Sacrifice for the Bearded God

In Limnus Vale, a mountain deity is more and less than he seems! A short adventure full of produce theft, art supplies, hallucinogens, horny wizards, traps, puzzles, questionable child care, and riddles all inside a giant stone head.

The adventure is written for Old School Essentials, but is more or less compatible with any edition of D&D, old or new.  Take a look at my previous entries in this series for more information on the setting: The Village of Poddle, Ruined Limnus Encounters & The Ruined City of Limnus.

A BURGLED BARN

• Lola, the town matron of the halfling village of Poddle, owns a substantial vegetable farm. A large storage barn sits on her property.  
• Like all Poddle farmers, she has been preparing cartfuls of produce for Lord Grunewold’s thuggish tax collectors. The brutes are bound to be by any day to collect “The Lord’s Due”, the monthly tithe paid in a cartload of produce.
• This morning Lola awoke to a terrible discovery. The previous night, her barn had been inexplicably raided of provisions, and her elderly sheepdog Princess Saucy was found dead lying in front of the closed and locked barn door. There is no sign of forced entry anywhere. All of the doors and windows are securely locked.
• Lola is in a panic that she won’t be able to pay her due, and fears the punishment awaiting her.
  

KOBOLD RAIDERS

• Her barn has been the first target of a kobold raid upon the town-- not from above, but from below. Utilizing the natural tunnels beneath Poddle, a small band of Kobolds have dug an access chute directly beneath Lola’s barn in order to rob her.
• Under the cover of night they snuck in, and emptied the store of vegetables, and shuttled them down the tunnels to a hiding hole in the nearby woods.
• The intention of this theft, is to provide an acceptable offering to the terrible mountain deity, known as The Bearded God.

INVESTIGATING THE SCENE

• In the bushes directly below a high barn window (locked from the inside) is a small leather phial containing a few grains of powder (ground graveroot).
• It was accidentally dropped by one of the Kobolds as they were feeding Princess Saucy poisoned meat from the window to keep her from barking.
• The dog’s tongue is blackened from the graveroot.
• Several bright blue mushrooms scattered inside the barn.
• The odor of bitter animal musk hangs in the air. The kobolds slather themselves in giant insect secretions in order to travel the tunnels unmolested. The odor lingers.
  
• Below loose floor boards, a woven mat of leaves covnceals a 3’ hole in the ground. The hole drops 6’ and joins a network of natural tunnels running beneath town.
• Random vegetable scraps and three toed footprints following a northward tunnel.
• 150’ north of the drop is an east-west intersection. 10’ down the eastern hole, a spike can be seen hammered into the tunnel wall with bits of organ meat still clinging to it. Here the kobolds hammered a dead raccoon to distract the bugs (just in case) that lair further down the intersecting sub-tunnels.
• Any loud activity in the main shaft may rouse their attention, and the party will have to contend with 2 hungry Fire beetles in narrow quarters.

OUTSIDE PODDLE

• The northern tunnel eventually exits out into the forest outside of town. Kobold tracks (and vegetable droppings) follow a narrow footpath leading to a deadfall.
• Searching the deadfall reveals a concealed pit. Inside is the cache of halfling food stuffed into sacks. The Kobolds stashed this stuff the night before, and plan on returning shortly to deliver their offering to their god.
• If the PC’s wait long enough they will hear shrill whispers & approaching footsteps. Three spindly Kobolds in ragged hooded cloaks approach. If attacked they will promptly surrender.

THE KOBOLDS

Nukk- Blue scales, has a necklace of mouse skulls and shiny rocks, is eating a bag of blue fungus, blue teeth and gums.

Fung- Green scales, wearing a hat that is literally a decomposing possum tied to his head.

Jibjib- Rusty brown scales, a tattered halfling sweater and a long walking stick with a large dead bull frog nailed to it-which he licks nervously.
 

KOBOLD WARREN

• A few miles away a series of concealed caves along a rock face, opens into the Kobolds primary warren.
• A harem of 5 females remain there guarding several eggs and 6 younglings. The females will not fight unless their eggs or younglings are threatened. If the males are aware that their den is being threatened, they are likely to respond with inept violence.

SACRIFICE FOR THE BEARDED GOD

• These kobolds are cowards, and are easily pressed into telling their story. Jibjib explains that they are stealing this food not for themselves, but for the “Bearded God”, who threatens them and their eggs if they do not provide a sacrifice. Jibjib found the God shortly after they were evicted by Chief Lork from their old warren to the east, and forced into these nearby hills.
• One evening, Jibjib came upon a stone stairway that ran up a cliffside and led to a boulder strewn landing. He squeezed through the wreck of a fallen arch into a hidden cove, set back within a cleft of rock. Against the far wall of the cove stood a colossal stone statue of a great bearded head. Jibjib was so frightened he ran off, and came back with his brothers.
• It was then the bearded god spoke with a voice like thunder and demanded its first sacrifice. A mother goat, by nightfall the next evening, or DOOM should befall all of them and their kin! When the goat was delivered the God spoke again--they must return in exactly one week with wool blankets and a bushel of apples or else... DOOM!
• Every week they returned with the god’s sacrifice, but the God demanded more. Apples, potatoes, squash, chickens, pickles...anything they could steal from the halfling’s fields and sheds at night.
• Realizing that there was growing danger in pursuing these requests, the kobolds soon began the project of tunneling beneath Poddle in order to make their theft more covert and efficient. Lola is simply the latest victim of their ongoing larceny.

 

THE GOD'S HEAD

• The kobolds will lead the PC’s to the bearded god if asked, but will not willingly follow them up into the god’s clearing. The winding stone steps lead to a narrow foot path that squeezes through the wreck of a broken arch and into the hidden cove.
• A 30’ statue of a crowned dwarf’s head sits upon a massive 6’ tall platform in the farthest end of the clearing.
• Sheer cliff walls run up 150 feet on either side. Scrub grass and broken stone litter the ground.
• Arched portal is cut into in the left walls of the cove, leading to shadowed alcove.  
• Alcove is a low room, with natural columns of rock veined with sparkling black garnets.  Surrounds a 4' wide hole that drops down 25' to the Mud Pit area (see below). Smells of ammonia.
• Edge of hole is covered with bat guano. Activity here attracts a swarm of bats.

PSAMATHOS, RESIDENT WIZARD

• The stone-head is in fact a hollow tower, and abode of the lazy wizard Psamathos.
• Psamathos is short and fat, large red lips and a broad curly beard. He is happy to trick and swindle his way to a life of luxury, idle painting, and arcane dabbling.
• He is endlessly amused at the kobolds stupidity, but has a somewhat practical reason for the kobold’s sacrifice. He is feeding a baby giant.
• Psamathos discovered a baby Ettin in a cave some months ago, and decided to raise it in the basement of his lair as his loyal minion. Its growth rate has accelerated in recent months, requiring an increasing supply of food to satisfy its prodigious hunger.
• The giant baby is quickly outgrowing its cage, but Psamathos hasn’t acted on this yet. He has been distracted by an ongoing love-affair with a beautiful woodland fae that he calls Calliope.
• Calliopee is mute (or doesn’t talk) but they enjoy making love, drinking wine and eating the halflings food. Psamathos is also an energetic amateur artist, and spends hours sketching and painting his curvaceous muse. Dozens of lusty sketches are piled haphazardly about his lair.
• Psamathos is phobic of outsiders and would rather flee than negotiate, but he’s no fool. He values his life and knows when he’s been bested. Depending on how the PC’s play their interaction with him, he could be a potential ally. If Psamathos is threatened, he will try to flee first, relying on his various traps to neutralize his opponent. If cornered he will use his magic ruthlessly, but will surrender if things seem to be going badly.

VOICE OF THE GOD

• When the party first approaches he head, the Bearded God speaks with a voice like cracking thunder. “HOLD MORTAL!!! Leave your sacrifice and come no closer, lest ye feel the wrath of the Bearded God!!!” 
• Psamathos uses Auditory Illusion to throw his voice out into the clearing and amplify it to a terrible volume. If the party approached any closer, he will cast Chromatic Orb (using one of the many dangling gems from the observation deck) through the empty eye sockets of the statue. If this defence fails he will race upstairs to arm his traps and flee to the tunnels below.

PSAMATHOS' TACTICS

• His tactics include retreating to the Mud Pits and using his magic ring to levitate up the shaft to escape. If Psamathos is pressed, he use his magic and Wand of Illusions to thwart the PCs in any way he can. 

Psamathos

Illusionist, level 4, hp 11, AC 13

Spells: Auditory Illusion, Chromatic Orb, Blindness/ Deafness, Fascinate

Ring of Levitation

Ring of Protection +2

Wand of Illusions (10 charges)

Silver dagger

STONE HEAD TOWER

1st Level  

Studio Lounge

• At the top of the head is a stone plug with a handle. The trapdoor is locked from within, but can be forced open with a Strength check.
• The smell of incense is heavy in the small furnished room within. Woven rugs, tapestries, a small easel is set up with watercolor paintings. Paint, charcoal, jar of water. Paintings on the wall of rocky landscapes, figure drawings of a nude elf on the couch in a leather folder. 
• Couch pushed against wall. Large golden birdcage on a pedestal. Potted ivy and orchids. Pipe in pipe stand with jar of leaf, jug of sweet wine (half drunk), two goblets, on a small table. Glass bulbs dangling from thin chain glow faintly.
• Ladder leads down through porthole.

Frog Trap

• A metal cage is bolted to a low stone pedestal. Inside the cage is a large iridescent stone frog (AC 16, hp 8). Out of its mouth streams a gout of sweet smelling smoke. Make a poison save or start hallucinating.
• Characters who fail the save enter a fugue state where they believe they are turning into a frog-person. Characters suffer a -2 on attacks and saves, until effects resolve. The drug wears off in 1d6 turns.
  
• The cage is locked, but can be broken open. On the underside of the frog is the word “Somnus”. If spoken, it croaks once and the smoke ceases. If the frog is broken, it explodes in a cloud of green smoke that looks like hundreds of hopping frogs.

2nd Level

Observation Deck

• Heavy ladder leads down frm level 1 into this level, connecting to two wooden scaffold-like platforms before reaching the floor. The platforms are at the eyes and mouth of the dwarf head. Peepholes look out from here into the outside clearing.
• At the “eye level”, a wooden stools sits next to a small mounted telescope. Variojs crystals and gems dangle from string catching the light (Psamathos uses these to cast Chromatic Orb). 
• At the mouth level, another simple stool, with a jug of half drunk wine, and a half eaten wheel of cheese.
  
• At the floor level, a sliding door is set into the wall opposite the platforms leading to the elevator trap.
•  A swinging door in the floor leads down to level 3.

Elevator Trap

• The sliding door from the observation deck leads to a small chamber the shape of a half cylinder bisected along its height. Inset into the wall near the door is a lever with a pulsing red glass ball on the end. A framed watercolor of two deer with the faces of women rubbing noses- is mounted next to the lever at about eye height.
• If the lever is pulled, it locks into the “down” position. The sliding door locks and the far wall begins to slowly pivot. In two rounds, the pc’s will be swept into a 40’ chute dropping down to the Mud Pit below (4d6 falling damage, save for half).
• The painting hides a panel. Within are three glass balls (with threaded sockets). Blue, green, purple, and an empty spot for the yellow ball (presently in the cabinet trap). If the red ball is replaced with the green, the lever can be moved back into the “up position”, the trap stops and resets. Purple, and Green do nothing.

3rd Level

Wizards Lab

• Small bedchamber and study. Tapestries on walls. Rugs on floor.
• A shelf with books (field guides to giants and giant kin, several hand-made field guides to plants, animals & fungus, Remedies: Magic & Mundane, Abjuration Theory & Practice) desk, with quill, ink bottles, parchment, reading lenses.
• Painting of a sexy elf with bare breasts, wearing a mask of leaves holding a baby unicorn in her lap.
• A pile of parchments with scrawled text common letters next to archaic dwarven letters. Book of ancient dwarf language (A Dozen Dead Dwarf Dialects) is open on desk.
• Sliding door leads to adjacent workshop.

Workshop

• A work bench with vials of crystal powder. Wooden cubby attached to the wall. Clay pots filled with herbs and dried mushrooms, insects, bones, fingernail clippings, feathers, dehydrated snakes, birds, frogs (eat a frog and cure the frog-voice). Mortar & pestle, several clay jugs of different types of liquid (alcohol, olive oil, sea water, etc.). Pile of firewood. Inventory of regents, etc.
• Small (hot) wood burning stove (black cylinder with swinging door- exhaust feeds into wall).
• Ebony salamander cabinet (see below)
  
• Trapdoor leads to a flight of to stairs leading down to the sublevel.
  

Cabinet Trap

• Small ebony cabinet pushed against a wall. Black salamander statue with orange eyes (worn paint) and wide open mouth is mounted on top, hot to the touch. [Deactivate trap by pushing both eyes down] Two doors swing open. It is locked. Testing the doors without disarming the trap will cause the salamander to blast a tongue of flame (2d6 damage; save for ½) .
• The chest contains a potion of healing, several pouches of gems and fragrant oil, a pouch of gold and silver, a yellow threaded ball that fits the lever (activates elevator), a translation of the monolith riddle in a scroll case & a backup spellbook.

Sublevel: Landing & Well

• Stairs wind down 30’ to a landing. A circular well is cut here & fit with winch and rope. Barrels of water, and buckets are pushed up against the wall.
• Roots dangle out of the earthen ceiling. A barrel filled with bent metal, broken weapons and scraps of armor.
• Two passages split off. Smells of unwashed animal and urine- stronger to the left, tangy metallic smell to right.

Rust Chamber (to the right)

• Wooden door, latched with a wooden peg. Small irregular stone chamber with piles of red dust scattered about. A small hole in the wall is the den of Psamathos’ pet Rust Monster. A small fissure in the ground on the far end of the Rust Monsters lair leads to the Mud Pit room.
• A wider hole opens in the ceiling & leads up to ground level after about 30 feet A swarm of bats live in there and will attack anything that tries to descend or ascend that takes more than 1 round.

Food Storage/ Nursery (to the left)

• Storage room, filled with stolen provisions.
• As the PC’s approach they notice a total absence of sound. Hanging from the ceiling is a severed human ear, stuffed with wool, dipped in wax- the word “hush” is tattooed in tiny script hundreds of times upon it. It creates a 15’ zone of silence. Removing it from the string ends the effect. Reading all of the words while it dangles will recreate the effect.
• Against the far wall is a 4’ x 4’ cage, covered with a tarp. Crouching inside of it is a juvenile Ettin- it has almost outgrown its cage. Its skin is gray and pebbly. It’s two faces porcine, shovel jawed, with small tusks.
• If the silence is broken it starts to grunt and bellow and shake the cage as the PC’s approach. It will wail and point its fingers at it’s two mouths. If it is left unfed it will rage until it breaks out of its cage.
• In the far corner of the room is a fissure in the floor, that tumbles 15 feet down to the Mud Pit area.
  

MUD PITS

• Mud filled chamber that wraps around the complex. 1' of sludge throughout.
  
• A Carrion Crawler has been attracted to this chamber due to all of the shit and scraps being washed down the hole. 
• This is where the PC’s will fall is they fail the elevator trap, if they climb down the guano hole in the alcove, or through the crevasse in the nursery.
• There is a stone landing here where the elevator touches down if activated with the yellow knob.

Island and Monolith

• A boulder rises out of the center of the muck. Upon it is a black obsidian monolith with a dwarf  riddle inscribed upon it.
• If the riddle is solved, a hidden door slides backs revealing a tunnel and stairs leading down into the abyss below.

The Riddle:

Born in the grave, I am one yet two

I am small, yet golden towers rise at my passing.

Men cast me into the sea, but my filth feeds empires

(Answer: a worm)