Chapter One: Into the North
You live in the mighty kingdom of Sileeria in the world of Korg. It is a magical place populated by beast-men, dragons, and demon lords. You are one of a select few, the best of the best, those hardy and stalwart heroes known as adventurers. You are a beacon of hope to the people in troubled times, and these are troubled times indeed.
Recently there has been a rash of break-ins throughout the northern trading village of Goran. The wise and respected leader of your people, Duke Gerrald, has requested that you assemble with a troop of the finest warriors the land has to offer and lead an expedition into the northlands where the thieves are rumored to have fled.
The Meeting with Duke Gerrald
The Duke, Gerrald, lives in a stately manor with many servants and butlers about. He has several very pretty serving girls, but you are led away before you can do anything about them. The butler pushes in a set of double doors and you see a scene right out of the Night Before Christmas: a crackling fire, dogs laying about on each other, and a friendly red-faced man wearing a black, bear skin coat that makes him look like a Viking sitting behind a polished oak desk. He waves to you. “I’m glad you could come so soon, heroes, the world needs more men and women like you.”
The Duke is generally straightforward and helpful, giving everything the heroes need to them and providing any information they might request. He sends a band of his ten best warriors with them, supplies, donkeys, gives them winter gear for the journey, and will provide each of them with 20 pieces of gold to buy any extra supplies or favours they may need on their journey.
If they so ask the Duke is willing to provide them a reward of 200 gold pieces each from the cities coffers, but that’s all he can afford. When they are ready to go he gives them a final word of warning:
The Duke frowns with concern for your safety. “I know you’re used to beating people up here where it’s warm, but up north….” He trails off. “Things can get cold, dead, and weird pretty freakin’ fast. Believe me, I know.” He pulls up his pantleg to reveal his leg cut off below the knee with only a wooden post in a boot. “Frostbite. Take care and bring warm clothes, my friends. I bid you good luck and may the thieves rue the day they set foot in our kingdom!”
Witnesses to the break-ins are scant, but it is known that the leader of the thieves was a ferocious dwarf accompanied by some fell beasts, one of which could breath fire. They stole most everything of value they could find in at least 50 homes, and seemed to have a particular leniency to things made of gold.
The North
A frozen tundra sparkles into the distance as far as the eye can see, broken only by massive glaciers and dark gray storm clouds whipping blizzards in the distance. You can see one point of sparkling light on the horizon. Perhaps an outpost or trapper’s cabin. You’re badly in need of supplies now, though you were careful with your food, right? so you feel a strong desire to make for this apparent ‘settlement’.
It’s up to the PCs whatever they’d like to do, but if they don’t head out to the settlement they’ll likely run out of food and oil and then either starve or freeze to death. If they hunt wild animals, build igloos, or otherwise use such tactics you can feel free to call for skill checks, make them role-play, and otherwise ‘work’ for their supplies.
Feel free to describe icy winds, hit the PCs with avalanches, snowstorms, hungry wolves, polar bears, crazed natives, and just about anything else you want. Now is also a good time to have some of the PC’s men freeze to death to illustrate the point.
Old Ned
If the PCs actually head out to investigate the pinpoint of light on the horizon they find a crazed old man in an abandoned trading post who has a stockpile of whale blubber and oils from the last time a whale was caught not far from here. He’s a wily old coot and will try to con the PCs out of as much money and goods as possible without giving them anything. The PCs can fight him, haggle with him, role-play, or otherwise do whatever they’d like.
You see three long structures made of frozen wood, windows unlit before you. It appears you’ve found an abandoned trading post. Maybe you can find some leftover goods and supplies here?
When the PCs investigate you can have the old man pop out at them.
You here a flurry of snow and a blur of movement catches the corner of your eye. Before you can spin around a bent old man stands before you grinning crookedly. “Hello boys, welcome to Fort Ice, ha ha ha, I hope you’ve come to trade?” His yellow eyes twinkle under mad white hair that wreaths around his head.
He’s quite mad and has some slight magical powers allowing him to teleport and change his shape, but nothing too elaborate. If interrogated he’ll reveal that he saw a band of elves led by a dwarf in a white suit heading up north with a sledge full of some shiny goods he would have loved to get his hands on.
The Cane
As you head farther north and the temperature continues to drop you spot a short pillar in the ground before you. It appears to be a spiraled red and white pole. Could this be the North Pole?
The pole is actually a giant candy cane dropped by the dwarf on his way north. It can be used by a magical character as a stave of mesmerization. Any creature it is pointed at must make a will save at +2 (10%) or be mesmerized for 1 round +1 round per successively failed save as long as the owner of the staff concentrates on that subject. Harming the subject negates the effect. The staff has five charges.
Any character who approaches the staff finds the hooked end is buried under the ice and the staff tastes like mint. Also, a pack of white wolves descends on the party. They’ve found that animals like to come and lick the staff so they hunt here. If half the wolves are killed the others flee.
There are 10 wolves.
Winter Wolf HP 1 RR 14 Damage 1d6 Movement: 4 Gold: 0 (meat and wolf pelt) XP: 50 each. Special: Any wolf who hits a target locks their jaw onto the target preventing teleportation, flight, and use of magic, and also increasing the RR of any other wolves attacking that creature by 2 to a max of RR 18. Escape Artist RR 15 releases the captive.
Seal Carcass
The next day you find the markings of hoofed creatures and a large sledge in the snow. There must have been at least a half dozen of the creatures and the sledge was quite large. You find a broken section of ice bordering the sea and the bloody carcass of a half-eaten seal. It was apparently ripped apart and hacked up by a dwarven axe.
RR perception 14 reveals a small silver bell that, when thrown, detonates as a grenade of 2d6 damage to any one target it strikes (RR 10 to hit man-sized creature).
The Workshop
A large building looms up under the shadow of nearby mountains. The windows are tall and brightly lit as if from heated forge-fires within. Several side buildings doubtless hold supplies and the individual cabins of the thieves. You can see a steel railway leading up into a nearby mountain.
This is the workshop of Saint Nick the thieving dwarf. He’s captured a load of elves and shrunk them with magic. They are now his mind-controlled slaves and do whatever he requests of them. At first he had them craft him magic items and wondrous pieces of gold and art from the loot he plundered, but now he’s decided it’s a much greater insult to them to have them fashion toys for children.
It is his personal mark to leave behind wooden trains and small bears at the residences he steals from. He’s not finished with Goran, so he hasn’t left his trade marks yet.
Nick the Dwarf has a bag of extra-dimensional space he stores his loot and ‘toys’ in, a magical flying sledge which obeys only his command, and a team of eight reindeer beasts who are loyal only to him and guard him fiercely. He also has one special reindeer who is huge and muscled, has a red nose, is ill-tempered, and breaths fire.
Currently he’s in his cabin gloating over his new loot.
Encounter Areas
There are three primary areas the PCs could explore: the workshop, the cabins, and the mines. Each one is listed below. There is also a stable where the rei
ndeer await their next victim with the magical sled that only obeys the dwarf, Nick.
The Workshop
You push in the large door and find row upon row of tiny shrunken elves hammering mercilessly on cheap wooden trains and stuffing dolls and teddy bears with a vengeance. The furnaces are constantly being fed coal by the little elves in chains and melting great amounts of gold and other metal for a metal-forgery off the side of the main building which is currently unattended. The elves look up at you and scream psychotically, raising their miniature hammers.
There are about 40 elves but they’re all chained up, so only 5 can attack at a time and if the PCs leave they can’t follow.
Shrunken Mind-Controlled Elves HP 1 RR 10 Damage 1d6 on a hit Movement: 2 Gold: none XP: 50 or 100 if freed from mind-control.
Anyone who looks closely can see the swirling dead look in the elves’ eyes that means mind control. Anyone who breaks their chains frees the elves so struck free and gains their eternal loyalty and gratitude. The elves explain they were captured by a mad magical dwarf wearing a white robe long ago and forced to thieve, plunder, and build toys and bars of metal for the dwarf for many years. They also tell of their captured ‘brothers’ in the dwarf’s coal mine situated in the mountains. They will not let the PCs rest until their brethren are freed and they’re desperate to return to normal size.
If they see the dwarf, Saint Nick, they will stop at nothing to kill him. They can tell the PCs his name and general capabilities and also that he was named a saint by the dwarves for his demeaning capture of the elves and their subsequent slavery and servitude.
The Freed Elves fight for the PCs as A. +0 D. 1 Move: 3 henchmen.
The empty forge contains 55 bars of gold, 70 bars of silver, and 200 bars of various other metals which are doubtless worth a lot but are very heavy (-1 all rolls if over-encumbered). Several crude weapons and sculptures lie about, the dwarf’s failed attempts at art and weaponcraft. Each bar is worth 100 coins of the appropriate type.
The Mines
Half a mile into the mountains you find a large cave, supported by rotting posts, in which you can see nothing because it is so dark. You can hear the distant sound of explosions and the tapping of miniature hammers and picks on the rock.
Before anyone can step into the cave a snow man rolls up out of the snow and stands up. RR 20 to spot before this and not be surprised. The snow man has buttons, a top hat, a corncob pipe, and a carrot nose. He is clearly Frosty the Killer Snowman RR 18 (20 with surprise for one round if applicable) HP 17 Damage 2d6 on a hit Movement: 10 Gold: none. XP 500 Special: When he’s first hit for damage Frosty starts singing a demented song and everyone must roll a Will save for fall under his mind control effect. Mind Controlled characters 50% dance around smiling stupidly, and 50% attack their companions until Frosty is killed.
Destroying the Top Hat of Evil is worth an additional 500 xp.
The elves trapped in the mines and scared out of their wits by the snow man who’s killed many of them. They mine coal for the dwarf’s workshop. The mines are also unstable and there is a 1 in 6 chance every 10 minutes a cave in occurs nearby (won’t kill the PCs but might scare them into hurrying).
If the elves can be convinced Frosty is dead they desert their posts and will stop at nothing to free their brothers and kill Saint Nick the Thief Dwarf. They also desperately want to return to normal size. See Workshop above for Freed Elf stats.
The Stables of the ‘Reindeer’
The Elves will not go near this place. Any PCs who enter the long building that is the stables see the huge magical sledge Saint Nick uses as his mode of escape after theft. It cannot be operated without Nick’s command and he has his ‘bag of toy holding’ with him elsewhere.
The reindeer are fierce and beastly, over-muscled, feral, frothing at the lips, mad-eyed, and with sharp protruding horns far too large for their species. They are not stabled and will attack anyone entering here viciously until dead. They are not required for the sleigh to fly.
There are eight reindeer.
Psychotic Beast Reindeer HP 13 RR 15 Damage 1d10 Gold: 0 XP: 250 each.
“Rudolph” is out disemboweling something so he’s nowhere to be seen at the moment.
Saint Nick’s Cabin
All of the other cabins are filled with useless junk, worthless plunder, and stacks of magical cookies which will turn anyone eating one into a mind-controlled shrunken elf.
You see a fat small dwarf wearing a red robe with sheep-skin linings. He has a despicable look to him, dark hair, and he’s examining a golden candlestick with some contempt. Beside his chair rests a large gray bag teeming over with loot and the scattering remnants of broken items of value which didn’t pass his inspection.
Saint Nick the Thief Dwarf HP 30 RR 16 Damage 1d10 Movement: 3 Gold: 5,000 in assorted stolen goods. Bag of toy holding 2,000 lbs. capacity. XP: 3,000 Special: Saint Nick has a magical bell he can ring to control all shrunken elves in his vicinity instead of his 1d10 damage attack. If he fears for his life he’ll toss 17 bunches of magical mistletoe at the party and run for it.
Each mistletoe requires an RR 17 mental skill check or Escape Artist check to evade its effects by shielding your mind or your body. He tosses equal numbers at as many party members as he can and multiple mistletoes require multiple skill checks. Anyone who fails this ‘save’ becomes hopelessly lovey dovey with any nearby members of the opposite sex for 2 rounds at which point the befuddled character will attempt to ‘kiss them’ under the mistletoe and break the curse. If they are unable to find a member of the opposite sex or are unable to kiss such a character they fall to the ground stunned for 1d6 rounds while mumbling “Jingle Bells”.
The Grand Escape
Nick runs for it and the magical sledge in the stables, cursing the PCs and vowing revenge. Any PC still in possession of their senses when this happens gets a free attack on him (no penalty for failure basic attack) and can give pursuit.
He jumps in his magical sledge which rises into the air and he escapes out into the night sky. Any surviving reindeer fly after him and flank him for defense.
If the PCs manage to board his sleight a fierce fight breaks out but if he’s killed the sleigh ceases to function and plummets towards the earth (and death). The PCs will have to hop onto reindeer’s backs, into his bag of toys, or something weird to escape and live.
If one or more of the PCs are left behind, Rudolph shows up and they can jump on his back and give pursuit.
Rudolph “The Beast” Killer Reindeer HP 25 RR 15 Damage 1d8 or 2d6 fire once per encounter. Gold: 0 XP: 1,000 Ability to fly.
Rudolph is psychotic and will attempt to bite the genitals off of anyone who tries to ride him, but he’s also very stupid and will fly towards the convey of Saint Nick and his demented Reindeer.
Dwarf Escapes! The
When the PCs finally take out Saint Nick he disappears in a poof of fairy powder, laughing diabolically. It appears he’s spontaneously resurrected himself and plans to still rob the village of Goran.
The PCs can trash his sled, loot it, and do pretty much whatever they feel like but they should find some of his magical fairy powder which teleports them to Goran. They then must lie in wait somewhere and wait for him to come down the chimney and pilfer the last of the village valuables after which point he plans to leave behind toys, cackle merrily, and set the whole place on fire (with Rudolph if available).
In the final battle he has only 10 hp RR 15 (weakened). Apart from his magical bag and 5,000 gold pieces of loot he also has magical fairy powder (1 round invisible as per the power). 7 1d6 silver bell grenades (RR 10 to hit most targets), and a magical glass ball that, when broken, will free all the elves and restore them to their normal size which they’re forever grateful for.
Victory!
The Duke smiles and shakes each of your hands in turn. “I can’t thank you enough for stopping that mad dwarf, what was his name? Nick? We would’ve been in a lot more trouble this winter if it
wasn’t for you lot. As reward I’d like to present you each with the promised 200 pieces of gold and the villagers have agreed you may keep the stolen loot as a further reward for your valiant efforts.”
Each PC additionally gains 2,000 xp for completing this adventure.
Adventure Pack One Free RPG Adventures Page 2