September Short Adventure 21: A Pound of Flesh

Preamble

A September of Short Adventuresis an OSR Challenge initiated by Matt over at the Asshat Paladinsblog. You can click on the Moustache Dragon over on the right-handside-bar (just above Features) to learn more about all of this stufffrom Matt directly. All of our 25 (possibly more...) entries areformatted along the lines of what Matt calls the Get Ready, GetSet, Go! format. In a nut-shell, this approach breaks eachadventure into a Title, Three escalating sections of adventuredetails (the Ready section is limited to an elevator pitch only 2sentences...), and a final catch-all section for any NPC notes/stats.The idea is to keep it short, simple, easy to read without any maps,drawings, diagrams or 8X10 glossies. Keep description to a minimum,avoid lengthy exposition, and no casts of thousands -- unless it's aninvading horde of three-eyed orcs or goblins riding purple wombats.

We're also going to aim to keep thingsgeneric, setting agnostic and thus portable or adaptable to anycampaign/setting using the particular rules-set we'll be using in anygiven September Short Adventure such as Mutant Future,Labyrinth Lord, Swords & Wizardry (White Box), etc.

FreeRules

Labyrinth Lord:http://www.goblinoidgames.com/labyrinthlord.html

Mutant Future:http://www.goblinoidgames.com/mutantfuture.html

Swords and Wizardry (White Box):http://www.swordsandwizardry.com/whitebox.htm

SeptemberShort Adventure Number 21

Title: A Pound of Flesh

Rules: Swords and Wizardry (WhiteBox)

Ready

It is a cold, drizzly night out on theroad and the Player Characters are just passing-by a twisted old treegrowing at the side of a cross-roads. The old tree has been used agibbet for hanging convicted criminals for generations; 1d6 bodiesare swaying from half-frozen ropes right now.

Set

The sound of shovels striking frosty,muddy earth ceases suddenly as the Player Characters continue onwardspast the gibbet-tree.

Out there in the darkness, past thehedge and the partly tumbled headstones of the local cemetery acrossfrom the gibbet-tree, someone is digging.

Should the Player Characters choose toignore this and ride/walk onward to the next village for a hot mug ofcider and a warm bed for the night, all will be well and good forabout 1d4 nights, after which time a newly-assembled Flesh Golem willcome barging into the village raising all sorts of fuss and ruckus.

If the Player Characters elect to gosnooping around in the cemetery in the drizzly night, then they willdiscover Herr Doktor Heinrich Morbius, late of the Academy atWuftstopp or some such place, and his hired gang of cut-throats andformer circus side-show attractions who are busily digging up spareparts for the next series of experiments.

Go!

The diggers are a grumbling, unhappylot who are only doing this out of desperation. At the first sign oftrouble they will panic and run off, leaving Herr Doktor all on hisown in the drizzly night to face whatever justice the PlayerCharacters care to dispense.

Their cart will contain 1d4 cadaverswrapped in burlap. The scrawny horses hooked-up to the cart aremiserable and shivering in the cold, and will bolt if surprised,leading to all sorts of potential mishaps and fun in the slippery mudof wide-open graves in the dark...

For his part, Herr Doktor Morbius is afairly charming sort (CHA 17), and he has a little money set asidefor a rainy night like this (say 3,000 gp or thereabouts, back at hisroom at the local inn), and he does have impressive soundingcredentials and titles, and so forth, with a slight claim to somedistant, foreign aristocratic blood-line. So he will definitely tryto charm, plead, wheedle and negotiate himself out of this rathercompromising situation. Being the sort of man he is, Herr DoktorMorbius may try to hire the Player Characters to finish the job andto help him with his Great Work.

Herr Doktor Morbius is extremelyearnest at this moment, but he remains a duplicitous, treacherous,and completely conscience-less fanatic driven by his obsession overgolem-making and 'beating death.'

Herr Doktor will require more and morespecimens to continue his work, and he doesn't care where they comefrom, but he will increasingly require fresher and fresher subjectswith which to experiment upon, leading the Player Characters tofacing some moral and ethical challenges that could very well haveserious implications in respect to their future well-being.

Working for thisguy will present a lot of challenges in short order,guaranteed...

Better get theRandom Mob of Villagers ready, just in case...

If the Playersreject Herr Doktor's blandishments as he attempts to hire them, hewill meekly accompany them into the nearest village or town andquietly, even obligingly let them arrest him and place him in thehands of the local constabulary.

Then it getsinteresting as the constabulary are far more likely to believe HerrDoktor's version of the story as he is an upstanding person ofdistinction, while the PCs are wandering vagabonds. Given a littletime, Herr Doktor Morbius can round-up a number of paid witnesses(most having had time to clean off the grave-mud) to help make thecase even more damning against the players who could find themselvesunder charges of grave-robbing and worse.

Sometimes doing theright thing is the worst possible thing you might have done.

This one could leadoff in all sorts of directions...

Notes / NPCs

Flesh Golem(1d4) [HD 12; HP 68; AC 9[10]; ATK 1 fist; Move 8; Save 7; CL/XP12/2,000; Special: Only lightning(which heals the thing), fireand cold spells (onlyslow it down) affect it, and you need a +1 or better weapon to harmit.] (S&W[WB]Bk III p. 19)

Assistants/Witnesses(2d4) Treat as either Dwarves, Elves or Halflings. Leather armor,shovel, dagger. They are not paid enough to fight anyone and at thefirst sign of trouble they will vamoose, abandoning their erstwhileemployer. Perhaps if he paid better...

Herr Doktor Morbiusis your basic, garden-variety 8^thlevel wizard obsessed with golem manufacture and given to anoverly-inflated sense of his own importance in the grand scheme ofthings.