Nassan: running Stick in the Mud

As mentioned a few months back, I've tentatively restarted our 4E campaign, which for various reasons (mostly wildly divergent schedules) has consisted of one one-shot in several months. This is precisely why I decideded to run one-shots.

A summary of the game can be found in three parts:

1. The beginning
2. The middle
3. The end

Since I'm hoping to finally manage another session shortly, I wanted to have a bit of a think about the GMing side of things. Also I wanted to briefly talk about the changes I made to the scenario.

Behind the Screen

So, the game in general. On the whole I felt this went pretty well.

Our session (Stick in the Mud, from Dungeon #171) in about five hours all told, with some tea breaks and chatter, but not that much. Unfortunately, writeup not withstanding, we didn't quite have time to finish it as at least one player had to rush off, and it seemed better to narrate a wrap-up than tail off. Considering that none of us had played (or GMed) 4E for a couple of years, most hadn't gamed at all for months, and one player was new, I still think it was a respectable time given the drawn-out combats of 4E.

The players did reasonably well at remembering how things worked and the details of their characters. There was a fair amount of looking stuff up and explaining play, but that's what the GM's for in these circumstances. I was also reasonably happy with how well I remembered most things, although a few rules would bear looking up beforehand. I should really make sure to dig out (and update!) the GM screen before next session. Because of the aforesaid rustiness, and because we're a fairly casual group anyway, I was extra helpful in giving hints and advising on tactical issues. There's quite a lot to remember in tactical play, and I don't see the point in punishing players for not remembering all the details of opportunity attacks, or letting them waste dailies on a minion, especially when we're all out of practice. I'd much rather try and help them learn to play more effectively so we can all enjoy the fight, and of course the better they get, the tricksier I can get.

In the event, we were short one player. We were actually missing our ranger, who's a big damage-dealer and has the best equipment for various reasons, as well as being very analytical. However, I'd deliberately picked a low-level adventure to allow for rustiness (and because I liked it, admittedly), so on the whole the balance seemed quite decent, leaving the party badly battered and scared, but not actually in serious danger.

One player had forgotten her character sheet, which caused a bit of administrative trouble. We were able to scribble down most of the information, but it wasted some time at the start of the session and necessitated a bit of extra looking-up.

Somewhat to my surprise, the players who took part seemed quite happy to have skipped the questgiving. I think the missing player is keener on with-NPC roleplaying so I'll try to make sure there are some opportunities next time. But I feel like I judged that reasonably, which is nice.

Magic item balance

As I mentioned in the initial post, I wasn't sure where people stood with magic items. As it turned out, they were wildly unbalanced. Our previous adventure was an incomplete attempt at Keep on the Shadowfell, during which they acquired a number of magic items. As it turns out, the most powerful items they'd discovered (Bloodcut Hide Armour, an Aecris Longsword and a Vicious Short Sword) all happened to suit the same character, our ranger Varis, and the party allocated them all to him. Other characters had picked up only some plot artefacts and low-powered items. Having never finished the adventure, we never got the whole range of magical items, which might have led to a redistribution between characters, and the players were perhaps unaware of D&D's expectations about how items would be distributed (which is to say, fairly evenly). The end result was that Varis had a Level 4, a Level 5 and a Level 2 magic item, while everyone else had about 2 levels in total. I believe the expectation was that each character might have one level 4-5 item and one 2-3.

It seemed rather unfair to strip Varis of his items, and what I ended up doing was giving the others slightly more stuff than they ought to have, while not quite bringing them up to Varis' level. This was particularly true for Raylin (imported from Pathfinder) and Adrik (entirely new character). Partly as a consequence, I avoided giving out much magical loot in Stick in the Mud - they're at level 3 but actually have about as much loot as they should gain for the next level or two. So it will be stingy DMing for a while. While I did include some useful items, I carefully chose ones that aren't combat-related, which should be handy for exploring and such without unbalancing things too much.

Future notes

I think for the next session I might try and have a quick tactical recap beforehand. They were a bit hazy on their use of powers, particularly Encounters and Dailies, and somewhat reluctant to use them. I might discuss how these can be used early in a fight to get an early advantage and provide ongoing benefits, rather than kept to finish the fight once it proves to be difficult. It can be much more efficient, especially if some enemies can be eliminated early on, because fewer rounds means fewer hits.

Similarly I might have a mention of concentrating fire to take down a small number of targets, rather than spreading attacks around, because D&D just doesn't really model the suppression, intimidation or debilitation that might make it worthwhile in reality.

Finally, it might be worth talking about roles (which 4E explicitly encourages) and the idea of playing to the strengths of your role.

While the players were mildly entertained by the magic loot I'd come up with, they weren't especially interested in any of it, and decided to just flog everything off next time they were in town. That was quite a letdown, and I don't think I'll be spending much effort on that in future. It's quite fun coming up with the stuff, but if it's only ever going to get a second or two of game time, rather than anything looking for ways to use it, there's really no point. I'd spent quite a while coming up with fun stuff that was mildly useful but not Magic Item useful, and it's not really a good use of time in the circs.

The scenario

Most of the changes I made to Stick in the Mud were to adapt the scenario to my new premise.

Original premise: A long-ruined building contains the buried workshop of a powerful wizard. Bullywugs have moved into the area and begun messing with a powerful staff, opening a rift to the Elemental Chaos. Adventurers are, coincidentally, sent there on some mission or other at about the same time.

My premise: An elemental staff has been stolen from a scholarly archive. The adventurers are sent to retrieve it. The thief turns out to have meddled with it and opened a rift to the Elemental Chaos, attracting bullywugs to the area.

The changes mostly consisted of altering explanations for things. In some cases I added additional "boxed text" to better fit the situation as I pictured it. In particular, I wanted to emphasise the weird effects of proximity to a planar rift. In other cases I shifted things so that there was an explanation players could get at all, since one of my reservations about the written scenario was that most of the background wasn't realistically learnable by PCs.

A couple of examples:

The ritual chamber

The large chamber was once a ritual chamber where the temple's inhabitants would invoke the aid of their gods or summon servitors. It survived the meteor strike better than the rest of the complex, being deep and strongly-built, and its condition led Tildis to use it as a vault for her stolen treasures. A strange synergy between the malfunctioning staff and the chamber have opened a rift to the Elemental Chaos. The staff has been spewing mud from the Elemental Chaos for weeks now, and the area around the staff is a swirling mire of churning mud. Within it lurks the growing form of a mud writher, a mass of tendrils and maws whose malleable body was able to squeeze through the rift. The writher lurks within the mud around the staff, and is, for all intents and purposes, invisible to the PCs until they attack (barring lengthy observation).

This stone vault is lined with shelves holding many strange devices. Some of them even appear to be intact and might be valuable. However, your most pressing concern lies at the southern end of the room, in a small alcove, where a thick, stone staff juts out from a churning vortex of mud. The earth all around heaves and cracks, and the stone walls have sprouted into fantastical organic shapes.

Note that while I call it "boxed text", this is basically aides-memoire for me. I just tend to write in that style even when it's notes for my own use.

Treasure

Since I went to the trouble of creating them, I might as well share the treasures I invented for this scenario. Someone else might like them.

• A large Glittergold coin, whose designs constantly shift to display myths of the gnomish deity. A Religion check (DC 10) can reveal that such coins are quite prized by the priesthood and used by initiates to memorise and teach their precepts.
• A pack of gambler's cards, impossible to mark or crease, which will reshuffle themselves when gathed and tossed into the air, or sort themselves and return to their pack at a command. They bear the four elemental suits.
• A reel of green seeking thread, which will fasten itself to a needle when tapped with it, and will not come untied.
• A vanity comb, which leaves hair clean and glossy without water or soap. Once per day, it can be used to create an elegant hairstyle in mere moments, although its ideas are quite old-fashioned.
• Flasks containing tiny amounts of highly pure elemental earth, water, fire and air. These can be used as components in any rituals, each flask providing 50gp of components.
• Eleven small lodestones
• A geomantic dowsing rod, which a trained practitioner can use to assess the geology and ley lines of an area.

More notable items include a belt of vigour, eternal chalk, Aldron's firebox and a floating lantern. There are several dozen mundane books recently arranged on the bookshelves, some bearing marks of ownership from various Peragian institutions. Most relate to geomancy, elementals or the natural world.

The Guildhall will also offer their support and good word. The gift of silver signet ring apiece indicates their status as friends of the Guild. The Guildhall's favour ring is lightly enchanted, providing a single use of an arcane at-will power of the owner's choice, as well as its social benefits.

Monsters

Because I wasn't very keen on the coincidence-based premise, it didn't really make sense for bullywugs to be the main problem at the site. I also felt that the fights were looking very repetitive; aside from some environmental changes (which are a very reasonably way to vary fights) they consisted of three fights in three consecutive rooms with three very similar groups of bullywugs. If, say, one had been a mass of minions and another a few very tough critters, it might have made more difference.

What I ended up doing was basically reskinning some of the bullywugs. Having emphasised the geomancy and Elemental Chaos side of things in the setup, I thought it would be nice to have more elementals in the scenario. Also, they're good for guilt-free slaughter!

Not wanting to totally replan the combats by picking entirely different creatures, I changed various keywords and descriptions while keeping many essential features the same. I was particularly pleased with the quartz strider and its light-refracting powers, which allows it to replace a spellcaster.

Originally, the scenario builds up to an encounter with four very minor elementals next to the rift. Having already introduced elementals a little earlier on, this felt a bit anticlimactic, so I instead reskinned those to be individual tendrils of a much larger elemental that had occupied the entire room and melded into the earthy floor. Unfortunately, I never got to use it as the game ended early. Alas!

I present these monsters here for any other DMs who may find them useful. All are made with Monster Maker, but I completely redid the CSS for aesthetic reasons, as described in an earlier post.

Rumbleshard Level 3 Minion Medium Elemental Magical Beast (air, earth) XP 37
Initiative +3 Senses Perception +0
Haze (earth) aura 1; creatures within the aura gain partial concealment against ranged attacks.
HP 1; a missed attack never damages a minion.
AC 14; Fortitude 12, Reflex 14, Will 12
Resist 5 thunder
Speed 4, fly 6
M Rending Shards (Standard; at-will)
+6 vs. AC; 7 damage.
c Shatter (Standard; at-will)
Close blast 2; +4 vs. Reflex; 4 damage.
Alignment Unaligned Languages Primordial
Skills Acrobatics +6
Str 10 (+1) Dex 14 (+3) Wis 10 (+1) Con 14 (+3) Int 6 (-1) Cha 5 (-2)

Rumbleshard Lore

A character knows the following information with a successful Arcana check.

DC 15: A rumbleshard is an elemental mass of rocky shards and air.

DC 20: A rumbleshard's whirling shards can explode into clouds of shrapnel.

DC 25: Rumbleshards' airy nature makes them resistant to thunder damage.

Mire Gulper Level 3 Controller Medium Elemental Beast (earth, water) XP 150
Initiative +5 Senses Perception +6
HP 44; Bloodied 22
AC 18; Fortitude 15, Reflex 16, Will 13
Speed 4
M Bite (Standard; at-will)
+8 vs. AC; 1d6 + 3 damage, and a Medium or smaller target is swallowed. A swallowed target is stunned, takes ongoing 5 damage, and can't be targeted by any effect (save ends all effects). A mire gulper can have only one target swallowed at a time and cannot make bite attacks as long as the swallowed target is alive.
c Mighty Inhalation (Minor; at-will)
Ranged 3; +7 vs. Reflex; the target is pulled 2 squares.
Earthenmeld (Move; at-will)
The mire gulper shifts 4 squares by melting into the ground. It can shift through enemy squares as long as it ends its movement in an unoccupied space.
Alignment Unaligned Languages -
Skills Athletics +8, Stealth +9
Str 14 (+3) Dex 17 (+4) Wis 11 (+1) Con 12 (+2) Int 2 (-3) Cha 6 (-1)

Mire Gulper Lore

A character knows the following information with a successful Arcana check.

DC 15: This is a mire gulper, a voracious earth and water elemental.

DC 20: The mire gulper engulfs victims to digest later, and can produce a powerful draft to drag creatures towards it.

Quartz Strider Level 3 Artillery (Leader) Medium Elemental Beast (earth) XP 150
Initiative +2 Senses Perception +9
HP 39; Bloodied 19
AC 16; Fortitude 14, Reflex 14, Will 16
Speed 6
M Stone Claw (Standard; at-will)
+8 vs. AC; 1d8 +1 damage
c Incandescent Refraction (Standard; recharge 6) ♦ Fire, Radiant
Close blast 3; +6 vs. Reflex; 2d6 + 4 fire and radiant damage, and the target is dazed until the end of the quartz strider's next turn. Miss: Half damage
a Electric Discharge (Standard; at-will) ♦ Lightning, Thunder
Area burst 1 within 20; +6 vs. Reflex; 1d10 + 4 lightning and thunder damage.
Alignment Unaligned Languages Primordial
Str 12 (+2) Dex 14 (+3) Wis 16 (+4) Con 15 (+3) Int 11 (+1) Cha 10 (+1)

Quartz Strider Lore

A character knows the following information with a successful Arcana check.

DC 15: This is a quartz strider, a crystalline elemental (earth)

DC 20: The quartz strider can use its body to channel energy into violent bursts.

Mud Writher Tendril Level 2 Brute Small Elemental Magical Beast (earth, water) XP 125
Initiative +2 Senses Perception +7
HP 43; Bloodied 21
AC 14; Fortitude 15, Reflex 13, Will 13
Immune disease, poison
Speed 5
M Slam (Standard; at-will)
+5 vs. AC; 1d10 + 3 damage.
r Mud Ball (Standard; at-will)
Ranged 10; +3 vs. Reflex; the target is slowed (save ends). If the target is already slowed, it is instead immobilized (save ends).
Realignment (Immediate Reaction; encounter)
When hit by a melee attack, the tendril shifts 3 squares.
Sense Weakness
The mud writher tendril gains a +2 bonus to attack rolls against slowed or immobilized creatures.
Alignment Unaligned Languages -
Skills Stealth +7
Str 16 (+4) Dex 13 (+2) Wis 13 (+2) Con 13 (+2) Int 6 (-1) Cha 8 (+0)

Mud Writher Lore

A character knows the following information with a successful Arcana check.

DC 15: This is a mud writher, an amorphous mass of tentacles and sucking mouths that melds into the ground (earth, water)

DC 20: The mud writher can reform itself rapidly to escape danger. It can expel clinging mud from its mouths to hamper opponents, making them more vulnerable to its attacks.

Nassan: what of earth?

A very, very late conclusion to this adventure! Sorry about that...

Before moving on, the party search the disintegrating remains of the study. There is little to find here but long-rotted paper and broken furnishings. However, Varis unearths a sealed brass scroll-case whose contents seem to still be intact, protected by the airtight wax from centuries of decay. A crumbling shelf yields two rune-inscribed pottery sticks that Raylin identifies as "very primitive" healing charms.

Passing carefully through another door, they find themselves in a large room with stone furnishings, where crystalline shards set into the walls cast a faint pinkish glow. At a glance, it looks like an antechamber. Bisclavret suggests it may be a preparation room, where devotees of the temple donned ritual garments (or disrobed, of course) or performed preliminary rites. The remnants of alchemical or ritual apparatus still linger on the shelves and tables. Braziers stand unlit in the corners, suggesting no bullywugs have ventured this far; however, the earthen floor is almost swamplike. That the light spells still linger is a testament to the temple's builders, but Myraneth decides the spells themselves are of little interest. A large, imposing stone door is the only route remaining; the mud appears to be gently flowing in from underneath it. The source of the planar disturbance must lie this way.

As Myraneth strides towards the door, hulking shapes stir within the thick mud deeper into the room. The shapes approach rapidly to investigate, flowing through the mud in a disquieting way. As they burst to the surface, the adventurers realise they are not simply muddy beasts, but elementals of living mire. Clearly Tildis has been meddling with the staff, and unleashed some kind of elemental magic. The creatures seem aggressive, probably protecting their territory, and conflict is unavoidable.

Facing off against two of the creatures, poor Myraneth is sucked directly into the elemental's maw, where she flails helplessly and begins to suffocate. It dives back into the swamp and retreats to finish consuming this thrashing prey in peace. Her friends rush in to try and save her, while fending off the other creature.

Meanwhile, further shapes stir into life. Whirling clouds of debris emerge to batter at Raylin as she lingers at the rear, exploding into slicing fragments before reforming. As Bisclavret and Adrik rush after Myraneth's captor, they realise a spindly thing of crystal stilts has been standing unseen like a stick insect. Faint light glows within its body, before refracting sharply into beams of searing brightness. An invocation from Raylin hammers at its alien mind, disrupting the crystals and causing it to realign into a jumbled pile, perfect for a ferocious attack from the raging dwarf.

The party manage to free Myraneth, only for Bisclavret to be seized and carried off by the remaining mire gulper. The crystalline quartz strider regains its footing, never actually moving, merely altering the alignment of its crystals to create a new form. Its energy bursts wreak havoc on the belligerent mortals, nearly killing the weakened Myraneth, as well as annihilating some of the weaker elementals. The battle is long and vicious, and when the adventurers emerge victorious, all but hardy Adrik are badly wounded. They pause to recover their breath before advancing.

Cautiously forcing open the heavy door, they find the ritual chamber, as expected. It is very dark, but an odd flickering light from the far end casts long shadows. Diases and lighting alcoves around the room are obvious signs of formal use, at least to trained eyes. Massive stone pillars hold up the roof, which was once painted brightly. Strangely, stony growths protrude from walls and pillars alike, growing stranger further in. The floor is completely covered by thick, swampy mud that heaves and cracks constantly. Myraneth and Raylin realise that a minor planar rift has been opened to the Elemental Chaos, letting elemental influences and entities alike creep through, while the arcane energies most likely attracted the bullywugs. Even without their guidance, it's obvious to all that the flickering glow is the source of their problems. The further into the room they venture, the more extreme the effects of the planar bleed on the native earth around them.

Advancing carefully towards the rift, the party are alarmed but not entirely surprised when the mire around them erupts dramatically. Writhing rocky tentacles lash out at them and slimy maws gape in the floor. To their dismay, the whole chamber seems to be occupied by a single large and angry elemental: a mud writher. Despite a barrage of cloying mud that weighs them down, the party gradually batter the creature into submission, and it retains the intelligence to ooze its way back through the portal rather than stay to be destroyed.

The party are eager to close the portal as soon as possible, before more creatures can emerge. This far into the chamber, the walls and pillars have sprouted and warped into fantastical organic shapes under the arcane radiation from the rift. They might almost be deep under the sea, or in a vast and ancient cavern. Digging through their packs for useful components, the group combine their efforts to seal the portal. With much eldritch muttering and prayerful chant, and not a little falling over in the never-ceasing flow of mud, they eventually see the wrinkle in reality fold together and vanish. The mud ceases to flow, and arcane senses no longer feel the roar of the Elemental Chaos. In its place, a large staff of solid stone clatters to the floor.

Now lit only by lanterns, the ritual chamber is in surprisingly good shape. It shows signs of recent occupation, not only by elementals, but something more familiar. The highest shelves around the walls house a number of boxes and books that are clearly not as ancient as the other items they have found. The walls themselves are almost totally covered in red chalk writing, except where decorative plaques are set into the wall. The writing is in modern Elvish, and after a few minutes of painful study, Myraneth realises they are erratic notes on a magical theory. Their author was clearly both mentally unstable and entirely wrong.

The books are a mixture of academic works and folklore, mostly touching on geomancy and the natural world. Most of them are marked with the names of various respected libraries, from where they've presumably been stolen. The boxes turn out to contain an array of magical trinkets and paraphernalia, carefully packed away to preserve them. Many are simply gaudy or pseudomagical, but some bear minor enchantments. One of these items is the stick of magical chalk used to etch Tildis' theory. Speaking of which...

Searching the room carefully, and even using some of Myraneth's lesser magics to clean away the mud, they discover a strange coccoon in one corner. Breaching it, they find the comatose and half-starved body of the wayward scholar, clutching a now-depleted protective charm. After a cursory health check and some slightly begrudging treatment, she is bound and gagged to prevent any misbehaviour. Gathering up staff, magical trinkets, Tildis and anything else that looks interesting, the party slowly make their way back to the surface, to rest up before the long journey back.

Epilogue

On returning Tildis and the staff to the Guildhalls, the group are greeting with warm thanks and reminders of the need for discretion. The staff is restored to the hands of the Archivist, who this time makes immediate arrangements for its proper storage and protection. Tildis is quickly taken away for proper treatment, and likely to endure a very long stay in one of the nearby shrines; there is some hope her sanity can be restored. The Archwizards hold a private but luxurious feast to honour their agents, and after much fine dining and speechifying, they are each presented with a silver seal ring, marking them out as honoured friends of the Guildhalls. A trace of arcane power lingers within the ring, a small measure of protection in case of trouble.

Nassan: bully for you

The group historian, Bisclavret, assesses the area and assures them that it is indeed a ruined temple complex, dating back several hundred years. It's difficult to say any more from a distance.

The group decide to go with the probabilities and head straight for the surviving building. They approach with some caution in case anyone's sneaking about, and decide to aim for a gap in the walls rather than trying the main door. As a result, they enter through the back of the structure.

This proves to be a good move, because within the building they hear the sounds of movement, and quickly take cover. Unfortunately, Adrik trips over a stone and sends it clattering along with a resounding echo. Twisted shapes emerge, hopping and shambling, from the murk. They are a hideous sight, a twisted combination of diseased toad and wizened ape, and their faces show only loathing. These sad, horrible creatures are bullywugs, thought by scholars to be incarnations of paradox. They croak revoltingly and bound towards the party, who quickly move to use a handy gap in the walls as a bottleneck, with Adrik and Bisclavret bearing the brunt of the combat. The creatures bound heedlessly over crumbling walls to flail at the adventurers with crude weapons, their apparently uncaring as to their own fates. After a tough fight, with the bullywugs are despatched, and their pitiful visages relax into a strange kind of peacefulness.

The building has long been empty and nothing of professional interest remains, though there are some nice botanical specimens around here. Weather and time, and encroaching nature, have eroded any sign of the temple's original purpose. Finding the trail of their quarry, they follow it to a side-chamber where a trapdoor can be easily seen; recent use has shifted the grime around it.

Acrid, rising smoke warns the party that something is alive down here, and they carefully traipse downwards, discovering a large room that was once a study of some kind. Huge shelves stand around the walls, though some have toppled and most are somewhat broken. The fallen shelves, and some other ancient furniture, jut like islands from the muddy ground. To nobody's surprise, there are several more bullywugs here, engaged in inexplicable behaviour that quickly turns to hostility. Myraneth's sharp eyes deduce that the centre of the room is very boggy, and rather than rushing in, they proceed cautiously. Though the bullywugs attempt to lure them into the deep mud, Myraneth and Raylin hurl bolts of energy to pin them down while the others try to leap across to engage them. Unfortunately, Adrik lands awkwardly and slips back into the quagmire, sinking up to his shoulders in rank mud. The bullywugs take immediate advantage and land some heavy blows, but are forced back long enough for the dwarf to extract himself and wreak vengeance on them. Bullywugs despatched to the bliss of non-existence, the party rest long enough to recover their breath.

Nassan: an absent artefact

The Guildhalls at Goscaster on the shores of Heartwater are home to many intriguing treasures, and until recently the staff of Voran Eagle Rider was amongst them. Voran was an instructress in the School of Geomancy many decades ago, of good repute, but with geomancy out of fashion of late, her arcane paraphernalia has lain mostly undisturbed in the archives since her retirement. Amongst the usual spellbooks, amulets and official robes was a particular curiosity: a staff of petrified wood, used by Voran as a focus and amplifier. Rumoured to be a gift from Dwarven priestesses of the Dwellers Below, and to provide a direct link to the Elemental Chaos, the staff is considered a significant relic of considerable power. Nevertheless, lack of interest in geomantic studies and the usual bureacratic confusion have left it neglected in the archives for many years.

Voran left instructions that her paraphernalia should be maintained as a coherent collection in a single room suitable for geomantic experimentation, sealed with Class Four wards to ensure their preservation, and accessible to any Suitable Person with a Genuine Scholarly Interest in the collection on condition that their use of the material be monitored and a nominal payment of one silver piece made to the Guild's Poor Relief Fund. Unable to classify the relic satisfactorily as Staff (Wizardly) nor Relic (Geomantic), nor to meet these exacting conditions under current funding arrangements, generations of Archivists have compromised by leaving the entire collection in the chests they arrived in, refusing to catalogue them at all, and storing them unsorted in a disused corner where they are occasionally hunted down by keen researchers, working from hearsay and marginal notes, who scribble their names on a scrap of parchment pinned to the lid of the largest chest and try to ferret out some morsel of knowledge crucial to their work.

Recently, maintenance in the Archive led the archivists to inspect that corner thoroughly, whereupon the staff was found to be missing. A more than usually erratic researcher had been investigating that corner of the Archive, going under the name of Tildis, and subsequent enquiries have confirmed her as the probable culprit. Several weeks have passed since she was last seen.

With the Guildhall's reputation at stake, and a hazardous artefact at large, a small group of trusted agents has been recruited to discreetly seek it out and restore it to the Guildhall's hands. While only an expert geomancer could hope to master the staff's powers, unskilled meddling with such a relic could be disastrous. The Archwizards dare not advertise the theft, in case the thief is inspired to try its powers, or worse, an unscrupulous wizard learns of the staff and tracks it down before they can. It would also be politically awkward. As it happens, the party have an existing relationship with the Guildhall, and are one of the groups approached to help retrieve the staff.

The party seem to have made the right deductions, and they have been following the thief's trail for a few days. It leads into an uninhabited valley known as the Scar, left by a meteorite that ploughed through the land centuries ago, allegedly sent by a vengeful god (nobody quite agrees on which) to destroy a temple that displeased them for some reason or other (usually bawdy or moralistic, and occasionally both). The region is unsuited to farming, home to wild beasts, and is generally avoided.

Unfortunately, subtle enquiries a couple of towns back seem to have attracted some attention, and the party have the disconcerting feeling that larcenous wheels may have been set in motion. Perhaps merely petty thieves; perhaps the informants of a corrupt mage, or even of more sinister powers. It would be wise to recover the staff promptly and return to the Guildhall with all due speed.

GM comments

This was the alternative introduction I scribbled up for the Stick in the Mud scenario. As I mentioned previously, there was a bit of hacking needed. I was keen to start the PCs out in the exploration phase, since time is short in our sessions and I wasn't sure when we might schedule another game with the same players - I didn't want to spend the whole time in town getting backstory. So I went ahead and narrated them to the edge of the valley.

A minor issue with the scenario is that the Chaos Scar doesn't exist in my gameworld. This isn't a particular problem, since it doesn't especially matter where the adventure happens. More importantly, I wasn't that keen on the hooks. The basis for the scenario - wizard's artefact causes chaos when bullywugs start tampering with it - can't be known to the players, and even when they work out what is happening, they won't really know what did happen. The hooks themselves also don't particularly work for me. There's someone trying to find the staff - which just so happens to have been corrupted by the bullywugs at a convenient point in time, leading to a coincidence I don't especially like. Or there's two Kill Ten Bullywugs quests, which I'd prefer to avoid, because I'm sort of concerned that that approach leads to the PCs seeing themselves as murderers for hire rather than heroes; in both cases there's again the sheer coincidence of the staff. I'm not saying it's the worst thing even, but I wasn't that happy with them.

Instead, I tried to sketch up something that felt a bit more fitting. I won't claim it's a work of genius but it seemed to do the trick. The Guildhall stuff fleshes out the world a bit and offers some future plot potential. It explains why they're going to the valley and why they should keep exploring when they realise it's dangerous. It explains why there's a magic staff here and why it might be causing elemental havoc. It gives them a reason to hurry. And it has some librarian references that produced a satisfactory ripple of groans.

The background

I wrote up a bit of background for my own interest, and to help me picture for myself what was here and how I might answer players' questions. It's more or less in the same style as the notes for players, basically because that's just how I tend to write stuff. For some reason I was never much cop at rough notes; they always end up as full sentences, and I seem to find that easier to use.

The Scar does indeed hide the broken remains of an ancient temple, though its precise nature is no longer apparent. The fugitive discovered the ruins and chose to hide there while she examined her stolen treasure – one of a number of magical and unusual items she spirited away over several months of increasing madness. Unfortunately, between illness and ignorance, and the lingering influence of the temple, she managed only to trigger some of the staff's powers in an uncontrolled manner, with fatal results. Elemental magic has seeped chaotically throughout the temple, altering the environment and summoning or shaping a number of unpleasant entities. Allowed to continue its work much longer, the malfunctioning staff could spell havoc for the region.

Between its lingering aura and the presence of magical items, the temple grounds have attracted or spawned a number of bullywugs, warped creatures whose very presence oppresses the land. Deeper within, a number of elemental beings have taken up residence.

The barren stretch of valley before you suddenly becomes a chaotic jumble of shattered masonry. In the center of the mess, on a low hill, stands the ruined foundation of a keep or tower. Only the lower section and a few walls still stand; however, enough remains intact to cast ominous shadows that could hide nearly anything.

Anyone with reasonable Nature can judge that the valley is not the sole work of a meteor strike; only a truly colossal meteor could create such a rift. However, it does seem that a sizeable meteor landed here, amidst a sizeable complex of buildings; its trail and crater have been enlarged over the centuries by wind and rain. It is heavily overgrown and somewhat marshy, with a lacklustre river trickling through.

Local hunters and wanderers claim that wolves, bears, griffons, fire beetles and bloodthorns may be found in the Scar and its surrounding wilderness. Nature will find the odd sign of both beetles and wolves, and none of the creatures would be particularly unusual in such a remote region – indeed, more dangerous beasts might be present.

From a distance, History can suggest:

• the layout is indeed reminiscent of a temple complex or monastery grounds (10)
• the architecture and unsophistication of the buildings and mounds suggest a Seldian-era construction (Dark Ages equivalent). (15, or 10 with time)
• it is not possible to deduce details of the temple's significance without closer inspection.

There are several small areas, apparently outbuildings, that survive as low walls, as well as a number of mounds. None contain much of note. There are occasional bones (animal and humanoid) but centuries have passed to remove any traces. One outbuilding contains the remains of a crude tent, a badly rusted cooking pot and frame, and the rotted remains of what was once a wooden box, whose contents have been got at by wild animals. It must be years or decades old. Perhaps a traveller or fugitive came this way and did not survive the journey. Only one substantial building seems to have escaped complete destruction.