0One Games Master Adventures Blood Runs Cold.pdf

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Blood Runs Cold

by Chad MacPhee and Greg Oppedisano

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15 COPYRIGHT NOTICE

Williams, based on original material by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.

Master Adventures and Blood Runs Cold © by Øone Roleplaying Games

Øone Roleplaying Games

www.Øonegames.com

master@Øonegames.com

Summary

4 Background

4 Adventure Synopsis

5 Character Hooks

5 ACT ONE

5 A. Lets not call it a tax lets consider it a protection fee…

6 B. Psst…Wanna buy a golden dream…?

9 C. An old man intervenes

10 D. By The Riverside

10 E. Silent Stalkers (EL 10)

11 The Cottonmouth

11 A. All Aboard! (EL 11)

12 B. Into the Hold (EL 9)

14 C. Prison Cells

14 D. Slippery Little Suckers (EL 9)

15 E. To Crush The Leech’s Head (EL 11)

16 ACT TWO

16 A.The Blackened Fen

18 Random Encounters:

18 Optional Encounter A: Raslish and Llaniis on Patrol EL 10

19 Optional Encounter B: Bodaks in the Bog EL 10-14

19 Optional Encounter C: Chuul (EL 7-13)

20 B. The Temple of Hirudinea Areas 1-21:

21 Level One – The Guard Towers:

21 Areas 1, 2 and 3. The Guard Rooms (EL 9 each)

23 Level Two – The Slave Pens and Living Quarters

23 Area 4. Shipping and Receiving (EL 6)

25 Area 5. Tunnel Crew

25 Area 6. Troll Guard Room (EL 9)

26 Area 7. Lizardfolk Common Room

26 Area 8. Annelid Room

26 Area 9. Annelid Nest Room

26 Area 10. Meditation Chambers

28 Area 11. Treasury Vault (EL Variable)

29 Area 12. Storage Room

29 Area 13. Shrine of Hirudinea

29 Area 14. The Dreaded Guardroom (EL 11)

30 Area 15. The Shrine of Bones

30 Level Three

30 Area 16. The Temple of the Sleeping God (EL 17)

33 Concluding The Adventure

34 Appendix – New Monsters

34 Annelid

35 Hirudinea Leech

36 Hirudinea’s Chosen (Annelid)

37 Leech Swarm

39 Mud Golem

Blood Runs Cold is a D20 system adventure for four to

six characters of 10th-12th level. The party should contain a

mix of classes, with at least one ﬁghter and one mage. The

setting for the module is in and around the generic town of

Rivenwater. A good Referee can easily adapt it to any setting

or plunk Rivenwater into an area in their campaign. The

Referee is advised to carefully read the Appendix pertaining

to Annelids, as they are new and unusual creatures with

complicated abilities.

the fabled Altar of Shyyth, knowing if he can raise it he

will once again be Favored by the Drinker. Six months ago

Husstillis found the black altar and raised it from the earth.

Unfortunately the risen altar was still on the bottom of the

fen and removal from its original position would anger the

dark god. So Husstillis began the construction of a temple

in the swamp that would allow the Annelids access to the

altar. To meet this end he needed many slaves and so he

began subjugating the local lizard folk and searching the

surrounding countryside for hearty human slaves.

Husstillis sent his minion Sithanis forth to ﬁnd slaves

aboard the river barge Cottonmouth. Sithanis was very

successful in his searching and creating a network of slavers

amongst willing and greedy established thieves along the

length and breadth of the River of Teeth. Over the past year

dozens of people have been taken and sent up the river to

toil on the temple at the heart of the fen. Presently Sithanis

has moored their river barge Cottonmouth on the River

of Teeth in the harbour of the degenerate trading town of

Rivenwater. The temple is almost complete and the slaves

that now reside in the bowels of the Cottonmouth are likely

the last shipment to be sent to the fen.

The activities of the Annelid sect are not widely known

in Rivenwater, though they have successfully established

contacts with the local thieves’ guild, the Obsidian Knives,

to expedite the kidnapping of slaves. Dekker Reeve is

the increasingly bold guild head of the Knives, and very

interested in making as much money off of Sithanis as

possible. Reeve began taking only strangers and visitors to

the town hoping they would be less missed than locals but

of late he has begun kidnapping locals of low character.

Furthermore, Reeve has grown as bold as to begin snatching

strangers right off of the streets in Rivenwater in daylight.

Baron Andrinor, the ignoble ruler of Rivenwater is well

paid by the Annelids to look the other way. The Baron is

ignoring the pleas of his people to ﬁnd the source of all of

the missing townsfolk, and worse has instructed his guard

not to interfere with the Obsidian Knives or Sythanis’

activities.

Background

Many generations ago the land that is now the Blackened

Fen was actually the thriving and warlike city-state of Shyyth.

Populated by a race of evil humans knows as Annelids,

Shyyth was a religious center of dark renown where the

Annelids held sacriﬁce to their vile god Hirudinea. The

Annelids worshipped the Drinker of Life, Lord of Slime and

Leeches. They tattooed their bodies in leech-like patterns of

mud brown and deep ochre and drank the blood of their

enemies. As penance their priests would attach leeches

to the exposed parts of their bodies, always feeding their

essence to the Drinker in return for His granted powers.

Warlike and aggressive the Annelids frequently sent

parties out from their fen to capture and return with

slaves of other humanoid races to offer in sacriﬁce to the

Great Devourer, the Drinker of Life. Champions of light

marshalled powerful forces and drove the Annelids from

Shyyth and later razed the city and the temple of Hirudinea.

The last act of the dark followers of Hirudinea was to sink

the vile altar of their god beneath the earth to hide it from

the forces of good and preserve it for when their god and

his followers would return. So broken and devastated

were the Annelids that they ﬂed into the depths of the fen,

disappearing almost completely from the area.

Several priests of Hirudinea survived the destruction of

their civilization and set about rebuilding the power of their

people. Always were they sworn to secrecy, to never reveal

themselves and risk further reprisals from the goodly races.

In the seclusion of the fens they bred, becoming ever more

feral and akin to their dark Deity. Through dark pacts and

evil magic they began to assume the characteristics of the

horror that was their God. Eventually they became more

beast than man, merged irrevocably with the Lord of Blood.

Years passed and the people forgot of the Annelid scourge,

yet the fen remained blackened because at its center was a

buried altar to Hirudinea, a cancer in the heart of any land.

Today a nest of magically altered Annelids has nearly

completed rebuilding their temple in the Blackened Fen.

The Annelids are led by the evil and self serving Cleric

Husstillis, who has fallen out of favour with their dark

god. Husstillis has spent the last several years searching for

Adventure Synopsis

The ﬁrst Act of our adventure has the characters arriving

in Rivenwater and having a run in with Dekker Reeve and

his slavers. Interrogation of the defeated slavers or questions

asked of the local towns folk will lead the adventurers to the

mysterious Cottonmouth moored out from the harbour in

the middle of the River of Teeth.

Any investigation of the barge that is conducted prior

to walking on its deck will reveal that the crew of the vessel

is human. The party is likely completely unaware that it is

Annelids that they actually face, thinking the band no more

than a gang of uncommonly powerful slavers or thieves.

Upon arriving at the docks the PC’s may make their

way to the barge by any number of means. If they choose

they can procure a small skiff to take them to the barge

Cottonmouth anchored out in the river. Unbeknownst

to the party, if they attempt to board the ship by water

a group of giant crocodiles will surround their boat and

attack. Once they make it aboard the vessel, they will face

an ambush at the hands of a formidable force of Annelids,

Hirud’s Chosen and of course, Ssythanis himself. The boat

is also guarded by many leeches and horrifying traps. The

guardians of Cottonmouth must be defeated in order to free

the slaves, discover the reason for the kidnappings, and ﬁnd

out about the temple being raised in the Blackened Fen.

Act two takes the party to the Blackened Fen to root out

the slavers and destroy the infestation of Annelids before

they desecrate their temple. After a perilous journey through

the Blackened Fen, well guarded by Lizardfolk patrols from

the Temple of Hirudinea and various wandering swamp

horrors, the party will ﬁnd itself in the heart of the Annelid

base of power. An almost fully desecrated temple of

Hirudinea is there, completely encased in hardened mud

with below water entrances that must be found in order to

be exploited. The above water entrances to the temple itself

are guarded by alert defenders but a party with the sense to

exploit the capture of the Cottonmouth or look for one of

the underwater doors will have an easier time penetrating

the structure’s defences. Once inside the temple the party

must overcome a force of mutated Annelids as well as a

host of other evil allies in order to succeed. The ﬁnal battle

with Husstillis the High Cleric of the Temple in the partly

ﬂooded unhallowed underwater ground of the temple

amidst captured slaves and rising undead horrors should

provide a ﬁtting climax to the daring adventurer’s efforts.

Oh and did we mention the leeches…

Merchants guild has heard rumors that slavers are operating

on the River of Teeth and that the local Lord Andrinor is

not responding. See Act One Section A “Lets not call it a tax

lets consider it a protection fee…” for more details.

Necessity: The PC’s are traveling though the area by

riverboat and are assaulted by the slavers in an attempt to be

captured and enslaved. Further investigation leads them to

the Cottonmouth and the Annelid hideout.

ACT ONE

A. Lets not call it a tax lets consider it a

protection fee…

As the party travels upon the river road toward the

trading town of Rivenwater they round a bend in the

highway and encounter several wagons that have been

stopped by town guard. The guard and the caravan masters

are arguing vehemently over paying an extra sum of “taxes”

to Lord Andrinor to keep the highways safe. Apparently

the cost of doing business here has risen abruptly and the

merchants have lost patience. As the party approaches the

scene, read or paraphrase the following. By the end of this

encounter it should become apparent to the players that all

is not well in the town of Rivenwater.

The sun is just rising over the treetops as the morning

progresses on your journey. Travel in this country is relatively

easy going as the roads seem fairly well maintained. The

highway upon which you travel parallels the river and the

sounds of its sometimes turbulent waters are interspersed

with stretches of silence where all you seem to hear is the

sound of the wind in the trees. Rounding a curve in the

winding road you begin to hear the faint sounds of voices

from ahead, voices that seem to be raised in anger. Shortly

you are able to make out what appears to be a small caravan

that has been stopped at a guard post in the road. The

horses snort and prance nervously as several men clad in

what appears to be the livery of a noble house rummage

about the wagons. The caravan masters stand in a tight and

agitated group, shouting and cursing wildly at several soldiers

wearing the insignia of ofﬁcers. One rather swarthy merchant

wearing trail worn leathers steps forward and shoves one of

the ofﬁcers and before you can react he is on the ground, the

point of a drawn long sword held steady under his chin.

Character Hooks

Their blood is up!: The party is attacked by Dekkar Reeve

and his gang of slaving thieves as they make their way

through Rivenwater. All they need now is a push in the

right direction and many locals are interested in giving them

a nudge. Questioning locals will lead to the speculation that

the source of the slavers is the barge Cottonmouth moored

in the middle of the River of Teeth. See Act One: Section

B “Psst…You should join us… no really join us!” for more

details.

The merchants bade us do it: Merchants frustrated by

the disappearance of fellow merchants and the inﬂated

“protection” taxes being charged along the River of Teeth

have decided to act before they are run out of business. The

If they approach they will overhear the conversation

between the guard and the merchants, making it apparent

that the guards want more money than the merchants

are willing to pay. After a few moments several guards

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