The Drow War Book Two. The Dying Of - RoseRed

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light slashing or piercing weapon to deal 25 points of
damage to the stomach walls (AC 17), though as the
serpent is usually underwater, the victim’s problems do
not end there. Once the creature exits, muscular action
closes the hole; another swallowed opponent must cut
its own way out. A Gargantuan serpent’s interior can
hold two Large, eight Medium, 32 Small, 128 Tiny or
512 Diminutive or smaller opponents.
Water Spray (Ex): A true serpent can expel water from
its mouth in a powerful jet once every 1d4 rounds. The
jet is 20 feet wide and 80 feet long; serpents like to
spray water into the air in play, a phenomenon visible
from miles away and often mistaken for whales venting.
This jet deals no damage but knocks creatures off their
feet and can wash them away. Creatures in the area
of effect are affected as if a force of 35 Strength had
made a bull rush attempt on them, intending to push
them directly backwards as far as possible. Characters
who are pushed back more than five feet by this attack
must also make a Reflex saving throw (DC 30) or fall
prone. Use of this ability does not provoke attacks of
opportunity. The save DC is Strength-based.
The Charybdis Device
Summary: An undersea city, inhabited by sahuagin,
uses a monstrous turbine to generate magical whirlpools,
sucking ships down from the surface. The raiders then
pick through the remains, salvaging what they want. The
Sea Harriers know about this and avoid the region. If
the Player Characters can defeat the sahuagin warlords,
they will earn the gratitude and assistance of a nearby
clan of tritons who can help them solve the riddle of
Omorogg the Kraken.
This entire adventure is optional and can be omitted
if desired. Its main purpose is to increase Player
Character experience points and provide additional plot
information.
Event: And I Alone Survived
The Player Characters see a group of creatures
swimming towards them. Three of them are bluishskinned
humanoids and one is human, seemingly
unconscious or dead. One of the humanoids is holding
the human’s head above water so that he can breathe.
They all have grim expressions.
They hail the Player Characters’ ship, introducing
themselves abruptly as members of the triton race,
neither friend nor foe but fellow voyagers in the ocean.
The human, they explain, is a sailor they found drifting
in the open sea, clinging to a spar:
‘His ship was smashed to fragments. We did not wish to
let him die. The other humans are dead. They drowned.
We know what did this. The creatures that did this are
our enemies. We can show you where they are. If you
are willing to stop them, then we can perhaps help you.
You have the same enemy as us now.’
The tritons are clearly uneasy about the situation. A
Sense Motive check (DC 15) reveals that they want
more than they are saying and that their gruffness is a
front. If the Player Characters hesitate, they will snap
that one of their own race is dying; what manner of
creatures are they to let a man drown?
Unless they have some special reason not to – in which
case the tritons will simply fix the unconscious sailor
to the ship’s hull with a dagger through his jacket
and swim away, leaving him to his fate – the Player
Characters will bring the sailor on board. He recovers
consciousness in a few minutes (more quickly if helped
with magic or restoratives) and begins to panic, not yet
realising that he is safe. Once he has calmed down, he
explains:
‘The name’s Eldrad… Ben Eldrad, of the Sally Lunn.
By hell, it’s good to be alive. I was sure I was bound
for the black that time. Well, I don’t rightly know how
to describe what happened. We were hauling it over
the sea from Kandang, bound for the Eagle Nations,
see, making good time under a fair breeze. Then out of
the blue there’s this roaring like a cataract, see, and in
front of us the ocean just opens up, in a huge wheel that
looked to be miles wide!’
‘A maelstrom it was, and out in the open sea, too, which
don’t make no sense at all. Well, Captain Chard was
hollering to wheel the ship about and get us out of there,
but he may as well have ordered us to grow wings and
fly, for all the good it did. We were caught in the pull of
it, see, and next thing I knew the whole ship lurched and
I went over. The last thing I remember is the cold, cold
water closing over my head for the third time and me
thinking this is it, it’s the third time that gets you…’
Eldrad will ramble on in this vein for as long as the
Player Characters are willing to let him. If they ask him
any questions about his ship, he will respond in vague
terms, saying that she was ‘a trader in spices, too poor
to afford the sea-portal charges’.
The tritons will wait patiently for the Player Characters
to come to a decision. If they are willing to help, then
the tritons will guide them to the limit of the safe area
(see below); if not, they will abruptly vanish below with
a flick of their tails, leaving the water empty as if they
had never been there.
Ibon Presno Gonzalez (order #73006) 8