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| St Mary, East Somerton |
Someone needs to clear the place out and get the agrimancy flowing again, lest there be famine.
THE CHURCH OF MOTHERMILK
Mothermilk is a Lawful agricultural deity, a splinter of Grain Goddess. Her church is firmly under the thumb of the Druid Mafia, used as a source of divine magic free from meddling clerics. Disagreements between the faiths are mostly political, there's little theological difference beyond a focus on animal husbandry over crop cultivation.
After all, any idiot can throw a seed in the ground. But to enslave a living creature, slaughter its suckling young and drink from the milky nectar of life? That's real fucking power.
Like every imperialist before them, the druids used evangelism as a weapon. They successfully converted one local tribe, the Scorchlanders, to a syncretised version of Mothermilk, but the neighbouring Rainbreaker clan resisted conversion. After their warriors executed a travelling preacher, the tribe was destroyed by reprisal attacks carried out by colonial militias, mercenaries and the newly converted Scorchlanders.
The survivors were forcibly resettled into a religious mission run by Mothermilk, where the usual horrors of concentration camps ran rife. A few years into the reeducation program, Rainbreaker warriors launched a prison break alongside the monastery's staff of convict laymonks.
Most of the escapees fled or took shelter with other factions. But some refused to let the deprivations of Mothermilk's clerics go unpunished. And when these vengeful bandits formed the Fatharvest Gang and returned a year after their escape, they did so with a hungry giant in tow.
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| Heather Lennox |
THE COUNTRYSIDE
This hex of grassy highlands has a gravel road bisecting it. The ruined church is located within a dense grove of imported sycamore trees. There's several homesteads and cattle ranches scattered among the rolling hills, but almost all of them are abandoned.
The few remaining colonists are sleep-deprived and always armed. Those who don't open conversations with a warning shot tell travellers to beware of bandits. They come in the night and carry people away to be eaten by giants. Didn't you hear what happened to the monastery?
BRIARCOAT CAMP
A squad of nine Briarcoats, led by overly ambitious Level 3 Barbarian Valero and nebbish Level 2 Cleric Millet, have camped in this hex. They're located inside an abandoned barn on top of a cleared hillock, giving them a clear view of both the road and grove.
After word reached Fort Southfur of the monastery's destruction, Valero took a dozen Briarcoasts to ensure the place was safe to be resettled. Without its staff of clerics and druids dolling out agrimancy to the surrounding farmland, Southfur risks a famine.
The soldiers, expecting looters or escaped carnivorous plants, were forced to retreat after one man got carried off by tree-dwelling cannibals and two more were petrified by a haywire golem. Valero doesn't want to report failure to his bosses, so he waves down any passing adventurers with an offer:
"Kill any monsters squatting in the monastery, and find a way to disable that malfunctioning Gorgon. Do that, and you can take whatever isn't nailed down. Don't worry about my boss finding out, I'll blame any missing loot on the raiders."
If asked, Millet knows a bit more about the monastery.
"Place suffered a prison break last year. Some hostile tribals collaborated with our indentured laymonks. Maybe they came back for revenge. Whoever it was, they must've had something pretty nasty to damage the Gorgon that badly. Try to get into the undercroft, there aught to be a maintenance shrine for the construct. Should be able to reset it or shut it down."
The Briarcoats refuse to launch more sorties into the monastery. This changes if the petrified bodies of their comrades are recovered. Such an act shames the soldiers into mounting another attack.
THE GROVE
The thicket of sycamores surrounding the monastery is penned in by stone retaining walls.
The gravel path to the churchyard is patrolled by a badly damaged Gorgon (OSE, with half HP). When it tried to fend off the Fatharvest Gang, their Tree Giant stomped its head so hard it rendered the construct unable distinguish friend from foe. Thankfully, damage to its nostrils means its petrifying breath can only extend out 10'.
(The Gorgon's hide of mithril plates can be dressed per the Skinning Rules, so long as one has heavy pliers, hammers, saws etc. However, doing so provokes a Save vs Paralysis, else the skinner is petrified by the foul-smelling fumes expelled by the corpse.)
Leaving the path avoids the Gorgon, but runs afoul of the thirteen Guardian Brambles (CC1) planted by the Mothermilk clergy to deter trespassers. These plants were specially bred to release high pitched shrieks when they ensnare their prey, which quickly attract the Gorgon. The petrified bodies of Briarcoats Erik and Yosef are caught in two such brambles.
The tall trees of the grove are also inhabited by a trio of Tree Ogres (OSE, add climb speed). The Tree Giant birthed these abominations after eating several clergymen and the bandits left them behind to cause more mayhem. The red-skinned maneaters are natural climbers and lurk high among the branches where the Gorgon can't reach them. Anything Halfling sized or smaller gets eaten, else they club their victims to death. Each has 400 GP worth of trinkets in its distended stomach.
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| Book Of Creatures |
A derelict concentration camp just outside the monastery's grove, surrounded by a palisade, ditch and watchtowers. Temporary wooden buildings and moth eaten tents. Someone's stuck a broken spear into the ground and placed a crude iron helmet on it, painted red with berry juice.
The mission is infested with seven Poltergeists (OSE Adv), the restless spirits of the convicts and internees who died here. They harass anyone passing through, throwing rocks, rotten food and fistfuls of mud whilst babbling unintelligible accusations.
A very thorough search (difficult with the ghosts attacking you) discovers a hidden tunnel in the men's barracks, dug by convict conspirators into room U2 of the monastery's undercroft.
M1: Buttery
The bandits smashed down the wall and took most good vintages, except a barrel of milk brandy worth 500 GP too large to transport. There's also four expired bottles of the clerical cream liqueur "Milk Of Kindness". They heal as Potion of Healing, but only if you Save vs Poison to keep it down.
M2: Chapel
Reeks of death. Filled with buzzing flies. Pile of rotting corpses, stabbed, shot and crushed. Obviously infested with six Rot Grubs (OSE Adv). Looting them finds a Potion of Delusion (Protection From Normal Weapons) and a golden holy symbol worth 200 GP.
An elevator is in the room's centre, for moving the Gorgon between here and U4. Requires three people's weight before the enchantment activates to lower the platform.
M3: Entry Hall
Smashed to bits after the Tree Giant forced its way inside. A shriveled druid corpse with red-tinged skin lies on the floor. She's covered in dried shit.
M4: Stairwell
Door is barricaded with heavy rocks from inside. Has to be broken down or forced open.
M5: Ogre Den
Scavenged bedding stuffed with leaves. Pulverized corpse of dead Briarcoat Osric. Pile of holy symbols, illuminated vellum and mixed coinage worth 2,500 GP.
M6: Destroyed Observatory
Demolished after the giant threw a rock into it. Telescope is missing (an Ogre is using it as a club). Still has magnified lens and precision instruments from Mimblewimble Arms worth 1,500 GP.
THE UNDERCROFT
When the Fatharvest Gang stormed the monastery, they did so from their secret tunnel in U2. After meeting stiff resistance, they used a misappropriated Staff of Stone To Mud to collapse half the undercroft before fleeing. The defenders were crushed beneath rock.
U1: Abbot's Study
The floor bellow is strewn with severed body parts, all perfect matches for the corpse on the wall (the bandits hacked him to death over and over again after he kept regenerating).
The sword in the wall is a +2 Shortsword of Paralysis (roll max damage and the sword embeds itself in the target, paralysing them until it's removed). Naturally, pulling the sword from the wall frees the enraged Revenant (OSE Adv), who immediately tries to strangle everyone in the room.
The northernmost "sarcophagus" has been opened with a prybar. The floor around is splattered with blood and flammable oil. The interior has been burned. All that's left is the carbonised remains of some sort of plant.
The south container is still closed. Anyone prying it open gets attacked by eight Albino Ivies (CC2). What were you expecting?
Searching the wall annexes finds a pulsating seed trapped in a jar of vinegar. If allowed to touch dirt, the seed immediately sprouts a Wall of Thorns.
U3: Collapsed Hallway
Used to lead to the monastery's dormitories and alchemy lab, until the bandits collapsed it. The walls here are covered in blooming flowers, despite the lack of sunlight.
A rotting arm wearing thick gold bangles sticks out of the wall. Trying to loot the corpse causes six Flowering Ghouls (CC2) to burrow out of the dirt and attack. The undead wear 2,500 GP worth of jewellery, and one carries a +1/+3 Greatsword of Mortality (+3 versus creatures with HP regeneration, stops those it injures from healing for 2D6 turns).
U4: Elevator Shaft
Leads up to M2. A silver button on the wall brings the platform down as long as it is depressed.
U5: Armory
Mostly empty after the defenders arrayed themselves. A barrel of blackpowder (damage as Fireball if it explodes), two muskets, a dozen warhammers and a suit of cow-headed plate mail remains.
U6: Stairwell
Descends gently downwards. Untouched by the Stone to Mud spell. Walls have mosaics of the many-uddered Mothermilk, chained with golden shackles and sensually milked by grinning clerics.
U7: Inner Sanctum
A steel portcullis blocks easy entrance, requiring a long walk along a tunnel lined with more suggestive mosaics of Mothermilk. The portcullis can be lifted, but it requires a Open Doors check every round. On a failure, it crashes down. Anyone beneath it must Save vs Breath Weapon or be pinned beneath it 2D10 DMG.
There's a crank on the other side, which can be locked with an iron rod once the portcullis is raised.
The walls are decorated with five stagnant fonts filled with Holy Water.
U8: Maintenance Shrine
Accessible down a long hallway. The stone walls on either side are scratched, as if something heavy and metal was dragged down. There's also pools of foul-smelling green fluid on the floor.
The shrine itself has a large raised dais with a large lever made of carved bone sticking out of it. There's also four steel lockers on the wall, secured with Wizard Locks.
Pulling the lever causes four large hoof-sized indents to appear in the dais and opens the lockers, revealing maintenance tools and replacement mithril plates worth 8,000 GP.
It also recalls the Gorgon to the dais. Running at full speed, the thing noisily arrives in D3+1 Turns. It won't hesitate to charge down the hallway and trample anyone in its way.
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| Old School Essentials |
THE MAKING OF
The players are able to stumble across it, get a plot hook and immediately go dungeoneering. The monsters are deadly, but there's generally a way to bypass or neutralise them. The NPCs won't do the scenario for the players, but can be cajoled into helping out.
This dungeon uses maps taken from the excellent Dyson Logos. The monsters are from OSE Advanced and the Creature Compendium 1, which we've seen before, but I also dipped my toes into the Creature Cache 2. It was a mistake not to use it sooner, it's a brilliant expansion on the first volume.
If you're confused about who the "Fatharvest Gang" are, they'll feature in the next Hex Collection.
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| Colin Atkins |
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