Sample file Slaad Timing An adventure for 4-6 5th level adventurers Special Thanks Jeff Borders Bradley Barger ProDnD Rosemary Callahan-Gray Editing Cartography Writer Layout Saga Mackenzie Jeff Ellis Insta - @sagamackenzie Robert Tarr Olobosk Contents Adventure Background 2 Chapter 2: Capital Building17 Overview 2 Stationary Rooms 18 Personalizing the Adventure 2 6a. Waiting Room 18 Factions3 6b. Guided Tour Starting Room 18 Cultists3 6c. Gallery of Great Slaadi 19 Fey Merchant3 6d. Smoking Room 19 Holy Warriors 4 6f. Kitchen 20 Heretics 4 6e. Mail Room 20 Slaadi 5 6g. Prison 21 Limbo Puddles 6 Random Rooms 21 Prologue 7 6h. Trapped Treasure Room 22 Chapter 1: City Square 8 6j. False Boss Room Entrance 23 1. Park 9 6i. Body Double Room 23 2. Church 10 6k. The Ritual Chamber 24 3. Library 11 AppendixA:Monsters 25 4. Crystal Mines 13 Appendix B: Magic Items 28 5. Curiositys Shack 15 DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, D&D, Wizards of the Coast, Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft, Eberron, the dragon ampersand, Ravnica and all other Wizards of the Coast product names, and their respective logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast in the USA and other countries. ThisSample work contains material that is copyright Wizards of the Coast and/or other authors. Such material is usedfile with permission under the Community Content Agreement for Dungeon Masters Guild. All other original material in this work is copyright 2020 by Robert Tarr and published under the Community Content Agreement for Dungeon Masters Guild. 1 Adventure Background A local toad-worshipping cult recently learned of the slaadi and how these toad-like aliens can transform them into something similar to the creature they deify.Mortem Muerte,adeath slaad from the Ever- Changing Chaos of Limbo, sees the cult’s obsession with the slaadi as an opportunity to invade the Material Plane. After many months of rituals and secret meetings, the cultists attempted to summon an entire slaad city and to create a permanent portal between the Material Plane and Limbo. Unfortunately for Mortem Muerte, the addle-brained toad cult didn’t follow the ritual to the letter and only a small section of the slaad city square made it to a remote part of the Material Plane—where the characters just happen to find themselves. Seeing this as an opportunity, Mortem Muerte set up defenses against any possible intruders and began the six-hours-long ritual necessary to complete the invasion. Overview To stop the slaad invasion, the party must defeat the death slaad Mortem Muerte in his ritual chamber before he can finish his ritual connecting the Material Plane to the Ever-Changing Chaos of Limbo. In order to stand a chance, the characters must explore the strange new area, overcoming challenges and gathering the supplies and equipment necessary to stop the death slaad. Personalizing the Adventure The following are possible ways for you to personalize the above adventure and continue its narrative: The Cultists, Heretics,andHoly Warriors areoptionalandcanbereplacedbymembersoforganizations native to your setting. The library can contain books based on the history of your campaign setting, occult knowledge, or other adventure seeds. It could very easily be used as a springboard for further adventures or to foreshadow things to come further down the road. If the characters bought equipment from Merry Chant they will be watched by outside forces for as long as they own the item. This could be both a blessing and a curse, as the audience becomes endeared to their newest “channel”. After defeating Mortem Muerte, characters will need a way to get rid of cursed items. You could possibly convert them into legitimate magic items through an adventure of your own. Also, adventures can be spun fromSample the background details of themagic items. file Cultists host to slaad eggs may have escaped after the conclusion of the adventure. They are willing and able to cause problems later on. (Including attempting to do the ritual all over again.) 2 Factions Besides the slaadi and their toad cultist pawns, three major factions take part in the adventure. A trio of holy warriors andanopposingpairofheretics are investigating the area when the adventure starts. The fey merchant, Merry Chant, on the other hand was informed of the event through his network of diviners and teleported here to capitalize on the situation. Fey Merchant Merry Chant is a fey merchant who is famous across every plane of existence except for the Material Plane. He is short, blue skinned, pointy eared and well dressed. He smells of floral perfume and old coins and he always speaks with a giddy tone, like a mischievous child poorly hiding a prank. His main schtick is allowing the rich and powerful to buy a special scrying device keyed to an item he sells to adventurers across the multiverse, allowing the owner of the scrying device to watch the adventurer as a form of entertainment. While he never feels the need to disclose this to the unsuspecting adventurers upfront, if they manage to find out (probably by some form of magic Cultists detection or sight) he openly admits that they are A group of frog-worshipping fools that started being watched. creating a permanent gate to Limbo. His newest business operation involves trading Eachcultist wears a color-coded robe based on valuable information (provided to him by a team of their ranking. The lower ranks wear blue or red professional diviners and telepaths) in exchange robes while the senior members wear green. The for a unknowingly cursed magic item keyed to the buttons, sashes and trim all bear a black frog scrying device of a wealthy patron.Merry Chant design. can provide the characters with any information about the adventure. They’re all very big fans of frogs, who are willing to spread frog facts and their frog fan art to the Examples of minor cursed items include, but aren’t unwilling. They really want the party to become limited to: infected with a slaad egg like them, and will quickly accept any character as a full member of • Ring of Hiccups: A ring that gives the their cult if they are willing to do so. If not, they wearer a case of the hiccups. attempt to capture the party and convert them into slaadi. They’ll thank them later. • Comb of Combing: An animated comb that combs the owner’s hair at all They succeeded in the first step of their plan, times. Including when they sleep. bringing a slaad city square from Limbo to the Material Plane, and are now either being converted • Rope of Three-Legged Racing: A rope into slaadi themselves or being used as cannon tying the right ankle of one character to fodder to slow down intruders whileMortem the left ankle of another character. Muerte finishes connecting the slaad homeworld While used, both characters must be withSample this one. adjacent to each otherfile at all times. Be sure to add a few cultists to an encounter if the At the end of this adventure, the items lose their party is having too easy a time. On the flip side, be curses, but remain the subject of scrying. They may sure that defeated cultists are carrying supplies even turn into purely beneficial magic items at a that the characters are in desperate need of. later point at your discretion. 3 For truly desperate characters, Merry Chant offers a draw from his personal deck of many things that Holy Warriors is watched over by those willing to pay a king’s A trio of holy warriors consisting of Magnus the ransom. knight and his two priest cohorts, Slim and Conroy. When approached by characters who have purchased items from him,he is likely to interact Magnus wears a suit of bulky plate armor clearly with the scrying audience members in the same designed for someone larger than him. His armor is manner as the host of an entertainment program. poorly maintained, and covered in rust and dents, with many busted fittings poorly tied together. These patrons pay a hefty sum to watch the He’s a bully and tries to steal credit for anything characters and are willing to send their agents to good that happens around him, believing intervene if they are in too sticky of a situation, if wholeheartedly that he played a crucial part in any events are a little too “boring,” or if they intend to success and as such, he expects excessive praise. attackMerry Chant. On the other hand, he’s also a loudmouth who tries to take a leadership role at all times. He always goes for the most direct solution and blames any Heretics failures on others. The self-proclaimed heretics, Amon and Balam Slim and Conroy are twins from a retainer house are practitioners of an old and mostly forgotten to Magnus’s family. Magnus has confused the two form of pact magic. so frequently that they no longer bother to correct him. They both wear loose fitting white robes with Amon is a lithe, stately looking aasimar. She wears bluetrim,alongwithmatchingcaps,allofwhichis a fitted purple vest with a long-sleeved, loose dirty and grass stained. The pair are meek enablers white blouse underneath, and purple dress slacks. who half-heartedly go along with anything She is prone to leering when even mildly annoyed Magnus says or does and stay quiet when anyone and isn’t the apologizing type. Between the two tries to interact with them, waiting for Magnus to she’s the one who does the talking. Compromising interject and answer for them, after which they isn’t in her nature.