Windy City

Windy City

Background

The city of Dregg, nicknamed the City of Wind,  sits upon the high hill of Ourma. The city is home to some of the strongest winds in Gurdo. The city is also home to a very special type of hot air, Gnomes. Dregg is the site of the gnomish High Citadel of Knowledge. And with this establishment present, so are the many contraptions of the gnomish empire.


Scene I

A hairbrained gnome by the gname of The-one-who-thinks-in-parallel-with-the-theory-of-aerodynamics-and-the-great-gear-for-the-betterment-of-science, has recently come into a bit of misfortune. His Airship that he has been working on was blown away by the great winds after the negligence of his partner who tied the incorrect type of knot.

He is looking for anyone who is willing to travel downwind and find his craft, or what remains of it and bring back the deck bell for him. The bell was crafted by a friend of his grandfather and was passed down through his family.

• The One Who Thinks: 3HP Gnome. Immune to Earth based magic and Mind Control spells. 
• He carries on his person a small note book and pen to jot down notes. He also carries 7GP and a scroll that proves he is a member of The High Citadel of Knowledge.

The one who thinks does not offer a reward of any kind because he believes this all in line with the pursuit of true knowledge. However, if they pester him he finally agrees to find payment for them upon return of the bell. This amounts to 15GP, however the bell if sold is made of electrum and worth far more.

The One Who Thinks tells the party that the ship was blown down wind and they should search for it in whatever direction that may be.

Scene II

A path of wreckage lays scattered across the landscape and in the distance a small mountain seems to be smoldering. If the adventurers follow the debris, they find a small cavern entrance at the foot of the mountain. If they attempt to scale the mountain and crawl in the top, they a met with a distressing sight, the mouth of the chasm seems to have collapsed slightly and is impeding any movement downward into the chasm. However, with significant coin and workforce, one may be able to hire a force to excavate the site.

The cave is unknown to most people, however any character with a knowledge of local lore may recall that this cave was used for rituals to a long forgotten god. The interior of the cave have a couple things of importance. There are three pedestals standing in the center of the cavern path, the first pedestal has a carving of a spell wand upon it, the second pedestal has an icicle carving, and the third pedestal has a carving of a piece of parchment with writing carved upon it. The writing upon the scroll are arcane runes detailing a Freeze Spell. Any mage character can decipher these as such, however they do not gain the ability to cast the spell.

The tunnel goes on for some distance, but after a short walk the players come to a fork. They can go left or they can go right. Both tunnels look very similar.

Scene IIIa

Left Tunnel:

This tunnel  heads slightly farther left than the other tunnel but seems it curves around to run parallel at some point. The cave looks natural and almost as if a giant worm bored the hole. At the end of the tunnel, the players are met with a dead end. However, astute character may notice a slight breeze from the forward wall. Any rogue like players or spell casters who cast find portal or locate type spells may find that there is a hidden passage in the wall.  This passage is trapped.

• Ice Ray Trap: Any attempt to open or pass through this hidden door without neutralizing or disarming the trap cause the passerthrough to be hit by a ray of ice that causes 2 points of damage. All other players and NPCs within 5 feet of the effected take 1 point of damage. 
• The trap resets and fires again any time an additional person passes through or attempts to. 
• Anyone trying to disarm the trap without magical means takes 5 minutes to successfully disarm the trap. Any magical means that are designed to disarm a trap or device are automatically successful. 
• Disarming the trap should reward the player with some amount of XP or system equivalent. 

Behind the passage they find a long rectangular room that has a series of chests on the left wall, on the right side of the room however, they find 3 small slits that seem to pass through the wall. These slits peer into a room adjacent to this hidden chamber. And if the PCs look through these slits before they investigate the room containing the wreckage of the ship, they seem the ship. They also notice there are a group of kender in the room pilfering through the sips wreckage, however they see no sign of the bell. 

The three chests along the left wall contain the following:

• Chest A contains 27GP, however the gold is crudely made with the markings of what appear to be goblinoid.
• Chest B contains nothing except a slimy substance coating the bottom of the chest. This is just a jello mold and is harmless. Whatever was in this chest, was eaten away long ago. 
• Chest C contains a crude drawing of the puzzle in Scene IIIb showing the puzzle in the correct order, the writing is all in goblinoid. Additionally there is a rolled up scroll bound by lace. This scroll contains a one time use copy of the Ice Ray Trap that was armed on the door entering this room. (A wizard or similar character may be able to learn the spell and add it to his spell book if your system allows it, otherwise it just allows the user to cast the spell a single time.)

Scene IIIb

Right Tunnel:

This tunnel heads slightly left and then seems to curve and run parallel with the other tunnel. This tunnel after a short while seems to leave behind the natural shape of the cavern and turn into what seems to be more man made. The floors slowly reveal bricks and the walls slowly melt away to reveal fine crafted brick walls. Every few feet or so, there is a pillar on either side of the tunnel that is set half way into the wall. 

At the end of the tunnel, the hall stops and the players are met with a flat wall containing a set of three circles each smaller than the last and set inside of the previous. On the side of the large circles there is an obvious lever jutting out from the surface of the wall.  Each ring of the three circles contains approximately 10 different symbols. On each of these circles there are three familiar shapes, A Wand, An Icicle, and a Parchment with runes carved into it. The remaining 7 symbols or runes are all different and serve no purpose other than to confuse the players.

This is a simple puzzles for the players to solve, however any time they guess wrong, they are hit by the Ice Ray Spell trap that was present on the hidden door in Scene IIIa. (This instance of the trap can not be disarmed, but the players may find a different way to outsmart the trap.)

The players may recall their entrance into the cavern that there were three pedestals each with a symbol upon them. These were their clue about the order and alignment of the symbols.
The large circle should be turned so that the Wand is on the top, the second circle should be turned until the Icicle is upon the top, and the smallest circle should be turned until the Parchment with runes is on the top. 

If the circles are placed in the right order and the lever pulled, the door slides out of the way and allows access into the next area. Any attempt to pull the level before the circles are in the correct position, will set off the Ice Ray Trap. 

Scene IV

The door slides away and reveals are large chamber that is covered in debris of its roof collapsing. In the center of the room the remains of the airship. It has been pummeled by falling rocks and is shattered in pieces. Before the characters have much time to do anything though, the room that is filled with a dozen Kender turn and face the doorway, slack jawed and speechless until one kender holding a small sack in one hand and a staff in the other speaks up.

It has been some time since outsiders have found there way in here, perhaps you are kender in disguise? We kender have been living in here for some time, so you can imagine our surprise when this contraption fell through our ceiling and landed right here on top of our piles of spoons! OUR SPOONS HAVE YOU! We have spent years collecting, and unfortunately repeatedly losing our collection of spoons, but now... OH! But now our spoons are buried! 

The players can go about this in any way they see fit, but it is very obvious that the dozen kender are harmless and have no intention to fight, they are simply grieving their loss of spoons. The kender will answer any question that the players ask, however they more often than not start the answer as a story that takes place well before the events in order to make sure they tell nothing but the whole story. This can make the process a bit of a frustration for the players. 

After a short time of the kender relating recent stories and frustrations about their collection of spoons reveal their plans. The kender who originally spoke to the PCs reveals that this contraption had a great bell made out of a metal that would make a fine set of spoons. Out from his sack he pulls the bell. 

At this point the kender seems to show signs of relief as this bell with make their problems all go away. The players can attempt to get the bell from him but he is adamant on keeping it. 

(It is up to the GMs on how to handle this next part.)

The players have plenty of options open to them, they could try to reason with the kender, they could attempt to attack, or they could use mind altering magic to get there way. Out side of attacking the Kender and losing the battle, the bell should eventually leave the possession of the kender and enter the possession of the PCs. Although this should be a pretty sad affair for the kender who all had their hearts set on having a nice new set of spoons. 

• Kender: 2HP each. Each carry a staff or improvised weapon, since they were not ready for or expecting combat. 
• Each Kender also carries a random assortment of different kinds of spoons.
• Out of the 12 kender 5 of them should carry 1-3GP. 

Scene V

Once the players obtain the bell, they can return to The One Who Thinks and return to him his bell. He pays the characters and is over joyed at the occasion. However if the players fail to bring the gnome his bell he is extremely disappointed but understands if they have a reasonable excuse for why it was not returned. However, any mention of kender and the Gnome goes on a rant about the filthy thieves. 

If the characters decide to sell the bell, it is worth 50gp but any shop will try to give them a lower price in the sake of bartering. 

• The Bell: The Resonating Tomb. The bell is actually a magical artifact, however the gnome has no knowledge of this and have never question the bell outside of being an heirloom. If the bell is struck with a metal pole and the arcane magiks of the bell are spoken out loud, whatever living creature that the opening is aimed at is pulled inside of the bell and trapped until the bell is rung again or the user attempts to trap another creature, at which point the previous creature is expelled and thrown to the ground. (The effect only occurs if the target is not facing towards the bell when it is struck.)
• While in the bell, the creature can only survive for 15 minutes until they run out of oxygen. 
• The bell can only be used 1 time per month.