Hidden monster in a house quest

Quest

A cleric of Erathis named Melissa meets up with the PCs and asks
them to come along to her temple.
In the small temple lies a body, prepared for burial.

When she lifts the veil covering it, there are bite and claw marks
on the body of the human male.
She tells the PCs:
"This body was found 4 days ago in a dark alleyway.
His name is Kris, a baker nearby. We don't know who would want him
dead, so I prayed to the gods for an answer.
They show me visions of a house nearby, I know where it is.
I know the inhabitants, a nice couple:
a female Tiefling named Hope is in there with a human male named Brandis.
I didn't go to them yet because the monster might still be there and
attack on being provoked.
And I don't want to worry them by telling this, for now they seem safe.
I tried to get them out of the house but they wouldn't leave.

So could you go to the house and look if my visions about the monster are correct?

As a reward I'll give you a free Holy Water (level 11; see Divine Power rituals)"
The Holy Water is also for sale at 350 gp.

Examining the body

A Nature DC 15 reveals that the bite marks are quite small, so the monster may be a small creature or a creature with a small mouth.
A Heal DC 16 reveals some necrotic residue in the claw and bite marks.
A Religion DC 16 with the necrotic residue points to the monster being undead.

Going to the House

The neighborhood in which the house is located is filled with
Tieflings and halflings and they notice the PCs entering and leaving.
Hope answers the door, she doesn't want anyone entering the house but will
eventually let the PCs in.

A female Tiefling named Hope is in here with a human male named Brandis.
They have an adopted human child named junior.
The windows are barricaded shut, Brandis is busy in the kitchen chopping up meat and junior is crawling through the residence.
There is one large bed for the couple and a small bed for junior.
There are 2 closets containing used clothes.
There is only one light source in the building, the brander.

Hope is sitting at a table and invites the PCs to sit down.

There are some forks, knives and plates on the table with
the forks and knives becoming a bit rusted.
She has a high Bluff (Insight DC 21) and will say she knows
nothing about the murder or the monster.

When her Bluff fails her or Brandis comes back from the kitchen,
the following events happen:
Junior takes out a filthy razor from inside his clothes
and (surprise) attacks one of the PCs.
Brandis takes out a large kitchen knife and Hope kicks down the
brander, making the room pitch dark.
Hope grabs one of the rusted knives and attacks the PCs.

Combat Encounter

The parents are unrisen Adults, the child is a Corrupted Offspring.
They can be found in Open Grave under Unrisen.
Unrisen are people who came back wrong after a Raise Dead ritual.
They are undead but look normal, they try to fit in.
As undead they possess darkvision and have the advantage with the lights out.
There is only one light source in the building, the brander.
Their tactics is to let the child surprise attack one of the PCs and then put out the light, then use their darkvision to kill them.
Unrisen look normal in all ways. They can be detected with
Holy water (a few drops are enough) or the Corpse Light ritual.
When they are near defeat, they try to run outside and make the neighborhood side with them.
Should that happen Melissa will help the PCs when asked and use drops of Holy Water to prove the nature of the unrisen.

Level 10 encounter:

• Corrupted Offspring (vulnerability to radiant reduced to 5)
• 2 Unrisen Adults (same stats as Corrupted Offspring, except they have only this attack:
  Rusted Knife (At-Will), +16 vs. AC,    3d6 + 6 necrotic damage

Valna, Elven Druid

Valna, Elven Druid

Valna was born in the forests west of Fallcrest and raised in a
large community of elves dedicated to the primal forces of nature.

She trained herself as a druid, protecting nature from threats
of undead, civilization and other destruction.
Her community and the forest weren't really under a lot threat.

As Valna discovered her beast form, that of a bear, she compared
herself to other druids as to who had faster or agile beast forms.
She also looked at various animals in the woods and wondered
if there were ways to have the best of both worlds.
For example the strength of a bear with the agility and speed of a tiger.

So she began crossbreeding related species and became
frustrated by the time it took to achieve anything.
Valna choose to look at insects and saw ants carrying a
wounded butterfly to their nests.
She took them all and managed to transplant the butterfly wings
to a large ant.
Happy with this success, she started experimenting on larger
animals. This went on until the other druids found out and banished her.
With most of per druid powers stripped from her and the loss
of her community, she obsessively started focusing on grafting,
transplanting body parts from one creature to another.

She wants the to create more powerful grafts and hybrid creatures to
finally impress her former community, even by force.

Role in a campaign

Valna is doesn't back out from a fight, so she won't be a big bad.
Her actions may impact the PCs long before they meet her:
hybrid creatures, grafts, mutilated creatures due to experiments, etc.
She is suited as support for an organization.

Stats

Valna level 14 Elite Controller
Medium Fey
Initiative +13            Senses Perception +18
HP 150; Bloodied 75
AC 29, Fortitude 24, Reflex 27, Will 30
Speed 7
Action Points 1
Saving Throws +2

Standard Actions

 

Scythe (At-Will),    +15 vs. AC,    2d4 + 9 damage
Savage Rend (At-Will; Beast Form),   
                         +18 vs. Reflex,   
                         1d8 + 14 damage, target slides 1 square
Fire Hawk (At-will; Range 10),    +18 vs. Reflex,    2d8 + 14 fire damage
Thorn Spray (Encounter; Close Blast 5),   
                         +18 vs. Reflex,   
                         1d6 + 14 damage, target takes -4 to defenses until end of next turn
Clinging Drones (Encounter; Close Blast 5; Beast Form),   
                         +18 vs. Fortitude,   
                         2d8 + 14 damage, target is slowed and can't shift (save ends both)
Sun Beam (Encounter; Area burst 2 within 10),   
                         +18 vs. Will,   
                         1d10 + 18 damage, target is blinded (save ends)
Floating Death (Encounter; Burst 1; Beast Form),   
                         +18 vs. Reflex,    
                         4d6 + 24 damage, druid shifts 4 squares
Wall Of Stone (Encounter; Range 10),
                         solid stone wall with 100 hit points is formed around target creature

Minor Actions

Central Eye (At-will; minor; Range 10), +18 vs. Will, target is dazed until druid's next turn

Drink Potion (Encounter; minor), Valna gains 40 hit points and saves against condition
Telekinesis Ray (twice per encounter; minor; Range 10),
                          +18 vs. Fortitude,
                          target is pushed 4 squares
Hold Ray (twice per encounter; minor; Range 10),
                     +18 vs. Reflex, 
                     target is restrained (save ends)
Confusion Ray (twice per encounter; minor; Range 10),
                     +18 vs. Will,
                     target charges nearest ally and makes melee basic attack
Death Ray (twice per encounter; minor; Range 10),
                     +18 vs. Fortitude,   
                     2d8 + 9 necrotic damage, if target is bloodied it becomes dazed (save ends);
                     first failed save: dazed and weakened; second failed save: death

Change shape (At-will; minor): change between human and Beast form and shift 1 square,
                          has central beholder eye grafted in chest in both forms.

Reactions

Autonomous Eye (free; when enemy starts turn within 5 squares),   
                     +18 vs. Will,
                          target is dazed until end of next turn

Alignment Lawful Evil Languages Common, Elven
Nature +20, Heal +20, Insight +18

Tactics

Valna isn't that powerful in a fight. She has a central Beholder Eye grafted in her chest and smaller beholder eyes on her arms.
She keeps these eyes hidden except when she has to fight.

In a combat encounter, she'll hold back at first and let her creatures attack while she attacks in human form at a range.
Defenders will be targeted by her Stone wall.
Once one of her creatures gets bloodied, she'll change shape and get up close
to be able to use her beast form powers and autonomous eye.

Example Encounter

Valna is working in her private room.
Several dead creatures like cockatrices and magic hounds are lying dead on the table.


There are 5 cages:

• upper large cage holds kobolds and goblins, mostly with arms and legs removed
• upper left cage holds 2 medium-sides beholders with eyes removed, scared of any sound or gesture
• upper right cage holds 3 blinded Medusa
• lower left cage holds several dire rats
• lower right cage is empty

Most creatures are famined or near-dying.
When Valna gets hit they cheer.


Level 16 Encounter:

• Valna
• Chimera (found in Monster Manual)
• 2 Owl Bears (found in Monster Manual; level them up 6 levels)

Nim, Gnome Illusionist

Nim, Gnome Illusionist

Nim never knew his real parents.
His first memory was feeling hungry in an alleyway in a city.
When he begged for food, some people gave him food, most didn't.

He noticed quickly that he could change his appearance at-will,
looking like another small creature.
Like this, he started pretending other people and tricking others
into giving him food, clothes, gold, whatever he wanted.

After a few months of hide and seek with the city guards, he was
caught. Instead of jail, a wizard living in the city agreed to take
him as an apprentice.
He learned there that he is part doppelganger.

After many years he became a powerful wizard, but was still
a trickster at heart.
He desires more wealth and finds misleading those he thinks dumber than him immensely satisfying.

Role in a campaign

Nim can be used as the main villain, but is more suited to being the spy/infiltrator of the big bad.
He interacts with the PCs before his final battle with them,
and many players will want to bring him down.

Stats

Nim level 14 Elite Controller
Small Fey
Initiative +14                Senses Perception +16, low-light vision
HP 140; Bloodied 70
AC 30, Fortitude 24, Reflex 28, Will 28
Resist 10 Psychic
Speed 5
Action Points 1
Saving Throws +2

Standard Actions

Quarterstaff (At-Will),    +18 vs. AC,    1d8 + 10 damage
Phantom Bolt (At-Will),    +18 vs. Will,    1d8 + 14 psychic damage, target slides 1 square
Grasping Shadows (Encounter; Area burst 2 within 10), 
                                   +18 vs. Will,    
                                   2d8 + 14 damage, target is slowed until end of next turn
Visions of Treasure (Encounter; Area 2 square within 10; Sustain minor: Close Burst 5), 
                                   +18 vs. Will,  
                                   target is pulled 3 squares; target that ends its turn in zone 
                                   becomes  immobilized (save ends)
Enemies Abound (Encounter; Area burst 2 within 20), 
                                   +18 vs. Will,    
                                   2d8 + 14 psychic damage, target is treated as ally for flanking
Taunting Phantoms (Encounter; Area burst 2 within 10), 
                                   +18 vs. Will, 
                                   target makes a melee basic attack against a creature (even itself) 
                                   and takes 5 damage each time it misses with a melee attack (save ends)
Vanishing Act  (Encounter; Range 10), 
                                   +18 vs. Will,    
                                    3d6 + 14 damage, Nim becomes invisible until the start of his next turn
Mesmeric Hold  (Encounter; Range 10; up to 3 creatures), 
                                   +18 vs. Will,    
                                   2d6 + 14 psychic damage, target is immobilized until end of next turn

Illusory Wall  (Encounter; Wall 8 within 20; Sustain minor), 
                                   +18 vs. Will, 
                                   wall blocks line of sight for enemies; enemy can pass through
                                   if it resists attack
Greater Invisibility (Encounter; Sustain minor),  
                                   Nim is invisible until end of next turn or until he attacks

Minor actions

Deceptive Veil (At-will; minor),
                                   Nim gains the appearance of any humanoid race of the same size category
                                   as himself. His clothing and equipment alter appearance
                                   to reflect this change.
Drink Potion (Encounter; minor), Nim gains 25 hit points and saves against a condition
Ghost Sound (Encounter; minor)

Reactions

Fade Away (Recharge 5 6; immediate reaction when damage is taken),
Nim is invisible until end of next turn or until he attacks

Shield (Encounter; immediate reaction): if hit by an attack raise AC and Reflex by 4 until end of next turn

Alignment Lawful Evil Languages Common
Bluff +20, Stealth +17, Endurance +17

Tactics

Nim can use his Deceptive Veil to infiltrate an organization, posing as another small creature (gnome, halfling) or a child. His high Bluff skill helps him with this.

His Ghost sound combined with Taunting Shadows  can make it look like a betrayal, for example city guards turning against civilians.

As a wizard, he can use several interesting rituals:

• Hallucinatory Creature
• Hallucinatory Item
• Secret Chest

The illusions set up enemies of him against each other, or create distractions so he can escape.
Secret Chest is used for escaping when given enough time to cast it.

When Nim is attacked, he escapes easily:
Illusory wall with Greater Invisibility: illusory wall stops attackers from following him and Greater Invisibility combined with his high Stealth makes him unfindable.

When Nim cannot escape combat he tries to avoid damage by turning invisible and immobilizing enemies.
Nim can use Shield and drink potion to protect himself.

When near death he tries feigning his own death.
When an attack damages so that he's near death, he'll bluff falling to death.
With his Endurance he can stop breathing for a while and temper his blood flow to fool enemies.

Example Encounter

The map below is used for this example encounter.

The brown colored doors are made from wood.
The PCs enter by the south west door.
The black squares indicate solid stone.
The grey twirly squares contain hallucinatory items,
meaning they look like solid stone to others (Insight DC 30).

The Hallucinatory Creatures ritual creates decoys, preferably transparent
undead like wraith in the central hallway near the northern door.
Fake walls are Hallucinatory Items that have been made permanent and
take an Insight DC 30 to see through.
Nim uses Ghost Sound to make the wraith illusions more believable.

He has 2 fake illusionary creatures of himself with fake shield guardian.
It takes Insight DC 30 to see through. One copy is in the north western part of the room, the other in the eastern part of the room.
Nim is hiding behind in the northeastern part of the room with his shield guardian. The Air Elementals are spread throughout the room and will only attack after Nim does.

They are to shoot anyone entering the central hallway and he will shoot
at the same person so that there are 3 attacks on one person (2 fake, 1 real).

Level 14 encounter:

• Nim
• Shield Guardian (found under guardian entry in Monster Manual)
• 3 AirElementals (found under elemental entry in Monster Manual 3;
     need to be upped 4 levels)

Grafts in D&D 4E

Grafts

In the Open Grave supplement for 4E are undead grafts.
For example zombie arm, wight's claw, mummy's eye, etc.
They usually give additional power at the expense of undead vulnerabilities.
Meaning the creatures that have undead grafts gain a vulnerability to radiant damage.

Why stop there?

If it is possible to graft undead body parts, living body parts should
be possible as well.
Here is list of possibilities:

• Beholder's eye - gain eye beam power
• Basilisk eye - gain petrifying gaze
• Scorpion tail - gain poison sting attack
• Dryad Claw - gain claw attack and treestride (teleport next to plant)
• Medusa eyes - gain petrifying gaze
• Rust Monster stomach - gain ability to eat magic items
• Angel wings - gain Fly ability
• Shambling mound tendrils - gain regeneration and lightning affinity

Depending on the compatibility between the graft and the creature receiving the
graft there may be disadvantages.
Grafting isn't widespread, it takes a high Heal and Nature skill
to pull it off.

D&D 3.5 has more graft possibilities than 4E:
see Stitching Things Together: The Graft Handbook

Where the grafts are placed

Eyes can be placed anywhere:

• large eyes on the chest
• small eyes on arms or topside of hand

Tails and wings can be attached to the back
Why limit a creature to only two arms or one tail?
For example: the  Skeletal Tomb Guardian found in the monster manual.

Used for PCs or NPCs

Grafts should only be used on NPCs.
Using grafts creates unique NPCs with surprising powers
and weaknesses. An example of a grafter is Valna, Elven Druid.

I think it's a bad idea to give to PCs as a reward.
As a punishment grafts could work, like the ones in Open Grave.
The idea of someone putting grafts on the PCs to make them do
what the grafter wants is interesting, but it's best that
the players are on board with that idea first.

Storytelling in Keep on the Shadowfell

Storytelling in D&D: Keep on the Shadowfell

I find telling a story in D&D quite hard.
My first experience as a DM was Keep on the Shadowfell.

Keep on the Shadowfell

When I first read the adventure I had no opinion whatsoever
about it. My experience in 4E was limited to being a player in Kobold Hall.

As we progressed into the adventure, the NPCs seemed boring
and one-dimensional.
You have the friendly innkeeper, the old sage, the mayor,
the spy, the healer and the big bad.
The adventure recommended giving the NPCs mannerisms, details and background.

I changed the sage into and old man looking to extend his
life with necromancy.
I made the mayor stupid and incompetent.
I made the spy the mother of the big bad which gave him
a background. That way the PCs had some idea about him
before the final battle.

The big bad had many creatures working for him, like kobolds.
I changed it so the kobolds worship dragons and Tiamat.
They are offended by humans expanding into their lands with
farms and digging up stuff in a nearby dragon burial site.

Later on, the PCs encounter an undead fallen knight as a skill
challenge.
I gave him a quest in which his undead family should be
killed to grant them all peace.
As he was the former leader of the keep I wanted him to have
a bigger role in the story.

Near the end of the adventure, some PCs had left the group
permanently. I made them come back as undead versions of
themselves to attack the PCs.

My conclusions

The NPCs were static and boring. I made them more
memorable with a background and a more active role in the story.
I gave them a chance to be more than a NPC waiting for the PCs
to come by and perform his or her role.
I wanted the PCs to know a bit about the big bad before the final battle.
Otherwise the final battle is a hard battle at the end instead of a climax in a piece of fiction.

The cliches are overwhelming in this adventure:

• the NPCs exist only to fulfill their role

• all enemies either work for the big bad or attack anything in sight

• there are no reasons given why intelligent enemies attack, except that they serve the big bad or get paid a lot
• the big bad wants to open a portal for no other reason to serve his master and gets interrupted by the PCs

How to tell a story

Unlike other types of fiction like books, movies, television, etc
the story isn't set in stone.
Players should have meaningful choices and a way to impact
the world.
That is why I give the PCs situations and see how they react.
For example, in Keep on the Shadowfell, the PCs could

•   destroy the kobolds
•   could talk to them to end the fighting
•   just leave them alone

To make these kind of choices, I give NPCs more backstory and motivation.

The second difference with other types of fiction is that
there may be quite some time between getting into a situation
and having to make a choice about it.
In real life, there can be weeks or months between the two, depending on how often the group comes together.

The third difference lies in the players don't understanding the situation.
This can be because they choose a different path the DM thought they would take. Or that the DM forgot some details or underestimated the information the players need to understand the situation.

The second and third difference can be fixed with repeating information the players need to understand a situation.
I learned this the hard way and found a helpful site:
http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/1118/roleplaying-games/three-clue-rule