Mephit Fever
January 11th, 2011
Hello everyone, and welcome to another exciting Grave Plots, where we bring you new plot hooks and adventure ideas each and every week. Those of you who regularly read the other articles on this site will know that we have come out with several articles surrounding the mephit monsters, and over the course of the past several months Alex and Justin have gated in more of the infernal little monsters than one can count. In the end, the guys managed to contain the foul beasts with some rather ingenious magical wards, and all seemed well.
I should have known better. A magical ward, it turns out, can only contain so many mephits, and, as they continued to summon their ilk, the magic broke down and now the mephits are loose once again. Their first target? My writing workshop. The little pests began causing such terrible chaos that I was forced to listen to their demands. The foul creatures promptly informed me that the fans had something called “mephit fever,” and that they would not cease the destruction of my workshop unless I agreed to write an article about their various exploits, deeds, and legends. Hoping to save what was left of my lab, I hesitantly agreed to the mephits’ terms and began conducting interviews, listening to their rather incredible tales. Some of these seemed too incredible to believe, while others were too mundane to print. Surprisingly, there were a few stories that I thought would actually make good Grave Plots, and so I am choosing to think of this mess as a happy nightmare rather than a hostage situation. Below lies the greatest of these tales.
The Mephit Chest
Iserd, Lord of the Vast Elemental Chaos and Embodiment of Light, claims he was one of the mephits featured in this story; whether or not this is true, the story was simply too interesting to not pass it on to you.
At a time of relative calm for the PCs (perhaps even a first adventure, thought it may be kind of an awkward start), while they are all resting together at their home, stronghold, or an inn somewhere, there is a knock at the door. When the PCs go to open the door they don’t find anyone there; however, a large, highly polished darkwood chest is waiting at their doorstep with a note attached. The note simply reads “for [the PCs’ names], for services that may be rendered in the future, with love, your friend, Lexsanna.” The PCs should look puzzled; after all, they just got a strange chest from a woman they’ve never heard of, but, given the circumstances and aloof but friendly tone of the note, they will probably take the box anyway. PCs who immediately open the box find a lovely young woman, about 2 feet high with white butterfly wings and a partially transparent, pale white body. Her nebulous cloud of black hair lazily hovers around her shoulders and her eyes, which run through every color you might see in the spots left after looking at the light too long, and seem just a little too large on her lovely face. She beams at the PCs before closing her eyes and silently nodding to herself. Then, beaming once more, she bolts from the box, taking to the air with a speed completely inconsistent with the graceful beat of the butterfly wings on her back, and begins merrily whizzing about the PCs. She introduces herself to each of them in turn, saying her name is Viessanthia Sylfornia Exenthi, but that they can call her Vi for short, or anything else they please for that matter, and she hopes that they will grow to be fast friends and is looking forward to spending time with them.
When the PCs ask Vi to slow down and explain what’s going on, she pauses briefly and explains that she has been sent to them by Lexsanna to serve as their new void mephit servant. PCs who succeed on a Knowledge (the planes) check will quickly find out they’ve never herd of a void mephit. A slightly higher DC will reveal that, in the wizard custom of sending mephits as messages, a void mephit refers to receiving no mephit at all. If the PCs show any doubt in the reality of Vi being a void mephit, she begins crying in an adorable fashion, before asking the PCs in a little girl voice why they don’t believe in her. Her mood soon brightens if the PCs make any attempt to placate her, and she merrily goes on about being a generally personable, technically subservient, companion to the PCs.
In an hour the real fun starts. Every hour for one week a new mephit of a random type (no more void mephits though) emerges from the chest to begin wrecking havoc on the area around where the PCs are currently staying. The mephits, while technically subservient to the PCs, make no attempt to greet them and just sort of start wandering about town causing trouble, doing whatever they please. The screams of townsfolk may very well be the first thing to alert the PCs to all their new mephit “servants.” Whenever the PCs passes by one of these mephits, it springs to salute them, asking if there is anything he can do for them. These mephits obey any commands the PCs give them for around one hour. If the PCs destroy the box in an attempt to stop the mephit flow then the mephits appear wherever the box was; if the PCs move the box, then the mephits still appear there but come after the PCs. If the PCs slay a mephit, it immediately splits into two different random mephits who serve the PCs for up to one hour at a time. Containing the mephit mob may be difficult for the PCs, and unless they come up with some way to stop them, possibly using methods including a bunch of nets, a big cage, and/or a rod of cancellation, they continue their rampage more or less unimpeded.
Six days after the mephits began arriving, a middle-aged wizard comes running into town and begins browbeating the mephits into telling him who’s in charge. The mephits point out the PCs, and the wizard goes straight to them to get their story. The wizard introduces himself as Toban and asks if this mess might have anything to do with a mage by the name of Lexsanna, a long time rival of his. He then offers his assistance in dealing with the mephit threat. With their permission, he works his mass banishment spell, and sends all the mephits back where they came from, wherever that may be. In the event that the PC ever have any further dealings with Lexxsana, he offers his services, encouraging them to seek him out to help them deal with her.
Even after all the mephits are gone, Vi remains. If the PCs ask why, she calmly states that that spell was designed to banish mephits, and that a void mephit is no mephit at all. Vi continues to travel with the PCs as their faithful squire, but she harbors a great secret: she isn’t all that she appears to be. What exactly she is, is ultimately up to you, but a good obvious choice might be the mage Lexsanna. Toban and Lexsanna continue to pop up, involving the PCs in their rivalry with exciting results.
The Great Mephit Ship
This story was a little hard to believe, but an independent source has confirmed that at least parts of it are true; for the rest we must rely on the word of Brindle, Daughter of the Sky Waves and Chief Captain aboard the legendary mephit sky ship.
The story was simple enough: finding themselves in need of a crew, a group of humans summoned up a rather large group of mephits to serve them in running a fantastic ship which sailed on the air as well as the water. The mephits served the humans faithfully and loyally, running the ship far better than any mortal crew ever could, and answering their masters’ needs without hesitation or fail. One day, their human masters departed the ship, leaving their faithful mephit servants behind while they pursued a powerful vampire. Sadly, the humans never returned, and the mephits, fearing for their masters’ safety, took command of the ship in order to find them and help them, scouring the endless plane seeking them out. After about a year of searching, the mephit crew was forced to give up and decided that they must look to their own fate. Stranded in a strange world with no clear purpose or aim, they were forced to rely on what they had – a magical sky ship, their fellow mephits, and their wits.
Using only these resources, the mephits participated in numerous battles with pirates, vampires, and the navies of various empires and nations who wanted nothing more than to slay them. The mephits, all alone in a hostile world, faced these new challenges time and time again, each time emerging triumphant. As the years went on the mephits departed the ship, settled on the worlds islands, and propagated both by gating other mephits in and by what the mephits refer to as “the usual way,” refusing to elaborate further on the rather interesting and mysterious topic of mephit procreation. Soon enough, the world was inhabited by well over 1million mephits of each species, and a fourth great empire was formed: the Mephit Empire, which, it is said, endures to this day.
Before Brindle was transported to our lab by one of Alex’s spells last August, there were rumors of a terrible evil coming that would destroy all that world’s inhabitants if the four great empires did not unite under one banner to stop them. The adventure, then, is this: the PCs take up the role of four great knights of the Mephit Empire, and, taking the helm of that great sky ship and command of the mephit forces, within one year’s time must unite the four great peoples with diplomacy, or conquest…
The Mephit Nightmare
Finally, I couldn’t finish without relating this one last tale, told by one of the bluntest and surliest dust mephits I’ve ever had the misfortune of dealing with: a beastie known simply as Durl. Durl came to the front of the crowd of mephits just as they were finishing telling me of their tales, calling the rest of the mephits down for not even mentioning the name of Neufkyr. At the mention of Neufkyr’s name, the mephits in attendance began to cower, with some even leaving the room. When I asked Durl about Neufkyr, he explained that Neufkyr was the one thing that all mephits everywhere feared more than anything, for it was known to the mephits since the very day of their original creation that Neufkyr would be their end. Little beyond this one fact is known about Neufkyr, and all the diviners and scholars I talked to could tell me little more than that the being called Neufkyr was bound to the mephits.
So the adventure hook is simple: mephits begin appearing in your campaign world, fearing the coming of Neufkyr and begging anyone who will listen for aid against this coming darkness. Can your PCs defeat Neufkyr? Would they even want to?
Well, that’s it for this week’s Grave Plots and until nex—ok, they’re gone; now let me summon up a legion of skeletal guards to make sure this kind of thing never happens again. Ah; that ought to do the trick. Until next time, let me wish you all the best in your gaming endeavors.