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Nerdarchy > Dungeons & Dragons  > Out of the Box D&D Encounters  > “Heart of Darkness” – Out of the Box D&D Encounters #36

“Heart of Darkness” – Out of the Box D&D Encounters #36

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"A Walk in the Woods" - Out of The Box D&D Encounters #37

black puddingIntroduction: There are many different kinds of players, but one that never goes away is the murder hobo/vandal. Their style of gaming lay in the foundations of D&D when it first hit the market. It’s still a popular style of gaming, especially with the rise of video games. Monsters and puzzles are seen as sources of loot. Everything is opened, broken, killed, or avoided if it can’t be one those three. Despite the harsh style of play, these players are also the fire under the bottoms of players who struggle with decision making or need to follow sixteen steps before opening a door. The murder hobo/vandal is always the first to launch into combat, explore a new passage, or open a stuck door. As much as they lead the way, the style of play can sometimes cut off role playing or problem solving opportunities, or create problem solving issues for others in their party.

The following encounter is for the Dungeon Master who might have a runaway murder hobo/vandal. Here’s the catch – if the muder hobo/vandal doesn’t act, there’s no treasure. But if the murder hobo/vandal does act, there’s danger. Isn’t life awesome? 😉

Environment: Dungeon

Suggested level: 6-8

Description: The door to this chamber is expertly carved to depict ancient warriors in elaborate feathered garb holding aloft toothed swords. Upon entering the chamber, one can see why.

The chamber is 30’ wide and 40’ long with a flat ceiling supported by a singular pillar in the center of the room. There are four statues made from reddish-brown terra cotta, each an exquisite reproduction of the warriors seen upon the door. Each statue sits 10’ from a corner of the room, and all are shown holding the same saw-tooth bladed weapons to their chest. Faded and chipped paint in shades of turquoise and red remain upon the depictions of feathers upon the warriors’ garb. More striking, though, is the gold inlay that criss-crosses the carved terra cotta breastplates on each of the warriors, and the large turquoise eyes in each statue.

D&DThe central pillar in the room is 2.5’ in diameter and reaches from floor to ceiling. It has what looks like long flame-like decorations rising up from the floor and down from the ceiling. These flame-like tentacle decorations rise up and descend down an equal 2.5 feet. A successful Intelligence/Investigation check while inspecting this pillar will find small chips of black paint remaining in the flame decorations. The remaining areas of the pillar not covered by the flame-like carvings are covered with yellow-painted hemispheres with a garnet in the center of each yellow hemisphere. If the characters take the time to count them, there are ten such yellow hemispheres with garnets.

The walls show scenes of an army of warriors, like depicted in statuary form or upon the doors, forcing an enemy army into a sea of some sort. The water’s waves are irregular and long, and look like they are reaching for the enemy army as they fall into the sea.

The ceiling is covered in painted terra cotta tiles of yellow, green, red, and black. The floor is also covered in stone tiles of the same size, but travel may have worn off any sort of painted decoration long ago.

Should any character volunteer a Religion check, a successful check versus a DC of 20 will reveal hints of an ancient reference to worship of Jubilex, Demon Lord of Oozes.

If any character removes any of the garnets from the central pillar, a Magic Mouth will appear on the face of the statue in the far left corner of the room. It will declare in an ancient Common (Intelligence/History check, DC10 to understand) that this warrior will punish any tomb robbers. For every round that the players continue to loot, another Magic Mouth will appear on the next statue (moving clockwise around the room) and shout warnings and insults to all heretics, infidels and thieves. Once all four statues have broadcast a warning, they will go silent. A Programmed Illusion will then take over. The illusion will be that of the statues animating and preparing to throw their saw-toothed swords (called macuahuitls, if anyone asks). Feel free to have the players roll initiative to begin the combat phase of this encounter.

green slimeThe players may elect to attack the statues of their own accord. In any regard, if you roll initiative, it’s important to make sure that the statues “lose initiative.” Feel free to fudge or fake a roll. You may optionally choose to actually roll initiative, but save the roll for if/when a statue is broken.

If a player chooses to remove the turquoise eyes or gold inlay from the statues, the statues are rigged to crack or break like a house of cards when they are robbed. These statues will also break if hit for more than 5 hp of damage, and are Vulnerable to Bludgeoning and Thunder damage.

If/when the statues are broken, the following will occur:

Far Left and Near Right statues each contain a Black Pudding which will attack any intruders in the room and will pursue outside the room. Note that the doors to the room are made of wood, and the Black Puddings can dissolve their way through the doors in a single round. Their acid will not destroy gems or gold.

Far Right and Near Left statues are each filled with a Green Slime which will spatter any characters standing within 5’ of these statues should they be broken by any means. Once this spatter has occurred, the Slime will collapse into a 10’ diameter pool centered upon where the statue stood.

Monsters: Black Pudding (2) – page 241 of the Monster Manual
Green Slime (2) – page 105 of the Dungeon Masters Guide

Treasure: Turquoise (8 total, 2 in each statue) – 50 gp each due to size and expert cut
Garnet (10 total on central pillar) – 100gp each
Gold inlay – 1000gp worth, 250gp per statue if you take the time to collect it.

Complications:  Black Puddings create their own complications due to the fact that it can end up dividing multiple times when struck with the correct weapon or attack (note the reference in the Monster Manual). This division effects the total hot point of the divided Black Pudding sections, but not the damage per attack – meaning that the damage can really pile up. Oozes of all kinds tend to choose hunger over all decisions, so they may end up pursuing the player characters into a separate encounter depending on where you place this room, so be aware of that sort of event possibility.

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Mike Gould

I fell into gaming in the oddest of ways. Coming out of a bad divorce, my mom tried a lot of different things to keep my brother and I busy and out of trouble. It didn't always work. One thing that I didn't really want to do, but did because my mom asked, was enroll in Venturers. As an older Scout-type movement, I wasn't really really for the whole camping-out thing. Canoe trips and clean language were not my forte. Drag racing, BMX and foul language were. What surprised me though was one change of pace our Scout leader tried. He DMed a game of the original D&D that came out after Chainmail (and even preceedd the Red Box). All the weapons just did 1d6 damage, and the three main demi-humans (Elf, Dwarf and Halfling) were not only races, but classes. There were three alignments (Lawful, Neutral and Chaotic). It was very basic. I played all the way through high school and met a lot of new people through gaming. My expected awkwardness around the opposite sex disappeared when I had one game that was seven girls playing. They, too, never thought that they would do this, and it was a great experiement. But it got me hooked. I loved gaming, and my passion for it became infectious. Despite hanging with a very rough crowd who typically spent Fridays scoring drugs, getting into fights, and whatnot, I got them all equally hooked on my polyhedral addiction. I DMed guys around my table that had been involved in the fast-living/die young street culture of the 80s, yet they took to D&D like it was second nature. They still talk to me about those days, even when one wore a rival patch on his back to the one I was wearing. We just talked D&D. It was our language. Dungeons and Dragons opened up a whole new world too. I met lots off oddballs along with some great people. I played games like Star Frontiers, Gamma World, Car Wars, Battletech, lots of GURPS products, Cyberpunk, Shadowrun, Twilight 2000, Rolemaster, Champions, Marvel Superheroes, Earth Dawn...the list goes on. There was even a time while I was risiding with a patch on my back and I would show up for Mechwarrior (the clix kind) tournaments. I was the odd man out there. Gaming lead to me attending a D&D tournament at a local convention, which lead to being introduced to my paintball team, called Black Company (named after the book), which lead to meeting my wife. She was the sister of my 2iC (Second in Command), and I fell in love at first sight. Gaming lead to me meeting my best friend, who was my best man at my wedding and is the godfather of my youngest daughter. Life being what it is, there was some drama with my paintball team/D&D group, and we parted ways for a number of years. In that time I tried out two LARP systems, which taught me a lot about public speaking, improvisation, and confidence. There was a silver lining. I didn't play D&D again for a very long time, though. Then 5E came out. I discovered the Adventurer's League, and made a whole new group of friends. I discovered Acquisitions Incorporated, Dwarven Tavern, and Nerdarchy. I was hooked again. And now my daughter is playing. I introduced her to 5E and my style of DMing, and we talk in "gamer speak" a lot to each other (much to the shagrin of my wife/her mother...who still doesn't "get it"). It's my hope that one day she'll be behind the screen DMing her kids through an amazing adventure. Time will tell.

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