Spring | Summer 1 | Summer 2 | Fall |
Winter | Dolmor | Esperia (DM's map) | Esperia (player's map) |
NPCs | Ruins of Greytower | Parchment & Tiles | Deities |
Vorax Inc.
While the characters are having fun at playing in the ruins, Vorax decided to find someone who could be an accolyte for some time and to help him in his quest for Jivaldi. His target is Dexter, the potter of Dolmor.
Dexter goes near the Tormaris river, east from the Valley of Rocs, about 3 or 4 times a year, to pick up some fresh clay for his pottery shop. Dexter owns a small cart and borrows a horse to get there. Dexter never encountered any problems since he as been going there, not even a single goblin in his path in many years (they don't eat clay). Dexter was never gone more than 24 hours when he goes to get clay, but this time he will take more time, he will never come back like he was before.
Dexter and his horse didn't stand a chance agaisnt the insanity of Vorax and his wolves. Vorax took Dexter's body (not dead) to his cave while the wolves were having some horse dinner. Later, he threw away the cart and what was left of the horse in the river. Vorax kept Dexter prisonner until the curse also started to affect him, until he also turned into a werewolf. Vorax is planning on using Dexter as a decoy agaisnt the characters, making them think Dexter is the one they are looking for.
When the characters are back from the ruins, they should be told that Dexter as been missing for 5 days and they need some people to help finding him (and the horse). If the pc's needs any healing when they come back, they can get some for free from father Lehar at the temple. It is also possible, by pure luck, that the pc's will stumble upon Vorax's lair when they come back. That's only if they really cross the spot where the lair is. Now with Silveredge with them, they should be confidant about going back on adventure.
Where's Dexter?
The villagers know approximatively where Dexter goes to get the clay, he always travel alone and he as no family in Dolmor. The pc's are told to travel along the Tormaris river until they reach the small old bridge that crosses the water, toward the Valley of Rocs. Then they should find the clay pit somewhere in that area.
The trip to the bridge is going fine, nothing happens on their way there. After they cross the old wood bridge they will find the tracks left by the cart and horse, they just have to follow (no tracking roll). The tracks goes to a muddy area close to the river, this seems to be the clay pit, but there is nobody around. The it's a total chaos of tracks, paws, horseshoes, boots and blood. It seems a fight happened here, there is a very large print in the clay (the horse when it fell down) with a lot of blood. On a perception roll, the pc's can also notice some small pieces of horse flesh in the blood. On a tracking roll they can notice there is two different pairs of boots in the tracks, about 6 wolves were around too.
A bit further away the tracks left by the cart are deeper and goes toward the river (the remnants of the horse were in the cart when Vorax pushed it in the river). On a perception at +2, a piece of wood can be seen coming out of the water. This piece of wood is part of the cart, it was not pushed far enough to completely hide it in the water. If someone goes in the water he will find the cart and the carcass of a horse, in a vomit state of decomposition, but no signs of Dexter's body.
From the clay pit, the tracks of wolves goes westward, toward the hills. There is no tracks of boots anymore but one of the wolves is leaving deeper and larger prints.
The Case of the Foaming Wolves
After leaving the area, Vorax knew that someone will probably come after Dexter...if anyone cared. He went back to his lair with Dexter's body (still alive) and his wolves. He didn't stay there very long, not wanting anyone, especially the pc's, to come to Dexter's rescue and find the lair. So he left with some of the wolves and went into the Dolmen forest, far east from the village. This is area #9 on the map. For the character's, it's impossible to find their tracks to the new lair.
If the characters follow the tracks toward the hills, they will finally come close to a cave entrance in one of the hills. The cave entrance is about 6 feet high and 10 feet large, it's totaly dark inside. If the characters wait some time to see if anyone will come out of the cave, nothing will happen unless they wait a few hours (then a wolf will probably get out). If they approach the cave and peek inside (from the outside or not), read them the following:
You hear some horrifying growling sounds and then some weird yapping noises. As you were probably stepping back a bit from the cave, you see coming surprisingly quick toward you four wolves. They look very angry, and a disgusting thick saliva is dripping from their mouth. |
4 Rabid Wolves (they
fight to the death)
Ac: 7 | Thac0: 17 | Attacks: 1 | Damage: 1d4+2 |
Intelligence: 5 | Size: Small | Alignment: Neutral (Evil) | Movement: 18 |
Moral: 18 | HP: 17, 15, 13, 12 |
Special: Save vs charm at +3 Poisonous saliva: After combat, save vs poison or lose 1hp/day from fever until cured (cure disease). |
The entrance leads to a 25 feet long tunnel which turns left to 30 feet large cave. There is a lot of wolf and boots tracks on the ground, also some garbage (leftover food, bones from different animals) and excrememts. On a successful perception roll the characters could notice a spot on the ground where the soil was turned over. If they dig on that spot they will soon discover an horrible mutilated body of a man. It's impossible to tell who it was, he is totaly disfigured, slashed everywhere. But from the description they got in Dolmor for Dexter and from what he usually wear, this body looks a like him.
The body is not Dexter, but the one of a total unknown person (you needed one). That person just came across Vorax's path and that was perfect for his plan. He killed and buried him in the cave with Dexter's clothes so the pc's will think they found the right person. There is nothing else in the cave that could help the pc's finding Vorax and the body is so badly damaged that it's not a very good idea to bring it back to the village but they could bury it in a better place.
With his new accolyte, Vorax moved to the Dolmen forest east of the village. He is plotting against the characters so he could get his paws on Jivaldi during the Harvest Festival in fall. With his newly acquired spell Alter Self he will be able to blend in the crowd, not knowing that the pc's probably have Silveredge with them.
Dexter have no family in Dolmor, he is from Tormaris. His business will be given to some family members in Tormaris and they will probably sell it.
End of Summer - The characters should normally have gained one level each just before starting the fall. You can also include a small side adventure before fall, but nothing big and nothing that could change the current scenario in any means. And don't give them any other magical items or loads of cash.