Adventure for Level 5 Characters
Situation. A long-forgotten ruin is rumored to hold a fiendish Artifact called the Horns of the Beast. A villain hopes to claim the Artifact and put it to terrible use.
Hook. An unassuming human merchant named Melchis (secretly a Chaotic Evil Fiend Cultist devoted to Iuz) hires the characters to escort him on an expedition to find an ancient temple lost in the jungle. He offers to pay them a total of 2,000 GP in trade bars—half when they reach the temple and half when they safely return to civilization—and promises to support them with what he claims to be “limited magical ability.”
You can use the poster map of the world of Greyhawk for this adventure; the temple is located near the southern edge of the map, in the Amedio Jungle. The journey unfolds in three stages (see “Travel” in chapter 2), culminating in the discovery of the ruins and the artifact.
Stage 1. Melchis hires a ship to carry the party to the Amedio Jungle. Use the map to determine how long the sea voyage takes, depending on where the adventurers begin the trip and figuring that the ship covers about 1½ hexes per day. Near the end of the trip, as the ship crosses Jeklea Bay, it’s attacked by a group of Hostile sahuagin, including two Sahuagin Priests, six Sahuagin Warriors, and a Water Elemental. (Assume the ship’s crew stays out of the way of these terrifying monsters and lets the characters and Melchis deal with this threat.) Stage 1 ends when Melchis and the characters row a launch ashore.
Stage 2. Melchis leads the characters into the jungle, aiming for the shore of the lake. This stage covers about 180 miles through the dense forest. Each day of the journey, roll once on the following table to determine what the characters encounter on their journey, if anything.
1d20 | Encounter |
---|---|
1–14 | No encounter |
15 | An Indifferent Giant Ape protects its territory; its primary concern is getting the party to leave. |
16 | A Hostile Tyrannosaurus Rex is on the hunt and tries to eat the characters. |
17 | Three Allosauruses are hunting in the jungle; they are Hostile and treat the party as prey. |
18 | Two Ankylosauruses tromp through the forest nearby. They are territorial and aggressive but Indifferent, and they won’t pursue a fleeing party. |
19 | A band of humans, including a Veteran Warrior and eight Infantry Warriors, watch the party. They are Indifferent; they live in the jungle and aren’t used to seeing other people. |
20 | Four Minotaurs of Baphomet prowl the jungle looking for Humanoids they can capture and bring back to the temple. |
Stage 3. Once the characters reach the edge of the lake, Melchis leads them southwest along the shore until they find the ruin. This stage covers 90 miles through coastal terrain. The second day of the journey, heavy rain obscures vision and creates quicksand pits (see “Environmental Effects” and “Hazards” in chapter 3). The front rank of the party might fall into a quicksand pit while two Giant Crocodiles attack at the same time. The rest of the journey passes without incident.
The Ruins. For the ruins, use the western half of the ground floor of the Dungeon Hideout map in appendix B, and ignore the stairs leading to the lower levels. Dwelling in the ruins are six Minotaurs of Baphomet who are Hostile to all intruders. They are spread out around the ruins but come quickly when they hear combat.
The Artifact. The Horns of the Beast—a jagged crown made from the horns of demons and wild animals—rests on a pedestal in the northwest corner of the ruins. Melchis immediately attempts to seize the Artifact and place it on his head. If he does, he is transformed into a Hezrou and tries to kill the characters. A character who dons the Artifact is cursed with Demonic Possession (see “Curses and Magical Contagions” in chapter 3). The Artifact can’t be removed from the character’s head until a Remove Curse spell is cast on the character. If the characters defeat Melchis and search him, they find a Bag of Holding containing twelve 5-pound gold trade bars (worth 250 GP each) and a Spell Scroll of Teleportation Circle. The scroll also contains the sigil sequence for a permanent teleportation circle. At the end of the adventure, each character earns a bonus 1,000 XP.
Destroying the Artifact. The Horns of the Beast can be destroyed only by dropping it in the River Oceanus, which flows through the Upper Planes (see chapter 6). A character can learn this by casting Identify on the Artifact.