fittingly in ruins. It appears he gave up too much of himself too quickly, and is unable to sustain his power. Still, his greed compels him to hold on to what remains as tightly as he can. Even his servants, truly rotten and fallen apart, have had crude and blunt blades strapped to their appendages. They crawl and drag themselves towards you with no self preservation, their bones and blades scrape and dull against the stone floor. It is almost as if they wish for death.
The necromancer rests in his study, almost comatose in his chair. He has severed his own feet and hands, with one arm fitted with a blade but he is clearly too weak to wield it.
Rumour: Necromancers can sacrifice parts of themselves to become stronger.
#10 Frozen in Time
A pillar of ice surrounded by deadly unmelting ice spikes stands proud in an open glade. The vague outline of a person can be made out encased within the ice.
Any one with a high perception may be able to spot that the person encased in the ice is dead and decaying.
Anything that touches the ice flash freezes and fuses to the surface. If the player uses a long proxy device (a sword, a pole, a stick) they must make a body save or they become stuck to the proxy device. Once a medium sized creature (or creatures totalling medium size) is stuck to the ice it begins absorbing everything, displacing the original digested contents. The ice can full absorb a medium sized creature in 3 rounds.
Severing a limb is the easiest way to escape, but (3d6) worth of fire damage can melt the pillar enough for the creature to escape, but they cannot avoid the fire damage no matter what. The pillar can be totally destroyed by taking 40 (5HD) fire damage, but destroying it this way destroys whatever is inside it Upon taking any damage, the pillar attacks with its icy tendrils each dealing 1d8 ice damage with a range of 30ft
If the players can displace the body inside, they are rewarded with the body of a tax collector who has a wealth of coins on him.
#11 Mirror Image
A dungeon room beset with a large wall to wall, floor to ceiling mirror that perfectly reflects the room save from one lever which is not present in the room but is in the reflection. The mirror cannot be cracked or smashed, and is always immaculate.
When the player mimes to operate the lever to action it in the reflection, a mirror fiend drops from the ceiling and fights the party.
Mirror fiends cannot be seen in our plane but do have physical forms. They can be seen in silver backed mirrors and are drawn to them as reminders of their own reflection. They have 4HD and when attacked blindly, have a DT of 4. If the player uses their action to see them in the mirror, the fiend reactively attacks for 2d6 but their DT resets to 0, gaining +2 per action not used to scry them up to 4.
#12 Eyes like mine
A sole sentry in the night as the camp slumbers, you hear a rustling from the bush, before you even process the noise a familiar face emerges from the darkness. You. A creature dressed as you and who looks exactly like you stands before you, eyes wide, and hands up in surrender. In your voice it says in a hushed and frightened whisper to not wake the camp and to come with it quickly.
At any inaction, it lowers its body pleadingly, begins to tear up, and more desperately begs you to come with it.
The creature is an ***Amalgamation***, a shapeshifter who cannot control its powers, and uncontrollably morphs into every nearby conscious sentient creature. Amalgamations live secluded lives and refuse to interact with others as morphing into multiple creatures at once causes a frenzy at the influx of multiple thoughts, voices, and consciousness. They will kill all but one creature to regain their sanity.
Rumour : amalgamations are extremely dangerous but never ever approach others
Rumour : amalgamation skin is extremely rare, and has incredible transmutative properties.
This amalgamation is being hunted by a party of two and if the player helps, it will lead them to the hunters where the player can fight them. If the player wakes up the rest of the party, the amalgamation will frenzy and attack the party. The hunters will turn up soon after and lay claim to the amalgamation and threaten the party.
#13 Blood From a Stone
A dangerous Speaker has inscribed a giant rock in a dungeon with life runes. As you move towards it the runes activate, searing deep into the stone. If a boulder could scream this is what it would sound like.
The creature has 10HD but each attack is reckless and with abandon. You can't tell if it's trying to kill you or itself as it slams into the walls and décor. Each attack does 2d10 but it deals the damage to itself too.
#14 Brought Low by the Low
An errant cough from a barkeep, merchant, drunkard, squire, who knows? Who cares? Has brought you and your group to your knees. A flu is drowning your lungs and burning through your veins. Your head is throbbing and your throat has all but seized. Everything is sluggish and heavy. Not only are you sick, but you are also a vector for others to get sick, anyone who sees you are this ill will shun you and alert others. -1 to every roll made until you get better.
#15 Gold Coins
A merchant pays you in fake gold coins for your wares. They're very well made , only another merchant or metallurgist could tell that they are fake.
#16 Goblin’s With Large Shields
A group of 4 Goblins are aggressively holding a highway toll. The rates are so shocking you’d prefer they rob you outright. They are emboldened by their large stone shields, hiding behind them like mischievous (and dangerous) scamps.
Anyone who has encountered Boulder Crabs would recognise their shields as their tough chitin. While the shields are raised the Goblins gain 4 DT. Breaking any of the shields immediately causes all the goblins to leg it.
#17 Blue Shells
A small fishing hamlet has been taken over by an enigmatic Mogul. No one has even seen the mysterious benefactor but their money flows readily so any questions are silenced quickly by the locals. While the hamlet used to offer a meagre yet diverse range of fishy produce, now they focus entirely on crustaceans with a bounty for a blue lobster fetching 100 gold pieces, a sum unheard of. Each horseshoe crab also goes for 5 silver pieces, an incredibly inflated price for an otherwise entirely undesirable specimen. A cart comes once a week to collect any bounties and pays outstanding bounties from the week previous. No one knows where it goes.
#18 Blue Blood
Rumour : Erudite is a valuable alchemical ingredient used by all kinds of Speakers.
Rumour : Erudite is extremely dangerous.
Rumour : No one can agree on what erudite looks like exactly, but the consensus is something of a crystalline nature.
The cart, a rundown single horse drawn piece of shit, bravely makes its way over eroded and overgrown paths to end up deep in the local woods. Due to the dense woods a body check of only 8 would be enough to trail it silently. The driver unloads the cart while the horse grazes and soon disappears inside the shack. He won’t leave until the week has passed and he returns once more to the hamlet.
When entering the shack the word nightmare is just behind your lips. The stench in the room is as unbearable as the sight of it. Nearly a hundred crustaceans of varying vitality have been pinned, crucified to the walls and frames, alive, squirming and wriggling desperately to escape. From each, several dirty tubes protrude, some carry out their blood and some carry in a slurry of nutrients. The vines of these tubes choke the airspace and coalesce to the center of the room into a large vat of dark blue bile. Beside this vat is a smaller one that emanates an almost visible putrid odour, inside are the mashed and eviscerated remains of drained crabs, the source of the slurry being forced intravenously into the others. Integrated into the vat is an operating chair that the driver has strapped himself into. Several rusted needles have pricked his naked body and flow into him the ichor from the vat. Tarblack crevices gorge across his body and within them, deep azure crystalline structures grow, pulsing slowly, in sync with his narcotized heartbeat. When these crystals grow large enough he will rip them out in great agony and securely package them to his master.
He is comatose while under, but if attacked he will awaken frenzied. The crystals will glow and pulse rapidly, in 1d4 + 1 rounds they will explode dealing 6d6 damage to anything in a 30 ft area. The driver has 4HD and each attack deals 8 + 2 per attack made. The driver in this state is reactive and will make an attack every time he is attacked. If he is killed before he explodes, 2 large azure erudite crystals can be harvested from him.
#19 The First Bite : #1
The village of Fallow
An unassuming hamlet which houses the first recorded case of Bloodrust in the country and is the epicentre of the outbreak. Now however, years after the outbreak all the doctors have come and gone, scrutinising and sanitizing every crevice of the village in vain. No source was ever determined and no containment held. It wasn’t long before people stopped using words like ‘treatment’ and ‘cure’.
Most of the surviving families stayed and continued farming the fields, though the air is heavy with grief and stigma. Outsiders aren’t looked on favourably, with good reason too, prying eyes and prodding fingers have reached into every crack of privacy that shame and public hatred hadn't already invaded. Any patients have been removed, carted off to capable facilities in big cities, or dead and buried in pieces, dissected for science. This was before it became protocol to immolate the remains.
Aside from the family houses, the only remaining buildings open to the public are the pub and the church. Everywhere else is boarded up or burnt down, implementations of desperate containment protocols.
#20 Unwholly Man
An off the road church has been taken over by a cannable wearing the old priests clothing. He kills people in the confession booth by sticking a sword through the slot, anyone caught off guard by it takes 1d8 damage
#21 Box of kittens
A box of kittens has been left on the side of the road. They are lovely and happy and seem in good health, but they will need looking after in this big wide world.
#22 The first bite #2
The Iron Fog has rolled into the town and refuses to leave. Thicker than any instance or rumour you've ever heard before, it cant be penetrated more than 5ft. A rusty twilight holds Fallows for an eternity. Figures can be heard in the mist. Under the church is an underground passage that reaches water to a local well, on route players will find dead Bloodrusted cadavers that have burrowed through their coffins and fell into the water, drowning and dying at last. The small village has been drinking tainted water for years and the Iron Fog has activated the virus in the villagers and turned them into monsters.
#23 Veggie Tales
An ill thought out experiment from a local speaker has resulted in sentient vegetables taking over a farmstead. She said she was trying to help alleviate the country's food shortage but when asked how dancing fruit would help she goes bright red. Now to the fruit and veggies want to be left alone in their new found commune, but without the farmstead, a lot of the village will be heavily impacted.
#24 Loose Lips
No matter the tavern, no matter the ilk, a series of more and more bizarre and outrageous rumours have started cropping up in this otherwise quiet town. It's become difficult to discern reality from fiction, with someone or someones clearly trying to sow seeds of doubt and keep people in the dark with tantalising stories.
The entire town is complicit in trying to drum up tourism, otherwise the town will go broke
#25 Beast Man
A local hunter has been missing from his cabin for several weeks now. A man hunt has found nothing except for a rabid wolf which needed to be put down. The creature was foaming at the mouth and caked in dry blood. A search for its lair will reveal the man infected with rabies and is now hyper aggressive, too far gone.
#26 Debt Collectors
Owing to tradition and fabled stories held true in the heart of everyone, race, culture, and belief be damned, debt cannot carry over into the new year. Though in these times what should be spent looking forward to a clean new year is often spent by many hiding from bounty hunters. It is an excellent time of year to make money in the employ of big banks, each othering different bonuses. Otherwise, if you have debts you cannot pay, you best find a good hole in the ground. Payers of their debt are highly honoured and esteemed members of society. Even peasants who pay their debts are looked on with more respect than noblemen who default.
#27 Living suit of Armours
An errant mistake had a Speaker split a powerful warriors soul between 1000 suits of armour. However instead of each suit being piloted by a powerful soul, one soul is bound the entire army. Most of the army was destroyed instantly as one soul could not keep up however now, a few hundred years later, only a few remain, and this powerful soul capably bounces between them wherever they lay across the country.
These living suits of armour are purely reactive for now, and will swiftly and instantly move to defend , counter , and protect, but too many exist for the soul to engage and be proactive. After each armour defeated, the next one is always a little faster, hits a little harder, wants to strike first more.
#28 Do you have a license for that?
A 'taxman' is collecting from a troll under a bridge. It appears he has convinced the troll that if he doesn't pay, then the nearby village will destroy the bridge, with him under it. He comes once a month.
It is common knowledge taxmen only visit once a year.
It turns out this man is a brave soul trying his best to con the troll out of some coin. The troll is also loved by the nearby village for keeping the area safe-ish.
#29 Have you got Talent?
A local village is hosting a talent show with a prize of 5 gold pieces!
#30 Body Shop
With Speakers being able to graft limbs onto old stumps, it was only a matter of time before a black market of limbs formed. These body snatchers steal people in the night, hack them apart, and distribute their limbs across the country. Their M.O. is to use paralysing agents to stun their victims, and then to operate until there is nothing left. They are the scourge of adventurers - people with no homes. nobodies with nobody to miss them. One such travelling bandit group has spied you for their next target.
#31 Circus
A travelling circus self titled 'Ironland's Freak Show' has made its stop in the local city. Most of its attractions are pathetic: one year they had the worlds smallest Giant, another, the worlds tallest Gnome, in fact frequent visitors figured out they used the same guy. This year though they are boasting a creature feature on the final night.
Thousands from the city have gathered to see the finale. At the height of circus fever, as the day closed and night drew across the sky, a ring man brought out a huge cage and revealed 5 Bloodrusted Victims. Each one unrestrained within the cage, and each one so far gone into their infection their blood and bodies have began to crystalise in rotted clotted crystalline clumps.
Pandemonium and panic breaks out amongst the crowd and a dozen city guards rush the stage to contain the madness but already the ringleader has broken the door to the cage and released the plague upon the city.