|
by Wade Durant
A party of adventurers (the players) travels through the Volcanic Hills, possibly searching for Erendor’s Tomb, maybe bringing trade goods to a friendly clan of Saurans, perhaps on the run from Za marauders hunting them from the west, or a mad troop of Kang trackers from the east. The reasons for being in the volcanic hills are vast. While taking shelter in a cave one night they discover a network of caverns below. Not far below the surface, they also find the corpse of a Kang tracker (maybe even a Satada or a Za), neck broken, possessions rummaged through, but otherwise undisturbed. Strange tracks lead back into the caverns. Why would anything in the wild kill someone and then not eat him or her. Do Kang really taste that bad? Any tracker will be able to identify the tracks as Raknid. Any mage with the appropriate abilities can detect a faint trace of unusual and unidentifiable magic from the area. Something strange is going on here. Certainly no normal raknid would leave prey to rot. It is almost like they were specifically looking for something. Will the group delve into the caverns to investigate the mystery?
Either before entering the cavern, or while traveling below ground in the tunnels, the party discovers a group of 5 Kang trackers (or could be Saurans) camped around a small fire. They seem to be unconcerned about the dangerous locale in which they are camped. Any player attempting a mysticism spell anywhere nearby, or anyone with telepathy, empathy, or other mental power, will find themselves suddenly weak and disoriented. Will the players decide to confront the group, spy on them, or leave them alone?
Spoiler Below
The raknid hunters: The group is a party of professional raknid hunters, trained to destroy raknid hives, steal their glowing eggs, and any treasures they may have gathered in their hives. The leader, Sharg, possesses a small staff that has the ability to disrupt mental powers, such as mental control or detection. It also prevents scrying by magical means and makes the surrounding area invisible to those on the astral plane. They use this item to disrupt a raknid queen’s control over her hive and over them. This staff was stolen from a wrecked seagoing ship that Sharg discovered many years ago and has kept hidden from everyone but his closest partner, Grast. There are other artifacts on the ship, but they felt it best to leave most of them alone, in case the owners eventually found their lost vessel. The ship and the artifacts are actually of Nefaratan origin. Unbeknownst to them, the Nefaratans are currently searching for their lost artifact. Anyone possessing it will be found eventually, and had better have a good reason for having it.
Whether by listening in on or actually meeting the raknid hunters, the players may discover the powers of the artifact mentioned above, and that the hunters are currently closing in on a very strange hive. They talk of the fact that the queen’s raknids do not seem to be hunting or taking living prey, but seem to be always looking for something else. Horst, one of the hunters, is very uneasy about this mission. He says he can feel that there is something different about this queen, a malevolence that chills him to the bone. He of course attributes this to his vast raknid hunting experience and unerring intuition.
Will the party join the hunters in hunting down the queen raknid and raiding the hive for its treasure? Will they attempt to take the magical staff from the hunters and raid the hive themselves? Just what is so strange about this queen? What are the raknids looking for? Is there a greater evil behind the activities of this hive? What could it be and does it pose a threat if not stopped now? Are the Nefaratans using this queen somehow to lure the raknid hunters into the hive so they can retrieve their artifact? (unlikely, but you never know)
Of course if the party is the type that would just ignore all of this and move on, there are other ways to entice them into the adventure. Perhaps while in the caverns, they encounter a raiding party of raknids who captures one of the party, or steals a magical item from the group at great cost to their numbers. Perhaps they leave behind evidence (magical auras, strange runes burned into the chitinous carapace of their bodies, etc) that they are under the control of a great evil. What do-gooder or power hungry party could pass that up. Any way you want to play it, this adventure could be given a very “Aliens”-like feel. I get the chills just thinking about it.
|
