Tonight is the first official session of our Primal/Within campaign.
Set in the Font of Sorrows, our adventurers will have to trace the source of something contaminating part of the City Within’s water supply.
I’ve said it a few times, I enjoy a bit of silliness in my games. So while I was writing the adventures’ quest I got this bit:
The Panicked Wizard:
A Wizard runs up the street and bumps in Corwin (Halfling Chaos Sorcerer PC, the group’s weirdness magnet), all wild eyed and stuttering. He looks the PC over and screams desperately ‘You can’t help me!!!! I’m doomed!” .
He runs away, dropping a badly stained scroll.
The scroll shows repeated attempts to explain how a gentle, inoffensive “experiment” of his broke out of his laboratory in the the lower Delves at the edge of the lower City.
“It’s a completely domesticated Land Shark that responds to the name of Spurt. Last seen in the dungeon about 5 km from Riceburg’s lower Fungus Caverns. Please capture and return to me”
There you have it, insta-quest!
As for Spurt? Here it is in all its glory!
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| HP 408; Bloodied 204 | ||||||
| AC 27; Fortitude 26, Reflex 21, Will 21 | ||||||
| Speed 8, burrow 8 | ||||||
| Action Points 2 | ||||||
| M Bite (Standard; at-will) | ||||||
| Before it bites, the silvered bulette can make a standing long jump (as a free action) without provoking opportunity attacks; +14 vs Armor Class; 2d6+7 damage, or 4d6+7 damage against a prone target. | ||||||
| m Frenzied Chomping (Standard; at-will) | ||||||
| The Silvered Bulette makes two claw attacks , +13 vs Armor Class; 2d6+7 damage, or 4d6+7 damage against a prone target. | ||||||
| c Rising Burst (Standard; at-will) | ||||||
| Close burst 2; the silvered bulette sprays rock and dirt into the air when it rises out of the ground; +13 vs Armor Class; 1d6+7 damage. | ||||||
| c Breath Weapon (Standard; recharge 56) ? Thunder | ||||||
| Close blast 5; +10 vs Reflex; 4d6+6 thunder damage, and the target is dazed (save ends). | ||||||
| m Earth Furrow (Move; at-will) | ||||||
| The silvered bulette moves up to its burrow speed just below the surface of the ground, avoiding opportunity attacks as it passes underneath other creatures squares. As it burrows beneath the space of a Medium or smaller creature on the ground, the silvered bulette makes an attack against the creature: +8 vs. Fortitude; on a hit, the target is knocked prone. | ||||||
| Ground Eruption | ||||||
| The squares into which a silvered bulette surfaces and the squares it leaves when it burrows underground become difficult terrain. | ||||||
| Hasted Second Wind (Minor; encounter) | ||||||
| The Silvered bulette spends a healing surge and regains 70 hit points. The bulette gains a +2 bonus to all defenses until the start of its next turn. | ||||||
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| Skills Athletics +16, Endurance +15 | ||||||
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Spurt is an Arcane enhanced Bulette, covered in silver runes. It was ‘awoken’ by the Dungeon who pushed it to escape and led it to the abandoned Font of Sorrows. There, it “met” some of the guardians and reactivated the Font… the water of the font is what’s tainting the City’s water supply.
And that’s only one of the Surprises I have in store for my players.
Stay tuned for the game report!
Credits : Matt Cavotta (Wizards of the Coast) for image. Dave Chalker for the Silver Bullet pun.
Why does the second wind only restore 35hp? Shouldn’t it be a quarter of it’s hp(102)?
Hmm… He should totally get some kind of special ability just for dispatching lycanthropes.
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Sounds refreshing
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@Risan: You are (partially) right. Since I upgraded the creature from Elite to Solo, I should double the number of HP granted by the Second Wind. So I doubled it from the Monster manual entry. Making it to 102 hp would probably be just too much and make the fight last too long for nothing.
@Asmor: Ha ha! Since 4e monsters weren’t made to attack other monsters, I could rule that it kills lycantrophe easily. In fact that would make it a very valid reason for the crazy wizard to have created it. Maybe he had a Wererat infestation in his cellar!
@Kaosdad: It was! I loved writing it!
Do they get extra points if they bring it back on a leash? 🙂
They’d get style points for sure!
A couple of random comments.
Spurt gets a +2 to his (her?) saving throws.
Why does frenzied chomping only have a +13 to hit? Shouldn’t it be the same as Bite ?
According to the scroll: “It’s a completely domesticated Land Shark that responds to the name of Spurt”. What happens if a PC says “Spurt” to the bulette during combat? I’d consider building in a section of the stat block that has an effect on Spurt if the PCs say his name
Command Spurt (occurs when someone says Spurts name; encounter)
Spurt reverts temporarily to his domesticated behavior; Spurt is dazed (save ends)
If you really wanted to give the PCs options, you could even let them engage in a skill challenge (social). Since the Dungeon/Primal awoke and perhaps partially subverted Spurt, a social PC could maybe re-assert his domestication. Of course this would probably have to happen during combat, making this more interesting. If you did this, I’d tie each success in the challenge to a specific combat benefit: lower defenses, loses access to some powers (save ends), etc.
Is one of the silver runes on Spurt the symbol of the dungeon/primal in captivity? The symbol could fade or become clearer based on the level of control the dungeon/primal has on Spurt.
Also, you’re map (from a prior blog post) implies that Spurt is leaving a tunnel behind him when he burrows. Your stat block lists Spurt as having the standard burrow power, which does not leave a tunnel. His stat block should say burrow (tunnel) I think if he leaves a tunnel behind. The description in the back of the monster manual explains this.
Does the use of the Arcana skill (to detect magic) detect the presence of Spurt? Since he’s got silver runes on him.
Can the runes on Spurt be disabled or otherwise de-powered?
“4e monsters don’t attack other monsters”.
You mentioned that to me earlier to day as well… along with the fact that the DM can disregard this rule at will.
Are you aware if there are any reasons for this… other than to simplify balancing (which, in itself, is quite a good reason, believe you me!)
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Haha, this is great! I dig the comedic skew of all this – there seems to be plenty of mirth that happens *around* the gaming table, but sometimes we need to break up the epic seriousness of a game with some elements like this. Goblin minions have proven excellent comic fodder for my group 🙂
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@BradG: You bring many good points.
1) Saving throw should be at +5, I always forget to adjust it.
2) Frenzied Chomping does not include the +1 bonus that seem to be implied because of the long jump included in the normal bite attack… I based the bonus on the Rising Burst attack. I might have gotten it wrong.
3) It’s not actually very domesticated, that was more the Wizard trying to phrase but making a Skill Challenge to calm or knock out some of its ‘enhancements’ is a great idea and I will try to flesh this out more!
4) Yes, I need to change his Burrow to Burrow (tunnel), thanks for the reminder.
As for your last 2 questions, that remains for the PCs to find out. But I wouldn’t refuse to consider such possibilities.
@Eric: The monsters were designed to fight PCs of equivalent level. They are made based on simpler mechanics and some residual guesstimation to gauge powers. You’ll find that there are no monsters in the various 4e books that weren’t made to fight against PCs, with the exception of mounts in Adventurers Vault.
So while you can design monsters/NPC to act as allies to the PCs, its not the game’s basic assumption. Plus I happen to highly dislike NPC on NPC action. I find it odd that the DM plays against itself.
@Warlord: I do love a bit of silliness in my games, it does provide a change of pace for sure.
Is that stock artwork, or did Matt do it especially for you?
And an interpretation question for you: Do you read the Earth Furrow ability as allowing the Bullette to attack more than one PC per Furrow? I’m a little unsure about the use of the term “a”.
I doubt that Matt knows who I am. This is a from the D&D 3.0 Manual of the Planes. It’s the Axiomatic Bulette… a Bulette coming native to the Lawful Planes. It does fit my idea of Spurt perfectly though!
One question… If your characters are high enough level to take on an Arcane Bulette, don’t they maybe look it? And if they do, why would the wizard assume they couldn’t? If he’s actively seeking help, why would he dismiss the very people you are sending out (as the DM) to help him.
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@TCDM: The way I played it was that the mad Wizard bumped into the Halfling sorcerer while alone. In his craziness he didn’t take into account the apparent might, he just saw a weirdly dressed halfling.