September Short Adventure 25: Down in the Hole

Preamble

A September ofShort Adventures is an OSR Challenge initiated by Matt over atthe Asshat Paladins blog. You can click on the Moustache Dragon overon the right-hand side-bar (just above Features) to learn more aboutall of this stuff from Matt directly. All of our 25 (possiblymore...) entries are formatted along the lines of what Matt calls theGet Ready, Get Set, Go! format. In a nut-shell, thisapproach breaks each adventure into a Title, Three escalatingsections of adventure details (the Ready section is limited to anelevator pitch only 2 sentences...), and a final catch-all sectionfor any NPC notes/stats. The idea is to keep it short, simple, easyto read without any maps, drawings, diagrams or 8X10 glossies. Keepdescription to a minimum, avoid lengthy exposition, and no casts ofthousands -- unless it's an invading horde of three-eyed orcs orgoblins riding purple wombats.

We're also goingto aim to keep things generic, setting agnostic and thus portable oradaptable to any campaign/setting using the particular rules-setwe'll be using in any given September Short Adventure such as MutantFuture, Labyrinth Lord, Swords & Wizardry (WhiteBox), etc.

FreeRules

LabyrinthLord: http://www.goblinoidgames.com/labyrinthlord.html

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

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

SeptemberShort Adventure Number 25

Title: Downin the Hole

Rules: Swordsand Wizardry (White Box)

Ready

The playersdiscover a hole in the ground that they just barely avoid fallinginto. There's someone down there...

Set

The immediatearea around the hole is slippery, treacherous and uneven.Investigating who or what is down there will take some cleverness,ingenuity, spells or lots and lots of rope. It is a challengingsituation, not an impossible one, and anyone with a little effort andforethought can either lower someone down to investigate things, orat least make a good attempt at extricating whomever is down therewithout too much difficulty. At least in terms of getting themselvesdown there, or the victim brought up to them...then it getsinteresting...

Attempting tocommunicate with whomever is down there will reveal that there is infact someone down there and they appear to be injured orwounded. There is blood. If left down there, the harsh winter nightwill kill them via exposure, or the wolves or worgs will surely getthem.

What do thePlayer Characters want to do about this?

Go!

This is not an excuse for ambushing the Player Characters while they are in the middle of doing a good deed. Far from it. The hoary old chestnut of the damsel-in-distress as the monster can work, and we've allowed for that down below, but really this scenario starts to get interesting when you move past the falling damage, broken rope gambit, or just giving your vagabond miscreant PCs some sort of moral dilemma. The real meat and potatoes of this Short Adventure comes from the implications and repercussions of how the characters respond to the initial set-up.


Sometimes doing the right thing will lead to terrible outcomes. The worst monsters are not the balrogs or dragons, but the ones that look like us. What really makes this sort of encounter work is to play-up the social aspects, the gratitude of the victim's family, the hatred of those who see the PCs as idiotic meddlers in things they know nothing about and should leave alone. Secrets and shame, the kind of subtext and greasy underlying sense that things are just not quite right. Imagine Lovecraft's Innsmouth run by worgs and not fish and you're half-way there...


Ifthis is taking place out in the woods prior to Short Adventure 24: A Babe in the Woods the young girl will be unable to talk—her tonguehaving been cut out.

Ifthis is taking place around the time of Short Adventure 23: A Snowy Evening then the young boy down in the hole will identify himself asHans, the son of the local cobbler. He claims not to know how heended-up down in the hole. He is lying. There are 1d4 worgs downthere with him—they will let him go free if he lures down better,more meaty prey...

Alternatively,if you prefer, the injured person down in the hole could instead bepoor old Franz from Short Adventure 22: Art Thieves. Franz might havefallen into the hole while trying to escape from a pack of worgs thatchased him after he crossed the frozen lake. Franz may or may not becapable of speech. He might also have various bits of loot stolenfrom Lord Rupprecht's salon that he could use to bribe the Players torescue him. Also, whomever Franz works for might have sent someone tohelp retrieve him after his daring escape from Lord Rupprecht'schalet...so there could be further encounters and entanglementsgalore just from pursuing that angle...

Anotheroption is to have one or more Therioclast Troopers trapped down inthe hole. The party then has to sort out whether or not to save thefanatics who will very likely accost them for just being out in thewoods and even if the PCs do rescue them the troopers will remainhighly suspicious of them. Those worgs and their allies are a craftylot, very tricky. Depending on how that plays out, the PCs could earnthe grudging gratitude of Somber Jill and her Therioclast troops...ortheir vengeful enmity...plus those worgs are watching and they justmight decide to take advantage of any situation that the PCs leaveopen for them to sow more chaos, discontent, distrust and falseleads...

Andthen you might consider a slightly more Shirley Jackson meets ArthurMachen approach—the child down in the hole was driven out of thelocal village as a suspected ally to/depraved consorter with theworgs. Or they were sent out into the woods as a sacrifice to keepthe village safe from the worgs (a classic fairy-tale extortionscheme). Bringing either or both of Hans and Greta back to thevillage will seriously and adversely impact the reaction rolls ofeveryone noted as being in the group that brought them back. If thevillage was making a sacrifice, they'll be guilty and afraid of beingreported to the Therioclasts. If they drove either or both of thechildren out of the village as worg-spawn, then some might repent oftheir harsh deed and others will want to finish the job. Role-playing opportunities and bad accents abound.

Ifeither or both of the kids actually are somehow tainted by theworg-spawn, then it gets violent as the worgs will be watching whathappens and they (or their allies) will intervene if necessary. Ifthe children are innocent, what then? How will the PCs handle thefrightened villagers? Will a mob arise? Will the villagers call outthe Therioclasts and Somber Jill to drive off the PCs who are'obviously' in cahoots with the worgs?

Oh,and as a more Hammer-like twist, either or both of the children couldbe the product of Herr Doktor Morbius' (see Short Adventure 21) latest experiments in tissue regeneration and golemification...or ifyou really want a more Hammer-esque spin on things, either or both ofthe children could be runaways from the village who have decided tojoin the circus...from this post at Old School Heretic, perhaps...

Evenif there is just a simple peasant girl down in that hole, who's tosay that she isn't somehow tangled-up with the worgs? (She could evenbe pregnant with another hybrid-child, or she might be a suitablewet-nurse for the babe if they recovered it in Short Adventure 24...of course, whatever you decide, this woman does not exist in a vacuum and may have familial ties to the worg-cult, the Therioclast-fanatics, or other factions. This is a chance to muddy the waters with all sorts of contradictory loyalties, bad choices, social obligations, lingering vendettas or feuds, unspeakable secrets hidden within local blood ties and relationships that could lead to all sorts of troubles, conflicts and great opportunities for misunderstanding if the PCs just start to talk to this simple, harmless victim whom they've just rescued...)

Whicheveryou decide to use, remember that there are worgs in these woods.Clever beasts who have mingled their blood with humans off and onover the centuries, and they are most definitely watching, waitingand looking for a chance to sow chaos, terror and mayhem amid theirenemies...

Notes/ NPCs

Greta(1) [HD2; HP 12; AC 9[10]; ATK 1 dagger; Move 12; Save 17; CL/XP:1/20]

Hans(1) [HD1; HP 7; AC 9[10]; ATK 1 club; Move 10; Save 18; CL/XP: 1/10]

CorruptedWorgs (2d4) [HD 4; HP20,20,18,18,16,15,14,12; AC 6[13]; ATK 1 Bite; Move 18; Save 15;CL/XP: 4/120] Note: These creatures are supernatural and have somemeasure of human in their ancestry due to unspeakable rites performedby demented cultists long, long ago...there will also be another 2d4of the things out in the woods, watching...

Franzthe Flesh Golem (1d4)[HD 12; HP 68; AC 9[10]; ATK 1 fist; Move 8; Save 7; CL/XP 12/2,000;Special: Only lightning(whichheals the thing), fireand coldspells (only slow it down) affect it, and you need a +1 or betterweapon to harm it.] Note: Franz works for someone, possibly HerrDoktor Morbius from Short Adventure 21: A Pound of Flesh? (S&W[WB]Bk IIIp. 19)

TherioclastTrooper (2d4) [HD 3+1; HP 12 on average.; AC6[13]; ATK 1 weapon; Move 12; Save 16; CL/XP: 4/80; Special: +2 onSaves vs lycanthropy] Grim and dour warriors who might be eitherHumans, Dwarves, Elves or Halflings. Studded-leather armor, crossbow(with a mix of silver and iron headed bolts), silver-headed hand-axeor blessed scythe, rune-engraved short-sword and skinning-dagger.These are hard-bitten professionals who exterminate shapeshifters andeach one has a 10% chance to spot one outright.