Ideas For Map-Based Adventure (September)

Hi everyone! As every month, we're giving you some ideas for sessions related to our published maps. 

This adventure seed is designed to work with the Spellarena map of a "Viking Longhouse". It is system-agnostic and can be used within different fantasy settings, from heroic adventures such as Forgotten Realms or darker worlds e.g. Hyperborea (Conan 2d20) or Warhammer.

Raiders!

A group of reavers from the north has taken control over a rival’s longhouse. Their raid didn’t go as planned and the raiders were pushed back. Desperate and fighting for their lives, they regrouped in a longhouse, conveniently located on the outskirts of the village. 

They also took hostages – the family of five who lives in the longhouse. Now, the raiders threaten to kill the hostages unless they are allowed to return to their ship. To stay safe from the attacks, they want to keep hostages until they are out of the fjord.

The villagers encircled the longhouse and refuse any demands. However, the reason for that runs deeper than worrying about their neighbors’ wellbeing. A 10-year-old girl who lives in the longhouse is a powerful Völva (seeress). 

A year ago she battled a powerful evil spirit. Unable to vanquish the monster, she imprisoned it: in both her mind and the house. If she dies in the longhouse, the spirit will be free but it won’t be able to leave the house. 

If she goes outside, the spirit will possess her. And if she dies while outside, the evil spirit will be unleashed upon the world! The reavers don’t believe that story.

The reavers

Considered en masse the invading force should be a deadly threat to the party. They are all experienced warriors, but some have been wounded during the raid. Ragni The Bear Killer is their leader. 

She is a wiry woman made of iron-hard muscles and unflinching determination. Survivor of countless raids, she can’t comprehend the raid’s failure and wants to bring her people home alive.

The raiders keep all the hostages in the bedroom and check on them regularly. Moreover, four raiders patrol the outer perimeter, always staying close to the house. Sometimes they just stand and watch, other times they walk around, ready to warn their comrades inside.

The hostages

Five people live in the longhouse:

• Astrid – a 10-year-old seeress. Has runic symbols on her body, which she has to repaint at least twice a day during a complex ritual. Despite having the power over spirits (and one within her) she is a resolute, a bit too direct girl.
• Bjorn – a 5-year-old boy who wants to be a raider. He actually admires the invaders.
• Trygve – a venerable man who can’t see but has a head full of legends and stories.
• Thyra – mother of Astrid and Bjorn. She’s a tough woman, famous in the area for her bone necklaces.
•  Leif – secretly, he is a cultist, seeking to release the trapped spirit. He pretends to be a wandering peddler.

The villagers

Only a few villagers know about the spirit. Most of the villagers lost someone or something in the raid and they want to kill the invaders, whatever the cost. The party is asked to help with the situation.

This adventure seed is designed to work with the Spellarena map of a "Church Catacombs". It can be used with any fantasy setting.

Holy secrets

For centuries the Temple of Zakros, the god of light and healing, was the symbol of hope and renewal. Recently the holy magic began to fail and the priests revealed that Zakros has a dark side of the trickster, hidden and known only to the highest members of the holy order. 

The priests also revealed that another temple, one devoted to the dark side of Zakros, lies within the holy hill, the entrance hidden in the deepest part of the catacombs. Normally, a secretive sect conducts all the necessary rituals, but apparently, they have recently failed to do so. 

The priests sent a group to investigate, but no-one has returned. Perhaps the heroes visiting the temple could investigate? If they manage to cleanse the sigils, the priests will happily heal them whenever they’re in need. However, a shadowy figure promises riches and power if they destroy the runes…

Failing sigils

The dark side of Zakros corrupted the monks, who poured dark magic into eight protective sigils magically inscribed in different parts of the temple. As a GM, decide if they’re visible or located only via a special ritual, by detecting magic or gazing into the aether. They can be also located in non-obvious places (ceilings, behind a tapestry, etc.)

Each rune has a special effect the PCs have to deal with before cleansing or destroying the sigil. Assign the effects as you wish. Sometimes combining several effects might lead to interesting situations.

1. Anyone interacting with the sigil is transported to the shadowy reflection of the temple. They can interact with the same sigil again, but from now on their shadow attacks anyone (friend or foe) within melee range. Staying in bright light is the only immediate solution to the curse!

2. The functions of all the sigils swap places at random.

3. Anyone interacting with the sigil for the next few hours at random intervals doubles in size or shrinks to the size of a pea.

4. A nearby sarcophagus opens, releasing a moderately powerful undead creature. Alternatively, the PC is teleported to a nearby sarcophagus.

5. All the giant skulls in the dungeon fire a blast of powerful energy.

6. All the doors close and it’s very difficult to get them open again (they’re stuck, protected by magic or elaborate locks).

7. All lights (mundane or magical) go out.

8. Discordant music fills the air, dispelling benevolent spells and making it difficult to concentrate.

When all the sigils have been disabled, the order is restored – but the dark side of Zakros sends its shadowy agents to deal with the heroes.

When all the sigils have been destroyed, the party must battle through the “good Zakros” priests, but once they’re safe, they receive gifts of shadow from their new patron… And those bearing the dark mark must obey their Lord in everything!

This adventure seed is designed to work with the Spellarena map of a "Crashed Airship". Although it is system-agnostic and can be used within different fantasy settings, it works best in the worlds where air travel is possible, such as Numenera, Eberron, or Soulbound. To make the ideas more universal, general terms were used for damage and difficulty.

Gears & Goblins

A tribe of goblins found an old crashed airship. Normally, they would loot or ignore it, but this tribe is special: they have Clank. Clank is a mad genius, a goblin whose mind is all about gears, machines, and explosions. 

Upon seeing the wreck, he went mad with glee and immediately set to construct strange devices. He also hopes to eventually salvage enough parts to launch the bow section of the wreck into the air and crash it in the middle of the hated human town below.

The citizens of the town send the party to investigate the strange lights and noises coming from the mountain. By the time the heroes arrive, Clank has built the following devices:

- The sparkler – three metallic rods attached to the ship’s prow, the ruined mast, and a goblin standing guard at the wrecked aft. When foes approach, the goblin points his rod at a target, and lightning courses through all three rods, eventually striking the target but killing the goblin. The lightning deals medium damage and is a medium threat.

- Hotstones – Clank removed strange, glowing stones from the ship’s magical furnace and gave chips of them to some goblins. They carry them, believing them to be precious or even magical. There is 1 in 10 chance that a goblin has a hotstone on them. 

When such a goblin is hit with an attack that deals a lot of damage (such a critical hit, more than half hit points etc.), the goblin explodes, dealing little damage to all creatures in the melee range. Warning! May cause a chain reaction!

- Killgear swarms – Clank is a master tinkerer and absentmindedly creates dozens of small spider-like mechanical creatures. They tend to form swarms and bury themselves in the ground, or infest tight spaces. Taking after their “father” they have a single purpose: to disassemble whatever they can – especially living creatures.

- THE BIG PLAN – Clanks has moved the ship’s magical engine to the bow part of the wreck. He is trying to turn the bow into a rocket and launch it into the town. Currently, he’s trying to attach the engine properly but gets constantly distracted by dozens of new ideas that invade his mind in this place of technology.

The encounter

There are a lot of goblins at the crash site, but they are unhappy with Clank’s tinkering – they keep dying in accidents and the ship is still a wreck. 

If the party chooses a direct approach and storms the wreck, Clank tries to launch the missile regardless of the project’s stage. 

This may lead to a powerful explosion! The party may also try to divide the goblins or pick them off one by one.

This adventure seed is designed to work with the Spellarena map of a "Town Market" (day and night version). It’s suitable for almost any fantasy setting.

A typical day

The following table presents ten events that may occur while the party is visiting the market during day or night. Choose one or roll d10 to determine what happens. The first five are day encounters, while numbers 6-10 are night encounters.