Written In Stone
Hello everyone and welcome to Grave Plots, where each and every week we bring you new adventure ideas and plot hooks to get your game going in style. This week we turn our attention to adventures involving the mortal threat of petrification. Adventures involving petrification are found commonly throughout folklore and mythology, and below you find the seeds for three great adventures surrounding this iconic topic.
The Basilisk
The Face of Death is a wicked assassin with a reputation for discretion, efficiency, and for being the only basilisk for hire. The Face of Death is an advanced half-fiend basilisk assassin whose clientele consists mainly of particularly wealthy and cruel individuals seeking to keep a permanent trophy to commemorate the defeat of their enemies. Even such individuals often hesitate, however, to hire The Face of Death, not from any moral qualms, but due to his rates, which are known to be extremely high even for the warlords, vindictive nobility, and dark religious organizations that form the majority of his business. Luckily for the villain on a budget, The Face of Death has been known to accept certain items or services in lieu of gold, though even the blackest-hearted villains are hesitant to pay these alternative prices. Those who do find the need to call upon The Face of Death’s services will find that the price was well worth it: The Face of Death has a 100% success rate during his 11 year career as an assassin, and during that time it has become clear that so long as his contract remains valid, his loyalty to his employer is unwavering and his work ethic and efficiency are legendary amongst modern assassins.
The PCs have unfortunately earned the ire of Baron Gervon Hemrick, a wealthy landowner with a reputation for both cruelty and secrecy. The PCs recently ruined (unintentionally) one of the Baron’s foul machinations, involving some heroic deed they earlier accomplished. Unless the PCs possess a particularly great amount of foresight, the connection between what it was Gervon hoped to achieve and what the PCs earlier accomplished is not immediately clear. The Baron, looking to strike at the PCs without revealing himself, has hired The Face of Death at great cost to permanently put an end to his problem.
The PCs begin to notice something wrong when former associates and even strangers passing by begin to distance themselves from the PCs. No one will explain why they are so on edge around the PCs, but their evasiveness and unwillingness to answer questions will likely put the PCs on edge. After nearly a full day of getting the cold shoulder, a former ally of the PCs approaches them, apparently relived to see them alive. He explains that someone has hired The Face of Death to assassinate them. This ally can tell the PCs little about The Face of Death himself, except what is known by reputation (including the fact that he is a basilisk). He does, however, claim to have a plan to save their lives, which he begins telling the PCs. Their ally is certain (and with good reason) that the PCs probably won’t survive an attack by The Face of Death, and so figures that their only hope is to somehow convince The Face of Death to back off. Based on his reputation, the PCs ally is sure that The Face won’t accept a bribe or a plea for mercy and so the only resort open to the PCs is to somehow get the contract canceled. A few ways to do this include: discovering who put the hit out on them and convincing them to back down; finding out who put the hit on them, then killing them; or finding some way to put a stop on the payment to The Face of Death. Should the PCs choose one of the first two options, they will have a lot of investigation to do in a very short time, followed by a confrontation at the Baron’s estate (an adventure in and of itself), all the while having to hide from a dangerous and skilled assassin. The results of this confrontation will likely shape the PCs’ future relations with the Baron and the assassin. If the PCs manage to find a way to cancel the contract without involving the Baron, then they have only found a temporary solution to their assassination problem, and as soon as the Baron can round up the funds he sends The Face of Death after them again.
For future development, you could have the Baron attempt to involve the PCs (with or without their knowledge) in some future scheme of his. If the PCs have killed the Baron, then perhaps one of his descendants comes after them, seeking vengeance or else to offer his gratitude for dealing with his foul ancestor. Additionally, the PCs might have future relations with The Face of Death, either having to save someone else from his deadly stare, or meeting him under less hostile circumstances, perhaps to team up on particularly dangerous job. The PCs might want to hire The Face of Death themselves, and conduct an adventure gathering up the “fee” to pay for his services.
The Medusa
Emaria is a medusa living in a cave outside of the town of Merthania, where the townsfolk have long been aware of Emaria and bring her regular sacrifices of gold and silver to ensure the safety of the town from her. Recently, however, the town has stopped delivering sacrifices to Emaria’s cave due to the discovery of several young men who were found turned to stone in their beds. The occurrences are becoming more and more common and the townsfolk are planning to leave Merthania for settlements elsewhere, selling their current lands to a middle-aged wizard looking to expand his holdings. However, a few of the more hard-line townspeople refuse to leave their homes without exhausting every possible option, and so they have reached out to the PCs to deal with the medusa living in the nearby cave.
When the PCs arrive at the cave, they find the interior to be filled with startlingly accurate stone sculptures of human men and women, apparently in the middle of their daily activities. As they pass through the cave the sculptures become increasingly more elaborate in their detail. Near the back of the cave an enchantingly beautiful medusa is caressing her latest statue work; hearing the PCs approach, she pulls the hood of her cloak down to shield her eyes and turns to greet them. If the PCs appear ready for battle Emaria attempts to forestall them, telling them in a merry voice that it’s been so long since she last had visitors to her cave, and that she would prefer not to be forced to hurt the PCs in self-defense, fingering the hem of her cloak as she speaks. If the PCs make any mention of the petrified townsfolk, Emaria express genuine concern and professes her innocence, begging the PCs to believe that she had nothing to do with the attacks in town (which is, in fact, true). If the PCs engage her in conversation about the statuary in her cave, the eccentric medusa reveals that sculpture has been a passion of hers for the better part of two centuries, and asks what the PCs think of her work. If this doesn’t satisfy the PCs, she then proceeds to demonstrate her rather amazing talents on a small block of stone. PCs who ask about the stopped offerings get Emaria’s response that she assumed the village fell on hard times; if the PCs ask what happened to the rest of her treasure, she explains that every month a priest of Pelor comes by to collect her regular donation to the widows’ and orphans’ fund. If the PC’s still don’t believe her she is prepared to fight, though she uses her gaze attack only if it seems her life is in real danger. If the PCs do believe her, she requests their help in finding the real culprit and clearing her good name.
A short investigation should reveal that a local wizard named Herman Bellheart has been hoping to purchase the land that Merthania is located on so that he can expand his own private holdings and conduct research on the unusual minerals found beneath the town. The townsfolk will also tell PCs (rather bitterly) that since the attacks started it looks like Bellheart will get his chance to conduct his research after all. From there, a short jump should lead the PCs to the conclusion that the wizard is responsible for the petrification attacks. The wizard flat-out refuses to see the PCs, and if they want to speak to him they will have to fight their way up his tower, battling constructs and bound elementals on the way. Once the PCs reach Herman, he realizes they have him beat and so admits to everything, allowing the PCs to take him into custody to face trial. If the PCs attack him, he immediately opens up with flesh to stone and fights a rather short but fierce fight to the death.
The Mad Druid
Oscar Pios is a druid hermit living outside the town of Wellrest, and has been conducting astrological research in order to divine the future. Oscar’s research has led him to the conclusion that Wellrest is about to suffer an attack of immense proportions, as a horde of basilisks and cockatrices will descend on the town in the very near future. Oscar has tried to warn the town about the coming attack, but the townspeople seem to believe he is mad beyond belief and making things up in order get a little attention. Still, determined to save the town, Oscar conducted a little traditional research and formed a plan.
The PCs’ aid is soon after requested with great urgency by the town’s mayor, as his town has apparently come under attack from a mad druid. The mayor explains that the spellcaster is simply too powerful for the town guard to contain, and unless the PCs can do something the town’s entire population will fall prey to the madman. He explains further that the druid in question is none other than a local hermit named Oscar, and that the madman is succeeding in the systematic conversion of the town’s populace from civilized humanoids into furry little rodents, weasels specifically. The mayor blames himself for not paying closer attention to the hermit, and believes that if he had been more on point then this whole thing could have been prevented.
The druid can be found in the townsquare, calmly polymorphing townspeople while militiamen struggle pointlessly against an entangle spell. When the PCs confront Oscar he calmly explains that he is doing this for the townspeople’s own good, and when the basilisks and cockatrices come the townspeople will be grateful he thought to save them. He promises to turn everyone back once the invasion has concluded, and he tries to send the PCs away with that. Should the PCs choose to fight and do any damage to Oscar he moodily retreats, claiming that they’ll be sorry come the morning!
The next day, PCs who hang around the town witness an unusual sight: a horde of basilisks and cockatrices descends on the town from all directions, petrifying everyone in sight. Particularly observant PCs may notice that, while all other forms of life seem to be becoming petrified, any remaining weasels seem perfectly immune; in fact, the high concentration of weasels seems to have put the monsters on edge, and soon after noticing the rodents, they turn and flee in the other direction.
Interested PCs may track down Oscar, who is very forgiving of how he was earlier treated, to receive more unlikely but possibly accurate prophesies.